Who is the Stranger in this Ever-Growing-Stranger Land?

Well, isn't this just exactly how the cow eats the cabbage!

I think that's how the cow ate the cabbage.  I've never really grokked that phrase.  What do cows and cabbage actually have to do with one another? 

Anyway, this cartoon is the Fair Witness's truth!  Would that there were some Fair Witnesses around in the Media today.

And, where is Heinlein when he could do some good?

Southern Mothers Corps Still Needed at the White House, Along With a Real "Leader"

Our darling mainstream media folk went apoplectic over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's alleged "school-boy scolding" of the Young President yesterday, after the Young President had blind-sided Israel yet again about the Palestinian thing the day before.

My, how quickly they forget.

Remember Moogie's observation about how PM Netanyahu was treated by the Young President over a year ago:

Wanted at the White House: Southern Mothers

The accounts of the Obama-Netanyahu Close Encounter are downright embarrassing.

I can just hear my mother's voice, scolding the Young President for his wretchedly poor display of how NOT to host a world leader at the White House. Leaving a guest unattended while the host goes to have a meal with the family?!?! I think not. I would've been grounded for weeks had I treated a guest in that fashion.

Maybe that's the solution to the Obama bad-manners department -- we need a corps of strong Southern Mothers to move into the White House to "shake a knot" onto the Young President's head and to teach him some rudimentary etiquette. I envision many hours of chores assigned as punishment along with the admonition, "Now, you just go and think about what you did!"

And I can just hear the motherly counter-arguments: "I don't care if you thought that making him stew for awhile would 'soften him up' for negotiations. You will not treat a guest that way under this roof!"

I hope Mr. Netanyahu was at least offered some cheese straws and iced tea.

Nah -- I don't think Michelle has that recipe.

I think maybe ol' Willie Shakespeare nailed it with his description about revenge and taking one's time to savor it, n'ces pas?  Slick move, Mr. Prime Minister.

And, I still think we need a Southern Mothers Corps in the White House.  You know, a Corps populated with those strong, southern women who have been schooled in both etiquette AND protocol; those who would also have enough common sense to show a cop-killing-advocate rapper the door before he could soil the White House linens.  Those who would unflinchingly sit the Young President's fanny in the corner when he gets too big for his britches, and find a corner spacious enough to accommodate Michelle's when she busts the seams.

I also like this photo that was making the rounds on Facebook yesterday, juxtaposing the Young President and Netanyahu at the same age:

Pictures speak words.   Pictures are words, spoken with an accent of experience.

The Death Knell of the Educational System

I can't find it now so I can link to it, so they must have pulled the original version of the story.  At least that's to their credit (and some sharp-eyed editor's.)

Earlier today, I was perusing news snippets on the Associated Press app on the iPad and came across a piece about the flooding along the Mississippi.  The "journalist" described the source of the flood waters as the Mississippi River "and the smaller rivers that spring from it."  That concept was so bizarre that I re-read it several times to be sure that's what it really said.

That's what it really said.

To borrow Andy's favorite epithet, Crud. 

The passage referred to flood waters north of the Morganza spillway, so the "journalist" could not have been thinking about the southernmost delta where the river just kinda dissolves into a bunch of fingers and swamps.  So now America's educational institutions are teaching today's "learners" (seriously -- I've seen students referred to as "learners" in some recent literature) that the Mighty Muddy spawns smaller rivers. 

Crud.

Breaking News: Michelle Reveals The Next Element in Her War Against Obesity

ABC announced today that the Young President and the First Lady will be interviewed by Barbara Walters next Tuesday during a brief visit to the United States by the globetrotting First Family.  The interview will air on the Friday evening following Thanksgiving. 

The nausea resulting from thinking about how fawning and smarmy the interview will be is expected to curtail holiday food consumption dramatically.  Childhood, and other, obesity is expected to take a downtick as a direct result of the First Lady's cagey strategy.

A Reminiscent Saturday Giggle

I've been reminiscing about our Wendy Girl and reading old posts this afternoon. Since it's so danged HOT today, and since I had to get up so danged early this morning to make it to the change of command at Belle Chasse in time (who holds a change of command at 0900 on a Saturday?!?!), I think I'll indulge myself with a little re-post from October of last year. It made me laugh, so maybe it will tickle your funny bone, too.

Kinda Like What the Mainstream Media Spoon-feeds Us


I overheated my brain over the weekend, so today's post will be fluffish. Plus, my future son-in-law just cracks up every time he sees this box -- he even took a picture of it once so he can crack himself up at home -- so I thought the photo on the box might crack up other folks, too.

We have a geriatric beagle who, despite her age, is constantly on the hunt. The hunt is for food. "Food," in Wendy Whiner's mind, needn't necessarily be edible, and she'll take it where she can get it.

Hence, she is known, for polite discourse, as a poop eater. That is not precisely the phrase my husband uses, but you get the general idea.

Yes, you read that correctly -- she eats poop. Often. With gusto.

Since the consumption of one's own -- or someone else's -- poop can be detrimental to one's health (and, observing the process can be detrimental to the observer's gag reflex), the practice is one that is to be discouraged. "Scooping" is not the answer -- a wily beagle can always find a way to beat the scoop.

So, the product pictured above has been stocked in our house for some time and used according to package instructions to try to break Wendy of her between-meal snacking habits. It claims to "help stop your ... dog from consuming its own feces." How is this miracle product supposed to work, you may wonder? Once consumed, it moves through the digestive system and discourages the dog from wanting to re-eat the by-product because it makes the poop taste bad.

Yep -- it makes the poop taste bad.

Foolish me -- it never occurred to me that poop could taste any way but bad.

For all the unpleasant imagery that it evokes, does the product work well?

Not when one lives with a determined beagle who has a poop monkey on her back.

I'm with the chihuahua on the box, however. Is that a great face, or what! Kinda the same expression I had on my face last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was announced.

Aw, come on -- you knew I had to get in at least one political dig, didn't you? And the dig is pretty much about the same subject matter as the rest of this post -- the knee-jerk reaction to both is "Ewwwww."

Kinda Like What the Mainstream Media Spoon-feeds Us

I overheated my brain over the weekend, so today's post will be fluffish. Plus, my future son-in-law just cracks up every time he sees this box -- he even took a picture of it once so he can crack himself up at home -- so I thought the photo on the box might crack up other folks, too.

We have a geriatric beagle who, despite her age, is constantly on the hunt. The hunt is for food. "Food," in Wendy Whiner's mind, needn't necessarily be edible, and she'll take it where she can get it.

Hence, she is known, for polite discourse, as a poop eater. That is not precisely the phrase my husband uses, but you get the general idea.

Yes, you read that correctly -- she eats poop. Often. With gusto.

Since the consumption of one's own -- or someone else's -- poop can be detrimental to one's health (and, observing the process can be detrimental to the observer's gag reflex), the practice is one that is to be discouraged. "Scooping" is not the answer -- a wily beagle can always find a way to beat the scoop.

So, the product pictured above has been stocked in our house for some time and used according to package instructions to try to break Wendy of her between-meal snacking habits. It claims to "help stop your ... dog from consuming its own feces." How is this miracle product supposed to work, you may wonder? Once consumed, it moves through the digestive system and discourages the dog from wanting to re-eat the by-product because it makes the poop taste bad.

Yep -- it makes the poop taste bad.

Foolish me -- it never occurred to me that poop could taste any way but bad.

For all the unpleasant imagery that it evokes, does the product work well?

Not when one lives with a determined beagle who has a poop monkey on her back.

I'm with the chihuahua on the box, however. Is that a great face, or what! Kinda the same expression I had on my face last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was announced.

Aw, come on -- you knew I had to get in at least one political dig, didn't you? And the dig is pretty much about the same subject matter as the rest of this post -- the knee-jerk reaction to both is "Ewwwww."

The AP Exhibits the Cruelest of Intentions Despite Protestations to the Contrary

I just saw an entry on Michelle Malkin's blog that wrenched my gut and broke my heart. Malkin reports that the AP has decided, contrary to the wishes of the fallen Marine's family, to publish a photo of the late LCPL Joshua Bernard's dying moments. Malkin invited readers to contact the AP to express their opinions.

Here are mine:

To Whom It May Concern:

As the wife of an Army officer who served honorably for nearly 35 years, and a member of a military family who respects the uniform, the valor of those who wear it, and the true meaning of "honor," I humbly ask that your news organization "honor" the request of the family of a fallen Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, and decline to publish a photo of LCPL Bernard's dying moments captured by an embedded AP staff team in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Neither stronger words nor argument can be made to support my request than those of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his letter to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer:

"Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed.

"I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency."

I also suggest that the credentials of the embedded employees of the AP be rescinded, and that they be re-deployed stateside immediately.

Yours for Common Decency,
MoogieP

Whatever happened to journalistic ethics?

Tea and Sympathy

Found this on Town Hall. Everyone loves puppies!

Ed Freeman, Your Memory Lives

I just received this in an email and it needs to be posted for the world to see. It has special meaning for me because my husband is a Vietnam era chopper jock. This hero went to his eternal reward on 20 AUG 2008. God rest his soul and thank him for his selfless service.

Ed Freeman

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley ,

11-14-1965, LZ X-ray , Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it...
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times.... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

The email's author noted that there was little if any MSM coverage of Mr. Freeman's passing. I'd have to agree.

At least MSNBC covered his story in their 2007 series on MOH winners. Here's a link. A small pittance.

Let's keep his memory and his heroics alive.