“Don’t Ever Think That You Are Defending Me……”

"……by slamming the Global War on Terrorism or the U.S. goals in that war," Jeffrey Toczylowski wrote. "As far as I am concerned, we can send guys like me to go after them or we can wait for them to come back to us again. I died doing something I believed in and have no regrets except that I couldn't do more."

Shortly after  Jeffrey Toczylowski died in Iraq a year ago this month, his friends received an email. And an invitation to a party in Las Vegas.

"If you are getting this e-mail, it means that I have passed away," the missive said. "No, it's not a sick Toz joke, but a letter I wanted to write in case this happened."

The Army Special Forces captain, 30, said he would like family and friends to attend his burial at Arlington National Cemetery, "but understand if you can't make it."

The message, distributed by a fellow Green Beret after Toczylowski's family had been notified of his death, added: "There will also be a party in Vegas with a 100k to help pay for travel, room and a party."

Last Saturday, Toczylowski's mother, Peggy, hustled about Las Vegas' Palms Hotel and Casino, making final arrangements for a bash that drew family and childhood friends from her son's hometown in Upper Moreland, Pa., near Philadelphia, men and women from his days at Texas A&M University, and comrades in arms who had bonded with "Toz" on missions they could not discuss with civilians.

By 7 p.m., the last of 120 or so guests were offering hotel bouncers the password and trooping into the Palm's 10,000-square-foot Hardwood entertainment suite.

Two women in skimpy outfits poured liquor from the fully stocked bar. Disc jockeys blasted rock and rap from a loft decked out with a pool table, a wide-screen video-game console and a circular loveseat with remote controls that rotated it out of view.

At 9 p.m., six Green Berets swarmed an unsuspecting colleague on the suite's attached basketball court. A few feet from where one chef carved rare prime rib and a sushi chef sliced young yellowtail and spicy tuna rolls, the men wrestled their thrashing comrade onto an 8-foot stepladder, secured him from chin to shoes with a few hundred feet of duct tape, covered him with whipped cream and strategically placed cherries, spray-painted his hair red, poured whiskey down his throat and then hoisted the ladder into a vertical position and stuck a microphone to his face.

"The first time this happened we were in Bosnia," said detachment leader Ryan Armstrong, 31, spitting booze and dessert toppings. "Jeff was a sniper-team leader. I was the assault-team leader. … That time they left me taped to a dolly for a couple of hours. … Toz was the one who cut me loose."

The article is a must read. Where do we get these soldiers? Why do we deserve them?

Via Hot Air, H/T Larwyn.

Um, Okay

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
(Joni Mitchell, River)

Well, it's a different idea, I suppose. A couple from California have come up with a, let's be kind here, unusual plan to bring about world peace. Orgasms.

SAN FRANCISCO - Two peace activists have planned a massive anti-war demonstration for the first day of winter.

But they don't want you marching in the streets. They'd much rather you just stay home.

The Global Orgasm for Peace was conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, whose immodest goal is for everyone in the world to have an orgasm Dec. 22 while focusing on world peace.

"The orgasm gives out an incredible feeling of peace during it and after it," Reffell said Sunday. "Your mind is like a blank. It's like a meditative state. And mass meditations have been shown to make a change."

The couple are no strangers to sex and social activism. Sheehan, no relation to anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, brought together nearly 50 women in 2002 who stripped naked and spelled out the word "Peace."

The stunt spawned a mini-movement called Baring Witness that led to similar unclothed demonstrations worldwide.

You know, this sort of thing reminds me of a movie. In 1971 a little film called Cold Turkey came out. A whole town had to stop smoking to get a big amount of money from a tobacco company (this was before the rise of the lawyer-driven "tobacco settlement". Dick Van Dyke played a minister. At some point he reads that indulging in sex can help curb urges toward smoking.

It's one of the funnier moments in the film watching his movie wife (Pippa Scott) see him coming down the street toward the house. (I thought of using Come Together by the Beatles for this, but Joni seemed to capture a wistfulness better.)

UPDATE: Tigerhawk: The earth knows if you're faking it. Hot Air: Who's in?

NO!

Don't let her do it! For the love of all that is holy, can't you understand that she has been set up! The Animal Uprising™ wanted her in the other job. And there must have been a reason! McQ describes his wife asking for a sign to help choose between two job offers. But the sign was not what she was asking for!

When she got to the offices, a guy who works there was standing outside. "Don't go in", he said, "there's someone in there and I've called the cops".

Sure that it was burglars caught in the act, Jan got back in her car and locked it up. 3 squad cars arrived, and with weapons drawn, two policemen entered the building while one watched the back.

Long delay and the two who went in come out smiling and shaking their head. Jan walks up to them and asks if everything was all right. They assure her it is and then inform her and the guy that it was a group of raccoons who'd somehow found their way into the offices, and, apparently, had a fine time of it in there.

"It's a mess in there", one of the policemen said.

"What kind of a mess", Jan asked.

"Well they were pretty rambunctious and they really messed up one of the desks in there." The officers had escorted the perpetrators out of the back door and they'd taken off into the woods.

The policeman told them,"it's safe to go in now."

Jan quickly walked in and went directly to her office - one among many, many offices.

Guess where they had had their party? Yup. And not only that, they'd left a steaming, stinking pile of raccoon poop right in the center of her desk.

She took the other job. The raccoons wanted her to take the other job, don't you see? Excuse me, they say it's time for the medication again.

Nope, Won’t Hurt A Bit

John "Cat in the Hat" Kerry informed the world today that his "botched" joke in the week before the election wouldn't hurt his chances for another run at the presidency. No, really, he did.

"Not in the least," Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said when asked if the furor over his comment had caused him to reconsider a 2008 race. "The parlor game of who's up, who's down, today or tomorrow, if I listened to that stuff, I would never have won the nomination."

Of course, many people suspect that there may be another person's ambitions involved in Kerry's attempt to get another chance in 2008. That other person may be, shall we say, "prompting" the hat man to get him focused. That person may have found a way to get his attention.

Ah, Scotland!

Scotland! Where men are men even if the men wear skirts! And where they get cranky if you point out that they are wearing a skirt. Where the entire cuisine is based on a dare! (Although there are some alternative explanations of what a 'haggis' actually is). Where they make fine whisky. (Which they spell funny). And the people wearing the skirts get crankier if 'whisky' is involved. These are called 'pub fights'. Home of the claymore, a 'hand and a half' sword with an average blade length of 45 inches. (Not recommended for opening letters). Not the home of Mel Gibson, even though he made that movie carrying a claymore. But Scotland is most recently famous for something entirely different.

Slow ball boys!

Scottish FA chief executive David Taylor said the sanction was "the most bizarre thing" he had encountered during his tenure, but promised to speed up the ball boys' response.

France coach Raymond Domenech complained about the slow return of the ball after their Group B defeat at Hampden on October 7 and said it had disrupted their pattern of play.

"It surprised us to be charged with such an offence," Taylor told the BBC Web site on Sunday. "It's the most bizarre thing I've encountered with Scotland. We brief the ball boys during the game."

He added: "We'll need to make sure before the next game, which is against Georgia at home in March, even if we're 1-0 up with five minutes to go, even if the players are saying 'do you have to give the ball back so quickly?' that they do it."

Scotland won with a 67th minute Gary Caldwell goal. Taylor said: "Our ball boys failed to deliver the ball back after the goal. It was strange to end up with a disciplinary charge against us for it."

Perhaps if the ball boys ate less haggis and wore shorts they could speed things up a bit. Oh, and the claymores are rather heavy. Leave those in the locker room.

Step Up And Address The Python

It would seem that the Singapore police department has decided to promote a new sport. This one has all the fun of golf coupled with the danger of python wrestling. We'll just call it python putt-putt!

A resident had been walking two dogs on Wednesday evening when the slippery serpent struck, coiling itself around Bella, a 7-year-old Jack Russell, the Straits Times reported on Sunday.

Police soon arrived but lacked appropriate tools to battle snakes. Using a golf club, they tried for 20 minutes to loosen the python's embrace before it abandoned Bella's body and gave them the slip.

"My head is filled with the image of the snake around my yelping dog and I can't sleep," the paper quoted Bella's owner, Glenda Liu, as saying.

Liu and her partner were so distraught they were moving out of the condo for good on Sunday. They said they feared the snake could also attack children.

One question: where'd they get the golf club? Do they keep those right in the police cars? Or do they use carts? Ok, one other question: why didn't they hit the snake with the club? All they had to do was follow the advice here and they could have been on their way to the professional python putt-putt championships! (We fully expect royalties when someone actually starts one of these. We have no doubt someone will try it.) Alternately, they could have just used the club to putt the python down.

Everything Old Is New Again, Part 3,452

The 29th canon of the Second Lateran Council issued in the year 1139 A.D. stated the following:

29. We prohibit under anathema that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God, to be employed against Christians and Catholics from now on.

Which many people consider the first attempt at banning certain inhumane practices in warfare. The ban, however, wasn't really of much practical use. However, nowhere in the canon does it specify anything about soccer players.

The game between Woodley Sports and Alsager Town in the Unibond first division was abandoned in the 77th minute Saturday after the referee noticed the bolt embedded in the field. Police were called to Woodley's stadium, and the arrow will be examined.

"We wondered if it was a firework or something that had gone on that no one else had seen," Alsager chairman Graham McGarry told Sky Sports News on Sunday. "He brought the managers together with the object and brought the players together and marched them off, all within two minutes.

McGarry said the 2-foot steel arrow sailed into the stadium from outside and nearly hit one of the Woodley players.

"All the players were in agreement with the referee, you could not carry on," McGarry said. "After one was fired they may have been set up outside the ground to fire more."

Medieval terrorism. It's back.

Rangel Will Try It

Speculation was out there that good old Charlie Rangel would try it. Not one to disappoint, he has announced publicly that he will introduce legislation to reinstate a draft on Americans when they reach the age of 18. Frankly, I think he's bound and determined to sink the Democrats in 2008 with this bit of lunacy.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.

Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, said he will propose a measure early next year.

In 2003, he proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42; it went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress.

Democrats will control the House and Senate come January because of their victories in the Nov. 7 election.

At a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, "I don't see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft," said Rangel, who also proposed a draft in January 2003, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

This country is a long way from needing a draft, Rangel knows it. But if he gets his way, all those college age people in the US will have the Democrats to thank for this. I suspect that they will remember that, too. Polls indicate that 70% of Americans oppose reinstating the draft, by the way.

UPDATE: Others suitably impressed with good old Charlie: Wizbang, Misha, PSoTD, Scared Monkeys, Gateway Pundit, Sweetness and Light,

Fool For The City

Breathin' all the clean air, sittin' in the sun,
When I get my train fare, I'll get up and run.
I'm ready for the city, air pollution here I come!

'Cause I'm a fool for the city, I'm a fool for the city,
I'm a fool for the city, I'm a fool for the city.

I'm like a fish out of water, I'm just a man in a hole.
The city lights turn my blues into gold.
I ain't no country boy, I'm just a homesick man.
I'm gonna hit the grit just as fast as I can.
(Foghat (Dave Peverett), Fool For The City)

Oh, yeah. Tim Blair has photographic evidence of fools in the city. My favorite is the first picture. An anti-globalization protester who has remodeled himself into a globe. Note the people around him. They can't move away. The gravity has them trapped…..

The Effectiveness Of Blogs

There is a fair amount of discussion going on right now about something Jon Henke posted over at QandO. I read it yesterday and have also read al lot of the commentary from others, the newest one from James Joyner:

Jon Henke, brought aboard a sinking ship as George Allen’s New Media Coordinator, argues that the Left Blogosphere and Democratic candidates did a far better job of working together than their Right/Republican counterparts in the decisive Allen-Webb race in particular and the election in general. Given the number of very close races, Henke proclaims, “Were Democrats not as engaged, they would not have the Senate today; were Republicans more engaged, they would still have the Senate.”

That’s not falsifiable, of course, but it’s at least plausible. While Kos and company have been derided here and elsewhere for their poor showings in the last two election cycles, having an 0-and-whatever record with candidates they supported, they undeniably laid the groundwork for a get-out-the-meme network that is unparalleled on the right.

Kos, MyDD and others pioneered blogs as a communitarian enterprise rather than outlets for individual punditry. John Amato invented video blogging before there was such a thing as YouTube. They have done a tremendous job of capitalizing on the popularity, especially among college students and 20-somethings, of Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and (more recently) Keith Olbermann and quickly spreading their more effective bits and rants. Red State, Hot Air, and others have arisen in reaction but have not achieved anything like the critical mass of their predecessors.

As I mentioned, a lot of very thoughtful comments have been made about this. The one thing I have not really seen in the posts I have looked at is the one thing that may be amplifying the apparent results the left achieved. The media being in the tank for the Democrats greatly magnifies the effect the left blogosphere had. That is a serious disadvantage for the Republicans and the right leaning blogs. That the Republicans could do a lot better at utilizing blogs should be apparent to just about anyone at this point. But there is a built-in uphill battle right out of the gate that everyone should be aware of.

See ALF, Dan Riehl, Dean Barnett and AllahPundit for more.

Ghosts

How To Survive

Experts give lots and lots of advice on how to survive if you are lost in the woods. Many experienced outdoorsy type people highly recommend carrying a compass and other items, just in case. But nowhere in the literature can I find any reference to the newest, most vital piece of survival gear available today.

The iPod.

The search leader said Pini Nou, 25, of Vancouver, Wash., was on his first outing and got separated from his mother, an experienced mushroom hunter. At nightfall, she called Benton County authorities for help.

Nou used his cell phone to describe the landscape to rescuers as best he could in the darkness, said Peggy Peirson, acting county emergency management coordinator. They finally located him after 1 a.m. Friday when a member of a search and rescue team saw the light from the iPod, she said.

Nou, lacking a flashlight, had been using the music device for light, Peirson said. She said the underbrush was so thick it took rescuers more than 20 minutes to reach Nou once they saw the glow.

And you thought they were just for music.

All In Favor Of Lunks, Raise Your Hand!

But whatever you do, do not grunt! Fausta comes out in strong support of lunks everywhere.

Made With Real Dragon!

In another sign of the rampant nanny state that Britain has become, the proprietor of the Black Mountains Smokery has been formally warned that one of his products needed to be relabeled. It seems the name "Welsh Dragon Sausage" was too confusing for the local council, who appear to believe that the name would mislead people.

The makers of Welsh Dragon Sausages were warned they could face legal action if they did not specify which meat they were using.

"I don't think any of our customers actually believe that we use dragon meat," said Jon Carthew, of the Black Mountains Smokery at Crickhowell, after receiving a warning letter from trading standards officers.

Mr Carthew has now added the word pork to labels for the 200,000 sausages he makes a year from pork, leek and chilli and he has been told that no further action will be taken.

…..

Powys council said: "The product Welsh Dragon Sausage was not sufficiently precise to inform a purchaser of the true nature of the food.

"I don't think anyone would imagine that dragon meat was being used but we would not want vegetarians to buy the sausages believing they were meat-free."

The ingredients were always listed on the label, incidentally. But apparently, the Powys council believes that vegetarians are too stupid to realize that sausages contain meat. There's some stupidity involved alright. It's just not where the council thinks it is.

Jail Break (In)!

Well, Britain has a problem prison it seems. The HMP Kirkham prison near Blackpool in Lancashire has lost quite a few inmates in the past few years. But the staff were surprised when they saw someone trying to break IN to the prison.

It boasts the unenviable record of being the prison with the highest number of escaped convicts.

So staff at HMP Kirkham were more than a little surprised when they spotted a man breaking into the jail.

The intruder scaled an 8ft wire fence to get into the prison and was cornered as he tried to clamber over the same fence to get back out.

Guards later discovered the man had hidden a stash of drinks, drugs and electronic goods in a prison wheelie bin for an inmate - thought to be his brother - to sell on to the other lags.

The haul included heroin, cannabis, steroid tablets, three litres of vodka, three bottles of Southern Comfort and Bacardi, 80 cigarettes, 18 DVDs, two mobile phones, top-up cards and phone-chargers.

An accomplice keeping watch outside the prison sped off in a car when the intruder was caught, but he was later stopped by police.

Ah, free enterprise. It's nice to see all that ambition, isn't it? Oh, by they way, if you were wondering about Kirkham's record on losing track of people, the article explains:

Kirkham, near Blackpool in Lancashire, can hold 628 prisoners and is England's biggest Category D jail for those on short-term sentences or nearing the end of longer terms.

A total of 778 inmates have absconded in the past five years, more than at any other prison in England and Wales.

The problem should be obvious. The prison capacity is 628 and they have lost 778. Of course prisoners have to break in - there's nobody left inside!