Easter morning coffee and blogs.

G'day. It's early at Castle Argghhh! as we prepare to send SWWBO off to Richmond to work in the nut mines of Evil Squirrels yet again. Since I'm up, I might as well take the time to do some reading and absorb caffeine.

Ya hafta start here. No question. Hat tip to SWWBO for the link.

The Emperor is both annoyed and kindly today. Unusual. The kindly part, I mean.

SGT Hook describes Easter in Afghanistan. With a visit from R. Lee Ermey, no less! And Warthogs rooting in the sky. And why you should donate to the Morale Q fund. And you should - it's in the sidebar, under Morale Fund.

The Commissar supports John Kerry.* And does so on Kerry's web page.

I tried - but it won't take my text. Perhaps they've disabled it. Here is what I was going to submit, I don't think there was anything inaccurate in it, do you?

For too long, political power has belonged only to the wealthy and the special interests - but your clout should not be determined by the size of your checkbook - unless it's our good liberal clout and good liberal money! It's time to remind everyone we know that GOTV doesn't mean 'go on t.v.' - it means Get Out The Vote, and we Democrats need to get back to basics. We need to create jobs on the government payroll so that more people are dependent on the Party and thus vote for us. We need to create more assistance programs that give people fish, rather than demean them by demanding that they learn to fish - the rich must be made to pay for it, and anyone making over poverty line is by definition rich! We really really need to get back onto our core issue of Gun Control and confiscation - and stop the cancer of concealed carry. But rather than fight the carry laws, let's just take away the guns! To help John Kerry reach as many voters as possible I have agreed to become part of the Kerry Core. And Iraq sucks, too. We should get out of that commitment, just like John showed the way during Vietnam, getting out of his commitment so he could start on the Road to the White House!

*NOT!

The Bejus Pundit is getting lazy. I'm sure he'll say he's busy putting bread on the table, but I say he's just being lazy!
If this keeps up, I'm going to have to move him to the "Read Weekly" section. Or maybe create a new 'roll - "Read Whenever They Finally Get Around To Posting". Of course, it works for Rachel Lucas. Her blog doesn't exist any more and it's still higher than mine in the Ecosystem. Must be those "In Memoriam" links. Yes, I AM jealous!

Matty at Blackfive suggests that John Kerry is, well, arrogant. Who'd a thunk it? He quotes John Kerry as saying:

"You tell me if this is strong enough," Kerry replied. "George Bush and the Republicans in Washington today have run the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of this country."

Which apparently implies a foreign policy that started with Mogadishu and ended with 9/11 is a great foreign policy. At least in this administration's foreign policy, the Americans doing the dying are pretty much only the ones who volunteered to go into harm's way, and the fighting, rather than in lower Manhattan, is on the enemy's turf. Y'know, while I'm on it - I suspect Hans Blix could make excuses for Hitler.

Greyhawk talks about morale. And honors the fallen and the risen in one post.

Not surprisingly, the Reverend Sensing has an Easter post. But not a preachy one, the kind of sermon you can sit through thoughtfully, not sleepily.

Darth offers some insight into the 'smoking gun' memo. Get some, dude!

Over at She Who Will Be Obeyed, Little Girl embraces her inner tart.

Baldilocks also takes on the 'smoking gun' and finds that it's all a flash in the pan and the hypocrisy of anti-Bush people is, well, it can't be stunning anymore, can it? So, I guess we'd have to characterize it as tiresome. Yes, tedious. Unserious.

Go visit Jennifer and vote for Fluffy (really, don't let the name fool you - this is one tough soldier) - and while you're there, read the post above, and the .pdf associated with it, concerning a RAND study of interest.

While the Indepundit has gone fishin', before he left, Smash left a good Roundup from the Sandbox, if ya haven't been there already.

PittsPilot, over at Blaster's place, wonders where the world's scrotum went? In his view, the du Toit-ish pussification process has spread far and wide. Except in the world of Islam - which makes the world and even more dangerous place, eh?

Here's a two-fer. Victor Davis Hanson, and Kim du Toit - on the same page at the same time!

Here's another two-fer. Triticale and Boots and Sabers discussing Marxists and heroin addiction. My take? They come to the crashing conclusion that their world-view is hosed and take up heroin in despair.

Hmmm. I haven't done a Friday Five in a while, either.

1. What do you do for a living? I work for large consulting firm as a military analyst. One of the hoots about that is that Rumsfeld has resisted a retiree recall because he wants young blood and 'new think', not old think (not too mention we're all pretty much by definition senior, expensive, and many of us, like me, are also sitting on the 'deadline' list). So all of us old farts are doing the designing and testing of the new force structures and design.

2. What do you like most about your job? I don't get shot at. Of course, I don't get to shoot back any more, either. Aside from that - I get paid well to apply skills, talents, and knowledge honed over the last quarter century, doing something that will have an impact.

3. What do you like least about your job? The business side of it. Every day and in every way I understand the impact of regulation on business operations. With my recent promotion, I'm even more involved in the 'running the office' side of things - and the paperwork to satisfy bureaucrats can be numbing.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____... The run bombed or is worthless because of an input error. Not my input error, I don't do that part. But I can't do my part if that part's not right. *Or* - because we have to do an analysis dump a week early because some mid-level bureaucrat in 'the building' suddenly decides he wants to see the brief before it gets briefed to some other group of bureaucrats. That involves two to three 18 hour days to produce a briefing that is an hour long. And we'll still have to build the other brief, only now we've lost three days...

5. What other career(s) are you interested in? History prof, opening a museum out of the Arsenal (get people to donate guns!) or open a gun store aimed at collectors. Oh, wait. Can you IMAGINE the paperwork there to satisfy bureaucrats!?!

Yeah, that should have been a separate post, but hey, it's early and I'm lazy.

The Flea has an uncharacteristacally long post about freedom of speech in Canada, worthy of the time spent - and not just for this fine phrase, "...a telling instance of the circularity of left-wing firing squads."

The Imperial Animatrix is making a card deck of the "Axis of Cretins". Get some, girl!

Overtaken By Events has a caption contest. My entry is "Aim Here".

I think trigger locks should be mandatory. On criminal's guns. Why can't the antis get behind that? Hat tip to Gunner at No Quarters!

Dave at Left Coast Conservative has another reason to be Not Fonda Kerry Waffles. Tax Freedom Day.

Bob Prather discusses democracy versus mobocracy, and why we vote.

The Mind of Mog is a bit fogged today. Start here, read on down. Funny, just foggy!

Last, but not least - if you still have time after this one - here's another long link fest (to different stuff, I promise!) from Ironbear. Worth the visit, even if you don't have time. It's not like you can't go back, eh?

Well, time to wrap up and start mushing for the airport. Have as Happy an Easter as you can manage. As for Islamofacists who consider the day a fraud, Rough Men Stand Ready to facilitate your passage to find out if it's Jesus or Raisins, St. Peter or Shaitan!