Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

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CAPT H points out what he terms a very very VERY IMPORTANT poll to participate in.

At last it's revealed - JTG sends us to Irons in the Fire to find the truth behind On-Star's popularity...

Moving on to other subjects...

At RealClear Politics, Michael Gerson sez:

WASHINGTON -- If 2006 was a year of denial for the Bush administration -- demonstrating that patience in pursuit of a failing military strategy is not a virtue -- 2007 was a period of awakening. Like Abraham Lincoln before him, the president discovered the cathartic pleasure of replacing generals. In Petraeus, Bush found his Grant. He also found that war, like politics, is the art of adjustment.

As the political blitzkrieg of 2008 begins in earnest, it is the Democrats who, on a number of key issues, are living in a state of denial.

In the Washington Times, Diana West goes over the latest on Haditha, and the rush to judgement there...

A major story of 2007 was the progressive unravelling of the case against the seven Marines and one Navy corpsman charged in connection with the Nov. 19, 2005 killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha during a day of intense military action. To date, charges against four of the men have been dismissed altogether. Two men have been ordered to a court martial. Two cases are pending.

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Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone."