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H&I Fires* 17 OCT 2008

By Denizens on October 17, 2008 | | Comments (2)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

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Lip-smackingly delicious quote for the day: 

"Because, you know, associations matter when choosing a plumber, but apparently not when choosing a President." [click for link]

More plumber discussion here.  And if you find all this a little "chilling," you're not the only one...

Yes, the U.S. media has gotten so bad, even Britain is noticing.

The lastest on veteran Bill Russell's bid to win Murtha's seat (scroll down to updates, too). Yeah, the same ex-Marine who called his constitutents racists.

One bright thought:  If you thought Obama's economic policies were a bad idea, there's hope.  Odds are he won't be able to fund them.  Silver linings and all that...

Okay, to wash the taste of politics out of your mouth, read this beautiful tribute to the American military (the embedded inks are worth following, too).  Here's just a taste:

II’ve always chosen the safe, risk-free paths in my life. I’ve done pretty well, too: good jobs, good family, good community, etc. But I’ve missed that sense of purpose that makes life more than just creature comforts and material acquisition. My life revolves around me and those directly dependent on me, but it doesn’t have any greater sense of meaning. For the people in our American military, and this is true even if they leave after a short stint, they will have spent part of their lives working for something greater than themselves, and I envy them that fact.

- FbL

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Once a Marine, always a Marine.  If you click only one link here today - make it this one.  You'll be glad you did.  H/t, CJ.  -the Armorer

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Heh.  My retired pay and VA pay are going to go up 5.8% next year.  Which is a bigger raise than I got at work in a year where I did well in my annual assessment.  But it isn't really good news, because it means that things got more expensive by a greater amount than that...  sigh.  I'm not whining as much as it sounds - at least both of those payments have indexes that keep them moving up - it's not a truely fixed income like so many retirees have.  -the Armorer

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Talk about a Bad News Bear.  -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. 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 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. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.

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2 Comments

By Hunter on October 17, 2008 1:58 PM
Holy Pooper-Scooper! That Spectator article from the UK is spot on. How do you forward that link to a few hundred thousand US voters?
 
By Boquisucio on October 17, 2008 2:42 PM
Looks like the Lemings  are going to have a very nice center piece rug to adorn their den, and a whale of a story to embarass their grandchildren for generations to come.