I loved your other stories so much Simmons I hate it that this subject came about. Civil wars are winnable, "jihad" or "holy wars" have not been proven to be winnable. There could always be the first. We, or all infidels, which "jihad" is meant to be at war with forever, is another matter. I believe if they, the believers who practice jihad, and many do, after all it is a tenet of a faith, equal to prayer, ever arrive with one living leader will be a most formidable foe, but they have yet to follow one living leader. This was sufficient for a time, for our security. Our advantage is the big bomb, an advantage I believe to be one that we cannot allow to be compromised. We have proven we will use this advantage. Everyone knowing we will use our advantage has so far given us what security we have had from "jihad". But technology is proving to be a difficult thing to harness, however essential in order to maintain our security. In the 60,s and or in the 70,s and today, not using the advantage we have had, has cost us most dearly, and leaves one to feel as though the 58,000+ and the 4,000+ and counting, as something akin to sacrifice,absolutely unbearable. The page must be turned, even if it is turned back.

If you want to enjoy your dinner, never talk of politics. Or religion. It never ends well. Opinions are like a#$holes.

V is for lovers, once again has the better grasp of a situation. Face the facts, read the writing on the wall, do not step on that snake, and on and on. I do appreciate common sense. I did hear once that because of her statement that that is why they make so many kinds of toilet paper.

No doubt I would love a recording of that quartet. I have an mp3 player and I would like to be able to hear that group everyday. I dug out an old song book and read the lyrics to "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." OH, hopeanddust your views and the offer to Simmons are both top notch. I just hope that all this stuff (not really the word I am thinking) that is glamorized so much on tv never gets to the point that the people in a wonderful little town lose respect for one another. I don't want a tv station to win the war of division, just to sell cars, and pills, and insurance and etc. Please watch baseball live, and argue about that call by an umpire, and take a good laugh when you pull that golf ball again like you have for years. Enjoy it while it lasts and every once in a while listen to the Stones sing "Gimme Shelter."

I too feel sad that 50% didnt vote.

You know if your passionate about this subject like most people I know and dont vote then technically your a lier.

What I would really like to see is a Knowledge test before you vote--or hold office. Just watch "Jay Walking " with Jay Lenno and you know why..

oh I did I hear the rumor that that "group" was going to sign a recording deal and start touring this summer--- touring the 19th holes where ever they can!

PFFT You Were Gone

by Buck Owens

album: Too Old to Cut the Mustard (w.Buddy Alan] (1972)

Archie Campbell/Buck Owens/Hee Haw

---------------------------------

You took off your leg, your wig and your eye glasses

And you shoud've seen the look on my face

I wanted to kiss, I wanted to hug you

But you were scattered all over the place

Where, where, are you tonight?

Why did you leave me here all alone?

I searched the world over,

And thought I found true love.

You met another and

Phht! you were gone.

B ball fan was the only one to go after this one? Come on guys..

They're burying another kid today about 15 miles south of here, that was killed last week. The Indiana and Ohio Brigades are deployed now. I'm close with a kid that got into Baghdad right after Thanksgiving and he is doing a 16 month tour as an Infantryman with the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain. He tells me that they're going to Afghanistan after they get back. He tells me that the non combatants need help, but that this is never ending.

Our local Army Aviation unit is tagged and packing all their gear now. A pilot I know says it's a cluster; they don't know where they're going or who they're replacing. They're taking their own Blackhawks as well. There's a shipping charge you don't want to pay..

Across the street lives Dwayne, when he's not deployed. He's a policeman, but also the 1st Sgt. of a Reserve Airboune Psychological Ops. Company. He had a trip to Bosnia recently, and they've been getting ready since last summer for a soon to be announced foray into Iraq.

Schwarzkopfs book made more than a few references as to what could have happened, why the leadership didn't want to go to Badhdad during the first war. Civilians in charge of this war at the time that it started were aware of what could go wrong, and they obviously made the wrong choice. Most all of them aren't around now..

The surge looked good, but they continue to let al-Sadr live, and I have seen over the last 3 months that it's not working and surely isn't sustainable. And while our army of annihilation tries to do social work they get sniped by rifle, rocket, and mortars.

I'd like to see a drive back down to Kuwait. Bring all of our equipment out because we can't afford to just leave it there this time. Get everybody and everything we have home, and then rebuild and wait. Because there may be a bigger fight out there in the near future.

Voting is very much on my mind. I thought the original Three Stooges were much more funny than this current trio. And what I'm really afraid of is that one of them is going to really cut the military, and then tax me at about 39%, and then give it to people overseas. I like my church, and all of my guns.

[The Army and the rest of the service chiefs have endorsed General Petraeus's recommendations for continued high troop levels in Iraq. But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and their top deputies also have warned that the war in Iraq should not be permitted to inflict an unacceptable toll on the military as a whole. "Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it," Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said in stark comments delivered to Congress last week. "Lengthy and repeated deployments with insufficient recovery time have placed incredible stress on our soldiers and our families, testing the resolve of our all-volunteer force like never before."]

The above was copy/pasted from that link you gave us.

And given your resume, and that I've had the priviledge to converse with you in person, thus giving me a sense of who you are as a man, your opinion on this situation carries a lot of weight, and I assure you, I am listening real hard here.

So then,

If I'm not missing something, this article seems to suggest there are divisions, or grave concerns, within our top military leadership about our military health as a whole, yet the concensus is General Petraeus's lead is in the right direction for the moment.

Now I have no delusions that my reasoning power is flawless, indeed, I am just alert enough to know how little I do know and how much I miss, yet this very article from the New York Times suggests to this simple hick, that of the Three Stooges we have to choose from, one in particular far out credentials the other two-is it Moe? Or Larry? Or Curly?

Now we have to accept that all 3 want to end this conflict and bring everyone home, the question is how? and when?

I wrote a song once, the Hangman's Blues. The haunting doubt of the executioner that maybe this one was innocent...the timeless challenge of decision making.

May God help us all.

Damn that snake-I step on it every time.

Thanks C&J'sDad-I needed that one!

"We lost Davy in the Korean War/ and I still don't know what for/ doesn't matter anymore." John Prine

It was sworn to me that this blog would not become political and look what has happened. It makes me sick.

Dave Barry has a new blog, I am sure it is made for me.

Your taxes are going to go up. How damned old are you, 300. The most lame and mundane argument there is. Where does the money go, or what do you get for it now. Blackwater Inc. gets a ton, the troops get little, poor people get little and little is enough to be poor. But Blackwater guards rich people. Read a book, well at least a magazine. Give a test for net worth before office, too much you are out. Athens, Greece had ostracism in 600 BCE, and look how the little rich kid who never earned a penny in his life ran a wonderful little town in 2007 CE. The sun still comes up in the east.

If some one is not impressed with the three that are running now, show your colors and tell us all how impressed you are with what is there now.Speculation is easy, sometimes the truth is not. Or the last several over privileged a---holes who only want to be on tv or have their triumph. You cannot convince me that any of them could read, one cannot talk. The last warrior we had was Patton, not Patreus,I really do not care if I spelled his name correctly, and Patton was fired. In fact he was fired just as my adopted brother was into China after being sent to Korea. Then the a--hole idiots moved him back to what he called the from lines to take a hill, which they kept for three days and then the Red Chinese, he called them, took back for three days and then Bert and his outfit took it back for three days and this went on for two years, and no on knows how many deaths. Some people really know how to run a war. He was never the same, how could he have been the same.And he could not join the VFW when he got home, who in the hell would want to now, only some a--hole who was not involved. Well it was not a real war, it was a police action. There is no VFPA club to join. Same with Viet Nam so enjoy your cheap beers. I hope they are pissed in.

Since WWII we have not had a military that could run a lemonade stand.I,m still not sure it wasn't Montgomery who was running that show. I already said what I thought about Truman, he could make a decision at least, look at what has gone by since. I hate all these phony wars that kill mostly poor people, and I can hate those who try to claim that is not the case because it is true. If we blew the people or the country that sent them to knock down those buildings in NY like the brilliant W. said, no one in the world would have voted nay. But we did not blow any one to hell except more and more young innocent kids, and a county with no military, but many oil wells. Well if you can not find any oil in Texas look in Iraq. Simmons knows how much oil was in Texas and W. could not find oil in Texas. How can we look at ourself in the mirror. Viet Nam, Korea, Grenada, how can you not be sick.

Personally I am glad we are the Romans, look at how they treated Spain in the Republican Era, 500 BCE. They used it like a KFC franchise to kill a few thousand and then build a hunting lodge and name it after themselves, or a road, and then hurry home and have their triumph. They only had one year to have their triumph. Now they have four, and they call themselves conservative, slow to change I believe it means. Same thing in Korea, and Viet Nam and Grenada,oh,Operation Urgent Fury it was called. Medals of honor my a--.

For sure none of these countries are having an immigration problem, no fences to keep people out. What a dumb idea from a stupid leader.And he waves the bible and tries and does divide people into liberal or conservative, just words to him, he can not read or speak or think. Most people I know which is few I guess are both, I am believe I am conservative about education, I know I am liberal about personal liberty. History is important damn it; Livy said;

"The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid."

- Livy (ca. 59 B.C. - A.D. 17), Ab Urbe Condita (From the Foundation of the City of Rome) 1.1

If what we have now has, or even can read what I just quoted, I will do what I told Clint and Rambler, I would do, on the courthouse steps at high-noon of the Apple Festival.

How can someone not make an impression on you, after the last seven years?

Wooowee-I'm getting out the hotdogs and marshmellows 'cause this blogs on fire~

Speakin' of John Prine, I just caught him on a 2005 Austin City Limits episode coverin' Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons"-amazing performance of a great song. It's on Youtube, so check it out.

Another great blog entry.

"Bring the boys back home.

Don't leave the children on their own." - R. Waters

All you guys are great, I love y'all and I could never take any of you for granted. I appreciate the well written and intended views and the passion that lies under them. My comrades really believed that all these hateful events were going to go the way of the horse and buggy, and we stand corrected and disappointed, we stand in a pool of tears. Many brilliant men have stated it was better to not prove all how ignorant we are, but fools like me could never learn, how can one expect a fool to learn, that is why we are fools. Fools bleed and perhaps that is the common denominator. John Prine also said he could never speak again and all he would have to lose is his vanity. Smart guy John Prine. Many days I wish I could update, like my puter sometimes says to me that there is an update and the next time it wakes up it will be installed, wish I were a puter. So;

Come you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build the big bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins

How much do I know

To talk out of turn

You might say that I'm young

You might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

Even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand o'er your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Bob Dylan

I am completely finished with this topic. I look forward to reading more about Simmons Grandson and his field goals.

And from the bottom of my heart;

Happy Mother's Day, on the 100th anniversary of the Holiday.