Will he ever shut up?!?!

If you don't read Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit.com) you should.  Here's a sample:
(He's an excellent commentator on commentation...is that a word?  And must have a LOT of time to read.)

AUSTIN BAY'S LATEST COLUMN looks back at the Zarqawi memo from last year:

Zarqawi's intercepted message to his Al Qaeda comrades admitted that his terror band was "failing to enlist support" inside Iraq and was "unable to scare the Americans into leaving."

Zarqawi lamented "Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge," which many commentators read as an echo of his experience in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda.

Zarqawi's document also suggested a strategic solution to his group's failure: launch attacks on Iraqi Shias and start a "sectarian war" that he suggested would "rally the Sunni Arabs" to his cause. This war against Shiites, Zarqawi thought, "must start soon -- at 'zero hour' -- before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis."

Despite orchestrating scores of savage attacks, Zarqawi has failed to ignite that sectarian war. Early in the summer, suicide car bombers (presumably under Zarqawi's aegis) began attacking Iraqi police and National Guard soldiers as frequently as they targeted Shias and coalition troops. This suggested to some analysts that Islamic radical Zarqawi was cooperating with elements of the "secular Iraqi resistance" -- former members of Saddam's regime and holdouts in the Sunni Triangle. If that alliance existed, it was one of convenience, not long-term compatibility. That terror offensive, however, has failed to deter recruits. Iraqi security forces continue to grow in size and strength.

Zarqawi lacks political support and is increasingly desperate. His declaration of solidarity with Al Qaeda is both an emergency plea for Islamist reinforcements from Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the shrill cry of a true believer just rational enough to recognize he's caught in a political and military vise.

Read the whole thing. More evidence that the campaign isn't working can be found in this quote:

One of those who survived the blast was a national guard soldier named Qusay Hassan. He spoke with anger following the death and maiming of his comrades, and his spirit seemed unbroken.

"I will not kneel before these terrorists," Mr. Hassan said. "If I don't join the army, who is going to defend the country from the terrorists?"

Indeed. More here:

Foreigners are mystified at how Iraqis continue to join the police and army, despite the car bombings and other attacks directed against them. It's not just for the money. For many of these recruits, there is a dead relative, murdered by some Sunni Arab thug working for Saddam. It's civil war, and the coalition wants to prevent it from turning into an orgy of revenge. What gets little reported in the West is the enthusiasm among Iraqis, and especially members of the government, for just bombing Fallujah into rubble.

That would undercut the "it's Vietnam all over again" story line. And it's not. Does this mean that everything's hunky-dory in Iraq? Nope, and -- as even the rather negative Andrew Sullivan notes, you don't need me to tell you that, when every attack gets headline treatment. But stuff like this, which provides perspective, doesn't get the attention it deserves.

As I wrote a while back, the problem with the constant barrage of coverage on the latest mortar attack or car bombing is that it's not only a ceaseless assault of bad news, but it's both unrepresentative (because it's only the bad news) and, just as bad, it's probably the wrong bad news. If there are serious things going wrong, they're not so much that people who don't like us are trying to attack us, as that more serious things (like the CERP matter I've mentioned here regularly) are going unaddressed. And the ceaseless negativity of the media treatment -- coupled with the media's rather obvious desire to make Bush look bad before the election -- leads to this problem I discussed a while back:

To make an Amartya Sen sort of point, what's unfortunate about the slanted (and lazy) nature of most of the reporting is that it doesn't point out real problems in ways that can let them be fixed, and that will bring them to the attention of people who can fix them. When the coverage continues to come from the same tired Vietnam template, applied to a very different situation, it's not terribly useful and I suspect that it's largely tuned out by folks in the White House who assume (more or less correctly) that it's intended to hurt them.

But that means that they have to rely on the reports of people in the chain of command, who have their own agendas. The press is supposed to be a check on that sort of thing, but it's fallen down on the job in postwar Iraq. Fortunately, the Internet has taken up some of the slack, and is (I'm being hopeful here) spurring the Big Media folks to take a second look at what they're doing.

Sadly, my hopes there have gone largely unfulfilled. Perhaps that will change after the election. More on these issues, and why I report the stuff I do here, in this post.

--  

Some quotes and paraphrases from the campaign trail:

"If John Kerry is elected President, people in wheel chairs will get up and walk again!"

"President Bush is responsible for the lack of flu vaccine!"

"If John Kerry was president, Ronald Reagan wouldn't have died from Alzheimers!"

"If Dick Cheney is allowed 4 more years in Washington, YOU ALL will turn GAY!"

"Bush is going to take Social Security checks away from old people and give them to young people to invest in their own private accounts!"

"George Bush killed Cristopher Reeves!"


Who's buying this crap. I'm not embarrassed to be an American, but I'm awfully embarrassed to be sharing this country with about 47% of the registered voters out there.

I got a quote for ya' with more truth than alot of the crap that the Kerry campaign is spewing...
"Bin Laden, Zaqarwi and Al Sadr all endorse John Kerry!!!"
(I am Keith Berger and I approve of this message)

A couple of our friends (Erika & Dennis) came up this weekend for a bit of a fall "Color Tour". Well they saw color alright....WHITE! Rain and snow mixed most of Friday evening, and changed over to all snow by Saturday evening.

So since we couldn't enjoy the outdoors, we thought we'd have an evening out. We went out to dinner Saturday evening, and thought we'd burn some of it off by bowling a few frames. We got to the Bowling alley and it was pitch black. Nope, not cosmic bowling...no electricity! We found a pub in town with power and as luck would have it, they were having Karieoke (sp?). Well the girls got up and did just a great job on a couple tunes, (they are both quite good singers...honestly!) then....black. No Power.

OK...we got the hint. Back to the house we go.

It was a nice visit none-the-less. Hope they come back!

Peace-out

This is pretty funny...albeit quite blasphemous.  (Thank you God for having a sense of humor).

Enjoy,
K~

[Ed. Note - We're busy putting together this week's Bonfire of the Vanities. I was going to contribute an essay I wrote way back in January when no one was reading us about God the Father and Jesus the Deadbeat Hippy Uncle - I wrote it in response to Howard Dean's confusion about which Testament the Book of Job belongs in. Well anyway, this was back in the Blogger Era: while I found the link, you would have had to scroll waaaaay down to find the essay. Bugger that. Instead, I'll just reprint the thing here for your amusement. Enjoy!]

This May Help Dean Keep It Straight, But I'll Probably Go To Hell

Evenings at the Butcher's House are always something of a struggle. The ritual of finishing dinner, cleaning up, baths, potty, brushing teeth, jammies, bedtime stories, etc., is more like a rugby scrum than anything else: you simply put your head down and shove as hard as you can.

Of course, there are always the grace notes and deviations. Last night was augmented by a fifteen minute argument between my older girls over who asked for the glass of water first. Then, an hour after she was supposed to be asleep, I discovered the two year old in the downstairs loo, splashing about up to her armpits. My, shall we say, Old Testament response to this made me realize there is an easy way to keep your Biblical stories straight: God is a parent. Jesus never had kids.

Think about it.

Start with Genesis. God bends over backwards to create a Paradise. He stocks it with an overabundance of everything Man could want. Just like a parent putting together the nursery. You make sure it's a warm, bright, pleasant place. You fill it with all sorts of fun and educational toys, books and stuffed animals. So what does the kid do? Makes a beeline for the diaper-genie or the electrical outlet. Yup, the forbidden fruit.

Then there is the Israelites' flight from Egypt and wandering in the desert, especially in Exodus and Leviticus. As a typical parent, God starts out hyper-defensive, whaling on Pharaoh for picking on His children. But later on, the old frustration with this pack of wayward, hyper lunatics sets it. "I said no worshipping of false idols, and look what you're doing!" "Eat your manna and stop complaining!" "No, we're not there yet. Just be patient!" "Didn't I tell you not to put those quail in your mouths? Didn't I?" "I want this tabernacle cleaned up RIGHT NOW!"

This is not the talk of a stern, implacable, uncaring, faceless Supreme Being. It is the exasperated talk of an exhausted father of small children who is trying very, very hard not to blow a gasket.

I'll give Dr. Dean a little credit for being tripped up by Job. This is a book written from the perspective of a kid (actually, a teenager). "Omigod. Like I try to do everything He says and he still sends all these afflictions! It's not faiiir!"

But then there is Jesus. He never had kids. He's the deadbeat hippy uncle who strolls in and starts mouthing platitudes about peace, love and understanding while you're simultaneously trying to change a disgusting diaper with one hand, remove a large, black, permanent marker from another child's grasp with the other, and keep the third kid from strangling the cat. Turn the other cheek? When the toddler is having mac-cheese and applesauce for dinner? Are you freekin' crazy?

The business with the money-changers in the Temple is another good example. A little Saturday morning political activism. What the hey, he's got the time to kill. Jesus doesn't have to take Andrew to soccer practice on one side of town and Simon Peter to a birthday party on the other side at the same time. And consider Good Friday. When you don't have any distractions or kids to drag around to the store, it's pretty easy to plan and hold a dinner party for fourteen. And getting yourself hauled off to prison and then judicially murdered, while noble, is a logistical breeze when you don't have to worry about suddenly finding a babysitter late on a Friday night.

These days, people like to say, "What Would Jesus Do?" Well, if he had kids, he'd curl up in a twitching, weeping, quivering ball. After that, I reckon he'd start to sound an awful lot more like his Old Man.

(I can hear the Butcher's Wife laughing from here. My role in managing our brood on a day to day basis is much, much smaller than hers. If she were Jesus, Judas never would have been allowed out in the garden that late, and Pilate would not even have made it into the appointment book.)

It's a new religion of sorts.

Sorry. It's been a cross between too much to write about, not enough time to get started, and quite frankly, just bored and disgusted with all the topics that present themselves so regularly.

Politics- Blah.

Let me sum up everything I think about/have thought about John Kerry, his campaign and the upcoming presidential election:

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I don't have the motivation or energy to analyze the presidential campaigns. Those who know me KNOW that I do not under estimate the importance of the election, and are probably a bit surprised by my unwillingness to write about it. Those who don't know me that are reading this...don't think for one second that it is because I am uninformed, or lack the cerebral capacity to argue the positions of either candidate...I am just simply bored and exhausted by all the rhetoric at this point. I just want it to be over.

There is only one choice in November, and if you feel I should spend my precious time and breath and brain power explaining why there is only one choice, then I will bet a handsome fortune that you are one of the following:

1. A moron.
2. Not interested/non-voter (in which case, #1 probably applies).
3. A Kerry Supporter (in which case, #1 probably applies).

Now...onto other matters.

As most of you know, since my last posting, Deb's mom passed away on 9/8/2004. It was a tough situation, but the family is at peace with it and Deb has shown more strength and understanding then I have ever given her credit for. She continues, after 11 years, to amaze me. Just when I think I know her better than anyone or herself, she proves to me that she is more than I know. I thank God for her daily, but don't thank her personally near as often as I should. She's a great wife and best friend...I wish everyone was a blessed as I. Yes, I'm bragging.

BETHANY TURNED 3 YESTERDAY!!!! We had a birthday party at BC pizza and all her little friends came. It was very cute. Lot's of Dora, Care Bears, Lil' Ponies, etc, etc. She had a blast and enjoyed all the attention. She was good and thanked everyone for coming to her birthday party. When I put her to bed last night and wished her one final "Happy Birthday", she said, "Happy Birthday you too Daddy". Did I mention I was blessed.

Whelp, That's it for now...maybe short and sweet will get me posting more often.

God Bless,
K~

This is a test to see if this e-mail option works. If it does, it could
mean that I can post to the blog by simply sending an e-mail to a
certain address! Yet another option that could get me posting more
frequently. MarcustheBronco is kicking my butt...I need to get busy!

Hope this works, that would Rock!
K~