For the LA Times story, "In Defense of Their Soldiers," by Rennie Sloan and Ellen Barry, 19OCT04: " [Theresa] Hill [a long haul truck driver and mother of one of the soldiers involved in the recent refusal of orders] said she was certain the publicity has helped her daughter. "As soon as [Clarion-Ledger reporter] Jeremy Hudson broke the story, they were released miraculously," she said. Hill also believes that the effort has smoothed the way for soldiers to resist orders in the future . ...

This is a post that I wrote for the WizKids official HeroClix Judges-only Forum. I suppose not many of you will care, but I thought it came out alright, so I figured I would post it here. (You could actually apply some of what I go over here in a more general way to any rules set that is in place but not really enforced... hmm. Where's that familiar from? Perhaps there will be another article.) In case it is unclear from the beginning, the context is "The company that makes the game wan...

There was that time, in college, where I went with the Army ROTC. I was a sophomore, and had just come over from Navy ROTC due to poor grades. They assigned the Cadet Commander as my battle buddy, which was still intimidating to me, because I was so n00bish. Besides, the guy had been enlisted during Desert Storm, so that gave him some cred, right? Well, probably not, but I'll never know. I do remember being in the prone with him while this other cadet, another prior enlisted who was pl...

So, that paper I posted as my last article? Link Here's how the grade broke down on it: A "works cited" of at least five (5) sources 20/20 [It was there... I didn't post it. I'll put it in the comments.] Proper use of MLA style - a works cited, parenthetical notations, header, proper format 25/40 [Obviously, I didn't do the notations at all.] The extent to which the paper demonstrates outside research and knowledge learned 85/100 [It was supposed to be a 5 page pa...

Hey, you remember that time that I said I'd do all my homework online for that class? The one that I had to take an incomplete on? The one that the paper was due next Monday, and then tomorrow, and now she has to put the grades in tomorrow, so now it's due... now? So, I never actually finished it (shh, don't tell), but I sent it in anyway. I have at least a "C" in the class, which may be more than I deserve. And, as I promised (somewhere else, I'm not sure), I'm posting this incomplete...

I'm sitting here thinking, "Man, I gotta get some sleep. Lemme check the news sites before I hit the sack." CNN front page: Triple blasts rock Israelit vacation spots Link (Kicker: "Thursday's bombings brought to mind the November 2002 attack in in the Kenyan city of Mombasa when three suicide bombers blew up the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel, killing 12 people. That blast came just after assailants fired two missiles at an Israeli charter plane carrying 271 people but missed their targ...

"[He] had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With [him] it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was." Link "

Possibly the last thing I'll post from that ghodawful Government class I was taking. The one that ended almost four months ago. The one that I'm still not done with... This paper was supposed to be a collaborative effort (I worked on it alone, except for the inspiration I have derived from those around me whom I feel I can talk to about politics), and the topic was "5 reasons you can trust the government, and 5 reasons you can't trust the government." I have no idea how many reasons I h...

First off, hat tip to greywar for this, as he was the one who saw this man on Fox News speaking of this experience, and pointed it out to me. Link details how Scott Taylor was taken hostage by insurgents in Iraq, traded from group to group, beaten and tortured and finally released (no spoiler there; how else could he write that article?). What had really taken me aback here (aside from the atrocities that had been delivered upon him, of course): The sight of U.S. paid Iraqi police f...

I had been deferred to a later appointment time, 0915, but was instructed to return 15 minutes prior. (Ah, the “X minutes prior” rule… another topic for another time.) I jaunt home, bum around some, see the fam, and head right back. Have to be fifteen minutes early for the half-hour wait, amirite? While I was waiting, I noticed a somewhat skinny, somewhat pale man in civilian clothes, in a wheelchair. His right lower leg had a cylindrical “halo” traction device (I’m certain that’s not th...

Actions being taken against me by the Army (for my own failings, admittedly) led me to be at the clinic this morning for Sick Call. I managed to stick around work to watch the brief, encouraged by greywar that the clinic wouldn’t be open until 0730, regardless. While I was certain it was open at 0700, I felt it wouldn’t be a big deal to get there a few minutes late, at any rate. Of course, the doors opened at 0630, and there was a line over a dozen soldiers deep when I arrived. A mix of...

It seems there are some issues cropping up during the call-up of the Individual Ready Reserves to Active Duty. While the vast majority of these personnel showed up to do their duty, some were unable, or unwilling, to show when told. As the article below details, many of these people are trying to get out of it, either through legal means (which I have no major problem with, as I think many of these requests will be turned down and mostly the truly deserving will get a deferral) or illegal (...

with me, anyway. I hope that the "liberal media" is a myth. I hope they are just trying to do their job, and not color their stories. But I know they do. Even just a little, sometimes, but it's hard to keep your editorializing out of your reporting (two great tastes that taste great together... not). I hope that the media coverage of the recent hostage situation(s) in Iraq has simply had the intent to inform. I hope that it was not aimed at making the war more real for the American pu...

I was reading an article posted on JU Link , where the last comment (at the time... I'm sure the 3 people participating have bumped it up) asked for an Iraqi citizen's opinion. Now, I'm not an Iraqi citizen, but I spent some time searching for something appropriate on the net. Unfortunately, none of the blogs I follow have tackled this obviously weighty issue. I thought about directing him to the Al-Jazeera forums, but I doubt he can read Arabic. But I popped into AJ just to see... I...

(inspired by a conversation with greywar) Link blogiston theory , hypothesis regarding blogging. The theory, advanced by J. R. pseudosoldier late in the 7 o'clock hour this morning and extended and popularized by M. R. greywar, postulates that in all bloggable materials there is present blogiston, a substance without color, odor, taste, or weight that is absorbed in blogging. “Blogisticated” substances are those that contain blogiston and, on being blogged about, are “deblogisticate...