For those of ye who do not know... today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ye lubbers can divine information from this site: Link A worthy holiday it be, indeed! Bonus track: While on TDY to Germany with Cochise and greywar, the subject of "civilian clothes day" came up amongst the locally stationed soldiers. One of them suggested "pirate day," as she has a "thing" for Johnny Depp. Coincidentally, the Army Times I had been reading featured a two-page article about "Talk Li...
Link And, in other news, the sky is blue. Alright, allow me to expound on the ramifications (or possibilities thereof). This is really the first overt unfriendly diplomatic move we've made towards the Kingdom since Bush took office. (If there was another major move, I encourage people to let me know in the comments.) Will this harm our relationship with Saudi Arabia, who has been a fairly staunch supporter of ours in our "war on terror"? It's worthwhile to point out that while we ...
Link With no cited explanation, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has postponed its elections for nearly meaningless local positions. Yet again. If they are so interested in political reform, why put this off? Is it indeed because the religious observations would distract from this event? Or the other way around?
Although he has been sitting in my "Iraqi Blogs" link section off to the right, I hadn't been checking in on "Iraq the Model" for awhle. I'm making a greater effort to go through all my blog "favorites" lately, and was very pleased to see this insightful article on that site Link "Most of the arab and Muslim government were against toppling Saddam, and that was certainly not because they liked him or his regime. They were afraid and still are of the consequences of this regime change in...
CB jumps back on the blogwagon, but not entirely. He claims that he will no longer be writing actively about his personal experiences in Iraq, because he does not want to subject himself to censorship. Personally, I feel that being bullied into keeping your yap shut for fear of being told specifically to keep your yap shut pretty much qualifies as censorship anyway, but if it makes him feel better... He also reposted some of his older stuff, to which he refers as his "Best Of" album. The ...
I have difficulties with the titular question. I find myself torn between "polite" and "honest." Regardless of language, I seem to choose "honest" and wind up putting my foot in it. (You may decide for yourself what "it" is in this context: my mouth, someone's posterior, or the dog crap on the ground.) Case 1: Yesterday, a friendly Arab co-worker strolls in. "Good morning," I say, in Arabic. (Please note that I am not stating the fact that it is a good morning, I am wishing for him t...
Link The BBC has put up a compilation article similar to the one from CNN ( Link ed in another article of mine Link ). Some of these "denouncements" are, well... "One Saudi paper suggests that the perpetrators might have won over converts to their cause had they attacked a military target, rather than a school full of children." At least they're against kid-killing, right? This one starts well: "Iranian President Mohammad Khatami expressed his outrage at the terrorists' inhumane...
While all his old stuff is still down (I have the mental image of a soldier tearing down all the newspaper clippings he hung inside his tent in a fit of pique), CBFTW has a new article up, a reaction to an article in the LA Times which seems to have mentioned him. Nice to see him posting again, but such a shame that all those articles are no longer available for viewing...
I've hated reading some of greywar's articles for awhile now: the Religion of Peace series. It's because he's damned persuasive. It's a dark, dark world, and it's easy to think bad things about a lot of people. I'm the resident Arabologist (and part-time Arabiaphile) of our little group, so I don't like to think bad things about my subject matter, as it were... Link This article, however, is just the type of article that I need to push back the darkness, and convince myself that ther...
Perhaps you've seen the headline: Three die in Saudi shop stampede !!! (or Three killed in Saudi shop stampede) (!!!) Link and Link See, this is why the infidel and his "simple, reasonably priced products" should stay out of the seat of Islamic power. Damn you capitalist pig! (Wait, what? Wrong insult? er, um... Okay...) Damn you great white satan! I'd also like to use this opportunity to point out the discrepancies in the two reports, both from Reuters sources. Th...
Perhaps it's best that he couldn't hear the gurgling, choking noises I was making towards the end of this conversation: [Bold indicates names I changed. Italics are my after-the-fact running commentary.] GUS says: yo yo yo pseudosoldier says: How's it going? GUS says: ok...first class tomorrow at 0800...Calculus pseudosoldier says: PT tomorrow at 0530. pseudosoldier says: I'd kill for a 0800 Calc class instead. GUS says: sorry...I forgot I am not allowed to complain....
And... he's gone. Could've seen this coming with recent events, though. Link Anyone save any of his stuff? My own stupid fault I didn't copy down the Men In Black post, or any of the other combat ones.
This was sent to me quite awhile ago, and I've just now uploaded it. Pretty accurate, though. (They didn't mention the key is to meet girls while you're in training .) Edit: Sorry it's so small... hmm. I'll work on that. Until then, the transcript: 1: So, what've you been learning in spook school lately, dude? 2: Arabic. 1: Arabic? What for? 2: So I can tell what the word on the street is. 1: The street? What street? 2: The Arab street -- the pulse of popular sentiment in...
This was sent to me quite awhile ago, and I've just now uploaded it. Pretty accurate, though. (They didn't mention the key is to meet girls while you're in training .) Edit: Sorry it's so small... hmm. I'll work on that. Until then, the transcript: 1: So, what've you been learning in spook school lately, dude? 2: Arabic. 1: Arabic? What for? 2: So I can tell what the word on the street is. 1: The street? What street? 2: The Arab street -- the pulse of popular sentiment in...
My first day at the unit was Single Soldier Day out at a local lake. All the soldiers on post, except those with additional duties, were out at the lake having a barbeque, or playing volleyball, or hiding their beer drinking. Only those who had duty driver, or staff duty, or who were of such sufficient rank that they could not go or were able to choose not to go were not there. There were three people at the unit when the sergeant who inprocessed me called to get someone to pick me up. ...