Light blogging for a while....seems that the gods of connectivity have seen fit to grace me once again with their sense of humor.

I'm back on a shaky dial-up, thanks to the good auspices of a really great friend who was willing to split some of his time with me. Hope to regain DSL again soon, but knowing SBC and their (total lack) of service, it may be a while.

I will try to put up at least one post a day, IF the connection holds up long enough through the web searcing for something worthy to relate.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 10:14 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well, we've reached what the Left seems to regard as a magic number; we've lost the 2,000th service member in Iraq. The anti-war crowd seems to believe that this is the number that will spark a full-fledged cry from the American people to abandon the Iraqi's to their own devices.

I think the troops feel differently; as the story states:

"Recent public opinion polls show that Americans increasingly favor an early withdrawal of troops, but soldiers in Iraq said the rising death toll stiffened their resolve and would likely make pulling out more difficult."

We need to pull the gloves off and let the troops conduct a full out-balls to the wall WAR and forget the niceties of whether or not the Arab street won't like us any more. We have made great strides in Iraq, despite what the LSM has been peddling. They try to call it a morass, even though we have rebuilt a quarter of the infrastucture, and the Iraqi's have voted to enact a democratic constitution. The left says "too little-too late" and "why has it taken so long"?; when if they looked at our own history, they'de find that the Iraqis are almost eight years ahead of where we were in the founding of our own country.

There will many problems and setbacks in the years to come, but the seed has been planted, and with the proper care, it will grow into a mighty tree. A tree that will bear witness to the sacrifices made, both by our brave men and women, but by the Iraqi people themselves; we owe it to those that gave the last measure to continue to tend the tree of Liberty untill it has become fully rooted and is capable of resisting the storms that may rage around it.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 10:35 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I like this comparison. I could have done worse.

King Edward I You scored 70 Wisdom, 77 Tactics, 56 Guts, and 48 Ruthlessness!

Or rather, King Edward the Longshanks if you've seen Braveheart. You, like Edward, are incredibly smart and shrewd, but you win at any costs.... William Wallace died at his hands after a fierce Scottish rebellion against his reign. Despite his reputation though, Longshanks had the best interests of his people at heart. But God help you if you got on his bad side.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 06:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Pretty soon, THIS may become a new "major incident of atrocity" on the part of American troops, at least in the LSM. It's another example of "unbiased" reporting linking various semi-connected facts in an unpalatable to American sensibilitites manner; a in an intended attempt to cause public opinion to be swayed against the course of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you want to know the REAL chain of events, go read Jason Coleman's excellant explanation of what really occurred.

An unfettered press is a necessity in a free society, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to "stick to the facts" and not use that power in furthuring a personal or corporate agenda. And it's a citizens responsibility to hold the press to just reporting the news and not manipulating it, unfortunately, all too often, the citizens have become unquestioning and uncritical sponges of what they read and see. Remember folks, just because you read it in the paper, or hear it from some talking head on TV, don't take it as the gosple truth, look behind the story and see what the facts and circumstances are and form your own opinion, and don't let the spinners catch you in their web of half truths, and sometimes,outright deceit.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 03:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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John Stossel has a good article on one of my favorite topics -- Gun Control.

As Mr. Stossel points out, it is a myth that gun control legislation has done anything but prevent law abiding citizens from providing for their own protection.

In EVERY case where restrictions on citizens arming themselves have been loosened, the crime rate and the murder rate has gone DOWN, wherever the restrictions have been tightened, they have gone UP....just HOW can the advocates of gun control keep on trying the same thing over and over again and expect the results to be different?

Personally the only control I favor is ensuring that one can consistently hit what one aims at. When I was a teenager, it wasn't unusual to see a student coming into the high school with a rifle so that they could take advantage of the range they had in the basement for the ROTC classes. Any student could use the range at times that it wasn't being used for training classes, under the supervision of the range master (with prior approval and upon having completed a firearms safety course). We never had an incident of a student "going postal" and trying to wreak mayhem on the campus.

I firmly believe that firearms safety should be a required course for completion of a high school diploma. Famaliarity with firearms takes the mystery out of them and inculcates a healthy respect for what they can do. Firearms should be respected, not feared.

My ten year old daughter has already begun her introduction to the joys , and even more importantly, the responsibilities of shooting, and if early results are any indication, she will be quite the marksman by the time she enters high school. It is her responsibility as a productive, law-abiding citizen of our republic to be capable of responsibly bearing arms, in her own, and for the protection of that republic; and I intend to ensure that she is ready and capable of accepting that responsibility by the time she becomes an adult ready to go out on her own.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 02:52 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Here are ten funnies from GuyK. I'm really gld to have found him; saves me a lot of time searching for stuff to post, when I'm too damned lazy to come up with origianal BS.

1. Jesse Jackson, Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert have
written an impressive new book. It's called
"Ministers Do More Than Lay People."

2. Transvestite: A guy who likes to eat, drink and be Mary.

3. The difference between the Pope and your boss:
The Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.

4. My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash
and it is gone.

5. The only time the world beats a path to your door
is if you're in the bathroom.

6. I hate sex in the movies. Tried it once, the seat folded
up, the drink spilled and that ice, well, it really
chilled the mood.

7. It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable.
Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too.

8. A blonde said, "I was worried that my mechanic
might try to rip me off. I was relieved when he told
me all I needed was turn signal fluid."

9. I'm so depressed. My doctor refused to write me
a prescription for Viagra. He said it would be like putting
a new flagpole on a condemned building.

10. Definition of a teen-ager? God's punishment for enjoying sex

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 02:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, it had to happen sooner or later....seems it may soon be possible to have your t*ts and hear them too.

I've been reading tales of Cyborgs in science fiction for the last 46 years, and it seems that reality is starting to catch up to the fiction. I was hoping that an internal skelatal assist to help the paralyzed walk would be the first application, but it seems that entertainment is the driving force of technology in this age.

Now if you excuse me, I got to see if I can scroll down to Nights in White Satin Come on over here Mamamontezz!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 04:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Gee, I wonder if the mortgage company would accept this as collateral to refinance the homestead...

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Seems like the prosecutor's case against Tom DeLay is falling apart before a jury is even empaneled.

Of course, the Left will point to this as a "technicality" and a "miscarriage of justice". Of course when similar things happpened to their beloved Clinton, it was hailed as a "triumph of the law".

I , for one, hope it DOESN'T derail a full trial and presentation of all the evidence. The country needs this sordid mess sorted out, in as thorough a manner as possible. We need it to put all polititions on notice that they no longer have free reign to use funds in just any way they wish.

I don't know if DeLay is guilty or not, I suspect that he is "legally" within the bounds as they were at the time, and "morally" guilty of monitary sleight of hand....I believe that probably 90% or more of all other pols, of both parties, are just as guilty of the same.

I'm hoping that this trial will make them more circumspect in engaging in such behaviour....Yes, I know thats a naive, and most likely, in vain, hope, but then, as they say, hope springs eternal.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Due to some misunderstandings with my service provider, I've lost my old mail account, and my entire address book. So I've decided to go with a seperate entity to provide my mail service to me. the new addy is :

delftsman3@gmail.com

I'll try to rebuild my address book as you all write to me.

Thatisall

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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GuyK came up with this little gem. You HAVE to love an ethnic joke that reinforces an unfounded stereotype with such simple elegance.

A guy goes into the store and tells the clerk, "I'd like some
Polish sausage."

The clerk looks at him and says, "Are you Polish?"

The guy, clearly offended, says, "Well, yes I am. But let me
ask you: if I had asked for Italian sausage would you ask me
if I was Italian??? Or if I had asked for German sausage, would
you ask me if I was German?? Or if I had asked for a
taco would you ask if I was Mexican? Huh? Would ya??"

The clerk says "Well, no."

With deep self righteous indignation, the guy says, "Well, all
right then, why the HELL did you ask me if I'm Polish just because
I ask for Polish sausage????"

The clerk says "Because this is a hardware store."

Then there is the obligitory Gay joke:

The plane's cabin was being served by an obviously gay flight
attendant who was just as obviously enjoying himself. He came
swishing down the aisle and announced to the passengers,
"Captain Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landing
the big scary plane shortly, lovely people, so if you could just
put up your trays that would be super."

On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed that a woman hadn't
moved a muscle. "Perhaps you didn't hear me over those big brute
engines. I asked you to raise your trazy-poo so the main man can
pitty-pat us on the ground."

She calmly turned her head and said, "In my country, I am called
a Princess. I take orders from no one."

To which the flight attendant replied, without missing a beat,
"Well, sweet-cheeks, in my country, I'm called a Queen, so I outrank
you.

Put the tray up, Bitch."

AND then there was this one:

Two medical students were walking along the street when
they saw an old man walking with his legs spread apart.
One of the students said to his friend: "I'm sure he has
Petry Syndrome. Those people walk just like that."

The other student says: "No, I don't think so. The old man
surely has Zovitzki Syndrome. He walks just as we learned in
class."

Since they couldn't agree they decided to ask the old man.
They approached the old man and one of the students said to him:
"We're medical students and couldn't help but notice the way you
walk, but we couldn't agree on the syndrome you might have. Could
yo tell us what it is?"

The old man said: "I'll tell you, but first you'll tell me
what you think."

One of the students said: "I think it's Petry Syndrome."
The old man said: "You thought.......... but you're wrong."

Then the other student said: "I think you have Zovitzki
Syndrome." The old man said: "You thought......... but you're
wrong."

So they asked him: "Well, what do you have?"

And the old man said:
"I thought It was a fart........... but I was wrong."

Whenever you need a laugh, or a demonstration of clearheaded political thought, Guy's place should be on your list of places to go.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 04:02 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I.m not really in the mood to post, but I gotta do SOMETHING, so I thought I'd supply a little eye candy, maybe it will raise your spirits too.

Danica -The way we DON'T see here in Indy. Talk about being able to give a guy a push start!

And last, but not least, the most beautiful woman in the world (next to my wife)
The INCOMPERABLE Sophia Loren

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 05:58 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Tired of being broke and stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young husband decides to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy on his wife, with himself as beneficiary, and arranging to have her killed.

A "friend of a friend" put him in touch with a nefarious underworld figure that went by the name of "Artie." Artie explained to the husband that his going price for snuffing out a spouse was $5,000.

The husband said he was willing to pay that amount but he wouldn't have any cash on hand until he could collect his wife's insurance money. Artie insisted on being paid something up front. The man opened up his wallet, displaying a single dollar bill that rested inside.

Artie sighed, rolled his eyes, and reluctantly agreed to accept the dollar as down payment for the dirty deed.

A few days later, Artie followed the man's wife into the local Safeway grocery store. There he surprised her in the produce department and proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands. As the poor unsuspecting woman drew her last breath and slumped to the floor, the manager of the produce department stumbled onto the scene.

Unwilling to leave any witnesses behind, Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce manager as well. Unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings was captured by hidden cameras and observed by the store's security guard, who immediately called the police.

Artie was caught and arrested before he could leave the store.

Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the sordid plan, including his financial arrangements with the hapless husband. And that is why the next day in the newspaper, the headlines declared:

"ARTIE CHOKES TWO FOR A DOLLAR AT SAFEWAY

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 08:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I saqw this over at GuyK's place and, of course, I HAD to steal it. HOW does he find them?!?

Dear Husband,

I'm writing you this letter to tell you that I'm leaving you for
good. I've been a good woman to you for seven years and I have
nothing to show for it. These last two weeks have been hell.
Your boss called to tell me that you had quit your job today and
that was the last straw.

Last week, you came home and didn't notice that I had gotten
my hair and nails done, cooked your favorite meal and even
wore a brand new negligee. You came home and ate in two minutes,
and went straight to sleep after watching the game. You don't
tell me you love me anymore, you don't touch me or anything.
Either you're cheating or you don't love me anymore, what ever
the case is, I'm gone.

P.S. If you're trying to find me, don't. Your BROTHER and
I are moving away to West Virginia together! Have a great life!

Your EX-Wife

Dear Ex-Wife,

Nothing has made my day more than receiving your letter.
It's true that you and I have been married for seven years,
although a good woman is a far cry from what you've been.
I watch sports so much to try to drown out your constant nagging.
Too bad that doesn't work. I did notice when you cut off
all of your hair last week, the first thing that
came to mind was "You look just like a man!" My mother raised
me to not say anything if you can't say anything nice. When you
cooked my favorite meal, you must have gotten me confused with
MY BROTHER, because I stopped eating pork seven years ago. I
went to sleep on you when you had on that new negligee because
the price tag was still on it. I prayed that it was a coincidence
that my brother had just borrowed fifty dollars from me that morning
and your negligee was $49.99. After all of this, I still loved you
and felt that we could work it out. So when I discovered that I had
hit the lotto for ten million dollars, I quit my job and bought us
two tickets to Jamaica. But when I got home you were gone. Everything
happens for a reason I guess. I hope you have the filling life you
always wanted. My lawyer said with your letter thatyou wrote, you
won't get a dime from me. So take care.

P.S. I don't know if I ever told you this but Carl, my brother was
born Carla. I hope that's not a problem.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 05:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Feeling down? Got that bleary, headachey,body not awake thing going?

Well Joel Veitch has some advice to help you rev up and get back to kicki'n it.

I wonder how he got the pics of Darth Monkeybone?

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 12:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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THINK ABOUT THIS:

The next time you hear someone in the government use
the word "billion" casually, think about it.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend.

One advertising agency did a good job of putting that
figure into perspective in one of its releases:

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion days ago no-one walked on two feet on earth.

And a billion dollars lasts 8 hours and
20 minutes at the rate our government spends it.

H/T to GuyK

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 12:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A friend of the Empire and her brother have started a Cafe-Press shop of conservative logo'd clothing.

Go take a look at their wares, I'm sure that if you are of the Right bent, you'll see a lot you'll like. I added a button into my gutter for a direct link to their site any time I should want to add to my wardrobe:

I hope you will use it too, the next time you want to get that something special for the "Right-thinking" person in your life.

And NO, "I'm not making any money here folks, I just love to help friends make money" (obscure reference there for my Indiana readers )

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 09:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Yep Iraq is a QUAGMIRE. The MSM tells us this every day. THEY say that we've boosted Al Qaeda's forces,and they're growing stonger every day. But is it true?
HERE'S a recent briefing by Colonel Robert Brown, Commander of The 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Multinational Force-Northwest

Here's the interesting part:

One of the great pieces of information we got recently is 80 percent of the al Qaeda network in the north has been devastated. And those are not our figures, those came from the last six leaders in Mosul , al Qaeda leaders that we captured; they informed us of that. We also had a letter that was captured from Abu Zaid (sp) going to Zarqawi . We recently killed Zaid (sp) and we had that letter, and it also talked about the desperate situation for the al Qaeda and the insurgents in Mosul and in the north. And then also, sources we have inside the al Qaeda network up here have also informed us of that. (emp. mine D)

We ARE gaining ground in Iraq, WE ARE beating the "Insurgants" Islamofacists in Iraq. DON"T let the MSM do as they did in Viet Nam and make us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by fomenting a lack of will, and a resolve to win, in the American populace.

DO NOT let 1800+ soldiers have their final sacrifice be wasted because of unwarrented fear and misinformation. The fight is not over, there will be furthur sacrfices and hardships, but we can see that our actions are having their desired effect, and if we can maintain our resolve, we will overcome the enemy.

H/T to Misha at the Rottweiler for the link

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 07:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The 3 Present Day Variations of the Medal Of Honor, Army,Navy, and Air Force (the Marines and Coast Guard share the Navy version):

Yesterday was the 87th anniversery of Sgt. Alvin York's induction into an elite group; those that have earned our nations highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Sgt. York was awarded the medal for leading seven men against German troops, capturing or killing more than 150 German soldiers.

Since it's inception on Dec. 9, 1861 , it's an honor that has been presented only 3,459 times.

The first Medal of Honor was earned by Army assistant surgeon Bernard J.D. Irwin for his actions on the 13th of Feb. 1861,when he rescued 60 soldiers of 2d Lt. George Bascom's unit at Apache Pass, AZ.  Irwin received the award in 1894. The first M'soH ever presented were received by six of the surviving members of Andrew's Raiders, on the 25 of March, 1863, by then Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

The standards for receiving the medal are extremely high, the BASIC requirements are that the candidate "exhibits conspicuous and intrepid bravery at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty,in combat against an armed enemy force". At the present time, there are 121 surviving MoH recipients.

Number of Medals awarded to date, broken down to service:

Army: 2,357
Navy: 744
USMC: 300
USAF: 17
USCG: 1
Unknowns: 9

I thought it might be fun to see how much you might know about the Medal of Honor.

Here's seven questions, see how you do. The answers will be below the fold, no fair peeking! Don't look until after you've written the comment. To make it simple, they are in true or false form.

1. When drafted, Alvin York applied for concientious objector status.

2. No woman has been awarded the Medal of Honor.

3. The first Black American to recieve the award fought in Viet Nam.

4. The Medal of Honor has been awarded in every major conflict since the Civil War.

5. The Medal of Honor has never been awarded to a foreign born recipient.

6. No recipient has ever been awarded more than one MoH.

7. The Medal of Honor was the only medal awarded during the Civil War.

Want to learn more about the Medal of Honor? GO HERE. more...

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 05:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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