THREE MORE FOR THE GOOD GUYS’ LIST

The starring cast of 20th Century Fox’s new movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, visited the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) on May 24. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Kelsey Grammer arrived by helicopter on Kearsarge’s flight deck to take a tour, meet crew members, and sign autographs as the ship was en route to New York City for Fleet Week 2006. The studio also offered a pre-release viewing of the new movie.

EVEREST UPDATE

This season sounds like it may turn into a classic hig-altitude cluster f—k with climbers being left to die, climbers being declared dead and showing up hours later alive, and everybody and their brother summiting and everyone else declaring that they are the first blind albino amputee Samoan to reach the top.

I have a distinct feeling that even though well over a hundred climbers have gotten to the top, and there have only been 11 fatalities (or maybe not) reported, Kachenjunga is starting to get pissed; and you don’t want to be on the Mother of all mountains if she gets mad.

Anyway … all the Everest news you’d care to read at EVEREST. COM

Note:
You will probably be hearing a lot about an oxygen-deprived climber who was passed by dozens of other climbers who didn’t help him (apparently one teamed tried). Here’s my take on this:

Anyone who participates in a low-to-high risk activity must do so with a full expectation of making it through solely on skill, knowledge, conditioning and — most importantly for those on the outer edge of the curve — luck. To commit to an undertaking any other way is supercilious and invites trite death wish psychoanalyses. Many of those climbing Everest successfully these days do NOT have the requisite hard-earned skillsets and at sometime ... should their wallets/pocketbooks continue to be larger than their brains, it will catch up with them.

Or to paraphrase that unheralded Cockney: You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Although I'm loathe to disagree with Sir Edmund, no one at those heights has (rather, should have) a reasonable expectation of rescue.

ON THE IMMIGRATION FRONT

Here’s a Website dedicated to the issue, that has — as usual — stuff you won’t read in the media. Give it a look HERE .

Yes, yes, I know those opposed to an immigration policy will call it a neocon site, etc., but that doesn’t make it wrong. And I stand by my original premise: show me any civilization that has come through unregulated immigration and is still viable.

THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE

I don’t know if many of you keep up with sailing as a sport, or have followed the sailboat race going on for the past six months or so called the VOLVO OCEAN RACE .

This is a crewed (in other words, not a single handed race. Each boat has 10 men) sprint around the world. It was originally called the Whitbread and has gone through other appellations since its inception. Nonetheless, this year the racers were sailing boats called Volvo 60s.

Eight boats started the race, all had to stop part way and the race was nearly cancelled when a design flaw in the boats (they are all the same) was discovered. That was repaired and the boats continued on without much ado (YOU try sailing around the world without “much ado!”) until last week on the “sprint” leg from New York to the UK.

One sailor was swept overboard (32-year old Dutch sailor, Hans Horrevoets, aboard ABN Amro Two) and drowned, and then, an hour after the crew transferred his body to a Dutch warship, they had to go back to rescue the 10-man crew of another competitor, Movistar.

This is a seafaring tale that deserves inclusion into the annals of man against the sea stories. A very well done video report (British, naturally) of the first shoreside interview of the ABN Amro Two team can be found HERE .

USS NEW YORK

Thanks to Bob S. for passing this tidbit along.

The sixth warship to be named after our fair state, this USS New York (LPD-21) was so named in honor of those who died on September 11, 2001 (two other ships in the San Antonio-class will be named Somerset and Arlington to commemorate those two September 11 sites). Some of the metal from the World Trade Center is used to form the New York’s stem bar, a section of the bow.

The San Antonio-class are amphibious transport dock ships designed to support embarking, transporting, and landing elements of a Marine landing force in an assault by helicopters, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, and a combination thereof to conduct primary amphibious warfare missions.

For the full story of the class go HERE .

The USS San Antonio is in New York this week for Fleet Week.

BIG RACING WEEKEND

I know it’s Memorial Day weekend (that came up fast, eh?), but Monday is Memorial Day and Sunday is race day no matter what kind of auto racing you like.

The Indy 500 kicks off at 1300 (EST) on Channel 7 (ABC).

The crown jewel in the Formula 1 season, famed and fah-bu-luss Monte Carlo, goes off at 1230 (EST) on Channel 2 (CBS). The race starts at 0800 EST, but I can’t find anyone covering it live. Oh well, I’ll have to get my clicker finger warmed up.

NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 kicks off at 1700 on Channel 5 (FOX). As far as I know, there will be no double-duty racing this year, since neither Tony Stewart or Robby Gordon are racing at Indy. The reason is that IRL moved the start time for the 500 up two hours.

NEW 24 HOUR RECORD

3, originally uploaded by gpj631.

Mediatis Region Aquitane — damn French — a 60-foot hydroplane catamaran with twin rigs had original design parameters of reaching 35 knots for 24 hours, 40 knots for one hour and short bursts of 45 knots plus.

Apparently she’s short of those parameters because on May 23 she smashed the singlehanded 24-hour record by sailing “only” 585 miles at an average of 24.33 knots, an outstanding run. If you like to read more and see more, go to SCUTTLEBUTT

The above photo was taken by shooter Thierry Martinez during Mediatis’ first offshore trial run from France to Portugal back in March.

BAGHDAD ER — A MUST SEE

Baghdaad ER, originally uploaded by gpj631.

If you haven’t seen Baghdad ER, the documentary about the people — the nurses, doctors, corpsmen, orderlies, et al — of the 86th Combat Support Hospital (CSH; since replaced by the 10th CSH out of Fort Carson) out of Fort Campbell, and you have an opinion about this or any other war and haven’t ever lived through one — a war that is — I suggest you sit your ass in front of the television and order HBO or annoy the hell out of friends who have it, because this will absolutely, unequivocally leave you breathless.

The documentary was done by two-time Emmy Award winning producer/director Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill. It also includes coverage of the various personnel from several different units — most National Guard — who patrol the infamous Route Irish, better known in the media as IED Alley. There is also some extraordinary footage of actual Medevac pickups performed by the 54th Medical Company Air Ambulance Team.

There is some absolutely brutal footage in this, so it isn’t for the squeamish, but if you want to see a side of war than transcends the glory of combat, this is it.

A frank, honest look at a modern MASH unit circa mid-2005, complete with tasteless jokes, gore, amputations, horrific wounds, incredible sorrow and a look at the real meaning of heroism, both on the field of combat and in its aftermath.

And those of you who want to know what being a soldier is all about. Watch the face and listen to what is said by the wounded GI who is told he's going home for further surgery.

RECORD YEAR ON EVEREST

Apparently this is going to be a record year on Everest. There have been, literally, hundreds of summiters on the big mountain between from around May 9 to today. It seems as if every nationality in the world put somebody on top and there were the usual “firsts.” Apparently deaths are holding at seven so far. For MUCH more detail, go to EVEREST.COM .

Looks as if the monsoon still hasn't hit, and that may explain all the summits. But the season ain't over yet.

ARMED FORCES DAY

BradleysW, originally uploaded by gpj631.

Today, May 20 is designated as Armed Forces Day, and it’s as good a time as any to say a prayer in honor of the men and women in our military.

It’s a lonely, underpaid, underappreciated job, but thank God there are people who do it willingly because of a sense of honor, and as a means of repaying our country for all it gives us daily.

HOW COME HE DIDN’T EJECT?

Here’s a beaut from MILITARY.COM .

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours. No one in the USAF or from Lockheed Martin could figure out how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1315 LT, chainsaw-wielding firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after they cut through the F-22’s three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate canopy.

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon: $1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin, which will cost about $1 million to replace.

KENNEDY GENETICS

Acording to Boston.Com news , Boston scientists released a provocative report yesterday that challenged the timeline of human evolution and suggests that human ancestors bred with chimpanzee ancestors long AFTER they had initially separated into two species.

The researchers, working at the Cambridge-based Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, used a wealth of newly available genetic data to estimate the time when the first human ancestors split from the chimpanzees.

The lead scientist said this is in jarring conflict with the fossil record, and explains how the Kennedys managed to turn out so many truly madcap family members.

'”Something very unusual happened,” said David Reich, one of the report's authors and a geneticist at the Broad and Harvard Medical School.

What a day! First, the Feds think they found Jimmy Hoffa's body, and now we know why Teddy, et al, are the way they are!

THOSE WHACKY VIETNAMESE

On May 17, according to www.fishupdate.com, a commercial fishing site out of the UK, a man wearing dried abalones around his waist caused a stir when security guards at China's Guangzhou airport mistook them for homemade bombs.

Guards stopped a Vietnamese passenger with a suspicious bulge around his waist as he was preparing to board a plane home, China Daily reported. He turned out to have more than 11 pounds of the dried shellfish tied around his waist.

The passenger explained that his checked luggage was already overweight, so he just tied on the shellfish. He said he liked to drink abalone soup.

Well, I guess that’s better than carrying plastique on the soles of your Nikes!

REGARDLESS OF WHERE YOU STAND

originally uploaded by gpj631.

President Bush gave a damn good speech about illegal immigration and what needs to be done about it. Aside from de-politicizing — a tall order given all the political hacks involved — being key to the solution, I agree with him that finding the median ground between mass deportation of illegals and freebie citizenship has to be found ... and not at the expense of legal immigrants or residents. I’m also damn happy the President stressed the need for linguistic assimilation.

Now let’s see what the left, the Mexican lobby, the bored gang bangers, the rest of the down-with-America types and the it’s-all-George’s-fault morons can come up with to make this sound Hitlerian, facetious, immoral and otherwise anti-human.

PS: I’ve worked with the US Border Patrol in Texas, and believe me, they’ve had a rough-ass job for a looong time. It’s about time they get some help.

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN

If you truly care about our service people in the war zones, here’s something you should write your Congressperson about.

It seems that a company named Ionatron (I believe out of Arizona, since it was the Arizona Daily Star that broke the story), has developed a means of remote detonating IEDs via laser pulses (describing the technology for all to understand); it's called a "Joint IED Neutralizer."

The system supposedly works, but apparently — according to the company — “The U.S. government customer concluded that the JIN counter-IED technology performed well and offers great promise, but determined that the current vehicle platform should be changed.”

In other worked, the Army didn’t like the car the weapon was riding in? I hope there’s a much better f-----g reason than that.

If you care ….write. No talk. Write.

I have ... it took about three minutes to e-mail both Senators Clinton and Schumer (for you New Yorkers. The rest of you, type in your senator's name and you'll get an e-mail address.)

Go on ...quit reading this. WRITE.

AH TODAY WAS MOTHER’S DAY

A quick look at things important and not so important as the new week starts.

Racing: Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix, Biffle won at Darlington, Sebastian Bourdais took the Champ Car win at Houston and Indy practiced was rained out.

Politically: Chavez needs to be nuked along with Iran; MMM is trying ferociously hard to make the government’s phone tapping an issue to little effect; looks like the National Guard will be helping the USBP on our southern border (“Four dead in O-hi-o…” I can hear the songs already. Go get ‘em Guard).

Culturally: The big news is the movie The DaVinci Code has some Christians wondering why their fellow believers aren’t rioting in the streets like Muslims did over the Danish cartoons. Maybe because they're more intelligent?

Have a good week.

Nuke Iran AND Venezuela.

MORE MEDIA MALFEASANCE

That’ll be MMM from now on.

Please note: whenever a story about the Morrocan Wog who was convicted for his part in the September 11 attacks appears it will always carry — usually as its last line — the words “he now denies his involvement” or statements more or less saying the same thing.

Note that it never appears with any other murderer so I demand that every child molester, murderer, father raper, etc., have, in a newspaper report about the crime, the words “but he maintains his innocence.”

As a matter of fact, I’m sure the Constitution guarantees that … certainly the First Amendment must.

LOV-ER-LY

Well, we hear all kinds of crappy ass reason for celebrations …

It’s Screw Your Pet Day, and Take a Hooker to Work Week, and National Stick It Up Your Ass Month, but do we read/see/hear ANYwhere that May 9 was Military Spouse Appreciation Day?

No f-----g way.

That might actually MEAN something.

Thank you — once again — American media.

And MY apologies to the spouses of our service people for not knowing it. I’m as bad as the rest of the media assholes.

NEW WORD I’LL BE USING

Pollaganda: the media’s use of polls as propaganda.

Ya’ gotta’ love it.

Take THAT Mr. Saffire.

WHY I RAIL AT THE MEDIA

This is a classic, non-political example of why the mainstream American media is scorned and ridiculed by anyone with a brain to see beyond their transparency and ability to make mountains out of pebbles.

An article in yesterday’s Newsday — a major Long Island paper for those of you not familiar with it — tells parents “what they need to know” about the Internet site MySpace.com.

The article — which essentially has no info in it other than relating who owns the site (Rupert Murdoch) and who sold the site (two now multi millionaires) — reeks of negativitiy but manages to relate two stories having to do with young people killing other young people.

One has to do with some NeoNazism discovered at a school in East Hampton along with threats of violence and the other an alleged plot in Kansas in which five students were arrested. In both cases the spectre of a Columbine High School-style massacre were alluded.

What the writer and newspaper failed to note was that — if anything — MySpace should have been rewarded for providing a forum in which the assholes involved were discovered. This somehow escaped the reporter, the editors, et al.

Meanwhile the article could have been summed up with a few words: Parents know what your kids are doing on the Internet.

But then that would demand responsibility and punishment on someone’s part. And God forbid THAT happen.

WHEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

Okay, here’s the plan:

Back off and let those men who want to marry men, marry men.
Allow those women who want to marry women, marry women.
Allow those folks who want to abort their babies, abort their babies.
In three generations, there will be no Democrats.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Thanks to Scott (you know which one) for the forward.

FLOYD PATTERSON DIES

Those of you my age reading this undoubtedly remember the little engine who could, Floyd Patterson, the middleweight peek-a-boo fighter who fought in the heavyweight class and reigned supreme in the 50s and 60s.

I can remember watching the wars he fought with Sweden’s Ingemar Johansson, starting in 1959 and finishing in 1961 with a 2-1 record against the big Swede. I can still see Patterson kneeling over Johansson’s prone, unconscious body as Johansson's leg beat a tattoo on the canvas from Patterson’s quick right to the chin. I can see that as clear as day.

Always known as a gentleman, who fought in superb condition and who had speed and style, Patterson won the gold in the 165-pound division in the 1952 Olympics, fought the likes of Archie Moore, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali among others, and was respected by anyone he fought for his leonine heart. His record was 55-8-1 with 40 KOs when he retired.

Patterson, who was six feet tall and rarely weighed over 185, came from an impoverished background (he was one of 11 children) where he had brushes with the law before turning his life around via the ring. He was a representative of what boxing could have been and the antithesis of the thug heavyweight, a la Mike Tyson (Patterson’s first pro trainer was Cus D’Amato, Tyson’s first trainer).

Floyd Patterson died in New Paltz, NY yesterday at the age of 71.

A man who remained a very classy guy all his days and who was the epitome of The Sweet Science.

ELBRUS FATALITIES - EVEREST UPDATE

Mount Elbrus — Europe’s highest peak in the Russian Caucasus range — had its first fatalities of 2006. Seven people have been reported dead and four others missing, according to Italian news agency ANSA. The climbers were part of a group of eight Russians and four Ukrainian mountaineers attempting to reach the summit May 9. One of the survivors managed to alert the support crew.

On Everest, two teams or members of two teams are reported to have topped out via the North route. American climbers, John Bagnulo and David Wats made it, as did Georgian (republic) climber Bidzina Gurdzhabidze also on the North side. Teams arte reported all over ther mountain in various stages of attempting their routes.

Weather forecasts for the big mountain are relatively benign with any storms scheduled for the next week or so, staying below 7500 meters. The monsoon has been late this year, but will become a factor late in the month and into early June. As I write this it’s reported 37 degrees F on the summit (it will go sub zero overnight) with winds at four mph.

For more go to MountEverest Net .

TYBEE 500 STARTS SUNDAY

DSC_4069, originally uploaded by tybee_500.

The Tybee 500, the first half of the old Worrel 1000, starts on Sunday. Go to RACE REPORTS to keep track of this week-long cat run up the Florida coast to Tybee Island, Georgia. There's video, stats, reports and more.

A THOUGHT ON IMMIGRATION

This is something that occurred to me the other day while listening to a debate on illegal aliens — actually it wasn’t a debate, it was an anti-illegal-immigrant polemic, that was occasionally laughingly overshadowed by enough not-so-bright call ins, that I had to change the channel. (For those of you interested it was G. Gordon Liddy’s show on channel 144 on Sirius. Yes, good ol' G.Gordon's still around kicking ass and takin' names.)

Nonetheless, if anyone sees a fault in the following statement/logic, I’d appreciate it being pointed out.

NO CIVILIZATION HAS EVER WITHSTOOD THE EFFECTS OF UNPOLICED, UNREGULATED, UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION.

Not the Cherokee, Navaho, Apache, Iroquois, Seminoles, Athabascans, Maya, Inca, Aztec, Toltec, Carib, etc., et al, ad nauseam. Not a single native culture of the Americas benefited from the rampant immigration of white Europeans. (No one's sneaking into Mexico and Central America and kidnapping people, a la the slave trade, ergo, the exclusion of Blacks from the above statement.)

I should think — if history means ANYthing at all — this inability of a home culture to resist the inroads of an attacking culture is at least instructive of the misfortune waiting in the wings, no?

Can anyone name a culture that survived? Certainly the Euros are now drowning in the results of their unfettered importation of colonial immigrants, so they're just an example of more of the same.

Anyone?

SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOHN

John B. Bellinger III, a State Department legal adviser, told the U.N. Committee Against Torture that all American officials including intelligence agents are barred from using torture in interrogating terror suspects.

Oh, just f-----g wunnerful.

Thank God Bellinger had his fingers crossed while he was speaking to those freeloaders at the UN or I’d have started worrying.

What's next? Instead of 5.56 rounds our guys get to use non-lethal ammo? Ah, to be back in the days of the video mentioned a few items down.

HOW QUICK WE FORGET

It was 1945 and they were dancing in the streets.

May 8, 1945 was VE Day. Germany surrendered unconditionally and the Cold War pretty much started as soon as everyone took a deep breath.

Our thanks to the men and women who made it possible for us not to be speaking German.

WORKING NIGHTS - VIDEO

Apparently this footage has been around for a while … there’s some references to it originating right after the start of the current Iraq action and having been shown on ABC to much gnashing of liberal and bad-guy-sympathizer teeth.

Nonetheless, this is a must-see video … and the pilots or gunners doing the speaking are well worth listening in on, so turn up the audio. The video looks to be taken from an on-station helicopter, but one with mounted 40mm cannons, so you gotta figure it's an Apache.

Go HERE to check this out.

NEW HEAD SPOOK?

Those touchy-feely politicians are weighing in on what may be the president’s next choice for head of the CIA — former Air force general Michael Hayden. This comes in the wake of the surprise abdication of the intelligence throne by Peter Goss earlier in the week.

Apparently, some politicians — on both sides of the aisle — think having an ex-military man in charge of the CIA “sends the wrong message” to the spooks in the field. That message being that the Pentagon controls Langley. Uh, Senator …

Besides, Hayden’s ex-Air Force, and thus had nothing to do with the military (just kidding, General).

So what is this really about?

Well, as Michael Coreleone said of Tom HAGEN (aha, a sinister plot! Note the name similarity? Plus, Sterling HAYDEN played General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove! Double aha!) in The Godfather: “He’s not a wartime consigliere.”

Good luck General Hayden in your dealings with “the fools on the hill.”

Nuke Iran.

ADD ANOTHER ONE TO THE GOOD GUY LIST

, originally uploaded by gpj631.

Although I usually blast Hollywood type (mainly because they are sooooo clueless) as many as make the news for being assholes, there’s that many again doing the right thing. Witness actor Gary Sinise of “CSI: New York” and “Forrest Gump” fame (among his other roles).

Sinise’s Lt. Dan Band, named after his Forrest Gump character who loses his legs in Viet Nam, opened it’s second America Supports You tour at the Pentagon yesterday (May 5). Sinise and the band had just returned from a tour of Afghanistan.

For the complete story go HERE

IT’S JUST GOLF, BUT STILL A FIRST

Michelle Wie was tied for 17th at a five-under-par 139 after two rounds, on the Asian Tour's SK Telecom Open. She shot a three-under 69 Friday to make the cut by five strokes.

No female has made the cut on the PGA Tour since Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Tucson Open.

The SK Telecom Open is the eighth men's pro event for Wie, who has played in four PGA Tour events and has competed on the Japan, Nationwide and Canadian tours, missing the 36-hole cut in all seven tournaments.

She also draws 1000 people a hole to watch, and is cheered on as “Big Sister.”

IGNORING THE JUSTIFICATION OF HIS JOB

Thank God for La-La-Land or I wouldn’t have anything to talk about on this fine spring morning.

According to a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr., it was time to put some teeth into a 1991 injunction, in which he ruled that having the cross on city-owned land violated the state constitution.

Coming up with the original thought and misinterpretation of the first Amendment, he ordered the city of San Diego to remove the cross from atop Mount Soledad within 90 days or face a $5,000-per-day fine.

Solemnly swearing to tell the truth, so help him God …

And they wonder why religious whackos shoot constitutional interpretist whackos who wear black robes. Oh well, better California than here, bringing new meaning to NIMBY.

Indy 500 TIME

Indy 500, originally uploaded by gpj631.

The 90th running of the Indianapolis 500 will be on ABC starting at 1 pm on May 28. What can you expect? Well, last month during open testing Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon ran a lap at 226.012 mph in his No. 9 Honda-powered Dallara. Marlboro Team Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. was second quickest with a lap of 225.355 followed by last year’s winner Dan Wheldon with a 224.450), 2005 Bombardier Rookie of the Year Danica Patricks Rayhall-Letterman Honda Panoz at 223.656 (who came in fourth at Indy last year) and Kosuke Matsuura in the Panasonic Honda Dalarra at 223.650. The NASCAR crew is running at Richmond,, Darlington the first two weekends of May, then some Open racing on the third week and the Coca Cola 600 at Lowes on May 28 at 5:30. All the races are evening or night races.

LOAD WEAPON, POINT, PULL TRIGGER

The darling of the liberal and anti-war-on-terror set, and famed Al Qaida operative, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, apparently has a difficult time operating a SAW, wears New Balance sneakers (the better to run … New Balance…we want a commercial!!) and is as inept a combat troop as one would think. Plus, although he wears a suicide vest, it looks suspiciously inoperable.

A video of this “great warrior” appeared on the Internet last week, but the outtakes were taken in a raid in Iraw by US military and released yesterday.

Here’s a PRINT SUMMARY and here’s ANOTHER ONE .

Here’s a video clip of the ABC NEWS OUT TAKES and here is the FOX NEWS OUT TAKES

Both start with commercials and I think the Fox video is clearer, or at least it was on my screen (plus the Fox commercial is shorter, though, artistically, the ABC commercial is more interesting. All that has absolute nothing to do with this, needless to say).

FIRST TIME OUT

Don’t know how many of you remember this, but — like a lot of my generation — this is what got first got me interested in the space program — and then in a bit of a convuluted way, the sea.

Anyway … it was May 5, 1961 when Commander Alan Shepard Jr. made the first U.S. manned space flight. The flight of Freedom 7 (aka Mercury 3) lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds and reached an altitude of 116.5 statute miles with a velocity of 5,134 mph.

EXCELLENT COAST GUARD VIDEO

Leaving Base 47, originally uploaded by gpj631.

Being I’ve written about the US Coast Guard ATON teams, icebreaker crews, Motor Life Boat School and the CG Auxiliary (not to mention the US Life Saving Service, the CG’s forerunner) for various magazines I figured this is worth bringing to your attention.

A very good COAST GUARD VIDEO .

Semper Paratus.

PHONY HEROES

This really pisses me off. There’s a story at MILITARY.COM about the proliferation of phony CMH winners. With 113 living CMH awardees, apparently the imposters outnumber the real ones.

The problem's bad enough that it has prompted such groups as The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation to lobby for tougher laws to punish the impostors.

"There are more and more of these impostors, and they are literally stealing the valor and acts of valor of the real guys," said Agent Tom Cottone, who also works on an FBI violent crime squad in West Paterson, N.J.

Click on the Military.Com link above for the full story.

MOHAMMED CARTOONS REDUX

Although I hate to flog a dead horse — or camel as it was — if you’d like to see some cartoons that DIDN'T make the Danish newspapers (that caused every sheep-loving Muslim around to go apocalyptic) check out this COLLECTION .

Yee-HAH.

Oh, and Bomb Iran.

AND YET ANOTHER SNAFU

300px-AAAV, originally uploaded by gpj631.

The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is the newest USMC amphibious vehicle, intended for deployment in 2008. It is an amphibious armored personnel carrier able to transport a full Marine rifle squad to shore. It will — well. It’s supposed to — maneuver cross-country with an agility and mobility equal to or greater than the M1 Abrams. It is designed to replace the aging AAV, and is the Marine Corps' number one priority ground weapon system acquisition. It has three times the speed and about twice the armor of the AAV and accounts for 25.5% of the Corp’s total acquisition budget for fiscal years 2006 to 2011.

Sounds good, right?

Yeah, well, the Government Accountability Office just released a study they did on this puppy. The price has increased 45% since December 2000, unit costs have increased from $8.5 million to $12.3 million, the program schedule has grown 35% and the — get this — reliability requirement has dropped from 70 hours of continuous operation to 43.5 hours.

Oh yeah, this’ll come in on time.

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE AND IT IS YESTERDAY

This sort of falls in the better-late-than-never category.

You’ve probably been hearing about video on demand on computers for a while now — not a terribly long time, but for a while. Well I finally got a chance to see what it is like.

Those of you who are into sailing will like the material that T2P is producing and all you have to do is click on the VIDEO to see what's showing on this site. There’s a pay feature for full-screen presentations and a free subscription for the small-screen video. It’s very neat.

JIM THE MILKSHAKE MAN

Veterans recently honored the real-life volunteer introduced to 75 million Doonesbury readers as JIM THE MILKSHAKE MAN for his bedside visits to wounded vets at the Army's Walter Reed hospital.

Jim Mayer was recognized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for his 500th peer visit. It is called a peer visit because Mayer, like many of the war-wounded veterans in hospital beds, lost his legs in a land mine explosion in Vietnam. Besides the occasional milkshake, Mayer brings to their bedside a message of hope based on lessons learned since his own traumatic injuries 37 years ago.

“Jim the Milkshake Man,” appears as a character in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury book “The Long Road Home; One Step at a Time,” that chronicles the post-amp story of the comic strip’s resident warrior, B.D.

GOOD ARMY STORY

Gordon Roberts was just a Spec 4 in 1969 when he earned the MOH for an operation in Thua Thien Province, but today, after quite some time NOT in the military, he’s Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Roberts and was the OIC of 1st COSCOM at Camp Anaconda, Balad, Iraq.

This is quite an interesting tale. Read the entire story HERE .