Meh. That is the theme for this morning. Just don’t say we have a case of today…
Don’t say it.
Not sure sloopy or I have anything to say about the sports side of news, other than “meh”, maybe “bah!”…maybe even “feh”. So we are just going to skip that part, OK? So you get links….links of meh.
I was going to do a theme for today’s links. But I ended up stumped. So you get a lovely potpourri of links! … OK, how about a mess of unrelated links? Yeah…that is more honest. But, whatever you call them, here they are for your enjoyment, ignoring or whatnot.
A heartwarming story of “team” for the holiday season!
Admit it…you ARE going to click on a story headlined “YouTube singer’s teenage gang of skull-masked moped robbers are jailed for 13 years for targeting commuters in string of knife-point thefts” aren’t you?
NOTE: I didn’t put any links to Flynn-a-palooza, since I am observing the 48 hour rule. But feel free to bat the story around in the comments, should you desire.
SUPER BONUS FEATURE!!!! BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT! STEVE SMITH GEAR.
A standard, thumbsucker piece found in many magazines and newspapers is the “What I am thankful for this year” where columnists can simply punt, get in a sneer at their opponents disguised as being thankful, and make sure everyone knows about their kids/grandkids or whatever else they are under pressure to publicize.
Everyone is checking glibertarians.com!
Why should Glibertarians be any different?
So we have invited the Glibs to put in a brief “what they are thankful for”, and you, our commentariat, should use the comments section to put in yours.
I full expect multiple entries in the following categories – alcohol, weed, thicc, porn, meat, manly/bear/otterness, deep dish pizza and favorite sports teams not sucking (does not apply to Swiss Servator) Do not disappoint us!
NOTE: Not an actual depiction of Swiss Servator from the 2003-2009 timeframe.
Swiss Servator:
I am grateful the Swiss keep giving me a paycheck twice a month, my kids manage to move forward in life, my wife hasn’t had enough of me and put strychnine in my coffee. Oh and for all of you rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.
When Reason’s Hit & Run went a swirling around the bowl, I thought I was going to lose the community of all you. That would have been double plus ungood. So proschtli to all of you.
STEVE SMITH:
STEVE SMITH GRATEFUL FOR FAMILY – ESPECIALLY COUSIN SEA SMITH AND UNCLE MAPINGUARI. FRIENDS – THE JERSEY DEVIL, LOCH NESS MONSTER AND WENDIGO. ALSO GRATEFUL FOR FUNNY GLIBERTARIAN PEOPLE, WHO GET LINKS. BUT MOST OF ALL, STEVE SMITH GRATEFUL FOR TIME WITH HIKERS, CAMPERS, LOST PEOPLE AND PARK RANGERS. BY TIME WITH, MEAN RAPE.
Riven
I guess there’s really a lot to be grateful for: my health and ability to be productive, Mr. Riven and our pup and the home we’ve made together, my family who has always given me unconditional support in my endeavors, just living in a nation that values individual liberty and property rights, this place and all of you (yes, seriously, you. You might think I don’t mean you, personally, but I do), the other founders who I consider some of the best friends I’ve ever had or will have, the free market that allows me my favorite “vice” despite its questionable legal status, plus all the other wondrous things that only capitalism makes possible.
Lastly, I am grateful for this post; I’ve recently had a slew of unforeseen, high-dollar expenses and, overall, just wasn’t feeling that grateful or thankful until I stopped to think about the blessings and truly fortunate circumstances I have in my life.
Sloopyinca:
I am grateful for a benevolent God that granted me free will. I am grateful for a loving wife and children that make every day on this earth a blessing. I am grateful for my parents and siblings who have been supportive of me and my sometimes curious behavior. I am grateful for the friends that I have, who have filled the voids in my life that my family cannot fill. I am grateful for all of the people that came together to set up and run this site, as well as those who frequent it. You guys are the absolute best people anywhere on the internet and my life would be less full without you. I’m also grateful for the golf course superintendent and pro at my club for doing a bang-up job of getting it back together in the aftermath of Harvey. And lastly, I’m thankful for The Ohio State Buckeyes, who better beat the piss out of that team up north in two days and five minutes after this is posted. O-H…
Happy Thanksgiving, SIV!
SP:
I’m most thankful for OMWC, who always believes. Everything else is (tasty, vegetarian) gravy.
ZARDOZ:
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ HAS LIFTED YOU UP FROM COMMENTING BRUTALITY. ZARDOZ HAD A SHITSTORM OF A YEAR – FIRST THERE WAS LABOR TROUBLE WITH THE TABERNACLE, THEN AFTER FINDING NEW WORK AS A DRUG MULE, ZARDOZ GOT HOOKED – HAD TO QUIT AND DRY OUT. THEN ZARDOZ LOST THE DREAMS OF STOCK RACING AND COUNTRY MUSIC. BUT ZARDOZ MADE NEW FRIENDS; STEVE SMITH, THE SERVER SQUIRRELS, HIS CHOSEN ONES AND THE BRUTALS DOWN AT THE GRAIN ELEVATOR ZARDOZ DELIVERS TO. ALL IN ALL, ZARDOZ IS PLEASED. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Old Man With Candy:
Not surprisingly, I am most thankful for SP. After two disastrous marriages, it was a complete revelation to have found a life partner who was actually hyper-intelligent, honest, resourceful, kind, protective, creative, talented, thoughtful, and… well… she’s an actual libertarian and built this site (which I will note is remarkably squirrel-free). She puts up with me, my not-easy-to-live-with hobbies, my friends, and my penis. After ten years together, I have not been strangled in my sleep, which says much about her tolerance.
I am thankful for all of you, who turned the Glibertarians from a goofy idea to a real community, where I can always count on getting laughs, find interesting insights, and meet wonderful people who share my values. I am, for once, not being sarcastic when I say that we have the most interesting, intelligent, articulate, and widest-ranging comments section on the internet. The in-jokes and memes are terrific, and you’ve been amazingly supportive. You folks are wonderful, and I think of all of you as my friends, not just random strangers banging away on keyboards.
I am grateful for my family and kids, learning how hard it is to write a weekly feature, and the shit-lords and -ladies who don’t read my links. And also for the community built here. You may all be reprobates who would never get elected dogcatcher, but I love the community.
OK, I don’t want to say I was coughing a lot last night but, my wife was walking up to me with a tear in her eye, a tank of CO, a hose and mask set up, and a copy of an instruction manual by Jack Kevorkian – I feebly waved her away and am still here to give you some links.
The Wheels of Justice grind slowly….hopefully they will grind this guy into dust.
We’ll have to see how this works out – take a look, San Francisco.
I caught a lovely respiratory infection just before my trip. Home remedies of fantastic Texas BBQ (if you can ever go here, do so!) and a bigly amount of beer didn’t cure it, so I surrendered and went to the clinic right after getting home. Oh, and I hurt my trapezius right before all this, by lifting in a very non-Warty fashion. So every cough hurt like @#$%. The muscle relaxants I got are nice and all, but I cannot work (or post links) while taking them. So, a very First World bitching on my part, as I have antibiotics and stuff for the ouch.
I do have to share one joke from BBG CON – Q: What do you call a 3XL T-Shirt? A: A boardgamer’s medium!
So here are you links, with no further squeaking on my part.
This was his rifle. There were many like it, but this one was his.
I wonder if this will have more impact than a Streets and Sanitation strike? TW: Jezebel (they are still publishing?)
Florida Man Juvenile decides to act stupidly in an area where cops are already on hair trigger alert because of a serial killer.
I am going to be even more of a Geek this week….I will be gone, down at BoardGameGeek CON in the DFW area. So, here are my parting links for the rest of the week…and one more *narrows gaze* for the lot of ye, while I am out.
A great success for Socialism! Take THAT h8ers!!!!! Wait…wut? Oh, I mean, a shame about state capitalism sucking like that. /Prog
And in stories drawing the attention of OMWC…Howzabout those French, eh?
TEH SCIENCE IS SETTLED! I await the ratings of our various man-watching Glibs (TW: Brits).
Tax bill shitstorm a forming? *readies tranquilizer darts*
From the FLORIDAMAN files….Hey, caught a square grouper!
Two and a half years after coming home from Afghanistan (and 4 months later, getting sent to New Orleans after Katrina) I was called back up, in 2007, to go to Iraq. This was displeasing. I had anticipated returning to Afghanistan in 2009. This was early, and I knew some Dari and had a good understanding of how Afghanistan worked (or didn’t). I didn’t know Arabic, and I had just started working for my Swiss Overseers a few months earlier.
“We finally get to leave Fort Riley?!”
But, I made the best of it I could. I crammed Arabic for a couple of months, and learned as much as I could ahead of time. One small advantage I had was that a decent amount of my work for my B.A. and M.A. was in Middle Eastern History. So I had some idea of the big doo-doo pile I was about to step into as an “adviser” to the Iraqi army. A bit of extra training and I got dumped off with the Iraqi Army 10th Division.
Luxury facilities at Tallill, Iraq
Oh boy. This was going to be work, but at least it was only moderately dangerous in their Area of Operations (not counting the 3 KIA we had the first week I was there). That lasted 3 weeks. The Iraqis had gotten sick of not controlling the second largest city in their country, and decided to do something about it. It was pretty much an Iraqi show, but the US decided it would at least lend them a bit of air support, some Special Forces to advise their Iraqi counterparts…and me.
I was taken from the 10th Division, and sent to go “help” the Iraqi Army 14th Division. They needed help. They were a relatively new unit, and had just finished initial training and were not fully equipped yet. But the knucklehead in charge, Iraqi 3 star General Mohan, launched them into the the fray immediately. One brigade saw a lot of its members walk away, since they were from Basrah itself, to go home and take care of business there. Fortunately, the Iraqi 1st Division (some serious killers) and a brigade of National Police (similar to European Gendarmes) as well a tank unit had been sent down too.
The other forces in the area were British, as this was their area…on the map. They had pretty much given up trying, had handed over “military control” to the Iraqis and were huddled in in their base at the airport. However, they did have a team of advisers with the 14th Division. So, I jumped out to join them and “advise”.
Thank you for flying the RAF. Welcome to Mahmud al-Kasim.
In the meantime, the Iraqis had gotten serious. They kicked Mohan upstairs to the “Basrah Operations Command”and put a general in charge of the 14th who had been to both the US and Australian Staff Colleges. He was a good leader, who was angry about how his troops had been handled, and their equipment and support. The Prime Minister and the Interior Minister showed up and suddenly red tape vanished – units could get fuel, ammo, whatever they were short. They even brought some more police with them.
I am not sure we can fix that one….dragged back from downtown Basrah, eh?
All I had to worry about was the $&%#ing Jaish al-Mahdi’s version of Davey Crockett blowing me up with a 107mm rocket. He got really close. But he still missed, in the end (I think one night after the nearest miss, someone asked where the Hell was that large bell was that had just rung…I explained that it was no bell, just my sphincter slamming shut so hard it sounded like one). The Iraqis kicked the Jaish al-Mahdi’s ass, and their Iranians handlers too. When the first three prisoners were brought in, I asked why I couldn’t understand anything they said. The Iraqi soldiers looked at me and said “They are speaking Farsi, they are Persians” (The Iraqis always called them ‘Persians’, never Iranians). Whoopsie. Oh, and up yours, IRGC!
I was really, really tired, after going through a lot of 16 hour days – but the end of this phase was in sight. So, a Brit officer and I huddled up with the staff of the 14th DIV and asked what was next. The Iraqis said they were going to chase the baddies out of the last part of town they held – and it was close to the only available bridge across the Euphrates. I was as pleased as Zardoz directing a brutal hunt.
We set up a plan where the Iraqis would drop a company by helicopter on the far side of the river, and set up strong points at both ends of the bridge across the river. I told the 14th DIV CoS (Chief of Staff ) that they could trap every one of the bad guys, and make them surrender, or be killed. He agreed it would work, and I shuffled off to sleep.
“Heading into town. Got Jaish al-Mahdi to beat down.”
The next morning I went to the DIV HQ to see how things were going. The staff looked pleased, and the Brigadier I had talked with smiled. I asked him how things were going and he said “Good, they are all running away!” I was a bit bemused. As we had blocked the bridge, where were they running? “Oh, we let them go. They are running to the Persian side.” I about has a stroke on the spot. Did we not plan to BLOCK them from getting away?! What was the Division doing, letting them get away to Iran?!
While I was asking this, apparently I had gotten a bit … excited. I realized that I had backed the Iraqi General almost literally into a corner of his office. He had his hands up a bit and was saying “They are finished, it is no problem!” And I was urging him to kill every one of them because they would be back, causing trouble. I was trying to perpetuate a junior version of the Marianas Turkey Shoot.
The Iraqis took the word of Americans quite seriously. We had booted their asses, hard, a couple of times in the past 15 years, and they respected our opinions. Here I was urging slaughter of the fleeing enemy…and the Iraqi CoS said “no”. I calmed down, pretty quick once I realized what I was doing. I told the general “it is your country, I hope you do not have to deal with them later.” I saluted, and I left.
Greetings from scenic Camp Wessam!
I often wonder if I had badgered him into calling the strong points and saying “light ’em up”…It would have been triple digit KIAs at the least – and despite the guys running away, we had killed a few dozen. It bothered me for years. It also took me years to tell anyone. I finally told my most trusted buddy, an NCO who I had previously been with in Afghanistan (after a few whiskies, I spilled it out – oh, and you should have heard what he ended up telling me!) and my pastor at church. Now, I can reflect back on this and only wince a bit.
I think it says something sort of good about the US Army that I managed to reel it in, before pushing it too far. And for that, I will toast Brigadier Baseem today, and his backbone…and that I did manage to rein it in, in the end.
Happy Veteran’s Day, Glibs. I am off to the local tap room for a couple of strong ones.
