Category: Old Dish

“YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, April 27 – The man who would be president takes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – on whole wheat, strawberry jelly preferred to grape – twice a day on the campaign trail. He wears $15 reading glasses, off the rack at CVS. Before bedtime, he starts but rarely finishes movies like “Seabiscuit” and “The Blues Brothers” in his hotel suite. Come morning, he leaves $20 for the maid.” – now receiving entries from some desperate liberal journalists trying to rescue the fast-flailing Kerry campaign (or grease a major source, as Jodi Wilgoren is obviously doing here.

A horrifying turn of events.

A CNN reporter is embedded with the Marines in Fallujah. His impressions:

I have spoken to a lot [of Marines] who have been engaged in some of these firefights. In fact, I was in one of the combat surgical rooms where they were working on a couple of these guys.

Two of them had been ambushed, not where the main fight is going on tonight, but their unit had been ambushed east of Fallujah. And seven people rolled in. There were two that had gunshot wounds. And they pulled a huge slug, a bullet, out of the leg of one of the Marines. And another one had a bullet wound right through the back.

And, amazingly, they were trying to convince their commanders that they were ready to go and go back out. I have been really surprised at … the high degree of morale that these Marines have shown. Remember, they have only been here for a month and a half. Many of these units that are here now engaged in the initial invasion last year and were in Iraq for several months.

Now they’re back. But they seem to be engaged. They’re taking casualties. But it’s really surprising. You don’t see much head-dragging or anything like that. I mean, you know, what you see is kind of more encouragement for these guys.

And, for example, the one who had the gravest — the bullet in and out through his back — was trying to convince his commander that he’d be back. And his commander actually promised him that his spot was still going to be there. Another soldier who was injured in that huge firefight yesterday who I spoke to earlier this morning, he wanted to get back out there. But the only problem was, was that half his shoulder was missing around his firing arm.

But he was convinced he would be able to sit there on a roof and not have to run anywhere and he could contribute that way. So it’s been surprising. But … the Marines that are here certainly appear to be geared up for whatever the future holds.

The proud. The few. Pray for them.

GOOD NEWS IN IRAQ: From Kurdistan, of course. But Kurdistan matters for the future of Iraq – just as much as Fallujah.

MARRIAGE REALITY: “Sunday’s New York Times displayed the hypocrisy and hilarity of our nation’s marriage laws. While the paper ran a front-page story on Governor Romney’s position that he will prohibit same-sex couples residing outside Massachusetts from marrying there, it also included two particularly entertaining wedding announcements. Serving up a diptych of dysfunction, the Times Styles section prominently displayed the Massachusetts wedding of former GE-CEO Jack Welch and Suzy Wetlaufer right alongside the New York marriage of Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi.
Not to pick on Welch and Rushdie, but these two bald, past-their-prime alpha males, who between them have left five wives in their wake, are not exactly poster-children for the sanctity of marriage. The facts are well-tread. This is Welch’s third marriage, to a much-younger fellow divorcee, with whom he struck up an affair after being interviewed by her, only to be caught by his second wife after finding “love e-mails” in his in-box. Rushdie wed for the fourth time, to a knockout-of-a-woman twenty-five years his junior, for whom he supposedly dumped his third wife for after reading about her in a celebrity magazine and then meeting her at the Talk Magazine launch party.
Now does Mitt Romney (on whose commonwealth’s books Welch’s indiscretion was sanctified) or George Pataki (whose state’s laws consecrated Rushdie’s folly) honestly believe that these “marriages” are any more legitimate than the ones that gay couples want to have? How exactly does Jack and Suzy’s union serve to reinforce the culture of marriage? Does Salman, with nearly as many wives as novels, understand the responsibilities of matrimony better than gay men and women yearning to embrace that responsibility?
Absurd is the only way to describe the intellectual dishonesty of our state and national leaders on this issue.” Absurd is a kind description, actually. More feedback on the Letters Page.

A very interesting and illuminating blog account of Marine tactics in Fallujah. So far, so good. Money quote:

Mortensen’s earlier story indicated the Marines were returning to positions north; since it is known that they already hold positions south it seems clear that the enemy is now squeezed from two sides and is probably contained in the northeast corner of Fallujah, an area full of meandering streets and mosques. The enemy would prefer a linear American advance, hoping as in the case of Jenin, to mine buildings and blow them up as Americans occupy them. Not wanting to oblige, the USMC is mounting relatively small probes forcing the enemy to react. The current Marine strategy is ripping up the mobile defense. The company plus unit which attacked the platoon is probably no more. However, it will not be long before the enemy must retreat into a continuous perimeter, as his manpower dwindles to the point where a mobile defense is no longer viable. The remaining enemy forces are probably in the battalion plus range. And then the ghost of the Shuri line will rear up, in which there were no other option but to go directly into the teeth of the defense. The density of the defense displayed in the recent encounter may mean that time is near.

I haven’t read anything as insightul as this in the mainstream press. I have a feeling that this battle will be studied for years. Worth starting to get a grip on it now.

As David Brooks noticed today, these two cities contain the entire future of the attempt to break the back of Islamist terror and Muslim autocracy. Right now, they’re the only stories that really matter.

KERRY AND CUBA: Another confusing, politically self-defeating mess.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY: “I’m more old-fashioned than a lot of women … I don’t view abortion as just a nothing. It is stopping the process of life.” – Teresa Heinz Kerry, in an astonishing puff-piece/Kerry campaign ad in alleged “newsmagazine,” Newsweek. You realize just how completely in Kerry’s tank the editors are when you read the small side-bar on Kerry’s former aggrieved wife, Julia Thorne. Annulment? What annulment?

MARRIAGE WATCH: A wedding dress goes on eBay. Put up there by the groom. His comments:

I found my ex-wife’s wedding dress in the attic when I moved. She took the $4000 engagement ring but left the dress. I was actually going to have a dress burning party when the divorce became final, but my sister talked me out of it. She said, “That’s such a gorgeous dress. Some lucky girl would be glad to have it. You should sell it on EBay. At least get something back for it.” So, this is what I’m doing. I’m selling it hoping to get enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer. This dress cost me $1200 that my drunken sot of an ex-father-in-law swore up and down he would pay for but didn’t so I got stuck with the bill. Luckily I only got stuck with his daughter for 5 years. Thank the Lord we didn’t have kids. If they would have turned out like her or her family I would have slit my wrists. Anyway, it’s a really nice dress as you can see in the pictures. Personally, I think it looks like a $1200 shower curtain, but what do I know about this.

Actually, I think it looks fabulous. And that has nothing to do with the Vicodin I’m on.

POO-POO PLATTER: An online compendium of toilet humor. I’m trying really hard not to laugh these days (it hurts like hell). But you might feel like a break.

But I can’t blog on percaset. I just took the last one, tho. See you in a bad mood tomorrow. If I can sit down.

My pre-op take on “Plan of Attack.”

Say your piece here, if you wish. Sorry for the low blogging rate. It’s getting easier but tough to walk around and sit at a computer. Back tomorrow. Promise.

Somewhat under-estimated the recovery time from these hernia ops. Will try and blog later Monday. Meanwhile, on a far more serious note, all I can say is that I am, like countless others, heart-broken by Pat Tillman’s death. May he rest in peace.

An email worth reading:

“In reading articles marking 10 years since the end of South Africa apartheid, I was struck by the similarities between that country’s struggle since liberation and the current struggle since the liberation of Iraq. Likewise, I was struck by the relative silence of the left on the real problems South Africa has faced in the past 10 years.
In the early 1990’s, the movement against apartheid was one of the most passionate cause of the American left. The struggle for freedom is South Africa ended on April 27th 1994 when over 90% of the people of that country went to the polls to elect the first democratic government the country had ever seen. Since that time, South Africa has been one of the most, if not the most, dangerous place to live on the planet.
In 1998 for instance, South Africa led the world with a recorded 59 murders per hundred thousand citizens (source: Interpol). By comparison, the United States had 6 per hundred thousand that year; England had 1, France 4, and Russia 21. The closest to South Africa was Colombia, with 56.
Presently, although crime seems to have abated, the country is still racked with problems. An estimated 20.1% of the population has AIDS, 50% of the population is below the poverty line, and 37% of the population is unemployed. The current life expectancy is 46.56 years.
Now, very few people on any side of the political spectrum would argue that South Africa was “better off” under apartheid. Yet, those that oppose our war in Iraq often bitterly complain that the Iraqis are not better off. Both countries, when liberated, were coming from oppressive governments with people unaccustomed to the democratic process. It has taken ten years to get South Africa to the still troubled, but gradually improving, state it is currently in. Why is so much expected of Iraq so quickly? Apparently, the left’s criterion for democratic progress is a double standard.”

More feedback from the smartest readers on the web here.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY I: “In Iraq our national security interests and our national values converge. Iraq is truly the test of a generation, for America and for our role in the world. Faced with similar challenges, previous generations of Americans have passed such tests with honor. It is now our turn to demonstrate that our power, ennobled by our principles, is the greatest force for good on earth today. Iraq’s transformation into a secure democracy and a force for freedom in the greater Middle East is the calling of our age. We can succeed. We must succeed.” – Senator John McCain, getting it right, again.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY II: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the president – should he be Catholic – how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.” – John F. Kennedy, the nemesis of theocons everywhere.