baldilocks

Thank You

I'm back in the saddle again.

Thank you: David, Carol, Karen, Rich, Jennifer, Bryan and James.

Don't forget: I'll be on the Ed Morrissey Show today at 5 4 Eastern, 1 Pacific, to talk about my projects. You can also catch it on USTREAM.

Now. Let's see what trouble I can get into before that.

Of course, the campaign is still going on.

Go Fund Me

(Thanks to Maetenloch at Ace of Spades HQ. Love those folks!)

One of the Best Things About Election Day 2010

I predicted it!

Congratulations, Representative-elect Allen West.

The Day by Day Crew Reads Tale of The Tigers: Finale

 

Chris Muir’s Day-by-Day Cartoon Strip concerns itself mostly with political topics.  But its main characters, Zed, Sam, Damon and Jan--white, Asian, black and Hispanic--demonstrate what America is by their love and friendship. 

It’s one of those serendipitous occurrences that my novel, a book featuring several relationships between Americans of different races, fits perfectly with Chris’s characters. And it’s one of those blessed occurrences that Chris reached out to me to put my book in his characters’ hands.

Never underestimate the power of faith and love.

The Day by Day Crew Reads Tale of the Tigers: Men and Women

Day by Day

Tale of the Tigers

Book and Solvency Report

Knock and the door shall be opened.

Here is today’s Tale of the Tigers/keep Ochieng off the pole dole report:

32 books sold at the Tale of the Tigers site;

48 dead tree books and 122 Kindle Editions sold at the commercial booksellers site;

And the donations combined for a total of: $4,177.

There have been some very generous donations—not just in amount, but in value.  Then, there have been the intangibles like Chris Muir’s series at Day by Day--and there has been the love and the encouragement.

BTW; any monetary donations received over the goal of $10,000 will go here.

The Day by Day Crew Reads Tale of the Tigers

Day by Day

by

Chris Muir

A Good Morning (UPDATE)

A quick report: 23 books sold from the Tale of the Tigers website, $2,100 in sales and donations, 74 Kindle Editions sold (the price is right!) and an untold number of copies sold at Amazon!  I've got books to autograph and send, thank-you notes to send out and some blogging to do.  This is my kind of morning!

UPDATE: Amazon rank was 270K+ this morning; now it's down to 2,732...it's overwhelming...

On Love,Taking a Stand, and Clear Vision (UPDATE)

After you give your life to God, when He commands you to stand, you have no choice.

--Glenn Beck

It was a joy and a privilege to watch Glenn Beck, Marcus Lutrell, Alveda King, Bishop Harry Jackson, and hundreds of thousands of others as they stood to remind the government that our rights are a free gift from God and that no man or government of men may insert its being in between that providential connection.  Like all who love liberty, I would have found it a blessing to have attended, but other responsibilities took precedence.

However, during my morning reading and prayer, it “occurred” to me—again--to ask God what His will is for my life.  I wanted to know what I was or wasn’t doing that is against His will.  Was there something I needed to do more of?  Had I failed to say ‘how high’ when God told me to jump?  Every person still breathing has an assigned mission, whether it be great or small.

After admitting publically that I had had an abortion, I received many compliments for my courage and honesty, but I felt neither courageous nor particularly honest.  It wasn’t false humility; it was simply a feeling that there was more—as if there was something else I needed to face.  And there was.

The accolades I received for that admission were watered down by a very sobering state of affairs in my life.  The one person from whom I needed love and support has, because of my confession, repeatedly ridiculed me for it--seeming to want to induce shame in me for being so public.  The irony contained therein is that, prior to my admission, I had avoided blogging about abortion due to the shame I had felt for doing away with my own child.  Admitting it publicly was an attempt to free myself from that shame and it was done in the hope that at least one young woman reading would realize that she did not have to be the fool that I had been.

Abortion was my greatest shame and, though my eternal guilt has been washed away by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Savior, its earthly effects have been extremely painful, spiritually and emotionally—the consciousness of sin and the regret at committing a form of suicide. 

The interesting part is this: when God opens your eyes, your spiritual vision is 20-20.  The person who wants me to feel shame for my admission once claimed to love me.  But, my being continues to be shaped by God and when He says, “Stand,” I have no choice.  And what I’ve had to face is this: anyone who would ridicule me and attempt to provoke shame from me for my obedience to the Lord cannot possibly love me.

Even more interesting is the realization that when you are doing what you know is morally correct in the sight of God—when you take a stand in the name of Jesus Christ—any chastisement you receive is an indication that you are on the right path.  Additionally, the source of that chastisement will give you a clear window into the soul of that source.  Be sure to pray for that soul, however.

In Glenn Beck’s decidedly pastoral address on the Mall in Washington, DC, the emphasis was on Restoring Honor.  The primary recipient of our honor as individual human beings is to God and is simply outlined in Mark 12:30-31; each human being is commanded to love God with an entire heart, and with full mental power and to love one’s neighbor as self.  Love is the variant of honor that should constantly pour from our being—the highest type of honor.

For the longest time, I did not understand what it meant to love God, this incorporeal being.  But how does one love a sentient earthly being?  We communicate.  We talk to that person and, most importantly, we listen to them and when we do this, we trust that the communication consists of truth—we extend good faith to our beloved.  (And we show love by rejoicing in our beloved’s happiness and comforting him in his pain.  And we never, never, never ridicule our beloved when he reveals his soul.)

With God, loving Him has an extra component, of course.  Since He’s omnipotent and omniscient, we show our love to Him by doing what He commands and trusting that the commandments of a loving God are meant for good.  We extend to God the ultimate in Good Faith.

After talking to Him (praying in the name of Jesus Christ) and listening to Him (reading the Word), we do what He puts in our hearts, in spite of any earthly consequences.  We take a stand.

So my eyes are open and my vision is clear.  I will continue to stand for the unborn and the murdered.

And I will remember that true love is (Holy) spiritual.

UPDATE: Though the story seems sad, I feel set free; very happy and peaceful. Peace is what I prayed for.  It's a great birthday gift.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Tale of the Tigers: Book Release Party

Buy, Donate, Read, Review.  Details below the fold.

Another Repeat!

Congratulations to the 2010 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers.  I know you hate them, but I can't.  Call them family. 

And, yes, it's a little loud out there!

Moving the Product (UPDATED)

Tale of the Tigers: Now available via Kindle!

The first autograph-able copies are due to arrive at my house today.  Cross all digits.

*****

Nashville Red Cross

UPDATE: They're here!!!

  For all of the early adopters, they'll be in the mail tomorrow morning.  Thank you for believing in me! And as a sort of testimonial, I gifted my great-aunt and our neighbor--who has known me since I was a toddler--their copies and they began to read.  Do you know how tough it is to silence a pair of seasoned-citizen black ladies? Tale of the Tigers managed to do that.

Keep the good people at Lightning Source (the printers) and all other Tennesseans in your prayers, please.

(Thanks to Lamar)

Practice Evil Capitalism

If not now, when?

Tale of the Tigers is now available at Amazon, at Barnes & Noble and at Books-a-Million.

However, you can still buy it at the Tale of the Tigers website.

For those who pre-ordered the autographed copies, they will arrive at my house this week.  I will email you when they get here, sign them and then get them in the mail to you that same day or the following business morning.

And check out the Tale of the Tigers Facebook fan page!

It Won't Be Long Now

Yes, the end is near, buyers of my novel, Tale of the Tigers. I received my first proof of the book today via UPS.

Words cannot adequately describe what it's like to hold one's first novel in one's hand; it is beautiful. I've never had a baby...

There are a few issues with it, but none that can't easily be resolved, so watch this space and others for the announcement.

(Thanks to Lamar)

Black Conservatives on Glenn Beck Show (UPDATED)

My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, but I can't wait to see this on the rerun of the Glenn Beck Show tonight.

(Thanks to Booker Rising)

UPDATE:

Time to be Heard, Part 1

You can view the rest of the videos here.

(Thanks to African American Conservatives)

Happy Birthday to the United States Marines

and Semper Fidelis, older brothers and sisters.

Berlin Wall Tumbled Down

I can’t believe it has been 20 years since I sat here in the USA watching my friends on TV as they scale a previously untouchable Berlin Wall.  I had left what was then West Berlin not a month before.  Talk about the worst timing in the world!

President Obama isn’t in Germany this time—perhaps he thinks that he has traveled to Europe enough for one year—but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is there and appears to be getting on quite well with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (a former East German physicist).

My old Berlin friends and I plan to have our reunion this February, but I think that an adult beverage of choice should be lifted today in honor of those who helped shake the foundation of the Wall and bring it down—including, most notably, one Ronald W. Reagan who, in his famous 1987 visit, exhorted last USSR head of state Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear Down This Wall.” President Reagan seemed to speak the Wall’s destruction into reality. 

It says in the Bible that believers can do that.  I just report.  You decide.™

UPDATE:  President Obama gave a video address for the celebration in Berlin.  Appropriate considering present events, but he was unable to resist making it about him.

“Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it,” Obama said.

Tale of The Tigers

Leftists say that we on the right make things up.  Well, some of us do.

My new novel is entitled Tale of the Tigers!

 

(Click the Image)

I'm taking pre-orders at discount price of $20.00 for the moment--available in 4 to 6 weeks--and I will autograph the first one hundred copies ordered.  It should be available at Amazon by mid November.

Yes, this is the project that has been in the works for longer than I've let on.   But, yanno? There's no time like the present to live one's dreams.

(Thanks to Lamar Powell, author of Bad and Worse: A Tale of Men)

UPDATE:

Thanks for the link, Don Surber.

A Good Illinois Politician

Matt Burden, none other that the ultimate military blogger, Blackfive, is running for the Illinois House of Representatives in the 41st District.

[Click the image for Matt's campaign site]

It's a good thing that he knows a little something about warfare. Show him the money!

Bad and Worse

A very good friend of mine has a novel coming out soon. Don't miss it.

The Family Hero

Private Quinton Ezeagwula, the young soldier who survived the Arkansas terror attack committed by the Islamist Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, is shocked that people are calling him a hero,  but his mother, Sonja Ezeagwula says that he's a good kid who beat the odds in many ways.

She said her son stayed away from gangs and drugs as a youth and was doing something positive. "He was supposed to have been a statistic from a dysfunctional family. Look what happened."

The Ezeagwulas also think the world of the late Private William Long's family and Private Ezeagwula's mother is

"overwhelmed with how much love Americans have for this country. I really am. And I'm glad I got a chance to see it."

She said her family is Christian, "and we believe when something happens, God will turn it around," and good will come of it.

Amen.

Fifteen

UPDATE: Not happy campers: the LAPD.

UPDATE (June 15, 2009): Sigh. For sure did my LAPD motorcycle cop friend have to dispose of another uniform after last night's "celebration."

The Breaking of Murphy's Law

The lesson of Flight 1549: even when things don't go as planned, there's a better chance of coming out alive when you have the right leader.

And then there's always God's providence. But that's all about having the right leader as well.

VI Day

Anniversary

One year without a cigarette.

By the way, I'll be busy again today. And as I've found out, when you leave your comment section un-moderated, some people can't resist taking advantage, so the comments are held. That means that I will allow them to post when I return to the computer.

Comment moderation is like locking your door when you're away from home to keep out those who would move into your house and take advantage. Don't think so? Check out the outrage displayed by a couple of...guests when they discovered that their nasty comments wouldn't post when they wanted them to. It's instructive of a larger mindset--let's call it a "redistributive" mindset.

Later.

UPDATE: One of the persons has apologized.

Thanks

To N. for...

Presents From Home

For the intellectual and the physical; birthday presents from my mom and my American dad.

Thanks, Parental Units!

Humbled

Okay I'm no big star; I just try to take what God gives me and work with it.

For each donation, I send out an individual thank-you note, but I just wanted to send out an Open Declaration of Gratitude to those who have give monetarily and to those (dozen? hundreds?) who have publicized the effort to save the school in Nyang'oma-Kogelo, Kenya. This is it.

Since the non-profit--the 501(c)(3)--has its rules, you won't see any mention of this site at obamaschool.org, but the opposite isn’t true and I will permalink it here in my Special Features section over in the left column.

Additionally, I will keep 'Baldilocks' readers apprised of any big news involving our efforts.

Oh yeah. $4500. You all are the best.

Born in Sudan; Made in the USA

Gotta love this.

BEIJING - Lopez Lomong, a
former Lost Boy of Sudan who spent a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to America, will carry the United States flag during Friday's opening ceremonies in Bird's Nest Stadium.

"This is the most exciting day of my life," said the 23-year-old runner, who will compete in the 1,500 meters. "It's a great honor that my teammates chose to vote for me. The opening ceremony is the best day and the best moment of Olympic life.

"I'm here as an ambassador of my country and I will do everything I can to represent my country well."

Lomong, who fled Sudan at age 6 and was separated from his family, was sent to America after officials read his letter describing what it would mean for him to live there, and resided with a foster family in Tully, N.Y. He became a citizen a year ago last month and made the team by finishing third at the June trials. [SNIP]

"This is another amazing step for me in celebrating being an American."

Thanks, Lopez, for reminding us of how blessed we Americans are.

(Via Newser)

Benchmark Met

KFC in Fallujah (Thanks to Blue Star Chronicles)

UPDATE: US [July] monthly toll in Iraq at lowest since invasion--though still eleven too many.

Obama Kogelo School Update: Non-Profit Done!

UPDATE (September 18, 2009): More is forthcoming about the outcome of this campaign.

Several good, kind readers--including anonymous Milbloggers--come to my rescue, or rather, to the rescue of Obama Kogelo Secondary School Students and the non-profit is created! Now the website is being built at obamaschool.org; I will let everyone know when it goes up.

So the first battle is won, now the second, longer one looms. Stay tuned and please...

UPDATE: Non-Profit name: Save Senator Obama Kogelo School, Inc.

PREVIOUSLY:

Save Obama School: The Site and The Non-profit
Saving Obama School
Raising A Village

UPDATE: Hello, my friends from Hot Air.

How They Spent Their Fourth of July

...and the 21st century's 'Greatest Generation' follows suit: 1,215 troops re-enlist in Baghdad.

“You and your comrades here have been described as America’s new greatest generation, and, in my view, you have more than earned that description,” [MNF-I commander General David] Petraeus said. “It is the greatest of honors to soldier here with you.”

What else need be said?

(Thanks to Hot Air)

What I'm Reading

It was written by Hog on Ice's Steve H. who is an Internet friend and a good guy who links to me and who enjoys it takes it with good humor when I beat up on him rhetorically.

Actually I bought the book a few years back but Steve is asking people to promote it again for whatever reason and I'm happy to do it.

I'm not reading it like one would read some other piece of non-fiction, of course. What I'm probably going to do, however, is pick some dish out of it and cook it for my great-aunt's eighty-seventh birthday tomorrow.

As you can imagine, Aunt A. pretty much eats what she wants at this point, allowing for salt content and dentures. As for me, I will be making my pilgrimage to a base gym tomorrow morning, as I have been doing every morning for the last three weeks, Sundays excepted. So we're throwin' down on Auntie's and the USA's birthday tomorrow.

Any suggestions, Steve?

Happy Father's Day

I'm out in fellowship praising the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Back later.

2008 Lakers Hold to Tradition

Wow. I look away for a minute--or a few years--and Kobe Bryant pulls his head out of his nether regions to put the Lakers back in the NBA Finals!

Out of one of the most competitive Western Conference seasons in NBA history, the Lakers have emerged as its champion.

They beat the San Antonio Spurs, 100-92, tonight at Staples Center in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, winning the series, 4-1.

The Lakers advance to the NBA Finals to face the Eastern Conference champion winner between the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. Game 6 of that series is Friday in Detroit, with the Celtics leading, 3-2.

Actually, after hanging out with Jill Stewart at a Culver City sports bar a couple of weeks ago watching Kobe, Luke Walton, Pau Gasol and company take care of the Utah Jazz, I thought it seemed likely that this new breed was ready to join its legendary predecessors--or at least try.

Nice to see that Kobe has grown up.

Now if the Celtics make it, it'll be like old times!

Rally For Petraeus and Crocker

In Washington DC, Veterans for Freedom put forth a fine display in support of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. Check out 'This Ain't Hell' for some excellent photos, to include those of Blackfive's Uncle Jimbo and TAH's Jonn Lilyea. Now that's how to wage a war! An Information War.

Protesting the Protestors and Double-Think

As MNF-I Commander General David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker prepare to give their post-surge report to a joint session of Congress the Senate Armed Forces and Foreign Relations Committees for tomorrow (dramatically, in front of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama), I am reminded of the publicity stunt which heralded their pre-surge appearance before that same body.

Helping to jar my memory of that example of gutter politics was the fact that, this weekend, Tantor marked the third anniversary of another push-back--the one against CODE PINK's efforts to demoralize injured troops at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC.

It was the spring of 2005 when CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Plymouth UCC, Military Families, Newspaper Guild, Gray Panthers, and OPEIU Local 2 began protesting every Friday night from 8 to 10 PM. They called it a vigil, not a protest, but sh*t by any other name still stinks the same.

The DC Chapter of the Free Republic, outraged at the insensitive and insulting choice of locations and sentiments for this obnoxious protest, decided in March 2005 to counter-protest the Code Pink protest. [SNIP]

The one thing protestors hate is being protested. The Free Republic, "Freeper," counter-protestors have now been out there 154 Friday nights, steadily gaining the advantage over protestors who suffered from disorganization, poor morale, and a bad cause. Code Pink tried the usual radical lefty tricks to counter the Freepers. They screamed in outrage at the dissenters, villified and demonized them, tried to infiltrate them, tried to get the police to suppress them, tried to get the neighborhood to call in complaints against them, et cetera. As usual, the lefties try to throttle the free speech of political opponents in their typical heavy-handed, un-American fashion. None of it worked.

The details of that propaganda battle are sweet, but a nagging thought stays in my mind. Yes, I’m still trying to comprehend how the decision makers of either CODE PINK or MoveOn.org—the latter with their “General Betray-Us” advertisement in the New York Times—believed that these types of tactics would sway those on the fence about war, Iraq and the troops to their ideological side. I’m also less than impressed with their abilities to predict how the target (the fence-sitters) and how the enemy (the pro-victory right and supporters of the troops) would react to such salvos.

But then Ed Kaitz’s Doublethink and the Liberal Mind reminded me that there is a certain method of thinking with which holding up signs inscribed with things like “Maimed for a Lie” in front of the temporary home of grievously injured warriors is called “supporting the troops.” And referring to a decorated, accomplished and loyal general as “General Betray-Us” before he comes home from a war zone to report to his commander—as ordered—can be deemed as “patriotic” or “pro-troop” under that same cast of mind.

Kaitz reminds us Blair/Orwell pegged this mindset in his classics.

George Orwell claimed that there was something more calculated at work when politicians begin to claim for example that "Slavery is Freedom" or that "Hate is Love," or in Mao Tse Tung's words, that "Compulsion is Voluntary." The new and improved Democratic Party version seems to be that "Diversity is Unity." Orwell called this "doublethink" and he claimed that it was a condition endemic to the totalitarian mind. It meant the ability "to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory" and "to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies.

Before Orwell, there was, of course, Saul of Tarsus aka St. Paul.

With that in mind I’ll try not to squint in horror the next time some anti-war individual/entity claims that by calling the troops “baby killers,” by ousting US Marines from an American city or some other such shizam, they’re “supporting the troops.” I’ll just remember that to the decision-makers of CODE PINK and MoveOn.org such tactics were sound because they had benefit of being the "truth." Seriously, Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church is less dangerous, if not less twisted. At least they're honest about their hatred.

Go buy popcorn for tomorrow.

Backstory: Dissecting Code Pink/Walter Reed Protestors

A German In Israel

If you're feeling cynical about race relations just now, the magnitude and symbolism of the following might help you to feel better.

Yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed Israel’s Knesset.

Expectations were high for the first-ever speech given by a chancellor before the Knesset. On Tuesday, Angela Merkel found the right tone, but she also carefully avoided any criticism of the Israelis' Middle East policies in her bid to deepen German-Israeli ties.

Angela Merkel had prepared long in advance, and she had carefully considered the move. "Madam President, thank you for allowing me to speak here today," the German chancellor read, in slightly awkward Hebrew, at 5:20 p.m. in Jerusalem's Knesset. "It is a great honor for me."

Then she reverted to German and began by expressing her appreciation for being allowed to address the Israeli parliament. The historic moment, which had triggered relatively minor debate in Israel in the days leading up to the event, had finally arrived. A German head of government was speaking before the Knesset -- in German, the "language of the murderers," as critics had noted.

But in the end only a handful of parliamentarians stayed away, because they perceived Merkel's appearance as "insensitive." The vast majority of the Israeli parliament, though, listened attentively and, after a final "Shalom!" gave the chancellor a standing ovation. [SNIP]

After recognizing the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, Merkel launched into an extensive discussion of Germany's past. "The Shoah is a source of great shame to Germans. I bow to the victims. I bow to the survivors and to all those who helped them survive," said the chancellor, who characterized the "fracture of civilization by the Shoah" as unprecedented. With a view to her own origins, she told her audience that she had spent the first 35 years of her life in East Germany, where Nazism had been viewed as a purely West German problem. It took 40 years, Merkel said, for all of Germany to own up to its responsibility to the State of Israel.

If these two groups of humans can reconcile, then any two can—hopefully long before something as unthinkable as any holocaust occurs.

(Thanks to Ed Morrissey)

In the Face of Fear

"There were terrible moments that encompassed a lifetime, an endlessness, when terror was so strong in me, that I could feel idiocy replace reason. (Yet,) I have never left my position, nor have I shirked hazardous duty. Fear did not make a coward out of me."
--MSgt Woodrow Keeble (1917-1982), WWII and Korean War Veteran, latest Medal of Honor recipient

Citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Sangsan-ni, Korea, on October 20, 1951. On that day, Master Sergeant Keeble was an acting platoon leader for the support platoon in Company G, 19th Infantry, in the attack on Hill 765, a steep and rugged position that was well defended by the enemy.

Just a teaser.

(Thanks to Ed Morrissey)

Set Them Free

Here's Education Revolt in Watts narrated by Drew Carey.

I lived close to LA's Locke High School for nine years but avoided that sea of neglected and/or dangerous kids like the plague.

It's interesting how the teachers' union types treat the students almost as property; they cared more about "giving them away" and about their own "rights" than whether the kids received a real education without getting shot or robbed--as occurred all too often at or around the school.

It's a feel-good video, except for one thing: when the parents were featured, the parent in question was always the mother.

(Thanks to Instapundit)

Whole in My Head

Have you ever been looking for a word to describe a concept that you’ve been observing for a while but didn’t know whether a single word or a two-word phrase for that concept existed?

I had been wondering whether there was a word for a certain way of viewing history; one in which history is obsevered as a chain of interconnected events—where the occurrence and nature of events are dependent upon what came before. This view is in opposition to the view where each event is a standalone occurrence and has little-to-no relation to events occurring before or afterward. (To apply the concept: I’ve had several visitors surf in here to one of my Kenya posts and believe that that particular post was an isolated “nod” to what’s going on over there rather than a dependent unit of an event-chain. As my regular readers know, I have been known to correct that assumption in a less-than-subtle manner.)

As luck would have it—or did Grace have it?—I happened to be reading an interesting text in which the context of a single word implied that it might be equivalent to the above definition. So I looked it up and—Jackpot! The word? Holistic. And I have heard the word used for years. But it had become one of those buzz-words; those light-switch words that will cause a listener to switch off because she has been overdosed with it. Analogy: the effect of the word ‘paradigm’ when the Air Force was indoctrinating its managers with TQM training.

Anyway, I'm excited to have “re-discovered” the word ‘holistic’ but I promise not to use it too much.

Things like this make me happy! Yes, I know.

(Thanks to One Cosmos, a daily visit)

Landing On His Feet

Remember Army Lt. Colonel Allen B. West? Well he's retired now and running for Congress in Florida's 22nd District as a Republican challenger to Democratic Rep. Ron Klein. Regardless of whether the colonel wins or loses, I'm sure that there are many people cheering for him--including me.

(Thanks to The Anchoress)

After the First Time, It's Easy

Robin Roberts, Good Morning America host and breast cancer survivor, joins the Baldilocks club.

Robin looked fabulous strutting down the runway bald, in a brick-red sequin dress from [Isaac Mizrahi's] Fall '08 collection.

"This is who I am," Robin said with a smile about her decision to ditch the wig.

(Thanks to Crunk & Disorderly)

Day of Dreams

Chicago Tribune: Black and white congregations come together to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Public Broadcasting System: Protest over MLK statue goes against king's dream

Atlanta Journal Constitution: This Martin Luther King Jr. goes by the name 'Marty'

Daily Nation (Kenya): Do not dishonour Martin Luther King Jr.

National Public Radio: Photographer chronicles Martin Luther King murals

Associate Press: Historians fear MLK's legacy being lost

Dallas Morning News: In Arkansas, MLK shares holiday with Gen. Robert E. Lee

Justice Served

Remember the lovely Jay Grodner? He's the anti-war Chicago lawyer who was able to key a Marine's car (equipped with veteran's plates), verbally insult the Marine, verbally insult the USMC and still remain vertical.

Well, Grodner's had his day in court today. His fine is light in dollars (for a lawyer) and heavy in symbolism.

1 year Social Service Supervision, restitution of 600 dollars to be paid to Social Services and which would go to the Injured Marine Semper Fi fund, to be paid by February 25th, 2008, and $50/month in supervision fees.

If Grodner fails to meet any of the provisions, he will spend 364 days in jail. Most observers think he'll fail since the man seems to have a problem with showing up to appointments on time--even today!

The only member of the MSM that Matt of Blackfive was able to get to publicize the story was John Kass of the Chicago Tribune. (The New York Times didn't take it? Imagine that.) Well done, Mr. Kass. (Column one, column two.)

However, others came to see justice done.

About 25-35 marines and assorted military were there.

Can you imagine what it was like for Grodner, surrounded by a bunch of unhappy GIs in that courtroom? The judge was even a Marine.

As for Sgt. Michael McNulty--the Marine in question--he's either in Kuwait or Iraq right now. God Speed, Jarhead, be well and, most of all, thanks.

(Thanks to Michelle Malkin)

Happy 2008

(Posted in time for our friends on the other coast)

Sleep Soundly

...while guys like the Marine Poet watch our country's back. SSgt Lawrence Dean, USMC, will re-enlist in February.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

While The Hostess is Away (T)

The backup poster will sneak in and inform you that the Baldilocks blog is a FINALIST in the 2007 Weblog Awards!

Vote early. Vote often. You can tap the ballot once every 24 hours. And ballot-taps for Shay's blog Booker Rising would not be out of order, either.

(Shhh. Don't tell Juliette. It's a surprise...)

UPDATE: Well, middle of the pack isn't too bad when you're hardly trying--and some fo those folks were trying entirely too hard. Considering the competition, not bad.

Trekkian Politics

It's Star Trek weekend at NRO, fellow Trek geeks! And, of course, the commentary has a certain political bent to it.

BTW, don't make too much fun of James Lileks for flubbing the name of the most popular old-school Trek episode ever. :-)

His error, however, is partially redeemed by this line:

[S]ome people only understand a photon torpedo up the dorsal vent port, and we’d best be prepared to deal with them.

A Hero's Heroes

Watch this! There is no preview which I could give in order to do this video justice, but trust me. You won't be sorry to have viewed it.

Article.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)

Happy 60th Birthday to the USAF

...my "alma mater."

(Thanks to Mrs. Greyhawk)