Raw Intel

NASA Photo Very late on the night of 20 July 1969 in a small home in the Appalachians, I watched as a figure moved down a ladder, and into history. On that night, mankind became a true spacefaring spieces as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the alien world that is our moon. To be honest, I don't really remember his exact words. Neil maintained that he said "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" and I will not dispute him on that. I also remember that our hosts, who were in many ways the grandparents I never had, remembered the night both for his step and for the fact that it was the latest they had ever stayed up in their lives. It was …

Mark Steyn is painfully hilarious as always in his take down of the Secret Service and the general culture of entitlement to taxpayer money that is killing us. Unlike the government of the United States, I can’t claim any hands-on experience with Colombian hookers. But I was impressed by the rates charged by Miss Dania Suarez, and even more impressed by the U.S. Secret Service’s response to them. Cartagena’s most famous “escort†costs $800. For purposes of comparison, you can book Eliot Spitzer’s “escort†for $300. Yet, on the cold grey fiscally conservative morning after the wild socially liberal night before, Dania’s Secret Service agent of…

Today is the day to let a vital part of American society know that we appreciate them. Mostly for the tasty, albeit overpriced cofee, but also for not caving in to anti-gun zealots. Many people who love guns and coffee particularly appreciate Starbucks. In the 12 states with unfettered rights to “open carry†a gun, including Virginia, and the 16 others that are mostly open carry, Starbucks has rebuffed attempts by gun control activists to keep guns out of the national coffee shop chain. So on Friday, 2-22 (for the Second Amendment), gun rights supporters are holding “Gun Owners Support Starbucks Day,†and will be drinking their joe while openly packing their …

[From 40 Commando in Afghanistan in 2008...] For those that have ever met and/or partied with these guys know that this is what what you can usually expect... Christmas for the Commandos in Afghanistan was always going to be different - but no one could have predicted just how different. One minute they were singing carols at dusk beneath a mellow sun in the baked bare wasteland of Helmand province while wearing festive Santa hats, the next they were firing mortars after their Christmas Day service came under attack from the Taliban. So rapid was the reaction of Royal Marines of 40 Commando that within less than a minute of the first "contact" from the Taliban's machine g…

In this superpower, now on the wane. I guess "lady parts", class warfare, welfare, racial identity, and incompetent foreign policy are compelling to the "undecided" and the "moderates", and to far too many sheeple. . The fate of our Nation was determined by the state that gives us the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. To quote a friend of mine from my Twitter feed: FreedomOfChoice lost. Rugged Individualism lost. What used to be "what made America great" lost. Isn't it funny...NOW is the time to find common ground? The last four years were about being told "common ground" was succumbing to Progressivism. /Rant Time to kit up, ruck up, and get back …

View the full article

It's kinda funny that just as the shrieking socialist, chicken littles are wrapping up their complete waste of time in Hopenchangen, huge snow storms hit there and DC. The one here is pretty awesome. We are 12 hours and about 12 inches into it and it is picking up steam if anything. Heh. View the full article

Sandstorms settled in the south of that sour place, and terror-men opened wide a mouth etched in a hate-filled face. The rifle-spit struck down Malone and he in a moment gave a life well-lived, alone, to set men free of the grave. In later days men drew down statues from on high; they struck Iraqi ground so dust and cheer could fly. What, one Irish fighting man to free millions from cold chains? Not noble words, not gracious plan could make real such gains. Or--Is our time so coy, so wild and free a thing? Not Harvey nor Kelly, boy of Killarn, not the Brian King Freedom bought at such a cost, where glory's priced so steep: Where the name of each good man lost Can mem…

This wins the prize for complete inability to admit the blisteringly freaking obvious point that al Qaeda is an Islamist terror group, they are at war with us and we are at war with them. This member of the Defense Department wastes bushels of oxygen evading the simple fact that our enemies are religious fanatics of an easily-identifiable flavor, identifiable because they shout their "god's" name as they hack the heads off living men and women. It is sad reminder that our "leaders" would rather bury their heads in sand, that our enemies tread wearing the iron sandals of violent Islamist extremist ideology, than be shunned by the "right"-thinking left as politically incorr…

Iran test launches Shahab 3 missiles in 2009 The German newspaper Die Welt reports that Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads in Venezuela. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards firm, Amir al-Hadschisadeh, is building the launch complex, including missile silos and bunkers on the Paraguaná Peninsula, on the north coast of Venezuela facing America. Miami is about two thousand miles north from the launch site. Iran's Shahab 3 IRBM has a range of a thousand miles, the Shahab 4 1200 miles, and the Shahab 5, under development, more than 4000 miles. Washington, DC and New York City are about 3000 miles from the launch site. The Shahab missiles were based …

Were they ever? I will stick with my quote that they are the best friend about $5 B a year will buy, except you can't buy friends. We have some tough decisions to make and whether we keep paying a bunch of corruptocrat weasels who have never played straight with us is first and foremost. I don't have an answer yet, and I don't think there are any good ones. View the full article

It never fails that in or around Veteran’s Day, someone decides to show the world what a total jackass they are. And this year doesn’t disappoint. Meet Sufolk University law professor Michael Avery. Professor Avery is a member of the law school staff. He’s a Harvard grad who also studied at Moscow University from ‘68 to ‘69 (and that tells you volumes). He once gave a talk in Cuba (with Fidel Castro in attendance) entitled "The Hypocrisy of US Policy Towards Terrorism." Another member of the law school staff sent an email around asking for support for deployed troops (including a law student from the school who is deployed) to include pretty basic stuf…

An MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter passes the USS Chafee while delivering supplies to the USS Carl Vinson during a vertical replenishment mission with the USNS Bridge in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 2, 2012. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class James R. Evans View the full article

Our good friend TSO has a post up at The Burnpit regarding Seattle University's School of Law. Only, they seem to only be interested in their own law. Not the one of say, the Federal Gov't or the Constitution. “Passionate about issues facing veterans in our community? Interested in educating active service members about their rights? Looking for a concrete way to support the men and women who join the military? “The training covers rights and resources for active service members and their families such as types of discharges (Conscientious Objector, Hardship, etc), Family Plans (for caring for children while service members are deployed), and Court Martial …

Man I miss this guy. When I was in the Army and people asked me what I do, I used to say "I work for Ronald Reagan". He was glinting in the sun today and so I risked the ire of the airport cops to stand in the road and take this shot. He led from the front, and along with the Iron Lady and John Paul II stared down and shut down the Soviets, We could use some of that today. View the full article

h/t Hot Air The official White House photo of the day for Memorial Day was A. a tasteful shot of Arlington Cemetery B. A pic of a Gold Star Mom at her son's grave C. An image of an inverted rifle and empty boots signifying the death of a soldier. NOPE! The answer and an F- for the Campaigner in Chief was: A picture of the Campaigner in Chief reflected in the Vietnam Memorial with a halo around his noble warrior, gutsy-call-making head. In addition to the F-, he gets a D for Disgrace. The entire purpose of Memorial day is to honor those who laid down their lives in defense of our freedom. Obama didn't serve and since his coronation has used the military as nothing m…

Some goob who I assume thinks he knows what he's talking about has decided, based on something he read in the Wall Street Journal, that the Medal of Honor has become "feminized". That's right - "feminized". We all know what that particular little code word means, don’t we? He couldn't just say, on the day Sal Giunta was awarded our nation's highest honor, "well done and well deserved". Oh, no. He had to make a point to try to cheapen the award by qualifying it somehow. Here's what he said: The Medal of Honor will be awarded this afternoon to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta for his heroism in Afghanistan, and deservedly so. He took a bullet in his protec…

(h/t HA) Holy crap. This might be funnier than those MMA guys giving wedgies. The most realistic depiction of life during wartime you may ever see short of enlisting yourself. View the full article

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, receives a mountaintop brief from U.S. and Afghan special forces on Camp Morehead, Afghanistan, April 23, 2012. DOD photo by D. Myles Cullen View the full article

Over at Foreign Policy, John Arquilla - the professor and chairof the defense analysis department at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School - writes about Game Theory with regards to the state of our Navy and recent overly-confident statements by our own President. Instead of using complex algorithms, Professor Arquilla uses games we all know - Battleship and Stratego - to demonstrate the lack of strategic understanding at the highest levels of the Obama Administration. ...In the finalcandidates' debate last week, President Obama delivered a telling, somewhatsnarky zinger in response to Governor Romney's call for naval expansion: "Thisisn't ‘Battleship.'" He then went o…