Reader Tips

Reader Tips 20 Comments

Tonight’s entertainment en route to the tips comes in the form of a nice little tune sung in a pleasant voice by a modestly dressed woman, as Italian singer and sometimes-actress Wilma Goich performs her 1965 single Le Colline Sono in Fiore (“The Hills Are in Bloom”).
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

20 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Superb essay by William Voegeli: The Case Against Liberal Compassion.
    This short excerpt really…resonates:

    Indeed, if you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, the failure of government programs to alleviate suffering is not only an acceptable outcome but in many ways the preferred one. Sometimes empathizers, such as those in the “helping professions,” acquire a vested interest in the study, management, and perpetuation—as opposed to the solution and resulting disappearance—of sufferers’ problems. This is why so many government programs initiated to conquer a problem end up, instead, colonizing it by building sprawling settlements where the helpers and the helped are endlessly, increasingly co-dependent. Even where there are no material benefits to addressing, without ever reducing, other people’s suffering, there are vital psychic benefits for those who regard their own compassion as the central virtue that makes them good, decent, and admirable people—people whose sensitivity readily distinguishes them from mean-spirited conservatives….

    Beauty. Read the whole thing.
    h/t

  5. From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan From the Sand Pit:
    It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains, along the Dar’yoi Pamir River, watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave.
    Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.
    I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but the scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid, but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
    The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that’s where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, and shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware.
    We bash some heads for awhile, and then I track and record the new movement. It’s all about intelligence. We haven’t even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they’re in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin. But you know me; I’m a romantic.
    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country blows, man. It’s not even a country. There are no roads, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs. Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family, join the opium trade or join the army. That’s it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that’s your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those ‘tent cities of the walking dead’ is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
    I’ve been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen, and even a couple of Pashtu’s, for over a month-and-a-half now, and this much I can say for sure: These guys, are Huns….actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. It’s what they do. It’s ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor for themselves.
    They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each other’s barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47’s. Then again, maybe I’m just a cranky young bastard.
    I’m freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice, and I can’t recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours.
    Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban “smart.” They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is “cunning.” The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless, and when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart! Bullshit! Yeah, they’re real smart, they’ve spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They’re still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen, eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.
    OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon, so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice, but I’m good at it.
    Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen so you will watch the commercials. We’ve got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we’re doing over here, because you have no idea what we’re doing, and really, you don’t want to know. We are your military, and we are only doing what you sent us here to do.
    *>From a Jack Recon Marine in Afghanistan.* *Semper Fi*.
    “Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share”.

  6. EBD–You never cease to amaze me. Every night, like clockwork, like the sun, the moon or the tides, you find something to entertain us with, and leave us a space where we can express our thoughts and opinions, vent our frustrations and share the good times. Thanks! I appreciate your efforts.
    I was trying to find something that is reliable, never fails, and is always on time. What suits EBD better than a midnight train, that never fails, and ”shines the light on everyone.”
    I think this song fits the picture.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T00eJSQimIk
    Sincerely yours–Plainzdrifter.

  8. Snagglepuss…I am blown away by that letter. Thanks for sharing. What is your source?
    Tell Jack for what it’s worth…thanks. And I will be praying for him.

  9. Well, thank you kindly, Plainzdrifter. I’m just a passenger on the HMS Kate, but I’m glad my evening soft-shoe in the Marine Room entertains you.

  10. Made me proud to read that soldiers letter,
    hope you will allow me to share this one from my dad.
    July 31, 1967
    Dear Son,
    Received your letter and thanking you for the 60 dollar money order you sent.
    That is more money than we made after 3 months (service) back in 1943.
    I know things are tough, but never forget you have complete Air cover and fantastic weapons like the flares we make here in Ashville NC.
    The Japs used to bomb us with 200 pound bombs and arterially shells, still cant spell
    arterially, ha.
    We had to claw them out of caves burn them with flame throwers and shot( shoot) them when they still came at us in suicide charges.
    Son,
    The economy is booming and we are all making money off the war effort and that effort is to save your lives.
    Hang in there and be safe, and remember you only have to stay one year, 4 more months, and we will have a welcome home party and go get drunk.. ha.
    Don’t tell Mama sometimes I take a drink when I think about the war.
    She will hide my bottle. yo
    I never told you enough how much I love you and how proud I am of you, God Bless you and keep you safe and kill them commie bastards before they hurt one of your friends.
    Semper Fi and you are not allowed to die, never forget that.
    Always thinking of you and love Dad,

  13. Ken (Kulak)
    Re: Liberals hate oil
    Interesting to note that Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s father made a good portion of his fortune (the one he left Jr.) with a chain of 32 filling stations in Eastern Canada. Now you know why Pierre tried to steal Alberta’s crude, until Peter Lougheed headed the Liberals off at the pass.

  14. This is encouraging!
    I’ve been wondering when and where vigilantism would first emerge.
    Germany: Hooligans Declare War on Islamic Radicals
    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4859/germany-hooligans-salafists

    Hooligans from rival football clubs have temporarily set aside their mutual hatred for each other in order to unite against a common enemy: radical Salafists who are bringing Islamic Sharia law to Germany.
    After police predicted that more than 10,000 hooligans would show up at an anti-Salafist rally in Berlin, authorities cancelled the event. Similar rallies planned for Frankfurt, Hamburg and Hannover have also been banned.

  15. Yes, and those service stations were FINA. Guess what oil company Pierre chose to purchase when he established the Petro Can cross-Canada service stations?
    BINGO! And Mama Trudeau made a fist load of money when she sold her interest in the corporation. Passed it to her son upon death who in turn passed it on to his sons.

  16. Gotta love the lying Ontario Liberal government’s ad telling us we’re getting a great bargain on our electricity rates. No mention of the fact they’re the highest in North America and beyond.

  18. Snagglepuss. Thanks for the letter. You should forward it to Justin Trudeau so he can arrange arrange for some coats to be dropped off. Sarc off

  19. When I read stuff like this I become very proud to be a Canadian. Often tragedy brings out the best and worst in people; this is an example of the best. Some of the inane readers’ comments clearly have brought out to the worst:
    “Shortly after the attack on Parliament, the mosque in Cold Lake, Alta., was vandalized. People arrived for Friday prayers to discover that someone had thrown a brick through a window and sprayed the words “GO HOME” across the front of the building…. Here’s what happened next. As soon as word got out, townspeople showed up with scrub brushes, paint remover and flowers. They made new signs with Canadian flags saying “You are home.” Local contractors showed up, along with soldiers in uniform from the nearby military base. Ajaz Quraishi, president of the Islamic Society of Cold Lake, said he didn’t think the incident had anything to do with hostility in the community. “Maybe kids did it, I don’t know who did it, but it could happen to anybody,” he told the Edmonton Journal. ‘… One guy came up and said, ‘You know, I’m a redneck, but I don’t like this.’ He came and hugged me.’”
    On balance Canadian are the best people on earth IMHO, biased as it is:
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-face-canada-showed-the-world/article21486598/

  20. QOTD by al-GlobePail:
    “Where in the world is Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?”
    Poll@O’narcissistwebsite.
    1. Hades.
    2. Inferno.
    3. Hell.
    4. O’White House in Yasser Arafat’s bedroom.

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