Keep pushing!

Last week, I wrote a blog post about Bob Strait, who lost his sweetheart of 65 years to a violent attack, in which Nancy Strait was raped and brutalized, and ultimately died of her injuries.

There was no media attention.

There was no outrage.

There were no celebrities pleading for justice for the 90-year-old veteran and his family.

One man wanted to change that, and I think it’s working.

Nick Palmisciano, CEO of Ranger Up, posted a YouTube video to which I linked last week, imploring the media to listen, and urging Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to help draw attention to the attack.

I did all I could by posting the story, and spreading the link to my blog far and wide.

This morning, I woke up to hundreds of blog hits, coming from searches for the name “Bob Strait.”

People want to know.

They care.

They are searching for the story and the name, and the media is finally paying attention.

While police and homicide detectives are working the case, Mr. Strait and his family are focusing on his health.

I can understand that.

The man lost a woman he loved for a lifetime, and now his kidneys are failing, according to the story to which I linked above.

I wish there was something I could do for Mr. Strait and his family. I don’t have a lot of money, and I certainly don’t have race-hustling charlatans to dispatch into the public to demand justice for Nancy.

I don’t have the power of the media or a huge audience like Colbert and Stewart.

The only thing I can do is encourage readers of this blog to not let Nancy Strait be forgotten.

So keep pushing, folks.

Just keep pushing.

We Care!

What happened to this couple is disgraceful.

In mid-March, Bob and Nancy Strait were robbed and brutalized in their home. Nancy Strait – an 85 year old woman – was beaten and raped. RAPED – allegedly by a sub-human sack of ape shit named Tyrone Dale David Woodfork.

But in the flood of Trayvon conjecture, and Mittens’ supposed victory in the GOP primary, and other such drivel, the media somehow lost this story.  The mainstream media simply didn’t report the story of a man who lost his sweetheart of 65 years. They didn’t care that he was a war hero, who served with the 101st Airborne, or that the assailant degraded his elderly wife in the worst possible way before stealing a lousy $200, a TV and a Dodge Neon.

This story won’t bring ratings. It won’t bring advertisements. It won’t bring Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or the simian fucks from the New Black Panther Party out to protest.

It will bring pain and tears to anyone who has even a shred of humanity left.

Bob Strait is a hero, and he needs America’s support. He doesn’t need money. He doesn’t need food or any kind of material help. He needs for his story to be told. He needs us to care. He needs America to give a damn, and the media has dropped the ball, enthralled with whether or not George Zimmerman was white-Hispanic or a darker shade.

So thanks to Ranger Up, I’m picking up this torch, and I would encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.

Please.

I’m not asking you to donate money. I’m not asking you to sacrifice much. I’m asking you to please shine a light on this heinous crime. Don’t let Nancy Strait be ignored and forgotten.  Don’t let Bob Strait believe that America does not care.

The only thing I’m asking you to do today is watch this video, and help spread this story!

Thanks, Ranger Up! Thanks for working to ensure that Bob and Nancy Strait aren’t relegated to an afterthought. Thanks for encouraging the military community to pick up the media’s slack and to lend Bob Strait some support in what has to be the darkest time in his life.

Let’s spread the word!

Let’s show that we care!

What if…

What if you wrote Teh Most Important Dispatch EVAH™ and only a tiny handful of Yontards™ cared or noticed?

Poor Michael Yon.

The tool is, in fact, a tool

Y’all remember this guy, right? Paul Tillson, the guy who had so much military bling on at his wedding, Flava Flav would have been jealous?

The guys at This Ain’t Hell have the final verdict.

Well, he’s a Staff Sergeant, not a Sergeant First Class. He has nine months total of active duty, and three months were Basic Training and Advance Individual Training. He was infantry in the New Jersey National Guard until May ’91 when he became a supply sergeant, but oddly enough his 2-1 says he was a squad leader supply sergeant.

Then in August he was activated and sent to Camp Doha, Kuwait with a Heavy Maintenance and Supply unit as the company clerk. That’s how he got the CIB that he thinks he earned – cuz being the company clerk in a mess kit repair company after Desert Storm ended is just like being infantry in Desert Storm.

Someone who knew him at the time told us that he faked an injury and was returned early from Kuwait. He came back in January ’92. That same person told us he started faking the Gulf War Syndrome after his return, I wish they’d change the name of GWS to National Guard Syndrome, because those are the only guys who seem to get it. If there are any DVA OIG guys out there, you might want to look into that.

Then he went back to his infantry duties in the NJNG until he left the service in 1993. So he spent ten years total in the Guard, and nine months of Federal service. So he really had to scurry to get all of those medals.

They also have copies of his military records, which show considerably less bling than what this douche had on his uniform in this photo. And apparently he tried to defraud the military for a phony disability claim.

Final verdict: douchebag.

Carry on.

Are Ron Paul supporters ignorant or arrogant?

Well, I figure if this oozing asswart named Mande Wilkes can ask whether US Soldiers are heroes or hoodlums, I can certainly reciprocate.

My guess is both ignorant and arrogant, judging from this particular flapping twat‘s commentary.

First American soldiers urinated on Afghan bodies. Then they burned Korans, just for the hell of it. Then, an American soldier in cold blood killed more than a dozen Afghan civilians – the very people, I note, who U.S. troops are supposed to be protecting from extremist brutality.

Now, in the latest example of imperialistic jingoism, American troops are photographing themselves with dead Afghans, their smug grins juxtaposing dismembered corpses.

Now, I realize this particular herpes-infested hemorrhoid is merely trolling for attention, but I think there are far too many who will read her hateful, ignorant screed and take it as gospel, so I feel the need to clarify a few things.

First of all, we didn’t just burn the damn Korans. They were removed after being defaced by prisoners, who used their alleged “holy books” as means of communication. They wrote in them.

Second of all, a single American Soldier goes on a rampage in fuck knows how many years, and all of us must be condemned? Let me ask you this, Cupcake: how many men, women and children were needlessly murdered by the Taliban and by the insurgency? How many of them were tried and convicted?

None. That’s how many.

At least the US military prosecutes those who do wrong under the law!

That’s right. The troops who allegedly urinated on the Afghan dead will face a court martial, as will the lone Soldier, who lost his mind and went on a killing spree. We prosecute them, and we punish them in accordance with military law.

As for the grinning few… you know what? That’s a non story. These bastards blew THEMSELVES up while trying to kill our people. Sorry, but if a guy who has my kids, or my friends, or my co-workers at gunpoint accidentally shoots himself in the nads, I’ll laugh too! I’ll hoot and holler, and I’ll take photos with the mutilated giblets!  So fuck you!

But that’s not the worst part of this ignoramus’ little editorial.

She proceeds to claim that it’s no surprise that our troops are apparently a bunch of murdering thugs, because we offer great incentives for thugs to join the military. Apparently our oh-so-generous salaries, benefits and pensions encourage assholes, murderers, thieves and hoods to sign on the dotted line.

But first, she of course, has to pay homage to her hero, Ron Paul.

To answer that, I take you back to any one of last autumn’s Republican presidential debates. Ron Paul (holla!) made a repeated point of casting himself as the lone warrior on stage. The only one of the major presidential candidates to have served in the military, Paul represented a dying breed: A man who was a statesman before he was a politician.

OK, first of all, anyone who uses “holla!” as part of an essay and expects to be taken seriously needs to have their head examined. Holla? Really? What are we, 14 and trying to sound all ghetto?

Second, how does serving as a gynecologist in the Air Force qualify anyone to be a “Statesman?”  Not to disparage Dr. Paul’s career, because I honor everyone who serves, but really? Statesman? Let’s get a little perspective, shall we?

It used to be that everybody who was anybody enlisted in the military. Nowadays, everybody who’s nobody serves – a natural consequence of incentivizing service with signing bonuses, comped education, and plush pensions. Not to mention that for those in the U.S. illegally, the incentives are that much more attractive – a respectable way to root into jobs that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible.

So, what used to be a military made up of statesmen has devolved into a force comprised of men who have few alternatives but to enlist. Rather than the symbol of nobility it once was, military service has become almost a scarlet letter of sorts – signifying an individual of lesser resources, breeding, or ambition. Think about it … when a teenager is delinquent, where do his parents send him? To either a boarding school or a military school, depending on the family’s socioeconomic level. And when that teenager graduates, where does he go? To either a university or the military – depending, again, on the family’s finances.

Let’s get something straight, snail trail:  There are pretty stringent standards for people who want to serve, including physical fitness standards and high ethical and moral standards. The military is not for everyone, and the chaff is generally separated early. My basic training platoon lost approximately 12.5 percent of recruits during those first three months. My advanced individual training requires at least a 110 GT (your equivalent of an IQ).

Additionally:

– 48.8 percent of officers have advanced or professional degrees; 39.2 percent have master’s degrees, 8.4 percent have professional degrees and 1.3 percent have doctorate degrees.

– 22.4 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees; 16.6 percent have master’s degrees, 5.5 percent have professional degrees and 0.3 percent have doctorate degrees.

– 85.6 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees; 70.5 percent have master’s degrees, 12.5 percent have professional degrees and 2.7 percent have doctorate degrees.

– 99.9 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education; 73.6 percent have some semester hours toward a college degree; 16 percent have an associate’s degree or equivalent semester hours; 4.7 percent have a bachelor’s degree; 0.7 percent have a master’s degree and .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree.

That was 2006.  I’m fairly sure those numbers are even higher today.  And in comparison in 2011, only 87 percent or so of the general population have even finished high school, 56 percent or so have some college, approximately 30 percent or so have a Bachelor’s degree, 11 percent or so have a Master’s, and 3 percent have a PhD or equivalent.

Tell me again how stupid the military is, bitch!

I graduated Johns Hopkins in 1993 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations. I enlisted in the Army and received a certificate in broadcast journalism. I also started working on my Master’s degree at that time. I received another certificate in print journalism and public affairs in 2005 at the Defense Information School, and continued working on my MA while raising a family, being deployed and/or working full time. I finished my MA in National Security Studies in 2009.

I’ll put my credentials up against Mande Wilkes any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

And I’ll win.

I’ll win, because she’s an ungrateful, uninformed, ignorant zit on the ass of humanity.

I’ll win, because she condemns the very men and women who willingly and passionately defend the very Constitution she and other lunatic Paul supporters claim to cherish. The Soldiers put their money where their mouths are. They do that every day while she sits home, watches vapid reality TV and dreams about her next shade of lipstick. They do that while she calls them dumb, primitive and thuggish.

The great thing about this country is that you can spew all kinds of crap and your freedom to word vomit is protected.

But you are not free to live without facing the consequences of said spew.

And since this obtuse, shallow wad of snot thinks she’s fit to represent the residents of South Carolina’s 7th District, I would encourage anyone who lives there to actively campaign against her and ensure her embarrassing defeat.