We don't catch the smart ones...

Two men try to carjack an unmarked police car

The Associated (with Terrorists) Press
Last Updated 10:06 pm PDT Friday, July 4, 2008

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Two men tried to carjack an unmarked police car without realizing that two uniformed officers were inside, police said Friday.

The officers were investigating reports of illegal fireworks when a sports utility vehicle pulled in front of their sedan and two men got out, Police Cmdr. Steve Colon said.

The two men took "an aggressive approach toward the officers," prompting the officers to get out of their car, Colon said. The suspects ran back to their SUV and sped off. A short chase ensued, then the suspects jumped out of their vehicle and ran.

The officers were able to arrest Eleazar Lopez, 22, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy, Colon said.

The unidentified driver managed to get away.

Happy Independence Day!

PRICE OF FREEDOM
JULY FOURTH & OUR VETERANS
By Ralph Peters

TODAY, the 232nd anniversary of the day our Declaration of Independence rang out in Philadelphia, we rightly honor the men who debated and signed the document: Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and their colleagues. Yet, after that glorious declaration was signed in ink, it had to be counter-signed in blood.

Without men willing to take up arms and fight for the freedoms the Founding Fathers asserted, the words themselves would have secured us nothing.

It took courage to affix a signature to the Declaration. But it had taken another kind of courage entirely to stand at Lexington and Concord the year before. Our Founding Fathers would have become hopeless fugitives, had determined soldiers not stood by Gen. Washington - from the disaster on Long Island, through the misery of Valley Forge and on to Yorktown.

Then what would our Constitution have availed us, had another generation of patriots not filled the ranks at Chippewa, Ft. McHenry and New Orleans? What good would Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation have done without an army in Union blue?

FDR's "Four Freedoms" would have been laughable, had 10 million American men and women refused to put on their uniforms. President Ronald Reagan's call, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" would've been absurd, had still more generations of our soldiers not stood watch on the Rhine.

Unless etched in the blood of patriots, noble words evaporate. Yet, for all too many Americans today, words have become a substitute for sacrifice. We vow that our fallen heroes shall not be forgotten. Then we forget them.

A painful illustration of how skewed our values have grown was last month's orgy of media self-adoration commemorating a good, but hardly courageous, journalist, Tim Russert.

I'm sorry for Russert's family, but it was appalling to witness the media's we-love-us carnival. Not since President Reagan's funeral had Washington so honored one of our citizens.

Was Russert's passing truly more deserving of commemoration than the loss of service members awarded posthumous Medals of Honor? Had he sacrificed more than those, living and dead, who earned Navy Crosses, Distinguished Service Crosses or Silver Stars in combat?

The only recent instances when the media devoted remotely as much attention to individuals in uniform were the investigation into Spec. Pat Tillman's death, a military botch-up, and the media-amplified Abu Ghraib affair, when journalists gleefully maligned all those who serve over the misdeeds of six reservists. Newspapers run rows of photographs of fallen service members, pretending to honor their sacrifices, but really to make Iraq seem a costly failure. The images of our dead are used and then discarded by editors whose vanity and ambition would've shamed a decadent Roman emperor.

So, on this Fourth of July, let me briefly honor just one of those who fell so journalists would remain free to belittle his sacrifice:

Second Lt. Peter Burks graduated from Texas A&M, then chose to join the US Army. Commissioned through Officer Candidate School and sent to Iraq as a combat platoon leader, he told his parents his goal was to bring his soldiers safely home. Quietly religious and dutiful, Burks was proud to serve.

On Nov. 14, 2007, as the lieutenant led his men back to their base at the end of a patrol in Baghdad, a massive Iranian-made bomb struck his vehicle. Two of his soldiers were wounded. Standing upright in a hatch to direct his unit, Burks was struck in the head by shrapnel and died.

His story was one of many, notched down as just one more casualty by the press. But the Burks family lives in Texas, a long way from DC (in more ways than just distance). Instead of blaming our government, they honored their son's service even as they mourned him.

His relatives remembered how Lt. Burks kept asking them to send goodies for his troops - not all of whom had a strong family supporting them. In his honor, they set up the Peter Burks Unsung Heroes Fund, literally a mom-and-pop effort to support those who serve.

What did their homespun effort accomplish? Nothing that would impress prize-hunting journalists. But they shipped over three tons of snack food and recreational materials to their son's comrades.

So many donations flooded in that the unit chaplain in Iraq set up "Burks Country Store." Everything on the shelves is free for soldiers.

Remember how much we heard about Cindy Sheehan a few years ago, as she cursed the government for the loss of her volunteer son in Iraq? Why haven't we heard about the Burks? Or about the many other families and friends of our troops who donate their time, goods and hard-earned money to say Thank you! to those who serve?

This Fourth of July, two nations will take a holiday: an intelligentsia that despises, mocks or pities the "losers" in uniform - and the other America, which didn't go to Harvard, but whose sons and daughters insure that We, the People, continue to live in freedom.

I don't think Lt. Burks would want you to mourn him at your holiday barbecue. I'd bet he'd rather have you enjoy everything his sacrifice preserved.

UPDATE: Kali fires

According to the local news tonight, there have been 1,781 fires in Kalifornia since 6/20.

Wow...

Hellz yeah!

'Hawgs bringing some pain to the Taliban.


H/T: Same as below

Evryone in the Marine Corps must know how to march!

H/T: Same as below

When funding is low...

...sometimes you have to improvise and find training wherever you can get it.


H/T: Bring the heat, bring the stupid

Christopher Hitchens is a p*ssy!

I generally like and respect Christopher Hitchens, but he's wrong on several important things.

He's wrong on torture and he's wrong on religion (he's an atheist).

Waterboarding is not torture, in my opinion.

John McCain was tortured when he was a POW, Kaled Sheik Mohammed was not.

I've been through SERE school and nothing there amounts to torture. Although I was never waterboarded in SERE school, based on what I know and what I've seen, waterboarding isn't torture. Hanging someone from the ceiling in ropes, by their elbows, with their hands tied behind their back, for hours at a time is torture. John McCain can tell you about that. Having to kneel with a stick behind your knees and then having your knees stepped on is torture. Having pieces of bamboo shoved under your fingernails is torture. That happened to my grandfather when he was captured by the Japs and held as a POW in Singapore. That's torture.

Having a little water poured over a towel on your face or having panties put over your head isn't torture.

Having watched this video, I'd say Christopher Hitchens is a big pussy. He lasted a whopping 16 seconds.

No heart.


BTW, I think John McCain is wrong on torture too, but he definitely rates to have that opinion.

People in Turlock, pay attention to this!

This is how people with guts and honor react.

Bulldozer plows into crowded bus on Jaffa Street
Three dead, dozens hurt in Jerusalem terror attack

Policeman Eli Mizrahi said he was at the Mahane Yehuda open-air market when he heard over his radio that the bulldozer was rumbling in his direction.

Speeding to the scene on his motorcycle, Mizrahi arrived just after a policewoman shot the Palestinian driving the vehicle. But then, unexpectedly, the attacker stepped on the gas pedal once more and ran over a police car, Mizrahi said.

"He started to drive like crazy and held the steering wheel, pressing against it, and started to race down the street," Mizrahi told reporters at the scene.

While the construction machine was moving, Mizrahi and the off-duty soldier climbed up to the driver's cab. The soldier fired first, and then Mizrahi shot the driver twice.

"I ran up the steps and, while he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians, I fired at him twice more and that's it, he was neutralized," Mizrahi said, speaking calmly to a swarm of reporters.

The soldier said he had been riding his bike through downtown Jerusalem en route home when he noticed the bulldozer plowing into the bus.

"I understood immediately that this was a terror attack. I threw down my bike and hurried to make contact with the terrorist," the soldier said. "I got closer to the bulldozer, the whole time looking for my weapon to shoot him. I noticed Oron Ben Shimon, an armed civilian, and together we tried to neutralize the terrorist. We tried at least to pull his feet off the accelerator."

"The terrorist yelled, 'God is great.' I grabbed Oron's handgun and fired three bullets. As soon as I was sure he was dead I lifted the gun so as not to hurt passersby," he added.

The 2nd Amendment

When the 2nd Amendment was recently affirmed, they said that America would turn into the "Wild Wild West".

They were right!

Family Of Subway Robbery Suspect Says Customer Shouldn't Have Pulled Trigger
Former Marine's Actions Called Into Question (but only by robber's family)

POSTED: 10:30 am EDT June 29, 2007

PLANTATION, Fla. -- The family of one of the men who was shot by a retired United States Marine while they attempted to rob a Subway sandwich shop said the customer shouldn't have pulled the trigger.

According to Plantation police, two armed men barged into the Subway at 1949 Pine Island Road shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, demanding money from the employee behind the counter. When they tried to force John Lovell into the bathroom, he pulled out a gun and shot both men, police said.

Donicio Arrindell, 22, was shot in the head and later died at the hospital. Fredrick Gadson, 21, was shot in the chest and ran from the Subway, but police found him in hiding in some bushes on the property of a nearby BankAtlantic.

Lovell, 71, was the lone customer at the time. Police said he had a concealed weapons permit.

Gadson's grandparents told Local 10 on Thursday that Lovell was wrong for pulling the trigger.

"He should not have taken the law in his hands," said Rosa Jones, Gadson's grandmother.

Her husband, Ivory Jones, also condemned the media for its portrayal of Lovell's actions.

"I don't condone what they did, (but) I definitely don't condone the news people making him out to seem like they're making a hero out of this man because he shot somebody down," he said.

But Lovell's neighbor said he made the right decision.

"He did the right thing," said Wendi Hill. "I mean, I was glad that it was them that got shot and not him."

Police said Lovell, a retired Marine, wouldn't be charged.

Rosa Jones says a retired Marine shouldn't have shot her grandson while they attempted to rob a Subway sandwich shop.

Outstanding! Well done and Semper Fi John Lovell!

H/T: Ace of Spades

Updated to add: I just realized this story is a year old. Blame Ace.

I call bullsh*t on this!

I've worked a lot of different jobs and not ONCE have I been sexually harassed. *darn*.

I'm not ugly by any means, but come on!
Maybe I HAVE been sexually harassed, but just didn't know it...

I think it must just be that Brits are a bunch of nancy's and are more sensitive to it.

80 per cent of men 'face female sex pests'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Most men are sexually harassed by women at work - but are afraid to complain to their employer, say researchers.

Four out of five male workers had experienced such harassment from a female colleague, according to a study for employment law firm Peninsula.

Two-thirds of the 2,300 men questioned also said that sexual banter was inappropriate at work.

A separate poll of 1,600 employers admitted they would not take a complaint of sexual harassment as seriously from a male employee.

David Price of Peninsula said: 'The balance has shifted and it is now women who are aiming sexual banter at male workers.

'Many workers are under the opinion that sexual banter is an acceptable norm in the workplace.

'But not everyone is happy with these types of jokes and the situation is a growing problem for employers.'