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The Troops got the bastard


Scott_J

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If you can get past the lack of paragraphs, spaces and run on sentences you'll see that MtnGuide post was one of rare quality, so I edited it in hopes that more of you would actually read it.

 

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Mtguide said:

 

Guys,guys!!!!! Mary Lou has a right to her opinions and a right to express them,regardless of what they may be. That right is an absolutely essential part of what our nation is all about,a nd I heard it said by a recently retired general on the news this morning , that he thought there was not a single soldier on duty right now in Iraq or Afghanistan who doesn't consider the right to freedom of speech, and the other freedoms granted in the Bill of Rights, to be a basic reason that they're over there doing what they're doing, for many of them a very important reason as to why they are even IN the military.

 

And likewise,you guys, Griz, Trask, etc., have that same right- to say what you want to say,however you want to say it. But it's worth considering that when that virges on just trying bash someone down in anger, intolerance, invective, and hatred, we begin to lose sight of the fact that the country works best when we honor each other as fellow citizens and fellow countrymen,and that the idea and vision of what America is, is still a work in progress, and that work and vision will keep us vital and strong and free only so long as it continues to grow in respect and tolerance for the freedom to dissent and to think critically. Dissent is critical to the maintenance of freedom; without it, tyrants such as Saddam have free reign.

 

People like Saddam come to power when no has the guts to say, "Wait a minute, I don't know if I like what I see going on here", or even just "WHAT'S going on here?" Dissent is, if anything, MORE patriotic than continual and uncritical, unthinking acceptance and parroting of the majority line of thought, because it is an effort on the part of true patriots to help the ship of state correct its course and avoid the rocks and shoals of blind obedience or uncaring laziness and cynicism, greed for power, and corruption that all governments, nations and people are subject to.

 

The next time you feel your anger rise in your chest and feel like smashing someone you disagree with, try (try) to remember Edmund Burke, one of the framers of the Constitution, who said, "I may disagree with what you say; but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

 

We are all in this together, living in the midst of a huge, messy, imperfect, corrupt, hopelessly fucked up and yet at the same time, wonderful, amazing, beautiful and immensely successful and miraculous social experiment which has given and created more freedom , diversity, and outrageous opportunity to more people than any other country in the history of the world.

 

It's a great and roaring river, man; carrying us all along on a deep and thundering tide of energy and thought and spirit for one hell of a ride. Try to tie that down with the fear and rigidity of anger and hatred and you just muddy the flow; even the rocks eventually get worn away, because the river knows how to use the very stones to grind them down.

 

In India, the common greeting is "Shanti", which simply means, "I salute the light within you." It's a recognition of the fact that, regardless of belief or language or race, we're all of the same dust, that we're all here by the grace of a Power or powers beyond us, and that to live and survive takes will, strength and spirit, and that that effort and love and committment is worthy of respect, no matter how poorly or imperfectly it may be accomplished.

 

Quite a few years ago, I was a working cowboy on a sizeable cow outfit near Jordan,Montana. We all had about 10 horses in our personal string, and I had one big old ex-rodeo bucking horse named Hippo. They called him that because he was big (1400 lbs., plus), gray,and a yawner. He also was known to bawl like a grizzly bear when he bucked. When I arrived on the outfit and he was turned into my string, all the other guys told me me to watch him like a hawk or he'd be sure to buck my ass clear to Calgary and paw the moon down doing it. In the eight months I worked there, I never had so much as a crow hop out of Hippo; we got along fine. My last day on the outfit dawned clear, bright and very crisp and cold, the first hard frost of the season.

 

We saddled up in the dawn light, with the steam pouring out of the horses' nostrils and the frost glinting on the ground. Weather like this will make cowhorses frisky, and we had a few little bucking horse shows as everyone got the kinks busted out; my mount for the day just happened to be Hippo. As I cinched him up, I thought for sure he'd be humping up and ready to do some cloudwalking, but he never gave a rustle. Until I hit the saddle, that is. No sooner had I gathered the reins and gained the off stirrup, when Hippo bogged his head with a savage jerk to one side, let out a bellow like a grizzly and cougar combined and launched us into the sky. I took a deep seat, held on to my hat and got ready for all hell on the hurricane deck as Hippo reached the crest of his giant arc, swept his massive front hooves along the sides of his head trying to paw off the entire headstall, and played a tune on my spurs with his hind feet, trying to kick my feet out of the stirrups. And now the ground,frozen hard as iron, was coming up fast, and I got set for the jarring, driving shock that would crunch my spine double and chip my teeth as I cracked my chin on the saddlehorn when Hippo came down with all four feet in a spot about the size of a dinner plate and launched off again....except that he didn't. Because Hippo, damn his sarcastic soul, landed like a ballerina's creampuff dream, threw his head up at just the right angle to watch a cow, and lit into a high reaching mile-eating trot that brought me up right beside the cowboss and the segundo.

 

We were all laughing like hell and you could see old Hippo was mighty pleased with himself; and the cowboss looked over at me with a big grin on his face and said, "It's a great life, ain't it, cowboy?"

 

It takes all kinds, boys; relax; enjoy the ride; don't forget to laugh---and let 'er buck!

 

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sisu_suomi said:

The US and its allies finally got the coward. I am really surprised that he gave it up without a fight. Saddam's rhetoric was always that he would duke it out to the end. Hell, his boys showed a lot of pluck. Where was his? Oh well, at least he is being held for trial so the Iraq people can see the SOB go to trial and hopefully be tried sentenced on the terms of THEIR law.

 

If it hasn't been said aleready on this thread. This is a big step in the right direction but IT'S NOT OVER YET!!!!!!!!!! Iraq is now a "failed state" thus a playground for fanatics and terrorist. We created this problem and now we have to fix it.

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marylou said:

There is a strangely "Wag the Dog" element to this story.

 

I suspect that we are not getting the whole story here. It's a little too perfect that the US military would find this guy hiding out in a hole, looking like a bum, and not putting up a fight.

 

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed to pieces for my remarks, but something just is not right. thumbs_down.gif

 

You might be right, remember Jesica Lynch? We will have to wait and see.

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Dave_Schuldt said:

You might be right, remember Jesica Lynch? We will have to wait and see.

 

Yes, I do remember Jessica Lynch. I also remember a national election that got so fucked up that the Supreme Court decided it 5-4. I remember when we violated the Geneva Conventions by invading a country that posed no threat to us. I remember "embedded journalists". I remember there being an ever-changing objective as to why we invaded. I remember the company that the Vice President used to run getting the contracts to rebuild, without there being a bid process. I remember "free speech zones" and the Patriot Act. What about people being held without access to due process in Cuba?

 

There is reason to doubt the veracity of news generated by the current administration. if that makes me a crackpot, then so be it.

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catbirdseat said:

whiskeybreath said:

well, trask emailed me that he's already banned this morning, so it goes. confused.gif

Unban trask right now! So he's a jerk, so what?

 

Ahem...

"CC.Com is here for your enjoyment and enrichment, but what might be funny to you or your friends might not be funny to others or even offensive. This is something that you will have to take into consideration from now on if you aren't already. Unfortunately life is all about compromises and in this case your being here is more of a privilege then a right. I think there is this common misconception here that the moderators are here to babysit some of you folks, giving you a spanking when you step out of line, and then allow you back into the room with the rest of the kids with a sore butt and mouth still tasting like soap. That simply isn't the case. The moderators are here to move topics in the right forum and help keep topics on track. The are spending entirely too much time editing people's mindless garbagelet alone talking about how to deal with it. They put more thought about dealing with it then the people generating it. They are NOT here to keep deleting your insensitive and stupid posts and ban and unban , and ban and unbad."

 

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