On the Road

Just in time for the Instalanche(Welcome fellow Instapundit readers!), I am on the long road of vacation/family visits to places where good internet connections may be lacking. Thus I may miss out on responding to comments.

Please look around the place. I hope you enjoy my new blog endeavor.

-CF

Stray-Rod

I have to admit a little schadenfreude at this story which helps accelerate the NY Yankees demise.

Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez stepped up to the plate with a mysterious, busty blonde in Toronto, as these intimate, exclusive photos reveal.

The cozy duo dined with two pals at a pricey steakhouse late Sunday night, then headed to a glitzy strip club before making their way to his hotel, where the pair ducked into an elevator and headed upstairs just after midnight.

Cynthia Rodriguez - A-Rod's wife and mother of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Natasha - was nowhere to be seen during the slugger's big night out on the town, which occurred the evening before the last-place Bronx Bombers' pathetic 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Doh!

Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo said A-Rod has "never commented on his personal or private life, and he's not going to start now."

So I suppose his wife was his personal life, and the blonde was his private life? The Yankees need a better spokesman too...

Background Checks III

Instapundit points to another fine moment in the recent history of the FBI.

"The FBI's famed National Academy recently expelled a student from a troubled African nation after learning he was not a cop, as he had claimed, The Post has learned. The incident raises serious questions about the FBI's screening process for prospective National Academy students. . . . The 'quiet' Sinie lived, studied at and strolled around the Quantico facility with a still and video camera for 91/2 weeks before he was found not to be a cop, expelled and sent home to Chad, sources said."

If the FBI can't do a background check of some importance, how are we going to doing 20 million on illegal immigrants?

I guess it is a good thing that there is no Al Qaeda types in Chad, who might want to get a lay of the FBI campus for an attack or somesuch....

Ooops.

"And it's not just in Lebanon and Gaza where Qaeda is poking its head up. In a startling interview with the Financial Times, John Negroponte, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said Qaeda is on the move in North Africa, as well as in the Sahel region, in such countries as Chad, Mali and Niger."

People talk about breaking up the CIA, but it might be more beneficial to overhaul the FBI first, as today it seems to be less of a pre-emptive organization and more of a reactive one.

Brick & Mortar Blows

This past weekend, we were out at the local mall (though my wife would content it should be embarrassed to call itself that) to have the 6-month portraits taken of our son. We wandered around to kill time until we could pick up the prints. along the way we stopped at Borders....

For many week now, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has been pushing the book 'The Dangerous Book for Boys', so I figured I would find a copy and check out the hype.

Now I was always a big Borders fan from way back. When I was single and stationed in Hawaii in the early '90s, a big one opened not too far away, and I was hooked. This Borders here though is no great shakes. It is laid out poorly and seems to me to be somewhat disorganized. My visit this time would only reinforce that feeling.

The first thing I did when I arrived was find one of the computerized kiosks, where one can search the inventory. I will give Borders one thing, they have always done this right...until now. After typing in the title, I received 1 return, which I in turn clicked on. This is where I got the following message: "This item may be in stock". May? May?!? I thought the whole point of computerized inventory would be that you had total assurance of what you had in your store. This was no help.

So I decided to look and find it for myself. The computerized listing said it could be found in "Reference : General Reference". Unfortunately I could not any "General Reference" shelf, and the worker nearby did not know either, but knew that "this whole area" was the reference area.

Forget it....Back to Amazon (ie Click & Order vice Brick & Mortar)

UPDATE: I have a friend who loves to tinker with stuff, and has two young sons, and figured that 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' would be perfect for all three of them. So I sent him an email with the suggestion, and got this reply: "That is SO funny - I was in Binghamton, NY this weekend visiting family and my mom gave this book to my cousin for his birthday. He spent the whole weekend doing the magic tricks in the book..." I guess it really is catching on!

Lifes Lessons

Watching Cops tonight, it occurred to me again that one of life's simple lessons is this.

If you are doing/possessing illegal things, and you are in a car, be sure to obey all the traffic laws. You know...signaling lane changes, not having expired tags or blown bulbs. Because it is the little things that get your butt pulled over!

Oh, and one more thing...if you are that dumb...don't run from the police!

Fallen Heroes

Pictures from the tremendous Photo Essay by Daniel Wood.

Hat Tip: Flopping Aces (Who has his own great read)

Best Cartoonist

For my money, the best political cartoonist out there is Michael Ramirez of Investors Business Daily.

Here is this week's sample of this work:

Obama's Glass House

As noted in a Corner post today, Senator Barack Obama stated that he did not believe that the current course in Iraq was not working, and then insulted fellow Senator John McCain with the following statement:

"Senator McCain clearly believe[s] the course we are on in Iraq is working, but I do not.

And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, ten armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll through a market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago."

That is pretty rich. Especially given that Obama asked for early Secret Service protection here in a country where there are no IEDs, suicide bombers, sectarian reprisals, or civil war. All of those things exist in Baghdad, and any American of import will be afforded similar protection from the military, whether they want it or not. While there have been unspecified threats to Obama, if we gave Secret Service protection to every politician who received threats, we would be running thin on agents.

For Obama to make fun of McCain for having tight security seems slightly hypocritical, wouldn't you say?

Guardian Angels for Soldiers Pets

As a military member with 3 dogs, I know how tough it can be to leave them behind. I know before my son was born, the dogs were my kids (and still are). But at least I have a wife who can (and has) stay behind to take care of them.



But what of those deploying service members who don't have anyone to take care of their beloved pets? Enter Guardian Angels for Soldier's Pet.



Right now they are trying to build a Sanctuary, where pets can stay while their humans are deployed. If you feel so inclined, please go and donate.

I just did.

UPDATE: This weekend, also consider contributing your Frequent Flyer miles to family members of injured servicemen, so that they may fly to visit them in the hospital.

Visit HeroMiles.org

Leaving Iraq

CFB bud Noah Shachtman and his preeminent blog Danger Room, points out a couple of great articles on our long term future in Iraq. In other words...our withdrawal. Not the immediate Murtha plan mind you, but the inevitable redeployment of troops when our goals have been established.

While some will reflexively attack any mention of "withdrawal", it would be irresponsible for the military not to think about how to make it happen when the time eventually comes. It is proper and responsible planning.

The first article comes from Army Reserve officer ( and long time blogger) Phil Carter:

Military planners always begin their work by making assumptions to guide their efforts. Before the invasion of Iraq, Pentagon planners assumed we would be "greeted as liberators" and that the troops would be ordered home quickly, and these assumptions resulted in a deeply flawed (or nonexistent) occupation plan. To plan the withdrawal, planners must assume certain things about the security and political situation in Iraq. Given some kind of middle-ground scenario between a totally secure Iraq and utter chaos, which is roughly the situation today, the exit plan might unfold like this....

Also mentioned in Carter's article is an earlier article from Marine father and son team Bing & Owen West, who call for an 'Adviser' model:

How can U.S. soldiers stay in Iraq and accomplish what needs to be done? Our best hope is the Adviser Model. With the surge still under way, Gen. David Petraeus obviously cannot discuss a Plan B. But given U.S. public opinion, a Plan B for 2008 and beyond is a certainty. Its central feature is likely to be the buildup of a combat-advisory corps as our combat units are drawn down.

Read them both.

Also read the following article on how while some want to 'Support the Troops' by bringing them home, the troops want to stay and press the fight:

Haunted by Vietnam, Democrats are determined to express support for the troops. This is admirable. The truth of the matter, however, is this: many troops in Iraq, perhaps even most of them, want to stay and fight. That doesn’t mean that we should stay in Iraq any longer. It does mean, however, that if Democrats want to bridge the divide between themselves and the military—an effort further complicated by their opposition to the war—they’re going to have to recognize that arguing in the name of the troops isn’t going to work.

Thans again to Noah for digging out some great reads...