The Enemy's Flag 

or 

A Star Spangled Facepalm

This is the American flag, and it should fly high and proud above every government building. There was a point, not so many years ago, that this flag flew from damn near every house in the nation. We flew it because we felt a bit of unity. We were one people. We were one people.
Most of us have taken a pledge to uphold this flag. We raised our hands daily and spoke the same pledge. I meant it. I am a Patriot, and this is the symbol of my pride.

On Flying the Enemy Flag

The United States of America has made enemies over the many years that we have been a nation. We have fought the Nazis, the Viet-cong, and the North Koreans. We have also fought a group among us who wished to destroy our nation, the Confederates.

If I see an Al Queda flag flying above a government building, I'm going to freak out! If I see a North Korean flag flying above the state capitol, I might have to scream. If I see a Nazi flag flying over even a post office, I might get violent.



 The rebel flag stood for those who wished to break the union. They wanted to prove us divisible. They were slave owners, as were the men who wrote our constitution. I will not forgive them for that, but it was the attack against our nation that earned them the far most potent title of "Enemy". They were not successful then, but now others take up their flag.

South Carolina, USA

Now, you people in South Carolina have been flying an enemy flag over your capitol building for years. Enemy fucking flag....for fucking years.
Flying an enemy flag over a building means that building has fallen to the enemy, and maybe that is an appropriate truth in South Carolina. It looks that way in all the pictures I have seen.
You politicians are lucky that the president did not send the Army in to conquer your rebellion the moment the enemy flag was hoisted over the capitol building.
This isn't about racism or someone being offended. Every single American who swore an oath to our flag should be offended. If you get mad when you see someone step on the U.S. Flag, this should really infuriate you.

Flying a flag is a declaration of allegiance. Flying a flag above your government buildings has real meaning. Flying a rebel flag above your state capitol says only one thing: We are in rebellion. This is not your trailer park. Keep the enemy flags off of our nation's buildings!

Second Amendment

We debated these laws on guns for so long, and for what purpose? To stop people from hoisting enemy flags over our buildings. To stop people from threatening our union.
Now where are you? Where are your guns and militias? Why aren't you marching over to stop the government from falling to outside forces?


The truth is that we are losing our unity. We are becoming a nation of people without a nation. We have people flying enemy flags above us, and we are debating if people have the right to be offended because the enemy army owned slaves. Wake up people. 

How to Choose an American President: A Non-Partisan Guide (Single Page Article)

How to Choose an American President:

 A Non-Partisan Guide

The next Presidency is going to be monumental, 

        for better or worse.

I cannot stress enough how important this presidential election is for our nation. We stand on the edge of moving forward into greatness once more, or sliding back into depression and hardship. It is completely possible for the United States of America to lose her place as a world power. Our next few steps are treacherous, and they may make us great or lay us low. 

We live in an era of continued conflict among our own people as well as conflict abroad. Racial and religious tension is the order of the day. Police brutality, on-going religious struggles, and immigration control are this generation's challenges. A President must be able to guide our nation to tackle these issues, all while balancing the budget and visiting foreign dignitaries. Our generation is fighting the good fight against both foreign aggression and civil unrest. The indivisibility of our nation is being tested. As things heat up, change is inevitable. The next President we choose will head our ship during this storm, for better or worse. Please choose wisely.

Choosing a Leader

First and foremost, I should establish what it is that we want in a leader. The basic answer is: We want someone in office who is good for all of America. 
 It is very tempting to simply choose the candidate that will fight for your group. Rich, poor, entrepreneur, working class, or immigrant, but as the most advanced people on the globe we must resist the easy road. What is good for America is good for her people. When businesses make more money, there are more jobs. When the poor are fed, crime goes down, and the businesses make more money. Choose a president who is going to represent the entire nation rather than pander to her own clique. It is your responsibility if you step into the voting booth to choose wisely. We cannot afford a poor leader.

With the obvious stuff out of the way:

      What should I look for in a candidate?

Objectivity, Honesty, Willpower

   A candidate should respond to questions he is asked by answering the question, directly and fully. A President needs to be concise and detailed. Many candidates will respond to a question about Taxes with a long version of, "Yes, I do love America." 
A question dodger is a deceptive person by nature, and should not be trusted with an important office. If he doesn't answer your questions before he becomes President, he certainly will not answer them afterward.  Look for a candidate that tackles the hard questions and is not ashamed of his stance. A candidate should not flip flop or "put on an accent". The American President needs to be a person of extreme virtue. A President should represent America and exalt America's ideals. We believe in honesty and hard-work, I'm fairly certain, and our leader should send that message everytime she takes the podium.

On a side note: Politicians are rarely trust-worthy, and there have been lots of Presidents that were not politicians.

All the News is so Biased! Where do I get the Straight Dope?!

Read every source you can find with an open mind. There is no one source for news or info that is completely non-biased. Humans have opinions, and news comes from humans. The only logical solution is to watch ALL the news, or at least a bunch of it. Read the internet. Trust the sources that don't exaggerate. When a source makes a statement that one candidate wants to "destroy America" or something as ridiculous, quit listening and move on to another source. Remember, the quality of your source of information is the quality of your wisdom. The US Government is not an arena that can forgive exaggeration or "misspoken" words. 
Read and watch and learn and most importantly, do not "buy in" to one source. There are few larger mistakes that a person can make than to fully trust one source of information. 

What about Network News? 

The bigger, the better, right?

A million ways to die on the television.

Watch some Republican News and watch some Democratic News. Remember that the networks exist to make money, not to inform people accurately. 
Compare what each group has to say about your candidate. There is probably a hint of truth to what your candidate's opponent's are saying. You will learn a great deal about your candidate from the way each news source portrays them.
Then look deeper. Newspapers and forums have a multitude of thoughts and opinions. Dive on in!

"I heard Honey Boo Boo is Running! WHEW!"

Ya'll ever herd a dat shit called sandwichs? They are like, the shit.

Do not listen to actors and artists simply for the fact that they are famous. Let's be honest, most of them are no more qualified than you or I. Hear what they have to say, perhaps. Just don't drink the Kool-aid. Artists are often passionate and well spoken, but for the most part they live a different life than the rest of us. It is difficult for them to understand the needs of the rest of Americans.

Sleep On It

Watch a candidate that you are following speak at several locations. Judge your candidate's commitment. Does your candidate promise or promote different things at different venues? Does your candidate even visit a wide range of listeners? The President is the leader of all Americans. Despite partisan and political ties, a President needs to hear all of the people that he will represent.

Haters.....Gonna.....Hate   

Try your very best to ignore mud slinging. Candidates commonly revert to this tactic in the later phase of campaigning, but it can take place anytime. Try to ignore the mud-slingers as well. A person who makes enemies quicker than friends is not a person we need leading our diverse culture. 

It's getting HOT in here....

Looks DO Matter

Our President will compete on a Global scale. His pose and demeanor will be the face of America. We do not want a messy or haggard person to represent our nation. We are a good and strong people,  Our President must be good and strong as well.

With great power...

  If you do choose to cast your vote, I ask you as a person and an American to give your every effort to examine your candidate honestly and without bias. Please do not simply vote for Red or Blue. If the candidate chosen by the Republicans or Democrats is not a worthy candidate, there are independents who stand a real chance with modern social media and internet. I would rather vote for myself than know I helped a fool into office.

LIKE AND SHARE THIS IF YOU ENJOYED THE ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

DGF BADGE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Dream of Iraqi Sheep

I DREAM OF IRAQI SHEEP

by Robert S. Strength

Photos taken by author. 

Panoramic of Motorpool 1-41 '04

Life with the Roadhogs 1-41 INF

    I suppose that readers will want a war story. I am a veteran and I guess I should write some of my experiences down. I'm not going to talk about the bombs or mortars, gunfire or lost heroes. Those moments are like snapshots of a movie that I wasn't paying attention to. It was all fear and confusion and ducking. Lots of ducking.

Instead, I would rather write about something that conveys the very lifestyle of a wartime convoy gunner/driver. I was a member of a support platoon. Support is not supply. They are close to the same, with one big difference; we hauled the stuff that blows up, right to the edge of the battle. We supplied the fighters with fuel and ammunition, as well as medical supplies and other wartime needs. During the invasion in '03 we stocked our trucks with gas and ammo and drifted out on the far edge of the battle. During the occupation a year later, things were different. We delivered supplies from one base to another and assisted in patrols and general operations. It was a good job, even though the enemy tried to blow us up a few times. They shot at us now and again, but mostly it was long hours riding through a foreign nation. Sometimes we would be stuck in traffic for hours, sometimes we would roll along like a road trip. During the occupation we would return at night to an astoundingly civil Camp Liberty. The Burger King Trailer was across the plaza from the Bazaar, which was filled with local merchants granted permission to ply their wares inside the gates. My home was a trailer style structure with three rooms, each with its own doorway and air conditioner. I shared my ten foot by ten foot air conditioned room with a peer and friend, Graser.

We did not run a convoy every day, but most of my time was spent on the road. I would drive large cargo trucks down the highways and compete in the snarls of traffic for a spot for my dangerously over-sized vehicle. I would sit in the gunner seat on other missions and try not to pass out from the heat. It is a full-time job, as many gunners will agree, to simply stay watchful for so many hours while staring at the radiant sands and desert roads, watching fretfully for signs of bombs or ambush, all the while soaked in the raw sun. The wind may seem as if it would provide some respite from the heat, but air temperatures as high as 135 degrees Fahrenheit do not cool your skin. The arid wind strips any precious sweat from your skin and leaves you exposed and unable to cool yourself off. There was an ever-present threat that in the midst of a 10+ hour trip, sweating still and so weak I was tempting sleep, our convoy might have found ourselves ambushed or bombed. My job as driver or gunner was to resist the rigors of the desert and be ready. With our superior firepower, training, and readiness we had such a powerful advantage that I could reliably survive. I only needed to wait, ever so patiently, for that moment to arrive.

Operation Sheep Ninja

(Not the actual name of the operation.)

The story I want to tell is about a midnight mission. I was lying in my room on a base near Sadr City, the huge slums of Baghdad. It's where most of the population lives, and it is poorer and more desperate than any ghetto in America. When we arrived in country, there was a street in Sadr City with a busted sewage line that poured the foul waste from millions of people onto the street. The people of Sadr City, unable to fix the problem, had used plywood and scrap to contain the flow to one street.
I was in my room in the barracks that we had acquired from the local college, watching Sopranos on a bootleg disk purchased from the Bazaar, and there was a knock on my door. My superiors regularly came by with news and mission changes, and so I took no special note. I answered the door in my shorts and a smile. On the other side of that door was my Company Commander. Cpt Stubenhofer was fully dressed for a mission, with a rifle in hand. He recognized me as a driver and nodded as if making a decision. He said, "Suit up. I need a Humvee driver."
One fact about the military is that your plans can change very quickly. I did as I was told. It was very unusual for the Commander to come get me directly. I rarely dealt with him, though I knew him through work as the man who's signature I needed.
I was outside as quick as I could get dressed and ready. I had no clue what to expect. We never did convoys at night, because of the added risk. This mission was different.
Outside was a group of armed and ready soldiers who I knew by name but rarely worked with directly. They were standing near Humvees in a loose circle, listening to the commander explain the mission. I came in on the briefing and learned what I would be doing that night. I was going to deliver sheep to some hungry Iraqis.
I had seen the sheep for several days in the motor pool. We had built a pin from pallets and put about 30 sheep inside. I had no clue at the time I was building the corral that I would be delivering the sheep into Sadr City. It was a worthy mission, but I couldn't help wondering why were we doing it at such a late hour. Sadr City was not a place for a midnight drive. The standard dangers of city combat were complicated by the darkness. We had spotlights and night vision, but those amenities are no substitute for the sun.
The reason for the night run was that we were delivering sheep to the people, and not to the priests who controlled food distribution. Even among the people who were happy to see America take down Saddam there was a deep sense of religious separation. The different sects of Islam were in such a state of feud that priests would horde the food for their own sect, letting the other starve. Imagine a world where neighborhoods purposefully starved each other.

The White Hat

No sheep were harmed!

It was a covert mission. Our truck and one other Humvee would break away from a convoy and slink into the city in black-out drive. Black-out drive means no lights. The stars and night vision goggles would be my only source of vision. I cannot stress enough how difficult it is to drive with night vision goggles strapped to your face. You have absolutely no depth perception. Everything is a slightly blurred fog of green. It promised to be a long and arduous night.
I helped load the sheep, fitting about 15 inside each Humvee's little bed. We laid a flat slice of plywood over the bed of the Humvee and lashed it down.
With no gunner on either Humvee, we were armed only with the light weapons that each soldier was issued. We left the gate with two Bradley fighting vehicles and made our way to Sadr City. It was a short ride of thirty minutes slowly chugging along behind a tank-style tracked fighting vehicle.
The roads were strangely clear that night. I did not go out on the streets often at night, and felt an eerie dread at the stillness of the dark. Cpt Stubenhoffer was my passenger sitting shotgun, and he gave me the go ahead to break away from the Bradleys once we were deep into the slums. Sadr City is unlike any place I have ever been. Click this link for a map of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. The buildings seem to join and form blocks, and the alleys and pathways are unpredictable. The smell of burning tires fouled the air, and the sound of gunfire rang out in intervals through the streets.
The staccato bursts of weaponry, punctuated by explosions, would echo down the false canyons formed by the blocks of buildings, giving me the impression that the war was being fought around every corner. We slid into alleys and my commander would order me to peek around corners. We pushed across open streets, and the Humvee behind us followed closely, hugging our tail to keep our exposure low.
In the streets of Sadr City, there was fighting every night. The armored tanks and fortified positions were dangerous targets for the rpgs and light arms that the enemy was equipped with. Two little trucks without gunners was a prime target, and we knew it.
I steered the rumbling truck through the alleys in the dark. I followed every command with a pounding heart. We made it to the courtyard we had chosen to deliver the sheep. I cannot tell you the number of streets we passed. The courtyard was in the center of a complex of buildings, both businesses and homes. We pulled in and shut the trucks down. The people of Sadr City who we had come to help had been stashed away in the buildings and awnings of the courtyard, and in moments they had surrounded our vehicles. They were as eager as we were to have our business done and return to their homes. It's not safe for anyone at night in Sadr city.

The Slums of War

Blackout Drive

Cpt Stubenhofer looked at me and said, in the logical calmness that good leaders exhibit, "Keep your rifle slung, but keep it ready. Come on, let's hand out some livestock."
I opened the door and pulled my rifle from it's latch. I slung it across my back and stepped into the crowd. We had asked the people to shut off their lights to allow us the best possible shroud for the exchange, and the entire courtyard was devoid of electric light. The moon must have been slim or black, because I stood among people and could not see them. Only the whisper of black Arabic linen evidenced their presence in the dark. I walked slowly to the back of the truck. I was nervous, but they were coming up to me and touching my arms. I cannot remember the words they said, but by their tone I could tell they were saying, "Thank You."
Each sheep surely meant survival to those men and women. I pulled the plywood free of the truck and climbed up. I handed the sheep to my commander, who handed them to the heads of each household. I could hear tears and thank yous that didn't need to be spoken in my language to touch my heart.
The truck was empty quickly, and the plywood we left for whatever use they could find for it.
When we were finished, we pulled the Humvees out of the courtyard and onto the street and moved fast. Cpt Stubenhofer told me to take the larger roads and get the Humvee up to speed.
We left Sadr City a little better than we found it that night, and no worse for wear ourselves. We rejoined the Bradleys and drove back to base. Once inside the wire, I made a midnight trip to the chow hall. They always serve pancakes at midnight. It's one of life's little joys.
That night was the last time I worked with Captain Stubenhofer. I know I said I wouldn't speak of lost heroes, but I lied. My commander was shot down some time later while helping protect engineers while they fixed a gas station for the people of Sadr City. His loss is a hateful, bitter feeling. I never truly knew the man. To me he was, and always will be, the man who came and got me in the middle of the night for a crazy mission to the slums of war. He took me there to do a kindness for people we would never know. He risked my life, and I never thanked him.

Captain Mark Stubenhofer

Oh, How Little We Know!

The exploration is only starting:

  Science is a method of learning. That is the only thing the word science means. It is not a collection of knowledge, and it doesn't have an opinion. A very common turn of phrase is that "Science says..." this or that. Science doesn't say anything. Science is a method to learn empirically (100% certainty), and that is all.

Oh, How Little We Know

    It is very important for modern people to understand what science is and the extents and limitations of our knowledge. The modern system of education leads us to approach science with an institutional mindset. By nature, our system of education has become standardized, and we tend to adopt a mindset that everyone is running on the same set of knowledge. When scientists prove something, we imagine it joins the collection of human knowledge and bumps out any old ignorant facts that were there before it. The truth is that each book and journal written is written by human beings, subject to mistakes and misinterpretations, if not simply bad science. Each scientist has learned from their own set of experiences and mistakes. Even two people who see the same tests can interpret the results differently.
   For every accepted theory, there are many that are wrong. We have a very rudimentary understanding of many of the aspects of our universe. Energy is one of those things.

"Magic" is merely the unknown.

  Imagine for a moment that you could cast a magical spell. It can be any spell you like, though I prefer a classic Fireball. If you were to go around and test your spell on different things (and people!) to see what different effects it had, you would be practicing science. If magic existed, Scientists would study it and test it until they knew everything they could. Magic would join the ranks of human knowledge. It's effects, purpose, reason, scope, and source would all be documented and discovered. Afterward, "magic" would no longer be magic. It would simply be an effect of the natural universe that we understood. 

   Now reverse the idea, and apply the same concepts to energy. The energy that flows through the power-lines, the signals in your computer, and even the tiny bursts of energy that form thought in an organic brain are all forms of electricity. Energy is everything.
   That same energy creates magnetic forces, gravity, and the bonds that hold Atoms together. Atoms consist of the same energy that binds them, in another form. We have a great deal of knowledge about its effects and function, but what do we know about its source?

...and we are woefully wrong...   

      

   How much can we really know about this seemingly mystical energy that is everything and makes everything happen? We know a great deal about its effect and functions. We know how to use it for our benefit, but we have no idea how it got here, or how it came to explode out of the nothingness and make everything there is. By humanity's best guess, there is about four times as much energy out there in the universe as we can even detect yet! We call that undetectable energy Dark Matter. Dark Matter might not exist, however, the term is just a stand in for our complete lack of understanding. It could be there, our measurements could be flawed, or our basic understanding of physics could be wrong. We just don't know.

There is Magic in Our World

   What test can possibly be applied to discern the origin of...well...everything. In the most accepted model of the universe's creation, there is no explanation for the source of that energy. We generally accept that there was a big bang that came from one single point. How the energy got there is anyone's guess. As far as we understand it, we'll never be able to measure anything further back than that point. The big bang acts as a barrier in science that can cause even the most tempered mind to fantasize about God.
   As far as we understand, all the energy that exists has always existed. The reason a Fireball will never fly from my finger-tips is that there is no cause for it to happen. What cause is there for energy to exist? It is here forever, changeable and fluid in it's properties, yet lossless and permanent.

Tesla Coil in Action

  Magic is defined as the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. If we do not understand the source, but only the effects of energy, it is mystical. I believe that energy can be accurately called magic.

  We use electricity, one manifestation of energy, to power our computers and our lights. We use that energy to influence the course of events every time we turn on the air conditioner.

   Without joking, I am telling you that you use a magical computer to check your email. You drive a car to work that is powered by energy released when gasoline is heated with another burst of magic....um....energy.
   Obviously no one is going to start summoning demons or seeing the future in crystal balls, but there is still magic in the world. There are so many things to discover, and we humans have so much more in store for us beyond microwave ovens and color TVs. We haven't even left the nest. We are children. My son and his son and his son after will still be children. Technology is the new frontier, and only a couple hundred years old at best.
   Go out into the world learn. Remember that magic is ignorance, and humility is the first step toward enlightenment.