Brutally Honest

Who knew Jeff could sing like that?

Checking the blogroll tonight and I come across Jeff's post titled Take My Hand, Precious Lord: Huddie sings.

Jeff's a frequent commenter here at Brutally Honest and always welcome.  But after listening to him sing, heck, we'll have to roll out the red carpet from here on out.

Powered by Castpost

Click on the play button and sit back and enjoy a bluesy hymn.

Pretty cool eh?

Is our tolerance killing us?

Mark Steyn thinks so:

That's the great thing about multiculturalism: it doesn't involve knowing anything about other cultures - like, say, the capital of Bhutan or the principal exports of Malaysia, the sort of stuff the old imperialist wallahs used to be well up on. Instead, it just involves feeling warm and fluffy, making bliss out of ignorance. And one notices a subtle evolution in multicultural pieties since the Islamists came along. It was most explicitly addressed by the eminent British lawyer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, QC, who thought that it was too easy to disparage "Islamic fundamentalists". "We as western liberals too often are fundamentalist ourselves. We don't look at our own fundamentalisms."

And what exactly would those western liberal fundamentalisms be? "One of the things that we are too ready to insist upon is that we are the tolerant people and that the intolerance is something that belongs to other countries like Islam. And I'm not sure that's true."

Hmm. Kennedy appears to be arguing that our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people's intolerance, which is intolerable. Thus the lop-sided valse macabre of our times: the more the Islamists step on our toes, the more we waltz them gaily round the room. I would like to think that the newly fortified Age columnists are representative of the culture's mood, but, if I had to bet, I'd put my money on Kennedy: anyone can be tolerant of the tolerant, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists. Australia's old cultural cringe had a certain market rationality; the new multicultural cringe is pure nihilism.

Bravo Mark, bravo... but are we listening?

I don't think so.

Epistles on Prayer

I've found two doozies I think we all should read while sipping the java.

Real Live Preacher waxes eloquent on being silent before God:

I can't imagine absolute silence, neither can I hear it. Even when I'm in a quiet place, my mind produces its own ghostly, seashell sound. The noise in my head is a faint but high-pitched whine accompanied by a lower rumbling that sounds like an engine pulsing away in the distance. These seem to be the default sounds of my brain. It's what I hear when there is nothing else to hear.

About the closest you can come to silence is to become silent yourself and hope for the best. Close your eyes and forsake your vision. Let go of sight and your desperate need to see. Embrace hearing and you will begin to notice the many layers of the sounds around you.

I became silent on the evening of July 11, 2005, while sitting in a swing hanging from a tree at Laity Lodge, a retreat center in the hill country of Texas. I became silent and told God that I would listen to everything and hoped to hear from him.

This is the prayer that I thought that night. "I am listening, Lord. This is my only prayer tonight. I wonder, do you sometimes speak to doubtful and wayward boys like me?"

Go and read the rest... attentively.  Honestly, you should.

If that isn't enough to satisfy your daily yearning for God and things of God, then take a moment (and be sure to have perhaps a second or third cup of the mojo) and go read Mr. Vanderleun's very thoughtful piece on prayer:

For a certain type of extremely stupid smart and educated person, prayer is something to be sneered at their entire life right up to the moment when they see the intergalactic candle snuffer descending on their head or the head of those they love. At this point, it is the rare wiseguy who does not spontaneously discover his or her capacity for prayer. Indeed, it strikes me that it is often the agnostic or the atheist who become the most voluble bargainer with God under unfortunate circumstances. Lord knows, I was.

It is only recently that I've come, in my dotage, to see that prayer -- even unheard or unanswered -- can be a powerful intellectual force in one's life. And by this I mean prayer in its most personally humiliating and elevating form: down on the knees and speaking out loud. Daily. Very abasing and very uplifting at one and the same time.

For most of the time, answers come there none. But that's the way of prayer. If prayer were the vending machine of God, we'd spend all our time on our knees between meals and lovemaking and let basic maintenance of roofs and refrigeration go to Hell. Nope, prayer as a constant begets random answers, and not always the straight-forward ones we were looking for, because we are a very simple Smart Monkey.

Indeed, it has occurred to me, in my very dim monkey brain, that prayer can work even if God Himself does not exist. Yes, He's just that clever. Prayer seems to be a need hard-wired into our limited cortex. If you doubt this, please go out and sit under an artillery barrage for an hour or two and then come back to continue this discussion.

As I was saying, prayer -- with or without God -- makes us stronger and our desires and abilities more focussed just by happening. As a result, things you pray for tend to happen to you more often than things you don't pray for simply because your abilities are more concentrated on the outcome. Pretty clever wiring for a God who does not exist.

That one needs to be digested in its entirety.  Trust me.

The Iraq War and the Media's attempts to ensure defeat

It's a foregone conclusion that many in the MSM, either willfully or ignorantly, are contributing to and enabling the wrong side in the U.S. and Iraqi fight against terrorists.

Reynolds has linked to this Michael Fumento piece that substantiates the charge:

Editorial page associate editor Mark Yost at the Knight-Ridder newspaper the St. Paul Pioneer Press committed a major boo-boo. He penned a provocative column on media coverage of the Iraq war, observing that from what his contacts there told him – with apologies to Johnny Mercer – the mainstream media are accentuating the negative and ignoring the positive.

Yost couldn’t have imagined he was bathing in blood and throwing himself into the shark pen. His media colleagues were merciless. “With your column, you have spat on the copy of the brave men and women who are doing their best in terrible conditions,” reporter Chuck Laszewski at the same newspaper charged in an open letter. “You have insulted them and demeaned them,” he wrote. “I am embarrassed to call you my colleague.”

Knight-Ridder D.C. Bureau Chief Clark Hoyt devoted a column to a Yost roast, taking time out only to slam U.S. progress in Iraq. To read it is to know exactly why so many Americans believe we can’t trust the media to fairly cover the war.

OF COURSE the war coverage is slanted: The adage "If it bleeds it leads" doesn’t halt at the Iraqi border. That's why when two small shells land in a barren section of city the size of Boston CNN.com blares: "Blasts rock Baghdad near coalition headquarters" whereas the completion of an electrification program or water main gets not a column inch.

It was the very obviousness of Yost’s observation that led to vicious attacks attempting to either show there is no bias or that alternatively there is a bias but it’s justified.

Which brings us to Gerard's timely reminder that there are indeed voices in theatre who are worthy, who are aware of the high stakes, who we should do our level best to read and to turn others on to reading:

MICHAEL YON CONTINUES to emerge as the single best combat reporter on the ground in Iraq today with items such as "Welcome Aboard"...

... and the extremely informative and illuminating "Empty Jars"

... Again, it speaks volumes about the mainstream media's inability to cover this war accurately, when one committed journalist with little support and no large media affiliation, is able to produce week in and week out, writing that hasn't been seen since the days of Ernie Pyle .

Yon received my whole hearted endorsement a few weeks back. I'm hoping those who stop by here will make sure that he is part of your regular feed for news from that region and that you are doing your level best to turn others on to him.

I think it to be of utmost importance.

Employment Opportunities for Regular Joes

Roscoe and I may need to form a partnership of sorts.

Drinks companies have been ordered to hire paunchy, balding men for advertisements to meet new rules forbidding any link between women’s drinking and sex. Watchdogs have issued a list of undesirable male characteristics that advertisers must abide by in order to comply with tougher rules designed to separate alcohol from sexual success.

Lambrini, the popular sparkling drink, is the first to suffer. Its manufacturers have complained after watchdogs rejected its latest campaign because it depicted women flirting with a man who was deemed too attractive.

The offending poster featured three women “hooking” a slim, young man in a parody of a fairground game scene. Harmless fun to lead its summer campaign, Lambrini argued.

But the Committee of Advertising Practice declared: “We would advise that the man in the picture should be unattractive — overweight, middle-aged, balding etc.”

Affirmative action for guys like me...  and the possibility of a second career for stud muffins who've come of age...

Ain't life grand?

Hey Helen... promise?

Helen Thomas has fallen and she's not getting up:

I'm sure Helen Thomas, a veteran wire reporter, doesn't really plan to kill her herself if Dick Cheney decided to run for president, but she has indeed pledged to do so.

"The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself," she told the HILL. "All we need is one more liar."
Thomas added, "I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does."

Let's all agree that we wouldn't want to see Helen commit suicide.  That's a bit... over the top...

But hey Helen, many of us wouldn't mind if your career came to an untimely demise.

I think it might even qualify as a mercy killing, something many of your leftist friends seem to be enamored with.

As Citizen Smash has put it: Run Dick Run!

UPDATE:  Drudge is reporting that Helen is upset with the media:

White House press doyenne Helen Thomas is plenty peeved at her longtime friend Albert Eisele, editor of THE HILL newspaper in Washington, D.C.

In a column this week headlined "Reporter: Cheney's Not Presidential Material," Eisele quoted Thomas as saying "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is one more liar."

Thomas also said: "I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does," according to Eisele's column.

But Thomas said yesterday at the White House that her comments to Eisele were for his ears only. "I'll never talk to a reporter again!" Thomas was overheard saying.

"We were just talking -- I was ranting -- and he wrote about it. That isn't right. We all say stuff we don't want printed," Thomas said.

But Eisele said that when he called Thomas, "I assume she knew that we were on the record."

"She's obviously very upset about it, but it was a small item -- until Drudge picked it up and broadcast it across the universe," Eisele said.

Still, he noted that reporters aren't that happy when the tables are turned. "Nobody has thinner skin than reporters," Eisele said with a laugh.

Ok... she's upset with the media... but one wonders why Drudge chose to air a picture of Dick Cheney in drag...

Caught Up In the Web of Support

You might remember this post where I outlined my hope to be involved with Chris' Web of Support.

Mrs. Brutally Honest and I had the pleasure of meeting with Chris, Kyle and Ryan last night.  It would be most understated to say that we were impressed with these young men.  Chris and Ryan served together for one year in Iraq with the Army Reserves.  Kyle is a college buddy heading for law school in the fall.  The three of them should give hope to all who might be worried about America's future.

We swapped personal stories, talked about politics and religion, ate a great meal, laughed (mostly), shared an occasional sobering moment and simply had an enjoyable evening. 

These three outstanding men are roughly halfway through their nationwide tour.  Be sure to keep yourselves posted by following their journey over at Chris' place (and do check there daily).

It was an enormous honor to spend nearly 4 hours with two soon to be lawyers and one potential pastor.

I hope to have a few pictures posted soon of our meeting.  In the meantime, I implore all readers to click on the BlogAds on the left side of the screen.  They provide solid ways our military can be supported.

And may God lead, guide, protect and tangibly manifest His presence to Chris, Ryan, Kyle and all those involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider war on terror.

Amen.

UPDATE:  Pictures are up.

MORE: Chris has comments up as to his visit, with pics.  And Ollie North mentions Chris in his missive directed at Jane Fonda.

AND STILL MORE: Chris has a forum up over at his site.  For those interested, come on by and have some fun.

Japanese develop 'female' android

Interesting:

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.

One day? 

I think we beat the Japanese some time ago.

Heh.

Muted

I've been mulling over posting on something a tad personal... and at this point, I'm deciding to hold off... but while I mute myself, and in the interest of keeping you folks interested in things that interest me, I'm sending you over to other places.

First there's Gerard, who'll tickle your science bone (and perhaps your inner ear) with the rather eerie (and frightening) sound made by an earthquake.  But not just any earthquake.

And then there's Tony.  He'll tickle your heart bone.  Promise.

La Shawn is being nice about Jane Fonda's latest support the troops effort. 

Michael Yon takes us into The Devil's Foyer.

And I end this post by having you folks stare into the face of evil just before, thank God, evil is thwarted.

Good night.

How not to support the troops

Perusing the blogroll (and attempting to catch up after a week's vacation) I come across these two related items.

First from The Indepundit, this link to a story that ought to enrage us all:

The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

Rhonda Goodrich of Indiana, Pa., said yesterday that a funeral was held Tuesday at a church in Carnegie for her brother-in-law, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32.

She said he "died bravely and courageously in Iraq on July 10, serving his country."

In a phone interview, Goodrich said the funeral service was packed with people "who wanted to tell his family how Joe had impacted their lives."

Then, suddenly, "one uninvited guest made an appearance, Catherine Baker Knoll."

She sat down next to a Goodrich family member and, during the distribution of communion, said, "Who are you?" Then she handed the family member one of her business cards, which Goodrich said she still has.

"Knoll felt this was an appropriate time to campaign and impose her will on us," Goodrich said. "I am amazed and disgusted Knoll finds a Marine funeral a prime place to campaign."

Then from Reynolds, this link to an oped with cogent thoughts from David Lucas, who earned a Bronze Star while seeing action in Iraq:

As I read the letters in a recent Sunday Perspective section which were, for the most part, very anti-war, I could not help but feel a great deal of frustration and sadness for the people who wrote them and those who share their views. The letter writers said things such as, "This war is almost a carbon copy of the Vietnam War," "Bush lied to America," and my favorite, "Let's support our troops. Bring them home."

These are some of the most ridiculous statements I have read in over a year. Why in over a year? Because I just returned home after spending 367 days patrolling the streets in downtown Baghdad with the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

...

I know that the war my men and I fought is a totally different war than the one I see being reported by almost the entire media. There are a few exceptions to this, but they are generally overwhelmed by the massive anti-war/anti-Bush crowd.

"Bush lied to America" is not only false, but it is laughable. Every single major intelligence agency in the world agreed that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Virtually every politician, regardless of party affiliation, agreed that he had them and went on record as saying such.

...

"Let's support our troops. Bring them home." Please don't ever say those words again. Nothing is so disheartening to our troops who are in harm's way than to hear our own citizens say things like that.

...

As I said before, there are two different wars being fought: the war in Iraq and the war being reported in the media. Very few times are the great things that are being done in Iraq reported on because they do not grab the headlines or the ratings that casualties do.

...

I will wrap this up by saying that you are entitled to your beliefs, and you should believe in whatever you want, but don't pretend to know what you are talking about just because you have watched 30 minutes of CNN the night before. Go and talk to the people who have been there — not the people who make assumptions from a TV studio — and then form your opinion based on facts.

Don't pretend to support troops by trying to undercut their efforts at the same time. Just go to bed at night and pray for their safety and thank God that they are there to protect you and your family, no matter your beliefs.

Amen Lt. Lucas... amen.