South City Midnight Lady

No time to blog lately. Take some time and listen to one of my life-long favorite ballads.

The Doobie Brothers

Up all night I could not sleep
The whiskey that I drank was cheap
With shakin hands I went and I lit up my last cigarette

Well the sun came, night had fled
And sleepy eyed I reached my bed
I saw you sleepy dreamin there all covered and warm

South city midnight lady
I'm much obliged indeed
You sure have saved this man whose soul was in need
I thought there was no reason
For all these things I do
But the smile that I sent out returned with you

When day has left the night behind
And shadows roll across my mind
I sometimes find myself alone out walkin the street
Yes, and when I'm feelin down and blue
Then all I do is think of you
And all my foolish problems seem to fade away

South city midnight lady
I'm much obliged indeed
You sure have saved this man whose soul was in need
I thought there was no reason
For all these things I do
But the smile that I sent out returned with you

Finally! Some closure.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/18/body_identified_as_gay_lover_of_edward_ii/4841/

English authorities have discovered and unearthed the body of the man suspected to be the gay lover of Edward II of England. The man mysteriously disappeared in 1326. I'm assuming that was the year, and not almost a half past 1 pm military time.

I can't tell you the number of times I've had my children and grandchildren on my knee, telling them the fascinating unsolved mystery of Edward II, and his faithful companion (Ward? Servant? BFF?).

Now it has been solved, once and for all. Thank goodness England isn't spending their money on fruitless pursuits, such as the militant Islamic force that grows daily in their country. Instead, they're spending their money wisely, investigating and bringing to closure a 700 year old mystery.

God Bless the Queen !

As sure as the Sun rises

How to get your Blog read by dozens, daily:

5. Post drawings done by children, complete with cute and amusing anecdotes about the horrors of changing diapers and chasing school buses down suburbia's streets. Chance of readership: 20%

4. Avoid topics that stir argumentative thought or emotion. Make it an essential requirement of your blog to use only 3 syllable words, unless they are words like "Philadelphia" and "Delicatessen". Chance of readership: 37%

3. Post lots of pictures of birds, squirrels on fence tops, and your amazing vacation trip to the Carlsbad Canyons. Explain to all of us - once and for all - the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite. Chance of readership: 51%

2. Use the word "sex" in your blog title, and talk publicly about the things you like to do in the bedroom or wherever. Chance of readership: 72%

1. Write an anti-male, "How come all 3 billion men on the planet are totally screwed up and don't like me?" blog. Hundreds women, all in the same state of affairs, will commiserate with you, telling you how much they too are delightful to be around, and how they cannot explain why all 3 billion men on the planet too stupid to see this. This will in turn, cause hundreds more to send you advice, telling you how they - charming, beautiful, and a "real catch" - handle the 3 billion or so males on the planet that are obviously so blind and brain dead, they can't see the Forrest through the football game. Talk of such things like his inablility to recognize snuggling time, and by no means ever become the least bit introspective with regards to your own attitudes and behaviors. Lay blame squarely on the male of the species, and you will develop friendships in kind from thousands floating in the same Titanic-like row boats you are in. Your blog will be more popular than Lindsay Lohan at the Tuesday night AA meeting on Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills. Chance of readership: 98%

What? The truth hurts? Always has, hasn't it?

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!

Remember that phrase? "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"? It was from the Wizard of Oz, and it showed us all there was no great and powerful Oz...just some dude throwning switches. Such is - sadly - the case when you go to Disney World. You think you're in Orlando, but you're not. You're actually in one of the seven theme parks that make up "Greater Orlando", only 1 of which is actual Orlando itself.

The first theme park is the area where Disney, Sea World, and Universal Studios are. No need to elaborate, except to point out that they are actually in Kissimmee, which is a Seminole Indian word meaning, "Three T-shirt...10 Dollah."

The 2nd theme park is located west of Orlando and north of Disney. This park is called, "The Tiger Woods Experience". If you make $50 million annually, with no ceiling on your earnings, you can take part in the TWE. Nothing but "A-Listers" in sports and hollywood living here. Arnold Palmer, Westley Snipes, Tiger...you get the picture.

Theme park 3 is located east, southeast of the city, and is known as "The B-list Expess." These are the poor and unfortunate athletes and tv people that make $25 million a year, but not $50 million as a base. Annika Sorrenstam of LPGA fame is an example of a resident.

The fourth theme park, running east to west across the entire north of the actual Orlando, taking in cities such as Apopka, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Longwood, Lake Mary, Oviedo, and Sanford, is called "Caucasianland." Caucasionland is where the working middle, uppper middle, and moderately upper class permanent Florida residents live. I in fact, live in Caucasionland. It takes about $100,000.00 to $5 million a year to live here.

All the above are what you see in the tv ads, the tv shows, the brochures, etc., and they call themselves Orlando. But they're not.

Two more theme parks lie to the Northwest and the due south of actual Orlando. To the northwest, you have "The Animal Kingdom." Nooooooo, not that animal kingdom....this one. They are family owned and family run farms; have been for 150 or so years. Cattle, pigs, horses, etc. They are self supporting and staunchly country in nature.

The sixth theme park is due south, and runs east to west like Caucasionland does. It's where the last vestiges of the once-thriving Central Florida citrus industry once was. There are still some citrus groves, but not many. There are farms with crops and vegetables, and lots of Fern farms. This theme park - by nature - is what is known as "Hispanoville." Years ago they were called migrant workers. They then became immigrants, soon followed by the term Illegal immigrants, and they are now undocumented workers or some such shit. Same time, same channel, new title. The fifth and sixth theme parks get no mention on TV or in advertisements. Sometimes they get in the pages of National Geographic, but that's about it. Which brings us to theme park number 7, the actual Orlando.

This would be the place you all think you're going to when you come here. Theme park #7 is called "Crime Spree Island." This is the place that is the actual zip code and tax code Orlando, and stretches east to west from Disney to The B-list Express. You will NEVER EVER hear of this Orlando in anything, even though it is the true Orlando. 85% African American, 9% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 3% White, this place is a jungle not unlike any major metropolis in America. The school drop out rate, the single parent rate, the homeless rate, the domestic violence rate, the drug crime rate, the murder rate, and the desperation rate, all equal or exceed national averages.

But you don't know this.

In 2006, Orlando set a personal record with 92 murders. In 2007, they bested that with 108 murders, and in 2008, the newest trend is towards multiple slayings, which is great for the statistics. If a 15 year old blows away his entire immediate family - plus grandma and grandpa - that covers a whole week that may have slowed things down. Pretty neat, huh? There are 39 schools in Orlando proper: 21 Elementary, 13 Middle, and 5 High Schools. The drop out rate is 9.8%, and that includes the middle and elementary schools. You can count on one hand the number of schools that pass the state competancy grades, with only 1 of the 5 getting a C. The rest scrape by with D's. Conversely, the Caucasionland schools are numero uno in the state, and have ranked between 5th and 9th Nationally the last 10 years. Caucasionland fills school seats at Harvard, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Crime Spree Island fills jail cells and wall space at the Post Office. If you took Orlando by itself, it would have been 3rd in the nation in murders per capita last year. It was not, because they include the TWE, B-List, and Caucasionland in Orlando as a whole in their figures, so its murder rate falls out of the top 100.

But you don't know this.

The mayor and the governor are not going to stop tourism - and the billions of dollars annually - by telling you this. So when your kids in Fargo ND are stoked about coming to Orlando, they have no idea that they are going nowhere near Orlando.

They are headed to the sanitized, plasticized, scrubbed and washed, freshly painted, Old Spice Body sprayed, version of the world the local politico's call: Orlando.

I wish it was Orlando, but it's not.

Jack or Leona ??

The late, nasty sociopathic Leona [ "I don't pay taxes. That's what those little, insignificant people do." ] Helmsley has had her photo on MSN.com the last two days. Was I the only person who noticed?

Mr. Clemens goes to Washington

Whether or not you watch or even care in the slightest about sports, you would have to have been stuck under a rock for the past oh.....I don't know...at least 4 weeks to not know that the greatest pitcher to ever walk the planet had to answer to Congress allegations of Steroid and Human Growth Hormone today. I'll not bother you with the back-story or the details. I'd rather just draw you a simile to describe the greater problem in Major League Baseball.

Since the early 1990's, many of the highest officials in baseball were calling for drug testing. Not necessarily for steroids per se, but for amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana. In 2003, 12 - 13 years later, they finally got the players union to agree to steroid testing. No HGH testing, and no amphetamines testing.

The Problem - Part I:

Obviously, from the late 1970's on, illegal drugs had steadily become a problem in our society, and baseball was no exception. Enter the 1990's, and baseball and our nations back-room chemists came up with new, more productive (and symmetrically more dangerous) drugs for the boys of summer to try.

The Problem - Part II:

A man named Donald Fehr entered the picture as the legal council for the MLB Players Assn. He spearheaded the crybaby antics of the players and caused the strike and subsequent cancelling of the 1994 season, mere weeks before the playoffs and world series. The animals were now clearly running the farm.

The Problem - Part III:

In an effort to lure angry fans back into the empty ballparks of 1995 through 1997, baseball looked the other way. Way, way, way, the other way. Home runs started flying out of the park faster than Michael Jackson volunteering to chaperone a 3rd grade field trip to SeaWorld. Calls for more stringent oversight within the confines of MLB (which included the aforementioned drug testing again) were thwarted by our old friend, Donald Fehr.

In each case, Fehr stated that he was only doing his required job as the appointed legal counsel of the players. More on this statement, later.

If you have a 17 year old son or daughter who is consistently skipping class in their senior year of high school, who is the school coming after to get to the source of the problem? Correct: The Parents.

If the nation of Turkey is found to have been shipping heroine into Iraq, and we suddenly had 5,000 service men and women hooked on the shit, would Congress be calling some private or staff sergeant to appear before them? Of course not. General Highpants would be there.

Although there is a certain level of individual responsibility in both these examples, the oversight authority investigating each matter would take up the main dialog with the powers that be. So why is Roger Clemens appearing before Congress, and not baseball commissioner Bud Selig, his predecessor, each and every owner and general manager, and definitely why isn't Donald Fehr - the ultimate enabler - answering the hard questions?

Fehr said he was only acting on the players behalf. I have news for him: If the players wishes were for no drug testing of any kind for nearly 20 years because they knew they would be caught, he had no legal obligation to follow such instructions. Therefore, because he argued, stumped, litigated, and continually quashed any and all attempts to pass qualified drug rules, he himself is guilty of any number of crimes. Coercion; Aiding and Abetting persons in the commission of a felony; Misrepresentation; Fraud; Perjury; and who knows what else?

This thing is a farce based upon this. If you don't go after the people truly responsible, that's just plain wrong. Don't get me wrong; Roger Clemens is no victim.

We the fans are the victims.

What's in a name?

I started this blogging nonsense in January of 2006, under the title "This and That", ultimately subjecting the 3 people who actually read this thing to my inane crap. In January of 2007 - for obvious reasons - I changed it to "Don't read this blog!" No one was anyways, so I thought I may as well give it a more timely name. Well, here we are in 2008, and I'm getting the itch again. I thought of the following:

If I were a lawyer:

"All rise" Or....

"If the glove don't fit...you have to acquit"

A doctor:

"Turn your head and cough" Or...

"Hey doc, what's with the gloves and the jelly?"

A dentist:

"The Molar Express"

An Indian Chief (American Indian, not an Indian Indian from India):

"He who run off at the mouth like a pony with diarrhaea"

Football Player:

"Fourth and forever"

But if I do change it, I think I'll go with a variation of the dental theme and call it:



Impacted Truth



Just thinkin' out loud here.

Who's REALLY afraid of Virginia Wolfe?

In the late 1950's...on my actual day of birth...14 Oct 1957...the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into the outer reaches of our atmosphere. They had also had previously (August, 1949) fully entered the world's nuclear weapons race. Therefore, for the 40-odd years that the Soviet Union was in full throttle as a space, nuclear, and most importantly - hockey - power on the planet, we here in the United States always made sure that our President-elect was the type of person who struck the right amount of fear into the hearts and minds of the Soviet leadership, be that Khrushchev, Gorbachev, or the Iron Chef.

The one thing we had in our favor was the knowledge that the Soviets knew nuclear war was a truly stupid idea, that's why it never occurred. Now, we face a new nemesis: Islamic Extremism and an out-of-control Muslim world-wide birth rate. This is a group that is nowhere near as powerful militarily or politically as the Soviet Union was, but they are 100 times more insidious. And these nimrods are firmly entrenched in this martyrdom nonsense, so a counter-nuclear attack by the western world on their territories and people seems to hold no consequence to them. Which leads to the question:

Now that we have arrived at what appears to be the definitive short list, who strikes fear into the hearts of Bin Laden, Al Zawahiri, and Ahmedinejad?

Senator Clinton
Governor Huckabee
Senator Obama
Senator McCain

These are your choices, and irrespective of party affiliation, our security and survival as a nation depends upon whom you and I ultimately decide is the face that will stare down the bad guys.

So what's it gonna be, buckwheat? Coke or Pepsi?

Things that go creeping off in the night.

Are you a computer person? Do you know every in and out of our mega-technical world, so much so that you can be sitting in Tacoma,Washington right now, yet you know exactly which keystroke I am going to make next, because you have the newest in spyware, or spying wear, or whatever on your computer?

Is that you?

If so, you're a stalker, plain and simple. "Not I", you say. "I don't follow people home late at night running bizzare fantasy's through my head as I do so", you say. But you do follow them home. Right smack into their homes, as a matter of fact. You choose to do it electronically.

Do you type the screen names of other bloggers in an attempt to find out who they really are and maybe even what they look like? Again, you're a stalker. You're teetering right on the edge of violating privacy laws and constitutional rights, and many times you don't even realize how wrong you are.

As an experiment this morning, I googled "JL4". It came up listing a couple of my blogs, a company that makes catheters, and a lot of stuff about a Christian Rock band. Anyone in my non-cyber world knows I'm not a member of any Christian rock band. I cuss too much.

So there is nothing overtly obvious about my assumed title of JL4; at least not in a way that would dictate to you or anyone else who I am and where I live. I will tell all for the first time what it means. It is the first and last initials of my 3 children and my wife, hence: J-L-4. You can try and google all you want, and you won't find anything on me. I'm not famous, infamous, nor am I notorious.

Buuuuuuut....

If you own a device or some software that can somehow latch onto my blog and inform you of which type, color, and size undergarments I have on? You will be notorious someday.
Yesterday I read a comment on a blog which said, "Anyone's information can be found out on the net", directly implying that the commentor had information on the blog owner, derived by snooping around.

That's creepy. That's holy-shit-how-can-I-protect-my-kids-from-the-creepy-blogger-guy-or-girl-? kinda creepy. If you're out there, and this is what you do...cyber sneak around to find out who is who and where they live? Seek professional medical attention, immediately. If you have sought such counselling, and you're still caught up in this, perhaps you should remove yourself from the computer world altogether. You are a threat to yourself and our society. What you do is not amusing; it's not considered a guarranteed act of freedom of choice; and it is not harmless. It's creepy. And that - by default - makes you a creep.

P.S. This post is nothing but a general observation, and was not inspired by any actual event, other than the aforementioned comment to a post that I read. I have no idea if anyone has ever spied on me. I only know I have never done something like that to anyone else. Like I said, It's Creepy, and I'm not a creep.

Are you?

CLC's

There is a new phrase in Iraq, the acronym for which is CLC's. Before I tell you about this, let me say that Nancy Pelosi is on record as saying "The Surge" did not work; past tense. Irrespective of the fact that the surge is still in the present tense, Nancy has taken her past tense defeatist stance. Why?

Because it is the popular way to go. More than half this country wants our men and women out of Iraq, regardless of the consequences.

In 1991, we pulled out. I was part of that withdrawal, and at the time I was totally down with it. President Bush #1 urged the Iraqi people to buck up, unify, and take down Saddam. President Clinton followed with the same message.

And then our sights were turned elsewhere.

Two morons named Milosevic and Kradzic split the then-Yugoslavia into 3 different nation/states: Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. In doing so, Milosevic and Kradzic committed the ultimate act of barbarism...genocide. This horrible happening caught the attention of the entire world, and subsequently no one was paying attention to the fact that Saddam was killing people who worked or spoke out against him by the tens of thousands. Yes, a type of genocide was also occurring in Iraq, but we did not see it.

Recently, a Marine raid on an Al Qaeda safe-house yielded a letter written by the lower echelons of the Al Qaeda field leadership to the Al Qaeda headquarters (wherever that may be). In the letter, it stated that CLC's were not only delaying and thwarting Al Qaeda, Iranian, Saudi, and Syrian insurgencies from making progress, the CLC's were out-and-out destroying their efforts to bring chaos and confusion to the region. The letter went on to say that the increased U.S. Military presence (that would be the surge Mrs. Pelosi said was not working) had bolstered the Iraqi people and given rise to the CLC's. The insurgencies are on the run, in other words.

CLC's is the English acronym for the Arabic phrase that means unified and organized resistance. What it stands for is this: Concerned Local Citizenry. Now, there once was a form of CLC in the early to mid-1990's in Iraq, but they had no substantial backing from the U.S. or anyone, and they were extinguished. You know those mass graves we keep finding every couple of weeks????? Those are the forefathers of today’s CLC's, obviously dead and gone at the hands of Saddam. This time is different though. The CLC's have solid, quantified support.

The U.S. government? Noooooo.
The Iraqi government? Nooooooo.
The American people? Nope...not them either.

Then pray tell, JL4...of whom do they fall upon for support? You can't fight back without support, as the mass graves of a decade ago clearly reveal. Who do the people of Iraq trust?

The men and women in the desert fatigues with an American flag sewn to the upper arm, that's who. The Marine. The Special Forces guy. The Ranger. The Airborne dude. The man or woman of the Army Military Intelligence Corps who are schooled and trained to speak Arabic and gain the trust of these brave Iraqi CLC's. These service men and women are the stone pillars to which the Iraqi's have latched themselves onto. The American soldier doesn't care if Iraq becomes a democracy. But they do care about the survival of the CLC's and their children, and the CLC's know this. Iraq has been a den of horrors for a half a century. Most of the Iraqi people have never known peace and contentment. Therefore, the American soldier has no desire to come home until the Iraqi people are free...free from tyranny; free from destruction; free from fear and death. In gaining such trust, the CLC's are now assisting the U.S. forces in the capture and arrest of Al Qaeda or other insurgencies on a daily basis. They (the soldiers) are being told, "325 Barak Obama Lane. There are 13 of the bad guys living in a secret basement of the house." When they go there...surprise, surprise! All 13 are hanging out, making IED's on their prayer rugs.

So Nancy, when you say the surge didn't work, you not only have your tenses wrong, you have your facts wrong as well. When you say "bring our troops home now", you're condemning what is growing in number to the millions - a place in future mass graves that will be discovered in 2015 or 2020. And most importantly, these graves will not be limited to men. There will be women, elderly, and the worlds most precious commodity as well: children.

In closing, I would love to ask Mrs. Pelosi in person, “Nancy, are you prepared to write the letter or go on world-wide television and voice your apology to the Iraqi people? You better be.

Ummmmmm....Yup !!

The King of "Did it"

Pick one of 'em. This photo is from 1998. Chances are, whoever you pick from this band of freaks, he "did it".

Evidently the mystery is finally over. "Did it".
Seriously "did it". Syringes and gauze pads point to the obvious fact that he "did it".
Yes you did Patsy. Yes...you did. You "did it", and I know you "did it". Yes Patsy...you did.

US

Us. Not the U dot S dot United States. This is about us. You and I; him and her; those guys and them.

Us. The quintessential component of happiness.

I heard a story today about a family of four. There is a mom and 3 kids. Dad died suddenly of a massive heart attack. The three kids all have MS, and are confined to wheelchairs. And they're happy. The Red Sox lose on a random Tuesday night in May, and I'm pissed until the next night when they get back on the winning track again. Each of these boys will inevitably predecease their mom. And they're happy. They hang out together, watch movies together, laugh together, go to the doctor together, and commiserate together. You see, this family "get's it."

They understand that "together" is another way of saying "us."

Be honest now. Do you live for yourself? If you do, I'd be willing to bet you're not as happy as you could be. Look at Britney Spears. Look at most of Hollywood, for that matter. Susan Sarandon always taking it to the NYC Police Department. Woody Harrelson climbing the Golden Gate Bridge because we don't listen to PETA enough. These people have millions, are chaufered everywhere, have their asses kissed whereever they go...and they're miserable. Why? Because it's about them. It's always about them. They can't even spell the word "us."

This country needs a collectivity enema; at the very least a suppository. We're all sitting around watching "American Idol" and wondering when the government $200 tax rebate check is going to arrive. We have $4 for that pack of cigs and $6 for the six-pack, but we can't spare a handful of pennies out of the change slot in the car for the homeless dude on the corner. We have expressions like, "What's in it for me?", "What have you done for me lately?", and we say "I" fourteen different times in a standard 5 minute conversation.

232 years ago, Thomas Jefferson took out his feather, dipped in the ink jar and so eloquently wrote:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

This is the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, otherwise known as that silly document that talks about things like 'us' and 'we' all the time.

Then again, you could take the position, "Ohhhhh shit. JL4 is a-preachin to us again", then ask me to answer the question, what the hell did Tom Jefferson know about life in 2008?

Nothing, I suppose.

Did Tom ever struggle to download a song onto his iPod from napster? Did John Adams ever file his taxes electronically? Did Ben Franklin have any inkling of what it would be like to have to live in the suburbs and commute to work?

Nope, they knew nothing of such things. You're right. Forget about all this crap I just spewed and go ahead and take care of yourself. It's the American thing to do.

The unbearable likeness of knowing

Iran unveils space center, launches rocket
Many fear program may be cover to more fully develop military missiles.


By Ali Akbar Dareini
updated 3:09 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 4, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran launched a research rocket and unveiled its first major space center, state television reported Monday, the latest steps in a program many fear may be cover to more fully develop its military ballistic missiles.
State television showed live images of the event from the space center, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issuing the launch order in the latest step towards Iran's long declared goal of developing a space program.





Don't you just hate it when some pompous know-it-all like me says to you, "Told you so" ????

Told you so.

Nothing is impossible

Dateline, Tokyo 1945. The Japanese surrender to the Americans, even though they enjoyed a 4 year head start that began on December 7th, 1941.

In 1980, a bunch of college kids primarily from Boston University and the University of Minnesota beat the juggernaut known as the Soviet hockey team on their way to an unlikely - but not impossible - Olympic Gold Medal.

1985 NCAA Basketball Championshp Game. Villanova, despite 2 losses in the season to the mighty Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, shot a perfect 10 for 10 from the field, and hit a perfect 12 for 12 in foul shots in the 2nd half to nip Georgetown and shock - well - everyone.

2004. The Boston Red Sox, despite trailing 3 games to none to the NY Crime Family Yankees, became the first team in the history of all sports to ever to win all four remaining games in a 7 game series, which led to their first World Series win since Charlie Chaplin was a young boy acting in his 5th grade nativity play.

And last night, Ron Howard's illegitimate son, Opie Manning, defeated arguably the finest football team ever assembled in one place and time, sending New Yorkers into a frenzy and making them chant things like, "Yo" and "Yo....I'm taaaawking to you's".

And "Yo".

Take heart out there. Nothing is totally impossible; just sometimes improbable.

Buuuzzzzz!

Mr Manning? There is a Mr. Brady here to see you.

World-Wide Webbing

So here I am, typing on my Al Gore (Remember? He invented it) World-WideWebbing Machine, totally at loss for a topic.

So I figured that truly a picture is worth a thousand words, and here you go

Don't play until you read at least half way through

It was late March, 1991, and we were given the call that we could finally get out of Iraq. We have been in the middle east since July 1990, part of what we called "Club 20,000", otherwise known as the first soldiers to deploy into what was to become known as "Desert Shield" and ultimately, "Desert Storm".

The Armed Forces network was set up by December 1990, and broadcasting inside of Saudi Arabia, but we were part of the unfortunate group that went up into or near the Iraqi border the 1st week of January, 1991. We were then out of range of AFRTS then, and wouldn't hear any music for some time. Not that it really mattered, on January 16th (Jan 17th your time back here in the states) we started the air war, which was as you know, the first phase of the Persian Gulf war.

So we got our notice to go back home, and we convoyed for many hours at breakneck speed just to get the *uck out of Iraq. As we were approaching the Saudi Border early in the morning of our second day in convoy, I asked a young soldier in the back of our Hummer to turn on his portable radio to see if he could pick up AFRTS.

At the exact moment we crossed out of Iraq and into Saudi, this song came on. Now I don't pretend to know very much about the group Wilson-Phillips, no am I a particular fan of radio-pop music, but just hearing an English spoken song - so incredibly ironic as we crossed that border and into what we all knew was our first safe-haven in months...well...you know. It was just nice, and I asked him to turn it up.

As the music and the melody washed over me, I closed my eyes and thought of my dad and mom, my brothers and sisters, and my then 10 year old daughter. As tears welled up in my eyes, there was a feeling of complete comfort in my own emotion. This morning, I had my car radio on some station, and was barely listening to be honest with you, when this song came on.

And I turned it up to a deafening loudness.

Peace