This was actually taken quite a while ago – last spring I believe? Never got around to processing these and posting them until now. Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, VA is a great place to get some scenic photos if you happen to be in the area!
Michael Yon has a report from Afghanistan posted over on Pajamas Media. It’s interesting first-hand reporting, but the best part is the description of Lithuanian Special Forces towards the end:
Americans say that the Lithuanians are sort of a weaponized version of Borat, who think nothing of sauntering around a base in nothing but flip-flops and underwear….
Check out the rest of the article!
Bet you think this is about Iraq, right?
Wrong. This is about San Bernardino County in California, USA. That’s right, US Marines assisted the California Highway Patrol with a DUI checkpoint on a public highway. Now, this isn’t like tanks rolling into Tianamen Square, I admit. But if you’ve heard of Posse Comitatus you know that the military isn’t supposed to be used for police actions inside our own borders.
This is definitely a bad trend….
via Clint.
The Chicago Tribune has a full little quiz where you can guess who said the mystery quote – a 9 year-old boy in his book on women, or the Playboy Bunnies from Girls Next Door.
I only missed one! Beat that! 
LOLCODE, I CAN HAZ IT?
7 Images Too Badass to be Real (That Totally Are) – I especially like #4!
One of my chief peeves with the auto bailout has been the persistent assertion that the “Big 3″ are the last hope for American manufacturing. But Newsweek has an article about the other automotive sector in this country – the non-union southern-based “foreign” cars made in America.
This is just a beautiful minimalist composure. Enjoy your weekend!
MSNBC has posted another article talking about how prisoners were tortured as part of the war on terror. Honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach to read things like this:
Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
“You’re in agony,” Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because “before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away.
“It makes you feel like you are going mad,” he said.
and….
[Donald Vance of Chicago, held at a detention center in Iraq: ] “I had no blanket or sheet. If I had, I would probably have tried suicide,” he said. “I got to a few points toward the end where I thought, ‘How can I do this?’ Actively plotting, ‘How can I get away with it so they don’t stop it?”‘
Asked to describe the experience, Vance said: “It sort of removes you from you. You can no longer formulate your own thoughts when you’re in an environment like that.”
He was released after 97 days.
Those are the stories of the people that the US couldn’t earn a conviction against. Welcome to the treatment you can expect at the hands of the “greatest country on earth” as some “patriots” like to claim. Here’s a news flash for you – Donald Vance was a US citizen, held by the US, with no recourse to the courts. What does that mean? It means each and every one of us better realize that it could happen to us.
If you believe America should be a beacon of freedom to the world, then it’s time to start getting our government to believe in the freedom and dignity of individuals.
Finally getting out of work… But I get to work tomorrow (Saturday) too. Yippee!
