Normandy Remembered

A great unscripted moment about a generation we should never forget.

If True...LAME!

Sylvester Stallone has been set for sometime for a new film called Headshot. He'd play an assassin who makes an unwilling and uneasy alliance with a cop - each wants to track down the people responsible for killing their partners.

It's designed to be a throwback to Lethal Weapon, 80's style, buddy action flicks. It's gonna be directed by Walter Hill, who brought us 48 Hrs.

Stallone and Hill

Not too long ago it was reported that Thomas Jane, probably most well known for roles in The Punisher and Deep Blue Sea, had been cast as the cop.

Jane as The Punisher

But apparently he may not be right for the part. Apparently he's too...white.

You see, according to this scoop, since Warner Bros.' Dark Castle banner got involved, they want "Jane replaced with someone more “ethnic” in order to meet an in-house formula-for-success." Jane is still the preferred choice of Hill and Stallone.


Is this not racism, bros? Would it be better for the studio if Jane grew a handlebar mustache, wore a sombrero and strapped on a bandolero?

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor...Nevermind

This story...you just have to read it to believe it. But I'll live you with a pic and my personal favorite quote:

 "To come on to our property and to defecate - it's just wrong."

Who Said That?

You've probably already heard about the broo-ha-ha over Ed Schultz calling Laura Ingraham - I don't even remember what, specifically - a conservative slut? Real creative, Ed.

So I could write a lengthy diatribe about how this confirms what I like to call liberal hate, something I talked about in a recent post.

But I'm not going to.

What strikes me most about this is that when people were sitting in front of their morning show of choice this morning with their bagel and their coffee and heard about this story, likely their first that was:

"Who the hell is Ed Schultz?"

Arab Spring

Actually, it smells like...

Night Two, No Power

I friend of mine from college lives with his wife and young son in Minneapolis. They were very lucky - they live only two blocks away from where the tornado came roaring through. He uploaded this video today, giving a short glimpse at life with no power.

Like I said earlier, be thankful. Be very, very thankful.

Horrifying

With yahoos like Harold Camping still in the news, it's important we remember to keep the folks affect by this weekend's tornadoes in our prayers. I was really struck by the photos you will see below, taken from The Blaze.

Be thankful for your many blessings, bros - they can be gone in seconds.

A Google Street View of E 24th Street between Kentucky Avenue and Grand Avenue in Joplin, MO, before the tornado:

After...

Oops - My Bad

Harold Camping, the dude who predicted that 200 million Christians would ascend into heaven on Saturday - which, in case you you wondering, did not happen - is now backtracking. Turns out he was working with a bum calculator.

The AP is reporting that Camping was off by five months and the whole Rapture thingy will actually be going down on October 21st.

Aw, snap!

Yo Mummy So Fat...

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, Right Truth, I learned that scans of 44 of 52 Egyptian mummies showed signs of arteriosclerosis dating as far back as 3500 BC.  I always thought that disease and injuries without the benefit of modern medicine were more responsible for decreased longevity in ancient times.  After some further research I discovered Dr. Michael Eades blog, proteinpower.com.  A post from 2007 detailed the fact that the 3500 year old mummy of Queen Hatshepsut showed signs of obesity, diabetes, and bad teeth. 

I always wondered why Imhotep, the namesake of the 1999 Universal film The Mummy, had to steal body parts from all those different people.  I now believe it is because the body fat content of most Hollywood actors is so low.  But I digress.

As you know, Michelle Obama championed the fight against childhood obesity.  In addition to exercise and cutting out fast food, The First Lady's Let's Move website refers the user to the USDA's MyPyramid.gov (strangely appropriate to this post) for nutritional guidelines, as described below.

The Dietary Guidelines describe a healthy diet as one that

• Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products;
• Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; and
• Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

So I guess the ancient Egyptians must have had a pretty poor diet.  From what I could find, the ancient Egyptians seemed to eat pretty much all the right foods, and I doubt Tutankhamen loaded the wife and kids in the chariot to drive through Burger Pharaoh.  Likewise, sugar was apparently not present until much later.  The Egyptians reportedly drank a lot of beer, but I'm not hypocrite enough to fault them for that.  So it seems that the modern diet is not be entirely to blame for this era's epidemic of obesity.

In truth, I can't fault all of the First Lady's suggestions.  I think that the most important factor is physical activity or the lack thereof.  It seems likely that the ruling class Egyptian's lifestyles were probably more similar to our own.  They doubtlessly led a more sedentary lifestyle than the peasants of their time, and likely ate to excess.  

I picture the litter bearers struggling to haul the pharaoh or queen around.  Perhaps Hollywood remake Cleopatra with an eye toward being "historically accurate"?  Since a more robust Elizabeth Taylor can't reprise her role, I'm voting for Rosie O'Donnell.  Note that Cleopatra reportedly committed suicide by goading a snake (asp) to bite her.

                 Cleopatra (1963)         Cleopatra's Big Asp (2012)?

 I have some suggestions for combating childhood obesity based on personal experience:

• Reduce the number of television stations to three.  We had nothing to watch after school except 30 minutes of Gilligan's Island, so we found something else to do.
• Make kids to physical labor, aka chores.  Mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, etc. never hurt anyone.  Plus this may both reduce your monthly expenditure on lawn care and deincentivize illegal immigration at the same time.
• Fast track the death penalty for serial killers, and both first time pedophile and DUI offenders.  We used to ride our bikes all over creation at a time before parents became afraid to let their children go outside.
• Hire ex-drill sergeants to conduct physical education classes and recess.  It worked for me.

See, the problem is there is no magic formula for being healthy.  I am reminded of my Dad describing my great grandfather's eating habits. After finishing his daily eggs and bacon for breakfast, great grandad would take a hunk of bread, soak up the bacon grease from the pan, and partake of that nectar from the porcine gods.  He worked sun up to sun down most of his life, and no he didn't die of a heart attack.  He died of gangrene poisoning from an infected cut in his 90's because he didn't want to go see one of those *%$ &@%* doctors.

Another interesting comment on diet comes from Dr Eades blog, "The skeletal remains of Paleolithic man, who consumed a meat-based diet, showed strong, perfect teeth. Bad teeth are the hallmark of carbohydrate consumption."  I recall a Native American anthropology class in college that ascribed the downfall of the mound builders to the introduction of and subsequent reliance on corn as a food staple, as described here:  

A good example of the effect in adding corn into the diet of these type O native Americans can be observed in the bone remains of the Indiana Mound Building cultures, since we can exactly trace the introduction of corn into the diet following a long prior existence as hunter-gatherers, by the marked change in the bone structures. Prior to corn becoming a staple, the bone show little arthritis or thinning, after corn is introduced, bone deformation begins, including major changes to the teeth structure and jaw (periodontal disease). (1) In addition, maize stimulates a very rapid and powerful glycemic response,(2) so it may be that the switch to a maize-based diet from prior hunter-gathering may have been responsible for the precipitous increase in diabetes.

So what am I saying?  I guess my point is just that obesity is not simply a convention of the modern age and there is no magic formula.  I'm no dietician, but clearly the consumption of a diet high in foods that get stored as fat if not burned by the body as energy is more likely to lead to obesity.  

As noted above, being in shape won't necessarily save you if a pissed off mummy trying to come back from the dead wants to steal your body parts.  But if you've made it all the way through my meanderings here, you might consider turning off your computer and getting some exercise.  Who knows, you might just be able outrun the mummy Imhotep or Hatshepsut if they ever comes after you. 

To My Military Bros

Warning - Strong Language Follows

I spent some time in the Army watching out for the Big Green Weenie (BGW) during the last years of the Reagan administration.  If you have served in the Army or the Marines, chances are you know what this means. While you never want to be ravaged by this member, the threat of this depravity was not met with fear.  In fact, the BGW is essentially the bureaucracy that screws thing up at the most inopportune moment for the Bros in OD Green or Cookie Dough Camo.  Yet because the Bros have it in common it binds them together rather than dividing them. 

Raph's Empathetic Artists post is spot on, and the illogical directions issued by the BGW are a big part of the reason it is so despised.  Try developing military strategy without logic.  Note how screwed up things get when bureaucrats try to run military operations. I think Clint Eastwood sums it up nicely.



Empathy is also part of the military Bros' makeup.  That empathy lies with the Constitution and the people of America that every military Bro is sworn to protect and defend.  This even those empathetic artists that vilify the military at every opportunity.  Speak out by all means, that is your right as an American.  However, I suggest you temper your artistic empathy with a liberal (not in the pejorative sense) dose of logic and reality.  I going to let Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield take it home.




Oooh Rah!

The End Of The World As We Know It - Part II

Its official, the rapture is coming to Memphis.  And no, I'm not talking about the tour to promote 2 Pistols latest rap CD.

 I heard today that Memphis, Belle of Bible Belt, reportedly sports 17 billboards declaiming May 21 as the date of the rapture.  WHBQ, Memphis' Fox affiliate interviewed several Mid-South residents regarding this proclamation.

The Rapture Cometh Saturday: Baloney or Bold Prediction?: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

I love the lady who quotes Matthew 24: 36, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son of Man, but the Father only."  But should I be worried?

Well, Harold Camping did get it wrong before.  His book 1994? predicted that the rapture would occur in September 1994, and as near as I can tell that prediction was slightly off.

I think that I'll go with the passage from Matthew.  I wonder if part of the hubbub with predictions like that from Camping and the Mayan calendar semi-hysteria is a function of doubt or guilt.  It strikes me that the reason even the most agnostic of people follow these predictions is because of that little seed of doubt about what will happen to them if/when the end time comes.  If you fall into that category, I suggest you set things right as best you can.  You may have passed on generations before any world ending event comes, but perhaps you will do so with a freer conscience.

As for me, I plan to attend work on the yard and help my wife clean the house tomorrow.  If we are still around on Monday, I may put in for vacation for December 2012.

Facebook Is Like Box Of Chocolates

That's right, I think Forrest Gump's Mama had it wrong.  Anyone who has spent a little time on Facebook understands that you never know what you're going to get.

Thanks to a recent Facebook post my cousin commented on, I learned that Minneapolis is apparently the gayest city in America according to Utah's gay & lesbian news and entertainment magazine.  In a real shocker, Salt Lake City didn't make the top 15.  So what? Well the funny thing to me is how this supposedly "demonstrates the growing influence of the LGBT movement across the nation, not just in the traditional gay hotspots."

I'm afraid that is a bit of a reach.  Growing up in South Dakota I can tell you that many kids from towns small and large that fled the state after high school ended up in the Twin Cities.  I venture to guess that the same holds true for kids from North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and rural Minnesota.  It also may not shock you to learn that such rural/small town communities are not generally known for being overly tolerant of non-convention, including leading an openly gay lifestyle.  So it only stands to reason that gay kids/people from the aforementioned areas seeking to find a more accepting area would end up in places like the Twin Cities. Ergo, Minneapolis is likely the gayest city in that five state area.

I have lived and worked in the Twin Cities, and I recently returned from about a week attending a conference in San Francisco.  Minneapolis gayer than San Francisco?  I don't think so.  Admittedly, I did not spend much time interacting with the gay community when  I lived in the Twin Cities.  I also did not witness the openly gay lifestyle in the four years I lived there that was so in my face during my 4 days in San Francisco.

So why the claim?  My theory is that it is the same idea behind inserting a gay character in darn near every sitcom and movie that is out there today.  I think that suggesting that the number is higher than it really is aims to desensitize people, build acceptance, and further the LGBT agenda. Note that according to the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at UCLA, "there are more than 8 million adults in the US who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population... bisexuals comprise a slight majority (1.8% compared to 1.7% who identify as lesbian or gay)". 

So if you have a family reunion with 100 adults and 50 kids, it is statistically likely that there are about two gay or lesbian adults in the crowd.  This is a far cry from the prevalence that the entertainment industry suggests.  Suggesting that Minneapolis is the gayest city, given that it is situated in the heart of the good ole Midwest, is to me an extension of promoting this skewed view of the world.

I'm not looking to convert anyone here or promote a homophobic agenda.  I'm just saying, lets be real here.  You live in America, feel free to be as gay as you want to be.  But being an American should also allow me to enjoy my box of chocolates however I want... plain, with nuts or with caramel.  I prefer mine without fruit, and there is no convincing me otherwise.

Not That Hard

Am I missing something, bros, or is it not that hard to flush a urinal?

I only ask because nobody seems to do it!

Empathetic Artists

PLEASE NOTE: There is a photo at the end of this post that includes some strong language, but it is to illustrate a point.

You've been warned.

I guess I have to like Rob Lowe now. I never really have, though I can't justify why. Maybe he just did too good of a job playing a slimeball in one of my all-time favorites, Wayne's World.


He doesn't really come right out and say he's conservative, at least not in this clip, but one can certainly assume. The fact is that he is absolutely right with his critique. I can tell you from first hand experience.

I spent a year in a graduate screenwriting program at Chapman University in Orange, California, and I can tell you that virtually everyone in the entire department had a ridiculously inflated sense of the importance of what they were studying. I'm a movie geek of the highest order, but I've never lost sight of the fact that they're just movies.

I was in a survey course of American cinema my first semester and we had a two-hour class discussion/lecture on American wars as presented on film. I realized then, without a doubt, that my entire world view did not coalesce with the average aspiring filmmaker.

On the topic of Patton, the discussion had boiled down into a split in the class between those who felt the film was critical of the General and those who felt it empathized and idolized him; those who felt the latter were strong in their disgust that "a guy like that" would be appreciated and not condemned.

Now you cannot grow up in my dad's household and not be very familiar with George C. Scott and Patton. And I attempted, futilely, to offer up my own, differing viewpoint. I've never thought that Franklin J. Schaffner's film took sides on Patton. I believe it presents him objectively, warts and all, eventually making the conclusion that - and this did not go over well - love him or hate him, if you're going to war, you want to get behind a guy like General Patton.

I was met with overwhelming and passionate disagreement. No one - I mean no one - could find it in themselves to find anything in General Patton as portrayed in the film that they could see as a benefit. They certainly did not respect the man. They hated him and what he stood for.

The topic shifted to Vietnam era films. You can imagine what the viewpoint was here. In the text we were using, there was only the briefest mention of Rambo: First Blood Part II. It was summarily dismissed as popcorn fluff that pandered to Reagan conservatives. The problem is, that's just not accurate.

First of all, it can't be "dismissed." Rambo II is the most successful movie to ever deal directly with the Vietnam war; if it were to be released today, it would gross over $333 million when adjusted for inflation. To give that some perspective, Stallone's action flick last summer The Expendables, by all measures a big hit, grossed $103 million. There had to be something resonating with audiences, other than explosive tip arrows.

Hollywood liberals, and "empathetic" students of film, simply cannot bring themselves to empathize with soldiers, the men and women who go into battle to protect their right to spend thousands of dollars to get a degree that shows they can wax poetic...ABOUT MOVIES!

What makes the Rambo films unique - most notably First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II - is that they speak directly to the anger the soldiers felt coming back to the States from Vietnam and being met with outright hate. They were sent there to complete a mission. And until you've walked in their shoes and been saddled with their duties, who are you to stand in judgement of them? Especially when all you do is stand in front of cameras and pretend to be someone else for a living. I'm looking at you, Jane Fonda. How about pretending to be a soldier in a combat zone for a minute or two.

This was, of course, not just disagreed with, it was downright snickered at. I was interrupted by my professor before completing my point, and I'll be damned if I didn't notice some condescending grins on some classmate's faces.

"Poor, misguided, unenlightened midwesterner...Compassion and empathy for baby killing, Vietnam vets? How could that possibly be culturally relevant! Ha!"

Conservatives are not without empathy, despite what those in Hollywood and the world of academia might like you to believe. We simply execute that empathy in a much different manner. We want people to have what we have - autonomy. It's about equality of opportunity, not equality of condition.

It's a give a man a fish, teach him to fish kind of thing - the difference between a hand up and a hand out.

What I cannot understand, though, is for all the "empathy" liberals supposedly feel, if you hold conservative beliefs, it doesn't matter if you're the kindest, most soft-spoken, most feeble, fragile person on the planet - they will hate you, vilify you and do everything they can to marginalize you.

For so much empathy, they sure do know how to hate.

For how much they hate their country, they sure do love the liberties it gives them.

I've covered a lot of ground here, but that bit moment from Rob Lowe stirred up a lot. He's right to a point. I think the left operates under misguided empathy. But they also have an enormous capacity for hate.

Don't think so? Just try disagreeing with them.

Batten Down the Hatches

This is it, bros. The world is going to end tomorrow. Which pisses me off, frankly. I'm going to miss game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

As Seen On TV!

Going Greenish

I rode my bike to and from work today. Fun, good for the old health, and does a bit to ease the $4 per gallon blues.

But I don't want people to get the idea I've converted into some kind of Al Goreish environmentalist.

I'm thinking of having a bumper sticker made that I can affix upon my buttocks while biking that reads:

"Not exactly zero emissions."

Capitalism - The Greatest Economic System on Earth

The American Way

There was some kerfuffle recently regarding an issue of DC's Action Comics where Superman, Mr. Truth, Justice and the American Way, decided he was going to renounce his U.S. Citizenship. First, let's take a look at the frame:

The immediate perception of this was that it was yet another, high-profile, liberal attack on the United States. Here was Superman, who apparently once stood for "The American Way," renouncing his government and his country. Was Superman becoming one of these new-fangled "global citizens?"

I am an avid Batman fan and an interesting piece went up recently on the great Batman on Film site, dissecting this very issue. Though it's quite a long read, there is a lot of interesting information there that I was previously unaware of.

For instance, I was heretofore unaware how liberal Superman himself was in his early days. Take a look at this excerpt from Mark Hughes' op-ed:

Superman was created as representing the very left-leaning views of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, sons of Jewish immigrants to the U.S. and Canada, respectively. In his earliest stories, Superman was so anti-war that he terrorized the head of a bomb-making corporation and finally forced the man to go to the front lines in war until the man was so scared he swore to stop manufacturing weapons. Then, Superman kidnapped the generals leading both sides of the war, and told them to fight one another to the death or HE (Superman) would murder them both. And when Superman came across a military man torturing a POW (by tying the man to a tree and beating him to get information), Superman lifted the torturer and hurled him through the sky to the horizon, killing him. Superman, in other words, went around murdering or threatening the lives of people he considered evil for a number of reasons related to waging warfare or violating human rights.

Did you know any of this? I certainly didn't.

Hughes goes on to highlight numerous occasions that had Superman butting heads with the American government, before getting loss in a malaise of intellectual mumbo-jumbo. You know, the kind where you toss out all sorts of murky, gray-area nonsense to keep from having to actually take a stance.

But there was one sentence of Hughes that really bugged me. He writes: "So the claims that Superman has "always" represented the so-called "American way" are simply false."

This is really absurd and is ignorant of one simple truth: the so-called "American Way," is static. It does not change. It refers to set of values and ideals that we, as a nation, strive to uphold. Certain eras will be viewed as having come closer than others. But, hopefully, we can all say that we strive to live for and uphold the ideals of the American Way.

The Regular Bros are very often critical of President Obama, his administration and policy decisions. But I feel confident that I speak for both of us that regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, we love our country and would never abandon it. This is what is insulting about the decision to have Superman renounce his citizenship.

Is this what we teach our children, to shrink and run away every time you encounter someone who disagrees with you? It reminds me of Lebron James, who discovered he wasn't driven enough to carry a team on his own, so he renounced them for an easier street. Is Superman so thin skinned and his love of the United States so weak that he'd just shrink and run away? I certainly hope not.

What Superman did in that frame was say, "I no longer care about the United States enough to represent it in the best way I know how." Unfortunately, this idea is growing and achieving far too much mainstream acceptance.

Hughes makes note that Superman is an alien and would therefore not be a natural born citizen anyway. But have we forgotten that this country is the great melting pot? We are almost all aliens to this great land, the only difference being how long its been since we arrived at the shore.

And just like so many immigrants, it is clear why Superman would choose the United States to call home. In spite of all its flaws, it represents the greatest opportunity for happiness of any country in the world. Deny this fact and you are either blind or ignorant or simply lying to justify an agenda.

We are a fallen humanity, and even in the greatest nation to ever grace the planet we are going to wander. We are going to make mistakes and fall short of our country's ability for greatness. But no battle, no flaw, no differing of opinion or policy should ever cause us to waver from the knowledge that the United States of America is, was and always shall be "a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere."

Maybe Superman doesn't get, but the Regular Bros understand that no matter what, these colors don't run.

Unreal

This just spits in the face of everyone out there who has a legitimate financial need. This is why we actually need entitlement reforms. Not to leave the needy helpless, but to weed out scum like this who manipulate the sysytem and give it a bad name.

Throwdown

I will never, ever-ever, ever - EVER, ever-ever - get tired of watching this.

Never.

Only a Regular Bro

The picture doesn't do justice to what a work of art this really was.

Only a man who is truly a Regular Bro builds a box for his old, beat down pick-up out of wood, designs it so it can be fitted with a topper, then paints it to match the cab's rusting exterior.

Does this not kick some serious ass?

2 for 2

Two airports in five days and I got the body scan both times. Some might say I must fit a profile. I say the TSA agents wanted some free tickets to the gun show.

People I'd Like to Catch in a Dark Alley - Part 1

Just read about Bill Maher's rant on NewsBusters. The part that sent me over the edge was, "Republicans say they love him so they're not racist - right."

More Kool Aid Please!

I normally try to avoid this guy because I know he is going to piss me off.  Zealots of any ilk tend to have that effect on me.  Zealots who also believe that anyone who does not see things the way they do are lower life forms really give me a case of the red a$$.

I like Herman Cain, and have since I first started hearing interviews with him over 5 years ago.  Cain is a conservative self-made American business man, and from what I can he qualifies as a true Regular Bro.  I could care less about Cain's ethnicity.  I supported Alan Keyes in 2000, when Barack Obama wasn't even a blip on the radar, because of his ideas.  Neither guilt nor a desire to be cool has anything to do with it.  Look where giving in to those sentiments by our liberal friends has gotten us.

I support Dr. King's vision that one day all of our children will "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  Yet liberal hacks like Bill Maher don't want that to happen.  They want to keep conservatives on the defensive by casting the aspersion of racism.  Maher would use a blog piece like this as proof that I feel compelled to show that I am not a racist because I feel guilty about being a racist.  It is a no win situation as far as the liberal fever swamp is concerned.

So, I will continue to follow Cain, and if he turns out to be the kind of candidate I think he is I am likely to support him.  As to Maher, please let me know where I could catch him in a dark alley.  I know Dr. King wouldn't approve, but it would sure be therapeutic.

Immoral Majority

Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, and Osama bin Laden.  These are not four names you would normally see grouped together.  They all were conservative, "religious", and charismatic.  Following the discovery of a reportedly extensive stash of porn at OBL's Abbottabad hideaway, they are all also members of the immoral majority.

Whether you read the Bible of not, chances are you have heard a few the Thous Shalt Not's and understand why Jim, Jimmy and Ted fell from grace.  But what does the Koran say?

Chastity 

Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.). That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do.(Quran 24:30)

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like palms of hands or one eye or both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer dress like veil, gloves, head-cover, apron, etc.), and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms, etc.) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands fathers, their sons, their husbands sons, their brothers or their brothers sons, or their sisters sons, or their (Muslim) women (i.e. their sisters in Islam), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands possess, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful.Quran 24:31)

I admit I'm not a scholar of the Koran, it reads to me like, "Bros do your best to remain chaste, and Ladies, don't even think about doing anything that appears immoral."  Once again, the double standard.  The 9/11 hijackers reportedly went to a strip club the night before their acts of infamy.  Honor killings seem to only involve women perceived to have dishonored their family.

OBL is the ultimate hypocrite, as demonstrated in his 2002 "Letter to America". 

You are a nation that permits acts of immorality, and you consider them to be pillars of personal freedom. You have continued to sink down this abyss from level to level until incest has spread amongst you, in the face of which neither your sense of honour nor your laws object.

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment...

You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.

You are a nation that practices the trade of sex in all its forms, directly and indirectly. Giant corporations and establishments are established on this, under the name of art, entertainment, tourism and freedom, and other deceptive names you attribute to it.

So put OBL in the hall of shame for not protecting his private parts and use this as a means to discredit him, if we can.  However, lets not hope for too much empathy from other would be members of the immoral majority.

Good Call

George W. Bush Reacts Publicly to Osama Bin Laden Death for First Time - ABC News

Best quote from this article comes from a member of SEAL Team Six, who told President Bush: "We need your permission to go into Afghanistan and kick add."

Well put, indeed.

I did not always agree with W. Bush, but I have a great deal of respect for him. What you see is what you get.

I cannot say I feel the same about our current President, and that's a shame.

How Not to be a Cowboy

I was at the Mall of America yesterday and I saw a young man in cowboy boots, with spurs, cowboy hat, and a bandana hanging out the back pocket of his...skinny jeans.

John Wayne was rolling in his grave...in an attempt to reach his six shooter.

When The Levee Breaks

As a resident of the Memphis area, this Led Zeppelin song has been on my mind quite a bit lately.  I presume that most of you have by now seen video of a winsome young reporter (or Diane Sawyer) in galoshes or waders reporting on the flooding from the Mississippi River waterfront near Memphis.  One popular angle is the wildlife factor - cue Diane - and displaced dens of renegade water moccasins (aka cottonmouths).  Lets face it, natural disasters are fodder for the coliseum that is mainstream media.

                                             Intentional Levee Breach Near Cairo, Illinois.

As a Led Zeppelin fan, I knew that the band was a fan of the blues and had reworked and recorded a number of old blues songs.  I did not know was that the original When the Levee Breaks had been recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929, and was about the Mississippi River flood of 1927.  During this flood the Mississippi River south of Memphis reportedly reached the almost unbelieveable width of 60 miles.  This was before most of the flood control measures that have occurred in the last 90 odd years, but the impact must have been staggering.

Floods are sobering.  To paraphrase Chris Berman, you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them.  So statements like this boggle my mind:

Graceland is safe. We would charge hell with a water pistol to keep it that way, and I would lead the charge.

OK, great.  Go get 'em tiger.   What makes this really bizarre is that the statement was by Bob Nations Jr., the director of the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency.  His name may not be familiar to you, but if you watched the Diane Sawyer video you may recall that he is the guy riding with and talking to Diane in the boat. 

I understand that Elvis is responsible for millions of dollar of revenue to the local economy every year, but really?  Elvis obviously loved Memphis, and I could be wrong but I tend to believe that if he were still with us he would be looking for ways to help rather than worrying about Graceland. See, at heart Elvis was a boy from Tupelo, Mississippi that loved music, and was perhaps the most famous Regular Bro ever.

Floods are life changers.  Who knows the final cost in terms of loss of life, land, and livelihood?  Through no fault of their own, many hardworking Bros have lost or will lose everything.  This is an event whose scope is too far reaching to trivialize.  As Robert Plant sings,

Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

 

Regular Bros Radio

The Regular Bros should be doing this. Seriously. Watch your backs, Pat and Stu.

I Don't Care Why

Take a look at the following video. It was posted at The Blaze due to the blunt and some might say "controversial" language used by the judge during sentencing of a school bus driver convicted of molesting four young boys.

A victim of society's inability to accept openly gay people? Does it not infuriate anyone else that the word "victim" be applied to a creep who molests four young boys? His sexual orientation, repressed or otherwise, is absolutely immaterial. On what planet could it ever be rationalized why a person would perpetrate such a heinous act? On Earth, apparently.

Where in the hell do we draw the line here, Bros? Where can we say: here is the line and you will not cross it? Cause if you can't draw such a line with pedophiles - gay or straight, I don't give a damn - then you can't draw lines anywhere.

Nothing made this man do what he did. He is a victim of his own sick choices. I have no wish to try and "understand" what he did or why he did it; I will never be able to "understand" such sickness, such evil.

When you contemplate evil, and choose to make the evil choice, you are not a victim. You are evil. You have chosen that path. A victim is someone who chooses good, who strives for good, who walks the right side of the line and yet still gets attacked by evil. Four young, school age boys who get molested by their school bus driver - they are victims. God bless them, because they must live with 

When we begin to rationalize, even normalize, violent and evil behavior, we are essentially giving it a pass. We are saying that this evil exists and it is something that we must just give over to, because there is no use in fighting it.

On behalf of all the real victims in the world, I call BS.

Wolverines!

It was interesting to watch the Muslim protesters in the UK on Fox news this morning. They were shouting about death to Obama and expressing a desire to bring Sharia law to the US. "Bad idea," I thought. "Hasn't this small minority of practitioners of the Religion of Peace ever seen the original Red Dawn?"

Wolverines!

I'm not talking about the likelihood of terrorists successfully attacking a high plains town in the mountain west, where both bros and ladies both know how to shoot straight (except for a deranged few who think they can take down a Hind by firing an AK47 from the hip). I am talking about the change in perspective that Colonel Bella experiences when he realizes he has morphed from a partisan into an oppressor.

Witness attorney general Eric Holder's change of tune aptly pointed out by Andrew McCarthy.  Holder was against treating terrorists as enemy combatants before he was for it. Regarding Jose Padilla, Holder stated:

While the government suggests that Padilla was arrested on a “battlefield,” . . . under its standards the “battlefield” against terrorism could extend throughout the world and the “hostilities” could be of indefinite and perhaps undefinable duration. Legal standards developed to deal with traditional wars cannot be imported wholesale into this very different context.

On the other hand, taking out OBL “was justified as an act of national self-defense", and was “by my estimation, and the estimation of the Justice Department, a lawful military target, and the operation was conducted consistent with our law [and] with our values.”

 

Hmmmmm!

Thanks to Wikileaks (three words I thought I'd never say) we learned a while back about the Obama administration's policy directing US embassy personnel help empower the British Muslim community. The theory being that an empowered Muslim community will be better equipped to counter extremism. World Net Daily also cited a statistic that 40% of Muslims on UK campuses want the UK to be under Sharia law. Perhaps the protesters saw Obama's authorization of the recent double tap to OBL's noggin as a less than empowering gesture.

No matter how empowering we are, or how we redefine ourselves, it is not possible to change people who don't think they need changing. As I commented on Celebrating Life, OBL once stated, "We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the difference between us two." The extremists now extol Sheik Osama as a martyr want to bring the world under Sharia and don't mind dying to do so. 

I give kudos to Obama for authorizing the Seals to go in. However, like most of the other regular bros out there, it required no change of mind on my part. 

Wolverines!

Celebrating Life

Much has been made in the wake of our valiant Navy Seals taking out Supreme Scumbag Osama bin Laden about whether or not it is appropriate to celebrate his death.

I have resisted the urge to comment on the several friends of mine on Facebook who have quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

As much as this irks me - and I am irked - because it oversimplifies the situation, I understand the sentiment and respect their stance.

But I now have a great rebuttal, thanks to the great Stu Burguiere of The Glenn Beck Program. He writes at GlennBeck.com:

There’s been a lot of legitimate hesitation from people all over the political spectrum about the reaction to Osama’s death. Is it okay to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden? After some serious consideration, I have come to this conclusion.

Yup.

Why?

I don’t sit here celebrating his death because I’m excited about him dying. I celebrate his death because I’m excited about other people living.

I don’t celebrate his death as revenge for September 11th, 2001. I celebrate his death because he won’t be around to plan September 11th, 2011.

I celebrate his death because I know that all around the world, terrorists go to bed every night wondering if they’ll wake up to the sound of a couple of helicopters landing in their front yard.

For that, I thank our military—and I celebrate proudly. Time to crack open another Bud Light.

Well, put Stu. We celebrate not in death, but that a world without Osama bin Laden is a world where life is safer. In his death, coutless lives have been saved.

You can follow the hilarious and spot-on Stu on Twitter.

While your at it, follow the Regular Bros on Twitter.

That's not enough, you say? How about a cartoon of a monkey riding a chicken?

Get Outta Town

It is being reported by The Hill that Nancy Pelosi called former President George W. Bush on Tuesday to commend him for his efforts in the quest to find Osama bin Laden.

“I wanted him to know the appreciation that many of us have in a bipartisan way ... that his role was important," she said.

Regular Bros recommends its readers keep their eyes on the skies - pigs should be flying any second now.

Super Mariobama

A Globe Moment

Regular Bros has obtained exclusive photos of a recent Osama Bin Laden appearance.  At a meeting of the Abottabad Junior Jihadist League last week, OBL revealed that he had received a special message in a recent dream. As shown below, OBL told the audience that he had learned that 5/1 was to be one of the most glorious days in recent world history. Who knew?

Ya Gotta Love Snake Eaters

Unless you're living in a cave somewhere, or specially designed compound in sunny Pakistan, you know that OBL is no more with this world. Kudos to the Seal team that finally got the bastard.

 I love the observations on BLACKFIVE, a Spec Ops blog.

President Obama declared in a late night presser Sunday night that Osama Bin Laden, the world's leading terrorist asshole, is dead, dead, dead.  Stone dead.  Passed on.  Ceased to be.  Bereft of life.  Pushing up the daisies.  Kicked the bucket.  Shuffled off his mortal coil. Bin Laden has assumed room temperature.  He now dwells in hell.

Osama's mansion was right in the middle of the town of Abottabad.  It had steel walls, which didn't do him much good.  No TV, no phones.  They burned their trash.  So, it was conspicuous as hell.  Osama was hiding in plain sight. obviously with the help of the Pakistani government and townsfolk. There was a military garrison nearby.

The crowd outside the White House is growing, looks like over a thousand, mostly kids draped in American flags.  Who knew kids from Dupont Circle had American flags?

I'm sure we'll be knee deep in analyzing the operation and the potential ramifications for some time to come. Despite the pending media circus, lets not forget to take a little time and say a prayer for all our military and intelligence personnel who have given their blood, sweat, tears and lives in pursuit of this scumbag.