What day is it again?

Hey people,
I got the counters reinstalled on the blog.
I even added a countdown clock for Mardi Gras. Fun!!
It's starting to get cold here. The days are a bit brisk, and I have to wear sweatpants to bed at night. I even had to throw a thicker blanket on my bed.
I got to catch a couple hours of a BBC show called "Sahara", with Mickael Palin. It was pretty good. I hope someday I can afford to travel like he does. He's been doing these incredible travel shows for several years now. Anyway, it occurred to me how much I miss sitting around a camp fire.
I think I may need to make that happen when I get home for R&R. A night or two of camping would probably be a good thing.
Would anyone like to join me?

Milton Friedman, July 31, 1912 - November 16, 2006

It's a sad day, but one that will be marked with deep reflection on the part of many freedom loving individuals all over the world. It is interesting to note that on the day Mr. Friedman died, The President of the United States was arriving in Vietnam to speak with South Asian leaders about free trade. It also provides enormous contrast with respect to the North Korea issue. Even Communist countries, who embrace market reform and trade with their neighbors, can achieve markets that greatly benefit their people, free countries, doubly so. Communist countries that stick to hard line Marxist theory, and shut out the rest of the world, end up like North Korea, isolated, desperate, impoverished, and a constant threat to human life.
The President said some great thinks about this great man at his 90th. Birthday celebration. Excepts to follow.

“Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually disastrous. In contrast to the free market’s invisible hand, which improves the lives of people, the government’s invisible foot tramples on people’s hopes and destroys their dreams. He has never claimed that free markets are perfect. Yet he has demonstrated that even an imperfect market produces better results than arrogant experts and grasping bureaucrats. But Milton Friedman does not object to government controls solely because they are ineffective. His deeper objections flow from a moral framework. He has taught us that a free-market system’s main justification is its moral strength. Human freedom serves the cause of human dignity. Freedom rewards creativity and work, and you cannot reduce freedom in our economy without reducing freedom in our lives.”

“Milton has shown us how freedom can enhance our national security. He is the intellectual godfather of our all-volunteer Army. He argued that America could rely on the dedication of soldiers who serve in the armed forces of their own free will—and he was right. We have recently seen the quality and idealism and skill of the all-volunteer Army. Those who serve our country by choice are serving it with honor. Milton Friedman has also shown us how freedom can foster educational reform. For many years, he has been a tireless advocate of school choice as a way of empowering parents and improving the performance of our schools. Educational reform advances when parents have the information and the authority to push for reform. And there is no greater authority than a good alternative. Poor children in America need better options when they’re trapped in schools that will not teach and will not change. In all
of these issues and debates, Milton Friedman has argued with consistency and courage, and trademark bluntness. His ideas have influence around the world. And by his strength of conviction, he has served his country with distinction. And it has been recognized as such—after all, he received the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics, and in 1988 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1938, Milton Friedman married Rose Director, an outstanding economist in her own right—and the only person known to have ever won an argument with Milton.”

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for posting a link to the transcript on her web log.
You can read it here.
Mr. Friedman was a tremendously intelligent man, and I hold him in the absolute highest regard. I highly recommend to everyone that you add one or two of his books to your reading/Christmas list this year. (Definitely worth a trip over to Amazon.com)
Also, I would like to ask that everyone take a moment to reflect upon how great life is, not just in our country, but in every country that forms this great international marketplace that we have built with so many others. Thanks, in no small part, to the work of this great man.

Disappointed in the Middle-East...

It's about time I posted an update. Actually, it's probably way past due. I am in Qatar at the moment, taking a few days of R&R. I have passed the five month mark, and I'm looking at coming home for Mardi Gras in about three months. Hopefully they will go by fast. It's a good time of year to be here. It's nice and cool, and a little humid. It feels like a late summer evening back home. Our opportunities to get out in town are very limited so I may not have any pics worth posting. We are allowed three beers a day, here. I have to say it's nice to have a beer at night, I know I deserve it.
So I understand there were a whole bunch of rino's slaughtered back home this last week. That doesn't sound like a very humane thing to do, rino's being endangered and all. Who would do such a thing? Probably just as well...
I would love for someone to explain to me exactly what the Democrats won on. It seems to me they succeeded in making chicken salad from chicken shit. What are we going to get now? I know what I had been asking the Republicans for, Border Security, low taxes, reform Social Security, kill as many B.S. entitlements as possible, don't give in to terrorists thugs, shit like that...you know, things I should expect AUTOMATICALLY from the "conservative" party. What do I do now? Ask again more politely, beg, or just bend over and smile while the dems ass-rape me? Oh wait, I don't have to worry about anything, I'm in the military! That must mean I'm a frickin charity case! To dumb to do anything else. Could you please help? Can you spare some change for an Iraq veteran? I was going to get out of the military in a year and start a business, but now...why should I take the risk? Why risk my money and create a few jobs if I'm just going to get taxed into an early grave? I can just sit here safe and warm in Uncle Sam's lap, making big money to just be a middle management bureaucrat type. Another 14 years of getting paid tax dollars to do nothing spectacular, and I can retire!(also on the taxpayers dollar!)
Someone needs to cheer me up. I don't like the feeling that while I'm over here, the socialists are running rampant back there. For all I know, they're planning on selling my families home out from under them, and giving it to some corporation for "the public good".
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, three quick things.
1. The new speaker can blow me.
2. I WANT RUMSFELD BACK!!!
3. The number of expletives I had to remove from the first draft of this post is...well, lets just say that it's a good thing my mother reads this blog.