Hope

Despite the MSM’s incessant bleating about all the awful news from Iraq (killed! explosions! bombs! riots!), there really is a lot of progress in Iraq. The military blogs written by soldiers actually in Iraq complain bitterly about the wrong-headed picture painted by the MSM — just short of outright lies (usually), but very much omitting much that is true. The Iraqi blogs express similar sentiments about news coverage, and are much better informed and realistic about the political situation. Strategy Page is reliably level-headed and observant; reporting the world (including Iraq) as one might imagine a soldier would want it reported: fact-based, analytical, unbiased (good and bad news is equally well covered). They’ve got a post today that is full of detail about the improving capabilities of the Iraqi military and police forces — very encouraging, on the whole. It concludes:

From Strategy Page:

The Iraqi battalions are able to make terrorist attacks much more costly, for the terrorists. Thus the recent terrorist attack on the Palestinian hotel, resulted in over a dozen terrorist personnel killed or captured because of prompt action by Iraqi soldiers and police. As a result of this, two more trends are in evidence. First, more and more of the terrorist activity is moving outside of heavily policed Baghdad, to smaller towns where there are fewer security personnel. Second, more Sunni Arabs are giving up on plans for any quick take over of the government. These Kurdish and Shia Arab police and army officers were not supposed to show up so quickly, if ever. But there they are.

If these trends continue, this is very good news indeed! Let us hope the Iraqi forces can push the terrorist forces way back — say, to Iran and Syria…

Friends

Aren’t these just the sweetest photos?

My favorite is the black and white kitties, leaning into each other with their tails “hugging”. What’s yours?
Click on any of them for a larger view…

Handling Adversity

This is so true! They always ask at the doctor’s office why you are there and you say in front of others what’s wrong and sometimes it’s embarrassing.

There’s nothing worse than a Doctor’s Receptionist who insists you tell her what is wrong with you in a room full of other patients. I know most of us have experienced this, and I love the way this old guy handled it:

An 86-year-old man walked into a crowded Doctor’s Waiting Room. As he approached the desk, the Receptionist said, “Yes sir, what are you seeing the Doctor for today?"

"There’s something wrong with my dick,” he replied. The Receptionist became irritated and said, “You shouldn’t come into a crowded Doctor’s Room and say things like that."

"Why not? You asked me what was wrong and I told you,” he said.

The Receptionist replied, “You’ve obviously caused some embarrassment in this room full of people. You should have said there is something wrong with your ear or something and then discussed the problem further with the Doctor in private."

The man replied, “You shouldn’t ask people things in a room full of others, if the answer could embarrass anyone."

The man walked out, waited several minutes and then re-entered.

The Receptionist smiled smugly and asked, “Yes?"

"There’s something wrong with my ear,” he stated.

The Receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice. “And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?"

"I can’t piss out of it,” the man replied.

The Waiting Room erupted in laughter

Old and Fast

This gets even funnier the older you are!

An elderly man in North Carolina had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back, fixed up nice; picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming when it was built.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn’t been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, “We’re not coming out until you leave!"

The old man frowned, “I didn’t come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.” Holding the bucket up he said, “I’m here to feed the alligator."

Moral: Old men can still think fast.

Optical Illusion

This is one of the better visual illusions I’ve seen…

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.

If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green.

Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you’re lucky!

It’s amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don’t disappear.

This should be proof enough — we don’t always see what we think we see.