Confessions of a Pilgrim

Haven’t had a chance to do anything with the blog this week since monday or so. Here’s the brief comments for the week:

Shuttle Launch: Woo. Much ado about nothing really IMO. Can’t believe they were SHOCKED that more of the insulation came off the tank. Hope she makes it home in one piece.

“Over There”: Didn’t watch it. Too much hype and I had a sneaky suspicion there would be some political undertones. If ya want a War movie watch the Big Red One or the Dirty Dozen.

Judge Roberts: Yawn. He’ll get in unless the “loyal” opposition finds out about that time with the Goat in College.

London: Glad the Brits are tracking the barbarians down. I have a sooth on this…eventually the “loyal” opposition here in the States will start crowing about how “efficient” the Brits have been in going after their attackers yet President Bush is four years down the road and he *STILL* doesn’t have UBL. Mark it down. We’ll hear it eventually.

That’s it. Next two weeks are my own and if the office calls, emails, or telegraphs me I will be someplace else at that time. Thank goodness for caller id.

David Kennedy wrote this piece of crap for the NYT Op/Ed page today. Blackfive posted his comments here and a reader of his left Mr. Kennedy’s email address. I couldn’t resist.

Sir,

I am quite certain this isn’t the last of the notes you will receive about your “piece”. I would call your “piece” the most uneducated view of the military I have ever read but I have had the unfortunate experience of reading other articles by members of the self styled “Intellectual Elite” so your’s falls to the middle of the pack.

I know many young men and women currently serving their Country. Most of them are in Iraq but some are in Afghanistan and other parts of the world most will never know about. Five of them have given their lives for their Country. Two of them gave their lives as part of the compromised SEAL mission a couple weeks ago. For you to make the absurd statement that they were mercenaries is a slap in their face as well as the faces of the hundreds of thousands of other members of our military.

Your arrogant diatribe against our military is no real surprise. Those of us who have served already know you are not to be trusted or read for that matter. I stumbled upon your “piece” at Blackfive.net . The next time you decide to spout off about the military, perhaps you should read some of the articles in Blackfive’s “Someone you should know” category. Perhaps then you will have a better understanding of the character of our military. As long as you continue to listen to the “Intellectual Elite” echo chamber you will continue to write the kind of drivel found in this “piece”.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the War on Terror. The barbarians have launched their attacks and we can promise ourselves that they will continue to attack us in our home countries. In this war there are no civilians…we are all soldiers. It appears that the vast majority of us have not come to that conclusion but it is quite clear that the barbarians have. They kill indiscriminately without warning. Your wives, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, and children are at risk at anytime of any day. We must be vigilant.

Because we are all soldiers we must work with our local law enforcement whenever possible. Declaring them jack-booted thugs and ignoring their orders may well result in your untimely demise as was evidenced in London last week. Was the police in London out of line? My friend Ralph thinks so. But, then again he seems to blame the attacks in London on President Bush and PM Blair as well.

Ralph makes the point that while American’s have been conditioned to work with the police and follow their orders/suggestions, that Europeans have not. I guess that means that had Mr. Menezes been chased by unarmed Bobbys he could have just run away from them. If that’s the way it’s played in London then they have anarchy. I suspect the average Brit has the same respect for law enforcement that the vast majority of Americans have and Mr. Menezes had some reason to run from the police and he picked the wrong day to do it. It was tragic but necessary. *IF* Mr. Menezes was carrying a bomb then a simple thumb switch could have detonated it killing himself and all the police that were chasing him. Thankfully the police wasn’t going to play that game. The tragedy could have been avoided…and THAT responsibility falls to Mr. Menezes not the police.

When the police wish to speak with us we must allow them to do so. When they wish to search our bags before boarding a bus, train, plane, or other public transportation device we have the option of saying, “no thanks” and walking away. If they persist then one of two things are going to happen…your bag is going to get searched or you are going to get shot. Tyranny? depends on how you look at it I reckon. It’s tyranny if you do not believe there’s a threat. If you believe the “jack-booted thugs” are simply harassing you because there is no “real” threat of a barbarian blowing up your bus then drag out your Glock and start shooting back. If you honestly believe it’s tyranny then you are obligated to take a stand against it. If you choose that route then we have civil war. Frankly, I’m not sure we’re that far from it and I’m also not sure it would be a bad thing.

Can’t be too surprised by this. What is sort of a surprise is the fact that the bombs didn’t work. Apparently Mr. el-Nashar didn’t teach his students to well before heading out.

note to barbarians: You are screwed. The good guys will be studying the forensics from your would-be-bombs and I’ll bet they will get DNA from them.

I’m going to keep these things cataloged at this link. I wonder if he’s getting hate mail from folks because he’s dancing around pR0n. Ya think?

Anyway, good read but ya gotta read through the phpBB install notes. If you have never been to ISC then you are about to find a REALLY KEWL infosec site.

Read the latest Follow The Bouncing Malware bit at the first link above and then go on over to ISC. Read. You might learn something.

36 Years ago today Mary Jo died in an auto accident leaving behind a not-so-grieving Senator Ted Kennedy.

I’m gonna give this a shot. I’ve been reading alot of fiction lately. Mostly Ludlum’s Bourne series and Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Some things I have taken from these books is that Ludlum could do a better job and Evanovich is a true talent. Another thing I have taken from these books is that I can write this stuff too.

So. For the background go here. For the beginnings of my attempt at fiction go here. This is still WAY early so it sorta sucks right now. I’m feeling alittle sensitive about this right now but I’m open to comments anyway so come on…kick me in the teeth so I can whine and gripe about how the Arts in America are being kept down by “duh MAN” and how my free speech rights are being violated.

Fancy that. ABCNews reports:

Authorities told ABC News that records show Mohammed Sidique Khan, the eldest of the bombers now believed to be the field commander of the attacks, had called a person who is associated with the Islamic Center, a mosque in Queens, N.Y. Yet, a member of that mosque claimed they had no knowledge of the phone call.

Okay…so barbarian Khan calls his buddy in New York. Why? To say “Happy Birthday”? To ask if his buddy’s brother is still upset because Khan cheated on him? Just to check in with a long lost friend? Or could it be this call was to confirm the attacks were to take place?

That’s the most frustrating thing here. If the FBI had tapped every phone line in every mosque in the US then maybe, just maybe, this attack could have been thwarted. However, if Mr. Al-Kennedy, Al-Durbin, or Al-Pelosi caught wind of the FBI operation they would have SCREAMED civil rights violations.

The ABC report continues:

Furthermore, Magdy El Nashar, 33, who was captured last night at his family’s home outside of Cairo and then questioned by British agents, studied at North Carolina State University. Police believe he helped the bombers build their explosive devices. Now they want to know if there are more bombs and would-be bombers.

…

Police said El Nashar, who denied any involvement in the bombings, left England shortly after he rented the house in Leeds, where they discovered a so-called bomb factory. Neighbors in the Cairo suburb told ABC News he arrived there about 10 days before the bombings. They also said they had trouble believing El Nashar could have participated in the attacks.

Yeah, that’s right Mr. Ross(so-called Journalist), you CLEARLY know more about this kind of thing than Scotland Yard.

Obviously alleged-barbarian El Nashar is a quiet man who NO ONE ever thought would be involved with such a thing…nevermind his fascination with plastic explosives.

Why am I not surprised? Here we have a ship who served valiantly throughout the second world war, Korea, and on through the Reagan years without a single blemish. Why would San Francisco ban such a proud ship from her piers? Could the answer be in their own statement?

In turning away the Iowa, supervisors cited opposition to the war in Iraq, the treatment of gay and lesbians in the service and the city’s reputation for embracing the peace movement.

I doubt that’s the case though. I think they are just terrorist supporters who want nothing to do with a Strong America who is PROUD of her men, women, and EQUIPMENT protecting her.

Don’t think I’ve posted anything here about Mr. Liston and his antics at ISC but there’s always a first time. For the past several months(maybe it’s been a year?) Tom has been doing his reverse engineering of malware thing and posting his results at the ISC in a way that only Tom could. I’ll try and gather up the others and add them to this list but for now…here’s the latest. Great info…great humor…

and now…the list:

1. Follow the Bouncing Malware – Part I
2. Follow the Bouncing Malware, Part II
3. Follow The Bouncing Malware (Part III)
4. Following the Bouncing Malware – IV
5. Follow the Bouncing Malware : A Fresh Bounce
6. FTBM VI: Hypnotized and EULAgized
7. FTBM VII: Afterglow
8. FTBM VIII: All that glitters is not gold

I agree with Smash, we need far more of this. It seems that demonstrations of support for London occurred at the British Embassy to Bahrain and Jordan. If this kind of thing happened after 9/11 then I just missed it.

Thank you to the people of Bahrain and Jordon for expressing your condemnation of these barbaric acts and setting yourselves apart as TRUE Muslims compared to the barbarians who would steal your religion.

Note to Dialup Victims: The Bahrain link above will take a minute or two to load…LOTS of great pics.

It would appear that Freedom is on the march in Azerbaijan. Good News.

BAKU, July 10 (AFP) – Some 10,000 opposition members, many dressed in orange, demonstrated Sunday in the centre of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to call for fair parliamentary elections in November.

Participants at the rally, organised by the opposition Azadlyg (Freedom) Bloc, shouted: “freedom” and called on President Ilham Aliyev to ensure that the November 6 poll is free.

Many wore orange clothing, a symbol inspired by last year’s “orange revolution” that brought pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine.

Isa Gambar, head of the opposition party Musavat, told the crowd that “this year we will free the country from the Aliyev regime.”

Aliyev, who took over the presidency from his father Heydar Aliyev in controversial 2003 elections, has only recently allowed opposition protests to take place.

Of course, we all know that President Bush had nothing to do with this:

[Hat tip: Smash]

American born terrorists attacked the San Francisco Police over the weekend. Indymedia is gloating of course…they are America’s version of Al Jazeera.

Michelle Malkin has more information.

My buddy who runs the blog Singlemind is quite the gun nut. I say that affectionately because I’m also a gun nut but I just can’t bring myself to get as knowledgable about them as this guy. He hand loads his rounds for his WinMag and can tell you off the top of his head the speed of just about any round you care to mention even if his answer is just “damn fast”.

Today he took his WinMag to the Kentucky State Long-Distance Rifle Championships at Fort Knox. His is a story of overcoming adversity and still putting steel on target.

For your dedication to the match, accuracy of aim, referencing of the tried and true Kentucky Aim, and almost CERTAIN mentally covering of your targets with barbarian turbins…you have earned the coveted Half Horse-Half Gator.