Take That Vista!

Well, I haven't had much time to post lately, mostly due to the fact that I have been working so much and besides, outfitting with Leopard on my G4 and...my G5. Yep, found a guy that is an apple software developer who was upgrading to a brand new Mac Pro (my next machine, hopefully sometime next year) and the price was right.

Now you might ask why a G5? well, when they first came out, I was enamored. I know that the MP is a faster machine with intel processors and dual and quad cores, etc., but something about "G5" has always appealed to me. I love it but the interesting thing is, since I installed the replacement processor on my G4 (Victoria, as I called it), it just sings. The G4 is the Chevy engines of Mac as far as I am concerned. They will take all kinds of abuse (read:tinkering) and just go. My G4 runs really well right now and I know it's nothing against the new Mac Pro's and what have you, but for it's age, hey, it ain't no slouch.

I installed OS X Leopard (I read where someone said they disdained anyone calling OS X "OS EX", which I do, it has somewhat of a secret agent feel to it) and I figure he is 1) a windows user and 2) a snob or 3) a hardcore liberal or all of the above. But my trusty G4 just keeps on cranking. I also have to say, that while I really like Leopard, I find that Panther, 10.3.9, is perhaps to date, the best OS in the OSX series I have encountered. It's stable, never glitches and it's really harder to lock up than either Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard. Tiger seems to be a bastard child to me. I never really got into it, and it seemed that it got caught up in the Iphone release hysteria and the pre-Leopard release. But, all 3 versions are good, no doubt and Tiger does run well on both machines.

Now, to be fair, Leopard has just been released and so far I am impressed. I think that Leopard just crushes Vista. I installed on both machines and aside from a software glitch on the G5, it is solid. Looks good and what features I have worked with are really, really cool. Time machine is awesome, Ichat is going to revolutionize chat functions and networking is great. As an example, I connected my G5 to my G4 and I can actually look at the desktop on Victoria and open apps, move files, hell, it's eerie.

But there are other things that I haven't explored and only dabbled in, so I can't say I have gotten too far into it. But all in all, Leopard rocks. All my old software (other than good ole OS 9, retired by apple at this point) works and all peripherals work, printer, scanner, USB, firewire stuff, etc. I am very impressed with it and so far, I have heard the same thing from other "Mac heads". Otherwise, from my "wintel" friends, I have heard nothing but headaches and frustration.

I am sure windows is good for what you want it to be, but to me, buying windows Vista is a lot like buying a Volkswagen cos you couldn't afford a Mercedes (Apple). When you take into consideration how much more stable a mac is, how the OS is tailored to a mac and the expandability of a machine.

Most mac people don't have to buy a new computer every 2 or 3 years as the mac just grows with the changes. My G4 is what, 8 years old? and it still moves pretty fast (2 gig processor, 1.5 gbs of ram) and I have never been disappointed with it's performance. Since installing the new 7448 freescale 2 gb chip, I would almost say, it rivals the newer G5, but I have only 2gbs of ram in my G5 and it's a dual 2.0 processor. So, I imagine, once I install more memory, say another 2 or 4 gigs (8 gigs max), it will scream.

People say, oh you can't play games on mac, you can't find software or it's too expensive to buy a mac. Balderdash! I say. Sorry, a 19th century moment there! Mac's have become really affordable anymore. When you look at the prices of a new Mac now compared to a new wintel, they are competitive and mac offers so much more.

Most wintel vendors such at IBM, HP, Dell, Gateway and whatever, are really 3rd party vendors who have a license to install windows. That's where apple made a mistake, if you will, cos if they would have licensed computer manufactures to use their software, they would be as big or bigger than Microsoft.

But, old PowerPC architecture is different than x86 (windows) and now with Apple moving to the intel chip, you can now run windows (with some help and my question is, why?) on a mac. I still prefer a good old PowerPC, freescale, motorola chip. To me, buying a new mac with the intel chip is much like buying a new Mustang. They may be similiar to the old ones, but they are nothing compared to the original muscle cars. I know because I grew up building and driving those muscle cars, as did my older brother who had some of the most amazing cars in car history.

But, I am tired, I haven't had much time to do anything other than sleep and work. I am starting a long run here on Friday, 11 days with no day off, so I won't probably post much unless I run across something I absolutely have to post. So, off I go. Just gonna finish tweaking and exploring. Now, maybe I can get around to working on the new CD that I have been putting off.

Michael Yon on The New Republic and Scott Beauchamp

I had mentioned in the story below, the story of a real "phony soldier" that was "writing" for the New Republic, a left wing rag. Now, one of my favorite journalists, and he is the genuine article, Michael Yon has penned his thoughts on the whole affair. So I decided to re-post this from Yon's blog. If you want to know what's really going on in Iraq, he is the guy. He doesn't sugarcoat anything and he doesn't try to color the news. He tells it like it is. This is a very good read and I thought if anyone was interested, you should read this and then you will understand the whole "phony soldier" story.

Beauchamp and the Rule of Second Chances
October 25, 2007
Beauchamp and the Rule of Second Chances: Pass it Along
I’d known that General Petraeus was once accidentally shot in the chest, but I first heard the full story this summer in Baqubah, from an eyewitness whose account I wrote about in Second Chances.

The story of General Petraeus getting accidentally shot in the chest is a case in point. One of his own soldiers had pulled the trigger. Normally, something very bad would have happened to that soldier and his commander. Instead Petraeus sent that soldier to Ranger School, and his Captain (Fred Johnson) was promoted early. In June, I witnessed LTC Fred Johnson helping to restore security and rebuild Baqubah. Fred Johnson is a believer in second chances.

Some months ago, a soldier in Baghdad wrote a piece on the way war can degrade the morals and affect the judgment of combat soldiers. His story was published at face-value in The New Republic magazine. In it the soldier wrote terrible things about his unit, making the article sensational.

I was in Iraq when it first hit the stands and someone asked me about the plausibility of the events described in the article. I skimmed the story but it did not even pass a simple sniff-test. With a shooting war going on, there is no time for trivial pursuits, so my only comment was something like, “It sounds like a bunch of garbage.” Turned out it was.

The soldier’s name was Beauchamp. He’d tried to hide his identity, but poor Beauchamp had no idea that the blog world would get on his trail and tree him like a coon. Beauchamp crawled up to the top of that tree, looked down into the snarling spotlight, and suddenly knew he was caught. His simple mask was no more effective than a coon’s, and that in itself might provide a little insight into how deeply Beauchamp had thought this all through. In any case, he was up in that tree, surrounded by hounds who’d done this plenty of times, yet always found this part exciting. The hunters would have written the last sentence if the choice was up to them.

Some wanted Beauchamp to go to prison; some were baying for blood. The fellas in his unit were unhappy, as were his commanders, since he’d made some of them look like immature dimwits while others he’d cast as deliberately cruel in the worst of ways. Nobody likes to risk life and limb in the hope they are doing the right thing only to be spat upon and accused of criminal acts.
It took a while for the truth to eke out; there was almost none of it in what was published. As the real story unfolded, The New Republic looked increasingly culpable and ridiculous trying to hide behind a fact-checking process that was clearly stuck on the difference between fact and fabrication. In the lingering spotlight, no one seemed to appreciate the soft shoe.

It was not a story I followed closely because then—as now—I was focused on the war. But what struck me as most important was not that Beauchamp wrote some bad combat stress fiction, but that a media organization printed it as truth.

And what of Beauchamp? Because he was the man who originally wrote the lurid overwrought fable of puppy-killing among the grave-desecrating cretins who made fun of a woman disfigured by bombs, the tepid outcome left many people unhappy. Especially those who wanted to see him humiliated (he has been plenty humiliated). Beauchamp was allowed to stay in the Army and suffered only a minor administrative setback.

I was at a reconciliation meeting between Sunni and Shia in the West Rashid district of Baghdad on 24 October, and it happened by complete coincidence that I was with Beauchamp’s battalion. In fact, I was with his old company commander for much of the day, although I had no idea for most of it that I was with Beauchamp’s old company commander.

At the reconciliation meeting, Beauchamp’s battalion commander, LTC George Glaze, politely introduced himself and asked who I wrote for. When I replied that I just have a little blog, the word caught his ears and he mentioned Beauchamp, who I acknowledged having heard something about. LTC Glaze seemed protective of Beauchamp, despite how the young soldier had maligned his fellow soldiers. In fact, the commander said Beauchamp, having learned his lesson, was given the chance to leave or stay.

The reality of war is hellish enough: the IED that left this massive crater in the road in Mosul also killed four soldiers and an interpreter.

It can be pretty tough over here. The soldiers in Beauchamp’s unit have seen a lot of combat. Often times soldiers are working in long stretches of urban guerrilla combat dogged by fatigue and sleep deprivation. This is likely one of the most stressful jobs in the world, especially when millions of people are screaming at you for failures that happened three years or more ago, and for decisions to invade Iraq that were made when you were still a teenager. Just as bad is the silence from the untold millions who have already written off your effort as hopeless. Add that to the fact that buddies are getting killed in front of you. (More than 70 killed in Beauchamp’s brigade.) I see what these young men and women go through, and the extraordinary professionalism they nearly always manage to exude awes me on a daily basis.

Lapses of judgment are bound to happen, and accountability is critical, but that’s not the same thing as pulling out the hanging rope every time a soldier makes a mistake.

Beauchamp is young; under pressure he made a dumb mistake. In fact, he has not always been an ideal soldier. But to his credit, the young soldier decided to stay, and he is serving tonight in a dangerous part of Baghdad. He might well be seriously injured or killed here, and he knows it. He could have quit, but he did not. He faced his peers. I can only imagine the cold shoulders, and worse, he must have gotten. He could have left the unit, but LTC Glaze told me that Beauchamp wanted to stay and make it right. Whatever price he has to pay, he is paying it.
So much depends on soldiers who are sometimes all too human.

The commander said I was welcome to talk with Beauchamp, but clearly he did not want anyone else coming at his soldier. LTC Glaze told me that at least one blog had even called for Beauchamp to be killed, which seems rather extreme even on a very bad day. LTC Glaze wants to keep Beauchamp, and hopes folks will let it rest. I’m with LTC Glaze on this: it’s time to let Beauchamp get back to the war. The young soldier learned his lessons. He paid enough to earn his second chance that he must know he will never get a third.

Though Beauchamp is close, I’m not going to spend half a day tracking him down when just this morning I woke to rockets launching from nearby and landing on an American base. Who has time to skin Beauchamp? We need him on his post and focused.

As for The New Republic, some on the staff may feel like they’ve been hounded and treed, but it’s hard to feel the same sympathy for a group of cowards who won’t ’fess up and can’t face the scorn of American combat soldiers who were injured by their collective lapse of judgment. It’s up to their readers to decide the ultimate fate.

The New Republic treed like a bandit . . . personally, I think they would make a nice Daniel Boone hat.

Another Phony Solider story

So in light of the recent bruhaha over Rush's Phony soldier comments that drew the ire of the democrats, comes another story that has exposed yet another example of the "Phony Soldier" that Rush was referring to. I have been following this over at Hugh Hewitt's blog at http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog.

According to reports, Scott Beauchamp, an army private has been "reporting" on events in Iraq and supposed incidents, yet again, of indiscretions by the military. I have read some of the accounts that he had written and found them incredible in the sense that if they were indeed happening, it had the potential of being another huge scandal. However, after Hugh and other bloggers started doing some research and inquiring at the "The New Republic" who has been publishing these "dispatchs", it has been been revealed that the incidents in question, have turned out to be embellishments and lies. Yet another example of the left using a "phony solider" in the sense, that even though Beauchamp is indeed a US Army solider, his accounts are by and large a lie that the kook left have been using to denigrate the US military. Below is a flash from Drudge today;



SHOCK DOCS: THE NEW REPUBLIC 'SHOCK TROOPS' STORY COLLAPSES
WED Oct 24 2007 12:29:44 ET

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained internal documents from the investigation of THE NEW REPUBLIC'S "Baghdad Diarist", Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private turned war correspondent who reported tales of military malfeasance from the Iraq War front.

The documents appear to expose that once the veracity of Beauchamp's diaries were called into question, and an Army investigation ensued, THE NEW REPUBLIC has failed to publicly account for publishing slanderous falsehoods about the U.S. military in a time of war.

Document 1: Beauchamp Refuses to Stand by Story (Beauchamp Transcript Part 1)

THE NEW REPUBLIC has been standing behind the stories from their Baghdad Diarist, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, since questions were first raised about their accuracy over the summer. On August 10, the editors at TNR accused the Army of "stonewalling" their investigation into the stories by preventing them from speaking with Beauchamp. The DRUDGE REPORT has since obtained the transcript of a September 7 call between TNR editor Frank Foer, TNR executive editor Peter Scoblic, and Private Beauchamp. During the call, Beauchamp declines to stand by his stories, telling his editors that "I just want it to end. I'm not going to talk to anyone about anything really." The editors respond that "we just can't, in good conscience, continue to defend the piece" without an explanation, but Beauchamp responds only that he "doesn't care what the public thinks." The editors then ask Beauchamp to cancel scheduled interviews with the WASHINGTON POST and NEWSWEEK.

Document 2: Beauchamp Admits to "Gross Exaggerations and Inaccurate Allegations" (Beauchamp Transcript Part 2)

The DRUDGE REPORT has also obtained a signed "Memorandum for Record" in which Beauchamp recants his stories and concedes the facts of the Army's investigation -- that his stories contained "gross exaggerations and inaccurate allegations of misconduct" by his fellow soldiers.

Document 3: Army Investigation: Tales "Completely Fabricated," Beauchamp Wanted to be Hemingway

The third document obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT is the Army's official report on the investigation into the allegations made by Private Beauchamp. The Army concluded that Beauchamp had "completely fabricated" the story of mocking a disfigured woman, that his description of a "Saddam-era dumping ground" was false, and that claims that he and his men had deliberately targeted dogs with their armored vehicles was "completely unfounded." Further the report stated "that Private Beauchamp desired to use his experiences to enhance his writing and provide legitimacy to his work possibly becoming the next Hemingway."

The report concludes that "Private Beauchamp takes small bits of truth and twists and exaggerates them into fictional accounts that he puts forth as the whole truth for public consumption."

Developing...

4 million (bumped)

Of course, as I searched the NBC and PMSNBC (MSLSD to all my fellow Mark Levin friends), it was only obvious that they wouldn't post one of the biggest stories of the last couple of weeks.

Rush Limbaugh's Auction got 2.2 million for a letter (now referred to as "the Declaration of Incompetence" by a majority of listeners to Rush's show) from the defeatist democrats that was sent to Mark Mays, President of Clear Channel communications, hoping to have Mr Mays reprimand Rush if not outright muzzle him. Talk about turning Lemons into lemonade.

Now, that means, as Rush has stated, he will match the final winning bid, so another 2 million, to the total, bringing the total to a whopping 4 million dollars to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement foundation, a program started after the OKC bombing to help the children of fallen military and law enforcement people with scholarships as well as helping veterans of the military with other needs. Truly, a very worthwhile organization. Rush sits on the board of directors.

(NOTE): A reader commented that they had read that Reid had tried to attach himself to the auction, trying to include himself "in" on the auction. True. Also, as of this amended entry at 01:47 Wednesday morning, NOT ONE OF THE DEMOCRATS WHO SIGNED THAT LETTER HAS CONTRIBUTED toward this cause or to the foundation. Yeah, they really support the military, right?


Whether or not you agree and listen to Rush (I do, having started listening to him in 1988 as I was driving my daughter to school in the first week of his broadcast) you have to admit, that 4 million dollars, (2 million from the auction on Ebay and another 2 million from Rush) is nothing to sneeze at as that is some big money. This after Harry the body Reid hammered Rush on the Senate floor for remarks that "the Body" more than likely heard from his masters over at Think Progress or Media Matters. I was listening the very day that the whole thing started after Rush and a caller were talking about the bogus soldiers, in particular one Jesse McBeth whom never even made it out of basic training and the now famous or infamous "Phony Soldier" comments came out of. I heard what Limbaugh said and I knew right away that he was talking about these weasels that the left try to trot out as honorable soliders to somehow impunge the honor of the real military personnel who are serving in all theatres in the GWOT.

In all the years that I have listened to Rush, I have heard only sincere admiration and respect for the fighting men and women in our armed forces. But yet, as Rush has pointed out, not once did the left (or the MSM whom are basically mouthpieces for the left anyway) go over to his site or ask him what he really did say.

So, I thought (how silly of me) that maybe, just maybe the "journalists" (snicker) over at the peacock network would have done a story on the results of this auction. Nope. Not a word was found, not a word was mentioned on NBC Nightly News (I was switching air Friday night after the auction) by Brian ("have a good week-END" what a pretentious little F***) Williams. To think that they did indeed run the story about the whole bru ha ha to begin with, they did what they do best, as soon as it looks like the left is going to get hammered, slimed or the door shut on their face, they don't do anything.

What people don't realize about the TV MSM is that they take their stories from the New York Times or the Washington Post, both once great newspapers, but anymore, just partisan leftwing mouthpieces for the left. To a newscast, you can watch all 3 networks, CNN and PMSNBC and it's obvious that their news directors have taken the stories off the front page of each. How do I know this? Simply because I have worked in TV for all the years I have. I know how they operate and it doesn't really change whether at the network level or the local level.

What Rush did was significant for several reasons. It showed that the left does indeed not care, in fact abhors, the military, it showed that average Americans do in fact respect and admire the military in the support shown to Rush by the auction and it showed that Americans are not heartless and to help out the children of fallen military and Law enforcement officials, is something that many Americans have no trouble doing, in other words, they do support the troops and the mission of those troops. My whole problem with the left and their "we support the troops but not the war" mantra is, that's like saying, "we support the police, but we don't support them using force or arresting people". As the old saying goes, "next time you are in trouble, call a hippie". And sadly, it shows how the so-called compassionate liberals, who are forever saying that the current administration tries to stifle free speech, do not in fact believe in free speech at all (unless of course, it concurs with their agenda), as the leadership in the most august body in the US government, tries to muzzle and intimidate a private citizen. Now who in the government is trying to shut whom up? Well, it ain't Dubya, that's for sure.

But woe was me, there again as far as I know, was any mention of the biggest auction in Ebay history (Jay Leno got 800k for a motorcycle), instead the MSM was totally silent about the results. The money is going for a very worthy cause and I think it further shows just how out of touch the liberals are about what America feels toward our military. Too bad.