Summer is Really Really Over...

...sigh...it's cold and raining, the clouds hanging down low in the mountains. OTOH, I didn't do anything yesterday except put in a little time on the overhaul of my gun room, which I anticipate being finished in time for the next AWB.

First, an excellent article from the NRA political meeting from the American Thinker blog on the best speaker at the event, Sgt. 1st Class Greg Stube. I was priveleged to meet Sgt. Stube recently out in California, BTW, and I'm honored to say that he is a big-time SHOOTING GALLERY fan:

The young NCO didn't talk about politics, the war on terror, the war protesters, although he berated the Move On "Betray us" ad. He just said, or rather asked, paraphrasing: that the next time a soldier, someone who has on the ground knowledge, who has sacrificed for our freedom, please listen to what they have to say.

I doubt his message will breach the tin ears of the antiwar left. But his courage, his love of his family, country and freedom pushes me to write. I ask the antiwar left, and I urge others to ask, listen to the soldiers.

Right now, the overwhelming majority of them find value in their mission to fight terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. I agree. If I ever get the sense from them, the genuine belief that they don't support the mission I will be the first to stand up and say bring them home immediately. Until then can you on the left stop "supporting them" by insisting you know more than they do about the work they are doing?

RE: Politics and politicos...I wish I did have the juice to bring the Presidential hopefuls to the table and talk to them directly. If I am nothing else, I am a world-class interviewer with the credits to back that statement up, and as usualk, I have a few questions. I recall when I sat down with candidate Jimmy Carter, whom I was predisposed to at least respect; I walked away from that table both repulsed and horrified that this man might actually be elected. And like a bad yeast infection, he's still with us.

The simple truth, however, is that I lack the juice to pull such a thing off. Part of the problem is, of course, me...I play hard and I only play to win. I'm not big on compromise, unless it buys us something. As regular readers of this blog know, I am not prone to euphemism. A lifelong professional journalist, I accepted long ago that I would not be on many people's Christmas card list.

The other reason lies in the industry itself, hidden in the closing words of Rudy Giulaini...if not me, who? Industrywise, we're sort of — to borrow a phrase from NYPD's Sipowitz — the town punch...we'll give it up for anyone who even pretends to like us. Republicans are better at pretending to like us than Democrats (with a few exceptions). But the operative word remains "pretending."