Bookworm Room

BUDS trainees during Hell Week Special troops are, by definition, small in number.  If everyone could do what they do, they would be special.  They are made up of men with unusual mental and physical strength.  Again, by definition this is a subset of all men.  (No disrespect meant to the majority of men who [...]

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One of my father’s favorite stories concerned his niece, who lived on a farm in Israel.  Daddy was visiting there one day when he saw his niece, who was then about 5, playing with a wee little baby goat.   At this point in his narrative, Daddy would always stop and explain to the city-bred people [...]

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[I'll keep this at the top through Memorial Day.  Scroll down for lots of new posts.] Several years ago, as part of a 9/11 commemoration, I wrote the following words as part of a post I did about Lt. Brian Ahearn, one of the New York fire fighters who perished on that day: My son, [...]

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As I’ve mentioned just a few times, I just read, and was very moved by, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.  A liberal I know flipped through the book’s first few pages and had a very different reaction.  The following passages bugged the [...]

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I love kid logic.   I was telling my pre-teen daughter about the Navy SEALS (having just finished Lone Survivor), and I mentioned the incredible physical strength and mental stamina the men had.  “And the women….” she prompted me.  “Nope,” I said.  “No women.”  She stared at me.  “But don’t the men get lonely?”  That’s a [...]

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Mudville Gazette reports that some Republican lawmakers haven’t forgotten the three SEALS facing court-martial for having given a fat lip to a suspected Al Qaeda murderer during his arrest. This is no little thing.  SEALS are the creme de la creme of our military forces.  If they’ve done wrong, that’s one thing.  But if they [...]

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Argghhh! is running a caption contest for a photo showing Joe Biden speaking to a group enrolled in the Navy SEALS program.  When you see the picture, you’ll understand why so many of the proposed captions involve the size of a gun or some other, more personal weapon.  I’m no good at manufacturing quips, so [...]

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