Medary.com

Over The Water And Back Again—A Transatlantic Trip
By Snookums, edited by Filbert, photos by Filbert

Part 2-- below (or at the "read more").

April 29 (Tuesday, Day 3, Arriving Miami) –

We woke up and immediately went to work out. We found out that everyone else must like to work out at 10:30 AM, too. But we found spots on the floor and did 30 minutes of core work followed by 30 minutes of cardio work (bike for Filbert and elliptical for Snookums). Our trainer would have been proud of us!

Sailing into Miami (with bonus camera blotch)

It's probably tendonitis . . . just on the outside part of my left foot, towards the heel.  I hurt it about ten days ago, and it was getting better.  But I got cocky I guess and re-injured it yesterday.

It doesn't hurt as much as it originally did before I gave in and went to my podiatrist, but walking is darn uncomfortable.

I just thought I'd share that with everyone.  Because misery does love company.

We all know about THEM.  Those people.  Not us.  The ones upon whom we can safely blame all which is wrong with the world.  Because, you see, they're THEM.  Not US.

A mil-blogger stationed in Iraq discovers to his horror that he may be becoming one of THEM:

I have had the most terrible realization in the whole time I have been here in Iraq. Since I moved up to Baghdad and began working for MNSTC-I, I have become one of the people at the "Puzzle Palace". I'm one of the guys at the Head Shed. I'm part of the "they" as in "they @#$%ed things up, back there in Baghdad" as spoken by people in the field (I know, I was one of 'em).

Oh no, I might become one of "THEM"!

Cue the cheezy 1950's sci-fi/Psycho movie shreeking violins. Shreek! Shreek! Shreek! Shreek!

Over The Water And Back Again--A Transatlantic Trip

By Snookums, edited by Filbert, photos by Filbert

Part 1 -- below (or at the "read more").

April 27 (Sunday, Day 1, Leaving Galveston, TX)

Departure day! The SuperShuttle van to take us to the airport arrived at 5:15 AM for our 5:45 AM departure. He patiently waited outside for us until we were ready, but at least we knew that we would make our flight on time--and we did.

Southwest Airlines departing KCI

The rather unaesthetically named cuil.com (pronounced "cool," I guess, but with that peculiar Valley-girl/Surfer-boy twang).  Created by a bunch of former Google employees . . . perhaps they'll carry on the "don't be evil" approach that Google seems to have strayed from somewhat.

From HotAir:

“The Iraqi government broke their branches and took down their tree,” said Abu Amjad, a civil servant who lives in the northern Baghdad district of Sadr City, once seen as an unbreachable stronghold for the group…

A month after Mr. Maliki’s military operation, strange things started to happen in Shuala, a vast expanse of concrete and sand-colored houses in northern Baghdad that was one of the Mahdi Army’s main strongholds. Militia members suddenly stopped showing up to collect money from the main gas station, a worker there said.

A member of the Shuala district council said: “They used to come and order us to give them 100 gas canisters. Now it’s, ‘Can you please give me a gas canister?’”

Posted mainly to slip in a LOLCats reference.

The news organization which shall not be named has moved two stories on this busy, busy news Saturday:

First, double-dutch rope skipping is now a sanctioned high school sport in New York City.

Second, we're winning in Iraq.

I'm just sayin' . . .

Gerard Baker, in the Times of London:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

Much more at the link.  Go.  Read.  Enjoy.  Laugh.

A sharp Medary.com reader (I have readers!  Who knew?) spotted my post Say it with me, say it together and quite correctly called me out with an e-mail on my erroneous use of the word "primate."  I meant "simian" but that just makes the whole thing worse.

I'll go sit in the corner of Teh Intertubes for my full five minutes of penance.  Mea culpa.  I'm so sorry.  So South Central Rain sorry.

My simian-blogging cred is now in the toilet.  Guess I'll go eat worms.

This one has to take the cake, via ABC News reporter Jake Tapper's Political Punch blog:

Once again an Israeli journalist asked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee how he’d help prevent a second Holocaust. "Senator can you assure Israel that there will be no second Holocaust despite Iran's threat to wipe us off the map?" he asked.

Obama demurred, saying that it wasn't appropriate to answer the question there.

"This is Yad Vashem!" the journalist responded.

Obama said he would answer the question at a later press availability.

Yad Vashem, by the way, is the memorial in Israel to the six million people slaughtered in The Holocaust.

Senator Obama thinks it isn't appropriate to address the possibility of a second Holocaust at the site dedicated to remembrance of the first one?  Huh?  He couldn't come up with something, despite having been asked the question TWICE?

Come on, Obama . . . couldn't you come up with something like "Well, I think it's important for everyone to, personally as well as politically, do everything they can to make sure another Holocaust doesn't happen."  Why couldn't he say that?  He has to go back and triangulate with his handlers and advisors before saying that another Holocaust would be a bad thing?  Really?

Via Gateway Pundit