…but there was in a Humvee under fire in Iraq:

Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God…

“I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist,” Hall said.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

“I said, ‘No, but I believe in Plexiglas,”‘ Hall said. “I’ve never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I’m worm food.”

As you can expect, this went over well. The article has more on what he has experienced and why he is suing. Check it out.

* Of course, there are. Don’t be stupid.

The 2004 Spanish decision to reduce their active role in Iraq in exchange for a little safety is really paying off for them.

Fourteen suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain on Saturday may have been planning a terrorist action in Barcelona, the interior minister said.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said more arrests were expected and the country was on high security alert.

The arrests in Barcelona were prompted by information from several unspecified European intelligence agencies, and there was evidence the suspects - 12 Pakistani nationals and two people from India - could have been planning “a terrorist action” in the northern city, he told a news conference.

Even though the war in Iraq was bungled for years before the Bush administration decided to change course, it should be obvious that Islamic terrorism is not about Iraq. It’s not about Palestine. It’s not about oil.

It’s about a particularly evil and intolerant strain of a world religion, and the general refusal of most of us to adhere to its idiocy and violent tenets.

The only safety from that is gained when we squash it wherever it shows up, not when we kowtow out of fear.

Osama bin Laden has given up the job of terrorist leader, and has moved on to stand-up comedy:

(CNN) — An audio recording attributed to Osama bin Laden called on Europeans to abandon Afghanistan and accused NATO troops of killing women and children there…

In Thursday’s message, the speaker claims sole responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks and accuses America’s NATO allies of killing civilians in Afghanistan, where the country’s Taliban rulers allowed al Qaeda to operate prior to 9/11.

“You didn’t respect the rules of war and attacked and killed women and children on purpose,” the speaker says.

Whereas on 9/11, Osama’s real plan was to have his cronies bring milk, cookies, and delightful hand-knitted goods to the workers in the World Trade Center towers.

But it all went so horribly wrong!

Bin Laden is often painted as a mastermind, but statements like that make him look more like a very rich, very lucky idiot.

Note: Apparently, one of these words means “irony” in Arabic:

اِسْتِهْزاء , تَهَكُّم , سُخْرِيَة

Or, as a cruel joke by some Jihadist dictionary programmer, it could be an insult to Allah and now I’m in trouble.

Al Qaeda may be trying to rewrite “Perfect Day.”

If you haven’t been watching Glenn Beck’s series “The Perfect Day” on MSNBC, then you MUST watch the final segment tonight. (7 and 9pm Eastern on CNN) “The Perfect Day” is what papers and tapes that have been found in Iraq and Pakistan, show what a “perfect day” would be to terrorize Americans. What is the perfect day? Remember Beslan? That’s it. And there is some unnerving evidence that they are looking at our schools.

RWS links to the transcript here.

The short story: there’s mounting evidence that al Qaeda is targeting our schools for a multi-pronged attack, looking to scar us by hitting our most vulnerable: children.

Yes, there are tens of thousands of primary and secondary schools in the country, so the chance of mine or yours being hit is miniscule. And, yes, our schools have already demonstrated they can protect our children from other kids who doodle poorly-rendered handguns, as well as those who might need to take some PMS medication that a friend gives them.

Oddly, they’re not so good when it comes to real guns and drugs. Rather, like the TSA, they do a fine job of putting up a pretense of action (zero tolerance, baby!), while not really doing much of value when it comes to safety (a paper cut from the doodle was a lot more dangerous than the kid who drew it).

Anyway, go on over and read the transcript. It’s scary stuff, particularly if you’re a parent. Not that those without children can’t appreciate the danger, but having a child of my own surfaced an undercurrent of protective instincts I never knew I had. I know, me, a caring individual - almost as frightening as the al Qaeda threat!

Fight them over there or fight them here? Mr. President, it seems they plan on coming our way regardless.

Is it just a matter of when?

Not that we need reminders, but here’s a reminder that came out shortly after the tragedy. I’ve seen it far too many times. I’m sure I will see it far too many more.

No, I’m not over it.

If you are, bully for you.

D’Souza on why there has not been another 9/11 in the United States:

Instead, we are six years away from that catastrophic event, and already Americans are growing forgetful and impatient. Somehow, for many people 9/11 has become a freakish, surreal, one-time disaster that was surely tragic but whose recurrence doesn’t seem to be a clear and present danger. So are the Islamic radicals holding back and waiting for American restlessness to produce a withdrawal from Iraq? Are the bad guys biding their time in the hopes that American lassitude will create new opportunities for them to strike even more savagely and with greater impunity in the future? How else to account for the uneasy calm that has hovered over this country for the past six years?

Somewhere in the world, a stopped clock just showed the right time.

This is probably old news, but I just saw it: in 1994, Dick Cheney was interviewed and asked if the United States should have continued its Desert Storm march all the way to Baghdad.

“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place?”

What indeed? It seems you gave very little thought to this question in the near decade that passed between the interview and the invasion, Vice-President Cheney. Perhaps if you had, I would not feel that my support for the war was placed with fools.

Other reasons given? “Quagmire” and “casualties.”

When he’s out of office, maybe Cheney can charge $15 a pop to tell others the future. He seems pretty good at it.

Wow:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security.

To that end, they are asking all mad scientists to send tips on reanimating the broke-neck corpse of Saddam Hussein. They will also be Photoshopping all banners of Bush on the aircraft carrier from “Mission Accomplished” to “If It Ain’t Broke….” In addition, all US History textbooks will have a chapter on the “crazy Baghdad vacation” the government let our troops have for a few years.

The results of the incompetence of this administration continue to topple like particularly dumb dominoes.

* Reference: the movie Reanimator, 1985, in which the dead get brought back and Ms. Crampton gets undressed.

Heh.

(Hey, who knew that Fox News was part of the liberal media?)

Unfiltered blog aggregators can be dangerous things.

I might be one of the few “writers” to manage to get the word “shit” displayed on a CNN news article webpage.

Just another notch in my blogging belt.

And the ladies say “Awwwww yeeeaaahhh.”

Or whatever.