Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith

Oh man. Whatta movie.

I'd write more, but James has it covered. He usually does.

by Dann 

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Speaking Of Tet....

Ben Stein (yes, that Ben Stein) has a column about an article in the New Yorker magazine that ought to offend a great many more Americans. An American professor gives the kid gloves treatment to a spy that helped kill many American soldiers as well as many innocent South Vietnamese civilians. I'm not sure if the spy gets off easy because he posed as a journalist or because he is a communist. Given that this is a professor at an American university that is writing for the New Yorker, I'd guess both.

by Dann 

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Through A Looking Glass

Robert Mandel reminds us that the D-Day invasion would have looked much different had it been reported be today's news media. Of course, that is precisely what happened with the Tet Offensive.

by Dann 

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A-frica!!!!

There once was an ad for some theme park that had some black kid smile and say the word "Africa" with a sense of excitement and expectation in his voice. The ad certainly made me want to visit the park, but today all I can remember is the lad's wide and open smile and his distinct pronunciation; Aa (slight pause) frica!

The truth is that Africa is in a world of hurt. From despots to AIDS to bone crushing poverty. Lt. Smash was recently invited to participate in a teleconference with some other big named bloggers and Bob Geldof. Since his stint as a musician in the 1970's, Mr. Geldof has been working to help lift people out of poverty. Africa has been his primary focus.

The purpose of the teleconference was to lay the groundwork for a blog campaign to help promote debt relief and other forms of long term assistance for the Dark Continent. What impresses me most about this story is that Mr. Geldof is smart enough to get people of all political stripes involved and that he isn't advocating yet another round of failed loans and grants that inevitably get siphoned into some dictator's Swiss bank account.

Worth a read. Worth your serious consideration.

by Dann 

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New Blog Site

James Lileks has launched his Screed Blog. You may be asking yourself why a gentleman with such demonstrable fecundity might need another blog, but James is just trying to be considerate. He is attempting to segregate his political rants from his more mundane observations regarding home furnishings and the raising of his progeny as covered in his daily Bleat.

All of which is good news for those of us that are Mr. Lileks' fans. The more he writes, the better we like it.

by Dann 

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Media Coverage

Have you ever paged through old Time or Life magazines from the World War II era?? Have you ever read stories about the people our military have met in the course of fighting that war? Have you ever read stories written by reporters that go to strange places, meet new people, and then tell what they found?

Would you care to read similar stories from Iraq? Then you should be reading Michael Yon. Mike is a former Green Beret who has become embedded with the Army's Deuce-Four in Iraq. Right now he has detached himself and is traveling in and around Dohuk; a more Kurdish area of the country.

Mike also has written a post about how the media is able sit in their hotel suites and translate military dispatches rather than actually going out and doing....you know....some reporting.

by Dann 

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