Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

They Have Boy Scouts.....In Iraq!!

This story comes via the Mudville Gazette:

The Boy Scouts in Iraq, which is a part of the same World Organization of Scouting Movements of which the Boy Scouts of America is a part, has apparently been building the character of Iraqi youths since the 1920's, except during the Nazi occupation of Iraq in the 1940s and the latter years of Saddam's evil dictatorship.

(Isn't it interesting how the forces of evil always try to eliminate effective voluntary youth institutions and replace them with self-serving counterparts like Hitler Youth and the Saddam Fedayeen?)

It is my observation that movements like the Boy Scouts do more to promote good and healthy societies than any government does.

[Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette has been deployed to Germany. We wish him good fortune, Godspeed, and a safe return.]

From the Mudville Gazette:

“Only two defining forces have offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and American GI’s.
One Died for your soul,
The other dies for your freedom.”

And apt thought that too many forget too easily.

by Dann 

|

Leaving Iraq Before The Mission Is Complete

If we leave before the mission is accomplished, we will hand Iraq on a silver platter to people like this.

Under sharia, Islamic law, imposed after Iran's 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose clothing to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.

Many young women, particularly in wealthier urban areas, challenge the limitations by wearing calf-length Capri pants, tight-fitting, thigh-length, brightly colored coats, and their scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.

The Islamic dress code is less commonly challenged in poor suburbs and rural regions.

Since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005 after promising a return to the values of the revolution, hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on "immoral behavior".

Iran has repeatedly rejected criticism by rights groups of such crackdowns, saying the country's efforts were aimed at "fighting morally corrupt people".

by Dann 

|

Dead Cat Chronicles....

And they let it just lie there. Now I have to disinfect the couch.

by Dann 

|

How To Tell When You Have Bad Luck....

Please tell me that this needs no explanation.

by Dann 

|

An Israeli Economic Awakening

Noah Pollack is guest-blogging over at Michael Totten's place. Michael is on his way to Iraq. Specifically to the Anbar province.

Noah is talking about the recent emergence of Israel's economy. Something that is remarkable when compared with Israel's past.

Noah observes:

But no economy, no matter how entrepreneurial its people, can flourish in the poisonous soil of socialism. Israel was always strangled by an overbearing bureaucracy, punitive levels of taxation, and suffocating regulatory policies.

Something my 3.4 regular readers could have told him years ago.

Or as I always say: freedom works, each and every time it is tried.

by Dann 

|