I will have an educational article up sometime soon on the subject matter of “blank box” trading. You won’t find this stuff in any book. It’s what I do and it’s a daily preparedness strategy that every trader can incorporate into their trading method.
In the meantime, let’s not forget why we even have our day off. As of May 21st, we lost 4,296 soldiers, and another 31,102 wounded. This weekend has got to be one of the toughest weekends for a lot of families out there. I personally know dozens of soldiers that got killed in combat, including my ROTC MSIII instructor at VFMC. It’s a dangerous world out there, unknown to some of you sitting in your leather chairs in an air-conditioned room watching episodes of American Idol.
Wow, what great pics! Wherever/however did you get them?
Also, agree 100% with your expressed sentiment. Was in D.C. a number of years ago for a conference and one afternoon walked the newly Vietnam “wall.” Found a few names from my high school years. Very sobering, especially but for the grace of God mine could have been one.
Regarding the Iraq war, although I do not want to cause, create or get into any kind of political discussion/debate, I feel compelled to say what weighs heavily on my mind. After the ’04 elections it became increasingly obvious, to me at least, had blatantly lied about “the need” to detour from our most legitimate war on terror/al qaida and to go into Iraq. I will not review the litany of lies, manipulations of facts/intel, deceits etc. here. They are now known by most thinking Americans, and me suspects there may well be more to come. Suffice it to say that this only makes the death and injured (many most severely) numbers quoted above even more egregious. What Bush, Cheney, et. al. did to our military and to our country is absolutely sinful. I developed a visceral hatred for them, for what they were doing, and for how they were doing it.
Having said all that clearly know that I am 100% behind the legitimate war on terror and 100% supportive of All the men and women in our armed forces. I will again this weekend say a prayer of thanks for my relatives, my classmates and all my fellow Americans who paid the price in defense of freedom.
Oh, and by the way, just so there is no confusion here, in the 2004 elections I voted for the Bush/Cheney ticket.
Brushbuck-
You have no idea what Saddam Huessein would have done had he been left unchecked. Your Monday QB opinion doesn’t mean shit. Go fire up your grill and keep your politics to yourself.
Thanks for the pictures they were exellent.
assorted photo albums from soldiers
We have without a doubt the most highly motivated, most intelligent,highly trained and equipped forces that we have ever fielded..I too have lost brothers in arms during combat and one can never put that completly behind them, nor should they..I always find myself sullen and a bit out of sync on Memorial Day. My children(now out of college and on their own) would ask “what s wrong daddy you seem sad, I still cannot put into words my emotions. Anyway God Bless Them. we have a very small percentage of citizens who join up to serve and that too is sad.All should be trained and willing to defend America..we have lost our sense of Tribe and that is dangerous
@ the same time this soldiers killed innocent ppl
hey Cheesefries , just eat your Cheesefries, and donot worry about anything… its all right!
Thanks CA.
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as former colombian soldier i can relate perfectly.
all i can say is we should tolerate different religions and creeds, different views and ideas.
all i hope is that the war might be over soon, yours and mine, so we can have everyone home at peace.
May we honor those who are willing to serve by never again allowing them to be sent to fight a war that weakens our military, makes our country less safe, wins sympathy for our enemies, and helps to destroy the economic might on which military strength depends. This requires that we grow the fuck up and not let pols use tragedy to manipulate us.
Bushbuck, you sound like a thoughtful person …but there was no excuse for you, and most other Americans, not seeing through the manipulation earlier.
Cheesefries, after all the lies and mission changes, you are reduced to “well, he might have done something really bad”. How about some respect for facts – not what you imagine might have been.
Indeed; A big Thanks to all those who serve and put their lives at risk. And all their families too
If you are reading this blog in English, thank the British. Otherwise, you would be reading it in another language.
God bless the British soldiers an hail the Queen
Slim,
Howabout respect for the fact that we let a problem gestate for 30 years before we did something about it. Try to get a historical perspective instead of one that is knee-jerk pacifist leftist.
We are the number one economy in the world. There are downsides to that and the largest being that we have the biggest target on our backs — warranted or not.
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Poser — I will raise a glass of IPA to that sceptered isle for you. For all that they have done for us from the Magna Carta to the language which is so adaptive that it will likely someday be the de facto one.
I will also raise a glass in mourning for what Britain has become since WWII, and thank them for the caution they provide.
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If you are NOT reading this [American] blog in German, Thank the Americans and Allied forces. Nuf said.
Jake,
WTF is “knee-jerk left” about anything that I said? Name-calling is the refuge of those without an argument …usually you’re more thoughtful.
Anyway, we didn’t let the problem “gestate” re Iraq. There was a fake nation left over from the British empire with which we happily did business until GWB’s dad’s administration effed-up and communicated to Saddam that we considered it to be “Arab business” if he were to invade Kuwait (look it up). Ooops. …only after Saddam acted on Bush’s go-ahead then did Saddam become “evil”.
Saddam was an asshole, but papa Bush saw the value in having a secular strong man remain in power in Iraq …skippy Bush, on the other hand, is a simpleton and became the tool of those that had other agendas.
I would argue that the problem that is gestating in Iraq (from a Machiavellian point of view)is that we removed a secular strong man and created a vacuum that religious nuts are vying to fill.
To your second point: the target on our back isn’t just because we’re the “number one economy in the world” … although nothing is hated like relative success, what the Muslim world hates about us is that we support everyfreakinthing that Israel does, including pissing on the Gaza, expanding settlements in the West Bank, and the slaughter in Lebanon a couple of years ago. I have spent a fair amount of time in the mid-east and I can assure you that they do not hate our success, or our “freedom” as the idiot Bush said – – no, they hate our foreign policy.
Arab and Persian leadership use photos and stories of Palestinian oppression every day, in every cafe, on every radio, to focus their people’s anger. They are very happy that we shit on Palestinians …they are happy to focus the animus of their citizens on the US and Israel instead of on the miserable state of their own homegrown governance. I wish that we and Israel would stop helping them in this way.
I own the Republican party. Anyone who says otherwise, will have to apologize sooner or later.
Michael Savage is an idiot. So is Colin Powell, Tom Ridge….the list will be expanded as we go along.
God Bless Bush..Though shall remain in minority for another 50 years..
Have a nice day
Prior to the war, the governments of the U.S., U.K, and Spain claimed that Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed an imminent threat to their security and that of their coalition allies.
United Nations weapons inspectors found no evidence of WMD, giving support to earlier criticism of poor intelligence on the subject.
Some U.S. officials also accused Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting Al-Qaeda, but no evidence of any collaborative relationship was ever found.
Other reasons for the invasion stated by U.S. officials included Iraq’s financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi government human rights abuses, and an effort on the part of the coalition forces to spread democracy in the country and region. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War)
listen to the colombian guy, who is absolutely right by saying, that everybody should tolerate other religions, ideas and views.
thank you for deselect the republican party!
Thanks CA. It has been a pleasure reading you since you’ve been on board. “Fly” added a wealth of quality to his business with the addition of The Chart Addict!
Yes, lets try and not get to caught up in another day off, those who still have jobs, and try and remember, at least this one day if not every, what truly made America great and kept her free.
Save the politics for Tuesday and honor the people who lost their lives for us and country.
WTF is “knee-jerk left” about anything that I said? Name-calling is the refuge of those without an argument …usually you’re more thoughtful.
Well thanks for the lame back handed compliment, but this is my auto response to tired (and tiresome) leftist memes that are taken as gospel in the Daily Kos moonbat world with the expectation that “everyone knows X.”
You get the privilege of your own opinion, but not your own facts, as a wise man once said.
Anyway, we didn’t let the problem “gestate” re Iraq. There was a fake nation left over from the British empire with which we happily did business until GWB’s dad’s administration effed-up and communicated to Saddam that we considered it to be “Arab business” if he were to invade Kuwait (look it up). Ooops. …only after Saddam acted on Bush’s go-ahead then did Saddam become “evil”.
Again, a common leftist myth hardened by constant indoctrination, but a falsity nonetheless. Tariq Aziz sets you straight:
Tariq Aziz:
“Aziz was asked by his American interrogators about if the American ambassador in Baghdad encouraged Saddam or gave him the “green light” to invade Kuwait back in 1990, Aziz answered with “NO” and said that this was merely a rumor and this is according to his lawyer who gave an interview to the Iraqi paper Al-Mashriq.”
The Gillespie “Kuwait OK” myth was brought forth by lefties in regard to a communique between Hussein and April Gillespie about the border dispute the two countries had, which we claimed we had no interest in mediating. It was not an “ok” for Saddam to take the entire country and then scare the shit out of the Saudis. Such advice would be incredibly illogical, given our concerns about ME tranquility (for earl reasons).
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Continued fisking:
Saddam was an asshole, but papa Bush saw the value in having a secular strong man remain in power in Iraq …skippy Bush, on the other hand, is a simpleton and became the tool of those that had other agendas.
Oh geez, how could I argue with such a rational, reasoned example of Bush Derangement Syndrome? Is this an example of “thoughtfulness?” How could I have suspected left wing knee jerkism?
Just too stupid to even waste keystrokes in response. Come with some fact, and leave the grassy knoll stuff at home if you’d like a “thoughtful” response.
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I would argue that the problem that is gestating in Iraq (from a Machiavellian point of view)is that we removed a secular strong man and created a vacuum that religious nuts are vying to fill.
Right, and there was no problem “gestating” before that? The fact that your “secular strong man” had been attempting to develop nukes, had stockpiled (and used) WMD’s, had invaded his neighbors twice (yes, in the Iranian invasion we were not displeased, something about that country holding our hostages at the time, I believe?), had financed, trained (Salmon Pak) and sheltered known terrorist groups and personnel, and had been generally the most destabilizing ME entity in the over the 20+ years of his reign of terror — this wasn’t a problem before our worrisome power vacuum?
To your second point: the target on our back isn’t just because we’re the “number one economy in the world” … although nothing is hated like relative success, what the Muslim world hates about us is that we support everyfreakinthing that Israel does, including pissing on the Gaza, expanding settlements in the West Bank, and the slaughter in Lebanon a couple of years ago. I have spent a fair amount of time in the mid-east and I can assure you that they do not hate our success, or our “freedom” as the idiot Bush said – – no, they hate our foreign policy.
Again, I don’t know if you really believe this or are simply misinformed, but this Israel red herring is merely a leftist attempt to marry two of their arguments into one. I would beg you to read “The Looming Tower” by New Yorker reporter Lawrence Wright (ie, no “right wing nut,” he) and then tell me how this is all about Israel. Absolute stupidity. The Wahhabists/Islamists care about Israel as perhaps a tenth point after the myriad “Western” offenses — real and imagined — against Islam, stretching back to the Crusades. If you think the end of our support for Israel — I’m well aware it’s a cherished leftist dream — would stop the Islamists from targetting us, I have a slightly bruised resort in Bali to sell you.
Arab and Persian leadership use photos and stories of Palestinian oppression every day, in every cafe, on every radio, to focus their people’s anger. They are very happy that we shit on Palestinians …they are happy to focus the animus of their citizens on the US and Israel instead of on the miserable state of their own homegrown governance. I wish that we and Israel would stop helping them in this way.
Again, talk to the U.N. — the alleged protector of the Palestinian people. I don’t want this to get into an overarching discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I think any rational review would show that every move Israel makes toward a peaceful resolution is met with further violence from the “secular” and Islamist parties that rule in the territories right now.
Propaganda is a valuable tool, but it does not obviate moral responsibility.
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Save the politics for Tuesday and honor the people who lost their lives for us and country.
—
WTF? Is something wrong with you?
Republicans are good, Democrats are bad=Politics. Do you have a problem with that?
Anonymous troll douchebag- if you had half a brain, you’d realize your trite admonition is an insult to those who have died in service to this country.
Don’t worry, I’ve no hope that you would understand that, either.
Cretin.
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“April Gillespie” I assume you meant ambassador Glaspie.
Anyway, the facts that are not in dispute are that, while Saddam had troops poised on the border with Kuwait:
– Glaspie was under orders from the white house to improve relations with Saddam;
– she spoke the words, “We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait.”;
– Saddam invaded Kuwait after their conversation.
Now you can choose to believe that the ambassador meant to put a qualifier in her statement, or that Saddam was completely irrational and should have osmosed, what she MEANT to convey – – but the facts do not support your religion on the subject.
+++++++++++
“Bush Derangement Syndrome”
That’s all you got? That’s your argument for GWB NOT having succumb to folks who had agendas re Iraq that were not the publicly-stated WMD agenda? Why not just post links to transcripts from Rush and Fox commentators and save yourself some keystrokes instead of singing their phrases.
Why did we invade Iraq Jake? In the face of all the evidence of intelligence mining and of our paying Ahmed Chalabi to create facts, you still believe in Cheney’s mushroom cloud imperative?
Before our invasion, Saddam had no WMD. This fact had been confirmed by UN weapons inspectors at the time – – and the inspectors had been granted full access to every site in Iraq and to every inch of Saddam’s palaces (in spite of your Foxian mythology that they had no such access). American weapons inspector Scott Ritter, a man who the administration had held out as being heroic in his efforts to find WMD, finally had confirmed for the world that Saddam had no WMD – – his reward was to be vilified by the white house as soon as he reported facts that did not fit with the war agenda. And Scott Ritter, a heroic marine, was repeatedly accused of treason by your neocon brethren and your talk radio heroes.
Why did we invade Iraq?
Response to Jake pt2
“gestating” problems.
Do you believe that we are better off now that we have destabilized the region, strengthened the unfriendlies in Iran, provided pictures (the Arab world does not see the fine pictures that CA posted – think Abu Ghraib instead) that unified Muslims against us, spent a couple $trillion and suffered tens of thousands casualties? I wish that we could go back to your gestation with weapons inspectors, no-fly restrictions, and a budget of a few $billion to restrain Hussein.
The images that our invasion provides, and yes, the images that the Muslim world has of us, Israel and the subjugation of the Palestinians, is what motivates the Arab street against us. No Jake, it is not the only motivation for the religious whack-job Jihadist, and I didn’t say it was, but the Jihadist get their recruits from among the masses of pissed-off Muslims who believe that we are shitting on them.
“Crusades”
You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. Arabs have their problems, but this myth that has been promoted about their holding grudges for hundreds of years is nuts. Anyone who has spent time in the Arab world will tell you that the typical Arab doesn’t even know what the Crusades were. Arabs fight and argue like crazy then have tea together – they are, for the most part, the least grudge-prone people I’ve met. Yes, there are exceptions and head-bangers – but you continue to show your armchair ignorance when you repeat Foxian myths as gospel.
Nothing wrong with debating, but for the sake of Memorial Day, can we all just honor the fallen soldiers past, present, and future?
We are already over in Iraq and Afghanistan and the job must be finished. No blame should be placed on the military. It is our Commander-in-Chief that makes the ultimate decisions.