From the Peanut gallery - 01/21/2005

I want to thank you all AGAIN for the second week in a row for all the well wishes and condolences to my family in regarding my Uncle’s loss. I have come to realize over the past week how difficult loss can be and it helps to know that there are people who care enough to...well just care.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

Q:
You all get news out there? I thought everything is censored.

A:
This is a reference to the article that the U.S. is conducting secret missions inside Iran that came out earlier this week that I was discussing at my one of my favorite haunts. But, to answer the question no news isn't censored here we have satellite communication, sat phones, voip phones, email, instant messaging how could news be censored if our families are sending us email all the time. That's not to say that communication isn't monitored that is to say that with technology today there isn't a way to keep information from reaching people here. I am going to do a write up on the 21st century war. I reference it all the time but when I get around to it I'll describe to you how it works around here.

Q:
You are always talking about Choosin' shoes are they a style of shoe of something.

A:
LOL, I try not to laugh at the questions I get but this one almost made me fall out of my chair. Let me explain for the studio audience. Choosin' shoes is a pimp term. When a pimp will always command his hos not to give eye contact to another pimp that is a sign that a pimp doesn't have control of his stable. It is a sign of weakness in the pimp community. Now then when a if you are a pimp and one of your hoes "chooses" to start working for another pimp then she put one a pair of choosin' shoes. In a nut shell that means your girl went decided to take off with another guy.

Q:
How do you know so much about pimps?

A:
Well...

Q:
How are you doing? (In all it's various forms) in relation to my losses

A:
Fine, I think people mistook my crying as me feeling sorry for myself because I'm "stuck" in Iraq. That wasn't the reason. I just had time to stop and think and grieve for my family. I felt bad that people in my family were in pain and I couldn't be there to console them. For all the pain that funerals have I think they also do some good for the survivors. It is a time for friends and family to reconnect and I missed that. As far as me missing home I get homesick all the time there will be times that I call home and my brother and his wife are at my folks house and they are all laughing it up and having a grand olde time and I wish that I could be there but, that's when I'm in Phoenix, I didn't have to come to Iraq to get that feeling.

Q:
You shouldn't suppress your feelings like that.

A:
Well maybe if I was at home I wouldn't have but the bottom line is I have a job to do and my responsibility to my customer comes first. That is my focus. When you come out here you have to put all your hopes and dreams and plan and loves all in an emotional shoebox. You tie this shoebox up and put it under your bed at home and when you come back then you can think about all those things. For you to be effective at your job here you can't spend time focusing on wives and kids and friends, and vacation plans, and what you are going to do with all this money. People depend on you being 100% sharp all the time, you losing your focus means you are setting up to make mistakes and when you make mistake in my job that means people can't get their information. When people don't get their information then someone can die. My situations whatever they may be are past tense. I got guys around me right now that need to get home. That's my focus.

The ironic thing is that if I were at home I probably couldn’t have afforded to attend either one of the funerals. Life is funny like that.

Q:
I have lately been finding Iraqi bloggers to try to get a picture of what in hell is going on in Iraq. I know you see it from one vantage, but I'd like to think we were actually making progress over there.

A:
If you find a blog from an Iraqi that says we are actually making progress then sign me up. I'd like to see this mythical beast as well. Unfortunately the problems are not those of the US Military. The military can only executes the mission defined by the Commander-In-Chief. The way I see it there is nothing that the military can do about it. The situation on the ground is all the fault of poor planning. Regardless how you feel about how the US got here or if it was the "right" thing to do, the reality is that those who were chosen to lead did it poorly.

Finally I would like to say that there has been an historic agreement made between Tommie Hustle and his parents. And I quote -

"All in all we did make you but you have picked up a few things on your
own...don't blame us handsome."

See everything works better when you see it my way.