Turkey of a Tune

(Mandolin) Here's a good one for Thanksgiving.

Steve Kaufman did "Turkey in the Straw" on his Four Hour Bluegrass Workout. Sure makes it easy when you hear someone play it slowly. Late blooming child prodigies need all the help they can get. :)

By the way, the Arabic word for Turkey is "Alisheesh"

Happy Thanksgiving! --GT

Boy Scout Troop 989

Big Kudos to Eagle Scout Candidate Carl J. Todd and Boy Scout Troop 989. They recently sent 14 boxes of school supplies for Iraqi children. The postage alone was almost $400!

The Boy Scouts of America are an organization worthy of the nation's continued support. The
efforts of the ACLU to have military support withdrawn from the Scouts is embarrassing. There are a number of reasons why the Scouts have been under attack by the Far Left and other unsavory characters:

1. Belief in God is anachronistic and odious to "progressive" thinkers. (There are no athiests in Iraq, my friends. Get shot at and have friends die, and you will acknowledge both God and the Devil. It might be good for the ACLU to spend some time over here and find out first hand why every branch of the service has a Chaplain Corps.)
2. "Morally Straight" is much too restrictive---you should allow "gay" scoutmasters! (shudder)
3. Principled children might grow up some day and allow the 10 Commandments back in the classrooms. Perish the thought.

Good luck on your Eagle Scout project, Todd--and keep up the great work, Troop 989.

-- GT
Mosul, Iraq

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

(Fiddle) Believe it or not, it's time to work on the Christmas repertoire.

This is an E Minor-ish tune that goes well with "What Child is This?" (Greensleeves). It just sort of flies naturally off the fingerboard.

Morlocks and Eloi

Coming to Iraq from the United States is like stepping into H. G. Wells' Time Machine. The Eloi (those effete, perfumed lovers of all things soft, cuddly and un-warlike) sit at home, saddened that their figurehead John Kerry didn't get elected. Their number one gripe is that the Global War on Terror is unneccessary and needs to stop, or they might be required at some point to join an unsavory fight.

Those of us stepping off the plane into the "underworld" of the counterinsurgency in Iraq are confronted by the mortar slinging, destructive, vengeful Morlocks, ever on the prowl for American and British flesh.

It would be easier to just ignore the wardrums and dwell peacefully beside the river with our Democrat-voting Eloi friends, but as long as there are increasingly sophisticated Morlocks seeking to destroy all that is civil and tolerant, we have to do something about it.

What really annoys me is that this insurgency business is taking away valuable time from art and literature (yes, I suppose I'm an Eloi in American Morlock's clothing.)