"To Us And Our Own And Ourselves Alone"

It's a bit late to say this, but I'll say it anyway.

My contract with the Canadian Forces expired on 15 November 2005.

I'm now with HMCS SCOTIAN, doing the part-time gig and looking for something a little more permanent and lucrative.

But here's something made off the top of my head for those I left behind.

(Yes... even those who I would consider to be dickheads - I don't discriminate, y'know?)

If this looks a bit hokey, it's all my fault, eh?

Here's to us and our own
And ourselves alone
Who signed up for the team
So we can all live the dream.

Working long days
Alongide and at sea
Sailing to strange places
While earning our pay

Some come for the thrills
Soma come for the cash
Some come for the fun
Or to pay off the bills

We may be students or workers
Husbands or housewives
Professionals or amateurs
Neighbours and friends

We're all brave and all crazy
To sign up and join
To risk life and limb
On a flat-flat bottomed ship that we call "home"

From the cold Arctic Circle
To the hot Carib beaches
To all the ancient ports
And the well-hidden coves

Through calm and through storms
We all keep sailing on
Those who say "It can't be done"
Have all been proved wrong

For we are the few, the proud, and the incurably insane
Who are serving our country in these rusty tin cans
Ready, willing and able - we are so proud to be
The people who serve on the MCDVs

Big-up to all those still serving (or who will plan to serve) on the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels.

An extra big-up to to all the R271s/R00114s with whom I have the fortune (and the pleasure) to work. Like it or not, you were all part of 5 years of my life on both coasts. That says a lot on its own.

Oh, and those who have yelled at me at various points of my contract - you're all forgiven, eh?

GO CANADA: Sweden - You Got PWNED!!

Iron Maidens of the Great White North 4 - Ikea ABBA Clones 1

We got the Gold.

You got pwned! w00t!

Just one great unanswerable question, though.

When will the bruthaz start playing like the sistahz?

Wayne Gretzky... start answering this, you weasel.

Boo Yah!

Sunday Rant And Roar: The Y-2-Dray Policy On GLBTs

I am a heterosexual male.

I love women.

While I am willing and able to play the field, I wouldn't mind something more stable. Eventually.

Having said all that, I declare that gays are people, too.

It's just that I hate the gender and orientation politics involved with respect to gay rights.

As humans, they all have the same rights to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit the happiness. They deserve as much respect as us breeders.

No more. No less.

And having said all that, I'd have just one thing to all GBLT "activists":

KEEP THE CLOSET AT HOME, DAMNIT!

It's one thing to be proud and loud. It's another thing to beat people over the head with it.

So, if you don't want idiots to try and "convert" you, just proclaim your love of life.

Declare the pride of being in a profession, of your triumphs, of your dreams as fellow members of the human race.

But please, if you come out, leave the closet at home.

It gets too cumbersome when you try to carry it around. And it clashes with your personality dragging it.

Aside from that, everyone deserves my respect. Everywhere.

'nuff said! Y-2-Dray - OUT.

If I Were A Spaceman...

I might serve with this crew...

"ComReadOps? What ComReadOps?"

I scored as a member of SG-1 (from Stargate). The quiz that I took said: "You are versatile and diverse in your thinking. You have an open mind to that which seems highly unlikely and accept it with a bit of humor. Now if only aliens would stop trying to take over your body." Aliens taking over my body? I thought that they already have. But what the Hell? But anyways, here are all the probabilities of me serving on the following platforms... SG-1 (from Stargate) 88% Bebop (from Cowboy Bebop) 88% Serenity (from Firefly) 81% Moya (from Farscape) 75% Galactica (from Battlestar: Galactica) 69% Enterprise D (from Star Trek) 56% Millennium Falcon (from Star Wars) 44% Nebuchadnezzar (from The Matrix) 44%

I think I'll stick with MCDVs instead.

In the meantime, you can take the quiz to see where you might fit in.

Sayings That Make More Sense Than You Think.

Big-Up to... GUYK BOH!

You've heard those sayings before.

"The early bird gets the worm."

"He who laughs last, laughs best."

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Blah blah blah.

But a fellow blogger.com-munist has given some that we can really relate to.

Some of them are actually true when you think about them.

"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm."

"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

"If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments."

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."

And my favourite.. "Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened!"

Check the rest.

Turin 2006:The Two Most Important Words That Matter In Canada.

You know what they are, don't you.

If you didn't know them then, you'll get to know them now.

And for the next 2 weeks, I'll be saying them, loud and proud.

GO CANADA!

And for my Murrican (and other non-Canuck) friends, remember this fact: WE PWN HOCKEY. w00t!

Thanks To Us,The Telegram Is Dead.

Remember the telegram?

For those of us over the age of 30, the telegram was email's great-granddaddy.

A message at Point A gets encoded into Morse Code, then sent out through the wires to a station at Point B.

It then gets decoded back into plain language and sent out to the proper addressee at Point C via courier.

Waaaaayyy baaaack in the daaaaaaayyyy, it was cheaper than making a long-distance call.

How times have changed. What's next?

"Well... It Looked Like A Good Idea At The Time."

Big-Up to... Captain's Quarters BOH!

When I first read that France Soir had published few of the "forbidden" Muhammad pics, the French side of me thought, "Enfin! Ils ont trouvé les couilles!"

But soon after that happened... encore, ils ont les perdues!

France Soir originally said it had published the images in full to show "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.

But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual"...

The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, had described France Soir's publication as an act of "real provocation towards the millions of Muslims living in France".

Er... come again, Mr. Boubakeur?

Let me get this straight. Muhammad was a prophet of Allah, a man, no more, no less.

And you're offended by some infidel portrayal of a man?

If you're so sure about your faith, you wouldn't want to impose it on others. You'd let them come to it, right?

Muhammad is not Allah. Period.

And if you're so offended by such a protrayal done in a X-tian country, as opposed to a Moozlim one, can you not imagine the shitstorm that could be created when one of their prophets get protrayed in a cartoon?

Funny - X-tians and Damjoos don't hue and cry too much when that happens. So what makes you more special than us, eh?

As for the France Soir bosses - stop trying to please everyone. Look at what happened to our Liberal Party here in Canada.

Sheesh. Back to square one, eh?

Snow-Day Meltdown: "Now You've Got Something To Die For!"(or "Aisha: The Lamb of Muhammad")

Big-Up to... The Rott, Michelle Malkin, AGWN, The Jawa Report, Dhimmi Watch, LGF BOH!

You gotta love "Lamb of God".

They may have some stoner-moonbat proclivities, but you can't deny the sheer brutal force of "Omerta", "Laid to Rest" and the song in the title from their recent studio opus, "Ashes of the Wake". Buy, download or Bit-torrent the sucker if you want to experience this New Wave of American Metal.

Having said all that, I've found something that matches this topic perfectly.

Denmark's Jyllands-Posten caused a shitstorm last year when they published illustrations of the prophet Muhammad. Somehow, the Islamaholics took exception to that act.

The blogosphere took notice. Now everyone and their dog are risking fatwahs up the poop-shoot by publishing and re-publishing the Satanic Doodlings.

If someone were to portray my prophet in an unflattering way, I'd be pissed off, too.

But that wouldn't mean that I'd go a slice someone's head off, would it.

You see, this is called freedom of expression. If you don't like what you see, either don't buy the rag, change the channel or go to another website. It's too easy, right?

The Islamaniacs would've said, "Silly Infidels... you'll never know our Prophet (pbuh). Shame. Shame. Shame. May Allah smite you for this." And that would've been it.

Instead, they have yet another excuse for a Jihad.

Living in the 21^st century, we take our freedoms and tolerance for granted. Feel free to disagree with me, but I prefer some credit where credit's due. Declaring a Jihad over a cartoon, however distateful, is just so Dark Ages. And it really boggles the mind why anyone would get into an apoplectic, genocidal rage over scribblings.

But... if the Jihaddicts want something to really piss-and-moan about, they can take a good hard look at the cartoon that I have. If people were to follow the example of the Prophet (pbuh), Dr. Phil would've been dead from exhaustion and disgust.

Such reaction from most parts of the Islamosphere reeks of the supremist attitudes of religious extremists. Recall that at one time, X-tians and Damjoos also possesed truimphalist qualities - the Old and New Testaments can attest to them - but we have progressed to the point that the spirit of G-d will win people over, not Torquemada. The extremists, through the imposition of paradigms based on the strictest interpretation of the Qur'an, are still trapped in the Middle Ages, and it will take a jihad on the part of moderates and reformers against the zealots to stop this murderous, divisive trend.

Michelle Malkin, for sake of comparison, presented the US Joint Chiefs of Staff's reaction to a distateful op-ed toon by Tom Toles...

Personally, I'd drop a MOAB on the toonist, but that's only my opinion. Plus, I can't afford such ordinance at this time.

But this is an example of free speech in the Western World, and Toles has the same rights to publish this crap as I have in ranting online. If you don't like what you see, change the channel, change the station, switch newspapers or go to another website. Disagree or agree with me, but at least acknowledge the fact that I have an opinion, and I'm not afreaid to use it.

Now if our own Canadian MSM can reprint the Muhammad toons...