Lance Corporal Mooi....Continued

Mooi's portrait is essentially finished. When it dries I'll be adding the image of a Navy Cross in the upper left hand quadrant.

I'll be off-line for a few days. Tomorrow will find me conducting training for The National Museum of the Marine Corps' docents. As soon as that is wrapped up I and my Nissan Xterra, filled with about a thousand dollars worth of yet to be assembled IKEA furniture, head north to my daughter's new apartment in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the home of her new college, Shippensburg University.

You've probably noticed that I haven't commented on the current situation with regards to Israel and their campaign against the terrorists entrenched in Lebanon. The Hezbullshit flying around the media and the world of partisan politics is simply amazing. CNN trotted out one of their "experts" to extoll the civic virtues of Hezbollah, which apparently has a social services arm that is both extensive and the the lion's share of it's activities. This shameless PR piece had moving testimonials of mothers recieving pre-natal care, and interior shots of medical clinics complete with little kids sporting head bandages. I'm imagining one of their social workers visiting a new mother with a case of free baby formula... "Mrs. Al-Janabi, what a beautiful son you have, and this picture of him in his little suicide vest, how adorable!....oh by the way, we'll be storing another dozen Katyusha rockets next to the RPGs in your basement, hope you don't mind. We really appreciate letting your husband park the launcher under the baby's window. See you at the Death to Israel rally Friday. Ciao."

All this ongoing moral equivalency brings to my mind Daniel Day-Lewis' gang leading character, Bill "the Butcher" Poole, in Gangs of New York, who divided his days between butchering pigs, and cutting up rivals (pigs, as he affably explained with familial warmth to Leonard DiCaprio's Amsterdam Vallan, being excellent subjects to practice on with respect to inviscerating people.)
I am also reminded that Adolf Hitler loved his dog...so freak'n what! Hezbollah is a terrorist proxy of Iran...everything else is mere window dressing.

Israel is in my prayers.