EckerNet.Com

Welcome to another year EckerNet readers.  Good to have you in what is apparently my 7th year of blogging.  Hope you all had an enjoyable and safe New Years celebration.

Myself and the rest of the MN Militia took a year off from our customary celebratory plunge into a hole in the ice at a nearby lake on midnight.  Instead, as our own 50¢ prepared for his second deployment to that big sandbox, we decided to do a more traditional gathering.

Although so as not to completely forget our roots, we did try to do our best to recreate the polar bear plunge using the resources available to us.  That\’s 50¢ showing off his desert climate training.

Photo may be NSFW for some anal employers.

Yes, I have returned.  Myself and several other members of the MN Militia just got back from several days of hinting in the NoDak badlands/desert.  We figured it necessary to stage this trip since one of our members is preparing for another deployment (currently to Iraq) and he\’ll probably miss next year\’s trip.  He demonstrated his shooting skills were definitely up to the task.  However, I sincerely hope, and I\’m sure both him and his wife/family agree, that he never has use for them.

But even in it\’s own right it was an enjoyable trip.  Middle of what is essentially a desert shooting at prairie dogs from 300 to 600 yards away with a 30+ mph crosswind.  It seems they\’ve gotten a bit skittish from being shot at all summer so combined with the conditions I won\’t pretend we put much of a dent in their population but it was good fun anyway.  Except for the rattlesnake.

Having returned and finally gotten cleaned up, it\’s time to catch up with the world.

New Orleans is under water again?? You don\’t say.  Who could have seen that coming?  I\’m so glad we spent millions of tax dollars rebuilding a city that was guaranteed to be destroyed again soon and which contributes virtually nothing to the nation with the notable exceptions of copious amounts of most of the seven deadly sins, and a few sins that haven\’t even been invented yet.

GOP convention is going on, albeit in a very abbreviated format.  I\’ll be participating, so to speak, for the rest of it.  I hope to relate my experiences here but we\’ll see what I have time for.

Palin has been picked as VP.  I think I\’m damn near required to comment on that but it\’s now old news having been announced as I was on my way out the door.  But we\’ll see.

Other than that the world is pretty much as I left it.  Which is nice that it can survive without me.

Today marks the official halfway point for 50c\’s deployment to Iraq. Congrats 50c on being half way done…won\’t be too much longer and you\’ll be back. Which is good because we owe you an awful lot of beers and if you don\’t start drinking them soon, they are gonna get warm. Well….that and I\’m pretty sure your wife, family and friends will be happy to have you back. At least until your foot-in-mouth disease kicks in again.

We\’re all proud of you buddy. Keep up the good work. Keep working on your tan. Remember that it\’s a dry heat. Oh and if you guys find you have a spare tank laying around, feel free to ship it back to me. I\’ll find a use for it….maybe I\’ll use it for hunting prairie dogs or doves.

Some of you may know that one of the members of the MN Militia (and occasionally EckerNet commenter) 50c has been deployed to Iraq. We\’ve recently got word that he has safely arrived at his final destination in the big sandbox.

We wish him well and miss him a bunch. And just to let him know how much we miss him, I even wrote some haikus for him (if some sound girly, spurringirl wrote that one).

50c away
in Iraq sandbox; making
war not springtime love

Hillary Clinton
great senator very hot;
Just fucking with ya\’

A man\’s life
playing in Iraqi sandbox;
The desert sand sucks

No blossoms, no lakes
and he is drinking duckfarts
alone in Iraq

Big bad machine gun,
You are really powerful,
Your blasts can be loud.

You are only one,
You cannot do everything
But can do something

UPDATE : And wouldn\’t you know it…the military choose today to block access to EckerNet because of content. I\’m not sure if I should be annoyed or proud.