This crap has gotten completly out of hand.
With the leprous silver cities
Where the dumb priests dance and nod,
But not with the three windows
And the last name of God.””
They are firing, we are falling, and the red skies rend and shiver us,
Barbara, Barbara, we may not loose a breath -
Be at the bursting doors of doom, and in the dark deliver us,
Who loosen the last window on the sun of sudden death.
“Barbara the beautiful
Stood up as queen set free,
Whose mouth is set to a terrible cup
And the trumpet of liberty.
“I have looked forth from a window
That no man now shall bar,
Caesar’s toppling battle-towers
Shall never stretch so far.
The slaves are dancing in their chains,
The child laughs at the rod,
Because of the bird of the three wings,
And the third face of God.”
The sword upon his shoulder
Shifted and shone and fell,
And Barbara lay very small
And crumpled like a shell.”
What wall upon what hinges turned stands open like a door?
Too simple for the sight of faith, too huge for human eyes,
What light upon what ancient way shines to a far-off floor.
The line of the lost land of France or the plains of Paradise?
“Caesar smiled above the gods
His lip of stone was curled,
His iron armies wound like chains
Round and round the world,
And the strong slayer of his own
That cut down flesh for grass,
Smiled too, and went to his own tower
Like a walking tower of brass,
And the songs ceased and the slaves were dumb;
And far towards the foam
Men saw a shadow on the sands;
And her father coming home...
Blood of his blood upon the sword
Stood red but never dry.
He wiped it slowly, till the blade
Was blue as the blue sky.
But the blue sky split with a thunder-crack,
Spat down a blinding brand,
And all of him lay black and flat
As his shadow on the sand.”
The touch and the tornado; all our guns give tongue together,
St Barbara for the gunnery and God defend the right,
They are stopped and gapped and battered as we blast away the weather,
Building window upon window to our lady of the light.
For the light is come on Liberty, her foes are falling, falling,
They are reeling, they are running, as the shameful years have run,
She is risen for all the humble, she has heard the conquered calling,
St Barbara of the Gunners, with her hand upon the gun.
-—GK Chesterton
Ballad of St. Barbara
I am very close to telling my son to leave the Corp at the end of his current enlistment. If our men are going to be hung out to dry by pantywaisted staff officers and JAG’s, let alone corrupt politicians, I don’t want him to put his life on the line by hesitating when under fire, worried that he could be “Murtha’d”.
Leaks like this tell me one thing: there is not enough evidence to actually move forward. NCIS is trying to get another Murtha to step up and give them cover for another show trial.
I vote to put a few of these SOB’s out on patrol. Maybe after a few NCIS agents get IED’d by “civilians” this crap will stop.