This post is a follow-up to an article written by Toni Thompson on October 29th, 2007 entitled: Warriors Voice: 1SG Jeffrey Pennington 1137th Military Police Company Missouri National Guard. First Sergeant Jeffrey Pennington has chosen to re-deployed to Iraq. The following is a powerful testimony in his own words: I am being deployed to Iraq again. I will fall in with a Military Police company charged with helping train Iraqi Police forces in a fairly large city. During my last tour I was stationed on a rather large base with a fledgling, but present, information infrastructure, several conveniences such as small shops for sundry items, dining facilities for hot food and best of all it was out in the desert

Ticket winner was Drew Brown! Congratulations Drew! Thank you to all who bought tickets!

Oh Hollywood, you can make even the vilest of societal bane into good TV. Idol Gives Back 2008, in all its grandeur, left me feeling empty, not inspired, not philanthropic, empty. I didn’t get Snoop Dogg’s lofty platitudes. Carrie Underwood’s gut-wrenching song about the inherent selfishness of her fellow man didn’t make me feel bad. I wondered how many starving children she could save by turning that gossamer dress into food. Bono didn’t get to me at all. He always seems to be assuaging his own guilt over the enormous fame and money he has. He looks so cool and hip squatting next to those people who have absolutely nothing. Maria Shriver’s blathering? Nothing. And I just couldn’t reconcile the

"...Then, suddenly, he began to quiz me briefly but explicitly, officially establishing my status as a common criminal..."    Well, I'd set up on this particular afternoon, replacing a hardy, fresh-faced high school boy who'd been working miracles with the bagpipes. He was kilted out and richly gifted; I could have listened for hours, but he told me that he might die if he actually tried to play the pipes non-stop for hours. He wished me luck and then went on his way. I suppose luck is a relative quantity, when you think about it. Funny thing: I'd never really noticed the police in Melbourne at all, and didn't have any idea how they related to buskers. So shortly after nightfall,

...Gee, Officer---How did I know you needed a license to perform on the streets of Melbourne?   Just a few days of sitting and strumming for hours on the street can give you amazing insights into human nature and tendencies---as can all business that is done in so direct a manner, I would imagine. It's important not to go out with enormous expectations when busking, if you really hope to enjoy it in a big way. In the same way that not everyone is inclined to stop in at this auto body shop or that restaurant, not everyone lies awake at night dreaming of paying to hear you do your Guitar Hero thing, either!

...To my utter shock and glee, passersby started plunking coins into my open guitar case not long after I began...   I say I wanted to see what the "busking" scene was all about down in Melbourne; but really, it was the friend who'd hired me to write---she's the one who suggested I try it. I said, "You want me to come out here and do my little lazy-hobby thing in front of all these people?" To which she replied: "You don't know anybody down here...How humiliating could it be? And who knows, maybe you could make a few bucks while you're at it!" Well, in truth, we had just walked past a particularly mangy-looking adolescent on a street corner, one mauling