The army was out there in force today, the noise was incredible, and there were hundreds of them, they kept all the other birds off the feeders for the most part. Hopefully they will be gone in the next couple of days. At least they were nice enough to pose for some photos.

This was an exchange between the Vice President and a journalist, the journalist has just said to the VP that President Bush's strategy in Iraq has failed.

CHENEY: A failed strategy. Let's see. We didn't fail when we got rid of Saddam. We didn't fail when we held elections. We didn't fail when we got a constitution written. They’re all success stories.

KARL: Didn't we fail when 3,000 American soldiers are all killed --

CHENEY: You wish there was never a casualty, Jonathan. Always a regret when you have casualties. But we are at war.

Have you ever in all your born days heard such a utterly, mind numbingly stupid statement? "didn't we fail when 3,000 American soldiers are all killed?" I mean one could more than likely get through their entire life without hearing something so crashingly ignorant but unfortunately journalists of the main stream media are not gifted with a fully functioning brain and while most people so inflicted get to spout their inane ramblings to the ducks at the local pond and various inanimate objects journalists being journalists get to spout their inane ramblings on tv to an obviously gullible public. "didn't we fail when 3,000 American soldiers are all killed?" To begin with "are all killed" what do you mean "all" killed, I mean were some of them not killed perhaps? Actually that is closer to the truth, if you look at the statistics (and so few people do) a lot of the deaths in Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the enemy, that handy dandy 3,000 figure that the germalists keep using includes lots of deaths as a result of heart attack, disease, illness, car wrecks, training exercises etc., etc., (and you know I have pointed out in the past that more troops have died on US soil in the course of 4 years than have died in Iraq but try getting a member of the mainstream media to admit that inconvenient truth.) The most embarrassing part about the germalist's question is that his premise, and you must remember this point, his premise is that somehow, SOMEHOW one is supposed to go to war and NO ONE GETS KILLED! OH MY GOD! What a concept, you go to war and no one gets killed, when was the last time that that happened, it doesn't even happen in Audie Murphy movies and yet while it is okay for people to die in war in Hollywood, it is not okay for people to die in a REAL war. I suppose using the germalist's premise World War II was a strategic failure of epic proportions seeing as hundreds of thousands of soldiers died in that one, in fact the taking of Iwo Jima could be considered catastrophic strategic failure seeing as they lost what was it, 6,000 troops in a week? We should all be grateful that the mainstream media as they are today were not around in the 1940s, every last one of us would be speaking German or Japanese right now. We can also be grateful that the weak willed public were not around back then, cause if the war had gone on for more than a year they would have got tired and said "enough already lets get the troops home." Of course the good part about hearing a supposedly college educated (betcha his degree is in political science or journalism) person being so embarrassingly ignorant is that it makes the rest of us feel smart. I am so tired of listening to this tripe. I am going back to my birdies.

Which means that I fill up the 16 feeders I have outside in the morning and by the time I get home in the evening they are empty and my cardinals and chickadees are complaining at full voice. Luckily this is a temporary thing, they are simply stopping off during their migration North and I can get back to twice a week filling of the feeders soon, still it is annoying, but, they are heading north, it is that time of year folks, the birds are heading north. IT IS SPRING!

It is one of those wonderful North Carolina evenings. It has been warm today, in the upper 50s and when I got home and let the dogs out I went outside. The air was warm, and there was a delightful breeze blowing, a warm breeze rustling the trees and ruffling hair. The sun was setting at the back of the street and the sky was filled with an orange glow. The birds were singing, no doubt settling themselves down for their nightly sleep in temperatures that for the first time in a while did not threaten their delicate frames. Ahhhhh I just love evenings like this.

It was Sweetheart's ball this weekend, a fundraiser for the band, dinner and a Jazz Band show. In addition to the other stuff there is a silent auction, I donated three of my framed and matted shots for the silent auction and to my delight I raised $160.00 for the band. Not only did I raise money for the band but people actually liked my shots enough that they were willing to pay for them!

Other than that I spent my evening taking various abstract shots of the band, things that I found interesting but that which others may not. The shots were pretty rubbish, due to the low light and movement issues but I liked the results and liked them enough that I may go for a re-shoot with the kids not actually moving.