Greetings and Salutations!
Here’s one from the waaaaayback machine. Namely a post from my first and original blog called, appropriately enough, “The Intrepid Reporter”. As of late, I’ve been so damned busy, it’s insane. Trying to take care of the household with 2x members down, as well as my own snivvle-factor of the worst allergies I’ve had in 20+ years.
Sapper’s been up and down with a really bad flu… the one a lot of y’all have described. Lots of mucus and nasty, coughing and feeling generally listless and shitty. Gretchen OTOH has been having severe digestive issues. She’s got IBS and apparently ate -something- that damned near crippled her, as well as allowed her to destroy the head on a regular basis.
Thank God this place has two shitters.
Jes’ Sayin’.
That all being said, I went back to see just -what-0 was going on in my life back in the day. Specifically in my blog from back then. I can tell you one of the things (to me at least) that stands out is my ability to write a much more coherent and descriptive narrative was far superior to my current endeavors. And I realize it’s not laziness, but the Traumatic Brain Injuries I incurred after the fact.
I took a lot of severe head trauma in 2010/2011
It’s kind of obvious.
But I hope you enjoy:
“Monday, April 6, 2009
WTF? Home? Iraq had less problems…
OK Dear and Gentle Reader, The Intrepid Reporter is back and has all sorts of ‘fun from the home front’ stuff going on. Needless to say, I made it home for my well deserved R&R (Rest and Relaxation to you civvies) or my historical fave, I&I (Intercourse and Intoxication) both of which I’ve been attempting at a new land-speed record. Household Six and the Chilluns have been thrilled to have me home, but nonetheless, there have been a few ‘wrinkles’ in an otherwise pristine time.
What? Problems you say? Problems? Aye… A whooooole LOTTA identity theft of the I.R. and specifically my bank/debit Credit Card. Seems that for the past 5 years I’ve been bouncing around the Middle East and dealing with “The Ali Baba Credit and Trust” banks of the area. The Baghdad International Federal Credit Union issued me a personal draft good up to 40 Million Iraqi Dinar (which is worth about 450 pesos or 12 US Dollars when rounding up on the centavos, ‘course if I get it in Canadian Dollars, we’re talking enough to get a 12 Pack of Molson lite!)
So anyways… here’s the ole I.R. on vay-kay and I go and use my debit here stateside. Now the only issue I’ve ever had was ye Ole Bank of America sometimes freaks when my location changes, as in at 9am US Time I charge something in Kuwait, and then 10 hours later, I’m running a bar tab in the airport at Dulles. Usually a 2 minute call to the security folks is good enough to wrap up any questions, but this morning was a special case.
Now those of you following this here reportage know that I’ve discovered various watering holes in and around Baghdad. Another sure sign of a building economy is the “Intrepid Reporter Economic Progress Theory of Bar Expansion and Alcohol Availability.”
This Macroeconomic Theory dictates that the Success of an Economy can be Measured in A) Quantity of Boozing Locales and B) Quality of Beverage Available. The more places available = the more money being spent on booze and the quality of booze available = the more money people are willing to spend to get the “good stuff.” Kuwait being a prime indicator of the facility of B) in that a bottle of Johnny Walker Black runs $200 a liter.
But anyways, It’ll need work, but suffice to say, I’ve been drawing $$$ USD specifically from the various ATMs and kiting checks through the on post exchange to insure a steady cash flow to insure proper lubrication of my synapses. In kiting the checks, I’ve been monitoring my check flow thru the web on a daily basis to insure that I don’t bone the check cashing ability in that if you ricochet one with AFFES, you lose the $100 daily ability they provide.
Imagine my shock this morning when on opening the account, I find I’m in the hole over $300. This from a balance of over $2K.
Looted you say?
Aye I say…
Yeah… Howabout them fuckin Apples?
I spend years all over the world in the Center of Shady Central and I get ganked here in the Homeland? Fucking nice huh? Needless to say I went into “Red Alert: Money is missing” mode and called everyone and anyone and rifled through 40 different fraud departments and got damned near 80 % of the bogus charges KIA’d before they got spent out. The only problem was they wouldn’t tell me who specifically or where specifically said bogus calls/charges came in from.
I do KNOW that it’s in Massachusetts from where one person slipped, but they did say I’d need a subpoena to get said info. Unfortunately, that’s not a good idea in that my way of dealing with this would be the $99 flight into Boston and show up whatever Ghetto these scumfucks live in, and give them like 30 minutes to shit say, $50,000 USD or I’d have to kill them. Yeah, extortion and hell, considering how they pissed me off, I’d kill them out of hand anyways.
Eh… the only thing that’d be bad is having to dispose of the corpses. In Iraq, carcass-disposal means leaving a body in an orange jumpsuit minus a casaba. The Military and Dirty Haj take care of it from there. The military cleans it up, and the Dirty Haj take the blame, gleefully from what I’ve seen. Those assholes even tried to make a claim on the mass shooting at the Immigrant Center in New York….
Silly Haj, Massacres like that are done by homegrown psychos, not radical Islamic Wierdbeards. The average “wants to get into Paradise” fuckhead understands that if they WERE in fact to go after a ‘soft target’ like a mall or something “Mom and Apple Pie” like that, that we’d be all out in a bloodfest against them.
THATS why I think they haven’t done anything like that. Fact of the matter, the reason they DON’T go for the soft targets is that, besides the “Blue States” that generally are filled with their “Hug a Fucking Commie” filthy Anti-American bastions, the only thing left are Pro-American Red States, and the odds of them getting to cause mass mayhem are pretty slim, as generally the gun-toting folks (like myself) are armed to the teeth, and would live for a chance to slowly shoot one of the “Allahfucks” to pieces.
I know I would.
If they DID go after a Mall, in say Brookline MA (home to one of the LARGEST Jewish populations outside of NYC) then the People of the Socialist Republic of Taxachusetts wouldn’t be able to wring their collectivist hands at the oppression of the Hamas and other such things…. Killing Liberals only makes other Liberals into Conservatives, and we can’t be having that now, Achmed can we? After all, the old saw of “A Liberal is a Conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet.” stands hard on that.
SO! More later… I watch the unfolding “Mad Minute Massacres” nationwide with both horror and a sense that we’re only seeing the beginning. Keep your powder dry and remember that I told you here first that this’s only the beginning of the “Summer of Madness”… More later y’all!”
LOTS of memories there…. wish I still was as literate.
Hope you enjoyed!
More Later
Big Country
Gretchen prolly has heard of Heather Van Vorous and her IBS book. When i was taking care of my mom, it helped a TON getting her IBS sorted…
Heather Van Vorous website: https://www.helpforibs.com/
Heather Van Vorous book: “Eating for IBS” on Amazon… its about $15, well worth it.
All the best Gunny.
Regarding your lady’s poop-soup express, there’s a food additive found in yogurts, chocolate milks, ice creams and sherberts and a lot more called Carrageenan. Which the medicos have known since 1968 causes IBS and colon cancer. Might check the foods for that delightful shitstorm causing food additive.
When my wife got hit by that crap, we were doing 6 Immodium (available from the ‘Zon, well, their version, for cheap and they work) ever 4 hours, Floragen (live probiotics available from the Pharmacy because refrigerated) every 8 hours. Taper off the Immodium as the flow stiffens up.
Do not give her yogurt, as I mentioned earlier it’s infested with the Carrageenan.
And this has been a horrible allergy season for a lot of people. So a good treatment to keep from getting sinus infections is get you one of those nasal syringe bottle thingies. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon pickling salt or regular salt, water as hot as you can stand to squirt up your schnozz and go to town, 2-3 times a day. You will be impressed to see what comes flying out of your face.
Other than that, yeah, I’ve wanted to kill some mofo who tried to steal from my accounts. Miserable bastards need to be dragged naked through sandspurs using a hook through their privates and a rope attacked to the jankiest pickup you can find. And then broken glass. Maybe burning sugarcane fields.
The thieving bastards get away with credit card fraud all day every day and have for years and years now.
Me and some buddies went riding our bikes one day. We all stopped at the local Haj Gas Station in Kempner, TX. Used our cards to buy gas. And next thing you know we’re all getting crap charged to our cards.
I’m in I.T. – take care of web servers. So I call one of the places they had used the cards. Asked if I could get some info such as the IP address, where stuff was sent, etc, etc. They said yes. I then called the bank and told them we can bust the motherfuckers. They weren’t interested. Called the cops and gave them what I found. They said yeah we already know all about the Haji’s. I said great – let’s get them. They said no – we’re not interested. I said WTF? Told them I’d do all the leg work and all you have to do is bust them. They still said no. I’m thinking WTF?
I know of other similar incidents just like this. Bastards shipped stuff right to their house using Amazon. Easy bust right? Wrong – they don’t give a fuck.
My take: Have you heard about the ‘magic money machines’ DOGE has uncovered? Creating money out of thin air – just like the banks. However banks have to report any money they create. The magic money people don’t do that. So they’ve been creating TRILLIONS for a long time now. Our economy is one big fraud. That’s why banks and police don’t want to look into this. And yeah – it’s the people you think it is.
It would be a shame if someone hit them with Wifite through 4 or 5 proxy servers using whoami and placed some…ummm…questionable materials and malware on their systems.
Just sayin’…
BCE, I’m about your age and one thing that I have learned is “Don’t be so hard on yourself”.
The Covid put the zap on me health wise and thank God I work IT so can still work but I can no longer physically do a lot of things I used to do. You too have physical issues and you do the best you can.
Focus on what you CAN do and not what you can’t. Your blog is great and I and many others enjoy your postings.
You Sir have been through a SHIT LOAD since that original post was made, by my count since that post you have:
Been in the Middle East in war zones.
Had cancer that almost killed you.
Went through a nasty divorce.
Ex had you arrested and had to deal with that BS.
Been estranged from both your kids (fallout from divorce).
Had to deal with several asshole employers while working.
Remarried and married Gretchen.
Had to deal with DC’s MANY issues and custody issues of Grands 1 and 2.
Had to deal with In Laws many issues.
I’m sure there is more that I don’t know.
Give yourself a break man and don’t be hard on yourself. You do pretty good for all that you have been through. Enjoy fixing up your guns and your friends and family.
The lot of you need to fast. 72 hour fasting. Eat nothing. Drink only water. I’ve been doing if for 2 years now. It will fix gut problems. It will fix allergies. You got joint problems, it will fix them. Cancer? Good chance it fixes that. It will fix all kinds of stuff. Most people think it’s crazy. People ridicule what they don’t understand.
Hey, BCE, has Gretch or you tried the pig-derived supplement Intenzyme Forte? It helps digest your food and generally lessons bowel issues. Fairly cheap too.
Sharyl Attkisson has an interesting substack post that describes many of the symptoms you mentioned: https://sharylattkisson.substack.com/p/long-covid-long-vax-a-resource-guide?r=nppkh
Symptoms in the Spotlight
Chest pain (up to 89%)
Fatigue (up to 65%)
Shortness of breath or dyspnea (up to 61%)
Cough and sputum production (up to 59%)
Also:
Extreme tiredness and crashes after activity
Mental fuzziness or “brain fog”
Trouble breathing
Heart palpitations or irregular beats
Persistent pain or nerve issues
Going back to your old blog is such a solid move—sometimes we forget how far we’ve come, even if it doesn’t always feel like progress. Hope the household heals up soon, sounds like you’re running a field hospital over there.