Navy’s awesome 23-21 victory over 19th-ranked Notre Dame last week gives me a great excuse to get active again in the Rule 5 community with this pic from the Navy Cheerleaders website:

Why is this the Rule 5 post I never would have expected to write? Women were still a novelty at USNA when I arrived. My class was only the third with women in it, and a lot of people weren’t happy that women were there at all, or at least were disturbed with what we saw as politically correct moves relating to specific female midshipmen.

In any event, we probably were more unkind than we should have been; in fact, my classmates and I were pretty damn crude, and let’s just say that we didn’t think good looks were plentiful among that early group of women who braved (and I do mean braved) the transition to a co-ed institution. We said some nasty things. Please accept my belated (and anonymous) apology, ladies from the classes of ‘80-’82.

Some “old-timers” I meet at alumni functions would still like to change the Academy back to an all-male institution. But I’m betting the young mid in the middle of this pic feels differently.

Happy birthday, Marines!

Ah, Monique, how generous you are. McCain is even more clueless than you know. From the last paragraph of McCain’s column (my emphasis):

Of all the things I worry about in my life, my country’s national security is by far at the forefront. I am a daughter of a famous military hero and the sister of two soldiers.

When someone calls her marine and sailor brothers “soldiers,” you can pretty much stop listening to anything else she has to say about the military.

Ohio State’s athletic department is circulating an online video encouraging Buckeyes’ fans to welcome the Midshipmen on Sept. 5 like no other OSU opponent has every been welcomed.

The idea is for the 105,000 fans inside Ohio Stadium to rise and cheer Navy just like they rise and cheer the Buckeyes.

***

“We would hope we would treat every opponent with great respect,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. “But I think it’s even raised a notch when you’re talking about people running out on the field who are pledged to defend you.”

“I feel that everybody should respect the Naval Academy football team because we stand for something more than just a college football team,” junior Middies safety Wyatt Middleton said. “We’re going to be the people protecting those watching us.”

I thought this was a great gesture . . .

But there’s a rub. The Navy players do stand for a greater cause. The service academies could make legitimate claims to be being America’s teams. But for now, some of them also want to be just like any other football player, even though this is the first time a service academy has played in Ohio Stadium since 1931.

In an opposing team’s stadium, that means being the enemy.

“My dad always says how awesome it is when we run in and [opposing fans] clap,” Navy senior linebacker Clint Sovie said. “But I always say I kind of hate it. We love going into hostile environments.”

I wouldn’t worry about that Mr. Sovie. OSU could blanket the field with rose petals for the Midshipmen as they come onto the field, but the environment would still be plenty hostile from the moment foot meets ball on the opening kickoff.

As much as the midshipmen may want to be treated like any other team, it’s hard to find fault with the sentiment in the video:

Call me sentimental, but that video actually gave me a lump in my throat. So I can forgive them for calling it the “U.S. Navy” team instead of the U.S. Naval Academy team.

ESPN is carrying the game, so I’ll see if the fans answer the call. But whether they do or not, this effort is classy.

By the way, ever wonder why a perennial football powerhouse like Notre Dame plays Navy every year? Because ND has class, too.

By choosing Fort Bragg for her first official trip outside the capital last Thursday, Michelle Obama signaled that she will use her position as First Lady to promote one of America’s most deserving causes: our military families. Plainly the families loved it. Just look at the smiles on those children as she read them “The Cat in the Hat.”

So it was just a little disconcerting the next morning to hear the First Lady explain how she came to this issue during last year’s campaign. “I think I was like most Americans,” she told ABC News. “Pretty oblivious to the life of military families. Sort of taking it for granted.”

Perhaps Mrs. Obama did take these families for granted. Surely, however, it’s extraordinary to suggest that “most Americans” did the same. Certainly not the McCains, the Bidens and the Palins, each of whom had at least one son in uniform. More to the point, the presidential campaign in which she says the issue started “taking shape” for her came nearly seven years into a war that has inspired millions across America to step forward to help our troops.

But, the writer notes, this is just part of a larger, more disturbing trend:

If the ABC interview was a one-off thing, it would be easy to overlook. But these days the reporting seems to reflect an assumption that if the Obamas haven’t done something, nobody else has, either. Certainly the Washington Post did not challenge the First Lady’s social secretary when she said, “one idea Michelle had was to have an event for military families — here they are sacrificing so much for the country and many of them probably have never been invited to the White House.

Until now, I had been pleasantly surprised by how little we’d heard from this First Lady.  I hope she recedes somewhat.  I’d prefer she be a wallflower if coverage of her is going to be as dishonest as the WSJ writer so accurately characterizes it.

The limit of fair use is the only reason I’m not quoting more of the piece.  It is well worth your while, especially for comparing the graciousness of Laura Bush to Michelle Obama.

H/T: Gateway Pundit.

Looks like our side may have been guilty of the same thing regarding the defense budget.

Big difference, though.  Whereas the shameless Left will endlessly defend its misrepresentations, it apparently happened at Ace’s by mistake, and the record there has already been corrected. The Fox News report from which DrewM at Ace’s drew the figures accurately reported (or at least does so now) that the Obama administration had advised he Joint Chiefs to “cut the Pentagon’s budget request” (emphasis added).

Anyway, it is mistakes like this that explain why, though I am a conservative blogger (and as hungry for traffic as the next guy), you won’t see me jumping on every new conservative meme.

Including Obama’s comment on Jessica Simpson’s weight.  His defenders are saying he was merely reading the magazine cover.  We’ll see if that works.  It didn’t seem to help Dan Quayle that his mispelling of the word “potato” (to include an “e” on the end) to correct a youngster in a spelling bee was spelled that way on the card he was given to use as a reference for asking the contestants.  And that mistake did not require any malice.

Unless, of course, you’re Google, which lived up to its usual assholiness by ignoring D-Day in favor of decorating its search page to celebrate the birthday of Spanish artist Diego Velazquez by dressing up its logo thus:

 

(Hat tip: Purple Avenger, guest-blogging at Ace of Spades HQ.) Google has frequently ignored Memorial Day and Veterans Day as well. It’s first commemoration of the former was in 2007, and it has yet to honor the latter. As World Net Daily reported on Memorial Day this year:

As WND reported in 2006, Google had no problem honoring the war dead of other countries, creating a special logo with poppies for Remembrance Day in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Last October, Google acknowledged an accomplishment of the communist Soviet Union, which launched the Sputnik space satellite in 1957.

Google also has given special honors for astronomer Percival Lowell, artist Edvard Munch and Louis Braille, inventor of the writing system for the blind.

Other days commemorated included National Teachers Day, Women’s Day, Ray Charles’ birthday, World Water Day and St. George’s Day.

Besides overlooking Memorial Day, it also has ignored Christmas.

And with a hat tip to Michelle Malkin, here’s a Youtube video from last year that shows how today’s media would cover the D-Day invasion if it took place in 2007 instead of 1944:

And for those who say the media wouldn’t have done that, because the Allied cause in World War II was just, while the cause in Iraq is unjust, I say “bullshit.” Virtually every criticism leveled against the Iraq war could be leveled against U.S. involvement in World War II. But I’m going to leave that for another post.

Steve Massey, the school principal, said the decision to cancel was prompted by concerns that the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school.

He said the school had received several phone calls from parents and others, some of whom indicated that they may stage a protest if the event took place.

It was somewhat heartwarming to see in Wednesday’s edition that the students went to the vets.

I’d like to know: (1) how many parents called; and (2) Minnesota senate candidate Al Franken’s position on the cancellation. I’ll let you know if I receive a response to my e-mail to his campaign.

And thanks to Mr. Massey for providing a blueprint on how to shut down any event. Just threaten a protest. Why is it I don’t think that would work if parents threatened to picket outside sex ed classes?