I’ve spent the better part of the day doing my taxes, a chore that for some reason I insist on doing by myself each year. People look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them, I’m doing my taxes, like I’m deciphering some ancient hieroglyphic tablets or something. But, generally, it’s not too hard, it’s just time consuming. And, once everything is organized into the proper stack, it’s just a matter of plugging in the numbers, and letting Turbotax work its magic.

So, what’s so difficult about that?  Another 5 or 6 hours, tops.

Anyway, earlier today, I linked to Gen McCaffrey’s report on Michael Yon’s blog. A little while ago, I checked my pageflakes reader (in the sidebar) and noticed a new post on his blog. It’s another of the “Rubs” posts, which are an interesting way of writing on the fly. Here is an excerpt:

If I might insert a personal opinion, I think Petraeus’ plan has a serious chance of working despite heavy odds. In fact, within my first three days with 1-4, talking with Iraqi families and police, there were strong indicators that for this little neighborhood, local people and Iraqi police are definitely encouraged. This doesn’t extend to the terrorists, however, and 1-4 Cav has been under fire. Our soldiers showed amazing fire discipline, not even knowing I was just feet behind them with a video camera. (I’ve seen it many times, but finally have got video proof that our guys will go far not to shoot the wrong people.) I saw the 1-4 in a situation where I was certain that they were cleared to fire under the ROE (Rules of Engagement: in this case they were taking fire), yet soldiers with fingers on the triggers held off pending PID (positive identification) of the targets, something I hope to describe later in a non-RUBS format, time permitting.

And, here is a link to the original. Read it all.