Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Rolling Stone with its . . . in its mouth (not foot)

This story from last month's Rolling Stone could not have gotten Sgt Wilkerson right. When referring to a vehicle, one might say that it is "Locked, cocked, and ready to rock." Meaning that it is all ready to go, as in when one locks the magazine in the weapon, cocks the weapon (puts a round in the chamber) and is all ready to go shoot something.

Here is a quote from the article:

"Back in Baghdad, they'd thrown me in the back of the third of four Humvees in the convoy, a truck code-named Juliet.

"Juliet is like cock and ready to rock," said Sgt. Stephen Wilkerson as we roared out of the motor pool in Camp Victory to the exit of the base, headed on a six-day journey across northern Iraq, the first stage of my five-week stay in the war zone."

Rolling stone sent a reporter (Matt Taibbi) to Baghdad so unversed in basic military lingo, it is as if he never even watched a war movie. I bet he thinks that Jimi Hendrix asked us to excuse him while he kissed this guy.

Then again, maybe he did say it. But I'd bet against it.

Don't they have a fact checker? And so far, no one has caught this.

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