Militants Assault U.S. Base in Eastern Afghanistan

Militants Assault U.S. Base in Eastern Afghanistan
Published October 15, 2011 Associated Press

Militants tried to blast their way into an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle packed with explosives.
The attackers failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjshir province's Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a rocket-propelled grenade, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh.
Three of the men attacked on foot, shooting, while a fourth detonated the explosives-laden vehicle outside the gate, Jangalbagh said. All four of the attackers were killed and two Afghan security guards were wounded, he said.
A NATO spokeswoman confirmed the attack but said there were no American deaths or injuries and no significant damage to facilities.
"There was a complex attack attempted, but it was repelled," Capt. Ebony Calhoun said. She said the guards' wounds were not life-threatening but they had been evacuated to a larger U.S. base for treatment.
NATO spokesmen did not have any immediate details on the attack.
Jangalbagh said there was some damage to the base, but it was unclear how much. The base houses a provincial reconstruction team -- a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve provincial governance, services and infrastructure.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to The Associated Press.
The attack in Panjshir comes a day after a suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan that killed three Afghan border police officers and one civilian. The bomber blew up his explosives-packed car Friday afternoon while it was being inspected at a checkpoint.
The explosion happened in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border, in the early evening, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the head of the border police in the south.
The checkpoint had been set up because of an intelligence warning that an attack was imminent, provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi said.
Three NATO service members were also killed Friday in separate attacks, according to statements from the military coalition, making 11 killed so far this month and at least 464 since the beginning of the year.

BYU Beats Oregon State 38-28

BYU Cougars football: Sloppy victory
Cougars roll past Beavers despite many mistakes
Published: Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 9:43 p.m. MDT
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Over and over again, BYU's defense gave the offense chances to put the game against Oregon State out of reach.
Instead, in a battle between two mistake-prone teams, the Beavers somehow kept it relatively close until the final quarter.
While the Cougar defense forced four turnovers, the offense squandered several scoring opportunities. But the offense was good enough to roll up a season-high 499 yards total offense and score more points in a game than they had all season in a 38-28 triumph over OSU Saturday afternoon at Reser Stadium.
"I'm proud of our football team to go on the road and get a win," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "We certainly had our share of miscues that kept the game competitive."
BYU, which has now won four consecutive games, improved to 5-2 on the season while OSU dropped to 1-5.
The Cougars rushed for a season-high 282 yards and wide receiver Cody Hoffman caught a career-high nine passes for a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown.
"We're starting to show what kind of offense we can be, and it's exciting," said left tackle Matt Reynolds.
For much of the game, BYU was firmly in control, even if the score didn't always reflect that.
"Our team is gaining momentum and making progress, but we're not at the point to where we could end up (winning) 45-17 or something like that," Mendenhall said. "There's progress being made, but not enough yet to have the consistency. In the meantime, I like the wins that are coming."
Late in the third quarter, BYU was outgaining OSU in total yardage, 377-166, but led by only 10 points, 24-14. Then, the Beavers scored on a 59-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 24-21 — despite the fact OSU had turned the ball over on its three previous possessions. Two of those turnovers were in Beaver territory.
But the Cougars scored only three points off those turnovers.
"When (the defense) kept getting those turnovers, it was frustrating not coming away with touchdowns," said quarterback Riley Nelson, who completed 17-of-27 passes for 217 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, and rushed 12 times for 87 yards. "We feel like we left some points out there."
On one of those drives, running back Michael Alisa ran 30 yards for a touchdown, but it was negated by a holding penalty.
"That was very frustrating," Nelson said.
Another frustrating moment: when Nelson threw an interception to OSU's Jordan Poyer that he returned 51 yards for a touchdown late in the first half to tie the score, 14-14.
But to start the second half, BYU made a statement by promptly marching 80 yards for a score. The drive was capped by a 12-yard touchdown pass from Nelson to Hoffman. BYU seized a 21-14 advantage, and never trailed again.
All three of those OSU turnovers in the third quarter involved Cougar linebacker Brandon Ogletree, who recorded an interception, on a tipped pass by defensive lineman Matt Putnam, and two forced fumbles.
"I decided I had to do something and get the ball out," Ogletree said. "For us, we look for every opportunity we can to give those guys on offense the ball, especially when they're moving the ball the way they are lately. It's fun to watch."
Mendenhall loved seeing Ogletree's inspired play.
"At one point, his helmet came off after he caused a fumble and he had blood coming down out of both of his nostrils and he's smiling," he said. "It looks like Halloween. He said, 'Man, this is fun.' That's a middle linebacker."
Leading by a slim 24-21 margin early in the fourth quarter, the Cougars knew what they had to do to put the game away.
"We couldn't settle for a field goal," Nelson said.
So the junior QB threw two touchdown passes in the final quarter — a 12-yarder to JD Falslev at the 10:39 mark and an eight-yarder to tight end Kaneakua Friel with 3:37 remaining — that finally sealed the victory. BYU led 38-21 before OSU scored a TD with 23 seconds left.
The Cougars relied heavily on their newfound ground attack, led by Nelson (12 carries, 87 yards) and Michael Alisa (20 carries, 84 yards and a touchdown).
"It was impressive being able to run," Nelson said. "We stuck with it. I was proud of the way our guys battled. When you know you can run the ball like that, it takes a lot of pressure off everything else. It also opens up the playbook for play-action and down-the-field throws."
OSU lamented its mistakes on offense.
"The thing that really killed us was our turnovers," said Beaver running back Malcolm Agnew. "It kills our momentum, first of all. The turnovers turned the whole tide the other way."
"We certainly had enough opportunities to have 38 points in that game," said OSU coach Mike Riley. "That's what's disappointing."
BYU hosts Idaho State next Saturday (1 p.m., MT, BYUtv).
email: jeffc@desnews.com

The Times They Are a Changing!!

We had a thunderstorm last night that produced quarter sized hail. Stripped the leaves off the trees. Also, gave us some much needed moisture. It has now rained twice this week. Haven't had measurable rain around here for several months. I guess that means we are heading into Fall/Winter. We were in the upper 80s and lower 90s for a while. The temperature has now dropped to the 70s during the day and 50s at night. My kind of weather.

I went out to dinner last Thursday night. Wanted to get some Thai food but the restaurant was closed for 3 days. Went and got some Chinese food instead -- I had Cashew Chicken. It was real good. I hope to go out to dinner again this week -- it's the highlight of my week -- a change up from the DFAC food.

Other than that everything here is samo-samo. Oh yeah, today is Columbus Day -- all holidays are work days here, so you forget its a holiday sometimes.

Cougars Defeat Spartans - 29-16

BYU football: Riley Nelson, Cougars defeat Spartans
Published: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011 11:24 p.m. MDT
PROVO — In a game that looked to be a blowout early, BYU held on for a 29-16 victory over San Jose State Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Turnovers played their part in keeping the game close. The Cougars coughed the ball up three separate times as they approached the endzone. San Jose had its troubles as well, turning over the ball twice.
The Cougar offense looked re-energized with its new quarterback Riley Nelson. BYU amassed 446 yards of total offense compared with just 325 yards for SJSU.
The Cougars jumped out on top of the Spartans early. Following a turnover deep in San Jose territory, an errant snap went through the back of the endzone for a safety and a score of 2-0 BYU with 9:06 remaining in the first quarter.
The Cougars followed up the safety with a quick 56-yard, 5-play drive that ended with Nelson hitting tight end Richard Wilson for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 7:04 left in the quarter.
Following a Spartan field goal, Nelson engineered a 9-play, 75-yard drive to put BYU up 16-3 with 10:58 left in the half. He hit running back Bryan Kariya with a 1-yard TD pass to extend the lead.
SJSU attempted to answer with a long scoring drive of its own before Kyle Van Noy intercepted a pass just after the Spartans crossed into Cougar territory.
On the next play, Nelson hit McKay Jacobson for a 40-yard TD pass to go up 23-3 with 8:49 remaining in the half.
After another defensive stop, BYU looked to go up big, driving the ball deep into San Jose territory toward the end of the half, but the scoring bid stalled as Nelson threw an interception in the endzone.
The Spartans responded with a scoring drive that ended with a 40-yard field goal by Jens Alvernik to go into the locker room down a manageable 23-6.
The Cougars relied on a punishing ground attack during the second half.
The first score came with SJSU capping off a 12-play, 96-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by Tyler Ervin to make the score 23-13 with 6:09 left in the third quarter.
Two field goals by Justin Sorensen from 42 and 45 yards kept the Cougars comfortably ahead in securing a 29-16 win.
Nelson finished the game going 14-of-24 for 219 yards with two interceptions and three touchdowns. He also ran the ball nine times for 65 yards.
Michael Alisa was the Cougar's leading rusher on the night with 16 carries for 92 yards on the night. Richard Wilson was the leading receiver on the night catching three passes for 66 yards.
The Cougars are now 4-2 and will travel to Corvallis, Ore., to take on Oregon State next Saturday.

If Poots Could Kill -- By Kathy Kidd

Note to readers: Because of the sensitive nature of today’s topic, my husband has asked to not be identified in this particular entry. In the interest of preserving his anonymity, he will be referred to here as “Fuzzy.”

I was born in a different time and place. My mother sprang from what passed for aristocracy in New Orleans, and she was taught that there were things a lady should and shouldn’t do.
I still refer to “chicken chests” because the only B-word my mother ever used in reference to the upper female anatomy was “bosoms.” It didn’t stop there. When the time came to tell me about the birds and the bees, Mother pulled me off a merry-go-round at the playground and took me to the car while my sisters continued to play. Her speech consisted of telling me to read a book, From Little Acorns.
Mother was so uncomfortable just telling me to read the book that I vowed never to read it, and I didn’t. She asked me if I read it and took me at my word when I said I did, but I didn’t learn about s-e-x until I got hold of my mother’s dirty novels when I was in about sixth grade.
It was not a happy occasion.
If Mother couldn’t even say the B-word, it goes without saying that some bodily functions were not acceptable in our house. Flatulence was a big one. Although my sisters and I must have done it because we had a word for it (we called it “pooting”), I don’t remember ever being in a room where I heard either of my parents let one slip. I was raised to believe that when one had to poot, one held it until she was safely out of the presence of any other human being. Whenever the time came, I would rush to the bathroom and run water to cover the sound. Southern ladies didn’t do that sort of thing, you see.
Then I met my husband. Fuzzy did not come from the South. He was a Utah boy, and he was all boy. That meant he was born with a joy in all things scatological. (He is not alone in this. One of the counselors in our bishopric is a sober Harvard graduate — the kind of person that every mother wants her daughter to marry. His wife confessed that every time he poots in bed he pulls the blankets over both their heads and shouts “covered wagon!” so she is trapped into inhaling the aroma. Boys — even Harvard boys — never grow up.)
Fuzzy discreetly kept his poots to himself during the courtship phase, but once we were married it was every nose for itself. I was totally horrified. We had not talked about bodily functions before marriage. I had expected that, like me, he would discreetly leave the room when nature called, run into the bathroom, and run the water to cover the sound of his indiscretion. Didn’t all adults do it that way?
Despite my pleas that he keep his odors to himself, Fuzzy was adamant on this. He would not poot in public, but once he was safely in the house he had paid for, he was going to poot with impunity unless guests were in the room. I retaliated by banishing cherries, green grapes and other “gassy” foods from our home for years, but it didn’t help. Being all boy, Fuzzy didn’t need an excuse to poot. He pooted for the same reason that dogs lick their private parts — he pooted because he could.
I never got used to it. As the years passed, things settled into a routine. The quiet peacefulness of our marital bed would suddenly be disrupted by a gastric indiscretion. I would shoot him my most fierce if-looks-could-kill glare and shout his name. Being duly chastised for what he considered both a normal bodily function and an enjoyable bodily function, he would either ignore me or would glare back. For a few minutes, or at least until the odor dissipated, there would be animosity in our otherwise happy home.
This went on for a long, long time. Then, after we moved into the house where we live now (which means it was at least TWENTY-SEVEN LONG YEARS after we got married), something happened. We were lying in bed one night when he let one fly. I opened my mouth to scream, and my mouth said something I never intended it to say. I accidentally said, “Bless you!”
Fuzzy almost fell out of bed. Ready to be chastised, his hackles were already up. When I blessed him instead of cursing him, his angelic face relaxed into a wreath of smiles. (Nobody has a cuter smile than Fuzzy has, and it melts my heart.) “Thank you,” he said, and the thanks were genuine. He wasn’t just thanking me for the words. He was thanking me for not getting angry.
I was stunned. For nearly three decades, we had followed the same miserable pattern of poot, chastisement, and mutual disgust. Anyone with the I.Q. of a turnip would have known that Fuzzy’s behavior wasn’t going to change by my yelling at him, or it would have done so long ago. But nobody ever accused me of being smarter than a turnip. On the contrary, I would have continued doing the same thing time after time after time for the rest of my life if an accidental slip of the tongue hadn’t stopped me short.
Fuzzy was never going to stop pooting, but by changing my own behavior I could turn those moments from moments of anger to moments of felicity. Despite what I had believed all those years, the problem was not Fuzzy’s — it was mine.
Now we say “Bless you” for any bodily noise — a hiccup, a burp, a cough, and, yes, the ubiquitous poot. We are so scrupulous about blessing one another that sometimes one of us will bless the other for turning the page in a book or changing position in bed. If a noise that sounds anything like a poot occurs, the offender gets blessed.
And no, the offender is no longer always my husband. The act of blessing him gave me permission to poot with impunity too. It sure beats running into the bathroom and turning on the water every time. I wouldn’t say either one of us is a pooting machine, and we don’t have any covered wagon moments, but the anger is gone. That one little thing, done completely by accident, made a big difference in our marriage.
Life is too short to be concerned with the position of the toilet seat, or where you squeeze the toothpaste tube. Brigham Young used to say to dissatisfied husbands and wives that if they could see their partner in his or her eventual glory, they would drop to their knees and worship him. From my own experience, taking this long view and overlooking the daily annoyances goes a long way towards marital harmony.
I often wonder now what other ruts I’m in that could be so easily gotten out of if I just made a tiny change in my behavior. I suspect a lot of us are caught in habits that make our lives inconvenient, unpleasant, or downright dangerous — habits that could so easily be changed if only we stopped to make a course correction.

Papa Smurf in Battle Gear

We have been required to wear our battle gear whenever we go outside because of the threat level so I borrowed an M-4 to pose for a picture. Look out taliban -- nothing like a pissed off senior citizen!!!

Cougars rally for 27-24 victory over Aggies behind Riley Nelson

BYU, Utah State football: Cougars rally for 27-24 victory over Aggies behind Riley Nelson
Published: Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011 12:03 a.m. MDT
PROVO — It was a storybook scenario for BYU backup quarterback Riley Nelson, and he made the most of the moment.
The Utah State transfer, and Logan native, came off the bench to lead an improbable 96-yard drive in the waning minutes and rallied the Cougars from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit. In the end, BYU earned a dramatic 27-24 win over the Aggies Friday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The game-winning TD came with 11 seconds remaining, when tight end Marcus Mathews caught a 13-yard tipped pass in the end zone.
Displaying fire and intensity that was missing from BYU for most of the game, Nelson willed his team to victory with gutty running and passing, and prevented back-to-back losses to Utah State.
"It was really good to come back and get the win," Nelson said. "It was a hard-fought win against a great opponent. To be able to come back like that was special for our whole team."
The listless Cougars (3-2) played like a different team once Nelson entered the game in the third quarter, replacing an ineffective Jake Heaps.
"In the second half, we changed as a team. We played with more heart," said wide receiver McKay Jacobson, who hauled in a 40-yard pass from Nelson on the game-winning drive. "I think that was the change. We just were putting some things together and making some drives and all of us were playing with more heart out there."
With 2:46 remaining in the game, BYU trailed 24-20 when it took over on its own 4-yard line after a 67-yard USU punt. On first down, Nelson lost two yards, giving the Cougars second-and-12 on their own 2-yard line — 98 yards from the end zone.
"You've got to get into the end zone," Nelson said. "I've had the opportunity to be in situations like that before."
Though the offense had sputtered for much of the game, the Cougars were confident.
"It's definitely tough to go the length of the field with two minutes left. We could tell the momentum was on our side," Jacobson said. "We were going to fight until the end and I think we all had a good feeling that something special was going to happen."
On the sidelines, BYU players and coaches knew Nelson could get the job done.
"(Linebacker Brandon) Ogletree came up to me and he said, 'Do you remember the spring game?' I believe in Riley Nelson,'" said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "And he was smiling. It mattered to me that he would believe in his teammate so much that he would come to me and say that."
Ogletree was referring to Nelson's game-winning drive in the spring game last April.
"I believe in him. The guy's one of the hardest workers that I know," Ogletree said. "He's gritty and he's tough. He's had a tough road and he stayed with it and it's inspiring. You saw the way the team rallied around him."
On the final drive, Nelson took control, completing 4-of-5 passes for 66 yards and running for 30 more.
"Riley realized it was his opportunity and he ran with it," Mendenhall said. "He is someone I admire for just the natural competitive mindset that he has. He won't sit on the sideline pouting, but he'll be out there on the field helping our team. He has a very unselfish mindset about him."
Mendenhall called the game an "epic struggle" and praised Utah State's program and coach Gary Andersen.
Nelson said he didn't feel any vindication in beating his former team.
"I love Utah State. I have a lot of respect for the program. I love those guys," Nelson said, adding that his longtime connection to the program. His younger brother, D.J., a quarterback at Logan High, committed to Utah State this past week.
The snakebitten Aggies (1-3) have now lost three games in which they led in the fourth quarter.
"They should have been 3-0 coming into this game," Nelson said. "They played well enough to be 4-0. But the ball bounced our way."
Nelson came into the game for Heaps midway through the third quarter. His first drive resulted in a missed field goal, but on the ensuing series, he threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Cody Hoffman to pull the Cougars to within 24-20 with 10:05 remaining in the game.
After BYU's defense stopped a fake field goal in Cougar territory, Nelson led another impressive drive that ended on a fumble by running back J.J. Di Luigi.
In the end, Nelson got one more chance and he provided late-game heroics — one of the most memorable drives in Edwards Stadium history.
And a former Aggie led them.
Andersen praised Nelson for his play.
"Riley did a nice job," he said. "He came in and made some plays with his feet. It's very different defending him. It's a QB run game and the opportunity to create the matchups you want in the passing game go out the window because you can't empty the box like we had been the whole game. But obviously tonight they were a better football team."
email: jeffc@desnews.com