Anthony's Soap Box

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-29T23:18:00.002-04:00

On this Memorial Day I was wondering what to write since I am an unashamed full throttle supporter of my Republic and it's military, specifically my Marine Corps. I have settled on three simple things: I miss you all, I love all of you, and I can't wait until we no longer need to the job that is required to preserve freedom everywhere. I am humbled by your sacrifices. And to those on the left who seem to want to forget to whom they owe their freedom, i remind you that you are free to leave anytime you want. And to those on the right who want to use our dead, wounded, and missing for your own aims, it will be a cold day in Hell before I join you too.

We are free because rough men and women are willing to do those things that are required to keep us that way. Never forget that while you enjoy the blessings and benefits of freedom you have not earned. We are free under the rule of law because of those who have sacrificed so much for us all. The families too have paid a teriible price for the rest of us and they know all too well just how high the price continues to be.

So enjoy your freedom made possible by Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Sailors, and Coasties and not by the likes of Code Pink or Glenn Beck.

Veteran's Day 2010

2010-11-11T13:40:00.001-05:00

THANK YOU ALL.

(words are never sufficient for the debt that we owe these men and women.)

Wake schools' Goldman holds forum and Meeker razzes majority

2010-10-12T22:57:00.001-04:00

Via WRAL we read:

"CARY, N.C. — With uniformed officers at every exit, Wake County school board member Debra Goldman held a forum on the divisive issue of student assignment at Cary Town Hall on Tuesday night.

The meeting was orderly and quick, absent the heated emotions that have become staples at recent full board meetings on the topic.

Some attendees thanked Goldman for breaking with the board majority last week and voting to pull the plug on a plan to put a community-based assignment policy into effect by creating a series of school assignment zones. The plan would have dropped socio-economic diversity as a criterion for student assignment.

“I just want to thank you very much for standing up in a very difficult situation and doing what you did,” attendee Mary Ann Meagher said.

Others at the meeting voted for Goldman last election and expressed feeling of betrayal by her recent departure from the board’s majority.

“Your double talk and empty promises serve no one but yourself,” parent Allison Backhouse said. “I think I speak for many when I ask, ‘What’s next?’”

Goldman said she still supports a neighborhood school model for Wake County, but said she changed her mind because too many people were being left out of the decision making process.

Goldman stressed to those in the crowd that whether they agree or disagree with her decisions, she valued their thoughts.

“It’s really important to hear the opinions and get the feedback from as many people as possible,” she said."

Notice how she held it on her own turf with overwhelming police presence and also note that there were people who were not happy at all with her. Also note how she is still not using logic but emotion, especially with that "It’s really important to hear the opinions and get the feedback from as many people as possible,” garbage, which translates into "let me gum up the works as much as possible to make me feel better. Well, Ms. Goldman, those widdle feelings of yours are gonna get even more hurt come election time. And your stunt of a meeting in Cary is also going to return sometime soon when you are going to have to answer to Raleigh parents, who are even more fed up than you realize.

In a related note, we have Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker, whose wife just happens to sit on the same board as Goldman and Tedesco, razzing the Republican majority:

"'m also pleased to be here with my wife, Anne McLaurin, who survived last night's school board meeting," Meeker said. "And I want you to know she was not called a 'prom queen,' whatever that means in New Jersey."

That's right, a sitting mayor who is also a Democrat decides to weigh in on something that is none of his business but at he kept it classy (sarcasm intended) and mature. Notice again how these people resort to name calling and useless razzing when they have nothing else to throw at you? For his part, Tedesco has apologized for the remark, the mark of a true gentleman. As it goes, Goldman's gumming of the works can only hurt the true victims of all this, namely the children. But as I have stated before, this is not really about the kids at all, it is about hurt liberal feelings. And electorally, Goldman might just get her butt handed to her.

Wake school assignment changes stalled

2010-10-05T22:12:00.002-04:00

Via WRAL we read:

"he Wake County Board of Education voted to Tuesday night to immediately halt the progress toward student assignment based on zones.

Vice Chair Debra Goldman had been outspoken about her opposition to the use of zones as a basis for the school system's transition from a system that assigns students to balance a school's socio-economic makeup – a policy opponents said resulted in long bus rides – to one that focuses on keeping students closer to home in geographic zones.

Goldman claims the Student Assignment Committee, headed up by board member John Tedesco, has been unwilling to listen to input from her and others as they hash out a way to convert the county-wide school district.

When Tedesco tried to brief the board on his progress Tuesday, Goldman repeatedly challenged him, saying, "The only votes considered are the three of you. These decisions should be brought to the entire board."

http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/8404190/

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7707864&rss=rss-wtvd-article-7707864

You remember my entry, about poor little Debra Goldman whining? Well, she has now gone and thrown a monkey wrench into the progress made by voting against the direction the board was taking:

"At last week's meeting, committee members Tedesco and Chris Malone voted on some tweaks to the proposed assignment maps.

Carolyn Morrison, the other Board of Education member and third voting member on the committee voted against the change, saying she thought the committee was moving too fast.

"Each time you have a meeting, the temper in this county rises," Goldman said.

"You are building and building and building something on a foundation that has not been approved by the board, and that is what I have a problem with."

So, the will of the people is being denied once again by liberal bureaucrats who aren't even members of the committee doing the hard work to undo the damage that the diversity hags want to keep in place! And to make matters worse, the turncoat is a Republican!

Via WTVD:

"RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Board member Deborah Goldman announced Tuesday night she wants to get rid of the establishment of community schools based zones.

Goldman said she wants to keep the nodes or zones of school assignments the same, instead of adjusting them for the new community schools based plan.

She is now supporting the once-minority view on the subject.

Goldman said Monday she can't continue to support the neighborhood schools plan, because she feels like she's not getting a chance to shape it.

School Board Member John Tedesco has been pushing his vision for community based schools -- that everyone should have a base neighborhood assignment in their general zone.

Tedesco has said he wants parents to have a calendar choice for elementary schools within their zones and middle schools within their regions.

Goldman says her preference for "base schools" in the school assignment formula is not included in the board majority's plan. Prior to Goldman's decision, the plan for neighborhood schools had a majority of support, which included five Republicans.

The neighborhood school model allows students to go to schools that are closest to where they live instead of being bused to schools further away."

As stated in my entry yesterday, Goldman is opposing the plan because she is miffed that she is not part of the committee that is doing the work. To put it simpler, because I am not part of the committee then I am going to oppose the work, like a petulant little girl who is not having her way, much like a liberal.

And what is her reasoning aside being a whiner?

Again, from WRAL:

"Goldman got her say in a big way Tuesday when she proposed a resolution to immediately abandon the effort to establish zones, the favored method of Tedesco's committee.

She reiterated her commitment to community-based schools saying, "I am doing what's in my heart and in my conscience."

"This process is not working. The zone model is not working."

Goldman proposed that "any efforts to create a zone model will cease" and that schools stay with the current, board-approved, three-year student assignment plan in the interim.

Four other board members – Kevin Hill, Anne McLaurin, Carolyn Morrison and Keith Sutton – sided with Goldman.

Chairman Margiotta, Malone, Tedesco and Deborah Prickett voted against the motion."

Get that? No real logic here, just the repetition from someone not even part of the process! Once again, a RINO stops progress and shows it's true colors. Hopefully, this brief halt is nothing more than Goldman being a spoiled brat.

Update:

Want even more of Goldman's reasons? More than the crap above? and want to hear a closet leftist talk about moral values and funny how they trot their "values" out when they are screwing us over?
Via WTVD:

"Goldman says she wants to keep the nodes or zones of school assignments the same. She says her preference for "base schools" in the school assignment formula is not included in the board majority's plan. Prior to her decision, the plan for neighborhood schools had a majority of support, which included five Republicans.

Goldman is now on the side of the minority of the board. She introduced a new board directive, which passed 5 to 4, that puts the brakes on the move toward establishing a zone-based assignment model.
"I am doing what's in my heart and in my conscious," Goldman said. "We're still moving forward with a different approach."

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7707864&rss=rss-wtvd-article-7707864

across town? Oh right, we don't care about details when our liberal beliefs are what's important.

The election cannot come soon enough.

Goldman breaks ranks with Wake school board majority

2010-10-04T22:41:00.001-04:00

Via WRAL, we read:

"Debra Goldman, a member of the five-person block behind changes to policies in the Wake County Public School System, said Monday that she may vote against a student assignment plan if it does not provide each student with a base school.

A Student Assignment Committee has been meeting for months to hash out a way to convert the county-wide school district from a system that assigns students to balance a school's socio-economic makeup – a policy opponents said resulted in long bus rides – to one that focuses on keeping students closer to home in geographic zones.

Goldman, who voted with the majority to initiate the policy change, is not a member of that committee and feels shut out of planning, she told WRAL News."

http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/8398271/

Desperate to find any chink in the board, any at all, the usually sedate WRAL finds the one member of the board that is a dissenting voice in order to push the idea that the new policy is not the will of the people or in the best interests of the kids.

But wait just a minute! This woman is not part of the committee? So why are we even paying her any mind? Why she is whining that she feels "left out" (boo-hoo) and is just all broken up about it. Quick, give her an interview before she slips back into irrelevancy. Not only is she not part of the planning committee (but I repeat that deliberately) but she is not even part of the main board. Understand this clearly: She is "left out" of the planning because she is not part of the said planning committee!

So this whiny little woman is getting her 15 minutes of fame but that is all. Nothing more than a further irritation to the Board as it struggles to do it's job while confronting still further leftist shenanigans. And who is this person?

There she is, Debra Goldman. Looking somewhat lost and clueless, like many on the left. She feels left out of something that she is not part of to begin with. Can we please get back to frakking work now that Ms. Goldman has had her little pity party?

Here is her money quote, which I will give pride of place:
"We really need to listen more to people," she said. "We need to hear what they're saying. We need a to formulate a plan and really cohesively figure out where to go from here."

Oh god no, we aren't listening enough to the people, we aren't forming a circle and singing kum bye yaa and beating on drums! Quick, somebody get her a blanket and a warm glass of milk! Poor thing.

NAACP takes Wake to feds

2010-09-26T03:41:00.001-04:00

Via the News and Observer we read:
"The complaint, filed late Friday, is part of an effort to block the new school board majority from moving forward with assigning students under a neighborhood zone system that would replace a diversity-based plan. Joining the NAACP as parties in the complaint were the youth group N.C. HEAT (Heroes Emerging Among Teens) and Quinton White, a high school senior who was reassigned by the school board this year.

The complaint cites student reassignment changes made this year by the new board, the new assignment plan under development, and disproportionately harsh discipline of minority students.

It claims the Wake school system has violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits groups that receive federal dollars from engaging in discrimination. The Wake school system received nearly $78 million in federal funds last fiscal year.

The federal government rarely declares that groups are violating Title VI, said Wendy Parker, a Wake Forest University School of Law professor and expert on civil rights law. But judging by the national attention the Wake fight has received, Parker said it's likely that officials will investigate and put more of a spotlight on the situation."

Source:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/26/703383/naacp-takes-wake-to-feds.html

My Take:

As I have previously stated, this is yet more Leftist bullying and scare tactics designed to get the board to back down and stop their role in fixing the mess that our schools have become since liberals and their quislings have been running things. If they cannot get you to stop and obey them one way (like holding protests at your meetings) then they try another way (bringing in an out of area group that just happens to have the power to yank accreditation) or they go crying to the Feds, in this case the NAACP along with two quisling members of the board.
It is all the more interesting to note once again that leftists only care about the people's will when it suits them. Also, the complaint about "disproportionately harsh discipline of minority students" is more stupidity because some of the worst disciplinary problems stem from Black youth and their entitlement-driven parents. One last thing: Do you think they would be doing all this try and stop what the people have ordained, voted for and demanded if it wasn't a fair solution? Making students earn their grades and diplomas is what school is supposed to be about, not making them into good green citizens so geographically challenged that finding their own state on the map is impossible. And basing students closer to their homes will help parents whenever there are after school events or, in some case, detention so that they don't have to go halfway across town to fetch the student, burning gas and making more pollution. You'd think that the liberals would like that.
That is all and my following of this Wake County School Board mess continues.

Organization threatens to strip Wake schools' accreditation

2010-09-23T14:33:00.002-04:00

Via WRAL we read:

"Kenneth Bergman, general counsel for AdvancED, responded in a Sept. 17 letter that the organization had not reached any conclusions about the shift in student assignment criteria.

"We do have sufficient concerns that the actions of the board may negatively impact the educational opportunities for students of the schools that we accredit in Wake County," Bergman wrote.

The board's actions have created "substantive change" in area schools, he wrote, so AdvancED needs to review them.

"Unfortunately, the openly defiant nature of your correspondence makes engaging in the collegial process of accreditation services difficult," he wrote. "The board's refusal to comply with our requests is in direct violation of the AdvancED Policies and Procedures for Accredited Schools and constitutes grounds for dropping the accreditation of the Wake County schools."

If any of Wake County's 24 high schools were to lose their accreditation, it could reflect poorly on graduates who apply for higher education.

AdvancED gave the school board an Oct. 1 deadline to set up a meeting and turn over requested information.

"It is our hope that the board and district will take advantage of this extension and fully engage our organization in meeting the difficult challenges facing your schools," Bergman wrote."

Folks, this is nothing less than an ultimatum against Wake County and the will of the people. I noted yesterday that this is nothing more than bullying, but now it has morphed into nothing less than outright blackmail and intimidation. What the Left was not able to achieve with protests, disruptions, and other nonsense they are trying to achieve with this outright thuggery. The "defiant stance" of the board is correct in that here is an out of state group trying to re-impose the failed system that was in place. I say bring it on because Wake county will continue to fight for the children and the parents. And this particular fight is not the only one going on because we have school districts all over the country fighting against Leftists who see nothing wrong with indoctrinating our children with Islam or suspending a child for having candy. This is far from over.

Wake schools lawyer questions accreditation review

2010-09-22T19:25:00.002-04:00

Via WRAL:

"RALEIGH, N.C. — The Wake County Board of Education questioned the motives behind of a district-wide review by AdvancED, a national organization that accredits high schools.

AdvancED asked the school board to identify a time when the organization could send a special review team to review recent changes in the school system.

In a response to that request sent Sept. 8, Ann Majestic, legal counsel for Wake schools, asked for clarification of questions AdvancED has and what a review would entail. The school board “has serious concerns about the basis, purpose and scope” of the visit, she wrote.

Specifically, she asked Mark Elgart, AdvancED CEO, how the board’s move to adopt a student assignment policy based on community schools is connected to accreditation."

More here:
http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/8333528/

Like I thought and wrote about earlier, this is just more leftist intimidation of our school board. Remember, this fight is not just taking place here but everywhere else that there are so-called liberal elites who think of us as unintelligent cattle who need to be manipulated and led around. They don't want real freedom and equality all they want is for us to shut and comply. Well, we in Wake County are fed up with it and are doing something about it. All we have to do is look over to our neighbours in Durham and how they are suffering under liberal policies and know that we don't want to be like them, a sanctuary city where damn near every day there is a violent crime of some sort. This is about bullying us into backing down and we won't.

Raleigh Chamber requests new school assignment plan

2010-09-16T14:42:00.003-04:00

Via the News and Observer we read:

"BY THOMAS GOLDSMITH AND T. KEUNG HUI - STAFF WRITER
RALEIGH -- Massachusetts educational consultant Michael Alves, who studied Wake County's assignment system earlier this year, will develop an assignment plan based on student achievement, proximity, choice and stability at the request of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership, officials announced today.

The move can be seen as the nonprofits' response to the Wake County school board's developing 16-zone plan, which does not take diversity into consideration. The use of student achievement could mean that zones will be more diverse racially and economically because members of minority groups tend to score lower on standardized tests.

Alves is known for developing "controlled choice" plans, which typically have fewer zones than the number being developed by the school board"

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/16/684733/raleigh-chamber-requests-new-school.html#ixzz0zifiF85d

This is nothing less than intimidation from a different vector, this time by an outside "expert" claiming to know more about Wake County than the residents themselves! This one more example of the liberal's "I know better than you" attitude. We don't need someone from outside who doesn't know crap about our schools coming in and getting involved in something that is a local thing. More intimidation, more leftist dirty tricks masquerading as an impartial source. Pack your things and go the heck back up north, let us handle the mess created by people like you in the first place.

Wake student-assignment panel has a map, up to a point

2010-08-31T16:10:00.002-04:00

Via WRAL we read:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Wake County settled Tuesday on a "shell" map of student-assignment zones based on high schools and larger "regions," though the decision by the school board's Student Assignment Committee came with strong cautions that lines on the map will be "fluid" and that more data on student performance and financial impacts have to come first.

The committee's three voting school board members agreed on the high-school map, one of several that had been suggested as a starting point for a community-based assignment system that will not consider the decade-old policy of seeking socioeconomic diversity in all schools.

The committee also learned that in a few years, computer projections show that eastern Wake County will experience the greatest percentage of growth, and the demand for school seats there will outstrip capacity.

More here:
http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/8218113/

My take:
Despite the protests, the disruptions, the outright lies by the leftist scum that made this problem in the first place, the school board is diligently doing what the people of Raleigh and Wake county wanted and voted them in to do. The fact that the leftist continue to try to disrupt the process and even now are caterwauling like alley cats. I personally am very proud of the board as they undo all the damage that leftist policies that have caused so much damage to our city and county. Every time that liberals scream this much you know that what you are doing is the right course. I only hope that the board stays the course to the end.

More Leftist intimidation of the Wake County School Board

2010-08-17T16:04:00.005-04:00

Via WRAL we read:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8141803/

RALEIGH, N.C. — AdvancED, a national and international education accreditation organization, plans to send a team to Wake County this fall to review planned changes to the public school system's student assignment policy.

The group sent a letter to Wake County Public School System Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens on July 28 outlining concerns and questions raised in a complaint filed in March.

School system spokesman Michael Evans said the original complaint was filed by Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

Barber has been the leader of a vocal opposition to the school board's decision earlier this year to do away with a policy that assigns students to schools based on socio-economics.

He and others fear that ending the longstanding policy in favor for one that places students in schools closer to their homes will lead to re-segregation, high teacher turnover and poor students receiving a lower quality of education than their economically advantaged counterparts.

Five of the school board's nine members disagree and believe the move will help improve test scores and give parents more chances to be involved in their students' education.

In the letter to Hargens, AdvancEd CEO Mark Elgart asked to review all policies adopted by the Wake County Board of Education since Dec. 1, 2009, the date on which the new board majority was seated.

AdvancED also asked to review the transition plan for the shift to community-based student assignment.

Individual high schools in Wake County are accredited by AdvancED and a second organization, Baldrige, Evans said.

The review team from AdvancED is expected to visit Wake County sometime between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15.

Web Editor: Jodi Leese Glusco

In other words, since we can't stop you from undoing all the crap we did over the years, then we are going to try and bully you into stepping back. Look, we the people have spoken and we want real solutions not more spreading of the disease. We wanted and voted in a school board that will do just that. The new head of the board stated that they will continue to proceed on the new policy regardless of the ongoing disruptions and protests. I agree and support the new policy.

Related Articles:
http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/8115622
http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/7999211
http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/8008870
WRAL page covering the 20 July protests where 19 were arrested:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/page/8001945

Andrew Klavan: A Young Person's Guide to the United States Constitution

2010-08-12T16:29:00.000-04:00

X-51A Flight

2010-08-11T03:18:00.000-04:00

FIFI Returns to Flight

2010-08-06T22:54:00.000-04:00

Curiouser and curiouser!

2010-08-04T19:49:00.001-04:00

Refueling Over Iraq

2010-02-22T23:22:00.001-05:00

Mainly coz I'm too doped up on NyQuil to write anything coherent. Or however you spell that word. Meh.

ASB Video Publish

2010-02-01T11:23:00.001-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

2009-12-31T22:13:00.004-05:00

I wander off now to take some more hangover remedy. And yes I am posting this early while still sober!

Breitbart.tv » ‘Oh for F**** Sake’: Jon Stewart Talks ClimateGate

2009-12-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

Breitbart.tv » ‘Oh for F**** Sake’: Jon Stewart Talks ClimateGate

Hilarious! And all to true!

Listening to RPD live on the 'net!

2009-12-03T13:49:00.002-05:00

I stumbled across this site the other night and been listening in ever since! COPS doesn't have anything on this site because this is the raw radio calls of my RPD as things transpire. You can log on and seek out your own PD wherever you are in the US.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=1978

Check it out!

Atlantis comes home to a perfect landing!

2009-11-27T15:28:00.003-05:00

Good landing and welcome home Atlantis!

Today is Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T13:28:00.002-05:00

Today is Veteran's Day, a day set aside to honor, thank, and generally indulge the true heroes of this Republic. But few know the history of this day and why it was chosen.

During the early part of the 20th Century there was a terrible war the likes of which we had never seen before. The full power of industrialised Europe was put to the prosecution of a conflict that should never have happened. Agents acting on behalf of a country called Serbia assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarians readied their army to tech Serbia a lesson that had been long in coming. Serbia went running to it's ally Russia, who began a partial mobilisation and sent a warning to the Austro-Hungarians to back off. Austria-Hungary went to the Germans who were their friends and the Germans told Russia to back off and began their own military preparations. There the matter would have stood but France told the Germans to stop threatening Russia. That made the Germans decide to act against France and informed little Belgium that they were gonna use Belgium's territory to get at France. That caused England, who had guaranteed Belgium's territorial integrity, to advise Germany to abandon the idea. The Germans went ahead with their preparations and on August of 1914, the German Army invaded little Belgium, whose Army fought like lions but stood no real chance of stopping the Germans. Meanwhile, the Russians made good their promise to help Serbia and handed Austria-Hungary a series of sharp defeats, which a caused Germany to send troops to help. By September of 1914 the Germans, French, British, and Belgians were locked in the agony of trench warfare after the fluid movement during August where both sides tried their hardest to get to the sea. In the East there were stable lines but many great battles remained to be fought.
Four years later in the west things had scarcely moved despite the arrival of American soldiers in their millions, the development of tanks and aircraft that were used to such astounding effect by the British at the Battle of Amiens in early 1918 (an astounding 8 miles of advance where previously advances were counted in yards)but both sides were desperately looking for a way to end the war. After the failure of Operation Michael the German Army had nothing left to launch offensives with. The French Army had seen the morale of it's troops slump so low due to casualties and the cavalier spending of their blood that the Army had briefly mutinied in 1917. The French Army would return to the field and gain some impressive defensive victories but their will to attack and sustain large losses was gone. The British were themselves facing declining troop numbers mainly because of the disaster on the Somme in 1916, where 58000 troops were lost in one morning. Only the Americans had the strength, the will, and the spirit to take the offensive. The US Marines added another battle honor in Belleau Wood, although they lost 10000 men in the process.
Germany however was looking for a way out. Her civilian leaders contacted President Wilson of the US and asked for a meeting to discuss terms. Meanwhile the slaughter continued while the German delegation stared at the armistice documents and the terms contained therein. They were aghast but had no choice because Berlin had told them to do so.
So on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour the Germans accepted the terms and the guns fell silent. At first the soldiers were baffled and had no idea what to do. After ducking and dodging shells and bullets for so long the sudden silence must have been deafening. But once the troops figured out what had happened the roar was deafening: millions of voices raised in relief and joy that the Great War was finally over.
So today spare a thought for all soldiers past and especially present. Buy them a beer and listen to their stories. and if you are brave enough, hug one. Tell him or her that you are proud of them, that you love them, and that you hope they come home for good soon.
It is a small enough thing but means the world to them!

(I KNOW that I have truncated the history of the Great War but there are links below to aid you in understanding the details!)

Referances:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belleau_Wood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amiens_(1918)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_somme

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USMC!!!!

2009-11-10T22:39:00.001-05:00

To all my beloved Devildogs ass-kickers and heart breakers, have a happy 234th!

http://www.apacheclips.com/media/11596/Now_ZAD_2009/

Semper Fi, Carry On

GET SOME!!!!!!

Marisa Miller Salutes the Troops

2009-11-04T20:58:00.003-05:00

Um, yeah, like the title says!

Dancing Marines!!!!!!!

2009-10-23T16:18:00.002-04:00

Very cool and I wonder what the muj were thinking watching them dance. Get down Devildawgs!

Pat Condell strikes again!

2009-10-22T15:56:00.001-04:00

Battle or Siege of Yorktown took place today.

2009-10-19T12:15:00.003-04:00

AMERICANS
Continental Infantry 7,290
Artillery 514
Cavalry 176
Total Continental Army 7,980
Militia 3,153
Total (non adjusted for effectives) 11,133
Non-effectives (sick)
absent
present
-1,000
-700
Total Effectives ('rounded figure') 9,500
FRENCH
Rochambeau's 4,000
St. Simon's 3,000
Army detachments [See note at bottom of page] 800
Naval personnel
abord ships, in
direct support. 1,000
Total 8,800
Excluding est 15,000 naval personnel
on ships that contributed to the overall
campaign.
TOTAL ALLIED FORCE 18,300
BRITISH
'Reported' army strength at start.
Includes German mercenaries. 8,885
Estimated naval personnel
directly supporting 840
Estimate naval personnel figure is
from number that surrendered to de Grasse.
Estimated British total at start 9,725
Estimated sick -1,500
TOTAL BRITISH FORCE 8,225

(The preceding is based upon data from Mark Mayo Boatner III Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (p.1248, Bicentenial Edition, NY, 1974).

It was THE victory of the American Revolutionary War. A combined French/Continental(American) army surrounded, besieged, and forced the surrender of a larger by most estimates British Army under Lord Cornwallis. The defeat sealed the fate of the British dominion over what would become the United States of America and lead directly to the Treaty of Paris.

One of the results of the French intervention was the bankrupting of the French Royal Treasury which was one of the reasons for the Revolution in France. Although Britain did lose this particular theater, she went on to completely trounce the French and Dutch in such far off places as India and the Carribean. The Revolutionary War as we call it was but a part of what could be called one of the first global wars ever fought.
Links:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1321.html
http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/yrtnsieg.htm
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562639/siege_of_yorktown.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown

US Army aviation news..

2009-10-19T11:18:00.003-04:00

US Army to demonstrate 'slaving' unmanned and manned helicopters:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/08/333232/us-army-to-demonstrate-slaving-unmanned-and-manned.html

US Army eyes STUAS drones for battalions:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/12/333234/us-army-eyes-stuas-drones-for-battalions.html

This sooooo cool! Think about this for just a moment: you can have a whole squadron of Apaches controlling some 4 UAV's apiece. Those UAV can be sent out in front of the Apaches, snooping around looking for the baddies while the Apache crews sit back and take their time selecting and prioritizing targets. Amazing. We don't put the crews into a bad situation and although the UAVs are not expendable by any means we cna afford to lose them and not have to send out condolances.

Also, it enables commanders all the way down to platoon or even squad level to have access instantly to information that otherwise would not be available. Man, had we had this technology during Tarawa or Normandy or dieppe think of the lives we could have saved on both sides.

Anyway, very cool stuff!

Heavy 747-200 out of Bournemouth

2009-10-09T16:09:00.000-04:00

Some large jet takeoff footage goodness just because...

Pat Condell strikes again!

2009-10-02T13:39:00.002-04:00

Usually, I don't always agree with everything he says but this video is excellent and right on point!

Clergy are worse that parasites, especially those who live in far better conditions than the poorest of their flock. Jesus would not approve of these clergy who have ignored the lessons Christ was trying to teach.

FedEx takes delivery of first 777F, but what's under the hood? - FlightBlogger - Aviation News, Commentary and Analysis

2009-09-24T14:48:00.002-04:00

FedEx takes delivery of first 777F, but what's under the hood? - FlightBlogger - Aviation News, Commentary and Analysis

Posted using ShareThis

Some pretty cool stuff and an even prettier paint job! More on the way, I am running behind on aerospace related stuff.

Penn and Teller again...

2009-09-11T18:16:00.001-04:00

Patriotism...

2009-09-11T18:12:00.001-04:00

Damn right, boys!

Why I like soldiers....

2009-08-30T18:29:00.001-04:00

No matter what, soldiers keep their eyes on the boobs, er I meant ball, and keep themselves on mission.

Most of the time.

Almost always.

Kinda.

Bless 'em!

Disabled Marine vet gives senator an earful!!

2009-08-22T17:55:00.002-04:00

He says "Do you EVER intend to honor your oath to defend the constitution?" and the senator can only manage a weak "Yes".

Oooorah, you go Marine!!!

US Marine earns Navy Cross

2009-08-22T13:09:00.001-04:00

Her is a real hero for you, a man who took a grenade to save his fellow Devildogs and lived to tell the tale!

Beats American Idol any day!

Forty years ago...

2009-08-12T14:54:00.005-04:00

Forty years ago today we saw 500,000 people at Woodstock, indulging in freedom that they had no right to because they refused to serve to earn it. At the very same time, 109 Americans of all creeds and ethniticities were lost in combat in Vietnam.

THINK about that for a moment will you: 109 young, vibrant, healthy Americans saw all their tomorrows taken away. These young people were called up and went to serve their country, going to a country that needed us to keep the Communists from crushing a deeply flawed but vibrant country. These young people represented in microcosm the population of the time:

A full 92 percent were white (seven of whom had Spanish surnames) and 8 percent black. Some 67 percent were Protestants; 28 percent Catholic. A disproportionate number - more than one-third - hailed from the South. More than two-thirds were single; nearly one-third married. Not surprisingly, the vast majority (91 percent) were under the age of 30, with 78 percent between the ages of 18 and 22.

Yet no media outlet praised these patriots, however reluctant some of them may have been. Instead they praised a bunch of self-indulgent hippies who would go on to spit on our troops as they came home from the war. And these same media outlets continue their praising of Woodstock and at the same time refuse to even acknowledge the ongoing sacrifices of our troops.

Don't get me wrong, Woodstock was a phenomenal concert, with the likes of jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. I would have gone had I been old enough. But the point is that while these hippies partied and trashed the place, 109 of our finest died in a far away land and remain uncommerated by the media.

The same media that calls dissent against Obamacare un-American and calls the people who are doing that most American thing called voicing their opinion against something that event the politicians themselves know is wrong racists and nazis, the same media that demands we all submit to The One, refuses to even post good stories about our troops. I have a strange sense of deja-vu, as if the media is replying their treason of Vietnam all over again.

Remember, 40 years ago today 109 service people died in combat whilst a bunch of self-indulgent hippies had a big party. Note whom the media extolls and makes into heroes and whom they decide NOT to remember. Note and dissent accordingly.

Source:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/colleen-raezler/2009/08/12/vfw-woodstock-wasnt-only-thing-happening-40-years-ago

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.magDtl&dtl=1&mid=5144

2009-07-24T10:55:00.001-04:00

Apologists for evil

2009-07-23T17:31:00.002-04:00

Another excellent video from Pat Condell, although many times I have disagreed with him politically but this time I agree with everything he says in this video! I like how he calls himself a blasphemer, cause I agree with that title. I also like him calling lefties "appeasement monkies"!!!!!!!

Excellent video from PJTV about Honduras

2009-07-23T10:11:00.001-04:00

http://www.pjtv.com/video/Specials/SPECIAL_REPORT:_PJTV_Goes_to_Honduras_to_Find_Out_If_Obama_Insulted_an_Ally_%26_Strategic_Partner/2191/

Excellent stuff, what the liberal media will not tell us.

Skepticblog Toward a Type I Civilization

2009-07-21T10:00:00.002-04:00

Skepticblog Toward a Type I Civilization

Shared via AddThis

Video special: Key events that took Apollo to the moon - space - 21 July 2009 - New Scientist

2009-07-21T09:53:00.002-04:00

Video special: Key events that took Apollo to the moon - space - 21 July 2009 - New Scientist

Shared via AddThis

A must-see for all of you who are as passionate as I am about all things spaceflight!!!!

Wow...the beauty of space

2009-07-21T09:49:00.002-04:00

Very cool, having an office that high and with such a view. Bathroom breaks must be a bear though!

Dick Morris on Cap and Trade

2009-07-20T22:53:00.001-04:00

Crisis Managemant

2009-07-20T18:41:00.001-04:00

see more Political Pictures

Heh....well DUH!!!!

Air France A380 video

2009-07-20T14:35:00.001-04:00

Very cool, although the plane itself is a monumental failure economically so far.

The Obama Birth Certificate issue just won't die

2009-07-20T14:33:00.002-04:00

Chaos erupts during a town meeting where an ordinary person demands to see the One's certificate. Simple to resolve, just show us the certificate already.

Buzz Aldrin lands a beauty on a Moon Landing truther

2009-07-20T14:31:00.001-04:00

Too bad we can't take more of these kooks to the woodshed more often. And who in their right mind would call a Marine a liar and a coward in the same breath?

Apollo 11 Landing Site

2009-07-19T21:56:00.002-04:00

Apollo 11 Landing Site

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Memorial Day Post

2009-05-23T10:42:00.005-04:00

To many people Memorial Day is just another day off to enjoy a cookout, some cold drinks, and time with friends and family. But to me and all those who have friends, husbands, daughters, sons and loved ones in uniform or who are veterans it is more than that.

You see, you would not be able to enjoy your freedom if it were not for our best and brightest who have chosen for whatever reason to don the uniform and go into harm's way for the sake of all of us.The sacrifices, stresses, and emotional turmoil these kids endure should make you get down on your knees and thank God that there are people like those in the following pictures who have their all so that you can have an extra day off. Pause for a moment to remember to whom exactly you owe that privilege

So the next time you see a service man or woman, don't be shy. Walk up and shake their hand, give them a hug, tell them "Thank You" or "Good to see you home" or just a simple "Thanks". And when you hear a vet from that generation that fought WW2 telling his or her stories for millionth time don't roll your eyes, go get a pad and a pencil and write that story down because once that person is gone so is the story.

Remember, they are giving all their tomorrows for our todays. Honor them appropriately at every opportunity.These are true American Idols!

.

He gets it...

2009-04-03T22:14:00.001-04:00

He nails it right on the head and spells things out. Watch, get motivated, and take our country back!

This spells everything out for me...

2009-03-28T19:47:00.006-04:00

No other words are necessary for me:

I will be sending some tea bags to my representatives. And yes, I regard Thomas Paine as one of the most deserving of Founding Fathers to be remembered. I have read all of his books and will follow his advice.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:50:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the new year, now I am off to recover from the final party of the Christmas season with loads of coffee and some pillow time, because that is the only cure for a hangover.

Screw you guys, going back to bed!!!!!!!!

Some fascinating news

2008-03-03T23:45:00.003-05:00

I know that I said that I would not write things about political things but I can't resist writing about the recent articles in a local Spanish fishwrap about the impending exodus of illegals and how bad we are about enforcing our laws. In Que Pasa there was this picture of a Honduran with his guitar and the headline in big red letters "El Exodo" or The Exodus.

The paper went on to spell out some tear-jerking stories of poor illegals who "live in fear" of unannounced visits from ICE and can't get driver's licenses so now can't get work. As a consequence, they now have to pack up and go back whence they came all because we bad Americans demand that our laws be enforced and respected. Also some of these folks are damn mad about this, saying that they have lived a perfectly law-abiding life since they have been here...Only they leave out that they are here illegally. Well, we citizens are fed up of illegals driving without insurance or licenses, have had it up to here without our ER's being so overrun that when folks arrive for emergency treatment we can't get it. We are also sick of illegal behaviour being not only rewarded but glorified. How the hell can I tell my Elito to behave when my own country rewards somebody behaving badly?

Other articles bemoaned the pending effect of all these people leaving, how our economy will suffer terribly, the prices of stuff will go up and so forth. Excuse me but I would think that things would actually get better because we won't have anymore folks mooching off the community trough. I have all the compassion and sympathy for these people but enough is enough, time to go back to whatever craphole you came from. You want to come here? Then get the heck into the back of the line and wait your turn. Do you think that if I were to overstay my tourist visa in Mexico that somebody would argue to let me stay because I now have a family? Nope, not a bit of it. Nor would there be mass marches with French or US flags. Nope. More than likely I would be arrested and deported so damn fast the ink would barely be dry on the warrant. Enough already.

Again, I do sympathize with these people but only so far. It is important that I teach Eliezer about the rule of law and personal responsibility and this is just another lesson for him.

The Gunny/Staff Seargent Mantra

2008-03-03T23:20:00.002-05:00

In all my dealings with the Marine Corps/Army National Guard professionals, one thing has become apparent: Senior NCO's have nearly unlimited power. Even high-ranking officers dare very rarely to challenge a senior NCO's power. Therefore, I offer the following mantra:

Thou shalt not guestion the Gunny.
The Gunny is always right.
Thou shalst always do what Gunny says.
The Gunny can use you for target practice or meat filling.
The Gunny can and does use lieutenants for door stoppers.
The Gunny is always right.
Repeat as often as needed.

Out of respect to Staff Seargents, they also have much of the same powers as Gunnys/MSGT/1stSgts. A Staff Seargent is just a step below a Gunnery Seargent in the rank and pay charts but has many of the same powers. Beware pissing either the Gunny or Staff Seargent. Whatever you do, stay on the good side of the seargents. Lieutenants run in abject fear of senior non-commissoned officers.

God Bless 'em all!

Busy times for my recruiters...

2008-03-02T00:26:00.002-05:00

Once more the recruiters in my life have been busy with the usual hunt. My friends are part of the hardest job in the military, bar none. The folks that serve on the front lines have to come from somewhere and to some of the most talented people I have ever known are in the ranks of the recuiting services of the Navy, the Marines, and the Air Force (Reserve and Active). I also champion the cause of my local Army National Guard troops who are just as professional and dedicated to finding those quality applicants who always seem to be found.

Generally speaking, you must meet these following basic requirements for even getting an appointment:

Be a US citizen or legal immigrant
Be at least 17, better yet 18
Be a High School Grad
Have no criminal record...parking tickets don't count.
Speak English

You may laugh at #5 but trust me, noy being able to understand such an imperative command as "GET THE HELL DOWN!!!!!!" can have very unfortunate outcomes. My recruiters work some long hours and many don't see home or family until sometimes well after 11 at night. An immensely strong family support network and strong spouses make things somewhat easier but only a little. The wives and husbands are also special and dedicated. Single recruiters don't last very long. You also have to be a special person just to be a recruiter. Part social worker, part therapist, part teacher, part mentor, and part adoptive parent. I don't know how things work in the Air Force DEP (Delayed Enlistment Program, eg not leaving right away for basic training) but my Marines seem to nurture, care for, and generally adopt their young charges who have signed up but not yet left. Naturally enough you won't see these Marines being gentle in terms we civilians understand, but I have seen many of my Marines mentor these gallant young men and women in a uniquely Marine Corps way and gentle is not part of it. Just because you have signed that contract and are waiting to leave doesn't make you a Marine.

There are many ways for a younster biding his or her time to leave to mess up. Something as mundane as a traffic ticket or two can see a would be Marine booted out or delayed. False statements on your paperwork can also get you into trouble. Pissing off your recruiter or his supervisor can get you into a world of discomfort. I have seen a young kid report for his shipping date reeeking of cannibis because he had had a going away party the night before and somebody had partaken of the drug. His departure was delayed some 7 months and more importantly had pissed of the Gunny, something even Majors and Generals are wisely unwilling to do. More about the power of Staff Seargents and Gunnery Seargents' powers in another post.

You see, the Corps is all about honesty and integrity. You say something and it turns out to be untrue then you are never believed again on that issue. You will be forgiven eventually but you will never be believed again. In a PC world where lying is rampant and encouraged outright, it is refreshing to be around these brutally honest (sometimes painfully so) men and women are refreshing to deal with. You DONOT ever misrepresent anything to a potential young Marine. Everything is out in writing as you speak with the applicant and if something is not the recruiter is held to account.

Recruiting is all about selling the idea of service to the American people and to your neighbour. If you do it well you attract the right sort of person to serve and the better the quality of that person the better it is for the Corps. Gone are the days where judges would offer jail time or service in the military. Such applicants these days would face a nearly impossible process depending on the nature of the offense, more about that in later posts.

Semper Fi, Carry On

Entry Changes

2008-02-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

Just a brief notice here. From now on I will be posting about two major themes: My boy Eliezer and my ongoing interactions with the recruiters of the United States Marine Corps. These people are the best of us all and deserve all the support we can give them. Eliezer is the greatest joy in my life so far, a vibrant ball of energy that never seems to stop learning and doing.

More later.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

My approach to resolutions this year is very simple, maybe even a little subversive: I ain't made none. Before you go and hunt me down and FORCE me to make some, understand my reasoning. Every new year we make these damn things and within weeks, we have pretty much said "Ah, screw em!" which pretty much defeats the purported purpose. So I have decided NOT to have any.
That being said, I will continue the recovery that I have been on since my last post and will continue to post here throughout the year and also on my digital art blog. I will be posting here on everything and anything that catches my eye, so be prepared .

Hangovers....And Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T17:00:00.001-05:00

Ugh. Happy New Year everybody and I am off to recover...somehow.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T02:00:00.000-05:00

And to start this year off........

What military aircraft are you?

A-10 Thunderbolt II

You are an A-10. You may not be the prettiest or swiftest, but you're tough as nails, and everyone knows not to mess with you!

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

LOl LMAO ROFL

Erhum.

End of the year thoughts

2006-12-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, originally I had planned to make a post just about Duke then I was going to make a post about having had family visit and then I was going to make yet another post about something else. Then it occurred to me that why the heck bother since I might as well just write one long one abiut everything and get it over with.

Unless you have been living under a rock or don't live near Durham NC then you have heard about the rape accusations levied against three Duke University lacrosse players. In a nutshell these young men were accused by an exotic dancer of having taken her into a bathroom and raped her. I have thought and said from the start that this case smelled worse than a three day old pair of socks. Throughout the entire scandal the "accuser" has changed her story more times that I have changed my ideas about being a primate and even the other dancer who was with her on that night has said that the whole thing is a "crock". To top things off, another acquaintance of the accuser has stated that she told him that she was after money because she thought Duke university would just pay up to make the accusations go away. Not so fast there Skippy. Enter the law and a certain DA named Nifong who saw a golden opportunity for some social justice, confidently getting in front of cameras and making promises that in the event he has largely been unable to keep. So here we are staring at a case that should have never been even brought to a grand jury. From the beginning I have had the sensation of seeing yet another Tawana Brawley in front of my eyes.

Well, the entire case has gone to gone to hell and there is no way to go but foreword for Mr. Nifong. He HAS to push this case forward because to do anything else would be impossible. He was re-elected on the promise that he would pursue the case for the his Black voters as a case of social justice for them. He is doing a grave injustice to the rest of society and the rest of us who have come to see this entire thing as a waste of time and taxpayer money and also as an example of leftist ideology run amok. Only yesterday (12-22-06) did Nifong finally dismiss the rape charges only to keep the kidnapping and sexual assault charges as he cannot but do in order to keep with his election promises and leftist myopia.

Already these accusations have cost the accused dearly in the public eye. One has even had a to turn down a job offer at a prestigious firm because of it. The firm still wanted to hire him but he did want to inflict the possibility of him being convicted to cause harm to the firm. But what about the rest of these guys lives? How are they to get their reputations back after having had their lives utterly ruined by all this even if it comes out that they are indeed innocent of all charges except perhaps being young and foolish? Every last one of us has done things in our younger days that make us look back in utter astonishment and disbelief that we actually survived our escapades, at least I know that I do more than I have ever really done. But never have I had to face what these young men are facing. They may never make good what they have lost.

The accuser herself has done irreparable harm of all potential rape victims who may want to come forward in later cases because the system may not want to bother with the case because of this one. It is possible however unlikely that one day one of these young men might actually commit another similar crime of this nature somewhere else and the accuser might have him dead to rights with all the DNA and the forensics. But the defense has but to check with Durham to see a previous accusation was dropped and can create reasonable doubt in a jury's eyes. She has also made a mockery of our system, has made a mockery of the very principle that we are all innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Personally this year was a little rough with the loss of my last grandparent Grace Scott. But within that loss has been the seeds of a new era for my estranged father and I. One of my greatest heroes has been Gaius Julius Caesar. I was delighted to read that he actually forgave one of his closest friend Labienus for going over to Pompey's side. That has caused me to allow some healing to take place between my Father and I something that I should have done BEFORE my Gran's passing but cowardice kept me from doing so and for that I apologise to him. I have also learned some parenting lessons after caring for my Elito, a soon to be 3 year old human hurricane who knows no fear but gives me heart attacks whenever he gets anywhere near anything high or with corners. His mother Maria and I have managed a complex relationship over this past year with not a few bumps along the way. But we manage.

The war continues to affect my life directly with so many of my friends in harm's way. I hope for their eventual return in good health and many more muj getting their tickets punched for an afterlife that they just might find disappointing. This war is about Islam versus the notion of freedom and democracy and not just a war on "terror". We in the west need to understand Sun Tzu's admonition to know our enemy so as better to defeat him. The enemy is a bully and a coward who will push us around unitl we push back. Like the fellow in Teas who recently got an apology from Muzzies and will still run his pig races, not all the battles are with bombs and bullets. We have to fight these jerks with ideas and the very things that we beat the Nazis with. The idea that personal freedom comes with personal responsibility and that there is such a thing as right and wrong. These Muslims want nothing less that our abject acceptance of our status as second class citizens. We need to heed the lesson of Rome and her barbarian neighbours in that Rome treated them with disrespect and ended up being sacked by them. We can and will win this war but we must not allow the Muzzies to use our very system against us or will will end up being enslaved.

I will end here because I am off to celebrate with some friends this New Year's Eve. I hope all of you have a safe celebration, that you either hail a cab home or designate a driver.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Rememembering 9-11-01

2006-09-11T00:49:00.000-04:00

I understand that we are at the 5th anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks. I also understand that we need to be more understanding of these poor Muslims and why they did what they did.

Okay, let me spell out what we undertand.

These people were not fanatics or extremists, they represent the very fabric of their religion which has not budged an inch since about 700 or 750 ad. Yes, Islam did preserve for us the ancient writings of the Greek and Romans then transmitted them to us thanks to contacts during the Crusades. The Crusades were sparked by the mistreating of Christian pilgrims, not by some urge to conquer the Holy Land.

The terrorists were a part of an ongoing jihad against the West, a world war dedicated to bringing the entire globe under sharia law. Sharia law would snuff out our civil rights and make anyone who is not Muslim a dhimmi, a second-class citizen. Think about that for a minute.

The terrorists were trained, paid for, and recruited using monies funneled by not only various Muslim charities but the drug trade as well. These groups are feeding the addictions of drug heads worldwide. Our own weaknesses are funding them. Also, if you donate any money to a Muslim charity a portion of your donation may very well be going to finance terror cells.

These terrorists were by and large not uneducated men but the products of some of the best Western universities. They lied and blended in so well with us that by the time they struck we were completely fooled. Again, this is part of Islam, namely lying in order to further the cause. Christian fanatics do the same.

These terrorists don't care a whit for us or even their own kind, just look at the sectarian violence in Iraq or how the Taliban ruled in Aghanistan. Our media have largely betrayed us all these years, exposing programs that were working such as the NSA wire taps which were NOT spying on ordinary Americans but on folks who were plotting. How do you think that the Brits were able to crack the plot, by asking politely?

On this the 5th anniversary of those few terrible hours, we must fight the good fight, continue to hunt down these animals no matter where they are or what methods we must use. They donot care about red crosses or red crescents, they will use children to get at us. We must take a note from Israel who recently kicked Hezbolla's butt all over southern Lebanon: You attack us or kill our people we will bring down hell on your heads.

To the Democrats who undermine securing our border and who insist on giving Geneva Convention protections to these people who donot deserve them simply to make political points, to the ACLU who fight like hell for the rights of terrorists who just laugh at you, saying thanks for undermining your own country, I say two things: You will reap what you are sowing and you will find that the vast majority of the American people will make you pay, one way or another.

To those Mecca Maniacs out there who call themselve "moderate" I say here is one American who is not falling for it, who refuses to even sit at a table near you or even interact with you more than needed to buy gas. Get out of my country, out of my media, out of my life. My mother survived bombings in Paris during the Algerian War and bless her she was right about you. You have become my sworn enemy since 9-11-06 and should have been from the beginning.

To the families of not only the aircrews, the civilains, the men and women of the NYPD and NYFD, and the those lost at the Pentagon I say I am sorry. I am sorry because we knew what our enemy was capable of before 9-11-06 but we chose to ignore the signs. I am sorry because one president was too busy playing doctor with an intern to get Osama when he had the chance and the politicians who prefer votes to doing thir duty. And I am sorry that even now some misquided family memebers are using their loss to help the left.

The Ongoing Duke Stuff and Illegals Protesting

2006-04-09T15:30:00.000-04:00

Okay, yesterday's entry was about immigration and today's entry is no differant. However, I must caution those of my readers the least bit easily offended that I will be utterly unapologetic about what I am preparing to write.
In Texas today there are about 150k illegals running around the streets of Houston demanding "rights" that are not thiers to demand. Excuse me? You are here ILLEGALLY and as such really have no such right to protest or even gather in such numbers. What could possibly possess you to think that you can just walk across our border and begin making demands? Where is the INS and other Federal and State authorities? Tihs ia a perfect oopourtunity to execute a massive sweep and arrest, wrap up some truly heavenly arrests and get these people out of our country. As usual the left is trying to make an end run around our process and I have had enough. My own mother had to wait 7 years to get her citizenship and she was married to an American. What right do these people have to jump ahead of people like my mother who waited a very long time and played by the rules. And my Elito's mother who has been here almost 6 years and also played by the rules, working her ass off all the while? Should she be denied her papers now becuase some asshole wants to have something that they are not entitled to?
Enough already. We are a country of law and order which means you should be shipped off back to wherever the hell you came from after you serve whatever time you were given for being here. Mexico deports illegals immediately upon detection and you donot see them protesting in the streets. They get the hell locked up and sent packing. But not hers. Oh no, the left would howl in portest, claiming that illegals are "entitled" to protest because they are simply entitled to it. Since when, pray tell? When the hell did it become fashionable to ingore the law and then be rewarded for it?
If I were the INS today I would have a large number of paddy wagons ready, let the illegals protest, and then round them all up at the end of the protest. No apologies, no hand-wringing, and if some organizer of the protest wants to resist then that person ends up tossed in with their precious illegals and have their paperwork get misplaced.

Further on the Duke allegations: The two sides now are battling each other with the DA releasing the fact that the Duke Lacrosse team were already on note for their sometimes arrogant behaviour. Whatthe hell does this have to do with the current allegations? So the hell what if the kids were arrogant and insufferable? They are atheletes for heaven's sake! It is part of being an athelete. And it looks like the DA is just playing fast and loose with the media and the truth, since the DNA evidence may very well be too weak to support his contention.

ANTHONY OUT

They've Done It To Us Again

2006-04-08T16:24:00.000-04:00

After being served notice by law-abiding citizens of this country that we have had our fill of lawlessness at our southern borders and have had enough of millions of illegals doing whatever they want and then insisting that we just give them something others have had to wait decades for, namely citizenship, our elected tormentors torpedoed immigration reform largely along partisan lines. The Democrats led by Kennedy said "poo" to tougher enforcement and making immigrants have to pay fines. According to the bill approved by the House earlier this week, anyone here 5 years or more would simply have to pay a fine and then wait a small amount of time and then they could have their citizenship. Anyone here less than 5 years or more than 3 would have to go back to their country of origin, fill out the paperwork at the nearest US consults or embassy, wait a little bit, and them come back to the US. Anyone else (like less then 2 years) was immediately sent packing back to where ever the heck you came from.

Reasonable.
Logical.
Fair.
Balanced.

Which is precisely why it was doomed from the start. The bill had no hope of seeing life because of the likes of Ted Kennedy and his ilk. It was far too fair, it required folks to actually get the hell in line with the rest of the others who have been waiting far longer than 5 years for their citizenship and they have followed the law. Now the Democrats want to just GIVE citizenship away, like it means nothing to them because in essence their own freedom and citizenship mean nothing to them. They look down upon the republic and everything that it stands for. They detest the fact that anyone that has ever achieved anything in this country has had to work their asses off to get where they are. And that is also something that the left cannot stand because those on the left have never been able to compete, never been able to even hold a fast food job if they wanted to. They want everybody to be the same, poor and disenfranchised. Like the Soviet system before, the left here wants everything for nothing. They want their freedom but don't want to do the work of protecting it. They want all benefits of a rich state, but don't want to work for it. They want all the freedom of the rule of law but donot want to held accountable for their actions. To them, all worldviews are acceptable from child rape to polygamy. and they despise the values of the common man and woman.
As for the values of the common man that the likes of Kennedy hold in such contempt, I am not talking about religious ones. I am talking about the values of hard work, common sense, loyalty, duty to one's neighbor's, looking out for the less fortunate, being held accountable for your deeds and words...those and others are values that the left hold in such utter contempt. I personally try my hardest to practice those values and others because they require a certain amount of personal integrity, something the leftists also hold in utter contempt. Refusing to do what is convenient in order to do what is ethically or honorably proper is also an American value. What we are saying to the illegals is go ahead and come here, burden our system, exploit the loop holes in our laws and make yourselves right at home. To the American taxpayer and citizen we are saying up yours, you are going to ake this up your ass and like it. The elected tormentors decided to not hold people accountable and decided to leave our borders open, failing that basic test of government which is to protect those of us here from those who would do us violence in the name of whatever religious or political flavor of the month.
If the Democrats really thought that this will gain them the Latino vote, then they are in for a rude shock. Almost every single Latino that I have as coworkers, friends, and neighbor's who are here would vote overwhelmingly conservative with a few who would go the other way. But that is beside the point. Our domestic tranquility and safety are no longer paramount to the politicians on the American Left. What is more important to them is making Bush look bad as much as possible and causing all of us-legal and not-to be in far more danger than we should be. And I for one resent being held hostage by the likes of Kennedy and his ilk just so that they can score points with the loonies on the left.
I will vote in the next elections as I always do, but I will not be voting for those who killed this very important bill. For like Benjamin Franklin, I firmly believe that if you sacrifice freedom for security, you deserve neither.

ANTHONY OUT

The Ongoing Allegations at Duke University

2006-04-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

Things are not as they appear over at Duke University. Last week a young woman accused several lacrosse players of rape. Since that time, the young woman's story has had more twists and turns than a mountain road. First there are the two seperate 911 calls, the second of which she changes her story form walking to driving past the house and giving the exact address of the house.
A reporter for one of our local news channels went by the house both during the daytime and at night and through his report you can clearly see that there are no numbers on the house and at night it is virtually impossible to even see the front door. There are also inconsistencies in her behaviour that make one wonder what indeed did transpire. The local durham DA has been playing fast and loose with the rules, dropping hints and making totally inappropriate commentary about the evidence, like linking the fake fingernails that were indeed found in the house to his supposition that there must have been a ferocious struggle. But according to my friend Barbara Maholick it is the amount of glue that determines how easily or not the nails come off. In her words:
" You can use just enough to keep them from falling or such a large amount that pliers couldn't pull the damn things off." (used by permission-B. Maholick, April 2006)
Just because there are false nails laying about the room mean little on the face of it. It is just like seeing an empty whiskey bottle on a table in a house and coming to the conclusion that the resident is a lush. Context is everything with evidence. And just because you also find the 400 USD that she was supposed to collect after her visit still there in the house is open to interpretation as well. Any number of reasons can be advance but I will leave it to the defense teams to do so.
The parties in this are far from squeaky clean as well. To quote a news article from WRAL:

According to court documents, the woman has a record, which includes a DWI, a
misdemeanor eluding arrest charge, and three license suspensions. But she has
had no arrests for prostitution or any other related sex crimes.
As for the
players, The Raleigh News & Observer reported that 15 of them have faced
misdemeanors in the past three years stemming from drunken and disruptive
behavior, according to court records.
http://www.wral.com/news/8370290/detail.html?taf=ral Source
That does not mean that you go from a few scrapes with the law to rape. Nor does it mean that the young lady in question can be made out as a harpie. It just means that we should not jump to conclusions about this.
What all this means is that there are far too many red flags in this case so far to just come down on one side or the other. Aside from the predictable protestations of innocence from the accused and the all too convenient timing of the young lady's family insistence that she cannot discuss it, there is also the idea that the accused are innocent until proven quilty and have no real need to cooperate any further than they already have.
There is however another angle that causes me even more red flags. Within hours of the accusations came the racist, sexist, and oppurtunistic arrival of the radical elements. The accuser is of African-American descent whereas the accused are all Caucasian. That in itself is a red flag too because she did not accuse the sole African-American male player. Once it was her ethnic background became known, then the NAACP made a rush to judgement and began making demands that the case be solved like yesterday. The conduct of the DA handling the case seems to inidicate that he may indeed be pandering to the radical elements. Across Duke campus we now have radical feminists demanding that these young accused come foreward..to do what, exactly? These young men have no obligation whatsoever to say anything at all. And who are these people to make demands that these men violate their constitutional rights?
Sadly, the answer is that no matter what this case has already been politicized by elements who have no buisness sticking their knoses into this. The case is in it's infancy and may very well sort itself out into a frightened young woman in over her head who said something that she should not have and now she is in even more over her head. Did something occur? I don't know and won't know until it comes to trial, if it ever will. My sympathy goes out to the families of all involved because they are the true victims.
The lacrosse team members have forfeited the rest of the season and these young men may very well never get their lives back should all this sort out the way I fear it will. And the young lady may also never have a normal life either because she has taken on the Duke University behemoth. She may have thought that all she had to do was make the accusation and the school would fold. Or she may indeed have been scared. Whatever the case she will be the loser in all this as well.
The school itself has shown impeccable restraint, far more so that some of the radical elements in their student body. From the beginning the authorities there have urged patience and restraint, going out of their way to keep the radicals from going too far and have tried to be civil, classy and above all decent to all sides.
The other radical elements have not shown such grace or manners. Almost at once they rushed to judgemant, to crucify these young men without even bothering to check the facts. The NAACP became nothing more than a screeching harpie, the feminists were no better. Neither group has shown the manners and common good grace of Duke University. My late grandmother would be proud of the school's handling and be utterly dismayed by the others. I wonder if the groups and idiotic individuals who have rushed to judgement will apologise when this case falls apart or when these young men are found not guilty?
Probably not. And this hardly help the cause of women's rights either. But in the cloud cuckoo land of radical politics the ends justify the means regardless of the real truth behind the news. And somewhere I am reminded of Al Sharpton and the Tawana Brawley case. That featured many of the same plot elements like a young woman accuses police officers of Caucasian extraction and then when the story is exposed as false instead of saying "I lied" she comes up with even more extraordianry excuses and accusations.
The case before us requires a little patience and clear thinking. But some prefer to jump to their own conclusions without regard for the evidence nor for the rights of both the accuser and the accused.

Good-Bye Grace Bryant Scott

2006-02-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

This past week has been a sad one for me. My grandmother Grace died Monday in her sleep after a long illness. She was born 92 years ago during a far differant time than now and she always remained a grand ladyof the Old South but not the one that resisted integration.
She was born into a differant class in Farrington, NC just outside of Durham NC and she never ever lost her sense of class and manners, trying like hell to keep her only grandson from losing the manners that his French mother and grandparents had put so much effort teaching this old alley cat, who can act perfectly well-mannered when I want. (My mother is reading this and going "All too true!")
This makes the end of a grand generation of grandparents for me. My beloved grandfather Leon Chopinet died 7 years ago, followed quickly by my grandmother Julia Louise. They also were fine people of quality, although not exactly born to the same class Grace was I firmly believe that had they met they would have become friends and even allies in the raising of a difficult child. (my mother would insert "Stubborn as a mule" with that)
I have yet to mourn at all for the three grandparents that loved me and tried as hard as they could to impart to this wayward alley cat some breeding, manners, and self-respect. The damnable restraint hammered into me by years of martial arts and emotional control that drives those around me who love me crazy (Mom, go ahead and say "Will you go on and cry already?") prevents me from doing so but that discpline and restraint are now so much a part of me that some of my friends literally grab me and shake me.
Those of you who have lost such wonderful grandparents, those stand-in parents who do so much to help their own children be good parents, can understand my feelings and how damned hard it is for me to express them. I miss Grace already and still miss Leon and Julia. But I draw immense relief imaging them in the afterlife, if there is such a thing, sipping on their favourite drinks, chatting and still keeping an eye on their wayward cubs, one especially.

Damn, how I miss them!

Enough Already

2006-02-19T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hello all. It has become apparent to me that the press has lost any and all serious objectivity about the President and his staff. I mean, they have spent what, a whole week on the accidental shooting of a lawyer, something that in and of itself would not even merit a notation on the back of the obituaries. My reaction?

I mean who cares other than a media system obscessed with getting President Bush anyway they can. Goign so far as to hound the poor fellow doing the daily Whitehouse briefing like this was a major crime instead of the ridiculous accident that sometimes happen when you mix firearms and people. Get off it already, sheesh!

And the ongoing "outrage" over the cartoons that were published months ago in an Egyptian paper is nothing more than a bunch of religious shysters getting together to bully a West that they know will kowtow in the name of "tolerance" and give up our cherished rights to freedom of speech and freedom to laugh at whatever we want. I personally have not found the cartoons offensive in anyway because they do depict the sad truth of what Islam has become and it is not the fault of the West but their own. Islam is at it's roots fundamentally anti-democratic. Wikipedia recently published the cartoons and as you can see for yourself below there is nothing offensive to me anyway.

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_drawings.jpg

Not to be outdone, a group of Jewish graphic designers have decided to hold their own Holaucaust cartoon competition because, to quote them, "we cannot have the Muslims making better cartoons mocking us on our own soil" and I must agree with their dark humour. They are rightly participating instead of running around burning and killing.

See this site for more: http://www.boomka.org/

But we must remember that these loonies masquerading as holy men are after something far more precious than our rights, they are after a global Islamic Sharia'a empire where no thought is safe, no impulse allowed, and no person allowed their own right of choice. The forces in our country who are coddling these people had better come to their senses because they may wake up one day to an Islamic republic. We have watched Christianity reform itself because by it's very nature it is a religion that manages, with a few execptions, to live in relative peace with a secular government amd at it's heart desires peace. But Christianity nows that peace without the strength to protect it is worthless hence it's understandable reluctance to take up arms.

We must not lose the lessons of the battles of Poitiers and the Reconquista, where Christiandom had to defend itself from the mullahs and ultimately keep Europe free from Islam's creativity stifling grip. We must rise up, both seculars and believers, to defend that which has taken us so damned long to achieve and what the mullahs on one hand and the Christian fundamentalists want to destroy, that is the idea of a secular republic where even the very groups that want to destroy our way of life are free enough to say what they want and be held accountable to secular authority when their words cause lifes or property or both to be lost. Because in the final analysis there has to be a time where secular and religious alike must learn to live with one another.

As far as I am concerned, these cartoons are protected by freedom of expression. If you want to argue about it in a civilised way then let's sit down and do so...But if you want to attack schools, embassies, government building, commit all manner of violence against the very secular state that gives you those rights and it's citizens, then donot be at all surprised when we finally lose patience and give you the spanking that you should have gotten a long time ago. As much as you have the right to express yourselves, we have a right to kick your sorry butts out and send you to the grey bar hotel for the rest of your sorry life or even go ahead and send you to your anticipated after life, courtesy of a fair trial of course. The fringe elements of the Christians have learned this and so have many other fringe religious groups.

We Americans insist that EVERYBODY behaves and respects their neighbours and that is why we are doing what we are doign around the world to make it a safer place where kids in Afghanistan and Iraq can walk around playing without worrying that some dumbass with a gun or an IED blows them to hell because his version of whatever flavour of the month tell him to do it. Enough already.

Learn the lesson or get ready for the butt kicking that you deserve for being a bully in the first place. The Danes are not as tolerant as they appear.

Remember Challenger, Columbia, and Flight 93

2006-01-28T18:06:00.000-05:00

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, a day where an ordinary American school teacher was rocketing into space, carrying with her the hopes and dreams of schoolchildren everywhere.

I remember that day. I remember being home from school sick with a cold, sitting up to watch the launch because I have always been a fanatic for aerospace. I remember watching Discovery roll and hearing the flight controller say "Challenger, you are go for throttle up" and hearing Discovery pilot Francis Scobee acknowledgeing the transmission. My next memory is that close-up shot of Challenger exploding and of the shocked expression of a man with a mustache staring at all his suddenly bright screens, and the stunned voice of one of the flight engineers saying "I have just lost all telemetry from the vehicle" or something like that. I shared the disbelief, the shock and the tears. I shared the demand for answers and also yearned to see the Shuttle fly again.

It was a feeling that I had hoped I would never feel again, an experience that I had never wanted another crew and another generation to feel. Enter Columbia and September 11th, 2001. Yet again we lose a shuttle and it's crew and my beloved aerospace is used to inflict one of the worst mass loss in US history. Technology is neutral, it is what we humans make of it that turns it good or bad.

Going into space is always worth the price, always worth the effort because having all of our eggs in one basket is suicide. There are vast riches awaiting us in the asteroid belt and on the Moon. There are mysteries to be solved on Mars, colonies to be built in orbit, in the same asteroid belt, on Mars and other places. The lives of the lost crews of Columbia and Challenger must not be allowed to cause us to once again allow war and peety near sightedness to keep us from going back to the moon, to Mars, and out further.

We must remember the crews of Challenger and Columbia as heroes, as people who challeneged spaceflight and were let down by a mangement ethic that took no heed of repeated warnings about the O-rings or who allowed the shuttle to reenter the atmosphere with fatal damage. Hopefully NASA has learned from these disaters and will take steps to keep such things from happening again. We will hold dear the dreams of Christa McCauliffe who had a vision of perfectly ordinary AQmericans being able to go into space without needing to be astronauts. And I still hold dear the dreams of a young JROTC cadet who loked upwards and dreamed of things like MACH 3 planes, colonies in space, and wondered if somewhere out there there might be another kid like him, wondering the same things.

We must also remember the crew and passengers of UA Flight 93 who decided to fight back on that September day, showing that true American spirit that John Wayne would have been proud of and that the powers of darkness cannot stand against: The simple desire to fight back, to make the bad guys pay dearly for taking something that was never theirs to take. To those brave souls who were as determined as any service member to not go without a fight and to our lost crews of Apollo1, Challenger, and Columbia we have a duty to keep going, to make the world a safer freer place, and to deliver a singular message to the likes of Osama out there: Kill us, maim us but you cannot crush the human desire to live free.

And to those in my own country who give aid and comfort to teh extremists who want our way of live swept from the Earth I will remind them that spitting in the wind comes back to you twice as hard and will cost you politically in the upcoming elections.

Remeber Apollo 1. Remember Challenger. Remember Columbia. Remeber Flight 93.

They are the true expression of what America stands for.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dor_front/index.html

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sts51l.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

2005-12-20T15:45:00.000-05:00

I am going on hiatus once again, this time for a far shorter time than last.

Just in case some of you have actually bought into the whole "War on Christmas" nonsense, I will remind you that MERRY CHRISTMAS is still the greeting during this time of year and if it offends anyone, get over it. I remind all of you that are two versions of this holiday (well, all right, three) and if you are religious then enjoy it your way but kindly leave the rest of us alone to celebrate it the secular way or even the pagan way
so please enjoy the holidays in your own way and pay no attention to the loonies on either side who want to make our lives annoying. These poor people have nothing else better to do than go around telling others how to live their lives and how they should be behaving. These party poopers get their panties all in a wad if anybody dares to have a good time.

Pay them no mind. Have fun with your family members, tussle with the kids as much as you can, and enjoy as much or as little of your favourite adult beverage.
Just make sure you get them to sign this waiver first becuse you never know when some nutcase might wait until dinner is being served to tell you he/she is a vegan.

For more background about Saturnalia:

Saturnalia at Wikipedia

A longer article by James Grout

For more information about food and other scams:

Consumer Freedom

MERRY CHIRSTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Rant

2005-11-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since my last post. I am offering no excuses but I was in an accident adn have had to curtail some activities.

Nevertheless I am back and more sarcastic than ever. during my recovery I have had time to really think about what it means to be human and to be a part of the community of people who don't fly full loaded passenger planes into buildings nor fly over beaches filled with tourists trailing a banner showing aborted fetuses.

That is missing the entire point of faith. When we first came up with the idea of belief it was supposed to comfort us and give us strength to face whatever challenge was staring at us. I suppose that sitting in a dank cave not knowing why the environment around you was loco then it was somehow understandable that our ancestors would see divine intervention everywhere.

Faith now has become an excuse for the less honest amongst us to commit all manner of crime against their fellow humans and all the while claim that they were doing the work of God or Allah or whatever. It is as if the mainstream churches and mosques have lost their willingness to curtail the activities of their rambunctious offspring because secretly they approve of the madness for it attains their political ambitions.

For if there is one thing both religious and political fanatics cannot abide it is the annoying concept of freedom and the ability to choose. They cannot hide in a free and open society where anybody can say "Hang on a moment, what heck are you saying here?" so they have to try and make somebody be "in charge" because without that we humans can go and do anything we want and not be held accountable.

Wrong Sparky. We humans are held accountable in the end by a legal system that owes it's origins from English Common Law than the Ten Commandements. What most Western religions can't seem to get through their thick skulls despite secular attempts is the notion that we are all individuals and therefore all have clear ideas of right, wrong, and the area in between. The Christians and the Muslims fundamentalists are like two spoiled children who have reached adulthood and now their parents have come to realise that maybe letting them get away with murder was not such a hot idea after all. I am not saying that all muslims and Christians and jews are bad because I have know many individuals of great morality and integrity who are as insensed by the madness as I am but one must remember that these individuals are overwhelmed by the vast numbers of sheep who just blindingly follow along.

Unfortunately those individuals are fighting a losing battle. In trying times people search for ways to make themselves feel better, to calm their fears and make them feel safe. Or am I being far too harsh in my words? Is there nothing even worth holding onto in religion? The answer has become: No. Sprituality and religion are two very differant and very opposite things. Religion is all about control and keeping the masses distracted. In this time of year I ell both sides to shut the hell up and let us enjoy the season without all the nonsense. I am aware of the Christian reasons for the holiday but the original festivals were to honor pagan gods such as Saturn and Mithras. New evidenc is suggesting that Christ himself was born in September or October. But these days the holidays are a time to try to have peace and spend time with relatives that you may not get to see on a regular basis, not spending time in church. Life is far too short to be wasting it.

With all the things going on right now we need some peace with relatives, some down time where our only concern is do we have enough egg nog or are there enough cookies to go around. We should tke the approach to Christmas that my nieces and nephews take: Flit from table to table, vainly trying to taste everything, ripping into the presents under the tree and just generally enjoying this time of year.

Enjoy this time of year. Spare a thought for our service members in harm's way, be they Army, Marines, Air Force, or Navy. They are fighting a war for the rest of us to live free from tyranny and fear. Spare a thought too for the less fortunate of our human family. But always remember to have fun, eat too much, chase the kids around the tree, hug your mom and Dad, and generally cut up while you can. Never pass up an oppourtunity to spend time with loved ones.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Have a Great Saturnalia!

First Entry

2005-02-02T16:59:00.000-05:00

Seeing that this is my first entry I must say what a weekend it was for a fledling democracy in the Middle East! I wathced as many hindreds of people risked their necks t vote in a country that had not had elections for some 50 years. Incredible as it may seem, we take such things for granted here in this country.

The media was not surprisingly largely silent on the issue, having made so much about the violence that might or might not happen. I am never surprise by their silence on good news and their obvious delight in reportung BAD news, like the tsunami. Here we have had two countries that have had elections, one for the first time EVER and the other is having them for the first time in 50 years. The media is largely silent on both issues mainly because they cannot believe tht both peoples have already already understood that nothing beats self-rule.

Democracy has taken it's maiden flight and landed safely in both countries despite the violence and lives squandered by attacks from these bullies. They are not insurgents they are terrorists. Insurgents at least would follow some of the rules of war. These punks are nothing more than schoolyard bullies who hide underneath the mantle of religion and use bombs to get what they want. And what they want is the vile fundamentalist theocracy. Throughout history we ave seen what theocracies bring us. Whether it is the Salem witch trials or the ayatollahs in Iran we have seen the results: no personal freedoms, all matters of "decency", "morality" subject to the whim of the prophets (or Allah or Christ or whatever deity that is in vogue) and no freedom of choice, no impulse or thought or work of art can escape scrutiny.

My whole point is that we should be pleased as punch that the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform have borne such incredible fruit. We have sacrificed so many of our finest people to this cause and to have them dish0nored by a media largely bent on undermining our current president. To put it bluntly, Bush won get over it.

The great tragedy of the Asian tsunami will forever change things. It was a classic demonstration of the price that we must pay fo living on a geolically active planet. But once again the goofballs come out of the wood works, running the gamut from Christian Fundamentalist apocalypse types to New Age nitwits. These people will sit there and tell you that these are all signs of the End Times, never minding te fact that they have been consistently WRONG every single time. But once again I would rather prefer to actually hear these nuts and expose their fuzzy thinking and debunk them than have their views supressed.

That is all for now. Leave me a note and tell me what you think.