Some fascinating news

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

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:

1. Thou shalt not guestion the Gunny.
2. The Gunny is always right.
3. Thou shalst always do what Gunny says.
4. The Gunny can use you for target practice or meat filling.
5. The Gunny can and does use lieutenants for door stoppers.
6. The Gunny is always right.
7. 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...

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:

1. Be a US citizen or legal immigrant
2. Be at least 17, better yet 18
3. Be a High School Grad
4. Have no criminal record...parking tickets don't count.
5. 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

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

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!

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

Happy New Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.