SheepDog Barking

Jon’s Freedom Ride 2011

2011-08-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

I bought a T-shirt today. It’s a gray shirt with three blue stars inside blue circles on a white backdrop. To the right, streaming out from behind the stars are swooping parallel lines of red and white. Underneath reads, “Jon’s Freedom Ride 2011. The shirt cost me $22, a pittance. The money went to a good cause.

Who’s Jon? That would be Jon Seyster, a 26 year old Simi Valley man with cerebral palsy. He intends to ride a hand propelled tricycle 530 miles from Ground Zero to the Pentagon starting on 9/11/11. Jon is participating in the Ride 2 Recovery’s 9/11 American Challenge ride. Jon is raising money to assist our Wounded Warriors.

I strained to understand Jon as he spoke from his wheel chair. He explained that it is his passion to “give back to our military.” Jon is going to ride side by side with our Wounded Warriors.

Jon said on his website, “I can’t think of a better way to begin my new chapter in life by first giving back to our military. It is because of them that I was able to go to college and be what ever I want to be. Riding side by side with them will be such an honor.”

Who is this severely handicapped man reaching out to his heroes in a real grueling and physical way? He is a man, perhaps better equipped than most of us, to know personally the challenges facing our wounded.

I don’t know a lot about Jon, but I do know this; he’s a man with a huge heart and buckets of courage. We can learn from him.

Perhaps you might be interested in helping Jon by financially assisting to make his dream come true. Go to Jon’s website, Jon’s Freedom Ride http://jonsfreedomride.com/ and sponsor him as a rider at the Ride 2 Recovery site, http://www.ride2recovery.com/sponsor-a-rider

Links in this Blog:
Jon’s Freedom Ride

Ride 2 Recovery

Sponsor a Rider

On the Path to a Police State

2011-05-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

When the government formulates laws and regulations targeting a minority, everyone’s liberties are in jeopardy. Here’s the background story.

Suction dredging for gold is a mainstream (pun intended) activity for small mining operations. It is the goal of radical environmentalists to terminate all suction dredging. To that end, suction dredging is currently halted in California pending new regulations following a recently released environmental impact report conducted by the Department of Fish & Game.

The public comment period on the report and proposed regulations ends 5/10/11. Enclosed below is my public comment addressing the proposed regulations, which provide draconian police tools to target law abiding citizens.

5/3/2011

Mr. Mark Stopher
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust St.
Redding, CA 96001

Comments Regarding: Suction Dredge Permitting Program
Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report
California Department of Fish and Game

Dear Mr. Mark Stopher,

When I read California’s newly proposed suction dredge regulations, I immediately began to see red flags. My law enforcement background and sense of justice is sounding a red alert.

Although I’m not a suction dredge miner, I am a miner and these proposed regulations are just plain wrong — and unjust. As a former law enforcement officer, I easily recognize the threats contained in these proposed regulations to suction dredge miners specifically and to the public in general.

The Department of Fish and Game intends to impose on suction dredge miners a class of permit requirements and restrictions that it does not impose on hunters and fishermen. There are four notable areas of unique requirements:

1. a maximum of 4,000 suction permits are to be provided

2. dredging equipment must be itemized, “A list of all suction dredge equipment that will be used under the permit, including nozzle size, constrictor ring size (if needed), engine manufacturer and model number, and horsepower;”

3. a maximum of six dredging locations are allowed per license and a list must be provided with an exact geographical location for each site

4. an approximate date for dredging must be provided for each location

Historically, there has been no limit to the maximum number of suction dredge permits that can be issued. According to DFG, the previous number of annual permits issued is in the area of 3,000 or so.

The current plan to limit the maximum number of permits to 4,000 is unsupported by data indicating the necessity of the requirement. Whether or not it is an intended consequence by the DFG or not, the plan presents the possibility that environmental activists may purchase permits with the expressed purpose of locking out suction dredge miners from exercising their federal statutory rights to mine. Buying up most of the suction dredging permits is far cheaper for the environmental activists than filing lawsuits. The State is, therefore, aiding and abetting a radical environmental agenda.

There are only three dredging equipment specifications in the regulations:
1. the diameter of the suction nozzle;
2. the intake hose diameter;
3. and pump intake screen specifications.

Why is it necessary for the state to force the miner to disclose a list of all unregulated equipment used to include engine manufacturer, model number and horsepower? Changing any of the equipment without the onerous modification of the permit is impermissible and citable. Clearly, the listing of all equipment, for which there are no State permit requirements, is a selective enforcement tool for DFG law enforcement, a polite way to say harassment.

The requirements of location and dates reveal another State agenda, which will impede and make difficult the lawful activity of suction dredging.

The proposed regulations would make it unlawful to dredge anywhere other than the maximum six locations listed on the dredging permit. The limitation to number of dredging locations, without justification of supporting data, clearly limits the opportunities to suction dredge.

Why does the State need to know the whereabouts of suction dredging locations? And, why does the State need to know the “approximate” dates that each location is intended to be dredged? These requirements are clearly designed to assist law enforcement to easily locate a suction dredging operation.

Civil law enforcement operates in two modes, reactive and proactive.

Reactive enforcement is when law enforcement learns of a potential violation of law and responds to address the specific violation by specific violators.

Proactive enforcement is when law enforcement targets a class of suspected violators of law with specific actions. Unlike reactive enforcement, proactive enforcement presumes violations by a class of violator.

These regulations clearly announce that suction dredgers are a specific class of potential law violators that requires that law enforcement be provided the proactive tools to deal with the violators. Therein lays the rationale for the location and approximate date requirements for permitted suction dredging. These regulations provide no data to support a de facto assertion that suction dredgers are a specific classification of law violators justifying the specific proactive targeting of them by law enforcement.

Unintended consequences of the requirements of location and dates are even more ominous. DFG license data is public information and thus discoverable via a public records information request. The data will be extremely beneficial to anyone desiring to locate a dredging operation for purposes of robbery, theft or vandalism. In addition, it tells criminals when the suction dredger’s residence may be vacant and more vulnerable for burglary and/or home invasion robbery.

Characterizing suction dredgers as potential criminals, these regulations provide law enforcement with specific and unique proactive tools to target the miners. By formulating unjustified regulations, the State is deliberately limiting freedoms and creating an environment ripe for the encouragement of law enforcement excesses. Incentivizing police abuse of citizens, whether intended or unintended, is a step forward on the road toward a police state.

Regards,
Paul Coambs

Bare Your Breasts but Don’t Mention Them

2010-09-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I read that high school girls at Baltic, SD, are forbidden to wear “I Love Boobies” bracelets, which are designed to raise the public’s awareness of breast cancer. The bracelets are considered “in poor taste” and perhaps offensive.

It is absurd that anything as innocuous as the message on a bracelet could cause such an uproar. The community of Baltic should be praising its young women, who are actively promoting the awareness of a disease that strikes one in eight of American women.

The picture accompanying the article was of 16 year old Amelia Atkins, who is wearing a “I Love Boobies” bracelet and a Susan G. Komen For the Cure breast cancer shirt saying, “Save the Ta-Tas.” Lord have mercy, she dares to wear the phrase “Ta-Tas” too.

In Clovis, CA, the boobie bracelets have also run afoul of educators. “The school district's dress code outlaws jewelry with sexually suggestive language or images…” So, I guess anything to do with a breast, even mentioning it, is sexual. How about breast feeding? Then again, Clovis is in Central California, don’t you know?

We are much more sophisticated in Southern California. Yesterday, in Simi Valley, CA, I saw a young girl leaving a junior high school with a low scooped blouse revealing a major portion of her bare upper breasts. She didn’t have a lot of protuberance, but what she had proudly jiggled as she walked. This girl is apparently not violating any school dress codes. Of course, she didn’t have on anything saying boobies or ta-tas either. But, I’ll bet that more than one of her male schoolmates experienced a surge of something relatively new to them, testosterone. Do you think that might be distracting to the school’s educational mission?

What gives? Well, clearly we Americans don’t have a consensus on the matter.

To the moral guardians and limiters of free speech in Clovis, Baltic, Colorado, Idaho, Florida and Wisconsin, I know that the courts have ruled that you can limit free speech of students at school. But, I say, “get a life.”

To the complacent educators in Simi Valley, get a backbone and address the issue about your young female students becoming sex objects before their time?

To the rest of you, support the breast cancer awareness movement. You owe it to all the women in your lives. Oh, and say “well done” to Amelia and her cohorts.

Link in this Blog:
Schools ban bracelets promoting cancer awareness

Incumbency Trumps Free Speech in Simi Valley

2010-08-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

The City of Bell, CA, gets caught dolling out megabucks to its top political leaders and suddenly the media eye is scrutinizing the expenditures of cities in their own neighborhoods. You can bet that city fathers all over the country are squirming at the exposure. But, the awarding of full time employment benefits to part-time city council personnel is every day fare. But, how about writing a city ordinance which benefits the city council incumbents to the detriment of aspiring city council candidates? Simi Valley did it. It gives me a warm feeling to know that my city fathers have only the public’s interest at heart.

I submitted a letter to the editor on the subject to the Simi Valley Acorn, which published an edited version under the title of, “Sign ordinance is bad for democracy.”

Below is the unedited piece that I submitted.

City of Simi Valley Prohibits Political Signs In Favor of Incumbency
In 2006, the City of Simi Valley enacted a city ordinance prohibiting the placing of temporary signs, including pre-election political signs, on the public right-of-way.
The ordinance asserts, “The placement and accumulation of temporary signs in the public right-of-way, on traffic and utility devices, upon public sidewalks or on public easements presents dangerous conditions to the free and safe flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Such areas must be preserved for official traffic signs and official utility notices in order to assure the safe flow of traffic.” The ordinance justification offered no proof of hazard existing in the City.
The only proof of justification stated within the ordinance concerned aesthetics. The 0rdinance states, “Prior to the adoption of the ordinance, the City of Simi Valley has permitted temporary signs in the public right-of-way, which has resulted in substantial unsightly conditions, as illustrated in evidence presented to the City Council during its consideration of this ordinance.”
The ordinance further states, “A limitation on temporary sign display is directly related to the objective of aesthetics.”
It goes without saying that a sitting member of the city council enjoys a considerable political incumbent advantage over an election challenger. That advantage is the result of name recognition and opportunities to interact with the residents and business community in the course of conducting city business.
One of the main mechanisms to gain name recognition is the time honored tradition of posting temporary political signs in advance of an election. There is no greater venue for political signs than the public right-of-way.
By improving the “aesthetics” of the city and forbidding the posting of political signs on the public right-of-way, the council voted a political advantage for themselves.
Limiting candidate free speech robs the public of the opportunity to learn about their prospective city leaders.

City Council challenger Keith Mashburn wants to amend the city sign ordinance to correct the political injustice. Vote for Keith Mashburn, a man of integrity.

Link in this Blog
Sign ordinance is bad for democracy

Obama Legacy-Erosion of American Personal Rights

2010-07-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

The consistent theme in the Obama administration is the reduction of American exceptionalism, which is framed in personal freedoms. Obama is not unique in his agenda, but he is the most successful leftist American leader in terms of the rapidity and expansiveness of the federal grab of personal freedoms.

Obama is putting in play and adding federal bureaucratic teeth to a whole host of mechanisms that reduce Americans’ personal rights. He is now signaling that an American foundational concept, religious freedom, is in jeopardy.

“Words matter - listen carefully to our current administration.” This quote is from the article, “Minor Changes in Language Could Mean Major Changes in Religious Freedom.”

“The change in language was barely noticeable to the average citizen but political observers are raising red flags at the use of a new term "freedom of worship" by President Obama and Secretary Clinton as a replacement for the term freedom of religion. This shift happened between the President's speech in Cairo where he showcased America's freedom of religion and his appearance in November at a memorial for the victims of Fort Hood, where he specifically used the term "freedom of worship." From that point on, it has become the term of choice for the president and Clinton.”

"To anyone who closely follows prominent discussion of religious freedom in the diplomatic and political arena, this linguistic shift is troubling: "The reason is simple. Any person of faith knows that religious exercise is about a lot more than freedom of worship. It's about the right to dress according to one's religious dictates, to preach openly, to evangelize, to engage in the public square. Everyone knows that religious Jews keep kosher, religious Quakers don't go to war, and religious Muslim women wear headscarves-yet "freedom of worship" would protect none of these acts of faith."
Wake up Americans! Your president and the leftist political leaders are intent upon structurally transforming America with an expansive federal government power grab that diminishes personal freedoms. It is happening in a myriad of ways: from healthcare; to voting rights; to mining rights; to the public access of public lands, and it has been going on for a long time. The trend diminishes when Republicans control the government and rapidly accelerates when the Democrates wield the power.

You should be feeling a little European socialist by now. When do we become fascist?

Links in this Blog:
American exceptionalism

Minor Changes in Language Could Mean Major Changes in Religious Freedom

“Alien Rule”

2010-07-01T07:42:00.001-07:00

“A Stranger in Our Midst,” is an article that I wish that I had written. I didn’t. It was authored by Robert Weissberg, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana. I borrowed his characterization for the title to this piece.

Professor Weissberg wrote,

“I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-synch values never surfaced.”

Recent national polls show that nearly half of Americans not only distrust our government, they see government as a threat to individual rights. Least we focus exclusively on the federal government, recognize that the distrust extends downward to local government and law enforcement. In other words, the public distrusts from top to bottom the institutions entrusted with protecting the citizens’ Constitutional rights.

Thomas Sowell wrote in “Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?”
“In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.”
American democracy is diminished by the disregard and willful failure to uphold Constitutional rights guaranteed to American citizens.

I’m willing to bet that every law enforcement officer on the job over ten years has witnessed or knows of incidents wherein law enforcement has knowingly violated the rights of citizens. Often, it is a “little person,” someone not likely to challenge authority, who has his rights violated. Here’s an example.

A drug abuser with likely damaged mental faculties probably took off his clothes on a public street in the dark of the predawn hours. That is all the subject apparently did. A motorist called and notified the local police department. Officers responded and located a subject fully dressed. The subject was neither under the influence of alcohol nor drugs, and he had no outstanding warrants for his arrest. Finding no other mechanism to arrest the subject, officers arrested him for indecent exposure under a California penal code statute. The trouble with the arrest is that the law stipulates that the subject must have drawn attention to his genitals in an effort to arouse a sexual response in another person. The law is a misdemeanor, and there must be a witness who will affirm that he observed the subject commit the violation. The notifying motorist made no mention of any sexual activity and at any rate he was not available to make an assertion one way or the other. The officers did not observe a violation, and in truth there is no evidence, other than an anonymous assertion, that the subject had been naked on a public street. Mere nakedness by California statute is not a violation. The alleged perpetrator wasn’t talking. Maybe he was not so mentally impaired after all. He knew better than to talk to the police. The police Watch Commander, a lieutenant, was advised of all the circumstances and couldn’t care less about the niceties of the law. The arrest and booking was approved. Unlawfully depriving a man of his freedom is not a trivial matter. I know the story is true because I am the one who apprised the lieutenant of the officer’s unlawful arrest.

A glaring example of law enforcement’s major violation of Constitutional rights were the Louisiana orders for warrantless and lack of probable cause confiscation of firearms from law abiding citizens during the Katrina disaster.

Alarmed by the firearm confiscation and other rights violations, individual law enforcement and military personnel, who honor their oath to uphold the Constitution, formed a national organization called the Oath Keepers. When individual police officers find it necessary to declare publicly that they will not obey orders which violate individual’s Constitutional rights, there is trouble brewing. It is a warning that violations of personal rights are likely rampant. The Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey these ten orders.

“We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.”

“We will NOT obey any order to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects -- such as warrantless house-to house searches for weapons or persons.”

“We will NOT obey any order to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to trial by military tribunal.”

“We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state, or to enter with force into a state, without the express consent and invitation of that state’s legislature and governor.”

“We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union.”

“We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.” “We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.”

“We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control” during any emergency, or under any other pretext. We will consider such use of foreign troops against our people to be an invasion and an act of war. “

“We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies, under any emergency pretext whatsoever.”

“We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.”
Values alien to the Constitution and American democracy are definitely in play from top to bottom. Thomas Sowell is correct,
“Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time.”
Links in this Blog:
Robert Weissberg -A Stranger in Our Midst

48% See Government Today As A Threat to Individual Rights

Thomas Sowell-Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

Oath Keepers

McChrystal’s Deliberate Step

2010-06-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

General Stanley McChrystal’s critical comments about Pres. Obama and his administration concerning the war in Afghanistan, as reported in the Rolling Stone magazine article. “The Runaway General,” were likely not careless slips of the tongue. The same can be said for the words of his staff.

General McChrystal is by all accounts not a careless man. Rather, he is an accomplished tactician. Agreeing to a magazine interview and delivering the words as he did was certainly a tactic with grave personal consequence. It is absurd to think that McChrystal did not know that he’d most likely get sacked.

McChrystal’s message is that the Afghanistan mission is in jeopardy due to American civilian political ineptitude. And, that falls squarely on the shoulders of Obama.

When McChrystal was given the job of commanding the Afghanistan operation, he learned by meeting with Obama that the president lacked depth.

“Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."”

Generals are interested in expeditiously winning the conflicts that are imposed upon them by politicians. Politicians are interested in maintaining power for themselves and their party. The disparate goals are often in conflict.

“Last fall, with his top general calling for more troops, Obama launched a three-month review to re-evaluate the strategy in Afghanistan. "I found that time painful," McChrystal tells me in one of several lengthy interviews. "I was selling an unsellable position." For the general, it was a crash course in Beltway politics – a battle that pitted him against experienced Washington insiders like Vice President Biden, who argued that a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan would plunge America into a military quagmire without weakening international terrorist networks. "”

Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings wrote,

“McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. "All these men," he tells me. "I'd die for them. And they'd die for me."”
If you are not a warrior, perhaps you don’t understand how serious McChrystal was when he stated, "I'd die for them. And they'd die for me."

Some writers are depicting McChrystal as reckless, shooting himself in the foot. Others characterize Obama’s firing of McChrystal as heroic. Both characterizations are incorrect. Obama fired McChrystal because McChrystal was insubordinate. McChrystal was insubordinate because he chose the route of the whistleblower.

It didn’t take any guts to fire McChrystal, but it sure did to sacrifice your career by standing up and declaring in effect that Obama and his administration are incompetent to lead this country in a time of war.

As a top general, McChrystal was no longer in the position to literally die for his comrade warriors. But, what he was able to do was to deliberately fall on his sword to help expose the feckless politicians who send his warrior comrades to die.

Uu-ah General McChrystal. Warriors everywhere need leaders like you!

Link in this Blog:
The Runaway General

Uu-ah Supremes

2010-06-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court affirmed that all Americans have the fundamental right under the Second Amendment to bear arms. But since it was a 5-4 decision, it is clear that the four are determined to deny Americans of one of their rights. Any one need to guess as to the political persuasion of the four?

Presidential Class Act

2010-06-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Real Clear Politics, there is a video of Pres. Obama expressing himself in classic Chicago thug rhetoric.

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."
I suspect Obama is quite comfortable with this type of language and sentiment.

If it were not for the Internet and talk radio, we’d never know about this statement because the main stream media won’t tell you. In this case, thanks Real Clear Politics and Drudge.

Truth be told, many of us might make such a statement. Then again, none of us is president, and the world is watching and listening.

Impressive president. No? Could the president possibly wait to use such language publicly until he is just citizen Obama again?

Link in this Blog:
Real Clear Politics Video-Obama “ass to kick”

Clear Thinkers Needed

2010-06-08T08:22:00.001-07:00

National radio talk show host, lecturer & educator Dennis Prager recently spoke at the University of Denver along with Sarah Palin and Hugh Hewitt. At this link is Dennis’ question and answer segment of the program.

In a few short minutes, Dennis defines and clarifies the root of the problems facing the United States of America. If you guessed it is Obama, you’d be wrong. It is, however, why we now have this president.

Clear thinkers are in short supply. Check-out Dennis, and share his wisdom with others. This nation needs clarity.

Hugh Hewitt is also a squared away national radio talk show host, lecturer and Constitutional attorney.

Link in this Blog:
Dennis Prager Q&A University of Denver 5/23/10

Sixty-Six Years Later, Jews Back to Germany

2010-06-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

On D-Day sixty-six years ago, the Allies bled and died on beaches dubbed Omaha, Juno, Sword, Utah and Gold.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s message to the troops just prior to the invasion stated in part,

“In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

WWII veteran Arthur Seltzer knows what happened on Omaha Beach, he was there and waded ashore.

"It was a mess, a bloody, gory mess."

"You saw sights you never want to see again."

Subsequently, famed WWII war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote these words,

“I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France.”

“It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know that they were in the water for they were dead.”
The Germans were not just bent on the subjugation of Europe. They and their cohorts proactively attempted to exterminate with the “Final Solution” a segment of the population deemed unfit to reside on earth.

Seltzer knows about the extermination because on April 29, 1945 he was at Dachau when the chains were cut off the gate.

“…Seltzer and other liberators were among the first Americans to witness unimaginable abominations: walking skeletons, piles of emaciated bodies,and crematoriums filled with the ashes of human remains.”

A significant consequence at the end of WWII was the establishment of a contemporaneous Jewish homeland in a land inhabited by their ancestors for thousands of years. In truth, the majority of the post WWII world did not support the establishment of the State of Israel. Rather, Israel was the evolution of a British protectorate, an outcome of a convenient way to handle resettlement of a people not wanted elsewhere.

Charles Krauthammer wrote in Those Troublesome Jews,

“The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.”
After accurately reviewing historic Israeli options concerning people determined to destroy the Jewish state, Krauthammer describes a world morality turned topsy-turvy. He concludes with,

“The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.”
As Krauthammer states, the Obama administration is dithering. But not just dithering. Pres. Obama is making nice with the likes of Helen Thomas, a liberal White House journalist of Lebanese extraction. Thomas is not just some curmudgeon past her prime. She is a hater advocating sending Jews back to Germany and Poland. Of course, she now disavows her statement, but there is no doubt that she spoke her true heart’s desire in an unguarded moment. After Thomas’ hate rant, Drudge ran an undated photo of Pres. Obama with his arm around Thomas.

So, on the sixty-sixth anniversary of D-Day, I not only think of those who perished, were wounded or survived the invasion. I think about all those people who voted for the presidential candidate of “change.” I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t think that he is trustworthy. Even so, I had no idea that he’d dare change long standing U.S. foreign policy and support those clamoring for Israel’s destruction and the extinction of Jewry.

Character counts and since most Americans genuinely want what is best for the country and world, it seems that the majority voters misjudged their choice for president. For those for whom it is applicable, join me and stand up for traditional American values at the next opportunity to vote on our national representatives. The alternative is to allow our president to cozy with those who would send “Jews back to Germany and Poland” or worse.

If Thomas were to receive her wish, perhaps when the Jews get back to Europe they will visit the beaches of France and thank the departed and the few remaining survivors for their efforts now squandered. I wonder what choice words Seltzer might have for Thomas.

Ernie Pyle was sickened by what he saw on the beaches of Normandy. I am sickened by the un-American values that I see in the White House and the White House Press Corps. The horror that is likely to flow as a result of the Obama way of doing business will make D-Day look tame.

Links in this Blog:
General Eisenhower’s Message Sent Just Prior to the Invasion

Seltzer-Veteran to retrace path that led to D-Day horrors

Pyle-The horrible waste of war

Krauthammer-Those troublesome Jews

Helen Thomas Tells Jews ‘Get the Hell Out of Palestine’ and Go Back to Germany & Poland

Drudge Photo of Helen Thomas and Pres Obama

Cpl. Brown Dog, U.S.M.C.

2010-03-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Circulating on the Internet is a story of a dog, destined to be slaughtered for food, who ultimately wins the hearts of U.S. Marines. The author of the piece is Cpl. Charles Patrick Dugan, U.S.M.C. You can read about Dugan at this link. The story of this dog is a good read.

The year was 1966 and I was a newly assigned machine gunner in an infantry unit that was protecting a high mountain pass that was between Da Nang and Phu Bai, Vietnam. The pass is called Hai Van Pass, which means Place of the Clouds. It is located 30 km north of Da Nang. The Marine Corps name of the hill that my unit was on was Hill 724. It was a dangerous and treacherous area that was of high strategic value.

There was only one narrow highway that wound up steep cliffs (Highway 1)that reached the peak at Hai Van. At the base of the hill was a small village called Namo. My story starts in that village. On a patrol through the village, my squad noticed a small wooden cage outside of a hooch.

We were new to Vietnam and unaware of the customs of the people. Wewere always alert for booby traps and we moved closer to the cage. Inside the cage was a small, brown puppy that brightened up when he saw us approach his cage. He began wagging his tail and wanting to be held. It was love at first sight for all of us.

Don't tell anybody, but most Marines are real softies when it comes to animals. The owner of the hooch came out and I decided to offer to buy his puppy. I just didn't like his living conditions. The old villager started his trying to up the price and after much debate, he decided on a price. He then pulled out a sharp knife and proceeded to open the cage.

All of us were shocked that he pulled a knife out and we all raised our weapons to him. He looked very frightened and assured us that he meant us no harm. He explained in gestures that he was just going to prepare the dog for us. We were confused and then he made the motion of drawing his knife across his neck to tell us that he was going to kill the dog and dress it out for us to Chop-Chop. I can only tellyou that the anger level went up 100 notches at that suggestion. We then realized that the dog was being raised to eat by the villager.

I unbuttoned my flak jacket and reached in and took the dog from his hands. I threw the money on the ground and placed the pup next to my heart so I could carry him up the long torturous climb back to our base camp.

The first event that happened was all of us knew that it was going to be a challenge to get our superiors to allow us to keep him. It was a miserable walk back to our hill. Our fears were baseless because we had a wonderful Captain, named Capt. Silva, and he allowed us to keep the puppy as a mascot. We loved him before, but we really lovedthe Captain after that.

Next we had the heated debate on what the dogs name should be. It was not an easy process since marines are very bull-headed and strong willed. After much serious and highly intelligent discussion we arrived at the unique name of Brown Dog. You have to know Marines to appreciate this.

Brown Dog was the darling of the hill and only one Marine hated him and that was OK, because we all hated him too. We all decided that if Brown Dog didn't like him that there had to be a damn good reason. Later he proved to be a coward in combat and was removed from our hill before he had an Accident.

Brown Dog was very happy that he left. I lost a stripe because I caught this guy kicking at Brown Dog and I explained to him not to do that again. I explained a little too harsh and the 1st Sgt. explained to me the error of my ways.

Brown Dog had a ritual of his life on the hill. At night we were in bunkers staring out into a dark, fog filled jungle. We were issued Seismic Listening Devices which consisted of probes planted in the ground in front of our bunkers. We had a smallconsole inside that had earphones. We could hear footsteps approaching or animals moving. We got pretty good with the device. Brown Dog would make the perimeter of our positions and visit every bunker to check on His marines. He was always awelcome visitor and he spent all of his non patrolling time in his daddys bunker, MINE! He also went on patrols with us and had an intense hatred for the Vietnamese. He would growl and really act up when he would see or smell one.

On April 1, 1967, we were dug in and the fog was pea soup thick that night. I was in the machine gun bunker and we were really spooked. About 3 am Brown dog shot up and went on full alert. I rang the field phone and informed the Command bunker that Brown Dog had alerted. Our Lt., ( Naval Academy IDIOT) advised me to trust my Seismic Device and not a damn dog!

My bunker was the forward bunker and the most vulnerable. I looked at my machine gun crew and whispered that I was going to disobey the Lt.s stupid order. They all nodded as I prepared the pop-up flare to shoot into the sky. I popped the flare and Lo and Behold we had Beaucoup Gooks in the wire! All hell broke loose and it was a very violent battle that night. It was up close and personal fighting and many people on both sides were killed and wounded. Brown Dog was hit by shrapnel but continued to fight the enemy. I saw him attack the leg of a NVA before he was zapped.

The attack failed and for what seemed like an eternity, we waited for the sun to come up. There were dead people in the wire, burning, and moaning out in pain in the darkness. I held Brown Dog in my arms and awaited the medivac helicopters that were coming to help our wounded. I really thought Brown Dog was going to die in my arms.

When the choppers came I handed my baby to the door gunner and asked him to get him medical help and told him that we would all be dead if it wasn't for Brown Dog. Marine to Marine, he gave me his word and I watched the dust-off. My Capt. pulled me aside and told me that he was glad that I never followed orders. He rubbed my head and told me that he was going to call to headquarters and tell them the story and he ASSURED me that Brown Dog was going to get the best of care.

Brown Dog had lost a lot of blood so I really didn't have much hope. The next day we received word that Brown Dog had been taken to Army Vets and they had saved his life. He had over 100 stitches, needed blood and antibiotics but he was going to live.

He was the hero to all of us. He received a canine award for heroism and we promoted him to Cpl. I also got my stripe back much to the chagrin of the Lt.

Cpl. Brown Dog returned to a heros welcome as we had a full formation to welcome him home.

I left the hill June 9th, 1967 and he was in very good hands with the Marines on the hill. I tried to take him home but that was impossible. I really hurt having to leave him on the hill, but I knew the Marines would take excellent care of him.

I have always thought it was so ironic that once he was going to be eaten by the Vietnamese and in turn he caused the death of so damn many of them!

All of my friends still have his picture and we all know that we would not be here today if it were not for a little, mixed breed dog named Brown Dog. He will be in our hearts until we die and a part of our souls forever.

When we assemble for our reunions, we always toast Brown Dog. Rest in peace little Warrior and wait for Your Marines to join you. We will always be Semper Fidelis to you and your memory. A Salute and three cheers for the finest Marine on our hill!

Ooo-Rah Brown Dog!

Cpl. Charles Patrick Dugan 2164539 USMC
Vietnam 1966-1967
Machine Gunner – Infantry

Uu-ah to Cpl. Charles Patrick Dugan and Brown Dog.

Link in this Blog: The Survival of Pat Dugan

Beware, the Brave Sheep’s Work was Expunged

2010-02-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

“The men in the ditch pushed forward, trying to reach a low earthen berm for better cover. The Taliban had a line of sight straight down the canal. Rounds snapped a couple of feet away. To the AP reporter, a civilian with no military background, it seemed counterintuitive: running forward, toward the danger. Not back.”

The previous paragraph was written by AP reporter Christopher Torchia while accompanying our troops in the Afghanistan war against the Taliban. Torchia is a Sheep without a doubt, but a brave Sheep. Torchia and an AP photographer risk their lives plying their trade bringing us their observations and photographs.

To Torchia it is “…counterintuitive: running forward toward the danger. Not back.” He described, perhaps unwittingly, the quintessential difference between Sheep and Sheep Dogs, AKA warriors, military and non-military alike. (For those unaware of the concept of Sheep, Wolves and Sheep Dogs, see other pieces posted previously in this blog or consult the work of LTC Dave Grossman.)

I first read Torchia’s article in the print version of my local newspaper. Unfortunately, my newspaper did not post the article on its Internet site. As I do in these circumstances, I went to the Internet to find other postings of the article to provide an Internet link to the readers of this blog.

Often, I discover that the editors of print and online media change the titles and eliminate portions of AP articles. In this case, the first two of three located Internet postings of the article eliminated the sentence, “To the AP reporter, a civilian with no military background, it seemed counterintuitive: running forward, toward the danger. Not back.” They excised one of the only two unique portions of the article. The remaining distinctive sentence is, “The AP reporter, hauling the wounded man’s ammunition belt, was with two or three men who sprinted around a corner, straight into another ambush.”

It must be permissible for a journalist Sheep to assist the military by hauling an ammunition belt. But, it is apparently not ok for the journalist to observe that Sheep fundamentally react differently than Sheep Dogs in the face of danger. Such an observation forces recognition that there are two distinctly different classes of humans. And by extension, there is a requisite admission that survival of the masses requires a violence oriented class of individuals willing to engage in endangering activity for the betterment of mankind. That puts a kink in the leftist anti-military mantra.

Certainly, editors are constricted by space requirements, and must remain cognizant of professional standards and relevance. But, I wonder if personal and/or corporate political and social agenda sometimes plays a significant part in the editorial decision making. If agenda is the case, journalistic work becomes partial commentary and a form of editorial dishonesty accomplished by omission of portions of the journalist’s work product. In essence, the story is changed from what the journalist recounted.

Our freedoms are predicated upon an informed public. As in all things written, let the reader beware.

Link in this Blog:
Caught in the open: a firefight with the Taliban

We Warned You-America Rising

2010-02-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Kudos to the authors of this self-explanatory video.

Deny Parole to the Onion Field Killer Gregory Powell

2010-01-22T09:38:00.001-08:00

In 1963, Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith kidnapped LAPD officers Ian James Campbell and Karl Hettinger. Officer Campbell was murdered in an onion field outside Bakersfield. The infamous crime was documented in former LAPD sergeant Joseph Wambaugh’s classic non-fiction book, “The Onion Field.”

Smith died in jail, but Powell is scheduled for a parole suitability hearing in Los Angeles on Wed., 1/27/10.

The California Board of Parole Commissioners includes:

Arthur Anderson
Troy Arbaugh
Lea Ann Chrones
Robert Doyle-Chairman
Jack Garner
Hollis Gillingham
Peter Labahn
John Peck
Michael Prizmich
Thomas Powers
Mary Ann Tardiff

This morning I sent an e-mail to Chairman Robert Doyle urging the Board of Parole Hearings to deny suitability for parole to Powell, CDC A57622. The e-mail address was confirmed when I received back an e-mail thanking me for my input. Mr. Doyle’s e-mail address is: Robert.Doyle@cdcr.ca.gov

I suspect that the e-mail addresses for the rest of the Commissioners has the same formula as did the e-mail address for Doyle: first name, period, last name @cdcr.ca.gov

Send an e-mail to Doyle and any of the Commissioners supporting the denial of parole for this cop killer.

Link in this Blog:

Board of Parole Hearings

Scott Brown’s Senatorial Victory in Massachusetts

2010-01-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Today is the first time that I’ve felt real optimism since the American public elected the most leftist U.S. president in history one year ago. The fact that the deep blue state of Massachusetts, blue at least nationally, handily rejected the Democratic party candidate and choose a Republican party member to hold the senate seat most recently dominated by Ted Kennedy speaks volumes about the American people.

The Massachusetts people did not just reject Martha Coakley, they rejected Pres. Obama and his leftists buddies Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and a host of other political cronies, who represent philosophies antithetical to the American dream.

Lock and load is still the order of the day, but there is once again a ray of sunshine shining through the darkness of leftist agenda.

Arabic Fanciful Thoughts-Almost as if They are Children

2010-01-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

In the introduction to Frank J. Gaffney’s tome, War Footing, noted historian Victor Davis Hanson writes on the Arabic mind. Hanson’s description reminds me of the fantasy oriented mind of a young child.

Do not look for logic and consistency in the Middle East for they are not to be found.

It makes no sense to be frustrated that Arab intellectuals and reformers damn us for removing Saddam while they simultaneously now praise the democratic rumblings that followed his fall. We should accept that the only palatable scenario for the Arab Street was one equally fanciful: Brave demonstrators took to the barricades, forced Saddam’s departure, created a constitution, held elections, and then invited other Arab reformers into Baghdad to spread such indigenous reform-all resulting in a society as sophisticated, wealthy, free, and modern as the West, but felt to be morally superior because of its allegiance to Islam.

This is the dream that they found preferable to the reality: the Americans alone took out the monster of the Middle East; any peaceful protest against Saddam would have ended in another genocide; and adherence to Islamic fundamentalism is a prescription for economic stagnation.

Ever since the departure of the European colonials, the United States, due to its power and principled support for democratic Israel, has served as a Middle Eastern psychological need to account for its own self-created impotence and misery. This is a pathology abetted by our own past realpolitik and nurtured by the very autocrats that we sought to accommodate and who now, in their 11th hour, have turned on us for following principles rather than their own promises to maintain order and status quo.

After all these years, do not expect praise or gratitude for billions poured into Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, or Palestine-or thanks for the liberation of Kuwait, protection of Saudi Arabia in 1990, the remove of Saddam, more less for Americans concern for Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia, the Sudan, or Afghanistan. Our past sins always must be magnified as much as our more recent benefactions are slighted.

The Western reader might well conclude that the “Arab Street” is delusional; an apt characterization while acknowledging that Arabic perception is the stuff of their self-serving cultural reality.

In confronting age old incendiary Middle East issues and the Islamist agenda, the error is ours if we insist on misunderstanding the Arabic mind and then predicating our actions solely from a Western perspective. That is true whether the Arabic mind is in the Middle East or in America. Concurrently, we must continue to offer the philosophy of Western style freedoms as a viable alternative and a helping hand up for a culture which last enjoyed greatness 1,000 years ago.

Source in this Blog:
Gaffney, Frank J, & Colleagues, "War Footing," Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2006, pgs xvii-xviii.

Colonel Robert L. Howard-Hero

2010-01-08T08:38:00.001-08:00

American history is chock full of heroes. We used to know them. It is their spirit and blood that pays the price to secure freedom. Securing the freedoms that we enjoy is not pretty. But, today’s children know them not. These are the grandchildren of the Vietnam War generation. Why don’t they know? Simple; their parents know them not, as well.

Not long ago, I attended an elementary school tribute to the third grade student’s heroes. A Vietnam Vet in the crowd broke down in tears when he revealed that this was the first time that anyone ever thanked him for his military service.

I wish that today’s parents made American heroes a general topic of discussion at the dinner table. Here’s a good hero to begin the discussion, Col. Robert L. Howard, Congressional Medal of Honor.

View the video below; go to the Internet tribute site link; and see more information at the Wikipedia site.

Links in this Blog:
Robert Howard Tribute Site

Wikipedia-Col. Robert L. Howard

From Dumps to Euphoria-A Lesson in Political Correctness

2010-01-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

I am down in the dumps about the abysmal way that the City of Simi Valley city fathers and administrators are treating the sergeants and officers of the city police department. The enlightened leaders are fast-tracking the destruction of police morale. Just when I thought it could not get worse, I am reminded that it is much worse elsewhere.

In Chicago, political correctness takes precedence over public safety. The Chicago Police Department is considering eliminating the police officer entrance exam to facilitate a greater hiring of minority applicants. What else could be expected from a city that gave us Pres. Obama? Here is the link to the story.

“Euphoria” overstates my emotional reaction that the Simi Valley Police Department has not sunk to the potential Chicago Police Department level. But, who knows? Given time, anything can happen.

Link in this blog:
Police May Scrap Entrance Exam: Report

Terry Bradshaw in Afghanistan

2009-12-16T07:34:00.001-08:00

Terry doesn't sing like the Cactus Jr. High girls, but his heart is in the right place.

Our Flag is Still There

2009-12-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

SheepDog Howls for Fallen Brethren

2009-11-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

This morning, four of Lakewood Police Department, WA, officers lost their lives when a gunman burst into a coffee shop where they were completing paperwork on laptop computers. The killing is described as a “targeted ambush.”

This time, the SheepDogs did not have a chance to run toward the gunshots. Others will hunt down the Wolf.

Link in this Blog: 4 police officers shot dead at Wash. coffeehouse

Thanks-Veterans Day 2009

2009-11-10T21:09:00.001-08:00

In honor of our veterans on Veterans Day 2009, re-published below is my post, “Saying Thanks With Old Glory.”

Saying Thanks With Old Glory

Friday, February 15, 2008

We were five off-highway dual sport motorcycle riders recently enjoying a long weekend in Death Valley exploring dirt roads avoided for years when riding our Harley Davidson motorcycles. Death Valley is a marvelous place for re-cementing relationships spanning many years.

Russ announced that he was packing a 5 foot by 3 foot American flag for the express purpose of displaying the flag should an American military jet pass by in his proximity. That fired-up the group’s enthusiasm. Not only do we love riding motorcycles, but also we avidly support our military. Russ’ plan was a fine token of appreciation for all that our military personnel do for us. And, the plan was not far-fetched since military jets routinely fly low and fast along the Panamint Valley skirting the Western edge of Death Valley National Park.

Homeward bound, two pick-up trucks loaded, we headed southbound on Highway 178. There was mellowness, tiredness, from two days of negotiating dirt/gravel byways and snow. Roads which tried their best to topple us should we get too slow and allow the front wheel to plow. One second you’re upright, and the next you are down, or struggling to keep the motorcycle from pitching you head over heels.

Then it happened: on the horizon coming toward us; two F-16’s fast and low.

Russ slowed his truck to a stop, and I bailed out from the passenger side struggling to deploy Russ’ flag. The lead F-16 passed just to the West of us at about 500 feet of elevation, and I’m not sure that I got the flag out in time for the pilot to see it. But three seconds later, Ol’ Glory was fully displayed for the Wingman, who came straight up the road, northbound, and directly over our heads. If you have never had a close-up experience with a low flying military jet, let me tell you this: it is an incredible sight and sound to behold.

Russ and I were high-fiving when I observed that both jets were banking to a southbound heading. I shouted to Russ that they were going to come around for another pass. I can imagine the radio conversation between the pilots.

Wingman to Leader: “Did you see those guys holding up Ol’ Glory? Let’s go around.”

Leader to Wingman: “Roger. There are two stopped vehicles about a mile apart. I’ll take the first, and you take the second.”

Wingman to Leader: “Roger that.”

The leading jet buzzed our partners and climbed up and away to the Southwest. Seconds later, Wingman flew over our partners, descended to about 200 feet off the deck and thundered up the road directly at us. Russ and I, holding Ol’ Glory stretched out between us, were eye-ball to eye-ball with Wingman. Whooom, he passed over us and immediately pulled a high-g ascent: as straight up as an F-16 can do; propelled by the flaming jet engine; followed with a barrel roll. Wingman was gone as fast as he arrived leaving us with the smell of jet fuel and a memory of a lifetime. Russ and I went nuts, like a couple of kids.

That’s the way it happened when we said, “Thank You.” And, they said, “You are Welcome.”

Uu-Ah Sgt. Kimberly Munley!

2009-11-06T12:10:00.001-08:00

She ran toward the gunfire!

She did what she is trained to do!

She did what is in her heart!

She did what we expect of her!

Link in this Blog: Friends hail police Sgt. Kimberly Munley for taking down Fort Hood gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan

Hugo Chaves Not as Crazy as I Thought

2009-10-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

“CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist leader Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama had done nothing beyond wishful thinking to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Link in this Blog: Chavez says Obama did "nothing" to deserve Nobel

Badge Dangles From My Neck No More

2009-10-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

It is still there; dangling from a chain slung around my neck. Badge has been there for the last twenty years of a thirty year career. Before it resided on a chain, it graced a dark blue uniform. For the last two decades, display on a uniform has usually been on account of the funeral for a fallen colleague.

Badge has the word “Detective” arched over its top and a number below. Badge’s finish is again worn off due to the natural corrosive action of living against my chest. It’s been refinished before, and it will be again, just before it is encapsulated in a block of clear Lucite. Soon it will reside among a plethora of mementos occupying its own space in my home office display case.

Unlike the mementos of memories, Badge epitomizes the essence and nobleness of the law enforcement career. Badge symbolizes the public’s acknowledgement that a minority of society must be empowered to walk in the dark protecting against the human predators who feast upon the majority.

Actually, I’ve carried two badges. The other one is a flat badge in my wallet. Truth be known, I’ve carried Flat Badge far more than Badge because Flat Badge was always with me, adjacent to my police ID, both on and off-duty. Nevertheless, I don’t have a visceral connection with Flat Badge, and it will be turned in with my other equipment.

Tomorrow I will be issued a new Flat Badge with the word, “Retired.”

Throwing It Away on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day

2009-06-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

In 1984, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, President Ronald Reagan spoke of the sacrifices Americans made in the quest of freedom for the European continent. Now in 2009, we see that Europeans discarded much of the potential liberty won by the Allies. Europeans first compromised their personal liberties by instituting socialist policies. Today, they continue to relinquish their potential freedoms to the demands of a growing Euroarabia. Witness the judicial and bureaucratic persecution of Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders for his outspoken opposition to the violence associated with radical Islam. In the U.S., we call such speech “free speech,” a value of extreme importance.

Disgraceful as the European socialist path may be, the United States embarked on its own path of socialism with the establishment of the Social Security Administration and subsequent social programs. U.S. socialism is suddenly in fast forward with the election of a president in lock-step with the European cultural version of Russian Roulette.

The American people have no one to blame except themselves for electing governmental representatives and a president who willfully discards their personal freedoms in favor of a socialist form of government and a weak foreign policy that invites our enemies to do their will on our culture and society.

Pres. Barack Obama is bent on apologizing to the world for all sorts of things that the U.S. has or has not done. In the spirit of Obama, it would be appropriate on this historic anniversary to offer an apology to our European brethren for having killed European citizens in the quest to liberate them from Nazi fascism.

The liberation gave Europeans the opportunity to improve their level of personal liberties to match the American model. Europe did not choose to do so.

Disdainful as I am of the European model, I am reminded of the adage that “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” I am empathetic with freedom loving Europeans who watched impotently these many years as their governments pandered away the hard earned potential for personal liberty.

Sixty five years after the Allied troops waded ashore and bled on the beaches of Normandy for Europeans, the majority American electorate is eroding away its own hard earned liberties originally paid for with the blood of the American founders over two hundred years ago.

Our forefathers threw off the yoke of tyranny and struck out on a new adventure so well justified in the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 1
In the long run, the insidious relinquishment of liberty is no less dangerous than the boot heel of conquering tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson stated, "The tree of life must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

What will it take to reverse the deterioration of the United States of America? Our liberties certainly need to be refreshed.

Link in this Blog:
1. Declaration of Independence

With Gun in Hand

2009-05-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Mama, take this badge off of me
I cant use it anymore.
Its gettin dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like Im knockin on heavens door

Knock, knock, knockin on heavens door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I cant shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin down
I feel like Im knockin on heavens door.

Knock, knock, knockin on heavens door

Bob Dylan sang these lyrics as mortally wounded Sheriff Colin Baker staggers toward a river once destined to float him away in retirement.

Carson City Marshal Walter J. Thibido needlessly worries about what will happen to his family should he be killed by former lawman and shootist John Bernard (J.B.) Books.

Two shotgun blasts in the back mortally wound J.B. Books. He nods in acknowledgement when Gilliom Rogers throws away the handgun he just used to kill Books’ assailant.

Failing to capture a serial killer, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell retires and he and his wife sit at the kitchen table while he recounts a dream he had about his deceased father, a Sheriff in his own right, leading Ed Bell into eternity.

All of this in three movies, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Shootist and No Country for Old Men, which examine the close of police careers steeped in violence.

One of my law enforcement brothers stated, “Previously, I was a hired gun. Now I am a member of a community.” He’s still a law enforcement officer, but he’s learned something.

Pat Garrett and Sheriff Baker both represented the “hired gun” theme. Garrett alternated between outlaw and lawman. Baker returned the “piece of gold” he required to assist Pat Garrett in hunting for Billy the Kid.

Books was seen by the public as a shootist, a gunman, and thus perhaps a character not dissimilar to the opportunist and morally bankrupt Pat Garrett. The original The Shootist screenplay called for J.B. Books to backshoot an adversary. But, John Wayne refused to play it that way explaining that he had never shot anyone in the back in any movie that he had ever done.

Further arguing in opposition to the characterization, Books embodied the ideals of self sufficiency and fairness in purpose and action. He stated, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." But, what he did not say is that he would not abide the same done to those who cannot defend themselves. And, that is the role of the moral law enforcement officer.

Real cop life does have an element of the “hired gun” in it because society empowers officers with the authority to use deadly force when necessary to protect life. Fortunately, the anti-heroic moral relativism showcased by the spaghetti westerns of Clint Eastwood is not representative of modern police work. Eastwood’s work virtually ended the idealized good guy vs. bad guy storyline of the prior Western genre of films.

Most officers don’t think of themselves as hired guns, and they are just trying to get through the day by doing the right thing and not getting killed. Marshal Thibido and Sheriff Bell were such characters.

Upon retirement, some cops, like Sheriff Bell, struggle to adjust to a civilian life style incongruent with the essence of their adult identity creating a new void in their lives.

A dear friend and retired career law enforcement warrior warned me that I am “too invested” in the political issues enveloping and suffocating the soul of career law enforcement officers. And, perhaps I am too invested for my own good. It’s not in the script for Baker, Books and Bell, but I have a passion that is reason enough for me, grandchildren.

When I am knocking on heaven’s door, I want to be able to know that I made my best effort to influence the system to protect my grandbabies from those who wish them harm. I want to impart something to my grandbabies that will help them cope with the world’s dimming prospects for liberty.

Until that door opens for me, I pray that I retain the mental capacity to wield my pen in warning. That’s one way to address a threat.

When it becomes my time to only carry a retired law enforcement badge, I will not lay down my guns discarding the duty I accepted all these years as a hired gun for the American people. By God, if I can carry a gun for strangers, I can certainly carry one for my kin. That’s a second way to address a threat.

I was in a public park the other day for a family gathering. There was a gun in my pocket. Nobody knew about it, but it was there if a Wolf needed neutralizing.

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." And, I won’t let anyone do it to my loved ones.

The honored badge will be in my wallet and the gun will still be in my hand when it is my turn to step through the door.

Obama is Milk Toast on the Somali Pirates

2009-04-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

“Don’t tread on me” is definitely not the motto of Pres. Barack Obama. It is beginning to look like Obama’s is more comfortable as a “milk toast.”

The Somali pirates didn't suddenly appear over the last few years, they evolved over more than a decade of trial and error. A major assist with this is that the international anti-piracy patrol off Somalia is obsessed with avoiding violence, or punishment. The warships rarely fire on pirates, even when they catch the pirates in the act. When pirates are captured, they are usually released. When four armed pirates, and an American ship captain, were cornered recently, the president of the United States would not allow force to be used, until after first letting negotiations proceed for three days. Finally, on the fourth day, a local commander put his career on the line, and ordered the SEAL snipers to kill the recalcitrant pirates, and end the standoff. But that was the exception. 1

The President risked the life of Captain Phillips for three days? According to the quote above, it appears that the Naval Commander acted without the President’s concurrence.

I give the President the benefit of the doubt. In the future, perhaps the President can just be honest and say, “Baaa, Baaa.” The possibility that the President is far worse is too horrifying to contemplate.

“Uu-ah!” to the Naval Commander.

Link in this Blog:
1. The Silent Somali Piracy Pact

Know the Enemy

2009-04-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Go to this link and view “An Alarming video every Westerner should see.”

Beyond the Century of the Wolf

2009-04-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

I dubbed the Twentieth Century the “Century of the Wolf.” A hundred years despoiled and drenched in blood by Wolves in the macro. Opening with German aggression and World War I, it continued: with World War II, courtesy of German, Italian, and Japanese fascism; and endured the ravages of Communism; and closed with the rise of Islamo-fascism.

Standing between the people and totalitarianism are SheepDogs. The U.S. Commander-in-Chief is supposed to be the top SheepDog because he is at the head of the Free World.

Let’s review: What is this SheepDog and Wolf imagery?

Most people in the world are Sheep, and they share that commonality regardless of whether they live in freedom or under the suppressive thumb of tyranny. Sheep are everyday people struggling down the path of life looking to provide for their families. The key characteristic of Sheep is that they do not prepare for nor actively engage in self-protection. The ostrich with his head stuck in the sand is a competing analogy.

Sheep are preyed upon by Wolves who include criminals, fascists (Islamo and otherwise), and Communist tyrants. Wolves come in micro and macro versions, individuals and political systems respectively.

Wolves and SheepDogs share common ground in that they are both predators, but 180 degrees apart on the moral compass. SheepDogs battle Wolves and protect the Sheep by running toward the Wolf’s gunfire; gunfire which sends Sheep stampeding in the opposite direction.

There are not enough SheepDogs to protect the people. Fortunately, under dire communal circumstances a portion of the Sheep rise to the occasion by responding to a SheepDog attribute hidden deep within their Sheep DNA. If it were not for this covert characteristic, society on a world-wide scale would degenerate into anarchy and despotism. On the flip side, another portion of the Sheep likewise responds to and facilitates the leadership of enslaving despots.

What are freedom loving people to do when the default leader of the Free World does not demonstrate a SheepDog persona, and he panders to and sucks up to the Wolf leaders of antagonist countries?

Pres. Barack Obama’s recent trips abroad don’t portend well for freedom loving people when he doesn’t see the necessity to underscore traditional American values, values that lead the world to freedom. Where was the President’s strong response when the Latin American Wolf pups nipped at his heels?

Latin American leaders railed against the U.S. during President Barack Obama’s first trip to the region, turning what was intended to mark a new direction in relations into a history lesson that chastised “Yankee troop” interventions and U.S.-dictated economic policies. 1
Instead the President cheerfully accepted a leftist book excoriating the United States and Europe. If the United States had not actively combated the spread of Communism, more Latin American countries would have endured the Communist slaughter visited upon Cuba.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves, who last month called Obama an "ignoramus” when it comes to Latin America, today gave Obama a Spanish-language copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano’s book “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.” 1

The Twenty-first Century finds the Wolf alive and snarling. Too bad the world’s greatest hope for freedom is now led by a president who appears all too willing to suckle and take comfort at the tit of leftism, fascism, Communism and tyranny. The new President is actively dismantling the previously gutted intelligence and military apparatus that was reviving under the leadership of President George W. Bush.

Samuel Adams would roll over in his grave if he knew what the American public has done to his beloved country. Heed Adams’ words,

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"
With the backdrop of a morally bankrupt main stream media, a combination of Sheep passivism, leftist ideology, disdain for the arrogant Clintons, and American voter ignorance and shallowness came together and elected a slick talking, no credentialed, minor league Senator who had the good fortune to come along at a time when Americans are eager to demonstrate that they have moved beyond the corrosiveness of slavery and racial prejudice.

The survival of the Free World depends upon a SheepDog American president. A presidential Sheep or a possible Wolf in Sheep’s clothing is suicidal. We lived through the “Century of the Wolf,” but it looks as if the Wolves are breeding, and we are in for a rough Twenty-first Century.

Link in this Blog:
1. Obama Gets History Lesson From Latin American Leaders (Update1)

Update 4/21/09: After doing the research for this piece, I thought that the phrase “Century of the Wolf” was first created by me. Subsequently, I’ve found a reference showing that Osip Emil'evich Mandel'shtam (1891-1938?) used the phrase as the title of a poem.

My Wish for the Somali Pirates

2009-04-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Without making a judgment on the performance of our military at the site of the Somali pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage in the life raft, I wish that the military was in the position to cancel the tickets of the pirates when the Captain jumped overboard in his bid to escape. A Navy patrol boat could have laid down suppressive fire with the largest caliber weapons on board and not released the trigger until the lifeboat was reduced to flotsam. Then the Navy could have plucked the grinning Captain Phillips out of the water before the sharks began feasting upon the Somali pirate detritus.

Update 4/12/09: Navy SEAL Snipers hit the pirates and the Navy rescued Cpt. Phillips. Uu-ah!

Basketball Game Worth Watching

2009-04-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Is the March Madness insanity over? Oh well, it is college basketball and has some redeeming value. But, what can you say about those pompous, self-centered basketball pros who are worshiped by Americans without a life?

Get back to the real value of sports. Watch this video of a basketball story worth seeing.

The Hairless Court of St. Baldrick’s

2009-04-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, luxurious dark tresses cascaded below the princess’ shoulders, and her many suitors dreamed of the day that they might win the favor of combing their fingers through the object of their desire. The fantasy dissolved on March 19, 2009, as Cynthia’s locks tumbled to the feet of the barber. Inconsolable with grief, the SheepDog pack of 13 stepped forward in allegiance with their heroine, who sacrificed her locks to benefit children with cancer. In turn, each SheepDog was shorn, and his anguish transformed into joy as he joined his brethren encircling their idol to create the Jackson Police Department’s Hairless Court of St. Baldrick’s.

A few months back, several of my partners and I were rendered bald for the cause of defeating children’s cancer. The event sponsor was the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Here’s how the foundations describes itself.

St. Baldrick's is the world's largest volunteer-driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research. The St. Baldrick's name is a whimsical twist on St. Patrick's Day. At St. Baldrick's events all throughout the year, brave volunteers shave their heads, raising funds for childhood cancer research. Like runners in a marathon, "shavees" collect donations from friends, family and associates. The St. Baldrick's Foundation receives these funds and makes grants to research experts to find new and better cures for fighting kids cancer. 1
For many guys getting bald is all the rage, so I did not consider it a particularly big deal to cut off my hair for the kiddies. But, women deliberately going bald?

It may be news to the public-at-large, but it’s not news to the St. Baldrick’s community that most women are willing to shave their heads for a good cause. 1

A recent poll conducted by the Oxygen television network revealed that 75% of women polled (ages 18-34) would shave their heads to save the life of a stranger. News to us? Not at all. Since 2000, over 7,100 women have shaved their heads to raise funds for childhood cancer research. Add to that another 1,886 currently registered to go bald in 2009! 1

The employees and friends of the Jackson, WY, Police Department joined the cause. The team raised $8,531 with top fundraiser Cynthia Riedel coming in with $3,980. Way to go, Cynthia and team!

Volunteering in the benefit of charitable organizations, beyond just donating money, is a marvelous way to contribute to a positive aspect of society. Besides doing something good for others, the personal benefits are inestimable.

SheepDogs, there is so much more that you can do, so much more to contribute, other than running toward the gunfire.

Members of the flock, there is so many more of you than SheepDogs. You can make the biggest impact. Step forward and walk the path holding the hands of your fellow humans in need.

Cynthia and her Hairless Court of St. Baldrick’s is one way to do it. Pick your favorite and dive in. The water is fine.

Links in this Blog:
1. St. Baldrick’s Foundation

2. Jackson Police Department and Friends

Stigmatized and Narcissistic

2009-03-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Dennis Prager, national talk show host, educator, author and lecturer, is a dedicated advocate for the protection of children’s “innocence” in our sexually permissive and exploitive society.

On the Best of Dennis radio show on 3/27/09, David from Sherman Oaks called in and reported that he is a member of a swim club that uses the facilities of a public swimming pool. David stated, “…fathers who don’t wish to leave small children unattended have been bringing them into the locker room including very young daughters…” David opined that the girls were three-four years old, and he stated that he is uncomfortable having to undress in the young girls’ presence. David said that the pool management was not sympathetic to his plight.

David apparently believes that his self-consciousness in front of three-four year old girls trumps the safety of small children, and the fathers should leave the children unattended, or perhaps not frequent public swimming pools.

Dennis Prager strongly agreed with David’s complaint about being exposed nude to the girls. Dennis stated that the innocence of nude young children is between children and does not apply to the presence of a nude adult male.

Dennis recounted that at the age of four he attended a summer camp wherein the boys and girls were together in “total innocence.” But, if a male adult had walked around (nude) “it would have been very upsetting to all of us.”

Dennis reported many years ago that his then approximately ten year old son was once on a Greek beach in the presence of topless women. Dennis stated that his son could not have cared less about the women as he went about his beach play activity. Is Dennis now saying that adult male nudity is inherently more unsettling than adult female nudity?

Dennis also wondered about: what “these fathers think when they bring their kid (to the locker room)?”; “Does your little girl see you naked?”; and “I am sure that these fathers do not walk around naked in front of their little girls so why would they expect other men to walk around naked?” Dennis, are you thinking that these fathers bring their little girls into the locker room and then hide from them when changing and showering?

David’s discomfort with being seen naked by a child is disconcerting because it may signal an adult fixation on the human body as predominantly sexual. David only voiced uncomfortableness when naked in front of little girls. But, that is not the case with many males today, especially the young, who are hiding from other males.

I take my grand children swimming at the YMCA. Recently my seven and eight year old grandsons and I finished swimming, and we took off our swimming suits in a shower room full of males. Most males do that, but that’s changing. Neither of my grandsons had any problem showering or walking around naked in front of others. But, when my eldest grandson was about to get dressed he started to string up a towel to shield his nakedness. I asked him why he was doing so, and he stated that he did not want anyone to see him. I asked him if he was trying to hide because he possessed something that no one else had. He immediately took down the towel and proceeded as if nothing had occurred. My grandson is comfortable being naked while showering, but something about getting dressed caused him to seek cover. Someone is influencing my grandson to be uncomfortable with his body in the context of getting dressed. Fortunately, my question disrupted that context and put him at ease.

The explanation that young males are hiding themselves from other males because there is so much child sexual abuse is unsubstantiated by the facts. These children are expressing a learned adult prejudice which probably expresses itself in subsequent adulthood as narcissism.

I believe Dennis is reacting to his deep attachment to the precepts of modesty as expressed by his understanding of Judaism. I had the same modesty upbringing under Christianity. I grew up in a household of males, and until I was in college I never saw my mother so much as topless, much less naked. I was embarrassed in the third grade when female classmates were ogling a photo of a nude male statue in the dictionary.

At age twelve, I had a paper route and happened upon a nude female about three years of age. My proximity to her resulted in the police paying a visit to my home that evening. I was embarrassed, humiliated and scared simply because I was curious and had never seen a naked female.

As a teenager and a sexual late bloomer, I had virtually no concept about the female anatomy beyond a gross generalization. On a beach I observed two teenagers and the boy had his hands down the front of the girl’s bikini bottom. He was rubbing his hand forward and backward, and I thought him foolish because his actions could not have accomplished anything for her satisfaction. I had not yet learned anything about the clitoris.

Certainly there is much to admire from the wisdom of religion. But, sometimes ancient wisdom can become a stifling yoke of subjugation and ignorance.

From “YMCA Doesn’t Stand for Christian or Male Anymore and You Can’t Go Nude.”

“A child is born into this world without self-consciousness, and he must be
taught to be ashamed of his nude body. That’s an unhealthy religious/cultural consequence of immense impact. It is the melding of nudity and sex as the former is stigmatized by the “sinfulness” of the latter.”

Link in this Blog:
YMCA Doesn’t Stand for Christian or Male Anymore and You Can’t Go Nude

SheepDogs Are Not Enough

2009-03-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

A black parolee murdered four Oakland, CA, police officers. Slain were the SheepDog protectors of society.

The race of the perpetrator is important here because the framework of race has everything to do with the environment in which this scumbag robbed, raped and murdered. Nevertheless, the environment within which he grew up is no excuse for his behavior, and it is fortunate for society that he also died there.

Mixon, who was released from prison late last year after serving a sentence for violating his parole for a San Francisco-related robbery shooting, was a suspect in the Dec. 30, 2007, murder of Ramon Stevens, 42, but witnesses did not come forward, investigators said. And now police have confirmed that DNA evidence from a state laboratory possibly links Mixon to the rape of a 12-year-old girl in February near the 74th Avenue apartment,… 1

Reaction to the events within the community is varied. One news piece reported,

As Oakland struggled for answers Sunday in the somber aftermath of its deadliest police shooting, the family of the parolee who killed three officers and left another brain-dead, before being gunned down himself, could offer one. 2
One woman said that neighbors were slow to give police information.

She said neighbors knew immediately where Mixon had run, but they didn't tell police — who combed the neighborhood — until nearly an hour later. But in East Oakland, lamented the woman, Elaine, who didn't give her last name, that cooperation doesn't easily happen. 2

"It makes you feel bad," she said, wiping her eyes steps from blood spatters that clung stubbornly to a broken sidewalk on 74th Avenue. "But you just don't want to be a snitch. The word, 'snitch,' it's almost worse than murderer." 2

Interviewed on this incident, which came on the heels of the shooting of a black man, Oscar Grant, by a white BART police officer, an Oakland resident was quoted.

"All we want is respect," said Everstine Martin, whose husband is pastor at Prayer Mission Pentecostal Church on MacArthur Boulevard, and says she has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years. "I see police harassing people for no reason. Everyday, they are in this neighborhood casing the area. Do I think this is about Oscar Grant? No. But I would like to see more respect on both sides." 2

It is not hard to understand the mentality and words of the murderer’s family, neighbors and a religious representative. These people live in an urban war zone, and they express the realities of their existence. They are simultaneously victimized by and relate to on some level with their own victimizers.

Historical slavery and systematic cultural/governmental racism supported by law enforcement set the stage for a black suspicion that continues to exist to this day. A poisonous environment exists, in part, due to the destruction of the nuclear family through the implementation of standard liberal social policies of victimization and entitlement.

Prominent liberal whites and blacks don’t live in the blighted communities, and their children do not go to the dangerous schools. The white liberals bask in their “white guilt,” and black liberals manipulate that guilt to politically push a social policy which feeds the cancer enveloping black lower socioeconomic communities.

Through the ghetto cultural prism, it is no wonder that Everstine Martin sees law enforcement demons wherever she looks. Mrs. Martin fails to acknowledge that police activity occurs in her community precisely because members of her own community are rotten to the core, and they have the propensity to prey upon the very same community.

Four police officers are dead and four families are destroyed because of a human predator, a Wolf, the victimizer of SheepDogs and Sheep within his own community. Emotionally, I sometimes think thoughts such as abandon the ghetto communities populated by people who don’t want to “snitch.” Abandon the ghetto communities with people who just want “respect,” without extending a modicum of effort to earn it.

But, there are major intellectual problems with my emotional dark thoughts. There is no way to abandon the ghettos or to isolate them away from the rest of society. The residents of the black ghetto community are the daily targets of their own predatory people, who beat, rob, murder and rape with impunity. The community is caught in a downward spiral of social disintegration driven by drugs, crime and poverty. Accompanying the social disintegration is the degeneration of positive values. That’s why snitching is “…almost worse than murderer."

Despite the environment in which they live, most of the black ghetto community is not populated with criminals. The residents are the living result of a broken liberal social system inaugurated by Pres. Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” fresh on the heels of the truly “great” social advancements of the National Voting Rights Act and the forced school desegregation.

Fortunately for the black ghetto community, there are SheepDogs willing to risk their lives for people of whom they have never met. Sometimes the SheepDogs do lose their lives, and we cry. We cry for Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sgt. Erv Romans and Sgt. Dan Sakai.

I welcome the death, by a hail of police bullets, of the degenerate excuse of a human who caused so much misery to both citizens and law enforcement. His death won’t alleviate the misery of: a young raped girl; a robbery victim; the assault victim; or the families of the murdered. But, it did remove from society a small part of the cancer.

Uu-ah My Brother SheepDogs! Hunt the Wolf! And, God help you good citizens of the ghettos because SheepDogs are not enough.

Links in this Blog:
1. Parolee stood over stricken police officers and fired again

2. Cop killer was depressed about heading back to prison, family says

Previous Blog on the Subject:
Brother SheepDogs Pay the Price, Again

Brother SheepDogs Pay the Price, Again

2009-03-22T17:57:00.001-07:00

Three Oakland, CA, police officers were slain and one gravely wounded yesterday.

Every SheepDog knows and accepts that he can suffer a like fate. Nevertheless, the news is numbing.

Three Oakland police officers and a suspect are dead, and another officer is in grave condition, after two related shootings on Saturday, the first after a traffic stop and the second after a massive manhunt ended in gunfire, police said.

The slain officers were identified as Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, who was killed at the first shooting. The two members of the SWAT team who were killed at the second location were Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35. Officer John Hege, 41, is in grave condition.

Brother SheepDogs, you hunted the Wolf and paid the Warrior’s price.

Uu-ah Brothers Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai! May you rest in peace.

Uu-ah Brother John Hege! May you heal and return to the good fight with your Brothers-in-Arms.

UPDATE 3/22/09 1952 hours: Officer John Hege has been declared brain dead.

Links in this Blog:
Three Oakland Officers Slain, Fourth Critical

Follow up Blog 3/26/09:
SheepDogs Are Not Enough

Delusional Am I?

2009-03-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

After 30 years in law enforcement, you’d think that I would have no faith in mankind when it comes to issues of decency and critical thinking skills. But, I actually do have faith because I have seen the heart of the SheepDog. That does not mean that I am oblivious to the abundant evidence to the contrary.

What evidence might you ask? Well, take the election of President Obama. There is an excellent example of the lack of critical thinking skills. To all who voted for President Obama, give out a great big “baaaaa, baaaaa.”

As for indecency and a lack of critical thinking skills, here’s a good example. South African males are raping lesbians to “cure” them from being lesbian. Damn decent of those males, don’t you think?

Lesbians living in South Africa are being raped by men who believe it will 'cure' them of their sexual orientation…

Women are reporting a rising tide of brutal homophobic attacks and murders and the widespread use of 'corrective' rape as a form of punishment.

Take that baby, it is for your own good!

Apparently, the South African authorities are not taking the attacks seriously.

The report, commissioned by international NGO ActionAid, called for South Africa's criminal justice system to recognise the rapes as hate crimes as police are reportedly failing to take action over the spiralling violence.

What does that tell you about the core values of a country?

Alas, there is no end to the idiocy and depravity of the human animal.

Faith in mankind? Perhaps I am delusional.

Link in this Blog:
South African men are 'raping women to cure them of being lesbians'

Eighty Nine and Counting, SheepDog Call to Arms

2009-03-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

En route to breakfast, I spotted it standing by itself on the curb. Splendid in its coat of yellow, it stood as a sentinel reminding all who would take notice that there are firemen waiting to rush to our assistance should a fire threaten all that is dear to us. How come fire hydrants are not painted red anymore? Maybe that went out of style along with red fire engines.

Are you wondering why on earth I am writing about fire hydrants? It’s Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s fault. You see, I attended one of the LtC’s presentations the other day, and he made a big point about how firemen are always prepared with the tools of their trade. No one ever bad mouths a fireman for having a fire extinguisher or an ax readily at hand.

Some people raise their eyebrows at the prospect of police officers carrying concealed firearms while off-duty. Well, maybe not quite as many of us carry concealed as we should. That was precisely the LtC’s point. He suggested that SheepDogs think about our rights and responsibilities to be armed off-duty. LtC suggested that every time that a SheepDog sees a fire hydrant he should be reminded that if he is unarmed he is unprepared and he might just as well say “Baaaa.”

It’s bad form that many SheepDogs don’t keep the tools of their trade readily at hand, but it is immoral that American leftists are determined to nullify and restrict the Constitutional right to gun ownership. Leftists don’t want the public to have firearms to protect themselves. And, tyrannies never allow their citizens to own guns. There is no deniability of either fact. Is it a coincidence? As the LtC is fond of stating, “Denial has no survival value.”

On the less than 10 mile drive to breakfast, I saw 89 fire hydrants. The fire people are prepared for their job. Come on SheepDogs, let’s each be sure that we are prepared mentally and have at hand the right equipment if we are called upon to defend against the Wolf sinking his fangs into our world. You can’t successfully run toward the gunfire if you are not prepared to take action. And, if you are not running forward, you forfeit the title of SheepDog and become a Sheep.

As I counted fire hydrants, I was prepared with a firearm and a mission go-bag.

Uu-ah LtC! Keep the faith, and preach the word.

Links in this Blog:
Lt Col. Dave Grossman: Killology

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman: Warrior Science

The Messiah Needs the TelePrompter Crutch

2009-03-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

Anyone who routinely lectures can appreciate the problems public speaking can cause the President. It is one thing to make repetitive talks and quite another when each speech is unique in and of itself.

At one point in my career, I gave repetitive presentations to public groups on the same general subject matter. The repetitiveness gave me the opportunity to see what worked with the crowd and what did not. I had the opportunity to hone the speech over time and each lecture became nearly extemporaneous.

There is great potential power in an extemporaneous speech because it can portray passion and personal sincerity far better than reading prepared remarks. There is also great risk if you misspeak.

For the President, every utterance in a speech will be dissected and discussed ad infinitum with serious consequences both pro and con.

President George W. Bush was continually bashed and mocked for his public presentations, and yet you knew that he was sincere. You knew it because it was obvious that he often spoke from the heart.

When the Messiah, excuse me Barack Obama, came on the national scene he was touted as a great orator. No he was not, and President Obama is not a great orator. The great orator claim is another mainstream media lie. President Obama is a great reader of a written speech, and he needs a teleprompter to adequately read the prepared words.

President Obama knows his public speech handicap, and he hauls around a teleprompter for even the shortest of presentations. My pre-Presidential election piece “Obama is Inarticulate When Not Scripted,” has a video of the tongue-tied, bumbling Obama when his teleprompter malfunctions. Now the mainstream media is beginning to comment on his continual use of the teleprompter. See the link listed below.

The public has no way of knowing what is in the heart of President Obama when he gives a speech. Every word is crafted by a speech writer and tailored for political purposes.

For the mainstream media to even mention the teleprompter issue is a sign that the honeymoon glow is already fading from the Barack Obama presidency.

Links in this Blog:
Obama is Inarticulate When Not Scripted

Obama's safety net: the TelePrompter

Hey Doc, Your License Says MD Not GOD

2009-03-02T20:38:00.001-08:00

During Bill Clinton’s presidency, Hillary Clinton made a fiasco of her attempt to institute a national health care system. Detractors pointed out that national health systems do not deliver the healthcare excellence that they purport to do and fall far short of private medical health care systems. Pres. Obama is about to launch his own national healthcare system and there is no reason to suppose that it will be any better than the British National Healthcare System. Here’s a 2006 report about British doctors rationing health care and hastening the deaths for people deemed unworthy of receiving care.

New figures reveal that 3,000 patients were helped to die by doctors breaking the law in the UK last year, and 192,000 people had their deaths accelerated by medics. Midland doctor RITA PAL accuses medics of playing God with people's lives. 1
…idealistic values have little place in today's NHS. Hospitals are so under-staffed and under-funded that they become treatment factories condoning a 'survival of the fittest' policy. 1
The elderly, disabled, confused - those who are least able to form a rapport with doctors - become an intolerable burden on an over-stretched health system.1
Before long, a consultant will make the decision to withdraw treatment in their 'best interests'.1
The decision is actually based on an assessment of the patient's quality of life versus the potential resource consumption. Unfortunately, the assessment is rarely either detailed or objective. 1
Doctors are so busy and tired that they make subjective decisions nfluenced
by their own culture, upbringing and opinions.1
If the patient's condition does not permit a quality of life that the doctor would personally find acceptable, it is assumed that the life is not worth living and treatment is withdrawn.1

These decisions are often unknown to relatives. 1

I hear the justification of 'best interests' echoed through every NHS ward. I often turn away and wonder how death could possibly be considered in the patient's 'best interest'.1

The foregoing article articulates serious shortcomings in socialized medicine. I had some of the same observations and suspicions during a recent experience in a Southern California hospital where my 92 year old aunt was being treated. I wrote about the experience, and the piece is entitled, “How Shall My Aunt Die?”

My aunt’s attending hospital doctor appears to be Persian. Could he be injecting Middle Eastern cultural bias into his medical judgment? If it had been my uncle in similar circumstances, would the doctor recommend the same course of action?

Then again, maybe the doctor got his medical training in the U.K. and he was simply expressing the national healthcare model and my aunt was the unfortunate victim of “benevolent” socialized medical thinking.

Links in this Blog:
1. Doctors playing God with lives

2. How Shall My Aunt Die?

How Shall My Aunt Die?

2009-03-01T17:16:00.001-08:00

The corollary to the question posed in the title of this blog is, “What Part Do I Play in Her Death?”

My aunt is 92 years old and has Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) of which she is never going to recover. Since oncological remedies are rigorous beyond what my aunt wishes to endure, she elected to live out her days with few medical innervations and spend her last days as comfortable as possible. To date, that includes a monthly blood transfusion, which is time consuming but not particularly an onerous procedure.

My aunt is a resilient woman. She was once on Hospice in northern California for her MDS condition, but recovered to such an extent that she was taken off Hospice. She again lived on her own doing everything for herself save driving. As bad luck would have it: she had a fall and injured an arm; ended up in the hospital; and subsequently spent a week or so in a rehab center. The hospital/rehab stint resulted in her deteriorating to the status of a bedridden invalid failing rapidly. The rehab center said that they could do nothing further and discharged her.

My aunt was in such a bad state that she was unable to be transported via a passenger car, and I had her transported 300 miles in an ambulance to my residence. By the time my aunt reached my house, she had dramatically improved. It is amazing what the mind can do when the person feels connected to caring family and not left in the charge of outside facility caregivers. Since her arrival five months ago, she has recovered much of her lost ground.

Now my aunt is enduring a hospital stint for a bout of pneumonia. The hospital admitting doctor took me aside and stridently argued for my aunt to again become a Hospice patient. His point was that she is never going to get better due to the MDS, and with the start of dementia, she is going to become a revolving door with pneumonia and other unspecified problems. He stated that he would not write an order for her to receive a blood transfusion.

I’ve got some problems with the doctor’s bleak assessment and his pushing of Hospice. Yes, he is correct in a long-term prognosis, but it is not, in my estimation, my aunt’s reality today. Her beginning dementia is greatly reduced with medication, and it is not possible to know her future mental condition. Today, she is mostly alert, lucid, cognizant as to time, date and place, and engages intelligently in conversation. Yes, she will brush her teeth and then forget that she has done so and brushes her teeth a second time. Most importantly, my aunt wishes to continue receiving her monthly blood transfusions. If my aunt is admitted to Hospice, the transfusions will cease. She must receive a transfusion soon or within a couple of weeks her hemoglobin count will drop into the “6” level, and she will be dead.

As I sit here by her hospital bed, the charge nurse advised me that a Hospice representative will be here in a few minutes to consult with us. Guess what? We are not going to be stampeded into Hospice on the word of one doctor, who has spent a total of 10 minutes with her over the duration of 24 hours.

I am my aunt’s legal/medical advocate. That means that I stand between her and a medical system that does not necessarily operate in her best interest. There are still medical procedures which are agreeable to my aunt and fit within her definition of an acceptable quality of life. My agreeing to Hospice would be a virtual signing of her death certificate. This is not the time, and Hospice is not happening now.

What happens to individuals who do not have an advocate to question, challenge and nullify a physician’s assertion?

Update 3/2/09: Hey Doc Your License Says MD Not GOD

Men Are Not to Like Women in Bikinis

2009-02-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

Men like women in bikinis. No kidding, Buckwheat?

It’s official from a Princeton University study that men like women clad in bikinis. Someone needed a study to come to that conclusion? Every women’s libber knows that males are sexual pigs and no study is required to prove it. All that needs to be done to rectify male sexist tendencies is to force some sensitive feminine socialization on the sexual miscreants at a young age and mold them into becoming better human beings. That’s what is being done in both schools and sports. Feminists are diligently working to turn the otherwise future testosterone laden pigs into whimpering wimps as if they are little lumps of clay to be molded to the feminist desire. I think that it is working; turning them into wimps, that is.

But wait, what is this from the study?

Although consistent with conventional wisdom, the way that men may depersonalize sexual images of women is not entirely something they control. In fact, it's a byproduct of human evolution, experts say. The first male humans had an incentive to seek fertile women as the means of spreading their genes.1

"They're not fully conscious responses, and so people don't know the extent to which they're being influenced," Fiske said. "It's important to recognize the effects."1

What the...? Letting those pigs off the hook like that is downright un-feminist!

Both women and men have something to learn from this line of research, Raison said. Women should be aware of how they are perceived when wearing provocative clothing, and men shouldn't let feelings of impersonal sexual longing interfere with their more personal relationships with other women, including female friends.1

Oh, you think that women actually don’t know what they are doing when wearing provocative clothing? It is called baiting the hook, isn’t it?

Here’s a great line from the article.

"Many men make foolish choices because of sexual attraction," he said.1

Foolish choices? Ya think?

Oh well. It’s hopeless. I still like bikini clad women no matter what level my testosterone. Or, is it because of the testosterone?

Blog Links
1. Men see bikini-clad women as objects, psychologists say

633 Marbles, Happy Birthday Honey

2009-02-24T08:01:00.000-08:00

My good friend, Chuck, sent me an e-mail containing a piece entitled, “3900 Saturdays.” That’s the number of Saturdays in your life if you live to an average of 75 years old. You can follow the link herein and read the whole piece, but the lesson is about a man who discovers that he only has 1000 Saturdays left before he reaches age 75. To dramatize the slipping away of life, the man purchases 1000 marbles and places them in a large clear plastic container. Each Saturday, he takes out one marble and throws it away. That simple act dramatizes how precious each day is and reminds us to invest in our loved ones and the things that are truly important in our lives.

Today is my granddaughter’s sixth birthday. We gave her a doll house. To help celebrate, I am getting myself a gift. I am going to buy 633 marbles and a clear plastic container. And when my container is empty of marbles, it will be full of treasured moments with those that I love. Every Saturday thereafter I’m going to start adding marbles back to the container.

Link in this Blog:
3900 Saturdays

SheepDog Brothers

2009-02-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

With each embrace I intoned, “Uu-ah Sheepdog!” Turning toward the car to give my goodbyes to the wives, I heard from behind me, “Uu-ah, Uu-ah!” I strode into the air terminal, and my friends drove off into the glistening backdrop of snow covered mountains. I headed back to Southern California, and within a couple of days they would part as well.

In the 1970’s, three young police officers worked on a street crime suppression team at a significant Southern California police department. We were enthusiastic and over-invested in some of the greatest police experiences of our law enforcement careers. Amigos, who worked, drank, partied, hunted and fished together. We eventually separated to different police agencies. Two are now retired, and we were together again for a retirement party.

Both of my cohorts performed well in their law enforcement careers. Each served as an Interim Chief of Police for their respective agency.

This weekend I read a letter, signed by every police officer on the Jackson Police Department, requesting that the Interim Chief of Police be appointed as the Chief of Police. The letter extolled the Interim Chief’s virtues and a word leapt off the page at me. The word was not “manager.” It was “leader.”

I’ve heard similar reports about my other former colleague’s career as a Deputy Chief of Police and as an Interim Chief of Police.

In my piece, “Thanks from a Warrior, Antidote to the Jackals,” I lamented the existence of “Jackals,” law enforcement officers who abandoned their sacred oath. I also lamented about the inherent destruction of officer emotional stability and the damage to law enforcement families.

My former partners avoided both pitfalls and emerged from successful law enforcement careers with solid mental health and intact families. Both men exemplify all that is good in a professional police officer. They paid their dues by working the hard details on the street and rose in rank while diligently utilizing their considerable experience to the benefit of their respective agency and its officers. No Jackals are these men. They are the finest of SheepDogs.

I am proud to call each of these men my friend. I salute and congratulate Sergeant Scott Terry (Ret.) Jackson Police Department, WY, and Deputy Chief of Police Wayne Hiltz (Ret.) Pasadena Police Department, CA, for law enforcement careers well done and families well raised.

“Uu-ah Sheepdogs! Hunt the Wolf and the Jackal!”

Link in this Blog:
Thanks from a Warrior, Antidote to the Jackals

No Constitutional Rights For Afghan Terrorists

2009-02-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

Glory Hallelujah! Obama got this one right.

The Obama administration, siding with the Bush White House, contended Friday that detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights. 1

Obama made some leftists mad.

"The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we'd hoped," said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Airfield. "We all expected better." 1

"They've now embraced the Bush policy that you can create prisons outside the law," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has represented several detainees. 1
I have personal trepidations about Pres. Obama and national security issues. And, why not? His history is linked to leftist philosophies and Islamo-fascist apologists. But, give Obama credit on this one.

Link in this Blog:
1. Obama admin. backs Bush: No constitutional rights for detainees at Afghanistan base

Obama Selling Out America?

2009-02-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Did President Obama just sell out America by authorizing the funds to immigrate Palestinians into the United States? Various sources are claiming that he authorized the resettlement of Palestinians in the U.S. with the executive order shown below.

Here’s the executive order that he signed.

Presidential Determination No.2009-15 of January 27, 2009

Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Gaza

Memorandum for the Secretary of State

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the Untied States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the “Act”), as amended (22U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to Section 2©(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migrations of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

Assistance within Gaza is one thing, but what we don’t need in this country are more Jewish and American hating, Hamas loving Palestinian people. The devil is in the details. Someone better keep a close eye on the doings of this President.

Link in this Blog:

Presidential Determination No.2009-15 of January 27, 2009

Morro Bay Sky

2009-02-16T18:48:00.001-08:00

Babes & Bull

2009-02-16T18:23:00.001-08:00

Elephant seals north of Hearst Castle.

There is No Free Lunch Unless...

2009-02-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

Everyone works for lunch unless you are a non-productive and then you can depend upon Pres. Obama and the Triumvirate of Pelosi, Reid and Kerry to feed, clothe and pamper you while the productive pay for it. That's what the Socialists do to get votes.

Even these guys are productive as they clean up the environment. They are the ultimate recyclers. The Democrats don't wait for you to die before they pick your bones..

Thanks from a Warrior, Antidote to the Jackals

2009-02-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

Stress is the greatest cop killer. That is why suicide takes far more law enforcement lives annually than violence by others. Unfortunately, stress takes more than lives. It also destroys law enforcement families, even without a suicide.

I used to joke with new officers who were getting married for the first time. I’d say something along the lines of, “You are not yet a real cop; this is only your first marriage.”

The stressors in police work are articulated by retired police officer and psychologist Dr. Kevin Gilmartin in his invaluable book, "Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement."

It is no secret among law enforcement that the greatest amount of stress for officers is generated within the police department. Nearly thirty years in law enforcement has taught me the truth of that fact.

Viktor Frankl, the famed psychologist and holocaust survivor, posited the thesis that there are only two groups of humans, the decent and the indecent.

Expanding upon Frankl, there are subsets within both groups. Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman popularized the concept of Wolves and Sheepdogs. Wolves are a predatory segment of the indecent people who prey upon the majority decent people, the Sheep. Sheepdogs, the military and law enforcement segment of the decent people, protect the Sheep from the Wolves.

There is a sub-group within the Sheepdogs, which I designate as “Jackals.” They are the Sheepdogs who forego their sacred oath and no longer work for the betterment of society. Within the law enforcement community, the Jackals exacerbate the natural stress cycles and contribute mightily to the emotional destruction of officers and their families.

In a recent exchange of correspondence, LtC Grossman wrote this to me, “Stay staunch, brother Sheepdog!”

To this I replied, “As for staying "staunch" it is getting more difficult as I discover so many Jackals among law enforcement SheepDogs. Kevin Gilmartin's "Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement" nails the issues to the wall.”

With the LtC’s permission, I quote his reply to me:

Hooah, Paul.
Thought you might appreciate this.
Hunt the wolf!
Dave

To: Our Sheepdog, Our Cops: "Thanks"
From: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

I've got something I need to say to you, and all of your magnificent 'sheepdog' comrades, and it comes from the heart...

Thirty-two years ago, I was a twenty year old buck sergeant in the 82d Airborne Division, spending over half my time on deployment, leaving behind a young wife and two little babies.

Twenty-two years ago I was a company commander in Panama, leaving a wife and three little boys back at home.

Twelve years ago I was wrapping up my military career, deployed every summer and countless weekends and weeks in between, with a wife and teenagers at home.

For the last eleven years I've been on the road, almost 300 days a year, training cops and military. I get home one or two nights a week: conjugal visit, clean underwear, and back on the road again.

For my entire adult life I've spent more time away from my loved ones than I ever spent with them. And I knew, all they ever had to do, was to pick up the phone and dial three digits, and someone like you would show up to fight and, yes, even die for my loved ones.

And so I need to say something: Thank you.

Thank you, for walking the mean streets during one of the most violent times in history.

Thank you, for going toward the sound of the guns, when everyone else runs away.

Thank you, for being the front-line of defense in the War on Terror.

Thank you, for going in harm's way, every day, that others may live.

Thank you, for watching our back and covering our 'six' when we are overseas.

You should hear those words a lot more often: Thank you.

May God bless you and yours, as you protect and watch over others,

Dave Grossman Lt Col, USA (ret)
www.WarriorScience.com

Did you catch the LtC’s use of “Hooah?” That’s the greeting and acknowledgment among U.S. Army Sheepdogs. Each of our military branches has their own unique appellation. I am honored that the LtC used his with me.

Law enforcement doesn’t have a universal appellation, and we need one. So, I coined, “Uu-ah!”

The LtC also wrote, “Hunt the Wolf!” That’s what we Sheepdogs do; we hunt Wolves.

To me, the LtC’s words of thanks to all cops are a balm, an emotional antidote to the venom of the Jackals. So Dave, right back to you: Uu-ah SheepDog! Hunt the Wolf & the Jackal!

"Many Have Given So Much That I Can Be Here"

2009-02-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

Baxter Black speaks the truth from his heart.

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

Sucking the Vibrancy Out of America

2009-02-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

“Change” and “Yes we can,” mantra of a Presidential hopeful. Here’s something that the new President Obama can address:

DAVOS, Switzerland: This was supposed to be the year the United States came in from the cold at the annual gathering of world leaders here. But instead of receiving a warm embrace, American policies were rebuked again and again in rhetoric that recalled the anger of the Bush years - except the ire this time was mostly directed at Washington's economic failings, rather than its diplomatic ones. 1

There is a deep reservoir of good will for President Barack Obama personally and the change in direction he represents. But his administration is about to discover that the rest of the world does not seem to be in a hurry to forgive and forget - and that it sees a new threat in the form of U.S. protectionism. 1

A binge of new borrowing by Washington could effectively crowd out other borrowers by pushing interest rates higher over the long term, and would be especially painful for developing countries that rely on foreign capital. 1

Is the whole world stupid or what? It was the Democratic Party that set in motion the house of cards by mandating the changes to home mortgage rules allowing non-qualified persons to spend themselves and the nation into disaster. Now we have a Democratic Party President escalating the economic disaster as he continues the creation of a socialist society dependent upon government.

If that is not totally insane, this is.

"The irony of the situation," said Haas, of the Council on Foreign Relations, "is that everyone is still looking to the U.S. for leadership to fix things or at least make things better." 1

The U.S. is to make things better with a president who has socialism in his heart? The sound you hear is socialism sucking the vibrancy out of America.

The socialist world will love Obama because he will do all that they have been doing. So, are the Davos attendees stupid? No, they are playing international politics. And since all politics are local, they are playing to their home crowds. Now they have another opportunity to blame somebody other than themselves.

Need a translation of Obamaspeak? Read Terry Paulson to understand what Obama really has in mind. 2

Links in this Blog:
1. In time of crisis, looking to U.S. with wariness and hope

2. Paulson: 'Obamaspeak' translation

Somebody Did Pay

2009-02-01T20:18:00.001-08:00

Photographer Unknown

This photo reminds me of my trip to the Wall and Arlington in May 2007.

Freedom is not Free and Somebody Indeed Did Pay!

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION UNDER GOD,
INDIVISIBLE,

WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

No Tolerance for Islamists

2009-01-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here in the land of the free where religious tolerance is taken for granted, we have difficulty comprehending the cancer of Islamist practitioners. No, I don’t mean your moderate Muslim neighbor. He and his family are probably good people, but they are irrelevant to the survival of the world beset by the insanity of Islamists.

It is time for America to awaken to the reality of the threat. Go to “What Islam is Not” and view this video. Unless we recognize the threat and make substantive changes in our attitude, in time America will suffer the same fate occurring elsewhere. And, that attitudinal change does not mean electing members of the Democratic Party to national office.

Stopping a repeat of 9/11/01 or lesser level incidents did not just happen by itself. It took a determined Presidential leadership to make the decisions to put our best Americans in harm’s way on foreign soils and to begin the transformation of our domestic law enforcement.

The past Presidential election proves that Americans are asleep and/or have their collective heads inserted where the sun does not shine. We just elected a national leadership reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter Presidency. And, he gave the world the first Islamofascist theocracy since the fall of the one thousand year Caliphate and unleashed the cataclysmic Islamist cancer.

Unless there are major American attitudinal changes, the children and grandchildren of today’s voters will pay a price unimaginable to most Americans. You better wake up Americans! There is a world beyond Oprah, The View and sports, and it intends to convert you and your progeny to Islam or cut your throats. What do you think of blanket religious tolerance now?

Link in this Blog:
What Islam is Not

Thanks POTUS 42-43

2009-01-22T06:09:00.001-08:00

Over seven years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and the Homeland is still safe. That is quite an accomplishment. Thanks George W. Bush, you turned out to be a real leader; A leader with solid values and determination who remained un-swayed by the counsel of others with lesser values.

We worked to extend freedom and human liberty as the alternatives to tyranny and terror. No matter whether or not you agree with my decisions or not, one thing you have to agree with is that we have not been attacked in the last seven years. 1

This is a tribute to all who toil day and night to keep us safe, especially the men and women who wear our nation's uniform. 1
Link in this Blog:
1. Text of Bush's remarks Tuesday

PA Police Abet Nudity Hysteria

2009-01-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

Local police departments are mandated with enforcing the laws of their jurisdiction. But, common sense is supposed to be applied to ensure that the enforcement is consistent with both the letter and the intent of the law. That doesn’t always happen. Witness the arrest of teenagers on pornography charges in Pennsylvania.

GREENSBURG, Pa. -- Three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a Greensburg Salem High School who received them, are charged with child pornography. 1

Police said the girls are 14 or 15, and the boys charged with receiving the photos are 16 or 17. None are being identified because most criminal cases in Pennsylvania juvenile courts are not public. 1

Pornography and indecency are tough concepts, and it ultimately comes down to an interpretation of local community standards. In some parts of the country it is permissible for adults to sunbathe nude in a public park, or ride bicycles and participate in public runs in the nude. In other parts of the country, such an action causes the heavens to open with denunciations of wickedness from citizenry and elected officials alike. In either case, the local police enforce their concept of the law no matter how stupid the law.

The real problem is that a goodly portion of the U.S. public is sexually bonkers and perceives nudity as strictly sexual. Well, it might be, and it might not be.
"It was a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude," said Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department. 1

"Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it," said Seranko. 1

Now, there is an enlightened police official.

How bad can nudity really be when it’s acceptable to be used as an expression of a First Amendment right, which is consistently upheld by the courts?

Stigmatizing and persecuting these teenagers with child pornography charges is a form of child abuse in and of its self. The local police and the District Attorney are abetting the abuse if these cases go forward.

Child pornography? Give me a break. Better yet, give the kids a break!

Link in this Blog:
1. High Schoolers Accused Of Sending Naked Pictures To Each Other

Hillary Clinton Hated by the Mainstream Media

2009-01-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton was the darling of the mainstream media until Barack Obama came along and spoiled her party. Was she really previously so loved by the press? I don’t think so. I think that she was simply the best choice at the time to derail the much hated Pres. George W. Bush and the Republican Party from maintaining the Presidency. Much has already been written about the press’ dissing of Hillary during the Presidential campaign. I suspect that the press corps despises her for her true character and that they have always done so.

Today, the Associated Press put out a piece showing that donors to Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, were previously assisted by Sen. Hillary’s efforts.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting ompanies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found. 1

The overlap of names on former President Bill Clinton's foundation donor list and business interests whose issues she championed raises new questions about potential ethics conflicts between her official actions and her husband's fundraising. The AP obtained three of the senator's government letters under the Freedom of Information Act.1

Are there any informed persons who don’t believe that the Clintons are condescending, self-serving people? Sure the press should be revealing corrupt practices of politicians, but this did not do it. How about showing that the Clintons gave preferential service to companies for an agreed upon subsequent donations?

The facts published by AP today do not support any wrong doing by Hillary, and their publication at the time of Hillary’s Secretary of State confirmation process is an unjustified attack. Bring us some evidence of corruption.

But heck, my request is too much to expect from the mainstream media with its left-wing broken moral compass. I suspect that the AP attack is simply a dig at Pres-elect Obama, who is not fulfilling the hopes of the left with his appointments.

Link in this Blog:
1. AP: Clinton acted on concerns of husband's donors

Ayman al-Zawahiri Got One Thing Right

2009-01-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Zawahiri is upset with President Elect Obama for not coming to the defense of Hamas in the current dust-up with Israel. Zawahiri did properly characterize the U.S. mainstream media.

"This is Obama whom the American machine of lies tried to portray as the rescuer who will change the policy of America," al-Zawahiri said, according to SITE. "He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection." 1

Zawahiri is batting five hundred. He’s correct in the characterization of the “Ameircan machine of lies” but he strikes out when he pins responsibility on Obama for the killing in Gaza. Zawahiri is a little harsh on the guy who is not yet the President.

I wrote previously that the Islamofascists won’t like Obama because he renounced Islam. What Obama thinks of Islamofascists is unknown, like so many other topics.

Link in this Blog:
1. Report: Al-Qaida No. 2 blames Obama for Gaza fight

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

2009-01-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Twelve-“America is a nation that looks to God for guidance.”

Number 12 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

Increasingly, Americans are not looking to God for guidance. Moral relativism, the philosophy of the 1960’s, is a cancer eating at one of the two great gifts to the world, Judeo-Christian values. Many of our popular heroes reflect a rotting moral compass. As such, the Great Ship America is losing its rudder and yawing toward a ship wreck

This Face is All I Have

2009-01-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

This Face is All I Have, Born and Lived In

This face is all I have, born and lived in

And the lines below my eyes are like old friends

This heart’s been beat-up

My rugged sole has things that are rough, and this face is all I have, born & lived in

The fairest they can fall for believin’

Something to achieve is peaceful feelin’

After all these tears are only truths

Your silver spoons can dig up my roots, and this face is all I have, born & lived in

Born & lived in, through the tides of time

Born & lived in

This face of mine I can believe in, the reflection on the wall

Who needs to be the fairest of them all?

I never looked like you, cool and streamline

I have this honesty that grows with time

When cracks appear they suit me fine

Like a good ol’ dog you won’t hear me whine, and this face is all I have, born & lived in

Born & lived in, through the tides of time

Born & lived in, this face of mineI can believe in, the reflection on the wall

Who needs to be the fairest of them all?

Sins and lies, they take the place of truth and answers

You can trade a glance and call it a second side

You can’t buy a sympathetic mirror

Honesties and answers you can’t buy

I can believe in, the reflection on the wall

Who needs to be the fairest of them all?

Well, you know, this face is all I have, born & lived in

And the lines below my eyes are like old friends

This ol’ heart’s been beat-up

My Rugged ol’ sole has things that are rough, and this face is all I have, born & lived in

This face is all I have, born & lived in

Born & lived in

Lyrics of “This Face” by Rod Marshall on his album “Nearly Willie.”

Forget Guns, Ban the Carrying of Knives

2009-01-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

The mantra among the vocal American anti-gun crowd continues year in and year out to ban the possession of guns. If we could only accomplish this lofty goal, all would be peaceful. Sure you’re right. Britain banned guns long ago, and look what happened to their violence.
The 19-year-old was out late with a friend when a group of young men attacked them, possibly after some kind of dispute. There was a lethal glint of metal, and minutes later Bakurally lay bleeding on the sidewalk, stabbed to the heart. 1

His death added to a grim roll call of fatal knife attacks in Britain in 2008, possibly the worst such year on record. In a country where guns are strictly controlled and shootings are much rarer than in the United States, the surge in stabbings has propelled the issue of knife crime to the top of the public safety agenda. 1

Gee, what do they want to do now, make knives illegal?
Britain's Labor Party government is now talking of a zero-tolerance policy for anyone caught carrying a knife… 1

The government agrees. It is calling for punishment for anyone caught with a knife. 1

"We're going to protect our young people, and we're going to stop the knife crime that has caused so much damage, so much grief and so much anguish to so many families in this country." 1

Maybe the British people should start carrying firearms to protect themselves from knife wielding fiends.

Link in this Blog:
1. Britain moves to curb rise in knife violence

Women Probably Can’t Save Islam or the World

2009-01-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

I can write impertinent things here because this is my blog: moderate Muslims are irrelevant; men perniciously rule the world; the penis rules men; and women can influence behavior by how they use the penis.

CIA agents demonstrate that they know the power of the penis to influence behavior when they give Viagra to Afghanistan tribal chiefs.

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an 0pportunity, and reached in his bag for a small gift. 1

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes - followed by a request for more pills. 1

Ancient literature and recent anecdotal accounts suggest that women can influence change by withholding sex. It is problematic whether or not female sex strikes are truly effective as mechanisms to induce change, to say nothing about the physical risk entailed.

Irshad Manji (2), a tireless advocate for both women and Islam, instructs that Muslim women can be agents of change through economics and education and thereby empowering moderate Muslims to throw off the shackles of Islamofascism. But, Muslim women need help from the Western world to accomplish the world’s next true miracle.

… most Muslims live outside the Middle East, and Washington must learn to acknowledge their worth. Doing so demands a foreign-policy rethink. Instead of being driven strictly by counterterrorism, the United States' approach to Muslims should be complemented by a universal human-rights thrust—a cooperative strategy that recognizes ordinary Muslims, especially women, to be immediate targets of jihadism, as well as indispensable partners in the fight against it. 3
Muslim males, in much of the world, appear to be driven by unrestrained emotion. Witness the volatility displayed by Muslim males in protest demonstrations and religious rites. Coupling the emotion with cultural Middle Eastern male dominance over women crafts a world of burkas, female circumcision, rape, beatings, mayhem and executions. Mix in the rage of Islamofascists, a rage that warps Islam to the purposes of evil people, and you have the recipe for worldwide disaster.

While Manji makes a persuasive argument for the empowerment of Muslim females, the desired change is likely to come too little and too late to forestall the misery descending worldwide upon the heads of Muslims and Infidels alike. Manji’s plan can best be applied in the Western world, well at least the United States, and perhaps that could ultimately reduce the number of potential recruits to the tenets of Islamofascist jihad within the U.S. But, what about the rest of the world?

Links in this Blog:
1. CIA buys Afghan chief's loyalty with Viagra
2. Irshad Manji
3. To Fix Islam, Start From the Inside

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

2009-01-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Eleven-“This nation possesses an amazing capacity for self-renewal.”

Number 11 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

“The American people have a genius for self-correction. Sometimes it takes a while, but in the end we find our way.”

God help us if takes an extended period this time!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas

2009-01-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Ten-“The United States is the world’s greatest marketplace for the free exchange of ideas and information.”

Number 10 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

Do you ever wonder why it is that members of the Democratic Party want to limit the freedom of expression with a reincarnation of the unFairness Doctrine?

On the Ninth Day of Christmas

2009-01-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Nine-“Americans are among the most generous people on earth.”

Number 9 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

2009-01-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Eight-“America is a world leader in scholarship and invention.”

Number 8 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

2008-12-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Seven-“The U.S. military is the greatest defender of freedom in the world .”

Number 7 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

2008-12-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Six-“No other country has welcomed and united so many people from so many different shores.”

Number 6 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

Walking the Point, the Cops’ Perspective

2008-12-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

“Walking the Point” is the title of a piece honoring the sacrifices made by police officers. The piece is quoted below.

I have not previously heard of the use of the phrase “Walking the Point” in the context of law enforcement. We do use “point” as in “I’ve got the point” during surveillance work to signify that the officer is taking primary responsibility in the reporting on the status of a surveillance target.

The original derivation of the phrase undoubtedly hails from the military. Daryl S. Paulson wrote the book, Walking the Point: Male Initiation and the Vietnam Experience, in 2005.

The quote below is listed on several websites, but I could not find an attribution to the original author. The point of the piece is well made and worth repeating often to remind us that we all owe a deep gratitude to others. I salute the unknown author.
Walking the Point

There are some things that you just can't do without suffering - very literally and profoundly - casualties; and our job is one of them.

You can't race cars without crashes, you can't dig mines without cave-ins, and you sure as hell can't send cops out into the streets of a violent society without violent deaths.

Our fallen brothers knew that and did it anyway--as we all do or have done. ........Their friends will tell you they did the job because they loved it, and any of us who can't say that should envy them for it. At least they died as rare and precious people: doing what they loved to do, and doing it for the noblest of reasons.

That is something we can never explain outside of our profession.

You see, you can't be a good cop simply because you couldn't get another job.

You can only be a good cop because you want it. And there is an answer as to why they died, something I learned half a world away many years ago as a young Marine, preparing to face an enemy in combat for the first time. It was then that my sergeant explained that, like it or not, there are only three rules in war:

Rule Number One is "YOUNG MEN DIE"

Rule Number Two is "YOU CAN'T CHANGE RULE #1"

Rule Number Three is "SOMEBODY HAS TO WALK THE POINT"

You see, when soldiers advance, knowing the enemy is near, there is always one man way out in front of everyone else. His duty is to look and listen and sense that first contact; to spot the enemy, pinpoint the ambush, fire that first shot, and as a consequence, take those first shots.

It offends the logical mind and denies the instinct for survival. It ages and saddens and wizens, and frequently kills those who take their turn "Walking the Point." But it must be done, or there would be no protection for the rest, just more bloodshed, and more grief. For the "Point Man" is there to save lives, even if he gives his own in the process.

Society may not be a company of soldiers, but it certainly has (and needs) somebody walking the point.

Every time you go out the station door, every time you answer the radio call, every time you stop to check out something suspicious, and remember... YOU CAN'T CHANGE RULE #1.

If I could say something directly to the people in our society, it would be this. I know some of you will remember our brothers, but that's not good enough. I want you to honor them for what they did for you-that which they needn't have done. I'm not just talking about what they did on the day that "routine" call or stop went horribly bad. I mean what they did for you day after day, in darkness and light, rain or shine, on holidays and on their loved ones' birthdays, without ever expecting even a "thank you" in return. They volunteered to "Walk the Point.”

Link in this Blog:
Walking the Point: Male Initiation and the Vietnam Experience

Uu-ah Sheepdog! Hunt the Wolf and the Jackal!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

2008-12-29T05:19:00.000-08:00

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Five-“We enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of living.”

Number 5 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

2008-12-28T07:42:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Four-“This is the place where dreams can come true.”

Number 4 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

Sheepdog Barking is Now a Twitter

2008-12-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

I am trying to stay up with the latest and greatest Internet innervations. As such, I’ve joined Twitter as an augmentation and a pointer to this blog, Sheepdog Barking.

Twitter is a free blog community allowing a posting of no more than 140 characters at a time. The uniqueness of Twitter is that the reader can select and follow the postings of their favorite people, which are directly sent to the reader’s own Twitter site. Alternatively, the reader may go directly to the selected Twitter’s site just like any other blog.

The concept of Twitter is to allow writers to share the little everyday things in life. As the Twitter home page says:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
For instance, a fellow Twitter might post that he is sitting in the backyard having a cup of coffee.” Yawn, like who really gives a fat rat’s a…?

Well, apparently a whole lot of people actually do because Twitter is very popular.

I won’t be putting up any such inane postings on Twitter, but I will be posting notifications of new blogs on Sheepdog Barking, and I’ll let you know bits of information that I find interesting. For example, I Twitter posted that Bill Bennett’s new book, The American Patriot’s Almanac, is a good read and that Al Martinez has a new blog piece up entitled, Up Paula’s Nose & Other Stories. My Al Martinez Twitter post has a direct link to his blog posting.

I have not yet figured out all the possibilities of using Twitter, but it seems quite convenient when you want to stay abreast of a limited number of people. So far, I am only following Hugh Hewitt and a For Sarah Palin Twitter accounts. I’ll gradually add more when I see who has posted substantive information.

My Twitter address is: http://twitter.com/SheepDogBarking

Can you believe it? What a twit I’ve become!

Links in this Blog:
SheepDog Barking on Twitter

Up Paula’s Nose & Other Stories

The American Patriot’s Almanac

On the Third Day of Christmas

2008-12-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Three- “No other country has done a better job of establishing equal rights for all citizens.”

Number 3 from “Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country,” from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008

On the Second Day of Christmas

2008-12-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day Two-“America really is the land of the free.”

Number 2 from "Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country," from The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008.

On the First Day of Christmas

2008-12-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

Two great gifts to the world: Judeo-Christian values; and the United States of America.

Day One- “The United States was the first nation in history created out of the belief that people should govern themselves.”

Number 1 from "Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country," The American Patriot’s Almanac, by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb; Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008.

Something to Learn from Canadians & Their “Highway of Heroes”

2008-11-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

See what a grassroots movement has become as Canadians honor their lost Warriors along the “Highway of Heroes.”

Link in this Blog:
U.S. media pays tribute to ‘Highway of Heroes'

Vets Are Not Forgotten In This Heart

2008-11-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

“The Nation That Forgets Its Defenders Will In Turn Be Forgotten”

Integrity is Not a Word Applied to the LA Times

2008-11-08T12:17:00.001-08:00

Do journalism schools teach that a journalist writing on a news page is free to mix the reporting of facts with their own opinion? I thought that news and opinion were supposed to be clearly separated. Isn’t that why there are delineated areas in newspapers for news and commentary?

I ask because I am not a trained journalist, and I write pieces, like this one, injected with personal analysis, which is a nice way to say that I write opinion bolstered by alleged facts.

I gave up reading the LA Times because I was disgusted with the consistent presentation of opinion in news pieces. In that kind of environment, how can a reader of a news article have any confidence that he is reading objectively reported facts?

Every once in awhile I glance at the LA Times headlines on the Internet. Yesterday this news headline caught my eye, Sarah Palin returns to a chillier Alaska. 1

Throwing caution to the wind, I plunged into the article and found these gems by LA Times Staff writer Kim Murphy.

Gem number one:

But wait -- what fairy tale is that? After several months co-starring with its governor in one of the hardest-fought presidential campaigns in modern U.S. history, America's 49th state bears little resemblance to the friendly, folksy place Palin left in August. 1
“But wait -- what fairy tale is that?” Say what?? And, because Sarah Palin was absent from Alaska for 3 months, the place went to hell in a hand basket? It’s a good thing Palin did not become the Vice President. It doesn’t sound like Alaska can exist without her. I wonder how they got by for all those years before she became governor.

Gem number two:

With her vice-presidential carriage turned back into a pumpkin…1

Hmmmm, no bias here. Just good solid, objective reporting.

Murphy quotes Sarah Palin’s Alaskan approval ratings as if she thinks that they buttress the mendacious piece:

Palin's approval ratings in Alaska, once in the stratospheric 80% range, have tumbled to a mere mortal 65%. 1

Mere mortal? Most politicians would be more than pleased with such a mortal rating.

A report out of Alaska yesterday states that Sarah Palin is fully vindicated in the controversy over the firing of the Public Safety Commissioner. Coupled with Murphy’s obvious bias, why should Murphy be afforded credibility for this statement?

A minor dust-up over the firing of her former public safety commissioner has blossomed into two full "Troopergate" investigations, with some lawmakers threatening to lead off the coming legislative session by sending some of Palin's senior aides to jail.1

Can anyone find a good reason to continue reading Ms. Kim Murphy’s scholarly journalistic work? Of course, it just struck me! I don’t know why I did not think of it earlier. It must be a mistake by the paper’s layout people. Murphy’s piece was supposed to run either on the Op-Ed page or as an official column but somehow it ended up in the news section. You just can’t get good help any more. No wonder the LA Times is bleeding red ink all over its financial ledger.

The LA Times was a great newspaper until it devolved into a partisan rag by letting their news writers’ personal opinions leak into the news pieces and for their selective publishing or not publishing to the advantage of their political preference.

The LA Times is not exceptional among the liberal news media where integrity no longer seems to be a foundational characteristic. I accept that the majority of the mainstream media is blatantly biased in the liberal direction. So naturally, I don’t expect them to treat conservatives with a balanced perspective. But in truth, they don’t treat out-of-favor liberals much better. Consider what the liberal press has done to Joe Liberman and Hillary Clinton. Hillary was their darling until Barack Obama showed up. Hillary is no different than she has ever been, but now she is treated like yesterday’s ripening garbage. Actually, I don’t think that the mainstream media, nor many of the Democratic Party power figures, ever liked her. But, you wouldn’t know that until she became expendable with the arrival of Obama.

Link in this Blog:
1. Sarah Palin returns to a chillier Alaska

The Prez Elect Wants You to Get An Ass Whoopin’

2008-11-06T08:26:00.001-08:00

Sheepdogs are used to getting physically banged around whether it is on the streets or in training. I’ve been no exception in my career, but that is not to say that I have sought it out. It damn well happens at the most inconvenient times. When violence raises its ugly head, you better be prepared to protect yourself. Consider the opinion of this unknown author

Why I Carry a Gun

My old grandpa said to me, "Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin'."

I don't carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world. I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to Heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

"Police Protection" is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime; they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'.

It is no secret that Barack Obama is staunchly anti-gun. The populous would be well advised to not let him get away with fulfilling the leftist desire to disarm law-abiding citizens. If someone wants to disarm you, it might be prudent to ask why.

The unknown author is correct about the oxymoron of “Police Protection.” What is that statement about prying my guns from my dead, cold fingers?

The Entitlement Society has Spoken

2008-11-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

Shame, Shame, Shame!

Thoughts on the Eve…

2008-11-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

On the eve of perhaps the most important U.S. Presidential election of our time, here are some bits and pieces that come to mind.

If the other side’s guys win, I won’t hate them.

If my side’s guy and gal win, the other side will hate them.

I saw a car today with an Obama sticker on it. It didn’t think much of it until I saw the driver, a female black. I realized that if I had seen her without the sticker it would still have been a good bet that she’d vote for Obama. If I’d seen Condi Rice, and not recognized her, I’d have lost my bet.

I saw a car festooned with American flags and stickers. Incongruently, there was an Obama sticker on the car as well. Why incongruent? Go to any heavily liberal city, San Francisco or Santa Cruz for instance, and see how many American flags you see. The other side’s champion, Barack Obama, refused to wear an American flag pin until the political heat got to him.

I think that Obama is basically an honest guy forced to conceal his true nature to get elected.

The mainstream media sold its soul to the devil of leftism.

Tomorrow night I will be either relieved and happy or sad.

Tomorrow night the other side will be either ecstatic or seething mad and flinging accusations of racism and theft of the election.

When the sun rises on Wednesday morning, it will rise to the reaffirmation of traditional American values or to the steady footfalls of socialist storm-troopers and the growing vulnerability to fascist forces intent upon the destruction of the greatest country the world has ever known.

To My Old and Dear Warrior Friend

2008-10-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

My Friend, you and I are old, and we’re going to die relatively soon. You, a retired military warrior and I, a soon to be retired civil warrior, fought different battles, but really the same. As old warriors, it is our purview to wallow in the cynicism resultant of too many fights over too many years. I reject that temptation because I can’t allow myself to live in a state of self-indulgence. There is still a fire in my belly, other than the one caused by good whisky. Joining you soon off the field of battle, I’ll be sheathing my sword for the exclusive use of a pen while continuing to subject my words to the abuse and critique of whomever happens upon my missives.

You, the world traveler and educated observer, reject my entreaties to expand your writing beyond a closed circle of confidants and former colleagues. Don’t you agree that you are essentially talking to yourself? I contend that you have a continuing warrior mission to speak to and hopefully be understood by those who fail to perceive the danger amongst us and the threatening hordes just over the horizon.

During our discussion on Islamo-fascism, you stated that you are not about to again risk “getting your tail shot-off for Mom’s apple pie.” I understand, but in truth, considering our age and unsuitability for the field of battle, neither of us is likely to live long enough to get our tails shot off, as you say, for “Mom’s apple pie.” I might still take a bullet from some damn doper, but probably not from an Islamist.

While you married and enjoy many years with your bride, you made a conscious decision to not have children. You had good reason to seriously doubt whether you would survive to raise the next generation. I made the same choice only to have it undone when I married a woman with adult daughters, who subsequently gave us grandchildren. The girls adamantly dubbed me “Dad” and then “Grandpa” when that time arrived. The grandchildren call me “Papa.” Go figure, I never thought I’d be here.

In response to my comments on the burgeoning Muslim threat, you wrote back and I subsequently accused you of throwing the baby out with the bath water. That was not intended to be just an old metaphor. You did not have a five year old granddaughter asleep on your lap just prior to writing your piece. I did, and the fact that I do have grandchildren shapes my perspective in a manner in which I doubt that you can empathize.

You were a great warrior and made many sacrifices for your country while slogging in the jungles and soaring high in the cockpit. And, yes the politicians and brass lied to you. But, consider this: what is our country if not the future of our children and their children? I don’t think that you understand the bigger reason why you, as a warrior, played such an important role. And, that’s because it never slept on your lap.

You said that you never run from a fight. So, pick up your pen and step back into the fray. Pick up the most powerful weapon that you’ve ever held in your hands. A gun can dissipate an immediate threat, but it can’t kill an evil idea. The pen is the only weapon that can change minds.

The fire, my Friend! The fire is still in my belly, more so than ever before.

Uu-ah Sheepdog! Hunt the Wolf and the Jackal!

Will an Obama Presidency Destroy the Country?

2008-10-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

Should Obama attain the presidency, he will accelerate the Democrat Party’s de facto destruction of traditional American values.

The current credit and liquidity problems hurting all Americans are a direct result of the Democrat Party’s socialistic demands forcing the mortgage industry to fund mortgages for people who could neither afford nor previously qualify for a home mortgage. And of course, the mortgage industry took advantage of the situation.

With an Obama presidency, he and the Democrat Party will again decrease military and intelligence capabilities and once again increase the probability of lost American lives and property.

Obama is the philosophical leading edge of a populous slide away from traditional American Judeo-Christian values and the capitalist system toward a socialistic European system where equality is valued over liberty. How do we know that Obama is not a supporter of traditional American values? Let’s count the ways.

Obama is closely linked to William Ayers despite Obama’s protestations that he was only eight years old when, unrepentant to this day, Ayers and wife Bernadette Dorn, as members of the terrorist Weather Underground organization, were trying their best to destroy the United States of America with bombs. Ayers is still trying to subvert America with his current programs to brainwash and radicalize young students. The first association between Obama and Ayers, of which we know, was in Ayers’ home kicking off Obama’s political career.

Obama actively supported ACORN with funding and training. As shown by recent federal indictments and FBI investigations, ACORN is actively engaged in fraudulent voter registration in support of the Democrat Party’s quest for potential voters living off, or hoping to live off, the Federal dole and beholding to the Democratic Party.

Obama spent twenty years in a “Christian” Chicago church best known for its black liberation theology under the tutelage of his good friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright. From the pulpit Wright spewed racist hatred and Anti-Americanism. Obama publically supported Wright until forced by political considerations of the presidential campaign.

Obama is a supporter of black separatist and racist Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam. There are well documented triangulated links among Obama, Wright and Farrakhan.

Obama’s political left philosophies are well documented in his legislative voting record as an Illinois state representative and a U.S. Senator. Obama confirmed his leftism by his recent assertion that he wants to spread the wealth around. Anyone with half a mind can figure out that means confiscating money lawfully earned by someone and giving it to someone who did nothing to earn the money. For those without a half a mind, that is socialism.

Obama’s character may be judged by the company that he keeps: Ayers; Wright; and Farrakhan. Obama’s character is judged by others who endorse or support him: Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela; Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua; various European socialists; and Ahmed Yousef of the Hamas terrorist organization. There is a reason why these anti-American people like Obama. They believe him to be a kindred spirit.

As evidenced above, there are common themes accompanying Obama’s leftist philosophy: anti-Americanism; and black racism. Of course, it is possible that Obama is nothing more than an intellectual fraud and political opportunist exploiting the left and black racism for his personal gain. I don’t think so.

Since Obama is the most leftist potential President in history, given the chance he would probably damage America more than Democrat Jimmy Carter, the worst American President in history. Did you like the disastrous Carter economy and the significant part he played in loosing Islamo-fascism on the world? Obama and the Democrat Party controlled Congress will continue the relentless path to total socialism and the death of the values that created the greatest country the world has ever seen. Lose our traditional values and we are headed to the dust bin of history as a second rate nation. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we elect Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kerry and others of their ilk.

If your values correspond with those evidenced as Obama’s, you are morally obliged to cast your vote for him. What then does that make you? You would not be a traitor, but you are discarding the freedoms won by the blood and sweat of others. I maintain that you are an ingrate and your actions are contemptuous. But hey, that’s just my opinion.

Here’s the opinion of Samuel Adams:

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

Capture a Terrorist and Release Him in the U.S.

2008-10-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

Seven years ago the U.S. captured 17 ethnic Uighurs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Uighurs are Chinese Muslims, originating from Xinjiang, a remote Chinese area bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries. The Uighur people want to succeed from China, and they have been stirring the Chinese pot with terrorist attacks. These are the people who made all the terrorist noise during the recent Olympics in Bejing.

China has long said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. (1)
The U.S. captured these characters in 2001 and held them in Guantanamo Bay.

The government said the detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba had admitted receiving weapons training in Afghanistan and were a national security
risk. (1)
Now, U.S. courts have ordered the release of the Uighurs.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina on Tuesday made a dramatic decision ordering the government to free the detainees by Friday. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs (pronounced WEE'gurz), since they are no longer considered enemy combatants. (1)
But, release them to where? No country seems to want the Uighurs except China, and some people fear that repatriating them to China will result in their torture.

The Bush administration also said it was continuing "heightened" efforts to find another country to accept the Uighurs, since the detainees might be tortured if they are turned over to China. (1)

The Beijing government has repeatedly urged the U.S. to turn the Uighurs over to Chinese authorities. (1)

Let’s see no one except China wants them because why? Could it be that they are trained Muslim radicals? Certainly China wants to get their hands on them for interrogation, and I suspect they’d never again ply their terrorist trade. But, wait! There are plans to release them into the U.S.
The detainees were scheduled to arrive in Washington early Friday and appear in Urbina's courtroom for release to local Uighur families who have agreed to help them settle into the United States. (1)
Judge Urbina was appointed to the U.S. District Court in July 1994. Does it surprise you that he is a Bill Clinton appointee? With judges like this, who needs any more enemies?

If you agree with Judge Urbina, undoubtedly you will be voting Democrat in November and you really are stuck on stupid.

Let’s repatriate the Uighurs to their homeland with parachutes from 30,000 feet, and the Chinese government can look for them, if they wish.

Link in the Blog:
Chinese Muslims' release into US blocked for now

Character Expressed For Good or Bad

2008-10-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve written previously about when all else fails, look at a person’s character to judge whether or not to support a political candidate. It has been my experience since George H. Bush that the Republican candidates for President and Vice President are respected by their security details because those details are treated with kindness and consideration by the Republican candidates. The same cannot be said for the Democratic candidates. Far from it. For the most part the Democrats are detested. I translate this to positive character traits or the lack there of respectively.

I have not been in touch with Secret Service personnel during this Presidential campaign so I have no idea what the agents think of Obama and Biden. But, judging from the comments made by a member of the press corps, I’m guessing that Obama may be continuing the Democratic elitist attitude.

…I would love to have someone from Obama's campaign explain why the entire press corps, the Secret Service, and the local police idled for two hours in a Miami hotel parking lot recently because there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was not an isolated case. (1)
That’s shades of the arrogant Clintons and Kerrys.

Speaking about Obama,

The national headquarters in Chicago airily dismisses complaints from journalists wondering why a schedule cannot be printed up or at least e-ailed in time to make coverage plans. Nor is there much sympathy for those of us who report for a newscast that airs in the early evening hours. Our shows place a premium on live reporting from the scene of campaign events. But this campaign can often be found in the air and flying around at the time the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" is broadcast. I suspect there is a feeling within the Obama campaign that the broadcast networks are less influential in the age of the internet and thus needn't be accomodated as in the days of yore. Even if it's true, they are only hurting themselves by dissing audiences that run in the tens of millions every night. (1)

Read the article and see for yourself the contrast with the McCain campaign.

Positive character counts and McCain/Palin have it while Obama does not. I don’t know yet about Biden.

Update 10/9/2008: Apparently Biden is a scofflaw. Read how he failed to pay his bills. (2)

Link in this Blog:
(1.) Reporter's Notebook: Seeing How The Other Half Lives
(2.) CPA Got Stiffed by Joe Biden

Jackal In Sheepdog Clothing

2008-10-04T16:44:00.001-07:00

Most people are Sheep mercilessly fed upon by Wolves. Sheepdogs live to protect the Sheep and confront the Wolf. (1) There is one more creature.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me. “I, (name is stated), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

By honoring the oath of office, the U.S. evolves toward a corruption-free law enforcement model, unlike many parts of the world. Nevertheless, police corruption does exist within individual U.S. officers and occasionally entire police units. In the last 17 years or so, the Chicago Police Department (2), the Los Angeles Police Department (3), and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office (4) have suffered the effects of corrupt special police units.

In the old days, police corruption expressed itself as pay-offs from organized crime or the extortion of individuals and businesses. Today, those endeavors pale in comparison with the massive amounts of cash and drugs that can be stolen from drug dealers. Former Police Chief Joseph McNamara wrote in his piece entitled, “Gangsta Cops,” (5)

The Drug War is not only ruining society, it is corrupting police forces across the country and it will continue to do so as long as our current policies are in place. (5)

McNamara states,
In my research I've been horrified to uncover a pattern of thousands of
predatory crimes committed by police officers in the past 30 years that are all connected to the Drug War. In studying these crimes, I've discovered two things: (5)
First, the nature of the Drug War encourages, almost demands, corruption. (5)

Second, the corruption bred by the Drug War is happening across the country, from police officer to police chief or sheriff. (5)

This corruption exists not just among a few individuals scattered across the country, but among corrupt gangs of cops. These gangs have surfaced in big cities and small towns as well as rural areas across America. We cannot end cop gangsterism by merely plucking a few bad apples from the barrel. We can only end it by ending the Drug War policies that breed it. (5)

Now, that’s a damning indictment on the part of Chief McNamara.

The Chief is an out-spoken opponent to the “War on Drugs” and as such he seems to overstate the pervasiveness of drug related police corruption. He qualifies his statements with,

It is true that it's only a small percentage of the total number of police officers that ever commit these crimes. But they do enormous damage-not only to their victims and the community, but to honest cops. (5)

There is a minority of officers operating as rogue cops. But, police corruption does not appear suddenly and fully developed. It is a progressive developing cancer.

An entry level scenario for officers just stepping onto the slippery slope of corruption might go something like this. An officer detains a person known to be a drug user without advising his Dispatch personnel. The person is either legally or illegally searched and a minor amount of drugs or drug paraphernalia is discovered. Confiscating the contraband, the officer does not arrest the individual, but instead gives him a personal cell phone number. The subject now “owes” the officer and is expected to call when he gets some information about someone selling narcotics. When the officer receives the information, the subject is directed to arrange for the purchase of illegal drugs. After learning where and when the drug transaction is to take place, the officer miraculously happens upon the prearranged location and arrests a narcotics seller for the possession of illegal drugs.

The above scenario is pretty good police work, don’t you think? However, there are those nasty details about: unlawful detention; illegal search; destruction of evidence; inducing criminal acts; entrapment of individuals; false police reports; and perjury.

What was it that Chief McNamara said? “…the corruption bred by the Drug War is happening across the country, from police officer to police chief or sheriff.”

So how does a police chief or sheriff become corrupt? It could be dirty money in the form of campaign contributions for a sheriff and perhaps kickbacks to both for influencing who may or may not be targeted in the Drug War. I doubt that there is too much of that, but law enforcement managers are playing into the corruption in another way; it is called “stats,” short for statistics.

It is incontestable that illegal drug usage drives the crime rate, for which law enforcement is judged. Too high a crime rate causes police administrators to come under pressure from their political bosses. Often times, the police manager’s simplistic answer is to demand an increase in the number of arrests (stats.) Today’s preferred term is “productivity,” which is a polite way to say arrest anyone for anything. The officer failing to meet the expected “productivity” is judged negatively. Conversely, the highly productive officer is lionized, regardless of whether or not he makes disguised, unlawful and unethical arrests.

McNamara stated,

Corruption among our narcotics officers will go on no matter what. So long as cops are pressured to fulfill a drug arrest quota, they'll feel justified in making illegal searches and committing perjury concerning the circumstances of the arrest. They'll commit these felonies as long as they produce the kind of statistics that the brass wants. And many will follow the road of temptation, from theft right on down to murder. (5)
That holds true for all officers, not just narcotics officers.

Potential corruption issues are magnified when a law enforcement agency establishes a special unit to specifically increase agency “productivity” if the unit is staffed in part with unethical officers and supervisors. In such cases, it won’t be long until the foot on the slippery slope of corruption degenerates into a full-blown scandal. Rogue units are a direct result of inept management, at best. Rather than inept, if a manager knowingly sets the stage leading to unlawful police activity, he is corrupt. The corrupting factor may not be money, but it could be the desire for personal power or to protect his job.

Early stage police corruption violates civil rights, destroys the public confidence and undermines respect for the law.

I’m grieved that some officers raised their hands, gave the oath of office, were accepted into the Sheepdog fraternity, and eventually abandoned and abused the sacred trust. Inept and/or corrupt managers and officers no longer support and defend the Constitution. They no longer qualify for the honorable “Sheepdog” appellation. These people are now “Jackals,” a close and vile relative of the “Wolf.”

Uu-ah Sheepdog! (6)
Hunt the Wolf and the Jackal!

Links in the Blog:
(1) Sheepdog Barking header

(2) Chicago Police Corruption Probe Under Way

(3) City Will Pay $810,000 in Rampart Lawsuit

(4) Deputies Portrayed as Criminals Trial

(5) Gangsta Cops

(6) Uu-ah to All You Civilian Sheepdogs

Nude Portrait of Sarah Palin, Malevolence from the Left

2008-09-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

There is no shortage of slime emanating from the leftist and the Democratic Party side of the spectrum. Witness the latest, a Chicago tavern owner hung a nude portrait of Sarah Palin, painted by the owner’s husband, in the “dive” bar.

Elliott, whose wife, Tobin Mitchen, owns the Old Town Ale House on Chicago's North Side, painted a nude portrait of the Republican vice presidential nominee and hung it above the bar, where it's now a prime attraction among his display of more than 200 celebrity portraits and other racy art. (1)

I wonder how many of the celebrities adored by the left are portrayed nude.

"I've been following her religiously," he said Monday at the bar. "I had never heard of her before, like everyone else. I find her bizarrely fascinating, even though I pretty much despise everything she stands for." (1)

Elliott joins other disgusting left side slime pandering people like Al Franken in their basic disrespect for humans with differing political persuasions. The irony is that these people see nothing wrong with their actions. They have a defect in their hearts.

I’m glad that I don’t have to live with a heart of malevolence like these people. I never in my wildest thoughts ever considered such disgusting actions even concerning a person for whom I hold the lowest of regard for her traitorous action, Jane Fonda.

Link in this Blog:
(1) Nothing conservative there

Truth is Often Simply Stated

2008-09-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Words from others:

“Barack Obama has put out an ad that simple minded John McCain cannot use a computer. Well guess what: Barack cannot land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier at night.”

“If you are still voting Democrat, you are stuck on stupid.”

Democrats, Including Obama, Created the Financial Crisis

2008-09-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

Despite the political rhetoric from the Obama campaign, the Democrats are responsible for the financial crisis generated by the real estate crisis.
For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.1

But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.1

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.1

Block key financial legislation; Take huge amounts of money; Lie to the voters and blame the Republicans: Do you expect any less from the Democrats?

Link in this Blog:
1 How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis: Kevin Hassett

Forever Missed Never Forgotten

2008-09-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Frances Ann Cilente-7 Years Ago Today

2008-09-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

Originally Published 9/11/2005 as Francis Ann Cilente Remembered.

On 11/16/74, Fran entered the earthly world dependent upon her parents, John and Louise, for her every need. When she departed this earth on 9/11/2001, Fran was a self-sufficient woman full of hopes, dreams and expectations.

After graduating from Berkeley College with a degree in business, she strode confidently into the world of high finance. Fran worked on the 105th. floor of World Trade Center One as an executive administrator for Joseph Shea, Cantor Fitzgerald Executive Managing Director, and Jonathan Uman, head of corporate development at eSpeed, Inc., a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. Jonathan Uman was particularly fond of Fran, and she became close with both he and his wife.

Fran excelled in her profession, made possible by her people skills, enthusiasm and zeal for learning. Prior to her work at Cantor Fitzgerald, Fran was a medical assistant, but lost the job to lay-offs. Fran loved to help people, and that is why she was saving money to enroll in a nursing program.

Fran’s Aunt Judith worked across the street from the WTC. She and her godchild would take work breaks and meet in the Tall Ships Bar and Grille. The bartender would have Frannie’s Diet Coke waiting as “Sunshine” rushed into the establishment. Fran certainly lived up to the “Sunshine” appellation because she always had a smile upon her face.

Theresa described Fran as not only her sister, but her best friend. They spent many hours together shopping, going to Mass, or traveling to exotic beach locals such as the Cancun, the Bahamas or other Caribbean islands where Fran loved to sunbathe.

Generous to a fault; here’s a story told to me by Danielle, and it is representative of Fran’s character. Danielle stated that she was in need of some business attire during an unfortunate time of her life. Danielle and Fran rode the Staten Island Ferry together and did not really know each other all that well. Nevertheless, Fran didn’t hesitate to loan Danielle some business suits. What you have to understand is that Fran loved good, fashionable clothes and shoes. Fran was “born to shop,” and so you know that the loaned suits were fashionable items.

Fran utilized her skills with ceramics and other crafts to make holiday decorations for her and others. I’d be willing to bet that there are many other such stories about Fran and her generosity.

I’m told that Fran loved animals, especially her cat, “Kitty.” And, so trips to the zoo were fun. A couple of weeks prior to her passing, Fran took boyfriend Daniel McCurdy to the Bronx Zoo for a six hour tour.

Like many women her age, Fran was beginning to think about getting married and starting a family. While she and Daniel had not yet seriously discussed marriage, they frequently met for coffee at Starbucks. Though Fran and Daniel’s coffee liaisons were not generally known, it appears that their relationship was developing. Daniel said this:
"We spoke about marriage here and there but we never sat down and talked about it," Mr. McCurdy said. "I would have married her. That's where this was going to lead up to."

Laura rode the Staten Island Ferry to and from work with Danielle and Fran. During the trip they often snacked on Now and Later candy. Laura says that she can not now eat a Now and Later without thinking of Fran. Sometimes it is those little things that become treasured memory triggers.

Many people have written nice things about Fran. I found the words of a stranger intriguing. Here’s a little of what Paula Roderick, Lt Col, USAF (ret), had to say:
A year ago today, like the rest of the nation, I was watching the horrific aftermath of the events of 9-11-01 on television. The reporter was doing a piece on the tens of thousands of family members and friends who were desperately searching for their lost loved ones. I remember a young woman (your sister, Theresa?) was holding up a poster with your picture and a phone number. She was interviewed for just a moment before the camera went on to the next face. I'm still not sure exactly why, but your face touched my heart so deeply I felt compelled to write down your name and to contact your family. I wanted them to know that they were not alone. That people all over the country were aware you were missing and we were praying for you. So Fran, while we never met, I'm so glad I saw your photo that day. Your life was full and meaningful; filled with a loving family, strong personal relationships, rich experiences, and big dreams. You are loved by so many who remain devoted to your memory. Your life and the way you lived it did make a difference. You will not be forgotten.

It is obvious that Fran touched the hearts of many, and they love her. Her passing left a void that is filled with pain and loving memories. The positive impact that Fran had on others is a testimony to a life well lived. That’s about the best that we can ask for in life, and it is not measured in the number of years spent on this earth.

Rest in peace Fran. You did well.

Signs of Obama Desperation

2008-09-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

The teachers unions are long time dedicated supporters of Democratic Party political candidates. And, they expect the Democrats to oppose Charter School vouchers because the successful voucher system allows parents who abandon the public school system to obtain quality education for their children. The parents are judging public schools a failure and awarding the public schools with the grade of “F.”

Barack Obama is promising to double funding for charter schools and replace inferior teachers, embracing education reform proposals normally more popular with Republican candidates.1
While teachers unions typically oppose the idea of performance-based merit pay, Obama is embracing the idea along with demands that teachers who don't meet standards are removed from the classroom. Obama's campaign said teacher performance could be judged by peer review, student test results, classroom evaluations or other processes.1

Obama is getting desperate.

The pitch was an appeal to moderate voters in this presidential election swing state, where the fight over education reform has been the focus of a longtime partisan battle.1

Obama must be gambling that the teachers unions will understand that his education proposal is just so much hot air.

Link in this Blog:
1. Obama embraces charter schools in education plan

The Clang of a Lie

2008-09-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you hear about things that strike you as a blatant lie. Barack Obama’s recent allegation that he once considered joining the military is one such an example.

Mr Obama was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "This Week" programme whether he'd ever thought about military service and replied: "You know, I actually did. I had to sign up for Selective Service [a means of conscription in case of war] when I graduated from high school.1

"And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.1

"And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honourable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."1

The aspiration was not mentioned in either of his two volumes of memoirs.1

Obama has a tough row to hoe considering that he is trying to get elected at a time when Islamo-fascists are actively attempting to fulfill their centuries old desire to conquer the world. Obama has no military background, and he is dogged with the impression that he is actually a Muslim. It does not help when he makes a slip of the tongue and actually states on a national television interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he is a Muslim.

"Let's not play games," he said. "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come." 2

Under stress, we humans sometimes will make a misstatement, and sometimes we inadvertently reveal something that we are trying to hide. I wonder which one it was when he stated that he is a Muslim. In reference to his desire to join the military, I’d bet that one is a lie.

Links in this Blog:
1. Barack Obama 'wanted to join US military'

2. Obama's verbal slip fuels his critics

In The Other Room…, No Thanks to the Supporters of Oprah

2008-09-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

In the other room sleeps a child; my granddaughter; five years old.

Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all.1

Americans are good people, but most never have the opportunity to test or have their personal mettle tested.

Long ago, something unusual happened to me that taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. I was blessed by misfortune. I mean that sincerely. I was blessed because I served in the company of heroes and I witnessed a thousand acts of courage, and compassion, and love.1

Most Americans never serve in the company of real heroes. Instead, many worship at the altar of cultural heroes, the pseudo-heroes courtesy of the entertainment industry and sports. And as such, the worshipers have little foundational appreciation for the social necessity of positive personal character traits. How else can you explain the continued veneration of O.J Simpson and Kobe Bryant by so many?

Our code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down long before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn’t in great shape, and I missed everything about America, but I turned it down.1
John McCain’s character was forged by the torture and brutality of his Communist North Vietnamese captors.

Barrack Obama’s character was in-part forged by the racism of Trinity United Church of Christ with its black liberation theology. Obama’s character is additionally expressed by his friendship and political association with William Ayers, a member of the leftist Weather Underground that bombed, among other places, the U.S. Capitol.

Only after Obama was burned by the media exposure of Rev. Jeremiah Wright did Obama repudiate Wright. Obama was comfortable at Trinity United Church of Christ for over 20 years, and he allowed his children to be steeped in the blatant racist teachings.

Oprah Winfrey bailed out on Rev. Wright and his church of racial intolerance after several years of attendance.

According to two sources, Winfrey was never comfortable with the tone of Wright's more incendiary sermons, which she knew had the power to mamage her standing as America's favorite daytime talk-show host. "Oprah is a businesswoman, first and foremost," said one longtime friend, who requested anonymity when discussing Winfrey's personal sentiments. "She's always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn't be smart. She's been around black churches all her life, so Reverend Wright's anger-filled message didn't surprise her. But it just wasn't what she was looking for in a church." Oprah's decision to distance herself came as a surprise to Wright, who told Christianity Today in 2002 that when he would "run into her socially … she would say, 'Here's my pastor!' " (Winfrey declined to comment. A Harpo Productions spokesperson would not confirm her reasons for leaving the church.)2

So, Oprah’s veneer of deniability proves that she is smarter than Obama.

Oprah made her fortune and fame pandering to females and adeptly exploiting a market which enriched her personally beyond belief. But, she window-cases her true roots of black-centricity and leftism and abandons female issues by refusing to invite the most exciting American female of recent history, Gov. Sarah Palin, onto her show prior to the November elections. To do so would be seen by leftists as giving aid and comfort to the political enemies on the right.3

You don’t have values if you are not willing to make some sort of statement in support of values. For instance, Jane Fonda is a fine actress, but I refuse to watch any of her films because I judge her to be a traitor. Little things do matter and set the stage for big things that really matter.

Give Oprah credit for making her statement of values, and she is losing viewers as a result of the Palin booking controversy. But, some fans just don’t care that Oprah’s values stink because she has become god-like to them. The attitude of these people leads to the gradual abandonment of the American Dream as a greater proportion of the electorate supports the likes of Obama. These people, both elected and electorate, with their lack of insight, knowledge or depth, threaten the peaceful sleep of my granddaughter because their decision making is flawed in a dangerous world.

Links in this Blog:
1. Sen. John McCain Acceptance Speech Republican National Conventions 2008

2. Something Wasn’t Wright Why Oprah Winfrey left Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church

3. Oprah Refuses to Book Palin

Sarah Palin Needs No Teleprompter

2008-09-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

GOP VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin has been the butt of vicious left-wing blogs and rabid liberal media ever since she was picked by Sen. John McCain as a running mate. Not only do they attack the Governor, but Palin’s daughter is attacked for being pregnant. Palin has taken it all and last night she dealt the cards right back at Obama and his ilk.

Here is a report that Palin’s teleprompter broke during her speech.

Halfway through Sarah Palin's speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.1

According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani's speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech.1

You probably recall when Obama fell on his face when his teleprompter broke. See the video here. 2

The more you see of Obama, it is obvious that he is an intelligent pretty face with no substance, accomplishment nor founded principles to guide him when he can’t read his scripted speeches.

Links in this Blog:
1. Sarah Palin "Winged" Her Speech Because of "Broken" Teleprompter

2. Obama is Inarticulate When Not Scripted

Palin Sticks It to Obama

2008-09-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

The Dems are screaming that Gov. Sarah Palin does not have the experience to be V.P. and a heartbeat away from the Presidency. The truth is that she is more experienced than Obama, who’s greatest political accomplishments include voting “present” instead of aye or nay when he was an Illinois state legislator. The man refused to take a stand 100 times?

Obama’s other professional accomplishment is that he was a “community organizer” in Illinois.

Here’s Palin response to her critics on the topic of experience:
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except
that you have actual responsibilities."1

Link in this Blog:
1. Palin to jab Obama, cast herself as outsider

Beauty of Nature & Malevolence of Man, All in One Day

2008-08-24T21:40:00.001-07:00

What a marvelous day I had riding my Harley Davidson Ultra Classic from Petaluma, CA, down to Santa Cruz. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a motorcycle is always a treat no matter how many times I’ve done it. The cool morning fog streamed into the San Francisco Bay welcoming me back to familiar territory.

Leaving Highway 101 in San Francisco, I transitioned to the coast route, the famous Highway One, aka Pacific Coast Highway. It is nothing less than gorgeous, and it did not disappoint.

In no hurry, I took the opportunity to spend a little time at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and lunched at Davenport amongst a gaggle of motorcyclists, mostly sport bike riders.

Back on the road, the speed limit is 55 miles per hour, and I re-set my cruise control and basked in the beauty of the day. Several automobiles and I were smoothly motoring down the highway when a yellow Harley blew past us on the left challenging the oncoming northbound traffic; Another rude motorcyclist. His black motorcycle helmet looked odd with a red stripe painted from front to back and bracketed by a pair of white stripes. I’ve never seen a motorcycle helmet painted in that scheme, and it reminded me of a football helmet. Actually, if it were not for the red stripe, it could have passed for the road-kill skunk I’d seen earlier in the day.

Upon entering the outskirts of Santa Cruz, the traffic soon loaded-up. The rude motorcyclist bullied his way forward by changing lanes, cutting off cars in the process. Nevertheless, I came upon him stopped at a red light, the first motorist in line. He sat in the left portion of the lane affording plenty of room for me to stop beside him. I noticed that he was wearing a black leather vest with no distinguishing marks and red laced tennis shoes. He looked in my direction, and I nodded a greeting, as we motorcyclists are wont to do in such situations.

My friendliness was returned with a surly, hard stare. The tension was palpable. Now I noticed the sheath knife hanging at his waist and the Hells Angels stickers on the motorcycle’s right front fork. Great, I’m stopped, most likely, next to a Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG) hangaround, the lowest tier of Hells Angels membership. And, he’s not in the least bit friendly. That explains all the red and white colors.

Clearly, I’ve hurled an insult by having the audacity to pull-up next to him. I suppose that I was expected to maintain a deferential distance to his rear and by not doing so I lacked the prerequisite “respect.” People have been beat-down for equal or less. When the traffic light turned green, he shot forward with all the noise his bike’s exhaust system could muster like someone shoved a hot poker up his butt. That put me in my place, don’t you think?

For all the good the bluster did him, he was soon again stuck in traffic. I changed lanes and passed him with just a little more Harley throttle than necessary, as if to say, “Suck on my tailpipe, Jackass.” He followed me briefly and then faded out of view. What could he have done anyway? Brought his knife to a gun fight?

These OMG types are accustomed to intimidating people. I don’t get intimidated well. But hey, I’d be nuts to expect any more from someone who is trying to make his bones, to show what a badass he is, and become a full-patched member of a pack of hyenas. He’ll do better when he is backed-up by his buddies and can rat-pack some hapless person.

I’ve Had It With the Sound Bite Idiots

2008-08-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

Most people are Sheep; Decent people in a state of denial and dependent upon Sheep Dogs to make the personal sacrifices required to repel the Sheep slaughtering Wolves. Sheep come dressed as conservative, liberal and everything in-between. Unfortunately, there are not enough Sheep Dogs to control the electoral process, and as such the country is dependent upon the Sheep People to be adequately educated and wise enough to elect competent and responsive representatives.

I classify myself as a realist with an optimistic overlay. Unfortunately, the overlay is becoming pessimistic. Why, you might ask? Quite simply, I am disillusioned by the lack of sophisticated knowledge on the part of a goodly percentage of my fellow Americans.

Many people are sound bite stupid and have lost, or never had, the ability to think critically. They don’t possess the gumption to educate themselves, even if they are college educated. And, these people vote. The most alarming among these people are those who ascribe to a “liberal” agenda, which has become strikingly leftist for the Democratic Party leadership. You’d be hard pressed to pick a more leftist representative than Barrack Obama.

So what’s wrong with a leftist agenda? Nothing, if you long to mimic Europe both socially and politically. Nothing, if you fancy massive redistribution of income through the confiscatory tax policies of the Democratic Party. Nothing, if you like the courts legislating from the bench and nullifying both the will of the people and the work of the legislatures. Nothing, if you hope to de-industrialize the U.S. Nothing, if you value equality of results over equality of opportunity and liberty. Nothing, if you are willing to allow the destruction of traditional American values. Nothing, if you assume that minorities require special treatment, which is institutionalized racism. Nothing, if you encourage increased governmental power over the individual. Nothing, if you like the timidity of a foreign policy which turns its back when bully countries trample their neighbors. Nothing, if you support a spineless domestic/foreign policy which invites those who seek to subjugate us with theocracy.

I want nothing to do with a liberal agenda. No, let’s call it what it really is, leftist. Must I point out that leftist socialism is the root of Communism? Probably! The political preferences of many Americans indicate that they don’t get it. Or worse yet, maybe they do and their spines are jelly.

Being a grandparent is both the best and the worst. I’m anguished that we have not prepared a healthy world for our little ones. The babies are supposed to spend a few formative years in innocence. Tell that to the children in Georgia who are being crushed by the treads of the Russian military machine. Tell that to the deliberately slaughtered children of Afghanistan, Iraq and the Sudan. Tell that to the Chinese babies who are conscripted into the athletic development machine for the glory of a police state. Tell that to the children who are sold into slavery. Tell that to the children slaughtered and maimed by Islamo-fascist Chechnyan nationalists at the Beslan school massacre. Think that sort of thing can never happen in the U.S.?

The world is cruel with inconsistent kindness. Those who believe better of humankind won’t think so when the tank tread rolls over their neighbor or when he is lying beheaded in the street after having his throat slit by an Islamic scimitar. Come to think of it, it’s already happening to neighbors in another land, isn’t it? No amount of wishing, meditating, praying or declaring oneself a citizen of the world will change these facts.

The unraveling of this great country fuels my anguish. I am passionate on these matters, especially because I so love my grandchildren. I don’t have that long to live, so I shout on their behalf.

I have another area of anguish. I apologize to my extended family because my stridency offends. I do love them, but the country that my grandbabies are to inherit is too important for me to stand-down. I hope my relatives eventually understand that their grandbabies are at risk as well.

I am afraid that I will eventually begin to hate those who facilitate the peril to my grandbabies. I hope not because there is little that I can do concerning the intellectual laziness of the voting sound bite idiots.

Religious Double Edge Sword

2008-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Attending the Olympics in China, Pres. George W. Bush made a pitch to the Chinese government to honor religious tolerance. Apparently the President is pushing “religion” because he knows that when enough Chinese people adopt a religion it will set the stage for the current Chinese government to eventually fold or potentially evolve to a form of government more amenable to a peaceful co-existence with the rest of the world. Sounds like a good tactic, don’t you think? But, wait a minute! What if a new-found Chinese religion is Islam?

Under Mao Zedung (Mao Tse-tung,) the mainland Chinese government systematically suppressed and all but obliterated traditional religion in its fervor to instill the new religion of the times, Communism. Initially, the enthusiasm and lack of wisdom characteristic of youth carried the Cultural Revolution forward at the expense of the freedoms of the masses.

Fifty-nine years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the bloom is off the Cultural Revolution and the harsh Anti-Capitalistic realities of the Chinese Communist experiment. Left in the wake, I suspect, of the collapse of the godless Communist ideal is a gnawing hunger in the Chinese people for something spiritual. Mind you, China is still a police state and nationalistic, and, as such, it remains a dangerous adversary.

So, the President wants the Chinese people to have religious freedoms to enhance the possibilities of Chinese governmental change. But, for what religion is that likely to be? Would it be traditional Asian Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism or the more proselytic religions of Christianity and Islam? (1) Despite the Communist Chinese religious purge, religion did not die out and a small minority of Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists, Christians (3-4%) and Muslims (1-2%) remain in the officially atheist country. (2)

Say what you want about the intentions of most Muslims to live in peaceful co-existence with the rest of the world’s religions, but I remain unconvinced. Radical Islam is ascendant, and it exists even within the oppressive Chinese police state. Today, while the Olympics are playing out:

"Terrorists" from the Muslim Uighur minority carried out the latest attack in north-west China, state media said, as it reported the death toll from the violence had risen to 12. (3)

China claims Xinjiang, populated by 8.3 million Uighurs, is home to Islamic terrorists intent on targetting the Olympics. (3)

Undoubtedly Pres. Bush is correct in his tactical move to influence the Chinese government toward religious freedom. However, there is a tremendous chance that any Chinese government relaxation on the control of religion will result in a significant escalation in Islamic violence.

The current U.S. foreign policy on China will eventually result in ever greater battles with radical Islam. The Chinese government may change, but Islam will not, at least not in the next few centuries. And, that is way too long a period for my taste.

The double edge sword is really a scimitar, is it not?

Links in this Blog:
1. Chinese Cultural Studies: Philosophy and Religion in China

2. CIA Factbook-China

3. Terrorists behind latest China attack