Ranting of a Sane Lunatic

Goodbye to an Old Friend

2011-11-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Today was the day every pet owner dreads. It visited my home once again, and the results were predictable. Just like every other time in my life when I have extended the hand of mercy to a pet whose ailments had caused life's curtains to draw prematurely to a close, a horrible myriad of feelings has enveloped me.

First comes the grief. If you have never experienced this unique type of emotional agony, you are either not human or you don't love animals the way I do. I suppose either possibility is reasonable. And there's always a healthy slug of guilt to go along with the flood of regret that washes in afterward. Let's put all that all aside for the moment.

This remarkable dog's name was Crosby, though his ashes and his memory will carry his name until long after anyone is left who can recall him. He came to us in the summer of 2007 through an unlikely set of circumstances that are not particularly important. What matters is that he spent his last four years as a loving member of our family.

Sometime early this year, an energetic and otherwise very happy Crosby developed a breathing problem. The veterinarian told us it was likely caused by paralysis in his larynx. As the surgical option for a twelve-year-old dog had quite a number of risks, we opted for a much less invasive pill treatment. The medication cocktail had mixed results for a short time, but ultimately the disease progressed, leaving him with suffocating attacks far worse than those of asthma. As his larynx seized, his breathing became impossible, and the poor dog would panic.

At 1:20 this afternoon, the decision was made, and Crosby was loaded into the Jeep for his journey down the Green Mile. I prayed for an eleventh-hour miracle, but none came. I prayed that if there was to be no reprieve for him, that his passing would be sweet and blissful. I can only hope this is the way things went for him once he closed his eyes to the world around him. What was to be done would be final, irrevocable, and humane, and the product of much love and forethought.

At 2:05, the vet administered a sedative. Almost immediately, Crosby's breathing slowed and he began to dim. He continued to fade as the seconds ticked by and in just a few minutes, exhaled for the last time as he left this world, mercifully released from the aches and pains and struggles to breathe that had plagued him during his final months. Did we wait too long? Did we pull the trigger too early? Who can say really? Only God can judge these matters.

I hope he entered the equivalent of the heaven that awaits humans who put their hope and trust in God. If there is no heaven for our pets, at least there is no more suffering for certainly no dog is deserving of unending torment. In either case, Crosby is at rest now and has been set free from the earthly shell that bound him to his miseries.

Sleep well, my friend. I hope to see you again one day. Our time here went by much too quickly. Your unique personality and exuberant bark, your zest for life, the funny way you walked - all will dim in our minds with the passage of time, but you will never be forgotten. Please remember to say "hello" to all those who have gone before you. We love them just as much today as we did the day they departed, just as we have loved you...

Some Closing Thoughts

It is now a little after 8:00 PM. The house seems especially empty tonight, strangely quiet even though other dogs live here. Crosby left a half-eaten bone, one of those Rawhides that would take a Skilsaw a week to cut through; his bright blue rubber ball, now ignored, lies on the floor in the living room; and his food bowl remains tucked away in a cabinet, unused tonight for the first time in years. The other dogs - even one of the horses - seem to know something is not right. Are they reading my mind, or do they have some sort of dual existence which allows them to peer into the Great Beyond?

The items left behind by the death of my dog bear an eerie resemblance to that awful morning when my father passed away. I remember looking into his clothes closet at many things: shirts and pants that would never again be worn; pairs of shoes, some too new to throw out, others too worn to donate to the needy; personal effects belonging to a man who was no longer a part of this universe and who could not ever use them again. Yet there they were, like fallen autumn leaves collecting in a rain gutter, useless yet not without purpose, at least at some point in time.

Twenty years later, I spent a couple of days poring over my mom's things after she had died. There was that same hollow feeling, the haunting memory left by a departed parent who had left all her earthly possessions behind. The big difference here was that my mother left far more than my father had -- she left it ALL, including most of the furniture I had grown up with. Then, in a flash, everything she owned had been reduced to an unclaimed jumble.

Love is love, whether human or canine; life is a gift, an amazing journey; and death, though it is the completion of life, does not mean that love ceases, not at all. Possessions remain stubbornly tethered, even though there is no one left to possess them. It feels strange to simply throw away perfectly good items that Crosby would want, but without a portal to stuff them through to wherever he is, they lie here pointlessly, disconnected from the one who had once called them his. I guess I haven't yet decided what to do with them, the wound is still too raw. When I do, perhaps this will mark the beginning of the closure I need after losing someone who was my dog and my friend.

Pardon My Radioactive Dust

2011-10-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Ten months ago, I posted about a non-violent method of taking over a nation. George Soros' "Occupy" minions didn't get the memo, but are instead playing by their version of the communist playbook.

I don't care as there are bigger fish to fry. What the Occupy morons could do to us pales in comparison to what I see on the immediate horizon. Even if they succeed in helping this most inept president to usher in martial law and he gets his wish to suspend the Constitution he loathes, I still don't care. For it is not Obama, aka Captain Zero, whom I fear.

In 1976, after tiring of Watergate and all things Republican, Americans erred in electing the man who was, until this current presidential term, the dimmest bulb ever to occupy the White House. Jimmy Carter gave us Iran while taking away the ultra-strategic Panama Canal, a critical passage now supervised by our friends from across the Pacific, the Chinese. (There was a time these folks were referred to as Red Chinese, a term that has fallen out of use thanks to a variety of attacks on truth--the communists are no friend of the Americans, never have been, and never will be.) But the communist peril is yet another digression. I'm here to bring to mind what I call the Persian Peril.

The United States currently faces its gravest existential threat: The one-two punch of radical Islam, backed up by political correctness, has hamstrung the judicial system in such a way as to bring Sharia Law onto American soil regardless of the wishes of the vast majority of US citizens. Reinvested back into the US, Saudi Arabian petrodollars have purchased news sources, universities, and American lawmakers, steering popular opinion and giving rise to the shadowy Thought Police, an entity whose existence cannot be proven though it seems to have a will of its own. Sharia Law is coming, will of the American people be damned.

Sworn enemy of the West, Islam's other violent face does not walk lockstep with the Saudi flavor (Sunni Islam), but seeks to invoke its will upon the world one nation at a time. Shiite Islam, the ruling party of Iran, has used America's precious freedoms to wrap its vile tentacles around our collective jugular vein.

Beginning with the fall of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent Iranian Revolution in 1979 (a big thank you to Jimmy Carter who naively welcomed Ayatollah Khomeini as a man of peace), the Islamic Republic of Iran overnight became the sworn enemy of both the United States and Israel. Iran immediately opened the spigot of hatred toward the two nations it regards as The Little Satan (Israel) and The Great Satan (United States), and has promised, quite brazenly during the past five years, to destroy both nations. Presumably it will carry this out using its peaceful nuclear energy program. (It is permissible by Islamic law to lie as long as it is done to advance the cause of Islam. That Iran's president misrepresents his nation's intention to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should come as a surprise only to the most naive.)

Perennial thorn in the American side, Iran will need to be solved, sooner rather than later. As I see it, we have two choices, both of which have been allowed to fester to the point of being gangrenous, neither alternative offering a tidy solution. In fact, the best we could hope for would result in oil prices of $300 a barrel, a shock the current fragile worldwide economy cannot withstand. Consider each alternative separately:

Option I:
We ignore the Iranian nuclear program and allow them full membership into the exclusive club. This option is clearly extremely perilous as the Mullahs of Iran, through the mouthpiece of Iranian president Ahmadinejad, have made clear their intentions of erasing Israel from the earth. Tiny sliver of a nation that they are, Israel could be destroyed entirely with merely one or two modest-sized atomic bombs. The deterrent offered by Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, an impressive array of bombs of various sizes which has never officially been stated to exist, would be ineffective against the insanity of Iranian mullahs. Why? The Twelfth Imam, a character known as the Mahdi, requires large scale loss of life in order to be summoned. The reasons for this are not clear, yet the apocalyptic scenario, even if it means the deaths of millions of Iranians, is demanded by the Mahdi before he makes his return to earth, presumably to save Islam by vanquishing its enemies (Christians, Jews, Buddhists, atheists--in effect, anyone who is not a Muslim). Therefore this outcome, welcomed by Iran, renders useless any threat to destroy the Islamic republic by preemptive nuclear attack (see option II).

Option II:
The United States, acting alone or with the assistance of Israel, launches a preemptive strike against Iran for the purpose of canceling Iran's nuclear program. While this may have been a viable option in the recent past, it probably is not any longer. Nuclear warheads from the old Soviet Union have mysteriously gone missing; Pakistan and North Korea ostensibly are sources of atomic weapons that could be provided to Iran; Russia and China are also capable of furnishing these weapons to Iran, so it is unclear whether there is anything to be gained by an offensive attack at this point without risking a regional, if not global, nuclear war with untold American and allied casualties. (The Europeans likely cannot be counted on to defend Israel or assist the United States, so the term "allies" is used in a very limited sense.)

Whether or not Iran possesses nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons can only be guessed. But one thing is certain: Any attack against the bellicose Ahmadinejad likely would set off a cascade of attacks on American soil, to say nothing of all the hundreds of (possibly nuclear-tipped) missiles which would rain down upon Israel from every conceivable direction. With regard to our own problems, assume the simultaneous detonation of a hundred Oklahoma City-style fertilizer-and-ammonium nitrate truck bombs at shopping malls, airports, power stations, nuclear power plants, interstate bridges, refineries, oil pipelines, national monuments, The White House, churches, temples, and a list that is as endless as the supply of cheap domestically fashioned bombs easily assembled without suspicion or discovery. This attack would represent the first wave against American interests. It is what sleeper cells are training for while you are reading this, waiting for the signal to come out of the woodwork like rats to wreak unimaginable havoc upon a sleeping civilian adversary.

The second wave would consist of mining the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway referred to as the Jugular of the West by the deposed Shah, thereby shutting down half of the world's oil supply in a matter of hours. Per-barrel and per-gallon prices would skyrocket to unfathomable heights, sending shock waves through a teetering global economy. A secondary result could be a regional war to secure oil supplies for those nations with the military means to do it. China and Russia, due largely to their proximity to the Middle East, would be best poised to carry out such action. The United States would likely be spread too thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of the new attack on Iran. Advance planning to avoid this scenario seems to be out of reach of the limited abilities and understanding of Barack Obama.

The third wave of attacks, perpetrated against Americans on our soil, could include hundreds of AK-47-weilding Iranians and Iranian sympathizers, marching like ants against a nearly defenseless citizenry. Think North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout; think full body armor; think police forces stretched so thin as to be non-existent. (Recall that two armed madmen that February morning in 1997 held three divisions of LAPD officers, including SWAT teams, at bay for forty-five minutes before being felled. We dodged those bullets that day, and no one died except the perpetrators. The next time, we won't be nearly so fortunate.)

Thanks to the flood of Mexican freight parading through our nation via the system of interstate highways, Iran could easily bribe Mexican officials to allow passage of their own special cargo, nuclear weapons which would pass undetected and arrive at their pre-assigned destinations. Sealed in locked containers and destined for large American cities, five-megaton nuclear bombs would reach their respective targets in twenty-four to thirty-six hours, parking at First and Main Streets in every downtown. Activated by cell phone, mushroom clouds would simultaneously appear over the North American skyline, erasing what had remained of the populace after the earlier attack waves.

The corrupt government to the south, in concert with the freedoms on which we have come to depend and the sieve we call our southern border, make this scenario as easy as flying airplanes into skyscrapers filled with innocent civilians. It is the way of the radical Muslim, to shed as much blood as possible, all to satisfy their inexplicable hatred for Israel and the country who has consistently supported her.

When not vacationing in Hawaii or Africa or bowing to foreign leaders while apologizing for actions of his predecessors which he perceives as wrongs that need to be righted, Ayatollah Obama is incapable of defending the United States. Having never served in any military capacity (at least not for this country), he cannot possibly act effectively as Commander-in-Chief. Yet he paradoxically bears the title.

Given the psychopathic mad dog who controls his country's growing nuclear arsenal, it would seem that attacking Iran to deprive them of their war machine is no longer a survivable option.

The future of our planet is steadily unraveling, taking worldwide stability with it. Keep watching Oprah and Rosie and Ellen and MSNBC who all assure you that there is nothing to worry about. Keep watching Dancing with the Stars and American Idol and reading the New York Times and the National Enquirer. Keep your head buried firmly in the sand and maybe all of this will vaporize like a dream, but most likely it will end in a radioactive nightmare. I'm afraid the time to act was five years ago. The time to pray, however, is right now.

Formula for the Non-Violent Destruction of a Nation

2010-12-27T15:20:00.000-08:00

I've been attached to this planet as it journeys around the sun for five decades now, not including my debut and the brief time I crawled around in diapers.  As a casual observer, concerned citizen, and fifty-something American, I've practically seen it all: suicidal terrorists flying planes into skyscrapers packed with innocent lives, belligerent third-world leaders boasting that we are in their nuclear cross-hairs, promises of dirty bomb detonation on American soil, an economy that refuses to stop plummeting.  And if this sluggish economy fails to snap out of its prolonged lethargy before much longer, The Great Depression II might be among tomorrow's headlines.

Mushroom clouds suspended over American cities as millions die.  Forgive me if I postpone discussing that cheery subject until some later time.  For now, I will concentrate on destruction of the non-violent kind—the kind you don't see coming until it is too late.

Having seen the US slip from greatness to worldwide laughingstock in a frighteningly short period of time, my unique vantage point, along with an hour's reflection, have allowed me to piece together a recipe for the destruction of a great nation.  While this is not among my personal aspirations, it seems that these methods could have been used successfully to compromise the integrity of this once great land.   (Please don't summon the FBI or Secret Service as I am neither touting nor encouraging this type of activity.  This is merely the product of personal speculation tinged with awe, a post-game analysis of how it is my country has been so quickly ruined.)

I continue with the formula in a generic form:

To achieve this end against some targeted government, perform as many of the following as possible, in no specific order.  Sufficient time may be required to elapse between events so that they may be allowed to fester in the collective consciousness of the populace in order to realize maximum psychological devastation; tweak this interval as necessary.  Most steps may be carried out concurrently with others:

Assassinate the president, preferably in full view of millions of adoring faithful (television is excellent for this). The more popular he is at the time of his death, the better;
Normalize indecency such as pornography, homosexuality, and abuse of women;
Marginalize decency; criminalize it if necessary;
Silence churches and synagogues while preserving free expression of the indecent;
Encourage the slaughter of babies while decrying capital punishment of convicted killers;
Destroy marriage and the family;
Vilify all authority, especially the police;
Encourage youth to speak freely without fear of reprisal; criminalize effective measures of discipline, especially corporal punishment;
Worship vanity, professional athletes, and entertainment while maligning reason and the sciences;
Establish an oligarchy and ensure its power is absolute and cannot be usurped, especially by popular vote; use the power of the oligarchy to protect indecency; impose undue hardship upon anyone exemplifying decency;
Utilize monolithic state-run educational institutions to instill immorality in all students beginning in kindergarten; redefine immoral as moral and indecent as decent; teach these principles as enlightenment;
If there is a constitution which propounds individual freedoms, especially free speech and the right of self-preservation with firearms, abolish it; replace it with a code emphasizing the collective good;
Discourage open dialog at universities in favor of belief in unproven theories and fantasy such as Darwinian Evolution;
Remove all historical mention of war heroes and great people of the Bible;
Disparage and discredit the Bible;
Replace masculine role models with those whose gender is not clearly defined;
Encourage advancement of inferior workers in the name of civil rights;
Mock any display of national pride; ostracize any such practitioners of it;
Impose an unwritten mantra codifying the protection of indecency; label it with a term that will be easily remembered—something tidy like "political correctness"; and ensure that it is upheld at all costs;
Confer civil rights upon practitioners of indecency, thus providing them with legal protection.

The application of these twenty methods of attack against a government will cause that government to collapse quickly from within. As we have witnessed, an unseen force has neutralized the United States in fewer than fifty years by adhering to this tidy playbook.

The embodiment of evil, the monster from Greece we know as George Soros was not consulted in the preparation of this document.

It'll be a Cold Day in Hell

2010-11-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

... when I trust a politician over a physicist.

I just finished reading a thirteen-year-old article about Sam Cohen. Sam Cohen is a physicist who helped develop and deploy the atomic bombs used by the United States to close out World War II; he had also been a key figure in continuing to develop American nuclear weaponry. Like much of our defenses, he has been mothballed for decades.

So that the Cohen article doesn't up and walk off the internet (with Obama heading up the Thought Police Department, anything is possible), I took the liberty of cutting and pasting it in its entirety. With the exception of some bold or italic fonts added for emphasis and clarity, it appears unedited below:

Bomb inventor says U.S. defenses suffer because of politics

06/15/97
By Christopher Ruddy

FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW

LOS ANGELES - For most of Sam Cohen's life, he has struggled against politicians who, in his opinion, have sacrificed good sense when it comes to the nation's defenses. Cohen is the physicist who invented the neutron bomb, the one that kills people but leaves things like tanks and buildings intact. Plans to deploy his creations in Europe during the '70s and '80s awakened the "peace movement" across that continent, stopping its deployment.

With that and other battles lost, the 76-year-old Cohen finds solace in his Brentwood home, nestled high on a hill overlooking Los Angeles. There the world is far more peaceful, or so it seems. Just down the road is the Rockingham estate of one O.J. Simpson. Cohen would pass there often during his morning walks, and occasionally see the former football star. "He was always pleasant," Cohen recounted.

Cohen would probably be unfazed if confronted by a knife-wielding mugger - a threat insignificant in the scheme of things. What worries him are weapons of mass destruction - nuclear ones that destroy whole cities.

The politicians tell us that our security has never been better. Cohen describes the present situation as "scary, more scary than ever before." He's concerned that the Clinton administration has decided it is politically incorrect to even think about the design and development of nuclear weapons. The head of the division of the Livermore National Laboratories in charge of such weapon development has threatened to resign if he is ordered to develop new weapons, Cohen noted in a recent interview.

The government doesn't want people to even think about nuclear weapons, which is like telling Sam Cohen he is no longer permitted to breathe.

As a kid from Brooklyn who graduated with a physics degree from UCLA, he enlisted in the Army after Pearl Harbor. In 1944 Cohen was assigned to the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop atomic weapons at Los Alamos, N.M. Cohen had the mundane job of calculating how neutrons behaved in "Fat Man" - the nickname of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. (The bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier was nicknamed "Little Boy.")

The boring work was all worthwhile because Cohen eventually stood in the Nevada desert and witnessed something on par with the Transfiguration: an atomic explosion. Cohen saw firsthand the awesome power of the unleashed atom as human history entered a new age. "Awesome spectacle" is how Cohen still describes the event. Puffing on a cigar as he relaxed in his easy chair wearing a T-shirt and jogging pants, Sam remembered that day vividly.

World War II flying hero Jimmy Doolittle stood next to him when the bomb went off. "The little guy was blown down," Cohen recalled.

After the war ended, Cohen joined the Rand Corp. where he was paid to continue thinking about nuclear weapons. He was obsessed with the idea of a neutron bomb, one that would make use of the lethal particles he had observed so studiously at Los Alamos.

The earliest bombs had used nuclear fission, splitting heavy atoms to release energy. Later bombs used nuclear fusion, which fused hydrogen atoms to release energy. Both designs produced tremendous blasts that could level whole cities, and left them uninhabitable for long periods because of lingering radiation.

Cohen's neutron bomb would use nuclear fusion, but in a different way. The detonation of a neutron bomb would still produce an explosion, but one much smaller than a standard nuclear weapon's. The main effect of a neutron bomb would be the release of high-energy neutrons that would take lives far beyond the blast area. The result: fewer buildings, cars, tanks, roads, highways and other structures destroyed.

And unlike standard nuclear bombs that leave long-term contamination of the soil and infrastructure, the neutron radiation quickly dissipates after the explosion.

For Cohen, the neutron bomb is the ultimate sane weapon. It kills humans, or as he puts it "the bad guys," but doesn't produce tremendous collateral damage on civilian populations and the infrastructure a civilian population needs to survive.

This meant, in Cohen's mind, that a conventional war could escalate without immediately leading to an all-out nuclear holocaust. If regular nuclear weapons were used across Europe, the radioactive fallout could turn the continent into a wasteland for decades. That wouldn't be the case if neutron bombs were used.

Between 1958 and 1961 the neutron bomb idea was tested successfully, but the politicians in Washington nixed development and deployment of the weapon. Cohen persisted. As the Vietnam War began and festered in the 1960s, Cohen became an advocate of using neutron bombs there. To Cohen, his weapon was "a perfect fit" for dealing with the Viet Cong hidden in the jungles and rice paddies.

Again, the politicians had other ideas. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ruled that no nuclear weapons of any type would be used in the war. The use of the small neutron bombs would have brought the war to a quick end, Cohen still argues, and saved more than 50,000 American lives.

In 1969, Cohen was fired from the Rand Corp. for continuing to advocate the use of tactical neutron bombs to end the conflict. "I lost all my battles," Cohen says today.

In 1979, he was in Paris helping the French build their own arsenal of neutron bombs when presidential candidate Ronald Reagan came through on a European tour. Cohen met with Reagan to brief him on the neutron bomb. Reagan grasped the idea of neutron weaponry immediately, and made a pledge to Cohen, and later a public pledge, that he would reverse Carter administration policy by building and deploying a large number of neutron bombs.

As president, Reagan fulfilled that pledge and approximately a thousand weapons were constructed. But criticism from European allies kept the weapons from being deployed across Europe.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism as we knew it, the Bush administration moved to dismantle all of our tactical nuclear weapons, including the Reagan stockpile of neutron bombs. In Cohen's mind, America was brought back to Square One. Without tactical weapons like the neutron bomb, America would be left with two choices if an enemy was winning a conventional war: surrender, or unleash the holocaust of strategic nuclear weapons.

Other nations haven't been afflicted by the U.S. blindness regarding neutron bombs. According to Cohen:

Evidence exists that China has neutron bombs stockpiled, and that the United States gave the Chinese the technology to build them.

Russia has a large quantity of such weapons, as well as the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Israel has hundreds of neutron weapons. The neutron bombs would allow Israel to stop advancing Arab armies and tank columns - even one on Israeli soil - without permanently contaminating the land.

South Africa, which constructed a cache of neutron weapons before the end of white rule, claimed it dismantled those weapons before handing over power to the Nelson Mandela government. Cohen, however, claims to have it on good authority that white military leaders still control the secret stockpile as "an insurance policy."

Most frightening for Cohen is the relative ease by which neutron bombs can be created with a substance called red mercury. Red mercury is a compound containing mercury that has undergone massive irradiation. When exploded, it creates tremendous heat and pressure - the same type needed to trigger a fusion device such as a mini-neutron bomb.

Before, an obstacle to creating a nuclear bomb was the need for plutonium, which when exploded could create a fusion reaction in hydrogen atoms. But red mercury has changed that. The cheap substance has been produced in Russia, Cohen said, and shipped on the black market throughout the world.

Cohen said that when U.N. inspectors went to Iraq to examine the Iraqis' nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.N. team found documents showing that they had purchased quantities of red mercury. The material means a neutron bomb can be built "the size of baseball" but able to kill everyone within several square blocks.

The public isn't being warned about this development because the politicians have little desire to combat the menace or to confront nations like Iraq, Iran and Libya that likely would use such weapons, Cohen said.

Cohen has little faith in the politicians anyway. "Every president since Truman, with the possible exception of Eisenhower, would have sold the country out if it came down to a nuclear confrontation," he said.

Cohen on national security issues

In a recent interview, Sam Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, offered his views on several national security issues:

RUSSIA: Though the Cold War is over and Russia appears in disarray, Cohen suggested that the situation remains dangerous because Russia has "far and away substantially more nuclear weapons than we do." While U.S. policy makers have been busy dismantling our nuclear arsenal, Russia continues to modernize.

The United States has been paying billions of dollars for the leftover plutonium from Russia's dismantled weapons, but evidence indicates that the Russians have not been turning over weapons-grade plutonium. Instead, the United States has been paying for, and not objecting to, material from their nuclear power plants - a strong sign the Russians are not dismantling their weapons.

MISSILE DEFENSES: Calling a ballistic missile defense system "absolutely necessary," Cohen said American space-based plans so far have been a "debacle" that have cost taxpayers more than $50 billion.

Cohen argued that the "Star Wars" plan envisioned by President Ronald Reagan was inherently flawed. Politicians, once again fearing the "n" word, promised that nuclear weapons would not be used in any missile defense system. Cohen contends Reagan received misleading advice that technology was advanced enough to create a non-nuclear missile defense system.

Almost 15 years have passed since Reagan's call for a missile defense system, and still no weapons have been deployed. Cohen said that, had nuclear weapons been used, a fairly inexpensive system could already have been deployed. In such a system, nuclear weapons are exploded high in the atmosphere to either destroy or knock off trajectory incoming missiles. While the radioactive fallout from such explosions would pose some threat to civilian populations, it would be infinitely less harmful than having enemy missiles hit their targets.

Already, Cohen reported, the Russians have a sophisticated nuclear-based missile defense system around Moscow and possibly elsewhere. According to published intelligence reports, in the late 1980s the Russians began developing a "plasma weapon" for missile defenses. The plasma weapon uses nuclear energy to ionize the atmosphere, destroying or rendering inoperable any missiles passing through the plasma field.

SEAPOWER: Cohen said navies have become "obsolete" in terms of global warfare using nuclear weapons, and he described floating ships as "sitting ducks" for nuclear weapons. The U.S. Navy depends on AEGIS missile defense systems to protect its fleets, but Cohen said AEGIS has failed all of its tests, and there is no proof that it could fend off a multi-missile strike against a fleet, let alone a country.

Cohen said the U.S. Navy should put more resources into nuclear-powered submarines because of the difficulty any enemy might have in destroying them in a first strike.

For years, the nuclear submarines were the most important part of our deterrent against surprise nuclear attack, primarily because the submarine captain and crew did not need special codes, known as permissive action links or PALs, to fire their weapons. Thus, if a surprise attack disabled our military communications, the submarine could still counterattack.

In recent years, Cohen said, the Clinton administration has instituted the use of PALs on nuclear missile submarines, limiting their deterrence value.

CHINA: Cohen thinks China will soon be in position to blackmail the United States into reneging on promises to defend Taiwan. Already China has made overt threats about hitting the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. "China has said, `OK, if you defend Taiwan, we'll drop a nuclear weapon on Los Angeles,'" Cohen said.

In a trip to Taiwan, Cohen spoke before the military leadership there and strongly advised them to begin their own nuclear weapons program. The United States will not defend you because the politicians don't care about you, he told them.

Feel bad? Yeah. I felt like vomiting after reading about Sam Cohen and his dealings with politicians derelict of their duties.

Over the past few decades—really since I finished high school in 1974—I have seen unprecedented and appalling appeasement, committed by American politicians against the citizens they have been charged with representing, even protecting. Ostensibly this has all been done in the name of "peace." Not every president nor every politician has been a complete moron; the Left, by and large, owns this title all by themselves. (The worthless "Rino"—Republican In Name Only—also may be included among the contemptible marauders. However, it should be noted that it is not my intention to defend Republicans; rather, I would march in step with anyone who would defend the beloved American Constitution.)

Imagine for a moment that you are accosted in an alley by a man waving a knife. If you are unarmed, you stand a high likelihood of losing your will, your possessions, even your life. (The Left loves unilateral disarmament as a way of appeasing our enemies.)

If you are evenly matched and have a knife of your own, several possibilities may emerge from this confrontation; a few of those would leave you in a less-than-desirable state. (The Left does not believe we need military superiority, just an "adequate" defense, to be used in coordination with the military of US allies. Note: Can we really trust our allies in an era when we vacillate in our support for them?)

Now suppose that you have the superiority of possessing a gun, which you immediately reveal and point at your potential attacker. Without firing a shot, you have won the battle. You have made your enemy stand down and retreat, surrendering his will to you. No violence, no bloodshed, no loss of life. This is how a clear-headed, right-minded, conservative-thinking person views the notion of armory and self-defense. Extrapolate this out to nations and weapons of unthinkable destructive power, and you have the same result: I have more than you do, therefore I win without firing a shot or killing one of your people, and most importantly without the loss of one American life. (This most sensible approach sounds the most Reaganesque to me, and it is the one which would ensure the existence, livelihood, and military superiority of the US throughout the 21st century.)

The lunatic on the left reasons with the thug as a way of extricating himself. He mistakenly believes that all humans will respond predictably to reason. Clearly, the age of terrorism and the rise of radical Islam have demonstrated this not to be the case. The diseased liberal mind hopes that the thug can be coddled, made to feel good, and ultimately will respond to the application of reason. The liberal's way of thinking is broken. His is the lunacy behind MAD, or mutually assured destruction; his is the nonsense behind detente and unilateral disarmament, or bilateral disarmament with poor verification; his is the manner in which uncaring politicians think.

Who has been the main inspiration behind the peace movement? Who has gathered strength while the once-mighty United States has withered in the face of military and economic adversity? Who stands to gain the most as the US adopts the "peace at any cost" mentality? I would argue that our emerging superpower adversaries, China and Russia, would be in line to gain the most should America cease to exist. At such a time, the two nations would be free to roam about the planet and plunder it—until, that is, they met up with a nuclear-capable Israel.

I don't know Sam Cohen personally. Aside from the article I've quoted, along with others like it, I really don't know very much about the man. Suffice to say that I do know enough about him and about politicians, American and otherwise, to trust him over them. (I would trust a theologian almost implicitly; I would then trust a physicist; and with rare exception, I would only trust a politician as a last resort.)

Americans fiddle while our young democracy burns. We have seen and continue to see this, and with our sworn adversaries salivating as we fiddle with in-fighting and perceived rights and entitlements, with bumbling, inept presidents, and with leaders who care more about their bottom line than about the true needs of their constituency, I don't see much hope. Perhaps the time has arrived for the end of US sovereignty via a merging of the United States with Europe, as a way to save the West, a repugnant thought on the best of days. But as Cohen aptly points out, Europe's thinking is just as crippled as ours is. They are just as morally bankrupt as we are, if not more so, and they have been infiltrated by appeasers and communist sympathizers and atheists for longer than we have.

Bumbling presidents. Weak politicians. Fraudulent lawmakers who have been bribed into compliance by hostile governments with more cash than morals. "Now is not the time to militarize space," the newly elected Prince of Stupidity, Barack Obama, announced early in 2009. And why not militarize space? Not only might it preserve our vanishing advantage, but it might allow the US to defend itself against rogue nations, weeds in the world's garden, garbage foreign leaders who have procured their military might from technology bought from the old USSR or a modern Russian Republic, or given eagerly by the Chinese, or perhaps stolen from right under our very noses. Iranian nukes riding Russian missiles into American cities; North Korean warheads flying across the Pacific and blanketing the Western states; Chinese neutron bombs hoisted aloft by a missile system given to them by the Clinton Administration, bombs which would cripple the US power grid and bring it crashing down under the weight of the stupidity of US politicians who have been sleeping at the switch for decades, ceding the military advantage this nation once enjoyed.

Losing a nuclear war to Iran, North Korea, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia. This untenable position only could have been arrived at through a generation of appeasement. A generation of ignoring the words of Sam Cohen.

In light of what is written in chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine of the book of Ezekiel, we see that Israel will fight—and defeat—the mighty Russian army. The description of this looming epic battle leaves one to conclude that it is nuclear in nature. Perhaps Mr. Cohen found eager Israelis who were not loathe to defend themselves with N-bombs in their arsenal. Clearly, Israel will thrive in the closing days of the Age. With sparse mention of the United States in Biblical prophecy, none of it in a positive light, Israel will likely face the collective menaces to freedom without American support. One need look no further than the Obama Administration to see that Israel has already lost much if not all American favor. Perhaps they have outgrown the need for American fiddlers. Run this up against Genesis 12:3 and see what you come up with.

Genesis 12:3 (NASB) "And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse..."

How many times have we urged Israel to give up land for a peace that never comes? And now that we've turned our backs on her in favor of appeasing her Muslim enemies who make no secret their desire to push Israel into the sea, where will it leave us? I find it to be as chilling as the warnings of Sam Cohen.

A Long and Winding Road to Nowhere

2010-09-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

It hurts when a childhood friend hits the pavement hard. It especially hurts when you can't do a thing to help him.

I'll call my friend "T."

I moved into a house next to T at the tender age of ten, way back in the late 1960s. He and his two brothers welcomed me into the neighborhood and showed me the ropes. What had been an empty house only hours earlier was now my home. And ten-year-old T was my newest friend.

I won't bore you with the mundanities of two boys growing up living next-door to each other--I'm sure you can fill in all the appropriate blanks.

T was a bright guy, and though we clashed on a variety of things, we managed to remain friends into the next decade and the one beyond that. But T was promiscuous in the area of, shall I say, chemical experimentation. (I remember seeing him smoke a joint and drink one of his father's beers when he was just twelve or thirteen.)

By the end of the 1970s, T was showing signs which alarmed me, profound changes in his personality. Owing to what he was putting into his body--substances that ran the gamut from alcohol to marijuana to LSD to hallucinogenic mushrooms to God knows what--I could only assume he was under the lasting influence of one drug or another. Throughout the 80s, he developed an irrational rage; by 1990, he was verbally lashing out at phantom adversaries of a grandiose nature.

Unbeknown to me, T had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1985. The news caught me off-guard, but it came as no surprise.

Now in his fifties, T is unable to hold a job or care for himself. He wanders the streets of Los Angeles, threatening people--some real, some conjured up from within his tortured mind--without provocation. As a result, he has bounced in and out of jail. Everyone seems to have a restraining order against him, or they're considering filing for one, and for good reason. Seldom capable of rational thought, he doesn't understand why people don't want him around.

T was rearrested this morning, and if the past is any indication, he'll be in LA County Jail for the next year. I don't know whether to be relieved or to cry for him. In the facility, at least he will have something resembling mental health care. Certainly he will have food and a place to sleep, and from what I understand, he will be with a group that is isolated from the true madness of a county jail, so he should be relatively safe.

Where this all began probably doesn't matter; surely it matters not an iota to his family and friends who care for him, and it means nothing to T. Taking his prescription anti-psychotic medication, something he vehemently denies needing due to recurring bouts of irrationality, might be his only hope.

Insulated from T by a thousand miles of interstate, I can neither help nor hinder his plight. But hope knows no boundaries, and I can hope that he is able to muster the presence of mind to take his medication and begin the long road back from his personal hell. At this point, little else awaits him but an open grave.

So I will hope from afar, and I will beseech the God of the universe, through prayer, that T might find his way back to peace of mind.

Morning Magic

2010-09-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Let's try a little experiment. Set your alarm clock for an ungodly hour tomorrow morning, if you aren't already in the habit of doing so. If you groan or bristle at the thought of arising twenty or so minutes before the sun's first light, turn off Konan or the guy with glasses and the annoying gray tuft on his balding head, and go to bed early.

I live on acreage with (mostly) quiet neighbors and little nearby traffic, so this might work for me a little better than for you. However, while living in crowded southern California years ago, I had the same pleasant experience; if it can be done there, it can be done anywhere.

Now that you're awake, go outside. If it hasn't rained in the wee hours, dew will most likely cover nearly everything, and the air will be cool, so you might want to dress accordingly. Unless a cold front has crashed through and wiped out the desired atmospheric conditions, the air a few hundred feet above you will be markedly warmer than at the surface. (I'm taking the liberty of assuming a cloudless night with little or no air movement.) Assuming the aforementioned, an atmospheric inversion will be in place, and you will experience an interesting phenomenon.

Distant (up to a mile or so) noise is trapped under the inversion and will reflect off the cold-air/warm-air interface, returning to your ears quite loudly. This accounts for the interesting effect of sound waves carrying much farther than they do under typical daytime weather conditions, after the sun has warmed the ground and eroded the inversion. This ducting effect explains why a far-away moving vehicle sounds as if it is mere feet from you.

Welcome to Physics 101.

Now let's assume there is no traffic--perhaps it is a weekend or holiday morning, or you're lucky enough to live in a rural area. Perfect. You will find the quiet to be deafening, transcendental, and dare I use the word cosmic? Compared to the racket made by vehicles and noisy neighbors, the calm cannot be described.

Later, as the first hint of sunlight appears in the eastern sky, birds will awake and begin to chirp. If you're a coffee drinker as I am, the pleasant aroma will add to the effect as you sip your brew and feel its invigorating effects.

If you've followed my plan and not cheated by sneaking back to bed, you will greet the dawn with a euphoria that eclipses whatever benefit you might have had from watching the late-night clown shows, though modern technology has afforded you the luxury of recording their 11 o'clock antics, which I understand most people to do. In addition, you now have a whole day ahead of you.

Of course this all washes out if you're a night person as I used to be.
Perhaps I'm just getting older and am heeding the words of Ben Franklin.

Everything Will Be AlrightFor Another Year, Anyway

2010-08-22T13:23:00.001-07:00

Vin Scully has announced he will return to the Dodger broadcast booth for an unprecedented 61st season, most by any professional broadcaster in any sport. This is great news for LA Dodger fans, and good news for baseball fans in general.

I grew up in Southern California and was serenaded to Scully's ballgames beginning in 1965. It was an auspicious year for the home team -- Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, and the rest of the boys of forty-five summers past -- as they defeated the Twins in the World Series; thus, it was a great way to receive my indoctrination into Dodger fandom.

As with weather and beaches and mountains, those of us who came of age in LA took much of it for granted. So it was with Vin Scully's soothing voice and melodic demeanor behind the mike. Vin didn't just call a baseball game; he told a tale, weaved a story, brought to the listener the fragrant scent of a thousand ballgames past and thousands of miles away right into your mind's eye as if you had been there in person. No other broadcaster I've heard has been as adept at his craft as Vinny, as he is known to Dodger fans.

Through fires and quakes and riots, he has been there to assure us that everything somehow will be alright. And for at least one more year, now I know it will be.

My Voicemail, My Greeting

2010-06-24T09:35:00.001-07:00

Since 2001, I've had my wireless phone service parked at AT&T. Forget that they've changed their company name from AT&T to Cingular and back like an old game of Pong. They offered me a deal that was hard to pass up, and for the most part, I haven't spent too much time regretting it.

A week ago, I made another business decision that seemed to make sense. Given that Apple is poised to roll out the new iPhone 4 at any hour, the price of the iPhone 3G fell through the floor, so I snatched one up at a mere $99.

For the past nine years, my outbound message on my trusty Nokia remained virtually unchanged. It's basic, to the point, and not the least bit irritating (in my humble opinion). Once I set up my iPhone, however, I immediately noticed one nuance: At least on AT&T's network, there is a subtle voicemail change, six seconds of robotic instructions that grate on my nerves and which I am unable to remove. The menu options deep inside the tangled mess of voicemail instructions have been altered slightly so that the incantation is permanently affixed to my greeting.

So much for wise business decisions.

Now that practically everyone either has a cell phone or frequently calls someone who does, you likely know exactly what I am referring to. Specifically, this is my voicemail greeting before and after AT&T got done with it:

Me: You've reached Rob Petitt's voicemail. At the tone, leave your name and message, and I'll get back to you. Have a great day!

Robot: At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press '1' for more options.

This sounds like two people arguing over the phone, the robot through its silicon wisdom offering correction to my woefully inadequate thus inept instructions. By 2010, even a baboon knows what to do when encountering an unattended phone line and that, once it has left its message, it is time to hang up. I guess AT&T thinks they're spiffy by allowing the caller to press '1' for more options.

The sequence of instructions, on about the third level deep, led me to option #7, eliminating cut-through paging. Curiously, this option exists on the Nokia but is absent on the iPhone. Aside from this, the sets of instructions are virtually exact. Am I the only one who finds this odd?

No.

Last week, I sought help from my trusty friend, the internet. I crammed a few terms into a search engine, clicked the equivalent of "frappe", and was met with dozens of posts that appeared to have been written either by me or by some like-minded soul. It turns out there are a lot of folks who are riled up about the robo-lady and AT&T's insistence that we force-feed her to our callers. One particularly level-headed blogger assured that there was a rather straightforward remedy for her, and that I begin by contacting AT&T customer service. I did so, quite politely I might add, and opened up a trouble ticket. The ticket was sent off to the voicemail department for their technicians to review. As of this moment, my complaint has met with sympathetic ears, but not a satisfactory resolution as the internet posts have assured me will happen. I will follow up here if and when the case moves forward.

If you are as easily set aflame as I, and if your hackles are similarly up after reading about my encounter with Goliath, I would urge you to contact your wireless carrier and seek to banish the robo-lady, or at least return the choice to us paying customers. After all, we have purchased this so it is our voicemail, and it surely should be our greeting as well.

The Lakers Won but LA Lost

2010-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Having once been an Angelino, I was absorbed into the LA sports scene at an early age. Now a decade removed from southern California, I still bleed Dodger Blue and wear Laker purple and gold at every opportunity. If I can't watch a game, I at least catch the box score the following day, grinning when they win, and agonizing when they don't. So when the Lakers knocked off the hated Celtics in a thrilling seven game series, I was ecstatic.

Now comes the ugliness that has become the dark side of professional sports: looting and unwarranted violence.

What is the sense in destroying the city which represents the home team? The team, and the city, should be the object of adoration rather than hooliganism. Clearly, it only takes a few idiots to mar an otherwise euphoric event. These clowns are the one-percenters, the fools who look good in county-issued orange.

Since there likely will be no parade or subsequent riot in Bean Town, there surely won't be any vandalism. So in a way, the Celtics of Boston figured out a way to beat the Lakers.

No More Sardines For Me

2010-04-14T10:31:00.001-07:00

The last US sardine packaging plant, which opened in Maine in 1875, will soon close. Partly due to shrinking demand and partly due to our shrinking economy, the plant can no longer remain in business. Our thirst for imported goods from cheap labor markets is undoubtedly at fault.

In a way, we are slitting our own throats. And as a result, one-hundred and thirty American jobs will be terminated, a meager sum when contrasted with the closing of large factories in favor of shifting to offshore labor (try telling that to the families of the displaced workers). Just another sign of the times.

Now for the shocker: China and Thailand will rush in to fill the void. Only God knows what ingredients will comprise the Asian sardines. With words like melamine, mercury, lead, and other toxins floating through the airwaves and the sea, it's probably time to switch to a more trusted source for the tiny fish.

As unemployment grows, more dollars will flow to foreign nations, notably Canada and some northern European countries, for what was and should remain an American product. While I trust our Canadian and European allies not to poison us, I would strongly prefer to keep the USA label on the cans.

For us fish lovers, cod liver oil--though mostly if not entirely imported from Norway--and domestically harvested cod and salmon are good sources of omega-3 oil.

As toxic heavy metals ruin the world's oceans, few fish are safe from the poisons; hence, few fish-eating humans are safe as well. There are some clean sources of omega-3 oil, notably Carlson's Cod Liver Oil. This is the one I use on a daily basis. I'll just give up my occasional sardines. Consider this not only a personal safety measure but a boycott of Chinese goods, however weak that boycott may be.

When onshoring replaces offshoring, Americans will return to work while foreign laborers will be left to fend for themselves as we are today. Only then will our economy once again flourish. For now, the tiny sardine factory is merely an emerging part of the same malignant iceberg.

Birther? No Birther? Who Cares?

2010-02-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

Of course I care. I've always cared about the US Constitution. I've always maintained that Obama is not a legitimate president; rather he is a usurper of the most dangerous order.

So why should I want to stop him?

As long as he's doing more damage to his own party than his opposition could on its best day, let him remain in office. The upcoming mid-term elections are now less than ten months away, and Obama's mandate ostensibly began last month with the election of Republican Scott Brown to fill the long-time Democrat seat left vacant by Ted Kennedy. The snowball is rolling. We can either freeze it dead by tying it up in the molasses of the court system, or we can let it gain its own momentum by the gravity of public opinion and smash the triumvirate of evil, the Democrat trilogy of terror now gripping the nation.

With a 60-seat filibuster-proof lead in the Senate now history, let Obama remain in the capacity of bumbling usurper. Unless he ends up losing his party's 2012 nomination to Hillary Clinton, someone who could steal away his thunder and re-legitamize the Democrat fireball, he's the best thing his opposition has going for it.

Obama promised hope and change, and that's exactly what he's given us!

America Has Lost Conrol Over Her Destiny

2010-02-14T12:31:00.001-08:00

This is a sobering thought, though it is probably not much of a surprise.

America lacks the naval power to defend traditional allies in the Pacific. While our navy has continued to shrink since the Reagan-era buildup, China continues to funnel its vast economic resources into its military. The resulting shift in the balance of power cannot surprise anyone: China seeks world domination, while we follow a course of appeasement unto irrelevance.

Traditional allies Japan and South Korea will have to shoulder the burden for their own defense, and rightly so. While our economy struggles through a deepening recession, they have enjoyed trade surpluses and expanding GDPs.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have yielded questionable results given their huge price tags. While these may have been necessary expenditures to hold terror at bay, they have not eliminated the threat of advancing Islamic fundamentalism. Together with liberalism and all of its goofy tenets (e.g. the green movement, policies that encourage massive illegal immigration, and the banishment of God from public venues in the name of tolerance, to name just three), America's hands are sufficiently tied so as to be powerless to fight the enemy within, leaving us in no position for battle against an external foe.

We should expect little else as long as we import more than we export. The dollars, as in the clear case of Saudi Arabia's dizzying petrodollars, are invested back into America and into the pockets of our own lawmakers who opt not to break the cycle. And why should they? They have no personal recession as the rest of us do.

By abandoning the nation of Israel, we are reaping our just rewards. The co-conspirators of freedom, capitalism, and appeasement soon will take down the greatest nation that ever was, Reagan's great shining city on the hill.

Happy Presidents Day.

Change: End of a Legacy

2010-01-19T18:37:00.000-08:00

Ted Kennedy's seat, which had become vacant with the longtime senator's passing late last year, has been won by a Republican.

The Democrats had talked widely of change, and now they appear to be getting what they had wanted -- in principle rather than in reality.

With Chicago-style politics running the White House and stretching its arm and sickle toward city and state governments throughout the land, balance has been sorely lacking. Depriving the party in power of their vise-grip sixty-seat lock on the senate is key to reining in the party of the McGoverns, the Carters, the Kennedys, the abortionists, the peace mongers, those who would repeal US sovereignty, those who would remove our right to keep and bear arms, those who despise the Constitution, even those of every fruity entity from the far left.

Welcome to the US Senate, Mr. Scott Brown. May you serve our country well.

Into 2010 We Go

2010-01-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

The magic of Christmas has come and gone, the trees which once adorned our homes are in the garbage, and all the pretty lights have been stuffed away in the attic for the next eleven months. January has us in its sterile, icy grip. Trudging through a case of winter blues as I am, my eyes eagerly look ahead to spring.

This winter has been particularly severe, as was the one before it. Record cold weather has splashed across much of the northern hemisphere, and it seems everyone has something to say about it.

Enter the global warming hucksters who incessantly beat their drums. Now don't get all upside-down in your chair. Hear me out.

When the days are hot, said charlatans go into their mantra; when it's mild, they continue their chant; and when temperatures are abnormally cold, they keep right on yapping. Where is the logic in this? Oh sure, they'll tell you about "greenhouse gases" accumulating and point to charts which allegedly bear witness to their claims.

Let's assume CO2 levels have been increasing over the past 150 years. I live in an area nearly filled with large trees, trees which happily absorb all the CO2 they can get their leaves on. There are uncounted forests throughout the planet with similar appetites, comprised of trees that return life-giving oxygen for our exhaust gases.

Maybe there's a balance. Or maybe there's something else, something -- or someone -- lurking in the shadows.

Go grab some Pepto Bismol and consider Al Gore. If you need a minute, I'll be right here when you get back.

Regardless of how you voted in the 2000 presidential election, the man is a snake oil salesman. Now I don't intend to beat up on Mr. Gore, at least not specifically. There are a slew of like-minded folks who believe as he does. It is these people whom I have in my cross-hairs (figuratively, of course -- I don't intend to shoot anybody today). The media campaign is well funded and has, I am convinced, a sinister plot as its ultimate goal: to drain the wealth of the United States and spread it across the globe. Without sounding paranoid, I believe this is part of a coordinated effort to bring down this mighty country and usher in world domination by a single undisclosed entity.

Did you say UN? Please don't. They are inept and cannot enforce any of their own resolutions. Would you trust your 401k to such a band of humanist morons? Instead, I'd look to the most populous nation in the world as the greatest beneficiary of our downfall. Yes, others would benefit if we were to deplete the bullion from our treasury, and Jimmy Carter's empty mind would fill with glee at the mere thought of another altruistic (*cough*) global endeavor.

The marketing scheme has been incredible (perhaps that should read incredulous but the words diabolical and disingenuous also come to mind). The "scientists" who have been reeled in forgot all about the dire warnings of an impending ice age they issued in the late 1970s, and now they modify their terms to suit their financial needs. Remember "global warming"? Come on, get hip! It's been called "climate change" for a few years now since it takes into consideration any fluctuation in temperature, up or down; the mere perception of a change in the weather draws the naive to worship at its altar.

In the 1600s, a phenomenon known as the Maunder Minimum occurred. For more than seventy years, sunspots virtually vanished, and temperatures around the world plummeted to lows not seen since. Couple this observation with the noted heating up of the four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) over the first half of the decade we just exited. The conclusion I arrive at is simple: Our planet's climatological destiny is at the mercy of the sun, not CO2.

But the fate of our country is at the mercy of the global warming quacks as well as the fraudulent media which promulgates true waste.

A Friend in a Cold, Dark World

2009-11-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

Since fire was first harnessed eons past, humans have huddled around it for warmth, used it to cook food, made it into torches for light, even fashioned it into weapons. Immensely powerful, fire has the capacity to wreak great destruction. In its tiniest form, however, it can be soothing, inspirational, romantic.

The flame of a lone candle is like the presence of an old friend - inviting and affable, warm and agreeable. What woman hasn't been wooed over dinner, her beauty adorned by the glow of a pair of tapered candles?

There's an intangible quality about the amber light of a candle that brings tranquility as it chases away the foreboding of darkness's uncertainty. I find a nearby candle's flame to be inspiring as I write, locked away in the solitude of my mind. Unlike people, the glowing inchling provides a sense of company without disturbing me with annoying demands or petty distractions. It only asks that I touch fire to its wick now and then, a small price to pay.

The brain's olfactory bulb is able to associate memories with scents in a way sight, sound, touch, and taste cannot. When I need to delve into a long-forgotten memory, the fragrance of a particular candle magically whisks me back to any time I wish.

During a cold and rainy winter, a scented candle can light an otherwise dim world in a way few things can.

Is it Illegal to Quote the BIble in America?

2009-11-18T21:07:00.001-08:00

If I'm reading the latest news articles correctly, Barack Obama's recently passed and highly praised "hate crimes" law has criminalized certain passages of the Bible. I presume the next step will be to print modified Bibles without scriptures that some people find offensive, and perhaps even to burn Bibles already in existence which carry the illegal texts.

Does this ring the same bell Hitler did, or am I hearing the thought police at my door?

The ebb and flow of human thought and action never ceases to amaze me. My father once explained that history was like a giant pendulum. He sure became wise as I aged. Two thousand years ago, they killed a man who spoke the truth and murdered all of his followers. Has the pendulum returned to where it once rested?

I cannot change the truths of the Bible any more than I can change the date I was born. Those of us who cling to the truth of Scripture and the inerrancy of its message are mocked and, in countries less forgiving than ours, persecuted, even martyred. As a Christian, I have been solemnly charged with proclaiming the Bible's message, a portion of which has now been made illegal in the world's last remaining bastion of Free Speech.

What, then, shall I do? Honor man or honor God?

Haters of the Word of God fail to understand the message of a loving God, specifically the parts in which homosexuality is condemned. Nowhere are we told to hate those who commit such vile acts or live in the clutches of its error. True Christianity loves the sinner but hates the sin, as we have been instructed to do by God. Oh sure, those with fingers in their ears will continue to quote studies and line up medical practitioners and pop-psychology "experts" who will tell us that "they were born that way" and that they cannot be helped. And they'll twist our words and insist that we are the ones who hate and are intolerant, when in actuality the truth is hidden from them by the scales on their eyes.

The country which was founded on freedom from tyranny has been hijacked under the guise of expansion of civil rights, while the adherents to the faith which gave birth to the freedoms which made us the world's most prosperous nation have been exiled in our own land. The goals of the current administration -- so far -- are not to seek the death penalty for speaking forbidden passages of the Bible; but this could change. Under the approving or blind eyes of their governments, Christians are routinely martyred in many nations of the world today, just as they were during the times in which Jesus walked the earth.

If the notion that the reciting of certain passages of the Bible might one day be a capital offense doesn't send a shudder through you, then perhaps nothing will. As it stands now, speaking biblical truth is perilously close to being a federal crime. In fact, it might already be classified as such, while Attorney General Eric Holder, an appointee of the Christian-hating Barack Obama, figures out how to prosecute violators.

This can't be happening in America, not in 2009-2010. Can it?

Once confined to Islamic theocracies, Sharia Law is gaining momentum in the free world and making inroads into Europe and Canada. Thanks to Muslim apologist groups such as CAIR, Sharia Law also has proponents in the United States. Paradoxically, while Sharia Law espouses executing homosexuals and imposing Draconian regulations upon women, neither homosexual advocacy groups nor women's rights groups appear to be organizing any opposition. One need look no further than Saudi Arabia or Iran to see that Christianity itself is offensive, even illegal.

Perhaps they started by outlawing a few annoying verses.

In the same way that Israel stands alone against an ever-growing number of adversaries who would nuke the tiny nation and slit the throat of every Jew, I feel as though I am standing beneath the ominous clouds of gathering doom. If Islam has a say in shaping the laws of the United States, what today defines the US will tomorrow be cast into the ash heap of history, and the pages on which it was written, burned.

Obama Demands Halt to Israeli Settlements

2009-11-18T20:13:00.000-08:00

And now, the weather...

Barack Hussein Obama, an anti-Christian, anti-Israel bigot, currently occupies the White House. I will continue to decry every one of his actions as illegal until he proves his place of birth with a legitimate birth certificate and answers questions about how he traveled to and from Pakistan in the 1970s. If he broke the law in his travels, he should be charged with a felony, conviction of which would disqualify him from holding office. If he traveled to that specific country legally, he did it on a non-US passport, thus invalidating his US citizenship and legal presidency.

But I digress. It seems answers to these questions are under a blood-bought lock and key. I might as well be screaming for answers to the question my generation has sought since its infancy, "Who killed JFK?" We'll probably never know.

Obama and Hillary Clinton are banding together to demand that Israel halt construction of new settlements in east Jerusalem. How do you say "no" in Yiddish? In this context, it might be the same way you tell someone to go to hell.

Obama has bowed to foreign dignitaries yet had refused to receive the Israeli Prime Minister at the White House. When he finally did, it was done off-camera, as if Obama were ashamed of the longstanding alliance my country has had with Israel. That Obama refuses to publicly acknowledge Israel and her right to exist was foretold in a blog I posted nearly a year ago in which I referred to the man as a Muslim. I will continue to deny that he is a Christian, as he purports, until he starts acting like one.

Christian presidents -- of which Obama is neither -- would not criminalize the proclamation of Scripture, which has come to pass thanks to Obama's celebrated "hate crimes" garbage, selective protection of particular groups of people with the selective prosecution of others. The man who wipes his rear end with the Constitution also appears to do so with the pages of the Bible.

As for Hillary, there is some question as to her legal right to have accepted the appointment to Secretary of State, given that she was in the middle of a term as senator of New York. Does anyone else find it odd that Obama's cabinet is filled with Marxists, tax cheats, liars, shady deal-makers, and scofflaws, himself the principal one?

I applaud Israel's anti-US stance and hope they tell Obama where he can shove his warnings that Netanyahu must cease occupation of the lands they won in the 1967 war.

God will have the final say. If hurricane Katrina was the result of a Bush-approved land grab in which Israel handed over what was rightfully theirs, I expect the super volcano lying dormant under Yellowstone to begin rumbling very soon.

Maybe it's not too late...

Obama v The Second Amendment

2009-11-15T15:48:00.001-08:00

It seems this is one news story we can count on visiting and revisiting for the remainder of Obama’s months in office, whether that be a full term, two terms, or a partial term, one truncated by his unlikely disqualification from holding the presidency.

Obama’s latest ploy seems to be centered around an international treaty whereby he would circumvent the Constitution, a document for which he has repeatedly shown contempt and disregard, as well as Congress and the will of the American voting constituency. The treaty seeks to regulate international gun trade, something which was vehemently opposed by the Bush administration. Undoubtedly, such international law would trickle down to American gun shops and sporting goods stores, even reaching into the cookie jar in which I keep my last line of defense against a world which often gives criminals more rights than it does victims.

One way or another, Barack Obama appears bent on undermining US sovereignty and gutting key parts of the Bill of Rights. No friend to legal gun owners, he has stacked his administration with anti-gun zealots. Now, thanks to a vote to adopt a resolution in which the so-called Arms Trade Treaty would become international law, he appears to have the blessing of the UN.

Woven by the Founding Fathers into the document we know as the Constitution is a special set of individual rights, the Bill of Rights. After the much-maligned and misinterpreted first right, the right to speak freely, comes the right to protect oneself by keeping and bearing arms. The drafters of this highly esteemed Document felt so strongly about self preservation that they placed this right second. Commonly referred to as the Second Amendment, this right plainly states that it shall not be infringed. This is something Karl Marx's ardent followers here in the United States have choked on for years, attempting to redefine it in such a way that the intent of the right somehow does not apply to the individual.

I guess it all comes down to what the meaning of the word is, is.

Attorney General Eric Holder, another appointee of Mr. Obama, has come out in favor of banning certain (left-speak for all) automatic weapons, with the side-benefit of assisting Mexico in its fight against violent drug cartels. “Automatic weapons” is a term that has been defined as any pistol which holds a magazine, all the way up to the fully automatic machine gun rifles used by the US military and by many law enforcement agencies. While I share a concern for the plight of Mexican citizens living under the whims of a corrupt government, I cannot be expected to compromise my safety by surrendering my right of self-defense. Any halfwit — the current administration is full of them — must agree that Mexico has other neighbors than the United States, and that drug cartels can use their influence to acquire weapons of any origin — Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Columbian — and so I bristle at the notion that this problem has somehow become my responsibility to solve.

Back in 2008, while Mr. Obama was still just a Senator, I read a dire warning in a hunting magazine which claimed that if elected, this man would hike the price of ammo by greatly increasing federal taxes on it. While I cannot speak of direct knowledge of new taxes on ammunition, I can say that the price of most commonly used rounds has doubled, and that the shelves of most stores I have checked have been stripped nearly clean. As any gun enthusiast will attest, ammunition is very hard to get.

Barack, an inch at a time, you appear to be getting your wish.

How well does an orderly, free society function with legally obtained firearms? To see a good example of this, look no further than Ventura County, California. During the 1990s, many states and counties began issuing permits for law-abiding citizens, i.e. non-felons, to carry concealed pistols on their persons. I vividly recall the mainstream media having a field day with this, direly warning of shootouts and bloodbaths. But none came. To the horror of the left-leaning media, violent crimes dropped in counties in which these permits were issued. Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, a pair of adjoining cities in Ventura County, were ranked the two safest cities in the US with populations of 100,000 or more.

The findings in Ventura County run counter to the battle cry of the left. “Guns kill people,” “Firearms have no place in a civilized society,” and “Keep our children safe.” The drum beat continues in spite of the facts. Millions of legal gun owners have never killed anyone, accidentally or otherwise, thanks to responsible gun handling and education, not more laws in an already overwhelmed, litigious society.

Scanning the ashes of the twentieth century, we see that such notorious proponents of gun control as Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and others, used their measure for the same purposes any sane American citizen dreads. How many tens of millions of innocent civilians were disarmed, surely under the guise of the same benevolent rationale we hear today, only to fall victim to the government which had vowed to protect them?

Shifting my focus to Obama’s desire to employ the National Guard as workers at internment camps, a shudder of ominous origin courses through me. The same man who understands so little about foreign policy that he bows to foreign dignitaries is now demonstrating a lack of knowledge of American history. Nearly seventy years ago, Japanese Admiral Yamamota spoke these words:

“You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

Yamamota had not known of ICBMs, and he died two years before the horrors of the atomic age were revealed to humankind. In his day, battles were lengthy and arduous, land was taken inch by inch, drop by bloody drop. Living as we do under the nuclear shadow, we exist from one moment to the next; borders, even whole continents, can be gone in a blinding flash. However, given the nature of the 21st century enemy, e.g. Al-Qaida, and that the battlefield could conceivably be in American streets, I take solace in Yamamota’s words. I derive comfort knowing that I and my neighbors and those who live in the hills around me are armed.

The day UN-backed thugs come to my home with the intent of taking away my gun, I might be forced to let them have it.

Message from a Departed Pet

2009-11-12T15:42:00.001-08:00

I put my eighteen-year-old dog to sleep today. You undoubtedly know how that is and what frame of mind the events of this morning have left me in.

Not long after the deed was done, I cleared my head the way I usually do when it gets clogged with life - not with a fifth of whiskey, no, those days are long over. Instead, I walked for two hours along my favorite lonely railroad tracks; the solitude does me wonders. When I returned, I found a note on my office desk. I'll share it with you here:

Thank You
I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all you did for me during my time with you, and how much I love you all.

The life I left today cannot compare to the wonder and beauty of this amazing place! There are many, many others like me, some I know, but most I do not. Heidi is here, and she looks young and beautiful, even better than I remember her; there are cats I used to know, a pretty brown horse you once had, and one like me who you knew as Samson; they all say hello. Everyone is so young and healthy and happy. The air is clean, the food is great, it’s very peaceful and pretty, and best of all, I don’t hurt anymore. No pain at all! I can walk and run and have more energy than I had for a very long time.

I don’t know why, but I’ve only seen one here who is like you; he is sending this message for me. I don’t see any others, only dogs and cats and other furry ones and those not so furry. The one who sends this letter is one I know you know – I’ve heard you speak of him, and he was the first to greet me.

I don’t know when I’ll see you again – the one like you hasn’t told me that yet – but know that everything here is incredible, there is so much to do, and I have an eternity to do it in. Please don’t ever feel bad for me. I know you did everything you were able to, and that you would have done more for me if you could have. Today was my time to leave that world and come to this one, the time appointed by the one like you.

Though I didn’t talk the way you do, I understood all of your words, even when you didn’t know I was listening. And when you got frustrated with me because I couldn't walk very well and whined a lot, I know you didn't mean it. The ones you call Matty, Sadie, Crosby, Dakota – they understand, too. And they love you without measure or limits or conditions, just as I do.

I must go now. Heidi has some new friends, and they want to explore a fascinating new place they found.

Until we meet again,
Your buddy, Jasmine

Jasmine
June, 1991 - November 12, 2009

Urination: Protected Speech?

2009-10-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

The other night, on a nationally televised airing of HBO's, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," actor Larry David urinated on a painting of Jesus Christ. Up until this week, I had believed Hollywood only did this figuratively.

The questions that well up in my mind are not why urinate on anyone's likeness? or how could he do such a thing? Neither answer would surprise me. Rather, I would ask Mr. David -- and do so now, though he'll surely be among the billions of people who do not read this blog -- why he chose to carry out this reprehensible act on a portrait of the icon, indeed the essence, of one of the world's largest religions, if not the largest: Christianity.

I have some suggestions as to why Mr. David chose to mock Jesus.

By doing so, David is merely acting out the whims of his father, Satan;
Urinating on a picture of, say, Barack Obama, would be met with calls of racism and a visit from "Reverends" Jackson and his sidekick, Sharpton;
Urinating on the Koran or the likeness of Mohammed could possibly result in the obliteration of HBO's offices by terror organizations; a bounty being placed on David's head by these same congenial folks; and CAIR beating their drums of intolerance, vehemently demanding anything from penance to David's head on a platter.

In light of these facts, it is quite clear that David chose the benevolent, all forgiving Savior as the object of his public mockery. Aside from a few legal organizations, e.g. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), and The Heritage Foundation, Christians have only ourselves to call upon. We don't benefit from the tides of political correctness, we don't run to the ACLU or the NAACP, we are not represented by any sympathetic LGBT group, and we look upon hate crimes legislation with disgust as they do not regard us in a positive light. The political party which once stood for us has wandered leftward into the political center and away from its religious conservative roots. Basically we are a loosely bound group of a billion or so people, a hundred million of which reside in the United States.

I let my voice be heard by e-mailing HBO directly, and I would suggest you do the same. Unfortunately I cannot cancel HBO as I do not subscribe to them, nor have I in a dozen years. My TV watching habits are too scant to register on anyone's Richter scale. But I have a voice, an opinion, and a modicum of free speech (until Obama guts the Constitution).

I am awaiting the announcement of a boycott against HBO by various Christian groups such as American Family Association and the like; however, since HBO does not advertise, such action likely would be ineffective against them. Also, since Christians largely are not among the network's demographic profile as we simply tend not to watch HBO, any boycott would likely lack the teeth to have the desired effect.

Chalk the urinating actor up to more of Hollywood's great sewer pipe, and refuse to watch anything featuring Larry David except a sincere, heartfelt apology. Don't hold your breath in expectation.

Only 134 Shopping Days Left!

2009-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

While stopped at a traffic light earlier today, I scrolled through my mp3 player in search of some fresh music. Something fresh and vibrant, anything but the same tired stuff I've been listening to for the last several months. You know how uninspiring music can be when it's played beyond the point of "ad nauseum."

The last time I updated my mp3 player was sometime last summer (2008), so none of its two gigabytes of tunes are terribly fresh, vibrant, or inspiring. Thumbing the main control button, I scrolled through the genres and landed on an old and familiar one. Old and familiar, yet fresh and vibrant.

Christmas music.

To my recollection, I've never asserted my sanity to anyone, and doing so now would only diminish what little credibility I might have remaining. But in case you didn't read it correctly, I'll repeat it. Christmas music. I pressed the button to make my selection final, and my library of Christmas songs began playing in random order.

I rolled up the driver side window and glanced at the passenger glass to make certain it was up as well. No one listens to this stuff in August -- not even elves or reindeer -- and I couldn't bear to be on the receiving end of scornful glares and pairs of eyes narrowed in doubt, imaginary heads shaking in disgust, fingers wagging dubiously in my direction. No, I'd just as soon keep this dark little secret to myself. The light turned green and off I drove to the stylings of Jim Brickman and "O Holy Night."

With my mood buoyed better than any SSRI anti-depressant pill could manage, I found myself considering the intervening holidays. While most other people are enjoying the remaining weeks of summer with their BBQs and pool parties, I was mentally carving out pumpkins and imagining Thanksgiving football on TV, an icy yet oddly pleasant crispness in the air, clouds of discarded breath suspended before being swallowed back into the atmosphere, strings of lights adorning rain gutters and eaves and hedges.

Inevitably, I began to regard my Christmas shopping list. This year it will be pitifully curtailed to match my pitifully subdued income. Alas, no one remains bleak to "O Holy Night," and I was no exception. I ticked the volume control up a couple of notches, and Jim gave way to David Lanz. I cruised through a green light, sure to put a dose of cheer into any man's heart, and returned to the notion of buying Christmas presents. Perhaps a couple of intact neurons conspired to cause me to question further this holiday spree before it actually broke away from the drawing board and I steered the car into the nearest mall. I couldn't be serious about this! Even I still recognize lunacy when I see it. Moreover, it's sacrilegious to actually buy Christmas presents without all the hoopla normally attendant with the season, and this was one part of the tradition I was not about to forsake.

Besides, I have no wrapping paper or bows.

Still a few miles west of home, a fierce battle was raging inside my skull. While it was undeniably true that it might be considered by some to be mildly eccentric (I'm known for this) doing one's Christmas shopping four months early, there was a prudent side to it (I'm not known for being especially prudent -- calculatedly reckless, maybe). I reasoned that retail prices are lower in August than during December, remaining "normal" through September so they can be raised in October or November to assure maximum seasonal profit, only to be lowered again the day after Christmas. They magnanimously refer to this sudden illusory price drop as an after-Christmas sale.

Nobody said retail sales managers were stupid.

I've just pulled onto my street and have my driveway in sight. Windham Hill serenades me with "Deck the Halls." I've made it home without being lured to the mall. I still have at least six weeks until I suspect the price hikes to sneak through, so I'm not in any hurry. Not yet, anyway.

This may sound a little cockeyed, but let me be the first this Christmas season to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!

Tea for 2 (thousand)?

2009-04-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

This morning, I attended my first-ever Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party on the steps of the County Courthouse building in Clark County, WA.

We began by signing an initiative designed to enforce the existing state law regarding hiring of illegals (an Oklahoma-style law which has had fabulous results in sending illegals scrambling to neighboring states in search of work and free health care). Then we moved over to the main staging area where we listened to perhaps a dozen speakers voice their disgust with the current administration's policies.

The crowd was very well-behaved, definitely of one accord, and as fed-up as I've ever seen a group of people within the first three months of a president taking office. With nearly two-hundred posters of varying sizes, colors, and content, rally-goers voiced their support of the US Military, denying giving illegal aliens driver's licenses, cutting taxes, returning to small government; many took shots at the bailout and the trillion dollar Obama stimulus plan, among others.

No screaming, no AIDS-tainted blood-throwing, no profanity, no mock fetuses strewn about. Just a respectful gathering of respectable, law-abiding citizens, clinging to their Constitutional rights before the American Communist Party (you know them as Democrats) revoke and rewrite the Constitution into oblivion.

Last month in my home town of Battle Ground (population 16,000), a half-dozen mailboxes were smashed by vandals, presumably with a hammer or baseball bat. This drew two news vans from television stations from neighboring Portland, Oregon, some thirty-five miles away. Today, two-thousand folks gathered on the courthouse steps less than ten miles from Portland, and the event went completely unnoticed by the liberal government media complex, aka TV stations KGW, KATU, KPTV, et al. Odd, isn't it? Had twenty-five AIDS activists joined hands to protest dirty needles or a ban on same-sex marriage, a half-dozen vans would have beamed a live stream back to Portland TV towers which would have interrupted regular programming. Had a hundred leftists piled into a local park to bash President Bush's policies on the war in Iraq, news trucks from nearby radio stations would have gridlocked traffic for miles. Since today's event was conservative in nature and ran counter to the Faux Administration, nary a single newsperson showed (ostensibly, that is, since they probably had their spies reporting back to Portland advising that this tea party was unnewsworthy); only a solitary Sheriff's patrol car made a single pass, never slowing to below the posted speed limit.

Nobody cared.

Wrong. We got our point across, we showed our solidarity for over an hour, many made their own films, and certainly some, such as I, are blogging about it. We made certain the day's activities were not buried beneath the hoopla of NBA playoff action and the second week of Major League Baseball's 2009 season.

Mr. Obama and his minions already know about the growing disgust aimed in his direction. As he scrambles to shore up support lost on American soil, he shakes hands and makes nice with our enemies (Hugo Football-head Chavez is his latest chum as of yesterday). It's good for a man without a country to have a friend he can call on -- another America-hating fool, this one from communist Venezuela.

For once, Barry O. (President Faux) made sense: birds of a feather need a place to roost and a common place from which to crap on the United States.

American Dream 2.0

2009-01-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

My father's parents immigrated from Italy in the early 1900s with the intention of making a better life for themselves here in the United States. How many millions of us can make the same claim about our grandparents? I'm sure the number is staggering. As many immigrants did, my ancestors came with a dream, a foreign tongue, and very little money.

Somewhere around here, I have a .gif image of their signatures at Ellis Island. It's chilling to see their names penned on the registry from nearly a hundred years ago. It gives me great pride to pull up that image, whether on my computer screen or in my mind's eye.

Within a short time, they settled in Chicago as many Italians did, and began pursuing the American Dream. They learned English and taught it to their children, worked hard, went to church, obeyed the law, honored the flag, and accepted no handouts. They proudly called themselves Americans, not Italian-Americans.

My grandfather worked at the railroad while his wife raised two boys and two girls. In 1938, at the age of eighteen, my father enlisted in the army and served his country with honor. My aunts, proud to be called housewives, also married men who served in the armed forces. A decade or so before my grandfather's death in 1966, he retired from the railroad, a job he had held for forty years. With his savings and pension, he provided support for my grandmother after his passing.

To my knowledge, my father's parents lived in their nimble home from the time they arrived until the time Grandpa passed away. Afterward, my grandmother went to live with one of my aunts until her death six years later. The family took care of their own.

My father spoke of his ethnically mixed neighborhood with pride. Italian kids played in the streets with Poles, Greeks, Irish. This was Chicago, and this was America in the 20s and 30s. They required no legislation to co-exist; they simply did it because it was the right thing to do. If a black kid socked a white kid in the face, it wasn't called a hate crime. They didn't settle their squabble with guns or knives or baseball bats. A bloody nose was what it was, and more often than not, the boys shook hands afterward and went on their merry way.

A gun was kept in the house in case of burglars, and everyone was shown how to use it. It remained tucked away for that dreaded emergency that, at least in my family's home, never materialized, thank God.

This is the old version of the American Dream, version 1.0.

Barack Obama, though not directly responsible for revising the Dream, is putting version 2.0 on a fast track. Welfare, bloated federal programs, entitlements, free lunches, taxpayer-subsidized abortions, refusing to acknowledge English as the language of the land, homosexuals infiltrating the military, a trampling of the Constitution -- these are some of the components of American Dream 2.0.

The new dream will shut our mouths in violation of the First Amendment as it invokes hate crimes laws, repeals our rights to own the means to protect ourselves, and maintains hiring quotas, a dire form of the same discrimination it was designed to squelch.

I read an article yesterday in which an illegal alien woman in Bakersfield is living off a hefty bi-monthly disability check. Her disability? Heroin addiction.

How did we come so far, so fast? Who pulled the handle on the toilet and sent the original dream into the sewer? Will we ever recover, or are we doomed to living a life with a Big Brother we don't want, don't need, and can't afford?

My parents and grandparents would roll over in their graves if they could see this day. I wish I had lived in their time. They had it rough, but they managed. They survived. And they did it without government meddling, all during the era of the late great American Dream 1.0.

Changing of the Guard

2009-01-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

In a few short hours, the torch will pass from President George W. Bush to a liberal madman with absolutely no clue of how to run anything more complex than his mouth.

The outgoing president has frustrated me many times, and overall he fell short of my conservative expectations. I knew he was a globalist when I twice cast my vote for him, but I was still under the impression that he would lead the nation out of the darkness brought by the Clinton gang.

Mr. Bush scored highly with his opposition to stem cell research, partial birth abortion, hate crimes legislation, tax hikes, and the assault weapons ban inked by his predecessor. After 9/11, the US was not attacked, so I am left to assume that he did something -- covertly or otherwise -- which averted an encore. (In the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind, a phone call echoes in which W spoke directly to Muslim leaders, assuring them the US military would vaporize Mecca should we be struck again, a tactic that might have bought our safety until Inauguration Day, 2009.)

Officially beginning tomorrow morning, all three branches of government will be controlled by lunatics from the far left. Many of these people belong behind bars or on heavy medication. Rather, they will be at the helm of this once-proud ship and its 300 million inhabitants for at least the next two years -- unless, of course, the last bastion of pseudo-conservatism, those we know as the Supreme Court, vacate November's election for lack of eligibility of the man who will very shortly be transformed from President-elect to President-faux.

This man of change is a virtual Jimmy Carter on political steroids, unrestrained by the House or Senate, a thought which simultaneously gives me a cold chill and scalding nausea unfazed by Xanax and Tums. Obama will surely make all America's enemies proud. Televised throughout the world, he will be inaugurated before the adoring eyes of Putin, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Osama bin Laden, and every cutthroat and every leader of every drug cartel and poppy field from Colombia to Afghanistan to Nigeria.

Mr. Obama refers to himself as a devout man, a deeply religious man. Charles Manson's followers were devout people, and Osama bin Laden is deeply religious. Should these revelations bring me peace or to my knees in prayer that I may be spared long suffering and die quickly following a blinding flash?

It's nice to know that our new devout leader will be cheered on by the Gay Men's Chorus, led by a homosexual priest (oxymoron of the millenium). Planned Parenthood and the ACLU will have front row seats to the gala which will be carried live on everything from my TV to my palm pilot to my toaster oven -- though I refuse to watch any of it as I register a tiny whimper of protest in the only way I know how.

Beginning 1/20/09, the rights of the death culture will trump those of the moral minority, something we've seen blowing in the wind for at least twenty-five years. If you doubt that our constitutional rights have been shredded, try standing on a public sidewalk and handing out Christian literature while homosexuals march in a gay pride parade, committing blatant acts of indecency as they stroll through public streets in the nude. You will quickly find yourself in the back seat of a Ford Crown Victoria, heading to the local police precinct to be fingerprinted, booked, and jailed on some ludicrous non-charge.

So if you think the last eight years were a bumpy ride, hang on.

Countdown to Hell

2009-01-16T19:04:00.001-08:00

In a few short days, the demented leftists in the US, along with Muslims throughout the world, will revel at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Communists (leftists, liberals, socialists -- whatever you like to call them, they're one in the same) will have achieved their long-sought goal of bringing the United States from the pinnacle of power to the abyss of irrelevance. Decades-old policies of appeasement toward our sworn enemies, the relentless attacks against Christian principles by the ACLU, the rise of the abortion and homosexual mafias which have contributed to continued and rapid moral decline, and Middle Eastern petrodollars (along with all the influence they have purchased by investing those dollars back into our economy) have conspired to relegate America to the brink of third world status.

To the glee of many, President Bush will soon leave office, and the swearing in of his replacement will reduce the Constitution to a meaningless parchment of antiquity. At stake are everything from our right to free speech, to the right to own a firearm, to the right of peaceful assembly, to the right of freely worshiping God. Voting has proven itself to mean nothing, and the demise of the Constitution, once Mr. Obama illegally assumes office next Tuesday, will quickly follow.

I hope to carve out a single state -- Montana, Oklahoma, Arizona, I'm not picky; let the other forty-nine do as they please -- where I can live with the God-given freedoms handed down to us by our beloved Constitution, without fear of tyranny or reprisal by psychopathic ultra-left-wing hoodlums. You know them by the names of Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle, the Clinton thugs. Even our own conservative Supreme Court seems to have abandoned defending the Constitution by not taking up the cases of the proof of Obama's birthplace and citizenship, refusing to vacate his November victory.

The Constitution means nothing, our votes mean nothing, our borders mean nothing, and now our dollar means nothing. As a lone private citizen, I will fight to whatever extent I am able. Ultimately, they will pry my Bible from my cold, dead hands.

Hiatus

2009-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

I've taken a two-month vacation from blogging as my mind has not yet come to grips with the November catastrophe and subsequent looming disaster that lies ahead. Additionally, I've had some personal issues which I have needed to tend to, and for the time being, I will once again post my opinions to both of my beloved readers as I am able.

Unity at Last!

2008-11-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

Oprah Winfrey has been quoted as saying that she is delighted at how united Americans are in the wake of Obama's narrow victory, even going so far as to liken the camaraderie among American citizens to that of the days immediately following the horrors of 9/11.

Ms Winfrey has conveniently overlooked the 46% of voters who cast their votes for McCain-Palin, and the 53% of eligible voters who did not vote for anyone. Raw numbers translate to a mere 26% of the eligible voting population having voted for Obama. That's a whopping 74% who did not vote Democrat.

Where, then, is the bliss? Where, then, is the mandate? Where, then, is the unity?

For the sake of the faint of heart, I did not deduct fraudulent ACORN voter registration from Obama's total.

It is noteworthy that Barack Obama is not officially the president-elect until the Electoral College makes it official on December 15. And there still remains a small matter of Obama's providing his birth certificate to Supreme Court Justice David Souter on December 1, presumably validating him as an American-born citizen. Given the pesky matter of a possible constitutional ineligibility on the part of the man who represented the Democrats, this thing might not be over yet.

Just think of it: If Obama pulls this one off, what's to stop the likes of Moammar Gadhafi from one day serving as President of the United States?

Prop 8 in California: No to Homosexual Marriage -- For Now

2008-11-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

I left California early in 2001 and now call Washington state my home. Besides the usual litany of Republicans, the last thing I voted for, eight Novembers past, was Prop 22, which, I had thought, defined marriage as between a man and a woman, finally putting the issue of homosexual marriage to rest. It passed overwhelmingly.

Those of us who supported Prop 22 were mistaken. The courts saw to that for us.

Today, as ballots continue to trickle in, the voters have approved a similar measure meant to preserve the sanctity of marriage as between a man and a woman. I note, however, that the margin of passing was a mere 5 percent. Not the mandate I had hoped to see, but passage nonetheless.

Before the ink is dry and Prop 8 becomes law, you can bet the ACLU and other insane attorneys and law makers will be scrambling to find the precise wording with which to undermine the proposition, even shopping it to various judges to determine its constitutionality. How long will it be until Prop 8 is overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court and Gavin Newsome resumes blessing homosexual marriages in San Francisco?

Ask Las Vegas oddsmakers, but I'd give it about three months. And that doesn't include what Obama might attempt to enact on a national level, coalescing many of the States' rights into a legal monolithic behemoth residing in Washington DC over which we will have no say.

Election Day 2008: America Has Spoken

2008-11-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the horribly biased media machine, subsidized in large part by foreign interests, this is what you are going to get when the dust finally settles:

A federal homosexual marriage amendment; free speech, including free expression of religion and free expression of ideas via talk radio, crushed by the Fairness Doctrine; higher taxes further crippling the economy; open dialog with America's sworn enemies, which will lead to further appeasement and weakening of our stature abroad, thus emboldening nations whose goal it is to rid the world of the United States; possible loss of American citizens' gun rights; unfettered abortion on demand, at all stages, even the barbaric procedure of partial birth abortion; hate crimes legislation and all of its terrible ramifications; defunding of the mighty US military, along with the type of gutting of the US Armed Forces that we saw under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, if not worse; premature withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East which will leave Iraq open to attack by Iran; withdrawal of support of Israel; economy-crippling regulations designed to further the global warming agenda, an inexact and unproven science that targets the United States; permanent bans on domestic oil drilling. And I'm sure I have not covered all the bold Democrat aspirations by a long stretch.

The super majorities in the House and Senate will ensure that every bill sponsored by liberal Democrats will meet with insufficient opposition to stop them.

This is the United States we will wake up to on January 20, 2009.

The time for secession is now. The time for civil war is now. This is no longer my country, and I speak for millions of disenfranchised Americans. The nation has taken a hard left turn toward communism, and we must refuse to be absorbed into their bleak apparatus without a fight, if necessary, to the death.

The America of the next four years will be a mere echo of the America of the 1980s. But the new, seceded America will be everything the late, great United States was in the WWII era, and much more. Freedoms will be restored, and big government will be a thing of the failed country left behind.

The only glimmer of hope we have at this point is for the electoral college to refuse to cast their votes for Obama on December 15 should he fail to demonstrate his eligibility to ascend to the office of the presidency by not producing a certified valid birth certificate.

Right for Amerika, Wrong for America

2008-11-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

Senator Barack Obama has too many unanswered questions in his closet. His associations with radicals from the sixties and seventies, people with communist aspirations, beg to be explained, yet no explanation is forthcoming.

I'd like to direct the reader's attention to forty-five key points from The Naked Communist, by W. Cleon Skousen, published in the US in 1958. These bold aims were compiled in 1957 or '58, and included in the chapter, "The Future Task." They are lengthy and will appear in smaller print, with particularly noteworthy ones typed in red. See how many of these ring eerily true, and how many have actually come to pass.

Current Communist Goals (current as of 1958)

US acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
US willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the US would be a demonstration of moral strength.
Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet Satellites.
Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the UN.
Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Kruschev's promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the UN.
Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the US has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the UN.
Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easiliy by the UN as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
Do away with all loyalty oaths.
Continue giving Russia access to the US Patent Office.
Capture one or both of the political parties of the United States.
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Gain control of student newspapers.
Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward, and meaningless forms."
Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy."
Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Discredit the Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a world-wide basis.
Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of "the big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
Transfer some of the powers to arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks, and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political, or social problems.
Overthrow all dictatorships before native populations are ready for self-government.
Internationalize the Panama Canal.
Repeal the Connally Reservation so the US cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

As noted above, the items in red are the ones which leapt off the page at me, seizing my immediate interest. This does not in any way diminish the importance or relevance of the items I chose to leave unhighlighted, however.

As you scroll through the list, you might identify those communist goals which have come to pass during your lifetime, or perhaps in the lifetime of your children. And several of the Communists' aims fit the agenda of Barack Obama and that of the modern day Democrat Party very well.

Communism is that term that was relegated to ancient history lessons and your father's tiresome admonitions, undoubtedly spoken in the same breath as his recounting tales of arduous five-mile walks through snow drifts just to get to school. I believe the word communist has fallen into disuse so as to become cloaked in antiquity, thereby harder to recognize, even harder to believe, and harder yet to defend against.

Fast forward to today, and we have a man perilously close to ascending to the presidency of the United States, a man who clearly espouses many of the aforementioned communist desires. His past associations, his disdain for the Constitution, his hearty approval of homosexuality, his unabashed support of abortion, his fervent desire to spread our hard-earned wealth and hand it to those who do not deserve it--all reek of communism.

How far we've sunk in fifty years.

It is unbelievable to me that the empty suits of the press have maligned a war hero along with his Reaganesque Christian running-mate in favor of one who will plunge us into the depths of socialism with the mere stroke of his pen. Then again, the press defends its own. See, for example, item #20.

Unless last-ditch efforts to halt the election are successful, and should Obama manage to produce a valid, verifiable birth certificate once officially required to do so, the most far-left presidential candidate in American history may be just hours away from winning what will likely be a very close election. This man has no love for the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, Capitalism, Jesus Christ, or the sanctity of life--he has articulated such in his words and by his character.

I pray Wednesday morning brings with it the defeat of communism, a bold headline touting the late-night resignation of Barack Obama, and the dodging of a bullet stamped with hammer and sickle. Until our prayers are criminalized, we have them, along with our imaginations, to sustain us.

Another Liberal Double Standard

2008-10-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here in Washington state, we are gearing up for a rematch of the historic 2004 gubernatorial election. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, ran against Republican Dino Rossi. Rossi won the election by a scant 261 votes. An automatic recount kicked in, and again Rossi won, but by a smaller margin of only 42 votes. After a second recount was ordered, Rossi lost by a mere 130 votes. Seems they kept finding previously uncounted ballots in ultra-liberal King County, nearly all of which went for Gregoire.

The election was proclaimed as fraudulent by the Republicans due to the registration of felons, who are not permitted to vote, and dead people, who are unable to vote as far as I know. No one challenged, and Gregoire's faux victory stood.

Does this sound eerily familiar, perhaps prophetic in some sense? ACORN and other Democrat groups have been registering ineligible voters for quite some time, and only recently have the Republicans caught on. Conservative talk radio has lambasted Senator Barack Obama's campaign, but it is another case of preaching to the choir.

Today, a King County Superior Court judge ruled that challenger Rossi must make a deposition before the date of the election. He will swear out a statement that he has not taken campaign funds illegally. Clearly the left is positioning itself well: If Rossi wins, they will undoubtedly proceed with a full-scale investigation of every contribution he has received over the past several months, hoping to disqualify him and award the spoils of victory to -- you guessed it -- the Democrat incumbent.

Regarding the Courts and Obama, it still has not been established that Mr. Obama is eligible to hold the office of the presidency due to questions surrounding his place of birth. Obama has sealed his college records and his birth certificate in Hawaii until after the election. And last week's oddly timed visit to his ailing grandmother only fueled speculation.

At least two suits have been filed against Obama which would force him to produce a verifiable birth certificate. One such case was filed in King County, the other in Pennsylvania. Yet he still has not been forthcoming with his records. Mr. Obama, that you are unwilling or unable to produce a verifiable birth certificate is cause for suspicion. That you have sealed your college transcripts is also cause for concern. Perhaps an application for financial aid would list your birthplace as somewhere outside of the United States, and for obvious reasons, you do not wish this information to become public.

By contrast, the mainstream media have been all over Governor Sarah Palin and her family, casting aspersions against her husband, even making statements about Palin's religion and the money she spends on clothing.

As of today, both suits against Obama have been dismissed, yet Rossi must make his deposition as ordered. I find this deplorable and clearly biased, possibly orchestrated by some higher power (George Soros, perhaps?) who desperately seeks to install Obama in the White House.

If Barack Obama is elected president and later found to have been born outside of the US and its territories (at last check, Kenya was not a US territory), we will face an unprecedented constitutional crisis. If he is subsequently removed from office, will any and all legislation signed into law by him be ruled invalid?

Yes, we do live in interesting times.

Liberal Judge Comes Through Again!

2008-10-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

You knew something like this would happen. But are you surprised?

Former Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Philip Berg, had filed a lawsuit challenging the eligibility of Senator Barack Obama to hold the office of the presidency. Berg claims to have proof that Obama is not a US-born citizen, which would disqualify Obama and nullify the Democratic ticket, presumably handing the election over to Senator John McCain. The Hon. R. Barclay Surrick, a Philadelphia Federal Judge appointed by Bill Clinton, has ruled in favor of Obama's interests by dismissing the case. Judge Surrick applied Article III of the Constitution by ruling that Berg had no standing -- that is to say, he would not be an injured party -- should Obama be elected illegally.

If "we the people" have no standing to support the Constitution, who does? It is open to interpretation whether Berg will successfully demonstrate that he would be an injured party should Obama win on November 4. Berg is planning to file an appeal with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals (although on his website, Berg has indicated that he is immediately filing an appeal with the Supreme Court).

It is noteworthy that Philip Berg is a lifetime Democrat.

If all such cases are ultimately dismissed for lack of standing, it will be up to a Democratic Congress to decide the matter of eligibility of a Democratic president, a fact which does not bode well for McCain or, more importantly, our judicial system.

Constitution be damned, we may have an illegal president after all.

Washington, we have a problem.

2008-10-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

"... In conclusion, I am hereby announcing an economic stimulus package which will be funded by a five-hundred percent increase in tax on all ammunition sales, effective immediately."

A smattering of polite applause crept through President Obama's first public assembly at the White House since taking office.

"Effective July 1 of this year, I am ordering that all private gun stores be closed, all civilian weapons sales be halted, and all privately owned handguns and rifles be remanded to the Federal Government."

What had been light applause grew to wild cheering.

"The stimulus incentive will unfold as private citizens turn in their firearms to their local police stations and sheriff's offices, for which they will receive a food or gasoline voucher in the amount of three hundred dollars per firearm returned. All outstanding firearms will be deemed illegal, and any person not in compliance with the Firearms Forfeiture Act of 2009 will be guilty of a felony. We will clean up the streets and get this economy moving once again." The president flashed his hundred-watt smile. "Thank you all, and have a good night."

Thunderous applause roared through the anteroom to the White House as every attendee stood and shouted their hearty approval. And so it was that President Barack Obama, on this twenty-second day of January, 2009, had done what no president in the history of the United States had ever managed to do: He single-handedly tore the Second Amendment out of the United States Constitution, and he did it with admiring eyes adoring his every movement.

The President receded into the Oval Office and was quickly intercepted by his number two man, Joe Biden. "Mr. President? You've got an urgent phone call holding for you."

"Not now, Joe. I've got that speech I promised to give to CAIR in twenty minutes," Obama said, walking briskly past the Vice President.

"Sir, Governor Palin is on line five, and she's steamed."

"Governor Palin? How did -- Okay, send the call into my office. Give me a minute."

President Obama sat at his desk and straightened his tie as VP Biden and Secretary of State Colin Powell let themselves in through the ornate front door. He tossed a wadded up piece of paper into a trash can a few feet from the desk, then punched a flashing button and spoke into the speakerphone.

"Governor Palin, what a pleasure it is to --"

"Save it, Mr. President. I caught wind of your little end-run around the Constitution, your so-called Firearms Forfeiture Act. Now you hear me and hear me good. The State of Alaska will secede from the Union before July 1 unless you drop your plan immediately."

"Governor Palin, with all due respect, I've got the Congress and S --"

"Barry, forget it. I've got four other governors lined up behind me. They'll be lighting your phone lines any minute. We in Alaska are intent on keeping the Second Amendment, as originally drafted, and we will not relinquish our guns. Period, end of story. You can't force your big-city politics down the throats of us rural people."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Governor, but the act has been signed into law and will become effective in its final phase on July 1. It's a dead issue as far as I'm concerned." The President was digging his heels in for what he knew would be a long battle with a formidable foe, and he had no intention of backing down.

"Fine. I will be announcing the details of your scheme on statewide television at nine p.m. my time. We will disassemble and reroute the pipeline and will keep the revenue for ourselves. Then we'll begin drilling on the entire north slope. I will announce emergency legislation to call all Alaskans serving in the US military home. Alaska will be free from federal tyranny. We will follow the Constitution to the letter," Governor Palin said with added emphasis on her last three words.

"Governor Palin, you're way out of line. You can't threaten me like that."

"Oh I have, Barry. And I intend to keep my word."

"I'll send federal authorities into Alaska to enforce the law," Obama insisted.

"Then I'll oppose your federal cops with my state and local police forces. And if I have to, I'll arm every man, woman, and child to keep Alaska free."

"Do you really want me to send in the National Guard, Sarah?"

"Send anyone you want, Barry, if you want this to get ugly. Just remember the military bases here in Alaska before you get too crazy."

Closing his eyes, the President squeezed the bridge of his nose between two fingers. For a moment, he was speechless. Then some words came to him. "Sarah, you lost the race in November. It was a huge victory for us, and the people have spoken. This is what they've wanted for a long time. It's really the best thing --"

"Cut the crap, Barry," Palin objected. "I suggest you get a copy of the Constitution and read it. Pay particular attention to the Second Amendment."

"I know how it reads, Sarah. You don't need to remind me," he scolded her.

"Then abide by it!" she demanded.

"Sarah, look. I have a meeting in fifteen minutes, and I don't want to be late." But the phone was dead. Governor Palin had hung up.

President Obama stared at the silent phone for a moment before leaning back in his chair. "Wow," he said. "She's scorching hot. How did she find out so fast?"

"Beats me," Biden offered. "What was that about other governors?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Obama said.

Three quick raps at the door, then it swung open slowly. One of the President's personal secretaries stood in the doorway and motioned to her ear. "Mr. President? You've got an urgent call on line nine."

Obama and Biden locked eyes. "Let me guess, Melodie. The governor of Oklahoma, right?"

"No sir. Montana. It's Governor Schweitzer," she said, then closed the door and was gone.

"Good Lord," Powell said. "She wasn't bluffing."

The President took a deep breath and punched the button for line nine. "Hello, Governor. So good of you to call."

"We're on board with Alaska, Mr. President. I'm sorry sir, but our state constitution forbids meddling by the Federal Government when it comes to our gun rights. You and I have been through this before. I guess you thought I was blowing smoke at you. Sir." Schweitzer was ticked, but he remained cordial.

"Brian, I just got off the phone with Governor Palin, and we saw eye to eye on several key points. I'm sure we'll --"

"Who are you kidding? I heard the whole phone call. She put you in your place, and I'm going along with her. Sorry, Mr. President, but you brought this on yourself."

"Governor Schweitzer, if you're planning on joining her little secession party, I'm telling you bluntly, right now. Forget it."

"No, Mr. President, you forget it. Together our five states comprise a land mass the size of France and Germany combined. You can't win. We have civilians who will enlist to fight you if you let it get to that point."

"Five states? What are you talking --" A little light went on above the President's head. "Talk to me, Brian. Who else is with you?"

"They'll be calling you, Mr. President." Governor Schweitzer clicked off the line.

President Obama and Governor Schweitzer had been through this before, the governor was right. But Obama had thought it was just cocktail napkin stuff, not to be taken seriously. He knew that Montana and Alaska had enormous natural resources and huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons riding on the most sophisticated missiles in the world, weapons he hoped would never be used. But now they were in danger of falling into the hands of a foreign country -- one which had yet to be defined. This could not be happening. Not on the third day of his presidency.

Obama folded his hands together and looked pleadingly at Biden and Powell for suggestions.

"We could pull the National Guard from the west coast states and Wyoming, Idaho, the Dakotas, and go in there and smash both of them," Powell said with a twinkle in his eye. Clearly the general thought in military terms; his game plan had defaulted to an armed confrontation.

Biden added, "I can get a hold of the major news outlets and we can spin it like they've lost their minds. Gun-toting right-wing nuts, that sort of thing. Make it sound like a coup. We'll have the west coast governors on our side, and I'm sure --"

"Forget Wyoming, that's Cheney country. Maybe Colorado," Obama snapped back at them.

"Okay, cross Wyoming off," Biden said.

"Who do you suppose the other three are?" asked a tentative Colin Powell.

"I think we'll be finding out by the time the President finishes with CAIR in... thirty minutes," Biden replied.

The President stared at the phone in horror, fearing who might be next in line to take a swing at him.

Chuck Baldwin and the Two-Party Charade

2008-10-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

With a persistently leftist media stacked against them, the McCain-Palin ticket needs all the help they can get. However, there are some issues regarding McCain that don't enamor me. In some ways, he is not well-distinguished from his opponent; however, on most issues, he is at least tolerable, and their differences are noteworthy.

Ideally, voters should have more of a choice at the ballot box. We need representation by a candidate and a party which are more aligned with the values of the disenfranchised Christian heterosexual pro-life folks who love this land and its Constitution.

To wit, why do presidential and vice presidential debates consistently exclude viable third- and even fourth-party candidates? Why must we hold our noses as we cast votes for candidates who only partially represent our views? The political landscape contains too many variables to be represented by an either-or mentality.

Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin would have brought out the communist in Barack Obama and the sometimes Democrat, sometimes Republican in John McCain. Seeing three distinctly different viewpoints responding in three different ways to the same question would have been a refreshing change. It might have shaken up the status quo and opened the doors to the efficacy of a nationally recognized third political party.

I believe the Democrat machine is as afraid of that prospect as is the Republican machine. For the foreseeable future, don't count on seeing the televised debates including a Constitution Party candidate.

If they had a real chance to win, I would vote for the Constitution Party, even though there are some very good Republicans out there. Perhaps they would jump ship if and when the Constitutionalists ever stake enough of a claim to threaten seriously to win an election.

What a thought!

The Real Chameleon

2008-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

This morning, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, decorated general from Gulf War I, eloquently endorsed Barack Obama for president.

Gasp.

Colin Powell has avoided adhering to a strict party affiliation, and routinely dodges the press. I still don't know if he is a Republican or a Democrat, though his actions today have said a lot.

It is widely known that Senator John McCain has worn the title of maverick during most of President Bush's eight years in the White House. During Bush's first term, the true maverick probably was Colin Powell, who disagreed openly with the president on many aspects of the war in Iraq. Whether or not this was particularly a bad thing, I cannot say, since some of the prosecution of the war did not go as smoothly as we had originally hoped. But we ridded the world of a monster in Sadaam Hussein, and we are winning in Iraq, even if the cost of victory is much higher than anyone had ever imagined, and even if the spoils of gaining a somewhat unstable ally in the Mideast are dubious at worst, unclear at best.

In his thirty-second-long endorsement of Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Mr. Powell noted the supposed lack of experience of McCain's running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. A quick examination of the relevant experience of Obama as contrasted with that of Palin indicates that the senator has less than four years in his current office while the governor has presided over Alaska for the last two; I don't see how the experience of one can be called into question without doing likewise to the other. Yet Powell did not mention any such comparison as he gushed over the wonder and majesty of Obama's promises and eloquent manner of speech, and was too busy to remind us that he was comparing a presidential candidate (an apple) to a vice presidential candidate (an orange), surely an oversight on the part of Powell.

As a side note, if a hypothetical Vice President Palin were to rise to the presidency as a result of some disaster involving President McCain, the well-chosen staff of advisers would quickly and adeptly assist her through a very rapid transistion. McCain's untimely death, no matter when it were to occur, would not be tantamount to a decapitation of the Federal Government.

What disturbs me is that the American media complex, which is supposed to appear to be neutral (they exist with the purpose of reporting news, not interpreting it, am I correct?), is tripping over itself with glowing narratives of the awe-inspiring senator from Illinois. And the populace, which has been consistently dumbed down by inadequate public education and rampant hedonism, has little if any clue what Obama's promises really are, as they swallow his empty assurances to change America and the world hook, line, and sinker, without critically appraising any of it.

Jesus said it would be this way. He said there would be apostasy in the end times. He inspired the apostle Paul who wrote that mankind would turn aside to false christs and be led astray by false ideologies. He said many would exchange the natural function of the man with the woman, and they would burn in their lusts for each other, men committing indecent acts with men, receiving due penalty in their bodies for their error, and giving hearty approval to those who do likewise. And he also said men would become lovers of money and lovers of self rather than lovers of God. (This sounds more like the state of civilization in the year 2008 rather than a two-thousand-year-old prediction.) The way Obama's supporters swoon in his presence brings to mind the persuasive power of the Antichrist who has yet to appear on the world stage that we know of.

In a world in which AA attendance steadily increases while church attendance steadily declines, I'm not surprised that the masses could be so easily duped by a flash-in-the-pan such as B.O. I'm saddened, alarmed, frightened, and many of other adjectives that equate to a high level of angst. But I'm not surprised.

If Obama were to survive a mortal head would (as the Book of Revelation foretells will happen to the Antichrist), then I would be surprised. While I'm not implying that Obama is the Antichrist, nor do I wish such a fate to befall him, I am pointing out how the Antichrist might ascend to the world stage through slick oratory, the same magnetism and duplicity we witness in Senator Obama today.

As for Colin Powell's endorsement, there's no surprise there at all.

Tick tock, tick tock...

2008-10-19T17:50:00.001-07:00

A year or so ago, I read that President Bush would likely solve the Iran issue before leaving office. In three months his successor will assume the presidency, and all of America's problems will fall on him.

As of right now, our armed forces are positioned favorably for military action against Iran with huge contingencies surrounding them, from the west in Iraq to the east in Afghanistan. Under the guise of troop rotation for the war in Iraq, we could conceivably float another entire fleet to within a few hundred miles of the Strait of Hormuz without raising the suspicion or ire of any potentially hostile nation. The fleet would have the capability of hitting targets using sortees and laser-guided bombs, ground-penetrating bunker buster bombs, and should the need arise, cruise missiles with a nuclear payload.

An Obama Administration would likely begin a reduction in troops deployed in Iraq shortly after January 20, whereas McCain would be apt to leave existing forces in place for a while longer. Since polls currently favor Obama by an electable margin, let's assume he will be the next Commander in Chief. (Excuse me while I get a fresh vomit bag.) This man has already indicated that he will talk with anyone -- North Korea, Iran, Al-Qaeda, and probably Mohamed Atta if he could find his ashes somewhere in Manhattan. Since I believe there are some people whose opinions matter so little that I don't ever wish to hear them, I question the value of this tactic. Iran, a nation to which Obama (or was it Biden?) suggested we give a good-will donation of several hundred million dollars (why?), detests the United States with unquenchable passion. This is a nation whose leaders have threatened Israel with annihilation, and whose president has boldly invited that we "imagine a world without the United States and Israel."

Love him, loathe him, or somewhere-in-between him, President Bush is the man to handle Iran. But the clock is ticking, and the nightmare of passing the torch to Obama so he can botch a showdown with the Iranian military is horribly reminiscent of the way Jimmy Carter "handled" Iran. (Remember Iranian troops parading American GIs' body parts on their state-run TV after US helicopter gunships crashed in the desert outside of Tehran in a quasi-attempt to rescue Americans held hostage at our embassy for 444 days? We appeared to the world to be an inept laughingstock under Carter, and I expect even less from Obama.)

I have no doubt President Ahmadinejad, the psychopath from Tehran, is busy weighing all of this with his generals. This might explain why we are witnessing increased cooperation with Russia, an alliance foretold in the Bible, a collusion that had never existed prior to a few years ago. Ahmadinejad might be raising the ante along with the cost of a US-led invasion. (Considering how many oil-thirsty countries depend on Iran's oil, the "coalition" might consist only of the US and Israel, or perhaps unilateral action by the United States.)

If I were an advising general in the Iranian armed forces, I might strike the US before Bush can make good on his promise. With Shahab-III missiles carrying Pakistani (or North Korean or Russian or Chinese or even Iranian) nuclear warheads, this might be a good time to float a cargo ship alongside one of our coastlines and detonate a nuke fifty miles over the American heartland. The resulting electromagnetic pulse would cripple us, but our demise would send economic repercussions throughout the entire planet. With zero US oil consumption, the price of a barrel of oil -- hence the wealth of the Persian state -- could dwindle to lows never before seen by OPEC. What remained of the American military machine might target Iran with an obligatory "nothing to lose" nuclear strike.

Anticipating this possibility, perhaps moderate, clear-thinking Iranian advisers could conceivably opt for a less aggressive but equally egregious approach. Bogging down the American dollar would disinvite a US military strike since any military action would tax our struggling economy further. Ahmadinejad may be secretly laughing at us since Bush may not be in any position to fulfill his promise against Iran. With this in mind, he could ratchet up the pressure on the greenback by flooding the world with counterfeit US hundred-dollar-bills (they and the North Koreans are already doing this), and readying his sleeper cells who are currently dormant on our homeland. A well-choreographed, multi-pronged domestic attack could turn our focus inward to the point of nearly complete disinterest with Iran. Simultaneous large-scale terrorist attacks in a dozen major US cities, compounded by a reeling economy, a decimated stock market, and the confusion of a change of US administration, might render America the Paper Tiger much of the world has come to regard us as.

While Al-Qaeda and Iran are not one and the same, they share a common goal by virtue of sharing common enemies, and would eagerly cooperate in a brash move against our homeland. Any number of weapons -- handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, suitcase nukes, RPGs, shoulder-fired stinger missiles -- could be brought into the US with the assistance of Columbian and Mexican gangs. Once given the go-ahead via a TV broadcast or a post on some surreptitious website, the enemy might start by tossing a few hundred pounds of cyanide into the water supply of each US city with a population greater than, say, a half-million; then unleash hundreds of machine-gun-toting sleeper agents into crowded malls and grid-locked intersections during rush hour; and top it off with a few hundred private planes crop dusting our defenseless citizens with weaponized botulinum toxin, anthrax, ebola virus, smallpox... the list is endless.

If you think this is frightening, consider that I am just a lone voice, on par with Joe the Plumber, and am privy to nothing more than a fertile imagination. If I really knew what I was talking about, we would be in a world of hurt.

And if Obama does to the Second Amendment what he has promised he would do, I wouldn't be able to protest with anything larger than a BB-gun.

The Death of Conservative America

2008-10-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

While on my daily walk today, my mind refused to veer away from thoughts of tonight's debate as well as the upcoming election. (Some of what follows has appeared in one or more of my earlier posts.)

I've decided to throw in the towel on McCain as he has not stepped up to the plate and given conservative voters any reason to want him as president. Consequently, when I stand in the voting booth on Tuesday, November 4, and prepare to make my selection, there is, at this point, a better-than-fifty percent chance that I will punch the circle representing the Constitution Party's candidate, Chuck Baldwin. The only doubt in my mind is due to Governor Palin's presence on the (R) ticket, and that reason is probably flimsy at best (though I admire Sarah Palin immensely).

Despite my recent posts in which I had touted a chance for a conservative revival beginning in 2012 after Obama has had four years to ruin the country, I regret to say that, after further consideration, I don't see any such prolonged revival occurring. The following list contains the reasons for my growing fear:

Removal of God from the American landscape, figuratively and literally, by the courts and public schools thanks to a convenient misinterpretation of the First Amendment;
The death of free speech;
The rise of political correctness (refer to item 2);
Aggressive Darwinist/atheist agenda forced on fertile young minds in public schools and those in higher education;
Grade-school indoctrination by the militant homosexual mafia (refer to items 1, 2, 3, and 4);
A continued replenishing of secular progressive lunacy from the communist-infiltrated public school system (refer to item 4);
Nancy Pelosi, undeniably a psychopath, who will assure item 2 by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. With the Democrats in total control, no one will stop her.

Not only are new laws threatening to silence the opposition of the socialist juggernaut, but the left maintains a vise grip on the media, speech, religious expression, and expression of any viewpoint that contradicts their agenda.

With the deck stacked so heavily against conservatism and freedom of religious expression, I see no hope that the direction of the country will change over the course of my remaining years on planet earth. For the first time in my life, I am seriously considering relocating to another country. As of yet, I have not yet decided upon my destination; but wherever it is, it will not be on the North American continent.

Forgive me for being so bleak. I really need to work on this. Perhaps I should concentrate more on poetry or fiction in the future... or spending time with my dog. God knows, there hasn't been much of a reason to be hopeful for years.

Muslim Invasion, Film at 11

2008-10-14T22:51:00.001-07:00

They've overtaken Europe, they're overrunning Canada, and they're knocking on our door. They are Muslims, and they want your friends, they want your family, and they want you.

What are you so worked up about? Muslims are just another peaceful group of religious people who want to assimilate into our culture. After all, we're a diverse culture, are we not?

Hold up a minute there, tiger. It sounds to me as though you've been watching a little too much CNN. Let's get some things straight.

As stated in the Koran, true believers of Islam do not want peace or assimilation. They want submission to Allah. There is nothing peaceful about submitting to a god in whom you have no faith. Islam does not claim to coexist with anyone, nor do they seek to. They come as conquerors, not as peaceful coexistents (n., plural). Adherents to other religions are routinely killed, and it is mandated in Muslim cultures that apostates -- those who dare to convert from Islam to another religion, especially Christianity -- must be killed. That the apostate is often the child of a Muslim zealot is no deterrent to their execution.

The virulent strain of Islam that has overrun Europe is the same crowd of thugs who nearly burned Paris to the ground two years ago, and have recently imported Sharia Law into the UK. Canada is a few years behind Europe, and the US is closing the gap with Canada. An Obama presidency could snap us right into line much like a domino awaiting its turn to topple.

If the gathering storm clouds of Islam truly represented a religion that sought to coexist with those who did not wish to partake of same, I would welcome them. A healthy exchange of ideas is always a good thing.

Key word: healthy. Lopping the heads off of unwilling participants does not qualify as promoting good health.

The West, in particular the United States, has, until recently, encouraged a free marketplace of ideas. We have always been tolerant of other viewpoints. We have always lent a helping hand to those who did not necessarily believe as we do. Our diversity speaks for itself. However, at the core of our kindness and gentility is a religious value system that runs anti-parallel to that of Islam. Christianity brings a message of hope and salvation, while Islam brings forced conversion under the threat of death.

What about the Crusades?

What about the Crusades? The most effective way to bash God is for His enemy falsely to do something in His name. Moreover, the Crusades were a result of Europeans having been attacked by invading Muslims.

Christianity is no different than Islam. They're all terrorists.

I've heard this drivel before, too. Christians bring a message of hope, then leave it at the doorstep of the invitee. Muslims force conversion by the sword. Christians don't fly airplanes into buildings in hopes of killing innocent civilians. Muslims do.

I firmly believe billions of Saudi petrodollars are recirculating in our economy and buying our media. Anyone with half a brain can see that American media is horribly biased. I also believe the Saudis have bought their way into our Senate and Congress as well as institutions of higher learning. And now they seek Western democracy's crown jewel, the American presidency. Connect that dot to this: Yesterday Jesse Jackson claimed that an Obama presidency would spell the end of US support for Israel. Jackson is one of the most flagrant modern-day bigots to stand in front of a microphone, all the while preaching his color of hate. He has scarcely hidden his anti-semitism or anti-caucasianism. Jackson and the Saudis have two glaring things in common: Hatred of Israel and support of Obama.

Once the enemy dwells among us, it will be too late. The United States has already blurred into an aberration of what it once was. Our borders, language, and culture have nearly been erased. I don't see a glint of optimism on the horizon other than a strong belief in Almighty God.

A New McGovern

2008-10-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

When I was quite a lot younger, my father told me of a huge imaginary pendulum, one which swings back and forth along with a society's values. He would turn over in his grave if he could see how far the pendulum has swung in this once-free country, and more alarmingly, that it seems to be gaining momentum rather than reaching a point of temporary equilibrium before beginning its return voyage back to reason and sanity.

Millions of American soldiers bled battlefields crimson red to keep tyranny off the North American continent. An Obama Administration, flying under a flag of political correctness, will do to us what Soviet tanks did to Czechoslovakia forty years ago. Our freedoms are evaporating before our eyes.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon was riding a wave of popularity the Democrat machine could not stop, so they nominated an empty suit, an unelectable buffoon by the name of George McGovern. McGovern's views were so radical, millions of Democrats switched sides, and Nixon crushed his ultra-liberal adversary into anonymity.

Remember that bozo, McGovern? He's the guy who wanted to defeat the Soviet Union by proving we were superior to them by unilaterally dumping all of our nuclear weapons. His mantra of strength through peace was about as backward as that of the current Democrat nominee, that fool from Illinois who is about to take the reins of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen with the intent of changing it.

I'm sure he will do exactly as he says.

Dad, if you're listening, it's not as bad as the media says. It's worse.

1976 Revisited

2008-10-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

Turn the clock back thirty-two years. If you're not old enough to remember the election pitting then President Gerald Ford against Jimmy Carter, look up the details in your favorite search engine.

Beleaguered by echoes of Watergate and the resignation of President Nixon two years earlier, the Republican party could not shake the muck that had tarnished their image. Ford, who had replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973 when Agnew resigned due to charges of tax evasion and money laundering, went on to inherit the presidency ten months later when Nixon called it quits. Ford also inherited an ecomony that was in a downward arc. (Remember WIN -- "Whip Inflation Now" -- and stagflation?) Oil prices had skyrocketed due to a war in the Middle East, one which had threatened to go global when Israel readied, but thankfully did not fire, their nuclear missiles at Egypt and Syria.

What a mess.

The more I consider American politics in 1976, the more I am drawn to the similarities between that election and the one a mere twenty-two days away.

Ford was not a particularly strong presidential figure, though he served in the armed forces in World War II and certainly was a nice fellow and a likeable man. He received his party's nomination by obligation more than anything else -- incumbents nearly always do.

McCain served in Vietnam and was a prisoner of war for several arduous years, tortured by his Viet Cong captors in ways known only to him. For this reason alone, I salute him and thank him for his service. But as a presidential contender, he's so weak that he has trouble getting out of his own way.

Due in part to war and sticker shock over high oil prices, Ford inherited a crumbling economy. McCain stands to do exactly the same thing.

Though he had had nothing to do with his predecessor's woes, Ford could not shake the Watergate curse. Similarly, McCain cannot shake the negatives of President Bush's legacy, no matter how many times he insists that he is not George W. Bush.

I believe the Republicans of 2008 may have seen the current economic catastrophe in advance and, quite possibly, wanted to absolve themselves of it by throwing this year's election and nominating a candidate who cannot win (McCain). In the process, the Republicans will have handed the nation's economic disaster to an unknown (Obama) who will surely tax us into even more dire straits. And after four agonizing years of failed socialist politics, waiting in the wings will be a strong conservative, perhaps one whose name we don't yet know.

Does that sound at all like 1980? After four years of Jimmy Carter, Americans couldn't wait to elect Reagan (by a landslide of unutterable proportions) and begin a conservative revolution. The parallels of this election with that of 1976 might extend to 2012 and 1980, respectively.

For me, November 4 will be a night of popcorn and soda, and perhaps a good movie. Even if my vote were to count, I don't think it will matter. Even if my horse wins the race, I lose. But better to lose now and win in four years than to win a short-sighted victory now and retain the blame in 2012, an election which could usher in a Democrat mini-dynasty.

This is not to say that four years of a communist Obama presidency can ever be undone. We're still paying for the naivete, if not outright stupidity, of James Earl Carter. Recall how Carter turned his back on the Shah of Iran, a once staunch ally in the region, and helped create the nuclear-aspiring, bellicose Ahmadinejad who denies the Holocaust. He also gave away the Panama Canal, pardoned all draft dodgers, cut defense spending, and sent the national budget deficit further into the red than ever before seen.

If there's anything left of these United States in 2013, I hope it begins with a reincarnation of the Reagan Revolution.

Picking up the Pieces: A Call to Arms

2008-10-09T20:09:00.001-07:00

Senator John McCain is behind in most, if not all, major polls. Despite pulling Sarah Palin out of a hat and the relative obscurity of the Alaskan wilderness, the old man and the diamond in the rough are taking on water and may capsize on November 4, if not before.

Even if McCain were a more inspiring fellow--dashing, debonair, eloquent of speech, several notches to the right of his maverick pseudo-conservative position--and even had he taken Obama apart in the first two debates, something a President Reagan or a Michael Savage surely would have done, the Government Media Complex is stacking the cards against John and Sarah (am I sounding paranoid here?). They protect their Illinois department store dummy by permitting him to run a campaign without having satisfactorily proven that he is indeed eligible to hold the office of the presidency by producing a verifiable birth certificate. His cohort, Senator Biden, clearly played fast and loose with "facts" in his only debate against Governor Palin, and yet the media turned a blind eye to his egregious errors, misstatements, and omissions.

I find it inexplicably odd that Mr. Obama has spoken to indifferent throngs in other lands, and that straw polls seem to indicate a worldwide desire, especially among Muslim nations(!), to see this empty suit rise to capture the American presidency. Surely after having worked a mere 143 days in the Senate, he must be battle-hardened and ready to serve, no?

Having said all this, I am on the brink of panic. My blogs lately have rung a more dire note; frankly they reflect the apprehension of their author, and my fear that we may actually be seeing a truly dangerous man illegally ascend to the highest office in the land, if not the free world.

Yet we appear powerless to stop it!

This is going to get deep, so top off your coffee cup and come along for a ride, or at least a thought experiment, one I trust will bring some hope to an otherwise unstoppable gathering storm on the near horizon.

Reminded of a Scripture by a dear friend of mine, namely 2 Chron 7:14 (If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land), I feel compelled not to lose sight of the fact that all things happen for God's glory, and that He is always in control. He will not forget us if we fulfill the conditions of the afore-mentioned Scripture.

Our nation is increasingly blue-minded, the ACLU is stealing the rights of religious folks while seeking to expand the rights of the depraved, various other atheist organizations have risen to power and are ripping all vestiges of God from public (even private) expression, and no one can agree on exactly who is protected from whom by the First Amendment--are churches protected from government's meddling, or is it the other way around? A cursory knowledge of the first years of our fledgling republic would answer this question, yet activist judges and communist-sympathizers on the US District and Supreme Courts consistently get it wrong. Public schools insist on revising the Founding Fathers' original intention of freedom of religion, claiming they meant things they plainly did not say. They are disparaged and somehow disqualified for having been slave owners, something that is a sad yet immutable fact. (George Washington made many concessions to his slaves and was quoted as regretting that he had ever indulged in the evil practice.)

Yesterday I looked at a color-coded map that showed how each of the fifty states are inclined to vote if the election were held today. Each of the coasts appear solidly blue, along with several (but not all) Great Lakes states. A huge swath of red paints the South along with the plains states all the way from the Rio Grande to Canada, with Colorado possibly too close to call with four weeks remaining. The projected electoral total is running about seventy in Obama's favor. Assuming he cruises to victory and erases the Second Amendment as I have warned he will, the Federal Government will have breached a century-old contract with the state of Montana which guaranteed gun rights for Montanans. The result of such a breach? The threat of secession.

I began connecting dots.

If Montana were to secede from the union to preserve the clearly stated original intention of the US Constitution, I believe Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arizona could conceivably follow suit very quickly. These states are solidly red; Oklahoma and Arizona have recently enacted stiff penalties for the hiring and harboring of illegal immigrants; and Wyoming, one of the most deeply red states in the union, shares a sisterhood of sorts with Montana. And if these states joined, how many others in the nation's bread basket would come on board?

Rob, you've lost your mind! It could never happen, would never happen, is not feasible, and no state in its right mind would commit suicide in this manner!

Think again. As of February 2008, thirty-nine elected Montana officials had signed a proclamation endorsing the motion of secession should the DC Gun Ban Case (DC v Heller, 2008) rule in favor of the status quo, i.e., that personal gun ownership is no longer supported by the US Constitution, and that the intent of the Second Amendment applies to a militia rather than the individual. Fortunately we dodged that bullet, if you'll pardon the pun, when the DC Ban was struck down. Thank you, Justice Scalia, et al. But a bigger bullet looms on November 4, one that will come to fruition on January 20 of next year if Obama is sworn into office.

Now let's take a stroll down Thought Experiment Lane, shall we? Let's assume the secession movement gathers steam and most if not all the red states join their frustrated brothers and sisters. US Red controls most of the food production in the nation and much of the oil reserves. With a minority of the population comprising US Red, they would not need to import oil from foreign lands, shifting that problem back to what remained of the original US. All twenty or so of the states that comprise US Blue would need to import more oil to make up for what the Heartland was no longer supplying them. The disconnected coastal bluelands would also be forced to import most of their food since the San Joaquin Valley could not support the nearly two hundred million inhabitants of US Blue. The new nation of US Red would call its troops home, since they no longer represent the interests of US Blue. These soldiers would then protect the Heartland, chiefly from invasion by US Blue. US Blue, currently engaged in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would be spread too thin to even consider turning its decimated army against US Red. And if Colorado were to come on board, US Red would get Cheyenne Mountain as an extra added bonus.

US Red would evict the ACLU and all those opposed to the original vision of our God-given Constitution. Laws prohibiting abortion on demand would become part of the new Constitution via an amendment stating such, forcing the closure of abortion clinics. All of the amendments, especially those pertaining to free speech and gun rights, would be honored unless they conflict with biblical statutes. Cockeyed decisions of the formerly acknowledged Supreme Court, now US Blue's problem, would be struck down in a free for all as the newly formed government of US Red divests itself of the errors of its predecessor gone awry. Illegal aliens would be returned home at the expense of their nation of citizenry. Nonsensical hiring quotas would be abolished, and taxes would be permanently lowered. All who wish to emigrate to a free US Red would be invited with open arms, provided they abide by the law. Likewise, those wishing to leave could freely do so.

In no way am I saying this would be an easy task; to the contrary, it would be a formidable undertaking, but it may come to this if we are to retake our nation. This country is so deeply divided that we are on the brink of something huge. Each election cycle, we see more and more strife as the schism between the blues and the reds widens.

You want to talk change, Mr. Obama? Mess with God and Montana's gun rights and watch real change hit you like you never imagined.

No one believed that the Soviet Union could fall apart, and yet it did. And it can happen here as well. With God's blessing, the result would be beyond our wildest expectations.

Triumvirate of Democrats, A Chilling Prospect

2008-10-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

If current polls bear out, the United States will be facing at least two bleak years, and perhaps as many as four, with a Democrat-controlled House, Senate, and Presidency.

The Socialists of the far Left will pass a flurry of legislation virtually unchecked. Hate crimes legislation will certainly be rushed into law as soon as Obama is sworn in. This will further erode the right to free speech while devaluing classes of citizens commonly known as Caucasians and heterosexuals. Following quickly will be nominations of like-minded communist-sympathizers to fill vacancies of various circuit courts as well as any upcoming vacancies to the Supreme Court.

Are we truly ready for this?

Trust me, this evil three-headed beast will not stop with hate crimes. They've already taken aim at enshrining homosexual marriage into law, Constitutional assurances to abortion (making it impossible to overturn Roe v Wade), stripping away of our right to bear arms, and a resurgence of the Fairness Doctrine. They must, you see, silence their critics.

If I choose to buy a Chevy because I believe it to be a better product than some other automobile, I will have made that decision based on my faith in the superior product, and perhaps by advertising. The Fairness Doctrine will disallow freedom in the market place of ideas by shutting the mouths of those who hold a view opposing the socialist regime. It only seems logical to me that, if their ideas are superior to those of their opposition, they should welcome a free exchange of those ideas without fear of reprisal. Yet they do not. Just as Nancy Pelosi turned off the lights and microphones during a recent discussion on high gas prices, stifling the conservative voices who were about to be heard, the extreme Left also will dim the lights of their opposition in any way they can.

Sounds more and more like North Korea to me.

Our churches and synagogues need full restoral of their rights to free speech by revisiting the "Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act," once known as HR 235. Failure to do so will doom us to further depletion of the rights granted by our Constitution through a continued emboldening of the socialist element in our once-free land.

Where's The Beef?

2008-10-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last night's presidential debate between the two principals sadly lacked the meat and potatoes many of us want to hear. Even the Right's pseudo-conservative candidate, the Maverick from Arizona, missed a golden opportunity to ratchet up the stakes.

I heard nothing about proposed hate crimes legislation, nothing about abortion, nothing about guns, nothing about immigration, nothing about the Ten Commandments, and frankly, nothing that made me proud to vote for either candidate. Even my support for McCain, weak as it is, is largely based on my confidence in the strengths of Governor Sarah Palin.

(Palin is not qualified, you say? Recall that President Reagan was an actor-turned-governor before winning the White House in a landslide repudiation of hard-core leftist ideals when he routed the Peanut Farmer and sent him packing his bags back to Georgia.)

All of the debates that I have seen this year--presidential or vice-presidential--have been moderated by liberals, people you know will be casting their votes for the Muslim from Illinois. Why is this? Since the middle-of-the-road has long since dried up in this polarized political landscape, why have none of the debates been moderated by a true conservative? Michael Savage would raise the roof with tough questions that would make everyone squirm, and for this reason, he would have been great. Bill O'Reilley, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Sam Brownback, former justice Roy Moore, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and many others--any one of these people could have posed the pointed questions we needed to have addressed. But Mr Brokaw failed us by retreating into timidity. Huge surprise there.

Had I been Senator McCain, I would have taken a moment to reflect on Obama's appearance at a Christian church in southern California in which he responded to questions about abortion. It seems he feels that answering tough questions about the beginnings of life were above his pay grade. I would have nailed him to a wall by suggesting that if this is so, then surely the office of the presidency is also above his pay grade.

More Media Inconsistencies

2008-10-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

The American Communist Party, aka the Democrats, are at it again, trying to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin. So far, all they have come up with is a single twenty-two-year-old DUI by Palin's husband, Todd. Woah, now there’s a reason to disqualify a Vice-Presidential candidate if I ever heard one.

Of course the Enquirer has unearthed an alleged affair of Sarah's. This is the same dead fish wrapper that reported that Hillary was pregnant with an alien space seed, that President Bush had suffered a heart attack and that Laura had left him, and how the world is destined to end in 2012 because an ancient calendar says so. When will the irrelevant ad hominem arguments stop? Must we continue to search for non-existent dirt on a candidate simply because we cannot disqualify them on the basis of their ideas? I've never understood how one's political beliefs must necessarily be specious simply because they may (or may not) have done something in the past that was not on the up-and-up. Most often the mere accusation casts enough of a shadow across a person's character so as to discredit them to some degree. And when the person is running for public office, damaging innuendoes, even blatantly false ones, can often swing an election a couple of crucial points.

Hillary assured us that she could balance raising a family with her work as a senator. However, she, along with her cohorts in the liberal media, falsely raise the issue that Sarah Palin cannot do likewise. Somehow Governor Palin is unable to care for her family while performing the acts of a Vice President. Why do you suppose Hillary and her minions would say these things?

Perhaps it is because the Left sees no inconsistencies here.

I guess you need a higher education to make sense out of what plainly is not there. And you need steadfastly to avoid those who are a part of Hillary's perceived vast right-wing conspiracy.

As for Sarah's past, bring it on. They will find nothing. What they think they have found will be insignificant at best, and George Soros's media machine will blow it out of proportion in a sinister attempt to sway the most naive of voters into the Obama camp. And this is being sanctioned by the Left who still refuse to see any problem with Obama’s failure to produce a bonafide birth certificate of the current prince of the American Socialists, the Muslim from Indonesia. Yes, that guy who espouses change, supports abortion at all stages, believes in evolution, and claims to be a Christian, that same rascal who admitted to being a Muslim in a recent televised interview.

Freudian slip? I honestly don't think so.

Let's talk Ted Kennedy for a moment. I don't need to turn to the Left's favorite ad hominem method to discredit this man. He is a Marxist, regardless of his past. But since they did it to Governor Palin, I'll do it to Teddy Boy. One might recall that the patriarch of the Democrat party had a drinking problem as well as an infidelity problem which resulted in an unwanted baby problem growing in the womb of Mary Jo Kopechne all the way back in 1970. The flunky of the Kennedy family used his driving skills to solve the problem of Mary Jo, and blamed it on his inability to hold down his booze. And he used his family's ill-gotten gains (bootlegging profits) to hire the best lawyers (and for all I know, greased the palms of a few district attorneys along the way) to make all his woes vanish.

And yes, he is still in the Senate, and had it not been for his current ill health, would still be flapping his gums.

Give our Leftist leaders a healthy dose of their own Ritalin to cure their obvious attention deficit disorders. But these folks act as if they are brain-damaged, so don't expect any miracles, for the mental disorder known as liberalism runs deep.

The Left's Assault on the 1st and 2nd Amendments

2008-10-04T20:18:00.001-07:00

Should Mr. Obama win the presidential election next month, American citizens will be perilously close to kissing their First and Second Amendment rights goodbye.

It is no secret that he—along with most Democrats, spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi, and even some misguided Republicans—intends to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, the biggest assault on free speech rights since LBJ moved in 1954 to silence churches by threatening their tax-exempt status should they speak out on political issues.

Regarding the First Amendment, note the wording as it stands: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof." By threatening to revoke a church's ability to speak out on the issues of the day—homosexuality, abortion, and the mentioning of candidates' names who support issues opposed by the church, to name just three—former President Johnson effectively ushered in an era of illegally muted free speech. Simply put, churches should enjoy the umbrella of protection as guaranteed by the Constitution, but do not. This fifty-four-year-old move clearly is in violation of the last half of the Amendment as quoted above.

The Fairness Doctrine, first introduced five years before LBJ tightened a federal noose around the neck of the church, is an invitation to the Federal Government to oversee matters of content of speech as broadcast over airwaves. (Currently there is consideration to expand a revitalized version of the defunct act to include the internet, though this remains to be seen.) The effect of bringing back this Draconian tool of the extreme Left would be devastating. Gone would be the freedom to broadcast your opinion over commercial airwaves without undue government interference; gone would be Christian radio programs, other than those devoted strictly to music; gone would be conservative as well as liberal talk radio, since the price for opining would simply be too high, namely by allowing equal time for dissenting opinions. While this sounds like liberty and justice for all, it is economically infeasible and would therefore crush free speech.

So why do the Democrats want to push for such a measure?

When President Reagan vetoed a bill which would have enshrined the Fairness Doctrine into law in 1987, conservative talk radio was born. Rush Limbaugh single-handedly brought the conservatives back to a semblance of power in 1994 against the Clinton political machine. Recall that during that off-year election, Republicans gained the House and Senate and were able to stymie Clinton and minimize his political influence for his remaining six years. (Clinton's appointment of the communist sympathizer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, formerly an attorney for the ACLU, to the Supreme Court was unfortunately something that could not be undone.) Following in Rush's footsteps were Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and many others who gave conservative voters a voice and a powerful tool to wield in their fight against the horribly biased mainstream media outlets, notably ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and most major American newspapers. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would return effective control of all media to the Left, snuffing what is left of our rights to free speech.

Enter Barack Obama.

The NRA has compiled a list of ten points which Barack Obama would seek to implement should he become president. If you are a gun owner, please pay close attention. Obama wants to:

Ban the use of firearms for home self-defense.
Pass Federal laws eliminating your Right-to-Carry.
Ban the manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns.
Close down 90% of the gun shops in America.
Ban rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.
Increase federal taxes on guns and ammunition by 500%!
Restore voting rights for five million criminals including those who have been convicted of using a gun to commit a violent crime.
Expand the Clinton semi-auto ban to include millions more firearms.
Mandate a government-issued license to purchase a firearm.
Appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal judiciary who share his views on the Second Amendment.

I would urge you to read this list again. I found it hard to believe the first few times I read it, and two months after having acquainted myself with it, I still find it hard to digest.

The Second Amendment reads as follows: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, in one of his arguments in the recent victory against the so-called DC Gun Ban (District of Columbia v Heller, 2008), pointed out the original intent of the Founding Fathers when they crafted the Constitution. He stated that citizens were entitled to arm themselves for the purpose of self-protection, which also included protection from the armed forces, in the event that the government decided to use military might to tyrannize its citizens. I agree it seems outlandish to allow atomic bombs, spy satellites, tanks, and bazookas for personal use. However, this was the intent at the time the amendment was written and became the law of the land. I see no reason that responsible, law-abiding citizens should be banned from owning any handgun, rifle, or semi-automatic weapon they can afford. And I do stress "law-abiding." The Constitution does not apply to illegal aliens, nor should violent felons or the mentally ill be allowed to own weapons of this type. (I would move for the restoration of rights for non-violent felons after a certain period of time, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this article.)

Outlawing guns and restricting or eliminating the sales of ammunition would invite a black market that would provide the criminal element the means by which they could terrorize unprotected Americans. If you doubt this, consider all the heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine that have been pouring into this country in steadily increasing quantities despite our best efforts to thwart their importation. Those who scoff at laws would not change their behavior simply because guns and bullets had become illegal. For most gang members with long rap sheets, possession of any firearm is already a felony—yet they continue to possess and use them routinely and with impunity. Clearly the criminalization of firearms for the general public would be a huge disaster; those of us who would insist on defending ourselves would do so at great legal peril.

At the risk of sounding as if I've ingested something I shouldn't have, it is not inconceivable that Al-Qaida may have funneled automatic weapons to their sleeper cells here in the United States. Compared to the hordes of humans who pour through the border with Mexico in any given span of time, bringing a few thousand crates of AK-47 rifles through a tunnel or across a barren stretch of deserted Arizona ranchland would be a trivial matter. When their sleeper agents are called upon by their evil governments to arise and attack the American public on our own soil—a shopping mall at Christmastime would make an excellent soft target, as would strategically chosen intersections choked by rush-hour traffic—their task would be an order of magnitude easier if you and I are unarmed. If you think this scenario came from Stephen King, guess again. Recall that in 1997, two gunmen held off dozens of LAPD officers from four divisions for forty-five minutes before finally being put down by a SWAT team; the police ultimately won that battle thanks to a generous contribution from a nearby privately owned gun store. Now multiply what we saw that day by, say, a thousand, and you will see serious carnage. Police bureaus will be stretched beyond their limits and unable to respond effectively. Responsibility could easily fall to gun owners to face down the enemy. Yes, this surely does sound like the stuff novels are made of; but fiction has a funny way of leaping off the pages and into the history books.

I don't know how to be any clearer on this: If you value the freedoms afforded us by the Constitution, specifically both of the first two amendments, you must not allow Barack Obama to be elected in November, period.

I Had a Dream

2008-09-29T10:18:00.001-07:00

... last night that the $700 billion bailout of Big Business had been converted to a lottery, and that I had been awarded the entire shooting match, lock, stock, and barrel. After pinching myself repeatedly upon waking, I immediately scribbled a to-do list. I'd like to share that list with you.

What to do with $700 billion:

1. Buy the NBA.

Not just one team, all of them. And since I will own everything from the arenas (including the chewing gum I left underneath seat 4, row H, section 21 at Staples Center during a game in 2005) to the team mascots to each player's shoestrings, I will decide what happens and when. That said, all games will be canceled and rearranged to fit into a more disruptive schedule. Rather than beginning each season in October and wrapping things up the following June with the celebrated NBA Finals, I'm going to schedule all regular-season games to coincide with Major League Baseball playoff games and the World Series. The new NBA Finals will consist of a single sudden-death match between the Eastern and Western Conference champions. Naturally this winner-take-all game will be broadcast simultaneous to the Super Bowl. I'll call the regular season "October Madness," and the Finals will be renamed "January Surprise."

If any TV networks cry "foul," I will buy them and convert their format to continuous commercial-free reruns of I Love Lucy and Get Smart.

2. Buy the moon and rename it.

3. Buy the presidency, first of this country and afterward any country that comes to mind.

4. Buy Australia. I've always wanted my own island-continent-nation, and I love to watch toilets flush backward. Plus, I'd get to learn a cool accent by hanging out with my favorite blokes and sheilas down at the pub.

5. If there's any money left over, buy the crappiest Major League Baseball franchise and fire all players, coaches, and the manager. This year's winner will be the San Diego Padres. While I realize Seattle and Washington were actually a wee bit crappier, I like having the Mariners around, and the poor Nationals just relocated from the dregs of baseball in Montreal, purely a hockey town. I've never found anything useful to do with the Padres anyway. They will be replaced by the prettiest, most buxom female college softball players I can find, and their new name will be the Madres. Wait. I hear you protesting this one. Listen, I guarantee my team will draw more than the previous occupants who were overpaid, fat, lazy cry babies. Though my new team will surely lose all one-hundred and sixty-two games, no one will care. The team's new home will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

5a. If Major League Baseball complains, buy them and replace all twenty-nine remaining teams with pretty, female buxom college softball players.

5b. I get to manage the team.

6. Hell is still free.

That Peaceful, Easy Feeling

2008-09-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

Islam is a religion of peace.

If you're naive and believe this mistranslation in light of daily headlines that scream the contrary, then you may close this window now and pick up a copy of your favorite daily Dead Fish Wrapper (I'd recommend the NY Times, suitable for cat boxes, bird cages, and lighting camp fires). Or perhaps you'd feel more at home with the National Enquirer on your lap.

The correct translation, which President Bush miscommunicated to the American people in his nationally televised address on 9/11/01 (whether this was a deliberate act or not, I do not know), is submission, not peace. As long as you submit to Allah or Mohammed or some turbaned hate-spouting fool, you're alright in their book.

Peaceful Muslims might take me to task for saying theirs is not a religion of peace. I would remind them that the Quran states that true Muslims are to take jihad to the enemy in three increasing stages. We in the West are now in the crosshairs of their third and final stage, which is one of judgment and death, since we apparently have ignored the first two warnings. Those who stole airliners and slammed them into buildings, for example, killing thousands of innocents in the process, were the true Muslims according to the Quran.

No "good Muslim" is peace-loving. This is neither an exaggeration nor a misstatement.

Late last year (2007), for several days, a Jewish high holiday overlapped a Muslim high holiday. During this period of time, the crowd on the left "celebrated" with more than seventy-five deaths, most of whom were fellow peace-lovers. The infidel Jew on the right did nothing other than earned a Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Note how the gentlemen on the left are clearly experiencing the joy and love of Allah, while the lowly Jew is wasting every civilized human's time by expanding the horizons of knowledge. Had he had a brain, clearly he would have been destroying life rather than trying to save it.

Idiot.

Woolly Bear Watch 2008

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

In about two hours, autumn will return to earth's northern hemisphere. Here in the US Pacific Northwest, the dwindling sunlight spells Prozac for many people as Seasonal Affective Disorder rears its ugly head once more.

Rather than toying with my brain's delicate chemistry, I choose to hole myself up at a local coffee shop with my laptop and ride things out. The ride can easily last six or seven excruciating months, with a sunny day or two occasionally thrown in to break up the monotony.

At about the time once-green leaves turn to gold and then to red before littering the grounds with their own corpses, another head rears itself, this one belonging to the banded woolly bear caterpillar, the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth.

I've never found moths to be of any particular interest, but this one, at least in its larval form , takes the proverbial cake. Legend has it that the relative size of the orange band will herald the severity -- or mildness -- of the upcoming winter. Although I have been woolly bear watching for a number of years now, I have yet to make any such correlation. Still, the critters are fun to see, and cuter than a -- well, than a moth.

Thus far this year, I have come across only two isolated caterpillars of unknown species, neither of which are the genuine woolly bear. In some ways, Mr. Bear's appearance is akin to that of the ground hog and all the attendant hoopla surrounding dubious prognostications regarding the remaining days of winter. Mr. Bear, who toils under the anonymity of having no official counterpart to Ground Hog Day, allegedly (in the minds of many) makes his yearly forecasts nonetheless.

With the use of high-speed computational monstrosities, the National Weather Service is calling for a nearly normal winter in every respect -- with slight possibilities of warmer-than-average temperatures, as well as a scant likelihood of less-than-average rainfall. Their ninety-day forecasts are currently running as committal as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We will have to wait for Woolly Bear Day to concur -- or rebut -- what the weather service has had to say on the matter. Until then, drink lots of coffee, bundle up, and throw an extra log on the fire.

Welcome to autumn.

The Joy of Insomnia

2008-09-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning.

My neighbors, who live about 5 acres away, got a new puppy yesterday. I know you can't measure linear distance with squared units, but if you consider the parcels to be nearly squared-off rectangles, you'll get the idea that they're a comfortable distance away. I'd guess their house is 500 feet from where I lay me down to sleep.

Only I didn't.

My landlady, you see, is a sucker for a sob story, and has accumulated six cast-off dogs of her own, five of which love to bark. The sixth is senile and ready to kick the dog food can, so she's not much of a problem.

The five who bark did so nearly incessantly at the new puppy, which was a huge contributing factor to why I slept only a short while last night. And there's no way I can take a nap now since, well, you know how puppies can be. And barking dogs.

Injecting a little dark humor into my sleepless scenario, I call to your attention David Berkowitz, the legendary Son of Sam murderer of the 1970s. Sometime early this year, I watched a compelling interview with him (actually it was an interview and a documentary rolled up into a nice sixty-minute package). Granted, this man had underlying psychological issues (considering my insomnia, don't I as well?), and his problems may have included schizophrenia (I'll take a rain check on that one). But what I found nearly hilarious about the story was his account in which he explained what had driven him to the brink and made him snap.

His landlord's barking dogs.

*sigh*

It's the Border, Stupid

2008-09-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

In the months preceding each presidential election cycle, it seems I hear cries of "It's the economy, stupid!" And this year is no exception: Unprecedented bailouts, bank failures, wild swings in the DOW Jones, billions of dollars flushed into oblivion in a single day, gold prices climbing. Yet oddly, as oil falls and gasoline prices finally recede, there is little apparent relief at the pump as we have tightened our financial belts. The economic slowdown, led by the collapsing housing market, leaves us with precious little to spend on fuel. (I suppose real relief might be realized if the price of a gallon of gas suddenly plummeted to, say, $2.)

The failing economy has shoved the discussion of illegal aliens right off the dinner table and into the trash can of yesterday's worries, much to the delight of those who crawled through a tunnel or over a busted fence along our southern border. Now we have them integrated, at least partially, into our economy.

Yeah, right.

Burgeoning hospital waiting rooms are alive with the foreign tongues of illegal aliens who speak and understand only their native language; they pay nothing for their services. Welfare roles have ballooned with these folks as well. They occupy a majority of many school districts, obtaining free education (at my expense), even reduced tuition rates at colleges and universities. Somehow they've managed to obtain driver's licenses, and many vote! My taxes (along with my blood pressure) continue to climb to give illegals by the millions a better way of life.

Since illegals pay little or no tax and consistently undercut the wages of legal working class Americans, and because they arrived here in a manner inconsistent with the method devised by our Founding Fathers and our Constitution, they are, by definition, law-breakers.

So what's a few million more law-breakers?

Some states, notably Oklahoma and Arizona, have enacted tough laws designed to restrict the employment of illegals. As hundreds of thousands of them have packed up and relocated to other states, a corresponding reduction in violent crime has been noted.

There are many who have escaped the tyranny of their own corrupt governments and found a home -- and a job and a life -- here in the US. Many of these indeed are hard-working, law-abiding folks. (Law-abiding except for their method of entry.) Being a compassionate Christian, I could not turn my back on such people. Nor could I send them away or refuse to feed or clothe them. Doing so would be against what Jesus has instructed me to do.

However, consider this: Remember that reduction in violent crime I mentioned a few paragraphs above? Many of the illegals who fled Arizona and Oklahoma have arrived in Texas. Immediately, violent crime in illegal-friendly Texas has skyrocketed.

So much for "they come here to work."

My grandparents emigrated from Italy the old-fashioned way: legally. They learned English and taught it to their sons and daughters. Italian was spoken in the home occasionally, but along with their newly Americanized names and citizenship came a new language and assimilation into the Great American Experiment.

Let's keep it that way. If they arrive illegally, and if they refuse to assimilate and conduct themselves legally, escort them back to wherever they came from and bill their own government of nationality for the service.

And build the damn fence.

Britain Paving the Way to Hell

2008-09-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

In Islam's bloodthirsty quest to dominate the world, another domino fell right into place today when the least likely of nations, Britain, opted to honor Sharia Law.

For those of you not familiar with Sharia Law, look to such peace-loving nations as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria -- you know, where they cut your hand off if you dare steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family, and allow men to beat their wives for any reason whatsoever, and homosexuals are hanged for simply being homosexuals.

This might be a good time for the chaps in the UK to stock up on burqas while they're still competitively priced.

And now that jolly old England has fallen prey to the Muslims, who's next? Surely domino nations of the EU will follow suit. Even Canada has already spoken of adopting Sharia Law. But how far are we here in the US from such a barbaric system of justice?

It might depend on who is inaugurated on January 20th, 2009.

Lipstick on a Pig

2008-09-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, I see the lipstick and I see the pig. Only the players are not as the media has portrayed.

The more I dig into John McCain's voting record, the less I like him. Consider the following:

John McCain claims to be pro-life but has voted consistently not to overturn Roe v. Wade
Just like President Bush, McCain has no problem keeping the US-Mexican border wide open
He is in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens, which would allow several million of them to become US citizens. Over time, those millions will metastasize into fifty or perhaps a hundred million, given their accelerated birth rates
He supported the most liberal Supreme Court justice on the bench, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, formerly a political director for the ACLU
Sandra Day O'Connor would have been the swing vote in overturning Roe v. Wade, but Mr. McCain supported her in not overturning the 1973 decision
He embraced ultra-liberal Ted Kennedy's ideas and formed the Gang of 14 which assisted in defeating some of Bush's best judicial nominees
Twice, he voted against Bush's tax cuts
He opposes ANWAR and offshore drilling
He also led the fight against coercive interrogations of enemy combatants

Clearly, this man is a Democrat with an (R) after his name. And clearly, Sarah Palin is the lipstick, but regrettably, Mr. McCain is the pig.

Sarah Palin would be a wiser choice for president than John McCain, along with a conservative running mate of the likes of Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee. If you're a true Republican or even a Constitutionalist as I am, this ticket would be the best we could hope for.

Unfortunately, we no longer have these options, and so I will hold my nose and cast my ballot for McCain-Palin on November 4. Electing Obama would be a disaster of unimaginable proportions.

However, one might harken back to the 1976 election in which President Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, who did such a terrible job in his four years that the voters wiped him off the map, ushering in the eight-year-long Reagan era. Following this line of thinking, four years of extreme leftist (a Muslim with communist policies) Barack Obama could set us up for eight years of President Palin beginning in 2012.

But I don't think I could suffer through four years of Obama with perhaps a house and senate under Democratic control. Hate crimes legislation and the Fairness Doctrine would certainly be enshrined into law during 2009.

However you slice it, Sarah Palin just might be a young, female Ronald Reagan.

When Churches Die

2008-09-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall never pass away." -- Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:35.

If you subscribe to the teachings of Jesus, you've probably already accepted the fact that no one who dies without being reborn of the Spirit of God, through Christ, is getting off this merry-go-round alive. Even the atheists, agnostics, and New Agers know this to be true, though they may cling to some hope that there is someone, somewhere, in some distant galaxy, who will be alive in a trillion years. Or that, upon death, they will simply reappear in some mystical la-la land, sans a benevolent God.

For a church to die is no great revelation. The ways in which they close their doors for the last time is the subject of this post. Some fall victim to attrition -- members slowly stop attending, the demographics of the neighborhood change, and the church no longer fits in with the backdrop. While this is sad, it at least can be understood.

But a church is more than a mere building: a church is the people that comprise the congregation as well as the particular doctrine espoused therein. Ideally, since Jesus did not preach duplicitously, we should be able to heed His teachings and agree on the fundamentals, pointing to a single Christian church. In many cases, we do.

Pastors who deviate from God's word in order to keep attendance figures up and place the fiscal health of the church ahead of its spiritual health, do a great disservice to the name of Christ.
When clergy fall victim to the shifting sands of societal norms and capitulate to ideologies which clearly and blatantly run contrary to God's teachings (as is occurring in nations such as Canada and parts of Europe where pastors are silenced by vigorous hate crimes laws), an even larger threat looms.

In your wildest dreams, would you ever have regarded the Bible to be a book of hate?

Many will never learn of Jesus's words and will fall into error by way of false religions and false teachers, even perversions of the simplicity of the Gospel. The world is replete with such people. "You will know them by their fruit." -- Matthew 7:20, again the words of Jesus, in which He warns of false teachers.

But what does this have to do with dying churches?

The enemies of Christ take on many forms. In some countries -- most notably but by no means restricted to those under the tyranny of Islam -- Christians are denied employment, shunned, stoned, their homes and places of worship burned to the ground, and in countless cases, believers are routinely martyred -- simply for believing in Jesus. Oddly, in spite of such horrific adversity, Christians take their faith underground, where their churches and faith flourish.

Other forms taken by Christ's enemies are perhaps more subtle: acceptance of homosexuality, murdering of the unborn, political correctness, the hammer and sickle of communism, even look-alike gospels which fly in the face of Scripture. While one might smugly take the position that such issues are best kept out of the pulpit, it is essential that they be included and addressed.

The openly homosexual Reverend V. Gene Robinson should not be teaching God's word to anyone until he repents of his sin and forsakes his lifestyle. Why? Because he cannot teach what the Holy Spirit does not give him, and he will receive nothing from the Holy Spirit as long as he is practicing sin. (Has this man ever truly been saved?)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who today apologized to Charles Darwin for having doubted the author of the most flagrant anti-Christian doctrine ever propounded, needs to recant such beliefs. How he can reconcile evolution with the book of Genesis is beyond my comprehension. God didn't need evolution, Creation did the job just fine.

Trinity Broadcasting Network of southern California continues to sell air time to charlatans of Scripture who bastardize God's word beyond recognition. Teachers of the "prosperity gospel" twist Scripture to fit their own misguided desires, believing that perfect health and abundant wealth should belong to every true believer in Christ, and that anyone who is lacking is doing so due to some secret sin. (I could go on for days about this lie.)

The Word of God is a beacon to all, and its teachers must be beyond reproach, not living in sin. False teachers dim the beacon, and congregants of these fallacious churches will leave in search of anything that will tickle their ears. More often than not, what tickles their ears will pave a highway straight to hell.

We in the land of plenty should take note. Hate crimes legislation, and all the freedoms it has to offer, might only be months beyond the horizon here in the United States. Further such chipping away at our free speech rights will hasten the death of the church. And when churches die, whole societies quickly follow.

Oligarchy in California, Insanity in Washington State

2008-09-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

I left the Golden State in 2001 shortly after the passage of Prop 22, which I had supported. The measure, which had defined marriage as between one man and one woman, passed overwhelmingly. The people of California spoke!

With the stroke of the pen of a judge, the measure was ruled invalid, and homosexual marriage is now a part of the California lifestyle.

This November, Californians have a chance to vote again on a similar (identical?) measure, Prop 8, which will most likely pass. The people of California once again will speak.

But who will listen?

A single activist judge, unelected and accountable to no one, will doubtless strike down the measure once again -- proof that we no longer live in a republic but rather an oligarchy.

So, I ask: What's the point in voting?

Here in Washington state, the gubernatorial race of 2004 was mired in controversy and leftist antics. Republican candidate Dino Rossi won the election by a scant hundred or so votes. The Dems cried for a recount and it was granted. Again, Rossi won. The Dems cried louder, and an unprecedented second recount was ordered, and amazingly, Rossi lost the election by the slimmest conceiveable margin of 127 votes.

Benefitting "Governor" Gregoire was the sudden emergence of about a thousand ballots, naturally in ultra-liberal King County, which ran nearly 100% in favor of the person who has been acting as our governor for nearly four years (imagine that!). What the media didn't bother to report was that many of those thousand votes were cast by felons, who are ineligible to vote, illegal aliens, who have no Constitutional right to vote, or persons who are deceased. Apparently Democrats maintain the right to submit ballots from the world beyond.

In a little less than two months, Rossi will have his rematch against the fraud from Olympia. However, the atheist farm system (you know them as the public school system of systematic communist indoctrination, or public schools for short) has been busy cranking out four more years of liberal voters, so the upcoming election will likely be another sham, this time probably by a wider margin, one which will be simply too large for the Republicans to contest. What the Democrats can't win, they will steal. And as we say here in the Pacific Northwest, "count, count, and recount until you win."

So I ask: What's the point in voting?

Since I've grown accustomed to futilely banging my head against walls, I intend to vote anyway.

Marriage Quotas

2008-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

I just read an article on World Net Daily (wnd.com) entitled California bans 'brides,' 'grooms.' It seems a marriage license in Placer County, California was rejected for having used the audacious, bigoted, and insensitive terms, inflaming the gods of political correctness.

What's next? Homosexual marriage quotas? Or maybe forced homosexuality, as in the perverted "tests" that grew out of the warped mind of Adolf Hitler?

Shortly before I departed the once-great Golden State in 2001, I voted in the 2000 election for, among other things, the famed Proposition 22. Prop 22 clearly defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Duh. And yes, it passed overwhelmingly. But leave it to the geniuses, those all-knowing souls at the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, to water down the wording and circumvent the proposition's core meaning, thus negating its validity and allowing homosexual marriages to be recognized. Not by me, ever, in any way, shape, or form -- but by the powers that be.

Stop the world, I want to jump off. (Actually, please speed it up to several hundred times its current rotational rate so I'll just fly off without having to exert any effort.)

President McCain

2008-09-08T21:07:00.001-07:00

With the addition of Sarah Palin on the (R) ticket, the election in November now appears to be McCain's to lose. The selection of the female bulldog governor of Alaska was nothing short of a stroke of genius by the Republican team, amounting to a pleasant digression as well as a decisive swing in the polls.

Voters on the right, who would otherwise have been inclined to sit this one out, are now nearly unanimous in their support for the revamped Republican ticket -- if not for McCain, then at least for his pretty running mate; and given McCain's age, Mrs. Palin might find herself seeking a presidential bid of her own in 2012. And she'll have four years of VP experience to add to her achievements as governor.

Certainly there are women of a moderate political persuasion who will cast their votes for a woman, now that Hillary has been vanquished at least for another four years. Governor Palin fits the bill nicely.

Painful as it is to acknowledge, there are white people who will not vote for a black man for president. While I do not hold to this line of thinking myself, I do understand it. However, note that Mr. Obama is not a Negro -- he is an Arab-American who happens to look like a black man. But he appears to be advertising himself as an African-American, so he will live or die (politically speaking) by that decision.

Here in the blue state of my current residence, Washington, as well as neighboring Oregon (which I sardonically refer to as San Francisco North, Camp Stalin, Portlandgrad, and others), insanity runs rampant. To wit, over last night's dinner, I had the opportunity to discuss the latest election developments with a confused Obama supporter, a Christian woman who is buying into the mainstream media's adoration of the Muslim candidate who calls himself a Christian whenever he finds it advantageous to do so. This poor woman has been thoroughly indoctrinated by the major media spin doctors, believing Osama -- er, Obama -- to be all about positive change, a man who will undo all of Bush's failed policies (I bristle at these words and will address them later). She recoiled sharply when I lectured her on Islam's bloodthirsty quest to take over the west, one square inch and one political office at a time, the crown jewel being the United States presidency; and she was indredulous at my suggestion that Barack Hussein would happily trump our Consitution and invoke Sharia Law at his earliest opportunity.

What better time to dupe the American public (not an especially difficult task) than in the months leading up to November? Osama (oops, there I go again) has slipped on a few key occasions, Freudian or otherwise. In a recent interview with George Stephanopoulos, Obama referred to his Muslim faith; the interviewer corrected him by suggesting, "You mean your Christian faith?" to which Obama quickly recanted. On another instance, the Prince of the Left referred to the fifty-seven United States. Oops, Barack, did you mean the fifty-seven states of Islam? Even a nine-year old wouldn't have made that blunder.

As far as "Bush's failed policies," this term is bandied about with great vigor and glee by the communist American ultra-left. To be sure, Bush has failed in some regard. But he has fought the war on terror well (not perfectly, but consider that we have not been attacked since 9/11), he has kept the oil spigot flowing uninterrupted (when did you last see cars line up to buy gas?), he has thwarted useless and bigoted hate crimes legislation from becoming law, he has kept taxes low, and he battled a fusillade of left-wing extremists in the Senate who illegally refused to allow an up-or-down vote on his court nominees, while still managing to appoint two staunchly conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Bravo!

Bush's legacy will be in these appointments to the highest court.

Among his failures: The war in Iraq could perhaps have been handled differently; we still have a gaping hole along the Rio Grande, allowing millions of undocumented illegal aliens to sneak through and assimilate into our culture as well as oil does with water; imported goods continue to flow too freely and without tariffs, while our exports are routinely tariffed to the point of non-competition. Free trade is a farce and always harms the United States.

As long as he can distance himself from the failures President Bush has made, thus avoiding the label of Bush's Third Term, John McCain is a certainty to be sworn into office on January 20th, 2009.

Change We Can Believe In?

2008-07-22T02:51:00.001-07:00

I hear this a lot lately. The battle cry of the American Left reverberates like the sickening thud of two automobiles colliding. So far, the "change" Obama speaks of is just as hollow, just as sickening. And just as void.

If changing the R in the White House to a D is the great change to which Mr. O refers, I think otherwise. More laws, higher taxes, ACLU-blessed Supreme Court appointees, further erosion of free speech rights via the inaptly named Fairness Doctrine, abolishing our military. These are the changes I see the big D invoking should Mr. O seize power for the next four to eight years.

Any such change will hasten my change of venue to deep within a solidly red state.

Thanks For the Memories

2008-07-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Four thousand deaths, a trillion dollars in red ink, and the price of a gallon of gas is spinning ahead faster than my car's odometer. Now we're shown the door and told to go home.

I was originally for this war and never did the Kerry two-step. With this latest development, however, I can't help but think that we've been handed a big bag of crap.

Did I miss something?

Flash! EMP In the News Again

2008-07-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Every time I try to push the ugly Achilles' heel of the United States out of my mind, something brings it roaring back.

Today (depending on your time zone), our peace-loving friends in Iran test fired another missile. The exact range of this weapon is unclear, but it is believed to be "up to 2,000 km."

But 2,000 km is barely over a thousand miles, and Iran is halfway around the world. How could this possibly affect me?

A nuclear warhead of modest size, secured as the payload of such a missile and fired from the back of a cargo ship (or one disguised to look like a cargo ship) a hundred miles off either US coast, then detonated at sufficiently high altitude, could have the effect of overloading and burning out all electronic circuitry it "sees." Typically such a detonation needs to occur at a height of about fifty miles over the continental US.

The Shahab-3 missile can reach such a height.

But won't the nuke backfire on whoever lights it off?

No. That's the one of the horrors of it. In typical terrorist fashion, it can be used against civilian populations with little or no recourse to the attacker. Since the curvature of the earth shields Iran from direct view of the nuclear blast, they will not experience any of its effects, which will be limited mostly to North America and, perhaps, portions of Central America.

I first read about electromagnetic pulse weapons (EMPs) in Popular Science in the late 1970s. At that time, only the Soviet Union was thought to be interested in such a tactic, and they already were deadlocked with the US in a strategy known as Mutually Assured Destruction -- MAD. Since the Soviets had the capability of going toe-to-toe with America in a massive nuclear exchange, the need for EMP was deemed superfluous, the threat was cast aside, and we pushed it from our collective consciousness as we turned up the volume of the World Series.

Not everyone discarded the fanciful threat posted by riding shock wave of a nuclear blast.

A decade or so later witnessed the dawn of the Information Age and the birth of the cell phone era, creating an insatiable appetite for electrons and all the fragile silicon upon which they ride. Today, an entire generation has been hard-wired and hooked in and wouldn't have the first clue how to survive without the fix provided from an electrical wall outlet. How far we've come in thirty years can only be gauged by the size of the hole we've plugged ourselves into, a hole from which we likely could not emerge without enormous personal sacrifice.

The same dunces who can't seem to build a simple border fence or provide the American public with a bona fide civil defense system couldn't possibly be expected to protect us from the high tech wrath of the turbaned fools of Iran.

So, who are the real fools?

A Pleasant Winter Day in Washington

2008-07-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most pleasant winters I've spent here in Washington state, even though it seems to have arrived four months early.

Yesterday afternoon I drove to tiny Heisson store, where I have my PO box. With a sack lunch and an iced tea stashed in my backpack, I headed down the railroad tracks from the 279th St crossing to the one at 259th St, a distance of one mile. Reaching my first goal, I turned around and began the walk back.

This was to be the first of the eight or so miles I had planned to walk.

Mid-way to 279th St is a trestle overlooking a stream. I usually stop on the bridge and take in the nice view before continuing. Yesterday, however, the sky opened up and dumped rain all over my parade. Finding refuge under a row of trees, I attempted to wait out the unexpected deluge, but found myself to be the intended meal of a swarm of mosquitoes.

I don't know about you, but I'll take getting rained on to getting eaten pretty much any day of the year.

When I arrived back at the 279th St crossing, I was soaked and angry and punctuated the misty air with well-chosen cuss words, the volume of which I attempted to keep below the threshold of hearing of any humans who were stupid enough to be caught in the same rain as I. Hoping for sun but expecting clouds, I ended up all wet, now in no mood to continue my journey to the crossing at Hantwick Road, a distance of about three more miles. I planted my wet ass in my car and drove home.

I already have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.

Rules of the Men's Room

2008-07-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

I recently had the occasion to respond to a question on Difster's blog in which the unwritten "Men's Bathroom Rules" had come up. There was some confusion as to the existence of the rule(s), as well as what constituted permissible behavior while urinating. (This time the ladies have it much easier.) Following is my personal take on the matter at hand:

Rule #1: When confronted with several available urinals, always select the one which allows for the maximum number of urinals between you and the next guy.

Rule #2: Keep your eyes riveted on the wall or flushing mechanism directly ahead of you. Never let your eyes wander toward another user.

Rule #3: Do not speak to another user unless absolutely necessary (trust me, it never is). Even if you know him very well, always observe rules #1 and #2.

Rule #3a: (US only) Never pee with your father.

Rule #4: The men's room is not a place to gather or gab. Always do your business and get the hell out with as little fanfare as possible. Zip up and leave quickly, flushing with your elbow when appropriate.

I hope this clears things up somewhat.

Storm Chases of May and June, 2008

2008-07-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

I drove twice this chase season for Tempest Tours and have included some pictures for your viewing pleasure, disdain, or amusement. The links can be found on my personal website by following the appropriate link below:

Tornadoes in Kansas on May 22, 2008

My chase log for that great day in May:

On the last full day of the Tempest Tours storm chase, our group of twenty-three finally hit pay dirt. The Storm Prediction Center had been touting Thursday for nearly the past forty-eight hours as having a risk for severe weather all the way from the Texas Panhandle to southeastern Wyoming.

Who says those weather guys never get it right?

Our group, which consisted of guests from all over the English-speaking world, had been patiently awaiting D-day on the Plains while cooking under a large ridge of high pressure for over a week. When the ridge finally broke down and allowed an upper level trough to deepen over the Rockies, the Tempest team brought the paying customers right into the playground of several tornadoes!

The particular storm we followed put down its first tornado near Grainfield, KS at around 5:45 in the afternoon. This tornado appeared ghostly white against a light gray background as it raced off to the north at nearly fifty miles per hour. I could best describe the shape as being that of an elephant tusk, complete with a pretty debris cloud that dragged along behind it. As we headed north, we continued playing leap frog with a convergence of other storm chasers, jockeying with them for position along the shoulder of the two-lane highway. After gracing the western backdrop for nearly ten minutes, the tornado decayed and vanished.

This storm was just getting organized, cycling itself north into a beautiful mesocyclone which quickly spit out a second tornado, appearing at first like a large black wedge to the west, then standing proudly as it moved gracefully northward at a more reasonable pace of perhaps thirty miles per hour. Fifteen minutes and several hundred photographs later, the second beast became history and was swallowed by the sky.

But the parent thunderstorm again cycled to the north and wound itself up into an ominous dark coil in the sky. That's when the show really began. We were treated to five more tornadoes in a ground-hugging merry-go-round that displayed nearly every type of tornado imaginable. Regrettably, I missed several key photo opportunities because of my primary responsibility of driving.

We ended the day in Salina, KS, arriving at our hotel after midnight, exhausted but filled with stories of a lifetime.

Note: The final picture in the sequence was taken by one of the Tempest drivers. Note the debris cloud to the right of the two cars ahead. We are the first car. Now THAT was close.

The second storm chase began in Denver on June 21 and had us playing mostly in the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, and northeastern Wyoming. The scenery consisted mostly of interesting clouds, bison, and a few geographic (and not-so-geographic) wonders. Compared to the May chase, it was an uninspiring event; but it was not without its good moments. (The pictures from this chase did not warrant their own folder, so I lumped the best of them along with those of May.)

Initial Post

2008-06-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to be finally joining the blogging community.

I have written a novel and am searching for a publisher. In my spare time (spring and early summer, of course), I take a few weeks off and chase storms -- hence the name (no kidding!)

It's nice to have a venue in which to vent in a basically unrestrained way. But wait! As soon as the Powers that Be figure out what we're up to, and as soon as the not-so-Fairness Doctrine is enacted (God help us), they'll surely come after this last vestige of free speech, that forgotten anachronism of decades gone, one of the cornerstones upon which this once-great land was founded.

Until then, we have a podium!

Here I will include not only pictures of tornadoes and other severe weather, but I will voice my views on life, religion, people, and anything else that crosses my mind.

Welcome, and enjoy!

-- Rob Petitt