Great informative piece on vets in the new Congress. Hopefully they can bring back some light to the struggles of our servicemen and women both doing the fighting halfway around the world and those that return home and need help. Clearly the media has forgotten that men and women are still in harm's way over there. But even worse, there is not even one story in the media about all of the good they are doing over there. Surely this week either of the top two dickheads will go overseas to photo op with the troops praise them to their faces and talk shit about them on the way back home to their inner circle of America hating douchebags. Hopefully these men will live up to their promises and our expectations. I congratulate them all and wish them the best of luck.
November 11, 2010
2010: The Year of the Republican Iraq Vet
By Kieran Michael Lalor
When the 112th Congress is sworn in, all eight Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans in the House will be Republicans.
This scenario was impossible to imagine just four years ago, when Patrick Murphy (PA-8), a JAG officer with the Army's 82nd Airborne, became the first Iraq vet in Congress. The so-called "Blue Dog" from the Philadelphia suburbs became the Left's point man for cut and run in Iraq and the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which bars openly gay military personnel.
In his first term, Murphy penned a book with the triumphant title Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress. After a convincing win in 2008, Murphy was being groomed for a Senate run. But last week he lost a rematch to Mike Fitzpatrick by 54% to 46%.
Also defeated was Democrat John Boccieri (OH-16), an Air Force Major elected in 2008 after serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Dogged by his flip-flop from opposing ObamaCare to supporting the health care overall, Boccieri didn't put up much of a fight losing to former Wadsworth, Ohio mayor Jim Renacci 52% to 40%.
Marine Corps infantry officer Duncan D. Hunter (CA-52), who joined the Marines the day after the attacks of 9/11, won the San Diego seat his father held in 2008. Hunter coasted to reelection with nearly two-thirds of the vote. Mike Coffman (CO-6), who resigned as Colorado State Treasurer in 2005 to serve in Iraq as a Marine officer, was also elected in 2008 and easily defended the central Colorado seat on November 2.
Joining the two Marines in the Iraq vet caucus will be five soldiers and an airman.
Allen West (FL-22) served in Iraq as a battalion commander for the Army's 4th Infantry Division. He also served in Afghanistan, where he trained Afghan officers. After putting up a tough fight in 2008 and earning 45% of the vote against Rep. Ron Klein, West kept campaigning into the 2010 cycle, becoming the top fundraising challenger in the country. With a big war chest, nearly four years of tireless campaigning, and an inspiring speaking style, West shellacked Klein, winning 54%-45%.
Another unsuccessful 2008 Iraq vet candidate who was able to accomplish the mission in 2010 is Steve Stivers (OH-15). Called to active duty in October 2004 while serving in the Ohio Senate, Stivers served in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Djibouti as a battalion commander.
Thought to be the winner on election night 2008, Stivers ultimately lost a recount to Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy. No recount was necessary after round two as Stivers rolled to victory 54%-46%.
In 2006, Army JAG officer Tim Griffin was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. He served in Mosul, Iraq as a member of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team Brigade Operational Law Team, for which he was awarded the Combat Action Badge. From 2006-2007, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin won the seat vacated by Democrat Rick Snyder with 58% of the vote against Democrat nominee Joyce Elliot, the Majority Leader of the Arkansas Senate.
Dr. Joe Heck (NV-2), a tactical doctor with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department SWAT team and an osteopathic physician, serves as a colonel in the United States Army Reserve, where he commands a Medical Readiness Support Group. Heck served as a combat surgeon in Iraq.
A state senator from 2004 to 2008, Heck was originally a gubernatorial candidate but shifted his sites to a congressional race against incumbent Rep. Dana Titus. In a closely watched race for the Las Vegas-based seat, Heck defeated the freshman Democrat 48% to 47%, with 2,000 of the 267,000 votes cast separating the two candidates.
In New York's Hudson Valley, retired Army Col. Chris Gibson (NY-20) challenged Rep. Scott Murphy, who won the seat in a 2009 special election after Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Hillary Clinton, who was appointed Secretary of State.
Gibson is a veteran of 24 years of active military service, including four combat tours in Iraq. He recently commanded the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team during humanitarian efforts in Haiti. The former West Point instructor didn't announce his candidacy until April but managed to win 55%-45% in the district where there are nearly 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
Finally, in Illinois' 11th District, Air Force pilot Adam Kinzinger took on freshman Rep. Debbie Halvorson. When not flying for Uncle Sam, Kinzinger is something of an amateur crime fighter, who saved the life of a young woman violently attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. The 32-year-old former Mclean County board member saw the woman being assaulted, wrested the knife away from the perpetrator, and pinned him to the ground until the police arrived.
Kinzinger won a decisive 57%-to-43% victory and was just named to the GOP's transition team.
The historic election of these six remarkable men doubles the number of Iraq vets in the House. The presence of this critical mass combined with the fact that they are all of the same party will no doubt have a significant impact on the conduct of the Global War on Terror and shape all areas of Department of Defense policy.
Kieran Michael Lalor is a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the founder of the conservative political action committee Iraq Veterans for Congress. He is also the author of the newly released book This Recruit: A First Hand Account of Marine Corps Boot Camp Written While Knee Deep in the Mayhem of Parris Island (www.thisrecruit.com).
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I Guess Gov. Christie Ain't Such a Bad Guy
This uber liberal cunt is moving to New Jersey? WTF?!?!?! Chicago is not liberal enough for you anymore? Maybe she is just a closet fan of our "take no shit from liberals" Governor Chris Christie. After all our state is coming back on the job market front we are now below the national average. We were above it when he took over. We could use her tax revenue being that the previous governor pushed billions of dollars out of state. Unfortunately though in New Jersey there is no tax on food, if there were our deficit could be eliminated by her and her alone. Quite the conundrum about her moving here isn't it? Let's face it the fewer liberals the better for all.
By Jennifer Keil
(NewsCore) - Oprah Winfrey is eyeing a new house in the New Jersey area, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The TV titan -- whose new network is slated to launch in Los Angeles next year -- quietly slipped into town Wednesday for a house-hunting expedition along the banks of the Hudson, sources said.
Among the homes on her must-see list was a $68 million mansion on the sprawling grounds of the old Frick estate in Alpine, NJ, the sources said.
Oprah's three-car convoy, including two black SUVs and a van, pulled into the ritzy enclave before noon Wednesday, a source said.
Workers and others on the grounds were asked to make themselves scarce while Oprah checked out the five-story, 19-bedroom and 12-bathroom spread, according to one source.
"Her people requested that everyone leave the house so it would be empty when she walked through," the source said.
Alpine last year was named by Forbes magazine as the most expensive ZIP code in the country.
Its celebrity residents include Eddie Murphy, the Jonas Brothers and CC Sabathia.
The estate eyed by Oprah is the most expensive in Alpine, with walnut and marble floors and Venetian plaster walls.
It features a carriage house, English gardens, a library, ballroom, movie theater, tennis court, saline pool and wine cellar.
By Jennifer Keil
(NewsCore) - Oprah Winfrey is eyeing a new house in the New Jersey area, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The TV titan -- whose new network is slated to launch in Los Angeles next year -- quietly slipped into town Wednesday for a house-hunting expedition along the banks of the Hudson, sources said.
Among the homes on her must-see list was a $68 million mansion on the sprawling grounds of the old Frick estate in Alpine, NJ, the sources said.
Oprah's three-car convoy, including two black SUVs and a van, pulled into the ritzy enclave before noon Wednesday, a source said.
Workers and others on the grounds were asked to make themselves scarce while Oprah checked out the five-story, 19-bedroom and 12-bathroom spread, according to one source.
"Her people requested that everyone leave the house so it would be empty when she walked through," the source said.
Alpine last year was named by Forbes magazine as the most expensive ZIP code in the country.
Its celebrity residents include Eddie Murphy, the Jonas Brothers and CC Sabathia.
The estate eyed by Oprah is the most expensive in Alpine, with walnut and marble floors and Venetian plaster walls.
It features a carriage house, English gardens, a library, ballroom, movie theater, tennis court, saline pool and wine cellar.
Faith vs Politicians
Now we all know that I do not have any faith in our elected officials and even less faith in their staffers and yes men. So how in the fuck are the United States Congressmen and Senators going to repeal ObamaCare? Do I think it is a good idea? Hell, yeah! Do I think it needs to be done? Hell yeah! Do I know it HAS to be done? Hell Fuckin' yeah!! Is it going to get done? Sadly, no. The Capitol Building is a den of thieves and thievettes. Sure the TEA Party candidates talked a good game on the campaign trail but let's face they do not have the moral fortitude to stand up to backroom deals of favors of money and power. I hope they do but I will admit not only skepticism but total and utter lack of faith in the Congress of the United States of America. This I can honestly say is my saddest post. What took our founding fathers years to plan, build and perfect is now totally unrecognizable. They have squandered the Founder's gift to all of us and shame on us for letting them. This piece, from American Thinker, thinks it can be done. Maybe you have more faith than I.
November 09, 2010
Yes We Can Repeal
By Christopher Chantrill
Last week, the MSM Tingle Brigade all of a sudden discovered, in President Obama's post-election news conference, that Obama just didn't get it, didn't understand the message from the voters. "That Tin Ear," wrote the London Economist.
What did the brainiacs expect? President Obama is not going to tell the world that yes, he's sorry that he and Nancy Pelosi sacrificed a whole generation of Democratic moderates on the altar of universal health care. He's not sorry at all. It was all worth it because he and she got ObamaCare passed.
Real liberals agree with the president. A liberal acquaintance told me she heartily approved of Nancy Pelosi's achievements, just like Susan Estrich, who applauded: "Nancy Pelosi, Superhero."
We should all congratulate Obama and Pelosi. They used their Liberal Hour just as FDR and LBJ did before them. They passed historic progressive legislation in the teeth of opposition from the reactionaries. Admittedly, Democrats suffered a nasty reverse in the midterms, but so did FDR in 1938 and so did LBJ in 1966. Admittedly, the American people are still opposed to ObamaCare, but Democrats think the American people will soon change their minds. After all, the American people love Social Security and Medicare. Republicans wouldn't dare repeal them.
Whatever Obama and the Democrats say, their strategy from here is to ambush, feint, and delay all attempts to repeal ObamaCare. They will pull all the plays out of their old reliable playbook: the compromise play, the bipartisan play, the for-the-children play, the extremist play, the mean-spirited play. Will it work? Nobody knows. President Obama doesn't know; the Republican leadership doesn't know. But the strategy has always worked in the past, so it stands to reason that the president will use it now. No doubt he feels pretty confident about the outcome.
I talked to a rank-and-file Democrat, a union carpenter. He doesn't think ObamaCare will be repealed, either.
For Republicans and conservatives, this is the Conservative Moment. This is the opportunity to take a big government program and repeal it. We want to send a message to the ruling class that never again should they dare to push a comprehensive and mandatory progressive government program through on a partisan vote in the teeth of the opposition of the American people, not even in a once-in-a-generation Liberal Hour.
When we repeal ObamaCare, it must be on a bipartisan vote. In both the House and Senate we need a credible group of Democrats joining with Republicans to repeal it. It doesn't matter whether they vote for repeal out of conviction or out of the fear of defeat. There must be a bipartisan vote to repeal. Then the ObamaCare repeal will echo down the years as a terrible warning to all progressives. Then progressives will remember not the successes of FDR and LBJ, but the dreadful memory of the Obama overreach extinguishing the millennial hope for comprehensive cradle-to-grave administrative health care forever. The best outcome would be repeal in 2013 after another six Democratic senators and 30-40 Democratic representatives bite the dust.
Will the American people support repeal when push comes to shove? There's a good chance they will. That's because of Irving Kristol's Rule of Social Programs. When you want to help the poor, Kristol wrote back in the 1980s, you must deal in the middle class.
The trouble with ObamaCare is that it cannot deal in the middle class. The middle class already has health insurance. Just like HillaryCare, the fundamental fact about ObamaCare is that the middle class is going to get stuck with the bill for the 30 million without health insurance. If you don't understand that, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Leaving aside peace and justice and compassion and caring, the fact on the ground is that the 30 million don't need health insurance because they don't have any assets. You can't lose your home to medical bills if you don't own a home.
One of the under-appreciated weaknesses of liberalism is that there's a huge disconnect between the official liberal narrative and the facts on the ground. Liberals talk about issues and peace and justice and sweetness and light, but politicians understand that the game is about getting reelected. Democratic voters understand that it's all about My Benefits. Republican voters understand it's all about My Taxes. Ordinary Americans know it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs.
Right now, nobody is much interested in the liberal narrative or the needs of elected politicians. That's because it's pretty obvious to ordinary Americans that ObamaCare isn't good for jobs, jobs, jobs. It's pretty obvious to Republicans that ObamaCare isn't good for My Taxes. And there's a chance that the odd Democrat may soon tumble to the notion that another big entitlement might be a threat to My Benefits.
If we can repeal ObamaCare, it changes welfare-state politics forever.
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his usgovernmentspending.com and also usgovernmentdebt.us. At americanmanifesto.org he is blogging and writing An American Manifesto: Life After Liberalism.
November 09, 2010
Yes We Can Repeal
By Christopher Chantrill
Last week, the MSM Tingle Brigade all of a sudden discovered, in President Obama's post-election news conference, that Obama just didn't get it, didn't understand the message from the voters. "That Tin Ear," wrote the London Economist.
What did the brainiacs expect? President Obama is not going to tell the world that yes, he's sorry that he and Nancy Pelosi sacrificed a whole generation of Democratic moderates on the altar of universal health care. He's not sorry at all. It was all worth it because he and she got ObamaCare passed.
Real liberals agree with the president. A liberal acquaintance told me she heartily approved of Nancy Pelosi's achievements, just like Susan Estrich, who applauded: "Nancy Pelosi, Superhero."
We should all congratulate Obama and Pelosi. They used their Liberal Hour just as FDR and LBJ did before them. They passed historic progressive legislation in the teeth of opposition from the reactionaries. Admittedly, Democrats suffered a nasty reverse in the midterms, but so did FDR in 1938 and so did LBJ in 1966. Admittedly, the American people are still opposed to ObamaCare, but Democrats think the American people will soon change their minds. After all, the American people love Social Security and Medicare. Republicans wouldn't dare repeal them.
Whatever Obama and the Democrats say, their strategy from here is to ambush, feint, and delay all attempts to repeal ObamaCare. They will pull all the plays out of their old reliable playbook: the compromise play, the bipartisan play, the for-the-children play, the extremist play, the mean-spirited play. Will it work? Nobody knows. President Obama doesn't know; the Republican leadership doesn't know. But the strategy has always worked in the past, so it stands to reason that the president will use it now. No doubt he feels pretty confident about the outcome.
I talked to a rank-and-file Democrat, a union carpenter. He doesn't think ObamaCare will be repealed, either.
For Republicans and conservatives, this is the Conservative Moment. This is the opportunity to take a big government program and repeal it. We want to send a message to the ruling class that never again should they dare to push a comprehensive and mandatory progressive government program through on a partisan vote in the teeth of the opposition of the American people, not even in a once-in-a-generation Liberal Hour.
When we repeal ObamaCare, it must be on a bipartisan vote. In both the House and Senate we need a credible group of Democrats joining with Republicans to repeal it. It doesn't matter whether they vote for repeal out of conviction or out of the fear of defeat. There must be a bipartisan vote to repeal. Then the ObamaCare repeal will echo down the years as a terrible warning to all progressives. Then progressives will remember not the successes of FDR and LBJ, but the dreadful memory of the Obama overreach extinguishing the millennial hope for comprehensive cradle-to-grave administrative health care forever. The best outcome would be repeal in 2013 after another six Democratic senators and 30-40 Democratic representatives bite the dust.
Will the American people support repeal when push comes to shove? There's a good chance they will. That's because of Irving Kristol's Rule of Social Programs. When you want to help the poor, Kristol wrote back in the 1980s, you must deal in the middle class.
The trouble with ObamaCare is that it cannot deal in the middle class. The middle class already has health insurance. Just like HillaryCare, the fundamental fact about ObamaCare is that the middle class is going to get stuck with the bill for the 30 million without health insurance. If you don't understand that, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Leaving aside peace and justice and compassion and caring, the fact on the ground is that the 30 million don't need health insurance because they don't have any assets. You can't lose your home to medical bills if you don't own a home.
One of the under-appreciated weaknesses of liberalism is that there's a huge disconnect between the official liberal narrative and the facts on the ground. Liberals talk about issues and peace and justice and sweetness and light, but politicians understand that the game is about getting reelected. Democratic voters understand that it's all about My Benefits. Republican voters understand it's all about My Taxes. Ordinary Americans know it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs.
Right now, nobody is much interested in the liberal narrative or the needs of elected politicians. That's because it's pretty obvious to ordinary Americans that ObamaCare isn't good for jobs, jobs, jobs. It's pretty obvious to Republicans that ObamaCare isn't good for My Taxes. And there's a chance that the odd Democrat may soon tumble to the notion that another big entitlement might be a threat to My Benefits.
If we can repeal ObamaCare, it changes welfare-state politics forever.
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his usgovernmentspending.com and also usgovernmentdebt.us. At americanmanifesto.org he is blogging and writing An American Manifesto: Life After Liberalism.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
What is Worse ... Bureaucrats or Politicians?
From the American Thinker page I give you a story from a man with the patience of a saint. I personally would have buried that man in that hole. If everyone in government would just use a little reason every now and again people like me would not be talking about 'revolution' and 'wanting to take our country back' but if government workers could think they would be in the private sector, wouldn't they?
A Septic System at the Crossroads
By Roland Toy
The county building department inspector and I were finally standing on the sand next to a hole the size and shape of a vertical grave. According to his business card, young Craig (so we'll call him) was a deputy sanitarian. He was there to approve the hole for a percolation test. If, after 48 hours of a continuous trickle from a hose, no standing water were visible in the hole, the county would approve a septic system, and I could get on with building my family's house.
I was thinking "bless deputy sanitarians everywhere" for the same reason people say "thank God for aspirin" after a headache goes away. The percolation test was going to be a formality. The building site was on a sand dune hundreds of feet deep, near the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Even if the trickle lasted a century, there would be no standing water in the hole. The building department had run out of reasons to obstruct my project.
A hundred and thirty-three days earlier, I had submitted plans for my house to the county building department. A month later, the department sent a letter explaining that the proposed septic system had to be relocated sixty feet to the east of a location the county had approved earlier. However, in recent months, a bald eagle's nest had been spotted in adjacent public lands, and the county now required a buffer between the nest and any development on my property. Fine. I had seen a bald eagle soaring overhead -- once with something that looked like a small animal it its claws. Anything for the symbol of America. And the septic system relocation was less than trivial, a few steps in one direction in the midst of millions of acres of sandy wilderness that was already officially sanctioned for a septic system.
The problem arose when the relocation required a new permit application, complete with fresh paperwork, hefty fees, a two-week waiting period for public input, and a new soil study by a professional soil engineer on a county-approved list.
I called the man who had signed the letter and appealed to his common sense, to his engineering acumen, and finally to his decency. Any moron could see that the septic system could be nudged a few feet with zero environmental impact -- the approved sand dune was the same whether 8' or 80' or 8,000' feet from the property line. What could possibly be accomplished by breathing life into a new bureaucratic tangle? But in the end, my entreaties failed, and the conversation amounted to mutual declarations of war. I backed off when he began making vague references to a possible environmental assessment report. Thus began a slow-motion shell game in which a bureaucrat, after extracting an extortionate fee, transferred irrelevant paperwork from one file folder to another. Some highlights of that loony process ($2,831.00, 103 days) are shown below:
•Submit plans to county ($450.00).
•County disapproves plans, requires variance.
•Variance request submitted ($125.00).
•Request denied. New application and soil study required.
•At an arbitration meeting ($250.00), the arbitrator rules for the county. Not technically a county employee, he's on a chummy first-name basis with the county representatives.
•Start new application ($125.00) and commission a second soil study ($1,350.00) by an engineer on the county-approved list .
•Plan reviewers fail to show for a meeting. They're at a 'team-building' retreat. In an unpleasant scene, two customer service representatives complain about my attitude after I tell them that for the non-meeting I had to drive 180 miles over winding mountain roads.
•County approves new septic system location.
•Craig makes site visit for percolation test ($541.00).
Back at the percolation test, all that was history. I understood it and wasn't destined to repeat it. But Craig had been leafing through his papers for a long while. "Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Your soil engineer isn't on the new approved list."
"He's gotta be there. You guys gave me his name."
Craig pulled out his cell phone and spoke intently with his superiors. Eventually he hung up and said, "It's probably nothing serious. But something's screwy with the new list, and I can't do the inspection until the paperwork is right."
"What's the problem?"
"We're not sure yet, but your engineer just isn't on the list."
"So you don't know how long it's going to take to fix or if it can be fixed?"
Craig muttered abjectly, "I'm sorry. I'm still on probation and they audit me."
Like contentious litigation, every interaction with the building department had a tendency to take on an unpredictable life of its own. This was a moment of truth. God may have understood the SNAFU that had kept my engineer's name off the list, but I didn't. When does reasonable accommodation become craven appeasement? Would I continue working with the totalitarians who were polluting my life? Would I start another round of telephone tag, being stood up at meetings, preparing for rigged arbitrations, and paying the fees? Would I have to commission yet another soil assessment, the third one that would reiterate what everybody already knew? Or would I draw a line in the literal sand and rebel against the yoke of tyranny? A crazy image flashed through my mind. I was in the percolation test hole with a rifle, holding off swarms of g-men in bulletproof vests as helicopters and a lone bald eagle circled overhead.
At the same time I empathized with Craig. He sure looked wretched. He probably just felt lucky to have a job, maybe with a wife and baby in a starter home. Did he also imagine himself at a crossroads? Was he sensing that every governmental subjugation of a citizen is important? That in the final analysis, all oppression is inflicted, and fought, one person at a time? That maltreatment over something as trifling as a septic system has colossally corrosive effects on the workers paid to enforce the maltreatment? Was he asking himself what kind of public servant he was going to be? Or was he just alarmed at the murderous look on my face? Because I also sensed young Craig might need to be strangled.
After several terrible moments, Craig looked at me with resolve, and spoke. Since then, in dark moments when I have feared that our republic is doomed, Craig's inspirational words have rallied me to have hope for our future. He said, "Mr. Toy, turn on your hose."
A Septic System at the Crossroads
By Roland Toy
The county building department inspector and I were finally standing on the sand next to a hole the size and shape of a vertical grave. According to his business card, young Craig (so we'll call him) was a deputy sanitarian. He was there to approve the hole for a percolation test. If, after 48 hours of a continuous trickle from a hose, no standing water were visible in the hole, the county would approve a septic system, and I could get on with building my family's house.
I was thinking "bless deputy sanitarians everywhere" for the same reason people say "thank God for aspirin" after a headache goes away. The percolation test was going to be a formality. The building site was on a sand dune hundreds of feet deep, near the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Even if the trickle lasted a century, there would be no standing water in the hole. The building department had run out of reasons to obstruct my project.
A hundred and thirty-three days earlier, I had submitted plans for my house to the county building department. A month later, the department sent a letter explaining that the proposed septic system had to be relocated sixty feet to the east of a location the county had approved earlier. However, in recent months, a bald eagle's nest had been spotted in adjacent public lands, and the county now required a buffer between the nest and any development on my property. Fine. I had seen a bald eagle soaring overhead -- once with something that looked like a small animal it its claws. Anything for the symbol of America. And the septic system relocation was less than trivial, a few steps in one direction in the midst of millions of acres of sandy wilderness that was already officially sanctioned for a septic system.
The problem arose when the relocation required a new permit application, complete with fresh paperwork, hefty fees, a two-week waiting period for public input, and a new soil study by a professional soil engineer on a county-approved list.
I called the man who had signed the letter and appealed to his common sense, to his engineering acumen, and finally to his decency. Any moron could see that the septic system could be nudged a few feet with zero environmental impact -- the approved sand dune was the same whether 8' or 80' or 8,000' feet from the property line. What could possibly be accomplished by breathing life into a new bureaucratic tangle? But in the end, my entreaties failed, and the conversation amounted to mutual declarations of war. I backed off when he began making vague references to a possible environmental assessment report. Thus began a slow-motion shell game in which a bureaucrat, after extracting an extortionate fee, transferred irrelevant paperwork from one file folder to another. Some highlights of that loony process ($2,831.00, 103 days) are shown below:
•Submit plans to county ($450.00).
•County disapproves plans, requires variance.
•Variance request submitted ($125.00).
•Request denied. New application and soil study required.
•At an arbitration meeting ($250.00), the arbitrator rules for the county. Not technically a county employee, he's on a chummy first-name basis with the county representatives.
•Start new application ($125.00) and commission a second soil study ($1,350.00) by an engineer on the county-approved list .
•Plan reviewers fail to show for a meeting. They're at a 'team-building' retreat. In an unpleasant scene, two customer service representatives complain about my attitude after I tell them that for the non-meeting I had to drive 180 miles over winding mountain roads.
•County approves new septic system location.
•Craig makes site visit for percolation test ($541.00).
Back at the percolation test, all that was history. I understood it and wasn't destined to repeat it. But Craig had been leafing through his papers for a long while. "Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Your soil engineer isn't on the new approved list."
"He's gotta be there. You guys gave me his name."
Craig pulled out his cell phone and spoke intently with his superiors. Eventually he hung up and said, "It's probably nothing serious. But something's screwy with the new list, and I can't do the inspection until the paperwork is right."
"What's the problem?"
"We're not sure yet, but your engineer just isn't on the list."
"So you don't know how long it's going to take to fix or if it can be fixed?"
Craig muttered abjectly, "I'm sorry. I'm still on probation and they audit me."
Like contentious litigation, every interaction with the building department had a tendency to take on an unpredictable life of its own. This was a moment of truth. God may have understood the SNAFU that had kept my engineer's name off the list, but I didn't. When does reasonable accommodation become craven appeasement? Would I continue working with the totalitarians who were polluting my life? Would I start another round of telephone tag, being stood up at meetings, preparing for rigged arbitrations, and paying the fees? Would I have to commission yet another soil assessment, the third one that would reiterate what everybody already knew? Or would I draw a line in the literal sand and rebel against the yoke of tyranny? A crazy image flashed through my mind. I was in the percolation test hole with a rifle, holding off swarms of g-men in bulletproof vests as helicopters and a lone bald eagle circled overhead.
At the same time I empathized with Craig. He sure looked wretched. He probably just felt lucky to have a job, maybe with a wife and baby in a starter home. Did he also imagine himself at a crossroads? Was he sensing that every governmental subjugation of a citizen is important? That in the final analysis, all oppression is inflicted, and fought, one person at a time? That maltreatment over something as trifling as a septic system has colossally corrosive effects on the workers paid to enforce the maltreatment? Was he asking himself what kind of public servant he was going to be? Or was he just alarmed at the murderous look on my face? Because I also sensed young Craig might need to be strangled.
After several terrible moments, Craig looked at me with resolve, and spoke. Since then, in dark moments when I have feared that our republic is doomed, Craig's inspirational words have rallied me to have hope for our future. He said, "Mr. Toy, turn on your hose."
Monday, November 15, 2010
Hollywood Left = Laughs
The left is a gift that just keeps on giving out laughter for us. Really do these Hollywood types ever really listen to themselves when they talk because clearly they do no think before they speak. I give you, from American Thinker, Cher and her thoughts, yes, that Cher.
November 06, 2010
'A Dumb Woman Is a Dumb Woman'
By Jeannie DeAngelis
Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" singer Cher, claims to "dislike politics and says she's not a registered Democrat." While swearing aversion to all things political, Cher has visited the White House to dine with former President Jimmy Carter and professes love for Joe Biden, a man the Academy Award-winning judge of character and intellect once described as caring, goodhearted, and smart.
The supposedly politically neutral female half of the late Sonny and Cher duo also believes that socialist Dennis Kucinich "has great answers," and during Hillary Clinton's "Senate thing," she pitched in to help after spending "a lot of time just sitting" with the former First Lady.
Antiwar Cher also holds firmly to the belief that "[w]ords are like weapons; they wound sometimes," which is a curious sentiment coming from an apolitical woman who has a tendency to label most Republican politicians "stupid."
In fact, prior to George W. Bush being elected president, Cher registered an opinion of the Republican candidate in the following way: "I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy."
Usually when one person calls another person "stupid," it's because the name-caller views himself or herself as more intelligent than the callee. Evidently, the way Cher throws around the word "stupid," the high school dropout clearly considers diva brainpower superior to a traditional Yale and Harvard education.
Prior to the 2000 election, Cher felt compelled to perform a public service by sharing with American women and minorities the admonitory view that "[i]f you're black in this country, if you're a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican?"
Ms. "Words ... wound" Cher eloquently cautioned against voting for Bush by saying "[h]as everyone lost their f---ing minds? Doesn't anybody remember the illustrious Reagan-Bush years when people had no money and no jobs? What has happened to people's memories? It's like they have Alzheimer's or something."
While meant for the betterment of all Americans, Cher's instructive comments tend to emphasize the political threat that "Jerry Falwell ... born again Christian" types, in the mold of G.W. Bush, pose to women and minorities. Nevertheless, Cher, having a history of public exhibitionism which over the years has consistently placed the sisterhood in a demeaning light, has zero compunction about censuring Republicans.
If female exploitation is Cher-the-whiz-kid's main concern, maybe the raven-haired senior citizen in garter belts could "turn back time" and explain why, during the "illustrious Reagan-Bush years," she chose to dance around in a fishnet body stocking under a bikini on the upper deck of the USS Missouri battleship. Way back in 1989, Cher, microphone in hand, skipped to and fro in front of a large group of sailors who whistled and directed catcalls toward her mostly-bare buttocks, and who did so while her 12-year-old son Elijah Blue Allman accompanied his scantily clad mother on the guitar.
If one definition of stupid is "poor decisions and careless mistakes," Cher's behavior in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard certainly fits the criteria. Maybe young Cherilyn was absent or had already dropped out of school when "stupid" was reviewed on the vocabulary list.
Despite her lack of better judgment and less than brilliant personal behavior, the profoundly perceptive singer recently felt compelled to once again convey another articulate opinion of two female governors in Vanity Fair magazine. Cher expressed horror over the former governor of Alaska in the following way: "I got so obsessed with [C-SPAN] that it was kind of interfering with my life. Sarah Palin came on, and I thought, oh, F- - -, this is the end. Because a dumb woman is a dumb woman."
Ms. Sarkisian continued to speak out. On the subject of Arizona governor Jan Brewer, she declared that "[s]he was worse than Sarah Palin, if that is possible. This woman was like a deer in headlights. She's got a handle on the services of the state, and I would not let her handle the remote control."
Evidently, Cher not only feels qualified to identify the intellectually challenged, but the woman in the "towering 2-foot headpiece made of rooster feathers" also believes she has the adroit ability to spot gifted brilliance in random people. The self-professed politically neutral performer labeled Bush, Palin, and Brewer as "dumb" and "stupid," but recognized President Barack Obama's "intelligence" and "spirit" as "so great" that she predicted America's first black president would be able to do "more than anyone could possibly do," whatever that means.
Based on Obama's presidential performance thus far, Cher should avoid both punditry and prophecy.
The historical election of brilliant Barack prompted Ms. Cher to express relief, confessing that "Republican rule almost ‘killed' [her]" and that although not a registered Democrat, she "does not understand why anyone would want to be a Republican."
Having to endure the heartbreak of a daughter named Chastity transforming into a son named Chaz didn't kill Cher. Being married to Greg Allman during the height of his cocaine, heroin, and alcohol addiction didn't kill Cher. Going under the scalpel so many times that she dubbed herself "the plastic surgery poster girl" didn't kill Cher, but having George W. Bush for president nearly killed her?
Cher's personal lifestyle choices, contradictory statements, colorful language, partisan denials, and chauvinist statements may make the singer/actress a perfect candidate to host her own show on MSNBC. But then again, the former Mrs. Bono's flippant use of the word "stupid" could jeopardize future opportunities to fulfill the role of an off-the-cuff pundit.
Waxing philosophical, Cher once said, "Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have the possibility of being great." Ironically, "stupid" is also defined as "foolish." Labeling Republicans "stupid" proved that Cher Bono was unwittingly referring to herself when sharing the opinion that "a dumb woman is a dumb woman."
Author's content: www.jeannie-ology.com
November 06, 2010
'A Dumb Woman Is a Dumb Woman'
By Jeannie DeAngelis
Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" singer Cher, claims to "dislike politics and says she's not a registered Democrat." While swearing aversion to all things political, Cher has visited the White House to dine with former President Jimmy Carter and professes love for Joe Biden, a man the Academy Award-winning judge of character and intellect once described as caring, goodhearted, and smart.
The supposedly politically neutral female half of the late Sonny and Cher duo also believes that socialist Dennis Kucinich "has great answers," and during Hillary Clinton's "Senate thing," she pitched in to help after spending "a lot of time just sitting" with the former First Lady.
Antiwar Cher also holds firmly to the belief that "[w]ords are like weapons; they wound sometimes," which is a curious sentiment coming from an apolitical woman who has a tendency to label most Republican politicians "stupid."
In fact, prior to George W. Bush being elected president, Cher registered an opinion of the Republican candidate in the following way: "I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy."
Usually when one person calls another person "stupid," it's because the name-caller views himself or herself as more intelligent than the callee. Evidently, the way Cher throws around the word "stupid," the high school dropout clearly considers diva brainpower superior to a traditional Yale and Harvard education.
Prior to the 2000 election, Cher felt compelled to perform a public service by sharing with American women and minorities the admonitory view that "[i]f you're black in this country, if you're a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican?"
Ms. "Words ... wound" Cher eloquently cautioned against voting for Bush by saying "[h]as everyone lost their f---ing minds? Doesn't anybody remember the illustrious Reagan-Bush years when people had no money and no jobs? What has happened to people's memories? It's like they have Alzheimer's or something."
While meant for the betterment of all Americans, Cher's instructive comments tend to emphasize the political threat that "Jerry Falwell ... born again Christian" types, in the mold of G.W. Bush, pose to women and minorities. Nevertheless, Cher, having a history of public exhibitionism which over the years has consistently placed the sisterhood in a demeaning light, has zero compunction about censuring Republicans.
If female exploitation is Cher-the-whiz-kid's main concern, maybe the raven-haired senior citizen in garter belts could "turn back time" and explain why, during the "illustrious Reagan-Bush years," she chose to dance around in a fishnet body stocking under a bikini on the upper deck of the USS Missouri battleship. Way back in 1989, Cher, microphone in hand, skipped to and fro in front of a large group of sailors who whistled and directed catcalls toward her mostly-bare buttocks, and who did so while her 12-year-old son Elijah Blue Allman accompanied his scantily clad mother on the guitar.
If one definition of stupid is "poor decisions and careless mistakes," Cher's behavior in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard certainly fits the criteria. Maybe young Cherilyn was absent or had already dropped out of school when "stupid" was reviewed on the vocabulary list.
Despite her lack of better judgment and less than brilliant personal behavior, the profoundly perceptive singer recently felt compelled to once again convey another articulate opinion of two female governors in Vanity Fair magazine. Cher expressed horror over the former governor of Alaska in the following way: "I got so obsessed with [C-SPAN] that it was kind of interfering with my life. Sarah Palin came on, and I thought, oh, F- - -, this is the end. Because a dumb woman is a dumb woman."
Ms. Sarkisian continued to speak out. On the subject of Arizona governor Jan Brewer, she declared that "[s]he was worse than Sarah Palin, if that is possible. This woman was like a deer in headlights. She's got a handle on the services of the state, and I would not let her handle the remote control."
Evidently, Cher not only feels qualified to identify the intellectually challenged, but the woman in the "towering 2-foot headpiece made of rooster feathers" also believes she has the adroit ability to spot gifted brilliance in random people. The self-professed politically neutral performer labeled Bush, Palin, and Brewer as "dumb" and "stupid," but recognized President Barack Obama's "intelligence" and "spirit" as "so great" that she predicted America's first black president would be able to do "more than anyone could possibly do," whatever that means.
Based on Obama's presidential performance thus far, Cher should avoid both punditry and prophecy.
The historical election of brilliant Barack prompted Ms. Cher to express relief, confessing that "Republican rule almost ‘killed' [her]" and that although not a registered Democrat, she "does not understand why anyone would want to be a Republican."
Having to endure the heartbreak of a daughter named Chastity transforming into a son named Chaz didn't kill Cher. Being married to Greg Allman during the height of his cocaine, heroin, and alcohol addiction didn't kill Cher. Going under the scalpel so many times that she dubbed herself "the plastic surgery poster girl" didn't kill Cher, but having George W. Bush for president nearly killed her?
Cher's personal lifestyle choices, contradictory statements, colorful language, partisan denials, and chauvinist statements may make the singer/actress a perfect candidate to host her own show on MSNBC. But then again, the former Mrs. Bono's flippant use of the word "stupid" could jeopardize future opportunities to fulfill the role of an off-the-cuff pundit.
Waxing philosophical, Cher once said, "Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have the possibility of being great." Ironically, "stupid" is also defined as "foolish." Labeling Republicans "stupid" proved that Cher Bono was unwittingly referring to herself when sharing the opinion that "a dumb woman is a dumb woman."
Author's content: www.jeannie-ology.com
Friday, November 12, 2010
Islam Really Does Scare Liberals
Still trying to catch up on my reading on the American Thinker site. This is yet another gem from that site. It is getting closer to the stuff that fires me up "radical islam" hell yeah. Commies, islam and liberals. All pestilence must be eradicated from the earth.
November 05, 2010
For Libs Who Just Got Scared
By James Lewis
Bill Maher, the biggest mud-thrower on the left, recently had his Juan Williams moment. He's afraid that radical Islam will take over the world.
Ten million other libs who get their news from comedy shows can finally admit they're scared, too. They were just waiting for PC permission to think what everybody else in the world has thought for decades. Bill Maher has given them permission to feel fear.
Radical Islam should scare you.
If you're a liberal, please memorize this, because there will be a quiz -- soon enough.
Keep an eye on the headlines. There will be a terrorist strike, and not just one. It will happen in the Muslim world, which means our media will pretend it never happened. Or it will happen in the West, which means that even some liberals will find out -- so that they can go back to denying, rationalizing, and blaming George W. Bush for the new fascist, imperialistic threat.
For decades the left has been in swaggering denial about Islamic imperialism even though it's right in front of their eyes. If they had read a smidgen of history, they would know that Islam has been the most successful imperialistic war culture since the 7th century: more successful than Soviet imperialism, much more persistent than Nazi imperialism, and more real than Coca-Cola imperialism (which exists only in liberal fever swamps).
The Soviets lasted less than a century. The Nazis lasted for thirteen years. Islamic Imperialism has existed since the 6th century, and it has conquered a third of the world. Islamic reactionaries have now oppressed women, Christians, and Jews wherever they take power for more than a thousand years. Hitler boasted about only a thousand-year world empire. Muslim reactionaries have had their empire for a lot longer than that.
The Muslim world has tried to leave Islamic radicalism behind. After World War I, Ataturk outlawed the symbols of the Ottoman Empire. The Shah of Iran tried to move Iran past the Islamic reactionaries. Egypt tried a military overthrow of the religious establishment. Turkey and Iran were models of modernization in the Muslim world. Many other Muslim countries tried to follow those models.
Then Jimmy Carter allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the Shah in 1979. Khomeini promptly started to kill all his opponents, especially the liberals. He got into a war that killed a million people and tried to overthrow the Saudi regime across the Gulf. Twenty years later, Turkey elected an Islamist, and today Turkey has now joined Iran on the radical Islamic front. Pakistan already has nukes and a pervasive indigenous Islamic fascist movement. Israel is surrounded by Islamic fascists in Gaza and Lebanon, controlled by a wannabe Hitler in Iran who doesn't let a day go by without threatening a second Holocaust.
And then, on 9/11/01, nineteen Saudi terrorists killed almost three thousand people in New York City and in Washington, D.C. But actually, that was the second time they tried. The same crew tried to blow up the Twin Towers in 1993, but Bill Clinton forgot to tell us about it.
Astonishing, liberals were still in denial after 9/11. Their heads were buried so deep in the slime of ignorance that they kept explaining away every Islamist murder and cultural provocation. They elected Barack Hussein Obama to prove to the world how lovable they all are and invented the oxymoron "Islamophobia" to explain why millions of people with common sense were scared.
You cannot have "Islamophobia" in the real world, because a "phobia" is an irrational fear. You can't have an irrational fear of somebody pointing a gun at you. That is a rational fear. "Islamophobia" is an imaginary word from people who never check an English dictionary.
Fear of Islamist violence is not a phobia. It is seeing what's real, because it keeps on happening. In Iraq, thousands and thousands of women, men, and children have been killed by purposeful truck bombs in street markets. And no, it wasn't George W. Bush who killed them. It was al-Qaeda paid by Saudi billionaires, Islamic terrorists paid by Iran, and a lot of bombers paid by Iraq's old fascist party, the Ba'ath. It all adds up to really evil mass murders by terrorist throwbacks to the Dark Ages. But the Left just blamed it on Bush.
Now George W. Bush is out of office, and even liberals can no longer believe their own fairy tales. After all, Obama has bowed down to the Saudi King and to the Emperor of Japan. We've apologized! We elected Barack Hussein Obama!
Why don't they love us now?
If any liberals are reading this, a word of advice. Try reading what the Islamic radicals are writing. Look at the video propaganda campaign they are streaming to the West on MEMRI.org. And keep in mind that children in Gaza, Cairo, and Tehran are watching this stuff day after day after day. It's the biggest brainwashing message they will hear all their lives.
You might also notice that Israel is only one of their enemies. They hate America and Europe. They hate Sweden. They hate liberalism. Islamic radicals constantly kill militant Marxists, believe it or not (just like the other way around). They also hate Hindus, especially in the Kashmir. They hate Buddhists. That's why the Taliban blew up those giant Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan. They hate free women.
Ignore the disinformation from the media for a day or two.
Try to find some facts instead.
You'll be amazed what you will find.
I dare ya.
November 05, 2010
For Libs Who Just Got Scared
By James Lewis
Bill Maher, the biggest mud-thrower on the left, recently had his Juan Williams moment. He's afraid that radical Islam will take over the world.
Ten million other libs who get their news from comedy shows can finally admit they're scared, too. They were just waiting for PC permission to think what everybody else in the world has thought for decades. Bill Maher has given them permission to feel fear.
Radical Islam should scare you.
If you're a liberal, please memorize this, because there will be a quiz -- soon enough.
Keep an eye on the headlines. There will be a terrorist strike, and not just one. It will happen in the Muslim world, which means our media will pretend it never happened. Or it will happen in the West, which means that even some liberals will find out -- so that they can go back to denying, rationalizing, and blaming George W. Bush for the new fascist, imperialistic threat.
For decades the left has been in swaggering denial about Islamic imperialism even though it's right in front of their eyes. If they had read a smidgen of history, they would know that Islam has been the most successful imperialistic war culture since the 7th century: more successful than Soviet imperialism, much more persistent than Nazi imperialism, and more real than Coca-Cola imperialism (which exists only in liberal fever swamps).
The Soviets lasted less than a century. The Nazis lasted for thirteen years. Islamic Imperialism has existed since the 6th century, and it has conquered a third of the world. Islamic reactionaries have now oppressed women, Christians, and Jews wherever they take power for more than a thousand years. Hitler boasted about only a thousand-year world empire. Muslim reactionaries have had their empire for a lot longer than that.
The Muslim world has tried to leave Islamic radicalism behind. After World War I, Ataturk outlawed the symbols of the Ottoman Empire. The Shah of Iran tried to move Iran past the Islamic reactionaries. Egypt tried a military overthrow of the religious establishment. Turkey and Iran were models of modernization in the Muslim world. Many other Muslim countries tried to follow those models.
Then Jimmy Carter allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the Shah in 1979. Khomeini promptly started to kill all his opponents, especially the liberals. He got into a war that killed a million people and tried to overthrow the Saudi regime across the Gulf. Twenty years later, Turkey elected an Islamist, and today Turkey has now joined Iran on the radical Islamic front. Pakistan already has nukes and a pervasive indigenous Islamic fascist movement. Israel is surrounded by Islamic fascists in Gaza and Lebanon, controlled by a wannabe Hitler in Iran who doesn't let a day go by without threatening a second Holocaust.
And then, on 9/11/01, nineteen Saudi terrorists killed almost three thousand people in New York City and in Washington, D.C. But actually, that was the second time they tried. The same crew tried to blow up the Twin Towers in 1993, but Bill Clinton forgot to tell us about it.
Astonishing, liberals were still in denial after 9/11. Their heads were buried so deep in the slime of ignorance that they kept explaining away every Islamist murder and cultural provocation. They elected Barack Hussein Obama to prove to the world how lovable they all are and invented the oxymoron "Islamophobia" to explain why millions of people with common sense were scared.
You cannot have "Islamophobia" in the real world, because a "phobia" is an irrational fear. You can't have an irrational fear of somebody pointing a gun at you. That is a rational fear. "Islamophobia" is an imaginary word from people who never check an English dictionary.
Fear of Islamist violence is not a phobia. It is seeing what's real, because it keeps on happening. In Iraq, thousands and thousands of women, men, and children have been killed by purposeful truck bombs in street markets. And no, it wasn't George W. Bush who killed them. It was al-Qaeda paid by Saudi billionaires, Islamic terrorists paid by Iran, and a lot of bombers paid by Iraq's old fascist party, the Ba'ath. It all adds up to really evil mass murders by terrorist throwbacks to the Dark Ages. But the Left just blamed it on Bush.
Now George W. Bush is out of office, and even liberals can no longer believe their own fairy tales. After all, Obama has bowed down to the Saudi King and to the Emperor of Japan. We've apologized! We elected Barack Hussein Obama!
Why don't they love us now?
If any liberals are reading this, a word of advice. Try reading what the Islamic radicals are writing. Look at the video propaganda campaign they are streaming to the West on MEMRI.org. And keep in mind that children in Gaza, Cairo, and Tehran are watching this stuff day after day after day. It's the biggest brainwashing message they will hear all their lives.
You might also notice that Israel is only one of their enemies. They hate America and Europe. They hate Sweden. They hate liberalism. Islamic radicals constantly kill militant Marxists, believe it or not (just like the other way around). They also hate Hindus, especially in the Kashmir. They hate Buddhists. That's why the Taliban blew up those giant Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan. They hate free women.
Ignore the disinformation from the media for a day or two.
Try to find some facts instead.
You'll be amazed what you will find.
I dare ya.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Veteran's Day
To be honest I went back to read my past Veteran's Day post and I can say that in my heart this is still how I feel and hopefully always will. We owe these men and women so much we must try to the little things, at the very least, for them. So I give you my last two Veteran's Day posts.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Veteran's Day
Yes it is their day, not yours and mine, it is a day to thank those that lived to tell the tales of the heroes left on battlefields far away and some from long ago. It is our duty to thank these men and women that have put their lives on the line for Liberty, Freedom, America or so we are told. We know they do it for each other, and that is enough for it is in each other they can trust and it is with each other they can survive. From Lexington and Concord to the Heat of Iraq and the cold mountains of Afghanistan young men and women left the comforts of home for the frightening hell of combat. Where do we find such people, is what some ask. Very simple in the big cities and small towns all across this great country. After all this is The United States of America and we have had the finest humanity has had to offer for the last 232 years. I salute you all and send out a heartfelt thank you.
I ask you, the reader, to please donate to any and all veteran assisting organizations out there. Many of the military blogs to the right will tell you more about these organizations. Those who serve deserve our support even after their tour of duty is over.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veterans Day
I know many people who have served in our armed forces in both peacetime and war. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Gulf War and Iraq and Afghanistan and action less Cold Warriors. Some are friends of mine that I would trust with my life, some are guys I grew up with and have not seen in years. Some were strangers that have become friends, some were friends of my parents and some were friends of friends. They all have one thing in common. They are all better than me. When I say that I mean it and I am someone who thinks very highly of myself. When you look at a veteran you have to look at them differently you have to understand that these are people who have seen things that for some reason we have been spared the sight of. The life for war veterans should be like King said in Platoon "the rest of your life is gravy." In recent years I have made myself more aware of veterans and always ask if someone has served and thanking them if they did, maybe buying coffee if in an airport or near a coffee house. It is not enough, I know, but what else can we do. People always say it is the little things in life that make it great. I hope so, but we should do all we can for our vets. Without them there would be no little things.
These days the main debate of our politicians is government paid health care for everybody. Clearly this is a communist idea and against American principles. But I do solemnly believe that those that have served and were honorably discharged have earned the right, nay the entitlement of free health care forever. I am not talking about some government plan either I am talking top of the line and getting to the front of the line. Are you telling me that some WWII vet with medals out the ass should have to suffer at a government run VA facility while some 4F gets to see world renown doctors because he didn't serve and got rich? Yes it is a tough issue, I know but something must be done for them, all of them, from PTSD patients to Agent Orange cancer sufferers, to those too old to care for themselves. Forget the millions of useless welfare mooches there are people out there that have earned the right to get free health care and a pension. Enough of how the welfare system screws the vets in favor of lazy shiftless turds.
Armistice Day came along to signal the end of "The Great War" or as we call it now World War I, the "war to end all wars." How naive. There is just too much evil lurking in men with power soul's. Every day I respect our veterans more and more. Putting their lives on the line doing their duty. The wars we are fighting today and the constant rotation back to combat is hard on the men and women and families to whom we owe so much. It was the same for Vietnam vets and their 365 and a wake-up and the World War II vets and the points system. Any war any time all veterans and their families deserve our respect, admiration and thanks. Find out what you can do for them and do it; when we needed them they were there, it is the least we can do. So much will go left unsaid in this post so I will end with this: Thank you Veterans, for keeping our enemies at bay, and the sacrifices you have made. Peace to all of you for the rest of your days you have earned it.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Veteran's Day
Yes it is their day, not yours and mine, it is a day to thank those that lived to tell the tales of the heroes left on battlefields far away and some from long ago. It is our duty to thank these men and women that have put their lives on the line for Liberty, Freedom, America or so we are told. We know they do it for each other, and that is enough for it is in each other they can trust and it is with each other they can survive. From Lexington and Concord to the Heat of Iraq and the cold mountains of Afghanistan young men and women left the comforts of home for the frightening hell of combat. Where do we find such people, is what some ask. Very simple in the big cities and small towns all across this great country. After all this is The United States of America and we have had the finest humanity has had to offer for the last 232 years. I salute you all and send out a heartfelt thank you.
I ask you, the reader, to please donate to any and all veteran assisting organizations out there. Many of the military blogs to the right will tell you more about these organizations. Those who serve deserve our support even after their tour of duty is over.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veterans Day
I know many people who have served in our armed forces in both peacetime and war. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Gulf War and Iraq and Afghanistan and action less Cold Warriors. Some are friends of mine that I would trust with my life, some are guys I grew up with and have not seen in years. Some were strangers that have become friends, some were friends of my parents and some were friends of friends. They all have one thing in common. They are all better than me. When I say that I mean it and I am someone who thinks very highly of myself. When you look at a veteran you have to look at them differently you have to understand that these are people who have seen things that for some reason we have been spared the sight of. The life for war veterans should be like King said in Platoon "the rest of your life is gravy." In recent years I have made myself more aware of veterans and always ask if someone has served and thanking them if they did, maybe buying coffee if in an airport or near a coffee house. It is not enough, I know, but what else can we do. People always say it is the little things in life that make it great. I hope so, but we should do all we can for our vets. Without them there would be no little things.
These days the main debate of our politicians is government paid health care for everybody. Clearly this is a communist idea and against American principles. But I do solemnly believe that those that have served and were honorably discharged have earned the right, nay the entitlement of free health care forever. I am not talking about some government plan either I am talking top of the line and getting to the front of the line. Are you telling me that some WWII vet with medals out the ass should have to suffer at a government run VA facility while some 4F gets to see world renown doctors because he didn't serve and got rich? Yes it is a tough issue, I know but something must be done for them, all of them, from PTSD patients to Agent Orange cancer sufferers, to those too old to care for themselves. Forget the millions of useless welfare mooches there are people out there that have earned the right to get free health care and a pension. Enough of how the welfare system screws the vets in favor of lazy shiftless turds.
Armistice Day came along to signal the end of "The Great War" or as we call it now World War I, the "war to end all wars." How naive. There is just too much evil lurking in men with power soul's. Every day I respect our veterans more and more. Putting their lives on the line doing their duty. The wars we are fighting today and the constant rotation back to combat is hard on the men and women and families to whom we owe so much. It was the same for Vietnam vets and their 365 and a wake-up and the World War II vets and the points system. Any war any time all veterans and their families deserve our respect, admiration and thanks. Find out what you can do for them and do it; when we needed them they were there, it is the least we can do. So much will go left unsaid in this post so I will end with this: Thank you Veterans, for keeping our enemies at bay, and the sacrifices you have made. Peace to all of you for the rest of your days you have earned it.
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