Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room

On Tying One's Self Up on St Andrew's Cross...

Seems that things have started happening on a local level here in Indianapolis with regards to "Adult Businesses" focused on the BDSM or D/s lifestyle.

Some of you remember from a while back that I outed myself as a Lifestyler known to those in the community as Mistress Lila. I operate a chatroom on Paltalk, train with a lifelong Master, and have accepted the gift of submission from a wonderful person. I attend "play parties" and "Munches" and enjoy the companionship of others who share in the Lifestyle. I don't condone much of what is done by those who would associate themselves with BDSM or D/s, finding them opportunists and players who use it for their own Kink.

Kink... such a word. People who like to play at being something else for a session of sex call what they are doing Kink. People who do not live it full time, but engage in it for Something Differentâ„¢ call it Kink.

I find calling my lifestyle preferences or practices Kink to be an insult. But I also understand the "Kinkster" and how they look at us.

Now, that said, let's look at what happened in Indianapolis this week.

Miss Ann, a woman who I had met, with whom I had enjoyed a few conversations, who had given me an outlet for some of the items I make, is now embroiled in a legal issue with the city of Indianapolis. Her retail shop, The Reformatory, located in a small, gallery-like building has been closed as a result of this fight over zoning and what constitutes an Adult Business. Now, as a result of complaints from the neighbors, her home dungeon has also been closed.

Let me begin by stating that I have very mixed feelings on this.

I like Miss Ann. She provided me with an outlet, is very enthusiatic about the lifestyle and her place in it, is active and determined in her activism, and is one of those "once in a lifetime" people that some of us are lucky enough to meet. She is open, almost to a fault, and challenges the status quo every single day.

But then I look at the locations of both The Reformatory and her home, the home from which she operated a business, and I shake my head. The entrance of the store faced into a parking lot only a matter of feet from family residences. It was literally surrounded by large, older homes and condos in a pricy, upscale, gentrified neighborhood. She was surrounded by those who move into the urban setting to show how openminded and cosmo they are, but only as far as it doesn't threaten to impact their property values.

Why on earth put an adult oriented business, one that appeals to a segment of society that few understand and even fewer accept, in that neighborhood? With the wonderful artsy, gallery filled, bravely counter-culture areas in other parts of the downtown landscape, why there?

To make a point, perhaps?

To force the issue?

To make people see?

To make people confront their own secrets?

The only secret she made these people confront was their own desire to protect the value of their precious lots and rehabilitated Victorian homes. These fine, upstanding, cosmopolitan people, who send their children to private schools instead of to the ones in their neighborhood, who go to Black Expo to be seen, who make a public show of either distaining religion completely or of going at every opportunity, who donate their token amounts to the ACLU or Justice, Inc. every year to get the news letters, are the ones who shut her down.

And she gave them the ammo to do so.

Now all we can do is wait to see what the next step will be. Will they come knocking on my door to see if I have a piece of restraint furniture in my basement? If they find one, will they try to take my home? Will they try to charge me with operating an adult business if I have a few of my friends over for coffee, conversation, and a scene or two?

All we can do is watch and avail ourselves if necessary. All we can do is go on living and wait to be called if needed.

At Walter Reed...

It is Friday night. Families of the men and women at Walter Reed are filtering in and out of the old building, coming and going from their loved ones. Some are pleased with the progress they are seeing, the healing they witness each time they visit. Others are saddened by the weakening and loss they see, and are concerned that the time they have with their dear one is short.

Alone or in small groups they make their way up the walk to the entrance of the building. Alone or in small clusters they find their ways back to their cars. Alone or in small gatherings, they worry and wonder and make necessary plans for homecomings, whether to a small warm room in the family home, or to a sun-caressed piece of hallowed ground.

For months these people, the parents, spouses, and children of the wounded within, came and went peacefully and were able to concentrate their thoughts and their emotions on helping their warrior to heal. Recently, however, this has not been the case.

Groups of protesters, not satisfied with the effect they have had outside government buildings and military bases, have begun to occupy the area through which pass the grieving and those with wounded hearts. They harangue the mothers of dying young men. They harass the wives of men who may never be whole again. They abuse the families of the dying. And they do so gleefully for their "cause."

Signs, slogans, songs, and shouted insults await those who come to say "goodbye", and those who say "welcome home" to broken men and women bearing the wounds of war be they physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. Hatefull speeches are directed pointedly at the ambulatory wounded as they come to visit those beside whom they fought but who fared not as well as they. "Murderer," "Puppet of Big Oil," "Fool" are among the epithets hurled at them.

Free speech! They are exercising their constitutionally protected rights by abusing those who protect it, who bled for it, who are in some cases dying for it. Political dissent! They disagree with a governmental policy, so they attack those who are ordered to uphold it.

They proclaim their moral superiority by acting in an amoral manner toward families who are already filled with pain, further adding to the anguish they carry with them each time they visit.

Where are the men and women who would quietly form a strong, broad gauntlet along those walks to seperate those who would abuse from those who bear its brunt? Where are the active, reserve, retired, or discharged personnel who will place themselves around these families, to intercept the insults and yells of those who would hurt them? Where is the rumbling thunder of motorcycles bearing denim and leather-clad Viet-era Vets who remember first hand the feeling of being pelted in spittle and ire to stand alongside each other to make this quiet gauntlet?

Where are those who will come and thank these families by offering up their time to stand guard over them as they pass along that walk to their sons, their daughters, their wives and husbands, their mothers and fathers as they lay in their beds and wonder how they will rejoin their units, their families, and the world?

I cannot stand beside them as they make that passage. I can only ask those who can why they do not. I can only look into the anguished faces in photos on a news site and ask why they were allowed to pass unprotected from those who mistake Hate for Free Speech.

I can only ask one of you to take a place in that gauntlet for me, and to hold it strong for me, and to block the hate directed at a survivor, and do it in my name.

A small grey cat...

Early yesterday evening Chris-the-new-guy and I were out in front yard taking photos he could post on his Yahoo profile. It was about 6:30 or so, and we were just about done when we heard a cat mewling.

Neither of my cats were standing in the window demanding our attention, so Chris walked to the side of he porch where the sound seemed to be originating. There, he found a kitten.

A small kitten.

A tortured kitten.

After Chris got past his own shock of seeing this mutilated little thing, he called me over to see. He kept pointing out the tail of the small, gray kitten, a tail that was only a third as long as it should have been, ending in an exposed bone and a dangling flap of dead furry skin. Then we looked closer, and saw that the tail had other cuts, as though the freak responsible for this evil had tried unsucessfully to cut it off further down the tail but had given up and moved on.

It stood there and mewed at us, filthy and injured yet still alert, from the weeds at the base of the gas meter. It followed Chris across the yard, then rubbed his ankles when he stopped. It stood and raised up to butt the hands that reached to pet it. It flopped onto its back and writhed enticingly to get it's tummy rubbed. This suffering little kitten, no more than three months old, was sweet and loving when others would have been distrustful and afraid.

I looked at the kitten, watched Chris as he petted it, and decided I wasn't going to leave it out there. Whomever had done this might just find it again and finish the job. Not to mention the fact that leaving it out in the yard with it's wounds unattended was a death sentence of the worst kind.

I went and got the pet carrier from the back porch, got an upbraiding accompanied by horrid looks from the spouse when he saw it, and went out front. At least it would be confined and safe until I could decide what to do. Fed and watered by Chris, it started to calm, but it was decidedly unhappy about being confined.

Now, by this time it's 6:40pm. The Humane Society is open, but doesn't do rescue or abuse cases. Animal Control, aka "the pound", aka a "death sentence", is closed but has a voicemail so I leave the particulars on the case for them, just in case they decide to investigate the little Serial Killer in Training who did this. And then, because I cannot bring an unknown cat into the house with my two healthy and unexposed to germs little girlie girls, I call Sharon.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Sharon. Sharon is one of the few "Animal People" I know who has as much sense as she has about it. No fauning member of PETA, or militant paint thrower, she steps up to the plate and does what needs to be done, even when others cannot. And that is just what she did.

After hearing about the kitten and its list of visible injuries, she got directions to my house and was there in no time. And when she saw him, she was just as angry and concerned as I have ever seen her. She dropped that little fuzzy-face into a carrier and sped off to a vet with evening hours. And then, after the kitten had been examined, she called and gave Chris an update.

What we saw when we looked at the kitten for the first time was not the full extent of its injuries. Yes, the flesh had been cut to the bone in several places on his little tail, and over half of it had been cut away. But it's little ears were hurt too. They were perforated with half-way done holes from a paper-puncher. You know, the office supply type that every 5th grader in the world wants as part of his school kit, so he or she can make confetti? Seems our little sociopath used one on the kitten's ears. Repeatedly.

And his fur was covered in something. And his ears, in addition to the punched out holes, had either axel grease or some sort of adhesive in them, so he had to be cleaned thoroughly before they could even work on him. Glue in a kitten's ears. Quaint.

But through it all, this little baby has remained sweet and loving and a real charmer. Even after his tail was amputated this morning, after being neutered, after the indignity of a bath, after being examined and poked and prodded and given shots and everything else, it just wants to be loved on.

This little baby is at Above and Beyond Animal Care in Avon, Indiana, recovering from it's surgery and trauma. I work with Sharon, so I know she's in no position to absorb the cost of saving this kitten and bringing it into her home.

If you can spare a little change, please send it to their address,

Above & Beyond Animal Care
10828 E US Hwy 36
Avon, IN 46123

and specify that it is to defray the surgery and care costs for the kitten brought in on August 24th by Sharon Wilson. I bet they'll even accept a credit card payment over the phone at (317) 273-1700 if you prefer to do it that way.

I have pictures in my files at home of Chris with the kitten as we found him. I'll post one when I get the chance. I just hope that someone in my neighborhood is missing a wee babe like this and sees him, so at least they'll know what happened to their pet. And if they have the freak of nature who did this living under their roof... well, I know what I'd do if it were one of my own who had done this. Not pretty. Not pretty at all.

Pathos and Anger on Sheehanville.

Let me preface this with a warning that this piece will be rambling and difficult to follow, as I have watched this nonsense without comment since my original post on Cindy Sheehan. I wanted to keep away from this, to not give her and her little group and their tactics any space here. I cannot, however, sit back any longer and hold my tongue on a few of the aspects of their protest that I have found to be the most offensive and reprehensible.

Unless you've been under a stone or in an altered state of consciousness for the past several days, you are very aware of the pathetic and self-serving vigil being held in Crawford, Texas. Designer sackcloth and organic, biodegradable ashes are being displayed conspicuously by a woman and her ever increasing and politically powerful entourage under the guise of wanting a meeting with the President. All she wants is to ask why he personally orchestrated the deaths of all of the innocent children duped into military service by evil, lying recruiters to be fodder in an unjust war for the benefit of Big Oil.

Day by day, these enlightened, sensitive, and morally superior individuals trample the weeds in a ditch outside the gates of the ranch and make a very public display of prayer and grief. Part of this display is a small "pseudo-Arlington" of white crosses. On each of these crosses is the name of a man or woman child, military fatalities all, the sons and daughters of grieving mothers and fathers.

Their Childrenâ„¢. These parents and their handlers, prostrate in the Texas dust, keening and vocalizing their grief and indignation, wailing and gnashing their teeth over the selfless sacrifices needless deaths of their brave soldiers, airmen, sailors, coasties, and marines innocent children for as long as the microwave dishes stand and the television trucks remain parked nearby.

The crosses in their little piece of performance art are intended to be a display of angry protest and shame against the war in Iraq by parents who have lost their Childrenâ„¢ to this country's fight to bring democracy to an enslaved nation, and to secure a beach head against known terrorist groups in an area known by the world to be a breeding ground for such groups and the individuals which populate them.

These fallen ones were not children, and to be personified as such by these and others of their ilk is a grievous insult to them and to their families. It discounts their service to this country and to the world, and it trivializes their deaths. They were adults who made an adult decision to join the armed service of this country, regardless of the underlying reason, knowing fully that any who enlist can at any time be sent into a war zone or placed in harm's way in any of a thousand different ways.

These brave young men and women gave all, often to save their comrades in arms from the same fate, and did so because that is what soldiers do. They are gone forever from friend and family, their sacrifices barely makeing the faintest of blips on the Mass Media Radar unless they can be used to serve their anti-war agenda.

And now their names are being used, perhaps in a manner that they would find as disgusting and repugnant as I do. Many are the names on the little white crosses alongside that back road. Many are the parents all over this country who currently may not even be aware that their own son's or daughter's name has been usurped by the protesting anti-war crowd, which has gone from a few supporters of a single obsessive mother to a well organized media machine. One has to wonder how many of these parents would be enraged to find that the sacrifice made by their son or daughter or husband or wife was being used in such a manner.

I know that at least one father has gone to Sheehanville to remove his son's cross from this display, only to see it replaced against his wishes. A mother has also demanded the name of her son be removed from the protest. How many other parents would do the same if they knew their grief and sacrifice were being hijacked for bad theater? I have wondered several times if they have even posted a list of the names being used, the memories being violated on these crosses, to give the mothers and the fathers, the husbands and the wives, the sons and the daughters an opportunity to stand up and tell them "No, I will not be a part of this."

This is So Wrong

Austin, Texas, is by most definitions a beautiful college city which also prides itself on it's inclusiveness, progressiveness, and all around liberal propensities.

Unless you're a Marine, I guess.

Carl Basham, a Marine who spent two tours in Iraq, who has maintained his Texas Driver's License, who has remained registered to vote in his Texas district, who has kept up all requirements to maintain his residency in the Republic of Texas, now cannot go to school at Austin Community College at the resident rate because Military Duty is not a valid excuse for being away from one's primary address.

What kind of crazy law is that? Was some Provost or admissions geek afraid he'd contaminate the classroom with fumes of Duty, or Honor? Maybe housekeeping needs that extra 400% per semester to sweep up the sand from the cuffs of his BDU's.

Yes. 400% more because a Texan was declared a non-Texan by a committee.

The Right to Grieve Unmolested?

If a person hurls racial ephithets at another, it's hate speech.

If a person demeans another because of their sex, it's hate speech.

If a person vandalizes a synagogue, church, mosque, or temple, it's a hate crime.

If a person burns a cross on someone's yard, it's a hate crime.

But what is it called when someone pulls 20 American flags from the yard of a grieving family less than 24 hours after they have buried the young man who died for his country? What is it called when this person then sets fire to them underneath a car, burning it beyond repair? What is that called?

Free speech? Political speech? A precious freedom?

Well, what of the freedom of a family to mourn their loss, unmolested by those who hated the young man who passed for no other reason than the uniform he wore and the circumstances of his death? What of the free speech of the father-in-law who wanted to express his love by placing 20 flags on his own private property?

There is a line, people, a very distinct and unmoving line beyond which actions are no longer a free expression of political speech, but become evil, vile, and comtemptible. Just as there are laws for libel and slander which protect individuals from venomous and unfounded attacks, there must be some enforcement of current laws to protect individuals from attacts of the kind inflicted on the family of Pfc. Timothy Hines. No lawyer from any civil rights advocacy group should be allowed to equate these acts with free speech. In fact, no self-respecting lawyer should sully his hand with the defense of such cowards, aronists, and vandals..

Sadly, however, there will be droves of them. Even more sadly, there will be a judge somewhere who will, in a fit of deluded idiocy, decide that this act was protected political speech.

Elected Moron Official Disrupts Marine's Funeral

I have come to the realization of just why so many celebrities and politicos have handlers: They absolutely need them. A huge number of these people just do not possess the common sense G-d gave a goose, and if unminded would inflict their idiocy of the public to such an extent as to render themselves unelectible or unpopular at the box office or whatever other venue by which they hustle their over-inflated salaries.

Let's take a case in point. In Indiana, PA this past week the Goodrich family gathered to mourn the passing of their loved one, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, a young Marine who had died for his country during the war in Iraq. The funeral was filled with uniformed Marines there to support the family and to honor their fallen comrade. Also well represented was the police force, of which he had also been a member.

And then there was the uninvited mourner.

Catherine Baker Knoll, the first female Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania who proudly proclaims this claim to fame on the state websites, entered the funeral unexpected, unwelcomed, and uninvited, sat near family members, interupted prayer during Communion to ask who one of them was, and passed out her business card.

And then, and here's the "good part" for those of you keeping score, she had the audacity to state to the grieving family, "I want you to know our government is against this war," further upsetting an already fragile situation.

This woman doesn't need a handler. She needs a keeper. Her boss, Gov. Ed Rendell needs to put a muzzle and a choke-chain on this idiot after she issues her formal apology to the Goodrich family. And please, make certain someone else writes it. I can only imagine the further damage she may inflict if allowed to use her own words. And no, I'm not going to give her political affiliation. You won't have any trouble finding that out on your own.

I'm sorry.

I want to apologize for my absence over the last several days. It has been a stressful time and eventually things reached a point where I needed to hide, even from myself, to keep from just losing it.

I wandered into the world of my other self, that stimulating, indulgent netherworld where even someone like me can be accepted and desired and attractive. I found refuge in this place where my words, an assortment of bits and bytes displayed on an everchanging screen, bring me much pleasure and relief from "Real Life" and all it entails.

I wallowed in it, lounged in it, sought and even found both affection and gratification in it. I rejoiced in it, shed tears of ecstacy, joy and anguish in it, and then was forced to leave it and return, to once again find my way back home...

Home.

Where the heart is.

Where responsibilities clutch at my throat and choke the breath from me. Where the news on television taints the hearts and minds of those who have a right to know the truth but are not given it. Where everyone's wants supercede their real needs. Where once there was great pleasure with little pain, but now?

I have been doing some writing, but cannot seem find my voice or my focus. Each time I do find a small quiet whisper of my voice, the surrounding grumbles start and the victims find their voice as well. Soon all the joy is gone. My fiction, my poetry, my blog, all have suffered from the frustration and anger that wells up, so I escape into that annonymous place again for solace and understanding and peace.

Hopefully, things will work out. I have found a young person who needs a safe and caring place to stay, and an opportunity to both go to school and find employment. He will be moving into the unused bedroom at the front of the house and will make this his home for as long as he either needs or wants to stay. He will be helping as much as he can as soon as he has found even menial employment. I trust him to do what he can to help himself and to help me. I cannot do it alone any longer.

A is for...

Teenagers... Sometimes they need understanding. Sometimes they need a swift cuff in the back of the head with a firm hand.

What on earth was going through their addled, probably drunken, potentially drugged, anti-social little nugget-like minds? Do you think for one moment that they even considered the possibility of killing Lord knows how many people during their little spree? They probably giggled like hormonally deficiant, pre-pubescent school girls about it as they doused one flag after another in gasoline and set it aflame.

This isn't a free speech issue here. This isn't political dissent, or differing opinions, or an act of protest. I agree with Tom Lyons of the Sarasota Herald Tribune when he states, "Those guys didn't set fire to flags they owned in some sort of symbolic gesture. They burned flags that were someone else's private property, something with a value to the owners that goes beyond the cost of the cloth.

Burning those flags goes way beyond expressing contempt in a petty-criminal sort of way. It is a chillingly dangerous and invasive act."

Just because these Anarchist sphincter-boys are young and American doesn't lessen what they did. They terrorized a neighborhood and the families within it because they hate America. Pack their sorry assses and let them spend a week in a glorified Dog Kennel on Gitmo as an object lesson. I'd go into a swoon if some judge did that. I'd be his pet forever.

Ward's Call to Fragging.

When does speech cross the line from political dissent to hate speech? When does a statement go from advocating an alternative political view to advocating murder? Someone, please, tell me where this line is, because based on my person interpretations of that line, what Ward Churchill stated on June 23, 2005 very decidely and irrevocibly crossed it.

Following a lead from Lucianne.com, I ended up Trey Jackson's Jackson's Junction. Let me just quote a small amount of the transcript of Mr. Churchill's remarks for you here:

"For those of you who do, as a matter of principle, oppose war in any form, the idea of supporting a conscientious objector who's already been inducted in his combat service in Iraq might have a certain appeal. But let me ask you this: Would you render the same level of support to someone who hadn't conscientiously objected, but rather instead rolled a grenade under their line officer in order to neutralize the combat capacity of their unit?"

He goes on to add, "...Conscientious objection removes a given piece of cannon fodder from the fray. Fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect."

According to Pirate Ballerina, these statements came during a "forum on Conscientious Objection and resistance to military recruiters in Portland, Oregon" last week. For Crying-Out Moses. What a lot of degenerate, mindless Koolaid Drinkers. You could put Ward's face on a bottle of Crap Snappleâ„¢ and those fools would lap it up and ask for more.

You have to wonder how many of these gutless wonders without the courage of their own convictions will take it upon themselves to actually attempt that at some recruiting office. It doesn't take a brave man to pull a pin and roll a pineapple across a small office in the local strip mall. Any coward can do that, and when one does, I hope the law goes after old Ward just like they went after the blind mullah after the first attempt at bringing down the WTC.

Small Rant Alert!

Resistance to military recruiters? Why? Are they wandering the streets in gangs, impressing young sturdy men and women of weak intellect into seven years of Uniformed Indenture against their wills? Have they been seen lurking in the dark alleys behind dance clubs and the local Starbucks to snatch away unsuspecting patrons, lured to their clutches by underdressed and oversexed colaborators?

This has been a Small Rant Alert. Had it been an actual Full Blown Rant, you would have been directed to take cover and listen to Nat King Cole cd's until a level of calm could be attained.

But I digress. Back to the question first posed. When does speech go from dissent to treason, from opposition to the advocating of murder? When does the constitution not cover and protect what is said with the blanket of Free Speech, because believe me, as it stands now, that blanket does nothing more than cover a whore's bed, a bed of hate and lies.

Yeah, Free Speech, Right...

Yahoo has closed and made unavailable all chatrooms made by Yahoo users. This comes after a week of problems with all of the rooms, even the moderated, company operated rooms.

KPRC[TV in Houston, TX] reported that in some cases, men were using Web cameras to send lewd pictures to minors in chat rooms with such titles as "Younger Girls 4 Older Guys" and "Girls 13 And Under for Older Guys."

Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako, who declined to say when the service will return or why all the user-created sites were closed, said the Internet portal shuttered the service for improvements and to ensure "compliance with our terms of service."

Yahoo requires users to agree not to "harm minors in any way" or make available any content that is "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, ... or otherwise objectionable."

Now, for a lot of you, this is no big deal. You have lives which allow you to socialize in "Real Life" with friends and family who maintain similar schedules and have similar interests. That's not the case for some people. The things we received from technology and progress which were supposed to bring us all closer as a world community in some ways has pushed us all further apart, isolating so many. And for them, the chatrooms are a haven, a place where people find others who understand, accept, even guide and mentor.

I used to frequent a room established for persons who live and love within the framework of BDSM. Sure, there were posers and wannabes of every ilk in the room, not to mention the trolls, typically swingers, who would come in to use the room as a Sex Convenience Store. And don't even get me started on the "Bots" that would fill your screen with offers of wild abandon and websites full of every kind of kink for nothing more than your time and your credit card number.

But for the most part, these were and remain good people, Dom, Domme, and submissive, who are intelligent, witty, caring, and willing to take the time to get to know a person and accept them as they are. And woe be unto him or her who would try to take advantage of a younger or less experienced room member. Minors? Minors in the room were not tolerated and were immediately "shunned" by use of the ignore feature.

Yes, it was a tight ship, this cyber-room where I found acceptance and even love for a part of my life I had shared with none before. Sadly, it was scuttled along with the rustbuckets and tramps.

So now I sit and wonder when Pepsico will pull its ads from the walls of Conseco Fieldhouse because they discover some pedophile trying to entice a kid into one of the scores of restroom stalls within the building. Or when State Farm will pull all of the Pepsi machines out of State Farm offices because a minor was approached at a Pepsi sponsored concert.

Why not? Just the threat had Yahoo pissing itself.

~makes mental note: find another isp asap, the contract with Yahoo ends in August~

"Mistress Lila"

An Open Letter

Pastor Fred Phelps, you and your congregation at Westboro Baptist Church have got to be the most vengeful and twisted group of misguided and evil pretenders to the Kingdom of Christ that I have ever seen.

I thought that the congregants I dealt with in high school, the students from a local church were bad, hiding stolen items in my purse and then trying to turn me in to the teachers as a thief because I was, afterall, a heathen Catholic and spawn of hell itself. I believed that there could be none worse than the ones who's church expelled an elderly woman because her necessary medications made it impossible to tithe. But you, foul dopplegangers masquerading as brothers and sisters of Christ, you have truly gone beyond anthing I have seen before.

To have the supreme ego to believe that God Himself would strike down an innocent to avenge the insults you endure because of your bigotted and hatefilled rhetoric is beyond the pale. Your "claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps' church six years ago" are ignorant and prideful. And to exhibit the level of cruelty it would take to go to a place of mourning to picket and protest is reprehensible.

You are a sad and spoiled amalgam of hateful children, blaming everyone else for your own short shortcomings and misfortunes instead of seeing that your own hand holds the key to your own moral suicide.

Cpl. Carrie French was only 19 years old when she was killed by those who would gleefully remove your heads from your necks. She was loved, respected, and was doing what she felt she must. She was not carrying arms against your sanctimoneous clique.

She wasn't representing only the US Government as she served in her desert BDUs. She was representing me, my daughter, and each of you in a war declared against any and all who do not comply with the faith and religio-political views of a group of extremists, fanatics. But you are blinded to all but the minutia of your faith, the dotted I's and crossed T's, and not the message and will not see. You are cowards and perverters who would rather heap more cruelty on a grieving mother than to protest against those who have in your deeply disturbed minds offended you as the only True Believers.

It must be a terrible burden to be the only congregation in all of the world that can claim that mantle. The Taliban also claimed that mantle for themselves. You will find that God will not tolerate nor reward your petty little Taliban any more than He did that one in Afganistan.

Can you copyright the word "And"?

Ah, it is amazing to me just how petty and difficult some people can be. They get vicious at the drop of a hat for the most insignificant things, and actually seem to go out looking for someone to bully.

Let me give you a prime example. The Spousal Unit had been a frequent commentor on several blogs for months when he took ill in November, 2002. It was not long after that, several months actually, in an attempt to give him a reason to get out of bed every day and join the human race that I built him his blog. I logged him into MBlog which offered free hosting supporting a Movable Type platform and signed him up.

He always been fiercely American yet still very proud of his Dutch birth and his status as a Naturalized Citizen. Because of this, I wanted to use the word "emigre" somewhere in the title. Also, as a Loyal Citizen of the Empire, he was entitled to the use of the Digital Cluebatâ„¢ when dealing with the stupid, the vain, the morally repugnant, and the evil items about which he would blog. So on that day, sometime in 2003, his blog became a reality. His first address was an approximaiton of this:

www.mblog.com/emigre_with_digital_cluebat.

Slowly, one person at a time, his readership began to grow. Good people, regular readers, began to frequent his comments and engage him in debate. Delftsman has always encouraged those who do not agree with him to come and enter the discourse. If they could make a valid point, they were welcome to do so. If he saw bullshit, he called bullshit. And if he was proven wrong, he admitted it. As far as this goes, he was a much more inclusive blogger than I have ever been.

Then MBlog got caught with their hands in the MT cookie jar or whatever it was that precipitated what they did to all of their bloggers. We awoke one morning, tried to access his site, and it simply no longer existed. All that appeared when he tried to sign in was a screen explaining that his blog was gone, that his archives would be available for 30 days, and that by paying a ransom he would be able to save them from obscurity. Needless to say, because of our financial state then and now, this was impossible, so months of writing was simply lost forever.

Delfts was devastated, so devastated in fact that he considered not blogging again. It took me a long time to convince him that he could always guest post on my blog until we could find another host with high quality and free blogging. He was not alone in this, as I had built many of my "blog children" on Mblog. One by one, I reconstructed their sites at Blog-City, or in the case of Slaglerock sucessfully nominated him for a Mu.nu blog. I also nominated Delftsman, as he was bridling under the constraints of blogging at my site.

Finally, the email came and Delfts had been accepted as a Munuvian and his address was established. He was delighted, and has worked hard to regain his readership and provide a small debating forum for his regular commentors. He still mourned his lost archives, but there just was nothing we could do to retrieve them.

Fast Forward to today...

I wake up after a very short "night" to find Delfts at the computer, upset and angry. Seems that only one person in the entire world is entitled to use the word "Emigre" as part of a blog title, and Delfts isn't that person. Yes, you read that right. Another, from the gulag which is Blogspot, has seen fit to post a pretty vicious little attack piece on Delftsman over his use of the word "Emigre" for the title of his blog. Citing blog longevity as his claim to entitlement, this other blogger has spent more time pissing on Delft's blog than any sane and well adjusted person would. With absolutely no provocation, this other blogger has resorted to name calling and the impuning of a person's character over the use of a single word.

Now, I could almost understand it if this word were one he had coined specifically for use on his small corner of the blogosphere, but it is not. The word Emigre has been a recognized part of euro-based vocabulary for much longer than either of these blogs has existed.

I will not link to this child who shows nothing but comtempt for a fellow blogger over a word. He doesn't deserve the traffic that would result from such a link. But take a moment to go see Delftsman and let him know what you think of this nonsense. After that, it's up to you what you do.

Update... Apparently, I'm not really a woman. So, not only is Delftsman a construct and not really an emigre in his own right, I'm not really a woman. Apparenlty I'm the Softer Side of Karl Rove. Perhaps Dick Cheny in lace and a red wig.

Anyway, this insect tried to up her traffic with a trackback to this post, which is now gone. If you want to see what all this is about, follow the trackback to Delfts and go from there. He doen't mind his blog being a conduit for sewage.

And I did leave a comment there. Not that it will do any good. The blood is in the water.

Update, the Sequel: Yet more trackback pings from the retrovirus of the TTLB Ecosystem. Again, deleted and sent to the oblivion of hell in the bloody clutches of leather-winged demons. In the meantime, does anyone know how to block trackbacks from this little snot?

State of Education.

Marine Sgt. Zach Richardson, newly returned from his deployment in Iraq, was refused admission to a 6th grade class that had supported him with their letters throughout his time overseas. Not only did the prinicpal refuse to let him speak to the class and offer his thanks for their support, she had him escorted from the building and then had the poor judgement to offer a "Cover Thine Ass" statement that implied that a Marine could not be trusted not to go into a blood rage and hurt a bunch of kids.

I heard this discussed on the Neal Boortz radio show yesterday, but nowhere I looked provided me with any information. Even Boortz didn't add it to his Newz yesterday. Today, he discussed it again, and this time provided a little more information.

This principal has at least one of several potential things wrong with either her thought processes or her judgement. Her refusal to act on the submitted request by the teacher to have the Marine as a guest speaker shows a general disrespect for the staff beneath her in the school's chain of command, as well as an inappropriate use of passive agressive behaviors to artificially and coercively maintain control of those beneath her. When her behaviors were pointed out as inappropriate by strangers and outsiders to her superiors, she attempted to justify them and bolster her position by fabricating a statement making unfounded inuendos against a servicemember and falsely implying that any association between the servicemember and the class would be damaging to the students.

This is why I shudder every day when I send my daughter to a public school.

This is why after three years toward an education degree I called "Bullshit" and left the program.

This is why it isn't the sheepskin on the wall that makes an administrator, or a manager, or a principal.

The school board in Greensboro, GA needs to tell this principal to prepare a written apology, not just to Sgt Richardson, but to each and every student she maligned as being too fragile or unstable to be in the company of a Patriot. She also needs to prepare a similar letter to each parent who has ever served or is currently serving, apolgizing for her lack of respect for their sacrifices to ensure her safety and even her educational opportunities at a time in the past when military personnel enforced court ordered desegration across the country, particularly in the south.

Ignorance and Stupidity

Seems Ignorance has struck another blow in the war against Common Sense and Impariality in Indianapolis.

Judge Cale J. Bradford of the Marion County Superior Courts, in an judgement on a divorce appeal, has ruled that the parents of a nine year old boy cannot teach him or expose him to their religious beliefs. It might confuse the poor dear to be raised in a religion not considered to be in the Main Stream of beliefs.

Let's not even discuss the religion in question at this point, but look at the overall picture here. This judge, from the bench, has made several deteminations with his decision that potentially could have an affect that is much further reaching than this one case, has set himself up as the arbitor of what is a Legitimate Religious Expression, and has insinuated the courts into the person lives of not just one family but potentially of us.

Which religions does he consider Main Stream enough for children? We're not talking devil worship, chicken sacrifices, and sex with kids here, folks. We're talking about freedom to follow a recognized religion.

Will small denominations within Christianity, Islam, or Judiasm be next? What about the increasing populations of Hindus and B'ahai? What of them?

Judicial activism, regardless of one's politics is wrong, dead wrong, and with this intollerant and essentially ignorant decision Judge Bradford has commited an act of activism that has the potential of damaging the sanctity of the family for thousands, no, millions of people. This is now precedent. This can be used as case law for anyone looking to disrupt the religious instruction of children for no other reason than a conflict between belief systems.

The religion in question here? Wicca. Now don't go off all half-cocked about witchcraft and demons and cartoon charicateurs of pratictioners running naked in the woods and having random sex by moonlight from some stupid horror movie you saw as a kid. I was once a self-practicing Wiccan, and still hold many of the beliefs associated with that religion. I still practice some of the rituals which are shared by Main Stream Christianity. (Didn't know there were shared rituals? Go read a book, folks.)

I chose as my dieties in my practice the Christian Holy Trinity. My spells/prayers were always in celebration of Them, and my thanks were always given to Them. I believed, as I do now and did before, in Christian tenents, followed the teachings of the bible, and did not call myself a Witch. Others did, but I ascribed that to their own ignorance and tried by example to show them their error.

Now, I am not all Wiccans, nor could I ever claim to be an example of all Wiccans, for there is no one person who could ever be held up as such an example. Each person makes deep, personal, thoughtful decisions on how they practice, each takes these decisions very seriously, and each is very different from any other. But there remain commonalities, even in our differences.

I was able to reconcile my Catholic upbringing and practice with Wicca because I approached both with open mind, open heart, and open spirit. Most of the other Wiccans I have been privleged to meet and know have done the same, although if you peel back the label we remain very different on other levels. But overall, we still embrace each other as Believers. We also embrace others as believers, regardless of their system, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, (insert belief here).

The idea that a judge would look upon my beliefs as inferior sickens me to my core. If he could decide that my lighting of candles and celebration of the feminine face of God through the Holy Spirit was detrimental to my daughter, who is next? Will he next decide that the teachings of Pentecostal churches are inferior and out of the main stream because some of their churches do not allow women to wear slacks or wear make-up? Will Apostolics be subject to his whim because they eschew caffine, alcohol, and other substances which alter the mind? And what of Jehovah's Witnesses and their rejection of blood products for medical treatment?

Think about this, people. Think long and hard. Look beyond the religion in this specific case and look at the potential for this. Wrong is wrong, and ignorance has no place on the bench. Even more, Religious Bigotry has even less place in the judiciary.

The Spousal Unit, although he approaches it from a different direction, also makes some valid points on this insane decision.

I hope it was a Liberal College, at least.

You knew this was going to happen, and that it was just a matter of time before a variety of moobats and malcontents would, in a huge moment of hate-filled and substance induced syncronicity, be inspired to new and greater lows in their pursuit of bolstering Anti-American sentiment in the Muslim community.

You really can't fault their logic in this. Consider that if one small item in a national magazine can cause the deaths of 17, many more injuries, and the economic losses that it did, how much damage could two items could cause? Or 4? Or 20?

Imagine the potential for inciting riots, for the bombing of convoys with Marines in them, for rocket attacks against civilians, for kidnappings and murders that someone could realize. By doing nothing more than walking into a library or bookstore for a copy of the Koran, and placing it in a toilet, any nutcase can affect US-Islamic relations for years.

Think I'm off the deep-end on this one? I don't think so. Just give this a little thought. Any time you have a crime or activity that attracts a lot of media attention, there are copycats. Serial killers, mailbox bombers, you name it. If it gets attention, there's some small cadre of simple minded and narcisistic wannabes ready to join right in for their 15 minutes of fame or infamy. That doesn't even take into consideration those who would do this to further one political agenda while smearing the followers of another and branding them zealots.

This is just the first one I've seen. I'll venture a guess we'll see more of them in the next few weeks, with far-reaching and destructive results.

Guilty

Air Force Officer Found Guilty of Sending Weapons Home From Iraq I think my favorite quote from that article is one by Major Gregory McMillion's attorney, that it was an "honest mistake" because he didn't understand the rules.

He's an officer for chrissakes, not some cherry teenager so new there's still sizing in his BDU's and homesick tearstains on his t-shirt neck. It was his responsibility to know it was against orders to remove "30 automatic rifles, six rocket-propelled grenade launchers and dozens of magazines, scopes and sights... several dummy land mines and grenades, 1,183 Iraqi army berets, more than 600 pairs of socks and eight full uniforms [and] other items [including] a statue looted from an Iraqi museum."

This man has dishonored his uniform, his fellow officers, the NCO's and enlisteds who served under him, and his entire country with his inability to understand and comply with a basic rule in a time of war, in a damned warzone. I, for one, hope this judges' panel throws the book at him.

My father served honorably for 20 years. My nephew/blogson serves honorably now and has for 10 years. I have friends all over this country and the world, both real life and online, who serve decently and honorably. But it isn't them who gets the attention of the media or the public. It's the fools, the thieves, the deserters, the murderers, and the malcontents who have their attention.

Newsweeks' Moral Responsibility

We all know and acknowledge the concept of personal responsibility. Every day, each of us deals with the knowledge and the probability that some action we take, either responsibly or irresponsibly, can and will affect our own lives and the lives of others. Sometimes the effects of these actions are minute and inconsequential. Other times, they can be far-reaching and life altering, affecting many, many lives, positively, negatively, permanently.

When one of us makes a faulty decision that hurts another, we are responsible for the damage. As individuals, we make restitution, we do penance, we apologize, sometimes we even do jail time.

But what of those we trust? What of those large entities, the corportations, government agencies, mass media outlets of the main stream media?

This week, Newsweek magazine did the moral equivalent of yelling "Fire" in a packed and anxious theater. They yelled out, in black type on glossy paper, that interrogators at Gitmo had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet in an effort to break down a prisoner and gain information from him. They were oh so sure it was true, even though two other government officials denied all or part of the claims in the article. It must be true, you see, because other news organizations had already reported the incident or similar ones.

So with no proof, no corroboration, nothing but the word of a secret annonymous source, they ran with it. And when yelled this out, they set off a stampede in the Muslim population that resulted in death and destruction all over the world. Afganistan is at the point of calling jihad against all US citizens, even those who sacrifice daily to protect them in their own land, based on the Newsweek story.

When the riots began and people started to die, the US government stepped up. Investigations were conducted quickly into the allegations, and to no one's surprise no evidence of any such act was found at Guantanamo or any other encampment. No one had desecrated a Koran, no one had flushed its pages down a toilet, no such act had been committed. And with the results of the investigation firmly in hand, the government stepped forward and called foul.

In the face of mounting evidence that the story was a fabrication, the primary accuser backed down from his claims, and Newsweek was forced to recant their accusation.

But is that good enough? Is a 400 word statement by the editor enough? Will it help to set aside the anti-American tide now swelling and swirling throughout the Muslim community world-wide? Will it stop the flag burnings, the killings, the arson and looting, the fear? Of course it won't, and even Newsweek isn't foolish enough to think that it will.

Where is Newsweek's accountability for the impact of this story? The argument can be made that there should be no lasting or profound repercussions for such spurious reporting, as such legal accountability would serve to stifle the press and gag the MSN. So in Pakistan, Afgainistan, and other communities around the world, families are burying their dead and busnessmen are taking stock of their losses with no hope of any help from the party most responsible for their losses: Newsweek Magazine.

The Drama Just Gets MORE Intense

I have asked Delfts to post this for me, as I am at work and do not have access to my site.

The situation on the cars gets even murkier after talking to Allstate. Delfts called the claims number this morning to see why we had not heard from an adjuster yet. The woman on the line informed him that because a) we did not know the identity of the driver, and b) there was no way to verify his insurance coverage or lack thereof, Allstate was "Not Allowed" to pay our claim under state law.

Now, to begin with, the only reason we maintained the Uninsured Motorist portion of our policy was to protect us from uninsured motorists. It has been our experience in the past, with acquaintances and co-workers, that if the identity of a driver in a hit and run could not be established, this portion of the policy would repair or replace the damaged autos, pay medical bills, etc, until the other driver could be identified and either his insurance tapped for the bill, or the driver sued for the damages by the insurance company.

It seems that is not the case at all. No longer do they consider the probability that a hit and run driver IS a hit and run driver primarily because he DOESN'T have insurance.

Had only the ancient Tempo been affected by the automotive carnage in my driveway, I would never have even made a claim against my policy. The car was old, it had served us well, and we had more than gotten our initial investment out of the little thing. But when all of them were not only damaged, but damaged to the point that they were, we had no choice but to fall back on the coverage we thought we had and had paid for monthly.

There is something decidedly wrong with this. If in fact it is a part of state law, then this is a bad law. If on the other hand it is not based in actual law, Allstate needs to make good on a policy that was purchased in good faith.

I hate the prospect of calling a law office to run this by them. The very thought of having to litigate this sickens me. But it seems I have been left with no alternative in this matter.

I do know one thing. I will be seeking new coverage for whatever vehicle I am able to find, and it will not be with Allstate unless this is either proven to me to be true or settled to my satisfaction.

Mamamontezz

Lucky Us.

You know the old maxim, "Just when you think things can't get any worse, they will"? Silly me, I thought things couldn't get any worse, and of course, they did.

I had just gone to bed last night when there was a horrible noise outside the bedroom on the street-side of the room. At first, I thought it was the trash guys who empty the dumpster across the street at our Bob's woodshop. It sounded for all the world like they had dropped his dumpster while dumping it. Then I realized, I didn't hear a trash truck. Then I heard a car speeding off. Then I realized, there had been an accident.

The Spousal Unit got up and looked out the window and began to hollar.

A driver, speeding and probably drunk, had come off the road into our driveway, smashed the '84 Tempo so hard, it T-boned into the Chrysler and shoved it into the Pontiac. From the looks of things, none of them will ever be driveable and are totaled.

The entire back end of the Tempo is smashed, and the bumper is pulled way out. The frame looks sprung badly, and the trunk is destroyed.

Almost the entire driver's side of the Chrysler is smashed in, and it too is sprung. The trunk is popped and will not close, and the doors are popped as well. The rear on the passenger side is also smashed where it was slammed into the Pontiac.

The entire rear quarter of the Pontiac is smashed in, into the wheel well so it is not driveable either. The hood is popped up an inch, and cannot be lifted or pushed back into place.

The driver of the other car was kind enough to leave his grill as a calling card to let us know he was driving an Oldsmobile. I believe there is also some paint left on the rear of the Tempo, so we may know what color the car was. I'm not holding my breath on them ever finding this piece of shit, but I hope they do.

We are actually quite lucky the cars were parked the way they were, because without them there as an Anti-Vehicle barrier, that moron may have ended up in our bedroom unannounced and decidedly uninvited. At least they sacrificed themselves to keep us from the hospital, or worse.

So, at 4am I am on the phone with the insurance company, filing my claim, and I want to say that the woman at Allstate's call center was extremely nice, very courteous, and very sympathetic. I wish I could remember her name, as she was wonderful.

Anyone in the Indianapolis area know how to fix brakes on a truck? Luckily, my old Toyota pickup was in the back yard and missed the carnage in the driveway, but it isn't driveable until the brakes are fixed and a tire and the battery replaced. Oh, and it needs plated and insured. Anyone think I can do that on $60? I thought not.

At least Social Security is acting quickly to get the Spousal Unit on disability... No, wait, that isn't true either. He has another appointment for lab work for them, so we're looking at another 6 months of that dragging on, too. And then they'll say no and we start that entire process over again.

Is there a lesson in this? Yes. Never, ever say "Things just can't get any worse." They will, in spades.

Happy Mother's Day to me. We have our health, and I have a job. It could be worse.

Zero Tolerance Horror

In Columbus, GA a teenaged boy named Kevin Francois answered his cellphone during his lunch period at Spencer High School. On answering it, he discovers it is his mother, Sgt 1st Class Monique Bates, a member of the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, currently deployed in Iraq. Sgt. Bates has been deployed to Iraq since January.

Sounds like the beginning of a wonderful story, doesn't it? Well, it isn't.

Spencer High School has a cellphone policy which prohibits all calls during school hours, even though students are permitted to carry one anywhere on campus. When Kevin received this call from his mother 8 time zones away and in a war zone, he was told to disconnect the call. He told the teacher doing lunchroom duty at the time "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."

Does this teacher show some compassion to a kid with a mother in harm's way? Did the teacher take into account that this kid's mother may have been using the only opportunity to place a call that she will have for days? Did this teacher allow him to complete his call, perhaps taking him into the hallway to finish it with a little more privacy than lunch room provided?

No. This teacher insisted he end the call, pushed him to the point of profanity, pronounced him "defiant and disorderly" then had him removed to the office for all due punishment.

Punishment meted? A 10 day suspension. It could have been worse. Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham stated it this way:

"Kevin got defiant and disorderly. When a kid becomes out of control like that they can either be arrested or suspended for 10 days. Now being that his mother is in Iraq, we're not trying to cause her any undue hardship; he was suspended for 10 days."

I'm going to be really honest with you on this. I'm a big fan of discipline in the schools. My own daughter went through the third grade at a Catholic school, and I made it abundantly clear to her that corporal punishment was an option if she acted out. But I also believe that there is no such thing as "One Size Fits All" when it comes to dealing with kids.

Zero Tolerance on a phone call? And a 10 day suspension for letting the Cellphone Gestapo Enforcer Anal Retentive Patrol push his buttons and set him off?

Animals, all of them.

Jack sent me a link this evening that was very disturbing, one that made me pause before writing. He was too angry to write on it. I am angry as well, but I feel the need to get this out.

We all understand the predator. Jackels, hyenas, the felines, all are predators who take other animals as food. Some do so quickly and relatively humanely, while others do so in cruel and vicious ways, eviscerating their prey even as it bleats or cries out.

And although we look at some of these predators as brave, efficient, or proud, when you get down to reality, they are nothing more or less than opportunistic. You never see a masterful male lion facing down the largest wildebeast. You never witness on some Discovery or National Geographic program a single hyena showing stealth and courage against the alpha bull in a herd of cape buffalo. What you do see is a systematic taking of some herd member who is too old, too weak, or too young and inexperienced to stay within the herd. What we watch are predators taking those animals who either cannot stay with their herd or that have been expelled by the herd because of some weakness.

It is the same with any predator. Any weakness is exploited, the prey is separated from it's safety, and it is taken by claw and fang, devoured and left for scavengers to pick at for any shred that is left.

Ah, we look at this from our living rooms and say to ourselves "how good it is that we have evolved, that we no longer live by such natural law." We see this battle for life and we believe that our humanity places us safely above it. To this, I say we are fools if we believe it.

A young girl, a 16 year old girl with a disability, was seen as weak by a pack of predators at her high school and was taken by these predators. They cruelly took her, physically assaulted her, then forced her to perform oral sex on at least two of them while the others in this small pack stood by and one even went so far as to video tape the acts. And just like on some documentary or some educational film, the rest of the herd stood back and watched.

Then, to make matters worse, the school's assistant principal, one of the persons charged by the school board to run the school and to keep it safe for all of the students in attendence, told the father of this young girl not to call 911 and report the attacks. She and her school's reputations were of greater concern to her than letting the police deal with a pack of rogue animals.

Before anyone starts name calling in comments about my use of the word "animals" to describe these vicious, two-legged predators, let me point you to the article again. I have no idea what sort of neighborhood this school is in, or what the ethnic, social, economic, racial, or religious makeup of the school is, much less of the sleezy, ruthless punks who perpetrated such acts against a 16 year old girl. Nor do I care. I don't give two wits about their family lives, their academic records, their membership on any sports team, or what kind of music they listen to. Anyone who would commit an act, no, a series of acts like this on anyone, male or female, is nothing but an animal and should be treated exactly like any unpredictable rogue animal.

So far, they are suspended from school. This is hardly enough. An assault of this nature does not warrant an investigation by the school board and some window dressing meeting to hear all of the sides of the story. These punks video taped the assault and should have been immediately expelled AND handed over to the police. The community needs to demand that the prosecutors file adult charges against these criminals if at all possible, and do whatever it takes to get all of them convicted. No half-assed plea bargain should be acceptable to this girl, to her father, or to the community in which this occurred.

And the prinicipal and assistant who wanted to protect the school instead of calling the police? Well, neither of them are at that school any longer, and much the better. But are there any charges that can be filed against them for their attempts to aid and abet these animals? If not, there certainly should be. They was in positions of trust and they broke that trust irrepairably.

A pack of wild dogs, a weak victim, and a principal who sought not to protect the flock entrusted to her but to protect the curs. Sickening.

Update: This just gets worse. According to a news story today, not only did the principal not call the police, she never called the father. It was not until a teacher called him and told him to take her for medical attention did he have any idea anything had happened.

And according to Glenn Beck's radio show this morning, the "witnesses" didn't just happen to be there, but were called to watch and actually cheered on the animals as they assaulted the girl. Students ran down the halls to get there to watch, and there were teachers aware of the situation as it was happening who chose to do nothing to stop it.

Seems the inmates were running that asylum. Police are in posession of the video tape yet no charges have been filed by the prosecutors. I have a real problem with that. A major problem. This is a no-brainer, people. This does not take almost a week to sort out. And yes, as hoosierboy said in comments, this IS a hate crime. They obviously targeted a disabled girl. Where are the activists? Where is the ACLU? Where are the feminists?

Probably representing the animals, if we only knew.

Sadness

It is over. God rest her soul.

Given the circumstances, perhaps it is now time for the state Attorney General to take possession of her remains from the county coroner and do the exhaustive autopsy that needs be done, rather than the minimal one I'm sure will be done at the county level.

At the very least get it out of that county and into another. I would personally prefer that it be done at a university medical lab, where there (hopefully) would be no political motivation to find evidence to support either side, only the truth.

We can only hope.

Even more future...

SlagleRock, the much beloved nephew, has looked at the future through a slightly different lense than I did...

I am saddened and very frustrated with the direction I see our nation hurtling, with people wrapping up their politics in false caring and smuggly refusing to consider anything which contradicts their own predetermined agendas on many extreme issues.

Volumes of information have released over the last several days, information made available to the courts years ago by nurses and other care givers which completely contradicts what the courts decided was "The Truth" in this case. And even with this mounting evidence, graphic and disturbing as it is, there are many individuals and institutions which refuse to consider any of it. They chose instead to cast dispursions on those persons who came forward, discounting and dismissing any evidence.

"Why didn't they come forward before now?" They did. There are sworn afidavits from 2003.

"They're just using this to further their fundamentalist [fill in denomination], neo-con, pro-life, closed minded cause." And that dragon has two heads, both of which can leave a nasty bite.

"Well, no one should be forced to live like that." Conversely, no one should be forced to die like that. This is not the gnawing emptiness you feel from skipping a meal. This is the agony of feeling your body disolve as it desparately consumes itself in a futile effort to survive.

"I'm sick of hearing about it. It's all they talk about over and over on the news." Listen now, or no one will be there to listen when it's all about you.

We find ourselves on Good Friday immersed in a whole new passion. We have screamed ourselves hoarse, either demanding the death of an innocent or pleading for her life. And as that day almost two thousand years ago, the corruption of the judges in upholding the Law has made the decision.

In our future?

"Darling, I'm home. Anything interesting happen today?"

"Oh, not much. Talked to your mom today."

"How's she doing?"

"She's fine. She was a little worried about your dad. Seems he forgot where the car was parked at the mall again today."

"Yes, poor old dad's getting a bit forgetful. How's he doing now?"

"Much better. She found out he didn't have an advanced directive, so the nice people from the little clinic at their retirement village came to the mall and deprived him of oxygen for a few minutes. Oh, that reminds me, don't forget your good suit's in the cleaners."

"Thank you, Dear. Yes, poor old Dad. Well, at least he's not suffering any more. How's Mom doing?"

"A lot better now. Seems he was the one who drove them to the mall in the first place, and she ended up having to call a cab to get home. But she sends her love."

"I'll give her a call later. And the kids? Any problems with them?"

"Well... yes... I... had to put one of them down today."

"Oh... Well, which one?"

"Little Bobby... Now dear, I know he was your favorite and Little League was getting ready to start and all, but I really didn't have much of a choice..."

"If you say so... How'd it happen?"

"He was out having a catch with the Whitfield boys down the street, and took a pretty good lick to the head. That Petie Whitfield's got quite an arm... Anyway, he dropped like a steer at Uncle Ferd's farm on slaughtering day."

"Ouch! What happened then? He didn't suffer did he?"

"Oh, no Dear, not at all. He laid there for a while, and that nice lady down the street, what's her name... something Gomphers... anyway, she came over and looked him over and decided he was just too far gone to save. She's a certified hospice discharge planner, you know. She does this kind of thing every day."

"Well glad to know she was there to help out..."

"Yes, she was very sweet about it. She tested all of his responses and everything. He was just limp as a dishrag, and even nudging didn't bring him around, so we just let him go. Took a few minutes, and he started to struggle and push the pillow away, but she said that it was all involuntary and happens all the time... he wasn't really feeling it."

"That's a comfort. Yeah, I'm going to miss that boy... Bobby, right?"

"Yes. Bobby."

"Yes... So, what's for dinner?"

Love?

Love's a cruel and fickle bitch sometimes.

You meet, you fall in love, you marry, "for better or for worse" seems to become a series of misadventures and small tragedies that grow on themselves... The happy times grew fewer, the sad times become the norm. Touch is nonexistant and resentments build.

Friends tire of the everpresent cloud and eventually leave. Resentment becomes bitterness.

Love never really dies, but metamorphoses into something foreign and cold.

Love's a fickle bitch. She's a tramp and a whore who lures you into her chambers with promises of things she cannot ever fulfill, then you're trapped with her, chained to her bedpost, obligated to her, enslaved to her.

Sometime she makes the torment even worse by placing near you someone you cannot have, close but unattainable, then lays languidly, cruelly on the temple of her bed to watch your agony.

She's hardcore, impulsive, impetuous, meanspirited. She takes the things away that mean the most, and passes off palid substitutions, demanding you accept them.

So much for Love.

This has been a test of the Emotional Disaster System. Had this been an actual Emotional Disaster, you would have been directed to the nearest source of Chocolate. Thus concludes our test of the Emotional Disaster System. Thank you.

It's war, folks.

I only have a moment, so this will be quick.

Go to Misha's and read the post on the FEC and Bloggers and the declared war against us. Then read this and follow the links.

I will be posting more on this later, as time permits, but I want you all fired up NOW. Get reading, and better yet, get writing. Posts, letters, emails. You know the drill.

Lunch Break... I'm sitting here thinking of this situation, and what I can see in my mind's eye are people being removed from the streets for standing on a soapbox and speaking their minds. Everyone was so terrified of the Patriot Act, of the gulags filled with dissenters in a Gitmo-esque scene. But no, it will not be that big scary Bogieman that will cause citizens to be harassed and harangued, their livelyhoods and homes threatened. It will be Campaign Law.

If I cannot speak my mind on the electronic street corner, is the actual street corner far behind? If I cannot discuss the merits or shortcomings of a candidate in the company of virtual friends, will my circle of "face" friends be next?

Break's over. I'm sure I'll be even more outraged as the evening progresses.

Screwed up

I so screwed up today. I had been given a shift to work today that is off my normal shift, and I missed it.

Not only did I miss it, I missed the phone calls by my Lead Operator, trying to get me to come in. I was so sound asleep, I missed the calls completely. Only after getting dressed for my "normal" 2:30 to 10:30 shift did I check *69 to see if I had gotten any calls, and found the call from work had been the last one, hours ago.

When I called, well, it went better than expected. I had expected to be told not to come in. It would have been only fair, as I had really thrown a wrench into the flow of the office by not being there to cover the phones for the day shift operators during their lunches and final breaks. But I was told to come in for the 2:30 shift.

Damnit. If it's not one thing it's another. We're so short right now, and the schedule is so tight, that one person missing is catastrophic. At least they were able to get another evening operator to come in early for break relief, and I imagine he was there quickly.

Wish me luck. I'm sure this will get ugly.

Talk With Me...

I work 5, sometimes 6 days a week as a switchboard operator for a very large group of hospitals. An average of 250 times an evening, hear a beep in my left ear, my cue to say "Thank you for calling (Blah-blah) Hospital, this is (My Name). How may I direct your call?" If it is not that, it is some variation of that.

"Can you hold one moment please? Thank you."
"Thank you for holding. How may I help you?"
"Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Thank you. Connecting you now."
"Thank you. One moment while I page."
"Thank you. Let me get that number for you."

You would think after doing that 250+ times in a day I'd be all talked out. Well, perhaps some people would be, but I assure you, I am not. Repeating a script over and over is only "speaking" and not "conversing." Sure, I'm tired of parrotting a script, but at the same time I'm starved for conversation, hungry for a genuine discussion and the give and take of minds.

Don't understand that? Apparently neither does a great many people.

Nothing To See Here Folks...Move Along

So the U.N. has released a report stating that there was no genocide in the Sudan...

Yeah...when bandits and militiamen, known as janjaweed, are systematically hunting down three different tribes in a massive land grab--at the behest of the Sudanese government--- it's not genocide...it's just a litte farmer's squabble.

This is disturbing. I know it's easy to poke fun and spew at the U.N., but this isn't the first time they've ignored slaughter on a mass scale.

In 1994 Koffee Anus and his U.N. cronies ignored reports that a tribe known as the Hutus were planning an attack on another tribe, the Tutsis. the result was a three month killing spree of over 800,000 people.

I met a Tutsis man and his wife a couple of years back. I was leaving a bookstore when I saw a vehicle pulling up...the license plate simply said "Tutsis."

I approached the man and asked him if he wouldn't mind answering a few questions about Rawanda. I didn't have to ask...he said it was all true. His wife showed me what was left of her left hand--her thumb, index, and middle finger. I also noticed sever burn marks on her face, but knew better than to inquire.

The man unbuttoned his collar and showed me where a Hutu had tried to slit his throat. The man told me he only survived because he thought that since he was going to die, it was better to fight like a man, than die like a dog.

He and his wife escaped Rawanda via some missionaries. He is now a college student studying politcal science and criminal justice. She has a degree in Business Administration and is putting her husband through college.

I thanked the man for his time and apologized if I brought up any bad memories. He happily shook my hand and reassured me that he would NEVER forget what happened in Rawanda and he hoped that Americans would learn about and never forget either.

I pray that the situation in the Sudan doesn't go the direction Rawanda did...but it looks to be so...

But of course, the U.N. is the only moral governing body in the world, so we should take their word for it...

But I guess the slaughter of Africans, Christians, and Jews aren't a big priority for the moral authorities....

meh.

Oh, the Horror! The Horror!

In a recent developement, CNN has obtained this video capture from a suspected terrorist site claiming responsibility for the taking of beloved bad boy Cartman of South Park fame.

The terrorists, who giggled incessantly during the video, have declared Cartman was taken hostage as an enemy of the Cartoon Network, and will be erased within 48 hours unless Special Ops Cody is released by a rival terrorist group. They also demanded a later bed time on weekdays and less homework at IPS 108, a junior high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

One of the terrorists, who called himself Eddy Obi Ben-Wan-Kenobi, read from a prepared statement, while Cartman could be heard cursing in the background at two other terrorists, also named Ed.

Representatives from the Comedy Channel could not be reached for comment, but former cast member Towelie did confirm that Cartman had been approached recently by persons claiming to be from the USO for a tour which was to include Newark, NJ, Baghdad, and Mosul.

"Like, we all told him not to go to Newark. Look at what happened to Jimmy... Jimmy... Oh, you know, that guy who they never found a loooong time ago," stated Towelie. "Even Chef told him it was a really bad idea."

This is a Bad Thing

This is really bad thing, if it signals a trend among service providers and weblog hosts.

My initial concern was that the web host either bowed to pressure from the mullahs or their proxies to drop the access, or were accepting monies or the promise of favors in return from these same entities.

Even worse was the possibility that it was at the request of the perfumed parlor-snakes of Foggy Bottom as a means of ingratiating themselves with the Revolutionary Guard to appease them out of a nuclear program.

Why all of a sudden does a server completely disconnect these people? It's not like it's an Iranian or Saudi or Syrian server, controlled by the government. It's a server in Texas, for Chrissakes, the state with the most fiercely independent people in the nation. This is the state where at any time they could decide they want to be a sovereign nation (again) and secede with impunity. Hard to imagine that a person or a group of persons in a state like Texas would silence the voices of an entire nation as it cries out for freedom and justice.

Yet this company, The Planet, has done exactly that and cut-off access to the Iranian bloggers, the only real voice of the people in the country and the only portal for freedom and free information into the country. And the real reason?

They're afraid of Homeland Security. Seriously.

Aaron Weisburd, of Carbondale, Ill., who tracks down websites affiliated with Islamic terror groups for his organization, Internet Haganah, suspects The Planet may just be "trigger happy" at the moment following recent reports in the Dallas media. Web servers operated by The Planet were said to have hosted some Al Qaeda-affiliated sites whose owners had bought space through middlemen.

A day after a story aired on The Planet in November on the Dallas CBS affiliate station, two Al Qaeda websites and two for Hamas were no
longer available. The sites were located by Mr. Weisburd, who says if
anything the US authorities actually pressure providers to keep suspect sites
online so they can be monitored - an approach he criticizes
strongly.

The article goes on to state that Iranian bloggers listing other countries as their location are putting along just fine, but that Iranian bloggers listing Iran as their location were given only 48 hours in which to find new servers (and quite likely to also get full backups of their archives so not to lose them completely) before shutting down the sites.

We as individuals and as a nation value free speech and hold it more dear than most of our other rights under the constitution. It is the right of free speech which helps us to preserve all of those other rights. And yet out of fear of losing a buck, the ability to exercise just a little bit of this freedom was ripped from the fingertips of a people that yearns in the darkness for the light of liberty and self detimination.

It is time to place that shoe firmly upon the other foot.

Posted for Mama

Holocaust Haberdashery

Some people should be castrated. What kind of Fu**nozzle worries about the attire of a person attending a Holocaust memorial?

OSWIECIM, Poland -- Vice President Dick Cheney's utilitarian hooded parka and boots stood out amid the solemn formality of a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Nazi death camps, raising eyebrows among the fashion-conscious.

Umm...You should have kept your f@#$ing eyebrows lowered in reverence of the MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO WERE MURDERED BY THE NAZIS...

Ahem...

Cheney replaced the zipped-to-the-neck green parka he sported in Thursday's blowing snow and freezing wind with a more traditional black coat - red tie and gray scarf showing underneath - for his tour of Auschwitz on Friday.

Yesssssss, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vice-President looks just stunning in his parka and adorrrrrable scarf...

Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan described Cheney's look at the deeply moving 60th anniversary service as "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."

The man is paying his respects to Holocaust victims and all you can think of is snow frickin' blowers.

I got something you can blow...you effete F@#$ing snob.

"Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood," Givhan wrote in Friday's Post, also mocking Cheney's knit ski cap embroidered with the words "Staff 2001" and his brown, lace-up hiking boots. "The vice president looked like an awkward child amid the well-dressed adults," she said.

No, you stupid bitch, He looked like a regular guy paying his respects to some poor souls who had the poor misfortune of being hated by leftist thugs. The only child I can see, is the one who pays attention to wardrobe choices, when they should be paying attention to why the memorial is being held in the first damn place.

Jeez, woman, get a clue...

Link via Drudge

“Only really the UN can do that job"

Not that it should surprise anyone, but ANOTHER UN official has been caught(registration may be required) with his hands in the till:

The head of an anti-corruption watchdog who last week accused Indonesian officials of inflating refugee numbers to boost aid payments has been arrested for allegedly diverting large quantities of aid.

In a furore that threatens to undermine faith in the $10 billion relief effort, Farid Faqih, chairman of Government Watch and a leading United Nations contractor in Aceh, was in police custody yesterday after being apprehended by Indonesian air force officers.

Why am I NOT surprised that a UN official is involved in this...?

Last night the United Nations said it was conducting its own investigation into the claims.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Wait...is this the same UN that stated some of us (i.e. the U.S.) were being stingy with aid? Or is this the same UN that claimed “Only really the UN can do that job?"

Or...maybe this is the same U.N. that effectively investigated the Food for Oil scam...or the same U.N. that investigated some of its members for sexually exploiting refugess in return for jars of jam?

Remember folks...ONLY the U.N. has the Moral Authority to do anything in this world...

Hat tip to Frontpagemag.com for the info and link.

All Work and No Play...

An assnugget named Peer Larson has decided that doing homework cramps his lifestyle...

From Foxnews.com:

Peer Larson, 17, had lined up a dream camp counselor job last June, but honors pre-calculus homework turned his summer into a headache.

"It didn't completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work," the high school junior said Thursday. "I just didn't have the energy or the time for it."

Oh Boo Frickety Hoo!

You take an honors class...then bytch and moan because it causes you some stress at your summer camp excursion...Get over it you fu**ing self-indulged, baby-boomer spawn. College will be no walk in the park. Honors classes, more times than not, are designed to separate the wheat from the husks.

If you want to spend your summers feeling up 13 year olds at summer camp, then don't waste the school's time and money by signing up for honors courses.

I predict this asshat will sue his future college for forcing him to come home early, after a spring break session full of binge drinking and co-ed raping, to finish his essay in remedial logic.

ChickenSh*ts

You liberals really are something else...You want your freedoms--speech, association, sexual, religious, etc.--but when the military comes around asking for volunteers, most of you either scamper away, or pull despicable crap like this...

They must have felt real tough shouting down the soldier...being that there are around 20-30 of them and only ONE of him.

I wonder if the assholes in that picture have an inkling of who, what, where, when, why, and how their precious freedoms are/were secured.

They probably do, but being liberals, they only care about dead soldiers when:

1. The soldier's family speaks out against the President;
2. The soldier is a liberal;
3. The soldier dies in a war they deem illegitimate or unpopular.

Since you have no problem throwing the "Chickenhawk" label around, I'll return the favor...if you criticize or harass the military, but aren't willing to join up yourselves, you are ChickenShits...plain and simple.

At least the Chickenhawks have the good sense to know who's defending their freedoms.

Meh.

Thanks to Jonah at The Corner for the heads up...

Rice v. Boxer

This is just too good not to post. It is another glaring example of how an elected official, a public servant, can become so full of their own importance and yet so completely unaware of their own foolishness as to become a liability, not only for the constituents in the state she supposedly represents, but to an entire nation.

Senator Dick Lugar, a man who has overstayed his welcome in DC because the state he and I share as home refuse to pitch his increasingly out of touch and self-promoting ass out, has shown remarkable lack of control over his own committee. Does he believe that perhaps someday some large lobbying group may offer him a lucrative position because he was so easy to walk all over by a ranting lunatic? Does he think that his lack of control will give him some edge for some future consulting opportunity? Or had he simply dozed off and lost track of Ms. Boxer's rambling rant?

Just click below and read a transcript of the exchange. Then ask yourself why Boxer is even on this committee in the first place.

SEN. BOXER: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Rice, for agreeing to stay as long as it takes, because some of us do have a lot of questions.

And, Senator Lugar, you are a very fair chairman, and I wanted to say to the new members also welcome -- and you'll enjoy this committee, because we have such a great chairman and such a terrific ranking member, and we really do a lot of things in a bipartisan way, unlike other committees. And I think you're going to enjoy your time here.

Dr. Rice, before I get to my formal remarks, you no doubt will be confirmed -- that's at least what we think. And if you're going to become the voice of diplomacy -- this is just a helpful point -- when Senator Voinovich mentioned the issue of tsunami relief, you said -- your first words were, "The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity for us." Now, the tsunami was one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime -- one of the worst -- and it's going to have a 10-year impact on rebuilding that area. I was very disappointed in your statement. I think you blew the opportunity. You mention it as part of one sentence. And I would hope to work with you on this, because children are suffering, we're worried they're going to get in the sex trade. This thing is a disaster, a true natural disaster and a human disaster of great proportions, and I hope that the State Department will take a huge lead under your leadership in helping those folks in the long range.

Well, Mr. Chairman, again I thank you. I am -- Dr. Rice, I was glad you mentioned Martin Luther King -- it was very appropriate, given everything. And he also said, Martin Luther King, quote, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." And one of the things that matters most to my people in California and the people in America is this war in Iraq.

Now, it took you to page three of your testimony to mention the word "Iraq." You said very little really about it, and only in the questioning have we been able to get into some areas. Perhaps you agree with President Bush, who said all that's been resolved. I'm quoting today's Post: "Bush said in an interview last week with the Washington Post that the '04 election was a moment of accountability for the decisions he made in Iraq." But today's Washington Post/ABC poll found that 58 percent disapprove of his handling of the situation, to 40 percent who approve -- and only 44 percent said the war was worth fighting.

So in your statement it takes you to page three to mention the word "Iraq." Then you mention it in the context of elections -- which is fine -- but you never even mention indirectly the 1,366 American troops that have died, or the 10,372 who have been wounded -- many mentally, as a report that I read over the weekend that maybe a third will come home and need help because of what they saw -- it's been so traumatic to them. And 25 percent of those dead are from my home state. And this from a war that was based on what everyone now says, including your own administration, were falsehoods about WMDs, weapons of mass destruction. And I've had tens of thousands of people from all over the country say that they disagree -- although they respect the president -- they disagree that this administration and the people in it shouldn't be held accountable. I don't know if you saw the movie, "The Fog of War" -- war is a nightmare, you know that. Colin Powell I think was the most eloquent I've heard on it, because he's seen it himself -- he's been there and done it. And I don't want to have you in a circumstance where you're writing something years later about the fog of war. And I'm fearful if we don't see some changes here we're going to have trouble.

And I think the way we should start is by trying to set the record straight on some of the things you said going into this war. Now, since 9/11 we've been engaged in a just fight against terror. And I, like Senator Feingold and everyone here who was in the Senate at the time, voted to go after Osama bin Laden and to go after the Taliban, and to defeat al Qaeda. And you say they have left territory -- that's not true. Your own documents show that al Qaeda has expanded from 45 countries in '01 to more than 60 countries today.

Well, with you in the lead role, Dr. Rice, we went into Iraq. I want to read you a paragraph that best expresses my views, and ask my staff if they would hold this up -- and I believe the views of millions of Californians and Americans. It was written by one of the world's experts on terrorism, Peter Bergen, five months ago. He wrote: "What we have done in Iraq is what bin Laden could not have hoped for in his wildest dreams: We invaded an oil-rich Muslim nation in the heart of the Middle East, the very type of imperial adventure bin Laden has long predicted was the U.S.'s long-term goal in the region. We deposed the secular socialist Saddam, whom bin Laden has long despised, ignited Sunni and Shi'a fundamentalist fervor in Iraq, and have now provoked a defensive jihad that has galvanized jihad- minded Muslims around the world. It's hard to imagine a set of policies better designed to sabotage the war on terror." This conclusion was reiterated last Thursday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank, which released a report saying that Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of professionalized terrorists.

That's your own administration's CIA. NIC chairman Robert Hutchings said Iraq is, quote, "a magnet for international terrorist activity."

And this was not the case in '01. And I have great proof of it, including a State Department document that lists every country -- could you hold that up? -- in which al Qaeda operated prior to 9/11. And you can see the countries; no mention of Iraq. And this booklet was signed off on by the president of the United States, George W. Bush. It was put out by George Bush's State Department, and he signed it. There was no al Qaeda activity there -- no cells.

Now, the war was sold to the American people, as Chief of Staff to President Bush Andy Card said, like a "new product." Those were his words. Remember, he said, "You don't roll out a new product in the summer." Now, you rolled out the idea and then you had to convince the people, as you made your case with the president.

And I personally believe -- this is my personal view -- that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth. And I don't say it lightly, and I'm going to go into the documents that show your statements and the facts at the time.

Now, I don't want the families of those 1,366 troops that were killed or the 10,372 that were wounded to believe for a minute that their lives and their bodies were given in vain, because when your commander-in-chief asks you to sacrifice yourself for your country, it is the most noble thing you can do to answer that call.

I am giving their families, as we all are here, all the support they want and need. But I also will not shrink from questioning a war that was not built on the truth.

Now, perhaps the most well-known statement you've made was the one about Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the image of, quote, quoting you, "a mushroom cloud." That image had to frighten every American into believing that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of annihilating them if he was not stopped. And I will be placing into the record a number of such statements you made which have not been consistent with the facts.

As the nominee for secretary of State, you must answer to the American people, and you are doing that now through this confirmation process. And I continue to stand in awe of our founders, who understood that ultimately those of us in the highest positions of our government must be held accountable to the people we serve.

So I want to show you some statements that you made regarding the nuclear threat and the ability of Saddam to attack us. Now, September 5th -- let me get to the right package here. On July 30th, 2003, you were asked by PBS NewsHour's Gwen Ifill if you continued to stand by the claims you made about Saddam's nuclear program in the days and months leading up to the war.

In what appears to be an effort to downplay the nuclear-weapons scare tactics you used before the war, your answer was, and I quote, "It was a case that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next year." So that's what you said to the American people on television -- "Nobody ever said it was going to be the next year."

Well, that wasn't true, because nine months before you said this to the American people, what had George Bush said, President Bush, at his speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center? "If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly-enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year."

So the president tells the people there could be a weapon. Nine months later you said no one ever said he could have a weapon in a year, when in fact the president said it.

And here's the real kicker. On October 10th, '04, on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, three months ago, you were asked about CIA Director Tenet's remark that prior to the war he had, quote, "made it clear to the White House that he thought the nuclear-weapons program was much weaker than the program to develop other WMDs. Your response was this: "The intelligence assessment was that he was reconstituting his nuclear program; that, left unchecked, he would have a nuclear weapon by the end of the year."

So here you are, first contradicting the president and then contradicting yourself. So it's hard to even ask you a question about this, because you are on the record basically taking two sides of an issue. And this does not serve the American people.

If it served your purpose to downplay the threat of nuclear weapons, you said, "No one said he's going to have it in a year." But then later, when you thought that perhaps you were on more solid ground with the American people because at the time the war was probably popular, or more popular, you'd say, "We thought he was going to have a weapon within a year."

And this is -- the question is, this is a pattern here of what I see from you on this issue, on the issue of the aluminum tubes, on the issue of whether al Qaeda was actually involved in Iraq, which you've said many times. And in my rounds -- I don't have any questions on this round, because I'm just laying this out; I do have questions on further rounds about similar contradictions. It's very troubling.

You know, if you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would care about what we said? But this product is a war, and people are dead and dying, and people are now saying they're not going to go back because of what they experienced there. And it's very serious.

And as much as I want to look ahead -- and we will work together on a myriad of issues -- it's hard for me to let go of this war, because people are still dying. And you have not laid out an exit strategy. You've not set up a timetable.

And you don't seem to be willing to, A, admit a mistake, or give any indication of what you're going to do to forcefully involve others. As a matter of fact, you've said more misstatements; that the territory of the terrorists has been shrinking when your own administration says it's now expanded to 60 countries. So I am deeply troubled.

MS. RICE: Senator, may I respond?

SEN. LUGAR: Yes, let me just say that I appreciate the importance of Senator Boxer's statement. That's why we allowed the statement to continue for several more minutes of time.

SEN. BOXER: I'm sorry, I lost track of time.

SEN. LUGAR: But clearly you ought to have the right to respond. Then, at that point, we're going to have a recess. But will you please give your response?

MS. RICE: Yes. Senator, I am more than aware of the stakes that we face in Iraq, and I was more than aware of the stakes of going to war in Iraq. I mourn and honor -- I mourn the dead and honor their service, because we have asked American men and women in uniform to do the hardest thing, which is to go and defend freedom and give others an opportunity to build a free society, which will make us safer.

Senator, I have to say that I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity.

The fact is that we did face a very difficult intelligence challenge in trying to understand what Saddam Hussein had in terms of weapons of mass destruction. We knew something about him. We knew that he had -- we had gone to war with him twice in the past, in 1991 and in 1998.

We knew that he continued to shoot at American aircraft in the no-fly zone as we tried to enforce the resolutions of U.N. Security -- that the U.N. Security Council had passed. We knew that he continued to threaten his neighbors. We knew that he was an implacable enemy of the United States who did cavort with terrorists.

We knew that he was the world's most dangerous man in the world's most dangerous region. And we knew that in terms of weapons of mass destruction, he had sought them before, tried to build them before, that he had an undetected biological weapons program that we didn't learn of until 1995, that he was closer to a nuclear weapon in 1991 than anybody thought. And we knew, most importantly, that he had used weapons of mass destruction.

That was the context that frankly made us awfully suspicious when he refused to account for his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs despite repeated Security Council resolutions and despite the fact that he was given one last chance to comply with Resolution 1441.

Now, there were lots of data points about his weapons-of-mass- destruction progra MS. Some were right and some were not. But what was right was that there was an unbreakable link between Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction. That is something that Charlie Duelfer, in his report of the Iraq survey group, has made very clear, that Saddam Hussein intended to continue his weapons-of-mass- destruction activities, that he had laboratories that were run by his security services. I could go on and on.

But Senator Boxer, we went to war not because of aluminum tubes. We went to war because this was the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a man against whom we had gone to war before, who threatened his neighbors, who threatened our interests, who was one of the world's most brutal dictators. And it was high time to get rid of him, and I'm glad that we're rid of him.

Now, as to the statement about territory and the terrorist groups, I was referring to the fact that the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden, which once trained openly in Afghanistan, which once ran with impunity in places like Pakistan, can no longer count on hospitable territory from which to carry out their activities.

In the places where they are, they're being sought and run down and arrested and pursued in ways that they never were before. So we can have a semantic discussion about what it means to take or lose territory, but I don't think it's a matter of misstatement to say that the loss of Afghanistan, the loss of the northwest frontier of Pakistan, the loss of running with impunity in places like Saudi Arabia, the fact that now intelligence networks and law enforcement networks pursue them worldwide, means that they have lost territory where they can operate with impunity.

SEN. BOXER: Mr. Chairman, I'm going to take 30 seconds, with your permission. First of all, Charles Duelfer said, and I quote -- here it is; I ask unanimous consent to place in the record Charlie Duelfer's report --

SEN. LUGAR: It will be placed in the record.

SEN. BOXER: -- in which he says, "Although Saddam clearly assigned a high value to the nuclear progress and talent that had been developed up to '91, the program ended and the intellectual capital decayed in the succeeding years."

Here's the point. You and I could sit here and go back and forth and present our arguments, and maybe somebody watching a debate would pick one or the other, depending on their own views. But I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in the facts. So when I ask you these questions, I'm going to show you your words, not my words.

And, if I might say, again you said you're aware of the stakes in Iraq; we sent our beautiful people -- and thank you, thank you so much for your comments about them -- to defend freedom. You sent them in there because of weapons of mass destruction. Later, the mission changed when there were none. I have your quotes on it. I have the president's quotes on it.

And everybody admits it but you that that was the reason for the war. And then, once we're in there, now it moves to a different mission, which is great. We all want to give democracy and freedom everywhere we can possibly do it. But let's not rewrite history. It's too soon to do that.

MS. RICE: Senator Boxer, I would refer you to the president's speech before the American Enterprise Institute in February, prior to the war, in which he talked about the fact that, yes, there was the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but he also talked to the strategic threat that Saddam Hussein was to the region.

Saddam Hussein was a threat, yes, because he was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. And, yes, we thought that he had stockpiles which he did not have. We had problems with the intelligence. We are all, as a collective polity of the United States, trying to deal with ways to get better intelligence.

But it wasn't just weapons of mass destruction. He was also a place -- his territory was a place where terrorists were welcomed, where he paid suicide bombers to bomb Israel, where he had used Scuds against Israel in the past.

And so we knew what his intentions were in the region; where he had attacked his neighbors before and, in fact, tried to annex Kuwait; where we had gone to war against him twice in the past. It was the total picture, Senator, not just weapons of mass destruction, that caused us to decide that, post-September 11th, it was finally time to deal with Saddam Hussein.

SEN. BOXER: Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that, you know, particular vote.

But, again, I just feel you quote President Bush when it suits you but you contradicted him when he said, "Yes, Saddam could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year." You go on television nine months later and said, "Nobody ever said it was" --

MS. RICE: Senator, that was just a question of pointing out to people that there was an uncertainty. No one was saying that he would have to have a weapon within a year for it to be worth it to go to war.

SEN. BOXER: Well, if you can't admit to this mistake, I hope that you'll --

MS. RICE: Senator, we can have this discussion in any way that you would like. But I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity. Thank you very much.

SEN. BOXER: I'm not. I'm just quoting what you said. You contradicted the president and you contradicted yourself.

MS. RICE: Senator, I'm happy to continue the discussion, but I really hope that you will not imply that I take the truth lightly.

SEN. LUGAR: Let me intervene at this point. Now we've had four hours of good hearing, and we thank all members for their constancy. We're going to recess, and I'm going to suggest we come back at 2:30. Is that convenient for you, Dr. Rice?

MS. RICE: Perfect.

SEN. LUGAR: Very well. We recess until 2:30.

Okay, I've had it.

I'm sick to death of hearing the moaning and bellyaching about the inauguration and all the extravagence and pomp and conspicuous pagentry when there are soooo many people suffering in *fill in third wold country of choice* from the disasterous *fill in catastrophy of choice* and we should be spending the government's money theeeeeere instead of on King George.

Bullshit.

Since when did Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand become territories of the United States, entitled to protection and guarantees of assistance from the taxpayers of this country and this country damned near alone? Japan is the only other nation pledging an equivalent sum. The rest of the world with relatively few exceptions are like a booth full of mooching relatives who insist on doing their own math when splitting up a large check and conveniently "forget" to include their share of the appetizers or to leave a tip, sticking someone else with making up the difference.

And since when was it required that the United States give up so that the citizens of the EU would not have to make any sort of sacrifice? Do you believe for one sane second that a European head of state would postpone or curtail his or her inaugural plans for anything that occured outside of the borders of their own little fiefdom? Think again.

Also, since when did the taxpayers take over paying for the many inaugural events? Like, never? The various balls and events are being thrown by private citizens and corporations, funding them with their own money or by selling tickets to persons wealthy enough to be able to afford the glitzy formalwear and the multi-thousand dollar check for rubber chicken and frozen cheesecake. If these are the parties that are being thrown by cheating the taxpayers, it must be because according to some malcontents' logic these dollars from the evil rich who should have been paid as taxes so these same eeevil rich wouldn't have the resources to attend an inaugural party, much less throw one in the first place. Give that designer gown to Steam-grate Betty down on E Street so she'll be the bell of the bus stop when she hangs out in there to pick up dropped change or intimidate teenagers out of their lunches.

All of the thuggery and name calling has no more to do with the Tsunami than Colonel Sanders had with Sputnik. It has nothing to do with conscience and everything to do with Sour Grapes.

Sorry, Folks

I apologise for the slim postings. The DSL is still down, and I'm not terribly happy about it.

I spoke to the tech people at SBC on the 14th, the day I had been told by the billing person that DSL would be reactivated. This person shook their head (as evidenced by the rattle I heard through the phone line) and stated that the billing person had no clue about the situation and that because it had been turned off and deleted from their databanks, it would be the 27th if we're lucky.

No one could give me any sort of reason that I could accept as adequate. "It's the way the system is set up," "It has to be completely purged from our computers before we can reestablish the line," "There is nothing we can do until your account is completely out." You know, I just don't buy it.

But until then, I am still on the boat anchor, still on dialup, and still bitching.

Also, and this is on me, I have been spending a lot of time on the novel. I will post a chapter here, just so that you know what I have been up to. Hopefully, after you read it you will understand.

Thanks for continuing to read, though. There's a lot of stuff in the archives that you may have missed, so pick around and see.

Indianapolis Downtown Family Friendly?

By now, half the world has heard about the Colts' big deal with the city of Indianapolis, a package of incentives including a brand spanking new stadium with a retractable roof, most of which the mayor wants to pay for with an increased tax for restaurant patrons and those who rent hotel rooms in the county, paired up with the revenues the city would gain from putting a casino in the downtown area.

That last bit will involve some law changes on the state level to allow casinos on land, since they now must be on riverboats, or what passes for riverboats, on a body of water. They don't have to be free-floating any longer, and most of them are permanently affixed to huge landbased hotel and shopping mall complexes. But an actual building that contains a casino? Not in this state, not so far.

There was a bid to bring a casino into French Lick (you gotta love that name) at a wonderful old resort that was built for that purpose early in the 20th century. But even that hasn't happened yet. Can you say "Trump"?

But a casino in the downtown Indianapolis area?

Actually, I think it's a wonderful idea. We have a great historic building downtown, in close proximity to the old dome and the proposed new dome site, that really is being wasted by its current uses. The Union Station building, restored at great expense and owned by the city, is housing nothing but a small school and a few businesses, none of them taking the entire building. Union Station is a perfect site for a casino/shopping/hotel complex. Hell, the hotel is already there and does a huge business.

So what's the hold up? You're going to love this. There is a contingent in this city that doesn't want it there because it will change downtown and make it into something other than the "family friendly" place it is now.

Family friendly? Who are they kidding? Downtown Indianapolis is nothing if it is not an Adults Only Mecca for youngish drinkers. The bars line up, one after the other, interupted only by a few entrances into the Circle Center Mall, and one of them has a brew-pub/bar as well. Even the establishments with outdoor dining during the warmer months are prohibited from allowing children into the patio/sidewalk areas because they are bars, not restaurants.

The Slippery Noodle, the oldest bar in Indianapolis and a great place to hear live blues from local and national acts, has al fresco dining at patio tables on their sidewalk. But in order for my 10 yr old to hear the music, we have to sit in the car, parked by the curb across the street. She can go into a restaurant that serves beer, wine, and mixed drinks, but she cannot sit outside at a table with her parents to hear the Uppity Blues Women or Gene Deer.

If we want to take her out to a downtown restaurant, we have very few choices, among them Bucca de Bepo and Spaghetti Factory. Anything else is off limits because they are adult only.

If I want to take her for a walk downtown, I have to make sure I keep her off of the main drag, Meridian Street, as soon as the sun goes down because of the drunken party-types both inside the fenced-off patio areas and on the sidewalk. If I drive her downtown to see the Christmas display on Monument Circle, I have to consider what she might see around the bars.

But to hear these people talk, it's the proposed casino that will ruin the downtown area for families. Sorry, folks, that happened a long time ago and it wasn't a casino that did it. Downtown is no more family friendly than that infamous bar district masquarading as an artsy district, Broad Ripple, or the renovated stretch of Mass. Avenue.

So forget that arguement. It doesn't wash. Downtown hasn't been a "Family Friendly" place for years. Put the casino in and keep some of those millions of dollars now going to the riverboats on the Ohio River and up on Lake Michgan here in the county. It's past due, and your arguements against it are falacious.

Routing?

There has been a person or persons recently who have been trying busily to inject viruses and parasitic nasties into my system in mails that reference this blog. And persistent? Goodness, I do believe that if I looked up the word 'Persistent" in the Webster Collegiate, this pest's picture would probably be there.

Well, even I have to admire such determination, but still I have but one thing to say to you: Give it up.

You're just not going to succeed in your mad little attempts to subvert my modest little blog. I have taken a few extreme precautions to guarantee that you won't. I am so confident in these measures, in fact, that I am going to divulge a few of these precautions to you now. You see, all mail to me, either through the comment feature of my blog or otherwise, is captured by off-shore servers in the hold of a decrepit freighter with Liberian registry, which in turn sends it to where it rigorously screened by a group of genetically enhanced middle school computer students living on base at a top secret military research facility at some desolate location in the Nevada Desert, Groom Lake I believe but no one will tell me exactly.

From there it is transmitted to Australia via a T-1 hidden in the rafters of a thatched hut on the beach in Tonga. In Australia, the data is converted from the traditional binary of 0's and 1's to O's and Z's and fired over to Bahrain. There it is converted back into traditional binary and transmitted to a hyper modified Commodore 64 on a table in the guestroom of an anonymous Estonian blogger.

After being rigorously subjected to no less than four state of the art anti-virus programs, then filtered through a top secret nuclear powered super computer in geo-synchronous orbit over Moscow, the signal is lasered to earth by bouncing the intense light beam back and forth between 13 different communications satellites and finally down to the servers at the NIH, which in turn uploads them into the Yahoo servers where they are promptly delivered to my mailbox.

So give it up.

CPS Strikes Again.

This is one of those moments when I wish I were a more fluent and powerful user of both profanity and cursing.

I remember, as a child, reading in the newspapers and hearing on the evening news the stories of forced sterilizations by "well meaning and well intentioned" medical professionals at the behest of governmental agencies who had deemed persons unfit as members of the gene pool. Young black children in orphanages, the blind, the deaf, those with mental illnesses, those with birth defects were all routinely sterilized in hospitals every day.

And the arguements given for such brutalilty were just so "rational" at the time.

"How would they care for a child?"

"We would be burdened with the care of any (fill in the defect) child they produced for as long as it lived."

"Imagine how it would suffer?"

Defective. That's how they looked at these people. Burdensome, nonproductive, a drain on our resources. Quaint archaic notions, all.

But robbed of the tools of their brutal agenda, they have moved on to something much more evil and vicious. Sure, they allow people to retain their ability to have a child, to bring a precious life into the world. Then they step in and rip the family apart in the name of compassion.

Compassion for whom? The mother who cries herself to sleep, terrified of what is being done to her child? The father who grieves for his son or daughter, believing that he will never be able to love his child again? The child who will bounce from foster home to foster home, or be adopted yet always wonder who he or she is?

Thank you, Misha. You just got my blood pressure up.

"A little hit never hurt anyone..."

The next time someone tells me that marijauna smokers aren't a danger to anyone, I'll probably fling poo in their face and proceed to monkeystomp them with a pair of army ClueBoots®...

From NBC 5 in Dallas, Texas:

DALLAS -- A 20-year-old mother of an infant was killed Wednesday in a multi-vehicle crash that closed portions of Interstate 35-E (Stemmons) northbound at Royal Lane.

Investigators arrested an unidentified man at the scene. They said he had been driving erratically in a Lincoln Towncar on the southbound side of the highway before his vehicle clipped an 18-wheeler.

As a result, the semi-truck hit a pickup and both vehicles crossed the highway divider.

"When the 18-wheeler hit [the median], it hit at just the right angle that it was able to jump over the median. It had a lot of inertia and the median just couldn't stop it," Lt. David Smith said.

McCauley's Pontiac sedan traveling northbound collided with at least one of the vehicles, killing her and wounding her baby.

"I see a baby stick his left hand up, or her left hand up ... I got over there and it was just covered in blood. It had a big gash, or a chunk taken out of its forehead," Brian Trip said. "I looked at the mother -- there was no life."

NBC 5 reported that the infant was hospitalized and expected to fully recover.

Police administered a field sobriety test on the man they arrested, and said he admitted to being under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash.

Now, I know some folks feel strongly that we should legalize marijuana. This post isn't intended as an argument against it...I'm merely pointing out that marijuana CAN affect a person's motor skills (no pun intended) and people under the influence are just as dangerous as those bastards who like to get drunk and then arm themselves with a 2000 pound projectile.

Anyway, the story really pissed me off...a baby is now forced to grow up without its mother because some ASSHAT chose to go one toke over the line on a busy highway.

The Abortion Scam

RepublicanJen has a great post on the motives of the abortion on demand crowd.

I wasn't even aware of the Doe Vs Bolton case. The fact that that the "Doe" opponent wasn't even aware that she was involved in the case, or that she was going to forced into having an abortion even further shows that the pro-abortion side of this issue isn't really concerned about the "rights" of women, but only in furthering their agenda.

I agree with Jen that men should have at least some say in this issue as well.

The pro-abortionists say that it is strictly an issue of a womans right over their own body, but my feeling is that women give up part of that right when they voluntarily engage in activity that starts a new life and that the father is also part of that new life....half of the genetic input of that life is his; a woman, by engaging in sexual activity KNOWS of the possibility of pregnancy; by going ahead and engaging in that activity, I believe that she enters into a tacit contract with the father and tacitly gives him some say in the disposition of the results of that activity; if this is not so, by what reasoning can she demand support for that progeny from the father, even against his will?

If the law holds a father responsible, it should also hold him as having some rights. Responsibility without rights is just a further perversion of the perverted liberal idea that rights come without responsiblity.

Dutch on the Slippery Slope

Back in the years preceeding WWII in Europe, Germany began the routine practise of eradicating euthanizing the undesireable infants, the phyisically deformed, the mentally ill, the intellectually retarded, the aged, and eventually those with criminal tendencies as a means of purifying the nordic gene pool and building their "Master Race" for their eventual bid for complete European domination.

Asylums, nurseries, hospitals and pension homes were emptied and their tenants were incinerated after they had been exterminated euthanized for their own good, and the good of the German people. They were a strain on the economy, not to mention a weakening of the fine genetics that were prized by the Nazi eugenists.

And we all know what happened next. Homosexuals, Gypsies, Jews, all deemed impure and undesirable in their great experiment were also swept up in this murderous drive and killed in huge numbers. And then the Poles, and Catholics, and anyone who was politically undesirable.

How did it start again? Oh, I remember. It started with babies.

"In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident."

Sound familiar? It should. History doesn't always repeat, but it always rhymes.

"Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness."

Do you also suppose they plan to include other disorders? Cystic Fibrosis? How about birth-injuries like Cerebral Palsy? Will that be next, or is it just not listed but being done now? Hydrocephalis? Down's Syndrome?

Can you say "Slippery Slope"?

Outrage!!

Subject: FW: stamps

USPS New Stamp
DON'T BUY IT

How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm
Flight 103!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World
Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine
barracks in Lebanon!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American
Embassies in Africa!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were
lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the
EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class
holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp
when purchasing your stamps at the post office.
To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

Aww, shucks.

It's snowing. Sloggy, wet stuff, but not much of it. Thankfully the ground is much too warm for it to accumulate, so it's not much more than something to look at while airborne.

Funny thing is, there was a tornado watch three counties away, and lightning just south of us at about 5pm. In November. Amazing.

Kroger Update

Just wanted to give you an update on the Kroger thing. I received a letter from one of their customer service representatives asking for clarification on which store it was. I looked up the telephone number, thinking that the best way, and provided it to her.

Now we wait.

Media Bias Redux

Tell me something....The Left claims that the MSM isn't biased, or if it is, it's got a conservative slant. Every study I've seen refutes this view, but in any discussion of the subject, this is the view that is blared the loudest by the far Left.

Now we have another example of just how biased the MSM really is. We have had story after story about a Marine supposedly executing an unarmed, possibly already wounded, Iraqi during a sweep of a building which insurgents Islamofacists had been using as a base from which to attack our troops. No background of the circumstances are given, just that one of OUR Marines was to be considered as having committed a war crime.

Now that the clean-up phase of the operation in Fallujah is in it's early stages; what activities that the Islamofacists were engaging in during their hold of the city are starting to come to light....the only problem being that that the MSM isn't shining, or even reflecting, that light.

Read that link and ask yourself WHY THE HELL isn't this in any headline or lead story in a newscast?

Oh, I forgot, they are too busy trying to crucify one of our own as a figure as bad in behaviour as Ghenghis Khan to even try to report on what the animals masquarading as human beings are doing (after all, it would be hard to continue to equate them to our revolutionary war soldiers if these activities came to light, wouldn't it?)

They blather that OUR Marine was in contravention of the Geneva Convention, disregarding the fact that the enemy in this isn't subject to the Convention. (and of course they NEVER explain that only regular troops of a government entity who is a signatory to the Comvention are covered by that Convention) The majority of the populace, having not been educated because of their indoctrination in the Government Day Care Centers (where, these days, the emphasis seems to be on self-esteem and obiesiance to The (non)Education System) is not conversant with the "rules of war" (talk about a oxymoron!) In truth, these so called rules are a very recent artifact, and have never been followed in much more than lip service except by the "Civilised" Western world anyway.

The fact remains that what we are told by the MSM about the situation in Iraq doesn't jive with what we are told by people on the ground there through the alternative media (mainly internet), both by our troops and the Iraqis themselves.

It really is becoming more and more obvious that most of the MSM seems to be moving to the beat of Left wing idiological drums of blaming America for any evil in the world.

Mama's Moment of Moronity

I got up this morning and rushed around getting ready for work. I had to be there by 7am, which means I need to be out the door by 6:30. Period.

Well, just as I'm getting ready to head out the door, Anna wakes up and needs some attention. Morning hugs, check her forehead to see if she's still warm (which she is), reassure her that she'll be fine and leave instructions for her to drink lots of water and her Vernors, and I make it to the car at 6:38.

I drive like a bat out of hell to get there by 7am, and hit the clock at 6:59 which is definitely cutting close. As I walk in the door, my co-worker Mary asks "Why are you here? Isn't it early for you?"

"No, I work today. 7am to 3pm."

And Loetta, the actual 7am to 3pm person, pipes up, "Then can I go home?"

What???

So we check the schedule. I'm scheduled for the 10am-6pm shift.

D'oh! I have no idea what schedule I looked at, but it sure wasn't the right one. So, I hung out, had breakfast, checked a few news sites, and clocked in at 10am. And tomorrow? Rest assured, I checked that. 2:30pm-10:30pm. I start the evening shift tomorrow to get the differential. Hopefully it will help pay the bills. Or at least more of them more regularly.

So concludes this exciting episode of Mama's Moment of Moronity.

Whine, whine, whine.

Okay, I'm going to devote an entire post to whining about something that torqued me off yesterday. I can only hope that someone from the Kroger home office gets wind of this, because I don't generally get angry enough to pitch one, but yesterday's experience was just the last straw.

You know, once a store honks me off bad enough, I'll generally leave and never go back. I believe that if they don't want my patronage enough to treat me decently, they certainly don't need my hard earned money. Many are the stores and restaurants where a bad attitude or lousy service has pushed me out the door, never to darken their cashier stand again. And I do mean never for the vast majority of these poor attempts at running a business.

Once in a great while, however, generally because I'm short of time or need something specific, I will go back to one of those previously written-off stores. And for the most part, during the interim they never have gotten it together and most have actually gotten worse. Such is the case yesterday with the Kroger store at 86th Street and Township Line Road in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Anna stayed home sick yesterday with a bad cold. Apparently the teacher had tried to get her to come back home on Thursday but she refused, and by the time she woke up Friday she had developed a very croupy cough and a mild fever. One of her requests as I left for work was that I stop at the store and get her some Vernors, her favorite "I'm sick and need fluids" beverage.

Well, on the way home I decided to stop at the Kroger store at 86th Street and Township Line Road, in Indianapolis, Indiana, since it is close to the hospital. Because there had been a Shopping Trip From Hell in that store about a year earlier, I had foresworn ever going in there again in protest over the complete lack of customer service. But I'll give them another chance, I thought. They were having a good sale, and I thought I'd pick up a few sale items in addition to the Vernors.

I wandered through the store, looking for tags on the shelves that denote Plus Card savings, picking up a can of this, a jar of that, a box of something else. When I walked by the meat case, I saw that they had a good price on Cumberland Gap "Flat Hams", those long, loaf-like boneless hams that slice nicely for sandwiches or to serve with eggs for breakfast. A big orange sticker affixed to each ham promises that if I decide to purchase a ham, I can have it "Sliced free to [my] Specifications." What a great idea, I think to myself. With winter almost here, I can mince a few slices for making beans, or pea soup. And hash some up with potatoes and onions. Yes, I will just have to get one of these hams. I'll put some of the other stuff back to get one.

Looking into the case, I select my ham and take it to the meat counter. No one is there. I walk over to the other meat counter, the one with the poultry and beef on it. No one is there either. I looked at the wall clock and noted the time was 4:10.

Looking down the length of the meat aisle, I see a guy in a white coat and puffy head cover, pushing a cart loaded with hamburger packages. I look at him. He looks at me. He finishes putting out the packages on his cart, and begins to make his way in my direction. I feel a small thrill at the prospect of getting my ham sliced, and I prepare to hand off the ham as he passes by. But there isn't enough room for him to pass by me unless I scoot my shopping cart closer to the case, so I put the ham in the kidseat and proceed to do just that. Just before he reaches me, he says "I can get by you," steers the cart around me, parks it behind me, and leaves it there while he walks over into Condiments to
chat up some guy-pal who's shopping.

So there I stand. And stand. And stand. And on they talk. I turn to watch as he converses, and he turns his back so he doesn't see me any longer. I watch the clock behind the counter. 4:12... 4:15... 4:20... He's still standing there, yakking it up with his friend. And like some flashback, it all comes back to me why I haven't been in this store for a year. Frustration escalates to anger, and I walk back to the display of hams to very unceremoniously pitch the ham back with a distinct "thud." As I walk away from the meat counter, the two buddies are still standing near condiments, just talking away like they were in one
or the other's living room.

I still have to get the Vernors, so I go to that aisle, pick up a 12-pack, walk over to get a $1.99 gallon of milk and the 4/$3.00 mini frozenpizzas so no one goes hungry next week, and I make my way to the cashier.

My first thought as I unload my cart (and ring my own groceries and sack my own groceries and then place my own groceries back into my cart) is that I should ask the cashier to get the manager when I've completed my unloading, checking, sacking, paying, and reloading. So of course, when I've completed my "job" of checking out, I look for my cashier. She is gone.

I go to the customer service desk and find a guy trying to buy a money order, a chick buying one of every scratch-off ticket in the place, and some guy who's just got his cart shoved under the little rope to prevent anyone from getting into line, but he's obviously not in line himself. The guy behind the counter is some over-nourished, pasty-faced guy with a mustache and bigger breasts than I have, and he can barely handle the money order guy and the scratch-off ticket lady without flaking out. And no manager in sight. And my cashier is finally back at her station, but I'm several lanes away now, and my anger has further distilled into just plain contrariness.

So I leave. I vow once again never to go back into the Kroger store at the corner of 86th Street and Township Line Road in Indianapolis, Indiana to shop for anything. The little bit of convenience just is not worth being ignored, not getting an acceptable level of customer service, or being unable to get a manager when I want or need one.

When Anarchists Attack

I encountered an act of cruelty so vicious, one that I found so disturbing last night that I was unable to sleep.

It all started in the chat room associated with the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. We were directed to a post where the anti-American, anti-Military anarchist trolls had done a number on a Milblogger.

The young soldier at Questing Cat had written a post a few days ago about an incident involving an bomb in a vehicle which injured a young man in his unit. Not only was the event in itself pretty traumatic, but QC was the person who acted as the medical responder who had to stabilize the injured man and keep him alive until reaching the point of evac, the Dust-off Point.

As you can well imagine, he was having some trouble decompressing, and during that process wrote a graphic and very stirring post. He vented, ranted, analyzed and relived that event. He killed a few of the demons of self-doubt, and set others back on their heels for awhile. In the process, he gave his readers a significant slice of the experience.

The vast majority of his reader/commenters were very supportive and appreciative. Current and former military personnel gave insights on dealing and coping. Moms, Dads, sisters, brothers and friends of active duty personnel were appreciative of his service, both in that situation and overall. And then the trolls showed up.

I cannot repeat the filth and hate contained in those comments. I cannot adequately express the emotions they evoked. But it did not compare to what I felt when I followed a link into the forum from which these individuals sprang.

I strongly suggest you find your way into this young man's site and give him a read and your support. You will also find a post regarding this situation on his home page. In that post, you will find a link into that forum. It is a disturbing read. Make sure that young, impressionable children or the faint of heart are not within earshot when you get there.

And no, I will not be posting that link here. There are levels of decency even I won't cross. You'll have to get there from Questing Cat.

Update: After reading the comment left by RedFalcon, what he says is true. In no way do I want to imply any weakness on the part of this young man.

However, I want you to consider that it's not just the blogger who is potentially affected when trolls leave their spoor the way these did. I'm sure he's read by other milibloggers, and families feeling abandoned and left behind by the sacrifice of spouses or children or parents. They don't need that crap. None of us does.

It's demoralizing. It causes doubt. It is divisive. It undermines the cohesion of the team, whether it's an LLRP or a knitting bee of moms and wives making caps for winter in the desert.

And the trolls know it.

That's why they do it.

October Surprise?

Gaylon Parker reiterates yet once again why John Kerry should be breaking rocks in Leavenworth, not running for President.

John Kerry has worked under the direction of a foreign(enemy) government once; his Senate record shows that he has been on the wrong side of history in the conduct of the Cold War in EVERY vote he has cast, his own statements in the campaign show that he intends to follow the same course he always has.

Do we want a traitor as CiC? I think NOT!

Just My Rant Today

While perusing through my Nephews blog the other day, he had a post asking why Kerry could tout his faith in one instance and forgo the tenents of that faith in some matters of public policy. That is an interesting discussion, but what struck me was one of the comments to that post....

z"Faith shouldn't guide anything in our system. Separation of church and state. Seperation of one mans beliefs, from another."

I believe that this shows one of the problems that we are experiencing in our political life today, namely that an underlying core of faith that all of our greatest leaders have had in the past has been replaced with a pandering to an evershifting popular "PC" set of non-judgemental values; a belief that there are no absolutes, there is no black and white; just a vast expanse of grey.

Ask anyone who makes such a statement just where in the Constitution it says that faith and government can not co-exist...there is only the provision that the government can not force one religion over, or to the exclusion of, any other on we the people. Religion was always meant to be part of our public life, indeed it was belived by our Founding Fathers that only men of good moral faith were capable making our form of government workable. Without that moral core, the government becomes our master, and not our servant.

Our rights do not come from the largess of the government, they come from a higher power. We allow our government that power needed to guarentee that those individual rights will not be trampled upon by a ruthless majority in the transient interests of the moment. Without a moral code and a belief in some higher authority, those rights become meaningless.

This lack of a moral core has led to the "politics of the moment"...what works for now, without regard to the eventual result that always comes from unintended consequences.

Do NOT misinterpret this to mean that I believe that a litmus test of belonging to a certain,or any,religion is necessary to serve in government. That is not my intent. I do believe that a person can be have a moral code without belonging to any formal religion, what IS important though, is that a person seeking to be a representative of the people HAVE a moral code...a set of core beliefs of right and wrong, irrespective of whatever is the popular political fad of the moment. This lack of a moral core seems to be all too common today.

You may ask "how do we determine if a would be office seeker is a moral person"?

Membership in a church/synagog/mosque is not necessarily indicative...I would say that it behooves all of us as responsible citizens to do our homework and check out a candidates past record in his dealings with others to determine if he or she is worthy of the public trust.

It isn't easy and we must allways be wary of false slurs put out by the opposition...don't take ANY statement at face value, do the homework and check out the facts surrounding any questionable incidents.

It does take work..it takes real thought, and yes, it takes some education of how our system of government, and how our economy, works. Our schools have been co-opted to be little more than indoctrination centers, they no longer teach basic civics and economics, all in the cause of the latest social theory that happens to be hot at the moment. There IS such a thing as right and wrong, good and evil; but these concepts have been lost in a morass of situational ethics and feel good non-judgmental instruction designed to raise self-esteem of the students.

Patriotism? I remember saying the pledge of alliegiance every morning before class. Not PC anymore however...

The "Golden Rule"? Heavens NO! that smacks of religion, can't have THAT!

"Geography"? Thats been replaced with "social studies"...and woe to any teacher that might suggest that the problems experienced by any other country just MIGHT be the result of a socialistic,despotic or rigid theocratic regime ruling said country...All cultures are equally valid, you know. If their results are less than satisfactory, you may rest assured that ,somehow, the United States will be found as the root cause of the problem, either by commission or ommission.

We have lost something precious, and our nation can not stand as the bulwark of freedom unless we can find it again. We must all try to transcend partisan politics and find that inner moral core; that sense that right is right and wrong is wrong, or we will not last as a free people.

I certainly don't presume to know all the answers, I don't think one single person does, it takes a dialogue and discourse among all of us to arrive at a concensus, and hopefully that common core of faith will re-emerge to be a beacon to the truth.
Every right carries a responsiblity, we have become a people that clamors for our rights, but attempting to shirk our responsiblities. This is not a situation that can be sustained. If we do not take back those responsiblities soon, we will no longer have those rights.

ADDEND:

One of the commenters on this post made a comment that read, in part:

"However, confusing moral faith with religious faith is a problem in our country. I do not believe in organized religion and I have a hard time believing in any god."

I felt that I had to reply to this to clarify just what I feel:

I tried to make that point in the post Rob...I'm not confusing a moral faith with a religious one.
Of the two, a moral faith is the more important, but I think that as you grow older, you'll find that a religious faith tends to encourage and strengthen a moral faith.

A morality system "from on high" tends to be stronger than a human system of "because I want it to be so", because it isn't beset by the doubts inherant in any human system. All religions boil down to the same basic tenants, it doesn't matter whether your Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or even Buddist or Moslem, only the forms are different, the basic message is the same.

I don't believe that religious faith is a problem in our country at all; the fact that we can each believe as we wish is the greatest strength that we have. It's freedom FROM religion that we need to fear, because in the end, every human based system breaks down to "I believe this way because I choose to", and with no higher authority, all it takes is one strong willed individual to form a cult of personality to lead us down a road to destruction. Look at history and you'll see it in Germany, Russia, China,Japan, and every other truly evil regime.

I come from a Catholic background, but have not practiced in my faith for most of my life, I do find myself returning to it as I grow older, but I hardly consider myself as a staunch religionist. Maybe it's a function of growing older and facing one's own mortality. A return to the familiar to make sense of the experiences of life.

For many years,I too,didn't believe in any god, but the older I get, the more I find myself believing in some sort of a higher power...otherwise, all existence seems pointless; even if there is no god, higher power, or whatever you want to call it, I think there is a human need to believe; if for no other reason than to try to make some sense out of what we call life.

Our minds are so constructed as to try to make some sense of order in the scheme of things, with a beginning, a middle, and an end; hopefully with a rebirth to follow the end. Religion is merely the way we express this need for order.

The Islamofacists have replaced the "true word" of Allah with a human system,just using the forms of Islam as a framework, but replacing a human judgement on the "word", and we can all see the results.

So that's my clarification on what I feel, I hope I didn't muddy the waters even further....

Who's next on the soapbox?

Posted by Delftsman3 at 01:16 AM | Comments (6)

Link this guy!

Bill Faith over at Small Town Veteran has something you should see.

"Just Damn." -Dax Montana

In the eternal words of the great and wonderous Dax Montana, yesterday was a great big "Just Damn."

To begin with, MuNu had what appeared to be a big, freaking DNS problem, and I couldn't read any of my Munuvian brothers and sisters, nor could I post anything. Here I sat, a full of brilliance and esoteric gobbledeegook and no way to post.

Then, about an hour later, after logging off and napping for a bit, I hear this bellow like a wounded animal from the computer desk. "Aaaarrrrhhh! %@#!!" Seems the phoneline was dead, both voice and DSL. Tempers flared. Accusations flew. The car was packed and off we flew to the Parental Units' home to call SBC to find out what had happened.

A repair was requested, and we were told it might be 3pm Friday before we get service back again. Well, they beat that time by about an hour.

*sigh* At least now I can post. Sadly, though, all that brilliance is gone. Must have been that last trip to the bathroom.

So to quote the Mighty Dax, "Just damn."

Intimidation

Okay, everyone. Let's put on our thinking caps for a minute and see if we can remember something.

Does anyone remember any theaters cancelling screenings of Michael Moore's F911 movie when it premiered? Does anyone remember any open acts of intimidation by anyone other than those by supporters of the film against those who made the mistake of wearing a Bush/Cheney button, or who stood in the parking lot in protest? I sure do remember some anti-F911 folks taking a punch, but I sure don't remember reading about any form of violence directed toward the persons supporting and viewing the film, do you?

Seems Free Speech only extends in that direction, though. The entire screening of Stolen Honor was cancelled because of threats against the theater owner? Seriously? What sane person would try to deny a conservative their first amendment rights?

Well, I think we have our answer, don't we?

Ohio voter fraud

Absolutely none of this should surprise you, if you've been paying half a wit of attention to the run-up to the election over the last several weeks.

Thousands of voter registration cards are being returned to county election boards across the state of Ohio, as the new registrants are either missing or simply nonexistant.

State GOP records, confirmed by Williams, show that through Oct. 4, Hamilton County mailed 63,403 cards to new registrants, and 4,152 were returned - a rate of 6.6 percent.

The number was third-highest in the state behind Cuyahoga County's 14,461 and Franklin's 6,917, according to GOP records. In Butler County, 255 cards mailed to new voters were returned, while 24 were returned in Warren County, according to GOP records. Clermont County numbers were not available.

Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party and the county elections board, said an updated number of cards returned is 5,808 out of 150,000 mailed not only to new voters, but also to those changing addresses, for a return rate of less than 4 percent.

4 percent of these cards are potentially fraudulent, many of them made out for persons named Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins. They list non-existant addresses. And the vast majority of them were completed and submitted by PACs loyal to the DNC, whether openly or not.

Think of the implications of 4 percent for a moment. That's the margin of error in most polls. That's enough to rob the legal voters of a county, a state, an entire nation of their legal choice for elected officials.

This is why all polling places need to require identification. I don't mean simply your voter registration card, either. I mean your Driver's License, or a work ID with your photo. Demanding this of a person is not intimidation by any stretch of the imagination unless you're some criminal trying to vote illegally.

I received this year voter registration update mailers for no less than three persons who do not live at this house, nor have lived at this house for at least 5 years. I have, at each election to this point, given the poll workers the names of these people to remove from the books, and every subsequent year they are there for the next election.

This situation in Ohio, I'm afraid, is not isolated. It is an excellent argument for a complete purge of the voter registration rolls, and the prosecution of those who would try to subvert the system, regardless of party affiliation. Wrong is wrong. Illegal is illegal.

I report, You decide

Two more foreign sources endorse Kerry:

Yasser Arafat

AND

Al Jazeera

So..the voices of terrorism want Kerry? doesn't it tell you something about the effectivness of Bush's WoT?

Stem Cells and the Polititians that love them

Charles Krauthammer has an excellant op-ed piece on the way that the Kerry/Edwards duo has once again lied about the current administration, and used a fine man's memory in an utterly shameful way.
Are there no depths to which these two will sink? Once again they prove their
unfitness to lead by the hubris they display.

Subject: The truth about Kerry. .??

This is an e-mail I just got from my sister...it demonstrates the REAL
John Kerry:

Hi! Received this from a very good friend in PA. she wants everyone to know what she saw.

Good Tuesday morning! John Kerry brought his "front porch meeting" to our Canonsburg, PA neighborhood on Labor Day morning. Since you will never hear the truth from the TV or print media I thought that you should know from someone who was `almost' there.

The residents who live on the street where the event took place were not allowed to attend.

Kerry shipped in approximately 90 invitation only VIPs. In addition, there was a hard luck case who was about to lose her job at USAIR and another was an elderly woman who was having health care problems. Neither one was from this neighborhood. The street was closed to all traffic the night before and all residents on the street were REQUIRED to remove their Bush/Cheney signs.

The sympathetic police officers on duty told us that Kerry used "imminent domain" to claim the street for his purposes. Residents who have homes within the perimeter (approximately 1 full block) were kept behind a line away from the partisan crowd. The rest of us were not allowed within the 1 block cordon. A neighbor from across the street came to the line where we were being kept and asked us to come onto his property.. The police told us that we could stand on this mans FORMERLY private property! This was set up so that Kerry's views could be heard - but not the neighbors.

About 30 people's (mostly neighbors) shouts echoed down the street "Let the neighbors in".

We could barely hear Kerry speaking with his microphone because press buses were used to block us off from view! This morning's papers are reporting hecklers tried to interrupt Kerry as he spoke to the neighborhood gathering, but he turned our chants to his favor by calling us rude. Even though most of the media was there to record our stories of not being included in the neighborhood forum, not one of them printed or aired the truth. This is what America will look like if Kerry becomes president.

Get registered and get all of your friends registered to vote if they have not already. Kerry thinks that he is better than the rest of us and he has the media on his side to make him out to be what he is not! Finally, last night as I drove down the street where the rally was, I was shocked to see Bush/Cheney signs in almost every yard on the street!

LET FREEDOM RING!

Update: an alert reader sent me this from a local paper, which casts some doubt over the veracity of the letter. I think it's become a he said/she said where the truth probably lies in the middle. Thats the beauty of the blogosphere, with all of us out fact-checking each other, the truth will come out in the end and quicker than most politicians would wish. Kerry is bad enough without ascribing something he didn't do to him.

Tip of the hat to JMflynny for the catch!

Minority Rights

In this election season the DemocRats are using scare tactics to keep the minority vote in lockstep with the Party line. It never ceases to be a cause of wonder to me that they usually succeed in doing so...other than the fact that a great majority of their voters are held by the public largesse rather than actually agreeing with many of the party's platform stances...school vouchers,higher marginal tax rates, etc.

HISTORICAL FACT:

In the twenty-six major civil rights votes since 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 % of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 % of the votes.

Source:congressional Record ................So who is the party for the powerless minorities?

Many of the inroads on racism wouldn't have taken place without the GOP fighting the Democratic party on higher principles. So to the minority voters; the next time you pull that lever, stop and think for a moment who really put you there in the booth, without fear of Jim Crow.

Yeah, BUSH "lied"

I was going through some old mail, cleaning out the cache, when I came across this:

Re: This "man with no ability to harm us" meme
(Anonymous)
2004-02-19 00:21 (link)
Dr. Elioff: "In your heart, can you honestly say you thought Saddam Hussein was an immediate threat to your life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness?"

Ah, cleaning your desk can unearth such delightful things... Yesterday I found a constituent letter dated 10/15/02 that argued that Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the US.

"As a member of the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, as someone who has read and discussed and studied the history of Iraq, the record of obfuscation and the terror Saddam Hussein has sown, one comes to the conclusion that he remains a consequential threat. ... Saddam Hussein's ability to use his chemical and biological weapons against us is not constrained by geography - it can be accomplished in a number of different ways - which is what makes this threat so real and persuasive. ...... Disarming Iraq under Saddam Hussein is necessary and vital to the safety and security of America..."

and summarized

"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein and his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons pose a real and persuasive threat to the safety and security of the United States, the Persian Gulf, and the Middle East."

Signed... California's oh-so-liberal Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Dr. Elioff, your & my own senior senator would have to answer your question "Hell yeah."

Let's learn from our mistakes and critique our failings, but let's not rewrite history in the process. "Saddam is a threat" was indeed the consensus: left/right, Dem/GOP, US/Euro.

***************************************************************
Too bad that the DemocRats have spent so much time and energy trying to smear President Bush with the "he lied" meme, when they're own words are cached in a number of places, showing that when THEY examined the same intelligence the President had to go on, they agreed with his assessment. For them to now go with the smear tactics just shows that there is NOTHING the DemocRats won't go to in the name of Partisian politics, and demonstrates that they're words are untrustworthy.

Still the "wrong War" Mr Kerry?

BC over atThe Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller has a link to the story behind the latest mass grave found in Iraq.

This grave is different from the others...It contains only women and children...several of the women were pregnant, others were still holding their babies in their arms.

In 1947 the United Nations was formed with the main refrain of the Holocaust as it's main goal.."Never Again" ...well, it's happened again, and worse, from all the evidence comeing out of the FFO program, several of the Security Counsell members and indeed, top officials of the UN itself are complicit in keeping the regime that did it in power, against all evidence that said regime was deserving of utter destruction.

Mbloggers Unite!

If you were caught by the demise of Mblog and lost everything you'd built up,
Murdock the Crazy has a petition page for you to check out. We feel it is unconscionable for a company, even if it was a free hosting site, to not give prior notice of termination of services; and to charge a $35. fee for return of our archives is tantamount to blackmail.

Aside of being forced to pay for our own intellectual property, how could we trust a company that would take such actions to honor the agreement and return our archives, even were we to pay the ransom?

Bitten once, shame on you, bitten twice shame on me!

If you were caught in this fiasco and wish to add your voices to ours, contact Murdock at: mailto:burt_gummer_uzi4u@yahoo.com or send your information to me at: delftsman3@sbcglobal.net, and I'll see to it you get added to the list.

Gratuituous Debate Post

Kerry should be ashamed of himself for dragging Cheney's daughter into the debate again tonight. There was absolutely no reason for it. It was another desparate attempt to alienate voters who otherwise support Bush. It was shameful and had no place in this forum.

That's all I'm going to say about the debate tonight.

Heartsick

To all my blogchildren or fellow bloggers who were hosted at Mblog:

Murdock at Blogging at 20,000 Feet,
Cafish at Catfishblog,
Darth at Sithmonkey,
Bill at Small Town Veteran, and most of all
Delftsman at Emigre with a Digital Cluebat,

I am so very sorry. If I had any idea that there was a problem with that host, I would have never placed your blogs there.

I can try to set you up with another free host if you want, as long as it's not Blogsnot. Your banners are all safe in my drive, as well as in a graphics host I use for the URLs. I believe your archives may be lost, but maybe not. I have a lead on something that might help.

This just makes me heartsick. I feel so bad for all of you.

Don't give up. We'll find a way to get you back up and blogging.

What kind of heartless bastards do that to people and then stretch out their hand for $35 just to get your own work back?

Rot in Hell, MBlog. I hope Movable Type eats you alive for whatever it is you did to cause this.

Evicted from my Blog-house

Mamamontezz is graciously allowing me to guest post here until I can find some new digs.

Last night at 7PM, I had my own digs with over a years worth of posts with my observations on politics, social issues, jokes and just my general blatherings.

AT 12:04 AM, I accessed my log-in page and found that I am now homeless in the sphere. No warning, just a notice that mblog had found it necessary to cease offering it's web hosting service, and that due to a number of requests from users, that it would be possible to access archives for a nominal fee and limited time. It didn't elucidate exactly what the fee was to be, or how long the archives would be available..... I entered my blog's name as instructed and found my self directed to a PayPal log-in page, with the sum of $35. placed in the amount due box....no other information.

Seems that mblog still wants our trust that they'll deliver what they promised. I don't know what to about getting those archive files...There are over a year's worth of my posts in there and I don't have the money to pay jack to the kidnappers, or any of the other associated expenses that come with moving onto a new server/hosting service.

A lot of people would day, "so what", it's only a small blog that was only now starting to get a great core cadre of loyal readers...well... I had just obtained my first resident Moonbat coming in on a regular basis, I had achieved the rank of "adorable rodent" in the TTLB ecology.

I thought I had finally arrived as a blogger.

Now I have nothing but a set of templates, posts, and comments, and those are being held by the old landlord slumlord so he can squeeze the last drop of pride , dignity, and money. I may be able to muster.

I have been unable to work for the last 2 ¼ years, due to a heart condition.....My blog was the only thing that kept me sane on some of the days when my medications just weren't working as they should. It has been the best therapy that I have received, at least as far as my mental state.

However, none of that is Germain to this situation.

Mblog was a department of a business. It had generated too much red ink (and possibly licence troubles), so the decision was made to close the service. Too bad, so sad, that's life; but then some beancounter in the dark depths came up with the brilliant idea that "hey, lets charge for the members archives and recoup some of the red ink from the books", and have the added bonus that perhaps only a percentage would do so, making tech support a place where the operator/techier would fear that the end of the reductions were not near to completion.

I just wrote this post to vent some of the anger and frustration I am feeling right now towards mblog in an effort to lower my blood pressure back down to an acceptable level. Thank you for bearing with me. I hope I didn't seem dis-jointed and made just a little sense. I found this very difficult to type, my B/P is through the roof, the Adrenalin from the righteous anger made it impossibe to sleep. (DON'T even ask about the domestic ramifications of that!)

I had already had this trouble for several weeks, and after having gone 32 hrs on only 5 ¼ hrs sleep, I finally had a full nine hrs on Sunday night, and thought I had reached a state where I could sleep every night.

But then the eviction came and I've been up all night yet again, not with the clear head of a manic/depressive on a manic cycle that I had experienced prior, but with the nodding-off-because-of exhaustion-but-not-quite-making-it confused muddle of a mind such that being near the keyboard and posting probably isn't a good idea, the only thing is it's the safest alternative to stumbling around the house and possibly falling and cracking my fool head open.

This too shall pass, as do all woes and sorrows, and I know it's of major importance only to me; others are experiencing much worse.

Good day and may God bless.

Update I wish I had seen thisforum a couple of days Ago!
At least I could have saved my archives to disk....Even if I had the money, it's an unknown factor if mblog would live up to their promise to retrieve the archives....could sue them than, though, since they would have taken money for a service not performed. GRRR! I still have a RCOB!

Smack-down due

SlagleRock's Slaughterhouse has a story up now taken from Stars and Stripes that bears some attention.

I hope like hell this isn't true. No reserve military personnel should ever have to worry about their employment. When you're deployed, the laws are there to protect you from that, and these companies need to be held accountable for their actions.

You hear all of the good things that companies like Home Depot do, but then someone like Pep Boys steps out and shows their true colors. It's sickening, to think that they would find an isolated incident, a non-termination one at that, to fire what had been a good employee.

I'll buy my parts at AutoSource, thank you. Pep Boys is cheaper, but so is their treatment of Reservists and Guardsmen to this point.

Now, in all fairness, GOC in Winston Salem at Obnoxious Droppings is delving deeper into this story to make sure it is not an urban legend. As it stands now, however, I tend to believe what is put out by Stars and Stripes. If this is bogus, I'll issue an apology. If not, then Pep Boys needs to be prosecuted.

Peeves and Curiosities

One more day until the next debate. Economics this time will be the topic although we all know how quickly that can and will change.

I will be watching, and I just may try to keep track of how many times that happens and just who initiates it. Too bad I’ll be at the parentals’ as there is no beer in that house for the drinking game. Maybe I’ll substitute Oreo Cookies… nah, too many calories, as the cookie count could mount quickly. I’ll have to give this some thought.
************
Is it just me, or is anyone else curious about who owns the factcheck.com domain name? Of course, Soros denies all involvement. Still, I’d love to know who dashed out and bought that up and put together that redirect to Soros’ blog. I mean, that wasn’t just fast. It was almost prescient.
************
And another curiosity: have there been any incidents of violence against Kerry/Edwards campaign offices? I only ask because as of last night, there have been two drive-by shootings, and two cases of rioting protestors invading and trashing offices in Orlando and Milwaukee. Add to this the burglary and theft of three laptop computers from a campaign office in Washington state. How long will it be before some one is seriously hurt by these thugs?
************
I want to go on the record by stating that if I had been Cheney, and the hair model had brought up my daughter like he did, I’d have hardly been as polite about it in my response as Cheney was in his.
************
While I’m on that, one of the great unasked questions of the VP debate: “Mr. Edwards. Mr. Cheney has stated and it is part of the record that he applied for and was given deferrals to avoid being drafted into the military during the Viet Nam war. You, however, neither volunteered for service like the President or your running-mate, nor can you provide any record of deferrals. What exactly did you do to avoid the draft or military service at a time when few were able to do so?� I don’t know about you, but I want to know how he did it. His number was called, and persons much further down the list went when called and served. Technically, one of them went in his place when you come right down to it, and possibly died in his slot. Don’t you think we as the voting public deserve to know, particularly in light of the snipe-hunt conducted by his own party regarding Bush’s TANG service?
************
Since I seem to be stuck on the debates, let me make one point abundantly clear. I will be reduced to a screaming mad harpy if I hear our magnificent men and women of the military called Children one more time.

Just. One. More. Time.

These are proud, skilled, brave, intelligent, driven, duty-bound men and women. They serve because they stepped into an office, assessed their chances, tested high enough to be qualified, signed on the dotted line, passed an intense and rigorous training program, and graduated to a unit of other well-trained personnel. Do not demean them or their service by calling them Children. It is an insult and an afront to every one of them, to every man or woman who served before them, and to the parents to raised them to be the men and women they are.
************
Well, I'm sure something else will erupt from my grey-matter later. I'll keep you posted.

No, I've not forgotten how to blog...

I've just been too incredibly angry at the MSM to write the last couple of days. I agree with Dr. Michael Savage on this point: The deaths of those two American men at the hands of Zarqawi and his thugs was NOT an execution.

The word execution implies that the deaths were legal, as the result of a trial or other action in a court of law. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These two men, in Iraq to aid the Iraqi people, were murdered by foreign mercenaries who's sole purpose is to disrupt the peace and rebuilding of Iraq by and for the Iraqi people and to deny them the freedoms they want so badly. They were murdered to show the Iraqi people that they are powerless to defend their defenders. Just as they murder Iraqi police and members of the Iraqi National Guard, these murders are intimidation and demoralization by blood.

Every time I tried to write about this over the last couple of days, I got so angry I couldn't. I'd logout, turn off the computer, and walk away. I was angry at the terrorists and angry at the nay-sayers here who pointed at these horrific deaths as further reasons for abandoning an entire people to the wolves who surround them.

My greatest hope is that on November 3rd, when the tallies are completed and the election has been determined beyond a shadow of a doubt, we see a massive increase in strikes against known terrorist areas and the sympathizers who enable them against the Iraqi people and against the coalition. I want to see grumblings in the foreign press about the size of the assault and the number of square miles now uninhabitible.

I want justice for Iraq and vengence for all of the murdered.

Trolls, Aren't they...cute?

Norman, the gutless wonder who didn't have the gonadal fortitude or testicular appendages to post a legit email link, has decided to enlighten me to my physical shortcomings and give me some seriously needed counseling in a comment to the Stolen Honor, Redux post:

Yikes! I saw your picture. Is that really you? You don't need no fucking waffles bitch. You need a diet! And a makeover.

Give up the internet shit and get some work done.

Fast.

Well, "Norman" this is your lucky day. You get to be moderately famous. Of course, I'm relatively sure you followed me from Gutrumbles where I have been commenting a lot lately. So I'm going to let Rob have your IP too. I've already banned it here, and being the gentleman he is, I'm sure he will at least consider banning your sorry ass there too.

And on the outside chance you followed me from Nice Doggie, I'll be doing the same there. Emperor Misha might deny my request, but he may not. Either way, it will be satisfying to turn it over to them.

So "Norman," you have given me a little hobby for the day. Thanks.

Outrage

Where is the outrage from the Peacemakers over the senseless and violent deaths of over 350 children at the hands of Al Quaida trained murderers? Where are the political statements from both the amateur and professional Social Consciences?

I have looked all over Lucianne.com, checked the Drudgereport, and listened to both local and national news, and I have heard little from the Champions of Peace.

George Soros has written no substantial check from the monies he acquired by raping and pillaging the economies of nations who now lash out at each other in genocidal wars.

Michael Moore has not announced that his next "dramatic documentary" will be filmed in and around the school and feature unauthorized footage of the families of victims of the masacre.

Jimmy Carter has not organized his observers to watch for further masacres.

Robert Redford has not recorded the narration of a PBS documentary about the masacre.

Alec Baldwin has not threatened to move.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have not taken time from their busy shooting schedules to organize a rally against the murderers.

Martin Sheen has not taped himself up in duct tape and paraded about with crucifix in hand to protest the masacre.

Moveon.org has organized no Call for Submissions for 30 second spots decrying the masacre or the Al Quaida persons responsible.

Students at Evergreen College have not organized into cells to act as human shields in Russian Schools.

Arianna Huffington has not borrowed a plane already on it's way to Russia to go and give support to the families affected by the masacre.

I have seen not one "Bin Laden=Hitler" sign in the hands of a protesting marcher. I have seen no protests at all.

There has been no condemnation of the masacre by either of the large mosques in Indianapolis. In fact, other than one item in the Arab Times that was carried in a few other outlets, I've seen no outrage from the Muslim press.

Yes, a few of us have cried out in horror. A few of us have prayed for the families, cried out for justice, or demanded vengence. But we are merely small, anonymous voices in a vast electronic land, invisible but for a few readers. Our voices are lost in the wind, but still we speak out.

The large voices, however, the voices with power and audience and authority, remain eeriliy silent.

Their silence is deafening.

Beslan Update

For the last several days, news outlets such as the BBC and some domestic networks and papers have downplayed any outside involvement in the recent masacre in Beslan. Even though initial reports clearly stated that 10 of the homicide terrorists involved were Arab nationals of one nationality or another, the Beeb insisted that witness could not remember ever seeing an Arab murderer-rapist in with the rest of the captors.

As far as these sources were concerned, this was an entirely domestic problem, entirely the fault of Putin and Russia.

Of course, not only was this a simplistic view of the masacre, it was completely inaccurate.

Russian officials said authorities have determined that 10 of the 32 suicide attackers who took over a high school in Beslan in North Ossetia last week were nationals from several Arab countries. Most of the attackers were Chechens and Ingush who had been trained at Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan.

According to the World Tribune, the head of the Chechen "insurgency", Shamil Basayev received funding from the Sauds for years, and utilized these funds for the employment of hundreds of homicide bombers and other terrorists for use within Chechnya and other former Soviet republics.

But no. Not according to the Beeb. No Arabs here. Move along, nothing to see here.

On one "happy" note:

All of the captors were said to have been killed, but three accomplices were arrested, Middle East Newsline reported.

And those accomplices? From the photo I saw of one of them on the Reuters/AP photowire, he's scared shitless. He should be. Russia has no Gitmo, no high-priced and unscrupulous lawyers bidding for the opportunity to make names for themselves by falling all over each other in an attempt to represent terrorists, no 9th Circuit protecting the rights of murderers over innocents.

He should be terrified. Better yet, he should be dead.

Update: You need to avail yourselves of these photos before they disappear into the cyber abyss. This is what awaited those parents in the aftermath. Thank you, Darth Monkeybone, for that link.

Aftermath

When the ambulance pulled into the schoolyard to retrieve the bodies of the dead, some children saw the opportunity and seized it.

They broke windows, crawled out through the broken glass and ran.

They ran for lives. They ran from the insanity and hate that had taken over their school. They ran for safety and freedom and their parents. They ran even as bullets rained down on them from snipers positioned above. They ran as Russian commandos began their attack on the building.

They ran.

Then the attack was over.

Over 150 bodies were found piled in the gymnasium after the attack. Children's bodies. Small bodies. Explosions brought the gymnasium roof down on them, covering them with debris.

Children's bodies littered the area surrounding the school. Bullet holes pocked their backs.

Mothers and fathers now file by the bodies covered with sheets, looking for the fragile, broken children whom they must now return to the earth even as their souls have been returned to heaven. Other parents search the hospitals, hoping against hope that the injuries are minor, short-lived.. Others wonder how long the scars on hearts and minds will last.

150 bodies. Many hundred more scattered, fearful, terrified, changed.

10 terrorists dead, their bodies betraying their motives and their origin. 10 Arab bodies. Not 10 Chechens. Not 10 local citizens.

10 Arab insurgents in a country not their own, there to commit acts of terror
and murder against a people with whom they have no other quarrel than ethnicity and religion. 10 outsiders insinuating themselves into a conflict as a means of exploiting it for their own agenda.

Local citizens went to their homes, retreived their weapons, and hunted down the insurgents. Hunted them down and killed them like mad dogs. Hanged one. Beat one to death.

Three "Brave Freedom Fighters" cowered in the basement like cornered rats until the commandos retreived them.

May they all rot, naked and unburied with no prayers for the obscene darkness of their souls. May they wander for eternity in a hell of their own making, forever haunted by the screams of the innocents murdered at their hands. May the vultures grow fat on their putrid carcasses.

The Russian Mothers

I can barely imagine the panic and terror and heartbreaking grief of the Russian parents, trapped outside of their children's school, powerless to save them, unable to hold and comfort them, victims all of a group of Islamofascist Murderers.

This is not the act of "Freedom Fighters" driving a group of invaders from a disputed occupied land. These foul vermin crossed the border from their state, entered into Russia, selected a school full of children on the first day of the school year, and shot their way in, killing eight people as they did. Differing reports state between 150 and 200 little children now languish in fear within the school, dangled from windows in a blatent attempt to terrorize the mothers and fathers, already near hysteria with their own impotence to stop this insanity.

There is no bravery here. There is no threat, real or imagined, from Kindergartners and little first graders. A group of 7yr olds isn't going to rise up and cause them harm. The fragile little children are no match for guns and bombs. This is the most extreme sort of cowardice, the most satanic sort of cruelty, a psychotic act against innocence in the name of God.

Gone are the days of Baal and the blood sacrifices required to sate him. Gone are the days of Pele and her need for burnt offerings. Civilization moved on, left the superstitions and evil which demaned life for life, left it in all of the major religious cultures existing today except for one.

I cannot honestly say what I would do in the place of one of the mothers standing outside of that school, perhaps her only child pressed against the window in a sadistic display, thinking that perhaps this will be the only, the last time you will see this child alive. I cannot say what I would do at that time.

I do know that my child's death would also cause the death of something within me, something extremely important. It would cause the death of my humanity and a great deal of my morality, and that would be very bad news for anyone I believed was like those who killed my child.

The New Soldier

I have been wanting to read John Kerry's book, The New Soldier, ever since it appeared in early spring that Kerry would probably be the Democrat national candidate for president this year against George W. Bush.

Of course, copies of this book are rare and difficult to find in any venue. It has been out of print for years. A few copies came up on Ebay, and it was my understanding that one of the first copies to hit the auction went for over $500 a few months ago.

If you are like me, and follow the philosophy that you must know your enemy, perhaps you should also read this book. It is available now as a download at John Kerry's The New Soldier in PDF format. With the DSL hookup, I was able to download it in a matter of minutes.

I'll settle down to read it this weekend when I can manage some time between shifts.

Jack, Bonfire, Slagle, Mikenchi, Stevie, Bill, GOC in Winston-Salem, if you haven't read this yet, take a moment and at least read the intro. We all have a vested interest in this, some of us more than others.

And if you want a concise piece with a pretty accurate listing of his activities after his "Hit and Run" deployment, I reccommend this piece from a local paper in Dover, Maine. It lays his entire post-Viet Nam history out extremely well and in language anyone can comprehend.

Know your enemy.

Update: Also, at least in my case, know your own stupidity. And mine is grand. I'm sorry, Stephen. If I had paid attention, I would have noticed where the links were coming from, but I didn't, so I missed them, and I was remiss and so I apologize. I hate it that I did that. How very blond of me, and I'm a redhead.

I'm sorry. Forgiven?

Oh, and the rest of you, if you're not spending some time at Hold the Mayo on a regular basis, you're missing a great blog. And that's not just because he's a Munuvian.

Or because I enjoy a good spanking.

Puny, redux

I can't think of the last time something this seemingly insignificant has hurt me this bad. I could have sworn this was just a garden variety sinus infection, but this has hit me hard. It feels the way I imagine that mouse feels when all wrapped up in the coils of a boa. No matter how hard I breath, it's all tight, like my lungs are full of water.

I sat in front of the computer last night, begging for sleep to finally overtake me, but no such luck. Tylenol, benadryl, nothing relaxed me or relieved my conjestion. I lay in bed for hours, feeling my heart race to compensate for my congested lungs. It was like enduring a 5 hours germ-induced anxiety attack, and by 5am I had surrendered. I called work, found a pill, took it, and went to bed. Even at that, it was almost 8am before I finally went to sleep.

After sleeping until noon, I still feel like I've been up since Friday.

Dammit, I want this to go away. It's going to take a session of good, old-fashioned croup to get all that sludge up, and I'm not looking forward to it. So tonight I'm going to start the Robitussen DM to start the process and maybe get some sleep.

At least I'd better be able to work tomorrow. I need this job. Bad. I have too many people depending on me and only me. At least the mortgage is paid. That's all that matters at this point.

Want something different to read? Maybe some old stuff? Go play in the archives at my old site and see what you can find. Some of it's pretty sad, some of it's pretty good. You just never know when you stumble in there if it will be shit or applebutter till you get close.

Regarding Censorship: Kerry's Latest Insult to Vets

Before I left for work today, the headline and developing story at Drudge was probably one of the most frightening things I've seen in a longtime. As scared as some folks are about the Patriot act, this causes me much more concern. Members of the Democrat National Committee are attempting to have a book banned because the content of this book is detrimental to the election campaign of their candidate, John Kerry.

This isn't some group of overanxious parents trying to protect their children from our history as presented by Mark Twain. This isn't some church group asking the library board to prohibit children from reading Salinger. Nor is it a community asking for internet filters in libraries.

Today a political party is attempting to silence a group of citizens who espouse and present an alternate political opinion and an alternate version of facts as pertain to a seminal series of events surrounding their presidential candidate. Because character assassination against members of this opposing group has failed, they now attempt to silence them by demanding that their book be banned and their 527C status revoked.

This is an extremely dangerous precipice on which we find ourselves poised. What happens during the next several days could be very telling about where we are as a nation.

Will we allow a group of citizens to be silenced because of a dissenting opinion? Will such guardians of Civil Liberties as the ACLU avail themselves of this group of citizens, or will they allow their prejudices and obvious historical political affiliations to override their reason for existence? Will we as a thoughtful, informed and intelligent citizenry demand that such attempts at political censure be seen as what they truly are, as direct attacks on our constitution?

I'm afraid there are more questions than answers at this point. But from what I have seen before, if past experience is any indicator of what to expect, there will be no outrage from those who generally hide behind the petticoats of the first amendment. The press will not speak out, nor will the "main stream" broadcast or cable media. Those who do speak out against this censorship will be labeled as ideologues or reactionaries.

No one will remember the tremendous hue and cry against Mel Gibson personally or against his movie. No one will remember the organized attempts by action groups to stop production of his film, or to have his film banned by theater chains. Every reporter, pundit, editorialist and journalist, however, will point out any slight or criticism of Michael Moore's fantasy, real or imagined, and declare them the equivalent of what is now being directed at these naval veterans.

But we know better, don't we?

Does it ever end with this creep?

It seems Michael Moore is going to prey on the military again. In an announcement today by Simon & Schuster, Moore states that he has agreed to compile a collection of letters received by him from soldiers, much of it at his website. (Sorry, no link. I don't link to scum.)

Well, it is my sincerest hope that they don't vet those letters or their writers. I find immense pleasure in the snarky little daydream of him being hauled into civil court for publishing letters credited to persons who never sent them. How many of these letters were written fraudulently by staffers to bolster numbers on his website? We may never know, but I certainly hope they used the names of actual soldiers who can, in turn, screw him right back.

Better yet, let them go after him for publishing correspondence sent, pen and paper via traditional mail, with no explicit permission given for publishing. They never sought permission from Sgt. Damon after they licensed footage of him at Walter Reed Army Hospital from NBC. What makes anyone think his people will do any different with these letters.

Go ahead and publish it in November, Mikey. Leak your galleys, publish your exerpts in magazines and do your interviews all through October. We all recognize what you are doing. It won't work. All you will accomplish is another rape of men and women in BDU. It may win you friends in some circles, but in the great unwashed and ignorant heartland where people value loyalty, duty, service, and honor, you will generate little more than disgust.





Update: Moorewatch has decided to do an end-run on this crap. Go see what you can do to help out. Someone needs to call this creep for what he is, and I can think of none better than those he has injured the most.

Sic'em!

Comment Scam Spam

Well, this is a new twist on the typical Nigerian Spam letter. Now they are specifically targetting Christians and appealing not necessarily to their greed as much as to their sense of charity and faith as a means of scamming them out of their savings. And the most amazing part is that this didn't come in my email. It came as a comment on an old post here.

Name: Msr.Binta Williams Email Address: gadoassociates@lawyer.com URL: http://Following the will of God

Comments:

From: Mrs Binta Williams.

Good Day,

PLEASE ENDEAVOUR TO USE IT FOR THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

My name is Binta Williams a nationality of Kuwait. I am married to Mr.
Kazeem Williams who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2001. We were married for eleven years without a child. he died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before he death we were both born again Christians.

"Please endeavor to use it for the children of God"? You people sicken me more every day. I bet little old ladies line up to help you out and never even consider keeping so much as a dime for themselves because you want to help "the children of God."

When my late husband was alive we deposited the sum of$10.6Million (Ten Million six hundred thousand U.S. Dollars) with one of the banks here in COTE D' IVOIRE . Presently, this money is still with the bank.

Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to cancer problem. Though what disturbs me most is my stroke. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to church or better still a Christian individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here in. I want a church that will use this fund to churches, orphanages, Research centers and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that grivet.

Damn. Cancer and a stroke. That would go a long way toward explaining how poorly this letter is written. I bet it suckers innocent folks every day.

And what the hell is "grivet"?

I took this decision because I don?t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband?s relatives are not Christians and I don?t want my family hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don?t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I don?t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health because of the presence of my family relatives around me always. I don?t want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible.

Oooo... Now we see we have to protect the money from the greedy relatives who would squander it all on a Mosque.

I will like you to go ahead and contact my lawyer immediately you receive this message so that he will direct you you to the Finance/bank. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund which is going to be done by my lawyer

Here is my lawyer's contact.
His name is Barrister Mark Gado.
Email: gadoassociates@lawyer.com
Tel: 22507 870 268.

Feel free to contact him immediately for further directives.

Of course we want these gullible Christians to contact him immediately. Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. Get them at their weakest. They think they're going to help you become the Kuwaiti Mother Theresa.

I want you and the church to always pray for me because the lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for a church or Christian individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act Accordingly as I stated here. Expecting to hearing from you.

Remain blessed in the name of the Lord.

Yours in Christ,

Mrs Binta Williams.

There's a place in hell waiting for people like this, all Roasty-toasty and ice water-free. I foresee no "cold days" for this one once he/she/it arrives, either.

Now pardon me while I go delete the original comment and ban this IP.

PETA has big brass ones, don't they?

President Reagan has been dead for how long now? Just a matter of several weeks, really. In the vernacular, we would even say "he isn't even cold yet" when talking about the behavior of others regarding him. We haven't even finished what we would have called a "decent period of mourning."

PETA has breeched all decency with their little ad and their letter to Nancy Reagan. PETA, of all people, has purchased President Reagan's likeness and has inserted it into an ad promoting vegetarianism as a way to end alzheimers.

First of, what a load of bunk that is. They're as far off-base as these fools that cannot admit that embryonic stem cells are never going to cure alzheimers even when the evidence is biting them in the backsides. How many things have we been told to avoid like the plague because it causes alzheimers? Let me see, aluminum cookware, alcohol, red meat, coffee, cigarettes (which now are shown to help alzheimers patients)... The list goes on.

We Do Not Know What Causes It. But that's another matter. The real matter on this is the entire attitude of PETA on this ad and the use of Ronald Reagan's image to promote their propaganda regardless of the wishes of his widow:

“We were hoping to get Nancy Reagan’s endorsement, but the truth is — because he was a public figure and because we’re not looking to sell a product or make money off his image — we don’t need her permission,� a PETA insider told The Scoop.

What a lot of nonsense. We all know that every ad these people produce is ultimately a plea for charitable donations. We all know that this ad and others like it are to sell a lifestyle change. We also know that the use of Ronald Reagan's image is a blatant attempt to pander to a heretofore untapped group of the public: aging conservatives, the people who supported Reagan politically during his lifetime and who most echo his conservatism.

Well, Nancy's not buying that line of crap:

Nancy Reagan not only didn’t send back a letter of support; her people fired off a cease-and-desist letter. “Discontinue any use of President Reagan’s name, signature, quote, image or likeness,� came a missive from Kirby Elizabeth Hanson, Director of Business Development for the Ronald Reagan Foundation. “You have no authority, license or consent from President and Mrs. Reagan (or their legal representatives or licensee) for such use.�

I'm hoping Ingrid Newkirk finds out in no uncertain terms just how big a mistake she's made on this one. She has engaged the wrong person this time.

Maybe as Nancy Reagan fights this little battle she'll shut those busy-body dietary prohibitionists down but for good.

Troops used for Propaganda?

Sgt. Peter Damon is not happy with Michael Moore, and it seems he has every right to be unhappy.

Seems Sgt. Damon was used as a tool for Moore's anti-Bush, anti-war propaganda, and it was done without his knowledge or consent.

"I just feel it was wrong and I was violated in some way, seeing myself up there on the screen," said Damon, 31, of Brockton, Mass.

"I think [Moore] should be ashamed of himself," added Damon, who was severely injured in October in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, when a tire on a Black Hawk helicopter exploded as he was changing it. The blast killed Pfc. Paul Bueche, 19, of Daphne, Ala.

For those of you who think this is an isolated misunderstanding, think again. This is just another in a stream of incidents where Moore has appropriated interviews or other footage without the consent of the servicemembers or survivors involved. Or, it would seem, even their physicians:

Lt. Col. Chester Buckenmaier, the anesthesiologist who treated Damon at the 21st Combat Support Hospital in Iraq and later at Walter Reed, said he also was angered at the Moore film after he took Damon to see it in Bethesda, Md.

"I was appalled. This was Joseph Goebbels-type propaganda," Buckenmaier said, referring to the Nazi propaganda chief.

Sadly, there are those involved who just don't see this as wrong. Lila Lipscomb, who lost her son in Iraq, sees no problem with Moore's tactics. Sadly, we'll never have the opportunity to ask her son.

"I don't see it as demeaning in any way," she added.

Well, the vets do. And they're not happy about it. Go read the rest of the article.

An open letter to Greyhound Bus Lines

A young Marine was denied his seat on a Greyhound bus, and he and his family believe it had everything to do with the fact that he was in full uniform when he tried to board the bus.

This situation bites on so may levels, I may get rabies! And it isn't easy to get rabies from a Greyhound.

To begin with, who was that driver and what in the world was going through his mind when he did this? I personally think the answer is quite obvious. This driver is a bigot, an anti-military bigot. And don't you go telling me that the only valid definition of "bigot" involves race, because I'll call BS on that so fast it will make your head explode.

This driver may have seen this as some act of defiance and protest against the war or the President or goodness only knows what. All it truly did was unmask his personal bigotry and hatred for what this young man represented during a time when others just like him are putting their lives on the line ever day. If he wanted to protest, he could have worn a button or stood on some street corner with a sign on his own time and not while on the clock for your company.

Don't try to give me some lame excuse or cooked up reason for this either, Greyhound, because I'm simply not buying it. Look into it, take appropriate and severe action against the responsible party or parties, and issue an apology to this young Marine and to all military personnel who may have been disrespected by this clown in the past but who sucked it up and let it go to keep the peace. This kind of behavior is seldom an isolated event, but almost always part of an established pattern of intolerant behavior.

These young men and women have dedicated their lives to this country. They do this for every single person who lives within this country, regardless of their outward appearance, beliefs, citizenship status or socio-economic level. They do it for nuns, school children, little old ladies who play bridge on Tuesdays, and yes, for Greyhound Bus Drivers. Marines, and for that matter all other service members, do this out of duty, out of honor, out of the knowledge that what they do is right. It certainly isn't the pay or the perks.

When they buy their ticket to use your service, they should be able to expect a level of service and respect no less than that afforded any other person who rides the bus.

If you at the Greyhound front offices don't make this better, and I do mean immensely better and quickly, I hope there's backlash of biblical proportions.

An Open Letter

To the members of the Armed Services of the United States currently serving overseas in and around Iraq:

I have read the letter from Spc. Joe Roche regarding the impact of Michael Moore's film on the morale of young men and women who have served or are currently serving in Iraq.

The motives of any person who would download this film, burn it to a disk, and mail it to a young, exhausted, and vulnerable man or woman far from home doing what has to be the world's most difficult and thankless job have got to be questioned by sane and rational people. Any person who would do this is nothing less than thoughtless and cruel. I liken this behavior to telling "dead baby jokes" to a couple who has recently lost an infant, or amputee jokes to someone who is still learning to use his newly fitted prosthetics.

Michael Moore has an agenda, a very specific agenda, which he promotes with this film: The overthrow of a sitting president for the purpose of weakening this country and her military. He is Jane Fonda in a fat suit. He very obviously cherry-picked those he interviewed and then edited what was said in such a way to make their words as damning to their fellow fighting men and women as possible, and to undermine all sense of duty, honor, and patriotism in each of you, as well as in as many of us who remain at home as possible.

Spc. Roche is right that the youngest of you is the most vulnerable to his deceits, and because of this, you have been targeted for his venom. By undermining your confidence in yourselves, in your NCOs, in your officers, and ultimately in your Commander-in-Chief, he forwards his agenda and comes ever so much closer to accomplishing that which he prizes and seeks so openly. By turning your pride and spirit into despair and anger, he destroys you and all who depend on you. He knows and depends on the fact that when you begin to question yourself, you become a danger to yourself and to the man or woman who stands beside you, and you become a liability to your comrades, to your unit, and to your mission.

"Farenheit: 911" is a web of half-truths and outright deceits spun together for no other purpose than to become a rallying point for the anarchists, pacifists, and appeasers in this country and abroad. It gives them purpose and puts the fire in their bellies, instigating them to do such contemptible things as phoning the wives and mothers of servicemen, impersonating the Red Cross to give false death notifications. It gives them the nerve to confront returning military personnel at airports and on the streets for the purpose of abusing them much in the same manner as a great many veterans were abused during and after the Viet Nam war.

You may look at this film and feel that this nation views you as so much "cannon fodder" for a war about oil. Nothing could be further from the truth. My family and I are proud supporters of each and every one of you, and of your efforts to make our home a safer place. We are not the exception, but the rule. Our support is quiet. It takes the form of a box of snacks, a letter to a stranger, the anonymous picking up of the check when we see a man in uniform eating alone at a restaurant. It is the envelope with a 4th grade child's hand drawn card saying "I Love You" to a person she's never met.

We don't have the media voice given to those like Michael Moore or his followers, but we are not silent. We write on weblogs such as this one here, and those you find listed on this site. We are appreciative, we are informed, we are supportive of you and of your mission, and we are Legion.

I can only hope that when you see one of those disks being passed about on an installation, you get that disk, find the person who received it and didn't have the good sense to either send it back or destroy it, and bring that person up to speed on what they are doing to the very men and women they are supposed to be supporting. They have become by their actions a cog in a machine that has no purpose other than the destruction of all you have accomplished, and the discrediting of you and your mission and your entire chain of command.

There is little we can do to take away the pain of what this man and his propoganda have caused you, except to tell you that his movie and his agenda in no way represent the prevailing sentiment of the men and women who remain here at home. We do what is right, we support you and your efforts, and we welcome the day when you can return. We do what we can to counteract the damage he has done over here, and hope that you can do the same where you are, so many thousands of miles away.

A Call to Action: It is up to each of us to counter what this man has done, and to heal those who's hearts and minds bear his bitter wounds. Do what's right. Send your support. However small or insignificant you may think it is, there is no such thing. Tell someone you support them and the job they're doing in your name, in our names.

Bulgarian Killed

A Bulgarian truck driver, Mr. Giorgi Lazov, a young man of only 30 years, has been murdered by those Islamic militants who had taken him and fellow truck driver Ivaylo Kepov hostage.

To the Fringe.

Obviously, with yesterday's post as an indication, I am currently posting under the influence of a massive hormonal disturbance. Please bear this in mind as you read this.

Pith and Vinegar, the blogson and actual husband of Elizabeth of Poisoning Pigeons, has already posted on this, and I recommend you go read it. Not exactly my favorite way to start a Saturday, but definitely one that will get your blood up.

What sort of coward participates in this sort of low, filthy act? My guess is that this is no more political than any other act of vandalism. More likely, it is the childish behavior of an intellectually bankrupt and emotionally impotent sociopath who wants desparately to validate his behaviors by wrapping them in what he believe will be looked at as valid political discourse.

Sorry, you did not succeed, nor shall you ever succeed.

You did not succeed because within the Democrat party are fiercely patriotic men and women who's only difference from Republicans is that they may believe in Union Representation or follow a different denominational semantic, or who live in areas where the traditional Democrat party so firmly holds the position of power that they choose to work within the party to affect the changes they want incrementally.

Within the Democratic Party are men and women who fought for this country, who shed their blood, who's children shed their blood, and who still look as their time in uniform proudly and honorably. These people look at your with as much disdain and disgust as you hold for those of the Right.

You, with your thuggish vandalism no more speak for these people than you do your perceived foes, whatever label you happen to be slapping on them at this time: Zionists, Neocons, Religious Bigots, Traditionalists, Rednecks, Whites, Men, Wealth, Patriots, Chickenhawks, Provincials, Murderers, Babykillers.

Some would say that by such criminal cowardice you lower discourse. That would be true if this were discourse. It is not, it never will be. This is nothing more or less than some twisted perversion of the already perverse concept of Ideological Vigilanteism. It's the burning cross, the spraypainted swastika, the lynched effigy of an entire nation and her entire struggle to overcome the likes of you.

It is acts like this that will turn even the party behind who's skirts you scamper for protection against you. You will simply go too far, your anti-social behaviors will manifest in such a way that only your fellow criminals will not be disgusted or enraged by them. Essentially, eventually, you will cut your own throats and no one will avail themselves to staunch the flow, not even your perceived allies of the ACLU or the mindless cattle in Hollywood who allow their publicists to determine their politics based on some media rating or demographic.

You will take that proverbial slow twist in the wind. And we will do noting but watch, shake our heads, and walk away.

Another Banishment

To the moronic troll who left the vulgar comment in the performance art post, I have but a few things to say.

I really don't have a problem with opinions that differ from mine as long as they are presented in a civil manner, with some modicum of decorum, and in language you would use in front of a room full of kindergarten students... Okay, that's not realistic, more like 6th graders. At a parochial school.

Once you step over the line, either with obscenity or profanity, or by abusing me or my other commenters, you are gone. Your IP is banned, you are no longer welcome, you are "Troll non grata."

CB, or whomever you are or think you are, you are now troll non grata. Misha may allow you to hang about and stink-up his comment threads, but I am not Misha. Show up again, and whatever IP you use then will also be deleted and banned.

You no more value liberty than you value your own vomit, merely using its name as a rallying cry for your insane rantings and unsupported allegations.

I suggest that when your sophomore English teacher explains the subtleties of the Thesis, you pay attention instead of reproducing gang tags on the cover of your TrapperKeeper like you did last year in Freshman Redux. Yes, yes, you claim to be some anointed keeper of the Printed Word. I have yet to see any indication of the amount of scholarship which should be necessary for receiving such status in any comment attributed to you at this point.

Truth be told, I believe you to be nothing more than a minimum-wage part time employee in some ill-equipt and poorly maintained local library, allowed to do naught by return the pre-sorted tomes to their rightful places in the stacks by an overwrought and apathetic Librarian who wonders daily why you were ever hired and what it will take to have your position terminated.

And when you begin to complain about your free-speech rights being violated by this action, might I remind you that I am not an agent of the government and thereby not bound by the first ammendment on this blog, nor am I obligated to provide you with the bandwidth necessary for voicing whatever opinion you were instructed to espouse by whatever overly dramatic and self-serving groups in which you fancy yourself a member.

Yes, I left your "comment" where you excreted it, as an example to sane and civil individuals of just how vile a person can be when Ego spins out of control in the name of Ideology.

Cpl Hassoun Released???

Quit Jerking our Collective Chains!

Enough is enough! Is there no end to the cruelty of these moronic reporters and media outlets?

First he's Captured.
Then he's a Deserter.
Then he's not a Deserter.
Then he's Decapitated.
Then his throat is Cut.
Then he's Alive.
Now he's Released???

All in all, you pigs, media pigs and terrorist pigs, this means nothing. You made a bad call when you messed with the Marines. Alive or not, captured or freed, I suggest you get your sorry estates in order.

Your days are numbered, and they are few.

Why hasn't she been censured?/Cpl. Hassoun death claimed

Oh My Lord, No! Say it isn't so! It was the Jooooos! Those Evil Jooooos are responsible for the dark sadism of Abu AssGrab! Someone fetch me a whiskey, I feel faint.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations of prisoner abuse, said she met a man who told her he was Israeli during a visit to a Baghdad intelligence center with a senior coalition general.

If I had a quarter for every man who offered me a cocktail and then confided his involvment in some sort of covert group, intelligence agency, or special military unit, I'd be able to pay off my mortgage. But that's ancient history which was, at the time, quite humorous.

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East," Karpinski told British Broadcasting Corp. radio in an interview broadcast Saturday. "He said, 'Well I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'

Oh, such subterfuge. Why, Traitorous Wench Who Hurt Our Military General Karpinski, didn't you do something about it right there and then? Why didn't you do your job and look into this? No, instead you left the inmates in charge of the asylum and turned a blind eye.

Traitorous Wench Who Hurt Our Military General Karpinski, you damaged this country by your inaction. You provided the mud and crap that the Anti-War crowd now uses against our efforts in a time of war, not just against the military in general but against the men and women who are there doing their jobs.

Doing their jobs? Yes, exactly, which is much more than any can say about your performance in the breach.

One would think that at this point you would have the decency to accept responsibility for your own actions and inactions, and slink off with the proscribed levels of shame and dishonor to some quiet place where woefully inadequate examples of the Peter Principle go when finally exposed by their own hand.

By further feeble attempts at career-saving (something which is both futile and pathetic to watch) you endanger those troops still there, doing what they were trained to do, and doing it honorably. You spit on every flag draped coffin that passes through Dover AFB, and into the faces of the mothers of these fallen.

It is time you looked into your mirror and saw your real enemy, and quit looking for them under yamukes or behind civilian ID badges.

Update: Traitorous Wench Who Hurt Our MilitaryGeneral Karpinski, I know, as a rational and intelligent human being, that while you did not murder this young man, you set in motion a series of events that, while not a direct cause, certainly did give the murderers an excuse that the bomb-throwing left around the globe most certainly could embrace and openly does.

I pray the reports are wrong, that this is not true. But given the track record of these perversions in the past, I have very little doubt but that they are stating a fact, that Cpl. Hassoun is dead at their hands.

You have the blood of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun on your hands. You bear much of the responsibility for embolding those who are directly responsible. You may as well have taken him off-post and handed him over.

Nothing you can do will bring comfort to his mother, a woman who has been in mourning for days because she knew. Mothers know.

Nothing you can do can bring any resolution to this situation. Your impotence disgusts us all, those who have served, those who sacrificed as their parents and spouses served, those who's children now serve.

Just crawl away. We have a hero to mourn. A new hero among many who sacrificed themselves without wondering about the political expediency of their actions, or the publicity and sympathy they could garner by pitching mud on their fellows in uniform.

Just crawl away, please.

And for all of you blood-suckers and buzzards, circling the home of the family of Cpl. Hassoun, making claims and accusations backed by nothing more than a poorly written NYT item that was corrected days ago, back off and let these people mourn.

She's just a child.

If this doesn't sicken and repulse you, then perhaps it is time to seek professional help.

Adrian Gonzalez, 24, was arrested at his home at 4621 E. Hubbell St. and booked into Maricopa County’s Madison Street Jail in Phoenix on suspicion of two counts each of kidnapping and sexual misconduct with a minor, with a dangerous crimes against children classification, Force said.

Seems this sick vermin endeared himself to the child and her mom and her little sibblings, then talked her into the van where he molested raped her, threatened her and her family, and left her pregnant.

"This subject intimidated the girl into silence by telling her he would kill her siblings and kill her mother if she told," he said.

A nine year old. Pregnant. My daughter is that same age. Just the thought of that happening to her causes the bile to rise in my throat.

What a terrible shame that degenerate sack of crap didn't resist arrest. It would have warmed my heart.

If she were a horse, we'd put her down.

The New York Times has done it again. They have written a half truth about a man in harms way and published it as fact. And a retraction/correction just is not enough if this young man dies as a result of their politically driven idiocy.

You know what? I really am not in the least bit surprised about this. If you think about it, the "Old Grey Lady" of journalism is the victim of a bad and possibly irreversible case of Dementia that becomes more and more pronounced and apparent each day.

Gone are the days when you could trust what you read on her pages. She has become nothing more than a rag, and what has been done to the reputation of a young marine is just one more reprehensible example of how low she has sunk.

The sort of mis-quoting done in their paper, which has since been "corrected", is the same sort of yellow journalism that reinforces and actually legitimizes unfair stereotypes, no matter how false and malevolent they are. It is exactly situations like this that cause families of military personnel to call in the Marines to run interference with the press, as this family was forced to do just the other night.

Because of the irresponsible and inaccurate reporting of the New York Times, a community, a family, and a Marine have been smeared and endangered.

Not again...

It appears they are at it again. First a journalist, then a communications worker, then a helicopter tech, then a foreign national.

Now they have captured and are threatening a Marine. A young Marine. I don't know uniforms or insignia so I have no clue about that, but from the grainy pic you can't tell much anyway.

From the look of the ID from the screen save from Al Jazeera, he's the real deal.

According to CNN:

A speaker on the tape said the man was lured from his base and captured. Al-Jazeera said the group threatened to kill the man unless U.S. military authorities release Iraqi prisoners.

The video also showed Marine identification papers. CNN is not releasing the man's name until his family has been notified.

Not doing a very good job of it. His name is clearly visible in the photo, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, if I am reading this correctly.

Keep him and his family in your prayers.
______________________________________

And just because The Press has continually showed their collective asses in the handling and dissemination of information they either gather or have presented to them on platters, this piece from Korea Times.

Can you blame them for being upset? Was Kim Sun Il interviewed while a captive by the AP? Did they know what was happening, but chose to hold the tape until it was "big news"?

The media sickens me more and more every day. Let's hope that they haven't done the same crappy thing with information surrounding the current hostages.

Thursday Housekeeping.

I was looking at my referrals this afternoon and I found a couple of things that I want to address. Ill just take a moment now while it's all still fresh in my mind.

First, if you are here looking for a video of Kim Sun-Il being murdered by pustulant porcine progeny of pockmarked primates with pre-historic principles, you're come to the wrong place.

You won't find it here now, nor shall you ever. Not that I have a problem with people wanting to see it. Sometimes we need to be shocked and sickened by something like this to refuel the fire in our bellies. And sometimes even a morbid curiousity can be excused as long as a person learns from what they find.

Second, I have a few words for a completely different little group of people who have turned up in my referral list today. At this point, there were 21 or so of you.

If you're here as the result of a Yahoo Search for "Scream Queen Kim Sun Il" and you think you're going to find some like-minded reprobate with whom to smirk and giggle at the expense of a dead man, not only are you in the wrong place, but shame on every single one of you. Funny is funny; this is irresponsible, disgusting, and depraved. "Sick" isn't a strong enough word for the diseased minds that would type that into a search engine. You people probably also plugged in "Saddam Hussain Prisoner Shredder Video" and "Saddam Hussain Rape Room Video" recently, too. Haven't you?

Go find your own kind at the DU. Leave a steaming heap in the comments and you'll be deleted AND your IP banned. I have no time for Trolls.

Now back to the real world. For the rest of you, stick around and read. My thanks to LaShawn Barber for the link in her post on why people blog. She's a wonderful Lady with a thoughtful and perceptive way of seeing things, not to mention a delightful read.

Also, I encourage you to check out Jack's list of links, posted fresh and warm this morning. Jack, you are so good at finding great links. That offer still holds. Say the word.

DarthMonkeybone, answer your email. I have a sammich waiting.

Update: Well, I have found the source of the plague of sick searches. I had noticed that a disproportionate amount of them were from Asian Yahoo sites, and now I know why. Go take a look at that. And if any of you can find a link to the original site where it was posted, I'd like a link please. I haven't been successful.

Oh, and the count is now 31 hits from that disgusting search. At least now I understand why these people are searching for it. They're probably angrier than I am. They're looking for that sick joker too. I hope they find him. No, not his blog. Him.

Who are the martyrs?

Kim Sun-Il was murdered by faceless cowardly criminals (WAR criminals) today, in spite of the fact that these lying sons of pigs had agreed to an extended deadline for the purpose of negotiating with the South Korean government and the president of the corporation for which Mr. Kim worked.

Kim Sun-Il joins the list of true martyrs of this war. Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, our men and women in uniform who died while performing acts of kindness and charity for the Iraqi people, and now Kim Sun-Il. These are the men and women who died for their beliefs, who died horribly at the hands of those hairless monkeys.

The criminals who strap bombs to themselves, who shoot into armed columns of military personnel from behind children, who plant booby-traps along the road to kill little girls on school buses: these brutes are not martyrs. They make martyrs of others, of people who are murdered because they follow a different religion or belief system, or who give aid to coalition troops, or pass out candy and toys and clothes and shoes to children who have none.

I don't want to hear any more that we're losing the war by people who point to the tragic murders of Pearl, Berg, Johnson and Kim as evidence. We're winning the war, which is precisely why these men were martyred. They where martyred because those turbaned Nazis knew that their deaths would strengthen the resolve of those who would tuck their tails and run and call it diplomacy. They were killed to give the anti-war movement more ammo to use against the administration not only here, but in every country counted among the coalition.

Yet these fools don't realize it. These fools, idiots useful only as the fifth column of Al Quaida, don't even realize that they are being played by the very people who would just as gladly remove their heads if given the chance.

911 commission considering new evidence?

Excuse my language, but it's about fucking time.

Where have these people been over the last several hundred hours of testimony? What were they thinking as they poured over reams of documents, acres of photographs, and miles of video and audio tape?

John F. Lehman, a Reagan-era GOP defense official told NBC's "Meet the Press" that documents captured in Iraq "indicate that there is at least one officer of Saddam's Fedayeen, a lieutenant colonel, who was a very prominent member of al Qaida."

Oh? Really? Are you sure? I mean, this is counter to what both of those fine and upstanding gentlemen, currently guests of the US, stated to you previously. Are you saying they may have *gasp* Lied?

"Shakir is a pretty common name," said terrorism analyst and author Peter Bergen, "and even if the two names refer to the same person, there might be a number of other explanations. Perhaps al-Qaida had penetrated Saddam's security apparatus."

The rest of this needs to be read to be believed. I'm just too pissed and too tired to deal with it tonight. I'm sick of the spinning, sick of the refusal to look at the facts, sick of people dashing lemming-like into the abyss of self-loathing at the expense of the truth, and sick of the "Blame ME" crowd.

Yeah, I blame you. Not the euphamistic you that includes us all as citizens of America. You personally, for your comtempt of those who try to protect your sorry, worthless lives, and do so because that's what people do for each other. You personally, because you spew lies and half-truths for no other reason than vanity and avarice, class envy and standard, run of the mill jealousy.

Not to mention because you give voice to all that is repugnant and vile with your constant little digs and dirty tricks. You think the Nixon era Whitehouse was the epicenter of Dirty Tricks? You haven't been watching network news lately, or read the NYTimes.

Here's a corker:

Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, played down the differences between the commission's view and that of the administration. "When you begin to use words like 'relationship' and 'ties' and 'connections' and 'contacts,'" he told ABC's "This Week," "everybody has a little different view of what those words mean. But if you look at the core statements that we made ... I don't think there's a difference of opinion with regard to those statements.

"If there is, it has to be spelled out to me. "

Kinda like trying to decide exactly what the definition of "is" is.

Go follow this link and read this for yourself. Grandstanding to the end. An embarrassment to us all.

Private aside to the Commission: Don't you fools realize that your audience, the one that really counts, is not the domestic audience? Don't you have half a clue that your purpose is not to play patty-fingers with each other, but to get at the facts of September 11, 2001? Last time I checked, as of that date there was no Al Quaida link to either the Republican or Democrat party, so politics should have been officially off the table. Today, however, I could almost prove a link. And you, Ladies and Gentlemen, provided your own self incrimination.

Saudi-Free Gas

Don't know how true this is. Too much of what we find on the internet just isn't verifyable, but here goes.

We were able to secure the statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy for various oil companies for calendar Year 2000:

Shell purchased 3,611,000 barrels from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
BP purchased none from the Middle East.
Chevron purchased 14,724,000 from the Middle East.
Citgo-None from the Middle East.
Amoco purchased 3,611,000 barrels from the Middle East.
Exxon-Mobil combined purchased 13,273,000 barrels from the Middle East.
Marathon purchased 10,710,000 in Middle Eastern oil.
Sunoco purchased none from the Middle East.
Conoco purchased 523,000 from the Middle East.
Sinclair-We didn't find any figures.
Phillips-We didn't find any Middle Eastern purchases.

This from an item at TruthOrFiction. So BP is okay, at least according to the year 2000 report.

Anyone find anything more timely, pop it into comments or my email. Until then, it's no more Shell or Marathon. Pity, too. The Marathon station is just so damned convenient.

Your Assignment

I'm for real on this whole Divestiture thing. I'll never knowingly purchase another gallon of Saudi oil when I can get it from elsewhere.

I have seen the chain-letter about which oil companies do and which do not use Saudi oil, but I don't know how accurate this is. Consider the source. How accurate is most of the unsolicited stuff we find in our inboxes every day, even from well intentioned friends and family?

I want to know where I can buy my gas. I want to know who sells domestically produced gas, gas of occidental hemisphere origin, or just non-Middle Eastern gas.

It was my understanding that BP (British Petroleum) did not import from Saudi Arabia, but that may or may not be accurate.

I have half a tank left. It will be gone by Wednesday. And I don't think I'm alone in this.

It's the first step in divesting myself of all things and all dependencies Saud.

Divestiture Now!

You are all intelligent people. Now I ask you, did any of you really doubt for a minute that hostage Paul Johnson was going to be murdered? I have my doubts that he survived more than a few hours after the first tape was made. I believe they made both videos at about the same time and just sat on the pix until after the body had been dumped.

There was no sane or rational reason for this man to be murdered. Nor is there any sane or rational reason for any foreign national to continue to work in that place, providing support and skilled labor to a country who's own population will not or can not provide it for themselves.

It is at this point in time that all foreign corporations should be required to pull their workforces out and shutter their offices. Now. Immediately.

The world screamed "Divestiture" when South Africa would not denounce the policy of Apartheid. The liberals screamed "Divestiture" when Israel defended herself from terrorists. I scream "Divestiture" now! It is time for the all sane people to demand divestiture of all corporations supporting the current state of all nations which harbor, train, and invest in terrorist groups.

When the LLL screech "No Blood for Oil" it should take on new meaning, a much more accurate meaning than their original anti-war protests.

Yes, let there be no more innocent civilian blood shed by any of the six million ex-pat workers currently in Saudi Arabia to prop up their crappy economy by pumping their oil.

No more money for madrasas. No more money for perfumed princes who slither about on U.S. universities. No more money for men who demand their women be circumsised and stripped of all personal freedom and dignity. No more money for the women who will not stand up and fight this mysogynist regime. No more money for a government that persecutes on the basis of religious beliefs.

No more men lured with the opportunity of a good paycheck, only to have their lives cut short because of home grown and governmentally approved terrorists. No more field workers, clerical staffs, managers, directors, food service personnel, or their defenseless families.

Open the valves and let them swim in it. I'll support it no more.

Reading Assignment.

From a comment in the post about Nicole Kidman we find the following observation/statement from Bob:

Off the subject, if your blog subtitle is true (The musings, rantings, and general blitherings of a stressed-out housewife and working mother in Indianapolis.), maybe you need to reduce the on-line time and take care of your children instead.

Just a suggestion.

I want you all to read this and think about it. I'll have something to say about it tonight after I've worked my 8 hours as the sole support of my small family and come home to my currently disabled husband and my precocious daughter.

Time is up. Please place your pencils on your desks and close your workbooks.

You know, I find it amazing that what little problems I've ever had with Trolls or Trollish Behavior have always come typed above some derivative of the name Robert. I've had encounters with the "Robert McClelland Impersonator," with someone who claims to be the real Robert McClelland, and now, since all those IPs are banned, with an anonymous Bob. Interesting, to say the least.

So to begin with, we have yet another banned IP on the ever growing list. If this affects any of the truly good people who come over here to read, please let me know. My email is posted in the gutter. I'd hate to think that this would affect someone who did not behave in this manner.

Now, back to his general statement. Let me insert it here:

Off the subject, if your blog subtitle is true (The musings, rantings, and general blitherings of a stressed-out housewife and working mother in Indianapolis.), maybe you need to reduce the on-line time and take care of your children instead.

Just a suggestion.

I was going to break this down and justify the time I spend online, the time at work, the time with my elderly parents, the time with my 9 yr old daughter who cannot go to a day program this summer because of cash-flow problems, and the time I spend with my husband. But I see absolutely no reason to legitimize his feeble attempt at superiority by justifying the manner in which I choose to spend my little bit of free time.

The same question could be made of this "Bob" and it would be a legitimate question. Why are you so obviously wasting your time cruising the blogs of persons you apparently feel are inferior to you, to your intelligence, and to your capacity for the dispensing of Wise and Sage Advice? Have you been driven from your regular chats by persons tired of your smug attitude? Will no one acknowledge your Witty and Worldly IMs any longer, choosing instead to list you as "never contact" with their IM providers? Doesn't that sphincter get a little tight on your neck? How do you manage to find trousers cut amply enough to accommodate the massive balls you apparently possess? No, I shouldn't stoop to that level. Forget I ever said you had balls of any consequence at all. I'm sure you don't.

Don't flatter yourself that I spent much time on this, "Bob." Five hundred words isn't even enough to get me warmed up, and seldom takes more than a few minutes, even when distracted by my wifely, motherly, daughterly, or work related duties.

And as an aside to Jack, Elizabeth, Pam, Aaron, Darth and the rest of you souls both good and kind, Thank You. If you ever find yourselves pinned down in a Troll Crossfire please remember, I have your six.

She's off my Christmas list.

Tell me this is just some faked-up publicity stunt to sell advance tickets with controversy.

Nicole Kidman, naked, in a bathtub with a 10 year old boy, making out. Liplock and Oral Appendectomy. With a minor. Not just a regular, run of the mill, teen-aged minor. A 10 year old.

The movie is called Birth, and a release date hasn't been announced yet. I'd bet it's tentatively scheduled for that Christmas Season rush to make Oscar eligibility. Yep, all the kids are on vacation, hanging at the mall, and watching Nicole Kidman in a sex scene with a child.

Where were his parents? Who signed that Permission Slip?

We give permission for our son, (name)__________________, to participate in gratuitous nude scenes with Nicole Kidman, and to have his toncils swabbed with her tongue as many times as is necessary to get the footage the director requires. We also allow the director to place him in scenes which constitute nothing less than soft-core pedophile porn as long as it advances the plot of this film, Birth.

Signed, _________________________date_________

And don't give me "We did it for Art" crap, either. You did it for money. You prostituted your child for money. No, not much money now, because there are laws protecting his funds. But Things and Events and Social Status, like damned near every other stage parent I've ever encountered.

Where's CPS in a case like this? Probably logged into Moviephone to get advance tickets. Or will his parents be sending comps?

Just an update: Seems the press has begun to pick up on this, and the studio is playing a "maybe, maybe not" game.

Caged Rats

I want you to look at the list of Breaking News items found on the AP wire at 8am this morning and see if you are snagged by the same perception:

AP Breaking News:

• 06/13 08:08 am John R.T. Davies, Jazz Record Restorer, Dies at 77

• 06/13 07:08 am Race for President May Define Serbia's Future

• 06/13 06:57 am Second Senior Iraqi Official Assassinated; at Least 12 Killed in Car Bombing in Baghdad

• 06/13 06:25 am Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Assassinated in Capital

• 06/13 06:19 am Missing American Held by Same Militants Who Killed Another American the Day Before

• 06/13 05:56 am Prominent Kurdish Cleric Slain by Gunmen in Northern Oil Center

• 06/13 05:53 am Car Bomb Explodes Near U.S. Military Camp in Baghdad

• 06/13 05:31 am Europeans Vote in Final Day of Balloting for EU Parliament

You see it? Do you see the pattern?

These are the acts of desperation, the clawing, biting death-throes of a failing movement. These are the beserker charge, the fearful snarls and bared teeth of a cornered curr as the rifle is raised and aim is taken.

There are those who will point at this as an indication of failure on the part of the Coalition, and will claim that it signifies impending doom. These are the same people who state that there are no evil people. They will insist that we honor a culture of death, racism, and religious bigotry because all cultures are inherently good, and then condem our own uniquely blended culture as evil and intolerant.

We cannot do this. We have to be able to look at this and see it for what it is. Every day, you can read the journals and weblogs of those who are there or have recently returned and find more examples of how the millions in Iraq stand with the Coalition against the thousands who would plunge them back into an isolated tyranny.

We as a nation cannot abandon these millions of people because of the screeching of contrarians, safe within their walled enclaves and trust-fund condos, who's words are more about self-promotion than about what is right.

Deport Soros Now.

"The war on terror, as conducted by this administration, has claimed more innocent victims than the original attack itself."

The time has come for each and every one of us to demand that the government declare George Soros an undesirable alien and deport his money-grubbing, market manipulating, un-American, New World Order, MoveOn.Ass back across our borders and into one of the many countries struggling to overcome the economic collapse his "Business Tactics" brought to them.

George Soros in his arrogance has woven a web of deceit second only to that woven by the propoganda machines of the Iron Curtain Empire that spawned him and his covert quest for power and domination. We forget too soon the imperial designs that the Soviet Union had for the world before western solidarity and perserverence proved itself by establishing the environment that ultimately brought down "The Wall." We deny that these designs still exist in the hearts of many who's tactics come straight from the Marx-Lenin-Stalin playbook, albeit disguised as Capitalism and Free Trade.

This viper has found refuge at the breast of those whom Theodore Roosevelt so correctly called the "Lunatic Fringe," taking nourishment from their fervor and poisoning them in return. His unlimited funds and his unabashed hatred of America make him an enemy of this country the likes of which we have never seen because he does so from within.

I demand any claims of citizenship he has in this country be revoked, and that he be deported from this country and tried in the World Court as a Criminal against Humanity for his actions against the economies and governments of every small country he has destroyed in his zeal for control over the world currency market. I demand he be charged with crimes against humanity for every death caused by the resultant unrest in these countries and their destabilized neighboring countries.

I demand that all corporations and organizations funded by him be examined by the Justice Department under the same guidelines used for investigating terrorist front operations, and that any found to be such be disbanded and their funds frozen until such time as they can be used to bring stability to those damaged nations and to reduce their debts to the world.

Reaction to the Reaction

I admit, I slept through all but the first few moments of the president's speech last night and remained asleep until Bill O'Reilly's show started. That man, in tandem with Dick Morris, are better than the obnoxious fog-cutting screech produced by my alarm clock each morning.

I rubbed my eyes, copped a huge yawn, and settled in to listen to what the odd couple had to say.

Apparently, Dick Morris is of the opinion (opinions? Dick has Opinions?) that the president didn't feminize his speech enough. He didn't make it emotional enough, or appeal to the Mommy-Nurture-Security nature of the female psyche. He stated that We (women) needed to be shown with specific examples how we and our comfy nests complete with tender young were being protected from the boogieman Bin Ladin.

Excuse me? Dick? That may have been the case with politically innocent, ill-informed, fresh out of highschool wives 40 years ago. This is no longer the case by a long shot.

I don't need my hand patted while comforting "there-there's" are coo-ed at me to prevent my developing a case of the vapors while my diminutive mind tries desparately to decipher the rich and masculine code which is Politics. To insinuate such is an insult to me and to the strong, intelligent, and very savy woman who gave me life and the ability to understand political rhetoric from all sides of an issue.

This stereotype is as offensive as it is widespread, much at the hand of hardcore feminists who began by discounting stay-at-home moms, and have moved on to demonize women who embrace political ideas and ideals counter to their enlightened, tolerent, progressive, and Asolutely Correct politics.

I get it. I get it and I don't need politicians and their handlers and the pundits and their handlers to resort to the "Awwwww" factor of using fuzzy bunnies in green meadows and sweet naked babies with daisies in their hair in order to get it.

It is not going to hurt my brain to use the logic necessary to see beyond the chaos of Nazi WerewolvesIslamist terrorists committing random acts against the coalition and civilian contractors, and on to the bigger picture of what is happening in the country overall. I'm not going to burst a vessel listening to the generals discuss the actions happening on the ground in Najaf or Falujah or Tikrit, or any other of those shit-holes. I may, however, the next time one of you "analysts" tries to talk down to me and explain it all in soft, female terms that I'll "understand."

Oh, and by the way... When was it decided that Dick Morris was some annointed spokesperson for Feminine Perceptions and Political Capabilities? I don't know about you, Dick, but I'd be insulted as hell if I were you. That would be like me being picked as the spokesperson for Masculine Political Perceptual Constructs just because I'm a large woman in comfortable shoes and pleated chino trousers.