This list of made up words is attributed to something called the "Washington Post's Mensa Invitational." I can't find a link that would verify that it actually has anything to do with a contest by the Post, but it is still funny as heck.
The idea is to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are are some of the apparent winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stop bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
12 Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you are eating.
Finally, this isn't one word, but there is my favorite invention that I came up with ten or so years ago:
The Rogers' Pulse Doppler Laser Nippleometer--a device designed to measure the ambient temperature by bouncing a a beam of light off of a women's chest.
If you don't get it, try to forget that I mentioned it...
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
John Kerry Says...
In an effort to prove my middle of the road, rational Libertarian approach to politics, I offer the following text of an E-mail that I received from the John Kerry website yesterday.
If you're a liberal, please feel free to enjoy his words, and if you are conservative, feel free to toss your cookies and roll your eyes in an appropriate manner:
Again, feel free to respond accordingly...snicker, chortle, Bwahhahahahahahahahah...
If you're a liberal, please feel free to enjoy his words, and if you are conservative, feel free to toss your cookies and roll your eyes in an appropriate manner:
Dear Friend,
Today, two men and half the Republican Party's troubles are appearing side by side in Texas.
Vice President Dick Cheney is traveling all the way to the Lone Star state to help bail out Tom DeLay by appearing at the embattled Republican leader's fundraiser.
I guess you could say DeLay is Dick Cheney's kind of Republican: abusive, arrogant, and out of control.
It would be almost laughable were it not for the dangerous ideas they believe in, the outrageous conduct they condone, and the power they wield.
2006 is about taking that power out of their hands. So, today, Keeping America's Promise, the political action committee I helped found is asking you to take two critical actions.
As Cheney raises money to help Tom DeLay's campaign, help rush contributions to Nick Lampson, the tough, committed Democrat who is running to unseat DeLay. And consider helping Jill Derby in Nevada and Chris Carney in Pennsylvania - two other candidates in closely fought districts where DeLay money helped Republicans win in 2004.
Make a contribution to stop the DeLay money machine
But, in addition to direct candidate support, it's essential that you help in another way as well. Help make sure no Democrat stands alone against the underhanded tactics that Cheney and DeLay specialize in.
We know what Republicans like Cheney and DeLay do when their backs are to the wall. They come out swinging with baseless charges and scorched earth political tactics.
Every time they try it in 2006, we've got to respond - quickly, effectively and in force. Democrats didn't let them get away with swift boat-style attacks on Jack Murtha. And we won't let them get away with that kind of attack on any other Democratic candidate in 2006.
When our candidates face the kind of underhanded tactics that DeLay and Cheney specialize in, they need more than our moral support. They need us to come to their aid in immediate, concrete ways.
You can act right now to help launch the 2006 Fight Back Fund.
Make a contribution to stop the DeLay money machine
Moments after the Republican Party or its allies come after one of our candidates, we'll be there. If it takes radio and newspaper ads in Republicans' home districts, we'll run those ads. If it takes flooding the congressional district with mailings and phone calls to set the record straight, that's what we'll do.
If it takes mobilizing national political figures to stand with our candidates, we'll organize that support. If it takes our entire grassroots community rushing to a candidate's side, we'll do that too.
But, here's the key. The Fight Back Fund has to be ready to act at a moment's notice. And you can help right now by providing the seed money to set our Fight Back Fund in motion.
Make a contribution to stop the DeLay money machine
Let Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay stand side by side in Texas today. There are only two of them - and there are millions of us. And today, we're sending them a powerful message: get out of our way. We've come to take our country back - and your mean-spirited, underhanded style of politics can't stop us.
We're really counting on your help.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
P.S. Lots of Republican incumbents have filled their campaign coffers with donations from the DeLay money machine. You can help the Fight Back Fund even the odds. Please act right now.
Again, feel free to respond accordingly...snicker, chortle, Bwahhahahahahahahahah...
Someone Please Explain This To Me
Open Mouth...Insert Foot...
I'm not even going to comment, I'll just let you decide based on the facts.
Here is the link to the transcript from CBS's "Face the Nation" show on Sunday.
Go read the entire thing if you have the time and the patience.
In the interview, half of Massachusetts contribution to the US Senate, John sKerry, was talking to Journalist Bob Schieffer...
SCHIEFFER: All right. Let me shift to another point of view, and it comes from another Democrat, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. He takes a very different view. He says basically we should stay the course because, he says, real progress is being made. He said this is a war between 27 million Iraqis who want freedom and 10,000 terrorists. He says we're in a watershed transformation. What about that?
Sen. KERRY: Let me--I--first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush's policy right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he's doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn't been working. We all believe him when you say, `Stay the course.' That's the president's policy, which hasn't been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don't agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis. And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not...
SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
Sen. KERRY: ...Iraqis should be doing that. And after all of these two and a half years, with all of the talk of 210,000 people trained, there just is no excuse for not transferring more of that authority.
So sKerry still thinks that US soldiers are the actual terrorists, but in this case he also believes that what our troops are doing by entering homes in the dead of night looking for bombs and "insurgents" would be OK, as long as it was the Iraqis that were doing the terrorization?
WTF?
I'm not even going to comment, I'll just let you decide based on the facts.
Here is the link to the transcript from CBS's "Face the Nation" show on Sunday.
Go read the entire thing if you have the time and the patience.
In the interview, half of Massachusetts contribution to the US Senate, John sKerry, was talking to Journalist Bob Schieffer...
SCHIEFFER: All right. Let me shift to another point of view, and it comes from another Democrat, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. He takes a very different view. He says basically we should stay the course because, he says, real progress is being made. He said this is a war between 27 million Iraqis who want freedom and 10,000 terrorists. He says we're in a watershed transformation. What about that?
Sen. KERRY: Let me--I--first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush's policy right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he's doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn't been working. We all believe him when you say, `Stay the course.' That's the president's policy, which hasn't been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don't agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis. And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not...
SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
Sen. KERRY: ...Iraqis should be doing that. And after all of these two and a half years, with all of the talk of 210,000 people trained, there just is no excuse for not transferring more of that authority.
So sKerry still thinks that US soldiers are the actual terrorists, but in this case he also believes that what our troops are doing by entering homes in the dead of night looking for bombs and "insurgents" would be OK, as long as it was the Iraqis that were doing the terrorization?
WTF?
Monday, December 05, 2005
A Silk Purse From A Sow’s Ear
I’ve Made One In My Theater Career…
In March of 2004 I did something I hadn’t done since grade school.
No, I didn’t wet my pants or anything like that—what I did was try out for a part in a play with one of the local theater companies. I thought that I had picked the most prestigious group, so you can imagine my surprise when I received one of the two male lead parts—that of Hannibal, a self-committed resident in a mental institute, in John Patrick’s play “The Curious Savage.”
Talk about a role fitting like a glove…
Thus began my fitful twelve month trip through the chambers of Dante’s Hell of Theatrics. I worked my ass off to learn my part, and so did a half dozen of the other actors. The problem was that there were ten parts in the play.
As a result, our performances were mediocre at best, but I was soon to learn that this particular theater company had a long, long history of inbreeding, infighting, and other political BS that tortured new participants like me into dismissing ourselves from their menial process in order to relieve our suffering.
After spending hundreds and hundreds of hours working as a volunteer both on the stage and behind the scenes, I finally told them to kiss the body part of their choice as I walked out the door for the last time.
I was tempted to end my theater career entirely and cut my losses, but instead I opted to look for opportunities with other amateur companies in the area. I’ve found two other opportunities—one being a very new group in their second year of existence and using borrowed performance space in a church, and the other producing shows in Brunswick’s Ritz Theater.
I’ve had positive experiences with both groups.
Most recently I’ve been commissioned to design and built the set for the performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carroll” at the hundred plus year old Ritz Theater in Brunswick, Georgia. The real challenge I faced was that I only had two weeks to complete a process that I was used to having two months to accomplish.
I managed to get about 60 hours of actual sawdust production time, 20 hours of drawing/design time, and when I completed my work and walked off of the stage on Saturday I had my fingers crossed that the cast would deliver a performance worthy of my efforts.
You see, there is nothing more disheartening that putting your heart and soul into a set design and breaking your back and tearing the calluses off of your hands building said design, only to have the actors drag-ass through their rehearsals, learn their lines at the very last minute (if at all) and end up delivering a series of mediocre or even crappy performances. I’ve earned a couple of Purple Heart medals for my wounded ego in the past year and a half as a result of the ineptitude and incompetence of a couple of actors, directors, and producers that I know.
The best set in the world can’t save a bad performance, but a good performance can be made to look even better with good costumes and a great set, and the set is where I’ve found that I can be of the greatest value.
Thankfully Heather, my director, and Rob and the rest of the cast have held up their ends of our agreement, as I learned last night when I attended “Tech/Dress Rehearsal” to make a few final adjustments. What a great difference actually being able to act and actually learning your lines makes in producing a play and delivering a performance.
The performance that I saw delivered during last night’s rehearsal was better than ANYTHING that I had seen in live performances over the past twenty months I’ve lived here on St. Simons Island and worked in the theater. I would have paid to have seen the performance, even though they owe me a few sets of free tickets as compensation for my efforts.
Of course it helps that there is a professional actor and actress in the cast, but overall even the amateurs in our cast have worked their butts off, and my set provides them with a worthy stage from which to deliver their performance.
I am humbled and honored to be able to participate in this endeavor, and I look forward to working again in the future with the staff of the Ritz Theater.
I’m also glad I stuck with my theatrical efforts, because a load of pig’s ears is something I don’t need laying around the condo.
Photos will follow...
In March of 2004 I did something I hadn’t done since grade school.
No, I didn’t wet my pants or anything like that—what I did was try out for a part in a play with one of the local theater companies. I thought that I had picked the most prestigious group, so you can imagine my surprise when I received one of the two male lead parts—that of Hannibal, a self-committed resident in a mental institute, in John Patrick’s play “The Curious Savage.”
Talk about a role fitting like a glove…
Thus began my fitful twelve month trip through the chambers of Dante’s Hell of Theatrics. I worked my ass off to learn my part, and so did a half dozen of the other actors. The problem was that there were ten parts in the play.
As a result, our performances were mediocre at best, but I was soon to learn that this particular theater company had a long, long history of inbreeding, infighting, and other political BS that tortured new participants like me into dismissing ourselves from their menial process in order to relieve our suffering.
After spending hundreds and hundreds of hours working as a volunteer both on the stage and behind the scenes, I finally told them to kiss the body part of their choice as I walked out the door for the last time.
I was tempted to end my theater career entirely and cut my losses, but instead I opted to look for opportunities with other amateur companies in the area. I’ve found two other opportunities—one being a very new group in their second year of existence and using borrowed performance space in a church, and the other producing shows in Brunswick’s Ritz Theater.
I’ve had positive experiences with both groups.
Most recently I’ve been commissioned to design and built the set for the performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carroll” at the hundred plus year old Ritz Theater in Brunswick, Georgia. The real challenge I faced was that I only had two weeks to complete a process that I was used to having two months to accomplish.
I managed to get about 60 hours of actual sawdust production time, 20 hours of drawing/design time, and when I completed my work and walked off of the stage on Saturday I had my fingers crossed that the cast would deliver a performance worthy of my efforts.
You see, there is nothing more disheartening that putting your heart and soul into a set design and breaking your back and tearing the calluses off of your hands building said design, only to have the actors drag-ass through their rehearsals, learn their lines at the very last minute (if at all) and end up delivering a series of mediocre or even crappy performances. I’ve earned a couple of Purple Heart medals for my wounded ego in the past year and a half as a result of the ineptitude and incompetence of a couple of actors, directors, and producers that I know.
The best set in the world can’t save a bad performance, but a good performance can be made to look even better with good costumes and a great set, and the set is where I’ve found that I can be of the greatest value.
Thankfully Heather, my director, and Rob and the rest of the cast have held up their ends of our agreement, as I learned last night when I attended “Tech/Dress Rehearsal” to make a few final adjustments. What a great difference actually being able to act and actually learning your lines makes in producing a play and delivering a performance.
The performance that I saw delivered during last night’s rehearsal was better than ANYTHING that I had seen in live performances over the past twenty months I’ve lived here on St. Simons Island and worked in the theater. I would have paid to have seen the performance, even though they owe me a few sets of free tickets as compensation for my efforts.
Of course it helps that there is a professional actor and actress in the cast, but overall even the amateurs in our cast have worked their butts off, and my set provides them with a worthy stage from which to deliver their performance.
I am humbled and honored to be able to participate in this endeavor, and I look forward to working again in the future with the staff of the Ritz Theater.
I’m also glad I stuck with my theatrical efforts, because a load of pig’s ears is something I don’t need laying around the condo.
Photos will follow...
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Holiday Humor
After a little over a year of "Blogging", I have to admit that I've met some interesting characters.
None could possibly be funnier than this example of a hideous, politically incorrect cartoon provided by my photo blog idol Roger over at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Check it out...
Is this why they say everything "taste like chicken"?
None could possibly be funnier than this example of a hideous, politically incorrect cartoon provided by my photo blog idol Roger over at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Check it out...
Is this why they say everything "taste like chicken"?
Who or What Are You?
And Why Should WE Protect YOUR Right To Vote???
I often wonder what the heck our kids are learning these days in government (public) schools. History lessons seem to have suffered the greatest casualties in the "revolution" that occurred after Georgia's contribution to the Oval Office--Jimmy Carter--formed the US Department of Education.
As a result, most people under the age of 40 think that we live in a Democracy rather than a representative REPUBLIC...But they are wrong in spite of what the NY Times and Washington Post say on their front pages.
Here's a couple of my favorite equations:
DEMOCRACY <= MOB RULE<=DEFEAT/TAXES/MISERY/IRRATIONAL INSANITY
REPUBLIC = RATIONAL SANITY=BITTER DEFEAT FOR THE COMMUNISTS/SOCIALISTS
Here's a little test for you to try:
(I missed Thomas Jefferson being the main author of the Declaration of Independence, but I did know which state wasn't one of the original 13)
Hat tip for the link to my Blog Buddy Rich over at Blind Chick Racing.
(He got 10 out of 10...He's the Man...I'm impressed)
I often wonder what the heck our kids are learning these days in government (public) schools. History lessons seem to have suffered the greatest casualties in the "revolution" that occurred after Georgia's contribution to the Oval Office--Jimmy Carter--formed the US Department of Education.
As a result, most people under the age of 40 think that we live in a Democracy rather than a representative REPUBLIC...But they are wrong in spite of what the NY Times and Washington Post say on their front pages.
Here's a couple of my favorite equations:
DEMOCRACY <= MOB RULE<=DEFEAT/TAXES/MISERY/IRRATIONAL INSANITY
REPUBLIC = RATIONAL SANITY=BITTER DEFEAT FOR THE COMMUNISTS/SOCIALISTS
Here's a little test for you to try:
| You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 |
(I missed Thomas Jefferson being the main author of the Declaration of Independence, but I did know which state wasn't one of the original 13)
Hat tip for the link to my Blog Buddy Rich over at Blind Chick Racing.
(He got 10 out of 10...He's the Man...I'm impressed)
Saturday, December 03, 2005
This is Wrong, Wrong, WRONG
Heads Should Roll…
I haven’t mentioned this before in my blog, but I have been conducting a life long study in first impressions and human nature. Some parts of my study were done intentionally, while others were quite unintentional and not very much fun in the retrospect.
I’ve found that, as a society, we have been conditioned to look at things like a man’s appearance--skin color, hair length, or choice of clothing--and base our interactions with a given individual on what I call “visual cues.”
I believe that no matter how many laws are passed or how much social pressure is brought to bear, each of us will continue to assess our fellow humans using social “norms” rather than intuition and a little common sense.
Further, the results of my study, to date, suggests that many of us, if not most of us, are just plain STUPID and GULLIBLE, and that as a result we end up playing the wrong game with the wrong people at the wrong time in the wrong places.
You ever heard the old saying that “a man can steal a great deal more money wearing a suit rather than brandishing a gun…”?
Insurance salesman, my old business partner, and several lawyers I’ve encountered through the years easily come to mind.
For instance--I, personally, suffer from a mild case of male pattern baldness, giving me a thin spot on the crown of my head and the resulting receding hairline. In the past ten years I have gone from cutting my hair down to 1/8” every week (an old fashioned crew cut) to having grown an 8” long pony tail. I’m desperately trying to avoid the “Billy Ray Cyrus Mullet” look, however.
I guess that you could say that “the jury is still out” regarding my success or failure...
I’ve also gone from regularly wearing a suit and tie to basically living in shorts and boat shoes or sweatpants and tennis shoes.
Same person—different packaging.
You would be amazed at the different receptions I get from people, based on my hair and clothing.
“No…I don’t have a rolling paper on me, thank you very much…”
I really enjoy messing with peoples’ minds if they are particularly condescending, and I will play my Billy Bob Thornton/Ernest T Bass/ Jeff Foxworthy impression on them, then watch them freak out the next time I see them when I mention that I’m a mechanical engineer, that I went to Georgia Tech, and I want to try out to compete on the game show “Jeopardy.”
When it comes to financial transactions I’ve found the disparity to be even greater.
Try getting off of your boat sometime wearing a bandanna and smelling like fish bait, walk into your bank, and attempt to withdraw a couple of thousand dollars in CASH. You might end up needing a gun to complete the transaction, even if the money is actually in your account and you have three forms of valid ID.
Or try this. Hang out on your boat for a few weeks, with only 30 gallons of fresh water (virtually no showers except salt water), then park your boat for engine repairs and attempt to return home by buying a one way airline ticket with cash from Key West to Atlanta.
You’re very likely to hear “you can put your pants back on when we’re through with the body cavity search and the X-ray exam…Mr. Rogers.” I really felt sorry for the TSA employee that had to hand inspect the suitcase containing my dirty clothes on that trip—they had better have been wearing two sets of latex gloves.
Then there was the first time I ever got a bonus check from a company I worked for back in the 1980’s. The guy that ran the business paid us a minimum salary and car allowance, but then he kicked ass with bonus checks if we did a good job and we had a good year.
My first bonus check was for $10,000. To say that I was elated would be an extreme understatement…
I was in my mid-twenty’s “pre-balding” long hair stage and was quite crushed when I walked into my company’s bank and attempted to CASH my $10,000 check. I wasn’t about to wait for my bank to hold my funds for a week or ten days while they waited for the check to clear.
I wanted to actually hold $10,000 in $100 bills.
Those b*tches at the bank treated me like total crap. I had on jeans that day because I had been doing a shop inspection on one of my projects and evidently I didn’t look like someone that should legitimately have any money. Everyone in the branch from the janitor to the “branch manager” had to handle the check, hold it up to the light, taste it, and then rudely look me over from top to bottom.
They called my office and asked for the owner, who was not in at the time, and they would not accept the secretary’s word that the check was good. After an hour of sitting around the bank lobby, while I was preparing to retrieve my check and deposit it in my own bank, my boss (the owner) called and threatened to close his six figure account(s) if they didn’t apologize to me and get me out the door immediately with my money.
They did, and I still managed to be polite because I was still so happy with my windfall, but I learned a sad lesson that day.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover…”
I have a good idea how this guy felt when Wal-Mart called the cops on him:
Wal-Mart has apologized to a black man who was accused of trying to pass a bad check as he was buying thousands of dollars in holiday gift cards to distribute to his company's employees.
Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called deputies last week to apprehend Reginald Pitts after he handed over a $13,600 check to pay for 520 gift cards that were to be given to employees at GAF Materials Corp., a roofing materials manufacturer where Pitts is a human resources manager.
The company, which had $1.6 billion in revenue last year, had been spending about $50,000 a year on Wal-Mart gift cards and never had a problem when it sent a white employee to pick them up.
"I keep going over and over the incident in my mind," Pitts told the St. Petersburg Times. "I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was treated like this except that I am black."
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., has launched an internal investigation of the incident and apologized to Pitts.
…
Pitts said that when he went to the store last week to pick up the already printed cards, store managers stalled for about two hours after he handed over the check while he stood waiting by the customer service desk. He had handed over his GAF business card, his driver's license and the toll-free numbers to GAF's bank. His accounting supervisor assured them over the phone that GAF was good for the check.
Later, two Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies appeared. One grabbed Pitts by the arm. He objected to the rough handling and asked if he was being arrested.
"We need to talk with you about this forged check that you brought in here," Pitts recalled one deputy saying. The deputy said later Wal-Mart had called and reported that Pitts had committed a felony.
A short time later deputies determined there were no grounds for a criminal charge and that Wal-Mart would not press the issue further.
Pitts' company has lodged a formal complaint with Wal-Mart.
You’re damn right someone should complain, even if the guy was white.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt…
I haven’t mentioned this before in my blog, but I have been conducting a life long study in first impressions and human nature. Some parts of my study were done intentionally, while others were quite unintentional and not very much fun in the retrospect.
I’ve found that, as a society, we have been conditioned to look at things like a man’s appearance--skin color, hair length, or choice of clothing--and base our interactions with a given individual on what I call “visual cues.”
I believe that no matter how many laws are passed or how much social pressure is brought to bear, each of us will continue to assess our fellow humans using social “norms” rather than intuition and a little common sense.
Further, the results of my study, to date, suggests that many of us, if not most of us, are just plain STUPID and GULLIBLE, and that as a result we end up playing the wrong game with the wrong people at the wrong time in the wrong places.
You ever heard the old saying that “a man can steal a great deal more money wearing a suit rather than brandishing a gun…”?
Insurance salesman, my old business partner, and several lawyers I’ve encountered through the years easily come to mind.
For instance--I, personally, suffer from a mild case of male pattern baldness, giving me a thin spot on the crown of my head and the resulting receding hairline. In the past ten years I have gone from cutting my hair down to 1/8” every week (an old fashioned crew cut) to having grown an 8” long pony tail. I’m desperately trying to avoid the “Billy Ray Cyrus Mullet” look, however.
I guess that you could say that “the jury is still out” regarding my success or failure...
I’ve also gone from regularly wearing a suit and tie to basically living in shorts and boat shoes or sweatpants and tennis shoes.
Same person—different packaging.
You would be amazed at the different receptions I get from people, based on my hair and clothing.
“No…I don’t have a rolling paper on me, thank you very much…”
I really enjoy messing with peoples’ minds if they are particularly condescending, and I will play my Billy Bob Thornton/Ernest T Bass/ Jeff Foxworthy impression on them, then watch them freak out the next time I see them when I mention that I’m a mechanical engineer, that I went to Georgia Tech, and I want to try out to compete on the game show “Jeopardy.”
When it comes to financial transactions I’ve found the disparity to be even greater.
Try getting off of your boat sometime wearing a bandanna and smelling like fish bait, walk into your bank, and attempt to withdraw a couple of thousand dollars in CASH. You might end up needing a gun to complete the transaction, even if the money is actually in your account and you have three forms of valid ID.
Or try this. Hang out on your boat for a few weeks, with only 30 gallons of fresh water (virtually no showers except salt water), then park your boat for engine repairs and attempt to return home by buying a one way airline ticket with cash from Key West to Atlanta.
You’re very likely to hear “you can put your pants back on when we’re through with the body cavity search and the X-ray exam…Mr. Rogers.” I really felt sorry for the TSA employee that had to hand inspect the suitcase containing my dirty clothes on that trip—they had better have been wearing two sets of latex gloves.
Then there was the first time I ever got a bonus check from a company I worked for back in the 1980’s. The guy that ran the business paid us a minimum salary and car allowance, but then he kicked ass with bonus checks if we did a good job and we had a good year.
My first bonus check was for $10,000. To say that I was elated would be an extreme understatement…
I was in my mid-twenty’s “pre-balding” long hair stage and was quite crushed when I walked into my company’s bank and attempted to CASH my $10,000 check. I wasn’t about to wait for my bank to hold my funds for a week or ten days while they waited for the check to clear.
I wanted to actually hold $10,000 in $100 bills.
Those b*tches at the bank treated me like total crap. I had on jeans that day because I had been doing a shop inspection on one of my projects and evidently I didn’t look like someone that should legitimately have any money. Everyone in the branch from the janitor to the “branch manager” had to handle the check, hold it up to the light, taste it, and then rudely look me over from top to bottom.
They called my office and asked for the owner, who was not in at the time, and they would not accept the secretary’s word that the check was good. After an hour of sitting around the bank lobby, while I was preparing to retrieve my check and deposit it in my own bank, my boss (the owner) called and threatened to close his six figure account(s) if they didn’t apologize to me and get me out the door immediately with my money.
They did, and I still managed to be polite because I was still so happy with my windfall, but I learned a sad lesson that day.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover…”
I have a good idea how this guy felt when Wal-Mart called the cops on him:
Wal-Mart has apologized to a black man who was accused of trying to pass a bad check as he was buying thousands of dollars in holiday gift cards to distribute to his company's employees.
Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called deputies last week to apprehend Reginald Pitts after he handed over a $13,600 check to pay for 520 gift cards that were to be given to employees at GAF Materials Corp., a roofing materials manufacturer where Pitts is a human resources manager.
The company, which had $1.6 billion in revenue last year, had been spending about $50,000 a year on Wal-Mart gift cards and never had a problem when it sent a white employee to pick them up.
"I keep going over and over the incident in my mind," Pitts told the St. Petersburg Times. "I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was treated like this except that I am black."
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., has launched an internal investigation of the incident and apologized to Pitts.
…
Pitts said that when he went to the store last week to pick up the already printed cards, store managers stalled for about two hours after he handed over the check while he stood waiting by the customer service desk. He had handed over his GAF business card, his driver's license and the toll-free numbers to GAF's bank. His accounting supervisor assured them over the phone that GAF was good for the check.
Later, two Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies appeared. One grabbed Pitts by the arm. He objected to the rough handling and asked if he was being arrested.
"We need to talk with you about this forged check that you brought in here," Pitts recalled one deputy saying. The deputy said later Wal-Mart had called and reported that Pitts had committed a felony.
A short time later deputies determined there were no grounds for a criminal charge and that Wal-Mart would not press the issue further.
Pitts' company has lodged a formal complaint with Wal-Mart.
You’re damn right someone should complain, even if the guy was white.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt…
Deadly Teen Pranks
Stupidity Squared...Unintended Consequences
I did some stupid stuff when I was a kid. Heck, I’ve done some stupid stuff as an adult (some stock market losses and my not one, but TWO ex-wives come to mind in this instance.)
As I’ve admitted earlier, I used to make things that could fly around under their own power--model airplanes and rockets. I also used to make things that blew up. Then I discovered that I could make a few things that flew around and then blew up when they were done flying.
Now don't start calling the NTSB, the ATF, or the FBI, because I've seen the writing on the walls and given up those hobbies years ago.
The one thing that I never did was direct my self entertaining pranks at other people or other people’s property. I was not that stupid, and possibly I was also afraid of the punitive consequences, or a little of both.
My current problem is that we have some local kids (I assume) that could use a few lessons in exercising similar restraint.
You see, we have an egging problem here on St. Simons Island.
Twice in the past six months we’ve had automobiles decorated with the paint-damaging remnants of eggs. The absentee owner of a black Mercedes 300SL parked in our building’s carport is going to be extremely distressed when they find the yolk that’s been cooking on the right rear quarter panel since this summer.
Last week our Mustang GT was one of the dozen recipients of a lovely egg decoration. Fortunately I found the results of our presumeably young intruders’ evenings’ entertainment and was able to wash it off early the next morning prior to it becoming permanantly attached to our paint.
This kind of crap really pisses me off--the children of "rich people" going out and egging other "rich people's" cars. For one thing, we're actually not rich; and most of my neighbors are elderly, even if they are "well-to-do" and have a hard time washing egg off of their Cadillacs, Lexus, and Mercedes.
Besides that, throwing anything at or on anyone's property, regardless of socio-economic status is wrong, and is typically against the law.
Regardless of the legal statutes, I’m thinking about buying one of these, an Ariakon SIM-4 R.I.S. Elete paintball gun to use as a deterrent of future antics :
I did some stupid stuff when I was a kid. Heck, I’ve done some stupid stuff as an adult (some stock market losses and my not one, but TWO ex-wives come to mind in this instance.)
As I’ve admitted earlier, I used to make things that could fly around under their own power--model airplanes and rockets. I also used to make things that blew up. Then I discovered that I could make a few things that flew around and then blew up when they were done flying.
Now don't start calling the NTSB, the ATF, or the FBI, because I've seen the writing on the walls and given up those hobbies years ago.
The one thing that I never did was direct my self entertaining pranks at other people or other people’s property. I was not that stupid, and possibly I was also afraid of the punitive consequences, or a little of both.
My current problem is that we have some local kids (I assume) that could use a few lessons in exercising similar restraint.
You see, we have an egging problem here on St. Simons Island.
Twice in the past six months we’ve had automobiles decorated with the paint-damaging remnants of eggs. The absentee owner of a black Mercedes 300SL parked in our building’s carport is going to be extremely distressed when they find the yolk that’s been cooking on the right rear quarter panel since this summer.
Last week our Mustang GT was one of the dozen recipients of a lovely egg decoration. Fortunately I found the results of our presumeably young intruders’ evenings’ entertainment and was able to wash it off early the next morning prior to it becoming permanantly attached to our paint.
This kind of crap really pisses me off--the children of "rich people" going out and egging other "rich people's" cars. For one thing, we're actually not rich; and most of my neighbors are elderly, even if they are "well-to-do" and have a hard time washing egg off of their Cadillacs, Lexus, and Mercedes.
Besides that, throwing anything at or on anyone's property, regardless of socio-economic status is wrong, and is typically against the law.
Regardless of the legal statutes, I’m thinking about buying one of these, an Ariakon SIM-4 R.I.S. Elete paintball gun to use as a deterrent of future antics :
Talk about an expensive toy--it costs nearly $1,000 customized with a laser sight. It has threaded interchangeable barrels, and can even be fitted for "night vision."
This aught to do the trick quite nicely...don't you think? It might cause the necessity of a few changes of underwear just by pointing at a potential tresspassor or vandal.
I can't decide if I would actually have the guts to shoot an egger, but I'd damn sure fire a round at their Daddy's SUV and let them explain the incident to Dad and/or the Police.
There are at least two teens in Indianapolis that wish that Donald E. Ware had shown restraint similar to my own:
A jury convicted a man of murder for fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy who threw eggs at him.
The Marion Superior Court jury in Indiana deliberated for seven hours Thursday before finding Donald E. Ware guilty of killing Brandon Dunson-Taylor.
Ware, 37, of Avon, Ind., showed no emotion as he looked at the jury while the verdict was read. He faces 79 years in prison and was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15.
Dunson-Taylor's great uncle, Charles Russell, said the incident was a lesson for teens to avoid the actions that led to the shooting.
“A child's prank can have consequences that no one could anticipate," Russell said.
…
Prosecutors portrayed Ware, who is white, as a racist motivated by more than anger when he fired a rifle toward the group of black youths throwing eggs at motorists including him on July 24 on Indianapolis' west side.
"I can't stand that the prosecution made it racially motivated," Fiscus said. "Everyone needs to know it was not racially motivated."
Ware's mother, Donna Ware, said her son was innocent.
"He's done a lot of dumb things, but he would never kill anyone unless it was in self-defense," she said.
Prosecutors said Ware told police he had yelled racial epithets at the teens after getting struck in the head with an egg.
As is usual with the media, I have a couple of problems with this story...
First of all, wouldn't it be perfectly natural to be inclined to yell a few choice words in the direction of someone that had just hit YOU in the head with an egg?
What was the guy supposed to say?
"Hey you young incorrigible Imps...THAT’S NOT FUNNY”?
"Hey you GUYS, stop that!!"
Or maybe just a simple “OUCH!”?
If the person that hit me was a woman, I’d probably include the B*tch word as the egg yolk dripped off of my nose. If the person was a man, I’d include SOB somewhere in my response, and if the perpetrator of the “teen prank” was black, I’m afraid that I must admit that the “N” word might slip from my lips in my retort.
But calling this a HATE CRIME is complete bullshit.
Yes, the guy shouldn’t have shot a kid for hitting him with an egg, but INCREASING his prison sentence based on what they assumed that he was thinking or based on what he said at the time is ludicrous.
And regarding “egging” as always being a HARMLESS prank, try having an egg explode on your windshield while driving at 55 MPH down a crooked two lane road on a freezing night.
Is that harmless?
The egg immediately sets on the windshield and cannot be washed off with the washer/wipers. I know, because it happened to me on a cold night in 1995, in my shiny 6 month old Chevy Surburban, and as a result I had to immediately roll my window down and drive with my head leaning out the window in order to negotiate slowing down and safely stopping off of the roadway.
I’m quite sure that the imbecile that lobbed that egg that night knew exactly what they were doing and probably knew the risk of causing an accident as a result, but I don’t care what color their skin was or what they were actually thinking at the time, IF I could have turned around and caught them, I might have blown their stupid brains out myself with my pistol.
Fortunately I had to stop and clean my windshield and had time for the rationality to temper my response.
I feel sorry for this little negro, black, African American youth, but he should have let his loving Mama fry those eggs for him, instead of using them ruin the lives of two families.
If people would just learn to THINK before they ACT...
Friday, December 02, 2005
RedneckJihad
I just found the RedneckJihad website and fell in love with this T-shirt logo:
I want one for Christmas...
I want one for Christmas...
Yasser Arafat's Still Dead
You Heard Me Right...
I forgot to mention the passing of the one year anniversary on November 11th, but just in case you were wondering, Nobe Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat is still dead.
Six point five BILLION dollars of internation aid money intended to build hospitals and infarstructure to benefit the "palistinians" is still missing.
Yasser's widow is still living it up in London (I wonder if she torched a few cars herself...)
Palastine has basically absorbed the Gaza strip from Israel, but Yasser's Tunisian goons and the PLO are still blowing up people and things with wreckless abandon.
Abbas and Hamas (and the rock group Abba?) are still refusing to honor any negotiated settlements or disarm their own terrorists.
Yep, it looks to me like the only good news out of that part of the Middle East is...
Yasser Arafat is still DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.
I forgot to mention the passing of the one year anniversary on November 11th, but just in case you were wondering, Nobe Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat is still dead.
Six point five BILLION dollars of internation aid money intended to build hospitals and infarstructure to benefit the "palistinians" is still missing.
Yasser's widow is still living it up in London (I wonder if she torched a few cars herself...)
Palastine has basically absorbed the Gaza strip from Israel, but Yasser's Tunisian goons and the PLO are still blowing up people and things with wreckless abandon.
Abbas and Hamas (and the rock group Abba?) are still refusing to honor any negotiated settlements or disarm their own terrorists.
Yep, it looks to me like the only good news out of that part of the Middle East is...
Yasser Arafat is still DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.
An ACLU Christmas
Here’s Hoping That You Have A Happy One...Why Not Share?
What anti-American, communist/socialist loving surprises has the American Civil Liberties Union cooked up in your town or state this year?
None yet?
Well you just wait, because the ACLU is lurking around under rocks and in sewers and they make it their job--yes, even their (im)moral obligation--to assure that we all have our fair share of atheism, gay marriage, and abortion rights thrown in our faces every every day in the courts and every night on TV.
They will not rest until they ensure that the imagined or perceived rights of all convicted criminals and all obscure minorities, no matter how illogical or perverse, are protected...at the EXPENSE of the MAJORITY of AMERICANS.
Most of all, the ACLU wants to ensure that not one single person within our borders, residing here legally or illegally, is in any way OFFENDED as they go about their daily lives.
Isn't that lovely?
As is usual during this time of the year, the public display of our Christmas celebration is one of their favorite targets.
Kevin over at Musclehead Revolution has an excellent idea.
While you are addressing your Christmas cards this year, get out an extra one and mail it to the NY City office of the ACLU. Here’s the address:
ACLU
"Wishing You Merry Christmas"
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
I’m sending them a card, why don’t you?
What anti-American, communist/socialist loving surprises has the American Civil Liberties Union cooked up in your town or state this year?
None yet?
Well you just wait, because the ACLU is lurking around under rocks and in sewers and they make it their job--yes, even their (im)moral obligation--to assure that we all have our fair share of atheism, gay marriage, and abortion rights thrown in our faces every every day in the courts and every night on TV.
They will not rest until they ensure that the imagined or perceived rights of all convicted criminals and all obscure minorities, no matter how illogical or perverse, are protected...at the EXPENSE of the MAJORITY of AMERICANS.
Most of all, the ACLU wants to ensure that not one single person within our borders, residing here legally or illegally, is in any way OFFENDED as they go about their daily lives.
Isn't that lovely?
As is usual during this time of the year, the public display of our Christmas celebration is one of their favorite targets.
Kevin over at Musclehead Revolution has an excellent idea.
While you are addressing your Christmas cards this year, get out an extra one and mail it to the NY City office of the ACLU. Here’s the address:
ACLU
"Wishing You Merry Christmas"
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
I’m sending them a card, why don’t you?
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Beauty Is In...
The Eye Of The Beholder
I’m really sick and tired of the success that professional and amateur “busybodies” enjoy today, particularly when it comes to the rightful use of real estate by the property owners.
Here is my take on private property rights.
If I go out and pay for a piece of property located in the middle of nowhere, with no existing zoning restrictions, building codes, and neighborhood covenants, I should then be able to build the biggest, ugliest, architecturally disgusting tin-roofed-tarpaper “shack” and paint it PURPLE or ORANGE if I want to.
I should be able to build myself a great big front porch for five bird dogs to live under, and adorn my porch with a variety of left over furniture items like an overstuffed Nalgahide sofa and possibly an old refrigerator and maybe a broken washing machine or two.
I should be able to place my shack out in plain view, ten feet off of the highway right-of-way for the enjoyment of every passer-by, or way back on the rear of my property—completely invisible to my neighbors and passing motorists.
After all, it’s MY PROPERTY, and MY PURPLE TARPAPER SHACK, and I happen to think that my flock of 13 pink plastic yard flamingos (they’re cheaper by the baker’s dozen) looks rather nice beside my inflatable snowman and my old Cadillac convertible that I’m going to completely restore one day when I’ve saved up enough money.
My lovely wife and nine kids should be able to enjoy watching from our rusty above ground swimming pool as I shoot old cola bottles and beer cans with my 45 magnum pistol on my newly constructed fifty yard shooting range
And if I want the flexibility of hanging up my Christmas lights at Thanksgiving and I never take them down, and YOU or my other neighbors or your lawyers have a problem with my uncouth, uncivilized Redneck behavior, I have two words for you…
TOUGH SHIT…
You live in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood now, so get over your pompous self.
Likewise, if I choose to purchase property in a planned neighborhood that requires me to accept a 1” thick stack of protective covenants and to join a homeowner’s association (what I call the Neighborhood Nazis) with complete architectural review privileges, then I know going into the deal that my purple tarpaper shack and my plastic flamingos might be a bit of a liability.
If I'm willing to buy property in "busybody snob central" where people worry about the color of my mailbox, whether or not I leave my garage door open all day, refuse to allow me to store my bass boat hidden in my back yard, or build my child's playset 3" taller than the rules allow, so be it.
You and I probably paid EXTRA for all of these limitations on what would otherwise be considered our decisions, but people that are educated in Government (public) schools these days lack basic logical and decision making skills and generally feel better not having to worry about issues like how often to mow their grass and what kind of landscaping to install without getting the "Neighborhood Nazi's" approval.
The bottom line is that regardless of where I choose to live, I'd like to know the rules, in advance, and as an individual and an owner I would then be prepared to abide by the restrictions, or the lack thereof.
What really gripes my butt is when people start wanting to CHANGE the rules regarding real estate usage, AFTER the fact, because they don’t like what their neighbors are doing.
I once bought some coastal property in Florida, within a few blocks of the Gulf of Mexico in an area that had been originally zoned to allow mobile homes. I knew of the zoning the day I closed the sale transaction on the property. I got a better deal as a result.
I also knew that the property next door had an old dilapidated mobile home on it that was going to be removed and that the property on the other side of my lot had just sold to an owner who said she was going to build a house.
Well surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE…a few months later, after I had spent an additional $6,000 paying the water/sewer tap fees and trucked in about 20 loads of good fill dirt, my new neighbor bought a used double-wide trailer and parked it as close to the roadway and my property line as the zoning would allow.
What her motives were for placing the trailer where she did is beyond my comprehention, but funny thing--IT WAS HER PROPERTY AND WHAT I THOUGHT OR WANTED HER TO DO WAS IMMATERIAL.
It looked like crap when she was finished, but there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT I COULD DO ABOUT THE SITUATION.
Nothing…
Nada…
Zero…
Zilch.
I didn't feel that I had the right to attempt to use lawyers and the Government to artificially INCREASE my property value at the expense of my neighbor. Trailers were legal when I bought my property, I paid a cheeper price as a result, and I accepted the responsibility for MY decision to locate where I did.
I'm a nice guy, aren't I?
I never said a word to the owner about the situation, I just held the lot for 2-1/2 years, then sold it for a tidy profit to someone that was willing to build a house adjacent to a crappy mobile home installation.
Some people don’t see things the way I do, however. They run around hiring lawyers and trying to persuade their politicians to tell me what I can do with MY PROPERTY, or tell my neighbors what they can't do with THEIR PROPERTY.
After the fact.
After the sale is completed.
What total Bull Hockey.
Having said all of that, take a look at what they’re doing to some poor slob out in Catalina Island’s Avalon harbor.
For nearly 50 years, Robert Sherrill's grimy boat repair barge floated in the teal harbor of Avalon, in front of the casino that stars in most Catalina postcards.Even as the vessel grew from squat to tri-level, no one seemed to worry — until one morning in early August, when Sherrill replaced it with what looked like a floating condo.
It looks like he went from the back bay of Wilmington to Beverly Hills," said Avalon Harbor Master Brian Bray.
Sherrill's new repair barge is painted ivory. It has picture windows and arched balconies. Above the ground-level business are two floors of living space: four apartments meant to house Sherrill's family and guest mechanics.
And ever since it slid into the crescent-shaped harbor, it has generated ardent debate among the island's 3,500 residents and mainland boaters.
There are those who fume at Sherrill, saying he has ruined the view. Others rail against the town government for not putting an end to Sherrill's plan during construction. And plenty of islanders worry that the barge portends a future Avalon where people are priced off the land and into the water, into an offshore neighborhood or worse, a floating trailer park.
"Who wouldn't want … an apartment on the water in Avalon?" asked Stacey A. Otte, executive director of the Catalina Island Museum in the casino.Such questions have prompted the City Council to begin drafting an ordinance that would clearly define the rules for living on the water off Catalina.
Sherrill says he is bewildered by the criticism. He thought he was improving the view by updating the old barge he inherited from his father, with its prison-gray paint and tools dangling from all sides. His aim, he said, was to echo the casino with arches, a terracotta roof and paint that complemented the Art Deco building's creamy tones.
"I thought everybody was going to cheer at getting rid of the old barge," he said.
If you read the whole article, you find out that the “condo” in question is only two 800 square foot spaces--one for the owner’s family, and one to be divided into three small quarters for visiting mechanics.
The other thing that they mention is that mooring space on Catalina Island costs over $1,000,000, IF you can find any.
A MILLION DOLLARS...
So I ask you, why should the property owner not be allowed to upgrade and improve a fifty year old floating structure prominently located on the harbor waterfront?
After all, he already OWNS the RIGHT to be there on the waterfront, he isn’t infringing on anyone else’s use of the waterfront, and his fifty plus year old structure was deteriorating.
Instead of replacement, should the owner be forced by his neighbors and the government to continue to repair his existing eyesore structure at his expense, else remove it entirely and lose the use of his waterfront property rights?
I say not NO, but HELL NO, I wouldn't want idiot politicians and total strangers telling ME what to do with or otherwise limiting what I do with MY Million dollars.
Unfortunately, knowing how things are today, I’m afraid that Mr. Sherrill is going to lose this battle and never be allowed to live in his new condo.
What a wonderful, just, all inclusive Democracy we’ve converted our Republic into, don’t you think?
After all, the law now says that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...or is it in the Government's eye (where I'd like to poke my finger)?
I’m really sick and tired of the success that professional and amateur “busybodies” enjoy today, particularly when it comes to the rightful use of real estate by the property owners.
Here is my take on private property rights.
If I go out and pay for a piece of property located in the middle of nowhere, with no existing zoning restrictions, building codes, and neighborhood covenants, I should then be able to build the biggest, ugliest, architecturally disgusting tin-roofed-tarpaper “shack” and paint it PURPLE or ORANGE if I want to.
I should be able to build myself a great big front porch for five bird dogs to live under, and adorn my porch with a variety of left over furniture items like an overstuffed Nalgahide sofa and possibly an old refrigerator and maybe a broken washing machine or two.
I should be able to place my shack out in plain view, ten feet off of the highway right-of-way for the enjoyment of every passer-by, or way back on the rear of my property—completely invisible to my neighbors and passing motorists.
After all, it’s MY PROPERTY, and MY PURPLE TARPAPER SHACK, and I happen to think that my flock of 13 pink plastic yard flamingos (they’re cheaper by the baker’s dozen) looks rather nice beside my inflatable snowman and my old Cadillac convertible that I’m going to completely restore one day when I’ve saved up enough money.
My lovely wife and nine kids should be able to enjoy watching from our rusty above ground swimming pool as I shoot old cola bottles and beer cans with my 45 magnum pistol on my newly constructed fifty yard shooting rangeAnd if I want the flexibility of hanging up my Christmas lights at Thanksgiving and I never take them down, and YOU or my other neighbors or your lawyers have a problem with my uncouth, uncivilized Redneck behavior, I have two words for you…
TOUGH SHIT…
You live in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood now, so get over your pompous self.
Likewise, if I choose to purchase property in a planned neighborhood that requires me to accept a 1” thick stack of protective covenants and to join a homeowner’s association (what I call the Neighborhood Nazis) with complete architectural review privileges, then I know going into the deal that my purple tarpaper shack and my plastic flamingos might be a bit of a liability.
If I'm willing to buy property in "busybody snob central" where people worry about the color of my mailbox, whether or not I leave my garage door open all day, refuse to allow me to store my bass boat hidden in my back yard, or build my child's playset 3" taller than the rules allow, so be it.
You and I probably paid EXTRA for all of these limitations on what would otherwise be considered our decisions, but people that are educated in Government (public) schools these days lack basic logical and decision making skills and generally feel better not having to worry about issues like how often to mow their grass and what kind of landscaping to install without getting the "Neighborhood Nazi's" approval.
The bottom line is that regardless of where I choose to live, I'd like to know the rules, in advance, and as an individual and an owner I would then be prepared to abide by the restrictions, or the lack thereof.
What really gripes my butt is when people start wanting to CHANGE the rules regarding real estate usage, AFTER the fact, because they don’t like what their neighbors are doing.
I once bought some coastal property in Florida, within a few blocks of the Gulf of Mexico in an area that had been originally zoned to allow mobile homes. I knew of the zoning the day I closed the sale transaction on the property. I got a better deal as a result.
I also knew that the property next door had an old dilapidated mobile home on it that was going to be removed and that the property on the other side of my lot had just sold to an owner who said she was going to build a house.
Well surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE…a few months later, after I had spent an additional $6,000 paying the water/sewer tap fees and trucked in about 20 loads of good fill dirt, my new neighbor bought a used double-wide trailer and parked it as close to the roadway and my property line as the zoning would allow.
What her motives were for placing the trailer where she did is beyond my comprehention, but funny thing--IT WAS HER PROPERTY AND WHAT I THOUGHT OR WANTED HER TO DO WAS IMMATERIAL.
It looked like crap when she was finished, but there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT I COULD DO ABOUT THE SITUATION.
Nothing…
Nada…
Zero…
Zilch.
I didn't feel that I had the right to attempt to use lawyers and the Government to artificially INCREASE my property value at the expense of my neighbor. Trailers were legal when I bought my property, I paid a cheeper price as a result, and I accepted the responsibility for MY decision to locate where I did.
I'm a nice guy, aren't I?
I never said a word to the owner about the situation, I just held the lot for 2-1/2 years, then sold it for a tidy profit to someone that was willing to build a house adjacent to a crappy mobile home installation.
Some people don’t see things the way I do, however. They run around hiring lawyers and trying to persuade their politicians to tell me what I can do with MY PROPERTY, or tell my neighbors what they can't do with THEIR PROPERTY.
After the fact.
After the sale is completed.
What total Bull Hockey.
Having said all of that, take a look at what they’re doing to some poor slob out in Catalina Island’s Avalon harbor.
For nearly 50 years, Robert Sherrill's grimy boat repair barge floated in the teal harbor of Avalon, in front of the casino that stars in most Catalina postcards.Even as the vessel grew from squat to tri-level, no one seemed to worry — until one morning in early August, when Sherrill replaced it with what looked like a floating condo.
It looks like he went from the back bay of Wilmington to Beverly Hills," said Avalon Harbor Master Brian Bray.
Sherrill's new repair barge is painted ivory. It has picture windows and arched balconies. Above the ground-level business are two floors of living space: four apartments meant to house Sherrill's family and guest mechanics.
And ever since it slid into the crescent-shaped harbor, it has generated ardent debate among the island's 3,500 residents and mainland boaters.
There are those who fume at Sherrill, saying he has ruined the view. Others rail against the town government for not putting an end to Sherrill's plan during construction. And plenty of islanders worry that the barge portends a future Avalon where people are priced off the land and into the water, into an offshore neighborhood or worse, a floating trailer park.
"Who wouldn't want … an apartment on the water in Avalon?" asked Stacey A. Otte, executive director of the Catalina Island Museum in the casino.Such questions have prompted the City Council to begin drafting an ordinance that would clearly define the rules for living on the water off Catalina.
Sherrill says he is bewildered by the criticism. He thought he was improving the view by updating the old barge he inherited from his father, with its prison-gray paint and tools dangling from all sides. His aim, he said, was to echo the casino with arches, a terracotta roof and paint that complemented the Art Deco building's creamy tones.
"I thought everybody was going to cheer at getting rid of the old barge," he said.
If you read the whole article, you find out that the “condo” in question is only two 800 square foot spaces--one for the owner’s family, and one to be divided into three small quarters for visiting mechanics.The other thing that they mention is that mooring space on Catalina Island costs over $1,000,000, IF you can find any.
A MILLION DOLLARS...
So I ask you, why should the property owner not be allowed to upgrade and improve a fifty year old floating structure prominently located on the harbor waterfront?
After all, he already OWNS the RIGHT to be there on the waterfront, he isn’t infringing on anyone else’s use of the waterfront, and his fifty plus year old structure was deteriorating.
Instead of replacement, should the owner be forced by his neighbors and the government to continue to repair his existing eyesore structure at his expense, else remove it entirely and lose the use of his waterfront property rights?
I say not NO, but HELL NO, I wouldn't want idiot politicians and total strangers telling ME what to do with or otherwise limiting what I do with MY Million dollars.
Unfortunately, knowing how things are today, I’m afraid that Mr. Sherrill is going to lose this battle and never be allowed to live in his new condo.
What a wonderful, just, all inclusive Democracy we’ve converted our Republic into, don’t you think?
After all, the law now says that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...or is it in the Government's eye (where I'd like to poke my finger)?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Someone Knows...
I've been working on an entry for the local "Coastal Heritage" arts exhibition.
My photo entry, done in Photoshop, features a photo of a nearby burial vault that has been vandalized, surround by translucent images I intend to represent various figures that might have been laid to rest at the site or were related to the individuals originally interred there.
I call it "Someone Knows"
My photo entry, done in Photoshop, features a photo of a nearby burial vault that has been vandalized, surround by translucent images I intend to represent various figures that might have been laid to rest at the site or were related to the individuals originally interred there.
I call it "Someone Knows"
How Much Longer Do We Have To Suffer?
Please Put Me Out Of My Misery…
I use FOX News like my own personal TV screen saver or Television “wallpaper” when I’m up writing late at night.
I’m afraid that in this regard things are about to change…IF FOX’s Greta Van-Damn-Sustren doesn’t find SOMETHING else to talk about besides the poor little missing blond bimbo from Alabama—
You know who (or whom) I’m talking about—little Miss Natalee Holloway.
Good GOD Greta… talk about something else…ANYTHING ELSE…Plueeeezeee!!!!
Excuse me if I appear insensitive, but I’ve already written about this story last June in Travel Safety—Or The Lack Thereof.
Virtually nothing has changed since then.
Natalee is still missing.
The Aruban teenagers still look guilty as hell.
Natalee is still probably dead, Dead, DEAD.
The Aruban government is still a bunch of incompetent stone wallers.
I said it then, and I’ll reiterate it now: Natalee Holloway’s parents are at least 50% responsible for the death/disappearance of their daughter in Aruba.
Like I said before, you need to get this straight if you are the parent of a teen or young adult within your control.
OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF BY-GOD AMERICA, YOUR LIFE, OR THE LIFE OF YOUR CHILD, IS WORTH EXACTLY THE VALUE OF THE MONEY IN HIS OR HER WALLET, THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY ON THEIR PERSON AT THE TIME, OR THE VALUE OF HIS OR HER INDIVIDUAL BODY PARTS TO THE PERSON OR PERSONS SITTING NEXT TO THEM IN THE BAR, RESTAURANT, HOTEL/MOTEL, OR OTHER PUBLIC PLACE…
It’s just that simple…
You got that?
I use FOX News like my own personal TV screen saver or Television “wallpaper” when I’m up writing late at night.
I’m afraid that in this regard things are about to change…IF FOX’s Greta Van-Damn-Sustren doesn’t find SOMETHING else to talk about besides the poor little missing blond bimbo from Alabama—
You know who (or whom) I’m talking about—little Miss Natalee Holloway.
Good GOD Greta… talk about something else…ANYTHING ELSE…Plueeeezeee!!!!
Excuse me if I appear insensitive, but I’ve already written about this story last June in Travel Safety—Or The Lack Thereof.
Virtually nothing has changed since then.
Natalee is still missing.
The Aruban teenagers still look guilty as hell.
Natalee is still probably dead, Dead, DEAD.
The Aruban government is still a bunch of incompetent stone wallers.
I said it then, and I’ll reiterate it now: Natalee Holloway’s parents are at least 50% responsible for the death/disappearance of their daughter in Aruba.
Like I said before, you need to get this straight if you are the parent of a teen or young adult within your control.
OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF BY-GOD AMERICA, YOUR LIFE, OR THE LIFE OF YOUR CHILD, IS WORTH EXACTLY THE VALUE OF THE MONEY IN HIS OR HER WALLET, THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY ON THEIR PERSON AT THE TIME, OR THE VALUE OF HIS OR HER INDIVIDUAL BODY PARTS TO THE PERSON OR PERSONS SITTING NEXT TO THEM IN THE BAR, RESTAURANT, HOTEL/MOTEL, OR OTHER PUBLIC PLACE…
It’s just that simple…
You got that?
Monday, November 28, 2005
More Distractions
Sorry Folks, but I'm still concentrating on my Theater set building exercise, so I'm afraid that my blogging has been suffering in the process.
Here's the result of my efforts so far...
Can you guess what I'm building?
Here's the result of my efforts so far...
Can you guess what I'm building?
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Distraction
Sorry for the light posting today, but I'm distracted with other obligations. I'm designing and building a set for an interesting variation of the Charles Dickens' play "A Christmas Carol," and my morning has been consumed doing calculations and drawings for some complex panels that are required for my work today.
Here's a photo of the outside of the Ritz Theater, built in 1898.
And here's a picture of the rough framing for the "treasure chest" set that I'm building.
It's too difficult to explain the concept without photos showing more construction progress, so I'll save the description until I have more work completed early this week...
Here's a photo of the outside of the Ritz Theater, built in 1898.
And here's a picture of the rough framing for the "treasure chest" set that I'm building.
It's too difficult to explain the concept without photos showing more construction progress, so I'll save the description until I have more work completed early this week...
Friday, November 25, 2005
Thanksgiving News From Iraq
Last summer I sent an E-Mail to Sgt. John Paul Furman who was serving in Mosul, Iraq. I received his name from a fellow blogger and responded with my own personal message of appreciation and encouragement.
In my message I also told him to not listen to the media and to ignore how things were portrayed on TV. I told him that there were many, many, Americans that followed "alternative" sources of news and war information and that in fact we did appreciate his efforts on our behalf.
I was thrilled to receive this Thanksgiving E-mail message from Sgt Furman yesterday and thought that I would share it with you:
Hello everybody, this is Sgt. Furman from Mosul, Iraq again. After sending out my thank you letter, many people wrote back and asked that I try to send out updates on my progress in Iraq, some even suggested that I start my own blog. Well, time didn’t allow me to start my own blog, but as my deployment comes to an end, I thought I would write a final letter on my thoughts, and let everybody know that I made it through o.k..
The hot summer days and nights seem to have come to an end, and the days are now growing cooler as fall begins to sweep her hand over Northern Iraq. In a little over a month or so, I will be sitting on a plane headed back to the states, slowly leaving Iraq behind me with only my pictures, thoughts and memories to take with me. Even as I begin to pack it hasn’t set in that I am finally leaving this place that I have come to know with both hate and love so well.
This experience has been, and will no doubt be the most challenging of my life. When I first arrived here, I really wanted to hate this place. Try as I might, I found it impossible to hate Iraq. Although there is no place like the United States, Iraq is as beautiful a country as any. Sometimes you might have to look a little beyond the surface to find the beauty in it, but I assure you, it is there. There is no more an awe inspiring sight than that of an Iraqi night. While in the city of Tall Afar for a few days, I sat outside my “hooch” under the night sky and listened to the sound of 155mm Howitzers keep a thundering cadence on a distant target, and watched as a countless number of shooting stars passed over head. Under that same moon I have contemplated what my loved ones back home were doing at that very time; have had many great conversations with my fellow Soldiers; and let the lingering thoughts from the day pass out of my mind before I would go to sleep. And at times, it seems that Iraq had literally sucked all life from my body. There have been times that I felt that I was little more than a walking zombie.
The history and culture of Iraq has much to give to the world. I have found the Iraqi’s to be kind, loving, gentle and extremely resourceful. I feel that we have as much to gain from their friendship as they have to gain from ours. It seems to me that most Iraqi’s want nothing more than what the average American wishes for. A family to love, a home to come to at the end of the day, and most of all, the freedom that we all enjoy and love. It is my most sincere hope that they all get this and more.
As for the war itself, it is hard to put my thoughts and feelings into words, but will try to do my best. After a year of participation and observation, I can only say that war is horrible. Perhaps the most horrible of all actions. It’s not an adventure, or a right of passage. It’s visceral and evil. Carnage and violence at it’s worst. It is a place where one man willingly dispatches the life of another, lest that fate come to him. It is the only place where the amount of blood shed in the street is the measure by which you can judge success. It is not a movie that you can watch abstractly from the comfort of a theater seat. It is very real. It is a place where people die, and their loved ones are left heartbroken. At times it seems to be a living breathing entity. The most horrible monster you can imagine. It has no rhyme or reason, it just is. There is no point in trying to make sense of it, because there is no sense to be found in it. Yet, even through all of this, we have brave men and women who continue to charge into battle, and fight for all they can so others unknown to them may gain something from it.
Horrible as it is, it is a necessary evil. After a year, I still hold firm in my opinion that we are doing the right thing in Iraq. I don’t want you to mistake me for a warmonger, because that is as far from the truth as could be. I don’t believe there is a Soldier who is currently serving that is happy they are serving in a war. Don’t mistake pride of service for your country and your fellow man for joy of war. It is not the same. Believe me, the battles that are won here every day are not known to any human outside of the borders of this country. I don’t mean the major military victories that you can see on the news, or read in the paper, but the victories of the heart and will of the human. Every day an Iraqi awakes with the realization that they are free. That they can willfully speak their voice, right or wrong. Every day, as shown by the referendum, more and more Iraqi’s begin to place trust in their country, and in the protection that we are here to give to them. As contradictory as it might be, watching a country begin to take shape from this monster is an awesome thing to behold.
It will be hard for me to leave Iraq. Our time is done here, and now the battle is in another’s hands. I know that when I board that C-130 for my flight out of Mosul, and take my last breath of the Mosul air, that I will leave a piece of me in Iraq, and take a little piece of her home. She will be with me forever. The memories of her smiling children’s faces, the hot summer air, the gorgeous Arabian nights, and most assuredly, the thought of all the brave men and women who have fought and died for it all.
We have all followed the headlines of the vote in congress about a possible pullout of troops here. In my opinion (I want to make this clear, this is only my opinion, and I am only a Soldier, not a policy maker), a pullout at this time would be the most detrimental of all actions that our country could make, not to mention irresponsible. Truth be told, I don’t understand why there was ever a need for congress to even push the issue? What’s to debate? I will admit that I wasn’t completely sold on the war in Iraq in the beginning either, but after a year of witnessing the war for myself, I truly believe in what we are doing here. To me it doesn’t matter why we are, I am a Soldier, and go where I am ordered, but on a personal level, at the beginning, I thought hunting terrorists in Afghanistan was a more worth while fight. I was wrong. There are as many terrorists (not “insurgents”) here. I’m most certainly biased, but I’m certain that the U.S. Armed Forces are the best in the world, and I know for a fact that we are doing the best we can over here. Most of the Soldiers I have talked to feel exactly the same way. LET US DO OUR JOB! If we were to pullout now, everything that my unit has fought for this last year will be for nothing. Not to mention all of the men and women who suffer through severe injuries, and who’ve given their lives. It would be the ultimate of injustices to them to pullout now. Let us see this through to the end. If not for all the other reasons that I have mentioned; then for the simple fact, that it is unquestionably the right thing to do, and that all the people of Iraq, especially the children deserve it. I write this knowing full well, that I face the possibility of another deployment.
Many of us are looking to the future with optimism, both for Iraq, and our own lives. Some of us don’t know what the future holds for them, but will no doubt be just as successful as they were here. Unfortunately, for some, this war has taken a greater toll than just a year of life. Some of us have paid almost as much as the ones who will never again breath life, going home to broken lives due to the stress of being so far apart from their significant others. Personally, I will go back to my civilian job, and my family. I have a great girl that is waiting for me, and I just can’t wait to hold her in my arms again. Since I last wrote, I have re-enlisted in the guard for another 6 years (a sure sign I believe in what I preach), and don’t know if I will have to come back here again. If I do return here, I will hold my head high knowing that all of you great Americans back home are supporting me and have my back!
I just want to let all of you know that during the harder times in Iraq I have re-read some of the e-mails that you all have sent to me, and I still check the account for any new ones that might come my way. This has done wonders to lift my spirits at some very challenging times. Thank you! Please continue your support for us, and say thank you to any service member of any conflict that might come your way. They all deserve it. Maybe someday our lives might cross paths. If not, thank you again.
As I sit here and write this on Thanksgiving, although I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I thought I would share a little with you about what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for my family, they have been there for me, and without their guidance, I would be completely lost. I am thankful for God, that he has seen fit to protect me this last year, that he helps my battalion make it safely back home, that he continues to protect the troops that will still be here, and that he has taken into heaven with open arms, the men and women who have given their lives in this war, who he just couldn’t live without in heaven. I am thankful that I was born in America, and not a country like Iraq. As strange as it may seem, I am thankful that Americans still have the right to voice their opinions about this war (whether I agree with them or not), if America still has the right to voice it’s opinion, that means we’re doing our job over here, and doing it well! Most of all, I am thankful for my fiancé, who has braved one of the most ultimate in hardships this last year, and stuck with me throughout it all. For certain, true love does exist. Finally, I am thankful that there are people back home who understand what we are fighting for, and proud of us.
God Bless!
Sincerely,
Sgt, Furman
Mosul, Iraq
In my message I also told him to not listen to the media and to ignore how things were portrayed on TV. I told him that there were many, many, Americans that followed "alternative" sources of news and war information and that in fact we did appreciate his efforts on our behalf.
I was thrilled to receive this Thanksgiving E-mail message from Sgt Furman yesterday and thought that I would share it with you:
Hello everybody, this is Sgt. Furman from Mosul, Iraq again. After sending out my thank you letter, many people wrote back and asked that I try to send out updates on my progress in Iraq, some even suggested that I start my own blog. Well, time didn’t allow me to start my own blog, but as my deployment comes to an end, I thought I would write a final letter on my thoughts, and let everybody know that I made it through o.k..
The hot summer days and nights seem to have come to an end, and the days are now growing cooler as fall begins to sweep her hand over Northern Iraq. In a little over a month or so, I will be sitting on a plane headed back to the states, slowly leaving Iraq behind me with only my pictures, thoughts and memories to take with me. Even as I begin to pack it hasn’t set in that I am finally leaving this place that I have come to know with both hate and love so well.
This experience has been, and will no doubt be the most challenging of my life. When I first arrived here, I really wanted to hate this place. Try as I might, I found it impossible to hate Iraq. Although there is no place like the United States, Iraq is as beautiful a country as any. Sometimes you might have to look a little beyond the surface to find the beauty in it, but I assure you, it is there. There is no more an awe inspiring sight than that of an Iraqi night. While in the city of Tall Afar for a few days, I sat outside my “hooch” under the night sky and listened to the sound of 155mm Howitzers keep a thundering cadence on a distant target, and watched as a countless number of shooting stars passed over head. Under that same moon I have contemplated what my loved ones back home were doing at that very time; have had many great conversations with my fellow Soldiers; and let the lingering thoughts from the day pass out of my mind before I would go to sleep. And at times, it seems that Iraq had literally sucked all life from my body. There have been times that I felt that I was little more than a walking zombie.
The history and culture of Iraq has much to give to the world. I have found the Iraqi’s to be kind, loving, gentle and extremely resourceful. I feel that we have as much to gain from their friendship as they have to gain from ours. It seems to me that most Iraqi’s want nothing more than what the average American wishes for. A family to love, a home to come to at the end of the day, and most of all, the freedom that we all enjoy and love. It is my most sincere hope that they all get this and more.
As for the war itself, it is hard to put my thoughts and feelings into words, but will try to do my best. After a year of participation and observation, I can only say that war is horrible. Perhaps the most horrible of all actions. It’s not an adventure, or a right of passage. It’s visceral and evil. Carnage and violence at it’s worst. It is a place where one man willingly dispatches the life of another, lest that fate come to him. It is the only place where the amount of blood shed in the street is the measure by which you can judge success. It is not a movie that you can watch abstractly from the comfort of a theater seat. It is very real. It is a place where people die, and their loved ones are left heartbroken. At times it seems to be a living breathing entity. The most horrible monster you can imagine. It has no rhyme or reason, it just is. There is no point in trying to make sense of it, because there is no sense to be found in it. Yet, even through all of this, we have brave men and women who continue to charge into battle, and fight for all they can so others unknown to them may gain something from it.
Horrible as it is, it is a necessary evil. After a year, I still hold firm in my opinion that we are doing the right thing in Iraq. I don’t want you to mistake me for a warmonger, because that is as far from the truth as could be. I don’t believe there is a Soldier who is currently serving that is happy they are serving in a war. Don’t mistake pride of service for your country and your fellow man for joy of war. It is not the same. Believe me, the battles that are won here every day are not known to any human outside of the borders of this country. I don’t mean the major military victories that you can see on the news, or read in the paper, but the victories of the heart and will of the human. Every day an Iraqi awakes with the realization that they are free. That they can willfully speak their voice, right or wrong. Every day, as shown by the referendum, more and more Iraqi’s begin to place trust in their country, and in the protection that we are here to give to them. As contradictory as it might be, watching a country begin to take shape from this monster is an awesome thing to behold.
It will be hard for me to leave Iraq. Our time is done here, and now the battle is in another’s hands. I know that when I board that C-130 for my flight out of Mosul, and take my last breath of the Mosul air, that I will leave a piece of me in Iraq, and take a little piece of her home. She will be with me forever. The memories of her smiling children’s faces, the hot summer air, the gorgeous Arabian nights, and most assuredly, the thought of all the brave men and women who have fought and died for it all.
We have all followed the headlines of the vote in congress about a possible pullout of troops here. In my opinion (I want to make this clear, this is only my opinion, and I am only a Soldier, not a policy maker), a pullout at this time would be the most detrimental of all actions that our country could make, not to mention irresponsible. Truth be told, I don’t understand why there was ever a need for congress to even push the issue? What’s to debate? I will admit that I wasn’t completely sold on the war in Iraq in the beginning either, but after a year of witnessing the war for myself, I truly believe in what we are doing here. To me it doesn’t matter why we are, I am a Soldier, and go where I am ordered, but on a personal level, at the beginning, I thought hunting terrorists in Afghanistan was a more worth while fight. I was wrong. There are as many terrorists (not “insurgents”) here. I’m most certainly biased, but I’m certain that the U.S. Armed Forces are the best in the world, and I know for a fact that we are doing the best we can over here. Most of the Soldiers I have talked to feel exactly the same way. LET US DO OUR JOB! If we were to pullout now, everything that my unit has fought for this last year will be for nothing. Not to mention all of the men and women who suffer through severe injuries, and who’ve given their lives. It would be the ultimate of injustices to them to pullout now. Let us see this through to the end. If not for all the other reasons that I have mentioned; then for the simple fact, that it is unquestionably the right thing to do, and that all the people of Iraq, especially the children deserve it. I write this knowing full well, that I face the possibility of another deployment.
Many of us are looking to the future with optimism, both for Iraq, and our own lives. Some of us don’t know what the future holds for them, but will no doubt be just as successful as they were here. Unfortunately, for some, this war has taken a greater toll than just a year of life. Some of us have paid almost as much as the ones who will never again breath life, going home to broken lives due to the stress of being so far apart from their significant others. Personally, I will go back to my civilian job, and my family. I have a great girl that is waiting for me, and I just can’t wait to hold her in my arms again. Since I last wrote, I have re-enlisted in the guard for another 6 years (a sure sign I believe in what I preach), and don’t know if I will have to come back here again. If I do return here, I will hold my head high knowing that all of you great Americans back home are supporting me and have my back!
I just want to let all of you know that during the harder times in Iraq I have re-read some of the e-mails that you all have sent to me, and I still check the account for any new ones that might come my way. This has done wonders to lift my spirits at some very challenging times. Thank you! Please continue your support for us, and say thank you to any service member of any conflict that might come your way. They all deserve it. Maybe someday our lives might cross paths. If not, thank you again.
As I sit here and write this on Thanksgiving, although I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I thought I would share a little with you about what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for my family, they have been there for me, and without their guidance, I would be completely lost. I am thankful for God, that he has seen fit to protect me this last year, that he helps my battalion make it safely back home, that he continues to protect the troops that will still be here, and that he has taken into heaven with open arms, the men and women who have given their lives in this war, who he just couldn’t live without in heaven. I am thankful that I was born in America, and not a country like Iraq. As strange as it may seem, I am thankful that Americans still have the right to voice their opinions about this war (whether I agree with them or not), if America still has the right to voice it’s opinion, that means we’re doing our job over here, and doing it well! Most of all, I am thankful for my fiancé, who has braved one of the most ultimate in hardships this last year, and stuck with me throughout it all. For certain, true love does exist. Finally, I am thankful that there are people back home who understand what we are fighting for, and proud of us.
God Bless!
Sincerely,
Sgt, Furman
Mosul, Iraq
More Stupid News People
When Will They Learn?
In Congressional Treason, I have already written about John Murtha’s stance on the immediate pullout of our troops from Iraq. I followed up on the story in Winning The Battle addressing a non-binding Republican resolution, honoring Murtha's demand for an immediate pullout, which was defeated in the House by 403-3.
You do realize that the real story here isn’t really Murtha’s call for a troop withdrawal--that’s the standard line these days from Democrats like John sKerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
The real story here is that ex-marine John Murtha hasn’t changed his position on troop deployments at all. Murtha actually has a long history of calling for our troops to “cut and run” as soon as we see the first casualties, and with last week’s announcement he is only continuing his long held position.
But that’s not what the mainstream media will tell you, however.
The media wants you to believe that Murtha is a “Hawk” and a warmonger, and because he is an EX-MARINE, his call for the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq is some kind of giant newsworthy epiphany for Murtha—a major shift in his position of which we should all take notice.
They think that President Bush and the American people should listen to Murtha’s revelations.
Bull hockey.
Shailagh Murray’s (I didn’t make that first name up) story in today’s Washington Post continues the lies and insanity, particularly in the headline and the first four paragraphs.
The About-Face of a Hawkish Democrat
Murtha, With Many Military Connections, Moves From Voting for War to Urging Troop Withdrawal
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 25, 2005; Page A02
Of all the Democrats calling for an end to the Iraq war, Rep. John P. Murtha is an anomaly. Unlike Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Russell Feingold (Wis.), he doesn't want to be president. He's no liberal, like his House colleagues Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) and Maxine Waters (Calif.). He's certainly the only one to call Vice President Cheney a friend.
A man of gruff familiarity -- most colleagues find it more natural to call him "Murtha" than "Jack" -- has been representing his Pennsylvania district for 16 terms, rising to become the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations panel's defense subcommittee. For that perch, he became known for his opposition to defense cuts and his willingness to send troops into battle -- and even to draft them, if necessary. He was the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress, and has fashioned a reputation as the Democrats' soldier-legislator -- a John McCain type without swagger or upward ambition. He generally prefers the shadows of Capitol Hill to the spotlight -- though that changed dramatically in recent days.
Last week, as Congress was preparing to leave town for a two-week Thanksgiving break, Murtha told a gathering of colleagues and, later, reporters that -- although he had voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the Iraq invasion -- he now wants American troops withdrawn immediately. "The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily," Murtha said. "It is time to bring them home."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted that Murtha's statement would become a "watershed event for our caucus, for our Congress and for our country." The burly 73-year-old lawmaker ignited a news blitz, and Republicans scrambled to respond. House GOP leaders hastily drew up a watered-down version of Murtha's withdrawal resolution, and made Republican lawmakers remain in town for a bitter and emotional Friday night session to vote it down.
This follows an earlier Washington Post story by Liz Sidoti:
Hawkish Democrat Calls for Iraq Pullout
By LIZ SIDOTI
The Associated PressThursday, November 17, 2005; 11:14 PM
WASHINGTON -- One of Congress' most hawkish and influential Democrats called Thursday for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, sparking bitter and personal salvos from both sides in a growing Capitol Hill uproar over President Bush's war policies.
"It's time to bring them home," said Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, choking back tears during remarks to reporters. "Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty."
Notice anything consistent in the headlines?
All of that sounds wonderful if it were true and it was the ENTIRE story, but it’s not.
Why can’t Miss Murray and Miss Sidoti even bother to Google “John Murtha” and see what information pops up, rather than just accepting the line that he’s some kind of “Hawk?” A line supplied by, of all places, the Democrats?
Apparently they didn't, because they are either lazy, STUPID, or just partisan liars--you decide.
I, your trusty Blogger, did do some “Googling” this morning, and here is what I found out about John Murtha's prior record on supporting military conflicts as a Congressman:
On October 9, 2002, Murtha’s Congressional Website had this statement:
WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2002 -- Congressman John Murtha today said he would vote for the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq despite a number of serious reservations.
Murtha said, “Obviously we have reason to be concerned about Saddam Hussein -- there’s no question that he’s a real threat to us and we need to make sure he’s not developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons to use against us or against other nations in the Middle East. We also need to make sure that Iraq does not resume Afghanistan’s former role as the host nation for terrorist training camps.
I'm SO relieved...John Murtha supported the war, BEFORE it started, but now he doesn’t.
Sound familiar? (can you say John sKerry?)
And this little tidbit, again from a November 17, 2005 press release on his own website:
I said over a year ago, and now the military and the Administration agrees, Iraq can not be won “militarily.” I said two years ago, the key to progress in Iraq is to Iraqitize, Internationalize and Energize. I believe the same today. But I have concluded that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is impeding this progress.
Murtha admits that he's been saying for an ENTIRE YEAR that the war in Iraq "can not be won militarily..."
Hummmmmmm...but I thought this was a RECENT revelation...
It seems that Murtha has exhibited a weak stomach for troop deployments previously and has actually done this type of thing before.
In 1993 he took credit for urging President Clinton to pull US troops out of Somolia in an interview on NBC’s Today show:
After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region.
Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S.
"Our welcome has been worn out," Rep Murtha told NBC's "Today" show in Sept. 1993, a month after 4 U.S. Military Police had been killed in Somalia by a remote-detonated land mine.
The Pennsylvania Democrat announced that President Clinton had been "listening to our suggestions. And I think you'll see him move those troops out very quickly
So I ask you, what's the big deal here?
With "Hawks" like this, who needs "Doves" and other pacifists?
Isn’t Murtha just continuing along the path of expecting resounding victory and zero casualties from the military actions that he initially supports, but as soon as things go less than perfectly he's all for turning tail and running?
And why does the media continue to hype Murtha as a traditional pro-war “hawk?”
I say that it's because if Murtha made his statements and proposed his resolutions for an immediate pullout from Iraq and IF the truth was known, his calls would just be another example of standard liberal Democratic whining about the war.
I say we just add him to the Democratic Dean's list--Howard Dean's list, that is...
In Congressional Treason, I have already written about John Murtha’s stance on the immediate pullout of our troops from Iraq. I followed up on the story in Winning The Battle addressing a non-binding Republican resolution, honoring Murtha's demand for an immediate pullout, which was defeated in the House by 403-3.
You do realize that the real story here isn’t really Murtha’s call for a troop withdrawal--that’s the standard line these days from Democrats like John sKerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
The real story here is that ex-marine John Murtha hasn’t changed his position on troop deployments at all. Murtha actually has a long history of calling for our troops to “cut and run” as soon as we see the first casualties, and with last week’s announcement he is only continuing his long held position.
But that’s not what the mainstream media will tell you, however.
The media wants you to believe that Murtha is a “Hawk” and a warmonger, and because he is an EX-MARINE, his call for the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq is some kind of giant newsworthy epiphany for Murtha—a major shift in his position of which we should all take notice.
They think that President Bush and the American people should listen to Murtha’s revelations.
Bull hockey.
Shailagh Murray’s (I didn’t make that first name up) story in today’s Washington Post continues the lies and insanity, particularly in the headline and the first four paragraphs.
The About-Face of a Hawkish Democrat
Murtha, With Many Military Connections, Moves From Voting for War to Urging Troop Withdrawal
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 25, 2005; Page A02
Of all the Democrats calling for an end to the Iraq war, Rep. John P. Murtha is an anomaly. Unlike Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Russell Feingold (Wis.), he doesn't want to be president. He's no liberal, like his House colleagues Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) and Maxine Waters (Calif.). He's certainly the only one to call Vice President Cheney a friend.
A man of gruff familiarity -- most colleagues find it more natural to call him "Murtha" than "Jack" -- has been representing his Pennsylvania district for 16 terms, rising to become the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations panel's defense subcommittee. For that perch, he became known for his opposition to defense cuts and his willingness to send troops into battle -- and even to draft them, if necessary. He was the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress, and has fashioned a reputation as the Democrats' soldier-legislator -- a John McCain type without swagger or upward ambition. He generally prefers the shadows of Capitol Hill to the spotlight -- though that changed dramatically in recent days.
Last week, as Congress was preparing to leave town for a two-week Thanksgiving break, Murtha told a gathering of colleagues and, later, reporters that -- although he had voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the Iraq invasion -- he now wants American troops withdrawn immediately. "The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily," Murtha said. "It is time to bring them home."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted that Murtha's statement would become a "watershed event for our caucus, for our Congress and for our country." The burly 73-year-old lawmaker ignited a news blitz, and Republicans scrambled to respond. House GOP leaders hastily drew up a watered-down version of Murtha's withdrawal resolution, and made Republican lawmakers remain in town for a bitter and emotional Friday night session to vote it down.
This follows an earlier Washington Post story by Liz Sidoti:
Hawkish Democrat Calls for Iraq Pullout
By LIZ SIDOTI
The Associated PressThursday, November 17, 2005; 11:14 PM
WASHINGTON -- One of Congress' most hawkish and influential Democrats called Thursday for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, sparking bitter and personal salvos from both sides in a growing Capitol Hill uproar over President Bush's war policies.
"It's time to bring them home," said Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, choking back tears during remarks to reporters. "Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty."
Notice anything consistent in the headlines?
All of that sounds wonderful if it were true and it was the ENTIRE story, but it’s not.
Why can’t Miss Murray and Miss Sidoti even bother to Google “John Murtha” and see what information pops up, rather than just accepting the line that he’s some kind of “Hawk?” A line supplied by, of all places, the Democrats?
Apparently they didn't, because they are either lazy, STUPID, or just partisan liars--you decide.
I, your trusty Blogger, did do some “Googling” this morning, and here is what I found out about John Murtha's prior record on supporting military conflicts as a Congressman:
On October 9, 2002, Murtha’s Congressional Website had this statement:
WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2002 -- Congressman John Murtha today said he would vote for the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq despite a number of serious reservations.
Murtha said, “Obviously we have reason to be concerned about Saddam Hussein -- there’s no question that he’s a real threat to us and we need to make sure he’s not developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons to use against us or against other nations in the Middle East. We also need to make sure that Iraq does not resume Afghanistan’s former role as the host nation for terrorist training camps.
I'm SO relieved...John Murtha supported the war, BEFORE it started, but now he doesn’t.
Sound familiar? (can you say John sKerry?)
And this little tidbit, again from a November 17, 2005 press release on his own website:
I said over a year ago, and now the military and the Administration agrees, Iraq can not be won “militarily.” I said two years ago, the key to progress in Iraq is to Iraqitize, Internationalize and Energize. I believe the same today. But I have concluded that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is impeding this progress.
Murtha admits that he's been saying for an ENTIRE YEAR that the war in Iraq "can not be won militarily..."
Hummmmmmm...but I thought this was a RECENT revelation...
It seems that Murtha has exhibited a weak stomach for troop deployments previously and has actually done this type of thing before.
In 1993 he took credit for urging President Clinton to pull US troops out of Somolia in an interview on NBC’s Today show:
After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region.
Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S.
"Our welcome has been worn out," Rep Murtha told NBC's "Today" show in Sept. 1993, a month after 4 U.S. Military Police had been killed in Somalia by a remote-detonated land mine.
The Pennsylvania Democrat announced that President Clinton had been "listening to our suggestions. And I think you'll see him move those troops out very quickly
So I ask you, what's the big deal here?
With "Hawks" like this, who needs "Doves" and other pacifists?
Isn’t Murtha just continuing along the path of expecting resounding victory and zero casualties from the military actions that he initially supports, but as soon as things go less than perfectly he's all for turning tail and running?
And why does the media continue to hype Murtha as a traditional pro-war “hawk?”
I say that it's because if Murtha made his statements and proposed his resolutions for an immediate pullout from Iraq and IF the truth was known, his calls would just be another example of standard liberal Democratic whining about the war.
I say we just add him to the Democratic Dean's list--Howard Dean's list, that is...
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Stupid News People
Oh, The Humanity…
I guess that every single person in the entire world saw the live broadcast of the saga of the Gulfstream G500 jet that had landing gear problems out in Oregon on Monday.
The coverage basically drove me crazy so I turned it off and managed to miss the actual footage of the landing until it was re-broadcast on the news later Monday night.
What a total NON-STORY this event was.
Why?
Because anyone that is involved in commercial aviation or that flies light aircraft knows that things like this happen several times a day, every single day of the year.
Back in 1991, when I was learning to fly, I witnessed a similar event, in person, and FOX News and CNN and the balance of the “lamestream” media missed the story in its entirety.
I had already filed my flight plan, done my preflight calculations on the airplane (a 1968 model Cessna 152, tail number 751B), had completed my preflight inspection, untied the airplane from its moorings on the tarmac, and was climbing into the cockpit with my instructor when we heard a grinding sound and turned around to witness a twin engine turboprop Piper sliding down the middle of runway 27R at McCullum airfield.
The airport was closed for the rest of the day since it only had a single runway, and said runway was blocked with the aforementioned Piper. Practically everyone but me went running out to the scene of the crime as I cursed and re-secured my airplane to the tie-downs and wandered back into the pilots lounge.
It seems that the Piper was being piloted by another student that was practicing single engine emergency procedures and that he had failed to remember to put the landing gear down during final approach. He said that he couldn’t think with all of the alarms going off in the cockpit—one of which was a LANDING GEAR ALARM telling him that the gear was still in the UP position. What a crime, tearing the belly off of a perfectly good airplane.
The flight instructor was a bit red-faced also.
Monday I was embarrassed for the FOX News broadcasters because they were forced to talk over the video footage for several hours and their inane babble made virtually no sense most of the time.
They interviewed everyone from the “spokesperson” for Gulfstream, the Chief Gulfstream Test Pilot, to the Janitor in the men’s room in the Savannah, Georgia Gulfstream fabrication facility, and most of the commentary added nothing to the progress of the story.
At one point a female commentator (I forget who) started talking about “foaming” the runway to “grease the airplane’s slide down the pavement.”
Say What?
They used to foam the runway with FIRE RETARDENT FOAM to limit the spread of a jet fuel fire during a runway incident, not to “grease the airplane’s slide” on the concrete. Now they rarely waste the foam on the runway, they wait and spray it on the wreckage once the airframe stops moving—it takes a lot less foam that way.
Then they started worrying about the environmental impact of foaming the runway and the impact of “dumping fuel” on the environment. Funny thing, but didn’t the jet stay airborne for the extra hours in order to BURN THE FUEL rather than dumping it?
I say that the “officials” should say “screw the Snail Darter fish and the Spotted Owls,” the airplane had SEVEN very worried humans on board and foam and jet fuel in the creeks or oceans is the last of their worries.
One commentator also speculated about the availability of the ocean nearby and wondered aloud why they didn’t just ditch a multi-million-dollar airplane in the freezing salt water.
Can you believe the STUPIDITY of that thought process?
These are the people that we rely on to tell us what is going on in the world. If even FOX News can’t do better than this on such a simple NON-STORY, I’m seriously concerned for our ability to survive as a nation on a long term basis.
DON’T LISTEN TO THEM…THEY’RE ALL IDIOTS.
I guess that every single person in the entire world saw the live broadcast of the saga of the Gulfstream G500 jet that had landing gear problems out in Oregon on Monday.
The coverage basically drove me crazy so I turned it off and managed to miss the actual footage of the landing until it was re-broadcast on the news later Monday night.
What a total NON-STORY this event was.
Why?
Because anyone that is involved in commercial aviation or that flies light aircraft knows that things like this happen several times a day, every single day of the year.
Back in 1991, when I was learning to fly, I witnessed a similar event, in person, and FOX News and CNN and the balance of the “lamestream” media missed the story in its entirety.
I had already filed my flight plan, done my preflight calculations on the airplane (a 1968 model Cessna 152, tail number 751B), had completed my preflight inspection, untied the airplane from its moorings on the tarmac, and was climbing into the cockpit with my instructor when we heard a grinding sound and turned around to witness a twin engine turboprop Piper sliding down the middle of runway 27R at McCullum airfield.
The airport was closed for the rest of the day since it only had a single runway, and said runway was blocked with the aforementioned Piper. Practically everyone but me went running out to the scene of the crime as I cursed and re-secured my airplane to the tie-downs and wandered back into the pilots lounge.
It seems that the Piper was being piloted by another student that was practicing single engine emergency procedures and that he had failed to remember to put the landing gear down during final approach. He said that he couldn’t think with all of the alarms going off in the cockpit—one of which was a LANDING GEAR ALARM telling him that the gear was still in the UP position. What a crime, tearing the belly off of a perfectly good airplane.
The flight instructor was a bit red-faced also.
Monday I was embarrassed for the FOX News broadcasters because they were forced to talk over the video footage for several hours and their inane babble made virtually no sense most of the time.
They interviewed everyone from the “spokesperson” for Gulfstream, the Chief Gulfstream Test Pilot, to the Janitor in the men’s room in the Savannah, Georgia Gulfstream fabrication facility, and most of the commentary added nothing to the progress of the story.
At one point a female commentator (I forget who) started talking about “foaming” the runway to “grease the airplane’s slide down the pavement.”
Say What?
They used to foam the runway with FIRE RETARDENT FOAM to limit the spread of a jet fuel fire during a runway incident, not to “grease the airplane’s slide” on the concrete. Now they rarely waste the foam on the runway, they wait and spray it on the wreckage once the airframe stops moving—it takes a lot less foam that way.
Then they started worrying about the environmental impact of foaming the runway and the impact of “dumping fuel” on the environment. Funny thing, but didn’t the jet stay airborne for the extra hours in order to BURN THE FUEL rather than dumping it?
I say that the “officials” should say “screw the Snail Darter fish and the Spotted Owls,” the airplane had SEVEN very worried humans on board and foam and jet fuel in the creeks or oceans is the last of their worries.
One commentator also speculated about the availability of the ocean nearby and wondered aloud why they didn’t just ditch a multi-million-dollar airplane in the freezing salt water.
Can you believe the STUPIDITY of that thought process?
These are the people that we rely on to tell us what is going on in the world. If even FOX News can’t do better than this on such a simple NON-STORY, I’m seriously concerned for our ability to survive as a nation on a long term basis.
DON’T LISTEN TO THEM…THEY’RE ALL IDIOTS.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
An Intelligent Comment?
Fresh Meat…
As I’ve written many times before, I rarely get comments disagreeing with my writing. All I ever get is either polite comments agreeing with my position or the occasional illogical rantings of some “barking moonbat” featuring insults and name-calling.
You can imagine my surprise tonight when I opened my E-mail and found this fairly lucid comment to my earlier posting called “Winning The War”:
“General Casey of the United States armed forces submitted a timetabled plan for withdrawal to the Pentagon the day before Murtha spoke. You can bet DOD didn't ask them for it.
Murtha is generally and correctly percieved to be a direct dial-up to what the JCOF brass are thinking.
The army itself thinks this war is pointless bleeding. Generals aren't making speeches about it, because they have a job to do, but General Shinsheki tried to tell Rumsfield that we would need 400K troops to do this job and got shitcanned for it. That's because we don't have 400K available troops, regardless of what our active duty stats say. In other words, the message was that this war can't be done, at least not without really shaking up the homeland. Which Bush, from your POV, wimped out on, but again, realism is that he never had a political hope in hell of instituting a draft.
It should also be mentioned that The American people did not write their constitution over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a foriegn country. The US hasn't fought a war of that timetable ever in its political life. That may have something to do with its ability to survive as a first-rate power, unlike, say, Imperial Spain or colonial France. Long wars suck countries dry.
Iraq's regional environment and political history dooms it to be a violent, chaotic, repressive regime for the near future. Whatever marginal changes we can make to that dynamic have already been made. We're dying with no victory in sight, and it's not because politicians are holding gloves on the soldiers. This is a fantasy you use to express your hatred and disdain, no more, no less. The US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government. You can't build a western democracy while acting like the Khmer Rouge.
If you were capable of disinterested thought on the real nature of these situations, you'd be able to put forth a civil response to these statements of fact. But I don't think you're up to it, so I expect you'll respond with a wild-eyed bundle of insults.
Do your country a service, and stop letting dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust compensate for some real awareness of America's abilities and limitations.”
I’d say that this is a fairly well written comment. Thank you for so eloquently expressing your opinion, Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. commenter
I also must say that this reader has obviously not been reading my blog for very long or they would know that I do not rely on “wild-eyed bundle(s) of insults” to answer my critics—that is the method employed by most liberals and nearly all Democrats.
I believe that this commenter deserves a thoughtful, genuine answer based on something liberals either don’t know or absolutely hate—FACTS. Further, I’m going to answer publicly, on a point by point basis.
Here goes…
“General Casey of the United States armed forces submitted a timetabled plan for withdrawal to the Pentagon the day before Murtha spoke. You can bet DOD didn't ask them for it.
Murtha is generally and correctly percieved to be a direct dial-up to what the JCOF brass are thinking.”
So my reader opens their argument with a statement based on recent news reports that General George Casey had submitted a written plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Further, they (my reader) somehow believe that General Casey is sitting around writing such proposals on his own, in his spare time, without instructions from the Department of Defense or the President.
I beg to differ, but I can’t find anything on Google indicating what the exact timeline for Casey’s report was. I would say that it was reasonable to assume that the timing could be coincidental to Murtha’s comments, but it might not be. I think that the Pentagon probably asked him for his opinion, since being a Army General generally means you know a thing or two about troop deployments. Based on a lack of information, I guess that I wouldn’t be willing to bet that the DOD did or didn’t ask for the report, however.
I will also concede my readers point that Murtha, as the senior Democratic member of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, might know a thing or two about what the Joint Chiefs of Staff (that’s JCOS, not JCOF, by the way…) might be thinking. Also, Murtha didn’t specifically say that he was basing his demand for an immediate troop withdrawal on any secret knowledge attributed to his position on the subcommittee.
In fact, I heard today that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic leadership planned to have Murtha come out on his own, all by his lonesome, on this topic. Then they would either jump on the bandwagon if the concept took off else distance themselves and yell and scream about critics "questioning a good ex-Marine's patriotism."
Next my reader tells me that the Army thinks that the war is “unnecessary bleeding.” Is my commenter actually in the army in a leadership position? I haven’t heard that slant on things and would appreciate receiving a link to the story if anyone has one.
"The army itself thinks this war is pointless bleeding. Generals aren't making speeches about it, because they have a job to do, but General Shinsheki tried to tell Rumsfield that we would need 400K troops to do this job and got shitcanned for it. That's because we don't have 400K available troops, regardless of what our active duty stats say. In other words, the message was that this war can't be done, at least not without really shaking up the homeland. Which Bush, from your POV, wimped out on, but again, realism is that he never had a political hope in hell of instituting a draft."
If my reader had actually read something besides the Clinton News Network (CNN) or the liberal blogs, they might have found this recent press release from the Department of Defense addressing the recent troop strength issue:
Q: When are US forces pulling out of Iraq?
Rumsfeld: Well, they are going to be drawing down over time as conditions permit and military commanders and the Embassy in Baghdad are working with the Iraqi government to determine what those conditions are and in what case that would be appropriate.
In the meantime, we have put more forces in for the referendum in October and the election coming in December so we are up from 138,000 to 160,000 and we’ll be going down from 160,000 back to 138,000 after the December 15 elections. But reductions beyond that are things the President will decide based on the recommendations from the battlefield commanders.
My guess is we’ll continue to find that the conditions will permit reductions as Iraqi Security Forces continue to grow.
Q: What’s your take on the [inaudible] that military officers requested more troops and been turned down?
Rumsfeld: In fact, no military officer has been turned down needing additional troops at the senior levels. I don’t doubt for a minute that if you have a captain or a major or a lieutenant colonel somewhere in that country that at some moment they need more forces to do this or do that and they ask for them and the senior commanders decide how they want to allocate forces they have and they move the 160,000 forces around depending on the conditions on the ground. So it’s perfectly plausible that colonels have asked from time to time for forces and have gotten them or not gotten them depending on General Casey or General Vines’ decisions. Any implication that there has been a request for additional forces by General Casey or General Abizaid that has been turned down is just flat not true.
Q: Isn’t Iraq in the middle of a civil war and isn’t the US presence exacerbating that by being there?
Rumsfeld: Well, no. Iraq is not in the middle of a civil war at the present time. There are obvious tensions in the various regions between the Sunnis, the Shia, the Kurds and there have been hostilities between them from time to time. But basically you have got insurgents and terrorists that are trying to start a civil war. They are going out and killing people and suicide bombers are blowing up people inside of mosques and trying to [inaudible] but fortunately, it hasn’t happened. The leadership has been measured and balanced and calm and that’s been a big help. People are behaving reasonably well -- the leadership [inaudible].
Then there is the matter of General Shinseki’s pre-war troop strength estimates, addressed in this February 2003 NY Times article.
Mr. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, opened a two-front war of words on Capitol Hill, calling the recent estimate by Gen. Eric K. Shinseki of the Army that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq, "wildly off the mark." Pentagon officials have put the figure closer to 100,000 troops. Mr. Wolfowitz then dismissed articles in several newspapers this week asserting that Pentagon budget specialists put the cost of war and reconstruction at $60 billion to $95 billion in this fiscal year. He said it was impossible to predict accurately a war's duration, its destruction and the extent of rebuilding afterward.
How my reader/commenter got to 400,000 troops from “several hundred thousand” troops is a matter of contemplation but, in the interest of brevity, not worthy of detailed discussion here.
I appreciate them pointing out, incorrectly, that we don’t have 400,000 troops to deploy in Iraq without “compromising homeland security.” Last time I checked, troops “deployed” here in the United States are either training for overseas deployment or waiting for deployment. Of course I guess that the liberals would rather leave the troops here at home resting on their laurels, waiting for the terrorists to come driving down main street in Muscatine, Iowa with an explosives laden minivan, but then again--I'm not a liberal so I can only guess what their logic is.
Fortunately, for all of us civilians, President Bush has chosen to take the war on terrorism out of the US, off of our soil, and put it in the homeland of the terrorists. Regarding troop numbers, I’ll add that president CLINTON, in his infinite military hating ignorance, oversaw the reduction of our military forces from over 1,800,000 active duty troops down to around 1,300,000 troops, a reduction in force of ONE HALF MILLON HELMETS AND PAIRS OF BOOTS.
Further, we have about 70,000 troops stationed in Germany—a left over artifact of the cold war with Russia. It would really piss the Germans off losing the US dollars spent by the troops in the local economy, but don’t you think that we could pull one half to two thirds of this crowd out of Europe, into Iraq, if we really wanted to?
And regarding the hated “DRAFT,” Republicans and President Bush have never once publicly mentioned the draft as a solution to the troop strength situation. It was the DEMOCRATS, John sKerry, and the mainstream media that brought up the draft just before the last presidential election as a desperate last minute scare tactic.
Fortunately, it didn’t work.
Moving along…
"It should also be mentioned that The American people did not write their constitution over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a foriegn country. The US hasn't fought a war of that timetable ever in its political life. That may have something to do with its ability to survive as a first-rate power, unlike, say, Imperial Spain or colonial France. Long wars suck countries dry. "
Oh boy, can I ever have a good time with this paragraph.
Yes, the US didn’t write our constitution “over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a (sic) foreign country…” In fact, if you want to get real technical, we actually took thirteen years from the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774 until the constitution was ratified in 1787, and of that time—we were fighting the Revolutionary War for EIGHT of those years.
We fought the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, we beat Cornwallis at Yorktown October 19, 1781, and Congress declared an end to hostilities April 11, 1783.
History is a bitch, ain’t it, Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. Reader? The internet makes EVERYONE an expert, IF you just take the time to check your facts rather than relying on your memory and the crap you learned in government (public) schools, you know?
If you are going to argue with me, please do your homework in the future, mmmkayyyy?
Next my reader continues to state the obvious and then makes my point for me…
“Iraq's regional environment and political history dooms it to be a violent, chaotic, repressive regime for the near future. Whatever marginal changes we can make to that dynamic have already been made. We're dying with no victory in sight, and it's not because politicians are holding gloves on the soldiers. This is a fantasy you use to express your hatred and disdain, no more, no less. The US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government. You can't build a western democracy while acting like the Khmer Rouge.”
My “hatred and disdane”?
Of what?
The Iraqi people?
Freedom?
Liberals?
Democrats?
Or possibly the conditions of peace that could inevitably come as a result of some well placed military force. You know, open up an industrial strength can of “whoop ass” and apply it where needed?
And dear Reader, thank you for saying that “the US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government…”
But who says that a democracy has to be “western”?
This one will obviously be “middle eastern.”
In closing, my gentle Reader resorts to the very acts which they challenge me to not engage in—INSULTS.
“If you were capable of disinterested thought on the real nature of these situations, you'd be able to put forth a civil response to these statements of fact. But I don't think you're up to it, so I expect you'll respond with a wild-eyed bundle of insults.”
Do your country a service, and stop letting dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust compensate for some real awareness of America's abilities and limitations.”
Isn’t inferring that I suffer from “dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust” that prevents me from having “some real awareness of America’s abilities and limitations” an insult in itself?
Well, that's OK.
I’m not insulted, I’m amused.
And finally, I have an admission....GASP...
I am, in fact, “(in)capable of disinterested thought,” Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. Reader.
If I think about and bother to actually write about something…I’m INTERESTED in the subject.
Imagine that???
As I’ve written many times before, I rarely get comments disagreeing with my writing. All I ever get is either polite comments agreeing with my position or the occasional illogical rantings of some “barking moonbat” featuring insults and name-calling.
You can imagine my surprise tonight when I opened my E-mail and found this fairly lucid comment to my earlier posting called “Winning The War”:
“General Casey of the United States armed forces submitted a timetabled plan for withdrawal to the Pentagon the day before Murtha spoke. You can bet DOD didn't ask them for it.
Murtha is generally and correctly percieved to be a direct dial-up to what the JCOF brass are thinking.
The army itself thinks this war is pointless bleeding. Generals aren't making speeches about it, because they have a job to do, but General Shinsheki tried to tell Rumsfield that we would need 400K troops to do this job and got shitcanned for it. That's because we don't have 400K available troops, regardless of what our active duty stats say. In other words, the message was that this war can't be done, at least not without really shaking up the homeland. Which Bush, from your POV, wimped out on, but again, realism is that he never had a political hope in hell of instituting a draft.
It should also be mentioned that The American people did not write their constitution over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a foriegn country. The US hasn't fought a war of that timetable ever in its political life. That may have something to do with its ability to survive as a first-rate power, unlike, say, Imperial Spain or colonial France. Long wars suck countries dry.
Iraq's regional environment and political history dooms it to be a violent, chaotic, repressive regime for the near future. Whatever marginal changes we can make to that dynamic have already been made. We're dying with no victory in sight, and it's not because politicians are holding gloves on the soldiers. This is a fantasy you use to express your hatred and disdain, no more, no less. The US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government. You can't build a western democracy while acting like the Khmer Rouge.
If you were capable of disinterested thought on the real nature of these situations, you'd be able to put forth a civil response to these statements of fact. But I don't think you're up to it, so I expect you'll respond with a wild-eyed bundle of insults.
Do your country a service, and stop letting dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust compensate for some real awareness of America's abilities and limitations.”
I’d say that this is a fairly well written comment. Thank you for so eloquently expressing your opinion, Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. commenter
I also must say that this reader has obviously not been reading my blog for very long or they would know that I do not rely on “wild-eyed bundle(s) of insults” to answer my critics—that is the method employed by most liberals and nearly all Democrats.
I believe that this commenter deserves a thoughtful, genuine answer based on something liberals either don’t know or absolutely hate—FACTS. Further, I’m going to answer publicly, on a point by point basis.
Here goes…
“General Casey of the United States armed forces submitted a timetabled plan for withdrawal to the Pentagon the day before Murtha spoke. You can bet DOD didn't ask them for it.
Murtha is generally and correctly percieved to be a direct dial-up to what the JCOF brass are thinking.”
So my reader opens their argument with a statement based on recent news reports that General George Casey had submitted a written plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Further, they (my reader) somehow believe that General Casey is sitting around writing such proposals on his own, in his spare time, without instructions from the Department of Defense or the President.
I beg to differ, but I can’t find anything on Google indicating what the exact timeline for Casey’s report was. I would say that it was reasonable to assume that the timing could be coincidental to Murtha’s comments, but it might not be. I think that the Pentagon probably asked him for his opinion, since being a Army General generally means you know a thing or two about troop deployments. Based on a lack of information, I guess that I wouldn’t be willing to bet that the DOD did or didn’t ask for the report, however.
I will also concede my readers point that Murtha, as the senior Democratic member of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, might know a thing or two about what the Joint Chiefs of Staff (that’s JCOS, not JCOF, by the way…) might be thinking. Also, Murtha didn’t specifically say that he was basing his demand for an immediate troop withdrawal on any secret knowledge attributed to his position on the subcommittee.
In fact, I heard today that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic leadership planned to have Murtha come out on his own, all by his lonesome, on this topic. Then they would either jump on the bandwagon if the concept took off else distance themselves and yell and scream about critics "questioning a good ex-Marine's patriotism."
Next my reader tells me that the Army thinks that the war is “unnecessary bleeding.” Is my commenter actually in the army in a leadership position? I haven’t heard that slant on things and would appreciate receiving a link to the story if anyone has one.
"The army itself thinks this war is pointless bleeding. Generals aren't making speeches about it, because they have a job to do, but General Shinsheki tried to tell Rumsfield that we would need 400K troops to do this job and got shitcanned for it. That's because we don't have 400K available troops, regardless of what our active duty stats say. In other words, the message was that this war can't be done, at least not without really shaking up the homeland. Which Bush, from your POV, wimped out on, but again, realism is that he never had a political hope in hell of instituting a draft."
If my reader had actually read something besides the Clinton News Network (CNN) or the liberal blogs, they might have found this recent press release from the Department of Defense addressing the recent troop strength issue:
Q: When are US forces pulling out of Iraq?
Rumsfeld: Well, they are going to be drawing down over time as conditions permit and military commanders and the Embassy in Baghdad are working with the Iraqi government to determine what those conditions are and in what case that would be appropriate.
In the meantime, we have put more forces in for the referendum in October and the election coming in December so we are up from 138,000 to 160,000 and we’ll be going down from 160,000 back to 138,000 after the December 15 elections. But reductions beyond that are things the President will decide based on the recommendations from the battlefield commanders.
My guess is we’ll continue to find that the conditions will permit reductions as Iraqi Security Forces continue to grow.
Q: What’s your take on the [inaudible] that military officers requested more troops and been turned down?
Rumsfeld: In fact, no military officer has been turned down needing additional troops at the senior levels. I don’t doubt for a minute that if you have a captain or a major or a lieutenant colonel somewhere in that country that at some moment they need more forces to do this or do that and they ask for them and the senior commanders decide how they want to allocate forces they have and they move the 160,000 forces around depending on the conditions on the ground. So it’s perfectly plausible that colonels have asked from time to time for forces and have gotten them or not gotten them depending on General Casey or General Vines’ decisions. Any implication that there has been a request for additional forces by General Casey or General Abizaid that has been turned down is just flat not true.
Q: Isn’t Iraq in the middle of a civil war and isn’t the US presence exacerbating that by being there?
Rumsfeld: Well, no. Iraq is not in the middle of a civil war at the present time. There are obvious tensions in the various regions between the Sunnis, the Shia, the Kurds and there have been hostilities between them from time to time. But basically you have got insurgents and terrorists that are trying to start a civil war. They are going out and killing people and suicide bombers are blowing up people inside of mosques and trying to [inaudible] but fortunately, it hasn’t happened. The leadership has been measured and balanced and calm and that’s been a big help. People are behaving reasonably well -- the leadership [inaudible].
Then there is the matter of General Shinseki’s pre-war troop strength estimates, addressed in this February 2003 NY Times article.
Mr. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, opened a two-front war of words on Capitol Hill, calling the recent estimate by Gen. Eric K. Shinseki of the Army that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq, "wildly off the mark." Pentagon officials have put the figure closer to 100,000 troops. Mr. Wolfowitz then dismissed articles in several newspapers this week asserting that Pentagon budget specialists put the cost of war and reconstruction at $60 billion to $95 billion in this fiscal year. He said it was impossible to predict accurately a war's duration, its destruction and the extent of rebuilding afterward.
How my reader/commenter got to 400,000 troops from “several hundred thousand” troops is a matter of contemplation but, in the interest of brevity, not worthy of detailed discussion here.
I appreciate them pointing out, incorrectly, that we don’t have 400,000 troops to deploy in Iraq without “compromising homeland security.” Last time I checked, troops “deployed” here in the United States are either training for overseas deployment or waiting for deployment. Of course I guess that the liberals would rather leave the troops here at home resting on their laurels, waiting for the terrorists to come driving down main street in Muscatine, Iowa with an explosives laden minivan, but then again--I'm not a liberal so I can only guess what their logic is.
Fortunately, for all of us civilians, President Bush has chosen to take the war on terrorism out of the US, off of our soil, and put it in the homeland of the terrorists. Regarding troop numbers, I’ll add that president CLINTON, in his infinite military hating ignorance, oversaw the reduction of our military forces from over 1,800,000 active duty troops down to around 1,300,000 troops, a reduction in force of ONE HALF MILLON HELMETS AND PAIRS OF BOOTS.
Further, we have about 70,000 troops stationed in Germany—a left over artifact of the cold war with Russia. It would really piss the Germans off losing the US dollars spent by the troops in the local economy, but don’t you think that we could pull one half to two thirds of this crowd out of Europe, into Iraq, if we really wanted to?
And regarding the hated “DRAFT,” Republicans and President Bush have never once publicly mentioned the draft as a solution to the troop strength situation. It was the DEMOCRATS, John sKerry, and the mainstream media that brought up the draft just before the last presidential election as a desperate last minute scare tactic.
Fortunately, it didn’t work.
Moving along…
"It should also be mentioned that The American people did not write their constitution over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a foriegn country. The US hasn't fought a war of that timetable ever in its political life. That may have something to do with its ability to survive as a first-rate power, unlike, say, Imperial Spain or colonial France. Long wars suck countries dry. "
Oh boy, can I ever have a good time with this paragraph.
Yes, the US didn’t write our constitution “over 11 years under the saturation presence of troops from a (sic) foreign country…” In fact, if you want to get real technical, we actually took thirteen years from the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774 until the constitution was ratified in 1787, and of that time—we were fighting the Revolutionary War for EIGHT of those years.
We fought the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, we beat Cornwallis at Yorktown October 19, 1781, and Congress declared an end to hostilities April 11, 1783.
History is a bitch, ain’t it, Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. Reader? The internet makes EVERYONE an expert, IF you just take the time to check your facts rather than relying on your memory and the crap you learned in government (public) schools, you know?
If you are going to argue with me, please do your homework in the future, mmmkayyyy?
Next my reader continues to state the obvious and then makes my point for me…
“Iraq's regional environment and political history dooms it to be a violent, chaotic, repressive regime for the near future. Whatever marginal changes we can make to that dynamic have already been made. We're dying with no victory in sight, and it's not because politicians are holding gloves on the soldiers. This is a fantasy you use to express your hatred and disdain, no more, no less. The US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government. You can't build a western democracy while acting like the Khmer Rouge.”
My “hatred and disdane”?
Of what?
The Iraqi people?
Freedom?
Liberals?
Democrats?
Or possibly the conditions of peace that could inevitably come as a result of some well placed military force. You know, open up an industrial strength can of “whoop ass” and apply it where needed?
And dear Reader, thank you for saying that “the US is using exactly as much force as can be used while trying to establish a liberal, stable democratic government…”
But who says that a democracy has to be “western”?
This one will obviously be “middle eastern.”
In closing, my gentle Reader resorts to the very acts which they challenge me to not engage in—INSULTS.
“If you were capable of disinterested thought on the real nature of these situations, you'd be able to put forth a civil response to these statements of fact. But I don't think you're up to it, so I expect you'll respond with a wild-eyed bundle of insults.”
Do your country a service, and stop letting dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust compensate for some real awareness of America's abilities and limitations.”
Isn’t inferring that I suffer from “dumb-ass machismo and thinly veiled bloodlust” that prevents me from having “some real awareness of America’s abilities and limitations” an insult in itself?
Well, that's OK.
I’m not insulted, I’m amused.
And finally, I have an admission....GASP...
I am, in fact, “(in)capable of disinterested thought,” Mr./Mrs./Miss./Ms. Reader.
If I think about and bother to actually write about something…I’m INTERESTED in the subject.
Imagine that???
Monday, November 21, 2005
A Total Waste Of Money
Hot Air Should Be Free...
I just learned that the poor little "anti-war activist and mother of a dead soldier" Cindy Sheehan has a new book out. I'm so jealous:
"I never wrote anything more than a note to excuse my kids from school before Casey was killed, so to see something I wrote in print with my name on it is amazing," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone from her home in Berkeley, Calif.
Sheehan gained national attention during her 26-day vigil on a Texas roadside near President Bush's ranch in August. She refused to move until the president met with her or ended his vacation. That moved Arnie Kotler, the founder of a Hawaii publishing company who saw news coverage and read Sheehan's Internet blog entries from the protest.
"I thought, 'This is already a book. This is incredible,'" said Kotler of Koa Books, which printed about 20,000 copies. "We got it done as quickly as we could, and the deepest reason is to stop the war."
The White House did not return calls seeking comment on the book.
What is the White house expected to say--that Cindy Sheehan is a rocket scientist full of thoughtful insights and advice worth heeding?
I think not...If you can't say anything nice...say nothing at all...
Is there a law or a rule or something that requires that every moron that has the guts to go out and make a fool of themselves in public gets a book deal as a bonus?
I could barely stand to listen to Cindy Sheehan SPEAK on the TV news stories. Can you imagine trying to READ an entire book full of her mindless blitherings? I'm sure that she employed a ghost writer to assist in producing something other than meaningless mush and slogans.
The article closes by saying that Cindy and her band of harry legged anti-war gypsies plan on camping out in Crawford Texas this week in an effort to gain more media coverage and spoil President Bush's Thanksgiving celebration.
Get ready for Camp Casey--Part II.
What total BS...
I just learned that the poor little "anti-war activist and mother of a dead soldier" Cindy Sheehan has a new book out. I'm so jealous:
"I never wrote anything more than a note to excuse my kids from school before Casey was killed, so to see something I wrote in print with my name on it is amazing," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone from her home in Berkeley, Calif.
Sheehan gained national attention during her 26-day vigil on a Texas roadside near President Bush's ranch in August. She refused to move until the president met with her or ended his vacation. That moved Arnie Kotler, the founder of a Hawaii publishing company who saw news coverage and read Sheehan's Internet blog entries from the protest.
"I thought, 'This is already a book. This is incredible,'" said Kotler of Koa Books, which printed about 20,000 copies. "We got it done as quickly as we could, and the deepest reason is to stop the war."
The White House did not return calls seeking comment on the book.
What is the White house expected to say--that Cindy Sheehan is a rocket scientist full of thoughtful insights and advice worth heeding?
I think not...If you can't say anything nice...say nothing at all...
Is there a law or a rule or something that requires that every moron that has the guts to go out and make a fool of themselves in public gets a book deal as a bonus?
I could barely stand to listen to Cindy Sheehan SPEAK on the TV news stories. Can you imagine trying to READ an entire book full of her mindless blitherings? I'm sure that she employed a ghost writer to assist in producing something other than meaningless mush and slogans.
The article closes by saying that Cindy and her band of harry legged anti-war gypsies plan on camping out in Crawford Texas this week in an effort to gain more media coverage and spoil President Bush's Thanksgiving celebration.
Get ready for Camp Casey--Part II.
What total BS...
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Thanksgiving Birds?
We went wandering around the north end of the island today, looking for some photo opportunities.
Since it is coming up on Thanksgiving, I thought that you would enjoy seeing this tree full of big birds--part of a group of Buzzards I found dining on an Armadillo that had been hit by a car:
Now where is my stuffing and cranberry sauce???
Since it is coming up on Thanksgiving, I thought that you would enjoy seeing this tree full of big birds--part of a group of Buzzards I found dining on an Armadillo that had been hit by a car:
Now where is my stuffing and cranberry sauce???
This Just In...
"I'm a Wramblin' Wreck From Georgia Tech..."
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.....14
Miami Hurricanes (former #3).............10
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.....14
Miami Hurricanes (former #3).............10
