Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
What does it matter? They're probably mostly rightwingers--and they like nasty guns.
77% of Democrats (and Ron Paul) Voted Against Rules Of Engagement That Protect Our Troops
By Andrew Bostom
Florida Republican Congressman John Mica offered the following morally clear Amendment (5/25/2011-H.AMDT.318 (A018) Amends H.R.1540):
Amendment requires that the rules of engagement [ROE] allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protect their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions.
143 out of 185 Democrats present -- 77% -- voted against this amendment; 217 out of 235 Republicans present -- 92% -- voted for it.
As for the two Republicans in Congress running who are Presidential candidates, Michele Bachmann voted for the amendment; Ron Paul against it.
(Ribbet!)
I wonder what independents, and those that vote Democrat who're in the military, think about this? I know what I think.
Well, Obama's not going to put up Norman's 'Thanksgiving Dinner'... that's too nice and too decent!
Norman Rockwell Painting Sends Rare White House Message On Race
By Josh Gerstein
Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With,” installed in the White House last month, shows U.S. marshals escorting Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old African-American girl, into a New Orleans elementary school in 1960 as court-ordered integration met with an angry and defiant response from the white community.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The workings of American politics: conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
7 Reasons Why Liberals Are Incapable of Understanding The World
Even liberals who've accomplished a lot in their lives and have high IQs often say things on a regular basis that are stunningly, profoundly stupid and at odds with the way the world works. Modern liberalism has become so bereft of common sense and instinctually suicidal that America can only survive over the long haul by thwarting the liberal agenda. In fact, liberalism has become such a toxic and poisonous philosophy that most liberals wouldn't behave differently if their goal were to deliberately destroy the country. So, how does liberalism cause well-meaning, intelligent liberals to get this way? Well, it starts with...
1) Liberalism creates a feedback loop. It is usually impossible for a non-liberal to change a liberal's mind about political issues because liberalism works like so: only liberals are credible sources of information. How do you know someone's liberal? He espouses liberal doctrine. So, no matter how plausible what you say may be, it will be ignored if you're not a liberal and if you are a liberal, of course, you probably agree with liberal views. This sort of close-mindedness makes liberals nearly impervious to any information that might undermine their beliefs.
2) Liberals sources of information are ever present. Conservatives are regularly exposed to the liberal viewpoint whether they want to be or not. That's not necessarily so for liberals. Imagine the average day for liberals. They get up and read their local newspaper. It has a liberal viewpoint. They take their kids to school, where the teachers are liberal. Then they go to work, listen to NPR which has a liberal viewpoint on the way home, and then turn on the nightly news which also skews leftward. From there, they turn on TV and watch shows created by liberals that lean to the left, if they have any political viewpoint at all. Unless liberals actively seek out conservative viewpoints, which is unlikely, the only conservative arguments they're probably going to hear are going to be through the heavily distorted, poorly translated, deeply skeptical lens of other liberals.
3) Liberals emphasize feeling superior, not superior results. Liberalism is all about appearances, not outcomes. What matters to liberals is how a program makes them FEEL about themselves, not whether it works or not. Thus a program like Headstart, which sounds good because it's designed to help children read, makes liberals feel good about themselves, even though the program doesn't work and wastes billions. A ban on DDT makes liberals feel good about themselves because they're "protecting the environment" even though millions of people have died as a result. For liberals, it's not what a program does in the real world; it's about whether they feel better about themselves for supporting it.
4) Liberals are big believers in moral relativism. This spins them round and round because if the only thing that's wrong is saying that there's an absolute moral code, then you lose your ability to tell cause from effect, good from bad, and right from wrong. Taking being non-judgmental to the level that liberals do leaves them paralyzed, pondering "why they hate us" because they feel incapable of saying, “That's wrong," and doing something about it. If you're against firm standards and condemning immoral behavior, then your moral compass won’t work and you’ll also be for immorality, as well as societal and cultural decay by default.
5) Liberals tend to view people as parts of groups, not individuals. One of the prejudices of liberalism is that they see everyone as part of a group, not as an individual. This can lead to rather bizarre disparities when say, a man from a group that they consider to be powerless, impoverished victims becomes the leader of the free world -- and he's challenged by a group of lower middle class white people who've banded together because individually they're powerless. If you listen to the liberal rhetoric, you might think Barack Obama was a black Republican being surrounded by a KKK lynching party 100 years ago -- as opposed to the single most powerful man in America abusing the authority of his office to attack ordinary Tea Partiers who have the audacity to speak the truth to power for the good of their country.
6) Liberals take a dim view of personal responsibility. Who's at fault if a criminal commits a crime? The criminal or society? If someone creates a business and becomes a millionaire, is that the result of hard work and talent or luck? If you're dirt poor, starving, and haven't worked in 5 years, is that a personal failing or a failure of the state? Conservatives would tend to say the former in each case, while liberals would tend to say the latter. But when you disconnect what an individual does from the results that happen in his life, it's very difficult to understand cause and effect in people's lives.
7) Liberals give themselves far too much credit just for being liberal. To many liberals, all one needs to do to be wise, intelligent, compassionate, open minded, and sensitive is to BE LIBERAL. In other words, many of the good things about a person spring not from his actions, but from the ideology he holds. This has an obvious appeal. You can be a diehard misogynist, but plausibly call yourself a feminist, hate blacks, but accuse others of racism, have a subpar IQ and be an intellectual, give nothing to charity and be compassionate, etc., etc., and all you have to do is call yourself a liberal. It's a shortcut to virtue much like the corrupt old idea of religious indulgences. Why live a life of virtue when you could live a sinful life and buy your way into heaven? If you're a liberal, why actually live a life of virtue when you can merely call yourself a liberal and get credit for being virtuous, even when you've done nothing to earn it?
http://tinyurl.com/3tbfx27
(Ribbet!)
Yes--that's a graphic of John F'n Kerry dancing real 'swift'.
Gad! I loath that man!
Didn't Lenin say to 'grab the guns'?
Obama Smuggling Guns and Registering Yours
By Chuck Norris
President Barack Obama wants you to believe that America's Founding Fathers were in error when they gave citizens the right to bear arms.
The Obama administration and even its Mexican counterpart have manipulated public opinion to believe that the cartel drug wars are being fueled largely by American guns. In support of that spin, they are trying to impose a new regulation that requires licensed firearms dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to report to the federal government whenever someone buys from them more than one semiautomatic rifle with certain characteristics.
Obama's Department of Justice essentially is amending the Second Amendment by changing the rules for gun sales in border states. While working under the guise of stopping illegal contraband and fighting drug cartels, the White House in reality is further imposing its gun control agenda on the American public through back-door rule-making. This is just one more example of the feds exceeding their powers and avoiding congressional permission. It is also another showing of complete disregard for the Constitution.
Based upon those illegalities, Wayne LaPierre -- my friend and the CEO of the National Rifle Association -- disclosed on Fox News recently that the NRA filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to issue an injunction barring enforcement of the rule. And with NRA support, the U.S. House has voted to withhold funding for the enforcement of the new regulation.
As LaPierre wrote in his weekly commentary last week, "the cartels run a $40 billion enterprise ... but the (Obama) administration wants the public to believe that it's going to disarm cartels with a form? Who is the president kidding?"
Doesn't Obama know that restricting the right to bear arms primarily ties the hands of good guys while the bad guys purchase them from a host of illegal sources? And what part of "shall not be infringed" in the Second Amendment do the feds not understand?
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will "vigorously oppose" the NRA lawsuit...
The Obama administration and even its Mexican counterpart have manipulated public opinion to believe that the cartel drug wars are being fueled largely by American guns. In support of that spin, they are trying to impose a new regulation that requires licensed firearms dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to report to the federal government whenever someone buys from them more than one semiautomatic rifle with certain characteristics.
Obama's Department of Justice essentially is amending the Second Amendment by changing the rules for gun sales in border states. While working under the guise of stopping illegal contraband and fighting drug cartels, the White House in reality is further imposing its gun control agenda on the American public through back-door rule-making. This is just one more example of the feds exceeding their powers and avoiding congressional permission. It is also another showing of complete disregard for the Constitution.
Based upon those illegalities, Wayne LaPierre -- my friend and the CEO of the National Rifle Association -- disclosed on Fox News recently that the NRA filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to issue an injunction barring enforcement of the rule. And with NRA support, the U.S. House has voted to withhold funding for the enforcement of the new regulation.
As LaPierre wrote in his weekly commentary last week, "the cartels run a $40 billion enterprise ... but the (Obama) administration wants the public to believe that it's going to disarm cartels with a form? Who is the president kidding?"
Doesn't Obama know that restricting the right to bear arms primarily ties the hands of good guys while the bad guys purchase them from a host of illegal sources? And what part of "shall not be infringed" in the Second Amendment do the feds not understand?
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will "vigorously oppose" the NRA lawsuit...
http://tinyurl.com/3quqmm2
(Ribbet!)
I knew Obama would try and take our weapons... that this gunrunner operation was tied up with that. In his usual ham-handed fashion, he 'should' have gotten our guns first (isn't that what a good Communist does?).
In his usual evil fashion, with all his secret gunrunning, he is responsible--at least in part--for the deaths of approx. 30,000 Mexicans, some 300+ Americans, and at least one Border Patrol agent.
I wonder if all the Mexican 'undocumented workers' that he wants to vote for him have ever thought of that?
"It became less a story of domesticization of a pet and more about... a Che Guevara story".
‘Rise of the Apes’ Director: Film’s Hero Inspired by Che GuevaraBy Humberto Fontova
Here’s Rupert Wyatt, director of the blockbuster movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a recent interview:
“(The script) had become very different and much more exciting to me. It became less a story of domesticization of a pet and more about an uprising and a Che Guevara story.”
Here’s the Associated Press review of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”: “Raised much like a human child by a researcher, with help from a veterinarian, Caesar becomes a Che Guevara-style revolutionary, leading a rebellion of apes against their human oppressors.”
Ground control to Director Wyatt: In fact the only genuinely popular rebellion in Cuba in the 20th Century was against Che Guevara’s regime, among the most oppressive in modern history which mandates ( under penalty of prison or firing squad) what its subjects, read, say, earn, eat (both substance and amount) , where they live, travel or work. Wyatt’s inspiration for a freedom-fighter co-founded a regime that jailed more of its subjects than did Stalin’s during the Great Terror and murdered more its subjects in its first three years in power than did Hitler’s in its first six.
In 1959, with the help of Soviet KGB and GRU agents, Rupert Wyatt’s hero against “oppression” helped found, train and indoctrinate Cuba’s secret police. “Always interrogate your prisoners at night,” Che Guevara ordered his goons. “A man’s resistance is always lower at night.” In 1957 this worldwide symbol of “’anti-imperialism” (who often signed his letters as “Stalin II”) cheered the Soviet invasion of Hungary with its wholesale slaughter of Hungarian freedom-fighting guerrillas. All through the horrifying Soviet massacre, Che dutifully parroted the Soviet script that the workers, peasants and college kids battling Russian tanks in Budapest with small arms and Molotov cocktails were all: “Fascists and CIA agents!” who all deserved prompt execution.
“Caesar is shown to be compassionate, forbidding his followers from killing innocent humans. “ (Wikipedia on Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
Ground control to Director Wyatt: “When in doubt—execute! “raved your inspiration for compassion. “Judicial evidence is an archaic bourgeois detail. I don’t need proof to execute a man. I only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. We execute from revolutionary conviction! To establish Socialism rivers of blood must flow!”
Now here’s Andy Serkis, with the leading role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes: “I play the character from a child through to a Che Guevara type–How cool is that!”
Ground control to Andy Serkis: Che Guevara had a very bloody (and typically cowardly) hand in one of the major anti-insurgency wars in this hemisphere. Most of these Cuban anti-communist guerrillas were executed on the spot upon capture, a Che specialty. For my book I interviewed several of the lucky (genuine) rebels who managed to escape the slaughter. “We fought with the fury of cornered beasts,” I titled the chapter, using the phrase one used to describe their desperate freedom fight against the Soviet occupation of Cuba through their Stalinist proxies the Castro brothers and Che Guevara.
Mass murder was the order in Cuba’s countryside. It was the only way to decimate so many rebels. These country folk went after the Castroites with a ferocity that saw Fidel and Che running to their Soviet sugar daddies and tugging their pants in panic. Carlos Machado was 15 years old in 1963 when the bullets from the Communist firing squad shattered his body. His twin brother and father collapsed beside Carlos from the same volley. All had resisted Castro and Che’s theft of their humble family farm, all refused blindfolds and all died sneering at their Communist murderers, as did thousands of their valiant countrymen.
“Here’s one other thing that sets Rise apart: it’s smart. This isn’t just an angry ape who wants more bananas, but a brave and canny hero who, having been given super intelligence by his scientist guardian, resolves to use it for the advancement of his species. He’s a rebel, a fighter, a simian Che Guevara.”
Ground control to Director Wyatt: the men who captured your “canny” hero with “super intelligence” in Bolivia seem convinced he was unable to apply a compass reading to a map. Under Che’s own gun dozens of defenseless men and boys died. Under his orders thousands crumpled, mostly bound and gagged. At everything else Che Guevara failed abysmally, even comically. During his Bolivian “guerrilla” campaign, Che split his forces whereupon they got hopelessly lost and bumbled around, half-starved, half-clothed and half-shod, without any contact with each other for 6 months before being wiped out. They spent much of the time walking in circles and were usually within a mile of each other. During this blundering they often engaged in ferocious firefights against each other. “You hate to laugh at anything associated with Che, who murdered so many defenseless men and boys,” says Felix Rodriguez, the Cuban-American CIA officer who played a key role in tracking him down in Bolivia. “But when it comes to Che as “guerrilla” you simply can’t help but guffaw.”
Here’s Rupert Wyatt from a recent interview: “I think the (film directors) Christopher Nolans of the world have really allowed filmmakers to explore things in a more…thoughtful way. If I have the opportunity to make further films, the hope that I have is to really explore wonderful themes.”
Ground Control to Director Wyatt: Thank your lucky stars you were born in England in 1972 instead of in Cuba around 1940. Your symbol of freedom jailed and exiled most of Cuba’s best writers, poets and filmmakers while converting Cuba’s press and cinema–at Soviet-gunpoint–into propaganda agencies for a Stalinist regime.
(Ribbet!)
Humberto Fontova is the premier expert on the Cuban 'revolution'. I encourage everyone to read every article he writes; this happened in our lifetime--and is still happening to the wonderful people of Cuba. BTW, Senator Marco Rubio is of Cuban heritage.
Monday, August 22, 2011
No illusions left.
High 'Dudgeon': a wood used especially for dagger hilts...
By Froggy
You know, I guess we all have our illusions dispelled the older we get; we grow up, we learn how the world works. And then we learn how the world really functions. I learned it from one of the most innocuous vantage points: the middle class suburbs of Denver, Colorado. I later moved downtown when I was 19, but even being off on my own, dating, putting myself through school, going to the city hospital, living by myself didn't reveal anything I didn't expect.
I wasn't really following politics at the time unless it was important. But I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's, so a lot of things were important. I knew there was corruption in politics. I knew all about the winks and nods, payola and graft, double-dealing and nepotism that infested local and national dealings.
From Papa Kennedy buying his boy a seat in the White House, the death of the 3 civil rights workers, to G*d-knows-what McNamara and Johnson were trying to do in Viet Nam, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 4 assassinations of John, Malcolm, Bobby, and Martin, to the Mei Li massacre, legalized abortion, Kent State, Watergate, the hostages in Tehran, Iran/Contra Affair, AIDS... and those were just a few of the things happening in America during those years, my years.... Of course, since then we've lived through a lot of things with the muslim attacks--9/11 was certainly a watershed... and I know there's more.
I don't know when America changed. Amidst all this, I thought of my old neighborhood in the suburbs. I realized that the park across the street that we'd play in from dawn to dusk all summer, if I had kids, I wouldn't let 'em kids loose in it, now. No, now they'd need a watcher, someone who didn't take their eyes off them for a minute. There'd be no 16 mile bike rides to Red Rocks Park alone, no 20 mile walkathons like when I was 14, no practicing school musicals until 10 p.m. and then walking the near-mile to the house, no being dropped off at a big mall with no set time to be home. And I'd have to tell my kids about 'bad touching' much sooner--and more graphically--than I ever thought I'd have to. And the LGBTQI community keeps adding letters that my kids would be taught all about in grade school...
And it's really so much bigger than that. I respect the police--but I don't automatically trust them the way I use to. I love our military and the people who have served--but now I have to ask some if they're always doing the right thing. My doctor--and I respect him, too--sees me based on the cost of the services--not on my need. He gives me 'phone appointments' and an email system--and just puts in an order for my blood tests twice a year. What happened?
Now, Watergate looks like a prank at a high school class picnic. We actually have a president we don't even know the real name of! Senate seats are being bought and sold like season tickets at a Bears game. We have people running the country who we didn't elect--and the people we did elect are just working to cobble up money for the people they pay to elect them again--with a heavy cut off the top for themselves, of course.
Our Attorney General won't prosecute crimes, our Congress won't draw up a budget, our Border Patrol isn't allowed to secure our borders, our Secretary of State won't negotiate a treaty that actually benefits us, and Little Timmy Geithner spends his days printing greenbacks on unneeded stocks of NYTimes groundwood pulp. And speaking of the state of 'journoListism' today, we have to get our most accurate news--and sometimes, any news at all--from Britain's Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Canada's National Post! America's top newspapers and tv/cable news shows are like a club of friendly Marxist puppies all racing for that first piece of BaconBaconBacon... Here! that will sell our country down the river for good.
Where is my country? Who can I trust? Who in the public eye--newsmen, professors, senators, teachers, auto makers, cabinet secretaries, chiefs of staff, CEOs, insurance companies, preachers, movie stars, editors, cable tv hosts, union members, American Idol judges (!), and a president--isn't in it just for himself?
I wonder if G*d intended the destruction of all our illusions at the end of our life? It sure feels like the death of something.
You know, I guess we all have our illusions dispelled the older we get; we grow up, we learn how the world works. And then we learn how the world really functions. I learned it from one of the most innocuous vantage points: the middle class suburbs of Denver, Colorado. I later moved downtown when I was 19, but even being off on my own, dating, putting myself through school, going to the city hospital, living by myself didn't reveal anything I didn't expect.
I wasn't really following politics at the time unless it was important. But I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's, so a lot of things were important. I knew there was corruption in politics. I knew all about the winks and nods, payola and graft, double-dealing and nepotism that infested local and national dealings.
From Papa Kennedy buying his boy a seat in the White House, the death of the 3 civil rights workers, to G*d-knows-what McNamara and Johnson were trying to do in Viet Nam, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 4 assassinations of John, Malcolm, Bobby, and Martin, to the Mei Li massacre, legalized abortion, Kent State, Watergate, the hostages in Tehran, Iran/Contra Affair, AIDS... and those were just a few of the things happening in America during those years, my years.... Of course, since then we've lived through a lot of things with the muslim attacks--9/11 was certainly a watershed... and I know there's more.
I don't know when America changed. Amidst all this, I thought of my old neighborhood in the suburbs. I realized that the park across the street that we'd play in from dawn to dusk all summer, if I had kids, I wouldn't let 'em kids loose in it, now. No, now they'd need a watcher, someone who didn't take their eyes off them for a minute. There'd be no 16 mile bike rides to Red Rocks Park alone, no 20 mile walkathons like when I was 14, no practicing school musicals until 10 p.m. and then walking the near-mile to the house, no being dropped off at a big mall with no set time to be home. And I'd have to tell my kids about 'bad touching' much sooner--and more graphically--than I ever thought I'd have to. And the LGBTQI community keeps adding letters that my kids would be taught all about in grade school...
And it's really so much bigger than that. I respect the police--but I don't automatically trust them the way I use to. I love our military and the people who have served--but now I have to ask some if they're always doing the right thing. My doctor--and I respect him, too--sees me based on the cost of the services--not on my need. He gives me 'phone appointments' and an email system--and just puts in an order for my blood tests twice a year. What happened?
Now, Watergate looks like a prank at a high school class picnic. We actually have a president we don't even know the real name of! Senate seats are being bought and sold like season tickets at a Bears game. We have people running the country who we didn't elect--and the people we did elect are just working to cobble up money for the people they pay to elect them again--with a heavy cut off the top for themselves, of course.
Our Attorney General won't prosecute crimes, our Congress won't draw up a budget, our Border Patrol isn't allowed to secure our borders, our Secretary of State won't negotiate a treaty that actually benefits us, and Little Timmy Geithner spends his days printing greenbacks on unneeded stocks of NYTimes groundwood pulp. And speaking of the state of 'journoListism' today, we have to get our most accurate news--and sometimes, any news at all--from Britain's Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Canada's National Post! America's top newspapers and tv/cable news shows are like a club of friendly Marxist puppies all racing for that first piece of BaconBaconBacon... Here! that will sell our country down the river for good.
Where is my country? Who can I trust? Who in the public eye--newsmen, professors, senators, teachers, auto makers, cabinet secretaries, chiefs of staff, CEOs, insurance companies, preachers, movie stars, editors, cable tv hosts, union members, American Idol judges (!), and a president--isn't in it just for himself?
I wonder if G*d intended the destruction of all our illusions at the end of our life? It sure feels like the death of something.
All prayers for Israel today.
Hamas Fires Dozens Of Rockets Into Israel; IDF RespondsBy Rick Moran
The fallout from the terrorist attack near Eliat last Thursday continues to be felt. Israel retaliated for that attack that killed 8 by targeting Hamas training centers in Gaza. Hamas responded to the IDF raid by launching dozens of rockets over the weekend, killing one and wounding dozens.
And into this poisonous mix, there is the incident across the border in Egypt on Thursday where 5 Egyptian police were killed when they engaged the IDF who were in hot pursuit of the Eliat attackers.
The attack and subsequent diplomatic row over the border incident has the region in an uproar, as I point out in a FrontPage.com article today:
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said on Friday, "The border with Egypt is no longer a peaceful border and we need to change the way we treat it." Egypt denies claims that the terrorists infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai, and also scoffs at the notion that the border security has weakened in the region since the fall of Mubarak. Israel thinks that the Egyptian army doesn't see guarding the border with Israel as a top priority anymore. Indeed, attacks on the gas pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan proves the Israeli's point. No doubt, the government will be forced to address this additional threat to Israel by beefing up security along the 250 mile-long border...
http://tinyurl.com/4ypz9gk
And into this poisonous mix, there is the incident across the border in Egypt on Thursday where 5 Egyptian police were killed when they engaged the IDF who were in hot pursuit of the Eliat attackers.
The attack and subsequent diplomatic row over the border incident has the region in an uproar, as I point out in a FrontPage.com article today:
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said on Friday, "The border with Egypt is no longer a peaceful border and we need to change the way we treat it." Egypt denies claims that the terrorists infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai, and also scoffs at the notion that the border security has weakened in the region since the fall of Mubarak. Israel thinks that the Egyptian army doesn't see guarding the border with Israel as a top priority anymore. Indeed, attacks on the gas pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan proves the Israeli's point. No doubt, the government will be forced to address this additional threat to Israel by beefing up security along the 250 mile-long border...
http://tinyurl.com/4ypz9gk
UPDATE:
US Lawmaker: Aid to Egypt Depends On Peace With Israel
US Lawmaker: Aid to Egypt Depends On Peace With Israel
By Herb Keinon - Jerusalem Post
Washington’s $2 billion in annual aid to Egypt will be cut off if Cairo backs out of the peace treaty with Israel, Congresswoman Kay Granger – whose job as chairwoman of the US House appropriations foreign operations subcommittee means she literally writes America’s annual foreign aid bill – told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
“The United States aid to Egypt is predicated on the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and so the relationship between Egypt and Israel is extremely important,” the eight-term Republican from Texas said in an interview.
“As an appropriator I have two concerns: One thing is the continuing relationship between Egypt and Israel, and the other thing of course is what government we will be dealing with in Egypt, and what position the Muslim Brotherhood will play in this government.”, more...
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=234991
(Ribbet!)
I do not know what this means--or into whose pocket the money is going. I don't know if Israel will be safe; I pray that it is.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The force generated by a person's actions.
KarmaBy Froggy
Karma is an interesting concept. It is formally defined as "the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence". Since the '60's--and increasingly so--people have defined it as getting what's coming to you, receiving deserved revenge, or getting the comeuppance they think you have earned.
The people espousing the word most frequently are often quite determined that others should 'get theirs'. The radical leftists, in particular, post the hate posts, the 'get-sick-and-dies', the death wishes and fervent desires for suffering. With President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, they always hoped their helicopters would have more wrong with them than they did--even hoped they would crash.
At Democrat Underground they've wanted a 'F*** You Condoleeza Rice! thread' during the Bush years, and look what they trying to do now to Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry--and anybody on our side. They want Rush Limbaugh dead and they celebrated when he lost his hearing. They are so consumed with anger that the posters at DU, KOS, HuffPo etc. said their nasty blogs exist to vent the rage the left feels against the Republican Party and, in particular, the Tea Party and all they stand for. I suppose it's a given that a collective mindset such as this would likewise be consumed with revenge.
However--besides being a poisonous way to structure their minds--the ideas leftists and most people have about karma is simply wrong. I will leave it to the Hindus and Buddhists to explain the theological constructs behind it; common sense tells me what it is not. It is NOT a theater wherein one can play out fantasies and devout wishes of revenge. You cannot take a point in history in which you feel wronged and say the harm began then and only then! Suppose whatever happened to you that you so dislike was your karma for wrongs you've done? Well, according to your own thinking about it, you'd deserve it, wouldn't you?
However, wouldn't your immediate yelp be 'but I didn't do anything wrong!' Of course it would; nobody thinks they ever do anything wrong (and if they did, they're not about to tell it to someone with revenge on their mind). Even the wrongs we admit to our secret heart we quickly reframe, rationalize, justify them into..... not much. I loved the lines in The Talented Mr. Ripley where Tom says, "Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head. You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person". How thoroughly true.
The left, home to those that easily, purposefully, willfully--and with such noisy relish--do so much wrong, causes so much harm, slander, insult, degrade, and poison everything around them need to give up their tightly woven and vouchsafed fantasies of revenge. Not only do the leftist degrade and poison themselves first with them, but they falsely attribute them to a religious concept--karma--in which they play no true part.
However--besides being a poisonous way to structure their minds--the ideas leftists and most people have about karma is simply wrong. I will leave it to the Hindus and Buddhists to explain the theological constructs behind it; common sense tells me what it is not. It is NOT a theater wherein one can play out fantasies and devout wishes of revenge. You cannot take a point in history in which you feel wronged and say the harm began then and only then! Suppose whatever happened to you that you so dislike was your karma for wrongs you've done? Well, according to your own thinking about it, you'd deserve it, wouldn't you?
However, wouldn't your immediate yelp be 'but I didn't do anything wrong!' Of course it would; nobody thinks they ever do anything wrong (and if they did, they're not about to tell it to someone with revenge on their mind). Even the wrongs we admit to our secret heart we quickly reframe, rationalize, justify them into..... not much. I loved the lines in The Talented Mr. Ripley where Tom says, "Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head. You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person". How thoroughly true.
The left, home to those that easily, purposefully, willfully--and with such noisy relish--do so much wrong, causes so much harm, slander, insult, degrade, and poison everything around them need to give up their tightly woven and vouchsafed fantasies of revenge. Not only do the leftist degrade and poison themselves first with them, but they falsely attribute them to a religious concept--karma--in which they play no true part.
Bill Whittle's wonderful web of trust.
The Web Of TrustBy Bill Whittle, "Silent America"
On the last day before my Instrument checkride, I departed from Santa Monica airport with my flight instructor to my right and my gorgeous pilot girlfriend in the back seat. We were given a clearance to climb to 4,000 ft. out to an intersection called SADDE. I expected we’d pop right out of the thin marine layer in a few seconds, as we usually did. But nooooo. This was several thousand feet thick – and dense. I can tell you in all honesty we could not see the wing tips ten feet away. It’s like the windows were painted white. Flying on instruments is just like regular flying, only you can’t see anything.
So barreling through the air at about 180 mph, I began my right turn towards SADDE. A glance down at the Turn Coordinator, a nice standard rate turn to the right, airspeed’s good, the engine seems happy…and then I notice that the Attitude Indicator – also known as an Artificial Horizon and my main view of the world outside – is showing me in a turn to the left, and increasing – fast.
Turn Coordinator showing right turn…Artificial Horizon showing one to the left. And in that instant, I felt something grab me by the toes. It was the sharp, tearing claws of panic, working their way into my shoes. I’ve had two engine failures in my flying career, and both of them were immediately followed by this same sick feeling. That fear has to be stepped on right now. If you start thinking about the hundreds of JFK Juniors I’ve read about and all the airplane wreckage scraped off mountainsides like the one I was approaching, then you are already most of the way to being dead.
Craig, we got a problem here. That was what I said, if in a vocal pitch that only dogs and flight instructors could hear. The turn coordinator and the AI are telling me different things!
He turns and looks at me calmly. Bummer!, he says casually, showing why the vast majority of CFI’s are not killed in training accidents but rather choked to death, found with finger-shaped bruises to the left side of the neck.
Then he gave me the best piece of advice I have ever received.
Kick its ass, he said. And that was it.
But that was all I needed to hear. God damn right! I’ll kick its ass!
That’s a decision you make…a decision to not be ruled by fear and panic. It is a decision to take all of those hard-wired instincts that have brought us so far – the fear of falling, the rising desire to just call for help then curl up in a ball – and put them away. Forget what the seat of your pants is telling you: that’s an express elevator down to an NTSC report with your name on it. The Attitude Indicator shows a turn to the left. Turn coordinator shows a turn to the right. But! Both the heading indicator and the whiskey compass also show a turn to the right. The A.I. – my only intuitive look at the world outside – is lying to me. I force myself to realize it is outvoted. We’re not turning left, like the little airplane wings on the little horizon in the little picture. We’re turning right.
This is the essence of training: the ability to do the right thing, not the instinctive thing. It is the voluntary placement of the human above the animal, the cerebral cortex above our reptile brain, which can be very LOUD in times like these. It is, in the end, a call to trust: trust your instruments, trust your airplane, trust your training and ultimately to trust yourself. This willing shift, this prying the claws of emotion from the inner voice of reason… this is the very essence of civilization. Trust what thousands of people have literally given their lives to teach us, even if it goes against instinct, survival and fear. Trust... It’s what makes the whole thing work.
Meanwhile, I need to notify Air Traffic Control that we’ve got a problem. Socal approach, Experimental One Echo Foxtrot has a failed attitude indicator.
One Echo Foxtrot, roger. Do you wish to continue the approach?
No sir. What I’d really like is for someone to get a really big f***ing ladder and get us out of this mess.
Affirmative, One Echo Foxtrot will continue inbound on the ILS to Burbank.
One Echo Foxtrot, roger.
It’s much, much later that I wonder how and why the human animal – which when you get right down to it should really only need enough brainpower to make a sharp stick to throw at a gazelle – has enough reserve neuron connections to build a civilization so complex that a hairless ape like myself can chase a set of white needles across a four-inch instrument, while hurtling blind a mile up in the air at 150 knots without leaving nail and bite marks on the plexiglass. But, somehow, that’s what I did.
A few minutes later, I could see a patch of ground directly below, and then, after a little more needlework, we popped out beneath the layer. There, dead ahead, were the flashing approach strobes…Burbank Airport, right where those damn little white needles said it would be. Truth to tell, I was actually slightly to the left of the runway centerline, and Craig, my mute flight instructor in the seat next to me, was slightly to the right of it. That is a hell of a feeling, coming home to civilization, to an airport beacon right where it was supposed to be, to leave death up in the grey soup just this once with a weird, indescribable, clearly paradoxical mixture of burning pride and deep humility.
How many people were there with me that day? Not just the obvious two – Dana and Craig, whose support kept my monkey brain in the back of my head to return to throw pooh another day. How many guys were watching me on radar, keeping me separated from far, far better men and women who do this in their sleep up there? How many people did it take to make the instruments, to mine the silica for the glass, to tap the rubber for the wires? Who laid the asphalt on the runways, who built the filaments in the approach strobes, and who attached the ceramic tips to my spark plugs? And how many millions of other unseen connections had to be made to allow me to do, routinely, and on a middle-class salary, what billions of dead men and women would have given a lifetime to taste – just once. In those few minutes I just told you of, I stood on the shoulders of millions of my brothers and sisters, not the least of which were two sons of a preacher from Dayton, Ohio – now long dead but with me in spirit every day. I was atop a pyramid of dedication, hard work, ingenuity and progress, following rules written in the blood of the stupid and the brave and the unlucky.
I had tossed myself a mile into the air and landed safe in this Web of Trust.
Get it Here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Silent+America&x=14&y=15
The cure for fear...
You Have To Get Close To the Knife
By Froggy
It never did.
By Froggy
*I FOUND IT! Please read the post above this one that Bill Whittle wrote; he was my inspiration for this piece. Though I can't hope to echo his fine words, I have attempted the same truth, in my small way.
After reading Bill Whittle's wonderful essay on trust, when he was learning to fly and his engine stalled out, I couldn't imagine having a moment of panic and life-threatening fear like that. However, in telling my sister about it, and reading his experience to her, I realized that that was not so; I HAD had a moment of tremendous fear like that--and every word Bill wrote about fear is true. You have to kick it's ass.
In about 1988, I was working in a group home with autistic and emotionally disturbed teenagers. This was a group that acted out--and on a daily basis. We governed and taught the boys using principle of behavior modification/positive reinforcement and extinguishing negative behaviors.
There was a 14 year old boy named Arlen. I did not know him well. He was as tall as I was--and about as big--and he was, by turns, slick, manipulative, needy and confused. Unstructured Sunday afternoon was a popular time for cooking up some nonsense. Favorite activities included locking the blind kid in the closet, swiping candy from the local 7-11, and sneaking out to diners wherein they'd order a meal, eat it, and then play the-poor-retarded-kid-didn't-realize-he-had-to-pay-for it (and didn't bring any money) routine. It didn't usually get any worse than that, maybe some food or dishes thrown. We occasionally got bitten, hit, or scratched.
But Arlen was a step or two smarter than most of the others; he'd been in the system. One such Sunday he and his roommate, Jerry, thought they'd cook up something. I didn't know what it was but, I'd worked there for a coupla years and had good instincts. I called for a time out; Jerry and Arlen needed to spend some time apart. I sent Arlen to the livingroom to watch basketball with everyone else, and sent Jerry upstairs to find something to do. I sat on the stairs to prevent a regroup by the two, for which Arlen angrily nagged.
Instead of going to the livingroom, however, Arlen strolled into the kitchen and, in two seconds flat grabbed a 14 inch butcher knife. And, in 2 seconds flat, I had instrument failure at 30,000 ft. Such fast fear steals every breath you've ever had (it's so palpable, I can feel it to this day in the retelling.) But Bill's right; you not only have to kick it's ass--you have to take the fear completely outside of yourself and not even look at it. (You sure as hell can't think about it. If Bill couldn't think of JFK Jr., I couldn't think of Freddie Krueger.)
In that maybe 2 seconds that I came off the stairs and sprinted into the kitchen, Arlen raised the knife over my head to slash at my face. I knew I couldn't let him out of the kitchen. The gal I worked with said "Come on Donal, we can't handle this"--and she ran off. I was all that stood between that boy and the 6 other boys. I was all that stood between Arlen and himself. I knew whatever I did that day would be a large part of Arlen's future; it might be a large part of mine.
In that two seconds I had, fighting with my older brother growing up taught me that I had to move in. I had to get close to him. It's one thing to be able to move a butcher knife 3 inches--it's quite another thing to have the full swing of your arm behind it, and the weight of a deliberate move. I had to get close to the knife.
As he slashed towards me, I grabbed this arm on the downswing before it got to me those 4-5 times. I jammed his body into a niche between the stove and refrigerator. I pinned the knife to his side with the weight of his body where he could not swing it. We stayed that way for the full 40 minutes it took for my supervisor to arrive. She came and we stayed pinned for another 20 minutes until an hour of unmoving boredom--and the prospect of it's continuation into the night--with the suggestion he talk about what was bothering him rather than use the cutlery to express himself, made him drop the knife at my feet.
I said "you want a bottle of pop, hon?" We sat at the table to talk. And that was it.
And it is about trust. I had to put my fear completely away, and trust I knew what was going on, trust I could handle it--and by myself. I had to trust my instincts enough to not let him out of the kitchen, trust that perhaps he was not a slasher as much as simply acting out, trust that moving in close was the right thing to do, trust that his--hopefully--small experience with such a large weapon would give me the instant or two I needed before he could summon a short swift jab or hold the knife so that I might be impaled.
I had the moment between seeing the knife in his hand and when I came off the stairs in which to make up my mind; I was already at a safe distance. I had a second to decide if I fought him now--or if I faced a worse fight later--perhaps with injuries, or even a hostage or the police. How I handled it would determine if it happened again.
After reading Bill Whittle's wonderful essay on trust, when he was learning to fly and his engine stalled out, I couldn't imagine having a moment of panic and life-threatening fear like that. However, in telling my sister about it, and reading his experience to her, I realized that that was not so; I HAD had a moment of tremendous fear like that--and every word Bill wrote about fear is true. You have to kick it's ass.
In about 1988, I was working in a group home with autistic and emotionally disturbed teenagers. This was a group that acted out--and on a daily basis. We governed and taught the boys using principle of behavior modification/positive reinforcement and extinguishing negative behaviors.
There was a 14 year old boy named Arlen. I did not know him well. He was as tall as I was--and about as big--and he was, by turns, slick, manipulative, needy and confused. Unstructured Sunday afternoon was a popular time for cooking up some nonsense. Favorite activities included locking the blind kid in the closet, swiping candy from the local 7-11, and sneaking out to diners wherein they'd order a meal, eat it, and then play the-poor-retarded-kid-didn't-realize-he-had-to-pay-for it (and didn't bring any money) routine. It didn't usually get any worse than that, maybe some food or dishes thrown. We occasionally got bitten, hit, or scratched.
But Arlen was a step or two smarter than most of the others; he'd been in the system. One such Sunday he and his roommate, Jerry, thought they'd cook up something. I didn't know what it was but, I'd worked there for a coupla years and had good instincts. I called for a time out; Jerry and Arlen needed to spend some time apart. I sent Arlen to the livingroom to watch basketball with everyone else, and sent Jerry upstairs to find something to do. I sat on the stairs to prevent a regroup by the two, for which Arlen angrily nagged.
Instead of going to the livingroom, however, Arlen strolled into the kitchen and, in two seconds flat grabbed a 14 inch butcher knife. And, in 2 seconds flat, I had instrument failure at 30,000 ft. Such fast fear steals every breath you've ever had (it's so palpable, I can feel it to this day in the retelling.) But Bill's right; you not only have to kick it's ass--you have to take the fear completely outside of yourself and not even look at it. (You sure as hell can't think about it. If Bill couldn't think of JFK Jr., I couldn't think of Freddie Krueger.)
In that maybe 2 seconds that I came off the stairs and sprinted into the kitchen, Arlen raised the knife over my head to slash at my face. I knew I couldn't let him out of the kitchen. The gal I worked with said "Come on Donal, we can't handle this"--and she ran off. I was all that stood between that boy and the 6 other boys. I was all that stood between Arlen and himself. I knew whatever I did that day would be a large part of Arlen's future; it might be a large part of mine.
In that two seconds I had, fighting with my older brother growing up taught me that I had to move in. I had to get close to him. It's one thing to be able to move a butcher knife 3 inches--it's quite another thing to have the full swing of your arm behind it, and the weight of a deliberate move. I had to get close to the knife.
As he slashed towards me, I grabbed this arm on the downswing before it got to me those 4-5 times. I jammed his body into a niche between the stove and refrigerator. I pinned the knife to his side with the weight of his body where he could not swing it. We stayed that way for the full 40 minutes it took for my supervisor to arrive. She came and we stayed pinned for another 20 minutes until an hour of unmoving boredom--and the prospect of it's continuation into the night--with the suggestion he talk about what was bothering him rather than use the cutlery to express himself, made him drop the knife at my feet.
I said "you want a bottle of pop, hon?" We sat at the table to talk. And that was it.
And it is about trust. I had to put my fear completely away, and trust I knew what was going on, trust I could handle it--and by myself. I had to trust my instincts enough to not let him out of the kitchen, trust that perhaps he was not a slasher as much as simply acting out, trust that moving in close was the right thing to do, trust that his--hopefully--small experience with such a large weapon would give me the instant or two I needed before he could summon a short swift jab or hold the knife so that I might be impaled.
I had the moment between seeing the knife in his hand and when I came off the stairs in which to make up my mind; I was already at a safe distance. I had a second to decide if I fought him now--or if I faced a worse fight later--perhaps with injuries, or even a hostage or the police. How I handled it would determine if it happened again.
It never did.
The crescent knife of Islam is at America's throat. How we handle it will determine if it keeps happening. Rather than run from it, thinking we can't handle it, with nancy-boy, prettied up consensus-saying-nothing-study-group reports disguising our gutlessness, instead, we have to get close to the knife.
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