Simi Valley Sophist

Blog Site Closed

2008-03-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

The Simi Valley Sophist blog site is closed, and all new blog postings are on the new blog site, Sheepdog Barking.

Naked or Speedo? Moral Morass Exhibit Ten

2008-03-29T16:05:00.001-07:00

With all the advanced physical training techniques and nutrition available to today’s athletes, is it any wonder that performance continues to improve and records fall? Oh, then of course there are the illicit performance enhancing drugs.

Now there is a controversy about the latest swimsuit rendition by Speedo, which appears to be a causative factor enhancing performance.

The new swimsuit? Speedo's LZR Racer.

That modest meet last month in Columbia, Mo., began an unprecedented -- and controversial -- six weeks that turned competitive swimming upside down: 14 world records set as of Wednesday, 13 in the LZR suit.

Naturally, there are people who consider the new swimsuit to be unfair competition.

…the onslaught of new world records has ignited debate over whether
high-tech apparel provides an unfair advantage.

Swiming competition is about the perfection of function accomplished by the human body, not the apparel. The first Olympian athletes competed in the nude. Maybe we should return to that standard. Alas, that would horrify or titilate much of the masses. And, we are supposed to be a sophisticated lot?

Linked in this Blog:
The suit that's turned the swim world on its head

Arrogance of Power or Informed Leadership

2008-02-24T14:32:00.001-08:00

Laurence Fishburne had a line in the movie The Cotton Club in which he stated, "You've got to learn, that when you push people around, some people push back."

That makes sense to me, but apparently Mason & Felder at the Jewish World Review don’t think highly of the concept:

...the banality of the Fishburn quote — which as any kindergarten teacher can explain is the philosophy of four year old children...

Children have the ability to cut to the chase since they innately understand the nature of power uninhibited by the grownup niceties of hierarchy and negotiation designed to lessen violence in conflict resolution. Children “push back” from a physical intrusion in the only way that they know, physically. Adults have learned all sorts of ways to non-physically push people around, especially if they have power over some one. I talked about the abusive behavior of some work supervisors in my piece, “Black Hats Destroy the Thin Blue Line.”

Within the work place, sometimes subordinate employees refuse to relinquish a contrary opinion or kowtow to a supervisor more comfortable with the arrogance of power rather than the hard work of informed leadership. That would be the supervisor who derogatorily brands the opinionated employee as a person who “pushes back.”

I’ll admit that the “push back” label amuses me no end since it is intended to be derogatory. But it is not, and here’s why. The Free Dictionary defines “push back:”

Noun1.push back - the act of forcing the enemy to withdraw or rollback

Verb1.push back - cause to move back by force or influence; "repel the enemy"; "push back the urge to smoke"; "beat back the invaders" repel, repulse
In other words, there can be no “push back” if you are not pushed first. There is nothing untoward in standing tall in the face of adversity.

Frequently, the activity inappropriately characterized as a “push back” is an employee refusal to agree with a premise, as opposed to an insubordinate action in which the employee fails or refuses to recognize or submit to the authority of a superior. The moment that the supervisor characterizes a subordinate’s reaction as a “push back,” the supervisor has telegraphed his interpretation that the employee is challenging either the supervisor’s authority, or, as in this case, the supervisor’s credibility. The “push back” characterization is not possible without at least a subconscious admission on the part of the supervisor that it is he who pushed first.

I once had a Chief who took the time and effort to inquire, listen, debate and decide. When that process was completed and any matter of disagreement remained, he’d say, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.” There is a man who earned respect. And a man to admire, even if you did not agree with everything he decided.

What is there to say about the supervisor who does not rise to the stature of my former Chief?

“…when you push people around, some people push back."

Links in this Blog:
Biography for Laurence Fishburne

The Cotton Club

Send Ward to a ward?

Black Hats Destroy the Thin Blue Line

Free Dictionary Definition of Push Back

Willie Brown Confirms Black Racism

2008-02-19T07:19:00.000-08:00

Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco and Speaker of the California Assembly, is comfortable in speaking the truth about the existence of black racism in the U.S. Only, he calls it “race pride.” This comes to us from an article in the Washington Post about the dilemma that Barack Obama is causing powerful black supporters of Hillary Clinton. Those would be the supporters who have not yet recognized that they will lose black constituency support for dissing a black man’s first real shot at the Presidency.

Willie is quoted:

"I think most white politicians do not understand that the race pride we all have trumps everything else."
And, you thought that only Caucasians were racist! How so very liberal of you.

Link in this Blog:
Obama Wave Stuns Clinton's Black Supporters

Islamic Justice

2008-02-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

This is quite an example of Islamic justice.

If they treat their own people this way, do you think they will treat you any better?

Both Clintons are Reprehensible for Making Cozy with Terrorists

2008-02-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the candidacy of Hillary Clinton for the most powerful job in the world, we’ve been treated to the constant visage of Bill Clinton. The man sold out his countrymen to enhance the potential of Hillary getting elected to the Senate by pardoning Puerto Rican FALN terrorists. FALN is a terrorist organization that bombed and killed in the U.S. From the WSJ article, The Clintons' Terror Pardons:

Given all this, why would Bill Clinton, who had ignored the 3,226 clemency petitions that had piled up on his desk over the years, suddenly reach into the stack and pluck out these 16 meritless cases? (The New York Times ran a column with the headline, "Bill's Little Gift.")

Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the midst of her state-wide "listening tour" in anticipation of her run for the U.S. Senate in New York, a state which included 1.3 million Hispanics. Three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- Luis V. Gutierrez (D., Ill.), Jose E. Serrano, (D., N.Y.) and Nydia M. Velazquez, (D., N.Y.) -- along with local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights advocates, had been agitating for years on behalf of the FALN cases directly to the White House and first lady.

Initial reports stated that Mrs. Clinton supported the clemencies, but when public reaction went negative she changed course, issuing a short statement three weeks after the clemencies were announced. The prisoners' delay in refusing to renounce violence "speaks volumes," she said.

And now, Hillary is making cozy with Basher al-Assad.

The thought that the electorate could return the Clintons to the White House turns my stomach.

Here’s a question for you. If you are a supporter of the Clintons, did you check to see if you have any morality left, or do you just blindly support in ignorance?

Links in this Blog:
The Clintons' Terror Pardons

Pelosi, Clinton & Obama Kiss Terrorist State Leader’s Ass

Pelosi, Clinton & Obama Kiss Terrorist State Leader’s Ass

2008-02-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

There are certain liabilities inherent to living within a republic guided by democratic philosophies and the primacy of free speech. These precepts have immunized the likes of traitor Hanoi Jane Fonda from the Vietnam era and most recently House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she visited Syrian President Assad in April 2007. Never mind that she did so in contravention to the wishes of the President, who is tasked with the responsibility of foreign policy.

Now the NY Sun reveals that both Senators Clinton and Obama have sent emissaries to visit with Assad. Once again the Democratic Party is meddling in foreign policy. And guess who is representing Obama; None other than Zbigniew Brzezinski. From a piece by James Lewis from American Thinker:

If you're too young to remember the name Zbigniew Brzezinski, he is Jimmy Carter foreign policy genius, on whose watch the Iranian mullahs got into thirty years of power -- with a nuke coming right up. Brzezinski still thinks today that he and Jimmy were right to bring in old mass-murdering Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. These people are never wrong. Would you trust this guy to represent the United States against Islamofascist terror types?

So what’s the purpose of the Pelosi, Clinton and Obama ass kissing with the head of a terrorist state? From Lewis:

Damascus has also been the transit point for thousands of jihadis going to Iraq to commit suicide-murders against Americans and Iraqis. If you want to talk to Al Qaida and the gang, Damascus is your place. Syria's President Assad is also Iran's best buddy in the Arab world. (Iran is the State Department's biggest terror-sponsoring state.) So Assad is the go-to guy for all the terror sponsors.

It's obvious that Hillabama desperately need to send a can't-wait message to the people who attacked us on 9/11. So urgent that they can't even wait for the Democrats to declare a presidential candidate, or to defeat John McCain. This must be a message Hillary and Obama are coordinating with each other, since they are sending both of their foreign policy advisors at the same time to the same place.
Question: What message would that be?

Here's a fair guess. They are telling Terror Central to hold any plans to attack us during the presidential election. Why? Because another 9/11 attack before the election would give the presidency to John McCain, who looks like a hard-ball guy militarily.

Obama and Clinton are attempting to manipulate world events to their personal advantage. Never mind that their meddling in U.S. foreign policy can have disastrous consequences for the U.S. But hey, if they were worried about damaging the U.S., they would not hold the political views that they hold.

Lewis does a fine job of delineating the intended selling out to weaken America by the Democratic Party’s leadership. Go here to read it.

Maybe we should rethink the application of the term “traitor” as it pertains to the leadership of the Democratic Party. How frustrating it must be for legislators, who really want the U.S. to remain strong, to deal with these people day in and day out.

Links in this Blog:
Pelosi brings message of peace to Assad

'Realism' in Syria

Is an October Surrender in the Making?

Saying Thanks With Old Glory

2008-02-15T06:11:00.000-08:00

We were five off-highway dual sport motorcycle riders recently enjoying a long weekend in Death Valley exploring dirt roads avoided for years when riding our Harley Davidson motorcycles. Death Valley is a marvelous place for re-cementing relationships spanning many years.

Russ announced that he was packing a 5 foot by 3 foot American flag for the express purpose of displaying the flag should an American military jet pass by in his proximity. That fired-up the group’s enthusiasm. Not only do we love riding motorcycles, but also we avidly support our military. Russ’ plan was a fine token of appreciation for all that our military personnel do for us. And, the plan was not far-fetched since military jets routinely fly low and fast along the Panamint Valley skirting the Western edge of Death Valley National Park.

Homeward bound, two pick-up trucks loaded, we headed southbound on Highway 178. There was mellowness, tiredness, from two days of negotiating dirt/gravel byways and snow. Roads which tried their best to topple us should we get too slow and allow the front wheel to plow. One second you’re upright, and the next you are down, or struggling to keep the motorcycle from pitching you head over heels. Then it happened: on the horizon coming toward us; two F-16’s fast and low.

Russ slowed his truck to a stop, and I bailed out from the passenger side struggling to deploy Russ’ flag. The lead F-16 passed just to the West of us at about 500 feet of elevation, and I’m not sure that I got the flag out in time for the pilot to see it. But three seconds later, Ol’ Glory was fully displayed for the Wingman, who came straight up the road, northbound, and directly over our heads. If you have never had a close-up experience with a low flying military jet, let me tell you this: it is an incredible sight and sound to behold.

Russ and I were high-fiving when I observed that both jets were banking to a southbound heading. I shouted to Russ that they were going to come around for another pass. I can imagine the radio conversation between the pilots.

Wingman to Leader: “Did you see those guys holding up Ol’ Glory? Let’s go around.”

Leader to Wingman: “Roger. There are two stopped vehicles about a mile apart. I’ll take the first, and you take the second.”

Wingman to Leader: “Roger that.”

The leading jet buzzed our partners and climbed up and away to the Southwest. Seconds later, Wingman flew over our partners, descended to about 200 feet off the deck and thundered up the road directly at us. Russ and I, holding Ol’ Glory stretched out between us, were eye-ball to eye-ball with Wingman. Whooom, he passed over us and immediately pulled a high-g ascent: as straight up as an F-16 can do; propelled by the flaming jet engine; followed with a barrel roll. Wingman was gone as fast as he arrived leaving us with the smell of jet fuel and a memory of a lifetime. Russ and I went nuts, like a couple of kids.

That’s the way it happened when we said, “Thank You.” And, they said, “You are Welcome.”

Sharia Becoming British Law

2008-02-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

As a population becomes increasingly Muslim, the movement toward Sharia is inevitable. That’s the message of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In a sense he’s right, and it is the right thing to do in a democracy. Or is it?

Depending upon whether you are a part of the shrinking majority or the burgeoning minority, you are likely to have quite different views. England and Europe, in general, are in the midst of a religious/cultural evolution in every sense of the word, change over time.

Read about the Archbishop’s message here.

It will take a lot longer, but Sharia will find a home in the U.S. It’s already happening in Canada. Be very afraid!

Link in this Blog:
Adoption of Islamic Sharia law in Britain is 'unavoidable', says Archbishop of Canterbury

Update 2/25/2008: Read Chuck Colson’s piece
The Archbishop and Sharia

Partial Nudity is Obscene, Moral Morass Exhibit Nine

2008-02-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

Virginia Beach police decided to become the morality police before they checked with the City Attorney. Flying off the handle because a few people got their noses out-of-joint over a poster showing a bit of skin at the local Abercrombie & Fitch store, police have now pulled back from an obscenity prosecution. You’d have thought the police might have consulted with the City Attorney before issuing an obscenity citation to the store manager.

Police met with City Attorney Les Lillie Monday afternoon to screen the case. Deputy Police Chief Jim Cevera said by the end of the meeting, Lillie and police decided the displays were not technically obscene.

If they are not technically obscene, are they non-technically obscene?

Cevera said a sergeant was acting in good faith on complaints that the display ads were offensive, and that while police had probable cause to take down the pictures, they do not have enough to go forward in court.

Excuse me, but the sensitivities of the sight of skin aversive crowd does not constitute “probable cause” to confiscate private property and criminally cite a store manager.

Abercrombie & Fitch replied,

"The marketing images in question show less skin than you see any summer day at the beach. And certainly less than the plumber working on your kitchen sink. This is an incredible over reaction by city officials that would be comical except for its potentially serious legal implications. We will pursue our legal rights aggressively and fully expect to prevail." -- Tom Lennox, Vice President of Corporate Communications.

Here is Virginia Beach’s ordinance: (Code 1965, § 23-36; Ord. No. 1539, 6-24-85)

Sec. 22-31. Display of obscene materials at business establishments open to juveniles. It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly display for commercial purposes in a manner whereby juveniles may examine or peruse:

Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to juveniles, or

Any book, pamphlet, magazine or printed matter, however reproduced, or sound recording which contains any matter enumerated in paragraph (1) above, or explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse and which, taken as a whole, is harmful to juveniles.

The key is “harmful to juveniles.” Since the Abercrombie & Fitch posters had no sexual depictions, apparently semi-nude with no genitalia shown is harmful to children. Or, at least it was until the City Attorney called a halt to the abusive law enforcement action.

There is no doubt that plenty of citizens go into a state of near apoplexy when they observe human skin displayed in the flesh or on a poster. It can’t be helped, but perhaps we can extend a bit of pity to such tortured souls. That being said, there is no justification in an overbearing police force imposing values before legal counsel advises the presence of criminality. But hey, the police have always done so.

A better recourse is to advise the offended to not shop at Abercrombie & Fitch. That’s what I did with Urban Outfitters, Inc.

Links in the Blog:
The Latest: Va. Beach Police drop obscenity charges in Abercrombie & Fitch ads case

Urban Outfitters And Their Penis Pokey

Simi Valley is the Safest City, NOT!

2008-02-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

How safe are you and your family? Are you free of worries that you or someone you love will be murdered, mugged, raped, carjacked, kidnapped, robbed or burglarized? I am fortunate to live in one of the safest cities in America, relatively speaking. Many Americans do not enjoy that luxury.

I used to live in the San Fernando Valley, a giant, sprawling suburban enclave on the North West side of Los Angeles. When I lived there, it was not so bad, but I saw the handwriting on the wall, and I got out of Dodge, as the saying goes. The area of the Valley that I left deteriorated significantly. It’s not yet a hell hole, but it’s working on it.

Simi Valley, my adopted city, historically puffed out its chest and proudly extolled its “safest city” status. That is, the “safest city” for a population size of 100,000. The appellation often awarded was a result of the F.B.I.’s annual tabulation of crime.

I became an intelligence officer in 1989 and began to learn about a phenomenon, which until 2001, flew under the radar of most Americans: TERRORISM. Ramzi Yousef and Timothy McVeigh delivered a wakeup call with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing respectively. Unfortunately, most Americans were shocked, yawned and went back to business as usual. That is, until 9/11/2001. We responded magnificently for awhile and then many started snoozing again. Witness the current wrangling by the Presidential candidates. The Republicans can speak the term “Islamofascism,” but the Democrats can not. Politicians are not focused on non-Islamofascist terrorism.

The purpose of a terrorist attack is to make a statement in furtherance of the goal of political, religious or social change. Once I understood that basic fact, I became alarmed that my adopted city was inadvertently inviting terrorists of the world to come and make an example out of our city. How so?

Imagine that a terrorist, domestic or international, blew-up the beautiful Simi Valley Police station. What would be the terrorist message? Try this on for size: The police in the “safest city” can not protect themselves. How can the police in any American city protect you, the citizen?

To the chagrin of the city fathers, the Chamber of Commerce, and the real estate industry, Simi Valley lost its “safest city” status and will probably never regain it. But, it did not lose it because it became an unsafe environment. It lost it because the City’s population grew with a proportional increase in the number of crimes. Smaller cities with a better crime picture grew larger and entered the FBI 100,000 population size category and, thereby, won the coveted prize. From my perspective, the new comer cities can keep the prize. I say good riddance to a liability.

Hillary Clinton Reveals Self

2008-01-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Off-hand comments can open a window to the real person, and they can not be taken back nor often adequately explained away.

Hillary appeared to diss Martin Luther King and caused an uproar among blacks. See “Racial tensions roil Democratic race.”

Then in reference to an illegal alien woman, Hillary tells a Hispanic male, and the assembled group, that “No woman is illegal.”

Can it be that Hillary is a phony friend of blacks and a female chauvinist? As to the phony friend of blacks, some would say so: Media Take Out; Jack & Jill Politics.

Links in this Blog:
Racial tensions roil Democratic race

LAS VEGAS STOP: Clinton pitch hits home

Jack & Jill Politics

Media Take Out

Predicting Obama’s Victory in New Hampshire & Foreign Tyrants

2008-01-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama was supposed to vanquish Hillary Clinton in a tsunami of New Hampshire primary votes. It was a done deal. “Everyone” in the media said so. Polling data and computer modeling assured Obama that he would slaughter Hillary.

There’s egg on the faces of the voting prognosticators today. They blew it. That’s what happens when you try to predict the future. The experts missed the mark when they had unlimited data and resources to guide their guess. And, it was a guess.

For those who read my piece “Intelligence: Art of the Best Guess,” perhaps you have a little more sympathy for the federal intelligence personnel who struggle to deem the intentions of tyrants in far away lands. Predicting the future is not so easy. Just ask the media about New Hampshire. Perhaps the media will no longer be so arrogant about George W. Bush’s actions based on intelligence estimates. Sure, get real!

Link in this Blog:
Intelligence: Art of the Best Guess

Muslims Enforce Their Medical Modesty Rules on Society

2008-01-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

R. John Matthies, of Family Security, asks in his piece entitled, “Delivering Obstetrics from Radical Islam,”

Is a Muslim within his rights to insist a female physician examine his wife, or refuse male assistance in the birth of his child? And, are hospitals obliged to ccommodate the Muslim’s wish when this unfairly burdens staff, entails a delay that jeopardizes patient care, or if accommodations like these contravene the Hippocratic oath? Europe grapples with questions like these with increasing frequency; and Great Britain and the Netherlands appear well on their way to translating the discriminating tastes of their hospital guests into hospital policy.

Muslim males are insisting that Muslim females only be attended by females.

Grumbling over belligerent males in the obstetrics ward has also made news in Belgium, where two cases in particular made headlines recently. One concerns anesthetist Philippe Becx, who, on the night of August 23, 2007, was called to assist an emergency Caesarian. The doctor arrived to find his path obstructed by
the patient’s husband, who said in no case would a man be allowed to care for his wife.

France is taking a defiant position.

This defense comprises a brief policy document (titled Information importante), which the College distributed to every Obstetrics-Gynecology service in France, with the recommendation that this be posted in plain view of hospital guests and those seeking care.

The Information states that, (1) the healthcare field is comprised of members of each sex; (2) it is impossible to guarantee a woman will be followed or examined by a female physician; (3) private conviction and the practice of faith must not be allowed to compromise patient care; (4) the service may not be disrupted for any reason; and (5) refusal to be seen by a man will be understood as refusal of service.

The insane Muslim insistence on “modesty” is not consistent with previous French Muslim experience.

30 years ago, Muslim women arrived at our hospitals, thinking nothing to be seen by physicians who were most often male […], and one neither experienced this sort of difficulty, nor witnessed this kind of violence. Why this regression? Should we simply resign ourselves to the present situation, and take a great step backwards?

Is it really such a surprise in Europe? Islamist philosophy coupled with Muslim, often misogynist, culture in Europe is bound to continue flexing its muscles. The question for Europe is, do you have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the Muslims? France is trying.

Least you think that the U.S. is immune, think again. Just because the Muslim percentage of the population is smaller than Europe, it does not mean that the Muslim cultural views are not present. Witness the physical abuse of Muslim women in the U.S.

On the modesty issue, is it really Muslim misogynist views? Or, do the Muslim females subscribe to the same “modesty” philosophy? I suspect so.

Links in this Blog:
Delivering Obstetrics from Radical Islam

Abused Muslim Women in U.S. Gain Advocates

Police Entrapment and Abuse-Moral Morass Exhibit Eight

2008-01-06T22:30:00.001-08:00

Did you read the article about the topless woman that police used to lure “perverts?” This is a great time to examine attitudes about nudity, sex and the police. Here’s the crux of the story in Columbus, Ohio.

Apparently there were incidents of males engaging in public sexual activity.

…cops… were targeting men having sex or masturbating in the park.

The police used a topless woman “sunbathing” to attract potential sexual law breakers. In Columbus,

While topless sunbathing is legal in the city's parks, exposing more than that is against the law.

The police video taped their topless agent, wearing what appear to be shorts, reclining on her back under a tree. Up walks a male and joins her. He sits at her feet and she smiles at him, engages him in conversation, allows him to sit at her feet while she moves about and puts her leg on his shoulder. Her action is flirtatious and allows him to see her clothed crotch. Of course, we don’t know if the shorts are tight or nor or whether she is wearing underwear. So far, so good. No problem yet. She is simply setting the stage to allow him the opportunity to commit a sexual crime. Then the woman asks the man to show her his penis (the crime.) He complies with the request and is arrested.

At the man’s trial,

…his attorney argued that it was a case of entrapment.
Under California law, the man was entrapped. In other words, the law enforcement agent, the topless woman, suggested the criminal act of displaying the penis in public. The assumption made is that the display of the penis, absent any sexual activity, is a violation of law. That is not necessarily a good assumption. We don’t know if he had an erection, or whether or not he masturbated. However, view the video, it does not appear that he does much of anything. Without the law enforcement suggestion to reveal the penis, the man may never have conceived of nor fulfilled the act. The fact that the Columbus police utilized a topless woman to snare the man is immaterial since her topless status was lawful.

The American people are having a difficult time determining the differences and intersections of nudity and sex. Columbus, Ohio, surprisingly recognizes that a woman bearing her breasts while sunbathing is not sexual behavior. Or, is it just an acceptable public sexual activity? The female breast, specifically the nipples and areola, are laced with nerves which play an important part in female sexual excitation. Of course, they also play an important part in nursing. Can we agree to a duality of function? Naturally the American male is sexually gaga over the female breast (you can also insert “body” for “breast”) and mostly views it in sexual terms. That’s why the Columbus police used the topless woman as bait. And, it’s also why the Columbus police may have assumed that the visiting male was intent on making a sexual contact with the woman. Most Americans would probably agree with that assessment. But, perhaps that was not the case. We don’t have an audio transcript to know what was said. It is possible that the woman represented herself as a nudist engaging in lawful non-sexual activity. She could have induced the male to expose himself in a nudist vein and he complied even though the mere public exposure of a penis is undoubtedly unlawful in Columbus. Police assumptions and zealousness could well have led to entrapment. Moral and legal problem number one.

I have personal knowledge of a California police department that arrested a man for walking down the street nude in the pre-dawn early morning hours. He was arrested for a California statute that prohibited nudity that is directly linked to a sexual excitation. In other words, mere nudity absent the sexual content is not unlawful. There was no evidence that the California man was sexually excited.

A violation of the California law is a misdemeanor, which for an arrest requires the police to view the violation or a citizen must view the violation and be willing to make a citizen’s arrest. Here’s the problem with this case. The police found the man fully clothed and there was no citizen witness to come forward. Nevertheless, a concerned motorist had called in the incident and the police made the unlawful arrest. And, the arresting officer did so with the approval of his supervisor, who was not the least bit concerned with the unlawfulness of the arrest. Moral and legal problem number two.

In this age of modernity, I think that the confusion of nudity and sex is getting worse, not better. At the local YMCA yesterday, I saw four teenage males wearing underwear under their knee length swimsuits. And in the locker room, they individually took refuge in an enclosed shower stall to remove the wet items and put on dry clothing. What the hell have we done to our young males?

Link in this Blog:
Topless Woman Lured Perverts in Police Sting

Update: ABC News has taken down the story. Here is a link referencing the story: http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=72041

Simi Valley Sunset New Years Day '08

2008-01-01T19:02:00.001-08:00

Passion & Rioting-A Muslim Consistency

2007-12-29T08:21:00.001-08:00

No one can truthfully claim that Muslims lack passion. Take for instance the ten thousand Sudanese that massed and wanted to kill a teacher because one of her students, named Mohammed, names his teddy bear Mohammed. Undoubtedly that incident taught a naïve, do-gooder English teacher some facts of life. In fact, passion seems to be one of the Muslim predominant characteristics, along with being thin skinned.

They riot at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t seem to be too hard to get a Muslim riled up: you could publish a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed; you could start a false rumor that Americans desecrated the Koran by putting it in a toilet; you could have a ferry sink and drown a bunch of people coming back from the Hajj; you could have a car accident in which Muslims were killed; you could have the police chase some criminals, who then hide in an electrical enclosure and get electrocuted; or you could have a political person assassinated.

Some 38 people have died in violence that has broken out since Ms Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said rioting across the country had destroyed 176 banks, 72 train cars and 18 railway stations, while at least 100 prisoners had been sprung from jails.

Ah yes, passion. It’s a wonderful thing. Perhaps we Americans could use a little more of it. Not that some of us don’t. For instance, how about those who riot when a major league athletic team loses a championship game? Or, wins one? Or, because police officers are acquitted of beating a black man? “Can’t we just all get along?”

Links in this Blog:
Thin Skinned and Dangerous

Musharraf cracks down on rioters

I Have Become My Grandma

2007-12-20T09:38:00.000-08:00

Through the eyes of a ten year old, it was extremely amusing to watch my grandmother search in vain for her eyeglasses until I pointed out to her that they were securely perched on the top of her head. We both had a hearty laugh when her hands flew up and discovered the missing spectacles. She was a good sport with such things. That was some fifty years ago. She was about the same age as I am now.

Flash forward to the present. It’s still dark outside and cold as a well diggers …, well you get the idea. I’ve just come down from the barn with a dozen things running through my mind; ticking off the day’s agenda. I dialup my wife, she is already at work, to discuss some weighty subject or the other. Midway through the conversation, my hand drops to my waist and discovers the cellphone clip securely attached to my belt sans cellphone. A quick appraisal of the situation and I conclude that I must have lost the cellphone somewhere around the barn. That means that I must trudge back to the barn in the cold, dark morning. I exclaim as such to my wife. As I put the period at the end of my sentence, I have a gestalt realization that I am talking to my wife on my cellphone. Upon my reflexive disclosure of the mental lapse, my wife bursts out laughing. Now we are both howling with one of those pee your pants sort of laughter.

OK, so I’m getting older and had a little mental faux pas. A least I didn’t lose bladder control. That comes next. Oh well, they say laughter is good for your health.

Democrats Support Ramadan But Not Christmas

2007-12-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Amanda Carpenter reports that,

Democrats who supported a House resolution to honor Ramadan voted against a similar resolution to honor Christmas and Christianity last night.

18 Democrat voted “nay” or “present” on a resolution to “recognize the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” An eagle-eyed Republican House staffer points out that those same members, with one exception, voted to “recognize the commencement of Ramadan,” a Muslim religious observance in October.

According to the Pew Report on Muslims in America, “A sizable majority of Muslim Americans (63%) identify with or lean to the Democratic Party. This compares with 51% of the general public who are Democratic or Democratic-leaning."

Are these Democrats pandering to the minority Muslim population for political purposes, or are they simply showing their hatred for Christianity?

Link in this Blog:
Ramadan Yea, Christmas Nay

God Says: No Global Warming

2007-12-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, God did not really say that, as far as I know. It was the Pope, God’s representative. Well, the Pope did not really say that either. But, he did say,

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

Referencing the environmental movement.

But senior cardinals close to the Vatican have since expressed doubts about a movement which has been likened by critics to be just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.

As Dennis Prager opines, when you aren’t religious you will make up your own secular religion. Environmentalism is a good example.

Link in this Blog:
The Pope condemns the climate change prophets of doom

Some Immigrant Advocates Wish Harm on the U.S.

2007-12-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

I understand the issues about illegal immigration and the supposed unwanted jobs that they fill. I understand the issues of family unification. But, can anyone tell me why certain Americans want to allow criminal “immigrants” to remain in the country? By criminal I’m not talking about the criminality of entering the country illegally. I’m talking about immigrants who are in the country legally and who commit crime.

Among the immigrant advocate community, there are individuals whose words and actions indicate that they wish harm on the U.S. community at large. How? By objecting to the possible deportation of criminal legal U.S. resident immigrants. The issue comes to the front surrounding the issuance of new Green Cards.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is considering a proposal to eliminate hundreds of thousands of green cards issued years ago without expiration dates, a move that would help the agency track down individuals who have committed crimes and might be eligible for deportation.

Newer cards, which expire after 10 years, are equipped with technology that makes them less susceptible to fraud…

But some immigration attorneys and advocates said the proposal is just another way to round up legal permanent residents with criminal records. Under the law, green card holders who have committed certain crimes are eligible for deportation.

And, what is wrong with that? And, why do these people want to inflict harm on our society?

Link in this Blog:
U.S. agency looks at eliminating old green cards

Babies Are Another Excuse For Liberals To Tax

2007-12-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

Liberals like to do a couple of things: they like to steal money from the person that earned it and give the money to a person who did not earn it; and they love to worry about the environment. Using babies, liberals have found two different ways to additionally steal the hard earned cash.

Hillary Clinton suggested that every baby born in the U.S. should receive a $5,000 bond at birth.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 "baby bond" from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

What a bunch of b.s. Hillary’s scheme is just another proposed government mechanism to tax, grow government creating a new bureaucracy, and misappropriate the funds. Think not? Take a look at Social Security.

Now, along comes a good doctor in Australia who wants to charge Australian parents for future “carbon” impact.

A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus "baby levy" at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

"Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a 'baby levy' in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the 'polluter pays' principle."
Does anyone remember Paul Ehrlich and his enthusiastically liberal supported concept of zero population growth?

Ehrlich wrote an article that appeared in New Scientist in December 1967. In that article, Ehrlich predicted that the world would experience famines sometime between 1970 and 1985 due to population growth outstripping resources. Ehrlich wrote that "the battle to feed all of humanity is over ... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." Ehrlich also stated, "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980," and "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks that India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971." These specific predictions did not actually come to pass, and his later book The Population Explosion is much more cautious in its predictions.

The article led to a book (The Population Bomb), the founding of Zero Population Growth, a vigorous policy debate, and both widespread support and criticism of Ehrlich.

The pending carbon impact disaster, and global warming for that matter, has no greater scientific foundation than Ehrlich’s unfounded population bomb. It looks as if the Australian Chicken Little found a new way to soak the citizens of their money and at the same time support the latest liberal environmental agenda.

Links in this Blog:
Hillary Clinton suggests $5,000 savings bond for every U.S. baby

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert

Paul Ehrlich-The Population Bomb

I Watched A Good Man Die

2007-12-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

I witnessed the death of an old man: eyes glazed over; ragged breathing; spasmodic muscle contractions; the death rattle. He rejected the energetic gift flowing through my body, the conduit. He was ready to go. He said so previously. And he told me again, this time by pushing away my hands, which rested directly over his heart. With energy still flowing within me, I did not have time to touch him again. In less than five minutes he was gone. And with his passing, the tension drained from his face. As death’s go, it’s a relative thing, his was a peaceful ending. Finished was a life well lived.

Today was to be his wedding anniversary with wife, business partner and friend all rolled into one. The passing concluded an earthly partnership just 5 days short of a 56 year run. She is ailing and will follow him soon. The hospice people know these things. As good a man as my uncle was, the best, my aunt is his equal.

Thanks Bob for all that you gave to me and my family. Rest in peace. Soon the love-of-your life will be with you again.

Intelligence: Art of the Best Guess

2007-12-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

For many years, I’ve lectured on the function of “intelligence,” specifically as a law enforcement policy advisement mechanism. The law enforcement function is no different than the intelligence function in the federal government, as an advisement mechanism to foreign policy.

I describe the intelligence function as the “art of the best guess.” As far as I know, the phrase is original to me. A Google search revealed a usage of the phrase in April 2007 on a different matter. I liken the intelligence function to the construction of a jigsaw puzzle, as an attempt to visualize the big picture. Realistically, the intelligence function is an exercise of divining the present and future by gazing into a murky crystal ball.

A good number of years ago, liberal/leftist factions within the US government stripped away much of the intelligence gathering capacity of the CIA and other government intelligence agencies. That story is beyond the scope of today’s missive, other than to note the serious consequences of such short-sighted action. The dialogue, as to whether or not Saddam Hussein did or did not have weapons of mass destruction and whether or not he attempted to acquire yellow cake from Niger, is case in point. Currently, the back and forth as to the Iranian nuclear bomb intentions is dominant in the news.

The seriousness of the potential possession of an Iranian nuclear bomb is immense given the stated goal of Iranian leaders to eliminate Israel from existence and the desire by Twelver Shi’as to cataclysmically spur the return of the Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam.

Will the Israeli’s bomb Iran, like they did Iraq’s nuclear development in 1981 or Syria in September 2007? Do we bomb Iran’s nuclear development facilities, or don’t we? This is a huge question with potentially serious international consequences. The decision is the ultimate responsibility of the US President. Since the President is to act on our behalf, it is in our best interest to provide him with the finest information possible. When it is all said and done, our intelligence advice is still the art of the best guess, or maybe not so good.

Links in this Blog:
Ahmadinejad: Report a Victory for Iran

Why did Israel unilaterally attack Iraq in 1981?

Israeli Nuclear Suspicions Linked to Raid in Syria

On Islam I Used to Say…

2007-12-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

Previously when I lectured on Islamo-fascism, I used to say, “Watch what happens to Europe.” Now I say, “Watch what is happening in Europe.”

From the current round of Muslim rioting in the suburbs of Paris.

In retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns.

His bruised and bloodied face signalled a worrying new level of barbarity in the mainly Muslim banlieues, where organised gangs of rioters used guns against police in a two-day rampage of looting and burning last week.

Muslim rioters have upped the ante since last year’s disturbances.

Altogether 130 policemen were injured, dozens by shotgun pellets and shells packed with nails that were fired from a homemade bazooka. It prompted talk of urban “guerrilla warfare” being waged on French streets against the forces of law and order.

The French are stunned by the savagery? Why? Don’t the French pay attention to what happens routinely in the Muslim world? Apparently not, and the U.S. is no better.

Don’t think it can happen in the U.S.? You must be a liberal or a leftist. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, including the U.S. Here the growth is fueled by self-defeating immigration policies, which allow foreign Muslims into the country, and by U.S. black citizen conversions to Islam. It is simply a matter of time and demographics. Continue the same head stuck in the sand policies, and it will come.

Oh, are you one of those self-deluding persons who parrots the Islamic apologist’s mantra that Islam is a religion of peace? It makes absolutely no difference whether or not Islam is a religion of peace or not. The only thing that counts is the behavior of the Islamic adherents. Take a look at Paris and the Sudan and Mohammed the Teddy Bear.

Armed police are on standby to protect her after 10,000 sword-wielding fanatics took to the streets demanding her execution on Friday.
Let’s all join hands and sing Koombya. Turning the other cheek does not do well when someone cuts your head off and sets it on your chest.

Link in this Blog:
France stunned by rioters’ savagery

Teddy teacher set to be freed

What Is Wrong With These Gorgeous Women?

2007-12-01T23:55:00.000-08:00

The joint is a small, upscale pizza, beer & wine bar. In the corner sat my friend, George, singing and strumming on his twelve-string.

In front of me and partially obscuring my view of George was a party of eight. They munched on pizza, drank red wine and enjoyed the conviviality of their group. The women, about 22-25 years old, all with long hair (a blonde and three brunettes) sat with their backs to me. Each was attractive, slim, fit, manicured and well dressed. As they turned their heads to address the friend sitting next to them, I could see clear, smooth facial skin accented with mascara and lipstick. They laughed, smiled and talked among themselves with the comfortableness of old friends.

Two of the women were sexually attractive to me, and I could definitely be interested in either one of them. But as desirable as the women were, I knew after returning from a visit to the restroom that there was something wrong with them. It was something that I had not perceived earlier while just sitting there and enjoying their presence.

The fatal flaw is that I am 30 to 35 years too old for them. You don’t realize that fact just sitting there staring out from yourself at a woman of your desire. You subconsciously transport yourself back to the physical persona that you were when you were her age. A look in the restroom mirror shocked me back to reality.

Eventually the party arose from their table. Each women left with a male of her own age. That’s as it should be, even if none of those males can hold a candle to me.

Massachusetts Considers Stealing Parental Responsibility

2007-11-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

While worrying about what Islamophiles have in mind for Sharia law, consider what liberal Massachusetts politicians have in their sights.

Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are set to consider a proposed ban on spanking children in the commonwealth.

State Rep. Jay Kaufman filed the spanking ban petition at the request of an Arlington, Mass., nurse who wants Massachusetts to become the first state in the country to stop corporal punishment.

And, liberals claim it is Pres. Bush who wants to usurp rights. Riggghhhttt!

Link in this blog:
Lawmakers To Consider Spanking Ban

Aptos Theater of the Morally Confused

2007-11-26T04:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a little after twelve o’clock, noon, still chilly from the Northern California morning cold, they stood statuesque, more or less evenly spaced every ten feet or so along the bridge. Facing east, dressed in all dark attire, mostly black, they held large white signs with black lettering. Cars zoomed beneath their feet going where ever necessary on a Sunday. It was only the travelers crossing over Highway 1 on Rio del Mar Blvd. who could read the signs: “war ain’t the answer;” “support education not war;” and billions of dollars wasted on war, which could be better be used for education. That sort of rhetoric.

I admire passionate people willing to make the effort to witness for their cause. It sure beats to hell the people more content with the likes of “reality” television, video games and other shallow endeavors. Sunday’s people were trying to make a difference. Too bad they lack wisdom to accompany their passion.

Humans have a tremendous capacity to commit evil and an equal capacity to ignore it. What is it within so many Americans that prompt them to an advocacy that ultimately empowers philosophies that enslave tens of millions of the world’s people? These Americans apparently lack the ability to be grateful for the sacrifices made by others, which ensured the freedoms enjoyed by the citizens of United States of America. Lacking is the wisdom to understand that these freedoms are transitory and dependent upon constant vigilance. Samuel Adams spoke well to the unwise.

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

Yes, go from us. We need not your moral confusion.

Healthcare is Not Broken, Values are Broken

2007-11-20T06:22:00.000-08:00

The healthcare system is broken and needs to be reformed. People are falling through the safety net. Or, so we are told.

A ninety year old woman is dying of leukemia. Her eighty-six year old husband is dying of congestive heart failure. Recently their doctors initiated hospice. Hospice is a Medicare funded program where the patient is given comfort drugs, and there is a cessation of life sustaining efforts. Prior to hospice, both were treated under standard Medicare programs, of which they became eligible to receive in the 1980’s. Preceding Medicare, the couple paid for their medical care out-of -pocket and through medical insurance that they purchased. Until they reached the mandatory age for Medicare, they received not one dime of government assistance. Rather, they continuously worked hard to become eventually eligible to receive the government benefits that they paid for with their taxes. Now they have around-the-clock in-home care givers paid from the couple’s own personal saving accounts. Hospice assists in making the couple as comfortable as possible, as death waits in the wings. The story is not captivating, nor highlights governmental inequities, so the main stream media would not deem it worthy of attention.

A twenty-four year old man is hospitalized with leukemia, and he has no health insurance. His doctors struggle to find a specialized hospital to accept him and to get him qualified for emergency Medi-Cal coverage. This man’s medical condition is a personal tragedy. But, his lack of health insurance is of his own making, and the local newspaper features his plight on the front page.

Victor Vega,

The 24-year-old musician and sometimes construction worker from Simi Valley was like a lot of people his age. He was going to live forever. He didn't need insurance and couldn't afford it. If he became sick, someone would take care of him because that's the way the world works.

From the local newspaper, Vega’s life revolves around neither personal nor financial responsibility.

Vega, who was born in South Lake Tahoe, (the South Lake Tahoe qualifier is no doubt inserted to inform the readers that Vega is not an illegal alien) has lived in Simi Valley since he was a teenager. He lays tile when he can find work, but his life revolves around his band, Old School Crisis, his girlfriend and his friends.

There is plenty of new residential construction in Simi Valley. Maybe he’s not a good tile setter.

Vega’s current hospital was forced to accept him when he showed up at their emergency room. His condition requires specialized treatment not available in most hospitals. Because he has no health insurance, nor any ability to pay, the specialized hospitals refused to accept him as a transfer from his current hospital.

Vega hit the nail on the head when he stated,

"I didn't have insurance, and I knew it would cost me an arm and a leg," he said Monday from a glassed-in hospital room. "Just the doctor's visit — I talked to her for about five minutes. That was $437."
Vega could afford the “arm and a leg” if he were responsible enough to get a full-time job. He could afford to purchase health insurance with his disposable income if he was willing to forego some routine creature comfort or frivolous expenditure. Instead, he is a leech sucking from the public trough, both government and private.

Late at night on the second Thursday of November, the Vegas took things into their own hands. Acting against medical advice, Vega discharged himself from Simi Valley Hospital. Dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, he was rolled in a wheelchair to his friend's truck.

They left a hospital that couldn't provide what they needed in favor of one that could. They drove 24 miles to Olive View, went into the emergency room and demanded care.

Hospitals can refuse patient transfers but are required by federal law to treat people who come to the emergency room. The gambit worked. Vega was not only treated, he was admitted and told he could get chemo even though his Medi-Cal application hadn't yet been approved.

Vega worked the system all right. The government forces the hospital emergency room to accept him. His unpaid costs are absorbed by the hospital, which then raises everyone else’s hospital and insurance rates. The government compounds the theft by reaching into your pocket and removing more dollars to pay for Vega’s Medi-Cal benefits. He benefits through no effort on his own. He benefits precisely because he is irresponsible.

The medical care system is not broken. However, the personal values for many people are broken. And, the government’s growing nanny state mentality is facilitating personal irresponsibility under the guise that government is required to operate a “safety net.”

I am not totally cold hearted. I’d be willing for the government to offer Vega hospice drugs to ease his suffering, as his family and friends care for him until death. Under these circumstances, Vega’s continuing life is not a social responsibility, nor a proper government function.

Link in this Blog:
Uninsured cancer victim fights for treatment

Socialism & Cocaine Living Well Together

2007-11-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone who does not know the significance of the cocaine drug trade and the concomitant destruction of human lives is living on some other planet. Originating from Africa, which does not produce cocaine, is this story.

Amid growing demand in Europe, South American traffickers are moving billions of dollars worth of cocaine through the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, an amount so large it dwarfs all other economic sectors combined and could destabilize the coup-prone country, a top U.N. official said.

"The fear is that the influx of drug money can easily generate a situation of instability, because the appetite among different local partners to get involved is getting bigger and bigger," Antonio Mazzitelli, West Africa director of the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, said in a Thursday interview. "It's no different than other wars and conflicts in West Africa in which diamonds or oil have created instability. It's a dangerous situation."

The drive to enrich oneself at the expense of others is a base human condition. And, who might these drug traffickers from South America count among their supporters? None other than the socialist president of Bolivia, Evo Morales.

Those politics have not endeared him to the United States, his nemesis in the late 1980s and 1990s when he led coca growers, or "cocaleros", in protests against Washington-directed forced eradication campaigns. The plant's small green leaf has been chewed as a mild stimulant here for millenia, but is best known outside the country as the base ingredient of cocaine.

The Bolivian government has long worked with U.S. narcotics agents to eradicate the Bolivian coca fields. All of that is coming to an end.

…last month he expressed his desire that all U.S. military personnel leave Bolivia, Morales on Friday said he wants any and all armed foreign troops out.

Bolivia is on a socialist fast track fueled by cocaine money.

His version of socialism requires state control of all basic services, including telecommunications.

Morales has increased Bolivia's annual natural gas revenues from $300 million to $2 billion a year by exerting greater state control over the industry.

Water utilities have reverted to state control and authorities are negotiating the re-nationalization of the country's main telecommunications company, Entel, which is owned by Telecom Italia SpA. Officials have indicated electrical power could be next.

Morales has allied himself closely with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's leftist president, and Fidel Castro, Cuba's aging leader.

Morales trumpets the standard anti-capitalist and western imperialism clap trap of the socialists.

But his vision of socialism is guided, Morales said, by the communal decision-making of Bolivia's indigenous societies and their "way of living in harmony with Mother Earth."

Living in harmony with Mother Earth is just another way of saying that the indigenous peoples were in a near Stone Age developmental stage when first contacted by Europeans and had not yet developed the mechanisms to further exploit the earth.

Utilizing his anti-capitalistic stance, Morales stated that,

…he and other Latin American leaders are exploring possible legal means for demanding compensation for the developed world's "ecological debt."

"It's not possible that some in the industrialized world live very well economically while affecting, even destroying others," said the 48-year-old Aymara Indian. Scientists count this Andean nation's rapidly melting glaciers among the most profound signs of global warming.

How about the industrialized world exploring legal means for demanding compensation from Boliva, and the other South American countries involved in the cocaine trade, for devastating the lives of millions of cocaine addicts and fueling rampant crime?

Links in this blog:
Cocaine could destabilize Guinea-Bissau

Bolivia's Morales recounts police abuse

Thin Skinned & Suspicious Arabic Speakers

2007-11-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Six Arabic speaking men spooked a passenger or passengers on an American Airlines flight resulting in the flight being cancelled and all passengers inconvenienced. Now the Arabic speakers are suing.

Six men of Iraqi descent, who were heading home from doing training for the U.S. military, have sued American Airlines, saying employees detained and publicly humiliated them after another passenger voiced suspicions.

The men, who sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit alleging racial discrimination, say airline employees grounded their Aug. 28 flight from San Diego to Chicago and detained them, believing they were security risks.

I suppose that the 9/11 hijackers would similarly have sued if someone had objected to their presence and ultimately have caused them to not be able to complete their missions of infamy.

The Iraqi descent guys were returning from giving training to U.S. Marines on Iraqi culture. Presumably these trainers speak English. Why the hell were they speaking Arabic when it is reasonable to expect that it would cause passengers to be nervous? Yet, their lawyer. Lawrence T. Garcia stated,

"These are some of the most pro-American people around," Garcia said. "There's no reason to suspect that these people were a threat on this airline. ... This is the face of prejudice and racism that happens today."
The lawyer’s comments are what you can expect from a member of an often unprincipled profession.

As for being the “most pro-American people around,” that’s a bunch of B.S. If they were, they would have accepted the misunderstanding and learned to be more careful in their behavior. The only evidence in hand is that these individuals are thin skinned and that they have an attorney who will make scurrilous justifications for the lawsuit from which he stands to make money.

Link in this Blog:
Detained Arabic-speaking passengers sue American Airlines

Europe is Spelled “Fools”

2007-10-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

Europe is dying. Multi-culturalism is a harbinger of death for the Europe of Western Civilization. To belatedly celebrate Eid at the Rufford primary school in Lye, West Midlands, the Muslim holiday ending Ramadan, the school is forcing teachers and students to dress as Muslims.

A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day – to celebrate a Muslim festival.

Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.

Are the Muslims at the school required to wear crosses and the Star of David, for Christian and Jewish holidays respectively? I’d like to see a Muslim in a yarmulka.

The morning assembly will be open to all parents – but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.

Just two members of staff – a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant – are Muslim.

The head of the school stated,

“It’s all part of a diversity project to promote multi-culturalism.”

Multi-culturalism is not the same as studying about other cultures. Multi-culturalism is the promotion of cultural value equivalence without critical examination nor any judgmental conclusion. Of course, what else could be expected from people that hold the unobtainable principle of equality as a higher standard than liberty?

Link in this Blog:
Teachers' Muslim dress order

Ghost Riders, Freedom is Not Free

2007-10-31T07:29:00.001-07:00

“Mr. Terrorist Let Me Introduce You to Your Travel Agent to Allah.”

Freedom is not Free, and you better believe it my fellow Americans. Most of us are living on the price paid by others. If you are one of those people whose heart is not filled with gratitude, shame on you. You don’t deserve to call yourself an American because you don’t possess a key quality that made this country great.

Links in this Blog:
Ghost Riders from Freedom is Not Free

Flash Bang Morning, Sheepdog Style

2007-10-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Six fifteen in the morning; it’s still dark. My partner slides into a shopping mall parking space affording a clear view of the front of the house. I cruise by and report over the radio that there are two cars in the driveway. The front room curtains are open, and an interior light seems to be coming from a kitchen. The house is on a corner, and I take a position across the street to observe the north side. We settle in and wait, watching. All is quiet at the house.

The city is awakening. Lights are on and people are getting ready for their day. In the house next to my target, a TV flickers and a woman is moving about doing whatever it is that she finds necessary at this early hour. The TV goes dark, the lights go out, and she is no longer visible. Cars leave the apartment house complex where I am secreted. An older Hispanic male strolls by carrying a paper cup, presumably containing coffee.

The police radio, volume set low, crackles and comes to life. Others are organizing. A Command Center with tactical dispatchers is nearby. The fire department and an ambulance company have personnel and equipment stationed there as well. Everyone is preparing for the high risk operation.

I’ve seen the scenario dozens of times such that I can recreate it in my mind. Ballistic vests and helmets are donned. Web gear is strapped on suspending handguns, knives, flashlights, and other assorted paraphernalia. Shoulder weapons are checked to be sure that the magazine clips are loaded and seated properly. Radios are tested to ensure that they function well. The tactical commander checks and rechecks his troops and their equipment. He goes over his plan one more time. There is no change at the target residence. I have nothing more to tell him.

Even though they have done it many times, the tension is building. The SWAT team previously taped out a mock-up of the interior of the house on the concrete in an underground parking lot, and earlier this morning practiced the entry and search procedure. All acknowledge that the best of plans can go wrong. Drastically wrong. Take a life or have your life taken. No one knows what is in the cards. In our favor, SWAT is a team of professionals. They train together and operate as one, as much as humanly possible.

When I started this business, SWAT teams were few and far between. The agency I worked for at the time did not have a SWAT team, and we blue-suiters did it all. Not a good idea to just throw a bunch of armed guys together without specialized training. We’re lucky that things went as well as they did. I’m a detective now, a surveillance guy. Let me do my job and the SWAT guys do theirs.

The clock marches relentlessly toward the jumping off time. The awakening world, within the microcosm of my view, is calm and has no clue as to the controlled violence that is about to unfold; Controlled violence that can suddenly erupt into chaos. That fact is not lost upon the officers intending to disrupt the tranquility of the quiet corner across the street from me. Each of the officers knows that there is a possibility that things might go wrong, terrible wrong, and that he might not return to his family at days end. But, it is not something that he dwells upon.

The sky begins to lighten, and the troops are moving. An unmarked police car pulls to the curb directly across from me. Two helmeted snipers, dressed in fatigues, exit the car and deploy to the rear corner of the target property. A ladder placed against the perimeter block wall facilitates a quick appraisal of the back yard. The snipers report their observations and disappear behind the foliage of the adjacent property.

An old woman shuffles down the sidewalk on my side of the street oblivious to her surroundings and the lethality moving in her direction.

Several marked and unmarked police cars approach from the south. Sliding to the curb, a team of heavily armed officers exit their cars as silently as possible. They fall into a predetermined formation and quick-step up the sidewalk toward the target house. Marked police cars shut down vehicular traffic approaching the residence.

The V-150 Armored Personnel Carrier, which looks like a big black beetle on wheels, suddenly appears from the east and drives up over the curb and onto the lawn facing directly toward the front door. I irreverently call the metal behemoth the Dung Beetle.

Knock and notice, a verbal demand for entry under the authority of a search warrant, is broadcast from a megaphone at the front door. No reply to the demand for entry. The order is given, “Deploy the diversion.” A flash of light and an explosion rocks the neighborhood. A second, and then a third. Smoke from the flash-bangs rises slowly in the cool morning air.

Two women in their early 20’s bolt from an apartment to my left with a loud exclamation of, “What the shit?” They run to the front of the apartment complex for a view of the action.

Hooks attached to a long stout rope are driven into the metal of the front security door. The other end of the rope is secured to a winch cable on the front of the V-150. The Beetle backs up, and the rope goes taut until the security door is snatched from the door frame and lands in the front yard. Sequentially, the team members make entry into an unpredictable environment of inestimable hazard.

Eyes must rapidly adjust to the varying light conditions to discern threat from non-threat: booby trap bombs; viscous dogs; children; guns; and compliant or hostile people. Room by room, the systematic search proceeds. Split-second decisions of shoot or don’t shoot as gun barrels train upon every potential animate threat. Handcuffs snap on, and the detained are escorted to the living room.

The crowd of lookie-loos is growing. There is nothing to see, all the action is now inside the house. Nevertheless, they stand, gawk, and gossip as cellphone cameras capture the moment.

Twenty minutes later, the “Code Four” message over the radio signifies that all is secure. The next phase of my work, searching for evidence, commences. We subsequently find assault weapons, money and narcotics.

As Orson Wells aptly stated, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” Read Dave Grossman’s piece, On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs.

It’s all in a day’s work for a Sheepdog.

Links in this Blog:
Sheepdogs Keep the Wolves at Bay

On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs - Dave Grossman

Magic Fire Sun-Beauty Out of Disaster

2007-10-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Fire in the Hills

2007-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tinder dry brush and grassland was just waiting to explode, begging Dante’s inferno to visit once again. Southern California is burning. Not a surprise when the Santa Ana winds start blowing off the desert.

Fire broke out this afternoon in the vicinity of Magic Mountain and high gusting winds are driving the smoke and debris westward across the northern segment of Simi Valley. The winds are not expected to abate before Wednesday. That means there is a good chance the flames will once again dance with the dreams of Simi Valley residents.

I got a call this evening from my archery club requesting assistance with a work party to clean up around the range in an attempt to lessen the pending damage. I jumped on my Kawasaki KLR 650 and headed out for the range. That was quite an adventure zooming along with the swirling ash looking very much as if I’d entered a snow storm. The wind tried its best to dump me unceremoniously off the bike. There was an incident or two when I was not all that sure that the wind was going to succeed and have its way with me.

There’s nothing much more to be done tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Nancy Pelosi Manipulated the Armenian Genocide Issue

2007-10-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Message to the American Public: Nancy Palosi is second in line for the Presidency should the President be unable to continue service.

Message to the rank and file members of the Democratic Party: Nancy Palosi probably does not reflect your values.

Message to the leaders of the Democratic Party: Nancy Palosi is your gal, and she does reflect your values.

Message to Armenians: Nancy Palosi is (was) making political hay on the back of your historical misery.

In my posting, “Armenian Genocide is the Excuse to Undercut Iraq War,” I asked,

What is Pelosi’s political imperative? It surely is not Armenian votes.

History of the resolution:

The legislation, which has been introduced for decades, often originates from California lawmakers, said John Pitney, a political science professor with Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. About 232,000 Armenian Americans live in the state, 54 percent of the U.S. total, according to 2006 Census data.

California citizens of Armenian ancestry are distributed throughout the State. The major California Armenian political strongholds are Fresno, and the Glendale-Pasadena areas.

Nancy Palosi’ CA 8th Congressional District incorporates only part of the City/County of San Francisco. According to the 2000 census, San Francisco’s Armenian population is 0.3% of the total. That puts to bed the idea that Palosi is motivated by votes to keep her in office.

Adam Schiff, the author of the genocide resolution, is from the CA 29th Congressional District, which includes both Glendale and Pasadena. He is a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. It is reasonable to assume that Armenian votes and money are important to Schiff.

The Armenian community has a considerable amount of financial assets available to influence political issues. The only political contributions which I found that were given by Armenians to Palosi since 2003 was in the 2003-2004 campaign year when the Armenian American Pac gave her $1500. That pretty much ends any speculation that the Armenians bought Palosi.

As stated previously, the efforts for an Armenian resolution is not suddenly a new issue. Why is it that Palosi took on the resolution at this particular juncture in time? Clearly it was not to benefit her in terms of votes or money. It is equally clear that Palosi made a deliberate decision to continue her advocacy after learning that Turkey threatened retaliation, which would place American service personnel in greater danger.

In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey's ambassador that the vote would endanger his country's alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.

Her vow to bring the measure to a vote outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off the use of its military bases to resupply U.S. troops in Iraq. On Oct. 17, Pelosi said it ``remains to be seen'' whether the vote would occur after more than a dozen lawmakers pulled their names from the measure and some Democrats asked her to drop it.

The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.

"She dug in her heels to find that she didn't have her members with her,'' said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. ``If you get too far out in front of them, it can be embarrassing.''
Embarrassing? Political misstep? Palosi is again meddling in foreign policy where she does not belong. Yes, it is a misstep for Palosi because she revealed her true radical nature. She is a political opportunist working at odds to the welfare of the American people. And, she stepped on the backs of Armenians in her un-American quest to harm the Iraq war effort.

Labeling Palosi a disgrace as an American is the kindest thing that I can think to say about her.

Links in this Blog:
Armenian Genocide is the Excuse to Undercut Iraq War

Pelosi Makes Political Misstep in Reversal on Armenian Genocide

San Francisco Ancestry

Pelosi 2003 2004 campaign contributions

Update 12/3/2007:
Read this piece on politics and treason:
'When Does Politics Become Treason?'

Black Hats Destroy the Thin Blue Line

2007-10-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

There are two truths: You can’t have good without evil; and Lord Acton’s maxim, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Police departments have a legal and moral responsibility to ferret out and remove unethical and abusive employees for the sake of the public’s well being. Determining whether or not the officer is actually guilty can be a difficult task. Sometimes the officer is not guilty, but gets run through the wringer and/or convicted anyway. The abuse was so pervasive that California passed landmark legislation, “The Police Officer’s Bill of Rights,” AB 301. Thirty some years later, things are much better, but violations still exist. And, it seems to be true, to one degree or another, for law enforcement agencies in general.

During brouhaha over problems with some of his police officers, former LAPD Chief Darryl Gates asked rhetorically if anyone knew where police officers came from. The answer; the general public.

Law enforcement recruitment and screening processes are rigorous. But, they can’t identify, nor eliminate, all persons with negative traits. I’m talking about the traits of incompetence and/or malevolence, which allow people with power, be it big or small, to devastate the lives of other officers.

Entering police work for a Los Angeles County municipal police department in the early 1970’s, I soon learned that there are supervisors, sergeants and above, who abuse their authority and make the lives of their subordinates miserable through arrogance, incompetence and/or downright meanness. The evil ones are relatively few in number, but it does not take many to spoil the brew.

Here’s a typified unacceptable scenario. Someone makes a complaint about an officer. A supervisor conducts an investigation, and generates a report of the findings. Unfortunately, the supervisor: does not make a diligent effort to determine all of the facts; fails to report exculpatory evidence; falsifies evidence through admission or omission; writes a report that is slanted unfairly against the officer. The “summary” report is read by staff officers, who often never examine the original data nor properly scrutinize the indictment. Staff then adjudicates the issue by determining discipline ranging from a verbal reprimand to termination of employment and/or forwarding the findings to the district attorney for criminal prosecution.

Because of continuing violations of police officers’ individual rights and the breaches of contractual agreements by city and police staff, police officer associations file grievances and defend their members.

Occasionally, police officers have their discipline overturned by impartial, non-police, hearing officers and the courts. But, that does not occur until far reaching economic and emotional damage is done to both the officer and his family.

After a fired officer is reinstated or lesser discipline overturned, police administrations don’t generally go back and examine how the travesty occurred. Where is the commitment to an examination of the malicious and/or incompetent investigation? Why is there often no discipline for offending investigators?

Judicial and law enforcement administrative systems are designed upon the concept of truthfulness. When truthfulness is absent, the weight of the systems unjustly descends upon the head of the hapless in a form of police corruption. Accordingly, a lying investigative officer loses all credibility and must be fired, whether officer or chief.

There is one other twist to internal police corruption, and that occurs when a guilty officer does not receive discipline because he was protected by a corrupt supervisor. That state of affairs is a tremendous morale deflator for the rest of the police department.

It is no secret that police officers suffer far more stress from within their agency than they do from working the streets. There ought to be a law requiring law enforcement recruits to be advised that the profession is hazardous to their mental health.

Oh, but it gets worse. Incompetent and dishonest supervisors often manage to get promoted. And, so the rot tends to rise toward the top.

The white hats are the truly good, well intentioned, capable people who are promoted to supervisory and staff positions. Unfortunately, they are sometimes placed in the unenviable position of having to depend upon unethical subordinates.

Are you wondering what all of this has to do with the general public? A perception of an unfair police administration creates an environment conducive to poor morale, the growth of police corruption and an arrogance that leads to a lack of adherence to the rights of police officers and citizens alike. It may mean that some citizens get hassled, arrested and/or prosecuted unfairly. It definitely means that the public is not getting a fair return for its considerable investment.

All of this makes you feel warm and fuzzy about your local police department, doesn’t it?

Follow-on Blog:
Arrogance of Power or Informed Leadership

Blacks are Innately Less Intelligent?

2007-10-17T08:07:00.001-07:00

James Watson, one of the three Nobel Prize winners for unraveling the mystery of DNA, states that blacks in Africa are genetically less intelligent than Westerners. What exactly is Watson’s definition of “intelligence” and how does he come to his politically incorrect assertion?

One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion.

The 79-year-old geneticist reopened the explosive debate about race and science in a newspaper interview in which he said Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when "testing" suggested the contrary. He claimed genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a decade.

Watson is 79; is he delusional????

…he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

If the tests were done on blacks with mixed blood, do they score higher intelligence ratings?

Without a detailed analysis of test data and testing protocol, the reader has no idea about the potential validity of Watson’s assertion. Certainly the assertion flies in the face of accepted dogma about the inherent equality of the races.

It is the job of scientists to challenge the traditional party line when data suggests contrary conclusions. Of course, scientists, like all people, are subject to political correctness, special interest and just plain stupidity. You need no further evidence of that than the brouhaha over “global warming.” A couple of guys named Copernicus and Galileo would heartedly agree with my premises.

Is Watson on to something here or is he just an old bigot? I know what Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton will say, but they are just bigots in their own right and not worth listening to.

Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."
If you don’t like what someone says, just brand him a racist. Racial hatred laws? Gee that sounds awfully European to me. In America, we have a tradition of free speech that includes protecting the speaking of stupid and hurtful things.

The American political correctness crowd is moving continuously toward the European model of PC where people can be punished for their speech absent the behavior of acting out physically on the thoughts. That is not the American tradition, and I ask which system has the most freedom?

Whether or not Watson is correct in his assertion will remain a controversy for years to come. It is not nice to think so, but what if he were correct? If nothing else, it will bolster the cause of the truly racist, and that would be a social travesty.

Link in this blog:
Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer

Update 10/19/07: What does he believe?
DNA pioneer breaks his silence on racism row

Armenian Genocide is the Excuse to Undercut Iraq War

2007-10-15T12:40:00.001-07:00

The wholesale massacre of Armenians by Muslims in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) between 1915 and 1917 is an incontestable fact. It makes no practical difference for any remaining survivors, or family of survivors, whether or not the U.S. joins 24 other countries in declaring that the travesty was “genocide.” Regardless, if you think that Armenians don’t care about the issue, you’d be wrong.

I observed Armenians demonstrate their fury on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, April 24, in the 1970’s. A Turkish dance group was scheduled to perform at the Pasadena Cultural Arts Center. The Armenian community, including old women, drove police back into the Center and shut down the event.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is front and center in an effort to pass a resolution declaring the Armenian massacre a “genocide.”

The Turkish government is more than a little upset about the issue. Of course, modern Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire and not responsible for the massacre, whether or not it is classified as genocide. Nevertheless, since politics rule all, there are Turkish political exigencies in play.

If the House resolution is passed, there is a significant risk that Turkey will restrict the considerable U.S. Iraqi war support efforts passing through Turkey. That means alternative, more dangerous, methods must be used resulting in more American deaths.

…cargo planes fly supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.

Despite the Turkish threat, Pelosi is pushing forward with the resolution. What is Pelosi’s political imperative? It surely is not Armenian votes. And, it surely is not a fear of additional American service personnel deaths.

Pelosi’s explanation.

…House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure's timing was important "because many of the survivors are very old.

Translation: Ninety year old Armenian memories are more important than the risk of additional American dead!

Now, you go ahead and tell me that Pelosi cares about the welfare of our troops. And, you go ahead and tell me that Pelosi actually cares about the memories of Armenians. I’ll submit to you that Pelosi has simply found another mechanism to throw a monkey wrench into the Iraqi war effort. I’m sorry, but I don’t find that patriotic. I hark back to the Vietnam War era traitor, Jane Fonda.

You can hold any opinion that you want. But, when you take action, that action might well be traitorous. It makes little difference whether it’s in the jungles of Vietnam or on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Links in this Blog:
Armenian Genocide-Wikipedia

Genocide Remembrance Day-Wikipedia

Armenia genocide measure to advance

Turkish general: 'U.S. shot its own foot'

Update: 10/22/07
Nancy Pelosi Manipulated the Armenian Genocide Issue

Update 12/3/2007:
Read this piece on politics and treason:
'When Does Politics Become Treason?'

Passion on the Plaza

2007-10-14T21:50:00.001-07:00

2:35 PM. Motivated by hunger and a plummeting blood glucose level, I hankered for a hot pastrami sandwich. The destination, Piggy’s Deli. Pulling into the parking lot, I fairly salivated in anticipation. To my great disappointment, I learned that the deli closed at 2 PM. Dang! What to do now? OK, I know. I’ll proceed to Erik’s Deli Café and see if I can acquire the coveted pastrami. Certainly they’ll have some, but could it possible be as good as Piggy’s?

By automobile, it didn’t take long to reach Erik’s. In a beeline, I traversed the parking lot. At last; Order placed!

Awaiting the delivery of my gustatory fantasy, I selected an empty table next to a window. An adult female with her back to me, age undetermined, sat ensconced at a contiguous table with head bent forward while apparently deeply engaged with a book. A colorful, yet indistinct, tattoo partially covered the nape of her neck. Resisting the temptation to lean forward and further examine the tat, I took my seat pondering her possible rationale for skin ink. Clearly, it wasn’t for her viewing pleasure. Could it be for someone else? Who then; a lover, perhaps?

Sipping my water, with lemon, and glancing around the restaurant, my gaze fell upon wall mounted antique farming, ranching and woodcutting tools. The window provided a view onto a plaza with tables and benches for patrons from several establishments. A number of people enjoyed the plaza. Seated facing me, and close enough to be easily observed, was a young couple I’d guess to be 19 or 20 years of age. They dressed contemporaneously in the style of their age group. The drinking behavior of the male drew my attention. With a cup sitting upon the table, he hunched over sucking on a straw. Was he going to eat his meal similarly? I mused that he might just as well consume his repast from a dog bowl. The female hoisted a gallon jug and downed a slug of water. Offering nothing more of interest, I turned my attention elsewhere.

Erik’s pastrami is good, but my vote goes to Piggy’s. After consuming half of the sandwich, glucose level heading toward normal, my attention refocused on the couple.

The plaza trembled with a new pulsating energy. The young woman, whom I’ve dubbed Lolita, exuded a fervent sexuality. Face bathed in love, or perhaps lust, she leaned into her companion stroking his arm. Reaching up and encircling his neck with her left arm, the fingers on her right hand seductively caressed his face. Kissing his neck, eyes, and face, she devoured his lips, which were subdued and yielding rather than participatory. Simultaneously, Lolita’s left hand transitioned to the top of his right leg as fingers slid down the inside of his thigh, rested close by his crotch and undoubtedly sent hot shock waves through his gentiles, into his belly and altering his breathing.

Surprisingly, the recipient kept his hands to himself. Could there be a reticence, or perhaps an embarrassment, on his part? Obviously, she was his for the receiving. I thought, “Why are they still sitting there?” “Why does he not take her somewhere private?” As Lolita’s reluctant stud, he couldn’t help but be stimulated. Hell, she affected a grizzled old man observing from afar. My gawd, another positive result of discontinuing Lipitor.

Imagine this contrast: I’m stuffing my face with pastrami while watching a peep show; my neighbor’s face is still buried in her book; the Reluctant Stud is looking uncomfortable; and Lolita is on fire. As to the remainder of the people in the plaza, I had not a clue.

Reluctant Stud walked away from his temptress to a nearby trash receptacle. Returning, his noticeable protrusion evidenced that he was not indifferent to her overtures.

Lolita arose from the table. Her allure featured: a halter-top that exposed ample breasts; and a broad band of uncovered flesh, flat belly and back, which isolated the cropped halter-top from low slung, tight fitting stretch pants accentuating firm buttocks.

As they were walking away hand-in-hand, I could only imagine where the young stud’s hands will most likely be placed as she brings him to herself, luxuriating in and quenching the hunger within them.

Something stirred deep in the recesses of my mind. An acknowledgement of youthful mad passion offered and received; a recollection of times past.

Lunch finished; I stood. Passing my neighbor, I found her to be rather plain, fiftyish, with large eyeglasses. She abandoned her book and gave me a neutral, non-committal look. She missed the entire show. Had she witnessed the spectacle, would she have acknowledged the raw exhibition of passion? Would she recall old hungers? Or, might she currently enjoy such delight? Then again, she might view the whole affair as sordid, a pornographic public display.

Returning to the parking lot, I spotted Reluctant Stud speaking to an older male and unmistakably in no hurry to exit the area. Lolita was gone, undoubtedly leaving his body with surging male hormones. Unless I miss my guess, the only thing Reluctant Stud is likely to have gotten out of this business is physiological tension begging for release, and a deep ache in his loins. Teased but not pleasured. That figures!

Marry a Robot, Your Troubles are Over

2007-10-11T14:21:00.001-07:00

An artificial intelligence doctoral candidate’s thesis is entitled, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners." He contends,.

…robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners.

The thesis examines human attitudes toward affection, love and sexuality and concluded that the findings are just as applicable to human interaction with robots of the future as they are to the relationships between humans of today.

Interesting concept, don’t you think? But, do you have to marry the robot? Can’t it just be a concubine? This is going to be tough on maintaining a viable reproducing human population.

We’ve come a long way from the cheap plastic blow-up doll from your local porn shop.

Link in this blog:
Humans will wed robots

Rising to Your Own Level of Expectation

2007-10-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Why is it that some people attain great achievements in life and others circle the drain, while most of us just exist in some level of mediocrity? Statisticians tell us that the distribution of human characteristics is depicted as a bell shape curve. The mediocre are those massed in the middle of the graph, while the exceptional and the dregs are the trailing edges flanking out in opposite directions from the center peak as if an alluvial fan spreading out from a mountain.

As water seeks its own level, so too do we dependent upon the vision of oneself, the tenacity to achieve goals and good fortune or lack there of. The chairman of a college Department of Biology once told me that it takes average intelligence, lots of tenacity and someone to financially support you to successfully obtain a Ph.D. The same can be said for many professions in life: attorney; physician; legislator; scientist; author; artist; and professional entertainer or sports figure, to mention a few.

To excel to the top of a chosen field requires all of the minimum prerequisites plus an additional gift of talent, willingness for hard work, and time to accumulate experiences and insight.

Pulitzer Prize winner and columnist Al Martinez recently wrote about observations made while dawn approached and illuminated the awakening of a Pacific Ocean morning. His closing line wondered:

I drove home dreaming of the morning and wondering how I could put it into words.

I wrote Al and suggested that, “It’s a gift burnished by a lifetime of experiences.”

To which he replied,

I guess.

The attainment of a professional goal is but one segment, albeit a significant portion of the total persona. It’s as if the gemologist only cut and polished one facet of a diamond in the rough.

We are born with innate talents, the “gift,” and dependent upon the environmental crucible we will either progress toward our fullest potential or not. Regardless of individual potential, we are only able to rise to the maximum level of our personal expectations. How we identify ourselves within our physical environment is crucial to our self-image development and expectation fulfillment.

Humans are social creatures and everything that we do reflects to one degree or another on how we see ourselves interacting, our individual place, within our environment. The failure of parents to mirror high levels of personal expectation, and/or provide a nurturing environment insulating their progeny from an endemic corrosive atmosphere sets the stage for underachieving children. Expect little and get little. Certainly there are plenty of examples of children rising far above their roots, but these are the proverbial exceptions to the rule.

In the current world of rampant illegal drug experimentation and low social norms, it is exceedingly difficult for children to express their genetic potential. Swimming in a pool of low expectations, children not provided an optimal environment have the greatest potential to go down the drain.

With whom children associate in their formative years will often pre-ordain the eventual success of the child. While there is nothing intrinsically harmful about certain trends and fads involving tattoos, piercings, hair styles, music tastes and clothing, each of the foregoing play an essential part in developing a self-image and comfort level with certain segments of society. If a child sees himself as among the it’s not cool to get an education or I’d rather smoke dope, play video games, steal and/or emulate street gangsters, guess what you are likely to get. Low expectations yields low results.

The $64,000 question is how parents with their own low personal expectations provide a healthy, optimal environment for their children. It’s hard enough for parents with good expectations. If I could answer that one, I’d collect the $64,000 and a whole lot more.

Links in the blog:
The quiet of dawn speaks volumes

Be Leary When You Call Someone a Worthless Pig

2007-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

One of the corrosive characterizations re-birthed in the 1960’s was the epitaph of “pig” applied to law enforcement officers. The term became a convenient verbal bludgeon used by the pseudo-intellectual anti-war crowd of the day.

When there is a high level of frustration or anger and/or a concomitant low verbalization skill, humans will latch onto a verbal club to smash an opponent. Commonly used terms are “nigger.” “spick,” “kike,” “Nazi,” and “pig” etc.

Today the “pig” club is almost socially acceptable and considered at most just a rude statement. One of the nice things about insulting a police officer is that there is an almost a non-existent chance of receiving a retaliatory punch in the nose. Police officers are expected to be mature enough and trained sufficiently to let insults roll off them as if so much water off a duck’s back. That is unless the police officer is off his rocker for whatever reason.

Along comes a 20 year old police officer who is in the emotional throes of an attempted reconciliation with a long standing relationship. He goes to her house and his love interest rebuffs him. From an AP article.

Peterson told Kegley that he had gone to his ex-girlfriend's house early Sunday morning in hopes of patching up the relationship after a recent breakup.

She is having a pizza party with some friends and someone adds insult to injury by calling the young suitor a “worthless pig.”

…Peterson lost control when an argument erupted and other people started ridiculing him as a "worthless pig."
Our rejected lover is not only stabbed in the heart by his love, but he is pierced to the quick by bystanders who literally add insult to injury. Big mistake! He kills six and wounds the seventh.

Too bad all those people had to die because some intellectually immature guests could not keep their two cents to themselves. When a segment of society feels immune from consequences of their acts, sometimes they get a big surprise.

Of course, there is a hue and cry about the age of the officer and questions about whether or not he was psychologically screened prior to being hired by law enforcement. All valid questions. But when is someone going to ask about the condition of a society that makes it so easy for its citizens to feel free to spuriously insult and demean the very people charged with protecting society?

Link in this blog:
Wisconsin cop snapped after being called a 'worthless pig'

Thin Red Line, The Real Stars

2007-10-07T12:39:00.001-07:00

Ben Stein, author of Real Stars, was interviewed on Fox News. Ben said that when he first met his father-in-law, who won two silver stars in two wars, Ben asked him.

Why are you in the Army? Do you like war?

Ben appended to his Fox News recitation, “I was an idiot.”

The father-in-law replied.

No, we in the army hate war. We are the ones getting killed.

Ben.

So why do you do it Col. Denman?
The Colonel made the point.

So you and my daughter won’t have to.

Ben goes on to opine to the Fox reporters that we, among other things, need to have a full GI Bill for when our service people come back to us. That’s not something we are doing well. Read my blog, Support Troops in Iraq and Shaft Them at Home?

In Ben’s words.

We need to treat them like the gods they are.

All of the money Ben makes from the sales of Real Stars goes to the organization Taps, which supports service families which have lost a breadwinner.

Link in this blog:
Real Stars-Amazon.com

Support Troops in Iraq and Shaft Them at Home?

Support Troops in Iraq and Shaft Them at Home?

2007-10-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

I did not realize that it takes active duty orders of 730 days to qualify for the GI Bill education benefits once the National Guard returns to civilian duty. That seems like an excessively high number of days seeing that active duty in this case is Iraq.

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge. 1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

Whether these orders were deliberately written to save money, as some feel, or whether it is the result of an incredible bureaucratic blunder is immaterial. The end result is that these troops were wronged and stories like this one will play havoc with future service recruitment. The moral responsibility is fix it now! The practical responsibility is fix it now!

Write the President and Congress and demand that this wrong be rectified. Writing to them is easy and fast at Congress.org.

Links in this blog:
National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War

Contact Congress & the President

Update-Read:
Thin Red Line, The Real Stars

What Children Can Teach Us, Moral Morass Exhibit Seven

2007-10-06T19:59:00.001-07:00

The words of children can underscore some of the insanity that comes with maturity. A child is born into this world without self-consciousness, and he must be taught to be ashamed of his nude body. That’s an unhealthy religious/cultural consequence of immense impact. It is the melding of nudity and sex as the former is stigmatized by the “sinfulness” of the latter.

Enclosed below are examples of child innocence culled from an e-mail circulating on the Internet about the cute things that children say.
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, "What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a little boy before?"

More on Nudity.
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Mom! That lady isn't wearing a seat belt!"

In the previous two examples, contrast the reactions of the adults: “shrieks,” “running,” “grabbing;” and “reeling from the shock,” to the reactions of the children. Too bad the silly responses of the adults portends all too well to the state of the adult world into which children must graduate.

It doesn’t take long to brainwash the little ones. The pictures in the Bible entrench the religious/cultural requirement to cover the genitals, therefore making them forbidden and eventually considered shameful. Consider this child’s response on the Bible.

A little boy opened the big family bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered," I think it's Adam's underwear.

Comparing children and adults, there are times when childish is enviable.

Thank You Warrior!

2007-10-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today comedian and syndicated talk show host Dennis Miller took a telephone call from Lexington, KY, from a gentleman who stated that he has completed three tours of duty in the U.S. Army: once to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq. Dennis immediately thanked the caller for his service to the country. It is a common practice for Dennis to verbally demonstrate his gratitude to service personnel for their sacrifices to our country. When the caller hung up, he thanked Dennis. I’ll paraphrase Dennis’ reply, “No, thank you! I am just on the radio, and you are saving the world.”

Well said Mr. Miller. As a faithful listener to Dennis Miller’s show, his humility and gratitude are well appreciated by me.

And from me as well, Thank You Warrior!

Link in this blog:
Dennis Miller on the Web

Bus Illegal Aliens Into U. S. to Avoid Environmental Danger

2007-10-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

Wildlife enthusiasts are alarmed by the “fence” which is possibly harming wildlife in the Rio Grand Valley by blocking their access to water. Are the enthusiasts alarmed by the potential harm to the animals for the animals own sake, or is it really an economic issue? I suspect it is both. From an AP report.

Wild cats, reptiles and at least 500 species of birds attract visitors from around the world who bring the impoverished region $150 million a year.

The fence.

To curb illegal immigration, the U.S. government plans to complete 370 miles of fencing and put 200 miles of vehicle barriers on the southwest border by the end of 2008. But this has brought complaints that the fence and barriers are harmful to the environment.

But,

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of a fence along the southwest border, saying it's actually better for the environment than what happens when people illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico line.

"Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,"

So it appears that the critters are doomed no matter what happens. Either the fence disrupts their patterns of travel or the illegal aliens destroy the fragile environment. It is time for a liberal judge to step in and solve this problem, for the animals.

I suggest that a Federal court order the halt to the construction of the fence and the removal of the existing fencing. That will solve half of the animals’ problems. Next the court must order the U.S. government to send buses into Mexico and transport into the U.S. all who wish it illegally immigrate. To minimize the impact of large amounts of illegal aliens disembarking at any one city, the bus drivers must be ordered to drive around the country and randomly discharge his passengers. Also, ICE must be forbidden from following the buses in order to apprehend the illegals. To do otherwise just would not be fair. This is the perfect liberal response.

Now wait just a minute. I just had an epiphany. We could build a canal along the border and run the fence down the middle. Then the critters would have all the water that they need.

Link in this blog:
Chertoff: Illegals 'Degrade' Environment

Concise Islamo-fascist Terrorism Assessment

2007-09-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

A Washington Times commentary, Al Qaeda on the ropes?, on Sept 28, 2007, by Arnaud de Borchgrave is a concise assessment on the status of the war waged by Islamo-fascists. It is a harbinger of what is to come in the world-wide conflict.

…"Al Qaeda's organizing ability in cyberspace is unprecedented." Cyberpower has emerged as a complex ether power in which digital grass roots are truly global. Al Qaeda's 6,000-plus Web sites supply the ability to liberate and dominate at the same time. Al Qaeda now operates in virtual space with impunity in recruiting, proselytizing, plotting and planning.
In the ether (not the anesthetic), thought is a reality. For millions of Muslim surfers, the global caliphate and Shariah law exist. They have superseded the nation-state, whether the kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the Netherlands, where uhammad is the second most popular name for baby boys.

The Muslim world's extremists are roughly estimated at 1 percent of Islam's 1.3 billion adherents (or 13 million who see suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism as legitimate weapons of war against the U.S.-Zionist crusaders). The fundamentalists who approve of bin Laden, though not necessarily his MO, umber
about 130 million.

Extremist ranks include many well-educated, middle-class youngsters with computer skills. Some of the cells under surveillance in the United Kingdom include computer scientists and engineers. They travel online, meeting like-minded spirits in the virtual caliphate. Plotting has morphed from the mosque to the virtual global caliphate.

The world in on the cusp of the most disastrous war eclipsing all that we have imagined short of immediate nuclear annihilation in one fell swoop with the Soviet Union. However, the nuclear bomb component becomes an immediate reality should the government of Pakistan fall into the hands of the Islamo-fascists. Iran’s nuclear bomb is still in the future.

Unfortunately, without the help of the estimated 99% of Muslims currently classified as non-extremist, the war with Islamo-fascism is likely to be lost unless there are draconian steps taken. Given the crowing about Iraq by the turn tail and run crowd, we have a tough row to hoe.

Link in this Blog:
Al Qaeda on the ropes?

A Gay Place for Everyone

2007-09-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

By now everyone is aware that there are no gays in Iran. The proof is Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s recent statement that it is so. He might be eventually right since he is trying to exterminate all of them. So it is refreshing to know that there are places in this troubled world which offer sanctuary and comfort to the “different.”

Take for instance San Francisco. No, you go ahead and take it. For all the beauty of the City by the Bay, it sure does have some strange characters, and they do like to flaunt their fetish driven lives.

Take an eye opening visit to the Folsom Street Fair 2007 web site for a peak at gay, leather, whips, chains, paddles and dog collars. If you hurry, you can still get to SF for tomorrow’s festivities.

As for me, I’ll stay in gang infested LA. I feel more comfortable with people that only want to steal from me or shoot me, as opposed to wearing a dog collar and other assorted leather items while someone whips or paddles my bare flesh.

Link in this Blog:
Folsom Street Fair 2007

Waiting for the Screams of Protest

2007-09-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Multiculturalists will love this one, and heaven forbid that anyone judge this ultraconservative Islamic view negatively.

A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man…ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law…

OK all you liberals, leftists, feminists and politically correct college students, faculty and graduates, start bellowing your indignation. I can’t hear you!

Link in this Blog:
Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host: report

F.B.I. Is Evolving To Meet the Need

2007-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

On September 11, 2001 the U.S. got a wake-up call from the real world. While terrorism was not new to the homeland, it had very little media play and consequently the public had no idea what was, and is, hurtling over the horizon at them. Suddenly the F.B.I. found itself embarrassingly out-of-touch and well behind the curve. Consequently the F.B.I. took quite a drubbing by the 911 Commission.

One of the key problems in 2001, and to an extent still today, was the F.B.I.’s predominant role as a prosecutorial agency with a limited intelligence function. In addition, historically the F.B.I. often functionally clashed with federal prosecutorial and intelligence agencies and local law enforcement. Turf battles, bruised egos and compartmentalization on all sides prevailed. The interagency lack of cooperation was so great that local law enforcement agencies created their own intelligence sharing organization, Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, in the 1950’s.

In the mid 1950's, local and state law enforcement agencies in the United States recognized that no single agency or organization was responsible for receiving, collating, maintaining, and disseminating information on persons involved in organized crime. These law enforcement agencies surmised correctly that organized crime would exploit advancing technologies in transportation and communications, become more mobile, and increase their spheres of influence and criminal activities.

As a result, twenty-six (26) law enforcement agencies met in San Francisco, California on March 29, 1956 to discuss problems and possible solutions. The most important result of that meeting was the creation of the LEIU – The LAW ENFORCEMENT INTELLIGENCE UNIT and the development of an organizational purpose that survives to this day.

You will notice that LEIU was originally comprised of, “…local and state law enforcement agencies in the United States…” Federal agencies need not apply. It is only in the last couple of years that LEIU invited federal agencies to join the organization in a somewhat limited fashion. Someone had to offer an olive branch after 50 years.

Local and state law enforcement has its own intrinsic problems. From my blog Domestically, How are We Doing on National Security?

Basically until the 9/11/01 attacks, local and state law enforcement was asleep and unaware of the magnitude of a problem not just on the horizon, but already entrenched in our towns and cities. That is especially true of the small and medium size departments, which were not members of a FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). Large departments, such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office, have enjoyed the luxury of holding full membership on the LA JTTF for many years. JTTF members are privy to a large amount of information concerning terrorist organizations and supporters present in the U.S. Unfortunately, that information is only sparingly and occasionally shared with non-member agencies even though the target individuals often work and live in a non-member’s jurisdiction. And, information that is potentially available from smaller agencies may not ever see the light of day or be passed to a JTTF.

In an effort to rectify the institutional barriers to sharing information and working together, the F.B.I. is beginning to reach out in areas previously un-served by a Joint Terrorism Task Force and create new multi-jurisdictional task forces.

In addition to solving inter-agency issues, the F.B.I. has internal issues that must be rectified as well. Like most law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I. has both sworn agents and civilian analysts. Needless to say, the agents have the prestigious jobs and the analysts as not so well esteemed by the organization.

The F.B.I. recognized that they needed to hire more analysts and other non-sworn positions, but they were having a difficult time getting the people. So in 2005, they recommended lowering the requirements to be hired to increase the potential pool of applicants. That was a wrong-headed suggestion. Quoted in my blog, FBI Suggests Lowering Requirements,

The FBI, famous for its straight-laced crime-fighting image, is considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life.

The change would ease limits about how often — and how many years ago — applicants for jobs such as intelligence analysts, linguists, computer specialists, accountants and others had used illegal drugs.

The rules, however, would not be relaxed for FBI special agents, the fabled "G-men" who conduct most criminal and terrorism investigations. Also, the new plan would continue to ban current drug use.

I wrote in response to the suggested changes.

Drug use and financial problems are key issues in law enforcement since both can make a person susceptible to corruption and recruitment to treason. Obviously law enforcement agencies can not afford to have officers corrupted. What is amazing is that the FBI considers analysts, linguists, computer specialists, and accountants of lesser importance than sworn officers. Is that an example of sworn officer elitism or FBI bureaucratic ineptitude? A foreign intelligence agent compromising an FBI intelligence analyst could be a far greater coup than compromising a sworn FBI agent.

The FBI is undoubtedly, like law enforcement in general, having a difficult time recruiting quality people. The problem is not that there is a lack of qualified people in the population, but rather a problem of competing with the wages, benefits, and working conditions of private industry.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the F.B.I. in undergoing a reorganization that is long over-due. To be successful in the new intelligence driven world, the F.B.I. must reform its bureaucratic and personal prejudices about sworn and non-sworn employees.

“David Laufman, a former Justice Department lawyer who prosecuted several of the government's major terrorism cases since the 2001 attacks…” stated,

…the FBI reorganization must "overcome the agent culture of the bureau" and allow intelligence analysts to drive the case agents, much like MI5's domestic intelligence, which drives the investigations of Scotland Yard in Britain.

"The key to making this successful is to build a first-class analytical cadre, give counterterrorism analysts equivalent stature to agents in the FBI's counterterrorism culture, and create an environment where analysts and agents continuously and seamlessly work together to identify relationships, sources of funding and operational plotting,"

Significant points to the current F.B.I. reorganization include:

The FBI has begun the most comprehensive realignments of its counterterrorism division in six years so it can better detect the growing global collaborations by terrorists and dismantle larger terrorist enterprises, according to senior bureau officials.

The bureau will merge its two international terrorism units -- one for Osama bin Laden’s followers and the other for more established groups such as Hezbollah-- into a new structure that borrows both from Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence agency and the bureau's own successful efforts against organized-crime families…

Driving the reorganization is a recognition that terrorism is coming home to roost in this country and a significant amount of it is and will be from residents within the country.

The changes have been driven partly by a growing number of FBI cases involving self-styled terrorist cells inside the United States that were inspired by al-Qaeda and bin Laden but receive support, advice or encouragement from disparate sympathizers across the globe, making group allegiances far less important.

I wrote in 2005 about this issue in my blog Black Islamic Terrorism and Crime Linked in LA

There is a tremendous potential for American homegrown black Islamo-fascist terror in the U.S.
The F.B.I.’s evolvement from a primarily prosecutorial agency toward an intelligence driven model for counter-terrorism is significant and no easy task. Again from the WaPo article.

Borrowing from its mob-busting strategies in the 1980s, the bureau will encourage counterterrorism agents to forgo immediate arrests when an imminent threat is not present, allowing the surveillance of terrorism suspects to last longer. The aim is to identify collaborators, facilitators and sympathizers who increasingly span across multiple groups and countries,…

The goal is,

The new approach is meant to channel raw intelligence and threat information through "desk officers" with expertise on specific world regions or terrorist groups, allowing those experts to spot trends and set investigative strategies for field agents and joint terrorism task forces that collaborate with local law enforcement,…

Those desk officers will in large part be civilian analysts. Let’s hope those analysts get the respect organizationally that they richly deserve. And, I hope the F.B.I. did not lower its hiring standards.

Links in this blog:
LEIU

Domestically, How are We Doing on National Security?

FBI Suggests Lowering Requirements

FBI Reorganizes Effort to Uncover Terror Groups' Global Ties

Black Islamic Terrorism and Crime Linked in LA

Illegal Alien U. S. Constitutional Rights

2007-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Obviously the courts have ruled that illegal alien’s have certain rights when they are in the U. S. For instance, the right to a deportation hearing. That’s probably an acceptable process, as opposed to a right, as a check and balance to be sure that the government is not deporting a lawful alien or a citizen by mistake. But in that case, it is the welfare of the lawful alien or the citizen that is paramount, not the welfare of the illegal alien.

We may hold certain rights to be inalienable rights, rights given from a higher authority, but that is merely a justification for throwing off the yoke of the British imperialism. It is not the same as deeming that rights accorded as a result of American law need be applicable to everyone in the world. To do otherwise is absurd, and it is not my view of a proper application of American exceptionalism.

Illegal aliens are now filing a lawsuit because Danbury, Connecticut, police arrested illegal aliens for being illegal aliens.

Ten Hispanic immigrants filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a Connecticut city, its mayor and police chief, and federal agents who led a crackdown on illegal immigration last year.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, claims the arrests violated the civil rights of nine workers and a 10th man who was stopped at a traffic light, including their right to due legal process, free speech and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, according to court documents.

Due legal process, free speech and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures are Constitutional rights. No where in the Constitution, which I know of, expressly states that our laws are applicable to non-citizens. When we choose to extend the courtesy of allowing non-citizens access to our rights, those non-citizens should be required to extend the courtesy of obeying all of our laws. To do otherwise strikes at the core of sovereignty, and the end results are absurd lawsuits and a country filling with people stealing the very essence of the American dream. What is really stupid is that Americans are helping them do it.

Link in this blog:
Hispanic immigrants sue U.S. city after crackdown

Why Does Government Thieve from Citizens to Benefit Illegal Aliens?

2007-09-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

From a Washington Times Editorial on 8/27/07 entitled California Travesty.

Dr. Gene Rogers had a pretty good idea of what was coming when he saw his supervisor and a county security officer arrive at his office door. His supervisor was holding paperwork; the security guard was holding an empty box.

Dr. Gene Rogers knew what they had come to do, and why they were doing it. As the medical director for Sacramento County's Indigent Services program for the better part of the past decade, Dr. Rogers has waged a long fight against the central California county's practice of providing non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants — a policy he says violates federal law and results in the poorest American citizens being denied the care they deserve.

And, why was he fired?

No reason for his termination was offered, but then he didn't really expect one. "Sacramento County knowingly violated state and federal laws, misappropriated taxpayer revenues and diverted funds designated for indigent citizens to pay for services delivered to illegal aliens,"…

Dr. Rogers backed his misappropriation assertions with a lawsuit, which is pending appeal in a Federal Court.

Dr. Rogers filed a lawsuit in 2003 after county officials "stonewalled" him when he questioned why they were cutting budgets while still providing non-emergency medical treatment to people who have no legal right to be in the country.

Dr. Rogers explained.

"I've seen cases and case histories of patients who essentially have come up from Mexico for the express purpose of being treated here, and then leaving to return home," Dr. Rogers said. "I've watched illegal immigrants brazenly demand free, non-emergency health care that was meant for our poorest citizens. I've heard them and their families complain. They feel entitled to it." Dr. Rogers filed a lawsuit in 2003 after county officials "stonewalled" him when he questioned why they were cutting budgets while still providing non-emergency medical treatment to people who have no legal right to be in the country.

This story has the ring of truth to it. When a man jeopardizes his job to file a lawsuit on behalf of the citizens of this country with no benefit to himself, he deserves to be heard.

Link in this blog:
California travesty

Leftist is Profane & Child Like

2007-09-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

I lived through the student Vietnam anti-war demonstrations and the 1960’s free speech demonstrations at the University of California at Berkeley. And, I witnessed a number of leftist demonstrations in the last 30 years. I concluded that there is one unseemly leftist characteristic that transcends the immaturity of youth, the proclivity of expressing oneself in profane terms, which foretells the lack of a cogent argument. It is perhaps the result of an inability to express oneself intellectually.

In Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountain Collegian at Colorado State University joined the ranks of the profane.

A four word editorial with a four letter word in it is sparking a spirited discussion on free speech at Colorado State University.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian published an editorial on page 4 of the paper Friday which read "Taser this ... F*** Bush." The expletive was spelled out.

Often the profanity is linked to accusations of “Nazi” or “Hitler.” You come to expect that sort of thing from childish minds.

Links in this blog:
Profane Language Puts Student Editor's Job On Line

Brown Pelican 1st Year Juvenile

2007-09-23T17:10:00.001-07:00

Greatest “Ass” Award Reveals True Colors

2007-09-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail entitled the “Greatest “Ass” Award” from a dear friend, a woman that I’ve known for many years. The third runner-up is the photo depicted herein. The second runner-up was of a standing male with his pants down to his knees. And, the winner was, yes you guessed it, a photo of Pres. George Bush. Here is my reply to my friend.

Dear…,

Your e-mail is either directed to females or gay males. That’s ok, but I’m wondering why you, therefore, sent it to me.

The characterizing of a person as an “ass” is not the provision of just the left/liberal. There is an e-mail going around depicting Hillary Clinton as the rear end of a horse.

Having said all of that, I don’t take offense at the jab at the President. You notice that I capitalized the “P” which signifies not only the office title, but also the respect for the office. While I would do the same for ex-Presidents Clinton and Carter, their presidencies only merit a small “p” based upon their performance. You can dislike Pres. Bush all you like, and he has made lots of mistakes. Given today’s world conditions, the alternative of having had Gore or Kerry as President is too horrible to consider. I find that people who hate Pres. Bush don’t seem to have much of a concept of how bad these two alternatives would have been.

I imagine that most liberal/leftists (there is a dramatic shrinking gap between the two today) will get a big kick out of your e-mail because they literally hate Pres. Bush. The hate is characteristic of the left and somewhat representative of liberals because they are generally more emotionally based people. And, it is emotions, rather than intellect, that guides and colors their political persuasion. It is, therefore, understandable that there are greater percentages of females in the leftist and liberal camps than males. And, it is my experience from public demonstrations that females are generally more volatile and profane than males.

It is not the shot at Pres. Bush that I find offensive with your e-mail. It is the photo of the male lying on an American flag. The American flag represents the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans that has been spilled for your freedom to take pot-shots at the President. The male might just as well be stomping on the flag. The flag is to be flown proudly and not disrespected by being placed on the ground and laid upon as if it were a blanket.

You probably never even gave the depicted American flag a second glance. Most leftists/liberals probably would not, as well. Basic respect of the flag, as a symbol of freedom and the sacrifice for that freedom, are not core values of leftists. They show more respect to the butcher Che Guevara.

Now, I don’t believe that you are a leftist by any stretch of the imagination. But, you do profess the emotional response of liberals in respect to your disdain for our President. You do have the right to do so, and you do have the right to be short-sighted and ill-informed. But, I suggest that you rethink your positions. If you can’t be passionately opposed to what the leftist philosophy portends for your own sake, you might start considering what all this means for your grandchildren.

The Racist Pot Calls the Kettle White

2007-09-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

The self-righteous Reverend Jesse Jackson is playing the race card again. But what the heck, he’s good at it. Why stop when you have a good thing going? This time he attacked another black, in the person of Barrack Obama.

Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles’ arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La. Jackson, who also lives in Illinois, endorsed Obama in March, according to The Associated Press.

Perhaps someone can clarify the qualities of acting white. Add in the qualities of acting black. Maybe we can then have a dialogue. Unfortunately, we are stuck with Jackson doing what he does best, demonizing and bullying by using race. Jesse Jackson is as much of a racist as is a Ku Klux Klan member. No wonder Obama does not want to join Jackson’s latest racist tirade.

Links in this blog:
Jackson criticizes Obama

Conviction in Jena case overturned

Britney Spears and the Big Three Evils

2007-09-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? A former security guard for Britney Spears (a terminated security guard) is willing to testify in a custody hearing about

"nudity, drug use and safety issues post-rehab."*

And, Spears is going to temporarily lose custody of the children.

I’m sure glad to know that nudity ranks right up there with drug use and safety issues when considering the welfare of the children. Heaven knows that the 2 and 1 year old boys will be permanently scarred by seeing someone nude. What do you suppose they think of themselves nude?

Link in this blog:
Britney Spears Will Temporarily Lose Custody of Her Children

Impassioned Demonstrators Make for A Lively Day in Simi Valley

2007-09-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here’s the backstory. The United Church of Christ in Simi Valley elected to join the New Sanctuary Movement and shelter an illegal alien and her U.S. born son. Liliana is subject to deportation and chose to go into “sanctuary” (there is legally no such thing in the U.S.) ICE actually facilitated the sanctuary move by not arresting her at her home. When she complained that she is breast feeding her child, ICE gave her a few days to get her affairs in order. Liliana chose to thumb her nose at the generosity and appealed to the New Sanctuary Movement to shelter her. Now anti-illegal immigration and pro-illegal immigration groups are standing nose to nose on the issue.

Yesterday, the two groups held opposing demonstrations in front of the church, each trying to out-shout the other. There is not much print coverage on the event, but you can read about it in a Ventura County Star article, Protesters target Simi church.

Each side of the equation was passionate in expressing their position on these important issues of our time. People took great efforts and sacrificed a goodly portion of their Sunday to exercise their First Amendment rights. As raucous and disrespectful as it may have been, you’ve got to admire folks who have better things to do than to go to the Minneapolis airport to view the bathroom stall where Senator Larry Craig was arrested. I wrote on the vacuous bathroom voyeurs in Shallow Is As Shallow Does.

Public demonstrations are expensive to police, and we all pay the bill. But, it is a cost of freedom that must be borne. We owe a debt of gratitude to those people willing to stand up for their beliefs, no matter on which side the line they stand.

Links in this blog:
Protesters target Simi church

Shallow Is As Shallow Does

Shallow Is As Shallow Does

2007-09-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

By now the whole world must know about Senator Larry Craig’s arrest in a Minneapolis Airport bathroom for engaging in preliminary homosexual contact activity. But, do you know that the bathroom in question has become a tourist attraction? From an AP article,

It's because they want to see the stall made famous by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's arrest in a sex sting.

"It's become a tourist attraction," said Karen Evans, information specialist at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "People are taking pictures."

Here is a clear example that there is quite a segment of society that are losers in their own right given that they have nothing more engaging in their lives than visiting said bathroom.

"We had to just stop and check out the bathroom," Sally said. "In fact, it's Jon's second time _ he was here last week already."

You’ve got to wonder about the future of the American society when this sort of stuff is important to people.

Link in this blog:
Travelers Ask To See Craig Bathroom

Wish These Were My Parents, I’d Be So Proud

2007-09-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Picture this: you are boy three to four years old and you wear a Mohawk hairdo at least 3 inches tall; your father is wearing a Superman shirt; and your mother looks like the other photograph. Don’t miss Dad’s forearm decoration. What are your prospects of reaching adulthood as a mature, well adjusted individual? Oh, by the way, Halloween is still seven weeks away.

From my blog The Conformity of Non-Conformity or How I Learned to Love the Tattoo,
Noted psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Marmer stated on Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio show sometime ago that individuals who have not done anything to earn recognition will get a tattoo as a way of saying look at me, I’m somebody.

I quoted Thomas Sowell in my blog Look At Me,

People can get attention either from their accomplishments or from their deliberate attempts to get attention. Today, almost everywhere you look, people seem to be putting their efforts into getting attention.

Wild hairdos, huge tattoos, pierced body parts, outlandish clothing, weird statements -- all these have become substitutes for achievements.

So lovers of ink, what do you think? I am just asking because I doubt that the little boy requested the hair style all by himself.

Links in this Blog:
The Conformity of Non-Conformity or How I Learned to Love the Tattoo

Look At Me

Sex Offenders, Moral Morass-Exhibit Two Revisited

2007-09-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

The organization Human Rights Watch released a new report on sex offense laws restricting, among other things, where a convicted sex offender may not live after release and completion of his criminal sentence.

"These are laws that weren't based on reason -- they were based on a few horrific cases," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch. "But it's very difficult for politicians to demonstrate the courage to urge changes in these laws."
In the broader scheme of things, Human Rights Watch has a point relative to some sex offense convictions. Read my previous piece, Sex Offenders, Moral Morass-Exhibit Two.

Re the Human Rights Watch report,

The report, titled "No Easy Answers," criticizes the three main categories of laws that have spread nationwide in the past 15 years: those that require registration of convicted sex offenders; create online registries accessible to the public; and impose residency restrictions which ban registered offenders from living near schools, parks and other designated facilities.

On the subject of a recently self-avowed pedophile, the LA Times published a ill-conceived piece entitled, What to do with the innocent pedophile? I replied to the LA Times in my blog, Los Angeles Times Unhinged on Pedophile & Civil Rights.

Human Rights Watch misses the point that the public is so frightened by sexual victimization of our young that they are willing to impose, via legislation, extra punitive conditions above and beyond the standard incarceration penalties. In essence, the public judges the continuing welfare of the child to be more important than the quality of the life of the probable re-offender after release from prison. The people have spoken, so be it. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

That being said, there is a whole realm of “sexual offenses” that have been scooped up and thrown in the basket with predation upon children. A little common sense and less hysteria among the populous would be helpful. However, until the public gets a healthy perspective relative to separating the human body from the behavior of sexual activity and child sexual predation, innocent people will suffer the consequences. That’s the nature of living within a society, any society.

Links in this blog:
Report Criticizes State Federal Sex Offender Laws

Sex Offenders, Moral Morass-Exhibit Two

What to do with the innocent pedophile?

Los Angeles Times Unhinged on Pedophile & Civil Rights

Unpatriotic Relativism-A Cancer in the Body of Freedom

2007-09-13T06:45:00.001-07:00

You’ve probably seen the news piece on the high school that has banned the wearing of clothing depicting a country’s flag, all flags including the American flag.

Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.

And why did the school impose the ban?

The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.

And, what is the rationale?

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

Here’s a revelation for the superintendent of schools in Sampson County. It is real simple; see if you can get a grasp on the concept. You have some disruptive problem in school with students wearing clothing depicting flags of other countries, then ban it and explain how your ban does not violate the First Amendment. But, when you banned the American flag you equated the United States with all other countries. That’s called relativism, which is symptomatic of liberal and leftist philosophies.

If there is someone in the school system that has a specific problem with the depiction of the American flag, invite that person to get a job or an education with a different school district.

The Sampson County educators are a bunch of gutless, sorry excuses for Americans. They represent the cancer that is growing ever so prevalent in our society. These “educators” are incapable of recognizing that the American flag is representative of the country with the best values in the world. And, these spineless relativists are in charge of our educational system?

OK parents of Sampson County; Do you have any spine? Throw the bums out. If you don’t, you have nothing to lose but the education of your children. You have no one to blame but yourselves when your children develop concepts inimical to the unique values that built America.

America is under attack from without and within by Islamo-fascism, and it is rotting within from leftist philosophy. I am an optimist by nature, but it is getting harder and harder to feel good about so many of my fellow Americans.

Update 9/14/2007
The flag ban is rescinded.

Superintendent Dr. L. Stewart Hobbs, Jr said they have lifted the ban on flags and “from this point on, all dress code changes will be made at the school board level.”

Hobbs said the county has a dress code policy in place and says individual school dress codes are not allowed.

According to Hobbs, the policy all stems from information from law enforcement of gangs wearing foreign flags as gang symbols and the board does have a policy to prevent gang signs in schools.
Strange how the beacon of national attention can put a spotlight on the decay in the body politic and cause a change of policy. The disturbing fact is that the school district didn’t have the right thinking in the first place. Just because it was spanked doesn’t change the root cause for its impertinence.

Link in this blog:
High School Bans American Flag

School Rescinds Ban On Flag Clothing

Freedom Walk Ronald Reagan Library

2007-09-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

Deena Burnett Baily, whose husband Tom Burnett was a principal in the small group of men who took back Flight 93 from the Islamo-fascist hijackers and thwarted the intended crash into the White House.

9/11-Remembering Frances Cilente & the Day She was Murdered

2007-09-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

Is it unreasonable that some people don’t want to continue the public 9/11 remembrance ceremonies? After all it has been 2,191 days, and how long can you grieve? For those who lost relatives, I’ll leave it to them to make their individual decisions on grieving. For the rest of us, I suggest that allowing the event to slide over the horizon of awareness is a major mistake. Our enemies have not forgotten. On that subject matter, Cal Thomas wrote this,

Terrorists have not forgotten 9/11. Tape of the Twin Towers is used on jihadist Websites for the purpose of recruiting new "martyrs."

Some people suggest that ceremony weariness, a fatigue, has set-in. From an article by N.R. Kleinfield.

Each year, murmuring about Sept. 11 fatigue arises, a weariness of reliving a day that everyone wishes had never happened. It began before the first anniversary of the terrorist attack. By now, though, many people feel that the collective commemorations, publicly staged, are excessive and vacant, even annoying.

There is shallowness and a weakness in the spirit and psyche of some Americans. Yes, that is it, isn’t it? How does that happen? Is it a function of a society with too much individual prosperity and a sense of entitlement? Or, could it be a function of so many people getting a liberal college education predominately controlled by an overarching leftist philosophy? Is it a function of losing positive personal values? Is it a function of becoming secular? Is it a function of a liberal education system taking advantage of the parental abdication of educational responsibilities? Is it a function of the main stream media deliberately pushing an agenda contrary to the interests of America and failing to educate the public on the issues? Most likely, it is a combination of all of the above.

Kleinfield continues with this perplexing paragraph.

As life pushes on in its ragged way, it is natural that the U.S. fixation on an ominous event becomes ruptured and its anniversary starts to wear out. Commemorations of horrific events exist worldwide, like the annual ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, to mark the first wartime use of a nuclear bomb. Many European cities mark the end of World War I each year.

The rest of the world gets it, but Americans don’t? If we are to believe the previous quotation, perhaps it is so.

More from Kleinfield.

But few Americans give much thought anymore on Dec. 7 to the fact that Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 (the date to live in infamy). Similar subdued attention is paid to other scarring U.S. tragedies: the Kennedy assassination (Nov. 22, 1963), the Kent State shootings (May 4, 1970), the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995). Already since Sept. 11 there have been Katrina and Virginia Tech in the United States. And people have their own, more circumscribed agonies.

While each of the above incidents were tragic in their own right, it is only Pearl Harbor Day that is paramount and on the level of the 9/11 events. As it was in 1941, 9/11/2001 dramatically signals the necessity of the U.S. to proactively enter a world wide conflict and get on a war footing to defeat the threat. That war footing requires large scale personal sacrifice across the breadth of society. It happened in World War II, but it has not happened this time around.

Despite what has been negatively stated of some Americans herein, I suspect that future historians will judge the Islamo-fascist attacks on 9/11/2001 to have been a colossal mistake by Usama bin Ladin and his Al Qaeda. Based upon American foreign policy behavior since the days of the Vietnam War, bin Ladin and crew misjudged the core resilience of Americans. Islamists should have been content to silently take control through the mechanism of population growth dynamics, which are occurring world wide, especially in Europe. Had they waited 40 or 50 more years before striking, Europe would have been theirs for the taking. And, the fifth column population growth in the U.S., with the concomitant infiltration into government and the military, would have been significant enough to cause serious disruptions.

I suspect that the recognition of the Islamo-fascist threat by Pres. George W. Bush and his subsequent resolve to engage the problem has set the stage for the eventual demise of Islamo-fascism. Pres. George Bush has the American resilience that is totally lacking in American leftists and mostly lacking in American true liberals. Thank God we elected Pres. Bush and not Al Gore or John Kerry at this crucial juncture in time.

Until Islamo-fascism is defeated we must fixate on their barbarity. The 9/11 events are just one gigantic example.

Unlike those who lost someone on 9/11 or lived the event, most of us don’t have a strong personal attachment to the day. One way I fixate is to remember Frances Ann Cilente, previously unknown to me, who lost her life at the WTC. On last year’s anniversary, I wrote about her in my blog entitled, “Frances Ann Cilente Remembered.” The research I did on Frances Cilente made her life and the loss to her family and friends quite real to me. She is not just a name on a list. She became my sister.

Sis was murdered six years ago today by Islamo-fascists who supported the philosophy of doing the same to all of us, and that’s important to remember.

Links in this blog:
Forget 9/11 At Our Peril-Cal Thomas
New Yorkers split over how to commemorate Sept. 11 attack-N.R. Kleinfield
Frances Ann Cilente Remembered

Veterans For Peace Have Their Heads In The Sand

2007-09-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

On Sundays, Chapter 54 of the Veterans for Peace construct Arlington West at the foot of the Santa Barbara Pier at the intersection of Cabrillo Blvd. and State St., in Santa Barbara. The commemoration is for each U.S. military life lost in Iraq. Chapter 54 posted this on their website:

Veterans For Peace (VFP) is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolition of war. Santa Barbara Veterans for Peace, local chapter 54 was formed during Operation Desert Shield in 1990 to question the use of war as an instrument of foreign policy. Our chapter of Veterans for Peace initiated the Arlington West memorial to call attention to the human cost of the war in Iraq.

Operation Desert Storm was a coalition of countries under the auspice of the United Nations specifically charged with removing Sadam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from occupying and raping Kuwait. There can not be much of a better rational for the use of force than the repelling of a brutal tyrant that has taken over a peaceful country solely for his own benefit.

VFP Santa Barbara says that they wish to abolish war. That is a noble idea, if both sides of a conflict are in accord on the issue. Based upon written material at the site, VFP zeros in on some conspiratorial military-industrial complex that is alleged to be at the root of our wars. There was also something about global warming, but how that is relevant to war is beyond me.

The national VFP website says this.

We draw on our personal experiences and perspectives gained as veterans to raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war - and to seek peaceful, effective alternatives.

I assume that the VFP would never sanction the use of military force under any circumstance, until the enemy began cutting off their heads. But, I could be wrong. They could die bleating like sheep.

What struck me as strange was that the Santa Barbara VFP members on duty at Arlington West yesterday were all about my age; Vietnam War age. That means that they probably have grandchildren. I am not interested is gambling with my grandchildren’s lives when there is a sworn enemy who wants to kill them. What’s wrong with these VFP? Were they so scared by war that they are willing to sacrifice their own grandchildren? What happened to the concept of standing up for those you love? Wishing that the world were different and placing all blame on the U.S. is intellectually stupid. Life has many inequities and hardships. Get over it!

As soon as someone comes up with viable “…peaceful, effective alternatives.” to military conflict, I’d sure like to see them put in operation. Until then, I’ll discount the VFP who advocate a foreign policy that facilitates the eventual enslavement or killing of my grandchildren.

However, I thank VFP for Arlington West to remind each of us of the sacrifice being made for us by our own people. That’s not the sacrifice of a Sunday standing around in the beautiful weather on a Santa Barbara beach. For all the VFP’s good intentions about ending war, they might just as well stick their heads in the sand instead of all those white crosses. Their time would be better spent educating the public about the Islamo-fascist evil that is causing all of those crosses in the sand.

Links in this blog:
Veterans for Peace Chapter 54 Santa Barbara

Arlington West

Veterans for Peace

Most Were Blind to His Presence

2007-09-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today this regal Great Blue Heron was prominently displayed on foliage next to some water at the intersection of State St and Cabrillo Blvd., in Santa Barbara, CA. Pedestrians trooped by without so much as glancing in his direction. While I was photographing him, one couple momentarily stopped, looked and then walked off without so much as an ooh or an ah. Oh well, it’s their loss to not to appreciate this magnificent bird.

Fun Day In The Water on the Eve of 9/11

2007-09-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

Considering all the commonality that exists among humans, you would think that we could all get along together and that we would have a commonality of life expectations. Consider this photo of families enjoying the water. As you can see, everyone seems to be having a good time. Well, we really can’t determine about the woman in the foreground. But, presumably she is enjoying herself. At least her man seems happy.

Is there a fly in the ointment here? There certainly is, and it is the fact that the woman is probably happy with her circumstances so much so that she will willingly inflict a like fate on her daughters. And, that includes female circumcision, if that practice is included in her cultural heritage. Of course, in every culture there will be those females who object to the subjugation, but they have little alternative outside of suicide.

The Western world had better understand the mindset depicted here. This woman is most likely a willing participant in the process intended to lead toward your conversion to Islam and your ultimate subjugation. It is the goal of Islam to convert the entire world to Islam. It is the goal of Islamo-fascism to impose the conversion under threat of death. To the Islamo-fascist it is a simple directive: convert or die.

If you don’t believe that truth, you are either uninformed from a lack of exposure to world conditions or you are a member of the blinder crowd that previously denied the seriousness of or supported Nazi Germany and Communism. And, you can’t read the Islamic handwriting on the wall. It is your attitude that is inhibiting the U.S. from getting on a war footing to truly address the Islamo-fascist threat. You are the ones who don’t understand the significance of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, you don’t understand that they are only theaters in the greater world war. The Muslims understand this simple truth, and many of them still live as if in the Stone Age. It is fascinating how the so called educated Western Man can be so ignorant. Apparently you think that 9/11/2001 just happened, and that is all there is to it.

New York City Madrassa Helping the Fifth Column

2007-09-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

The New York City Education System jumped right out front in the development of a slew of bi-lingual schools teaching in at least Chinese, Spanish and now Arabic. The original concept of bi-lingual education was to be a mechanism to bring non-English speaking students along academically while they are learning English. That seems like a good idea in a quest to assimilate and make productive citizens of the students. But, that is not good enough for New Yorkers.

The Khalil Gibran International Academy is not a bi-lingual school in the traditional concept. Rather, it is a school to teach the Arabic culture and the Arabic language as a second language.

A public school in New York that will teach Arabic language and culture opened Tuesday amid accusations that it will impose a radical Islamist agenda in its classrooms.

The Arabic school has many detractors who allege that the school is a potential breeding ground for terrorists. That is probably a little bit of a harsh assessment. But, there is no doubt that the school is pandering to the Muslim community and spending public dollars to do so. If the non-Arabic speaking Muslims want to learn to speak and read Arabic, let them attend regular public schools and petition the teaching of Arabic as a second language.

By teaching in a sequestered school both the Arabic language and the Arabic culture, you can be sure that there is a heavy emphasis on Islam. That puts the school into the realm of being a publicly funded madrassa. This is a dangerous precedent and a severe threat to the American society by supporting a culture that wants to impose Sharia and Islam upon all.

Do you suppose that there is any agenda on the part of non-Arabic reading Muslims to learn the language of the Koran? That is in and of itself a danger because it is a fundamentalist Muslim concept that the Koran must be read in Arabic and not a translation.

The New York City Education System has developed a mechanism for the public to pay for the potential fueling of the growing Fifth Column of American citizens.

Links in this blog:
New York public school accused of radical Islamist agenda

New York's first Arabic school opens under police guard

Update 4/10/08: Muslim Educational Trojan Horse

Socialism with a Personal Responsibility Twist

2007-09-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

Here’s a novel twist; The British are suggesting that the National Health Service withhold certain services to those who live an “unhealthy lifestyle.”

Failing to follow a healthy lifestyle could lead to free NHS treatment being denied under the Tory plans.

But heavy smokers, the obese and binge drinkers who were a drain on the NHS could be denied some routine treatments such as hip replacements until they cleaned up their act.

Also, the NHS already demands that obese patients lose weight before receiving hip replacements.

What is the world coming to? The next thing you know, they’ll require everyone to work in order to be eligible to receive public benefits. Do you suppose that the virus of personal responsibility could spread to the U.S.? If that happened, what would become of the Democratic Party’s trump card to appeal to the masses?

Link in this blog:
NHS should not treat those with unhealthy lifestyles' say Tories

She-Ra Frightened Me So Much…

2007-09-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

“This frightened me so much that I decided I'd send it as a warning to all my friends!” wrote a friend of mine. Appended was a missive from an unknown author. My wife and I laughed so hard the tears were streaming. Normally I don’t quote unknown sources and certainly not an entire piece. But, I’ve made an exception here since a quick check with Google shows that the piece is all over the Internet. Enjoy, and kudos to the unknown author for a bit of splendid writing.

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy painless removal - The epitorture, scissors, razors, Nair and now…the wax. My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: "Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet."

So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom. It was one of those "cold wax" kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!) So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. ("Cold wax," yeah...right!)

I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works! OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this!

Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-Ra, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire. With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet.

Using the same procedure, I apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my hoo-ha and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (it was a long strip.)

I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRIIIPPP!!!!

I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!.... OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. CRAP! Another deep breath and RIPP! Everything is spinning and spotted.

I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...must stay conscious. Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe...OK, back to normal.

I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the lory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip!

There's no hair on it. Where is the hair??? WHERE IS THE WAX??

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the air. The hair that should be on the strip...it's not! I touch. I am touching wax.

I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair. Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped upon the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down.

Sealed shut! My butt is sealed shut. Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself, "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!" What can I do to melt the wax?

Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right??? *WRONG!!!!!!!*

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit.

Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together, is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub...in scalding hot water. This, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax.
So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cemented myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and have some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter "So, my butt and hoo-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!"
There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, "Are we talking cheeks or hole or hoo-ha?"

She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box.

YEAH!!!!! Right!! I should be the joke of someone else's night. While we go through various solutions, I resort to trying to scrape the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better than to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and .... OH MY GAWD!!!!!!! The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. Its sooo painful, but I really don't care. "IT WORKS!! It works!!"

I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....THE HAIR IS STILL THERE.......ALL OF IT! So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color.

Link in this blog:
She-Ra: Princess of Power-Wikipedia

Surviving the Curve by Living the Moment

2007-09-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

One of the main concepts of the Human Potential Movement is the philosophy of living in the moment. I was reminded of that when watching the movie Peaceful Warrior based upon Dan Millman’s book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. To make the “in the moment” point, Socrates (played by Nick Nolte) tosses Millman, (played by Scott Mechlowicz) off of a bridge and into a creek at U.C. Berkeley. For the brief moment that Millman is falling, his brain is free of “trash,” and he is only able to utter “arghhhhhhh.” The point is that there is only now. The past is the product of a faulty memory and the future has not occurred. If your mind is cluttered with images of memory and future fantasy, you can not perceive nor absorb all that is occurring in the “now,” which is the only thing that really exists.

Yesterday I took a motorcycle ride with six friends escaping the sweltering heat of inland Ventura County for the coolness of the Pacific Ocean. We traversed over some of the favored Southern California motorcycle routes, which incorporates mountain roads ascending and descending with a large number of tight twists and turns suitable to challenge motorcycle riding skills. The group that I rode with had good, highly experienced riders and the leaders are accomplished motorcycle racers. Hence, they set a mean pace that would be unsafe for lesser riders. It behooves each rider to pick his pace and not to worry about being left behind because the group will be waiting for you at the next change of roads.

I set myself in the middle of the group and pushed the bike far further than I would have had I been solo riding. I was truly “in the moment,” and the bike and I became one fluid motion of acceleration and deceleration with a meshing of balance, gears, throttle and brakes. Everything about the bike and the road was absorbed and processed: the g-forces; the lean; the subtle shifts of body position; the whine of the gears; the roar of the engine; and the bite of the tires. Stay in the moment, not too close to the bike in front of you and not too far back; Learning about the road from him. Push the envelope without exceeding your riding skills or violating the laws of physics and the co-efficient of friction. It was neither time nor place to be anywhere else other than living the moment on the motorcycle and in the curve. It was a collection of moments some would call the essence of freedom.

Links in this blog:
Human Potential Movement-Wikipedia

Touch of Paso

2007-09-02T07:41:00.001-07:00

Frequently I travel via Highway 101 traversing between northern and southern California. I have my favorite spots, such as the rest stop that invariably treats me to the sight of yellow billed magpies. But when it comes to dining, I like to visit establishments away from the main highway. I find restaurants primarily catering to the local people to be much more interesting than those serving travelers. I previously wrote about my mechanism of finding never before visited dining locations in Dining Via GPS.

Here’s the deal to go dining via GPS. First of all, you can’t be in a tight time constraint, and you can’t be starving and on the precipice of a hypoglycemic crash. Other than that, I only have one other major rule. I will not enter an establishment where I feel that it is best to be packing a gun while going in, coming out, or remaining inside. That’s it. Pretty simple.

Here’s how you locate those quaint dining spots via GPS. Ask your GPS to give you all of the restaurants in your immediate area and begin sorting through them from the closest to the furthest. Disregard any fast food or national chain restaurant and select the first interesting name that you come upon. Tell the GPS to route you to the selection and head out. If the first selection does not meet your standards, make a new choice and travel on. If you find yourself in a less than desirable neighborhood, see if you can get into a better area and start the procedure over.

Traveling on my motorcycle to Southern California this week, I had been rained on and treated to an occasional lightening strike on the horizon. Shortly before pulling off the highway at Paso Robles, the clouds dispersed revealing a scorching sun and high humidity. Using my GPS technique I found myself at the Touch of Paso Restaurant, and I wondered if they would welcome a traveler bedecked in motorcycle leathers and rain gear. Predictably, I was greeted by both employees and customers with warmth and friendliness, as if I were a favorite neighbor. Though it was lunch time, I opted for breakfast, which is served all day. The country omelet was exquisite.

You can find Touch of Paso Restaurant at 1414 Pine Street, Paso Robles, CA 93446.

Link in this blog:
Dining Via GPS

Santa Cruz Morning this Week

2007-09-01T23:25:00.001-07:00

Moments after these pictures were taken, large rain drops splattered on the ground pattering the pavement as if someone had stepped on ripe grapes. And, then it was over.

Weather & Color

2007-08-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Cantil, California

Castro, Carter & Clinton-The Three Amigos

2007-08-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Allegedly the still ailing Fidel Castro is penning editorial columns, and he is opining that a 2008 Democratic Party ticket of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is a winning combination.

"The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.

At 81, Castro has outlasted nine U.S. presidents since his 1959 revolution turned Cuba into a thorn in Washington's side by building a communist society about 90 miles offshore from the United States.

Castro wrote favorably about Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

He said his favorite U.S. president since 1959 was Jimmy Carter, another Democrat, because he was not an "accomplice" to efforts to violently overthrow the Cuban government.

Castro said former President Bill Clinton was "really kind" when he bumped into him and the two men shook hands at a U.N. summit meeting in 2000. He also praised Clinton for sending elite police to "rescue" shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives in 2000 to end an international custody battle.

It’s quite a feather in the cap of Carter and Bill Clinton to be favored and praised by the butcher of an untold number of Cubans. Too bad neither Carter nor Clinton had the grit to oppose a Communist dictator. But, it is understandable since both accurately represent the weak spine leadership of the Democratic Party on foreign policy. That’s quite a change since the days of President John F. Kennedy. Today, denial and appeasement are the hallmarks of the Democratic Party.

Link in this blog:
Castro's tip: Clinton-Obama the winning ticket

No Bras Allowed at the Cutthroat Bar

2007-08-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Markleeville, Alpine County, CA, is about 5.25 miles NW of the intersection of State Highways 89 & 4 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at 5501 feet of elevation. Markleeville is the home of the famed Wolfcreek Restaurant and Cutthroat Bar. It has been a long-time favorite stop and watering hole for Sierra travelers including most especially touring motorcyclists. Besides good food and adult beverages, the joint is renowned for the vast display of brassieres hanging from every available spot on the ceiling. As I recall the story, female patrons are obliged to make a donation prior to leaving the establishment or suffer the ire of more lubricated and liberally minded patrons.

I stopped by the Cutthroat Bar (named after Cutthroat trout) the other morning expecting to reacquaint myself with the vast variety of lingerie and savor a cup or two of java. Shucking my riding leathers and settling at the bar, I began to suspect that I had wandered into the wrong place. Nary a naughty was in sight. Inquiring of the bartender, I learned that new owners acquired the business five and a half years ago, and that was the end of a tradition. The bartender stated that she is asked every day about the demise of the lacy décor. It just goes to show that a good reputation can get around.

Recalling my previous motorcycle visits to the establishment, I was a bit nostalgically saddened. Still the bar and restaurant is the only place available in town all year round, and so it is naturally going to get plenty of business. As I sipped my drink, about twenty members of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) chapter out of Elk Grove, CA, trooped in. They were on a self-described “Tin Butt Ride,” which for them is 500 miles in a day. For those not in the know, an “Iron Butt Ride” is a 1000 mile ride. I prefer a more leisurely sojourn, say perhaps a Clay Butt ride.

Next time you are in the area, give the Wolfcreek Restaurant and Cutthroat Bar a look. If you are hungry or thirsty, you won’t have many other options. If you see a woman without a bra, it is not because she donated to a worthy cause. I miss that little bit of low brow frivolity.

Contact information is as follows:

Wolfcreek Restaurant and Cutthroat Bar14830 Hwy 89, Markleeville, California
(530) 694-2150

More Eastern Sierra Nevada

2007-08-28T17:48:00.001-07:00

Mammoth Lakes area.

Not as Freaky as Your Face

2007-08-27T10:36:00.001-07:00

From the mouth of a babe, uninhibited by social norms, a bit of honesty was delivered. Such is the recent case of a 6 year old girl toting her personalized doll as she and her family shopped at a Wal-Mart store in Southern California. You may have seen a personalized doll that is made using a photograph of the face of the child superimposed as the face on the doll.

As the story is related by the little girl’s father, a female employee of Wal-Mart, dressed in her best all black Gothic style complete with piercings in an eyebrow, lip, nose and ears, spotted the doll in the little girls hands and exclaimed, “That’s freaky.” The little girl immediately retorted, “Not as freaky as your face.” Touché!

In civilized society we individually stifle our freedom of speech to spare the feelings of others. But then, why should the little girl have remained silent when the Gothic didn’t have the good manners to keep her opinion to herself?

Link in this Blog:
Personalized Doll

Eastern Sierra Nevada

2007-08-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Mammoth Lakes area of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

Illegal Alien Enforcement Finally Beginning?

2007-08-21T06:09:00.001-07:00

Since the resounding defeat of the recent Congressional bill pandering to the illegal alien problem, it is beginning to appear like Pres. Bush has initiated a step-up in INS enforcement. It is about time, and it had better increase significantly if the GOP is going to stand a chance of remaining in power.

The INS made a significant symbolic arrest and deported a Mexican female who was intent on making herself a cause celebre. Elvira Arellano has been holed up claiming sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year. This weekend she ventured out of the church, traveled to Los Angeles and suddenly found herself deported to Tijuana.

According to an AP article,

Elvira Arellano, who arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday after leaving her sanctuary to campaign for immigration reform, was arrested around 1:30 p.m. outside Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist, the Chicago church.

Arellano was "being processed for removal to Mexico based upon a deportation order originally issued by a federal immigration judge in 1997," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release.

Arellano’s stunt is symbolic.

Arellano, 32, has become a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy.

Yes, she is a symbol; A symbol of economic criminality and unjustified entitlement.

Arellano came to Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly after, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August.

She was to surrender four years after her conviction? Yes, the system is broken. What’s wrong with immediate deportation, if not some jail time prior to the deportation? Jail time is appropriate for Arellano since she used a false Social Security number and may well have screwed-up someone’s Social Security history.

The illegal alien apologists think that it is just terrible to deport Arellano and thereby separate her from her eight year old son, a U.S. citizen. What separation from her son? She can take him with her to Mexico.

There is some justice in allowing the son to be a U.S. citizen since he had no say as to within which country his illegal alien mother gave birth to him. But, there is absolutely no reason to reward his criminal mother with the same benefits of citizenship. And, Arellano certainly does not consider the U.S. as her country. Witness this statement from her in which she designates Mexico as her country.

“From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said in Spanish. "I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

As you can guess, Arellano has her supporters. Here’s what has been said.

Immigration activists promised protests and vigils to support her.

"We are sad, but at the same time we are angry," said Javier Rodriguez, a Chicago immigration activist who worked with her. "How dare they arrest this woman?"

How dare they not arrest this woman, and why did it take so long to do so? Arellano’s arrest and deportation were long overdue. There is no such thing as legal sanctuary in the U.S., church or no church. Federal authorities should have immediately entered the church property and taken her into custody. Any church personnel attempting to interfere with an arrest or aid and abed a Federal fugitive should be prosecuted.

The INS made an important statement with the arrest and deportation of Arellano, now it is incumbent upon them to escalate the efforts to deport all illegal aliens and jail those committing crimes other than illegal status.

Link in this Blog:
Immigration Activist Arrested Outside L.A. Church

BBC Cowers to Muslims

2007-08-20T12:27:00.001-07:00

Political correctness (PC) is a form of bullying based upon the inability to compete in the world of ideas. In today’s world, PC comes to us most often from the philosophical left. For instance, it is rampant on American university campuses and lower educational systems. And, it is often parroted by the main stream media. Now the leftist leaning British Broadcasting Corporation could be once again unfurling the PC banner. Or, could it be something else?

The BBC has dropped plans to show a fictional terror attack in an episode of Casualty to avoid offending Muslims.

The first show of the hospital drama's new series was to have featured a storyline about an explosion caused by Islamic extremists.

To replace the Islamic terrorist plotline, the BBC has shifted to an animal rights terrorist plot.

Now the bomb will be set off by animal rights campaigners instead.

There is an escalation in animal rights terrorism that includes arson, fire bombs and attempted bombings targeting humans. So, there is nothing implausible about animal rights terrorists setting off a significant sized bomb that creates a lot of casualties. It just has not yet happened. However, significant sized Islamo-fascist bombings are plentiful by the bushel full and are much more likely than those of an animal rights origin.

Based upon the world-wide Islamic protests over political cartoons and an opera in Germany, you can be sure that the original BBC plotline would have ignited a similar firestorm of Islamic anger. When you have that many irrational, by Western standards, people demonstrating and some likely to be literally hunting for your scalp, sometimes the business spine goes limp. Could that be the BBC’s problem?

The BBC does not have any problem evoking liberal PC and slamming Western and conservative values. That’s probably because there is little fear that their personnel are going to be stabbed and shot like Theo van Gogh.

When the main stream media capitulates to the fear of retaliation, it makes a mockery out of the concept of freedoms of speech and the press.

BTW, Islamo-fascism and Sharia law enforces it’s own version of Islamic PC.

Links Posted in this Blog:
BBC drops fictional terror attack to avoid offending Muslims
Theo van Gogh

Los Angeles Times Unhinged on Pedophile & Civil Rights

2007-08-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Jack McClellan, a self described pedophile, made himself internationally known when he openly posted information on the Internet about Southern California locations where children congregate. He thereby facilitated pedophiles who might wish to exploit children from the areas he identified.

Two Southern California attorneys were more successful than they anticipated when they prevailed in obtaining a restraining order against the actions of McClellan. The judge granted far greater restrictions to McClellan’s freedoms than requested by the attorneys. Everyone is happy about the court ruling except McClellan, probably his fellow pedophiles, and the Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times. In a nut shell, the LA Times Editorial Board, in their piece “What to do with the innocent pedophile?,” feels that the court restrictions on McClellan are unreasonable.

We want to thwart him, but not in ways that that endanger our civil liberties.

The LA Times does not want to “…endanger our civil liberties?” Who is the “our” in “our civil liberties?” The only person who has his civil liberties restricted is McClellan, and those liberties were only restricted upon judicial review of the facts. Whether or not the judicial conclusions were correct or incorrect under the existing law is entirely of another matter to be addressed in a possible future judicial setting.

What the LA Times suggests as a remedy, instead of the current restraining order remedy, is as follows,

…we propose that the means be found within our existing systems.

Here’s a flash for the LA Times, a restraining order is “within our existing systems,” and it is actionable by the police.

The LA Times continues,

If parents are frightened of McClellan, then put up posters identifying him. If police sense a threat from him, then shadow him. If he jaywalks, arrest him.

What the hell does putting up posters do? So if a citizen recognizes McClellan when loitering around children, the citizen can then call the police. OK. Then when the police arrive and find McClellan not breaking any laws, the police do what?

In other words, the LA Times wants to do the following: Shift the burden to parents statewide; and task the police to watch McClellan twenty-four hours a day and selectively target him for prosecution for every conceivable offense no matter how minor. Lord Almighty, I can just hear the howls of protest from the LA Times and the ACLU if this were the common practice of law enforcement. Then some attorney like Steven Yagman would sue law enforcement for violation of civil rights. Standing right behind Yagman would be the applauding LA Times and the ACLU.

To do a proper “shadow him” operation would take a minimum of 6-8 trained surveillance detectives with access, hopefully, to helicopter or airplane assistance. That means up to 24 ground and 6 aeronautical personnel per day, seven days a week. That could be accomplished, if budgets were unlimited.

And, let’s say that during the surveillance that an undercover surveillance officer saw McClellan “jaywalk.” If law enforcement were to follow the LA Times model of pedophile management, McClellan must be contacted and dealt with. Let’s see how does that happen and the consequences.

First off, jaywalking is an infraction. And, while it is a technical arrest, which is what the LA Times recommends, it is only a traffic ticket. There is no arrest in the general public connotation of the term arrest. So now we have a member of the covert surveillance team witnessing the horrendous criminal violation of jaywalking. The covert officer can make contact with McClellan himself and issue the ticket and thereby reveal the existence of the surveillance. Or, the covert officer can try and contact a uniformed officer somewhere in the vicinity to respond and ticket McClelllan. That is a near impossible task given the pressures of uniformed law enforcement calls for service. And, let’s say that McClellan is issued a ticket. What did that accomplish? Virtually nothing except probably alert him to the existence of the surveillance. Not much of a return for an incredibly expensive surveillance operation.

The LA Times undoubtedly considers itself the champion and protector of the rights of citizens. What do you think? I think that they are a bunch of buffoons.

Click on the title below for the link mentioned in this blog:
What to do with the innocent pedophile?

Chicago Tribune Panders to Somali Muslims

2007-08-10T07:27:00.001-07:00

According to a recent Pew poll, a majority of the American public do not trust the main stream news media.

More than half of Americans say US news organizations are politically biased, inaccurate, and don't care about the people they report on, a poll published Thursday showed.

What is there to think of a major newspaper which capitalizes upon a natural disaster to highlight a multicultural prejudice and at the same time slam U.S. foreign policy? Then the newspaper republishes the article excising damning paragraphs from the first article.

From a Chicago Tribune article dated 8/7/07 and entitled, “Somali community hard hit by Minneapolis bridge disaster.”

Sometimes locals jokingly referred to it as "the Somali Bridge" – a lifeline for the 40,000 to 50,000 Somalis estimated by community leaders to be living in the Twin Cities and their suburbs.
What’s the “Somalia Bridge?” It is the now collapsed Interstate 35W bridge.

It seems that Somali cabbies and truckers used the I35W bridge extensively, and apparently the Somali’s are not integrating into the community at large.

For Somalis, who have migrated here in the last decade, the bridge was a vital lifeline connecting an established community on one side of the river with a growing Somali neighborhood on the other.

Unfortunately a 23 year old pregnant Somali mother and her 20 month old daughter were lost in the bridge collapse. I said “lost” because the bodies have not been located and that is a big deal in the Somali culture.

For Somalis, mostly Muslims living here among one of the nation's largest Somali populations, the limbo has horrible implications. In their culture, it's important for someone to be regarded as either dead or alive.

Somalis are well accustomed to the culture of death in their motherland. According to the same article,

In the war-ravaged land they fled, Somalis got used to burying the bodies of tens of thousands of their dead. They usually knew what killed the victims: maybe a bullet, a hatchet, sickness or starvation.

The family has become a symbol of how many Somalis feel the catastrophe seems to be hitting the Minneapolis Somali community particularly hard.

Is the newspaper drawing some moral equivalence between hell-hole existences in Somalia and a bridge collapse in Minneapolis with only two Somalis dead?

The gist of the 8/7/07 Chicago Tribune article is that the bridge disaster, though not directly stated, has disproportionately negatively impacted the Somali community. From the quote above, “…the bridge was a vital lifeline connecting an established community on one side of the river with a growing Somali neighborhood on the other.”

In the multicultural back story, the newspaper reported that a friend of the presumably dead woman and child said,

“We are in a state of shock," she said, sitting in the entrance of her son's textile shop in a makeshift Somali mall designed to resemble a stall market in Mogadishu.

A textile shop resembling a stall market in Mogadishu? You’ve got to be kidding. That sounds like a hallmark for an insular immigrant community that is deliberately exclusive from the Minneapolis community at large.

The 8/7/07 Chicago Tribune article also revealed something else about the Minneapolis Somali community. They manifest the same Muslim paranoia demonstrated by Muslims world-wide.

Still, the collapse was something Somalis never expected to witness in their new homeland. And it has some wondering if the American government has misplaced its priorities by ignoring a decaying national infrastructure in favor of its costly foreign policy.

"Instead of building bridges, they spent more on invading countries," said Abbi Osman, a young Somali who came to Minnesota four years ago and was watching buddies play dominoes Tuesday in a Somali coffee shop. "They are investing in the wrong places."

The collapse too adds to uneasy feelings among Somalis who say they have felt a federal backlash since Sept. 11, 2001 not only because of their Muslim faith but also because Somalia has been accused of harboring terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden. The bridge collapse has added jitters for Somalis who in recent years regrouped and rallied around one another.

And, in case you don’t believe that these people take Islam seriously, just recall the recent controversy where-in Minneapolis Muslim cabdrivers are refusing to service customers associated with alcohol or who have dogs, like seeing-eye dogs.

Now here is an interesting thing. The Chicago Tribune ran the story a second time on 8/8/07 under the headline of, “To Somalis, bridge collapse another blow.” Only, in the second article the Chicago Tribune excised two entire paragraphs. The two paragraphs, which are cited above, state that the Somali opinion is that “…the American government has misplaced its priorities by ignoring a decaying national infrastructure in favor of its costly foreign policy,” and that, “Instead of building bridges, they spent more on invading countries.”

Why did the Chicago Tribune rerun a story and excise, without explanation, two paragraphs which alleged key Somali community characteristics of paranoia and criticism of U.S. foreign policy? Was the highlighting of individual opinion, “…and it has some wondering if…” in such a manner as to imply a community standard inaccurate or not? Was the newspaper pressured by the Somali community, or perhaps the Islamo-fascist apologist organization CAIR, to remove the damning paragraphs? Whatever the reason or reasons that the Chicago Tribune removed the paragraphs, the newspaper can not be trusted.

As to the multicultural back-story, what is there to think about a people who have been fortunate enough to be plucked from the lowest of the third world countries and plopped down among the land of milk and honey and then they reside in insular communities? And of course, they have no problem inflicting their religious intolerance upon their benefactors.

If any of the Minneapolis Somali community doesn’t want to integrate into the larger American experience, and they continue to push their religious tenets upon others, I say lets send them back to Somalia where they won’t have to make phony Mogadishu stall markets. If they want to be a productive part of the American dream, which includes the Judeo-Christian work ethic and religious tolerance, Welcome! If not, Get Out and take the Chicago Tribune with them.

Links in this blog:
US public sees news media as biased, inaccurate, uncaring: poll

Somali community hard hit by Minneapolis bridge disaster

To Somalis, bridge collapse another blow

If you drink, some cabbies won't drive

Minneapolis Cab War Heats Up - Around the World...

I Finally Remember with Heart and Soul

2007-08-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we don’t recognize the qualities of a person until after death. Or, maybe we just take a person for granted while alive. I lament my blindness and wish that the film had been removed from my eyes when a friend was still alive. What is it? Is it my ego and self-centeredness that didn’t allow me to fully appreciate another at the time? I also feel as if I put a friend’s memory in cold storage. And, while I intellectually acknowledged his memory, I did not do so emotionally. That protective shield was pierced the other day, twelve years after Rick’s death. The occasion of the piercing was a newspaper column written by his widow.

Rick Fessenden was a college roommate of mine. A man with a giant heart and a boundless enthusiasm for life. A thespian. A singer. An avid pilot. A lover of an old Porsche. A member of a family with a strong commitment to each other. A fun loving chap. A good friend. A good person.

During college, I remember once that there was only one remaining piece of a coveted pie. I think it was apple. Rick and I had a tug of war match with the pie as the prize. Unfortunately, the pie on a plate was also the rope. When the inevitable occurred and the pie landed on the floor sans dish, Rick triumphantly scoped it up and consumed the treasure. All the while, he had a mischievous grin on his face.

As so often happens, friends go their own way building separate lives and come back into contact infrequently. But, if you were friends, and not just an acquaintance, something remains in your heart.

Rick entered the military service. Flying was always a part of Rick’s life. His grandfather was one of the first U.S. Marine aviators in WWI. His father, a U.S. Navy aviator, followed suit and flew transports over the hump into China. And so, it was no surprise that Rick joined the Navy and built a distinguished military aviation career, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was one of those esteemed jet pilots whose planes had all of the armament removed and replaced with cameras. The photo missions were of the utmost importance. Here’s what former Navy man Scott Todd had to say:

I had the honor of being one of the enlisted crew members of VFP-63 Det 4 (Beam's Best) from the '72 cruise onboard the USS Oriskany (CVA-34). I was one of a very few individuals who was able to see the flying skills of pilots like LtCDMR Dave Beam and a very young (now deceased) LTjg Rick Fessenden. Pilots like those two would fly map coordinates so well it made my job as a PT3 very rewarding. As "Eyes of the Fleet" we watched so many trails, roadways and jungle areas for SAM's, AAA and targets of opportunity that I felt like I knew all of Vietnam from the sky. From the Photo Mates who professionally loaded and developed the film from the camera bays to the AE's, ADJ's and others who kept those planes flying, I hope you all will always appreciate how your contributions made our WestPac tours successful. Those Crusaders were always important to the saving of other pilots lives and making life miserable for the NVA and VC.

Rick once told me what a pucker factor it was to have the warning sound go off in his headset as the radar of a SAM missile locked onto his plane. Then to make matters worse, he’d look out and see a telephone pole with fire at its rear streaking in his direction. We’ve all had our little pucker factors in life, but not many of us have had to dodge missiles in the sky.

Rick and Judy did what many military couples do. They raised a family while moving from one assignment to another. Career-wise, he logged over 4000 hours flying and made 600 landings on air craft carriers. After 20 years in the Navy, Rick retired with the rank of Commander and began flying for one of the major airlines. That’s quite a feather in the cap for a hot-shot jet fighter pilot to transition to flying those huge Greyhound buses in the sky. It just goes to show how much confidence his new employers had in him. But, Rick just loved to fly fast and do things your average pilot can only dream of doing. To that end, he also became a test pilot flying the Berkut experimental plane. Rick told me that the Berkut was the closest thing that he could get to an F-18. Or was it an F-16? I’m not sure. At any rate, the Berkut is apparently a hot flying machine. Rick died flying the Berkut in an air-show.

Writing about the pain and the healing process, Judy said this:

Our family friends helped us to laugh through our tears by sharing one funny story about Rick after another. It made the pain bearable. I felt a sense of relief when they stopped by to invite our kids out for an ice cream cone, shopping, or some time in the surf.

She added,

Friends and relatives cannot remove loss from memory, but they can surely help survivors prevent it from crippling their lives.

I know what Judy says is true because my friend, the father of a soldier lost in Iraq, thanked me for coming to the funeral and repast. In his pain he said, “I hoped that you would be here.” And he said, “I can’t tell you what someone said to me two minutes ago, but I do remember the hugs and the looks.”

Judy continues:

The grief experience is lifelong. Treading through it, or walking with another in their grief, however, expands the human experience. Grief doesn't go away, but with the help of community it finds its place in our lives.

Twelve years ago this month, Rick died at an air-show on a Saturday. I went to the air- show the following day and stood there looking out over the riverbed where my friend had crashed the previous day. They performed a missing man formation, and I hurt. Then I began shutting down the pain. By the day of the funeral, I was numb. Shortly thereafter, the emotions were tucked away and only the intellectual acknowledgment remained.

I’ve been going through a transition period. That period commenced when I became a massage therapist 8 years ago and began to perceive open doors of which I literally had no prior concept. I believe it is the perfect antidote to the battering and shielding caused by my primary career working in a violent world.

Judy, Rick’s death was locked away protectively in my heart. But, I am in a new place now, and you have set it free allowing me to again have the opportunity to address his death emotionally.

I am sorry Judy. I was there for the funeral and hugs, but I did not do anything more. I wish I had really been there for you and the family.

Links in this Blog:
In grief listening can speak volumes
Aviation Enthusiast Corner
Spittin’ Anger Quenched by Tears

Al Martinez Went Off the Reservation With Civil Rights

2007-08-01T07:12:00.001-07:00

My favorite columnist, Al Martinez, recently wrote a column entitled, “Civil liberties at stake in fearful times.” And, he started out doing a fine job until he ran off the reservation on a couple of points.

His first faux pas was attributing the Islamo-fascist threat to the actions of Pres. George Bush.

What President Bush inaugurated in the bloody deserts of the Middle East isn't a game. Lives are at risk when steel flies. And so is the soul of America.

I once wrote Al an e-mail listing all of the numerous Islamo-fascist terror attacks against America preceding 9/11 and the George W. Bush administration. Al seems to have a problem accepting the fact that Bush did not “inaugurate” the threat of Islamo-fascism that might well result in some civil liberty restrictions. To wit, the Islamo-fascist threat preceded the Iraq war, the war in Afghanistan and 9/11. I almost feel foolish mentioning it, but apparently a large segment of the American public just doesn’t get it. Did anyone read Usama bin Ladin’s fatwa in 1998?

Al’s second faux pas occurred when he equated the “terrorist threats” arrest of a 20 year old Los Angeles woman with the Islamo-fascist problem. Apparently the woman was arrested for Section 422 of the California Penal Code, which states,

422 PC Terrorist Threats
Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat even if there is no intent to actually carry it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

The use of the word “terrorism” in regards to the CA law is unfortunate because it has nothing to do with terrorism in the sense of a violent act in furtherance of an attempt to elicit social or political change.

Referring to the woman’s case, Al writes,

The statute that got Annie into trouble was one of those post-9/11 state laws meant to deny the right of terrorists to go around shouting that they're going to blow us all into confetti, even though they display no weaponry.

One little problem with Al’s statement above is that CA 422 PC is not a “post-9/11 state law.” It has existed for many years, and the last iteration is dated effective January 1. 1999.

Al then mistakenly blends the very real problems of Islamo-fascism and the Patriot Act attempts to cope with the new third generational warfare with the CA422 PC.

As the dread of another Twin Towers looms over us like the dark cloud over the gloom-haunted Li'l Abner comic strip character Joe Btfsplk, the likelihood exists that vigilance will be ramped up to a shriek, the Patriot Act will be applied indiscriminately in the name of survival, state laws will place more foolish young girls behind bars and our enemies will have accomplished more than they had hoped for.

Yes, Al is correct that there will be calls for reductions in civil liberties when the Islamo-fascist attacks become more numerous. But, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Israel has been plagued with Islamo-fascist attacks like no other country. And yet, Israel has not degenerated into a fascist state. There is no reason to assume that the U.S. would do any differently.

Links in this Blog:
Civil liberties at stake in fearful times

Ronald Reagan on Fidel Castro

2007-07-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Reagan Diaries page 4

Wednesday, February 11, 1981

“Intelligence reports say Castro is very worried about me. I’m very worried that we can’t come up with something to justify his worrying.”

Did Hillary Clinton Say She is Unpatriotic?

2007-07-27T06:13:00.001-07:00

Hillary Clinton inquired of Robert Gates, Sec of Defense. about the specifics of any plan to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Responding on behalf of Gates was Eric S. Edelman, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Edelman declined to reveal any Pentagon plans for withdrawal based upon the fact that disclosure would be a tactical mistake to be exploited by our enemies. Key language in Edelman’s response included this sentence:

Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.

In essence, Edelman told Clinton that he is not going to disclose any Pentagon plans to her. Read the entire letter here.

Hillary Clinton had a totally different take on what Edelman’s letter had to say. Here’s what Clinton said in the 7/23/07 You Tube Democratic Presidential debate.

I happen to agree that there is no military solution, and the Iraqis refuse to pursue the political solutions. In fact, I asked the Pentagon a simple question: Have you prepared for withdrawing our troops? In response, I got a letter accusing me of being unpatriotic; that I shouldn't be asking questions.

The truth of the matter is that Clinton should not be asking stupid questions for the exact reasons that Edelman enumerated. What Edelman specifically did not mention was anything about Clinton asking questions or questioning her patriotism or lack there of.

One thing you can be sure of is that Clinton is hopping mad that Edelman refused her. Her ego is way too big to accept rejection from someone as lowly as Edelman, and she is probably peeved that Sec of Defense Gates did not personally respond to her. Clinton again wrote Gates trying to get him to disavow Edelman’s response. No such luck. Gates wrote Clinton back and firmly supported Edelman.

The question is, has Hillary Clinton deliberately lied about Edelman’s response and continued the legacy of her lying “I did not have sex with that woman” husband? Or, has she unwittingly told us something about herself through the process of psychological projection?

In psychology psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defensive mechanism in which one attributes to others one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the ego recognize them. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud, and for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection"
This is a no-win situation for the Senator from New York and would be Democratic candidate for the presidency. She is either an outright liar or a self-admitted unpatriotic American. I’m thinking she can survive politically better as a liar. Most of the country could probably accept that as an accurate assessment since lying may be a Clinton family trait. Nevertheless, I guess it could be both the former and the latter choices together.

Links in this blog:
Hillary Clinton 5/22/07 letter to Sec of Defense Gates
Edelman letter to Hillary Clinton
Dept of Defense Web site
Democratic presidential debate transcript
Hillary Clinton 7/19/07 letter to Sec Def Gates
Sec of Defense Gates letter to Hillary Clinton 7/26/07
Psychological Projection

Covina PD, Class Act

2007-07-22T20:57:00.001-07:00

When I was in the police academy, they had us stand in formation and saluting for interminable periods of time. It was an exercise in mental determination to overcome the pain and muscle spasms. As your muscles shook and you struggled to maintain the salute, a drill instructor would go nose to nose with you and demand to know if you wanted to quit. Needless to say, the answer had to be, “No Sir!” Then the DI would usually demand to know if you were sure, to which you answered, “Yes Sir!” He’d then walk off to inquire of another struggling academy cadet. There are, of course, numerous such exercises in a police academy to determine if the cadet has the prerequisite right stuff.

In my police career, I’ve been tested a number of times. Had I given up on a couple of occasions, I may not have survived to write this blog. But, never in my wildest dreams did I think that standing at attention and holding a salute for an agonizingly long time would ever occur again. And, it has not for me, but it did occur for 5-6 Covina Police Department officers.

Last week I attended the funeral for U.S. Army PFC Cory F. Hiltz. I wrote “Spittin’ Anger Quenched by Tears” on that sad occasion. The funeral procession stretched out for miles. When we entered the cemetery, the Covina PD officers were standing rigidly at attention in a continuous salute as every car in the procession past by them. I was dumbfounded as I instantly related to the pain that they were enduring. Driving by, I returned the salute hoping that they would somehow understand that I deeply appreciated the honor that they extended to PFC Cory F. Hiltz and his mourners.

Covina Police Chief Kim Raney is undoubtedly quite pleased with his officers. They did him proud.

Links in this blog:
Spittin’ Anger Quenched by Tears
Covina PD

Packing Heat

2007-07-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

An on-duty police officer carrying a gun on his person has an awesome responsibility, but obviously that goes with the job. And, the handgun is nothing more than one of the tools on his tool belt to be deployed judiciously. But, what about when you are off-duty? Some law enforcement agencies require their officers to be armed when not at work and others don’t. It is one thing to carry a handgun in a holster attached to a sturdy belt in plain view of the public and quite another to keep one secreted from sight when not in uniform. Carrying a gun while off-duty engenders a quality of being on-duty at all times. It reinforces the habit of always watching and evaluating. Quite frankly, carrying a gun off-duty is a giant, dangerous, pain in the ass.

How so you ask? When you are off-duty, or as an under-cover officer, the last thing that you want is for crooks and the public to know that you are a law enforcement officer. You generally do not want to get involved in uniform officer police functions. To that end, keeping the gun hidden is of primary importance. To not do so telegraphs to the crooks who you are, and in a lethal situation it may well direct attention to you and spoil any element of surprise that you want to maintain. Secondly, the public spotting a gun on you will probably cause you to get jacked-up by on-duty officers.

I do a pretty good job of keeping my handgun hidden. I don’t think that my young grandchildren have a clue that I am generally armed in public. And, if they noticed a bulge under my clothing or knew of the gun’s existence, they’d say something about it. Nevertheless, I once screwed up in a favorite restaurant. Fortunately, the responding officers recognized me, which kept me from getting yanked out of the restaurant. Since I am a covert officer, my identity was nevertheless unfortunately disclosed to restaurant personnel, and I am no longer able to frequent the restaurant.

After 28 years of law enforcement, I’ll admit that I’ve started to become a little lax about maintaining my habit of always being armed in public. Hiding a gun while wearing shorts and a t-shirt is a problem. And, it feels so good to be just like the general public. Thank goodness in February 2007 that officer Ken Hammond of Ogden, Utah, was not succumbing to laziness when he and his wife were dining in a shopping mall in Salt Lake City.

An off-duty police officer having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his wife was credited Tuesday with helping stop a rampage in a crowded shopping mall by an 18-year-old gunman who killed five people before he was cut down.

Ken Hammond, an off-duty officer from Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, jumped up from his seat at a restaurant after hearing gunfire and cornered the gunman, exchanging fire with him until other officers arrived…

Here’s a problem that you probably have not considered. You are an on-duty police officer responding to a shots fired call with people down in a shopping mall. You arrive and see two people, each in plain clothes, exchanging gunfire. Who is the bad guy, and who is the good guy? Maybe they are both bad guys. In 2001, Oakland, CA, officers responding to a call killed one of their own narcotics officers.

While not in-frequent, the number of events involving the necessity of off-duty officers to get involved in dangerous situations is relatively small. But, when it happens…

Just who is this Salt Lake City shooter, and why did this guy start shooting people?

A day after the shooting, investigators struggled to figure out why a trench-coated Sulejmen Talovic opened fire on shoppers with a supremely calm look on his face.

There are two clues here for you to answer the question as to whom and why: the shooter’s name; and “a supremely calm look on his face.” Answer, he’s a Bosnian Muslim. But, did he go berserk, or was he on jihad? Was this a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome?

The Sulejmen Talovic incident may not be adjudged to be a jihadist case. Nevertheless, the U.S. will begin to suffer from more jihadist attacks in the future. That’s why an extremely knowledgeable law enforcement trainer on Islamo-fascism recently counseled law enforcement officers to always remain armed when off-duty. That’s been my custom, but I’m sure getting tired of it.

Do sheepdogs ever have the luxury of being truly off-duty, and do they ever really retire? I am thinking about retirement, but I don’t think that I can ever return to being a sheep.

Links in this blog:
Off-Duty Cop Saved Lives In Mall
Oakland Police Rookies Kill Fellow Officer
Sulejmen Talovic
Sulejmen the Mysterious
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs

Pres. Reagan Called Haitians Illegal Aliens

2007-07-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

In the opening days of Pres. Ronald Reagan’s first term, 2/28/81, the President learned that a boatload of Haitians had been apprehended. The President wrote in his diary,

I’m all for opening the doors for refugees from totalitarianism but this is more complicated. These are just people who believe they can have a better life here. They are in fact illegal aliens. We’ll have to deport them but it’s a long & complicated business due to our own laws.

Can you believe that? Twenty-six years later and we still don’t have it figured out. What part of “illegal alien” and “deport” is not clear?

Spittin’ Anger Quenched by Tears

2007-07-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

On June 28, 2007, U.S. Army PFC Cory F. Hiltz died at the hands of Islamo-fascists when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by an IED in Baghdad. Twenty years old. Today Cory was buried with honors. My wife and I joined hundreds to remember Cory’s life and to support his parents, long time friends of ours. His father is a former partner of mine.

Approaching the church, my sadness turned to seething rage as I caught sight of eight females in their early twenties demonstrating on a corner adjacent to the church. They were trampling upon American flags thrown on the ground as they held signs aloft calling Cory’s parents immoral. To tell you the truth, I can’t quote the exact verbiage, but I can tell you that there was no other message on the signs. My wife exclaimed that she would like to spit on the women. My own inclinations were far more violent.

As I sat through Cory’s funeral service, Major General John Custer’s words soothed as if a balm had been applied to a festering sore. General Custer explained the long history of Cory’s 12th. Infantry Regiment and mentioned that when the 12th. saluted the American flag, they always said, “Love for Country.” My tears quenched the flames of anger that burned in my gut leaving me emotionally spent and returned to a sense of undying gratitude for Cory’s service to his country.

After eight months in-country, Cory returned home on leave for 15 days. When he stepped off the plane, the waiting entourage saw that he walked taller than when he left. Cory returned to family and friends a man having left his youth behind. Cory said that he was glad to live in America, and his family and friends learned that he was not jaded by the horrors of war. And though he did not want to return to war, Cory told his family that he was willingly to return because he “made a commitment.” That commitment was: to the buddies in his unit; to his family; and to his country. Two weeks after retuning to Iraq, Cory died with four of his buddies.

As I write this blog, I am having a difficult time imagining how much lower can a person sink then to attack the parents of a deceased adult child for a decision he made to support his country by joining the military service. The very freedoms that Cory’s efforts were meant to secure were used with the specific intent to emotionally injure his parents. Thanks to the Pasadena Police Department, it is believed that Cory’s parents did not witness the unbelievable actions of these embarrassing excuses for Americans without a scintilla of human compassion.

Thank you Cory Hiltz for standing tall for the American ideals that enables me to have the freedom to write this blog. It is the same freedom that allowed others to insult your parents. Your father fought crime beside me on the streets of America, and I love him for it. But, you paid the ultimate price of freedom, and I thank you. It is a debt that I can never repay.

Note: The photos are of a community display in the City of La Verne, California.

We Need Another Terrorist Attack

2007-07-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

What is it about some American’s short memory? It was not so long ago that people were jumping out of the WTC towers to avoid the flames, and yet today the public is not galvanized into action to seek out and destroy those harboring the Islamo-fascist philosophy that led to the attacks. What the hell is the matter with a people that are more interested in the antics of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton or what is the hot topic with Dr. Phil or Oprah Winfrey than about the people who are intent upon killing Americans? Pres. Bush said in response to Helen Thomas at his press conference the other day that the people are tired. Are we intellectually and morally soft as a people such that we are wearied with the war?

If you have been following the news carefully, or reading posts on this blog, then you should realize that a significant Islamo-fascist threat is smoldering within the United States and populated by U.S. citizens. You only have to look as far as Europe to understand what is on the horizon for the U.S.

Reports have surfaced that the National Intelligence Estimate is stating that Al Qaeda has rebuilt.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is warning about the threat to the homeleand. And, if you think that he is speaking from “gut feelings,” you are naïve and/or ill-informed. Without giving away vital secrets and without panicking the country, Chertoff is telling the country to get ready.

But, we are not ready. We have sent our best to foreign lands to do battle on our behest, and they are doing so. But, a significant portion of the politicians are responding to and representing a weak knee portion of the U.S. population and trying to end the efforts of the military. Politicians, in general, are not pushing the development of domestic resources to counter the conflagration that is going to erupt from the U.S.’ smoldering heap of Islamo-fascism, much less the threat from abroad.

Yes, there are modest domestic improvements. But, they are limited, halfhearted, mired in bureaucracy and under-funded. And, that is true on all levels: national; state; and local.

If you were able to be a fly on the wall and overhear the private conversations of intelligence officers, you’d hear them state that the U.S. needs to have another 9/11 style terrorist attack to awaken the populace. It’s the unfortunate truth that there is not going to be a truly significant effort expended to counter Islamo-fascism until the populous demands that its representatives from city halls to the halls of Congress respond to the need.

I can not over emphasize the necessity of a grassroots constituency demanding that government representatives leave no stone unturned. The initiative must start from the people. It can be done. It was done on a national level with the defeat of the recent Senate immigration “reform” bill.

Start on the local level and demand that your city politicians instruct the local police department to develop dedicated, full-time, local law enforcement intelligence assets. Insist that local law enforcement actively partner with state and federal authorities. Insist that the local police department train all officers to recognize and react to terrorism pre-incident indicators.

It is past time to reprioritize the political agendas and prepare for the long fight to the death with Islamo-fascism.

The Difference Between a Capitalist and a Socialist

2007-07-10T06:15:00.001-07:00

There is a political joke circulating around the Internet about the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. One version uses Fred Thompson and Hillary Clinton to make the point. The joke is a bit disingenuous in making this distinction between Republicans and Democrats. A proper characterization would be the distinction between capitalists and socialists.

The amended joke goes like this:

A capitalist and a socialist were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person.The capitalist gave the homeless person a business card and told the homeless person to come to the capitalist’s business for a job. The capitalist then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.

The socialist was very impressed. And when they came to another homeless person, the socialist decided to help. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. The socialist then reached into the capitalist’s pocket and got out twenty dollars. The socialist kept 15 dollars for administrative fees and gave the homeless person five dollars.

Now you understand the difference between capitalists and socialists.

It is time for conservatives to demand that the Republican Party begin moving back to its conservative roots of personal responsibility intertwined with social largess.

Hells’ Angels Unbridled Violence

2007-07-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I post pieces on the outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG) world. Some may think that my anti-OMG stance is overplayed. But, it is not. To the contrary, it is understated due to the fact that there are so many other things to write about, and it would be become boring to keep reading about the miscreants. Nevertheless, my OMG pieces receive continuous hits indicating that there is plenty of interest in OMG’s.

Usually you think of OMG bikers as hairy, bearded, dirty, heavily tattooed, obnoxious parolees. If that is your concept, you are only partly correct. There is also a contingent that can pass in the professional world with their tats well concealed. Case in point,

Police say Paul Eischeid is a Hell's Angel to his core. Proud of his numerous tattoos, Eischeid was one of the most enthusiastic young members of the Hells Angels chapter in Mesa, Arizona in 2001, but in effect, he led a double life. By day, Eischeid wore suits that covered his tattoos to his job at a stock brokerage firm in Phoenix. At night, he was a frequent fixture at the Hell's Angels' clubhouse, drinking, and living the lifestyle of an outlaw biker. He even had "Hell 666 bound" tattooed on his lower back. In 2001, Eischeid was not a "full patch" member of the Hells Angels, but that was his goal. To reach that full-patch status takes time and is earned by demonstrated loyalty to the club above all else.

Paul Eischeid is wanted for the murder of Cynthia Garcia,

… a confidential informant told police that he, Eischeid and another biker began beating and kicking Cynthia until she was bleeding and unconscious. Then, police report, they tossed the woman into a car trunk, and drove out to the desert where they took turns stabbing the woman until she was nearly decapitated. The gang left their victim's corpse to rot in the desert.

Cynthia Garcia’s crime that warranted her murder?

…an inebriated Cynthia started "mouthing off" to some of the Hells Angels.

Read more and view photos of Eischeid and his tats at the America’s Most Wanted site.

Violence is part and parcel to the OMG lifestyle.

Solar Theft Could be a New Line for Al Gore

2007-07-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

There are indications that the global warming train is losing steam. If so, what is Al Gore going to do to keep his profile out-there until he declares as a Democrat presidential candidate? Just in time, there is a report that humans are stealing a greater proportion of the solar assets than we are entitled to possess. At least that’s the opinion of Austrian and German scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With all the talk about capturing clean energy from the sun to replace the use of dirty fossil fuels, the solar theft can only get worse. Thank goodness we have the Germans and Austrians out there exposing this scandal. The wacko environmentalists will love this one.

If you judge from the size of Gore’s mansion and his proclivity to fly on private jets, you can see that Al Gore is really not a wacko environmentalist. But, Al is certainly not above using the cause to assist him in getting whatever he can for himself.

English is the language of these United States

2007-07-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

Ron and Kay Rivoli ask the musical/video question why they should Press One for English.

That Stinking Iraqi War

2007-06-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

No, I am not happy about the Iraqi War. And, I am especially not happy that the son of one of my former partners was just killed in Iraq.

The stinking that I am referring to emanates from the rotting bodies of humans and animals slaughtered by Al Qaeda. No, the humans were not combatants. They were common villagers.

Read Michael Yon’s dispatch, Bless the Beasts and Children, for the details. See his photos, if you can stomach them.

The world of Al Qaeda and other Islamo-fascists is not a beautiful place no mater how many times they utter Allah Akbar! Get ready America. Europe is already feeling the heat. We are next, and it won’t be just our adult military children dieing, as they are now doing in foreign lands. But, we know that. Don’t we? It already happened on 9/11/2001. All of those American victims were non-combatants. Did you already forget? Did you let your hate for Pres. George Bush dull your memory? Pres. George Bush can be a political opponent. But folks, he is not your enemy.

Al Qaeda wants the stink of Iraq to be pervasive across the breadth of America. How the hell can any American be a liberal or leftist on foreign policy after 9/11/2001?

Update 7/3/07: The town of slaughter is al Hamira. Read Michael Yon's update.