Grump Thoughts

Send our troops a note this 4th weekend!

2005-07-02T09:20:00.000-04:00

There is a website that allows messages to be sent to our troops. Please take a minute or two and drop them a note. Let them know that the 4th of July is a great deal more than hot dogs and beer. It is a celebration of our freedom. The same freedom our military is bringing to others around the world. Here is the link:

http://www.dod.mil/americasupportsyou/support/

Here is my note to the troops:

July 2, 2005

To: United States Military Personnel

Last night I was at the concert for the Laurel Music Camp. It was the 61st annual concert in a row. To my surprise, before the symphonic band’s part of the program, the conductor asked us all to stand. He said, “This 4th of July weekend let us take the time to honor the men and women of the United States military who are protecting our freedom to have this concert.” He led the band into our National Anthem.

I was filled with pride and humbled for the mistaken thought all artistic people were against not just the military but our country’s place as leader of the free world. I was singing my fool head off with tears in my eyes and notice I was not alone. Most of those I could see around me were doing the same.

Please remember that you are our children, all of you. It is not just those kids up on the stage but the young people we send to protect us out in unfriendly parts of the world. We claim you as our own. No matter what you read, see, or hear in the media, the vast majority of people in the United States support you and your efforts for us. The politicians who would have us think that Vietnam is the blueprint for all war currently and in the future do not fool us. Our pride in you has not and will not falter. You are defending our future as a nation of free people. Your efforts are bringing a shining example to a part of the world that has no future without you.

Wear your pride on your faces. You are the leaders of all our tomorrows.

Read - JunkYardBlog

2005-07-01T08:56:00.000-04:00

I am not a big blog writer; I am a big blog reader. One of my favorites, a must read everyday has been JunkYardBlog.

http://junkyardblog.transfinitum.net/

I hate seeing someone so talented loose faith in those they are writing for but yesterday I think that happened at JunkYardBlog. In trying to make a point about the prisoners released from G’tmo showing up on the battlefield again to fight our troops, bp said, “WE ARE INSANE… We're playing a game of catch, release and kill with hardcore terrorists. In a sane time, such a game would generate a massive, administration-ending scandal.”

The rant continued: “Yes, yes, it's more important that we let these animals make their baseless charges that we torture books than we show how remorseless and ready to kill these guys really are. That is the attitude of the press and much of the nation.”

This ended up being the conclusion: “And therefore, we are insane. Our civilization--what's left of it--is suicidally insane.”

As a loyal reader, I objected in the comment section: “What? The majority of us think all this crap about G’tmo is the bull the media can’t get off its collective pea brains. To suddenly say the population is insane makes one wonder what side of the bed you woke up on today! Keep your focus on the source, the msm who still don’t get the message that the people have had enough of them and their slanted reporting. You have done such good work to this point, don’t become a defeatist yourself. Do us all a favor and rethink this post.”

bp - felt I needed more education on the subject: “Don, we’re insane because we greet news that we have released terrorists from Gitmo who have turned up right back in the war trying to kill our troops again with a collective yawn. And that’s among the war’s strongest supporters. This should be a scandal, and in normal times it would be. But we war supporters have had to spend so much time defending the administration from the leftist Gitmo nonsense that we don’t have time to gin up a little righteous anger of our own.

Insane.”

I don’t think I need to be educated, I think that the information needs to get out and good bloggers like bp need to do it. So I respond this way: “bp – who is ignoring the animals let loose? It is not the people; it is those that we must rely on to bring us information. I have know about the fact that those prisoners released, who are not suing us for acts against their “civil rights”, end up recaptured or dead on the battlefield.

However, what do we hear about from the MSM and most blogs? We hear about nasty treatment at G’tmo and now news that we have worse dungeons on ships hiding from the world so we can torture these “poor men” privately.

It is not as you said, “we’re insane because we greet news that we have released terrorists from Gitmo who have turned up right back in the war trying to kill our troops again with a collective yawn. And that’s among the war’s strongest supporters. This should be a scandal, and in normal times it would be. But we war supporters have had to spend so much time defending the administration from the leftist Gitmo nonsense that we don’t have time to gin up a little righteous anger of our own.”

It is up to you and others like you to keep this information in front of us. Wretchard, Michelle, CQ, and you just to name a few have had a go at it but you as a group do not have a readership equal to the NY Times. You are a good writer, people rely on you to get information we need.

However, keep calling me and those like me insane. There are other places I can get the information. You under-estimate the intelligence of your readership. How lefty, elitist of you.”

I wish to point out that we need good bloggers to put some clarity in the bitter struggle for the truth in this day of Leftist MSM elite. bp is one of those bloggers we need, but support will not come from insulting those who follow the words, seeking truth.

POTUS

2005-06-30T14:55:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we forget that there is a man attached to the office when we are talking about POTUS. We get so used to hearing Bush, reading Bush, and are lacking in the respect for the Office of the President of the United States that we hear or see Bush and think we saw or heard the words The President. This shows not just a lack of respect for the office he holds but for the man himself.

Some people don’t forget:

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050630-124908-7077r

"I said: 'I know people are pushing you, but please don't pull the guys out of Iraq too soon,' " said Crystal Owen, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Mike Owen, was killed in Iraq last year.

She didn’t say what the MSM would like her to say. She didn’t curse at The President. She didn’t condemn him. She didn’t call him an idiot, a puppet, Hitler, or any of those other nice things the MSM has been calling him by reporting all the outlandish things the liberal/progressive left has been calling him.

"Don't let my husband -- and 1,700-plus other deaths -- be in vain," she added during a private meeting with Mr. Bush at the North Carolina base. "They were over there, fighting for a democratic nation, and I hope you'll keep our service members over there until the mission can be accomplished."

This woman lost her husband to the vision of The President. His vision? To fight terror by bringing freedom to people trapped in an existence where terror can be taught as a way to a better life. Thus far, this President’s vision has brought freedom to Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and opened the door to freedom in Egypt and Palestine.

The President said:
"We have lost good men and women who left our shores to defend freedom and did not live to make the journey home," he said as his eyes turned glassy. "I've met with families grieving the loss of loved ones who were taken from us too soon."

The link above has more but this is the key to the man the left, with their tools, the MSM attack daily.
Before his speech, as is his custom, the president met for three hours with more than 90 spouses, children and parents of 32 soldiers killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The last person he met was Mrs. Owen.

"Even though he'd met with 31 other families prior to me, it was like I was the only one -- I mean, he made me feel special," she told The Washington Times yesterday. "He wanted to know about Mike and about me and if I was OK."

"I did get teary-eyed and he kind of held my hands for a while," she added. "He was very sincere and gave me a kiss on the cheek as he left -- I was a little flabbergasted."

The only other people in the room were two Secret Service agents and a photographer for the White House, which declined to release photos.

Mr. Bush has always barred press coverage of his meetings with family members of fallen soldiers.

And yet it is just another thing for those who fail to understand the measure of this man, our President.

Mr. Bush has long been criticized by Democrats for not attending the funerals of Americans who have died in the war against terrorism. But White House officials say the president does not want to disrupt public services or create the appearance that he favors one family over another.

And yet he is a man, this POTUS. He deserves respect and should receive it, not just because of the office he holds proudly but because he is a man who leads. Just ask the widow.

"Mike believed in him," Mrs. Owen said. "He was his commander in chief and would have done anything he was ordered to do."

"I was proud to be a military wife," she added. "And I was very honored that the president would take time out to meet with me personally."

Crime of one official

2005-06-16T09:17:00.000-04:00

I was doing my morning reading when I discover this:

If anyone would like to get in touch the vice-mayor of Cambridge Mass here is her contact information.
Vice Mayor:Marjorie C. Decker(mdecker@cambridgema.gov)42 Linnaean Street, #3Cambridge, MA 02138(617) 547-1260 (H)(617) 349-4325 (W)

Be sure to excercise your freedom of speech and let her know just how you feel about her support for a group of protesters who heckled 11 year old David Smith. For those who don't know, the father of this boy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Iraq. As David was leading the pledge of allegiance at the 230th Army birthday in Cambridge MA a group of protesters booed him, Ms. Decker supported the protesters.

I managed to stop short of refering to her as 'scum'...

Posted by SSG K at June 16, 2005 02:30 AM

I sent the following to her and a copy to the mayor at: mayor@chambridge.gov

June 16, 2005

Marjorie C. Decker
Vice Mayor
City of Cambridge

The son of a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, who is an eleven-year-old, was selected to lead the Pledge of Allegiance in your city. Adults (?) in the crowd harassed and booed the young man not allowing him his Constitutional right of free speech, the right his father earned for all of those people. As it turns out, this disruption was encouraged by a high ranking member of the city government; you. At the time you took your oath of office, I must assume that you did not raise your right hand, put your left on a Bible, and swear to defend the Constitution?

Marjorie Decker, you have an obligation as an official of a city within the United States too defend the Constitutional rights of all of the people in your city. It is fine for you to have your own personal beliefs and to express them, however you have stepped over the line. The current conflicts we are in are not Vietnam. The military is not made up of draftees from the poorest levels of our population, they are all volunteers defending your right to freedom.

You owe that young man and his family a public apology. I would request that you do so, not because of your beliefs, you have a right to those, but because of your failure as a public official to protect the rights of all in your city. The example you have set has brought shame to your city, state, and those you were hired to protect.

Copy: Mayor of Cambridge, Mass.

SPC Carrie French

2005-06-09T20:15:00.000-04:00

Inspired By
SPC Carrie French

Her eyes danced with laughter,
sparkled with intelligence,
smiled with acceptance.

Her smile brought smiles,
automatic brightening of day,
everyone found hope there.

Hatred took the smile,
killed the light in her eyes,
but will never touch the memory.

Those who wear the uniform,
those who love our country
enough to serve and defend,
become our children; always.

Our prayers, tears, hopes,
rest with you, our children.
Child, because of you,
we live free.

We owe our children more than we can repay. See more about Carrie French here:

http://urbangrounds.com/2005/06/08/carrie-french/

Take to the Streets

2005-06-04T10:13:00.000-04:00

I am about ready to give up on attempting to stay a normal human being. Freedom of speech seems to apply only to media and anyone who takes exception is a red neck, uneducated, inbred, beer slurping, non-union labor, sub-human, who is brain damaged from the fumes while making minimum wage cleaning port-a-potties. After all that, they volunteer to serve in the military. Part of qualifying during weapons training is using the faces of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Brian Wilson as targets. They are even taught to use coke bottles and throw at the heads of anyone who looks Muslim. (Not Pepsi bottles however. That would not be politically correct.)

Yes, I think it might be time for me to let loose and take to the streets. You must understand that I am, as the Dean of the Democratic National Committee said, one who has never held a real job, who fights against civil rights, and most damning of all, I don’t think women should have healthcare. I must be touched in the head to expect Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley to furnish proof for her wild statements when she is busy giving a speech about how the media is run by conservatives at the Take Back America conference in Washington that is being held by the left wing of the Democratic Party. It is interesting that she is so fair and balanced in her approach to media coverage.

I assume that if I hear of Muslims using the Bible as toilet paper like they did in Bethlehem again, it is fine for me to riot in the streets, even kill a few other Christians because all religions have equal freedom. I assume that if I placed bombs at the Saudi embassy and said that it was revenge for their persecution of Christians, all Christians in the world would unite and back my efforts.

To think I could do all this because my Bible states to turn the other cheek when a blow is struck at me. My minister teaches I must turn the other ass cheek to the offending person and pluck out his eye. My minister states God will forgive me for all acts and take me to heaven if I confess my sins. My faith will be rewarded because I will get to have sex in heaven with Natalie Wood, Jane Russell, and Marilyn Monroe and I won’t have to use a condom.

I am not a Catholic so it should be fine for me to blow up Catholic churches during mass. (Note to myself: I must find out what mass John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy attend. Make sure the wife isn’t there or maybe not!) I should also learn to use a dull sword so I end up having to use a pocketknife to finish beheadings. I should make statements on websites demanding the blood of my enemy’s run in the streets.

Most important of all, I must close all schools. I must find a way to open restricted schools where the only book allowed is the Bible. The teachers must make sure that the students don’t learn to actually read the Bible or anything else. No we have to make sure they learn our, my version of the Bible. It makes it easier to get them to become human bombs I can direct at the news media.

At last I can reveal my real purpose. I want to take down the media government. That includes all those persons who hire terrorists to do the reporting for them in war zones. All those who report only one side of government, theirs. All those who think I am too stupid to have the right to vote. All those who by their biased reporting put our troops in more danger. Those who hate so deeply that they support the terrorists against the country that gives them the freedom to spout that hatred. Those who think their voice in government is all powerful. Those people in both media and in politics that use the media as their lap dogs take a hint.

Yes, if I ever take to the streets I would be dangerous. I would be because I am sick of jerks thinking that they control me. I am sick of the danger they put my family and other loved ones in. I am sick of the danger they put our troops in. I am sick of the danger they put my country in. Yes, I would be dangerous to people like Howard Dean, Michael Moore, Linda Foley, Dan Rather, and the like. Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, Robert Bird, Maureen Dowd, and Collin Macinroe are just a few more who would be in danger. However, I will not take to the streets because I believe in the laws that govern this the United States of America. The Constitution, laws created by our elected Senators and Congressmen, while doing all I can to stop the trend of "law" created by judges who have given themselves the "right" to make law instead of protecting law. I will not take to the streets because I have no desire to hurt others much less kill them.

At the same time, I am retired from the US Army. When I joined the Army so many long years ago, I had to look into my own soul and ask these questions. Can I fight, even kill to defend myself and others? Can I fight even kill to defend my country from enemies abroad and at home? I was nineteen years old then and I was able to answer those questions. I was able to raise my right hand and take an oath to defend my country, its constitution, and its laws. I have not changed.

A reply to Bob Herbert - NY Times

2005-05-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

I want to thank Bob Herbert for his editorial opinion on this Memorial Day. It is with great spirit and respect for the freedom earned for him by the barefoot men at Valley Forge that he writes about his great love for his country. He takes the deaths of the Civil War that granted freedom to slaves and mocks the worth of such foolishness. He skips over two world wars as if saving the world from dictatorship is meaningless. He views fighting to defend against attacks on soil of the United States, "America is increasingly being seen as a dangerously arrogant military power that is due for a comeuppance."

It should not surprise anyone that the idea of a day to show respect for the men and women who have fallen in battle defending the right of Bob Herbert to degrade their sacrifice is a prime example of the media today. Everything is politics to people like him. His hatred for the President and the United States itself is clearly shown in not just the timing of words, but the sources he quotes as if they were gospel.

It is Bob Herbert’s right to ignore the human rights violations commented each and every day by members of the same fundamentalist groups held in our military prisons. If he feels that cutting the heads off people is acceptable, so be it. If he believes that gutting a poverty worker and leaving her body on the street for dogs to eat is acceptable, it is his right. Instead of even attempting to look at the whole, Bob Herbert looks at our military and stands with terrorists. Bob Herbert works for the defeat of the United States military even on the day set aside to honor the fallen that won freedom for all of us.

Yes, we can all be proud of the freedom expressed by Bob Herbert on this Memorial Day. You see, hatred doesn’t recognize holidays.

You can read his opinion here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/opinion/30herbert.html?hp

Open Letter to the NY Times

2005-05-29T10:19:00.000-04:00

I read with total disbelief the editorial in the Sunday NY Times titled The Death Spiral of the Volunteer Army. The editorial staff of the NYT has been one of the leaders of the attempts to defeat the military of the United States. It has attacked every step taken in the war on terror. It has refused to acknowledge any positive effect that our military has had in the Middle East. It has derided the elections held in Afghanistan and Iraq first by stating they would never take place and then by questioning any effectiveness of elected leadership.

The NYT printed the claims that if President Bush was re-elected, his secret plan thought up by Secretary Rumsfeld to restart the draft would be immediately be put in place. The Times printed it knowing it was a lie because the Congress is the body that would have to start the draft, not the President. The Times doesn’t seem to think much of the truth.

The Times continued attacking the military in the same method as in this editorial. "Two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor, extended tours of duty and accelerated rotations back into combat have taken their toll, discouraging potential enlistees and their parents." (By the way, enlistees is not a word. Editors don’t have to use spell check or English doesn’t matter either?) If the media concludes that the best way to get our troops out of Iraq is to get them defeated, uses the day before Memorial Day as just another day to attack the troops, covers up the lies told by fellow "journalists," and once again lets their hatred of the President excuse their behavior, they will continue to lose readership. The word of a journalist now ranks below that of attorneys and used car salesmen. How proud you must all be of the public’s opinion of your industry.

My final point today is this: Why doesn’t the person or persons writing the Time’s editorials put their names on them? Even the collective view of the Times editorial staff has to have factions. Is it because the readership may find out that the person(s) writing this have never served in the military? Could it be that it is because the person(s) writing this has a degree in journalism, flunked history, spent their youth protesting Vietnam, miss the free love, unwashed bodies, and pot smoking anywhere, anytime? Put your crack pipe away and get out of New York. Talk to people who don’t agree with your editorial position and for once in your life listen to what people have to say without your preconceived, hypocritical notions. The military you enjoy trashing is what allows you the freedom to do your job. The people of the United States know it, why don’t you?

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/opinion/29sun1.html

Open Warfare

2005-05-21T08:53:00.000-04:00

This week open warfare was declared by the MSM against the military of the United States. The total failure of the predicted disaster of the administration’s policy in the Middle East has worked the members of the MSM into a frenzy that rivals their Muslim supporter’s mindless need to blindly strike out.

Newsweek lies about a copy of the Koran dumped in a toilet. The U.S. has to deal with Muslim riots. The BBC reports a Muslim killed by rocket attack from Israel without mentioning that Israel was defending against attack. The U.S. has to deal with Muslim riots. The Washington Post reports old tales of unsubstantiated complaints of Muslims saying they were mistreated and the Koran desecrated at Gitmo. It is of note that the claims have been investigated and dismissed but the old, "undocumented or lies but true anyway," comes back into the MSM arsenal.

The NY Times finds a report from almost three years ago about prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. The situation had been investigated and the men involved punished. It was reported on extensively back then. The NY Times thinks this is the time to bring it all up again. The U.S. has to deal with Muslim riots. Linda Foley uses her position with the press guild leadership to once again state that the military is targeting journalists in Iraq. To paraphrase she said, "I stated that the military was targeting journalists. I didn’t say the troops were and therefore that is all right." The U.S. has to deal with Muslim riots.

The old form reporting from Vietnam has been brought back out of the closet and slapped on the men and women serving in the armed forces of the United States. Please note, there is not a draftee among them. There is not even one person in the uniform of the United States military forces who has not volunteered to serve. The toll of the dead in the three and a half years since 9/11/2001 in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is under 2,000 in a war on terror that took the lives of over 3,000 innocents in one morning. There are terrorists killing fellow Muslims daily and justifying it by using the propaganda machine that is the best in the world. That is, the MSM of the western world.

People of the United States, these are your sons and daughters defending you against terrorists who want to destroy you and your way of life. These men and women are your students, your newspaper boy, your mechanic, your minister, your doctor, your airline pilot, your administrative assistant. They are your marketing manager, your top salesperson, your homebuilder, your Realtor, your state or local police persons, your landscaper. These are the men and women who are fighting for freedom in the Middle East to keep the war on terror out of your neighborhood. How are you rewarding them for protecting you?

Who is not fighting for you? Why the elite members of our society, that’s who. Who is attacking our military? The MSM, including newspapers, television, and Hollywood. Many in the arts, such as songwriters, painters, and writers forget the inspiration loving your country brings. What is perhaps the worst group attacking our military is the left wing appeasers in government and academia. They not only think they are the elite but prove it to themselves by spouting hatred for their own country.

To you of the so-called elite I have little to say about a bright future for you. President Bush was correct in his action plan for the war on terror and his hope for freedom for all people. He has proven it to the world. Whereas, your continued support for the enemies of freedom, your active attacks on those who protect all freedom including yours, and your denial of God except when allowing the Muslim faith prominence, will be your downfall. Even if you win out and your friends in the Muslim world take over, I and those like me, will have the last laugh.

There are many of you elite that the world would become a much better place if you were beheaded, publicly, begging for your lives. You women, enjoy being covered head to toe, not allowed to leave your homes unless accompanied by a male member of your family, not allowed to drive a car or hold a job, stoned to death for adultery while your male friend walks free. Yes, enjoy your lives. You guys, there will be no beer at ball games, no cheerleaders to ogle. No bars, no ham or bacon, and each and every one of you will have to train to be a killer. Yes, you will be expected to take to the streets and kill whomever your leaders tell you to kill. It could be your best friend, your brother, one of your children, it will not matter. You will do what you are told. Do you really think that there are 72 virgins waiting for you in paradise? Oh, I forgot, you don’t believe in God or paradise. Well, you will be out of luck in all ways won’t you?

Do We Need A Third Party?

2005-04-24T08:49:00.000-04:00

When was the Republican Party neutered? It must have been back in the time of FDR because they sure as hell don’t act like a party in power. Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer, Reid, Polosi, and gang storm the halls of Congress like the nobles in France before the revolution. That is what we have created in the legislative branch of government, a ruling class. When the leadership voice of the Republican Party is a junior senator from Connecticut and a Democrat, someone needs to step up and grow a set.

Who will make it clear that the royal gang is not the majority anymore? The serfs no longer have to beg crumbs from the royal table nor do they have to hide the salt from the royal tax collectors. They no longer have to offer their children for sale to allow survival of the "Grand Ole Party." They are sending the message that the serfs will have to rise up and form a third party to run on the people’s interest. That will allow the Democrats to win back the Congress in 2006.

Think I am kidding? If the Republicans will not do what they were elected to do, there will be a revolt of the serfs. At least the Democrats are a known evil and predictable. The only rocks the Republicans seem to have are the ones in their heads.
Someone has to finish the work and get the judiciary nominations on the floor for an up or down vote. The ethics of Democrats are no better than Republicans so as Larry the Cable Guy states, "Gitter Done!" Throw out DeLay and anyone else that is a crook. The majority will not change, at this point in time. Later, when more and more of the serfs realize their Republicans are neutered, it will be too late. The same with the Bolton nomination, Social Security, and close the damn borders, sending illegals back where they came from.

While you are at it, find someone with the stones to talk about Fannie Mae. Franklyn D. Raines, J. Timothy Howard, and Roger Barnes, all Democrats rewarded with the leadership of Fannie Mae, have looted it to the tune of 11 billion dollars. That’s right, the merry gang of Democrats that rule the Congress put their buddies in charge and they seem to have lost eleven billion dollars. I have never seen anything on the news or heard it on radio. I have read reports in the back pages of newspapers. Even Enron didn’t have those kinds of numbers and yet it still makes the front page and main stories on TV news.

If a third party does form, I will join. It will put the Democrats back in power for a time. However, I am used to getting buggered by them. The Republicans don’t even seem to know how or carry the tools needed.

What MSM thinks about conservative Christians.

2005-04-22T08:09:00.000-04:00

I am not the smartest, nor am I the most educated man around. I think that over the process of my education I learned that a couple means two, a few means three, several means four or more. The New York Times, Kirkpatrick and Stolberg, have written an attack piece not only on the Republican Senate Majority Leader but also on the right he has to speak to a conservative gathering of church leaders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/politics/22frist.html

"April 21 – "As the Senate battle over judicial confirmations became increasingly entwined with religious themes, officials of several major Protestant denominations on Thursday accused the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, of violating the principles of his own Presbyterian church and urged him to drop out of a Sunday telecast that depicts Democrats as "against people of faith.""

The National Council of Churches is one group of Protestant Christians they list. The second, bringing it to a couple of major Protestant denominations, is the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Nope, I think we are back to one group again.
I think this one makes a couple, "Among those scheduled to speak in the conference call is the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, a top official of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., in which Dr. Frist is an active member.", or is he part of the National Council of Churches? I just can’t be sure about that so I will give the NY Times a couple at this point.

Then as the last of the "several" major Protestant denominations that are quoted:

"We're going to allow the majority leader to invoke faith to rewrite Senate rules, to put substandard, extremist judges on the bench?"

Wasn’t Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and former presidential nominee in a fire storm of his own about if his priest should give him communion or not? I must have missed one of the biggest stories in this time of the new Pope Benedict XVI, Kerry converting to the Protestant faith. Well he did preach his brand of faith from every pulpit he could find last fall.

So let us look at totals here for the, "several major Protestant denominations" in this very carefully reported NY Times article. First, the National Council of Churches is not the governing body of the Protestant faith. It is a council of elected or appointed representatives of various denominations of Protestants that gather to facilitate communication between Protestant denominations. So unless the NY Times is using the "several" by counting each member of the National Council of Churches, their information is not correct.

Second, I don’t think the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is a major Protestant denomination. I don’t think that Christ rates all that high in Judaism even in these liberal/progressive times. So, if Kerry is their third source for the "several" Protestants, I think they failed in their efforts and this should have been on the opinion/editorial page, not on the Washington page at all. They are left with one "leader" of one Protestant church.

If the NY Times expects to keep readership, they need to keep op-ed separate from reporting. To top it off, sloppy reporting from two of their "respected" people is unacceptable.

My last question is, where do they get off telling one of the elected leaders of the United States of America he should/can not address any group of citizens? Oh, I forgot. Conservative Christians aren’t citizens or at least not the same high level of citizenship as progressive/liberal Americans.

PC faith attacks

2005-04-20T08:07:00.000-04:00

Just as with the election in the United States last fall, the world (MSM) thinks it has a voice in the process and the results. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am tired of having the world (MSM) tell me how my life "must" follow the opinion blessed by the thinkers and intelligencia who have appointed themselves as the voice for the world.

The most visible of the Christians is the Catholic Church. However, visibility is not the same as open hunting season. It is not PC to write or express an opinion about any other faith in the western world. Therefore those who hate their own culture, which has brought them the benefits they expect and enjoy, find the same old whipping boy, the Pope. It is PC to attack the Christian faith, the faith that most western civilizations have as a base. The new Pope has no expectation of an easy ride. Forced into Hitler Youth at the age of fourteen is a long way from training to become a murderer and martyr at an even younger age based on a holy book that the child is not even able to read.

In the end, the world (MSM) does not have the right to express an opinion on how or whom the church picks to lead it. No matter how PC it is, the only people who have that right are Catholics and only then in a forum approved by the Church itself. I would love to watch the results of this current focus turned on other faiths. I think a few beheaded media types would be entertaining and educational for the industry. I am not Catholic and thus have no right pick up an axe to grind with the Church. It is my opinion that all except Catholics should, as you Brits say, "bugger off."

Reply to Eric Muller

2005-04-17T11:15:00.000-04:00

Eric Muller has called for the banning of Michelle Malkin's book from a government bookstore at the site of a historic landmark, the major interment camp during WWII for Japanese Americans. While the book attempts to explain the reasoning for the internment, each American has to make up their own mind about the situation. On to Mr. Muller.
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I am often astounded these days by the hypocritical nature of the progressive/liberal flag burners. Bill Clinton and his "self loathing" speech about a homosexual man who dared to say anything against his wife. California Democrats producing bobble-head dolls and posters of Arnold wearing a pink dress. Democratic "bully" squads going around beating up Republican volunteers, slashing tires of get out the vote cars, shooting at Republican local headquarters, breaking in and trashing such headquarters, and stealing the equipment during last fall’s election. Then there are all of these attacks on conservative speakers on college campuses, the last "bastion of free speech" or so we are led to believe by the Main Stream Media.

I am getting the impression that progressive/liberal thinkers do not practice what they preach. Now they want the government to be in the business of banning books. Should we become "brown shirts" and have book-burning rallies next? Historical hindsight is a wonderful thing to progressive/liberal pundits, but only if one agrees that everything the United States has ever done is wrong. The one exception seems to be Social Security.

Mr. Muller, you have the right to express your ideas and I would die defending that right. However, you do not have the right to attempt to silence ideas you find unacceptable, not progressive. Malkin’s book is well written and documented with historical facts. The conclusions she reaches are not all acceptable to me, however I can not dispute the scholarship that was put into the book. I find it interesting that you can not either. You just want it banned because it offends your self absorbed, self-serving nature. They also sell Bibles in bookstores, the Koran, the Torah, and other writings of that nature. (The pocket New Testament is sold in the bookstore in question.) I would guess that the only one you would find objectionable would be the Bible. After all, the current progressive/liberal view is that it teaches violence and hatred.

As for your drawing a comparison between the holocaust and the subject internment, aren’t there some things missing? My thought would be gas chambers, mass graves, slave labor, starvation, medical experiments, tattooed numbers and forcing people to wear the Star of David come to mind. It seems to come very easily these days for progressive/liberal thinkers to compare any ideas or events they don’t like to Nazi like elements or leadership. Mr. Muller, do you want to start seeing your work compared/supplemental to Churchill of Colorado University fame? See how easy it would be?

Just Starve

2005-03-20T07:44:00.000-05:00

Just Starve

If you are an intelligent person, then explain to me why one would end up in jail if one starved a puppy to death? How about a kitten, horse, cow, turtle, or even a snake? Attacks have been made on medical research labs that have set back cures for human illnesses twenty or more years because rats are used in the testing. The attackers were put on probation. In one case a security guard was killed in one of these attacks. The people involved were charged with trespassing and destruction of private property.

Progressive thought is that it doesn’t hurt to starve to death, just look at the MSM these days and their hired guns called experts and medical doctors. None of the ones I have seen look like they are starving to me. And yet I get an advertisement a few times a month asking me to contribute to starving children around the world. How does that go now? Oh yeah, "It is a basic human right to not go to bed hungry."

Everyday in the United States of America there are protests and millions of dollars spent to try and stop the inhumane practice of the death penalty. Everyday there are protests worldwide against death caused by man against man. Everyday the are protests against the lack of freedom and rights for women around the world.

There is a woman in Florida, the United States of America, the leader in bringing freedom to people worldwide, who has been ordered killed by starvation. This woman laughs, cries, smiles, watches television, and yet is not alive per the courts in the state of Florida. The court has placed her husband’s request to kill her above her right to live. The lives of a dog, cat, or even a lab rat have more value than the life of this woman. If she were a dog, cat or lab rat she would have to be humanely put down, put to sleep with a drug. Progressive thought is that the death penalty is "cruel and unusual" punishment when death takes place in seconds. The estimate is this woman will take up to two weeks to starve to death. How many reports have mentioned that her feeding tube is also the way she drinks? Which will kill her first, hunger or thirst? My bet would be on the thirst.

So I ask the question again. Why should anyone be put in jail for starving a puppy to death? I am not even going to get into the fact that the spokesman for the husband is his common law wife, who lives with him, has two children by him, and prefers to be called his fiancee. I am not going to debate the financial side of the picture, which includes life insurance and rewards from lawsuits. That would be crass of me. I guess I shouldn’t even mention that this woman ordered killed has parents and siblings who have agreed to take over all care which will include the cost of care. No, the husband wants her dead and the courts agree.

Why should anyone be punished for starving a kitten to death when they can starve to death a woman who can laugh with them?

Update:

George, the ex-press secretary to Clinton was just on the ABC Sunday morning "news" show. (I needed a weather report, three inches of snow expected) To paraphrase him, "This is a political football where the rights of one person can overrule the state courts. However, the Supreme Court has already ruled by refusing to hear an appeal and this woman has not been denied her constitutional rights."

The talking head chimed in with questioning if what the congress was doing was even legal. "How can the elected legislative branch think they have the right to overrule the courts?" Another progressive thought, showing support for the courts to dictate and make law instead of just interpreting laws created by the people though elected representation. The MSM is not bias?

Different Views

2005-02-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

Different views of the United States

A BBC reporter, Rob Watson, is leaving the United States. As he puts it: "In these times of anti-Americanism this is by way of a love letter to the country where I have lived for a quarter of my life."

He gets it. The full column is

It may all go back to Thomas Jefferson's claim in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that the pursuit of happiness is among life's unalienable rights. Whether it is or not, I have no idea, but certainly most of the Americans I know are in hot pursuit of the happiness thing."
Why is it that someone from the BBC from an EU country gets it and many in our own country don’t? It is because of the blinders put on people that for some reason everything the United States, in particular our President, does is wrong. This self-hatred is clear in the MSM every damn day. It reminds me of the fact that freedom as we know it depends on letting the hatred continue and defend the nut cases right to their hatred. However, it does not mean we have to stand idly by and say nothing. Those of us who love this country have an obligation to let that love shine out to the world.
"So thanks for everything America. I know they say long distance relationships do not work out, but do not worry, my feelings will not change. Until I return, I will not mind telling anyone that the rest of the world has far more to learn from you than it has to fear."
Thank you for the kind words, Rob Watson, and say hello to Mr. Holmes for us.

Also in the news today is a report from the NY Times on conversations secretly recorded, of the President while he was deciding to run for the office and during that first run. These recordings were done by a "friend" of the Bush family, named Doug Wead.
"Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. Bush as a historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes."
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK the NY Times reporter did a fair to poor report, in my opinion, on the information he was furnished. He stressed the party animal that our President was back in the day, the old stories of drug use and sowing the wild oats of the time. But that is old news and is a non-starter for the American majority. I confess, I was worse than the President back in the day as were most of the same generation. Kirkpatrick, give it a rest. "Let him without sin cast the first stone." I doubt that would be you, Kirkpatrick. The full article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/20talk.html?ex=1109566800&en=0c6fd3ada107ec30&ei=5065&partner=MYWAY
Kirkpatrick also stressed belief in God as perhaps a bad thing because of support received from conservative Christians. What he couldn’t cover-up was the fact that this President did stick to his beliefs and did not bind to the will of others. He refused to gay bash, was angry with conservatives for trying to spin that fact.
"The private Mr. Bush sounds remarkably similar in many ways to the public President Bush. Many of the taped comments foreshadow aspects of his presidency, including his opposition to both anti-gay language and recognizing same-sex marriage, his skepticism about the United Nations, his sense of moral purpose and his focus on cultivating conservative Christian voters."
In my opinion this would mean that our President is who he states he is and that is not a surprise to the majority of Americans. All of the tapes were from before he became the President. Why is it such a surprise to the MSM that President Bush is exactly who he states he is and always has been that person? As for his core beliefs and what keeps the man focused on the job, here is a quote from the tape.
"When Mr. Wead warned him that "power corrupts," for example, Mr. Bush told him not to worry: ‘"I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check."’"
This is well worth reading even with the spin. Why Wead would state that he is a "friend" of the family and gained nothing from releasing these tapes? In my opinion Wead should be told that his book will be boycotted. He is no friend of the Bush family, nor is he a friend to the United States, in my opinion. He taped the conversations for his own personal gain and thus should receive none. All the proof I need is the fact that the information was given to the most strident voice of hatred for our President, the New York Times. I would expect a 60minutes, Dan Rather report very soon.