Global Warming and Governmental Power

I had been thinking about a way to say something about the emails that have surfaced that show Global Warming to be a manufactured crisis, the reasons people have for lies like this, and where we go from here, and I noticed that once again, Borepatch has it covered. He links to another blog, The Devil's Kitchen, that hammers the facts out in a very clear order. It is worth the click to read it, and done much better than anything I would have put together.

On the whole topic of global warming, or health care reform, or the government's response to the economic crisis, I would say this. When police are investigating crime, they follow the money. Most crime, if you stay on track with the money, you can unravel what transpired. When you are investigating the government and politicians, follow the power. Lots of times, that means money also, but not always. Power, both personally and organizationally, is what governments are about.

Any crisis can be used to promote consolidation of power, in the name of protecting the people, and that consolidation invariably results in further limits on the freedoms of the citizens.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
--Thomas Jefferson

Saturday Morning

The fire was still going in the wood stove when I woke up. I put a couple of smaller split branches in and sat down to write a post. It is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I'll be leaving for the range in a couple of hours. There is a USPSA match this morning.

I had a couple of things to post about. Thanksgiving day was spent with friends. Four families gathered. Eleven adults over 30, four young adults, five children. All of us connected by various bonds of family relationships or long years of friendship. I am thankful for that day, all those people, the meal we shared.

In the afternoon after the meal, we went out on the property to a small berm that had been pushed up and set up a range. It was all .22s except for one 9mm carbine. An array that included my Grandfather's 1934 Colt Woodsman. Three people that had never shot before, one adult and two children, got their first safety instruction and took their very first shots with my Grandfather's pistol. I can think of no better use for it. When I spoke with my Mother later in the evening and told her about it, she reminisced about learning to shoot with that gun as a little girl. I am thankful for my relationship with her and that her Dad's old pistol has come to me.

I had Friday off, and spent the morning with a friend cutting and splitting firewood. It was the last load from an oak tree I cut down earlier in the summer. The tree was dead and I had cut it down as a favor, the wood was a bonus. Being the last load, it was the twisted parts, the knots and hard to split last rounds near the stump.

Between a maul and some wedges, and judicious application of chainsaw, we finished the job. There may have be more wood to be gathered before the winter is over, but the pile is in pretty good shape for now. I am thankful for that, as well.
It's close to freezing outside and the iron box is doing it's job. On a cold morning, a warm house is a thing to be especially thankful for.

I have four sons. All young adults now. All are healthy and are at various stages of their lives. I am thankful for them, for all the experiences we have shared, for who they have become, and the opportunities still before them.

Most of all I am thankful for the woman that has chosen, and continues to chose to, share her life with me. There has been nothing better in my life than that.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.
--Meister Eckhart

A Proclamation from Pr. Lincoln

The Thanksgiving Day Proclamation from Pr. Lincoln in 1863. Not a lot of separation of church and state here. Not any doubt about who he is thanking. He established the last Thursday in November to be a day of thanksgiving to "our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens". I hope that each of you has a such a day. Don't eat too much.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
--Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863

Censorship

Everything you can write or draw offends someone. Whether it is meaningful political dialogue or an ugly parody, the United States has had a tradition of free speech. Want to make fun of the King of England, the President of the United States, make an outrageous caricature of a politician you dislike? You can do it, and the 1st Amendment to the Constitution protects your right to do so.

Don't think much of the President, make him look like a monkey. Don't like the Vice-President, have the feeling he is evil incarnate? Dress him up in PhotoShop to look like the devil. Want to make a comment on the recent Republican candidate for Vice-President? Slap a pig nose on her face and get all your friends to say what an artistic and insightful guy you are. But if you dislike the Obamas, you better just keep it to yourself. No PhotoShop for you, you racist. Satire not permitted.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
--Noam Chomsky

Cultural Differences

Not every culture is similar. It's hard to understand the mores and values of people that grew up in such different circumstances. Being an person that grew up in the United States I, of course, cannot make the leap of understanding necessary to understand this.

If one man did it, I could see him as a monster. What I don't understand is how thousands of men can do this to their wives and women they claim to love.

It would wrong to pass judgment, though. Better to coexist.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
--Blaise Pascal

But If You Need Someone Else

If, perhaps, you lack belief in things beyond what you can see and touch, here is someone else you can thank on Thursday.

That's what we do, We're Americans.
--Unknown Navy Corpman, April 6th, 2003,
15 miles from Baghdad

Who Are We Thanking?

We can thank each other, we can be grateful for the sacrifices made by others on our behalf. Our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends can all do things for us that we cannot repay. On Thursday, when we gather with those we love and give thanks, who are we thanking?

We call it Thanksgiving. Who are we thanking? Lets take the wayback machine, Mr. Peabody, and read the Congressional Proclamation from 1782. First, an image of the original and then the quoted text. Note the capital letters as emphasis are in the original. Happy Thanksgiving.

By the United States in Congress assembled.

PROCLAMATION.

IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.
--JOHN HANSON, President.
--Charles Thomson, Secretary.

When the News Media Fails II

This may be come a regular feature.

Someone stopped buses on Mindanao, took off the people and shot, tortured, raped, beheaded, etc. at least 24 of them. "Gunmen" they were called. Who were these gunman? Why did they do it? Once again, the MSM fails. This is over 100 gunmen. Takes some reason to get that many armed people worked up. Particularly when you want them to rape and behead unarmed women. But I looked around, and just to be fair I found the story being reported on the Huffington Post. Ok, I'll quote them. Then someone can tell me why this isn't terrorism, how it's all so peaceful, and rock me back to sleep.

The coastal province of Maguindanao is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was created as part of a 1996 peace agreement with a large Muslim rebel group.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The last elections in 2007 were considered peaceful, even though about 130 people were killed.

The decades-long Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s. But a presidential adviser, Jesus Dureza, said Monday's massacre was "unequaled in recent history.
--Hrvoje Hranjski, Huffington Post 11/23/2009

The Outcome of Gun Control

The VFW in the Midlothian neighborhood of Chicago held a fundraiser to help pay to take WWII veterans to the new memorial in Washington, D.C. They did pretty well. The Post Commander, William Burtner, was on his way to the bank to deposit $2000 when he was robbed.

William had served two tours of combat in Vietnam. He had been active in his VFW post for 25 years. He had cancer, had undergone surgery, and was currently taking chemotherapy.

He was beaten, slammed to the ground, and his ribs broken. He died from the injuries.

Disarming the citizens means that criminals rove in packs, it means that the weaker, the slower, the older, and the sick are easy prey. Here's a quote from the article in the Chicago Sun-Times:

The robbery outside A.J. Smith Federal Bank in Midlothian on Monday was similar to two other robberies that occurred in Oak Lawn last week. All three robberies targeted victims who just made or were about to make bank transactions.

If Mr. Burtner had been armed, would the outcome have been different? Perhaps. Perhaps the criminals that beat him to death would not have attempted the robbery at all. Perhaps he would have drawn his weapon and they would have run. Perhaps he would have had to shoot one of them.

The current outcome of Illinois law is a dead war hero, beaten to death on the way to the bank to deposit money raised for a good cause. How is that outcome moral?

The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference, they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
-- George Washington

Guadalcanal

From a diary kept by Cpl. Rube Garrett, and his reflections and research years later, comes this website about the battle for Guadalcanal.



Starting here, you can read the diary entries, and then there are links to details, history, short biographies, and some pictures of Guadalcanal then and now.

Col. 'Chesty' Puller had organized interlocking fields of fire along the ridges and reinforced his flanks with heavy machine guns and anti-tank artillery. That night, as wave after wave of attacking Japanese rolled in through driving rain, Puller called 11th Artillery Commander Col. Pedro del Valle. "Give us all you've got. We're holding on by our toenails."

"I'll give you all you call for, Puller", del Valle replied," but God knows what'll happen when the ammo we have is gone".

"If we don't need it now, we'll never need it. If they get through here tonight there won't be a tomorrow", Puller thundered.

"She's yours as long as she lasts", responded del Valle.
--Colonels Puller and Del Valle at the battle of Matanikou River

The Few

Pay attention at 2 minutes and 40 seconds. There is no expiration date.

I do solemnly swear...
--The Oath

A Small Surprise

In what seems like a moment of sanity, USA Today has printed an opinion piece on why trying terrorists in our criminal courts is a very bad idea. I concur with the author while being surprised to see it in print.

I would only like to add that our enemies have shown themselves to be very adept at manipulating the systems and freedoms of our country. This trial may not end in convictions, and it may spur other assets already in place to attack us again.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
-- Sun Tzu

When the News Media Fails

When facts are reported without context, the news media fails. A woman named Geeta Aulukh was attacked and murdered on a London Street. In the British papers, the report mentions her name, the fact that she died of a head injury, and that her husband and 5 others have been arrested. Here's the BBC report.

It took several searches, and finally in the Times of India and the Argentina Star (Australia) I start to find some background information. She was separated from her husband, planning a divorce. She was married to a Sikh, and had some sort of mark on her right hand that signified that marriage. He and 5 of his friends attacked her, cut off her right hand and scalped her. She died in a hospital 4 hours later.

It was an honor killing. She had been afraid for months. She had reason to be. Whatever protections the British government provided her were inadequate. She was mutilated and left to die for her husband's primitive ideas about marriage, possession of women as property, and honor. Political correctness does none of us any good if it gets in the way of the truth.

I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand.
--Susan B. Anthony

The Navy Cross

A lot of people will remember this picture. It's become one of the iconic pictures of the war.
I remember because I noticed that the Marine, though wounded and bleeding, maintained control of his weapon and still had trigger discipline.

I found who the wounded Marine is. He is 1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal. On November 13th, 2004, during the battle for Fallujah, he led a squad of Marines into an enemy occupied house to rescue some trapped Marines. It was a killing zone, a trap. He and the other Marines knew that when they entered the building, but there were Marines trapped inside, so they went. He was shot seven times and had pieces of shrapnel from a grenade explosion embedded in his body. A body he used to deliberately shield another wounded Marine from that blast. Badly wounded, he had lost 60% of his blood volume before he reached help. It took him months to walk again. He came back to active duty and has been promoted to Sgt. Major.

Like a long line of Marines before him, he went through the training, he served for years, he slowly climbed the ranks, and then one day in Fallujah, he did what he saw as his duty, and the rest of us got a chance to know what sort of man he is. The Navy Cross has honor because Sgt. Kasal wears it, not the other way around. That's what a Navy Cross means. The Navy Cross does not make Sgt. Major Kasal heroic. He is heroic. He not alone. Here is a list, and the accompanying citations, for all the recipients of the Medal of Honor, the Air Force Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross since 9/11.

I'll quote his.

For extraordinary heroism while serving as First Sergeant, Weapons Company, 3d Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 13 November 2004. First Sergeant Kasal was assisting 1st Section, Combined Anti-Armor Platoon as they provided a traveling over watch for 3d Platoon when he heard a large volume of fire erupt to his immediate front, shortly followed by Marines rapidly exiting a structure. When First Sergeant Kasal learned that Marines were pinned down inside the house by an unknown number of enemy personnel, he joined a squad making entry to clear the structure and rescue the Marines inside. He made entry into the first room, immediately encountering and eliminating an enemy insurgent, as he spotted a wounded Marine in the next room. While moving towards the wounded Marine, First Sergeant Kasal and another Marine came under heavy rifle fire from an elevated enemy firing position and were both severely wounded in the legs, immobilizing them. When insurgents threw grenades in an attempt to eliminate the wounded Marines, he rolled on top of his fellow Marine and absorbed the shrapnel with his own body. When First Sergeant Kasal was offered medical attention and extraction, he refused until the other Marines were given medical attention. Although severely wounded himself, he shouted encouragement to his fellow Marines as they continued to clear the structure. By his bold leadership, wise judgment, and complete dedication to duty, First Sergeant Kasal reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
--Citation for the Navy Cross awarded to Sgt. Major Bradley Kasal

Shitbird

shitbird -n (shĭtbûrd)

1. A completely useless individual who is unaware of his/her own complete uselessness.

2. A slang term used to describe an unsat Marine.

3. A guy that only hangs out and isn't cool or trustworthy. His most note-worthy characteristic is that he shamelessly tries to hook up with your ex-girlfriends or your friends' ex-girlfriends while still trying to be a part of the group. A shitbird is arrogant, stupid, and difficult to shoo off. (see buddyfucker)

Except that Steven Barton isn't even a respectable shitbird. I can could like, respect, even give my girlfriend to a shit bird that at least had made it through boot camp, become a Marine, and then behaved like a 'bird.

This guy put on the uniform, pretended to be a Master Gunnery Sergeant, while wearing the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and a chestful of honor that he stole.

His undoing came when, not content to be an enlisted man, he dressed up like a Lt. Colonel and went to a high school reunion. A real Navy officer, suspicious of the rank and the ribbons displayed, posed for a photograph with him, then sent the photo to the FBI. They investigated, and now he has been arrested. Among other things, he had been blogging, claiming the enlisted rank and talking about all the things he'd done and seen.

He could get a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. I doubt that will happen, and it wouldn't be much of a punishment, anyway. Dropping him off on Parris Island to spend a day with a platoon of Marines that just earned the Eagle, Globe and Anchor might be fun, as long as we got video. Making him work as an orderly in a VA hospital every weekend for 10 years might be justice.

Now, understand, I wasn't anything special. I was a Sergeant, I worked on airplanes, went on deployments, served 6 years and got an honorable discharge. It was the Cold War, no one was shooting at me. The hardest thing I had to do was go to Japan for 6 months three weeks after my first child was born.

There are Marines out there that earned the honors that Steven Barton stole. There are Master Gunnery Sergeants, and Lt. Colonels, and a few living recipients of the Navy Cross. Twelve of them should be empaneled as the jury.

Dishonor is worse than death.
--Bhagavad Gita

Old Gun Magazines

No, not the ones that you keep meaning to buy new springs and followers for. I mean old copies of American Rifleman and Guns and the like. Guns Magazine is still around, and has a nice website, with a lot of articles available online.

I visit that site because they offer something else as well. Once a month they post a magazine from 50 years ago as a downloadable PDF file. So, this month's is November 1959. The previous month is always left up, so you can get October 1959 as well.

The old magazines really interest me. October's articles include a first look at the "new" Armalite AR-15 on page 12, a feature on Camp Perry matches, an couple of good hunting stories, and a very interesting writeup on homemade weapons in Cuba. Added to that are the letters, the regular columns, and pages of ads for new guns and old surplus specials. Nothing like looking at an ad for a "Garand Sniper Rifle $107.95, while they last!!" and "Lee Enfield VG to Excellent $16.95!!" to make you wish that your grandfather had been more of a collector.

There are hints of the future, as well. Concerns about pending legislation, grumbling about the way guns and gun ownership are portrayed on television, and perhaps most ominous of all, tucked in the back is an ad for a newly imported automobile.

FINE AUTOMOTIVE VALUE for sportsmen is the hand crafted six passenger, 4 door Toyopet Station Wagon. This model will be placed in your local dealer's showroom soon by Toyota Motor Distributors, Inc., 6032 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calif. or 2906 W. Peterson, Chicago, III. Toyopet for 1959 is now entering the American market direct from Japan. Overall length of Station Wagon Model No. RS 26V is 172.4"; overall width, 66.1"; height 61.0"; weight, 2833 lbs. Top speed 80 mph, fuel consumption 33 mpg
--Guns Magazine, October 1959, Pg. 58

It Isn't Accidental

Most of what we call accidents are not. They are negligence. Texting while driving, negligent. Driving while intoxicated, negligent. Driving a car with bald tires, negligent. If any of these results in a collision, why do we call it an accident?

So too with firearms. When you leave a loaded firearm where an untrained 8 year old can pick it up and shoot his 2 year old sister, it is not an accident. The two year old is dead. The older brother will live with it for the rest of his life. The parents face several criminal charges. Negligence that resulted in death.

Here are some more.

Police say 28-year-old David Dunlop had just finished cleaning and loading his shotgun Saturday when he pointed the gun out the window and fired, thinking there was not a shell in the chamber(striking and critically wounding a 9 year old).

Daniel Otto Cermak, 77, was hunting with a 30-30 lever action rifle when it discharged and hit him in the chest.

Investigators with the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis say 22-year-old Zondra Garner of East St. Louis accidentally shot herself Monday with a gun that relatives say she bought the day before for her protection.

Medford police are considering charges against the stepfather of a 4-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the foot.

A 12-year-old boy killed his young cousin in Atascosa County Sunday night when authorities said he accidentally fired on him with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Hampton University says a basketball player is in critical condition after being accidentally shot.

All of these incidents have at least two things in common. They were all found by searching today's Google News for "accidental shooting" and none of them was an accident. A muzzle was pointed at another person and a trigger was pulled. None of these happened because the gun was unsafe, none of these happened because the "gun just went off". Even in the cases where it was a child pulling the trigger, the gun was left unsecured and the child picked up the gun, pointed it and pulled.

The first rule is muzzle control. If the muzzle never covers anything you can't stand to have a new hole in, no matter what else happens it will be okay. Don't point it at yourself. Don't point it anyone else that you aren't willing to watch die. If you do point it at someone else, even just sweeping the muzzle past them, you have been negligent. If no one gets shot and you don't get arrested, you have been lucky, nothing more.

Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves.
--Owen Felltham

The 234th Birthday Message

The 234th Birthday Message from the Commandant and the Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps

Every moment in his life led up to those six seconds in Ramadi that morning.
--Christian Haerter, father of LCpl Jordan Haerter

Meet the New Boss

I had a discussion yesterday with a young Democrat who is also a strong supporter of Pr. Obama. She was supporting the health care bill as passed by the House of Representatives and in her impassioned justification, she said a very interesting thing. She said it was okay to force people to pay a fee or a tax to pay for health care. That she fully understood people would be forced to pay for health care services that went to other people, but that it was just as it should be.

I sidetracked the conversation as best I could to explore this. She said, and I think rightly, that we are already forced to pay Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, that this is really no different. That the laws force many things on us we would not choose to support, and all of them have the threat of men with guns coming to arrest us and jail us if we do not comply.

She sees this as a good thing, civic responsibility under duress as a necessity to make things more fair. That the labor a person does is only their duty, and as much as needed may be taken from them to fill the coffers and be dispensed as the government decides. She also said, openly and plainly, that as long as the outcome was desirable, force was the best way, sometimes the only way, to get people to comply with whatever was deemed best by the leaders.

I found this strangely liberating, to see the honest naked face of raw power being earnestly promoted as a good. See, I thought the Democrats believed they were being different. It actually made me feel better to know it's the same old struggle for power, using the same old force, trying to create a utopia out of some misbegotten ideas that have already failed several times in spectacular ways in the last 100 years.

Since force is good, and can be used to gain compliance, I can think of lots of things everyone could be made to do. Parades are always fun. Not a messy parade with people waving flags and thinking they are free, old fire trucks and little kids being pulled in little red wagons. No. A nice orderly parade of people who have been forced to think correctly.
Here's the new approved bumper sticker right from the government printing office. Make sure everyone you know has one in the approved bumper sticker location, we wouldn't there to be any misunderstandings.

There's lots more I can think of. We can clean up the streets, put everyone to work, fix the environment, provide free health care, eliminate crime, all without any debate or concern about rights or freedoms. It's going to be paradise.

In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that any one else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force.
--Mahatma Gandhi

The Walls of Communism

There were walls, frontiers built and manned to keep people from fleeing the Worker's Paradises in eastern Europe. Mined, fenced, guarded by soldiers ordered to shoot. Borepatch has a post about the way it really was. It's one of his best.

Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity - in short, of tyranny - and it is committed to making tyranny universal.
--Adlai E. Stevenson

That's One

D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad was gently and quietly put to sleep at 9:11 P.M. today.

So for the week, we are 13-1 here on our home court. Our 13 died screaming. I'd say we're losing.

Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Happy Birthday, Devil Dogs

The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.
--Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing, U.S. Army
Commander of American Forces in World War I

From the Imam Anwar al-Awlaki

Someone took the website down, but Google cache remembers. Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleic that used to run a mosque that Major Hasan attended came out is support of the Major's actions. It is easier for me to accept Major Hasan's attack and these words of support than it is to accept the Army officers turning themselves inside out trying to come up with some other explanation. They might want to check their sources. According to ABC News, the CIA told the Army months ago that Major Hasan was trying to contact Al Qaeda.

Here, as a long quote, are Anwar al-Awlaki's own words of loving support for Major Hasan.

Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges. Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal. The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation. The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy. Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment – Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137) The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims. May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act.
--Anwar al-Awlaki

Four Minutes

Four minutes. According to the Wall Street Journal, that's how long it took before someone with a gun showed up and stopped the Ft. Hood shooter. In that time, 13 people were killed and 30 were wounded.

When you call 911, how long before an officer shows up? Last time in my neighborhood it was 25 minutes, I know because I sat on the steps with with my neighbor and her children while we waited. But even if an officer was there in four minutes, a lot could happen before he arrives.

Plan on being alone and responsible for your own defense.

When we're on Ft. Hood, we don't carry weapons.
--Gen. Cone, Base C.O.

Oleg Volk

Oleg Volk gets it.

Even if we set aside the question of whether a lifelong Muslim that shouted "Allah Akbar!" as he shot U.S. soldiers was motivated by his beliefs, the question of why all our soldiers aren't trained and armed in their own defense is a valid one.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart.
--Blaise Pascal

The Worst Bill Ever

From the Wall Street Journal: The Worst Bill Ever. It is that. It is the bell tolling for the end of the country as we have known it. They picked a novel approach, and once passed, the system will be so entrenched there will be no going back.
Here's a visual aid from Red Planet Comics:

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
--John Adams, July 17, 1775

Pay the Pelosi Tax or Go to Jail

From the Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Rep. David Camp comes the confirmation, if H.R. 3962 passes, willful failure to maintain a acceptable level of health insurance means you will go to jail and pay heavy fines. That acceptable policy's annual cost? $15,000. That's right. Fifteen thousand dollars. How many families in America that are uninsured now will be able to pay that?

In the history of the country, we have never been forced to buy anything by the government. The arrogance of the authors of this bill knows no boundaries. They not only are ignoring the legal framework under which they govern, they feel no shame about it.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?
--Will Rogers

Mindset for War

If you can get past Harry Smith, here is an interview with the Commanding General of Ft. Hood.
The quote from the General that hammered it home for me, "When we're on Ft. Hood, we don't carry weapons.", is about halfway through the interview. Why the hell not? The enemy was. He got to keep shooting people until someone with weapons showed up.

Si vis pacem, para bellum
(If you want peace, prepare for war)
-- Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Roman military strategist

Looking Back

The last time this many American Soldiers were killed in a military action inside the continental United States was in the Modoc War in 1873. Now we have a new war, being fought by an enemy that wears our uniforms, shakes our hand, takes our oath, and then acts out of a fanaticism to kill, maim, and terrify as many people as possible. There are families all over America that will be burying their children in the coming days. Young men who died without weapons in their hands, on a U.S. Army base, shot by one of their own officers because he was a traitor to the United States. It is time and past time to see this for what it really is. A clash of civilizations that we can yet lose.

In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.
--Croesus

War

The Islamic War visited Ft. Hood today. 12 dead, 31 wounded as of the last report. U.S. Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan and two as yet unnamed companions took firearms and did just I expect them to do. They followed their beliefs, heard the call of Osama to kill Americans whenever and wherever possible, and acted.

This is treason in time of war. Courts-marshal and a firing squad would be an appropriate punishment if they are convicted.

One thing is certain, as long as we tolerate it, it will continue.

To kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque [Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.

--Osama bin Laden
___________________________________
Update
The suspect is wounded and in custody. The other two soldiers are not considered suspects at this time. More information is coming out. From ABC News: Maj. Hasan has two brothers, one in the United States, the other in Jerusalem. His cousin described him as a pious lifelong Muslim.

It's Just Children Singing

Recent news articles have reported a series of videos found praising Pr. Obama. 11 have surfaced. It would be interesting to research how many school classes are doing this and not recording it. In America, we salute the flag and take an oath to the Constitution. We do not sing the praises of politicians. That leads to bad things.

About 75 years ago, a leader arose in a western country. He was beloved and worshiped. He talked of grand plans, of remaking his country. Of peace and strength. Here, I offer you a short video of a speech he made to a gathering of children. Read the translations at the bottom of the screen as he speaks to the youth of his country about his love for them, his belief in all good things, and look at how they respond.
The children were indoctrinated, they prayed to Adolf Hitler before they ate, sang songs of praise set to old church hymns. If Nazism had not been stopped by the Allies, where would it have ended?

When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.
--Adolf Hitler

Constitutional Authority

The purpose of the Constitution is to define clear limits on the power of the Federal government. Here, in clear terms, is an article about how our current political leadership treats their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
--Thomas Jefferson

What You Make of the Time

Sometimes, even when it's damp and rainy, a hike gives you a moment like this. When I look back over the years, these are the times I remember, the days we spent in the woods and on the water. Whatever struggles have fallen in between, if someone had come back in time and showed me a video of our recent trip together and told me that was my future, I would choose it all again.

Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.
--Raymond Inmon

More Hate Crime

Try googling "honor killings in europe". Don't flinch. Don't look away.

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that around 5,000 girls and women in at least 14 countries, among them Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey, were killed yearly because their families felt they brought dishonor on them.

And how many women live their lives in fear, kept from freedom by the oppression of a religion that permits no escape?

An update to the last post, Noor Faleh Almaleki, the young woman run down by her father, has died. Thus restoring her father's honor, I suppose.

Treat women well for they are like domestic animals and they possess nothing themselves. Allah has made the enjoyment of their bodies lawful in his Qur'an.
--Tabari IX:113

Now This is a Hate Crime

This guy hates his daughter. Hates her lifestyle. Hates her boyfriend. Hates, hates, hates. Why does he hate so much? Because she didn't accept the arranged marriage he set up. Because she dresses like a normal American. Because he doesn't have total and utter control of her life. Because he doesn't own her like property. It makes him hate. It makes him seethe. It makes him take his motor vehicle and run her down like a dog and then flee the country.

Noor Faleh Almaleki is 20. She's in critical condition in a hospital in Arizona. Her father has been returned to the U.S. when Britain refused him entry and he has been arrested. He should be charged with a federal hate crime. Think it's likely?

Meanwhile, in Florida, 17 year old Christian convert Rifqa Bary is being returned to her parents in Ohio. How long do you think she will be in Ohio before they force her to travel to a Muslim country? Because they hate her new beliefs, and she is an apostate. Florida is sending her to her death. Everyone involved in permitting this, including us, is culpable. We have stood aside, like good citizens, and not asked any questions. When we as a society fail to act to save her from the coming hate crime, we accept and share in it. Here's her picture. I expect to see it in the news again sometime soon.

There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum. When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything.
-- Richard von Weizsaecker