The Drew Carey Project Continues

In this episode of the "Drew Carey Project", Drew continues his discussions about eminent domain.

Did You Notice?

Yesterday. Friday. Truth be told, not much happened. End of the work week... Everyone looking forward to getting away.

It actually was mentioned in many of the papers I took a peek at.

Day of Infamy...

December 7th...

An earlier generation's 9/11 (though not as quickly forgotten and pooh-poohed as ours)...

While "Remember Pearl Harbor!" has no more cachet these days than "Remember the Maine!" or "Remember the Alamo!" (though if you ask any Texans, they'll tell you that that last one is still pretty catchy), it still holds many lessons for us.

History often does, if one is willing to go to class.

Pearl Harbor introduced the American public to the concept of "It *CAN* happen here" as the Japanese ('Japs' in the no longer PC vernacular) reached out and touched American territory in a way not imagined.

Imagination. That is often our greatest failure, isn't it? So often, the warning signs, the information, is readily available to those who have the imagination to solve a jigsaw puzzle never before seen. Too often easily done in hindsight, the oft-ignorant conclusion is that accomplishing the same in foresight is simple and expected.

That in this War for Oil (WWII, folks), a nation could sortie a massive naval force, sail thousands of miles undetected, and launch a surprise attack that could massively cripple our forces, and violate the gentlemanly rules of war? Pah! All evidence to the contrary, it was difficult to *imagine* that such was possible... Or at the very least, remotely PROBABLE.

In the late 60's, NASA (and the nation) suffered the first deaths of astronauts aboard a spacecraft. No, not thousands of miles away, but on the ground, in full view of everyone... Why? For a myriad of reasons, but the fundamental one being a failure of imagination. For all the contingency plans, no one imagined a routine test aboard an unfueled rocket to be hazardous.

In aviation, many accidents are the result of the crew and aircraft getting trapped into a corner that no engineer ever imagined possible or a risk.

And with 9/11, we never imagined airliners being used as human-guided missiles to be a real, cogent threat.

Yet, it happened.

One of our first lessons, as a nation, in the need for imagination, was Pearl Harbor. We were pulled kicking and screaming from our safe cocoon into a war that had already enveloped the rest of the world for several years.

These days, there are fewer and fewer stewards of that memory walking amongst us. They are joining their shipmates at a rate that is sapping their dwindling number. Often, local Survivors' Associations have disbanded, due to a lack of membership. There's not many left to tell the tale, and even if there were, would we stop to listen?

December 7th comes annoyingly in the midst of the shopping season, party whirlwinds, and the more mundane facets of our hectic, blessed lives.

If we were to stop and listen to the tale, as it softly becomes a hoarse whisper, we'll be taught. We'll be reminded of the lesson that it *can* happen here; if only, you can imagine it. And remember, imagination does not solely belong to those who believe the American cause to be just and right.

Anyone can imagine...

Imagine what we will be remembering in the years and decades to come.

Thank You to Ben Stein

I've been a big fan of Ben Stein. From first seeing his deadpan delivery in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (is that movie really 21 years old?!?!), to enjoying his writings in his columns.

He's delightful. Witty. Intelligent.

Here's a little video for you...






(Thanks to "My Daily Rant" for both the link and the blogroll.)

Protection From Highly Offensive Material

We, as a nation, are blessed. We know this. And now, we've been happily saved from having to endure some extremely offensive material on our public airwaves.

Yes, NBC has refused to sell ad space to a despicable organization known for obscene and vile hate-filled material.

However, in the interest of free speech, I will be happy to enlighten you to those materials right here.

Click below to watch the rejected ads, foolishly submitted to NBC for airing to the nation. Be warned, this is SICK stuff.

See? Disgusting.

Oh wait, maybe it's just disgusting that NBC wouldn't want this material to air on their networks. Just so you know who you're watching...

Drew Carey Project - Episode 4

In this latest episode, Drew Carey explores the Dallas Police Department's raids on poker games at the local VFW.

Eminent Domain

The latest from the Drew Carey Project.

Eminent Domain is one of the quiet concerns that many people are unaware is even happening to the egregious level that it's reaching.

Take a peek.

Offensive to Religion

Just a short question... something to ponder, if you will.

Which do you think would be more offensive, insulting, and threatening to a world religion...

The artistic work "Piss Christ"...






or

a Teddy Bear named "Mohammed" by some seven year olds...




(Image from Teddybearfriends)


Just something to ponder...

Disgusting! or... You Get What You Pay For

Michelle Malkin has a wonderful little blurb up... I highly recommend you take a peek, but perhaps not after eating.

We always hear, as she reminds us, that people are doing the jobs Americans won't do. That Americans have priced ourselves out of certain jobs.

Perhaps, and I'm just going out on a limb here, we get what we pay for. And just maybe, we should be willing to demand a little bit more...

The Barbaric Six

A friend sent this to me from another blog, apparently Jerry Pournelle.

Thought it was worth sharing. Click on the link to go look.

The Barbaric Six

Well, in Louisiana the Reverend Jackson and other black leaders seem to be saying that if some high school students hang a rope from a tree, they get to burn down the school, beat a white kid senseless, and generally act like barbarians.

Liberals, who expect blacks to behave this way rather than to behave like citizens, encourage this sort of thing. They like feeling paternalistic. Having grown up in an aristocratic society where we were supposed to look out for blacks and defend them against the lower class crackers, I can tell them: it's not a job you really want. Encouraging people to be in tutelage rather than grow up doesn't have a very high payoff either psychologically or economically. I got the hell out of that society by joining the Army at age 17 (having convinced the recruiting officers I was 18; after all, I was a high school graduate), and I have not missed that aspect of the Old South since. I don't want to be responsible for other people who are expected not to act like adults.

Hanging a noose from a tree is not a crime. It's not a nice thing to do, but then rap music played at high volume accusing all women of being ho's and inviting violence against the police and authorities is not nice. Does that mean that if a group of kids decides to destroy the boom box and beat its owner senseless they should be justified and defended by marches? If so, then we are talking about revolution and ethnic cleansing, open warfare. Let them fight it out to exhaustion. Bring Iraq to Louisiana and Mississippi and California.

Is that really what the liberals who are flocking to Louisiana want?

I expect black and white citizens to act civilized, and finding excuses for barbarism does not seem like a worthwhile activity.

A New Low

A good friend from the great state of Alaska sent me this tidbit:

FROM: Sgt. Smith David Fitte,

Important Message,
Good day,
My name is David Smith Fitte, I am an American soldier, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq , as you know we are being attacked by insurgents everyday and car bombs. We managed to move funds belonging to Saddam Hussein’s family in 2003. The total amount is US$25 Million dollars in cash, mostly 100 dollar bills, this money has been kept somewhere outside Baghdad for sometime but with the proposed troop in increase by president Bush, we are afraid that the money will be discovered hence we want to move this money to you for safe keeping pending the completion of our assignment here. You can go to this web link to read about events that took place there:
(Link removed)
We are ready to compensate you with good percentage of the funds, No strings attached, just for you to help us move it out of Iraq. Iraq is a war zone, so we plan on using diplomatic means to shipping the money out as military cargo, using diplomatic immunity. If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can I trust you? When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone numbers for quick communication also your contact details.
This is risk free.
With regards from,
Sgt. David Smith Fitte.

This is just a new low. It's a variation on the theme of the famous "Nigerian" e-mail. And to imply that our troops are involved in this? Oh come on... What's worse? Just as the Nigerian e-mails keep coming because somebody replies to them, so will someone read this, believe it, and it will keep going.

Disgusting.

Just a Thought on Security

This passing thought occurred to me the other day.. Are we TOO secure?

Now, before you start ranting back with, "No, you fool! Don't you know the _____ are about to attack us ANY minute?! They could even already be here," let me explain.

At work, there's a sign listing our various threat conditions. There's FPCON ALPHA, THREATCON ORANGE, INFO ALERT LEVEL ONE, and HOMELAND SECURITY LEVEL ELEVATED.

I'm sure up at the Pentagon, there's still the DefCon.

And who knows what other threat scales are out there.

To send an email (once I've already logged on to our super-secure system, though the level of its neediness leads me to believe that it's a super-insecure system) requires THREE separate security checks. And that's just to forward the latest ha-ha that someone else sent to me.

To get onto base, we have very diligent guards carefully checking each ID. But, I also saw some Jehovah's Witnesses seeking some converts (even on a military base, I guess it never hurts to try to make a convert or two), so how tight can it be, even after the Fort Dix incident (and others I won't discuss here)?

Part of the problem is that there are so many threat scales. Is a condition of "Three" good or bad? Well, if it's on a scale of one to four, maybe not, but who's to say the scale doesn't go to twenty? Usually just the current status is displayed, not the whole scale. And is a "One" high or low?

If someone ran into the office saying, "They've just upped the InfoCon level to Bravo!" what do I do? Should I start burning important documents or maybe just not surf to the CNN.com website? Oh my!

Is Orange a good color or a bad one? And we've been at it for so long... What are the other colors like? I think a nice paisley alert level could be fun.

Oh, and when you fly (wait for it... I'm not going to go into the charade that we call Screening Security )... Want to amuse yourself? Often posted on clip-on signs above the "Wait-Here-in-This-Ridicuously-Long-Line-That-Has-Osama-Laughing-As-We-Pat-Down-Elderly-Wheelchairbound-Ladies" meandering maze of belts, you'll find warnings. Warnings! You may be flying out of Podunk International Airport, but the Director of Homeland Security, and the TSA, would blike to warn you that the airport in Kuala Lampur does not meet their standards of security.

Oh my! I quickly will point this out to the one hundred and fifty people behind me in line, in case their plans had them going there. Of course, it's more likely that they're going to another US airport, which recent news reports say have security that does NOT meet the standards of the Director of Homeland Security, and the TSA. (For those who aren't familiar, recent tests of security showed that the lil' ol' ladies, and possibly others from their bridge(bombing) clubs, were able to smuggle plenty of suspicious bomb parts past our crack security forces. And we worry about Kuala Lampur.)

Ok, so what's my point?

We, as a whole, make a big show about doing SOMETHING for security, but in the process, we end up doing nothing.

You can imagine the meetings, can't you? The Commander or Director goes around the table and asks, "In two weeks, I want to know what your departments are doing about security."

And two weeks later, they all come back. "Sir, we've instituted this Five-Level scale to let us know what our threat level is!" "Excellent work, Smith!"

And lo and behold, not to be out-done, the others ALSO develop scales in their departments. "Sir! Our scale is more nuanced... It has Six levels." "Ours uses colors so people can easily understand the threat.." (Because if there's anything more confusing than colors, it's the numbers one through five or the letters of the alphabet!)

So, we have all these systems to show just how hard we're working on security. Just like standing in that long line at the airport, it's a big show.

No one truly seems to understand our threats (pretty colors and letters aside) because we've become too focused on the show instead of the substance.

Let's put and end to this nonsense. Either we can ditch all this acting and admit what the enemy already knows (and deep down, so do we) - that it's a show OR we can come up with a coherent approach and really be serious about our security.

Otherwise, we're just inevitably making it easier for them by tangling ourselves in multicolored knots.

Support Our Troops

We continually here about how everyone "supports the troops". Right.

The "troops" need money. The Democrats are again playing with the funding bills trying to forestall them getting the money in hopes of convincing President Bush to pull them out.

He's said he has no intention of doing so.

They've made over one hundred attempts, all of which have failed.

And the troops still don't have their money.

But, they support the troops.

So, Senator Reid, while you're doing your political maneuvering to keep the Senate in session over Thanksgiving break (so the President doesn't sneak a recess appointment by you), how about PASSING THE APPROPRIATION BILLS?

Before the troops start running out of money.

Idle threat? Yeah, there are bottomless funds. Read here.

Support the troops. Put the money where your mouths are.

Kudos to Restaurant Manager

Yes, yes, I know... he's against the children.

But, he's also right.

When a mother could not quiet her screaming child (and possible allegations of her being disruptive as well), he asked her to leave the restaurant.

Yes!

Way to go.

And I say that as a single father. It's not always easy to get out. BUT, my enjoyment does not come at the expense of other's. All part of the joys of parenting. Sometimes, you don't get to eat out. Not with your kids.

If you're in the Louisville, KY, area, please patronize this restaurant.

And maybe, it wouldn't hurt to drop by www.ocharleys.com and let them know you support this manager!

With Soldiers Like These...

I know I am honored... and believe we ALL should be honored, to count Specialist Hoyt as one of our Army Strong Soldiers.

Don't know who he is?

Not surprised. I did a search for him on CNN.com. Nada.

So, maybe you'll need to mosey over to FoxNews to read about him.

Specialist Hoyt was injured in an IED blast on 13 November while he was on foot patrol. Five feet away from him, one of his comrades was killed by the blast.

What was his reaction?

Specialist Hoyt told his officers his job wasn't finished, and then... RE-ENLISTED!

Like I said... we should all be honored.

2nd Amendment Up for Review

The Supreme Court has agreed to review a case about the District of Columbia's personal handgun ban.

For the past 31 years, DC has banned private ownership of handguns. In CNN's story, Police Chief Cathy Lanier is quoted as saying, "I see the results of gun violence every day. The weakening of the district's gun law will inevitably lead to an increase in injury, and worse, death."

So, here's my question.

If guns are banned in DC, then... how are those gun deaths occurring? You mean, people are breaking the law??? What are those people called.... oh yes, Criminals. So apparently, the people using guns are the ones who are already predisposed to breaking the law. And the law-abiding ones aren't using guns.

And can't defend themselves.

Is the gun ban working?

I invite you to take a look at these statistics. DC is a small area. Very small. Look at all those murders, and other crimes. Rapes (last thing a woman needs when she's being raped is a handgun...), burglaries (can you imagine how relieved burglars are to know that the homeowners have NO defense?), etc...

It'll be interesting to see how the SCOTUS rules on this case. We can only hope that they don't parse "the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"... those of us out in the hinterland, even those educated at government indoctrination centers, can understand the simplicity of those words.

Previous postings on this subject: "Gun Control" and "I Mourn".

Mike Huckabee's First TV Ad

Mike Huckabee, Republican Candidate for President of the United States, has distributed his first TV ad.

It's different. A candidate with a sense of humor.

I like it.

Not your typical ad.



And when you're done, please wander over to his official website.

You Have GOT to be KIDDING Me!

The Associated Press is reporting that the mother and step-father of Tawana Brawley are wanting the State of New York to re-open the investigations into the `incident'.

"New York State owes my daughter. They owe her the truth," said Glenda Brawley. She reiterated her stance that her daughter was indeed raped by a group of white men who smeared her with feces and scrawled racial epithets on her body.

The truth.

If I recall, an investigation was thoroughly done. No evidence of any sexual assault was found.

In fact, subsequent allegations went a long way to disprove her allegations. To the point that legal liabilities were found against the Brawleys and Rev. Sharpton.

But now, the State of New York owes her. What, pray tell, will come forward twenty years later that wasn't discovered during the INTENSE media scrutiny twenty years ago?

She's even changed her name - to escape, no doubt, the stigma that has become associated with this case and how it's gone down in history. Yes, back in 1988, she was given a new, "beautiful" Muslim name.

By whom?

Louis Farrakhan. He did get a fairly good quote in the article...

Mr. Farrakhan, who had invited Miss Brawley to the convention, told an audience of 10,000 on Sunday that he also rejected the grand jury's findings, and he vowed vengeance on those who, he said, had attacked the girl. ''You raped my daughter and I will kill you and dismember your body and feed it to the fowl of the air,'' he said.

How very special. Once again, the Religion of Peace shines through.

Perhaps, just perhaps, it's she, and her family, who owe the state, and owe something to The Truth.

Until then, we're just wasting time.

Civilized Religion

Some people write better than I... one of those is Orson Scott Card. Want to pleasure your perusing palate? Take a peek.

Thoughts on Warren Buffett

On my other blog, I posted a quote by Warren Buffett, the ultra-rich uber-billionaire.

Recently, he testified before the Senate Finance Committee. He asked them not to eliminate the estate tax, saying, "I think we need to ... take a little more out of the hides of guys like me."

Mr. Buffett, may I make a suggestion? If you feel you have too much money, you could certainly help your country by writing a check (feel free to throw in a few extra zeroes) and mail it to:

Attn Dept G
Bureau Of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

The government requests you write "Gift to Reduce the Debt Held By the Public" in the memo space.

And since you don't think you pay enough, feel free to put extra stamps on the envelope, too.

But to arrogantly suggest how the government should tax those who make far less than you... well, that's spending other people's money. Speak for yourself. Write a check. It'll increase your credibility score.

Politician Wastes Words - Citizens Protest

Perhaps you've heard. The Southeast is suffering an extreme drought. Georgia is particularly anxious as they watch their lakes and rivers dip lower and lower.

The Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue (You can't make names like that up, can you?), has tried numerous efforts to alleviate the crisis. Encouraging water rationing, conservation... even negotiating with the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the flow of water to other states.

And there's not water water everywhere... perhaps soon, not enough to drink.

So, what's a Governor to do?

Governor Perdue decided to pray for rain. Apparently, it's not just a cliche.

And atheists are staging a protest.

Now, here's my question. Atheists don't believe in God. Or any god for that matter. So, therefore, in their mind and belief, Governor Perdue is... wasting his breath. Talking to thin air. Perhaps, at worst, offering a salve to his believing constituents.

So, if the Governor is merely talking, and not really praying, since there's no deity to which to pray, what's the fuss?

Heaven, er... God, er... hmmm, John Doe forbid that a politician ever give an empty, pointless speech... which to an atheist, is just what praying for rain would be, right?