Decency and Kindness before Politics

Last night, while standing duty as the duty armorer and surrounded by weapons of all kinds, I could not help but think of the evil that had reared its ugly head in Virginia earlier that day. I decided that I was not going to post an opinion on the issue because, as a father of two little girls, I felt it would be a disservice to the families and friends of the victims to politicize their grief. If only the MSM could show such restraint.

Less than 24 hours after the tragic events at Virginia Tech, the media on both sides of the isle have immediately gone straight to the arguments over the second amendment, gun rights, gun control laws and what they deem the stupidity of the other side’s position. While I do have my own views concerning these issues I vehemently refuse to discuss them here today.

What I do want to discuss today is the absolutely disgusting editorial written by Michael Daly of the New York Daily News. I want to discuss the article that begins, “Still love those guns, Virginia?”, then follows up with, “Ready to admit that it's madness for any psycho to be able to saunter into a gun shop and acquire firepower capable of killing 32 innocents? Feel different now that the blood is the blood of so many of your most promising young people?” and, "What do you say now, Virginia?" (Emphasis added)

This article is an affront to common decency. It is the biggest case of I told you so I have ever seen and blatantly implys that the people of Virginia and the families involved in this incident do not care for anyone but themselves. The apparent glee shown by Daly while rubbing salt in the wounds of 32 families who could not care one wit about his political agenda boils down to nothing short of sadism. His statements, even if they bare a semblance of truth, blaming the state of Virginia for gun control problems in New York City, are untimely, lacking in any tact and are the most gleefully hateful misuse of a newspaper column ever written. Michael Daly has used this tragedy to chastise liberal moderates in his own party and Republicans in Virginia by viciously telling them and even more disgustingly the families of the victims that, hey you reap what you sow and you have gotten exactly what you deserve.

(Read full article here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/04/17/2007-04-17_yes_virginia_guns_kill_innocents-2.html)

While I am the most fervent defender of our freedom of speech, I am equally a proponent of individual responsibility. It is quite obvious that Michael Daly has no concept of the power he wields and the responsibility that should, you would think, come with his position. This is not about political correctness, this is about human kindness, it is about all of us taking a long enough breath after such an evil event to at least find an ounce of pity or empathy for the survivors before we plunge head long into the inevitable political fight that always ensues.

In writing this article Michael Daly has set himself up as no better that the members of the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at the funeral of a Soldier, Sailor, Airmen or Marine. It is equally hateful and morally equivalent. If Don Imus deserved to be fired for his irresponsible remarks, then why not Michael Daly? His remarks are least as equally hateful. Unfortunately the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton, the self appointed wardens of morality, are highly unlikely to rear their heads in this particular incident.

Mortimer Zuckerman, the owner of the rag that saw fit to print this disgrace should be ashamed of himself for ever allowing this to go to print or for hiring editors that would allow it. Could you have at least waited a week, or even 48 hours? We preach freedom in this country and to the world; maybe we should preach accountability for the use of those freedoms to ourselves.

God bless and Keep everyone at Virginia Tech. You are in my thoughts and prayers and this is not your fault. It is the fault of one evil man and no excuse for this should be given credence.

To everyone else please use the below information to express your contempt for this flagrant attack upon the victims at Virginia Tech. They deserve your support.

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Got Milk?

Sitting at the dinner table with my wife tonight, she mentioned that she had seen some news online about Rudy Giuliani getting beat up over thinking the price of milk was a $1.50. I almost choked on the glass of milk I was drinking while eating my fried ham slice and potatoes. (None of which I have any idea what I paid for and I only bought them this afternoon) The choking was caused due to the time warp I was thrown through back to the Presidential campaign of 1988 and the urban myth of Bush 41 not knowing what a check-out scanner at the grocery store was. Oh how little times have changed.

While Rudy really did screw this one up, the question I have to ask is….Who cares? I’m sure the MSM does and I’m sure if he does get the nomination this story will grow new legs, but who else really cares. The man is running for President of the United States. Not milk man.

If there is anyone out there who honestly believes that the President of the United States does his own shopping or even pays for it out of his own pocket then they are short a few cents themselves. People who run for President have generally been in Public Service or Office for years. There time is dedicated to their jobs. Developing policy, dealing with crisis, or at least dodging criminal charges. Other people take care of the day to day necessities.

While I suppose if I were President I could get someone to run down to the quickie mart and find out the cost of something just so I can be ready for the reporters, I would also hope that I would be more concerned about issues somewhat more pressing than how much my next glass of chocolate milk is going to set me back.

The fact that the left has already latched on to this in the media just sheds more light on the lack of substantial ideas the Democrats are putting forth to address the actual issues of the day.

We Must be American's 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. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

These words from 2,400 years ago prove relevant once again today as they define the loss to Islamic terrorism that the United States will suffer should the Democratic Party retain control of this nation’s congress and capture the White House in 2008. The defeat will not be because the Democratic party wants to lose, or hates America, or is the party of cut and run. They will lose because they are fundamentally unequipped to grasp the mind, tactics and strategy of an enemy that is directly antithetical to who and what the Liberal, Secular Humanist, Democratic Party has become.

Secular humanists are generally non-theists. Secular humanists contend that issues concerning ethics, appropriate social… conduct, are philosophical and are not part of the domain of religion, which deals with the supernatural, mystical and transcendent.

Secular humanism, then, is a philosophy and world view which centers upon human concerns and employs rational and scientific methods to address the wide range of issues important to us all. http://www.secularhumanism.org/

This philosophy of non-religion and moral relativism, where morality can only be individual or culturally specific denies what the common man knows. That some things are right and some are wrong and the majorities of these transcend cultural and personal perspectives and are intrinsic to what it is to be human. As our rights have been bestowed upon us by our creator and are inalienable, so too is the basic morality of humanity.

That the Left has embraced this is evident in the contempt shown towards those who subscribe to a God given morality and code of ethical behavior. The President is ridiculed and called simple-minded for openly professing his belief and viewing the world from that point. Evangelicals are referred to as redneck Christians and the lunatic wing of the Right. They complain that Republicans only win elections when issues such as gay marriage are on the ballot and the religious right comes out to vote their intolerance and hate. Our beliefs, values and culture as a nation that is 85- 90% Christian are marginalized as intolerant, bigoted and racist and in no way superior to that of any other nation or people.

This mindset alone might not prove a danger to this nation had it not been wed to, or formed a committed civil union with, the politically correct and enslaved to tolerance Liberals that dominate the power structure of the Democratic Party.

The liberal and “enlightened” elite’s devotion at the altar of multiculturalism and tolerance threaten to destroy the fabric of which the United States has been woven since its founding. Concepts such as a living constitution distort the principles on which this nation was founded. The Left’s unwavering acceptance of any culture, belief or morality as equal to or superior to our own is intellectually dishonest and is done at the expense of our moral grounding and national strength and unity. It unequivocally divides us.

The people of this nation are not perfect and that includes our founders. Yet the ideals and principles that were set down at its inception are worthy of struggle, strife and yes, judgments that might place them above others. Devaluing these ideals by placing them on the same level as or no better than that of nations and ideologies that oppress, enslave and brutally control their peoples is a disservice to every man, woman and child that have ever sought the freedoms that we so casually enjoy. Tolerance is not and should not be blind acceptance.

These principles, enshrined by the Left, make the Left fundamentally incapable of understanding the motivations of Islamic terrorists that are driven by beliefs, morals, principles and a religion that they unabashedly profess is superior to all others. The attempts to recast terrorist’s actions as politically motivated and based on American foreign policy, oppression and support of Israel is intellectually sophomoric and possibly national suicide. It is a denial of what the terrorists themselves profess. They seek to destroy us because we deny them the Islamic caliphate which they feel is ordained. They seek to destroy us because we do not subscribe to their belief in the Shahada, “That there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” How they obtain this goal is not consequential to them for that which is good for Islam must be good. From the mindset of an Islamic terrorist, the ends will always justify the means. If not, bombs would not be strapped to the chests of children. Babies would not be placed in cars in order to allow the terrorists posing as parents to avoid checkpoints only to be left in the vehicle when it is detonated.

The Islamists use our own beliefs against us. They excoriate us for our lack of tolerance and what they claim to be oppression of the Muslim community. They avail themselves of our most precious rights of freedom of speech and religion to preach hate and to demean us as hypocrites while at the same time protesting violently when we seek to assert these rights for ourselves. Whether it is Muslims rioting violently in the streets because someone drew a cartoon, or a German judge declaring that it was okay for a Muslim husband in Germany to beat his wife because Sharia law allows it, or six Imams intentionally inciting the fears of plane passengers in a contrived publicity stunt designed to allow them to once again claim the rights that they would deny others, the results are the same. The Left demands that we subjugate our values for those openly professed by our enemy. We are told to have patience, to tolerate, to accept that which by our own standards is unacceptable while the radical Islamists continue to live and grow among us, asserting their culture and their beliefs over the rest of western world. They are the Manchurians of the west. We are bigots.

Make no mistake. This short sighted and blinding acceptance of any way of life is the message of the Left, Secular Humanists and the terrorists. The Left did not choose this for themselves, but it is what they have become. They cannot defeat the terrorists because they do not understand them. They do not understand that the tactics and strategies that the terrorists use are the same tactics that they, though they are not violent, espouse in achieving political victory. To divide, to weaken, to play one group against the other, to make us believe that there is no "One America" to win, not by over whelming victory, but by tiny increments. To defeat the terrorists would force them to look at themselves and find error and weakness in the ideologies they subscribe to. The Islamists support this message because it obscures the truth behind their message and awards them a victory at every turn.

The Democrats cannot win because they do not know the enemy and they do not know themselves.

Our only path to victory and even survival is to find ourselves. We must assert that which has made us great. We must profess and recognize the fundamental correctness of the ideals and principles that have found fruition in this, the greatest nation on earth, without fear of being labeled intolerant and without fear of being labeled hypocrites for the past mistakes we have made in living up to those ideals. We must protect our rights as ferociously as we would our own children and recognize when those rights and ideals are being used in disingenuous and dangerous ways to subvert the very same. Not only must we know and recognize the enemy for what he is, we must know who we are! We must be Americans again.

Hopefully it is not too late.

... Is Good for the Gander

The Honorable Senator, and former chairmen of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON), Dianne Feinstein, or should I say Feinstain (as in stain of corruption) has again demonstrated her uncanny talent for blatant hypocrisy while leading the charge to bring down Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Demonstrating a talent for talking out of both sides of her mouth that would make a ventriloquist blush, Sen. Feinstain has excoriated not only the Attorney General and the Bush administration but also Senate colleague Pete Domenici for playing politics with US Attorneys.

Feinstain has repeatedly held up Carol Lam, the former US Attorney from San Diego as the designated poster child for political meddling, stating that, “It is a real surprise to me that you would say here that the reason for her dismissal was immigration cases,” and producing a recent letter from a top federal immigration official in San Diego praising Lam's record in combating immigrant smuggling.

What surprises me is how Senator Feinstain is capable of saying those words with a straight face. In a letter from Feinstain to Attorney General Gonzales dated July 15th 2006, Feinstain expresses frustration at the lax prosecution of immigration cases by US Attorney Lam and requesting to know what can be done to correct what she considered some of the most restrictive guidelines for prosecution in the entire nation. She points out in her letter that in FY 2005 Border Patrol Agents apprehended over 180,000 illegal aliens yet the US Attorney' s Office in Southern California (presided over by Lam) convicted a meagre 649 aliens for related offenses.

(read it on page 20 at http://www.judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt11-5070319.pdf)

Now, less than a year later, Feinstain is singing Ms. Lam's praises while at the same time fingering Pete Domenici for making similiar complaints concerning the US Attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias', failure to push forward on varying prosecutions in his district. Now the mainstream media and blogs from the leftward land of silliness want Domenici on ethics charges while Feinstain skips away once again to get her face plastered on the small screen for her commitment to ethics, justice and the american way while at the same time enjoying all the money her husband made in defense contracts while his wife chaired the committee that approved them.

I know the Dems enjoy a good dose of double standards before bed but could they at least be discreet about it.

What's Good For the Goose....

“In the last election, the message was loud and clear: It’s time to change the way business is done in the nation’s capitol,” Senator Feinstein said. “Passage of this ethics reform package is the straightest, simplest thing we could do to show we have a different Congress in place.” http://feinstein.senate.gov/07releases/r-rules-bill.htm

These words, culled from the Senate website of the illustrious Senator Feinstein should (though I doubt they will) be coming back to haunt the Senator in the form of a resignation, hers, if there is any shame left within the Democrat party. For those of you who have missed the mediocre news coverage of Senator Feinstein’s hasty retreat from her position as Chairmen of the Senate Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee this is the basics.

The Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) is tasked with overseeing the appropriations of funds for military construction as well as quality of life issues for service men and women, such as housing and medical care ( e.g. the much and deservingly maligned Walter Reed). For six years as the ranking member of MILCON, Feinstein oversaw and approved billions of dollars worth of defense contracts awarded to Richard C. Blum, the owner of two major defense contractors, and who, by the way, is Senator Feinstein’s husband. And to think that the media had me convinced that the GOP had a lock on corruption.

While the cup of Kool-Aid passed me by when it comes to thinking all Republicans are pure as wind driven snow I would like to ask when the press conference demanding independent investigators, resignations and who knew what and when did they know it is going to take place. I would hate to miss a chance to hear Harry “Shady Land Deal” Reed pontificate on the evils of Republican… I mean Democrat corruption or Uncle Teddy Kennedy try to figure out where he is on live television. It’s not that I want to take away Alberto Gonzales’ moment in the sun but I was really looking forward to the all new ethical Congress I was promised by the left last November.

By the way Dianne, as a member of the military I would like to thank you for the excellent job your committee did providing congressional over site for hospitals like Walter Reed. Job performance like that is deserving of a whole lot of time off.

L'ego My Lego and the Evil Blue Angels

The Hilltop Children’s Center located in Seattle, Washington has recently come into the news due to the L’ego my Lego effort to ban the children’s play toy Legos from their school age care program. Apparently a project started by the children, ages 5-9 evolved into an elaborate “Lego Town” being constructed. Special legos that were rare or valued for their color or use began to take on value as more and more children became involved in the project and leggo parts became sparser. Children who had began the project took ownership and pride in their efforts and often expressed an amount of control over the expenditure of additional building blocks regulating in a child like way the expansion of “Lego Town”. This event provided an excellent opportunity to teach these children an important lesson in how the capitalist economy of our nation works as well as the importance of civic responsibility and responsible leadership. Unfortunately that’s not what happened. What did happen was the further indoctrination of children into a mindset that fits quite squarely into the definition of communism. (Read more at
http://www.bizzyblog.com/WhyWeBannedLego_RethinkingSchools_Wtr2006.html )

The two teachers around which this idiocy swirls are Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin. Ann Pelo is an admittedly avowed classroom activist having co-written That’s Not Fair: A Teacher’s Guide to Activism with Young Children, with Fran Davidson another activist teacher. During Pelo’s “investigation” of the children’s behavior the children were guided through activities designed to inculcate the ideology of group ownership, equality and communal cooperation while at the same time subtly diminishing the concepts of individual personal property rights, stating that, “their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys… mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive." I wonder what that says for their general opinion of the United States.

What bothers me more than this issue is that this is not the first time our friend Ann has pushed her political agenda on our children. In her book, That’s Not Fair: A Teacher’s Guide to Activism with Young Children, Pelo rambles on about the presence of the Navy’s Flight Team the Blue Angels who performed for the SeaFair in Seattle Washington. Pelo retells the “terrified, shaken” state of the children under her care after the Angels flew over during rehearsal flights. Ann then tells the children that, “Those are Navy airplanes. They’re built for war, but right now, there is no war, so the pilots learn how to do fancy tricks in their planes. They’re here to do a show about fancy flying.” Why not tell these children that the men and women flying those planes are the best and brightest we have to offer and their places in those planes were earned though years of study and hard work.

This same event happened again the following day after which Ms. Pelo guided her children through an exercise where they would express their feelings about the planes through art work and drawings. Ann states, “We went back to school, and the children leaped into the project of communicating their feelings about the Blue Angels. They drew pictures of planes with Xs through them: “This is a crossed-off bombing plane.” They drew bomb factories labeled “No.” Ann wrote down their messages: “Blue Angels, stop.” “Respect our words, Blue Angels. Respect kids’ words. Don’t kill people. “This is a book to tell you, ‘Stop, Blue Angels. Don’t kill anyone.” “If you blow up our city, we won’t be happy about it. And our whole city will be destroyed.
And if you blow up my favorite library, I won’t be happy because there are some
good books there that I haven’t read yet.”

I have young children. When they see planes flying overhead their first or second thoughts have nothing to do with anyone killing anybody unless this thought is planted in their heads yet the children in Ann’s care appear to have their slogans prepped and ready for the first anti-military, war protest they can find. As for what the parents might feel about Ms. Pelo’s political agenda Ann’s co-author states in their book, “Ann didn’t ask for parents’ input about their letter-writing—she didn’t genuinely want it. She felt passionately that they had done the right thing, and she wasn’t interested in hearing otherwise.” God forbid parents have the right to control the values their children learn.

Oh, and one more thing on the whole capitalism is evil thing. The rates for pre-school child care at the Hilltop Children’s Center range from $910 for three days a week to $1185 for four to five days a week. School age care ranges from $235 to $435 a week. The children involved in the leggo incident don’t arrive until 3:30 in the afternoon. I wish I could afford that kind of childcare but, hey that’s capitalism at work and Ann, in case you’ve forgotten, it pays your bills in an oh so sweet and hypocritically ironic way.

The Wheels on the Bus Blow Up and Down

On 16 Mar 2007, the Associated Press reported that the FBI had issued a cautionary bulletin stating that suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States. This bulletin was followed up by a press release by FBI Special Agent and spokesman Rich Kolko stating that, "Parents and children have nothing to fear." Kolko continued, stating that, "There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern." In response to this I'm forced quote White House Press Secretary Tony Snow when I ask, "Are You kidding me?!" The sheer disingenuousness of this statement alone should boggle the minds of the American people.

If there was no threat then why issue the bulletin and if there is a threat why state that there is no reason for concern. The FBI has already stated that these “bus drivers are suspected members of “extremists groups” which should read (though no one wants to admit it) “Islamic extremist groups” Given our nations recent history you’d imagine that it would behoove someone, anyone, to be watching these people like a hawk. It’s kind of like finding out that suspected terrorists are taking flight lessons without bothering to learn how to land. OH wait, that one got screwed up to.

Special Agent Kolka did get one thing right though. There is no history of attacks on busses. Well at least not here anyway. However if we take a short trip across the pond or Google bus bombing you’ll find 25 killed in Jerusalem and Ashkelon on Feb 25, 1996, 2 killed in Gaza on Nov 21 2000, 9 killed on 4 Aug 2002 in Safad and another 19 killed and 14 killed on 18 Jun and 21 October respectively of the same year. Moving on to 2003 we find 16 killed on 11 June and 20 killed on 19 August, both in Jerusalem. 2004 left us with another 27 dead in attacks in Beersheba and Jerusalem in January and August of that year. And then there was some little blip in the news I remember seeing about some busses that got blown up in London. All of these attacks were on busses filled with civilians; children included and even a few Americans. Fortunately they were in other countries that have a history of this sort of thing. But then, I’m 100% positive that the United States had no history of people flying planes into buildings prior to September 11th 2001.

I’m driving my kids to school. What are you going to do?