ILLEGALS

I drove past Home Depot today and saw about twenty younger men that looked like they might be of mexican descent...ah hell, they were illegals...standing around, waiting for someone to drive up, load them up, and go off to some job...just like we have been hearing about in the news.

Sure enough, a guy in a pickup with ladders attached drove up, said a few words to one of them that seemed to be a translator, and off he went with five of them loaded in the back.

I just now heard the President say it was ILLEGAL for an EMPLOYER to hire someone who is HERE ILLEGALLY.

Funny thing...

Is it Just Me?

Or is there a similarity?

Excellent Washington Post Article on the Senator's Hypocrisy conerning Gas Prices

I will post this in its entirety because it's so good.

Going a Short Way to Make a Point

By Dana MilbankThursday, April 27, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.

"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a Hyundai Elantra to take the one-block journey to and from the gas-station news conference. He posed in front of the fuel prices and gave them a thumbs-down. "Get tough on big oil!" he demanded of the Bush administration.

By comparison, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was a model of conservation. She told a staffer idling in a Jetta to leave without her, then ducked into a sushi restaurant for lunch before making the journey back to work.

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas).

The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction -- as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

Senators were debating a war spending bill yesterday, but the subject invariably turned to gas prices.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) engaged his deputy, Dick Durbin (Ill.), in a riveting colloquy.

"Is the senator aware that the L.A. Times headline reads today, 'Bush's Proposals Viewed as a Drop in the Bucket'?"

"I'm aware of that," Durbin replied.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) responded with an economics lesson. "Oil is worth what people pay for it," he argued.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarms. "We are one accident or one terrorist attack away from oil at $100 a barrel!"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) made a plea for conservation. "We have to move quickly to increase our fuel efficiency," she urged.

But not too quickly. After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg).
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15).
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14).
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17).
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).

Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

Also waiting:
three Suburbans,
a Nissan Armada V8,
two Cadillacs and a Lexus.

The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

As a political matter, Democrats clearly sense that they have the advantage on the high gas prices, judging from the number of speeches and news conferences.

"The cost of Republican corruption when it comes to energy is hitting home very clearly for America's middle class," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) exulted yesterday morning.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced an amendment to repeal oil-company tax breaks and distribute $500 tax rebates to consumers. It was quickly ruled out of order.

But Republicans were clearly feeling defensive. "We passed an energy bill last year, last July," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) pleaded at a morning news conference. "It changes CAFE [corporate average fuel economy] standards. It changes some of the things that we can do -- I'm sorry, changes not the CAFE standards, but changes some of the supply issues, boutique fuels, all these things."

Only Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who can speak freely because he is retiring, was willing to note the disconnect between rhetoric and action. "People say, understandably, 'Solve our energy problems right now, but don't make us do anything differently,' " he said on the Senate floor.

If the politics of gasoline favor Democrats at the moment, the insincerity is universal. A surreptitious look at the cars in the senators-only spots inside and outside the Senate office buildings found an Escort and a Sentra (super-rich Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl's spot had a Chevy Lumina), but far more Jaguars, Cadillacs and Lexuses and a fleet of SUVs made by Ford, Honda, BMW and Lexus.

A sampling of senators' and staff cars parked along Delaware Avenue NE found that those displaying Democratic campaign bumper stickers had a somewhat higher average fuel economy (23 mpg) than those displaying GOP stickers (18 mpg).

A fuel-efficiency rating could not be found for the 1970s-era Volkswagen "Thing" owned by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Maybe, lawmakers are starting to learn. When GOP senators had a lunch Tuesday a couple of blocks from the Capitol, many took cars. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) emerged from the lunch looking for his ride when he spied The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray. Reconsidering, he set out on foot. "I need the exercise," he reasoned.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Mexico is Harsh on its "Undocumented Workers"

I suspected as much but this article shows it.

That crook, Vicente Fox should look at his own backyard instead.

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer

TULTITLAN, Mexico (AP) -- Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money.
While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence.

The 9/11 Cellphone Tapes

We are seeing and hearing a lot of information about the last minutes of some people in 9/11. The whole thing is bringing up the bad feelings and sense of anger I felt on that day.

The cellphone recordings of people in the towers and in the planes are sometimes overwhelming. I can feel everything these people are going through, especially this one of Kevin Cosgrove.


He was stuck on the 105th floor. You can hear him talking for a long time with the 9/11 operator. He repeats, "I'm not ready to die" several times.

In the last two seconds, he yells, "Oh, My God!" as the tower falls.

Click the title to hear the tape.

"We do the jobs Americans won't do"

Is plain bullshit.

I gain a lot of insight while riding the MetroRail through downtown Houston everyday, (I also wish I had a gun permit but that's a different story).

This morning, I eavesdropped on a unique situation. Two white guys got on the train, and I noticed right away they were homeless. Nothing unique there except that 90 percent of the homeless appear to be black, very few hispanic and I don't remember when I have last saw an oriental or middle-eastern homeless person.

Anyway, one of these guys was reading a newspaper and talking constantly about finding temporary work to "pay off his traffic fines" so he could go back to driving a truck. I admired that he was at least actively trying to do something to get out of his situation.

Along the way, he mentioned that he had tried several times to get a job doing construction work. Houston is bustling with construction work and I thought that would be a great way to get a few bucks. He said everytime he applied, they would'nt hire him because he DIDN'T SPEAK SPANISH!

Imagine that...you have to know spanish to dig a ditch these days. He said he didn't want to talk to anyone, he just wanted to make a few bucks to get back on his feet.

This situation helped me to realize that this is a blaring example of the fact that these jobs are not being done by illegals because WE won't do them, they're being done by illegals because the greedy construction owners and foremen would lose money if they hired americans. Then they would have to pay higher wages and taxes. The construction owners and foreman are the ones that are undermining our system, not the illegals. The illegals will work for anyone...as long as the authorities don't know about it.

That is also a good message to what the illegals really want with our country. They don't want to be citizens. That would mean they would have to pay taxes and obey the laws.

They would have to be accountable for their actions.

This bill will not make any difference in the amount of illegals that trespass into our country. They will still come.

As long as there is a means to make money to send back to the Motherland, they will keep coming.

Ask any mexican-american, the ones who came here, or their parents or grandparents came here legally, if they want the illegals to get amnesty. You will find virtually all of them don't want it.

Gotta go back to work now. Millions on welfare depend on me.

Thinking....Again

I was thinking about the universe, and the fact that all those stars we see are really suns, and galaxies, and nebulas so far away that the light we see from them is at least four light years away. All these things are rotating around a mysterious center of a mysterious galaxy called the Milky Way. We are just one little, tiny dot in that galaxy.

I was thinking about the Milky Way being only one medium-sized galaxy, spinning among billions of other galaxies...everything traveling at the speed of light through the universe.

All the amazing suns and worlds spread over such a vast space.

Then I thought about a flower on a new flowering bush we bought yesterday. It brilliantly colored with purples and blues, and each flower was different. I realized that this place we call Earth contains billions of amazing things.

I picked up a handfull of sand and examined it....really examined each little pebble. Each one was different, different colors, different streaks, different sizes.

Then I just looked at the sky and the plants and trees around me.

We are surrounded by all these intricate, colorful, and constantly changing things and we don't realize it. We don't appreciate what we have. Is there another world like this one in the whole universe?

I don't normally consider all these things on a daily basis.

I plan to.

Beginning today.

Immigration: This picture angers me to no end

This picture angers me more than anything I have seen in years. I am so disgusted with these ungrateful students.

Illegal Immigration

This is perceived as quite a problem in the states that are strongly affected by it like Arizona, California and Texas.

I live in Texas and I can assure you, we have been invaded by Spanish-speaking people (about the nicest way I can put it). When I go into any convenience store, any time of day, I run into Spanish-speaking people, buying beer mostly.
There is a recent poll that says 88 percent of Americans say something needs to be done about this. The Senate is getting ready to introdue something to show they are acting on the wishes of the American people. But, what can/should the senate do? Is it already too late? Are the invaders here to stay?

President Bush wants to set up some kind of program where a worker can come up and work for a certain amount of time on a visa, then go back. That program is already in affect and has been used by industry for years. It's called the L1B visa program, and lawyers all over are hustling to bring workers over from anywhere...very lucrative gig for them.

The L1B visa thing was originally intended to help companies find someone AFTER they have looked for a suitable candidate among the US citizenry. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. The major companies are hiring thousands of engineers and technicians from smaller companies, mostly Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia, and India, for less than their American counterparts, working them here for up to seven years, then sending them back. And I'm sure there are loopholes around that. I know, I'm working next to someone like that right now.

Right...so much for keeping the US jobs in the US.

So, that's President Bush's proposal. Now, Senator Frist wants to push legislation to enforce punishment on those that hire illegals.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has said the Senate will take up his proposal to tighten borders and punish employers who hire illegal immigrants if the Judiciary Committee doesn't complete a broader bill by next week.

Hello? I thought it was already against the law to hire illegals...I guess the greedy business owners have gotten around that little law for years by paying them in cash and not paying taxes (both the business owner and the illegal). Now it's gotten to the point that construction companies HAVE to hire illegals to make any money. They have become an essential element in the construction, food service, and cleaning service industries (just to mention a few). We go out and eat a lot and most restaurant chains hire illegals as their "cooks." The wait staff complain that they can't get an order done because they have to have an interpreter to talk to the cooks. Watch the buss staff and cooks the next time you go out to eat. You'll see.

These ompanies have made themselves dependent on illegal workers...just to make a buck.

Now you have senators opposing any kind of action to punish these lawbreakers and essentially give them the keys to YOUR city. One of the biggest manipulators is Senator Clinton. She wants to block the proposal to change illegal immigration from a misdeameanor to a felony.

She also called for new enforcement laws, including penalties for employers who exploit illegal immigrants, as well as a system to allow the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States to earn their citizenship.

Clinton expressed sympathy to representatives of communities along the U.S.-Mexico border that are frustrated by the stress of providing social services to large numbers of undocumented immigrants. But she also said she hoped to send a message that supporters of punitive immigration policy faced significant political risk for doing so.

"We want the outcome to be that they're on the wrong side of the politics as well as the wrong side of history and American values," she said.

Oh WAAH...she just sees the hispanic vote and wants to capitalize on it if/when she runs for president. You notice in the above quote that she wants penalties for those employers who EXPLOIT illegal immigrants? She doesn't say diddly about penalties for those employers who HIRE them.

That's illegal too, as I understand. And, that's the whole point of this rant. The illegals are taking over Tejas, Arizona, and California (among others). They are taking jobs, buying land and houses (one just moved in next to me in a house that I couldn't afford), paying cash for everything, and sending their money and support back to the Motherland to the tune of several billion dollars a year. In the meantime, we have to pay their medical bills, provide them an education (did you know that when they go to our schools, they don't even have to learn English? They usually have an interpreter. I saw that when I substituted a few years ago).
They are taking up our welfare and SSI payments and they STILL don't have to be American citizens.

This is not right.

I want my country back.

Just what WOULD happen if we left Iraq now?

I am a dedicated American. I gave twenty years of my life to the Air Force in a law enforcement/combat role.
I feel strongly for every troop that is in harm's way there in Iraq.
But after reading this blog and some others, I decided that yes, it is time to pull out now. What good are we doing there? I know we are rebuilding and helping set up an infrastructure but, can't the Iraqis do that?

Our presence there seems to be more of an irritant than an asset. We are accidently killing civilians, as show in this blog. We also seem to just be targets for the insurgents (terrorists) that come in from other countries. We are just an opportunity for these organizations to perfect their craft. At our expense.

Will Iraq fall into civil war? Will Iran or Syria move in and take it over?
The most important thing to me is that we do not let the Iraqis down. We cannot allow the terrorists that are just waiting in the wings to swoop in and take over. Those that were our friends might become victims (just look into the past at what Hussein did to those that rose against him in Desert Storm).

I just don't know what would be right.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Starkle, starkle, little twink,
Who the hell you are, you think?
I'm not under the alfluence of incohol,
Although some thinkle peep I are.
The drunker I sit here,
The longer I be.
I fool so feelish,
I don't know who is me.

You ever wonder what the hit song was on the day you were Born?

Just a bunch of useless information, but it's interesting.

Mine was, "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn

Probably the most Original Obituary I have Read

Obituaries are generally pretty dry and boring. Probably because they're only read by those that suffer the loss and people like me, who check it daily to make sure I'm not in it.

This one though, was posted by Mr. Drags in an It's Happening Forum at Wincoast.com.

This one was for Dorothy Gibson Cully, 86, mother of four, who had died peacefully June 3 while in the "loving care of her two favorite children." "All of her breath leaked out."

Here is the body of the obit:

On June 3, 2005 at 10:45 p.m. in Memphis, Tenn., Dorothy Gibson Cully, 86, died peacefully, while in the loving care of her two favorite children, Barbara and David. All of her breath leaked out. The mother of four children, grandmother to 11, great-grandmother to nine, devoted wife for 56 years to the late Ralph Chester Cully and a true friend to many, Dot had been active as a volunteer in the Catholic Church and other community charities for much of the past 25 years.

She was born the second child of six in 1919 as Frances Dorothy Gibson, daughter to Kathleen Heard Gibson and Calvin Hooper Gibson, an inventor best known as the first person since the Middle Ages to calculate the arcane lead-to-gold formula. Unable to actually prove this complex theory scientifically, and frustrated by the cruel conspiracy of the so-called "scientific community" working against his efforts, he ultimately stuck his head in a heated gas oven with a golden delicious apple propped in his mouth. Miraculously, the apple was saved for the evening dessert. Calvin was not.

Native Marylanders and longtime Baltimore, Kent Island and Ocean City residents, Ralph and Dot later resided in Lakeland, Fla., and Virginia Beach, Va.. Several years after Ralph's death, Dot moved to Raleigh in 2001, where she lived with her son David.

At the time of her death, Dot was visiting her daughter Carol in Memphis. Carol and her husband, Ron, away from home attending a "very important conference" at a posh Florida resort, rushed home 10 days later after learning of the death. Dot's other children, dutifully at their mother's side helping with the normal last-minute arrangements -- hospice notification, funeral parlor notice, revising the will, etc. -- happily picked up the considerable slack of the absent former heiress.

Dot is warmly remembered as a generous, spiritually strong, resourceful, tolerant and smart woman, who was always ready to help and never judged others or their shortcomings. Dot always found time to knit sweaters, sew quilts and send written notes to the family children, all while working a full-time job, volunteering as Girl Scout leader and donating considerable time to local charities and the neighborhood Catholic Church.

Dot graduated from Eastern High School at 15, worked in Baltimore full time from 1934 to 1979, beginning as a factory worker at Cross & Blackwell and retiring after 30 years as property manager and controller for a Baltimore conglomerate, Housing Engineering Company, all while raising four children, two of who are fairly normal.

An Irishwoman proud of and curious about her heritage, she was a voracious reader of historical novels, particularly those about the glories and trials of Ireland. Dot also loved to travel, her favorite destination being Eire's auld sod, where she dreamed of the magic, mystery and legend of the Emerald Isle.

Dot Cully is survived by her sisters, Ginny Torrico in Virginia, Marian Lee in Florida and Eileen Adams in Baltimore; her brother, Russell Gibson of Fallston, Md.; her children, Barbara Frost of Ocean City, Md., Carol Meroney of Memphis, Tenn., David Cully of Raleigh, N.C. and Stephen Cully of Baltimore, Md. Contributions to the Wake County (N.C.) Hospice Services are welcomed. Opinions about the details of this obit are not, since Mom would have liked it this way.

"Miraculously, the apple was saved for the evening dessert. Calvin was not."

So funny. Enjoy.

Country Dweller, City Worker

Well, it happened again.

I ride the MetroRail into downtown and about once or twice a week, I get the crazy ones. You know the ones that are having a great conversation on their cell phone, until you notice....they don't have a cell phone.

They always seem to sit near me.

This morning...black lady.

I noticed the smell first, then the vocalizations.

She seemed happy though...laughed a lot...then out of nowhere, she yelled, "Oh my God!" Startled everyone. When I looked at her, she looked back like she hadn't heard a thing.

Man, life is so strange.

Observations about our life on this Planet

1. Save The Whales. Collect The Whole Set.
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2. A Day Without Sunshine Is Like, Night.
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3. On The Other Hand, You Have Different Fingers.
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4. I Just Got Lost In Thought. It Wasn't Familiar Territory .
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5. 42.7 Percent Of All Statistics Are Made Up On The Spot.
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6. Light Travels Faster Than Sound, Which Is Why Some People Appear Bright Until You Hear them Speak.
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7. I Feel Like I'm Diagonally Parked In A Parallel Universe.
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8. Honk If You Love Peace And Quiet.
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9. Remember, Half The People You Know Are Below Average.
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10. He Who Laughs Last, Thinks Slowest.
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11. Depression Is Merely Anger Without Enthusiasm.
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12. The Early Bird May Get The Worm, But The Second Mouse Gets
The Cheese.
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13. I Drive Way Too Fast To Worry About Cholesterol.
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14. Support Bacteria. They're The Only Culture Some People Have.
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15. Monday Is An Awful Way To Spend 1/7 Of Your Week.
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16. A Clear Conscience Is Usually The Sign Of A Bad Memory.
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17. Change Is Inevitable, Except From Vending Machines.
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18. Get A New Car For Your Spouse. It'll Be A Great Trade!
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19. Plan To Be Spontaneous Tomorrow.
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20. Always Try To Be Modest, And Be Proud Of It!
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21. If You Think Nobody Cares, Try Missing A Couple Of Payments.
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22. How Many Of You Believe In Psycho-Kinesis? Raise My Hand.
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23 . Ok, So What's The Speed Of Dark?
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24. How Do You Tell When You're Out Of Invisible Ink?
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25. If Everything Seems To Be Going Well, You Have Obviously Overlooked Something.
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26. When Everything Is Coming Your Way, You're In The Wrong Lane.
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27. Hard Work Pays Off In The Future. Laziness Pays Off Now.
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28. Everyone Has A Photographic Memory. Some Just Do Not Have Film.
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29. If Barbie Is So Popular, Why Do You Have To Buy Her Friends?
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30. How Much Deeper Would The Ocean Be Without Sponges?
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31. Eagles May Soar, But Weasels Do Not Get Sucked Into Jet Engines.
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32. What Happens If You Get Scared Half To Death Twice?
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33. I Used To Have An Open Mind But My Brains Kept Falling Out.
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34. I Couldn't Repair Your Brakes, So I Made Your Horn Louder.
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35. Why Do Psychics Have To Ask You For Your Name?
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36. Inside Every Older Person Is A Younger Person Wondering What Happened.
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37. Just Remember - If The World Did Not Suck, We Would All Fall Off.

What are you Thinking?

The sale of six US ports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and our president backing this transaction has me just totally....totally bewildered.

I have tried and tried to back this administration. I'm slowly falling away. Not to the dark side for sure. I guess somewhere in the middle.

The president asks why it is alright for us to back a British-run port authority and not a middle-eastern one?
Here's one:



There are questions:

Didn't the president say we would not cooperate with countries that support terrorism?
Wasn't the UAE one of the few countries that fully recognized the Taliban as a government?
Wasn't two of the 9/11 terrorists from the UAE?
Didn't some money fot 9/11 go through the UAE?

Somthing just ain't right here....

Who has the Saddam Tapes?

The so-called "Saddam Tapes" that allegedly revealed so much about the pre-Iraq war were very interesting. But, in the "ABC News Exclusive," they said,

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the tapes are authentic and show that "Saddam had a fixation on weapons of mass destruction and he had a fixation on hiding what he was doing from the U.N. inspectors." Hoeckstra says there are more than 35,000 boxes of such tapes and documents that the U.S. government has not analyzed nor made public that should also be translated and studied on an urgent basis.

My first and still most pressing question is, which U.S. government agency has these 35,000 boxes of tapes and who is translating and analyzing them?

What's the deal?

Was this just another act of yellow journalism by ABC News? Is the whole Saddam Tapes thing just going to be dropped and never taken up again?
Who is minding the store?
Who is making sure this will be done?

I've got a bad Feeling about This

Islam is the only religion that thinks about Jihad, and expansion of their religion through violent means.
Muslims are the only group that believes their god has given them the mission to kill those who reject him.
Muslims are the only group that imposes the antiquated laws of their “holy” book.
And, Muslims are the only group that has not apologized for the crimes of their past and keeps committing those crimes even today. (paraphrase from an excellent blog by Truthseeker, a former Muslim.

I know the Muslims are not the only ones that have killed millions in the name of religion. The US was partially founded on something called "manifest destiny." It was the "destiny" of the "civilized" peoples of Europe to convert the "savages" to christianity and a "civilized" way of life. The "savages" did not know any better. They were no better than animals that needed to be trained. Those "savages" that they couldn't convert to their religion were killed.

I could go back further and mention the Crusades that lasted 250 years and killed millions but I don't want to write a book here. You can find an excellent history of the Crusades on several sites if you care to read.

In our times, violence and controversy initiated by Muslims seems to be exploding all over the world. Almost every country in the world seems to have Muslims. All of those Muslims seem to be involved in something controversial that brings attention to their cause. Western Muslims publicly condemn acts of violence but they seem torn between standing up to theses acts of violence and standing behind them, in the name of Islam.

Everyday, we see more and more demonstrations, bombings, kidnapping, and senseless killing by so-called Muslims, not just in Iraq.

This is what is concerning me; this explosion of Muslim demonstrations, assasinations, kidnapping, all of it. Do you think this is just a bunch of angry Muslims rainsing hell about some cartoons in a small newspaper or do you think, like me, that there is a consorted effort worldwide to impose Islam on the entire world?

Is this a planned thing? Is it something that has been planned for a long time that is just now coming to fruition?

I hope I'm just paranoid but it seems like there is something spreading around the world, growing and growing until it covers the entire earth. Afterall, the Koran does say that the goal of Islam is to make sure the whole world is Muslim. Of course, our own Bible tells us to spread the faith around the world as well so Muslims aren't alone in that message either.

I just don't know.

Support the War, but not the Troops. Support the Troops but not the War. Can you support both?

The war does suck, that's for sure. I don't think there was ever a "good" war. I think it was gonna happen despite the administration that was in power. Clinton was headed that way, with the attacks on Iraq and constantly asking the UN to do something about Hussein. Hussein was violating all the rules set by Desert Storm, thumbing his nose at the UN and the weapons inspectors.

Then 9/11 happened. We were blindsided and we were looking for a fight. We went into Afghanistan and took out the Taliban.

We and the allies took care of them. Now, where to next? Right there is where the problems started. We still wanted to kick some terrorist's ass. We needed to get rid of these terrorists once and for all.

Al-Qaeda was training in Iraq (it's a fact and don't say it's not). Hussein was given 16 chances to comply with the UN sanctions and was not showing any signs of stopping his shit. So....here we came.

Now, you agree we are in an insane situation. We have troops that believe we are making a difference by stopping terrorists in Iraq. All the terrorists are coming to Iraq to perfect their craft.

We won't leave until they stop killing everyone. They won't stop until we leave (so they say).

We have troops we support and admire for their courage, yet we are in a war with an immoral enemy that doesn't play by the rules. Our troops are getting killed and that is not supposed to happen.
We support our troops and believe along with them that they are doing good over there. The Iraqis are better off.
After all, they are humans like everyone else. All they want is to provide for the family and live a happy life. They don't want to fear losing their Father to killers that come in the night and take him away, never to return. The troops are helping that come about. At least that's their goal.

If the troops leave now, the country will drop into chaos and will be lost to another facist regime.

Who'se to say that won't happen anyway? But, who'se to say the new government will not be strong and will want to create a democracy in the midst of this chaos?

We must support our troops and let them complete their mission. If the new Iraqi government takes hold and starts showing signs of being a stable entity that is good for the people, the troops will have accomplished their mission and can come home.

So, we have to support both to the final end. I hope it ends well and God bless those troops in harm's way.

Come home soon.

It's gonna be a Gay Day at the Oscars

Well, it seems they ignored The Passion of the Christ last year, and this year, Narnia, in favor of the gay-themed movies. There's Brokeback Mountain, Capote (gay), and another one featuring a main character that receives a sex change. I can't remember it's name but it got four nods. Another one of those movies that no one in the rest of the world has heard of until just before the oscars. That happens every year too doesn't it? No one heard of Chicago until just before the oscars, same for Million Dollar Baby....but that's another topic altogether.

They just don't seem to get it that these themes don't appeal to mainstream America.

I'm not homophobic but I don't really get off on seeing two men enjoying each others hairy butts and I really don't want to pay to see it. I will have to go however, because I have free passes and a gay member of my family wants to see it. I told him I would go but if they start swapping spit and playing ring around the flagpole, I'll have to go get some popcorn.

It just seems that the entertainment community just doesn't get it that most of America doesn't care to see that. Maybe they think they know what's best and what's trendy and if they like it, we should as well.

I don't think so.

I used to love the oscars, all the trailers and the spontaneously stupid remarks by the participants but...I don't know...even with Jon Stewart as the MC, I can't see watching it this year.