Free Circuses

Send Kevin Some Hugs

2011-04-14T22:06:00.000-05:00

Send Kevin Some Hugs

Hey Kevin,

Just a note to let you know that there's a prayer going up to Heaven for you.

I just recovered my trusty laptop tonight. It was in repairs for over two weeks - the motherboard fried and a new one was needed.

Hugs,

newton

"I've Been Neutered! Hear Me Whine!"

2006-10-17T14:46:00.000-05:00

"...'Cause I was top dog around here,
but I've been neutered!

He's The Man!"
- from The Chuck Wagon Symphony's "The Man Show"

There is no other way to describe Robert Jensen, Professor of Journalism at UT (Sounds like Austin. It has to be Austin!), especially after reading this pathetic opinion column of his:

We need to get rid of the whole idea of masculinity. It's time to abandon the claim that there are certain psychological or social traits that inherently come with being biologically male. If we can get past that, we have a chance to create a better world for men and women.

There's more:

That's not to suggest, of course, that every man adopts that view of masculinity. But it is endorsed in key institutions and activities -- most notably in business, the military and athletics -- and is reinforced through the mass media. It is particularly expressed in the way men -- straight and gay alike -- talk about sexuality and act sexually. And our culture's male heroes reflect those characteristics: They most often are men who take charge rather than seek consensus, seize power rather than look for ways to share it, and are willing to be violent to achieve their goals.

That view of masculinity is dangerous for women. It leads men to seek to control "their" women and define their own pleasure in that control, which leads to epidemic levels of rape and battery. But this view of masculinity is toxic for men as well.

So... taking charge, assuming personal responsibility, working hard, striving to be the best a man can be... that's synonymous with "rape and battery"?!?

I call BS on that one. Total King Ranch-quality cow manure!

This guy has definitely been to Feminist Brainwash School, and had his dingle-berries whacked out as exit interview. I wasn't told this crap at the women's college that I attended - of course, because I always avoided those lectures, and got away with it, somehow. Not to mention that I left my ole' women's college with a degree... and a man - a real man and a Navy/Merchant Marine officer, to boot! Not a wuss like Jensen.

Really, guys: read all of it. Try to understand the pathetic attitude coming from the mind of this professor, who probably needs to get his bells back if he ever goes beyond the confines of Austin. Because Texan women want real men - I've seen that around here a lot.

In his opinion, men like the sig.other should "evolve" or face extinction. Problem is, this wuss obviously "evolved"... down, not up. Why should any man listen to what he has to say? Because he's a member of the Academic Intelligentsia? The sig.other and his fellow Port Engineers and mariners would take his words and shove 'em right where his sun don't shine.

And don't count on me to listen to this obviously neutered individual. I already have "neutered" in my life: three tomcats. One of them never got over the whacking and still marks where he shouldn't (Go figure), and whines instead of meows.

I have a neutered whiner for tomcat. I neither want nor need "neutered" men.

Besides, if the sig.other were ever to follow this wuss's advice, we wouldn't be expecting our Little Fig. Now that I think of it, what would the Little Fig (a girl) learn from a "pussified" male like the one this eunuch proposes for men like the sig.other? I learned a whole lot from my own relationship with my father, who was macho to a bad fault - and I turned out just fine. My father never beat or rape my mother - yet that's what this Jensen guy thinks of men like my father and the sig.other...

I'd love to hear this guy speak. "He" might just sound like the "American Castrati" described by Gerald Van Der Leun a while ago. If he does, it shouldn't surprise me one bit.

Fausta puts him in place, and Pamela ("Atlas") clamors for Robert Mitchum. (Well, I couldn't care less about Hollywood stars. But if we're on those ones, gimme Chuck Norris any time!)

Any more cheese with your whine, Professor?

If You Wanna Get Back in Power, Libs...

2006-08-22T14:12:00.000-05:00

... get in the sack. And forget the condoms, the Pill and the IUD.

Arthur C. Brooks points it out in this column in the Wall Street Journal:

But the data on young Americans tell a different story. Simply put, liberals have a big baby problem: They're not having enough of them, they haven't for a long time, and their pool of potential new voters is suffering as a result. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That's a "fertility gap" of 41%. Given that about 80% of people with an identifiable party preference grow up to vote the same way as their parents, this gap translates into lots more little Republicans than little Democrats to vote in future elections. Over the past 30 years this gap has not been below 20%--explaining, to a large extent, the current ineffectiveness of liberal youth voter campaigns today.

And he's honest about the attitudes behind the fertility gap:

As one liberal columnist in a major paper graphically put it, "Maybe the scales are tipping to the neoconservative, homogenous right in our culture simply because they tend not to give much of a damn for the ramifications of wanton breeding and environmental destruction and pious sanctimony, whereas those on the left actually seem to give a whit for the health of the planet and the dire effects of overpopulation." It would appear liberals have been quite successful controlling overpopulation--in the Democratic Party.

As long as they keep this arrogant and condescending attitude, we conservatives will continue to breed, raise and vote... to keep the libs out of power.

Swwwwwweet! :D

Can We Choose Our Demons?

2006-07-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

This commenter at A Mom and Her Blog goes to the jest of it:

A little compassion for this mother [Andrea Yates] would be a good thing. To suffer from a chemical imbalance that made her commit this horrendous act and then have to relive it over and over in her mind for the rest of her life is somethng I wouldn’t wish on anyone. We don’t choose our medical problems and she didn’t choose hers. We can not put ourselves in her shoes and say what we would or would not have done under these circumstances. I think women can be very unkind to each other, and these comments are evidence of that. I’m sure Andrea Yates loved her children very much and would never have dreamed of killing her beautiful children if she did not have this sickness. The jury was correct- she should not be placed in prison with thugs, but in a mental hospital where she can get help.

As the daughter-in-law of someone I can probably nominate as one of America's most outrageous family members (for his racism, in spite of having a Puerto Rican daughter-in-law), I have said many times that I condemn his attitude and actions towards us.

But at the same time, and as the sig.other has pointed it out to me repeatedly, he didn't choose to be in the situation he's in. He reminds me of this because, many times, even I judge him harshly... and I sometimes cannot comprehend the level of his insanity.

(This is the reason for the post. For the crime of judging a mentally ill person very harshly and unlovingly, I'm guilty as charged. I'm writing this for myself first.)

As I have mentioned before, this man had a rather primitive brain surgery as a child, at Yale-New Haven Hospital (we're talking early 1950s here). He had a brain tumor the size of an orange. Unfortunately, the surgeons could not remove the entire tumor. The little bit that remained in his brain affected the area that rules his entire personality and thought processes.

Doctors at what's probably one of the most important university medical centers in the world didn't give the sig.other's father six months to live after that surgery. He's now fifty-nine years old. One of the surgeons who opened his skull found out about this man many years after the fact - in part, because the sig.other searched his medical records. He was very surprised to find out that this child - who should have been called his guinea pig - survived way beyond anyone's expectations.

That surgery, however, didn't live without consequences. The sig.other's father never did well in school. He dropped out of high school and never held a job for a long time. He enlisted in the Navy as a sailor during the Viet Nam War, but his stint didn't last two years. A nervous breakdown cut his time short.

His marriage and family life - almost thirty-eight years! - have been one constant roller-coaster. His wife has separated from him several times. He has pursued her all of those times. He has even had serious scuffles with the sig.other - his only child in the whole world.

The man is paranoid-schizophrenic and in serious medication. He has attempted suicide several times. In spite of having been a half-way decent parent towards the sig.other, he made many episodes of his life a living hell. That's why we live as far away from him as possible. (Did I say here that my mother-in-law is a saint?)

Can we choose to be sick with something grievous? No one chooses to have a life-threatening illness, like cancer. Does anyone choose to have a thorn in the flesh that will dominate your life? Does anyone deserve it?

We know for a fact that the appropriate medication can make someone live a relatively normal life. Not every person out there who is mentally ill goes on to commit murder. But the possiblity of it is very real, at any one point.

No one can choose how one's brain is to be wired - or miswired. Mental illness is not a game, nor something people choose freely. Thinking process can become distorted, even to the point of not knowing what to ditch and what to keep. It is a prison sentence for the one who suffers it.

Look at Van Gogh. Look at Sylvia Plath. Look at the many artists, writers, poets, etc. who suffered like no one else because of their insanity. There are many others who faced serious internal demons that could never be exorcised, even with medication.

How about Andrew Goldstein, an obviously mentally deranged man who, in one of his psychotic episodes, saw a young woman (an aspiring writer from upstate NY) at a Subway station and threw her into the rails - and into an incoming Subway train, killing her instantly? Sure, he was convicted of second-degree murder. But he obviously belongs in a maximum-security mental hospital, under close supervision.

Look at Mark David Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon.

Look at John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to murder President Reagan.

Andrea Yates has a demon inside. She cannot exorcise it. There is no question about it.

Did she choose to have this horrible demon inside? I don't think so... and neither should any of us.

Can we, who must thank God every single day that we can use our sane minds to think and decide correctly our next steps, condemn harshly a certifiably insane woman?

If you do not love her for having committed this horribly criminal act (what mother in her right mind would drown her five children in a bath tub?!?), I'm not forcing you to do so. But, at the very least, have some mercy towards her. She's a lost soul who will find Van Gogh's end if no one watches her carefully.

Medication can keep it all in check, but that demon will never leave her. That's why a maximum-security mental hospital is the best place for her. Hopefully, there will be plenty of medical attention over there - and plenty of common and solid medical sense to keep her under serious supervision for the rest of her life.

I Am My Child's Nanny!

2006-07-28T11:47:00.000-05:00

Just now, I stumbled into this piece at FOXNews.com regarding daycare center statistics.

According to a recent report by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), 63 percent of the nation's children under five years of age are in some type of child-care arrangement every week; and most parents assume such programs are regulated to ensure the health and safety of their children. In reality, that is often not the case.

[...] the NACCRRA reports that just 10 states require unannounced inspections of child-care centers; only 12 states require caregivers working in child-care centers to have training in early childhood education prior to working with children; and a mere 10 states require caregivers who work from their homes to be licensed.

[...] The NACCRRA survey also indicated that nine in 10 parents favor requiring all child care to meet basic standards of quality, training for caregivers both before and after they begin working with children, and regular inspections of all child-care programs. In addition, most parents (92 percent) favor creating quality standards to better prepare children for school.

“The results of this survey should be a wake-up call to policy-makers,” said Linda K. Smith, NACCRRA's Executive Director. “Parents need child care, and they don't want just any care; they want high-quality care. They want their children in a safe and healthy learning environment that prepares them to enter school ready to succeed.”

Of course, I do want to assure a safe and healthy learning environment for my Little Fig. That's why I'm beginning to prepare around here. I'm going to be the provider for that - not a daycare center.

When I was of pre-school age, my mother was earning her bachelor's degree. She couldn't have my grandmother with us at home yet, so she looked for a couple of daycare centers in Puerto Rico for me. I talked about this experience to the manager of a Web site that opposes daycare.

When I was little and my mom was earning her bachelor's degree, I ended up in some day care centers that really didn't leave me with the best impressions. I will never forget that at one point, my mom put me at this "home-run daycare" close to the university. I cried from the moment mom left until she returned. It seemed that the witch (there is no better way to call her) didn't like me that much, because she separated me from the other kids, and I always ended up on a bed crying until my mom picked me up. It happened for a few weeks until one day one of the kids approached my mother and said, "you must be the mom of the one who cries a lot." That was enough. That very day, I was placed at the care of a couple who were stay-at-home. I don't have a lot of memories of that time, but I was told that they even gave me a dog to play with. But the bad memories persisted.

Actually, it seems I was not the only child to experience something out of place, to say the least:

In June, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began an investigation of the Candy Cane Corner Day Care Center after two children, ages six and eight, wandered a mile and a half away from the facility and were eventually found at a local business asking for water. In another case, a Virginia woman was recently accused of leaving nine children, ages nine months to three years, alone at her in-home day care facility for approximately one hour. Still more — police in Columbia, IL, recently investigated a daycare after reports that children had been locked in closets; finally, at the First Christian Church's Child Garden School, an Amarillo, Texas woman was arrested for putting a three-year-old in a freezer.

In a freezer?!?!? It gets worse:

At the more chilling end of the spectrum, a 25-year-old Florida man and former director of two church-affiliated Kid's Palace Daycare Centers was recently sentenced to 17 years in prison and 10 years of probation after being charged with molesting several children between the ages of six and 14; and an unlicensed Virginia Beach caregiver was sentenced to 10 years in prison for running an illegal daycare after a nine-month-old was mysteriously found dead on her watch.

How about this one, closer to home, which I also told that Web site's manager?

I also was acquainted with a woman during an internship I took at college [here in South TX]. It was obvious through her appearance (she looks much older than her actual age) that she has been through a lot in the school of hard knocks. I drove her to school and back a couple of times when her care broke down (she lives too far away from the college to take public transportation). Anyway, to make a long story short, somehow we ended up on one of our trips talking about children and daycare, and I said exactly what I have said before. She couldn't agree more with me: her youngest son (her only boy) was murdered by his daycare provider.

My blood ran cold when she told me.

I still remember Deborah. Her face has been permanently marked by unspeakable grief.

For those two reasons, the sig.other already knows that this child of ours is not going to see the inside of a daycare. Sure, I know reliable and trustworthy people in my own church and community who treat children under their care at nurseries and daycare centers with lots of respect. But I'm convinced that no one - absolutely no one - can give the high-quality care, love and learning environment any mother expects for her child than the mother herself.

God has given us this Little Fig. As her mother, it is my responsibility to give her everything a child needs, and more. I would be torn to pieces if I had to give her away to a nanny to be cared for while I work somewhere else. I'd be torn to pieces at work because I'm not there to watch her. I understand some people can handle it. I know some cannot live without the second income, because of the circumstances. But I can't.

I don't want to see my Little Fig laying on a bed and crying from morning till afternoon, while the door to that room is closed. I don't want to see my Little Fig being dragged by the nanny from point A to point B like a rag doll, as I have seen in a few places. I sure don't want to see her being placed inside a freezer. (What kind of person in his/her right mind does that?!?)

I just couldn't live with myself.

Sure, there are nice people who can take good care of children during the day, while the parents are at work. But I don't want to miss the milestones. I don't want to neglect on her early education. I want for her to know, from Day One, that she can count on me for everything, and that she can learn from me. No one else can give her the best foundation for her life than her father and me.

Kick!

2006-07-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Last night, I was sitting in front of this computer, minding my own business. I laid relaxed while I checked a few e-mails and news before going to bed.

All of a sudden, I felt something. At first, it felt like an abdominal muscle was relaxed enough to give me a small cramp. It felt like a knock coming from the inside.

I immediately paid attention to it.

Then, knock number two, two seconds later.

I placed my hand on the belly. Knock number three.

It was the Little Fig.

I immediately rose from my chair and ran towards the sig.other, who was already in bed. "Honey, baby kicked!"

He placed his left hand on my belly and felt some vibration. His eyes were curious at first. But then, they changed to wondered. He smiled.

I cried. I was nervous for a while that I would not feel any movement coming from her. But at twenty weeks, it was about time.

The Men From the Boys - Ana, "John"... and the Sig.Other

2006-07-28T11:45:00.000-05:00

I usually don't read much of what John Derbyshire has to say, but I just stumbled into this.

I have a friend, a very busy, worldly & successful guy, who is a great dispenser of advice, mostly good. His advice on raising a daughter: "Sure, education, orthodontistry, moral training, all that is good stuff. It's secondary, though. You must concentrate above all else on this one great objective: DON'T LET HER MARRY A LOSER. Corollary: Don't let her date any losers."

Those words should be written on a wood board, painted in gold, and placed on top of the doorpost to our Little Fig's room for as long as she is with us as our Little Girl.

But there's more:

I had a very sad reminder of this today. I learned that an acquaintance recently lost his daughter. She committed suicide at age 30. She was married to a hopeless ne'er-do-well, a drug addict. She was sure she could put him right.

Unfortunately, too many women fall into that trap. I can tell you of one story that, as sad as it is to tell from afar, I must.

As a fourteen-year-old, I befriended a girl at my high school whose name was Ana. She was on my same grade, same class, same month of birth, same everything. She was the daughter of teachers: her mother taught elementary school for many years before retiring, and her father was a Physics teacher at my high school. She was also the youngest of three: their only daughter.

My mother was so happy that I had befriended someone with the same "qualifications" as her dear nena. We did a whole lot of things together. Went to the beach. Did homework. Took some of the same classes. Walked around town when bored. Ate lunch together. Sure, we didn't participate in the same stuff, but that didn't bother me.

We both had interesting plans for our individual futures. She was thinking seriously about going all the way to law school. Getting her J.D. She surely had all the talent for it. She was among the best speakers in our high school. She had won speech awards up the yazoo. She was hailed by many in my school and my hometown. Even the mayor knew her, for what I could see. I also had law school among my future plans, but not in Puerto Rico. I wanted to go to college in the United States. I also knew that I would find true love over there, even though I was a little "boy crazy" as a teenager in my hometown.

Yet, even with my plans, I knew that I would never go as far as she would. Now that I think of it, I think she knew she could go far. I guess she internalized it. Maybe she became proud of it, or herself. But in either case, now that I use hindsight, it may well be that it was then that the seeds of her own destruction were planted.

Just as she was becoming more famous around the school and the town, she met this guy I'll call Juan (John). He was a Senior at my high school - two years older than she. It was almost love at first sight. The "courting" phase lasted all of three days. Next thing you knew, they were novios. Steady. That's the term there.

And boy, it was intense.

Let me say it right off the bat: Juan was just about the opposite of her. She was an honors student: he barely passed high school with a C - heck, she even did some of his college homework! Her family was - not quite devotely - Catholic. His family... well, I don't know. She was able to find a good part-time job at sixteen. He could barely find work. She was very educated. He?!? Don't ask.

She was quite respected by everyone. But I could never stop noticing that people didn't seem to hold him in such a high esteem (even in my own hometown)... maybe because they could see something that she didn't want to see. She was totally in love with this guy. She could not "live without him."

Sure, she kept her high GPA. She eventually became president of our local chapter of the National Honor Society, as we approached Senior-hood. We were all on our way to jump into the achievement of our dreams. She and I had taken the Puerto Rican equivalent of the SAT's - which is administered by the same Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ. I took the English SAT's. I applied to a couple of schools here in the States. It was in when I finally mailed my applications for admission that I noticed a chasm had begun to grow between us.

I told her what my mother and I had to do in order to mail the paperwork and other stuff, including the high school transcripts and such. Then, she hurled an insult at me. Why?!? What had I said to offend her? She never responded. She left before I had a chance at asking her.

Then, at Christmastime 1989, she behaved a bit more... shall we say... erratic. She was saying some strange things as "I want to have a baby..." (A few times she said that, to my response "Don't do it! It will derail your dreams.") She was in such good mood one minute, and with a terrible case of PMS the next. Misses Jeckyl and Hyde in one. She took an admirable stand against some of our classmates while at a Christmas party with our group at her house... with her parents. (One of our classmates brought an entire cooler with alcoholic drinks, which they knew would not be allowed into the place. They had it in the trunk of the car of one of them. As soon as she was aware of its existence, she confiscated the cooler and brought it to her parents, to the astonishment of the entire group of our classmates.) But her erratic behavior continued.

It took less than a month in order to realize something had happened. I had begun hearing rumors here and there... not all of them pleasant. I then began to see less and less of her - in our last semester in high school! She was going to doctor's appointments more often. She was secretive. There were things that she would tell a couple of other friends, but not me.

Then, I was told by one of my acquaintances. She was pregnant.

The youngest daughter of these two admirable teachers; one of the rising stars of our graduating class; the one gal who would have been voted "Most Likely to Succeed", as they do here (No, we didn't have that over there. There are a lot of things we didn't have over there.)

She married Juan on February 14, 1990, at a small ceremony presided by a Justice of the Peace. Needless to say, I wasn't invited. But I did see the pictures of the wedding, a week or so later.

You could see that Ana was all smiles and happiness, for she had finally married "the man of her dreams". Of course, Juan was all smiles and happiness, too - he had bagged a good one, the lucky punk.

The looks in the faces of her parents in the pictures - especially her father - distraught me the most. Her father looked as if he had been taken out of a coffin for the pose... and there was no tuxedo or business suit to go with it. He only wore a guayabera and khakis. The guayabera wasn't even ironed. His eyes were still red, from all the crying - during the ceremony or before, I don't know. But the five o' clock shadow gave it all away.

Her mother... well, she didn't look any better.

She had said something to me to the effect that she didn't want to tell me about all of this... but I suspected why. She knew - oh, boy, she knew! - that I wasn't going to be happy about all this, that I was going to scold her for doing it. Why did she have to do that to herself?!? She had a good future to look forward to... but then... where did it all go?!? It went just as "down the trash can" as the condom that broke, or the "pull-out" that went haywire. Where was her law school plans? What happened?

She was, simply, in love. Her parents couldn't stop her. Her brothers couldn't keep watch on her. No one warned her... except for the few people at my school who would tell her that "Juan is a loser. He cheats on you." But, somehow, she knew that I would not approve of all of it... In hindsight, she was more afraid of my words than of anything her parents or family would have ever said or done to her.

And that, my friends, was my biggest mistake on the issue.

Raw feelings couldn't be hidden for much longer. When they came out in the open, it was as if I had let the dogs of war loose, never to be caught and chained back. My mother didn't help. She brought me to her mother... and I let some things out in the open... which I now regret.

The friendship split was almost immediate. Ever since that day, I was - relatively speaking - alone. Among all of my classmates, I was alone. Most of them supported her. I was a zero for my very own classmates.

I never regained their friendship or their trust.

Graduation day was bittersweet for me. Even though I had kept Honors standing and collected my awards, I somehow was saddened that Ana could not say the same thing for herself. Her GPA took a steep dive, although she had still kept her Honors standing. She had resigned her position as president of the National Honors Society. She, who could have given the equivalent of the Valedictorian speech - I knew that everyone would have given her the podium on request!, - didn't even attend her own high school graduation.

There was a post-graduation party at the house of one of my classmates, which I attended. She was there. Not dressed like the others, in suits and dresses, but in a pink-plaided maternity gown. I could only pity her. I left the room in which I had seen her. She never said "Hello". She didn't have to. It was best not to.

Even in my faith - remember, it all happened after the death of my father, and I was already angry plenty with God - I tried to find refuge, to no avail. I tried to find justification for my position on the issue... all I could find was people's looks of pity. No understanding. A few suggested that I seek professional help. Wait a sec! I wasn't the gal who "screwed up"! Even at church, I had no friends.

When I finally left Puerto Rico by the end of July 1990, towards New York, college, and the rest of my life, I was as lonely as ever. Very few wished me "Godspeed." All I could do was to pick up the pieces and start again, far away from everything and everyone I knew. And I did. I found new friends, pursued new things, did a lot of other things, and, finally, met the sig.other. All while at college.

Oh, yes: I made my very own mistakes at college, too. All of those experiences of mine and others around me in New York helped me understand the attitudes and thoughts that would drive someone like Ana to do the things she did. I understood more and condemned less, as a result. Not to mention that the sig.other was, well, a merchant marine... He was no spotless angel when he first asked me out. And I didn't hold any illusions that I could change him one bit. It was best to accept him as he was. He would change a few things on his own as things went along. And he did. Among the most surprising things he did within our first year dating was his profession of faith - he had come to trust Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at my church, in Puerto Rico... not even nine months after we had become steady. We married almost three years after that - months after I had completed my college education. (There was no law school for me, though. There were more challenges that I had to face, including those from life. At my age and maturity level, I was not prepared for suh a huge undertaking.)

During my whole time at college, I somehow kept a wallet picture of Ana, which she had given me a long time ago. I still remember it: she stood on a plain beige background, eyes focused on the camera, no smile. It might have been a license or passport picture - I don't know. She gave it to me, nonetheless. Every time I saw it, it made me think about her. How was she doing? What happened to her, her husband, and their child (a boy, it turned out)? I would hear things about her from others, including my mother. I was told that she had another child - a girl - a couple of years later. I did see her walking down a parking lot at one time, but I didn't stop to say "Hi." She was too happy for me to ruin the mood.

But one day, barely a month after our wedding, the sig.other noticed that I had Ana's picture in my hand. "What do you want to do with it?", he asked.

"I want to burn it."

He gave me the matches. I saw as the flicker of flame began to consume that "passport picture". I then threw the remains into the toilet when I could no longer hold it because of the flame. Then, I flushed it into some forsaken sewage treatment plant near the Northern Virginia area. That was the end of my dealings with Ana.

Fast forward about six or seven years since then.

My mother and I spoke on the phone one night. She told me of the happenings on the old hometown. Somehow, we ended up talking about my old acquaintances and friends. And then, she mentioned Ana.

She told me that she had once seen her working at a lab in the hometown, where my mother had to have some blood drawn for some analysis. She was doing clerical work, nothing more. She spoke to my mother and asked how I was doing. My mother didn't say much about me - in fact, I specifically asked her never to tell anyone from my old school about where I lived, or what I was doing. I wanted to make a clean break-up from the old classmates. But she said to her that I had obtained my degree, that I had married, and that I now live in TX. She asked her to say "Hi" to me on her behalf.

And in another phone conversation, my mother told me a shocker.

She is usually friends with this girl with whom I hung out a lot as a teen - the daughter of my mother's closest friend, and a cousin of Ana. She had a long conversation with Ana about many things, especially after the fact that Juan left her. He turned out to be a junkie. A drug addict. She tried everything in her power to make him change. Obviously, she thought that her love would make things right, and the fact that they had two children together would make him react. He didn't. He dumped her. They divorced. Ever since then, she had lost a whole lot of weight - she was thinner at that time than when we were in high school together. She was also a nervous wreck, as her cousin described to my mother. She was always "shaking", as if she were chilly cold... in a hot climate.

She never obtained her bachelor's... let alone attend law school.

But the one thing that tore Ana more than the whole ruin of her marriage was... me. Specifically, the fact that she didn't listen to me back then, and that she was so harsh towards me as a result of all of those things. She told her cousin - who then told my mother in confidence - that she wanted to find a chance to apologize to me.

"Apologize?!? For what?"

My mother said some quite true things then. "She should have known that she would have found out if she did something wrong. She should have realized that her friend would have not laughed at all of her hidden shenanigans with that guy. Ella sabía que mi hija no le iba a reír la gracia... That's why she hid it from her."

It wasn't as if my mother or that old friend of mine were intermediaries between Ana and I. Far from it. But I had to ask my mother: "Apologize?!? For what?? She didn't do the damage to me. She did it to herself. If anything, she should be apologizing to her super-ego profusely, and make it up with whatever possible while she still could."

I know I was harsh to her, too. But I wanted to knock some sense into her, before she fell square into the trap of Juan's arms. (My mother had some suspicions about him, too. One night, she was being fitted for her mother-of-the-bride gown at the boutique of this now-famous Puerto Rican fashion designer - he had designed a gown or two for Miss Universe Number Three. She noticed that there were some guys in... shall we say... queer outfits waiting for him while he fitted my mother for the - absolutely gorgeous - gown. One of the guys in the queer outfits was none else than Juan himself, Ana's husband. Ana was not with him. They were going together to a huge film premier in San Juan. She told me about this shortly thereafter. He suspicions about Juan began to mount, but she never told anyone.)

So, that's one story of my life that needed to be told. I believe, in hindsight, that it was her whole experience with that guy that influenced a lot of my choices thereafter. Sure, I married a wonderful man, and have eleven years of marriage to prove it. We're somehow established and settled down: he, as a port engineer; I, as this not-too-good writer and Web developer, who once tutored Spanish to adult students and computer programming to those who didn't understand it... a not-so-good intellectual and a cat lover. Now that I come to think of it, I feared in my heart that the sig.other - single or married - would turn out to be a loser like Juan, that we didn't have a child for such a long time... until now. Somehow, I didn't want to let go of my fear of a pregnancy for that reason. I thought I had to consult a psychologist on that matter. (There is actually a definition for fear of pregnancy in the Diagnosis Manual for Mental Disorders used by psychologists and psychiatrists.)

Fortunately, the Little Fig came to us as a huge surprise. I guess it was time.

Now, our challenge will be for the sig.other and I, as parents, to raise our little daughter to the highest level of quality we can. I already told the sig.other that no man will be good enough for his little girl, ever. One huge thing that I want to emphasize to her is that she doesn't necessarily have to pursue a boyfriend to find happiness, that there are a lot of things to build for yourself before you lose yourself with another person. Sure, the right man will come to her. But before she ever says "I do", it's best that she learns to know herself very well - and learn to know God and His Perfect Will for her life. "Finding the man" should not be the ultimate goal of a woman. But finding her future definitely is.

Boy, I knew that my parents only wanted the best for me. And, more than anything else, they wanted for me to be happy with the right man. I was quite blessed to have found the sig.other, and I still am. I knew that was the desire of Ana's parents - it is the desire of every parent of a daughter to see her daughter marry well. That was why the sight of their faces in those wedding pictures just broke my heart in pieces. No parent wants her daughter to marry a loser.

Unfortunately, some daughters make very bad choices in life, especially in that department. Sometimes, they pay a hefty price for their illusions. Parents can teach them to think of their futures instead of the here-and-now... but sometimes, the girls won't listen, even after we warn them.

I hope that, when the time comes, I can tell the Little Fig that there are more important things to think in life than the here-and-now. I would like to tell her that the high school sweetheart may not be around when you go to college, and that the college sweetheart may not stay around for her, either. A loser is a boy, a Peter Pan: he never grows up, no matter what you try. A loser never seeks for the future, but for the now. He cares about Ms. Right Now, but never about the woman who will allow him to strive for better things.

A man, however, learns to know and respect you for who you are... and if you are not ready for something, he will understand (marriage, sex, children, etc.) and be patient. True love is not "puppy love", kisses or chocolate: it is not selfish; it doesn't seek its own - interest or pleasure; it endures a lot more than even we can - everything. Best of all, a man will understand that love never fails. That has been my biggest lesson with the sig.other.

I knew there was something different about this man, four years older than I. I knew his feet were more on the ground than the losers I saw around campus often, pursuing many of the girls at my school. He said once to a couple of men who asked him "how he had made it" into a happy marriage with me, "I realized probably the most important point in my relationship: in order for me to trust her, she has to trust me first and foremost." While dating me, he faced some serious temptations - on active duty, on a foreign country, on ship, etc. - but he knew that there was someone who counted on him to be faithful and true to himself and to others. He knew that, once that trust was broken, it is almost impossible to mend. To this day, that has been the sig.other.

That's not a loser to me.

My biggest hope is that our Little Fig will know exactly how to separate the men from the boys. I hope to see the day when she shows me she has found the "winner" - a man who will not be a "winner" necessarily on his own, but because God will guide his life towards His Perfect Purpose... and towards her. And, in the process, that the relationship will yield something better for her future as well as his... all with the Lord's Blessing.

Andrea Yates Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity

2006-07-28T11:43:00.000-05:00

I understand that some may not like this verdict, but it is the correct one.

She has obviously been mentally ill for a long time. Why did she have to pop out five children, even though she was clearly "not there"?

She needs to be carefully supervised and medicated for the rest of her natural life. Having to live with the murder of her five children on her neck is plenty of punishment for her - which I believe aggravates her already extant mental illness. She should never have children again, nor be close to any others.

(Oh, yes: her now ex should have known better.)

I also believe that there must be more efforts to educate pregnant women and their families about post-partum depression. I believe it shoud be mandatory for every pregnant woman and her family to take a course on this at an approved hospital. Families should be strongly aware of it, just in case it shows up.

One co-worker of the sig.other's is facing the consequences of mental illness. He noticed some erratic behavior on the part of his wife long before her pregnancy - such as spending her husband's money like it's going out of style. (It is not difficult for a merchant mariner's wife: husband makes money up to his armpits out at sea, which some wives take as permission to shop into the "high life". The sig.other and I have seen that before.) After the birth of their daughter, her behavior turned worse. Nowadays, they're facing divorce preceedings. Custody of the little toddler is the most difficult part, because the little one has been quite neglected by his own mother. She has even dropped the little one to the husband claiming that she can no longer take care of her.

Mental illness is not a game. It is something that must be treated and monitored. Sometimes, for a lifetime. For a woman with a pre-existing mental illness before entering a marriage, it must be carefully dealt with.

That is all.

More: Jeanette made a very good point when she commented on this post at Hang Right Politics.

Her husband is just as much to blame. She was expected to have all these children with no planning for them, was not well from so many births, was forced to homeschool them and basically never had any “Andrea” time while her husband went about life as normal. He had to know something was wrong and he still didn’t get her the help she so desperately needed.

Yes, Russell Yates was careless towards his wife. There is no question in my mind about it.

Besides, I get the impression, after reading and watching quite a bit about this case, that he fell for a fallacy into which, I have noticed, many Christian families fall: that there is a "cookie-cutter method" for marriage and child-rearing that should be used by every single family, since it is "based on the Bible", and that there should be no deviation from the "norm."

Here's what I mean by that, so that you'll understand that "the best laid plans of mice and men" don't always seem to work:

Husband always the bread-winner. Wait a sec: what happens if he is laid off, or if he suffers a horrible accident on the job? What if a serious illness strikes him? What if he needs to go to college to increase his skills? What if the wife makes more money than he does?

Wife always stays at home, with no life outside of it. From the time that I've spent in the Northeast - and even here in TX -, that doesn't always seem to work that way. Today's circumstances make it increasingly difficult for the wife to stay home with the kids, especially in states where the cost of living is outrageously high and taxes are all-encompassing, and even in states where the cost of living is much lower, jobs and career opportunities are not always available for everyone. Not to mention: haven't we all realized that a woman's mind also needs nurturing, not just her body for the buns in the oven? Didn't we learn that lesson a long time ago? That's why there are clubs and activities for women who do stay at home alone or with the kids.

Wife always has to homeschool the kids - no exceptions. What if she realizes, after having done it for a year or so, that her real skills are not in it, even after choosing the right curricula and doing everything else right? Not everyone is cut to teach school-related curricula to a child. Even I have realized that I do not have the patience to be a teacher, like my mother. She gave me plenty of supplementary education at home, though. That's what I intend to do with the Little Fig.

Another consideration: what if the child has some special needs? What if such child needs to be tended to those needs at a school where he/she can be taught? What if the mother can only do so much and definitely needs help from the outside? The McCaugheys in Iowa had planned to homeschool all of their septuplets. Years later, you see a few of them receiving their education at a school that serves many of their special needs, since two or three of them have faced developmental problems of some sort. One of them uses crutches.

Again, "the best plans of mice and men..."

I have heard in some other blogs and threads that you have to accept this, or that, or that "make sure your quiver be full"... Not all families are made the same. Not all married couples have the personalities for large families, nor the personalities needed for the breadwinner/stay-home types. Not all married women have the skill or the willingness to homeschool a child. Not every child is born with the same characteristics. Not all family circumstances are the same.

And then, there's mental illness.

Russell Yates should have noticed that something was just "out of whack" with Andrea right after their first child was born. He could have noticed that his mental plans for a "full quiver", with the whole plan of wife-always-homsechooling-the-kids, were not going to work with a woman with some serious issues that needed to be addressed. But he did the "bare minimum", and then went for Number Two. And Number Three, Four and Five.

We talk quite a bit about Andrea's state of mind. I want to know more about Russell's state of mind. He obviously didn't realize that the "cookie-cutter approach" was not going to work from the get-go.

(And not that he was not warned about it. The pastor of the home church to which this family belonged said something.)

Sometimes, we try the "cookie-cutter approach" and we realize that something is just not fitting the family life, no matter how many assurances are given that "it's the right thing to do." Not everything works the way we want or expect. Not every method is made as a one-size-fits-all.

That doesn't mean that I'm degrading the choices some of you have made to stay home with the kids and homeschool them all the way. It is not my intention. In fact, I'm staying home with the Little Fig, and if I get a Web development or Spanish translation gig here and there, I'll do it, gladly. When the time comes for formal schooling, the sig.other and I will figure out what to do. (One thing, though: no public school for her, unless it's absolutely necessary.)

But again, things don't always fit the way we intend them. And if you get frustrated because something from that approach doesn't work and you need to do something else instead - like sending your child to a private or public school because the family circumstances have changed -, that doesn't mean you're less of a parent for that. I'm sure that God understands, and that He will give you the wisdom to handle things as they come.

But Russell Yates was blind to that. I'm sure that God gave him plenty of warning about what was to happen, in one way or another. Bottom line: he didn't listen.

Now, he has to try again, with a different woman, and no children to call his flesh and blood.

(To the new Mrs. Yates: assert yourself, sweetie. Don't accept a put-down from anybody, not even from the husband. If you can't homeschool, tell him honestly, and don't relent. If you want to have a life outside of the home, he can't deny that to you.

Remember: he has a history.)

The Little Fig, at Midway

2006-07-26T12:19:00.000-05:00

It's official: it has been twenty weeks gestation for the Little Fig. Twenty more to go.

I had my monthly prenatal appointment yesterday. The sig.other, as always, was with me. I had been scheduled for a sonogram for that date; however, I had an emergency sonogram four weeks before. I wondered if I still had to go through the scheduled sonogram. Thankfully, I didn't.

But I had to wait over an hour at the waiting room for my doctor's checkup. The room was packed. By the time the doctor saw us, it was already past five o'clock.

We were told that he was going to review the results of the sonogram with us. He did. The sig.other asked if he could corroborate the findings regarding the sex of the Little Fig.

The doctor checked the picture a couple of times. "Oh, yes. It's a girl."

"Heartbeat as strong as ever."

"Any things bothering you at this point?"

Plenty. Varicose veins have come about a dime a dozen in my legs. You can be sure that I'm not showing them with a swimsuit on. I've had swelling of my hands and feet a couple of times: at one time, I couldn't walk on my athletic shoes for very long because the swelling made my toes hurt; at another time, I noticed the swelling in my hands, especially the left one. Of course, I've been a little dizzy a couple of times.

What actually alarmed me more than anything else was that I have, so far, gained more weight than I should have at this point. A week or two ago, I weighted a little over thirty pounds over my bottom weight by the time I found out about the Little Fig. I knew I had to do something, and fast: average weight gain is expected at 25 to 35 pounds for the entire course of a pregnancy.

So, I did what I had to do. I cut on some things on which I've been chowing too much. No more cinnamon-raisin bagels. No more ice cream. No more desserts after big dinners at the restaurant. Cut down on appetizers as much as possible. Go for alad, salads, veggies, fruit - lots of it. And water. Lots of water.

No stuff with high sodium. No sodium-preserved meats, such as ham or cold cuts. Not that I eat that stuff to begin with: I weaned out of those a long time ago.

Again - water, lots of water.

I also did something which I should have done from the beginning of my weight loss program over a year ago: I joined the town's community center gym, which is at walking distance from my house. I've been using the treadmills there, walking a bit over 30 minutes a session. I also do my stretches and my weights. My muscles are now regaining definition, and I feel like I can handle a lot more.

I also lost five pounds in the process. Not bad.

Some women don't exercise while pregnant. My mother did not. My (former) sister-in-law didn't, either. I must. I need to be strong enough for myself and for the Little Fig. I'm carrying her inside me now; later, I will be carrying her in my arms, holding her carriage from point A to point B, bouncing her on my shoulders and knees when she becomes a little bigger... She's going to need all of me, and more.

Of course, she's going to be all over her daddy, too.

And speaking of her daddy... The sig.other seems to think that this is the only child we're ever going to have. He admitted thinking of it to me recently. I asked him, "Don't you want another one? Maybe... a boy? She's not going to be alone, or is she? Remember that you might want to preserve your family name..."

"There are so many people out there with my family name... Why does it need preserving?" was his reply.

I can understand his doubts. His family is not the best educated one in the world: all blue-collar, with some cousins behaving badly and getting pregnant with a different guy at one point or another, a grandmother who seems to be a bit greedy and cruel, a set of uncles that don't seem to understand certain things and who will not speak to one another, and a grandfather who never confessed what truly happened to his eldest son (the sig.other's father) that he's now a survivor of a 1950's brain surgery that should have given him only six more months on this Earth, only to give him fifty-five more years of misery and despair.

In other words... a whole family behaving like real rednecks... on his father's side. His mother's side is much nicer, though.

... which is not very different from my family. One difference between my family and (most of) his is that many in my family are now college-educated, including my mother. Otherwise, Tolstoy's opening salvo to Anna Karenina applies here as well:

"Every happy family is alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

So, this is what the Little Fig is going to face when she gets to know her family. I just hope she doesn't wish to crawl back inside me after she finds out...

Now, we have to think of the things to do at the remainder of the gestation: painting her room, replacing the now-carpeted floor in her room with laminate wood, buying the furniture, setting the decorating theme, whipping out the list of needed items for the baby, etc.

I just bought a bag of newborn diapers the other night (40), for those under ten pounds. I hope that's the only bag of newborn diapers I'm ever going to need for her. But she's going to need more. That's why we go to Sam's Club.

I don't know if I want to do a baby shower, though. I'm not a social butterfly around here. And I really don't think that many people will take the time to go through a baby registry list to find an item to buy for the baby. I'm sure they will ignore it if I have it out there. That's why I haven't set up a registry list yet.

Besides, if my mother finds out that I set up a baby registry, she will kill me. She gave me grief when I even considered the thought of a bridal registry eleven years ago. "¿Cómo te atreves?!?" ["How dare you?"] I don't know how she would take it now...

Anyway, I have to let you know what I'm up to. I'll let you know if I have set up a registry or not.

I'm So Glad I'm Not a Grad Student!

2006-07-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

Especially, not a grad student a Berzerkley - ahem... Berkeley.

And, especially, not one who is so bird-brained to write a love poem to Hizballah. (Hat tip: LGF)

If she really thinks they're that worthy of praise, maybe she can do them a big favor... and help them over there in their fight against Israel. Maybe she can learn to fire missiles at Israelis or even learn how to conduct the only suicide bomb mission she'll ever need to do - after she's dehumanized by the mostly-male terrorists in such a way that she begins to think like a predatory beast.

Maybe she can do a Rachel Corrie stunt... Oh! Never mind... That has been tried before...

(BTW: People have been telling me over the years that I should get a Master's degree in the Humanities - Spanish or International Relations, maybe History. But, after seeing these examples of collosal appeasement and ignorance in American academia, I am so glad that I never inquired on taking the GRE. If I were ever to reach the Master's or PhD finish line as brainwashed as this seriously deluded woman, I'd rather have a gun ready for Russian Roulette waiting for me.

No wonder so many of those with the Master's or PhD's in Arts or Humanities don't get the jobs they studied for! Maybe there is a reason why there are so many Starbucks' franchises here! Who else would hire them?)

La número cinco - Number Five!

2006-07-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems I did right by putting my chips on the girl from ye olde home. She's now Miss Universe No. 5. (Thanks to the guys at Power Line for following it.)

I bet you there are lots of guys down in the island howling like wolves right now...

But barely less than an hour after her coronation, she collapsed on stage...

¿Estás bien, Zuleyka? Espero que sólo haya sido la emoción del momento... y nada más. [Are you all right? Hope it was just the emotion of the moment... and nothing else.]

(Do me a favor, guys. On the link to the Miss Universe site, go check the Photos link. Then, go check the National Costume photo. The design contains a painting of the life of the Taino natives, who inhabited Puerto Rico before the Spaniards arrived, on her right side. On her left, you will see the coquí, which is the little tree frog that lives in abundance over there... and whose nightly song has rocked many to sleep, for generations. Some are annoyed by it, but what can we say?)

Update: Fausta knows exactly what's going to happen.

I can safely predict that Puerto Rico will declare a day off so people can attend a giant parade that will deliver her from the airport to the governor's mansion while San Juan traffic will be tied up for hours (a lot more than usual, that is).

Trust me: day-to-day traffic in the San Juan metro area is hell on wheels... worse than the worst day of traffic in DC... or L.A. And that's not just on rush hour.

My safe advice to anyone working in the San Juan metro area who has to do a long commute... The day Zuleyka arrives, stay home and watch it all unfold on TV. Or telecommute. It will not be worth the drive.

Congrats to Floyd Landis

2006-07-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

Former teammate of Lance Armstrong, and winner of the Tour de France.

Once again, Americans know how to tick the French off. (The sig.other says, "Maybe the French should reconsider having the event next year...")

I guess they never got over Napoleon having sold so much territory to us... for pennies on the dollar, too...

Would You Pay Money to Watch This?!?

2006-07-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

Shirley Temple, Patty Duke and Anna Paquin won Oscars for their roles... but never after performing anything like this...

If this is what some kids have to do to get the thrill of the trophy-full shelf nowadays, Heaven help us all.

But for now, I hope those who did this are "caught confessed", as they say in Mexico.

(Via The Corner.)

The Decision

2006-07-23T13:27:00.000-05:00

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 43; The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 37.

It is interesting to see this article in the midst of events unfolding in Israel.

SHARON, Massachusetts - A special El Al flight from New York brought 220 American immigrants to Israel yesterday. The flight was the second of seven Jewish Agency/Nefesh B'Nefesh charters planned for this summer, and the first to arrive since warfare erupted on Israel's northern front. According to the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, 20 prospective immigrants who had signed up for yesterday's flight decided to postpone their arrival at least for a week or two.

On the eve of the flight, Haaretz visited with Joel and Debbie Wine in Sharon, Massachusetts as they struggled to finish packing their belongings, complete a list of last-minute errands, tend to their three young children and say good-bye to friends and family. "Yes, it's crazy globally and crazy in our little world, getting everything done," Joel acknowledged, sitting on a folding chair among the open suitcases and sprawl of unpacked items.

After the war in the north began, people started asking them whether they still planned to move to Israel. "With what's going on now, we're being made out to be some sort of heroes," Joel said. "But this is Israel, and if you think of yourself as Israeli, you realize there's really not a choice. We've mentally, psychologically, emotionally made the commitment to be part of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel, and unfortunately, this [war] is part of the reality." When he received an email from Nefesh B'Nefesh this week confirming that the flight was still on, he sent a one-word reply: "Good."

This is more than encouraging. This is fulfillment of prophecy.

Even though most of the media ignores it nowadays, there is no way to deny that there has been a massive exodus of people of Jewish heritage and/or ancestry into Israel. This exodus begun in very small stages in the turn of the nineteenth and the twentieth century, when the land was so barren that no one really cared about growing anything on it - that is, except for those with such a strong attachment to the ancestral land that they did begin trying.

Once more people began to arrive to Eretz Israel, more farming and irrigation took place. Cities were built or brought back from near-extinction. Trees were planted. Commerce and industry flourished. More people enjoyed freedom, in their own land. Others noticed - and many took the return trip.

Yet, others did notice - and began plans to destroy all of it.

Just as historical events have proven to us that Satan is alive and well on this Earth, history has also proven to us that God is, and that He will protect His People. I don't have to give you a recount of modern Israel's history. Just go and read it by yourself.

And now, even when more carnage is on the way and the possibility of thousands of Israelis being slain for the fact that they are Israelis - or Jews, for that matter -, the People still return from the Diaspora. Why, if it is so unsafe?!? It's like taking your own self and stand like a sitting duck, waiting for the hunter to shoot.

Because they choose to return. Why?

"But this is Israel, and if you think of yourself as Israeli, you realize there's really not a choice. We've mentally, psychologically, emotionally made the commitment to be part of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel, and unfortunately, this [war] is part of the reality."

If you read this article in its entirety, you will realize that this family, in particular, have made the choice and are not looking back - even after their families have lived in the United States for generations. The pull of the ancestral land is so strong. But, I believe, there is more to it than that pull. There is God's Promise to His People for protection. There's also His promise for their return to the land promised to their ancestors - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

You can write that down. When God promises something, He will do it. He has proven it every single time.

Why would He make this promise?

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Why would He give the People of Israel that ancestral pull into the Land that He had promised to them so many centuries ago? Why would He promise to bring back Israel to the Land, "come Hell or high water"?

Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

He loves Israel. He really does.

Now that we know that God really loves His people, we can see that, when He really gives that pull to His people to return to the Land, there is no looking back.

I can only imagine all of the things this family, in particular, has left behind in the States. Families. Careers. Friends. Neighbors. Hobbies. Comfort. Safety.

But they left all of that behind, even though they knew that going to the Land of Promise meant something bittersweet. Returning to the Land is a big blessing, yet it carries a price.

That price is paid by Israelis every single day. Every time any site is attacked by a Satan-inspired terrorist. Every time the media chides and condems them. Every time the world derides, repudiates them, and even wish they didn't exist. Remember when that French envoy to Britain called Israel "that s****y little country"?

It gets better than that. Satan knows so well that God fulfills His promises, that he does everything in his power to throw a monkey wrench into all of it, every time. That's why I think Hamas, Hizballah, Al-Qaeda, and just about every world body that condemns Israel every single time is - let's face it - Satanically inspired. Anti-Jewish sentiment has returned to the world scene with a great force. Europe, which was supposed to have learned "Never Again!" after Hitler's Holocaust, has fallen into that influence. France, Britain, Germany, Russia - even Spain.

Madrid: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain and Secretary General of the Socialist Party, arrived to power at a time nobody expected, not even inside the Party.

Keen on populist tirades against the United States "Dickhead Bush" and "Ketchup Queen Kerry", his whole campaign did not bring much attention until the moment Al-Qaeda decided to blow up Madrid trains, killing almost 200 people and bringing to an end Spain's membership of the West.

From that moment on, everybody knew nothing would be the same, and Spanish Jews knew there were hard times ahead. Prime Minister Zapatero has not disappointed them.

'Understand Nazis'

Although many experts had foretold of the imminent disappearing of European Jews, nobody expected such a virulent explosion of anti-Semitism in Spain, not even under a Leftist government.

The first signal came on Monday, 5 December, when during a dinner with the Benarroch family, Zapatero and wife began claiming what Vidal Quadras, member of the European Parliament, described on the radio as "a tirade of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism".

By the moment the Benarroch couple had left the table to express their regrets, Zapatero was explaining his lack of surprise about the Holocaust: according to the people present, Zapatero claimed to understand the Nazis.

Not that the anti-Jewish sentiment was completely dead in Spain to begin with. It was always there, but dormant. You see, when the Sephardim were expelled centuries ago, many went into hiding. They adapted Christian names, adapted Roman Catholicism - the dominant form of Christianity there - and lived double lives. Some were able to get away with it. Others did not.

(Curiously enough, the day before I found the above article on Spanish anti-Jewish sentiment, the sig.other watched a film called Day of Wrath. The film is about the Sephardim during the Spanish Inquisition - one or two of them, at least. I only happened to catch a few scenes.)

Legend says that many Sephardim kept the keys to their ancestral homes in Spain. I have heard about it quite a few times. (In fact, the first time I heard about this was from the mouth of a Consul of Spain in the States whom I happen to know... He didn't quite hide his dormant anti-Semitism to the few of us who were with him.) Problem is, I don't know if that is true, especially since the pull to the Real Ancestral Land is much stronger than many think. Many Sephardim, like Ashkenazi and others, have made Aliyah over the years.

Not to mention that there have been many groups and populations, from all parts of the world, who have been rediscovering their Jewishness over the years... and are also making the decision to leave all that they have known for the Promised Land.

Unfortunately, traces of anti-Jewish sentiment are infiltrating the discourse in our very own United States as well. One has to see what's going on in some churches, certain political parties and organizations (whose names I'm not going to mention) to see my point.

But many are making the choice to leave everything behind... for the Promised Land. And not looking back.

And the best part about all this is that God has promised that, once there, He will never again allow them to lose their land.

You can write that down. He will do it.

***

This has an application to Christians as well. No, not in the sense that we will make the trip to Israel and stay there.

We have a country to which we belong. The moment we give our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ, we sign up as citizens of the Kingdom that is not of this world. We look forward to the time we can finally see it before our eyes.

But for now, we walk by faith.

We also know that there are many who, now that they know what we believe, will oppose us to the death. One has only to learn of the persecution of Christians around the world to understand. And remember when I posted about the people in that Massachusets town who - many of them Portuguese and Roman Catholic - are being harrassed because they signed that petition against "gay marriage"?

It wasn't like we weren't warned that there was a price to pay.

And even in this blog. Oh, boy! How many times have trolls come in here and just said everything, short of wishing us dead and mutilated? I don't have to count with my fingers. We have seen plenty around here.

Oh yes: they, too, are Satanically inspired. They just don't know it. But once I point that out to them, they get even more rabid. (Hope they get their shots. Not that they would care, though)

But once we make the decision to follow Jesus Christ, no matter the price, and we begin our walk as pilgrims and stangers on this earth, there is no other choice. There is no going back.

And we can count on one huge promise:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You can write that down. He will do it.

Pat Buchanan: Having Jumped The Shark a Long Time Ago, He Still Manages to Do It Again

2006-07-23T13:26:00.000-05:00

Just read the garbage he has just spawned out of him:

But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.

But where are the Christians? Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims?

When al-Qaida captured two U.S. soldiers and barbarically butchered them, the U.S. Army did not smash power plants across the Sunni Triangle. Why then is Bush not only silent but openly supportive when Israelis do this?

Democrats attack Bush for crimes of which he is not guilty, including Haditha and Abu Ghraib. Why are they, too, silent when Israel pursues a conscious policy of collective punishment of innocent peoples?

Maybe he should do a little more digging. He would have realized that Israel has taken so much beating and pounding, for a very long time, from Hamas, Hizballah, and its national sponsors. One can take so much abuse for a long time. It was time for Israel to fight back against the hijacking of its neighbor to the north by a Syria-and-Iran-supported terrorist organization.

It is not un-Christian to support self-defense, especially when the enemy is using civilians as cover. What it's un-Christian here is what Buchanan is doing. (Didn't he know that the Vatican's outgoing Secretary of State - the man who made that disgraceful statement condemning Israel - has been anti-Jewish for a long time, and that Pope Benedict XVI had just fired him and named a soon-to-take-over replacement?)

Too bad Buchanan took his mask off a long time ago... and shown exactly what he's made of. Maybe we should give him a membership card in the Hizballah organization.

Now, this is a man no one should take seriously anymore. Why does WorldNetDaily?

Pardon Me If I Have To Ask This Question...

2006-07-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

I know that a whole bunch of American citizens were rescued from Lebanon just in the last few days... and that's good and nice...

... but I wonder, especially after reading this at Debbie Schlussel's:

One thing is lost in all the press coverage of the whining Americans who went to Lebanon of their own accord and now want us to pick up the tab to get them out.

THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS IN LEBANON ARE HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTERS.

Most of them are Shi'ite Muslims, many of whom hold dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship. Many are anchor babies born here to Muslims in the U.S. illegally. Some are illegal aliens who became citizens through rubber-stamping Citizenship and Immigration Services (and its INS predecessor) coupled with political pressure by spineless politicians.

Of the 25,000 American citizens and green-card holders in Lebanon, at least 7,000 are from Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of Islamic America, and especially Shia Islam America. These 7,000 are mostly Shi'ite Muslims who openly and strongly support Hezbollah. Ditto for many of the rest of the 25,000 that are there.

[There's more.]

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot in the process of doing the right thing?

Heavens, I hope not!

She also links to this column by Brigitte Gabriel - a must read.

Huzballah is the A Team of terrorist organizations. They are more organized, more lethal, more structured and more calculated than Al-Qaeda. It is Husballah who is training Al-Qaeda members in south Lebanon, and in the Bekaa and southern Beirut where Israel is bombing. It is those same Al-Qaeda terrorists who are trained in Lebanon, are the ones who travel via Syria into Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is doing the job that the world powers and UN should have done a long time ago.

It is also in Lebanon and Husballah where these terrorists are developing the roadside bombs used on our marines and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those same terrorists have cells in America and ready to unleash suicide bombing here in America. [emphasis mine]

Update: Pamela at Atlas Shrugs has more... including a link to this video clip of an interview with Brigitte Gabriel on CNN, from Expose the Left.

Another Update: The Counterterrorism Blog has one heck of a rap sheet on Hizballah's activities in the United States.

Racketeering, Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing, Weapons and Planning, Tax Evasion, Drug Running, Human Trafficking... Human Trafficking?!? Yep. Smuggling of Lebanese across the border from Mexico.

Haven't I said before that there's a strong criminal element behind the smuggling of illegals into the States? I didn't think it would be that strong.

Didn't That Practice End Here a Long Time Ago?

2006-07-23T13:22:00.000-05:00

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens just signed a bill that would ban child brides in the state.

The state Court of Appeals ruled on June 15 that Colorado had no stated minimum age for common-law marriage but said the state has adopted English common law, which makes girls as young as 12 and boys as young as 14 eligible for marriage.

"It was imperative that Colorado change its law concerning the minimum age for common law marriage. The age of consent for marriage should be consistent in our statutes and, most importantly, our young children must be protected," Owens said as he signed the bill Tuesday.

The bill to close the loophole passed without major opposition during a special session on illegal immigration. Lawmakers said the issue could not wait until lawmakers return to work in January. The law raises the minimum age for common-law marriage to 18 or 16 with parental consent and a judge's approval and goes into effect Sept. 1.

The practice of marrying a child as young as 12 is now an aberration in this country. It is still practiced in many other parts of the world, though. I know of some ethnic enclaves, such as the Travellers in the South, who still practice it in secret, even though they have faced judges frequently because of it.

One thing to notice about this story, though. The story that brought about this new law in CO is one to ponder on:

The court ruling came in the case of Willis Rouse, 38, who was 34 years old when he applied for and received a license to marry a then-15-year-old girl with the consent of the girl's mother.

[...]

Rouse is serving a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to stalking the girl and has asked a judge to release him in light of the Appeals Court ruling. [emphasis mine]

Two things: the girl obviously didn't want to see that man's daylights, no matter what her mother said or did; and this man doesn't get it. Are we to allow him to go free so he can stalk the next fourteen-year-old? Oh, no!

BTW: what kind of mother consents to such an aberration?

Karma is a &!%@#, Isn't It?

2006-07-23T13:18:00.000-05:00

Interesting news from Iraq: the killer of our two horribly-mutilated soldiers has now assumed room temperature.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Jordanian who killed two U.S. soldiers last month was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces, a senior Iraqi official said Tuesday. Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, known as Abu al-Afghani, was identified as the killer of the two soldiers, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told reporters.

The two soldiers' mutilated bodies were found after they were captured in a firefight near Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad.

Hat tip: My Pet Jawa.

The Uncomfortable Question

2006-07-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

Remember the mathematician/ethicist in Jurassic Park?

No, I''m not a fan of the film or the book. I watched it twice - to make me sick enough not to watch it again. (I do get nightmares of beasts and snakes chasing me once in a while, still...)

But one thing that marvelled me, more than the digital effects that dazzled millions of viewers, is the fact that so many were dazzled by the visuals and not focused enough on the one message from the film - actually, the novel itself - that should make it worthwhile. And that's where the mathematician comes in.

Remember that part in which that small group meet and discussed the unbelievable stuff they had just presenced? Excitement was on the air. Oh, the places we'll go! The things we can do! The world will be marvelled! Ecstatic! Extinct species were resurrected. No one had done it before! Nothing is impossible now!

Yet, this one man interrupted the talk and asked the question no one seemed to have expected. He pondered before the group "not whether if we can, but whether if we should..."

Even though the discussion was just a blip in the scheme of things within the story, that question seemed to always hang in the air, as the proverbial elephant in the living room... especially as later events unfolded. In the end, it was clear that Pandora's box was opened, and that it was too late to close it back shut.

It is sad that so many missed the real question within the story. "Sure, we can do whatever we want to do, in the name of science. But should we?"

It seems this is the same question that the President asked, in his very conscience, before issuing his very first veto. Of course, the media knows how to distort his point of view and advance theirs - and that of the "secular priests with lab coats."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush used his veto power Wednesday for the first time since taking office 5 1/2 years ago, saying that an embryonic stem-cell research bill "crossed a moral boundary."

The bill, which the Senate passed Tuesday, 63-37, would have loosened the restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research.

House Republican leaders tried Thursday evening to override the veto, but that vote was 235 to 193, short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said Wednesday afternoon. "It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it."

Of course, the media and many scientists would rather avoid this question, especially when it comes to use of stem cells coming from embryos.

The media and his opponents always paint it as if he were opposed to all forms of that research. But they don't seem to pay attention to the fact that he was only vetoing anything that meant using embryos for research, even if discarded. Supporters of embryonic stem cells marvel and wonder all the things science can do in the name of "saving lives."

They always have to use that phrase "saving lives."

They never want to face the fact that it means they will most likely support using what they love to call "that insignificant blob of cells" - which becomes a human embryo - to "save a life." It is as if that "blob of cells" doesn't hold any importance to them... It's robbing little Peter to pay Paul. They never think of that!

They don't think they're stealing for parts, like thieves rob vehicles and dismantle them for parts to be sold elsewhere. But that doesn't seem to scare them. They don't seem to think that there is something to that "blob of cells"... something unique to them. The fact that they have their very own genetic imprint doesn't seem to phase them.

That must uncomfortable question doesn't seem to descend upon them... Maybe it already has, but they have done everything possible to justify it - and themselves. Because, in the end, it's all about themselves. The quest for glory. Fame. A future contribution to History. Their names in newspapers; in Nobel Prize medals; in college textbooks...

But they seem to forget that mathematician who asked the question no one wants to answer... because the answer might - just might - show a side of them the public doesn't need to know...

The President, being no mathematician, ethicist or scientist of any kind - you have to understand why so many of his opponents call him "an idiot" - pondered the question none of those advocates in Congress, the media or the scientific community wanted to ask. They don't understand the fact that he not only has a Harvard MBA, but also a BA in History. History. He has read quite extensively - not that his rabid opponents care - and his wife, Laura, is an even more avid reader than he is.

Yet, he's not the kind of guy who lends himself into the "root causes" discussions or the long arguments and counter arguments of the intelligentsia. In fact, he rejects them. He knows that, beyond History, Science and Today, there is an Eternal God with Eternal Principles, whose Word is Truth. He knows that he could not, in good conscience, answer that unconfortable question to the satisfaction of anyone. He knew he was going to face hell on wheels, especially from those to whom this Spanish proverb applies: "No hay peor ciego que el que no quiere ver." ["There's no worse blind man than he who doesn't want to see."]

The Anchoress is right on the money, once again. (Honestly, if that phrase had a tangible value to it - as in, a buck for every right point you make - she'd be a millionaire by now.)

They want the world to think that Bush is a “Christian who is afraid of science,” and so they always discreetly forget the EMBRYONIC part, leaving casual readers to think the president is against adult stem cell research, in general…which is not at all true.

[...]

To me, it speaks volumes that the proponants of ESC research, in the press and elsewhere, are so willing to mischaracterize moments like these. Seems to me if you cannot be upfront about the thing you want, if you need to dance around it, then there must be a reason why. Maybe it’s because you know the thing you want, you probably shouldn’t want.

And btw, President Bush says he was “honor bound,” to veto this bill. Good for him. “Honor” has become a remarkably rare commodity in politics. When I look at the world and the state of it, I believe this will be for us a blessing.

She and I are on the same wavelength.

"But newton! Don't you see that this is such an advance in medical science? You wouldn't want for science to be restricted on this, if it meant saving your own life! Besides, if we don't do it, someone else will. And they will get the accolades and the place in History!"

I know, I know. But if you were the scientist who would use hundreds, maybe thousands of embryos and cut here and there - just like car parts for a car thief - for that one miracle-moment... after having become so intimate at the way God has "fearfully and wonderfully made" us, in the "lower parts of the earth", as "substance, yet being unperfect" (the Hebrew word used in this phrase alone is translated "embryo"), and yet tinkering with its mechanism here and there, using brand-spanking new car parts from a wholly unique new model to fix "old clunker" us... and then discarding the wholly unique new model... and find the "Eureka!" moment and then share it with the world, and get all the accolades... I would give you the "Congrats"... and the suggestion to buy stock in the company that makes Lunesta.

No scientist who has seen the works of God so closely and so intimately can get away with pretending that He didn't make them, nor that He didn't want for certain things to be messed with.

How quickly some people are to dismiss the mystery of life! How quickly some are willing to dismiss that "blob of cells", as if they didn't mean anything.

I still remember the last words I said before I went to sleep the day that I discovered the Little Fig is on her way. I didn't say "That blob of cells!", as if they were an inconvenience for me, to be discarded like a recyclable. I didn't "de-personalize" that unperfect substance that is growing inside me. I simply called it "My baby!"

You tell me to my face that this is an insignificant thing, to be dismantled like a stolen car for its parts. I dare you to tell me!

This creature growing inside me is, of itself, a miracle. Only God could put all the mechanisms in place in order for this to happen among its creation. In fact, it was through this very process that He brought forth into our midst our Blessed Hope - the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that God would choose to come to earth as a human being by undergoing the same life processes that we all humans endure is an honor in and of itself.

Those people that are so quick to judge Christians like George W. Bush for the stances they take on issues like this should take this to heart: many of us who have studied our Bibles well can see where the other side is going. We can see how so many are so enthusiastic in embracing the latest scientific advances and the newest things with the potential to expand our lifespans and make us almost... immortal. We can sense how hostile they can become towards us when we ask the questions no one wants to hear, nor ponder, nor answer... We sense it because, as new creatures in Jesus Christ who have been given by God the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind, we have seen this before.

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

God knew what those people were doing, and the reasons for it. He knew that they would attempt to hijack His Throne if they imagined themselves doing it... Since there were no restraints on them, and probably shut out any dissent to their plans, nothing would be impossible for them to reach.

The interesting thing is that God has a way to put the proverbial monkey wrench on "the best laid plans of mice and men." He showed those builders Who Is In Command, in the most interesting way. Needless to say, they stopped building.

But that doesn't mean that the desire of the natural man to overcome so much to the point of attempting to take the place of God had died there. It is still very much with us. And embryonic stem cell research is only part of the one major push by science to achieve what God would not allow them to do. This is what the Apostle Paul referred to in his first letter to Timothy:

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith.

Even Paul could see that some would use "science" to renege of Judeo-Christianity. And he didn't have to see the debates of today. All he had to do was to let the Holy Spirit speak to him directly - and boy, how direct It is:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron [...]

Thankfully, George W. Bush's conscience isn't one of them.

Actually, I had written a warning to this very same a while ago:

Our modern times are characterized by the exponential increase in knowledge, science, cultures and travel - exactly what was foretold to the Prophet Daniel as a sign that the Times of the End were at hand. (Sounds familiar?) We, in the United States, have restrictions on the things that we can do with some specific aspects of that knowledge - especially in research related to embryonic stem cells. Those ones fall within the realm of ethics. On the other hand, other developed countries don’t have those restrictions. More R & D funding is now reaching countries where once it was near impossible to develop anything in the realm of micro-science and nanotechnology - look at China, India, and Singapore. Many scientists are coming to the realization that, eventually, nothing will be impossible for them to do [...]

I don’t know if it will happen soon, but how long will it be before scientists announce the creation of a brand-spanking new man, genetic defects-free, with age-defying DNA, terrific physical characteristics… all in all, a perfect man, designed in a laboratory from man-assembled nano-biological materials, in a petri dish? How long before we hear of an embryo created with nothing but the best the human genome can offer, implanted inside a woman’s womb, carried to term, and raised with all the knowledge of the world and all the possibilities? Extremely high IQ. Highly empowered to do anything. Highly praised.

[...]

In order for the beginning of the ultimate “abomination” to take place, Man has to be the sole creator of this new being. God’s out of the equation here. Remember that God created Adam from scratch and gave him the Breath of Life, and created Jesus in a specially made, sin-free body and implanted it into the womb of a virgin.

All that Man needs to do is to actually harness the sum of all of the elements needed to create a brand-spanking-new human life. When that is achieved successfully - when something like that is carried to term and breathes the free air as a newborn -, you can assure yourselves that the time left is very short.

Ladies and gentlemen: when there is no restraint, there will be trouble ahead. If anything does not allow for this to continue, it is the Holy Spirit - I believe.

Ever from the beginning, the natural man has always wanted to take the place of God. We are all born with a sinful and rebellious nature. It is manifest in so many of the things we do throughout our lives. In the end, many of us realize that God commands. He always has, and He always will.

Unfortunately, there are many out there who have chosen to live in that state of lifelong rebellion against God. And some would kill God if they could. Some others will use legitimate things in this world to bring about even more rebellion against God. And some will even go as far as openly challenging His Supremacy. But I believe that this last part is not very obvious right now, but it will be in the future.

But, as for the medical needs, we must take this point to heart: there will be a way to find a cure, or at least some treatment, to the many ailments that affect us humans. God always provides a way for these things to happen, if they are within His Will, and the methods to find it are acceptable within His Sovereign Providence... Plus, He would never allow for something to be reachable to His children if it were not for their ultimate benefit. Look at vaccines. Transplants. Lots of other examples.

Which brings me to the one point in Jurassic Park that is better known: "Life will find a way."

A Note to Dan Quayle

2006-07-17T13:54:00.000-05:00

To: Former VP Dan Quayle
From: newton

Just a note to say that I respect you because you walked out of a John Mellencamp concert.

He then made a statement of his own by walking out during Mellencamp's rendition of ``Walk Tall.'' Before launching into the song, Mellencamp told the Harveys casino crowd, in effect, that it was dedicated to everyone hurt by policies of the current Bush administration.

I'd respect you even more... if you had known enough of this man not to give him the honor of your presence.

Life is too short - and money too scarce - to hear some Leftist idiot's tripe on stage.

"All Politics is Local"

2006-07-10T16:34:00.000-05:00

Didn't Tip O'Neill say that a long time ago?

Just received a few attached e-mails from the sig.other.

It seems someone at work - specifically, a GS worker at the Navy base with nothing useful to do with his time - has issued a petition to ban smoking on all public places in the little town in which we live.

Here's the scoop. [Note: identifying details of said town and persons have been edited out, to protect the privacy of all involved.]

Note from the sig.other:

[newton],
Tom [do-nothing GS] came out of his liberal hole to ask us to sign a no-smoking petition for [newton and sig.other's home town]. I think you get a real kick out of the responses from Loren [GS worker who is busy aplenty at the base] and I.

Original e-mail from do-nothing Tom:

Citizens of [newton and sig.other's home town],

I'm asking for you to stand up and support this issue and Breathe Free [newton and sig.other's home town],
to give everyone a smoke free environment now and in future, in ALL Public places,
for both the patrons and the workers.

Please fill out the form, return, and I will have you posted on the website very soon !
Thank you,

Tom [do-nothing GS]

Website: http://breathefree[newton and sig.other's home town].org/

Response from the sig.other:

I'm sorry, Tom, but in a free society, people should have the right to chose whether to smoke or not. This type of legislation is a sort of discrimination. We already have a dry county. After alcohol and cigarettes, do we forbid fast food that can make you fat, salt that can give you high blood pressure, and so on? My parents both smoke; I'd like them to be able to visit a restaurant that allows them to smoke if they chose to do so.

-[the sig.other]

Response from Loren [GS worker who's busy aplenty]:

I would not normally respond to this.......but seeing as how you sent it to me knowing full well my point of view.....here is my response: We live in America.........a free country........I fully support the position of smoking and non smoking areas.......but a full fledged ban is wrong. You are attempting to make all smokers second class citizens. The argument is used that second hand smoke is dangerous.......so you want to outlaw smoking in public. By that way of thinking, people with AIDS would represent a danger to the public as well so do you want them to all stay home. And we know teenagers cause the most auto accidents, so lets takeaway the licenses until they are 21. I do not now, nor have I ever smoked....its a dangerous habit. But I don't agree with making second class citizens of smokers either. Designated smoking sections work just fine. Why don't you people do something constructive..........like eliminate the drug problem at [newton and sig.other's home town] High School......I will support you in that.

Further info on the guy who is trying to push our little town into the smoke-free dictatorship: this is one of the guys who supported yet another nutso with a grudge against the President, Cindy Sheehan. In fact, he was one of the protesters who were with her in Crawford, near the President's ranch last summer.

Go figure.

With useless people like him lurking inside the base, no wonder the base is going to close in 2009! Good riddance!

Taliban Yalie No More... We Hope

2006-07-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

He was denied admission to Yale's full-degree program.

I guess the threat of losing alumni funds and lucrative endowments is enough to make those at Yale think.... But again, they probably don't care about the fact that admitting a man like him would have meant that other, more worthy Afghani prospective students - mainly young women who would have been killed by ~~men~~ savages like him for putting a good brain to use - would not have a chance, let alone an American Iraq/Afghanistan War veteran who could have wanted to study there with the GI bill.

But who knows? Maybe Yale has plans to admit him secretly later on, when others are not paying as much attention (read: outraged conservatives and Yale alumni.)

Captain Ed said it handsomely here:

Yale invited Hashemi -- he didn't just show up and fill out an application. They went out of their way to get him to choose Yale, because as their admissions office stated, they didn't want to lose another "high profile" candidate to Harvard. Regardless of all the arguments about diversity and openness, all of which get belied by Yale's policies towards the American military, Yale obviously chose Hashemi as a tweak at the Bush administration. They thought that Hashemi's presence would embarrass the White House and give Yale some sort of moral authority.

Instead, they have demonstrated themselves to be hypocrites, and still do with this decision. Rather than deny him admission altogether, they denied him his application to a degree program, but will still allow him to attend the nondegree program. They're hoping he gets the hint and disappears voluntarily. Yale passed up an opportunity to take a clear stand against the intolerance and hatred that Hashemi represented.

Here's a suggestion to all ladies and gents who are soon facing the college route with your children: don't spend a penny on Yale, not even for the sake of a "world-class" education. If your child insists on going over there, tell him/her that it will not be on your dime. There are much worthier colleges out there that are not as burdened with P.C. hypocrisy.

Also: I want to know who the genius at Immigration and Customs Enforcement was who allowed for this man to have a student visa in the first place. I want him/her exposed. Shamed. Fired.

Daddy (Hearts) the Little Fig

2006-07-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

The sig.other had forwarded a couple of email exchanges between a co-worker who now lives in Japan and him. You might want to read this excerpt:

[newton] and I had a scare last Wednesday with a call about problems witht he babies blood work. We did an ultrasound that afternoon and found the baby is due on 10DEC06, not Thanks Giving Day. She is still a 2006 tax break. The difference threw off the test for Downs Syndrome. We learned that our little GIRL is fine and the tests would be recalculated. Our doctor called on the Fourth of July to tell us all is indeed well. I hope you and SallyAnne are well.

Notice the capitalizing of "GIRL".

It's happening. newton is fast losing the sig.other's heart... to a little woman who hasn't seen him yet. I can tell you right now that he will do anything for her: walk on coils of fire, swim the largest ocean, fly to the highest part of space...

Oh, yes. On the Fourth of July, we received a phone call from my OB/GYN. I guess he was on duty that day. He studied the lab work and sonogram pictures. He told us that she's perfectly fine.

Fortunately, the sig.other is not in the situation the father of this most unfortunate little unborn child is facing...

The Beginning of a Trend? Hopefully

2006-06-30T18:07:00.000-05:00

The University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio just announced that its Library is cancelling their subscription to the New York Times. From a statement by the Librarian:

"Since no one elected the New York Times to determine national security policy, the only action I know to register protest for their irresponsible action (treason?) is to withdraw support of their operations by canceling our subscription as many others are doing," Mendell D. Morgan Jr. wrote Wednesday in an e-mail to library staffers. "If enough do, perhaps they will get the point."

The university released a statement Thursday saying Morgan had the authority to remove the newspaper.

I hope it's only the beginning of the end... for that bunch of traitors.

And Library staffers there can shout "Censorship!" till they're blue in the face. They don't realize the damage the NYT has done.

Maybe they should have a taste of it... by having somebody publish embarrassing accounts of their private lives or deepest secrets on the pages of the San Antonio Express-News. Let's see how that feels.

One More Thing: Let me tell you something that many of you might want to think regarding the decision by the UIW Librarian to do this. (I don't say that I have complete knowledge of the place, since I've never studied there to begin with, but I have considered their Accelerated Degree program.)

Those who are very familiar with the San Antonio area know that many students at their local colleges and universities - UTSA, St Mary's University, and UIW - happen to be military. Specifically, many of them may well stem from Brooks AFB nearby. Plus, there is a military hospital and rehabilitation center currently in expansion near San Antonio that specifically has been used to treat our wounded soldiers. The President and the First Lady have visited that rehab center and hospital several times already. (I forgot the name of it... sorry!)

Major Hat Tip: Drudge.

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

Thank You, From The Little Fig and I

2006-06-30T17:43:00.000-05:00

To all of you who raised their supplications to Heaven on behalf of the Little Fig and mine: Thank you.

Today was not supposed to be this scary. I was supposed to wake up, do my usual thing, and work on my digital video project for a friend of mine. It was supposed to be just like any other day... until I answered a phone call from my OB/GYN's office at 10:30 a.m.

The nurse told me that the results of the blood work had come back. The lab had found an abnormality, which wasn't mentioned to me. I was told not to panic, that it probably is a false positive (whatever that is). They needed for me to be at the hospital at 2 in the afternoon, for an emergency ultrasound.

Needless to say, I panicked. I cried to the Lord like I had never done before.

I also called the sig.other. He returned home from work as soon as he could. I also called Jeanette and a few other friends of mine. One of my friends prayed for me. Jeanette immediately e-mailed a few of you. (Thank you, Jeanette!)

I ate what I could. I took a shower. I was calmed down for a while. I was still scared.

The sig.other finally came home. I cried on his chest. He held me for a good while.

By 1:30 p.m., the sig.other and I were already out of the house, on our way to the hospital.

"I have already placed this in the Lord's Hands. There's nothing else we can do. It's in His Hands", the sig.other said to me, as he held my hand with his, while the other was holding the wheel.

We went to the sonogram suite. We waited. I wiped away tears.

Finally, we were taken to the room where the sonogram machine was waiting for us.

The technician checked all of the features of the Little Fig. Feet, arms, head... She took measurements. I saw the Little Fig's face for the first time.

The technician didn't find anything out of balance with the Little Fig, in short.

We also found out that the Little Fig is three weeks behind, gestation-wise. The new due date is December 10.

We immediately went to our doctor's suite to have our questions answered. The doctor was not in today. The nurse who called me attended us.

She had a sight of pure relief. "Oh! The baby is three weeks behind! Now, that means the Lab will have to recalculate their numbers! It should all be all right!"

Recalculate?!?

It turns out that the Lab found an "abnormal" showing... for Down's Syndrome. But, if the gestation period is three weeks late, that means their results will be different.

Both the sig.other and I were calmed down. "Nothing's wrong!" The nurse told us. Besides, we saw nothing out of the ordinary on the sonogram. The heartbeat is strong. That little body is still kicking inside me.

We both prayed, relieved. Thankful.

We left the hospital. We ate a late lunch. I then became busy doing the project that I had meant to continue working on in the morning.

To all of you, from all three of us, again: thank you for your support and your prayers. Please continue praying for our Little Fig's health... and mine.

Oh, BTW: This is the first picture of the Little Figlet. (Yes, friends: it's a girl!)

Cross posted at Oh How I Love Jesus

An Entire Islamist Tribe Guilty of "Honor" Murder in Denmark

2006-06-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

I had asked earlier this month if there was a blogger following this story from Denmark. It turns out that Charles Johnson at LGF had posted something on it.

Today, there are great news: all members of the tribe were found guilty of murder.

A landmark verdict finds nine people guilty for conspiring to kill a young Pakistani woman and her husband in the largest honour killing case ever tried in Europe

The High Court of Eastern Denmark delivered a 'guilty' verdict on Tuesday to all nine defendants in the most far-reaching honour killing ever tried in Europe.

The verdict is considered a landmark finding, since not only the brother who fired the gun that killed Ghazala Khan was found guilty.

The court also found Ghazala's father and seven others guilty of conspiring to murder the young Pakistani woman and her husband for disobeying orders not to marry last September. Jurors determined that a group of uncles, aunts and acquaintances apparently plotted to lure the couple to the train station of Slagelse in western Zealand, where the brother waited with a loaded gun.

Ghazala suffered fatal wounds while her newly wed husband narrowly escaped death.

Good!

The Danes show something that the Dutch seem to lack: guts.

There's nothing "honorable" about premeditated murder. Nothing. I'm glad that the Danish justice system is taking a stand against such a sadistic practice, which is, actually, a crime against women.

I want to see the people at NOW hail this verdict... Nah. That's wishful thinking.

Also: Gates of Vienna has the details, in English. Look at what that Danish court faced:

The trial was unusual in more than one respect, even in these “honor killing” cases. Members of the jury were threatened, witnesses openly feared acts of violence from the Muslim community and thus were reluctant to testify. Several times during the proceedings the judge had to warn the Muslim audience that he would not tolerate intimidation. Seemingly unaware of the Islamic tradition of lying through one’s teeth whenever it suits one’s purpose, he had to warn several witnesses of severe punishment if they continued to do so.

The verdict sends ripples of shock across the Muslim community in Denmark…
[emphasis totally mine]

I would like for all of our readers to go to Gates of Vienna: in particular, to the posting that arose my curiosity in the first place.

There is a picture that I want for you to look at. It will send chills through your spine. It was taken by "a man sitting on a nearby bench" - a man who will be forever unknown to us, but whose simple act of taking his cell phone camera and using it to record the horrific incident happening before his very eyes should wake up all of the Western World to the real threat of Islamist domination. This unknown man probably has no idea about the favor he has done for humanity, especially for our women.

I read this post to the sig.other and showed him the picture. His reaction was as strong as it could be: he wanted for Denmark to take a stand against such savages.

The judge in that case should be given a Medal of Honor. And some loyal bodyguards with AK-47s, too.

And to the "Muslim community in Denmark…" Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Oh, yes. I forwarded the article to the sig.other.

He Can Go Back to the Hole He Came From!

2006-06-30T17:37:00.001-05:00

In news of local (South TX, Corpus Christi) interest, comes this bit of a... sickening story.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Corpus Christi woman says she got something horrifying in the mail.

Corpus Christi police say the woman reports her ex-boyfriend mailed her a severed human finger.

Police haven't released the identities.

Police Captain John Houston says police aren't sure which finger was removed or how it was removed, but that the finger appeared to have been cleanly severed and washed.

Police said a letter was enclosed, stating -- quote -- "This is the last chance to touch you."

The 32-year-old woman filed for an emergency protective order from the 34-year-old man last week before receiving the package. Police say the man moved to the Houston suburb Spring last week and hasn't been located.

Woman, if you're reading this, get the heck away from Corpus! Move out. Change your phone number. Do whatever it takes. But that weirdo better not be near you!

So... Saddam Had Nothing to Do With Al-Qaeda, Eh?

2006-06-30T17:37:00.000-05:00

Here's yet another Leftist myth being brought to pieces at the gigantic shredding machines of Saddam's dictatorial times.

Newly declassified documents captured by U.S. forces indicate that Saddam Hussein's inner circle not only actively reached out to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and terror-based jihadists in the region, but also hosted discussions with a known Al Qaeda operative about creating jihad training "centers," possibly in Baghdad.

Ray Robison, a former member of the CIA-directed Iraq Survey Group (ISG), supervised a group of linguists to analyze, archive and exploit the hundreds of captured documents and materials of Saddam's regime.

But again, what will Leftists say about it? I know: "Nyah, nyah, nyah, I can't hear you!"...

Hat tip: Captain Ed.

For Ward Churchill, The Chickens are Finally Coming Home to Roost

2006-06-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

The chancellor of the University of Colorado has recommended that he be fired.

We can only hope that he doesn't throw a monkey wrench on his firing with a lawsuit against the university.

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

Bill Keller: A Condescending and Arrogant S.O.B.

2006-06-30T17:33:00.000-05:00

That's my take, in just a few words. (Sorry for the words I used: someone needed to tell this rotten, dirt-eating worm how despicable he has shown himself to the world to be. Somebody had to say it: it might as well be Latin-tempered, Little-Fig-carrying newton.)

For a better tiger-devouring of that half-baked "apology" coming from the pen of such a small man (if he ever was one at all), go check Hugh Hewitt, Austin Bay, Professor Reynolds, and Wizbang. (I particularly love what the guys at Wizbang put together: Keller's response, in the condensed version)

The Anchoress knows how to spank him like a red-headed stepchild... in just a few words.

By the way, can’t you just hear Keller’s inner Eddie Haskell in that line? Can’t you just hear the spoiled elder child, full of collegiate cool and superior morality talking down to his Greatest Generation parents? I can. Oh, I can hear it! But more and more I’m convinced that these sniveling weasels are doomed and boxing shadows.

My sense is this gambit is going to wash back into the Times’ cup like toddlerspit mixed with bits of peanut-butter and jelly-on-white. Keller has made a complete and utter fool of himself, done a disservice to a once-great newspaper and - most offensively - compromised an important weapon in a time of war. He deserves to be ousted to whichever commune Howell Raines disappeared.

And there's, of course, Michael Barone, but Jeanette took care of it.

Honestly, I don't usually wish ill upon anybody, but he deserves whatever ill comes to hit him in the behind. I bet that, if he were put on the boots of a U.S. soldier in Iraq for just one day and have to face the bullets flying from those "liberators" the NYTimes seems to want to defend oh-so-much (together with those terrorists they love to call "freedom fighters"), he'd be giving a good reason for using better camouflage on those military pants, IMHO.

Again. What a small man... if he ever was one at all. Pity him.

(Oh yes: I have better choice words to call that worm, but I'd rather not do it here. We all can do that in the privacy of our own mumbles.)

Update: Sister Toldjah talks about the President's reaction to the leak.

Another Update: Uh-oh! :o

Before The Anchoress goes after me for a spanking, I'd better cross out that red-headed phrase. Now.

[OK, Anchoress: I was taken. I got it, now... I'm taking this back!]

Yet Another One: Via the guys at Power Line, Lt. Cotton writes to the NY Times the equivalent of "Gee, thanks a lot! You just endangered my soldiers' lives! Are you happy now?"

It gets much worse:

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars. [emphasis totally mine]

I couldn't agree with you more, Lt. Cotton. Maybe a stint in Federal prison will make Keller and Co. face reality for a long time.

Yet One More: Captain Ed says something to which I respond, "Amen, brother!"

New Yorkers who complained about DHS funding and demanded recognition as the #1 terrorist target in the US should ask themselves why their newspaper is assisting the terrorists instead of the nation's defense.

Yet Another One: The editors at the National Review don't mince words:

President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure “does great harm to the United States of America,” must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance. The administration should withdraw the newspaper’s White House press credentials because this privilege has been so egregiously abused, and an aggressive investigation should be undertaken to identify and prosecute, at a minimum, the government officials who have leaked national-defense information.

Yet another reason for me to re-subscribe to NRO.

Another Update, and then I'll let it go: Kathy has outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow's rebuttal to that slimy worm. Not a good one to behold. The 9/11 Commission asked him not to publish it: he did it anyway.

As the sig.other likes to say when encountering people like him: "What a shmuck!"

"Small Town" America?!? I Beg Your Pardon!

2006-06-30T17:32:00.000-05:00

Those who wrote this piece for the London Times should look for a map and get some facts ironed out.

BRITISH agents are operating in the United States to trace links with Islamic extremists from England who recruit Muslims to fight for terrorist groups abroad.

The British-led investigation has played a part in identifying a number of US-based terrorists and helped the authorities in Washington to break up an al-Qaeda cell operating in Falls Church, Virginia.

The agents are particularly keen to discover if the visitors included Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is alleged to have travelled to America’s East Coast to meet fellow militants and stage a series of attacks on synagogues.

Khan was considered such a threat that he was banned from returning to America two years before the attack on London, according to a book written by a US intelligence specialist.

Hey guys: Falls Church, VA is located inside the Washington, DC Beltway. I know it is not small-town America... because I lived near the border of Alexandria and Falls Church at one point in my life. Hello?!?

Besides, Falls Church has become so urbanized that any resemblance to a "small town" is barely in the aesthetics. I've been around there many, many times. Many of the Metro buses from DC pass by Falls Church every single day.

If it were a place like, say, Sinton, TX, which is a small town, even though it is the seat of a county, I would understand it being called such. But Falls Church?!? I guess those Times reporters don't venture much across The Pond.

And yes, it is a great place to hide an Al-Qaeda cell, at minutes from DC's national landmarks - The Pentagon, The Capitol, The Lincoln and Washington Monuments, the National Mall, the Reflecting Pool, and all the memorials nearby. Again: minutes.

One thing that never ceased to amaze me while I lived there was that, among all the other buildings and landmarks in Falls Church and nearby Arlington, McLean and Alexandria, there was this mosque that knew how to hide itself from anyone else's curiosity by being little noticed if you drove your car a little too fast, even though it is a big building.

I guess most never noticed nor cared about it, though. But after September 11, 2001... not anymore.

Hat tip: Fausta.

Finally! I Can Breathe!

2006-06-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

This week has been particularly crazy!

I finally finished a project for a friend of mine who just left, with her family, to Mexico on vacation. I was able to nap heartily for the first time in almost a week. I still need more sleep... and the Little Fig, too!

Now that I'm back, I can post some things that I wrote earlier in the week. In addition, you will see that there was, indeed, a ray of hope in the midst of everything that was consuming me this week.

A Bit Under the Weather

2006-06-27T15:07:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday evening, a tickle in my throat metastasized into a cold... which I now am treating as carefully as possible, for the sake of the Little Fig.

But I've been busy, too.

Oh, No! I Better Think of Something...

2006-06-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

If the sig.other sees this article, he will go after me the way he goes after his Imitrex when a migraine strikes...

NEW YORK - For some individuals prone to migraine, this susceptibility may not necessarily interfere with their sex life and may in fact improve their libido, according to research published in the journal Headache.

"The goal of this research was to understand migraine better," lead author Dr. Timothy T. Houle told Reuters Health. "By better understanding how the brain is altered with this syndrome, we can develop better drugs in the future."

"Migraines have other commonly associated symptoms, such as sleep abnormalities and a higher risk of depression. Altered sex drive may be another quirk of being a migraine," he added.

Although it is commonly believed that sex drive is reduced by headaches, and sexual intercourse can cause specific types of headaches, Houle and his associates note, other research has suggested that sexual intercourse may alleviate the pain of migraine in some patients.

Houle, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his associates tested the theory that migraine and sexual desire may both be associated with serotonin. Evidence for this is the reduced libido that often accompanies depression treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which increases brain levels of serotonin, whereas migraine is associated with reduced serotonin levels.

Help... Help!...

Hat tip: Instapundit.

Now, It's - Very - Personal

2006-06-22T23:13:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial column that is not to be missed.

Especially so given the kinds of combatants the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world now face in Iraq. Privates Tucker and Menchaca were not simply ambushed, taken prisoner and killed. "The torture was something unnatural," said Major General Abdul Azziz Mohammed Jassim of Iraq's Defense Ministry, hinting at the state of the soldiers' remains. The corpses were so mutilated that they could be positively identified only through DNA testing.

Here, then, is the enemy we face in Iraq: not nationalists or extremists or even fanatics, but something like a band of real-life Hannibal Lecters for whom human slaughter is both business and religious fulfillment. Following the killing, an Internet statement said to be from the Mujahadeen Shura Council praised Abu Hamza al-Muhajir--who is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's successor as head of Al Qaeda in Iraq--with "the implementation of the sentence." Note the legalistic pretensions: This is the kind of "justice" Iraqis could expect should the insurgents come to power. And it is the enemy that might well come to power if the U.S. left Iraq prematurely, as many Senate Democrats urged yesterday.

Hopefully, GayPatriotWest has something to say about this, too.

The Geneva Convention doesn't apply to those beasts. And again, as I saw on that billboard near downtown Corpus Christi barely a week after September 11, 2001:

THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT APPLY TO TERRORISTS:
ONLY QUICK MILITARY JUSTICE!

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

Promise You're Not Going to Laugh...

2006-06-22T02:04:00.000-05:00

I found this article on Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, and I just couldn't pass it.

Perpetrator Problem: It's Hard to Run Away In Falling Trousers
Cops Say Loose, Baggy Jeans Trip Up Many a Thief; 'Hey, Dude, Buy a Belt'

One sunny afternoon in January, Vicki Chandler, a 55-year-old underwriting associate at Cigna HealthCare in Chattanooga, Tenn., was walking to her car when a teenager in loose khaki pants approached her, pointed to her pocketbook and said, "I need that." As she recounts the incident, he snatched the purse and took off.

But then he ran into trouble. As he ran, his loose trousers slipped down below his hips. As he reached down to hold them up, the teen was forced to throw the purse aside.

"That boy, he could run fast but he got caught up by his pants, which were real big and baggy," says Ms. Chandler, whose purse was retrieved by a parking attendant who had heard her cries for help.

It's a problem for perpetrators. Young men and teens wearing low-slung, baggy pants fairly regularly get tripped up in their getaways, a development that has given amused police officers and law-abiding citizens a welcome edge in the fight against crime.

I read it to the sig.other. It brought back some hilarious memories.

One time, we were driving back to our old apartment in Northern VA one evening. As we drove by Bouregard St in Alexandria, we noticed this tall guy wearing this long shirt and extremely baggy pants that barely covered his... ahem... genital area. He tried to cross the street running, but those pants were so baggy that he had to hold them up like one of those skirts from the 19th century while he tried to cross, tippy-toeing as if he were trying not to get caught with his pants down.

Needless to say, right after we saw that, we had to park our car on the side of the road. We couldn't drive anymore! The sig.other kept saying, "If I had a camcorder, I'd be a $10 thousand dollar winner in America's Funniest Videos right now!"

I don't think those "hip-hop" trend-setters were expecting to find out that cops would be the biggest beneficiaries of their fashions...

Thanks, Puff Daddy! My brother's brothers in the corps thank you very much! ;)

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

Uninvited "Guests": The Merry Band of Hatemongers Is At It Again

2006-06-22T02:02:00.000-05:00

Via FOXNews.com's Soldiers Diary, we find this account from a seargeant who returned home from Iraq in order to attend his brother's funeral - another soldier who had died as a result of an IED in Iraq.

The grief and despair for this man's family is devastating enough. But, when you grieve like this, do you have to take any insults coming from uninvited "guests"?

After the funeral, here's what SPC Helmet wrote to me:

Hey sir, it's "Helmet." I just wanted to drop you an e-mail and I thought this would be the easiest way to do it. Well I buried my brother last week and you know me, if I can prevent someone from doing work that I can well do myself I will, so I handled everything.

One thing that took me a bit by surprise were protesters! Yes, that myopic group of imbeciles from that Baptist Church in Kansas showed up at my little brother's funeral.

They had the antigay signs that had absolutely nothing to do with Bobby. So I had the Patriot Guard show up just to stand in front of them with American flags (they are all Vietnam vets on Harleys). Over 600 of them lined the streets of my hometown at the service.

Now I know you're from New York, sir, but try and picture a small Arkansan community, deeply rooted in God, a place where the embrace of patriotism has lost no potency, and have that town lose one of its sons fighting to spread democracy to another nation. Then throw in 15 to 20 protesters that think God is setting IEDs off to kill soldiers for an America that tolerates homosexuality. If you think that might be a newsworthy event, you'd be correct. I had to deal with every local news network in the state. Thankfully, it went down pretty calmly but you guys have no idea how close I was to seriously committing murder, in front of 50 police officers that might have just watched as I did it.

One of these f***ers actually stepped on the American flag, sir.

Obviously, the Phelps Cult doesn't get it. What part of "YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE" don't they understand?

Again: where is the man/woman of God who will directly confront this cult for what it really is? Where is the individual who will shame them so publicly that they will have to hide in the same cave as Osama Bin Laden?

Where is him/her? I want to know!

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

I Tried to Find the Words, But Someone Already Did

2006-06-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

GayPatriotWest said it better than I could.

Title of his rant: Murder and Media Manipulation: Al-Qaeda's Strategy in Iraq. It is a must-read.

Al Qaeda’s remaining leaders in Iraq know that by murdering innocent civilians and relying on a compliant Western press, they will make it appear that despite numerous successes, U.S. and Iraqi forces are unable to control the situation in Iraq. Thus, Al Qaeda attacks the targets they can most easily attack, not the ones with any strategic value in a traditional military sense. That’s because their strategy is getting headlines and winning this one not on the battlefield, but in the U.S. media. And to that end, it doesn’t matter how many Iraqis they murder.

The barbarity of the murder of Pfcs. Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Lowell Tucker shows the evil nature of the opponents we face. These terrorists show no respect for conventions of warfare or for human life. And no respect for the dead, booby-trapping bodies in order to use them to kill even more people.

Read it. Now.

Update: I had commented on a previous thread that our soldiers are dealing with savage beasts who don't give a rat about the Geneva Convention or any other rules or laws than themselves and death. I even remember saying this:

[T]o hell with the Geneva Convention.

It seems The Anchoress agrees with me on this.

A week after September 11, 2001, a prominent lawyer in Corpus Christi rented billboard space near the Downtown area. The borders were on blue and red, and the text said it all:

THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT APPLY TO TERRORISTS:
ONLY QUICK MILITARY JUSTICE!

I dare say that the Geneva Convention should never apply to a group of people to whom "the rules" are just another piece of paper to wipe their behinds with. Maybe there should be a billboard with the same message as above... near Washington, D.C. and Ground Zero in Manhattan.

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

U.S. Will Not Waver Before Iran: The President's Commencement Speech at Kings Point

2006-06-19T10:35:00.000-05:00

The scoop, from the Associated Press - via FOXNews.com:

KINGS POINT, N.Y. — President Bush said Monday the United States will not waver in demanding that Tehran suspend all uranium enrichment-related activity before America would join international talks to resolve the nuclear standoff.

"Nuclear weapons in the hands of this regime would be a grave threat to people everywhere," Bush said on the eve of a trip to Europe.

Bush said the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia have adopted a unified approach to resolve the impasse with Iran diplomatically. He said that Iran must "fully and verifiably suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities" before the United States will join in negotiations with Iran.

"Iran's leaders have a clear choice: We hope they will accept our offer and voluntarily suspend these activities so we can work out an agreement that will bring Iran real benefits," the president said. "If Iran's leaders reject our offer, it will result in action before the Security Council, further isolation from the world and progressively stronger political and economic sanctions."

When was the last time there was that kind of wave-making speech over there? (no pun intended) I really don't know. But I can tell you one thing: there are a lot of grateful midshipmen, parents, and alumni out there right now.

I can tell you that Kings Pointers will do anything for this guy from now on. He put the place on the map. I can also assure you that most reporters present asked the same question that I asked when I was told about the place for the first time: "What the hell is Kings Point?"

(For beginners: it's the site of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.)

Notice the last four paragraphs... Oh, heck: I'll give them to you for free:

Bush is the first American president to address a graduating class at the academy. The president's former White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, who studied at the academy, and hitched a ride on Air Force One to attend the event.

Bush noted that Card received a warmer welcome than when he attended the academy in the 1960s. "When he was a plebe, he was stuffed in a duffle bag and run up the flagpole," Bush said.

Bush's decision to make the academy the site of his fourth and final commencement address this year helps raise the profile of the little-known school.

Kings Point graduates work as deck officers aboard container ships, oil tankers, passenger cruise ships and other vessels. Others remain on land and have become engineers in shipbuilding companies and work in a variety of port operations, including security, while some opt for military careers.

Now you know a little of the place where Patricia Ann's son (Class of 2005) and the sig.other (Class of '91) began thir careers.

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

"Ready to Go"... Off the Deep End

2006-06-17T10:45:00.000-05:00

Via Drudge.

The [Dixie] Chicks can't hide their disgust at the lack of support they received from other country performers. "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do," says Robison.

"A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism."

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."

You have to marvel at this trio about whom many Texans must be ashamed to say they're from here.

They obviously seem to forget that country music targets an audience that is American to the core (flag, motherhood and apple pie, sweetie), who would never catch themselves singing "Kum-ba-ya" with any anti-American "peace" protester, and who would support the troops - precisely because so many of them are our own friends and relatives. That's why Reba, Toby, Daryl, and the others sing lots of songs related to patriotism, American soldiers, etc. If they can't relate to their audience, why sing to them?

Watching them Twits - ahem... Chicks - talk is like watching a compact trash truck open itself: every time they open their mouths, more garbage comes out. You'd swear they were taught American civics by uber-traitors Lynn Stewart and Ramsey Clark...

I knew those girls were definitely playing with fire - and getting burned - the moment I overheard a family conversation next to our table at a Mexican restaurant here in our town. "Well, I guess we're not going to listen to the Dixie Chicks anymore..." That was a family of five discussing and deciding it.

That was in 2003. I can imagine what that same family would say if they were to see the linked article above. "No regrets."

Fortunately for the sig.other and I, we don't spend a lot of money on CDs or music. We now have iTunes: we can select any song we want... and our selection is not that big. They're not in our "in" list, thankfully.

It's official. They're Not Ready to Make Nice.

Fine. Neither are we.

Sweating for the Virgins

2006-06-15T11:52:00.000-05:00

You will never look at a gym the same way again. Brendan O'Neill at Slate asks if there is a real connection between "pumping up" and Islamist terrorist activity.

One of plenty of money quotes:

[Mohammed Sidique] Khan [leader of the terrorist cell behind the Underground terrorist attacks in London last July 7] seemed to view gym and sports activities as more than an opportunity for physical bonding; he also appeared to consider them moral and pure, an alternative to the decadent temptations of contemporary society. Healthy living, as a doctrine, appears to have been close to his radical heart. In Khan's talks to young Muslims and potential recruits, he reportedly made numerous references to keeping fit. His talks "focused on clean living, staying away from crime and drugs, and the value of sport and outdoor activity," says the British government's 7/7 report. Perhaps it was the gym setting that nurtured the 7/7 cell's combination of arrogance and fury, its seeming belief that they were good and the rest of us were rotten.

Gym supervisors and administrators, especially in the Northeast, please take note of this:

The 9/11 hijackers spent a great deal of time in gyms. Mohamed Atta joined one in Hamburg in 1999. Upon arrival in America in 2000, he and other leaders of his cell—Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi—signed up for gym memberships. When the "muscle hijackers" from Saudi Arabia, whose job was to use physical force on 9/11, joined the ringleaders in the United States, they were encouraged to find housing close to gyms and to get gym memberships. In the first week of September 2001, five of the muscle hijackers—Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Salem al-Hazmi, Majed Moqed, and Hani Hanjour—were regularly seen training and talking at Gold's Gym in Greenbelt, Md.

The 9/11 hijackers needed to be reasonably fit for their operation. They had to overpower airline staff and passengers in order to commandeer the jets. Yet there seems to have been more to their interest in gyms than building up muscle. One gym owner said the men seemed to gather for "social reasons." And it was Atta, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi, the pilots of 9/11 who would spend that fateful morning locked inside the cockpit, who seemed most keen on keeping fit.

I can't stop thinking that they were getting all physically fit... because they expected to do quite a bit of sweating with those 72 virgins they were expecting to get...

Yet another reason to be watchful next time you go to the YMCA... (I can just see it coming: a parody version of The Village People's YMCA based upon these findings.)

[Full disclosure here: I don't have a gym membership. The closest Gold's Gym is at twenty-five miles and lots of traffic from my house. And the next best thing, the gym at Naval Station Ingleside, is not available to the public... plus, it's closing in 2009, like the rest of the base.]

"Tolerance" For Me, But Not For Thee

2006-06-15T01:44:00.000-05:00

What happens if you, as a parent, complain to your child's school about introducing books at the kindergarten level which invite kids to accept the "gay" lifestyle, as in Massachusets?

You might get much grief from the school board, the faculty, the principal, and even other parents.

You would never expect for a group of kids to act like bullies and beat the daylights out of your child. In school grounds. And teachers don't intervene, because the kid "didn't bleed."

It seems that "tolerance" in certain MA school is a one-way street...

The parent is considering pulling his kid out of that school. I'd say to him: Do it. Get him out of there, yesterday. Toss the books on the school playground, walk away from there and never look back, just as the angel instructed Lot and his family. If you must, move out of the district, or even out of the state.

Do what you must to assure the safety of your child, because nobody else will. At least, not in Massachusets.

A note to Christian parents: your children are too young to be "salt of the earth" in an environment which will treat them with hostility because of their Christian beliefs. Why are you keeping them in an environment in which they themselves can become poisoned, day by day? You might not see its effects now, but wait until they reach their teenage years. According to a Barna poll from a year or two ago, many Christian teens don't stay in the faith once they reach college: very few remain true. This is a frightening and sobering statistic.

Do you want for your child to become a number in a Barna poll? Or a future "peace at any price", dope-smoking, foul-mouthed, crummy-clothed and P.C.-brainwashed borg? Or would you rather raise him/her in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and protect him/her from evil influences?

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

There's no saving grace for the Massachusets school system, no matter how much its citizens have to pay in taxes for it.

BTW: Christian parents... did I say that persecution is coming? I probably did.

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

Hiding Behind Winepresses

2006-06-14T20:12:00.000-05:00

Judges Chapter 6

It has come back to haunt me.

There has been an ongoing little problem that I've had to deal with for most of my life. Most times, I have handled it unsuccessfully. You might be familiar with it: you may have had "stage fright" or other kind of fright that has set you back a little bit.

My situation, however, has been life-long: it has not enable me to strive on my own skills and aptitudes. It has chained me to a ball that I can rightfully call "USELESS" because that's exactly how I feel many times about myself.

You might say, "newton, your pregnant hormones are showing again."

That might be the case. But let me explain.

I used to be "the star of my class". I used to earn the honors and accolades way back then. But, as the years went by, I realized that I had a weakness that would keep me in a much different path from that of my classmates. All of my classmates have gone beyond and have achieved much in their lives.

I, however, am a relative "unknown", a relative "untested", and just... a coward. I have hidden behind barrels ever since the day that I confirmed that I was a failure at the end of my first year of college. You might be able to understand if you may have failed one class. How about two? Sure, that first year of college was also my first year in the States. I was in a transition from seventeen to eighteen. My year was not easy. I could not express myself very well. I despaired a lot. And yes, I sank into a deep depression, one which put me at the edge of a window, with the intention to let myself fall into the ground floor and break my neck.

The signs were there, but few could see that I needed help.

Eventually, I was able to pick myself up from the bottom (which lasted for almost a year). I took English by the horns, as many of you know. I concentrated more in school, even to the point of struggling. I also developed friendships, and found love. Eventually, I was able to reach the Dean's List. By the time I had graduated with my first degree, I had a B-plus average and something nice for my resume.

Or so I thought.

Reality stroke as soon as I was out there. I won't give you lots of details, but I will only tell you that, even in the jobs in which I had proven myself and my skills, I was in constant fear and despair. I seldom expressed confidence in my skills or my work. Heck, I had zero confidence in myself. My supervisor wrote in my performance reviews that I needed to attend "self-development seminars" because I lacked self-confidence.

I never denied that.

When the sig.other and I moved to TX, I was not in the mood to look for anything around here. "Who would take me?" I asked. "I'm an unknown element around here." I returned to college on the advice of someone in the know. Again, I busted my chops on this second - but lesser - degree: Computer Information Systems. I did it all, and then some; then, I graduated.

The job search was fruitless. I would send a resume to an IT firm in Corpus Christi - mind you, there is not much of an IT infrastructure in that city. Someone there would see my resume and my portfolio. No call.

Soon enough, I gave up. I figure that "better ones" obtained the jobs. I decided that it was an exercise in futility to even try around here. I stuck to Web design and graphics at home. Nothing else.

I did have a couple of gigs that tested me. I did the Web site for the sig.other's boss - a defense contractor based in VA. I also developed a Web site for the nutritionist who helped me lose those eighty pounds that I am so glad that are gone - on a barter deal, of course.

Yesterday, I interviewed a man who needs a Web site developed for a business he's building from the ground up. All I can tell you is that the business is a budding employment agency with the potential to grow exponentially within the next two years. I saw the things that needed to be done. I told him that there are some things that his business will eventually need that go way beyond my scope and resources. I left the interview with the assignment to look around for local ISPs that would help him with the establishment of a total information system that could handle this business with lots of potential growth. I knew that I was going to have fun doing this.

But then, it hit me again. Today.

I somehow realized that what this businessman needs is a firm where he could have his Web site developed and maintained, plus a darned good information system - database, etc. - developed for the client's side and the business' side. He will need all the support possible, from the ground up. I'm only an isolated part of the whole equation. Besides, very few people around here know me or what I do. Even worse than that: few of those people ever bothered to think of giving me a chance.

Many of them never did.

Even Jeanette [my blogging partner at Oh How I Love Jesus] knows that I've called myself a "failure" for a long time. I was afraid to say anything to my friends... until now. Those here who know me don't know how fragile I am in this department. I even fear that the Little Fig will be seriously affected by this. I don't want for the Little Fig to be afraid of anything: I want to see a child with a growing and strong self-confidence. I don't want for my baby to become a "chicken" like I have become.

The sig.other can't seem to understand all of it. He has been very successful in his career. He thinks that I haven't really wanted to give myself a chance.

I'm tearing up as I write this. I don't know if anyone can understand the feeling of utter uselessness that confines me. It's a prison which few could ever understand. Like Gideon, I have been hiding behind winepresses, not understanding why the Lord would bring me so low in life, while others believed without knowing me that I could go nowhere but up.

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

Eventful Days

2006-06-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

I had a quite eventful yesterday, and I will have an eventful tomorrow. Really.

The Legalists “Obey”… But Do They Ever Love?

2006-06-12T19:40:00.000-05:00

Remember the post of a while ago on the merry Band of Hatemongers? Here's an interesting update on it.

The news that a FOX News journalist confronted a member of the Merry Band of Hatemongers rather harshly on her show has spread like wildfire in the blogosphere. Stop the ACLU has a video of the confrontation.

But there's more!

It seems the guys at Stop the ACLU recieved a message from... the Merry Band of Hatemongers themselves.

Update: I received this from Margie J Phelps:

The minute someone says or does something you don’t like, rather than provide a position on the merits, you’re immediately reduced to 1) name calling and 2) threats to stop them. The reason you respond this way is because the words of Westboro Baptist Church pierce you in the heart, and
instantly tell your depraved heart that there is a God, a standard, a hell and an eternity. You’re steeped in some filthy sinful manner of life, and it enrages you that anyone would tell you it’s wrong. You’re a brute beast, per 2 Peter 2, made by God Almighty to be taken by Him and destroyed.
You’re going to spend out eternity in torment, you know it, and you know there’s nothing you can do about it. Anyone who lives out their days on this earth breathing out threats of slaughter, simply because she doesn’t
like the words someone says, is the worst kind of coward, deserving of the hottest part of hell. You should be ashamed to draw breath, let alone pretend you’re a freedom-lover. You are precisely the kind of person the
Unpatriot Guard loves - a big, fat, smelly bully who wants to pummel anyone who won’t think what you think and say what you say. Worst of all, you’re a disgusting hypocrite.

Now get a Bible and read it. Shut your mouth. Do your duty to the Lord your God. Obey. Stop whatever filthy sex you’re involved in. Shut your mouth. Obey.

Magormissabib.

Margie Phelps

I found a serious weakness on that letter. Yes. There is a serious Biblical weakness in that letter. Do you notice the emphasis on the word "obey"? "Obey", as in "obey the Law" - the Law of Moses as they interpret it to be.

As soon as I saw that word used in that letter, there was one word that just came to mind: "Galatians."

This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

And

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

In other words, the main thing about the Law of Moses said, "If you obey these, you shall live." However, even in the Hebrew Scriptures, you can read that not a single person could fulfill the Law of Moses to a T. Even then, the bottom line was about faith - believing and loving God.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

and:

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

which, once brought into the New Testament, didn't change a thing:

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The whole emphasis in "obey" was exactly what the Pharisees were following when Jesus Christ walked among men. And He confronted them very harshly.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

They "obeyed" the Law; however, He knew that there was no real change in their hearts, nor a sense of contrition or humbleness before God, nor a desire to love Him for His Mercy toward us. All they did was to fear God without even loving Him. Their "obedience" meant nothing before God's Eyes.

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Jesus Christ knew the bottom line: when people claim to "obey" the "Law", in reality they obey their own version of the Law. Legalists don't look at what's beyond the Law of Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that: He let them know that their version of "the Law" was nothing more than their own commandments, not those coming from God's Hand. They had appropriated their interpretation of the Law and morphed them into their very own laws, thus tossing away anything that may possibly contradict them.

Have you noticed that the Merry Band of Hatemongers emphasize that "anti-fag" verse from Leviticus above everything else? (Actually, have you noticed that they emphasize sexual sins above everything else? They really must have a very perverted mind!)

Yet the same people don't seem to care that the very same book of Leviticus says this (and I'm repeating myself here):

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

The Lord Jesus Christ classified this verse as part of the Great Commandment of the Law, the first one being "Love thy God with all your heart..." He did emphasize that the Great Commandment, in both parts, summarizes all the Law and the Prophets. He saw the justice, mercy and faith within the Law that the legalizers didn't care to see, nor to ever consider.

Every legalist or legalizer has fallen into that same trap. Even the legalizers at Gaul had fallen flat in their faces because of it, and were harming lots of people who were beginning to understand Christianity over there. That's why the Apostle Paul sent such a strongly written letter to the Galatian church... even written in his very own hand. We should all remember that Paul knew exactly that of which he spoke. He was a Pharisee and probably an budding scholar of the Law of Moses before he was confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.

Ladies and gentlemen: the Phelps Clan Cult claims to follow what the Bible says. In reality, they only follow what they interpret the Law of Moses and the Bible to be: their justification to claim that they're going to have Heaven all to themselves, and everyone else in America is going to Hell.

Remember the quote from that article, which I quoted in that post from a while ago:

Their belief in predestination – the idea that God determined at the time of one’s creation whether they were bound for heaven or hell – is not unique. It stems from John Calvin’s branch of the 16th century Protestant Reformation and is taught in mainstream churches.

Where Westboro parts ways, of course, is its emphasis on God’s hatred and the way it spreads this message. Members believe they must alert the world’s depraved sinners of their fate even though such people have no chance of going to heaven. They’re not doing this to save you – they’re doing it to save themselves. [emphasis mine]

Kathy is right. They're not Christians: they're "self-stians."

If they ever actually did what they told Jay at Stop the ACLU ("Read the Bible and shut up!") with such a derision and scolding, they would see that they're in some serious trouble before God. They claim to "obey" God. But actually, they neither believe, nor love God. If they did those two things, they'd be keeping to themselves and express the fruit of the Spirit in their own community, instead of traveling around the country spewing more poison than a nest of rattlesnakes.

Those people are not "Baptists." They're Hyper-Calvinists with a grudge against the world. Not a single Baptist who knows his/her Bible would associate him/herself with those people.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

They can say "We love God!" all they want. But the Phelps Clan Cult is so filled with hatred for those whom they see, that they are blind to realize that they "obey" because they fear - but don't love - God.

Unfortunately, they will find out their serious mistake on Judgement Day... if they don't repent.

Also: Don't miss The Anchoress. She has a darned good spanking in reserve for them.

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

This Guy Needs Our Support

2006-06-11T01:12:00.000-05:00

This man is given grief because he's stating the obvious.

If I lived in the Philly area, I'd be at Ginno's so fast. I'd buy ten of their Philly Cheesesteaks - that has become my pregnancy food, BTW.

This man has stated exactly what I've learned on my first year of being in the States. If you want to make it here, you've got to learn English. Nobody - absolutely nobody - is going to give you any special privileges because you are from somewhere else and don't speak the language... of course, unless you'd rather live in a "nanny state" where everything is catered to you, to your liking...

I made sure that I took English by the horns and learned it from head to toe... because it was my survival in the States and in life that was at stake. Nothing else would have helped me to pull out of the bottom in which I was.

When in Rome, people, do as Romans do. What's so hard to understand about it? The fact that you have to miss a few telenovelas or fútbol and take Inglés sin Barreras and actually loosen the tongue in English instead? Mellowing in "racism" and "xenophobia" will do nothing good for you: overcoming obstacles will.

That's what the family of the owners of Ginno's did. They learned English. They never looked back. I did the same thing. Maybe you should follow that example, instead of threatening him and calling him a "racist."

How much do you want to bet that those people who want to give him grief have never eaten a Philly Cheesesteak there to begin with?

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

Uhhh... No.

2006-06-11T01:11:00.000-05:00

The family of the terrorist who shall not be named here wants to receive his body for burial in Jordan.

Only, there is one thing.

Though aware of the family's wishes, Jordan's government will not "under any circumstances" allow the terrorist leader to be buried in Jordan and "stain Jordanian soil," a top security official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give media interviews.

I have also read in The Wall Street Journal - which requires a paid subscription which I cannot afford - that the terrorist who shall not be named had made threats against King Abdullah II and his family. Of course, the terrorist attacks in Amman last November outraged so many Jordanians that, obviously, the kingdom government was (and still is) determined to do whatever it takes to zap any Al-Qaeda terrorist from their midst. As a result, the Jordanian government has given invaluable aid to both U.S. and Iraqi intelligence and military forces.

Hopefully the Jordanian Parliament have all their collective pants in their place and give that terrorist family's petition a resounding "No." I'm sure King Abdullah would not allow it to happen, either. Let the carcass of this terrorist be given to the vultures and eaten as the beast it is. Terrorists don't have to be given any honors whatsoever. They live by the sword and die by the sword. Why should anyone have any sentiment towards them but pity for the wreteched individuals they have become?

Oh... I have another proposal. This one's to the mainstream media: in particular, this is for the members of the press who asked such disgusting questions to the guys at CentCom on Friday morning.

If you people are so concerned with the well-being of that vermin, why don't you put your money where your mouth is, and pay for his funeral expenses? From what I could catch in the questions you asked on Friday morning, I have been given the impression that you seem to regard the life of a miserable terrorist in a much higher plane than the lives of our soldiers or even of those Iraqis and Jordanians who are our allies in this struggle. In fact, I venture to say that you think U.S. soldiers are all potential "war criminals". Yet, you love to give terrorists the benefit of the doubt.

I guess that, in your opinion, "One's terrorist is another's national hero."

Your attitude - covered in a prop of "fairness" and "impartiality" - sickens me beyond repair. No wonder so many of us ordinary citizens don't trust you anymore.

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics. ***

Like Garlic to Dracula

2006-06-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

This is just too good to miss. (Hat tip: Little Green Footballs)

Members of an armed Fatah militia which claimed to have kidnapped an Israeli Saturday transferred the individual in question, a U.S. citizen, to the custody of the Palestinian Authority before dawn Sunday.

The PA security forces subsequently handed the American over to the Israel Defense Forces. Defense officials believe once the militants discovered the person was indeed an American citizen, they took steps to end the matter quickly.

"Apparently, the kidnappers did not want to end up like Zarqawi," a defense official said.

Apparently, Palestinians have learned a lesson, and not a moment too soon. :)

I Know: I've Been Away...

2006-06-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

My bad. But I'm back!

"Rescue Me!"

2006-06-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

Remember the jingle for the Bryant air conditioner units? Well, I'm having a little bit of a "rescue me" situation as I write.

Last night, neither the sig.other nor I noticed when it happened. He went to bed early, while I waited for a huge load of whites to dry. He had needed... ahem... underwear after having sweated by mowing the entire lawn and braving the TX-sized mosquitoes that breed around here. Besides, we invited a couple friends of ours from church for dinner at a BBQ joint. When he looked for a pair in his drawers, he found none. I looked around the laundry that I had recently done for a pair or two... nothing. As a result, he had to wear his old boxer shorts - those ones with the Kings Point seal all over the place. Those are the boxer shorts he hates, yet keeps for sentimental value.

Needless to say, I felt guilty enough to stay up late and do laundry.

At one in the morning, I noticed that my pregnancy anomaly wasn't happening. Weeks before I found out that the Little Fig was on the way, I noticed that I could not stay in a room cooler than 75 degrees without wearing a light jacket. Any cooler temperature than that, and I become so hyper-sensitive... So, every evening, I wear a light jacket before going to bed, and cover myself in lots of sheets before I sleep. Last night, though, I noticed that I had to take the jacket off.

Then, I checked the thermostat. The room temperature is usually set for 73 or 74 at night. It was 79.

I immediately put my shoes on, took the flashlight, and checked the air conditioning unit outside. It has been cranking like a machine that needs oil lately. The sig.other has been monitoring the situation for a while. But last night, the A.C. went bust. It still cranks, but gives zero cool.

I then wrote a note to the sig.other on the situation, so he would know in the morning why he slept sheet-less all night. I changed to the lightest cotton vest that I could, and then went to bed. The sig.other then opened his eyes, and looked at me with a bit of disdain: he thought I had the Victoria's Secret look.

"Honey! At this hour?!?"

"No, I'm not provoking you. I'm going to bed like this."

"Huh?"

Of course, I told him about the A.C.

Needless to say, he checked on the A.C. unit and realized that the compressor went bust. We spent the rest of the night sheet-less and flanked by fans.

Now, the temperature has reached 82 degrees. The A.C. repairman is coming here at 10 a.m. And Duchess, my most favorite fluffy feline in the whole wide world, is begging for scissors.

So there, here's my home situation right now. I'm drinking water like it's going out of style. I can't return to bed, because the heat is unbearable. The irony of it all is that I should be used to it. I lived in Puerto Rico, where it gets hot and humid at the same time. I know the meaning of sleeping in hot weather with no A.C., but a useless fan. Yet, I've been spoiled here in the States.

And yet, I don't feel that bad for the sig.other, the felines, or myself. Based upon the headlines this morning, I'm sure that certain somebody, whose name should be thankfully forgotten forever in the Eternal Economy, is now begging to be rescued from, not a room without A.C., but a burning hell that he had willingly invited himself into.

Problem is, there's no iced water down there. ;)

Addendum: Dr. Sanity said it in just a few words:

My spin: I'll bet he didn't expect "paradise" to be so hot.

Hee-hee-hee!

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

One Snake's Head is Off

2006-06-08T07:49:00.000-05:00

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has assumed room temperature, courtesy of a joint airstrike between U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Oh, I'd love to be the fly in the wall, just to see the face he just about assumes forevermore when he realizes that there are no virgins waiting for him, but an eternal lake of fire, in which the Devil and his angels will have the dishonor to host.

Martyr? Martyr... my fat cat's behind!

Just for that, a Texas BBQ - with real TX BBQ sauce - is a given for U.S. and Iraqi troops.

In a word, fellas: Good!

Have Hankies Ready!

2006-06-07T00:41:00.000-05:00

A young woman who was left for dead near a highway as a newborn is now going to college.

The temperature outside on the night of Dec. 30, 1987, was 45 and dropping. Cold for most anyone, but perilous for a newborn baby girl wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a brown paper bag like trash.

She probably wasn't meant to be found alive.

When Steve Gibbons, a California Highway Patrol officer, pulled off Interstate 280 to stop and stretch his legs, she was just hours old. Her temperature had plummeted to a dangerous 90 degrees. If she had been there much longer, she would have died near the intersection of Cañada and Edgewood roads in Redwood City.

But Gibbons heard the baby's cry.

Read all of it. Have your Kleenex nearby.

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

06-06-06 - The Number of the... Never Mind

2006-06-07T00:32:00.000-05:00

*** Note: I wrote this last night, just at the beginning of the "dreaded day." Nothing happened in the day that is now gone. Good! ***

For the longest time, I have believed that the spiritual realm - those principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world that the Apostle Paul talked about to the Ephesians - is real, and I still do. Yet, I have learned, over the years, to differentiate between what's real and what's hocus-pocus - superstition.

Just a half an hour ago, I took a quick trip to Wal-Mart for a pint of cookies-and-cream ice cream (the sig.other gets a pint of strawberry ice cream, to give him a reason to be happy when I make these little trips). As I drove down the road, away from Wal-Mart and back home, I took a look at my little town's budding, barely six-month-old movie theatre. (It is a very comfortable place: stadium seating, plump and comfortable, recliner-looking chairs, great visuals, great sound, among the cheapest price you pay for a ticket in the Corpus Christi area.) I noticed that the theatre was a bit... shall we say... full.

Then, I looked at the film posters in the front area. I noticed one that was red and black. Mind you, I wasn't close enough to see what that poster was about. But, even driving home from Wal-Mart, I recognized it immediately: Matt Drudge had shown the self-same poster on his site a while back. It was the promotional poster for the one film that I swore, at age 9, after having seen it once, to never see again, for as long as I live: The Omen.

I still remember my reaction as a nine-year old, when I watched it: chills through my spine; fear; a sleepless night or two. I wonder why my mother allowed for me to watch it in the first place.

Then, I remembered: tomorrow is the "It" date for Omen afficionados, and for those who hold a date of that magnitude a terrible... omen.

Now, there are better reasons to remember this date in particular. It is the sixty-second anniversary of D-Day, the major battle of the Europen Theatre that became the beginning of the end for the Nazi occupation of Europe. So many Allied soldiers died sixty-two years ago on this date, in order to free the continent and the world from a man who definitely had the spirit of Antichrist that the Apostle John talked about. No, there was no need to check Adolph Hitler's scalp for the identifying mark. Actions speak much louder than any visible sign, IMHO. (Thanks to Varifrank for reminding us what's really important on a day like this.)

After much thinking on the matter of the Mark of the Beast - and the whole hoopla that has accompanied it for centuries, and especially the years after the release of films such as this one and Rosemary's Baby, - I have come to the conclusion that those who have given it a hige deal on film don't get it. They have picked something out of Scripture and have made a whole speculation out of it... which is not different from what LaHaye and Jenkins have done in the Left Behind series. Making conjectures and theories as to what's going to happen in the time before the Second Coming of Our Lord and Savior is not confined to this century. But I marvel at how so many people seem to drive themselves into explanations that, in the end, indicate exactly what Jesus told the Saducees a long time ago in response to a trick question they gave Him concerning the Resurrection of the Dead:

Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Let me tell you that, on the point that I have just made, I'm guilty as charged. I've made conjectures and theories in all of this. I have even obsessed on researching and stuff. But I needed to remember one thing of which every Christian student of the Bible should be very aware: that sometimes, when we speculate about events and people based on the Scripture, engaging ourselves in theories and such, we should always be careful not to make our theories superior to Scripture, because when we do, and something else happens that indeeds fulfills the Scripture prophecy, but not in the way we were expecting, we become confused, doubt, and even question God's motives.

How many people way back then, in the times of the Prophets and even during the time of the Roman Empire, awaited the "Messiah in Shining Armor", only to hear and watch one Yeshua of Nazareth, this one itinerant preacher from Galilee, proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God in a way many were not expecting nor understanding? Remember that many rejected Jesus' Message because it didn't fit their "prevailing theories" of how the Messiah would appear. Yet, the Scriptures are quite clear as to how He would come, what He would do, and how He would die and rise again. They're there: they just made so many conjectures and theories, that all of those commentaries and interpretations wove themselves into some very strong blinders. Whenever He went back to the Scriptures (which He always did!) and not to their interwoven interpretations, they were not very happy.

Twenty centuries - heck: three day's worth - of hindsight is definitely 20/20, in this respect.

I believe we are reaching the saturation point on the issue of 6-6-6. Nope. We have reached the point of saturation already. We need to step back. Forget the date. Forget the films. Forget the countless books, lectures and conferences given on this whole thing.

For starters, let's go back to the date. Is there something "diabolically magical" to happen because of the twenty-four hours that have just begun (at least, it has, on CST)? Not that I know of. Sometimes, a date is just that: a date. June 6, 2006. What's so bad about it? This day, a lot of children will be born and a lot of people will die. People are born and die every day. (Think and remember the thousands upon thousands who died at the beaches of Normandy sixty-two years ago. Some of them may have been your relatives, or friends of your relatives.)

What's the difference between this day and other days? None. It's just another date in the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar says otherwise. The Jewish calendar also has a different date than this one. The Islamic calendar, too. Even different years. Nothing hocus-pocus about it.

So, why do people make such a big deal about it?

Because many people are superstitious. Many people believe, wrongly, that this certain combination of numbers is one to avoid on a highway, in a date, on your credit card, on your license plate, on your college ID number, on your return recepit at the grocery store... you get the idea. (Oh yes: I have bought just a couple of things at the grocery store before, and the cash register has come to give me the total, plus taxes, of... $6.66. That has happened twice in my life. Did I raise Cain to the poor tellers? Nope. Did something bad happen to me the days that it happened? Not that I remember or know of.)

Numbers don't kill people. Did I get zapped with a malignant curse last summer when a comment that I made on a comment thread in another blog reached the all-damned number? Nope. I'm still here, Praise God.

For those of us who don't get all urinated-in-our-panties because of this date, we just ignore it. Those who have read the Scriptures and know exactly what this combination of numbers is about have nothing to fear about it.

I will take you to the chapter that talks about it in the Book of Revelation. Let me give you the root verse of the whole hoopla:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

There. One verse.

You don't take a verse such as this and try to isolate it from the rest of the Scripture that talks about it. There's an entire chapter that talks about it, and even other chapters that give reference to the theme of this exact chapter.

There's something to this verse that has spooked so many people over the centuries. The whole thing about identifying the bearer of this number has become a parlor game. I have heard every theory as to who The Man is. Trust me on this. In the thirty-three years that I have been around other human beings, I have heard everything and then some.

This was not the intention of Revelation. The intention of Revelation was to bless everyone that reads it, because it talks about the consummation of all things and the restoration of the order of things that God had intended for all of us human beings in the first place, had not Adam and Eve sinned and introduced death into all created things. It was not to have its readers tightwad into some mental and psychological bed-wetting regression. Unfortunately, there have been those who have used that book to impose others into that kind of paranoia, with terrible consequences.

(You just have to remember two words, people, to know what I'm talking about: David Koresh. No more examples are necessary.)

But I digress a little.

The entire 13th chapter of Revelation was something seen and written by the Apostle John, an exiled nanogenarian at that time. He saw two beasts. Two horrible-looking beasts. One beast came out from the sea. The other one came out from the earth. One had parts from many creatures of prey. The other one looked like a lamb, but spoke as a lion. One was mortally wounded, and yet lived. The other one demanded everyone on Earth to worship the first beast, plus make people wear a mark that would bind them as worshippers of the same. The number is given.

The Greek characters used to write this number are quite revealing in and of itself. There needs to be not a lot of interpretation on it. I cannot get the Greek low-cap characters into this typeset. But I can tell you what they are: chi, xi, stigma (or Vau) - CXS - again, no date! This is how most manuscripts have it, including the Received Text (Textus Receptus). (Only one or two manuscripts have Chi, Alpha, Sigma - 616. I personally do not rely on those one or two manuscripts.)

If you do a search on the ancient Greek alphabet online, you will find lots of links that wil take you to where you want to go.

Now, go and look for the Greek equivalent for Christ: Chi, Rho, Iota, Sigma, Tau, Omicron, Stigma (CHRISTOS). If you look at the characters in the Greek, you notice that the Number of the Beast has only the first and the last character in the name Christ - chi and stigma (c, s). There's a third character that I will mention now: that's xi (x). If you look at an Ancient Greek alphabet for the symbol of xi, you will notice something that may, just may, chill your spine: the character is not, in the ancient, an x, but the figure of something that recalls a recoiling serpent.

I can see the point behind this, in the most obvious sense. Satan will always attempt to place his own version of "Savior" for everyone to rally around, instead of confessing that Jesus is The Real Thing, which he will never do, unless he is forced beyond force to do so. To Satan, it's best to present what's Easy for Proud Man to do instead of what's Right - what Humble Man must do to be saved: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Some scholars want to confine the Book of Revelation to the situation at the time of its writing. Back then, Roman Emperor Domitian was heavily persecuting Christians: he was not the first Roman Emperor to do so, as we all know. Many Christians back then identified Domitian as the carrier of that number. These modern scholars want to keep Revelation confined to 96 A.D., and leave it there. Yet, we must remember the blessing at the beginning of the Book of Revelation:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Revelation was not written to be confined to a time in history. It is a book about Eternity. It never was meant to be chained to the island of Patmos and be forgotten there: it was meant to bless every man, woman or child who reads it from that time on.

At that time, Christians believed that these were the times of the end. As a matter of fact, every true Christian over the centuries has believed that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ could happen at any moment, when you least expect it. Also, remember that God's Timeline is quite different from ours. He is Eternal: for Him, a day is like a thousand years. We count our days and years in one way: He has a different calendar completely. In His scheme of things, our life expectancies are... like flowers that grow one day and die the next. And yet when He reminded Moses of His Promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it was as if He had given that Promise to them yesterday... or a few hours ago. His Promise of a Land with Milk and Honey is as fresh as the day He gave it.

I love the way Jesus put it:

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Those who have found grace before the eyes of God are forever living. His promises are new every morning, even though He had given that promise two thousand years before, or even more.

For the reason of God's Timeline, we are instructed to live every day of our lives as if this were the day before Jesus comes for us and the events in Revelation take place. We are not to be scared by anyone or anything with the number 666, because it is not Antichrist or the Beast for whose appearing we're awaiting. We're waiting for the coming of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Those who do not await the Lord's return, unfortunately, will have plenty to fear... when it actually happens.

***

I don't know how that Mark of the Beast is going to appear. I don't pretend to know. I try not to make my conjectures about it. But I do have a tiny hypothesis on it, which makes sense, not in the type of mark, or how it is going to appear, or even the date, but in the symbolism behind it.

My best source of my hypothesis has been the words of the late Dr. Henry Morris, founder of the Institute of Creation Research. (Yes: he was a scientist who believed in the Creation as God expressed it in Genesis.) He saw the same things related to the Greek characters in the manuscripts related to this number. He simply said to "add up the numbers represented by the letters of his name." He just said that one name out of many thousands, transliterated in the New Testament Greek language will add up to it. Which name? We don't know.

But it is interesting to know a few other things, of which he reminded readers. God created Man and Woman on the Sixth day. God rested from His work of Creation on the Seventh. The last day of the week commemorates the finished work of Creation. On the Sixth Day, He wasn't done yet. The number "six" definitely denotes a sense of imperfection, as in "something else is not quite there." God made Adam and allowed him to name the animals and their mates: Adam then realized he had no mate. God made a suitable helper for him: a Woman. At the end of the sixth day and the beginning of the seventh, everything God did was finished. His Creation was Prefect. (Of course, it took a malicious serpent and a woman with a grudge, plus a pleasing husband, to ruin it all for the rest of us, but, oh well...)

Even in Hebrew numbers, seven seems to connote the Perfection of God's Work, and six connotes Imperfection. It was because of Sin that Man became Imperfect before God. (It is interesting to note that, after Jesus was crucified, at least one Sabbath day - Seventh day - had to pass before the revelation of a Resurrected Christ had to be known, on the first day of the following week - the eighth day!

For some reason, since six connotes Imperfection, it will definitely correlate to the fact that Man, in its natural state, is imperfect before God. In our natural state, we are all sinners, and we definitely come short of God's Glory. This is why the Apostle John reiterates that the number of the Beast is "the number of Man."

Man, in its natural state, can never reach the Perfection that God demands. Every effort that we make to justify ourselves, He throws back in our faces and calls it "filthy rags."

Yet, Man has tried to reach that Divine Perfection from the beginning. Remember the Serpent's tempting words towards Eve?

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

It was because of that attempt to usurp the Perfection and Authority of God by making Man as God - an act of horribly blasphemous disobedience -, that Death entered into this world... and into all creatures, great and small.

Man's first attempt at usurping the Authority of God was what got us into this mess of getting old, sick and dead, people. If you want to sue someone for "pain and suffering", here it is.

Yet, ever since then, there have been attempts to repeat the same mistake that got us into this mess in the first place. Look at the Tower of Babel. Look at the many things that people in many civilizations and religions have attempted to do. None of those things would address the "root cause" of the problem. It took the coming of a Perfect Man, out of the body of an imperfect woman, and raised among imperfect people, to preach and teach imperfect people that God demands for us to be perfect before Him, not just upright; that God requires mercy, not sacrifice; and that God will give the Kingdom of Heaven to those who humble themselves before Him like little children, not to those who arrogantly inflate themselves as if they were the "salvations" of their own little worlds.

And yet, after Jesus (Greek: IESOUS) had given Himself as Perfect Sacrifice for all of us, there were - and are - still people out there who will think that Jesus is either Not Enough or Not It, and that others will "fit the bill" better. The Roman Emperor would allow other gods in his realm, as long as he was worshipped as divine. To see a group of people directly defy him and say that he is not to be worshipped because Jesus is Lord and not him, was a major capital crime.

To this day, there are people who die because they confess with their mouths, before hostile forces, that Jesus is Lord, and not the dictator/god/prophet/shaman/whatever the others believe. All of those others are imitators, who attempt to usurp the position that is Jesus Christ's alone - and that is, God. Those others, by their act of exhaltation in the position of "enlightened ones", commit a major act of blasphemy, just as bad as the act that Adam and Eve attempted at the beginning, persuaded by Satan. Those are the ones to whom the Apostle John refers as the "many antichrists" that will foreshadow the Big One.

The interesting thing is that Jesus spoke of something called "the abomination of desolation", about which the Prophet Daniel spoke. This abomination described by Daniel was once seen, in its partial form, in the person of the Seleutian king Antiocus Epiphanes, who entered the Most Holy Place in the Temple and sacrificed a pig to Jupiter in the altar. To storm the Most Holy Place as a conquering force instead of entering as a humble symbol of a humble people was like storming Heaven and trying to unseat God from His Eternal Throne. That's a major act of blasphemy, my friends. That's why the Maccabeans reacted as they did. They were outraged at such an act: they did something about it as a result.

Jesus predicted that this act would be fulfilled in its totality in the future, when someone with the same characteristics as Antiocus, and worse, would attempt the same thing. The Apostle Paul describes it as this:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

I believe that there are indeed ways for us, men and women, to blaspheme God in some unthinkable ways. I think one of the least obvious ones is when we attempt to do something through our accumulated knowledge (read: science) that would definitely defy and challenge the Supremacy of God over His Creation. No, hybrids don't do that: that has happened over thousands of years.

What I'm expressing below is a warning to all of us. We can indeed have a role in the eventual appearance of this Man of Sin. Remember: if Man is identified as created in the sixth day of Creation, then a number that actually means three successive sixes means something much more... It sounds like the "overman" or "superman" spoken about by Friederich Nietzsche... something that Hitler definitely felt he could bring on... You know what happened, though.

Our modern times are characterized by the exponential increase in knowledge, science, cultures and travel - exactly what was foretold to the Prophet Daniel as a sign that the Times of the End were at hand. (Sounds familiar?) We, in the United States, have restrictions on the things that we can do with some specific aspects of that knowledge - especially in research related to embryonic stem cells. Those ones fall within the realm of ethics. On the other hand, other developed countries don't have those restrictions. More R & D funding is now reaching countries where once it was near impossible to develop anything in the realm of micro-science and nanotechnology - look at China, India, and Singapore. Many scientists are coming to the realization that, eventually, nothing will be impossible for them to do - exactly what God perceived in the true thinking of the people building the Tower of Babel.

It is not a matter of "if", but a matter of "when." The day is coming when science will say that "We can do anything we want!" and yet, will forget to ask "But, should we do it?"

I don't know if it will happen soon, but how long will it be before scientists announce the creation of a brand-spanking new man, genetic defects-free, with age-defying DNA, terrific physical characteristics... all in all, a perfect man, designed in a laboratory from man-assembled nano-biological materials, in a petri dish? How long before we hear of an embryo created with nothing but the best the human genome can offer, implanted inside a woman's womb, carried to term, and raised with all the knowledge of the world and all the possibilities? Extremely high IQ. Highly empowered to do anything. Highly praised.

Sure, it doesn't fit the picture those films give you. Nope, this one will not be born out of a jackal or a dog.

In order for the beginning of the ultimate "abomination" to take place, Man has to be the sole creator of this new being. God's out of the equation here. Remember that God created Adam from scratch and gave him the Breath of Life, and created Jesus in a specially made, sin-free body and implanted it into the womb of a virgin.

All that Man needs to do is to actually harness the sum of all of the elements needed to create a brand-spanking-new human life. When that is achieved sucessfully - when something like that is carried to term and breathes the free air as a newborn -, you can assure yourselves that the time left is very short.

How far-fetched is this? Not very. A lot has been achieved that was once an impossibility. How much more is there left to do? We don't know. What we do know is that somebody will, someday, defy God in the most blasphemous way known to Christians worldwide- and Jews, too. And no, we will not demand the head of the blasphemer. We will not even have the chance: the blasphemer will demand our heads on his platter, instead.

How possible is this, newton? I'm not sure. It's my hypothesis, remember. It can be entirely false. That's why I don't dwell on it for long.

I don't focus on who he is. I focus on what his actions and the matter of his being actually represent to the People of God. That's why focusing on any world leader as a potential candidate is futile. Besides, focusing on Jesus is much more comforting: He is our Deliverer. He can deliver us from evil.

We will not know who the Ultimate Blasphemer is until the event actually happens.

That's the trick, fellas. We will not know. When the time is short, it will be revealed... and then, when it actually happens, don't even think about it, and have good sneakers on. Persecution is coming.

Jesus Himself said so.

One Little Addendum: For a little more historical perspective, I do not believe that Domitian should get all the blame. He was neither the first Roman Emperor to persecute Christians (that dishonor goes to Nero) nor the last (such goes to Diocletian). In fact, there are a total of ten Roman-Empire-wide persecutions of Christians between the years 60 and 300 A.D.

Yet, the words written in the Book of Revelations can apply to all persecuted Christians of history, and those of the future Tribulation:

Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Amen.

*** Cross-posted at Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

Boo-Freakin'-Hoo!

2006-06-05T12:25:00.000-05:00

First, she forgets her contraceptive while playing around with her husband. Next, she goes nuts about finding an emergency contraceptive. Then, she has an abortion - a baby concieved within marriage, which both can support, BTW.

Then, she blames it on the President. The President!

Is that a non-sequitur or what?

Worst: she whines about it in the Washington Post. And, since she knows she's whining like Tippie, my psychotic cat, she conceals her name. Oh, "for privacy reasons", of course.

Here's pregnant newton's take: boo-freaking-hoo!

I must confess: I wasn't expecting the Little Fig to come. We weren't planning for the Little Fig. In fact, we weren't even trying. Yet, when we both realized that the Little Fig is a fact, there was no question as to what to do. This was not an "inconvenient". This is our child. This is not a property that you can dispose of whichever way you please. It is a gift from God. If He gives it, don't refuse it. Be thankful for it.

If the contraceptive or the "slip-ups" fail, there's always a 50/50 chance. When the extra line appears on the pregnancy test, it's Game Over.

Did I go nuts to find the number for the local RU-486 dispenser? Or the abortion doctor? Did I even think of getting the "emergency contraceptive" - which, let's be brutaly honest here - it's an overdose of birth-control pills rolled into one little convenient package? A very potent abortifacient? (Remember: I've been at "feminism central." It is no secret to me.)

I knew that in this, there was no question or complaint that would make it different. That was it. No more games. Besides, isn't that the ultimate purpose of marriage? I, who doesn't have a legal education, understand it quite clearly.

When I read pieces by women like her, I have no other recourse than to say to myself, "newton, you could have worked for and gained a whole lot, and even have "the world" at your disposal, but at the cost of your own soul... your own natural affections. That woman could have been you."

Yes, people: I could have been as selfish as her... and blame my missteps on somebody else who doesn't even know me! Was the President supposed to have given her a truck-full of diaphragms, or birth-control pills? Should he please every little whim she has?

She only elicits one feeling: pity. Pity, because she will never know the joy of having that little creature in her life. But again, maybe the little creature is most fortunate: he/she will never get to spend life tied by blood to someone as self-centered as her.

Wonder if her husband reads the Washington Post... I wonder what his opinion is... He's 50 percent of the baby-making deal, remember?

Maybe she wants to say now, "Maybe he should have gotten a vasectomy..." Hey, woman: how about the "vasecto-you"? But don't question her motives or intentions. Oh, no, no, no, no!

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics and Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

Once a Thief, Always a Thief - Right, Fidel?

2006-06-05T01:55:00.000-05:00

Found this at PubliusPundit.

In Cuba, I got this email from a source with sources in Havana:

I know this comes up every 6 months but something VERY wacky is happening in Cuba right now. They are collecting deeds of properties that were given out during the Urban reform. In other words they are again taking back the houses the gave to some people 40+ years ago. Why? Castro’s hissy fit with his fortune is way outta proportion based on the fact that this was never a big topic around Cuba, but it is now with the news all over Cuba thanks to the interest section billboard.

The bastard commited the terrible mistake of threatening to sue Forbes. Forbes on the other hand is putting together a very detailed case against Castro which when made public knowledge will forever unmask him as a thief.

The recollection of the property deeds seems to be an effort to account for what was indeed taken by Castro and pretty much taking away any rights of current property residents to claim ownership of anything given to them by Castro. In other words the prick can just claim they are all squatters!

Hey, if I were the owner of Forbes, I'd say "Bring it on!" Nothing offends a thug like Castro more than a mouth and a paper that can speak the truth freely and without retaliation... and people who respond by believing it.

Again, when people begin practicing "Robin Hood" economics with "good" intentions, beware: they will usually take it from the haves... and the have-nots never see an inch or a penny of it. The "Robin-Hooders" become the haves.

I'm sure Val at Babalu Blog would find this very interesting. The Cuban-American community here would definitely welcome this development.

Democracia - 2, Chávez - Cero

2006-06-05T01:20:00.000-05:00

That has been the verdict, so far, from elections in Colombia and Peru.

Message: the people of these South American countries know exactly what they want. A Marxist caudillo is not one of them.

Even Simon Bolívar would have been ashamed of Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales right now. Their "revolution" is anything but "Bolivarian." If anything, Chávez and Morales reflect perfectly the attitudes of Páez and Santander, the first presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, respectively - and the two generals who betrayed Bolívar the moment he became a corpse.

A commenter at PubliusPundit, who has been following the developments from Peru, summarizes the relief many American observers here feel right now:

And of course Jimmy Carter is nowhere to be seen.

Argh! Like garlic to Dracula! Cruz, cruz, que se vaya el diablo y que venga Jesús...

John Bull Has Been Dhimmi-fied

2006-06-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

Melanie Phillips, the author of Londonistan, wrote an opinion piece for the NY Post. She definitely goes to the "root causes" for the Brits not being willing to fight back against Islamofascists, even though they're in as much of a danger as Americans are.

The problem lies in a refusal to acknowledge that Islamist extremism is rooted in religion. Instead, ministers and security officials prefer to think of it as a protest movement against grievances such as Iraq or Palestine, or "Islamophobia." They simply ignore the statements and signs which show unequivocally that the aim is to Islamicize the west.
THE former FBI head of counter-intelligence, Oliver Revell, says both America and Britain suffer from "a fastidious reluctance to enter into the sphere of religion." In Britain, the result has been a disastrously misguided strategy to appease Islamist extremism, in the belief that defusing Muslim rage will buy off further attacks.

Yep. John Bull has been dhimmi-fied.

It gets worse: now some British companies refuse to fly the Union Jack for fear of retaliation from Islamofascists in their midsts.

Can we call those companies "cowards" now? They so deserve it!

How long before America becomes dhimmi-fied as well? "Over our dead bodies!" should be our answer.

Where have you gone, Winston Churchill?
Shall your nation turn its lonely eyes to you?

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

Poisonous Words: Another Gospel

2006-06-04T13:03:00.000-05:00

This is the definite theological conclusion to any analysis of the teachings and practices of the "Rev." Fred Phelps and his Merry Band of Hatemongers, the Westboro "Baptist" Church. (That's right: that band of hatemongers who have made nothing out of spewing venom to the loved ones of our soldiers who have died in combat during their funerals. And the thing is, those jerks seem to enjoy being that perverted.)

Found this on a San Diego newspaper. I was not surprised by the content of it, but about one thing that I didn't expect to find.

Their belief in predestination – the idea that God determined at the time of one's creation whether they were bound for heaven or hell – is not unique. It stems from John Calvin's branch of the 16th century Protestant Reformation and is taught in mainstream churches.

Where Westboro parts ways, of course, is its emphasis on God's hatred and the way it spreads this message. Members believe they must alert the world's depraved sinners of their fate even though such people have no chance of going to heaven. They're not doing this to save you – they're doing it to save themselves. [emphasis mine]

So, this bunch would rather forget the meaning of obvious Bible verses such as John 3:16 (For God so loved the world... etc.) and the overall message of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They seem to forget that the Bible was not just one verse that can be twisted to mean whatever you want. Not to mention that this "reverend" seems to forget that Jesus and the Apostles are very clear as to what position God takes when it comes to love:

The second part of God's Great Commandment, pronounced in Leviticus (Westboro's favorite Bible book) and reiterated very clearly by the Lord Jesus Christ:

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

[Now tell me: what part of Leviticus says that "God hates fags"? I checked it out several times: I haven't found it.]

Of course, I'd like to show you the way Jesus Himself put it:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The Apostle Paul puts the icing in the cake here:

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

In other words, Phelps and Co just ran afoul of the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Not good. But again, are they actually following what the Bible says?

Now, here's the greatest demonstration of love a human being can give to another (exactly what so many of our soldiers have done for us - the same people that this "church" hates so much and mocks with such an obsession!):

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Phelps and Co. don't seem to think about that, though. They couldn't give a rat about what these soldiers did, nor why they proudly wore the uniform. Could Phelps and Co. actually wear the same uniform and defend their families against some seriously dangerous totalitarian forces that seek to enslave them and their families?

I don't think so. I believe they're too chicken to do it. They don't deserve to walk the ground where these soldiers walked, nor show their faces where they lived or are buried. They're not worthy of anyone's respect.

The Apostle John knows how to give Biblical zingers. I'll let him do it to them:

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Again, does what the Bible says really matter to them? Not a chance.

Actually, I don't really have to repeat anything that I have said here. In fact, most of everything I have said above goes without saying. "Why do you bother writing about it, newton? It's a waste of bandwidth!"

True, but hear me on this.

They don't realize it, but they're preaching another gospel. Actually, I'll let the Apostle Paul say it for me:

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

There you go. All they're preaching is a perversion of the Gospel. It's not the real deal. But do they realize it? Have they become so blinded in their own hatred that they do not see how their words are actually, in the spiritual sense, poison? But again, do they care to see that they are spewing the poison coming from the Snake - as in, Satan? (Methinks some know whom they're actually serving, but they don't want to give up the gig. It's too profitable to sue anyone and everyone on First Amendment grounds nowadays. Just ask the ACLU.)

Do they also know that, according to the same Apostle Paul, this "church" is already under serious damnation from God Himself?

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

"Accursed" is a very strong word.

Are they really concerned about their position before God's Judgement Day? Will they all die thinking that their garments are clean and white, only to realize too late that they are to stand before God in dirty rags? They will be very surprised to see all of their preaching being thrown back in their faces by God Himself.

Do they actually care that they will suffer an eternally damning fate, if they do not repent from their evil deeds?

I want this church investigated. I want to see how much money they have accumulated from years of lawsuits and other little things they may have done. I want the IRS looking at their stuff very carefully. I want this "reverend" and his family stripped of the title and publicly humilliated by someone with enough guts to expose them publicly for the poisonous snakes they really are. But again, I'm too powerless to say or do anything. May God see what those people have done and act accordingly.

Problem is, who is going to be the man/woman of God who does this? Who will step uo to the challenge and have them in such a position in which they're forced to think of their evil deeds? I wonder who will. Better now while they're still alive and with a chance to repent than when it is too late. I wonder how many in his family have realized that he's actually the leader of a cult. (Yes, I've said the word: It is a cult.)

But again, who knows what gnaws at their conscience - and his.

Neither Phelps nor his congregants – who believe both he and they are prophets – claim to be without sin, but the pastor is infuriated when asked about their wrongdoings.

Children have had babies out of wedlock. Some have drifted from Westboro, which they believe to be the only true church on earth. The Bible's messages – as Phelps preaches them – have, at times, been ignored with this very family.

Why are some sins different? Why are followers forgiven for sins that would gain an outsider the label of hellbound whore?

Phelps rises from his chair and walks away.

I wonder if the evil spirit that haunted King Saul is haunting Phelps as well. But again, don't count on it.

And we all should know what happened to Saul.

Addendum: The father of a fallen soldier is suing the pants out of them. Good! I hope more soldier's relatives join in the suit. This could turn out to be bigger than many people think, if this is thought of right.

Memory Loss!

2006-06-03T00:13:00.000-05:00

I've been told that pregnant women get a little bit in the forgetful side... I refused to believe it... until today.

Today, I did some housecleaning. Then, I prepped myself and took a ride to Corpus Christi. Since Sam's Club has cheaper gas for members than anywhere else in the area, I took advantage. Filled the tank. Good.

I went to a bookstore to find something quick to read - nothing salacious, just something with history. Picked Smithsonian. Bought some anti-bacterial hand sanitizers at Bath and Body Works. Recommended for ladies with little ones. Then, I took a seat at a booth at the Olive Garden. (The sig.other had to work today until 9:30 p.m. Needless to say, I dined alone.)

I had artichoke and spinach dip, with celery sticks. I completely ignored the Tuscan bread. Yes, I had salad and one breadstick. Lots of vegetables in one meal. And this mama bear can handle it! The Little Fig, needless to say, was very happy!

Then, I had Chicken Scampi - my all-time favorite dish at the place. I ate half of it and boxed the other half, with a couple of breadsticks. I left the place and drove home.

When I finally arrived home, I looked on my back seat to pick up the to-go box. Only... there was no to-go box.

There was this sinking feeling...

Did I put it over the door to the trunk and drive away, thus having the box fly in the air and spill its contents down on the parking lot? Did I leave it at the table? Only Heaven knows.

It was my favorite dish! I didn't care about having it for lunch the next day! It had great pasta, peppers, onions, garlic, and really good and sauteed chicken! I like it! I was looking so forward to have it today and to box half of it to eat home later!

I can't believe I did it! And it takes a while to drive from my house to that restaurant! About a half an hour in a non-busy day, more on weekend rush hour!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

Boy, I sure am glad that I didn't forget my credit card! Phew!

This is Why the Little Fig Will Not Have a Weird Name!

2006-06-01T13:01:00.000-05:00

Betsy Newmark makes my case.

Suri does not mean "princess", as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes insist: Sarah does.

(Oh, yes: there is something called an Etymological Dictionary. It is the best source for names and words in the world. You will be enriched by the history and roots of words and names.)

You called your daughter Apple? Be nice. In twenty years - or less - someone will eat her, figuratively speaking.

And please, please don't stick to Star Trek names, or play-on names. And please, no anime, fantasy, or science-fiction names, please. Most of those names are passing: their popularity don't last long. Literary names - those found in classical or high literature - are just fine: those names have an enduring value. Think about it: it was an immortal writer (of whom you read in school or college) who invented it, not some Nintendo or PSP computer programmer with a storyboard, or some screenwriter for some science-fiction story that you see on TV re-runs.

A name is the symbol of a child's primal identity. You do not want to condemn your child to a lifetime of having people change the spelling of his/her name or even the pronunciation for their sake and not for the child's. That's their identity we're talking about!

Do you really want to mess up their psyches as soon as they leave the mother's womb?

***

I confess that I do have a rather unique name. It is not very common: it's a combination of two common names, yet it is one that not everybody gets. It takes ten letters of the alphabet to spell my name correctly - that's what my mother determined, and that's what shows on my birth certificate.

I learned to spell my name first and foremost. I learned all other words and names later. Yet, people around me insisted on mispelling my name at every single instance they encountered it. At school; at church; at meetings; even at the Girl Scouts, I had a problem with people mispelling my name.

Heck: even at Starbucks they have trouble getting my name spelled correctly on my cup of hot chocolate!

Not to mention that kids and teens can be the cruellest people on the face of the Earth: a few times, some kids or teens changed my name to mean something dirty or disgusting. Nothing hurt me more than people soiling my name for their own entertainment.

At college, my friends shortened my name. It turns out the nickname they chose for my name is the same one that my grandmother has been called for most of her life. It didn't bother me at all. Even the sig.other calls me with that name once in a while, but he uses a diminutive for my name most of the time. (Believe it or not, I actually love it when he calls me with that diminutive.)

And now, I'm determined that the Little Fig will not have the trouble that I had with my name for most of my life. I want to keep it simple for his/her sake. I already have an idea about names for a boy or a girl. Simple names. No name that has more than seven characters is allowed. And, best of all, the Little Fig will not have a problem spelling his/her name when the time comes to learn the ABC's.

For that reason, I use the Etymological Dictionary. There are plenty of perfectly good names in every language and culture known to man. There's plenty to choose from.

Unfortunately, many parents don't think the same way.

Solve Illegal Immigration!

2006-06-01T00:30:00.000-05:00

Fix Mexico first!

In short, Mexico is so corrupt, so oligopolistic, so rotting inside with the privilege of the rich that it has to send its poor and its potential political activists to another country. And on top of that, it tries to blame the United States for its own failures.

When I was in Mexico last fall, after dozens of visits over the years, people on every political and social level confirmed these accusations, complaining to me of Fox's failures. Forty families still own 60 percent of Mexico. There are no voluntary organizations, no civic involvement, no family foundations – and thus, no accountability, allowing corruption to flourish. Mexico gains $28 billion from oil revenue and $20 billion from immigrant remittances. There is virtually no industrialization, no small business, no real chance at individual entrepreneurship. Under Fox, it has created only one-tenth of the 1 million jobs needed.

Goodness! That is so true!

But now, there are people over there that are talking about the unthinkable: rocking the boat and welcoming the fence! Yes! That border fence that the U.S. Senate seems to be too bikini-tight to approve of.

If this is an opportunity for those South of our border to confront themselves before their national mirror, we should welcome that.

Hat tip: The American Thinker.

Is Blood Thicker Than Water? Not In Murder-for-Hire

2006-05-31T16:24:00.000-05:00

Question: What kind of grandparents hire someone to murder their grandkids? Answer: grandparents with a grudge.

Two grandparents in Lake County, Fla., were arrested for allegedly offering a hit man $100 to kill their three grandchildren, daughter-in-law and the family's pet dog, according to Local 6 News.

Lake County deputies said Robert Jackson, 60, and his wife, Versie, 59, traveled to a Best Western hotel Tuesday to meet a hit man -- who was an undercover law enforcement officer.

"(The couple) met with the so-called hit man, where they paid the hit man $100 in cash as a down payment for the murder of the wife and her three children," Lake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Christie Mysinger said.

It gets better!

After an investigation, authorities said the couple's son, Jason Jackson, 31, concocted the alleged murder-for-hire plan from jail and asked his parents to seal the deal, Bolden said.

The 31-year-old is awaiting trial in a sexual molestation case, and his wife and children were scheduled to testify against him.

Oh, I get it. Son behaves badly, wife and children offer to testify against him, and grandparents/in-laws can't take it.

Message to woman and kids: the farther away you are from those in-laws, the better. They don't deserve you.

Now this is a case in which a total family break-up is warranted. I guess blood is not as thick as water for those people....

For Cryin' Out Loud, Let Her Be!

2006-05-29T13:04:00.000-05:00

It's time for someone to slap the leader of NOW silly. It might as well be women's college alumna me.

If Elizabeth Vargas wants to go "a notch down" because she is about to increase her parental responsibilities by one, even for a few weeks, then no one has the right to question her judgement.

No one, not even the feminists!

She's going on maternity leave. Fine. She's focusing more on her family. Fine. But to make her leave of absence a reason to go up in arms because of a supposed "non-family-friendly" policy at ABC... that strikes me as silly.

Too many women have learned over the last thirty years that we cannot "have it all." When you win some, you lose some. When things are added, in the end something's gotta give. Many women have given themselves the permission to say "forget that career: my kid(s) come first!" and followed through.

Many have not regretted it.

This is the real truce on the "war of the sexes."

What does it say about NOW that they don't even respect that woman's decision and leave her (and ABC) alone? I'm afraid that it says the following: that they couldn't care less about the ultimate expression of womanhood, and that all they care about is the "freedom" they preach, not realizing that they themselves have become enslaved to their own corruption.

Addendum: I bet the leader of NOW doesn't seem to - want to - remember that Ms. Vargas' husband had a very close encounter with a bullet last year while on a concert tour. (He is the singer/songwriter for Walking in Memphis: I forgot his name.) The bullet could have taken his life - it was that close, but not enough. Thankfully.

That incident obviously shook them both. I would not be surprised that, as they both coped as a couple with its aftermath - think about it: she was almost going to lose her husband! -, somehow a sign of life and hope for both of them and their elder child showed up to help them heal the psychological wounds. Think of it as life again reaffirming its lead over death.

But again, what else can you expect from people like those at NOW - they've been so into selling bondage as "freedom" that they don't seem to see what's beyond their own noses.

On Memorial Day Weekend, An Honor Long Overdue to the U.S. Merchant Marine

2006-05-28T23:15:00.000-05:00

Now that my brain is more concentrated in writing than an hour before, I can write this.

The sig.other went to church today. I stayed home: pregnant-tired, of course. When I finally opened my eyes, there were these two brownish-green eyes looking at me, and this man's body lying next to me, with this message: "There's a foot-long Subway Philly Cheesesteak sandwich in the microwave, as you had requested of me before I left this morning." Those were welcome words for this hungry mama bear and her - even hungrier - cub.

As I struggled for a while to gather enough strength to get out of bed and reach for that beloved sandwich, the sig.other told me of something unusual that happened at our church today.

Every year, on the Sunday before Memorial Day, our church conducts a special service in honor of those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. We have seen those services in past years. They're not very elaborate: there's a prayer for those serving and those who already have. There's a mention for those in the congregation who were or are. There's a rememberance for those who gave their all in the line of combat. The flag rises, the choir sings their praises, and we all have a sense of what the weekend of Memorial Day is about - not about the picnic, but about those who made those picnics possible, and those who would never eat a corn-on-the-cob or chicken at one of those again because they showed to us what sacrifice is about.

Today, the main speaker at that dedication was the head chaplain at Naval Station Ingleside. He requested that those who served or had served in the different branches of the Armed Forces stand up, as their branch was mentioned.

"United States Army." A few rose. "United States Navy." A few stood up, including the sig.other, who was Naval Reserve.

"United States Air Force." None rose. "United States Marine Corps." A few rose. "United States Coast Guard." One or two stood up.

"United States Merchant Marine."

The sig.other was already up. He was the only representative of the Merchant Marine in the congregation.

If the mention of the Merchant Marine really surprised you, it should have.

The U.S. Merchant Marine has been, since the Second World War, the least mentioned, least cared-for, and the least rewarded branch of the Armed Forces in this country. Most Americans remember the millions in the Army, Navy, Marines and Army Air Force who gave their lives during the Second World War. We remember the European and Pacific War Theatres. We remember all of those lives that were lost. We remember their bravery. All of that is well.

But America has zero idea about the thousands of Merchant Mariners who manned the Liberty Ships -many of which were sunk by German U-boats in the Atlantic. No one knows about those sailors who, unlike those in the Navy, had to pay for their own meals, shelter, and other expenses while in the theatre of war.

Over seven thousand Merchant Marine officers and seamen lost their lives during the time of the Two World Wars. Seven thousand. That number might be small to you, compared to the millions of others who died. Nonetheless, that was no small sacrifice.

Many men enlisted in the Merchant Marine with zero experience. Many others were trained as midshipmen and went on to the War Theatres. All served with honor. All did what they had to do, for their country.

Yet, to this day, organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) do not count the Merchant Mariners among those to be honored. I remembered when the sig.other told me that his maternal gandfather, an Army WWII veteran who saw action in Italy, was mightly upset when he found out that people like his favorite grandson were not deserving of membership into his beloved VFW.

Many people have noticed that inconsistency over the years. Ever since the time of those wars, as the Merchant Mariners settled into their civilian assignments in the seas, and their active-duty status disappeared, it seemed that people just... forgot. Merchant Mariner officers nowadays have a commission with the U.S. Naval Reserve's Merchant Marine program for a number of years. They have to do active duty for two weeks in each year, plus fulfill their maritime requirements on ships around the world in order to upgrade their U.S. Coast Guard licenses, keep their skills current, and take corresponcence couses as part of their duty. Many have gone active duty when it was time to do so. In fact, right after September 11, the sig.other - who had completed all of his requirements and given his walking papers the year before - was on the watch for any news that he might had to be recalled for active duty, after having left for only one year. His call never came. But others that he knew of figured that they might not be as lucky.

Also, those U.S. Merchant Mariners who had accumulated retirement point over the years know that their benefits are little to nil. In fact, U.S. Merchant Mariners who have served in war are not considered veterans. Again, they're not considered veterans. There's little incentive to stay beyond the required time and requirements completed.

Their next of kin receive zero upon death, as non-veterans. The widow of a Merchant Marine Chief Engineer who was the sig.other's co-worker, mentor and friend for many years, just found out about that recently. She was genuinely surprised about it. I told her that's the case with Merchant Mariners in the U.S. Navel Reserve who had retired. Even I know not to expect anything upon the sig.other's passing.

It was until 1988 that the neglect of World War II Merchant Mariners was somehow rectified when a group of mariners sucessfuly sued in Federal court to obtain veteran status. And it was not until 1996 that the cutoff date for benefits for those veterans was December 1946, as in the rest of the Armed Forces. Too little, too late.

The neglect of the Merchant Marine was such over the years, that there was actually an effort being made in Congress during the last decade to close the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy - oh yes, that closing schtick was made during the Clinton Administration. It was only after enough KP'ers raised bloody hell - including the then-president of the AFL/CIO, Lane Kirkland, another KP alumnus and a Clinton ally - that Congress had to back down.

But a string of luck came their way under the most horrifying circumstances. For starters, Kings Point and the New York Maritime Academy are the closest maritime colleges to the Port of New York and New Jersey and the NY Financial District - which, as you all know too well, was the stage for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Midshipmen from both maritime colleges volunteered in the grim recovery effort on the grounds of what used to be the World Trade Center. Yes, they smelled charred bodies. Yes, they saw human remains. Yes, they saw, touched, heard, and smelled what Terror and Death are like. Their hands joined those from many fire departments from across the country and many others who just had to say "Yes, I'll do it."

At that year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at New York's Fifth Avenue, the U.S.M.M.A. Band occupied center-stage in the parade's dedication to America. It was then that all of America was able to ask the question that I asked way back in 1991, when I was first told of a U.S. Merchant Marine and a place called Kings Point: "What the hell is Kings Point?!?" I don't know how much recognition NY Maritime received. I hope the State of New York did something special for them, too.

One more thing. Andrew Card, former Bush White House Chief of Staff, is a Kings Point graduate. If anyone had the ear of the President in matters related to maritime/international commerce and the history of the U.S. Merchant Marine, it was Card. The change wasn't immediate, but I remember reading a few Presidential speeches out there that had something to do with the U.S. Armed Forces, that made mention of the U.S. Merchant Marine.

When I first encountered that phrase in a Presidential Speech a few years ago, I almost fell off my chair. I thought that Hell had frozen over. The sig.other was surprised, too.

And in a couple of weeks, something is to happen at Kings Point that had not happened since ts inception as a Federal Academy in 1943. The President of the United States will give the Commencement Speech.

Sure, you're used to hear about the President speaking at West Point or Annapolis. That's to be expected. But no president ever gave a speech at Kings Point. Not FDR, even though he recognized their value from the get-go. Not Truman. Not Eisenhower. Not Kennedy. Not even Reagan. And forget Bush, Sr. - it was Dan Quayle who was given the privilege to speak over there, in 1991.

Dan Quayle.

And during the time of the Clinton Administration, it was the Secretary of Transportation who had the honors. (I'm sure that, even before then, it was the same way.) It is interesting to note that, in 1993, it seemed that graduating seniors were giddy with enthusiasm at the possibility that a couple of Playboy Playmates - directly from the Heffner Empire - were going to make an appearance to those seniors before graduation, and not at the fact that they were going to see Federico Peña on the podium as they received their diplomas. The school newspaper was quite enthusiastic about that possibility... until the local chapter of NOW raised a stink worthy of a skunk's.

Yep. West Point got the President. Kings Point was going to get... PR from the Heffner Mansion. That was as low as it could get... Of course, some people didn't like that idea.

As you can see, my friends, Merchant Mariners - and KP'ers in particular - know the meaning of the word "neglect." They've lived it, for way too long.

I wonder when the Presidential directive to honor Merchant Mariners first came out. It has been only over the past few years, so I assume it has been such since, the earliest, 2002. I wonder what the reaction of the Head Chaplain at Naval Station Ingleside was when he first heard it. Did he ever have to tend to a Merchant Mariner's spiritual needs before? Or tend to the need of its widow before? (I take it back. He did so when the sig.other's friend passed away.)

I wonder if the people at church were surprised by the mention of the U.S. Merchant Marine this morning. Probably one of the children of the congregation had heard that name for the first time and asked his/her parent, "Daddy, what's the Merchant Marine?"

Daddy or Mommy probably has as little of a clue as most other people who had heard about it for the first time.

There are plenty of Merchant Mariners in this country who are ready to tell those kids - and you - what it is all about. All you have to do is ask.

Besides, there are over seven thousand names written in an Honors Book inside a Vermont marble and glass display case, on the altar of the Mariner's Memorial Chapel at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, who can tell the story better than any living one can.

***

For more information on the history of the U.S. Merchant Marine, here are a few other places that can be helpful:

The entire history of the U.S. Merchant Marine, from the Revolutionary War onwards.

A statistical list of U.S. Merchant Marine casualties during the Second World War.

The Merchant Marine in World War II.

The history of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

The history of the Liberty Ships, which supplied the resources needed for the rest of the U.S. Armed Forces to overcome the Axis.

The Presidential Proclamation of May 20, 2006 as National Maritime Day. (I bet ya there was zero mention of this on the MSM!)

The American Merchant Marine Museum - I've been to this museum before. The museum receives new collections every year. The second story of the museum building is what I call the "bridal war room". It was there were my family, friends and I got ready for that dreaded day.

Here's an article on the Pittsburg Post-Gazette on Merchant Mariners during World War II that should be read.

The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD).

*** Cross-posted at Hang Right Politics and Oh How I Love Jesus. ***

Boricuas in Florida - I Want to Live in America! And Give Me Some Lechón!

2006-05-28T01:28:00.000-05:00

Puerto Ricans, that is.

If you don't know what boricua means, here it is: it comes from the Taino name for the island. That's how we identify amongst ourselves.

But here's the point:

In recent months, Florida business and Puerto Rican community groups have been flooded with calls and visits from people looking to escape the island's latest political turmoil. The calls have subsided somewhat since Puerto Rico's legislators and governor reached a budget agreement that reopened the commonwealth's government offices and schools.

But experts say the frenzy highlights a demographic change that is just beginning to get notice and could have significant political effect in Florida and throughout the country - unlike other recent Hispanic immigrants, Puerto Ricans, as U.S. citizens, can vote.

"You don't have to wait for these immigrants to become naturalized and politicized," said Carlos Vargas-Ramos, a researcher at Hunter College's Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

For more than a decade, Puerto Ricans have slowly moved from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. And nowhere is the change more noticeable than in Florida, which has supplanted New Jersey as the No. 2 state for mainland Puerto Ricans, behind New York. The number of Puerto Ricans in Florida was estimated at 656,300 in 2004, the latest year available, up 165 percent since 1990.

Now, it is no surprise for me that so many of my own are packing their bags and moving to Florida. This has been happening for more than twenty years, as a matter of fact. I remember hearing from many of my friends at school, and even friends of my mother's friends, about relatives and/or friends who had left for Florida - not New York.

The government shutdown in the island of a few weeks ago seemed to have accelerated some people's decision to say "¡Que se joda! [Screw it!] I'm leaving!"

Again, I'm not surprised. I don't blame them one bit.

But here's one part of the article that really, really got me!

The shift can be seen at "El Coqui Bakery & Deli," south of downtown Orlando, where the smells of roast pork and rice with gandules, or green pigeon peas, waft through the sunlit restaurant.

Mmmm...

Por favor, please, please send me some lechón asado! I would kill right now for some arroz con gandules! And if you can fry tostones, please, please send me some! And I want Malta India, too! To heck with Goya!

This is a tearful plea from a pregnant feline! I know the Little Fig and I have Texas BBQ here, but I can't stand the smell now!

Lechoncito! Please, please come to mama!

Heartbeat

2006-05-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

Today, I heard the Little Fig's heartbeat for the first time.

The OB/GYN did a follow-up check on me today. Fortunately, I'm free from all of those things that they test for in pregnant women - all STDs known to man, and then some. There was no problem in the Toxoplasmosis department, either.

Then, he took his little electronic stetoscope...

As relaxed as I was, I didn't realize it then, but he had found a little heartbeat that seemed to go a little faster than mine usually does. He examined it for a few more seconds, and then...

"There it is..."

I looked at the doctor and asked. "Is it...?"

"Yes. It's the baby's heartbeat."

My heart missed a beat.

I smiled and shed a few tears.

"Daddy," the doctor referred to the sig.other, "you better listen to this." The sig.other approached the gurney where I lied, and heard it.

"I'll be darned!" He smiled from ear to ear, as that Cheshire cat that I saw when he and I first found out that the Little Fig was coming.

After we finished that appointment, we walked by the hospital's infant nursery. We saw the little ones from the windows outside. One infant that we saw cried heartily. His little pinched umbilical chord residue was showing, not quite healed yet.

"Oh, I see where the belly button comes from!" the sig.other affirmed.

"The belly button is the scar that reminds us of our ties to our mothers." I replied.

As we walked away from the Women's Clinic wing of the hospital today, I remembered the little heartbeat that we heard for the first time. I cried some more.

We will not know of the Little Fig's gender for another two months.

I Vant My Castle!

2006-05-26T13:23:00.000-05:00

Dracula's Castle in Transylvania was returned to its rightful owners, after being in the hand of the government for many years.

Sorry guys, but I just couldn't resist!

Now, Let's See How Those Palestinian and Arab Terrorists Get Away With Saying that Israel Has "No History"

2006-05-26T00:42:00.000-05:00

A recent discovery of tunnels built around the time of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans should make a few people think.

Most interesting of all:

The ancient Jews at the Kfar site built their houses over the ruins of a fortified Iron Age city, reusing some of the stones from the original settlement. Then they dug through 5 feet of debris from the ruins to build their hideaway complex. "It was quite a lot of work," Alexandre said.
The original settlement, which dates from the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., is also a new discovery. [emphasis mine]

9th and 10th centuries before the Common Era... Hmmm... Doesn't that tell me something about Israel's history... and their enemies' nonsensical denials?

Will the People of Britain Tolerate This Total Waste of Parliamentary Space Any Longer?

2006-05-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

To say that killing Prime Minister Tony Blair is "morally justifiable" is incitement to murder. Hasn't George Galloway realized that?

I hope the people of Britain have more sense than to allow that man to continue in Parliament. He's a disgrace!

No, I would not like people saying the same thing for the President, either.

*** Cross-posted at HangRightPolitics. ***

A Call For an Official 10-Year Moratorium on Commencement Speeches!

2006-05-25T12:52:00.000-05:00

This from The American Thinker:

Increasingly this ceremonial rite of passage [the college commencement speech] is seen as an opportunity for speakers to make use of an audience held captive by conventional good manners. From countless daises they self-indulgently spew hate-flecked political drivel. Either they falsely believe their views are universal or they correctly believe the audience will not give such rude behavior the response it deserves and are emboldened to speak often outrageous calumny.

After reading plenty on the childish rudeness coming from The New School for Shameless Clowns in New York during their commencement towards Sen John McCain (who's not my cup of tea) and former Sen. Bob Kerrey (the president of that school!), I think I have a great idea for ending that kind of stupidity in college campuses across the country.

I had enough of rude, obnoxious people: both speakers and audience. Enough!

I call upon parents and alumni of this country's colleges and universities to demand - and I mean DEMAND! - a 10-year moratorium on Commencement Speeches.

No more pompuous speech from someone outside the school. No more awarding of honorary degrees to bird-brain activists of any stripe.

No more rewarded PC stupidity. No more rudeness on the part of the students.

Parents mortgage themselves into bankruptcy nowadays for the sake of their little tykes' four-or-five-year excursion into the land of in loco parentis - emphasis in loco. And rude speeches, speakers and graduating class... Is that what parents have to receive for their aggravation?!?!?

If I were the affected parent, I'd demand my money back!

I was, curiously, the luckiest grad in the planet back in 1995. Of course, my graduating class was, too. There were four people who were awarded honorary degrees. A couple of businessmen. Two other activists of some sort or another. Names not remembered, because I'm sure no one ever heard about them before that day, nor heard anything about them again afterwards.

None of them ever gave a speech. None. Of. Them.

That was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Four years earlier, the sig.other (who way back then was dating another girl at my school - don't ask) attended that year's commencement at my same school. The speaker was some president of a college in Georgia, whose name he doesn't remember, mercifully. He remembers, though, the way that woman spoke. He calls it "ignorant-speak." By ignorant, it means completely uneducated, completely out of the bounds of respect for the intended audience.

"'Cause we are women, and we've got to sticks together!..."

That one phrase from the lips of that woman was the equivalent of a cluster of claws coming from the paws of six healthy, 9-week-old kittens. It was his fingernails-in-the-chalkboard moment. A couple of weeks later, after the girlfriend broke up the relationship (a welcome development for him, believe it ir not, maybe in part because of that commencement speech), he had his own commencement... at Kings Point.

The speaker? Then-Vice President... Dan Quayle.

I have spoken about this before, so I will not repeat myself here. Let me just say that very few of the graduating seniors felt that he had any connection whatsoever with what the Academy is about, or what industry most of the grads were going into.

Sure, he gave them their diplomas and shook each commissioned ensign's hand, including that of the sig.other. Nice touch.

A forgettable one.

(I tell you, though, that this year's KP grads are going to be much more fortunate! But again, "fortunate" is in the eye of the beholder nowadays...)

So, I don't envy the students nor the parents. If they had spent every last penny of their children's inheritance into their educations, I'd expect something more than just a speaker with a grudge and/or an audience of rude and childish fellow classmates.

We must warn others, especially prospective ones who can hear the giant suckin' sound peering into their assets.

I've always believed that, when one pays directly for a service or good, that someone should have a voice as to what is done with such. The last thing parents want is an arrogant boob on the podium or on the audience at their kids' graduations - whether from the school or outside.

And don't give me that crap about the First Amendment. I don't think the Framers thought about letting said Marxian useful idiots take over the college as the years went by. They might have been wise in writing the Bill of Rights, but they were not clairvoyant, nor had Nostradamus nor Miss Cleo on staff.

Yes, tomatoes - rotten or otherwise - available to parents at commencements can serve a useful purpose. I agree.

Yes, truth-in-advertising should apply to college admission offices. If you want to know what your kid is getting into, you might want to ask alumni... or watch the commencement video. Is that how you want to be rewarded for sleepless nights, trips to the bank for that second mortgage on the house, that stock sale, that bake sale, or that humilliating beggin' session with your kids' spoiling grandparents?

Do you want to see that?

I didn't think so!

I'd like to extend that call to every person who reads me right now. There are better things to do with the time and the money that is spent in these events. A commencement speaker brought from the outside of the campus costs a bit of Benjamins nowadays. Colleges who are conscious about cost-benefits should extend that to the college commencement. Is that commencement speech forgettable? In most cases, it is.

Would it work better not to have a speaker there in the first place? Absolutely! Why? No ocassion to offend, nor to be offended. No ocassion to show how rude your little tyke has become ever since he/she left your humble abode and instruction. Peace and quiet.

Of course, with Political Correctness, the no-commencement moratorium should be well-received... I don't count on it, though. Whence better than the college commencement to celebrate with the "Free Mumia" crowd nowadays? Give Susan Sarandon or the Dixie Twits (I mean... Chickens... I mean... Chicks) the air of legitimacy they so much crave from the real world... Hey, what better way to get the much-awaited autogaph from Michael Moore?

Shameless self-promotion never fails nowadays...

But is it what the parents want? Is it what the alumni want to read in the next quarterly edition of their magazine?

Therefore, I propose that colleges save their time and money... and save themselves from the potential embarrassment of facing a dissatisfied parent... or alumnus. A moratorium on commencement speeches will do much good to our current discourse... especially that of the political kind.

Think about it: ten years of silence in that department! That's less CO2 being spewed into our atmosphere! That will do much more for the environment than any rant coming from the mouth of Al Gore!

Besides, it will be a good introduction for the little tykes to... the real world. College is a different planet than the world outside. What you say can - and will - hurt you. There's no First Amendment protection for lack of understanding... or common sense. If you go into the Traditional American work-force, you will face that soon enough.

So, I'd love to give you some advice, but I want to save your time... and mine.

Earth to Hugo Chavez: How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

2006-05-24T23:23:00.000-05:00

Oliver Stone: any dictator's (or assorted malcontent's) favorite filmmaker after Michael Moore. No surprise there.

First, he delves in conspiracy theories. Then, he gives Fidel the silver screen's equivalent of a... let's say a... Monica... Then, he releases a film that turned out to be a real parody...

And now, thanks to The American Thinker, we might just add this:

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone was planning to film a movie about the 2002 coup in Venezuela that briefly ousted the former army officer.

Chavez, a harsh critic of the United States, says U.S. authorities were behind the botched coup that toppled his government for less than two days. U.S. officials dismiss his accusations.

Stone's denying it, though. And Aleksander Boyd rightfully asks,

Did it occur to the international journalists covering the inanity stream coming out Chavez's providential mouth to call Stone to confirm the former's allegations? Nah, if the caudillo says so it must be true, isn't that right Ken?

Ergo we now have examples, all readily verifiable with information in the public domain, of his Minister of Information lying, his Ambassadors lying [...], his oil Minister lying, his Attorney General lying, his electoral Minister lying, his legislative minions lying, his Vice President lying, his statistics' office lying, his generals lying, His Excellency -the supreme caudillo saviour of the world for the love of god!!- lying...

Este se cree... I'd better not say it: it's a vulgar street-proverb from Puerto Rico, that I'd rather not teach you here.

I remember that auto-golpe, though.

At least, as a Spanish tutor at a college's Languages Lab, miles away from "the action." There was this Venezuelan girl who was tutoring beginning Spanish students. Almost all of her family and friends live in Caracas. She had to cancel her participation in a trip with a group of students to Monterrey, MX that month because of Chávez' auto-golpe.

She was shaken, like a leaf.

It turns out her father is an officer in the Venezuelan Armed Forces. I wonder if he still is...

She had nothing to worry about when it came to her own safety. She was born here (therefore, a U.S. citizen), but returned to Venezuela barely in her infancy. She had also enlisted in the ROTC.

She and another tutor, a woman barely in her forties, also from Venezuela (Maracaibo), were following the developments. This woman, it turns out, already had earned a degree in Political Science while she lived there. She is here now, thanks to her American husband (a professional Spanish translator and interpreter) and their three girls.

She was not surprised at any of it. She had figured that it only was a matter of time before Chávez would consolidate his power one way or another.

I knew both women were worried for the family and friends they had left behind. There was so little any of them could do... Recall elections that turned out to be total public scams that were not rectified before the damage was permanently done (with no thanks to Jimmy Carter) and other nasty developments - such as the persecution of Jews and evangelical Christian missionary groups and, of course, of plenty of dissidents over there - confirmed to me what I had feared about that man from the time of that auto-golpe: that he is not only bad news for Latin America and for Inter-American relations, but also that he is a potential enabler of terrorist nations (such as Iran) and a very likely enabler of Islamo-fascist terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.

I followed the news from Venezuela on the Net and the blogosphere. I cannot agree more with Aleksander Boyd. If you have any doubts about all of this, go and check VCrisis. You will see what all of that is about. The situation there not only affects Venezuelans - who are voting with their feet and coming to America's shores in droves. It affects us, too.

The next time you need gas, do me a favor: pass up the Citgo station in that corner. Sure, you may like the owner and the cashier over there. Do you want to know where your money is going, though? You can buy a soda or slurpee there. Just not gas.

Sadly, I know of good people who work at the Citgo refinery in Corpus Christi. I figure that they wish they weren't working there, because of how bad the situation has become. The husband of a fellow co-worker at that Languages Lab was/is a petro-engineer at that Citgo refinery. Sure, their incomes might be higher than usual nowadays. Yet, I wonder if those poor people sleep at night... and how. I feel sorry for them.

But again, gas is gas. There are too many factors that you can't control...

Remember, Chávez: idols are made by men. They can be destroyed just as easily as they were made... or even faster.

People like Boyd have the hammers.

The Little Fig Is An Expert...

2006-05-24T23:18:00.000-05:00

... at dragging mamita down for a few days... That's why I haven't been posting lately.

Something will come up. Something...

Excuse Us For a Little Bit. The Little Fig and I Are a Little Undisposed...

2006-05-23T00:50:00.000-05:00

How can you like a movie based on a work of fiction that blasphemes Our Lord and Savior? How?

How can any Christian church open the gates wide for the Devil to work his "magic" by giving away Da Vinci Code film tickets? How?

As I said before, I will say it again. We're talking about a work of fiction based upon the ramblings of a French con man with anti-Semitic (read: anti-Jewish) tendencies. And people will offer movie tickets for people to watch something so based on such a piece of blasphemous trash?

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Hat tip: Slice of Laodicea.

Creepy...

2006-05-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

Two Saudi men boarded a school bus in Florida, thinking they would get away with it by telling a tall tale...

Not the bus passengers... or the authorities.

Did you see their eyes? They're creepy. When I have seen eyes like that before, I've seen the words "mentally deranged - stay away!" written all over it.

Sure, you guys wanted to learn English... What else did you guys want to learn? Aircraft flight? Truck driving? Computer hacking?...

Te conozco, bacalao... aunque vengas disfrazao.

Sorry, guys. We've seen that before. We won't bite.

"Sacred Steel" as Part of U.S. Navy Amphibious Ship

2006-05-22T23:36:00.000-05:00

Tons of steel wreckage from the Twin Towers have found a new home... as the bow section of the hull of the U.S.S. New York.

There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship’s hull.

Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it. Others have postponed their retirement so they can be part of the project.

One worker, Tony Quaglino, said: “I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud.” Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: “Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it’s about.”

The ship is being built by Northrop Grumman on the banks of the Mississippi. It should be ready to join the US Navy in 2007.

Two more ships will join the amphibious class later on: the U.S.S. Arlington (which honors the victims of the attack on the Pentagon) and the U.S.S. Somerset (which honors the fighting passengers of United Flight 93, which crashed on a field near Shanksville, in Somerset County, PA.)

If the U.S.S. New York has the honor of putting a few terrorists out of commission, that's a well-deserved honor. Just as the blood of Abel clamored for justice, so does the blood of the near three-thousand people who perished in one day, because of those murderers.

I wonder where those ships will be stationed once commissioned. Norfolk, perhaps? San Diego?

Got a deadline to meet and a bunch of assassins to put in their place, guys! Let's roll!

Via PowerLine.

You're a Good Guy, Gary!

2006-05-22T22:21:00.000-05:00

Michael Yon has posted a link to a PDF file which shows a concert given by actor Gary Siniese and his Lt. Dan Band to commemorate Military Appreciation Month. (Via Captain Ed.)

In addition, Siniese supports American veterans.

(Oh, yes: he has been underrated. I have not forgotten his acting on Forrest Gump or Apollo 13, among others.)

If our soldiers out there need something more than anything else, it is the support and encouragement of people like you.

God bless you, fella. You're a good guy, and it shows.

[I like to watch the CSI series, but the TV reception of our local CBS affiliate is not very good (we don't have cable); so, we miss a lot of episodes. But whenever reception is good on a Wednesday evening and the sig.other is not caught on Lost or Invasion, I steal the remote and gun for CSI:NY - it's good to see the old hometown once in a while, I guess.]

The Devil Breaks Havoc at Church Once Again

2006-05-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

This is just horrible.

I'm linking to it without comment.

Oh! Now He's Using The Buses!

2006-05-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, that is. Check this article and notice this:

Fewer than half of New Orleans' 455,000 pre-Katrina residents are living in the city, and scattered evacuees arrived by bus from as far as Atlanta and Houston to vote [emphasis totally mine!].

Isn't that nice? When his bacon is on the line, he remembers what's important...

Remember these?

The sig.other saw the news report on TV a few minutes ago. He almost chocked on his string cheese.

It would have made a much better impression if those buses had been used when they were actually needed... when the people needed to get the heck out of there before the city was ravaged by hurricane winds and, later, flooded, for example...

I only hope that the people of New Orleans are not as stupid as he thinks they are...

Update: Obviously, NO elects the government they deserve. But again, the election actually happened a long time ago... You see, many people either voted with their feet, or were forced to do so... Either way, many are not returning.

But, in order to make sure that some remember the inconsistency presented above, I'll let Captain Ed say it for me:

Before Katrina, Nagin had made headway in reforming the city's government and enticing business, but not enough to counter the angry and incompetent image he hung on himself during and after Katrina. His failure to follow his own emergency plan contributed to the human disaster of his city, an act of incompetence that would have forced almost anyone else in almost any other city back into the private sector. [emphasis totally his, BTW]

Chew on this.

Boris Yeltsin Was Right!

2006-05-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

''In using the word 'communism,' I am not exaggerating. It is not simply a metaphor for an overbright Communist future: 'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.' I have already mentioned their abilities, which, alas, are not outstanding. But their needs! Their needs are so great that so far it has only been possible to create real communism for a couple of dozen people. . .''

Doesn't this sound to you like... Fidel Castro's case?

Cuban President Fidel Castro was furious when Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $550 million last year. This year, the magazine upped its estimate of the communist leader's wealth to a cool $900 million.

Castro, who says his net worth is nil, is likely the beneficiary of up to $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies, the U.S. financial magazine said in its annual tally of "Kings, Queens & Dictators" fortunes on Thursday.

Kings and sheikhs of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states still top the Forbes list, to be published in its May 22 edition.

My goodness! He cries that he's dirt poor, when he has actually stolen from so many people over almost fifty years!

That's what Communist dictators do: they perform "Robin Hood" economics. They steal from the rich but keep the bag to themselves, simply because "their needs are so great"...

... just as Boris Yeltsin found out years ago.

The May 22nd edition of Forbes is now online.

For a Guy Who Gave a Few People A Quick Way to Meet Their Maker...

2006-05-20T17:47:00.000-05:00

... he surely doesn't want to meet The Maker himself...

Go figure.

He's no different than the thugs who send young, impressionable teenagers or young adults to become suicide bombers, or "martyrs" IMHO.

Speaking of Major League Butt-Kissing...

2006-05-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this?

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who turns 80 this year, enjoys vibrant health and will live to 140, his chief doctor said.

My goodness, this looks like an orgy to me!

Dream on, doctorcito.

A Jack-Inspired Treatment of "The Da Vinci Code"

2006-05-19T18:05:00.000-05:00

(Jack, meaning C.S. Lewis.)

I would like to add something more to Fausta's post on the hype behind The Da Vinci Code, based on Daniel Henninger's column in today's Wall Street Journal - free subscription for OpinionJournal required.

Joseph Loconte sheds light on the emotional nonsense behind the hype, based on the wisdom of Jack:

In a short yet brilliant 1959 essay, "Fern Seeds and Elephants," Lewis debunked the debunkers of his own day--those who held that the Gospels were the product of myth, legend and outright deception. He began by drawing attention to the "shattering immediacy" of the Gospel stories, the often brash realism of Jesus' encounters with ordinary people.
Mark's Gospel, for example, sets the scene of Jesus' arrest this way: "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind." We're never told who the man was or what happened to him. Luke describes a tax collector named Zacchaeus, who was too short to see over the crowds following Jesus. "So he ran ahead," Luke reports, "and climbed a sycamore tree to see him." It's irrelevant to what follows. Likewise, the Gospel of John tells of a woman caught in adultery and dragged before Jesus, who "bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger." Nothing, absolutely nothing, comes of it.
Any serious reader of the Gospels knows that their many references to the divinity of Jesus are thoroughly embedded in these earthy details. Here is a narrative style that anticipates the modern, realistic novel. "I have been reading poems, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life," Lewis wrote. "I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this."

There's more:

Lewis, I suspect, would also point out that theories about massive coverups presented in fanciful works such as "The Da Vinci Code" ignore an elephant-sized fact: There are any number of people and events in the Bible that are frankly embarrassing to believers. Recall, for example, that the family tree of the Messiah includes a prostitute (Rahab), a king who commits adultery and murder (David) and another king who leads his nation headlong into religious idolatry (Manasseh). Yet the earliest Christians failed to excise these characters from their story.

Mr. Loconte, let me add another very embarrasing Biblical episode or two.

Do y'all know what happened to Judah, great-grandson of Abraham and an ancestor of Jesus Christ? He had three sons. He found this woman, Tamar, to be the wife of the first one. First one died. Her father-in-law then had her married to the second one. The second one does something bad (let's just say that he "pulls out" of the ancient levirate contract), and dies. Then, father-in-law asks daughter-in-law to wait until his third son grows old enough to marry her. Tamar is livid. Some time later, she deceives her father-in-law into believing that she was some unknown tent-walker (read: prostitute of ancient times). He asks what she wants in exchange. She says "Give me the jewelry and belt you're wearing." Deal. Personal service, quick and easy. She gets pregnant. Upon finding out about the pregnancy, he orders her killed. At the moment of truth, she reveals that she was the tent-walker who serviced him, and shows the stuff he gave her in exchange for it. Jaws drop. "Oh, my G--. I screwed my daughter-in-law..."

Sure, he acknowledged the twins she had as his. But he never touched her again.

Now, that's embarrasing! And not only that: Tamar is mentioned in the Genealogy of Our Lord, in Matthew Chapter 1, right there with Rahab, David and Batsheba - who was once "wife of Urias," remember?

And how about Lot, Abraham's nephew? He had the misfortune of accepting wine from his two surviving daughters in a cave - after having escaped the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and everything they had - and got so drunk that he didn't realize that he had screwed his two daughters in a matter of two nights... and both had children of their father. Incest.

So, as you can see, there's plenty of embarrassing stuff that Christians and Jews get to read in The Bible. Stuff like that makes The Bible a book that, under any possible human conception of literature, myth or legend, should have never been published in the first place because it is so darned honest to begin with. Even Loconte points out that there is a conspiracy theory retold in the Gospels. (There's another one after that one, too.)

A blatantly honest piece of work like The Bible could not come from some fantasy world. C.S. Lewis realized that: I believe that was one of the factors that made him jump the atheist ship and join "God's Team". That ship, he realized, had more holes than Swiss cheese. (Only if Da Vinci Code readers realized the same about that novel....)

Love this money quote here:

Here is the real harm of these modern conspiracy theories: They may appeal to our emotions, but they violate our common sense. They reject reason, just as surely as they reject revelation. "I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds," Lewis explained. "I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else."

They may appeal to our emotions...

Methinks it appeals to a lot more than to our emotions. This piece of fiction that The Da Vinci Code is appeals to something more sinister than any urge to believe in a conspiracy theory: the desire of today's human beings to bring God down to "their level" and make Him as just "another Joe" who eats, drinks, tokes and fornicates like everyone else in modern culture... in order to justify and cure themselves of the "disease" of "being sinners in the eyes of an angry God"... because it "oppresses" them.

This whole thing is not about Jesus or Mary Magdalene (bless her soul). It's about people seeking to justify their own empty selves by making God in their own image... exactly what some atheists out there have accussed us Christians of doing.

So, chew on this, fellas. If you want to read Jack's original essay, feel free.

You're Still Gonna Die!

2006-05-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

Check this post from Dr. Sanity... and check the cartoon. It's a keeper!

"New School" of Shameless Clowns

2006-05-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

Commencement is neither the time nor the place to behave before others like total immature jerks... especially before a commencement speaker... like a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Vietnam War POW, Sen. John McCain.

Via The Corner, Rich Lowry has quite a few posts on the shameful spectacle those students made of themselves.

Sure, people can disagree in many matters and issues. Heck, I disagree with McCain in quite a few ones. But what if those graduates had shown a modicum of respect towards him, at least in a day like this?

What is so wrong with showing a little bit of respect? Respect... Hello?!?

So, John McCain doesn't represent "the university's values", according to one of the students... Fine. That university does not represent the values of the American people. Tit for tat, that's fair.

Get this part - someone threw an invective against the university's president, former Sen. Kerrey (D-Nebraska):

[Kerrey] asks if when students get older and someone is heckling, laughing or booing them, will they stand up for their beliefs? “Will you stand and say unpopular things?”
A loud shout from the back: “You are a war criminal!”

No respect for two Vietnam War vets. Two who endured some of the worst things that soldiers can experience... One (Kerrey) lost a leg. The other one endured the worst of a POW camp, losing his ability to raise his arms to the level of his shoulders, and maybe more...

And this is how those jerks pay them back...

Clowns. That's what they are... Totally despicable clowns!

I hope a prospective employer watched this shameful event, and taken good notes. Remember: The New School [formerly The New School of Social Research], New York, NY, Class of 2006. If you see a resume arriving to your mail with those words included, do yourself a big favor and give it away as food for the shredder. Especially if you happen to be a war veteran.

It's time that war veterans take a stand against people who would rather support the enemy with their words and actions.

[But, heck! Who knows? They probably will never look for a job in the "real world". They'll probably stick with the non-profits and NGOs of the world... That happens a lot. Trust me.]

I'm so thankful that there was no commencement speaker at my college graduation. We went to business. Zero aggravation. It was great. And then, I turned my back to that school, never to return.

Preserve My View, Screw Everybody Else!

2006-05-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

It seems Congress-critters from Florida and California don't seem to mind preserving the view Barbra Streissand and other Hollywood types enjoy, even if that means the rest of the people of the United States get screwed in terms of energy independence - and wallet preservation.

Hey! I live near the Gulf of Mexico. We have been to the beach at Mustang and Padre Islands many times. There are lots of oil rigs miles away from shore, some of them barely visible. Does that bother those who come to South TX to vacation every year?

Not that I know of. Nobody seems to mind over here.

So, maybe it's time that the TX delegation show the delegations from CA and FL what's good and what's not. And tell those from the coastal states who have their panties tightened up on this to get... a... clue.

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

About Darned Time!

2006-05-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

It is something that should have been done a century ago.

WASHINGTON — Should English be the national language? Well, the Senate thinks so, and it appears the president is happy with the idea, too.

As part of the ongoing debate on immigration reform, the Senate on Thursday voted on two amendments to make English the "national language," as well as set a "common and unifying language." The first definition was pushed by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the second by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the goal of President Bush's immigration-reform plan is to make sure that at the end of the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, people have command of English. Snow pointed out that statistics show that people who learn the language do better at work, and have a better chance at "the American dream."

If there's somebody who can talk about the wisdom of it, it is I.

When I arrived to NY from Puerto Rico, my English was not that good, even after having learned it for twelve years, more or less. I knew that, if I didn't tackle the bull by the horns and totally dominated the language, I would have gone nowhere at college here, or in life.

So, I did what I had to do. I turned Univision off, and all the telenovelas that came with it. I turned the English channels on. My reading was exclusively in English. So was my writing and my listening.

By the second year, I became comfortable enough in English that I could carry a conversation with anyone in the language. I was able to do a lot more than whatever I used not to do because I was so confused before.

For those who believe that such measure amounts to "racism", count me among the "racists". Yep, a multi-racial individual married to a white guy, two languages under the belt, and an International Relations background is a "racist", just because of advocating English as the official language of the United States. That makes sense... not!

Sen. Harry Reid just insulted a huge chunk of the electorate, including those who learned English after arriving here in order to be successful in life.

How many times have I seen advertisements for at-home English learning programs in Spanish language TV here? Lots of times! Even those ads tell you what this weasel of a Senator doesn't seem to get.

Shades of Nazi Germany

2006-05-19T11:11:00.000-05:00

... in Iran.

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."

The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," said Rabbi Hier. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."

Bernie Farber, the chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he was "stunned" by the measure. "We thought this had gone the way of the dodo bird, but clearly in Iran everything old and bad is new again," he said. "It's state-sponsored religious discrimination."

Ali Behroozian, an Iranian exile living in Toronto, said the law could come into force as early as next year.

Tell me this doesn't disgust you...

To those who are still not convinced out there, especially the Bush=Hitler crowd: who's Hitler now? Tell me!

Who's Hitler now?

Update: The experiences of this woman who was a child when the Holocaust took place should make you ask, "Do we want for that to happen again?"

Update: Israpundit reports that this story may not be true.

Still Tired... Still Dragging

2006-05-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

This is no fun.

At 13 weeks, I still feel that I need to get some Starbucks coffee... even though I don't drink coffee...

Belly is showing a little, though. The Little Fig seems to relish every morsel that I take. Problem is, it doesn't last very long for me. The Little Fig wants more... and more...

I've become a life support system for a little host that is taking as much of me as he/she can. And let's not talk about diapers, sleepless nights, watching every move, braces, school, college...

The U.S. - The Last, Best Hope on Earth

2006-05-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

Via Pajamas Media, Tigerhawk talks about an article in the Wall Street Journal - paid (gulp!) subscription required - about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's rejection by the Dutch. (An article that I've already read in print.)

Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been threatened repeatedly with "execution" by Islamist extremists. She lives in an apartment with bulletproof windows, and is driven to work at the Dutch Parliament by armed guards, who vary the route to outfox would-be hit men.

But an unexpected menace emerged closer to home: her own neighbors. They have fought to evict her, complaining that the presence of a well-known terrorist target in their luxury apartment tower in this Dutch city has upset their family lives and reduced the value of their property.

"Once this lady leaves, the problem is no longer there," says Ger Verhagen, a retired executive who owns a place two floors above the hunted politician. He says he has nothing personal against Ms. Hirsi Ali. But along with other residents, he wants to banish the fears stirred by the proximity of Holland's most acid -- and most frequently threatened -- critic of Islam.

Yesterday, Ms. Hirsi Ali's neighbor got his wish. Three weeks after a Dutch court ordered her out of the building in response to complaints from Mr. Verhagen and other residents, she resigned from Parliament and said she would leave Holland altogether.

So, "the problem is no longer there"? Ya wish!

Would someone please tell Mr. Verhagen that "the problem" has not left to begin with? In fact, "the problem" might be living right before his very nose, and he will not see it until he sees that knife smothering his chicken throat... while it sings "Allahu Akbar..."

That's a coward for you, ladies and gentlemen. An appeasing weasel and a coward. And I know I might be offending some weasels at PetSmart, but oh, well...

It also seems he's not the only one, and Ali is not the only one who has opted for leaving the increasingly cowardly and appeasing lands of Europe for the United States.

Across Europe, dozens of people are now in hiding or under police protection because of threats from Muslim extremists. Dutch police say politicians reported 121 death threats last year. The number this year will likely be much higher.

And what do many of these people do? They come here.

I understand that, in this day and age, there is enough reason to believe that the threat posed by these fanatical murderers is everywhere. However, there is still a reason to believe that the United States is the best place for all the people threatened by them to be.

We are neither weasels, nor appeasers, nor cowards, like that guy at Ali's soon-to-be former residence. We have proven it ever since 1776. And of course, there's United Flight 93 and our troops around the world for a modern reference of bravery. Of course, if you take away the many people in the Left here who would rather see the U.S. groveling on the ground before the Islamofascists because we "deserve it"...

Hey, how about we receive those who are threatened by those whackos in Europe, and we ship the American Leftist weasels out to y'all Europeans? They'd feel so right at home with ya! And I think they won't mind that Islamist knife in their throats when their time comes...

Yeah, I can live with that.

I Thought They Were Made For Each Other

2006-05-18T00:52:00.000-05:00

This is very sad. It is not easy to keep a marriage working under the public spotlights, for sure.

Maybe it's time for the media and the papparazzi to leave them alone.

The Parent Trap

2006-05-17T16:22:00.000-05:00

Professor Reynolds hit the nail in the head with this one. One quote, though, caught me like deer in the headlights:

There's also the decline in parental prestige over generations. My mother reports that when she was a newlywed (she was married in 1959) you weren't seen as fully a member of the adult world until you had kids. Nowadays to have kids means something closer to an expulsion from the adult world.

I have noticed that, too, and recently. The sig.other and I used to be invited to all kinds of dinner gatherings with his co-workers and their spouses. Suddenly, after everyone found out that the rabbit in our household had died, the invitations stopped. And that was a little over a month ago today!

The sig.other can no longer find someone willing to go with him to a film outing one Saturday afternoon. Heck: just yesterday, we had attended a baseball game at Corpus Christi's Whataburger Field for some Minor League Baseball action, thanks to tickets and spending money that the sig.other won at a fundraising party last December. The single men he had invited canceled at the last minute - one, justifiably so; the other one... well, that's debatable.

Who came to the game with us? A married couple who have been friends with us for a long time... and their two kids, ages 7 and 2.

The Professor is right. Nowadays, parenthood has become a stigma: it seems that so many people see the disfunction going on around us, and conclude that parenting is a complete waste of our time... mainly, because the Nanny State has made it difficult to virtually impossible for parents to be... parents.

I was quite resistant to the idea of parenthood. I had seen enough over the years to conclude that being a parent in this modern society was a waste of precious bodily fluids - including blood, sweat, and tears - and a drag in anyone's right to pursue happiness. I was a real pain in the neck to my parents, and to my mother in particular. As the years have passed, it has become obvious that the return on the investment for parenting has diminished dramatically. I remember reading one book review not long ago that concluded, based on a long-term study by these two Harvard economists who were the authors, the one thing parents dread to hear: parenting is the biggest predictor of bankruptcy in our present day.

That doesn't bode well for anyone who has contemplated parenthood.

Again, the sig.other and I were very resistant to the idea of having and raising a child, mainly because of what we saw around us. I must admit, though, that I was the more resistant of the two.

Then, came April 17, 2006.

I joyfully welcome the Little Fig into the world... but I dread for his/her future. And ours.

One More Presidential Speech Reaction Report

2006-05-17T14:45:00.000-05:00

Varifrank just nailed it here, especially in regards to those who went off the deep end after 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST Monday:

After it was over, I went on my normal evening run and while I was out I listened to a few of the normal AM talk radio shows just to hear what the general consensus was.

To my total surprise, it seemed that most of the audience was incensed that the President didn’t call for a wide reaching pogrom on the illegal immigrants and that anything short of that was a clear sign that he was just a “limpwristed flop who was just caving in to political pressure” and in the end “not much better than a damn democrat”.

The loudmouths were crying out for blood and utterly furious that the president didn’t give it to them. They didn’t just want a border fence anymore because that just wasn’t good enough; now they wanted a border fence with immigrant heads impaled on it.

No different than the Romans, who would impale Christians and place their heads, or their entire bodies, on posts around public places or roads as torches...

There's more:

This immigration problem of today was a reality that was well underway long before President Bush ever thought of even being Governor of Texas, much less President of the United States. Yet, President Bush is the first President since James K. Polk to make border security a serious issue, and you are all ready to crucify him for the effort.

There are now so many of you knuckleheads that you started to listen to the madness of crowds and will settle for nothing short of an open declaration of war on Mexico as a small sign that “he’s finally serious about border security”.

Again, everyone: I'm a migrant - which means that I journeyed from one place under U.S. jurisdiction to the Mainland. I'm also a U.S. citizen from birth. The screeching coming from all of those people is just... sick...

This will only discourage others from supporting them in other issues. Is this what they want right now? To be known as no different from the Know-Nothings?

Thanks again to The Anchoress.

The Monday Night Massacre

2006-05-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

That's how I call the breakup of Polipundit.

Lorie has taken it with stride. She has been grateful for the opportunity given to her, even if it ws for a time. I also believe her posts on 24 were quite refreshing over there. I sent her a note telling her that she has proven she can thrive on her own, and that this was for the best. Her blog is now in my bookmarks.

DJ has posted a bit more on the issue. Thanks for being honest, fella. You will survive.

I don't know about Alex and Jayson. I wish both of them the best. Alex, if you happen to read this, you have a good talent as an analyst. You will thrive, too. I know you know this.

And Jayson... Jayson... If you're reading this, please think. You are a brilliant guy. You have a law degree and an MBA (I assume?). You can do a lot more than what you have been doing... which is, I frankly have zero clue. You not only can survive... you can do so much more out there! Don't close yourself in: it will only stagnate you. You cannot afford to stagnate at this point in your life. I believe this bloody blog breakup is precisely what you and the others needed to see that y'all can shine on your very own lights, in whichever roads your lives take each of you. You're no exception.

Again, Jayson: don't close yourself. You will only stagnate. Moreover... with stagnation comes rottenness. You cannot afford it.

For those who have seen what was going on at that blog in the last few months, I believe we should have seen what was coming... Some probably did.

I didn't have an idea. I should have guessed it. Last weekend, as I felt the nausea kicking in after reading the blog and the comments, I just wanted to throw the computer away. I knew then that something had gone irremediably wrong over there. On Monday night, I knew Poli had gone off the deep end, and had relished the fact that it was down. I didn't realize, as DJ pointed out, that Poli himself had brought the blog down.

(BTW - Who the heck does he think he is? Hugo Chávez? This smacks to me of an autogolpe - self-coup.)

It happened, guys. The bloody Monday Night Massacre happened.

I wish y'all the best! And Poli, you have made the biggest mistake of your blogging career. Now, your blog looks no different than the Daily What's His Name? Pffft!

What Part of "No"...

2006-05-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

... don't they understand?

I Cannot Envy the Guy. Not One Bit.

2006-05-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

The President is in a situation in which, no matter how he slices it with the attempted strike of a King Solomon, there's no way for him to win on this one. No way, no how.

This situation calls for a reminder of this: you can win all people some of the time, you can win some people all of the time, but you cannot win all people all the time. Let me add an amendment to this: sometimes, you can't win people at all, no matter what you do.

If he tries to do one thing, he's called a racist. If he tries to do another, he's called a weakling and worse, a traitor, on the issue of illegal immigration.

The fact of the matter is that he's now involved in a situation that was not entirely of his making: this issue has festered for over thirty years, with laws that were being enforced whenever someone felt like it, or laws that were ill-intentioned to begin with, such as Catch-and-Release.

This is a no-win situation for the President. Unfortunately, he knows it. He probably is resigned to his fate. I don't blame him if he just wishes to go away from everything and everyone right now.

It is not helpful to see how many people are already writing his political obituary on the blogosphere. Just check here, and be amazed at the fact that Hugh Hewitt did not give up on the President... until Julie Meyers just ruined it. Ruined it.

I thought the guys at Powerline knew better than to "misunderestimate" this guy. And what about Polipundit? I know what he thinks, already, for a long time. Sadly, last night, I saw what he wrote and the reaction among the commenters, and I suddenly thought I was getting morning sickness. (The Little Fig reassured me that was not the case.) He probably is off the deep end by now. Besides, the site is down. (Phew! - Sorry Jayson, Lorie, DJ, Alex... You guys are reasonable most of the time, but I can't help think that he's just in serious need of some Valium right now...)

[Update: He's back. Oh dear... Why? Could you, dear God, have shut him down for a little while longer? What can I say?... BTW, Alex: Thanks.]

Captain Ed seems to be very reasonable on this. That's good. He is always a reasonable guy, unlike the crazies and maniacs that I have encountered in the blogosphere lately.

Some at The Corner are looking at the silver lining in the clouds. Some others are just... well, let's say that they're already burying him.

Sister Toldjah needs to chill a little bit. After all, he said that the border will be reinforced by National Guard troops until more Border Patrol agents are trained and assigned. I am very sure that the border will be much more guarded, and soon. I can tell the TX National Guard to stand watch on Laredo, because Nuevo Laredo is under Mexican martial law - yes, the situation over there is that bad. And to bring a lot more technology to all of this is not bad, either. In fact, it is long overdue.

And Sis, you should also remember that he emphasized the role of local and state law enforcement on the whole deal. That was something that local officials in South TX have been waiting for.

[Did I tell you that there was an illegal immigrant high-speed chase and then a cordoning of a huge expanse of land... right next to my house in South TX last summer? The sig.other and I had the "privilege" of watching with our neighbors, friends and people at our church - which is next to that field, and giving Vacation Bible School that week, to boot - as local police, state troopers, and even Coast Guard planes tracked the illegals hiding in the brushes, for hours... well into the night. That was the very first night that the sig.other had to check all sides and entrances to our house, plus our house alarm, to make sure that not a single one of them got in.

We used to leave the back door unlocked while at home. No more.]

And don't tell me that you don't like that he emphasized assimilation - read: learning English before becoming a citizen. That, to me, is more than welcome. It is imperative. I have advocated mandatory English instruction for all those who want to work, study and stay in the States for a long time. Full immersion was what allowed me to see more of a chance for me here than anything else. I'm glad he emphasized it tonight. Too many people here never learn English, even after living here decades upon decades.

The Anchoress, a reasonable human being if there ever was one among the Major Leagues, just said it like it is, specifically on the Powerline guys, but that can be applied to the "Riot Act" wing of the party:

I was a little surprised to see Scott Johnson refer to the president as a wimp. We’ve never seen any evidence of that, and to my way of thinking, it takes a measure of cojones for the president to hold on to his own view while his numbers tumble and his “base” is preparing to put him on a spit and begin roasting him over a fire.

Oh yeah. The Anchoress also pointed out to a rather sickening article from a guy who should know much better than to write something like that. (Thanks for doing so, Anchoress. I have believed for a while that Vox needs a little tar-and-feathering. This confirms it. And no, I don't give a rat that he's a fellow Southern Baptist. So is Jerry Falwell, and you should all know by now that he's not my cup of hot chocolate, either.)

She's not done yet:

How do you like that? Is that what you want speaking for you? Sadly, I’ve read similar sentiments on conservative forums all day. That’s where this unhinged, over-emotional rage-train is headed, folks. If this is representative of the current conservative fever-swamp, then I guess I will have to say pardon me, I guess I’m not a conservative, after all, and take one step leftward.

And people like Vox Day, Poli and a few others are going to do the job that Howard Dean was elected to do at the DNC. How nice.

Again, I don't blame the President if he just wants to go away. I wouldn't want to be the butler or the consigliere to a bunch of ingrates, either.

Take a vacation, sir. Go as far away from everyone as you can. It will help you look forward to a time in which someone else will have to play the role of do-it-at-gunpoint cleaning crew. That would be a welcome relief for you and yours.

And, of course, that would mean that someone else will have to handle Cindy Sheehan. ;)

Update: It's an understatment to say that Michelle Malkin is going nuts now. But I couldn't help it but to link to this. Very funny!

Mark Steyn Should Get a Pulitzer!

2006-05-15T02:02:00.000-05:00

But he never will, especially after this column of his. Money quote:

So there are now two basic templates in terrorism media coverage:

Template A (note to editors: to be used after every terrorist atrocity): "Angry family members, experts and opposition politicians demand to know why complacent government didn't connect the dots."

Template B (note to editors: to be used in the run-up to the next terrorist atrocity): "Shocking new report leaked to New York Times for Pulitzer Prize Leak Of The Year Award nomination reveals that paranoid government officials are trying to connect the dots! See pages 3,4,6,7,8, 13-37."

There's more:

I yield to no one in my antipathy to government, but not everyone who's on the federal payroll is a boob, a time-server, a politically motivated malcontent or principal leak supplier to the New York Times. Suppose you're a savvy mid-level guy in Washington, you've just noticed a pattern, you think there might be something in it. But it requires enormous will to talk your bosses into agreeing to investigate further, and everyone up the chain is thinking, gee, if this gets out, will Pat Leahy haul me before the Senate and kill my promotion prospects? There was a lot of that before 9/11, and thousands died.

And five years on?

Ab-so-lutely!

Italian Food, Mozzarella Cheesesticks...

2006-05-15T00:55:00.000-05:00

... and other things that I've been craving, even weeks before I found out why I have been craving them in the first place.

I should have figured something was amiss when I was looking forward to my birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse with more than just great anticipation.

Here's my usual b-day dinner (on April 4): Fried Mushrooms or Cheese Fries; a Garden Salad with Oil and Vinegar; Lamb Chops with Cabernet sauce and steamed veggies on the side; and to top it all off, a tall, delicious Sydney Sinful Sundae. I always look forward to that kind of dinner at Outback. After all, the b-day is the only day of the year in which I can be sure that I will eat precisely that, or else the sig.other would not hear the end of it till the time of his own b-day...

That day, though, I felt in Hog Heaven... I forgot there was a nutrition plan to think about... It was all so good...

Then, to top my lucky day, I bought a mountain bike. I wanted to ride one again, and go distances in it. The sig.other was looking forward to his b-day and his brand-spankin' new mountain bike, to match mine. (For those who don't know about it, I lost eighty pounds, all BFE.)

Then, a week later, I craved for ice cream. Vanilla ice cream. Haggen Dazs. With a Brownie underneath. I craved it late at night. At ten thirty in the evening. I told a good friend of mine that I was craving that for hours. She replied, "Any nutritionist will tell you that if you have a craving, satisfy it, and move on."

So, I did. I left the house at 11:30 p.m., while the sig.other was already sleeping, bought a pint of low-fat Haggen Dazs vanilla bean ice cream and one of those Betty Crocker brownie bowls (to which you add water and microwave), paid for it, returned home, prepared the quick brownie concoction, saw the microwave do its work, and in less than ten minutes, a craving was satisfied. I was ready to move on.

Fast-forward to the other side of the chronology. (You must know that I now count my time in terms of BFE and FE - Before [Little] Fig Era and [Little] Fig Era. The key date that divides both is April 17th, 2006, CE - the day that I found out that the Little Fig is coming.)

Greek food is now out of the question... for now. I cannot have feta cheese. Sadly, that was my favorite part of Greek food. Sadly, I miss my favorite home salad concoction: a Greek salad - salad greens (no iceberg), tomato, spinach, feta cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, and Mediterranean herbs. It was the best salad that I could think of preparing. It had everything you needed for a healthy lifestyle, and it tastes so good.

But then, during one outing with another family friend of ours, I noticed that there was something going on with me. It all happened at the Olive Garden.

We had salad and breadsticks. I usually eat a cup of the salad, not much, because my stomach has shrunk considerably since I had changed my nutritional habits for a very long time.

That evening, I ate two cups of salad. Two breadsticks. Two things of mozzarella sticks and a whole bunch of stuffed mushrooms. More than a half of a big pasta, veggies and chicken entree. and a bit over half of a chocolate cheescake. (The sig.other and I had agreed to split it in half. He ate a fourth.)

I left the place asking to myself "What the heck have you done to yourself?!?"

Fast-forward to last Monday. I made a quick errand in Corpus Christi. By the time I was done, I only had an hour and a half before going to a special service at my church. I could not go home and expect to cook a darned good meal before church. Last stop: the Olive Garden.

I ordered a dish that came with salad and breadsticks, for only $12. Not bad for one at a place like that. I ordered nothing extra. And I just had water.

But the salad... I thought I'd eat a cup. I ate over 2. Breadsticks? I ate one. I used the other one to clean my plate when I already packed less than half of my main entree... because the broccoli and herb sauce was way too good...

I looked at my tiny belly and I blamed the Little Fig for this. "You seem to want to eat a lot, don't you? What are you doing to me?" ;)

Fast-forward to Thrusday. I meant to prepare my classic Chicken Cacciatore... no salt... lots of veggies... whole wheat pasta... boneless, skinless chicken thighs... I was ready to rumble... Then, the sig.other came home early... and wanted to watch a movie.

"But I haven't cooked anything! I'm hungry! And we need to eat something!"

The movie we picked was one that delayed our dinner time by two hours. I was furious. I ate the quickest banana snack that I could eat before I left the house.

At the theatre, the sig.other bought a miserably small sack of popcorn. He knows that I usually don't eat the stuff - doesn't attract me much. Besides, I had granola bars in my purse. We also had a big bottle of water.

I ate over half of the popcorn bag. Even the sig.other noticed. "Boy, you were hungry!"

Then, we stopped by another Italian restaurant. Macaroni Grill. We had salad. Bread and olive oil. Appetizer sampler - mainly for the Bruschetta. And of course, the meal.

The sig.other must have had a hard time keeping his jaw tight on his head, because I ate the salad... and the Bruschetta... and two mozzarella sticks... and lots of the bread... and then, I wanted more of that darned good bread... and then, I ate my meal as if it were the last meal that I would eat, before a death-inviting trip through the Sahara dessert.

I forced myself to ask for a to-go bag. Nah... They boxed it for me. The waiter was good. He had asked if we wanted the specialty wine that evening. "No, thanks. I have a baby to take care of..."

Oh, yes. Of course, I blamed the Little Fig for my misdeed. ;)

Needless to say, I have not prepared that Chiecken Cacciatore. I'm too tired to do it nowadays...

And then, tonight, almost a month after the beginning of the [Little] Fig Era... it was mozzarella cheesesticks.

For days, I drove around town and looked at the sign for Sonic, our local fast-food drive-in. I kept thinking, since I had not been there in a long time, "I wonder if they still serve those cheesesticks..."

But today, Mother's Day, I stayed home. I rose from bed with a mild head cold. No medicine is good enough for it. I took my usual prenatal vitamins, calcium supplement, B-complex. I drank orange juice. I had some hot chocolate to clear my nasal passages. I then had some whole fruit frozen bar, which helps me a lot with these things.

Then, I told the sig.other, just as a thunderstorm and rain was aiming at our hometown - the second storm in about six months in South TX - that I was craving for cheesesticks.

"Well, you can have a three-cheese pizza. There's one in the freezer..."

"I mean, mozzarella cheesesticks. From Sonic..."

He was nice enough to brave the lightning, buy me the cheesesticks, and come home with them... He wasn't wet... Perhaps the rain decided to take a detour somewhere near Mathis...

I took the bag of cheesesticks. I ate all five of them. I was happy and ready to move on with my life...

Then, the sig.other told me that he had bought two bags of cheesesticks... "But honey, I thought that was a bag of something for yourself..."

"Don't worry, I had a bag of jalapeno poppers over there," was his reply.

Needless to say, I heated the cheesesticks for about a minute, and then downed them good.

I better find a way not to give in to every craving that I happen to stumble into. It is going to ruin the effort that I have made to lose all that excess weight for almost a year. That weight was keeping me from having a functional and regular body cycle to begin with, let alone getting pregnant.

I've only gained five pounds since discovering the Little Fig. Hopefully, I can control what I eat and not give up all the effort that I have made, for my sake... and now, the baby's.

I better get myself in exercise mode tomorrow, or I'll be beating myself silly...

Wake Me Up When November Ends!

2006-05-14T23:33:00.000-05:00

I must agree with The Anchoress.

There is no way to talk about politics nowadays without wanting to squeeze someone's neck, tie up someone else's testicles to an electric wire, or even hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at those in the MSM - and they so richly deserve it for using a misinformed and economics-illiterate public for their own nefarious purposes.

I don't blame ya, woman. Take a vacation. You deserve it.

I should, too. The Little Fig deserves better than to feel me squirm in frustration at all the people who demand that the President be their personal butler or consigliere, or else.

The guy only has two hands, people!

Wake me up... when November ends...

Why Would Any Parent Do Something Like That to a Child?

2006-05-14T23:17:00.000-05:00

Why?

That is so wrong!