May 22, 2004
Orchid pics
I don't know if I mentioned it, but we live in a second-floor apartment on Tampa Bay. I take advantage of the climate and grow orchids outdoors. I've got a few pics of them, which I'll show from time to time.
Sorry, no description on this one. This plant succumbed to disease very shortly after I got it home (sniff). But it did have one last blast of magnificent flowers first.
We're at war with Syria
I know that probably sounds like a news flash, given the complete non-coverage of this story by the mainstream media.
But Wretchard has been keeping track for us. He points us to this Executive Order.
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, hereby determine that the actions of the Government of Syria in supporting terrorism, continuing its occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining United States and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat."
Fighting up near the Syrian border has been completely non-existent in the news, with the exception of a single story that was there. then gone. But it's been constant for a year. And this latest fighting with the so-called "wedding party" is clearly part of the same war.
Husabayah, also known as Al-Qaim, has been in the news before. It was the scene of intense fighting between the US Marines and Syrian infiltrators all of last year, as described by Ron Harris of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which was reported once, like a traffic accident, and then forgotten, deprived of any context. Few readers can make the mental connection between the Marine frontier battles and the "wedding party". But whether software or grease pencil is used, the public and the press needs a better way to make sense of the events which directly affect public policy. Only then can it decide whether this incident was simply an unfortunate accident 'typical' of a 'bumbling' US military or part of a wider largely unreported border war against foreign infiltrators.
It's the latter, of course. And Bush has stated, in that EO, that he considers this Serious Business. Me too. The war in Iraq is mainly, at present, a war with Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran.
Go read the various posts Wretchard has on all this. You won't find it in the mainstream media.
Mars Attacks!
Michelle's hubby lays it out nicely for us. It's short, definitely to the point, and NOT sweet.
All you liberal mofos and lefties and tree huggers and terrorist sympathizers and "you killed my son but i hate the president more than you" people, go watch Mars Attacks!I know it wasn't a very good movie but the message is there: The holy war is upon you! They will say they are our friends and that we give them no choice but to do what they have to do, and they will fucking kill you where you stand.
You'll all be standing there holding your banners and flowers and saying ohhh they come in peace and next thing you know, Jack Black is vaporized.
Arm yourselves, make weapons. Read the Zombie Survivial Guide, but cross out zombie and write terroristss/radical Muslims/whatever you choose in place of it.
I have no political affiliation whatsover. I'm just scared and I'm purchasing my sixth katana and making potato guns and then I'm gonna buy two Howitzers and I'll name them Ebony and Ivory.
Mars Attacks, bitches! Ack ack is just short for Allahu Akbar!
JACK NICHOLSON IS NOT MY PRESIDENT!!
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
If obesity is a matter of willpower...
then why isn't homosexuality?
All they have to do is "Just Say No", right? Just have some willpower, some backbone, some gumption. Just control themselves. Can't they see that what they are doing is bad for themselves, and bad for all of us? It is statistically proven to be an unhealthy behavior, and costs us all money in increased health insurance costs. If they would just mix with the opposite sex more, I'm sure they could find a nice mate.
Hoo boy, I can hear the screaming already. :) And no, I don't think those things about homosexuality (I think the jury is still out on how much is nature vs. nurture re: homosexuality) are true. It's for sure that anyone standing up and saying those things in public about homosexuality will get brickbats, at the very least. They might well be fired from their job, or even arrested.
So why is it so different for obesity?
Why is it ok to engage in what amounts to harassment and minor hate crimes against obese people?
Can you imagine if the World Health Organization came out with a sweeping new global anti-homosexuality campaign?
There is easily as much evidence showing that obese people are genetically inclined to be so as there is that homosexuality is in-born. Also a ton of evidence that urging obese people to "change their behavior" has about as high a success rate as getting homosexuals to change theirs.
Once again, the chattering classes, and indeed a lot of us, have a double standard. A big fat one.
Democrats, once proud fighters of WWII, give us their Presidential candidate
John F. Kerry. He served in Vietnam.
I'm not at all sure that FDR, or Truman, or even the real JFK would recognize this man as a candidate for President representing the Democratic party. They would not recognize him as one of their own.
Kerry is a man who, upon coming home from his service, and while still a member of the Naval Reserve:
- Illegally met with political representatives of our enemies during a war
- Slandered American soldiers, accusing them of horrible war crimes in testimony before the Senate.
- Was a major national spokesperson for an organization that considered and voted on a plan to assassinate members of the US Senate.
That's how John F. Kerry feels about his military service, and the US military.
He is a man who brags about how unnamed foreign leaders now want him to win the election. He panders to "Americans" who think this is a good thing.
He is a man who thinks the United States should hang the victory in war on the talent, manpower, hard work, faithfulness, and good faith of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, France, Germany, and Russia. This is how he would protect the American People.
I think the Democrats have a lot of nerve, passing THIS off as a fit candidate for President of the United States in time of war.
I want my Democratic Party back. I bet the shades of FDR, HST, and JFK are with me.
May 21, 2004
What's the real obscenity, Howard Stern, or the biased Hate America reporting in the MSM?
I vote for the latter. By far.
If we're going to fine the media, let's fine them for willfully telling lies. Let's fine them for acting to aid our enemies in time of war.
Now that would be justice.
If every newspaper editor and "journalist" were to quit their job tomorrow, boy, would THAT be a Great Day in the cause of truth, justice, and human freedom!
The real news from Iraq
If you're tired of the "lies" of the "useless" major media, try this roundup of news from Iraq.
May 20, 2004
Sunset, Cane Garden Bay
A few years back Spousal Unit and I took a Windjammer cruise for our 30th. We went on the Yankee Clipper, and toured the British Virgin Islands. Loved it.
This was taken on deck when we were anchored in Cane Garden Bay, a truly wonderful place.
UPDATE
It was 7 years ago, on our 25th, not our 30th. Plus we weren't anchored in Cane Garden Bay. It's on the opposite side of Tortola from where we stayed while in port. We were on the beach for this shot, looking out over the bay.
Sheesh. The mind is the second thing to go.
Blogiversary
I just happened to notice that today is my first blogiversary.
It's been a fun ride, mostly, although it's had its ups and downs. I've had fallow periods where I had to turn away because I overloaded. It's hard for me to remain engaged yet detached. I tend to get too passionate about things.
To those who have visited, thanks! :)
May 19, 2004
Who says we're losing in Iraq?
The news media, of course.
Maybe that's why they won't run stories like this.
My arrival day was the day when a rally of support and gratitude to the coalition passed the streets of Samawa. The scene was very delightful for me, I, who believe in the necessity of establishing a strategic partnership with the free world represented by the coalition, because this the only way for Iraq to rise again, prosper and join the modern, free world. Such partnership, the way I see it, is vital for the free world in its war with terrorism, the corner stone of which is to establish peace and stability in the ME. Yes, we should put our hands in each other’s because we have a common destiny. It was a very encouraging thing to see that the simple people there understood the case and this is probably the first time where people go out to the streets to thank and support our allies in the coalition, but strangely it came from ordinary, simple people not from those who claim to be civilized intellectuals.
emphasis mine
In case it's not clear, that was written by an Iraqi. Even in Iraq, the chattering classes are defeatist, and the citizenry reaches for victory.
We're winning. Take heart.
UPDATE the first
And this from Ali, as he relates a conversation with a taxi driver.
-Where do you live?-In Sadr city.
-Oh I see, but what do you think the cause of this insecurity?
-Is that a question?? They are those thugs and thieves.
-Who are those?!
-Sadr followers.
-I agree, but I don’t understand your people there. Why do they support them!?
-Do you really believe that?? I swear to God they are no more than a couple of thousands terrorizing millions and hiding behind slogans like jihad and resistance. The whole city has got sick and tired of their doings. We just want to work, feed our children and take a break. We are tired of all this bullshit. They can’t deceive us anymore.
This idiot is taking advantage of his father’s name and we know the people who are gathering around him. Most of them are gangsters and ex-convicts with some foolish teenagers. They are anything but Muslims. Every now and then one of these cowards come hiding his face and fire against the American troops and when the Americans respond innocents get hurt.
"Irrational, treasonous and death-inclined"
That's what La Shawn Barber calls the libs.
Irrational, treasonous and death-inclined is no way to go through life, libs.
Exactamundo. And straight to the point, as usual. She has examples. Go read.
Unintended consequences
It's no secret that the media is in full-on War On Bush mode. The level of bias, hypocrisy, incompetence, ignorance, and flat-out lying FAR beats anything I have seen in my 50 years, or ever expected to see. I assume the media thinks they're going to beat Bush and lose us the war in Iraq. And they think that will be a victory for them. Well, even if they succeed, it may be a Pyrrhic victory.
From Instapundit:
And here's a question: Freedom of the press, as it exists today (and didn't exist, really, until the 1960s) is unlikely to survive if a majority -- or even a large and angry minority -- of Americans comes to conclude that the press is untrustworthy and unpatriotic. How far are we from that point?
Good question.
UPDATE the first
Instapundit has more on the same subject.
A JOURNALIST I KNOW emails that the loss of credibility his profession is suffering is "seismic," and that he's considering quitting. What's more, he's hearing depressed comments from quite a few colleagues.Another reader -- who probably doesn't want his name used because he works for a major newspaper -- emails: "I've tuned out the MSM and rely on the 'Net -- bloggers, Lucianne.com, etc. -- to keep me informed, which it does quite well. That way I get all the info but don't have to endure Dan, Tom and Peter, Wolf, etc. I miss nothing that's happening but I gain all the stories that the mainstream media simply ignore." If you saw his address line, you'd know how striking a statement this is.
Sounds like the unintended consequences are getting started already.
May 18, 2004
New Duds
As you can see, some new duds for the blog. More changes to come, but so far I like the mostly pure colors on white scheme.
Arizona
I moved away from Michigan because it was too gray. I moved to Arizona because it is not-gray. In fact, Arizona is about as not-gray as there is. The sun and sky are intense there. I loved it. It remains one of the 3 or 4 places in the US I'd live.
Here's a photo of Superstition Mountain. It's built up a lot there now, but when we moved there in '86 Apache Junction was still plenty rustic and very small in the summer.
Yes, the light really was weird colors that day, although the effect is exacerbated by this being a scan of an old and slightly shifted 126 Kodacolor neg. I still like it a lot.
Why aren't we rebuilding the Twin Towers?
What with the 9/11 Commission in New York, people are talking about what happened and the Twin Towers.
What I want to know is, why aren't we rebuilding the Twin Towers? Are we too wimpy, too cheap, too scared, too traumatized, what?
This re-exposure to the pictures has just reinforced how PISSED OFF I am that the World Trade Center is gone. That was ours, dammit, and I want it back! The New York skyline looks naked, and we all feel violated when we look at it.
That violation will never entirely go away, but we could be doing something about alleviating it. I mean something besides the WOT. We could be rebuilding what was lost. We could be standing up proud and saying YES! to who we were, and who we are. Actions speak a heck of a lot louder than words, and I can't think of a single thing that would help morale at home more than a firm dedication to REBUILDING the Twin Towers, looking just exactly like they did, proud symbols that they were and should be again. And it would send a very powerful message to the world. 9 billion bucks or something? Chump change. I would GLADLY have my tax dollars pay all of it.
If we had backbone, the foundations would already have been re-poured.
May 17, 2004
Warbloggers losing heart?
Jeez oh pete, holey moley, is there ever a lot of hoo-hah over warbloggers, to say nothing of much of the country, "losing heart".
It's for sure we've had a run of bad news the last couple of weeks. The Iraq war is on Internet time, isn't it? Look at a timeline of it sometime. We get whipsawed weekly, at least.
Abu Ghraib, and then Nick Berg, appeared to make the Left, and by that I mean the Dems and "liberals" and all sorts of America-Lasters as well, go completely and totally off the rails into fantasy land. Overwhelming levels of vituperative screaming, wailing, hair-pulling, you'd think the whole country was on Jerry Springer.
Criminetly, calm down! We are most emphatically winning the war in Iraq, and it's not taking us "years". Every single day freedom and economic activity increase and that's hard to put back in the bottle. Yes, security is an issue, but BECAUSE we've gone slowly we've accomplished two things: we've caused the terrorists to lose any popular support from now-weary citizens, and we've built up trust that we will hammer the bad guys and favor the good - if they'll just get out of the way. Abu Ghraib set that back some, but facts on the ground show this still trends strongly in our favor. So now we're hammering hard right near the Ali shrine and Shia Iraq is NOT uprising. Hey, how'd that "incompetent" Rumsfeld manage to pull that off?
As commenter snellenr said in a thread over at Roger Simon's, we're in the sandstorm now, referring to the sandstorm three weeks into the invasion. Things look bleak, it's a pain in the butt, we're running around making things up as we go along (remember all the wild battles and gloom/dooming over An Nasiriyah &tc?), there's no relief in sight, worst of all the media and retired generals and talking heads are all YAMMERING and BLEATING at how terrible things are.
People, relax. Look at the facts on the ground. All the battles for weeks, months have been in a couple of small areas. Everywhere else, they want to hold a battle, there's a traffic jam. They have to clear the appliances off the sidewalk to make room. Read the Iraqi blogs, read the soldier's letters, READ SOME HISTORY, and take a deep breath. Things are going quite well overall, setbacks included.
New Linky
I only learned recently that it is considered "good form" to put up a post when you add someone to your blogroll, and maybe explain a little about what you saw that you liked or whatever. Maybe sometime I'll go back and talk about those who went on the list before I learned this.
But for today, the addee is (drum roll please) Rachel Lucas. I wandered to her place via Instapundit.
So why did I pick Rachel? I like her voice. She writes the way I think I want my own blog to read, only I'll probably never be that good. Plus I went back through some of her archives and found we're in agreement on a lot of things. Two thumbs up, and a welcome addition to the blogroll.
We're so rich
We're so rich.....that not only are our poor people fat, we have a huge market for diet dog food. Our freakin PETS are fat.
Instead of looking at this superficially as some sign of American "decadence", reflect for a moment on what a miracle it is. Think about how it was for every generation of humans, millions of years worth, until just the last 2 or 3, and that only in the West.
Amazing.
Hat's off, and a sincere "Well Done!" to those who made it possible.
May 16, 2004
Some Photoblogging
I've been an amateur photographer off and on for much of my life, so I have some things I'd like to show off. Heck, I just like photos, even a lot of photos conventionally thought of as "boring".
For now at least these are just going to be mixed in with everything else. But I'll at least start out with some of the "better" ones, so as not to drive folks away too fast.
This first one is a view looking west across the bayou at the end of our block. I like cloud and sky pictures, so you'll probably see a lot of them. :)
