Is Mitt Romney ready for the loathing the media seems ready to heap on him as they did Ronald Reagan and as they currently do George W. Bush? According to Dean Barnett at Hugh Hewitt’s blog, he’s more than ready.
"...like Ronald Reagan, Romney effortlessly gets under his critics’ skin for having the audacity to be smarter and more insightful than they are. The media routinely dismissed Reagan as a senile dunderhead. Reagan was in good company there. Eisenhower had the same reputation a generation earlier. It never dawned on the gluttons at the press buffet to wonder how such dopes habitually ran circles around them. And how it must have shocked them when it turned out that Reagan was a more skilled and lucid writer than all of the knights of the keyboard who so vainly hounded him.
While Romney will be tougher to dismiss as an intellectual lightweight than Reagan was because of his impressive resume, his "simple" faith in America is sure to madden the media. It’s also telling that Klein attacks Romney for his "speed of delivery" and "sleight of hand." One of the things that drove the liberal Boston media nuts about Romney is that they were convinced he had something up his sleeve, but could never find it. For four years the local media unloaded haymakers in Romney’s direction, and never laid a glove on him. Drove them nuts."
It’s well worth reading the whole post. Here’s a link. Scroll down to "When Media Pit-Yorkies Attack".
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Practicing For a Day I Hope Never Comes
The day after the Virginia Tech shootings I went to the range and, for the first time in my life, bought a "human" target, a police training "thug" target like the one pictured. After practicing on regular pistol targets, I "qualified" by firing 50 rounds. I used magazines with 10 rounds each, and did all double-taps at about 21 ft. I had 13 misses, mostly "hits" outside the gray scoring area. Two or three were outside the target area, but still on the paper. I assume all the misses were the second shot from double-taps. A "double-tap", by the way, is two shots fired in quick succession, followed by a momentary pause to assess the effect, if any, on the target. A week or so later I went back, got another "thug" target, and "requalified", this time with 50 rounds fired at about one-second intervals, no double-taps. The picture is of that target. I had one miss that was on the target but outside the scoring area. My intention is to go back at least on a monthly basis and try to get better with double-taps.Prior to the shootings at Trolley Square in Salt Lake, I’m sure a lot of people in Utah were comfortable with the assumption that something like that couldn’t happen here. The week after the Trolley Square massacre applications for concealed firearm permits quadrupled at the Utah BCI.
I hope and pray the day never comes when I’m faced with a situation like the students and faculty were at Virginia Tech or the shoppers at Trolley Square. I can’t say with absolute certainty that I’m totally prepared to take a human life in defense of myself or loved ones, but on the other hand, I’m never going to be ready to crawl under a table and beg for my life.
How about you?
Same Place, Same Egret, Different Day, Different Fish
A week or so after I took those other photos I posted I went back to the same place in Lake Shore and found the same egret, I think, (they're all like identical twins).
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Life Goes On at the Wetlands Preserve
A couple of weeks ago I drove out to the Utah Lake Wetlands Preserve to see if there was anything interesting going on. I saw a couple of pairs of Canada geese with their goslings. Look hard, you can see them.
There are four goslings in this picture. Yeah, really.
I couldn't tell you what kind of bird this is. It's larger than a snowy egret and makes a noise that sounds exactly like a dog barking. I'm not kidding. I call it a barking bird. What would you call it?
Here are three snowy egrets slinking away.
Here's a precocious goldfinch who perched on a nearby fencepost and dared me to photograph him.
He got a little nervous when he saw me watching him.
Then he got a little huffy, like "Hey, are you looking at me?!"Bad Karmah? Maybe Not
Here’s a report about the changing situation in Iraq that you won’t see on the nightly news or in the pages of the New York Times. JD Johannes has the story over at Outside the Wire. Here’s the link: http://www.outsidethewire.com/blog/outside-the-wire/kharmah-awakens.html
In the interest of, um, the "well-rounded" reader...
Instapundit links to this, uh, important information about breasts. He says he's received several emails indicating they'd rather learn about this first hand. Okay, here's the link: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3221538&page=1
"If Only President Bush Would Obey the Congress"
Well, I took my own advice, and I clicked on the "next blog" tab and went on a wild little ride around the "blogosphere". One of the blogs I came across was a sincere, enigmatic little blog called "This Can Be Happening". It was very stimulating and interesting because I found myself disagreeing with the vast majority of what this lady said. But I didn’t dismiss her out of hand. Her earnest sincerity made me think, and when I think, I’m stimulated to write, and what I write is going to end up in the "pages" of this blog. So I put that blog in my list of favorites and it now resides over on the right sidebar. Check it out, and see if it doesn’t have a similar effect on you. Here’s a link: http://thiscanbehappening.blogspot.com/
Two things this lady regrets are (one), our inability to remove the president from office, and (two) the apparent Congressional reluctance to end the war in Iraq. She’s operating under the illusion that the President is morally and legally obligated to "obey Congress", and she also seems to think the vast majority of Americans are opposed to the war in Iraq. I think it’s very clear that most Americans are unhappy about the progress we’re making in Iraq. But I don’t think that necessarily translates into a mandate to end the war, even though the media is anxious to present it in exactly those terms. The vast majority of Americans would be unhappy with an actual military defeat in Iraq, which is precisely what a precipitous withdrawal would be.
Here’s a link to the first post to which I responded. http://thiscanbehappening.blogspot.com/2007/05/if-only.html
She quotes from a recent speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Naval Academy:
"As the founding fathers wisely understood, that the Congress and a free press, as with a nonpolitical military, assures a free country–a point underscored by a French observer writing about George Washington in 1782. He wrote ‘This is the seventh year that he has commanded the army and that he has obeyed the Congress. More need not be said.’"
And then she lamented: "If only President Bush would obey the Congress. If only the Congress would enact legislation to end the war..."
This was my response to that post:
In 1782 our country was still fighting for independence. George Washington was the Commander-in-Chief of the army by appointment of Congress. He obeyed Congress because he honored the chain of command. The Constitution hadn’t been written yet. The office of the President as we know it didn’t exist. President Bush in 2007 is Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces by virtue of the Constitution, which gives that power to the president. He has no Constitutional obligation to "obey the Congress." However, Congress has the power of the purse, and could simply de-fund the war, but they'd have to take responsibility for the ensuing political fall-out, and Congressional Democrats are too craven and cowardly to do that. Congress has the power to pass legislation, but it still has to cross the president’s desk for his signature before it becomes law. If he vetoes legislation, Congress would have to over-ride the veto with a 2/3 majority. I don’t see that happening.
In another post she says:
"So what to do now? The Founding Fathers seemed to assume that the checks and balances would, uh, check and, you know, balance. We sign petitions, we vote, we blog, we appeal to those who are in positions of so-called power. And we say, "Impeach." But nothing happens.I say let's amend the Constitution so that We the People can bring a citizen's article of impeachment the same way we can make a citizen's arrest. My partner believes there should be a provision whereby some action (such as a recall or a confidence vote) is triggered if the approval rating for the President falls below some percentage, say 25%. A recall of my vote wouldn't work since I didn't vote for him, but you get the idea."
It’s worth reading the whole thing. Here’s a link : http://thiscanbehappening.blogspot.com/2007/05/testing-1-2-3.html
To which I responded:
The problem is you don’t have a large enough majority in Congress. Why not? Because people who share your opinion don’t constitute an overwhelming majority of the American people. A one-seat majority in the Senate is hardly a mandate. Neither is a 16 or 18-seat majority in the House. Any legislation passed by Congress has to cross the desk of the President and be signed by him before it becomes law, and to override a veto you need a 2/3 majority. So the people spoke out in November and voted for a change in leadership in Congress, not, as you say, to end the war. Democrats don’t have enough votes to make that happen. Committee chairmanships changed from Republicans to Democrats. Positions like Speaker of the House and Majority Leader changed hands. That’s all that happened.
You want public opinion polls to trigger a recall vote? American news media are overwhelmingly liberal left-leaning Democrats, about 90%. If you’re a Republican or a conservative looking for a job in the media, you better keep it to yourself, or you won’t get hired. They can’t possibly be anything but biased with a majority like that, and it taints everything they say about the war and about the President. The public opinion polls published in the media are suspect, because they don’t see the light of day if they don’t meet the requirements of the narrative the liberals are trying to push. And they consistently over-sample liberals and Democrats. Do Democrats and liberals outnumber Republicans and conservatives 2 to 1? They don’t, but let’s not let that get in the way of the agenda we’re trying to push. Public opinion polls are easily manipulated by the media. The Founding Fathers were wise to exclude them as a trigger for impeachment or recall.
In order for impeachment to take place there must be an actual crime committed by the President. The Constitution is quite clear on this; bribery, treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. Being inarticulate, mispronouncing "nuclear", and failure to "obey Congress" don’t qualify as impeachable offenses. So some people say "impeach", but other people like me say, "let’s have an actual crime committed first." The war in Iraq is neither illegal or immoral. Congress authorized the invasion. Do you remember that?
Two things this lady regrets are (one), our inability to remove the president from office, and (two) the apparent Congressional reluctance to end the war in Iraq. She’s operating under the illusion that the President is morally and legally obligated to "obey Congress", and she also seems to think the vast majority of Americans are opposed to the war in Iraq. I think it’s very clear that most Americans are unhappy about the progress we’re making in Iraq. But I don’t think that necessarily translates into a mandate to end the war, even though the media is anxious to present it in exactly those terms. The vast majority of Americans would be unhappy with an actual military defeat in Iraq, which is precisely what a precipitous withdrawal would be.
Here’s a link to the first post to which I responded. http://thiscanbehappening.blogspot.com/2007/05/if-only.html
She quotes from a recent speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Naval Academy:
"As the founding fathers wisely understood, that the Congress and a free press, as with a nonpolitical military, assures a free country–a point underscored by a French observer writing about George Washington in 1782. He wrote ‘This is the seventh year that he has commanded the army and that he has obeyed the Congress. More need not be said.’"
And then she lamented: "If only President Bush would obey the Congress. If only the Congress would enact legislation to end the war..."
This was my response to that post:
In 1782 our country was still fighting for independence. George Washington was the Commander-in-Chief of the army by appointment of Congress. He obeyed Congress because he honored the chain of command. The Constitution hadn’t been written yet. The office of the President as we know it didn’t exist. President Bush in 2007 is Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces by virtue of the Constitution, which gives that power to the president. He has no Constitutional obligation to "obey the Congress." However, Congress has the power of the purse, and could simply de-fund the war, but they'd have to take responsibility for the ensuing political fall-out, and Congressional Democrats are too craven and cowardly to do that. Congress has the power to pass legislation, but it still has to cross the president’s desk for his signature before it becomes law. If he vetoes legislation, Congress would have to over-ride the veto with a 2/3 majority. I don’t see that happening.
In another post she says:
"So what to do now? The Founding Fathers seemed to assume that the checks and balances would, uh, check and, you know, balance. We sign petitions, we vote, we blog, we appeal to those who are in positions of so-called power. And we say, "Impeach." But nothing happens.I say let's amend the Constitution so that We the People can bring a citizen's article of impeachment the same way we can make a citizen's arrest. My partner believes there should be a provision whereby some action (such as a recall or a confidence vote) is triggered if the approval rating for the President falls below some percentage, say 25%. A recall of my vote wouldn't work since I didn't vote for him, but you get the idea."
It’s worth reading the whole thing. Here’s a link : http://thiscanbehappening.blogspot.com/2007/05/testing-1-2-3.html
To which I responded:
The problem is you don’t have a large enough majority in Congress. Why not? Because people who share your opinion don’t constitute an overwhelming majority of the American people. A one-seat majority in the Senate is hardly a mandate. Neither is a 16 or 18-seat majority in the House. Any legislation passed by Congress has to cross the desk of the President and be signed by him before it becomes law, and to override a veto you need a 2/3 majority. So the people spoke out in November and voted for a change in leadership in Congress, not, as you say, to end the war. Democrats don’t have enough votes to make that happen. Committee chairmanships changed from Republicans to Democrats. Positions like Speaker of the House and Majority Leader changed hands. That’s all that happened.
You want public opinion polls to trigger a recall vote? American news media are overwhelmingly liberal left-leaning Democrats, about 90%. If you’re a Republican or a conservative looking for a job in the media, you better keep it to yourself, or you won’t get hired. They can’t possibly be anything but biased with a majority like that, and it taints everything they say about the war and about the President. The public opinion polls published in the media are suspect, because they don’t see the light of day if they don’t meet the requirements of the narrative the liberals are trying to push. And they consistently over-sample liberals and Democrats. Do Democrats and liberals outnumber Republicans and conservatives 2 to 1? They don’t, but let’s not let that get in the way of the agenda we’re trying to push. Public opinion polls are easily manipulated by the media. The Founding Fathers were wise to exclude them as a trigger for impeachment or recall.
In order for impeachment to take place there must be an actual crime committed by the President. The Constitution is quite clear on this; bribery, treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. Being inarticulate, mispronouncing "nuclear", and failure to "obey Congress" don’t qualify as impeachable offenses. So some people say "impeach", but other people like me say, "let’s have an actual crime committed first." The war in Iraq is neither illegal or immoral. Congress authorized the invasion. Do you remember that?
The "Next Blog" tab
At the top of this blog there’s a "next blog" tab. If you click on it it will take you on a wild trip all around the world and you never know where you’re going to end up. I did that yesterday and browsed about 30 blogs or so, and it was very interesting. Some blogs are uproariously funny, others are gloomy and serious, and some are sweet and sensitive. Many are political in nature. If you want to spend some time just seeing what’s out there, I dare you to take a trip into the unknown world, and click on that tab. Yeah, I double dog dare ya!
One reason I like to do that is because it’s a way of meeting people in a safe way where you don’t expose yourself to any harm. You get to see what people are thinking and doing and saying about themselves and the world around them. It’s very eye opening. It really stimulates my own thought processes, too. It is also sometimes very entertaining.
So, if you don’t want to be amused, offended, entertained, puzzled or stimulated, don’t click on the "next blog" tab. I dare ya!
One reason I like to do that is because it’s a way of meeting people in a safe way where you don’t expose yourself to any harm. You get to see what people are thinking and doing and saying about themselves and the world around them. It’s very eye opening. It really stimulates my own thought processes, too. It is also sometimes very entertaining.
So, if you don’t want to be amused, offended, entertained, puzzled or stimulated, don’t click on the "next blog" tab. I dare ya!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Even a Pretty Bird Has to Make a Living
One of my favorite things to do is to photograph wildlife, particularly birds, and few birds are as photogenic as the snowy egret. Here are some photos I shot several weeks ago of an egret busy making a living at the Utah Lake Wetland Preserve in Lake Shore.
This egret was happy to keep working as long as I was happy to stay in my car and use my long lens to photograph him. 
This bird could move quite stealthily but quickly over very tricky terrain.
Gotta make a living.
Ah! My favorite--carp minnow!
Carpe di-YUM!**With apologies to Mc Donald's Corporation for stealing one of their billboard advertising themes, which they probaby stole from somebody else. So sue me.
Carpe carpio! (Seize the carp!)
Pass the tartar sauce, please.
This egret bristled up like this when it saw another egret land within 50 feet or so. It flew over to drive the "intruder" away, and then returned to this favored location.
Looking for the next meal.
Strutting.Monday, May 28, 2007
The Hazards of Wildlife Photography, Pt. 1
One day I was photographing the Canada geese at a nearby industrial park. A small flock of geese took flight and flew away, but as they did, one goose broke off from the group and flew in my direction. I was jubilant until I realized that the goose was, um, up to no good.
"Approaching target."
"Bomb bay doors are open..."
"BOMBS AWAY!!"
"See ya!"
"Wouldn't wanna be ya!"
Actually, I didn't realize what had happened until after I looked at the pictures. He missed, by the way.
"Approaching target."
"Bomb bay doors are open..."
"BOMBS AWAY!!"
"See ya!"
"Wouldn't wanna be ya!"
Actually, I didn't realize what had happened until after I looked at the pictures. He missed, by the way.
The Military, the Militia, and the Second Amendment
“Amendment 2
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Militia referred to in the amendment doesn’t refer to the Army or the National Guard. People in the military don’t have a Constitutional right to keep and bears arms as individuals. In fact, they don’t actually have all the same Constitutional rights as civilian citizens because they are under martial law and are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). As a private in Marine boot camp I literally slept with my rifle every night. It was locked to my rack (bunk), and when ordered to, I carried it in close-order drill along with everyone else in my platoon. But nobody had ammunition except while we were at the range, and every single round was monitored and accounted for with fanatical, obsessive ferocity by the Drill Instructors and Range Officers. My MOS was not a combat specialty and I served most of my enlistment in headquarters garrisons where I was rarely issued a weapon, and when one was, it was kept at the battalion armory and I wasn’t allowed to have it unless authorized by my commanding officer. We were only allowed to draw weapons from the armory when it was required for inspections, parades, or range qualification. If you want to see “gun control”, it is rampant and pervasive in the military. Only certain people get to carry guns, and even fewer get to carry ammo, too. That’s why the recently uncovered plot to attack Ft. Dix in New Jersey had such potential for death and destruction. Soldiers in garrison are usually not issued weapons and are almost never issued live ammo. Those six or 10 guys could have murdered hundreds of soldiers and wouldn’t have been stopped until they ran out of ammo.
The people are the Militia, the law abiding citizens of a community. Armed thieves, robbers and gang members don’t qualify as “the people” because they are criminals who prey upon the law abiding, peaceable populace and operate outside the law. They are one of the elements that the Second Amendment is designed to protect us from.
Another element the amendment was meant to protect us from is foreign invasion. And for the most part, it has worked quite well. Early in World War II, military commanders of the Japanese Empire seriously considered and began planning for an invasion of the U.S. mainland. The emperor himself ended that discussion when he said “There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass!” The invasion of Alaska was a diversionary feint designed to draw U.S. troops and resources away from their main thrust in the Pacific.
Another problem the 2nd Amendment in particular and the whole Bill of Rights in general was designed to prevent is the usurpation of power by a tyrannical government, whether local, state or federal. Theoretically, if there are sufficient arms in the hands of the people, a tyrannical government can’t rise and usurp power and enslave or oppress them. But nowadays we’re subjected to a creeping form of tyranny called “nannyism” where government officeholders, including unelected bureaucrats, take it upon themselves to legislate, dictate, regulate and bureaucratize every aspect of human life in order to protect us from ourselves. As the current Speaker of the House has famously said, they do it “for the children”. The result is that all our liberties are infringed upon and abridged and the people are yoked with the ever increasing burden of supporting, sustaining, maintaining and complying with a burgeoning mountain of regulations, laws, requirements and covenants, to say nothing of the taxes required to support the administration of all this nonsense. And the problem this creates is that it promotes waste and corruption, because the administration of all this government requires a colossal budget that can’t possibly be meted out with adequate oversight. As a result, waste and corruption are rampant in the halls of Congress and the rest of Washington as well. Republicans have been vile and wicked in this respect, but the Democrats are proving to be every bit as corruptible.
Not that we aren’t already oppressed and enslaved in a very real sense. Don’t believe me? Just withhold your taxes from the state or federal government come next April, and see how long it takes them to seize your property and imprison you.
In spite of all the nonsense, the U.S.A. is still the greatest nation on earth. I mean, even the poor people are fat, for crying out loud. But we can’t get complacent, because if the nannies don’t get us the jihadis will.
Have a nice day.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Militia referred to in the amendment doesn’t refer to the Army or the National Guard. People in the military don’t have a Constitutional right to keep and bears arms as individuals. In fact, they don’t actually have all the same Constitutional rights as civilian citizens because they are under martial law and are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). As a private in Marine boot camp I literally slept with my rifle every night. It was locked to my rack (bunk), and when ordered to, I carried it in close-order drill along with everyone else in my platoon. But nobody had ammunition except while we were at the range, and every single round was monitored and accounted for with fanatical, obsessive ferocity by the Drill Instructors and Range Officers. My MOS was not a combat specialty and I served most of my enlistment in headquarters garrisons where I was rarely issued a weapon, and when one was, it was kept at the battalion armory and I wasn’t allowed to have it unless authorized by my commanding officer. We were only allowed to draw weapons from the armory when it was required for inspections, parades, or range qualification. If you want to see “gun control”, it is rampant and pervasive in the military. Only certain people get to carry guns, and even fewer get to carry ammo, too. That’s why the recently uncovered plot to attack Ft. Dix in New Jersey had such potential for death and destruction. Soldiers in garrison are usually not issued weapons and are almost never issued live ammo. Those six or 10 guys could have murdered hundreds of soldiers and wouldn’t have been stopped until they ran out of ammo.
The people are the Militia, the law abiding citizens of a community. Armed thieves, robbers and gang members don’t qualify as “the people” because they are criminals who prey upon the law abiding, peaceable populace and operate outside the law. They are one of the elements that the Second Amendment is designed to protect us from.
Another element the amendment was meant to protect us from is foreign invasion. And for the most part, it has worked quite well. Early in World War II, military commanders of the Japanese Empire seriously considered and began planning for an invasion of the U.S. mainland. The emperor himself ended that discussion when he said “There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass!” The invasion of Alaska was a diversionary feint designed to draw U.S. troops and resources away from their main thrust in the Pacific.
Another problem the 2nd Amendment in particular and the whole Bill of Rights in general was designed to prevent is the usurpation of power by a tyrannical government, whether local, state or federal. Theoretically, if there are sufficient arms in the hands of the people, a tyrannical government can’t rise and usurp power and enslave or oppress them. But nowadays we’re subjected to a creeping form of tyranny called “nannyism” where government officeholders, including unelected bureaucrats, take it upon themselves to legislate, dictate, regulate and bureaucratize every aspect of human life in order to protect us from ourselves. As the current Speaker of the House has famously said, they do it “for the children”. The result is that all our liberties are infringed upon and abridged and the people are yoked with the ever increasing burden of supporting, sustaining, maintaining and complying with a burgeoning mountain of regulations, laws, requirements and covenants, to say nothing of the taxes required to support the administration of all this nonsense. And the problem this creates is that it promotes waste and corruption, because the administration of all this government requires a colossal budget that can’t possibly be meted out with adequate oversight. As a result, waste and corruption are rampant in the halls of Congress and the rest of Washington as well. Republicans have been vile and wicked in this respect, but the Democrats are proving to be every bit as corruptible.
Not that we aren’t already oppressed and enslaved in a very real sense. Don’t believe me? Just withhold your taxes from the state or federal government come next April, and see how long it takes them to seize your property and imprison you.
In spite of all the nonsense, the U.S.A. is still the greatest nation on earth. I mean, even the poor people are fat, for crying out loud. But we can’t get complacent, because if the nannies don’t get us the jihadis will.
Have a nice day.
Memorial Day
In honor of Memorial Day, and to honor the memory of all who have died in battle or been wounded or maimed in combat, and all who have served honorably and do now serve this great nation, we’re flying the flag today here at 648.
As long as we are a free nation, it is never illegal, politically incorrect or insensitive to properly display and fly the flag. Some communities have regulations or "covenants" that prohibit displaying the flag, but those are places where the Constitutional rights of the people have been improperly usurped by city councils, home-owners organizations, or bureaucrats.
As long as we are a free nation, it is never illegal, politically incorrect or insensitive to properly display and fly the flag. Some communities have regulations or "covenants" that prohibit displaying the flag, but those are places where the Constitutional rights of the people have been improperly usurped by city councils, home-owners organizations, or bureaucrats.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Impovements, Additions, Enhancements, etc.
You will notice (or maybe you won’t unless I point it out) that I’ve added some features to the blog over on the right sidebar: One, a link list to my favorite blogs. These are places I visit on an almost daily basis. It is by no means a complete list. Some of them have a distinctive conservative political bent. Some are gun owner blogs or have a 2nd Amendment, "Right to Keep and Bear Arms" theme. Next is the blog archives, so if you don’t want to scroll down to a post you can just click on it and be wisked right to that particular post. And, finally, a bunch of boring biographical information about me entitled, oddly enough, "About Me".
I’m still working on figuring out how to post photographs and wrap text around them in a way that makes sense and doesn’t make me look moronic. It may be an insurmountable obstacle, but I’ll keep trying. See you later.
I’m still working on figuring out how to post photographs and wrap text around them in a way that makes sense and doesn’t make me look moronic. It may be an insurmountable obstacle, but I’ll keep trying. See you later.
Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Today is Sunday, 27 May, 2007. It’s the weekend of Memorial Day.
Today I read an article by the Associated Press about the nearly 1,000 new graves that Americans have opened in the last year to bury servicemen who’ve died fighting in Iraq. It featured a photograph of a man, kneeling beside a pair of boots which represented his brother, a Marine lance corporal, in a memorial in a park in Oregon, I believe, where about 3,400 or so pairs of boots were displayed, each representing a man or woman in uniform killed in Iraq.
I couldn’t help wondering if such memorials are truly appropriate, and if the dead feel truly honored or appropriately mourned in these displays, or if their deaths are actually being exploited and trivialized to protest the war.
I believe the message should be "These are the honored dead, who fell in battle defending our country, defending each one of us, from those who would slaughter and enslave us."
But is that the message? Or is it "These are the poor, ignorant victims of George Bush’s War, a War of Lies which he has foisted on the American people; the price is too high, and America’s not worth fighting for, or dying for!"?
If the radical Islamist jihadists who make war on us and our civilization could get a message across to the American people, it would be that latter message–"The price is too high, it’s not worth it, it’s a war of lies, the war is lost, give up, withdraw your troops, redeploy, SURRENDER!".
Those who put on these displays, these so-called "memorials" are doing the work for the jihad that the jihadists can’t do for themselves. They are trivializing and mocking the deaths and sacrifice of all who have died or been wounded in the fight for our survival as a nation and a civilization.
This is not "an elective war" or "a war of choice". The Islamist extremists declared war (or "holy war" or "jihad" ) on America in 1979. We’ve been under attack for decades and we’ve gone along blindly ignoring it until the jihadists successfully brought their war to our shores on 11 September, 2001. Iraq is the central battle ground in this war. As long as we are fighting in Iraq, American civilians are not bleeding and dying in our streets here at home. Unless we prevail in Iraq, the jihad will follow our troops home and we will reap the whirlwind in such a way that 3,450 war dead will look like a paltry sum.
God bless all the wonderful young American men and women who are willing to put on the uniform and place themselves between us and those who would slaughter and enslave us. May God heal and comfort all who’ve been wounded and maimed in this horrible fight. And for all the thousands who’ve laid down their lives on our behalf, may God take them to his bosom and give them rest!
Today I read an article by the Associated Press about the nearly 1,000 new graves that Americans have opened in the last year to bury servicemen who’ve died fighting in Iraq. It featured a photograph of a man, kneeling beside a pair of boots which represented his brother, a Marine lance corporal, in a memorial in a park in Oregon, I believe, where about 3,400 or so pairs of boots were displayed, each representing a man or woman in uniform killed in Iraq.
I couldn’t help wondering if such memorials are truly appropriate, and if the dead feel truly honored or appropriately mourned in these displays, or if their deaths are actually being exploited and trivialized to protest the war.
I believe the message should be "These are the honored dead, who fell in battle defending our country, defending each one of us, from those who would slaughter and enslave us."
But is that the message? Or is it "These are the poor, ignorant victims of George Bush’s War, a War of Lies which he has foisted on the American people; the price is too high, and America’s not worth fighting for, or dying for!"?
If the radical Islamist jihadists who make war on us and our civilization could get a message across to the American people, it would be that latter message–"The price is too high, it’s not worth it, it’s a war of lies, the war is lost, give up, withdraw your troops, redeploy, SURRENDER!".
Those who put on these displays, these so-called "memorials" are doing the work for the jihad that the jihadists can’t do for themselves. They are trivializing and mocking the deaths and sacrifice of all who have died or been wounded in the fight for our survival as a nation and a civilization.
This is not "an elective war" or "a war of choice". The Islamist extremists declared war (or "holy war" or "jihad" ) on America in 1979. We’ve been under attack for decades and we’ve gone along blindly ignoring it until the jihadists successfully brought their war to our shores on 11 September, 2001. Iraq is the central battle ground in this war. As long as we are fighting in Iraq, American civilians are not bleeding and dying in our streets here at home. Unless we prevail in Iraq, the jihad will follow our troops home and we will reap the whirlwind in such a way that 3,450 war dead will look like a paltry sum.
God bless all the wonderful young American men and women who are willing to put on the uniform and place themselves between us and those who would slaughter and enslave us. May God heal and comfort all who’ve been wounded and maimed in this horrible fight. And for all the thousands who’ve laid down their lives on our behalf, may God take them to his bosom and give them rest!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
We're getting there.
Well, I have to say that I think I've made progress and the blog is starting to look like I want it to.
BTW, you can click on any photograph and look at an enlarged copy. I think it's a pretty cool feature.
Also, all photos on this blog will be my pictures, unless noted otherwise.
BTW, you can click on any photograph and look at an enlarged copy. I think it's a pretty cool feature.
Also, all photos on this blog will be my pictures, unless noted otherwise.
More favorites from the spring salon
This is called "Calendar Year".
This one is by James Christensen
Now we're cooking.
Here are some recent pictures I’ve taken of wildlife in the area. From top to bottom we have a sandhill crane on it’s way to breakfast, a great white egret, the only one I’ve ever seen in Utah, then a snowy egret (notice the yellow feet); a great white pelican in flight, followed by a flock of pelicans wading in the Utah Lake Wetlands Preserve in West Mountain, Utah. All these photos were shot in Utah Valley.
Okay, that didn't work
So I'm learning by trial and error, mostly error. Oh well, I'll try something else.
Okay, I think this is going to work. Here's the photo I talked about in the previous post.
I call it "The Artist in Landscape". If you're thinking that's too clever of a title for me to have made it up, you're right. I stole it from an artist who displayed a self portrait in last year's Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art. He probably stole it from someone else. So sue me.
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