The drug problem in Mexico

The drug problem within Mexico and our borders is not going to go away by simply sweeping it under a rug pretending that it never occurred in the first place, but that is exactly what they are attempting to do with their new laws. Their congress passed legislation decriminalizing possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use — including cocaine and even heroin. To put it in simple terms the bill legalizes possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, ectasy and marijuana.

Mexico has been a continuing source of illegal drugs such as marijuana and cocaine and has been the bane of law enforcement officials working along the border for years. They have found enough tunnels stretching under the border to weaken the earth’s surface connecting the two. I recently watched a show on one of the discovery or learning channels where they were going over one such tunnel which evidently been built by professional engineers

The tunnel was located under a house, or some form of structure on the US side and was built with connecting beams and totally walled with cement. It was wide enough for small trucks to drive back and forth between the US and Mexico allowing them to bring their death-dealing loads of drugs into our country. The drug agency person being interviewed stated that it had been going on for a long period of time and the tunnel was wide enough to bring just about anything someone wished into this country, including weapons and people. That is a very frightening statement if you think about it; they could have brought shoulder fired missile launchers, bombs and the people to man them in another attempt to destroy America.

We have law enforcement agencies that have been working jointly with Mexican drug officials for years and they have been waging a loosing battle in an attempt to put a stop to it. Now with Mexico taking the stance that it is better to ignore a problem than it is to fight it only time will tell what the outcome will be. One can only imagine the swarms of young people and college crowd making their treks across the border to obtain drugs and the beefed up law enforcement we will have to put on our side to combat this problem. Mexico has taken the drug enforcement problem to an entirely new level and in a time when America is trying to so something positive with the growing illegal follow of people across the border. Forcing America to close off our borders is not the answer to this problem and it appears that Mexico is attempting to do just that.

Videos lie

It has become evident that there are those within the Muslim world that are attempting to turn the present war in Iraq into a Fourth Crusade and this term should not be propagated to any further degree by the media. The leaders of al Qaeda have been trying very hard to portray Osama bin Laden as the Salah al-Din figure in this fantasy and have even gone as far as to say his spirit resides in bin Laden.

For someone to imply that a disgusting, murderous individual forced to hide within the confines of various caves out of fear of being killed is in any way the Salah al-Din of the Muslims is absurd. In fact, it should not even have any further credence put to it by our media or the media of the world. Osama is the poorest choice for an example of Salah al-Din and if he had lived during that time would not have been considered worthy enough to tend to the horses.

The world would do very well if the spirit of Salah al-Din did exist today; he was a fair and righteous ruler who commanded the respect of both the Muslims and the Christians during the crusades as well as allowing the inhabitants of Jerusalem to leave upon capturing it. He and England’s Richard the Lion heart had what some have called a friendship and respect between them. Now we have individuals who are propagating the fourth crusade issue referring to Bush as today’s Lion Heart and bin Laden as the Salah al-Din and they should be committed to the nearest institution till they come to their senses.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda have openly declared a jihad against America and the term jihad means holy war, that is the one and only form of text in which this term can be used. It is by no means a fourth crusade, nor is it a holy war as far as America is concerned.  

Now they are releasing videos in a back-to-back scenario in their weak attempt to create a misinformation structure among the world. We are supposed to believe anything and everything they are saying because, well after all, they released a video.

They need to recall that we invented that in the first place, the idea of misinformation and they may try as they might, but sorry, we have you in hiding and running for safety, I would say that means you are full of it.

The media has lost touch of being a professional

I have been reading all of the negative statements emanating from the anti-war media pertaining to the Zarqawi video released April 25 titled, "This is a Declaration To The People." and I confess I have been so enraged with a fire within me that I have not yet bothered to write about it. Tonight I received a newsletter from our good friend, CJ in which he discussed the video at length, going over various points and references. I read this twice, insuring I captured each item Cj was making and decided it was time to take this matter on in my blog.

To begin, the media has manifested into such an anti-military misinformation machine that it is bordering on the ad nauseam. My blog, as is the majority of the military and veteran blogs out there today supports the men and women in harm’s way, our military. I have made numerous statements pertaining to the manner in which the media portrays these men and women which in essence is in the worse possible light. They go out of their way to insure the casualty figures are screaming in headlines as well as any unhappiness that may or not be prevalent within the military. Let one soldier write in their blog that they are unhappy, or they have lost faith, or God forbid question the fact they are there and the media eats this up as a vulture on a fresh kill.

We cannot pick up a newspaper or magazine or turn on any form of news programming without being inundated with antiwar and antimilitary propaganda. Where are the eye-opening fact filled in-depth features about the antimilitary individuals protesting the funerals of our brave fallen men and women? Granted, the media did make comments regarding this, but not one single news program said anything other than reporting that it happened. Not like their continuous antiwar statements that a reporter should not be making in the first place.

The media is not supposed to report anything in a biased manner; I believe that specific rule of thumb went out of a second story window during the Taft administration. They are also supposed to report items in a fair manner; they threw that out along with the other biased things they ignore. The media does whatever it wants to do, make any statement it wishes to make and the sad part is the majority of their listening audience believes every word stated.

Our military is comprised of professional, educated, highly trained individuals dedicated to the branch of service they selected. They enter the service and after completing long difficult training, sent to countries on orders of the government they promised to protect. They spend their nights insuring the safety and freedom of people they have never met with the knowledge that some of them may never come home again. They are the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard and they do this because they volunteered.

Remember this and think about them the next time you watch the news or read a paper because somewhere in the world, any time or any day they are thinking of you.

FEMA needs to go.

According to the statement from Senators on Thursday, Hurricane Katrina turned FEMA in a symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy and it should be scrapped. Personally I don’t feel Katrina turned FEMA into a symbol, I feel it had been living on borrowed time for many years and Katrina only served to bring this bureaucratic trash into the eyes of the media and showed it for what it truly was – a nightmare.

FEMA should be replaced and it should be accomplished quickly before anyone else has the misfortune of having to deal with it. The agency has no idea what is going on in this country and no concept of how to handle things if a catastrophe occurs again and if history has taught us anything, it is the fact that it is not if, it is when.

Documents and transcripts released from the onset of Hurricane Katrina has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that not only did the powers that be have prior knowledge of what was happening, not one of them took any action to prevent the tragedy that was the final outcome. Something must be done to correct this and insure it never happens again and this something needs to be done now, not after twenty government panels have studied the problem, now.

The citizens of that state are still scattered about the country trying to figure out what to do and how to begin anew while the people that stayed are hoping it never happens again. Washington needs to get off their collective “pass the blame” butts and take action to insure FEMA is placed out to pasture and a new agency with the proper people, resources and knowledge to handle a problem replaces them.

The Oil Industry is out of control.

Somebody please answer why if someone in the Middle East experiences flatulence the price of gasoline goes up in the America. This is not a new development either, or something a terrorist cell has done to affect the financial stability of America, it has been going on for years.

The day after Iraq invaded Kuwait I was pulling into a gas station when I noticed the sign out front with the price increased fifty cents since the day before. I was completely confused wondering what the stupidity of Saddam had to do with the price of oil. Of course, I understood that any oil coming from that region after the attack would have been more costly, that was common sense. The part I did not understand was why a price increase had taken hold on fuel already purchased, refined and presently in the ground at gasoline pumps everywhere.

Once something was purchased and ready for the consumer the price structure has already been defined, and it was done so at the price set upon purchase. The problem with the price of gasoline the consumers of America are facing is the price is being increased exponentially, markup on top markup, ad nauseam.

We often ask ourselves how the government can allow the oil companies to get away with what is a clear case of price gauging and we already know the answer to this; they donate very large sums of money to politician’s campaigns that is why.

Now President Bush is bowing to the demands of republican leaders and is launching a two-pronged attack upon increasing oil prices. Tuesday the President ordered a temporary halt to deposits to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve to make more oil available for consumer needs and relieve pressure on pump prices. To combat the growing prices President Bush has ordered an investigation into possible cheating in the markets. The government also asked states on Tuesday to guard against unfair pricing.

The oil companies could care less what Washington is going to do because they have already made huge profits from their pricing games and they will never return the price to its initial asking price.  

The Global War

The Global Terrorism Analysis from the Jamestown Foundation recently published an alarming report discussing an increasing series of similarities between the insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq, which in essence demonstrates the insurgents in Afghanistan are learning from the mistakes and success of those in Iraq. The similarities in attacks are clearly demonstrating this fact and causing concern from those involved within the anti-terrorism society.

It is disturbing news to the intelligence community and instills new fears within the expanding war on terrorism that the Taliban and al Qaeda are not only learning from their mistakes, but also sharing information among the terrorist community. This has overtones of a dedicated intelligence section that would be operating in support of a functioning military instead of individual terrorists hitting where they wish.

Now we have bin Laden releasing one of his “Let the world know I am alive” videos in which he is attempting to turn the war on terrorism into a crusade which unites the Muslim community against a common foe, the United States and England.

The war on terrorism is a war of attrition with al Qaeda and in all actuality; this is the only form of warfare that has a possibility of succeeding, as they do not have uniforms or flags to distinguish them from others. Historically this type of warfare is not supported by many Americans, as it is a long drawn-out battle with casualties on our side as well as the other. Conventional warfare with the enemy clearly distinguished and firmly entrenched in the areas they have taken over from a previous government or within their own country can be a faster victory, but also costlier in the form of our casualties.

We are engaged in a battle with an enemy that has no clear lines of country or marked borders, no defined government, no uniforms or flags marking them clearly as the enemy and the war will be long and hard fought until a form of victory is achieved. The fact of the terrorists now comparing notes and changing tactics to match one another’s successes will make the road a little tougher to travel. The real question is will the American people allow another protracted conflict such as we experienced in Viet Nam where there is no defined enemy. Time alone will be the decisive factor, that and the will to succeed by the rest of America.

A Tiny Bit of Comfort

While surfing the net this morning I stopped at one of my favorite mental watering holes, Blackfive, he was discussing what value can be placed on a war in terms of dollars and cents. The story actually was leading to another story recently published in Seattlepi.com by a soldier of the 101st Screaming Eagles.

It is extremely difficult for me to go into any further details of this article without the reader taking the time to go through it, so, if you really want to know what is going on over there read the article.

Dispatch from Iraq: A tiny bit of comfort.

Television is out there at times.

Television is getting out of control, a controversial television séance airing on Monday will claim it has reached the spirit of John Lennon, but viewers will have to pay $9.95 to find out what the peace-loving Beatle has to say.

In all honesty, this borders on a crime of fraud, but you can bet your Beatles cards that the producers are more insured than Lloyds of London. According to the news service, they are filming the show at La Fortuna when at once they stop and a narrator states “something odd has happened”. Then we are hit with the cost of the 9.95-cent audience participation when they actually claim a mysterious voice can be heard on the audio feed of one of the participating psychics.

That totally is out of character with the John Lennon of old, unless he was interested in making an antiwar or anti political statement. He was the originator of “hate the establishment” and we are expected to believe this!

If this is truly the case and we actually have individuals capable of communicating with those who have passed beyond then we need to contact people on the other side who can make a difference; Kennedy, Lincoln, Roosevelt, both of them and let’s toss in Patton for good measure and for the media headlines he would surely make.

I for one and very pleased that I have control of the off button and that I will not have to watch a fraudulent act like this.

Good Luck CJ...

I wanted to take a few moments to extend my heartfelt thanks to CJ of A Soldier’s Perspective for the work he has done showing the soldier’s side of a war and his honest gratitude to veterans for their service.

A Soldier’s Perspective will be shutting its doors and in doing so the military will loose one of its strongest voices in the blogging community. CJ has maintained a constant presence within the veteran and military community and has represented the military well in his attendance of anti-war meetings where he always portrayed the soldier in a professional manner. The blogging community as well as the many readers who made his site a daily stop will mourn the loss of his work.

Good Luck CJ and thanks for being there for the military and its veterans.

The Manning Memo and Iraq

Since the onset of the war on terrorism and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, I have constantly maintained my stand on the war and it is still the same, support the troops in harms way who are fighting for their country. In doing, so you do not have to agree with nor has support the administration that sent them there in the first place, you only have to support the men and women of our armed forces.

With this statement in mind, I have been following the events leading to the war in Iraq and the recently released Manning memo sheds a new light on this information. It also serves to validate the already released Downing Street memo and paint a fuller picture of the events leading to the invasion. Bear in mind that unlike the Downing Street memo, the newer Manning memo can be judged on its own merit; it was written by a known assistant to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Now that the Manning and Downing Street memos have been released there appears to be an every-growing paper trail of mounting evidence, suggesting President Bush had prior knowledge of the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to launching an attack.

I am sure you recall that shortly before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, President Bush was telling anyone who would listen that if Saddam Hussein did not give up his weapons of mass destruction; Iraq would face war with America. New evidence has been released clearly demonstrating that in a January 31 closed-door meeting, President Bush had informed his Britton blood brother, Tony Blair that the attack would take place even without the hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction and further George W. and Tony privately agreed that such weapons were not likely to be located.

This supposedly deliberate bit of deception is unveiled in a confidential five-page memo written by David Manning, Tony Blair’s top foreign policy advisor, who had actively participated in the meeting. The Manning memo confirms the information within the now- famous Downing Street memo from 2002, in which various other aids of Tony Blair reported that President Bush was manipulating intelligence reports and mounting evidence in a clear effort to support his push to launch an invasion with combined forces into Iraq.

The Manning memo records that both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were uptight that weapons of mass destruction would never be found. This would have effectively demonstrated to the public that both politicians fabricated this evidence to launch the attack upon Iraq. The memo further demonstrates various scenarios put forth by President Bush that would lead to the UN authorizing the attack and removing the question of weapons of mass destruction all together.

The mounting evidence only supports the theory many have put forth stating President Bush used the war on terrorism to launch a war to complete what his father had failed to do, remove Saddam Hussein from power.

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People need to listen.

The on-going trail of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui should serve as a wake up call for all of those activists stating we need to stop our war. Moussaoui an admitted al Qaeda member said, "We wanted you to have pain in your country," "I just wish it would have happened September 12, September 13, September 14 ... there's no remorse for justice."

This is the mindset, hatred and what al Qaeda represents, they want to destroy the United States and we are fighting this each and every day. People have forgotten one vital factor in this war on terrorism they want to destroy us!

Moussaoui was quoted as saying he had enjoyed recent images in court showing the
Pentagon after it was attacked on September 11 and said reports of all the deaths "make my day."

There are a large number of individuals within our country that need to wake up and listen, I mean really sit down and listen to what this murderer says because it just may serve to do that, to wake them up, but then again they may be a lost cause.

The statment I hated most.

Reading the news this morning I came upon this article, British army doctor compares US invasion of Iraq to Nazi regime, which was the worst absolute lie I have ever read. Growing up in the early 1950 era my family had an elderly next-door neighbor couple, which my Father would go out of his way to do things for as drive to stores, do the lawn, etc. I never understood the magnetism that attracted my Father, normally the type of person to tell someone to jump in the lake, but he treated these two with the utmost respect.

I believe I had recently entered the fourth grade, my school was a large ethnic and cultural mixture of children, many of whom I was jealous over each time a Jewish holiday passed and they did not have to attend class. My teacher was a hulk of a man who loved his classroom and went out of his way to insure we understood his teaching, I recall I idolized him and even would visit him later in life. I did not know, nor understand his status as a World War II survivor until later in life, but I remember all too well the day I questioned him on my neighbors. My teacher had one day a week in which we discussed any subject on our then open minds yearning to grasp any subject we saw, he referred to it as “Open Class Day”.

I had raised my hand and finally called upon, I asked why my neighbors, two elderly people had tattoos of numbers on their left arms. A silence had fallen over our class and the teacher arose, walking to the blackboard and wrote a number sequence that looked exactly as what I saw each time I visited them. I noticed a few of my friends had bowed their heads and others were talking all at once, I had no idea what was going on.

My teacher than pulled up his left sleeve and showed his arm to the classroom, I sat near the front and could plainly see the numbers tattooed in the exact place as my neighbors. That moment in my life is when I learned of the holocaust and has been etched in my mind since that day.

My neighbors had learned of my question, my family had discussed my questions with them and that night we all sat down to a dinner at their house and I was told the story of Nazi Germany and what these two human beings had went through at a place called Auschwitz.

I have never forgotten that day or that moment in my life and I have never forgotten them, I remained friends with them until we attended their burials one bleak morning. They had died three days from one another. I have always felt within my soul that God had seen to this so they would be together in death as they had in life.

This comment insults me, infuriates me and insults the memory of every human who sacrificed his or her souls at the hand of a dictator believing he was a God. This individual has the right to say what he feels, but if I were standing next to him I know within my heart I would knock him on his pious ass.

My battle for my eyes

I have previously mentioned my on-going battle with glaucoma and the fact I wanted to provide a bit of information on the subject. I felt the best way in which to inform is simply to post what I have encountered, how it is being treated and what I am presently undergoing in an attempt to regain my vision. I cannot stress highly enough the importance of preventive medical care and follow up regarding your eyes.

I am going to post an on-going update of what I am experiencing, the procedures being done and what I experience in the process with the goal of not only informing others, but to share my experience in the hope anyone facing this problem will battle it without fear. I simply wish to share with others the effects of this eye disease. I will be posting other blogs during the process; this will simply be an on-going commentary to accompany them.

How it all began

Approximately one year ago, I awoke to the most intense pain in my eyes I had ever experienced, running to a mirror in an attempt to see if anything had become lodged in my eyes while sleeping, I turned on a light and immediately had to cover my eyes from the additional pain that struck me. Blind and both eyes covered I was driven to the emergency room where a physician informed me I had the most severe case of iritis in both eyes he had ever witnessed. Iritis is the inflammation of the iris, the colored portion of the eye. A common eye problem, iritis usually responds well to treatment. However, the condition may become sight threatening when left untreated.

I was immediately sent to an eye specialist who provided treatment and a week of wearing dark glasses, taking multiple drops coupled with the inability to read or watch television finally cleared the problem up. A few months after being told I was clear of the problem I was at a local store picking a few things up, all at once, I was unable to see anything but large splotches of colors, it was as if someone had taken globs of Vaseline and covered my eyes with it. I was unable to bring anything into focus; I made my way to a chair, sat and called my doctor as well as a friend to transport me to my eye doctor for an emergency visit.

A check of the eyes found the pressure had reached a dangerous level and caused the episode of blindness. Glaucoma was diagnosed, a regime of eye drops prescribed and I was taken home to get well and maintain continuous medical follow up. As time progressed, the effects of the glaucoma disease worsened as the optic nerve became damaged leading to blind spots in my field of vision. Approximately one week ago, my vision had reached an all time bad level of eyesight with the inability to see but only a few feet in front of me. I saw my eye doctor who prescribed new eye medication and called in his associate for a consultation.

After lengthy and highly magnified views into my eyes, they diagnosed me with a form of Angle-closure glaucoma, which results when the drainage angle of the eye narrows or becomes completely blocked. Yesterday, I underwent a relatively painless laser procedure that creates tiny holes in the iris to improve the flow of eye fluid to the drain in an attempt to correct the problem.

I have a follow up scheduled with the eye physician and will post what transpires as it progresses.

Thoughts of another warrior

Each of us have battles to wage, scrimmages to fight, paths of life to conquer, the majority of us emerge victorious carrying within our soul the memories of lost moments, but none the less, we emerge the winner.

Some of us have seen the face of combat and walked away to live another day, changed and carrying with us a demon that we make peace with and learn to coexist with only to face additional battles later in life, those of health, life or relationships.

The fact remains that within each of us resides a warrior, it emerges from our soul to face its enemies each time life’s problems confront us, it faces them head on and with fortune and luck, it walks away the winner to fight another day.

Today while reading the blog of a warrior presently living within the wire in Iraq, Fun with Hand Grenades, I was immediately overcome with memories of long ago, those I have stored within the locked portion of my mind, memories of friends and brothers no longer with us. I read what he had written and immediately knew what he was feeling within his mind. He was presently lost and he was trying very hard to make peace with something that he is unable to talk about at this time.

My heart goes out to him because as many others I understand what he is facing resulting from actions as a soldier he already faced. Stop by his small place on the web and read what is on his mind, while you are there let him know you support him, let him know that all is well and let him know you care.

Update on my eyes.

I want to make a brief announcement regarding my on-going battle with glaucoma, the past week has found me constantly meeting with Physicians and I will be undergoing a brief laser procedure today with hopes of possible increasing my eyesight. These past two weeks have been difficult for me, my eyesight has been extremely limited and a plethora of constantly changing eye drops has not helped much. There has been days where typing was near impossible, but my love of blogging and making snide comments kept me going with my eyes two inches from the screen.

Today, they will be using a laser to put a small hole in my eye, relieving drainage, which in turn will possible reduce the pressure within one eye. If successful, it will be repeated on the other eye.

When this is all over and hopefully my full or partial vision restored I plan to spend an entire blog or two on this very subject. I feel the public should be informed on the accomplishments medical science has made in the field. I am optimistic and we will see what the future holds of this old warhorse.

It may be a few days before I update again. I will advise.
Thank You
Ranter

The Truth, the Whole Truth.

A few nights ago while surfing through endless channels of boredom I happened upon a documentary of the 1968 Tet offensive of the Viet Nam war. Normally I pass these up, but something about this one caught my attention and I soon came to regret my decision.

It was evident the documentary presented the producers views, some true, others packed with untruths. It tried to show how our officers, unprepared and caught by surprise were forced to pull men from the rear, cooks, supply clerks and anyone else available, tossed them a rifle, pointed them in the general direction of the advancing enemy and hoped for the best.

Let me take a few moments of your time and tell you the truth, apparently something the entertainment industry are incapable of doing.

The Viet Cong attacked multiple positions simultaneously including Saigon, the American and British Embassies. A division of NVA had overrun the Imperial city of Hue and was now occupying it. Since the inception of America’s involvement in the Viet Nam war the Viet Cong were not willing to stand and fight without running back to their underground holes.

Word rapidly spread among our troops the Viet Cong were attacking and they actually come out to fight us in the open.

Word of the enemy standing and fighting had everyone grabbing their weapons, even those normally confined to mess halls and supply rooms. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and not one soldier wanted to allow it to take place without their direct involvement in it.

The soldiers ran into their supply rooms, weapons storage, they grabbed weapons, ammunition and anything that would shoot or explode. Supply Sergeants dug into their personal storage facilities accumulated for special events such as this. Some Sergeants left their supply rooms looking like a one-man army with weapons and ammunition hanging from every portion of their body.

Intelligence believed some activity would occur of a limited nature. The offensive that occurred was larger and fiercer than anticipated and only decimated the Viet Cong.

US figures showed 4,959 Vietcong killed and 1,862 captured. The total of 232 American and 300 South Vietnamese troops had been killed with 929 and 747, respectively, wounded.

The Tet Offensive initiated additional protesting at home which only increased, the NVA had lost the battle but in the end had won the war.

Phelps Information

Fred Phelps and the members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan are once more shilling their blatant misrepresentation of the bible and pandering their unholy thoughts of hate against their chosen enemy, the United States military at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

This group not only thrives on the venomous hatred they vent upon anyone not agreeing with them, they revel in it allowing the growing anger to feed their souls. Their modus operandi is well known within the military community by now. They present their founder’s interpretation of the bible which states God hates all but a select few, which of course he represents, the groups unwavering adoration of their leader, minister and Father is not only creating tension and a growing hatred, but laws to combat them in a large number of states. Truthfully, the group should be declared a cult and dealt with under various federal, state and city laws enacted to combat it.

The group has an often-used record of litigation against anyone or anyplace not agreeing with them. They offset the cost of legal consol by the fact a large number of the Phelps are practicing attorneys, except their Father and leader, Fred Phelps, who was disbarred for his actions.

Members of veteran military groups such as, Patriot Guard Riders and Rolling Thunder travel to the events the group plans to protest to insure the hatred and lies they blatantly spew upon the military or families of the deceased proud warriors of our nation is not heard.

As I previously stated, the inherent problem with media attention is the Phelps groups loves it, thrives upon it, and welcomes it into their waiting soul allowing it to feed the fire of hatred within them. The public needs to read all that can be found pertaining to this unholy band of demons representing themselves as a church. They must be informed and if outraged as much as I am you must voice your opinion to your own congressional representative, senator, anyone who will listen. This group must have constraints placed upon it.

I have provided a few well-informed links for further information. Please take the time to read through them and learn the truth as the people of Topeka, Kan has done.

The website of Westboro Baptist Church, expose, information, etc.:
http://www.godhatesfags.com/

Fred Phelps Expose

Lawrence Journal-World Article

Anti Defamation League Article

Wikipedia on Fred Phelps

Open letter to Topeka from Fred Phelps

A few thoughts

I find the present headlines, “More Human Remains Found Near Trade Center” and “Moussaoui Jurors To Relive 9/11” surreal and at the same time heart wrenching when read together. I must confess reading them immediately brought back the events of that day exactly as the occurred not too long ago.

Honestly, I am not going to dwell on this today, except to say these headlines made me realize these events, like so many other moments in history are etched in my mind. The same can apply to the events, which surround the assassination of President John Kennedy, another moment of realization etched in my mind.

I find it very interesting that any moment of a catastrophic nature in our lives can be recalled so vividly many years later. Perhaps this is more important than we can truly ever understand. Perhaps it is meant to be because we are the present bearer of the standard and it enables us to pass these events to our children.

Of course, this is all simply a bit of idle wondering thoughts which have crossed my mind, but I suspect it is a true statement, we are meant to remember, so we can tell the children the truth, someone has to.

A Donkey!

I must confess that as all living, breathing individuals I love to read the strange and odd areas of the web. I came across this gem of a headline this morning and immediately realized that I had hit the mother load, “Textbook: Donkeys Better Than Housewives”.

I do not wish in any way to plagiarize the writer of this fine piece of Hemingway style verse, but here is a direct quote from the opening paragraph, “NEW DELHI - A textbook used in western India compares housewives to donkeys — and concludes that the pack animals make more loyal companions, a newspaper reported Tuesday.”

“"A donkey is like a housewife," declares the Hindi language primer approved by the state of Rajasthan, according to The Times of India newspaper. "It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water."”

This article provided my home with an entire morning of amusement and entertainment. The clincher to the article is the reference is supposedly taken directly from a book presently used in their school system.

The article attempted to circumvent the derogatory statements it had made to the woman of India in stating the text was  a comparison and was meant to be funny, nothing more. Right, as if that would satisfy the anger it had already wrought upon the male dominated society of that country.

I could not help but imagine the anger, hatred and angry mail a book of this nature would generate within our society. I can honestly assure anyone reading this that in my house I am quite aware of the fact that the male is the donkey of the species and I am quite content with that. Perhaps the true author of this was the husband sitting atop his roof with the “On Strike” sign.

We need to remember.

I simply cannot understand or even grasp the reasoning behind some of our citizens selective memory. This was not always a common trait among citizens, as it did not appear after the attack upon Pearl Harbor. It appears to be some new manifestation, which has taken hold since the senseless attacks upon the World Trade Center on 9/11/

There was that short period of time that every citizen stood as one demanding we find someone, anyone to take make responsible and avenge their deaths. We invade Afghanistan; citizens are transfixed to television screens awaiting the news that we are victorious. We invade Iraq and they wait again and every person as one exclaims their happiness when we capture Saddam.

Then slowly, ever so slowly the memory of the attack upon our shores is moved to the back of some minds and a new thought emerges, one of sorrow that we are doing this to another country.

Demonstrations begin, others vent their feelings in other ways, but the message is the same, we need to pull out and return our troops home. And herein lies the problem, we effectively removed the former government of nations and now it is up to us to instill new ones before we can even think of something as that. Yes, there will be fighting and additional troop movements and perhaps additional troops involved that is the nature of war.

The United States of America is a proud country comprised of proud individuals who have stood in dangers door before and gave what they could so this country could remain free. We need to remember who we are; we need to become that proud country once more.

Time to act

It appears a federal jury has found Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, to be eligible for the death penalty.

What truly amazed me yesterday when this was announced were the callers to one of the news channels stating we were discriminating against Muslims. I was more than amazed, I was literally blown away at the time.

This is neither a case of racial prejudice nor any form of discriminating, this is pertaining to the knowledge of an incident, which caused deaths on a large scale by weapons of mass destruction. Yes, those airplanes became weapons of mass destruction the moment they were taken over and flown into the world trade center.

There are times I am sickened by the very nature of some individuals in situations such as this. It is about time we as a nation came together under one voice and announced to the world that we are fed up and not going to stand for this any longer. If you launch attacks against us, we will rain devastation upon you and perhaps that may cause some to stop and think for once.

Trail of Saddam

The Iraq tribunal announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six others Tuesday, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds.

Apparently, under the Iraqi legal system this is similar to an indictment and paves the way for a second trail.

The truth in the entire matter is that the trials of Saddam are creating a paradox for the Iraqi legal system. If he receives the death penalty he is a martyr to some, if he remains alive he is a symbol for rebellion.

The honest opinion among most is the military team, which originally found the deposed leader would have done the legal system a favor by removing his existence from the earth.  Case closed.

Our Borders

This morning’s news contained a comment pertaining to the Minuteman returning to the border of Arizona to provide a civilian defense. The knowledge of civilians running around in camouflage pants and sporting .357 Smith & Wesson revolvers on their hips would not make me feel too safe.

Apparently the minutemen are comprised of civilian volunteers from all across the nation and represent all walks of life. They gather on various borders to demonstrate the countries need for additional protection. They accomplished the same last year on that border as well as a few others.

The article stated similar patrols began Saturday near the U.S.-Mexican border in California, Texas and New Mexico and along the U.S.-Canadian border in New Hampshire, New York and Washington.

This appears to be a well-orchestrated effort to demonstrate the countries lack of protection along our borders. My question does not pertain to the illegal immigrant situation that is current causing demonstrations along these same borders, but what happens if someone actually shoots and kills someone crossing the border?

These individuals are not sworn peace officers or member of a militia, which due to Posse Comitatus would be impossible.

I am not going to begin a discussion on the right to bear arms or the current illegal immigrant situation, this is simply too volatile for a blog.

I am simply pointing out the fact that these individuals stand to loose a substantial amount should things suddenly go wrong as they always tend to do on our borders.

I have the answer.

One of the winning reasons in the Home Office from Hell contest in which entrants had to list the top ten reasons they needed to escape their home offices confessed he referred to his pets as employees.

Reading the article gave me the unheralded insight of a soothsayer forecasting the future of man. The Holy Grail of humanity, salvation of every tax-paying citizen, the answer was within me. The solution is so simple that I really cannot quite comprehend why it has taken a member of humanity this length of time to arrive at my conclusion.

We simply claim our pets as dependants on our yearly tax returns thereby increasing our income even exponentially by adding more pets. If you do not really care for dogs adopt a stray cat, allergic to cats no problem run out and purchase an aquarium with twenty dependants, the more the better.

Need a few more dependants this year to compensate for that money you earned at the racetrack last weekend, run out and purchase more fish or claim your children’s fish, it all works out. It is such a wonderful feeling knowing I am the person that provided the answer to all of the tax problems of the citizens of America.

Just think of it, just by running out to the local pet store and purchasing one hundred guppies, better knows as dependants you have decreased your taxes, I am a genus. You would think a solution as this would be tiring, but in one short paragraph I have corrected all of humanities tax problems and to think I did all of this without leaving the comfort of my home.

Of course, there is still one slight problem facing us that may put a damper to my solution to humanities problems, the Internal Revenue Service.

I am beginning to wonder if the Internal Revenue Service will allow me to claim my two birds, one dog and that fat cat that constantly hangs around the front of the house.

After giving my solution a considerable amount of deep thought, I have arrived at the conclusion that this is really a dumb idea, never mind.