The ISIS Issue…

11 Saturday Oct 2014

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ISIS is on the verge of claiming another town in Syria, one that could act as a launching point for attacks into Turkey, a NATO member. The Kurdish fighters who are besieged in this town are fighting courageously, holding out against odds that overwhelmed the Iraqi defense forces. US airplanes are bombing positions around the town, providing some relief, but the issue is not air power. The issue is ground support, support that should be coming from the coalition partners, to support the Kurdish fighters. Since barack Obama has denied US combat troops entry into the mission, this requires support from the coalition partners that will operate in Syria, namely the coalition of Muslim nations that have signed on for this effort. But there are no troops coming forward, and this is a bad thing.

We know it’s bad because of the tactical issue: without more support, the town may fall this weekend. But it’s bad on the geo-political strategic level, also. The Kurds are being hard-pressed, and need assistance. If the Muslim nations, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, came to the aid of the Kurdish people, maybe there would be an opportunity for the long broiling resentments between the two peoples to be settled. The Kurds could feel that they can broker an agreement between themselves and the Muslim nations they live in, and the Muslim nations could get support from some of the strongest, most dangerous, and most organized fighters in the region. The president should have been working to foster that kind of agreement long ago, when he said no US combat boots on the ground. By supporting the Peshmarga in Iraq, and the Kurdish forces in Syria, as well as coordinating support between the groups and the Muslim fighters, maybe something could have been salvaged. As it is, we need to support the Kurdish fighters, as they are the only ones taking a concerted stance against ISIS and their splinter groups.

I do not say the Kurdish fighters are blameless innocents. The Kurds are ferocious, and courageous, and violent. The Kurdish fighters have fought Turkish and Iraqi military to a standstill, and would stop the Taliban in its tracks. Al Qaeda never attempted to subvert the Kurdish people, because the Kurds do not believe in their form of life. For the Kurds to be able to stand as they have, reflects the Kurdish lifestyle, and the hard path the Kurds have had to travel.

The administration’s strategy of bombing the ISIS fighters to “degrade and eventually destroy” ISIS only works if we are willing to use nuclear warheads. This is an unthinkable action. The use of airpower does not guarantee that ground will be captured, fighters on the ground will be subdued or eliminated, and gains will be achieved. Air power is only effective in concert with a coordinated ground campaign. And despite the many pundits elaborating on the media outlets, a ground campaign does not require the use of hundreds of thousands of troops. A decent infantry division, backed by sufficient air power, will make a severe impact and implode ISIS in its tracks. Unfortunately, we have a new-era democrat president, who believes that, like Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton before him, the military can be used piecemeal to affect “Political Changes”, despite the fact that military forces are not chess pieces for politicians. Instead of assigning a substantial number of military troops to support the air campaign, this president sends US troops into Africa to fight a disease. This president has watched Outbreak too many times. The US military is a strategic weapon of policy used to enforce decisions by the civilian politicians, or as a means of last diplomatic resolution to discussions of strategic importance. The US military is not a police or Emergency Medical Response force used to take care of those things that the president deems a problem. Use of the military in such actions degrades the combat effectiveness of the units involved, and reduces the capability of the military to respond to true military emergencies. The activities that president has ascribed to the US military would be better handled by the Public Health Service, the Center for Disease Control, Peace Corps, or any of the myriad NGOs set up specifically already for these tasks.

This president has the lowest approval rating of any president at this time of their presidency. He makes decisions based not on the needs of the country, but on political agendas. Meanwhile, in Syria and in Iraq, thousands daily are being killed, left homeless, or are fleeing one of the most horrendous groups since NAZI Germany. Even the Taliban’s efforts are paling in significance to what Baghdadi and his goons are doing, supposedly in the name of Allah.

If Islam is a religion of peace, as the president continually espouses, why are so many people raped, maimed, and killed in its name? Why are the Kurds besieged by this peaceful religion? When will the peaceful Muslims stand up and say “Enough! This Far and No Farther!” When?

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Most Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”

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Our Debt to Iraq and the Iraqi People

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Over the last two weeks, our military has supported the Kurdish Peshmarga’s fight against one of the most brutal regimes since the Khmer Rouge. Arguably, this group is one of the most brutal seen since the 14th century. The Peshmarga have fought hard to push ISIS from the Mosul Dam, and are working to push them from Tikrit, a city the US and its coalition partners cleared prior to President Obama’s decision to leave the country. The US Air Force have attacked targets of opportunity, clearing roads and sides of roads of ISIS terrorists. However, this is not enough.

The US has an obligation to bring US military forces back into Iraq, equip the Peshmarga forces with armor and weapons, and to push the ISIS terrorists and murderers out of Iraq. We have this obligation because we toppled Saddam Hussein and we promised we would help the fledgling democracy stand on its feet. Yes, we lost nearly 4,500 in Iraq, in eight years of fighting. In the same time frame, there were nearly 350,000 deaths from automobile accidents, and over 42,000 pedestrian deaths. The military’s role is place themselves in harm’s way to insure those who would do damage to us and our allies, don’t. This is the reason for a military. The military is the hard fist used when the velvet glove of diplomacy is ignored or thrown in the face of well-meaning peoples.

We have an obligation to those who were crucified, who were torn in half, who were beheaded, who were buried alive, weeping and pleading. We have an obligation to those left behind, crying over the loss of their loved ones, and their livelihoods, people we pledged to help, to stand by. There comes a time when political maneuvering is not enough. There comes a time when those who claim to speak for humanity, who claim to be offended by obscene acts of dehumanizing atrocities, must stand against the barbarians, whether they are at our gates, or at the gates of our friends and allies. It is not enough to send in aircraft that bomb. That is too indiscriminate, and cannot reach those who have hidden, like rats and snakes, in burrows that cannot be touched with attacks from planes and drones on high. It is not enough to send in “advisors” in small numbers, who, hampered by Rules of Engagements that the enemy ignore, must ask permission from others thousands of miles away before even moving forwarding one mile or more.

No, it is time, and past time, to send in large military presences, to establish or reestablish bases, to force the savages back or kill them in their burrows. It is time, and past time, to stand with and train the Iraqi military to become a true military force, able to stand when pressed, led by able officers and NCOs who look to taking care of their men, not profiting from the logistics supplied to keep those troops trained. Now is the time to work with the Iraqi people to rebuild, and rebuild strongly, their fledgling democracy attempts, to insure no one again can push their way in and rape and pillage their country. And now is the time to pursue them over the border into Syria and complete the decimation of ISIS, lend support to the moderates who would fight against Assad, and help to bring peace to that portion of the Middle East, before the Middle East explodes beyond repair.

Our president must send troops, combat troops, in division or better size, into Iraq, into the north, to help the Kurdish government their reassert control. He must send troops into and around Baghdad, not to besiege the country, but to assist in the rebuilding of the coalition of the groups into an inclusive government. We must do this, because, despite what some, or even many, politicians claim, it is in the US’ best interests to have a stable and democratic Iraq, supporting democracy, in the region. This allows the US to become part of the Middle East peace process, gives us a platform to monitor and oversee Iran’s denuclearization program, provides the US with a stable platform for launching support for piracy and other operations in the Indian and Southern Atlantic Oceans, as well as provide Iraq and its people with a strong ally to prevent other countries or terrorist nation-states from attempting the overthrow of Iraq.

We have a large debt to pay to Iraq and the Iraqi people. We should never have left Iraq without the needed stability to continue building their country into a shining model of democracy in the Middle East. Leaving Iraq was purely a political decision. Returning to Iraq is the correct, humanitarian, and proper thing to do.

Ferguson, Missouri, and the Failure of Black Leadership

21 Thursday Aug 2014

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Over the last several days, we have watched the horror unfolding as protestors face police, who are firing tear gas, smoke bombs, and rubber bullets. We’ve watched protestors defy a government-ordered curfew running through neighborhoods, attacking and throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. And all this is occurring, not in some third world country, not in the Gaza Strip, not in Lebanon or Tripoli. No, we see all of this happening in Ferguson, Missouri, a city that has a population that is 2/3’s black, but the police force only has three black officers. The rioting and the protests are all about the police shooting and killing of an unarmed black man. CNN has been running high-level coverage of this as if this were the sixties, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was heading there to fight for the civil rights of the slain young man. President Obama has interrupted his vacation to have high-level meetings, brief the press, and send Eric Holder, the Attorney General to investigate, as well as having 40 FBI agents question people on the issue.

There was an injustice done. That this young black man was killed by the police is an inarguable fact. But another injustice is the way that the media has handled, and helped escalate, this issue. Of course, a young man was gunned down by the police in a horrible manner. Yes, this officer will be held accountable. But the outrage from the community is out of proportion, because this wasn’t an innocent victim of a crime. This was a young man, one who was supposed to be headed to college, acting as much a thug and hoodlum as those who committed crimes in Chicago, supposedly the president’s home city. Eyewitnesses say that Mr. Brown reached into the police officer’s car, a violation if ever I heard one. And surveillance video shows the same young man, only minutes prior to his confrontation with the police, strong-arming an old man in a convenience store, stealing cigars. Yes, this young man thought nothing of using his superior weight and strength against an unarmed, virtually defenseless, store manager, but where’s the outrage from the media, and more importantly, from the community and the leadership of the black community. Nothing can detract from what the officer did, killing the young man. But this attempt to martyr someone who preyed on the weak and helpless is not what the good Dr. King wanted.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two prominent members of the black community, have done little or nothing to extinguish the flames in Ferguson. Barack Obama has caused even more anguish, and is causing even more disturbance, by injecting himself and the justice department into something that is essentially a local issue. Both the president and the attorney general, if they wish to take on something like this, should concentrate on the black-on-black crimes and homicide that are happening on a daily basis in Chicago, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and yes, even Washington, DC. The confrontations taking place in Ferguson are local matters, and should be handled by local authorities. Local community leaders should have been taking the first steps, in the beginning, to diffuse the situation, corralling those hoodlums that have shanghaied the protests and turned the protests into the ugly confrontations, and worked with the local police to insure that the situation was resolved in a manner that supports the family and the community.

The Michael Brown killing is deplorable. According to eyewitnesses, Michael had been running, but turned around. At this point, the police officer should have held fire, should have followed procedures, and cuffed and arrested Michael. Instead, the officer inexplicably shot him down. This is incontrovertible. However, the actions by the community, and the public at large, have been as reprehensible as the actions of the police officer. The level of protests, the media coverage, turned what could have been an issue that was resolved quickly, with minimum fuss, to a disaster for the black community at large. Yes, there should be justice for Michael. But this does not help, more, it detracts, from attaining justice for Michael Brown. The lootings, the shootings, the rampant disregard for the community, period, is not, and will not, bring justice to Michael’s family, or resolution to the community. The protests have very little to do with justice, and more to do with people getting their faces on television. And the news media do not help. The amount of time that news outlets such as CNN spend on this isolated incident, and the little time they spend on actual areas where black-on-black crimes, shows a huge disparity in what the news media considers proper news. The real protests should be held in the poor neighborhoods of places like New York and Chicago, where there are daily shootings of young men, by other young men. Places like Los Angeles, where gangs routinely shoot up neighborhoods, to establish control or just for the fun of it. The president should be concentrating on real issues facing the US, issues such as the economy, the failure of the Affordable Care Act, the invasion and terrorism of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the failure to insure there are jobs to allow Americans to live affordably, not just having to take part-time jobs to get by.

The failure of the black community leadership in Ferguson is the biggest serious issue in this problem. The black leadership in Ferguson has to step up and take responsibility to calm the protests, to work with the community to get everyone to sit down and talk, and to work with the leadership of Ferguson to get to the bottom of this issue. The grandstanding by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, as well as the maneuvering of the New Black Panthers and the non-stop coverage and posturing of the news media, are the reasons that this issue, which should have been handled and subsequently resolved to the point of having the officer arraigned by now, continues to percolate in this area. Eric Holder doesn’t have a true reason to be involved in this issue. But the attacks on the police, the lawlessness by the criminal element, and the lack of faith in the local police department and the local community to keep the citizens safe, pushed the governor to make this decision. The local community should be turning in the criminal element that has caused so much of the problems. And then, the local community should be sitting down with the local political leadership to work out how the issues that separate the community.

Dr. King died to try and unite the black community and provide leadership. To quote the good doctor: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Dr. King would be ashamed and dismayed at the turmoil in Ferguson. Dr. King would be at the forefront of calming the situation down, making the black leadership accountable, berating the criminal element, and making parents accountable for the children’s actions. Dr. King would also be working to bring to justice the slayer of Michael Brown, but he would not be making a martyr of someone who acted in such a manner. Dr. King would offer condolences to the bereaved family, but would also make sure that the community know young Brown was not a saint, and that Young Brown failed his community. Jesse Jackson is unable to attain the level of Dr. King, neither does Al Sharpton. Both have failed the black community, and failed black Americans nationwide. Now is the time to put this all behind us, to work on resolving the issues, and to bring justice to the family.

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”

ISIS is so brutal that even Al Qaeda warned against them

17 Sunday Aug 2014

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ISIS is so brutal that even Al Qaeda warned against them.

Everyone can see the brutality of the ISIS terrorists. As stated, the terrorists are beheading men, women, and children. A recent eyewitness report, from a hospital in the occupied territory of Iraq, speaks of the indiscriminate killings of bedridden patients, for not changing their religions, in two cases, even after the patients changed their religions, their throats were cut “for being infidels”. ISIS is a cancer on the face of Iraq and Syria, and must be cut out.

UNRWA IS THE BIGGEST WAR SPONSOR IN PALESTINE.

17 Sunday Aug 2014

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UNRWA IS THE BIGGEST WAR SPONSOR IN PALESTINE..

A very well-thought out and articulate column. I agree that the UN is a corrupt organization, regardless of their stated desire for world peace. The UN knows that Hamas has been storing munitions in its facilities for years, yet wants to condemn Israel for protecting itself. Really hypocritical, and the ones who pay the price for the hypocrisy are the Gazan citizens.

A Death in Ferguson…

16 Saturday Aug 2014

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A week ago, a young man was shot and killed by a police officer. What makes this an outrage for the liberal press, is that the young man was black, and the officer was white. CNN and MSNBC started the railing against the “oppression” of black men by the government. There wasn’t an attempt to be honest in reporting, neither was their an attempt to consider the officer innocent until proven guilty. Yes, there were quite a few eye witnesses to what happened, but the police, and the FBI, both know that eye witness testimony is pretty flimsy. Forensics is what gets innocent and guilty verdicts, just ask George Zimmerman, as guilty a person as I’ve ever seen. The prosecution, however, blew that case so badly, I wouldn’t think the District Attorney would have a chance to ever get elected again. In this case, I was all for having the officer prosecuted. I was, until the activists, rioters, and looters started showing the world just how far we’ve come since the ‘60s. Not very far at all. And then Obama had to chime in. This guy wants to chime in on everything except what he is supposed to do, his job. In his “home” city, Chicago, the 4th of July weekend was rife with shootings and killings, and he never said a word. But when Ferguson happened, even though Obama was “on vacation”, he couldn’t resist sticking his oar in.

The shooting is a crime. The first shot is justifiable, IF and only IF, it is proven that Brown attempted to take Wilson’s gun. I thought all police cars had surveillance cameras installed, which should help. But the subsequent shootings cannot be considered justifiable. The officer, even if he thought he was in fear of his life, should have had restraint. So, yes, the officer should be held accountable, and if found guilty by a jury of his peers, not by a jury of “journalists”, a term I use lightly, he will be subject to the penalties of the law. Where I have a problem, and a serious issue, is the rioters, the activists, who are taking advantage of the situation strictly for their own use. Al Sharpton, someone who has never met a disturbance he couldn’t make worse, is again at the forefront of turning a bad situation worse. The ignoble ramblings from the NAACP make a mockery of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they attempt to corral this effort into some sort of “blacklash” against the “totalitarian regime” that encompasses Ferguson.

Back in the day, especially in a city that was 2/3’s black, the NAACP would work hard to build up a government that supported the people, working to make the city better. Nowadays, the NAACP seems to be a group that believes in making black Americans victims, as opposed to continuing the work of the good doctor, by making people accountable. The rioting and looting in Ferguson is a disgrace, a disaster, and Al Sharpton and his cronies are responsible for this. Al doesn’t believe in suppressing irresponsible behavior, because, if he did, then he would have to admit he doesn’t want black Americans to advance. Those rioting and looting in Ferguson have besmirched any effort to have anyone truly take anything going on in Ferguson seriously. The true leaders of the protests need to step forward, denounce loudly and fiercely, those who are trying to take advantage of the situation. That means denouncing Sharpton, the NAACP, and anyone else who is only in for themselves.

I believe that the officer should be sent to trial. I believe our system of jurisprudence, as long as the baying of those like Sharpton is held in abeyance, will hold forth. The officer is remorseful, as well he should be. The family is devastated, as well they should be. A young man was killed just before leaving for college, a young black man. I have to point out, in the interests of fairness, that Mike Brown, the young man, was a suspect in a strong-arm robbery. This, in no way, excuses his killing. This provides just a background on why the officer was in the area. The lapse of judgment by the officer does not excuse the killing. Justice should be served. But having all the media hype and the unnecessary investigations will only exacerbate the situation, causing unnecessary hardship for the family of the young man, as well as causing all kinds of consternation and cross-pollution by various agencies in what should be a simple homicide investigation.

If the good people want to make changes in their community, these protests, the rioting, the looting, the criminal disobedience being displayed is not the way to do it. This requires a community action group, a political grouping, and a group of people interested in helping alleviate the situation, and in helping the people to reach their political and economic potential. The good people do not need Al Sharpton, the Black Panthers, or any other outside organizations to do for them what they can do for themselves. I would suggest that the good people of Ferguson step up to the plate, and take responsibility for their lives, and their families.

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”

The Despair In Iraq Continues…

16 Saturday Aug 2014

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This week, Obama authorized airlift support to help out the Yazidis that were and are huddled on the mountain Sinjar awaiting help. This small effort, for thousands of refugees, was at least a start. Then, on Wednesday, the day after a team of 130 troops visited the mountain to ascertain what support is needed, Admiral Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, immediately went on the air to announce that the Yazidis were not as numerous on the mountain as first thought, the ISIS terrorists were being beaten back, and so, the US didn’t need to do any more. Thus, based on a quick look, Obama has decided the siege has been broken and the airlift can cease. This is like having Operation Overlord start from Dover in England, the first troops land, move forward a foot, and then Eisenhower say “We’ve won the war and we can go home!”, while removing all Allied troops and troopships from the Channel, despite what Churchill thinks. Glad Obama wasn’t president during World War II. England, as well as most of Europe, would be speaking German as a first language.

We cannot determine what the state of anything is with one 12 hour trip to something as large as a mountain. Despite the so-called technological edge, there are thousands of people, in dire straits, who need our assistance. The siege isn’t broken on the mountain. In the last two days, hundreds have been captured or killed by ISIS. The Peshmarga, some of the hardest fighting military around, are hard put to shelter those who can make it to their lines. The Kurdish military have asked and asked for military aid, and Obama continually turns them down. His excuse is that the US is not authorized to provide military equipment to another member of a sovereign country. This didn’t stop him from sending weapons and other military equipment to Syria, Libya, and other countries as he saw fit.

We are the last true superpower. We have an obligation to help others. This is not just an altruistic notion. Our, the US, strategic policy used to be, support our allies, defend those who cannot defend themselves, fight injustice, help build democracy wherever we could, help support those governments that look out for their people, and defy those who would attempt to tear down civilization in the quest to dominate the planet. The US has had its issues. No country can claim a moral superiority to us, as all have their dark sides, their skeletons in their closets. The difference with the US is: We don’t hide our faults, we use them as learning lessons to improve ourselves, and to help improve others.

We have an obligation to those in Iraq we summarily left behind. The decision to leave was one reached jointly by Obama, and Hillary as the Secretary of State. We need to return to Iraq, in full force, with support from our Coalition partners, to bulwark Iraq, help build and train their military, provide security and stability for the country, until the country can truly stand on its own. And we need to remain there afterwards. We did not leave Europe after World War II. We did not desert South Korea in the ‘50s. We didn’t leave Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or the rest of the Middle East after Desert Storm. So why did we leave Iraq? The reason, the only reason, was for political expediency only. We must return and fulfill our obligations to restore and sustain Iraq, with its fledgling democracy. Iraq is only one of the very few secular countries in the Middle East. Iraq is home to the cradle of civilization. We owe it to Iraq, and to the Iraqi people, to help re-stabilize the country, help rebuild its military, and support an important ally for us in the Middle East.

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”

We’ve Lost A Light This Week…

15 Friday Aug 2014

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The world became a little dimmer, this week. Laughter became harder to come by, this week. Someone who has bought so much joy to those who were or are in pain, has gone to pass the smiles on to those in heaven. One of the greats of the comedy and drama world has passed on. Earlier this week, Robin Williams, someone who I first saw on Happy Days! lo, those many years ago, and who has been able to make me laugh, and reflect, over the decades since, has died.

Robin Williams was a talent, an actor, a person, that touched the lives of millions. As a comedian, entertaining not just audiences in the United States and abroad, but entertaining the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and other sites around the world, Robin was able to touch on subjects that were hilarious, and relevant, to the people he entertained. As an actor in movies as diverse as the drama The Dead Poets Society to hilarious comedies like The Birdcage or Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin’s range of talent awed, inspired, and gave people a good feeling, both about themselves, and about him. But there was more to Robin than his comedic or acting talent.

Robin opened himself to people. He listened to people, he shared their feelings. Robin was one of the ultimate in empathic support. Though he hid from the public his continual battle with depression, Robin never hid from the public. He was always there, to share your pain and your joy. When Robin did his USO tours, it wasn’t just the stage shows that people remembered. It was his time spent with the troops, listening to them, sharing their life stories. When Robin toured around the US, wherever he stopped, he didn’t just glad-hand people and move on. The Today Show crew gave stories of how Robin met with not just the hosts, but all the people working, learning their names, little things about them, whether the cameras were rolling or not. The hosts told about how he would meet with all the audience members who wanted to meet with him, on the plaza, regardless of the state of filming, whether the show was going on or finished. Robin felt if the audience made the effort to come see him, the very least he could do is acknowledge their effort.

Robin Williams was a tortured soul, who hid his depression and his devils well. Only those close to him, or those who followed him for years, realized the depth of his anguish. But Robin didn’t believe in burdening many with his woes. Even in therapy, in rehab, Robin was still the entertainer. Robin was still the listener. Robin was still the empath, sharing the pain, giving of himself. Robin wasn’t an angel. I come not to just praise him. Robin had his evils.

Robin, according to his own recollections, should have owned a good piece of Colombia, based on the amount he sniffed up his nose. Yes, Robin included his bouts with drugs and excess in his comedy routine. But Robin really did go overboard, indulging himself with his new-found celebrity as the manic alien in Mork and Mindy, as well as his comedy act and his appearances in talk shows and interviews. Robin was a wild child of the ‘80s and ‘90s, partaking of those illicit and licit pleasures open to the A-Listers, and some B and C-Listers as well. But Robin cleaned himself up, sobered up, and started a new phase. I believe Robin cleaned himself up for his children, who he loved deeply, and didn’t want them to be ashamed of him and his activities that didn’t involve acting or comedy.

Robin Williams was a special talent. His humor, and his gravitas in drama movies, touched, not just those who are human, but extended itself across species. Koko, the sign-language speaking gorilla, loved Robin. According to her foster mother, Koko, who’d just lost her loved one Michael, came to life when Robin visited. She also said that Koko happily spent two hours with Robin, longer than she’d spent with any other human, and became more responsive, more open, since the death of Michael. Robin loved the interaction, and spoke about it for years. Robin was, indeed, special.

The world became a little less brighter. We lost some of our laughter this week. Heaven, however, is rocking with laughs, smiles, and giggles. Mrs. Doubtfire is giving St Pete a hard time about the state of the Pearly Gates. The Genie is popping in and out, and causing all kinds of chaos. Robin is arranging a celestial Comedy Relief for those poor souls that didn’t quite make it. Robin Williams has left the building, and we are all the poorer for having lost him, but heaven is so much richer…

And if Robin went the other way, the Devil is laughing so hard, he’s forgotten to torture anyone, and Robin will keep him like that for millennia

The Despair In Iraq

10 Sunday Aug 2014

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This past week, Obama finally decided to recognize there was an issue in Iraq. He has decided to do the “humanitarian” thing, and deliver aid to the poor Yazidis trapped in the mountains in Iraq. Obama has authorized bombing of ISIS targets if they threaten US citizens and consular staff. This sounds great. But it’s not; it is too little, way too late. Children are being beheaded, Christian as well as Muslim children, as well as their parents and grandparents, for any reason the ISIS terrorists can think of. Women have been stoned to death for “adultery”. And who determines adultery in ISIS? Well, if you’re the woman, forget about it.

Obama has had the intelligence briefings. He has had briefings from his national security team. Obama has talked with Middle East leaders. He has gotten briefings from leaders of the rebels in Syria. Kurdish leaders have spent the last year pleading with him. And now, when people, thousands of people, have died, when everyone is demanding action, when the American public is demanding something be done, Obama gives a small token. People in Iraq are dying because of the president’s short-ranged myopic view, and an inadequate effort, for a Status Of Forces Agreement. Christians are forced to pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die, because of a political decision that had nothing to do with supporting a democracy, and more with appeasing a small group of political friends in the US. Obama has strived to ignore the genocide going on in Syria, and now in Iraq, until someone has forced him to do his duty. And now, with such a catastrophe hanging over the Middle East, he believes he has done enough, and so, off on vacation he doth flies.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or the “caliphate” as Baghdadi wants to call it, has one agenda: The complete subjugation of the entire planet. Baghdadi believes that his dream is the only dream worth speaking of, and Islamic extremists and terrorists are working hard to fill it. Obama refuses to believe that the terrorists in Syria and Iraq present a threat to the US. To be perfectly honest, those terrorists hiding under the flag of ISIS are a threat to the US, Russia, all of Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the Ukraine, you name it, ISIS plans on destroying the government and taking over the nation. This is the greatest strategic threat to the US, literally, since World War II, and Obama has allowed it to fester and boil, for no real reason. These terrorists are attacking Lebanon, supposedly on their side, taking down their military and security forces. Next will be the Gaza Strip, hammering Hamas, then, taking up the terror where Hamas feared to tread. Meanwhile, in Africa, Boko Haram will be taken over by the terrorist organization, making that terrorist organization into a facsimile of ISIS. The next step will be coordinating with the Taliban, then overcoming and usurping them, in Afghanistan. And Obama will not do anything.

Our US military is not a showcase for military weaponry and training. Our military is supposed to be used to protect our country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. And ISIS is currently the biggest threat, bar none, that the US, and the world, is currently facing: An enemy that is determined to destroy our way of life. Democrats and Republicans should be demanding, not urging, demanding, that the president send in ground troops, military forces, to stop this group. It is not too late, and the president can leave, yes, let’s call it what it should be, an occupying force to help properly train the Iraqi military and police force, maintain a vigil, and support democracy in the region, support stability in the region. We need to do so now, with or without the support of the UN or NATO. This is what happened in World War II: A leader of an organization that has decided the world should be set up in a particular manner, who doesn’t care about anyone that does not accept his vision, and who is willing to use any means necessary, political, militarily, psychologically, to achieve his dream. His dream is supposed to be a caliphate based on worship to a higher being, but his reality is enslaving the world and having everyone bow to his commands.

If we don’t do anything, if Putin doesn’t do anything, if Jinping doesn’t do anything, if Ban Ki Moon doesn’t do anything, we will have, as I have said before, a catastrophe we haven’t seen since 1938. Baghdadi, as can be seen from the videos strewn throughout the internet, and news shots by various news organizations, has no qualms, even less qualms than Hitler, in eliminating those he feels are infidels, and thus, inferior to Muslims. By allowing the spread of this “caliphate”, Obama has increased pressure on the Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Emirati royal families, at a time when those families have issues and are feeling the heat from their own radical Muslims. Where once those countries exported their troublemakers to elsewhere, assuaging their and their troublemakers’ consciences by making funds available “to live well” in another country, now the birds are returning to roost, and spread dissension at home. If those troublemakers coalesce under the ISIS umbrella, those countries will fall, and those royal families will be executed, down to babes in arms.

We, as Americans, have an obligation. We have shirked that obligation too long on the altar of political expediency. The result is total mess, a disaster of near-biblical proportions, in an area that is the birthplace of three of the world’s great religions. We must step up, regardless of what the world says, and stop this mad man, his genocidal behavior, and his perversion of Islam. If we delay any longer, if we believe the pinpricks we are delivering are sufficient to halt this, we are sadly disillusioning ourselves. We cannot allow this terrorist organization to proliferate, for, if we ignore it now, we will pay even more in the future, in blood, in personnel, in territory, in everything. As I said, our military is supposed to be used to defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And this enemy is even more deadly, even more implacable, than Germany and Japan was in 1939.

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”

Liberty, Not Just Democracy (Warning: A Rant on the Current Administration and Congress)

01 Friday Aug 2014

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“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. “- Benjamin Franklin

Liberty, like freedom, is a concept that is alien to many of those outside of our country. Liberty means more than just the freedom to spout on about the issues of the day. Liberty means also defending, not just your right to say what you want to say, but to also defend your opponent and their right of what they want to say. Liberty, like freedom, isn’t free.

America has a long history of those who have stood up for the rights of the people. America has a long history of those who have also stood up for the rights of the individual. It is a core value of our country, and we defend that value, and we treasure our rights as free men and women as jealously as a miser treasures his gold.

But with our liberty comes our obligations. The right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” comes with its own price. And America has always been willing to pay that price. Always. Two times against the British, once against the French, once against the Spanish through their surrogates, once against our own brothers on our own soil, twice against German imperialism and ambition, twice against communist aggression, twice against a sadistic madman hiding behind Muslim values, once against a terrorist regime that dared to strike against unarmed men and women. Each time, the Tree of Liberty’s roots have been watered with the blood of those who refuse to bow down to those who would cause terror and deny Liberty and Freedom.

Our government representatives are supposed to be as selfless as the nameless faces that go forth to protect, not just our way of life, but the lives and freedoms of countless others throughout the world. Our government representatives are supposed to be as fair and impartial as they can be, in governing our country, and in insuring our way of life is protected. Our government’s only role is to enact laws that allow our freedoms and liberties to be unencumbered with those ideals and activities that are diametrically opposed to the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the several Constitutional Amendments. Our judicial representatives are supposed to interpret the law such that there is nothing that superimposes itself upon our liberties and our freedoms, resulting in a loss of those freedoms. And our executive representatives are supposed to insure that the freedoms and liberties we have fought and died for are represented whenever our villages, our towns, our cities, our states, and our country need to be represented to the world.

Our government was formed of the people, for the people, by the people. It is, and always has been, incumbent upon our elected leaders, to insure that laws are passed that are not in direct violation of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the several Amendments to the Constitution. And yet, in the last 20 years, many laws, Executive Acts, bills of attainder, et. al., have been produced, steadily eroding the rights and liberties we Americans hold dear. The right to bear arms, a formidable right, to insure that a well-trained militia would be available for support of our various state and federal forces, has had attempts to erode it, time and time again, without request for a Constitutional Amendment. An amendment is required as the right to bear arms is a sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. An income tax is not part of the Constitution, and for good reason. It is, as laid out in the Constitution, incumbent upon the legislative arm of our government, to create a budget and pay for the government through taxes and levies against businesses and to extract customs and excise from the flow of trade through the US border. And yet, our legislative body would prefer to strain the tree of liberty for the lifeblood of the average American, to support causes that do not enhance the life and liberty of the common American.

It seems in the inescapable rush for the current administration and the current congress to force America to become a nation catering to every concept except that which made America the driving force it is today, the current dominant party has decided to ignore the mandates of their own main-stream constituents, as well as those of the other major as well as minor parties that constitute our political landscape.

Although America has been able to recover from the excesses of the various parties at different periods throughout its existence, in this current period, we are faced with a monumental issue of the congress abdicating its responsibilities as the representatives of its people, in favor of currying favor with special interests, unions, the great group of people who live off the handouts from the government and refuse to partake in finding worthwhile jobs ( as opposed to those who have no other option to take welfare, but are working hard to improve their lot in life), those who feel that everything except conservatives have a right to have their feelings and sensibilities considered, in short, all the groups that have been instrumental in holding back the progress of America, increasing Americans dependence on government support, and reducing the ability of the average American to pursue their hopes and dreams.

Liberals have waited 40 years to put into practice at a federal level, every plan that failed at a local or state level. If the 50 states couldn’t or didn’t make the ideas work, how is the federal government going to achieve this, except through mandatory actions, and use of the military to enforce the actions. Of course, the current government won’t call it that; it’ll be “for the good of the people.” How many dictatorial regimes have used the same phrasing to strangle and remove the rights of the people? How many of our civil liberties will we give up to allow the government to try the failed experiment of socialism that plagues Europe and Eastern Europe. When do we say “Enough, this far and no farther”?

America, land of the free, home of the brave. But we have those who feel that our way of life is wrong, our decision to defend what we hold dear to be wrong, our basic freedoms in this republican democracy is wrong. To those I say: Leave. I will pay your way to whatever country or nation you feel is much better than the US. I’ll send you first class, one way. If you cannot look at your country without shame, you don’t belong in this country. I won’t call you a traitor, unless you do something that hurts Americans, in the US or abroad. If you wish to succor the enemies of the US, please, feel free to join them wherever they are. But do not cry, when you find that the freedom to speak your mind, that you take for granted, is brutally repressed by those who don’t want to hear you. Don’t be surprised when you and your family are abused and all your wealth is confiscated, for the government’s pleasure, in the nation you decide to live in. However, don’t be surprised, and do be grateful, if you call to the US to help you go home, and the brave and selfless men and women of our great military risk life and limb to bring you and your family back to the US.

For then you will know what freedom means…

“For our so called politicians If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen. ” Samuel Adams

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”