Welcome To The Twilight Zone

Catholic news roundup: HHS, abortion and more

2012-02-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Well, this has been an interesting little month.Active readers to this blog know that I am the Catholic Examiner for Examiner.com. Which means I basically report what people say. A lot. And there is a metric ton of stupid every day when it comes to subjects like "Catholics."

Seriously, I typed it in as a search term on Twitter a few times, it was like spelunking into a troll cave.And this month, it got even worse. Or better, if you want to view it that way -- I got a lot of writing done. However, while I usually have a Catholic review at the end of the month, this month already requires a massive column dump.

It started simple. In Obama to churches: drop dead, I reported that the government program commonly known as Obamacare was going to be making Catholic churches pay for abortions, and sterilizations, and contraception, even though the church preaches that all of those are immoral. And, since the first one was "Drop dead," I had to be a smartass and follow it up with Churches to Obama: and on the third day, we struck back. -- there is a petition against Obama's little mandate..After that, I figured I should ask a common question -- didn't the church support Obama? And Obamacare? Not only that, but wasn't Obama pro-abortion before he ran for the Oval office? So, I asked if the Church is still gullible after all these years?The next predictable FAQ ... why is the Catholic church against abortion, and contraception, and all the other stuff. What is the big idea, after all? So I had to call it the Catholic church, abortion, and natural law ... you'll see what I mean.

And then Nancy Pelosi earned her thirty pieces of silver ... in this case, she came out to stand with the Catholics ... who supported Obama, declaring it an act of courage to stand against the church. Let's just say I used The Princess Bride a lot. Given that this is consistent with her stance for her entire career, I had a lot of people asking if Pelosi was to be excommunicated. It was a little sarcastic. Even my editor caught up on it.

He who takes the Catholic vote takes the election. Guess who ... may not? I ran some electoral math on the 2012 election. You might be surprised at the problems here.

After a while, as you can imagine, this got kinda stupid. And I was tired of all of it. So, I discussed the Million-dollar ripoff of the New York archdiocese -- and you thought the priests were the problem. I then did a brief examination of Occupy wall street and the revenge of the Vatican ninjas -- just when you thought you were safe, huh? Then Proposition 8 was overturned -- my only note there is that it might be a little soon to pop the champagne.

Then the government did something stupid, and the Army censored the Catholic church over the issue of -- you guessed it -- Obamacare. Oy.

And then, Chris Matthews stood with Catholics against Obama ... and that was strange. And what was even stranger? So were a lot of other people in the news media, and I covered that in my News roundup: Catholics and the HHS mandate. Then, even Rand Paul defended the Catholic church .... and he's not even Catholic!

Then, last Friday, there was a press conference. I listened, then wondered: Has Obama compromised on churches? The answer .... probably not. But you'll have to read that and decide it yourself.

Be well all.

Inspiring Authors: J. Michael Straczynski

2012-02-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, I look over my writing style, and I look at what I've taken away from the authors I've been exposed to.

The first, and most important writing influence is someone named J. Michael Straczynski (JMS).

JMS, who I have mentioned once or twice, was an executive producer on Murder, She wrote, created Babylon 5, and writes almost anything else he can get his hands on. He's written comics, TV, novels, science fiction, battling demons....

Just look him up on amazon, buy everything except for “Rising Stars” and “Supreme Power.”

I'm not joking. Go now.

If you saw Thor -- and who didn't? You didn't? Go see it. I'll wait..... Back now? You liked it? Good. -- JMS had a cameo in the film as the first fellow to find Thor's hammer, and organized that big sequence with trying to drag out the hammer with a truck.

There is Tribulations, a book about demonic possession in modern LA. Surprisingly well put together and very religious ... And he's an atheist. So, he at least knows how to appreciate religion, even if it's only for use as fantasy fodder.

I first experienced the writing of JMS a very long time ago, before I even knew who the man was. Originally an author for television, he worked his way up from cartoons and into prime time. He penned the only episode of The Real Ghostbusters that I can remember. Twenty years after the original airing of Murder, She Wrote, all of the episodes I knew off the top of my head happened to be written by him (if you remember an episode in the Psycho house, that would be Joe).

I first became aware of Joe Straczynski with his television show Babylon 5; at the time, it seemed to be a rip-off of a Star Trek program that had just come on called Deep Space 9. Then odd things started happening. To start with, the show had character. The characters on the show had personalities. They had backgrounds. They had character flaws. When there was fighting, there were actual military tactics, and the science fiction .... had science.

If you are not a follower of science fiction, you may not be aware of this, but to find military tactics in most science fiction filmed media is almost as rare as finding science in a Star Trek film. As mentioned during our week of Infinite Space, Infinite God II, most sci-fi will resort to technobabble before using actual science. Babylon 5 is the first science fiction television show that ever explained how their artificial gravity worked.

With military tactics -- how much in the way of tactics did anyone see in Star Wars or Star Trek that did not amount to "Watch two armies. See them ram into each other. See them ignore that space is three dimensional."

With Babylon 5, NASA has asked permission to use some of their designs, because they can't come up with better ideas. If you ever hear about a NASA space construction craft called a "Star Fury," it's because JMS allowed them to use it on the condition that it shared the name it had on the tv show....

Constant readers of this blog will see the fingerprints of JMS all over it. The most popular blog post Disasters to Marvel At was made possible by Joe Straczynski. After Babylon 5, JMS went on to writing comic books; in particular, Amazing Spider Man (ASM). Being a fan of Straczynski's, I followed. It was the first time I had picked up a comic book in about five years. At least.

And it was a gloriously enjoyable run. If you ever saw an issue of ASM that involved Spider-Man dealing with the 9-11 attacks, that was JMS' doing. It was a throwaway issue in a grand story arc that had Peter Parker questioning his own origins, pondering whether or not he was part of a larger plan, and finding himself embroiled more and more with supernatural problems. The solutions became more cerebral and scientific than requiring an ability to pound someone into dust.

Also, in pure JMS fashion, he took the marriage of Peter Parker and made it work -- after all, Straczynski's strong suit is having two people interact with each other. And it's nothing like having a reconciliation in the middle of a super-powered smackdown at Denver airport.

And then there was the surprisingly epic ASM 500, where JMS managed to condense the entire 500 isues before into one, simple question.

Which is why I was somewhat enraged when editorial mandate came down from a clear blue sky and decreed that every Marvel comic would be dragooned into the Event of the Week. The story arc for Straczynski's Spider-Man run was stomped on by the far inferior Civil War. And, while I liked what JMS managed to do with it, despite editorial mandate (it was the only part of the Civil War I remotely enjoyed), and he managed to make the follow-up Back in Black, a fun read, at the end of the day, management came down and destroyed, literally, every achievement JMS wrote over the course of his six-year run.

When I saw JMS at New York Comic Con, he had a running phrase: "Joe, you suck." He even had the audience repeat it back to him. However, between the links above, there's a reason why I think it should be "Joe (Quesada), you suck."

JMS would also take over duties on Thor, where he placed the Norse deity in the middle of New Mexico (Thor movie fans, sound familiar?)

After Marvel and he had a falling out, he went direct to DC. He did some spectacular Team-ups of the Brave and the Bold, tried to work on a new arc for Wonder Woman, and even a Superman arc called Grounded. Right now, he's heading the bestseller list with his graphic novel Superman: Earth One. If Warner Brothers is smart, they'll reboot the Superman movie franchise with Earth one as a model.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM JMS.

I learned how to write people. Taking a cue from Rod Serling, JMS knew how to make a conversation be dramatic with just two people in a room, no ticking bomb required. He knew how to work dynamics with different characters for different results. He even went so far to lock two people in a room together, he literally trapped two characters in an elevator.

If you wondered why my short story One Way to Stay out of Jail consisted mostly of two people in a room just talking to each other, you can probably guess. It's the joy of having characters (some of whom are deeply flawed) interacting with each other.

Another thing I got from JMS -- how to take cliche's and turn them inside out.

For example...

Situation: Two people who hate each other are trapped in an elevator; fires are burning outside. If they don't work together, they will die.
Hollywood standard procedure: The trapped duo will overcome their grievances in order to stay alive.
JMS: One character says to another "I'm not going to help. This way, I can watch you die and I won't be prosecuted."

It's fun.

In A Pius Man, there is a reason that the book has plenty of deep, in-depth conversations between people who have some obvious flaws .... although a lot of it revolves around Sean Ryan, who is, himself, really weird.

Further Reading.

Other works by JMS include.

Demon Night (I haven't read it yet, but it should be fun)

Othersyde: Another book I loved. High school, meet demonology 101.

Two high school nerds, "losers," tormented and tortured on a routine basis, buy curiosities -- two telegraph signal senders.

And then, the devices start tapping out Morse code on their own.

It was elegantly written, and even made the angst of high school tolerable. And, no, there is no Twilight level, whiny-angsty BS. I would take a power drill to my head before I even read anything remotely like it, to heck with recommending it.

Book of Lost Souls: A late, lamented comic book series JMS wrote while at Marvel. While there were only five issues of this run, I think it has a good, solid story arc. that reads well even though Marvel pulled the plug on it early on.

Straczynski Unplugged: A collection of short stories, mostly novelized versions of screenplays JMS did for The New Twilight Zone back in the 80s. I can only assume these few were all he did, otherwise the show would have done much, much better. These were all awesome.

Under the heading of both "touching" and "I never saw this coming," was Silver Surfer: Requiem. The premise: the Silver Surfer originally made a devil's bargain to save his home planet, becoming the Surfer, herald to a planet-eating being called Galactus. Years later, the Silver Surfer's own body is turning against him. Everything that makes him the Surfer is breaking down. The story arc is broken down into four parts. Benedictus, Sanctus, Kyrie, and Agnus Dei. All parts of the funeral mass.

Let's put it this way: I never liked Silver Surfer, and this brought me to tears ... yes, I'm a nerd.

Bullet Points: Another Marvel project. A simple "What if?" If the assassin who killed Captain America's creator completed his task 24 hours earlier, and, at the same time, killing one of the bodyguards, a Ben Parker, what would the world look like. The only thing that I've read that compares to it in comics is the ASM 9-11 issue ... also by JMS.

Midnight Nation-- Okay, this was pure, unadulterated awesome. An LA cop finds himself caught in the crossfire between Heaven and Hell, and loses his soul, becoming one of the lost people of the Midnight Nation.

In order to get his soul back, he has to cross all of America to New York City to face the Devil himself.

Squadron Supreme and Rising Stars -- the only works I can honestly not endorse. Even JMS has complaints about Squadron Supreme.

Update: Sorry, I'm from New York, the Midwest, unfortunately, does look alike to me -- New Mexico or Oklahoma. Especially since the artwork in the JMS Thor comic and the images in the Thor movie looked the same to me. I suspect Kenneth Branaugh looked at the comic and said "This doesn't match Oklahoma, where does it match? Nex Mexico? We're there."

Chicago politics, White house

2012-01-04T16:34:00.004-05:00

I do so enjoy it when government tells me that they're doing something "for the children."

When has that ever been the case? Seriously? Every time they do something "for" anyone, it's mostly just about themselves.

Let's take the nanny-state laws passed under the motivation and campaigning of Michelle Obama. You know, how every school lunch from now until the end of time will only serve healthy food?

Tell it to the schoolkids in Los Angeles, who have blown the whistle on the East Wing chef-in-chief’s healthy-lunch dictates. The school district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and flavored milk from the menu for “beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads.” Cool, right?

According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” While the Obama administration has showered the nation’s second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students rebelled and started their own forbidden-food black market — with teachers joining in.

Moreover, “principals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away.”

This is despite a massive increase in spending on nutritional improvements — from $2 million to $20 million alone over the last five years on fresh produce.

This despite a nearly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall and 3,000 layoffs earlier this year.

Earlier this spring, L.A. school officials acknowledged that the sprawling district is left with a whopping 21,000 uneaten meals a day, in part because the federal school-lunch program “sometimes requires more food to be served than a child wants to eat.” The leftovers will now be donated to nonprofit agencies. But after the recipients hear about students’ reports of moldy noodles, undercooked meat, and hard rice, one wonders how much of the “free” food will go down the hatch — or down the drain. Ahhh, savor the flavor of one-size-fits-all mandates.

There’s nothing wrong with encouraging our children to eat healthier, of course. There’s nothing wrong with well-run, locally based, and parent-driven efforts. But the federal foodie cops care much less about students’ waistlines than they do about boosting government and public-union payrolls.

In a little-noticed announcement several months ago, Obama health officials declared their intention to use school-lunch applications to boost government health-care rolls. Never mind the privacy concerns of parents. Chicago public-school officials banned students from bringing home-packed meals made by their own parents.

In April, the Chicago Tribune reported that “unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.” The bottom line? Banning homemade lunches means a fatter payday for the school and its food provider.

And the biggest beneficiaries of Michelle Obama's efforts over the past three years have been her husband’s deep-pocketed pals at the Service Employees International Union. There are 400,000 workers who prepare and serve lunch to American schoolchildren. SEIU represents tens of thousands of those workers and is trying to unionize many more at all costs.

In L.A., the district’s cafeteria fund is $20 million in the hole thanks to political finagling by SEIU Local 99. The union’s left-wing allies on the school board and in the mayor’s office pressured the district to adopt reckless fiscal policies awarding gold-plated health benefits to part-time cafeteria workers in the name of “social justice.” As one school-board member who opposed the budget-busting entitlements said: “Everyone in this country deserves health benefits. But it was a very expensive proposal. And it wasn’t done at the bargaining table, which is where health benefits are usually negotiated. And no one had any idea where the money was going to come from.”

Early next year, Mrs. Obama will use the “success” of her child-nutrition campaign to hawk a new tome and lobby for more money and power in concert with her husband’s reelection campaign.

Time to order out.

Christmas blog: Cool stuff. Cooking for 93.

2011-12-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

The odds that anyone is going to read the blog today are so slender, it's improbably ridiculous.

However, for those of you who have tripped over my website today, you will not go away empty handed.

First up: have you ever had to cook for relatives? On Thanksgiving? Without any help from the vast army you're feeding?

If the answer is yes: enjoy.

Next up, you've seen my videos -- and if you haven't, look in the right hand margin, and you'll find them soon enough.

However, now that I've seen this awesome group, I think I should hire them before I try doing another one.

What the hell, seriously?

2011-12-21T23:14:00.001-05:00

What's wrong with you women? And I mean that with the deepest, most sincere respect, but what the hell.

I recently started dating again. Not so much jumping back into the dating pool, but trying to swim at the deep end of the pool. Someone sends me an email on Okcupid.com, a dating website, and I reply. She thinks I'm cool, and awesome, and I don't know who she thinks she's talking about, but apparently, tag, I'm it.

Great, I have a date. And the woman works not five minutes from my house. By walking.

Even more important, when I tell her that I don't want an over-sexed relationship, she agrees. This can't get any better. Really.

We talk, we meet. She's pleasant, and friendly, with a light southern accent, well spoken, 5'9", and somewhere northwards of 190 ... but I really don't care, I'm not much to look at either.

So we sit down at the local pizza place... and she's playing footsie with me ten minutes into the date. How do I know? Because after twenty minutes, she's either fondling my shoe with her foot, or she really isn't noticing.

And, I asked her. She said yes....Yeah, I asked a woman if she was flirting with me .... shut up. I know nothing of nonverbal cues. I need a great big neon sign and fireworks.

By the end of the dinner portion of our evening, I start walking her towards my car, offering her a ride home. She's wrapped arm and arm with me ... I go with it, it seems harmless. When I ask why she wanted to avoid the garlic rolls, she said "You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out."

Blink .... Wait, does that mean she expects me to kiss her? Well, okay, not a problem. I'm okay with that. And I try it, and she needs me to help her walk for a little.

Finally I drop her off at home, she invites me in. She kisses me. There's some of that, and we go back to talking. Though, after a while, given her reactions to kissing, I figure I should ask something -- how she saw the evening playing out.

By end of the evening, she's humping my leg.... Fail.

Let's fast forward to this week (yes, leg humping was only two weeks ago. Tis the season, apparently).

This week, I compliment a female writer friend of mine about her book. I give her nothing but compliments.

I tell her that I can hear Alyson Hannigan playing out one scene in her book. My exact words: "all I can hear is a vampiric Alyson Hannigan saying “Bored now, bye.” "-- citing a particular episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the actress was a vampire in an alternate dimension.

I tell her that I liked her use of time; it was very 24-ish (yes, I like 24; Jack Bauer rules, and let's torture the shit out of terrorists. Anyone got a problem with that?).

And I reacted to one of her scenes with an "Oy" and a great big smiley.

Her reply?

I realize you're used to making uncensored comments on manuscripts, but it really doesn't help when the first public comment on something I've written is "Bored now, bye"!

If it's boring, you can do what everyone else does and just stop reading it. I will not be offended. This chapter was very girl-talky anyway, and you're not a girl-talk kind of reader.

WHAT? I compare the book to a thriller, and you ask about girl talk. I compare your character to something out of Joss Whedon, you read that as "boring"?

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

Writing a love story.

2011-12-19T12:01:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned how many different things that my novel, A Pius Man, happens to be. I've mentioned how I blow up public places. That there is philosophy, shootouts, history, explosions, theology, a car chase, RPGs (not role playing games), property damage, and … hmm, there's something else there.

Oh, yeah, a love story.

It's not that strange. After all, a love story seems almost obligatory nowadays. Usually, as a motivation for senseless violence after killing off half of the couple involved. Even if it's as simple as a boy and his dog … or a boy and his robotic killing machine in Terminator 2.

I mean, hell, what makes me qualified to do a romance subplot? I mean, hell, I'm weird, maybe you've noticed. Just from the various and sundry topics on the site, I'm all over the place. I've done comic books, politics, terrorism, writing, music, book reviews, and the list keeps going. The less said about theology, the better.

But a love story?

Here's the thing. I'm in love …

Yes, with a woman … Yes, she's human …

And non-fiction …

No, she's not “from Canada”...

Though she might as well be.

It's complicated.

I met this woman online, and she didn't come onto me in any way. She saw I was a fan of J. Michael Straczynski, when she asked to be friends on Myspace. This was back when Myspace was actually good for something ...

Yes, that long ago.

We exchanged emails. We found out that we have a lot in common. We make fun of the same people. We like the same authors. We have the same sense of humor....

On the same sense of humor: we each started talking about one book that had come out – a Jim Butcher novel called Turncoat. My family had gotten the book before her local library had, and she said, “No spoilers.”

At which point, my default setting was to tease her. “So I shouldn't tell you about the love interest being the traitor, and Y-person 'comforting' our hero afterwards …? …. Which of course is impossible for me to know, because I haven't I haven't been able to read the book at all, so I know nothing.”

Her response was “Ye gods, your second paragraph had me wanting to claw my eyes out before I got to your third! Mission accomplished; you got me good.”

I think I fell a little bit in love with her that day.

Though what prompted me to first say it was when she sent me a little bit of “flair” that said “Good morning, I see the assassins have failed.”

And I had sent her the exact same flair about the exact same time.

My reply was mostly in jest: “I am certain that we are compatibly dorky and violent. I must hit on you.... “

Her response: “Hit on me? This could get scary if we're ever on the same side of the continent at the same time. But don't let that stop you. :)”

But that was as far at it went. The rest of that exchange had to deal with the spoilers discussion from above. Every once in a while, we would mention “flirtation subtitles,” or hand signals (via email). We would compare dating histories, then discuss Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Victor Hugo, and try to write Jim Butcher's next few books for him. We had similar jokes on sex scenes in novels – and even considered doing a similar twist on the cliché for a later novel: an idea we had developed independent of each other.

We challenge each other – I know she challenges me, and she claims the same, but she covers it so very well and so effortlessly, I wouldn't know unless she told me.

We then started shipping books back and forth for conferences she didn't get to, but I did, and vice versa. She got me into a webcomic she was following in hardcopy … then I read ahead of her by reading it online.

After two years of back and forth, we met in person at an aquarium. Nothing overdramatic, but it was pleasant. We talked of comic book characters, and sharks and Peter Benchley. When we tried footnoting the real life story Benchley stole Jaws from, we both knew it was 1916, in the New York area, but we disagreed on the shark type and the exact location. Then we found a plaque dedicated to Jaws, and discovered that I was right about the shark, she was right about the location.

Together, we can remember a whole story.

I suspect that with her, I can even pass for a whole and complete person.

Since we are on opposite ends of the universe, she has encouraged me to try dating -- if only as a trial run. She is the only woman for whom I would drag myself into the quagmire of the dating pool.

No, she is not the most beautiful woman in the universe – well, she is, but I can't say that, because she somewhat disagrees with me on the topic, and it's easier just to smile, nod, and talk about something else.

I think she's beautiful and wondrous. And she is truly the brightest star in my star ...

Thankfully, I have a 50/50 chance of her reading this blog … so, shhh, don't tell her.

But not only is she beautiful, she's smart, and kind, and generous. She offers time she doesn't have, but by God, she will make it. I suspect if/when A Pius Man sells it will be because of her time and effort in edits.

No, it's not easy. I've hit her self-destruct buttons a few times without knowing it. In fact, once, I jabbed it repeatedly in the same few hours without realizing it. And I nearly triggered a nervous breakdown. By email alone.

We're working on our communication.

As I said, not easy. But if love were easy, I wouldn't trust it. I've had love come to me easily. Twice. Both times, it ended in the most spectacularly awful implosion.

So, it's not easy. But it's right.

That is pretty much what I hope to do in my novels...

Notice how my relationship developed. Little details. Small things that add up into a very nice big picture. Our tiny jabs at Stephen King, the light teasing about Terry Prachett. Change the details if you like, but that's mostly how I like to think most romance stories should go.

Then again, if I wrote a romance novel, I suspect that my two leads would only get to an “I love you” by the end of the book. Possibly on the last page. Or when they're about to be killed.

And it's not easy. But it's right.

The Videos of A Pius Man

2011-12-15T12:55:00.000-05:00

A lot of what I've been doing lately has been in support of my novel A Pius Man.. This includes movies ... yeah, I'm doing my own trailers. Without CGI.

This is where I've collected the ones done thus far.

This wasn't the first one, but it was a remodeled version of it. I cleaned up the typeface a little, and I think the visuals are spliced together better.

The images are obviously not done by me. Anyone who's found the Vatican Ninja images I've done will notice that. They're from a lot of books that take one side of the Pope Pius XII argument, such as it is. And, just maybe, a Dan Brown novel.

I'm subtle like that.

And then, then there were the character trailers.

[More below the break]

I started with Scott Murphy, Catholic Israeli spy.

You can't believe how much I had to go through to get this ready.

First, I had to get a model for Murphy -- superficially, an utterly pale, colorless person, who couldn't even handle a gun. There's no one like that ... at least, no one I know.

Solution: use myself, preferably in a way that will cover most of my features.

This became a problem when I tried using my own body for a corpse. Apparently, if I'm not covered in lots of padding, I'm quite obvious.

The solution? GCI a chalk outline and crime scene markers. No body, no problem. Take some voicework from Matthew Funtime (who volunteered), and some music from the Tom Clancy came Rainbow Six, and we're off to the races.

So, now what?

Giovanni Figlia, Swiss Guard.

It's amazing what a little Mozart and some visuals can do, isn't it? Take that, and a friend who speaks with an Italian accent, and you're golden .....

Halo.

I did another modification on the first trailer, the only difference is that I used the music from the video game Halo. I think it makes a nice change

Next ... I have no idea. Still trying to figure that part out. I might need stunt people.

Be well all, see you next week.

Music blog: Heart of a Dragon, One Winged Angel, and Halo

2011-12-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry, this Tuesday, I can't honestly say that there's anything I want to blog about.....

So, music blog.

You remember back when I mentioned I was a nerd? This is proof. I present you with the most epic soundtrack I've heard in years .... the main theme for the Halo video game series.

While I originally wanted to post this video, the owner disabled embedding. Darn it.

I have mentioned Dragonforce once or twice. Like I said before, I like their music for fight scenes. I'm not sure I understand what their songs are about.

And then there's this. Another video game soundtrack. This is the main villain's theme from Final Fantasy 7. I've never played the game, but I can't argue with a theme that can utilize an entire orchestra.

Music to Write To: Winterborn, Cambreadth, and Over the Hills....

2011-12-14T12:01:00.000-05:00

Sometimes your friends know best.

After months of doing non-fiction, "high-intellect" blog posts, some of my friends could see what it was doing to me better than I could. Let's just say that they could tell I was under a strain. Also, they found the posts boring.

So, time for something fun.

It's been a while since I posted on this blog, and I really think I should get back into the swing of posting whatever I like. Which include history, blowing stuff up on paper, and doing it to really cool music.

Here's some more stuff that I enjoy writing to.

"Winterborn," by the Cruxshadows. I never know what to do with this band. They are nominally "Goth," but they tend to use a lot of classical imagery. I first encountered from in a John Ringo novel called Ghost.(A book I will talk about at a later date, with a few cautionary notes ... it's not that bad, but there is one section that should carry a warning label) I had no idea what the song was about, so I looked it up on YouTube. The title is taken from something that could be from the original Illiad -- that the bravest of those who died were born in winter.

In this case, the visuals are taken from the video game "Halo 2."

"March of Cambreadth," by Heath Alexander. I first discovered this song in a John Ringo novel called When the Devil Dances, a scifi military novel about a cannibalistic Mongol horde spreading through the galaxy, with only humans to stand in the way. While the author himself refers to it as carnography (which I can only presume means "carnage porn"), it's well designed, the characters fully developed, and there's enough scheming and political intrigue to fully screw up a war.... the images are from the tv show Babylong 5, which happens to also be a scifi war epic. I know this because I assembled the video myself.

"Over the Hills and Far Away." It's an army song from the Napoleonic wars, and was first introduced to most people through the British tv movie series "Sharpe's Rifles." Richard Sharpe, the main character, was played by Sean Bean.... coincidentally the one who played Boromir in the video below.

"Over the Hills and Far Away," by Nightwish. I found this one song while looking for the it's partner above. And, wow, was I in for a surprise.

And, a final one for today. Remember all of those movie trailers, when you listen to the awesome soundtrack, and you expect to hear it in the movie... only to discover that it's not there, only in the trailer?

Odds are, it's Two Steps from Hell.

Music Blog: 307 Ale, Halo, Dragon Rider

2011-12-14T11:30:00.001-05:00

By the way, before we begin, please remember that we have a contest ongoing. Also, if you could check out some of our sponsors on the way out, it would be nice. Thanks.

Anyway, today is the return of Filk music.

Tom Smith: 307 Ale .... the world's first hyper beer.

More below the break.

Epic "Trailer music", by Two Steps from Hell

And, a bit of soundtrack from the Halo franchise. On A Pale Horse (Reprise): A surprisingly touching bit of music, considering the title.

FAQ: Where do you get your ideas?

2011-12-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

I've been doing a bit of writing, and I've touched on this briefly during the series on how I created A Pius Man, but, apparently, the question many authors are besieged with is “How do you come up with your ideas?”

Short answer: formal viewpoint. Or a functional mentality.

For example, last year, I saw Forbes Magazine with cover article about how al-Qaeda was losing money, and it suggested that Osama "needed a new business model."

I can not make this stuff up.

The point is, people look at things from a “formal viewpoint.” I would look at a large pile of money and think of where a character would hide it. An accountant would probably count it all. A pyromaniac would look at it as stuff to burn.

[More below the break]

In my case... to use an example, in 1998, my family went to London and stopped off to see the Crown Jewels. Everyone else stared at the jewels. I went and looked at the security. I didn't take notes, since I didn't want to be thrown out of the Tower of London by the fastest possible route [the jewels were a few floors up]. The British Museum got the same treatment from me -- The Elgin Marbles from the Greek Parthenon had their own wing.... so, if the Greeks really wanted them back, they could steal them with a few construction helicopters and just airlift the whole wing—the Israelis did that with an Egyptian radar tower once to great effect.

Basically, it's a matter of looking at things from a certain viewpoint. I suspect that if I go see the Mona Lisa, the majority of my time will be pondering how someone could disable the security guards, the electronic surveillance, and walk away with a few paintings from the Louvre. Though the answer would probably be to steal something from the basement storage area—less security, without the individual alarms on every piece.... hmm, now that's an idea....can someone scan for Semtex at the entrypoint to the Louvre? Hrm...

The sad thing is that the above was really thought up as I wrote it.

I created one character because a teacher in high school, on the first day of class, said “I'm a wanted terrorist. I've been hunted for 19 years.... I can kill you with two fingers.” He was the creative writing teacher, so we went with it....

And I wondered... “What if he was telling the truth?”

He's in a back pocket somewhere, for when I get around to writing that novel. The annoying thing is, I have it outlined....

Some, like Harlan Ellison, have described writing as a compulsion, and that's because that's how we seem to be wired. Be it the Tower of London or the British Museum, writers wonder how we can do something with where we are, what we're doing, some little factoid we picked up, or a stray comment.

I don't think I've ever gone to someplace and not wondered how to blow it up, shoot it up, or what would be required to do something like that.

Rebekah Hendershot, author of Masks, described a similar experience when creating her book: “Why doesn't LA have any superheroes?” Answer: “Because something killed them all. And it's still here.”

With A Pius Man, Scott “Mossad” Murphy came out of the mass of Evangelicals flocking to Israel after 9-11. What does Israel do with all of these meshuge goyim? And what do you do with them if they want to join the military, or even the intelligence services? Answer: the goyim brigade—Mossad agents who not only "don't look Jewish," but aren't. Murphy was just a throwaway character I had come up with to use “someday.” He had literally been shoved into a notebook and left there for three years. I had used him once as a supporting character in one book, and all but forgot him. Later, he came in handy.

And that's why writers have notebooks—to keep track of all the random neurons firing off with ideas. You never know when there's going to be something that comes in handy. Stephen King supposedly has a trunk filled with notebooks of ideas past.

So, if you ever think that a writer is odd, well, they are. They look at things from different points of view—if only because they have to be able to see things from the points of view of different people as they write them. Stephen King writes about things that scare him... and that seems to be everything... the author of Rebekah saw how much LA had been shortchanged of superheroes and decided to explain why. I think up various and sundry ways to kill someone with a ballpoint pen (I'm on nine).

That's how we find ideas. We're wired to.

But then again, who'd go into this profession if we weren't?

Music blog: Tom Smith's Rocket Ride, Where Dragons Rule, Halo

2011-12-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

This is Tom Smith's classic "Rocket Ride." Basically, making fun of every major high-budget scifi movie made .... possibly in the last twenty years. Give or take a decade.

I think it's kinda fun.

Enjoy

Dragonforce: Where Dragons Rule, as done to Halo.

Month in review: November, 2011

2011-12-13T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, another month shot to hell. :)

Anyway, November was an interesting little month. This was the month I discovered Stumbleupon.com.... and I posted links to almost every single blog entry, and tossed in some of Masks as well .... only in that case, I crashed the website for a little bit. Oops.

So, all of that adds up to this month having over 13,255 hits on the blog. It's been a good month. Even if I had to rewrite the top ten blog list. I may still yet have to.

Anyway...

I've written characters of mine who take surveys, starting with Egyptian cop Hashim Abasi ... who has a list of enemies on his mouse pad.

And, if you ever missed a video we've done thus far, well, you can't: here are the complete Videos of A Pius Man. Not to mention that there's also a video going around the net that makes me think I have to seriously up my A-game: a live action recreation of a video game fight from the epic game Arkham city.

Oh yes, and there is a contest going on: I hope someone has noticed.

Our music blogs have had: Dragonforce's Heart of a Dragon, Final Fantasy's One Winged Angel, and Mozart. We also had Tom Smith's Cooking for 93 ... a little something for Thanksgiving. There was also the classic science fiction summary in song Rocket Ride, by Tom Smith, as well as some Dragonforce's Where Dragons Rule. We also had some Two steps from Hell, and the greatest beer that any bar has ever had for sale: it's Three-oh-seven Ale.

I've also had the most FAQ that any author has ever had to deal with: "Where do you get your ideas from?" Here's an answer.

There was also some issues with Google. Feh.

And, finally, there was a self defense review: with kill shots, Occupiers, and ... something else, I'm sure.

See you Monday.

The Politics of ... Captain America?

2011-12-13T12:29:00.000-05:00

I don't think words can really convey how much I hate politics. Even though I've done at least two blogs on the topic, around the Ground Zero Mosque, and the politics of my novel, and I would like politicians to just shut up already.

But now, someone had to go putting their politics into my comic book movies.

Before I continue, this is nothing new. Every time a superhero movie comes out, it must be metaphor for modern politics. The Dark Knight was seen by some idiots at the NYTimes as a commentary on the War on Terror. Which is odd, I thought it was merely "the Joker is evil, and if we're going to catch the bugger, we're going to have to break a few laws to do it."

The Times were also instrumental in discussing the Lord of the Rings as metaphor as well, with the theatrical release of Return of the King's absence of Saruman being likened unto a missing Osama. Instead, everyone who saw the Return of the King, special edition knows that Saruman was deleted from the film because of time issues.

Spoiler alert:

Saruman the White is dead.

So is Grima Wormtongue.

So is Osama bin Laden.

The end.

Now, somebody at Salon has decided to make Captain America into something ... else.

After the July 22 release of the summer blockbuster "Captain America: the First Avenger," we'll probably see even more Captain Americas waving placards at protests for all parts of the political spectrum. The Red, White and Blue Avenger is and always has been a potent political image, but whose side would Captain America be on? Would he be a New Deal Democrat slinging his mighty shield for new public works programs or would he be rallying with the Tea Party to lower taxes on billionaires and gut Medicare? Whose Captain America is he anyway?

I can't make this up.

Captain America with an economic policy? Really? Doesn't he have enough problems with facing the forces of darkness every other day? "Captain America, what's your stance on -- oops, this just in, Hydra's trying to take over the world again ... and Captain America just ran away from our reporters' questions! How dare he!!!"

Anyway, the quote above is taken, as noted, from Salon.com. Someone sent me a National Review Online newsletter, with an interesting, non-political stance.

Must he have a position on entitlement reform? Can't he spend most of his waking hours fighting the Red Skull, Crossbones, Hydra, and Avengers' management issues? (Picture him working out the schedule: "Can't leave Iron Man and Thor working the Friday night shift together; they'll take a Quinjet on a beer run and before the night is over, some building will get leveled, some villain will be pummeled and filing an excessive force suit, and some innocent bystander will touch some mystic artifact or advanced nanotechnology and 'have an origin.'" )

I may just be easily amused, but I find it funny that the National Review writers are nerds.

I'm a little embarrassed that someone has to write this down. And the sad thing is, the Salon writer seemed to be in deadly earnest. Argh.

But, seriously, someone has got to go on their meds. Now.

Month in Review: October, 2011

2011-12-13T11:40:00.001-05:00

October is the month where everything went very, very strange. And, that was apparently a good thing.

I started out with something that pissed me off: DC Comics turning Starfire and Catwoman, two of their stronger female protagonists, into sluts, to put it charitably. They were so totally reduced to sex objects, I wanted to throw rocks.

So I threw angry language at them instead.

Ironically, in one month, it has become the most read post on this entire blog, beating out Disasters to Marvel at, which is a year old.

Also, I decided to get back to creative writing, creating more surveys that my characters have filled out. You know, the older online essays that used to be sort of fun. I had one for the German spy Manana Shushurin, and another for the Secret Service agent and nerd, Wilhelmina Goldberg, as well as the lethal weapon, Irish Interpol Agent Maureen McGrail.

I didn't have all that many music blogs this month. I threw up some John Williams marches, and Tom Smith taking his revenge on technology and Rob Granito

A false report on gay marriage in the military made me start an irate blog .... then I wanted a better footnote, discovered that the story I based my indignation on was bogus, and I was stuck with a blog I had to rewrite, very, very fast.

I put in another blog on writing. This time it was a matter of "how to exposition like crazy" -- when you have to dump a graduate paper's worth of information into one novel.

Also, I had a little conversation on how to write for disaster. It's mostly how to write characters who are supposed to be terrified, when you yourself have never been quite that scared -- and, making certain that your character's fear is appropriate both to the situation, and the person.

And, there was my self-defense review for the month -- with my my self defense columns for October. It had to do a lot with Occupy Wall Street, self defense for women, and self defense against the zombie apocalypse .... I'm serious about the zombie apocalypse part.

Catholic conspiracies 3. This was almost a replacement for It was inspired after I saw a lot of idiots try to pin Occupy Wall Street on "crypto-Jewish Jesuit fascists founded by the Illuminati."

I want my Vatican ninjas.

Catholic Conspiracies 3: Jesuits, OWS, and the Vandals Are Here.

2011-12-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

Vatican

Ninja

Remod

(Draft)

Once upon a time, very long ago, I discussed how the Catholic Church seems to be the favorite of multi-generational bands of abject nutcases. I then expanded the topic, discussing how many fruit loops were involved, and that was titled The Revenge of the Vatican Ninjas.

In this case, we're going to add a bit of local politics. And by local, I mean New York.

Has anyone heard of Occupy Wall Street?

If you haven't, that's okay, they're rather annoying -- essentially a fun bunch of anarchists hanging out in Zuccotti park who were told that 1968 was a really fun time, that bathing is bad for you, and it's quite okay to defecate wherever you deem fit. It's not so much a political movement as an unruly mob. They're mad as hell, they're not going to take it anymore, and they are rebels without a clue -- when someone says they hate Wall Street, and the bailouts of Wall Street, yet they don't protest anyone who was bailed out, this spells stupid to me.

They've attacked police officers, and they want the redistribution of wealth, but they whine when their stuff is stolen. At the end of the day, while they may appear threatening, they are mostly harmless. And if you read any of the links, you'll notice that I spend most of my time making fun of them. Just don't tell my editors, they may think I'm having too much fun.

So, what does this have to do with Catholic conspiracies?

Well, recently, I did a search on twitter for "Jesuits."

Big, big mistake.

Apparently, now, the Jesuits are a crypto-Jews / Nazi / Zionist organization, bent on establishing the New World Order via Occupy Wall Street .... And, of course, founded by the Illuminati.

As my friend Jason says,

"It's the internet. I'm not surprised about anything I find on it anymore. I think it was created by Cthullu, not Al Gore. It's a bottomless pit that WILL stare back at you if you look at it too hard. In the dark. On a cold winter night. With eerie music playing in the background (Cthullu has a MP3 player)."

I have to ask, now -- what are you people smoking? Or is it that the internet goes to the loudest spammers, who happen to be nutjobs with unlimited time on their hands.

Either way, it's always good to see that nothing ever changes.

The amusing part of the Occupy Wall Street movement as "crypto-Jewish Jesuit conspiracy" is twofold, really. One, they've got an emerging anti-Semitic group in there, with makes the whole "evil Jewish Conspiracy" part kinda stupid .... er.

On the other hand, their fellow occupiers have issues with breaking other people's toys.

How so?

I'll give you one guess.

Their international branch at "Occupy Rome," in addition to firebombing cars, has taken upon itself to smash up religious icons.

All I can think is: if this happened to a synagogue, would the Mossad have already killed everyone in this photo by now?

But, no, it's just the Catholics. So, who cares?

Ann Margaret Lewis, posted this to her facebook page and asked "Why?"

And isn't it obvious? Because Catholics are "evil, baby-raping priests," and most of these people are too busy worshiping their iPads . And they like to talk about how they should "eat the Rich"-- and the Catholics are wonderfully rich and powerful, aren't they? They have so many shiny things, after all.... And, somehow, the sarcasm isn't burning a hole in my keyboard.

And, sure enough, someone said just that, responding with two recent stories.** And by recent, I mean they happened the week before. The words are "innocent until proven guilty ... unless he's Catholic," aren't they? But, it's nice to see anyone can justify a hate crime is the target is "right."

But, thus far, Occupy Wall Street has endorsements from the Nazi party of America, the Communist party, and David Duke.

Between this and the above "evil Jesuit plot," it seems that a faceless, aimless rabble makes for a great Rorschach test for ideologists of any stripe. "Oh look, there's a group of angry protesters, they must hate who I hate," or "they embody everything I despise."

Vatican Ninja Chibi.

"Grr. Arrgh"

While it is quite entertaining to watch a group of people go slowly insane, it's time these guys ought to come up with a coherent message. Hell, the Tea Party's wants could be summed up as "We hate big government, we want fewer taxes, less spending and no Obamacare."

With the OWS, we have the Nazis, the Klan, the Communists, "we hate Jews / big business / brand names / we're wearing brand names/ we hate bailouts but won't protest those who got bailouts ...."

Oh, yeah, and they're an evil Jesuit conspiracy.....

Can I have my Vatican Ninjas now?

**The footnotes are below the break.

I'm using the responder's links.

One was about a priest, 78, with two strokes, who apparently abused two kids after said strokes, but somehow, he abused two kids, without any physical contact. How does that happen? He told them a dirty joke from 1945?

The other tale was about Kanses Bishop Finn, who found pictures on the priest's computer. However, that link does not tell the whole story either.

Ann Margaret Lewis noted the following:

The bishop first found pictures on a priest's computer, and brought them to the police as well as a lawyer, who told them "these are not child porn" (they were apparently artistic child nudes, that could be hung in a museum). They refused to arrest said priest since there was "no evidence." Ignore that the priest in question tried to commit suicide after the discovery.

Since this smelled to high Heaven, and no one would arrest the sucker, Bishop Finn removed said priest and put him somewhere where he was not to be around kids. The priest broke that confinement, at which point they checked the computer again and did find actual child porn that time.

If you read the link, Finn was arrested for not turning over the pictures fast enough. Considering that the police tossed the case out the first time, a delay of a few months sounds like the Bishop said "Screw it, we're going to talk to our lawyers, confirm that this is child porn," and lawyers bilking them.

Also note that Finn was convicted by a grand jury. In New York, the saying is that with a grand jury, the District Attorney can convict a ham sandwich. Also, in the link, Bishop Finn was out of the country at the time. Witnesses for a grand jury are subpoenaed, they cannot leave the country -- and since they are not arresting him for flight from arrest, that means he wasn't a witness at the grand jury! It's easy to convict someone who isn't there to defend himself.

Neil Gaiman, Minnesota, and Writer's Mistakes.

2011-12-13T10:58:00.000-05:00

Writers make mistakes.

This is probably not a good topic to discuss on a writer's blog, but it's the truth. And I try to serve the truth as often as possible without getting myself into even more trouble than I find naturally. People can learn from mistakes, even if those mistakes are performed by other people.

Neil Gaiman is a British author with a couple of novels to his name, and several tv episodes. I only enjoyed two works by him – Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book. The one other book of his I truly enjoyed is called Good Omens, and there is nothing he can say or do to prove to me that Terry Prachett didn't take over the book entirely.

Recently, Mr. Gaiman (I prefer to pronounce it Guy-mun, not “Gay-man”) spoke at a Minnesota public library. He made a four-hour public appearance, for which he was paid $45,000 dollars.

Yes, he made over $10,000 per hour.

Harlan Ellison, an author who has been writing since the dawn of time … or at least the dawn of modern science fiction … makes $10,000 for an entire convention appearance, and Gaiman isn't half as interesting as Ellison. Trust me, I've met Ellison, and I've seen Gaiman.

A Minnesota politician has referred to Gaiman as a “pencil-necked weasel-thief” for walking off with that much money for a measely four hours.

Gaiman, in his defense, has said that he wanted to charge far less. The library claimed that the money was earmarked for library events, and the earmark expiration date was almost up. They could either use the money, or lose it. So, he took the money, and gave some to charity, some to his agent, etc.

Now, after the politician made noise, Gaiman has turned around, and started exchanging insults with Minnesota, at least on his Facebook page, as he tries to defend his honor (or honour, if you wish to go British). And he's whining that he's being put on a Republican “hate list”....

Now, I don't know about you, but there's something wrong about the whole thing.

For instance, should I ever become interesting enough to be invited anywhere to speak, I'm going to wonder at being offer forty-five grand.

I can imagine the conversation going as follows.

“Hey, we really liked your book, A Pius Man. We want you to come speak here. We'll give you $10,000 an hour. Please?”
Me: [Blink, blink, blink.] “How much?”
“About $45K. Is that not enough?”
Me: “I didn't think I was that interesting. Why $45K?”
“Because that's our event budget. We have to use it, or we're going to lose it.”
Me: “By 'lose it,' do you mean it will spontaneously combust? Fall down a rabbit hole and disappear? Turn to ash?”
“No, the state will just take it back.”
Me: “So, gee, you can either give me all of the taxpayer's money that you still have in your budget, or you can actually let the taxpayers actually have it back? Gee, I'm so happy I can give you an excuse to spend money for the sole purpose of spending money, in the middle of a major recession. How about this: get stuffed. I want nothing to do with you idiots.”

But, now, Neil Gaiman is the persecuted one. Huh. Really? One, it's Minnesota, how many people would know anything was up if it weren't for Gaiman's replies? I know I wouldn't. Two, this sounds like the library wanted to burn through the cash it had, and claim "We used our event budget this year, give us the same next year."

So, an open letter to Neil ....

Dear Mr. Gaiman.

I know you're not from the United States, so let me give you some pertinent information about Minnesota.

Number one: Minnesota is odd. This is a state that gave the position of governor to a former pro-wrestler named Jesse Ventura. It also made a clown one of their senators – a man named Al Franken.

In terms you can understand: Politically, Minnesota is Lewis Carroll country. They have fallen down a rabbit hole, and they have have yet to come out again. These people make Wonderland seem reasonable.

Number two: You took the money. I don't care what you did with it, you took taxpayer money. In the middle of a recession. You claim you would have attended the event for far, far less. Did they make you take it? Did they hold you up at gunpoint and force a check on you? I don't care how you redistributed the cash, this was taxpayer money. If the public library couldn't burn through it in the time allotted, that was their problem.

Didn't you think it odd that a public library paid you more money than bigger talents would get for an entire science fiction convention? They used you to aid and abet government waste in a recession. You were an excuse to burn cash. Why? Best guess: In all likelihood, if the public library didn't spend the money, their budget next year would have been cut to match what they spent this year.

Number three: You're Neil Gaiman. Why are you getting into the muck and mire with hacks from Minnesota? Why? You did nothing illegal. Some Minnesotan called you names … highly unoriginal names … and you, you poor widdle baby, are up in arms over it. You declare yourself on a Republican “hate list.” Really? You're going to play the Nixon card? Let's avoid the fact that there must be more than one person for there to be a list. Also, just because the politician is a Republican, you're not a target of the Republican National committee. You're not Bill Clinton; there is no vast, right wing conspiracy out to get you. As far as I can tell, there's just one guy – one guy who you have decided to make far more interesting by engaging with him.

You, sir, are a writer. You should have a thicker skin than this.

In conclusion … What the hell are you doing? While I question the wisdom of taking the cash, and thus exposing yourself to this idiocy, you are now actively diving into the muck and mire that is the cesspool of Minnesota politics. Do you think that a guy from Minnesota will affect your popularity in any way? If you hadn't decided to engage, I probably would have never heard of the quote, the politician, and I might have been safe from hearing anything about Minnesota until the next time Al Franken ran for political office.

This isn't your problem. Whoever paid you the money “just to get rid of it” shouldn't have burned through the money because it was there. That person should be fired. While I question your wisdom in taking the cash, you did nothing against the law. Why are you defending yourself against a gnat?

Stop playing silly buggers with rejects from the madhouse. Just tell these idiots that you didn't set the price, and if they're going to insult you, tell them to hire Terry Prachett as their speechwriter.

Thank you.

PS: The only Republican I know who may have an opinion on you is President George W. Bush -- and that's only because he liked Babylon 5: a show you wrote for.

Self defense review: Zombies, Women's self defense, Barbara Sheehan

2011-12-13T10:30:00.000-05:00

October was a really weird month for me, truly. And how is that difference from any other month, you ask?

To start with, most of my self defense review materials turned out to be comedies.

Taking this month in chronological order will probably make the most sense.

To start with, I discovered a new Women's self defense, every Sunday.in Manhattan. It's Krav Maga for women -- which is actually more advanced than going for straight, plain-old Krav Maga, believe it or not. It has to be for some of the techniques to be effective.

And then, of course, there was the little incident of Barbara Sheehan, battered women: which is always a problem. In New York, you can't kill anyone and get away with it. That includes if you kill someone in self defense. Even if a jury let's you go, the New York District Attorney's office will find some way to throw you in jail, without remorse.

But, then again, the odds of that happening are more likely when you consider that Barbara Sheehan shot her husband with his own gun while he was shaving, after she just came back from her next door neighbors. Click the link to read more.

After that, things got a little weird. Yesterday, I covered the latest in Catholic Conspiracies, with Occupy Wall Street. I also did several articles about them kicking around. I not only did articles about protection from them, and how dangerous they may or may not be (answer: mostly harmless) but how they can protect themselves -- both from each other (ie: how NOT to have your $5K laptop stolen), and their own stupidity (eg: DON'T ATTACK THE POLICE!!!!!).

I also discovered that the same people who brought you last month's self defense seminar has a new one: knife and stick defenses.

And last, but not least .....

Okay, I have to deal with a lot of strange stuff in New York. That's because it's New York. Nothing here is really "normal" here.

And then there's the CDC creating the Zombie Preparedness kit ... and the comic book for it.

I can't make this stuff up.

Pfc Abdo, the Conscientious objector. The Revenge

2011-12-12T13:13:00.000-05:00

I will issue a warning right now. This post may have some ... intemperate language.

You may not remember my July 19th post about the inability of Muslims to be good Americans.... at least if you followed the logic and reasoning in the case of Pfc Nasser Abdo, a 21-year-old Muslim who discovered a religious objection to killing fellow coreligionists .... coincidentally, he discovered this religious objection in the lead-up to doing his own time in the field.

However, looking back, I wonder if anyone in the military bureaucracy talks to each other.

Why?

Because when Abdo was granted his status as a conscientious objector, he had already been AWOL (absent without leave) for over two weeks. The charge? Possession of child porn.

It seems that when I referenced the Fort Hood shooter in my post about Abdo, I was more accurate than I knew.

Because Abdo was just arrested in Texas, in possession of firearms and
bomb-making materials. This comes from the Huffington Post, NBC DFW, and Fox News, so I think I'm being perfectly neutral here ...

The Associated Press reports that .... Abdo has admitted he was planning an attack on ....

Wait for it.....

Fort Hood.

In the coming weeks, I hope that the army deliberately put out the word that Abdo would be granted his conscientious objector status in order to allay his suspicions and drop his guard. If so, it worked ... I'm not that optimistic, but what the heck. But, then again, I may have watched too many cop shows -- I half- suspect that Abdo's arrest on child porn may have been merely a cover to have the police talk with him in the first place.

But, then again, he used sharia law as a basis for his conscientious objector status. If you read my previous article on Abdo, you know that sharia is the brand of Islam favored by people who enjoy cutting off body parts, and stoning women to death after they have been raped.

Oh, and the image above? Notice the label in the lower right hand corner. The photo is a screen capture of Abdo from an Al Jazeera television interview.

I wonder if that made anyone suspicious.

An anti-war group, Iraq Veterans Against the War, had helped Abdo with his conscientious objector application. They were simply shocked, shocked I say, to discover that Abdo was a terrorist wannabe.

One of them noted

"We’re shocked [at Abdo's arrest]. I believe he had some
significant mental health issues that became apparent as we worked with him. He
had a particular version of Islam that was certainly … He was disrespectful to
women. These were the kinds of issues we argued over late last year. It’s not a
religious thing, it’s a matter of human decency.”

I suspect it might be religious on his part, considering, again, he cited sharia law. And if you guys did think he was a little nuts, why didn't you suggest to the military that they send him to a shrink? You didn't need the conscientious objector status if he was nuts.

Anyway ... how did they catch Abdo, you ask?

We now go back to a previous story ... that Terrorists are Stupid.

Abdo went to a local gun store near Ft. Hood. In fact, he went to the same gun store where the first Fort Hood shooter bought one of the guns he used in his attack.

Now, I'm from New York, so my knowledge of the South is limited. But, seriously, did he have no other option but to buy from a store within rock-throwing distance of his target, and then ask questions about it?

Even better. Abdo went into the store, walked up to the store clerk (a 17-year veteran of the local police force), then bought bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun
ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol.

The clerk was concerned when Abdo asked questions about explosives .... in a gun store ....

Now, why would that set off any alarm bells?

Yes, my sarcasm is set to "kill."

Anyway ... this was just a follow up email. I don't have anything more to add. We can't say that this was an al-Qaeda sponsored plot, or payback for bin Laden. And, while we have Oslo on one end, and this twit on the other, it looks like pure, 100% coincidence. It is only in Tom Clancy novels that terrorists arrange for massive, three pronged attacks on multiple continents.

Then again, Tom Clancy is also where I first heard the line that "Fiction is different from reality. Fiction has to make sense."

Looking back on 9/11, ten years later.

2011-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

[A more clinical and objective view can be found here.]

When I first walked into English class at St. John's University, it was a little before 9am. The professor was one Dr. Robert Forman. He was always entertaining, and there's something about him that tells you he cares that you learn something in his class.

The first person I saw was my classmate Tony. I said hello, and he asked, "Did you hear something about a plane running into the World Trade Center?"

And I laughed. All I could think is what idiot could have missed noticing that there were two rather large buttersticks in the sky right in front of him?

I explained that to Tony. He agreed, and I gave it no thought at all for the rest of the 90-minute class.

I went from one class to another -- Christian Spirituality and Mysticism, 10:40am, taught by a priest whose name I can't recall right this moment. He was not only pleasant, but happy. He was also very Italian, and joked about it often.

When I arrived, the professor wasn't there, and someone came into class saying that classes were canceled.

Huh. That's odd.

I went to the nearest inter-university phone and called my father -- who was an Assistant Dean at SJU. I called, told him my class was cancelled, and how are you doing?

"Come to the office."

Ok .... click.

Walking from one building to the other required that I cross from Marillac Hall, past Council and Newman Halls -- a narrow corridor outside that was as well directed as any sidewalk intersection without a traffic stop.

Ironically, it was afforded the best view of the Manhattan skyline that the University had to offer, without going into the university library --- SJU is, for the record, the highest point in Queens.

But, I didn't stop for a second. My pace was quick and even, mainly because there were so few people in my way -- for once.

Though there was one odd bit of business going on at the time, something I found odd even before I made it to my father's office: there were clusters of people with their cell phones out. After the third such group, I felt like I was in a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

I walked into my father's office at the other side of the library, and before I could even open my mouth, my father said, "Planes have crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The twin towers are gone, and the Pentagon is burning."

And I remember this quite clearly, because I had a little red notebook with me at the time ... my first thought was "Didn't Tom Clancy already write this novel?"

My father suggested I go to the library, and observe the skyline. by the time I got there, the library was locked. So I walked back to the terrace I had just gone over.

Instead of a skyline, there were ground based storm clouds running from south to north. I stood there for an unknown length of time, completely focused on it. I didn't even notice my acquaintance Andy walk up next to me.

"I can't wrap my mind around it," he said. "I can't believe they're gone."

If I replied to him, I don't remember.

Much of what I had from that day I have preserved in my little red notebook -- a habitual writer's thing, a notebook.

I thought that Fr. Andrew Greeley was writing a column right that moment ... and he was, one that focused on the calmness of New Yorkers evacuating into New Jersey.

I thought that I had to rewrite my thriller novels, because one of them was a CIA assassin, and at that moment, I knew what she was doing at that exact moment in history.

I also knew that Osama bin Laden was a dead man walking. One way or another, someone was going to hunt him down, and shoot him. Probably after he was hurt ... a lot.

On the way home, we had to drive around Union Turnpike, since the local park was a great site for emergency vehicles to assemble.

My family could only watch television that day because we had cable. We must have watched the towers fall a dozen times by the end of the day. There were theories that Camp David might be a target, because the Camp David accords had an anniversary that day, or soon. And there was supposedly a car bomb outside of the state department.

The initial estimated dead: 55,000. By 1pm, it had become 10,000.

At 6pm that evening, I was amused by a report.... four hours after the attacks in New York, parts of Kabul were burning. The Taliban were under attack. I wondered if (1) Mossad moved really fast, or (2), the dissidents wanted to get on our good side. I would later learn that a leader of the Northern Alliance had been assassinated by the Taliban several days before, and that was their reprisal.

By that evening, there were 200 firemen missing, and 70 cops also MIA.

We had learned that there were people who jumped out of the towers rather than burn.

The next day, there was a pledge of support from Vladimir Putin. Thousands of pints of blood were on the way from Israel....

And at 7:36 am on the morning of September 12th, the news had a good image of the Empire State building, with smoke in the background...

There was also no looting ... because this is not Los Angeles. This is New York, where even the criminals were nice enough (or smart enough) to stay home. There was a seven hour wait to give blood, until there were only those who were turned away.

We had shocking news: The NY Times said something nice about "the nazi," Mayor Rudy Guiliani, calling him Churchill in a baseball cap.

NY Governor Pataki had come down. He thanked a fireman in critical condition for his service, and the fireman said, "Well, what to you expect?"

And by night, there were so many who showed up with lit candles, the city looked like it was on fire.

By January 20, 2002, we had a count around 2,900 dead.

Ann Coulter made a statement that many were pissed off about: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

A quote which could be offensive if not for two things .... one: if you ever get a chance to read that article, you will notice that it was about mostly about a friend of hers, Barbara Olsen .... she was on a plane that flew into the Pentagon. So, she was annoyed.

When asked about it later, she told Fox news democrat Alan Colmes "We better convert them to something, even if it's what you call 'real Islam.' "

Which, frankly, converting the 10% of the muslim world that hate us (about 120 million, give or take) to something other than a sharia-variant would be a good idea.

My feelings about it were simple, and summed up by a quote from the tv show West Wing:

“We need to kill them, we need to find them and to kill them. We kill them. Then we find out who sent them and we kill them too. You kill the people who did it. You kill the people who planned it. Then you kill everyone who is happy about it….

I think at the end of the day, more people would rather have Ann Coulter's solution of converting people who want to kill us, even if it's to generic, Atlantic-avenue Islam, would be a better idea than my general feelings on the matter.

But, frankly, I don't think it's a matter of religion. Americans have protests and near riots over any civilian caught in a war zone. Instead, there were people who were having parties over 9-11; if someone feels happy about killing civilians, there is something wrong with that person as a human being. That person is about the same level as the average serial killer.

But, that was ten years ago .....

****

It's ten years later.

The cops and firemen who were there are being locked out of any 9/11 memorial.

They've locked out any and all priests from even showing up.

The cross forged from I-beams of the tower are being threatened by atheists with nothing better to do.

The unions who showed up in force to clear the rubble of the towers have started to turn it into a political freakshow.

Rye play land in New York has a "Muslim Day," and it turns into a riot because they banned all headgear from roller coasters. This includes a a hijab -- something about not wanting the woman strangled or decapitated.

There are no replacement buildings yet.

And, damnit, I want a WTC with a missile battery.

Everyone likes to say never forget.

I hope this has made some people remember.

Self Defense Review: November 2011

2011-12-12T11:45:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the month again. We're back with yet another self defense review.

I started off this month with my last -- as in final -- article on Occupy Wall Street. I've had it with these people. Not to mention that I wrote the article the day before the OWS were told that, no, squatting is illegal, and we're taking your tents away. Thank you. If you ever wanted to know the problems that local business had with Occupy Wall Street, just click here.

If you ever wanted to scare off attackers, or at least make yourself look like a target that would give them trouble, you might want to try here. You even get a song with it.

I've mentioned more than once that, well, accidents happen. When you're attacked, and you must defend yourself, someone could die. You should avoid it whenever possible, but sometimes, well, accidents can happen. My friend Carlos helped me out with this one.

And, after I stole more than a few good lines and articles from this book, I decided to do a little review of The Special Forces Guide to Unarmed Combat. It's surprisingly useful.

And, just for fun, I did a nice little article on how to Survive Black Friday.

I hope you all enjoy.

Self defense Review: DSK, Oslo, Pens as weapons, and Krav Maga.

2011-12-12T11:43:00.000-05:00

You might remember a while ago, I posted a list of articles I have written for Examiner.com, about self defense in New York City.

I'm still writing for them, and it's still around.

Pens as weapons. (EDC Tools) A pen is an Every Day Carry tool. Do you want to know how it can be used as a weapon?

Top ten "improvised weapons." This article pretty much means what it says.

Are you a target? Situational awareness Some people are natural born targets, mainly because they don't pay attention. Could this be you?

Meeting people from online in real life, part one and part two -- the title says it all. After experiencing one or two dates where women have no problem at all accepting a ride from me, it says two things: on the one hand, I have a nice face, and people think I'm trustworthy. On the other, some people might be a little too trusting.

Self defense in New York. Again. Or: Killing people isn't fun. This covers a real life incident that explores the rules of engagement for defending yourself in New York.

Self defense and Child Obesity -- pretty much what it says.

Can New York City become Oslo? After someone tried to blow up Norway, I decided to focus my attention there for a while.

How to Spot a Suicide Bomber in 12 steps. If you've been on this site a lot, you know this one already. If not, enjoy.

DSK and Rape. I analyzed the rape charges against a French bureaucrat in New York, and I came up with a conclusion. And that conclusion is that there should be pain.

Levi Aron, Leiby Kletzky, and "stranger danger." In New York, a little boy was killed, and dismembered. The real danger would be bringing back an old practice that did no good the first time around.

Oslo, Abdo, a tale of two terrorists. This was the week that everyone tried to blow stuff up. And I went nuclear in response.

Dealing with a stalker ex. After listening to several female friends complain about these incidents, I decided there should be a how-to guide.

How to survive a bar fight in five easy steps Exactly what it says.

Parking lot safety. Hunting in the Urban Wild. You are the prey.

Purse-snatching defenses. They want your bag. You're going to hurt them.

Extremists, Atheists, and Jesus Freaks.

2011-12-12T11:37:00.000-05:00

In previous articles having to do with politics, I have described myself as apathetic, or left or right depending on where the jury is from. I hate all politics, so I could be summed up as fair and mentally unbalanced.

What about religion? The same rules apply.

If anyone is familiar with the George Carlin routine [link rated R for language] about religion, it involves him talking about the Invisible Man in the Sky, and He Wants MONEY. When I first saw it, I thought it was hilarious. A nice little parody of the Catholic church when he was growing up.

Then I discovered that it's what he believed. Him, Bill Maher, and a whole bunch of other people.

Now, it could be that I'm a snob. My BA in philosophy might as well have been in Catholic philosophy. My father with the PhD in catholic Philosophy taught me more about the faith than my Catholic schools ever did. I get the impression that if my education mirrored George Carlin's, I'd turn out much like him. I would like to think that I could do my own research to learn what was going on, but who knows.

Atheists do not annoy me. Seriously. Two of my friends are atheists. One was my best friend before she went crazy with extremist politics—I was going crazy with PhD studies at the time, so that didn't help either.

My other atheist acquaintance is the primary artist for this website, Matt. He says he's a militant atheist. I disagree. If only because I've met militant atheists, and they have hated my guts for no other reason than I am religious. They couldn't do something reasonable like get to know me and my personality quirks before they hated me.

And I love those hate-filled nutjobs. Truly I do. They're amusing. If only because they spend a lot of them telling me what I think. It's sort of like my political article. I try to tell people what I believe politically, and from one sentence (usually a half sentence) they leap to amazing conclusions about what I think, what I believe, and why I believe it. They're funny as heck.

Then again, I may have a strange sense of humor.

So, what annoys me? If I blame George Carlin on bad education, and Bill Maher on being … himself, really … and I find Anti-Catholic twits a source of amusement, then what exactly would set me off in terms of religion?

1) Anti-Theists: a segment of the population that isn't talked about very often, Anti-Theists are exactly as the title says, they are against believers. My friend Matt may believe that religions are stupid, or that the bulk of religious people are stupid, but he doesn't hate my guts because of my faith. There are folks who have suggested that children should be taken away from believers just because they believe; or that Christians should be charged with child abuse because they tell their children that Jesus Loves Them. Anti-Theists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris believe that those who believe in God are dangerous, even criminal. I congratulate Dawkins, Harris and their ilk on making discrimination and bigotry acceptable.

2) The Politically Correct. The Transportation Safety Authority is on everyone's list recently, so I see no reason to leave them out of my list of irritants. Recently, a front group for the terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood had trained the Transportation Security Officers of Los Angeles International Airport in how to be “sensitive” to members of Islam. I particularly enjoyed where “if a woman wears hijab and needs a secondary screening she should be screened in a private area by a female TSO officer.”

I like the headgear on the TSA offical.

However, they can give patdowns to nuns in public.

My main quibble there is that they can either accommodate all religions equally, or they can leave religion out of the equation. It strikes me as racist and bigoted: Why be sensitive to the religious of Islam and not Christians? Are Muslims somehow more sensitive than Christians or even Jews?

Again, it may just be me, but when I'm told “We have to give Muslims special treatment,” what I hear is: “We're going to patronize the poor sensitive little darlings, pat them on the head, and accommodate their ignorance so we can show how enlightened we are.”

Like I said, I find it demeaning and racist. It could just be me.

3) Anti-Christmas people. Fine, you don't like commercialism, good for you, neither do I. If you actually believe that Christmas is the season for love, peace on Earth, etc, and you dislike the crass commercialism of the season, I'm with you. Let's get together and sing Christmas carols down the street.

If you think that my wishing you “Merry Christmas” somehow means that I am demeaning you, you are an idiot. And you are probably looking to be offended. I say Happy Hannukah, and I say Merry Christmas, and I might even be persuaded to say happy Kwansa if I ever find somebody who follows that particular day. If you do not like it, feel free to complain. The complaint department in on the right

4) People who should know better, but lie. Earlier posts in this blog about the origins of the novel have mentioned how I came across people who researched on the Pius XII situation, noted the books they used, and spun a yawn that directly contradict the facts. Liars with an agenda … they tend to irritate me.

5) Jesus Freaks. You know who I mean. The people I mentioned in a previous post, where they're not interested in what you believe in, or what you have to say, they just wish to talk you to death with whatever rote lines of dialogue they have. They start with “Have you accepted Jay-sus Christ your own personal savior?” And, regardless of what you answer, they will push on as though you haven't spoken. Then we whip out the tazer and make them slightly crispy. I prefer atheists like Daniel Dennett. He's at least reasonable. I prefer atheists like Matt, or like my former friend Colleen; they may not like religion, but they usually point at reasonable problems.

In short, I dislike the willfully-ignorant and the mean-spirited.

But, I suppose it comes down to "Who doesn't?"

Giffords returns to congress. Insanity still wins out.

2011-12-12T10:57:00.000-05:00

Back in January, I had written an article on the Arizona shooting, where lunatic Jared Loughner shot at Gabrielle Giffords. I never published it, since I really didn't want to get into politics at the time.

However, after the articles of yesterday, it's a little late for that. Not to mention, Gabrielle Giffords returned to her congressional seat last night

So, below the break, you will essentially see a snapshot of January 12, 2011 (thank God for blog date/time stamping). Remember that far back? How there was requests for "civility" in all things?

How did that work out?

Now, if anyone would like to send in a request, or suggestions for topics that are not politically-based, please feel free to send them in. I'd really rather not have another week like this for at least three more months.

The January 12th article begins ......

Now.

I try to stay out of politics. God knows I try to stay out of politics. I'm starting to run out of breath and spilled ink talking about how much I hate politics.

I believe the last few days of stupidity over the Arizona shooting have shown why. When Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Ann Coulter are showing more sanity than their "real media" counterparts, Houston, we have a problem.

Looking at the media spinning like whirling dervishes in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, someone needs to take their medication. A lot of media outlets are starting to look unbalanced ... I don't mean "biased towards a political party." I mean they look like tin-foil helmet wearing, Dennis Kucinich / Ron Paul supporting, UFO-reporting rabid dogs. They leapt on the sickening massacre at a Tucson political event, and accused anyone to the right of Joe Liberman of inspiring shooter Jared Loughner.

Apparently "violent rhetoric" is to blame.

Wait ... rhetoric ... really? Hmm. Maybe someone should tell President "whose asses to kick" Obama to tone it down. After all, he predicted "hand-to-hand combat" with political opponents and has said that "if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" -- making Obama the first American president to advocate gun fights since Andrew Jackson......

And if you believe the above paragraph is serious, I introduce you to the concept of SARCASM.

"It's not that both sides did something wrong; neither side did anything wrong. The drama queens need to settle down."

You know who I stole that quote from? Ann Coulter. Yes, Ann Coulter is being more mentally balanced than the media nutjobs right now. Everybody now needs to tone it down.

Then, on the other hand, you get Chris Matthews, who on Monday night recalled Palin's statement, "We're not retreating, we're reloading," and he said, quote, "THAT'S not a metaphor." Somehow implying that it's Sarah Palin's fault ....

Um, first, Mr. Matthews, it's only NOT a metaphor if, I don't know, SHE SHOT SOMEONE.

Second, as for violent rhetoric, I will refer you to Jon Stewart, and his quote "You can't predict crazy." You have no idea what will set some nutjob off.

At the end of the day, all evidence points to one conclusion: shooter Jared Loughner is a psycho. A stalker. Lone gunman incarnate. He had been stalking Arizona politician Giffords since 2007, and most friends had described him as some variety of Democrat, but I think that we can say that he has not only fallen off of the political spectrum, but possibly off the edge of sanity.

An example? Why, I'm glad you asked.

ABC News reported: "One Pima Community College student, who had a poetry class with Loughner later in his college career, said he would often act 'wildly inappropriate.'

"'One day (Loughner) started making comments about terrorism and laughing about killing the baby,' classmate Don Coorough told ABC News, referring to a discussion about abortions. 'The rest of us were looking at him in shock ... I thought this young man was troubled.'

"Another classmate, Lydian Ali, recalled the incident as well.

"'A girl had written a poem about an abortion. It was very emotional and she was teary eyed and he said something about strapping a bomb to the fetus and making a baby bomber,' Ali said."

I'm going to submit that there's something a little off about this fine, upstanding fellow. Like someone should up his medication to somewhere around eleven.

Then, recently, I read in the NY Times: "After another student read a poem about getting an abortion, Mr. Loughner compared the young woman to a 'terrorist for killing the baby.'"

Wait, what? Please hold. Processing

And Paul Krugman, also of the Times, said, "we don't have proof yet that this was political," and followed it up by saying that "odds are" that it was. The Tea party was mentioned as well ... wait, we'll put into the Newspaper of Record that there is no evidence AT ALL that there's a political element to this, but we'll say it anyway?

Loughner read Marx, burned the American flag, and other things that I haven't heard of the Tea Party doing lately. Or at all. One right-wing website showed all of this and concluded .... that Loughner belongs to the insane party.

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert have shown more sanity than the "real" reporters over the past week, and Ann Coulter has joined them in been more balanced. How's that for an unholy trinity?

If you really want the world turned upside down: Don Imus and Alan Dershowitz defend Sarah Palin.

So, we have Democrats defending Republicans from people farther down the Left side of the political spectrum. We have Ann Coulter blaming it all on drama queens, not Democrats, and Jon Stewart saying that this guy was nuts ...

To heck with it. I have a headache.

The "Ground Zero" Mosque. Or: Why I hate Politics.

2011-12-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

Thriller writers seem to be dragged into a lot of politics. Vince Flynn, because his protagonist is a government counter terrorist agent; Lee Child, because his protagonist is a former Military Policeman, and deals with a lot of army politics.

I personally hate politics, but, since I've already started by having a discussion on the Church, the Pope, and handling priests, I figured I'm due for another round....

Some may not know, and fewer may care, but there is talk of a mosque going up in downtown Manhattan, on what is currently a vacant lot, or a giant hole in the ground, depending on your point of view. Yes, someone wants to put a mosque at Ground Zero, the site of the New York City 9-11 attack.

There are multiple points of view on the matter, but I would like to address the one that no one else seems to be considering: The Muslim point of view.

Yes, I know I'm Catholic, but I'm turning on my empathy for five minutes. And it's not too hard. For example, we can break down the Islamic world into three camps: those who want to kill us, those who don't care, and those who rather like America and who have either already moved here (or want to).

From the “kill them all” camp (terrorists, supporters, sympathizers, Ron Kuby), I can only imagine a mosque over the scene of the biggest, most successful terrorist attack on American soil would be like planting a flag over captured enemy territory. From their point of view, a mosque would be a great idea, the bigger the better. Party time..

From the “I don't care” camp, I could only imagine a reaction of “What the....?” This mosque is going to be fourteen stories tall in the middle of downtown Manhattan— bigger than St. Patrick's Cathedral. Nearby areas consist of Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Wall Street, and a very Little Italy. Now, unless the Village has undergone a drastic demographic shift, or the official religion of China has become Islam, I can't imagine too many people going to this great big mosque. There's a heavy Muslim population in New York... in Brooklyn, on Atlantic Avenue. I would imagine that someone, somewhere out there, is wondering “Whose bright idea was this? And why couldn't we get them to build this near a major Muslim population center?”

The “moderate Islam” we hear so much about, who like America, hate terrorists, and came to this country to FLEE customs in the homeland, I can imagine being disturbed. I know that if my coreligionists had launched a terrorist attack on my country of residence, I would want as much distance between my faith and the attack site as possible. I could imagine this side of the Islamic spectrum viewing the mosque like the terrorist viewpoint, as a flag of victory, and consider that a very bad, disturbing thing.

Someone is going to try to put any of the above statements into my mouth and proclaim them mine. So I'll make my viewpoint clear...

In the biggest attack on American soil, Pearl Harbor, we have a war memorial. One of the ships that was irrevocable lost is still there, hull partially out of the water, one drop of oil coming up every minute or so. We did not put a Shinto shrine. With another slaughter, Gettysburg, it's also a war memorial, of sorts. We did not put up a Christian church; I believe there are smaller, individual crosses for the deaths of people who all happened to be one variety of Christian or another, but no massive Cathedral (I couldn't find one, feel free to check).

It isn't possible to make a war memorial in lower Manhattan on the scope of either of the above mentioned, since the real estate rates are somewhere in high orbit. If you built another World Trade Center with a war memorial in the lobby, and antiaircraft batteries on the roof, and make the rest of the building dedicated to standard business practices, I think that would cover all bases. The original lobby was huge, and all the things you need for a memorial are already constructed: I recall that we have a Vietnam-style wall with the names of those lost, we have a cross made out of I-beams that was put up by the construction workers (I would put it there less for religious reasons and more for the fact that it was created from pieces of the Twin Towers), and believe we have a statue of the iconic image of the three firemen raising the flag at Ground Zero. You get a memorial to the dead, patriotism, and a physical piece of what was lost.

As for the mosque itself, I'm more curious about other things...

(1) Are there really so many Muslims in lower Manhattan that we need something the size of a small skyscraper? If you take the terrorist attack out of the equation, building the Mosque anywhere in lower Manhattan isn't the brightest move. When the biggest groups are the Chinese, Wall Street, and the people of the Village, it's a bloody stupid idea.

(2) If there aren't “so many Musilms”, whose bright idea what this? I can tell you people who support it, but I can't tell you who's funding it. It's possible it's funded by someone who doesn't know New York City demographics, or someone with cross-cultural public relations problems, or someone who really does want to plant a flag on Ground Zero.

(3) Do American Muslims really want to put a mosque that close to an area of mass slaughter? I would think that would be up there with putting a temple on top of a graveyard.

(4) Before everyone plans for the war memorial, the mosque, or anything else, I would like the politicians to do one thing: BUILD US ANOTHER WTC.... I don't care if it's the 1776-foot tall “Freedom Tower”, or if they just build the originals again.

My position is simple: it's been nine years and three Governors since we lost the World Trade Center, and construction should have been started at least five years ago (count four years of red tape). Someone, get to work....

Oh, and no matter what designs are picked, I want the battery of Surface-to-Air-Missiles... and a giant sign that says “TRY AGAIN. PLEASE.”

Please feel free to comment; I put in as much data as I could find, and everything I can think of without going into a rant. If I have any Muslim fans of the book, I want to hear from you in case I missed something; like I said, I turned my empathy on for five minutes, so the above analysis of opinion is, essentially, a guess.

UPDATE [1-31- 2011]

And, maybe, just maybe, someone should tell this Imam how close he is to the village before he starts talking like this.

The Politics of A Pius Man.

2011-12-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

Irony sucks.

In my life, I have written nearly two dozen novels. Science fiction. Hostage novels. Comedy thrillers. Plain old, simple, straightforward shoot-em-up thrillers. One vampire novel. Murder mysteries set at a high school summer camp (title: Summer Death Camp).

And then there's A Pius Man. It was strange for a number of reasons. It basically took every single character I ever created and threw them together in a sprawling, two-pound, eight hundred page epic. There was theology, philosophy, liberty, love, marriage, death, and a fairly large war somewhere in the middle.

It was also the most political novel I had written.

Seriously, this book was all over the place with political topics. Racism, homosexuality, globalization, secularization, warfare, a just peace, when peace is just another word for surrender, torture, the International Community, terrorism, abortion … you name it, it was in the book.

Here's the irony: I hate politics. Hate 'em to death with a fiery passion. I think it's narrow-minded, more dogmatic than the Vatican, and more hypocritical than Voltaire saying “destroy the Church” on one hand, while taking daily communion in his private chapel. Look at the list above: racism and homosexuality are political topics. It should be simple: racism bad; who cares who you have sex with, have a nice day. But, no, they must be politicized.

Like I said, I hate politics, and what it does to normal, sane people the moment someone brings it up.

So, of course, when I finally come close to having something published, it's A Pius Man.

Like I said, irony sucks.

Unfortunately, politics are unavoidable when looking at the discussion of Pope Pius XII during the holocaust. [For those of you just tuning in, the “discussion” is summarized here]

No matter what side of the Pius discussion one finds themselves on, politics follows. While not perfectly uniform, the discussion breaks down along political lines.

Leftists take the anti-Pius side, right wingers take the pro-Pius side. Leftists use it to bash a centralized church with a strong hierarchical structure, with a goal of making the Catholic church like, say, the Unitarians (only a slight exaggeration, depending on which Leftist one is talking about).

On the right, you have a lot of conservative folks who make a case for Pius XII's sainthood.

I know what you're thinking: if this breaks down along political lines, you can tell exactly how the book will end depending on what my personal politics are. What are my politics?

That depends on where the jury is sitting.

In New York I'm a right-wing, blood-thirsty maniac because ... I think a blanket gay marriage license is a bad idea. Mainly because, in the first wave issued in the Northeast, there were a large segment that took the newly issued licenses, and went to their local church and demanded to be married –whether or not the church in question allowed gay marriage.

In the South, I'm a blood-thirsty left wing psychotic because … I think “marriage” is a religious term. Atheists go to a justice of the peace and enter into civil unions, NOT marriages. A civil union is a state function. Issue licenses for civil unions to BOTH atheists and gays, then the latter group can take it to a church that allows gay marriage, and they can all live happily every after and leave my church the hell alone. I'm not interested in burning gays at the stake, and I don't care if one is gay, straight or “flaming,” have a nice day.

In New York, I'm an evil righty because … I supported G.W. Bush going into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war on terror in general.

In REALLY red states I'm an evil Leftist because … I would have supported Clinton going into Iraq. And I wanted someone to go into the Sudan before Darfur became a buzz word. And I hated almost everything else President Bush ever did.

In New York, I am conservative because … I think abortion and contraceptives are generally a Bad Idea.

In Pat Robertson's district, I am a bleeding heart Liberal …. because I'm not going to say “You had an abortion, therefore you are immediately going to Hell! MUAHAHAHA”

In New York, I am a psychotic Conservative … because I think the government should get the hell outta my life. Just protect my stuff, my neighbor's stuff, and leave me the hell alone.

In the more bleeding red states, I am an evil Liberal … because I'd want a Republican government to get the hell outta my life. Just protect my stuff, my neighbor's stuff, and leave me the hell alone.

My politics boils down to, “There are things I don't like, wouldn't recommend, but I'm not issuing automatic condemnations.” Politically, I'm somewhere in the middle. Which, in politics, means I'm in the middle of the crossfire.

So, what does this mean about A Pius Man? Don't be mistaken, I do take a side. I believe my conclusions are obvious basic on the facts I have researched. However, the political portions of the book are discussions, not rants. And the politics are driven more by the characters than by me.

And the politics of the characters in A Pius Man?

Sean A.P. Ryan. Mercenary. Believes in the free market system, heavy weaponry, and grew up in Hollywood. When queried on his political affiliations, he would say, “I believe people should be able to own marijuana and machine guns. I will laugh at the marijuana crowd, but if I have my guns, I'm happy.”

Scott “Mossad” Murphy. He works for Israel, usually among Palestinians. Moved from America to join the Mossad after 9-11. His politics: “I believe in the power of waterboarding. But I'd sooner talk terrorists to death. It's more painful in the long run. When you can talk them into revealing everything they know, kill them, move up the chain of command. Repeat until they're willing to be peaceful, or they are peacefully dead.”

Giovanni Figlia. His father was blown up by a Red Army faction in the 1980s, so he has a grudge against extreme, gun-toting Leftists. Aside from that, his politics are: “I have to protect the most powerful religious leader on the planet, and he insists on pissing off nearly one-third of the world's population. Leave me alone and let me do my job.”

Pope Pius XIII (Born: Joshua Kutjok): Hard right-wing. Has all but declared war on the Sudan. Thoroughly dislikes tyrannies, which means North Korea and China dislike him right back. “I am against abortion, gays being married in my church, and contraceptives are against the religion. Then again, you should only have sex with the person you marry, so abortion and contraceptives shouldn't be needed. However, my homeland of Sudan is going through thirty years of religious and ethnic warfare, I have better things to do than deal with whining hedonists!”

Father Francis Williams, S.J.: “I'm a Jesuit who is trying to transfer into the Opus Dei. I speak six languages and I can kill people with my rosary beads … what was your question?”

Maureen McGrail. Interpol. “I'm too busy being shot at to have a political opinion. Leave me alone.”

Secret Service Agent Wilhelmina Goldberg: As a special adviser to anyone who wants the Secret Service to audit their security, she has been all over, and her political opinion is simple. “At the end of the day, America looks good by comparison.”

Hashim Abasi: Oxford Educated in global politics. Egyptian police officer. His name translates into “Stern Crusher of Evil.” His father died while tinkering with a vest for a suicide bomber. He mentions having a wife, but it sounds like she was stoned to death. No one asks what his politics are.

The above characters have more influence over how the political discussions go than I do. So, the topics will be... interesting.

"Where do they get those wonderful toys?" The Weapons of A Pius Man, an Illustrated Guide

2011-12-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

The Weapons of A Pius Man: An Illustrated Guide

Osama's death. One week later.

2011-12-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

This is my original article about my thoughts on the death of Osama the week after he died. I'm not sure they've changed much....

If you are sick and tired of listening to anything to do with Osama bin Laden, I recommend my short story "One Way to Stay Out of Jail." It has action, humor, and staying one step ahead of both cops and robbers. Enjoy.

Now, onto this week ......

As more and more details leak out about Osama bin Laden's death, the situation becomes more, um, interesting.

I will, for the moment, ignore conflicting reports. One report had Osama using a wife for a human shield. Another said he was simply shot outright, and the wife was still alive. We had help from Pakistan. Pakistan knew nothing about it. Pakistan supports our efforts, Pakistan threatens to blow us out of the sky if we ever do that again ..... One report by Eric Holder said that bin Laden's assassination was in "national self-defense." Bin Laden wasn't olding launch codes to a nuclear arsenal, and, to some accounts, didn't even have a weapon inside the mansion he was living in. If this was "national self defense," it must have been a "preemptive strike." Or it was simply an assassination. So, we'll see exactly how the details shape up in the long run.

Fun Facts: Assassination

When I say assassination, I don't mean that as a derogatory term. There is a defense in Texas that is known as "he needed killing." I'm relatively good with that idea. I'm going to cry no tears for bin Laden. I personally believe all life is sacred up to the point when one person desecrates that sanctity. I don't care if you call it the code of Hammurabi, justice, revenge, or retribution (meaning "to repay," or "to pay someone what they are owed," or "payback"). My preference, as stated last week, is that we might have taken bin Laden alive. He had intelligence we could have found a use for.

However, I think justice was served. As I noted last week, Osama himself would have been put to death under Koranic law, if some people weren't just using it for their own convenience. And in a modern fashion ... where would we have put him? Solitary confinement in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his life? Maybe in general population somewhere in New York ...

Given those options, two to the head is the most merciful anyone could have been to him.

What is odd for me is the general reaction. While it is not V-AQ day (as opposed to V-E or V-J day), I have the feeling this is as close as we're going to get. There will be no signing of a peace treaty with al-Qaeda, they keep saying as much. So, the War on Terror will probably end with what's left of al-Qaeda hiding in the mountains in a few more years, and no one will notice.

German's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has taken fire because she was "glad" the mission was a success. Some Europeans castigated her because the attitude wasn't "Christian" -- which is odd coming from a continent that told Pope John Paul II to shove Christianity where the sun don't shine. And they're obviously ignorant of Christianity, since St. Thomas Aquinas even admitted that there is an argument for tyrannicide. And since Osama was the tyrant of his own little terrorist empire, I'm thinking he qualifies.

Germany's Siegfried Kauder said "I would not have formulated it in that way. Those are thoughts of revenge that one should not harbor. That is from the Middle Ages." So is Maga Carta, movable type, an a whole bunch of other nifty stuff. Call it the "Dark Ages" all you like, buddy, but ignoring everything that happened from the fall of Rome to Rousseau is to miss a lot of stuff. Then again, he also said it was against international law .... and that the UN should create international law. When international law is created, Mr. Kauder, get back to us.

Even the Dali Lama said it was okay the nail the bastard.

Fun Facts: Waterboarding.

How many people has the United States waterboarded? With all of the political jabbering, I figured that the CIA must have waterboarded every last person in Guantanamo Bay, and every prisoner in Iraq, Afghanistan, and whoever we could kidnap.

The final number .... Three. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.(The CIA says that KSM was waterboarded over 183 times. KSM himself says it was only 12 ... someone's math is screwed up.)

With a little research, I've discovered that nobody of consequence on the Right has argued that waterboarding, or any other form of coercive interrogation, should be even the first recourse in interrogation (or at all with legitimate prisoners of war). It's something in an interrogator’s toolkit for hard-core senior terrorist leaders, that's about it. And when I say nobody of consequence, I mean no one from the head of the RNC, down to friggin Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

The usual critics of waterboarding have insisted that the tradeoffs involved don’t need to be debated, because coercive interrogation never yields any information of any use in any situation....

By waterboarding in 2007, the US got the name of a certain bin Laden courier. It was by following this courier that the US was able to find bin Laden.

So, never say never.

I don't know if you've ever been waterboarded. It's simple. Basically, put yourself into a position where you are upside down, or at least slanted on an angle so you're close enough. Pour water down your nose. Not a lot, maybe an ounce or two. Breathe through your mouth. Congratulations, you've been waterboarded. I've waterboarded myself once, and possibly more than the time and water limit suggested by CIA guidelines. It sucks, but it's not lethal, and there is no possibility of drowning.

Yes, I waterboarded myself for research. I'm a little wierd.

Fun Facts: Iraq.

Okay, KSM was waterboarded into getting us the courier who we followed to Osama. Iraq was an utter waste of time ....

Umm.....

According to Wikileaks, there was a fellow named Hassan Ghul (does anyone else want his first name to be Naz?) who added the final bit of intelligence that led us to the courier, and to Osama.

Where did we get this Ghul? Iraq.

Damnit, more politics.

I know I'm going to get branded as being a member of some sort of right-wing organization, be it the Taxed Enough Already party, the Republican, the Glenn Beck party, what have you. I've made my political statement, so you can label me what you will.

I am a very traditional person. You could say I follow the Geneva convention, which states that illegal combatants have no rights. However, that is a position under the traditional rules of war. Anyone who works for the enemy, who operates in your terrotory, and does not wear a traditional uniform, used to be given the label of "spy," and was eligible for a quick ticket to the afterlife. And I don't mean a trial, I mean a field execution. The traditional rules of war made certain everyone played by the rules, because violation meant death.

During the Cold War, we developed the concept of spy swaps. Everyone came home alive. But that was during a non-shooting war, and, somehow, those rules have expanded to every aspect of war.

I've been told by people I respect, namely Rebekah Hendershot, of Masks, that the United States is the civilized country, therefore we should give terrorists trials, and all the rights afforded to US citizens under the constitution. Considering that every other country on the planet does not extend their rights to non-citizens, I think that's a little daft, but what the hell.

The problem is that we it is a historical oddity to give trials to soldiers for acts of war. War criminals, even in Nazi Germany, were mostly civilians, or operating non-military organizations. We tried people who operated death camps, not soldiers fighting against other soldiers.

Most terrorists are not soldiers. They are illegal combatants. Had the Iraqi army stood and fought during the Iraq war in 2003, they would have fought other soldiers, and no one would have been prosecuted for defense against an incoming army.... unless, of course, they spent their time under Saddam killing unarmed civilians, in which case, they were screwed either way.

But I'm the sort of person who waterboards myself for research, so I'm a different sort of daft.

Personally....

Back to bin Laden a moment.

Can I at least be glad that we have checked Osama off the "to do list"? My first thought is more a matter of "About bloody time. We got the sucker. Whew." Can I be glad that he won't be planning anything more? He won't be killing anyone else anytime soon? Assuming he's been doing anything lately? That this is the closest to justice he's ever going to get?

Though I am curious. How much of this exuberance is that he's dead, and how much is V-J day, 2011? How many are under the mistaken impression that his death means the end of every terrorist extremist psycho out there? Because that overblown rhetoric is the real danger. "Osama is dead, the threat is over." If that's the case, reality is going to become most unpleasant. It's not V-J day. Or V-AQ day. It's a good start, though.

El-Alamein was the middle point of World War II, when things started to look good for the Allies. What Churchill said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The end of Osama is not the end. But this may, hopefully, be the beginning of the end.

And, while it will not be V-AQ day for at least a few more years, I suspect this will be the only time to have a party. Osama's death is a milestone. I'd have a party if he was captured. That he is taken off of the chessboard of the war is a reason for partying, no matter the method.

Osama is now a martyr. But martyrs can't release video tape.

Postscript

Last week Nancy Pelosi credited President George W. Bush for getting Osama bin Laden.

He was castigated for allowing waterboarding.... It got the name of the courier.

He was castigated for taking his eye off the ball and going into Iraq. It gave the US the "linchpin" to getting close to the courier.

Nancy Pelosi is saying good things about George Bush.... It may be the end of the world.

DragonCon 2010, Day 1 Report.

2011-12-07T13:04:00.000-05:00

Dragoncon Report 2010, Day 1

Music blog: Lindsey Stirling, epic violin

2011-12-07T11:30:00.000-05:00

If you don't know from the violinist Lindsey Stirling, you're missing out.

But, since even I only heard of her about a week or two ago, you probably haven't missed too much. Thankfully, she's up on Youtube.

Short version: I've never seen a woman dance and jump around while playing a violin.

The long version: try this video. If you're not familiar with the tune, it's the main theme to the Legend of Zelda video games. If you have no idea of what a "Zelda" is, don't worry about it. It's fantasy, and it usually involves swords. Just play the video

Of the various and sundry videos Stirling has up, it was hard to pick what else I wanted to post....

However, this one has her moonwalking as she plays the violin.

Enjoy.

Music Blog: Video Game Music Mass Effect.

2011-12-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

I decided to take a little break from Tom Smith's amusing filk songs, and figured I'd go for some nice, quick action music clips from the video game Mass Effect.

So, sit back, relax, and if you're at work, get the headphones. It's going to be fun.

Coulton and muppets.... What?

2011-12-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

Skullcrusher Mountain, by Jonathan Coulton ....

This was first introduced to me by Rebekah Hendershot, of Masks.... it's a story of an evil genius in love....

And now, the antidote ... well, the parody: Muppet Laboratories

I think that's enough for now, don't you?

How I spent my 9-11: a self defense review.

2011-12-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

I've had two previous self defense reviews. One, when I first started my job at Examiner.com, and another a little more recently, which covered current events all over the place.

This one may be a little more laid back.

In retrospect, I should have mentioned the Krav Maga seminar, on September 11th, 2011. But, to be honest, I didn't know how many people here would have been interested.

However, never fear: I did a four-part review of it for Examiner.com anyway.

There was one part that reviewed how to use The Stop Kick to nail someone charging a third party, even though they may be armed. Trust me, I got kicked in the chest so often, my teeth rattled, and I had a shield.

You do this to an actual attacker, it's gonna suck to be them.

Then there was the choke... in this case, "the choke" is just a simple matter of t-rex arms.... you'll see what I mean.

And, of course, there is the inevitable gun defense.

And learning how to take down a guy holding someone hostage.

And, there's the latest in fashion: Bulletproof clothing.

When Examiner.com suggested I try something to do with 9-11 .... well, I did my best, and called it, simply, New York ten years after 9/11. Original, no?

Some people like to discuss how they can be perfectly safe ... I mention it here: How can I be perfectly safe? Again, another original title.

I briefly talked about How to spot a concealed weapon, a fun little article.

And ... well, there was a little incident lately in NYC's West Indian Parade, which led me to discuss Surviving a shootout, and an encounter with the NYPD

That one's a long story, I think.

And, that is it.

Although it has occurred to me: if anyone has an actual question about self-defense, feel free to ask in the comments below. I'll be sure to try and answer you.

Be safe, all.

A Long Overdue Rant: Sex.

2011-12-01T15:18:00.001-05:00

An atheist friend of mine just blamed the Catholic Church for AIDS in Africa.

For anyone who wants a footnote, read Laurie Garret's Betrayal of Trust, where you realize: crap, Africa really doesn't like condoms. Like men everywhere, they bad mouth condoms as belittling their machismo. And, in a country where AIDS is as prevalent as it is, that just puts more bullets in the revolver for the Russian roulette. In Africa, they don't like, want, or use condoms. Which means they're like men everywhere, with a high risk factor.

Africa is also a country where they had a "cure" for AIDS -- they had to sleep with a virgin, the younger the better. Which led to more babies being sexually abused than in all the Catholic parishes in all the world. But why bother with little, inconvenient details.

See, North America isn't the only continent that can have whole pockets of a cultural wasteland.

Uganda seems to be the only people who have used anti-AIDS measures to any great effectiveness. And part of that is .... wait for it ... abstinence! Gee, why couldn't the Catholic Church think of that?

Oh, wait, it did.

But, no, the Catholic Church is responsible because they're against condoms!

Um, I'm sorry, let's face it, if no one will listen to the Catholic Church badmouth premarital sex, why the hell does anyone think that people will listen about on condoms?

Can't you just see the conversation now?

The Church: "Don't screw around before you're married."
People in general: "Oh, who wants to listen to that crap? Sex is fun!"
The Church: "Don't use condoms, because sex, sanctified within the sacrament of marriage, is for procreation, as well as for an expression of love and for fun."
People in general: "No condoms, got it!"

Do people really think it works like that? Seriously? Beuller? Beuller?

And the Pope himself recently mentioned that, if you have an STD, condom use is actually a positive sign: if someone is using a condom while carrying an STD, that means that you are actively being responsible for your condition.

As Pope Benedict said, it's like robbing a bank. The Church would like you do not do it, but if you're going to do it, carrying a gun without bullets means you at least care about human life, if not human property.

But to screw around and say that you're being a good Catholic because you're not using a condom? That means you are a hypocrite, and that you will latch onto any doctrine, rumor, or halfway believable "truth" that will let you screw around without protection.

Just wait until they hear about "free love."

A long overdue rant, Part 1, Economy.

2011-12-01T14:50:00.001-05:00

Liberal mob psychology 101 isn't about liberals, it's about mobs. Ann Coulter's latest book Demonic says they're one and the same thing, but let's skip that theory for a moment.

Today, I've had someone whine to me about how he won't get a pay raise for his government job because the eeeeevilllll Republicans want to give tax breaks to the rich.

How about this: since you're employed, friend, how about you don't air your grievances on Facebook -- when you have friends who are unemployed!

How about you don't complain about getting a pay raise when government employees make more than the private sector!

How about you don't complain about the evil rich republican supports when most of Wall Street votes democrat!

I spend about nine hours a day (9-6), Monday - Thursday, on job searches online, at practically any job search site on the web that I don't have to pay for. I spend Friday-Sunday working on a professional blog that's as non-political as I can make it, and it's all about getting me published as an author of fiction, and it has ads that I hope to get some revenue from.

I write self defense articles for examiner.com, and hope enough people click on them so I can get money.

And, of course, you have the Occupy Wall Street morons demanding that the government essentially take over the economy, so the poor little darlings can basically get a pension while they look for a job that'll take them and their liberal arts degree in something completely useless.

A lovely mob who demands that everything change just to suit them. Let's destroy the way the economy works. Because no one in all 30,000 years of cultural conventions never thought of this! We must be smarter than everyone who came before.

Answer: it's been done before, schmucks. See: Soviet Union.

Christmas charity opportunity.

2011-12-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

Karina Fabian, Catholic author, has asked me to post this. So I have. Enjoy.

No, I didn't say a lot. But I think the below will do, don't you think?

Dear friends and
readers, This winter, I have two things in my
heart and on my mind: caring for those less fortunate than me (or indeed, much
of the world) and my DragonEye, PI stories. For Christmas, I’m combining them
and would like to share them with you. Those of you who are “Vern Fans,” know
about my dragon who works in our world as a private investigator, and his
partner, Sister Grace, a mage and nun in the Faerie Catholic Church. They’ve
saved the worlds and their friends in numerous stories and novels. Last year, I
wrote a story for Flagship about their first Christmas together. Not
only is Grace struggling with the Mundane idea of Christmas, but their home is
threatened by a land developer who wants to tear down the entire neighborhood
and make a mall. When the Ghosts of Christmas come to visit him, however, Vern
and Grace have to solve the mystery before the Christmas Spirits become Angels
of Death. I have revised and am publishing
“Christmas Spirits” as a serial story to raise funds for Food for the Poor. This
is a wonderful charity that helps people in impoverished nations help
themselves. It allows donators to choose their gifts--whether rice for a family
for a month, school supplies, livestock, tools or even houses.

I'm
asking that you please check out the story, and, if you enjoy it and want to see
more, that you donate even a dollar to the cause. Also, if you enjoy the story,
let your friends know. I'll post every Tuesday and Thursday as the donations
come in. Right now, we have raised enough to send a family 20 baby chicks and
are halfway to a fruit tree in addition. Vern would like to send them a cow (he
is a dragon, after all), but Sister Grace and I are dreaming of raising enough
to buy someone a home. Can you imagine giving a HOUSE for Christmas? Will you
help? Find the story at http://christmasspirits.karinafabian.com.
You can also get to it via my website, http://fabianspace.com. Look under the
Christmas dragon for the link. You can learn more about Food for the Poor at
http://www.foodforthepoor.org.

Thanks for your attention!

Karina Fabian

A self defense discussion

2011-12-01T04:00:00.000-05:00

I have a new job.

Over at Examiner.com, they cover a lot of interesting little topics. Religion, celibacy, and, of all things, self-defense.

Guess which job I volunteered for.

As part of the somewhat new direction I'm taking the site for A Pius Man, I thought it might be interesting to do a series of "fighting and writing." And, since I'm going to do a few articles a week for The Examiner, well, I won't be running out of material anytime soon.

Stories posted thus far on Examiner.com have been the following:

Should I take a martial arts class for self defense? Which one? The answer is something you've probably never heard of.... unless, maybe, you're Israeli military. Ever hear of Krav Maga?

One thing you MUST know in defending yourself

When can you defend yourself in NYC? Because, let's face it, it would be annoying to have to defend yourself, and then be arrested for it.

Avoid a fight: Don't be a convenient target: This one I can summarize as defense through attitude.

How to escape an arm grab.Exactly what it says.

Evaluating a self defense class. Exactly what it says.

Defending against chokes from the front... another how to post.

If you are mugged … Or, how to surrender gracefully.

If you are mugged 2 … When you think that surrender and running are not an option, how to defend agains a knife.

If you are mugged 3 … This is like part 2, only with a a handgun.

Top ten points to attack an aggressor. When you absolutely must attack, this is how you do it.

If you're interested, follow any of the above links, and you can subscribe to the column directly. You might find it useful someday.

Be well, all.

Osama Is Dead: Requiem for a Terrorist

2011-12-01T03:30:00.000-05:00

I originally wrote this blog after the death of an evil little bastard. Some details are now known to be incorrect. But I'm leaving them to show you my mindset at the time.

***

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Last week, a man who has been a plague on mankind was put out of our misery by some US Navy Seals via a gunshot to the head; if I hear correctly, Osama had been using a woman as a human shield at the time. It was a fitting end -- Osama wanted a culture that would require women to wear nothing but burka and veil, an outfit that would make a Catholic nun look like she was wearing a slinky dress in comparison, and he died hiding behind a woman.

At the very end, the man went out showing his true colors. He could send the poor, the desparate, the starving, and the mildly insane to their deaths, but he couldn't try for a standup fight with soldiers. Considering he came in at the last minute of the Soviet war with Afghanistan, and made himself into the John Kerry of the Talbian ("I fought in Afghanistan against the first Great Satan!" When he fired a few rounds at the Soviet's retreating backs). In the end, he went out like a cowardly movie villain, and the noble hero gets to make an impressive killshot.

Osama bin Laden is dead .... Now what?

To start with? There are going to be numerous thriller authors in mourning, seeking a new bad guy. The fiction post-Saddam Hussein went into a tailspin, trying to come up with someone else to beat up on.

After that, there's a little issue of where he was found: in a mansion, in a city just outside of Islamabad. A town filled with miltary personnel. Conflicting reports state that the Pakistanis were in on the kill, others state that they were informed after the fact. In either event, the man was living there for at least six months. Someone is going to want to explain that. I suspect there will be several some bodies on the ground, with their heads in a separate corner of the room.

I am a little sad that Osama is dead. Why? Because I think there will be people who will use Osama's death to say "Great, the war on Terror is over, let's go home and pretend this never happened." Which would be nice if Osama didn't have, you know, an entire terrorist network. And if Osama has really been a figurehead for years, as some have suggested, then the work isn't over. It's a good start though.

Also, I'm even more worried about the intelligence issue. If I were in charge of intelligence on this, the press release about Osama's death would be ... premature. I would have sent in SEALS with orders to capture bin Laden alive, then ship him off to one of the fabled "Black Sites," where he could be interrogated for as long as possible. There are that state that the interrogated would lie through their teeth; to start with, perhaps, but that's why (again, if I were running things) I would say Osama was dead, so that everyone he knows personally would feel safe and secure knowing that Osama couldn't talk to anyone. Facts could be corroborated, and then repeat the process until the truth comes out. If this were the case, I would have released photos of Osama "dead," covered with Hollywood makeup. And frozen in place with a hint of curare.

But that would be me. I don't mean to spread conspiracy theories. I'm probably ahead of the curve on the tinfoil hat brigade. And if they aren't there yet, they have a conspiracy, gratis. That he's dead means that we would have to rely on whatever paperwork was lying around in his immediate vicinity. I'm not encouraged, but I may just be a pessimist.

Now, there have been philosophers who have argued there must be a Hell, if only because there are some crimes so insidious that it cries out for justice. If there weren't an afterlife, the sheer horror of these crimes would create one, just for those particular bastards.

I believe that Osama is in for a surprise. Not even for a Christian deity. But for something else.

Looking at the Koran a moment, there is Sura 81, “When the girl, buried alive, is asked what what crime she is slain … ” and it goes on for a very long while. Sura 81 is “the Cessations,” and deals with the punishment of the wicked on Judgment day … and it has nothing to do with Skynet.

I've read that particular verse (Sura 81: 8-9) interpreted by a mullah as being a matter of "God will punish the murderer of children, for children have committed no crime." In Sura 5, “the Table”, that those who fight against God or "His Apostle," thereby bringing disorder to the world should be exiled, or be crucified. Considering how many Islamofacist terrorists have butchered plenty of children, and their fellow coreligionists, if they were to be looking at the whole thing literally, Osama would have been nailed to a set of 2x4s by his own people. And does inviting the United States military to come down on parts of the Middle East like the hand of God count as spreading disorder?

But, at the end of the day, Osama was just a guy conveniently clipping lines from the Koran for his own convenience. He didn't like Western Culture. And the way he went about it, if anyone were honest, would have gotten him killed under the culture he claimed to fight for.

If atheists are right, Osama is nothingness now. If believers are right, he is either in a purgatory for the insane, or in Hell. Unless he discovered a sudden desire for forgiveness before the end. It's possible.

Though I doubt it.

Short Story by Memo. The first Pius promo

2011-12-01T03:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've been doing during my time away was working on a novel called A Pius Man. It fell under more Catholic than Conservative. Though it gets more political as time goes on.

Here was a promo in the form of a memo from the head of Vatican Intelligence to the head of Papal Security, with attached resume.

********************************************

Memo
From: Msgr. Xavier O'Brien, SJ [XO@vatican.va]
To: Commander Giovanni Figlia, Vatican Office of Vigilance [Vigiles@vatican.va]
RE: Training.

Giovanni,

You will remember our conversation of the 21st relating to the Pope's idea of training the locals for self-defense. Attached, you will find the resume of a security specialist who has been recommended to us for this purpose. He is an American, and a former stuntman—what better way to guarantee nonlethal combat than from someone who had to restrain himself in his job?

-XO

*******************************************
From:Giovanni Figlia. [Vigiles@vatican.va]
To: Msgr. Xavier O'Brien, SJ [XO@vatican.va]
RE: Training.

Msgr. O'Brien,

I do not know what to make of your proposal. As I understand it, His Holiness wants the priests and the nuns to be trained in nonlethal combat. I understand, given his days spent in Uganda and the Sudan, he is concerned about someone coming after him. I understand, also, that he remembers that Ali Agca was first apprehended by a nun when he shot Pope John Paul II before the Guard could get a hold of him, and he would like the next nun to try such a thing to be trained for it. I understand this.

But did you READ this resume before sending it to me? He lists his resume by property damage!! And what are those numbers next to each job in his work experience?

-Gianni

**********************************************
From: Msgr. Xavier O'Brien, SJ [XO@vatican.va]
To: Giovanni Figlia. [Vigiles@vatican.va]
RE: Training.

Giovanni,

As I said before, this man had been recommended to Josh personally by a dear and trusted friend of the Vatican. Yours is not to reason why....nor is it to finish the rest of the quote...simply evaluate him.

The numbers you ask about are the people killed during each mission. He wants no one to be confused about what he does. Rather commendable, don't you think?

-XO.

*****************************************
SEAN ALOYSIUS P. RYAN
93-20 RODEO DR, CA 11002
347-990-6669
SAPR@SAPRassoc.net

OBJECTIVE:
To serve with honor, to protect my client, his or her principles, and to end whatever threat is presented. When I am done, the client should be well aware of proper security provisions, weapons, tactics, and should have no need of myself or my personnel. I am currently seeking a position where I can quickly make significant contributions

EDUCATION: Autodidact.

HONORS/AWARDS:
1999: Stuntman of the Year Award;
1999: Presidential Scholarship, St. John’s University Honors Program, (award declined)
1997-2002: Craziest Stuntman of the Year award.
2001: Craziest Stunt of the Year award; Phi Eta Sigma, National Freshman Honor Society

TRAINING.
1989-Present: Krav Maga training, under Michael Blitz, Kombat Masters of Long Island (Expert Level)
1989: Weapons training by FBI Agent Alice West (Family Friend)
1997: Quantico Defensive Driving Course, by Agent Emily Tierney (Mother)
1997: Tutoring with Special Agent Candice Delong (family friend)

WORK EXPERIENCE
2000-2002: Lord of the Rings, Stuntman.
January, 2003: Bodyguard, Director Stephen S*******g, Singer Barbara S*******d, (0)
March 2003-Present: CEO, Sean A.P. Ryan and Associates.
April 2003: Bodyguard, Actor Phillipe Nero (est 5, house destroyed)
June 2003: Bodyguard, Actress Mira Gajic (est 40+)
September 2003: Bodyguard, Natalie Boatman (est 50+, Frat house destroyed)

PERSONAL STRENGTHS:
Excellent oral communication skills and interrogation techniques…able to work well with people at all levels with good feedback techniques to assure proper communication…can analyze problems and quickly generate viable solutions… efficient time management abilities…organized and disciplined…excellent interpersonal skills…team player… high-energy level…reliable…have synthesized vast quantities of material and expressed them in audience-friendly form.

PERSONAL:
26, In excellent health, no children, willing to consider travel/relocation.
References available upon request.

It's been a while, but I'm back.

2011-12-01T02:52:00.001-05:00

It's a sad, sad day when you forget your own login ... and that you forget that you ever had a blog.

It's even sadder when everything has been so reworked, you have to agree to the terms of agreement again.

But I'm back.

I'm not sure if anyone's listening anymore, but I'm here.

Guest Blog: Karina Fabian of Infinite Space, Infinite God II

2011-04-11T12:30:00.000-04:00

For those of you who may have missed last week, we had a guest blog from the gracious and talented Margaret Ann Lewis, author of Murder in the Vatican, the Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. It was followed shortly thereafter with an interview and a review.

If you were looking for another Snarky Theology blog, sorry, you're out of luck. Because this week we have a guest blog from author Karina Fabian, editor of Infinite Space, Infinite God II, an anthology of Catholic science fiction. You can find it at B&N, Amazon, etc.

Some may ask why I would host a science fiction author / editor on my blog. Murder in the Vatican was at least a Catholic mystery, and, in a way, A Pius Man is a mystery, but science fiction? Since one of my top five post at the moment is a report from DragonCon, 2010, I'm assuming there's an interest.

Oh, yes, and while I think of it, I have been asked to inform you that the first book, Infinite Space, Infinite God is on sale for .99 cents through April 13. It and the sequel are for sale for 2.99 through April 23rd.

From here on out, Infinite Space, Infinite God II will be shortened to ISIG2.

This concludes all the formalities. Now, the blog:

Faith in Science Fiction

By Karina Fabian

John asked me to write about religion in science fiction. It’s becoming a big topic lately, from SFGospel’s “Ten Best SF Stories About Religion” to Charlie Jane Ander’s “The Seven Deadly Sins of Religion in Science Fiction”. Why is religion and SF becoming a big deal?

Truth is, religion and science have always been a big deal . In ancient times, religion and science were often one and the same. The ancient Pythagoreans tries to determine the work of the gods in mathematics, for example. The medieval Catholic Church sponsored many great scientists—and still does today. Gradually, the two separated in their functions, so that religion addressed the why of creation and science the how (an oversimplification, I know.) Today, the Catholic Church still sponsors scientific symposiums, with scientists of all faiths and even atheists. Many scientists are very faithful followers of a religion.

Yet with the Age of Enlightenment, religion began to be seen as something separate from “reality,” including science. That attitude held on well into the 20th century, and in the new genre of literature born of that era—science fiction. Too often, humankind was portrayed as having “outgrown” such archaic ideas, or the religious figure was brought in as a foil to the hero, which pitted the religion and science against each other. Over time, the ideas of separation of Church and State morphed into the idea that Church should be separated from everything—even our entertainment. For a long time, the author who stepped into religious grounds, even for the purpose of worldbuilding, was risking their book; and the publisher who took them on risked losing money. Only a few were able to do it successfully, and they were the exception rather than the rule. Most, even then, took a light hand.

Then came the movement of Christian Fiction, but often, they took the same approach but in an opposite direction—pitting the evil scientist against the moral and courageous religious hero. That did find some readers, but in my opinion, only hurt themselves and the idea of that religion and science can support each other.

My husband, Rob, and I are both devout Catholics. We are also major sci-fi geeks. We don’t see a dichotomy between faith and science. Science teaches us how God made the world to run; use of science gives us technology that makes our lives easier. Religion teaches us why we are here and how to treat each other; use of religion guides us in the use of science and technology to make our lives better. This is how we live and frankly, this is what we’d like to see when religion and science combine in fiction. That’s why we created the anthologies Leaps of Faith, and Infinite Space, Infinite God I and II.

What’s exciting is that we are part of a growing literary movement that sees religion as a legitimate part of world building, and not just a tool for evangelizing—either for religion or for the end to religion. There are publishers like Splashdown Books and Marcher Lord Press that are dedicated to religious speculative fiction and there are secular publishers, like Twilight Times that published Infinite Space, Infinite God I and II, that are not intimidated by the mix as long as the writing is strong. And, whether done well or badly, we are starting to see the re-emergence of religion in our entertainment. It’s no longer a separate aspect of human lives that needs to be shut away.

Rob and I consider that a blessing.

About the Author / Editor: Karina Fabian

After being a straight-A student, Karina now cultivates Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun. From an order of nuns working in space to a down-and-out faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, her stories surprise with their twists of clichés and incorporation of modern day foibles in an otherworld setting. Her quirky twists and crazy characters have won awards, including the INDIE book award for best fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), and a Mensa Owl for best fiction (World Gathering). In May 2010, her writing took a right turn with a devotional, Why God Matters, which she co-wrote with her father. Mrs. Fabian is former President of the Catholic Writer’s Guild and also teaches writing and book marketing seminars online.

Guest Blog: Murder in the Vatican Author Ann Margaret Lewis.

2011-04-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the blog for my novel A Pius Man.

The Good News: No Snarky Theology this week. After Communion, Lent, Sex, and Evolution, I'm taking a break.

The Even Better News: Today, we have a guest blog from Murder in the Vatican author Ann Margaret Lewis.

Since Murder in the Vatican deals with tales from the Sherlock Holmes canon that involve Holmes working with Leo XIII, I asked if she could blog about history in fiction, religious historical character in fiction, or "something like that". As you can see, I was very helpful about picking out a topic for her.

The below was the result.

For the record, I have not doctored or altered her text in any way. In fact, the only "edit" I made was that she insert some hyperlink footnotes to some of her statements.

And, here we go.

With Religious Characters, Honesty is the Best Policy

Ann Margaret Lewis

You can’t help but notice: people of religious faith make popular villains—especially with secular publishers and film studios. From The Three Musketeers and Hunchback of Notre Dame, to DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons. From the Godfather series, to even Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. From Voltaire’s Tartuffe, to TV shows like Showtime’s Borgias and films, comic books and animated films like Happy Feet. The list goes on and on.

So it’s safe to say that making a villain a person of religious conviction isn’t an unusual convention. A great source of conflict and interest is a character who goes against their own supposed principles, or warps them to their own ends. And in any case, to many in the secular world, someone who believes something to the exclusion of all else, someone who isn’t a relativist, has to be close-minded bigot, right?

On the contrary, having principles and sticking by them does not always mean that. Real people are not so cut and dried. What one needs to be, when creating characters and even creating their villains, is honest. Otherwise, the whole convention just gets to be….well…cliché.

When I wrote Murder in the Vatican, I did my best to portray Pope Leo XIII in a way that was, I hope, honest. I would be just as honest in writing about a shameful pope like Alexander VI. But I wasn’t interested in a crummy pope. I’ll leave that for Showtime to cover (yawn). Our secular culture is so hungry to see religious figures as corrupt, they rewrite history to try to turn those who were fine people into villains—as is this case of the pope of this blog, Venerable Pius XII. And not just he, but Benedict XVI as well—if he isn’t a Nazi (here Benedict’s the story in his own words), then he’s a protector of paedophiles (never mind that he was one of the one’s trying to do right in that regard).

So it stands to reason that I decided to do something—well—different—to go against the grain. The religious folks in my book aren’t the villains. While, Pope Leo is a man of his time, he is also a man of the future in thought. He was a son of a noble family, quite different from his predecessor and successor (Pius IX and Piux X) both of whom came from humbler beginnings. Perhaps that is why Leo has not been put on the sainthood track, though his care for the poor and the working class was legendary. But I realized through simple research, all I had to do was write Leo as he was to the best of my ability to have an interesting character.

Sherlock Holmes himself says in the story “A Case of Identity”—“Life is infinitely stranger than the mind of man can invent.” I would suggest to the would-be storytellers of the world that before you go with the tired cliché of a corrupt religious character, try making them three dimensional, tell the truth about them. Give them a point of sympathy, for most humans have one. It is far more satisfying for your readers/viewers (not to mention less bigoted).

About the Author: Ann Margaret Lewis

Born and raised in Waterford, Michigan, Ann Margaret Lewis attended Michigan State University, where she received her Bachelor's degree in English Literature. She began her writing career writing tie-in children’s books and short stories for DC Comics. Before Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, she published a second edition of her book, Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Alien Species, for Random House.

Ann is a classically trained soprano, and has performed around the New York City area. She has many interests from music to art history, to theology and all forms of literature. She is the President of the Catholic Writers Guild, an international organization for Catholic Writers and the coordinator of the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE. After living in New York City for fifteen years, Ann moved to Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband Joseph Lewis and their son, Raymond. Together they enjoy their life in the heartland.

From Comic books readers and Scifi fans, to James Patterson and back. Why anyone can enjoy a Pius Man

2010-10-01T01:22:00.000-04:00

[Author's note: this was originally going to be a note on Marketing. It didn't turn out that way.]

What do you call a book chock full of hundred year old conspiracies, dangerous priests, psychotic mercenaries, operatives trained to kill practically from birth, international political intrigue, a terrorist plot, and a wide ranging collection of protagonists the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the team that took out Dracula?

You call it my book A Pius Man.

Now, who should read it? On the face of it, it seems like yet another in a long line of bad Da Vinci Code ripoffs that have come out in legion since Dan Brown's super-hyped novel hit the scene an interminable amount of time ago. However, while my book has conspiracies and religion, that's more or less where the similarities end. There will be no puzzles, the French will not be a threat, and no one will spend dozens of pages finding their way out of an art museum.

That said, there are some people who just don't read thrillers. Understandable, it's a term so generic you can toss a net over a whole host of authors... some of whom probably should have a net thrown over them anyway, just to be safe. However, when a field is as vast as the comic-bookish feel of Clive Cussler's NUMA novels, to the theoretical science of James Rollins, to a Barry Eisler novel, half of which takes place in the head of his protagonist, assassin John Rain. It's almost as diverse a group as public Catholic figures—as Oscar Wilde used to say: Here Comes Everybody. Can't call it a historical thriller, because then it will be mistaken for a period peace like the Sharpe's novels of Bernard Cornwell—I wouldn't mind having his audience, but they might feel gypped to find it set in the 21st century.

So, who the hell should read this book?

Comic book fans: My first agent drew parallels between the team of protagonists and the Justice League—possibly since this is the most international team since the original Dracula. One character has already been compared to Deadpool—of the comic, not the film. Throw in adversaries who seem preternaturally strong, fast, and trained... well, it's not like fighting the Hordes of Hydra, but my villain isn't exactly the Red Skull. Some are as serious as a police procedural, and some might as well have wanted to be Doc Savage when they grew up. One of them even works with “Middle Earth's Most Wanted Elven Assassin,” and no, I'm not kidding.

Science Fiction fans—who will hopefully forgive me for calling it “SciFi” above: Key pieces of this story involve NLW technology. Or, in standard English, non-lethal weaponry. Microwave cannons that emit plasma beams, tazer beam weapons, gases, explosives; if it's been mentioned, or appeared in a semi-realistic video game, it's probably in there. Throw in the laser-keyboards and the microwave microphones, you can outfit a small Sharper Image store.

Spy fans: International intrigue? Got it. Shadowy figures? Check. Conspiracy theories? At least five of them, and three are right. We also have: the obligatory evil Cardinal; a pale, silver haired priest with commando training (not to be confused with an albino, of course); the Jesuits, the Opus Dei, and the Knights Templar all show up, just so I can play with some of the old cliches

Readers of history: Yes, A Pius Man actually has historical facts. Literally, they happened. This is a book where the history presented in its pages can be footnoted. I know this because the original draft had footnotes. It was suggested that I take them out... however, I still have the bibliography in the back.

People who like intelligent destruction: There's an assassination on page two, an explosion on page three, a wrecked car by page seven, and a mercenary with a resume that reads like scripts of the A-Team. We'll ignore the shootout on the Spanish Steps in the armored SUV. Death, property damage, and utter ruination are always good for an audience. It worked for four Die Hard films.

Political folk: As much as I loathe to admit it, there's politics in this novel. It goes to motivation for the various and sundry parties. Besides: how do you negotiate being a Catholic—universal—Church? Unlike being a superpower, like the United States, you can't pick and choose who you associate with just because they're valuable to you. If that were the case, I wouldn't have a friend whose uncle is a missionary in China. And what happens when you put an African Pope who's to the right of Attila the Hun into the middle of this particular hurricane?

At the end of the day, the only people who should probably NOT read A Pius Man are those who expect a novel by way of Mitchner, or Clavell. Half of the book is filled with thoughtful, drawn out characters who are trying to think their way through the problem at hand. The other half of the book is filled with various and sundry creative ways to lay waste to large parts of Rome—from shooting up the Spanish Steps to trashing Leonardo Da Vinci airport.

Oh, and there's a love story in there, too.

And this is just the first book. Book two is the fallout, and countermoves by those bad guys who survive book one. Book three is where I recreate the Battle of Thermopylae.... if the 300 had possessed remote-detonated landmines.

Anyway, if you or any of your friends might enjoy anything listed above, you might want to join the fan page, or invite them to tag along. Or both.

2006-10-10T03:00:00.000-04:00

2400+ Iraqi war dead

World War II

The battle of Okinawa (April 1-July 2) - 50,000 American 200,000 Japanese dead

To retake the Philippians from the Japanese - 60,000 dead

Iwo Jima- 6821 American dead estimated 20,000+ Japanese dead.

D-Day- Omaha Beach- 3,000 people in 12 hours.

The Vietnam war. - 50,000 (20/day)

According to the worst war numbers I can find-- from, of all places, a site called antiwar.com -- total dead in the Iraq war on the American side is 2743. Dead from combat: 2235.

What I can't find anywhere are the numbers of the dead in Afghanistan. I did a search, and all I got were Iraq body count sites. I needed to ask a military expert I'm friends with, and he estimates between 350-500, although he thinks it might be even lower than 350. Essentially, it is lower than any war the US has ever fought.

Now, I have a question. People say nothing about the dead in Afghanistan. They do not honor the fallen in Iraq, but carp about the body count. Yet, we have sacrificed less blood in this entire war than in any major battle in World War II.

We lost more men on D-Day- June 6th, 1944- than in the ENTIRE 9/12/01- 10/9/06 timeframe. We lost more people on September 11th than in the whole war.

Why is it that the American dead in Iraq is worth more than the American dead in any other battle? Why is it that protestors crying out about simple numbers care more for Americans than for Iraqis? Why are Iraqis not worth dying for? What makes the Iraqi people LESS special?

Iraqis are so "useless" to the body counters that I've only seen "Iraqi civilians dead" counted... when they count terrorists killed. Are Iraqi civilians really considered the moral equivalent of the terrorists who kill them?

Every human life is precious, every one is special. American soldiers volunteer to be in harm's way. Even a man like Casey Sheehan, son of Cindy Sheehan, believed this, and deliberately stated that he fought for Iraqis.

The US shed blood for Philippinos, Japanese, German Jews, Soviets. Why not Iraqis?

For every one US soldier who has died, approximately 1,000 Iraqis died during Saddam's reign. Are they not worth it?

Even if the most wild, borderline psychotic numbers about Iraqi civilians dead are accurate, [50,000, from http://www.iraqbodycount.net/], taking into account that Saddam killed 80,000 people per year, we have still saved 190,000 civilians. Are they not worth it?

If you truly hate the war, and you cite the body count, what are you saying? Are you saying that Iraqis aren't equal to our men and women? Are you pleading a humanitarian cause for soldiers who volunteered to go into harm's way instead of civilians who get killed by dictators or terrorists?

The lives of our soldiers are not to be thrown away lightly. But to devalue what they fight for, to dismiss the Iraqis being defended, you devalue them. They're in the field to defend the Iraqi people.

People who cite the death toll say they do it to support the troops, but there are troops who want to stay and finish the job. Do they support them? Do these people truly and honestly support and honor THEM?

No honor is given them by throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers to protest the war.

Or by trying to set fire to buildings to "support the troops."

Or by rewriting what our soldiers say.

May I ask, for those of you who cite the death toll as a starting point to rally against the war, why?

I would submit that those people do not give a tinker's damn about the soldiers, but they feel that reducing soldiers to numbers would be good for emotional shock value. Could it be possible that they do not actually belittle the lives of the Iraqis saved, but also the lives of the soldiers lost? After all, how much could a a soldiers death be worth if the lives of 1,000 Iraq civilians just barely equal his life? Isn't his death worthless because the people he died for are all but worthless?

And could it be that these people, so eager to "bring the troops home," care nothing for the dead in Afghanistan? They don't even count in the news cycles. By this math of the human life, as calculated above, does this mean that soldiers who die in Iraq are worth more than those who die in Afghanistan? In which case, how much must an American soldier be worth in Afghani lives?

I would submit that the dead are worth more than their weight in gold, and that the people they've died for are worth just as much. I would also suggest that the protesters who hurl the body count out like so many cold and callous numbers do not care what happens, as long as their agendas are secured.

2006-10-10T00:50:00.000-04:00

Uranium, Wilson, Niger, and Iraq.

I came across an odd little fact recently. Several, to tell the truth. Most of them having to do with Joe Wilson, the person who tried to speak "Truth to power" at the Bush administration.

You may remember this little problem a while back. The story goes like this: Joe Wilson, Ambassador to Iraq during the Iraq war (1991), expert in the Middle East, is sent by Dick Cheney's office to go to Niger to find out whether or not Saddam has tried to procure Uranium from them. Wilson reports that there was no such attempt. After that, the evil Bushhitler administration sandbags Wilson, and blows the cover of his secret agent wife, Valerie Plame, because the evil Bush administration must cover their asses about their lies.

Um…problem.

Where to start…how about with the fact that Joe Wilson was NEVER an Ambassador. Look up in a Lexus Nexus search through the NYTimes for Wilson during 1991. His title was NOT Ambassador, it was "Deputy Chief of Mission." The Times described him as being more like a building superintendent, making sure the janitorial staff was fully stocked. He's such a Middle East expert, he speaks NONE of the languages.

Dick Cheney's office hadn't heard of Joe Wilson when he popped up claiming to have proof that Bush lied, kids died. In fact, no one was entirely certain why Joe Wilson, who was unemployed before being sent to Niger, was sent in the first place. He speaks none of the local languages, has zero skills in terms of investigation or spy skills. Basically, it became a matter of "Who sent this schlub?"

Enter the wife.

On his approved papers for Wilson's trip to Niger, there's one name that sticks out on the forms—the name of Valerie Plame, his wife, a CIA desk jockey. Her name was blown by someone named "Scooter" Libby— an underling in the VPs office, who claimed he didn't know what her ranking was. He had heard the name of Plame all over the beltway, so he naturally assumed that Valerie's CIA employment record wasn't a secret. Scooter made the assumption that Wilson's trip to Africa was a make-work project by Plame in an attempt to get the husband out of the house for a while, and said as much.

Valerie Plame's status with the CIA is "classified." However, that's the status of everyone down to and including the janitorial staff. She is not a covert agent. She took the bus to Langley every morning. Any idiot with a bus pass getting off at the next stop would know who she works for. Then again, most covert agents who don't want to be noticed also tend to shy away from Vanity Fair photospreads, like Ms. Plame.

Almost two and a half years later, the most they could get on "Scooter" was purgery—which, in a federal court, is defined as being interrogated one day, and give a slightly different answer to the same question when you're asked two years later.

Did I miss anything…oh, yes, the crucial, all important part—the uranium from Niger. The most important part is, "Was Wilson right?"

Wilson's finding were covered in the proof that Saddam was going for nukes. In fact, Wilson was too stupid to realize what he was saying.
Reading Wilson's report, you notice that all Saddam's agents in Niger were doing was to "increase trade with Niger," and "increase exports from Niger." After a simple AOL search, I looked up what DOES Niger export? I found SESRTCIC
Guess what the major export of Niger is?
Guess what industry employs over HALF of Niger's population and income?
One guess is all you need.
Uranium.
There's also a nice little book written by the head of Saddam's nuclear program from the late 1990s called "Saddam's Bomb Maker." It's remaindered now, but you should be able to find it in any Edward R. Hamilton bookstore.
Add this to the fact that they've been hauling out Uranium from Iraq by the ton [previous post], and I wonder exactly what Wilson will be doing with his spare time.
I hope a jail sentence.

2006-10-08T01:47:00.000-04:00

Iraq WMDs-- for those who asked.

For those of you who've asked about one of the WMDs mentioned in my last column, I suggest reading the below. I found this while going through my old email.

U.S. HAULED TONS OF URANIUM FROM IRAQ

July 8, 2004 -- The United States secretly shipped nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium which could be used for making dirty bombs out of Iraq last month, officials revealed.

In addition to the uranium, approximately 1,000 highly radioactive items were transferred last month from Iraq to an undisclosed U.S. Energy Department laboratory for analysis.

The airlift ended on June 23, five days before the United States transferred sovereignty to Iraq's new interim government.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham called the secret airlift "a major achievement" in an attempt to "keep potentially dangerous nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists."

But U.N. officials squawked at the removal, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency never OK'd the move.

"The American authorities just informed us of their intention to remove the materials, but they never sought authorization from us," an IAEA official said.

However, U.S. nuclear authorities said yesterday they had Iraqi approval and didn't need U.N. authorization. Post Wire Services

2006-10-08T01:46:00.000-04:00

A really short history of Terrorism against US
Category: News and Politics

For those people who seem to think that Al-Qaida is the only people on the planet who want to kill us (and who think that Osama, himself, personally, is the mastermind and key to every plot on the planet), I suggest a brief bit of history.

November 1979: Muslim extremists (Iranian variety) seized the U.S. embassy in Iran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, following Democrat Jimmy Carter's masterful foreign policy granting Islamic fanaticism its first real foothold in the Middle East. Six months later, Saddam Hussein takes over Iraq, confident that Carter will be just as active against him.

1982: Muslim extremists (mostly Hezbollah) began a nearly decade-long habit of taking Americans and Europeans hostage in Lebanon, killing William Buckley and holding Terry Anderson for 6 1/2 years.

April 1983: Muslim extremists (Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah) bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 16 Americans.

October 1983: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) blew up the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport, killing 241 Marines.

December 1983: Muslim extremists (al-Dawa) blew up the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, killing five and injuring 80.

September 1984: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) exploded a truck bomb at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people, including two U.S. servicemen.

December 1984: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) hijacked a Kuwait Airways airplane, landed in Iran and demanded the release of the 17 members of al-Dawa who had been arrested for the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, killing two Americans before the siege was over.

June 14, 1985: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah-- is anyone else detecting a theme?) hijacked TWA Flight 847 out of Athens, diverting it to Beirut, taking the passengers hostage in return for the release of the Kuwait 17 as well as another 700 prisoners held by Israel. When their demands were not met, the Muslims shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac.

October 1985: Muslim extremists (Palestine Liberation Front backed by Libya) seized an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, killing 69-year-old American Leon Klinghoffer by shooting him and then tossing his body overboard. The Italians let them get away, and they were later captured by American forces, and again let go by the Italians.

December 1985: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed airports in Rome and Vienna, killing 20 people, including five Americans.

April 1986: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed a discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen in West Berlin, injuring hundreds and killing two, including a U.S. soldier.

December 1988: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

(Then came an amazing pause in Muslim extremists' war on America when we won the Cold War, and thus depriving Islamic terrorists of their Soviet sponsors. Taking out terror sponsors, whether it's the Soviet Union or Iraq, slows them down, what a thought!)

February 1993: Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, with involvement of friendly rival al-Qaida) set off a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing six and wounding more than 1,000.

Spring 1993: Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Sudanese Islamic Front and at least one member of Hamas) plot to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the U.N. complex, and the FBI's lower Manhattan headquarters.

November 1995: Muslim extremists (possibly Iranian "Party of God"-- which translates as Hezbollah) explode a car bomb at U.S. military headquarters in Saudi Arabia, killing five U.S. military servicemen.

June 1996: Muslim extremists (13 Saudis and a Lebanese member of Hezbollah, with al-Qaida) explode a truck bomb outside the Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds.

August 1998: Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) explode truck bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring thousands.

October 2000: Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) blow up the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

Sept. 11, 2001

2006-10-08T01:29:00.000-04:00

Some Things Never Change, Do they?

(The following can be footnoted in David Dalin’s The Myth of Hitlers Pope, Ralph McInerny’s The Defamation of Pius XII, or Roy Schoeman’s Salvation is from the Jews)

Ann Coulter noted recently the intriguing diary entries of British jihadist Zeeshan Siddique, on April 10th of 2005. Siddique was captured that April in Pakistan by that country's security forces. His diary is a sort of Plan-a-Jihad journal, which included his commentary on the Popes death, "Allah will throw him in hell."

This is, of course, after Islamists tried to kill John Paul II (a plot with pointman Ramzi Yousef, World Trade Center bomber from the first attack, and backed by a certain Osama bin Laden). Question: what did the Pope ever do to these people?

The answer lies with the main problems with the Middle East.And believe it or not, the problems with the Middle East started a while ago. You may not believe that if you’re part of the left crowd, but its true.

Whatever do I mean by that? Do I mean, as Bernard Lewis does in his What Went Wrong? that the Middle East never grew out of the Ottoman Empire mentality that they rule the world? That’s certainly part of it, and I wouldn’t even presume to question the scholarship of a man like Lewis.It is, in fact, far worse than anyone supposes. The trouble with the Middle East, in part, can be traced to the Nazis.

No, I am not being allegorical, but literal. You may have heard of the myth of Hitler’s Pope (Which happens to be a very nice book by Rabbi David Dalin, btw), that Eugenio Pacelli, aka Pius XII, worked with, for, or around Hitler in support of the final solution of the Holocaust. Daily readers (all four of them) know my opinion on that subject,. This, of course, is a myth started by former Nazi Rolf Hoccuth, and perpetuated by liars tramps and thieves like John Cornwell, James Carroll, Gary Wills, Susan Zuccolti, Evan Katz (who was sentenced to jail for his lies), and an ever growing list of liberal Catholics who’d like to see the Catholic Church swing from the nearest tree (thats crucifixion, not hanging).

What you never hear about is what Rabbi Dalin labels Hitler’s Mufti. To be more precise, he is properly called the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini was installed by the English, who are themselves not known for being very pro-Semetic. Remember, in the 1920s, as a prize of World War I, Palestine was a mandate of Britain, they ran it and everything in it. Hajj al-Husseini was the recognized leader of the Palestinians, and in April 1920 led a rampage against local Jews, wounding 211, and killing five. The British convicted him, but ignored the whole incident and made him Grand Mufti two years later.

Al-Husseini called for an anti-Jewish jihad in Palestine during the 1930s, saying "Murder the Jews! Murder them all!," starting riots in 1929 and 1936-1939. He would later move his rhetorical style to Berlin radio, stating in one “Kill the Jews, Kill them with your hands, kill them with your teeth! This is well pleasing to Allah!” (reminiscent of Eduardo Chianelli’s exhortation in the film Gunga Din: Kill for the Love of Kali! Kill for the love of killing! KILL! KILL! KILL!)

Al-Husseini’s connection with Hitler begins in 1937, when he sent emissaries to Berlin, first lending support, then suggesting collaboration. In this he was a little slow. When the German anti-Jewish laws went into effect in 1934, the Islamic world sent them congratulations. Husseini would become friends with Adolf Eichmann (the banal evil that engineered the Holocaust logistically), and pushed for the extermination of Jews as soon as possible.

It is not surprising that Eichmann was also sent to meet with the Irgun, one of the lead armed Zionist groups, the Nazis wanted Jews out of Germany, and Irgun was happy to catch them in Israel. However, al-Husseini had no problem with Jews coming to Palestine, as long as they would die. He was also sent to Iraq to do a pro-Nazi rally there, but was tossed out (more on Iraq later).SS chief Heinrich Himmler took Husseini on tours of the death camps, and the mufti pushed for greater diligence in running the gas chambers. Eichmann’s deputy Dieter Wisliceny mentioned that the mufti played a role in the decision to exterminate the European Jews. At the Nuremburg trials, he stated that the mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler one of Eichmann’s best friendsHe also had a Muslim clerical school in Dresden, where Muslims could be trained in Nazism, and introduce it to the Middle East. In exchange for this service, Husseini went into Bosnia to recruit Muslims for the SS, who wore specially marked fezzes with the swastika on them. You can also see photos of Husseini in Bosnia inspecting the SS troops (see: Shoeman, 258. If you want to see more research on Muslim/Arab Nazis, hit the Yad vashem archives , or the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Muslim SS Hanjar (sword) unit massacred about 90% of Bosnia’s Jews.

Husseini made it to Egypt after the war, hiding there until the day that bastard died in 1974.So what? Why does Mufti al-Husseini matter today? What’s he to do with the Middle East? Well, lets start with the fact that the grand mufti imported Nazi experts to train young Palestinians in guerilla tactics, the start of a group we know as the Palestinian Liberation Organization.During the Six Day War in 1967, Israelis found Egyptian prisoners carrying issues of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. Ironically, it had been translated into Arabic by a man known as el-Hadjaka former Nazi propagandist Lius Heiden. Mein Kampf would be republished by Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority in 2001 and was an instant bestseller throughout the Middle Eastin 1999, it was sixth on the bestseller list in Palestine (and this is before the reprint). By the way, did I mention that Schindler’s List is banned?

And the legacy of al-Husseini lives on today, in the form of his nephew, Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. Yes, I know, if you blink you miss the key word, Arafat. Yes, THAT Arafat.Then there’s the Grand Mufti’s grandson, Skeikh Ekrima Sabri, the CURRENT Mufti of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He said “The figure of 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust is exaggerated. It was a lot less. It’s not my fault if Hitler hated the Jews. Anyway, they hate them just about everywhere.” Funny, Pope John Paul II never visited the Temple Mount, but he DID visit the Wailing Wall, which is right next door.

Anyway, remember how I mentioned that pro-Nazi rally that got Husseini tossed out of Iraq? One of those rally members was a man named Khayrallah Tulfah. After the war, he lived with his nephew, and in the main room of his house he had an idolized portrait of Hitler on the wall. This nephew would grow up to be one mean and nasty fellow, in fact, one of his mistresses noted that he would look himself in the mirror and state “I am Saddam Hussein. Heil Hilter!”

And let us not forget Gamal Nasser, who helped the Nazis in Egypt during the war, and who later led the Six Day War against Israel. He even adopted the slogan “One folk, One party, One leader.” Sigg Heil! His successor, Anwar Sadat, also had ties to the Reich. SS General Oskar Dirlewanger, who crushed the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, was Nasser’s personal bodyguard.

Johannes von Leers, Goebbels main man, was put in charge of Egypt’s Ministry of Information in 1955. Gestapo man Hans Becher went on to become a police instructor in Egypt. Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Boerner, a guard at Mauthausen concentration camp trained members of the Palestine Liberation Front.And lets not forget that the Socialist nationalist party of Syria had a Furher and their banner donned the swastika as well.So, the next time someone calls bin Laden and co Islamofascists, theres a reason for it.

2006-09-21T15:31:00.000-04:00

Politically Incorrect fact of the day Category

Politically Incorrect fact of the day, #1: Stem cells.

Stem cells work. They are used to cure actual diseases RIGHT THIS MOMENT. I mean that, literally. In a May 2005 article in Citizen Magazine, you can see the list of things that stem cells cure. It cures cirrhosis of the liver, paralysis, inernal organs, luekemia. Two women, years before Christopher Reeve died, were cured using stem cells...

However, it only works with ADULT stem cells. Embryonic stem cells only help embryos turn into children. Embryonic stem cell research only helps people who'd like to see fewer children in the world.

ADULT STEMS CELLS Repairs spinal cord injuries with nasal and sinus stem cells-- in fully formed adult.

They reverse type 1 diabetes (at the moment, just in mice) with adult spleen cells. I'd like the FDA to approve THAT before my father dies from diabetes. (You hear me, FDA?)

Crohn's disease, a rather nasty virus, can be put into remission with the patient's own blood stem cells. Lupus can be put into remission in a similar fashion.

Umbilical cord blood, from a fully developed and BORN child, treats sickle cell anemia and puts leukemia into remission.

Stem cells from adult bone marrow can repair heart muscles in cases of congestive heart failure. Skeletal muscle cells restore weak heart muscles. Bone marrow cells heal bone fractures.

Ocular SURFACE cells [ie: epidermal cells from the eye, for you CSI fans] restores sight to the blind. Even stems cells using muscles from the armpit heal urinary incontinence.

Diseases cured by adult stem cells: 80 and counting.

People cured by embronic stem cells: zero, and counting.

People killed by the embryonic stem cell research, 1.3 million children aborted per year since Roe. Vs. Wade. And counting.

And now you know why embronic stem cells require federal funding: if it were a real cure, a true solution to anything, it would be funded by every medical research company on the planet. As it is, governments are the only people stupid enough to even consider it.

2006-07-14T00:20:00.000-04:00

Treasonous, slimy behavior. It’s something I would expect out of Cold War communist spies like Alger Hiss, or Harry Hopkins. This is the sort of thing I expect out of the French, or the United Nations.

But then there’s the New York Times. Since 2002, their stock has dropped 55%, and is there any wonder given their behavior?

In December, 2001, the terror-funding Holy Land Foundation was tipped off by "a veteran New York Times foreign correspondent …that the FBI was about to raid its office … endangering the lives of federal agents." He was nice enough to tip them off on the day before. I can just see the amount of paper shredded and burned now, can’t you?

That same month, Times reporter Philip Shenon blew a Dec. 14, 2001, raid of the Global Relief Foundation. The much vaunted Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who’s been sent to prosecute on the Valeria Plame affair, said in an Aug. 7, 2002, "It has been conclusively established that Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times," U.S. attorney wrote letter to the Times' legal department.

And what do my wondering eyes note? The Global Relief Foundation (GRF) was designated a terror-financing organization in October 2002 by the Treasury Department, which reported that GRF "has connections to, has provided support for, and has provided assistance to Usama Bin Ladin, the al Qaida Network, and other known terrorist groups."

The Muslim charity had "received funding from individuals associated with al Qaida. GRF officials have had extensive contacts with a close associate of Usama Bin Ladin, who has been convicted in a U.S. court for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania." Moreover, the Treasury Department said, "GRF members have dealt with officials of the Taliban, while the Taliban was subject to international sanctions."

Those would be Clinton sanctions, mind you. It’s not just a Bush problem.
Shenon's then-colleague, Judith Miller, had placed a similar call to another Muslim terrorist-front financier, the Holy Land Foundation, a few weeks before Shenon's call to the GRF. She was supposedly asking for "comment" on an impending freeze of their assets. According to Fitzgerald in court papers, Miller allegedly also warned them that "government action was imminent." The FBI raided the Holy Land Foundation's offices the day after Miller's article was published in the Times.

The Times' reporters -- surprise, surprise -- refuse to cooperate with investigators trying to identify the leakers. The government is appealing a ruling protecting the loose-lipped reporters' phone records.

And that’s just one incident. Let’s get even more recent, shall we?

Last year, the Times revealed a top secret program tracking phone calls connected to numbers found in 9/11 architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's cell phone. That would be a list we would like to follow up on, don’t you think?

We're in a battle for our survival and we don't even know who the enemy is half the time. As Liberals constantly remind us, Islam is a "Religion of Peace." One very promising method of distinguishing the "Religion of Peace" Muslims from the "Slit Their Throats" Muslims is by following the al-Qaida money trail. But now we've lost that ability — thanks to The New York Times.

In the latest of a long list of formerly top-secret government anti-terrorism operations that have been revealed by the Times, last week the paper printed the details of a government program tracking terrorists' financial transactions that has already led to the capture of major terrorists and their handmaidens in the U.S. It’s called the SWIFT program. Basically, follow the money.

And then they released an article on June 22nd, saying

“Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.

Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said.”

The blabbermouths who have just blown the cover on this program don't seem to care that they've sabotaged a successful counterterrorism tool:

“[The program] has provided clues to money trails and ties between possible terrorists and groups financing them, the officials said. In some instances, they said, the program has pointed them to new suspects, while in others it has buttressed cases already under investigation.

Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.

In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.

The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.

In terrorism prosecutions, intelligence officials have been careful to "sanitize," or hide the origins of evidence collected through the program to keep it secret, officials said.”

Now all their careful efforts have been destroyed by Bush-deranged reporters who fashion themselves the true protectors of America. Here's editor Bill Keller,the newspaper's executive editor, explaning why he ignored the Bush administration's argument for keeping the legal program secret: "We have listened closely to the administration's arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."

Did I miss something? These yoyos knew it was a national security SECRET. They used the words “A secret Bush administration program.” But because it’s of public interest, it has to be broadcasted from the halls of Montezuma to the caves of Afghanistan?

But then, suddenly, the Times blinked and apparently thought, “Wait a moment, maybe we could be shot for treason for doing this.” And then started backpedadling like mad.

New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame's belated defense of the Times' expose of the monitoring of the SWIFT banking program contained this revealing passage:

"There was a significant question as to how secret the (monitoring of the SWIFT banking program) was after five years. 'Hundreds, if not thousands, of people know about this,' (Executive Editor Bill) Keller claimed he was told by an official who talked to him on condition of anonymity."

"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people" have known about the program before the Times blabbed about it. Well, there's a scoop. So, why wasn't this reported in the original story and reflected in the original, front-page headline?

There was no printed follow-up from lapdog Calame about Keller's assertion, which goes a good bit further than the claim by Times' apologists Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey.

That mind-reading duo wrote in a Times op-ed that terrorists already assumed their financial transactions were being monitored. Calame curiously neglected to note that Keller's claim contradicted both the tone and facts presented in the Times' initial coverage by reporters Lichtblau and Risen. Which is just as well, since Lichtblau himself is now contradicting his own story, too. On CNN's "Reliable Sources," facing withering criticism from talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, Lichtblau blustered: "When you have senior Treasury Department officials going before Congress, publicly talking about how they are tracing and cutting off money to terrorists, weeks and weeks before our story ran. USA Today, the biggest circulation in the country, the lead story on their front page four days before our story ran was the terrorists know their money is being traced, and they are moving it into -- outside of the banking system into unconventional means. It is by no means a secret." (emphasis added).

Hmm. What was that headline over Lichtblau's story again? Oh, yeah: "Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to block terror." Meanwhile, finance regulators and top government officials in Belgium (who apparently aren't among the "hundreds, if not thousands" who knew about the program) have ordered a probe into SWIFT, which is regulated by the Belgian central bank and answers to Belgian law. Bush-undermining Eurowheedlers are launching a debate in parliament over the program next week, and a private human rights lobbying group has filed formal complaints against the SWIFT banking consortium in 32 countries.

Former September 11 Commission co-chairman Thomas Kean, who was briefed on the terrorist-finance tracking program and asked Times executive editor Bill Keller not to disclose it, called it “a good program, one that was legal, one that was not violating anybody’s civil liberties, and something the U.S. government should be doing to make us safer.” When asked whether publication of details about the program did any damage, Kean answered, “I think it’s over. Terrorists read the newspapers. Once the program became known, then obviously the terrorists were not going to use these methods any more.” And by the way, the other co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Democrat Lee Hamilton, also asked the Times not to publish.

To quote one particular constitutional lawyer,

“Freedom of the press means the government generally cannot place a prior restraint on speech before publication.

But freedom of the press does not mean the government cannot prosecute reporters and editors for treason — or for any other crime. The First Amendment does not mean Times editor Bill Keller could kidnap a child and issue his ransom demands from The New York Times editorial page. He could not order a contract killing on the op-ed page. Nor can he take out a contract killing on Americans with a Page One story on a secret government program being used to track terrorists who are trying to kill Americans.

What if, instead of passing information from the government's secret nuclear program at Los Alamos directly to Soviet agents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had printed those same secrets in a newsletter? Would they have skated away scot-free instead of being tried for espionage and sent to the death chamber?

Ezra Pound, Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") and Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose") were all charged with treason for radio broadcasts intended to demoralize the troops during World War II. Their broadcasts were sort of like Janeane Garofalo and Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio — except Tokyo Rose was actually witty, and Axis Sally is said to have used a fact-checker.

Tokyo Rose was convicted of treason for a single remark she made on air: "Orphans of the Pacific, you really are orphans now. How will you get home now that your ships are sunk?" For that statement alone, D'Aquino spent six years in prison and was fined $10,000 (more than $80,000 in today's dollars).

Axis Sally was convicted of treason for broadcasts from Germany and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Pound avoided a treason trial for his radio broadcasts by getting himself committed to an insane asylum instead (which I take it is Randi Rhodes' "Plan B" in the event that she ever acquires enough listeners to be charged with treason).

There was no evidence that in any of these cases the treasonable broadcasts ever put a single American life in danger. The law on treason doesn't require it.

The federal statute on treason, 18 USC 2381, provides in relevant part: "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States ... adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000."

Thanks to The New York Times, the easiest job in the world right now is: "Head of Counterintelligence — Al-Qaida." You just have to read The New York Times over morning coffee, and you're done by 10 a.m.”

So, the Times has no problem splattering national security secrets all over the place. NSA secrets, no problem. Money trails, no problem.

WMDs found in Iraq—whoa, hold up there now, let’s not be hasty.

On December 01, 2005, I noted a few items found in Iraq. I elaborated on the material found.

1.8 tons of partially enriched uranium.

Stockpiles of RDX.

1,500 barrels of miscellaneous bioweapons and chemical crap you really don't want in you backyard, or even the same hemisphere--

VX nerve gas [for full visual effects, see the film "The Rock"].

Henta virus-- a hemorragic virus that's airborn [think airborn Ebola, you have an idea].

Anthrax... I don't think I need to explain anthrax, I hope.

In June, 2004, the United Nations weapons inspectors confirmed not merely that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but that he smuggled them out of his country, before, during and after the war.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) briefed the Security Council on Saddam's dismantling of missile and WMD sites before and during the war. UNMOVIC executive chairman Demetrius Perricos detailed not only the export of thousands of tons of missile components, nuclear reactor vessels and fermenters for chemical and biological warheads, but also the discovery of many (but not most) of these items - with UN inspection tags still on them -- as far afield as Jordan, Turkey and even Holland.

And somehow, Syria doesn’t rate a mention on this list. Curious, that. Iraq's western neighbor Syria has its own Baath Party, just like Saddam's, and refused even the thought of an UNMOVIC inspection. Israeli intelligence reported the large-scale smuggling of Saddam's WMD program across the Syrian border since at least two months before the war.

This should have been the biggest news story of 2004. Yet you haven't heard about it, have you?

Even Canada's former Prime Minister Paul Martin -- a socialist and no friend of America—addressed a group of 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal in May of 2004. Martin stated terrorists acquired WMDs from Saddam. “The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Huseein had, we don't know where they are…. [T]errorists have access to all of them,” the Canadian premier warned.

In April 26th, 2004, Jordanian intelligence broke up an al Qaeda conspiracy to detonate a large chemical device in the capital city of Amman. Directed by al Qaeda terrorist leader Abu al-Zarqawi – now deceased-- the plotters sought to use a massive explosion to spread a “toxic cloud”, meant to wipe out the U.S. embassy, the Jordanian prime minister's office, the Jordanian intelligence headquarters, and at least 20,000 civilians (and only 3,000 died on 9/11). Over twenty tons of chemical weapons were seized from the conspirators, who were just days away from carrying out their plot.

Where does twenty tons of nerve gas and sarin came from? Wal -Mart? In a July 2003 interview with Larry King, even Bill Clinton said “it is incontestable that on the day I left office, there [was]…a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for” in Iraq. Every intelligence agency in the world -- French, British, German, Russian, Czech, you name it -- agreed before the war; Jordanian intelligence can certainly confirm their opinion today.”

At current count, the United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003. Including the mustard gas, sarin nerve agent, etc. And not only that, there is evidence that there’s even more out there.

So, just to recap: according to the NYTimes, US government programs that can get civilians, army officers, cops, and FBI agents killed are okay to be broadcast to the general public. Anything that can help terrorists get away with murder, escape detection and prosecution, is also safe to be broadcasted to the world at large. However, doing anything that could be construed as supporting the work of any non-terrorist—like the UNMOVIC, the USArmy, the FBI, the treasury department, etc, is supposed to be buried.

Got that?

Links:
Michelle Malkin · June 24, 2006 10:07 PM
The Editors on Leaks on National Review Online
A syndicated column
Terrorist tiping times
Stephen Spruiell
The NYTimes has in-house produced video showcasing Licthblau as he "reveals a secret Bush administration program to access to financial records."
ABP:
Bryan Preston:
Patterico:
More Michelle Malkin [http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_27266841.shtml]
Jeff Goldstein:
GOP Senators speak out on the dangers of classifed leaks. A House GOP resolution is in the works. Howard Kurtz plays the violin for the NYTimes/LATimes. Hugh Hewitt's not having it.
The Los Angeles Times thumbs its nose and national security:

Contact info:
Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing letters@nytimes.com or faxing (212)556-3622.
Snail mail:
Letters to the EditorThe New York Times229 West 43rd StreetNew York, NY 10036

2006-05-02T16:57:00.000-04:00

Are terrorists the biggest threat to this country? Seriously, are they? Some days I'm not so certain. Lets say they all die tomorrow, what next? Business as usual? Let me tell you what the problem with that is.

Do you remember Vioxx, the arthritis drug that supposedly killed their patients? Liberals and trial lawyers (redundant, I know) wanted the drug company's head on a stick. Okay, understandable. However, if you asked the arthritis sufferers if they would rather take their chances, and they said yes, Liberals would still be against Vioxx and the drug company.

However, this is also the party that supports Jack Kavorkian, and your right to off yourself. Why is that? Aren't they against Vioxx because it's deadly? No, because big pharmaceutics companies ("Big Druggie"?) would be making money, and we can't have that, can we?

But if your aged mother or grandmother is going to die, then who profits? Not the drug company-- the government doesn't have to pay their social security anymore, and the death tax should take care of anything the decedent left behind.

Liberal legislation in Ohio has made your physician assisted suicide covered under medicare, but not your heart transplant. If you don't believe me, look up Mark W. Smith's "Culture of Death," a book that even Dean Koontz said terrified him.

So, Liberals are pro-choice for abortion, drugs, even whether you live or die.

But only if you choose from the options THEY give you. You can't smoke a pack a day and die of lung cancer, or eat red meat and die from a heart attack. You can't volunteer to die in the military.

To die their way, you have to file for it and sign your own death warrant on a sheet of paper saying you consent to having your doctor kill you.

Either that, or you stroke out and let your adulterous husband and his new wife pull your feeding tube.

Or you can get an STD with political protection. Any other virus as deadly as AIDS would get you locked away in a biohazard cell at the Centers for Disease Control. With AIDS, well, 85% of AIDS victims are gay, so we have to keep that disease a secret, and give it political protection. So, screw your brains out, get and STD and die. NOW, Planned Parenthood, and everyone else have given you that protection, that right, and defends your right to literally screw yourself to death (as I mentioned here).

You have to die the way they want you to die, and live the way they want you to live.

Though, as I mentioned, I think they'd much rather prefer you died.

2006-05-01T12:18:00.000-04:00

You might be a liberal if…

Rioters are merely misunderstood.

You moved to Canada in 2005.

You cry over dead seals on your way to a "pro-choice" rally.

Protesting IS your job.

You were so mad at Pat Robertson for demanding the assassination of Hugo Chavez, you spilled latte all over your kill Bush t-shirt.

You noticed no irony in that last statement.

You think SUV's will kill you before Al-Qaeda.

You think the biggest threat to the world is the United States.

Releasing animals from laboratory tests is the right thing to do…

…and you're planning to release animals held in a biohazard level 5 lab.

Osama bin Laden was a threat in 1998, and one day in September, 2001.

Stalin wasn't evil, his economic plan was flawed.

If a big business makes money, they must be corrupt.

Cindy Sheehan isn't anti-Semitic, she just thinks the Iraq war was in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The President's name is Al Gore…

…and the name of "that man" in the Whitehouse is "Bushitler."

Anyone who makes more money than you do deserves to have his money taken…um, "redistributed."

The only true litmus test for a Supreme Court justice is abortion.

…and that a SCOTUS nominee can pass this test only by performing a partial birth abortion, preferably on 60 minutes.

Wal-Mart is the biggest threat to civilization as we know it.

Any money sent to the military can be better spent anywhere else, including the ACLU.

Your favorite Batman villain is Poison Ivy, because she's almost as pro-environmental as you are.

Sean Hannity's radio show going national on September 10th, 2001 MUST have been a signal to Halliburton's crony Dick Chaney to fly the remote controlled airplanes into the 9-11 targets…

…or a signal to Mossad.

…or to the JOOOS in general.

You know that the army corps of engineers condemned the levies in New Orleans ten years ago, and you know that the money to be spent on the dam was pocketed by the local government, and you know that the Governor did nothing for evacuation before Hurricane Katrina hit, and you STILL think everything is Bush's fault.

2006-01-23T15:16:00.000-05:00

On the Supreme Court: a letter to the Democrats on the Committee

Sens. Durbin, Kennedy, Feinstein, Biden,

To begin with, what is a Federalist? Do you know? A Federalist is one who believes that the Supreme court has a very narrow focus, that being to follow the Constitution. Does that mean every Federalist is a mindless republican who thinks and decides rulings the same way? I'm sorry, but that is not the case. Not even Justices Thomas and Scalia agree on everything the same way, and they are both considered to be the Rightest of the Right on the court.

Second, Federalists are not necessarily on the Right. Indeed, there are several democrats who are federalists and who disagree with several Court decisions that were decidedly non-Federalist, even if they agree with the conclusions..

Third: Roe Vs. Wade is not the biggest item on any Federalist agenda, or vast Federalist conspiracy theory. Sorry, it really isn't. Do they agree with the ruling, technically, no, but this does not even make any of them anti-Abortion. How can I say that? If you go back to item the second, you notice that democratic federalists can disagree with a court decision, even if they agree with the conclusions: Roe is one of them. Leftist Federalists think that Roe vs. Wade is bad law, logically inconsistent, making up precedence in the constitution that isn't there. Does that mean they are pro-life? Not at all, this just means that the topic of abortion should be left up to the legislative branch and not the judicial. To elaborate: The United States is the ONLY country on the planet that did not have a vote on abortion, it was simply ordained by the court.

Fourth: no one in their correct mind says that Roe. Vs. Wade is decided law. Why? Because Roe is challenged constantly, every year, at least once a year. Brown vs. Board of Education is settled law because no challenges have come to that ruling for over fifty years. Roe will be challenged for the foreseeable future, and asking any justice to decide on it in session is calling for him to have an opinion on a case that may come before his court. You know that it's wrong for any justice to have his mind made up on a case before it appears, and asking anyone to decide is merely a way of trying to nullify a candidate. Any justice candidate who can't talk around those questions doesn't deserve to be on the Supreme Court. By the way, the federalist has all sorts of wide-ranging hobbies and interests, including restoring power to the states, embracing the framers' ideals, and curbing federal and judicial power. The idea that all federalists are single-mindedly planning the demise of Roe is mistaken. As Harvard law professor and former Clintonista Laurence Tribe reminds us, Roe can be nicely hollowed out without ever being expressly reversed. They've largely moved on. So should you.

There are also several items which made come to you in time, but to save everyone the bother, several obvious items you may have missed. To begin with, Federalists are not you. They are not Michael Moore fans teeming with hate and rage ready to rip apart anyone who disagrees with them. Federalists will not erupt into a hissing, spitting parody of Bill O'Reilly and then try to strangle you with his bow tie on C-SPAN-- thankfully, few people wear bow ties anymore, so you're probably safe. Federalists, like John Roberts, love their families and do not devote their lives to systematically holding back women, persecuting minorities, and stealing wheelchairs from the disabled-- that we leave in the capable hands of terrorists. Attempts to tar the federalist as having dedicated his career to raging misogyny or racism will likely backfire. Most of them have better things to do.
Federalists do not believe in "fairness": While they don't seek to promote the interests of white men, big businesses, and the unborn; he is also wholly unconcerned about "giving a fair shake to the little guy." They simply don't accept the proposition that the courts exist to elevate the interests of the little guy above everyone else. This is a defensible constitutional theory that you might consider debating with a federalist . You may want to ask him pointed questions about the responsibility of the courts when the elected branches of government fail—as they have done on occasion—to protect minorities. You may want to press him on the possibility that the courts should do more than mechanically apply the law as written. Such a conversation might prove enlightening for the American people. But asserting that federalists are inherently not fair or honest, no matter how many times you say it, remains reductive and untrue.

Federalists are human beings. They have hearts, although they may not be able to cough one out onto the Senate floor on demand. Federalists also believe that the heart is not an organ relevant to deciding cases. They believe that the law is the only thing relevant to deciding cases. Nevertheless, federalists do cry. Their spouses cry. But you should not use these hearings to prick them. They will bleed. Just as if you tickle them, they will laugh. Oh … and if you wrong them, they will revenge.

Technically, conservative judges do not "apply the law" while liberal jurists "make it up." As I said, there are democratic federalists. However, that does not matter when the Leftist "we make it up" judges get all the publicity. This is a bad move for you democrats. Conservatives judges read the statutes, study the precedent, and then mechanically deduce what the law is, without regard to their personal preferences. You may want to probe whether there are indeed "moral judgments" at the heart of their decisions. And if you suspect that all judges inevitably make such moral judgments, you might seek to uncover from where such moral judgments come. When your inquiry proves fruitless (i.e., you are stonewalled), you may wish to turn to other sources to refute the notion that nothing in a person's history or ideology is reflected in his (or her) moral judgments.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate judiciary committee, not all federalists are grumpy or hotheaded. Federalists have a view of the Constitution and the allocation of government powers that largely differs from yours. The Court interprets the law, it does not MAKE the law. And remember that Supreme Court workers universally name Clarence Thomas as the kindest and warmest justice on the current court. That is irrelevant to how he decides cases, and you should think on that when asking about the next nominees you look at.

2005-11-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Democrat, Republican or Southern Republican?

This is an email that is making the rounds. Thanks to Jason of IR for sending it along to me!

***************

Are you a Democrat, Republican or Southern Republican?

Here is a little test that will help you decide.

Question: How do you tell the difference between Democrats, Republicans And Southern Republicans? The answer can be found by posing the following question:

You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Glock cal .40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.

What do you do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Democrat’s Answer:

Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question!

Does the man look poor! Or oppressed?

Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?

Could we run away?

What does my wife think?

What about the kids?

Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?

What does the law say about this situation?

Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?

Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?

Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me?

Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?

If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?

Should I call 9-1-1?

Why is this street so deserted?

We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.

This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Republican’s Answer:

BANG!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Southern Republican’s Answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click…..(sounds of reloading).

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click

Daughter: “Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Hollow Points?”

2005-11-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

And then there are days where the NYTimes acts like a good little boy and takes it's medication. Like so.

November 15, 2005

For New York Officers Felled in the Line of Duty, Recognition at Last
By KAREEM FAHIM

They fell victim to drunken sailors, rioters, and women of abandoned character, adversaries who attacked them with coarse weapons: paving stones, pistols and dirks.

On the meaner streets of a younger New York, the policemen died in ways redolent of the age.

One patrolman was cut down with a sword. Horses or drawn carriages trampled others. A few policemen met their ends after treachery, shot or stabbed by fellow officers in dramas soaked with alcohol. The stabbing of another officer sparked days of riots.

In a memorial ceremony today, the Police Department will unveil plaques with the names of 100 officers who died in the line of duty between 1849 and 1997 and had not been honored. Descendants of eight of the officers will attend the ceremony, the police said.

The presentation of the plaques, which are bolted high on a wall in the lobby of Police Headquarters at 1 Police Plaza, marks the end of a two-year department research project to document the circumstances of the officers' deaths, and to recognize them. Historians and descendants of the police officers were consulted for clues. Researchers mined old newspaper articles, public death records and the department's own history - including more than a century's worth of police orders, bound in tattered red books that sit on an aluminum shelf in Police Headquarters.

The researchers, led by Lt. Michael McGrath, uncovered an absorbing history of policing from another time. Because the bronze plaques list only the names, ranks, and year that the officers died, much of that past will stay largely invisible to the public. More detail, however, can be found in archived newspaper accounts.

On Oct. 19, 1867, Officer Robert S. McChesney, to his great misfortune, ran into Fanny Wright, a woman well known for "intemperate habits" who had been arrested frequently for disorderly conduct and drunkenness, according to an article in The New York Times.

On that day, Ms. Wright was harassing passers-by on Canal Street, and Officer McChesney tried to intervene.

"As soon as he laid his hand upon her arm she swung herself around, and half broke away from the officer's grasp," a reporter wrote. "And as she did so she dealt him a sudden blow in the left side of the neck with a common pearl-handled, three-bladed knife, the blade severing the jugular vein."

In September 1895, using a weapon somewhat more common than a three-bladed knife - but no less deadly - a professional acrobat named William Coleman, who was drunk, beat Officer John T. Delehanty with a sandbag. Officer Delehanty died soon afterward at Bellevue Hospital, and the beating led Theodore Roosevelt, then president of the Board of Police Commissioners, to call for the return of long nightsticks for police officers.

"I love this project," said Lieutenant McGrath, who said the research team's mission was to remember all the department's members. He also relished the idea of stepping back in time: "Once you read the stories, of guys beaten to death in anti-Catholic riots, or in Draft Riots - John Smedick's a good one. This guy ambushes him and fires a pistol at him."

He was referring to the murder of Officer John Smedick on July 23, 1868, by John Real, "a notorious ruffian" on First Avenue near 32nd Street. The Times called it "one of the most unprovoked and reckless murders ever committed."

Mr. Real, who had been arrested twice by Officer Smedick, explained to the police that he was "bound to get square on him."

Of course, not all of the deaths were so dramatic.

In 1851, Sgt. Michael Foster was fatally stabbed outside the Porterhouse Bar by sailors from the Schooner Habana. In 1863, several officers died in the Draft Riots.

In 1898, an officer contracted a fatal case of typhoid while on assignment. In 1905, Patrolman Ira Kinne was accidentally shot in the abdomen by a fellow officer while working as a firearms instructor at the Ninth Regiment Armory.

In 1900, after Patrolman Robert J. Thorpe arrested May Enoch for loitering, her husband, Arthur Harris, fatally stabbed Patrolman Thorpe at 41st Street and Eighth Avenue. Mr. Harris was black, and rioting followed as whites bent on revenge attacked blacks on the West Side.

Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly relaxed department rules in 1993, during his first tenure, so that all officers who died in the line of duty receive a plaque. He said that while the stories illuminated a different era, in many ways the job had not changed.

"Cops put on the blue uniform, and go out, and run into situations that put their lives in risk. It's different in the sense of both technology and perhaps training," he said.

"But it comes down to you being the first person up the stairs. Or the first person in the door. The heart pounds, and the adrenaline rises," he said. "It doesn't change."

2005-11-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

Lies told about Iraq, and how to lose a war.

I couldn't say this any better, so I cheated. Enjoy.

HOW TO LOSE A WAR
By RALPH PETERS

November 21, 2005 -- QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.

Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don't mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round.

Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. After all, one way to create the kind of disaffection in the ranks that the Dems' leaders yearn to see is to tell our troops on the battlefield that they're risking their lives for nothing, we're throwing the game.

Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they'll have to leave their families and go back to war again. Ignore the progress on the ground, the squeezing of the insurgency's last strongholds into the badlands on the Syrian border. Blow off the successive Iraqi elections and the astonishing cooperation we've seen between age-old enemies as they struggle to form a decent government.

Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren't anomalies — that's what Americans do.

While we're at it, let's just print up recruiting posters for the terrorists, informing the youth of the Middle East that Americans are cowards who can be attacked with impunity.

Whatever you do, don't talk about any possible consequences. Focus on the moment — and the next round of U.S. elections. Just make political points. After all, those dead American soldiers and Marines don't matter — they didn't go to Ivy League schools. (Besides, most would've voted Republican had they lived.)

America's security? Hah! As long as the upcoming elections show Democratic gains, let the terrorist threat explode. So what if hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners might die in a regional war? So what if violent fundamentalism gets a shot of steroids? So what if we make Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the most successful Arab of the past 500 years?

For God's sake, don't talk about democracy in the Middle East. After all, democracy wasn't much fun for the Dems in 2000 or 2004. Why support it overseas, when it's been so disappointing at home?

Human rights? Oh, dear. Human rights are for rich white people who live in Malibu. Unless you can use the issue to whack Republicans. Otherwise, brown, black or yellow people can die by the millions. Dean, Reid & Pelosi, LLC, won't say, "Boo!"

You've got to understand, my fellow citizens: None of this matters. And you don't matter, either. All that matters is scoring political points. Let the world burn. Let the massacres run on. Let the terrorists acquire WMD. Just give the Bush administration a big black eye and we'll call that a win.

*

The irresponsibility of the Democrats on Capitol Hill is breathtaking. (How can an honorable man such as Joe Lieberman stay in that party?) Not one of the critics of our efforts in Iraq — not one — has described his or her vision for Iraq and the Middle East in the wake of a troop withdrawal. Not one has offered any analysis of what the terrorists would gain and what they might do. Not one has shown respect for our war dead by arguing that we must put aside our partisan differences and win.

There's plenty I don't like about the Bush administration. Its domestic policies disgust me, and the Bushies got plenty wrong in Iraq. But at least they'll fight. The Dems are ready to betray our troops, our allies and our country's future security for a few House seats.

Surrender is never a winning strategy.

Yes, we've been told lies about Iraq — by Dems and their media groupies. About conditions on the ground. About our troops. About what's at stake. About the consequences of running away from the great struggle of our time. About the continuing threat from terrorism. And about the consequences for you and your family.

What do the Democrats fear? An American success in Iraq. They need us to fail, and they're going to make us fail, no matter the cost. They need to declare defeat before the 2006 mid-term elections and ensure a real debacle before 2008 — a bloody mess they'll blame on Bush, even though they made it themselves.

We won't even talk about the effect quitting while we're winning in Iraq might have on the go-to-war calculations of other powers that might want to challenge us in the future. Let's just be good Democrats and prove that Osama bin Laden was right all along: Americans have no stomach for a fight.

As for the 2,000-plus dead American troops about whom the lefties are so awfully concerned? As soon as we abandon Iraq, they'll forget about our casualties quicker than an amnesiac forgets how much small-change he had in his pocket.

If we run away from our enemies overseas, our enemies will make their way to us. Quit Iraq, and far more than 2,000 Americans are going to die.

And they won't all be conservatives.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer.

2005-11-21T12:16:00.000-05:00

Quick quotes.

FAMILY

"Four years ago, while the nation's eyes were fixed on the
devastation in New York City, California's Democrat-controlled
Legislature attacked marriage by enacting a sweeping domestic
partner bill one day after September 11. Yesterday, while the
nation was still reeling from the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the
Legislature voted to blow away marriage completely by doing away
with its essential requirement---that a wedding have a bride and a
groom. Perhaps they're hoping that Californians are so distracted
by the unfolding tragedy in New Orleans that they won't notice
their out-of-control politicians in Sacramento. Gov. Schwarzenegger
has the power to terminate this radical plan to create counterfeit
marriage. He can either side with the 61 percent of Californians
who voted to protect marriage in a statewide initiative, or he
can side with the radical Democrats." ---Robert Knight

OPINION IN BRIEF

"We are now reaping the benefits of a welfare state. For more years
than most can remember, we have been told by those holding office
that they will take care of us. We have provided food, clothing
and shelter to the extent that the recipients became entirely
dependent on government resources to live. They have reached the
point that no longer do they have the knowledge to take care of
themselves. They will sit there and drown or go hungry, and curse
the fact that the government has not gotten them out of this
mess. When it is all said and done, there is but one person who
is responsible for me, and that is me. The responsibility falls
to me to take care of my family, not the government. Society,
not government, has an obligation to provide care and sustenance
to those who, because of age or physical impairment cannot take
care of themselves, but able-bodied people who stand around
and complain that no one is doing anything for them deserve
whatever the fates cast in their direction. Life is hard, and you
either get tougher or you get washed away---it is as simple as
that. Politicians will never, ever take care of you---they only
want one thing from you, and that is to stay in power as long as
they can. In a situation like Katrina, they will stand in front
of the cameras and microphones and denigrate everyone above them
in government to take the eye off of their pathetic efforts. This
is a situation that they have created, and now the good citizens
of the area will have to step in and clean up the mess that
has been created by the politicians. It won't happen overnight,
but it will happen---there are too many good people who live in
that area for it not to happen. I love the people of New Orleans
and the surrounding parishes, but I despise the politicians... I
just hope that when the area is rebuilt, they stay away from the
massive welfare system they had before---absolutely no good comes
from welfare. It depletes available resources, making it ever more
difficult for what passes as government to respond to the true
needs of the community."---Robert Johnson, retired NOPD captain

2005-11-20T23:13:00.000-05:00

A letter from the troops of the 101st Airborne.

Mom,

Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday.Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…

My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.
I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.

Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most American’s are born into their God given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.

Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.

I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.

Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?

You need not to have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????

The Iraqi’s pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier’s in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet American’s badmouth our President for having us here.

Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi’s. Yes there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.
I have watched brave souls give their all and lose thier lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.

My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.

Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.

SGT Walter J. Rausch and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

God bless you guys.

2005-11-20T23:03:00.000-05:00

Recently, Michelle Malkin has stated that you can call her stay away from her family.

Or, as she says

During one of countless book-related radio interviews this week, a liberal radio host insultingly asked me whether I write my own column. His question was prompted by vicious anonymous bloggers who portray me as a greedy Asian whore/ dupe/ brainwashing victim who simply parrots what my white slavemasters program into my empty little head. These critics have stepped up attacks on my husband Jesse as a fanatical right-wing puppeteer orchestrating all I do and say.

I assume these tinfoil-hat wearers also think I'm secretly wired during my TV and radio appearances, speeches, and debates-- you know, just like George Bush.

As I've noted in several newspaper profiles and television interviews, I met my husband in college, where he founded a right-of-center student publication that I wrote for and edited. He started off as a Berkeley-born Dukakis liberal; I was a congenital conservative who helped him see the light. We have been each other's best friend, editor, and sounding board for nearly half of our lives. He followed me to Southern California when I took my first newspaper gig in Los Angeles. He followed me up to the Pacific Northwest when I was hired by the Seattle Times. I followed him to Washington D.C. when he got a lucrative health-care consulting job. And when my career took off after I published my first book in 2002, he cut back on his own ambitions to be with our kids.

In his spare time (such as it is with an active kindergartener and an Energizer bunny preschooler), he helps me out when he can. Al Franken needs a dozen, overpaid Harvard-trained research assistants. I have my hubby's help for a few hours a week.

Our partnership has spanned my editing of his Rhodes Scholarship essay to his formatting of my footnotes in Unhinged to the most important project in our lives--our kids. He has done copy-editing on my three books, conducted background research, taken dictation, drafted language for business letters, reviewed contracts, mailed my thank-you notes, helped me with a handful of blog posts out of the estimated 3,000 I've written since June 2004, corrected the math in a few of the estimated 800 newspaper columns I've penned since November 1992, and provided me with emotional support and encouragement through good times and bad. In turn, I've proofread his dissertation, conducted background research, reviewed his grant applications, helped him with speeches and conference presentations, picked out his ties for interviews, corrected his grammar, rewritten ledes for his business-related op-eds, brainstormed and edited some of his research proposals, and tried to provide as much emotional support and encouragement to him as he has to me. Message to crackpots and haters: This is not a right-wing conspiracy. This is marriage.

As for my husband's "influence," why yes, he influences me all the time and vice versa. Spouses tend to do that to each other over the years. When I came up with my idea for Invasion after 9/11, he was skeptical. We don't agree on everything, but I've pulled him to the right on national security, the Second Amendment, and some social issues. He has put up with my insomniac writing habits, investigative obsessions, and workaholism for more than a dozen years, and I have successfully converted him to the conservative cause.

The racist and sexist "yellow woman doing a white man's job" knock is a tiresome old attack from impotent liberals that I've tolerated a long time. It is pathetic that I have to sit here and tell you that my ideas, my politics, and my intellectual capital are mine and mine alone in response to cowardly attacks from misogynistic moonbats with Asian whore fixations. My IQ, free will, skin color, eye shape, productivity, sincerity, and integrity are routinely ridiculed or questioned because I happen to be a minority conservative woman. As a public figure, I am willing to take these insults, but I cannot tolerate the smearing of my loved ones. Because I have always been open and proud about his support for my career, my husband has taken endless, hate-filled abuse from my critics. His Jewish heritage, his decision to be a stay-at-home dad, and even his looks, are the subject of brutal mockery.

Enough.

If you have a problem with my work and what I stand for, go ahead and take me on. Keep calling me whatever four-letter-word makes you feel better when you can't win your arguments. But leave my family alone.

Have you libs fallen so far, and is the hour so late, that nothing remains but the shrieks of your hate? These cries in the dark that nobody wants to listen to? Is that it? Is that the best you can do to Malkin but insult her and her family?

Wait, I forgot. Based on what you Leftist, Communist sociopaths been doing to Lt. Gov. Steele of Maryland, you have.

Anyway, I've got something better, a list of four-letter-names to call Michelle.

Nice
Sexy
Good
Kind
Hoty [okay, that was a stretch.]

And if you can get four letter synonyms for genious, charming, lovely, knowledgeable, generous and descent human being, let me know... and you belong making NYTimes Crossword puzzles.

2005-11-20T22:50:00.000-05:00

Tell me again who lied? Who died? Explain it to me.

Interesting, isn't it? After the "CIA leak" investigation, which concluded that no laws were broken (but charged one administration staffer with perjury), I happen to hear loud, loud screams that, somehow, the investigation concluded that "Bush Lied, Kids Died," which is an odd conclusion, given that only a man named "Scooter" Libby was indicted on a NON-RELATED charge. Unfortunately, perjury is a common tactic of presecutors who want to prove that they haven't totally wasted taxpayer money on a two year investigation, and it's an easy charge to come up with. If you are questioned one day, recalled a year later, and say something even slightly different to the same question, then that's "perjury," even if that means you just can't remember every exact detail.

As far as "Scooter" is concerned, my major worry is what kind of name is Scooter for a White House Staffer?

And of course, the man hasn't been convicted of anything. Not a thing. It's just that a prosecutor said that it's possible they could get a conviction on Mr. Libby.

However, I've noticed that real Libs [Liberals], seem to take an INDICTMENT for perjury into a CONVICTION about some mass, Right-Wing-Haliburton conspiracy theory. Could it be that the Liberals are thinking about pandering to their base for next year's midterm elections?

Sens. Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin have accused President George Bush of lying about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, insisting he "lied us into war." They are even floating the suggestion that he be impeached....a suggestion that's about as original as "I did not have sex with that woman." They've said it since he was elected in 2000, by winning the electoral votes of Florida by 243 votes. Funny, that, ain't it?

"The Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America should never have fought." --Ted Kennedy. Your proof sir? We sent into Iraq for mulitple reasons-- about 30 of them. WMDs? Reason number 4.

"We all know the Vice President's office was the nerve center of an operation designed to sell the war and discredit those who challenged it. ... The manipulation of intelligence to sell the war in Iraq...the Vice President is behind that." --Harry Reid. Discredit those who challenge it? You mean Joe Wilson? It's not hard to discredit a man who's desk-bound CIA wife got him a job. I wonder why anyone would want to discredit a man who's intelligence findings was discredited by the bi-partisan Intelligence committee looking at Iraq. And how does one discredit such a man by outing a CIA wife who's CIA status was an open secret throughout the news media?

"I seconded the motion Sen. Harry Reid made last week. Republicans in Congress have refused, despite repeated promises, to investigate the Bush administration's misuse of pre-war intelligence, so Senate Democrats are standing up and demanding the truth." -- Dick Durbin, who recently compared U.S. troops to the Nazis and Pol Pot. And if you want the truth? You can't handle the truth, but let's try this: The Clintonian CIA, who's budget had been slashed, its agents belttled, mishandled, mismanaged, for years, collected the same exact intelligence as the Brits, the Poles, the Czechs and the Russians.

Let's play a game. Who said "If Saddam rejects peace, and we have to use force, our purpose is clear: We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program"?

Sounds like the President of the United states, right?

Come on, take a guess....

Bill Clinton.

Let's see, who else?

What secretary of state said, "We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and the security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction."

Clinton's. Madeline Albright.

Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Advisor and Classified Document Thief: "[Saddam will] use those weapons of mass destruction again as he has ten times since 1983."

Harry Reid: "The problem is not nuclear testing; it is nuclear weapons. ... The number of Third World countries with nuclear capabilities seems to grow daily. Saddam Hussein's near success with developing a nuclear weapon should be an eye-opener for us all." Who's being deceived and discredited again?

Dick Durbin: "One of the most compelling threats we in this country face today is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Threat assessments regularly warn us of the possibility that...Iraq...may acquire or develop nuclear weapons." Who's misusing intelligence reports, exactly?

John Kerry: "If you don't believe...Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then you shouldn't vote for me." And this man was on the House Intelligence comittee, so I can't exactly see how the President could lie to him, he saw firsthand intelligence reports.

John Edwards: "Serving on the Intelligence Committee and seeing day after day, week after week, briefings on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his plans on using those weapons, he cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons, it's just that simple. The whole world changes if Saddam ever has nuclear weapons." And he was right... even Joe Wilson said that Saddam TRIED to get nuclear materials from Nigeria, he just said he never got it.... and misteriously, we've been moving tons of uranium from incountry for months. Hmm....

Oh, I love this quote. This is so rabidly right-wing, it could be me.

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology, which is a threat to countries in the region, and he has made a mockery of the weapons-inspection process."

And I agree wholeheartedly, Nancy Pelosi.

Sens. Levin, Lieberman, Lautenberg, Dodd, Kerrey, Feinstein, Mikulski, Daschle, Breaux, Johnson, Inouye, Landrieu, Ford and Kerry in a letter to Bill Clinton: "We urge you, after consulting with Congress and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions...to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."

After President Bush was sworn into office in 2001, his administration was handed eight years worth of intelligence analysis and policy positions from the Clinton years.

In the weeks prior to the invasion of Iraq, Democrats, who had access to the same intelligence used by the Bush administration (much of which was compiled under the Clinton administration), were clear about the threat of Iraq's WMD capability.

Ted Kennedy: "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."

John Kerry: "I will be voting to give the president of the U.S. the authority to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security. ... Without question we need to disarm Saddam Hussein."

Hillary Clinton: "In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock. His missile-delivery capability, his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists including al-Qa'ida members. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."

Carl Levin: "We begin with a common belief that Saddam Hussein...is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them."

Al Gore: "We know that he has stored nuclear supplies, secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."

Bob Graham: "We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has and has had for a number of years a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."

Here's a partial list of what didn't make it out of Iraq before the invasion of Operation Iraqi Freedom [why we can't just call it a war, I'll never know]: 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium, 1,700 gallons of chemical-weapon agents, chemical warheads containing the nerve agent cyclosarin, radioactive materials in powdered form designed for dispersal over population centers, artillery projectiles loaded with binary chemical agents, etc.

Hmm, now, let me see. Saddam had a centrifuge necessary for making nukes. He had about five to six months of warning to get out of town before we invaded. We KNOW he had been moving large amounts of money out of the country a few hours before the invasion. We found 11 mobile labs for making Chemical and Bioweapons. There were labs freshly sterilized before our troops got there. So could we take a guess that there had been other WMDs that could have been smuggled out too?

So, Ted, Dick and Harry, any other ideas?

I hear phrases like "War for Oil." We could have a better war if we invaded Mexico for THEIR oil. And we know Mexico's a security risk, we find Syrians and Iranians coming across the border daily. But we invaded Iraq, a harder task, why?

Now, on Veterans Day, President Bush noted: "Today our nation pays tribute to our veterans -- 25 million vets.... At this hour, a new generation of Americans is defending our flag and our freedom in the first war of this century. This war came to our shores on the morning of September 11, 2001. ... We know that they want to strike again and our nation has made a clear choice. We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire or rest until the War on Terror is won. ... [I]t is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. ... We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory."

"Deeply irresponsible"? That's it? Really?

I know democrats over in the Gulf right now. They'll disagree with me on social security, welfare, medicare, abortion, but you know what they agree on? We need to be there.

Interesting concept, no?

Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis!

2005-11-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

The Truth About WMDs in Iraq!! Proof!

WMDs Found in Iraq!
· 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium
· 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons agents
· 17 chemical warheads containing cyclosarin (a nerve agent five times more deadly than sarin gas)
· Over 1,000 radioactive materials in powdered form meant for dispersal over populated areas
· Roadside bombs loaded with mustard and "conventional" sarin gas, assembled in binary chemical projectiles for maximum potency

Gotcha, didn't I? :)