Monday

Hunting report


I have been spending time in the woods recently in a vain attempt to slay some bambi for the purposes of consumption. It’s probably correct to say that I suck as a hunter. But at least it’s not for a lack of trying! My excuse is that I don’t have what I’ll call “the luck” for hunting.

Hunting deer and squirrel is an absolute passion of mine that forces all other pursuits onto the back burner this time of year. But unlike my late brother, and some friends I have, I have to work very hard to be successful. Nonetheless hunting for me is like an itch I can never fully scratch. So I just keep plugging away at it and enjoy whatever nature throws my way – like this little incident:

I got into my stand early Saturday morning long before sunrise. My plan was to get into position and let the woods have plenty of time to settle down. No matter how quietly you ease in, by comparison to the natural sounds of wildlife, a human entering the woods makes quite a bit of sound and disruption. Once I get into my stand and climb to around twenty or thirty feet, I can get extremely still and quiet and take in all that’s going on.

Mine is the most comfortable treestand in the world, and it allows me to safely cat-nap without any fear of falling. So Saturday I was just getting settled in to snooze while waiting on the dawn when I heard a group of coyotes start barking and howling. It came from the area of woods where I had been set up just the previous morning. The first group was then answered by another group of “yotes” a few hundred yards farther off, and finally a third distinct group could be heard way off in the distance.

It was quite a sound to hear – let me tell you; particularly when the thought occurs that I had walked into these swamps bordering the Satilla River all by myself with only a crossbow as a weapon. And here I was, several hundred yards back in the swamp, in the deep pre-dawn darkness, being serenaded by what sounded like forty or fifty coyotes. For about fifteen minutes they set up the most outlandish caterwauling, yapping, and wailing that you could possibly imagine. Some of the sounds they made even sounded like human screams and screeches, and it was enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck. I took much comfort in the knowledge that I was more than twenty-five feet off the ground, and thus well out of their reach.

The following morning, I took comfort in the .40 pistol hanging on my hip when I entered those same dark woods all by my lonesome. Technically it’s illegal to carry a firearm during bow-season. But that’s one of those rules that I will forevermore ignore.

I am a redneck Southern white man...

Therefore I MUST be a bigot and a racist right?

Well...

Here's a black man I would vote for any time!

Herman Cain considering a 2012 run for president.

Facists always claim it's about national security!

WASHINGTON – Broad new regulations being drafted by the Obama administration would make it easier for law enforcement and national security officials to eavesdrop on Internet and e-mail communications like social networking Web sites and BlackBerries, The New York Times reported Monday.

The newspaper said the White House plans to submit a bill next year that would require all online services that enable communications to be technically equipped to comply with a wiretap order. That would include providers of encrypted e-mail, such as BlackBerry, networking sites like Facebook and direct communication services like Skype.

Federal law enforcement and national security officials say new the regulations are needed because terrorists and criminals are increasingly giving up their phones to communicate online.

"We're talking about lawfully authorized intercepts," said FBI lawyer Valerie E. Caproni. "We're not talking about expanding authority. We're talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security."

Read the rest here.

===========================

GR4U - If you read this, the tone would infer that they are NOT already spying on us all. Read a book entitled One Nation Under Surveillance by Boston T Party, and prepare to be stunned at the magnitude of data mining our friendly Imperial Government is already doing!

Wednesday

Chaos at Arlington Nat'l Cemetery - After all, it's run by the government!

Be advised: This post is NOT for the faint of heart.

Unimagineable Horror for Father of Fallen Marine


What follows is a guest post from Mike Warner, uncle to a fallen Marine whose body was disinterred to verify that it was buried in the right place.

Imagine Doing This

by
Mike Warner
AOCS, USN Ret.

On September 15, 2010 at around 0800 in the morning, a family makes their way into Arlington National Cemetery for the Disinterment of a Marine Private killed by an IED in Al Anbar Province Iraq on 22 November 2006 killing him and two others.

As they stood at the grave site, a forklift arrives to raise a coffin from the vault that had interred it for nearly four years. Arlington knew at this point that the vault and coffin had been opened. When the family became aware of this action, an unsettling air of distrust settled upon the gathering. The father yells “you lied” as family members hold and calm him. The father already marred and angry by the uncooperative atmosphere and insensitivity of Arlington’s leadership; his grief now changes to anger. Another promise broken! Arlington, to seemingly cover their asses had breached the coffin the night before to ensure the Marine Private and the dog tags were in the assigned plot.

With a rotting corpse and the putrid stench of death permeating the air, a worker removes a dog tag from the coffin lid, wipes off the dirt, and hands it to the father. The forklift begins to raise the coffin; putrid water begins streaming out and those in attendance gasp as the fear of body parts falling from the unstable casket grips them.

Once removed, the coffin is lowered onto the bed of a truck and driven to a maintenance building where the verification process is to be held. In attendance inside were the father, a fellow Marine and friend of the Private who was to verify the remains, a Colonel, a Catholic Priest (arriving later), a Funeral Director, and some cemetery workers.

The father was already grieving and reeling from yet another confrontation with Arlington personnel the day before. He demanded and Arlington agreed the vault inside the grave would not be opened until he arrived the morning of the 15th. The father apprehensive about the day’s events was anxious if they would find his son inside. He fumed from yet another breach of trust. The father rejects the dog tags offered to him as verification by Arlington. The dog tags may have been sufficient had the integrity of the coffin not been breached. However, since it had been prior to the family’s arrival; the father then requested visual verification. The staff at Arlington appeared unprepared for what was to come next, thus tipping the father’s hand.

His adrenalin already maxed and because of Arlington’s ineptness, the father instinctively jumps onto the truck in his dress clothes despite the rancid odor. The father begins digging through the water soaked; stench filled rotting dismembered remains of his son, in search of the severed arm with a tattoo on it. Meanwhile the Funeral Director is standing to the side, gagging. The father looks at the Funeral Director and tells him, “Get over here and do your job!”

Arlington’s assistance during this time consisted of providing him with latex gloves. The father removes his rancid dress gloves used in digging through the soupy carnage and discards them in the trash. He also removes his jacket, hat and sunglasses, and continues to search for the missing arm. This arm with the tattoo would positively confirm that the unrecognizable severely decomposed corpse was his son’s. The father still searching as he inhales the pungent stench of rotting flesh discovers for the first time since his son’s death, that only a torso, arm, and leg were there.

Finally, after frantically searching the carnage, the arm is found under the torso with the tattoo mostly intact. The father in a gesture of love carefully and gently wipes away the dirt. He verifies his son. The veil of doubt is lifted. His son now placed in a new casket, the family looks on as the Private is reinterred, and now all are at peace.
_______________________________________________________________________

This is not fiction! Arlington’s negligence is at fault and they had pushed a father past the point of no return, and further due to their action added to their list of failures. Some have stated that the father is demented, paranoid, irrational, delusional, or created this, or him and his family just pretend this reality doesn’t exist, or hey, forget about it because it does not change the fact the guy is dead. Even if the hater’s assumptions are right (which they are not) it does not change the fact that Arlington FAILED. Arlington created too much doubt and an air of distrust to believe them. Some families want to know and deserve to know, without a lingering doubt.

Grieving families need protected as they are vulnerable, and Arlington failed to lead and protect this family by not having procedures in place to prevent families from such extremes, which in this case, resulted in a situation such as what you just read. Arlington’s systemic failures have lead to the desecration of a national symbol’s dignity and honor.

Why are these families engaging in conflict with Arlington? Well let’s see, maybe because there is no plan, and without a plan there is chaos? I have heard mentioned by officials and others there is no precedent for this. Then why didn’t they put their collective heads and talents together and think through the process before they disinterred the first? Why you ponder? Maybe because it is government, and usually its leadership does not address an issue until something goes wrong and then relies on a “knee jerk reaction” and of course, not to mention, they count on the Americans’ short attention span, and fast news cycles. We can do better.

***This needs done now, not in months***

For starters:

• Arlington owes these families Honor, Dignity, Respect, Sensitivity, and Compassion. Core values Arlington should adopt.

• There must be an immediate cessation of exhumations at Arlington, until a clearly defined protocol is in place which protects the families and further preserves the honor and dignity of our fallen, and the future of Arlington’s legacy as well.

• An immediate investigation into the factors which resulted in the catastrophic failure of 15 September 2010. This was completely avoidable on many levels.

• Replace Leadership with individuals capable of understanding the dynamics of the current crisis and provide appropriate training. The Army may have the right person, but at the wrong time.

• Standards that are step by step – from the time contact with Arlington is made until reinterment is completed. This shall include family planning meetings (as necessary) with Arlington on what to expect. Even a check sheet of available options. No fighting required!

• Families hire forensic experts to act as surrogates on their behalf (as necessary). At Arlington’s expense. No family is to engage in forensic actions under any circumstance. Someone needs to tell them NO! This is part of Arlington’s leadership role, and they failed. This is unsanitary, infectious, and may spread disease, not to mention the psychological impact.

• Families’ right to choose DNA analysis (as necessary) at Arlington’s expense, until these problems are corrected.

• Utilize Casualty Assistance Offices to interface with families until reinterment.

• That any and all action taken by the US Army or Arlington National Cemetery is open to the scrutiny of the media if requested by the family (to include photography/video as necessary). This would seem to be a mechanism to provide “peace of mind” to the families affected to keep Arlington’s results honest and transparent. Until all discrepancies with Arlington are resolved.

• At Arlington’s expense, provide a licensed, bonded and insured independent entity representing each family. It shall be unaffiliated with the US Army and Arlington National Cemetery. This entity shall be present from the moment the earth is breached. It shall validate non-tampering, ensure continuity of the remains, and to remove all doubt that US Army and Arlington personnel maligned the circumstance or results.

Read about the Arlington Scandal and get educated. We as civilized people should defend the integrity of our fallen warriors’ final interment. Our voices will help assure this does not happen to another grieving family verifying the final resting place of a loved one in a process gone awry.

Tuesday

How long are Americans going to tolerate this overbearing damn government?

No digging of any sort on a "public beach"!

Excuse me????? And watch how fast the first tax-feeder threatens to get another tax-feeder with a gun!

A story of your government at work

My brother had a son named Frank who is mentally retarded, and when Brother died last December I sort of “inherited” Frank.

Now Frank is on some form of SSI and gets a check every month. The cost of the home where he lives, and the cost of his medicines, slightly exceed the amount of his government check. But as the Jamaicans would say: Wha fe do! He's my blood.

When Brother died I became Frank’s Representative Payee, responsible for the custodianship of his gubmint check. Boy was I in for a real education in the workings of the imperial federal gubmint!

The first thing I discovered was that the old bank account with my brother’s name on it would NOT be merely transferred over to me. That account had to be CLOSED and the bank was directed to send those funds BACK to Social Security! So the first thing that I had to deal with was moving Frank from his home in Baldwin County GA to an assisted living facility here in NE Florida on my own nickel with no clear indications from Nanny that they would even give Frank his funds back! I won’t reveal the precise amount of funds stolen by Leviathan, but it was solidly in the five digit range.

Recovering those funds took two letters to my congressman (who did NOTHING), two letters to my Senator (who did nothing) and no less than five letters to SSA and dozens and dozens of ugly phone calls. One of those calls included being harangued by some woman at SSA with an almost indecipherable accent who told me that the funds weren’t Frank’s anyway… and maybe he would get them back and maybe he wouldn’t!

You cannot imagine the evil thoughts that ruled my mind when that tax-sucking leech told me that my retarded nephew might just be out all that money!

Long story made somewhat short: It took 115 days to recover the funds that the feds stole from Frank’s accounts.

Now the current outrage is that apparently a Representative Payee must annually report to Nanny how the funds were spent on behalf of their charge. All year long I have been getting forwarded letters from SSA in Milledgeville GA addressed to my dead brother, demanding that he make an accounting for 2009’s funds. And I have sent at least two letters back to that same SSA office telling them that Frank’s father lies at the bottom of a six-foot deep hole. Now note: James’s death was duly and timely reported to SSA by the funeral home at the time of his demise. This should be routine and brain-dead simple, for both cavemen AND gubmint employees!

Yesterday I get a letter saying that Frank’s check will be discontinued within ten days if they do not receive an accounting of Frank’s funds for the 2009 year. My brother was a very secretive soul and I couldn’t make such an accounting of his son’s monies if my life depended on it!

Naturally I get on the phone and call the Bozos at SSA to try and resolve this.

First I encounter the problem that the phone extension they list on the letter doesn’t work. So after half a dozen tries I finally get a human being (sic) on the line and begin to lay out the problem.

Oh but FIRST we must establish my identity.

“What’s Franks’ social security number?”

“What’s your social security number?”

“What’s his DOB?” then “What’s your DOB?”

“What’s your mother’s maiden name?”

“What’s his mother’s maiden name?”

“What’s your address?” and “What’s HIS address?”

[deep breath]

“What’s your place of birth?”

“What’s his place of birth?”

Ma’am!! Surely we’ve established by now that I am who I say I am!!!!

“I’m just doing my job sir” she replied sharply.

When the only question remaining unanswered was the name of my first childhood pet – we got down to the problem at hand.

After explaining the situation, and being put on hold for ten minutes, the SSA drone returned to the line and said she had fixed the problem and I would receive no more letters demanding an accounting for 2009. But she did admonish me to be prepared to make an accounting for 2010.

How can she claim to have "fixed the problem"? Washington still exists doesn't it!

Is anyone willing to wager that I won’t get another demand letter for 2009’s accounting of funds? Frankly I’ll be surprised if Frank’s check comes in next month. That was just TOO easy.

This is the political mindset of the people currently running this country (into the ground!)

Monday

Forget the "Creator"

Don't fool yourself into believing this was unintentional in any way!

Friday

More guns = Less Crime

The statistics referred to below are nationwide:

According to the FBI, the number of violent crimes of all types declined in 2009 by 5.3 percent and property crimes declined 4.6 percent. In fact, the rate of violent crime declined 6.1 percent below 2008 figures.

AND....

According to data from the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS), 2009 was the best year on record for gun sales. According to the NICS figures, 14 million guns were sold in 2009, the biggest year since the system began recording data in 1998.

Hmmmmm...

Read more here.

Thursday

An Open Letter To General Petraeus

“Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult.”
– Gen. David Petraeus


From Burn the Koran for Freedom Blog

General, I ask you this: what in hell is your “mission” if We The People jeopardize it by exercising our First Amendment rights in our own homeland? Is your “mission” to defend our rights against foreign enemies, or to defend foreign enemies against our rights?

You made your choice, and you justified by claiming that you and those under your command have been taken hostage by our 7th Century terrorist enemy, and that the ransom demand you deliver to us is that we submit to your captor’s restrictions on our natural and constitutional rights – or they’ll kill you.

I remind you and your captors that we do not negotiate with terrorists.

And I remind you that you are the most revered general in the present day, commanding in the most powerful military in all of history, during the most justifiable war in the last seventy years. So please either remember your priorities and slaughter your captors, or resign in disgrace so that we may replace you with a warrior. And if you resign, you should do so right along with President Obama, Gen. Caldwell, Pentagon Spokesman Lapan, Sec. of State Clinton, Atty. Gen. Holder, NATO Sec. Rasmussen and all others in all branches of government and in all alliances who echoed your request, whether they did so mindlessly or with surrender aforethought.

To have our own military leaders beg us to refrain from exercising our Constitutional rights on our own soil is completely un-American. And to have you make that request of us in the name of cowardice is a shocking and unthinkable perversion I still don’t have the words for...

Read the rest here, and then send this thing to everyone you know who is confused about what's going on!

Also read this related article which makes some very telling points that I'll bet few have even considered.

Wednesday

How the gubmint spends YOUR money

CNSNews.com) – The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

Read the rest here is you care to.

If that's the meaning of the phrase "stimulus" to whole new level eh?

Tuesday

Absolutely brilliant idea

I wish I had thought of this! But Alvie Zane did over at Cliffs of Insanity. Go read the whole thing, but here's the teaser:

Let the federal government regulate the production, distribution,
transportation, sale, and use of all drugs which are now illegal.

Show me an industry or institution that has gone (or is going) down the tubes, and I'll show you federal "help" that preceded the death spiral.

Whenever you need a reminder

Whenever the thought enters your head: "How did this fool get elected anyway?" Just watch this video.



And remember that these people just voted!

Sunday

Hunting season update

Didn't see any deer. But I got a real up close look at a couple of million mosquitoes! They got a real close look at me too - so close that I'm sure they could TASTE me!

I saw three coons - racoons that is - walking along underneath my treestand. One of them got a whiff of me and came over to the base of the tree to sniff around. I leaned over and spit on him.

LOL

When all is said and done, the worst day I ever had hunting was better than the best day I ever spent at work!

Thursday

Oh but it's perfectly ok to burn Bibles!

Note the old date of this article - but it is certainly relevant to current events wouldn't you say?

U.S. military says Afghan bibles have been destroyed
Tue May 5, 2009 4:15pm IST

(Reuters) - Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytising, a military spokeswoman said.

The U.S. military has denied its soldiers tried to convert Afghans to Christianity, after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a bible class on a base with a stack of bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages.

U.S. Central Command's General Order Number 1 forbids troops on active duty -- including all those based in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.

"I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed," spokeswoman Major Jennifer Willis said at Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

Military officials have said the bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. The soldier brought them to the bible study class where they were filmed.

Trying to convert Muslims to another faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.

"It certainly is, from the United States military's perspective, not our position to ever push any specific kind of religion, period," chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told a Pentagon briefing on Monday.

Wednesday

Obama and Kennedy debate the wisdom of tax cuts

On burning the Koran



I’ve devoted all of five minutes thought to this business of some little church in Gainesville burning Korans. Let me share with you now my profound conclusions.

I wish this was being done by ANY ONE other than an ostensibly Christian group. Burning Korans doesn’t perturb me in the least. I wouldn’t be bothered to hear that Roosevelt had ordered the burning of all copies of Mein Kampf either! If I ever had any sensitivities where Islam was concerned (and trust me – I didn’t!) they were completely burned and crushed on 091101. However it does bother me when Christians enter the world of politics so plainly wearing the mantle of Christians. What an individual Christian does is not what I’m referring to here. I am referring to the actions of a pastor or a church in the arena of current politics. That simply was not included in Christ’s commission as stated to the Apostles.

The role of the church is to concern itself with the welfare of men’s souls – period. No other, feed the poor, clothe the naked form of social justice is included in the Great Commission. Spreading the gospel is what that pastor and his flock should be devoting themselves to. And if they feel a special burden in their hearts for muslims, then by all means they should seek them out and bear witness to them of the redeeming power of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Just leave the book burning and the provocation of Islam to those of us more concerned with such temporal matters.

As for the Koran and Islam in general, this entire brouhaha should teach us two important lessons.

One: Islam is feared and SHOULD be feared, because of it’s propensity for the slaughter of innocents. When’s the last time you saw Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, or Hindus riot and murder over slights levied against their respective deities? Only the worshippers of the grand child molester Mohammed and his devil-God Allah are still mired in the middle ages on women’s rights, crime and punishment, and international diplomacy. And I owe them no respect because they render no respect to the faiths of others.

Their entire belief system revolves around control and submission, lies and destruction, conquest and slaughter. The closer a practicing muslim gets to the fundamentals of his “faith”, the more likely he is to kill you – and your family.

The other important lesson to be learned from this incident is that the US Government is completely cowed and intimidated by the Islamic world. Fear of the reaction has spawned weak knees and weak bladders in the White House and the Pentagon. Petraeus’s public comment had the effect of removing all doubt on the muslim street that all the years of conflict and violence has brought the reward of seeing America quiver and quake in its boots. The general’s opening of his mouth did far more damage than some obscure Southern preacher could have ever done – regardless of how many Korans he burned!

By the way... this is not a freedom of religion issue where Islam is concerned. I don't see Islam as a religion. It is much more accurate to describe it as a political system masquerading as a religion.

Final thoughts: if it wasn’t hunting season’s opening weekend, I might take a ride down there and witness first hand the book burn. I have no doubt there will be trouble, and I have no doubt who will cause it.

It's almost hunting season...

And I soon will be spending lots of time in a tree...



...hoping for a glimpse of this guy!



Forgive me if posting becomes erratic. I look forward to this like a kid at Christmas!

Tuesday

My my how times have changed

Friday

Slapdown of an Obongo supporter...

... just cracked me up this morning.

I give you the world's greatest umbrella expert! (Don't stop at the picture - read on)

A picture is worth a thousand words

Thursday

What are the odds?

What are the statistical odds that another oil drilling rig has exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico?

Our wonderful government wouldn't have a hand in this somehow would they?

Wednesday

US Dept of Justice's website overhaul

They exchanged the US flag for a black background. At first glance that may seem innocuous enough; until you consider that law enforcement organizations in other countries already have "dibbs" on the color that defines the very meaning of sinister.

But more importantly... in little tiny letters at the top of the home page, they put a Marxist quotation.

“The common law is the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people.”

Let the folks at Crusader Rabbit tell you more. I'm pressed for time at the moment.