StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

From a friend’s email. If you were around in 1919 (just before prohibition started) and came upon the following poster…Seriously, would you quit drinking?  Pucker up

Look at those pusses (faces/mugs)!  Almost makes me want a tall straight JD.  Of course, there is a difference between quitting and stopping. One is definitive and the other could be temporary. All from the Women’s Temperance Union.

Womens Temperance Union

No Comments »

Satire is tricky and very misunderstood, if understood at all. Thusly, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…”

When Jonathan Swift wrote this as part of his “A Modest Proposal, 1729″ many people took him seriously. Even then, the true meaning or intent of satire was misunderstood or went very far over the heads of the general population. It still does. Leonard Pitts Jr. has it exactly right!

So, as absurd, as over the top, as utterly outlandish as the New Yorker image strikes the more sophisticated among us, there is a large fringe out there for whom it will represent nothing more or less than the sum of their fears.

Instead of the meek inheriting the Earth, however, it is the ignorant who have overtaken America. They have always been there. Its just that the Internet has given them their voice of equality. Thus, when I recently wrote, Pandering to the Least Common Denominator it fell on relatively deaf ears.

Jonathan Swift, Obama, satire

No Comments »

It’s the day after Fathers Day. Maybe people are tired of the Tim Russert story; maybe a few heartless souls could see his son Luke on the Today Show this morning and not be drawn to the emotion of the moment.  Ask, however, this question of yourself.  Have you a good or bad relationship with your Dad?  And what about the relationship that you have with your son?

Life tends to play horrible tricks on you. When you least expect it, your Dad is gone, perhaps suddenly, or maybe after a long drawn out illness like my Dad experienced. But suddenly, it becomes “your time” and you are no longer there…either for your son, or daughter, or your Dad is no longer there for you.

My own relationship with my father was no where near the long and loving relationship that apparently Tim Russert had with his Dad (”Big Russ”) or with his son Luke; it was not like the relationship we know that a man named Tiger Woods had with his Dad (yes, perhaps that Tiger’s Dad, Earl, was the ultimate of the overbearing “stage fathers” - but maybe, just maybe, the inner strength that Earl instilled in his son left Tiger with that air of invincibility and belief that anything was possible). Mine was conflicted.

I was able to reconcile with my father about a decade before he died a few years ago. And I learned through the all too long period of conflict that he and I experienced, that I had to avoid at all costs the same with my own son. Today, my son and I are close. He confides in me, and yet, often just calls to “shoot the shit.” Maybe most importantly, people I do not even know have told me in different ways how good a young man my son has grown to be (I should not exclude from my “kvelling” that my daughter is also quite the young lady). When a stranger tells you that your son (or daughter) is honest, hard working, a “good person,” how much more could a parent ask?

I can only say…”to love your parents with all of your heart and soul…spend as much time with them as you can while they are healthy as if today could be their last day…remember the good times they and you have had when they begin to fade…and spend your last times with them as quality time, regardless of their condition…”

It’s the day after Fathers Day. Make the most of the next year and work toward having the kind of relationship with your son or daughter, or with your father if you are lucky enough that he is still alive, that is ever-lasting. 

fathers and sons

No Comments »

Recently, in “another place,” a “debate” ensued about whether the Taliban had been decapitated in Afghanistan, and therefore troops did not have to be redeployed from there to Iraq. Have they been weakened (especially with the killing of Mullah Dullah?) Maybe. Is the Taliban defunct there? I don’t think so.

My argument begins with the question of the Taliban’s movement between Afghanistan and Pakistan…only if you differentiate Afghanistan from Pakistan (little difference except for those who wish to “see” it) is the Taliban on its way to being defunct.

The Drug-Terrorist Link Means Wars can Last Indefinitely
 

“Growing links between the drugs trade and the insurgency in the South will provide longevity to the Taliban,” the UK document says. “In the south, the drugs trade is fuelling the insurgency.” 

It adds: “This is compounded by government corruption. Karzai chooses to avoid rocking the boat with powerful narco figures and has not blocked their appointment as governors or other senior officials.”

In turn, Mr Karzai’s failure to tackle corruption and the drug lords “only increases popular disillusion,” further boosting the insurgency, the paper says.

Pakistan and the Growing Threat of a Sharia Mini-State
 

Recently, there have been negotiations and agreements between the Pakistan Taliban (or tribal leaders including Taliban representatives) and Pakistan governments in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), both of which are in the northwestern area of Pakistan. Pakistan has seen 4,500 killed in terrorist attacks over the past year and a half, and the Pakistan NWFP and FATA governments view agreements with the Pakistan Taliban as the solution to end the violence and find peace in their areas.

Taliban Defends Peace Accord with Pakistani Government
 

“We consider the peace accord in Pakistan as an internal affair, which pertains to that country alone—yet the occupation forces in Afghanistan and the forces hostile to Islam around the world oppose this peace accord and argue it will lead to an escalation in jihadi activities in Afghanistan. This claim is groundless and it is far from the truth… The occupying forces and their supporters are facing total defeat in Afghanistan, and therefore, they are trying to use these kind of statements and claims in order to distract the gaze of the Afghans and the rest of the world in another direction—so that the Afghan resistance will appear to be weak.”

Thus, from the CTB alone, there are more sources and contrary conclusions. Its that “pesky Durand Line” again.

First, let us not minimize the fact that the prison break in Kandahar City Afghanistan freed nearly 1000 Taliban fighters. But there is more going on here!

Despite the fact that Afghanistan is a very conservative country, the sex trade is rampant. And it gets “gooey” from there.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s most conservative countries, yet its sex trade appears to be thriving. Sex is sold most obviously at brothels full of women from China who serve both Afghans and foreigners. Far more controversial are Afghan prostitutes, who stay underground in a society that pretends they don’t exist.

Customs meant to keep women “pure” have not stopped prostitution. Girls are expected to remain virgins until their wedding nights, so some prostitutes have only anal sex.

Want more salacious “input?”

Some prostitutes are forced into the sex trade by their families. The Ora report said 39 percent of the sex workers interviewed found clients through their relatives — including 17 percent through their mothers and 15 percent through their husbands.

We’re also facing the possibility that a German-born Muslim convert Eric B. who authorities have been trailing for months may be planning a suicide attack in Afghanistan. You can “rose colored” glasses this thing (in Afghanistan and elsewhere), or you can consider that the Taliban ain’t dead (just yet at least) and that the War on Terror is constantly morphing.

Child sex in Afghanistan, Durand Line, Mullah Dullah, Taliban

No Comments »

What more can you say? In my opinion, in this day and age we should be in a more tolerant situation. Two issues, related, arise. First, is the situation at a Seattle Mariners baseball game where two ladies were seen smooching in the stands. It apparently caused some questions (but if it was a macho male and his blonde honey, would it have?).

The Seattle Mariners have concluded that the lesbian couple who claimed Safeco Field staff singled them out for their sexual orientation are wrong.

The ushers who asked 23-year-old Sirbrina Guerrero and her closeted 21-year-old partner to “tone down” their kissing last week acted “appropriately,” the Mariners determined, because they were “responding to the behavior of the couple involved, not because of the couple’s sexual orientation,” Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale wrote in an e-mail this morning (read the full text below).

“In the judgment of the Safeco Field staff, the couple’s actions were not appropriate in a ballpark setting, regardless of the sexual orientation of those involved.”

The second area of interest is the subject of same sex marriages (or unions - or whatever!). Rosie O’Donnell is going to wait until the dust settles before remarrying her partner Kelli Carpenter. Its not too clear whether this is a reflection of wanting to be sure that this marriage won’t eventually be declared invalid, or whether “Rosie’s eyes are straying” (see Elisabeth Hasselbeck).

Suffice to say, I am confused, and frankly, I don’t care. Let the social conservatives worry about this. To my mind the government should stay out of peoples’ love affairs.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, lesbians, ROsie ODonnell

No Comments »

When is a joke not funny?…when VP Cheney answers the question if he and Obama were going to have a family reunion, and then replies he would “have no objections” though he said he doubted Obama would want one - “certainly not before November.” And then said, he learned there were Cheneys on both his father’s and his mother’s side of the family…

West Virginia politicians aren’t laughing at Cheney’s little joke, including his fellow Republican, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).

“This is exactly the type of stereotyping that we don’t need from our elected officials,” Capito tells the Sleuth. “It’s disrespectful, and it’s certainly not funny. The Vice President should know better than to make a remark like this one. We all work hard to further West Virginia’s good name, only to have comments like this tarnish it. As a proud state, I can say we are disappointed.”

Mis-statements aren’t restricted to one person or another. Either way, incest isn’t funny.

DIck Cheney, incest, West Virginia

2 Comments »

Its been subrosa for a while, but now revealed, that a group of Catholics named Grupo Romo is working to address what thet call “the increasingly toxic anti-immigrant atmosphere” by turning the Alamo City into a sanctuary for unauthorized immigrants. These are “faith-driven” activists providing shelter, food and medical care for what this article refers to as “unauthorized immigrants” (this is political correctness carried to a ludicrous extreme!)…call these people what they are! They are “illegal aliens” who enter this country illegally by surreptitiously sneaking across holes in our border with Mexico (along with G-d knows whoever else).

The encouragement offered by this “well meaning” Grupo Romo is contrary to anything that any law-abiding citizen of the United States should countenance…residents of Texas where the population is 36% Hispanic (counting only the legal residents) and in San Antonio, where the legal Hispanic population is nearly 58% is astounding. Grupo Romo, despite their “faith base” and religious cloak, are aiding and abetting law breakers.

“We are the new Sanctuary Movement in San Antonio,” said group member Víctor Ruiz, 63, who works for the immigration division of Catholic Charities and previously was with the Defense Department in Corpus Christi. “If immigrants need help, we will do all we can to help them out.”

The original “Sanctuary Movement” was a religious effort in the 1980s that created an underground railroad for Central Americans fleeing the region’s bloody civil wars, whose trail crossed South Texas…

…Offering sanctuary to the undocumented is controversial even within immigrant-heavy congregations…

Despite their religious basis, Grupo Romo and other like them are breaking the law! This whole “New Sanctuary” movement is contrary to the Law of the Land!

● Jim “Hoot” Gibson, a San Antonio teacher and member of U.S. Border Watch, a Houston-based immigration-restriction group, said he and others stand ready to protest the Romo group. The law is unequivocal, Gibson said: They’ll be aiding and harboring undocumented immigrants.

● local ICE Director, Jerry Robinette says that “He’s all for people acting on political and religious convictions, and he’s got nothing against helping needy folks, but he can’t look the other way if they break immigration laws.” and “I’d caution them that good intentions could make them criminally liable,” Robinette said. “They have to make the decision whether they want to violate the law or not.”

Movements like the New Sanctuary Movement work against our National Security in the name of “faith.” Groups like these must be stopped. While their ideals a correct, the fact that they encourage law breaking is something I cannot support.

FYI, check out Right Truth’s Memorial Day Weekend Reading Assignment.

Grupo Romo, New Sanctuary Movement, San Antonio

No Comments »

America is known as the melting pot. People of all sizes, shapes and colors come here to take advantage of all of the benefits of freedom. A new study by a Duke Univ. economist shows that newcomers are assimilating more quickly than their predecessors did 100 years ago — especially Cubans, Vietnamese and Filipinos — but not Mexicans!

Mexicans — by far the most numerous nationality — lag significantly behind other big immigrant groups, possibly because a lack of legal status keeps many Mexican immigrants from advancing.

Why? Its obvious:

● lower rates of citizenship
● higher incidences of teenage pregnancy
● higher incidences of incarceration.

Sorry to say that its a vicious circle, and one that generally validates at least one stereotype.

assimilation, Mexican immigrants

4 Comments »

When I wrote that the situation in Burma would get worse before it got better, I didn’t expect that the military junta would start stealing the relief food and equipment to sell it for their own benefit. As a result, the UN suspended operations. This comes after the military government agreed to receive aid but not allow relief workers to enter the country.

“Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the statement, from the Foreign Ministry, said. “But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing it to the storm-hit regions with its own resources.”

The human tragedy could reach 100,000 dead. If there was ever a reason to take action to topple a repressive government, this situation should warrant it. But who?

“The situation is profoundly worrying,” said Mr. Holmes, the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. “They have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect.”

Mr. Holmes’s predecessor in that job, Jan Egeland, said, “children are going to die from diarrhea because of this government’s inaction.”

In what can only be seen as more “window dressing,” it seems that the National Consitutional Referendum will proceed this weekend.

A nationwide referendum on a draft constitution will be held in Myanmar on Saturday as scheduled, with people across the country set to go to poll, except those residing in the declared natural-disaster-hit regions.

As 40 townships in Yangon division and 7 in the southwestern Ayeyawaddy division are under declared natural-disaster-hit regions status, ballot casting in these areas is postponed to a fortnight later on May 24.

The diaster areas represent 13 of the 57 million voters in the country. Something is wrong here.

IMO, it is times like this that a truly global body would act decisively and move to save the children of this country…and while they’re at it, assassinate the entire group of military “leaders.”

Constitutional Referendum, food shipments, myanmar

No Comments »

There you have it. “Proof” once again that the encroachment of religion into politics, diplomacy and foreign policy has to stop. According to one (and probably other) blogs, we will invade Iran (soon) because its the only way to achieve the end of days. My intention is not to offend any of my believing Christian friends, but, Poppycock!

The thing that Hagee does best (in my opinion of course) is to create a massive traffic jam every Sunday as his church lets out. As for attacking Iran, I wrote back in November 2007 (now six months) that the “Let’s Attack Iran” crowd was dreaming.

Attack Iran and we turn the Middle East to glass in a massive conflagration unseen to date and perhaps never seen again. End of days? Indeed.

John Hagee, National Security, Opinions, politics, Religion, Social Issues

8 Comments »

Last week a New Orleans judge ruled in favor of the ACLU in a suit against the Gideon Company (you see their Bibles - New Testament - in many hotel rooms). Gideon, it seems, was in a school giving away free Bibles. The suit was brought on behalf of “Jane Roe,” a little girl whose family didn’t believe in G-d. This post is not about the suit per se, but about an idiot local “dj” (Joe “Pags”) who singlehandedly proved that the “difference between genius and stupidity is the genius has its limits.”

What’s the problem? Once again, this one-side seeing imported pseudo talk show host managed to mangle the entire situation. How? His position was that there was nothing wrong with the Gideon Company giving away free Bibles, and that the position of the child and the parent (atheists) was wrong since no one was going to make fun of the girl for not taking the Bible (”out of fear of retaliation by schoolmates and neighbors“). What this “stand-in” for a conservo-talk show dunce missed was that if my children (or perhaps someday, grandchildren) were placed in a position of accepting a copy of the New Testament, they too, would refuse, and might, depending on their school district or hometown, also be open to ridicule. Why? Because it wasn’t the Old Testament.

Thus, by allowing the Gideon Company to distribute free Bibles, albeit, acceptance of the Bible being at the choice and discretion of the student(s), it could have been seen as encroaching on my children’s (or any other Jewish child’s) rights by opening them up to criticism, ridicule, or worse (in these days of You Tube motivated beatings). Afterall, it has nothing to do with being an atheist.

Missed the point again Joe! This is not like the Pledge of Allegiance thing a few years ago (where an atheist father objected to his daughter having to recite the Pledge).  Simply and frankly, if you keep religious activities out of the public schools, there won’t be any issue with offending anyone who might be of a different “persuasion.”

I know that I’m open to some level of criticism, especially by some of my more believing Christian friends and readers, but nonetheless, this is my opinion.

ACLU, Joe pags, Loranger Middle School

2 Comments »

Once again, my friend Moon has outdone himself.  Included in this post is this little “ditty” from FOX News: Study: Masturbation May Prevent Prostate Cancer. 

Take it for what you will

No Comments »

It is important this week leading to the beginning of Passover that some of the unique history, and in fact, some of the unique modern day practice of Judaism be brought to mind. Especially when race seems to have become once again an overriding topic, this post will provide some interesting insight to the descendents of the Lost Tribe of the Israelites. To do this, we will simply show a series of videos. I believe that it is important, if you have the time, to actually watch all of these selected videos. There are others related. One of my friends pointed me to the one listed last below, but after watching it to the end, I noticed other videos of relevance:

It is through knowledge and understanding that we all learn. Learn if you can.

Beta Israel, Ethiopian Jews, Lost Tribe

No Comments »

I had forgotten that I posted about John Kanzius and his machine last June, ““Man Invents Machine To Turn Saltwater Into Fire”,” until I noticed a visitor looking at the post. Tonight on CBS 60 Minutes there was another feature on this man who now has shown demonstrable progress of killing cancer cells (apparently of all kinds) with his radio wave machine.

What if we told you that a guy with no background in science or medicine-not even a college degree-has come up with what may be one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research in years?

[:]

His name is John Kanzius, and he’s a former businessman and radio technician who built a radio wave machine that has cancer researchers so enthusiastic about its potential they’re pouring money and effort into testing it out.

Here’s the important part: if clinical trials pan out-and there’s still a long way to go-the Kanzius machine will zap cancer cells all through your body without the need for drugs or surgery and without side effects. None at all. At least that’s the idea.

Here’s the video:

Invention through necessity. What they showed on CBS tonight seemed pretty compelling.

John Kanzius

No Comments »

Just a short post to comment about all of the empty uproar over the Clinton family taxes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but paying 31% of adjusted gross income? Is that not enough? Or is it some level of jealousy over them making over $100 million since he left office? Now, don’t go getting me wrong, or anything here. I’m already a declared McCain supporter. I just don’t understand the levels of hypocrisy and inconsistency of many of the people (conservatives) who are complaining about this…and just wait until Limbaugh and Hannity wake up tomorrow!

•Income: $109,175,175 million
•Taxes paid: $33,783,507 million
— 31 percent of their adjusted gross income
•Charitable contributions: $10,256,741 million
— 9.4 percent of their adjusted gross income.
•Mrs. Clinton’s book income: $10,457,083 million
— earnings for “Living History” ($10,267,895), including an $8,000,000 advance, and “It Takes a Village” ($189,188, which was donated to charity).
•Mr. Clinton”s book income: $29,580,525 million
— earnings for “My Life” ($23,280,525), including a $15,000,000 advance, and “Giving” ($6,300,000). Mr. Clinton donated $1,000,000 of his income from “Giving” in 2007 to charity.
•Mr. Clinton”s speech income: $51,855,599 million

I thought it was “dyed in the wool” Democrats like my wife who complain that people make too much money? Wait! Let’s look at their 2007 tax return.

The joint federal income tax return figures, released yesterday by the Clinton campaign, show that the couple made $20.4 million last year and paid $5.1 million in federal income taxes — giving $3 million in charitable donations, including $1 million from the proceeds of Mr. Clinton’s new book “Giving.”

So, I’d like to see the tax returns of other people who earned $20 million last year before everyone starts to squeal like pigs over how much the Clinton’s have earned since leaving the White House.

Clinton tax returns

1 Comment »