SP4 Donald Ward Evans, Jr.
23 years old from Covina, California
Company A, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division
January 27, 1967

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Specialist Fourth Class Donald Ward Evans, Jr. (ASN: 56413728), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company A, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, in action against enemy aggressor forces at Tri Tam, Republic of Vietnam, on 27 January 1967.

Specialist Fourth Class Evans left his position of relative safety with his platoon which had not yet been committed to the battle to answer the calls for medical aid from the wounded men of another platoon which was heavily engaged with the enemy force. Dashing across 100 meters of open area through a withering hail of enemy fire and exploding grenades, he administered lifesaving treatment to one individual and continued to expose himself to the deadly enemy fire as he moved to treat each of the other wounded men and to offer them encouragement.

Realizing that the wounds of one man required immediate attention, Specialist Fourth Class Evans dragged the injured soldier back across the dangerous fire-swept area, to a secure position from which he could be further evacuated. Miraculously escaping the enemy fusillade, Specialist Fourth Class Evans returned to the forward location. As he continued the treatment of the wounded, he was struck by fragments from an enemy grenade. Despite his serious and painful injury he succeeded in evacuating another wounded comrade, rejoined his platoon as it was committed to battle and was soon treating other wounded soldiers. As he evacuated another wounded man across the fire covered field, he was severely wounded. Continuing to refuse medical attention and ignoring advice to remain behind, he managed with his waning strength to move yet another wounded comrade across the dangerous open area to safety. Disregarding his painful wounds and seriously weakened from profuse bleeding, he continued his lifesaving medical aid and was killed while treating another wounded comrade.

Specialist Fourth Class Evan’s extraordinary valor, dedication and indomitable spirit saved the lives of several of his fellow soldiers, served as an inspiration to the men of his company, were instrumental in the success of their mission, and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.

Those Who Say That We’re In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don’t Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Blue Star Chronicles

A few months ago we reported that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had snubbed Native American groups in an apparent effort to ‘Keystone’ the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. The same group of mining supporters have tried to meet with EPA Director Lisa Jackson again and again she has refused to meet with them.

Lisa Jackson

Both Native groups, community leaders and authorities (including Alaska’s Attorney General) have attempted to meet with and have their voices heard by the EPA. But it appears the EPA has developed selective hearing, only giving an ear to the voices of those who agree with the radical environmentalists who seem to oppose any development of resources within the United States.

A June 21, 2012 Greenwire article quotes an EPA spokesperson who states that the EPA has reached out to Native communities in Southwestern Alaska to offer them an opportunity to have their voices heard regarding the Pebble Mine Project. However, according to Trefon Angasan, board chairman of Alaska Peninsula Corp., a grouping of Alaska Native villages, the communities that have had the ear of the EPA aren’t close to the potential mining site. One of the communities Lisa Jackson has visited is Dillingham, Alaska, an anti-mining stronghold.

“We should have a consultation established with the EPA, and we don’t,” Angasan said, complaining about the lack of high-level consultation required for federally recognized tribes. “We have been excluded from the development of that watershed assessment.”

EPA’s comment period on the draft assessment runs through July 23. Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty (R) is calling for a delay until November.

“In short, this is a voluminous amount of complex information that requires thorough public review and comment,” Geraghty told the agency in a recent letter. “As EPA is well aware, normally such information for a specific proposed project takes several years to gather and be scientifically vetted and scrutinized by multiple state and federal agencies, which has not occurred here.”

Angasan said, “Right now, our people are gathering, they are fishing, they’re getting ready to fill their freezers for the summer so they can survive the winter. And they don’t have time to put everything aside.”

The EPA has not ruled out a preemptive veto of the Pebble Mine Project’s permitting process using the Clean Water Act. All this while the economic viability of the Native Alaskan communities in the area are tenuous at best. The Pebble Mine Project would inject jobs and businesses into the area that would not only allow the communities to survive, but would help them thrive. Lisa Reimers, CEO of Iliamna Development Corp. says that preemptively vetoing the development of Pebble Mine could amount to ‘cultural genocide’ for the Native peoples living in the area.

There is a lot at stake here. How this situation plays out in Alaska has implications far beyond Bristol Bay. The EPA’s unprecedented power grab and expansion impacts not only Alaskans and the Pebble Mine Project. If the EPA succeeds in preemptively shutting down the Pebble Mine Project, they will have the power to do the same with any project any where without input from local people and authorities.

This is not just about shutting down the jobs and economic boost available through the Pebble Mine Project. It is about the expansion of EPA’s power to use the Clean Water Act to shut down private citizens who just want to build a home or any other industrial project that attracts the ire of the radical environmentalists.

You can help by signing a letter, which will send an official comment to the EPA requesting that they extend the commenting period on Pebble, which is too short for a thoughtful discussion on this issue: Sign the letter here.

The rest of the story.

Blue Star Chronicles

Warren Weinstein is a 70-year-old American who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Pakistan on August 13, 2011. He was and American contractor from Rockville, Maryland in Pakistan as the director for J.E. Austin Associates. He is being held by al-Qaeda along with his driver and three guards who were with him at the time of his capture. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda following the death of Osama bin Laden, has claimed responsibility for Warren Weinstein’s kidnapping and that al-Qaeda is holding him.

Al-Qaeda released a video of Weinstein pleading with Obama to cooperate with al-Qaeda’s demands for his release.

“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” Weinstein said in the video. “If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”

Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Maryland, is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.

In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.

“It’s important you accept the demands and act quickly and don’t delay,” Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. “There’ll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me.”

He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants’ demands, Weinstein said, “then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters.”

After his kidnapping, Weinstein’s company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.

In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know “I’m fine, I’m well, I’m getting all my medications, I’m being taken care of.”

Mr. Warren Weinstein is pleading for his life. How will President Obama respond?

Has the Global War on Terrorism simply become a political football that can be spiked or passed off depending on the political climate and whether or not there is an election at hand?

Blue Star Chronicles

United States Army nurse, Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark collapsed while skyping with his wife from Afghanistan. She saw a bullet hole in the wall behind him.

DALLAS – An Army nurse showed no alarm or discomfort before suddenly collapsing during a Skype video chat with his wife, who saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him, his family said Sunday.

Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark’s family released a statement describing what his wife saw in the video feed recording her husband’s death in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan.

“Clark was suddenly knocked forward,” the statement said. “The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark’s wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole.”

The statement says the Skype link remained open for two hours on April 30 as family and friends in the U.S. and Afghanistan tried to get Clark help.

“After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife,” the statement said.

In the statement, Susan Orellana-Clark said she was providing details of what she saw “to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties.”

U.S. officials in Afghanistan referred questions to the Pentagon, which previously referred questions to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, where Clark was assigned.

The Pentagon said previously that Clark’s death remains under investigation.

Clarence Davis, spokesman for William Beaumont Army Medical Center, declined to comment on Clark’s family’s statement.

Clark, 43, grew up in Michigan and previously lived in Spencerport, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, his wife’s hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the medical center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March.

Clark’s body was returned Thursday to Dover Air Force Base.

I can’t imagine the horror of witnessing a loved one gunned down half a world away. It is the upside and downside of the ability to have instantaneous communication with our loved ones in a war zone, something no previous generation has experienced. I also can’t imagine the horror of witnessing him laying there for two hours before being able to get someone to go in and check on him.

I’m sure Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark’s family will not let the matter rest until the Army gets to the bottom of what happened.

Captain Clark is survived by his wife, Susan Orellana-Clark and two daughters ages 3 and 9.

God bless Capt. Clark for his service to the country and to his family who have suffered a devastating loss.

Blue Star Chronicles

Last month the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suffered what should have been an embarrassing defeat when the Supreme Court ruled that Mike and Chantell Sackett could bring suit against the EPA. That Supreme Court decision was the culmination of a costly 3-year battle between the Sackett’s and the powerful Obama Environmental Protection Agency which used the Clean Water Act in an attempt to prevent the couple from building their home on their property in Idaho.

Apparently the Sackett ruling might not have been such an embarrassment to the mega-bureaucratic government agency because just last week the EPA announced plans to use the Clean Water Act to preemptively prevent the Pebble Mine Project from being built in Alaska. This battle has also been going on for about three years.

It seems that many of the well-heeled in Alaska and Oregon don’t want the Pebble Mine Project built close to an area they consider their personal playground, Bristol Bay, Alaska. And so, under the guise of environmentalism, the powerful few help finance astroturf campaigns and environmental activists in an attempt to ‘Keystone’ the Pebble Mine Project without concern for the Native populations of the area and the much needed jobs and the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be infused into the depressed economy both directly and indirectly.

These NIMBY activists (Not in My Back Yard) have shut down projects across the country. The most famous recent case is the Keystone Pipeline. Now, through the EPA’s announcement last week, it seems the next Obama Administration ‘Keystoning’ will be focused on the Pebble Mine Project.

The question is, what does anyone have to gain by preventing mining, transporting oil or even a couple from building a house in Idaho? Why is there an entire large government agency focusing its attention and spending tax-payer money on preventing these projects that would only help the economy, give people jobs and lower energy prices?

By all appearances it has mostly to do with returning political favors and asserting power, both over those attempting to get the permits and those who are having to pay the price of having to buy energy from places like China, Chile, Venezuela and who knows where else. Those countries are reaping the profits while Americans are paying the price.

h/t Resourceful Earth News

Blue Star Chronicles

Its been a long, LONG, time since the Haditha Marines were incarcerated at Camp Pendleton. The Haditha incident happened in 2005 and consisted of Marines ‘clearing’ houses in an area in which an IED had blown up an humvee and from which the Marines were under fire.

After the democrats took over Congress in 2006, then Congressman John Murtha seemingly used the Marines who became known as the Haditha Marines to further his own political ambitions. He said they killed ‘in cold blood’ even though the party they broke up in Haditha was anything but a day at the beach. The Marines were taken off the battlefield and incarcerated at Camp Pendleton pending their trials. Murder charges were dropped and eventually the seven of the eight Marines were cleared.

Unbelievably, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich is still on trial for ordering the Marines in his command to clear the houses in Haditha, Iraq. And worse, the question that seems to be central in his court-martial trial is whether or not Marines should be required to risk their lives to identify whether or not people in a hostile building are enemy combatants. In other words, if they are taking fire from a house, should they have to identify who all the occupants of that house are before returning fire. Sound ridiculous? Of course it is.

The former Marine officer who gave Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich the order to “clear” an Iraqi house near the site of an explosion that had just killed a Marine testified Friday that he expected Wuterich and his squad to “kill or capture the enemy I thought was in that building.”

William Kallop, who was a lieutenant in 2005 and is now a stockbroker in New York, said he believed insurgents inside the house were firing on Marines and thus the house could be deemed “hostile.”

According to the rules of engagement, Wuterich and his Marines were justified in using any amount of firepower in assaulting a “hostile” structure without identifying whether the people inside were combatants, Kallop said.

Kallop’s testimony came at the court-martial of Wuterich on charges of manslaughter, assault and dereliction of duty in the killing of 24 Iraqis by Marines on Nov. 19, 2005, in the Euphrates River community of Haditha. Among the Iraqis killed were three women and seven children.

While Kallop, who was a platoon commander, was called as a prosecution witness, his testimony appears to support the defense contention that Wuterich followed both his orders and training in assaulting two houses after the explosion that killed Marine Cpl. Miguel Terrazas and injured two other Marines.

The jury comprises four officers and four senior enlisted personnel, all with combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan or both, as well as experience in “clearing” houses.

A Marine lawyer, testifying after Kallop, gave a different interpretation of the rules of engagement. Maj. Kathryn Navin, who had lectured Marines before they deployed, said a house cannot be declared hostile unless the people inside are known to have “hostile intent” or have committed “hostile acts.”

But Kallop said that in training at Camp Pendleton and March Reserve Air Base, and at briefings delivered in Iraq, Marines were not told they needed to identify individual targets as threatening when assaulting a “hostile” structure.

He said that he ordered “Clear south” and Wuterich responded, “Roger that, Sir.” He did not tell Wuterich that the house was “hostile,” Kallop said.

But Wuterich, in gathering his squad for the assault, told one of the Marines that the house was hostile and that the Marines should shoot first and ask questions later, according to testimony from former Marine Stephen Tatum.

No insurgents or weapons were found in two houses “cleared” by Marines. Dozens of Jordanian passports and stacks of American hundred-dollar bills were found in another house, however, indicating the neighborhood may have been used by insurgents as a staging point for attacks, Marine intelligence officers testified at preliminary hearings.

Kallop testified that after the explosion that ripped apart a Humvee, Marines were under attack by “a few bursts of small-arms fire.” He said he ordered a Marine to fire a grenade at the house after seeing a “turkey-peeker,” military jargon for a military-age male sneaking a look at Marines in a suspicious manner.

Kallop said he expected Wuterich to lead the Marines in his squad “to conduct movement to contact and kill or capture the enemy I thought was in that building.”

Responding to a question from defense attorney Haytham Faraj, Kallop said Marines are not required to risk their lives by stopping to identify individual targets while assaulting a hostile structure.

Can you imagine the heyday Major Kathryn Navin would have had with the bomber’s of Berlin in World War II? Under those rules of engagement most of the Allied Soldiers and Marines would still be in prison.

You can only imagine the effect this sort of politically correct nonsense has on our fighting men and women. Or you can read about some of the affects it has had here.

Its time to put this to rest. Free Frank Wuterich and end this sad chapter in American history.

Blue Star Chronicles

The Obama Administration has denied permits to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obama has taken this action in spite of promises to create American jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. With the stroke of a pen, the Obama Administration has killed what could have meant enormous economic gains for the United States.

The Keystone XL Pipeline will transport oil from Canada to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. It will create over 10,000 jobs immediately and over 300,000 over the next 5-years. It would provide a much needed source for oil, which would in turn reduce our dependence on foreign sources and reduce the price of gas at the pump, giving a boost to our floundering economy.

It sounds like a win-win situation to the majority of Americans. Unfortunately, the environmental extremist think that it will result in less demand for high-efficiency vehicles and research into fuel alternatives.

In other words, Obama is catering to the greenies at the expense of the economy. It is an act of national insanity.

The denial of these permits don’t mean the project is completely deal. What it does mean is that it is delayed (again!). TransCanada has the option of appealing the permit denial and has announced that they will appeal. The delay means that the issue will be postponed until after Obama’s re-election campaign, meaning he can count on the environmentalist vote next November. Apparently keeping his job is more important to him than creating American jobs and reducing American dependence on foreign oil.

He never promised political courage.

Its not too late to let Obama know that we NEED the Keystone XL Pipeline. Sign the petitions:

[FACEBOOK] http://on.fb.me/yomDu2 Sign the petition! Urge the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline by the February 21 deadline.

[TWITTER] Sign the petition: http://bit.ly/A8K2mV Urge #Obama to approve the #KeystoneXL pipeline by the February 21 deadline! #YesKXL

Blue Star Chronicles

1st Lt. Loren Douglas Hagen
25 years old from Fargo, North Dakota
U.S. Army Training Advisory Group
February 25, 1946 – August 7, 1971

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant Loren Douglas Hagen, United States Army (Reserve), for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the team leader of a small reconnaissance team with the U.S. Army Training Advisory Group, in action against enemy aggressor forces while operating deep within enemy-held territory in the Republic of Vietnam, on 7 August 1971.

At approximately 0630 hours on the morning of 7 August 1971 the small team came under a fierce assault by a superior-sized enemy force using heavy small arms, automatic weapons, mortar, and rocket fire. First Lieutenant Hagen immediately began returning small-arms fire upon the attackers and successfully led this team in repelling the first enemy onslaught. He then quickly deployed his men into more strategic defense locations before the enemy struck again in an attempt to overrun and annihilate the beleaguered team’s members. First Lieutenant Hagen repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire directed at him as he constantly moved about the team’s perimeter, directing fire, rallying the members, and resupplying the team with ammunition, while courageously returning small arms and hand grenade fire in a valorous attempt to repel the advancing enemy force.

The courageous actions and expert leadership abilities of First Lieutenant Hagen were a great source of inspiration and instilled confidence in the team members. After observing an enemy rocket make a direct hit on and destroy one of the team’s bunkers, First Lieutenant Hagen moved toward the wrecked bunker in search for team members despite the fact that the enemy force now controlled the bunker area. With total disregard for his own personal safety, he crawled through the enemy fire while returning small-arms fire upon the enemy force. Undaunted by the enemy rockets and grenades impacting all around him, First Lieutenant Hagen desperately advanced upon the destroyed bunker until he was fatally wounded by enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire.

With complete disregard for his personal safety, First Lieutenant Hagen’s courageous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon him and the United States Army.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.

Those Who Say That We’re In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don’t Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Blue Star Chronicles

I know the idea of global warming has made Al Gore rich (as well as others who have promoted it and benefited from the resulting change in whose pockets the money goes into. But does Global Warming really exist? Rising star of the GOP presidential candidacy says NO it doesn’t exist and we should drill everywhere. In fact, Rick Santorum told Rush Limbaugh earlier this month that global warming was based on ‘junk science.’. Pshaw!!!

When asked on Glenn Beck’s radio show earlier Santorum said that we should’ Drill everywhere’! He then said there is enough oil, coal and natural gas to last for centuries.

Who can disagree with that? Well I guess only those who see drilling in the United States as a bad thing and think we should only get our oil, coal and gas from unregulated sites overseas.

It is only common sense to drill here and reduce our dependence on foreign sources for our energy production. But the environmental propagandists prefer we don’t see the oil coming out of our own back yard. Forget the environment. Drill in places where its not as strictly regulated and help them make their fortunes by getting our energy resources from other countries while the rest of us have to pay exorbitant prices for oil, gas and coal.

I agree with Rick Santorun. Drill everywhere. Drill baby drill!!!!!

Blue Star Chronicles

Ben Breedlove was just 18-years-old when he died on Christmas Day 2011. He had struggled with a life-long heart condition that had affected his entire life. In the final weeks of his life he made videos in which he shared his experiences living life with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken, making it hard for it to pump blood.

The last videos he uploaded, just a week before his death from a heart attack on Christmas Day, he smiles warmly into the camera and silently holds up a series of hand-written cards that tell his story of ‘cheating death’ when he was 4-years-old and twice in the past year. The visual of him sitting there, showing his cards is set to an instrumental version of Gary Jules’ ‘Mad World’.

The Austin, Texas teenager describes his life with heart disease.

I was never allowed to play all the sports that my friends did,” the cards say in the two videos (above and below). “It kinda sucks that I missed out on that part of my life. I really just hoped that I could be the same as everyone else.

And he describes his near-death experiences. He says he doesn’t remember much of the near-death experience when he was 4, but that he saw a light that his mother couldn’t see. One of the experiences in the summer of 2011 was scary. Another that he had on December 6, 2011 he describes in detail. He describes being in a white room with his favorite rapper Kid Cudi. He wrote that he was still trying to figure out why he and Kid Cudi were the only ones there!

He wrote that he looked at himself in the mirror and, ‘I was proud of MYSELF, of my entire life, everything I have done’.

He also wrote that he didn’t want to leave that place. He ends his message with the profound question asking whether or not you believe in angels and God. He this holds up a card that states simply, ‘I do.’

Just a week later he was dead of the disease that had plagued him his entire life.

His family discovered the videos after his death and needless to say, his mother reported that they brought an immense amount of comfort to the grieving family. It seems he had (or has) good reason to look at himself in the mirror and to be pleased with the way he lived his life.

Rest in peace Ben Breedlove.

Here is Ben Breedlove’s YouTube video channel. You can watch the last two Ben Breedlove videos below, but have a tissue handy.

Blue Star Chronicles

My friend Joanne Hanf Razoog McManus-Hain (aka Joanne Thomas) died yesterday, on December 19, 2011. I want to write something profound and worthy of her friendship, but the words don’t come. Tears are the only tribute I can muster for her at this point. Perhaps in time I will be able to put into words how I perceived Joanne, but for now the tears obscure any words that might come to me and therefore remain my only tribute. I am truly heartbroken at the loss of my dear friend.

The thing that is odd about this is that I never met her in person. I was trying to think about when we first started being friends and realized that I don’t remember when or how. At some point, over time during our years as bloggers, we began to communicate. In time we started emailing and eventually talking on the telephone from time to time. She lived in Michigan and I live in Georgia. But I have connections in Michigan and lived there for a while, so we talked about getting together whenever I was in Michigan. But it was just talk. Michigan is a big state and she didn’t live any where near the places I went when I was there. But we chatted about it like people do.

Joanne was a better friend than I was. She credited me with getting her writing jobs on the internet. In truth, she more than earned her own way with her writing. She started the blog, Southern Sass on Crime (the original URL was hijacked by someone in Japan while she was undergoing chemo so we had to start it anew under a new URL) and wrote with passion and conviction about victims of crime. Children who were victims were her passion and she was a fearless advocate for any child who was abused. In recent years she wrote for Right Pundits and Right Juris, continuing her crusade on behalf of victims of crime.

Part of her interest in me seemed to be the fact that my son was in the military. She was as strong an advocate for our military men and women as she was for the rights of children who were crime victims. She took a real interest in my son (as she did in all of our men and women in uniform). Then, about the time that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, one of my nieces was diagnosed with leukemia. To top that off my niece, who was 7-years-old at the time of her diagnosis, was named Lily, which was Joanne’s first name. She seemed to feel a kinship with my niece and followed her sickness and recovery closely.

Whatever the case, we had kindred spirits and our conversations were long, personal and in-depth.

All was fine until she was diagnosed with breast cancer about three years ago. After that, she continued to behave as she always had, but little hints here and there let on that all was not as well as she tried to make it out to be. While she was on chemo she would, from time to time, ask me to edit her writing. She told me that she couldn’t see as well and that her fingertips had become raw from the chemo. She said the skin had peeled off her fingers and they were so tender that she had a hard time typing. She was afraid she had misspelled words or made horrible grammatical errors. I would check her articles and only correct grammar and spelling, not the content, passion or meaning of what she had written.

In recent months she had started talking about how difficult it was for her to get the medicine and medical care she needed. She saw herself as a victim of Obama’s death panels. She had also started talking about her alarming weight loss and her attempts to gain weight. The last time I talked with her she told me she was happy she hadn’t lost weight. I asked her how much she had gained and she said that she had really lost a little, but it was less than she had lost before. During an earlier conversation she mentioned that ‘they’ had tried to put her in hospice care, but that she had demanded they let her stay with her regular doctor. In essence, she had run the hospice workers away. I knew then that the end was near even though she tried to tell me that the hospice was not for end of life care but for the fact she needed more care. She tried to minimize it as best she could.

Joanne knew exactly what was happening to her. I don’t believe she was in denial at all. I think rather that she didn’t want people treating her differently. She didn’t want people to rush to her side. She wanted her life to end her way, not in a nursing home or having her loved ones inconveniencing themselves to care for her. She wanted to go quietly without a big to-do. She was much more comfortable taking care of other people than having people taking care of her. She wanted to die at home alone and not be any trouble to her beloved children, grandchildren and siblings.

The last time I talked with Joanne on the phone we talked for a long time. At one point she apologized for being out of breath during our conversation. She explained that she had walked outside while we were talking to bring in wood for the fire. She said it made her mad that she could only bring in a couple of logs at a time now whereas in the past she would bring in an arm load. I chastised her for doing that and asked her if there wasn’t someone close-by who would bring in wood for her. She blew me off and asked why she would need that when she could do it herself, she just had to make more trips for the wood now is all.

The most telling thing of all was that she asked me to ask my mother to pray for her. She said she read my mother’s blog daily and got strength, encouragement and hope from it. For the first time since I had known her, her voice broke when she talked. I tried to lighten it up by saying I felt like my mother had a direct line to God with her prayers. With a breaking voice she asked if I would mention her to my mother and ask her to pray for her. I told her I would and I did and my mother did pray for her. I hope that brought her some level of peace and comfort.

I learned so much from Joanne about friendship, strength and courage. She was the type of person who rarely (if ever) complained about her own hardships and paid more attention to her blessings than her struggles. She followed my nieces fight with cancer closely and often said it was so hard to see such a young child have to struggle with that horrible illness. She followed my son’s military service as if he was a member of her own family and remembered him and his family by name and often asked about them and how they were dealing with the war. She worked hard on the internet to make money to pay her bills, even up until a couple of days before her death and never let on how difficult it was for her to focus, read the monitor or the pain she was in.

When my son was stationed in Germany, Joanne gave me the name of her brother-in-law who is a General and also stationed in Germany and asked if it was okay for her sister to contact him. OF COURSE!!! But my son soon was stationed back in the states. When I had trouble with a well known national retail chain she had her daughter, who works for that department store, to call me and try to help me with the problems I was having. When I had problems with my blog or internet problems, Joanne was there to listen and try to help as best she could. She was there as a friend and colleague. Oh how I will miss her being there!

Joanne was one of a kind. She was a ‘character’. She lived and died her way, the way she wanted, without fan-fare or causing anyone trouble on her behalf. In so doing, she made many friends. People loved her for her love for children, her love for life and for her beauty as a person. People loved her for her passion and direct way of speaking and writing. People loved her for the beauty that exuded from her as a person. She truly cared for her family and friends and never (NEVER!) asked anything in return.

Joanne loved her family. She was the oldest of a large family and talked about her siblings the way that the oldest often does. She loved them and, it seems, they loved her in return. She was proud of them and told me about them often. She was even more proud of her children. I felt I knew them from our conversations. She sent me pictures of her grand-daughter when she got engaged and often talked about her children with love and pride. She didn’t want them troubling themselves over her illness and kept it from them. Whether or not that was the right thing to do is not for me to judge. I just know that it was done out of love for them and a sincere desire to not trouble them from their own lives.

Joanne stood 5’9″ tall. She was slender and beautiful. Some of the stories she told me led me to think that she had a lot of fun in her younger days. She had lived a full life. At one time she worked as a Playboy Bunny. She was physically beautiful, until the ravages of cancer, chemo-therapy and radiation-therapy took their toll on her body. Even then, her spirit remained beautiful. She was only 62-years-old at the time of her death. Much too young. Much too young.

I hope she knows how beautiful she was (IS!) as a person. I hope she knows how much she meant to so many people. I hope she knows how much her life mattered to the people who were smart enough to pay attention to what she had to offer and what she was able to teach. I can only hope that when it is my turn to go I can do so with as much dignity, generosity and grace as Joanne Hanf Razoog McManus-Hain did.

Lilly Joanne Razoog McManus-Hain (Southernsass) went to the Big Blogging Center in the sky on 12/19/11 after a vigorous battle with breast cancer and COPD. She was born Jan 17, 1947 to Thela Mae Thomas and Norman Hanf in Kingstree, SC and lived in Roscommon, MI. She is survived by daughters, Cindy and Gina, son, George Michael, grandchildren, Erin, S , Tink, sisters, Linda, Susan, Nancy and Barbara, brothers, Norman and Thomas, lots of nieces and nephews and furry babies, Lucy and Henry. She was preceded in death by her sister, Terri and her parents. Joanne was an independent,avid blogger. Her most passionate topics were support of our troops and missing/abused children. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Van Strein-Creston Chapel/Heritage Funeral Services Inc, 1833 Plainfield Avenue North East, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505.

Joanne’s sister Linda Hanf has told me that these are the funeral arrangements:

The funeral service is this Friday at 11am with a viewing at 10am:
Van Strein-Creston Chapel / Heritage Funeral Services Inc
1833 Plainfield Avenue North East
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

Joanne worked hard her whole life. She never asked for anything in return and was generous to a fault. She died without money. Her family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to pay for her funeral expenses. You can send a Paypal donation to her sister Linda at ldhldh[at]aol[dot]com or send a donation to the funeral home in memory of her.

This tribute to my friend Joanne Hanf Razoog McManus-Hain is inadequate. It is written through tears and a genuine feeling of loss. She was a true friend, a true gift. I will miss her every day for the rest of my life. I like to think she is at peace, free from pain and suffering, and reaping the rewards of her Earthly labors – so well deserved – from a life well lived. I love you, Jo. I miss you already and know that I will more as time goes by. I hope to finally meet you in person when my time comes. I can only hope.

Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
~Matthew Chapter 25 Verse 23

Blue Star Chronicles

North Korean and South Korean news agencies are reporting that North Korean Kim Jong-Il is dead.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.

Kim’s death was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media. The leader, reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.

The Communist dictator who has kept his people in near starvation poverty while he has lived in luxury was 69-years-old. He is said to have been grooming his son, Kim Jong-Un as his successor. The question is whether or not Kim Jong-Un will be a more benevolent dictator than his father. What does Kim Jong-Il’s death mean for the rest of the world?

Read more on North Korea.
Read more on Kim Jong-Il
See photos of Kim Jong-Un and read his biography.

Blue Star Chronicles

So I guess if you want to ride the train for free all you have to do is act like a douche, be willing to hold up everyone else who is obeying the rules, resist authority and act like a douche (I already said that, I know!).

It seems that a 19-year-old young MAN was riding the ScotRails commuter train out of Edinburgh the other day. The man, Sam Main, didn’t have a ticket. He had been out drinking with friends allegedly celebrating having finished an exam with some friends. When the ScotRail guard asked Main for his ticket, he produced a one-way ticket TO Edinburgh. When the guard said that wasn’t the proper ticket for the train, Main began cussing the guard and refused to leave his seat, apparently willing to hold up everyone on the train while he pitched a tantrum claiming he’d paid for a ticket even though he was unable to prove it.

The other passengers on the commuter train from Edinburgh included a woman with several small children and commuters just trying to get home from a long days work. One of the other passengers was a 35-year-old banker named Alan Pollock, on his way home after a 12-hour work day. Pollock is a rather large man, standing over 6 feet tall and heavy set. After the tete-a-tete had gone on for a few minutes between Sam Main and the ScotRail guard, Pollock stood up and asked the guard if he wanted Main off the train and offered his assistance. He then proceeded to take Main off the train and prevent him from getting back on the train. The other passengers applauded Alan Pollock. Someone yelled out ‘Cheers, Big Man.’

Naturally someone got the whole thing on their cell phone and uploaded it to YouTube, as is the way of things in our modern world. Now Pollock is known as ‘Big Man’ on the internet and some are hailing him a hero. Unfortunately others are saying he’s a bully. Now there are threats to sue him for assault and the possibility of losing his job all because he stepped in to help with a spoiled brat when no one else would.

You be the judge ….

Amid a volley of foul-mouthed abuse directed by the young passenger at the elderly ticket inspector, the train is delayed at a station with its doors open, for several minutes.

Other passengers mutter and fume as the young man in a knitted hat — later identified as 19-year-old student Sam Main — fails to produce a valid ticket.

‘You can sit here all night if you want — I’m getting paid for this,’ the ticket inspector tells the student, who refuses to leave the train and insists he has paid the correct fare but been given the wrong ticket by ScotRail.

Main, who had been out drinking after finishing an exam, is heard cursing as he insists he’s paid the correct money, and will not get off.

As other passengers watch, including a mother with a group of young children, the student is heard repeating to the inspector that he has shown him his ‘f****** ticket’ and again refuses to get off.

In a loud voice, the inspector then warns the student that other passengers will not be happy unless he pays or gets off the train, allowing the journey to continue.

The guard repeats: ‘I’ll sit here all night, pal. I’m getting paid for this but they (the passengers) will start moaning. You’re off now. Other folk will start (to get unhappy). Why should they pay and you not?’

Clearly angry, Main retorts: ‘But I have paid — I will sit here all night.’

Sitting further down the carriage, Alan Pollock, 35, has listened to every word.

As the minutes tick by, and the train remains stationary, he decides he’s had enough.

On film, Pollock, more than 6ft tall and heavy set, can be seen approaching the inspector and asking: ‘Right? Off now?’

The inspector says ‘yes’ and Mr Pollock moves in, pulling the student to his feet by his jacket and shouting: ‘Off!’

The banker — wearing a rugby top and casual jacket having changed at work — is then seen pushing the student out the train door.

Main falls to the ground and is then blocked by Mr Pollock from getting back on.

As the train pulls away, a few passengers clap and cheer Mr Pollock and one passenger shouts: ‘Cheers, Big Man.’

But that’s not the end of the story. Sam Main’s father, Lenny Main, has jumped to his son’s defense, infantalizing the 19-year-old student by calling him a ‘young boy’ who was ‘thrown off the train face first’ by a ‘bully’ who was much bigger than him. The father seems to overlook his son’s disrespectful and inappropriate behavior all together and has said he’ll hire an attorney and file assault charges against Alan Pollock. Meanwhile, Sam Main is whining about having a boo-boo and having his picture made with a scratch on his cheek.

Seriously, I thought the Scottish were tougher than this. Since when was a 19-year-old a ‘young boy’. We have 19-year-old MEN in war zones and consider them MEN, not ‘young boys’. They fight al-Qaeda and other enemies of our country and certainly deserve to be called men. They don’t cuss train guards, refuse to pay their tickets and sit there in petulance while everyone else is inconvenienced. Then stamp their little feet when they are shown the door and get their face scratched when they resist being put off the train and kept from re-entering the train (dispute their attempts to do so).

I find it disturbing that there are people who are commenting on these videos that Alan Pollock is the ‘bully’ – completely overlooking the behavior of the ‘young boy’ Sam Main. He was repeatedly told to get off the train, but refused to do so, cussed the conductor and sat there acting like an over-grown baby. Do these people live in the real world? Does Lenny Main live in the real world? Since when is it okay to not pay for your ticket and have people jump to your defense when you are willing to inconvenience everyone while you pitch a tantrum.

I was raised, and raised my children, to respect authority. I remember a time when children were expected to behave properly and the parents would deal with them when they didn’t. It seems that we’ve gone in the opposite direction now. Now parents jump in to defend even obnoxious and inappropriate behavior of their children and hire lawyers to perpetuate the bad behavior. The good Sumerians are punished and the whiners are forgiven their trespasses as being within their rights. What happened to working together as a community and being expected to be civil to one another?

It’s like the world’s value systems have all been turned up-side down. I really don’t know how we’ll get things back into line.

You can see the Scottish train scuffle video below. You be the judge as to who was out of control and who wasn’t. Who was at fault and who wasn’t? Who was the bad-guy and who was the good-guy? If Sam Main and his father win this battle, then we should all ride the ScotRail for free.

Blue Star Chronicles

Life magazine has released some rare and never-before-seen photos of the Battle of the Bulge on the 67th anniversary of the beginning of that defining battle during World War II.

The Battle of the Bulge was fought between December 16, 1944 through January 15, 1945. The 41-day battle claimed almost 20,000 American lives, making it the bloodiest battle of World War II for Americans. By the end of the offensive in the frozen Ardennes Forest in Belgium there were over 19,000 American Soldiers dead, 1,400 British lost and a total of 110,000 allied forces casualties. There were about 85,000 German’s lost during the Battle of the Bulge. Even with their lower casualties, in the end, the Nazis were defeated and were unable to push through the Allied lines to capture essential fuel for their tanks and aircraft.

At one point, the German’s surrounded the Americans of the 101st Airborne who were hunkered down in the Ardennes. They were undermanned, running out of ammunition and food and freezing in below zero temperatures. While the 101st Airborne held the line while waiting for reinforcements from General George Patton’s 3rd Army a Nazi commander demanded the American’s surrender. The American commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s famous response to their demands was, ‘NUTS!’ And the battle continued, eventually turning against the Germans.

Sir Winston Churchill said of the Battle of the Bulge: ‘This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.’ And so it was and has been.

I have a personal interest in the battle because as with most people in my generation virtually all of my uncles and male friends of my parents fought in World War II and many of them in Europe. I am aware of one uncle who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. So I find myself studying the faces of the men in these new photos from that period of time to see faces of people I have known. Of course, I don’t, but I do try to see. I do see the faces that could be any one of my uncles or the friends of my parents who fought and survived or was killed during that time in our history. My uncle could have been any of those men.

In the end there was victory, but it came at such a steep price. God bless these men and the women who held down the home-front while they were gone. They saved the world – at least for that generation.

You can see the recently revealed new photos from the World War II Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forests in Belgium here.

Blue Star Chronicles

I have not always agreed with everything that Christopher Hitchens has said or stood up for, but I have admired him every since he took a strong stand with Denmark during the Muhammad Cartoon Wars. It was a bold stand for a writer. Although he had taken political stances, he didn’t identify himself with either the right or the left of the political spectrum. Both sides were equally vulnerable to his searing critiques.

Christopher Hitchens had taken on the threat of terrorism perpetrated on the Western world by the muslim world. From my point of view, he seemed to understand the real and present threat that the islamic world is presenting to our way of life and he had the courage to stand up and speak his mind about it. That’s not such an easy thing to do these days. In spite of the numerous terrorists attacks we have endured at the hands of islamic fanatics, our ‘leaders’ seem determined to try to appease them into not attacking us any more. Christopher Hitchens seemed to understand that appeasement was not the answer. He showed his commitment to that during the Muhammad Cartoon Wars.

Hitchens was an Englishman who migrated to the United States in 1980. He settled in Washington, D.C. in 1982 with his first wife, Eleni Meleagrou, and obtained his U.S. citizenship in 2007.

Hitchens and Meleagrou divorced and he married Carol Blue in 1989. He is survived by his wife and their daughter Antonia Hitchens, both of Washington, D.C. He is also survived by his two children from his first marriage, Alexander hitches and Sophia Hitchens. He is also survived by his brother Peter Hitchens, a conservative British columnist with whom he had often publicly debated on issues of politics and religious faith.

The Vanity Fair writer died on Thursday, December 15, 2011 of complications from esophageal cancer. He was a life-long smoker, often photographed with a cigarette between his fingers. He was 62-years-old at the time of his death.

Christopher Hitchens Veteran’s Day reflections.
Read the Vanity Fair op-ed on death written by Christopher Hitchens for their January 2012 edition.

Blue Star Chronicles

A survey paid for by NRDC conducted by a known liberal polling firm has little credibility, especially when it was conducted in August and released in December. NRDC has been a leading opponent of the Pebble Mine Project and has been using the potential of an extraction project at Pebble as a means to raise money through a misleading alarmist direct mail campaign. This survey is just more biased fundraising material; the survey questions were as biased as the direct mail fundraising letters. How can they expect a survey with loaded questions to be taken seriously?

The environmental movement is built on a series of lies. Lies about the science on which they base their belief system. They lie about economics and any businesses or groups that do not fit into their belief system. They also lie about public opinion. In short, we can trust nothing that is put out by the environmental industry.

In light of all that, it comes as no big surprise that the environmentalists are touting a ‘new’ poll that they claim proves public opinion is firmly against the building of the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. That project would provide jobs and a boost to the economy in an economically distressed area of the nation. In addition, it would go a long way toward relieving the U.S. economy and dependence on foreign sources for copper. But those things don’t seem to matter to the environmentalists.

This ‘new’ poll has the environmentalists patting each other on the back and telling us all that the majority of people in Alaska and the Lower 48 agree with them and their wealthy benefactors that the Pebble Mine Project should not be built.

That would be great news for the environmental industry – if it were true. But its not. Fact is, the poll they are citing is bogus and the conclusions they are drawing from the polling is equally suspect.

Let’s take a closer look at the poll the environmentalists are so proud of to see if Americans REALLY do want to shut down efforts to harvest these precious resources that our country needs.

The poll was paid for by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an acknowledged liberal polling firm with little credibility. In addition, NRDC has been a leading opponent of the Pebble Mine Project. NRDC has also used the potential of an extraction project at Pebble as a means to raise money through a misleading alarmist direct mail campaign. With that kind of vested interest in killing the Pebble Mine Project can we expect this is an unbiased report?

Also involved in the poll were Nunamta Aulukestai which translates as ‘Caretakers of Our Lands’ and Renewable Resources Coalition, both environmentalist activist groups who can not be expected to conducted objective, unbiased polling.

The survey was conducted by Belden Russonello Strategists, LLC., a group who has historically done these types of surveys for environmentalists and liberal politicians. Again, unbiased? Hardly.

The press release for the survey sets up the questions with this statement (among others) ‘and the level of opposition actually increases as people learn more about the mine.’ This seems to provide respondents with the ‘right’ point of view with which to regard the questions.

The survey questions themselves push the environmentalists agenda. For instance asking respondents if they think Alaskan salmon should be protected or would respondents like to see Alaska stay a wonderful wilderness or have it torn to shreds because greedy profiteers want to rape it of its natural resources. They were a tad more subtle, but the general method was the same.

And what about this ‘majority of Americans’ who voted in the poll. They polled 801 people across the Lower 48. That comes out to about 17 people per state. Hardly a ‘majority of the American people.’ Even with these minute numbers, their polling wasn’t a landslide in their agenda’s favor.

The poll was conducted in August, but the results of the poll have just now been released. Hardly ‘new’ news! Why the delay? Are they unsure of the results of the poll data themselves?

We understand that the conclusions of this ‘poll’ are suspect at best, even while the environmentalists are lauding this survey as proof positive that the American people are speaking with one voice that they want to put a STOP to the harvesting of essential resources in Alaska. We might be generous in calling their conclusions exacerbations and exaggerations. But that would be extremely generous indeed. It gets more and more obvious every day that they will tell the public anything to get their own agenda passed without thought or concern for the consequences. Sounds like desperation, doesn’t it.

Well, maybe they think of the consequences, but not in the way most of us do. The executive director of Nunamta Aulukestai said in praise of this questionable poll that its a ‘no brainer’ that the salmon are more precious than gold and copper. She called that common sense. Common sense tells me that she’s using copper to post her comments online, to read the bogus report, whenever she talks on her phone or heats her house. Common sense tells me that we need copper and will get it one way or the other and better to get in under the strict regulations of an environmentally sensitive country like the United States.

The environmentalists are gleefully celebrating the ‘big news’ of this ‘diverse, comprehensive survey’ that is anything BUT diverse and comprehensive. This bogus poll is nothing more than another environmentalists lie. In fact, it is not worth the recycled paper its written on.

Read more here.

Speaking of environmentalists lies, check out this story highlighting more environmentalists bogus reports and another about their use of films disguised as documentaries. Also, don’t forget about environmentalists astroturfing environmental outrage.

Blue Star Chronicles

Remember when Army Major Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 and wounded dozens of unarmed Soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas? One of those was a pregnant woman. Remember how he had been saying he was going to do something like that, but the Army didn’t do anything about it because he’s muslim and that might have smacked of ‘profiling’ (Heaven forbid!). Remember how he had told people he was muslim first, American second? Remember how he had given away all of his belongings the morning before the shooting and had yelled ‘Allah Akbar’ while he was shooting American Soldiers who were trapped, unarmed, in a room like sitting ducks?

That shooting rampage became known as the Fort Hood Massacre. it has been one of a growing number of islamic militant terrorist attacks on military personnel within the United States. What this means is that the enemy is bringing the Global War on Terrorism to us rather than just fighting us in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are fighting us within our own borders. Do people understand this?

Well, according to the latest politically correct edition of the Department of Defense (DOD), Major Nidal Hassan’s Ft. Hood Massacre was NOT an act of terrorism or an enemy attack on American Troops. Nope. It was ‘workplace violence’. So instead of being a traitor and enemy combatant who had infiltrated our military, he’s just a disgruntled employee.

Thankfully, there are some in Congress who are taking exception to this reclassification and the danger in which it puts our military personnel.

Sen. Joe Lieberman noted that our military is a direct target of islamic terrorism, both within and outside of the United States. We must start identifying the threat and giving it a proper name.

We are doomed as a society if we continue down this path of self-destruction through politically correct constipated speech and thoughts. And frankly, offering up our Soldiers as sacrifices on the alter of political correctness is reckless, irresponsible, disrespectful, untenable and unforgivable.

Blue Star Chronicles

Adam Gadahn, the American al-Qaeda senior operative who is also known as Azzam the American and Ezzam Al-Amerikee, has released another video. In this video, the al-Qaeda spokesman instructs Muslims in the West, particularly the United States, to take up arms against people in the West. He seems to particularly dislike Los Angeles (he’s threatened L.A. before, landing him on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and officially charged as a traitor to the United States).

In the video, Gadahn instructs American Muslims to buy automatic weapons and target major institutions and public figures.

“What are you waiting for?” asks Gadahn in English, and then adds that jihadis shouldn’t worry about getting caught, since so many have been released. “Over these past few years, I’ve seen the release of many, many Mujahideen whom I had never even dreamed would regain their freedom.”

The two-part, two hour video appeared on jihadi websites Friday with images of jihadi leaders as well as snapshots of alleged underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan. Both Hasan and Abdulmutallab are charged with carrying out attacks inside the U.S.

Called “Do Not Rely on Others, Take the Task Upon Yourself” and produced by al Qaeda’s media arm, as Sahab, the tape mixes Gadahn’s new message with clips from old videos of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders praising one-man attacks. They call on jihadis in the West to carry out lone wolf operations.

Gadahn sounds the same theme in his message, a series of soundbites interspersed throughout the video and accompanied by images of U.S. airliners, bombmaking and the logos of U.S. companies. “Muslims in the West have to remember that they are perfectly placed to play an important and decisive part in the Jihad against the Zionists and crusaders, and to do major damage to the enemies of Islam, waging war on their religion, sacred places, and things, and brethren,” says Gadahn. “This is a golden opportunity and a blessing.”

He urges Muslims to pursue attacks with whatever is available. “Let’s take America as an example. America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”

Gadahn suggests targeting major institutions — after a clip showing the logos of such firms as Exxon, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America — and “influential public figures.” “Getting to these criminals isn’t as hard as you might think,” says Gadahn. “I mean we’ve seen how a woman knocked the Pope to the floor during Christmas mass, and how Italian leader Berlusconi’s face was smashed during a public appearance. So it’s just a matter of entrusting the matter to Allah and choosing the right place, the right time, and the right method.”

After all, he points out, even if you’re captured, you’ll likely be set free as so many before you have been.

He claims that many Western born or raised jihadis, the “brothers who came from abroad” are now thinking about returning to their “Crusader” countries to “discharge their duty of jihad.” He also says not to worry about imprisonment, since so many have been jihadis have been set free. “If it’s Allah’s will that you be captured, then it’s not the end the world, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison.” Many mujahideen who were locked up “are now back home with their families, or back on the frontlines, fighting the enemies.”

Blue Star Chronicles

Well, it comes as no surprise to those of us who try to pay attention to what is going on rather than to just follow whatever is the current fad, that ObamaCare is exactly how Sarah Palin described it – Death Panels. Remember how the media ridiculed her for making that statement? It won’t be so funny when bureaucrats are deciding what procedures you and/or your loved ones can or can not have. In the 1990s the decisions started being made by the insurance companies under Clinton’s medical care reforms. At that time we were told health care would get cheaper and more easily available as HMOs were introduced. I remember thinking at the time that Americans would never stand for having decisions about which doctors they could see or what treatment they could receive be taken out of their hands. But we stood by and let that happen. Healthcare got more expensive. All those reforms did was change the pockets the money went into from the doctors to the insurance companies.

Now, I wonder if we’ll stand by while more of our decision making power is taken away from us. This time the money will change from the insurance companies into the pockets of the politicians and bureaucrats. Is it REALLY okay with us, as Americans, to have decisions about our health care being made by a civil servant who determines our needs by the guidelines of some massive tax-law type policy manual and some formula as to whether or not saving your life is cost-effective for the government?

You won’t just be a number to them, you’ll be a ‘unit’.

How I long for the days when patients and doctors made those decisions.

Listen to the neurosurgeon in the video below discussing what he learned at an HHS seminar in Washington DC about ObamaCare.

h/t Wizbang

Blue Star Chronicles

The uniquely American celebration of Thanksgiving began in the Fall of 1621 when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag celebrated together the first harvest of the Pilgrims. In 1621 it was a three day celebration. Those were the first European settlers that had managed to survive in the New World, thanks to the help of the Native American Wampanoag Nation. At that time, both the Pilgrims and the Natives of this wonderful land were into helping each other learn to survive. The celebration of the harvest, the cooperation between the Natives and the new arrivals to this land, has transformed into a celebration of our many blessings, celebrating our gratitude by indulgence in gluttony of epic proportions. In fact, it is a celebration of the bountiful blessings and abundance that America has to offer. Abundance of food, food and more food. Thanksgiving is the celebration of the land of plenty!

In 1621 both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag needed each other. Their motivation for forging a friendship was based on survival. The Pilgrims, as had happened with earlier European settlers in the Americas, were starving and struggling to figure out a way to survive in this strange New World. The Wampanoag had lost 75% of its population over the previous year to wars with other tribes and epidemics. It took a friendship and cooperation between the two peoples for both to survive. Although there is some debate as to what happened between the two cultures during this period of cooperation.

Popular culture depicts the European settlers as mistreating, abusing and murdering the native populations and stealing their land. Each side have their own version of the story. The side of the Pilgrims is that they suffered hardships, persecution, suffering and endurance. Then there was abundance. The Native Americans side is of suffering and betrayal, then devastation of their culture. Neither side is the full truth. As is usually the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

The European settlers were not all bad and the Indians were not all peaceful people, victimized and helpless to the aggressions of the Europeans. In fact, they didn’t lack their own aggressions and weren’t just passive, hapless victims. If I were a Native American I would find that story line offensive.

One of the main problems for the Native Americans in fighting the Europeans was that they weren’t united themselves. They were fighting among themselves, tribe against tribe. The one time they banned together they defeated the Europeans handily at Little Big Horn. In fact, the Native Americans were a proud and fearsome people. The notion that European settlers came here and terrorized and victimized them is, well, insulting.

But the Indians had a long history of waring against each other. Instead of uniting to get rid of the Europeans, waring tribes tried to use the Europeans to their own advantage against their enemies, other tribes. Leaving ample room for the Europeans to divide and conquer. The Native Americans weren’t hapless victims of European aggression. They were fearsome warriors. They were not victims but respectable adversaries.

Neither the Pilgrims nor the Wampanoag (or any other native nation) can lay claim to absolute victimization. Nor can either claim to have had completely noble traits. People with elusive characteristics of victimization or nobility simply do not exists. My own family history gives evidence to this with some of my ancestors having been scalped and burned by Indians.

All of that is part of the American history that is common to us all that call ourselves American. It is a common bond we share. Our heritage, bound together through blood and history, defeat and triumph. Together we have forged the nation we are today. We are a melting-pot of cultures. Starting with the Native Americans and Pilgrims and them absorbing the cultures that have migrated here since those early days of the 1600s. Through the spilt blood and melding of ideals and cultures we have, over the centuries, defined who we are as Americans. We have defined ourselves to a higher purpose. Through higher ideals. We have combined our cultures to become something that is distinct from any other. We have grown into a conglomeration of the best that each culture has to offer while acknowledging and working to correct the parts of our past that were misguided or just plain wrong. We are a people looking to the future, learning from our past mistakes, dedicated to improving ourselves, dedicated to providing opportunity above and beyond the circumstances to which one might have been born.

At that first Thanksgiving in 1621, neither the Pilgrims nor that Wampanoag were victims. Neither were trapped in the status of victimization, a vile and destructive trap to any culture. Both cultures were survivors and celebrated survival together as equals, dependent on one another for survival, in the Land of Plenty with which we’ve all been blessed.

The history of Thanksgiving has to do with our mutual survival. Our mutual history. Our mutual hope and aspirations for a future of freedom and Independence, free of oppressive government restrictions so that we can be all that we can be with the only limitations being our individual abilities. That is the gift left to us from the English and the Wampanoag nation. We can live by their example of mutual dependence and independence or we can toss it all away, forgetting the hardships they suffered to free themselves of those chains. The choice is ours to make.

Blue Star Chronicles