Further Adventures of Indigo Red

World War 2 Navy Veteran Tells His Story

2019-06-07T17:19:00.002-07:00

He sat in his wheelchair waiting to be called for his appointment with his doctor. At 101 years of age, wearing a Navy WW2 Veteran cap, he was in no hurry. As we approached the waiting area, my Mother noticed the Navy cap as her husband, my father, was also a WW2 Navy combat veteran. I asked him about his service.

He was the father of three children and an Oklahoma farmer during the war which deferred him from military service. In 1944, however, his farm was failing, so he sold all of his equipment and the farm, packed up his family to move to Truckee, CA. He had an uncle there who worked as a demolition crew boss for the railroad and he would join the crew making a career of it.

Because he was no longer employed in farming, which was classed as vital to the war effort, he was now eligible to be drafted. Choosing to volunteer, he signed with the Navy which sent him back to Leavenworth, KS, very near where his old farm was located, for military training. There he met a buddy with whom he would see out the end of the war.

In the first quarter of 1945, he was shipped out to the Pacific Theater. His first sea crossing was daily torture with seasickness. He and his buddy both wished they were dead during the crossing. They were deposited on an out-of-the-way island that had more monkeys than natives. His duty was cargo handling from ship to warehouse, then warehouse to warship. After a few months on the island, he and his buddy were reassigned to Manila, Philippines. This voyage was no better than his first, but the ship's passenger list was more appropriate as it was filled with doctors and nurses. Three decks were crammed with cots with barely enough space to walk sideways between them. He thought this was a mighty peculiar way to arrange sleeping quarters.

Though late in the war with Japan, it was in Manila that the reality of war came home him. POWs who had been liberated from Japanese camps were brought to Manila for medical care and recuperation before being shipped home to family, friends, and further treatment. He remembers that many, many men and women who had been held prisoner were barely skin and bones. They survived years of captivity but died during the recuperation period, their bodies too far gone to recover. Those who recovered were put aboard the ship that had got him to Manila. Accompanying the surviving men and women back to the States was a humbling experience. He listened to their stories, told them about the years they had missed, the sports championships, the movies, the songs, played cards, fed those who could not feed themselves, and lit a lot of cigarettes. He did whatever he could to make the passage home comfortable. It was his first sea voyage without being seasick.

He was somewhat apologetic when I had first asked upon what ship he had sailed. He said he had never been assigned a warship as if that was the measure of a sailor. I think his tour of duty, short as it may have been, was noble duty for which I for one, hold him in high regard. He brought comfort to those who for so long had so little comfort or hope.

When the war ended in 1945, he was mustered out and he returned to his family in Truckee. He became foreman of the demolition team after his uncle retired. He and his crew blasted several of the railway tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains that we see along the freeways today. He finished his career with the railroad having contributed to the building of our great nation.

In a couple of months, he will be 102.

Eddie the Cat Does a Good Thing

2019-06-07T17:07:00.002-07:00

A couple of mornings ago, Eddie the Cat took me for another walk around the apartment complex. Good thing he did. In the middle of a parking space was a small stack of cash. I picked up $160 in $20 bills. Though he didn't want to go, we went home where I put the cash in an envelope and took it to the manager's office. She said if no one claimed the money in 30 days, I would get the money.

That evening when folks had arrived home from work, I went back to the building to knock on doors. The second door I knocked on was answered by a cute little girl wearing a pretty yellow princess dress. I complimented her dress and she was so happy to twirl around to show me every angle.

Her mother came to the door and greeted me. I asked if she had lost some money today. She said she had lost $180. That was close enough so I told her where she could collect her money. She was very grateful the money was not permanently gone. I didn't enquire but she probably really needed that money for her three kids.

On the way back to my apartment, I looked at a flower in the landscaping. Next to the flower was a dime. I'm keeping the dime.

The Slaughter of Peter Kassig - Barbarism on Video

2014-11-17T19:19:00.002-08:00

Peter Kassig, the US Army Ranger turned aid worker, was murdered by decapitation by ISIS in Dabiq, Syria late last week. Kassiq had converted to Islam and taken the name Abdul-Rahman possibly in the misplaced belief that doing so would give him a protective shield from Islamic terrorists, in this case ISIS. It didn't work.

ISIS, having released videos of individual beheadings of Westerners, chose this time to slaughter en masse, including Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassiq as just one of many. The single slaughters didn't create the level of fear the Islamers expected and perhaps were thinking a mass execution would be really scary. It's disgusting, but scary - no. The masked man known as Jihad John, rumored to have been injured in an American weekend bombing raid, took center again to address Obama. "To Obama, the dog of Rome. Today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers and with Allah’s permission we will break this final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, begin to slaughter your people on your streets." Read more at Atlas Shrugs, "New Islamic State VIDEO shows beheading of US hostage Kassig."

Obama is called "the dog of Rome" in the video. This has a very specific meaning to Muslims who see Western people in two distinct groups harking back to the Crusades. Rome and Romans are called Rum and represent the Roman Catholic Church as it existed in the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople while the Western Empire also had a Pope. Everyone else in Europe are Franj or French. Americans are Rum for some reason.

ISIS slaughtered 16 Syrian soldiers along with Kassig. The nearly 15 video shows each of the condemned being marched to their execution by uniformed ISIS thugs from various countries. As the thugs control their victims by the collar, they grab a military style fighting knife, and lead them to a place where where a shallow trench has been dug. The victims head's are held over the trench and on a predetermined order, all 16 victim's heads are sawed off at once. The Jihad John character begins his savage act by slicing through the internal jugular vein, drawing the head back, and looks directly at the camera as the blood spurts out into the trench. Then very quickly, he resumes the sawing at the neck, cutting deeply to the spine. Throughout the beastly exhibition, the sounds of the men dying are clearly heard. There are quick snap shots of the line of heads with necks being cut into as so much meat at the butcher's. The trench fills with flowing blood, all the while, heroic music judiciously plays. When the cutting is done, the victim's heads are placed before each body with each executioner towering over them as though awaiting inspection of shined shoes and none showing any emotion at all.

That is what you are about to see in this 3 15 minute video. It is gruesome, vicious, cold, disturbing, and bloody. If you are in the least squeamish, please, do not watch this video. However, this is one of the few places you will be able to see the face of Allah, so, take a moment to decide.

The video of Peter Kassig being slaughtered along with Syrian army soldiers.

A Sad Tale: Syria's Children Labor in Lebanese Potato Fields to Feed Family

2013-10-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is a very, very sad story.

Ten year old Batool and her sisters, refugees from the warring in Syria, must work in the Bekaa Valley potato fields of Lebanon to help feed their family. Batool's brothers don't work the fields because it's women's work.

Batool would like to be in school to be with her friends and dreams of being a teacher when she grows up. "Her father says he knows how important school is -- but his children must work because he has no job."

Isn't that sad?

ObamaCare: We're from the government and we're here to help, whether you want it or not.

2013-10-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, we have all read stories of people who've compared their current health insurance costs to that of the government required ObamaCare. Very few, so far, have anything good to say about the outcome. Nearly everyone finds they will be paying far more in premiums than currently, and the deductibles are unbelievably high, so high that very few people will be able to afford surviving an illness or injury.

In my hometown paper, The Auburn Journal, one reader, Teresa Powell, did her homework even including the government subsidy in her results. Under ObamaCare, Teresa and her family will actually save money with both the Bronze and Gold policies. But, that doesn't matter to Teresa who would prefer to keep what she already has. Why? I'll let Teresa explain in her Letter to the Editor:

I want to chime in on the Affordable Care Act. I have my own insurance policy covering my family and we pay the cost out-of-pocket. We currently pay $658 per month for the three of us and before the health care law went into effect, we were scheduled for an increase on Jan. 1, 2014 to $681 per month.

I now have been informed by my carrier that I cannot keep my current coverage. That policy will be terminated at the end of the year. President Obama promised us that if we liked our current coverage, we could keep it. My carrier can offer me a comparable policy, which is in line with the Affordable Care Act regulations, but this policy will cost me $1,175.38 per month. This is an increase in our premiums of $517.38 per month. This is an increase that we cannot afford within our budget.

I did use the calculator under Covered California to compare the “Bronze” policy, which runs $1,530 per month, and the “Gold” policy, which runs $1,599 per month. These policies have even higher premiums than the policy my carrier is proposing at $1,175.38 per month.

The “Bronze” policy is closest to my current policy, but actually increases the deductible and the amounts we will have to pay for co-pays. The “Gold” policy is slightly better than my current policy.

Here’s the kicker. The taxpayers will pay $943 per month on either policy I may choose, reducing the cost of the “Bronze” policy to $587 per month, and the “Gold” policy to $656 per month. The result to me is a $94 per month savings on the “Bronze” and a $25 per month savings on the “Gold” when compared to the $681 I would have been paying without the interference of the reform program. I would much prefer to pay the $681 out-of-pocket under my current policy and save the taxpayers the $943 per month ($11,316 annually).

I feel that we are being forced to go on government aid. How is that a good thing? I don’t want to receive a government benefit of $11,316 per year, but feel my only other option is to pay the annual penalty and go uninsured since I cannot afford to continue on a personal policy at $1,175.38 per month.

I like my current policy and would like to keep it, as I was promised by President Obama. He has just made it so that I cannot afford to keep it. This is an Un-Affordable Care Act.

TERESA POWELL, Auburn

Though Teresa will, by her own acknowledgement, benefit from an ultimately better financial deal for herself and her family by saving her $94/mth on the Bronze plan or $24/mth on the Gold plan, Teresa simply does not want a government subsidy and says so plainly, "I don’t want to receive a government benefit of $11,316 per year..." Liberals just don't get that part, because they know what's best for everyone.

Minus the math, I made this same argument to my older brother while he was trying to strong arm me into supporting ObamaCare before the ACA had been voted in to law. A cowardly Liberal, my brother just couldn't understand when I said, "I don't want it." He would say, "But, it will be good for you and we love you and want what's best for you." Said I, "I still don't want it because it's being forced on the citizens of this nation and I don't like it. And I don't like being bullied." Well, he voted for Obama* and ObamaCare while I voted for Romney. I'm still here in America, and he moved to Chile.

To paraphrase Pres. Ronald Reagan, "We're from the government, and we're here to help, whether you want it or not."

Columbus Day

2013-10-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

Columbus Day is celebrated on this day even though Christopher Columbus' expedition first sighted the land later called America on Oct 12, 1492. We're supposed to feel extremely guilty about bringing death and destruction to the aboriginal peoples as well as land theft, torture, mutilation, and enslavement. Except that none of that is unique to the European paradigm vis a vis Native Americans (note: the preferred term of Native Americans is "Indians.") It is true European immigrants obtained land from Indians by purchase, fraud, trade, and conquest, killed, tortured, mutilated, and enslaved Indians, but the Indians did the same amongst themselves and had done so for thousands of years before Columbus was even born.

"The Indians" is a misnomer in the sense there was no singular united group of Indians from sea to shining sea. Rather, there were well over the 500 Nations modern Indians claim, and they were constantly at war with one another that included what is today called torture and genocide - that's a large reason for only 500 Nations by the time Europeans showed up. Incidentally, at the time, the Europeans were Spanish and Portuguese later to include French, Dutch, Germans, and English. Much later, that is to say, today, Europeans are specifically and singularly, English.

At least one Indian saw the similarity of the European and Indian land gains and hypocrisy of the Indian claims they were different from the white man. At the Laramie Peace Conference in 1851 also called the 1851 Horse Creek Treaty, Black Hawk, an Oglala Sioux, said:

“Father, if there is anything I do know, it is this country, for I was raised in it, with the interpreters and traders. You have split the country, and I don’t like it. What we live upon, we hunt for, and we hunt from the Platte to the Arkansas, and from here up to the Red Butte and the Sweet Water. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes agree to live together and be one people; that is very well, but they want to hunt on this side of the river. These lands once belonged to the Kiowas and the Crows, but we whipped these nations out of them, and in this we did what the white men do when they want the lands of the Indians. We met the Kiowas and the Crows and whipped them, at the Kiowa Creek, just below where we now are. We met them and whipped them again, and the last time at Crow Creek. This last battle was fought by the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Oglalas combined, and the Oglalas claim their share of the country.”

Like it or not, we came in possession of this country the same way the Indians did - by force, fraud, and trade. For that, there is no guilt.

Nikita Khrushchev Warned Us

2013-10-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

Why do we never listen to the bad guys when they tell us what they'll do to us?

Government Shutdowns, Funding Gaps, and Panda Cams

2013-10-01T00:21:00.001-07:00

Government shutdowns were so common before 1980 that government workers just kept on working believing Congress would get around to passing a budget. And they did. Then Jimmy Carter(D) was elected, and "his Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued a legal opinion saying government work cannot go on until Congress agrees to pay for it." Thanks, Jimmy.

This time around, we're again warned of Armageddon, stocks will plunge, the economy will unravel, and meteors will streak the sky. None of that will happen, however. Well, except for that last one - the Orionids meteor shower will be active from October 17 to 25. The cheap suit unravelling of the economy may be Wall Streets worst fear, but is hardly likely in the long run as previous government shutdowns have shown such fears to be overwrought.

Since 1976, there have been 17 government funding gaps and shutdowns lasting between 1 and 21 days (some say 28 days, but I think they're counting the Christmas and New Year holidays when government is shutdown anyway.) A funding gap is the situation in which federal agencies continue to operate without a regular appropriations bill, while a government shutdown closes only non-essential services like national parks and museums. Because Obama* has made huge increases to government, some 800,000 federal workers will be sent home until a deal is struck. Such closures have never caused a Wall Street investment meltdown in the past, and it's dubious one will do so now.

FUNDING GAPS AND SHUTDOWNS OF MORE THAN 10 DAYS:
— 1976 Funding gap: From Sept 30 to Oct. 11 under President Ford. S&P 500 goes from 105.24 to 101.64.
— 1977 Funding gap: From Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 under Carter. S&P 500 starts at 96.53 and ends at 93.46.
— 1978 Funding gap: From Sept. 30 to Oct. 18 under Carter. S&P starts at 102.54 and ends at 100.49.
— 1979 Funding gap: From Sept. 30 to Oct. 12 under Carter. S&P goes from 108.56 to 104.49.
— 1995-1996 Shutdown: From Nov. 14 to Nov. 19, 1995, under Clinton, the S&P goes from 592.30 to 600.07. And from Dec. 15 to Jan. 6, 1996, the S&P goes from 616.92 to 616.71.

Possibly the most egregious result of the government shutdown is that the Panda-cam at the National Zoo will go dark. Exactly why the Federal government is funding a 24 hour camera in the panda enclosure when Nancy Pelosi told CNNs Candy Crowley in an interview Sept 23, 2013 that the federal budget can't be cut any more "[b]ecause the cupboard is bare. There’s no more cuts to make. It’s really important that people understand that. We all want to reduce the deficit. …You cannot have any more cuts just for the sake of cuts." is an argument for another day.

Low Information Voter v. No Information Voter v. Smartest Guy in the Room

2013-09-30T16:39:00.001-07:00

One statistic is cited that 43% of Americans don’t know anything about the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, or the existence of the new health care exchanges. This Low Information Voter knows just enough to be dangerous with a ballot -

Maher Hamoui: “I know it has something to do with caring about people. You know… Obamacare. So basically that’s all I know.”

That makes the mind whirl. Now, here's a No Information Voter, Jose Menendez, who claims to not to know anything about the new law of the land. Would you trust him with a ballot?

Jose Menendez: I have a question. Who created this affordable health care plan that you’re speaking of?
Reporter: This was passed by Congress.
JM: Oh, Congress! And I’m just wondering, as a citizen of America, how come I did not hear of this? Is Obama forcing Americans to get this insurance? Because it sounds that way.

Odd how the great unwashed understand what ObamaCare is about, but the smartest guy in any room still can't explain his own signature program.

h/t Hot Air

SNL Mocks ObamaCare

2013-09-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

“I am psyched for Obamacare,” one woman said, explaining “now that I have healthcare, I can get sick all the time!”

“Mr. Obama here, he made sure my son will never have to lift a finger here to get insurance,” a man proclaimed.

Another man, who was called up to explain how easy it supposedly is to enroll in Obamcare, said he himself had failed to do so because it is “too complicated to figure out.” (The Blaze)

When you've lost Saturday Night Live, you've really lost.

ObamaCare Implementation - Another Job Americans Won't Do

2013-09-28T20:58:00.002-07:00

States have been awarded millions of dollars to implement ObamaCare, aka ACA. In doing so, foreign workers, primarily from India, are being hired. The good news is that the doctors can now speak directly with the people filling out the forms and keeping the records.

Compromise, Democrat Style

2013-09-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

"There's no need for conversations. We've spoken loudly and clearly, and we have the support of the president of the United States, and that's pretty good," Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

A Good Narcissist is Hard to Find

2013-09-12T19:45:00.001-07:00

AFTERBURNER with BILL WHITTLE: Umbrella Men: Neville Chamberlain and Barack Obama

9/11/2001: 12 Years Later, 9/11/2012: 1 Year Later

2013-09-11T00:48:00.001-07:00

Update 9/11/13, 7:50pm PST: This page is not blank.

July 4, 1963 Thursday

2013-07-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

Hwy 49 south at Deadman's Curve

It was an ordinary hot summer day that Sunday morning, June 30, 1963. Auburn, California was always hot under blindingly clear blue skies and every summer's day looked and felt pretty much like every other summer day with nothing to distinguish one from another. Ten days later, in July, my family would forget my 9th birthday just as they had each birthday since we had arrived in California six years earlier. We lived 10 miles north of Auburn on Lone Star Road just a few miles off Highway 49 and just a few miles south of Bear River with its great granite rocks lining the swiftly careening Sierra snow water. The Highway was named for the men who had carved out the north-south road from the gold flecked hillsides of the Mother Load during the California gold rush in 1849. The 49ers and millions of others had traveled the road for 114 years before it directly affected my life.

Hwy 49 was only a two lane road in 1963 and the trip into town took 20 minutes at 65 mph. The few cars you met going the opposite direction, well, you always waved because that's just what you did whether you knew them or not. In those days, it certainly was not strange to see cars and trucks barreling down the road at what we now think of as breakneck speeds packed full of adults and kids and dogs without a single seatbelt among the whole bunch; it was a dangerous and beautiful time, but that's just what you did and no one thought much about it. Today, I live only three miles from town just off Hwy 49 and the trip to town takes 20 minutes at 45 mph with a half dozen stop lights in between. Most cars have one or two passengers to whom you never wave and you damned well better be wearing your seatbelt. That's just what we do now. Besides, it's the law.

Hwy 49 south and Lone Star Rd

The 1963 junction of 49 and Lone Star Rd had neither stop lights nor stop signs and visibility was limited in both directions because of 49's double curve that was so severe on the northern end that it was called Deadman's Curve. Still today, there aren't any traffic lights though there are STOP signs for Lone Star Rd on both sides of 49, but drivers still take their lives in their own hands pulling out into the much heavier traffic on today's four-lane highway. Traffic accidents are still such a major problem on Deadman's Curve that I hear emergency vehicles throughout every week screaming down the road to rescue the injured from roll-over accidents or scrape the dead from the asphalt after a head-on crash.

In 1963, a car crash at Deadman's Curve became personal and over the years it became even more personal as I grew up and learned of the people involved. The Anderson family lived on Lone Star, but on the other side of 49. The Anderson kids and I rode the same school bus driven by Toma, a man who looked a lot like Frank McGrath who played the cook, Charlie B. Wooster, on the TV program "Wagon Train." Every school day, the bus would stop to pick-up or drop-off kids just before Deadman's Curve at the horse ranch driveway of James Drury, who played "The Virginian" on the TV show of the same name. But, I digress.

Hwy 49 north at Deadman's Curve

Dan Anderson and I were in the same class while his brother, Ted, was a year younger. We were friends. That Sunday morning, the family was headed for church. My family couldn't have been very far ahead of the Anderson car as all the churches had much the same schedule. Dan and Ted were in the family car with their parents, Nathan and Lorraine; sisters, Nancy and Susan; and another brother, Nathan whom we all called Eddie. Just a little ways ahead of their car was a California Highway Patrol car driven by Officer Stan Perkins, a CHP veteran of eight years and the father of another school buddy, Bob - we called him Bobby in those days. Two of the Anderson kids were killed when Raymond Robinson in a pickup truck heading north, careened around the Curve on the wrong side of the road and smashed head-on into the family car. In a single moment of horror the drunken Robinson left eight people - grown-ups and kids - strewn across the two lanes of asphalt, unconscious in pools of their own blood.

The local paper, The Auburn Journal, came out only on Thursdays in those days and Thursday was July 4. This is the story of Sunday's crash -

Auburn Journal, July 4, 1963
Two local children die in crash; highway patrolman turns in badge

Ten-year-old Nathan (Eddie) Anderson Jr.and his kid sister, Susan, 5, will be buried here tomorrow – victims of a violent mixture of liquor and speed.
It’s doubtful, at this writing, that their parents, Nathan and Lorraine Anderson, will be at the cemetery. And chances are that their sister, Nancy, 12, and their brothers, Daniel, 9, and Theodore, 8, will not be there, either.
All five were still at Highland Hospital [Auburn] early yesterday, recovering from injuries suffered in the explosive collision which killed Eddie and little Susan as the family rode to church Sunday morning.
It’s doubtful, too, that Stan Perkins, the “tough” cop who oddly enough witnessed the tragedy, will be at the graveside services.
Perkins, an eight year veteran of seeing slaughter on the roads, turned in his highway patrolman’s star Monday after completing his investigation of the frightening case.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” said the 33-year-old former officer. “What shakes you the worst is seeing little kids staring at their bleeding brothers and sisters and just screaming. I had to get out of the business …”
Perkins was driving ahead of the Andersons on Highway 49 about six miles north of Auburn when a speeding pickup truck came careening around a curve on the wrong side, forcing him off the road.
After regaining control of his patrol car, Perkins glanced in the rear view mirror in time to see the pickup sideswipe the Andersons’ heavy sedan and shove it through a barbed wire fence.
“In a flash second there were eight people lying around on the road,” Perkins recalled with a lump in his throat. “The boy (Eddie) must have been killed instantly. And I had that odd feeling that the little girl would soon die.”
The driver of the pickup, Raymond Robison, 41, of Roseville, was seriously injured in the blinding crash. While the surviving Andersons were taken to Highland here, Robison was brought to Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento.Police said he would be charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony drunk driving. A blood test showed Robison had a .22 reading. A man is legally considered too drunk to drive when the test shows .15.

It is an ordinary hot summer day this Thursday in July 2013. Auburn, CA is, as always, hot under blindingly clear blue skies and every summer's day looks and feels pretty much like every other summer day with nothing to distinguish one from another. In six days, I will have my 59th birthday and somewhere across this great land we call America another drunken driver will destroy another family and more Eddies and Susans will not survive to see the fireworks of Independence Day or anything else.

Happy Independence Day. Be safe to celebrate again next year.

I've known three men who were in the D-Day Normandy Invasion.

2013-06-06T18:40:00.002-07:00

This is one of them.

Charles Asay parachuted in France on June 5, 1944 and with hundreds of others landed in the wrong location without his platoon. During combat on the 6th, he was shot from the wrist to his elbow and he crawled on his belly three miles through German lines to an Allied aid station. Sgt. Asay was treated and returned to his unit when it was found.

Charles V. Asay, Sergeant 101st Airborne Division, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, Able Company

Mr. Charles V. Asay, Army Serial Number 20726180, was a Sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, Able Company, and participated in the jump over Normandy that took place during the night before D-Day. Mr. Asay is mentioned by name in Cornelius Ryan’s famous book: "The Longest Day."

During the Battle of the Bulge, Sergeant Asay almost certainly suffered a loss of consciousness from the blast of an explosion; he couldn’t recall all the particulars of the event himself. There are no absolute details as to what happened for certain, but it seems Sergeant Asay was thought to have been killed. When Sergeant Asay recovered all his faculties, his overcoat had disappeared... Who had taken it? Was a comrade responsible for its disappearance or perhaps a German soldier?

Read the rest of this story here.

D-Day June 6, 1944

2013-06-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Spontaneous memorial to Canadian soldiers, D-Day beach pebbles on Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, June 5, 2009

Northern California Earthquake

2013-05-24T15:54:00.001-07:00

This happened in my neck of California, but much nearer my sister, Indigo Rose, who lives about 36 miles from the epicenter. I didn't feel the shaker while I was attending a TEA Party meeting in a church.

(Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was 6 miles northwest of the town of Greenville, and near the smaller community of Canyondam, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Allen Shephard, a hunting and fishing guide at Quail Lodge at Lake Almanor in Canyondam, said the quake knocked him "right off the couch and onto the floor."
The floor of the lodge was littered with broken dishware, and cabinets were in disarray, said Shephard, 62.

Magnitude 5.7 quake strikes Northern California | Reuters

Marine Protection for Me, But Not For Thee

2013-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Weekly Standard via Drudge Report

UPDATE:

Via Facebook.

Immigrant Finds Cold, Disinterested, Disconnected America Intensely Attractive and Meaningful

2013-05-14T00:34:00.001-07:00

In the days and weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing, leftist whack job rags and reporters were grasping at any straws they could find to avoid saying the brothers Tsarnaev were Muslim jihadi terrorists. One grasped straw was the the disaffected, detached, and culturally restricted immigrant child gambit.

The New York Times, naturally, had to get in on the latest scam theory with this April 22, 2013 piece written by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Carola Suárez-Orozco, the dean and a professor, respectively, at the U.C.L.A. Graduate School of Education and Information Studies who are, with Irina Todorova, the authors of "Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society,"

The two brothers accused in the Boston bombings — Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed on Friday, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, who was captured later that day — were around 15 and 8, respectively, when they immigrated. Both attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin, that city’s only public high school. They were not part of our study, but they fit the demographic profile of the subjects of our research: birth to families displaced by war or strife, multiple-stage (including back-and-forth) migration, language difficulties and entry into harsh urban environments where gangs and crime are temptations.

(...)

Many newcomer students attend tough urban schools that lack solidarity and cohesion. In too many we found no sense of shared purpose, but rather a student body divided by race and ethnicity, between immigrants and the native born, between newcomers and more acculturated immigrants. Only 6 percent of the participants could name a teacher as someone they would go to with a problem; just 3 percent could identify a teacher who was proud of them.

It worked for a short time and some of the information is probably useful, but all in all, it's useless in explaining the brothers Tsarnaev who are - or, were - Muslim jihadi terrorists and the theory was dismissed by the majority of thinking people. Ultimately, NYT readers debunked the 'pity the poor little immigrant story' with their own stories of immigration, assimilation, and acculturation to the American milieu. This NYT comment to the Orozco story is most excellent and evokes strong connective feelings in me -

Kalidan - NY
One reason for the Muslim youth (whether native born or immigrants) that become radicalized while living in the relative comforts of the west has to do with identity.

Becoming who they become - hate filled nihilists vowing revenge and wishing destruction over imaginary grievances -seems much to do with finding community with others who think like them, and a psychosocial environment that gives them refuge from the cold loneliness and the grief of having put up with a large number of petty slights in the environment. Maybe so, but I don't want you to fix that.

As an immigrant, I find the cold, disinterested, disconnected America intensely attractive and meaningful. One can think, read, do, write what one wants; the freedom I cherish is afforded me because no one cares. I really like it this way.

I love that I am left alone. It is likely that the radicalized youth call it rejection, and hate it. They rush into the arms of hate peddlers.

It is not the responsibility of America (or Americans) to assimilate me. It is your sacred responsibility to follow the constitution that guarantees freedom for you, and from you. I will pay my taxes (rent money), and stay on the straight and narrow, I promise. You promise to remain what made you great: dispassionate, disinterested, and cherishing the freedom to be left alone above all else.

I did not lose my way to socially engineered Cuba, I came looking for the promise of the US. Please don't change it.

Terror at the Boston Marathon *** Graphic Photos

2013-04-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

At 2:55PM, the first bomb exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. We saw the white smoke and heard the boom. About 15 seconds later, the second bomb exploded a block down the street echoing the first. As of this writing, 144 people are reported wounded, 3 people are dead. One of the killed is an 8 year old boy.

This is the view of the two coordinated bombs that most people have seen -

The media was quick to edit what was shown and seen. The pictures everyone saw were rather plain showing property damage and blood spattered victims who escaped with cuts. The severest injured were kept from the public's eyes

The first bomb was placed in front of the Lens Crafters store. One interior glass pane remained intact indicating the bomb was constructed to blast the ballbearing shrapnel outward into the crowd. The black spot is the position of the bomb. It was later covered with a sheet of plywood to preserve evidence.

This is the area in front of the Lens Crafters store and the photo is about as close as we were shown.

The aftermath of that same area is grizzly enough, but still keeps the true image of evil from us.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE VERY GRAPHIC
*
*
*
*
*

The bomb was placed on the sidewalk and the shrapnel was blasted into the legs and lower bodies of the people in front of it. Limbs were ripped off and flung into the street where runners said they saw legs flying past them. The woman in blue had her leg torn from her body. A twisted leg and foot is under her, but may not be her leg.

This man lost both legs in the bomb blast and is lying in his own blood.

The women in the red jacket appears physically intact while those around her are horribly ripped apart. Near her hand is a boot and a bare foot. The shin bone is all that's left of the man's lower leg.

Having lost both legs, the man shown above receives aid to get him to an ambulance.

Authorities are questioning several "persons of interest," one of whom is a Saudi Arabian national arrested in a nearby park nearly an hour after the attack after people said he was acting strangely. Boston police say he is being cooperative, but denies any connection to the bombing. As of yet, no terror organization has claimed credit, neither has any individual.

77 Bagpipes and 14 Sgian Dubhs Led the Big Parade at DHS

2013-04-10T20:51:00.003-07:00

I like bagpipes. No, make that LOVE bagpipes. Not so much though to buy 77 pipes and accouterments in a time of sequester and recession. The Department of Homeland Security thinks differently with Solicitation Number: PR20074261.

The DHS Customs and Border Protection requires the following items, Brand Name or Equal, to the following: LI 001: Carbon Bagpipe Drone Reed Set, 5, EA;
LI 002: Bagpipe Chanter Reeds-Easy, 12, EA;
LI 003: Bagpipe Chanter Reeds-Medium, 12, EA;
LI 004: Deluxe Bagpipe Bag Covers w/ Non-slip Grap Patch and Zipper, 5, EA;
LI 005: Drone Cords, 5, EA;
LI 006: Highland Bagpipe Tuner and Metronome with cases, 2, EA;
LI 007: Combination Tuner and Metronome, 6, EA;
LI 008: Black Polypenco Bagpipes w/ cases, 10, EA;
LI 009: Polypenco Bagpipe Chanter, 10, EA;
LI 010: Bellows Blown Blackwood Smallpipes in "A" w/ cases, 4, EA;
LI 011: Black waxed bagpipe hemp, 4, EA;
LI 012: Real Beeswax, 4, EA;
LI 013: Long Polypenco Practice Chanters, 10, EA;
LI 014: Bagpipe Tutor Book - VOL 1 C.O.P., 10, EA;
LI 015: Practice Chanter Reed, 10, EA;
LI 016: Rol of Pipe Bag Tie-In cord, 2, EA;
LI 017: Tapered Reamer, 1, EA;
LI 018: PiobMaster 2.3 CD ROM-Bagpipe music writing software, 1, EA;
LI 019: Pipe Band Base Drum Carrier, 2, EA;
LI 020: Folding Bass Drum Stand, 1, EA;
LI 021: Inverness Rain Cape, 14, EA;
LI 022: Glengarry Plain, 15, EA;
LI 023: Snare Drum Stand, 4, EA;
LI 024: Pipe Band Snare Drums-Black, 4, EA;
LI 025: Snare Carrier-Silver, 4, EA;
LI 026: 16" x 12" Pipe Band Tenor Drum, 4, EA;
LI 027: 18" Bodhran Pack w/ Beater, 4, EA;
LI 028: Deluxe triple function drum sling, 2, EA;
LI 029: Heavy Duty Tenor Drum leg rest, 2, EA;
LI 030: Drum-Mount Snare Drum stick bag, 4, EA;
LI 031: Heavy Duty Drum Key, 2, EA;
LI 032: Short Black Classic Tenor Mallets, 3, EA;
LI 033: Black Bass Beaters, 2, EA;
LI 034: TyFry Tenor Tutor Tenor Instruction DVD/CDROM, 1, EA;
LI 035: Snare Stick Set, 10, EA;
LI 036: Square Tenor/Snare Drum Case, 5, EA;
LI 037: Spats Canvas-White, 20, EA;
LI 038: Hose-Blue, 14, EA;
LI 039: Flashes-Red, 14, EA;
LI 040: Leather Day Sporrans-Black, 14, EA;
LI 041: Horsehair Sporrans, 14, EA;
LI 042: Sgian Dubhs, 14, EA;
LI 043: Shipping/Handling/Delivery, 1, EA;

Why do the DHS Pipers get sgian dubhs, but we can't take them on airplanes?

Holocaust Remembrance Day

2013-04-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, it should be remembered there was a long time in between Moses and Hitler that Jews were not prepared. Never again.

Obama and Bloomberg Don't Know Much About Weapons They're Trying to Ban

2013-04-05T23:00:00.001-07:00

Telling the assembled crowd at the fundraiser in San Francisco that California's Attorney General Kamala Harris was "by far the best-looking attorney general in the country," Obama went on to ~~lie~~ misspeak about the gun used at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He knew full well the long gun that was used is a semi-automatic, but went on to stress that it was a full-auto machine gun because he's losing the debate and semi-automatic weapons aren't as scary as full-autos and had to sex up the scare factor. NYC Mayor Bloomberg got in on the act during another interview unrelated to Obama's SF stunt. Bloomy went so far as to make the “bzzzjaaazzzztshazeet” machine gun sound that kids make when playing Army or Cops 'N' Robbers. He didn't do it right, so he obviously never played those games.

Via Jake Tapper and Hot Air:

Obama said,

“Now, over the next couple of months, we’ve got a couple of issues: gun control. (Applause.) I just came from Denver, where the issue of gun violence is something that has haunted families for way too long, and it is possible for us to create common-sense gun safety measures that respect the traditions of gun ownership in this country and hunters and sportsmen, but also make sure that we don’t have another 20 children in a classroom gunned down by a semiautomatic weapon — by a fully automatic weapon in that case, sadly.”

Michelle Obama Calls Herself a Single Mom While Barack Obama Hits on CA Attorney General

2013-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama described herself as a "busy single mother" during an interview with CBS affiliate WCAX. She quickly corrected herself by saying she's a "working mom" without explaining exactly what her job is.

However, Michelle may have had a good reason to think of herself as a single mom. While speaking at a fundraiser in Atherton, California, Barack Obama was hitting on California Attorneys General Kamala Harris,

“You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake. She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country — Kamala Harris is here."

Was Obama being sexist, wolfish, and boorish? Or is he just a cad? Whatever, he needs to pay more attention to his hormonal problem that pops up from time to time. Obama got himself in deep doo-doo back in 2008 when he addressed a reporter as "sweetie" which was demeaning and condescending, but he also said in a debate that Hillary Clinton was "likeable enough". Many people of all sexes and all political stripes heard that as arrogant and smug.

Maybe the rumors about separate vacations are more true than not. Maybe it's not all kumbaya in the White House residence.