Thanks to the folks at Democracy Frontline for giving a heads up on their fellow Aussie, great columnist and very smart guy Andrew Bolt.

Bolt writes and wonders why Iraq seems to be the one place where people claim that freedom is not worth the trouble but others are like East Timor and South Africa are as Andrew Bolt wonders .

....short excerpt:

It's the ideologues who hate America so much that they'd rather defend a terrorist than back a democracy. It's the people whose paranoia of America is so great that its slightest slip is seen as a diabolical plot.

Read it.

Memories From Our Tournament, Our 25th Year

Look up fun, friendship and satisfaction in the dictionary, and there is a description of our group of guys and our tournament.


A special thanks goes to Mike Vinson for coordinating and handing out prizes/money, Greg Garbero for organizing the giving away of the 3 full sets of PING irons and for Gringo Grande, Joe Gringo's bro for emceeing the event.

Below are best friends Judy and Linda. Linda is the widow of Bill Houser, whom our tournament was dedicated to. We raised over $5,000 that was directed to the Houser family who in turn donated that money to their charity, Camp for Kids, a phenomenal gesture on their part.







Joe Gringo's younger bro, Scott, TC, Billy M and the Snake Eater (yes, he bit a head off of a snake, a dead one, about 3 years ago in our tourney), he's the nicest of guys you'll ever meet, but one redneck you don't want to mess with! :-)

















Joe Gringo, this year's champ, Mike Hansen, Billy and Freddie Dr. "Bud Light" Dunn














Gathering around the final hole of the tournament.













Presenting THE JACKET to this year's winner Mike Hansen.






















5:00pm friday at the event we call the Horse Race. 24 players all play the first hole together in teams of two, three teams are eliminated each hole until there is one left.














JG slapping one off the 1st tee in the afternoon round.





















We all signed this golf print and gave it to the Houser family. Here, Andy accepts it.














A few carts going down #1 during the Horse Race. We played at Apache Stronghold which is 5 miles east of Globe, Arizona, or bout 1 hour 20 minutes east of Phoenix. You can't really tell, but this place is surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery. This golf course just about my favorite to play, from the tips it plays 7600+ yards, what this means is that it is harder than hell to play, but very enjoyable!

Today in History......May 31

On this day in …

* 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pa.

* 1916, during World War I, British and German fleets fought the naval Battle of Jutland off Denmark; there was no clear-cut victor, although the British suffered heavier losses

* 1962, World War II Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann, ym"sh, was hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust.

* 1970, tens of thousands of people died in an earthquake in Peru

* 1977, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making, was completed

* 1994, the United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union

* 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu claimed victory in Israel's election for prime minister, defeating incumbent Shimon Peres by nine-tenths of one percent

* 2001, veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded innocent to charges of spying for Moscow. (He later changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.)

* 2005, breaking a silence of 30 years, former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as "Deep Throat," the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. ALSO: President Bush, faced with a string of setbacks on Capitol Hill, shrugged off questions about his political clout and promised during a news conference to keep pushing Congress for a Social Security overhaul. Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was convicted of charges including fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison

Gone Golfing

Look out Apache Stronghold, you've got 28 guys ready
to bring it on at your course Friday, Saturday & Sunday,
then back to Phoenix for the final round.

Vinnie......I see a 70 in 'ya this weekend!

Back on Tuesday!

I've even thought about bringing the laptop,
but fellow golfers would have me shot!
.........it's a golfing thing.

Tire Not. Engage

OPFOR has a great piece as we head into the Memorial Day weekend, day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. He writes........

My friend Steve Schippert of Threats Watch choice words for our domestic anti-war politicos earlier today.

Why is the defense of this nation a political issue at all? There are those who will argue that it is the manner in which we defend ourselves that is at issue.

That, my friends, is a convoluted disingenuous sheen of reason upon the unreasonable.

A former Attorney General currently vociferously defends a mass murdering dictator deposed by our own forces. An icon of the self-loathing anti-American academic Left, Noam Chomsky, embraces Hizballah, the chief beneficiary of Iran's terror export, and condemns the War on Terror as bigotry wrapped in fiction. A former Vice President travels to the home of fifteen 9/11 hijackers and professes that Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" by America and its sitting president and held in "unforgivable" conditions.

These are not arguments of the manner in which to defend America. These are sycophantic rantings of whether to defend her. The flood of emotions in disbelieving reaction range from anger and rage to depression and grief.

We dare not rest as the most important front of the War on Terror and for the very survival of Western Civilization lies not upon the sands of distant shores, but in our own common discourse. The most important battlegrounds are around our dinner tables and in intelligent and persuasive common sense discussion among our peers, seeking the discomfort of battle and the very defense of defense rather than the comfort and unproductive endeavor of agreement among friends.

The line has been clearly drawn. Tire not. Engage.

Beautiful. The War on Terror isn't gay marriage or stem cell research or abortion. It isn't a topic that should be debated during high school forensics matches. We have a category here at Op For called "One Team, One Fight." Charlie and I are constantly searching for examples of one America, one war, one fight. It's how things should be, but aren't. There shouldn't even be a need for a category that recognizes something Americans should be doing in the first place.
Steve ended on a positive note and I agree. Ignore petty politics, fight the good fight, tire not and engage.

Today in History.....May 25

On this day in …

* 1947 The Mother of the Mrs. was born in the town of Tequila, Jalisco, México, 26 years later giving birth to the future Queen of Tequila!

* 1787, the Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum

* 1810, Argentina began its revolt against Spain

* 1844, the first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, appeared in the Baltimore Patrio

* 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London; he was sentenced to prison

* 1935, Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates

* 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein

* 1961, President Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade

* 1968, the Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, was dedicated

* 1976, U.S. Rep. Wayne L. Hays, D-Ohio, admitted to a "personal relationship" with Elizabeth Ray, a committee staff member who claimed she'd received her job in order to be Hays' mistress

* 1979, 275 people died when an American Airlines DC10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare airport

* 1986, an estimated 7 million Americans participated in "Hands Across America," forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless

* 2001, A federal appeals court lifted an injunction on publication of "The Wind Done Gone," Alice Randall's satirical retelling of "Gone With The Wind" from a black viewpoint

* 2005, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen won Senate confirmation as a federal appeals judge after a ferocious four-year battle

Today's Liberal Thought = Oxymoron

The times they are a-changin'.

Liberalism today is much different than in it was in the '60's, an era when it was reaching its heady pinnacle, a time when deep thinking meant a hell of a lot more than deep "feeling".

Mr. Prager explains today's liberalism here.

Mr. Prager points out that today's liberals substitute feeling for thought, and how the "deep thinking" left transformed their party into a narrow minded, prejudiced party.

Excerpt:

Here is a list of terms liberals apply to virtually every idea or action with which they differ:

Racist
Sexist
Homophobic
Islamophobic
Imperialist
Bigoted
Intolerant

And here is the list of one-word descriptions of what liberals are for:

Peace
Fairness
Tolerance
The poor
The disenfranchised
The environment

These two lists serve contemporary liberals in at least three ways.

First, they attack the motives of non-liberals and thereby morally dismiss the non-liberal person.

Second, these words make it easy to be a liberal -- essentially all one needs to do is to memorize this brief list and apply the right term to any idea or policy. That is one reason young people are more likely to be liberal -- they have not had the time or inclination to think issues through, but they know they oppose racism, imperialism and bigotry, and that they are for peace, tolerance and the environment.

Third, they make the liberal feel good about himself -- by opposing conservative ideas and policies, he is automatically opposing racism, bigotry, imperialism, etc." -- Dennis

The "Urban Legends of Iraq"

Hugh Hewitt has this today on how Peter Wehner hits the mark in outlining the left's mythology of Iraq.

The foundation myths of the Anti-Bush Church:

*The president misled Americans to convince them to go to war.

*The Bush administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments.

*Because weapons of mass destruction stockpiles weren't found, Saddam posed no threat.

*Promoting democracy in the Middle East is a postwar rationalization.

Wehner explodes each in turn and in quick fashion. Read the whole thing.
And then add in Ralph Peter's "Defeating Terror." (HT: RealClearPolitics.)

Today in History.....May 23

On this day in …

* 1701, Captain William Kidd was hanged in London after he was convicted of piracy and murder

* 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, La.

* 1944, during World War II, Allied forces bogged down in Anzio began a major breakout offensive

* 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler committed suicide while imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany

* 1949, The Federal Republic of Germany (popularly known as West
Germany) is formally established as a separate and independent nation. This action marked the effective end to any discussion of reuniting East and West Germany

* 1960, Israel announced it had captured former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. (Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity, and hanged in 1962.)

* 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10 flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing

* 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell in connection with their Watergate convictions

* 1994, four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison

* 1995, Apple Computer and AT&T announced they would collaborate on a videoconferencing system. Although videophones had been a popular feature in science fiction for more than thirty years, video conferencing was slow to catch on until the late 1990s when it became popular as a business tool

* 2001, U.S. Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont disclosed plans to leave the Republican Party and become an Independent, a move that led to Democratic control of the Senate for the first time in seven years

"I Didn't See Rednecks, I Saw A More Progressive Crowd"

This is what Dixie Chicker Martie Maguire had to say after a recent show in a 60 Minutes interview defending fellow Chick Natalie Maines' comment about GW Bush and how she was ashamed to be from the same state as President Bush.

Hey Einstein, of course you didn't see rednecks. Rednecks don't buy tickets to see an all chick band, especially a band that totally disrespects the President of the United States.

I heard most of the 60 Minutes interview, it was great, they came off like a couple of stoned Valley Girls with Texas accents.

I think their publicist needs to give these 3 non blondes a crash course in Marketing 101.......you know, know your audience. Do you really think your audience is "progressive" or, let's just cut to it, liberal? Do you really think you're going to play in front of large crowd made up of liberal country fans? You probably ought to take a page out of Laura Ingraham's book "Shut up and Sing", actually don't, keep what you're doing, maybe your CD sales will diminish to the point where you chicks are done.

Just like all of your Hollywood friends, celebrities and rockers, you mistake fame for intelligence. Says lead mouth Maines in an interview:

"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith," Maguire said. "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."

Just who are these "really cool people?" What about folks in your genre like the king of cool George Strait, or Alan Jackson or Tim McGraw or The Hag? Ripping just about the 2 biggest stars in country ain't too bright there sister....the deeper you dig, the deeper the whole, keep digging!

You've got your right to free speech, why don't you follow the path of someone like Johnny Cash? He was a liberal but carried his agenda with respect, although he was against the Vietnam war, he still went there to perform for the troops.......very classy.

Their album is due out tomorrow, all indications are is that their (former) fan base is "Not Ready To Make Nice" 'cause album/CD sales are disappointing to date.

Betcha Didn't Know

Everywhere in China the images of lions abound. For the past thousand years, important buildings have been symbolically guarded by two stone lions on either side of the building’s entrance. Pairs of carved stone or cast metal lions adorn every conceivable business, house, main thoroughfare, and side street.

Funny thing is.........lions do not inhabit, and never have inhabited China!

Guardian lion statues, in China, are often seen in pairs-one female and one male. The male lion sits to the left of the female and both their eyes are turned to gaze at the passage between them. The male lion’s right front paw rests on a ball that represents the unity of the empire. The lioness’ left paw fondles a cub symbolizing the thriving offspring. Stone balls, captive in their mouths, represent pearls of purity and perfection. Both lions offer stern but regal visages to those passing between them.

Here's a stab at answering the obvious:

The earliest lion sculptures in China may have been crafted, with the introduction of Buddhism into China, at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 A.D.). The Cangzhou Lion, cast in A.D. 953, stands 5.4 meters tall and weights 50 metric tons. It is known to be the largest iron casting in the world. It depicts the bodhisattva Manjusri riding in a lotus flower mounted on the back of a swift lion. Sakyamuni (founder of the Buddhist faith), after his birth was seen “to point to Heaven with one hand and to Earth with another, roaring like a lion, ‘Between Heaven and Earth I alone am supreme.’” Elsewhere it is also said “Buddha is a lion among men. Lord Ashoka used a triple stone lion to symbolize the three treasures. The original statue is kept at Sarnath where Buddha gave the wheel of law its first turn. The image of this statue was imprinted on the Indian rupee and remains there to this day.

Second only to the dragon the lion is considered a divine animal of nobility and dignity, able to fend off Evil and protect Truth. It is found guarding the entrances to palaces, homes, and sacred buildings. Today it extends its protection to business, restaurants, and banks.

Perhaps, by coincidence long ago, Buddhism and the lion rode together into China from the west. But, by the synergy of that coincidence, the lion may have maintained its high standing and now guards homes and businesses across continents and cultures.

There you have it.

No Joke..........Caffeinated Panty Hose

A British website is selling caffeinated pantyhose. Are they kidding?

The way the tights work is that body heat releases caffeine microcapsules into the leg, thus promoting the metabolism to kick in and start fat burning. According to the makers, results should be apparent in about 1-4 weeks, but they do say they may not work for everyone. Even so, I think most women will be keen to give the "Slim Fit 20" caffeine tights a go. Costs are around £27 ... As others have pointed out: if caffeine does cause weight loss, it's not through local effects on the skin but rather as a brain stimulant of muscle activity -- nervous energy (fidgeting all day may be as effective as hitting the gym). There's certainly no literature to suggest caffeine applied to the thighs causes targeted weight loss there, or even increased muscular activity at that site.

This is no lie, nylon fans. No matter what the testimonials say, these manufacturers don't have a leg to stand on.

More from TightsPlease
Via Coolest-Gadgets and Gizmodo

Today in History.....May 22

On this day in …

* 1761, the first life insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia

* 1819, the first steam-propelled vessel to attempt a trans-Atlantic crossing, the Savannah, departed from Savannah, Ga. (It arrived in Liverpool, England, on June 20.)

* 1868, the "Great Train Robbery" took place near Marshfield, Ind., as seven members of the Reno gang made off with $96,000 in loot

* 1939, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, and Benito Mussolini signed a "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance

* 1947, the "Truman Doctrine" was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey

* 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10 flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing

* 1972, President Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders signed the SALT I arms limitation treaty. ALSO: The island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka

* 1979, Canadians voted in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservatives in power, ending the 11-year tenure of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau

* 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time

* 2001, Ford Motor Co. said it planned to spend more than $2 billion to replace up to 13 million Firestone tires on its vehicles because of safety concerns

Today in History.....May 19

On this day in …

* 1643, delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to
form a confederation

* 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in
Dorset, England, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash

* 1943, in an address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war
against Japan

* 1958, the United States and Canada formally established the North
American Air Defense Command

* 1962, during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square
Garden, actress Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of
"Happy Birthday to You" for guest-of-honor President Kennedy

* 1964, the State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones
had been found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow

* 1967, the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States
and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space

* 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits
Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises, went into effect

* 1996, space shuttle Endeavour and its crew rocketed into orbit and
quickly began preparing for the release of an inflatable antenna

* 2001, the Arab League called on Arab governments to sever
political contacts with Israel until the Jewish state ended military
action against "Palestinians"

* 2005, Republicans and Democrats tangled over President Bush's
judicial nominees and the Senate's filibuster rules, with Democrats
accusing Bush of trying to "rewrite the Constitution" and
Republicans accusing Democrats of "unprecedented obstruction."

A Parent's Worst NIghtmare

I've posted this twice already, but I just don't think there can be enough that can be done, I've got a tool to use, I'm going to use it....don't want people to think this is a downer of a blog though.

My friend and co-worker, Abby Simpkins and her husband Bill lost their 6 year old daughter, Emma (the youngest of 4 kids) about 7 weeks ago in a tragic accident in their driveway at home in which Bill was driving. I just got off of the phone with Abby, I don't think I have ever heard someone so desperate and sad, it took all I had to not lose it, needless to say this has us a bit worried. They are having just an incredibly hard time dealing with their loss. They have been very strong, but I think it is really just starting to hit them. They are a family of strong faith, but they need prayers and strength to help them go on. They go to DESERT HILLS FELLOWSHIP CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
34835 N. 7th Street, Phoenix, Arizona7th St. & Carefree Hwy., phone #623-581-0627

Just thought I needed to do a little something extra for such an awesome family.

Here's a note from Bill and Abby:

We do not know how to begin to say
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts” to
Our friends at Sterling, Climatec and Huntair! On March
26, 2006 we lost our daughter Emma Simpkins
in a tragic accident. Since Emma’s death so many
of our friends have done so many things to help us
make it through this most difficult time in our
lives and we want to thank all you for your help and support. We would like to hug each and every one of you that has helped, through your generosity, meals and support of our family during our time of need. Your
support has helped ease some of our burden and
sorrow and we thank you from the bottom of our
hearts for that.

Our faith in God is what is holding our family
together and it is evident that God’s hand is at work through all of the kindness and sincerity that has been show to us from all of you.

Emma is our “Baby Girl Princess,” she did not
know a stranger and was always smiling and
having a happy time. Emma knew many
people and her kindness touched many of
you. Please remember Emma as that bright
and cheerful little red head girl that would
wave to you and say “Hi,” with the biggest
smile on her face. She has forever touched
our lives and we hope that she forever will
touch your lives too. Emma would always
tell us, “I love you more than bunnies!” with
the biggest smile on her face.

Thank you so very much for all that you have done!
“We love you more than bunnies!”

Bill, Abby, Tyler, Isaac, & Wyatt Simpkins


We Love you more then Bunnies!

Mini Fidel and Montezuma

Montezuma’s Revenge, also called by some the Aztec Two-Step, is what tourists suffer after drinking bad water. If President Hugo Chavez gets his way, the name “Montezuma” will soon be associated directly with Hugo Chavez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and self-proclaimed leader of the new 21st century revolutionary socialism. Why? Because Chavez is convinced that he is a direct blood descendant of the Emperor Montezuma, the last lord of Aztec Mexica empire before Hernan Cortes arrived with a handful of homicidal Conquistadors backed the Holy Roman Catholic God, the Spanish Crown and a large number of pissed off local indigenous tribespeople who were sick and tired of being the sacrificial slaves of the Aztec Emperors.

Beyond gratifying his immense, narcissistic ego, let's cut to the chase, Chavez could potentially get some political mileage if he could successfully trace his blood lineage to Montezuma’s loins:

* If Chavez could legitimately claim some of Montezuma’s genes, he could project himself in the Americas as a true indigenous leader, and a royal one at that. Hypothetically this would relegate indigenous Bolivian leaders like Evo Morales and Felipe Quispe to a secondary status (at least in Chavez’s mind), since the Venezuelan president doesn’t recognize anyone’s leadership except his own.

* If Chavez and Montezuma were blood relatives, the Venezuelan president might demand that the United States return to its rightful owner – meaning Chavez – all of the territory the U.S. “stole” from Mexico, including California and Texas. Chavez also could demand thnat Mexico be returned to the descendant of the Aztecs. This may sound crazy, but is there anything in Chavez’s history over the past seven years that suggests he would not make such crazed demands?

* Chavez is already on record as seeking the title of president-for-life by amending the Bolivarian Constitution to allow his unlimited re-election. Chavez said recently he wants to stay in power until at least 2031. Imagine Chavez being introduced in the future at one of his political rallies, like the spectacle he staged in Vienna much to the anger and embarrassment of the Austrian government: “Introducing Hugo Chavez, president-for-life of Venezuela; commander in chief of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, civilian reserve and territorial guard; leader of the Bolivarian Revolution; co-president of Cubazuela; and Montezuma’s only true heir to the throne of Emperor of the Indigenous Nations of Latin America!” The music will blare and hundreds of paid revolutionary cheerleaders, sprinkled with assorted European and American asshole armchair commies, will grunt in intellectually constipated unison, “Uh! Ah! Chavez no se va!” Chavez also could start to include in his musical performance repertoire rancheras with verses like “Sigo siendo el Rey” – although quite obviously a King’s Crown would be small potatoes for the man who would be Emperor.

In summary, while Chavez’s quest to prove his blood lineage to Montezuma is laughably absurd, it is also somehow fitting that Venezuela’s erratic and mentally unstable president should seek to prove that he is Montezuma’s heir. After all, Montezuma was a failed Emperor who presided over a bloody and corrupt tyranny that enslaved and slaughtered weaker indigenous peoples, and who today is remembered popularly mainly by travel agencies and tourists that equate the name Montezuma with the Aztec Two-Step, that leaves the taste of vomit in one’s mouth.

Today in History.....May 18

On this day in …

* 1804, the French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor

* 1896, the Supreme Court endorsed "separate but equal" racial segregation with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later by Brown v. Board of Education

* 1944, during World War II, Allied forces finally occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle that claimed some 20,000 lives

* 1951, the United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan

* 1969, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W.
Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10

* 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing. ALSO: In the South Korean city of Kwangju, townspeople and students began a nine-day uprising that was finally put down by troops

* 1994, in a move of sheer political genius, Israeli troops completed their vacating the Gaza Strip as "Palestinian" authorities took over

* 1995, triumphant Republicans pushed a historic budget through the House that they said would wring an unprecedented $1.4 trillion dollars in savings from federal budgets over the next seven year

* 1996, President Clinton, seeking to deflect Republican criticism that he was weak on welfare reform, endorsed Wisconsin's welfare-to-work plan in his Saturday radio address

* 2001, exactly 7 years after Israel vacated the Gaza Strip, a "Palestinian" suicide bomber blew himself up at a shopping mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis; Israel retaliated with air strikes against security targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

* 2005, President Bush offered his unqualified support for Egypt's political reform process as he received Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief at the White House

You Want A Real Laugher?

Read Ace, here.

Apparently Tom Daschle didn't learn a thing from getting thumped by John Thune.

Tequila University, Get Your Degree

On the lighter side of things.........

Go here to get your diploma from Tequila University. I did!

Now the fun part, to get your MBA from Tequila University, join Joe Gringo, The Mrs. y los tres niños sometime near the end of July or early August for a trip to the magical land of Tequila, Jalisco, México.

Pueblo Mágico.

........you just may never make it back home!

Today in History.....May 17

On this day in …

* 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street

* 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was "Aristides"

* 1938, Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy

* 1939, Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns

* 1940, the Nazis, ym"sh, occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II

* 1946, President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen

* 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision, which found that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional

* 1973, the Senate opened its hearings into the Watergate scandal

* 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami's Liberty City after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie

* 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq and the U.S. called the attack a mistake.)

* 1996, President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when s ex offenders move in. ("Megan's Law," as it's known, is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and slain in 1994.)

* 2001, President Bush unveiled his energy plan, bracing Americans for a summer of blackouts, layoffs, business closings and skyrocketing fuel costs and warning of "a darker future" without his aggressive plans to drill for more oil and gas and rejuvenate nuclear powe

* 2005, British lawmaker George Galloway denounced U.S. senators in testimony on Capitol Hill, denying accusations that he'd profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program and accusing them of unfairly tarnishing his name

The Da Vinci Code: Sparating Facts From Myths

Mark D. Roberts helps distinguish facts from myths.

Who is Mark Roberts?

He is a regular on the Hugh Hewitt show.

The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, speaker and blogger. Since 1991 he has been the Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California (a city in Orange County about forty miles south of Los Angeles). Before coming to Irvine, Mark served on the staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood as Pastor of Education.

Mark studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in the Study of Religion, and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins. He teaches classes in New Testament for Fuller Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Mark has written several books, including Dare to Be True (WaterBrook, 2003), Jesus Revealed (WaterBrook, 2002), After "I Believe" (Baker, 2002), and Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Word, 1993). His most recent book is No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer (WaterBrook, 2005). Mark serves on the editorial board of Worship Leader magazine, where he publishes articles and reviews, including his regular column "Lyrical Poetry." He often speaks for churches and other Christian groups, and has been interviewed on over fifty radio programs nationwide.

Mark is married to Linda, and they have two children.

Today in History.....May 16

On this day in …

* 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15

* 1866, Congress authorized minting of the 5-cent piece

* 1868, the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him

* 1960, a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S.
in the wake of the U2 incident

* 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest

* 1996, Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question

* 2001, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was indicted on charges of spying for Moscow. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.) ALSO:
Nathaniel Brazill, a 14-year-old boy who shot his English teacher to death on the last day of the school year, was convicted of second-degree murder in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Brazill was later sentenced to 28 years in prison.)

* 2005, Newsweek retracted its Quran abuse story that sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan that left about 15 people dead and scores injured. ALSO: Army Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted at Fort Hood, Texas, of six of the seven charges she faced for her role in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. (She was sentenced to six months in prison after testimony about her acts of kindness toward Iraqis before she became an Abu Ghraib guard.) The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states can't bar out-of-state wine shipments. Mexican President Vicente Fox regretted any hurt feelings for saying that Mexicans in the United States were doing the work that even blacks wouldn't.

A Symposium: Death For Apostacy

On the panel in this symposium is Salim Mansur, a Muslim writer and a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario, he has this to say: "Islam and the Qur’an can be practiced and explained, justified or denounced, in whichever way and with whatever understanding an individual or collective approaches it. "

It's no wonder we're confusing Islam as the Religion of Peace when it produce's sadistic mad-men chopping off people's head's!

Below is Osher Doctorow's response to this symposium on the recent case of Abdul Rahman, the smart man who left Islam for Christianity.

This fascinating symposium shows the uselessness of diplomacy and the fact that those who become mired in it and try to find solutions in it lose Wars. The interviewee who said in slightly different words that a major physical defeat is the only thing that would change Islamist Terrorism was correct in my opinion, although he also claimed that he saw no change of this solution being tried (to paraphrase him more or less). A physical defeat would settle the matter of whether there are or are not Moslems/Muslims in a "silent" majority who are willing to put their actions where their thoughts are under ideal conditions, and we won't have to debate that anymore. President Bush has taken the initiative on Gas Prices, which is quite possibly the master stroke that will save the November Elections, but between us "Conservatives" (or Liberals as David Horowitz likes to sometimes say) it takes more than a Master Stroke to convince me that a person's brain and "heart" are in the right place. He is holding up Military action everywhere except in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is not doing anything about taking the Job issue away from Dumbocrats, and I don't think frankly that he gives a damn. He cares about Gas Prices mostly because the Republicans in Congress and who're running for Congress are pushing him for their own survival in November. He doesn't know an Israeli from an Egyptian or a Saudi Arabian and he doesn't care. He is utterly committed to Diplomacy and the Bush Family is State Department/CIA through and through. If I live long enough, I'll make sure to vote for a Military man or woman as the next President and let the Inbred Families continue breeding in their private mansions.

Who Cares What You Think Anyway?

Saddam: 'I am ready to die'... Good.

'Nuff said.

Today in History.....May 15

On this day in …

* 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act

* 1918, U.S. airmail began service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York

* 1930, Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.

* 1940, nylon stockings went on general sale for the first time in the United States

* 1963, astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program

* 1972, George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralyzed while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for the Democratic presidential nomination

* 1986, searchers on Oregon's Mount Hood found two teenage survivors of a hiking expedition that became trapped in a whiteout blizzard.
Nine other climbers died

* 2001, tens of thousands of West Bank and Gaza Arabs packed town squares in Ramallah as they marked what they called the day of "catastrophe" in 1948, when, after being given the chance to share the Holy Land with the Jews, and declined, the State of Israel was created. The gathering was not a public day of introspection, but a venting of anger at the Jewish State.

* 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq to express support for its new government

I Just Had The Great Pleasure......

......of talking to fellow blogger Elmer's Brother.

Like his solid blog, he's a very solid man, we're both local Arizonan's.......my rifle should be done soon, as soon as it is, we're both going shooting!

It's one of those day's when I have to juggle 5-6 things instead of 3-4, it will be a very light 2 days! Have a great week-end!

Pushing The Envelope.....

Oh yah? I'm sure that you even question 1+1 = 2 you traitor.

Just how far can one go before you can be accused of treason? MIT Professor, America hater and the ultimate hypocrite, Noam Chomsky, continues to push the envelope with his pro-terror stance. The Chumpsky recently met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut today and branded the U.S. a terrorist state.

Drudge Report has it here. If the US is a terrorist state, what do you call the scum that decapitates, slits the throats of men, women and babies, has rape rooms and celebrates death over life? How can one of the finest universities in the country allow this old coot to continue his hate speak against the very country he lives in? This tenured BS for professors is pathetic.

Wouldn't it be great if universities could take a page out of Dr. George Poste's notebook? Dr. Poste is the Director of the BioDesign Insitute at Arizona State University, a Distinguised Professor of Biology, CEO of Health Technology Networks, and one hell of a dynamic speaker with a resume that would blow your socks off. His way of running things at the BioDesign Institute would make guys like Chomsky curl up and cry. All professor's, scientists and research scientists reporting into him are required to secure funding/grants to the tune of something like $220 pers square foot. Of course these professors don't like that because that means they are forced to produce rather than kick back in their cozy environment, feel important and reap benefits. Anyway, Poste is a butt kicker as opposed to Chomsky who is the ultimate terrorist butt kisser. Here's what Chomsky had to say:

"I think that Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and a persuasive argument that they (the weapons) should be in the hands of Hizbollah as a deterrent to potential aggression and there is plenty of background and reasons for that. So, I think his position, if I am reporting it correctly, and it seems to be a reasonable position, is that until there is a general political settlement in the region and the threat of aggression and violence is reduced or eliminated, there has to be a deterrent. The Lebanese army cannot be a deterrent."

MORE:

"There is a meaning to the word terrorist, in fact you can read a definition of term terrorist is the U.S. code of laws. It gives a very clear, precise, adequate definition of the word terrorist. have been writing about terrorism for 25 years always using the official U.S. definition [of the word "terrorist"], but that definition is un-usable, and the reason is that when you use that definition it turns out, not surprisingly, that the U.S is one of the leading terrorist states, and the other states become terrorist or non-terrorist depending on how they are relating to U.S. goals."

MORE:

"The regional superpower Israel is threatening to attack it [Iran], the U.S. is threatening to attack it. These threats alone are outright violations international law and of the U.N. charter. Iran is in difficulty. Iran has been trying for some years to negotiate settlement but the U.S. just refuses."

Developing...

Today in History.....May 11

On this day in …

* 1894, the Pullman strike began, involving 3,000 Chicago railroad-car plant workers

* 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later

* 1944, Allied forces launched a major offensive against German lines in Italy

* 1946, the first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France

* 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member

* 1973, charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the "Pentagon Papers" case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct

* 1987, the first heart-lung transplant was performed in Baltimore

* 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov

* 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed Timothy McVeigh's execution from May 16 to June 11 because of FBI mishandling of documents

* 2005, Shouting "Death to America!" more than 1,000 demonstrators rioted and threw stones at a U.S. military convoy in Afghanistan, as protests spread over a Newsweek report that interrogators had desecrated Islam's holy book at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(Newsweek later apologized for what it termed errors in the
article.)

The Annual Memorial Day Golf Tournament - 25th Year-

Dedicated to our friend Bill Houser.

I will post this a few times up until Memorial Day.

I help put together a golf tournament every year during Memorial Day that comprises of 28 friends, this is our 25th year doing this (sounds like I'm old!). This tournament started in 1981 with my oldest brother and his 3 buds, Mike Vinson, Billy Marko and Butchie, and it just grew from there. Don't know Butchie's last name but this cat was a beauty, sort of taller, rangier Charles Bronson look-a-like, missing a few teeth, the type of guy you would NOT WANT to mess with, and who just may have been involved in some scrupulous activities, but this guy was a real beauty and a genuine nice guy. Anyway Butchie disappeared about 16-17 years ago, hopefully he'll show up one day.

We all go out of town, either up north or down south on friday before Memorial Day and to play friday afternoon, 36 holes on Saturday, 18 on Sunday and commence our tournament with 18 holes back in Phoenix where we go to one of the guy's homes and have our awards/party ceremony. A blast doesn't even begin to describe this weekend. We have a Ryder Cup format, Individual and 2 Man team events, tons of bets...and a few brews as well!

This year we go to Apache Stronghold in Globe for Friday/Saturday/Sunday and finish up in Phoenix at the Wildfire - Faldo course.

It's amazing how thing's turn out. In February, a few of us were talking about making our tournament some sort of charity event where we would identify a needy family and raise money through a raffle and help out that needy family. It just so happens that one of the original guys, Bill Houser, died in March, and now we are dedicating our tournament to the Houser family. Bill's son, Andy, has been playing for about 7 years, won it in 2001 (he came from 8 shots behind to beat.......yours truly!). I must tell you that Bill and Andy had just a dynamite father/son relationship. Bill's wife, Linda, is an executive here in the valley with the American Cancer Society, all money raised will be directed to the Houser family where Linda said she will direct the money to the American Cancer Society. We are looking to raise $7,000.

One of our buds, Brenyn, is friends with Charles Barkley and former NFL wide receiver Roy Green, and believe it or not, Michael Jordan when he is in town. Brenyn got a few things donated, here's what we have donated to date, raffle tickets are $25 each:

3 Grand Prizes - 3 Full Sets of Custom Fitted Ping Irons
Charles Barkley autographed Phoenix Suns jersey
Roy Green autographed Arizona Cardinals jersey
Golf Foursome @ Camelback GC or Talking Stick
Golf Foursome @ Apache Stronghold
Golf Foursome @ Eagle Mountain GC
Golf Twosome @ Wildfire - Faldo Course
$50 Gift Certificate to Bobby's @ Kierland
$50 Gift Certificate to Frankie's Little Italy
$100 Gift Certificate to Coach & Willy's
Another $100 Gift Certificate to Coach & Willy's
2 Signature Golf Prints by Jan Chandler Garbero
$50 Gift Certificate to Mary Coyle Ice Cream Rest.
4 Hours Free Limo Service
$50 Gift Certificate to McCormick & Schmicks
$100 Service Certificate to Mike Vinson Auto
Harkins Movie Passes

We've got more things coming, winner need not be present to win.

Anyone out there who would like to donate items or buy raffle tickets @ $25 each, send me an email at dfeggen@msn.com or post a comment.

Thanks! Adiós

Renaming The War On Terror.....

...."we had better understand that we are not merely fighting a war on terror, but a war against an ideology that wishes us to convert, be subject to Islamic law, or die."

Here's Dennis Prager's article today at TownHall.com "The war we are fighting needs a more accurate name"

Today in History.....May 9

On this day in …

* 1502, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere

* 1754, a cartoon in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die"

* 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified

* 1926, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly over the North Pole

* 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia

* 1945, U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately

* 1961, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters

* 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon

* 2001, China sought U.S. understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane to fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the aircraft flew again over Chinese territory

* 2005, President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish military parade in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia, the first American chief executive to visit

That's Nancy Pelosi on the left, and a moonbat on the right........or is it the other way around?

Caught this on Laura Ingraham's radio program this morning........she nailed it.

Today is the only day of the year where the month and day said rather quickly, you get one word. May 8 - Mate. I know that's lame, but what the hell.

When your brain is wired to enable you to phonetically speak backwards almost as fast as speaking forwards, things like this creep in and out of the 'ol noggin. :-)

Hugo Castro or Fidel Chavez

How true. Actually, he is trying to do away with the term limits in Venezuela to satisfy his enormous ego and so he can continue to run Venezuela into the ground. FOX news reports Chavez Proposes Referendum to Stay President Until 2031

The Venezuelan Constitution allows a president to be re-elected only once in immediate succession. Chavez is eligible for re-election to another six-year term in December, but if he wins he wouldn't be able to run again in 2012.

Does one really think he'll hang it up in 2012? Not a chance. Like all leftwing politico's (a case can be made for extreme right wing), they have an insatiable appetite for power and to feed their ego.

Today in History....... May 8

On this day in …

* 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River

* 1794, Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror

* 1846, the first major battle of the Mexican War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas, resulting in victory for Gen. Zachary Taylor's forces

* 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola

* 1945, President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe

* 1958, Vice President Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru

* 1970, construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York's Wall Street

* 1973, militant American Indians who'd held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered

* 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to the "Son of Sam" killings that had terrified New Yorkers

* 1996, postal inspectors wrapped up a two-year sting operation in
36 states against a child pornography ring. ALSO: South Africa took another step from apartheid to democracy by adopting a constitution that guaranteed equal rights for blacks and whites. Julie Andrews declined her Tony Award nomination after her show, "Victor/Victoria," was snubbed for best musical

* 2001, China protested the resumption of U.S. surveillance flights off its coast and said it would refuse to let the United States fly out a crippled Navy spy plane

* 2005, President Bush and Vladimir Putin, meeting in Moscow, went out of their way to take a unified stand on Middle East peace and terrorism after sharp words in recent days about democratic backsliding and postwar Soviet domination. ALSO: Steve Nash edged Shaquille O'Neal by 34 points to win the NBA's most valuable player award

Méxicofile

For all of those who have an interest in México and want to learn about the culture, hidden away places to see and visit, go to Méxicofile and get their newsletter.

I subscribed to it before I made my initial solo stellar bus/hitchhiking adventure a little over 10 years ago, I'm glad I did.

A Clash of Civilations or A Clash of Imperialisms?

Excellent interview at Front Page Mag with Efraim Karsh by Jamie Glazov

Here's a taste....but read it all here.


FP: What really lies behind the Arabs’ rejection of the Jewish state? For some reason I have a feeling it has very little to do with concern for the Palestinians.

Karsh: It is easier to unite people through a common hatred than through a shared loyalty, hence anti-Zionism has always been the core principle of pan-Arab solidarity. As early as 1945 the senior British official in Egypt was reporting back to London that the only thing holding the newly formed Arab League together was shared opposition to Zionism. However, you are correct to assume that the Arab states have never had any real stake in the “liberation of Palestine.”

Consider, for example, the pan-Arab invasion of the newly proclaimed state of Israel in 1948. This, on its face, was a shining demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people. But the invasion had far less to do with winning independence for the indigenous population than with the desire of the Arab regimes for territorial aggrandizement. Transjordan’s King Abdullah wanted to incorporate substantial parts of mandatory Palestine into the greater Syrian empire he coveted; Egypt wanted to prevent that eventuality by laying its hands on southern Palestine. Syria and Lebanon sought to annex the Galilee, while Iraq viewed the 1948 war as a stepping stone in its long-standing ambition to bring the entire Fertile Crescent under its rule. Had the Jewish state lost the war, its territory would not have fallen to the Palestinians but would have been divided among the invading Arab forces.

At a secret meeting in September 1947 between Zionist officials and Abdel Rahman Azzam, secretary-general of the Arab League, the latter warned the Jews of Arab efforts: “We succeeded in expelling the Crusaders, but lost Spain and Persia, and may lose Palestine.” In other words, he rejected a Jewish right to statehood not from concern for the national rights of the Palestinian Arabs but from the desire to fend off a perceived encroachment on the pan-Arab patrimony.

The eminent Arab-American historian Philip Hitti described the common Arab view to an Anglo-American commission of inquiry in 1946: “There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not.” A similar view was voiced by the Jerusalem newspaper al-Wahda (Unity), mouthpiece of the Arab Higher Committee, the effective “government” of the Palestinian Arabs, which in the summer of 1947 advocated the incorporation of Palestine (and Transjordan) into “Greater Syria.” So did Fawzi Qauqji, commander of the pan-Arab force that invaded Palestine in early 1948. He expressed the hope that the UN partition resolution of November 1947 “will oblige the Arab states to put aside their differences and will prepare the way for a greater Arab nation.”

During the decades following the 1948 war, the Arab states manipulated the Palestinian national cause to their own ends. Neither Egypt nor Jordan allowed Palestinian self-determination in the parts of Palestine they had occupied during the 1948 war (respectively, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). Palestinian refugees were kept in squalid camps for decades as a means of whipping Israel and stirring pan-Arab sentiments. “The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are,” Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser candidly responded to an inquiring Western reporter in 1956. “We will always see that they do not become too powerful.” As late as 1974, Syria’s Hafiz Assad referred to Palestine as being “not only a part of the Arab homeland but a basic part of southern Syria”; there is no evidence to suggest that he had changed his mind by the time of his death on June 10, 2000.

Krauthammer.....Setting Up Another Holocaust?

Chilling....


"The establishment of Israel was a Jewish declaration to a world that had allowed the Holocaust to happen — after Hitler had made his intentions perfectly clear — that the Jews would henceforth resort to self-protection and self-reliance. And so they have, building a Jewish army, the first in 2,000 years, that prevailed in three great wars of survival (1948-49, 1967 and 1973).

But in a cruel historical irony, doing so required concentration — putting all the eggs back in one basket, a tiny territory hard by the Mediterranean, eight miles wide at its waist. A tempting target for those who would finish Hitler's work.

His successors now reside in Tehran. The world has paid ample attention to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that Israel must be destroyed. Less attention has been paid to Iranian leaders' pronouncements on exactly how Israel would be "eliminated by one storm," as Ahmadinejad has promised".

Charles Krauthammer's entire article "Never Again" is here.

A Little Chinese Humor For Friday

Apparently in Chinese, "he" and "she" are pronounced the same......this can make for some interesting conversation...........

You: I saw Joe and Sally yesterday. She said she was looking for a new job?

Me: What? Sally is leaving that great company.

You: No.

Me: What? I thought you said she was leaving?

You: I said that Joe is leaving. I didn’t say anything about Sally?

Me: You said that SHE is leaving.

You: She is leaving. He told me today.

Me: Wait a minute. Joe told you that Sally is leaving?

You: No, Sally told me that JOE is leaving.

Me: (with blood pouring out of my ears) I actually don’t really care about Joe or Sally. Let’s forget this conversation ever happened.

Better learn Mandarin before you go to China! :-)

Today in History.....May 5

On this day in …

* 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena

* 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla

* 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") had its opening night in New York City

* 1893, Wall Street stock prices took a sudden drop, sparking the second worst economic crisis in U.S. history

* 1904, Cy Young pitched major league baseball's first perfect game to lead the Boston Americans to a 3-0 win over Philadelphia

* 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces landed on the Philippine island of Corregidor

* 1945, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States

* 1955, West Germany became a sovereign state

* 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became America's first man in space in a brief, sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral

* 1980, a siege at the Iranian embassy in London by armed practitioners of that "religion pf peace" demanding the release of political prisoners in Iran ended as British commandos and police stormed the building. Nineteen hostages were rescued; two others had already been killed by their captors; four of the five hostage-takers were also killed

* 1985, President Reagan kept a promise to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl by leading a wreath-laying ceremony at the military cemetery in Bitburg

* 1996, Israel and the Palestinians began the final stage of their peace talks in Taba, Egypt. ALSO: The FBI released preliminary figures showing that serious crimes reported to police fell for the fourth straight year in 1995

* 2005, Tony Blair won a historic third term as Britain's prime minister, but his Labour Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority

Muslims = Nazi's, Nazi's = Muslims?

Probably not, but you'd be surprised at similarities between the two, if anything, this comparison between the two shows that Islam really is more of a political idealogy than a religion. Freedom Fighter at Joshua Pundit has this great comparison.....by the way......you should read this guy daily, he's nails!

Here's a few excerpts:

Mein Kampf- States that Germans are the superior race of mankind and that Germany is destined to rule the world , and dominate all other races and nations.

Q'uran-States that Islam and Muslims are the superiors of mankind and that Islam is divinely mandated to rule the world and dominate all other races, creeds and nations.
****************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Says that the German State is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to the State

The Q'uran-Says that Islam and Sharia is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to Islam.
*************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Says that Germans have the duty to claim their divinely appointed place in the world by whatever means necessary. Puts loyalty to the Volk(the race)above all other ethical considerations.

The Q'uran-Says that Muslims have a duty to wage Jihad and to advance Islam's domination over the world (Dar Islam and Dar Harb) by any means necessary. Places loyalty to fellow Muslims(Umma)and Islam above all other ethical considerations

Eye Piercing?

Not quite, but now we've got eye art for the freaks out there. Actually, these pieces of jewelry are suspended from contact lenses and don't affect you eyesight. Here's the article.

Should've Hit Him a Little Harder :-)

Besides Barry Bonds, the professional athlete I despise the most is Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Here, the Phoenix Suns' Raja Bell almost pulls off the taking out of Kobe Bryants vocal cords.......but not quite.

Damn!

Kobe, you are tremendous athlete and gifted on the basketball court, but they don't come any more obnoxious, self centered and holier than thou than you.
For Kobe, it's all about the back of the jersey, not the front of the jersey.

BTW Laker fans.........Steve Nash IS the MVP.

There's my once a month sports post.

I hate LA.

Making A Case For Moussaoui's Life Sentence

There is none, he should have been put to death. Pitting his childhood problems against the nearly 3,000 murdered on 9/11 is pathetic. Peggy Noonan nails it here.


"Well, hey, he didn't actually participate in the 9/11 attacks".

Adolph Hitler did not physically participate in the extermination of millions of Jews and other "undesirables". Osama Bin laden did not actively participate in the 9/11 attacks, using the jury for Moussaoui's logic, there lives would be spared. In reality, would we have spared the life of Hitler and will we spare the life of Bin Laden when we catch him?

No and no.

Today in History 4

On this day in …

* 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island

* 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day turned into a riot when a bomb exploded

* 1904, the United States began building the Panama Canal

* 1916, responding to a demand from President Wilson, Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare, thereby averting a diplomatic break with Washington

* 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta

* 1945, during World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender

* 1946, a two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended, the violence having claimed five lives

* 1961, a group of "Freedom Riders" left Washington for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals

* 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others

* 2001, Pope John Paul II began a visit to Greece, where he issued a sweeping apology for the "sins of action and omission" by Roman Catholics against Orthodox Christians. ALSO: Bonny Lee Bakley, wife of actor Robert Blake, was shot to death as she sat in a car near a restaurant in Los Angeles. (Robert Blake, accused of the killing, was acquitted in a criminal trial but was found liable by a civil jury and ordered to pay damages.)

* 2005, a military judge at Fort Hood, Texas, threw out Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England's guilty plea to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, saying he was not convinced the Army reservist knew her actions were wrong at the time. (England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in
prison.) ALSO: A suicide bombing at a police recruitment center in Irbil, Iraq, killed 60 people. Prosecutors rested their case in the Michael Jackson molestation trial. ABC aired a segment of "Primetime Live" in which former "American Idol" contestant Corey Clark claimed an affair with judge Paula Abdul, who denied the allegation

NO DEATH PENALTY for Moussaoui. Hmmmm....just what the hell does one have to do to receive the death penalty these days?

"America, you lost. I won," Moussaoui said, clapping his hands as he was led out of the court room after the verdict was read.

The thought of US tax dollars being spent to keep this chunk of bat crap alive should fry everyone. Well...........here's to some redneck in jail who made bad decisions in life, will painfully teach "Bat Crap Zach" a thing or three on what it means to p.o. Americans.

Legalization Of Drugs In México...Yep, It's Going To Happen

Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that would legalize the use of nearly every drug and narcotic sold by the same Mexican cartels he's vowed to fight during his five years in office, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The list of illegal drugs approved for personal consumption by Mexico's Congress last week is enough to make one dizzy — or worse.

Cocaine. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana. PCP. Opium. Synthetic opiates. Mescaline. Peyote. Psilocybin mushrooms. Amphetamines. Methamphetamines.

And the per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus.

The LA Times reports it here.

This is an incredibly important story. The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination.

I do not believe this is the way to combat the drug gangs in México, which have become increasingly violent as well as wealthy. You throw in the mix a country that is known for political corruption and violent, wealthy drug warlords, and you've got a whale of a molotov cocktail of a problem on yor hands. This is bad news for the people of México as well as US border towns.

Religion of Peace, Religion of Pieces (as in body), Religion of Revenge, Religion of ___(you fill in the blank)

Just when you think you won't be surpised by the Religion of Peace, we get this, a 16 year old Somali boy is ordered to execute his fathers killer. LGF reports it here.

A Somali teenager publicly hacked his father's killer to death in a punishment sanctioned under Islamic law today.


Hundreds of people gathered in Mogadishu to watch the court-ordered execution. Witnesses said that Mohamed Moalim, 16, approached the condemned man Omar Hussein, who was hooded and tied to a pole, and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest, neck and head.

Hussein had been found guilty of murdering the boy's father, a teacher, in a similar manner two months ago. The execution was the first to be held in the Somalian capital for a decade and was hailed by local Islamic spiritual leaders as a sign that order was being restored.

The execution was carried out as the British Home Office faced mounting pressure over its decision to spare Mustaf Jama, a Somalian convicted of robbery, from deportation three months before his alleged involvement in the shooting of Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, in November last year.

After carrying out the killing, Mohamed Moalim calmly said: "My father’s killer is now gone. I am happy now because I killed the man who killed my father."

Sheikh Ibrahim Mohamed Nur, an imam in the Bermuda district of the capital, said: "Islam is the only solace to the overcome the difficulties we are facing. The justice of Allah has been implemented and there is no better justice than what Allah reccommended.

"The public is aware from today on that killers won’t go unpunished as they did in the past," he said.

A young bystander who gave his name only as Mohamoud said: "You cannot stop violence by another sort of violence."

Graphic photographs of the spectacle were posted on Somali internet sites. It came amid rising fears of an escalation in the tensions between militia loyal to the courts and an alliance of warlords devoted to curbing their influence.

Western intelligence agencies are growing increasingly concerned about the creeping influence of al-Qaeda on lawless Somalia, where Islamic extremists are believed to be harbouring senior figures from the terrorist network.

John Reid, the Defence Secretary, said today that Jama, still wanted over the Beshenivsky murder, had not been deported to Somalia because an immigration panel had considered it it was simply too dangerous.

"When he came out he was considered for deportation but in Somalia the government had fallen apart, it was being controlled by warlords and there was a threat that if he took a plane into the capital, Mogadishu, not only would he have been blown out of the air but the pilot of the plane would have been," Mr Reid said.

"So it was decided on balance they should not deport him in this case."

Mogadishu’s Islamic courts came into existence law in 1994, three years after the mainly Muslim country of 10 million was plunged into anarchy when Mohamed Siad Barre's 22-year presidency was brought to an end after two years of civil war.

In 1995, they ordered the stoning to death of several people convicted of adultery and the amputation of limbs for thieves but Tuesday’s killing was believed to be the first public execution in a decade

Today in History.....May 3

On this day in …

* 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city

* 1921, West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax

* 1944, U.S. wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended

* 1945, during World War II, Japanese forces on Okinawa launched their only major counteroffensive, but failed to break the American lines

* 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable

* 1971, anti-war protesters began four days of demonstrations in Washington aimed at shutting down the nation's capital

* 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections

* 1986, in NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers to destroy it by remote control

* 1996, an international conference in Geneva ended 30 months of arduous negotiations over whether to ban land mines with a weak compromise treaty giving countries nine years to switch to detectable, self-destructive devices

* 2001, the United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in
1947

* 2005, the first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq was sworn in. ALSO: Iran told a United Nations nonproliferation conference it would press on with its uranium-enrichment technology

Great Analogy

From milblogger extraordinaire Op-For :

Consider this your political baseball zen for the day.
People hate the New York Yankees. And not just people who have reason to hate the Yanks, like Red Sox fans.
There's no real reason to hate the Yanks, other than the fact that they are the most successful and dynamic team in Major League history. So we think of reasons to hate them. We call George Steinbrenner a greedy, conniving sneak. We get one cocky remark out of Derek Jeter and all of a sudden the entire team is -and always has been- an arrogant, pushy baseball superpower. Perception becomes reality and so on.
I wonder how many people in the world have a real, geniune reason to hate the United States. And I wonder how much of that anti-American sentiment is just plain old Yankee-envy.

May 1 Protestors - Be Careful of Che Guevara

Did you happen to see many of the protestors carrying photos of Che Guevara? Perhaps the dashing photo of Che is what turns people on to him (it is the most reproduced photo in the world) I can't figure it out.

Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster.

Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads. He founded Cuba's "labor camp" system—the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims.

Che was an enemy of freedom, and yet he has been erected into a symbol of freedom.

I wonder if people who stand up to cheer Che Guevara, will ever give a damn about the oppressed people of Cuba—will ever lift a finger on behalf of the Cuban liberals and dissidents.

Be careful what you wish for, Che Guevara was not a good man.

Some photo's of Che Guevara from the marches on May 1 here at Michelle Malkin.

Today in History.....May 2

On this day in …

* 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later

* 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized

* 1936, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow

* 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi, ym"sh, troops in Italy and parts of Austria

* 1965, the Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic

* 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat

* 1996, the Senate passed, 97-3, an immigration bill to tighten border controls, make it tougher for illegal aliens to get U.S. jobs and curtail legal immigrants' access to social services. (I guess those reportedly million protestors yesterday showed them who is the boss, huh?)

* 2001, President Bush and Republican congressional leaders clinched a budget deal embracing most of the president's tax and spending goals. ALSO: Germany inaugurated its new Chancellery in Berlin amid concerns the building was too grandiose. A landslide destroyed a nine-story apartment building in China, killing at least 79 people

* 2005, Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England, the young woman pictured in some of the most notorious Abu Ghraib pix, pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, to mistreating prisoners. (However, a judge later threw out the plea agreement; England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in prison.)

Eau de Tequila

Believe it or not, they may have a winner here, yes, José Cuervo International teamed up with a company in Switzerland and will soon market a perfume made with 100 percent blue agave. It's part of José Cuervo's push to introduce its new Gran Centenario ultra-premium Tequila.

The company describes the fragrance as "a citrus burst of sparkling lime blended with 100 percent blue agave Gran Centenario Plata Tequila and alluring notes of oakwood."

This sounds a little strange, but if you have ever had a chance to get a whiff of what cooked blue agave smells like, you know it's awesome.......very sweet, like honey. Nothing like waking up in the town of Tequila with the scent of cooked blue agave blowing through town.

BTW, looks like the family will be heading down to Tequila, Jalisco at the end of July and into the first or second week in August, if anyone has a hankering to go there, drop me a line!

Not This Gringo!

DRUDGE REPORT
BOYCOTT THE 'GRINGO'

I have to admit, driving in to work today felt like a holiday, traffic was a bit light. VDH's article "Immigration Checkmate" provides clarity on the immigration issue. How offended do you think all immigrants who went through the immigration process legally will be? How about a refund? That's where I'm going if this goes through.

Something is terribly wrong when thousands of skilled engineers and doctors from Canada, India and Mexico cannot easily obtain legal citizenship, while those who cut ahead by the millions and cross the border illegally almost find it de facto.

and.....

Remember, citizenship is never defined by the applicant, only by the benefactor. In America, it doesn't involve racial or ethnic allegiance. Rather, U.S. citizenship asks immigrants to make linguistic, political and social concessions.

Read it.

Today in History.....May 1

On this day in …

* 1851, the Great Exhibition opens to wide acclaim in the Crystal Palace in London. Inside the Crystal Palace, a giant glass-and-iron hall designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, more than 10,000 exhibitors set up eight miles of tables. Technological wonders from around the world were on display

* 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland

* 1898, Commodore George Dewey gave the command "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley," as an American naval force destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War

* 1921, radio signals guided ships through several approaches to New York Harbor. Originally called "radio fog signals," the beacons, established by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, sent out radio signals in all directions to guide ships

* 1931, New York's 102-story Empire State Building was dedicated

* 1945, a day after Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, committed suicide, it was announced that Admiral Karl Doenitz had succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich

* 1948, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed

* 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers

* 1963, James Whittaker of Redmond, Washington, becomes the first American to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world

* 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. (They divorced in 1973.)

* 1971, Amtrak -- which combined and streamlined the operations of
18 intercity passenger railroads -- went into service

* 1996, Yasser Arafat, ym"sh, received a statesman's welcome at the White House, where he met with President Clinton for 45 minutes, then lashed out at Israel for keeping its borders closed to "Palestinian" workers

* 1997, after 18 years of Conservative rule, British voters give the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, a landslide victory in British parliamentary elections

* 2001, President Bush committed the United States to building a shield against ballistic missile attack. ALSO: FBI Director Louis Freeh announced his retirement. Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four black girls

* 2005, on what was to have been her wedding day, "runaway bride"
Jennifer Wilbanks was led by Albuquerque, N.M., police to an airplane that flew her home to Georgia. ALSO: A car bombing at a Kurdish official's funeral in Tal Afar, Iraq, killed some two dozen people and wounded more than 50. Chinese computer maker Lenovo completed its purchase of IBM's personal computer division.