Orthodox Blogs

I've linked to a few Orthodox Blogs over in the right hand column, but I want to "highlight" them here.

First, there is "Bigger than a Breadbox", which is Mimi's blog. She has managed to integrate her Orthodoxy into her life rather well. She tells what it is like to be a mother with young children and still follow the precepts of the Orthodox Church.

"Christ is in our Midst" is by HandmaidLeah. It is very reflective. She, like I, has rheumatoid arthritis. We have other things in common, also.

"Fr. John Whiteford" has a "news and comments" kind of blog, but frequently posts hymns of the Church.

In "Glory to God for All Things," Fr. Stephen Freeman, a former Anglican, as are we, posts about various aspects of the Church, us and culture. Very inspiring posts.

My friend Athanasia blogs "Lost in-Elegant Cogitations" which documents her journey to Orthodoxy and then deeper and deeper into it.

"Muttonings" is by my friend Meg. She blogs about nearly everything -

Then there is "My Mountain Home" which is Shelly's site out in Idaho. She's into crafting in a big way! She also has cats and dogs! Lovely!

The last two are my husband's (the Ol' Curmudgeon) and one of my other blogs that I post to more regularly than I do here. "Rumblings of an Ol' Curmudgeon" reflects his outlook on various things. He's been more than bemused that he can and does write "essays" that others are interested in. He's a very politically and socially conservative individual - and tends to rant about that a good bit. He's also into exploring cooking and bread baking. Posts a good bit on the philosophy of food, cooking and how to make some things. "Turtle Rock" is a bunch of different topics, but mostly with what I hope is an Orthodox view.

I hope you will put these in your "watch" lists!

Ethan Laughing

This website doesn't have an "embed" code, so you'll just have to "go there" to view it! If you like to watch and listen to a baby laughing, you'll love this video! This little guy is having such a good time tearing paper!!

GO HERE

Enjoy!

Incredible Beauty

Millions miss Pavarotti. The man was incredible - as this video demonstrates. Yes, he was arrogant, and proud of his voice, but he was also gracious and generous with other artists.

Would The Ol' Curmudgeon Bring Me Home to Mom??

RSB had this on her blog, so I "went there" and took the test.

I'm pretty much what I thought I was! Luckily it worked - actually, MIL and I were friends before Ol' Curmudgeon and I even met!

Your Guy Could Bring You Home

When it comes to meeting the parents, you're cool and calm. In fact, you're so self assured, you may forget to try to impress them. Work that famous charm a little more, and your boyfriend's family will be loving you.

Would He Bring You Home to Mom?

Try it!

Transfiguration Tuna Salad

Last Sunday was the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. It falls in the midst of the Fast for the Dormition of the Theotokos, and is the ONLY day in the fast on which Fish is permitted!

We were blessed, on the Sunday of the Feast of the Transfiguration to have our priest and his Matushka come to our home. Father brought us Holy Communion (long story, short version: we are physically unable to attend Church), then he and Matushka stayed for a repast.

It was HOT - one of those over 100 degrees days. How to serve fish? Tuna salad, of course!

I drained 4 cans of tuna packed in olive oil (I wouldn't TOUCH that dried out stuff, or the tna packed in water - tasteless!) while I blanched and peeled tomatoes. Put the tomatoes back in to the refrigerator to chill down from the blanching.

Then I broke up the tuna until it was in very small pieces and placed it in a bowl. I added finely chopped celery and Vidalia onion (Father is allergic to onions, but can tolerate a small amount - I only used about 1/8th of a very small onion, whereas normally I would use 1/2 onion). I put the tuna into the refrigerator to chill.

When we were ready to eat, Matushka helped me "flower" the tomatoes, place them in individual beds of chopped Romaine, and heaped them with the tuna. I drizzled a small amount of olive oil over, and served with a choice of salad dressings. We had Southern sweeeeeeeet tea to drink. Next time, I'll serve fresh squeezed lemonade, as Father has problems with the oxalates in tea (as many people do).

Later he said it was the "perfect 100 degree day meal." I was so pleased.

Hot Weather -

It is so hot . . .

First son has a heat problem - he had heat prostration several times while in the Army, and now must be very careful to not get overheated. This makes yard care rather difficult in the summer (which, for him, lasts from April through November). So the Ol' Curmudgeon, with his bad ticker, is having to "do" our yard. He broke down and got an electric lawnmower (got a *deal* on Amazon). So it is now early (relatively) on a Sat AM, and he's out there working on the lawn - chopping it back to a reasonable height.

Why the concern about yard? Well, we have a brand new Neighborhood Council. Never had one before, but faced with some of the real estate problems of the current market, it was decided that we needed one. Thank goodness it's NOT a "covenant community" kind of organization, but they are still nosy and want all the yards pruned. Have to invest in some "better living through chemistry" products to get rid of all the poison ivy and poison oak. Need to chop the English Ivy and Virginia Creeper down, too. For the parts in the trees, we just cut the link to the ground, and it will "die up" the tree and eventually fall off.

I'd just as soon dig it all up and put in Astroturf.

Oldest Son will be over shortly to clean the gutters and sweep the roof clear of the accumulated pinestraw and leaves. Shoulda-coulda-woulda done it last winter, and it will have to be done again in December - once all the leaves have fallen.

I'd just as soon replace the entire roof with photovoltaics, but the Ol' Curmudgeon says it would cost more than it would save in the long run, given our ages. O well, my attempts at "greening" are rather desultory. Living "green" for the most part means doing more ourselves - planting, gardening, recycling, etc. We are just too exhausted too much of the time to do that. It also would end up costing us more - example: to heat our house with wood (or at least part of the house), we'd have to have the chimney removed and rebuilt. Don't have the $$$ for THAT little project! We heated our house in SC very efficiently with a stove insert in the chimney with tubes and a fan that circulated the air warmed by the fire. We would go through about 1 cord of wood a year - that little stove was REALLY efficient, and didn't use much wood. I even made "logs" out of old newspaper until DH pointed out it would make the chimney more likely to burn because of the residue, so I quit doing that.

As far as planting goes, I've **never** been a "green" thumb person. My XH used to forbid me going into his garden because all I had to do was touch a plant and it would die! No joke! the Ol' Curmudgeon hasn't been a gardener for the entire 30 years we've been married. He says, "I don't do 'yard.' " Well, now he's talking about putting in a "square-foot" garden, elevated so he can get to it without bending over. I've put in my bid for several tomato plants. There is NOTHING like a fresh tomato, just picked from the vine and warm from the sun. Take your salt shaker with you, go out to the garden, and graze! That's my idea of salad. We'll see if he actually does it.

As far as recycling goes, once again it requires too much of MY energy. And I'm really not convinced of the efficacy of it. Now if I could just find a use for used cat litter ...

Well, time for breakfast. It's the Dormition Fast, so no butter, eggs, meat, etc. Toast, fruit juice and coffee.

The Ol' Curmudgeon has been baking bread, recently, so we'll probably have toasted Pain de Mie for breakfast. He even got a Matfer Bread Pan with Cover 15.75x4">from Amazon so he could make "real" Pain de Mie.


He's turning into quite the baker! I may have to "show him up" when I next have a good day.

Well, we stay indoors and try to keep cool. Speaking of cool, it is getting warmer "out there" and I need to call the Ol' Curmudgeon in. He forgets the time, sometimes, when he's concentrating on getting a task done.

Sumpin' fer Nuttin'

Seems like more people are suing their docs and hospitals these days. I'm certainly getting plenty of work. But the stuff I'm seeing now differs from what I saw 10 years ago. Back then, most of the cases were pretty focused and even if not meritorious, at least I could see the connection between event and outcome and could understand a patient and his family thinking something went wrong.

Now, most of the cases I see not only are unfocused, but are totally unrelated to the events at hand. Many of the cases are nursing home cases that involve people in their 80's and 90's who have dementia of one sort or another, and finally die, frequently of simple old-age-related conditions. But because the person died, the family wants to be paid. Huh? "Aunt Hattie," whose closest relative is "great-nephew Barty" who lives 3 states over and never came to see her, finally dies and "Barty" thinks the nursing home "owes" him? For what?

Or the person who has chronic heart disease has a heart attack 3 days after having a perfectly normal stress test. Well, bad things happen to good people. Modern medicine isn't magic. It can't predict all conditions. And it isn't as if the person didn't know he had a bad ticker.

Some cases I do understand, and end up agreeing that there was a breach of the applicable standards of care. But all these cases I'm seeing these days are very frustrating to me. They are just giving me a bad taste in my mouth. Is this where the country is going? Everyone gets something for nothing?

GAAAAAAHHHHH!

My Mind is Blank . . .

I'm totally without anything to say! Believe it or not!

Here is a pic from the picnic:



Aren't they cute?!

When Personal Horrors Become Family Disasters

Dr. Laura's Blog for 7/20/07 says in part:

... The evolution of talk radio and television news from information to confrontation, as well as the loss of any ethical foundation of print media (newspapers and magazines) and the unleashing of anonymous venom on the internet and blogs, have served not only to destroy reputations with undocumented vicious gossip, but have lowered the level of discourse and civility to an unbelievably dangerous level.
Decent folks who wish to serve their country in the military, politics, social work and other public arenas, become fodder for indecent attacks based upon ideology, with the sole purpose of eliminating their voices and ability to function.
Gone is the civility of negotiations, arbitrations, discussions, and debates.
Soon, only the indecent will reign. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, etc., have only to wait; we are destroying our own society. MORE...

Dr. Laura is right on - all we have to do is wait, and our enemies will take over. We need to reclaim civility in this country. It needs to start with each of us - giving and expecting respect.

An idea of mine is that all schools should require: uniforms, civility. That means, at the least on the high school level, addressing each other as Miss or Mister, shaking hands when greeting each other (no hugging and kissing) and taking turns in arguments / debates. Every school should require at least one course in rhetoric - in which the rules of formal debate are observed and practiced. Public speaking. Both practical applied arithmetic (accounting) and higher math (algebra, geometry, trig, beginning calculus). Phys ed involving heavy, sweat-producing exercise should be required of all students (unless physically unable for acceptable medical reasons). English - both grammar and literature, essay-writing with tough grading standards; History, simple Agronomy, Climatology and Geography - integrated with a beginning understanding of how weather affects agriculture and thus invasion and wars.

Yes, standards must be toughened up and discipline enforced.

The "hows" can come after commitment to the concepts is achieved. At that time, the hows and wherefores can be determined. I do have some ideas about that, too, however, and will discuss them later.

Strawberry Shortcake!

OK, I'm tagging: Suzanne, Denise, Meg and Loch on this one!

Do not cheat on this one, go with the first dessert you picked..

If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose (sorry, you can only pick one!) Trust me....this is very accurate. Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you. After taking this dessert personality test, send on to others, but when you do, be sure to put your choice of dessert in the subject box.

Here are your choices:

1. Angel Food Cake

2. Brownies

3. Lemon Meringue

4. Vanilla Cake With Chocolate Icing

5. Strawberry Short Cake

6. Chocolate on Chocolate

7. Ice Cream

8. Carrot Cake

No, you can't change your mind once you have selected, so think carefully what your choice will be..............

OK - Now that you've made your choice this is what the research says about you...

No Cheating!!

1. ANGEL FOOD CAKE -- Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.

2. BROWNIES -- You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.

3. LEMON MERINGUE -- Smooth, sexy, & articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, but you have many friends.

4. VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING -- Fun-loving, sassy, humorous, not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.

5. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE -- Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people, can be counted on in a pinch and expect the same in return. Intuitively keen. Can be very emotional.

6. CHOCOLATE ON CHOCOLATE -- Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very creative, adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.

7. ICE CREAM -- You like sports, whether it be baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.

8. CARROT CAKE -- You are a very fun loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

LOL! Of course, being the contrary person I am, I actually like all these desserts - I just like dessert! It depends on the day and time as to what I would choose!

The Ol' Curmudgeon's Vacation is Over

Rats! I'm just bereft! Yes, I'll get more of my work done, but I'm very, very lonely. It was sooooo comfortable having him home for 2 weeks.

The most painful loneliness is to be next to your spouse and yet be unable to transmit your inner feelings, even as external messages are transmitted instantaneously from one hemisphere to another. It is painful loneliness for married couples to keep secrets from each other for years. It is painful when dialogue is non-existent between children and parents, between children and teachers, between children and clergy. There is no more cruel loneliness than for a family to sit for hours in front of the television without speaking a word among themselves. We live in a difficult time. Loneliness is at an all-time high. Man is lost. God is silent.

In this loneliness, in this desolation of the cities, in this apparent absence of God, man is called to gather his thoughts, to come to his senses, to put aside his many worldly preoccupations and to retire to his place of prayer ­ speechless, naked, a child ­ so that God may speak to him, clothe him, and endow him with spiritual maturity. Then his loneliness will become the divine loneliness of liberation and he will achieve a sense of fullness. Only such radical loneliness leads to a fundamental understanding and experience of God, destroying every hesitation, doubt and torment.

In this sacred loneliness man finds himself face-to-face with his existential poverty and the fear of death which it provokes. Yet, even here, there is the danger that he may choose procrastination as a solution and, for a time, set his panic-stricken self at ease. He may resume running back and forth endlessly, expanding social activities, and seeking a variety of entertainments ­ a program of extreme busyness. Other people, other things, work and extensive involvements may serve as a cover for his spiritual impoverishment ­ for a time. And he may continue wandering aimlessly, driven by circumstances, tormented, flirting with one thing and another, fighting, being torn ­ and finally annihilated.

A life of work without the liberation of communion with God is slavery. The struggle for excessive wealth is an incurable, tormenting disease. Fear of the future can stimulate greed, miserliness, hoarding. And God can be easily forgotten.

From The Community of the Desert and the Loneliness of the Cities - Monk Moses
Copyright: 1999, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline, MA
Source: taken from the book, Athonite Flowers
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8158.asp

This gives me the direction for dealing with loneliness. Turn my mind toward God and seek communion with Him.

From the Depths of Pain

From the Depths of Pain
6/18/07

Why?
Because
Why me?
Why not you?

It hurts
Many hurt more
Many hurt less
Not you

I used to climb trees
And skin my knees
I used to hike and camp
And chop wood for fires
I used to live in the outdoors
Chase children through the leaves
Play hide and seek
and tag

So you did
But no more

Why?
Because
Why me?
Why not you?

The Curmugeon Blogs On ...

It had to happen - the Ol' Curmudgeon now has his own blog! He'll be posting about 3 times a week.

Check it out!!

http://mtriggs.wordpress.com/

Silly Sayings

For a while I've been collecting sayings - some pithy, some common sense, some Biblical, some humorous, etc.

So I'm going to post some here from time to time.

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~*~ “Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks” ~*~
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~*~ Laugh every day; it's like inner jogging. ~*~
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~*~ The most important things in your home are the people. ~*~
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~*~ Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional. ~*~
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~*~ There is no key to happiness. The door is always open. ~*~
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~*~ Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance ~*~
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~*~ Modern Man is the victim of the very instruments he values most. Every gain in power, every mastery of natural forces, every scientific addition to knowledge, has proved potentially dangerous, because it has not been accompanied by equal gains in self-understanding and self-discipline. ~*~
~*~ Lewis Mumford ~*~
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~*~ Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them. ~*~
~*~ Lewis Mumford ~*~
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~*~ Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf. ~*~
~*~ Lewis Mumford ~*~
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~*~ A grudge is a heavy thing to carry. ~*~
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~*~ Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing. ~*~
~*~ Wernher von Braun ~*~
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~*~ He who dies with the most toys is still dead. ~*~
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~*~ We do not remember days, but moments. Life moves too fast, so enjoy your precious moments. ~*~
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~*~ Nothing is real to you until you experience it; otherwise it's just hearsay. ~*~
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~*~ It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done. ~*~
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~*~ Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and dreams you're seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck. ~*~
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~*~ Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. ~*~
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~*~ Save the whales. Collect the whole set. ~*~
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~*~ A day without sunshine is like...night. ~*~
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Urban Legends About the Iraq War

Urban Legends About the Iraq War

In recent weeks, by claiming that President Bush lied us into the Iraq war, many on the Left have restarted their efforts to rewrite history. But this revisionism isn’t new. In the midst of the 2004 Presidential election, the cries were just as loud. The Bush Administration is finally pushing back, and many conservative bloggers are asking their readers to Google Clinton, Iraq, 1998 for all the information they need. Last fall, The American Enterprise debunked many of these same urban legends. Click here to purchase this issue.


Urban Legends About the Iraq War

Urban Legend: The Bush Administration in general, and the Vice President and his office in particular, pressured the Central Intelligence Agency to exaggerate evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Reality: Here is the verdict of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s bipartisan Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq: “The Committee did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with administration policy, or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence, or pressure analysts to do so. When asked whether analysts were pressured in any way to alter their assessments or make their judgments conform with administration policies on Iraq’s WMD programs, not a single analyst answered ‘yes.’”

Urban Legend: The President and his administration intentionally misled the country into war with Iraq—and the “16 words” that appeared in the 2003 State of the Union are the best proof of it. In the words of Senator Ted Kennedy, “The gross abuse of intelligence was on full display in the President’s State of the Union…when he spoke the now infamous 16 words: ‘The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.’… As we all now know, that allegation was false….”

Reality: On July 14, 2004—after a nearly half-year investigation—a special panel reported to the British Parliament that British intelligence had indeed concluded that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Africa. The Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, chaired by Lord Butler, summarized: “It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials visited Niger in 1999. The British government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium…. The statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa’ was well-founded.”

In the U.S., the Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq revealed that the CIA considered it important that the Nigerian officials admitted that the Iraqi delegation had traveled there in 1999, and that the Nigerian Prime Minister believed the Iraqis were interested in purchasing uranium, because this provided some confirmation of foreign government service reporting.” The Select Committee on Intelligence also noted that the CIA reviewed and cleared the President’s State of the Union address....

Urban Legend: Helping democracy take root in Iraq was a postwar rationalization by the Bush administration; it was an argument that was not made prior to going to war. In the words of a November 13, 2003 New York Times editorial, “The White House recently began shifting its case for the Iraq war from the embarrassing unconventional weapons issue to the lofty vision of creating an exemplary democracy in Iraq.”

Reality: The President argued the importance of democracy taking root in Iraq before the war began. A February 27, 2003 New York Times editorial shatters the very myth the paper was perpetrating just nine months later: “President Bush sketched an expansive vision last night [in an American Enterprise Institute speech] of what he expects to accomplish by a war in Iraq. Instead of focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, or reducing the threat of terror to the United States, Mr. Bush talked about establishing a ‘free and peaceful Iraq’ that would serve as a ‘dramatic and inspiring example’ to the entire Arab and Muslim world, provide a stabilizing influence in the Middle East, and even help end the Arab-Israeli conflict. The idea of turning Iraq into a model democracy in the Arab world is one some members of the administration have been discussing for a long time.” President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union made the same case….

Urban Legend: Saddam Hussein posed no threat. In the words of former Senator Max Cleland, “Iraq was no threat. We now know that. There are no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear weapons programs, no ties to al-Qaeda. We now know that.”

Reality: Upon his return from Iraq, weapons inspector David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, said in Senate testimony: “I think the world is far safer with the disappearance and the removal of Saddam Hussein…. I actually think this may be one of those cases where it was even more dangerous than we thought…. After 1998, it became a regime that was totally corrupt…. And in a world where we know others are seeking WMD, the likelihood at some point in the future of a seller and a buyer meeting up would have made that a far more dangerous country.”

Dr. Kay’s report noted that, “We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002.” He concluded, “Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to continue to acquire weapons of mass destruction…. Saddam intended to resume these programs whenever the external restrictions were removed. Several of these officials acknowledge receiving inquiries since 2000 from Saddam or his sons about how long it would take to restart CW [chemical weapons] production.”

Urban Legend: There were no links between al-Qaeda and Iraq.

Reality: The 9/11 Commission Report indicates that a senior Iraqi intelligence officer met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan in late 1994 or early 1995 and that contacts continued after bin Laden relocated in Afghanistan. Iraq harbored senior members of a terrorist network led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda associate. CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (in a 10/7/02 letter), “We have solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda going back a decade.” Senator Hillary Clinton stated on October 10, 2002 that Saddam “has given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al-Qaeda members.” The Clinton administration tied Iraq to al-Qaeda back in 1998, arguing that Saddam Hussein had provided technical assistance in the construction of an al-Qaeda chemical plant in Sudan….

Urban Legend: President Bush and his administration wrongly tried to link Iraq and Saddam Hussein to the September 11 attacks. “President Bush should apologize to the American people” for this “plainly dishonest” effort, insists a New York Times editorial.

Reality: Neither President Bush nor any member of his foreign policy team has ever said Iraq was linked to the attacks of September 11. On September 17, 2003, for example, in response to a question from a reporter, President Bush said: “No, we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11.”

Urban Legend: President Bush has shown an “arrogant disrespect” for the United Nations on Iraq, according to Senator Ted Kennedy.

Reality: The administration devoted enormous time and energy to pass five separate U.N. Security Council Resolutions on Iraq, each by unanimous vote.... President Bush personally addressed the U.N. General Assembly in September 2002. The administration supported the work of Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy in Iraq, and a continued U.N. role in Iraq’s political transition.

Urban Legend: The President launched a “unilateral attack on Iraq,” to use the words of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.

Reality: The coalition that liberated Iraq ranks among the largest war coalitions ever assembled. President Bush in his 2004 State of the Union address: “Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq…. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country.”

Urban Legend: Flights out of the country for members of the bin Laden family were allowed before national airspace reopened on September 13, 2001; there was political intervention to facilitate the departure of the bin Laden family from America; and the FBI did not properly screen them before their departure.

Reality: Here are excerpts from The 9/11 Commission Report: “First, we found no evidence that any flights of Saudi nationals, domestic or international, took place before the reopening of national airspace on the morning of September 13, 2001. To the contrary, every flight we have identified occurred after national airspace reopened.

Second, we found no evidence of political intervention. We found no evidence that anyone at the White House above the level of Richard Clarke participated in a decision on the departure of Saudi nationals....

Third, we believe that the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights.... The FBI interviewed all persons of interest on these flights prior to their departures. They concluded that none of the passengers was connected to the 9/11 attacks and have since found no evidence to change that conclusion. Our own independent review of the Saudi nationals involved confirms that no one with known links to terrorism departed on these flights.”

Published in The Year the Democratic Party Sailed to New England October-November 2004

Posted: November 16, 2005
This information was found online at:
http://www.theamericanenterprise.org/issues/articleID.18837/article_detail.asp

= = = = =

I'm so tired of all the myths (aka lies) posted by the miserable liberals. It's abot time someone dispelled some of them!!

In the Eye of the Beholder

Eye of the Beholder

by Victor Davis Hanson.

The American Enterprise Online

War torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million. The former is a violent and impoverished landscape, the latter said to be paradise on Earth. But how you envision either place to some degree depends on the eye of the beholder and is predicated on what the daily media appear to make of each.

As a fifth generation Californian, I deeply love this state, but still imagine what the reaction would be if the world awoke each morning to be told that once again there were six more murders, 27 rapes, 38 arsons, 180 robberies, and 360 instances of assault in California yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day. I wonder if the headlines would scream about "Nearly 200 poor Californians butchered again this month!"

How about a monthly media dose of "600 women raped in February alone!" Or try, "Over 600 violent robberies and assaults in March, with no end in sight!" Those do not even make up all of the state's yearly 200,000 violent acts that law enforcement knows about.

Iraq's judicial system seems a mess. On the eve of the war, Saddam let out 100,000 inmates from his vast prison archipelago. He himself sat in the dock months after his trial began. But imagine an Iraq with a penal system like California's with 170,000 criminals - an inmate population larger than those of Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Singapore combined. Just to house such a shadow population costs our state nearly $7 billion a year or about the same price of keeping 40,000 Army personnel per year in Iraq. What would be the image of our Golden State if we were reminded each morning, "Another $20 million spent today on housing our criminals"?

Some of California's most recent prison scandals would be easy to sensationalize: "Guards watch as inmates are raped!" Or "Correction officer accused of having sex with under-aged detainee!" And apropos of Saddam's sluggish trial, remember that our home state multiple murderer, Tookie Williams, was finally executed in December 2005 - TWENTY SIX years after he was originally sentenced.

Much is made of the inability to patrol Iraq's borders with Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey. But California has only a single border with a foreign nation, not six. Yet over 3 million foreigners who sneaked in illegally now live in our state. Worse, there are about 15,000 convicted alien felons incarcerated in our penal system, costing about $500 million a year. Imagine the potential tabloid headlines: "Illegal aliens in state comprise population larger than San Francisco!" or "Drugs, criminals, and smugglers given free pass into California!"

Every year, over 4,000 Californians die in car crashes - more than the number of Americans lost so far in the years of combat operations in Iraq. In some sense, then, our badly maintained roads, and often poorly trained and sometimes intoxicated drivers, are even more lethal than IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices.) Perhaps tomorrow's headline might scream out at us: "300 Californians to perish this month on state highways! Hundreds more will be maimed and crippled!"

In 2001, California had 32 days of power outages, despite paying nearly the highest rates for electricity in the United States. Before complaining about the smoke in Baghdad rising from private generators, think back to the run on generators in California when they were contemplated as a future part of every household's line of defense.

We're told that Iraq's finances are a mess. Yet until recently, so were California's. Two years ago, Governor Schwarzenegger inherited a $38 billion annual budget shortfall. That could have made for strong morning newscast teasers: "Another $100 million borrowed today - $3 billion more in red ink to pile up by month's end!"

So is California comparable to Iraq? Hardly. Yet it could easily be sketched by a reporter intent on doing so as a bankrupt, crime-ridden area with murderous highways, tens of thousands of inmates, with wide-open borders.

I myself recently returned home to California, without incident, from a visit to Iraq's notorious Sunni Triangle. While I was gone, a drug-addicted criminal with a long list of convictions broke into our kitchen at 4 a.m. Was surprised by my wife and daughter, and fled with our credit cards, cash, keys, and cell phones. Sometimes I wonder who really was safer that week.

(c)2006 Victor Davis Hanson

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Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a Professor Emeritus at California University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

He was a full-time farmer before joining California State University, Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California
(1992_93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University
(1991_92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism
(2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002).

He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002_3).

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This guy is right on.

Saints Alive!

Cribbed this from Denise!

1. Name four of your favourite Saints.
2. Name one who was well on the way to sanctity, is widely venerated already and very likely to be made a Saint in due course.
3. Name one who isn't yet publicly declared a saint but probably should be made a Saint.

1 {{WHINE!!}} Only 4?!? Can't I list more?!?

A The Theotokos

B St. Elizabeth, Mother of the Forerunner

C St. Macrina the elder

D St. Theodore the Recruit

2 Father Seraphim Rose - but I suppose everyone thinks he is a soon-to-be-saint!

3 Archbishop Alexander (Mileant)

I Be a Literature Nerd!

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Drama Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

FT. DIX TERRORISTS WERE HERE ILLEGALLY. IMAGINE THAT!

On May 10, 2007, Neal Boortz printed the following article in his Neal's Nuze. I refer you to the webpage, but you'll have to scroll down to get to it. Each article isn't individually linked.

How do you feel about border control now? It turns out that the three of the Muslims arrested in connection with the terrorist plot to attack Fort Dix are, in fact, illegal aliens. There is no documentation that they came into this country, which means that they were smuggled across the border. And not only that, but they have lived in the United States and enjoyed the benefits of being U.S. citizens (even though they are not) for 23 years, since 1984. Wow, maybe I had hair then!

Border control is vitally important to the safety and integrity of this country. I don't care whose feelings are getting hurt by preventing them from entering illegally. If you can't do it legally, if you can't follow the proper laws of entry, then stay where you are. We don't want you here. And even more so, I don't want terrorists in my country. And guess what folks, they didn't come from the Canadian border. They came from Mexico, as we know because they entered the U.S. near Brownsville, TX. More...

Just love Boortz...

82 Year Old Ex-Beauty Queen Thwarts Thieves!!

WAYNESBURG, Ky. — Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder.

Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment. MORE...

Well good for her!! We need more people like this!! Yeaaa Venus Ramey!!