If no one leaves a comment I'll never know you were here. I do this for my own pleasure and enjoyment. I'll continue to do it regardless. But, if by chance something I post has an effect on you, for good or bad, please don't hesitate to respond.
My little girl, (well not so little now), grown into a beautiful young lady of 24. All grown up and comfortable in her own skin. Having gone thru a rough patch, she now takes for herself a husband who seems as mature and comfortable with who he is as she does.
A wedding took place last Sunday, the 4th of December.
I wish I knew how to take a photo out of my pictures and post it here.
I took pics at the rehersal dinner Friday nite. None posed or anyone asked to smile. Just pictures to remember the event. One of the happy couple. Spontanous, but what a find when I went thru the pics later. Such a look of calm happiness and adoring approval as she looked at him.
A man could count himself lucky if he only received one of those looks in a lifetime.
May he receive many more.
THIS SAYS IT ALL!!!!!!!
This guy should have 5 stars on his shoulder!
"This Letter of Apology" was written by Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman, US Marine Corps, Retired:
For good and ill, the Iraqi prisoner abuse mess will remain an issue. On the one hand, right thinking Americans will abhor the stupidity of the actions while on the other hand, political glee will take control and fashion this minor event into some modern day massacre.
I humbly offer my opinion here:
I am sorry that the last seven times we Americans took up arms and sacrificed the blood of our youth, it was in the defense of Muslims (Bosnia, Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Kuwait, etc.).
I am sorry that no such call for an apology upon the extremists came after 9/11.
I am sorry that all of the murderers on 9/11 were Islamic Arabs.
I am sorry that most Arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships.
I am sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.
I am sorry that their governments breed hate for the US in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled media.
I am sorry that Yassar Arafat was kicked out of every Arab country and high-jacked the Palestinian "cause."
I am sorry that no other Arab country will take in or offer more than a token amount of financial help to those same Palestinians.
I am sorry that the U.S.A. has to step in and be the biggest financial supporter of poverty stricken Arabs while the insanely wealthy Arabs blame the USA for all their problems.
I am sorry that our own left wing, our media, and our own brainwashed masses do not understand any of this (from the misleading vocal elements of our society like radical professors, CNN and the NY TIMES).
I am sorry the United Nations scammed the poor people of Iraq out of the "food for oil" money so they could get rich while the common folk suffered.
I am sorry that some Arab governments pay the families of homicide bombers upon their death.
I am sorry that those same bombers are brainwashed thinking they will receive 72 virgins in "paradise."
I am sorry that the homicide bombers think pregnant women, babies, children, the elderly and other noncombatant civilians are legitimate targets.
I am sorry that our troops die to free more Arabs from the gang rape rooms and the filling of mass graves of dissidents of their own making.
I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group.
I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state.
I am sorry we don't drop a few dozen Daisy cutters on Fallujah.
I am sorry every time terrorists hide they find a convenient "Holy Site."
I am sorry they didn't apologize for driving a jet into the World Trade Center that collapsed and severely damaged Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church - one of our Holy Sites.
I am sorry they didn't apologize for flight 93 and 175, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the murders and beheadings of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, etc....etc!
I am sorry Michael Moore is American; he could feed a medium sized village in Africa.
America will get past this latest absurdity. We will punish those responsible because that is what we do.
We hang out our dirty laundry for the entire world to see. We move on. That's one of the reasons we are hated so much. We don't hide this stuff like all those Arab countries that are now demanding an apology.
Deep down inside, when most Americans saw this reported in the news, we were like - so what? We lost hundreds and made fun of a few prisoners. Sure, it was wrong, sure, it dramatically hurts our cause, but until captured we were trying to kill these same prisoners. Now we're supposed to wring our hands because a few were humiliated?
Our compassion is tempered with the vivid memories of our own people killed, mutilated and burnt amongst a joyous crowd of celebrating Fallujahans.
If you want an apology from this American, you're going to have a long wait! You have a better chance of finding those seventy-two virgins.
Chuck Pitman
Lieutenant General, USMC
I know that I have a hard time holding onto money. I've leapt before I looked many times. But I have done a few things right.
I bought land at $475.00 per acre. Good move. It went up. I refinanced it to pay off a bankruptcy plus money to live on. Bad Move.. The piper and the bank always have to be paid. I bought an investment house at 70% of value. Good move. I refinanced it to have money to play with. Baaaad move. Still have a little equity in it. Good. Have to sell it to get it out, and the money will go toward other debt. Bad! See piper and bank reference above.
But,at least for a while, I can think we have something of our own. Let's forget for the moment about property taxes and the power of government.
But I have a guy I work with. He can be paid on friday and on saturday he needs $5 for smokes and a soft drink, or $20 to take his girl to a fast food place.
Now the government loves people like him. He is dependant. On government, friends or anyone who will loan him money. Government promises to take care of him. Kinda like the ol' Masa' used to take care of his slaves. They promise free bubble up and all the rainbow stew you can eat. MSMedia plays that to the hilt. any little problem and they cry "why didn't the government do more?".
What happened to individual responsibility? Taking care of your own? Preparing for the future?
Putting a little aside for emergencies? Need a car. Don't waste your time saving up the money. We'll loan you all you need at just a modest rate of interest, Buy here, pay here. No big deal, we're not the mafia. Just don't miss a payment.
Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge them the right to finance a car, or anything else, to someone. They are after all fillinga need for a must have product or service to people who refuse to save. There are so many of them.
The Kudzu ate them.
I've no idea if Davy Crockett really said "To Hell with you, I'm going to Texas!" or not but I can certainly understand the feeling.
Do you ever get the feeling, as my dear old mother once said, "the faster I go the behinder I get"?
Sometimes when I slow the thrashing down a little bit, I wonder what in the world I'm doing what I do for. When you try to please everyone, it seems that you please no one. Why don't I try to please myself for a change? Naaaah, that would be too easy. Wouldn't it.
Did you ever see a dog, who has chosen a human to belong to, be whipped, kicked, beaten and abused by that human, crawl on it's belly to that same person, tail between it's hind legs, trembling from fear or anticipation, trying to get a pat on the head, a kind word, or simply an acknowledgement that it exists? Think that doesn't exist on a human level? Or some level, somewhere.
Whence this personal pity party you ask?
Don't ask. You probably have enough of you own problems to worry about. I just sometimes wonder what Texas would be like.
Do they have Kudzu there?
It's finally over!
Another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. Most of the left overs were either sent home with other family members or consumed. Only one spoonfull of dressing left. Still have some sweet potato souffle left, but that's alright. Desert is always welcome.
The children and grandchildren were here, missed Joy and her family. Friends and in-laws also in attendance. Glad to see you come, by the end of the day glad you left. Bonnie was asleep on the couch soon after the dishes were done. Toby kept going to the laundry room door trying to get to the turkey skelton.
If you have never had a wild turkey for thanksgiving dinner, take it from me. Goooood!!
Much to be thankful for this year. We continue to breath in and out. The roof doesn't leak right now. Thanks to Van, Cody and Hope we have a stack of firewood. More down in the woods to drag out and cut up.
Nicole will marry Roy next Sunday. A great guy and pretty fair shot. Killed a nice doe just before night. Would have never thought that my dainty, and fair Nicole would be going deer hunting.
I am so proud of all my children. They have grown up into great individuals, determined to make their own way in the world.
Much to be thankful for, and I am.
Sometimes the evidence of the rightness of ones position can be shown by the number of people who are opposed to it. Sometimes it can be proven by the people who are opposed to it.
WITTNESS;
http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy%2Ddirect/
Saudis and their money taking the lead for Al Qaida in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Military intelligence has detected the flow of Saudi financing and senior operatives to Al Qaida in the Al Anbar province, U.S. officials said. Saudis have financed leading Al Qaida operatives in the Fallujah area. "It seems that senior Al Qaida operatives in Saudi Arabia have moved their operations to Iraq, where they are well-financed by prominent Saudis who don't want to see a democratic Iraq," an official said.
Have we not been told and does not our native intelligence lead us to believe that some of the currant rulers of Saudi Arabia are very opposed to our efforts to establish a government of law in Iraq instead of a government of dictators and thugs.
Do you think that the current rulers who control all of the oil extracted from the sand there want to see a government of by and for the people, which would probably want to get their hands on some of that vast reservoir of money which keeps the kings, princes, and their sycophants in power?
Do you think that the religious mullahs who rule in Iran want to have their people have the freedom of religion and freedom of the individual to exercise his God given rights to self determinism to hold sway in their stead?
Do you think that the liberal left and militant right want a nation of thinking sovereign individuals to wake up and realize that the people we elect to serve us are instead thinking that they are superior to us? That they can determine for us what is best for us, because of course they are the elite and have a responsibility to take care of their slaves so we will continue to send our hard earned money to them?
Do you think the we the sheeple will wake up in time to avoid the slaughter of our individual rights? Will we one day stand shoulder to shoulder and shout a great shout!!
“I am a Sovereign Individual, endowed by my creator with certain unalienable rights.
Which rights belong to us as children of a loving God who desires that we hold on to those rights and resist those who would deny those rights to us.”
Or will we be ensnared by the tangle of petty laws and bureaucratic bumbling and inefficiency like a 100 ft tall pine entirely covered and smothered by Kudzu?
I remember Carl and John and Walter and about seventy others. I didn’t even know the names of some of them. But I’ll never forget them.
Carl and I were in Boot camp together. I have no idea why but about half of the platoon we were in was volunteers for the army so they would just give us the opportunity to go to flight school and fly those relatively new weapons called ‘Copters. Ninety percent of us had never flown anything other than maybe a kite. But, like the fighter pilots of WW2, we sought after the adventure the challenge, the prestige of being able to think of ourselves as Pilots.
Carl was from Colorado, me from Georgia. Others from every state you can name. About the same age, he single, me married. He was stocky, I was thin. We both had some college. I don’t know why exactly he wanted to be a pilot. I certainly didn’t want to walk thru the jungle, but figured flying over it couldn’t be too bad. The Draft was still in effect and if you were drafted you had much less control over where and how you served. Mostly cannon fodder. So were we, but were blind at that age to the fact that we weren’t immortal.
Basic training was a breeze. Hell, we were young and a 10 mile stroll wasn’t too bad and sleeping out doors was an adventure.
Then flight school. Fort Wolters, TX., near Mineral Wells. The farthest I’d ever been from home. They tried their best to weed us out for what ever reason they could find. We were proud, damned if we’d quit.
Flying was the hardest and most exciting thing I’d ever done. We were put under lots of stress. We used to comment about the look in the eyes of those Warrant Office Candidates a few weeks ahead of us. After a couple of months and seeing friends cut from the program for academics or inability to master the skills of flying, or crashes in the mesquite bushes, and one time over the Mineral Wells Holiday Inn swimming pool. We wore the same stare.
Thru Wolters, then Fort Rucker and Hueys. Real Helicopters of the war. On to Fort Hunter to transition into AH1-G Cobras for a fortunate few. Saw my first real life and up close Crash and watched a cobra beat its self to death on the runway.
I got an extension of my date to report to Vietnam so I could be there for the birth of my first child. Left five days later.
When I got to Quang Tri, Carl had already been there about four weeks. We were still FNG’s together. Four or five others from our flight class in the same unit.
Carl was bunked down next to the door; I was about half way down the Quonset hut on the other side of the isle. We immediately struck up our friendship again. We were front seat observers/gunners in the weapons platoon. Hunter Killer Teams. Assasins we were called, then Charley Horse. Eventually older guys rotated back to the states, or their remains were. Never to be forgotten was the sight of a huey tail boom falling off while on final approach still 3 to 4 hundred feet up. Welcome to South East Asia guys. We’ll lift a beer to you in the O club.
John Paul came in a couple of weeks later than Carl and I. A soft bodied pilsbury dough boy. Always smiling. Totally into music. Joni Mitchell, Melody, and others who sang of peace and love.
Carl and I were eventually made AC’s, Aircraft commanders, Back seat Snake drivers.
Lamson 719. You can run us out of Khe Shan, but you can’t stop us from coming back. Why we’ll even give cover to the South Vietnamese as the go into Laos, and then cover them as they retreat back out QL9, shooting at both sides of the road with their m-60’s and 50 cals just in case, I guess, even if there were US troops alongside the road.
Carl and John Paul were part of a team ordered to get to Khe Shan late one afternoon. Funny how along the DMZ the monsoons would hit the mountains for months while the coast and Quang Tri would be dry and Dusty. Then it would be the opposite.
On this day it was cloudy and rainy up to the Khe Shan plateau, but reports said it was clear sunshine if you could just get up to the plateau. They decided to go up a narrow ravine along the north side and hopefully be able to get out at the other end near two Tits.
Mother Nature can be a bitch. She’ll entice you in and then cut you off. The clouds lowered suddenly, nowhere to go but up, into the soup. Easy to lose your orientation if your not instrument qualified.
They found John Paul’s watch. They hit going straight down nose first and all the ammo and fuel landed on them a split second later…………
Two more names on the Wall, two more tangles in the Kudzu of my soul
Here we sit. Insulated by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, we think. And while our servants l elected officials, n Wash-My-back and I'll Wash-your's-by -the-Patomac, assure us that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance, and roundly critize any fool who oh so stupidly might possibly think they may be wrong, Paris Burns.
And all because two teenage punks ran after commiting some teenage punk kind of crime and tried to hide in an electrical sub station, home to whothe heck knows how many kilowatts of electricty and got their stupid asses fried.
Good riddance I say. If you can't read the signs, BEWARE, HIGH VOLTAGE, DANGER, then by all means do us a favor and improve the gene pool by however slight amount the loss of you particular DNA will amount to.
For a few years as a youth, I owned one of the top ten dairy farms in Georgia. I selected breeding stock for favorable traits and rigidly culled those who were inferior. Year by year the physical conformation and milk producing ability increased. Would it be so wrong to expect that as a civilization we might at least encourage the young to give thought to improving the species instead of seeking the lowest common denominator? Would it be so wrong to shun those who did not meet at least the minimum standards for maintaining or improving this civilization?
Or must we forever spiral downward, like light into a black hole?
What has happened to common sense? I know it exists, at least in the red states. But, even when they elect someone who seems to have at least a modicum of sense and a set of at least small cojones, soon they show their real stripes and that their real allegance is to satisfy the status Quo and keep giving us Bread and Circuses.
Someone here who seems to have a great deal of common sense although the solutions are up to us http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm
Read him if you dare, but only if you can stand being made uncomfortable.
Today the tangles are thick and heavy. What will tomorrow bring.
One out of love;
Good Morning Larry,
thanks for making our brains work. what to do? pray for divine intervention. pray hard.
still i get up every day & just do the same stuff the same way.
One out of carefully considered reasoning and attempts to list the problems we face:
Dear Amigo: Good to hear from you..! You are asking a very deep question that deserves very deep answers. Perhaps answers that we may not like to hear about.
I read the article , written with a clever, sharp argument and lots of common sense. I think that we don't have time to stop an analize where are we going and what kind of world are we going to leave to future generations.
The first thing is to admit that our "progress" ( western-judeo-christhian -society) and point of view that set up the rules in global affairs for decades in the world is in crisis. Look around the overwhelming increase of problems locally and globally that we are going to face in the next decade. Some people called macro-problems other called it mega-problems.
Climate changes.
Water resources.
Increases population.
Famines.
Pandemics- (mega epidemies like Avian Flu and AIDS ).
Above all there is indeed a very delicate situation in the northern hemisphere which has all the elements to create a volatile situation that can escape the control of the most sharpest minds that "seems to be in control". The middle east is an explosive cocktail of ethnicity, race , religion and of course oil. As I heard :"the curse of the middle east is to be poor but rich in oil".
In my opinion the invasion of Irak on the fly by the premises supported initially (WMD) was poorly managed.Here idealism , nationalism, fear and a superb war machinery with incredible support of religion and "I Can Do It" attitude created a dead end situation. In that moment going solo was the right thing to do because your are right no matter what the rest of the world was telling not do it. Lamentably mid-term solution doesn' t work and long term effects are stil to surface in this scenario.
The consequences of this action is creating what others countries feared; a boomerang reaction and iraqui civilians joining insurgent attacks. Whereas we don't have any idea of the thousands of casualties of iraqui civilians. Irak indeed was ocuppied but not liberated. Democracy cannot be imposed.
The fact is that the US plays a major role in global affairs that any other country on the world and its consequences cannot be avoid. I am not saying that Saddam was a brutal dictator but now most of the people involved in the freedom operation agreed that this should have been done in a different way. But Irak is an oil rich country and that is politics as usual.
The hegemonic presence of a superpower that give no answers to any international organization and no apologies even in domestic affairs (as the CIA leak fiasco) is creating a bad precedent in future affairs and eroding the international image of this great nation.
As a response to an overwhelming American presence in Iran, Kuwait, Afganistan and a supportive role of Israel they decided to get as much uranium to produce nukes because they think they are next on the list. Why are the Iranians doing it? They feel threaten, and its territory is geopolitical spot is in the middle of future gas and oil pipelines that will run across its territory towards the Mediterranean sea.
But all these major strategies and visionary plans of few people that now are changing their statements into bring democracy to the middle east region can be delay due to natural disasters. About this topic I sent you the -Pentagon Report about US National Security and Weather Changes-.
Besides this serious issues you have to see the great emerging super power of China followed by India. Both countries as they grow they wil demand more raw material and resources. These countries are shaping future economics with the EU , USA and the rest of the world. History teaches that every nation and empire has its cycle.
In an other scale these is also happening in every nation. Each nation is facing challenges that could've been resolved only if we would've done this or that ....These are times of reflection and see who we are and where are we going.
I see this process as a turning point in history and the emerging of a new world order. Where our system believe is going to be tested because is collapsing. Where even religious structures will transform.
I am right because I am christian or because I am buddist or because I am Islamic .Or ultimately because I have the right skin.... The fact is that we , all of us, are in this planet and we need to make an effort to change in a coherent , responsible way to preserve the most valueable treasure: life .
Without life we cannot enjoy love. God may help us opening our hearts and minds to fullfill our mission on earth.
I hope and wish that a shift of conciousness is needed in order to face the challenges to come.A social -cultural change is coming but that lies on a personal intimate decission.
I want to believe in a new society based on merit that respect life and differences.
Of course, my friend these are my thoughts
Happy Halloween !!
Renato
More tangles of kudzu but with a suggestion of a path that may lead to a clearing ahead. Or an ever thicker tangle.
I am a soverign individual. Endowed by my creator with certain unalienable rights. From these proceed natural law.
For those who haven't read it may I suggest http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
Peggy articulates a problem. Is there a solution? Can we make a difference? Do we even want to try. Or, is the problem no problem or overstated? What do you think? Would be glad to get your opinion.
Perhaps we may part the tangles of kudzu and catch a glimpse of blue sky.
Here I am.
It's been a long time.
Partly it's been because I've been feeling too sorry for myself to indulge myself in writing.
Partly because I've wondered if anything I have to say is of any importance to anyone other than myself.
Well, here I am. I don't care if you care.
I care. I'll write about the things I care about. If their of no interest to you all you have to do is hit the back button.
My dear friend Kelly is in the hospital. No idea exactly what happened, only that her room mate found her unconcious in her bed with blood caked on her mouth and almost no pulse. EMT's called, carried her to hospital in Clayton the Lifeflighted to Gainesville. Organs shut down, almost no hope, but, good doctors and nurses plus a will to live brought her back from the edge.
Kelly was the first woman to receive 100% disability for PTSD from serving in Vietnam. No need to relate what happened to her, if she wants you to know she'll tell you. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with anything like that. An already fragile self esteem was permanetly damaged.
I'll see her tomorrow after my group session at the VA.
People can say they care all they want. If their actions don't reflect it they don't give a damn!
All your selfrightous posturing will be revealed by what you do.
Just another shoot on the Kudzu vine of life.
Later.
