Category Archives: Passing Parade

Attack of the Leftists

Posted on by
220px-NormanSchwarzkopf

General Norman Schwartzkopf

So many things have appeared today. Hobby Lobby told Obama to pound sand on their contraception mandate. General Norman Schwarzkopf died (how did he get to be 78!?). Hypocrite Diane Feinstein, who possessed a concealed carry permit…lapsed she now says, wants to ban semi-automatic weapons and place the existing ones under the 1934 NFA act and require them and their owners to be registered—plus pay a federal tax. Finally, a story appears on the CNBC website that suggests that millionaires on death’s door be given a push to spare their heirs the higher inheritance tax that arrives next week with the new year.

Gah!

The leftists plan at nibbling away our rights under the Constitution is working. With Justice Roberts betrayal last summer on Obamacare, we no longer have a conservative majority on the Court. If this latest gun-grabbing scheme fails in the House, Obama will use his regulatory “powers” to enforce some provisions of Feinstein’s plan.

Of course, the leftists know that gun control isn’t about curbing crime. Chicago has had the nation’s strongest gun control laws for decades. As this story shows, gun control doesn’t stop children from being killed.

446 school age children shot in Chicago so far this year with strongest gun laws in country – media silent

The cesspool known as Chicago probably has the toughest gun laws in the country, yet despite all the shootings, murders, and bloodshed, you never hear a peep about this from the corrupt state run media. In Chicago, there have been 446 school age children shot in leftist utopia run by Rahm Emanuel and that produced Obama, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, etc. 62 school aged children have actually been killed by crazed nuts in Chicago so far this year with almost two weeks to go. So why isn’t this news worthy? Is it because it would embarrass those anti second amendment nuts who brag about Chicago’s tough gun laws? Is it because most of the kids who were shot and killed were minorities? Or is it because the corrupt media doesn’t want to show Chicago in a bad light? Amazingly, no Obama crocodile tears either.

For those of you too dense to get the point of this post, it’s to make the point about gun laws. No matter how tough the gun laws are, the crazed, nut jobs will find a way to get them and if they so chose, use them. No draconian law can stop this, no matter how well intentioned the law is, or if it’s just about leftists grabbing power from citizens and taking away their constitutional rights.

If any of Feinstein’s proposal is passed, or if Obama ignores Congress again and issues another edict, I expect many across the country will follow Hobby Lobby’s lead and just ignore the law.  I wonder how many FFLs will have unexpected fires in their 4473 archives?

We know Obama, now that he’s won his second term, has no restraints. He’s told us so. More and more, I wonder if the country can survive these next few years without another civil war.

Facebook

Passages

Posted on by

Hollywood lost two veteran actors over the Christmas weekend—Jack Klugman

Jack Klugman

Jack Klugman

and Charles Durning. Klugman is best known for his characters as Oscar in the Odd Couple and for the TV Show Quincy, ME. Charles Durning was a veteran character actor with a long resume on the screen and TV.

Both Klugman and Durning served in the Army during WW II. Durning, however was a combat veteran and landed in Normandy in a glider.

Charles Durning

Charles Durning

Durning served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Drafted at age 21, he was first assigned as a rifleman with the 398th Infantry Regiment, and later served overseas with the 3rd Army Support troops and the 386th Anti-aircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion. For his valor and the wounds he received during the war, Durning was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Heart medals.[9] Additional awards include the World War II Victory Medal.[10]

Durning participated in the Normandy Invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and was among the first troops to land at Omaha Beach. In Episode S03E09 of the program Dinner for Five, which also included Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise and Charles Nelson Reilly, Reynolds spoke about Durning’s service career for him, as Durning did not like to talk about it much. Reynolds revealed that Durning was in a group of gliders who overshot their landing zone and that he had to fight alone all the way back to the beach. Reynolds also stated that his own father was there fighting about 15 yards away and that Durning was probably the most decorated veteran (then) still alive from World War II.[11] Some sources state that he was with the 1st Infantry Division at the time,[12] but it is unclear if he served as a rifleman or as a member of one of the division’s artillery battalions.

Durning was wounded by a German “S” Mine on June 15, 1944 at Les Mare des Mares, France. He was transported to the 24th Evacuation Hospital. By June 17 he was back in England at the 217th General Hospital. Although severely wounded by shrapnel in the left and right thighs, the right hand, the frontal region of the head, and the anterior left chest wall, Durning recovered quickly and was determined to be fit for duty on December 6, 1944. He arrived back at the front in time to take part in the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive through the Ardennes Forest of Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944.[13][14]

After being wounded again, this time in the chest, Durning was returned to the United States. He remained in Army hospitals to receive treatment for wounds until being discharged with the rank of Private First Class on January 30, 1946. — Wiki

Although Klugman was in the Army as well, there is no mention of combat experience in the short time I researched his history. Durning earned our respect not only for his experiences in WW II but also for his acting career.

For me, his most memorable performance was his portrayal of a Marine Medal of Honor recipient on the NCIS TV show. Durning arrives at NCIS to confess the murder of a fellow Marine during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a Marine veteran in “Call of Silence,” an episode of the television series NCIS, first broadcast November 23, 2004. Drawing on his first-hand knowledge of the lingering effects of battle-induced stress, Durning’s character turns himself in to authorities, insisting that he must be prosecuted for having murdered his buddy during ferocious combat on Iwo Jima six decades earlier.[15] The real truth of the incident only becomes known for certain when the guilt-stricken veteran goes through a cathartic reliving of the battlefield events. — Wiki

We’re now into the second decade of the Twenty-first Century. We’re losing more of our WW II, Korea and Vietnam veterans every day. Let’s honor them while they are still with us.

Facebook

Milestones in History

Posted on by

A couple of political icons died this week. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) died on Monday of this week. Judge Robert Bork died early yesterday, Wednesday.

Daniel Inouye has held elected office from Hawaii since the islands became a state in 1959.

As a teenager, Daniel Inouye saw the Japanese bombers over Pearl Harbor and was one of the Japanese-Americans who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated Army unit in history.

He lost an arm in combat in Italy in April 1945, less than a month before Germany surrendered, and in the army hospital met Bob Dole, whose arm was shattered the same month.

Inouye was elected Hawaii’s first congressman when it was admitted to the Union in 1959, becoming the first Japanese-American member of Congress. He won his Senate seat in 1962 and died 17 days short of serving 50 years. — Washington Examiner.

Judge Robert Bork gained notoriety during his political rape when he was nominated to the US Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1987.

President Ronald Regan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. In a 58-to-42 vote, the Senate rejected his nomination — it was by one of the widest margins in U.S. history. 

Republicans have long said his defeat was a completely partisan move and have said Bork was one of the greatest conservative figures in history. — Fox News.

While Inouye and Bork came from opposite ends of the political spectrum, no one can deny their personal integrity—a quality not found in most politicians today…especially those who migrate to Washington, DC.

***

The dems and other leftists are screaming for a return of the “Assault” weapons ban and to “large capacity clips” as well. In other words, a return to the bad old days of Clinton when insanity led the political mainstream and we almost lost our 2nd Amendment rights. There has been a lot of progress in the last decade affirming those rights but the Supreme Court left gaping holes in it by declaring “reasonable” regulations were acceptable…and never defined what “acceptable” meant.

It should be noted that Connecticut has an existing Assault weapons ban in force. One more stringent than the Clinton-era ban. The Bushmaster rifle found at the Newtown school was purchased legally and was a legal configuration under that Connecticut law.

The left wants us to emulate the UK and Australia. First by banning semi-automatic weapons. The definition includes the large majority of handguns as well as self-loading rifles and shotguns and later, perhaps banning almost all firearms as has happened in the UK.

One example of semi-automatic gun control is Australia. Their plan included a buy-back program as well as banning the ownership and possession of the offending weapons. While a buy-back program will remove some weapons from civilian hands, an outright banning on owning and the possessing existing semi-automatic weapons would NOT go well with the vast majority of Americans.  Molon Labe is a concept not foreign to the gun-owning segment of Americans.

More likely we’ll see a permanent return of a Clinton-era ban. One without an expiration date. The libs learned that lesson well. And with the ban will come more growth of militarized police and further entrenchment of the police state.

If you’ve ever thought of owning a weapon. Buy it now. Buy and stockpile ammo now. I have no confidence the ‘Pubs in Washington will fight this new gun ban law. The ‘Pub establishment has proven they are no better than the dems.

Facebook

Another print MSM outlet heading towards extinction

Posted on by

Two items caught my eye this morning. First, Newsweek announced they are going all digital, a new digital newsletter called Newsweek Global. Newsweek is throwing in the towel and is being absorbed into The Daily Beast—a liberal internet outlet. The last print edition of Newsweek will be the December 31, 2012, issue.

Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, will be a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context. Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on The Daily Beast. — The Daily Beast.

When I was in college living in a dorm, we were provided with discount subscriptions to a number of news magazines from Time, U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and others at about 1/3rd of the usual rate. I subscribed to Time for several years. At that time, in the mid-1960s, network news on the TV was only 15 minutes in the evening, usually from 6:00pm to 6:15pm. The news expanded to a half-hour a few years later as the Vietnam war grew. Most of our national, political and world news came from those magazines.

Even at that time, we could see the political bias. Time Magazine was more conservative, the others more “liberal.” Over the years, Time became just another liberal media outlet.

I’ve called the print media, the dinosaur media for a number of reasons. First, they’ve failed to adapt to changing technology. Second, they’ve failed to adapt to the changing political environment—rather they acquired the idea they are the leaders of social and political evolution. Unfortunately for them, evolution takes its own path regardless of the intentions of the MSM.

The MSM has refused to acknowledge that their failure is not solely due to technology. Their failure is their refusal to acknowledge the changing political and social environment. The current generation is NOT that of the ’60s. The current generation is the child and the grandchild of the ’60s and they’ve seen, personally, all the failings of the ’60s generation—including their slavish devotion to Marxism and Socialism.  It is easy for the child to see the failures of the parent.

This new transition by Newsweek to an all-digital mode will end in failure as well. It retains the subscription model and will retain its leftist bias…two of the failings that killed the print version. Failure to learn and adapt is a powerful contributor to evolutionary extinction. It’s the content and management, not solely the media, that is leading Newsweek to join other print news outlets that have closed over the last decade.

The second example is from the UK. The Guardian and the Observer newspapers are about to abandon their print media outlets as well.

Guardian ‘seriously discussing’ end to print edition

The publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers is close to axing the print editions of the newspapers, despite the hopes of its editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger to keep them running for several years.

The Guardian and Observer publisher has spent the last few years battling to stem losses of £44m a year. However, it has been slow to make savings and any money that it has clawed back has been spent on expanding its US and online operations.

The drivers toward the extinction of the print paper in the UK includes those of the US media with some additions.  The unions and Britain’s welfare state has sucked the profits from the papers.  The move towards a digital-only media is an attempt to shed significant portions of the paper’s expensive union workforce. Whether that move will be sufficient is unknown at this time. The unions are more powerful in the UK than in the US and in many areas practically own the government.

The idea of content subscription for information is evolving. Some, like Rush Limbaugh’s newsletter, are successful because of their unique content. Limbaugh announced recently that his newsletter will be available digitally at a reduced price. I’m unsure if there will be reduced content. We will know when we compare the printed version next to the digital version.  I would suspect they will be the same. The difference in price will be due to the cost difference between the printed version and the digital version.

However, for most information, people do not need subscription to acquire information. Limbaugh and others like him, survive due to their unique content that is unavailable elsewhere. For the MSM, it’s different. For every subscription MSM news-outlet, there are ten or more free news-outlets with the same information.

I expect within a few years, Newsweek will join the other dinosaur media—like the Rocky Mountain News, et. al., into extinction.

Facebook

Tuesday’s Notes

Posted on by

There have been a number of items appearing of interest today. Some are significant like the RNC attempting to establish a dictatorship within the party. Some, like the passing of Neil Armstrong, are life events of the changing times.

The RNC, as usual, stumbles along. They continue to associate Ron Paul with the Tea Party when he is not. Ron Paul and the Tea Party agree on a number of items but Ron Paul marches to his own radical drummer while the Tea Party follows another. Paul’s statement about Bin Ladin is a prime example of those differences. Paul fails to understand that the border for national security lies on their shores, not ours.

***

I received an e-mail today from city hall. It announced that the flags around town would be at half-mast in memory of Neil Armstrong. I watched Neil Armstron step on the moon in 1969 when I was assigned to Keesler AFB. I had just arrived a few days before to begin training. I and some friends were watching the landing in the BOQ dayroom.  It was all in black and white and somewhat grainy. The audio was clear fortunately. The transmission from the moon didn’t have the band-width for color.  All the color shots and videos were on film and brought back to be developed later.

I remember some commentary concerning the fate of the two in the lander if it could not take off. Whether they had “suicide pills.” The supporting technology, while extensively tested, was not really stable. So much of today’s advances were developed during that period as by-products of NASA and the space program.

Neil Armstrong refused to benefit from his feat. For a time he would give away his autograph. Then he discovered people were selling them for outrageous sums. He stopped autographing after that. He didn’t mind giving his signature but he didn’t want others to profit from that gift.

Goodbye, Neil. You’ll be remembered. You’ve left your legacy on Mare Tranquillitatis, beyond the reach of petty politicians here on Earth.

***

For those of you who’ve read my earlier posts about Ron Paul know I’m no fan.  However, he and the Tea party won a common victory yesterday against the ‘Pub establishment.

The establishment ‘Pubs were pressing a rule change that would disenfranchise any delegate who did not swear fealty to the establishment. The rule would force the state organizations to be puppets of the RNC.  When the proposed rule was published, a Hue ‘n Cry arose and the rule was amended to remove that tyrannical provision.

Republicans reach rules change deal to avert floor fight with Texans, Ron Paul backers

Republican leaders moved Monday to quell an uprising by Texans and Ron Paul supporters that threatened to steal the spotlight from GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and expose rifts in the party right as its nominating convention got under way.

Under a compromise reached late Monday, Romney supporters and GOP leaders agreed to back down from a proposed rule change that effectively would have allowed presidential nominees to choose what delegates represent them at national conventions.

The proposed change was aimed at muting the power of insurgent candidates such as Tea Party favorite Ron Paul but prompted an uproar from Texas Republicans, who select their delegates through successive votes in conventions at precincts, then districts and finally statewide.

…

“We believe in Texas as a principle that no presidential candidate nor the RNC should be able to tell Texas who can or cannot be a delegate to the national convention,” Davis said.

“This isn’t Reagan versus Ford, Goldwater versus Rockefeller,” Davis added. “This is George Washington versus King George.”

And Texas Republican Vice Chairwoman Melinda Fredricks had flatly told RNC rules committee members Sunday night that the Lone Star State would stand its ground.

“The Texas delegation considers the new rule . . . an unacceptable infringement on our right to freely choose our delegates to the national convention,” she said in an e-mail to the committee members. “We realize not every state selects its delegates in the same manner we do, and perhaps you find it hard to understand what has us so worked up. Frankly, we find it hard to understand how your delegations would be willing to give away their rights.”

While this rule change was aimed at Ron Paul and his delegates, it also affected those delegates for Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and others. The delegates who supported the Tea Party would be as affected as those for Ron Paul.

I’ll give Paul credit for this. His organization lead the fight.

***

I found the following article during my daily scan of internet news.  The Washington Times is a good conservative source of information. However…this article doesn’t ring true.  The Tea Party, of all organizations, studies the Constitution more than the rank and file of the ‘Pubs.

Be that as it may, here is that article. It does bring forth questions. Just how knowledgeable are we?

Embracers of the Constitution are baffled by what’s really in it

Voters see rights they don’t have

By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times, Monday, August 27, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. — They say they stand for a return to constitutional principles, but it turns out tea party supporters are just as confused as to what rights and powers are in the federal government’s founding document, according to the latest The Washington Times/JZ Analytics poll.

Most Americans say they’ve read all or most of the Constitution, but they tend to see more rights than the document actually guarantees, and struggle over what the Constitution says about the powers and structure of government itself.

For example, 92 percent of those surveyed said the Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial, but only 40 percent knew that it grants Congress the power to coin money, and just 53 percent said it establishes Congress‘ power to levy an income tax.

And voters thought they had protections that they don’t have — at least not in the Constitution: 71 percent said the it protected the right to a secret ballot and 58 percent said it guarantees a right to education, though neither appears in the document.

“What most studies find is that many people think they know a great deal about the Constitution, but when asked specific questions about our founding document as a country they really miss the mark,” said Doug Smith, executive director at the Center for the Constitution, based at James Madison’s Montpelier home.

…

But The Times/JZ Analytics poll found self-identified Republicans and self-identified tea party sympathizers often shared the same views as other voters. For example, 66 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of tea party supporters said the Constitution guarantees a right to privacy, which was almost identical to the 68 percent of all voters who said the same thing.

The same held true on Congress‘ power to coin money and the right to a secret ballot.

Republicans, though, were far less likely to say the Constitution guarantees the right to education — which it does not — than the general public. While 71 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents said education was in the Constitution, only 47 percent of Republicans did.

…

He also said civics education has deteriorated, adding that he learned about the Constitution in ninth grade, but his daughter, who just completed that grade, did not.

The Washington Times article continues to a second page. I urge you to read the entire article. It contains some interesting information and implies that the lack of civics education has been driven by the federal government. I can’t speak to that but like the writer above, I was taught the federal and my state constitution as a requirement for graduation from high school.  My daughter, who graduated from a private Christian school, did not. Perhaps we should make this a goal of our new ‘Pub administration?

Facebook

I’m Dated

Posted on by
For years, I’ve had a standard response when asked my name. I’m known by my middle name.  All my official documentation, however, starts with my first name followed by my middle initial.  Why?  My first name is the same as my father’s.  There are many, many people in the world in the same situation.

No big deal.

My first and last names are the same as a famous, or so I thought, golfer. My response when asked why I’m known by my middle name is, “Well, there are too many Tom Watsons running around.” That is usually followed by a short pause and then a chuckle.

I started using this response some years, well, decades ago, when I bought some gasoline using my credit card.  That card just contained my first and last names.  When he looked at my card, the attendant started asking me questions about the Master’s Golf tournament.  He thought I was the golfer ignoring the fact that we look nothing alike.  I’m much bigger than Tom the Golfer.

No longer.  Last week I started physical therapy to help relieve pain from tendinitis in my knee and shoulder. My PT is a thirty-something woman.  She reads my chart and calls me, “Thomas.” I respond with my standard response.

**Blink, blink **

No reaction. We continue with the session.  The next session we run through some exercises and she tells me she didn’t understand my name response the previous session until she mentioned it to her husband. She and her husband are outdoors people—hiking, sky-diving but apparently, no golfing.

We continue with the session until it’s time for some ultra-sound treatments. An early twenty-something woman arrives with the equipment, reads my chart and calls me, “Thomas.”  I reply with my standard response.

**Blink, blink**

“Who?” she asks.

“You know, Tom Watson…the golfer,” I reply.

“Never heard of him.”

Sigh…

Yup. I’m dated.

We’ve lost a MOH holder

Posted on by

We need to remember each MOH holder. Respect them and grieve when they pass. People of character like them are too precious to ignore.

Hero Who Led Last Bayonet Charge Dies

November 20, 2009

Army News Service

Retired Col. Lewis L. Millett, who received the Medal of Honor during the Korean War for leading what was reportedly the last major American bayonet charge, died Nov 14.

Millett, 88, died in Loma Linda, Calif., last weekend after serving for more than 15 years as the honorary colonel of the 27th Infantry Regiment Association.

Millet received the Medal of Honor for his actions Feb. 7, 1951. He led Company E, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division in a bayonet charge up Hill 180 near Soam-Ni, Korea.

A captain at the time, Millet was leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position when he noticed that a platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire.

Millett placed himself at the head of two other platoons, ordered fixed bayonets, and led an assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge, Millett bayoneted two enemy soldiers and continued on, throwing grenades, clubbing and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

“Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill,” the citation states. “His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.”

During the attack, Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation until the objective was firmly secured. He recovered, and after the war went to attend Ranger School.

In the 1960s he ran the 101st Airborne Division Recondo School, for reconnaissance-commando training, at Fort Campbell, Ky. Then he served in a number of special operations advisory assignments in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He founded the Royal Thai Army Ranger School with help of the 46th Special Forces Company. This unit is reportedly the only one in the U.S.Army to ever simultaneously be designated as both Ranger and Special Forces.

Millet retired from the Army in 1973.

“I was very saddened to hear Col. Millett passed away,” said Maj. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., the current commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. “He was a rare breed, a true patriot who never stopped serving his country. He was a role model for thousands of Soldiers and he will be missed.”


Rest in Peace, Colonel Millett.