Really, ya'll, just can't make this stuff up.
At a principals
meeting in the White House situation room, Secretary of State
John Kerry began arguing, vociferously, for immediate U.S.
airstrikes against airfields under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime -- specifically, those fields it has used
to launch chemical weapons raids against rebel forces.
(Wait a second! Wasn't this the guy who tossed someone else's medals (certainly not his own!) over the White House fence in protest of the Viet Nam War, and testified to the Senate that his fellow soldiers were murderers? Wasn't this the guy who gave GW Bush unshirted grief over the chemical weapons that weren't found in Iraq--because a lot of them had been secreted to Syria!)
It was at this point that the current chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, the usually mild-mannered Army General Martin Dempsey, spoke up, loudly. According to several sources, Dempsey
threw a series of brushback pitches at Kerry, demanding to know
just exactly what the post-strike plan would be and pointing out
that the State Department didn’t fully grasp the complexity of
such an operation.
Dempsey informed Kerry that the Air Force could not simply
drop a few bombs, or fire a few missiles, at targets inside
Syria: To be safe, the U.S. would have to neutralize Syria’s
integrated air-defense system, an operation that would require
700 or more sorties.
At a time when the U.S. military is
exhausted, and when sequestration is ripping into the Pentagon
budget, Dempsey is said to have argued that a demand by the
State Department for precipitous military action in a murky
civil war wasn’t welcome.
(Um, scuze me, Massah Seceretahry Uv State, but all 'dem Syrian anti-aircraft sites? Dey beez Russian anti-aircraft sites! Yew don't think the Russians are so stupid as to just ship boatloads of advanced weapons to a chaotic situation like Syria, off-load them and hand over the owners' manuals to whoever greets them on the docks? Those are complex systems, and required trained people, that means Russians, to run them. We're the ones who just drop off ordinance and wish everybody well...)
Remember Viet Nam, the tragedy that helped launch your career Massah Kerry? It happened because a trigger-happy egomaniac named Lyndon Johnson decided to get us hip-deep in a civil war on the ground in Asia!
Now here we are again, with you demanding the fleet sail and the planes fly and damn the torpedos. No real entrance strategy, no exit strategy, no real goals in mind, no contingency plan if things go pear-shaped, nothing.
And to think you almost became President!! Holy Cow!!
So, Massah Secruhterry, if'n yew wanna go make yoh'self feel bettah by shootin' off ordinance, c'mon on down South. All the fireworks stands are up and running, and you can buy yoh'self all sorts of stuff that will will go boom and flash. Just stand clear when yew light dem fuses, ok? And remember, keep the pointy end of 'dem rockets pointed up and away from people and pets.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
The Very Worst Sermon Ever...Presiding Bishop Schori Blathers In Venezuela
Just when you think you've seen/heard it all, along comes Presiding Bishop Schori, the captain at the helm of the sinking Episcopal Church here in the US.
Art Buchwald, the great satirist of an earlier day, would despair of his daily task at writing something funnier than what the great-and-good of Washington political life would daily peddle as serious pronouncements. Ron Nessen, Nixon's press secretary, particularly irked him.
Malcolm Muggeridge, as editor of Punch, faced the same problem. He once described the Archbishop of Canterbury attending a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar. The old fool stood up at the end of the show and exclaimed 'Long live God!'. Muggeridge struggled, clever as he was, to write material funnier than what he observed in real time.
The clergy are a particularly rich source of humor. They don robes, climb into pulpits, and declare the most asinine things, ideas that can't possibly pass the smell or laugh test.
Presiding Bishop Schori, however, does win this year's grand prize with this excerpt:
We live with the continuing tension between holier impulses that encourage us to see the image of God in all human beings and the reality that some of us choose not to see that glimpse of the divine, and instead use other people as means to an end. We’re seeing something similar right now in the changing attitudes and laws about same-sex relationships, as many people come to recognize that different is not the same thing as wrong. For many people, it can be difficult to see God at work in the world around us, particularly if God is doing something unexpected.
There are some remarkable examples of that kind of blindness in the readings we heard this morning, and slavery is wrapped up in a lot of it. Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God. She is quite right. She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves.[1] But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so! The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail he remembers that he might find God there – so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns.
An earthquake opens the doors and sets them free, and now Paul and his friends most definitely discern the presence of God. The jailer doesn’t – he thinks his end is at hand. This time, Paul remembers who he is and that all his neighbors are reflections of God, and he reaches out to his frightened captor. This time Paul acts with compassion rather than annoyance, and as a result the company of Jesus’ friends expands to include a whole new household. It makes me wonder what would have happened to that slave girl if Paul had seen the spirit of God in her.
On the one hand, the account seems innocent and well-meaning, until we remember the real story: The slave girl was, well, a slave girl, owned by pimps. She was at the very least severely mentally ill, in today's terminology, and St. Paul invoked Christ to free her from her bondage. She was liberated from her hell. The pimps, seeing a profit center vaporize in front of them, had Paul and Silas jailed. They stayed up the night, singing hymns in the dark, when the earthquake occurred. The terrified jailer, seeing all the cell doors open, was about to take his own life--in order to spare himself the tortures of Roman 'justice'. Paul intervened, and assured him that there had not been a jailbreak. The jailer asked the crucial question 'What must I do to be saved?'--the question a sane man asks when encountering the transcendent presence of the risen Christ.
And, what of that slave girl? The good bishop would have left her in her hell, the property of her pimps, with her claim that that mental disturbance was 'the presence of God in her'.
Who let this woman out of seminary, much less handed her a bishopric?
The entire sermon is here. The responses are rich...
Art Buchwald, the great satirist of an earlier day, would despair of his daily task at writing something funnier than what the great-and-good of Washington political life would daily peddle as serious pronouncements. Ron Nessen, Nixon's press secretary, particularly irked him.
Malcolm Muggeridge, as editor of Punch, faced the same problem. He once described the Archbishop of Canterbury attending a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar. The old fool stood up at the end of the show and exclaimed 'Long live God!'. Muggeridge struggled, clever as he was, to write material funnier than what he observed in real time.
The clergy are a particularly rich source of humor. They don robes, climb into pulpits, and declare the most asinine things, ideas that can't possibly pass the smell or laugh test.
Presiding Bishop Schori, however, does win this year's grand prize with this excerpt:
We live with the continuing tension between holier impulses that encourage us to see the image of God in all human beings and the reality that some of us choose not to see that glimpse of the divine, and instead use other people as means to an end. We’re seeing something similar right now in the changing attitudes and laws about same-sex relationships, as many people come to recognize that different is not the same thing as wrong. For many people, it can be difficult to see God at work in the world around us, particularly if God is doing something unexpected.
There are some remarkable examples of that kind of blindness in the readings we heard this morning, and slavery is wrapped up in a lot of it. Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God. She is quite right. She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves.[1] But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so! The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail he remembers that he might find God there – so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns.
An earthquake opens the doors and sets them free, and now Paul and his friends most definitely discern the presence of God. The jailer doesn’t – he thinks his end is at hand. This time, Paul remembers who he is and that all his neighbors are reflections of God, and he reaches out to his frightened captor. This time Paul acts with compassion rather than annoyance, and as a result the company of Jesus’ friends expands to include a whole new household. It makes me wonder what would have happened to that slave girl if Paul had seen the spirit of God in her.
On the one hand, the account seems innocent and well-meaning, until we remember the real story: The slave girl was, well, a slave girl, owned by pimps. She was at the very least severely mentally ill, in today's terminology, and St. Paul invoked Christ to free her from her bondage. She was liberated from her hell. The pimps, seeing a profit center vaporize in front of them, had Paul and Silas jailed. They stayed up the night, singing hymns in the dark, when the earthquake occurred. The terrified jailer, seeing all the cell doors open, was about to take his own life--in order to spare himself the tortures of Roman 'justice'. Paul intervened, and assured him that there had not been a jailbreak. The jailer asked the crucial question 'What must I do to be saved?'--the question a sane man asks when encountering the transcendent presence of the risen Christ.
And, what of that slave girl? The good bishop would have left her in her hell, the property of her pimps, with her claim that that mental disturbance was 'the presence of God in her'.
Who let this woman out of seminary, much less handed her a bishopric?
The entire sermon is here. The responses are rich...
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Please, Somebody, Remind Us Why The Euro Was Anything But An Idiotic Idea: The Final Concert Of The National Orchestra And Chorus Of Greece
Yet another general strike in Greece, this time over the summary closure of Greek State Radio and Television, which means the orchestra and chorus are also shut down.
The video below shows scenes from the final concert broadcast from the studio to the crowds outside, a performance of Elgar's 'Nimrod' followed by the Greek national anthem. The violinist in tears says it all. This is just one of the tragic outcomes of entry into the Euro, and the chaos that resulted.
As always, Greece is a mess, an ongoing tragic soap opera, with so many problems of its own creation that the list would go forever.
But nothing was helped, and so much was made so much worse, by the imposition of the Euro upon this messy corner of the world. Its economic, political and cultural woes have only been worsened by its continued participation. The well has been so poisoned, it will take decades to recover.
Some argue, 'Well, good riddance to the orchestra! Not the role of government to be funding this anyway!', and that point may be well-taken. On the other hand, even small governments like Grecce, if solvent, can easily scrape together 5-10 million dollars to run a radio orchestra, with even a chorus and small ballet on the side. They can be used to anchor arts education for the country, serve as public relations ambassadors, used to organize music festivals to draw tourism dollars.
In any case, it should be their choice, yea or nay. A solvent government in a stable society can spend a bit of discretionary money on this sort of thing with no harm done. The Eurozone has eroded and destroyed all that.
Time to exit, tell the Germans and the bankers where to stick it, and for the Greeks to take back their own country, and get to make their own choices. Who knows, they may even decide they want an orchestra that plays Elgar decently.
One Man's Crisis Is Another Man's Opportunity: Rick Perry Visits Colt Manufacturing In Connecticut
This spring, the idiot mainstream press breathlessly reported and applauded as the Connecticut legislature passed even more restrictions on gun ownership in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. Oh, the humanity, oh how noble a legislature, this we say this will fix things, by golly!
What was not well-reported were the some 400 employees of Colt who appeared at the state capitol to ask for cooler heads to prevail, all to no avail.
This week, Rick Perry came to visit, to invite Colt to relocate to Texas, a state that will never ever ever piss on them like Connecticut did.
The president of West Hartford-based Colt Manufacturing said Friday he will be pleased to host a visit by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a state he called a loyal supporter of the gun maker.
Perry is traveling to Connecticut on Sunday for a Northeast job-poaching tour that will also take him to New York.
A number of gun makers in Connecticut have said they are looking into leaving after the state passed some of the toughest gun laws in the country, a response to last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in which 20 children and six educators were gunned down.
Colt president Dennis Veilleux said he welcomes Perry's visit Monday morning.
He was careful to speak in code:
"While we have been proud to call Connecticut home for 175 years, as we look to future growth we have a responsibility to consider all options that ensure we remain competitive and meet the needs and expectations of our customers," Veilleux said.
The translation being: 'We're outta here.'
The plant leaves. The workers leave, highly trained people whose families have worked for the firm for decades and more. Their families leave, and their children never come back. The suppliers to Colt also leave, and their workers and families. The costs of maintaining roads and running schools don't go down, but the tax revenue certainly does.
And as for the firms recruited to take Colt's place? Question #1 is: 'If you will do this to Colt, what will you do to us? Besides, we've been talking to Texas, and Alabama, and Tennessee...They've got better weather, better food, lower taxes, and fewer Democrats.'
OS believes in our Federal system, with most power flowing to the states and the people. It allows a Texas to profit from the idiocy of Connecticut, and serves thereby to restrain their folly. The best reforms arrive dressed as competition.
What was not well-reported were the some 400 employees of Colt who appeared at the state capitol to ask for cooler heads to prevail, all to no avail.
This week, Rick Perry came to visit, to invite Colt to relocate to Texas, a state that will never ever ever piss on them like Connecticut did.
The president of West Hartford-based Colt Manufacturing said Friday he will be pleased to host a visit by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a state he called a loyal supporter of the gun maker.
Perry is traveling to Connecticut on Sunday for a Northeast job-poaching tour that will also take him to New York.
A number of gun makers in Connecticut have said they are looking into leaving after the state passed some of the toughest gun laws in the country, a response to last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in which 20 children and six educators were gunned down.
Colt president Dennis Veilleux said he welcomes Perry's visit Monday morning.
He was careful to speak in code:
"While we have been proud to call Connecticut home for 175 years, as we look to future growth we have a responsibility to consider all options that ensure we remain competitive and meet the needs and expectations of our customers," Veilleux said.
The translation being: 'We're outta here.'
The plant leaves. The workers leave, highly trained people whose families have worked for the firm for decades and more. Their families leave, and their children never come back. The suppliers to Colt also leave, and their workers and families. The costs of maintaining roads and running schools don't go down, but the tax revenue certainly does.
And as for the firms recruited to take Colt's place? Question #1 is: 'If you will do this to Colt, what will you do to us? Besides, we've been talking to Texas, and Alabama, and Tennessee...They've got better weather, better food, lower taxes, and fewer Democrats.'
OS believes in our Federal system, with most power flowing to the states and the people. It allows a Texas to profit from the idiocy of Connecticut, and serves thereby to restrain their folly. The best reforms arrive dressed as competition.
Bebe Netanyahu Repeats His Message In Plain English: Israel Will Not Allow Another Holocaust
Lest anyone be lulled by a 15K Dow, the NBA Finals, the NHL Finals, the US Open Golf Tournament, an entertaining baseball season, or distracted by the multiple scandals now enveloping the Presidency (once again), Bebe reminds us that we are allllll up to our hips in the Middle East...
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, made the following remarks on Thursday at the dedication ceremony for the permanent pavilion at Block 27 at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
"The leaders of the Allies (UK, US, France) knew about the Holocaust in real time. They understood exactly what was happening in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not. To we Jews the lesson is clear. We must not be complacent in the face of threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand or allow others to do the work for us.
From here, the place that attests to the desire to destroy us, I, the Prime Minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish People, say to all the nations of the world: The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent another holocaust."
Netanyahu made the comments as other Israeli government ministers, Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Piotr Cywinski, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate and exhibition curator Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Holocaust survivors looked on.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, made the following remarks on Thursday at the dedication ceremony for the permanent pavilion at Block 27 at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
"The leaders of the Allies (UK, US, France) knew about the Holocaust in real time. They understood exactly what was happening in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not. To we Jews the lesson is clear. We must not be complacent in the face of threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand or allow others to do the work for us.
From here, the place that attests to the desire to destroy us, I, the Prime Minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish People, say to all the nations of the world: The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent another holocaust."
Netanyahu made the comments as other Israeli government ministers, Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Piotr Cywinski, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate and exhibition curator Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Holocaust survivors looked on.
OS takes zero joy in the cascading scandals overtaking the US government. Many innocent people will perish because we are not paying attention to the world around us while we sort out our own problems. There are a lot of bad actors out there, and they are very happy to use our distraction to spill oceans of innocent blood. It's who they are, it's what they do.
In the wake of Watergate, the resignation of Nixon, and the confusion and national paralysis that followed, Southeast Asia fell to the Marxists, the boatloads of desperate refugees sailed from Vietnam to Hong Kong, and Pol Pot murdered his millions. There was nothing, and no one, to stand in their way.
Given Barack Obama's weakened reputation, active encouragement of chaos in North Africa, and the general war that has enveloped Syria, moving into Lebanon, the deterioration of Iraq, the interventions of Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt, Israel is essentially surrounded. Obama is, if not a closet practicing Muslim, deeply influenced by Islam, and will throw Israel under the bus when push comes to shove.
Israel, for its part, will not go down without a fight, and Heaven only knows what that fight may entail.
It is time to watch and pray, and hope that sane heads somewhere prevail.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Inspired Truck Gate Art, June 2013
Sometimes, a brave soul possesses both the idea and ability to create one of those unforgettable artistic moments...
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Pastor Peters Provides The Quote of The Day
We face constant critics who decry the looming irrelevance of
Christianity, its impending death, and the sins, weakness, and
ineffectiveness of the Church and her ministers. It would seem that we
must constantly reinvent ourselves merely to survive. But that is not
true. We have only to wait and we will win. He has promised to come
again, that we will be where He is and we will be with Him. This is
most certainly true. But He has also promised that the old will pass
away and the new will come. Heaven is not some sanitized version of
today in which the horrors of the news are replaced with good and happy
stories. Heaven is the old done and the new begun, the today that
becomes the eternal tomorrow, when the victory of Christ brings to
culmination all things as He has promised.
The rest here.
The rest here.
Hello There, Mister Obama And All Your Progressive Fellow Travelers
It appears, since OS is a Verizon customer, that ya'll have been logging every phone call I've made for years.
Let's make this easy for you, ok?
So, all those phone calls overseas--either to a family member or business colleagues. No need to worry there...no conspiracies cooked up, other than to deliver goodies to an office in London every Christmas.
Also, every keystroke has been monitored. Hmmm....lots of stuff about music, family, visits to restaurants, visits to family, pictures of dogs, babies, gardens, cakes we've baked, friends we love.
And, yes, this blog; which, if you will notice, has some pretty acid things to say about Massah Obama, Miz Hillary, Massah Harry, Mizz Nancy. You'll also notice that OS keeps calling for sending these clowns on their way via the ballot box, and only via the ballot box.
OS is many things, but stupid he's not. And he has no taste whatsoever for bloodshed, because when the blood begins to spill, there is absolutely no telling what tragedies will overtake us. No, no, no. The French Revolution, followed by Bonaparte, should be enough of a cautionary tale to restrain us all.
Two final things to say, since you're reading them anyway:
You and yours will fail. Monsters like you always fail, though you do ever so much damage as you run headlong over the cliffs of history.
There is a God, who is the unique Creator of you and everything else, and he does sit in judgment upon his creatures. You will not want to confront him with your unrepented sins on your head. This day will come, as it comes to all. Act now, turn to Heaven for mercy, while there is yet time.
OS is not a regular Glenn Beck fan, but this segment is on point.
Let's make this easy for you, ok?
So, all those phone calls overseas--either to a family member or business colleagues. No need to worry there...no conspiracies cooked up, other than to deliver goodies to an office in London every Christmas.
Also, every keystroke has been monitored. Hmmm....lots of stuff about music, family, visits to restaurants, visits to family, pictures of dogs, babies, gardens, cakes we've baked, friends we love.
And, yes, this blog; which, if you will notice, has some pretty acid things to say about Massah Obama, Miz Hillary, Massah Harry, Mizz Nancy. You'll also notice that OS keeps calling for sending these clowns on their way via the ballot box, and only via the ballot box.
OS is many things, but stupid he's not. And he has no taste whatsoever for bloodshed, because when the blood begins to spill, there is absolutely no telling what tragedies will overtake us. No, no, no. The French Revolution, followed by Bonaparte, should be enough of a cautionary tale to restrain us all.
Two final things to say, since you're reading them anyway:
You and yours will fail. Monsters like you always fail, though you do ever so much damage as you run headlong over the cliffs of history.
There is a God, who is the unique Creator of you and everything else, and he does sit in judgment upon his creatures. You will not want to confront him with your unrepented sins on your head. This day will come, as it comes to all. Act now, turn to Heaven for mercy, while there is yet time.
OS is not a regular Glenn Beck fan, but this segment is on point.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Tom Donilon's Out, Susan Rice In As National Security Advisor To POTUS
Wow, we should all feel safer already, don't-cha-know...breathe that collective progressive sight of relief, now that we have a real expert on the job, someone with impeccable credentials and the trust of everyone in the country. Not someone who would peddle a bogus story about some video as the cause of a terrorist attack on an embassy....
Oh, wait....
This also puts her in the White House, directly reporting to the President, and well under the umbrella of executive privilege afforded any president and his advisors, out of reach of those nasty senators and congressmen who might want to ask questions of her under oath....
And...she needs no Senate confirmation to serve in the post!
Sweeeeet!
This scandal will not go away, and the unanswered questions just keep stacking up. Someone, somewhere in the White House is already talking with his/her lawyer about how to cover his/her backside while he/she tells the unvarnished truth, with the requisite documents (those that haven't been shredded yet) to corroborate the testimony. It's the way the world works. Someone decides they he/she has no taste for prison, or that last flicker on conscience begins to burn, and away we go...
It is only a matter of time...
Oh, wait....
This also puts her in the White House, directly reporting to the President, and well under the umbrella of executive privilege afforded any president and his advisors, out of reach of those nasty senators and congressmen who might want to ask questions of her under oath....
And...she needs no Senate confirmation to serve in the post!
Sweeeeet!
This scandal will not go away, and the unanswered questions just keep stacking up. Someone, somewhere in the White House is already talking with his/her lawyer about how to cover his/her backside while he/she tells the unvarnished truth, with the requisite documents (those that haven't been shredded yet) to corroborate the testimony. It's the way the world works. Someone decides they he/she has no taste for prison, or that last flicker on conscience begins to burn, and away we go...
It is only a matter of time...
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