Survivalist Offs Himself in His Bunker

Unfortunately, this was after he killed his wife and daughter.  Police have been looking for this POS (Piece of "Crap") for about a week.  The details of this story can be read in the Seattle Times and on Yahoo.

Tricky Dicky's Tactics

It looks like The One has adapted some of Nixon's methods.  Several private citizens have been called out on an Obama campaign website. 

Their "crime?"

Contributing to Mitt Romney's campaign.  Kimberley Strassel of the WSJ has the story on Our Dear Leader's enemies list.

One friend posted this comment:

...say what you will about Romney, but he really seems to get how to beat the One. I read that his team has based their structure along the lines of Clinton's team, such as establishing a "war room" to make immediate responses to anything Obama says. It seems to be working -- they dropped the "Obama eats dog" message, fired back on the "enemy list," and I see they already have a response out to the Obama commercial that says "Romney would not have gone after Osama." I am more heartened by the day by his seeming competence of the Romney team, and the thin, pathetic (and rather obvious) pleading by Obama that he killed bin Laden and little or no other messaging lately.

If Romney can rise above the margin of voter fraud that will favor Obama, he may just be able to topple the One and usher in the long-awaited era of rising seas, intensifying wars, greater pollution, and racism that all us conservatives pine for!

"Undercover" Agents

For the past couple of weeks, the US Secret Service has been under the spotlight for the Columbian prostitution scandal. Initially, 11 agents, part of the president's advanced security detail were implicated in seeking the services of working ladies while off duty. While prostitution is legal in Columbia, many of the agents involved allegedly brought their rent-a-dates into their rooms, which contained classified information--like the president's itinerary. Five days ago, FOX News reported the latest shakedown.

Meanwhile, Mark Steyn didn't let this "opportunity" slip by, with his latest Grope and Change article.

Repeating History?

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."-(Winston Churchill)


A Facebook friend of mine posted this, so I thought it was worth reposting here.

Visting the 911 Memorial

Last week, my girlfriend and I went to visit my mom in Upstate New York.  However, before driving upstate, we stopped-in on my girlfriend's sister who lives north of "The City," as us New Yorkers refer to New York City (NYC).  I haven't been to The City since I was a teenager.  My girlfriend's sister is a paramedic and was dispatched down to Ground Zero the day after the September 11th Attack, while my girlfriend's ex-husband was in the Pentagon that day.  So last Friday we decided to spend the afternoon at the 911 Memorial.

This is what the new World Trade Center will look like once it is complete:

But for now, only the Freedom Tower is under construction, while Tower 7 is complete.  Here's the view that greeted us as we drove into downtown Manhattan:

We signed-up for a guided tour, rather than wandering the memorial grounds.  Prior to the tour,  we meandered through the memorial museum, at NYFD Station #11. 

The guides for these tours are all volunteers and were somehow personally involved, or affected by, the attacks on that day.  Our main narrator, who's name escapes me, allowed a man to use her phone to locate his daughter, who was in the Trade Center's daycare.  Fortunately the girl, along with all the other children were evacuated safely thanks to a couple of police officers.  One, we were told, continues to suffer from health problems.

Miriam's involvement on the other hand, was more hard-hitting.  Her husband was a newly promoted lieutenant in the NYFD.  The terrorists attack right around shift-change and Miriam's husband, like so many others, chose to rush to the scene, rather than leave their buddies behind.  Her husband was one of the 343 firefighters killed that day.

The tour started outside the museum/Station #11.  Our first stop was around the corner, to the bronze mural on the station's wall. 

Another view of the mural...

On September 11th, 2001, O'Hara's Pub was converted into a triage center.

Looking up at Freedom Tower, our guide told us the hijacked planes struck both towers at an altitude a few stories down from the completed level of the Freedom Tower.  Which for aircraft flying over the city, is extremely low indeed.  Freedom Tower, once completed will stand 1,776 feet--a deliberate and symbolic height.

Both hijacked aircraft flew up Greenwich Street. 

After going through a security screening, similar to that of airports, we entered the memorial grounds. 

The names of all the victims are cut into a bronze railing surround both memorial pools.

Looking into the South Tower Memorial Pool, we were told the water in the fountain is separated into strands to represent each individual victim.  The pit in the center was designed so that no matter where you stand, you cannot see the bottom.  The concept was to express emptiness and loss.

Pictured below, is the Survivor Tree, the only plant that didn't die at the original World Trade Center site.

Before we left, I took a picture of the North Tower Memorial Pool. 

I found the 911 Memorial to be deeply moving, in some ways even more so than the USS Arizona Memorial, because I, like many of you, actually watched the events of 9/11 unfold from the very start.  It's a sobering reminder for all of us on what happened nearly eleven years ago--and what may happen again if we cease our vigilance.

Centinnial Sinking

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. I'm almost as fascinated with maritime history as I am with naval and military history. And very few maritime disasters are as fascinating as the Titanic. There's even a homepage for artifacts that have been recovered since the wreck was discovered by Robert Ballard. I saw the exhibit when it came to Seattle 11 years ago.

My interest in the Titanic pre-dates the James Cameron film. I read A Night to Remember by Walter Lordback in high school and did a book report on it. And despite today's special effects and the re-analysis of the Titanic's sinking after the wreck was discovered, I still think the movie version is better than the Cameron's film.

While there's been vast improvements in maritime safety since 1912, social norms seem to be plunging to the same icy depths as the Titanic's final resting place.  Four months ago, Mark Steyn made a "then and now" comparison of the Titanic's sinking in vs the wreck of the Costa Concordia nearly one hundred years later...

Happy Easter!

Outing Israeli FOB?

Israel's contingency plan for striking Iranian nuclear facilities is one of the world's most talked about open secrets.  While the Israeli military has an impressive record of daring-do, the ability to project such military power is daunting and often requires one, or more likely, several secret political deals to "reach out and touch" their enemies.  (The raid on Entebbe comes to mind).

In order to conduct a successful air strike (the most like form of preemptive attack), Israel needs to one of two things:

1. Conduct mid-air refueling en-route, or

2. Establish a Forward Operating Base (FOB) somewhere.

Here's a rough sketch of an Israeli strike-package dilemma:

According to In From the Cold, that somewhere is Azerbaijan.

But how did the world-at-large find out about this?

Some speculate, that the Obama Administration, desperate to forestall an Israeli strike, leaked the Israeli-Azerbaijiani deal.

Interesting. So are the Obamunists trying to sabotage Israel? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Some folks, like Steven Cook of Foreign Policy, think the potential of a middle eastern nuclear arms race is a much ado about nothing.

One of my friends did an excellent job of dissecting Cook's faulty logic:

So many things I disagree with...here's a few:



- saying that "the Middle East is different than the PAK-India situation" is not a strong argument about proliferation in the former


- saying that, since Turkey is under the NATO nuclear umbrella they won't pursue nukes works for now, but that assumes the U.S. slow withdrawal from Europe does not make the Turks think they're on their own


- just because Egypt's nuclear program is crude, doesn't mean a Muslim Brotherhood government may "reconsider" the peace with Israel won't decide that they need nukes to protect against Israel (and Iran)


- Same with the Saudis - they may not have a great nuke program, but I'll bet big money they have a deal to get their hands on some Pak weapons, since they helped pay for them in the first place. Plus, they have the big money to buy a whole program if they wanted to.

Pendulum Back Swing

For years liberal judges across the nation have been "legislating from the bench."  That is striking down laws passed by state legislatures.  California's gay marriage being just one example.  Of course, liberal politicians have been cool with this.  Until now.  All of a sudden, Our Dear Leader is now concerned that Obamacare will be struck down by "unelected few." 

But the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit isn't taking Obama's comments laying down and causing Obama to back pedal on his initial comments. 

Speaking of comments, here's a sampling of responses from my friends:

This guy is unbelievable. The Court has overturned close to 200 Acts of Congress since 1789. Doesn't he read? I'm guessing no.   Oh, and there's nothing like trying to litigate a case in advance, in the media, in front of two foreign heads of state. Idiot.

Speaking of Constitutional idiocy, Powerline rolls-in on Obama's bona fides. 

You can tell the Obamas were pretty much political hacks when working at the University of Chicago. Michelle had been doing outreach work for the university making about $80k per year until her husband was elected to the Illinois State Senate. Then, suddenly she got a more than 350% pay raise to $300k per year. Amazingly, though, as soon as she left that position and the state to go live in DC, that job has gone completely unfilled. Kind of suspicious that a job of such importance that someone would get such a salary for apparently was actually unnecessary. But, that's typical for this city.

Typical, though, for most anything associated with politics.

Professor of Constitutional Law no less...Wish I could go hibernate the next administration...

I wish I could hibernate too.  I have other things I'd rather be watching, reading and doing on line, than dealing with this endlessly depressing stuff.  However, I keep telling myself, that remaining silent would be akin to acceptance.

Here's what we can expect if the US Supreme Court rules in favor of Obamacare...

...and this...