Wildfire in Central Washington

A wildfire erupted in Chelan County yesterday just before I came on duty.

Hundreds of homes in Wenatchee were evacuated.

I spent a good part of my shift writing evacuation notices to be transmitted over the Emergency Alert System (EAS).

Our Emergency Operation Center went to full activation, and will probably remain so for the next several days.

Pride Goeth Before Destruction...?

(Image from:  WHIO.com)

Last week, gays and their straight allies across the nation were patting themselves on their collective backs over the SCOTUS decision favoring same-sex marriage. 

 

And the party continues.

 

Today's the finale of Pridefest Weekend in Seattle.

 

None of the revelers appear to be bothered by the disturbing news outside the Ramparts of Civilization--

 

--Such as the bloody day of terrorist attacks that erupted in France, Tunisia and Kuwait this past Friday. 

 

(Personal Note:  Ever since I deployed for Operation Desert Shield/Storm, our media has made a fuss over the supposed holy month of Ramadan.  I don't think our jihadist enemies ever got the memo).

 

--Or by the latest ISIS snuff film.

 

--Or despite the "Western European Lifestyle," envied by leftists, NATO is retooling for a renewed stand-off with Russia.

 

How long this party's going to last depends on who you ask.

 

The Diplomad sums thing up nicely back in the real world.

 

John Hawkins believes there are 5 mistakes that will lead to the fall of America.

 

Mark Steyn rolled-in with "only" a couple of concerns. 

 

First about how culture trumps politics (cont.).

 

Second and most importantly, how the current war is now between Violent Extremistan and Dar al Gay.

 

Mark's statement that defines our dilemma: 

 

And so the leader of the free world lights the White House LGBT as the tourist corpses are removed from their sunbeds.

 

 

(Image by Gary Varvel)

 

This Week's Twisted SCOTUS Tales

(Image by Glenn McCoy)

This week ended with a one-two punch from the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US).

The first hit came on Thursday, when the highest court in the land ruled by a 6-3 vote, that Obamacare subsidies can continue. 

(Image by Steve Breen)

The second hit came yesterday when SCOTUS extended same-sex marriage nationwide.

Some time ago, Father Jonathan Morris made a great on-air comment about the term marriage.  To paraphrase:  The term marriage implies a natural procreation aspect to a union between two people.

As I've mentioned in previous posts about transgender--and most recently--transracial, leftists feel they shouldn't be bound by biology. 

I wouldn't be concerned about gay marriage--if it were simply about calling gay unions marriages.

But as we've seen this week with the progrom against the Confederacy--where, for example, Hizzoner of Memphis wants to exhume the bodies of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his missus--it won't end here.

Pastor Robert Jeffress explains why the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage is wrong.

CSA Flag Flap Continues...

(Image by Glenn McCoy)

Not satisfied with seeing the Stars & Bars taken down from official buildings, leftists are seeking to eradicate the symbol from our nation's history & culture.  

Apple pulled the plug on games featuring the Confederate Flag in its app store.

So far, it's just these electronic games that are now gone with the wind.

Speaking of which, one NY Post film critic is even suggesting it's time to retire Gone With the Wind.

I've seen the movie once, maybe twice.  I never read the book and frankly my dear, I didn't give a damn about the movie.  I thought it it was a four-hour soap opera in period costumes.

But this is my singular opinion.  I would never consider banishing either the book or movie in order to prevent others from enjoying them.

Why am I bothering to blog about symbols, books and movies that I don't particularly care about?

Because leftists have cried "havoc!" and let slip the PC Commissar dogs upon us.  If we happy few don't cry "foul!" now, then these self-proclaimed keepers of the Collective Peace may decide to outlaw something I do like.

Steve Green (aka Vodkapundit) offers thoughtful insights on what symbols belong in a museum, while Scaramouche answers the question:  When will the crackdown on Che T-shirts begin? 

And as our Che T-shirt sporting leftists play "Pin the Flag on the GOP Elephant," Mark Steyn reminds us that the Stars & Bars was firmly planted in the Democratic Party's camp well into the 20th Century.

(Image by Gary Varvel)

Confederate Flag Kerfuffle

(Image by Lisa Benson)

My family and I are still in the process of settling my late mother's estate.

During this time, I see leftists are still in the process of politicalizing the mass murder of members of a black congregation by a single racist loon.

The "Stars & Bars" has been the focus of leftist ire of late.

Having been born in Boston, MA and raised in Upstate NY, I've always considered myself a "Billy Yank" on subjects involving the CSA (Confederate States of America), and the ACW (American Civil War).

I do indeed have some "Johnny Reb" friends, and not a single one would condone the shooting in Charleston, SC.

The Diplomad, rolled-in a couple days ago on this subject: On Rebel Flags and Progressive Targets.

My feelings about the current display of the Stars & Bars mirrors my own, along with the concern of possibly banning an historic symbol, albeit a controversial one.

Todd Starnes observed the "Dukes of Hazard" just got culturally cleansed.  Despite the appeal Daisy Duke may have had for me when I was younger, I never watched the show and I'm not a fan. 

However, the ongoing progrom is plain wrong.

Yesterday, Ann Coulter explained why we mostly hear about white "micro-aggressions."

And Star Parker reminds us that government and politics won't solve our racial problems.

(Image by Bob Gorrell)

"Transracial" Tribulations for the NAACP

(Image by Steve Kelley)

When I was younger and my knees could withstand the high impact of long-distance running, I liked to imagine myself as a Zulu Warrior, renown for their ability to run for hours on-end, along with their ferocity in battle.

In many of the table-top role playing games I've been involved in, I've taken on the roles of Elven warriors & wizards (Dungeons & Dragons), Duros starship pilots (Star Wars) and even a woman archaeologist.

But I've never included any of this on my resume or on any job application.

Apparently, that didn't stop Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, from becoming the president of the Spokane WA Chapter of the NAACP.

That is, until her "cover was blown" by her parents.

Despite claiming she "identified herself as black since five," she filed a reverse-discrimination lawsuit against Howard University back in 2002.

(Image by Robert Ariail)

Leftists however, who are hell-bent on convincing us that our biological genders are "social constructs" insist that Rachel Dolezal is not black.  But Ben Shapiro uses the left's logic against itself to conclude:  Yes, Rachel Dolezal is black.

Ryan Bomberger refers to the NAACP as the "National Association for the Advancement of Corrupt People."

Mark Steyn calls this three-ring PC/Identity Politics Circus act the New Minstrelsy.

Michelle Malkin reminds us that Rachel Dolezal isn't the first white person to crash the Oppression Chic fashion show.

And Brent Bozell considers the transracial tribulation of Rachel Dolesal to be another symptom of cultural nihilism.

Who knows where all this I-Identify-As Insanity will end?

(Image by Nate Beeler)

Politics and the Mass Shooting in Charleston, SC

I've spent the past several days getting over jet lag, along with helping my siblings long-distance settle issues surrounding my mom's death.

A lot's happened.

While murder, rape and torture are everyday occurrences under ISIS's rule, mass killings inside the Ramparts of Civilization still shock us.  And justifiably so.

Three days ago, a gunman opened fire inside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.

A day later the suspect, Dylan Storm Roof, was arrested.

Yesterday, he appeared in court.

Of course, while some of the relatives of the victims offer Dylan forgiveness, leftists pounced on the issue of gun control.

Our Dear Leader went so far as to say "This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."

Such rhetoric will continue despite the fact that none of Obama's initiatives would have prevented the shooting.

In the wake of this tragic mass murder, Mark Styen complained about the politicization of everything.

Regardless of the politics, my thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims.

(Image by Gary Varvel)

 

 

The Bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo

(Image from Oceans Bridge)

The "Horse & Musket" Era is my favorite period of history.  The pinnacle of this point in time for me is the Napoleonic Wars.  Basically warfare just before the Industrial Revolution took off.

Today historians, re-enactors and wargamers celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.  (The dual prelude battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras occurred two days prior to today).

This final battle of the Napoleonic Wars manages to earn entry into many "most decisive battles" lists.  Not all of them to be sure, but many of them and for good reason:  It cut down Napoleon's comeback to about a hundred days (111 to be exact).

(Image:  The situation at 6 PM, from Great Military Battles)

Last year, one wargamer, Steve St. Clair, made the news for his quest to re-create the Battle of Waterloo with 250,000 six-millimeter figures.  Meanwhile, Canada's Military Museum's will be hosting a "hands-on" Waterloo Project invloving a "mere" 10,000 figures.

A more life-like project has also been underway.  With the help of re-enactors, photographer Sam Faulkner attempts to picture what the Battle of Waterloo really looked like.

There's books galore, both fiction and non-fiction, one could read, not to mention 1970 film by Dino De Laurentiis.

I practically wore out my VHS tape watching this movie.  Unfortunately, according to one reviewer on IMDb, there's no plan yet to put the movie on DVD here in the US.  Which is too bad, because this would be a great moment to release it.

Despite the lack of a Waterloo DVD, there are plenty of alternatives to read, watch, re-enact, wargame, and otherwise learn about the great battle that occurred 200 years ago.

Family Emergency/Last-Minute Cross-Country Trip

I've been off-line for the past several days. My mom passed away just over a week ago.  I got "the call" from one of my sisters when I was on duty. Fortunately, the folks my wife & I worked for (WA State Emergency Management and Alaska Airlines) pulled out all the stops to send us back to my hometown of Binghamton, in Upstate NY.

We didn't make the wake, but were in time for the funeral mass at Saints John and Andrew Church.

I didn't post anything earlier for two reasons.

One, is that I was simply too busy at work and then preparing for cross-country travel. Second, I don't like broadcasting impending travel plans on social media. In fact, when we returned late Monday night, we discovered my wife's car was broken into while at the park & ride. Fortunately the thieves didn't follow-up and break into our house. (I've heard reports of crooks breaking into cars just to get the addresses of the drivers so they can break into their homes). Fortunately, our house was secure, but we weren't expecting to call-in a police report and schedule an auto-glass appointment when we got back.

But, despite the circumstances, there were a couple silver linings surrounding this trip.

The First Layer of the Silver Lining was that I had a chance to see all my siblings. Like most families, it's difficult for all of us to gather, unless it's a significant event, like weddings and funerals. The Second Layer of the Silver Lining was a chance to see most of our friends from a family that lived one house up from ours.  (Or for all intents and purposes "next door").

There are six siblings in this family and we all grew up together--and more often than not--got in trouble together. Our respective moms were friends as well. Their mom passed away 11 months ago, and the siblings still in the local area attended our mom's wake and/or funeral.

Not only were our "K-12 Friends" the last to leave the reception, but we got together the following night at their mom's house, now up for sale, in The Old Neighborhood.

We spent our time lounging in the backyard, reminiscing and catching up.  In fact, the radio station we were listening to, WAAL 99.1 ("The Whale"), is now plays classic rock.  So we heard the same songs we did during our collective childhood/adolescent years.

When I think about my youth, I like to say: We didn't just watch The Little Rascals (aka Our Gang)--we lived it!

Islam: The Privleged Religion in America

(Image found on:  James Woods' twitter feed)

Daniel Greenfield (aka Sultan Knish) offered an excellent explanation on how Islam became a privileged religion in America.

The short answer is:  Islamists do a three-step dance claiming Islam is--a race--a religion--and a culture.  Thereby reaping the advantages of our politically-correct obsessed society, without incurring any disadvantages.

One of the disadvantages Islamists avoid is being labeled misogynists for  their horrid treatment of women unfortunate enough to be under their rule.  The silence from feminist groups in the face of ISIS atrocities is deafening.

Christina Hoff-Summers (aka The Factual Feminist) reminds us that the really oppressed women aren't found on American college campuses.

(Image by A.F. Branco)

 

Media Desperately Digging for Dirt on GOP Candidates

Most of the non-FOX News networks continue to ignore, or downplay any of the scandals swirling around Hillary and Obama.

Instead, they're trying to dig up smidgens of dirt on the gaggle of GOP candidates trying to outdo each other in the hat-toss-in-the-ring contest.

So far, they've got nothing.

Of course, that won't stop them from digging.

O's Imcomplete-Strategy Strategy

(Image by Michael Ramirez)

As ISIS continues to rape and behead its way across the middle east, Our Dear Leader is under fire for his "incomplete strategy."

Peter D. Feaver of Foreign Policy Magazine offers an explanation that Obama's problem with ISIS isn't an incomplete strategy--it's a failing one.

A failing strategy that Obama is unwilling, for whatever reason (too vain, maybe?) to admit...

(Image by Glenn McCoy)

Holy Six Degrees of Separation Batman!

(Image by Michael Ramirez)

 

Part of my previous blogpost was about TSA's 95-95% failure rate during "Exercise Epic Fail."

Yesterday, another scandal detonated:  TSA failed to screen airport workers with terrorist ties.

But despite all this we can still count on TSA still working under the assumption we're all connected to jihadists in a Six Degrees of Separation sort-of way.  Thus, still forcing everyone to remove our shoes and sometimes our belts, along with ditching any container of liquid bigger than a shot glass prior to boarding a commercial aircraft.

Mark Steyn rolled-in this among other things on the first Rotating First Lady.

(Image by Dana Summers)

Incompetents, Hackers and Trolls, Oh My!

(Image by Bob Gorrell)

Several days ago, new broke that the TSA had a 95% failure rate during an evaluation. 

I was busy with both off-line and on-line activities to write about this story.  And to be honest, I wasn't all that surprised.  TSA hasn't exactly been scandal-free since Dubya's dimwitted idea of creating another bureaucracy in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

(Image by Steve Breen)

Before the dust of TSA's Exercise Epic Fail settled, another agency suffered a cyber breach, believed to be the work of Chinese hackers, that potentially affects 4 million federal employees.  Once again, I was busy writing other posts. so I didn't devote anything more to this story than scanning the headlines.

But sometimes one has to look outside the news to understand the magnitude of an issue.  

Yesterday, one of my on-line friends sent us a recent post by Former Spook, which details the Mother Lode of data the Chinese were able to mine.   

The Chinese aren't the only cyber claim-jumpers either.

Apparently, there's a cadre of "professional trolls" working for the Internet Research Agency in Russia. 

None of this inspires confidence in me that our government can effectively defend the realm, without turning into a police state.

But fear not citizens!  Our Community Organizer-in-Chief is focused on the true threat to Civilization As We Know It...

(Image by Gary Varvel)

Identity Politics in Identity Dysphoria

(Image by Nate Beeler)

Last week, as ISIS continues to behead its way across the Middle East, Russian Troops massed along the current Ukraine border, and China continued to build its island aircraft carrier in the South China Sea while hacking into US Government sites, the big news that drew big attention was Bruce Jenner's transition to Caitlyn Jenner

I really didn't want to waste any blogspace on this story.  But there is one aspect of this social feeding frenzy I find fascinating:   And that is how the revolution is starting on the appetizer portion towards feasting on it's own.  Many of Jenner's critics come from the left, playing fast & loose with the issue of gender identity.

Mark Steyn covers this at length in Deathbed Eurocentrism, and Rampant Ciscentrism.

But this whole affair has opened a can of trans-worms:  Once again, Mark Steyn details the birth pains of the "new."

Michael Brown warns of more trans-sanity coming down the pike.

This is another reason why I chose to post about this topic, it's the first I've heard of "transabled."  That is, people wanting to disabled by choice.

Anyway, while leftists engage in "American Narcissism", the rest of us will try to go back to minimizing our exposure to trash TV/News, and focus on more important issues...

(Image from:  Crockett's Saloon)

 

 ...unlike some people we know.

War This Summer?

(Image by Michael Ramirez)

 

The day after Memorial Day, (the Unofficial Start to Summer for us Americans), a NATO official expressed concern that we'll probably be at war this summer. 

The mainstream media has ignored this comment, along with all the other bad news swirling in and around the Ramparts of Civilization.

One of my on-line friends gave this keen and succinct analysis of how events may unfold:

There are a few people who get this.  Not enough, but a few.

I've been bleating about this like Churchill in the 30's (with neither the wit nor the audience), but the world is coming to a crisis/inflection point.  I had been thinking 2016 would be the year, but I am starting to think it will be this year, much as the NATO quote indicates.  The danger is in multiple, overlapping crises.  The three hot spots are pretty obvious - South(maybe also East) China Sea, Middle East, and Eastern Europe.  They very well may erupt near simultaneously.  Or when one erupts, bad actors in the other two will take advantage of U.S. distraction to make a bold move. All of this is predicated on a perception of weakness and lack of will in the U.S.  Our feckless president and his awful foreign policy is a huge part of it, but not the only part.  Congress' inability to do anything coherently is also part of it, and also feeds our budgetary mess, which our enemies have noted (i.e. sequestration).  Our lack of coherent military strategy (both in regional fights we're still in, as well as the overarching one from the QDR of "try to win one fight, and hope we can hold out in a second") is part of it. Our preoccupation with stupid internal domestic issues is part of it. But also part of it, at least for Russia and China, is almost certainly that they also perceive their own weaknesses.  Russia is weakening by the day.  China may be heading towards a serious internal snap.  The Middle East is just plain falling into a civil war within Islam, with a looming threat of nuclear proliferation.

 

None of the three big enemies (Russia, China, Iran) can hope to take on the U.S.  However, regionally, each has a chance to do so utilizing their A2/AD [Anti-Access/Area Denial] capabilities, especially if the U.S. is preoccupied in other theaters.  Given that Obama is going to be out in a year and a half, they very well may decide that this gives them a window to achieve their goals, each of which is regional domination.  While they will not likely conduct combined operations, they very well may all coordinate their actions in a timing sense to maximize stress on the U.S. response.  After all, each of the three already has close ties with one another.  All are united in a desire to break the world system that was created and benefits the U.S.  and, we can expect no appreciable help from our allies, except maybe Japan.  Everyone else has moved into some sort of post-reality 21st Century mindset that Kellogg-Briand is still in effect and there's nothing to worry about. 

 

If Russia or China can create facts on the ground, an incoming POTUS is going to have little choice but to live with them.

 

Dark days ahead, but at least this is going to be a world war only in the sense of geography.  The level of destruction is not going to be like WW2 or anything like that, unless things really go off the rails (once again, back to the NATO comment on nukes).  Still, I'd not want to be living in the Middle East, Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, etc. right now.

 

Note:  I left out North Korea intentionally. If something were to happen there, it would be a mini-Armageddon on the peninsula but it would be its own thing and would likely be the end of North Korea anyway.  Of course, a war with China might motivate them to prod a war in Korea to further distract the U.S. and tie up much of our allied capability in the Pacific.

 

He ended with this advice, which seems applicable on this 71st Anniversary of D-Day:

 

Keep your powder dry.

America's Reputation Restored--Where Exactly?

(Image from:  AF Branco on Legal Insurrection)

A lot's been happening this week, both around the world and inside the Ramparts of Civilization. 

 

But as the week is drawing to a close, I'll simply post this "reminder" from Our Dear Leader Obama:  That since he ascended the Oval Throne, he's restored America as the most respected nation in the world.

 

I can't put it any better than Charles Krauthammer did:  With this remark, you have to wonder what planet Obama is on.  (And AF Branco's cartoon illustrates this so well).

 

Mark Steyn said Obama merely won the swimsuit round.