“Don’t Ask… Don’t Tell”, Headed for the Exit?

“Don’t Ask… Don’t Tell”, Headed for the Exit?

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Homosexuality and the Military… NOT Compatible.

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I can hear the howls emanating from the left even before they have even gotten past the title to this piece.

The US military has had, in place the “Don ‘t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for homosexuals in the military in place since 1993. Under the terms of that policy homosexuals could serve in the US military as long as they kept quiet about their sexual orientation and didn’t go public with it, by admitting it, or openly taking part in homosexual activity. If either occurred, homosexuals were shown the door and bade farewell from the US Military.

When I served in the US Military, a homosexual was not allowed in the service, period. If they did manage to get in, as soon as they were found out, they were gone. And it was quick.

I remember one July in the 1950’s, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, as I stood in formation on Tank Hill. We recruits were instructed to immediately turn-in any in our ranks we suspected might be homosexual. We were led to believe that if we knew, and did not turn them in, we were in danger of being kicked out of the service as well.

I liked that. It gave me a certain confidence in my fellow soldiers… that they were who they said they were.

In my time in the US Army there was no such thing as privacy. You did everything as a unit. You slept in the same room, you showered together, you ate together, and you even relived yourself in full view of all the other soldiers who happened to be in the latrine at the same time. There were no “stalls” with toilets in them. There was a line of toilets, in a row, and it was quit possible for two soldiers to have a conversation, while relieving themselves, sitting on those toilets. Did I mention there was no privacy? I did, didn’t I?

It was important that a soldier knew his fellow soldier was the same gender as he was.

Look, having a known homosexual in a military unit disrupts that unit’s cohesiveness. If it happens to be a combat unit, lives are at stake.

There is a new study being touted by the left-wing media, which says that Homosexuality does not “hurt” military unity. In fact, you can find the article on page 5-A of the Tuesday July 8th edition of the Fayetteville Observer of Fayetteville, NC. (Fayetteville is the home of Ft. Bragg.) It is an AP article by Anne Flaherty. You’ll also find the article on the Fayetteville Observer’/s website at:

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=298672 We suggest you read it.

So why is this coming up now? The answer is simple. Take a look at what is probably going to happen n November. The most liberal senator in the US Senate is probably going to win the next election and become the President of the US. Add to that the increase in numbers in the Congress of ultra-liberal democrats cinching their control over the two branches of the government and with a Supreme Court that is almost as liberal as it is conservative… and you have to ask??? The “iron will be hot” and they intend to strike. There is no reason to believe they will fail in striking down any and all laws that might keep homosexuals out of the US military. “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” is doomed. Bet on it!

So… why not have a compromise? Why not allow those Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen, whose religious faith bars them from association with known homosexuals, to apply for, and receive, an honorable discharge from the U.S. Military Services? At least show some respect for a soldier’s faith.

Of COURSE, it won’t happen. Because that is a part of the plan… to force the American people, even against their religious belief, to accept a way of life their faith teaches is an “abomination”. We have come to expect this heavy-handed approach to religion from the left in America.

And then there is the recruitment problem, sure to come, as a result of this “social engineering” experiment by the left. Reenlistments are going to drop off and new recruits will be few and far between. Which means… what else? The military draft will return.

So…get used to it. A liberal/progressive/socialist/Marxist take over of the US government is in the offing. We “old fogies”, who believe in freedom, had a pretty good run, but we are no longer wanted and the Eurocrats and Neocomms (New Commies) are set to take over and roll back the freedom(s) we worked so hard to preserve for 232 years. The destruction of the hated US Military is just one of their goals. And that is why the issue has resurfaced at this particular time.

Get ready, America. We are about to witness the destruction of a way of life envied the world over as the Socialist, the Euro-crats, and Neo-comms tear down the last best hope of mankind on this planet.

May God have mercy on this nation even though we have squandered the gift of freedom He gave us.

J. D. Longstreet

The Greens are Going Crazy!

The Greens are Going Crazy
By Alan Caruba
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It’s hard to ignore the fact that the Greens are going crazy, not just in the United States, but around the world. They are increasingly frantic over the opposition being voiced against global warming, one of the greatest hoaxes in modern history.

The Greens have bet everything on global warming as the reason for giving up the use of long established sources of energy such as oil, coal and natural gas. The object has been to slow everything the modern world calls progress.

In India, a spokesman for that nation of one billion people has flatly refused to accept the global warming hoax. China shows no sign of yielding to the global warming lies. The greatest agricultural and mercantile economy to have ever existed, the United States of America continues to thwart its own growth by yielding to the lies.

Recently the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, said that “coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining our world.”

No, what makes us sick is listening to such preposterous lies. A Rasmussen telephone survey taken after Sen. Reid’s absurd statement found that 52% of voters surveyed rejected his views about coal and oil, double the amount of those who agreed.

What is troublesome, however, is that the same survey found the voters evenly divided on whether global warming exists or poses a threat. Fully 47% of those surveyed believe that human activity affects the climate. Both candidates for President are publicly committed to the global warming hoax by varying degrees.

Despite an intense, decades-long propaganda campaign, coupled with indoctrination in our nation’s schools, the truth is beginning to emerge.

In March, an international conference on climate change organized by The Heartland Institute brought together over 500 of the world’s leading climatologists, meteorologists, economists and others for three days of seminars and presentations that completely refuted the pronouncements of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and disputed the lies of Al Gore’s famed “documentary.”

As recently as July 8, the Space and Science Research Center held a news conference in which it stated that the warming that has occurred since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850 was completely natural, i.e., had nothing to do with human or industrial activity.

More significantly, the Center went on record saying that, “After an exhaustive review of a substantial body of climate research, and in conjunction with the obvious and compelling new evidence that exists, it is time that the world community acknowledges that the Earth has begun the next climate change.” The current warming period is not only at an end, but a distinct cooling cycle has begun and will bring “predominantly colder global temperatures for many years into the future.”

Just how crazed has the environmental movement become? On July 7 it was announced that Argentine scientists have been strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows to collect and measure how much methane gas they produce.

Methane, like carbon dioxide, is a minor component of the Earth’s atmosphere. Methane is also released from swamps, landfills and other sources. If it and CO2 played a significant role in determining the world’s climate, it would be a cause for concern, but it is the Sun that primarily drives the Earth’s climate cycles. Solar activity has gone quiet in recent years as fewer and fewer sunspots, magnetic storms, have been seen.

To maintain the global warming hoax, thousands of events and natural phenomena have been blamed on it. A recent example is the floods in America’s mid-West. The National Wildlife Federation released a statement on July 1 blaming global warming.

Climate experts at The Heartland Institute were quick to respond. Dr. Joseph D’Aleo, Executive Director of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project, said, “Alarmists have adopted the can’t-lose position that all extremes of weather—cold, warm, wet, or dry—are all due to global warming”, adding that, “The record snows, severe weather, and heavy rainfall have been the result of rapid cooling in the northern tier of the United States and Canada, not global warming.”

Early in July, Bret Stephens, writing in The Wall Street Journal, called global warming “a mass hysteria phenomenon”, noting that “NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world’s oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years…”

The global warming hoax has never been about the climate. It is about competing economic theories. “Socialism may have failed as an economic theory,” wrote Stephens, “but global warming alarmism, with its dire warnings about the consequences of industry and consumerism, is equally a rebuke to capitalism.”

The United States Senate refused to consider the UN Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change that requires massive reductions in carbon dioxide emissions based solely on the global warming hoax, but other nations did sign on. None have ever met their obligation to limit CO2 emissions, nor need they have bothered.

At the recent G8 conference an international agreement to cut CO2 emissions was given serious consideration despite the fact that the Earth is now a decade into a cooling cycle likely to last several decades or longer. The impact of this proposal on the lives of ordinary citizens will prove needlessly costly. Proposals in some nations for various taxes based on global warming are a form of fraud.

The sensible refusal by leaders in emerging economies such as China and India would make it impossible for any limitations on carbon emissions by Western nations to have any impact, even if such reductions had anything to do with the realities of the Earth’s climate.

The only thing that can be predicted with certainty is that the Greens will become increasingly unhinged and crazed by the failure of the global warming hoax.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. He blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, July 2008

Russian Military Bases in Cuba! Opening Phase of Cold WarTwo?

Here We Go Again! Russian Military Bases in Cuba!
Opening phase of Cold WarTwo?
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Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? (October 15th, 1962 through October 28th, 1962) I do! Man… do I remember! Well, in case you don’t… allow me to jostle your memory a bit… or… inform you a bit. The Russians decided to place their missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off our southern shore that year. They had already begun building the launching pads, the whole nine yards, before we discovered (?) them. One of our spy planes, with which we did not fly over Cuba and spy on them, er…spotted them while, uh, not flying over Cuba. Anyway, we went toe to toe with the Russians (then known as the “Soviets”) for 13 days, or so, with a blockade of Cuba.

For two weeks the world was as close to an all out nuclear war as we have ever been… before or since. Army Reservists and National Guardsmen, were placed on “alert” to report for duty, immediately, to the nearest military post or base upon reception of a phone call with the orders. The entire US Armed Forces were put on highest alert and we were ready to go to war. It was a hair-raising time for the people of America. Every time a jet flew overhead everyone stopped what he or she was doing and looked skyward. Finally, when the Soviet ships, bearing their missile cargo, turned around, when coming face to face with US Navy warships, the entire world exhaled as if we had been holding our collective breath for two weeks. In a manner of speaking … we had been.

So why am I bringing this up at this particular time? I mean, the Russians are our FRIENDS, right? Well, NO!

The first rule of diplomacy should be: NEVER trust the Russians! You see, the Russians are so eaten up with their national paranoia and their super-sized national inferiority complex that you can never turn your back on them. Currently they are PO’ed at the US for wanting to place a missile shield, made up of interceptor missiles (emphasis on “interceptor”), in eastern Europe to protect friendly nations from incoming ballistic missiles from such rogue states as Iran… to name the rogue nation at the top of that list these days. The Russians see that, somehow, as a threat to THEM. Go figure!

 do they do? They decide to “poke the tiger with a stick”. The “stick” just happens to be nuclear bomber bases in Cuba! Yep! Same song, second verse! Plus, it is reliably reported that a refueling station for those bombers is being planned for Venezuela, as well.

The “Times Online” has an excellent report, by Tony Halpin, who filed his piece from his post in Moscow. It is titled: Nuclear bomber base’ raises fears of a new Cuban crisis”. We strongly recommend you read this article. You’ll find it at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4393494.ece

Now, I have to ask: What the hell happened to the “Monroe Doctrine”? Chances are you have never even heard of the Monroe Doctrine. Basically, it says, specifically to Russia: “Hands off the Western Hemisphere. That is the backyard of the US and you trespass at your peril”.

The Monroe Doctrine dates back to December 2nd, 1823… and… President James Monroe was it’s author. The Monroe Doctrine said that European powers were no longer to colonize or interfere with the affairs of the newly independent nations of the Americas. At that time in history, the United States planned to stay neutral in wars between European powers and their colonies. However, if, later on, those types of wars were to occur in the Americas, the United States would consider such action as hostile.

President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. It was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the U.S.. Most recently, during the Cold War, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (added during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt) was invoked as a reason to intervene militarily in Latin America to stop the spread of Communism. (More about that later.)

At that time Russia had aspirations on the northwestern lands which would later become the northwestern United States. They had minor settlements and military forces stationed in what was called, in those days, the “Oregon Country”. We eventually tossed them out. But at the time, it WAS worrisome. So, in Monroe’s State of the Union Message in December of 1823, President Monroe flatly told the European powers that colonization, by them, in the Western Hemisphere was over, done with, kaput! President Monroe just flatly told the European Powers that the US would stay out of their business and they had better stay out of ours… and if they found they simply HAD to meddle in our “area of influence” then, they’d better be prepared to pay the price… which meant… the US military would make every effort to stop them.

The Monroe Doctrine covered the area of North America, Central America, South America, and the Carribean Islands. Summed up, the Monroe Doctrine basically says that any, ANY, attempt at colonization in these countries, and Island nations, would be looked upon as a threat to the National Security of the United States of America… and… would be dealt with accordingly.

Much later in US history, President Teddy Roosevelt added his two cents worth with the memorable statement: “Speak softly and carry a big stick!” The “Roosevelt Corollary” was a hugely important amendment to the Monroe Doctrine by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Roosevelt’s extension of the Monroe Doctrine set out the right of the United States to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of small nations in the Caribbean and in Central America if they were unable to pay their international debts. At the time, the US feared “assured intervention” by the European powers, especially Britain and Germany. These two European countries had loaned money to some of the countries within our sphere of influence and were never repaid.

The catalyst of the new policy was Germany’s aggressiveness in the “Venezuela Affair” of 1902-03. Suffice it to say Germany and it’s allies were threathening to invade Venezuela, and had already set up a naval blockade of Venezuela when Teddy Roosevelt sent in the US Navy to, uh, “practice” some war-time manuevers, at sea, more or less in sight of the German Armada. Roosevelt declared, “we cannot afford to let Europe get a foothold in our backyard, so we’ll have to act as policemen for the West.”

Jumping ahead a bit, Teddy’s cousin, FDR, issued his “Good Neighbor Policy” which weakend the Monroe Doctrine, in our opinion, and opened the Western Hemisphere up to, shall we say, European Adventurerism, on the US’s side of the pond.

So, here we are, once again, in 2008, and Russia is set to test the resolve of the US to protect it’s immediate neighbors and, at the same time, insure the National Security of the United States.

This can only end badly. There is simply no way to tell Russia to “butt out” without offending them. They have the thinnest of thin skins. Saving face is almost a religion to the Russkies.

I have proposed a number of times that the US invade Cuba and liberate the Cuban people. We made a HUGE error in giving it up in the first place. BY rights it ought to be a part of the United States, and eventually, I believe it will be.

In the meantime, though, we have to keep those Russian bombers off that island.

If the Russians are looking for a “trade-off”, as we agreed to in 1962, in order to end the Cuban Missile crisis, well, frankly, I cannot see President Bush agreeing to that kind of diplomatic blackmail. (President John Kennedy agreed to take down the batteries of missiles we had in Turkey if Khruschev would remove the Russian missiles and disassemble the missile bases in Cuba.) Taking into account the Russians see Obama, as the “heir apparent” to the US Presidency, and, as a “wet behind the ears” youngster with no gravitas, at all, it is my belief this new crisis in Cuba will not end well. There may well be a military confrontaion as those Bear Bombers skirt US Air space to land in Cuba.

Yes, there are, at least, two other directions from which to approach Cuba by air but the Russians don’t think like that. You will be kidding yourself if you do not think they will fly right down the Eastern Seaboad of the US to reach Cuba. They did it frequently during the Cold War. (I’m going to begin, today, referring to the previous Cold War as Cold War One, or CW-1, for, in my humble opinion, we have entered the opening phases of Cold War Two.)

I say again, this can only end badly.

J.D. Longstreet

The New/Old Religion

Sweeping Away Christianity with the New/Old Religion

 by J.D. Longstreet

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“Environmentalism” is the new worldwide faith, the new religion. It has millions of adherents and is growing by leaps and bounds every single day. At the center of this new faith is a single deity. Mother Earth! Yes, adherents to the new religion of Environmentalist worship the Earth. We used to call that paganism, but that is an article for another day.

This new religion has woven itself into the churches and pulpits of the old Judeo-Christian faith and is eating the foundation of the church right out from under it. Many of the mainline denominations in America have actually adopted the articles of faith of the new religion, Environmentalism. Many churchgoers today will say that environmentalism is a “good thing”. They will defend it by asking: “Didn’t God, Himself, give mankind stewardship of the earth, to care for it?” They ignore the fact that the Creator never said for man to WORSHIP the earth. And that, dear reader is exactly what the environmental movement, the New Religion, does.

Environmentalism is a “feel-good” religion based on a myth! It is in direct conflict with the Judeo-Christian faith. It is a Pagan religion and Christian churches, and Christian men and women, should have nothing to do with it. It stands against the tenets of Christianity and is, at it’s very base, blasphemous! Yet, millions upon millions have accepted Environmentalism as their savior, or, the savior of their planet. Somewhere they lost their grasp on reality and have forgotten it is not the earth, which needs saving. It is they.

You know, a fact is a fact. It makes absolutely no difference whether you, or I accept that fact. It remains a fact, a truth. No matter how much we try to ignore it, or work around it, like the elephant in the room… it is always a looming presence. Facts are like that.

Why do I bring this into this piece? Because the fact that environmentalism, as a religion, is being ignored, even though it is standing there, naked, in the middle of the room. It is a truth, which will not go away, no matter how much, and how often, the adherents to the New Religion deny it. In fact, the truth remains!

As an adherent to the Christian faith, It has always amused me that some people find it difficult to understand that one cannot buy, nor earn, in any way, one’s salvation. It is a gift. There have been those, down through the centuries, who have tried, with all their might, to buy, or earn, their soul’s salvation only to be thwarted in their efforts… because they cannot accept a “no strings gift”. And that is what makes Christianity so difficult for the human animal.

Now… there is the New Religion, which allows one to buy, and earn, ones salvation. The fact that the salvation one earns, or buys, is totally useless… is of no concern. It makes adherents “Feel Good”. Plus, they can ignore the command of God that “Vengeance is Mine” and they can wreak as much vengeance, as they wish, upon their fellow men that choose not to fall in step with their new Environmentalism Religion.

Man must suffer for his crimes against nature. That is their rallying cry. They demand sacrifice(s)! Turning civilization back a couple of centuries is one of the sacrifices they demand! And, like lemmings, they rush together toward the cliff and into the sea.

There is rarely anything as dangerous as “the arrogance of ignorance”. We have it manifest before our very eyes in the Global Warming Movement. It is all a part of the New Religion.

But, you see, the New Religion is NOT new! It is, in fact, the Old Religion! It is nothing more than worship of the earth as the ancient pagans observed it centuries ago. They were swept away then, by truth, and the New Pagans will be swept away this time, as well.

J.D. Longstreet

Obama: Citizen of the World!

Obama: Citizen of the World!

By J.D. Longstreet

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I have a lot of difficulty relating to anyone who claims citizenship in the world. Frankly, that person is frightening. Saying one is a citizen of the world negates one’s actual citizenship as… well, a native of the country within which he/she was born and, to which, he/she owes allegiance. Saying you are a citizen of the world is too…well… vague. But then… that is exactly what Mr. Barack H. Obama is… vague.

I’m one of those old geezers, still alive today, who actually heard some of President Franklin Roosevelt’s speeches. While listening to Obama in Berlin, my mind began shifting gears, feeling its way around his words and phrases, because I was sure I had heard them before. It continued to nag at me until a picture of FDR solidified in my mind’s eye. It was then that I realized this was the effect his speech was supposed to have on me! It was beautifully delivered. It was oratorical music. It was a symphony of simplistic sermonizing declaring… not much, really. As an American of part German ancestry, I understand the magnetism of compelling oratory. It stirs my soul. And for a brief moment, or two, I WAS stirred.

But, that’s about as far as it went. Once I focused on his words, I was dismayed to hear his proud profession of faith in, (gasp!) globalism!

Look, I am unashamedly a nationalist. I am an American, first, last, and always. I am proud of my country and have been all my life. Some of my country’s leaders have certainly not lived up to the greatness America offered them, and THEY have shamed me, but, never my country.

It is apparent that Mr. Obama IS a globalist. One who believes in riding the globe of national borders and having one single worldwide government…a one-world government.

Globalism is another of those ethereal dreams our liberal brethren have latched onto. It dates back to, at least, the Hippies. You know: tie-dyes, long hair, sandals, free love, free dope, etc, etc. Oh, I had a momentary lapse of memory! Many of our Congressional delegates ARE old hippies! How, could I forget that, even for a moment? Not Obama, of course. From my perspective, he’s just a “wannabe hippie”.

There was something very unsettling about hearing a terrific orator drawing throngs of cheering Germans into a public square in Berlin. I had flashbacks of another great orator doing the same thing back in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. We still bear the scars from the fall-out of the explosion HE caused. Listening to Obama play the crowd, as a master violinist would play the violin, was unnerving.

I have mentioned before how watching the faces in the crowds at Obama events remind me so much of the faces in the crowds at Hitler’s speeches. As could Hitler, Obama can lift a crowd’s emotions to a near orgasmic response. An emotion charged crowd is only a click or two away from transformation into a mob.

To say Obama’s event in Berlin was troubling to me would be an understatement. One, blessed with both charisma and special oratorical skills, has a responsibility, it seems to me, to never allow his words to stoke a crowd’s emotional furnace too much. It is entirely possible to strike the trip wires that loose the hearer’s motivation to take action based on faulty judgment made at the height of passion. That has happened before, and in Berlin.

OK, so I am an old fogy, long past my prime, and prone to judge current events by events I have witnessed in the past. That used to be looked upon as a sort of “wisdom of the aged”. I realize that is not so in this modern era. But, I must tell you, I feel a certain responsibility to hold up the “caution signs” when I see things, hear things, and experience things that indicate to me there could be trouble ahead.

Historians tell us that as the great Roman generals would ride in their chariots in the triumphal parades through the flower strewn streets of Rome, soaking up the cheers and accolades of the crowds of admiring fellow Romans along the way, there was a fellow Roman, sometimes even a slave, whose job it was to stand in the chariot with the hero, slightly behind him, and whisper, continuously, in his ear: ”Remember, thou art but a man… thou art but a man.” Seems to me, Obama needs someone to whisper those words in his ear, and often.

 

Drilling Our Way Out of This Mess!

Drilling Our Way Out of This Mess!
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You know what is frustrating? Having a problem and having the answer to that problem within reach but being prevented, by the government, from utilizing that answer to solve the problem. Now… THAT is frustrating! And it happens to be right where we Americans find ourselves today.

We don’t have enough oil. Well, actually we DO have enough oil. Only… the government won’t let us get at it. You see, we have this bunch of intellectual midgets in charge of the US government, currently, and they are driving our country to ruin… and loving every minute of it!

Look, if you think the American economy is bad now… you ain’t seen nothing yet! And, listen up, citizens of the world! If America goes down… you go down, too.

Oil is the fuel that powers the American engine of democracy. It drives everything about this republic. The business of America is business. We’re a capitalist society. If business suffers, America suffers. Businesses closing down because of high fuel costs, means Americans out of jobs. Americans out of jobs means higher unemployment rates and a bigger drain on the US treasury, which means, inevitably, higher taxes for all of us, which means some more small businesses will have to close their doors because they cannot afford to stay in business, which means more Americans out of jobs… and the cycle continues. No matter how you dissect it, the business of America IS business. Without it, we will implode and fairly quickly.

We are on the edge of the precipice these days and we have no leadership in Washington we can count on to do what is truly needed. Since the dems took over the Congress, America has slowly ground to a halt. Their emotion based decisions and feel-good messianic tendencies look good on paper (to some) but are totally worthless when there is an attempt at implementation. Common sense has no place in a world of “make believe” such as the liberal democrats are busy constructing.

Those of us who live out here in the real world can’t survive on the good intentions of a congress so out of touch with reality as the one we have now.

Out here in the real world, we need oil. We know we already have sources of oil on lands owned by the people of America to satisfy those needs and yet the vacuous ninnies in DC deny us that oil… thereby forcing us to purchase the oil we need from nations that hate us and “soak” us, for every penny they can squeeze out of us, for a barrel of oil. The fault for godawful prices at the pump, to run our vehicles, can be laid at the feet of the US Congress. They have done this and… they are doing this to America. See… they are going to save us from ourselves. They are going to save the world from some non-existent global warming, which in our opinion, is another scam dreamed up by an international cabal of con men. (Just my opinion, you understand.)

The US needs oil. Sorry, but that is a fact of life… well, life, as we know it, anyway. Without it, America will implode. We won’t be able to produce and transport food from the farm to your table. Medicines, LOTS and LOTS of medicines depend on petroleum. Take a look at the labels in the clothing you are wearing… chances are very good that the fabric is made, at least partly with a petroleum product… even the shoes on your feet.

Financially… well, I really don’t even want to go there. But, we will venture to say America will have a recession on a scale much larger than anything Americans living today have ever experienced. It will be crippling nationally AND personally. Looked at your 401K lately??? I have… and I shuddered.

We have the oil we need. Plenty of it. Off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, on the outer continental shelf, in ANWR, in shale rock in our western states, in Tar Sands, but our “leaders” have put drilling off shore and in federally controlled lands off-limits. Why, we have enough shale oil available to us to give the US an oil reserve of three times that of Saudi Arabia! That’s JUST in that oil bearing Shale rock in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates on the amount of oil in that rock go as high as 2 trillion barrels. Some say that is more oil that we have used since the first well in punched in the Pennsylvania soil in 1859!

So, why are we not going after all this available oil? You can lay the blame for that squarely at the feet of the US government. Our government has succumbed to the global warming hoax and being the good liberals that they are, they are going to save us from ourselves by taking us, and our standard of living, backward in time to an era prior to the American Civil War.

We need to rattle cages in Washington, DC! This is totally unacceptable behavior by our government and they need to hear it from America’s citizens and they need to hear it loudly and unceasingly until we drive the message home. We need oil, and we want our OWN oil, and we want it NOW.

Yes, WE CAN DRILL OUR WAY OUT OF THIS MESS! But we have to start now… RIGHT now!

Longstreet

Who Needs NATO … by Alan Caruba

Who Needs NATO?
By Alan Caruba

 

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What I know about NATO, the North American Treaty Organization, you could put in a bug’s ear. Well, that’s not quite true. I do know the treaty was signed April 4, 1949. It was the result of Cold War fears that the Soviet Union represented a military threat to Europe.

A commentary by E. Wayne Merry that appeared in The Journal of International Security Affairs, “An Obsolete Alliance”, caught my eye. The author is a former State Department and Pentagon official who is now a Senior Associate of the American Foreign Policy Council.

Merry posed a question that had buzzed around in the back of my brain for a long time. Why is the United States still a member of NATO, an alliance that initially was intended to exist for twenty years, but whose life and mission has been expanding now for nearly sixty years? Since the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s and the Cold War is over, why does the U.S. or Europe need NATO?

“Over the years, NATO has turned its back on its inherently defensive and conservative origins to become a shameless hustler after engagements to justify its own perpetuation,” writes Merry. He quotes Manfred Woerner, its Secretary General in the early 1990s, who said that in order to survive NATO “must go out of area or go out of business.”

NATO was established by the Treaty of Washington and Merry points out that it was “purely defensive; nothing in it can legitimize use of force other than in response to a direct attack against its members. Article V, contrary to popular myth, does not even commit its members to the use of force.” As such, “NATO lost its basic raison d’etre years ago, as Europe’s need for American troops ended long before the Cold War did.”

Thus, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO was left without a threat or a legitimate purpose. Merry correctly reminds us that “It is axiomatic that nothing in government is so long lasting as temporary measures. Policies, programs and appropriations initiated to respond to a transitory issue take on lives of their own, spawning institutions which not only outlive their purpose, but themselves create new problems to justify their continued existence.”

Merry noted that “the collapse of Yugoslavia was a gift from heaven.” It supplied a rationale to become “an international peacemaking force, something its founders never conceived and the U.S. Senate never would have ratified.” I must confess that I never understood Clinton’s decision to initiate military action because, as Merry points out, “the Yugoslav wars did not compromise the security of the United States at all.”

Significantly, “Europe remains a net security consumer from America” despite the fact that its member nations maintain their own military capacity, organized on a national, rather than regional, basis; thus creating “vast duplication, overlap and waste of resources.”

In effect, Americans provide Europe a low-cost service that frees European public funds for more popular programs “such as subsidized health care and opera.” Why should the American budget underwrite a prosperous Europe with manpower and defense spending? Surely the European Union would not collapse if the American military was not on their continent.

Bluntly stated, “European purposes in NATO are clear; to subordinate American power and resources to their interests and to maintain a mechanism by which to constrain the United States.” The unhappiness of Europe with America’s projection of power in Afghanistan and Iraq is hardly a secret.

So, as NATO readies itself for its seventh decade, well beyond its original stated purpose and need, it is surely time for the next U.S. administration to consider ending this one-sided relationship. It has solved the conflicts that produced two world wars. There is no need for it to remain an American security protectorate.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. He blogs at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, July 2008

Filed under:

 

conservative+NATO+US+EUROPE+EU+Military

 

Will The Obama’s European Tour Backfire on Him?

Will The Obama’s European Tour Backfire on Him?

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There is a very good chance that the Obama’s European tour will backfire on his campaign here in the states.

Those of us who live out here in the real America, in the so-called “fly-over” country hold very little love for, or admiration of, the European nations. Many of us come from families that fled the European shores to get to America. Unlike the “Euro-crats” we do not look to Europe for leadership in anything, especially not politics.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic States the word Euro-weenies is often heard in describing the European nation’s leadership. Plus, it comes as no surprise that the leftist news media will be covering every step Obama makes while skipping from one photo-op to the other. In fact, the entire trip is a “photo-op” and it is bound to damage Obama’s campaign here in America.

Americans who populate the northeastern coast and the western coast of the United States are, well, different from the remainder of America. It’s sort of, well, like two separate countries. For those of you not familiar with the way America was settled, suffice it to say that we ARE two different peoples. Here in the southeast, for example, we are of Scott-Irish and German descent, mostly. We do not view Europe, any part of Europe, with covetousness of any degree… especially the Scots and the Irish and even more so the Scot-Irish. So, we will see Mr. Obama’s European love fest as repugnant.

So far as America being “loved” by Europe, or any other part of the globe… we could not care less. In fact we take it as a complement when the Europeans dislike us. It is then that we know we are doing things the right way, the correct way, the American way.

Seeing thousands of Europeans thronging the streets and fawning over Mr. Obama will cost him a lot of votes, especially here in the Carolinas.

And then there is the foreign press. We say ”foreign press” as opposed to the Obama fawning “domestic press”. Already, some in the Israeli press are raising questions about Mr. Obama’s qualifications to even be a candidate for President as a result of questions about his place of birth. You’ll find that article at:

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12993.htm

Don’t you find it the least bit interesting that our domestic press corp seems to have little or no interest in running this story to ground? Ummm. Wonder why?

Add to all this Mr. Obama’s credentials as an, er, “intellectual” and it frightenes the bejesus out of us. We have seen the damage to this country from former regimes of intellectual presidential administrations. My friend, and fellow blogger, Alan Caruba has an excellent piece on this very topic. We strongly recommend you read it. You’ll find it at:

http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/07/osama-intellectual.html

Look, you may not like it but the fact is… most Americans who consume the daily tripe, hailed as news, and spoon fed to us by the mainstream media in this country, shake their heads in astonishment and wonder just how stupid the media must think we are. We KNOW what the domestic press is doing as they cover the Obama European photo-op as the morning dew covers a lovely green pasture. We also know what lies under that dew hidden by the glistening grass.

 

The point is…. only those who wish to be impressed by the current demonstrations of European support for Obama will be. The remainder of us will grin, shake our heads, and get on about our business. And come November… we won’t vote for Mr. Obama.

Longstreet

“Obamanomics” …Socialist… or not?

“Obamanomics” …Socialist… or not?

 

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The question of whether or not Obama is a socialist continues to come to the fore. The rush by Obama’s people to put out that particular fire has done nothing to quench it. In fact, their efforts may have had just the opposite effect. Surely you are aware of the “Law of Unintended Consequences”.

We have been pounding that drum for a while now. Problem is… nobody wants to hear it.

There is an article at “Abolishing Socialist Slavery” titled: “Barack Obama: Not a Hero, But…”. You’ll find the article at:

http://christianprophecy.blogspot.com/2008/07/american-hero-not-barack-obama.html

So what is Socialism, anyway? Well the dictionary says this:
1.
a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.
procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

3.
(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

Sir Edmund Burke defined socialism this way:

“A perfect equality will indeed be produced–that is to say, equal wretchedness, equal beggary, and on the part of the petitioners, a woeful, helpless, and desperate disappointment. Such is the event of all compulsory equalizations. They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below; and they depress high and low together beneath the level of what was originally the lowest.
………….. Edmund Burke

Sir Winston Churchill had this to say about socialism:

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”.

Could it be that Americans who are socialist sympathizers or, are, in fact, socialists themselves, are ashamed of their collectivist proclivities? Well, it is an honest question.

Here we are in a capitalist society set in a representative republic, which is arguably, a Christian nation, and as such, we have been at war with socialism and communism for nearly 60 years. Now we have socialists openly living and working amongst us and ensconced within our national legislature.

I have been convinced, for some time now, that having Mr. Obama, as President, will mean one thing for Americans: redistribution of the nation’s wealth. That, as any thinking person can instantly tell you, will destroy the capitalist economic system this country is built upon and will lead, very quickly, to “business flight” as giant corporations begin to flee the country to escape the inevitably cascade of inflated taxes they are sure to be burdened with under an Obama regime. With them will go jobs. When the jobs are gone there is no creation of NEW wealth. The economy will simply starve to death. If you think the economy is in bad shape now (I don’t… but that is for a another article) just wait until we have “Obamanomics”

Socialism and communism were based on forcible redistribution of a nation’s wealth. There are a number of ways to take the wealth from those who have it and give it to those who do not. The one favored most, by the liberals/socialists in America, it seems, is taxation. Friends on the Left can hardly wait to begin raising taxes.

We must remember that Obama has been rated as the most liberal senator in the US Senate. Liberals have a demonstrated tendency to take from those who are the most productive in America and give what they take to those who are not productive. Expect, as we said above, huge tax increases on big and small businesses alike. And the nightmare of the “welfare state”, conservatives have warned Americans against, for a very long time, will become reality. And, lest we forget, a national healthcare system… socialized medicine in America.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck… well, you know the rest.

Longstreet

 

 

 

Remove That Offensive Flag!! by J.D. Longstreet

Remove That Offensive Flag!!
By: J.D. Longstreet
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Recently, I have become aware of an uneasiness in my soul when I find myself in the presence of a national symbol which, during it’s history, has been present at disgusting events of offensive conduct on the part of the nation it represents.

When I think back over the history of this National Flag I find that I am now offended by it’s presence and I believe it is in the best interests of the people of this country, especially the children, the people of color, and the native, indigenous, peoples of this land, that it be removed from public view and placed in a museum, under glass, so that future generations, interested in it’s history, can hear a sanitized version, a “less offensive” re-telling of the events, places, and circumstances, of the long, and less than glorious, history of this piece of offensive cloth.

The early history of this flag finds it flying proudly over a rag-tag bunch of rebels determined to secede from a country which, of course, wished only the best for it, which, of course, it held in the highest esteem. This dirty bunch of rabble did manage to wrest their separation from that amiable country and they forced the troops of their former country to board ships and leave for home immediately. It was forced deportation… at gunpoint. How deplorable!

Another hurtful incident in the history of this flag…the same raggedy bunch created what they called a “republic” from the remnants of a country left after the “genocidal” war they started. Now comes the REALLY corrupt part…. they agreed to legalize slavery in the country they created, because, they said, if they didn’t, it would be impossible to form a country and a government. So, slavery was instituted, under law, in the states of the new country, north and south. But, the new government would not allow the southern states, where the plantations were, to use their own resources, as in ships and ports, to bring in new slaves from Africa, No, this bunch of dastardly people, made sure the slave ships only were allowed into northern ports in New England. And horrors of horrors, that national flag, the one I now find offensive, was flying over every one of those slave ships from this new upstart country. As the newly arrived slaves stepped, shackled, down the gangplanks, and onto the shores of the country which had enslaved them, they saw that deplorable flag flying above the docks and piers of the harbor in the northern ports of this country. (The “old” country had her own slave trade but she flew, of course, her own flag.)

Then, in the middle part of the 17th century, the southern half of this fairly new country wanted to separate itself and form a new nation just as the constitution said it could. The government of the country said “no” and sent troops into the south to pillage, rape, and burn the homes and factories of the south. All the time, that national banner I now find offensive, was snapping in the smoke and shot and shell above the troops in blue as they ripped apart a society, like none other on earth, and destroyed it, killing innocent women and children, sometimes by starvation, as at Vicksburg. Needless to say, their sheer numbers forced their southern brothers to capitulate. Then followed seven years of even harsher punishment by the northern part of that country on what had so recently been their brothers to the south. It was a “calculated decimation” of a people such as had never before been seen in the annals of history. And… that offensive flag was flying above the perpetrators the entire time.

Soon after that atrocity, that same country decided the native people of the country, the people who were here when the white man’s ancestors stepped off the first ships, were now an “inconvenience” and they began a crusade of genocide to wipe them from the face of the earth. One of their generals, so recently the marauder of the Shanadoah Valley, even stated, “A good Indian is a dead Indian”. All the while that banner of theirs was flapping in the air above all those atrocities.

Even today hate groups, some wearing white robes and some with shaved heads, meet beneath that flag as they pontificate about destroying the “people of color” in this country. They also meet beneath the Christian Cross and the Battle Flag of the southern people of this country. You see, these patrons of hate know the Southern battle flag will receive the attention of the press… and NOT the flag I find offensive… nor the Christian Cross, because the Christian creed enjoins those, who subscribe to it’s tenants, to forgive this kind of conduct. So, the offensive flag flies happily above these hateful events in total impunity to harsh treatment by the “oh, so easily offended “ media.

The early histories of the people who are represented by this offensive flag were times of overbearing hate, and conquest, and genocide. Yet, that same flag flies above legislative buildings, schools, post offices, courthouses, and even private homes in a boisterous manner designed to offend the sensibilities of every “right thinking” man and woman. This must be brought to a close. That flag must be removed from public display.

Those of us who band together and form organizations to further the progress of our group of “right thinking” peoples must insist that this blood stained banner, this hateful rag, be pulled down, and never again allowed to be seen in public for fear of offending someone.

If we must, we will seek legislation towards that end. The people under that flag must not allow their self esteem to be diminished by this blatant display of an emblem with such a tarnished past.

Yes, the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, must come down. It is offensive. We cannot have if displayed over the graves of veterans, and such, because passers-by, who know of it’s ugly history, may be offended.

A new flag must be designed for all the people… for this nation. May I suggest a very simple flag? I suggest one, which represents all the sensitivities, of all who reside under it.

I hereby suggest… a solid white banner!
Longstreet
Dear Reader: If you are now “incensed” by the scribbling above, I ask you to consider the following: It was written to be an absurd depiction of a truth that is, itself, absurd. What is happening to the Confederate Battle Flag today, in places like South Carolina, is beyond absurd. My point is… if we continue to capitulate to groups who are offended, how long do you expect it will be until the scenario I describe above will play out in the courts of this country?

So, next time you read of someone offended by the Confederate Battle Flag, stop for a moment and consider the words above. Then lean on your political representatives to bring some kind of sanity back to our country, which finds itself in the dictatorial grip of Political Correctness, which is driving a wedge between us and ending any hope for a future as one people.

It is Political Correctness, Dear Reader, that offends me!

Longstreet