A Special Flag

On my living room wall hangs a very special United States flag.  Not made of cotton, nylon, or any other fabric normally used for flags, this particular flag is made of barbed wire salvaged from last year’s fires, and constructed by local artist Har-V Wolfsen of Har-V’s Wild Notions in Kooskia.  Har-V tells me that each flag contains about 200 feet of wire carefully straightened, formed, and welded together.  The finish is a powder coating done by a special process he developed specifically for this project.  I understand it takes about two weeks work to make each flag.

Har-V’s done several of these flags so far, and what will undoubtedly become the best known was presented to Presidential candidate Donald Trump when he was campaigning in Spokane recently.  This flag currently resides at the Trump campaign office in New York.  Another resides at the Veterans Memorial at the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally.

I asked Har-V why he decided to use barbed wire of all things, to make an American Flag of, and was informed that he had been asked to do so, and that no one else had ever done it before.  I commented that I had thought it might have been in protest the freedoms we have lost to political correctness in this liberal world we seem to inhabit, and got a sly grin in response to that suggestion.  But yes, barbed wire is quite symbolic I think considering the constraints that have somehow replaced the freedoms that made our nation so exceptional.

Consider, by the liberal standards that seem to be taking over our country, I was born white, therefore I am a racist.  I am heterosexual, which makes me a homophobe.  I am a Christian, which makes me an Islamophobe.  I'm an American Patriot that believes in the Constitutional right to own a gun, which makes me a radical right wing nut job.  I think and I reason, therefore I doubt much that the mainstream media tells me, which makes me a reactionary.  I am proud of my heritage and our distinctly American culture, which makes me a xenophobe.  I value my safety and that of my family; therefore I appreciate the police and the legal system, which makes me a right-wing extremist.  I am a veteran who believes in the defense and protection of this nation by all citizens, which makes me a militarist.  Heck, I’m not even sure which restroom I’m supposed to use anymore!

And, if I disagree with any of these liberal descriptors, then I’m called a “Hater”, probably correctly I guess, because I hate what the loony leftists and their ignorant followers are doing to the country I love, and have faithfully served for so many years.

In the meantime, my barbed wire flag hangs proudly on my wall.

Voters

The folks speaking out against Trump’s presidential ambitions are definitely making it easier for me to decide about voting for him or not.  So, to simplify things I’ll paraphrase a list of talking points I received in a couple of e-mails the other day.  

Is he the “Perfect Candidate” whose thoughts mirror mine?  Does he say everything the way I would say it?  Am I sure that his motives are pure?  Can I point to any other Politician that I like better?  Do I like what I have seen happen to my country over the last 7-1/2 years?  Do I like the "fundamental changes" that jerk in the White House has brought about?  My answer to all of these is… a very loud and resounding NO!  But, if I decide I don’t like Trump, am I then going to refuse to Vote, and let Mr. Obama’s handpicked raging liberal successor, Hillary Clinton win?  An equally loud NO! 

Contrary to the lamestream medias claims, I believe that Mr. Trump does have a number of outstanding presidential qualifications pertinent to the times.  Consider…

Obama is against Trump...  The media is against Trump...  The establishment Democrats are against Trump...  The establishment Republicans are against Trump...  The UN is against Trump...  The EU is against Trump...  China is against Trump...  Mexico is against Trump...  Soros is against Trump...  “Black Lives Matter” is against Trump...  “Move On” is against Trump...  The Koch Brothers are against Trump...  Planned Parenthood is against Trump....  Hillary and Bernie are both against Trump ...  Illegal aliens are against Trump ...  Islam is against Trump ...  Special interests are against Trump.  And our current collection of hateful, violent, loony Liberals are against Trump.  Humm…  if all these people are opposed to The Donald, and pro Hillary, then it would seem that Donald Trump is about the best qualified candidate we have!

If you have so many political insiders and left wing nuts, all scared to death of him, so that they all speak out against him at the same time, it's time to listen what all that corruption, perversion, and self-interest fears.

  

You may note that;  He's not a lifetime Politician...  He's not a Lawyer...  He's not doing it for the money...  He's a Natural Born American Citizen, and not a prior Indonesian citizen.  He doesn’t owe any political debts.  He doesn’t particularly favor Muslim terrorists or illegal aliens.  He doesn’t think that money grows in the taxpayers pockets, and he does know what a budget is for.

Now we get to a few bonus points as well;

Whoopi, Rosie, Sharpton, Cher, and Cyrus all say they will leave the country if he wins...  Without Mr. O’s hidden support, Hillary will likely go to jail... and a whole herd of unelected government “Czars” will become history!  The Constitution and the Bill of Rights will prevail...  You will not be able to marry your neighbors pet...  You will be able to keep your gun(s) if you qualify (If you’re not a criminal or crazy, etc.)  You can say whatever you want without being called a racist, Islamophobic, homophobic, xenophobic, religious God-fearing crackpot, sexist, etc...  Only living, registered U.S. citizens will be allowed to vote...  (Sorry about that all you undocumented democrats)  Welfare for illegal aliens will be a thing of the past.

Now, in further defense of Mr. Trump, he did not raise your taxes. He did not raise the price of food. He is not stoking up a race war.  He did not abandon any US citizens in Benghazi to be slaughtered by Muslims.  Trump did not arm the ISIS and allow them to exterminate Christians throughout the Middle East.  He did not betray Israel.  He did not provide financing and technology for Iran's nuclear weapons program.  He did not remove our nuclear missile shield in Poland at the demand of Russia.  He did not emasculate our military, and betray our veterans. Trump did not cripple our economy by increasing our debt to 20 trillion dollars. Nor has he increased welfare to record levels. 

Trump did not sign a law making it legal to imprison, and execute, Americans citizens without the benefit of a trial. He does know what a “Red Line” in the sand is.  Trump did not set free the terrorists held at Guantanamo.  He does not run off on vacation every time a crisis looms.  And I for one cannot envision Donald Trump, in the name of the American people, bowing, scraping, and apologizing to every two-bit dictator in the world!

Leftists tell us that Mr. Trump is unqualified because he doesn’t know anything about foreign affairs… well, from all appearances neither do Mr. O, Joe Biden, Hillary, or John Kerry!  He doesn’t know anything about Justice… and I don’t think that Mr. O, Justice Secretary Lynch, or Ms. Clinton do either.  He doesn’t know anything about national defense, but obviously Mr. O doesn’t, and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter should have resigned in protest after the axe job the liberal darling Mr. Obama has done on our military forces! 

The president cannot be an expert on every possible subject.  But he is expected to pick competent experts to run the various government agencies, give them specific instructions about what they’re expected to accomplish, then get out of their way and let them do their job!  Unlike Hillary, as a successful businessman Donald Trump seems to know how that works!

Donald Trump says he will make America great again, but that shouldn’t be to terribly hard.  After all, we’ve really got no place left to go, but up!

This is the Enemy

A Few weeks ago the Lewiston Tribune carried an interesting article about a gentleman who collects wartime propaganda posters.  Several of these posters were displayed in the article, with one specifically catching my eye as I had seen it before.  (Long before I assure you!)

Obviously a World War 2 poster that was aimed at Nazi Germany, labeled “This is the Enemy”, it depicts a hand, emblazoned with a swastika, stabbing a bayonet through a bible.  While Nazi Germany is long gone, this poster (with minor changes), strikes me as being just as pertinent today as it was 70 plus years ago, for, despite the assurances of Mr. Obama and the rest of the loony left, America, our beliefs, and our distinct culture, is under a massive attack today, on all fronts.   

The threat from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan are long gone, thanks to my Fathers generation.  The threat from Soviet Russia is gone as well (unless Mr. Putin manages to resurrect it), thanks to my generation and not a few folks from the following one.  So, rather than leave us in peace for a while, the world just has to bring on more problems and yet another quite serious threat.  And no, I’m not speaking of Mr. Obama and his bleeding heart liberal henchmen who are trying to destroy our country, but rather the worldwide threat of radical Islam and the terrorism it preaches.  Nor is it just America under attack, but the entire western world as well.

Be it as it may, before Mr. Obama took office there was little presence of Islam in America.  Now, all of the sudden, Islam is a required subject taught in many of our schools, while Christianity and the bible are banned in those same schools.  Now we must allow Islamic prayer in schools, airports and businesses, while a Christian football coach is fired from his job for praying before a high school game.  A traditional Christian prayer is suddenly banned from a high school graduation ceremony because it might offend a Moslem.

Suddenly we are inundated with law suits by Muslims who are offended by American culture, and now Muslims are suing employers and refusing to do their jobs if they personally deem it conflicts with Sharia Law.  Of course if I made a similar claim about conflicting with the old Irish Breahon Law I’d be laughed out of court!  (Feisty as they may have been, at least my Celtic ancestors didn’t figure that killing everybody in town was the answer to any disagreement.)  I rather think that if Muslims are all that offended by American culture, they should really go someplace else!  But no, instead, we now have the Attorney General of the United States vowing to prosecute anyone who engages in "anti-Muslim speech".  By order of the man with three Muslim names, Jihadists who engage in terrorism and openly admit they acted in the name of Islam and ISIS, are declared NOT to be Islamic by our leaders and their actions are determined NOT to be terrorism!  We are constantly reminded from on high that Islam is a religion of peace, yet…

The beltway snipers were Muslims… the Ft. Hood shooter was a Muslim…  the USS Cole bombers were Muslim…  the Boston marathon bombers were Muslim…  the Libyan Embassy attack was by Muslims…  the Iranian Embassy takeover was by Muslims…  The first World Trade Center bombing was by Muslims…  the Beirut marine barracks bombers were Muslim…  the 9/11 attackers were Muslims…  On and on, ad nauseium.   

Yet it becomes US government foreign policy that rabid Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood dictators must replace other Middle East dictators that were reasonably friendly to the West.  Conveniently our troops are withdrawn from Iraq and the Middle East, giving rise to a murderous reign by the ISIS.  In the face of this open warfare against the United States, Mr. O conducts a purge of the military, getting rid of our proven combat commanders, the US Navy is diminished to pre-World War I levels. The US Army is at pre-1940 levels. The US Air Force is scrapping 500 airplanes.  Our nuclear stockpile is reduced to 1950 levels, all of which means we don’t have very much left to defend ourselves with.  Now he wants to eliminate yet another 40,000 soldiers!

It surely looks like Mr. O is keeping at least one of his campaign promises, that of reducing Americas armed strength to levels that Muslim countries are comfortable with.  In order to do that of course a nuclear arms deal with Iran must be made at any cost, leaving the gate wide open for the further development of Iranian nuclear weapons, and generously funded by a few hundred billion dollars we hand over to Iran for just that purpose.  Oddly enough there’s is no money for American defense, secure borders, our poor, our disabled veterans, jobless Americans, or hungry Americans, but there seems to be an endless supply of money for Obama's "Syrian refugee" resettlement programs.  You might also have noticed that those “refugees” are overwhelming military age males.  It appears that in “running for their lives”, they left the women and kids behind.  But that’s all right we’re told, because those refugees are carefully ‘vetted.  Humm… ‘Vetted?  By whom, the ISIS?  If you have a bowl containing ten thousand M&M candies, and a couple of dozen of them contain a deadly poison, how many M&M’s are YOU going to eat, or give to your kids?

Strangely enough the most important thing for Obama to do after a mass shooting by two Jihadists, is to demand the disarmament of American Citizens.  Apparently he hasn’t realized that a Muslim terrorist with an AK-47 has little to fear from a hundred or so unarmed Americans, and he’s going to pay little attention to a “Gun Free” sign on a nightclub door.  (If you feel you really need an all-up [fully automatic] AK-47, talk to your neighborhood drug smuggler, not to the NRA or the local gun shop, as that class of weapon is already illegal in this country, and has been since the 1930’s!)

A new (June 2016) Department of Homeland Security report urges rejecting the use of Islamic terms such as “jihad” and “sharia” in programs aimed at countering terrorist radicalization among American youth.  Government agencies should employ “American English instead of religious, legal and cultural terms like ‘jihad,’ ‘sharia,’ ‘takfir’ or ‘umma,’” states the report by the Council’s “Countering Violent Extremism” subcommittee.  The report calls for avoiding the use of an “us versus them” mentality by shunning those Islamic terms, despite a 1,700-year history of violent Islamic extremism that lives by exactly those words.

Suddenly I’m a bit sick to my stomach when considering just how much “progress” has been made in the Islamic destruction of America in these last 7 years, a very brief period of time when  considering our 240 year history as a free nation! 

Another Memorial Day

I was able to take part in Grangeville’s Memorial Day ceremony again this year, something I have been doing for many years now, and that I consider to be quite an honor.  Memorial Day, as you know, is a national holiday we have set aside to honor America’s dead service members, AMERICAN soldiers lost in the wars we have fought since our revolution.

Copying a practice that began in the Southern states, on May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for a "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide, initially to honor and to decorate the graves of those Union soldiers who died during our Civil War.  Eventually the Confederate Veterans merged their Memorial Day with that of the Union Vets.  It was observed for the first time that year on Saturday May 30; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.  According to the White House, the May 30 date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom.  Following the usual convoluted path of American holiday history, Decoration Day became Memorial Day, and was declared to be the last Monday in May, so that federal employees could have a three day weekend.  Traditionally on that day, we decorate the graves of our dead, have an occasional parade, the President lays a floral wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, makes a speech, and then we all run out and soak up a lot of beer and a few hamburgers.

Occasionally the President is unable to attend the wreath laying ceremony due to the press of other duties, which is understandable.  (Vacations and golf games excepted in my mind!)  This year, Mr. Obama was in Vietnam and Japan representing our nation, not at Arlington National Cemetery.  OK, well and fine… BUT…

WHAT IN GOD”S GREEN EARTH is this babbling idiot doing in Hiroshima Japan on our Memorial Day weekend, weeping over Japan’s war casualties and apologizing for WW II?!

“Death fell from the sky” in Hiroshima, said the man with three Muslim names, apparently forgetting that “death fell from the sky” on Pearl Harbor as well, which brought the US into that war.  Or has he forgotten that Imperial Japan tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of allied POW’s and civilians in the Pacific, and uncounted Chinese civilians as well?  Or perhaps that Japan kept fighting after they were totally defeated, and after the first atomic bomb, only surrendering after the second.  An invasion of Japan was in the works, to force them to stop fighting.  Experts believed that this “final battle” would cost one million casualties, both American and Japanese.  Imperial Japan brought the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima on themselves.  But our globalist, sociopathic apologist, moronic “president” tours and grovels and bows and scrapes to all and sundry, all the while ignoring the very people… and the national problems… he was hired to take care of in the first place! 

I’m not a fan of apologies, or in this case even the appearance of an apology.  Japan attacked Pearl Harbor by surprise, killing over two thousand Americans.  In those first few days they attacked the US, Philippine, English, Australian and New Zealand’s possessions, followed by Indo-china, Siam, Burma, Indonesia, and Java.  In doing so they killed thousands of soldiers, captured thousands more, and killed, captured, or enslaved millions of innocent civilians.  They started the war, we merely ended it. They committed terrible atrocities against allied soldiers and POW’s throughout the war.  Yet our nuclear bombs didn’t just take lives, those atomic bombs actually saved far more Japanese lives than they took.

Being somewhat outspoken in public, I often sound-off about all the apologies the liberal left demands we tender to just about every non-American on the planet!  As a result I’ve often been lectured about the apologies we owe to Soviet Russia, Japan, Germany, North Korea and Red China!  Then there were the American Indians, African-Americans, and of course a few groups I’ve never even heard of!  I suppose we owe England an apology for declaring our independence as well!  With Monday, June 6^th, being the 72ed anniversary of the Normandy invasion, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this incompetent blithering idiot apologize to Nazi Germany for eliminating their tyrannical hold on Europe.  No better than he likes the Israelis, he’ll probably be offering to rebuild the crematorium at Auschwitz as well! 

Author Wayne Allyn Root describes the situation with our apologist in chief quite well…  “Obama and his socialist cronies should apologize to every middle class American for the harm they've done to the U.S. economy; upward mobility; middle class jobs and the American Dream.  They've created an unimaginable DISASTER. They’ve destroyed the greatest nation…the greatest economy…the greatest economic system …and greatest middle class in world history.”

Both Democrats and Republicans say that "We're broke" and can't help our own seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, and Etc.  But, over the last several years they have provided direct cash aid to...  Hamas - $351 M, Libya - $1.45 B, Egypt - $397 M, Mexico - $622 M, Russia - $380 M, Haiti - $1.4 B, Jordan - $463 M, Kenya - $816 M, Sudan - $870 M, Nigeria - $456 M, Uganda - $451 M, Congo - $359 M, Ethiopia - $981 M, Pakistan - $2 B, South Africa - $566 M, Senegal - $698 M, Mozambique - $404 M, Zambia - $331 M, Kazakhstan - $304 M, Iraq - $1.08 B, Tanzania - $554 M.  Literally Billions of Dollars, and those folks still hate us!  He sends billions of dollars in military and foreign aid to countries that are awash in petro-dollars!

We live in a country where we have countless Homeless without shelter, Children going to bed hungry, Elderly going without needed medication and the Mentally ill without treatment.  Our schools are desperate for funding, yet Obama demands Congress allocate almost $18,000 for every illegal alien child or teen that enters America.  Billions more goes to other illegal aliens for welfare. 

The Left, and parts of the Right, seems to think that any problem can be solved if we just throw more money at it.  They of course look at the American taxpayer as an endless cash cow.  Not, apparently, recognizing that the cow’s gone dry, and that when you’re deep in the hole, it’s best to stop digging!  Our congress critters aren’t much better either.  They sit around twiddling their thumbs and plotting the next election while our chief disbarred lawyer and his appointed “Czars” pass federal laws by some sort of “Imperial” decree!

So yes, I reckon the liberals are right after all, it is time for an apology.  They, and Mr. Obama, owe a world-class apology to the American people for what they’ve done to this country.

Live long and prosper

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s and assorted licenses, social collapse is not far away, and it’s time to go elsewhere.  Unfortunately we’re running out of elsewhere’s here on Earth.  The nice thing about star travel once we get it developed is that it will make it possible to find “elsewhere”.”

There are, at best estimate, about 200 billion or so stars in our Milky Way galaxy.  Making a very conservative guess, let’s assume that only one star in 100 has a planet capable of being a human habitable world (1%, or two billion planets).   And let’s say that none of these planets harbor any sort of life, intelligent or otherwise (which I cannot bring myself to believe).  Assuming further, we’ll assume that only star systems with such planets are ever occupied by our species and adapted to our sort of life.  Thus, with star travel available to them, over the next million or so years our descendents could spread among the stars at an average rate of 2000 new stars per year, in an explosion of life than we can only imagine, thoroughly remaking the galaxy as surely as life has remolded a once barren Earth.

Logic tells me that life does exist elsewhere in our universe, so… as seen from the bridge of your approaching starship, imagine gazing down on a totally new living world and wondering how its people had shaped that world, and the world it’s people.  Imagine the variety of worlds and of the living species flourishing upon them! Water worlds, desert planets, jungle planets, mountains that reach above the sky and canyons vast enough to swallow a small moon.  Every habitat and every species ever imagined in science fiction will become real, and many more yet to spring from the imagination of explorers born half a million years from now.  Imagine the knowledge to be gained from each and every one of those planets.

And as long as we’re letting our imaginations run free, consider what happens once we’ve explored our home galaxy…  Look out into the vast distances of the cosmos, home to millions… billions… of other galaxies, each a swarm of new stars, new planets, and life unimaginable.  We have an entire fascinating universe to explore.  There’s an endless line of new places to go, new things to see, new people to meet, new adventures, and new knowledge to be gained. 

It can be argued that we have no human presence on the moon today because there has been a lack of public support, vague understanding, and little willingness to invest our hard earned dollars in space development.  Fairly or not, I lay this lack of public support squarely at the feet of NASA’s administration.  To all indications, NASA has lost the sense of adventure, the drive, and the challenge we associated with spaceflight in the 1960’s.  That very human drive to explore the unknown has been replaced in our government by nothing more than a culture of bureaucratic empire building.   Certainly competing economic interests play a role, but given the amount of money necessary to achieve those dreams of space development, the cost is actually nominal, even incidental.

Rightly so we have made hero’s of our astronauts for their pioneering of manned spaceflight.  In much the same manner we looked upon the space scientists and engineers whose labors made those flights possible.  To the American public in the 1960’s and 70’s NASA was the “fair haired boy” of the mirade of US government agencies.  We considered space flight to be the bright shining future of humanity.  Over the following years, this positive attitude began to change.

Rather than demonstrating to the public the potential of space development, what humanity as a whole could do in space, NASA insisted on resting on their laurels while a shortsighted congress cut the funding, thus making spaceflight the realm of only a very few select individuals.  This perceived “exclusivity of space” made the public feel left out, that there was no place for the common man in space exploration, that there would be no benefit for them or their children, and would in fact, would leave them at an economic disadvantage. After all, why should my hard earned tax dollars be spent on creating a bright and shining future for a very few space going “supermen”, leaving me behind in the dust and squalor of overcrowded planet?  Instead of pressing science and industry to open spaceflight to everyone, the public settled for any number of space operas of dubious scientific accuracy that did little more than pump millions of dollars into the Hollywood economy.  People never lost their fascination with spaceflight; they were just left out of the game by a mindless bureaucracy.

In the Star Trek universe, the Federation is all about ensuring that all people benefit and have a role in the forward evolution of that wondrous future.  This is a concept that we here on our pale blue marble should seriously consider for the long term good of ourselves and of our descendants.  After all, we’re running out of accessible natural resources. For the most part we’re now mining low-grade materials to feed our industrial demands, and even those materials are getting scarce. We’re running out of energy sources as well. What’s going to happen when the oil finally runs out?  The environmentalist’s object to our burning coal and oil, they won’t let us develop nuclear fission, and their alternate “green energy” programs have been a total flop so far. Yet the sun each second puts out about forty million times as much energy as we need on Earth, which leaves the possibility of building efficient space based solar power systems to solve our energy problems… until the sun burns out in a few billion years.  It would be nice if we could develop a new supply of natural resources as well… before we’re reduced to living in an updated version of the Stone Age! The moon, and the near Earth asteroids, contains a plentiful supply of just about everything we need here on Earth, and will need to live and work in space itself.  Professor John S. Lewis, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona states that an asteroid only two kilometers in diameter, and assuming typical meteorite composition, would be worth (at today’s prices) around 300,000 trillion dollars! That’s about the gross GLOBAL product for a very long time into the future!

The recently initiated engineering study “100YSS” (the 100 Year Starship), a NASA/DARPA program to study and develop the means of reaching the stars, believes, as do I, that pursuing an extraordinary tomorrow will create a better world today, if we, and our Congress critters, don’t allow it to wither on the vine. The social, cultural, political, scientific and technical communities, along with the electorate, must see human travel to the stars as not just the dream of a few wild eyed space enthusiasts, but a necessity for the very survival of the human race that we must begin work on now, while we still have the means to do so, so that all human life here on Earth…  and our children’s children into the far future… might “live long and prosper”.

I'm still here

A liberal is someone who feels he owes a great debt to his fellow man,

which he proposes to pay off with your money

Undaunted by a bunch of medical issues I’m still hanging around, writing on occasion, still mourning the loss of my wife, cluttering up the house, driving the kids crazy, snarling at business as usual politics, and hopefully irritating the daylights out of the loony left.  Like a good many other Americans, I also keep track of the news reports on what I learned in school many years ago to call “Current Events”.  (Despite the loud objections of liberal English majors about Sarah’s use of the term a few years ago).  Following the news, I’ve concluded that the sanity of the entire civilized world seems to be on rather shaky ground, with the third world not far behind! 

Russian imperialism is on the march once again in Syria and Iraq, (following the Ukraine escapade), while Mr. Putin seems to be laughing at the leaderless west and trying to restart the cold war.  China is happily making threats all over Southeast Asia.  North Korea is once again rattling her saber at South Korea and the U.S.  Moslems are happily massacring fellow Moslems and Christians throughout Europe and the mid-east, while Iran is threatening everybody in Southwest Asia with a nuclear holocaust, which, despite Mr. O’s assurances, the somewhat temperamental Israelis appear to be taking very seriously.  The troubles we face in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from being resolved, ISIS terrorism is still going strong with strikes all over the world, now with the threat of “dirty bombs” using radioactive materials swiped by the Russian underworld and sold to Islamic terrorists.  In response, Mr. Obama is cutting US military strength to its lowest level in over eighty years.  The industrialized world’s economy, led by the United States, is still in the basement and looks to be getting even worse, and now I understand, some U.S. citizens are even refusing to accept U.S. Dollars in exchange for their labor!

Things aren’t much better on the home front it would seem, we’re still loosing the long-term war on drugs, yet we’re now legalizing marijuana!  Social Security is still on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to Congress continually raiding the kitty to support assorted pork barrel projects.  The TSA is still strip-searching babies and little old ladies, overly zealous “Zero Tolerance” school discipline policies continue to victimize kids and make fools of assorted School Boards, “political correctness” now overrules Freedom of Speech, and ObamaCare remains “egg on the face” in Washington and an economic disaster to the rest of us. (One forecast claims that ObamaCare will collapse under it’s own weight within a year.)  Recent politically correct court orders are handing a couple of Muslim truck drivers a small fortune each after they were fired for refusing to deliver a load of beer on religious grounds, while Christians who refuse to provide a wedding cake (on religious grounds) for a same sex wedding can cost a Mom and Pop bakery it’s business license!  (Double standards anyone?)  Babies are still being killed (aborted) in wholesale lots in the interest of “choice”.  I’m not sure how much forestland we lost to wildfires this year (thanks mostly to the environuts and their weird “natural” ideas), but it seems like "most of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and a touch of Montana” would be fairly descriptive.  Some schools are adding Islamic prayer rooms for the convenience of Moslem students, yet a High School football coach who happens to be a Christian got fired for praying during a ball game.  Politicians and wannabe Presidential candidates are happily lambasting each other, and the media, yet again, and of course the leftist media keeps telling us how wonderful things are under Obama. 

I have learned much from that same media in recent months though.  For instance, while black lives matter, other lives don’t matter.  Street hoods are really the good guys apparently, and the cops are wanton murderers.  The economy stinks, the Middle Class is shrinking, the Average Family income is still dropping, Black youths have over a 50% unemployment rate, Hispanic youth unemployment is over 35%, and after 7 years in office none of this is Obama’s fault.

Eric Snowden and General Petraeus were pilloried in the liberal press for breaking laws about releasing and-or not securing classified documents, but Hillary Clinton of course is totally innocent of any responsibility for doing exactly the same thing.  After all, “What difference does it make?”  Apparently we’re to believe that republicans want dirty air, dirty water, oil spills, trash on the streets, polluted oceans, old people without medical treatment, illegal immigrants and our own young people without educations being paid the lowest wages possible, and starving children wandering the streets.  The republicans started every war in American history according to one liberal claim, and of course those same nasty right wing people have some sort of a “war on women” going on as well, and they don’t believe in equal rights either.  Oh Yeah, don’t forget that everything is still Bush’s fault.  On top of everything else, Mr. O gives every impression that he hates our allies, loves our sworn enemies, and is totally afraid of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea (and probably a mouse as well)!  With that, he’s doing his best to turn us into a completely disarmed third (forth?) world country!  And… Anyone who disagrees with his agenda is automatically considered a racist… and potential terrorist.

I certainly do not understand what has happened to the country I grew up in, or to the people living here in those days, who would, at the drop of a hat, fight the devil himself to defend our Constitution, citizens, and nation.  Try this modern liberal sort of crap with my feisty old Irish grandpappy and with naught but a blackthorn shillelagh in hand he’d definitely change a lot of attitudes!  When I was growing up, we saluted the flag… proudly.  We recited the Pledge of Allegiance… proudly.  We served in the military… proudly. And we did it all in English, no matter what our “native” language was.  We respected the cops, cussed at the taxman, helped our neighbors, worked for a living, and carried on with our lives as best we could without government handouts, or being told that the uber rich owed us anything.

Welcome to the new “feel good” world order of the loony left, and an entire generation of Americans that seem to have lost their minds, their manhood, and the American dream.  A new socialist world in which morality, honesty, respect, and truth seem to have been relegated to the ranks of historical oddities. 

Is it time for a real national leader yet, or is an uninformed electorate going to stick us with yet another leftist dilettante for four more years?  

President

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by

letting the Government take care of him;  better take

a closer look at the American Indian."----- Henry Ford

As I get deeper into my twilight years, I realize that it’s inevitable that one of these days the party will end. There will be a morning when there isn't any more tomorrow, no special occasions to celebrate with friends, no more phone calls just to shoot the breeze, and of course no more time to spend with the grandkids.  It would seem that one of the more important things to do before that morning comes, is to let your family and friends know that you care for them, in part by finding simple ways to let them know your heartfelt beliefs and the guiding principles of your life, so that they can always say, "He was my friend and I knew where he stood."  So, just in case I'm gone tomorrow morning, please know this:

I voted against LBJ, who, while perhaps a competent rural Texas politician, was totally lost in the big league of national and international politics.  While giving us the failed “War on Poverty”, and the equally disastrous Vietnam War, he felt that, like Hitler, he was oh-so much-more knowledgeable about military affairs than his Generals, and wound-up with the same result that Hitler got.

I voted against Jimmy Carter, who, while possessing a mouthful of teeth, a naval academy education, and a peanut farm, seemed totally lost in the entire world of politics, doing little more than piously bleating “Peace in our time”.  Carter gave us amnesty for Vietnam War draft evaders, an energy crises, the Chrysler bailout, and the Iran hostage crisis.  Small wonder he didn’t get reelected.

Ronald Reagan I liked, warts and all, and I did vote for him, twice.  Say what you will about the Iran-Contra affair and the upward spiraling national budget on his watch, he did engineer the economic collapse of the USSR, and the end of the Cold War.

I voted for Bush the Elder, a good man who tried hard, and who made two really major mistakes.  His boastful “No New Taxes” promise was the first, while stopping half way to Baghdad and victory in the first Iraq War was definitely a world-class screw-up.

The “Bill and Hill” dog and pony show just had to be one of the worst disasters ever to hit the American political arena, and did most certainly did not get my vote in either election!  Despite his apparently high approval rating, Bill gave us NAFTA, Travelgate, the Whitewater affair, the war in Yugoslavia, Monica Lewinski, a string of lies that has yet to end, and last but not least an impeachment circus.  President Reagan thought so highly of Presidential Honor and Prestige that he refused to wear his preferred jeans and cowboy boots to work every day, opting instead for a suit and tie, the coat of which he never removed while in the Oval Office.  Slick Willie on the other hand thought so little of that same office that he apparently had kneepads issued to White House interns!  Hillary in the meantime somehow managed to antagonize just about everybody on the White House staff and then tried to swipe half the furnishing when she moved out!

I voted for Bush the Younger, another good man who tried hard.  Unfortunately he had an incredible run of bad luck, and was completely overrun by a mad stampede of world events that he had absolutely no control over.

As to the present day; I twice voted against the individual described by one pundit as “the incompetent, lying, flip-flopping, insincere, double-talking, radical socialist, terrorist excusing, bleeding heart, narcissistic, militarily inept, scientific and economic moron currently living in the White House!”  “Nuff said about this guy.

What comes next I really don’t know, as that’s for the upcoming election to decide.  But so far I’m not real impressed with the current crop of candidates from either party.  On one side we’ve got an incompetent Vice-President running against an avowed socialist, and an old woman with delusions of grandeur.  On the other side of the aisle there are a couple on nonentities, a Doctor who really should stay with medicine, a guy that wants to start a family tradition of becoming President, and a really rich guy who thinks he can solve any problem by firing everybody in sight.  (He’s also the only one that even begins to make any sense, which is plenty scary in itself!)

For the moment the primary argument amongst these candidates centers on gun control, lack thereof.  Face it folks, most politicians don’t seem to realize that denying people the right to defend themselves only means that we can passively sit around and wait to be killed by some madman.  (Such as what happened on 9-11 when a few suicidal Arabs armed with box cutters of all things, took over some airliners and killed a few thousand defenseless Americans.)  The recent case of one nut going out and killing nine innocent (and again defenseless) people made all the headlines for days on end.  The fact that a hundred plus million American gun owners didn’t shoot anybody on that sad day wasn’t even mentioned.  Demanding more gun control laws because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids!  It takes a particular type of stupid to actually believe that those same criminals will obey new gun laws, considering that they completely ignore the old laws! 

In the interest of controlling my blood pressure, I’m not even going to begin discussing our liberal politician’s current war on American values! 

What we need in this country is fewer laws, and a lot more justice.

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Robert A. Heinlein

Wildfire

(Part one)

With the current extended drought, unseasonable high temperatures, a steady stream of thunderstorms, and our current fire situation, thoughts all over the west are turning to major forest fires, and the devastation of a century ago.  In the summer of 1910, a series of forest fires swept over Idaho and Montana, culminating on August 20–21 in what is known as the "Big Blowup."  Today many of us think of that fire, look at our current situation, and we wonder. 

On Saturday afternoon, August 20, 1910, all hell broke lose in the northwest.  Hurricane-force winds, unlike anything seen since, roared across the rolling Palouse of eastern Washington and into Idaho and Montana forests so dry they crackled underfoot.  In a matter of hours, fires became firestorms, and trees by the millions became exploding torches. Millions more, sucked from the ground, roots and all, became flying fireballs. It was dark by four in the afternoon, save for wind-powered fireballs that rolled from ridge top to ridge top at seventy miles an hour. They leaped canyons a half-mile wide in one fluid motion. Entire mountainsides ignited in an instant.  It was like nothing anyone had ever seen.  Reportedly, by noon on the twenty-first, the day had turned dark as far north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as far south as Denver, and as far east as Watertown, New York. To the west, the sky was so filled with smoke, ships 500 miles at sea could not navigate by the stars.  There was no stopping or containing the fire; one could only hope to avoid it. Trains raced to evacuate towns just ahead of the flames. Forester Edward G. Stahl recalled that flames hundreds of feet high were "fanned by a tornadic wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell." In the same instant that towns and timber alike perished, heroes were made, legends were born, and history changed forever.

Before it was over, 10,000 men were on fire lines that stretched from eastern Washington across the Idaho panhandle well into western Montana. The names of the fires they fought sounded more like the names of Civil War battlefields than anything else: Big Creek, Setzer Creek, Stevens Peak, Storm Creek, Bullion Mine, Cedar Ridge and Little North Fork. In some canyons, you could not tell where one battlefield ended and the next one began.  The fire burned three million acres and killed enough timber to fill a freight train 2,400 miles long. Eighty-six people perished, most burned beyond recognition.

Every able-bodied man available fought the rampaging flames. Most were Idaho loggers, miners from Butte, Montana, and skid row bums brought in on trains from Spokane. The pay was 25 cents an hour, plus a bedroll, sourdough pancakes, coffee and canned tomatoes. 

On October 8, 1871 the worst recorded forest fire in North American history swept through Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, destroying millions of dollars worth of property and timberland, several communities, and taking between 1,200 and 2,400 lives.  The Peshtigo Fire was a forest fire that burned in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin. It was a firestorm that caused the most deaths by fire in United States history.  Occurring on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire has been largely forgotten.  Yet on that same day the cities of Holland and Manistee, Michigan burned, and the same fate befell Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron as well.

On the day of the Peshtigo Fire, a cold front brought strong winds that fanned the fires, escalating them to a massive firestorm ensued.  A firestorm is sometimes called nature's nuclear explosion.  We have a wall of flame, a mile high, five miles wide, and traveling 90 to 100 miles per hour.  Hotter than a crematorium, the bodies of the dead simply melt and disappear, while even sand is turned into glass.   By the time Peshtigo was over, 1,875 square miles, or 1.2 million acres of forest had been consumed, an area approximately twice the size of Rhode Island. Some sources list 1.5 million acres having burned.  Twelve communities were destroyed.  An accurate death toll has never been determined because local records were destroyed in the fire. Between 1,200 and 2,500 people are thought to have lost their lives.

The worst natural disaster in Minnesota history, the Cloquet Fire of 1918, claimed nearly 500 lives in a single day. The fire began after sparks from local railroad tracks ignited dry brush. When the flamed abated, as many as 38 communities had been razed to the ground, 250,000 acres had been scorched, 52,000 persons had been injured or displaced and the costs mounted to nearly $75 million.

The summer of 1988 saw the largest wildfire breakout in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park. By the time the fire subsided, despite modern firefighting technology, nearly 800,000 acres had been burned over, roughly a third of the entire park. Surprisingly no lives were lost as a direct result of the flames, even though as many as 25,000 firefighters reportedly battled the conflagration.

Could it happen again?  Most certainly…  Wildfire season is definitely here, and so far 2015 is shaping up to be another spectacular fire year, particularly in our drought suffering western states.  Unfortunately, major blazes are becoming the rule rather than the exception, and not necessarily “Only” because of the enviro’s much touted global warming.  It's a trend that comes quite naturally with our changing climate of course, a massive drought, and nearly a century of misguided environmentalism and forest planning that only grows worse every day. 

So it could be that the worst wildfires in U.S. history will be the ones that have yet to happen.  That’s scary, considering the damage that wildfires have done in the past.  Perhaps, with a little luck, proper planning, common sense, and continued effort on the fire suppression folks, this year will not be a sign of things to come.

To our firefighters holding those oh-so precarious fire-lines today, I can only say “Thank You… and be safe”.

Ebola?

Media reports on the death of a Liberian traveler in Lagos, Nigeria, and the transfer of two American medical caregivers to the US for treatment due to the Ebola virus have definitely caught the world’s attention–and for very good reason.  We live in an interconnected world, and now have to accept the fact that rapid long distance air travel has the potential to spread nearly any infectious disease, viral or bacterial, to any other country, and ultimately the entire world.  Under this scenario, one person, unknowingly infected with some really nasty disease, could embark on an international flight and expose everyone aboard with the disease.  As those people disperse, traveling to whatever destination, they would of course be exposing all their fellow passengers to that same disease.  And consider what happens at major air terminals worldwide, as those exposed travelers wander about, waiting for their interconnecting flight!  In very short order, we have a quite serious worldwide pandemic exploding on the scene!

In the case of the current Ebola threat with it’s very high (50 to 90%) fatality rate, it’s no wonder that so many people are quite concerned about these possibilities, and a potential threat to the United States.  However, according to officials at the CDC, the actual chance of it developing into a serious public health risk in the U.S. is quite small, in part due to the mechanism of it’s spread.  Ebola is not an aerosol, it’s only spread directly, human-to-human, by direct contact with body secretions such as saliva, sweat, blood, and feces.  It can be spread through a break in the skin or mucous membranes, or after touching your nose, mouth or eyes after having contact with the virus.   It is not transmitted by coughing or sneezing (droplet spread), as would be the case for someone with influenza or measles.  (If it were, half the population of West Africa would be dead by now.)  Poor and crowded living conditions in the afflicted area, along with improper sanitation, and rudimentary medical facilities seem to be a very important element in the spread of the Ebola virus. These of course, are not the conditions we generally find throughout most of the Western world, unlike parts of Africa.

However, before we congratulate ourselves on our good fortune, remember that Ebola remains a worldwide hazard because it is one of the most deadly viruses known to man, due in part to its ability to constantly undergo mutations.  Remember the seemingly endless stream of influenza strains we’re threatened with each year?  Influenza constantly mutates (because of it’s quite simple make-up), into some new threat, much as Ebola seems to be doing.  And much like so many other diseases, Ebola could readily be weaponized by large terrorist organizations or an unfriendly power.  Currently consisting of only 5 known strains, Ebola was first identified in 1976 in the Western Democratic Congo.  (Along the Ebola river for which it’s named.)  Four of these strains can be spread to humans, while the fifth resides only in primates. The fruit bat, considered a culinary delicacy in West Africa, is presently believed to be a natural reservoir and primary vector of the virus, pending further study.

Symptoms begin suddenly–often with an intense headache and fatigue, sore throat and chills–followed by vomiting, and diarrhea with onset of a hemorrhagic rash in the upper roof of the mouth and skin that appears to be blister-like.  While the virus incubates in from 2-21 days, its important to know that only those who are symptomatic–generally after 8-9 days–having fever along with diarrhea, vomiting and potentially a hemorrhagic rash can transmit the virus to others.  As a result, if someone on a plane with active symptoms–including vomiting and diarrhea –soils a restroom, another person, unaware of the threat, could theoretically touch a contaminated area, and thus acquire the virus.  That said, it’s important to know that the majority of those who have become infected with the Ebola virus have been healthcare workers in constant close contact with patients, as well as family members caring for sick family members. 

It’s also important to know that persons with Ebola may have symptoms that are nonspecific (headache, chills, and fever) making quick identification of the virus nearly impossible. It could be easily be mistaken for other illnesses including malaria, cholera or even typhoid fever. Only many days into the illness–after the onset of profuse vomiting and diarrhea–will a patient exhibit the telltale signs of Ebola with bleeding from the mouth and nose along with rectal bleeding concurrent with shock, liver and renal failure, followed by continued bleeding and cardiovascular collapse.

At this time, there is no vaccine or antiviral medication available to treat the disease. Only supportive care, with intravenous fluids, platelet and blood transfusions are available to patients.  While there have been some promising experimental treatments in animals, (monoclonal antibodies), there are no specific treatments that are currently available for humans.  With technical issues regarding the high mutability of the virus preventing researchers from being able to produce a vaccine or viable antiviral medication, other issues such as the danger of handling the live virus have prevented more intense and speedy efforts to actively pursue such research.

The FDA is also warning consumers to be aware of supplements and other products sold online that are fraudulently marketed to treat or prevent Ebola infection. We currently have no agent, drug, dietary supplement, or herbal supplement that are shown to prevent Ebola infection or shorten the course of the infection.  Nor has there been sufficient time to study the disease with an eye toward producing any effective cure or preventive.  Of course this hasn’t stopped some Internet retailers from claiming that their products can be used against Ebola.

So, unless you’ve recently been to West Africa, the only current Ebola threat to American citizens is the very small number of snake oil peddlers capitalizing on public fears. Consumers beware: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

"Lumpy"

Our third Warbird Weekend was yet another rousing success, thanks to the hard work of the event staff, the sponsors, and a lot of unsung volunteers.  As usual, I joined a number of aviation enthusiasts in wandering around the parking ramp taking pictures, talking to the pilots, and in general drooling over the aircraft on display.  Unfortunately I seem to have a problem with my camera, as nearly three quarters of my pictures are either badly light streaked or out of focus.  (I will have a new camera next year!)  On the other hand, I ran into an old friend out there, and had the time of my life!

“Lumpy” is an AT-28D “Nomad”, a pilot training plane from the 1950’s, and after retiring from US service were modified in the 1960’s to be an armed light attack aircraft for use in the counter insurgency role.  For those of you who might be a bit confused by the name “Nomad” rather than “Trojan”, the T-28 series aircraft (A, B, and C models) were named the “Trojan”, while the armed “D” model variant was named the “Nomad”.  But the –28D certainly fits the name, as it’s most definitely a wanderer!  These planes served with the French Air Force in Algeria, where, adding to the confusion, they were called the Fennec.  Many were sent to the Congo during that unpleasantness.  Some were sent to the Philippines, while many others served with the air forces of South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.  The US Air Force retained quite a few AT-28D’s as well, where they operated as the famed “Zorro” Air Commando truck busters along the Ho Chi Minh trail.  (“Steel Tiger” to you vets.)

“Lumpy” was assigned to the Royal Lao Air Force, which is where I got into the act.  As an Air Commando, my assignment was to “Project 404”, in support the RLAF T-28 operation as an instructor, advisor, and doing whatever else needed doing.  (You haven’t lived until you try to teach a highly technical subject when you don’t speak the student’s language!)  Anyway, “Lumpy” was among sixty some AT-28’s, while I was one of many Air Commandos in the midst of the so-called “secret war” in Laos.  To make a long story short, “Lumpy” and I both survived  the war.  I came home, and “Lumpy” soldiered on, finally being evacuated to Thailand by a Lao pilot during those horrifying final days.  From there she somehow made her way to Australia for a few years, and was finally brought home to a well-earned retirement.  Nowadays several of those Lao AT-28D’s still survive and are flying in various countries, taking their rightful place in the Warbird lineup.

 

She showed up in Grangeville for our Warbird Weekend, complete with simulated guns and bombs, and flown by her current owner, Roger Collins of Woodinville, WA, and yes, it did take a few minutes to get my feet back on the ground.  Ron Morrell of Renton WA. showed up with his T-28A, (the shiniest T-28 I’ve ever seen), which made our part of the flight line quite interesting to a lot of people.  I managed to spend most of the weekend pestering Roger, discussing the Nomad operations in Laos with him, answering questions for a good many by-standers, and in general making a nuisance of myself.  Roger is an old USAF F-4 Phantom II driver who now flies because he enjoys flying.  Thus he could readily understand my excitement,  and tolerating my somewhat excessive exuberance, let me play Crew Chief once again, and even took me for a half hour ride in the old girl.  That certainly made my day!

I’ve often seen the “Old Guys” at airshows, seemingly lost in time as they stand almost reverently touching a particular warbird.  Now, as I’m reaching my twilight years, I guess I’ve become one of them, and can now understand them a lot better.  Those old guys aren’t lost, they’re remembering the days so long ago and often far away, when they and their aircraft took part in some earth shaking events.  To those of us who flew and fought in them, those old planes aren’t just a collection of nuts, bolts, rivets and sheet metal… they are living creations, each with it’s own character and personality… and our companions through some often terrifying experiences.

I’ll see you next year old friend.