"War on Terror" is Over - Obama

This Explains Everything

What is it with political leaders having a problem using English words and understanding basic definitions?  Back in the day, we had a news story of a President, then Bill Clinton, questioning the definition of the word, "is".  What?  The word, "is" means "is" and has always meant "is" but according to Bill, it has a varying definition.  Really?

This White House insists on saying that the Taliban is not a terror group but rather an "armed insurgency".  What?  School children are being slaughter, civilian people are being beheaded around the world and now our White House is agreeing with an Al Jazeera English's policy of banning the word, "terrorism".  One of Al Jazeera's executives was quoted to have said, that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.  So how many freedom fighters do you know of in history that just slaughtered women and children?  Huh.  Stumped?  Me too.

Here we are again finding ourselves down the road to the "meaning of definitions" and it seems that many American's are just not thinking when they hear these soundbites.  Our nation's citizenry has become so dumbed-down that we seem to longer care!  It seems that most people are just taking whatever the White House says and assuming that our government has our "best" interest at heart.   The United States White House is aligning itself with the type of ideology that Al Jazerra promotes.  This is NOT reflective of my belief system or for that matter the belief system of our founding fathers.

So let's look at this word, terrorism.  According to the FBI's Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code: "International terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:

- Involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; 

- Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and 

- Occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum. 

Well, doesn't that sound like the Taliban to you?  According to the FBI's definition then, they are terrorists!  This is ridiculous that the White House is playing word games with definition's and the meaning of terrorism?  FOX News asks this question as well and discusses it at length.

The Kelly File also has picked up this discussion with a small dialog of clips from the White House spokesman.

Let's not forget, in light of all this "terrorism" Obama declared that the 'War on Terror" was over so there you go.  Delete the word from use and the problem goes away.

Benghazi and Accountability

So tell me again why so many defended Hilary and the president when they stood in the rose garden and blamed a video?  Used to be that when leadership were caught in their lies, they resigned before bringing disgrace on our nation.  Remember Watergate?  How many people were fired, removed and/or resigned?  Today we have four people dead in Benghazi and one is an Ambassador not to mention the two former Navy seals and yet it seems some just want to "sweep this under the rug and move forward" like nothing terrible has really happened.

"Sweeping things under the rug and moving forward" seems to be a "spell" over many these days, not only in politics but I have seen this personally in my family and even in the church.  What happened to accountability?  How about responsibility?  Integrity?  Repentance?  Restitution?  When we allow people/leadership to do this, we are basically saying that this "injustice" (whatever it may be) is no big deal and we hear them saying "get over it".

Really?  I have seen this same demon manifesting in pastors taking this same stance over issues in their church when it comes to family disputes.  They want to "sweep things under the rug".  No one wants to get their "hands dirty" and so they "wash their hands" of involvement in anything "messy" so they don't loose tithes or members because too many people today are not about truth; they are about easy.

It reminds me of Meg Ryan's line in "You've Got Mail".  Kathleen Kelly is dealing with the loss of her business and she keeps hearing this line as if it is truth.  She is told that it is nothing personal; it's business.  She finally responds with this dialog, "What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to *you*. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?"

I have seen SO many things in the past few years (even aside from politics) where people act like personal attacks are nothing personal.  Really?  Or where accountability and leadership don't want to get involved with "this or that" because that is a "family issue" or they use the line of it's "personal".

"And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?" - Kathleen Kelly

We seem to live in a day where accountability and restitution seem to be a thing of the past.  Tragic!

F-35 B Landing

Ok this is really cool if you are into military aircraft.  This is a BIG deal to those in the aviation world and really cool to watch even if your not.

Check out the new F-35 making a vertical landing on the aircraft carrier.  This is the new baby from Lockheed Martin and it is a joint venture with many countries as well.

Yeah, this is pretty much incredible!

July 4, 2011 Let Freedom Ring

Wounded vets saddle up and bike in the Warrior 100K bike ride out in southwest Texas this past July Fourth.  It was a gathering of wounded warriors and their former president, George W. Bush in the Big Bend Park.

A 12 Mile ride on day one followed by a 30 mile ride on day two, President Bush, now 64, was right in the middle of the pack of heros...peddling along and pushing the group onward.  He biked with them to bring awareness to the wounded warriors and their ongoing needs.

Day three is another 12 miles of difficult trails out in west Texas.  They get on the bikes bright and early to get out before the heat of Texas warms things up to much.

Incredible story about a president and the wounded soldiers he commanded.  Take a minute to hear the Fox News story here:  100K Bike Ride

US NAVY SEALS

Got this photo saying this was the last thing Osama Bin Laden saw before he died.  Interesting.

American Exceptionalism

This Memorial Day week-end I happened across this video (from last years World Cup tournament when the USA team was playing in the first round of the play-off games).  The song OVER THERE was done as a re-mix in the video by Vandon Arms.

Ok - so what does all this have to do with Memorial Day you ask?  I was just reminded of how many people today are attacking our country (from within) and really hacking at the fiber of what made this country great - American Exceptionalism!  What is American Exceptionalism?  It is what this song was stating back then of the overall personal view that Americans had regarding our country and our standards.  It was written from the heart of that exceptionalism to support the young men/women heading out to war and to bring comfort to the worried loved ones waiting at home as the first World War was launched.  People KNEW that America was great, it was where the entire world wanted to run to to escape the tyrannies of their homelands and they even were so bold that they sang about it!

The headlines across American newspapers declared on April 6, 1917, that the United States had declared war on Germany and upon hearing that, one actor, singer, dancer, songwriter, playwright and Broadway producer stared humming.  Yes, that's right, humming!  George Cohan had already written many famous songs such as "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy."  He continued humming all morning and soon began to think of some lyrics.  By the time he arrived at work in the morning he had versus, chorus, tune and title already laid out.  It sold over 2 million copies by the end of the war and is still a recognized song today.  In 1936, Cohan was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for writing this song!  There was a sense of honor about what America was, who we were as a people and what we represented.  We were NOT ashamed of our endeavors, our victories or accomplishments.  We certainly did not bring apologies to the world stage about our exceptionalism back then or speak down about our successes.  We were PROUD Americans.  We put our trust in God and even declared it on our money.  As we have strayed from God we have strayed from our exceptionalism.  I pray that as we remember this Memorial Day we remember all that gave the highest price to pay for our freedom to live in such a great country!  God Bless America!

Here are the complete lyrics to the song in case you don't know them:


Complete Lyrics to "Over There" by George M. Cohan
Johnnie get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run
Hear them calling you and me
Every son of liberty

Hurry right away, no delay, go today
Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad
Tell your sweetheart not to pine
To be proud her boy's in line.

CHORUS (repeated twice):
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere

So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over there, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over over there.
Over there.
Johnnie get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Johnnie show the Hun you're a son of a gun
Hoist the flag and let her fly
Yankee Doodle do or die

Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit
Yankees to the ranks from the towns and the tanks
Make your mother proud of you
And the old Red White and Blue.

CHORUS (repeated twice):
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere

So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over there, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over over there.
Over there.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman USAF

Received this email regarding the death of Captain Ed Freeman of the USAF who died in August of 2008.  The email was targeting all the "news media" hype on Hollywood celebrity topics but points out that there was little if any coverage of the death of this great hero.  Read on about a true patriot!

Courage

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley.

It's November 14, 1967. LZ (landing zone) X-ray. Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 yards away, that your CO has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see a Huey coming in. But ... It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it. Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you. He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.

Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. He drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.  And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.  He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho . May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

Sure wish there was more media coverage of great men like this.