OK Nanc, let's try again.

The text doesn't work well in the avatar sized images.

They're too "busy" and have too many hues.

Suggestions?

Something different?

For it to work well the image needs a ratio of about 3:4 , taller than it is wide.


Update:

Two more images: (whoops! One more something happened to it when it was uploaded)







The other image has a darker background.

I rescaled the image and cropped it so the forward figures appear bigger. I changed the type of siren to one that is more commonly recognized and lightened the background to bring the foreground out.





Another idea. I cropped more of the image and added some color and texture. Also got rid of the guys hand that was in front of her feet and replaced it with some water and rock.

Some fun stuff and something for nanc

I have some fun stuff stored on the web and if any of my friends wish to use these, feel free they may be used in posts but will not show in comments unless you plug one in to your personal picture box.



http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/booty.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/grenade2.gif








http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/fttt.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/kmb.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/nuts.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/pooch.jpg







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/rds.jpg

All of the ones above are in the public domain and may be used freely. To use them, copy the URL from beside the gif or jpg and paste it into your menu for adding images where it says "Or add an image from the web" set the size for 100px which you will see in your "Edit Html" tab, in your blogger "Posting" tab after you download the image to blogger. (the drunken squirl is set for 200px), or play around with the size to see what it looks like. The larger the px size the larger the picture.

If you need help, ask me and I will be glad to give you a hand.


For my friends, no strangers. (if you, a stranger, become a friend first)
I hope I'm not stepping on the boss's toes (Mr Beamish) but if someone wants a custom Avatar, let me know. Its yours owing only to my consrtaint of time. If you aren't familiar with graphics programs and have an idea for a picture you would like to have for your blog, I'll see what I can come up with.

A quote and a few thoughts

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
--- Frank Herbert, Dune

Much of my though and subsequent life has been gleaned from the written word. I don't remember the first book I read but I remember my grandmother reading stories to me from The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. I remember reading "A Pilgrims Progress" when I was about five years old.

Fiction has always been my favorite and Science Fiction my love. I discovered Robert Heinlein through a beloved older cousin that bought me two of his novels when I was six years old. After that I read everything by Heinlein I could get my hands on.

I learned that true friends are more rare than diamonds and to do the right thing for self respect and not for praise or reward.

Later, I read books of philosophy and religion, then politics, history and biographies, (and the back of soup cans and cereal boxes).

Through that reading, I gained an appreciation of humanity, even with all its warts, and a cynicism that has always disturbed my family greatly. I learned that civilization is ephemeral and to prepare for the worst but live for the day. I learned that life is paradoxical and if these things seem contradictory, life itself is a constant contradiction.

The one thing I know for a fact.

Without individual freedom, all of the knowledge in the world is worthless.

A letter to the editor

Sometimes when you have despaired of the poor excuse our children and young adults have received for an education, a jewel shines forth. We meet someone like DM, who has his head screwed on right, or read one of AOWs posts, where she has reprinted the work of one of her students, and you come to the realization that things aren't quite as bad as they seem.

From, Wilmington Del. "News Journal"

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
03/05/2006

What leaders do on their own time is a private matter

Because I am 17 years old, some people might say that I am not mature enough to understand many issues. However, let me just say that I get more laughs reading the opinion page than I ever have from the comics.

Delawareans seem to be fixated on bashing President Bush and proposing new conspiracy theories whenever they seem convenient.

President Bush did not cause Hurricane Katrina or the complications afterwards. New Orleans was built below sea level so they should have seen it coming and made preparations themselves.
if Dick Cheney shoots someone by accident on his own time, it is none of your business and neither he nor the president has any obligation to tell you about it.

Finally, it seems unreasonable to me that Bush was able to graduate from Yale University, be elected governor of Texas, and earn the respect and confidence of enough of his peers in the Republican Party to be nominated as their presidential candidate if he is indeed as dim-witted as you say.

I am willing to wager that the majority of Delawareans who get their information from this sorry excuse for a newspaper have barely enough brainpower to govern their own lives, let alone governing a nation of almost 300 million.

Bradley Lehman, Hockessin

Thanks to WSJs, Best of the Web Today - by JAMES TARANTO

And special thanks to Always On Watch, educators like her, and all of those parents that take their obligation to raise their children, seriously, (you know who you are!). ;^)

A new nightmare for the left

Let me preface this by saying, so there is no misunderstanding, I am a Vietnam ,"Era", veteran. I never served in combat I knew I would be drafted and the prospect that I might die in Vietnam was very real.

I placed my fate in Gods hands. I supported the Vietnam war even if I didn't support LBJ and his minions. I was drafted in January of 1971 was inducted into the US Army in Louisville Kentucky, took my basic training at Ft Knox Kentucky and reported for leadership training and combat arms training, (field artillery), at Ft Sill Oklahoma. I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division just after that unit was returned to the states from Vietnam. Many of my friends were not so lucky.

It always interested me that, there was no organized protest against the Vietnam war until the government started drafting college students after they graduated. A collage "draft exemption" turned into a "limited deferment" and all hell broke loose.

To most of my generation, a college education was either an unattainable dream or something unnecessary for work in a factory. For many of us, thanks to the GI bill, a degree became possible and our horizons had been broadened. We may have once been children when we left, (children, as we came to see those spoiled boys and girls who were insulated from a very nasty world and sent off to school with little to do but party and protest), we came back men and blooded warriors.

There is a core in each generation that has a vested interest in this great nation. They have taken an oath and served our country proudly. They never forget. They know who their enemies are.

Today, this core is being refreshed anew. Only this time they are men "and" women. They are volunteers, they are smarter, more healthy and better educated and trained than my generation with a far higher percentage of those that describe themselves as conservative.

They are the pool from which our future leaders, in both the private and public sectors, will come.

The left vilified my generation upon its return to civilian life, and in turn, those that would accept the label, were portrayed as victims.

This will not happen again!

This is the lefts nightmare. A generation of leaders tested in fire, one that does not, and will not, bow down at the alter of political correctness. A generation willing to face reality and ready to cast out silly notions of moral equivalence and "subjective truth". A generation that has taken an oath and served our country proudly. They will never forget. They know who their enemies are.

Leftists, meet your future. It looks pretty grim.

For Nanc and Missinglink

George and Ida. Notice Georges feet.



This is a cleaned up photograph of, Ernie, (my wife's grandfather) and Jack, (her father).
Ernie was raised on the reservation, (Cherokee). He was the common law husband of Maisie, (half Apache). Ernie was 25 or so years older than Maisie. This picture was taken in the late 1940s

My wife is strawberry blond and freckled. :^)




This is the repaired and cropped photo optimized for the Internet.

The original was torn and spotted with places where the emulsion was totally gone.

I repaired a bunch of these photos for my brother in law.

A few relatives

This is a picture of my great grandparents. Left to right.

Ida, (my great grandmother) full blooded Cherokee.

George, (My great grandfather) nobody is really sure how much Cherokee.

Nola, (front center) my great aunt.

Rose, (the pale looking one). She was my great uncles wife, I believe she was Irish, my great uncle, (Norman I think), was taking the picture.

Lawrence, my grandfather.


The picture was taken sometime in the late 1920s or early 30s in McLean County, Kentucky. It, (the picture) was so dark when I received it that none of the faces were visible except for Rose's

I have one other picture of George and Ida but it isn't optimized for the Internet. As far as anyone knows, these are the only surviving pictures.

If anyone is interested, I will optimize the other picture and post it also.

The press trembles

Our friend Russet Shadows at Strange Fire
has an interesting post up titled "The Fearmongers

It is a curious thing how the press walks on eggshells around Islam but can't be bothered to be so respectful of other religions. Why? The underlying truth is that the press can be controlled through fear, and that allows men to destroy freedom of the press without even resorting to censorship. [...]

Well worth a read!

Hamas Takes Control of Palestinian Parliament

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 18, 2006; 4:00 PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb. 18 -- The radical Islamic group Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament Saturday during a somber swearing-in ceremony, and legislators from the new majority quickly made clear that they would not abide by signed agreements that recognize Israel's right to exist. [...]


But Abbas called Saturday for a revival of the PLO, which has lost influence since the Palestinian Authority's creation, to pursue peace talks that he said have been undermined by Israel's settlement construction, the security barrier rising between Israel and the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Israel's failure to leave Palestinian cities. He said, "I'd like to emphasize our full rejection of unilateralism."

"We are confident that there is no military solution to the conflict," Abbas said. "Negotiations between us as equal partners should put a long-due end to the cycle of violence."

Mouin Rabbani, senior Middle East analyst for the International Crisis Group who attended the event here, said Abbas may be signaling a new strategy to minimize Hamas's influence.

"Is this part of an organized effort to marginalize the Palestinian parliament?" Rabbani said. "Abbas seems to be saying that it is not the formation of the government that's important. It's what the government does afterward that matters.

I see more posturing and meaningless rhetoric.

Quite frankly, there is no way that a "Palestinian" State can support itself without the donations of the Western world and Israel. (That last is a bit of surprise). The article states, "Israel will likely stop the monthly transfer of about $55 million in sales tax and customs fees it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, depriving the government of about 30 percent of its operating funds."

To the rest of the Islamic world and Western leftists, "Palestine", exists only as a bone of contention and focus of anti-Western propaganda. Does anyone seriously believe that "Palestine" could actually be anything other that another festering disease ridden cess pool.

For Juan Mancha de Mierda

Well, John shit stain. (btw that's what, Juan Mancha de Mierda, means)

That was your first post on my blog, and your last.

I don't suffer fools gladly and your sissy assed whining about censorship falls on deaf ears.

This blog is my property and I don't indulge psychotics in their fantasies.

BTW, we are all Zionists here and the only "head coffins" I know of are the ones where armchair Marxists park what passes for an intellect.

Rote repetition of nonsense phrases is an earmark of psychosis. (i.e. "head coffins")

Your preceding post will remain, all following posts will be deleted in their entirety as soon as I become aware of them. You have your own blog and if no one posts there, its a reflection of what you post. In other words, its because there is something wrong with 'YOU'.

I have no wish to join in your "revolution" which has resulted in the murders of 150,000,000 people and human misery such as the world has never know before.

Gore opens bid for President of United Arab Emerates

Yahoo News

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 13, 7:10 AM ET

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Former Vice President
Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.
ADVERTISEMENT

Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

[...]

Joe Gandelman

Why didn't Gore just put a sign on his back that said "KICK ME" and then walk into a Republican rally?

Uh, oh. We better not give him any ideas...

I hear that Dick Cheney asked him to go hunting....

Bumper stickers anyone?

From exposetheleft.com.

Palestinian "Democracy"

To those idiots that have degraded the democratic process and taken pleasure that the "Palestinians" have voted Hamas into power.

How can you be so foolish as to assume that one democratic election makes a Democracy. Once again, you must be reminded that democracy is a process and not an event!

If nothing else, this election teaches us that recalcitrant children are not fit subjects for self rule, and you, that have so vociferously advocated "Palestinian" self-rule, are actually spoilers.

You have no answers, only demands. You have no solutions, only criticism. You have no purpose in life but to degrade those that actually do something while you offer volumes of cynicism.

Democrat Stratagems

It has become clear what the Democrat strategy will be in the 06 elections.

More of the same!

Listening to the statements of their leaders, we learn two things, their DNC approved main taking points will be "culture of corruption" and endless comparison of GWB to Hitler.

I don't believe either of these pieces of crapola will gain any traction.

Any talk of corruption begs for comparison of the rampant corruption of the morally bankrupt Clinton administration which will not reflect well on St Hilary, the piano legged. The endless attacks against GWB elicit jaw breaking yawns from all but the left fringe. (Hello Democrats! Hasn't anyone told you that GWB will not be running for political office?)

At this point in time, the Dems should be running to the right, (to pull the wool over our eyes). Instead they are still raving like the lunatics they are.

I guess there is more than a hint of truth about Bush Derangement Syndrome

Damn you Beamish!

The Childhood Meme, (I've been tagged!)

My life as a child (under 15) in 50 words or less:

I was raised by my Grandparents until I was 10 years old. Although My parents lived there too, I never saw them except weekends. They both worked second shift jobs. At ten, my parents bought their own house and I moved in with them where I was expected to look after my two younger brothers. I started working for my father at thirteen when I was a freshman in high school

Where were you a kid?

Evansville Indiana, I still live here.

Given the choice, were you barefoot or did you wear shoes?

Barefoot, I had some tough feet!

Were you a city kid or a country kid?

Its difficult to explain. Although we lived in the city, we raised chickens etc. and we had a huge truck garden that grandpa cultivated with a Gravley two wheel tractor. We sold the extra produce to stores and off the front porch.

Stupidest thing you did before the age of 15:

I almost burnt the house down burning the trash on a windy day.

Do you know how to play Kick the Can?

Yes

What else did you play in groups?

Red Rover and 50 different versions of Scrub, (Baseball without enough people to make two teams.) Army, Cowboys and Indians, Football, Basketball.....

Worst injury?

A tie between getting a small piece of metal in the optic nerve of my left eye and going blind for three days, (they call it sympathetic blindness), or almost taking my kneecap off with an ax.

Do you agree with Bob Seger's line in Against the Wind, (I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then)?

No. Ignorance may be bliss, but only to the ignorant!

Elijah, If you're reading this you're tagged. You can do it here.
DM, tag!
Hjordes, my favorite Nordic goddess, (If you have the time), Tag, you're it!

;^)

A Christmas Visitor

(Written one year ago.)

4:00 am 12/24/04

There was a knock on my front door which startled me awake. My dogs were barking which required dire threats to quieten as I answered the door.

Maybe you have heard of our weather and the unusually cold temperatures (16 F) and large amount of snow that has fallen, (18"), in the last 24 hours. I live just south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana and you may have seen the news about the closed Interstate and stranded motorists on the national news.

A man, about my own age, (early 50s), stood at the door. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a field jacket and sock hat. His glasses were frosted and he wore no gloves.

He told me he was lost and asked where St.James Blvd was. I told him it was about a mile and a half to the West and asked him where his car was. He said he was walking.

I asked him in and sat a chair for him by the furnace vent. He was shivering uncontrollably, a faint whiff of alcohol was on his breath. I asked if I could fix him something to eat and he refused but he accepted a cup of coffee.

My wife talked to him as he warmed himself and I made some coffee, I could hear him speak as I made his coffee ready.

My son heard him and came into the living room to sit and listen, to keep an eye out, just in case.

He was homeless, he had been sleeping under a bridge on the Ohio River about seven miles away to the West. He decided that it was too cold and he might freeze to death if he didn't find a safe place to stay.

About midnight he left his meager possessions, a few clothes, and headed for his sisters house on St James, but he had walked past the street in the dark. He was lost and confused, probably somewhat drunk, and hypothermia can add confusion to even the sober mind.

As he talked, I realized that he had mental problems, as do many of the homeless. There are places that take in the indignant, I'm sure he knew it too, but they won't accept anyone who is intoxicated, which I'm also sure he was aware of.

He drank his coffee then asked me if I would drive him to his sisters house and offered me two dollars. Of course I refused the money but offered to take him where he wanted to go, I intended to take measures to see after him anyway. He seemed anxious to leave.

As I drove, he told me that his sister was out of town but he had permission to use her house in an emergency. I was worried that he was just lying to me for reasons of his own but I was determined to see the thing through, even if I had to call the police to ensure his wellbeing through this cold weather.

We drove up to the house and there was a porch light on and smoke coming from the chimney vent, even though it was apparent that there was no one home as the snow was undisturbed. I asked him if he was sure he could get in, he said, "Yes, she told me where the key is." He reached out his hand, as if for a hand shake, and when I offered mine, pulled it to his lips and kissed it saying, "God bless you".

I was profoundly embarrassed but stayed long enough to see him dig around in the snow and find a key, then unlock the door and wave goodbye.

I drove home, my thoughts disturbed, by the events that had taken place.

My wife was relieved as I came in and I started preparing food (very early) for this Christmas Eve. As I cut up fruit for salad and prepared the turkey for baking, my son came up behind me and hugged me, kissing my head, and said, "Dad, you did a good thing."

Again, I was embarrassed, not by my son's hug and kiss but by his praise.

I hadn't did it for praise, I did it because it was the right thing to do.

Then he told me that he tries to help the homeless ones that hang around his place of employment. We spoke of how little we can actually do for them and I was proud of my son for doing the right thing, he is a good man.

As I continued to prepare, my thoughts drifted to a couple seeking shelter in Bethlehem and the birth of the Lamb of the New Covenant, and I felt God's Peace.

May God's Peace be with you all!
Merry Christmas.
(and a Happy Hanukkah)

Warren

Snake oil and pea bug misunderstandings

The other day, I was listening to talk radio, a commentator made a reference to "snake oil". Very few people know the origins of that phrase but I believe it has its origins in Cherokee legend.

(note:) a larger account of the snake legend(s) can be found here!

The ancient Cherokee believed that the snake was a supernatural being. Some snakes were once human and turned into snake form but all had an intimate connection with the rain and thunder gods and the plant and animal "tribes". The most feared and respected, of the snake "tribe", was the rattlesnake.

The rattlesnake was named (utsa'natii) which can be translated as, "he has a bell", referring to the rattles. Most Cherokee went out of their way to avoid killing a rattlesnake and if one had to be killed, even by accident, the action had to be atoned for by asking pardon of the snakes ghost, through the mediation of a priest, according to a set formula. Otherwise the dead snakes relatives would send one of their number to bite the offender or a member of his family so that they would die.

The rattles, teeth, flesh, and oil were prized for occult or medical uses. Certain priests, (shamans, medicine men) who knew the necessary rituals for pardon, killed the snakes for this purpose. This also provided a lucrative business for the less than ethical, (both Indian and white). The oil was prized for its healing properties and was said to relieve the pain of rheumatism and sore joints among the Whites as well as the Indians.

The shamans and priests lost favor among the Indians after a couple of smallpox outbreaks in the 1700s that almost killed off the tribe reducing it to one point to a number of less than 9000 from estimates of a population that I have seen as high as 50000. I have heard there were reprisals taken against surviving shamans. As far as I know, (and I freely admit that my knowledge is far less than complete), nothing substantive remains of the original religion(s) and rites although there is still a herbal tradition practiced in the eastern and western bands.

unscrupulous traveling salesmen would wonder from town to town selling their, "genuine Indian snake oil cure", and who had any idea what it really was or what was in it!

On a more humorous note:

Definition:
Pea bug, what Warren "thought" his wife called a wood louse (e.g. pill bug, sow bug, rolly-polly bug), what she actually called it, was pee bug.

I realized my mistake when ol' Shortfuse .357, (i.e. my wife Jackie), said her grandmother made pee bug tea and made the kids drink it if they peed in the bed. Her grandmother, (half Apache), apparently learned the recipe from her Apache mother, (by accounts, a little, dark, scrawny woman with a hot temper and skin like tree bark, only refered to as "granny").

I asked my wife if it worked and she said, "Well... I didn't pee in the bed, but I didn't go to sleep either. I'd rather stay awake all night than drink pee bug tea!"

Note:
Interestingly enough, wood ice do not urinate; instead of excreting urine, woodlice excrete their nitrogenous waste in the form of ammonia gas. Sounds homeopathic to me but how would Indians know that "pee bugs", don't pee?

;^)



Update: I found this interesting letter from Richard L. Allen:

Psuedo Shamans Cherokee Statement

By Richard L. Allen, EdD Research &
Policy Analyst Cherokee Nation

Copyright © 2001 RLAllen
All Rights Reserved

Greetings:

The Cherokee Nation is overwhelmed with those charlatans who fraudulently claim to be shaman, spiritual leaders or descendents of a Cherokee princess. Such individuals make such claims without ever having lived within the Cherokee communities. They claim to be descended from some nebulous and mysterious ancestor who was from "a reservation in North Carolina" (there is only one) or "a reservation in Oklahoma" (there are none). The ancestor is never just a plain ordinary everyday Cherokee citizen but a "Cherokee Princess," a "Cherokee Shaman," or a "Cherokee Pipe carrier" none of which actually exist or ever have. Those who claim to be "shaman" do not reside within the known boundaries of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

Cherokee medicine people and spiritual leaders are known to the Cherokee people and do not practice medicine for a fee nor sell "shamanic" lessons to anyone. They do not advertise their services through any form of media and certainly not over the internet. Traditional Cherokee healers and spiritual leaders provide their services to the Cherokee people. A Cherokee medicine person or spiritual leader is fluent in the Cherokee language and would conduct any medical or spiritual practices by using the Cherokee language. Therefore, our medicine people are those who were born of a Cherokee mother and a Cherokee father and would have been reared within a Cherokee community speaking the Cherokee language. Our traditional Cherokee healers and spiritual leaders are humble people and would not present themselves as such nor "hang out a shingle" so to speak. Cherokee medicine people are acknowledged and recognized by members of the Cherokee community as effective healers and leaders. It is the recognition of the Cherokee people that validates these persons as medicine people and healers not self-proclaimation. We may provide them small gifts, a token amount of money or foodstuffs in payment for their services. They do not charge for their services nor would they withhold their services when asked and they certainly would not prescibe payment by credit card. Cherokee medicine people may provide services to recognized members of other tribes or may provide services to non-Indians who would seek them out for treatment, but certainly would not mix their spirituality or medicine with that of other nations. Cherokee medicine and spiritual practices do not include tarot cards, palmistry, psychic readings or sweatlodge ceremonies.

One may assume that anyone claiming to be a Cherokee "shaman, spiritual healer, or pipe- carrier," is equivalent to a modern day medicine show and snake-oil vendor. You have my permission to print this response as is.

Richard L. Allen. EdD
Research & Policy Analyst
Cherokee Nation
P.O. Box 948
Tahlequah, Oklahoma 74465
E-Mail: rallen@cherokee.org

Fact check

Today, President Bush made a speech from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, delivered remarks on the war on terror and the national strategy, (which the Democrats say he doesn't have), for victory in Iraq. He started by saying that we are fighting the same ideology that attacked us on 9/11.

The terrorists in Iraq share the same ideology as the terrorists who struck the United States on September the 11th. This is an enemy without conscience, and they cannot be appeased. If we're not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people. Against this adversary there's only one effective response. We will never back down; we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory.

Later in the speech, he said:

Senator Lieberman is right. Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send the message across the world that America is weak and an unreliable ally. Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandoned its friends, and setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorist tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder and invite new attacks on America. To all who wear the uniform, I make you this pledge: America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief. (wild applause)

This upset the Democrats and a rather over the top John (I voted for the war before I voted against it) Kerry, was "forced to give a Democrat reply:

[...] What it did on the Democratic side seek to do [sic], was set an estimated timetable for success, which will permit the withdrawal of our troops. Everything that we have presented has been presented on the basis of how you succeed. The president today in his speech said, I quote, "America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am commander-in-chief." Well, so long as Jack Reed is a United States Senator and John Kerry is a senator and the rest of us are senators, none of us, no one, has ever suggested or believes that we should run in the face of car bombers or assassins.
[...]

[...]"debate is not about an artificial date for withdrawal"[...]

He's right! Debate isn't an artificial date for withdrawal, but the Democrats haven't been debating. They have been pontificating, propagandising and politicizing since this war started, but not debating.

Kerry also said, (I'm not sure that this is from his speech or to reporters afterward):

said Bush is falsely trying to suggest that Democrats want to set an artificial date for a pullout. Kerry said that's not the case, and that Democrats just want an "estimated timetable" for success

Anybody with the memory of a gnat knows that's a crock!

From the main page of Russ Feingolds Senate web page:

Feingold Proposes Timetable for Iraq Withdrawal

I believe that the American people deserve clarity from the administration regarding the United State's commitment in Iraq. I have proposed a target timeframe for the completion of the military mission in Iraq and suggested December 31, 2006 as the target date for the completion of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Representative John Murtha, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee:

"It is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region,"

Yahoo News on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

"We should follow the lead of Congressman John Murtha, who has put forth a plan to make American safer, to make our military stronger and to make Iraq more stable. That is what the American people and our troops deserve."

Senator Clinton Calls for Withdrawal From Iraq to Begin in 2006

Kerry Urges U.S. to Start Withdrawal From Iraq
Senator's Timetable Specifies 15 Months
Thursday, October 27, 2005; Page A03

News Flash: Biden Calls for Withdrawal Timetable

Thursday, January 27, 2005
GUARDIAN/(AP): Amid constant harangues that "Iraq is Bush's Vietnam," Teddy Kennedy has now explitictly called for the immediate "withdrawal" of US troops from Iraq.

Kucinich Renews Calls For The US Withdrawal From Iraq, a press release from July 28, 2003, by Kucinich's office in Congress

WASHINGTON (Oct. 25, 2005) Rep. David Price, D-4th, and Rep. Brad Miller, D call for troop withdrawal from Iraq
-

I could go on but this is getting tiresome!

Shouldn't someone let Kerry know? (especially since he has been one of those doing the calling)

Trials and tribulations

Its Thanksgiving day and I finally have enough time and energy to post.

Please excuse me my friends. I haven't forgotten you and you have been in my thoughts and prayers.

Since the last time I posted, I have been subjected to a series of events that have sorely tested my mental health, pocketbook and endurance.

My mother has had a major operation, (she's fine now and recuperating at home). My sister-in-law has been diagnosed with breast cancer, (I believe that she just had her last chemo and the prognosis is good). We suffered a business slow down due indirectly to the increase in fuel prices, (somewhat better now, we'll see). My four year old refrigerator went to that big appliance store in the sky, (big bucks). My central air went out, (more big bucks, and I have to have it for my asthmatic wife). I had a head on collision and my car is totaled, (I have a backup and I'm unhurt). I've been working 12+ hour days, doing my regular job then my part time jobs as the different businesses get ready for below freezing weather. My son broke his wrist and two of his vehicles need repaired, (clutch and transmission problems, (we do our own car repairs). And I have a terrible cold.

That tornado that took out the trailer court in Southern Indiana, passed less than a quarter mile behind my house. I live about two miles due West of that trailer court. I slept through it. No damage here except scattered debris. I had that head-on two days later on the way to work. We were under another tornado watch and it had been raining sheets. The road was slick from the debris dumped on the road from the tornado and I slid across the center line while slowing to make a turn. The Ford Ranger pickup, I hit, wasn't going very fast either but when you put a Saturn up against a FWD truck, the truck wins every time (no one was hurt).

Hopefully, things will settle down a little bit and return to normal, such as it is for me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Especially you Beak, I am lucky to have you for a friend!

Word Verification

Spam comments have finally started to get on my last remaining nerve!

Word verification is on.

Now I'm going to delete a bunch of spam!