She's A Pain

National Anthem

The Star Spangled Banner should be sang in English.  It is a shame that so many have not learned the lyrics to this wonderful song. I challenge you to learn the lyrics of this and other important historical items.  Do it instead of watching a mindless TV show.

The Star-Spangled Banner

—Francis Scott Key, 1814

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

McKinney Cont.

Best Ever Pic of Rep McKinney!

Hurricane Katrina et al

Wake up people. Life is not a made for TV movie, a song, or even ideal; Hurricane Katrina has begun to teach us such lessons.

  Hurricane Katrina has been one of the worst natural disasters. There is no clean water, safe food, communications, or electricity for so many people on Gulf. As the water fills communities, the water is filling with bodies, fuel, spoiled food, sewage, and mosquitoes are floating around humans. Soon diseases will infect the people who cannot evacuate. People will be dying from the heat, lack of water and food. The infirmed will be struggling for medicine, proper diets and lack the treatments for their diseases. Snakes, nutria, and alligators will be moving freely in the floodwaters bringing yet more injuries and carry disease. Unfortunately, there will be the criminal minded nut cases that have armed themselves and act out.

Waveland, MS and other communities wiped out by the hurricane and we are yet to find out too much information about smaller communities. 

Rescue operations hampered by debris in roadways. The trash and human waste is building up on I10 due to people without homes or latrines to use. These people are American refugees. And when this is all in hand, someone is going to have to clean up after all of this. Sand on bridges, soaked wood from homes, the contents of people’s homes, this storm left far more destroyed than Camille did in 69.  The storm surge was 3 to 7 feet higher than Camille.

The POTUS has asked Americans to conserve our energy for a few weeks.  Don’t buy gasoline unless you need it to free up as much as possible to fuel trucks that will bring food, water, medical help, buses to evacuate those to other places. National Guardsmen have been sent to this area despite the desire for some to believe that most of the NG is in Iraq . Seems like there are some 40,000 NG members that will be activated for this disaster. There are law enforcement from other areas are coming to the area to help with the lawlessness that shouldn’t of occurred.

But it did occur for many reasons.

I think it is sickening that people are trying to place blame upon the POTUS that is clearly based in the hate they felt since the election of 2000.  It is simply disgusting that people cannot just see that a hurricane of this magnitude is rare and before now, people just didn’t not believe or prepare for the ultimate worst-case scenario possible. Probably because of money these things were not done.

Get a grip all of you that are casting blame and shut the hell up for a while. There is plenty of time to figure this out AFTER all those people’s lives are tended too.

Where in the hell is the humanity?

Where in the hell did you put your hearts?

Have you considered yourself in their shoes?

What it would be like to be stranded, your house wiped out, the smell, the scenes of devastation?

There are people dying down there. Those who are dying are your fellow countrymen.  It is dangerous for all including the rescue people, National Guardsmen, Police, Firefighters, EMT's, Paramedics, the Coast Guard and all the others.

There is still a criminal element that is in all our neighborhoods there and the stress of the situation makes those of criminal minds act.

Knock off the stupid rhetoric to fuel your hate based chatter and figure out what you can do to help your fellow citizen that is in hell.

London's Transport System Bombings

The following is an opinion.

I am a night person. When I woke up today to see that London's Transport System was the target of someone's attack, one of the first thoughts in my head was "why don't they just put on uniforms and fight?"

The people behind these attacks are like cockroaches rushing around to avoid the light.  They do all their planning in the dark, organize in the dark, then rush out to the light and carry out their diseased ideas.  Their minds are convinced that these attacks are enough to sway people to believe their way.  They have not taken into consideration that all it does is resolve people to fight for their own belief systems and their own way of life.

More to come...

I took some time to read various blogs, articles and other sundries.  What gets me is how many of those had this underlining statement that it was PM Blair or the POTUS fault the bombings happen. I guess  way back in the 80's all those who were in training that are behind the London attack, Sept. 11 and the other 30 attacks all over the world had the foresight to know that PM Blair and the POTUS were to be elected leaders of the UK and USA.  Comon people, get a grip.  This is a movement that started long ago. 

Amir Taheri, from the Times Online UK ,has presented an outlook to the reason behind the bombings.

But sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.

The ideological soil in which alQaeda, and the many groups using its brand name, grow was described by one of its original masterminds, the Pakistani Abul-Ala al-Maudoodi more than 40 years ago. It goes something like this: when God created mankind He made all their bodily needs and movements subject to inescapable biological rules but decided to leave their spiritual, social and political needs and movements largely subject to their will. Soon, however, it became clear that Man cannot run his affairs the way God wants. So God started sending prophets to warn man and try to goad him on to the right path. A total of 128,000 prophets were sent, including Moses and Jesus. They all failed. Finally, God sent Muhammad as the last of His prophets and the bearer of His ultimate message, Islam. With the advent of Islam all previous religions were “abrogated” (mansukh), and their followers regarded as “infidel” (kuffar). The aim of all good Muslims, therefore, is to convert humanity to Islam, which regulates Man’s spiritual, economic, political and social moves to the last detail.

But what if non-Muslims refuse to take the right path? Here answers diverge. Some believe that the answer is dialogue and argument until followers of the “abrogated faiths” recognise their error and agree to be saved by converting to Islam. This is the view of most of the imams preaching in the mosques in the West. But others, including Osama bin Laden, a disciple of al-Maudoodi, believe that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London.

That yesterday’s attack was intended as a ghazava was confirmed in a statement by the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe, an Islamist group that claimed responsibility for yesterday’s atrocity. It said “We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid (ghazava) in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.” Those who carry out these missions are the ghazis, the highest of all Islamic distinctions just below that of the shahid or martyr. A ghazi who also becomes a shahid will be doubly meritorious.

There are many Muslims who believe that the idea that all other faiths have been “abrogated” and that the whole of mankind should be united under the banner of Islam must be dropped as a dangerous anachronism. But to the Islamist those Muslims who think like that are themselves regarded as lapsed, and deserving of death.

It is, of course, possible, as many in the West love to do, to ignore the strategic goal of the Islamists altogether and focus only on their tactical goals. These goals are well known and include driving the “Cross-worshippers” (Christian powers) out of the Muslim world, wiping Israel off the map of the Middle East, and replacing the governments of all Muslim countries with truly Islamic regimes like the one created by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and by the Taleban in Afghanistan.

I wonder what people are going to say and think after PM Blair and President Bush have stepped down and another leader is elected to that duty, and all this keeps coming.  It is time people wake up and see that their fast answers and talking points only made them look foolish.

Happy 4th

Salute America's Heros!

I will be wearing my hero band!

Thank You Pope John Paul II

This house is in prayer for the Pope.

Remembering the way he inspired us as young people. 

Sometimes people can admire someone's faith, strength and hope without belonging to the same religion. 

Rest well in heaven Karol Wojyla.

CNN's Special Report on Pope John Paul II

Terry Schiavo

Terry Schiavo's feeding tube should of never been taken out.  Not until new tests were run to determine what was going on today. 

If Terry dies because of her feeding tube being removed,  our society will have taken many steps in the wrong direction. 

Doesn't anyone recall Sarah Scantlin? After 20 years of a coma she woke up and began to speak!  Sarah Scantlin's life was valid why not Terry's?

If I could speak out and society could hear me, I would say that Terry should not die by having her nourishment and water removed.

This whole affair has taken so many wrong turns.  I can't imagine the fallout after it is all over.

If you haven't made a living will, get off your arse and make one!

IT IS ABOUT THE SUFFERING

By now most people the news of the Tsunami that hit SE Asia is known by all. The loss of lives and the life altering events of the living in Asia is set in history as the biggest natural disaster of 2004.   Many have also heard the news about the US being 350 Million dollars of "stingy" while Sect. General Kofi Annan was skiing for days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The response to the question of why he waited three days before returning to New York

"First of all, there was action. It wasn't inaction. We live in a world where you can operate from wherever you are. You know the world we live in now. You don't have to be physically here to be dealing with the leaders and the Governments I have been dealing with. You don't have to be physically here to be discussing with some of the agencies that we have done."

There you go folks.  We DO live in a world where many can operate from where ever they are. That would also include the President of the United States.  Even if he is in the Western White House, the President can contact anyone necessary to do his job.  So can Sect. General Kofi Annan.  So what is up with this bashing of the President earlier this week?

JOHN PODHORETZ of the NEW YORK POST has written an article  "IT'S ABOUT THE TRAGEDY - NOT MORE BUSH-BASHING ".

I couldn't agree more.

From the article:

"THE political and ideological exploitation of perhaps the worst natural disaster in all our lifetimes is almost beyond belief — were it not for the fact that nothing these days is beyond belief.

Even as tears spring into the most hard-hearted person's eyes at both the unimaginable scope of the tragedy and at the wrenching individual stories of loss, opinion leaders just can't help themselves.

They are using this cataclysm as little more than cheap debate fodder about the nature and character of the United States, its president and its citizens.

Don't misunderstand.

It is fine and proper to have a debate and discussion about the degree of generosity the United States could, should and must show in the wake of this literally earth-shaking event.

But at this moment, the United States is not the issue.

The foreign-aid budget of the United States is not the issue.

Our government should not be the focal point of the discussion right now.

Don't we owe the dead, dying and injured the minimal grace not to convert their suffering into a chat-show segment — the latest left-right clash over the Bush presidency?"

Earlier today, I mentioned Mr. Pain that I was floored and disgusted about how many people are using the tsunami disaster to bash the President even more.  Their minds are not about the suffering of people rather their own hatred of one single man.  Even if the President did everything they thought was right, they would find a way to bash him.  It is old, tired, and out of style now.  Granted John Podhoretz opinion is directed at his own paper but I see more than some opinion writers of the NYPost using this natural disaster to write about their own idea of failure on the President and the citizens of the United States. It is still full blown CRAP. Sect. Powell should not have to remind anyone of the last four years of relief the United States has given out in aid.  Stingy?  Hardly, those figures given out earlier were just the beginning.  God only knows the amount of money being raised all week by private American citizens in send to the aid of those in Asia.

If those critics truly cared about the suffering of others, they would zip their lips and direct their energies in directions that would aid and benefit those suffering.  And there is more than just those in Asia suffering today.  I believe there is way too much blustering than action by too many in the world.

The official count is 124,000 people dead in SE Asia from the tsunami. Officials think there could be another 20,000 people dead that have not been found yet. To be very blunt, all this aid will never be enough for many of those left alive. Their lives have been forever altered and swept away by a wave of water.  My mind is already thinking of later, much later, when many nations begin to withdrawl their volunteers and money leaving the job half finished. And it will happen.