Tiger Tale Journal -- Cat Thoughts on Life, Religion and Politics

Election Afghanistan

2010-09-18T10:31:00.000-05:00

Afghan Election: Hardly anybody votes......but American media try to portray it as a victory for democracy. How stupid do they think we are? The people didn't vote because the candidates are American puppets. Everybody in Afghanistan knows that.

What a farce. The dying goes on unabated.

How long can this shameful charade go on?

More Hurt for Target--Viva Target Boycott

2010-09-15T09:45:00.001-05:00

I'm seeing a truly unusual amount of new target advertising on television, which shows that the boycott is hurting them and forcing them to spend a lot more money on advertising than they gave to the Tea Party Candidates. Keep it up and make them suffer. If corporations can buy elections--your vote means nothing.

Saul Paul: Creator of the Christ Myth and Christian Hero

2010-08-16T11:35:00.001-05:00

It is truly odd when Christians ask normal people to prove that "Christ" is a myth invented by the man Saul/Paul. Are they really so deeply brainwashed that they can fail to perceive the silliness of their request?

They think that it's "opinion" to call an unproven myth........a myth. How odd, but Christians are nothing if not bursting with odd ideas.

They have no proof that Jesus ever lived. Zero. Just Christian opinion. He only exists in fictional form in the writings of the religious huckster Saul/Paul and his followers.

It is claimed that Jesus the man was a great teacher with many disciples in the early part of the First Century.

Ok......that's potentially true and very possible. But, let's be real....there is no more hard evidence for it than there is hard evidence that Huckleberry Finn and his disciple Jim existed. They were all characters in books. That's a fact.

But it gets worse for the Christian. Thanks to Saul/Paul, the story GREW from believable all the way to ludicrous.

Some years after Jesus died, Saul/Paul got a brilliant idea. If he jazzed up the Jesus Stories, he could sell the religion to the Gentiles and make a lot of money.

He would need some real exciting stuff, though. Demons, miracles, walking on water, speaking in tongues, prophecy, cannibalistic flesh-eating-blood-drinking ceremonies......and resurrections and a free pass to heaven. Yes.....that's the ticket!

Perfect. In Saul/Paul's imaginative story, Jesus became...... "THE CHRIST," an immortal who had died so that his followers could live forever. At the end of time Jesus would come back and kill everybody who disagreed with him and his followers would then rule the world as immensely wealthy kings.

NOTE: Saul/Paul borrowed almost every bit of this bizarre religious circus from the legends of Osirus and other old stories, but the Gentiles didn't care (and today's Christians don't even know).

It was fun and new and it became the hot new religion and spread like wildfire through the Gentile world.

The Jewish disciples of Jesus (assuming they ever existed) were quickly forgotten. Their religion had been based on righteousness and good behavior.........was that popular?

Not so much. Boring, actually.

The NEW "Christ" religion had demons, miracles, walking on water, speaking in tongues, prophecy, cannibalistic flesh-eating-blood-drinking ceremonies......and resurrections and a free pass to heaven--now THAT'S more like it!!!

The down side was this: Christians were dangerous. They did not play well with others.

Look at it this way: If your God is going to come back at the end of time and kill all the people who don't agree with you and Him--could it hurt to kill some of the bad people now and steal their stuff?

Thus Christians became the greatest murderers the world has ever known.......and to this very day, in Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc., they kill for plunder and hegemony.

Thank Saul/Paul. Jesus (assuming he did exist) had nothing to do with it. Saul/Paul just used him.

No evidence for Jesus. No evidence for Christ. No proof of any of it......but more and more scholars are becoming convinced that Saul/Paul was one of the greatest liars that ever existed. (Look to the writings of Hyam Maccoby for the most concise and logical work of all.)

And, of course, there is plenty of proof that the Christians became the greatest oppressors and murderers in history.......it's called "history."

Boycott Target and Send Emmer Home

2010-07-31T08:46:00.001-05:00

The Target Corporation is supporting Tea Party Republican Tom Emmer--who donated money to a Christian group that supports killing gays.
Emmer is the Republican candidate for Minnesota governor.
Emmer wants wages reduced for waiters.
He thinks waiters make $100,000 a year in undisclosed tips.
He wants reduced sentences for DWI offenders.
He has had two DWI convictions himself and refuses to answer when asked if he still drinks.
Emmer is clearly either drunk or crazy.
It is not clear whether the Target Corporation is drunk or crazy or both.

What You Didn't Know About the Fourth of July

2010-07-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

What you don't know about the Fourth of July--The reason taxes were so high in 1776 was simple. England was almost bankrupt due to the cost of keeping the American Colonies safe from the French, who had attacked us ten years earlier. The English rescued us and our founding fathers repaid them by attacking them.

Obama War Crimes--Predator Drones

2010-06-27T08:23:00.000-05:00

Leon Panetta, full of outright lies on Sunday morning television--a stark illustration of how Obama has gone horribly astray with Predator Drone strikes. It is murder to routinely and regularly kill children because an adult among them might be a threat to America. Anyone who supports this murder is complicit in the murder. These are war crimes.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T08:37:00.002-05:00

Today, on Father's day, remember the fathers in Palestine. They are held in Israeli prisons for fighting in defense of their own country, their own land, their own
homes, their own freedom......their own children. We must never forget this fact.

Where the Hell is Armageddon?

2010-06-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a couple of months since ObamaCare passed and things are going well. So......where's the Amageddon that the Republican leaders promised? Why hasn't the world ended as they predicted?

Could they have been...........lying?

If you haven't figured it out yet, you must be drinking really weak coffee.

Pseudo-Democrats Will Pay

2010-06-09T09:26:00.003-05:00

Right-wing Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (a Democrat who sides with Republicans) managed to barely hang on to victory in the Arkansas primary. It cost her dearly. Organized labor spent $10 Million to give her the scare of her life. Message sent. Traitors will now have to fight to survive.

Collin Peterson of Minnesota and other pseudo-Democrats should take note. Stab working families in the back.......and you will pay the consequences.

Thank You, Helen Thomas!!!

2010-06-08T13:13:00.003-05:00

Thank you, Helen Thomas, for having the courage to tell the truth about the Israelis.

Well done.

Shame on President Obama for failing to recognize the truth.

Helen Thomas Told the Truth

2010-06-08T08:54:00.009-05:00

Helen Thomas told the truth......so she had to be crucified. How ironic. Nelson Mandela's words now resonate like rolling thunder. "If you name the beast," he said, "they will call you an anti-Semite." The Israelis may have a tenuous legal claim to the land they kill to hold......but they have no moral claim.

The tenuous Israeli legal claim was established by a few racist British white guys in suits who really believed they had the God-like authority to take land from one brown-skinned person and give it to another. This was illegitimate authority that came from the barrels of machine guns and artillery pieces.

Thus a few British white guys in suits guaranteed eternal war.

2010-06-03T18:23:00.001-05:00

There is no doubt that the Obama government is happy to have the oil spill to dominate the news. Makes it easier to cover up the fact that they are spending trillions of badly-needed dollars on two unwinnable wars.......and their Predator Drones just murdered another family.

I think it was Nixon who said, "If the president does it--it's NOT illegal."

So Obama is in good company. But, in truth, assassinating an entire family with a Predator Drone is murder.

Obama has been drawn into the tangled web......and he's getting in deeper.

Republicans Will Lose in November

2010-03-22T13:18:00.003-05:00

The behavior of the Republicans in the past two days has been revealing.

Republican Congressmen waved banners and signs from the House balcony to egg on and fire up the mob of Tea Party demonstrators outside......those same Tea Party demonstrators who were yelling "Nigger" and "Faggot" at passing Democrats.

One of the Republican Congressmen yelled "Babykiller" at Congressman Stupak when he stated that he would vote for the health care bill (an amazingly bizarre bit of namecalling since the health care bill will actually SAVE the lives of babies instead of killing them).

The Republicans consistently told lie after lie after lie in opposing the health care bill (the lie that it would fund abortion was an example). When caught and exposed in their lies......they simply continued to repeat the same lies over and over.

The Democrats, on the other hand, told the truth and walked boldly and calmly through the hate-filled mobs--staying focused on their work of winning a great victory for the American people.

Those Democrats succeeded in winning that great victory for the American people. Health care passed. Children.....now getting proper preventative care, will live rather than die.

Now Republicans say that Americans should vote the Democrats out of office. What? Did I hear them right?

I can only conclude that the Republicans have totally lost touch with reality. Indeed, America owes a huge vote of thanks to the Democrats.

I can't imagine that, after the way the Republicans revealed their true nature over the past two days, that anyone would ever vote for a Republican again.

I think the Republicans are in for a big surprise in the November elections when they find THEMSELVES being voted out of office.

I don't Usually Watch Fox News, but.....

2010-03-21T10:51:00.003-05:00

One has to watch them this morning as the fact dawns on them that good people have prevailed and Obama's health care bill will pass the House.

There are long faces in Muddville.

There is confusion and bitterness in Muddville.

The massive attempt to make health care Obama's "Waterloo" has failed miserably.

There is no joy in Muddville.

The mighty Fascists have struck out.

Tahir Ul-Qadri False Prophet?

2010-03-14T13:48:00.004-05:00

Tahir Ul-Qadri is a Muslim cleric who just issued a Fatwa CONDEMNING suicide-bombing and terrorism.

Why are his words not credible?

The cleric spoke of the "Anti-Christ." Since Muslims revere Jesus but do not believe in the "Christ" concept popularized by Pauline Christianity--why would he use such a term?

Even the term "terrorism" is a Western construct. Who was Ul-Qadri really addressing? What audience? Is it a ploy to gain power with pro-Western factions in Pakistan?

His words ring false. Utterly false. And if I, a Westerner, see it as false, how can it resonate within Islam?

Who Causes Violence?

2010-03-14T11:31:00.003-05:00

I hear a lot of complaining about 9/11 and suicide bombers.

But if the Palestinians and Afghans and Iraqis and Pakistanis had F-16s and Helicopter Gunships and Predator Drones and spy satellites......they wouldn't be doing the suicide bombings.

If they had nuclear weapons we would not be attacking them at all.

The suicide bombings are not the problem........it seems more likely that there is a problem of strong attacking weak.

And if we were not possessing their lands by use of our F-16s and Helicopter Gunships and Predator Drones and spy satellites.......they wouldn't be doing suicide bombings.

Chile: Another Two Weeks of Disaster Porn

2010-02-27T22:10:00.004-06:00

The earthquake in Chile is a dual tragedy. It's a spectacular disaster.

And......

It makes it easier for the American media to cover up the atrocities in Afghanistan.

Disaster porn is a good excuse. Not much room for news from Afghanistan.

Stand by for weeks of disaster porn on your T.V. screen.

And so it goes.

And That's All I Have to Say About Killer Whales!

2010-02-27T12:36:00.001-06:00

Hasn't anyone figured out that it's profoundly WRONG to keep Killer Whales in tiny little tanks?

So.....they kill somebody once in a while. Hello. What's their name again? Oh yeah, "Killer" whales.

DUH!

FREE THE WHALES!!!!!

Yes......We Are Not Dead.

2009-12-12T11:36:00.002-06:00

Yes, we are not dead.

We are only injured.

The Wadena Chronicles remain unfinished.

So it goes.

There may be more later.

Interesting Discussion

2008-03-14T08:25:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting discussion I ran into while searching for information about NLD.

It demonstrates that there's a lot of confusion about diagnosis and that NLD is often (maybe always?) misunderstood. As I search for NLD information, I'm amazed that there is so little talk of helping adults......especially older adults.

Are we not worth it? I think I am.

NLD: Not Just a Learning Disability

2008-03-13T13:20:00.004-05:00

Thoreau said most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Mine was not quiet.

Even now......NLD is profoundly misunderstood. The past mistakes of ignorance and misunderstanding rate as almost criminal.

Whenever people hear "Learning Disability," they think of something that school kids have....something that means you need special help in learning.......which is true, of course....but that's only the beginning. And some of us never got that "special help." We just had to wing it.....ignorant that we even had a problem.

NLD is a crushing, 24-hour a day handicap. It means that much of what your eyes see.....your brain cannot process. You miss a lot. You learn to guess at proper responses. You're always at least a half-second behind everybody else at best, and not getting it at all at worst. It doesn't come and go, or get better or worse, it's just there constantly--determining that you will dream and never be able to accomplish those dreams.

I grew up in an exciting time. The Russians had just shocked us with Sputnik. Our scientists were racing to catch up. My dream was to build rockets. Well.....I'm no rocket scientist. From the 3rd grade on....I was a D and F student in math.

By the sixth grade I knew Wernher von Braun's life story and had all the principles of rocket propulsion down pat and notebooks full of my own illustrations......but I couldn't do long division, and fractions were far beyond my ken.

This was hard for most people to accept, because....if you talked to me for a while, you'd think I was very intelligent. In the eighth grade, my IQ was 135 and my teachers knew it. I suffered for years with teachers who were determined to either help me or force me to reach my potential by teaching me things like math and chemistry.

"You're not applying yourself."

I heard it so often I should have just worn a T-shirt that said, "HE WILL NEVER GET IT! WHAT HE DOES GET HE WILL NOT REMEMBER TOMORROW!!! GET OVER IT!!! STOP YELLING AT HIM. STOP BELITTLING HIM!!!"

But I didn't know to wear the T-shirt. Nobody knew. Nobody ever thought I needed special help.

Teachers thought I was simply a smart-ass. A lazy and disruptive jerk. Having nothing better to do.....I quickly met their expectations. I was well-read (it was the only thing I did well) and my general knowledge was formidable. I could embarrass some teachers by knowing more than they did and I could make people laugh--usually AT the teacher. I spent my junior year mostly staring at a wall in the principle's office.

All the teachers would have hated me, but luckily I could, and often did--make the teacher laugh, too. Had I not been able to make them laugh, things would have been much worse. They'd often be laughing when they kicked me out of class for a week and laughing when they happily welcomed me back. Only a few hated me.

In a way, they created me. By not giving me the help that I needed, they ensured that I would never learn the math and science and grammar that they so desperately wanted me to learn. They wanted to succeed in making me succeed....but they didn't know how. It wasn't their fault--they just didn't know.

And I sure didn't.

Of course, math wasn't the only problem. There were many more, both physical and mental. Math was just the one that crushed me.

Twenty years later they would have spotted me and had the knowledge and skill to teach me.

It was 45 years before a psychologist finally diagnosed me......after a life of noisy desperation.

Winter Soldier

2008-03-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

In the meantime.....here's a site worth supporting.

Winter Soldier

Ok, It's NLD.

2008-03-10T23:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, here it is.

About the time of my last 2007 post.....I was diagnosed with NLD. So......I've spent some time trying to figure out what that's all about. More when and if I can write about it.

Life

2008-03-10T21:28:00.000-05:00

See, these cat thoughts are supposed to be about politics and religion and life.......and having nine lives, I have a lot to talk about.

But.....I have a problem.

The people who write these blogs......they're opening up--spilling their guts every day. So much spilling. Such a quantity of guts.

Do I really want to add to that gutpile?

Near Life Experience

2008-03-10T17:10:00.000-05:00

I had one.

So, for a while I thought I had a life. Luckily, this proved to be untrue. This could mean I'll be posting here again. Or not. But, it'll be ok.

Can Christians Condemn Islam?

2007-01-24T11:46:00.000-06:00

So, there are a few Fundamentalist Muslims who seem radical and dangerous.

Thus:

Christians often tend to try to portray Islam as evil.

But Islam is not evil, and....as a matter of fact--is traveling the same road that Christianity did.

It is traveling that road at about the same pace as Christianity did.

Hard to understand?

I will explain.

Christianity is 2000 years old.

Islam is 1400 years old.

The difference is 600 years.

Think about it.

What were Christians doing 600 years ago?

Those were the days of the Inquisition--when Christians tortured and murdered anyone who questioned the Faith. Millions died for questioning the Christian dogma.

This behavior started early and often and only 350 years after Jesus said, "Love your enemy."

Muslims, especially, were considered to be sub-human and worthy of only death. America today still promotes the killing of Muslims, setting up and controlling oppressive puppet governments in order to control the oil supply to America.

Why would anyone be surprised at the negative attitude that many Muslims have toward America?

But Christianity's record, when closely examined, leaves plenty of room for Islam to catch up or even surpass Christianity.

The gap is 600 years, but some of Christianity's primitive and superstitious behavior is less than 300 years in our past.

It was only around 300 years ago in America when the Salem Witch Trials sentenced innocents to be drowned or burned by Christians.

Even today in America, homosexuals are murdered by confused and ignorant Christians because the Bible (badly interpreted) appears to be condemning of all homosexual behavior.

And, of course, most of Christianity still treats women as second-class citizens (be a nun....NOT a priest).

Cultures and religions progress at their own pace. Islam is progressing just as quickly as Christianity did, and will probably catch up (as Christianity seems to be currently undergoing a time of regression and darkness).

And we should remain aware that progressive attitudes are common in some Muslim nations. Many Muslims, especially the Suffi Muslims, are as liberal and modern in their religion as any elderly Presbyterian of America.....perhaps more liberal and modern.

The bottom line is this:

We should judge no culture by our standards when our standards are alien to that culture.

Christians, who are themselves only a heartbeat away from the days of murdering anyone who questioned their dogma, are probably least qualified to condemn other cultures for those same actions.

SOMALIA: MEET THE LATEST WAR CRIME

2007-01-13T10:35:00.000-06:00

You know.....the persistent Christian oppression of Somalia is truly amazing. In 1920 the British, in their crazed determination to take over Somalia, killed more than half the people in Northern Somalia.

Yes, they really did. To force their way in to rule Somalia....the British killed more than HALF of the people in Northern Somalia (the people who dared to resist them taking over).

Just coldly wiped them out, mostly with a relentless aerial bombardment of every village and everything that moved.....man, woman, child, goats--everything.

Just another little-known Christian crusade.

Nobody in the West really cared. The dead were, after all, only Muslims.

Today, at America's bidding, the Ethiopian Christian armies are trying to do the same thing.

Over the past few years, a Muslim government, the Council of Islamic Courts, had brought a semblance of order to Somalia after many years of instability and violence. Things were getting better. Peace was coming.

But America couldn't allow Muslims to take over--America thinks Muslims are terrorists....so, the Christian Ethiopian Army was used by America to invade Somalia to crush the hated Muslims (with the help of American advisors, spy planes, spy satellites.....and, of course, air strikes from American aircraft carriers).

What America has now accomplished is that Somalia is again in chaos and the people are rising up against America's puppet, the occupying Ethiopian army.

And the streets of Mogadishu are again running red with blood.

The whole scenario is so familiar:

From the Toronto Star:

American-backed, foreign Christian troops intervene in a Muslim civil war to unseat the winning Islamist side; a U.S. warplane searching for alleged terrorists in that same country blasts the wrong people; both the European Union and the United Nations express their dismay; Canada, home to tens of thousands of immigrants from this war-torn, African nation, says nothing.

Does any of this sound familiar?

If not, it should. Somalia is making headlines again and the world is nervous. That's because this week's events in that East African country are eerily reminiscent of other failed Western adventures in other far-off Muslim lands.

Somalia: Meet the Latest War Crime

Canada really shouldn't feel too guilty for her silence.....nobody else is standing up to America either.

America wouldn't give a damn anyway.

America, like the British in 1920, is willing to kill as many as necessary to gain control of Somalia, killing, in the first few days, about 100 innocent civilians.

And, like the British in 1920, they used low-risk aerial bombardment (low-risk to the bombers--high-risk to those bombed).....killing men, women, children, goats.....anything that moved was a "terrorist ally."

How can anyone stop this?

The answer is blowin' in the wind....but America just doesn't give a damn about the wind.

Paul, Father of Christmas (and the Crusades)

2006-12-16T08:19:00.000-06:00

Paul (AKA Apostle Paul) was a First-Century evangelist similar to a Pat Robertson or Benny Hinn of today's religious world. He had a lot more work to do than them, though. He was an ambitious and creative man of great energy.

He was the inventor and entrepreneur who took Christianity all the way from a concept to being a lucrative cash producer with rubes from most of the known world happily handing over their cash to Paul based on his promise of the imminent return of their King Jesus (who never showed up).

The first of the Christian widow-robbers, he ended (according to the Bible) still preaching his "Gospel" and living quite well in Rome in his own house and may have done fund-raising travels after that and made a lot more money, but the written story of him ends in Rome.

He was a genius, inventing both the "Christ" story and the amazing concept of "Grace."

These two absolutely brilliant ideas......when combined.....allowed you to sin at will and still get to heaven and be the equal of any righteous man.

Christ plus Grace: together, the master key to the smashing success of his new religion.

Paul had many followers (many were quite sincere, having been totally duped by him) and they continued his work and wrote "Gospels" that included a made-up "Christ" story that just got better and better as the years went by (the fact that Mel Gibson could use it to make make hundreds of millions of dollars in the 21st century is a tribute to Paul).

The written stories about Jesus were constantly revised to be in agreement with each other (well, roughly in agreement, nobody really cared about perfect accuracy) and that went on, not just for the rest of the First Century, but for several centuries after that (revisions that included altering and updating and even creating Paul's own letters).

Most interesting is that the story of the BIRTH of Jesus was artfully embellished, and more and more detail was invented--even a "virgin birth" claim (which appealed to the Greeks and Romans who loved such myth--and, astoundingly enough, STILL inspires a sense of awe and wonder in the 21st Century rubes that continue to celebrate the myth at Christmas time).

But Paul was the start of it all--liar, false apostle, widow-robber--father of the modern hate and bigotry infested perversion that is called Christianity.

Which, of course, also makes him the father of Christmas--and the Crusades.

We Were Stupid Then

2006-12-14T09:34:00.000-06:00

We were stupid then.

I remember it well......planning (in my own noble way) to enlist in the Navy to help the courageous "South" Vietnamese "freedom fighters" escape from the "evil and Godless Commie oppressors," the "Viet Cong," the "Chicoms," who were "invading" their country to "enslave" them.

Turned out that the "Viet Cong" were non other than the people of Vietnam who didn't want US to enslave THEM......(we didn't know that for YEARS).

Turned out that the "courageous South Vietnamese" were just traitorous sycophants who wanted to get rich helping America enslave their brothers.

In those days we gave up our lives to help make the world safe for American "democracy" (wage-slavery) and it seemed ok to kill anyone and everyone who disagreed with us......after all, God was on OUR side.

In those days we had "Red" China and the "Bamboo Curtain" and the "Iron Curtain" and the "Cold" war.....

The "evil and Godless" Commie oppressors have been conveniently and effortlessly replaced by the "Islamo-Fascists" and "insurgents" and "homocide bombers" and the "War on Terror" quickly and smoothly replaced the "Cold War."

The Military-Industrial Complex continues to prosper on lies.....the rich get richer and the lucky poor get poorer and the unlucky poor get artificial limbs or wheelchairs or painful death in screaming, gasping horror.

We were stupid then.

The Quest for God--Why FundaGelicals and Atheists Fail

2006-11-23T10:09:00.000-06:00

People often have a strong need for pat answers and proof. These are the "Black and White" kind of people who need tangibles and palpables.

They need 2+2=4 and that's all they can deal with.....but that's not the way things work.

They don't deal well with theory or inductive reasoning. They can't believe that some truths transcend reason and logic.

They have their feet planted solidly on the ground and that's the only reason they believe the ground exists.

Lots of FundaGelicals are like that.....and lots of Atheists are like that.

FundaGelicals are happy because they have the Bible as their perfect and inerrant "proof."

If they should get to the point where they realize that the Bible is not perfect and inerrant--they have a meltdown because their faith is no longer perfect and superior to all others.

It's that "Black and White" syndrome....to them, the Bible is either inerrant or trash--they can't deal with the in-between shades of gray.

So, due to their (rather dysfunctional) needs--these FundaGelicals often become Atheists.

But being a Friend of God is not about God "proving" something to you....it's about faith--and faith gives you the ability to connect with God in a personal way.....as Abraham did.

That ability so given is called Grace.

Thus is God known to the Friends of God.....through Faith and Grace.

Instead of 2+2=4.....we instead have Faith+Grace=The Kingdom of God.

Those who want proof first seek to eliminate that Faith part of God's equation.

Those who require tangible "proofs" will be unable to connect with God until they give up that arrogant idea that God must meet their standards of proof.

So....FundaGelicals and Atheists often start out alike in their needs and often end in the same place due to those needs.

To become a Friend of God, one must cast off those selfish and arrogant needs.

Papal Apology is False. Pope Benedict Should Make a True Apology to Muslims

2006-09-17T09:29:00.000-05:00

The pope has made a false apology.

Apologizing for the angry reaction to inflammatory remarks is to place blame on those who reacted with anger.

The anger was justified.

The pope CHOSE to quote inflammatory and insulting remarks from the 14th Century.

He sinned.

He emulated his hero (the false apostle, Paul) in using a quote to shield himself.

Paul, in one of his letters, said that all Cretans are liars and gluttons. He was using a quote, but it expressed the point he was obviously trying to make.

I wonder if he ever apologized to the people of Crete?

ZIONIST CLAIMS OF RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE ARE SPECIOUS PROPAGANDA

2006-08-27T13:54:00.000-05:00

Throughout the destruction of Lebanon, we heard it...."Israel has the right to defend itself."

But there is no such right for an occupying power--because those they oppress--the rightful owners of the land--are, in truth, the ones who are REALLY defending themselves.

Occupiers like the Zionists are not on DEFENSE.....they are always on OFFENSE.....they are the attackers.

The Palestinians and their Muslim brothers are acting in self-defense and the history proves it....it is plain and clear.

Palestine was divvied up by the Western Powers in a way that would protect the interests......of those Western Powers (primarily England, at that time).

Those Western Powers simply had NO authority to give away land that was not theirs to assign in the first place.

They set the stage for the Zionist takeover of all of Palestine by killing or exiling all Palestinian leaders in 1938 (with the assistence of Zionist militias which were well-funded, well armed and powerful even then).

By 1948 the Zionist militias had been trained and strengthened to the point that the British knew they would have no problem driving out the Palestinian land owners and the British pulled out and allowed the blood bath to occur.

Although this 1948 war has been propagandized in novels, movies, and song as the Zionist Davids against the Arab Goliath (Palestinians and their Muslim brothers) ....that portrayal is a lie (though an attractive one to Westerners troubled by the consequences of their actions).

The Arabs had no chance of defeating the powerful Zionist militias, which had been trained to fight in close coordination with one another and team up to crush the scattered and uncoordinated Arab forces one by one with overwhelming force.

The British would not have pulled out if there was even a small chance that the Zionists could be defeated and it was common knowledge among military people that the Zionists could easily take over Palestine at that point.

The Zionists knew it too. They had been planning that moment since the early days of Zionist immigration in the late 1800s and they had received massive funding and shipments of weapons from Jews and Jewish sympathizers from all over the world.

So we have today's situation.....created by Zionists and the Western Powers. Peace can come ONLY when the Zionists leave. That's a hard fact to swallow, but it's a hard fact.

The Zionists, having stolen the land by way of massacre, deserve NO quarter in this fight and have no rights except the right to get out peacefully.

It would be good if they could negotiate a small territory for themselves within Palestine where a few could stay and all could visit--but it could never be a sovereign nation.

America, aiding, abetting and legally an accomplice to the murder and theft, deserves no quarter in this war and has only one choice--apologize, get out, make amends and ask for peace.

(And STAY OUT of the Middle East.)

The alternative is seeing more incidents of death from unconventional warfare on tall buildings, on planes, in subway stations, resorts.....wherever they may be--they will die in large numbers every so often and never be able to feel safe until they admit their crimes and desist.

The Muslims can do this for a hundred years and more if necessary. America can't.

America must recognize these facts instead of clinging to the comfort of the false notion that Israel has the right of self-defense.

Kidnapping Adult Zionist Soldiers in Lebanon

2006-08-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

The American propaganda machine continues to refer to the two Zionist soldiers as being "kidnapped."

Were they kids? Did someone sneak in and steal them from their beds?

No. It turns out that they were adult Zionist soldiers, fully armed and taken in battle while trespassing in Lebanon to do harm to Lebanese people.

I suppose that, instead of "Kidnapped," we could say that they were "Soldiernapped," but it's really called being captured and being a prisoner of war.

America has thousands of Muslim prisoners in a prison camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and in secret prisons around the world.

The war criminal Bush is apparently trying to hold some of them forever without a hearing.

Only WE call them "Enemy Combatants."

Funny how these name games go, huh?

MEDIA AND ZIONISTS LIE ABOUT WHERE TWO SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED (LEBANON)

2006-08-01T06:04:00.001-05:00

Western media and Zionists are continuing to promote a big lie about where the original two Zionist soldiers were captured by Hezbollah.

In a sleazy attempt to justify their murder of Lebanese babies, the Zionists are saying that their two soldiers were "kidnapped" in "Israel."

The truth is, the two Zionists were captured in Lebanon while raiding Lebanese towns.

This is verified by a number of major news stories that were printed and aired immediately after the incident happened (full list). Since then, the big lie of a "kidnapping" has been told by Western media to such a degree that it is widely believed to be the truth.

Simple fact: Zionists are controlling the media coverage on this story.

They have murdered thousands of innocent people in Lebanon on the strength of this lie.

The implications here are many and profound. How can we ever know for sure what is true? And if media control can justify and validate murder--who among us is safe?

The Zionists appear to be able to murder at will for at least a few weeks whenever they choose to create an incident and do so.

When those they attack respond with a few small (short range and with very limited effectiveness) missiles, the Zionists can then destroy the roads, bridges, seaports and airports of that sovereign nation, virtually bombing it into the stone age.

The Zionists feed the media pictures of a few of these small missiles being launched by their victims and use that as an excuse for MORE criminal attacks on civilian homes that result in horrific loss of life and maiming of babies.

Zionists justify all of it by claiming they were "Defending" themselves.

From what? Babies?

The Zionists destroy all roads into an area with massive air strikes (with bombs supplied by America).....then drop leaflets urging the trapped citizens to "get out."

Then they murder those trapped citizens (with more bombs supplied by America).

What utter madness!

Who can believe the insanity that now reigns?

This must be taken to the streets of America.

The war crimes must stop and the media lies must stop.

Lebanon: More Babies Who Disagree With Us

2006-07-31T07:21:00.000-05:00

The Fourth of July in America is a day where we demonstrate our superiority by blowing things up.

It makes us feel good.

On the Fourth of July in America, the government uses our tax dollars to buy fireworks from private vendors and explodes these fireworks for the entertainment of simple minds.

The knuckledraggers love to see things explode.

In recent years we have expanded the Fourth of July program and we have had things exploding on television to entertain the simple minds every day.

Brown-skinned babies and such.

The government buys bombs from private vendors and blows these bombs up on babies in Iraq.

Some of our bombs we buy from private vendors and sell to the Zionists who occupy Palestine.

The Zionists who buy the bombs pay for them with money from our tax dollars that our government GAVE to these Zionists in the first place.

A perfect system to keep cash flowing in the Military-Industrial Complex.

Then the Zionists blow up Palestinian babies with the bombs we provided.

More and more spectacular television viewing is created.

This complex and well-planned system keeps the bombmakers prosperous, the politicians popular and the knuckledraggers well entertained.....("At least we're getting SOME good out of our tax dollars," they say).

It's the American Way.

We have the right to defend ourselves from babies who disagree with us.

Babies who disagree with us are terrorists.

The question is this: Will we be able to blow up all the babies who disagree with us before the tax dollars run out?

The answer?

No.....because there are simply TOO MANY babies in the world who disagree with us.

The knuckledraggers have not figured it out yet.

Ethnic Cleansing in Lebanon

2006-07-24T07:26:00.002-05:00

Why is Ethnic Cleansing ok only when Jews do it?

How could our American House of Representatives vote 410 to 8 in favor of the Zionist Ethnic Cleansing in Lebanon?

One third of the victims are children.

It is logical.

Ethnic Cleansing is most effective when done on the children.

MORE ZIONIST ATROCITIES. SAME OLD SAD SONG.

2006-07-19T06:56:00.000-05:00

Let's see......

1. The Palestinians (in a war to chase out the Zionists occupying their country)......capture two Zionist soldiers.

2. The outraged Zionists then murder hundreds of nearby people who had done nothing wrong except to be of THE WRONG ethnic group.

A shocking display of terrorism and intimidation by a ruthless, desperate and immoral group of people.

Why did this happen? Well, to start with....the Zionists are ruthless and pathological.....and murder by them is an expected response that no longer shocks the world.....but, root cause?

This.....and most of the problems of the Middle East--happened because the Zionists stole Palestine and kicked out or enslaved the Palestinians in 1948.

It's as simple as that.

America must (and will, in time) END support for the Zionists and let nature take its course in Palestine.

What goes around, comes around.

It is only a matter of time until the Zionists are alone, surrounded and in economic chaos. Eventually, the Zionists will be rubbed out. It is inevitable.

A Christer Y2K with the Rights

2006-07-15T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is a true story. As I look back on it, I am glad I attended that church for a while.....otherwise--how would I know what I know?

Once upon a time I went to a Christer church. Among the more interesting members were a family I will call the Rights. I call them that because they were so right.

I almost spent Y2K with them. I'm glad Y2K came along so I could get to know them better.

I remember them as aggressively political.

They wanted Gary Bauer to be president (not of the church, but of the U.S.). They wanted to play a Gary Bauer campaign informational tape right after the church service for the entire church so we'd all vote for him. That idea was dropped when some of us talked to the pastor about separation of church and state issues.

Mrs. Right thought of herself as a big, beautiful woman. Everyone else thought of her as fat. She was pathologically concerned with two things......Perkin's Pancakes and the sin of others, especially the sin of homosexuals, Muslims, and anyone who engaged in oral sex (you know who I mean, yes, you!) and she planted her two fat feet solidly in the middle of any demonstration of public prayer at any courthouse or public school within 100 miles.

After any church function many of us would gather at Perkin's for some Godly sustenance and fellowship. Mrs. Right was always there. She was large and she ate a lot. Maybe she was compensating for the lack of oral sex. She had no clue that her gluttony was gluttony. She might be a bit weak about food, but she had her Jesus.

Speaking of food, the construction contractor Mr. Right was as righteous as apple pie, and had a habit of hiring poor people from the church as temp day laborers on special projects and paying them sub-minimum wages in cash off the books so he could screw both the Unions and the evil gubmint (which wouldn't get any tax dollars).

He regarded this as charity.....he was helping the poor.

His company was small, but he was one of the richest people in the church. And the most obnoxious.

He got beat up one night while picketing a Masonic Lodge meeting. Yes, I'm serious. He did that.

He wore his bandages with pride. He was a martyr. (Free-Masonry is Satanic, you know.) You didn't know? Tell me, have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior? I mean, I know you THINK you have......but have you REALLY?

One day he told me a joke. He said when the government came to get his guns he was going to give them all his ammunition before he gave them the guns.

I didn't get it. A lot of things he said didn't make sense and I would just nod and move on. Later that day I finally got the joke. Maybe it wasn't a joke.

When Y2K came around the Rights got real, real excited. A lot of people in the church got real, real excited. God was speaking many things to a lot of people about Y2K.

Can you picture it? If you've spent any time with the Christers....you can.

They wanted to stockpile the church with food and water and have us all spend New Year's Eve there. We were to have a special fund-raiser to buy a generator that would supply electricity for us.

It was uncertain as to how long the emergency and probable civil disorder would last, but we would be prepared for months, just in case.

The plan involved several emotional church meetings and finally was scrapped (about the time it got to the point where we decided how many guns we would bring and who would stand guard on--and distribute--the food supplies).

The real crunch came when we had to face the fact that we might have to shoot marauding looters who would try to steal the food of the righteous. The sharers and the hoarders were ready to shoot each other at that point.

Back to square one.

The Rights had a fairly large tax-deferred retirement fund in an account where they could cash it out only at quite a severe loss.

They had it set up that way so the evil gubmint wouldn't get their tax dollars, of course (and, hopefully, the rapture would come before the evil gubmint got ANY of the money).

But......with Y2K looming......they had no choice but to pull it out of the evil banking system at a huge cash penalty.

But they were not dismayed, because God was telling them He had a plan to make His children prosper in the face of disaster.

They used the money to prepare their home as a Y2K fortress (since the church had failed them).

They made their little fortress rock-solid and secure and holed up with a few friends and relatives to ride out the emergency and, hopefully, prosper in the New World Order that God would bring through Y2K.

They had food, gold (cash would be worthless in the New World Order) ammunition and many other items of necessity that they could sell or trade to those desperate unfortunates who had failed to prepare. They planned to not only survive, but become immensely rich and powerful.....a Christian Y2K dynasty.

More than half the church was caught up in the excitement of this Y2K adventure....and prepared in many ways and helped each other find useful information on how to survive and prosper in the New World Order.

The pastor supported them at first and then withdrew that support as things got crazier--although he did, himself, without saying much about it.....buy a generator for his own home and stockpile staple items for Y2K.

Well.....Y2K turned out to be a huge disappointment......disastrously non-disastorial.

People were stunned and confused.

Afterwards, the church almost split up due to the animosities that had built up during the weeks and months before that fateful New Year's Eve (the few and very few sane people had scoffed at the preparations and words had been exchanged and feelings had been hurt).

At a "Healing Meeting" the church discussed what had happened.....and the inevitable question came up: How could the most righteous people in the church....people who God had spoken so clearly to about Y2K......HAVE BEEN SO WRONG??

They had a simple answer that explained everything.

They had not been wrong.

All along.....even as they toiled in their extensive Y2K preparations--they had been praying that God would be merciful and spare the people (yes, even the worst of sinners--the liberals, the homosexuals, the feminists) from this awful fate.

And God had heard their prayers.

THEY had saved the world from Y2K.

And heads nodded all over the church and tears came to the eyes of the faithful and many said, "Praise God" and "Thank you Jesus" and the weeping grew into loud and outright cries and groans and admissions that we WERE NOT WORTHY of such a GOOD and MERCIFUL GOD.

And WAY more than half of the church, including even the Pastor, bowed their heads and gave thanks and praised God for being the amazing and just and merciful God that He was and for sparing us even though we were so unworthy.

And some people started singing and the Pastor sat at the keyboard and played the inspiring "Awesome God" chorus and a few other praise songs and some people started dancing and laughing and not a few ended up falling to the floor in holy ecstasy.

And so, God managed to turn even a disastrous NON-disaster into a great victory......He DOES move in mysterious ways.

NOW.....after reading this you may say--Oh, that was just a small group of crazy people.

But I assure you....this is not so. Scratch the skin of any Christer and what you find will surprise you.

The craziness is there--and all it takes is a Y2K or a 9/11 or any other similar excuse to bring out the murderer that lurks inside this merciful God's righteous children.

They may even hate murder--but they will watch it done in their name to protect their interests, especially their interest in secure oil supplies.

The murder in Iraq today is a clear example.

Amen.

WHEN FUTURE CHILDREN ASK........

2006-06-21T07:25:00.000-05:00

When Future Children Ask.....

Some churches failed to speak out against slavery. Some churches failed to speak out for integration and civil rights. Those churches cannot pretend they did not fail.....it is fact that they failed.

In time, the smoke screen of propaganda will clear and people will see the horrific reality of what happened in Iraq and why.

When future children ask why the churches did not protest the current American aggression and atrocities in Iraq......

The churches will only be able to hang their heads in shame.

There IS no excuse.

My Computer Guy is Not Calling Me Back.

2006-04-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

My computer guy is not calling me back.

This is not a huge problem, but......there ARE some things that are not working as well as they should work and I really would like to get done with this whole project. The promises of the wonders of wireless were more promising and less wondrous than we expected.

This whole technology thing sucks. How did I ever allow myself to become so dependent? What would Thoreau do? Don't answer that.

And Take Pause has vanished. She WAS talking about vanishing a while back. She was flitting in and out of this plane of existence.

Now she's gone.

I miss her.

Lily has departed to blog on some new liberal blog. She's probably writing incredibly brilliant stuff there and I don't have time to go look.

The rest of the gang? Who knows? I've been too busy to even check on the bizarre young naked bellicose Fascist that posted here recently. I really must be getting old.

I've had more hours at work recently. And at home.....getting ready for Summer has been more time-consuming and complex than ever before.

And......I have a fair list of 'Need to Do' things that are clamoring in the very dusty far back corners of my mind as they become 'Must Do' things on the way to becoming 'Absolutely SHOULD HAVE Been Done' things.

Pictures I should take. Pictures I should be filing on this computer. Pictures I should be visualizing with intent to take. Auctions planned but unready for e-Bay. Socializing that has been neglected. Things I should be buying to help get the new (used) laptop going. Lawn mowers that have been tuned up and never tested (I have faith that they will work ok......I think).

Several scattered books half-read. Phone calls that I should have made two weeks ago. Walks not taken. Shopping not done. A rowing machine that stares at me like a woman who is quite certain I MUST have cheating on my mind....or possibly even be consorting with some other rowing machine in some shadowy and sleazy spa.

Now I absolutely have to go do battle with the new (used) laptop. I know, even as I type this.......that it is a battle I am destined to, if not lose.......at least never win. Damn thing is tricky. It knows my every weakness and I understand its ways as a beagle understands nuclear physics.

Could be worse. It's a beautiful day and I have a great movie to watch tonight.

Do need to locate TP, though. Her alternate universe was sounding pretty good.

What would Thoreau do? Don't answer that.

Pussiliency

2006-04-01T06:46:00.000-06:00

From Earl Bockenfeld by way of Lily.

What is Pussiliency?

Earl's been doing some pretty good work over there, Lily.

Thanks for tipping me off.

He even had a nice nude pic of my favorite Chicks recently. We should ever remember their early and ground-breaking work in Bush-hating and War-Protesting. Prophets, they were.....and well ahead of the curve and not afraid to reveal their own.

Myself.....I've been too busy for words lately (writing them, that is). Left a quick response to Lily and TP on Red Deer.

Greetings to all.

America Should Provide an Example.....Not Preach.

2006-03-19T07:15:00.000-06:00

The rights of women. The plight of women.

Reading Arab media, I see what I think is progress.....but I'm not sure I have a right even to judge what progress is, considering my far different cultural perspective.

What do I know? How can I see through the eyes of Muslim women? And if I do have a right to judge, I think I must realize that change will not come quickly or by force.....or even by preaching.

Change will come only with the passage of time and, in the meantime, America has much room for improvement.

The answer, as with most relations between human beings, is in treating one another with love and respect.

Stealing a line from the Indigo Girls......The hardest to learn is the least complicated.

What IS An Anarchist, Anyhow???

2006-03-12T10:29:00.000-06:00

The article in the preceding post deserves (and really needs) a bit of fleshing-out with more information.

Anarchists seem to have the same public relations problems as witches. I mean, just because of some silly gossip about bomb-throwing and baking children for supper........a lot of good people are regarded with fear and loathing.

"Quakers who swear a lot," is an appealing sound-bite, but.........

Most of us could stand to learn more.

Maybe we could also do more, if we knew more.

Practicing Practical Anarchy

2006-03-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

I found this New York Times article interesting.

Maybe you will too. It starts out like this:

ON Aug. 1, 2002, I left behind the comfortably roomy semicircle marked "married-couple household" on the Census Bureau pie chart and slipped into an inconspicuous wedge labeled "two or more people, nonfamily." Having separated from my husband of 28 years the day before, I opened our three-bedroom 1927 Colonial Revival house to a group of men and women less than half my age. Overnight, the home I had lived in for 12 years became a seven-person anarchist collective, run by consensus and fueled by punk music, curse-studded conversation and food scavenged from Dumpsters.

Hill Mad--Cusses Bush. Rednecks Reel in Shock.

2006-03-10T06:48:00.000-06:00

This IS news.

But I predict that the Rednecks will quickly forgive her for her passionate cussing.

Faith Hill, squeaky-clean, cross-wearing Christian Country Music girl, uttered an expletive yesterday (maybe several--the stunned country press corps seemed unsure). She DID say "Bullshit".......which, as a stand-alone, nicely sums up Bush & Co.

Obscene language is a rare thing to hear in an interview with this country-bred, white-bread, Bible-belt queen.....who is usually seen with a cross adorning her professionally sculpted and discreetly flaunted decolletage.

In an interview (along with her husband, Country Singer Tim McGraw) she swore at the leader of the free world, George Bush, as she criticized his inept handling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

The ratings-hungry media rushed to the conclusion that the Hill-McGraw team had suddenly turned into Liberal Bush-Haters like the Dixie Chicks--and loudly wondered if Redneck fans would now burn Hill's and McGraw's CDs in protest as they did those of the Chicks.

Wrong. Remember.....the Dixie Chicks were anti-war. ANTI-WAR!

In NASCAR Country.....being anti-war is almost as bad as saying that Jesus was a Jew......or that Toby Keith writes stupid songs.

That's unforgivable.

Hill-McGraw are just pissed because their fans (and relatives) in Mississippi and Louisiana haven't gotten new trailers fast enough from the Gubmint.

That anger is totally forgivable. In fact, most of the Hill-McGraw fans are pissed about the very same thing.

Will Hill-McGraw have either the courage or the brains to come out against the current Bush war crimes? Against Bush napalming Muslims for fun and profit?

That'll be the day.

Baghdad Bob Returns!!!

2006-03-07T22:37:00.000-06:00

After a tough time of unemployment.....Baghdad Bob returns and......surprisingly--is now employed by the Bush Administration!

Always a calming voice of reason, Bob now appears almost nightly on Fox News to reassure Bush supporters that all is well.

Thanks, Bob. (And thanks to Xn Forums.)

BBC Video of American Friendly Fire Incident

2006-03-06T07:17:00.000-06:00

Interesting film from Iraq. Click on the video button on the right side of the BBC page.

When will they ever learn?

Corporate Fascism or Fascist Corporations?

2006-03-01T21:31:00.000-06:00

Some among us may still believe it is hyperbole to call Bush a Fascist or to say that America is a Fascist nation. I think the linked article most certainly gives reason to view America as nation where Fascists have taken control.

Let's not forget that they have taken control for an extremely good reason......profit.

We are being governed by Fascist Corporations.....or Corporate Fascism. George Bush is their goose-stepping Howdy Doody puppet.

Wal-Mart is a perfect example and fits well with the 14 points of Fascism as laid out in the article.

Is it too late to fix America? How could such a fix now possibly be done?

What Did Bill Clinton Say About the Danish Cartoonists?

2006-02-24T21:42:00.000-06:00

I'm amazed that some of my smartest friends missed this one.....

Bill said what I've been saying.

Throw the bums in jail.

He said it here in Islamabad.

I do think Bill is correct.

As We Ready for Corporation Appreciation Week.....

2006-02-24T20:32:00.000-06:00

As we ready for Corporation Appreciation Week, visit the UCC Take Action Site.

Here's an easy way to add your voice to a multitude of other voices.

Join in now. Let this site be a part of your activism. Stay informed about urgent and immediate issues and speak out through the UCC Take Action Site.

Current issue: Bush Budget Morally Bankrupt!

"While increasing spending for the Pentagon and continuing wars, the Bush proposal plans to cut $183 billion from domestic programs, including benefits for veterans, aid for students, and services for the poor and elderly."

Yes, that's $183 billion. Join in the fight.

Hoop Dreams Came True For Autistic High Schooler

2006-02-24T06:21:00.000-06:00

Before we move on to the grim and grimmer topics of Bushwar and the burgeoning civil war in Iraq and the necessary ugliness of Corporation Appreciation Week.....let us do a just for fun thing.

Here's some video that will bring a happy tear to your eye.

(Scroll down just a bit and video clip is on the right side of page.)

Thanx to Xn Forums for finding this.

Look Out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-02-21T20:54:00.000-06:00

We're coming now, we're coming to reward you.... (Apologies to Leonard Cohen.)

You bastards.
We're coming to get you. Be very, very afraid.
Corporation Appreciation Week is ON THE WAY.

DONE WITH CHENEY SHOOTING! Now......On to More Important Things.

2006-02-20T22:41:00.000-06:00

Ok......so I just happened to glance at my shampoo container and had to come back here and ask about this.....

It says, "NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS!"

So......does that mean it's being tested on me?

CHENEY HUNTING ACCIDENT! Ballistic Science Reveals Truth!

2006-02-20T08:48:00.000-06:00

This is not satire.....it is as real and substantial as a large, cold, dead turkey riddled with number 7 1/2 shot pellets from a 28 gauge shotgun.

No, I repeat, this is NOT satire. We should have known this would happen.

Tests have been done to verify the effectiveness of the 28 Gauge Shotgun at various distances. Chickens, pigs, turkeys and melons are being shot full of holes by Liberals and Conservatives alike (no chicken hawks were shot in these tests).

Still, the metaphors suggested by the targets are most intriguing.

The First Test proves the Conservatives are right (and shows that Conservatives are also FAR more creative in target choice).

The Second Test proves the Conservatives are right and that the Liberals don't know much about guns, but DO know how to use smoke and mirrors (and are far less gifted in choosing symbolic targets).

Neither group used the more powerful hunting loads that I mentioned in the post below (in fact, the Liberal group must have used very special and impotent ammunition as they could not get it to penetrate wallpaper at 30 yards, thus "proving" that Cheney's gun could not even put out the eye of a baby robin at that distance).

BTW, all my conclusions below are based on my many years of experience in hunting with shotguns of ALL gauges and backed by several books on shotgun ballistics, the foremost of which is "The Shotgun Book" by Jack O'Connor.

No animals were harmed in my efforts, but my conclusions are validated by the tests done by the more creative group (they actually punched a fist sized hole through a watermelon at ten yards even without using the heavy Winchester Super-X load that I mentioned in my post below).

This more exhaustive and thorough testing (which also included totally demolishing a cornish game hen at five yards and ripping a huge hole in a turkey at five yards) ended with the conclusion that Whittington was probably shot at a distance of 20 to 30 yards (exactly what I had concluded).

Maybe some still have doubts as to how pellets ended up in Whittington's heart and liver. Here's an interesting tidbit: The doctors said that the pellet they saw in his heart was larger than the rest--they called it the size of a number four shot instead of 7 1/2 shot. Or they called it the size of four size 7 1/2 shot.....the account is not clear and people have such difficulty with ammunition terminology.

But is this puzzling? No. Shotgun pellets can clump together and actually adhere to one another. That is not uncommon and happens in the manufacturing process. Such clumps would penetrate much deeper than the other pellets. These things usually are not noticed by hunters (unless they "pepper" a partner).

Odd things happen with ballistics, but very few are puzzling with the proper investigation.

I rest my case. NOW can we leave Cheney's unfortunate accident and get on to more important things?

Ok, I Give UP! I'll Talk About Cheney's Hunting Accident!

2006-02-19T11:33:00.000-06:00

This is a response I left on another blog today. It got so detailed and time-consuming that I decided to bring it over here at the same time.

It goes like this.........

Wow.

Please don't get too upset. I love Liberals and am myself left of Liberal, but I have to address your rather haughtily expressed errors.

Yours is a perfect example of the multitude of well-meaning, outraged and totally misinformed attacks on Cheney that I have seen over the last few days.

Have you ever hunted upland game birds?

Ever patterned a shotgun?

While some of what you wrote may make SOME sense.....your statement that the distance between Cheney and Whittington was "ten feet" marks you as being in total darkness about shotgun ballistics.

At ten feet the pattern of a shotgun will have a diameter of four or five inches (yes, that includes the 28 Gauge shotgun).

The premier quail hunting load for the 28 gauge is the Winchester Super-X that carries a full ounce of size 7.5 lead shot pellets. That's about 350 round lead pellets moving at over 1200 feet per second. And at ten feet they are bunched tightly together in a round mass with a diameter of about four inches.

This is a deadly and densely packed cluster of fast-moving lead.....almost like a huge bullet.

That means that at ten feet it is so concentrated and powerful that it would either have missed or done traumatic damage (like almost entirely severing a limb or killing the victim immediately with a direct hit in the torso).

I haven't heard an official statement as to exactly how many pellets actually HIT Whittington, but I'd guess from the estimates I've seen (and from looking at his face and neck) that he was caught by the crescent-shaped edge of that round shot pattern of pellets in excess of three feet in diameter.....meaning 60 to 90 feet is a perfectly reasonable distance estimate depending on the choke of that particular barrel of that particular shotgun.

I'd also guess he was hit with fewer than 50 pellets (one doctor's puzzling and bizarre estimate was "5 to less than 150,") and it appears that mine is as good a guess as any.

Generally in a high quality 28 gauge under/over designed for hunting, the lower barrel (which is usually fired first) is a fairly open choke (between improved cylinder and modified). This makes for a larger pattern for closer birds.

Remember, we are talking about a high quality hunting gun.....not a skeet gun. There is a significant difference in the chokes.....skeet is wide open (which could account for results on that goofy film that has been going around the internet).

The upper barrel (which is usually fired second) is choked a bit tighter (between modified and full). This makes for a smaller pattern to more effectively kill birds that are a little farther away. Maximum range for sure kills on quail is about 40 yards.

These barrels can be selected to fire either barrel first by choice. Penetration, of course, is the same with either barrel--only the diameter of the pattern changes.

At 20 to 30 yards (60 to 90 feet) this load and the more open choke would be consistent with Whittington's wounds if the crescent-shaped edge of that large round pattern hit him coming from the side and slightly to his front (he was turned almost so his right side was toward Cheney).

As for penetration, the Winchester Super-X mentioned earlier will penetrate feathers and tissue to get to the vital areas of quail at up to about 40 yards.

There is a bogus video being circulated on the internet where they used ammunition that would not penetrate a plucked chicken (no, I'm not kidding, these clowns were actually shooting at a plucked chicken) at 30 yards.....and that means bad (old or non-hunting) ammunition or sloppy measurement of distance.

You are also misinformed about hunting safety routines. Hunters are not all "Bubbas," as you seem to think. Maybe you should check with some that are better informed.

Whittington was at fault when he rejoined the hunting party without communicating that he was doing so.....and thus he bears a large portion of the blame for this accident.

He was right to apologize, because IF he had simply called out to Cheney that he was coming back....this unfortunate accident probably would never have happened.

He was certainly "first cause" and he has rightly apologized.

It's all over.....case closed.

Cheney has come out of a firestorm of thousands of ill-informed and far-fetched moonbat attacks and is now vindicated.

How screechy, stupid, unattractive and crazy does that make Liberals look?

Meanwhile, many other critically important issues have been forgotten in the rush to join the mob to lynch Cheney.

As to your other points....

Yes, those good old boys may have had a couple of beers.

But we don't know that.

Yes, they may cheat on their wives.

But we don't know that either....and, it's really none of our business.

Somehow, trying to damn a war criminal for having a minor hunting accident strikes me as being very close to the ultimate silliness.

And Liberals really can't afford to indulge themselves in the silliness area.

Let's get back to important issues.

America is in Violation of EVERY 'Just War' Principle

2006-02-15T19:11:00.000-06:00

As much as I yearn to join the massive and mostly moonbat rush to blog about Cheney's misadventures in bird hunting.....I will resist and talk about something important.

This is mainly because there is nothing of interest in Cheney's conduct or any of his actions. Elderly men hunting slow-flying, pen-raised game farm birds and doing more driving than walking is normal and logical. I hope I can do even that when I'm 78 years old.

And I sympathize with Cheney in this one thing. It could happen to anybody. I know......when I was 12 my best friend stepped in front of me as I was squeezing off a shot at a ruffed grouse.

I jerked the gun away and missed him by inches. He jumped in because he wanted to shoot the grouse before I could--which he then did--and thought it was funny.......but I was the one who was sick for days thinking about how close I came to killing him.

Cheney, for all his evil, is still human and I'm sure he feels awful about shooting his friend......that, for a hunter, is the ultimate mistake. The big one you dread more than anything. You can never live it down. You can never call back that shot once unleashed. You will have nightmares about it and wake up drenched with sweat.

No, this is a big deal for Cheney and the rest of us should stay out of it.....he will have to deal with it and remember it the rest of his sorry, pathetic life.

I only wish he could care one tenth as much about the victims of the war he and Bush have engineered in Iraq.

The "Just War" principles were drawn up by Christians so that we would have an orderly way to decide whether or not to go to war.

I'll be discussing some "Just War" principles over the next few days.

I want to discuss a real issue rather than join the lynch mob that will be chasing Cheney.

First Just War Principle:

The Preeminent criterion for a just war is that it can only be waged as a last resort, with all non-violent options exhausted.

It is clear that America rushed to make war upon Iraq BEFORE we were even close to exhausting all non-violent options.

What about the other side? These "terrorists" that Bush and his media sycophants keep talking about? These "homicide bombers" as Bush and Fox News call them?

Ah, here we have some history.......what have they been up to?

Well, they were asking, begging, pleading with the British to stop forcing Jewish immigrants into Palestine even before World War ONE.

Yes, that's over 100 years ago.....they were asking, begging for peace.

They were begging us to stop meddling in their politics just prior to World War Two as well.

They begged the West to end support for the Zionists and even went to war with the British in 1938.....to no avail. The British (assisted by the growing Zionist militias) crushed them and exiled all their leaders--making Palestine easy prey for the Zionists ten years later.

America and England needed a dependent friend.....a surrogate power in a region where we were hated. The illegitimate state of "Israel" was formed to be exactly that and we poured money and weapons and technology into it to make sure it would survive......and it did.

We also helped the Fascist Shah of Iran to take power in 1941 and keep that power until 1979 through much domestic unrest and a coup that chased him out at one point. We assisted him in taking back his throne. He murdered, tortured and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of his people until they finally had their way and got rid of him.

They too, had begged us to stop meddling in their affairs and finally released their pent-up anger by taking our embassy staff captive and holding them for 444 days to try to send us a message.

We got the message......but ignored it in our arrogance--blaming the victims.

In Lebanon, the French turned over power to the Christian political party in 1943. Of course, civil war soon broke out between Christians and Muslims and the Christians were supported by French and American military might until 1983 when 241 American Marines were killed by a suicide bomber who drove a truck loaded with explosives into their barracks.

The begging had stopped. The Muslims had, by the 1980s, tried everything to get the Western Colonialist Powers to quit murdering, torturing and imprisoning them to facilitate the theft of their oil.

Actually, the patience shown by Muslims was amazing.

They had begged for many years--clearly as long as could be expected or longer.....and exhausted all hope for peace.

The war was on in earnest.....we were on the road to 9/11 and the Twin Towers.

By "Just War" principles......America was wrong--and still is.

By these same Christian principles, the mostly Muslim nations of the Middle East must be judged innocent.....and acting in self-defense.

Shame on America.....and a special shame on the religious people who have sold their souls for oil and hegemony.

Other "Just War" principles to discuss: (Please leave comments on one or more of these.)

Weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants.

Violence used in war must be proportional to the injury suffered.

The attackers must have legitimate authority sanctioned by the society they profess to represent.

The peace to be established must be a clear improvement over what exists.

The shameful reality continues to blare at us: America in violation of every single "Just War" principle.

And the Muslim nations we have consistently attacked are blameless.....fighting courageously in self-defense only......and with almost NOTHING in the way of modern weaponry.

Shame on America.

And a special shame on the religious.

Does Religion Cause War?

2006-02-12T09:52:00.000-06:00

It is Sunday.....a day that many God-fearing, pancake and sausage-eating, SUV-driving, Fox News watching Christian people GO TO CHURCH. Thus, it happens, we devote this blogging day to encouraging some discussion about religion.

I have noticed in my Atheist friends a burning need to blame religion for war. One recently offered as proof--the fact that Atheist internet forums and blogs were and are overwhelmingly AGAINST the war on Iraq.....while the FundaGelical Christian forums and blogs were and are overwhelmingly FOR the war on Irag.

I can't buy it. That analysis is remarkably shallow. It does, however, deserve to be analyzed.

If true, it only demonstrates that Atheists are usually better educated and wiser than FundaGelicals.....and less likely to be controlled by Faux News and other CryptoFascist media.

Yes, a tsunami of brainwashing convinced the NASCAR Demographic that we needed Iraqi oil to keep our pickup trucks running......and "Thou shalt not kill" and "Love your neighbor" were not enough to keep them from approving, and supporting, war crimes to get the oil.

Even a lot of seemingly normal, nice people.....even a few Atheists--were seduced by the allure of oil and hegemony.

Greed starts wars....and impotent, failed religion fails to prevent them.

But true religion (the religion that walks out "Love your neighbor") DID cause many people of many diverse faiths to protest the war (and they still do).

The Christian Bible (in the words of Jesus and James) tells us that true religion is caring for, protecting and helping--the orphan, the widow, the poor, the weak, the marginalized.

If only the FundaGelicals (and many other Christians) had listened to their own Bible......but their hearing is selective.

No, religion does not cause war, but impotent and failed religion fails to prevent war.

In war, one side has something the other one wants.....it's as simple as that.

Consider the case of little Jimmy.......a beautiful, fair-haired tot, who--at the age of two--has NO idea if he is an Atheist or a FundaGelical or a Muslim, Jew or Liberal Presbyterian.

Little Jimmy bonks little Joey over the head with his sturdy steel Tonka Truck. Little Joey sobs and rages.

Little Jimmy did not bonk little Joey over the head because little Joey is of another faith......he bonked little Joey over the head because he thinks little Joey wants to take his favorite Tonka Truck (little Joey WAS eying that truck).

So I ask, do you believe that religion causes war?

(Or is war about Tonka Trucks?)

Do you ascribe to a particular religion?

Is the so-called "religious" war in Ireland about religion or is it really about Tonka Trucks?

Do you think that true religion brings peace?

Did true religion have anything to do with Atheists protesting the war on Iraq?

And the most important question......do you think true religion can ever overcome the amazing willingness in most people to bonk each other on the head over possession of material things like Tonka Trucks?

Part III: Wadena Fishes the Big Hard-Hearted River (The Cabin)

2006-02-05T18:51:00.000-06:00

It is good now to move away from the ugly mire of religion and politics for a while and back to the topics of life and relationships (of people and of cats) in the ongoing tale of Wadena and the Big Hard-Hearted River.

(If you haven't read the preceding episodes yet, better click here for background.)

The Cabin:

"It's a bobcat," Wadena said. Her cat voice was a bit muffled, speaking from within the backpack.

I wasn't listening. I was looking up from the riverbank through the heavy brush, stepping slowly sideways and thinking I was seeing things. It was a darker shape against the sky at the top of the hillside above, screened by the brush and trees. And that shape had squared off lines.....like the roof of a cabin. There were no cabins on this part of the river, I was sure of that.

We were miles from any road. The sun was already low in the west and dark came quickly in September. We were cold and wet, tired, hurt and hungry and a cabin was exactly what we needed. But there couldn't be one here. "You're imagining things," I said to myself.

The muffled cat voice from even deeper within the backpack answered me. "No, I'm not. It's been following and watching us. And bobcats will kill and eat cats like me, you know.....if given a chance. I saw it on Animal Planet." There was a pause. And then, "Of course......we wouldn't give them a chance, would we?"

I was walking up a little hill and pushing brush aside and seeing......what was definitely a cabin, and only about 75 yards away. "It IS a cabin, " I said.

Wadena popped her head out of the backpack. "You're not listening to me! What ARE you talking about?"

"There's a cabin up the hill. We're going up to check it out," I said.

I planted my walking-stick and moved up the hill. Going uphill was putting new strains on my bad ankle and I moved sideways as I climbed, leading with my good leg, pushing against the walking-stick and taking small steps and stopping often. I was trying to take a direct route to the cabin but I had to detour around some deadfalls that created a tangled and impassable jungle of fallen tree trunks, brush and branches. I was just beginning to realize how tired and wet and cold I was. The rain had stopped, but the leaves were still throwing off chilling droplets when I moved them. My clothes were soaked. It would be dark in about an hour and there was no way we were going to get out of the woods tonight without help.

"I don't see any cabin." Wadena had her front paws out of the backpack, straining to see ahead.

"It's here, all right." And, as I pushed through and parted a clump of high-bush cranberries, scattering drops of water and dark red fruit as a way of making an entrance, there it was.

It was a solid little cabin, set on a pretty island of high ground in the middle of a swamp. It was a primitive native, made mostly of material cut and gathered right there in the woods.....logs, hand-made wooden shingles, and some boards for siding that must have been hauled in through the swamp in winter. It stood secure and protected by a few old-growth maples and oaks that grew close around it. It was, I realized, also protected by the swamp in a wet year, because getting here involved a long and difficult passage through that swamp.

As we came around to the front we were surprised to see that the cabin faced a tiny lake. It was little more than a pond, roughly the size of a football field. The surface was mirror-still and swamp-water dark and the shores showed no hint of the work of humans. A solitary beaver left a flowing v-shaped wake as it paddled home along the shore and several small rings on the water showed that trout were present.

White birch trees on the other side glowed, tinted gold as they reflected the fleeting rays of a sun that had come from behind cold clouds and mist just in time to glide below the horizon for the day. Red sky at night meant good weather tomorrow. Maybe.

I took a bucket and walked down to get some water. A time-tested and dust-covered old Grumman canoe was resting bottom-up beside the path to the lake. Both path and canoe were overgrown with wildflowers and brush and looked like they hadn't been used for a long time, at least not this year. There was no one around. The cabin door had no lock, only rusted wire twisted through a latch. There was firewood piled under a lean-to outside and that made me think of how nice it would feel to be dry and warm.

I untangled the wire and opened the door. The interior was dusty, but dry and neat and a small wood stove against the wall looked usable. There were two bunks with rolled-up sleeping bags on them. The floor was plain wood planks and the room smelled of cedar and pine.

"Ok," I said. "Good news. We're sleeping inside tonight."

"Whoa. What about home? What about supper? What about my bed?"

I put the backpack down beside the steps and grabbed some wood from the woodpile, picking out smaller pieces for kindling. "We can't make it any farther. We'll be fine here. We'll start a fire, get warmed up and see if there's anything to eat."

Wadena climbed out of the backpack and shot into the cabin like a gray streak. "Close that door. That bobcat is still watching us."

"What bobcat?"

"Duh! The bobcat I TOLD you about! The one that's been watching me like I watch the birds outside the windows at home. Only there's no glass between this bobcat and me. You know......THAT bobcat?"

"Oh." Her words came back to me. "Ok. Well, if it is a bobcat you'll be ...."

"No 'if' about it. It's a bobcat. Close the door."

I closed the door. I opened the draft and damper on the old stove and put in some newspaper, small woodchips and bark with larger pieces of wood above. I struck a match and lit the papers. The wood was all nice and dry and the flames spread quickly and hungrily through it. Warmth came fast as I put in two larger chunks of wood. It felt very good to have the fire. The wood popped and snapped. Hearing it roar strongly, feeling the warmth, seeing the bright flickering behind the clouded window in the stove door....all of this brought back long-dead memories of the wonder of fire. I had forgotten how good that wood smoke could smell when you were cold and wet.

It would be a good place to spend the night. And not getting home would cause no problems. One good thing about being recently divorced is that you can usually disappear for a night or two and nobody will notice. That's a bad thing in a way, but it's also a good thing. It did not outweigh the other bad things about being alone, but at least I knew that no one would get upset about my failure to come home. It was hard to know which was preferable--no one caring or someone beset by worry. I found some candles and lit them, because darkness was now fully upon us.

Wadena was stretched out beside the stove, maximizing her exposure to the heat, absorbing as much as she could get. "This is better," she said. "Now, about supper...."

The water was boiling on the stove and I was already rummaging in the pantry. I found instant coffee, crackers, two tins of sardines and a large can of baked beans. It was like finding treasure. We ate like a starving man and a starving cat. The river had not fed us well, but an unexpected cabin had made up for it.

Wadena was soon washing her paws. "A fresh fish would have been better, but this was very, very good."

We had the sleeping bags near the stove, me inside one and Wadena curled on top of the other. My wet clothes were hung and drying. I had to agree with the cat. This was very, very good. My ankle would slow us down, but we'd walk out in the morning. My maps and the lake and my compass now told me exactly where we were. The lake showed up as the lowest part of the swamp on the map, but the shape gave it away. The hard-working beavers had turned it into a lake some years ago.

We had been lost, but were lost no more. We'd have tough going for about a mile, then walk ridges through most of the swamp and then have about a mile of easy walking on high ground to the road and the car. I had wrapped my ankle and it was feeling better.

I put more wood in the stove and blew out the candles. The glow from the smoked glass in the door of the stove threw a soft red flickering light that moved against the dark log walls.

"This is why cats don't get married," Wadena said.

"Why?"

"Because we're free. Free as the wind. That's the way we like it."

I thought about it. "There's much to be said for freedom.........but, there's also a lot to be said for having someone to love."

"I love fish," Wadena said.

I sighed and crawled deeper into the warm sleeping bag. "In the morning, we'll catch a fish in the lake. A big one."

Wadena said nothing. She was asleep. The quiet night sounds outside the cabin and the soft crackling of the fire were soothing me to sleep as well.

More later.

Wadena's Fishing Adventure? Yes.......soon.

2006-01-30T17:54:00.000-06:00

Those eager followers of that illustrious saga concerning the cat named Wadena's fishing trip on the dark and menacing Big Hard-Hearted River can relax.....the third (final?) installment is now being written. Not real fast, but being written. If you haven't read the first two parts, now's the time to do it.

Part I (The High Ground) and Part II (The Swamp).

Also, to add to my workload, a Radical Middle of the Road blogger is chatting with me back on "Why the Zionists Will Fail."

A blogger's work is never done......as I am finding out.

Hamas Win Helps Bush

2006-01-29T11:25:00.000-06:00

Let's just say--just to throw out an idea......that Bush really WANTED Hamas to win that election.

He has caused radical factions all over the world to gain in strength over the moderates because people fear Bush and support those who vow to destroy him.

Iran. Egypt. Lebanon. Palestine. Iraq. All showing wins or strong gains by radical anti-American political parties.

Fear and hate helped Bush gain power in America.

Fear and hate of Bush help his enemies around the globe to gain power.

Stupid, hateful and fearful people of many nations voting stupidly ...... making decisions based on fear and hate and skillful propaganda.

Bush is simply crafting an endless supply of enemies to fear and hate.....because he knows that he can thus ensure votes for Republicans who vow to destroy those enemies and save America.

Bush loves democracy? Of course he does.

Now I see the master plan.

WHY HAMAS WON

2006-01-29T08:52:00.000-06:00

Hamas won for the same reason that resistance is getting stronger in Iraq.

Hamas won for the same reason the radical Shias have virtually taken control of the new Iraqi government.

Hamas won for the same reason Iran has elected a hard-liner who is determined to make Iran a nuclear power and confront America.

Hamas won for the same reason North Korea wants to go nuclear.

Hamas won for the same reason that radical Muslim parties have made huge gains in power in both Egypt and Lebanon.

Hamas won for the same reason America is now hated by so many nations of the world.

Hamas won because the use of brute force only brings brute force in return.

Brutal begets brutal. Hate begets hate.

People all over the world are looking to make the best fight they can because they know that America is coming for them.

The Predators are circling like birds of prey.

A relentless and malevolent America is coming for anyone who dares disagree with her.

We are entering into a new escalation of brute force met by brute force.

All because of one little cowboy.......George W. Bush.

It seems that people in many parts of the world are ready to die on their feet rather than live on their knees.......bowing to the evil ideology of a pathetic little cowboy.

Count me in, world.

DEMOCRACY SUCKS!!!

2006-01-27T20:15:00.000-06:00

Democracy gave us.......George Bush and Hamas.

Stupid people, poorly educated......choosing what they saw as the lesser of two evils.......emotional and driven by propaganda.......making bad decisions.

Democracy could work......given an educated and thoughtful AND COMPASSIONATE electorate.

For us.......for the Palestinians.......it gave us the tyranny of the angry, brainwashed masses.

Democracy? It sucks.

The Stolen Children and the Coming Theocracy

2006-01-27T15:49:00.000-06:00

I've noticed an interesting thing.

In my town there are three churches that are slowly gobbling up almost all of the available children.

They are all Radical Religious Right FundaGelical Churches. Their only competition is each other.

They have money, hot music, high-tech multi-media capabilities, emotional worship, hot religio-political issues, patriotic war-fever, the smell of success from electing the politicians they wanted, and, most of all, they have the kids.

Kids want to go to events where there are a lot of other kids.

Kids are now choosing where families go to church because the parents are too often uninvolved or uncaring. Many kids are going to church WITHOUT their uncaring parents.....because they have fun with all the other kids and they are made to feel special and loved.

Kids are choosing to go where all the other kids are going.

And in my town, that turns out to be almost exclusively the Radical Religious Right Churches.

Other youth programs, other traditional and liberal mainstream churches.....are dying as their increasingly elderly populations die without replacements.

What happens 20 years from now when the brainwashed kids of the FundaGelical youth programs start to take over leadership of this nation?

If you think America has serious problems now.......wait.

I think that most Liberals who worry about the coming theocracy are totally unaware that the war is being lost right under their noses.

What's happening in your town?

Why the Zionists Will Fail

2006-01-22T22:35:00.001-06:00

Someone asked for more about Palestine and the Zionist destiny.

I tend to take a dark view of the situation in Palestine. I think the Zionists will be defeated and removed. I think that will take 50 to 100 years and many millions of lives destroyed.

Certain Jews coveted a homeland and (with considerable help from the British) took it by force--in blatant violation of their own holy laws.

The prophet Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.”

Their harsh treatment of the Palestinians? Again, blatant violation of their own holy Jewish laws.....they flushed their own sacred book down the toilet.

Am I saying God is punishing them for that? No. What I am saying is that when they spurn their traditional ethnic and religious values--they lose confidence in their destiny and they begin to falter and stumble. Courage and resolve to win come from the integrity of the heart--and they search and find none. They become more desperate, they commit uglier atrocities--and they spiral downward.

Any nation that is so fallen as to violate its own deepest and most holy values and principles will perish--because such violation tears the heart out of the very people who make up that nation and leaves them morally bankrupt and weak.

They have looked in the mirror and seen the mark of Cain (and they know in their deepest hearts that Cain's punishment reflects the fate of their nation).

In this, of course, America and Israel are blood brothers. Look to your own deeds and your ominously gathering weakness, America.

Gotta LOVE Harry Belafonte

2006-01-22T18:58:00.000-06:00

Harry calls black Republicans "Tyrants."

Harry flat out has guts. Faux News pays him the ultimate compliment of rolling their eyes in cowardly spin to utterly demean and dismiss him (they do that when terrified).

Harry knows Bush and shows it.

He speaks out loud and clear and the major media hush it as much as they can.

They label his remarks as a "tirade" (gosh, was that MORE spin?).

(Such sophomoric editorializing would cause even a high school journalism teacher to trash the article and assign someone else to write it.)

Oh yes, the rich media bastards fear his boat-rocking truth.......ALL the rich bastards fear his boat-rocking truth.

Harry Belafonte......God, I wish he were much younger.....we need more men like him.

AMERICA CHOOSES DEFEAT--A PREDICTION

2006-01-21T09:04:00.000-06:00

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accused Iran and Syria on Friday of planning and funding a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that raised tensions ahead of next week's Palestinian election.
Thursday's bombing posed a major challenge to interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who assumed power after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke on January 4, and could pressure him to retaliate against Palestinian militants.
Sharon aide Raanan Gissin told Reuters that Israel has "ample, concrete evidence" that the Tel Aviv bombing, claimed by the Islamic Jihad group, was bankrolled from Tehran and planned in Damascus. The bombing injured 30 people.

And so it goes....another bomb goes off and respected journalists call it terrorism.

Muslims bad, Zionists good. Iran and Syria are luridly labeled as the "Axis of Terrorism."

How tragic it is that this never-ending barrage of propaganda guarantees that the killing will continue unabated.

The charge is made: TERRORISM. Iran bankrolled--Syria executed.

Yet a glance at reality shows us thousands of dead Palestinians (resisting the occupation of their land) in hundreds of incidents where:

America bankrolled--Israel executed. But was that called terrorism?

And yet another glance at reality shows us thousands of dead Iraqi people who were killed resisting the occupation of their land by a crushing and totalitarian American occupation.

And was THAT called terrorism?

Oh yes, there was the cowardly Predator drone strike that murdered Pakistani women and children......was THAT called terrorism?

And if America strikes out against Iran and Syria? Will the media call THAT terrorism?

No. Because in this "Might Makes Right" world.....the mighty are always right and the weak and oppressed are always wrong.

The mighty control, not only all the effective weapons, they control the media--and the media control the minds of the people. The pen is mightier than the sword and the poor and oppressed have neither the sword nor the pen.

Americans are bombarded daily with media accounts that portray anyone who opposes America as a freedom-hating terrorist. We good. They bad.

And in this "We good, they bad" world.....war will continue unabated until America's economy is totally destroyed.

Yes, I'm saying America (and her surrogate, the Zionists of Occupied Palestine) will lose this profoundly stupid war against the poor and weak.

It's only a matter of time.

We could win the peace.....we will choose instead to lose the war.

That choice is a display of arrogance and ignorance that is unparalleled in human history.

Neo-McCarthyite Republican Alumni Group Attacks UCLA's "Dirty Thirty"

2006-01-19T17:09:00.000-06:00

As an indicator of how far we've fallen toward some kind of bizarre Orwellian police state, I offer the story of how a Republican Alumni group is harassing professors at UCLA. This group is so crazy that this story could easily be mistaken for satire.......but it's not. This alumini group is real......called the Bruin Alumni Association.

These nuts are paying students $100 per quarter to record teachers in class in hope of catching them brainwashing poor conservative kids with commie-pinko ideology. They've come up with a list they call the "Dirty Thirty," which is a black list of profs they want to terminate.

One of their greatest complaints is that these subversive profs forcefully confront any student who supports George Bush. Ummmmmm......Hello. Are teachers not supposed to teach? Is Bush an idiot? Should the teachers not TEACH that REALITY to any unfortunate student who is so ignorant as to be unaware of it?

Apparently, the Alumni group thinks that criticizing Bush in class is tantamount to brainwashing.

This link will take you to their website's sampling of what they call hatemail.

Actually, most of the mail seems to properly chastise these crazies for their Gestapo tactics.

Where is the public outrage about this McCarthyist vendetta?

I'd say there's an incredible shortage of hate mail criticizing it.

The Greatest Anti Republican Anti War Song Ever Written.

2006-01-18T19:26:00.000-06:00

How to Grow Up Big and Strong
Mark Heard

Strong man strangle universe
He drown the stars
Blinded by the mission of a thousand wars
He fit and dominant
Not wonder why
He heed the battle cry

Strong man is survivor
He live to pound
Little wooden crosses in the bloody ground
He fit and dominant
He stand a chance
He not bound to circumstance

And the world keep on turning
And the sun keep on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong

Strong man take no prisoner
Favor no plea
He leave no gold in teeth of enemy
He fit and dominant
He rise above
He not have the word that mean love

And the world keep on turning
And the sun keep on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong

Strong man beat the plowshare
He forges sword
He take the flower and he curse the thorn
He crush the serpent
He bite the fruit
His hand is absolute

And the world keep on turning
And the sun keep on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong

You can find and hear this song at the Kid Brothers of St. Frank Website.

This is new to a lot of people because Mark Heard was a pretty obscure writer of mostly religious music and died young. Rich Mullins (who also died young) put it on one of his albums. The website doesn't display well on my browser and you may have to hunt a bit for the song, but it's well worth hearing.

If you click on "music" and then "song list" you should get an array of albums and the eighth one down the column will give up the "Strong Man" lyric. Then you should be able to click at the top of that page on the music symbol and hear it.

Both of these artists have done some excellent work along with some stuff that is clearly commercial and aimed directly at the Fundy crowd.

Listening.......for the Predators

2006-01-16T21:02:00.000-06:00

I've spread this question around blogworld today and I'm still asking.

Can George Bush blow up any house that he thinks any one of his many millions of enemies might visit?

If so, can anyone be safe?

And we were worried about him listening to phone conversations?

Maybe you should be listening for the sound of Predators?

"Listening for the Predators."

Sounds like a great name for a new blog.

Bush (Predator One) Grabs Pakistan Joystick (Secrets in Nevada)

2006-01-15T18:41:00.000-06:00

A secret trip to the Nevada desert. So secret......that if you choose to read this--someone may have to kill you.

A heavy-set Air Force Master Sergeant bellowed it out, "ROOM, TEN-HUT!!"

The little cowboy walked in quickly, chest thrown out.....his stiff marionette arms pumping high. "As you were, men.....back to work. I'll be here for a while." Five bird colonels and two generals, their chests covered with vast arrays of medals, were at his side and grim men in dark suits flanked them.

He was wearing a flight suit and a leather flying jacket with "Predator Command" insignia. The room was stunned. He smiled a huge smile. A general handed him a cup of coffee. It was a heavy stoneware cup emblazoned with a mailed fist clutching a joystick that resembled a mace.

He smiled broadly and raised the stoneware cup to honor them. "I hear we're gonna lay the hammer on some ter-ists tonight. That's good. That's real good. You boys do a fine job here. I been watchin' you real close and I'm real proud of you boys."

He jerked his head back suddenly, eyebrows raised, "Uhhh, you girls too. Of course we have girls here too, I knew that. Why don't you make us some fresh coffee, darlin'? This coffee is like Texas coffee....ranch coffee! Maybe you could make a new pot and leave the horseshoe out this time." He laughed and the two generals laughed, followed by the colonels, followed by the rest of the room. Everybody laughed a lot, except the men in the dark suits.

The little cowboy put down his cup. "Well, how long we got 'til the fun starts, General?"

"We're at strike plus two minutes and 35 seconds, sir."

"Ok. Well, good!" He scanned the row of young officers. They were focused with great intensity on the screens in front of them. He tapped a lieutenant on the shoulder. "How 'bout you, son? Want to slip out and let Red Leader have a little time on that joy-stick?"

The lieutenant frowned. "Yes, sir. Where is he, sir?"

The president stared at him. "Well, here! I mean, me dammit! I'M the Red Leader!" He looked at the generals and they both nodded vigorously and motioned the lieutenant to get up. He did, but slowly, looking around the room as he rose.

The little cowboy laughed as he sat down. "I hope you're not misunderestimatin' me, son. I'm an old fighter pilot and I'm briefed and ready. I got a whole Predator simmilater system in a little room just down the hall from the oval office. I been making simmilated ter-ist toast for months and tonight.....tonight I'm gonna toast some for real." His lower jaw pushed out and moved back and forth jerkily as though he were putting an exclamation point on his statement with his chin.

"Yes sir, Mr. President."

"Call me 'Red Leader' today, Son.......and I'm gonna name you 'Stick.' Lieutenant Joey Stick. I almost named you Schmuck, but I see you're learning quick to jump when the Red Leader talks."

"Yes sir, Mr. ummmm.....Red Leader."

The Red Leader looked at the complex array of symbols on his screen. "All this stuff......this is some fine technology here. Why.....if we'd a had these Predators in the Texas National Guard I probably would have had a lot of kills in Vietnam. Wished I could have gone there to Vietnam to lib-rate the brave working people there, but I couldn't. I had huge family responsibilities, of course. Things were happening. Lazy employees were tryin' to form unions."

"Yes sir, Red Leader. Watch your flight path. Your weapons are armed. We're hot and closing on the target."

The president grinned and swung the joy-stick back and forth with gusto. It matched the back and forth motion of his chin. "This Predator is now Air Force Predator ONE!!!!"

He flicked dust off the screen with his finger. "HOO-AH!! Air Force Predator One gonna get us an evil ter-ist!!! Not just any ter-ist either. I'm gonna personally light up that Mr. Abdul El Zaheinie, the big Heinie......the number two hater of America in the entire world."

He winked. "Hey Stick......who knows? Maybe......maybe I'll even get number one, the tall, skinny guy with no kidneys. 'Course, all this has to be secret for now, but later......when I write my book, everybody will know that a courageous American president, me, led the mission that turned the tide in the war against the haters of America."

He turned to one of the Generals. "Have one of the girls write that last line down. I'm savin' good lines for the book. Damn well outsell Clinton's book even WITH his damn overactive zipper."

The displaced and nervous Lieutenant Stick was edging closer. "Yes sir, Mr. President......better take it up a bit, sir.......sir, you're pretty low. And, you may be a little close to one of the other aircraft, sir.

The little cowboy leaned in toward the screen, staring intently. "No problemo, Stickboy. Just watch my six. This is just like riding a bike. Just like that simmilater. I want to get in nice and low. I want to see Mr. El Zaheinie pee in his pants. This is gonna be a Texas turkey shoot."

He leaned in closer to the screen, squinting presidentially. "Hey Stick, after I get ol' Heinie I want you to come back to the ranch as my guest and we'll do a little bike riding together. You'll have to be the hero 'til later when my book comes out. Good photo op. Like when I had that nice young bike ridin' champion out to the ranch. He was a good young man even if he did ride in that damn sissy race in Froggie-land. But I'd like a good patriotic boy like yourself to come out.....maybe give you a big medal after we finish this op. You got a bike, son?"

"No."

"Well, you can use one of mine. " He jerked the joystick back violently. "What the hell was THAT? That looked like a goat!!" The sound of alarms wailing filled the room.

"Sir! Sir, I think......."

"Easy, Stick......I'm doin' fine. What the hell IS that, a goat-alarm?? Stay calm now. Remember, I'm a pilot too. Why can't I see anything?! I saw a goat just a second ago. Was that a ter-ist goat? Didn't look like a ter-ist goat. I can't see the target, though......I think we got a computer glitch here son, the cameras must be pointed all cock-eyed. AWWWWW......some of the other boys are firin' their Hellfire missiles already and I can't even see a damn thing.....oh hell." He got up. "You take her son.......damn computer locked up tight as a tick. If you can gett'er fixed I'll push the button."

The lieutenant collapsed quickly back into the chair, drenched with sweat, resetting controls and immediately coming to a conclusion. "No chance here, sir."

"Oh hell, has ANYBODY got any missiles left? This is bullshit.....I'M THE DAMN RED LEADER and I didn't get to shoot a Goddam thing! What kind of shit IS this??" He grabbed for the joy-stick again. "Lemme have it! Lemme mash the damned button!!! I wanna shoot!!!"

The generals looked alarmed. The lieutenant said, "I think you already shot, sir. Recon says it looks like you crashed, but you took out.......uh, well......you took out one of the other Predators and some kind of small building.....I think it was a goat shed." He wiped sweat off his face like a bad news messenger sensing death. "But it could have been an important goat shed."

One of the generals elbowed the other. "That goat shed looked like a terrorist--I mean--a ter-ist hideout to me."

The other general had been staring blankly at the computer screen that was now blinking with a 'Aircraft Inop' message, but he recovered quickly. "Damn!!! Why didn't WE think of that. That's EXACTLY where Zwahiri would hide! Brilliant thinking, Mr. Red Leader."

The little cowboy was stunned for only a second. "Zaheinie? You mean maybe I got him after all?"

The general frowned. "We can't be sure. The man is an evil Satanic fiend and, of course, fiendishly clever. So far, we know we took out several buildings that we're sure contained a number of people. We won't know until all the reports are in.....but, I have to warn you......there will probably be women and children among the casualties."

The little Cowboy looked very somber and stuck his jaw out and wiggled it back and forth again. "And goats," he said, slowly rubbing his chin and pondering the gravity of the thing. "Well, we all know that war is hell and........my intelligence tells me they're all ter-ist sympathizers and haters of America anyway. Hate us because we're free. Potential homicide bombers. I'll have Fox News put the proper spin on it. Get me the word on old El Zaheinie as soon as you can."

All the president's men in dark suits closed around him and they headed for the door. "That Stick is a fine young man, general. I want him to have a medal even if he did crash. It was only because his computer locked up.....it could happen to anybody. I'm so proud of the way our boys have been fightin' this war on ter-ism.....I want everybody in the room to have a medal.......maybe even the girls could get a nice bracelet medal or some earring medals. Hell, give yourself a damn medal if you got room for any more."

The little cowboy headed back to Air Force One. "Maybe I should drive," he said.

The men in dark suits glanced quickly at one another.

Lighting up a 'Ville........2006 Version (Mai Lai Pakistan)

2006-01-14T08:49:00.000-06:00

DAMADOLA, Pakistan — A U.S. airstrike on a suspected Al Qaeda hideout in Pakistan near the Afghan border that killed at least 17 people targeted the terrorist network's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, but the suspect wasn't there, Pakistani officials said today.

Yesterday, in the grand tradition of Mai Lai, the Bush Crime Family "Lit up a 'Ville," in a new country.

The "suspect" wasn't there. Some innocent "suspects" were killed and some were maimed.

Yes, in an apparent attempt to reaffirm that this is 'Nam all over again, the old ritual of "Lighting up a 'Ville" was performed in Pakistan.

But this one was really a NEW ritual, differing in distinct ways from the old.....it's the new, improved, Bush version.

In Vietnam, if we suspected that some bad guys might be in a village, we'd lay all the ordinance we had into that 'ville and if anybody shot back we'd call in an air strike. When nothing was moving anymore, we'd go in and check it out and do a body count.

That COULD be dangerous. Mostly fatal to the indigenous population, but dangerous to us because some bloody somebody might still have the strength to pull a trigger or lob a grenade.

The new ritual, in honor of, and befitting a man who spent his own wartime National Guarding the friendly borders of Texas, posed no such dangers. Yesterday, we just sent a swarm of machines without pilots.......a swarm of drones. Unmanned war planes that struck (as Custer used to say until it happened to him) in a "surprise attack without mercy."

No danger to us. Safe as flying a remote control airplane. Safe as spending the war in Texas.

And, as usual, we killed the wrong people. Our intelligence was "flawed."

Our intelligence was "flawed???" Whoa! Heard that one before!!

So.....let's review.

Yesterday we did a cowardly, remote-control attack on a village of innocent people.....hoping some bad guys might be among them. We killed a whole bunch of innocent men, women and children.

So, other than the increased cowardice.......how does that differ from the Mai Lai Massacre?

But our Crypto-Fascist media (who condemned the Mai Lai Massacre) sounded positively giddy when first reporting this current massacre. Major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS were all sounding jubilant over this absolutely boneheaded and cowardly military action in Pakistan.

We can assume they are sad today. We missed the bad guys. Our intelligence was flawed.

Maybe we'll get them next time.

When will they ever learn?

Thanks to Lily, I've Shrugged Off My Depression!!!

2006-01-12T18:22:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Lily.....I have shrugged off my depression over the Alito debacle.

Even the thought of fish could not drag me out of this dark depression--but then......Lily passed this gem along on her blog.....And I quote:

"""Run, don't walk, to Mary's at Knock Knock to see the link she has to a quicktime video. It is so funny! Disclaimer: not for the reverent."""

Irreverent......but truly moving.

FundaGelicals, you may as well not go there.....you will be offended.

Carry on. Love and humor will save the day.

Mrs. Alito Weeps

2006-01-11T20:03:00.000-06:00

What a scene! She weeps!

Oh, THE HUMANITY!

Somebody slap that woman and inform her that she's married to a misogynistic Crypto-Fascist bastard!

Excuse me.....I feel a hair-ball coming on.

Part II: Wadena Fishes Big Hard-Hearted River (The Swamp)

2006-01-07T22:33:00.000-06:00

Click here if you haven't read part one.

The Tale continues........

In a shockingly unusual state of affairs......Wadena's paws were now muddy (THAT IS a cause for alarm). She looked uncharacteristically stunned. "Face it," she said. "We are in a quagmire. If this were a war we'd be declaring victory and sending token numbers of troops home. Let me be the first to volunteer to go home."

A cold mist began to fall......drifting in softly between the dark spruce trees and forming tiny droplets that hung diamond-like on the tips of the deep green needles. September in the north of Minnesota can be a cruel, fickle and capricious month. The clouds had come quickly and simultaneously with our entry into the swamp and our cool and beautiful sunny day was suddenly a dismally wet, cold and nasty afternoon. Every time I brushed against a branch I got wetter.

"It's not that easy," I said.

Wadena was dolefully staring at her muddy paws and her head snapped up. "Don't give me that."

"Well, it's like this." I said, "We can't just 'go home.' We have to keep moving. We have about a mile to go along the river before we can cut back overland to the road. Besides, we might still catch a fish on the way."

Wadena seemed massively unconvinced. She did, however, turn and press on.

It turned out to be much more than a mile and things got rougher. The brush got thicker, the mud got deeper, and I did something I never do. I sprained my ankle. It hurt. I sat down and took a look at it. It didn't look or feel good. It needed ice and I didn't have any. It needed to be wrapped and I had nothing to wrap it with.

"I am NOT Lassie," Wadena said. "I can't run back to the road and bark and get someone to follow me back here to save you....it's just not a cat thing."

I was busy cutting a walking stick. "Never mind. It's not that bad." I wasn't sure if I was lying or not.

I'd been a runner for many years and in thousands of miles of town and cross-country running over curbs, rocks and rough trails--I had never sprained an ankle. If there was one thing I was sure of, it was that I could always cover ground fast without any problems. Now one slippery rock had undone me. I started to wonder if we might be spending the night in the woods. I didn't mention that possibility to Wadena.

"Ok, let's go," I said.

She seemed heartened by my mobility and ran ahead again. After an hour of slow going, though, she put her (muddy) paw down firmly. She was now looking, not just muddy-footed, but bedraggled. "I need the backpack," she said.

I picked her up and put her inside, zipped up with just her head sticking out.

"Better," she said.

I needed a lift myself. I was limping. I had one good leg and a cat on my back. Either my map was wrong or we had somehow gotten onto a branch of the river that didn't show up on the map. There had been a beaver pond with what looked like another small river inlet and I had ignored it because it looked too small to be anything and it looked even more swampy......I started to get that uneasy feeling that you get when you start to think you just might be lost.

"I think we might be lost," Wadena said.

"Hmmmm....." I said, putting off the inevitable admission.

"You know, if you were more willing to stop and ask directions, we wouldn't GET lost."

"Yeah, right. Very funny.....like I could stop at a gas station.

"Well, you DO tend to just blunder on."

I made a growling noise at the cat on my back.

So she abruptly changed the subject. "Also, I think something is following us."

I walked on. "Oh come on.....I have enough problems."

"That doesn't change the fact that something's following us. I heard it before. It crossed the river to get to our side. Part way splashing through the water and then walking along a fallen tree to our side. It was big. And now that I'm up here, I've seen it moving back there twice."

Having given up any pretense of fishing, I marched silently on through the brush. I was cheered by the sight of a maple tree. Maybe higher ground? The swamp seemed a little less swampy and the brush was thinning a bit. The cold and mist were, however, getting worse. "Maybe you're hallucinating. You might be getting hypothermia."

From the backpack: "Baloney. I'm warm in here now. I heard what I heard. I saw what I saw." It sounded like she had her head inside the backpack now.

I was totally outside in the cold wet. "I'm glad YOU'RE warm! Maybe I'M getting hypothermia and I'm imagining this conversation!"

"I'm warm, but I'm getting hungry. I don't suppose you could catch a fish. We ARE fishing, right?"

"I'm kind of in a hurry. I'd like to sleep at home tonight. And as you've noticed, we might be a little bit lost."

"I know what it is," she said.

"What WHAT is?"

"Duh. The thing that's following us."

More later.

Waiting for More of Wadena's Fish Story

2006-01-07T08:55:00.000-06:00

Wadena is lost somewhere on memory lane--deep in the woods. So, I'll stall.

When I was very young and a cute little girl didn't return my affections, I remember my mother saying, "There are plenty more fish in the sea."

Which made me feel better.....and was wise.

And I remember people saying of a guy with a girl friend, "Oh, he's really got her on a string."

Or sometimes I'd hear people say, "She's really got HIM hooked!"

I remember a girl I knew in Japan who used to constantly ask me, "You catch Jo-san?"

She was asking if I already had a girl friend or if I might be available. Such an honorable girl, she was. She worked in a bar, but she had way more integrity than a lot of allegedly higher-class women that I've met. But there it was--a fishing metaphor again......as if she assumed I was constantly trolling for women (which, at that point in my life, may have been at least somewhat true).

And, we continue to find ways to express ourselves in fishing talk. There is a contemporary vernacular that talks of "hooking up" with somebody (and these must be conservationists with barbless hooks, because it appears there's a lot of catch and release being practiced).

Romance, it seems, is often expressed in fishing language. Which is understandable, I guess, (we too often seem to be angling for trophies to improve our feelings about ourselves) and explains Wadena's use of a fishing tale to comment on human relationships. She seems to find humans to be quite pretentious and unrealistic about their relationships.

And she says that religion, low self-esteem and an unhealthy acquisitiveness are always lurking very near.....attached to us like dark shadows that take over and pull us into dangerous, even toxic places.

We tend to give up too much of ourselves in trade for what it is that we think that we want.

Me? I wonder if we'll ever get it right. So Ted Hughes was not so nice to Sylvia Plath. She killed herself. That makes him a bad guy? Maybe he was. So why did she marry him in the first place? Maybe that's the only truly valid question. Somehow, she failed to take care of herself. Why? Why do far too many of us become enmeshed with destroyers instead of taking care of ourselves?

Cats, on the other hand, always take care of themselves.

Cats know that you're the only one who will always be there for you........and that fishing is a profoundly uncertain business.

Wadena Fishes the Big Hard-Hearted River (The High Ground)

2006-01-02T17:48:00.000-06:00

Snow was falling softly outside. A thick, ghostly armada of snowflakes, big and fluffy, floated slowly and gracefully to the ground. The snow was piling up and all the outside sounds were getting more and more muted and muffled as the snow got deeper. The low sizzling sounds of the amber coals in the still-hot but slowly dying fire lightly touched my ears.

I was cleaning up some old fishing gear. Wadena was napping as close to the fireplace as she could get.

A glowing log shifted and clunked and Wadena's head popped up. She stretched and then yawned. "Well. This is nice," she said. "I'm warm clear through."

I was rubbing some oil into the leather strap on a much-used creel. "Time to retire this to wall-hanging, I think."

"It's older than you," she said--sounding amazed.

"We used it when we fished the Big Hard-Hearted River."

"I remember. You gave me a fish." She said it with her eyes dreamy and half-closed.....remembering. She's rarely nostalgic and it's invariably over fish.

Remembering.

It had been a beautiful cool fall day that time on the river. Golden autumn with sunshine and fiery maple trees that were in red, orange and amber party dress--having a last fling before discarding those leaves for the coming season of snow. The fallen leaves filled the air with their very own crisp smell--the smell of fall. They crunched and swished loudly as we walked.

I can still clearly picture the little brook trout between her gray paws.....it was in vivid fall colors, too--deep speckled green and fins aflame with the bright red tints of mating season. A fish spectacularly lovely as only a brookie in September can be. A jewel of the wilderness. A gift from me to her.

It was a beautiful day and a sad time--sad because I knew I was close to getting a divorce. We discussed this difficult thing as we walked along.....trying to understand it. The walking was easy at first, with nice trails on high ground along the river. Many had walked and fished here over the summer. As we moved farther, though, the trails grew thin and the walking more difficult.

"You humans," she said, "you get so emotionally entangled with each other. Cats know better."

"Cats take non-entanglement to extremes," I said.

She sat on a stump as I wrist-flicked a short cast under an overhanging limb. The hook and worm made a pleasing plop as they hit the water. "Extremes are all in your point of view," she said.

The line started to move on its own, slowly at first and then zipping to the dark, undercut place at the bank below the tree, where the clustered tree roots lived. It was exciting to see that line move in the dark water, knowing a good brookie was moving it.

This was not fly-fishing water. There was no room for a back-cast here. These were the small streams far above Lake Superior. They were slowly finding their way by gravity and instinct toward the big lake. They were narrow, brushy, winding rocky runs with wild brook trout and hardly room to walk. The brush snagged at my wrists as I set the hook and the rod tip pumped down heavily as the fish protested.

Wadena rushed to the edge of the water, pushing through the brush and watching the line move. "There's one! That's a good one."

Of course it was a good one to her. She had never met a fish she didn't like.

This particular fish, apparently, didn't like me. The line went slack and I reeled in an empty hook.

"You lost it!" Wadena gasped....one paw raised as though in protest or as to somehow reclaim the loss.

"It wasn't meant to be," I said. We fished on.

The brush got thicker and the soil muddier. The leaves no longer crunched. They were wet and muddy and the walking was less noisy and joyous. The water, too.....seemed murkier. The forest changed from deciduous to coniferous. The trees had become mostly deep green spruce--older evergreens with slate-gray trunks that were tall enough to block the light. Moss hung in sea-green masses from the dark, spreading branches.

We had not fished this stretch of river before. We had parked on the gravel and walked far on a grassy logging road and then cut cross-country for nearly a mile to catch a remote part of the river. Now Wadena found small animal trails and I was forcing my own trails on riverbanks where humans rarely traveled. At first it had been pretty and bright but it was rapidly turning swampy and gloomy.

Wadena found paths more easily than me, but still said, "I don't like this place."

I made my way, fending off branches with one hand and holding the rod in the other, finding spaces so the line didn't hang up in the brush. "It gets this way sometimes," I said.

She ran ahead as I struggled. "When it gets this way, " she said, "cats go the other way."

"It'll get better," I said.

"You hope." She sat on a rock to wait for me. "Doesn't look to me like it gets better."

More later.

So......is Religion a Warm Towel?

2006-01-02T11:10:00.000-06:00

So..........IS religion simply for comfort?

And, is a Sunday nap under a warm towel fresh from the dryer--just as good?

Is staying home from church the smart thing to do? The cat below thinks so.

(Cheshire smile.)

Happiness is a Warm Towel Fresh from the Dryer

2006-01-01T11:15:00.000-06:00

THIS....is starting off the new year right!

Staying home from church.

Yes, even for a PURPORTED Abyssinian Cat-God.....

A warm towel, fresh from the dryer.....is sheer bliss.

Let the stupid human watch Snuffleupagus, I'm napping.

Staying Home from Church to Watch George Snuffleupagus

2005-12-31T09:14:00.000-06:00

"So, you didn't go to church." Wadena was sitting in a warm sunbeam, licking a paw and using it to fine-tune the angle of her ear.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Maybe I just needed a Sunday morning to think."

She paused in her licking to look at me. "Don't think too much......you won't ever go back there again." Her tone was more condescending than usual.

Wadena thinks church is a waste of time. She knows nothing of my church except what I tell her or what she overhears--but that makes no difference.....she thinks all church is a waste of time.

Don't get the wrong idea. Wadena is not an atheist. She's actually an enthusiastic theist. She not only believes in God......she thinks she IS God.

Literally.

She claims Abyssinian blood--thus she believes she is descended from the cats worshipped as Gods in ancient Egypt (strangely enough, the fact that she was found starving in the deep woods doesn't seem to interfere with her belief that she is a God).

So, any form of worship other than feeding her or attending to her litterbox is........to her--idolatry. She is offended by my straying off to church to worship other gods. But, most of all, she simply finds my faith ludicrous.

"So," she said, "you will read the Sunday paper, watch the sycophantic Snuffleupagus, drink coffee and relax.

"Stephanopoulous. He's a respected television journalist."

Wadena stopped her grooming and gave me the look. "He's a fake-smiling wimp who tries to agree with everybody to keep his job."

"Whatever. Anyhow, I'm not going to church."

"Very wise. That God you worship is dangerously crazy. He loves you. He hates you. He kills you. He brings you back to life. He forgives you. He wants to marry you (really kinky). He seems to have bizarre mood swings. This God is an abusive husband. Had you not noticed that?

"It's not exactly like that," I say.

"Ah, but it's EXACTLY like that. Massacres of children. Talking snakes! Virgin birth and blood-drinking rituals. Saved by works, saved by grace, loved but sent to eternal torture--you don't think all that's crazy?"

"Maybe to a cat."

"Maybe to ANYBODY with an IQ higher than broccoli!" Wadena started licking the other paw and I knew she would now ignore me for a while. She had established my inferiority and gullibility.

She had a point. Christianity seemed so normal until you looked at it from her point of view. All of a sudden it could seem pretty far-fetched. We had discussed it before and I found that I really had no satisfactory answers. All my teachers had always ended such discussions with statements about God moving in mysterious ways.

"That's why you have such severe problems with self-esteem."

"What?"

Wadena looked positively Cheshire-like in her happiness. "You know what I mean. Since you were a baby your religious masters have told you that you are a wretch.....weak, poor, naked, blind and unworthy. You are a poor, miserable sinner......less than nothing without Jesus."

"I don't have a problem with self-esteem," I said.

"HAH!!! You go to church and your masters insult you and call you names......and then you give them money. You could take that money and buy yourself a nice big fish........but you DON'T! Why? Because you're not worth it! You're just a wretch. Better not get your religious masters mad at you......you NEED them. Scum like you would go to Hell otherwise, right?"

"No! And I DON'T have a problem with self-esteem!"

Wadena just sat and grinned at me......Cheshire-happy again.

That reminded me. I looked at my watch. It was time for George Snuffleupagus to come on and flash that big fake grin at everybody and try to stay popular with all viewers.

I turned on the t.v. No doubt watching a snuffling, smiling, sycophant would make me feel better about myself.

Wadena Meets a Stray Cat

2005-12-27T22:23:00.000-06:00

There was a small form huddled just outside the patio door.

It was a cold night. Not just the silent frozen still dead-calm cold of late December Minnesota.....this was the howling-wind cold that breaks you.

Cold that you can hear. Cold that stirs long-dead and ancient memories of how it was to live outside.

Cold with a wind that freezes tears in your watering eyes and hardens your face in seconds and chills you right through your many layers of heavy clothes.

It was the grim wind-blown cold that convinces.

And there was a small form huddled just outside the patio door. A pile of wood somewhat sheltered it from that swirling wind and a snow drift curled close around it. It was a black cat.

Wadena, on a rug on the warm......INSIDE, side of the glass, stared out at the intruder.

"A cat," I said.

Wadena sighed. "Once again you amaze me with your ability to figure out the really hard stuff."

"Looks cold," I said.

Wadena stared at the cat.....a frosty stare that out-iced the -40 wind chill. "Ya think?"

"Maybe we should let it in to warm up," I said.

"Even again you amaze me.......with a really bad idea--even for you."

I shrugged. "Seems like the right thing to do."

"You really don't think these things through, do you?"

I hesitated......mulling it over, not wanting to look stupid in front of a cat. "What?"

Wadena turned the stare on me. "What?! What if it has fleas? What if it bit me? What if it ate all the food? Does it look like it's had its shots? What if it has some nasty disease? What if it stinks? Opening the door would make a cold draft. Why would we want one more cat in a house that doesn't have enough food now, anyhow? That's NOT a litter-box trained cat, you know.....that's a crawl-behind-the-couch-and-make-a-mess kind of a cat. "

"Can't just let it freeze," I said.

"Freeze? It's happy out there. Some cats choose to live that way. They like it."

"It's shivering."

"No......it just looks that way....that's the wind in the fur."

"I don't think so," I said, "maybe we should give it some food."

"Let it catch a mouse," Wadena said, "there are mice all over the place out there. If it catches its own mouse it will be able to keep its self respect and dignity."

"Ah," I said, "I just realized something."

"That it would be stupid to let it in?"

"No......you reminded me of a man I saw on t.v. He was a politician.......he said that if you GIVE a man a fish you feed him for one day.....but......"

Wadena sat up. She's always especially interested in any conversation about fish. "But what?" She said. "And what kind of a fish was it?"

"I don't know.....but he said.......rather than give a man a fish--you could give the man a job in your fish canning factory at minimum wage. He could work for you and make enough money to buy food for himself. And with any luck at all, his children and grandchildren would eventually work for you, too. And you would become very rich."

Wadena nodded vigorously. "But....was it a big fish?"

I took the cat inside that night. It was very sick. It wouldn't eat or drink. I called the Humane Society, but they had no room at their inn.

Budget cuts, they said.

I'll take it to the vet in the morning, I thought. In the morning.....it was dead.

Wadena said it was all for the best.

I had to agree.

"You're a Republican, aren't you?" I said.

Wadena yawned. "Of course. All cats are Republicans.......if you want something panting, drooling and caring--you should buy a dog."

"Now there's a thought," I said.

The Christian Pie American Talking Blues Song

2005-12-26T16:47:00.000-06:00

Eating Pie in the Name of Jesus

I know you would be encouraged, if you knew me back in the day
I know your heart would swell with pride to see me go about my way
I know I was good for the children, I know I was good for the world
I know that Jesus cherished me, well, whatever….I was gonna be heard.

I was eating pie, eating pie, eating pie in the name of Jesus.

I was helping all the sinners, I was setting the captives free
I was eating pie for the poor, oh, I was eating pie by the Christmas tree
Eating pie, eating pie, eating pie in the name of Jesus.

I was saving the wandering Muslim, I was taking Holy Land for the Jew
I was eating pie to help the hungry and weak and I was eating more than a few.
I was eating pie, eating pie, eating pie in the name of Jesus.

Every Sunday after service, yes, the evening service too,
Every Wednesday after the special service for the Very Holy Few
We’d all go to Perkins, yes, our whole Holy Crew
We were having more pie, a lot more pie, abundant pie in the name of Jesus.

We were saving babies and we were giving sight to poor blind fools
We paraded past the flag pole, we got the kids to pray in the schools
We got the proper people elected to save the homosexuwules.
We were eating pie…….eating pie, yes, eating pie in the name of Jesus.

We helped the poor to help themselves working at a minimum wage
That wasteful health insurance for kids wasn’t really needed anyway
We were walking tall for Jesus, the salvation of us all
Oh we ate pie…….(Oh, you know…..sing it now.) Pie, pie, etc. etc.

We invaded Iraq, it had to be done, we knew exactly why
Chemical weapons, mass deceptions, there were bombers in the sky,
If Iraq didn't do it, somebody did, and some Muslims had to die
We were eating pie, the price of gas was too high, we needed more PIE......
Yes we did, oh sweet Jesus.

We were holier than Swiss cheese and holding all the Kingdom keys
We were strong and standing tall, as the poor and weak were on their knees
Our rolling holy agenda, it was guaranteed to please
We were eating pie, never gonna die, we had all the pie, and we had Jesus.

And our Jesus.....he looked just like us, he was plump and six feet tall
And he ate pie, a lot of pie, yes, up in the sky, our sweet Jesus.
Oh he ate pie, and we ate pie, we all ate pie with our sweet Jesus.
We had to be right, everything was all right......we're getting THE ENTIRE PIE
With our sweet Jesus.

Mark Twain and the Pie-Eating Jesus

2005-12-26T14:13:00.000-06:00

Mark Twain's bigotry would appear to be religious in nature.

While it may be true that he loved the black folk of his youth.....what was the difference between them and the brown and black folk of the Muslim Faith?

His black folk were Christians who had accepted the blue-eyed, American jingo Jesus.

Bingo jingo. On his pie-eating cruise he met people who not only had no pie.....they didn't WANT the pie of The Great Satan America.

That's what he hated. He couldn't stand anyone who rejected our pie and our plump, white, pie-eating Jesus.

About Me

2005-12-26T11:38:00.000-06:00

Blue Only Goes With Sunshine

My favorite color is sunshine

I love the way it smells

It sparkles on the water

With the flashing sound of bells.

It’s better than the color blue

Which always made me sad.

My mother loved that color

The only one she had.

She taught me all there is to know

About the color blue.

She helped me learn that blue’s no good

If sunshine’s not there too.

My father loved the color red

And Mars, the god of war.

He bottled up the sunshine

And he sold it in his store.

His riches were exceeded

By the torment in his life,

His noisy desperation

And the clouds across his sight.

I’m looking at the ocean

Below a perfect sky.

My clothes that were so wet and cold

Are now sun-warmed and dry.

I’m smiling at the dolphins

And understanding why

The blue is good in daylight

Against a sunny sky.

And though I’m yet unable

To join them in their play

I understand the dolphins

And envy them their ways.

There’s so much heavy past

Infused with deep and solid blues

But sunshine whispers "it’s ok,"

My life is what I choose.

My favorite color is sunshine

I love the way it smells

It sparkles on the water

With the flashing sound of bells.

Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad," Same Old/New Stuff

2005-12-26T07:29:00.000-06:00

Love Mark Twain. Still hadn't read "The Innocents Abroad," so I picked up a copy real cheap on e-Bay.

Interesting.

The book was a best-seller. America loved it. Maybe for all the wrong reasons.

In "Innocents" Mark Twain writes as representative of a rich and xenophobic America as he enjoys a luxury cruise. He is annoyed by most people and dislikes some even more than others.

He slams the French, especially, but saves the worst of his venom for the Arabic people.

It seems that, to him, they are perilously close to being sub-human creatures.

Twain is quite adept at trashing them.

All this was quite remindful of the current state of America--this rampant animousity toward things French and things Muslim.

So..... the common and current and most ugly ill-will was alive and in robust health more than 100 years ago.

I (perhaps along with many others) tend to think of it as a more recent fad--a new rage--a dark flower of fashion that blossomed as gas prices went up in the 1970s and then hit full bloom with the 9/11 attack.

Naw.....America's hate and fear have far deeper and older roots, I guess.

Not many are chopping at those roots, either.

TigerTale Journal

2005-12-25T15:49:00.000-06:00

There's a reason for the names.

TigerTale Journal: Because she loves to twist the Tiger's tail.

Wadena: It's where she was found. I found Wadena alone in a thick and tangled pine forest in Wadena County.

She was loudly calling for a mama who either had a new litter of kittens or had maybe been a split second too slow when the softly flying Horned Owl came to call in the moonlight.

Wild cats in a wild place.

With all the noise Wadena was making......it was only a matter of time before a fox or coyote would come and have her for lunch. Luckily, I arrived first.

Understand that Wadena, though tiny and vulnerable.....WAS a proud, independent and totally undomesticated feline.

Wadena was quite sure who her mama was and it obviously wasn't me. I had to chase her down (which would have been impossible had she not kept up her complaining and allowed me to find her again every time she vanished in the brush).

So I carried her home. It was lucky that it was a cold morning and I was wearing heavy gloves, because she wanted to end our relationship and was using her excellent claws for traction. It took her some time to forgive me for the indignity of this capture and for the additional insult of such undignified transport. She was obviously sure that she could make it alone out there in the woods.

She slowly became a reluctant part of the family. We had three other cats. Being (in her mind) a temporary resident, Wadena wiled away the hours until such time as she could escape. She killed time by scientifically driving our other cats to distraction.

Taking ownership of tail tips was only one of the ways she accomplished this. She showed her wild heritage by exhibiting great intelligence and ingenuity, and many were her tactics--the ambush, the blow-your-doors-off close scamper and the sudden pounce without mercy were just a few.

But her favorite was twisting the tiger's tail.

I'm sure we'll be twisting some tails as we move through the blogosphere together.....she has forgiven me and our lives are now inextricably intertwined. We are now embarked on a literary mission for truth and social justice and the pursuit of elusive cursors.

She, radical cat that she is, comes up with all the ideas. Me? I just type.