Here he is in all his glory. Coach of the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.
Any Kentucky Fan who still cheers for this guy is an idiot. They should be driven out of the Big Blue Nation or hell, we should tar and feather the losers. I’m so tired of getting on Kentucky boards only to see some moron has posted a link to a Golden Gophers board or a new link to a Golden Gopher game/win. Here’s a hint ~ No on cares. If you want to cheer for Traitor Tubby, take your sorry ass to a Minnesota Golden Gophers Board. I’m sure they’ll welcome your sorry ass with open arms.
They’re especially notorious for this over at Wildcatnation.com. A guy named BigBlue75, ukwebfan and another moron named Truebluecatfan and several others love to slobber all over Tubby each time he’s brought into a conversation. Then they wonder why people get annoyed by them and their Tubby erotica. I swear to God. In a full moon, these idiots probably get together and have orgies under a Tubby Shrine. Lube themselves up and in a grotesque scene straight out of hell, they worship Tubby by sacrificing poor little gophers which they’ve painted gold with paint purchased on special at Walmart. I’m sure UKBOOB leads them in their sacrificial prayer and is the first to strip down and rub himself all over the TLT statue and drink the golder gopher blood.
Bunch of Damn Losers!
Honestly, I’ve got nothing against the Tubster since he did the right thing and skulked out of town leaving all the problems that he created behind for someone else to fix. Now that’s real class. lol But his slobbering and adoring leftovers at UK, I wish he’d come one down and lead them away like a pied piper. We don’t need the bandwagon chumps in the Big Blue Nation.
This is one of my biggest complaints about the media. They almost completely ignore any positive story or spin on anything. They’re all about manufacturing outrage.
In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover Holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.
The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed!”
The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor, How can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays…”
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.”
The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.”
The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’ Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that, if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.”
If you happen to be a Packers fan who is sick and tired of hearing about Brett Favre(notes), and you’re thinking of joining the National Guard and going overseas to get away from it all, stop. It’s not going to work. The detainees in Baghdad are going to be just as vicious as the Vikings fans you know.
A Wisconsin National Guard unit charged with keeping watch over detainees in Baghdad decided to put up Packers colors and logos all around the camp. The prisoners noticed, started asking questions and suddenly, Favre became an unwitting ally.
From 620WTMJ’s Jay Sorgi (subbing in for the injured Waylon Manning):
“They know Favre by name,” said First Lieutenant Tim Boehnen, who is from New Richmond, Wis.
“One of the big words they know now is shenanigan. They’ll constantly talk about ‘Favre shenanigans,’ ‘He’s so good for the Vikings,’ and ‘The Packers have got to really feel bad about that one.’ “
[...] “They obviously then started up the conversations, and started talking about Brett Favre. They soon learned about Favre going to the Vikings, and things just started going downhill from there.”
In retaliation, I think our troops should make the detainees watch ESPN’s Week 4 Monday Night Football contest between the Vikings and Packers, including pre- and post-game shows. They’ll never want to mention Favre again.
That’s gotta be one of the funniest stories of all time.
I’m tired of people whining when they think that I am calling them a racist or bigot. If you are the type of person who cuts the word “Hope” from this picture and replace it with the world “Nigger.” If you are the type of person who creates or forwards emails that purposely denigrate whole groups of folks based on false information or misinformation.
If you participate in these types of activities, I’m not calling you a racist or a bigot. Your actions and words are an admission of your guilt and your true feelings. Don’t whine to me when I dispute the lies and ignorance of these actions and words.
Here’s a bit of a wake up call for all of you. Not all Muslims are terrorists or want to push Sharia on the world. Not all Black people are unemployed and on welfare. There are Muslims serving in the military and who have served in the military honorably. I work with a Muslim right now who is a true American and one of the better human beings whom I have had the pleasure to know in my life. These folks love America and what she represents in the World. If you disagree with Obama over policy, that’s fine. I do as well. If you hate Obama because he’s black or you think he’s a Muslim, you’re an ignorant racist/bigot. Period.
If you are a racist or a bigot, please move to Waziristan. Many folks in that region are as ignorant, bigoted and racist as are you. I don’t want your ignorance in my America.
US Contract Companies are hiring 15 to 20 Third Country Nationals (Indians, Filipinos, etc) for every one American in Afghanistan. 10% of Americans out of work and DynCorps, Fluor, CACI, AECOM, KBR and all of these other “American” International Contract companies aren’t interested in hiring any of them. Maybe they’ll hire some illegal immigrants as well.
They are keeping their bottom line in check with these moves. Making millions of dollars in profit by stiffing the American worker. DynCorps, KBR and Fluor can hire 20 Indians for the cost of hiring one US Citizen. The US Government is awarding these multi-million dollar contracts to these “American” companies and they here 80-90 percent foreign employees.
What I think is even more humorous is that the US Government is making this concerted effort to break up large contracts such as the KBR LOGCAP II contract as well as others. There are very few companies that can handle the logistics of these operations. What ends up happening is that Company A wins the contract from the US government. Company A then subcontracts to KBR (or whatever company) or a subsidiary of KBR. The same company winds up with all of the contracts that they had before. The difference is that there is now a middle man. It’s all a shell game. I guess Congress and the average American out there are idiots and are fooled by all of this muddling of facts and actions.
Another thing that Company B (KBR) does is form another company/corporation. It looks like a separate company on paper but it’s indirectly owned by the same people. They even hire the same folks from earlier contracts to run them. Same PM, same DPM, same cast and crew. On the surface, a new company is in business and winning contracts. In reality, it’s the same group of folks making the same money.
And it’s easy to see. Easy to investigate, but, the US government is too lazy or incompetent to see the obvious. I’ve been laughing for 5 years. Same crooks winning the same contracts and the same Congress and DOD/DOS getting scammed for more and more tax dollars.
Fools!
It’s been the same story since at least World War II. I bet that some of these companies can be traced back to the War between the States. The US Government never learns. They just open that check book and sign more checks.
No, I’m not a disgruntled employee or former employee. Most of my contract work requires that I am a US citizenship. This doesn’t affect me and never will.
Camp Phoenix has never been mortared. It’s never been rocketed. Not while I was there. Not while I was at Camp Eggers and not in the past 3 years. I’d know. I lived at Camp Phoenix for one year. I lived on Camp Eggers for a year as well and visited Phoenix frequently. I’ve been to Camp Phoenix several times over the past 3 years as well. I have friends at Camp Phoenix right now. One who has been there for 3 years.
Camp Phoenix has never been a training base for Afghans either. Not the ANA or the ANP. There are two Camps about ten miles down the road called Camp Blackhorse and the Kabul Military Training Complex (KMTC). Afghans are trained there. Afghans are trained at Darulaman and there are 2 or three ANP training bases within and around Kabul on which ANP are trained.
I see this happening all the time. The Associated Press (AP) picks up a story written by some idiot who never leaves the safe confines of his hotel room or villa in Shahr-e Naw or Wazir Akhbar Khan. These morons report as if they are on the scene. They mix up place and location. They hack together stories based on second hand information and pawn it off on the public as gospel truth. The guy who wrote this story should be fired. He printed a hand full of lies and sent it in as if he had actually visited the places about which he wrote. A bunch of older hacks will probably award this poltroon a Pulitzer and they’ll all sit around in a smoke filled chamber and congratulate each other on their bravery and literary brilliance.
I’ve seen this kind of irresponsible writing of lies and half truths all over the globe. Korea when Kim Il Sung died. When Qandahar was attacked. In Kabul after various attacks. In Herat after suicide bombings. From whom do these morons obtain their “facts?” Dr. Suess? The Brothers Grimm? Hanna- Barbera? Does anyone back home in America fact check or edit their hotel room ramblings?
I read the newspaper and online journals and I often wonder if these folks are even in country. What happened to reporting from the front? These guys are reporting from the whorehouse or from the tea parlor. They’re definitely NOT on the scene. Not here in Afghanistan. I can assure you of that.
A few days ago, our printer stopped working. Somehow a brand new ink cartridge was gone in less than a week.
A few days later, the scanner started acting crazy.
We open up the printer cover and there are two little gray mice inside there. One was blue and yellow and red from eating away at a second printer cartridge. The other was tangled up in the wiring of the Printer and was chewing away either for a bit of lunch or to untangle himself. The colored mouse took off and excaped but the little guy eating the wires was still tangled in the wires. So we took the printer outside and shook the little dude loose and he scurried away as well.
However innumerable sentient beings, I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the passions, I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas, I vow to master them.
However incomparable the Buddha’s truth, I vow to attain it.
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. “
In Asian cultures, the bow is a greeting and the person of lower rank bows lowest.
According to the picture, Obama is the lower rank as he is bowing lower. He screwed up.
“IF I see another king, I think I shall bite him,” Teddy Roosevelt once growled.
A US President should bow to no monarch. Period. Obama is taking this a bit too far.
Probably made the Japanese people love him. Is that worth the votes that these moves will ultimately cost him at home.
Everyone knows who the real power in the room was.
As long as Obama knows it as well.
Too many more moves like this are going to start adding up and cost him in the next election. Is his staff full of imbeciles or is Obama this stupid? One has to wonder. This makes me seriously question his judgment. He seems seriously naive as to how this makes him look in the World.
What next? Will Obama start lowering the Colors to every passing Nations Flag as well.
This is the move of a leader of a subordinate Nation. Not an equal or superior, but, a subordinate nation.
Does Obama realize this? Is his staff full of retarded people?
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. ~ Lin Yutang
“However inclined one may be to regard the Chinese as strange, peculiar, fantastic, or impossible, for no other reason than that one has never been fortunate enough to gain their friendly, intimate acquaintance, the reading of Mr. Lin’s book will very soon dissipate any notion of uncertainty and assure one of the truth[s] of the Confucian statement, that ‘Within the four seas all men are brothers.’” “The East Speaks to the West,” The New York Times review of “My Country and My People” 8 December, 1935
Below are a collection of Scandals that never broke. These incidents were covered up and swept under the rug by the NCAA. Never to be investigated. Today, John Wooden is replaced by the likes of Coach K at Duke, Pete Carrol at USC, Roy Williams at UNC. All programs that are surrounded by loving boosters who somehow are never caught giving homes and jobs and anything else they can roll past the NCAA compliance offices as the NCAA averts their eyes and pretends not to notice.
The National Communist Athletic Association. They should be disbanded and ushered out of the country straight to Potemkin with the other morons who purposely fail to see the obvious.
INDIANAPOLIS – UCLA has the greatest, grandest tradition in college basketball: 11 national championships, 34 first-team All-America selections, an 88-game win streak and on and on. All run by perhaps the most wonderful gentleman the game has ever known, John Wooden.
But then it has this:
“UCLA players were so well taken care of – far beyond the ground rules of the NCAA – that even players from poor backgrounds never left UCLA prematurely (for pro basketball) during John Wooden’s championship years.
“If the UCLA teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s were subjected to the kind of scrutiny (other schools) have been, UCLA would probably have to forfeit about eight national championships and be on probation for the next 100 years.
“I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can’t be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing (to other coaches) only because (they have) a reputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get (them), but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA.”
Those quotes come from none other than Bill Walton, maybe the greatest Bruin of them all, in his 1978 book “On the Road with the Portland Trailblazers”, which went on to detail how Sam Gilbert, a Los Angeles contractor the feds allege made millions laundering drug money, bought a decade worth of recruits for UCLA.
“It’s hard for me to have a proper perspective on financial matters, since I’ve always had whatever I wanted since I enrolled at UCLA,” Walton wrote.
That is the conundrum of UCLA and college sports as the Bruins go for their 12th NCAA title here Monday against Florida.
On one hand, UCLA has a tradition rich with success, class and glory. Good people, great stories, wonderful memories. On the other is the fact the Bruins eviscerated the rule book like no program before or after, but went largely unpunished by a NCAA that wanted no part of taking down its marquee team.
And the truth is, neither image is wrong. And neither one is right. This is college athletics, yesterday, today and probably forever, no matter how sweet the package, now matter how pretty the bow.
It is how Wooden, universally hailed for his remarkable grace and humility, has wound up seemingly beyond reproach. No matter how dirty his program, today he sells books, speeches and financial planning commercials based on his image of trust and honesty.
The question is always why would UCLA have to cheat, what with its tremendous academics, beautiful campus and proximity to talent. But it is telling that it took Wooden, arguably the greatest coach of all time, 15 seasons to win a national title. Before Gilbert got involved and the talent arrived, the Bruins weren’t the best. Which ought to tell you what the competition was up to.
Maybe it is Wooden’s class that has kept talk of tainted titles to a minimum. But none of this is a secret in basketball. In the late 1970s, after Wooden retired, the Los Angeles Times did an investigation of Gilbert and the NCAA was forced to sanction UCLA, but never vacated any championships. Then there is Walton’s book, which couldn’t be more damning.
The NCAA never bothered to investigate UCLA during Wooden’s time, part of its history of selective enforcement. During the 1960s and ’70s, the organization, run by old white men, was too busy going after small, upstart programs that dared to play too many African-Americans, launching inquiries into Texas Western/UTEP, Western Kentucky, Centenary and Long Beach State.
Apparently a team capturing 10 titles in 12 years, putting together undefeated season after undefeated season, recruiting high school All-Americans from all over the country to sit on the bench, yet never having them transfer or declare hardship wasn’t enough for it to dawn on anyone at the NCAA that, gee, maybe they’re cheating?
But that is your NCAA.
And that is your college athletics, where corner cutting doesn’t make a guy a bad person; it makes him a successful coach.
In Wooden’s defense, some, including Walton, have argued that he wasn’t aware of Gilbert’s largesse, or at most just looked the other way. But other coaches in Southern California at the time, most notably Jerry Tarkanian, laugh at that, claiming Gilbert proudly boasted of his payouts. Tark claims Gilbert once offered to pay one of his Long Beach State stars, Robert Smith, just because he liked the way he played.
“You couldn’t be more obvious than Sam,” said Tarkanian. “He just laughed about it. Everyone in America knew.”
Moreover, in a striking 2004 interview with Basketball Times, Wooden described confronting players Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe in 1969 about expensive new clothes he suspected Gilbert had purchased. “Did you get this from Sam Gilbert,” he asked. “I don’t like this.”
“People want to say this is tainted,” Wooden told BT, before folding his arms in a rare bit of anger. “I don’t care. I don’t believe that.”
The truth of college athletics is that winning, let alone at the championship level, without rule breaking is nearly impossible. Fans and apologetic media don’t want to admit this about the icons of the games, but nothing about this has changed for decades. And it probably never will.
There are no angels in this business, no white hats and black hats as the NCAA would like people to believe with its public relations campaign of a rule book. Everything is a shade of grey. Everything is situational ethics. Everything is pick your poison.
Even the great UCLA legacy. Even the great John Wooden.
Sam Gilbert
While he never finished earning his degree at UCLA in the 1930s, Sam Gilbert became devoted to the school, especially its athletic program. By the 1960s, Gilbert had become a millionaire contractor in the Los Angeles area and had decided to give back to UCLA. During this time, he donated millions of dollars to UCLA academic programs and also began to form ties with the basketball team.
According to many UCLA players during the 1960s, Gilbert was known as Papa Sam. His home was always open to the Bruins and it was not uncommon to see several players lounging near his pool with him and his wife Rose on a weekend. The players trusted him as a confidant and a mentor. Players such as Sidney Wicks, Lew Alcindor, Larry Farmer, Bill Walton, and many others all came to Sam for friendship and counsel.
Sam was known to push the NCAA rules to the limit. If a player did not have money for books, he would arrange for the books to be purchased and delivered to the player. If a player needed an apartment, Sam always knew of an available one. Sam helped the players find the best deals on anything they needed.
Many people around the college basketball world have argued that Sam Gilbert committed infractions far worse than those above. Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers. Tarkanian, along with a slew of others, believe that Gilbert provided the players with cash, cars, and whatever else they needed. Tarkanian’s program at UNLV came under suspicion of NCAA rule infractions and he constantly brought up that UCLA never faced as much pressure from the NCAA in regards to Sam Gilbert’s supposed infractions as his program did because John Wooden was untouchable. It was often noted that John Wooden knew that his players hung out at Sam Gilbert’s house but he had no personal relationship with Sam himself.
In 1981, the UCLA basketball program was placed on probation and UCLA was ordered to disassociate Sam Gilbert from the recruiting process. UCLA was told to disassociate Gilbert from the recruiting process because his name was used to co-sign a loan for a player’s car along with several other infractions.
Government officials report that a year after being forced away from the UCLA Basketball program, Gilbert began laundering money for a known drug runner in a scheme that supposedly made him $36 million. Coincidentally, when federal agents finally had enough evidence to arrest and went to his home on November, 24th 1987 in Pacific Palisades, they learned that he had passed away two days earlier of cancer.
Sam Gilbert remained a man of mystery all the way to his grave. Some former UCLA players say he helped the team out but did nothing to explicitly violate NCAA rules, others say he bought them whatever they needed. Some people claim the university was fully aware of what he was doing, other say he was doing nothing wrong. The same sense of uncertainty regarding Sam Gilbert was true with his alleged involvement with a drug runner. Many claim that Sam would never get involved with such people when he already had enough money while others remain skeptical of who his acquaintances were.
Regardless of Sam Gilbert’s involvement with the UCLA basketball team, nothing should be taken away from the spectacular accomplishments of the players and coaches.
Sports of The Times; The Ghosts and Goblins of Westwood
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
Published: March 14, 2003
BIG-TIME intercollegiate athletics has taken a beating this month. But for all the criticism that college basketball has absorbed, the beauty of competition and of the 19- and 20-year-olds who play these games is that they are so unpredictable.
The news media came to the Staples Center yesterday to see Steve Lavin’s final game as the U.C.L.A. coach. Lavin’s impending dismissal has become so public that even his players had discussed it. This should have been easy: the lowly, demoralized Bruins versus an Arizona team that had won the two regular-season meetings by a combined 71 points.
But in one of the improbable outcomes of the postseason, the eighth-seeded Bruins upset No. 1-ranked Arizona in overtime in the opening round of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament.
Arizona, leading by 12 points in the second half, was up by only 3 when Ray Young, U.C.L.A.’s senior point guard, hit a 3-point shot with 4.9 seconds remaining in regulation time.
The Bruins dominated in overtime and pulled off a stunning 96-89 victory.
U.C.L.A. lives. Lavin survives.
Now what?
What happens if the Bruins win today, and again tomorrow? Do Lavin’s fortunes reverse? Does he keep his job? Or does Dan Guerrero, the first-year U.C.L.A. athletic director, pull the trigger anyway, citing the need to get the Bruins going in a new direction?
This is the most likely possibility: the resurgent Bruins will lose one of their next two games and go through yet another men’s coach. U.C.L.A. will fire Lavin and continue one of the most bizarre legacies in Division I athletics.
John Wooden, the most revered coach in college basketball history, retired as the Bruins’ coach in 1975.
Nothing in college sports approaches U.C.L.A.’s difficulty in grappling with the shadow cast by its men’s basketball program. Six coaches followed Wooden. All tried. All failed to walk in his shoes.
Since 1977, U.C.L.A. has had seven coaches. Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham, Larry Brown and Larry Farmer resigned. Walt Hazzard and Jim Harrick were dismissed. And now Lavin is expected to walk.
When is U.C.L.A. going to stop this dance with its past and move forward? Why has it been so difficult to sustain continuity at U.C.L.A.? Is it the idea of following a legend? We know about the legend: Wooden led U.C.L.A. to 10 N.C.A.A. titles.
Now let’s talk about the myth. What we didn’t know back then is that the Wizard of Westwood had a helper. His name was Sam Gilbert.
According to N.C.A.A. investigations and published reports, Gilbert, a multimillionaire contractor and adviser to U.C.L.A. athletes, arranged and paid for abortions for players’ friends and helped athletes get discounts on cars, stereos and airline tickets.
Jerry Tarkanian, who coached Long Beach State from 1969 to 1973, accused U.C.L.A. of turning the N.C.A.A. on his program. ”It would be like the U.C.L.A. guys are all in Mercedes and our guys are all on bikes and the N.C.A.A.’s coming in saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to take these bikes away from these guys.’ It was the damnedest thing you’ve ever seen. I mean, the time they came after us was the Sam Gilbert era. Everybody knows what went on during the Sam Gilbert era. The only team with a higher payroll was the Lakers.”
Wooden said he had been aware of the closeness between his players and Gilbert and warned them to ”be careful.”
The N.C.A.A. ultimately hit U.C.L.A. with a two-year probation in 1981 and ordered the Bruins to sever ties with Gilbert. But that was six years after Wooden retired.
In the absence of winning championship after championship, part of U.C.L.A.’s tradition since Wooden’s retirement has been to replace coaches, a ritual that in a perverse way keeps alive a legacy that is impossible to live up to. No coach on earth is going to win 10 Division I college basketball championships again. The Wooden era will not be duplicated. Guess what? Wooden couldn’t duplicate that era today.
In an Internet era of players jumping from high schools to the pros, chafing at discipline and generally running the asylum, Wooden would have to be a wizard to negotiate one college season without a scandal or a public controversy.
How does this relate to Steve Lavin’s impending dismissal? Whether Guerrero dismisses Lavin or not, the university needs to take a reality check. U.C.L.A. should take its time and make it clear to whoever is hired that he will not be fired simply for losing games. This time the university should hire someone it can live with — for a long time. The new coach doesn’t have to be a Wizard.
Just a keeper.
The inscription on the framed photograph of Milwaukee Bucks Center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reads: “For a true friend in all seasons.” The legend on the picture of Bruce Walton (Bill’s brother) says: “Maybe it’s corny, but I love you.” The object of such unabashed affection is a millionaire Los Angeles building contractor, Sam Gilbert. His own three children are grown, and for Gilbert, 61, U.C.L.A. athletes—past and present—are now his family. Gilbert is their confidant, business adviser and surrogate father. Hence the nickname: “Papa Sam.”
A U.C.L.A. alumnus, Gilbert attends most home games and occasionally travels with the team. Gilbert’s luxurious Pacific Palisades house, with 50-ft. swimming pool and well-stocked refrigerator, serves as a second home for the athletes. “The kids are hungry for a bit of home life,” explains Gilbert’s wife Rose, who teaches English at Pacific Palisades High School. “They love having this hangout.” Bill Walton would agree. At last year’s Thanksgiving dinner, a basketball team tradition at the Gilberts’ that ranks next to Sunday bagels-and-lox brunch, Walton (on a dare) gleefully wolfed down an entire pumpkin pie smothered with a quart of ice cream. When Bill came down with a severe strep throat last season, he went to the Gilberts’ to recuperate. Says Walton of Sam: “He’s just a great dude.”
Gilbert’s study, filled with photographs and trophies that Walton has won (“Bill’s not much for trophy collecting”), also serves as a counseling office for troubled players. The problems?
“You name it,” Gilbert says. “Everything from pregnant girl friends, failing grades, deep disappointment in not playing either regularly or well, problems with their parents, uncertainty about their futures.” Father-like he also nags his charges about their grades, and last year helped to arrange the wedding of Walton’s back-up center, Swen Nater. The wedding was in conservative Orange County, and Gilbert suggested that Keith Wilkes’ father, a Baptist minister, perform the ceremony. “We all loved the idea of blowing some minds in Orange County by having a black clergyman officiate at the marriage of a white couple,” says Gilbert.
-Papa Sam began his relationship with U.C.L.A. basketball in the mid-1960s, when former All-America Willie Naulls brought two disgruntled sophomores, Lew Alcindor (now Jabbar) and Lucius Allen, to him for some counseling. Alcindor and Allen in turn brought their teammates, and Sam eventually negotiated the professional contracts of Alcindor, Allen and other Bruin stars, such as Sidney Wicks, Henry Bibby and Nater. Like all his other services, Gilbert’s agentry comes free. “I do it because I’m a friend and also a savvy businessman who knows most of the tricks and clauses that the kids have no knowledge about.”
When—and if—Bill Walton decides to negotiate a professional contract, Gilbert will call the financial shots. The San Diego Conquistadors, hoping to capitalize on the father-son relationship, recently approached Gilbert about buying the club. Gilbert rejected the deal. “I want to be Bill’s friend, not his owner,” he said.
One of my Uncles emailed me last night and made the following remark:
I think you have been out of this country too long. Also, you must have a lot of time on your hands, because you write a lot of, for lack of a better word…….Shit!
I apologize for not believing everything that a random bigot forwards in an email. I will endeavor to do better next time. I simply don’t believe in forwarding ignorance or hate. I, also, refuse to label a whole group of people based upon the actions of a minority. Perhaps, he’s right. If I hadn’t spent so much time overseas, I might be ignorant enough to blindly hate Mexicans, Homosexuals, Black People and Muslims. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.
(Nowhere in that statement do I mention America nor do I claim that all Americans are bigots or racist. America is an overwhelmingly open and accepting community. There are pockets of ignorance in America. I refer to those places above. Interesting that I would have to explain this.)
It was not supposed to be this way. We elect the government. It works for us. How did it get so removed, so unbridled, so arrogant that it can tell us how to live our personal lives? Evil rarely comes upon us all at once, and liberty is rarely lost in one stroke. It happens gradually, over the years and decades and even centuries. A little stretch here, a cave in there, powers are slowly taken from the states and the people and before you know it, we have one big monster government that recognizes no restraint on its ability to tell us how to live. It claims the power to regulate any activity, tax any behavior, and demand conformity to any standard it chooses. — Andrew Napolitano
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too. —
Nadal Hasan wasn’t being recruited by al Qaeda. He was actively seeking membership in that organization himself. This guy is the worst sort of traitor. He should be hanged publicly. There is no doubt that he is guilty. He should be executed.
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is “absolutely furious” that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan’s attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
“This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies—not the CIA—have the lead,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. ” Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect.”
Investigators want to know if Hasan maintained contact with a radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen and runs a web site that promotes jihad around the world against the U.S.
In a blog posting early Monday titled “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” Awlaki calls Hasan a “hero” and a “man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”
According to his site, Awlaki served as an imam in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Major Hasan attended the Falls Church mosque when Awlaki was there.
The Telegraph of London reported that Awlaki had made contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers when he was in San Diego.
He denied any knowledge of the hijacking plot and was never charged with any crime. After an intensive investigation by the FBI , Awlaki moved to Yemen.
People who knew or worked with Hasan say he seemed to have gradually become more radical in his disapproval of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist.
“If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance,” Lieberman told Fox News Sunday.
This is the weakness of our society. Scum like this guy will use our tolerant culture to commit murder and mayhem.
We must realise that Islam is not our enemy. Muslims are not evil people. It is this virulent and violent form of Islam started by al Wahhab in the Nejd and spread like a plague across the globe by the Saudis in their oil funded madrassahs that are the enemy. The House of Saud must fall. Until it does, we will have these criminals amongst us and their numbers will continue to grow.
Osama bin Laden is but the latest thug to attempt to infect Islam with this disease through terror and violence. Study the history of Islam. Specifically, study the history of the Arabian Peninsula. Study the history of the British Raj of the late 1800s. Even the Ottomans fought the Wahhabis in the Nejd near the end of their Empire. There is precedent in history for the events of today. The Ottomans warred on the Nejd from Egypt in the 1700s and 1800s. Their fight was against these same followers of the doctrines of the apostate al Wahhab and the ancestors of the current Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Wahhabism must die. The sooner the better for all of the world– Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
A picture of the culprits. The criminals of the House of Saud and proliferates of the disease contracted from their forefathers.
He believed that those who practice innovation in Islam such as “taking the graves as a place of worship” which is practiced in Sufism and Shia Islam, are Kufr.[2][3][4][citation needed]
For this reason, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab destroyed many graves and was also considering destroying the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, out of fear that it might be worshiped.[2][5]
This was due to the sayings of the prophet. Who said before his death, while on his death bed.
“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets”.[6]
Alliance with the House of Saud
Upon his expulsion from ‘Uyayna, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was invited to settle in neighboring Dir’iyya by its ruler Muhammad ibn Saud in 1740 (1157 AH). Two of Ibn Saud’s brothers had been students of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Uyayna, and are said to have played a role in convincing Ibn Saud to take him in. Ibn Saud’s wife is also reported to have been a convert to Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s cause. Upon arriving in Diriyya, a pact was made between Ibn Saud and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, by which Ibn Saud pledged to implement Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings and enforce them on neighboring towns. Beginning in the last years of the 18th century Ibn Saud and his heirs would spend the next 140 years mounting various military campaigns to seize control of Arabia and its outlying regions, finally taking control of the whole of modern day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1922. This provided the movement with a state. Vast wealth from oil discovered in the following decades, coupled with Saudi control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, have since provided a base and funding for Salafi missionary activity.
Legacy
Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab considered his movement an effort to purify Islam by returning Muslims to what he believed were the original principles of Islam, as typified by the Salaf and rejecting what he regarded as corruptions introduced by Bid’ah and Shirk.
Although all Muslims pray to one God, ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab was keen on emphasizing that no intercession with God was possible without His permission, which He only grants to whom He wills and only to benefit those whom He wills, certainly not the ones who invoke anything or anyone except Him, as these would never be forgiven,[31]. Specific practices, such as celebrating the birth of the Islamic prophetMuhammad, were also deemed as innovations. He is hence considered by his followers to be a great revivalist of Islam, and by his opponents as an innovator and heretic. In either case, ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s impact on Islam has been considerable and significant.
Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab also revived interest in the works of the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiya.
The followers of this revival (see Salafism) are often called Wahhabis, though most reject the usage of this term on the grounds that ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings were the teachings of The Holy Prophet Muhammad(Peace Be Up on Him), not his own. Thus, most generally refer to themselves as Salafis, while during his lifetime they often referred to themselves muwahhidin (“monotheists”).
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s descendents are known today as “Al al-Shaykh” (“House of the Shaykh”). The family of Al al-Shaykh has included several religious scholars, including the former grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad ibn Ibrahm Al al-Shaykh, who issued the fatwa calling for the abdication of King Saud in 1964. Both the current Saudi minister of justice and the current grand mufti of Saudi Arabia are also descendents of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
Commentary
Perceptions of ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab are varied. To many Muslims of the Salafi persuasion, ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab is a significant luminary in the proud tradition of Islamic scholarship. A great number of lay Sunni Muslims regard him as a pious scholar whose interpretations of the Qur’an and Hadith were nevertheless out of step with the mainstream of Islamic thought, and thus discredited.[32] Some scholars regard him as a pious scholar who called people back to worship of Allah according to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Others, often Sufis, regard him as a one who stopped at nothing to gain power and manipulate others. Natana DeLong-Bas, meanwhile, has recently published a self-described “controversial” book that complicates the idea that ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab contributed to the “militant stance of contemporary jihadism.”[33]
These are the madmen whom we empower through oil consumption.
Letter From Fort Hood
— By Kevin Drum | Fri November 6, 2009 8:19 AM PST
—Photo by flickr user brokenthoughts used under a Creative Commons license.
A former reader emails today to pass along a firsthand account of the shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday. It’s unedited except for paragraph breaks:
I was walking into the medical SRP building when he started firing (he never made it to the main SRP building….the media accounts are understandably pretty off right now). He was calmly and methodically shooting everyone. Like every non-deployed military post, no one was armed. For the first time in my life I really wish I had a weapon. I don’t know how to explain what it feels like to have someone shoot at you while you’re unarmed. He missed me but didn’t miss a lot of others. Just pure random luck. It’s a very compressed area, thus the numbers.
I saw a lot of heroism. So many more would have died if this wasn’t an Army post. We’re almost all CLS trained and it made a huge difference. Cause the EMTs didn’t get there for almost an hour (they thought there was a second shooter). I just can’t believe one of our own shot us. When I saw his ID card I couldn’t believe it. After he shot the female police officer he was fumbling his reload and I saw the other police officer around the corner and yelled at him to come shoot the shooter. He did. Then I used my belt as a tourniquet on the female officer.
I hate to tell you this but in the course of the day it became clear that it was another Akbar incident.1 (Once they convinced them the blood drenching my clothes wasn’t mine I spent the day being interviewed by the alphabet.) Akbar again. God help us. He was very planned. I counted three full mags around him (I secured his weapon for a while). Found out later that his car was filled with more ammo.
This was premeditated. This wasn’t VBC again. That guy snapped, not this one. He was so damn calm when he was shooting. Methodical. And he was moving tactically. The Army really is diverse and we really do love all our own. We signed up to be shot at but not at home. Not unarmed. No one should ever see what the inside of that medical SRP building looked like. I suppose that’s what VA Tech looked like. Except they didn’t have soldiers coming from everywhere to tourniquet and compress and talk to the wounded while rounds are still coming out.
No one touched him…the shooter that is…other than to treat him. Though I told the medic (and I’m not proud of this) that was giving him plasma that there better not be anyone else who needed it because he should be the last one to be treated. But I had just finished holding a soldier who was critical (I counted three entry wounds) and talking to him about his children…. If the shooter had a grievance he should have taken it out on those responsible; he wasn’t shooting people he knew (media reports to the contrary). He was just shooting anybody who happened to be present for SRP medical processing, mainly lower enlisted.
But please, no one use this politically! The Army is not “broken”, PTSD doesn’t turn people into killers, most Muslims aren’t evil, and whether we should stay or go in Afghanistan has nothing to do with this. I’m babbling…sorry.
1Hasan Akbar was an Army sergeant who killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others in a grenade attack in Kuwait in 2003. He’s currently under a sentence of death.
This letter was printed on MotherJones.com. I felt that many persons who were not politically inclined to the Left might not see it. So I’m throwing it up here. Just in case.
All sides of any given event should be heard.
I do not agree with many who are attempting to downplay the influence of Islamic Extremism on this man and his actions. He was definitely and heavily influenced by his brand of Islam. Even the Imam of his local Mosque thought he was extreme in his views. These actions will continue until America and the rest of the world come to the realization that not Islam but Wahhabism is a violent strain of Islam bent on forcilby converting all of Islam specifically and the population of the globe ultimately to their world view. The only way to combat this is to rid our planet of this strain of Islam. That means squaring off against Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism is the official religion of the realm.
We must realise that Islam is not our enemy. Muslims are not evil people. It is this virulent and violent form of Islam started by al Wahhab in the Nejd and spread like a plague across the globe by the Saudis in their oil funded madrassahs that are the enemy. The House of Saud must fall. Until it does, we will have these criminals amongst us and their numbers will continue to grow.
Wahhabism must die. The sooner the better for all of the world– Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
I don’t think there is any plot in which this guy is involved. I think this guy did snap. I think he may have been pushed from various directions.
1. Inner conflict over “going to war” against fellow Muslims.
2. Bigotry of his fellow service members caused by:
a. Ignorance/Bigotry
b. his statements
3. Contacts with extremist Wahhabi elements at:
a. Mosque (an extremist Imam)
b. on the internet
c. within the local Muslim community
4. Life/Job Stress
I think he lost it and decided that he was going to earn his 72 virgins.
I am not saying that all Muslims are a danger. Some are. Probably a small percentage. Those dangers are out there. The greater danger to plunge our heads in the sand and deny the reality of Wahhabist Terrorism.
“I asked him, is that you’re A-game? Pretty good. He makes us different obviously. Let me tell you what I loved what he did. There were three or four times where he should have passed the ball but he didn’t in transition. There are times he’s moving so fast he’s not recognizing that stuff. But here is what I appreciated; he’s saying to me we have to get Patrick [Patterson] some shots here. At the end let’s get DeMarcus [Cousins] the ball. That’s a leader; he has a feel for his team, wants to keep everybody happy and wants to keep them involved. I told Patrick, shoot threes. He’s looking at me like I’m crazy. I said, you shoot the five-minute three-point shooting drill everyday and he makes as many three’s as our guards. I said, it’s you thinking you’re going to miss it, just shoot it. He’s still not in sync with what we need, and I have to figure out how we play him and really get the most out him and him get the most out of what we’re trying to do. What a great kid though, in the first half he said he’s fine. He just wants to win. They want him to be our best player.”
John Wall:
It’s just how it is. College is just like high school. If you’re a good player you play certain teams with certain players that will go after you. That’s how it is in college, but it’s not a one-man show. I have Kentucky basketball on my chest and I’m trying to support my team and do the best I can to help them win games.”
The Clarion team was outmatched in every category and it showed from the start when Kentucky came out and scored 12 points in just over 2 minutes. Had they kept that pace, the boys in Blue may have scored into the 300s.
The first exhibition left some scratching their heads. The team seemed to look hesitant. No hesitation tonight from all I’ve read. I won’t get to watch the game for a couple of weeks when it’s mailed to me (I’m in Afghanistan). Can’t wait to see this game.
I’m very excited to watch this UK team get the season started. I haven’t been this excited about a season since 1996. With Wall, Cousins and Patterson on the court, this should be a fun season. And a dominant one. Kentucky Coach Calipari has been taking the team through two a day practices this week so I fully expected a big improvement over the 4 November performance. The Cats did not disappoint.
The Final Score was 117 UK to 52 Clarion. I can’t remember the last time that UK scored 117 points. Perhaps ‘96 or ‘97. Tubby didn’t score in the triple digits too often and Gillispie only had one game in the 100s. He lost that one. And I don’t remember a time that UK defeated a team by 65 points.
It is possible that this UK team will produce many firsts. I’m looking forward to seeing this season unfold.
I’m glad Patterson came back for this season. I understand Meeks leaving and the reasons he gave for leaving. Still I wish that he’d have come back. He deserved a season like the one forthcoming.
From KentuckySportsRadio: Kentucky wins this not-a-game 117-52. Best practice of the year, guys. Next time it counts.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Wall proved to be worth the wait.
The heralded Kentucky freshman scored 27 points in his collegiate debut as the fourth-ranked Wildcats rolled past Clarion 117-52 on Friday night in an exhibition game.
“I asked him, ‘Is that your ‘A’ game?” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “He was pretty good.”
Maybe even better than advertised after Wall was forced to sit out Kentucky’s exhibition opener on Monday as part of an NCAA suspension for accepting improper benefits from his former AAU coach.
He didn’t waste any time getting comfortable against the Golden Eagles, an NCAA Division II school in western Pennsylvania.
Wall nearly outscored Clarion in the first half and showcased a little bit of everything, from a dunk to a 3-pointer to a nifty behind-the-back dribble for a layup.
“He’s the real deal,” Clarion coach Ron Righter said. “I hope (Kentucky) can keep him because he’s in another league.”
What is any political campaign save a concerted effort to turn out a set of politicians who are admittedly bad and put in a set who are thought to be better. The former assumption, I believe is always sound; the latter is just as certainly false. For if experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right… The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.
We live in a land of abounding quackeries, and if we do not learn how to laugh we succumb to the melancholy disease which afflicts the race of viewers-with-alarm… In no other country known to me is life as safe and agreeable, taking one day with another, as it is in These States. Even in a great Depression few if any starve, and even in a great war the number who suffer by it is vastly surpassed by the number who fatten on it and enjoy it. Thus my view of my country is predominantly tolerant and amiable. I do not believe in democracy, but I am perfectly willing to admit that it provides the only really amusing form of government ever endured by mankind.
I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom. . . [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men.
The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.
I very well may have posted these before. They bear repeating.
Kabul, Afghanistan
This one-meter resolution satellite image of Kabul, Afghanistan was collected on Sept. 7, 1999 by Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite. IKONOS travels 423 miles above the Earth’s surface at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. (Mandatory photo credit: spaceimaging.com)
2 years and three days from the date of this photo, the life of this city would be altered forever. The Twin Towers in New York would fall and the US Army would invade Afghanistan. Bombing Kabul and deposing the taliban and their medieval reign. The city and it’s people will recover and nothing will ever be the same. Some will be thankful. Others will fight.
Having driven around Kabul a fair amount, I know the city fairly well. It’s odd to look at this map and see how it used to be. Major landmarks of today are missing from the view. The American Embassy Compound. Massoud Circle Monument. Of course, Massoud was still alive in 1999. It would be two years later that the cowardly al Qaeda assassins murder Massoud with a bomb hidden in a video camera. Not until 2002 or 2003 that the American Embassy compound begins construction. The old airport facilities have begun to be torn down and today there is a new facility built by the coalition and run by a British company.
The safe houses in which we stay when I move through Kabul are not there nor are the Indian and Iranian Embassies. Camp Eggers is still a group of houses. I’m guessing they are vacated as when the US first inhabited that compound there were years old animal carcasses found laying about.
Kabul has changed quite a bit since this picture was taken.
In 1999, the taliban were running around beating men for not having 3 inches of beard. They were shooting women for adultery. The men, of course, were given 20 lashes or so for having been bewitched by those women. Women were not allowed to walk the streets of Kabul without a relative male escort. All manner of medieval lunacy ruled the streets of Kabul under the reign of terror imposed by the Taliban and their Pakistan and al Qaeda sponsors.
Today, though Kabul still convulses in violence on the odd occasion, it is a city much like any other in Central Asia. No Westerner coming for the first time would think it civilized. Comparatively speaking, though, Kabul is normalized. The bazaars are open. Shop keepers go about their daily business. The citizens of Kabul are free to come and go as they please. Women can be seen walking the streets alone and in pairs. No male escort required. Unless, of course, they are family of one of the backward thinking members of the Muslim community. Kids walk the streets. Students going to and from Kabul University and a plethora of schools from primary to High School. There are snooker halls and gyms open all over the city. Restaurants are everywhere. Poorly maintained cell towers. Even shopping malls have sprung up here and there.
Taken as a whole, Kabul is not a bad city. The corruption of the Karzai government is ubiquitous. Seen everywhere. From the police who patrol the streets and man the central stations to the government officials who earn 10 to 20 thousand dollars a year, yet, own million dollar homes dotted across the city land scape and surrounding neighborhoods.
It’s interesting to see this bit of history. An apparition from the near past. So much has changed. So much altered. Both progress and regression.
I wonder what it will look like in another decade. Will chaos rule again or will the Afghan people move ahead and persevere despite the leaders that look to profit from the violence and chaos?
Comedian Larry David is under attack from critics who say he pushed the mocking of religion and Christian belief in miracles over the edge in the latest episode of his HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which the cable network defended as “playful.”
On the show’s most recent installment, which aired Sunday, David urinates on a painting of Jesus Christ, causing a woman to believe the painting depicts Jesus crying.
Deal Hudson, author and publisher of InsideCatholic.com, said he doesn’t find any humor in the episode.
“I don’t think it’s funny,” Hudson told Foxnews.com. “Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.”
Hudson said an apology from the show’s producers and writing team should be issued.
“Somebody should [apologize],” Hudson said. “When is it going to stop? When is common sense going to dictate that people realize this willingness of artists to do to Christianity what they would never do to Judaism or Islam?”
In a statement to Foxnews.com, HBO downplayed the controversy.
“Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody and satire,” the statement read. “Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.”
Liberals are a funny lot. Liberals are a cowardly lot.
Sacrilege is fine when it brings with it no dangers. They’ll piss on the image of Christ. They’ll display a Bible in a jar of urine. The average liberal will blaspheme Christians and Christianity to hell and back. They know that there is no danger in these acts. Most Christians will have become morally outraged. They’ll be angry, offended, disgusted by these Liberal behaviors.
But they won’t riot or murder over it.
Of course, you have random murders of Abortion Doctors committed by a random Christian every decade or so. And the Liberal will be quick to point this out as if in comparison to the Islamic Extremists who commit atrocious acts of murder such as Al Jazeera beheadings.
Take that same urine or even the rumor of urine being placed on or near a Qu’ran and Liberals will run amok with declarations of intolerance by the Christian community.
Why is it acceptable for Secularist Liberals to piss on the Bible and call it critical humor, yet, it is not acceptable to do the same with the holy books or personages of other religions such as Islam.
Is Jesus not as sacred to Christians as Mohammad is sacred to Muslims?
Mass riots were justified by the left as a rational response to cartoons of Mohammad in Denmark. Yet, Christians are irrational if/when their beliefs are demeaned by that same Secular Left.
I’d love to hear the rationalization on that one by the Secular Multi-culturists. Speaking of Culture. Is Christianity not a part of the CULTURE of the West. Why is it the Christian Religion not afforded the same respect as Islam in these matters. Piss on the Qu’ran. Bad. No matter the circumstances. Piss on the Bible. “It’s a joke. Sarcasm. Critical humor.” Portray Mohammad in cartoons depicting him with a bomb for a turban. Bad. Never mind the fact that Muslims worldwide have grafted this image into the mainstream consciousness. Never mind the fact that there is no place on the planet wherein Muslims live peacefully side by side with non-Muslim neighbors. Piss on a Picture of Jesus or caricature Jesus in a cartoon. “It’s just a joke.”
The Secular Left are cowardly hypocrites on the subject of religion. Period.
I grow tired of it.
Multi-cultural, they wish to call themselves. I call them what they are. Christian haters.
For the record, I’m not Christian. I shed that belief ages ago. That doesn’t mean that I can’t see hypocrisy when it is plainly evident.
Maybe Christians should start rioting in the streets and murdering artists for portraying their religious symbols inappropriately. Apparently, that’s the only way that the average Secularist will respect your beliefs.
I dare say that not one of the cowards would piss on a picture of Christ if he, afterwards, had to fear for his safety or life.
Try pissing on a picture of Mohammad on TV, Larry David. Hell, just try showing a picture of Mohammad on TV. I’d love to see Larry David defend that one as “playful” as a mob of angry Muslims beat him and threw rocks at him. I’d love to witness his attempt to explain to the murderers of Van Gogh in Sweden as they wielded a knife in anticipation of gutting the infidel. I’m sure they’d listen to him closely. I’m sure the extremist elements of Islam would love to murder an infidel and a Jew. Two birds with one stone and all.
Cowards and hypocrites all.
Christians need to stop whining over these things and take up arms against them. Defend your ideals. I’m not necessarily talking about violence or shooting. There are other ways of dealing with this hypocrisy. Just stop the incessant whining.
Larry David should test his comic theories on Muslims in America. Piss on a picture of Mohammad. Claim it was merely being “playful.” When he and his fellow hypocrites start using the same standard for Muslims as for Christians, they’ll have a point. Until then, they’re merely typical leftists bigots.
Patrick Patterson was named AP First Team All American. Patterson is the first UK Basketball Team member to be named to the All America Team since Tayshaun Prince. If he makes the post-season team, he’ll be the first UK player so honored since Ron Mercer in 1997. Neither Smith nor Gillispie produced a post season All America honoree.
John Wall was named to the Second Team All Americas. Many folks in the Sports world are asking the obvious question. Does anyone really think that there are 8 or 9 players better in the NCAA than Wall. Had Wall been eligible for the NBA Draft, many believe that he would have been the Number One pick. He would at least been a Top 2 or 3 pick. I understand that he’s not played an NCAA game, yet. Even so, Wall is going to be one of the best 2 or 3 Collegiate players out there this year.
Here’s the AP First Team:
Luke Harangody – Notre Dame
Cole Aldrich – Kansas
Sherron Collins – Kansas
Patrick Patterson – Kentucky
Kyle Singler – Duke
***There is no way that Kyle Singler is going to have a better year than John Wall. Coach K must have paid some of his AMEX money as a bribe to the voters.
The 2009-2010 Season is going to be crazy awesome for this team and UK fans. A fitting end will be for Patrick Patterson and John Wall to be named First Team All America in the post-Season and for Patterson to be named the Player of the Year and bring the Adolph Rupp Trophy/Award home to Kentucky for the first time since it’s creation. They’ve also been named to the All Wooden Team.
That would make for an amazing year. Incredibly amazing.
“I was really excited when someone told me he was named All-American,” Kentucky sophomore Darius Miller said. “But he didn’t tell me or make a big deal out of it. Everybody was talking about it except Pat. He’s not really the type of person to brag on himself.”
It seems from the research of my brother and others around the States that the Kaelins of America emigrated to America from the town of Einsiedler of Schwyz Canton in Switzerland. My particular branch landed in New York, made their way to Pennsylvania and from there traveled on to Louisville, Kentucky. In Louisville, Kentucky, you will find two branches of Kaelins. I suppose that we are related but we do not interact for the most part. Perhaps there was a rift some time back. I know not. The fact remains that for the most part the Kaelins of the Highlands and the Kaelins of St. Matthews (my branch) do not much relate in the present.
My older brother, who now calls Augusta, Georgia home, has conducted a fairly comprehensive survey of our family genealogy. In his research, he’s come across various legends, symbols and stories of our family and it’s various branches. One of those symbols is the family crest or coat of arms. This is depicted below in color. Prior to this find, I had only seen various black and white iterations of the Kälin Coat of Arms. It’s a fairly distinctive insignia with a rich tradition and meaning. If one pays heed to the legend.
I will leave it to the article below to tell the tale.
A Short Article From The Einsiedler GazetteKALIN. Old Einsiedler forest people, who are represented in all quarters with numerous families. Many clergymen, monks, and nuns came from them. Peter Kälin from Einsiedeln, born 1700, died 1762, became abbot of the monastery of Wettingen in 1745. Many of this name are also represented among Einsiedler artists. Konrad Anton Kälin from Langruti was a painter and executed the pictures on the side altars in 1752, St. Anton and Brother Klaus, in the church in Willerzell. Meinrad Kälin, born 1790, died 1834, painted miniature portraits at first, later landscapes in water color, that he etched in copper himself, especially of Gotthardstrasse for Fusslin in Zurich. Josef Kälin, carver, carved for Pfaffikon about 1693 the statues of St. Josef and St. Anna and in 1704 a crucifix, and simultaneously a Mater Dolorosa for the monastery in Fahr. This Josef Kälin is not the same sculptor of the same name, who according to the death register drowned on 2 April 1709:>>Josephus Kälin, lapicida, aquis submersus<<. Josef Adelrich Kälin, born 1728 and his sons Peter Paul, 1757-1834 and Josef Meinrad, 1761-1818, were artistic locksmiths. In 1827 Josef Benedikt Kälin performed the first lithography in Einsiedeln with the support of the monastery (P. Gall Morrel). From his studio came the illustrations in the Fass-Rigert history of the Canton of Schwyz of 1832-1833 and the accompanying coat of arms. From Einsiedeln also came the Kälin family that settled in Schwyz and was named as a (squatter/small farmer/resident with no citizen rights) in Rodel in 1676. They were admitted as new citizens in 1798 and appointed land in the old quarter in 1806. Politically the Kälin family came to the fore in the rebellion of 1764. Councilman Josef Kälin in Wani, Benedikt and Rupert were captured as leaders of the rabble(?) and taken to Schwyz and beheaded on the meadow with two saddlemakers. Josef Meinrad Kälin in 1803 was the first provincial baliff after the Helvetian (union?) and was reelected seven times by 1823. The coat of arms can be found in the chapel of 1682 with the name P. Peter Kälin, died 1695: in red a silver gorget on a trimount, accompanied by three golden stars.
According to the research of Dee Kaelin of the Kaelin Genealogy Page, the name Kaelin seems to come from the word Kehl meaning throat in a local Swiss-German dialect.
It is my understanding that the Kaelin name, in it’s original spelling of “Kälin”, holds Swiss Citizenship prior to 1800. This name originated in the town of Einsiedeln, Canton Schwyz, Switzerland. Kaelins make up about one-third of the names, and is the largest surname group in the town. The earliest mention of the name is from about the 1300s and the first time this name appears on any document was in August 1319. The name supposedly comes from the German word “Kehle”, which means throat. In 1609, all families in Einsiedeln obtained a Stamm-Number. The Kalin Clan, whose numbers consist of 48 lines, obtained the numbers 78 through 120. It has been suggested that a Kälin may have been involved with the forming of the Swiss Confederation, although to my knowledge there is no evidence to support this theory. It has also been suggested that there has been a Kälin serving in the Swiss Guard for hundreds of years, possibly since it’s inception. Again, I have not been able to confirm this. In Switzerland the name is spelled “Kälin”; in America it has been consistently spelled “Kaelin”.
The picture below is of a small stained glassed depiction of the Kaelin Coat of Arms. Given to Walter Kaelin by his father about 30 years ago. Walter, in his correspondence with my brother, told of the Battle of Montgarten between 3000 Swiss Peasants and an Hapsberg (Austrian) Army. The Swiss supposedly won this battle with 12 casualties vs 3000 casualties for the Austrians. The Spartans have nothing on that. I wonder if this is legend or historical fact.
Apparently the Swiss Confederation were fiercely independent. As much then as they are today. I admire that. In this age of globalism and anti-Nationalism, the Swiss are maintaining their independence from the great national mergers such as the Euro Union. It will free them of the mass corruption that results from the influence of Germany and France.
KABUL — Afghanistan’s election commission declared Hamid Karzai the winner of the country’s controversial election, acting one day after the runner-up withdrew from a runoff planned for Saturday, and ending a two-month political drama that threw the country into unprecedented turmoil.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, speaks with the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Kabul.
The commission’s chairman, Azizullah Ludin, said that the runoff was canceled “to prevent uncertainty that created a lot of security challenges for the country.” The runner up, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, Sunday pullout from the contest, saying he didn’t believe the election would be free or fair because Mr. Ludin’s commission is biased in favor of Mr. Karzai, which Mr. Ludin has denied.
The commission, appointed by Mr. Karzai, took the decision hours after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon made an unscheduled trip to Kabul earlier Monday. Mr. Ban urged Mr. Karzai to abandon his insistence on going ahead with a runoff that the Taliban had pledged to disrupt by killing election workers and voters.
The election has been canceled. That is great news. Now, I can finally get something done here. The election has been the focus of Afghanistan for the past 3 or 4 months. The taliban have disrupted everything in their quest to make chaos reign supreme throughout the country.
Time for life to start again.
Now, if we can only kick this bird flu and avoid an epidemic or pandemic.
Pray for Afghanistan. Having been through 30 plus years of war and crises, these folks deserve some peace.
Today, I sat down and was hit with a distant memory from 2004. It was my first time in Bangkok. 2nd or 3rd night. I was drinking it up at Bedsupper Club. I walked outside and as it was closing and asked a couple of people if there were any after hours bars. Someone mentioned Spice Club. So I walked out to the parking lot and asked a Tuk Tuk to take me there.
Well, old Dude took me for a ride. Charged me 100 Thai baht (3 USD) and deposited me exactly one hundred feet down the road from where I started.
To get there though, he drove up past Q Bar around to Soi 5 down to Sukhumvit and back up Soi 11.
I didn’t really figure it out until about 3 months later when I partied at BSC again but this time with some friends. BSC closed. One of the gals said; “Let’s go to Spice!” I said; “Cool. Let’s do it.” and started to get a Tuk Tuk. The chic looked at me like I was an idiot and was like come on you lazy moron.
She turned and started walking down the street. I followed. When I saw Spice, I remembered the tuk tuk ride from earlier. I just started laughing. Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. So I told them the story. And they all laughed at me.
Luckily, though, the first time that I went to the Grand Palace, I’d read lonely planet and been warned about the touts and “it’s closed today, let us take you to thirty gem stores and 14 tailors” so we can get gas coupons and what not.
I did ride around with a tuk tuk guy for free once or twice. He drove me around the city for free. I saw everything and every once in a while, we walked into a Tailor shop or a Gem Store and I acted interested and promised to return the next day with my credit cards because I was “fearful of carrying them with me in the big bad city of Bangkok.”
It was actually a fun day and the tuk tuk driver was a cool old guy. I’ve got his pic somewhere. Nice old dude.
I’ve done some weird things in Bangkok.
Still looking for that damn two story after hours bar with the big tree trunk and a circular platform around it in the middle of the dance floor. I’d love to party there again. Been there three or four times, but, each time too drunk or tired to remember the name of the joint.
In Sanjaree, right outside Camp Hovey in the north of the ROK. There are several of what we called “Drinky Bars.” These bars are strikingly similar to the bars of NaNa, Soi Cowboy, Pattaya and Patpong. You walk in. Girls surround you. Ply you with drinks and try to get you to by them “Lady Drinks.” Usually, some kidn of fruit juice. Some of these bars have dancers on stages or platforms. Some pool tables. What they all have is SEX for SALE.
I did two tours in Korea. A little over two years on station.
It never failed to amaze me that guys would frequent these establishments and actually FALL IN LOVE with the girls from whom they and every other Tom, Dick and Harry were purchasing sex. Boom Boom.
These bar owners. Mamasans. They’d bring girls in from the country side. Poor girls with little to no education. After bringing them, these girls would have a “bar debt” to the Mamasan. The money for room and board. New clothes and make up. Food and whatever else Mamasan and the bar provided for their survival/livelihood until they were established and taking in customers.
One girl. Amazingly pretty. She had an excellent scam going. Before she was found out, she scammed three different guys. She would get some poor soul. A sucker. To fall in love with her. They’d start “dating” while she was working at the bar. She’d be “working” all the while. Raking in the dough, but, telling him that she was only serving drinks and what not.
So she got the first one. The first sucker. She got him hemmed up. They made marriage plans. Old Dude would start supporting her while she was supposedly not “working” at the bar and just serving drinks. The guy would pay the bar debt for her. Somewhere between 3 and 5 thousand dollars. They’d start the VISA process.
Once everything was paid off. Bar debt, etc. And old girl had soaked the poor sucker out of his hard earned money, it would usually be time for GI Joe Loverboy to PCS back stateside.
At this point, the gal would disappear. All of the money with her. Up in smoke. She’d make some excuse about going home to see her family before she went to the land of the Big PX or whatever.
Loverboy would be sitting at the Airport waiting for the love of his life who would, of course, never show up. She having absconded with all of his money.
This gal was able to do this three times before she was caught. I’m sure she wasn’t the first or the last to run the scam.
Broken hearted GI Joe on the airplane headed back to America sobbing. The gal and Mamasan splitting his money.
After the guy PCS’d, the girl would come back to work for the same bar. Find a new sucker and do it again.
Beautiful scam.
The hell of it is that you’d think that only dumb farm boys from Kentucky or West Virginia would fall for this kind of scam.
Nope!
Two of this gals victims were Officers. One was a Major. I guess education doesn’t help in matters of the heart.
Bunch of numb-nuts, if you ask me.
The same kind of scam that happens in lower Sukhumvit to naive farang (foriegners) happens all over the world. Same scams in Panama as well. I saw similar scams and set ups there as well. And I laughed at the suckers there too.
It’s amazing. The ingenuity and artfulness of the deceit of some of these characters.
In January 2007, Houthi leaders threatened Jewish families in Saada. “We warn you to leave the area immediately… [W]e give you a period of 10 days, or you will regret it,” read a letter signed by a Houthi representative cited in a Reuters article.
Virtually the entire Jewish community in the area, about 60 people, fled to the capital. Since then, they have been receiving food stipends and cash assistance from the government while living in state-owned apartments in a guarded enclave, says the Yemeni embassy in Washington.
President Saleh, a Shiite, has been eager to demonstrate goodwill toward the Jews. On the Passover holiday, he invited TV crews to videotape families in the government complex as they feasted on lamb he had ordered.
Raida became the last redoubt of Yemeni Jews, who continued to lead a simple life there alongside Muslims.
Ancient stone homes dot the town. Electricity is erratic; oil lamps are common. Water arrives via truck. Most homes lack a TV or a refrigerator. The cell phone is the only common modern device. Some families receive financial aid from Hasidic Jewish groups in Brooklyn and London, which has enabled them to buy cars.
Typically, the Jewish men are blacksmiths, shoe repairmen or carpenters. They sometimes barter, trading milk and cow dung for grass to feed their livestock. In public, the men stand out for their long side curls, customarily worn by observant Jewish men. Jewish women, who often marry by 16, rarely leave home. When they do, like Muslim women, only their eyes are exposed.
It is bewildering to me when people question the need for a Jewish Homeland. The Jews have been persecuted for centuries. Since the Roman era diaspora. Christian purges, Czarist pogroms, Islamic expulsions. The Holocaust of Nazi Germany. Jews are forever the scapegoat for the inadequacies, incompetence and criminal acts of the elite.
Yet, today, people question the need for a homeland wherein the Jews can defend themselves and live with dignity. A place where the Jewish people can live without fear. A place where a future as a Jew is possible.
Palestine is a fiction. There was never a Palestine in history except as a Roman province. The name itself comes from the Roman language. The Romans dubbed the area Palestine as an affront to the Jews. Palestine is the Roman transliteration of the word Philistine. Thus, the Romans named the area once known as Judea after the ancient enemy of the Kingdom of Judea. Jews have had a constant presence in the area for thousands of years. They have been present in the Levant since the time of the ancient Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia and the ancient Persian Kingdoms. Alexander’s Generals and historians wrote of the Jews there. The Romans conquered them there.
Then came the Muslim Empire. The great and bloody Empire of Islam.
Islam conquered the area and forced mass conversion on the inhabitants of the region. Well, technically the didn’t force conversion. You had choices. Flee. Become a slave. Pay a hefty tax called the Jizya. To avoid all of these choices, one had merely to convert. State three times the words “there is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his Prophet.” Yes, many people “chose” to convert to Islam. And what a choice it was.
Today, all across the Muslim world, Jews are second or third class citizens. They are treated poorly. Subject to rules and regulations and the whims of a mostly illiterate populace. Antisemitism is on the rise across the globe. Especially in Europe and the Arab lands.
The Arabs like to say that Israel is a guilt price for the actions of Europe during World War II.
And perhaps there is some truth to that.
Even so, the Jews have paid their own blood price for that land. When Israel declared independence in 1948, the Arabs attacked. Killing thousands of Jews and proclaiming that they would drive the Jews into the sea. The Jews fought back and held off that bloody calamity. The Arabs maintained a steady war of attrition for the next 30 to 40 years. Attacking at the borders. Raiding across the border and murdering families and communities much like the bloodletting and rockets that the Palestinians and Hezbollah plan and execute today. In 1956, 1967 and 1973, the various Arab factions have pursued outright war against Israel by closing the straits and bottlenecking the Red Sea, by bombarding the country with artillery and build ups on the borders of Israel and by outright attacking as Sadat did in the ‘73 October War.
Yet, through it all, Israel has survived. They’ve had the assistance of the US at times. Their enemies have also had assistance. The Soviets paid for most of the militaries of Egypt and Syria. The Army that attacked Israel in 1973 was “mentored” by Soviet “advisers.” Soviet pilots were shot down in combat action in the ‘73 war.
These are things that the opponents of Israel will deny or claim inconsequential.
Israel has always existed in one form or another. Most of the land that comprises Israel was owned by Jews in 1948. This land was purchased from the Arabs who owned the land. Most of the business in Israel in 1948 was Jewish owned. The Arabs who lived in the area in 1948, moved there because of developments created by the Jewish immigrants to the area.
I have been to Israel. What is striking about the region is that Israel is much like a mini-European country in a vast wasteland. Exit Israel and enter Egypt or Jordan or Syria. You enter a time warp. As if traveling back to the Ottoman Empire. If Israel were to fail as a nation, this is the same fate that awaits the land. It will corrupt and fall into disuse and neglect. This is why the Arabs want it? The people of Israel took a barren wasteland and made it into a paradise. The Arabs simply let the wasteland stand as it is.
I do not support the creation of a Palestinian State. Never do I think this should happen. A Palestinian State would be nothing more than another Islamic Despotism wherein the people are kept illiterate and a few corrupt leaders in the mold of Yassar Arafat will enrich themselves at the expense of the masses. The Arabs of Palestine would do better to make their own treaty. Expel the thugs of the PLA, Hamas and FATAH and make their own treaty with Israel. Create a non-religious state and live side by side with Israel in peace. Either as an autonomous region or a City-State along the lines of the Vatican. Live in peace with their neighbors and let religion be no issue at all.
Israel is the only beacon of light in the darkest region of the Planet. In almost every country that claims Islam as it’s dominant religion, the people are merely slaves to the whims of despotism and tyranny.
Israel should be supported by all democracies and all liberal peoples. The PLA and the other groups that keep this war going should be international pariahs. Iran, Saudi Arabia and any other country who supports these groups should be ignored.
But, of course, oil makes that impossible. America, China, Europe and India will kiss the feet of the Arab oil men of the Middle East and ignore the real injustice of the region. And the despots of the Arab Nations will forever use Israel as the scapegoat for their corruption to avert the eyes of their illiterate masses away from the real enemies that are the leaders of their own nations.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky men’s basketball student-athlete John Wall has been certified with conditions by the NCAA. The conditions are repayment of expenses and a two-game withholding, including the first exhibition game versus Campbellsville (Nov. 2) and the first regular-season game against Morehead State (Nov. 13).
Wall, a 6-4 freshman point guard from Raleigh, N.C., was one of five freshmen on the Naismith Preseason watch list. A pre-season All-American according to several national publications, Wall was the top recruit in the country last season according to Rivals.com.
“I’m grateful to have this decision behind me. All I ever wanted was to go to school and play ball with my team,” said UK freshman John Wall. “This has been really hard for my mom and I want to thank her for her support during this process.”
The repayment of expenses includes a total of $787.58, consisting predominantly of travel expenses incurred during Wall’s unofficial visits to various institutions during his junior year at Word of God Christian Academy.
“We’re appreciative of the process and the NCAA’s willingness to listen,” said UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart. “The NCAA staff worked to keep the welfare of the student-athlete in mind throughout this process. I’m happy for Coach Calipari and John Wall that he will get a chance to represent the Wildcats this season. He’s a great young man and deserves to be able to concentrate fully on his academics and basketball.”
“John Wall is a great kid who always tries to do the right thing and his mother is a great lady,” said UK head coach John Calipari. “I’m just happy this is behind us.”
John Wall must repay 757.58 USD to his former AAU Coach. His AAU Coach was a registered, though, inactive agent. It’s a bunch of hogwash. The archaic NCAA rule book, though, is full of idiotic rules.
A Duke player can be paid. A USC player can be paid. ZERO repercussions to the program. Those two incidents were proven and the parties involved even publically admitted to the facts and allegations. A player is alleged to have cheated on an SAT. No proof mind you. The NCAA lays down sanctions.
What is the difference between what occurred at Duke and that which occurred at UMASS.
One thing: Coach K!
That is the only difference. Had it been any other coach or any other program and that Final Four banner would be gone from the official records. Oh yeah, and most of the press would be writing articles about it and how it’s the end of the world for Amateurism. Coach K could personally pay players. Get caught red handed. On video. Deny it. The NCAA would claim that it had no proof against him.
This time next year, I’m sure that the NCAA will re-open the investigation on John Wall. I’m sure that they’ll find something that they missed. I’m sure taht John Wall will be ruled retro-actively ineligible.
BUT! Only if UK and Coach Cal make it to the Final Four and Championship game. If UK bails out of the tournament in the Sweet 16 or below. No one will say a thing.
I read this book about 3 months ago. It’s a fascinating read. At the time I read it, though, I thought it to be all fiction. Recently, I found out that it’s based on real events and real people. Even if loosely based, it’s still amazing to me that anyone could be as foolish and idiotic as Pete. It’s mindboggling that anyone could do anything remotely resembling his acts of stupidity and treachery.
I have, in my travels, been witness to similar events. Bar girls using their wiles to goad foolish, naive men into handing over large sums of money. Men using women for sex while telling them that they love them and are going to marry them and take them home. Relationships began on completely false pretext. Everything. I’ve seen it somewhere.
But this book takes the cake. It was a fast and easy read. Stephen Leather gives a glimpse into the seedier side of Bangkok life. When you read it, realize that this is only a part of that life. It’s a small part as well. I’ve met hundreds of regular women and men in Thailand who aren’t constantly working a scam on some dumb farang. I’ve met people who straddle the line as well as the voyeurs who interact and watch but never participate. Life is fascinating in Bangkok. It can really twist up a weak soul. Wrap you around the wings of the dark angels and drag you down. DEEP into murky waters. It can also be a pleasant experience and uplifting. Depends on what and where you are seeking your experience.
Just be careful. It’s all about situational awareness as we say in Afghanistan. Keep your eyes open. Don’t be a fool.
Thailand 1996. The Year Of The Rat. Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok go-go bar and meets the love of his life. Joy is the girl of his dreams: young, stunningly pretty, and one of the Zombie Bar’s top-earning pole dancers. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs and deception, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.
For many years Private Dancer was only available as a free download through my website. It became something of a cult classic and over the last five years was downloaded sixty thousand times from more than forty countries. I gleaned much of the information for the book sitting in a bar called Jool’s in Sukhumvit Soi 4, just down the road from Bangkok’s infamous Nana Plaza red light area. The owner, Big Dave, knows pretty much everything there is to know about Thailand, and he’s the basis for the Big Ron character in the book.
Hodder and Stoughton didn’t want to publish Private Dancer as it is so different from my regular thrillers, so I decided to publish the book myself in Thailand, through my own publishing company, Three Elephants. (Three Elephants is an anagram of Stephen Leather!)
The striking cover photograph, of a naked girl holding a cut-throat razor behind her back, was taken in Anglewitch Bar in Nana Plaza and features one of the bar’s top showgirls. It took us ages to find the right girl. When I originally wrote the book, the fashion was for the girls to grow their hair long. But these days they trend to cut it short, make it curly, or dye it red or blonde. I sat with my friend Andrew Yates for hours outside Nana Plaza in search of the right girl, but it seemed as if the only ones with long straight hair were the ladyboys! My pal Paul Owen took the photograph. I borrowed the cut-throat razor from my barber and it took us almost an hour to get the shot right. I’m really pleased with the result – think it’s one of my best covers.
The book got great reviews from Bernard Trink at the Bangkok Post and the Pattaya Mail, both taking the view that Private Dancer should be required reading for all visitors to the Land of Smiles. Forewarned is forearmed! I think it works so well because it gives the story from so many viewpoints, including several Thai characters. Most books about the Thai bar scene only give the Westerners point of view.
Private Dancer is available at all good book shops throughout Thailand, especially Bookazine and Asia Books outlets, and is also on sale at the airport. There is still a free download available of an early version of Private Dancer. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE DOWNLOAD. The book has more detail on what happened to the characters so if you enjoy the download you’ll want to buy the book eventually!
In 2005, Phil Tatham, who runs Monsoon Books in Singapore, wanted to add the book to his growing stable of publications, and I agreed to let him have publication rights for Singapore and Malaysia. You can also buy it on line through his website, www.monsoonbooks.com.sg.
Jerry Tipton has no integrity. That’s the bottom line. The lexington Herald Leader, apparently, has no integrity either.
Where is the PUBLIC APOLOGY to the Pattersons? He printed his lie publicly. He should print his apology publicly. It should be made just as prominent as the lies that Tipton printed.
This is the story which Matt Jones printed on his blog outting the lie printed by Jerry Tipton after Big Blue Madness:
In case you missed it earlier today, Jerry Tipton wrote a game report in which he commented on the fact that Patrick Patterson had a new truck. In his report, he said Patrick drove the new truck to the game and then “the fun figured to continue when he climbed in his new black truck and drove away.” Interesting story right? The problem is that according to Patterson’s mother, it is not true. I spoke this afternoon to Tywanna Patterson who said that Patrick didnt drive to the game in the truck or drive home afterwards, instead riding with his parents to dinner after the game. She also said that Patrick’s new truck isnt even kept primarily on campus and was a gift from his parents that will be kept primarily in Huntington. Patterson’s mother was upset at Tipton’s comments on the truck and said,
“I just dont appreciate him making false statements and comments. When he first interviewed me, he misquoted me about OJ Mayo when Patrick was in high school. I just wish he would stop doing that.”
The Patterson family has had issues with Tipton before and his father Buster Patterson, famously said to a line of Tipton’s questioning, “you just dont quit do you Jerry?” But as for the current issue, Tywanna Patterson simply says, “I just wish he would report on the game and not things that didnt happen.”
I just spoke with Tywanna Patterson who said that an editor of the Herald Leader called her to apologize about the story. Apparently a comment or retraction of some sort will be in the paper tomorrow on the issue.
Below is the Jerry Tipton “retraction” as re-printed on KSR from the Tipton blog:
Clarification: Patterson’s new truck in Huntington
I just had a pleasant conversation with Tywanna Patterson, the mother of Kentucky big man Patrick Patterson. She asked that a clarification be made about the game story on UK’s Blue-White Game.
Patterson did not drive his vehicle, a Lincoln Mark LT, to the game.
His parents did buy him the Lincoln Mark LT. The truck was “a gift for all his hard work,” his mother said.
The car remains in Huntington. Patterson’s parents intended the car as a Christmas present, she said.
UPDATE: Jerry Tipton clarifies the statement in his blog. Not exactly a retraction or explanation for why the story was wrong, but at least an acknowledgement.
Jerry Tipton fabricates a story about Patrick Patterson departing Big Blue Madness in “his new truck.” The story is highlighted by Matt Jones and Tywanna Patterson and proved to be a complete lie. Jerry Tipton merely states that it did not happen. No apology for the lie or the insinuation behind the lie.
Anyone with the ability to think independently can clearly see the implication behind the Tipton non-story. He’s mentioning the “new truck” as a way of outting what he perceives to be an NCAA violation. Apparently, Jerry Tipton thinks that the only way that a black student athlete or his family could afford a new truck is through extra-legal means or via NCAA violations of one sort or the other. What Jerry didn’t stop to think about is the fact that both of the Patterson parents are working Professionals. Jerry Tipton seems to me to be a closet racist. He probably doesn’t perceive himself that way but clearly he thinks that a Black Student Athlete has no business with a brand new truck.
Jerry, this is 2009. Not all Black Student Athletes come from the inner city of New York, Chicago or Atlanta. Plenty of college educated, professionals African-American or Black Adults out there. Many of them have children. Some of them have children who are quite talented. Plenty of them can afford to purchase vehicles for their children.
I think the Tipton act is getting old. Extremely old. With every event, Jerry Tipton will present a negative viewpoint concerning UK. Student violations during madness. Fabrications of Student Athletes driving off in illicitly gained vehicles.
There was absolutely no reason for Jerry to mention that Patrick Patterson had a new truck except to imply that it was a violation of NCAA regulations/rules.
Tipton is a muckraking, unprofessional cur with some kind of odd need to magnify any negative no matter how trivial concerning UKAA, UK Basketball or any UK Basketball Student Athlete.
I agree with the many folks out there saying that it’s time to put Jerry out of the business. UK fans and any responsible citizens out there should join in a boycott of any sponsors for any publication that prints the trifling bile that Jerry Tipton puts forth in the media. It’s time for Jerry Tipton’s reign of madness and negativity to end.
Below is what Jerry posts about himself on his blog:
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.
His time on the job includes all of the above, but, not one decent article or column.
I listen to the news today. I hear America including friends and family talking politics. I’m constantly bewildered at the perfection that the average imperfect American expects from their leaders. Adultery is pretty common in American life. Yet, when a Politician or Leader is found lacking in this area of personal discipline and marital fidelity, he is crucified. Often enough, he is crucified by people who are guilty of the same transgressions. This is pure hypocrisy. I’m sure it’s common outside of our borders as well. This is about us, though. Not Africe, Asia or Europe. I know not one perfect person in America. Not one. Neither Jesus nor Mohammad are with us right now. Nor is Siddhartha the Shakyamuni.
Yet, we have this strange obsession with the faults of politicians and business leaders and any person who becomes a sensation or a “star” in the American galaxy. We obsessively place these folks on pedestals and then just as obsessively knock them off. The Fall seems to be more eagerly followed than the rise.
Looking back through our history, I can not find one of our heroes or leaders who would endure unscathed the microscope of paparazzi and gossip magazines and talk television of our era.
This begs the question. What amount of talent has gone wasted. How many highly qualified people has this intense scrutiny stolen from our republic. How much that once would have been freely and happily given is no longer offered because of the hassle of having your life scrutinized from top to bottom. From head to toenails.
What great person has remained in the shadows because he’s gay or likes an occasional joint or a imbibes a bit too heavily for the hypocrits of mainstream America.
What have we lost due to this insane phenomenon of parasitic vicarious couch dwelling?
As H.L. Mencken makes perfectly clear in the scanned page above, George Washington would have been driven out of town by the townsfolk with their torches and pitchforks. He’d have been called a drunkard, an Atheist, a profane scoundrel of the worst sort — A Business Man. The old Man even had a thing for the young pretty ladies.
George Washington is the Father of America. More so than any other. He is the Great Man. The Indispensable Man in the pantheon of the Creation Mythology of America. Yet, today, he would be a pariah. What have we lost because of our inability to accept imperfection in others that is innate in ourselves. I believe that too much has been lost.
# Game delayed on Big Blue Sports Network; • SEC Game; 1–Cancun Challenge (Rupp Arena, Lexington); 2–Cancun Challenge (Cancun, Mexico); 3–Freedom Hall (Louisville, Ky.); 4–SEC/BIG EAST Invitational (New York City); 5–Nashville, Tenn.
Here they are folks. This years Kentucky Wildcat Basketball Team.
Left to Right 2nd Row (Standing):
Jon Hood, Ramon Harris, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton, Demarcus “Big Cuz” Cousins, Josh “Jorts” Harrelson, Perry “Slim” Stevenson and Darnell “Ramel Bradley’s Twin” Dodson
Left to Right First Row (Seated):
Rod Strickland, Orlando Antiqua,Darius Miller, John Wall, Mark Krebs, Eric Bledsoe, DeAndre Liggins, John Calipari and Jon Robic
“I’ve done enough,” Calipari said Thursday at the first official media day since leaving Memphis. “I’m waiting for election day. I was kissing babies, and I didn’t care if I won or lost the election. I just wanted it to happen.”
Calipari is well aware that the passionate UK fans care strongly about whether he wins or loses. They want wins — preferably in bunches.
The program’s recent buzz has been sparked not just by its energetic new leader but by his debut recruiting haul, a freshman class arguably the most touted since Michigan’s Fab Five.
Yet unlike that 1991-92 Wolverines team that reached the national title game with five freshman starters, Kentucky has plenty of experience to go along with the new blood. Patrick Patterson was an all-Southeastern Conference center last year during Kentucky’s National Invitation Tournament season. Kentucky’s roster is so deep, Calipari envisions Patterson playing some wing this year.
This is going to be a hell of a year. Big Pat is back on the scene with a mission. He’s got help from incoming Frosh John Wall, Big Cuz, Orton and Eric Bledsoe as well as Darius Miller and the remainder of the returning team.
Big things are expected and these guys can take care of business and meet those expectations. I can see making Final Four this season. Of course, everything will have to go right for the team. Keep the injuries down. Cohesion and Esprit de Corps will be important factors. With the Cal DDS system, there should be plenty of PT for all of the stars that make up this team. Cal has been to two Final Fours and I can see this being his 3rd with the possibility of going al the way to the Title Game and bringing home banner #8.
A year that doesn’t end in a National Championship will not be catastrophic. Less than a Final Four would surprise me. I see this team slicing through the SEC like a hot knife through butter. I’m sure there will be challenges, but, I see enough talent to overcome a few bouts with youth and inexperience.
Everything I read about John Wall says that the kid will be an instant player for Kentucky and Coach Cal. Big Cuz is supposed to be a monster. Daniel Orton should be a beast down low. Eric Bledsoe may be better than advertised which would be impressive as he’s supposed to be a future lottery pick. Darius Miller can take care of spot duty at the point and become an assassin on the wings. These things take place and it’s gonna be a huge year.
HUGE!
Bottom line is that Patrick Patterson didn’t come back for the hell of it. The man came back to get his. I’m hoping he gets it. Patrick Patterson leads this team to a Championship this year and he will go down in history as one of THE greats of Kentucky Basketball. He could well supplant Dan Issel as THE GREATEST.
I took these pictures while resting in Rome. We had stopped for a lunch break at a snack stand. The pigeons gathered around us and we started throwing them bread crumbs. One of us dropped a piece of meat from our sandwich and the pigeons swarmed over it. So we started throwing meat as well.
“Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions. …
Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the ‘new, wonderful good society’ which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean ‘more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.’”
–Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
This could be written of our era. Starting with the fall of the Soviet Union to the election of Obama. The American people are interested in only one thing. One thing only.
There are two entries in Wikipedia for Chaghcharan.
Chaghcharān (Persian: چغچران) is a town and district in central Afghanistan, as well as the capital of Ghor Province. It was formerly known as Ahangaran. The main inhabitants of Chaghcharan are Tajiks. It is located on the southern side of the Hari River, at an altitude of 2,280 meters above sea level. Approximately 15,000 people live in the town, making it the largest in the province. Chaghcharan is linked by a 380-kilometre-long highway with Herat to the west and about the same distance with Kabul to the east. Due to severe weather, the road is often closed during winter and even in summer it can take three full days to drive from Chagcharan to Kabul.
There is an airstrip, located north and west of the Hari River, one mile east/northeast of Chaghcharan. It is approximately 1800 metres in length, unpaved and capable of supporting small to medium sized aircraft.
In 2004, an independent FM radio station راديو صداي صلح or ‘Voice of Peace Radio’ opened in the town, the first independent media in this part of Afghanistan.
Chaghcharan District is one of the most populated districts in Ghor Province (115,000 in 2005). It is a mountainous district. The winter is severe and the roads are inaccessible because of the snow. The district center Chaghcharan is also the capital of the province. It is situated at 34°31′21″N65°15′06″E / 34.5225°N 65.2517°E / 34.5225; 65.2517 at 2268 m elevation. The drought seriously affected the agriculture — the main source of income. There are a hospital and secondary schools in the district center, but because of the bad roads and severe weather they are hardly accessible to the rural population. Most of the population is Aimaq Hazara.
The first states that the people are mostly Tajik. The second correctly states that the people of Chagcharan are mostly Aimaq. The Aimaq are a Shi’a people closely related to the Hazara of Afghanistans Hazarajat.
I have been trying to get to Chaghcharan for the past 18 months to train the ANP Province Logistics Cadre. Always before some problem arose. Some unseen event would halt our progress and keep us away. Either personnel on the ground were busy or out of the net or the winter snows would forestall progress in our travel. We’d get bumped from the flight. The flight would be cancelled due to weather or the aircraft would break down on the flight line or be re-routed. Something would happen to keep us from getting there. All plans came to naught.
Finally, Shoaib and I made it up there. I didn’t trust it until we actually landed. Kept waiting for a sudden snow storm or the aircraft to run out of fuel and need to re-direct to Bagram or Kabul or worse, yet, Qandahar. Who knows. It’s happened before.
Heading out on leave, I was flown from Herat to Kabul. Somehow, we were re-routed to Qandahar for a fuel stop. We landed. I looked out the window and told my fellow passengers that we were in Qandahar. They thought I was crazy. I recognized the place though because I’d been there a couple of times with another company. I just started laughing as the flight crew stepped back to apologize for the landing and explained that neither Kabul or Herat had fuel readily available so we had to land in Qandahar to fuel up. That pit stop turned a 1 hour 45 minute flight into a 5 hour ordeal. Making matters worse was that we had been on the flight line for 10 hours prior to that flight because 3 other flights had been canceled that day. We were happy as hell, though, when we landed in Kabul. Not a complaint one. We were just happy to finally make it and be in position to make it out for our respective R&Rs.
Back to Chaghcharan…
We board a Canadian ISAF flight to Chaghcharan from Herat. Shoaib and I are both afraid to get our hopes up. We both want to get up into the mountains and finally do some work in Chor Province. Shoaib had lived and worked there previously. He was a Terp for the Lithuanian contingent. He’d spent two years up there. I am fascinated by the history of the region and would really like to experience as much of Afghanistan as possible before I finally give up this region and head home or wherever I end up after the Stan.
The Canandians are funny. A little female NCO comes and briefs us and clears the military passengers weapons. She gives us the safety brief and tells us that it’s a short flight so we should keep our IBA and Helmets on for the whole of the flight. Then. She leads us to the aircraft. We climb aboard.
We roll down the tarmac and go wheels up. Almost safe.
I don’t think they turned the heat on during the flight. No matter. I was prepared and bundled up in my fleece, Palestinian scarf and combat gloves. I was warm. I strap myself in. Put my helmet on and prepare to catch a nap.
Shoaib sits on the web seating and tries to work the seat belt. I watch him as he stares at it befuddled and then show him how to work the clasp. All the while chuckling. I had assumed that he’d been on a C130 before.
Apparently, he hadn’t.
45 minutes later, we land.
I’m excited as hell.
FINALLY!
We made it.
18 months in the making. We’re in Chaghcharan. I’ve read about the place and never thought I’d ever actually make it there.
We climb down the stairs to exit the aircraft and walk onto the dirt runway.
There are three little buildings. One of which is an outhouse. The other two are locked up and look to have been out of commission for quite a few years.
We’re greeted by the PRT welcome wagon. A mix of US and Coalition soldiers from Lithuania, Denmark and Croatia. They load our bags into some Toyota pick up trucks and we jump in for the short ride to the FOB.
FOB Whiskey. PRT Whiskey. Depending on who is talking to you. It’s a smallish FOB in the middle of the Hari Rud river basin. It looks like they diverted the river with a canal the runs around the base and into town. Even so, when the river swells in the wiinter rain months, the FOB floods and the plywood walking planks, I’m told, float as you walk on them.
We should be returning at that time. So we may get to experience the floating planks.
We meet our military sponsors. They show us to our Five Star Hotel. A not well insulated tent with very inadequate heating that is as dusty as the roads out in town. No matter. I’m happy to be there.
It’s a decent FOB. Pretty good chow. Same day laundry service. Decent gym. Surrounded by Hescos, Concertina wire and 12 ft tall fencing. As safe as any place in Afghanistan. Chaghcharan is a pretty sleepy town. Not too much activity of any sort. If the Taliban are there, they’re sleeping and waiting to go somewhere else to cause trouble. FOB Whiskey hasn’t had problems of any sort for almost a year.
We settle in. Grab a bunk and are given a tour of the FOB. Not much to see and won’t go into it here. The highlight is the MWR house with pool tables–Russian and regular. It also houses a small internet cafe with intermittent internet access. Every Thursday, the Coalition forces have a beer night. 3 beer limit. The US forces can not imbibe. General Order #1 prohibits the consumption of alcohol in Afghanistan. That lovely throwback to our puritan roots that makes absolutely no sense to me.
I sit down with my military sponsor and we put together a plan. He briefs me on the Ghor Province Commander and Logistics Cadre. Giving me a rundown of shortcomings and items that he’d like me to include in my instruciton. Fuel and Accountability. We talk about the usual problems that he has noted during his tour in Chaghcharan. We plan out the next two weeks.
By that time, it’s getting late. I head off to bed.
I can’t talk too much about our routes and training. So I’ll leave that part out of here for now.
The rest of the week is left to coordinating travel.
As we travel around to various sites, we drive through the town of Chaghcharan to and from the Province HQ. We visit the Generals house. Hit up a few check points to see if they are supplied correctly or manned at all. All seems well.
I always carry my camera on these trips. Along the way, I snap random photos.
We drove up to a check point and supply point in the hills surrounding Chaghcharan. On the way to one of them, we stop at an old Russian Fort. It looks old. Like Great Game old. Late 1800s or so. I grab my camera and take pictures of the surrounding area. It’s beautiful country. Greenery. Desert. Mountains. Roads heading off towards places like Sagar and Pasaband. A road that one can follow straight to Kabul. The same road that took the author of The Places In Between from Herat to Kabul. Beautiful. It’s like being on top of the world up there. You can see for miles in every direction.
After we finish with our mission of training the ANP Logistics Cadre, it’s time for us to head back. We manifest for a Sunday flight. That flight gets canceled. I get a little worried. Next flight out is Tuesday. So that Sunday, we head back to the PHQ to mentor the Province Logistics Commander.
Tuesday. We make the flight. Early flight. We rise at OH DARK Thirty. Pack our bags and equipment on a Toyota truck and head out to the airfield. We are getting a ride on the mail flight. It’s a Blackwater flight. Old Russian Bird. We wait out on the airstrip for about 45 minutes and she lands. We climb aboard.
What a difference in conditions. It’s a heated civilian bird. Seats like a 747. But big and cushy. HEAT! EXCELLENT HEAT! Best of all….WINDOWS!
I can take photos along the way on the flight back to Herat. I must have taken a couple of hundred photos. Some are below. I’m pretty syked about this. I know somewhere in our flight path is Jam and it’s 1000 year old Minaret. I would love to visit this site. Get down there and touch it, smell it. Get a feel for it. It was built by the rulers of the Ghorid Empire sometime during their reign in the area. 1088 or so. It’s one of those places that was forgotten and re-discovered. It’s a 60m tall Minaret with the Mary Sura from the Qu’ran written around the whole of the body of the Minaret. It’s in surprisingly good shape for a monument from antiquity.
We had a smooth flight and an even smoother landing. Once we land, Shoaib and I jump off the aircraft. Offload our bags and drag them to the pick up point. I send Shoaib home and wait for my ride. First order of business when I land is to call my boss and let him know that I’m “home.”
Then I call Habibi. It’s been a little over a week since I’ve talked to my diminutive sweetheart and I can’t wait to talk to her. I call her up and…get her answering service. She’s at work and has her phone turned off. I laugh. I guess I’ll have to wait to talk to Unny.
I sit down, pull out my book and wait for my ride back to homebase. Two hours later, I’m in my hooch relaxing.
Later that night, I finally get through to Unny and my heart smiles to finally hear her voice. 54 more days and I’ll be with her in Bangkok. We’ll have our party at Bedsupper Club on Soi 11. Then we head out for our 9 day tour of Vietnam. Backpacker style.
Very excited about this trip.
Below are the pictures that I took along the way in Chaghcharan. Lots of pics. I took approximately fifteen hundred photos up there. I’ve included a little over a hundred of the best for this blog.
I hope you enjoy them.
Peace
hangin’ with the Kiwi Witch Doctor
Ubiquitous Afghan Burqa
Mahmud wearing his Korean War era US Army Field Jacket
Chaghcharan Po Po
Plush accomodations
The Karzai Slogan ~ Vote Often!
Bagha ~ these big boys are trained to fight in rural Afghanistan. Maybe Mike Vick has some ties to the locals here.
DONKEY!!!
Ye Old Outhouse ~ how’d ya like to do yer bid’ness in that joint in sub-freezing weather
What are you looking at!?!
FOB Whiskey Five Star Accomodations
The Matrix Starring Shoaib
cute little school girls
The Hari Rud
Jam ~ look towards the middle. You can barely make out the Minaret.
Our tears are sweet, our laughter venomous,
We’re pleased when sad, and sad when pleased,
We have broken every stalk, like a wind in the garden
We have picked clean the vine’s caldelabra
And if we found a tree, still standing, defiantly,
We cut it’s branches, we pulled it up by the roots.
—-Simin Behbehani
Lipstick Jihad is an excellent book about a womans journey back into her Iranian homeland. Azedeh Moaveni was born in the States and raised amongst the Iranian diaspora caused by the Revolution in 1979. Later, she returns to her home in Teheran to cover the Reformist movement at the turn of the century. She writes about the challenges of living in Iran as an Iranian-American and the inner conflicts of dealing with the [sur]reality of Islamic Iran as juxtaposed against her familial and diaspora created memories of her homeland. It’s a moving story told from a unique inside outsider perspective.
Last year some time, France banned the Burqa. I agreed with this ruling wholeheartedly. Some argued that France should not meddle in cultures and customs of the various immigrant peoples who inhabit their country. Still others argued that the burqa and by extension the hijab or veil is part of the right to “freedom” of speech a part of the expression of the culture of Islamic peoples. I simply can not agree with this.
To me the hijab/veil and the burqa is a symbol of oppression. It’s a relic of the patriarchal systems of our forefathers and a means of control. It’s the tool used to enslave women. We used similar tools of oppression here in the dark ages of the west.
These things and like items used to oppress people should be relegated to the dark past. Discarded and forgotten for all time.
How would I feel if I were forced to wear similar tools of oppression. What’s the difference between the hijab and the star of David which the Nazis forced on the Juden of 1930s era Germany? What is the difference between this attitude and the attitudes of White Americans towards Blacks in the early 1900s in the Jim Crow Era of the South?
I see no difference. Women in Iran are thrown in prison and tortured and raped for the simple offense of being seen in public with a non-relative male or showing too much ankle or for having the audacity to think and speak out. They’re beaten on the streets for showing an inch too much of hair. Young Men are brutalized by the basiji thugs for accompanying non-relative females from a Cafe to the curb to hail a taxi.
Do we excuse these behaviors in the name of cultural diversity? Do we welcome this into our countries? Do we allow this barbaric behavior into our neighborhoods?
I think we should not.
Someone will make the comment eventually; “So what do you want to do? Invade Iran?” That is not what this is about.
We can’t do anything about the barbarism of Islamic Sharia in Saudi Arabia or Iran.
However, we do have the choice of not tolerating it’s introduction into our own home countries.
I think that is where the world should make it’s stand.
I’m of the opinion that banning the burqa was not going far enough. The hijab should be banned as well. Similar resolutions should be introduced in the UN to end this oppressive reign of terror on women.
Making plans to take a 9 day tour of Vietnam with Unny in December.
We’ll start at Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Take the fast boat down to Chau Doc. The first day in Vietnam we’ll do the Mekong Delta tour. I’ve done it once but this will be Unny’s first time there.
Then it’s off to Saigon. While in Saigon, we’ll take the Cu Chi Tunnel tour and tour the City. Plan on hitting up the backpacer area and maybe we’ll buy a painting or two. Definitely have to entertain ourselves at Apocalypse Now Bar. Stop by Mogambo and see Mama Lani.
Next stop will be Da Nang. At Da Nang we’ll spend a day at Hoi An. There is an art shop there that I’d like to visit. Theysell original art. A bit pricey. I think I’ll splurge this time and buy one or two of the guys works.
From there, we’ll find a way down to Hue City. I want to see the Citadel there as well as the old Royal Cemetery. We’ll take a cruise down the Perfume River.
Final stop will be Hanoi. A tour of the city there will include the Hanoi Hilton, the Ho Chi Minh Mauseleum, the old French Quarter, the lake in the center of the city (the name of which escapes me right now) and the National War Museum among other places. This time, I’m going to get over to Halong Bay as well. I missed it last time because I was too lazy to get up and go.
I’ll use the new camera to take plenty of pictures and Unny and I will have a ton of new and amazing memories to reminisce upon in our “Golden Years.” lol
Should be a great trip and I bought this groovy new camera just in time. Now I just have to learn how to use it to it’s fullest capability.
Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation. In Marxist theory, socialism is a transitional phase between capitalism and communism characterized by unequal distribution of wealth and compensation according to work done. [1][2][3] Contrary to popular belief, socialism is not a political system; it is an economic system distinct from capitalism.
Forerunners of communist ideas existed in antiquity and particularly in the 18th and early 19th century France, with thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the more radical Gracchus Babeuf. Radical egalitarianism then emerged as a significant political power in the first half of 19th century in Western Europe. In the world shaped by the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution, the newly established political left included many various political and intellectual movements, which are the direct ancestors of today’s communism and socialism – these two then newly minted words were almost interchangeable at the time – and of anarchism or anarcho-communism.
Capitalism typically refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production (also known as capital) are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor.
Democracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed (direct democracy), or the power to do so is granted by them (as in representative democracy). The term is derived from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía (info)), “popular government”,[1] which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos), “people” and κράτος (krátos), meaning “power” in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC.[2]
In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’,[3] there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes, equality and freedom.[4] These principles are reflected by all citizens being equal before the law, and having equal access to power.[5] Additionally, all citizens are able to enjoy legitimized freedoms and liberties, which are usually protected by a constitution.[6][7]
Technically, Obama was/is engaging in a socialist act when he purchased majority shares of several organizations (banks, car manufacturing, etc). We shall see in due time whether that was a wise act or something less. It may have been the action that put the economy back on chart. It may have been wasted money. Time will reveal it’s truths.
Many in America are comparing a Political Theory with an Economic Theory. It’s apples and oranges. One can be both Socialist and Democratic. One can be both Capitalist and Democratic. One can not be a pure Socialist and engage in Capitalism or vice versa. Though China is proving that one can be both Communist and Capitalist right before our eyes or perhaps they are simply oligarchic capitalists.
When someone states that Obama is Socialist that does not preclude him from being Democratic in political system preference.
President Obama is more Socialist than say Forbes or Reagan (perhaps). He’s no more Socialist than Bush in my opinion. Bush approved/extended a few programs that many might consider Socialist and if he had been able to sit for a third term, I believe, he would have acted much as did Obama.
On the question of health care, The United States must care for it’s citizens in our post-Industrial age. The economy and capitalism is not going to do this nor are they designed in theory to do so. Companies are attempting to cut back on expenses to improve the bottom line. Canceling health care benefits. Canceling pensions. And so on and so forth. If the United States is going to be a Nation of values and humanity going forward, it must care for it’s citizens. Health Care is an important part of that plan. In my opinion. If America is truly a Nation of, by and for the people, then Health Care is and must be a priority.
It will likely mean heavier taxes. Personally, I think some of those taxes should come from the businesses that benefit from American Capitalism, the Federal Government and from our military protectionist adventures around the world. Some must come from the citizens themselves.
Additionally, I think in order for citizens to qualify for said health care, they should be willing to serve in some capacity the country that provides these benefits and “entitlements.” “To whom much is given, much is expected” after all. Some want much and expect to give nothing in return.
Welfare as we know it should be heavily reformed as a means to cut spending. To qualify for welfare, I believe, that one should show that one is working towards something such as higher education or some sort of self improvement. Welfare should be a graduated system rather than an all or nothing system. If recipients are not working towards some goal, they should be willing to work in some service category such as working for an NGO or volunteer work or community service of some sort. I’m completely against giving anyone’s tax dollars away for nothing for all or a great many years of one’s life. Disability and ill-health should be taken into consideration, of course. I know too many people back home in Kentucky who have never worked a day in their trailer park livin’, mayonnaise sandwich eatin’ lives. Yet, they sit and collect tax dollars in the form of food stamps and other forms of social services. Some of these folks sell drugs on the side or engage in other illicit activity. Many do not.
Corporate welfare and other handouts should face heavy scrutiny as well. Why are we giving corporations and other entities these moneys or tax breaks. Foreign aid and foreign military support should be scrutinized in the same manner. Why do we still have forces in Europe? Korea? Japan? It’s time to pull out of these places. Those forces could be better deployed elsewhere or home. Why are we funding despots when we should be pressuring them to reform. If they haven’t reformed by now, it’s not going to happen in most cases. We have carrots with no sticks following on.
Socialism and Democracy can co-exist and America has proven this to a more or less limited degree over the past 70 or so years. Sweden is rated the most democratic country in the world according to the links below. It also engages heavily in social welfare. I don’t know if larger countries can maintain that same model. But, perhaps, it is worth the chance.
A great problem in Central Asia and India, among other places, is the selling of women into slaver. Usually sex slavery. Happens quite frequently in Iran as well from what I’ve read.
Women in this part of the world are seen as property. A daughter or a “disobedient” wife can bring a family out of debt or help a family purchase a tractor or other items which can enhance a Father or Husbands wealth or standing in the community. Daughters are not seen as contributors to a family estate. They’re more a nuisance or a drain on resources. A man who has only daughters can be taken deep into debt for dowries.
It’s not seen as fortunate on this side of the planet to have a daughter.
They’re expendable or worse.
We, in the West, find this attitude abhorrent. At the top of the world, it’s merely a fact of life.
There are several excellent books which touch on this subject. Sold, by Patricia McCormick, is an excellent fictional account of a young girl who is sold into slavery in order to bring her family out of debt and deceived into thinking that she will be a house servant in order that she go willingly.
This is a horrible fact of life for women in this part of the globe. A less mentioned facet of the sex slave trade is the number of these women who end up in the West in back alley rooms and decrepit hotels on the wrong side of town. They’re kept prisoner and when used up, murdered and tossed out like so much waste.
Even better, I spent it with friends. My girlfriend Unny as well as my good friend Becca and her sister.
I met Unny in Dubai. Snuck up on her at the Starbucks near our gate in the Emirates Terminal at Dubai International Airport. She had just flown in from Bangkok an hour or so before. I had flown in from Kabul two days earlier. We were meeting in order to fly to Athens together.
We wait about two more hours and finally board our flight to Athens.
Four hours later, we land.
We’re in Athens! I’m so excited I can barely contain it. BUT! I’ve got to wait for Becca and Deb to fly in from the States.
We wait.
And wait…
And wait…
And, finally, I’m thinking; WHAT THE HELL!”
Bad luck seems to have struck again for poor Becca. lol
I have her paged over the intercom. I walk around the terminal looking. I pace up and down.
Finally, I check my email at the business center.
They’ve missed their connecting flight at Heathrow by 3 Minutes. They’ll be in at around 5 or a bit past midnight depending on what flight they get later that day/night. Poor girls. It’s a long flight from the States to Europe.
Unny and I grab a cab and head to the our hotel–Athens Studio.
Great Location. But you can’t see the Acropolis from their balcony as I was led to believe. Other buildings are in the way. A bit disappointing. But not a huge deal. We’re less than a block away.
We check in with no trouble. Although, the Athens Studio runs their business like a hostel as opposed to as if it were a hotel. So be aware of that. Hostels can be a bit of a pain. Upfront payment for your whole stay. Should you decide to move or depart early, they have strict rules about refunding your money. Meaning that they do not intend to operate at a loss and they are not flexible at all. The kids running the place are nice enough but have no customer service training. Just something to keep in mind.
Even so, they were nice enough apartments with a nice balcony on which to enjoy those incredibly cool night breezes in early August Athens.
Becca and Deb arrived around 6 PM. They had been dropped off around the corner and a block down and had carried their bags (backpacks) all that way. They’d been lost and walking in circles because their taxi driver was running the old “I’m lost scam.” I’d say that we were scammed by 4 out of 5 taxi rides to and from the Airport. The average fair for taxi rides to/from the airport was 44 Euro. My last fare was 27 Euro. So we were scammed by all of the other ones by about 18 Euro. Which is about 27 USD. Awesome. But short of knowing Athens intimately before arrival. I see no way of avoiding it. Basically 80% of the taxi drivers that we had were either incompetent, didn’t know their city very well or were straight up dishonest.
Great. lol
That wasn’t the last expensive aspect of Europe though.
Greece is not a rich country. I don’t see how those people make it. We went off the beaten path a few times and while prices were cheaper. They weren’t appreciably cheaper out there. I don’t see how the average Greek makes ends meet unless the average salary in Europe is 50,000 Euro per annum. It was the same across Europe. Everything was expensive. The cheapest place was Santorini. How backward is that? It’s an island. Everything must be shipped in via sea or air. That means that prices elsewhere were marked up due more to excessive greed than necessity. A 16 ounce Coke from Athens to Rome to Paris ranged in price from 2 to 4 Euro. That’s 3 to 6 dollars. Some deranged bastards attempted to charge even more. I was astounded.
Unny decides to take a nap. I’m too excited about being in Athens. I decide to walk around the area. See the lay of the land and to find the actual Athens Backpackers and it’s rooftop bar. So I walk around and eventually find the place. Turns out the rooftop bar is not so much of a bar. It’s a fridge with a few tables and couches on the roof of the backpacker hostel. Not much to it. I sit and read for a while with the view of the Acropolis in front of me. When they finally get the “bar” stocked, I buy a beer. A Mythos beer. The legendary Athenian beer or so it claims.
Then. I make my way back to my hotel room. Along the way, I buy a sandwich. The lady behind the sandwich bar snaps at me for not asking for toppings correctly and I start laughing. I guess the customer isn’t always right in Athens.
No sooner have I sat down back at my hotel room to eat than our door bell/intercom starts sounding. Becca and Deb have arrived. We ring to let them in and I head down to see if they need assistance. Becca and Deb are both carrying their backpacks and an extra bag or two. They look completely frazzled and exhausted. Sweat stained and greased from travel for the past 24 plus hours.
Apparently, their taxi was running the scam or was simply not real good at his job. He’d passed the hotel or come into close proximity several times. But, he’d kept driving around in circles. Running up the meter. Finally Becca had had enough and told the guy to let them out. They’d walked a couple of blocks in search of the hotel.
I think I’d been out there and barely missed them once or twice as we went over their path of discovery.
Bec and Deb were in need of refreshing and repaired to their room to unpack, settle in and shower.
So the day had escaped us.
As the sun sits, the four of us decide to walk up towards the Acropolis to explore and get a feel for the next day. We walk around the base of the Acropolis and climb a rocky outcropping with well worn and ancient looking steps. When we get to the top of it, it’s all slick marble like smooth surface. Just perfect for busting one’s ass. And we nearly do so. At least 5 times each.
We sit and watch the sun finish it’s decline into the western sky and admire the Temple of the Acropolis from afar. Anticipating the next days exploration adventure.
I walk around and take photos. I hadn’t brought along my tripod, so my photos didn’t come out particularly good in the night. Even so, I captured a few nice images.
Afterwards, I make my way back to the girls. We sit and chat and watch the folks around us. A few lovers embracing. One couple playing music on their little tinny speakers to the annoyance of all around and my general amusement. Earlier, when we had first reached the summit of the outcropping, a homeless looking fellow was talking at a group. I didn’t really pay too much attention. As we sat and took in the site of Athens at night, he approached our group and looked at Deb. I have no idea what he said as he was fairly drunk and slurring. As he drew close, though, the distinct odor of cheap liquor overcame us. I just looked at the guy. Kinda staring in an obvious way. Hoping that this wasn’t going to be a huge scene. What I wanted to do was smack him up side the head and curse him. But felt that the act would shock Deb and scare the living hell out of her. So I held back. The guy eventually took the hint with no undue violence ensuing and went his way.
We took that opportunity to make a hasty retreat back to our hotel for the night.
An eventful day. Good enough start for our holiday.
Below are pics from the trip. Both Athens and Rome. It was a great holiday. Santorini and Delphi were probably my favorite places. Making memories with Unny was my favorite activity. Creating more memories with my good friend Becca great as well. Two of my favorite people in the world come together with me from across the globe. Each of us starting our journey from disparate parts of the globe. Traveling thousands of miles to meet in Athens. Unny from Bangkok. Becca from Louisville. Myself from Herat.
These pics and picture collages were created by Unny from the photos that I took while on holiday. The way that she arranged them is fantastic to me. Artsy. I think she has a talent.
“Some players go to a school where they can score a bunch of points and put up big numbers,” Cousins said. “But when the season is over, they’re the same player as they were when it started.
“I’m not going to be like that. I came here to get better. I came here to learn.”
“On the court,” Cousins said, “I’m a badass. I’m mean. I’m there to cut your throat. I’m not there to be nice. Off the court, I’m cool. I’m chill. I play around with you. I’m nothing like people say I am. Anyone that’s taken the time to get to know me will tell you that.”
“But on the court … like I said, I’m there to cut your throat.”
“He’s not really angry or mad all the time,” Patterson said, “but he plays with that anger and fire and frustration. He leaves it on the court. He’s not a bad person, but he’s not going to let up. He’s not going to let you see the light of day. Even when he’s beating you down, he’s still not going to stop.”
“He’s got such good footwork for a freshman,” Patterson said. “And he’s not afraid to dribble the ball. He’ll grab it off the rim and take off down the court without hesitation. He’s just so naturally strong. Even when he was young and skinny, I bet he was strong.”
Cousins said he’s enjoying the attention that he and fellow recruits such as Wall, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton are receiving in Lexington. Almost everywhere they go, the Wildcats are asked to sign autographs or pose for pictures.
Kentucky failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 17 years last season under former coach Billy Gillispie, which means Wildcats fans are hungrier than ever for a good season. Cousins said he, Wall and Bledsoe were recently asked to pose for a picture with one student who was so nervous he was shaking.
“That’s probably the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Cousins said. “I’ve never seen something like that before. I wanted to hug him. It makes me feel good. We feel loved and we feel wanted, but that also means the expectations are through the roof.”
Indeed, most preseason polls have the Wildcats ranked between No. 1 and No. 5. One season after settling for an appearance in the NIT, Kentucky is a Final Four favorite, and Cousins is one of the main reasons.
“That doesn’t bother me,” Cousins said. “People have placed high expectations on me my whole life. I’ve always had pressure on my shoulders. This is just another page in my book.”
“He’s just like me – cut and dried,” Cousins said. “Most coaches who recruited me said, ‘You’re going to be a great player. I’m going to get you the ball every possession and you’re going to average 40. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’
“Coach Cal came in and said, ‘You work, you’ll play. It’s not about you. It’s about the team.’”
Cousins paused.
“At the end of the season,” he said, “if you have the ability to be one-and-done, he’s going to put your name out there. He’s going to help you get there.
“Other coaches try to hold you back for three or four years just to keep their [reputation] up there and keep their program rolling. It’s not like that with Cal. He lets you display every ability you have.”
Cousins is looking forward to doing just that.
“If I am blessed with the opportunity to be one-and-done, I’m going to take it,” he said. “But I’m not even thinking about that right now. I’ve got one thing on my mind and that’s winning a national championship.”
I love this kid. Kentucky hasn’t had a kid with this kind of swagger while simultaneously having the talent on a team level to back it up in almost a decade.
Good Luck with that Championship, Cousins. The whole of the Big Blue Nation is hoping you are, indeed, successful. And we’ll follow you to the Pros with a devotion not seen from many other schools.
Much of what follows is excerpted from various books on Mormon theology. These are not my thoughts. I simply thought them interesting and worth sharing here.
The “Latin” or “Passion” cross, now the primary symbol of Christianity, was not shown in Christian art until six centuries after Christ. But long before the Christian era it was a pagan religious symbol throughout Europe and western Asia.Early Christians even repudiated the cross because it was pagan.A church father of the 3rd century, Minucius Felix, indignantly denied that Christians worshipped the cross:“You it is, ye Pagans, who are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses . . . for what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards, but crosses gilt and beautiful.Your victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man on it.”
From a very ancient times, an effigy of a man hanging on a cross was set up in fields to protect the crops.The modern scarecrow is a survival of the sacrificial magic, representing the sacred king whose blood was supposed to fertilize the earth.He was never abandoned, even though every farmer knew that no scarecrow ever really scared a crow.
The cross was also a male symbol of the phallic Tree of Life; therefore it often appeared in conjunction with the female-genital circle or oval, to signify the sacred marriage.Male cross and female orb composed the Egyptian “amulet Nefer,” or amulet of blessedness, a charm of sexual harmony.
The so-called Celtic cross, with the crossing of the arms encircled by a ring, was another lingam-yoni sign of sexual union, known to the Hindus as Kiakra.Some old Celtic crosses still in existence show obvious phallic elements, even to a realistic meatus at the cross’s tip.Crosses signified a god’s love-death even in pre-Columbian art of the western hemisphere, which showed the Savior carrying his cross, an image very similar to the Christian one.
No one knows exactly when the cross became associated with Christianity.Early images of Jesus represented him no on a cross but in the guise of the Osirian or Hermetic “Good Shepherd,” carrying a lamb.Later, many different kinds of crosses were used as Christian symbols.They included the Greek cross of equal arms, the X-shaped St. Andrew’s cross, the swastika, the Gnostic Maltese cross, the solar cross or Cross of Wotan, and the ansated cross, a development of the Egyptian ank, also found as the Cross of Venus.
Greeks said this cross was “common to the worship of Christ and Sarapis.”The Goddess Isis is shown on the Isiac Table with the cross in one hand, a lotus seed-vessel in the other, signifying male and female genitalia.As her consort, the god Sarapis was incarnate in Ptolemy.The words “Ptolemy the Savior” were followed by a cross on the Darmietta Stone.Pious Christian scholar once tried to pretend that this phrase was really a prophecy of the future Christ.
Male genitals are still called “the tree of life” by the Arabs, and a cross was one of the oldest diagrammatic images of male genitals.Among Christians there was at least some recognition of the cross’s phallic significance.An ancient crucifix at Sancreed in Cornwall was a spear set upright in a holy vase (the uterine vessel with two testicle-like scrolls appended to its shaft.The cross entering the labyrinth was one of the oldest symbols of the lingam-yoni in the west, dating back to early Neolithic times.Spiral “feminine” labyrinths penetrated by a cross occur in prehistoric rock carvings from Crete, at Tintagel in Cornwall, Wier Island in Finland, and Chartres Cathedral.
The LDS Beliefs
Among the Assyrians, Persians, Phoenicians of Carthage, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, the cross was an instrument of execution.From earliest times the eventual crucifixion and death of our Lord upon the cross was revealed to holy prophets.The gospel authors detail may of the events and circumstances incident thereto.And after his resurrection, our Lord said that the very reason he came into the world was to fulfill the will of the Father in being lifted up upon the cross.
Because of its association with our Lord, the cross has come to have symbolic meanings for those who profess belief in his atoning blood.Paul properly used the cross of Christ to identify to the mind the whole doctrine of the atonement, reconciliation, and redemption.
In succeeding centuries, the churches which came into being through an intermingling of pagan concepts with the true apostolic Christianity developed the practice of using symbolic crosses in the architecture of their buildings and as jewelry attached to the robes of their priests.Frequently this practice of dwelling on the personal death struggle of our Lord has caused theses churches to put sculptured representations of Christ on their crosses, these forming so-called crucifixes.All this is inharmonious with the spirit of worship and reverence that should attend a true Christian’s remembrance of our Lord’s sufferings and death.In fact, the revealed symbolism to bring these things to the attention of true worshipers is found in the ordinance of the sacrament.
Bible History concerning Solomon and the cross
The scripture says, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father [who, with all his faults, resisted every taint of idolatry].For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father”.(1 Kings 11:4-6)
There were two characteristics of heathen worship which made them far more abominable than simply bowing down to images of wood and stone.One was the use of erotic fertility rites in which drunkenness and acts of immorality were utilized as sacramental offerings by the heathen worshiper.The other was the slaughtering of human beings, particularly children and virgins, as forms of sacrifice.Only when these facts are understood will the Bible reader comprehend the vehemence with which the Lord and his prophets denounced “the groves,” the phallic symbols and all other aspects of heathen worship associated with idolatry.
However, Solomon’s sin appears to have been the building of heathen temples where these rites could be practices rather than actually participating in them himself.And he appears to have built these heathen centers in response to the teasing and conniving of his idolatrous wives.The seriousness of his offense is spelled out in the following scripture, “Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem [the Mount of Olives] and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.”
The founding fathers of the Church fought for over 500 years to keep this pagan symbol out of the church.The early Christians were tortured and killed for their beliefs.One by one, the Apostles were killed.Because of the persecution, surviving Apostles could not meet to chose and ordain men to replace those who were dead.The perfect organization of the Church no longer existed, and confusion resulted.But as the Roman pagans took over and reorganize the Church this symbol was transferred from the pagan church to the Christian Church and then the great apostasy from the True Church began.Then pagan beliefs dominated the thinking of those called Christians.The Roman emperor adopted this false Christianity as the state religion. The Roman emperor chose the leaders of the church and uses the same titles as the true Church of Christ.Church officers were given honor and wealth.Bishops and archbishops fought among themselves to gain more power.There were no Apostles or other priesthood leaders with power from God, and there were no spiritual gifts.
The prophet Isaiah had foreseen this condition, prophesying, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants there of; because they have transgress the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah24:5).It was the Church of Jesus Christ no longer; it was a church of men.Even the name had been changed.
My Comments:As can be seen from the above quotes, the cross was never intended to be a symbol to be worship or to be used as an article to identify one as a Christian.This was a pagan symbol created in the minds of non-believers of God of Israel by Satan himself from the beginning to be used in the sacrificial murder of the innocent and/or to promote sexual rites. This is the reason that we do not use the cross in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Research and comments by my Step-Father.
Good work, George.
If the original authors of the items borrowed above and used to explain why the Mormon Church doesn’t use the cross are offended by their re-posting here, pls contact me and I will happily remove the items of concern. But really, it’s a blog, it ain’t that serious. lol At least, this blog isn’t.
Just the way of the world since the dawn of civilization.
What is civilization but a way to control the masses.
It fools us into thinking that we have a stake.
It gives us a reason to buy into the system. Allowing the powers that be to enrich themselves further…and more easily by our labors and toil.
It gives us a nice facade that fools us into believing that we are in control and better off for having all of these rules and laws. While at the same time giving the real powers behind the scene legitimacy.
Those same powers (whoever they may be) give a concession here and there that usually results, eventually, in profit for them in order to maintain the yoke of civilization which is nothing more than a set of rules to keep the masses under control.
The very class of folks who became rich through war and plunder are the very people who made the rules by which we live our soft, civilized lives.
I find it hilarious.
And as long as everyone plays by the merry rules, those on top stay on top and everyone else (with a few exceptions every now and then) stays on the bottom.
Civilization serves the corporations.
Who do all of the one worlders/trans=national progressives think will be making the rules if they get their way and obtain a global government. Who will that global government serve?
It will serve Global or Trans-national Corporations. These corporations will then be able to rape the world and it’s peoples even more efficiently.
Oh, the irony.
And, yes, there will be a military. And it, too, will serve the interests of the (now) Trans-National Corporations.
Sure, they will give the impression of looking to “progress” and liberal governance and they’ll give the same lip service to civilization.
All in the name of the bottom line…
The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards
2. So the Bluegrass State has the Pitino deal, the cloud hanging over UK coach John Calipari stemming from alleged violations at Memphis, and former Wildcats coach Billy Gillispie gets a DUI charge.
Can you rank them in order of who created the biggest PR nightmare for himself? Quote: DeCourcy:
No. 1 is obviously Gillispie. He already had two DUIs in his past from several years ago, plus the difficult tenure while he coached UK. In order to get back into college coaching, he needed to keep his record clean and allow athletic administrators to remember he once had terrific success at Texas A&M and UTEP, two difficult jobs. It is not going to be easy for him to become a college head coach again.
No. 2 is Pitino. The circumstances that led to him facing an alleged extortion attempt were outside the boundaries of good behavior and good taste — and then he exacerbated the problem by blaming the media for how much trouble they were causing his family. Well, that fooled no one. Radio talk shows in the state buzzed Wednesday night with callers pointing out it was Pitino who, with his admitted infidelity, caused whatever problems exist under his roof.
Calipari? He recruited Derrick Rose, whom any coach in America would have loved to sign, and played him after the NCAA approved his eligibility. What exactly was it he did wrong?
DeCourcy is dead on.
Rick Pitino created this whole problem. Rick brought the roof in over his own head. He had extra-marital sex. He covered it up. This is a scandal of his own creation. His own poor decision making cycle come full circle to bite him in his ass.
Billy Gillispie. The only guy who pisses me off more than Tubby Smith and his merry band of worshipers. After 9 or 10 years of Tubby, I knew that there was absolutely no hope of UK ever reaching the Final Four. Gillispie came in with fire and I really thought he was going to make things happen. Then he goes off the deep end. Forcing players to sit in toilet stalls and walk home alone from games and berating players so much so that they lose confidence. The only man who would tell Jodie Meeks to not shoot. What an idiot.
Now this idiot. In the middle of negotiations, that heretofore, he was winning. He grabs himself a DUI. Consider the lawsuit all but over. Gillispie will be lucky to walk away with 500 Grand and that is just so he’ll go away. UKAA should put a clause in that states that Gillispie can never utter, write or even think the words/thoughts “UK”, Kentucky, University of Kentucky, Kentucky Basketball or mention his tenure at the University. He must omit the years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 from his resume and is not permitted to explain the omission to future prospective employers. Lastly, he should never again be able to enter the Commonwealth of Kentucky or play against any SEC school at the Division 1 Level.
They should burn this guy. And then burn him in effigy. August 27th should become a Statewide day of celebration during which Billy Gillispie paper mache’ dolls are burned in effigy each year across the commonwealth.
What an idiot!
Then we have John Calipari. Recruited Derick Rose. Check. The NCAA granted him eligibility. Check. Then Calipari played Rose on a team that broke records and made it to the Championship game.
THEN…the NCAA–the National Collection of Asinine Assholes–comes back a year later and states that “OOPs! We made a mistake! But, it’s not our mistake. It’s the fault of Memphis!” And they want to enforce strict accountability on Memphis. But not on Duke. Not on the sacred cow named Coach K. And definitely not on the Holy One on High. The Holy of Holies. Coach John Wooden. Not on Pete Carrol. Only on the little guys at the little schools or the schools with Administrations that don’t fight back.
The NCAA is full of cowards. Memphis needs to fight. They need to file a lawsuit.
And the rest of the member schools need to join that fight. Especially the small schools. Duke boosters can provide housing and jobs for Duke Athletes. UCLA can have open and rampant cheating. USC can have guys being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Duke can have championship runs with Corey Maggette who admitted to taking money from his AAU coach while an “amateur.” But that’s not Coach K’s fault. He had no way of knowing. Duke had no way of knowing.
But somehow, Memphis was supposed to know that Rose had a guy take a test for him in Detroit, MI.
I guess Memphis should have escorted Rose to his test. But then that would have violated contact rules.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The NCAA is full of shit and so are half of the reporters out there who are calling for Calipari to be “punished” by the NCAA.
“Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano defends Gates and American civil liberties. Napolitano is one of the few conservatives allowed on Fox who actually believes that individuals should be protected from the power of the police state.
The law says, unless [a police officer] witnesses a felony…or unless he has a piece of paper from a judge—a search warrant or an arrest warrant—saying “you can go in that house,” he can’t go in the house. So when Professor Gates said “no you can’t come in,” and the police went in anyway [the police] violated the federal Constitution.
The police violated this guys constitutional rights.
The police didn’t merely act “stupidly” as Obama stated. Apparently, they acted unconstitutionally. Regardless of what kind of ass this guy may or may not have made of himself. I haven’t seen the incident myself.
This is the kind of garbage that is turning this country more and more towards being an “un-American” police state.
The Po Po aren’t all powerful. Citizens have rights. Bush and Obama be damned.
I do not know if these are actual events. That said, the sentiment is dead on…
_____________________________________________
Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?”
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electric power to shore facilities;
they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”
—————————————–
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting way in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, “whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.”
He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”
——————————————-
A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. “You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”
The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”
“Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!”
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. “Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in ‘44 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find any damn Frenchmen to show it to.”
just goes to show that nothing changes, he's loonier than the last guy
During an address to the World Economic Forum, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked a somewhat long and involved question by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, which ended with the following interrogative:
And would you not agree, as a very significant political figure in the United States, Colin, that America, at the present time, is in danger of relying too much upon the hard power and not enough upon building the trust from which the soft values, which of course all of our family life that actually at the bottom, when the bottom line is reached, is what makes human life valuable?
Secretary Powell delivered a lengthy response to the former Archbishop’s question, in the midst of which came the eloquent line quoted in the example above:
The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It’s why we participate in all of these great international organizations. There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power — and here I think you’re referring to military power — then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can’t deal with.
I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.
So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don’t think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.
(Applause.)
We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.
After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over.
Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her.
The next step for Assiya was obvious: She should commit suicide. That’s the customary escape in rural Pakistan for a raped woman, as the only way to cleanse the disgrace to her entire family.
Instead, Assiya summoned the unimaginable courage to go public and fight back. She is seeking to prosecute both her kidnappers and the police, despite threats against her and her younger sisters. This is a kid who left me awed and biting my lip; this isn’t a tale of victimization but of valor, empowerment and uncommon heroism.
“I decided to prosecute because I don’t want the same thing to happen to anybody else,” she said firmly.
Assiya’s case offers a window into the quotidian corruption and injustice endured by impoverished Pakistanis — leading some to turn to militant Islam.
“When I treat a rape victim, I always advise her not to go to the police,” said Dr. Shershah Syed, the president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Pakistan. “Because if she does, the police might just rape her again.”
Yet Assiya is also a sign that change is coming. She says she was inspired by Mukhtar Mai, a young woman from this remote village of Meerwala who was gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council. Mukhtar prosecuted her attackers and used the compensation money to start a school.
Mukhtar is my hero. Many Times readers who followed her story in past columns of mine have sent her donations through a fund at Mercy Corps, at www.mercycorps.org, and Mukhtar has used the money to open schools, a legal aid program, an ambulance service, a women’s shelter, a telephone hotline — and to help Assiya fight her legal case.
The United States has stood aloof from the ubiquitous injustices in Pakistan, and that’s one reason for cynicism about America here. I’m hoping the Obama administration will make clear that Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with heroines like Mukhtar and Assiya, and with an emerging civil society struggling for law and social justice.
“Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual.”
Amanullah Khan King of Afghanistan (1919-1929),
known as the “reform” king.
“We will not be a pawn in someone else’s game, we will always be Afghanistan!”
Ahmad Shah Masood Prominent Afghan Commander,
fought against the Russians.
“Whatever countries I conquer in the world, I would never forget your beautiful gardens. When I remember the summits of your beautiful mountains, I forget the greatness of the Delhi throne.”
Ahmad Shah Durrani Founder of the Afghan Empire, (1747-1773).
Many Afghan historians consider Ahmad Shah as the
true founder of modern Afghanistan.
“Once Europe existed in a Dark Age and Islam carried the torch of learning. Now we Muslims live in a Dark age.”
Mahmud Tarzi Afghan Intellectual,
advisor to King Amanullah Khan
(1865-1933)
They made me invisible, shrouded and non-being
A shadow, no existence, made silent and unseeing
Denied of freedom, confined to my cage
Tell me how to handle my anger and my rage? – Zieba Shorish-Shamley, from “Look into my World” published on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“When we are together, everyone here is talking about how the Taliban has destroyed our lives. They won’t let us go to school because they want us to be illiterate like them.” – Nasima, 35-year-old Kabul resident
If you are wounded and left alone
on Afganistan’s plains
and the women come out to cut up what remains
roll over on to your rifle
and blow out your brains
and go to your Gawd like a soldier
go to your Gawd, go to your Gawd….
As part of a revision to defamation legislation, the Dail (Irish Parliament) passed legislation creating a new crime of blasphemy. Update: The bill went to the Seanad on Friday, July 10, passing by a single vote. This attack on free speech, debated for several months in Europe, has gone largely unnoticed in the American press.
The text of the legislation is provided at the end of this post.
How does this impact free speech? Just don’t be rude.
* Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
* Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
* Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
* Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.
Is it really THAT big a deal?
Ireland’s Blasphemy Bill not only criminalizes free speech, it also gives the police the authority to confiscate anything deemed “blasphemous”. They may enter and search any premises, with force if needed, upon “reasonable suspicion” that such materials are present.
* The local Freethinkers society, with its copies of Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
* The video store, with copies of The God Who Wasn’t There.
* The history teacher, who uses The Dark Side of Christian History to teach her class.
* The library, with its collection of books deemed blasphemous.
* Even the homeowner who lets the wrong person know he has a copy of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses could find his door broken in by the Thought Police, his bookshelves ransacked, and his books burning in the front yard!
Satirizing religion in any way, shape, or form, if it “causes outrage”, is now a prosecutable offense in Ireland. Saying anything negative about a religion, if it “causes outrage”, can now be prosecuted as a crime. Just like in Muslim countries.
Before the fighting began, between December 1947 and March 1948, around 100,000 Palestinians are believed to have fled. Among them were many from the higher and middle classes from the cities, who left voluntarily, expecting to return when the Arab states took control of the country.[7] When the Haganah went on the offensive, between April and July, a further 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled, mainly from the towns of Haifa, Tiberias, Beit-Shean, Safed, Jaffa and Acre, which lost more than 90 percent of their Arab inhabitants.[8] Expulsions took place in many towns and villages, particularly along the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem road[9] and in Eastern Galilee.[10] When a truce was reached in June, about 100,000 Palestinians remained refugees.
“I’d to have two Armies — one for display, with lovely guns, tanks, little Soldiers, staffs, distinguished and doddering Generals and deal little regimental officers, who would be deeply concerned over their General’s bowel movements or their Colonel’s piles; an Army that would be shown for a modest fee on every fairground in the country.”
“The other would be the REAL ONE, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, who would not be put on display but from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That’s the Army in which I should like to fight.”
“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” — Alexis de Tocqueville
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
–Sir Edmund Burke
“Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”
Jordan Crawford the Indiana swingman threw down on King James yesterday. He’ll be an instant legend in the sports world. The problem, though, is that James thinks he’s too big to be shown up in such a manner. Like his temper tantrum after being defeated in the NBA Playoffs. Where James stormed off like a tempestuous child. James didn’t care for being shown up by a mere college baller.
Seems a bit unAmerican for James to demand that the press hand over the video. God forbid that James be humiliated by a mere collegiate athlete. Especially one who played on an Indiana team that went sub .500 last year.
James plays a good game and tries to put out an image that has good guy written all over it. This latest move is straight out of Chairman Mao’s handbook.
Bad call James. Everyone knows it happened. Take your lumps like the rest of the world. You’d look far better to the masses if you allowed us a peak into your human side.
Even worse call by the Nike reps who confiscated the video.
Had I been there, I’d have declined the offer to hand over the video.
There won’t be a lawsuit because that will further limit coverage of James. If he can be this petty, I’m sure that he’ll be blackballing any Journalist or media folks who cross his Highness.
Extremely poor sportsmanship. I’ve been slowly losing respect for James. This simply takes me a step further from admiration of the guy. He’s human. As are we all. There’s no shame in that revelation.
Ban Sharia. Purge this barbaric intellectual and emotional plague from the face of the Earth. Sharia is nothing more than a throw back to an era of superstition and irrationality. The world no longer needs this brutal set of laws. If it was ever needed in the first place.
Take the power away from the despot and place it in the hands of the people. The People should not fear their Governments. Governments should fear the people.
Iran is a repressive regime. They showed that much with their latest outburst of totalitarianism after the Presidential election. Sharia is the foundation of that repression. It’s the foundation of oppression. Sharia is a medieval and despicable set of laws laid down by ruthless dictators starting with the first Islamic ruler and continuing through to the present where only a few throwback countries still see usefulness in the total control of the people. Sharia is anathema to a modern and democratic world.
What should the world do about it?
I think the people of the world should use the United Nations to ban Sharia. Use the World Court to place Sharia on the same shelf as Nazism, Apartheid and Slavery. Ban it’s use and label it a crime against humanity.
The stoning of Soraya Manutchehri is but one example of countless thousands. One example of the enslavement and murder of millions across the world who have been subject to the evil of Sharia.
Witness the brutality of the story of this woman’s treatment under Sharia and you are witness to the story and possibility or eventuality of millions of women across the Middle East and anywhere else that Sharia is the law of the land.
In the mid-1980s, an Iranian-born, France-based journalist named Freidoune Sahebjam was traveling in his native land, assessing the impact of the Iranian Revolution, when he came upon a rural mountain village and learned of a ghastly crime. It had been committed by an entire community against a local woman. It was a crime that indicted a nation, a movement, and a religiously inspired ideology.
The victim was Soraya Manutchehri, a 35-year-old mother of seven who, in her own prophetic words, had become “an inconvenient wife.” Bartered away in an arranged marriage at 13 to a petty criminal named Ghorban-Ali, who was 20 years old at the time, Soraya bore nine children over the next two decades, enduring two stillborn births and regular beatings from her husband, along with his insults, his consorting with prostitutes, and his campaign to turn her two oldest sons against her.
On August 15, 1986, with the complicity of a local mullah who had been imprisoned for child molesting under the Shah, Ghorban-Ali showed himself to be more than a garden variety sociopath and town bully; he was a sadistic monster, and Islamic fundamentalism was his enabler, his aider, his abettor.
In the anarchic days of the Iranian Revolution, Ghorban-Ali had found work as a prison guard in a neighboring town. There, he met a 14-year-old girl whom he wanted to marry. Polygamy was encouraged in Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, but Ghorban-Ali didn’t want to support two families, and did not desire to return his wife’s dowry. How to rid himself of his “old” wife? That was the easy part. Accuse her of infidelity. No matter that her husband had not actually seen anything untoward, or that Soraya was completely innocent, or that her husband’s cynical accusations were only backed up by his cousin, who as it turned out had been coerced into concurring with the vaguest of accusations: a smile here, a brushed hand there.
What court of law would find someone guilty on such flimsy evidence? A “sharia” court is the answer. And so Soraya was convicted. The sentence was death-death by stoning.
That was the story relayed to Freidoune Sahebjam by Soraya’s brave aunt, Zahra Khanum. His riveting and spare account became an international best-seller. Critics compared “The Stoning of Soraya M.” to Kafka, but actually nothing in the western canon of literature is comparable to the inadvertent self-parody — the simple lunacy — of a system of law that maintains that if a man is accused of infidelity by his wife, she must prove his guilt, but if a woman is accused, she must prove her innocence. Thus, in a single sentence, is a belief system codified. It is a system that rejects modernity, justice, equality and rationality — and treats female sexuality as a vice. Apparently, you can get away with this kind of madness in much of the world by simply inciting crowds to chant, “God is Great,” while you throw the stones.
It’s a fitting image, rock-throwing…fitting for the Stone Age, that is. Such show trials pay no heed to the natural rights we presume to be universal in a 21st century society: The right to be present at your own trial, to testify in your own defense, to cross-examine the witnesses against you, to be represented by counsel, to have an impartial arbiter of fact, to appeal the judgment to higher courts. None of these were present in rural Iran in the drunken days of “the Islamic Revolution.” For women and girls in Iran and in many other parts of the globe they are not present today.
The media loves to go on and on about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Where is their courage when it comes to confronting the horrors of Sharia? They have none. Because to speak out against Sharia is to risk death at the hands of the barbaric people who uphold this brutal creed. The people who support Sharia are one and the same with the people who support suicide bombers. These are the people who send out rape squads to victimize women and send them to their honorable deaths with bombs strapped to their waists against the infidel. To die with honor in this instance is to take out a busload of women, children and elderly innocents. This is the honor that Sharia brings to it’s victims.
Sharia is naught but brutality. Sharia is not justice. Sharia is power in the hands of the Mullahs. It is power in the hands of dictators and evil men. There is not one instance of benevolent use of Sharia. Sharia is naught but a throwback patriarchal system where a mans word us worth twice that of a woman. Where women have equal rights to be victiimized and cast aside like so much refuse.
That the world does not speak out against this is a shame to all of humanity. All of humanity.
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”*
“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally wore out, shouting”..holy crap…what a ride!”
As for giving peace a chance, the sentiment is nice, but it does not work when your self-appointed enemy wants to kill you. Gandhi’s campaign of non-violence (often quite violent in its reality) only worked because his opponent was willing to play along. Gandhi would not have survived very long in Nazi Germany,Stalin’s Russia , Mao’s (or today’s) China , Pol Pot’s Cambodia , or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq . Effective non-violence is contractual. Where the contract does not exist, Gandhi dies.
I shot the Angkor Wat photos at dawn and then took the one above and photoshopped it a bit to obtain the pink, green and blue effects. Just thought it looked cool.
The Wat Arun photos were taken at dusk. I spent a night at the wonderful Arun Residence. Just across the Chao Phraya from Wat Arun and only a short walk from Wat Pho and the Grand Palace.
These are just a few shots of some of my favorite places in Asia. Hope you enjoy. If you like ‘em, leave a note.
Team America: World Police Movie Soundtrack Lyrics
Trey Parker – America, Fuck Yeah
America…
America…
America, FUCK YEAH!
Coming again, to save the mother fucking day yeah,
America, FUCK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way yeah,
Terrorist your game is through cause now you have to answer too,
America, FUCK YEAH!
So lick my butt, and suck on my balls,
America, FUCK YEAH!
What you going to do when we come for you now,
it’s the dream that we all share; it’s the hope for tomorrow
FUCK YEAH!
McDonalds, FUCK YEAH!
Wal-Mart, FUCK YEAH!
The Gap, FUCK YEAH!
Baseball, FUCK YEAH!
NFL, FUCK, YEAH!
Rock and roll, FUCK YEAH!
The Internet, FUCK YEAH!
Slavery, FUCK YEAH!
I do not believe that life is sacred. Merely being born does not make one worthy of life nor does it make one entitled to a good life or an easy life. I believe that it is up to each individual to make their life sacred.
I’ve often asked the question and very rarely been answered, but, who defines what life is sacred.
Whose life is sacred Mother Theresa or Hitler?
Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great?
Xerxes or Ceaser?
Attila the Hun or Aetius, Master General of Rome?
Mahatma Gandhi or Kublai Khan?
Ted Bundy or Ted Kennedy?
Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson?
Mussolini or Charles De Gaulle?
Pol Pot or Ho Chi Minh?
Singh Man Rhee or JImmy Carter?
Teddy Roosevelt or FDR?
Chiang Kai-shek or Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong)?
Josef Stalin or Leon Trotski or Vladimir Lenin or the Romanov family they murdered?
Was the life of George Patton more sacred or less sacred than that of Erwin Rommel?
The lives Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson who were two of the most pious and religious American Generals were more or less sacred than the lives of Grant and Sherman. Sherman who supposedly said that the only good indian is a dead indian and was the author of modern day total war.
The Monk in Southeast Asia who studies Buddhism and teaches by his example yet does not believe in Christ as his savior. Sacred or no?
The Hindu Brahman? Sacred or no?
The Roman Empire and it’s millions of souls. Both the murderer of Christ and the main vehicle by which Christianity became THE primary religion of Europe. Had there been no Ceaser, there’d have been no Constantine.
And in the end, we live our beliefs. America says it believes in the sanctity of life even as we demand higher profit ratios and cheaper sneakers and nicer houses at cheaper prices. These things all come at a high human toll.
Yet, life is sacred?
It’s a good thought that is seldom put into action.
We invade Iraq because it has oil which is the grease of the capitalist machine. Then we stand idly by and watch as genocide occurs across the African continent.
Life is cheap.
There is nothing sacred about it. We love the sentiment. It makes us all feel better. Jesus and his words of Faith, Hope and Love. Christians who worship the man, yet, ignore his words.
Personally, I think Jesus would be ashamed of Christendom.
Life is as sacred as a Super-sized Big Mac Menu Meal.
The McSanctity of Life.
America has proved this time and again. We preach human dignity and self determination even as we support dictators who are willing to do our bidding. We preach self determination even as we have a distinguished one hundred plus year history of deposing democratically elected governments in the name of corporate profits.
Before one of you morons calls me unAmerican or a “blame America firster,” you might want to read a little history. Start with Chile and Guatemala. It’s a world tour. Next stop, Vietnam and Iran. Come on back home and read a bit about Honduras, Panama and Cuba. If you know nothing about these chapters of American history, speak not to me. You’re a blind and ignorant fool.
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end”
The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.
At UMass, a nothing school on the college basketball landscape, John Calipari won like he was at Kentucky. At Memphis, a bigger basketball school than UMass but still nothing much to look at when he got there in 2000, Calipari won again like he was at Kentucky.
So what happens now that John Calipari is coaching Kentucky?
John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause. (Getty Images)
I’ll tell you what happens. Kentucky will win like it’s the Boston Celtics. John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause. John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause.
College basketball as you know it? It’s over. That sport doesn’t exist anymore, because that sport had a semblance of parity. One year North Carolina is the dominant program. One year it’s UConn. One year it’s Duke or UCLA or Florida. Maybe those teams don’t win the national title the year they’re dominant, or maybe they do. Either way, every year there is a team that, on paper, is the dominant program in college basketball. And every year it’s a different team.
Until now. Until John Calipari merges with Kentucky.
Once Calipari gets Kentucky rolling — and it won’t take him long — Kentucky will be that team. That dominant team. Every year?
Yes. Every year.
Things can go wrong, of course. Players can get hurt or ineligible. A scandal can come along out of nowhere, like the one rocking UConn at the moment. Kentucky itself has been laid low by NCAA violations, back when Eddie Sutton was running amok in Lexington. So things can happen.
But if none of those things happen … it’s over. College basketball will belong to Kentucky. Turn back the clock 50 or 60 years, because it’ll be like that all over again. Kentucky won three national championships in the four seasons between 1948-51. The Wildcats added another in 1958. What happened between 1951 and ‘58? Three trips to the Elite Eight happened. Not even a point-shaving scandal could slow Kentucky down. The Wildcats didn’t field a team in 1953 because of that scandal, then went 25-0 in 1954, but were held out of the NCAA tournament.
The coach then was Adolph Rupp. When he retired in 1972, he had won 876 games, more than anyone in college basketball history. His record stood for 25 years. Rupp was that good at Kentucky.
John Calipari would be that good at Kentucky, too. How could he not? He has been Kentucky-good at places that couldn’t hold Kentucky’s jock.
In 1988, Calipari went to Massachusetts, which hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in more than 25 years, and soon he was making it look easy. UMass averaged 29 wins per season from 1992-96, and reached the 1996 Final Four. There was the Marcus Camby scandal, with Camby’s relationship to an agent costing him his eligibility and UMass its spot in the Final Four, and heads will roll if that happens at Kentucky.
But if that doesn’t happen, Calipari will win huge. He’ll win like he won at Memphis, where he won at least 33 games in each of the past four seasons and reached the 2008 NCAA title game.
Calipari will win like that at Kentucky, and maybe as soon as Year 1. Kentucky has two future pros, forward Patrick Patterson and guard Jodie Meeks, but neither is quite ready for the NBA. If they come back, and if Calipari brings just two of the incoming freshman studs he has lined up at Memphis — say, Xavier Henry and DeMarcus Cousins — Kentucky would enter next season among the preseason favorites to win the national title. One year after going to the NIT.
Calipari is that good, because he attracts that kind of talent. You can question how he attracts that talent, and you can question the character of some of the talent he attracts, and those are legitimate issues for someone to tackle. But those are issues for another day.
Today, the issue is the merger of John Calipari and Kentucky basketball. He’s going to get that school rolling again, because that’s what he does. UMass had been stalled for 25 years, but he got that program up and rolling. Memphis had been stuck in neutral until he got that place rolling.
He’ll get Kentucky rolling, too. Heaven help anyone who gets in the way.
Calipari, 252-69 in nine seasons at Memphis and 445-140 overall, was named the Sports Illustrated coach of the year before the start of the NCAA tournament, the first time he received SI’s award. Calipari was the Naismith coach of the year last season, joining Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski as the only coaches to be named twice to the award since its inception in 1987.
Calipari went 193-71 in eight seasons at Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996, culminating with an Elite Eight appearance in ‘95 and a trip to the Final Four in ‘96.
Calipari, a graduate of Clarion State (Pa.) in 1982, also coached the NBA’s New Jersey Nets from 1996 to ‘98, going 72-112 before his ouster early in the 1998-99 season.
But he can absolutely coach. And in the two years since I wrote my last take on whether he should come to UK, he has shown that he can take a team to the elite level, and that he can attract some of the best talent in college basketball and craft a system in which that talent can thrive.
I suppose if you’re UK, the best case scenario is that Calipari can use the power of the program’s prestige to get in on the very best talent every year, and that the program’s in-place safeguards can ward off some of the less-savory assumptions, if not elements. You bank on the fact that the NCAA has not stuck anything on Calipari in his blindingly successful time in Memphis.
But you’d also better understand — those assumptions that follow Calipari, will now attach themselves to your program. Which, while among the most storied in college basketball, is also one of the most penalized in college basketball.
I suppose my bottom line is that I have more of an appreciation for Calipari as a coach than I had two years ago.
The reward — big-time success and exposure — is a given. But the spotlight at Kentucky is very bright. And if anything turns up in the glare, fans in Lexington need only cast a glance up to Bloomington to see the risks involved.
It’s still a risk for UK. But it appears to be a Cal-culated risk that UK may well be ready to take.
IT IS OFFICIAL!!! COACH CAL is now Coach of the Big Blue Nation!
GO CATS!!!
GO BIG BLUE!!!
Take a moment and let me know how you feel about this hire. I know I”m excited as hell. And don’t worry. No comment will be censored. I’d just like to know how the BBN feels about the hire.
If you’ve found your way here, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy looking around.
This is my little piece of the world where I give a bit of opinion on politics, sports and the world in general. Lots of clips from my travels in Asia and other parts of the globe.
I’m enjoying life out here in Afghanistan. I’m not in the military despite the uniform. I work with the Afghan Police as a Logistics mentor. It’s an incredible experience and I very much enjoy it. I actually look forward to going to work each day. Love it. Always something interesting going on in this part of the world.
I travel a bit in Asia and elsewhere. I’ve grown quite fond of Thailand and Cambodia. If you are interested in Southeast Asia, you’ll find plenty here and I hope you enjoy it.
That’s all for now.
Peace, Dave
The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards
On his first full day in Lexington, Billy Gillispie stood grinning in front of thousands of adoring University of Kentucky fans who came to an impromptu pep rally in Memorial Coliseum. He bathed in Big Blue love before going to a news conference introducing him as UK basketball coach.
Despite that outpouring of affection, Gillispie found himself fired two years later because his UK bosses did not believe he understood the nature of his job and its connection with fans.
” … Dedicated and passionate fans deserve a coach that understands that this is not just another coaching job,” Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in reading a statement at another news conference on Friday.
Winning and losing didn’t end Gillispie’s time as coach after two seasons, although his .597 winning percentage was the the worst for a UK coach since Basil Hayden’s one-season 3-13 record in 1926-27.
Ironically, failing to connect with those around him cost Gillispie his job. Ironic because in his time here, Gillispie repeatedly emphasized the importance of building relationships.
“We obviously did not achieve the results we all desired on the floor this season,” Barnhart said of UK’s 22-14 record. “Those results can occur when you are trying to grow a program. We clearly understand that.
“However, it is as important to represent the Kentucky program and the basketball program, more specifically, in a manner which best utilizes our incredible tradition, assets and platform. …
“It is my evaluation that we have not done all we can to manage the entire scope of the program and all that we expect.”
UK President Lee T. Todd echoed that reasoning. He said he spoke to Gillispie during protracted — and ultimately futile — contract negotiations about the public nature of the job.
“It’s kind of like the president’s job,” Todd said. “Nobody really writes out exactly what you have to do. Philosophically, we wanted someone that represented the entire Big Blue Nation. … This is a unique opportunity, a very unique job.”
Gillispie did not answer reporters’ questions. Holding a cell phone to his ear, he walked through raindrops in and out of Wildcat Lodge to tell the players the news and then the Craft Center to clean out his office.
Gillispie and his assistant coaches had reason to be busy. In what suggested a good-riddance sentiment, UK asked them to pack up their belongings and leave their offices by 5 p.m. (about three hours after Gillispie learned his fate in a meeting at Todd’s official residence).
The Southeastern Conference Tournament served as a stage to expose how differently Gillispie and his bosses viewed the UK job.
Gillispie, who saw celebrity as a hindrance, said the UK coach must recruit great players and coach them. Period. He did not embrace the suggestion of also being an ambassador, which showed itself in his first pre-season when he did not speak to the Lexington Rotary Club, something his predecessors did annually dating back to at least the 1950s.
Barnhart, who called fan interest in UK basketball a “cradle-to-grave love,” noted how fans drove to Omaha, Neb., earlier this week to watch the Cats play Creighton in the National Invitation Tournament.
“There is a clear difference in how the rules and responsibilities overseeing the program are viewed,” Barnhart said. “It is a gap that I do not believe can be solved by just winning games. It is a philosophical disparity that I do not believe can be repaired.”
Todd and Barnhart also spoke of their desire for coaches to provide a rewarding experience for the athletes.
The father of leading scorer Jodie Meeks suggested that Gillispie’s demanding style was distracting, if not a hindrance.
“You don’t want to throw gasoline on the flames, but, clearly, a lot of things happened behind the scenes that made it difficult for the kids to play basketball and focus on winning,” Orestes Meeks said.
Of his relationship with Gillispie, the elder Meeks cited his son’s UK record 54-point performance at Tennessee on Jan. 13.
“I got calls from every coach he ever had: baseball, basketball, all of them,” Meeks’ father said. “Except his current coach. His current coach never called. That said a lot to me. … “
“When you start placing blame, tell them when the ship misses the harbor, do they blame the harbor?” Orestes Meeks. “I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault but his own.”
Originally, Gillispie and UK had a whirlwind romance consummated with a hiring in the first 24 hours. Without mentioning those details, Barnhart acknowledged his surprise at the unhappy ending.
“This is not a place I thought we would be at this point, or one that I would want to be,” the UK athletics director said. “However, after long and deliberate discussions, President Todd and I have decided we must charter a new direction for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program. Unfortunately there are times when a situation and the people involved do not create the right chemistry or right fit. It is our belief that is where we are and where we find ourselves with Kentucky basketball today.”
Barnhart said he and Todd have talked for a month about “dramatic differences” in how the administrators and the coach view the job of coach. Gillispie’s comments at the SEC Tournament about the job’s public component not being in the “job description” seemingly sealed his fate.
After denying any regrets in the hire, Barnhart said, “He’s a good basketball coach. Sometimes it’s not the right fit.”
Say what you want about the rabid nature of the Wildcats’ basketball fans, but after all these years, that’s really all they want. And is it so much to ask?
They want a slick, sharp coach on the bench. They want him to unleash a team such as the Cardinals upon the rest of college basketball like Huns attacking the Great Wall. They want to break the scoreboard, demoralize the opposition and serve notice upon the field.
Most of all, they want possibilities.
Frankly, they want to be Louisville.
And if you know a Kentucky basketball fan, you know how painful that must be to admit.
Tell me. Short of a scandal or three, has there ever been a worse day to be a Kentucky fan? First of all, Gillispie was fired in disgrace, which either came much too early (the prevailing national opinion) or much too late (the overwhelming viewpoint of the Wildcat faithful). Then, before you can dribble a ball the length of a court, their designated next-guy, Billy Donovan, flatly turned them down … again. Evidently, having two years to reconsider didn’t change a thing for Donovan.
Then, after all that, they had to withstand this:
Louisville, the new team of Kentucky’s old coach, looks a lot like a champion-in-waiting.
The Cardinals were darned near perfect against Arizona on Friday. They ran, they shot, they passed, they defended, they rebounded. They drubbed Arizona 103-64, the most points Louisville has scored in an NCAA Tournament game. If it hadn’t been for a late burst of mercy, the 39-point margin might have been 60.
For one night, at least, the Cardinals had the look of greatness. They are so deep, so skilled. The players come at an opponent all at once, and all can dribble, and all can shoot. They dunk, and it is like hearing an airplane break the sound barrier. It is difficult to tell guards from forwards or subs from starters. Stopping them is like trying to hold back a flood with a sponge.
Want to know how wonderful the Cardinals were? Just ask Pitino, who sounded like Roger Ebert at a foreign film festival.
“Fabulous,” Pitino said.
“Brilliant,” he said.
“Dominating,” he added.
So it went. Pitino, 56, also said “tremendous” and “great” and “terrific” and “beautiful” and “unselfish.” You kept waiting for him to give his team an enthusiastic thumbs-up. For the record, Pitino also suggested that humility was very, very important.
The thing is, who is going to disagree? The Cardinals shot 57 percent from the floor, and 93 percent from the free-throw line, and they outrebounded Arizona, and they had 29 assists to only nine turnovers. It looked as if everyone else was playing one game of basketball, and the Cardinals were playing something better, something more pure.
Did anyone see a flaw? Oh, Pitino apologized for the final dunks of the game, but they were just exclamation points on a paragraph. The message already had been sent.
Who is going to stop Louisville if the Cards play this close to capacity? Pitt? North Carolina? Connecticut?
Anyone?
“It’s going to be hard to beat them if they play like that,” Arizona coach Russ Pennell said. “I think it has to be someone who has the quickness to really put pressure against their fullcourt press. Yet Louisville kind of preys upon people who do that.”
For the opponent, that’s the conundrum. For the Cardinals, it is matching their own excellence.
“We know we’re not going to play like this again,” Pitino said, “because of the types of defenses we’re going to run into now. It’s going to be a totally different type of game. We did a great job getting second shots tonight. Michigan State and Kansas don’t give you those.
“Guys, we all know we’re one game from the Final Four. We’re three games from the national championship. I think this team has stayed grounded. Their egos are in check. I’ll find something to be upset about. We’re not going to fall in love with ourselves because we had a good game. We understand what we’re up against.”
In the old days, back before the Wildcats were in a snit — you spell it with an “N” and an “I” and a “T” — coaches at Kentucky used to talk like that. They, too, played like a regal team about to storm the castle. They, too, looked like the team to beat.
As for that brunet in the fifth row cheering on the Cardinals?
No, that wasn’t Ashley Judd.
Was it?
If Tubby had left to the Hawks, UK could have hired Pitino and all would have been right in the Big Blue Nation. Instead, Tubby waits until he’s decimated the team to leave. Mitch screws up and makes a bad hire and Lee Todd steps in and fires him.
One could blame CM Newton for making the wrong hire. He hired the wrong assistant. Instead of hiring Billy D back in 97, he hired the guy who would be the cause of the storm now crashing through the Big Blue Nation.
Oh, and by the way, UL is on the way to the Final Four and probably a Championship. lol
It could be worse. The moon could crash into the sun tonight. haha
This all sounds like a really bad Univision Soap Opera from Mexico.
With the loss to Notre Dame in the NIT, Billy G is gone. So say the talking heads. It’s all over the message boards. I think UK is making a mistake.
I think given the time and space to grow into the job, Billy G would have made a fine coach at UK. Let’s face it. UK has no Roy Williams waiting in the wings. That may never come to pass now. In years to come, UK will regret this day. Billy Gillispie is going to go somewhere and take some team to the Final Four. He’s going to win some Championships. And he’s going to do it with a team of players that he recruited.
UK and it’s fans are going to look on ruefully and be left with thoughts of what might have been. We may be looking on happily. Having recently watched our Team win a Championship with Calipari or some other coach. If the UKAA makes the right hire post-Gillispie. Or we make look on wistfully. Wishing that we and the UKAA hadn’t made the mistake of a precipitous decision to fire a coach who just needed a bit of time to turn it all around.
I’m a bit saddened by all of this. Two years ago, I was excited. It was the end of the Tubby era. I thought we would enter a Golden Age with the gunslinging, Dr. Pepper drinking man from Texas. I had a rug made in Herat, Afghanistan and mailed it back as a welcome gift to Billy Gillispie. I wonder what will become of that rug. Will Gillispie take it with him or leave it for the next coach. It won’t be something that he will look on with fond memories if he takes it with him. For all I know, it winds up in the garbage. Hopefully, he’ll pass it on to the next coach if he doesn’t want to keep it himself.
Both sides have made mistakes. Both sides need to step back and re-evaluate before they move on. Billy G needs to sit down and realize that UK is not just any other job. Mitch and Pres. Todd need to realize that they have a coach who can win and who needs the time to make the transition from the small pond to the Big Blue Ocean. The fans need to make this same realization. G needs to learn how to manage this program and be it’s caretaker and not only it’s coach. Patience is called for here.
If not, I think we are making a mistake of epic proportions. I’m no one to whom anyone will listen. No one to whom anyone should necessarily listen. These things may have already been discussed by one side or the other and dismissed for all I know.
Something just doesn’t feel right, though. And the truth doesn’t seem to be out there. Those outside the circle may never know the truth. Certain people have an invested interest in keeping the truth away from the general public. Such is always the case. Some folks are saying that they are only telling “10% if the story.” Perhaps, there is a lot more out there concerning Gillispie that we don’t know. If it’s in the interest of the UKAA for it to come out, it will be made plain. If not, we will never find out. Perhaps, that’s simply damage control.
Lots of the things that people are complaining about seem to be small to me. If Gillispie were winning already, he’d be forgiven most of this. But since it’s taking longer to win, he’s been hit hard. I don’t think Gillispie realized how big of a jump he made and how fast he was expected to produce.
It’s probably all moot now.
It seems as if the regretful decision has been made. We’ll see.
I know this much. If Mitch doesn’t hit a GRAND SLAM Coaching Hire this time around. He’s next! If not, Lee Todd should be.
The next phase of UK Basketball, begins Friday. Will it be the beginning of a new Coaching Era or an extension of the ongoing era. I’m hoping that G stays on and leads UK to many victories. I’ve never liked the media anyway.
That’s the word I’m hearing from some pretty solid sources.
Actually, I was hearing that Gillispie will not be fired. If G leaves, it’s going to be more of a split due to irreconcilable differences. A mutual decision to part ways. I’m sure there will be a buy out involved.
UK is jumping into the abyss.
I’ve also been told the following:
The player mutiny is nonsense rumor mill tripe. Certainly, there are a couple of players who dislike Gillispie. Meeks and Patterson are NOT those couple of players. Meeks and Patterson are not considering the jump to the League because of Coach G. They support G and are declaring or not declaring based upon their draft status. They will decide based upon real world criteria and not the fantasies of internet rumor mongers and the media. The players who won’t be coming back are guys who shouldn’t be coming back. The Carruth wannabees. Think AJ and Deandre. Team Cancers. From what I’ve been told AJ doesn’t see the purpose or value of an education. He hasn’t lived in his dorm for most of the season. Krebs has been all by his lonesome. Liggins is another problem child. Think that Vegas trip was his only refusal to go in a game. Think again. He’s supposedly done it throughout SEC play as well. Deandre is playing the game right now. The only way that he’ll be back is if he continues his change of attitude. If he doesn’t convince G [or the next coach], he’ll not be returning. Supposedly, he’s been a real challenge this season and I have a hard time understanding why G has put up with it. Don’t be surprised if both AJ and Deandre are sitting on some other bench next year.
Folks who are concerned about the contract and why BCG hasn’t signed it. Some think it’s the clause that sets down the criteria for BCG to be fired. Some think it has to do with charitable contributions and foundations that is the sticking point. Others are saying that it has to do with a “personal life” clause. I’m hearing that such is not the case. Word on the wind is that it’s the same clause that kept Billy D away. Apparently, Mitch wants final say on recruiting offers. He wants final word or veto power concerning recruits. BCG [and most other Coaches who are worth a damn] will not agree to this. Coaches should have final say in recruiting. As long as the guy meets NCAA guidelines, BCG and almost any other coach should have the final say in recruiting. Not the AD. This isn’t the NBA and the AD is not the General Manager. Apparently, Mitch thinks that everyone is as inept a recruiter as TLT. There seems to be more than this but that’s all I got.
Last thing, the media is brewing this storm because of their personal distaste for BCG. My opinion on that is screw the media. Not everyone needs to be at their beck and call and on bended knee. The media does ask stupid questions that are a waste of time. And the media picks it’s heros and it’s villains based upon who kisses up to them. Sycophants like Coach K get all the good press. Any coach who doesn’t kiss their collective asses gets bad press. Wooden was a God. Despite his teams being bought and paid for by a booster. USC gets a free pass in Football. UNLV and UK get burned because Rupp and the towel biter didn’t play their game. Apparently, Matt Jones has a hard on for BCG because Matty was not treated with kid gloves by BCG at an early press conference. If so, Matt has a pretty large ego. He’s a freakin’ blogger. He’s not a real media figure. He’s lucky he gets a media pass. That’s funny, though. Matt Jones was the biggest Tubby Homer on the planet. Almost as big a homer as the guy who runs A Sea of Blue.
On the recruiting front. If BCG is fired, UK better hit a GRAND SLAM on the coaching hire or Daniel Orton is gone. Larry Orton was being polite when he stated that Daniel Orton would reconsider his options if BCG was fired. I’m told that there is no chance that Daniel comes to UK if BCG is not the coach. ”Zero. Actually, less than zero.” Is what I’m told.
There is also the tale being told that the UKAA canvassed the players. Asking if they’d return if BCG was fired. I guess they are weighing their options. Fire Billy and these guys leave/stay. Don’t fire Billy and these guys leave/stay. Jockeying for leverage in contract negotiations? Trying to gauge how hard the program will be hit with a BCG firing. UKAA has to know that they will hurt the program by firing BCG this year. Allowing the pressure to build, though, allows them to have maximum leverage in contract negotiations. Playing hardball, I reckon. Mitch not making a statement of support allows the pressure to build. He apparently thinks this will aid him in the negotiations after the season and will allow them to get the concessions they desire. Will Gillispie give that much control over recruiting to the AD. I don’t think any coach would do that. I think Billy G will allow some contract concessions such as making the hand shake circuit and being nicer to the media. But ceding recruiting decisions to the AD, I don’t think it will happen. BCG and any coach that UK will want will walk away from that deal.
The last thing that I’ve heard is that it’s all over. The “that’s not in my job description” statement was the straw that broke Billy’s back. Billy has supposedly been told that he will not be returning next season. The players are said to know as well. But they supposedly “demanded” that he be allowed to coach them through the NIT. The word is that there is an anointed individual in the wings and he’s still in the Tournament now. Calipari? Pitino? Wright? Dixon? I don’t know.
So that’s the latest that I’ve heard. Could all of that be true? If it is, this program is a mess. Perhaps, it’s time to part ways with Mitch unless he has some magic up his sleeve that puts UK in the Final Four in 2010 or 2011. This whole mess is inexcusable. From the TLT departure catching him off guard to the Billy D fiasco to this mess with Billy G. Does Barnhart have a clue? I’m beginning to think that he does not.
Just things I’ve heard around the water cooler. I’m no one to whom anyone should pay any heed. After Kentucky plays the last game of the season, somethings going to happen. I don’t even think G and Mitch knows for certain what that might be. No one else knows for sure either. That’s simply my opinion.
[On ancient Athens]: In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. –Edward Gibbon
“Government is good at only one thing. It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, ‘See if it weren’t for the government, you couldn’t walk.’” – Harry Browne
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Cornelius Tacitus (55-117 A.D.)
“Written laws are like spiders’ webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful easily break through them.” – The Scythian Philosopher, Anacharsis (6th century BC)
“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” — Otto von Bismarck, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (1815-1898)
“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation” -Thomas Bracket Reed
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams (1814)
If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all. – Jacob Hornberger (1995)
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. – George Washington
No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. – Mark Twain (1866)
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. – Robert Heinlein
A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. – Thomas Jefferson (1801)
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. – Thomas Jefferson
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. – H.L. Mencken
The power to tax is the power to destroy. – John Marshall
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. – C. S. Lewis
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. – Edward R. Murrow
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. – Herbert Hoover
They’re out there. Thousands of folks running around. Rumor mongers galore.
I’ve heard that Gillispie is out as soon as he loses the last game of the year. Because everyone or most everyone is convinced that he will lose. Probably to Creighton.
Miller, Meeks and Patterson will transfer or go to the NBA if Gillispie returns. Liggins is gone. Mike Porter is going to graduate early and leave no matter what happens because of family issues. His wife is about to have their baby and Mike needs to get a job and support his family.
Calipari is already on board
Pitino is in the wings waiting. But he might be on his way to Arizona as well.
Donovan has changed his mind [again] and wants to create his own Camelot.
90% of the Big Blue Nation is supposed to want Billy G gone at year end.
A Big time Booster who owns a bank or two is financing the buyout of Billy and the hiring of Calipari. Calipari supposedly wanted to come last time but was blocked by his contract and boosters at Memphis. This time. Nothing stands in his way.
I have no idea what is going to happen. G is still recruiting as if he is staying. The JUCO kid, Konner, just signed and he’s supposed to be the real deal. Instant Impact. As opposed to flighty JUCOs Galloway and Harrelson.
There are so many rumors floating out there that I can’t keep up with them. Bloggers are going crazy. Sportswriters are swearing that he’s gone. Bromley, Bozich, Seth Davis have all come out stating that G is as good as gone. Citing “sources close to the program” or “sources within the program.”
And it’s not that Billy G is losing at a clip that makes Tubby look like a winner in his last two years. It’s that Billy G doesn’t seem to understand the role of a Kentucky Coach. He seems to think that he can coach and play his X’s and O’s and it ends there. He doesn’t seem to understand that he’s expected to BE the program. He’s supposed to kiss babies and shake hands and represent the program in the news. He’s got to glad hand the boosters and give autographs.
Then there are the rumors that he’s all over the parties on campus doing his best Bruce Pearl impression. These rumors are completely unbelievable. In this age of instant celebrity and sleuthing/outting via Youtube and webcams and cellphone cams and video recorders, there would be a record of any shenanigans. Thus far, NADA. Not a single video or picture of a drunken Billy pawing on College Frosh at Sorority or Fraternity parties. Not a single pic of a sloshed Billy G. Not one.
But that doesn’t stop morons from spreading the rumors or the gullible masses from believing every and anything that they hear concerning these rumors. It seems that some people live to tell. And the rowdier the rumor, it seems the more people are willing to believe it.
Come Monday, we’ll see.
If Billy goes up to Omaha and his boys lose, next week is judgement week. The dirty truth comes out.
Will he resign?
Will deep pocketed Boosters buy him out and bring in a big name like Calipari?
Is Pitino the “once and future” coach of the Cats?
Will Donovan pull a Roy Williams and come the second time he’s asked?
I have no idea. We’ll know soon enough.
My favorite rumor is this gem from you tube:
DUI got caught drinking with ramel bradley while he was a senior last year… tisk tisk silly redneck i guess thats what you’d expect from a school with a hick tradition like kentsucky.
This is nothing new. The so-called mainstream media has simply followed the sensationalist example of their little sister media–The National Enquirer. This is our national discourse.
We are a nation of dummies being led by the nose down the slippery slope to national madness.
Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantanamo Plans
(New York Times, March 16, 2009, Pg. 1)
European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as “the worst of the worst,” according to diplomats and other officials. The concerns, and a deep suspicion of whether the American intelligence community will share full information on the prisoners, are likely to complicate the resettlement effort, which is critical to President Barack Obama’s fulfilling his pledge to close Guantanamo within a year of his taking office.
EU Could Aid U.S. by Taking 60 Detainees
(Financial Times, March 16, 2009)
Up to 60 Guantanamo Bay detainees could be taken in by European Union countries, according to the bloc’s senior justice official. Jacques Barrot, the vice-president of the EU, said Europe’s response to any U.S. request that it take former detainees would be a “test issue” ahead of a trip he is making to Washington this week. “We are open to co-operation to help close Guantanamo as long, of course, as the methods used there are not replicated in other places,” he said, adding that Washington would need to give the EU complete information on the background of the detainees sent to Europe.
U.S. Challenged on Sealing of Detainee Files
(Washington Post, March 16, 2009, Pg. 15)
The Justice Department has filed “unclassified” records in federal court outlining the government’s cases against more than 100 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, but the records are not being made public. The move has triggered a legal skirmish with detainees’ attorneys, who say the excessive secrecy greatly complicates their work, especially in light of looming hearings. Three news organizations have also joined the fight, saying the government is keeping valuable information from the public. The government says it wants to keep the records from public view for now as a national security precaution after it discovered classified information in the documents.
Afghan War Hits Peak of Disfavor: In Poll, More Call Action ‘Mistake’ (USA Today, March 17, 2009, Pg. 1) American support for the war in Afghanistan has ebbed to a new low, as attacks on U.S. troops and their allies have hit record levels and commanders are pleading for reinforcements, a USA Today/Gallup Poll shows. In the poll taken Saturday and Sunday, 42 percent of respondents said the U.S. made “a mistake” in sending military forces to Afghanistan, up from 30 percent in February. That is the highest mark since the poll first asked the question in November 2001, when the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban government that sheltered al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks.
Kentucky takes out Ole Miss in the first round. The team played energetically and seemed to be running on all cylinders. Darius Miller makes a statement and shows his potential for good things in the 2010 season. Meeks gets his 25. Patterson gets his after announcing that he’ll be back in 2010.
I’ll take it.
On Patterson, if he still is staying come the NBA Draft…I’ll believe it. The kid has to take into account his draft status and such before making a definitive statement. But it sounds like he has no problem with the coaching staff.
This has been a strange year at UK Basketball. Hope Pat and Jodie stick around and make next year phenomenal. Next year is a pivotal year in the Billy Saga. Let’s hope the tournaments of 2009 are harbingers of good things to come.
Six days off could end up refreshing the 20th-ranked Tigers, who begin their push for their first SEC tournament title in 19 seasons with a Friday rematch with the Wildcats in the quarterfinals.
The Tigers (25-6) have been one of college basketball’s surprise teams under first-year coach Trent Johnson, riding a 13-game win streak in conference play to their first regular-season league title since 2005-06. LSU clinched the championship with a 73-70 victory at Kentucky on Feb. 28, rallying from 12 down before hanging on for the win.
LSU played like a team that was mentally and physically tired after that game, falling 75-67 at home to Vanderbilt on March 4 and 69-53 at Auburn on Saturday.
The Tigers shot a season-low 32.1 percent against Auburn and scored their fewest points since a 47-45 loss to Tennessee last season.
“Their focus was not lacking, but there were some guys who were tired and banged up and all those kinds of things,” Johnson said. “Days off at this time of the year would benefit any team. … I’ve been in situations where you had a bunch of guys with a day off, and we came out at struggled.
…and they lost.
Question is will that be Billy Gillispies last game in the SEC? Will UK slide into the backdoor of the NCAAs or are they NIT bound? If they do go to the NIT, what happens then?
I’m not very excited about an NIT bid. If I was home, I’d watch anyway. Here, in Afghanistan, Ii won’t get the chance to watch. AFN pretty much ignores the NIT in favor of the NCAA. Which is the way it should be with the programming/air time as tight as it is.
Obama Issues Reassurances On Guantanamo Prisoners
[Kansas City Star, March 12, 2009]
Obama Issues Reassurances On Guantanamo Prisoners [Kansas City Star, March 12, 2009] Barack Obama said that he would never put communities like Leavenworth at risk in deciding where to relocate prisoners once Guantanamo is shut down. Fort Leavenworth is one of several military prisons being talked about as a replacement for the Guantanamo detention center.
If President Obama is not going to put the talibs and al Qaeda prisoners of war in Federal Prisons, where will he put them? Are they going to become a part of the stimulus package? Will he build a new maximum security prison in South Dakota somewhere? If he is still going to hold them and process them at his leisure, what is the difference between his policy and the Bush policy. The name and location of the facility in which they will be held?
This is mere eyewash. It’s a huge lie and cover up. Obama is turning out to be nothing more than Clinton II. I thought the Dems voted against a Clinton in their primaries.
Guess they’re like FPOTUS Bush in that they “can’t get fooled again.” Only they did. As did the other voters who ushered him into office on his campaign pledge of “Hope and Change.” Camelot II is turning out to sound a whole lot like Hope II. The man from Hope [Arkansas]. And Change. From Clinton to Clinton Lite.
Taliban Lieutenant Is Former Detainee
[Washington Times, March 11, 2009, Pg. 2]
U.S. officials said the Taliban’s new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan is a former Guantanamo detainee. Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul was among 13 prisoners released to the Afghan government in 2007.
Guantanamo could be the future downfall of President Obama. He has a long think ahead of him concerning what to do with all of the prisoners in Guantanamo. If this guy was released, imagine the monsters who’ve NOT been released.
But I’m certain that they are all nice guys who are completely innocent. Right…
On another note of Obama brilliance:
Taliban Ridicules Talks
[FNC, March 10, 2009]
President Obama’s suggestion that he would be opened to negotiating with moderate Taliban elements in Afghanistan is being ridiculed by the Taliban. A spokesman for the group said the idea was illogical because there are no moderate Taliban.
They’re marking it alright. Marking it right off the calender. It means nothing to these women. And even less to the men who force them to wear these disgusting bits of cloth.
My opinion. These things should be outlawed INTERNATIONALLY. The hijab. The Burqa. The Chadori. The Veil. They should all be outlawed.
This is the Minaret of Jam. It’s about a 4 hour drive northeast of Herat on the road to Chist-e Sherif. The tower has the Sura of Miriam inscribed on mud brick mosaic tiles on it’s outer surface. The sura of Miriam is the story of the mother of Jesus as told in the Qur’an. Very little is known for certain about the origins of the tower. Only that it is an ancient relic dating to sometime around the Ghurid Dynasty of Afghanistan’s history.
he Minaret of Jam is a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in western Afghanistan. It is located in the Shahrak District, Ghor Province, by the Hari River. The 65-metre highminaret, surrounded by mountains that reach up to 2400m, is built entirely of baked-bricks. It is famous for its intricate brick, stucco and glazed tile decoration, which consists of alternating bands of kufic and naskhicalligraphy, geometric patterns, and verses from the Qur’an (the surat Maryam, relating to Mary, the mother of Jesus). For centuries, the Minaret was forgotten by the outside world until rediscovered in 1886 by Sir Thomas Holdich, who was working for the Afghan Boundary Commission. It did not come to world attention, however, until 1957 through the work of the French archaeologists André Maricq and Wiet. Herberg conducted limited surveys around the site in the 1970s, before the Soviet invasion of 1979 once again cut off outside access. The archaeological site of Jam was successfully nominated as Afghanistan’s first World Heritage site in 2002. It was also inscribed in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, due to the precarious state of preservation of the minaret, and results of looting at the site.
The photos below were taken by an Afghan friend and colleague a few years ago. He actually took them with a cell phone camera. Great photos for a cell cam. At the time, he was working with the Province Governor as a liaison for NGOs. He and a few friends climbed in a 4WD and took the 8 hour trek over some nasty terrain to visit the Minaret. They came south and west from the city of Chagcharan which is the capital district of Ghor Province. Ghor Province is a part of Herat Region which is where I am working at the moment.
It would be amazing if I were able to visit the Minaret of Jam myself and get out to Chist-e Sherif which is a few hours drive from the area where the Minaret was built. Alas, it is a treacherous drive and if the terrain doesn’t get you, the taleban or bandits might give it a go. Perhaps, I will get my chance at some future time. As for now, it is not to be…
Minaret Jami
I just returned from Ghor where I picked up this carpet depicting the Minaret. (21 October 2009)
We’ve all been wondering what the problem has been with this years edition of Team Kentucky–”the undecipherables.” Perhaps, the problem is the Star. If Jodie will sabotage a game like this, maybe he’s been doing it all along. It’s no secret that this team has a dearth of scorers. So when your team’s Star tells the opponent that he has been given a REDLIGHT on scoring/shooting. That allows the opponent all the room it need to crash down on the only other scoring option left. That would be Patrick Patterson. And Patterson was getting hammered in this game. Doubleteams left and right.
I don’t know about you. But if I were Patrick Patterson and I found out that my team mate gave away key information like that, I’d have a problem.
That leaves the question: Why would Jodie do such a thing?
Was it frustration? Vindictiveness against Coach G? Arrogance? Awkward Strategy? Was it subterfuge?
Maybe he didn’t say it or maybe Jerry Tipton is simply trying to brew more controversy within the fan base.
The more likely possibility:
Jodie was trash talking with Shipman and the Gators to try to get open. The Gators believe him and crash down on Patterson leaving Jodie and the guys open.
Whatever it was. It didn’t work. Jodie didn’t get open a whole lot more.
UK lost. The Gators won.
And UK is NIT bound barring a miracle run to the SEC Championship down in Tampa.
So says Seth Davis at the half time show of the UCONN/PITT Game.
Either Seth is mad on crack or Billy G has some explainin’ to do. But that would explain the inconsistencies of the past season. Why Gs head and heart seem to be in and out of the game this year. Maybe he doesn’t like the fishbowl. Can’t handle the pressure.
If so. If he did seek that employment opportunity, I hope he leaves after this season. Simply resigns and moves on. But I hope he mans up and does so in time for UK to hire someone with time left to recruit and keep those 5 Star recruits that are lined up for UK already.
Maybe he can simply switch places with Travis Ford. Perhaps, Kentucky needs a favored son to lead it back to the mountain top.
Who knows. Perhaps G isn’t in the right place. Whatever happens, I hope he either signs that contract and makes Kentucky home or he makes up his mind to depart.
‘But UK fans, contrary to national reputation, don’t demand perfection. How else could one of their most beloved teams of the past two decades be one that was 14-14? What they do demand, however, is that the team on the court reflect this state’s longstanding passion for the game.’
UK will be tons better when our coaches are no longer working for this years class THIS year or plucking them up from the JUCO ranks. If we give Gillispie time, he may drive us mad in the meantime, but he’ll get the recruiting in order. If we don’t, we’ll have to watch as another coach comes in and plays catch up for two or three more years. I don’t know if G is the right man for the job. I don’t know if he will turn it all around. I don’t know if Patterson and Meeks will stay or not. I know this. All of the guys who didn’t want to work in HS aren’t going to miraculously develop a work ethic just because they are at UK. These tall guys who were borderline talent in HS become almost borderline talent in HS. The real diamonds in the rough that I’ve seen over the years have been guards like Fitch. Most at any rate. He was short but tough. He got overlooked. Tubby got lucky. Erik Daniels was a late developer. So Tubby got lucky there as well. Eirk Daniels was a guard in HS and shot 3 or 4 inches taler late from what I read. Hayes was a short PF who was over looked because of his stature. These are the guys that Tubby was pulling. You can’t build your program off of those guys. Not if you want a Championship anytime soon. Stevenson is a tall, skinny lazy kid who wants it all to come easy. Your typical Tubby recruit. At UK, it ain’t always gonna come easy and there’s tons of pressure. Same with most of the late spring recruits and the guys that no true title contenders truly recruited. Guys like Jared Carter, “Woo” Orbzut, Sheray Thomas and Bobby Perry. Jared Carter should have been showed the light and sent to Georgetown after his Frosh year. UK isn’t the school of welfare basketball schollies. That bench needs to be cleared and Stevenson is one of the guys that needs to be cleared off of it. Instead, he and guys like Porter are starting at UK. And people wonder why they got beat by UGa. Hell, look down the bench. Patterson, Meeks, Miller Then you got a bunch of sometimey little Nancyboys who can’t make up their mind if they want to be winners or walk ons for the girls team. Stevenson….every time I see the guy, I just shake my head. Dude should be a 8 or 9 minute role player. Yes, it’s spelled role. Not roll. lol Stevenson should be a role player. NOT A STARTER. Until UK Coaches learn the difference between a role player and a starter, UK will be getting G Webbed and VMI’d and run over by Bulldogs at the moment of greatest need of a win. Next year comes Orton and Hood. That will be help. Eventually, if the coach keeps recruiting there will be a team at UK. A basketball team. A complete team. 2 Guards (LG or PG and a 2G) 2 Forwards (SF and PF) 1 F/C These gentlemen will know without question their roles on the team. To start and kick ass. Then there will be a second group comprised of players who are up and coming starters and role players. These guys will know their roles. Right now. Meeks and Patterson know what it is that they are supposed to do. The others…I don’t think they have a clue. Porter won’t shoot. Stevenson won’t rebound. A.J. Stewart won’t stay on the team. Galloway plays like a man possessed in one game then a man dispossessed the next. Harrelson plays like he thinks the post is a hostess ding dong and he’s hungry one game. The next he goes on a diet and throws up three balls and collects empty calories with airballs. UK needs a basketball team. From what I can tell, UK has a coach who is losing it. Two guys who are all World. One potential all worlder. ….and a bunch of fluff and Carruth wannabes. Go Cats. Go somewhere. Collect yourself. Grow a pair. Learn to at least fake the funk. This is Kentucky! It ain’t Vandy or Tennessee or Rutgers. It’s UK where Basketball is King. If you can’t comprehend that!?!?!?! Then don’t come back next year. That goes for everyone from the coach down to the sweat sweepers.
This isn’t a “Fire Gillispie!” rant. It’s a getused to the idea that you are at Kentucky and getting paid a Top Ten Salary. We expect Top Ten Results in exchange for that Top Ten Salary. Coach G. You’re not into history. We are.
7 National Championships. That’s history. The history that we want you to be concerned with mostly though is the history that we expect you to make. We expect you to be the 5th Coach at UK to win a National Championship. UK did not hire you to languish at the rear of the top 50 or to fall on your face. We expect you to get out there. Get the top recruits to come to UK again. We expect results. We don’t want excuses. We don’t want bewildered looks and players being thrown under the bus. We want our basketball to be as fast as those beautiful horses that run in the Derby and at Keeneland. Defense is great. Offense is better. If you produce, you can write your own ticket. If you don’t, we’ll run you out of town faster than those horses make that 2 minute mile.
Boys, it’s past time to get it together. Get it. Make it happen. It’s time for one of those miracle runs.
And everybody said “Amen!”
Oh yeah. Billy G, lots of our fans get upset when you talk to a lady like that. Don’t do it. Treat the sideline reporters and the rest of them like they are humans. So I don’t have to hear the old people complain. They get crotchety and hearing them whine gets on my nerves. Throw us a bone Billy G.
P.S. Billy G, invest in about 40 blue ties of various shades and designs. You aren’t at UTEP or Texas A&M anymore. It’s not orange. It’s not yellow. It’s blue.
I think that the UN should hire consultants from HAMAS, al Qaeda and Hezbollah via Iran and Saudi Arabia to teach the Kurds and Tibetans, etc how to shore up support for their quest to gain a Autonomy/Self rule.
I think terrorism is an excellent marketing strategy as evidenced by the Obama Plan for Gaza. It works. It worked for the the 13 Colonies that became the USA. it worked for Israel against the British Mandate. It is working for the Palestinian Gazans as we speak. (When is the last time that you heard anyone in serious discussion about the West Bank?) It will work forever as most people don’t have the stomach for conflict. It’s a world of wusses especially in this modern age and gloriously more so in the West. We like to style ourselves “enlightened” and “sophisticated.” Oh, oh, my my, aren’t we so.
No one cares about the Kurds now. But! If they start mass murdering innocent civilians in the major metropolitan areas of their oppressor nations (Iran/Iraq/Turkey) and in third party countries such as the US and across Europe, I think that ground support across the globe would swell.
And by all means, they should blame all of their troubles on the West in general and America specifically. As this will certainly enhance their efforts to gain credibility and generate cash flow from the gullible masses of Europe and America.
Thoughts?
I think it’s the wave of the future.
I may have to write a book about this. Encourage it along.
She answered, “Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive. When you meet Beauty, you feel that the hands deep within your inner self are stretched forth to bring her into the domain of your heart. It is the magnificence combined of sorrow and joy; it is the Unseen which you see, and the Vague which you understand, and the Mute which you hear – it is the Holy of Holies that begins in yourself and ends vastly beyond your earthly imagination.”
Then the Nymph of the Jungle approached me and laid her scented hands upon my eyes. And as she withdrew, I found me alone in the valley. When I returned to the city, whose turbulence no longer vexed me, I repeated her words:
“Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive.”
Just a little angry. I’ve spent hour upon hour of my time setting up my program here in Western Afghanistan. Now, it all may fall apart due to bureaucratic stupidity and inter-departmental infighting between the State Department and the DoD/DoA.
Gotta love that.
It’s enough to make one wish for vigilante justice.
In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ‘heads up’ if they will be transiting Iranian airspace. This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination. I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai
The conversation went like this…
Iranian Air Defense Radar: ‘Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.’
Aircraft: ‘This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.’
Air Defense Radar: ‘You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!’
Aircraft: ‘This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!’
Air Defense Radar: Absolute silence
I don’t know the veracity of this story. Nonetheless, it’s a great story.
Obama Favoring Mid-2010 Pullout In Iraq, Aides Say (New York Times, Feb. 25, 2009, Pg. 1) President Obama is nearing a decision that would order American combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010, senior administration officials said, as he seeks to finally end a war that has consumed and polarized the United States for nearly six years. The timetable would give the military three months more to withdraw than the 16-month pullout Obama promised last year on the campaign trail. Officials said Obama was prepared to make that shift because he agreed with the concerns of ground commanders who want more time to cement security gains, strengthen political institutions and make sure Iraq does not become more unstable again. Even with the withdrawal order, Obama plans to leave behind a “residual force” of tens of thousands of troops to continue training Iraqi security forces, hunt down foreign terrorist cells and guard American institutions, as he said he would during last year’s campaign. Obama Expected to Set Date for Iraq Pullout August 2010 is Likely Decision, Three Months Later Than Pledged in Campaign (Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2009, Pg. 4) President Obama is expected to announce as early as Friday that he will remove all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, three months later than promised during his campaign, U.S. officials said. Obama has not made a final decision on the matter, but it could come during a trip to give a speech in North Carolina on Friday, the officials said. The withdrawal timetable of about 19 months was one of several options outlined for Obama by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, including a faster schedule of 16 months and a slower plan of 23 months, one official said. “The risks are different with each option, and there are pros and cons of each one,” he said.
I absolutely agree with this. It’s time to get out. We’ve been wasting too much money on this place. Too much time and money. It’s time to prove to the world what we said. Restore a semi-Democracy and get out. It also proves that many of the most cynical Americans and other critics of the war were wrong. We took out Saddam. Helped to secure and started the rebuilding effort. We are leaving the country to the Iraqis now. It’s up to them to become an upstanding member of the international community. Islam and terrorism can be no excuse. They either stand or fall based upon their actions.
It’s time for America to leave Iraq to the Iraqis…
I bought this in Cairo. Usually, I’m simply not into this kind of art. The whole papyrus thing has never excited me. But this darker piece and the three ladies interested me for some reason. The feminine is always fascinating to a man, I suppose. So I asked the proprietor his price.
He tells me “1500 EGP.”
I laughed. Loudly.
That’s about two or three hundred dollars.
I haggled back and forth with him.
Finally, I told him that I’d give him 50 bucks for it. “AND NOT A PENNY MORE!”
He tried to get me to accept the same painting on a smaller piece of papyrus.
I just laughed at him again. Told him that his store looked pretty empty to me so he’d better take the sale while he had it. Because it was about to walk out his front door.
He acquiesced.
I think he finally saw the wisdom in making a sale rather than attempting to bugger another tourist.
I was wrong.
He carries the piece over to his counter and starts to retrieve packaging for it. A tube and some wrapping paper and a certificate of authenticity. He hands me a receipt on which he’s written 300 EGP as the sale price. I laugh at him.
I say; “Dude, 300 EGP is 60 bucks. We agreed on 50.”
Achmed the Papyrus Proprietor replies; “It’s only 10 dollars more.”
I tell him; “That’s ten bucks more than agreed.”
And I start to walk out of the store.
He tells me that he’ll change the price on the receipt and tells me to pay at the cash register.
I tell him; “NO WAY! Wrap up my purchase and hand it to me and I’ll hand you the 250EGP.”
He and his compatriots stare at me.
I tell them; “Dudes, if you want the money, wrap up the papyrus in one of those pretty little tubes and hand it to me.
You do that. I’ll give you the money. Until then, no one gets a dime out of me.”
Finally they relent. I get my papyrus in the handy dandy little scroll carrying tube and a quaint little certificate of authenticity. They get their money.
After returning to Herat in mid August, I unpacked. Found the papyrus in my bag and threw it into the corner. Wondering why I’d bought it. It was a nice piece. And the three ladies are brilliantly done. And, admittedly, it’s a gorgeous piece. But what was I gonna do with it. Certainly not tack it to my wall in my hooch.
So it sat in the corner. Forgotten. Until…
December 25th.
On the 24th, I arrived in Bangkok for my R&R. I had a lunch date.
But…
She called me and told me to meet later. 5 PM. AND…she’s bringing a friend.
I agreed. I’m excited to meet this girl but now I’m a bit apprehensive. Thinking that maybe she is going to blow me off. Call again and tell me that she can’t meet me.
We agree to meet at Gulliver’s Tavern on Sukhumvit Soi 5.
So I walk down there a bit early. Want to make sure that I’m not late.
She calls to tell me that she’s on the way.
BUT…she and her friend decide to stop at Starbucks. Right at the end of the Soi (street).
I’m not getting a full appreciation of what is going on at this point. Kinda freaked out. Why did they stop down there to get a coffee if we are supposed to have dinner. I guess they were tired and needed a caffeine jump start.
She texts me and asks me if I’m coming or going to wait at Gulliver’s. I walk down to Starbucks. I walk in to Starbucks and immediately recognize both of them. Two diminutive, yet stunning, Thai girls sitting right at the door. Unny–the girl I came to meet and Khanitta, her friend. I’ve seen Khanitta’s pictures on the website ThailandFriends.com. So I know who she is. I had erroneously assumed that she was married or otherwise involved with another fellow.
Now, I’m not scared of women. But I get a bit nervous at times. This is such a time. I have to entertain two gorgeous Thai ladies now. How to do so? Luckily, it turns out to be easy. They were incredibly easy going. They didn’t have to be coaxed into talking or joking around. They weren’t difficult. Maybe, we just had good chemistry. Part of it is that I’m so relaxed in Thailand that I’m easy as well.
After finishing their coffees, we walk up to Gulliver’s. We are seated. We eat. We chat. We get along pretty well. By now, it’s getting on 8 PM. Khanitta suggests that we walk down the street to Soi 4. I’m a bit shocked by this as Soi 4 is part of the “dark side” of Thailand. It’s bar girl [prostitute] central.
We make the trek down Sukhumvit Road to Soi 4 and go to a bar called Big Mango. It’s a little dive in a back alley off of Soi 4. It’s a decent joint with a bit of personality. A smallish room with a square bar in the middle and a pool table in the back near the restrooms. We walk in and Khanitta introduces me to two of her friends–Tony and Stevie. Two Scottish fellows. Mid-40s or so. Stevie is a nice, laid back fellow. Tony seems a bit mad to me. He seems to be attempting to shock everyone with how crass he can be. I’m not the most tactful fellow on the planet. Tony makes me seem quite the diplomat by comparison.
Khanitta, Stevie and I play a bit of pool I get my ASS handed to me by both Khanitta and Stevie. Too nervous to play pool at this point. (Give me a couple drinks and I’d play better. lol) Unny sits at a table behind us watching. I don’t know what to think about her at this point. The usual. Is she interested? What to talk about to keep in interesting? How to act? What’s next. Should I just give it up and call it a friendly night out with a couple of gorgeous ladies and count myself blessed. I can always meet someone later at Q Bar or one of the countless clubs and after hours bars in Bangkok. Never had a problem with meeting women in Bangkok.
But I like her. So I try to be patient.
Tony at one point tells me loudly. “Just remember lad. When you’re back home, we’re fucking them.” I look at him and think to myself. “Yeah, right. There’s not many women that you’re fucking that you haven’t paid.” I chuckle to myself and walk over and miss my shot on the pool table. Stevie, aside from being a generally good guy, is a pretty good pool player. So he takes me out easily.
We spend an hour or so there and then we head out.
It’s time to hit the Q Bar.
At the Q Bar, we lounge in the corner room on a couple of couches that I’ve reserved for the festivities that I’m hoping will be my Birthday. The waiter brings over the two bottles of Jack Daniels that I’ve ordered for the occasion. Khanitta and I pour ourselves a drink with a liberal amount of Jack. Unny sips on a Coke. She doesn’t seem to be too much into drinking. She only weighs about 90 pounds. I understand a reluctance to drink for her part. Can’t take too much to get her fairly well lit. Khanitta drinks like a pro, though. lol
Eventually folks from TF start showing up. Emma (EmoKitty) and Oh (I’m Back). Stevie makes it over. And a few others. It’s a pretty good time. And I’m pretty lit. I can’t remember the names of anyone to whom I was introduced that night. But all nice folks and we all got pretty hammered.
I spend most of my time sitting with Unny. Trying to talk to her. Trying to get to know her. Just looking at her because she is so breathtakingly beautiful. I get up and mingle with others as well. We make toasts and generally act as people do when imbibing heavily. Khanitta has her camera with her and takes tons of pics. Khanitta is a really wild and fun gal. I was happy that Unny brought her along. She’s the life of any party.
Emma brought me a little Strawberry dessert thingie. It seems like someone sang the “Happy Birthday” song to me.
I went outside a couple of times to talk to family. I think I got Terry, Ginger, Jonathan and Momma on the phone that night.
It was a great birthday.
But the best part of it was meeting Unny.
She was pretty quiet and shy. I was starting to doubt that she was interested in me until I went outside and one of the girls asked me if I wanted to go have some real fun or if I was going to stay with my “shadow.”
When I realized who she was talking about, it was all I could do to suppress the smile. I really wanted to get to know Unny. If this gal was noticing this then I probably stand a good chance of getting a second date with her.
So I declined the invitation and hung tight with Unny.
At some point, we all part ways. Q Bar closes at 2 AM. So I’m sure that it was 2 AM. Unny, Khanitta and I rolled down Soi 11 to the Ambassador Hotel’s Spice Club. It’s an after hours bar. Stays open late…until 6 AM on some nights.
Unny was still being a bit of a wallflower. I got a bit too drunk and start telling her that she is “the most beautiful girl” and some other nonsense that probably bored the piss out of her. At one point, I realize that I’m probably making an ass out of myself. So I tell her; “You probably get this kind of talk all the time.” And I vaguely remember apologizing to her for boring her to tears and being lame. haha
Khanitta and I get up on the stage at Spice Club and dance together. We both try to get Unny to come up with us. But she’s either too shy or doesn’t really like to dance. At this point. For some odd reason that I don’t recall, I decide that it would be a good ieda to pick Unny up [and carry her to the dance floor?]. This royally angers her. Little gal. Cute as hell. Probably has had a problem with this before. Doesn’t appreciate the loss of control or being manhandled by an idiot. She’s pissed. She stomps off.
I’m standing there in shock. Thinking to myself. “Dave! You DUMBASS!!! You just royally fucked it all up there…retard!”
So I just kind of stand there. Figure I’ll wait for a minute and then head back to the room.
As I start to get up to walk out of Spice to head back to the room, Khanitta walks back in and tells me to come on. I’m a bit surprised.
Unny had told her to come get me.
My luck has held through. Unny still isn’t completely turned off by my buffoonery. haha
So I walk out and sheepishly join up. I apologize.
Then I notice that I’m drunk AND hungry.
I suggest that we go eat on Sukhumvit Road. One of the street vendors that sells “Isaan food.”
We walk on down to the Suk. Grab a couple of chairs and eat fried rice and whatever else is on the menu. Sit there and chat for a bit.
After eating, we head home.
Next day, I text Unny and ask her to meet me again after she gets off work. To my amazement, she agrees.
We spend all that night talking. Just talking. It’s one of the nicest nights I’ve spent in Bangkok. Talking about anything with the most beautiful girl in the world. I can’t take my eyes off of her.
All the while, I’m thinking to myself. “This girl reminds me of someone.”
After a bit, I remember theEgyptian ladies on the papyrus that I had purchased in Cairo. Unny has the same eyes. Almost the same nose. I decide at that moment that I will send it to her as thanks for making my time in Bangkok so enjoyable.
About ten days later, I’m at the Camp Stone APO with the papyrus in hand. It takes a month to get there.
When Unny receives it, she texts me excitedly to tell me that she loves it. As well as the little post card inscription that I’d sent with it. I’ll let that be between us, though.
What you see in the pictures is the result of this little story.
And with the blessings of the Gods, there will be many more stories to relate about Unny and Dave.
When love beckons to you, follow her,
Though her ways are hard and steep.
And when her wings enfold you yield to her,
Though the sword hidden among her pinions may wound you.
And when she speaks to you believe in her,
Though her voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall she crucify you. Even as she is for your growth so is she for your pruning.
Even as she ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall she descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn she gathers you unto herself.
She threshes you to make you naked.
She sifts you to free you from your husks.
She grinds you to whiteness.
She kneads you until you are pliant;
And then she assigns you to her sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Instructing a class on Logistics. Showing how it’s done. The electricity went off, so I had to give the class from memory with no aids. I managed to finish the class just in time for the electricity to be turned on again.
Guess they finished re-fueling those generators.
I actually enjoy this part of the job. It’s the begging for students and begging for transportation to and fro and the meetings that gets on my nerves. The class room instruction and interaction with the students is always a great time for me.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Jodie Meeks scored 45 points, setting a Bud Walton Arena record and leading short-handed Kentucky to an easy 79-63 win over Arkansas on Saturday.
Meeks scored 22 points in the first half and 23 in the second, capping his spectacular performance with a two-handed dunk with just over a minute to play. He helped the Wildcats (18-7, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) withstand the absence of center Patrick Patterson, who sprained an ankle in Tuesday night’s win over Florida.
The rebuilding Razorbacks (13-10, 1-9) were without suspended point guard Courtney Fortson. Michael Washington and Stefan Welsh scored 14 points each for Arkansas.
Meeks, a junior, went 17-of-24 from the field and 7-of-12 from 3-point range, breaking the 40-point mark for the third time this season.
This painting reminds me of the “olden days.” Simpler times and uncomplicated people. A time in which I would have loved to have lived. Grow your own veggies and fruits. Hunt your families meat. Make your own clothing. Create from scratch or barter for other of life’s necessities or luxuries. Build your own hooch in the jungle or on the river. Live your life in as simple a manner as possible. I don’t know if it was ever really like that, but, it’s a nice fantasy.
We have made life much too complicated in modern times. We have created Governments to free us and provide security, etc. But! Have we freed ourselves? Are we truly secure? Governments are created and forced on people no matter their preference to have or to not have them. In modern times, the people have grown so dependent on governance that we have no semblance of true independence. No idea of true free will. I don’t know if this is good or bad. What have we as choices in America? Democrats with their independence diminishing entitlements programs and Republicans with their parasitic, blood sucking big business. I’m inclined to believe that both are enemies of the people. Both enemies of freedom and free will. We have allowed our independence for which the founding fathers paid a blood price to be whittled away until it is no more than a mere shadow of it’s former self. We have sold our freedom so that we might shuffle up to the trough of Democratic entitlements or 9-5 slave waging for Big Business. It seems to me at times that we are no more better off than the serfs of the Middle Ages. Certainly, we are fatter and we live longer. But, to what end? To what end.
At any rate, this is my favorite painting of those that I purchased in Vietnam. I bought this in Hanoi in the old French Quarter not too far from the Hanoi Hilton. Hanoi was amazing to me. It was another world. I roamed the streets for hours. Hired both a moto-taxi and a Sampan to tool me around during my two day visit. I took a tour of the infamous Hanoi Hilton with it’s pictures of John McCain and John Kerry. It’s a horror show inside as it was a French Colonial and Vietnamese house of horror and torture. The prison was built by the French Colonial Government and used to hold and interrogate political prisoners until the French withdrawal after their defeat at Dien Bien Phu. The Ho Chi Minh government then took control of it and used it to hold American POWs as well as Vietnamese POWs, political dissidents and others who opposed the communist governement. Only a small part of the oringial compound remains. Still, it is an interesting tour. One can wait in line for an hour or so and view the body of old Uncle Ho. No cameras allowed, though. Take a 15 minute ride on a sampan and view his house and Capital building. Venture over to the War Museum with it’s grotesque displays of human tragedy and war propaganda.
Some of the damage that America wrought 30 years ago in Hanoi is still evident. One can still see the bomb craters here and there around town and in the country side. Even so, the Vietnam people have mostly moved on. Leaving the war behind as best they could and a bit better than we did. I’m sure there are many wounds that are yet to heal. But the people whom I met welcomed me and were generous in their hospitality towards me–the visiting American.
Traveling on the Mekong, one sees women much like this lady washing their hair over the river. Rinsing their hair with a bucket or a bowl. Early in the morning. Sometimes through a foggy haze…it’s quite beautiful. A mesmerizing site.
Something wonderfully peaceful about such a scene to me. I can’t quite explain it.
I got her framed at Deck the Walls in Oxmoor Mall in St Matthews Mall in Louisville, Kentucky. My old Kentucky Home. And she hangs in my parents house while I’m over here in Afghanistan.
Wai, like many other gestures e.g. no loud or bang when talking or shutting doors, reflects your overall etiquette that is perceived to link to your family background and stand in the society.
Thais are rooted from the hierarchical order of society; our wai thus has different height levels. To wai beautifully, it takes time to practice (and many details that i do not even remember!).
Not sure if a proper wai is at all significant in today modern lifestyle. But since i was put in the Queen school, hope that I can be little helpful here.
We wai when we want to (1) pray, (2) greet, (3) thank you, (4) apologize, and (5) denote a receiving / wai back.
Wai Monk = Thumbs between eyebrows. Index fingers touch forehead.
Wai Parent = Thumbs touch nose (parents are your breath of life). Index fingers between eyebrows.
Wai Teacher / Master = Thumbs touch lip (teacher words of mouth make you a better person). Index fingers touch nose.
Wai Senior Person than You = Thumbs touch chin. Index fingers touch lip.
Wai Same Age / Younger Person than You / or Wai Back = Thumbs touch between breast. Index fingers touch chin.
Note, bend your head down slightly a bit to cater the reaching of your index fingers.
One of the the best and simplest explanations of the Thai traditional wai that I’ve come across.
With thanks to ConcreteAngel of ThailandFreinds.com
On an early morning not too long ago, a few ladies and gents got together and made the world better for a school in a sleepy little place called Kanchanaburi near Bangkok, Thailand.
Funds were collected. Supplies and Equipment purchased. Then the task of planning and executing the movement from Bangkok to a sleepy village called Kanchanaburi and a little school on an Island.
That narrow little rope/plank bridge looks a little treacherous. lol
The kids all look happy.
These generous folks put on a little show for the kids. Played them a couple of animated movies. Kung Fu Panda and another. Served up a meal or two. Handed out school supplies, uniforms and a few other essentials.
Spent the night in tents out on the school grounds.
And then quietly made their way home…
Leaving behind a hundred or so smiling young faces.
He wasn’t looking for a pretty face
She wasn’t searching for the latest style
He didn’t want someone who walked straight off the tv
She needed someone with an interior smile
She wasn’t looking for a cuddle in the back seat
He wasn’t looking for a five minute thrill
She wasn’t thinking of tomorrow or of next week
This vacancy he meant to permanently fill
I need an everlasting love
I need a friend and a lover divine
An everlasting precious love
Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time
Back in the world of disposable emotion
In the climate of temporary dreams
He wasn’t looking for a notch on his bedpost
A love to push, pull, and burst at the seams
I need an everlasting love
I need a friend and a lover divine
An everlasting precious love
Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time
Is this love worth waiting for?
Something special, something pure
[chorus]
Is this love worth waiting for?
Bitterness will die for sure
Something precious, something pure
Is this love worth waiting for?
Johnny Cash. This is a song from my youth. As a child, my Mother would take us to church almost every day of the week. I remember going to tent revivals of Leroy Jenkins and a host of others. Parts of my family owned Churches. Uncle Michael, who passed away much too young from diabetes, was a gifted guitarist and singer. At least, I remember it that way.
We’d go to different churches all the time. Evangel Tabernacle in it’s various incarnations. Trinity Assemblies of God. Clifton Baptist for summer bible school. Ginger and I attended a choir at Clifton Baptis. Forever, it seems. Although, I think I was more a disruption than a singer.
“I’m a little piece of tin.
Nobody knows what shape I’m in.
Got four wheels and a running board.
I’m a four door, I”m a Ford.
Honk Honk Rattle Rattle Honk Beep Beep!!”
lol
Our Dad drove the Sunday School bus at least one winter or one year that I can remember. We’d sing songs on the bus on the way to Sunday School and Church.
“Oh you can’t get to heaven on roller skates…
Cause you’ll roll right past those pearly gates!”
I remember waking early in the morning because we’d have to get the bus from the Church. Then make the rounds through the neighborhood to pick up the families and kids to take them to Evangel and Sunday School.
But this song. I sometimes ask myself or God or whomever might be listening.
“What have I done to deserve my life?”
I feel so fortunate. Blessed by God or the Gods.
Strange to think that at one time, I’d had “hands laid on me” by Jimmy Swaggert and Billy Graham and no telling who else. I only went up there because Ginger wanted me to go with her. But it was still a neat experience.
The only preacher or evangelist from those days who hasn’t fallen or become a shadow and hypocrite is Billy Graham. Swaggert, Robertson, Bakker, Falwell. They all preach hate or they are have been caught “being human” or “making mistakes” of all sorts. The Bakkers being the most public and egregious.
I remember going to Royal Rangers. A sort of Christian Boy Scouts. Basically the same thing but directly sponsored by Evangelical Churches. “Prepared, Always Ready. Ready to…”
Childhood and Church. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with no Tent Revivals. None of the memories of Grandma Hackney, Aunt Lola reading the bible to each other over the phone. The impromptu Bible Studies that were held at Grandmas house with Aunt Lola, Aunt Hope, Aunt Helen, Momma, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann, Aunt Lillian and many other friends and family at the house on 120 N. Bellaire. They were Pentecostal. They were holy rollers. And it was always electric.
It made life interesting that is for certain.
As kids, we used to spy on them. And we’d sometimes feel the “spirit of the Lord” emanating from the room. They believed so fervently that one could not hope but feel that vibe or that spirit if you watched them. I was fascinated by it myself. The Spirit of the Lord.
If a child was sick and in the same house as this group of praying and Bible reading women. There’d be a laying on of hands as they surrounded the bed or couch on which one lay sick. They’d pray for you. And I swear to this day, it helped heal whatever ailed you.
I remember them speaking in tongues. We’d imitate them as children by saying “heeka ma hockema, seeka ma sockema.” We’d run around the room. Screaming and shouting that as well as the obligatory “Praise Jesus! Halleluba! Amen! Praise the Lord!” Imitating what we thought we saw in our parents and grandparents.
One story has it that my older brother Terry was upset when my mother had hands laid on her by a preacher. They asked people to the front who wanted to “repent” or be prayed for “in the name of God.” My Mother was one who frequently went forward at these times. The preacher starts to pray for Mom and does that whole “slap the forehead” thing that Pentecostal preachers did back then. When he slapped “Sister Millie” on the forehead and yelled; “BE HEALED!” Momma fell to the floor. Of course, she was helped down. They didn’t just let her fall. Upon seeing all of this frightening act, Terry who was all of 4 or 5 years old starts running toward the front yelling; “You get off of my Mommy! You get off of my Mommy!”
I guess I drifted away from the Church about the time that my Mom and Dad were divorced. I was about 16 years old. My Mother re-married and we started the Mormon/LDS expereince. I drifted in and out of the Church for about a decade before I left it altogether. I almost married a Mormon girl that I met in Korea. Sandra. I was baptized and actually started being a good and sober fellow for a bit.
But I fell away from that after a time as well. I, personally, have no bad memories about the Church. None of my experiences were bad. Mostly good. Mostly decent folks with whom I interacted over the years. I’m sure that I met a few bad apples here and there. But not enough to convince me that all of Christianity is evil.
My personal opinion is the organized religion is unhealthy. We, humans, are too prone to the mob mentality. We start assigning spaces in the afterlife for ourselves and those who are not of the same belief all too easily and this leads to too much division in the here and now. Not sure that Jesus intended it that way when he said; “Love the least of me as you would me.” But this is merely my mortal opinion.
I’m still more of the mind to follow Buddhism and let others follow what path they will.
Nevertheless, religion was an amazing, exciting and major part of my childhood. I do not regret the experience of it. I feel fortunate to have had many of those experiences and many of those people in my life.
This test aims to be different. Most tests question your stance on political issues (abortion, gun control, taxes…). This test explains why you think what you think by mapping your personal moral system.
For instance we won’t ask you questions on taxes but try to find what moral views shape your opinion on taxes. Moral views are the major predictors of political opinions.
So…I gave my camera to my boys Shoaib and Wahid. They cruised down to the Minarets and took these photos for me and did a pretty good job of it.
Great photos. I cropped and shaped some of them up a bit. The photos give an excellent idea of the experience of visiting these ancient edifices. I would love to be able to get out there someday and see the Minarets myself. Touch them. Feel their spirit or their vibe so to speak.
Perhaps I’ll get the chance someday.
These links give a bit of background information about the Minarets.
As well as providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is traditionally given from the top of the minaret. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, minarets originally served as watchtowers illuminated by torches (hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning “light”). In more recent times, the main function of the minaret was to provide a vantage point from which the muezzin can call out the adhan, calling the faithful to prayer. In most modern Mosques, the adhan is called not in the minaret, but in the musallah, or prayer hall, via a microphone and speaker system.
In a practical sense, these are also used for natural air conditioning. As the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows and up and out of the shaft, thereby causing a natural ventilation.
Minarets have been described as the “gate from heaven and earth”, and as the Arabic language letter alif (which is a straight vertical line).
Took this pic on the road to Herat…near the Airport. It looks hazy because I took it through a bullet proof window. Thick and dirty glass…so it looks like it’s foggy but, really, it’s a clear day. And warm for this time of year. Last year, we had sub-zero weather and 3 feet of snow. This year. It’s 50 degrees out. Can’t complain about that…
Camels are always fascinating for some reason. Wish I could have snapped a clear shot, though. Could have been a great shot. But this one is ok, I suppose.
Opposite side of the road from the Camels. Took this shot going out today, This is the end of the mountains as you hit the plains rolling west through Herat and into Iran. It’s the same route that Alexander and others used to enter Afghanistan over the millenia.
Big old dog…the Afghans usually cut their ears off and use these bad boys for fighting. Note those huge paws. If he was well fed, he’d have to weigh in at 100-125 lbs. Imagine that coming at you. This dog was at one of the Police Stations off the main road to/from Herat. Kind of a guard dog or early warning system. Hear them barking or growling…look out. May be the Talibs coming at you.
The lovely restroom facilities. This is a relatively nice one. ‘Nuff said…lol
This little boy was with his father. They were contractors building a new room on the roof of the police station. Water pumps. In America, this would seem a foreign concept. But. This is how much of the world gets their water. Many do not have this luxury. It’s a walk to the creek or river or a well.
Old school AC. I had no idea. Had to ask.
Herat has a “season” that is called “the 100 days of wind.” It’s actually closer to 120 days. The wind blows. Hard. Constantly. For 120 or more days. HARD! Did I say hard? The wind can knock you down it blows so hard. It’s actually a blessing. Without the wind, it would be stiflingly hot.
Most of Herat is without electricity. More of Herat is without air conditioning. So…they set up a water jug or container of some sort over the brambles in the windows that allows a slow drop into the wood. The wind blows through the brambles into the windows and is cooled by the water. Cools the air in the buildings. AC!
I’m assuming that this is a Mother and daughter out for an afternoon stroll or heading to market.
This is the famous Minarets of Herat. Centuries old. They are starting to fall because of the traffic on the road that runs between them. Personally, I can’t believe that they laid a road between them. If you get up close, you can still see remnants of the oven baked tiles that once covered the Minarets completely.
I was not able to visit these ancient edifices. Afghan friends used my camera and snapped these photos for me. I’d love to see these myself. Walk up and touch them. It would be quite and experience.
A falcon or hawk lazily swoops in between the Minarets searching for prey. There are 5 remaining towers in the Musalla Complex. The others have fallen. I think there were originally 7. The site was built in the 1400s by Queen Gawharshad–wife of one of the Timurid Shahs. The complex consists of the 5 remaining minarets and several shrines and libraries.
The famous Masjid Jami of Herat. One of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen. It rivals the Muhammand Ali Mosque in Cairo for magnificence. This is the peoples Mosque. It is the place where the city congregates each Friday. Building on the Mosque began in 1200 AD. I’m not certain as to how long it took to complete construction. It has been badly damaged several times. Genghis Khan conquered the city on his way through the region and left the mosque severely damaged.
Bush Hatred and Obama Euphoria Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Consequently, though Bush hatred may weaken as the 43rd president minds his business back home in Texas, and while Obama euphoria may fade as the 44th president is compelled to immerse himself in the daunting ambiguities of power, our universities will continue to educate students to believe that hatred and euphoria reflect political wisdom. Urgent though the problem is, not even the efficient and responsible spending of a $1 trillion stimulus package would begin to address it.
Now that George W. Bush has left the harsh glare of the White House and Barack Obama has settled into the highest office in the land, it might be reasonable to suppose that Bush hatred and Obama euphoria will begin to subside. Unfortunately, there is good reason to doubt that the common sources that have nourished these dangerous political passions will soon lose their potency.
At first glance, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria could not be more different. Hatred of Mr. Bush went well beyond the partisan broadsides typical of democratic politics. For years it disfigured its victims with open, indeed proud, loathing for the very manner in which Mr. Bush walked and talked. It compelled them to denounce the president and his policies as not merely foolish or wrong or contrary to the national interest, but as anathema to everything that made America great.
In contrast, the euphoria surrounding Mr. Obama’s run for president conferred upon the candidate immunity from criticism despite his newness to national politics and lack of executive experience, and regardless of how empty his calls for change. At the same time, it inspired those in its grips, repeatedly bringing them tears of joy throughout the long election season. With Mr. Obama’s victory in November and his inauguration last week, it suffused them with a sense that not only had the promise of America at last been redeemed but that the world could now be transfigured.
In fact, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria — which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed — are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred and those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who do not share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion. Bush hatred and Obama euphoria typically coexist in the same soul. And it is disproportionately members of the intellectual and political class in whose souls they flourish.
To be sure, democratic debate has always been a messy affair in which passion threatens to overwhelm reason. So long as citizens remain free and endowed with a diversity of interests and talents, it will remain so.
In October 1787, amid economic crisis and widespread fears about the new nation’s ability to defend itself, Alexander Hamilton, in the first installment of what was to become the Federalist Papers,surveyed the formidable obstacles to giving the newly crafted Constitution a fair hearing. Some would oppose it, Hamilton observed, out of fear that ratification would diminish their wealth and power. Others would reject it because they hoped to profit from the political disarray that would ensue. The opposition of still others was rooted in “the honest errors of minds led astray by preconceived jealousies and fears.”
Indeed, the best of men, Hamilton acknowledged, were themselves all-too-vulnerable to forming ill-considered political opinions: “So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes, which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions, of the first magnitude to society.”
In surveying the impediments to bringing reason to bear in politics, it was not Hamilton’s aim to encourage despair over democracy’s prospects but to refine political expectations. “This circumstance, if duly attended to,” he counseled, “would furnish a lesson of moderation to those, who are ever so much persuaded of their being in the right, in any controversy.”
As Hamilton would have supposed, the susceptibility of political judgment to corruption by interest and ambition is as operative in our time as it was in his. What has changed is that those who, by virtue of their education and professional training, would have once been the first to grasp Hamilton’s lesson of moderation are today the leading fomenters of immoderation.
Bush hatred and Obama euphoria are particularly toxic because they thrive in and have been promoted by the news media, whose professional responsibility, it has long been thought, is to gather the facts and analyze their significance, and by the academy, whose scholarly training, it is commonly assumed, reflects an aptitude for and dedication to systematic study and impartial inquiry.
From the avalanche of vehement and ignorant attacks on Bush v. Gore and the oft-made and oft-refuted allegation that the Bush administration lied about WMD in Iraq, to the remarkable lack of interest in Mr. Obama’s career in Illinois politics and the determined indifference to his wrongness about the surge, wide swaths of the media and the academy have concentrated on stoking passions rather than appealing to reason.
Some will speculate that the outbreak of hatred and euphoria in our politics is the result of the transformation of left-liberalism into a religion, its promulgation as dogma by our universities, and students’ absorption of their professors’ lesson of immoderation. This is unfair to religion.
At least it’s unfair to those forms of biblical faith that teach that God’s ways are hidden and mysterious, that all human beings are both deserving of respect and inherently flawed, and that it is idolatry to invest things of this world — certainly the goods that can be achieved through politics — with absolute value. Through these teachings, biblical faith encourages skepticism about grand claims to moral and political authority and an appreciation of the limits of one’s knowledge, both of which well serve liberal democracy.
In contrast, by assembling and maintaining faculties that think alike about politics and think alike that the university curriculum must instill correct political opinions, our universities cultivate intellectual conformity and discourage the exercise of reason in public life. It is not that our universities invest the fundamental principles of liberalism with religious meaning — after all the Declaration of Independence identifies a religious root of our freedom and equality. Rather, they infuse a certain progressive interpretation of our freedom and equality with sacred significance, zealously requiring not only outward obedience to its policy dictates but inner persuasion of the heart and mind. This transforms dissenters into apostates or heretics, and leaders into redeemers.
Mr. Berkowitz is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
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Liberals will deny this phenomenon. They pretend tolerance even as they attempt to censor the collective thought of the nation with their political correctness and similar intellectually empty and diseased philosophies.
From the desk of Thomas Landen on Mon, 2009-01-26 11:16
The House of Lords is a venerable British institution, but what does one get if one accepts Muslims in? This:
A member of the Lords intended to invite her colleagues to a private meeting in a conference room in the House of Lords to meet the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, an elected member of the Dutch parliament, to watch his controversial movie Fitna and discuss the movie and Mr. Wilders’ opinions with him.
Barely had the invitation been sent to all the members of the House when Lord Ahmed raised hell. He threatened to mobilize 10,000 Muslims to prevent Mr. Wilders from entering the House and threatened to take the colleague who was organizing the event to court. The result is that the event, which should have taken place next Thursday was cancelled.
A victory for the Muslim community, but a defeat for British democracy where topics to which Muslims object cannot even be debated. That, apparently, is what one gets when one accepts Muslims into the House of Lords.
Lord Ahmed is considered to be a “moderate” Muslim. The Pakistani born Nazir Ahmed became the United Kingdom’s first Muslim life peer in 1998. He is a member of the Labour Party and was appointed to the Lords by Tony Blair. Lord Ahmed took his oath on the Koran. He led one of the first delegations on behalf of the British Government on the Muslim pilgrimage of the Hajj, to Saudi Arabia. In February 2005, Lord Ahmed hosted a book launch in the House of Lords for anti-Zionist author Israel Shamir. In 2007, he responded to the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie by stating that he was appalled, saying that Rushdie had “blood on his hands.”
Lord Ahmed was among the founders of The World Forum, an organization set up “to promote world peace in the aftermath of 9/11 with an effort to build bridges of understanding between The Muslim World and the West by reviving a tradition of Dialogue between people, cultures and civilizations based on tolerance.”
What does “dialogue” mean to those who make discussion about controversial issues impossible? Thank you, Mr. Blair, for bringing “diversity” to the House of Lords.
Only if you adhere to their beliefs are you allowed “free” speech in the Muslim mind and world. The day is coming that Muslims in America will demand this same control over speech in America. Not far off.
And with the Democrats in power, it will be easier for them to do so over the next 4 to 8 years.
It will be a slow and quiet surrender of our freedoms to the oppression of the Islamic thought police.
John Wooden has never acknowledged that he had the best players that money could buy during his 15 year run. Sure he was a fine coach. But without the backroom deals and money exchanges, those future NBA ballers would have been showcasing their talent elsewhere.
Wooden was a case of right time, right place and a damn fine Booster program that paid his players under the table. From Kareem to Walton, they all were well cared for by the Contruction Magnate who was the true father of the UCLA legacy.
…and the NCAA never did a thing about it. Except ignore it.
This week’s question: Which team currently outside the top 25 has the best chance to make a long run in the NCAA tournament?
Greg Antony’s answer:
I’m going with Kentucky. The Wildcats started slow last season, but really came on under Billy Gillispie in the second half of the season despite losing Patrick Patterson late. This season, they’re younger, but I think they’re better defensively. And with Jodie Meeks emerging as one of the best players in the nation, they are explosive offensively. Perry Stevenson anchors the defense, and getting Ramon Harris back in the rotation gives them some experience in the frontcourt. Two things have to happen for the Wildcats to really be dangerous. First, they have to cut down on their turnovers. They can extend their pressure defensively and force teams to try and play in the half court, where their quickness and athleticism can be more of a factor. Second, some of their younger players have to become more consistent because depth always is important in the tournament. This is a team that features two players capable of carrying them offensively. The ‘Cats may be back!
Jason King’s answer:
Kentucky may not be one of the best teams in the country, but the Wildcats have two of the nation’s best players – and maybe its best coach. Well on his way to SEC Coach of the Year honors for the second consecutive season, Billy Gillispie is someone opponents hope to stay away from in March. Along with being one of the best Xs and Os guys in college basketball, Gillispie’s teams always are disciplined. They play hard and they play smart. The favorite to win the SEC title, Kentucky should enter this season’s NCAA tournament high on momentum. The Wildcats may not be able match most of their opponents’ depth, but not many schools have two future first-round NBA picks in their starting lineup. Guard Jodie Meeks, who has eclipsed the 30-point barrier six times, is a national player of the year candidate. Forward Patrick Patterson is one of the most skilled big men in the country, and wing Perry Stevenson is no slouch. Still, the biggest difference-maker for Kentucky wears a suit and tie and stands on the sideline. With Gillispie, the Wildcats always have a chance.
Steve Megargee’s answer:
Conventional wisdom suggests you can’t go far in the NCAA tournament without an elite point guard, but it’s tough to ignore Kentucky’s dynamic duo of power forward Patrick Patterson and shooting guard Jodie Meeks. Kentucky’s 90-72 victory at Tennessee established the Wildcats as the class of the SEC this season, even though they haven’t cracked the national rankings. Since dropping their first two games of the season, against VMI and North Carolina, the Wildcats have lost just twice all season (at home to Miami and at Louisville). Kentucky enters the week with 11 wins in its past 12 games. And the one loss was a down-to-the-wire game on the road against a Louisville team playing as well as anyone in the nation. While the players on this roster have never advanced beyond the second round of the tournament, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie reached the Sweet 16 two years ago in his final season at Texas A&M. Don’t be surprised if he’s back in the regional semifinals this season.
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
A United States Marine was attending some college courses between
assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU .
One day the professor shocked the class when he came in he looked to the ceiling and flatly stated; ‘God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 15 minutes.’ The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, ‘Here I am God. I’m still waiting.’ It got down to the last couple of minutes when the
Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him, knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.
The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other
students were shocked, stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.
The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, ‘What the heck is the matter with you? Why did you do that?’ The Marine calmly replied, ‘God was too busy today protecting American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So, He sent me.’
In honor of the event of the election of Americas 1st Black President.
The Negro Mother
Children, I come back today
To tell you a story of the long dark way
That I had to climb, that I had to know
In order that the race might live and grow.
Look at my face–dark as the night–
Yet shining like the sun with love’s true light.
I am the child they stole from the sand
Three hundred years ago in Africa’s land.
I am the dark girl who crossed the wide sea
Carrying in my body the seed of the free.
I am the woman who worked in the field
Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield.
I am the one who labored as a slave,
Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave–
Children sold away from me, husband sold, too.
No safety, no love, no respect was I due.
Three hundred years in the deepest South:
But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth.
God put a dream like steel in my soul.
Now, through my children, I’m reaching the goal.
Now, through my children, young and free,
I realize the blessings denied to me.
I couldn’t read then. I couldn’t write.
I had nothing, back there in the night.
Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,
But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.
Sometimes, the road was hot with sun,
But I had to keep on till my work was done:
I had to keep on! No stopping for me–
I was the seed of the coming Free.
I nourished the dream that nothing could smother
Deep in my breast–the Negro mother.
I had only hope then, but now through you,
Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:
All you dark children in the world out there,
Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow–
And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my past a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver’s track.
Remember how the strong in struggle and strife
Still bar you the way, and deny you life–
But march ever forward breaking down bars.
Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.
Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers
Impel you forever up the great stairs–
For I will be with you till no white brother
Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother.
This poem first printed in 1931. This edition published in Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America. Edited by J.A. Emanuel & T.L. Gross (Free Press, 1968).
Liberal friends ‘o mine — don’t get your hopes up. I can respect a moment and still not agree with the politics. Don’t worry though. I still love ya.
Cold late night so long ago
When I was not so strong you know
A pretty man came to me
Never seen eyes so blue
I could not run away
It seemed wed seen each other in a dream
It seemed like he knew me
He looked right through me
Come on home, girl he said with a smile
You dont have to love me yet
Lets get high awhile
But try to understand
Try to understand
Try try try to understand
Im a magic man.
Winter nights we sang in tune
Played inside the months of moon
Never think of never
Let this spell last forever
Summer over passed to fall
Tried to realize it all
Mama says shes worried
Growing up in a hurry
Come on home, girl mama cried on the phone
Too soon to lose my baby yet my girl should be at home!
But try to understand, try to understand
Try try try to understand
Hes a magic man, mama
Hes a magic man
Come on home, girl he said with a smile
I cast my spell of love on you a woman from a child!
But try to understand, try to understand
Im a magic man!
“In any legitimate conversation right now about National Player of the Year, Jodie Meeks has to be metioned with the four or five guys we’ve been mentioning all along,” proclaimed ESPN hoops analyst Jimmy Dykes on the broadcast Tuesday night. He repeated the same sentiment via phone Wednesday.
“Jodie Meeks has to be there,” said Dykes. “You don’t base the National Player of the Year on just one game, you base it on the whole body of work. But the kid came in averaging over 24 points a game, the number five scorer in the country.”
Jodie Meeks ripped through Thompson-Boling Arena this week like a snowstorm through the Mongolian Steppes. He scored 54 points on the way to breaking Dan Issels single game scoring record that’s held for 39 years. Absolutely amazing. If that wasn’t enough, he did so while playing solid defense and keeping his team involved and kept UT out of their minds trying to defend him.
Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said he worked with his players for several days trying to come up with a game plan to keep the ball out of Meeks’ hand.
To say it didn’t work is an understatement. Meeks went 10-for-15 from 3-point range (he also set a school record for 3s in a game), made all 14 of his free throws, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out four assists. He scored 26 points by halftime.
He was at 52 points and potentially let the record pass him by late in the game in order to garner one more assist by throwing an alley oop to a wide open Patrick Patterson. He even apologized for taking the one bad shot of the night as the shot clock expired. Running past the bench and Coach Gillispie stating “My bad, my fault.”
After the game, he was humble enough to tell the press that it was all due to the team and that what he really wanted was to get a win at UT. The scoring record was not top on his mind. Victory was.
My kind of guy.
Meeks has singlehandedly put UK back in the National Conversation. If UK is ranked come the next poll, you can thank Jodie Meeks.
Coolest of all was that his father (and Uncle) were on hand to see the spectacular performance. I’ve met both Jodie Meeks and his father. Way back when they were visiting UK. Prior to the commit, if I remember correctly. I met them at the UK Bookstore with my friend Rick (WildCatRick of WCN). You always meet interesting folks if you hang around Rick. The Meeks are good people. So someting like this is doubly awesome. Because it’s happening to genuinely good folks.
Congrats to Jodie and his family. It’s a hell of an achievement. It was a game for the ages. Legendary. Jodie Meeks is now a part of UK lore right alongside Issel, Nash, Dampier, Riley, Kenny and Antoine Walker, Mashburn, Prince, Bowie, Chapman and Wah Wah Jones. He’s in the Book.
And one last thing. Thank You Jodie Meeks. It was a pleasrue to watch you become legend.
Meeks humbly told Issel he didn’t mean to break the record or even realize he was doing so. His only intention, he said, reiterating what he said after the game, was to finally knock off the rival Volunteers in Knoxville.
“It’s an honor to me,” Meeks said Wednesday. “I don’t see myself as being legendary or anything like that.”
Late in the shot clock in Kentucky’s first possession following intermission, Meeks asked for a clear-out at the top of the key, drove on Prince, stumbled a bit, recovered and swished a jumper. Then came a drive past Tyler Smith from the wing. Then a 3 in transition. (Some courtside observers thought Meeks had a foot well inside the 3-point line, so Issel might ask for a review of the videotape.) Then he hit another 3 after a handoff from teammate Ramon Harris.
On my last day in Bangkok, I had some free time. The lovely lady with whom I had happily spent most of my time in Bangkok could not see me due to family obligations and then work. So…I had to entertain myself. I arose early and took the BTS to the Chao Phraya river. Walked to the pier and boarded the river bus to cruise up to Wat (Temple) Pho. I’ve visited this temple on numerous occasions. Usually alone, sometimes accompanied by friends like Becca. It’s one of my favorite places in the City of Angels.
The grand and golden reclining Buddha of Wat Pho. Magnificent. A site to behold. I’ve posted about it before.
These are a few pics that I’ve taken throughout my travels. Thailandfriends.com sponsors a monthly photo competition. These are a few that I considered before submitting my final selection.
It’s a decent site with some cool folks. If you get a chance, stop by and check out the photos in the competition. Usually some decent pics on display. Creative folks who are fairly well traveled.
Then we have John Calipari. Recruited Derick Rose. Check. The NCAA granted him eligibility. Check. Then Calipari played Rose on a team that broke records and made it to the Championship game.
I think the people of the world should use the United Nations to ban Sharia. Use the World Court to place Sharia on the same shelf as Nazism, Apartheid and Slavery. Ban it’s use and label it a crime against humanity.
I do not believe that life is sacred. Merely being born does not make one worthy of life nor does it make one entitled to a good life or an easy life. I believe that it is up to each individual to make their life sacred.
Life is cheap.
