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Showing posts from July, 2005

Take Back the Memorial Update

Taken verbatim from the email update I received, below is the update on activities being launched to Take Back the Memorial. Fifteen Major September 11 Family Organizations Announce Two New Initiatives New York, N.Y., July 27, 2005 - Fifteen September 11 organizations representing the majority of the families of victims lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 today announced the launch of two new initiatives that will help America ‘Take Back the Memorial’ at Ground Zero. “ Campaign America ” is the way that concerned communities across the country can show their support to “Take Back the Memorial.” Concerned citizens are encouraged to download the Campaign America Resolution found on the Take Back the Memorial website and present it to their local city or town councils for consideration. Municipalities which have passed the resolution, will be listed on the Campaign America Honor Roll. The passing of the Campaign America Resolution by communities across America will send a

Listen In!

Media Alert: Our friend Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is making an appearance on Battle Line with Alan Nathan on Radio America tomorrow night (July 27) from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. EDT, discussing world politics. Listen in at this Audio link . This appearance is a regular one. Alan Nathan has "World Debates" panels on his show every Wednesday, featuring experts from various backgrounds who discuss world politics. Gartenstein-Ross is one of his panelists every week in the 5:00-6:00 p.m. slot. One of the other regular 5:00-6:00 p.m. panelists is Buzz Paterson, who was one of the "nuclear football" carriers during the Clinton administration and is the author of Dereliction of Duty .

Condolences

I just ran across this while looking at the SkyNews website in search of the latest news on the hunt for terrorists in London. As happened here after the 9/11 attack, there is now at least one official site where you may post your condolences to the people of Great Britain, the victims and their families online. PS: Check out the polling results on SkyNews' website, in particular the question "What's most important to you? Your: nationality, religion, or ethnic group" -- I don't find the results too surprising but I think some of our Liberal friends will...

Anti-Terror Policing

After the terrorist attacks in London on July 7th, it seems that a majority of Brits were saying "ah well... we were expecting it sooner or later." They were resigned to the expectation that they wouldn't be able to stop such attacks on civilians if the terrorists were determined to hit them. I understand where this attitude comes from in a free society. We're not used to having to defend ourselves in our daily lives against such things. Daveed Gartenstein Ross has written an article for FrontPage Magazine , " Toward Intelligent Anti-Terror Policing ," in which he proposes a new paradigm for anti-terror policing that will maximize our chances of breaking up terrorist attacks while avoiding an undue burden on society. I, for one, would like to see his recommendations implemented in the war against Islamo-fascism. Most Americans would find this intelligent "anti-terror policing" less threatening than the threat of a bomb blowing them up on the way to

Informal Survey

I don't have any survey software in place for this but comments would sure be appreciated! The question is this: would you read a book about one woman's misadventures in life? I'm thinking a title like "Ms. Adventures" with a subtitle of "one woman's search for meaning." Basically, I'm contemplating writing a book about a woman who has not conformed to the stereotypical life: she has no kids, divorced twice, and has a number of misadventures in dating, mating, and life in general. I think it would appeal more to women but am curious if anyone thinks it might be worth a read...

Tolerance for Diverse Opinions?

I may have flunked one of my last assignments in diversity class... maybe I'm just being a Nervous Nellie, but I was awfully honest with my views on this class! To frame this properly, I'm in the last week of a 9-week online Diversity class. We have a "discussion question" (which actually contains a number of questions in a paragraph) to answer right before our final project. This is just a snippet of the number of questions included in this assignment: "What information about diversity in America has helped you better understand or relate to specific minority groups?" For some reason, I feel like sharing my answer to this question. Well, probably because it is my answer to this question that is likely to get me in trouble grade-wise... "I didn't find anything new about relating to other cultures, races, and ethnicities simply based on the class textbook and activities. To be quite honest, I found the focus on oppression and blame scattered through

Cloudy Musings

This may seem an inane little post to anyone who has lived his/her life constantly in the same geography; however, some of you may feel this one as deeply as I do. To me, today's observation was not just curiosity at work, it was a reconnection with my home. Over the past two weeks or so, during my commutes from Louisville to Greenwood, I've been lulled by the landscape. It's nothing to write home about -- flatish land with lots of trees and billboards, a few scattered barns and horses, and some crops in the fields. A long, dull drive. Fortunately, I've found inspiration during these 2-hour drives in the cloudscape that has decorated my journeys home. I suppose it has something to do with the hurricane weather in the Atlantic/Gulf region lately. Whatever it is, the clouds have been simply magnificent! It's been like Mother Nature was in an artistic mood and simply decided to paint clouds in the blue sky. I mean, not just clouds but cloudscapes. These are cloud banks

Get Healthy with the Gitmo Diet!

I just ran across this account of two colleagues (Sharon and Shana) who decided to see what the Gitmo Diet would do for them. From their story: "...After eating what the detainees ate for these past two weeks, we can say definitively that yes, the detainees at Gitmo do eat well. They eat healthfully. The quantities of food they receive are generous. Is it a gourmet diet? No. But it is better than the food served at civilian prisons and the food served to children at public schools..." I really need to start getting healthy again; I just may give that Gitmo Diet a try!

Burn-out Update

Well, it's official. It's not just "Blogger Burn-out," it's plain old-fashioned burn-out. In the words of some crafty ad-writer decades ago, "I've fallen and I can't get up." Too much low-level stress and not enough exercise, I suppose. Any sane person would immediately blame it on the recent job loss, the impending job hunt after my contract work is over, the car that is waiting to be repaired after its encounter with the tractor-trailer on the bridge, the long drives each week working away from home, the lack of some significant other, the constant homework as I play catch-up on a degree, or simply the lack of anything really positive lately. *sigh* Dull and depressing little ConservaChick. Pitiful, ain't I? ;-) I'm familiar with depression as I've fought it most of my adult life. However, I hate recognizing that it's sneaking up on me again. It's almost like the difference between simply being aware that you're lying a

Blogger Burn-out?

I noticed that my blogging has lapsed quite substantially over the past week or so. I'm come to the conclusion that the reason for this is that I'm tired. I'm tired of the same old BS from the Left . It gets discussed ad nauseum when it really is just tripe that deserves to be pitched in a garbage disposal and liquified beyond recognition. The air time this nonsense about Rove is getting is just ridiculous. Brilliant legal minds (some from the MSM no less) have analyzed this and found that there is no substantive proof that any crime was committed by Rove. If a crime was committed, it was by a yet unnamed source. Likely not Rove. And yet, over and over and over again, we are subjected to it on TV, in print, and on the radio. Would our respected Conservative on-air personalities/analysts just dump it off their to-do lists, please? The war -- over and over and over again we are making the logical and sane case that YES, Iraq had connections to Al Qaeda ; YES, the war was w

Two Minutes of Silence Tomorrow (7AM EDT)

I am relieved to have just heard from a dear friend who works in London. Fortunately, he was nowhere near the various sites of the terrorist attacks last Thursday. He had a bit to say about the cowards who killed innocent Londoners but I'd like to share what he observed on the the subway: "On Monday I went into the tube for the first time since the explosions and it was eerie. I noticed something was missing - chatter. People were very silent and very pensive and understandably apprehensive." Evidently, there is a plan for two minutes of silence tomorrow at Noon GMT (7AM EDT). The text of an email that is being circulated throughout the UK about observing the two minutes of silence is below. I will take those two minutes out of my day to share their silence. I hope you all will too. "At 12 o'clock noon this Thursday there's going to be a two minute silence to remember the victims of the bombs which exploded a week earlier, during rush hour last Thursday morni

Interesting Perspective

From FrontPage Magazine : "Al-Qaeda’s first strike in the West in 16 months killed 40 people; Last month, Coalition forces killed more than that many “insurgents” in one day . They also arrested more than 900 terrorists , including Zarqawi’s “most trusted aide” and many other top al-Qaeda operatives, killed more, and even freed one of our own hostages during the two-week-long “Operation Lightning.” (Last week’s “Operation Sword” netted more terrorists yet.)" The thugs who perpetrated the horrendous attacks yesterday on innocent Brits know that, for them, Iraq is an open, bleeding wound that threatens to suck the life out of their jihad. Londoners (and all civilized human beings in the fight for freedom) must know that, no matter what happens to us on our own soil, we are still taking a heavy toll on these lunatics in the Middle East. Let's not lose heart; if we do, the terrorists have won. I feel the spirit of Sir Winston Churchill must still be speaking to all who wo

My Condolences to the People of Great Britain

This morning, my jaw dropped to the floor when I turned on the national news. I am still somewhat shocked as I follow the news of the terrorist attacks in London . My heart goes out to all the people of the UK. My prayers are with the families of the dead and the wounded. Today, the UK has been attacked at its heart on its soil just as we were on Sept. 11, 2001 . If the terrorists think that the UK will fold its hand in the fight for freedom in the Middle East as Spain did after the attacks on Spanish soil, I do believe they've got another thing coming ! It is now more important than ever that we stand together and face down this nightmare called Islamo-fascism. Be assured the United States of America stands with our British friends. History will one day record that the world became a safer place because free nations refused to back down and give in to terrorism. God bless and keep the people of the United Kingdom. Our prayers are with you all.

Searching for Diversity

I should probably be posting about my disagreement with a recent article by Bill Kristol in The Weekly Standard but I'm in no mood right now for that. Instead, my funny bone was tickled a little while ago while browsingthe traffic stats for my blog on Site Meter . A lot of traffic hitting my blog over the past month is coming from folks searching on "define and characterize minority groups." I had to chuckle and shake my head in disbelief. As those of you who stop by regularly know, I'm no fan of Diversity class. I'm simply trying to finish my BS in Computer Science online and certainly don't need any indoctrination into oxymoronic Lib-speak. I get enough of that out on the street during Protest Warrior missions! The posts I've done related to those types of topics are not exactly what the instructors at University of Phoenix or Western International University will be hoping to see in an essay. Interestingly enough, I've been contacted via email a f

Restoring my Faith

I did it. I did that thing that everyone tells you is a total rip-off. I ordered magazine subscriptions from two enterprising young men who knocked on my door six weeks or so ago. Both were about 18 years old and said they were trying to earn money for college. One, a black kid from Virginia, was "in training" with the more outgoing Hispanic from California. They shook my hand and were quite respectful of my time and managed to find the right level of salesmanship required to sell me. Now, I admit, I was a little hesitant. I don't consider myself an easy mark (unless you start talking about romance, in which case I'm a total sucker). I've heard for many years about the scam of buying magazine subscriptions from people peddling them door-to-door. These young men sat down and told me what they wanted to do with their lives. The Hispanic kid said his mother had been in jail for narcotics violations but she encouraged him to work hard and not follow in her footsteps.

Happy Birthday, USA!

"Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home. For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press." On this Independence Day, I'd like to thank Zell Miller for such a fine delivery (just eight months ago) of the truth. He said it so well and with so much passion. Not that he needed to remind any Republican of those truths. We are all well aware of what our military does for us every day. My most heartfelt thanks and admiration go out, especially today, to all of the fine men and women in the United States Armed Forces. For all you do, for all you are, you are examples to us all. Keep up the good work and stay safe! Believe it or not, I'd also like to remember France for aiding us in our struggle for freedom during t

Cato Institute Takes Up the Good Fight

I was surprised to see mail from the Cato Institute in my pile of mail from this past week. I get mail from the RNC on a monthly basis, the occasional mail from the Reagan Ranch, mail from the Fund for Growth, and adverts for tons of Conservative causes and magazines but I've never received anything from the Cato Institute. This one was definitely on target though. The fight for an ownership society has finally been taken up by bigger brains. Social Security reform is not dead , ladies and gents. The basic message is that Social Security reform is not about actuarial tables, it's about ownership. Dead on, Cato! Nice job.

Condi Gets it Right

There has been a lot of harrumphing from the Left that the US shouldn't try to impose our ideals of democracy on foreign countries; we should respect their culture. Well, for the Libs that may stop by for an education, let me just say that their concerns are well in hand by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I just read the article " Reading Them the Riyadh Act " by Jonathan Karl in The Weekly Standard. And, this quote from the author's interview with her jumped right out at me: "The United States has to recognize that even after democractic processes take place, places are not going to look like the United States in terms of social mores." I'd say that our foreign policy is in good hands with Dr. Rice. She (and I'm sure the President as well) understand that democracy simply means that citizens have the right to decide their nation's fate. Democracy doesn't mean feminism, Liberalism, and other 'isms. It simply means that citizens have

Oh No!

I can't believe what I just found online... old pictures from my high school yearbook! EEEEK! If you happen to be privy to this blogger's last name, check it out . What a blast from the past! Thank God I finally had some dental work done AND lost the Farrah haircut (granted a few years past its expiration date). hehehe

Home Sweet Home

I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for our servicemembers who are on deployment for months at a time... I spend a full week working and living up in Greenwood, Indiana and when I come home on Friday nights, I am so very happy to be home. My home is a very modest one-bedroom apartment replete with a fat grey cat named Iris. And yet, after a week away, I couldn't be happier to be home again. I am fortunate to be able to board with my uncle in Greenwood through the week. He and his wife have a beautiful home (which is for sale, by the way) in an exclusive neighborhood. My room has a big-screen TV and a lovely sitting area and desk space. It's like staying in a 5-star hotel (without the room service) and yet somehow I can't wait to get back home each Friday night. Life is like that, I suppose. Even if it's a cardboard box under the overpass somewhere, if it contains your stuff and you call it "home," you can't wait to get back to it. Simple