EASTER 2013

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW;

PRAISE HIM ALL YE CREATURES HERE BELOW;

PRAISE HIM ABOVE, YE HEAVENLY HOST!

PRAISE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST!!

AMEN.

These last few days are the highest of the Holy Days of the Christian faith. We Christians mark the days in which Almighty God walked among us in a body utterly identical to our own, a body that experienced every hurt, every pleasure, and endured every temptation common to every one of us and yet He never ever did one wrong thing. He made the lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, turned water into wine, and even brought the dead back to life.

 

And His good favor was returned by us by murdering Him.

 

Crucifixion is one of the most horrible means of capital punishment ever devised. Basically the condemned person was first lashed with a whip and otherwise tortured, and then forced to carry his cross to the execution site. He was then stripped naked and nailed to the cross and left there to die of whatever came first: shock, asphixiation, exposure, whatever. Any one of us would recoil at the prospect of experiencing that. But in Jesus's case, these details were the least of the horrors of His crucifixion.

 

Jesus is God, and God hates sin. Yet Jesus took our sins to the Cross, personally and on His own body. The closest comparison I can think of would be drinking someone else's puke. When Jesus prayed for some other means to be found and to "let this cup pass", I guarantee you that the prospect of drinking the vomit of billions of people, and not of being executed, was foremost in His mind.

 

Jesus God could have at any point in the proceedings stopped things. When one of His disciples cut off the ear of one of His captors, He restored it. When asked if He was God, he replied "I AM" and his tormentors fell on their butts.

 

But they went ahead and hammered him up anyway.

 

At some point, Jesus's very divinity fled hin as he hung naked and suffering, and He cried out: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? It was at that  point that He became fully human, not God, but a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.

 

His last words were: : "It is finished".  What was finished?

 

What got finished that day was the argument between God and Satan, who has always hated us because God wants the humans He created to be His offspring. There were two trees in Eden: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the tree of Eternal Life. God did not forbid Adam and Eve to eat if the tree of Eternal Life, but forbade then from eating of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I cannot read God's mind, but fron all accounts I surmise that at some point He would have given us pernission to eat of that Tree. However, as in any job you need experience.

 

Satan however tempted Eve, and she in turn tempted Adam. The passage "Their eyes were open and they knew they were naked" does not mean that Adam and Eve were blind, it rather means that suddenly they knew that they could exploit one another based on their vulnerabilities. Look at the history of nations or for that matter of your own personal life, and tell me I am wrong. The history of this planet is a history of sin against Almighty God Himself.

 

But in the end, it comes down to YOU. 

 

For God so loved the World,

That He gave His Son;

So that whomever shall believe on Him;

SHALL NEVER PERISH, BUT SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

 

God is not willing that anyone will perish, but that all His  creations should have Eternal Life. Walk away fron that if you will, but the alternate destination is Hell.

 

Some day I will be aware that my soul will shortly appear before God to be judged. And Satan will be right there as prosecutor.  

 

And my attorney will be God Hinself, Jesus of Nazereth. And for every sin I have ever connitted, Jesus will state to the celestial court that the penalty has been paid, by Him.   

 

Will you ignore so great a Salvation? 

 

Why?

 

_For God so loved the world

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES

A few days ago I was waiting for a bus, when my ears were assaulted by two young ladies  loudly advertising for that venerable American institution, "Girl Scout Cookies". 

 

 

Basically, the first one would yell: "What do I want?" and the other would respond: "Girl Scout Cookies!". Then the first would yell, "What do I neeeeed?" and the other would respond: "Girl Scout Cookies!".  Then the two of them would alternate, with the first youngster shouting "Girl Scout! Girl Scout!" and the other responding: "Cookies! Cookies!". Over and over again.

 

 

Ten minutes became as ten hours as I suffered from this assault. Oh, I do like Girl Scout Cookies (Samoans are my fave). But these two kids, whom I estimate to have been about 11 or 12, WERE NOT IN UNIFORM.

 

No, they were dressed in dungarees, T-shirts decorated with pop-culture logos, and were shod in the kind of boots worn by tweener Justin Bieber fans. Am I missing something here? Since when did the Girl Scouts have a plainclothes division?

 

How can I be assured that you are indeed representing the Girl Scouts? Indeed, how can I be assured that you even CARE that you are Girl Scouts?

 

So, sorry kids, I'd hve loved to buy a box of Samoans. But the next time you do your cheerleading routine, DO IT IN UNIFORM.

 

You'd be a lot more compelling.

FOUR NEW COUNTRIES JOIN OUR READERSHIP: IRAQ, THE UNITED ARAB EMERATES, TAIWAN, AND UKRAINE

Gracious, folks. This publication is really taking off! Although I must say that my readers in Iraq are probably relatives of some people on the "Dayton Memories" blog on the Dayton History Books Online site, serving in American military units in that nation. Thanks for your service to our country, guys.

 

 

And the UAE, Taiwan and Ukraine, I hope you all enjoy seeing how we here in the United States are totally free to tell our own government that they are a pack of (CENSORED).

 

 

No man is truly free until he feels completely free to drag his own nation's flag in the mud while declaring the most powerful man in his government to be a worthless jackass totally unfit for the office. This happens every day in these United States. And although I am enraged by the disrespect to the Flag, still only here in the USA do you have that kind of freedom. I and every other American argue and debate, openly and without fear.

 

Red Chinese dictator Mao Tse-tung said that "political power grows from the barrel of the gun". That's the reason there is this huge debate over firearms here. If the common people hold the political power, then they must be armed. If you would be free, then you must speak freely and be prepared to fight for that freedom if need be.

 

Look to our United States Constitution. Note how carefully it was crafted, how it limits the powers of the government and protects common citizens from abuses by their chosen leaders. Imagine your own nation governed by that document. It is the very charter of freedom.

 

One of the purposes of this publication is to perpetuate the Revolution that began in 1775, when armed citizens resisted a British attempt to confiscate the weapons held by the People. One year and two months later, in July of 1776, these United States formally declared independence.

 

Years of hard-fought and bloody war ensued. But the end result was this unique nation, where I can say whatever I damn well please and do as I like.

 

And the "shot heard 'round the world", fired at Concord Bridge in April of 1775, continues to echo. The American Revolution will never be truly complete until every nation on the globe is as free as are we in the United States of America.  Only tyrants and dictators need fear a free people. And fear them they do.

 

A free press and an armed citizenry are the foundations of liberty and freedom. Tell your leaders to put that in their pipe and smoke it. Thank you for reading the Alexandria Daily Poop.

WHERE'S THAT FREAKING GLOBAL WARMING NOW THAT WE NEED IT?

How well we remember, last year when it was 80 degrees sometimes and the cherry blossoms and the azaleas and everything was bursting into bud and bloom as if it were mid-may; how we were constantly told that this was proof that "global warming" was an indisputable fact.

 

 

Yet here we are, one year later and we really can't remember a late March which featured such unrelenting cold weather. The cherry blossoms are actually running behind schedule this year. Here and there a crocus has sprouted up and bloomed, only to be blasted and withered by near-freezing cold and the snow that fell three days into spring. 

 

 

What we have here is not "global warming". It is what you call "D.C. area weather". 

 

Remember about 25 years ago when they first started to try and foist this "global warming" hooey off on us, when it was predicted that some island in some corner of the Pacific would be underwater in 10 years and a bunch of natives would drown? Well, if that had happened the name of that island would be like the Alamo anytime the "global warming" frauds gathered. 15 years behind schedule, no drowned natives. Global warming? What a load of malarkey.

 

Meanwhile here at the Alexandria Daily Poop, we are freezing our tail off.  

HELLO VIETNAM!

We are pleased to notice that we have picked up at least one new viewer in Vietnam. We just wonder if it is a member of the Intelligence Service, attracted by the article on "undecipherable Enigma". 

 

 

If you are indeed a member of the Vietnamese government, we would like to inform you that we know a number of Vietnamese expatriates right here in the USA. It's amazing what your people are capable of when they are free, which - although we understand Vietnam is quite a bit more liberal these days - they are not. But keep sending them over here, so that they can contribute to America. You communists might just have a world power if only your people could speak, act, and do business as they please.

 

The acid test, where we are concerned, is: do the people have the right to keep and bear arms? Crime? In this country, those parts that say "no guns" have more crime than those - like here in Virginia - where it is completely legal to carry a loaded firearm in public in plain sight and one does not have to ask permission from the government to do so.

 

But not only that, to be free the people must be able to criticize the government without fear of retribution. We do it every day in this blog (and down at the pub on the corner and everywhere else).

 

In fact, the reason we think it is the Vietnamese government reading this (and we have a lot of hits from Red China, too) is that you guys heavily restrict and monitor internet traffic in your country (as does China). We'll really know what's up if we get a hit from North Korea.

 

So loosen it up, you guys. We'd love it if one of your common people started putting out a blog just like this one. Peace out, commies. 

LET'S TALK SENSE ABOUT SEX AND SEXUALITY

Here at the Alexandria Daily Poop we do not believe that discrimination against homosexual persons in employment, accommodation, or housing should be lawful, except of course by religious institutions and private associations (such as the Boy Scouts).  Refusal to rent to, sell to, hire or otherwise accommodate should be based on something germaine to the situation (such as a bad credit history, disorderly conduct, unfitness for the job, whatever. We object to "drug screening" for any reason other than to test for actual intoxication, too.)

 

But we are kind of corked over this whole push to make every damn bizarre thing you can think of a "right". Back in the late 60s it was "gays". "Gays" generally meant female homosexuals, too; but in the 70s lesbians started demanding to be recognized as a distinct part of the gay community (what community? but, never mind...).

 

Then the "bisexuals" piped up that they wanted recognition as a distinct part of "gaydom" too. So the construct "Lesbian, Gay (ladies first? That seems a bit chauvanistic, but again, never mind...) and Bisexual" was born.

 

Oh, but this business is so complicated, and to be "politically correct"; every little fringe group has to be granted recognition. And hanging around the fringes of the "LGB" community was a group of people who actually believed themselves to be "women in men's bodies" or "men in women's bodies". These folks were at first called "trans-sexuals"; but some of them were partway through a "sex-change"; some had had "The operation" and some were either too poor to afford it or were leery about going through with it.

 

And at first these were called "pre-op" and "post-op" trans-sexuals. But about fifteen years ago someone hit on the idea of calling the whole lot "transgendered persons".  (of course, "gender" means the masculine or feminine nature of a word. but as we said in the last article this is an attack on the language). This "transgendered" business mystifies us. After all, allegedly here you have a person who wants to become a heterosexual female (or male) but feels "trapped" in a male (or female) body. Why are they included in the homosexual community?

 

Well, this has resulted in the current construct of LGBT, which former First Lady and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton used to describe the people who want "gay marriage".  But it is rather strange to hear a national leader talk about "LGBT people" isn't it??  If you didn't know it, you'd think she was talking about space aliens.

 

Sadly, the confusion doesn't end there. In their quest to be as "inclusive" as possible; the gay activists have extended the "big tent of homosexuality" to include those who are "questioning and curious".  Thus the full current construct for the "gay community" is "LGBTQC". Which begs the question of why public pronouncements leave out the "QC"? 

 

Well, we here at the Alexandria Daily Poop are pretty sure this "questioning/curious" business is an attempt by the activists pushing this garbage to draw in youth to be indoctrinated.  And as for this "bisexual" business,  well, we suppose you could be attracted to members of your own and the opposite sex at the same time or to different degrees. But practically speaking, any amount of homo is all gay. Call your self "Bi"? Well. Obama is "biracial" but everyone calls him black. Right? Same difference.

 

What is really jarring is this "T" in the LGBT. Somewhere along the line, enough people started tolerating the idea that there was such a thing as a person with the physical sexual characteristics of one sex actually being a person of the other sex trapped in an "inappropriate" body. The ultimate paradigm of this idiocy would be Chaz Bono and her new penis (for which she probably needs to take anti-rejection drugs in order to keep her body from destroying) dancing around with Lady GaGa and singing that she's "on the right track, baby (she) was born this way".

 

Chaz was so not "born this way".

 

If you were born with a dick between your legs, and you think you are a woman YOU HAVE A SCREW LOOSE. What would you think if some guy thought he was a fish and paid a gazillion dollars to have gills installed so he could live and breathe under water?  And the same goes for women who "feel" that they are men.

 

And it's strange - or probably not, when one thinks about it - that the nations on this planet where such nonsense is being foisted off as "enlightenment" are the very nations which are a bulwark against tyrannical aggressor nations; which do NOT put up with such weakening influences.

 

Men - be they gay or straight - should be men, and women - lesbian or otherwise - should be wimmeny. The aim of those behind this "gay marriage" and "transgender" crapola are useful idiots who seek to weaken the fortress protecting true freedom. After the walls have been breached and the "liberated" people have been put to the sword, a thousand years of darkness will descend.

 

The world is a dangerous place. There is no room for this nonsense about "transgendered" people and "gay marriage".  Let us be understanding to the troubled souls among us. But let us not surrender the serious business of running and maintaining a free and open society to a pack of rainbow-and-unicorn shitheads.

 

Should we do this; or to be more accurately should we continue down this path; then soon the barbarians will overrun us. And the first to die by the barbarians' hands will be the "transgendered" and the "married" gay couples.

 

You had better think about the truths we have written here. Because they are truths, and no amount of liberal-schmiberal nattering will change that.

"GAY MARRIAGE" REACHES THE SUPREME COURT

This is another one of these conversations we ought not even need to have.

 

And before my social conservative readers start thinking that I'm going to come down totally on your side, think again. Most of you guys' arguments are based on religious belief. You are aware, are you not, that the enemy in this current conflict is  bunch of religious nutbars who want to encode their beliefs into law? And the "it isn't natural, two members of the same sex don't "fit" argument, well, just as it's Happy Hour somewhere on the globe, it's the "happy spot" somewhere on the human body. If this wasn't true, homosexuality would be impossible.

 

But also, don't let the foregoing give you false hope, my gay-activist readers. My objections to "gay marriage" are based on far more solid ground.

 

The basics of the case being argued are that Californians, after being told by their State judicial system that an official definition of marriage being the "union of one man and one woman" violated the State constitution; then overwhelmingly voted to amend the State constitution to reflect just that. Activists then brought suit to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals alleging that the amendment violated the 14th Amendment in that it denied gays who would marry "the full protection" of law. The 9th ruled the amendment unconstitutional, and California appealed to the Supeme Court. The activists - having eagerly anticipated this - appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, knowing that if the SCOTUS upheld the appeal, it would most likely mandate recognizing "gay marriage" nationwide. And now, here we are.

 

I am not about to rag on two dudes who love each other and want to live together. But "marriage" has been commonly understood in every culture on Earth to mean a man and a woman. (Sometimes a man and several women and more rarely several men and a woman or several men and several women, but show me a culture where two members of the same sex have been able to take vows to love each other, and I'll show you a culture that is either extinct, on the border of extinction, and/or is stuck in the Stone Age.)

 

It's true there are recipes for food that call for marination to "allow the flavors to marry".  There are drinks and goodies called "a marriage of sweet and savory" or some such. But worldwide and throughout history, formal marriage has meant a male and a female. 

 

So, I posit that anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, has the right to marry. All they need do is find someone of the opposite sex, and get married. 

 

This entire "gay marriage" debacle is the product of a Leftist effort to gain control of the language and therefore the overall debate. This is clearly shown in the Leftist slogan: "Gay, straight, black or white, marriage is a civil right!"

 

No it isn't. 

 

You can't marry your sister, anywhere in this country ever; even if both of you are incapable of having kids and even if you "love each other".  And in most places you can't marry your first cousin either. And in many cases even a second cousin is a degree of sonsanguinity too damn close. Are the "civil rights" of kissin' cousins being violated?

 

But the appeals of the "gay marriage" crowd are not based in law, nor are they based in fact, but rather in emotion. Kids being raised by adoptive gay couples (or by a gay person who has divorced a spouse of a legitamate marriage who has custody of the kid and is raising the kid with his or her "life partner") get trotted out and, not understandng what all this is about and being confused by the maelstrom they find themselves thrown into, and plead - usually reading from a script - for the "rights" of their "parents".

 

This "marriage" debate is - per the Constitution - a State issue. (It is only Federal in the case of the "Defense of Marriage Act" which states that the Federal government will not recognize, for Federal purposes, a "marriage" that consists of anything other than the union of one man and one woman.)

 

The California amendment, moreover was passed in the most left-leaning State in the Union. A minority of activists have now convinced TWO Federal courts to IGNORE the 10th Amendment and are trying to toss out the will of the People of California using a gimcrack aluminum-siding interpretation of part of the 14th Amendment.

 

The radcal Left is using the homosexual community to try to blow a hole open in the Constitution. This is about far, far more than "gay marriage".

 

The Supreme Court should vacate the ruling of the 9th Circuit and end this dangerous nonsense. This case was brought by a cabal of Statists who are using misguided, uninformed fools to help them get yet another part of that troublesome Constitution out of their way.   

HELLO, DEUTCHLAND!

As far as I can tell from my stats, most of my readers come from the United States, Russia, and Germany in that order. Wow. All three of us have pummeled each other in the last century.

 

 

Now my Russian fans outnumber my German fans. And yes, my balalaika-strumming amigos, I am aware of the horrors inflicted upon Russia by Germany. But Germany had been overtaken by criminals then. It is as if a gang of burglars had taken over a home and convinced them at gunpoint to rob the neighbors. I do not approve of what Adolf Hitler did (duh) and you Russians paid the most in terms of people killed in the effort to end the "Third Reich".

 

 

However, most of the present population of Germany was not even born in that hideous time. The sin of the father cannot be visited upon his son.

 

 

I am addressing this post to my German readers because I find it awesome that the English language in which this post is written is mainly based on German. English is at its root just German with greatly simplified grammar. "Mit mir" in German translates to "With me" in English. "Komme" in German means "come" in English.

 

More to the point, during the American Revolution the foriegn national most known for helping us drive out the British was French nobleman the Marquis de Lafayette. But the troops he commanded with George Washington at Yorktown had been taught military discipline by one Baron Von Steuben ... of Germany.

 

 

I just want to tell you guys in Germany that I appreciate your role in the language and formation of my nation, and I forgive you for all  the fucking Hessian mercenaries you guys sent over here at the behest of King George III. During World War I and World War II, the chief reason Germany was defeated was because the United States entered the war. And what was the name of the American general who oversaw the invasion of France?

 

 

EISENHOWER. And if that ain't a German name, I'm a freaking alien from Mars. The only thing that beats a German general is another German general. If you guys hadn't been occupied with trying to take down Russia, you might have won the war. But maybe not. Eisenhower might have had different ideas.

 

But guys? We won and you lost. And yet, did we "occupy" you? Well, for a short time we had to. But we also kept Berlin fed when the Communists tried to starve you into submission. Are you under our heel? No. And you in Germany are the last hope of the European Union. 

And your food and drink! German beer is the benchmark worldwide. Beer is such a simple thing, but I'm telling you, give me a bottle of Celebrator doppplebock over a glass of the finest Champaigne, every time.

Here in America there is a German-based goodie I am very fond of. It's called "ring pudding" and it's made of pork liver, snouts, and "trimmings" cooked with spices and lard and made into a sausage of sorts. It used to be available here in the DC area, but now I mostly have to travel to the Midwest to get it. The best version I know of is made in Cincinnatti, Ohio. You can slice the stuff up cold and serve it as a sandwich or on crackers or heat it up and get a spread that is superior to French pate'.

Deutchland, you stand out among all the other cultures that make up the American ethic. Here in America, we have combined German principles with a concept of every person being a sovereign individual. I understand that a lot of you Germans don't understand why so many of us Americans carry firearms or why we think of this as a God-given right. The reason is that here in America, we know that government is force, and if the People are the government, then they must be armed. Surely you understand -  given the Treaty of Versailles - that to surrender your weapon is to submit and be subjugated. That is the crux of the debate over firearms that you are seeing unfold here.

And the United States is a Republic in constant tumult. But this tumult revolves around a constant center, and that center is composed of the values obtained from two sources: English law and German cultural ethics.

So don't feel under-appreciated, my German freinds. I am proud that almost a quarter of my readership is from Deutchland. I'd love to visit Germany someday, but I can see bits and pieces of it anywhere I go in these United States. And I am glad to see so many of you reading this blog. Thanks.  

HOW WE WIND UP WITH A BUNCH OF FARGHEN ICE-HOLES WHO TRY TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS.

A dear and beloved friend - yes, I do have friends in this world - sent me a clip from the movie "Johnny Dangerously".  In the clip, a mobster has been subpoenaed to testify under oath before some sort of crime commission. If you haven't seen this,  let me tell you it's hilarious. The mobster, sitting there with a carnation in his lapel and a moustache on his lip, says this in a heavy Italian accent:

 

 

"I would like to direct this to the distinguished members of the panel:'

 

 

'YOU LOUSY COG-SAGGERS. You have violated my farghen rights.'

 

'This some navanbatching country was founded, so that the liberties of common, patriotic citizens - like me - COULD NOT BE TAKEN AWAY by a bunch of farghen ice-holes - like yourselves. Thank you."

 

 

He is so spot on. We are currently governed by a bunch of fucking assholes who have totally ignored that the lousy cocksuckers are forbidden from taking away our rights.  And how did they get into such a position to try this crap?

 

BECAUSE THEY WERE VOTED IN BY A MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE IS HOW.  So why and how did this happen?

 

Well, because of the reasons outlined in this blog under the "Eneny Within" series of posts.  A large part of the "Assault on the Academy" was the infiltration and takeover of the journalism division of the educational system.

 

When you call out an entity of the "lamestream drive-by media" for leftist bias, they respond that this is "just a myth"; and expect that since the pronouncement has been made by a long-standing national news reporting entity, you must and will believe it.

 

Consider the case of the Current Resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest in Washington, D.C.. Both his first opponent John McCain and his second opponent Mitt Romney were thouroghly investigated by the Press corps. Obama, even in his re-election effort, had his shortcomings ignored by the journalist corps, and his background was likewise ignored. When entities like Fox News tried to sound an alarm, they were brushed off as "Faux News" and racists who didn't want a black president. If there had been a rumor about Johm McCain sucking some other boy's dick back at his old boarding school, you can bet it would have been a component of every discussion of his candidacy.  There wasn't, but there WAS a pretty credible rumor that Obama gave some guy a blow-job in the back of a limo. THAT was treated as a "racist rumor" and brushed off.

 

But it isn't just the contest for the White House in which this tactic is used. At any level, Federal, State, or even Local, if a right-thinking non-leftist candidate challenges a Marxist, the press will ignore the leftist's shortcomings and gloss over things such as Congressman James P. "Bugs" Moran's beating of spouses and girlfriends (as well as his abuse of a little black kid for  touching his car) and his obvious anti-semitism and thuggish behavior.

 

But if you have a candidate advocating small government and individual sovereignty, they will figuratively pull down his pants, bend him over, stick a finger up his asshole, and then announce loudly, publicly and repeatedly that the candidate has shit in his rectum and furthermore, it stinks. 

 

Just knowing that any little embarrassing incident from one's past might be exposed and blown up all out of proportion is, I believe, a powerful deterrent for even putting out feelers for a campaign. Were I to be writing a blog called "America can make Communism practical", and if I were able to suppress my gag reflex and mouth standard Leftist platitudes and talking points; then  anything-bar-nothing in my past would be used to bar me from considering public office. 

 

 

On the other hand, if I were to run on my conservative/nationalist beliefs, then every thing I have ever said or done would be dug up and scrutinized by the drive-bys. Quite a big deal would be made of the time in the fifth grade when I stole a kiss from an unwilling classmate on the playground back in Huber Heights. And broth-er, if my experiments with homosexuality ever saw the light of day (but for Gerry Studds and Barney Frank, it's OK?) I'd never hear the end of it. I'd wind up sitting on a street corner with a cup in hand, and people would spit in it, and I'd starve to death.

 

But Barney Frank could keep a boyfreind who operated a callboy service RIGHT OUT OF HIS CAPITOL HILL TOWNHOUSE and get re-elected. Gerry Studds (also a Massachucetts Congressman) could bend a 17 year old Page boy over his desk and fuck the lad, and get re-elected. Let a Republican Congressman so much as FLIRT with a Page of either sex, however, and it's doomsday for him. (and this situation with the pages has gotten so out of hand that the Page program has been abolished.)

 

This is why we have wound up with "a bunch of farghen ice-holes" who endeavor to "violate (our) farghen rights". The best of potential leaders are deterred by the assured and guaranteed fact that every aspect of everything they have ever done will be shouted from the rooftops, while the worst are guaranteed a pass by our "free press".  And as for those who remain, as James Butler Yeats said: "The best lack all comviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity"

 

Also:

 

"Turning and turning in a widening gyre,

The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Things fall apart. the center cannot hold."

 

 

It is just a short time, unless we as a people wake up, that someone will cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war.

 

The solutiion to the problems I have posited is rather simple. DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ OR HEAR, but rather ASK QUESTIONS and do NOT accept a change of subject as an answer. If some guy has a workable plan to save Social Security (or eliminate it and its attendant financial costs) for example, DO NOT allow yourself to be sidetracked by propaganda that the guy "streaked" across the football field when he was 16. EVEN IF HE DID, WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH WHETHER OR NOT HIS PLAN IS ANY GOOD??

 

Let's stop letting these shysters change the Subject, Ignore the facts, and (when all else fails) Name-call.  Put them all together, and it's SIN. It's sin against democracy, sin against the nation, and ultimately sin against YOU.

 

And of course it is sin against TRUTH, which is sin against Almighty GOD.

 

\I will judge not. lest I be judged. But we can inspect the fruits of Leftist statism. Among these fruits are Sobibor, Dachau, Birkenau, Mauthasen, and others.  The Chinese "Cultural Revolution" and the "Red Guards" also fit into this category of bitter and poisonous fruit.

 

Back in 1992, Rush Limbaugh uttered the best political advice I have ever heard, He said:

 

"When you hear these politicians making their promises, don't listen to what they say. They will say whatever they think will cionvince you to vote for them, and once they are in, they will do whatever they damn well please. So don't pay any  attention to what they SAY. 

 

You just watch what they DO."

 

Truer words have never been spoken,  nor has better political advice ever been given.  You people out there had better start paying close attention. The situation here in the USA is worse than at any time since the years before the Civil War,  

 

Stop just accepting the slop served up to you by ANY media outlet, including Fox. START asking questions, and don't accept a lecture on how to build a watch as an answer to the question of what time it is. Call these bastards on EVERYTHING they say. And especially, call them not only on what they say and believe but also in their public pronouncements.

 

These United States are a free nation. We are the freest nation on the planet. For some reason, Obama and his handlers are offended by this.

 

So my question to you is: Would you rather live on your own in a republic, or have everything gifted to you by s dictator?

 

Think about it, Think about it long and hard. Of course I sift comments, but if any of you lefties can refute what I have written here I WILL allow your comment. But folks, I use my full legal name here,   I will NOT allow anonymous comments,  I am Floyd Allen Nornam, Junior and I reside at 1302 King Street in the City of Alexandria,, Commonwealth of Virginia, United Srates of Anerica,  ZIP 22314. If you can't give that level of detial about yourselfl then you are a pussyfart and you need to go play "Angry Birds" 

 

And of course if I piss you off to the point you want to kill me, well, then for your sake and mine GET OVER IT. I'm not waiting on the edge of my chair to use my weapon. But challenge me to defend ny life, and you will lose, BIG TIME. By the wsy, I hold rank in several martial arts disciplines. Attack me, and you nay nit die; but you damn sure better be aware that I can make you wish you were dead.

 

Of course, the foregoing was meant for the hoodlums I might encounter personally (And I was not making jokes). Basically, I would say to you that if you don;t want a bunch of "farghen ice-holes" to take away your liberties; then you had better pay the fuck attention.

 

Peace out.

THE KINDLE MAFIA

Things are tough enough in the publishing industry these days. Lots of people - including me- have decided to "self-publish" online.  If you are new here, I have two "police procedurals" on Kindle for sale at $1.99 (cheap!) each: "The Peterson Investigation" and "Georgetown in Plainclothes".

 

 

I've been told, face-to-face, that both stories are very good. A police officer who purchased "Georgetown in Plainclothes" was surprised to find that I wrote it, and asked for my autograph.

 

 

Wow, I wish I could put that on a cracker.

 

 

Well, although I wish my works were selling (a lot) better, only an idiot engages in art with the goal of enriching himself materially. But I do believe that if you are going to critique a work of literature, it behooves you to ACTUALLY READ THE ENTIRE WORK.  I suppose it is egalitarian or whatever, but just as anyone can publish whatever they want on Kindle, anyone who pays cash for a book can "review" it, whether they have actually read it or not.

 

Not to get too bloody involved in describing things here, but "The Peterson Investigation" is not just a police procedural but also a romance. Seven of the main characters went to school together in the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights, Ohio (where the story is set). I happen to have grown up in Huber Heights, and "The Peterson Investigation" is, as much as anything else, a love letter to my home town and the Miami Valley.

 

Sales were beginning to pick up when suddenly someone wrote a "review" of the story. This person basically said that he (she?) had found all that character development "boring" and had never even made it to "the mystery".  Someone did comment that he should have finished the book, but the only thing most people see when they go to the book site are this bogus "review" and a lousy two-star rating. 

 

I do not take shit like this lying down. Don't get me wrong: if this reviewer had actually read and critiqued the entire novel, I'd have had no quarrel.  But evidently he read the pro;ogue and half of the first chapter and decided to tell the world that reading the book was a waste of time and money. I posted a comment telling this dweeb what I thought of his borderline libel. 

 

About a week later I got attacked by what is known as "The Kindle Mafia". This is a term for the types you will find anywhere there is some opportunity to wield power abusively and - if possible - anonymously. Some asshole who calls himself "B. Craven" sent me a schoolmarmish lecture about not criticizing my "reviewers".  He was joined a few days later by some other hammerhead. I clicked "ignore" on both of them. After all, if I wanted to argue with assholes, I'd just open up comments on this blog.

 

Now look, folks. These pisspot wannabe dictators cannot be allowed to stand. Every last one of you people ought to go directly to Kindle, buy "The Peterson Investigation", and READ THE WHOLE BOOK, and then write a review and say what you think. I'd actually put out a free promotional to get this going, but as it turns out only people who have paid cash get to write reviews. That's not my rule, folks. It's Amazon's.

 

Obviously, I'll welcome the sales. But even more, I'd welcome an honest review of my 16 months of hard work, written by someone who has actually read it. I'm not the only writer out there who'd like to backhand these "Kindle Mafia" types right across the mouth. So please buy and read "The Peterson Investigation", then review it and - like it or hate it - show the damned "Kindle Mafia" what a legitimate book review looks like.   

THE PISSANT THAT ROARED - AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DICTATORSHIP OF NORTH KOREA

Those zany homicidal lunatic socio-psychopaths who run the upper half of the Korean Peninsula are at it again. For some reason or another, the latest Kim to lead North Korea has seen fit to threaten the United States with nuclear attack. 

 

 

The Alexandria Daily Poop has an Official Message to North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un (or whatever, his family name is Kim. He comes from a long line of lunatics.)

 

 

Mister Kim:

 

 

You pissant. Are you STONE COLD FUCK NUTS?? Threatening the United States of America with NUCLEAR WEAPONS? (Which, by the way, you don't have; at least not very powerful ones. Estimated yields of your "underground tests" are not even at Hiroshima levels. What you got there, Kim, is not a "nuclear bomb". More like a "nuclear fart".) 

 

 

Now, looky here, Mister Kim. This here United States of America is the most powerful nation on the planet. No brag, just fact: WE OWN THE EARTH. Nothing happens on the face of the globe unless the United States of America either underwrites it or allows it. We have the power and the prowess to conquer and enslave the entire world. Oh, don't you wish you could say the same!!

 

Of course, you can't. And try and wrap your head around this truth, Kim: WE DO NOT ENSLAVE THE GLOBE BECAUSE WE ARE THE GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY. WHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THAT NOBODY WANTS TO MOVE TO NORTH KOREA, BUT EVERYBODY WANTS TO COME TO AMERICA?? MOSTLY THEY WANT TO COME HERE TO GET AWAY FROM ASSHOLES LIKE YOU, YOU PRICK.

 

 

Now, Mr. Kim we have thoroughly insulted and disparaged you in this letter. We have done so because your behavior warrants it. Freedom is precious. I can say, right here without any fear of punishment, that Barack Hussein Obama is a piece of shit and should be removed from power.  Nobody can do a damn thing about it except disagree with what I say. In fact, I personally think Obama ought to be arrested for TREASON.

 

 

See? I have just put out on the global internet, on a blog using my own real legal name, my opinion that the current (alleged) "president" of the United States is a traitor.  And I need fear no secret policeman knocking on my door at two o'clock AM. What might happen to a Korean who called YOU a traitor, Mr. Kim?

 

 

Instead of showcasing the military might and power of North Korea, Mr. Kim; instead of using threats to get handouts, you could instead decide to show the world what your free people can do. Maybe you ought to think about how you would feel if you knew that the adoring crowds praising your name were doing so because they actually appreciated you and were not being forced to make nice at gunpoint.  

 

 

Well, Mr. Kim, you do as you please. If you want to keep on with your nation being the absolute worst dictatorship on the planet, these United States will respect your right to reduce your common citizens to eating tree bark and to imprison those who bitch about it in conditions that would make Dachau and Mauthausen look like Club Med. Oh, and I personally am obligated to warn you, Sir: THERE IS A GOD, AND THERE IS A HELL. GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO WIND UP IN HELL, BUT YOU ARE WALKING RIGHT DOWN INTO IT.  You best turn around.

 

Doesn't it make sense to you to unleash the productivity of your people? And why does freedom frighten you so? I can give Obama "the finger" in public, and he cannot do a damned thing about it. Mister Kim, North Korea has much in natural resources and much advantage as concerns the various talents and capabilities of her people.

 

Yet you - as did your father and your grandfather - squander all this potential and use it as wherewithal to heap the altar of your personal glory.

 

Mister Kim, the choice is yours, and it is three fold: You might just continue on and starve your own people so that you might sit and stuff your face with goodies. Alternately, you might just decide to become "Kim the Liberator" and guide North Korea to freedom and prosperity.

 

Or in the third case you could wind up provoking the United States to doing away with you and your nation. I will repeat my opening question: ARE YOU STONE-COLD FUCK NUTS? Just ONE B-52 bomber OR just ONE "Ohio Class" ballistic missile submarine has enough firepower to exterminate your entire nation several times over. And what's ironic is that most people under your rule would actually welcome being incinerated quickly to being forced to live another day under your regime.

 

So, Mr. Kim, the choice is yours:

 

 (1) remain a pissant dictator and die and face God, and find out what God thinks of pissant dictators like you (oh, and I know you don't believe in God. Don't worry, Mr. Kim. You will.)

 

(2) Do a 180 and free your people and lead them to prosperity. Come now, don't you think it would be great to have people cheering you because they were actually grateful for your leadership, as opposed to being fearful of being punished if they didn't cheer?  Then of couse we have option...

 

(3) Just try even faking an overt nuclear attack on the United States (or anyone else). Before you try this, you ought to just take a pistol and blow out your brains.

 

 

So there are your choices, Mr. Kim. Which would you rather be? Pissant, Liberator or corpse?

 

Your choice, Chuckles. 

HOW TO MAKE COMPLETELY UNDECIPHERABLE CODED MESSAGES USING THE GERMAN ENIGMA MACHINE

The German "ENIGMA" cipher used by the Nazis during World War II was thought by them to be unbreakable. However, "ENIGMA" had two weaknesses that enabled the eventual breaking of the code. My genius ass has discovered a way of making ENIGMA unbreakable.

 

 

ENIGMA is a "rotor-encryption" device. Basically, pressing the key for letter "A" would send a pulse of electricity first through a "plugboard", where it would be sent to a position corresponding to sone other letter, say, "Q".  From the plugboard the pulse would be sent to one of three or four rotors and enter that rotor at. say, "B".

 

 

Wiring within the rotor would cause the pulse to exit at another letter, say, "L". A contact on the first rotor would cause the pulse to enter at the second rotor at, say, position "M". The pulse would exit at, say, J and enter the third rotor at "R" or whatever.

 

 

The pulse would then enter a "reflector" at some random letter and exit at another random letter, be reflected back through the rotors and the plugboard and come back as "D".  A lighted display would then exhibit a glowing "D". 

 

 

The method was not a simple "substitution cipher" however. Every time a key was pressed, the rotors would change position. Once the pulse reached "Z" on the first rotor, the next key-press would result in the pulse entering at, say, "R".  Thus, "AAAAAAAAA" would result in - say - "QGRESVEGT".

 

 

Therin lay the weakness of the ENIGMA cipher. "A" could not be encrypted to "A".  Coupled with the German tendency to type "Heil Hitler" and other such standard phrases into the encrypted messages, the code was soon broken.

 

The German method of encryption was at first to establish "ground settings" for all nachines on a daily basis.  That is, everyone would know to set their machines to use three of five rotors in a specific order, and a specific setting of the plugboard. The sender would then type in his code key twice (to avoid transmission errors).  Say the sender wanted to use the code key "EIN". He would type in "EIN EIN", which would come out (possibly) "QRE ZXD".  He would then set his rotors to "EIN" and send his message, prefacing it with "QRE ZXD". The reciever would - using the standard "ground settings" - type in "QRE ZXD"; get "EIN EIN"; reset his rotors to "EIN" and decrypt the message.

 

Later in the war, German ctyptologists were instructed to set their machines to uniform settings as to rotor orders and plugboard settings, as usual. But there was no more standard setting for the rotors. Instead, the signal corpsman would set his rotors to some random order.  Say the "ground setting" was: rotors 4-3-2; plugboard k-o, f-h, m-s.  The sender wanted to tell his recipient that the code key was "KBW"  He would set the rotors to - say  - LKF - and type in "KBW".  The result might be "PXH".  He would then preface the message with "LKF PXH'. The reciever would know to set his rotors to "LKF" and type in PXH. This would yield the code key "KBW".  The recipient would then set his rotors to KBW and decrypt the message. 

 

 

However, as I have said ENIGMA had the weakness of not being able to encrypt a letter to itself.  This is very easily corrected.

 

 

Very simply, having everyone in the network equipped with a "secondary key" - which can be varied if need be from day to day and/or among recipients - with which to decrypt nessages. Let's say you wanted to send: MEET ME AT NOON.  Code it any way you want, Say you set your "plugboard" to "K-E L-B G-D F-V" and used wheels 1-4-2, Set everything according to plan, and came up with "SDFG KI OF UYLE". 

 

BUT then you used the standard secondary "ground setting" of rotors 3.4.5 and plugboard setting "K-L J-E M-O" .  Type in SDFGKIOFUYLE" and get "NBLFOPAJTELW". Note that the "A" in "at" encrypts to itself using this method.

And it need not really be all that complex, either. Standard ENIGMA encryption can be re-encrypted by simply re-setting the rotors to a pre-assigned position. Simply stated, the first encryption reduces the plaintext to gobbledygook. What made ENIGMA breakable was the relation of the gobbledygook to the plaintext. With re-encryption, the "plaintext" itself is gobbledygook, with the added benefit that letters in the original plaintext will randomly encrypt to themselves with the second encryption.

 

Right now there are "stand alone" apps available which will work even offline. For maximum cffectiveness, you'll need to have a machine which NEVER goes online and which has one of these ENIGMA apps available. Once you have your app installed, ensure that everyone in your network has a separate machine with the same app, and that the machines NEVER go online. Once you have done that, you can send encrypted messages over the net, to be decoded by your offline machine. Your actual encryption/decryption machines must NEVER go online, as there are "keystroke-logging" technologies available. But an encoded message can be sent "in the clear" using the methods I have outlined without fear of having unauthorized parties reading it. So long as the machines actually encrypting and decrypting the message are offline, no one but you and your intended recipient will have any idea what you are trying to communicate.

 

 

Oh, and hey? Homeland Security? DO YOU IDIOTS THINK I AM THE FIRST PERSON TO THINK OF THIS??  Cripes, we are doomed.

I'M GOING TO BUY ANOTHER AK-47

That's right, folks. Now I know some of you are asking why ONE guy would want TWO AK-47s. 

 

 

Well, before you liberal anti-gun weenies out there  pee your drawers in fright, I'm not gonna do it today.  I'm waiting for Diane Feinstein's idiot (and unconstitutional) "assault weapons ban" to die the unseemly, disgraceful death it deserves. Starting to see my point?

 

 

Back in the summer of 2008 (and even after Obama was elected) I could pick up a Romanian WASR AK-47 variant for about six hundred fifty bucks. Norinco (Chi-com) variants could be had for between $750 and $850.

 

 

But pretty soon, prices began edging up. Every time some whack-a-doodle took advantage of a "gun-free zone" to supply himself with defenseless victims, the Brady Bunch revved up their propaganda machine. Prices skyrocketed, and supplies dwindled. Then came the Sandy Hook shooting, and the market went absolutely NUTS. The same WASR I bought for six large was selling for two and a half GRAND. That's two THOUSAND five hundred semoleons for a weapon that cost six hundred dollars just five years ago.

 

 

I was kicking myself in the ass for not having bought a second weapon at the same time. I could have sold the other one last week and taken a very nice vacation. (I could have sold the one I have now, but then what would I do if the shit hit the fan?) 

 

 

I've done that sort of thing before. Once, when D.C. was doing one of those idiot "gun buyback" things, I found out they were accepting BB and pellet guns, too. At a hundred bucks a pop. So I went and bought ten Crosman pellet pistols for $29 each and turned $290 into a thousand bucks in the course of about six hours. Stupid fuckers.

 

 

You might wonder why everybody is so into AKs. Well, it's really very simple. Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the weapon so that it could be fired even after being grossly abused and neglected. AKs have been allowed to rust shut, and after kicking the bolt open and inserting a loaded magazine the damn thing put lead downrange flawlessly. Kalashnikov said that he designed it so that it would fire even after a handful of sand had been poured into the ejection port. Try that with an AR-15 type weapon.

 

 

The secret is large tolerances between the moving parts. Remember in the movie "Heartbreak Hill" how Clint Eastwood fired an AK-47 and spoke of its "distinctive sound when fired"? That "chatter" is due to the looseness of the rifle's mechanism.

 

 

Anyway, pretty soon - starting with the Feinstein garbage bill going down in flames - prices on AKs (and ARs, etc) will plunge. It will probably have to wait until the 2014 mid-terms for AKs and ARs to get back down to realistic prices - I mean, If I could just hop a jet to Yemen I could pick one up in some village for under $200 RIGHT NOW, and a full auto select-fire model at that - I'm gonna get a second one. 

 

One to sell between the next time the gun grabbers try their crap again, so I can buy it back when that effort fails.

 

And one to keep in case it doesn't. If Obama winds up getting impeached, you may well be treated to numerous examples of why one might "need" a thirty-round magazine. 

THE STEUBENVILLE, OHIO JUVENILE RAPE VERDICT AND THE WEB COMMENTS ON IT

Today several online news orgaizations announced the guilty verdicts handed down in Jefferson County, Ohio juvenile court against two Steubenville High School football players. The two were convicted of taking advantage of a 16 year old female who was so intoxicated that she was incapable of legal consent to a sex act. 

 

The two boys face a maximum sentence of confinement in a juvenile corrections facility until they are 21.

 

 

I read various versions of the story, mostly based on Associated Press reports. Then I read the "comments" of various readers. Some of these people are arguably sicker than the rapists. Most of them have no idea what the law is in Ohio (or anyplace else) nor do they know the philosophy behind, oh, say having a juvenile justice system with special provisions. 

 

Particularly disgusting was the (sadly predictable) slew of commentors who slobbered about the two boys being raped in juvenile prison. One idiot said they should be sent to "an adult prison without pants".  Reading some of those comments, I had to wonder whether or not they actually wanted to watch these kids get abused. 

 

And, let's not forget, the avalanche of people who wanted the boys to be castrated; many times without benefit of anesthesia; and in at least two cases some idiot said that the convicted teens should be forced to eat their own genitalia (probably while being raped).

 

Most of the rest of the comments were variations on the theme of "how awful" along with the commentor's own little idea of how the world would be perfect if he or she could tell everyone what to do. "Banning" "Sexist jokes" for one thing.

 

 

The fact is that the juvenile justice system exists because young folks do stupid things, and that in this case sometimes hormones and alcohol do things to a young person that he or she regrets later.

 

Confinement until age 21 is an eternity to a 15-17 year old kid. And contrary to the belief of some, that felony record is not completely expunged after these two turn 21. And they may have to register as sex offenders for some time after they get out of confinement.

One astonishing fact is that the overwhelming majority of the evidence in this case consisted of the "tweets" and other text messages which were sent flying through the airwaves, along with a few pictures and, famously, a "YouTube" video in which an (allegedly) uninvolved kid makes vulgar jokes about the rape.

This, along with the factor of alcohol acting as a lubricant on all the underage actors pointed to a situation in which it was not a case of "no means no" but more like a bunch of kids so drunk nobody was legally capable of saying "yes" "no" or "maybe". 

The decision to keep this matter in juvenile court was made by the judge and the prosecutors. Had this been forcible rape - and yes there IS a legal difference, spelled out in the Ohio Revised Code - the case likely would have gone to adult court and the boys to adult jail.

The sentence just came in an hour ago. One kid got two years in Juvie and the other kid got "at least one year".  Seems to me the Jefferson County, Ohio Common Pleas Court got it just about right. Now I'm going to go back to the blogs and find out (and I bet I'm right) how many IDIOTS are outraged that these two sad-sack teenaged dolts are not going to be broken on the wheel, in public.

And people wonder why I sift comments....

 



WHAT KIND OF FISH IS THIS?

Recently a number of news organizations announced the discovery of a fraudulent practice among restaurants and even among a few fishmongers. It seems that you may wind up being served tialapa instead of red snapper, or a cheaper variety of tuna than what is advertised.

 

 

This is news? This has been going on since dog was a donut. Unscrupulous "chefs" have been cutting "scallops" out of flounder filets for years. Toss these fake "scallops" with enough garlic, butter, and capers and they pass quite handily as coqiells St. Jacques.

 

Some years ago we ordered "scallops" from an Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips franchise. They seemed a bit large and a lot too uniform in size, so we dissected one. After we peeled away the breading, we found our "scallop" to be composed of a coiled strip of flaked, pressed, formed God-knows-what. Allegedly, it was some kind of seafood. To be fair, we didn't really expect six real scallops for three bucks and change, but still we believe if you are selling scallops, then scallops are what you must provide. It would have been acceptable if the menu listing was "flaked rolled scallop strips" - but only if the strip was composed of scallop trimmings, and maybe it was. And maybe it wasn't.

 

The other day we were watching television when an ad for the "Checkers" chain of fast-food joints came on, touting a fish sandwich made from "fresh-caught Alaskan filet".

 

ALASKAN FILET OF WHAT??

 

Alaskan whale turd? Alaskan seagull? Well, we suppose it is some kind of fish caught in Alaskan waters; and almost anything you haul up out of Alaskan waters is pretty tasty. So we guess we'll give Checkers a pass on this one, so long as they actually use something caught off Alaska, and it's fish filet and not "flaked processed" squid or some such.

 

What's dishonest about all this is of course that cheap ingredients are being passed off as more expensive ingredients. Farm-raised catfish tastes amazingly like Dover sole. But nobody is going to pay thirty bucks for "filet of catfish". 

 

So here's our suggestion: When you order fish at some restaurant, carve off about a cubic inch worth and wrap it in a napkin and take it home. Call your consumer protection agency and have them analyze the sample. And if your scallop turns out to be flounder, raise holy hell.  We know times are tough, but don't try to sell a Volkswagen and call it an Audi. 



POPE FRANCIS

MY Sister-in law is Roman Catholic, and so my niece and nephew were raised Roman Catholic, so I guess I gotta kinda tiptoe around here.

 

 

Nah. I never tiptoe around on this blog. I do feel that Martin Luther had a a point when he nailed his theses to the cathedral door. But I won't say that the Roman Catholic Church is not truly Christian. However neither will I say that it is correct dogma to ask Mary, John, Paul, Jude or any other Saint to pray to Jesus or God for me.

 

 

There are two kinds of Protestant: Anglican and Lutheran. The Anglican types  are members of the Church of England and the Episcopalian Church. This "Anglican Communion" was founded by Henry VIII when the Pope refused to grant him an annulment. That's not much of a foundation for a faith, and particularly the Episcopal branch of the Anglican Communion has embraced as priests and bishops persons such as he whom I call "wrong-way Spong" who are - I am being generous - skeptical of the Divinity of Jesus. There was a notorious case a few years ago where the Episcopalians elevated to the rank of Bishop a man who had left his wife and kids FOR ANOTHER MAN. Seems to me this "bishop" should look up the definiton of "faith". 

 

(In a satire years ago on the differences between Christian belief systems - called "Denominational Hells" - the National Lampoon compared the Catholic Hell (for masturbation) with the Methodist Hell (for playing cards), the Presbyterian Hell (for dancing), the Baptist Hell (for drinking) and the Episcopalian Hell (for eating oysters with the salad fork).)

 

On the other hand, Lutheran Protestantism derives from the rebellion of Martin Luther, who challenged the authority of Rome on much more solid theological grounds. Lutheran Protestantism - and if the term does not exist, by the way, I just coined it; so OED, give the ADP due credit in your next edition - gave rise to almost every later sect and denomination. For the purposes of this post, the most important point of Lutheran Protestant doctrine is the "priesthood of all believers"; ie: all believers can access an audience with Almighty God by the simple act of individual prayer. No "Father O'Malley, pray for me", no "Mary, pray for we sinners". A Lutheran-style Protestant like me has no need of an intermediary (although nothing is wrong with praying for another person, Christian or not).

 

And so I have no need of Priest nor Pope. But so long as the object of veneration is the Holy God who died on the Cross as an Atonement for the sins of the world, then you are pretty much on course.

 

Okay, now that I've explained a few things, let's get down to brass tacks.

 

The entire world does not watch when the Southern Baptist Conference changes presidents. The politics of the United Methodists do not draw global attention. I think the "Prophet" of the "Latter Day Saints" is some guy named Kimball, I'm not sure and I don't really care. 

 

But I know that Pope Pius led the Catholics when I was born, followed by Pope John, then Pope John Paul I and John Paul The Great; who was succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict recently decided to abdicate and has now been succeeded by Pope Francis.

 

Not, mind you Pope Francis I. He won't be Pope Francis I until he leaves office and some other Cardinal gets elected and chooses the name Francis, at which point he will be Francis II and the present pope will be Francis I.  My dad wasn't a "senior" until I was born with his name. Same principle.

 

As I said, however, nobody cares who the president of the Southern Baptist Conference is, except maybe here in America for about ten minutes. Let the Papacy be an open office, however and everybody from the New York Times to the most remote newspaper on the planet is sending reporters by jet, train, and donkey to cover the proceedings. There is always speculation about such things as "the first American Pope" "The first African Pope" and all.

 

There are always deluded morons who think that maybe the new Pope will carve out a niche for "gay marriage" or an exeption for abortion or some such thing. And of course it never happens, and these types then rag on the Pope endlessly. Why do the heathen rage? I think we know why.

 

Among the things being speculated on was whether the Cardinals would elect an Italian Pope. Well, the new Pope has an Italian name, but he's from Argentina.  This makes Francis the first non-European Pope in over seven centuries. He does, however come from a Latin/European culture. And he is likely to be just as conservative as his two predecessors. It baffles me as to why the heathen of the planet hope that the College of Cardinals would choose a Pope who would turn their own beliefs upside down. The heathen rage because they were not allowed to install a Pope who would give them control of the most influential and powerful ecclesiastic office on the planet.

 

Popes have had tremendous influence across the globe. John Paul the Great had almost as much to do with the fall of Communism as did Ronald Reagan; and indeed he was indispensible in the effort. Holding the office of Vicar of Christ in the Roman Catholic faith is a powerful position, equivalent on a secular level to the Presidency of the United States. This has not always been obvious. Indeed, Joseph Stalin once asked: "How many divisions (of soldiers) does the Pope have?"

 

A few decades ago, John Paul the Great - and legions of angels - toppled Communism. I beheld, open-mouthed, as the red banner with its yellow hammer-and-sickle was hauled down from the Russian embassy on 16th Street in Washington and replaced with the old Russian tricolor. I watched as young Germans, joined with Communist East German border guards, pounded down the Berlin Wall - a barrier that none of my generation expected to be demolished, and yet there before my eyes it was being torn down. How many divisions? Legions.

 

And even considering the global power and influence of the Papacy, one of the first things Pope Francis did was to go to the Vatican hotel he had been staying at, and paid his own bill.

 

Jesus would have done the same. So far, my Catholic bretheren and their College of Cardinals have made an excellent choice.

 

Congratulations.

 

THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE'S NEW UNIFORM DESIGN AND LOGO BLOW DONKEYS

I have long said that of all my personal possessions I am most proud of my Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force. No, I didn't go to the 'Nam; I enforced military law and provided physical security at Howard/Albrook in the Panama Canal Zone and on Andrews AFB in Maryland (although at the time Air Force One had its own  Security Police squadron, the 89th MAC Security Police. General base security and law enforcement was provided by the 1002md Security Police, commanded by Chief of Security Police Major "Bullwinkle" Sullivan. That was my outfit.)

 

Things have changed, and a bit too much for my liking.

 

The first time I saw the new USAF logo was about a dozen years ago when I saw it painted on the water tank at Andrews AFB (Now "joint base Andrews", and I have plenty to say about this new "joint base" crapola; but not in this post). The new logo is a modification of the "star and bars" markings on the wings and fuselage of USAF aircraft, with the "bars" twisted up to suggest "wings". 

 

That was bad enough, but yesterday I got my first close-up personal look at the new USAF "Class-A" uniform (for those of you unfamiliar with military terminology, "Class A" means one step below "formal" black-bow-tie. It's the uniform that General Staff officers have their official portraits taken in.)  Horror of freaking horrors, that "winged star" logo has REPLACED THE NATIONAL EAGLE as the CAP DEVICE! (The "cap device" is that emblem on the front of the hat, for all you draft-dodgers out there).

 

That, combined with the new tailoring of the "class A" uniform, makes our USAF warrriors look like pilots of Air Italia. Cheese and rice.

 

Back in my day, enlisted people wore a cap device consisting of the National Eagle surrounded by a circle; while officers wore a larger eagle by itself. These symbols denoted a martial quality very effectively. This new logo denotes "fruitcake".

 

And let's just have a word about the new designation for the USAF's law enforcement entity: "Security Forces".  Gah. And the motto: "Defensor Fortis" (defender of the forces)? Cripes. LAME-O.

 

The first designation for this entity was "Air Police". This was changed to "Security Police" to reflect the fact that we provided both law enforcement and flight-line security to the USAF. Now, for some reason, military police personnel in USAF find themselves called "Security Forces" (although the badge and the vehicles still say "POLICE" very plainly).

 

And by the way, why in hell is it that EVERYBODY in USAF is running around in camo fatigues as if they were all going to be deployed halfway around the world in about ten minutes? They tell me that it is to "display readiness" for combat "at a moment's notice".  Well, fine. So why is it that the Security Poli... oops, Security Forces who see Obama off on Air Force One are dressed like the staff of Pasta Fazool Airlines?

 

Well?