To my faithful few: Sorry for the light blogging, just had a job change and have some admin issues getting in the way or more coherent thoughts (of course, that’s my opinion of the material posted here – feel free to disagree).

I have consummed many cups of coffee at the “pay for library” in the neighborhood. Tonight, I was reading the current Naval History magazine and came across this jewel of a quote:

“There is but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.” – Patrick Henry

This comment is so timely. With all the things going on in the country and the world right now, the study of history will tell us not much is new, yet many proclaim it to be.

Something to ponder in the light of Patrick Henry’s words and, if you’re got some time on your hands to read a speech, wander to this address and see what Alexander Solzhenitsyn had to say at Harvard in 1978.

Matt at Black Five has a post regarding an new bill being sponsered by Joe Lieberman (D – Conn) and Jeff Sessions (R – Ala) to increase the death benefits of service members. When you see some of the payouts, you’ll see they are pretty outdated in todays economy, and I would ask you to lend your support to this cause by contacting your representatives in Congress.

Please pass this along to your freinds, family and co-workers…

It seems the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is upset that the terrorists in the new season of the Fox suspense show “24” are being stereotyped as Islamic. For the short notes on this, I found the article on Little Green Footballs in this post.

Somehow, and correct me if I’m wrong (particulaly in the post Bay of Bengal tsunami disaster days), but haven’t we regularly seen the American Flag burned by Palestians, Iraqis, Egyptian, Afgani, etc, etc, etc Muslims in the news over the last few years? I may have been hallucinating, but I also recall the burning of manequins labled George Bush by the same fervent crowds, while they shot rifles and pistols in the air, all of this while proclaiming Americans are completely evil. Toss in the lies about planting nuclear weapons in the sea floor to cause tidal waves, purposely planning 9/11, and a plethora of other completely out to lunch accusations with no foundation in fact by the same crowds….

I think we most certainly can remove references to Islamic terrorists, when some other group commits 51% of the terrorist attacks against Americans, and also when Al Jazerra stops “stereotyping” Americans as oppressors and imperialists.

Notice CAIR doesn’t say who should be the terrorsts, just they shouldn’t be represented by those who are actually committing most every terrorist act in the world in the last few years…..

Once more, a daily read of Black Five yields a story worth passing along:

Artist retires so he can make portraits of fallen military members

There’s just something special about people who will listen to the leading of God and do something so very compassionate. Please follow the link to Matt’s site and then follow the links to the Stryker Brigade’s stories of this man at work.

My prior post about Captain Greenawalt, a Vietnam Vet who will do memorial photo collages, is here.

I urge you to pass this information around to the families you know who have sacrificed their loved ones.

News about relationships and how the American soldier does what is good…

National Guard 133rd Engineer Battalion’s “Farewell” Tour

Take a peek and see anohter story that most likely will get about no coverage, for once again, it might show something positive…

It certainly appears that the MSM just hates bloggers. I have come to understand when you have a strong emotional reaction to anything (usually in the negative direction), it’s good to sit back and examine just why you feel that way. Many times, I have come to the conclusion (properly so) that I have a problem, not the person who “set me off.” I’d invite the MSM to seriously consider what has put the burr under their saddle, and possibly see if there’s something they can do to help amend the current “divide.”

Also, I was lead to believe that “jounalists” were to report the news, not to set out to “change the world.” Idealism is fine, but being deceitful is wrong, and that, I believe is at the core of the problem. If you want to change the world, say so and get on with it. You’ll get respect points for telling it straight. If not, you loose points for lying. Call that a “DUH!” moment, but maybe too many jounalists have grown up under the post-Dr. Spock days, and had no leadership at home.

Enough rambling. Taka a click on this article about press “cheerleading”. At least it highlights the problem internally. We can only hope it takes root.

Update: And pictures of the relief effort by the US Navy…

I picked up this report in the comments section on a post at Little Greeen Footballs. A Navy helipcopter pilot sent these remarkable words from the operations.

Please note, for the uninitited, that “crew rest” for Naval Aviators is a big deal and the NATOPS Manuals require they get “eight hours of sleep” a day. While often this is a point of reference for barbed comments between the “shoes” (“ship drivers” or “black shoes”) and the aviators, this post indicates someone has locally modified that requirement in order to help out at a level of effort necessary (and I’m sure some of those crews feel they aren’t doing enough, even with 4 hours off a day).

Here’s the post:

Village Idiot’s Apprentice 1/4/2005 10:58AM PST
Just a quick copy of something one of the officers here at the Academy sent me. These guys are amazing.

Here’s a great story about the US Navy helping out the tsunami victims. “Just spoke with one of my helo buds about what is going on on the flight deck here in Aceh. The devistation is much greater than can be described. This morning, there were dead bodies face down floating all around the ship. We have since moved position. My helo bud was working till 0130 AM and had to brief at 0430 AM. Every helo crew is working from sunrise to sunset (9 hours straight in helo) bringing food and supplies to villages all over the northern part of Indonesia. USS Lincoln was first on seen I am told. He said that he counted 15 bodies floating in water on his short few mile trip
to the shore line. Thousands of bodies are in mass graves all over the country and in one town, population 50,000, only 1000 people are still alive. Most large several story concrete buildings now have no concrete on them – just the metal frame of building remains. One bridge was completely displaced from its original location several miles inland and has been flopped upside down. A huge tanker ship was overturned by the Tsunami and displaced over land. He said it looks like a bulldozer several miles wide has run its steel edge across the landscape, leveling everything. He is doing flights about 100nm away from ship taking supplies to make shift landing zones near leveled villages. On the way there are people with flags waiving for him to stop to give them food and water. His copilot logs the lat longs so that supplies can be brought to the people on a future mission. The people are now dying from exposure, lack of water and food. The medical team predicts many people will die in 3 days. My friend says that there are about 300 helos (he describes the sky as “grey with Navy helos”) working the effort but it doesn’t even come close to what is needed to even dent what needs to be done. He said that even if every aircraft on the flight deck was able to bring supplies – it wouldn’t be enough. When CAG went flying with him, he got out of the helo to off load supplies. The people flocked
to CAG, trying to hug him but he had to direct them to the boxes of food, water and supplies to not be run over. The destruction is especially bad where the surge wave was funneled in between two areas of rising terrain. The water surged and picked up speed as it was squeezed into valleys between the mountains. When listening to my bud, I could see that he could not fully describe how bad things really are. He was tired too. Please pray for the people in desparation over here and pray for helo pilots. I am getting my final medical screening and chaiplain brief today and should be one of the teams going in in the next week or so. The security is not good enough for us to stay over night so we are limited to 6 helos bringing 8 people each morning and we have to come home each night. I am on team 36 so don’t know when I will get off to help out. It is frustrating to not be able to help out.

God Bless,

I agree, praying would be a good thing, for the deck and flight crews who are putting in the herculean effort, just as much as if they were supporting a war, but in this case, in the name of humanity.

Today I followed a link to this story about a 14 year old boy working as a translator. I find it simply amazing that stories such as this don’t seem to appear in the MSM. Why not, you ask? Once again….God forbid we show that democracy works, that the country of Iraq is worth our effort.

Papa Doc at Winds of Change has posted an article that takes apart the December 16th, 2004 audio tapes from Osama bin Laden.

There were actually two tapes. One for the Iraqis and one for the Saudis. The analyst, Dan Darling, sees three audiences in the Saudi tape: The Americans, the Saudis and the Iraqis.

I’m going to find some time to really read this. It’s long, yet it lays out some things we will need to consider in the days and years ahead, and for the following generations.

LCOL Dave Belsan sent the following email to his Father. It paints a picture of the aftermath of wresting the city from a a band of terrorists, and what has been done to help the residents get back to their homes.

God forbid the MSM actually goes out of their way to actually report that something good is being done by the US Military, it might make people believe these men and women they “support” aren’t really evil…..

The Green Side is Dave’s Father’s blog to post the reports he receives from his son.

I, for one, am glad men like Dave Belsan are on the front lines. Having read many of his reports, he sounds like a great leader, and a compassionate man, working hard to balance the use of force with the need to help.