SNAP -- Food for Thought

Despite the happy news reports from the Lamestream Media that the economy is on the mend and the end of the housing meltdown, a record number of Americans are on food stamps.  In 2012, the federal government spent $74.6 billion on food stamps, which was increase of 70% from the amount spent prior to the 2008 downturn.   Now 15% of the populace or 47.8 million people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

As the federal government defaulted its budgeting duties to sequestration, which is just a 2.3% cut in the rate of domestic spending growth, the Obama Administration has been making these budget reductions as painful as possible for the American people.  So a variety of high profile ham-handed cuts have been made, like releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants in detention facilities, cancelling White House tours for school kids, rolling closures at the Smithsonian Museums, reducing the size of the Marine Corps by 22,000, cutting military contractors by one day furlows amount to a 20% salary cut, cancelling Blue Angels flights, cutting the Air Forces flights by nearly 20%, delaying maintenance on navel vessels delaying deployment, cuts in air traffic controllers delaying flights and more. 

 In this artificially austere environment, the Obama Administration continues sharing the SNAP program for illegal aliens.





Judicial Watch has exposed documenst from the U.S. Department of Agriculture of Spanish language advertising campaign sent to the Mexican embassy advising people how to apply for food stamps in the United States.  The salient detail is a statement that is both bolded and underlined  which notes: “You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.”

So a government that is so supposedly cash strapped that it is laying off air traffic controllers,  government contractors and risking military readiness continues a campaign for what the politically correct Obama Administration (and the White House stenographers working for the Associated Press) would label  "undocumented immigrants."   Or as Jay Leno joked, "undocumented Democrats."



Nevertheless, this neither inspires confidence in the competency of comprehensive immigration legislation, Executive Branch budgeting skills or public policy prioritization.

 While this information has prompted Senator John Thune (R-SD) to vow that this USDA program will be cut, these seem like empty words from a minority party in a Senate that did not even bother to pass a budget for three years.  When Senator Harry Reid decided to finally pass a budget, after the threat of not being paid unless they did their jobs,  the Senate Democrat passed budget featured another $1 trillion tax hike and the budget deficit actually increases. 

Rather than appealing to Mexicans, maybe we should target our advertising to give succor to Chavistas, as America is currently being run like a banana republic, albeit without the comfy upscale clothing.  

An Animated Nikita Khrushchev Opines About American Progressive Politics

Brooding Over Born Never Asked

It is fascinating to witness how the gory details of the Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s capital murder case has made pro-choice people uncomfortable.  The elite liberal media had to be shamed to cover the serial killing string infanticides of seven babies who were born but had their spinal cords “snipped” to “ensure fetal demise”.  

The New York Times, whose mast proclaims “All the News that is fit to print”, which tends to be the vanguard for the mainstream media (really the elite liberal media) stopped covering it because it had already published six articles.  The New York Times’ editorial editor Andrew Rosenthal rationalized the Old Gray Lady’s lack of curiosity over the gruesome details of Gosnell by opining: 

What does the trial of a Philadelphia doctor who is accused of performing illegal late-term abortions by inducing labor and then killing viable fetuses have to do with the debate over legal abortion?

That rhetorical question is easy to answer– it gives insights how some of our high ranking elected officials actually hold political positions which condone Gosnell’s acts of infanticide and how government officials and medical turn a blind eye to existing law protecting the newly born to ensure the viability of their perceived sacred right of abortion on demand.

Some people got uncomfortable with Snips of Truth which shows that  when Barack Obama was in the Illinois state legislature, he vocally twice voted against  the Born-Alive Protection Act, even after he had the legislative language watered down in committee.  The thrust of Obama’s objections is that the need to have a second physician available is really designed to burden the abortionist if he induces labor and the unborn child is still alive.  

The chilling testimony from the Gosnell trial doing illegal late term abortions and joking “That child could walk me home”, and having a clinic which has a live birth and puts the newborn from a botched abortion in a shoe box until it dies.  But abortion apologists will excuse these egregious actions by claiming that Gosnell is just a bad egg which spoils the bunch. 

The normalcy bias compels low information citizens who are open to abortions to not believe that this course culture of death is prevalent.  That is why the video documentation is telling.  Live Action, a pro-life group which does investigative journalism, documented an abortion clinic worker in the Bronx who advised a prospective six month pregnant mother to “flush” the baby down the toilet if he or she is delivered at home before the final stage of the two- or three-day abortion procedure.  In fact, the Bronx abortion clinic strongly suggested if she was going into labor to call them as opposed to a hospital because they might make you push it out and have the baby. 

Another example is in Orlando, Florida when a 23 week pregnant woman gave birth to a live child in an abortion clinic.  The new mother begged abortion clinic workers to call 911, but those pleas were ignored.  Eventually, the woman (who was still attached to the umbilical cord) got a hold of her cell phone and called for medical help.  Alas, the emergency workers did not arrive in time and her son died. As the distressed mother recounted:  

Baby Rowen, victim of infanticide at Orlando, Florida abortion clinic. 

 I felt so bad. I felt so helpless. I had been so wrong to come here … I wanted to fix and change everything once I saw Rowan’s precious little face and body. All we needed was someone to get us to safety.

But considering the inconvenience that this botched abortion posed and the unsanitary conditions given (unsanitary wet blankets, dried blood on the walls, no assistance during labor), it is obvious in hindsight that no help would be forthcoming. 

Live Action also released an undercover investigative interview with Washington, DC Abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo, he told a prospective 24 week pregnant mother:  “I try and sever the umbilical cord first, and we wait for that to stop pulsing, and this way the fetus is expired first.”   When Santagelo was pressed if the baby was born alive, the medically licensed doctor revealed:

Technically – you know, legally we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive.  But, you know, it probably wouldn’t.  It’s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point.  Let’s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination part of the procedure here, you know?  Then we would do things – we would – we would not help it.  We wouldn’t intubate.  It would be, you know, uh, a person, a terminal person in the hospital, let’s say, that had cancer, you know?  You wouldn’t do any extra procedures to help that person survive.  Like ‘do not resuscitate’ orders.  We would do the same things here.

When the ironically named Dr. Santangelo was caught on tape by pro-life activists, Santangelo tried to do damage control in the sympathetic Washington Post.  Santangelo’s interview was double speak in which he contradicted his infamous statements by insisting that he was call 911 but that he would not do anything extraordinary and that he “would let nature take its course.”  No wonder why Santangelos spokespiece now labels pro lifers "terrorists".


Dr. Santangelo’s outspoken opinions  raises some uncomfortable questions that should give civilized citizens a pregnant pause.  When do the rights of personhood confer?  At 24 weeks, the unborn baby is viable in the womb.  If a child is born in a botched abortion, does the originally stated intent of the mother to kill that thing override the right to life?   Dr. Santanglo likens a fetus surviving an incomplete abortion to being like a terminal person the hospital who one would not take extra ordinary procedures to give medical help.  Analogizing infanticide to “do not resuscitate” orders has several flaws: 1) there is no legal instrument to act upon  2) it seemingly violates the Hyppocratic Oath 3) the child was born but not asked 4) it violates standing federal law. 

It seems that Santangelo does not feel that  that the federal law Born Alive Infant Protection Act”   1 U.S.C. § 8 does not apply to him because the intention was abortion.  Alas, the legislative language covers children born “regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.”    If it offers Santangelo any solace, based upon the prior history of the Obama Administration under the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder of ignoring laws that it does not like and forgoing sure prosecutions to favored political parties. 

It is interesting to note that the Illinois Born Alive Protection Act was modeled after the now law Federal Act, yet Mr. Obama repeatedly voted against it as a state legislator.  As President Obama conveyed in his recent speech before the Planned Parenthood conference, the right to choose is all about womens’ health.   He is proud of Obamacare, which forces nearly everyone (except Muslims, the Amish, Native Americans, Christian Scientists and maybe Congress and their legislative staffs) to getting Qualified Health Plans which HHS Secretary Sebelius proscribed that had to contain abortifacients.  

Although this author is appalled by abortion, it is currently the law of the land with some caveats (like the 24 week rule, and Born Alive).  But consider the appalling medical conditions described in the Gosnell trial, and the aforementioned Orlando abortion instance.  Does this type of treatment represent the sentiments which President Obama alluded to when quoting President Bill J. Clinton that “Abortion should be rare, safe and legal”.

While none of the aforementioned clinics were run by Planned Parenthood, as they were doing the medically complicated and unsavory late term abortions, Planned Parenthood certainly may have referred to them to such houses of horror like Gosnell's Philadelphia clinic. This is the cosy relationship which allows taxpayers to expend $317 million in taxpayer funds in 2011 and Planned Parenthood can claim clean hands, while referring lucrative late term abortions to unseemly referral clinics where desperate women are coerced to get rid of a "problem" child for a big chunk of change. 

If abortionists routinely skirt the law on infants born alive and give sub-par medical treatment to women wanting abortions on the cusp of legally recognized viability, then how does it bode for other medical treatment, especially under Obamacare? 

Those who oppose abortion know that pro-choice people become uncomfortable when the ghastly  facts about abortion as practice are exposed.  That is why the Lamestream Media ignores cases like Gosnell and Hollywood stereotypes pro-lifers as hayseed, obsessed bitter clingers.  But as we are all being fed into the machine of Obamacare, people should be fully cognizant how medical ethics are being skirted for profit and professional integrity as well as the ethics of removing the voice for the defenseless such as  the unborn may soon imperil you.

Snips of Truth About Ignoring Infanticide in America

Some may be scandalized by comparing the unsavory actions of abortionist Kermit Gosnell and President Barack Obama.  Yet the facts hold out that as a legislator in the Illinois Senate, Mr. Obama twice opposed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

In 2008, Presidential Candidate Obama  lashed out against "liars" when his legislative positions were questioned.  He issued a statement that he was deeply insulted and offended as the proud father of two girls that he was in favor of infanticide.  Even the Washington Post would award Mr. Obama four pinocchios for this misleading statement, as Obama was impeached on a Christian Broadcasting Network video, but that was so four years ago. 

But listen to the legislative colloquy that then State Senator Obama had on the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

That if that fetus, or child, however you want to describe it, is now outside of the mother's womb and the doctor continues to think that it's non viable but there's lets say movement or some indication that they're not just coming out limp and dead that in fact they would then have to call in a second physician to monitor and check off and make sure that this is not a live child that could be saved?

The salient point is that the requirement to have a second physician on call was an undue burden that would inhibit access to an abortion.   Furthermore, Mr. Obama dismisses the notion that physicians would not attend to mistakes and have a fetus outside of the mother's womb that was viable.

Consider the gory facts exposed in the Gosnell capital murder case in Philadelphia.  Abortionist Gosnell's special technique, which he instructed other unlicensed staff in his office to also perform, was to snip the spinal cord of a just born-alive child in an illegal late term abortion so that it "ensured fetal demise".  Does that give Mr. Obama some cause for pause?

Mr. Obama's contradictory comments make as much sense as when President Obama recently said "God Bless Planned Parenthood"  to a conference of the nation's largest abortion and "family planning" providers.  

The media continues to ignore the inconsistencies in Obama's extreme abortion stance as well as the details of the Kermit Gosnell trial because facts challenging their secular shibboleths exposes the hypocrisy of doing everything "for the children" and exposes the callousness of their "choices". And to add insult to mortal injury,  both Gosnell and Mr. Obama justify their actions to help the poor and marginalized, with little regard for the law, ethics, or the ultimate consequences.

Delving Into Dreams of Publication

While catching up on reading others’ blogs, I came across an insightful article in by Rob Stroud in  Mere Inklings, a site inspired by the storied Oxford writing circle which included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  The “Anticipation of Publication” piece considered the advent of the internet has inspired samizat cyber publications of works which might have been pre-emptively dismissed by traditional publishers as well as materials not ready for prime time which “the afore-insulted editors would formerly have protected the world from.”  

Stroud’s essay  examines the sense of victory which a writer feels on spreading his work. But keeping true to Mere Inklings, he quotes a C.S. Lewis letter to his close friend Arthur Greeve’s upon the publication of Lewis’s first book of poetry:

So at last dreams come to pass and I have sat in the sanctum of a publisher discussing my own book (Notice the hideous vulgarity of success already growing in me). Yet—though it is very pleasant—you will understand me when I say that it has not the utter romance which the promise of it had a year ago. Once a dream has become a fact I suppose it loses something. This isn’t affectation: we long and long for a thing and when it comes it turns out to be just a pleasant incident, very much like others.

This cautionary humbling from Lewis caused me to contemplate why my blogging and writing is so meaningful to me. 

Since I have seriously started writing, my spouse will occasionally complain that she is a blog widow when I get in my writing bubble.  There are evenings when I am reminded that I do not have a deadline when I am trying to put a piece to bed.  I find writing a personally rewarding avocation which might augment vocational pursuits. Previously, my pastimes used to be playing strategy oriented computer games and watching television.  While I may watch some programs or play a game to unwind, writing gives me a means to channel my creative energy.

The compulsion about sharing thoughts about civics is deeply rooted in my character. I am inspired by Alexsandr Solzyhentsyn’s observation that “Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience from generation to generation.”  Although opining on current events risks being exposed to being wrong, it can serve as a compelling journal of a journey to the truth.  And as William Blake observed: “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”

It is their loss that most people choose to be more concerned about the Kardashians and the ilk rather than educate themselves about things that will truly shape their lives.  Oscar Wilde noted: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”  I appreciate my writing as a conduit to living. But experience has shown that impact of ideas is not always indicated in site statistics. 

[L] Miguel de Unanumo

In Miguel de Unamuno’s novel “La Tia Tula” (1921), the protagonist proclaims that there are three ways to change the world: 1) plant a tree 2) write a book or 3) raise a child.  Rather than just grumble about the way things ought to be, I see writing for websites as a means to change the world, even in a small way.





Some people have offered kind words about my writing skill, which I deeply appreciate.  But without the Internet, trying to get my  style of commenting on public policy (which has a short shelf life) published on a freelance basis would be a Sisyphean pursuit.  Moreover,   I know that my metier is composing a 700 word essay.  That style tends to be too long for our byte sized information age.  As Nathaniel Hawthorn quipped “Easy reading is hard writing.”  Thus writing and blogging is a way to get my ideas across to the public, but one sometimes wonders if there is anybody out there.



By delving into blogging I needed to augment other nascent abilities, like graphic design, video production, animation and publicity. These skill sets are immediately applicable but should also be utilized in other pursuits in “the real world.”  It also taps into inchoate interests, such as aphorisms, art and animation, which had been dormant or previously underutilized. 

While publishing on the internet diminishes the electric charge of seeing your handiwork in print, there still can be surprising instances of elation.  I still revel in a public policy scrum on another blog when the professional cited my own research to me unknowingly.  Or when covering an event, a person rushes across a quasi-basilica to ask about an article that I had published but mere hours beforehand. 

Still, writing is in its nature a solitary pursuit in which one can question what impact is being made.  Emily Dickenson lived a reclusive life whose oeuvres were virtually unknown during her lifetime.  The specter of being perpetually obscure can be humbling.  Although the internet does distribute publications to the world, but it is a question of whether anything breaks through the alluvia of information.  

Jules Renard joked that: “Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.”  It is unclear if my endeavors will prove to be financially lucrative, but considering how much personal wealth from writing in being alive, striving to impact the world, creating something lasting and tapping into my associated other skills makes the effort seem worthwhile to me. 

Philadelphia Fallout From the Abortionist Kermit Gosnell Trial

The horrific testimony about Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is being tried for
the murder of seven newborns and a Bhutanese female refuge after a botched abortion has shown that ideology isolates opinion on mass murder.  While America is outraged over the cruel killing and maiming that the Boston Marathon Bombers inflicted, the media had to be shamed into briefly covering a doctor who's groundbreaking technique was to snip the spinal cords of infants after being born to "ensure fetal demise" and storing dozens on jars of dismembered body parts on shelves.

Kermit Gosnell's attorney Jack McMahon

Through his lawyer Jack McMahon, Gosnell claims  that: "Everybody's made him the butcher, this, that and the other thing without any trial, without anything being exposed to the public and everybody's found him guilty, that's not right"..  Furthermore, the Gosnell's legal mouthpiece asserted that: "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give (back) to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia."  If that were the case, why did Gosnell's defense not bring it up in trial--after all, the two year gag order was moot in court.   Instead, the  Gosnell defense rested without calling a single witness.


The lack of curiosity in the Lamestream Media over the testimony for the  House of Horrors at 3801 Lancaster is understandable as political partisans who do not want the sacrament of abortion on demand to be endangered.

 But even for those who fervently support the right of a mother to an unborn baby, they should be concerned at the basically unregulated health and sanitary conditions and disparate treatment of their desperate customers.

Public health officials found unsterile medical instruments, with rusty and outdated equipment covered with dust. Gosnell admitted that perhaps 20% of his procedures were on women after their 24th week, which is in violation of Commonwealth of  Pennsylvania law. In fact, during trial a worker at the clinic testified that Gosnell joked that one baby that he aborted was big enough to walk him home.

The clinic had a string of violations which were never corrected. Then Pennsylvania Health officials stopped inspecting for ten years for what observers might conclude were willful political ignorance about protected procedures.

There was testimony that rang of medical malpractice of women being injured by careless surgical technique on the cervix. And then the clinic had non-licensed individuals, including a 15 year old high school student aiding in surgeries.

When Gosnell applied to become a member of the National Abortion Federation, the Evaluator reported that the records were a mess, that patients were not properly informed of medical risks, that anesthesia was misused and that equipment was not available.  While the invigilator from NAF rejected Gosnell's establishment terming it the worst abortion clinic that she ever inspected, this cornucopia of snafus was not reported to authorities.  So much for caring about womens' health or civic duty.

 It is rich to hear Gosnell's defense talk about racism and targeted treatment when Gosnell himself gave disparate treatment to white women as it was the "way of the world" because they might report him, unlike his Black and Asian clientele.

Pro Life people were dismayed when the trial court judge threw out three counts of the first degree murder for newborns as not having enough evidence to present at trial.  This was probably aided by the documented fact that  Gosnell' destroyed clinic records before he was raided.  The trial judge later reinstated one count on the newborn thrown in a shoe box. Thus Gosnell is still being tried for five first degree murders and the third degree murder of the botched abortion. While this records cleansing may spare him some jail time, the publish should know his record.

If the Lamestream Media would do its job, there would be little need to have a slew of summer Horror flicks as all one would need to do is review Gosnell trial coverage. However the elite liberal media reports on what it cares about, ignores the rest while disparaging journalists who do not follow the party line. For those who can stomach the gory details, it is worth watching the documentary 3801 Lancaster (2013)  by director David Altrogge.



 


h/t: Conrad Friedersdorf, the Atlantic

Happy ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance observed on April 25th each year in Australia and New Zealand to honor the fallen on the battlefield. Originally, the holiday was to recognize those who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire in the Great War (a.k.a. World War I).

While the Gallipoli campaign failed to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) after an eight month stalemate, but the allied troops from Down Under distinguished themselves. In fact, Turkish President Kemal Atatürk said of the opposing troops in 1934:

Those heroes that shed their blood

And lost their lives.

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies

And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side

Here in this country of ours.

You, the mothers,

Who sent their sons from far away countries

Wipe away your tears,

Your sons are now lying in our bosom

And are in peace

After having lost their lives on this land they have

Become our sons as well

The ANZAC Legend  created a powerful legacy which shaped how Aussies and Kiwi's saw their past and their understanding of the present.




The tradition is to remember their valor to the sounds of a bugler playing the last post, reciting the final lines of Lawrence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen"  (1914), also known as "Ode To Remembrance".

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

While ANZAC Day is a solemn day of remembrance, surely the ANZAC Legend contributes to Australian and New Zealand good cheer, which should appreciate Charles Schultz  world ending witticism .

Blinded By Science -- Poetry in Motion Commemorating Earth Day

After being Blinded with Science from the East Anglia hockey stick fixed data about the Climategate anthropogenic Global Warming, it is apropos  to celebrate this years Earth Day with sardonic skepticism.

With this in mind, here is a  poetic gem dedicated to Gaia that was penned by Nobel Peace Prize Winner (2007), subject of the Oscar Winning Documentary (2007) , Grammy Winner (2009), Emmy Winner (2007), Webby Winner (2005) and the 2000 Presidential Election Popular Vote Winner former Vice President Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.




 One thin September soon
A floating continent disappears
In midnight sun

Vapors rise as
Fever settles on an acid sea
Neptune's bones dissolve

Snow glides from the mountain
Ice fathers floods for a season
A hard rain comes quickly

Then dirt is parched
Kindling is placed in the forest
For the lightning's celebration

Unknown creatures
Take their leave, unmourned
Horsemen ready their stirrups

Passion seeks heroes and friends
The bell of the city
On the hill is rung

The shepherd cries
The hour of choosing has arrived
Here are your tools

Despite his bleak climate change poetry, it is a miracle that Al Gore is around on Earth and deriving a $100 million personal profit from the sale of CurrentTV to Al Jazeera.  Gore had predicted in 2008 that the North Pole Ice Cap would be completely melted by the end of 2012.


Of course these evocative verses have a different feel as they were recited by Glenn Beck and cohorts on Beck’s “Elegant Eliminations” Tour.



Did either version release your second chakra?

Loony Toony Interviews With Boston Bombers' Kin

After a tumultuous week of the Boston Marathon Massacre where a terrorist bombing killed three and maimed upwards of 180.  Then there was a manhunt which required the nation’s tenth largest metropolitan area to shelter in place to avoid shootouts with the suspects on the loose who killed Sean Collier, a security officer at M.I.T.  and severely injured Boston Transit Policeman Richard Donahue in the firefight with the men on the run.  In the end, Tamerlan  Tsarnaev was dead and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured and hospitalized after an 18 hour chase. 

Some have tried to offer solace by framing the horrific events as limited.  Five term Boston Mayor Tom Menino (D-Boston) tried to calm the pubic by insisting that the Tsranaev brothers were lone wolves. Menino offered these sweet nothings even though there were reports that “Johar” (the younger suspect who is still alive) had his three roomates taken into custody, the FBI is searching for a cell of twelve  and that ICE is deporting two individuals for expired visas.   Others operate under a more creative conceit of deniability.

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Aunt, Maret Tsarnaev, who lives in Ontario, Canada, gave a presser when Boston was on lock-down in pursuit of the fleeing terrorists.  She insists that they are being framed.





Hearing that your kin has killed and crippled scores of innocent people at the Boston Marathon might not compute so it is somewhat understandable the Maret Tsamaev would proclaim her newphews innocence when besieged by the press.   What is not as easily excused is seeking out the media to shill her fantastic viewpoint. 

On Saturday, the Blaze Radio Network’s Buck Sexton Show had an unprompted phone call from Maret Tsarnaev.  



At first, it sounded as is Ms. Tsarnaev was extending an olive branch to those impacted by the atrocity.  But shortly afterwards, she continued to peddle the narrative of “The boys were framed, there is no proof–you do the math.”  While it is possible that this was a crank call, the grief in the woman’s voice along with the consistency of the denial made it less likely that it was a Howard Stern cohort or other crank yankers.

Buck Sexton blazed with stinging impeachment of the Aunt’s proclamation of innocence, which he later seemed to regret, as he assumed that it was family still in denial.  Granted, that is a charitable assessment but it begs the question of why such a person would seek out media and push crackpot conspiracy theories.  It frankly sounds like a foundation is being laid for a “Loose Change” campaign which has persuaded a significant minority of people to believe that 9/11 was an inside job, despite all of the probative facts. 

The call to the Buck Sexton Show also was reminiscent of taqiyya, a long standing Islamic practice where it is acceptable to lie to the infidel in order to allow for a strategic retreat before the next offensive. 

Assymetric warefare is less about resounding battlefield victories as it is about coloring public opinion.  In the dozen years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, it is not politically correct to even talk about the already amorphous term “War on Terror”, as the Obama Administration wanted to refer to events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing as “Man Made Disasters..”  CAIR has persuaded the government and the media to constrain ourselves from referring to jiahd, and then considering the term to simply be a personal struggle for self improvement.  Despite Major Hassan shouting “Allihu Ackbar” (God is great) during the Fort Hood shootings in 2009, the Obama Administration has tried to sell that terrorist attack as just being an example of “workplace violence”.  

It would be a savvy PR strategy for sympathizers to muddy the waters by claiming innocence, despite overwhelming proof, as fifth column types, naysayers and nutjobs will latch onto a meme However, it is unclear if Maret Tsarnaev was just speaking for herself or furthering a greater cause.  But if the populace can not even agree upon acceptable terms or act on clear and convincing evidence, how can a people defend itself?

Then again, the nickname from a Canadian dollar coin is a Loonie  and a two dollar coin is called a Toonie.    Wonder how much Maret Tsarnaev’s thoughts were worth?

Boston Bombing Victim Instrumental in Identifying Terrorists

One of the more striking images from the Boston Marathon bombing was a photograph of a ashen hued, gravely  injured victim  being wheeled away from the terror site.

Carlos Arredondo assisting Jeff Bauman, at Boston Marathon Bombing
[photo credit : Charles Crupa/ AP]

Jeff Bauman, Jr.  is a 27 year old was waiting near the finish line to cheer on his girlfriend running in her first Boston Marathon.  After the first explosion, Bauman had lost both legs below the calf and his shirt was on fire. The man in the cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo, stopped distributing flags, jumped over the fence and ran toward the victims laying on the ground.  Arredondo extinguished Bauman’s burning shirt with his hands, tore off a shirt to act as a tourniquet on a leg stump. Arredondo stayed with Bauman to comfort him until emergency workers reached the blast victim.

Bauman had to be resurrected during surgery as he had almost exsanguinated. Unfortunately, both of Bauman’s legs had to be amputated.  But while Bauman was still in intensive care on Tuesday under heavy sedation, he asked for paper and a writing utensil.  The patient wrote “bag, saw the guy, looked write at me.”  

When Bauman was put in contact with the FBI, he was able to describe the bomber as wearing “cap, sun glasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt.”  Bauman noted that he locked eyes with the terrorist who placed the backpack at the finish line.   This description was enough for law enforcement to eventually identify  Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspect number 1.




As news broke out that Bauman was instrumental in identifying one of the terrorists, bloggers began a crowd-funding campaign to cover Bauman's medical costs, which had raised $160,000 by Friday afternoon. 

In addition, Jeff Bauman was visited at Boston Medical Center on Thursday by Silver Lining Playbook star Bradley Cooper and New England Patriots Receiver Julius Edelman.  The football player tweeted a photo with the Twitter message:  'Visited #survivor #stud #hero Jeffrey Bauman Jr. today. He was looking great and is a true inspiration. #strong'. 

Jeff Bauman, Jr. being visited by Bradley Cooper and Julius Edelman [photo credit: @Edelman11/Twitter]

After the hub of strange activity around the Boston Bombing and the the bloody manhunt which shut down Beantown on Friday, it is good to give fanfare for the common men like Bauman and Arrendondo who facilitated the capture of the terrorist bombers.  May there be more stories of heroics to bring ALL of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon Bombing to justice.

On the Shot Heard 'Round the World

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.     It was fought on April 19, 1775 when 700 British troops followed a secret order to capture and destroy military supplies reportedly stored by the Massachusetts Militia at Concord. 

Patriotic colonials had received word of this impending crackdown by the British and had moved most of the supplies elsewhere.  Most of the rebellions leadership also fled Boston.

When freedom fighter  leader were informed that the Red Coats were going to march, word needed to be spread to their supporters.  This midnight ride was popularlized by Longfellows 1861 poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere".

However, the news of "One if by land and two if by sea" was also spread by Samuel Prescott along with William Dawes.

This rapid notification allowed the Minutemen to be prepared for the Red Coat's raid.  Captain John Parker lined up about 80 troops on Lexington Green (the town's commons) in parade formation to take make a show of political  determination but not prevent the march of the British.   Parker famously said "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

Memorial to Captain John Parker on Lexington Green, Mass.

The assembled colonialists were warned by a British officer on horseback to disperse and perhaps to "Lay down your arms you damned rebels."  Captain Parker ordered his militiamen to leave and go home, but that order was not clearly heard and Minutemen were slow to leave.

The Dawn of Liberty, Henry Sandham (1886)

The first shots were fired at sunrise in Lexington.  After 237 years later, it is unclear what happened on Lexington Green, but Parker's militia swears that they did not shoot first.  The shot may have come from the crowd assembled watching the stand off between the Red Coats and the Minutemen.  Nevertheless, the British Regulars charged with bayonets and released a devastating volley. Eight Massachusetts Militiamen were killed and they fell back as they were outnumbered.  One Red Coat was slightly injured

 At the North Bridge in Concord, about 500 militiamen defeated three companies of King George's forces.  The outnumbered Red Coat regular forces fell back from the  Minutemen in a pitched battle in open ground.  

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set to-day a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Concord Hymn (1837)

The combined British forces retreated to the safety of Charlestown. Many Massachusetts Militiamen blocked the narrow land access where the British troops were garrissoned and started the eleven month seige of Boston.