The Story of NORAD and the Santa Tracker

A family tradition in my youth was worshiping at a Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and driving around nearby neighborhoods with wonderful holiday light displays while listening for NORAD reports on Santa Claus' whereabouts.  As a jaded grown-up, I presumed that these reports were performance shtick on a long media night.  Little did I know that the reports were real and that a typo and the good cheer of an Air Force colonel brought joy to the world.

During the 1950s, America was engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union which threatened to become hot at any moment. School children of the era was raised to be prepared to duck and cover at any given moment due to a sneak nuclear attack from the enemy.  Soon, Sputnik's successful launch made watching the skies even more important.

In Colorado Springs,Colorado at  the Continental Air Defense Command    a.k.a. CONAD (the predecessor to the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD), there was a red telephone on the commander's desk which had a secret telephone number known only by a four star General at the Pentagon, which would have been used to convey news of an enemy aerial attack.

However, in December 1955, the CONAD commander's red phone rang and the voice on the other line was a little voice which asked "Is this really Santa Claus".  At first the Colonel was upset at what he thought was a crank call, but when he heard crying, the straight laced Colonel changed his demeanor.  The CONAD commander ho-ho-hoed and asked the caller if he had been a good boy.  Afterwards, the Santa Colonel asked to speak to his mother.

It seems that a copy for a Sears Roebuck newspaper ad had a misprint, so "Santa's private phone" number not connecting to Toyland but was actually the secret military number for what is now NORAD. Colonel Shoup delegated a few airman to act like Santa Claus for kiddie red phone callers.

Col. Shoup's daughter,  Terri Van Keuren, recounted: "It got to be a big joke at the command center. You know, 'The old man's really flipped his lid this time. We're answering Santa calls".  So much so, on Christmas Eve 1955, airmen modified the big glass board used to track air flights and included a drawing of a sleigh and eight reindeer coming from the North Pole.

When Col. Shoup saw this modified big board, he exclaimed: "What is this?".  His subordinates apologized and insisted that they were just making a a joke.  Shoup pondered the predicament for a bit and then telephoned a radio station with the message: "This is the Commander at the Combat Air Center, and we have an unidentified flying object.  Why, it looks like a sled.".  Hence the tradition began.

Now kids can call 1-877 HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to talk to NORAD staff about Santa's exact location.  The internet tracker for the big man in red began in 1998 with the SantaCam.  At noradsanta.org, people can view the SantaCams from around the world as well as understand NORAD's main mission. Last year, "Operation Feel" had F-18 fighter jets escorting Santa and his sleigh, which led CNN reporters questioning if the US military had taken possession of Santa Claus.  Of course, these reporters failed to report on "Operation Noble Eagle" with the Royal Canadian Air Force escorts over their territory or how these videos infuse some of NORAD's primary mission to girls and boys along with the spirit of the season.






Colonel Shoup died in 2009.  But even in his 90s, Shoup proudly carried a briefcase which he treated like had top secret information that contained letters thanking him for having a good sense of humor in allowing NORAD to track Santa.



h/t: NPR
      NORADSanta.org 

President Obama's Rose Garden Shamwow

Three weeks after the launch of Obamacare open enrollment, President Barack Obama held an event in the Rose Garden regarding the so called Affordable Care Act. 

With all of the reports of problems with the Obamacare launch, there was some expectation in the Lamestream Media that no drama President Obama would get mad about what Time called "His Broken Obamacare Website". Maybe the President would act like a leader and fire those in charge of the bureucratic bungle, such as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.   

Unfortunately, the press availability in the Rose Garden seemed like an extended  25 minute Shamwow commercial. The only element missing was the pitch line "But wait, there's more."

The big news per Jake Tapper at CNN is that the website malfunctions were not called glitches but were upgraded to kinks.   So after funneling $500 million to Quebec's CGI to set up the fatally flawed web portal Healthcare.gov, President Obama suggested using the call center, or letting health navigators assist them in signing up for the mandatory coverage lest they be taxed. 

Despite the $54 million which HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has earmaked for health care navigators , they had no  background checks and the staffing contracts were awarded to Seedco in Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee and New York.  Seedco  is the same company which settled a civil fraud lawsuit in 2012 for faking at least 1,400 of 6,500 job placements under a $22 million federal contract. 

Signing up for Obamacare involves revealing all sorts of personal information that is rife for identity theft.  There are already reports by Watchdog.org in Tennessee that scam artists are posing as navigators who coax medicare recipients for their information.   But there also shady characters who are designated as ACA Navigators.  Rosilyn Wells, the only Obamacare navigator in Lawrence, Kansas had an outstanding warrant for check kiting and has a $1700 state tax deficit.  This makes USIS's flawed background checks on Wikileaker Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis look thorough. 

Sadly, Sebelius does not have any time to testify before Congress  about the flawed Obamacare roll-out, but could attend the inaugural Kennedy Center forum the night before.  Perhaps to quell the blow back from this P.R. faux pas, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durban (D-IL) went on Sunday talking head shows to insist that Sebelius will ultimately testify.  Presumably, it will be before the Senate so there is a choreographed kabuki show where Democrats chastise Sebelius more in sorrow than in anger.

Vince Offer (a.k.a. Shlomi)

But such factual side shows take the focus away from the center stage in the Rose Garden rally.  One of the stalwart arguments against Tea Party Conservatives efforts to attach defunding Obamacare to the Continuing Resolution was the mantra that "It's the law".  Listening to the Celebrity-in-Chief's sales pitch, he soft peddled the kinks but felt compelled to sell stories to the American people of why it was a good deal for you.  If Obamacare were a good deal, the White House stenographers pool known as the elite liberal media (a.k.a. the Lamestream Media) would have plenty of positive stories to buttress the ACA.  Instead, Mr. Obama had to try to channel the spirit of Billy Mays or imitate Vince Shlomi,  the Shamwow Guy, to sell his already passed public policy.

If that was not enough, it just so happened that a person prop in back of President Obama fainted and the President caught her.

This was a phenomenon quite prevalent when candidate Obama was running for President in 2008.  It seemed to have mostly disappeared during the first term, but made some reappearances while on the hustings for his Re-Election campaign in 2012.

Considering the content of the Presidential high pressure pitch for "the law" despite its evident early shortcomings, fainting seemed apropos for the Rose Garden feint. 

  

Dogged Dhimmitude in Canuckistan

Still from footage of Allain Eintoss Arrest  (Source: Blazing Cat Fur)

Allain Eintoss, a Toronto resident,was assaulted and  arrested for walking his leashed therapy dog in a public park because it offended the sensibilities of Muslim protestors. During this year’s annual  Al Quds protest  in Queen’s Park, Toronto, in front of the Legislature in Ontario, Canada, which rallied anti-Israel sentiments against the supposed apartheid in the holy city of Jerusalem.

There was also a counter protest by supporters of Israel and the Jewish Defense League on the other end of the Park. The Metropolitan Toronto Police and the Ontario Provincial Police separated the demonstrators at opposite ends of the park with a bicycle barrier.

Allain Eintoss certainly sympathizes with the pro  Israel camp but proclaims himself as a big supporter of free speech went to Queen’s Park to walk around the public space.  He walked on both sides of the park his English Mastiff named “Cupcake”  with no problem for over an hour without incident.  Eintoss  interacted with a couple of girls on the Al Quds side who enquired about the type of dog was his Cupcake.

Then Eintoss heard a voice telling him that he could not walk there with his dog.  Eintoss replied that it was Canada and he could walk where-ever he wanted.  The police began to talk to Eintoss and then he was punched in the chest. Eintoss pushed back and the police jumped in and detained Eintoss.  The policeman was agitated as he accused Eintoss of inciting a riot and being insensitive presumably for  for having a dog around Muslims.  The lawman blustered that the incident would be going into Eintoss’s file and would be considered a prior if there was trouble the next time.  After consulting with his superiors, the policeman noted that Eintoss could either walk away or be jailed.  Since it was a Saturday, there was no magistrate available to paper the arrest so if the detainee took the latter choice that Eintoss would be jailed until Monday.  Eintoss took the first choice and left.




If Eintoss’s actions were exacerbating a volatile situation, a word to the wise would have sufficed rather than throwing the book at someone who is assaulted.  The petty police brutality and bluster seems very familiar for LEOs who are too full of themselves stationed around halls of power.  But that fact is minor league compared to the diminishment of rights in a democracy by catering to political correctness and submitting to dhimmitude.

Eintoss believed that in a free country he could walk where-ever he wanted to in a public space.  It seems not so much, especially if an agitator from favored or protected minorities like Islamists object.  In a Caliphate environment, non-Muslims are second-class citizens who are only tolerated if they pay the Jizya tax.  Nanny State political correctness just hastens the practice.

The other factor to contemplate is that Canada, and Ontario in particular, prides itself on an aggressive application of Human Rights Commission cases against intolerant speech.  In 2007, columnist to the world Mark Steyn wrote a supposed inflammatory column for MacLean’s Magazine entitled “The Future Belongs to Islam”.  This insult was not actionable for a deprivation of Steyn’s liberty but was still condemned as irresponsible journalism for suggesting Islamophobic ideas.  To which, Steyn countered:

[E]xplicitly threatens to reduce them to a maple-flavoured variant of Pravda... [A]n alarming proportion of the Dominion's ‘media workers’ seem relatively relaxed about playing the role of eunuchs to the Trudeaupian sultans.

One would think that in a Province which prides itself on a vigorous Human Rights Commission and protecting people from being offended that the Ontario government might look askance at the defamatory rhetoric which has been a part of the Toronto Al Quds rallies since there inception in 1979.  Despite video evidence by Environment Minister Peter Kent (Tory-Thornhill, Ont.) from last year’s Al Quds, the Sergeant at Arms still granted the permit as the footage was insufficient to deny a permit.

OK but by the same token someone who claims being offended by walking a therapy dog in a public space is enough to deprive citizens of their liberties.  With upside down sensibilities like that, maybe the lyrics to the national anthem should be changed to “Uh, Oh Canadistan”

If the Political Correctness want more proof of the intolerance of the Al Quds crowd, consider the anonymous phoned in death threats to Eintoss after the incident.  Is “We are going to kill you, you dirty jew" sufficient or does there have to be a decapitation first before you ignore it?

h/t: Blazing Cat Fur
     Media Research Center