Waterboarding, Torture?

America's most imminent threat for the past 20 years or so has been terrorist attacks.

The New York World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the attacks of 9/11 come to mind as the most notable attacks on the US.

But there were attacks on the Beiruit US Embassy in 1983, and other US embassies in Africa for example, killing many US citizens working overseas.

Terrorists set up mortars and missle launchers next to schools and family dwellings, shoot their weapons, and wait for the US or whoever they attack to rain bombs on the area, knowing that they have basically targeted US weapons on innocent women and children by doing so. Then they get on the news and talk about how the US is killing innocents, when they themselves drew the target on these areas just for publicity's sake.

Terrorists have been caught dressed as women and clerics trying to hide or infiltrate their target areas.

Terrorists wear no uniform of an entity, they intentionally hide and do their killing, hoping to have local innocents killed in retaliation so they can whine on TV about how evil the US is.

These are the people we are fighting. Cowards who use innocents as their shield and as propaganda pieces. These innocents are killed by the terrorists intentionally having them targeted.

That's who America's main enemy is in the world today.

Now there is a so-called "scandal" happening in America based on heavily redacted documents released by the criminally wimpy Obama administration, saying that America, via the Bush administration, approved the waterboarding of terrorist's caught by the US.

The same Huffington Post-type folks who hated Bush for merely breathing, are now trying to create a non existent torture scandal over the US waterboarding known terrorists to glean information about possible imminent terrorist attacks on the US.

Since when did waterboarding become torture?

The US armed forces have used waterboarding as part of training for OUR military for decades!

Many, many thousands of US service men and women, officers and snake-eaters have been waterboarded as part of their training.

No torture law suits against the US by our service men or women over this supposed "torture" they received as part of their normal training.

Now, all of a sudden, the US approves this same waterboarding procedure that is a normal part of US military training to be done on a hand-full of known terrorists that we had captured, and these idiots are all up in arms about the evil Bush administration approving waterboarding on the poor, defenseless terrorists.

Big Boo Hoo. I just don't get it.

Decades of waterboarding many thousands of US servicemen is no big deal, but now that we do it to half a dozen stone cold killers it's suddenly a torture technique?

Putting a known murdering terrorist in a dark cell and telling him they are loosing caterpillars in the room with him to let his own mind freak him out is torture?

Putting a known murdering terrorist man in a dark cell and telling him they will release stinging bugs in there with him is torture?

Give me a break people.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks was waterboarded and revealed a far-eastern based al Kaeda plot to fly planes into buildings in Los Angeles, and this knowledge was used to capture more terrorists and to PREVENT a 9/11 level attack on Los Angeles, and this murderous thug gets sympathy from the morons who all of a sudden consider waterboarding to be torture?

I just don't understand the thinking of millions of my fellow Americans.

If waterboarding our own people was training, not torture, for decades, then waterboarding CANNOT be torture for known enemies we have captured, who refuse to wear a recocgizable uniform according to Geneva Convention dictates, who dress as women, hide behind the innocent, and murder many thousands of US citizens around the world.

I do NOT see our waterboarding a half-dozen terrorists as a dark stain in America's recent past.

I see the waterboarding as something American servicemen and women went through as training, that proved useful with captured terrorists, and was certainly worthwhile in doing because it save untold thousands of lives in Los Angeles alone.

As far as I'm concerned, the waterboarding of captured terrorists by the US was not torture.

CNSNews.comCIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

Khalid Sheik Mohammad, a top al Qaeda leader who divulged information -- after being waterboarded -- that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned terrorist attack on Los Angeles.
(CNSNews.com) - The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) -- including the use of waterboarding -- caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack -- which KSM called the “Second Wave”-- planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

KSM was the mastermind of the first “hijacked-airliner” attacks on the United States, which struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Northern Virginia on Sept. 11, 2001.

(this article continues here)

Fatties Cause Global Warming

Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production — a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet.

Overweight people are also more likely to drive, adding to environmental damage.

I'm proud to say I'm doing my part in this important issue of pissing off people who believe in the "global warming" nonsense.

Even the UN's IPCC, who badly want people to believe in global warming, have admitted that the earth's average temperature for the past five years have been plateaued, while looking back to 1998, the average earth temperature has GONE DOWN.

So, in actuality, the earth has been cooling for the past 11 years.

But, the whole global warming hoax has been entirely based on computer models!

Morons.

Computer models can't predict local weather anywhere on earth within a certain level of probability, how can they expect us to believe in computer model projections on the earth's mean temperature 100 years from now?

Hmmm. What's for lunch? I'm feeling like a double helping of something, just to help out.

Two Peas In A Pod

(AP Photo/Mariamma Kambon, Summit of the Americas, Pool)

You'll have to excuse me, I think I'm going to throw up.

Picture Post, Sunday April 19, 2009

Abbreviated Version

I have taken very few pictures lately, but I did like these that I took of Lovely Wife's Easter flowers.

Guilty Pleasures - Music

A Rather Long, Aimless Ramble On Musical Likes, Dislikes, and Critics

Just looking at the title, you can see where I'm going, and indeed, I could probably write a list as long as my arm of songs that we're supposed to hate, songs that music critics hate, but that I actually like. I can never think of them all at one time.

Songs that I love to hear despite how others hate these songs.

While driving to work the other morning, I had my usual struggle to find some music on the radio. Most radio stations have folks on there talking and I was not in the mood for listening to people yakking. I simply wanted to hear some music.

Finally found a station out of Vero Beach that was actually playing music and they played Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners from the 1980s, and I turned it up.

I'll wait a minute while you roll your eyes, or finish throwing up…

The music to that song sounds "happy" to me. They could take out the lyrics as far as I'm concerned, and I'd still like the song. The tune is really upbeat in a pleasing way that never fails to improve my mood. Driving in Palm Bay, Florida, in morning traffic is a life-or-death roller coaster ride on the best of days, and a little upbeat music is helpful to me.

But who can top the great lyrics in this song?

Come on eileen too-loo rye-aye
Come on eileen too-loo rye-aye
Toora toora-too-loora

Just kidding on the lyrics, to me, the music to the song has an uplifting quality to it that never fails to improve my mood. The lyrics are kind of dumb if you listen to them.

Plus, this song has one of those elements to it that, in my book, helps make it a classic.

Yes, you guessed it already…

The Banjo!

How can you hate a song with banjo in it?

I don't like country music, so hearing banjo on rock or pop stations is darn rare, but there it is, all through Come on Eileen.

Then, after Come on Eileen was over, they played Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard, yet another guilty pleasure of mine.

As a confirmed guitar nut, I have to say that I think Phil Collen, lead guitarist for Def Leppard is a really good player. For me that means, I really like both his guitar tone and the style in which he plays.

Def Leppards music is filled with neat guitar riffs by Phil Collen, and most are the kind of little guitar melody pieces that stick in my mind. I don't mind having a great guitar riff stuck in my head, unlike the lyrics or tune to any song that annoys me.

Anyway, Pour Some Sugar on Me is song that has great catchy guitar in it, and though the lyrics are pretty much from the mind-set of a 14 year old, I love the song because of the huge sound of Mr. Collen's guitar in there.

So, going to work the other day was quite pleasant because I heard these two classics that I happen to like.

A person's taste in music is as unique to them as their personality.

There's no imagining how many gallons of print ink has been used over the years to discuss music, but for the most part, these writings are done by music critics, one of the lowest forms of life on earth in my opinion. You can like anything you want, I'll have no problem with that, but I dislike a person pontificating on what they think is good or bad as if I MUST agree with them.

That being the case, I tend to disagree with most music critics (and movie critics for that matter). My main problem with critics is that they usually discuss music with the intent that I am wrong if I disagree with them. I really hate that.

Professional critics are a form of life I think we could do without. I find it hard to believe that a person can make a living listening to music and then trying to create a written opinion that will sway the public in one way or another, just because they say so.

For me it all comes down to a gut feeling, to like, dislike, love, or hate individual songs. Come on Eileen and Pour Some Sugar on Me just happen to be a couple of songs that I have always liked, one for the uplifting tune, and the other for the great guitar.

I would suspect that 99% of music critics hate these songs, but that has no effect on me. That's why I have never liked reading Rolling Stone, one, I could not care less about their music critics' opinions, and two, the only other articles in Rolling Stone tends to be politically way-far left stories.

I am not way-far left in my political beliefs. I'm pretty much way-far right, so that pretty much kills my desire to read anthing that Rolling Stone has ever printed.

Yeah, I'll sit and discuss musical opinion differences with you, but in the end, nothing you can say will make me like or dislike a song on your say-so because music is such a gut-level thing in my life. I would be surprised if my musical opinions swayed you even a tiny bit.

Aside from the song itself, for me, music is a time machine.

Hearing Come on Eileen and Pour Some Sugar on Me takes me back to the early and late 1980s in a way that just recalling the times cannot match. Something about music immerses me in feelings about the times that the songs were a backdrop for.

This can be good or bad, many songs were the backdrop for good times, but some of those good times are so beautiful to me, that hearing some old favorite songs brings up a bittersweet feeling in me; the times they recall are so sweet that thinking on them can actually hurt.

Consequently, over time, I had created my own mix CDs on our computer of songs that would take me, in mind and spirit, to certain times in my life. Such as the first year of mine and Lovely Wife's marriage. You get the idea.

I've translated these song groupings into several playlists on my iPod, so that I can dial up a set of songs to match my mood.

For example, I have been repeatedly playing my playlist of favorite songs by King's X, one of the best rock bands ever, that you've probably never heard of. Ty Tabor's guitar is always great, and Doug Pinnick's 12-string bass is massive. But, in the way of things, they've never had a great amount of commercial success.

Anyway, I started this to simply talk about one morning's drive to work when I was pleasantly surprised to hear a couple of old favorites. But as I thought about writing a blog post about them, I realized that many people probably absolutely hate one or both of these songs that had put me in a great mood the other morning.

This led to thoughts on differing musical opinions, music critics, and musical likes and dislikes in general, so the post ended up being this behemoth about nothing much.

I just know that I have always loved music.

I like what I like, especially great guitar, whether it's in rock, heavy metal, jazz, or whatever.

Music critics annoy me, so I avoid their opinions where possible.

And that's enough for today.

Bye.

I'm an Embarrassment to Obama

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!


I only scored 17 on the Obama Test

I would be excited, but I'm actually kinda bummin'.

Don C. (my Dad) didn't live to see me graduate from engineering school, and I also won't be able to show him my new test score.

Actually, I'm wondering how I managed to score as high as 17.

Fishing

Back in my high school days, some of my friends and I went bass fishing a lot.

I like bass fishing, and the friendship too.

But marriage, children, work and other things fill up your life and the result is that I haven't been fishing in many years.

Here in Florida, I am always staggered by the number of boats I see.

Living by the Atlantic, and in a state with thousands of lakes, and quite a few rivers, you see sailboats, fishing boats, air boats (a la Gentle Ben), canoes, kayaks, you name it.

Folks are down-right serious about their fishing here.

One of the custom Florida vehicle license plates you can get down here has a big snook pictured on it.

I'm not really one to pay extra for a fancy license plate on our cars, but to pay extra to have a painting of a fish on your license plate tends to be the domain of serious fishermen (or fisher persons).

Lots and lots of cars and trucks here with that old fish on there, lots of serious fishermen.

But I'd almost be willing to take the time and money expense of taking up fishing again just so I could get me one of these bumper stickers I've seen around here.


I love that. Always good for a laugh from me when I see one of them on a truck.

April 15th, Tax Day - Losing Exemtions

Well, both Number One and Number Two daughters are no longer tax exemptions for us.

Last year, we had to pay $29 in additional Federal Income Tax.

This year, it's somewhat more than that, but not too bad.

Time to resubmit my W-4 at work with them taking out additional tax with every payday.

I'd rather have a little coming back to me than to have to pay, because in my life, it seems like there's always something, a car needing repair, home repairs, or other expense that needs doing around April 15th.

Makes it tough to pay taxes.

I have our taxes all filled out, and a check for what we owe in the envelope with the tax forms, and one of them already-been-licked stamps from the US Postal Service on the front, all ready to mail.

I'll drop it off at the Post Office sometime tonight.

Can't let the government have my money one more day than necessary.

Did you know that, if the Obama administration confiscated ALL income from those taxpayers making $75,000 per year or more, it still wouldn't be enough to cover the budget his administration submitted to Congress this year?

All income, from all tax payers who make $75,000 a year or more, isn't enough money to finance Obama's first budget.

The over $10,000 we paid in Federal Taxes this year isn't even a drop in the bucket for Obama, but it sure puts a hurt on us.

As a family, we have to live within what Lovely Wife and I net in our paychecks.

There's a dark day coming for America because of how all US presidents and Congresses have overspent.

Sword Fight! And Also Something Really Rare

Two men and a woman died as a result of two men fighting with swords in Indianapolis.

Rondeau and Adolf Stegbauer got into an argument at a home in the 5200 block of Raceway Road that escalated when one of the men grabbed a sword, prompting the other man to also brandish a sword.

Sword fighting is pretty rare these days.

Even more rare is the use of the word "brandish" in a sentence.

This reporter got a two-fer.

Cool.

Kudos to President Obama

I know that it would not be easy to give someone authority to kill another person, but when Somalian pirates took an American ship captain, Richard Phillips, captive, President Obama allowed the US Navy people on site make the decision to use force to rescue the American prisoner if they deemed the prisoner to be in imminent danger.

During tense negotiations, the Somali pirates were seen to have their AK-47s pointed at the kidnapped American ship captain.

From the nearby US Navy ship, snipers shot three pirates with guns pointed at their captive.

The captain was rescued by US Navy Seals.

Hats off to a gutsy call by President Obama to allow the Seals to do what they are trained to do.

Of course, now critics are whining and moaning and predicting a rise in violence, and indeed, the pirates still alive have promised to hurt American or French captives in the future, but they should understand that when you point a gun at someone, you have opened the door to having one used on yourself.

Can you imagine the skill of a person with a rifle who could pick off bad guys bobbing around on a boat, while themselves on a ship in the ocean?

There's no glory in killing someone, but when a terrorist kidnaps an innocent person and points a gun at this person, it's serious. In my opinion, by kidnapping and holding a gun on the kidnapped person, that man has opened the door to be killed himself.

I'm proud of our Navy, and I'm proud President Obama was able to make such a tough call.

Our Special Forces are heroes.

I think Obama and the US Navy did the right thing.

A Cool Place To Kill Some Time

Bored?

Tired of looking at the same old web sites?

Nothing good for sale on Ebay?

Like good photography?

Go over and see the archives at Life Magazine.

Their archive is searchable and there are millions of images there. You can look at everything from classic life photos up to present day images.

I personally tend to get a bigger emotional impact from the older stuff for some reason. (I have always loved National Geographic's photography too, except for articles on bugs and spiders.)

The site won't let you download anything, but you can link to photos.

Here are a few samples from WWII.

An Excellent Find

In the early 1980s, around 1983, I read a book called Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart.

When I was growing up, my parents would go to the local paperback book exchange and take in at least two paper sacks of books they had read, and come home with a couple of sacks of books that needed reading.

It was pretty much a genetic given, that I would love to read.

I didn't read much for pleasure until after I got out of high school though. I began to read more and more around the first time I was in college.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction for pleasure. I have to read so much technical stuff for work, and I buy engineering texts to help keep current with technology changes for work, so when I read for pleasure, I tend to read fiction novels. (I do like to read non-fiction about physics and mathematics, however.)

In one of my parent's sacks of paperbacks, I found and read Long Voyage Back.

It was my first post-apocalyptic novel.

Something about the story just struck me, probably because I had always been intrigued by "marooned on desert island" or "last man on earth" type stories and movies.

The book has as it's background, and all-out nuclear conflict between America and the USSR, but never gets very close to the actual bomb sites.

The main character is a US Naval Academy graduate, Navy veteran, and current captain for hire on rich folk's sailboats.

As the story begins, he's coming into Chesapeake Bay to bring a man his sailboat, when a flash occurs to the north. Washington has been nuked.

The story follows this man, the boat's owner and son, and others as they flee fallout to the ocean and for months as they try to survive.

The book has a good, hopeful ending, which I'm a sucker for, and it just really stuck with me.

Over the years I've read many other post-apocalyptic novels, and some were more intricate and complex than Long Voyage Back, but that one always stayed in the back of my mind.

Several years ago, I thought about the book, but couldn't remember the name or author, but since Al Gore was nice enough to invent this here internet thingy, I did a search and found that folks have whole web sites on post-apocalyptic novels.

One site I found had a list of one man's favorite books in this genre, as well as a brief synopsis of each book. I read through his list, and sure enough, he mentioned this book and I was able to relearn the title and author.

I always wanted a copy of this book, but it's out of print, and paperback copies of it that I had seen, can be $15-$20, so I never bought one.

But a couple of weeks ago, I found a web store called Alibris, which has a huge network of book stores and I was able to locate a very good condition hardback version of Long Voyage Back, with dust jacket, for a mere $10.

I couldn't resist. So for less than $15 with shipping, I finally got a good copy of this old favorite of mine. (I'm one of those people who likes to reread books I really like every few years.)

So for me, this was a fun, inexpensive score.

It was great to reread the book.

Some good post apocalyptic novels that I've read:
Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
The Stand by Steven King
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

I Needed A Laugh

Frank J., founder and fount of incredibly funny wisdom, at IMAO, had a blog post about dubious things that Europeans do and say, and had this final remark:

I’m just glad there is an ocean between us and Europe. We should fill it with sea monsters (like Predator X) to be on the safe side, though.

That just cracked me up for some reason. I got a mental picture of old drawings of sea monsters and stuff, keeping us from being contaminated by European ways.

Picture Post, Sunday April 5, 2009

Cars And Guitars

Kowabunga, Dude!

Several shots of a custom Dodge in front of Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I'm no surfer (too old, too fat, don't care), but I'd be proud to drive this ride around.



This inexpensive copy of a Telecaster Thinline was my present from Santa this past Christmas. I suck too much as a player to plunk down $900 for a "real" one with the Fender logo, but this SX brand copy is easily as good as Fender's Squier range of guitars. And at a mere $150, easy on the wallet.

The bridge area of an SX brand Stratocaster copy that I've had for several years. I guarantee this is the best $100 guitar you will ever find. (Yes, literally, $99.99) And the pickups are surprisingly good; this thing has great tone.

Been A While / Venting About Obama

Just working and not much else.

Last week I went in and had a procedure done on my back where they cauterize nerves on each side of my lower spine. This burning of the nerves can lessen pain. Though the procedure and the soreness from the procedure are no fun, if the pain reduction works, it can last a year. It's worth the gamble. Two weeks of soreness from the procedure, and then, hopefully, a year or so of relief.

Well, a week into this, I have to say that I am having some relief of the pain in my lower back. I hurt in my lower back, much as if I was having a migraine in my back. I also have pain in and down my left leg, though that is not affected by this procedure.

The migraine in my lower back feeling, has been lessened. So at this point, I'm glad I had the procedure done.

I wish I had some amazing stories to tell, humor to share, SOMETHING, but I don't. I have just felt so bad that I had no desire to be witty, erudite, or even just plain spoken.

The whole Obama as president thing is a bummer of incredible magnitude. (If you love Obama and what he's doing, then do not read any further.)

We have gone mad and elected a MadMan as our president, and he's surrounded himself with other madmen.

For someone who was supposed to be a great orator, Obama says "uh" and "um" more than any other human I've ever seen. Bush couldn't open his mouth without people calling him stupid, but Obama makes Bush sound like a genius by comparison when Obama isn't on a teleprompter or if they haven't set up a large TV in the back of the room for him to speak from. I went to Louisiana public schools and Louisiana and Georgia public universities, but even I know that you are not supposed to say "uh" and "um" in public speaking. Listening to Obama answer press questions is painful for me. Obama says "uh" so often that it makes Bush's occasional use of "NOO-kyoo-ler" sound quaint and sweet.

Obama gives the Prime Minister of Great Britain a set of DVDs as a gift, and if that isn't the perfect example of the MOST LAME GIFT, EVER, GIVEN BY ONE HEAD OF STATE TO ANOTHER, then I don't know what is. But it gets better; the DVDs are coded for use in North America. Gordon Brown cannot even watch his lame gift if he wants to. Stupid idiot.

Then, for the G20 summit, Obama gives the Queen of England an ipod. Yep, an ipod. But it gets better as well. The Queen already has an ipod, well publicized, so there was no excuse. It gets better still, Obama has already loaded the ipod with things he, in his infinite conceit, thought the Queen should be listening to. But it gets ever more better, Obama has also loaded audio of his own speeches on there too. He's so frickin' egotistical that he actually believes the lies that people love his campaign speeches. Whoop-tee-doo. The man can read from a teleprompter. He hasn't had an original thought in his life, certainly never voiced anything new in any of his campaign speeches, but because he's not Bush, he's loved.

Now while these gift items aren't really important in the scheme of things, it's a telling look at what a low-class schmuck Obama is. Even a nobody like me knows those were two mega-lame gifts.

All I can say is, as much fault as I found with many of Bush's policies, I miss him, because Obama is plain scary. Dangerous, unbelievably egotistical, and nowhere near as intelligent as his fawning followers believe.

Mr. Obama promised the most ethical administration ever, and he just nominated his fifth income tax cheat as his choice for high office. What a liar.

Mr. Obama promised there would be no lobbyists in his administration, but he's appointed several to important positions. Liar again.

Overall, Mr. Obama's promises of change and high standards have fallen under the onslaught of his penchant for putting corrupt cronies in high position.

And through it all, a fawning national media give him a free pass on everything.

It's all pretty sickening.

Don't get me started on his 3.5 trillion dollar budget that Obama submitted. We cried foul and thought the Bush administration and the Republican held Congress spent like drunken sailors; Obama and the Democrat held Congress' spending make Bush and the Republicans look like penny-pinching misers.

I'll try to come up with some more stories from my youth, and more positive things.

Getting back into the habit and thought process of remembering things that I'd like to write for posterity, and creating the mood to write by sitting my rear end in a chair and starting typing, is difficult.

There's a lot of inertia to overcome.

Hope I can do it and start posting here again on a daily basis.

God Bless America.

Over and out.