Happy Holidays...

I sincerely wish all of you a very happy holiday season. I don't care what religion you are (or aren't) or what you choose to do this time of year. I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas because that's what me and my family celebrate during this time of the year. If you are Jewish, please wish me a happy Hanukkah. If you are Muslim, please wish me a prosperous Ramadan, etc. I respect your traditions, even if your tradition is to have no tradition.

What I don't get is people fighting over what is appropriate to display or not to display. And don't get me started on the hypocracy involved in all of it. It seems that the same groups that are for "free speech" are the same ones tearing down the parts that they don't like. Free Speech is the right to offend. Free Speech is the right to criticize. Free speech is the right to give a message that others may not agree with. The ACLU will defend the right for anyone to say anything, but will make sure that citizens of a particular city or county can't display their traditions or their speech. The same people pushing for sexual educational messages in the public arena are the same groups that are pulling the religious symbols (or rather Christian Religious symbols) down. If it is not hate speech, or a vulgar obscenity, then why is there even a question? When I go into an old Italian neighborhood, I enjoy watching the old Catholic customs that they practice during a wedding or funeral procession. I would love to walk through a Muslim neighborhood during Ramadan and see the various lanterns on display of their faith. The feeling I get walking through a predominately Jewish neighborhood during the nights of Hanukkah gives me a sense of peace. Next, the ACLU will be taking away the ancient American Indian traditions in their communities in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. Losing the Christian traditions has exactly the same impact on our culture as it would if you took away those traditions from their respective cultures. A vital and important part of that culture would be lost.

Please, if you get the chance, take a look at a post at the Daily Kos. Read the descriptions of all of these religious symbols. Then read the one about the Christmas Tree, which in their opinion is the Christian Symbol for Christmas (I personally feel it is more secular). Why is it that all of the other symbols are very respectfully described yet the Christmas Tree (which is now apparently religious) is described like this: "We all know that the Christmas tree is really a pagan symbol adopted by our culture to honor crass commercialism at its worst. But in this instance it will stand in as a symbol of Christian rejoicing at the birth of the Savior and the enlightenment he tried to bring to the world."


This isn't just on the Daily Kos. This is the leftist blogosphere that you've been hearing so much about. There is no war on Christmas. There is a war on common sense by the looney left that has been slowly raging into the mainstream. To be honest, it pisses me off that these people are so far gone and dishonest with even the simplest of truths. What does something like this accomplish? Don't offend anyone's religion, unless they happen to be Christians.

I am sure that you will find the same kind of garbage of the far right loonies blogs as well. But to be honest, I don't know where they are because they are not spouted by the media as fact. There are a lot of right wingers that I don't agree with (You know who you are Ann Coulter). But other than her and a few like her, I don't know where to find this kind of unabashed spewing of hypocracy and hatred that is so prevalent on the left. If you know where, please let me know so that I can get pissed off about them as well. On the right, people like them are already thought of as crazies. Find me a normal right leaning person who agrees with the likes of Fred Phelps and his family of escaped mental patients (i.e. Westboro Baptist Church) and I will agree that they are far right crazies.

By the way you can visit their website at http://www.godhatesfags.com/ and read their page on why they are thanking God for today's bridge collapse in Nepal that has left many dead. In my opinion Westboro on the right = Loons on the left (Daily Kos, Randi Rhodes, Al Franken, Rosie O'Donnell).

Isn't it time we were honest with ourselves? I don't know if that will ever happen, but I do honestly have a wish for all of you (even Ann Coulter and Rosie O'Donnell). I wish you a very Happy New Year. And a special wish goes out to those Americans and other countrymen who are away from their families this year fighting for those all over the world. We hope you are all able to come home in 2008. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

mR

Don't Like the Time? Change the Clock!

It is official. Hugo Chavez has lost his mind. Starting next week, the time in Venezuela will move back 30 minutes. He's given everyone till next Sunday night to change it and there is a multitude of confusion both inside the government and outside whether the clock moves forward or backward. Venezuela will officially be what we have always known - in a whole time zone unto itself. (Reuters)

mR

Very Upsetting Story from Texas

I have always tried my best to give this administration and its staff the benefit of the doubt. But I have tried to be honest about its shortcomings. Even through the Blackwater fiasco, I tried. This story that I read about today is inexcusable. I'm going to post a link to a story that I read on ABC News.com via the Drudge Report today that makes me very sad and very angry. I can honestly say that I have never felt so let down as I do by the United States Departments of State and Justice. The legacy of former A.G. Gonzalez continues and a huge problem for which the Secretary of State must answer.

This is the kind of garbage that makes it difficult for our brave men and women overseas to do their job, to earn the respect of the world, and to earn the respect of the people and nations that they are serving. Iraq is a noble cause, but it has been so messed up by the present bureacracy and administration that I am embarrassed to have voted for them. I hope the story of this young woman leaves many people in Washington unable to sleep tonight. The screams of help from this young lady should ring in every politician's and Iraq contractor's head for a long time to come.

Rape Cover-up in Iraq reported by ABC News via The Drudge Report.

I've been very critical of the media throughout the Iraq War and I think it's more than justified. I think that very much has been made of very little. And I think that very little good has been reported of the abundance that has happened. But I do think that this story needs to be told--VERY LOUD, and VERY CLEAR. A young women named Jamie Leigh Jones deserves justice. It just goes to show that brutality is not only a quality of the extremists that our brave Soldiers and Marines are fighting. It is also a quality of a few who answer to no law in Iraq. Our goal should be to protect the innocent. It should not be used to shield the guilty.

Let me be clear. This - in no way - has anything to do with any group of people as a whole. Nor does this story have any relation to tactics used by the CIA in the questioning of terrorist suspects and enemy combatants. I do hope that leftist partisans do not try to draw this into the "torture" debate. But I am afraid that Harry Reid (political hack that he is) is going to blame the President and every other member of the Bush administration for every brutal detail. What is sad is that he might even get the support and sympathy of the media to go along with him. The administration is responsible for their inability to earn justice for this young lady. Only the men who perpetrated these actions (and possibly the company) are responsible for the crime.

KBR & Halliburton executives should be screaming from the rooftops for investigations and apologizing all over themselves. I am absolutely disgusted that these companies are American and continue to remain silent. The management of these companies verges on incompetency and its stockholders should be disgusted. If they are responsible for setting this culture in their organization, then they should also be punished to the full extent of the law. I would also hope that a free market would exercise its right to sell off their shares and/or replace the management if need be.

Am I speaking before I've heard all the facts? Yep. I hope I don't have to eat my words, but I could not keep silent on this.

My thoughts and prayers are with Jamie and her family.

mR

Picture Source: ABC News.com

Coming Back Online....

I have been bored with Politics over the last few months. Probably not so much bored as tired of the lies and the garbage, but it's getting too close not to have a voice. Please make sure that you use yours as well, if for nothing else but to vote in the primary.