North Versus South One-Hundred-Fifty Years Later

One of the first things I learned when I entered the military (USAF) in 1956 was that our American civil War—also known as either The War Between The States, or The Northern Aggression—was still raging on.  

Yes, ninety-one years after General Robert E. Lee signed the formal surrender of the Army Of Northern Virginia to Ulysses Grant’s Army of the Potomac, there was still some doubt as to the outcome of that four-year struggle.

I had never been exposed to the Southern sentimentality before that time.  Heck, I hadn’t ever been below the Mason-Dixon line.  It took me only a short time to realize that there were some “foreigners” in our midst.  But then, come to think of it, I was the foreigner, since I took my boot camp at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas.  Texas was definitely a Confederate State from 1861 until 1865.

The reason I bring up the subject is that it ties into my topic for this week; and that topic is indirectly tied to a recent one that I posted, the writing of The Battle Hymn of The Republic.  I received a response to that column that linked to a website of vitriolic invective (whew, I love big words) regarding the penning of that famous song.

A fellow named Michael Dan Jones was the author, and he was highly critical of Julia Ward Howe and of the song she wrote.  I will include the link so that you can read his comments if you choose. http://www.plpow.com/Atrocities_BattleHymn.htm. 

It is apparent that the Civil War (or whatever you choose to call it) is still going on for some people, including Mr. Jones.

One of the more fascinating facts about The Battle Hymn of the Republic is that I have listened to several versions of it, and the word ‘transfigures’ is rarely pronounced as it should be, with the ‘ures’ sounding like the word ‘yours.’  Instead, it is pronounced as ‘ers.’ 

I got curious and looked up the word in the dictionary, since I really didn’t know the correct pronunciation or its meaning. Here is Webster’s definition:

1.      To change the form or appearance of

2.      To transform so as to glorify

(The dictionary doesn’t allow for the ‘er’ pronunciation, by the way) If I interpret that definition correctly, transfiguration is the change in appearance of Jesus so that his body actually glows and his head is encircled by a halo; he is beatified.  If that is so, then I suppose Julia Ward Howe actually believed that the Union soldiers would be transfigured as they fought their way south to defeat the Confederate forces.

I’ve never seen pictures of Ulysses Grant or William Tecumseh Sherman transfigured, so I surmise that Mrs. Howe was mistaken in her belief in the holy nature of the war.  But one thing we can surely say is that the battle rages on in some quarters.

It might interest you to learn that, since the ban on displaying the Confederate Battle Flag, I've seen more and larger ones displayed than ever before in my 9 years here in Augusta. Georgia.  No, the Civil War isn't over yet.

Missed Opportunity

 I am an inveterate road tripper and as such, I am on the road two or three times a year for extended periods.  In the course of my hobby, I have often missed out on something that was on my itinerary, or that I just plain missed in the planning stages.

One early example was from a road trip to Arizona that I took way back in 1980s.  I had heard about a really neat church built into the red rocks south of Sedona, and I really wanted to see it up close.  Well, we went driving among those gorgeous rock formations, but I completely forgot to turn off at the road leading to the church.  I didn't remember about it until a day or two later when we were well past a point where we could return to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Fortunately, I was able to visit it several years later when we again traveled to Sedona with my sister and brother-in-law in 1993.

Another missed opportunity was on my 2009 solo trip to the Northwest United States. I took a right instead of a left near La Grande, Oregon and wound up driving a poorly maintained road for about 40 miles.  My intended drive was over the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway.  That one escaped me completely until I was watching Jeopardy! one night a few months later and one of the clues referred to Hells Canyon.  The name jumped out at me and I recalled seeing the sign for it near that interstate exit.

Thanks to Alex Trebek's clue, I flew out to Portland the next spring and drove over to the scenic route, which I spent the whole day touring.  I even had to do it from both ends of the loop due to flooding in the central portion, but it was beautiful scenery throughout.

This week I watched a National Geographic Channel program about Olympic National Park in Western Washington near Seattle.  Now I'm obsessed with getting back to that city and going over to Olympic, which I never attempted on my 2009 trip.  I'll probably fly in and rent a car.

I've been fortunate to have missed a lot of opportunities on the first go-around, but have been able to go back on a do-over and complete the mission.  I hope I live long enough to do it several more times, because you can never see enough of this beautiful country we call the United States of America.

Unknown Versus Known

 Two "events" occurred recently and one was probably unknown to about 99% of us, while the other was known to us and reported on incessantly, but with such duplicity and ignorance that only the mentally challenged could have failed to surmise the reason for its commission.

The first event, the unknown one, was a playground shooting that took place in New Orleans on November 22 at the Bunny Field Playground.  In that attack 17 were wounded, fortunately none fatally. As you might expect, most of the injured were children. 

I can't speak for you, but I didn't know about the incident until over a week later, and only then because my daughter ran across an obscure article about it.  I have since asked several people if they knew anything about a shooting in New Orleans and not one did. Of course, the story finally got out through talk radio hosts airing it on their programs, so now the press is all over it -- about two weeks too late and only because someone leaked the story to the unknowing public.

Oh, why do you suppose the major networks and news services didn't cover the story as front page or lead item news?  Well, this is just a guess on my part, but the shooter was a Black-African-American and he was in a confrontation with other B-A-A gang members, so it didn't fit the agenda of white-on-black crime.

The second event is well known, a shooting in San Bernardino that took the lives of  14 and left as many as 20 others wounded.  This one was committed by a man and his wife, both with Arab-sounding names.  At least, I think that Syed Rizwan Farook, and Tashfeen Malik are Arab and not African-American, but then, the names of some of the latter are pretty hard to pronounce and spell, too.

The California shootings left the suspects dead (shot by white police, can you believe it!?) so the motive for the shootings "could not be immediately determined," according to police and FBI investigators, and President Obama said that "we should not rush to judgment as to the cause -- it could be workplace violence and not terrorism at all."

One of the news services did report that there is an abortion clinic within a mile of the scene of the shootings, and that was quickly picked up by the mainstream media as a possible clue to the crime.  I'll leave that to you to puzzle out...

Well, as luck would have it, a further investigation of the residence of the two dead shooters revealed the presence of several pipe bombs and 2,000 rounds of ammunition.  These are not your average hobbyist's or weekend handyman's tools and crafts.

Now, this whole massacre might have been thwarted if the neighbor of the shooters had reported the suspicious activity she observed at their house, but she was afraid that she would be accused of racial profiling or (God forbid!) Islamophobia. Why do you suppose she felt that way?  Maybe the Attorney General's remarks about federal prosecution for anyone who bullies Muslims has something to do with it.

In light of the events and their consequences, especially the lack of reporting in the one case and the delay in assigning motive in the second, I wonder why it is that over half the American public bury their heads in the sand and ignore the plain truth that our media, our Justice Department and our President are not performing their duties.  We are at war, and they pretend that it is merely a case of "workplace violence" that causes some of the slaughter, while the rest is blamed on Republicans, gun owners, Tea Party followers and pro-lifers.

WAKE UP!!!  YOUR GREAT AMERICAN DREAM IS BECOMING A HUGE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE!

Refugees Truly in Need of Help

Now that we're well on the way to WWIII, it doesn't seem right to me that we should be opening our doors and our borders to refugees from the same lands where the enemy is in control, and especially not without fully vetting each and every one of them. The House of Representatives passed a veto-proof bill this week to stop the inflow until full vetting can be accomplished, but the Senate is likely to block it before it reaches the President.

But then, our President has committed to bring in at least 10,000 refugees without any background checks whatsoever.  You see, it is "the humanitarian thing to do."  Did he, somewhere in his extensive educational process, ever read the story of the Trojan Horse?

The President has said that the faith of refugees is not an issue in their acceptance for asylum, but that is just not true.  In fact, the law regarding immigration of refugees clearly states that religious persecution is a determining factor in their eligibility for refugee immigration status.  I hesitate to use the epithet "ignorant" for our President, but he is, after all, ignoring the law of the land.

Oh, and what about those other "refugees" from the Middle East, the Christian ones whom we see on the nightly news nearly every night being beheaded after the women and children are first raped and the men are tortured?  Are they among those eligible refugees, since they are proven to be persecuted and killed at a moment's notice? 

No, the President does not want to include the Christians in with the Muslims to whom he has given full immunity and benefits upon arrival.  They, the Christians, are "persona non grata" in the scheme of things here is the good old USA.

Oh, by the way, those unwelcome Christians are scheduled to be fully vetted without government assistance and without a single taxpayer dollar.  That's because they have been funded by contributions that currently amount to 12 million dollars through an organization called The Nazarene Fund.  Most of the adults are educated and productive workers who could fend for themselves here in America.  Most are also family groups as opposed to the single male individuals over 18 who make up the vast majority, over 62% by some estimates, of Muslims in the "chosen group."

I don't know how to get through to our President, and I highly doubt that it would make any difference if we could, but I do know how to contact my congressional senators and representative and the leaders of both houses.  I think it is high time we learn whether or not the Republicans and, yes, the Democrats have the guts to stand up for the only people in the Middle East whom we can guarantee are not part of ISIS/ISIL.  And we had better do it before they are completely eradicated, as four-and-one-half-million have been killed over the past decade.

If you do not know how to contact your senators and representatives, I invite you to contact me via email and I'll give you a tutorial.  But do it sooner rather than later, as time is running out for the true refugees.  Thanks for your support.

If you need any further incentive to make your decision, here it is from the office of United States Senator Jeff Sessions: ‎Below is a partial list of refugees and other Muslim migrants admitted to the U.S. who have committed or been charged with terrorism since just 2013.  Each year, the U.S. permanently resettles more than 100,000 Muslim migrants, in addition to thousands more on temporary student and work visas, a large portion of this funded through the annual appropriations bill:

An immigrant from Bangladesh, who applied for and received U.S citizenship,‎  tried to incite people to travel to Somalia and conduct violent jihad against the United States. (June 2014)

An immigrant from Ghana, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, pledged allegiance to ISIS and plotted a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. (June 2015)

An immigrant from Sudan, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, tried to join ISIS and wage jihad on its behalf after having been recruited online. (June 2015)

A Bosnian refugee, along with his wife and five relatives, donated money and supplies, and smuggled arms, to terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq. (February 2015)

An immigrant from Yemen, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, along with six other men, was charged with conspiracy to travel to Syria and to provide material support to ISIS. (April 2015)·

A Somali immigrant with lawful permanent resident status, along with four other Somali nationals, is charged with leading an al-Shabaab fundraising conspiracy in the United States, with monthly payments directed to the Somali terrorist organization. (July 2014)

A Kazakhstani immigrant with lawful permanent resident status conspired to purchase a machine gun to shoot FBI and other law enforcement agents if they prevented him from traveling to Syria to join ISIS. (February 2015)

An immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, swore allegiance to ISIS and pledged to explode a propane tank bomb on U.S. soil. (April 2015)

A Uzbek man in Brooklyn encouraged other Uzbeki nationals to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS, and raised $1,600 for the terror organization. (April 2015)

The Boston Bombers were invited in as refugees. The younger brother applied for citizenship and was naturalized on September 11th, 2012. The older brother had a pending application for citizenship. (April 2013)

A Moroccan national who came to the U.S. on a student visa was arrested for plotting to blow up a university and a federal court house. (April 2014)

6 Members of Minnesota’s Somali-American refugee community have recently been charged with trying to join ISIS. The Washington Times reported that “the effort [to resettle large groups of Somali refugees in Minnesota] is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state’s safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups.” (February 2015)

An Uzbek refugee living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of teaching terror recruits how to build bombs. (July 2015)

An American citizen whose family is from Syria was sentenced for plotting to support ISIS and rob a gun store to kill members of the American military. (April 2015)

An immigrant from Syria, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was accused by federal prosecutors of planning to “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.” (April 2015)

A college student who immigrated from Somalia, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon. (October 2014)

An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines, were convicted for “join Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill Americans.” (September 2014)

An Iraqi immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for lying to federal agents about pledging allegiance to ISIS and his travels to Syria. (May 2015)

Two immigrants from Pakistan, who later applied for and received U.S citizenship, were sentenced to decades-long prison sentences for plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City. (2012)

An immigrant from Yemen, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for trying to join ISIS. He was also charged with attempting to illegally buy firearms to try to shoot American military personnel. (September 2014)

An immigrant brought here by his family from Kuwait at a young age, and who was later approved for U.S. citizenship, carried out the Islamist attack that recently killed 4 military personnel in Chattanooga. (July 2015)

Puleeze Stop Using the "R-word"

This will be a short column, and I'm sure it will piss off some of you. Be that as it may, I have to get this off my chest once and for all!

I sent out an email message that was (I admit) controversial.  Most of you who read my columns received it, so I wont describe it here except to reveal that it identified none other than the infamous Adolph Hitler - may he rot in Hell.  But the clues were eerily similar to the biography of another leader and would lead to a misidentification for some.

One of the offended parties who received the email took offense and wrote back a scathing email message labeling me a racist for equating that cursed Austrian (not German) Bastard with our current president.

I beg to differ, and I am not a racist. My neighborhood is about evenly divided between Blacks and Whites, and I smile and greet everyone exactly the same every day.  I hold no fear nor malice for any of my neighbors regardless of the color of their skin. I repeat: I am not a RACIST!

When will the liberals and (well , let me come out and print it) Democrats stop using the hateful "R-word" to defend their leader even when it doesn't apply, which is most of the time?  Whenever they can't debate or refute the message, they will impugn the character of the messenger. It's supposed to be the conversation stopper and it used to work, but not anymore..

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King once said that he prayed for a time when a person was judged, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.  For many of us, including me, that time has come. I leave it to you to parse that statement.

The Frozen Frog

Here comes another one of those urban legends, but this one has a different ending - perhaps a very happy one, too.

Every so often, I receive a picture (see below) that purports to be a frozen Alaskan Tree Frog, that has the ability to freeze in the winter, lose heartbeat, breathing and circulation for months on end, and then revive completely in the spring thaw.

Wow!  That's amazing!  Only problem is, the above picture is not of an Alaskan Tree Frog (there is no such animal) nor is it even an Alaskan Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica), which does exist and does all those miraculous heart-stopping-starting things.  The picture is probably a garden ornament with frost on it, not a live (or dead) frog at all.

What is amazing about the Alaskan Wood Frog is that it has been studied by scientists and biologists to determine what causes this wonderful reaction to freezing temperatures.  What they found is that the wood frog has an unusually high amount of cyroprotectants in its body that prevent the cells and tissue from losing moisture as they freeze.  These are composed of blood sugars and urea, and they lower the freezing temperature to prevent loss of vital fluids, or freeze drying. This enables the frog to recover as though nothing at all happened once the 'melt' occurs.

What if scientists could produce artificial cyroprotectants that could be injected into the donated organs of living or deceased people?  An organ must be implanted within hours of harvesting to be usable now, but with the addition of cyroprotectants it could be frozen and kept in an organ bank for weeks or months while a matching patient could be found to receive it.  People needing organ transplants would have a better chance of getting the heart, liver, kidney or lungs they so desperately need to survive.

It isn't yet a reality, but the research is already being conducted to produce the cyroprotectants similar to those found in the little Alaskan Wood Frog, and we might soon have another modern miracle of science that will prolong thousands of lives.

Okay, now you can say it . . . Wow! That's amazing!

You Call That a Debate?

I have tried to keep a cool demeanor about the televised GOP Debates, but Wednesday's "Tora!-Tora!-Tora!" attack by three partisan Democrats acting as moderators was too much for me.  I cannot sit idly by and watch every single Republican candidate get smeared and disrespected over and over again by those hacks.

I must admit that I didn't stay tuned to the debate for any more than about the first half-hour, and I knew where it was going after the first question posed to all of the people on the stage. In case you missed it, it was, "What is your biggest weakness?"

Why would anyone ask that question of ten people who have the courage and credentials to run for the highest office in the country and, arguably, the world?  We don't expect to hear, nor do we care what their weaknesses are. That is why presidents (excluding the present one) have strong people in advisory and cabinet positions. We want to know about the candidates' positions on issues, not their weaknesses.

My hope was that Governor John Kasich would field the question with a rejoinder that would put the questioner, Hillary sycophant Carl Quintanilla, in his place. I was mistaken, and I learned the next day that Kasich had appeared on Charlie Rose's show later and praised the moderators. How asinine!

Even Donald Trump fielded the question with less-than-robust criticism, and it wasn't until Ted Cruz spoke up and listed one of his strengths as his "greatest weakness" that I felt someone was finally protesting the bias that was about to be exhibited.

Cruz, of course, was also the candidate who eventually grew tired of the negative and contentious questions and yes, argumentative follow up remarks by the moderators, who tried to outgun the candidates on stage. He used some of his time to berate and chastise the three alleged moderators for their blatant disrespect, guilt by false innuendo, silly questions and lack of objectivity.

Some of the questions the candidates were asked included:

          "Are you a really a comic book villain?" (to Trump)

          "Can you do math?" (to Carson)

          "Why don't you resign?" (to Rubio)

Becky Quick lived up to her name when she took the "Candy Crowley Offensive" against Dr. Ben Carson over his tax plan, interrupting his answer and explanation and citing numbers that had questionable validity from some liberal think tank. It was in all likelihood the same one that declared the recession was over and we were in a recovery phase back in 2009. Yeah, how did that work out for us?

It was at that point that I decided to see how my Kansas City Royals were doing in their quest for the World Series title. The outcome was a heck of a lot better on that score.