Tuesday - May 15, 2007

Obituary

I honestly can’t say I was ever a big fan of Jerry Falwell but I never disliked him either. I just have strong feelings about preachers who mix themselves too deeply in politics. With that said however, you know me - I will not speak ill of the dead. I believe Falwell was a good Christian - and tried to do good work. I extend my heartfelt prayers and sympathy to Reverend Falwell’s family, friends and those he touched at Liberty University and around the country. Reverend Falwell is now gone to meet the God he served on Earth. I’m sure there is a good place waiting for him. Rest in peace.

Jerry Falwell (1933-2007)

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP)—The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university’s executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. “CPR efforts were unsuccessful,” he said. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell “has a history of heart challenges.”

“I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast,” Godwin said. “He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive.”

Falwell survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/15/2007 at 01:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - May 13, 2007

Sunday Science

Since it’s Sunday, let’s delve into some cosmic science and have a little fun for a change. Now ... “creationists” will tell you that things happened the way they happened because that’s the way God intended them to happen and therefore he made them happen. So-called “evolutionists” will tell you that “s**t just happens” and we’re all just a 15 billion year long series of accidents.

I tend to agree with the former because the life spark in this hairless monkey body I currently occupy likes to think of itself as somewhat more than the product of an accidental collision between two protozoa a few billion years ago. No, something bigger had to have a hand in there somewhere and I would really like to ask that “something bigger” why He (or She) left me with an appendix at the end of things. But I digress. I’ll take that up with Him (or Her) later.

For now, let’s just suppose for a moment that about 65 million years ago our Solar System looked somewhat different than it does today and in between Earth and Jupiter there was another massive gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn and it had two moons, one of which was destined to become Mars and the other consigned to be smashed into asteroids ...

Both of these planetary changes occurred about 65 million years ago, when suddenly one fine Thursday morning the finger of God reached out and touched the hypothetical Planet V which they revolved around, smashing it to oblivion and starting a chain of events that caused a certain creature to appear on Earth about 3.2 million years ago, as that planet suddenly ended a period of extremely hot global warming and cooled down enough to became a veritable Garden Of Eden.

This is not an attempt to be sacrilegious, I assure you. It is but a feeble attempt to understand the old saying that “God works in mysterious ways” or as Albert Einstein said, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”

I’ll leave it to you to figure out how snakes and apples came into all this. For now though, just wrap your head around this theory and let’s discuss the possibilities. After all, what else are brains for? They’re utterly useless without ideas ....

In this study, we wish to focus our attention on hypothetical original Planet V, which occupied the position in the solar system now held by Mars; and on its original twin-moon companions, Mars and Body C. The evidence that Mars was a moon of an exploded planet is extensive. The existence of a “twin” is required by fission theory if the parent body was liquid or gaseous, and by evidence suggestive of a second explosion affecting Mars. This twin is the body most likely to have held life, as suggested by findings of water and organic molecules and evidence for weathering in meteorites dated close to Body C’s indicated explosion date of 3.2 million years ago.

Of those two moons of Planet V, Mars was apparently closer to Planet V than Body C was. This is because Body C most likely took less damage than Mars did when Planet V exploded 65 million years ago. Had it been the other way around, life of any kind might not have survived or evolved to an advanced stage on Body C. However, we tried developing the dynamical tests in this article assuming the opposite order (Body C as the innermost moon) and found no solutions compatible with the applicable theories and available evidence, Of course, both moons would have been badly damaged by the Planet V explosion. But both managed to survive for the next 62 million years in mutual orbit around each other, which indicates that damage done by the Planet V explosion was not the sole cause of the much later Body C explosion, or of its timing.

-- “The Violent History Of Mars”, Tom Van Flandern, MetaResearch

Postulate I: Correlation Earth, 65 Million Years Ago

During the End-Cretaceous (K-T) extinction (65 million years ago) eighty-five percent of all species disappeared, making it the second largest mass extinction event in geological history. This mass extinction event has generated considerable public interest, primarily because of its role in the demise of the dinosaurs.

-- “The End-Cretaceous (K-T) Extinction”, Steven M. Stanley, “Extinction”

Postulate II: Correlation Earth, 3.2 Million Years Ago

The Pliocene epoch itself contains episodic climate fluctuations prior to the late Pliocene cooling, and our focus for study is a warm period in the middle Pliocene between 3.15 and 2.85 million years before present and, as such, spanned the period of time during which the Earth transitioned from relatively warm climates to the generally cooler climates of the Pleistocene. This transition included the emergence of the direct ancestors of humankind and contains the beginnings of cyclic Northern Hemisphere glaciation.

-- “The Climate of the Pliocene: Simulating Earth’s Last Great Warm Period”, Mark A. Chandler, NASA GISS

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/13/2007 at 01:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - March 26, 2007

Editorial: The Climatarian Church

I haven’t done one of my long, tongue-in-cheek editorials in quite some time so I figure I’m past due for another verbal explosion. While relaxing on vacation last week, I had a sudden thought occur to me over a pitcher of margaritas.

I got to thinking about creationism versus evolution and the difference between science and faith. Then, in a flash, Al Gore jumped into this mental discussion going on in my head and suddenly it all made sense as you can read below.

Upon my return, I had almost forgotten about this train of thought until I started seeing videos of Gore testifying before Congress last week. Before you can say “polar bear extinction”, my fingers flew across the keyboard and the vision became satire right before my very eyes. I then spent a little time in PhotoShop reinforcing the vision and what emerged is this ...

Archbishop Gore And The
Climatarian Church Of Latter Day Scientists

Al Gore should never have been allowed to go before Congress last week and by all means should not be allowed to take his message to our schools. His doing so violates the First Amendment intent of separation of church and state – not to mention the fact that conducting a national campaign to raise himself to messiah level and establish a new church is downright sacrilegious.

“What’s that?”, you say, “Gore is not a preacher.”

Wrong.

Gore is indeed a preacher and is head of the new Climatarian Church Of Latter Day Scientists. Let me explain …

The first thing a new startup religion needs is an existing religion to build a base on. The Muslims stole prophets and teachings from Christianity. The Christians stole from the Jews. The Jews didn’t actually steal anything. They just got a ten-percent discount from God on common sense ideas carved into stone in the Sinai Desert.

Let’s look at part of Archbishop Gore’s testimony to Congress on March 21 …

“I believe the purpose of life is to glorify God, and we can’t do that if we’re heaping contempt on the creation.” ₁

Whoa! The Prophet From Tennessee goes all the way back to Genesis and invokes God and Creation and chastises the human race for peeing in the swimming pool. You can’t get any more basic than that. The Hebrews are now second in line for having received the Word Of God, according to Gore. He got it first. Checkmate, Judah.

The second thing a startup religion needs is a prophet who has been cast out, wandered in the wilderness, purged himself of sinful thoughts and had a vision from … somewhere. Failing that, any fruitcake who has spent too much time gazing at the sun or his own navel will do in a pinch.

You may recall the Fall of 2000 and the aftermath of the Presidential election that Gore narrowly lost by a few hundred votes. Here was a man who had spent his whole life chasing one elusive goal – becoming President of the United States. He had spent his youth in the Army press corps covering Vietnam from behind a typewriter in the sweltering heat and danger of paper cuts. Then after years in Congress and later in the Senate, he was elevated to the Number Two slot in our Republic by William Jefferson Clinton, a direct descendent of P. T. Barnum and his wife who undoubtedly could trace her ancestry (and political habits) back to the Medici family.

Gore was only a heartbeat (and a blue stained dress) away from his lifelong dream. Then, with a resounding thud, the voters in Florida forgot how to punch chads – or some similar mythical occurrence that altered the course of the stars, re-aligned the planets and placed a dumb redneck rancher from Texas in the office that was destined to be his. Destiny can do that to you at times.

He screamed, ranted, wailed, tore his raiment, heaped ashes on his head and appealed to the highest magistrates in the land – to no avail. The prize of immortality as head of the Free World was wrenched from his grasp in a spiritually shattering instant.

He was last seen on a bleak December night downing Heinekens with Tom Petty and band (appropriately known as The Heartbreakers). Then he disappeared into the wilderness (actually the South of France but the difference is marginal at best).

There he fought his demons, gazed at his navel and grew a beard. He also had an epiphany. The message he received was to go forth and expand on a book he wrote earlier in life that sold dozens of copies worldwide.

The voices told him to address mankind and bring about a Luddite revolution that would set mankind back hundreds of years, remove evil technology and return us all to a utopian village of pastoralists completely in tune with God’s creation around us.

These are the same voices, derived from magic mushrooms or other natural ingredients, that have educated prophets for thousands of years. St. John of Patmos tried them and saw riders on pale horses and whores in Babylon. The Prophet Gore saw melting glaciers and an Academy Award.

Which brings me to the third thing a startup religion needs: a good PR department.

Now Jesus was really cool. He gathered these twelve guys around him, showed them miracles of God and rose from the dead right before their eyes. These twelve guys then went out into the world, completely convinced they had broken bread and shared a Chablis with the Son Of God. You just can’t do better than a dozen convinced (and convincing) true believers for spreading the word.

Mohammed came along and had an even more direct publicity department, namely the point of a sword – which will convince most people to believe in relatively short order. Either that or the unbelievers are eventually disposed of through attrition.

The Prophet Gore has them all beat though. Moses, Jesus and Mohammed never came close to the modern PR experts known as Hollywood and Media. This twin-headed dragon of modern propaganda holds the masses tightly in its grasp and controls what the people think, believe and crave. In a nutshell, they have us by the short hairs.

So the Prophet Gore went to these public relations magicians and their money changers for help. They provided the financial backing and the commensurate hype to help Gore make a book and a movie to distribute to the masses that would carry all the prophet’s warnings of doom and all the “wrath of God” stuff necessary to convert the unbelievers.

But wait! “Unbelievers” in what?

Aha! There comes the tricky part. The prophet had to come up with a message that was (a) vague, (b) convincing, and (c) unable to be disproved. After suitable consultation with the voices, the prophet came forth with the message of “Global Warming”.

“What we’re facing now is a crisis that is by far the most serious we’ve ever faced.  The Arctic ice will be gone entirely in 34 years.

The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say, ‘Well, I read a science-fiction novel that tells me it’s not a problem.’” ₂

Folks, this is Revelations and Twilight Of The Gods all rolled into one. Hear the Chosen One! Heed his words or God will smite you all with hurricanes, floods and various assorted chiggers and gnats of doom.

Now anyone who didn’t sleep through geology class knows that the planet we live on is a closed ecosystem that throughout its lifespan has gone through numerous warming and cooling cycles so an explanation is pretty much only a good guess until we collect more data. On top of that, how much warming or cooling is what we could call “extraordinary”? This makes the prophet’s message vague.

The prophet points at recent deadly hurricanes and throws out as evidence certain glaciers that are getting smaller (pay no attention to the many others that are growing). He cites measurable statistics such as “one degree centigrade rise in worldwide temperatures” and “Arctic ice will be gone in 34 years” as though he has personally measured them himself with a precise caliper. This makes the prophet’s message convincing.

Then, unbelievers and skeptics are pilloried and ridiculed as if they have no say in the matter. Imminent scientists are told to shut up and get with the program … or else. The prophet brushes aside factors that we know are causing a temporary rise in worldwide temperatures such as sunspot cycles, planetary orbit and methane from cow flatulence and keeps hammering home the message that humankind is responsible and we must do his bidding … or else.

That’s where the rub comes in. The prophet declares in sweeping, majestic tones that we should eschew technology and revert back to a utopian vision of energy provided by windmills and people getting around on horseback. If we don’t we’re doomed to fry in the hell we create around us with our modern technology – which, by the way, is much cleaner and non-polluting than anything we had two hundred years ago … before we decided to upgrade our windmills and horses to clean nuclear power and EPA-approved internal combustion engines and clean, lead-free fuel to feed them.

“But, but, but”, you ask, ”This doesn’t mean it is really a new religion, is it?”

Haven’t you been paying attention here at all? I have shown you the prophet, the plan and the purpose. What else do you need to convince you that this is voodoo science and magic practiced on a planet-wide scale before an unwitting audience?

Wait. There is one last thing. There is one word that is used continuously by the prophet and his PR department to convince you to accept the new dogma. That word is “consensus” and it is used to end all argument about global warming. It must be true because there is a “consensus” among “leading scientists” that global warming is a fact and we’re responsible.

There is another word for “consensus” and that word is “faith.” We must have “faith” in the message of the prophet because all those scientists have arrived not at a provable scientific conclusion but have gathered together, rubbed their magic eight balls and arrived at a “consensus”.

Before I leave you with this testament regarding this startup religion, let me give you something to ponder. In the Middle Ages, sinners could “purchase” from the Catholic church what was called an “indulgence”, according to Canon Law.

An indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due to sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence was granted by the church after the sinner had confessed and received absolution. ₃

In other words, you could pay off the church and receive absolution for your sins. The modern-day Climaterian Church has something that is strikingly similar to these medieval “indulgences.” It is called “carbon offset services”.

A carbon offset service is one arranged with such a provider, that achieves this net reduction through proxies who reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases. A wide variety of offset actions are available; tree planting is the most common. Renewable energy and energy conservation offsets are also popular, including emissions trading credits. ₄

In other words, you can pollute to your heart’s content, live in a 30-room mansion and force coal-burning power plants to provide you with ten times more electricity than the average home in America, you can jet-set around the globe releasing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere at ungodly rates and even mine toxic zinc for profit on your property – as long as you purchase an “indulgence” from a “carbon offset service” who will go plant a few trees in Oshkosh to “balance” out the environmental sins you have committed.

That, my friends, is old-time religion at its best. We shall now pass the tithing plate – the Prophet Gore needs your support. Hallelujah! Anybody interested in playing with my rattlesnakes?

———————————

¹ - “Gore Takes Global Warming Message to Congress”, National Public Radio transcript, March 21, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9047642

² - “Al Gore Testifies Before Congress on Global Warming”, National Public Radio transcript, March 22, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9072304

³ - “Code Of Canon Law: Indulgences”, Canon 992-997
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3I.HTM

⁴ - George Monbiot, “Selling Indulgences”
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/19/selling-indulgences/

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/26/2007 at 05:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Editorials • Religion • Satire •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - March 12, 2007

Quote Of The Day

“The First Amendment requires the state to be a neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and non-believers; it does not require the state to be their adversary. State power is no more to be used so as to handicap religions, than it is to favor them.”

-- Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Everson v. Board of Education, February 1947

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/12/2007 at 01:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - December 24, 2006

Christmas Gift Idea #1

This concludes the Christmas Gift list for this year and with that in mind try to imagine the following. Pretend for a moment that you are God. It’s OK. HE knows where this is going and HE says it’s all right for just this once, so bear with me.

Now, close your eyes and pretend that you are The Creator. You are everywhere and everywhen. You have always been and always will be. You do not have to go anywhere because you are everywhere. Time exists only as a trivial concept for mortals who measure their days of existence.

Makes you kinda dizzy, doesn’t it? All that power encompassing the glory of all creation is enough to break the minds of mere mortals who are given only a glimpse of the power and majesty of God, like Moses and the prophets. When God says “I AM THAT I AM”, HE means it. Literally.

So imagine that you are the “be all and end all” - the Alpha and the Omega. Now turn your gaze upon this little blue planet orbiting a small sun out on the edge of one of trillions of galaxies you created. Your children are playing. They insisted on having free will shortly after you created them and you have tried to guide them along their path to maturity.

At times you have had to intervene when they strayed too far from the path you have set out for them. They are an ornery bunch at best. At their worst, they are an abomination and must be disciplined with floods or pillars of fire. You ordered them to follow ten simple rules to live by to help them be good. They have broken every one on a regular basis.

So what do you do? After pondering the matter, you decide to give them something - one last chance to redeem themselves. You dispatch an angel to give to a good woman a small part of yourself in the form of a child. A child who will grow up and show these mortals a small piece of your power and glory by raising the dead, healing the blind and lame and bringing to them a short, simple message consisting of only two rules: (1) Love God, (2) Love each other.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Of course since you are everywhere and everywhen and you already know how this will turn out. They will not believe the messenger and instead will nail HIM to a cross. For that is their nature. Your only hope is that they will recognize this flaw in their nature and realize the horror of what they have done.

So you already know they will abuse this gift horribly. To seal the deal with these ungrateful wretches, you offer them a pardon .... “Believe in the messenger and try to understand and follow the message he brought and you will be given everlasting life and salvation and forgiveness for all your sins.”

So you have given them the ultimate gift. Nothing else can surpass it. All you can do now is watch and wait ...



For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-- John 3:16 (KJV)

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/24/2006 at 04:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Silent Night

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

-- Luke 2:1-14 (KJV)

On This Day In History

December 24, 1914 - Flanders, France

During World War I, in the winter of 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, one of the most unusual events in all of human history took place. The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French. Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever.

All of a sudden, German troops began to put small Christmas trees, lit with candles, outside of their trenches. Then, they began to sing songs. Across the way, in the “no man’s land” between them, came songs from the British and French troops. Incredibly, many of the Germans, who had worked in England before the war, were able to speak good enough English to propose a “Christmas” truce.

The British and French troops, all along the miles of trenches, accepted. In a few places, allied troops fired at the Germans as they climbed out of their trenches. But the Germans were persistent and Christmas would be celebrated even under the threat of impending death.

Signboards arose up and down the trenches in a variety of shapes. They were usually in English, or - from the Germans - in fractured English. Rightly, the Germans assumed that the other side could not read traditional gothic lettering, and that few English understood spoken German. ‘YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT’ was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ banners and waited for a response. More placards on both sides popped up.

A spontaneous truce resulted. Soldiers left their trenches, meeting in the middle to shake hands. The first order of business was to bury the dead who had been previously unreachable because of the conflict. Then, they exchanged gifts. Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco. By Christmas morning, the “no man’s land” between the trenches was filled with fraternizing soldiers, sharing rations and gifts, singing and (more solemnly) burying their dead between the lines. Soon they were even playing soccer, mostly with improvised balls.

According to the official war diary of the 133rd Saxon Regiment, “Tommy and Fritz” kicked about a real football supplied by a Scot. “This developed into a regulation football match with caps casually laid out as goals. The frozen ground was no great matter . . . The game ended 3-2 for Fritz.”

By New Years Day the fighting had resumed and the war would drag on for another four years — and it would ultimately see the staggering totals of 8½ million dead and 21 million wounded but for a few brief days in that December of 1914 there was “peace on Earth, good will toward men.”

-- “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce” by Stanley Weintraub
    Plume; Reprint edition (October 29, 2002), 224 pages, ISBN: 0452283671

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/24/2006 at 01:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Religion • War-Stories •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - December 21, 2006

A C----mas Story

Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who were forced to leave their home and report to the government for payment of taxes and census. The woman was with child and their journey was long and arduous along the dusty roads. They stopped for the night in a little town and inquired about vacancies at the local hotel. They were told there were none due to a convention of camel salesmen who were in town but they could spend the night with the animals in the stable out back.

There they bedded down for the night, not knowing that the government wanted to kill their unborn child who was destined to bring a message from God to all mankind of peace and love. The government feared the child and the power he would one day have - more power than the government itself. After the child was born the three of them had to flee to another land for a time to escape the government that was bent on their destruction.

Not much has changed in 2000 years ... except nowadays the Pharisees are known as the Politically Correct Police. Amen.

Nativity Scene Rejected at Washington State Capitol
_{OLYMPIA, Wash. - December 21, 2006, 10:05 AM EST}

The state’s Christmas tree controversy has shifted from the airport to the Capitol, where the governor lit a menorah this week, but officials rejected a Nativity scene. It all started earlier this month with the plastic holiday trees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

A rabbi wanted to add a large menorah to the display, but airport officials, worried about lawsuits and requests from other religions, ordered the trees removed instead. They put the trees back up a few days later—without a menorah—after Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky of Chabad Lubavitch in Seattle said he wouldn’t sue.

Bogomilsky had made the same request last year for a menorah to go with the decorated trees at the state Capitol, and he said he was delighted Monday afternoon when Gov. Chris Gregoire lit a menorah, the candelabrum lit by Jews to celebrate Hanukkah.

But when Ron Wesselius, a real estate agent in Olympia, then proposed also adding a creche, a display depicting the birth of Jesus that is the religious basis for Christmas, he was turned down.

“I had been thinking about it, but it’s one of those things—you don’t want to create waves,” Wesselius said Wednesday. “But when I saw the menorah was there, I thought, ‘Hey, why don’t I ask?’” He said he was surprised at the response.

Steve Valandra, a spokesman for the Department of General Administration, said officials were concerned that in comparison with a tree or menorah, a Nativity scene might carry a stronger impression of government endorsement of religion. Lawyers for the state felt there was insufficient time to fully research the issue, he said.

“Based on that, without having more time, we had to say no,” Valandra said. Wesselius said he hadn’t decided whether to press state officials to change their minds.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/21/2006 at 12:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - December 03, 2006

Christmas Special

_{Brian Fairington - Cagle Cartoons}

Good Grief: It’s Christmas
-- by Tom Purcell

It has been 41 years since the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” special first aired. It was broadcast again the last Tuesday in November, and the show holds more power over me now than it did when I was a kid.

I think I know why.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Americans, bolstered by stability and prosperity, married young and had large families. In my neighborhood, we had six kids, the Kreigers five, the Gillens four, the Greenaways four and so on.

The design was simple then for many folks: Many men and women believed that when they married, they became one under God. They believed their role was to sacrifice for their children, so their children could have better lives than they.

Their mission was to teach their kids good values and to provide them with an excellent education. That’s why so many moved into our neighborhood. It was located a few blocks from St. Germaine’s Catholic Church and School.

It was a traditional time, to be sure. Most of the dads went off to work while most of the moms kept an eye on both kids and neighborhood. And although life for adults certainly had its limitations and challenges, there was no better time to be a kid. Especially during Christmas.

At Catholic school, we kicked off Christmas preparations one month before the big day. We put up decorations, sold items to raise money for the needy and practiced for Christmas concerts (we sang real Christmas songs, too, such as “Silent Night” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing").

We were just as busy at home. My mother was a master at building suspense. She played Mitch Miller’s Christmas albums on the stereo most nights after dinner and whistled to the tunes as we hung decorations and talked over what to get for one another. She celebrated the mystery of giving and taught us that being kind and helping others were the best things we could give.

Silly as it may sound today, the TV Christmas specials were a real event in our home. We all packed into the family room and plugged in the tree. We turned off all the lamps so that the Christmas lights would shine bright. Then we’d wait with great anticipation for the specials.

Every year I laughed out loud when the Grinch’s dog, massive antlers strapped to his tiny head, jumped up on the back of the sleigh, causing the Grinch to grimace. In “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the Abominable Snowman terrified me, but I was always relieved when he turned out a lovable fuzz ball.

But the granddaddy of them all was the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” special, a show that captured half the viewing audience when it first ran on Dec. 9, 1965. As it goes, Charlie Brown is depressed because everyone around him fails to see the true meaning of Christmas. Lucy complains that she doesn’t want stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes for Christmas, but real estate.

To resolve his depression, Charlie Brown throws himself into work as the director of the Christmas play. But that soon falls apart, too. Distraught, he follows a light in the east and finds his way to a Christmas tree lot. The only tree he can find is a small sickly one.

When he brings it back, the others mock him. But then Linus comes to the rescue. Linus tells Charlie Brown he knows the real meaning of Christmas. He tells the story of Christ’s birth.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men,” he says, quoting from the Bible.

Suddenly, the other characters are transformed. They become compassionate and concerned. They decorate the tree and transform it into a thing of beauty. They wish Charlie Brown a Merry Christmas and sing a Christmas carol.

This show holds tremendous power over me still because it brings back powerful childhood memories—memories of security and love and the anticipation of Christmas morning.

But I love it for another reason. Despite Christmas being based on the birth of Christ, a historical figure – despite that the show’s innocence, simplicity and honesty still make it a ratings winner – it would never be made today.

Good grief.

---

Tom Purcell’s weekly political humor column runs in newspapers and Web sites across America. Send comments to Tom at TomPurcell@aol.com.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/03/2006 at 04:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Religion •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 28, 2006

The Old Rugged Cross

This story probably needs no explanation. It involves a cross erected in the Mojave Desert over 70 years ago by private citizens, an atheist and the ACLU. The result is a cross covered in plywood, a satisfied godless madman and $63,000 in the pockets of the ACLU.

It’s enough to bring tears to my eyes. I need to go visit the firing range to clear my vision and take out a little anger. Be back later ....

In 1934, a gritty prospector named J. Riley Bembry gathered a couple of his fellow World War I veterans at Sunrise Rock. Together they erected the cross, in honor of their fallen comrades. The memorial has been privately maintained ever since.

A wrinkle developed in 1994, when the federal government declared the surrounding area a national preserve. With the cross now located on newly public land, ...the ACLU demanded that the National Park Service tear down the cross.

Mr. Buono insists that his seeing the monument ("two to four times a year") violates his civil rights. A federal district court found in his favor, and the decision was subsequently upheld by the Ninth Circuit.

The ACLU, however, has made out quite nicely. Not only has it prevailed in the courts to date, but it has managed to pocket $63,000. Owing to a quirk in civil-rights law, the taxpayer once again ended up paying the ACLU for pressing a highly controversial church-state lawsuit.

-- FreeRepublic.com (May 27, 2005)

I was in Las Vegas at the end of September and called into Jay at his e-radio show on WideAwakesRadio. I mentioned that I was going to go searching in the Mojave Desert to find a small cross that I’d read about that had been ordered removed by a federal judge after the ACLU sued. Jay mentioned that he’d like to see a picture of it, so here it is.

Seeing a cross covered in plywood is startling to me. It is celebrated by the ACLU as a victory. To me it…what word can I use to describe this anti-religious display? It offends.

-- StopTheACLU (November 28, 2006)

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/28/2006 at 03:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Religion •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Into The Lion’s Den

The Pope Visits A Muslim Country - Turkey

The Muslims There Are Offended And Want To Kill Him

So The Turkish Government Has To Call Out The Army To Protect Him

Pope’s Visit to Turkey Highlights Tensions
_{ANKARA, Turkey (NY TIMES) - November 28, 2006}

Pope Benedict XVI offered a message of brotherhood and of support for Turkey’s membership in the European Union today as he began a visit to Turkey, amid lingering anger over his remarks about two months ago that were widely interpreted as suggesting that Islam was prone to violence.

The Pope’s trip is mainly aimed at reaching out to Orthodox Christians. But after he apologized for the way the speech mentioning Islam was received, expectations are high for him also to reach out to Muslims while he is here — though with measured words that are unlikely to express the full range of his complex concerns about Islam or the possibilities of meaningful dialogue with Christians.

“All feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history — let’s work together,” Benedict said during his flight to Ankara from Rome, according to The Associated Press. We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood, and the commitment for understanding between cultures,” and for reconciliation, he told reporters on his plane.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, greeted the pope at the Ankara airport and held a short meeting with him the popebefore leaving on a journey of his own, to the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia. I asked his support for our membership into the European Union,” said Mr. Erdogan after the talks. “The Pope said they did not have the political power to intervene but they would like to see Turkey as a member of the E.U.”

In another relevant event on his schedule, Benedict met today with Turkey’s chief Muslim religious figure, Ali Bardakoglu, who had been one of the most outspoken critics of the Pope’s speech about Islam. Street protests and anger over Benedict’s the popeearlier speech continued in the hours before the pope’s arrival, complicating the event for Turkey, which has to ensure his safety during the four-day visit and to maintain the image of a secular and moderate Muslim nation that wants to join the European Union.

Although the Vatican had never opposed Turkey joining the E.U., Benedict had personally expressed reservations about the idea before he was elected Pope, telling the French newspaper Le Monde in 2004 that Turkey stood in “permanent contrast” to Europe. The shift in his tone today seemed intended as a small, specific gift of reconciliation, blunting the criticism and enhancing the stature of Mr. Erdogan at home.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the chief spokesman for the pope, said: “The Holy See has neither the power not the specific political task of intervening on the exact point regarding the entry of Turkey into the European Union. It is not its scope.” Before the visit, some experts said Benedict could go far in pleasing Turks merely by being friendly, and the pope seemed to want to do that. On Sunday, he sent “cordial greetings to the dear Turkish people.”

Benedict originally wanted to visit Turkey a year ago, in hopes of helping to heal the 1,000-year rift between the Roman church and Orthodox Christians, who now number 220 million around the world. The pope planned to celebrate the Feast of St. Andrew on Nov. 30 with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church, who lives in Istanbul, and then return to Rome.

But for various reasons having to do with the Turkish government’s own complex relationship with Orthodox Christianity, officials raised objections and the trip was postponed. No doubt the nation’s leaders now wish they had approved a Papal visit then, before the controversial remarks about Islam that the pope made in September in a speech to academics and theologians in Regensburg, Germany.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/28/2006 at 12:59 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - November 24, 2006

Happy Shopping!

Black Friday is here at last. Today is the day when merchants sell about 70% of what they will sell for the entire year. Out there in the streets and malls of America, millions are running down the aisles with credit cards outstretched in vain hopes of grabbing the last Playstation 3 in the wild.

Madness! Of course, I’ll be doing my part to keep the great economic engine of America going through these troublesome times. I’ll be doing most of my shopping for friends and family over the internet though. I can’t bear the thought of fighting off the milling herds of angry shoppers today.

Besides, about half of what we spend today will end up in China anyway. If you don’t believe it, take a look around at the stores. See how many items do not have “Made in China” on them. See? So prop up the ChiComs today and alert Visa and Mastercard to start funneling more money toward the US trade deficit with our new “friends” across the Pacific.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course. Even godless Commies deserve a little cheer at this season of money joy. With only four weeks to go before we celebrate the birth of Christ, what are you praying for .... ?

_{Mike Lester - Rome News-Tribune (GA)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/24/2006 at 12:09 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Religion •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 14, 2006

Godless?

Today’s NY TIMES has a fairly reasonable analysis of the election and why what happened did happen in an editorial entitled ”The Real Message Of The Midterms” (requires subscription) by Andrew Kohut, a nonpartisan pollster and president of The Pew Research Center. According to Mr. Kohut, the election didn’t mark a real about-face in the voters but it did involve a few things that bear looking into.

I was particularly concerned with the third item in the list, which showed that voters with little or no religion in their lives voted for Democrats by a 2 to 1 margin. This bothered me immensely as I began to wonder if America was really becoming a nation of godless secularists.

As if to reinforce this worry, last night when I was channel-surfing I stumbled across a comedy special on HBO with Roseanne Barr live at some comedy club. I tuned in just in time to hear the bloated blimp dressed in a garish, eyeball-bursting muu-muu declare to the audience, “I hate religion. Don’t you? Religious people really suck.” --- and the audience applauded.

I had to turn off the TV at that point. I just sat there in the silence for a few minutes pondering the statements I had just heard. Statements that were disguised as “comedy”? I’m probably not the most deeply religious person in the world. I attend church fairly often but not every week and I don’t go around trying to convert the “heathens” among us. I feel it’s their choice and they can live (and die) with it. What I do believe in is that this nation is “one nation, under God”. After all, if we’re not beholden to The Creator for the good things we enjoy, then who should we thank ... Hollywood?

• Political Realignment: The Democratic win is not a sign of political realignment. Yes, the Democrats won the popular vote, and the exit polls showed that more Democrats than Republicans voted (by 2 percentage points). But the popular vote margin favoring the Democrats was relatively modest, even though it resulted in many Democratic victories. Democrats won by almost the same margin by which Republicans won in 2002. The turnout pattern was not that unusual either. A plurality of the electorate has been Democratic in three of the last five elections.


• The Moderate Voters: The outcome of this election – and others in our recent history — was determined by the shifting sentiments of independents and moderates. It is no exaggeration to say that the views of the least ideological voters decided this election for the Democrats. Political independents, who divided their votes evenly between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004, swung decisively in favor of the Democrats this year. And moderates voted more Democratic than in 2004 by a 10-percentage-point margin as shown in the table below.


• Religious Voters: There are few signs that the Republican base deserted the party. Christian conservatives, and conservatives generally, voted as Republican as they did in ’02. Nor did white evangelical Protestants defect to the Democrats in any substantial number, as a number of post-election news stories have suggested. The real religion story of this election is that the least religious Americans — voters who attend church rarely or never — made the biggest difference to the outcome of the election. This group gave Democrats an even greater share of their vote — 62 percent, up from 52 percent in 2002.


• Referendum On Bush: The current election was not about social values or other broad ideological issues. It was a referendum on Bush and G.O.P. control of Congress. As is so often the case in times of change, performance, not ideology, is what counts. The exit polls showed that Bush was much more of a drag on G.O.P. candidates than was former President Clinton on the Democratic candidates in 1994. More than a third of those polled (36 percent) said they voted to oppose Bush; that compares with 27 percent who voted to oppose Clinton in 1994, and 21 percent in 1998, the year Congress impeached the president.


• The War In Iraq: The Iraq conflict was the central issue of this election — by election time only 42 percent of the public approved of the war, compared with 56 percent who disapproved. Eighty percent of voters who disapproved of the war favored Democrats. And although war supporters backed the Republicans in their districts by virtually the same margin, there weren’t nearly as many of them. The war, together with a number of performance failures — notably the administration’s handling of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina — took Bush’s approval rating down from 52 percent in Jan 2005 to 42 percent on election day.


• Redistricting Effect: This election should moderate concerns that redistricting significantly reduced political competitiveness. Democrats won a number of seats in supposedly safe Republican districts and in districts where Bush sailed to victory in ’04. In fact, Republicans managed to win the popular vote by a comfortable margin only in districts where Bush won more than 60 percent of the vote in 2004. No doubt, gerrymandering affected the outcome of this and other recent elections, but it provides no bulwark against the sentiment of an aroused electorate.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/14/2006 at 01:42 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics • Religion •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - October 01, 2006

Death Of A Nation

I can’t say I’m going to miss Louis Farrakhan. Nor will I miss the “Nation Of Islam” if it falls apart. This shadow group is a nefarious, racist band of idiots who need to quietly disappear. It has always amazed me that Farrakhan could get away with his anti-semitic public statements, sleazy financing and hired thugs keeping the rabble away from His Lowness.

The government should have broken this bunch up a long time ago. Our society has become way too tolerant of idjits like Farrakhan and others of his ilk. A little housecleaning is in order. The Nation Of Islam is a good place to start sweeping out the trash. Where is Elliot Ness when we need him ... ?

Nation of Islam Future Questioned
_{October 1, 2006, 1:23 PM EDT - (AP)}

Minister Louis Farrakhan, ailing and in seclusion at his Michigan home, has ceded leadership of the Nation of Islam to an executive board while he recovers, saying the movement must prove that it “is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality” of one person.

But those who have watched the Nation evolve over decades believe that the organization—known as much for the dark suits and bow ties of its followers as for its doctrine of black supremacy—will falter without a dynamic figure like the minister in charge.

“When Farrakhan dies, my prediction is the movement will split,” said Lawrence Mamiya, a Vassar College professor and an expert on African-American religion. “I don’t think this movement can be governed by a board. It runs off the charismatic energy of one person.” The 73-year-old Farrakhan wrote in a Sept. 11 letter to followers that he was anemic and 20 pounds lighter because of complications from an ulcer in the anal area. He had surgery in 2000 for prostate cancer.

“In this period of testing, you can prove to the world that the Nation of Islam is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality of Louis Farrakhan,” he wrote. “You can prove that the Nation of Islam ... is more than the physical presence of any individual, and that it will live long after I and we have gone.”

Conrad Worrill, of the Inner Cities Studies program at Northeastern Illinois University, traveled with Farrakhan to Cuba, where he was initially diagnosed this year. “It’s serious, he needs to recover, but he’s not on his deathbed,” he said. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke with Farrakhan by phone Sept. 24, said the minister had given up oversight “because he wants to devote his time exclusively to physical restitution.”

Still, it’s clear from Farrakhan’s letter that he is concerned about who will succeed him. He has firsthand experience with a messy transition at the top. He had to rebuild the Nation in the late 1970s, after W.D. Mohammed, the son of the late Nation leader Elijah Muhammad, broke away and moved his followers toward mainstream Islam.

While the Nation has obviously survived, no one can say how successful the revival has been. A longtime target of federal surveillance, the movement is highly secretive and suspicious of outsiders. At Mosque Maryam in Chicago, the Nation’s headquarters, security guards stand watch behind brass-plated doors. Even researchers who follow the group closely do not know for sure how many members or mosques it has, how much money it takes in or whether it is shrinking or growing.

Yet Farrakhan’s popularity among many blacks is clear. The hundreds of thousands of black men he drew to the 1995 Million Man March in Washington are only one example. He is popular with hip-hop artists, who praise the Nation in their music, and a trusted mediator in gang conflict. This support is baffling to many outsiders, who remember Farrakhan only for his most provocative comments, including calling Judaism a “gutter religion” and saying Hitler was “wickedly great.”

“The Nation of Islam has always been a symbolically important organization as a cultural symbol of defiance against the American state,” said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. “At the Million Man March, most of those people were not members of the Nation of Islam. They were supporters of Farrakhan and his brand of critique of American politics.”

Farrakhan has haltingly tried to move the Nation toward traditional Islam, which considers the American movement heretical because of its view of Elijah Muhammad as a prophet—among other novel teachings. Orthodox Islam teaches that there has been no prophet after Muhammad in the seventh century.

He’s also played down some of the group’s more controversial beliefs. The Nation of Islam teaches that whites are descended from the devil and that blacks are the chosen people of Allah. Mamiya said leaders no longer preach that message, although it is still taught in some mosques.

- More on the downfall of the Nation here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 01:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations • Religion •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - September 25, 2006

Silence Of The Hams

Today the Pope is meeting with Muslim diplomats from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia to try to soothe the hurt feelings and try to make the poor little Muslim babies stop their temper tantrums ... and plead with them to stop killing nuns, if it’s not too much trouble of course.

I’m not Catholic but I am a Christian and I am offended by Muslims shooting nuns in the back in Somalia and raping and killing little Christian girls in Indonesia. In fact I am so offended I am declaring a “fatwar” against all Muslims overseas. For every Christian who is killed, a Muslim city will be bombed to rubble - starting with Teheran. We must take the battle to the infidels. Kill them all and let I AM THAT I AM sort them out.

Silly thought and impractical to boot ... but it does sound like a great idea on paper. Unfortunately, the idea will get no backing from Christians - especially the leaders of Christian countries. Which brings us to the point of Michael Reagan’s editorial this week. Why is the Pope being left hanging out to dry by the leaders of the so-called “Free World”? Not a one has stood up and defended him.

The leader of the Church Of Christ has been abandoned by all. I can think of no more embaressing and shameful act in response to the Muslim temper tantrums than this. Time is growing short. Pretty soon we are all going to have come down on one side of the fence or the other. The era of the mugwumps* is fast coming to a close ....

_{* - A politician who either could not or would not make up his mind on some important issue, or who refused to take a stand when expected to do so. Hence the old joke that a mugwump is a person sitting on the fence, with his mug on one side and his wump on the other.}

_{Cam Cardow — The Ottawa Citizen}

How Many Divisions Has the Pope?
• by Michael Reagan

Joseph Stalin is alleged to have asked contemptuously just how many divisions the pope had at his disposal. The answer came after the Soviet dictator’s death when the Berlin Wall came crashing down and Eastern Europe came out from behind the Iron Curtain thanks to Pope John Paul II, my father Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher – the phalanx that drove a spike through the heart of Soviet tyranny .

Pope John Paul II had no military divisions, but he had a huge army of people yearning for freedom who responded to his message that united they could prevail over a master who commanded vast military forces. Those forces eventually proved helpless in the face of the people’s determination and will.

Today the question might be, “How many supporters does the pope have among the world’s leaders?” Shamefully, the answer is none. Assailed all across the globe by millions of Muslims for quoting a few passages from a debate featuring the 14th Century Byzantine emperor Manuel Paleologos II – next-to-last emperor of what had been the Eastern Roman empire—Pope Benedict XVI has been left standing alone among the leaders of the Western world despite his warning that they face a foe determined to subjugate them and their citizens.

Writing in the September 20 Front Page Magazine, Robert Spencer reminded the West’s leaders just how much they owe to Pope Benedict XVI, the man they have left hanging in the wind that is blowing like a typhoon from the world of radical Islam

Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of “Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West” wrote: “In choosing Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has cast a vote for the survival of Europe and the West. ”

He quotes historian Bernard Lewis as warning “Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century,” and observes that the pope is unlikely to be happy about that eventuality.

“Late in 2003 the semi-official Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica departed from John Paul II’s policy toward Islam and published a scathing criticism of the mistreatment that Christians suffer in Islamic societies,” wrote Spencer. “It represented the first indication that any Catholic officials recognized the dimensions of the religious conflict that jihadists are waging against Christians and others around the world.”

He adds that “La Civiltà Cattolica pointed out that ‘for almost a thousand years Europe was under constant threat from Islam, which twice put its survival in serious danger.’ Now, through jihad terrorism and demographics Islam is threatening Europe’s survival yet again — and it looks as if now there is a Pope who has noticed. Maybe in Europe the resistance is just beginning.”

You wouldn’t think so from the wall of silence that has surrounded the West’s leaders, including our own President Bush. Not one of them has sprung to the pope’s defense in the face of the violence and threats made against the pope by Muslims all over the world.

The pope was dangling out there all by himself. There is not one leader in any part of the world – left, right, center or anywhere in between—standing up for the pope who, as Spencer noted has “dared to speak more clearly about the threat that Islam poses to Western civilization than his predecessor — for all his many and remarkable gifts — ever quite managed to do.”

All this proves the point I have been making for a long time: the world fears Islam and its adherents. In an attempt to spur a dialogue between Christianity and Islam the pope quotes a Byzantine leader from 1391 to make his point about the futility of violence between religions and what do we get?

We get a dead nun, churches burned, the leader of the world’s billion Catholics burned in effigy, hordes of angry Muslims demonstrating in the streets and demanding that the pope be hunted down and slaughtered, all of which proved the point stressed by Manuel Paleologos II, in the 14th century.

And worst of all, we get silence from the leaders of the besieged West.

---

_{Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s new book “Twice Adopted”. Order autographed books at http://www.reagan.com. Email Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com. ©2006 Mike Reagan. If you’re not a paying subscriber to our service, you must contact us to print or web post this column. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Cari Dawson Bartley email Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/25/2006 at 02:14 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics • Religion • RoPMA •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner