Putting the T & A back in TSA
Entries Tagged as 'terror & war'
“If you don’t like it, don’t fly.”
There are many people who are willing to give up certain privileges of privacy to ensure safety. I cannot fault anyone for thinking of the safety of their children and loved ones. There is a point, however, where our so-prided ideas of “freedom” and “liberty” are being needlessly handed over because of outright paranoia and the illusion of safety. [Read more →]
National Opt-Out Day
The People have finally found their limit, the line that they are not willing to cross in order to be safe from terror or danger and that limited line is the new Transportation Security Administration’s use of Body Scanners and policy of Pat-Downs that seem more like Feel-Ups. [Read more →]
In praise of the ‘Member’s Only’ jacket (sort of)
I was struck with déjà vu the other day when in a local Kohl’s I spied a rack of ‘Member’s Only’ jackets. I hadn’t seen one in years. My last memories of the MO jacket were of my dad wearing his long after it fell out of fashion. For those unfamiliar with the iconic 1980s windbreaker, it was the American fashion industry’s answer to the question: what does one wear to a Cold War? Its military styling — it’s cut like a bomber jacket, complete with epaulettes and a front label resembling a military ribbon — was highly symbolic of Reagan-era cold warrior mentality. No other piece of men’s fashion better commodified U.S. foreign policy or made a clearer statement of where its wearer stood versus the Evil Empire. We were at war and in need of proper attire; and in hindsight it was a war worth having. Being a member of a ‘Member’s Only’ club that helped bring down the wall is something in which to take pride.
I don’t know how well the MO jacket is selling these days. Poorly, I hope. [Read more →]
Juarez: city of fear
‘We’re not going to die, are we Dan?’ asked my friend Joe, a CBS radio reporter, shortly before we crossed from El Paso into Juárez, Mexico, murder capital of the world. ‘Nah,’ I replied. ‘Our guide is a priest. It’s a Sunday. The narcos will respect that.’
I was lying to make him feel better. [Read more →]
9/11/01 was the opposite of a sobering moment
Today we look back nine years at the day when four commercial jets were used as weapons against the United States.
For me, the most difficult (but ultimately, the most rewarding) conclusion to make has been that the policy choices of the United States, NATO, and Israel (in short, the Free World) toward the Arab/Muslim world, policy choices which have amounted to, broadly, wholesale manipulation (supporting Al-Qaeda against Russia, supporting the Shah against the Iranians, consistently supporting the Saudis, and on and on and on) and occupation (the West Bank, Gaza, the first Gulf War, and on and on and on) for the purposes of geopolitical advantage, contributed enormously, from a causal standpoint, to the events of 9/11. [Read more →]
9/11 was a day, a moment for the world
Did you know that two Thai nationals were among those killed during the terrorist attacks of 9/11? Neither did I.
[Read more →]
FACT, OR BOLLOCKS? Eight possible purposes of the proposed Islamic doodah at Ground Zero
What are we to make of the media’s latest blithering crapfest, the ongoing Punch and Judy show that is the ‘debate’ over the Ground Zero Mosque-that-is-not-actually-a-mosque AKA Cordoba House AKA Park 51 or whatever the hell the thing is called this week?
With so many heated claims and counter claims, including the now traditional yelps of “bigotry” from what Robert Gibbs describes as the “Professional Left”, and conversely, paranoid accusations of “taqiyya” and all round Islamic evilness from the self-declared Right… well sometimes a man just wants to tell them all to shut up — or indeed, fuck off. [Read more →]
What it is is where it’s at
Back in the days of shields and spears whoever won the contested ground would erect a trophy. This would not be an impressive sight to us, it would be a collection of arms and armor and banners piled upon and hung from a tree or a stake in the ground. What made it significant was, of course, that the glittering bits had been taken from brave and well armed men at the cost of their lives demonstrating, say, the Athenians superiority over the Corinthians. But more importantly this quick and dirty memorial would always be raised on a field of victory and was largely a challenge to the defeated to come tear it down. Any offense to the trophy was an act of war, all sides would understand this. Often the first overt act of a war would be a public destruction of the trophy that ended the last war or battle. But many a trophy stood, rusting and rotting, for decades on the road to a once great city, now reduced to a village. The project to build a mosque within a call-to-prayer from New York’s open mass grave is best understood as a trophy. [Read more →]
Top military officer invokes common sacrifices from D-Day to today
Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, our top military officer, spoke of the common sacrifices of the U.S. military from D-Day to today.
You can read Admiral Mullen’s remarks at my site.
War is binary
Helen Thomas, Jews back to Auschwitz!
Thank you, Helen Thomas! This semi-retired muppet made from old painters’ rags is not a hag, but a haggis. However we see the consoling virtues that compensate the aesthetically, chronologically and temperamentally challenged in her forthright statement of principles that speak for the Left generally on Zion. What is the problem in the Middle East? The Jews. What is the solution? As Ms Thomas, White House press corpse, states so succinctly, “get the hell out of Palestine!” And go where? asks the unseen and unnamed interviewer… well, back where they came from, Poland, Germany…. you know, Jewland. Or as the radio operator of the Hate Boat put it more bluntly, back to Auschwitz. You see here the power of not caring. The seasoned Ms Thomas is above petty concerns like decency or even the appearance of decency and does a real public service. She demonstrates that “peace activists” are no such thing. Rather than being anti-war on principle these 60s style radicals like Bill Ayers, one of the organizers of this New Nazi Navy, are a-okay with war but are on the other side. [Read more →]
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey sees parallels between present-day Iran and Nazi Germany
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey has written an interesting piece for National Review Online in which he draws parallels between present-day Iran and Nazi Germany.
Will Obama and other world leaders respond to the Iranian threat like Winston Churchill or Neville Chamberlain?
Deliberate distortions still obscure understanding of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War remains in the news and the public debate thanks in part to the Connecticut attorney general, who was caught lying about serving in the war.
Historynet.com has reprinted an interesting piece from an 1989 issue of Vietnam Magazine by the then-editor, Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr.
The late Colonel Summers wrote that deliberate distortions still obscure understanding of this very complex war.
Can you say radical Islam? Attorney General Eric Holder can not
Mark Steyn wrote an interesting piece at National Review Online about Attorney General Eric Holder’s inability to blame, acknowledge or even say radical Islam, when discussing the would-be Times Square car bomber and other recent terrorist attempts by men who are clearly radical Islamic fanatics.
Salute, Support and honor the troops on Armed Forces Day
Today is Armed Forces Day
This is a good time to think about and honor our young men and women in the U.S. military.
Genius relies on stupidity…. quite successfully to date
If it is true that the greatness of men and nations is measured in the greatness of their enemies, what are we to say of the numberless but talentless hoard sent against us? Yes, truly we can say “sent” now. This week’s Jihadi Jihaderson as much as the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber and the now quaintly convicted Shoe Bomber has demonstrated fandom if not straight employment beneath the ragged parasol of International Jihad. And it is easy and quite hilarious to wonder, is this all they’ve got? The not so hilarious but plain answer is, yes. Yes it is.
For now.
SEALS 3 – terrorist 0: report shows that the Navy SEALs’ accuser was one of the most dangerous men in Iraq
Rowen Scarborough at the Washington Times reports that the terrorist suspect at the center of the trials of three Navy SEALs was one of the most dangerous men in Iraq.
Ann Coulter on media sympathy for the would-be Times Square car bomber
I watched an interesting piece on Fox News where Ann Coulter, an amusing verbal bomb-thrower, spoke to Bill O’Reilly about the liberal media’s sympathy for Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square car bomber.
Acquitted Navy SEAL rejoins elite warriors
The late great Groucho Marx said that military justice was to justice what military music was to music.
But thankfully we saw some justice when Navy SEAL Special Operations 2nd Class Matthew McCabe was acquitted of charges that he punched a captured notorious Iraqi terrorist.
Never let a crisis go to waste
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel once famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” And politicians from both parties are taking that advice to heart by trying to get Congress — in the wake of the Times Square bomb scare — to ban gun sales to those on the terrorist watch list.
That is, they want to strip the constitutional rights of citizens without due process. [Read more →]
