Later, girls!

Law enforcement now has Zazi on videotape going in to a beauty supply store to purchase the bomb-making chemicals. The clerk remembers asking him why he was buying so many chemicals. "I have lots of girl friends," was Zazi's reply. A CEO of another chain of beauty supply stores has turned over the hard drive of store computers which caught Zazi on videotape. Those girlfriends would be the fantasized virgins he hopes to meet after serving his one hundred year prison sentence.

You do what you have to do to stop terrorists from acting out their fantasies!

The big issue here now, unbelievably, is this: did alleged terrorist Zazi's lawyer err in allowing the F.B.I. to question him for 30 hours? You've got to be kidding me! Since 9-11-2001 our nation's security guys have followed the principal of acting fast to prevent terrorists from killing more of us. Sometimes we charge them with lesser charges such as lying to the feds, as in this case. Sometimes we just capture them and put them in Guantanamo; but the point is, stop them before they get to go marry their virgins!

So, how does airport shuttle driver Zazi take time off to go get bomb-making training with al Qaeda, then come back here and get his job back, including security clearance?

At least some of us can get credit!

The terror suspect arrested and charged with lying to the feds lives a mere 20 minutes from our farm (if the roads aren't clogged with 10 inches of snow, as they are predicted to be tomorrow). Kudos to law enforcement for watching this guy and the others who are suspects. As info is learned about him and the others, I will share it here, because not much is getting out in the formerly mainstream media. He has admitted that he recently went back for al Qaeda training in bomb-making. He was quite Americanized, though: he had over twenty credit cards!

Lived long enough?

Garrison Keillor, of Lake Wobegon fame, has written a beautiful and provocative column about health care. Keiller recently suffered a stroke, received superb care, and wrote about it. I really identified with some parts of it, after being treated for heart problems a while back. I especially liked his comments about the smart, capable and nurturing women who work as nurses in our hospitals. Keillor, a liberal who suffered mightily from Bush Derangement Syndrome, now is, thankfully, writing about something besides George W. Bush. He concludes his column by emphasizing our common humanity. "It is not decent that people avoid seeking help for want of insurance. It is not decent that people go broke trying to get well."

Yes, Garrison, but would you have had all those life-saving services if some bureaucrat in Washington decided that rationing was appropriate since you are now 67 years old? As Rush Limbaugh continually says, "Where do you suppose the cost-cutting is going to be done?" On the backs of those deemed to have lived long enough.

Pay it forward!

Recently, a man and his daughter were shopping at our local Wal-Mart. He sought to purchase $179 worth of groceries, but his credit card was denied. The man kept taking things out of his basket and asking the cashier to take those items off his bill. He was sure that his card would be good, if he just took a few more things off the bill. This went on until he got down to about $150, but the credit card kept being denied. Finally, the next customer in line stepped forward and said he would pay for the other man's groceries...a man he had never met, but he could not stand to see the man's humiliation and embarassment. The purchaser told me that he had had a good week in his jewelry business, but that in this economy, one never knows what next week will bring. I witnessed this whole thing, and wanted you to know about it.

Photos from Colorado

Steamboat Lake is one of the family's favorite camping spots. Unfortunately, I did not get to join with the family on this trip, but I am glad Kim had her camera.
This is my beautiful wife Colleen, who is happiest when outside or in the barn milking Rosie.
This is not our cow named Rosie. I just like this photo taken by daughter Kim on a recent camping trip to Steamboat Springs. Rosie, who looks like this cow, is now giving us ample milk for our family of seven who still live under this roof, and the milk is delicious!

Here is Jon with our calf Lucy.

Hello friends

Some water spilled on Colleen's computer, and we thought we had lost it. All we needed to do is pull out the battery and plug it back in. Since the computer is hers, I have refrained from using it, but tonight she invited me to say hello to you. I wanted to post some pictures, but have not been able to do it. I don't know whether the problem is with the computer or Blogger. I'll keep trying. We are all fine here, and I hope you are, too.

Being well-organized is a good thing!

I have been trying to make two arguments here in several posts over the last month. One is that Saul Alinsky was not the monster he is being portrayed to be by our leaders of the conservative movement. Unfortunately, conservatives have read that argument, and are so shocked by the heresy of it, that they miss my other argument completely. My other argument is that being well-organized is a good thing. The more we are organized, the less powerless we shall feel, and the more willing we shall be to stand up and try to stop the Obama socialist train.

Leaders like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity seem to understand this point instinctively. They are presently involved in encouraging a September 12 march on Washington D.C. Time and again I have made the point that Rush Limbaugh is more like Saul Alinsky than Alinsky himself. Limbaugh is a master of Alinsky tactics designed to ridicule the "bad guys" and "bad girls," thus freeing Limbaugh's listeners, along with listeners of other talk radio hosts and hostesses, from being immobilized by their fears, and encouraging them to become informed (reading the proposed bills) and to attend public meetings and speak up for traditional American values.

Conservatives began to get organized after John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Then came September and October, when President Bush seemed to just throw up his hands and give unprecedented power to Treasury Secretary Paulson, who, in turn, rescued his cronies at Goldman Sachs. That just took away all the momentum Sarah Palin had brought to the campaign. The left, however, realized they had a galvanizing issue; they became extremely well-organized, and Obama rode the wave into the White House.

My point, dear readers, is that through organization the powerless become powerful and are able to make changes. Let's not take pride in being powerless!

Harsanyi joins Will

I was pleased to read David Harsanyi's column today in which he agreed with George Will regarding Afghanistan. He writes, "If every military engagement includes an open-ended plan for nation-building that pins our fortunes on the predilections of a backward nation, we are setting ourselves up for failure." Harsanyi points out that we are sacrificing our Marines to defend a corrupt government that "recently legalized marital rape and demands women ask permission from male relatives to leave their home."

Harsanyi notes that conservatives are reacting harshly to Will's words. Harsanyi then asks if we are going to wait "until every Islamic radical in the region has met his virgins?" If so, it is going to be a very long wait.

Religious intolerance?

Last night my wife and I were celebrating our son's twentieth birthday with him, and Colleen was telling him about a recent incident at our farm. Our partner in the farm lives up the road from us. She called Colleen one day and said she was bringing over some people who wanted one of our male goats. It turns out that the guests were Muslims, and they wanted to slaughter a goat that had not been dehorned or deballed. We had one. Colleen held out her hand to say hello to them, but the man said, "I don't touch women." Colleen asked if they thought she had cooties, or if he was obeying Sharia law. He explained that Muslim men are not allowed to touch women who are not their relatives.

The men tied up the goat and faced him toward the north, and went back to their car to get their knives. Colleen asked God to forgive her for what was about to happen on our property and made the sign of the cross over the goat and baptized him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Our son, who has now been out of the home for three years, is being indoctrinated by liberals. He thought the way Colleen was telling the story of the goat-slaughter indicated that she was being intolerant to the religious views of others. Muslims, tolerant? We believe God allowed His only Son to be sacrificed, thus no further sacrifices of animals are necessary. We further believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that through Him our sins are forgiven when we repent, and we worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The very first tenet of our ten commandments is that we shall worship no other Gods than the one, true God. Does that make us intolerant?

Get out of Afghanistan?

Conservative columnist George Will has written a Washington Post column today advocating that America should get out of Afghanistan, and conduct our operations against Al Qaeda's Pakistan caves from the sea. Given who we have as president, it's probably a good idea. The will (no pun intended) is not there to take on the Jihadists there or anywhere else in the world. We do not need to lose any more of our very best Americans.

Don't let them think we are not organized! We've got the left right where we want them!

Today I listened to Andrew Breitbart guest-hosting the Dennis Miller radio show. I have immense respect for Breitbart, as he has attempted to fight back against the left's fascistic control over the entertainment industry. However, I heard Breitbart joining the chorus of attacks on Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and it saddened me, because of what I thought I knew about Saul Alinsky. Either I was and am the most naive person on earth, duped by Alinsky, or our leaders of the fight against the left are misunderstanding what Saul Alinsky was all about.

Breitbart was lamenting the left's use of "Alinsky's community organizing tactics" to stifle dissent among entertainment artists. He had on a guest (who later this afternoon will be on Glenn Beck's television show) who was exposing the use of those tactics by officials at the National Endowment for the Arts, against any artist who strayed from the pro-Obama line. Breitbart brilliantly ridiculed these leftists by saying they were trying to "community organize America."

Way more than most people, Alinsky understood that change happens in cycles, and that those who are powerless, if and when they get power, will likely use it against a new generation of people who are relatively powerless! Nevertheless, Saul Alinsky chose to align himself with the powerless, the "have-nots." He ridiculed the leftist revolutions in Russia, Cuba and China, and elsewhere, for replacing old dictatorial regimes with new ones.

The important point here, though, is that we must recognize that leftists are now in control of our government, and many of our organizations, such as the National Endowment for the Arts. I so appreciate Andrew Breitbart, who, among other things, has organized a blog called Big Hollywood, (in my bloglist to the right) dedicated to giving artists who are not leftists a chance to speak out.

Breitbart, though, like other talk radio spokespersons, today seemed to take pride in the fact that the people who are speaking out in public forums are not organized, but just speaking out as individuals who do not like where the Obamaites are taking our country. Please, guys and gals, don't make the mistake of being proud that we are not organized! I understand Breitbart's point: the left has unfairly characterized us as being an organized mob. Fine, let them think that! Our reaction should be to capitalize on their fears and say, "Yes, we are organized, and we will no longer stomach your fascistic efforts to mischaracterize us or stifle our freedoms of speech and assembly!"

We've got the left right where we want them! They are reacting to what they did not expect and have never seen before: middle class people showing up at town hall meetings to speak out against the proposed government take-over of the health care industry. "The action is in the reaction," wrote Alinsky. If San Fran Nan calls us "UnAmerican," then we've got our next organizing issue: the Speaker of the House of Representatives calling Americans who attend town hall meetings "UnAmerican."

Obama has stumbled badly on this issue, trying to use the U.S. Postal Service as an example of private firms like UPS and Federal Express competing successfully with a governmental entity. Just as Alinsky would have hoped, middle class Americans laughed irreverently at Obama's attempts to reassure fearful citizens by using the example of the U.S. Postal Service, which every middle class person knows is an outdated anachronism in today's internet world of free-flowing communication. Brilliant commenters (organizers?) like Limbaugh and Beck immediately picked up on Obama's gaffe. Sarah Palin spoke up about the "death panels," in which the V.A. counsels veterans to make "end-of-life decisions," thereby hopefully saving the V.A. some money. Again, Limbaugh and Beck, knowing that many senior citizens fear Obamacare rationing of health choices and dollars currently available to them, jumped on the ridicule bandwagon, just as I believe Saul Alinsky would have done.