Heading for a Fall!

The chairman of the Fed, Bernake says that if congress does not approve of the bail out they are discussing we are heading for a recession. $700 Billing dollars is what the media is saying it is going to cost. I personally think it will end up being more. I am predicting it will end up being more than a Trillion dollars.

Since the mid 90's I have often said and though to myself that we as a country was headed for a major economic fall. We have had some small ones during that time, but not like the one of 1929.

When you research our economic history there have been plenty of problems where people have lost lots of their personal money. When the stock market has crashed, when banks have gone out of business. However there has not been an economic crash of the same severity since 1929. We, I personally feel, are way over due for one and that is scary.

Our money is what is called "fiat" money. This means that it is not backed by gold. It's only backing is what the government says it is worth. Basically it is money made out of thin air. The government prints more when they need it. Which of course has made the dollar worth less in the global market.

Prior to Adolph Hitlers rise to chancellor of Germany in the 1930's, it was nothing for a person to use a wheel barrow to care down their German Marks they had to buy a loaf of bread because of how worthless it was. This was because the German Mark was not backed by Gold. It was "fiat" currency also.

So if Congress doesn't agree to a bail out we are going to go into a recession according to the Fed Chairman Bernake. As I stated at the beginning of this essay I think the bail out is going to have to be more than a Trillion dollars for it to work. However I really don't think it is going to work anyways, its just going to delay the inevitable. By the time it does hit, it will be a depression. Not a recession.

Wanting to fight but not being allowed to!

I spent almost 7 years in the US Military. The first four years as a Marine, 8 months in the Arizona National Guard and then another 2 years 3 months in the Marines, although the last 9 months of the second stint in the Marines was while on appellate leave.

Over the last year I have seen several articles about how the military was giving waivers to recruits whom had been in trouble with the law. They were granting these waivers to meet their recruiting goals and as they say to give these men a second chance in life. I don’t have a problem with that, in fact I applaud it! We should all be granted second chances.

What I have a problem with is when that same military won’t give one of their own a second chance. Let me explain. I served honorably my first four years in the Marines and received an honorable discharge in 1988. I joined the Arizona National Guard where I served for 8 months before I was released when I decided to rejoin the Marines.

My second stint in the Marine Corp didn’t go as well as the first. After about a year I started making decisions that I am the first to admit were not honorable and were in very poor judgment. At that age (23) I didn’t have very good judgment when it came to my finances. I ended up writing $1400 dollars in bad checks at the Base Exchange on MCAS New River.

In the civilian world while you can be taken to court over bad checks, it is rare. However in the military they don’t mess around. The Exchange notified my command and they proceeded to prosecute me under a Special Court Martial. Because my wife had written one or two of those checks the Exchange was debating on bringing charges against her. She was pregnant at the time with our third son. I made a deal where they would leave her alone and I plead guilty at the court martial for all of them. I was sentenced to 6 months in the Base Brig and was reduced in rank and given a bad conduct discharge.

Fast forward to 2001. Not long after 9/11 I tried re-enlisting in the Arizona National Guard. I was told at the time by the recruiter that he could get a waiver for my re-enlistment code. However it was not to be, he told me that the rules were changed and he was unable to do it.

I sent letters to the Marines, the Army and even the Navy asking for a waiver that would allow me to re-enlist and serve my country in this time of war. Each time I was told they couldn’t give me a waiver and that before they would even consider it that I would need to get my re-enlistment code upgraded as well as my discharge. I researched how to do that. While I did I ran across a document on the internet that gave the decisions by the Naval board that processes those types of requests. I read through well over a 100 of their decisions and even when applicants had help from groups like the American Legion, I did not find one time where the board approved the request. Now I am not saying it didn’t happen, but I couldn’t find any. So I gave up.

Fast forward once again to 2006. My now 19 year old son told me he wanted to join the Arizona National Guard. I had some misgivings on that choice but it had nothing to do with what had happened to me. It was more on making sure that they would pay for my son’s education since I would not be able to do so.

My son’s mother and I spoke to the recruiter regarding the Guard paying for his education and after we were confident my son was getting a good deal we approved and signed the paper work that would allow him to join before his 18th birthday.

My son told his recruiter about me and what had happened to me in the past. Regarding my discharge and my attempts to re-enlist. He asked my son for me to give him a call. I was doubtful, but I gave him a call. After talking to him he said he was really confident he would be able to get me the waiver I would need that would allow me to enlist.

After several months of waiting and him asking for more information beyond the basic information I gave, he came back with the answer. I had tried not to get my hopes up because I didn’t want them dashed, but I was very hopeful I would be able to get in. Unfortunately, that was not the answer he had. He was told that I could not re-enlist. Again I was told I would need to get my discharge upgraded along with my re-enlistment code.

I checked into it again, and found that it would take a minimum of one year to process the request and then again there would be no promise that it would be approved. Again I found that document on the internet that showed all the declined upgrade requests. I said the Hell with it and gave up for good!

Fast forward two years and the news articles I found online where Sen. Waxman was conducting a hearing on the military letting in recruits convicted of misdemeanors and some felonies, all in the name of giving them a second chance.

Yet they won’t, as my son of two years in the National Guard, now in Maryland with his Navy wife says, they won’t give a man who wants to serve badly who is former military, who is almost 20 years older now a second chance. The same man who has said that if allowed he would volunteer to serve over seas in a heart beat. This same man who is encouraging his third son to join the Marines.

I am that man. I have six sons; my oldest one decided the military wasn’t for him so is not serving, even though I keep trying. My second son is in the Guard. My third son is going to join my alma mater the Marines. My fourth son is talking about joining the Navy when he is old enough, which is in less than two years. My two youngest sons are too young to be thinking about that now; however the 10 year old is already talking about.

While I try not to be bitter, because I do recognize the fact that what happened to me was my fault, it is very hard. Especially when they are allowing convicted felons to join to give them a second chance in life. It is very hard.

All I want is a second chance.

We Are Losing Europe to Islam - By Diane West

There is a fictional book by Tom Kratman called “Caliphate,” It gives his view of what Europe is going to be like in the future if we continue to let Islam take over there. The Muslims tried to invade Europe using the sword centuries ago. When they weren’t able to do that they left it alone. However they are now invading Europe , using the own European laws by immigrating legally, sometimes illegally, to all the different countries there.

Author Bruce Bawer has a non-fiction book titled “While Europe Slept” it tells how Muslims are taking over in Europe and it seems like the Europeans are sleeping through the take over. Muslims are not integrating into European society and he goes on to explain how. I would read that book.

There are plenty of books and plenty of examples showing how Islam is taking over Europe, and if we are not careful it will happen here in the United States .
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We are Losing Europe to Islam

Diana West
Thursday, September 18, 2008

With Wall Street convulsing, and the White House race intensifying, the question "Who lost Europe " is on no one's lips, let alone minds. Indeed, the question begs another: "Is Europe lost?"

The answer to the second question is, "No, not yet." And losing Europe , I would add, is by no means inevitable. But that doesn't mean the continent isn't currently hell-bent to accommodate the dictates of Islamic law, bit by increasingly larger bit. Such a course of accommodation, barring reversal, will only hasten Bernard Lewis' famous prediction that Europe will be Islamic by century's end.

And what do I mean by "accommodation"? Well, to take one tiny example, one snowflake in a blizzard of such examples, there are schools in Belgium that not only serve halal food to Muslim and non-Muslim alike (old news), but, according to a recent French magazine report, no longer teach authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. (Don't even ask about the Holocaust.)

For a more substantial, indeed, keystone example of accommodation, we can look to England , where, it pains me to write, Sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. According to press reports this week, the British government has quietly, cravenly elevated five Sharia courts to the level of tribunal hearings, thus making their rulings legally binding.

It may be difficult to quantify the impact of a Voltaire vacuum on the continent, but we can instantly see the inequities of British Sharia (I can't believe I'm writing that phrase). Among the first official verdicts were those upholding the Islamic belief in male supremacy. These included an inheritance decision in which male heirs received twice as much as female; and several cases of domestic violence in which husbands were acquitted and wives' charges were dropped.

In a decidedly minuscule minority, I say we ignore the spread of Islamic law across Europe , from the schoolroom to the courtroom, at our peril, particularly given that in so doing, we also ignore the vital political parties that have arisen in reaction to this threat to Western civilization.

Why at our peril? Because the same type of liberty-shrinking, Sharia-driven accommodation is happening here.

Of the parties dedicated to resisting Islamization that I examined in Europe last summer, the most promising range from the sizeable Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the tiny Sweden Democrats, and include the Lega Nord in Italy , the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders in Holland , the Danish People's Party, the Swiss People's Party and the Austrian Freedom Party. Such parties are unknown here, or ignored. Worse, they are shunned. Why? I believe it's because their respective political opponents -- the leftist media and governing establishments that are increasingly dependent on Islamic support, by the way -- have successfully slandered these parties as "extremists," "racists," "fascists" and "Nazis."

Is advocating freedom of speech "extreme" or "fascist"? Is opposing Islam's law, which knows no race, "racist"? Is supporting Israel (which these parties do far more than other European parties) "Nazi"? The outrageously empty epithets of the Islamo-socialist left seem calculated to stop thought cold and trigger a massive rejection reflex. In this way, resistance becomes anathema, and Islamic law, unchecked, spreads across Europe .

Does that sound "Islamophobic"? You bet. How can anyone who values freedom of conscience, equality before the law and other such Western jewels not have a healthy fear of Islamic law, which values none of these things? Incredibly, this is an emotion that is supposed to be suppressed -- and, in Europe , on pain of prosecution. Indeed, because Filip Dewinter admitted to such "Islamophobia" in an interview, his party, the Vlaams Belang, has been taken to court in Belgium on charges of racism, and, if convicted, will be effectively shut down through defunding by the government.

That hasn't stopped Dewinter, who, in accepting an award at a memorial event dedicated to Oriana Fallaci in Florence , last week, said: "Islamophobia is not merely a phenomenon of unparalleled fear, but it is the duty of every one who wants to safeguard Europe 's future. Europe means Rome , Greece , Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian roots. Europe is a continent of castles and cathedrals, not of mosques and minarets."

Of course, even as Dewinter admits to fearing the Islamization of Europe, he and his colleagues act with exceptional political -- and physical -- bravery in rallying voters against it. This coming weekend, he joins several other politicians on the Sharia-fighting right in Europe -- among them two other men I interviewed, Mario Borghezio of Lega Nord, which is part of Italy 's ruling coalition, and Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria 's Freedom Party, which is expected to become part of Austria 's ruling coalition after elections this month -- in Cologne , Germany .

In that ancient cathedral city, where the city council recently approved the construction of a long-controversial mega-mosque, these men will address a rally against European Islamization. (Contrary to initial reports, Jean-Marie Le Pen will not be at the demonstration.) The Sharia-fighters expect 1,500 demonstrators. Police expect 40,000 counter-demonstrators.

These are frightening odds -- a metaphor, perhaps, for Europe 's chances of staving off Islamic law. Who lost Europe ? If it does happen, we certainly won't be able to say we weren't warned.

Debra J. Saunders has it right!

I have never understood how we can give the right to vote for the president of the United States, allow them to fight for our country and in some places run for office. But we won't allow 18 year old men and women to drink! Hell if nothing else let them drink something like the 3.2 beer of Colorado.

I write this because Debra J. Saunders of Townhall.com has written an article about this, and since she says it so well I am just going to copy it here and let you read it.
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Old Enough To Fight, Old Enough To Drink

Debra J. Saunders



Sunday, September 14, 2008

At age 18, an American can enlist in the military, vote, sign a contract, get married, have an operation -- hey, in California, a 14-year-old can have an abortion without telling her parents -- but he cannot buy a beer. Not legally, anyway.

It makes absolutely no sense, and it is shameful that my generation, which won the right to vote at age 18, continues to infantilize people who are allowed to make life-and-death decisions on every issue, save one. We believe in rights -- except for college-age kids -- even if they are serving in the military.

Enter the Amethyst Initiative, pushed by former Middlebury College President John McCardell and signed by more than 100 college presidents, which is pushing for Washington "to reopen public debate over the drinking age." According to McCardell, it is time for Washington to reconsider a 1984 measure, signed by President Ronald Reagan, that withheld 10 percent of highway funds from states that had a legal drinking age lower than 21.

The reason for the Amethyst Project -- named for a gemstone believed to be "an antidote to the negative effects of intoxication'' -- is simple. Many college officials do not believe that the 21-year-old drinking age works. They believe that most students break the law. Worse, McCardell argues, they believe that the age fosters a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking."

Does the law work? How many kids break it? More than half of 18-to-20-year-olds, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' latest survey on drug and alcohol use, reported that they drank alcohol in the last month alone, despite legal prohibitions. College students were more likely to drink than their same-age peers not attending college. So apparently it doesn't work. I submit that there is something wrong -- something that breeds contempt -- with a law that most people break.

The primary opposition to the initiative comes from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. MADD argues that if the drinking age is lowered, then more high school students will drink. That may well be true. Although it does seem that teens have scant trouble finding alcohol -- or illegal drugs -- as it is. The same national study found that close to 30 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds drank alcohol in the past month, while 13 percent smoked marijuana.

MADD also argues that the 21-year-old drinking age saves lives. Amethyst Initiative's McCardell argues that there was no big dip in fatalities when the drinking age was raised. Instead, there has been a small steady decline in drunk-driving fatalities over the years as MADD's work rightly has stigmatized drunk driving -- the term "designated driver" came into use in the 1980s -- and improved car safety has saved lives as well.

MADD Chief Executive Officer Chuck Hurley notes that several studies have found that the 21-year-old drinking age saves lives. As the Associated Press reported, a survey of research from the United States and other countries by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the 21-year-old drinking age has saved lives.

By that account, then, raising the drinking age to 25 or 30 or 40 would save lives, too. But there is this thing called freedom. And freedom should apply to men and women old enough for military service, old enough to get married and old enough to have had an abortion (four years before).

There is something nasty in the way MADD takes on the critics. "Parents should think twice before sending their teens to these colleges or any others that have waved the white flag on underage and binge-drinking policies," MADD President Laura Dean-Mooney warned. This is MADD's way of trying to stifle debate.

MADD execs also have charged that university presidents want to rethink the drinking age to make their lives easier -- as if they don't care about students -- or to protect against legal liability. Now maybe the argument that lowering the age will reduce binge drinking is just plain wrong, but it also is false to argue that the 21-year-old limit has stopped teen drinking.

How can we trust 18-year-olds to vote or run for office, but not to legally buy a beer?

Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

09/11-Remembering

How are you spending the 7th anniversary of the largest attack on the United States since WWII? I have been thinking about it since I got up this morning. I sent a text message to a friend of mine out in Alabama wishing her a happy birthday. She turned twenty today and she is I think about 4 months pregnant. I was sitting there typing that message when it dawned on me that it had been 7 years since that fateful day, which has set us on a course that will be a long time in closing.

States, cities and townships around the country have erected memorials to the attacks on the Twin Towers , the Pentagon and to the plane that was forced down in Pennsylvania . Here is what I had originally written regarding the rebuilding of the Twin Towers into what is being called the Freedom Tower

(Why haven’t we started rebuilding the Twin Towers ? I personally believe it all boils down to politics. Politics of our government, politics of the owners of the ground and politics of the architects of the new “ Freedom Towers ” that was supposed to go up. I am sure there are some valid reasons as to why we haven’t started rebuilding, but I still thing that the corner stone to all of it is politics.)

After sending that out to several people my 19 year old son being one of them, he corrected me and showed me that we have started constructing the Freedom Tower. Thank you Bobby. You can find all kinds of information regarding it online if you do a search with Google. He also pointed me to a link for information regarding the Pentagon Memorial.

A month after the attack we invaded Afghanistan to take out Osama bin Laden that is the head of Al-Qaeda the terrorist that is reported to be behind the attacks. We invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban would not turn him over. While we were able to remove the Taliban from power, to date we have not captured bin Laden, nor have we been able to destroy the Taliban. We are still fighting them in Afghanistan and depending on what part of the country you are in; they still have control over parts of it.

Almost a year and half later we invaded Iraq due to what we all know as bad intelligence. While a lot of Americans have died over there, even more Iraq ’s have died. All because bad guys moved into that country to fight the Americans. We now have a country that is almost ready to be on its own and in fact they are pushing to have all of our troops and Marines out of the country buy June of 2009. Hopefully the commanders will pull our troops out in a way that will allow us from having to go back into that country to prop the government back up.

We need to finish the job in Afghanistan . I have tried over the last 7 years to get back in the military so I can do my part in the fight. However because of the discharge I received from the Marine Corps in 1991 for something I did, I have been denied the opportunity to fight for my country. While at the same time the services are giving waver’s to people who have committed felonies in the civilian world to allow them to serve. The have said it’s all about giving them a second chance, but they won’t give someone like myself a second chance. I try not to be bitter but it is hard.

Today though is about remembering those that died in the attacks that started this all and not to forget what kind of people they were, and what they had done in the past to contribute to the life they lived and helped other people live.

Thank you and may God Watch over you and your families!

Essay lengths

I originally started this blog because I wanted to write page long essays, about whatever came to my mind. However I have found that impossible, and that I go long periods or not writing at all. So I have decided to write short essays. Ones that are only a sentence or paragraph or longer. Or I will post pictures with comments, or links to other websites.

Whatever the case may be. When I have an idea I am going to write it down and embellish on it later. I want people to read what I write and comment on it whether its and atta boy to telling me what kind of dick I am. Lol Who knows! I may even post videos of what I am saying or ones I find online that I like with my appropriate comments or what I think of it.

So this is a strong start!