baldilocks

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Tale of the Tigers

As for the baldilocks website, scroll down for daily posts.

No Heart (UPDATED)

Does this pose look familiar?

Of course it does.

:::note to self: remember, Self, there is no such thing as a coincidence:::

(Thanks to American Digest)

UPDATE: This set of photos is also very illuminating as to the attitude and character of the President of the United States of America.

The evidence of what he is is overwhelming.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

Sand in the Tent

Last year, Gerard Vanderleun, J.B. White and I discussed how betrayal has become celebrated or, at the very least, expected.  Great and small treacheries, when publicized, are pretty much given the ho-hum treatment by the Old Media and, indeed, by the public at large.

Did that change with the terror attack perpetrated last week by Major Nidal Malik Hasan? In spite of the calls by some average citizens for the United States Army officer to be charged with treason for shooting down other United States Army officers, NCOs, soldiers and others, I’m not so sure.

One of the discussions that has stemmed from the attack is the surprise that US military members don’t walked around armed all the time.  (Aside: I had long known about this misconception and had used it to my advantage by bumper-sticker advertising my veteran status.  For a lone female Southern California driver, it’s a survival necessity.) Close on the heels of that surprise follows outrage at this policy.   This outrage speaks to a gap in perception about the military, how its members think of a military base located in the USA and how we think of each other.

Simply put, a stateside military base is considered a home and those allowed to enter that home are considered family.  On a military base there are no drive-by shootings, no burglaries, no carjackings, no muggings, etc.  In that area of strictly-regulated entry, everyone is considered your brother, your sister or at least your friend even if you’ve never met them.

And that strict regulation is backed up by a personnel assigned and trained to protect that area of land: a military police force and/or a DOD-contracted force--armed of course.  And that area is patrolled by these forces, along with being surrounded by fencing topped with barbed wire.

So when I hear civilians and even some military members express outrage that no one other than law enforcement was armed when the Fort Hood Soldier of Allah attacked, I submit that they are reacting from anger rather than thinking through the implications of the necessity of having every military member go armed on a domestic military base.

It would be like having to wear a sidearm in your house to defend yourself against your parents, your spouse, your siblings and your children.  If you can’t trust your family, you can trust no one.  And, outside of the fourteen murdered, that is the mostly galling aspect of Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s jihad against those wearing the same uniform as he.

Those angry at the fact that no one was armed other than the fort’s law enforcement personnel either don’t know or forget that there exists various types of adhesive that make the United States Military the most fearsome force in the world.  Many of the angry have learned to take treachery for granted.  But we—military members and veterans—do not.

If we have to arm soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines against the potential betrayal of other soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines then I would say that one of our enemies’ goals has been reached: a weakening of the bonds which exist between brothers and sisters wearing the uniform.  It still may be necessary to do it, but something essential will have been tainted if not lost. 

The concepts of loyalty, trust and an oath-keeping brotherhood have been severely damaged by Major Hasan and those above him in his chain of command. 

Can we get that back? Only time, circumstances and action will tell.

Funeral of Army Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger

Godspeed to the Fort Hood Martyrs whose lives are being remembered today.

Black Conservatives on Glenn Beck Show (UPDATED)

My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, but I can't wait to see this on the rerun of the Glenn Beck Show tonight.

(Thanks to Booker Rising)

UPDATE:

Time to be Heard, Part 1

You can view the rest of the videos here.

(Thanks to African American Conservatives)

Two More Stirs of the Pot

 President Obama decides to throw out the advice of US military commanders and make no decision about the way forward in Afghanistan—thus making a decision.  This no-decision decision will appear one way to our enemies, especially the enemy known as Islamism: President Obama is, once again, making the United States look weak.  Someone at one of the many sites I frequent called the president’s now-familiar tactic “baring one’s jugular to a wolf.”  I almost added “…hoping that the wolf will show compassion,” and, thereby, falling into the trap that so many do when discussing President Obama’s actions and motives: assuming that the man has the best intentions toward the country he was elected to lead.

And today, the decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Soldiers of Allah in civilian federal court located in New York City comes to the fore.   Aside from the jumble of legal jurisdiction problems of putting military combatants before a civilian court and providing them with the rights that Americans and other civilians enjoy while in this country, it will be necessary to publicize classified material and methods.  And, in addition, bringing these enemies from Guantanamo Bay to NYC will endanger New Yorkers.  If you don’t think that other Soldiers of Allah are champing at the bit for this process to begin, you’re not paying attention.

President Obama means to bring this country to its knees so that he can consolidate power over it. And these two decisions are meant to embolden our enemies to act.

Attorney General Eric Holder is set to make a statement about this decision this morning.  I can’t wait to hear his usual quality of logic.

 UPDATE: Andy McCarthy

We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda's case against America. Since that will be their "defense," the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and — depending on what judge catches the case — they are likely to be given a lot of it. The administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets. And the circus will be played out for all to see — in the middle of the war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press its case that actions taken in America's defense are violations of international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us.

[Emphasis mine. More added to the McCarthy quote, which needs no further commentary.]

What Does It Mean

...when you get called both a white supremacist and a politically-correct apologist for black racism within the same week?

Check Your Premises

If there is such a thing as a 'moderate Muslim'--a term used often by the everyday press--and a 'moderate Muslim' is a good thing to be, is it good or bad to be and extreme Muslim or even a regular, normal everyday Muslim?  And after it is determined whether it is good or bad to be an extreme Muslim or a normal Muslim, it would be nice to know why either is good or bad.

Put this another way: if being a Muslim is good then why be a moderate one?

Happy Veterans Day 2009

In honor of our friends at Fort Hood...

Watch your front, boys and girls and, as is increasingly necessary, your back.

UPDATE: From Reason TV--this is awesome.

(Thanks to Instapundit)

President Obama's Remarks at Fort Hood

Transcript.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call — the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm's way.

It was a good speech, well-delivered even.  And the First Lady was properly turned out for the occasion this time.

No sniping today, if you'll pardon the monstrous word usage.

Godspeed to the Martyrs of Fort Hood.

(Thanks to Hot Air; photos belong to the Washington Examiner)

Two Sides, Same Coin

Lots of things going on today, but two of them seem to demonstrate one of my convictions that there is no such thing as a coincidence.

John Allen Muhammad--the lead Beltway Sniper--is scheduled to be executed today at 6PM 9PM EST in Virginia.

Muhammad is set to die by injection Tuesday night at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal.

"I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," [Virginia Governor Tim] Kaine, who is known for carefully considering death penalty cases, said in a statement. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."

Muhammad was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a three-week spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The Virginia Pilot features biographies on two of the victims of Muhammad and his then underage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo.

Dean Myers

Linda Franklin

But before earthly justice is served for the 2002 series of cowardly acts, the victims of another Jihadist are being memorialized with the president and the First Lady in attendance.

During their planned four-hour visit to Fort Hood, the Obamas were scheduled to meet first with the families of those who were killed Thursday in the shootings at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, then with wounded soldiers and their relatives.

Obama later planned to address the Fort Hood community at a memorial service scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Central time, giving him another opportunity to express outrage over the deaths and to tell the nation that the government is taking steps to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

After the service, the president and first lady were scheduled to meet with wounded soldiers at Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center before flying back to Washington. 

Remembering the time period from September 11, 2001 to March of 2003, there seem to be a spirit of threat over the US and the West.  Is that spirit returning?

But the spirit of fear is not from God, so rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ...if you dare.

Happy Birthday to the United States Marines

and Semper Fidelis, older brothers and sisters.

Reviewing the Evidence

Cassandra gives me a Villainous Company-lanche with a fine (lack of) character study on our military’s Commander in Chief, such as he commands.  She also reminds us that the First Lady Michelle Obama once made a big show of concern with regard to the well-being of military families.  Well, guess what, Mrs. Obama.  Many military families down Texas way need you now.

There’s a memorial service scheduled tomorrow at Fort Hood in honor of its fallen and the president and First Lady are scheduled to attend.  I hope they don’t speak because I don’t think that either of them will be able to restrain from making the event about them.  And if the First Lady dresses the same way she did when the First Couple met the parents of deceased Congressional Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti (1975-2006) during the MOH ceremony at the White House in September, you will know that none of the callousness displayed by the Obamas and the Obama Administration toward the military is accidental.

 But I think you know that already.

Berlin Wall Tumbled Down

I can’t believe it has been 20 years since I sat here in the USA watching my friends on TV as they scale a previously untouchable Berlin Wall.  I had left what was then West Berlin not a month before.  Talk about the worst timing in the world!

President Obama isn’t in Germany this time—perhaps he thinks that he has traveled to Europe enough for one year—but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is there and appears to be getting on quite well with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (a former East German physicist).

My old Berlin friends and I plan to have our reunion this February, but I think that an adult beverage of choice should be lifted today in honor of those who helped shake the foundation of the Wall and bring it down—including, most notably, one Ronald W. Reagan who, in his famous 1987 visit, exhorted last USSR head of state Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear Down This Wall.” President Reagan seemed to speak the Wall’s destruction into reality. 

It says in the Bible that believers can do that.  I just report.  You decide.™

UPDATE:  President Obama gave a video address for the celebration in Berlin.  Appropriate considering present events, but he was unable to resist making it about him.

“Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it,” Obama said.

Conundrum

When you live in a country which holds freedom of religion as one of its founding principles, what do you do about adherents to a religion whose founder exhorted the faithful to impose that religion on others at the point of a sword?

Or at the muzzle of a gun?

Or at the flashpoint of a weapon of mass destruction?

Answer: when their freedom of religion threatens your country's survival, you do what you have to do to make sure the country survives. 

We're not there--yet.  But some people want us there.  And I believe that one of them sits in the Oval Office.

UPDATE:  Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood Shooter, tried to contact al Qaeda months ago and the FBI knew about it.  Hasan also attended the same mosque and at the same time as two of the 9/11 hijackers.

I suppose that it is mere coincidence that this mosque, Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, VA, nurtured jihad so fervent in at least three of its congregants that they felt compelled to produce such high body counts for Allah.

(Thanks to Stacy McCain and Hot Air)

In Memoriam

A Commander-in-Chief Visits the Fort Hood Wounded

The only thing is that it isn't the current Commander-in-Chief.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.

The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."

Instead of comforting his troops, President Obama decided to spend the weekend at Camp David.

11:25AM THE PRESIDENT addresses the House Democratic Caucus - Cannon House Office Building

2:30PM THE PRESIDENT makes a statement to the press on Health Care - Rose Garden

2:45PM THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart The White House en route Camp David - South Lawn

Even if one were inclined to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume that he had asked Former President Bush and Mrs. Bush to visit the wounded soldiers because the Bushes live in Texas, why would he ask this of his predecessor and not get on Air Force One overnight to get down there himself? 

Why would he not go to be with those whom he is charged to send into battle and who were so horrifyingly betrayed by one of their own?

Because he doesn't give a rat's backside, that's why not.

I bet Former President Bush told him to get his narrow a** down there stat and he ignored it.  No awards were being given to him so he said "Screw all that blood and drama.  I'll be chillin at Camp David."

He. Does. Not. Care.

(Thanks to Hot Air and Riehl World)