Cat vs. printer

A little amusement to lighten things up: Go over to Fuzzybear Lioness' place and watch the video.

An Important History Lesson: Why We Are in Iraq

I got an email from my oldest sister today. The content surprised me a little, because neither of my little sisters follow the news - they both say the news is too depressing. Anyway, the text of the email was from an essay written by Robert S. Kraft. I did a search on his name and found several sources I'll want to take a look at later. But, until I can take that time, I wanted to share what was in the email.

Why is it important?

Had Russia surrendered then, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire campaign against the Brits, then America, and the Nazis would have won the war.

I say this to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. And we are at another one.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world, unless they are prevented from doing so.

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative (definitely not liberal!) form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world, and that all who do not bow to Allah should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, purge the world of Jews. This is what they say.

There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East, for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation today, but it is not yet known which will win ? the Inquisition or the Reformation.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihads, will control the Middle East, and the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies, the techno industrial economies, will be at the mercy of OPEC, not an OPEC dominated by the well educated and rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis.

You want gas in your car? You want heating oil next winter? You want jobs? You want the dollar to be worth anything? You better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses and the Islamic Reformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions and live in peace with the rest of the world and move out of the 10th century and into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away, and a moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We cannot do it nowhere. And we cannot do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle now at the time and place of our choosing, in Iraq.

The bottom line?

The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. Always has been, and probably always will be.

The bottom line here is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away on its own. It will not go away if we ignore it.

If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an "England" in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates. The Iraq war is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. And now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless we prevent them! Or somebody does.

We have four options.

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East, now, in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.

4. Or we can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and maybe most of the rest of Europe. It will be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier then.

Yes, the Jihadis say that they look forward to an Islamic America. If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

We can be defeatist peace activists, as anti war types seem to be, and concede, surrender to the Jihad, or we can do whatever it takes to win this war against them.

The history of the world is the history of civilizational clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.

Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.

Go read the whole thing.

Memorial Day 2007

I have been to our nation's capitol twice since I became an adult, both times because business took me to the area.

The first time was April 1998. I did visit Arlington National Cemetery and watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, and was able to observe a wreath-laying ceremony. I had decided to park at Arlington and pay the $13 for the day's parking, since I had driven in from Frederick, Maryland. I walked a lot that Sunday afternoon - across the Arlington Memorial Bridge into DC. I went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, looking at many of the mementos people had left behind, some of which brought me to tears for people I would never know. I continued down The Mall. My destination was the National Air and Space Museum to see a special exhibit - Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. I had to wait to get into that exhibit, and I took the time to see what I could of the "regular" exhibits. Once I had seen what I came to see, I had the long walk back to my rental car in the parking lot at Arlington National Cemetery.

My second visit was May 2003. Things were very different from my previous visit. Business was much closer to DC this time, and I was able to wrangle a couple of days to "play tourist" after I was done with work. I did my checking about what I might do while I was there. I contacted my representative in Congress and was able to arrange to tour the White House and the Capitol Building. I was lucky - just the week before I would be there, the White House was still not open to public tours, and even so, you can't just show up at The White House and expect to go on the tour like you could do prior to 9/11. I meet my representative at the designated gate, along with a few other ladies from his district. Later, we were to meet again at his office, so we could be taken on a tour of the Capitol Building. This wasn't the same tour "regular" tourists get - we got to go through the underground passages from the office building to the Capitol, guided by a young man from his home state who was attending GW, who was interning with the Congressman. We also got the obligatory photograph with the Congressman on the Capitol steps. I visited Arlington again, too. This time, in addition to watching the Tomb Guard, I had something I needed to do: locate a particular headstone and photograph it.

CW4 Steven L. Adee was buried in Arlington National Cemetery the previous December. Steven was the brother to a close friend's boyfriend. Steven was a DUSTOFF pilot in Vietnam, and also served in the Persian Gulf, during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Steven was assigned to the Pentagon. He was there on September 11th, 2001. He was often in the offices where Flight 77 impacted the Pentagon. People he knew did not survive that day. Steven commit suicide on November 10, 2002. My friend and I wondered if being there that day brought back memories of things Steven saw in Vietnam, but he did not seek help in dealing with it. Steven's death made me realize not all casualties of war are killed on a battlefield, and not all battle scars can be seen.

My friend accompanied her boyfriend to the funeral, but since the family, beyond Steven's widow, did not live near DC, they were not able to see the headstone that was later put in place. When I found Steven's gravesite, I could tell he had had a visitor - small stones had been placed atop the headstone. I'm sure the stones were left by Steven's widow, although I'm not sure what the meaning behind them was. She was Vietnamese - Steven was able to get her, and at least some of her family, to the United States after the war. I took several photos, and gave all the prints to Steven's brother.

My family hasn't ever really "gone somewhere" to observe Memorial Day, but I was raised to understand its significance, and to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our nation.

This weekend, I will be spending time with family - my uncle and his wife are down from Alaska with their youngest who is still at home, and their oldest who was married 3 years ago this weekend, along with her husband and their baby, plus my uncle and his wife are in from Houston, as well as the second of their four boys. We're all going to a baseball game tomorrow afternoon. Having been to Memorial Day games here before, I know there will be some demonstration of appreciation of our military and all they sacrifice for the rest of us. And, as always, I will be remembering those sacrifices and what those sacrifices have brought: continued freedom for me and those I love.


Update:



We went to the baseball game. There were many soldiers and their families there as "guests of Union State Bank". One of the people to throw out a ceremonial first pitch was an Army captain from Fort Hood. There was a color guard from one of the area Army recruiting companies. At one point, during an offensive/defensive switch, all veterans were asked to stand and be recognized. Finally, during the 7th Inning Stretch, instead of the usual singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame followed by an instrumental version of Cotton-eyed Joe, we were asked to sing along with Lee Greenwood's version of God Bless America, followed by some John Philip Sousa.

Also, I am pleased to see countless hits to my America's White Table post over the past several days - the referring URL has most times been someone doing a search for "missing soldier table" or something similar.

The longest 5 hour drive ever...

In my On tyranny, oppression and brutality post, I said there was more to the story of the return trip from Berlin that summer. And I didn't realize until I was editing this, that this happened exactly 17 years ago, between May 23 and May 26, 1990 - the days of the week are even the same now, in 2007... Now, for the rest of the story…

So, as I said before, when making the drive between Checkpoints Alpha and Bravo, you have to check in before you can leave and once you get to the other end. If you make the trip in less than 2 hours, you get a speeding ticket. If you haven’t checked back in by the time 5 hours have passed, they coming looking for you.

Well, we managed to make it to Checkpoint Alpha. Barely. The van died as we were going up the drive into the parking lot to check in. Had this happened even one kilometer back, I think we would still have been in East Germany, and we would have had to sit there and wait until they came looking and found us. I'm sure THAT would have been LOADS of fun... Anyhow, Dad walked the rest of the way to the building, and we had to push the van up the rest of the incline and into a parking space. I don’t recall specifically, but I’m sure we got some sort of assistance. It was a VW Vanagon (Wolfsburg Edition). It was a manual transmission, which I couldn't drive yet, but it would have been put in neutral, anyway (ya know, I never did get the hang of a stick shift before we got rid of that thing... maybe it had something to do with the gear shift being too far away from the driver's seat?). I really don’t think that between just me and my parents we would have gotten it up the drive – one of us had to steer. It was already evening when we got to Checkpoint Alpha, so we weren’t going anywhere else that night. We, all five of us – me, my parents, and my sisters (age 9 and age 5 at the time) - slept in the car in the parking lot.

The next day was a German holiday. It had to have been Ascension Thursday, May 24, 1990. So, the German garage in Helmstedt wouldn’t be open. We did manage to have the van towed to the garage, though. Thursday night, we stay in the “hotel” on the small British base near Checkpoint Alpha. I had a bed to sleep in, and I was able to take a shower, which I hadn’t been able to do the day before.

Friday morning, my dad had to go back to the garage to talk to the mechanic about the van and make whatever arrangements were necessary. We previously had to make decisions about what we could take with us, and what we would have to risk leaving in the van, before the van had been towed. We’d made purchases in Berlin, and we weren’t going to be able to carry it all with us back to Augsburg. Luckily, there was a storage area under the bench seat in the back of the van, so we were able to put items out of sight. We may have also had the good fortune (given the situation) to run into people my dad knew who were also coming back from Berlin, and they were able to take some of our valuable with them - I don't remember for sure (like I said, it's been 17 years). Everything else would be carried with us. We didn’t have suitcases with wheels - it was the set of luggage my mother had received as a high school graduation gift. In 1965. My little sisters weren’t able to carry much of anything, either. We checked out of the “hotel” and waited for the duty train to come through out of Berlin.

If you’ll recall from my previous post, the duty train only traveled through East Germany at night. So, we have to hang out, keeping my younger sisters entertained, for hours. We catch the train, which will take us to the Hauptbahnhof - the main train station - in Frankfurt. I don’t recall how long the train ride was, but it was already Saturday morning when we got to Frankfurt. Needless to say, it wasn’t a good night’s sleep. From the Hauptbahnhof, we take the S-bahn to the Flughafen – the civilian side of the Frankfurt airport. Once at the Flughafen, we wait again for a bus to take us to Rhein-Main Airbase – the U.S. military side of the airport. Don’t forget, we are three adults and two young children with a bunch of luggage. We get to Rhein-Main, and we have to wait some more, this time for a bus that will take us back home to Augsburg. The bus doesn’t take us directly to Augsburg – that trip should take about 3 hours. Think Greyhound: Augsburg is just one stop along the way – we’re just five people who need to get there on a bus full of people going to numerous places along the way, and possibly points further south.

Once we finally arrive in Augsburg, we still aren’t home yet. The bus drops us off at the main guest house (hotel), not our quarters. These buses are intended to transport military personnel and their dependents that are arriving in Germany for new duty stations, not wayward travelers who had their vacation interrupted by mechanical difficulties… So, we are back in the right city, but we still have to transport ourselves and our luggage back to our quarters. We aren’t far enough away to be able to get a shuttle bus to get us closer. It is three very long blocks down Reinoehlstrasse, past the field where they held the German-American Fest each year, across Buergermeister-Ackermann-strasse to our quarters on Flandernstrasse, across from the Burger King, in Sullivan Heights. My dad would later take the train back up to Helmstedt to pick up the van from the garage once the repairs had been completed, but in the meantime, we’d either be on foot, or we’d make use of the shuttles around base, or “the Strass” – how we Americans referred to the Strassenbahn, or streetcar.

We should have gotten home late Wednesday/early Thursday. It’s now Saturday evening. I call my best friend (Lyric Mezzo) to let her know we are back from Berlin. What she says to me? “We’re going to a club downtown. Want to come?” My response? “I’m tired, and I haven’t showered in 2 days. Let me take a shower and I’ll get back with you…” I did end up going out with her, her boyfriend and one other person (her friend Jessica who would be graduating from AAHS in the next week?) that night, but I think I’d have been better off if I’d stayed home and gone to bed ;-)

Writing to my Senators. About immigration. Again.

I was greatly disappointed to read that you voted against an amendment to the proposed "immigration reform" legislation that would have set a 5-year limit on the proposed guest worker program. This amendment should have passed. If the proposed guest worker program works (if this legislation passes), then future Congressional legislation could reauthorize it. If it doesn't work, it needs to stop, and not be allowed to continue indefinitely.

I'll say it again: ENFORCEMENT ONLY FIRST. Once the Federal Government can PROVE to me that it can secure our borders and enforce existing immigration law, to include interior enforcement, then, and only then, will I consider other measures to deal with the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens who have entered the United States since the 1986 "comprehensive immigration reform" that promised both enforcement and amnesty. Last time, we got the amnesty, but the government "forgot" to follow up on the enforcement provisions. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

This issue is at the top of my "important issues" list, along with national security. I am paying attention to how you vote. I will not vote for any candidate who votes for amnesty, or anything that doesn't give us enforcement first of existing laws.

An Open Mind

Go now over to A Soldier's Perspective to see the video An Open Mind. I'm not willing to keep one, either, when it comes to this.

Must-reads from Bill Whittle

H/T Tigerhawk

Bill Whittle has two new posts:

You Are Not Alone (Part 1)

You Are Not Alone (Part 2)

I can only hope that I would act as one of the Remnant...

Updated 5/23/07, 10:59pm

For those who weren't already familiar with Bill Whittle, I recommend going back to read these:

Tribes from September 5, 2005

Seeing the Unseen, Part 1 from November 6, 2006

Make a Choice from November 7, 2006

Seeing the Unseen, Part 2 from April 7, 2007

These are not the results you're looking for...

When I was looking at my SiteMeter statistics last night, I just had to laugh a little about this one:




They got, based on their search words, the exact opposite of what they were looking for on this one. I'm sure they were looking for something to justify an opinion that the United States has been turned into a police state since George W. was elected, and they get something stating that, quite clearly, that is not the case...

America's White Table

As an educator, I’m always on the look-out for quality children’s books. Since I am certified to teach early childhood through fourth grade, but do not yet know what grade I will be teaching, I’ve mostly looked at picture books, and I particularly like to find books that show a love for America and appreciation of our military. One such book is America’s White Table, written by Margot Theis Raven and illustrated by Mike Benny. It tells the story of the White Table, of which many outside of the military may be unaware. Although the story takes place on Veterans Day, I think it is also quite appropriate for Memorial Day, and given recent events, it can be appropriate at other times, as well.

Young Katie explains how Uncle John, a Vietnam veteran, will be coming to their house for dinner. Her mother explains to Katie and her sisters about the White Table: how it is intended to honor America’s Armed Forces, but most especially MIAs and POWs.

“We use a small table, girls,” she explained first, “to show one soldier’s lonely battle against many. We cover it with a white cloth to honor a soldier’s pure heart when he answers his country’s call to duty.

We place a lemon slice and grains of salt on a plate to show a captive soldier’s bitter fate and the tears of families waiting for loved ones to return,” she continued.

“We push an empty chair to the table for the missing soldiers who are not here.”

“We lay a black napkin for the sorrow of captivity, and turn over a glass for the meal that won’t be eaten,” she said.

“We place a white candle for peace and finally, a red rose in a vase tied with a red ribbon for the hope that all our missing will return someday.”

Katie then tells us how she learns her beloved Uncle John was shot down behind enemy lines. Uncle John and the rest of his helicopter crew were taken prisoner. One crew member, Mike, was seriously injured. When there was an opportunity to escape, Mike was too sick to go, so Uncle John stayed behind – “he wouldn’t leave a fellow soldier alone so far from home.”

Later, Uncle John had another chance to escape, this time taking Mike with him. Uncle John did his best to keep them both alive, and eventually found an American infantry unit, but Mike succumbed to his wounds before a rescue helicopter could arrive.

“I know that Mike was only 20 years old and he dreamed of playing football, but he loved America enough to give his life for his country when duty called.

And I know how much Uncle John loves America, too, but he learned when helping Mike that a soldier risks his life for a fellow soldier, because the best of our country lives in every man and woman who would lay down their life for you, too.”

Katie and her sisters decided the little table also “needed words of gratitude”, so they decide to leave gifts of their own on the table. Gretchen draws a picture of the objects on the table. Samantha transcribes the lyrics from “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, but Katie doesn’t know what she, a 10-year old, could leave “that was as important as each veteran’s gift of freedom”. Throughout dinner, she thinks, then imagines those “silent soldiers of the empty chair saying:

Remember us, please…
we are real people like your Uncle John and Mike
who left families and friends, homes and dreams of our own
to protect your birthright of liberty from disappearing
as easily as sunlight from a glass”

At the back of the book, the Author’s Note is a history of the White Table, beginning with the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, or the River Rats, setting the first MIA/POW Remembrance Table during the Vietnam War. Sometimes the objects on the table vary, as can the symbolism of those objects. Regardless, the intent is the same: to remember those of our Armed Forces who are not able to be with us because of their service.

If you have children in your life – kids, grandkids, whatever – I would recommend sharing this book with them. According to barnesandnoble.com, this book is recommended for ages 6 to 12. The topic is a little “heavy”, so you’d have to make the judgment about whether or not your children are mature enough yet to understand the message of the story, but you could also share it with older children to help show the importance of honoring our Armed Forces for their service. The book jacket includes the following quote from General George Washington:

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”

Linked at Argghhh!

Update 11/3/07: If you are looking for a book appropriate for Veterans Day, you might also consider Pepper's Purple Heart.

My letter to Washington about AR 530-1

The following letter was sent to Senators Cornyn and Hutchison, Representative Doggett, President Bush, Secretary Gates, Acting Secretary of the Army Geren, General Pace and General Casey. I will admit I based this letter on (and borrowed some of its text from) a letter from Russ Vaughn which had been posted on Michelle Malkin's website.

I recently became aware of the newly updated Army Regulation (AR) 530-1, Operations Security (OPSEC), and the implications for soldiers’ weblogs (milblogs) and other electronic communications. The reason given for this change in regulation is interest of operational security. While I am all for the highest degree of vigilance in matters of OPSEC, I feel that the new policy is heavy-handed and counterproductive for the following reasons:

1) Every website created by any service person is readily available for routine scrutiny by military monitoring agencies. At the first sign of misuse, the military has the capability to block the offending site and deal appropriately with its owner.

2) Milblogs are the 21st Century’s letters home from the war, a means of communicating from the combat zone with family and friends that far exceeds the capabilities, in both time and content, of previous wars. They are a definite morale-builder, both with serving troops and the folks back home keeping tabs on their loved ones.

3) Milblogs are tools for training and orientation from those who are there now to those who will be. Such exchanges can be highly beneficial for those deploying to combat for the first time. Such “pearls” from the trigger-pullers to those yet untested can make the transition much easier and perhaps safer for the new warriors.

4) Under such prohibition, only the dutiful soldiers will be affected. The disgruntled and disobedient will evade this restriction and find ways to use such internet podiums to spew their harsh criticisms. Only one view, that most favorable to the military, will be stifled.

5) Last but not least, those affected by this restriction on freedom of speech are precisely those who are placing their lives on the line to preserve that very freedom. To deny them that right unnecessarily, as is now being done with this new policy, sends a very wrong message to the world about our true commitment to our Bill of Rights.

I am aware that after these new regulations became public, the Army came out with a “clarification” saying the regulations did not, in fact, require every electronic communication to be cleared with a commander or OPSEC officer. However, from my point of view, if the Army felt it needed to “clarify” the AR 530-1, the new regulations are not clearly written, since many in the milblog community have not interpreted AR 530-1 so liberally. It would be at a commander’s discretion to order his soldiers to run all electronic communications through him, or to shut down any milblog out of an abundance of caution.

If a soldier wishes to exercise their First Amendment rights and maintain a weblog, there should be no prohibitive restrictions; a soldier should be asked to inform a commanding officer of the weblog, the soldier should be given a keen awareness of the consequences of OPSEC violations and the penalties that attach to them. By informing the commander, the soldier’s weblog would become part of a central registry, maintained by a DoD agency with the responsibility to routinely monitor content of all milblogs owned by active duty personnel.

In keeping up with this issue, today, a post on a milblog, The Fourth Rail, written by DJ Elliot, a retired naval intelligence analyst, points out the worst violators of OPSEC are senior Pentagon staff. Milblogs are too important a part of the Information War we are fighting against the terrorists. I urge you to not allow the Pentagon to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Sincerely,

Miss Ladybug

On tyranny, oppression and brutality

Being an Army brat, I have a different perspective on the world and on history than probably most Americans my age. The longest I have ever lived in one place consecutively is about 8½ years. Still, I have probably lived more years in one town in Germany (over 3 of my dad’s overseas assignments) than any one place anywhere else in the world. I wonder how many more years of my life will go by before that changes.

Having lived in Germany so much, I was able to see and do many things I would otherwise not have had the opportunity to do. I can understand true oppression and brutality without having experienced it personally.

Some time between 3rd and 6th grade, we went to Dachau. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this town, it was the home of one of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, and it is only about 10 miles away from Munich. Something I didn’t realize until starting this post is that Dachau was the first regular concentration camp created by the Third Reich. I remember seeing the enlarged photos in the museum of the emaciated bodies of the survivors, and the bodies of the dead stacked in piles like cordwood. I remember going into the gas chambers and still being able to smell the gas that had seeped into the walls that had been used to exterminate at least 28,000 people, not all of whom were Jews. Don't forget: Nazi doctors performed medical experiments on prisoners; Nazis believed in eugenics and advocated abortion and sterilization for those deemed unworthy (by the government) to reproduce.

I have also been to Berlin three times: twice in the early 80s, long before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, something I never imagined I would see in my lifetime, and again in May 1990, roughly six months after The Wall came down.

For those of you unfamiliar with how things worked in a divided Germany, getting to Berlin was not a simple task, especially if you were in Germany with a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) stamp on your passport. If your geography is a little weak, Berlin lies within the borders of the former Deutsches Demokratische Republik (DDR), the “German Democratic Republic”, more commonly known as “East Germany”.

The first time I went to Berlin, I went with my Girl Scout troop the winter of ‘79/’80 (likely Spring Break 1980). We took the train. We had to have “papers”, above and beyond our U.S. passports, to make the trip. We took the “duty train”, which only traveled through East Germany at night. We were instructed to keep the curtains closed in our sleeping compartments on the train during the trip. The train did make stops along the way, and we were told not to peek out the windows whenever we did. For a 9-year-old American child, this was a little disconcerting – I was used to being able to travel freely and look at whatever it was I wanted to look at. During this trip, we only went to sites in West Berlin.
















At The Berlin Wall, in the early 1980s, as seen from an observation deck built in the West looking over The Wall into the “no-man’s land”, where only East German border guards were allowed to go. If you didn’t belong, you would be shot, no questions asked.


The second time I went to Berlin, in 1982, my whole family went: my parents, my older brother and my baby sister, who was about 13 months old at the time. We did not take the train. We made the long drive from Bavaria, up to Checkpoint Alpha in Helmstedt, then the 2+ hour drive through the DDR to Checkpoint Bravo to get into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was the official crossing point between the two Berlins. This time, we did go into East Berlin. One thing I do remember about this trip to Berlin was being in the PX (Post Exchange – the department store on base) and having to evacuate because of a bomb threat: an announcement came over the store's PA system to leave your shopping cart and purchases where you are, exit the building, and get away from the building; there was no panic, although I was scared, and everyone followed those orders. Bomb threats were not uncommon during my years living in Germany, and sometimes those bomb threats were against the schools I attended.



















Checkpoint Charlie, April 1982

Next to Checkpoint Charlie in West Berlin was a museum. It documented the history of The Wall and those who only attempted to escape and were shot for their trouble - and those who successfully reach The West. Some of the stories I’ve heard about those that took the risk for freedom make me marvel at their bravery. They understood the nature of tyranny, oppression and brutality. They knew the penalty, if caught, would be death. They made the attempt anyway. We camped when we traveled and the campground where we stayed was close to The Wall. Made one wonder about any strange noises heard overnight.

Fast forward to my junior sophomore year of college: November 9, 1989. I was glued to the television, hardly able to believe what I was seeing. The Berlin Wall was coming down, and the East Germans couldn’t stop it. I was in Texas, but my dad was still (or again, since we last visited Berlin) stationed in Germany. I never, in my wildest dreams, believed I would live to see the day The Wall would be no more. The following May, I would head home for the summer: my last summer spent in Germany. The day after I got home, we packed up the car for a trip to Berlin.

I remember more details from this trip, since I was pretty much an adult at this point. I didn’t have to sleep behind the steering wheel in the front seat on the way there like I had done when I was in elementary school. I remember sitting in on the briefing at Checkpoint Alpha. I remember the notebook we had to take with us with important information printed in English, German, French and Russian. We were only authorized to drive on the main Autobahn from Checkpoint Alpha to Checkpoint Bravo. We could make rest stops along the way, but again, we had to stick to the main highway. We were also to speak to no one along the way. That's what the notebook was for. If we checked into Checkpoint Bravo in less than 2 hours, my father would have received a speeding ticket, but if we hadn’t checked in within 5 hours, they would come looking for us. Not the highway on which you want to have mechanical difficulties.

In order to make this trip through the DDR, you had to have Flag Orders – your “papers”, essentially. You had to present your “papers” on the East German side, then again when you reached Checkpoint Bravo. This time, we didn’t camp out. Someone my father knew from a previous duty station was assigned to Berlin, and they were putting us up during our stay. I liked this much better, since I was no longer 11 years old, and I would want to have facilities to comfortably primp before going out and playing tourist.







We took the ferry ride on the Wannsee, and passed under the Glienicker Bruecke, which linked East and West, and was used for spy-swaps during The Cold War. I remember a church on the lake that was only accessible from the West, via the lake – the east/west border transected the church property.

















The church sat in “no-man’s land”, and the East Germans destroyed the church’s interior prior to the building of The Wall to stop people from being able to attend services in the church. From Christmas Eve 1961 to Christmas Eve 1989, the church remained used unused and in a state of decay. The DDR wasn’t big on wanting people to practice their religion, after all.

Another thing we did was go to The Wall around Checkpoint Charlie. We all took turns with hammer and chisel to help “tear down this Wall”.

The plan was to walk over into East Berlin. Only when we got there did we learn that only my father (in his Class A uniform) and our hosts who were stationed in Berlin were allowed to walk across. My mother, my sisters and I would have to stay in West Berlin, although we did drive into East Berlin later during our stay. We made arrangements to meet up again over by the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag which, as the crow flies is about half a mile, but the path of The Wall wasn’t a straight line. Unfortunately, I can’t find any maps to help with distances for the route of The Wall to know exactly how far we walked. We were able to walk through the former “no-man’s land” and the old border guard paths. Just a year before, if I had been in the same exact location, I would have been shot on sight, and I could have been left there to bleed to death.
















“No-man’s Land” on the East Berlin side of The Wall. The buildings seen to the right stood unoccupied for decades, lest someone living there try to escape. Another thing I noticed is that many of these buildings near The Wall were still pockmarked from the fighting that occurred in Berlin in World War II. The communists never bothered to make the repairs.

We stayed in Berlin about a week. In addition to going to Checkpoint Charlie and walking from there to the Reichstag, we also went to a part of Berlin near where we took the boat ride on Wannsee. The “no-man’s land” here, unlike the “no-man’s land” between Checkpoint Charlie and the Reichstag, is a large field full of sand, and several large ditches. My father explained to me (not quite 20 at the time, and not well-versed on such matters) that the sand was graded smooth, so that when the East German border guards would shine the searchlights across “no-man’s land”, any footprints from someone attempting to escape to the West would be easily visible; the ditches were to prevent someone from attempting to drive a vehicle across the “no-man’s land”.

On the trip home, my father once again offered for me to handle the Flag Orders. This would be my last chance. I took him up on it. So, at Checkpoint Bravo, heading west, we pull up to an East German border guard. I get out of the vehicle with everyone’s Flag Orders (me, my parents and my little sisters). I walk up to the border guard, salute and hand him our “papers”. By the way, the guard has a loaded rifle over his shoulder. The guard (who was probably about my age at the time, and according to my dad, seemed to smile a bit as I got out of the car) looks over the Flag Orders then hands them back. I then walk up to a very plain building. Upon entering, I am in a small room with no windows, only a small opening. I place our “papers” in the opening, and they disappear. I stand there waiting while whoever is on the other side of the wall, someone I never lay eyes on, does whatever it is they do with the Flag Orders to make sure we are okay to proceed. I can not help but feel as if I am being watched as I wait. Our “papers” are eventually returned through the opening. I exit the building and return to the border guard. Again, I am to salute him and hand him the Flag Orders. He looks them over, verifying that all is in order, and he hands them back to me. I get back into the car, and on we go. During this entire process, I speak to no one, and see only the border guard with the rifle. This same process is repeated when we reach Checkpoint Alpha. The rest of the trip home is a story of its own (maybe that will be my next post, when I get the time).

So, although my brush with tyranny, oppression and brutality is only cursory and fleeting, I have some concrete idea about what it is like.

Having these experiences, it blows my mind that people say that America is becoming a police state, that we are the cause of all bad things that happen in the world, that we are responsible for the 9/11 attacks, we are responsible for homocide bombers slaughtering innocent Iraqis. In the United States, one is free to criticize the government; one is free to protest. Of all the vocal critics of the Bush Administration, I have not heard of a single one who has been carted off in the middle of the night, never to be seen or heard from again, as often happens when one protests the government in a dictatorship (Saddam’s Iraq) or oligarchy (former Eastern Bloc countries, or Iran).

We still have a “free press”, even though many press outlets abuse the right by selectively reporting the news to fit their own agenda. The government cannot cart you off to jail for publishing pieces critical of the Administration. Even when we see news outlets publishing classified information harmful to our efforts to defeat the Islamic terrorists, no one goes to jail.

In America, we don’t have to have “papers” to travel. We can go anywhere we choose, and if you want to leave the country, all the government would have you do is get a passport. There will be no American border guard checking your “papers” to make sure you are allowed to go.

In America, unlike countries such as China and Iran, you do not have to be a “member of the Party” in order to succeed or hold political office. All it takes is determination to educate oneself and the will to see things through to completion. America is the land of opportunity. What that opportunity gets you is entirely up to you.

It blows my mind that people would compare building a fence along sections of our southern border, something many Americans support, to The Berlin Wall. Do these people not understand what The Berlin Wall was meant to do? Its sole purpose was to keep people desperate for freedom in, to keep them from escaping tyranny and oppression. A wall on our southern border is meant to keep people from sneaking into our country, like home invaders, without our permission, breaking our laws by their mere presence. Some may truly be here “just to work”, but in this post-9/11 world we cannot afford to ignore violent gangs, drug smugglers and persons with terrorist ties who are invading our country.

In America, you can worship as you see fit, or not. The government will not coerce you into following the accepted religion, and no “religious police” will throw you in jail for apostasy, or keep little girls from escaping a burning building because they are not “properly covered”. No one will execute you for listening to popular secular music, watching movies or doing anything else against governmental morality codes.

It blows my mind that, when discussing Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly everything our Armed Forces does is highly scrutinized, and only those things that might make the military look bad seem to get reported in the mainstream media. Ignored are the atrocities committed by our enemies: Iraqi policemen being kidnapped and murdered, terrorists using children as a decoy to get a car bomb through a security checkpoint, leaving the children in the back seat as they ran away and detonated the bomb. I’m sure if I took the time, I could compile quite a list of the barbaric acts committed by Islamic terrorists, but we never hear about those in the MSM news reports.

The United States of America, for all her faults, is still the only nation on this earth I wish to call home. I've had the privilege of traveling to other countries, and although I can admire the history and culture of each place I've visited, they are still imperfect places with worse problems than we have here. We are all still entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. We still have our right to say what we want, go where we want, associate with whomever we choose. We are that shining city upon a hill - the best example of Liberty and Justice for All.

A rare thing in Hollywood

Jon Voight supports our troops, the entire war against Islamic terrorists, and our President.

He gets his news from somewhere other than NBC, CBS, ABC, or CNN:

Q. So I imagine you're a supporter of the Patriot Act?

A. Yes, I'm a supporter of the Patriot Act. I support protecting us and investigating anyone who indicates they're going to be dangerous to our country. It's one of those things; it depends on which side you're on politically. If we had these things in place we could have anticipated 9/11. We're not interested in investigating someone who's doing something appropriate. We don't have time for that. That's nonsense. I certainly hope we're paying close attention to all those people crossing our borders who might be dangerous to us. We know for sure there are cells in the United States that are ready to erupt. We know that Hezbollah is here; we know there are cells from different terrorist organizations that are here and operational and that there are others waiting too. So listen, it's a serious business. It's wartime, guys. Because we don't have a continuous attack on our shores, we can get complacent. We've got to all be alert now, we've got to be a part of it and be supportive of our troops for sure.

H/T Michelle Malkin

Springtime in Texas

When you live in Texas, you know spring has arrived when you see those first patches of blue along the side of the road. However, stopping to take a picture isn't really the smartest thing to do. Luckily, I live close to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Today, I was able to go by there after I was done with the Teacher Job Fair. I took my digital camera and my tripod. I began to walk out one of the trails, until I got to a sign that said it is recommended you hike with a buddy, and that mountain lions have been spotted in the area. Since I was alone, and didn't feel like confronting a wild animal that could decide it wants to eat me, I opted to head back to the more cultivated and frequented parts of the Wildflower Center. If it was a Saturday or Sunday, I'd have kept going, as there are lots of people out there on the weekends, but being a weekday afternoon when school is still in session, the trail was empty - I saw and heard no one.

Anyway, I managed to fill up my 256mb memory card (although I already had some other pictures on it I had previously neglected to clear off). I'm picking a few out, and I hope you enjoy them...


The Wildflower Center was founded in 1982 by Lady Bird Johnson and the actress Helen Hayes. It moved to its current location twelve years ago, with a grand opening on April 8, 1995. Just last year, it became part of the University of Texas at Austin. Their programs include landscape restoration (focusing on the balance between people and plants), plant conservation (protecting the "ecological heritage of Texas", horticulture (managing "the gardens that represent the native plants of the Central Texas Hill Country" at the Center), and educating people through "sharing the importance and beauty of native plants".

Hope you enjoyed the display of colorful spring wildflowers, particularly the Texas Bluebonnets!

LCPL Nicholas S. Perez

Today, I had my first sub assignment at LCPL Nicholas S. Perez Elementary School. Outside the main doors to the school, next to the plaque dedicating the school (this is the school's first year of operation), is another plaque honoring the Lance Corpoal. From this plaque, we learn he was part of 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He was the first casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Austin and Travis County, Texas. He was killed September 3, 2004 in Al Anbar Province.

Inside the school, in the display case outside the main office, LCPL Perez's dress uniform jacket is on display, complete with all his medals, first among them his Purple Heart.

I apologize for the poor quality of these images. I didn't bring my nice camera with me to work, so I had to make due with my new camera phone.

I didn't have time to read the write-ups inside the display case (I was there to work, after all), so I decided to see what I could learn about LCPL Perez when I got home this afternoon. Sadly, there's not a whole lot of detail out there.

I learned that his mother attended a Memorial Day service in 2005 where Austin Bay had been asked to speak.

I am left to wonder exactly what mission was in progress that resulted in Nicholas giving the Ultimate Sacrifice.

There was a candlelight vigil held in his honor at his alma mater.

His best friend joined the Marine Corps a month before he did.

Tejanos in Action started the campaign to get a new elementary school being built in Austin named in honor of LCPL Perez. They succeeded, and the new school was dedicated on October 15, 2006.

There is a memorial page on the Military Times website.

Unfortunately, I also discovered an anti-war group is using his name and image to petition Congress to end the war. I have no idea what his parents' stance on the war is, so I have no idea whether this was done with their permission, or not.

The school's mascot is the python, and it's colors are red and gold. While doing after-school crossing guard duty out front of the school, I noticed the lanyards the teachers wore around their necks were Marine Corps red & gold...

It is good to know, though, that LCPL Nicholas S. Perez will not be forgotten. I can only hope that he will stand as a positive role model for all the students of the elementary school which bears his name.

In Loving Memory of Sophia

Summer 1992 - February 28, 2007

I'm gonna miss you, kitty. I love you.

On Border Security

February 10, 2007

To: President George Bush, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Representative Lloyd Doggett, Secretary Condoleezza Rice, Secretary Michael Chertoff, Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Re: Border Security

While I support the efforts of this administration for maintaining our nation’s security through our military actions around the world, from Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Horn of Africa and the Philippines, I am dumbfounded by the lack of substantive actions in regard to securing our southern border.

Living in Texas, the cost of supporting illegal immigrants allowed to live here without consequence is very apparent. During my student teaching, I had a third grade student casually mention his father telling him stories of sneaking across the border from Mexico. Border towns’ hospitals are being overwhelmed by having to render services to illegal immigrants, especially pregnant women who cross the border solely for the purpose of birthing their child on American soil, making their child an American citizen, resulting in yet another burden on the American taxpayer. I have heard businessmen call in to radio talk shows, explaining how they have had to lay off their American citizen employees and close their doors because they are unable to compete with other, less ethical businessmen who hire illegal alien labor. The immigrants aren’t “doing the jobs Americans won’t do”. They are stealing American jobs performed by skilled American craftsmen. Even in Georgia, after a meat company was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Americans came to take those jobs the illegal aliens held – those jobs “Americans won’t do”. And guess what? Those new American employees were paid a higher wage than the illegal aliens were paid. Illegal alien workers drive down wages for American citizen workers. My points in regard to the costs doesn’t even begin to cover the unreimbursed costs to both state and federal governments that are incurred because of the large and growing illegal alien population in this country.

Equally important are the national security aspects for border security. I hear news reports over and over again of armed and armored persons crossing our border. The Congress has authorized, and the President signed, a fence along the southern border. Why was this project not fully funded? The President authorized the National Guard to assist the Border Patrol in border enforcement. Yet, those same National Guard are not authorized to use force against armed and armored invaders? When armed and armored persons cross our border without our authorization, that is a direct threat to our sovereignty; it is no longer a law enforcement issue – it becomes a national defense issue. The Border Patrol is not only catching Mexican illegal aliens. They have captured persons from terrorist nations, and to my shock, a large number of these persons have been released. Just last year, FBI Director Mueller testified before Congress that Hezbollah operatives had been smuggled into the United States. I cannot forget that Hezbollah is, for all intents and purposes, an arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who is not a friend of the United States. It wouldn’t be difficult for someone from an enemy, terrorist nation to blend in with Mexican, Central American or South American illegal aliens. In fact, according to a news report from December 29, 2006 I found on the Daily Bulletin (Ontario, California) website, a man was apprehended in New Mexico near the US-Mexico border. This man originally claimed to be Miguel Alfonso Salinas. However, it turns out this man was an Egyptian named Ayman Sulmane Kamal. How many more Ayman Sulmane Kamals have we not apprehended, and what are they intent upon doing while they are here?

We have good Americans protecting our borders. Yet, we have disgracefully imprisoned two Border Patrol agents for doing their job. Just today, there are reports of falsify evidence against these agents and Homeland Security personnel lying about the incident before Congress. Just this past weekend, one of these agents, Ignacio Ramos, was for some inexplicable reason was placed among the general population, which resulted in him being assaulted my fellow inmates. Reports I heard on the news stated the prison population was 27 percent illegal alien, and that while he was being beaten, the attackers were calling him “La Migra”. Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are wrongly imprisoned. How is it that American Border Patrol agents are in prison, for terms longer than most murderers, when the drug-running illegal alien was given amnesty for past and future crimes, as well as reportedly being given a green card. In addition, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has also prosecuted and convicted Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez for shooting at a van full of illegal aliens that was trying to run him down. Sutton seems to be prosecuting the wrong people. He is wrongfully pursuing American law enforcement personnel instead of the criminal illegal aliens. The deputy sheriff has not yet been sentenced, but it would only be right and proper for President Bush to issue immediate pardons for these three patriots. The two Border Patrol agents should never have spent a single minute in prison and shouldn’t remain there a minute longer. Guillermo Hernandez should not step foot inside a federal prison as an inmate.

I am sick and tired of the “catch and release” of illegal aliens. I am disgusted that my government is consulting with Mexican officials about how Americans can fix the enormous problem of illegal immigration. The Mexican government is hypocritical for telling us to continue to allow this invasion. Their treatment of illegal aliens is much more harsh that we have ever been. We have allowed illegal aliens to publicly gather and demonstrate in favor of amnesty. According to Title I, Chapter III of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico “foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country,” and the executive can compel a foreigner to “abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action”. Chapter II, Article 32 states “Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. In time of peace no foreigner can serve in the Army nor in the police or public security forces. In order to belong to the National Navy or the Air Force, and to discharge any office or commission, it is required to be a Mexican by birth. This same status is indispensable for captains, pilots, masters, engineers, mechanics, and in general, for all personnel of the crew of any vessel or airship protected by the Mexican merchant flag or insignia It is also necessary to be Mexican by birth to discharge the position of captain of the port and all services of pratique and airport commandant, as well as all functions of customs agent in the Republic.” Even naturalized Mexicans are second-class citizens: there are Mexican Nationals, and then there are Mexican Citizens. To be a citizen, you must have “an honest means of livelihood”. Yet the Mexican government wants us to forgive their citizens for entering our nation without our permission. Mexico is fine with exporting their poor to the United States for us to take care of. Title I, Chapter I, Article 11 states “everyone has the right to enter and leave the Republic, to travel through its territory and to change his residence without necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct or any other similar requirement.” The way I read this, the Mexican government thinks it is perfectly legal for their citizens to enter the United States whether we want them here or not, because “everyone has the right to enter and leave the Republic”, “without necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct or any other similar requirement”.

The Mexican government, through its consulates here in the United States, issues matricula consular cards. The only Mexicans who would need this identification are those who are in the United States illegally. Any entity within the United States should be forbidden from accepting these cards for transacting business of any kind – not for opening bank accounts, not for receiving government services, not for receiving a state-issued driver’s license. If the United States even talked about enacting immigration legislation identical to what Mexico has on the books, we would be decried as bigots and racists.

While there may be illegal aliens who do truly wish to become part of the “American Dream”, too many are refusing to assimilate into the American culture. They do not learn English; they create insular communities and seek to restore the American Southwest to Mexico. To ignore this faction of illegal aliens is to potentially commit national suicide. Illegal aliens who think this way, but begin to have American citizen children to whom they teach these ideas is dangerous to the sovereignty of the United States. My research has shown Mexican government claims its nation “extends beyond… its border”, and to do this, they have contributed Mexican textbooks to America school districts with large Hispanic populations. These books apparently teach Mexican history from the Mexican perspective. If the Mexican government wants to teach it’s nationals about their nation’s history, they need to make it more desirable to stay in Mexico, not encourage them to illegally enter the United States. In addition to those who do not want to assimilate, there are common criminals. I have heard too many news stories in recent months of illegal aliens committing murder and other violent crimes against innocent Americans. This doesn’t even get into the issue of the violent gang, MS-13.

We were supposed to have secured borders with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Instead, all we got was the amnesty part. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was done to stop the flood of illegal immigrants coming over our border, and the flood has only gotten worse over the past twenty-one years. I will not accept anything that even smells of amnesty until we have physical control over our borders, and know exactly who is already here or entering the United States. I want a border fence constructed from Border Field State Park in California to Brownsville and South Bay in Texas. I want our National Guard who have been deployed along the border to be armed and allowed to confront any illegal aliens they encounter. I want our United States Attorneys to prosecute those who are breaking our laws by sneaking into the United States with illegal cargos of drugs or humans, and not our brave law enforcement officers who are trying to stem the tide. Groups such as the Minutemen should be welcomed and encouraged for the assistance they can provide, and not be written off as vigilantes. We need to enforce the immigration laws on our books before we create more of them. I want to see employers who hire illegal aliens to be heavily fined. Until the cost of hiring illegal aliens significantly outweighs the benefits, unethical employers will continue to hire illegal aliens for a lower wage than an American employee would demand. I want an end to anchor babies: if, and only if, the parents are legal residents within the United States should a child be granted United States citizenship. My interpretation of the 14^th Amendment was to grant citizenship to former slaves. The time for that necessity has long past. I want illegal aliens to be denied public assistance. I want it to be as unpleasant as possible for those in the United States illegally. I want it to be so unpleasant that they self-deport. I like that there are still people who want to come to the United States, but I want those people to follow the rules to get here: we cannot allow an unregulated flow of a poor, uneducated people to enter our country and become a permanent underclass. I will not support any politician who does not support these issues.

Border security has both national security and economic implications. If we cannot maintain our own sovereignty through maintaining border security, we, as a nation, are doomed to fade into history. We will no longer be the United States of America. I hope to never see that happen in my lifetime, but if you in Washington to not do what the Constitution demands of you: Congress shall have the power to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

Sincerely,
Miss Ladybug

Updated 2/13/07:

Grim, of Grim's Hall, posted a link to this letter. One commenter over there, will_b, took issue with what I had to say, all but calling me a racist (didn't I say something about being called a bigot and a racist in my letter...) (will_b has retracted the accusation of racism). I said I would respond to will_b, but now that I'm done, I think it is too long to put in Grim's comments, so I am posting it here:

My opening statement was more of an acknowledgement that while I support the administration in one area, in another, I cannot agree with their actions in regard to illegal immigration, particularly as it related to the flood of illegals coming over our southern border.

When I was still in school last spring, when all the demonstrations in support of illegal aliens, I was listening to a local radio talk show out of San Antonio on my way home one night. One caller was a businessman from Corpus Christi, in something like plumbing or electrical. His employees had been American citizens with licenses within their field. He had to lay off his entire workforce and close his business because he could not compete with other businesses who would do jobs with one licensed American citizen employee to supervise while the grunt work was performed by unlicensed illegal alien labor. I’ll admit that this caller’s story is purely anecdotal. However, one of commenter over bthun here on my blog left a link to this similar story of a man in Atlanta whose entire family had been in framing/construction. It sheds a little light on how unethical businesses, or at least construction companies, go about paying illegals.

You can believe that border security has nothing to do with national security all you want. You want examples? Well, here you go:

A man caught near the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico back in December September who told Border Patrol agents his name was Miguel Alfonso Salinas when in fact his name is Ayman Sulmane Kamal. He’s an Egyptian-born Muslim. Egypt is one of the countries suspected of sponsoring terrorism.

A Representative from Texas has been told by sheriffs along the U.S.-Mexico border “that illegal aliens of Middle Eastern descent have been able to blend into the culture south of the U.S. border and pass themselves off as Mexicans.” Generally, people from the Middle East and people from Mexico, Central and South America are dark complected and have black/dark hair. If a Middle Easterner wanted to sneak into the U.S., it they would look far less out of place coming over from the southern border than the northern one. If they also spoke Spanish, it would be even easier to “blend in”.

The FBI broke up a ring that attempted to smuggle members of Hezbollah into the U.S. from Mexico

Another look at the connection between Hebollah and illegal immigration (and a mention of Muslim groups’ open support of illegal immigration) Some of those armed and armored persons crossing our border are suspected of being Mexican military. When another military crosses our border, to assist drug runners and other criminals, that is a national defense issue.

Here’s one MSNBC article about one such incident in January 2006, and another one from The Daily Bulletin, a paper out of Ontario, CA.

Since the two border patrol agents have been sent to prison, the Department of Homeland Security has not been very cooperative about sharing evidence with Congress about the agents’ purported confession to being “out to shoot Mexicans”. Also, there has been refusal to share transcripts from the trial. The two agents convicted were not the only agents present during the incident, but no one else was prosecuted.

I heard the “27% illegal alien” prison population either on TV or the radio, so I haven’t been able to find that specific statistic anyplace I can show you. However, I did find this article stating the federal prison population is “roughly 17 percent” illegal alien, noting that illegals are only “about 3 percent of the total population.” The 27% I quoted could have been for the Yazoo facility specifically or an incorrect report. I can’t recall the exact news program that stated that statistic, which makes it hard to source now. Regardless, Ramos should have been segregated from the general population – he could have been killed. For additional information about illegals and the Federal Justice system, you can go here.

Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila ran after abandoning a van with 700 pounds of marijuana. Sutton gave this drug runner immunity and medical treatment in exchange for his testimony. I don’t know about you, but I’ll believe the Border Patrol agents over a drug runner. This man is now suing for $5 million. I hope that suit gets tossed. The least he should get is a one-way ticket back to Mexico, if not an extended stay in a federal penitentiary.

I also think that an van full of illegals and their coyote trying to run over a Texas sheriff are the ones doing wrong, not the sheriff trying to defend himself from what is in essence a deadly weapon.

People who ignore and break our laws should not be entitled to the same rights and privileges that American citizens, and even legal residents, are entitled to. I don’t “hate brown people” and I am not a racist. I am related to “brown people”, if you must know, and they are treated no differently than anyone else that has married into my extended family.

It's not what they would have you think...

I don’t usually post about things I haven’t researched myself, but I think this is something that everyone should be aware of. There is an organization called “Appeal for Redress” that is claiming to be “grassroots”, and that is how it has been reported in the media. However, it’s more like an “Astroturf” organization. Greyhawk over at Mudville Gazette has been on the case, and has a pretty complete history of this group, and their connections to professional PR people and an anti-war group in existence prior to even Afghanistan. Do yourself and favor and educate yourself. Don’t just take what you hear on the evening news or read in the print media at face-value.

A letter to my elected representatives on Iraq

The following is a letter I sent to each of my three elected representatives in Congress. One is new, since redistricting, and is not my representive of choice... Thank God the other two are. We'll just have to wait and see what kind of response I get from the Democrat...and the Republicans, for that matter.

After listening to the certain politicians’ responses to the President’s speech last night, I am very concerned that there will be attempts to withdraw our military forces from Iraq before the mission is completed. I worry that Congress will do the same thing to our military now, that was done to them in Vietnam – even though we have not lost militarily. Negative public perception will cause Washington politicians who put public opinion polls above what is best for the United States’ national security.

Abandoning Iraq without a stable, self-sustaining, democratic government will perpetuate the belief of our enemies that America can’t sustain a long war. In theirview, all you have to do is kill enough Americans, and they will leave with their collective tails between their legs, just as happened in Vietnam, Beirut and Somalia. If that happens, the terrorists, who want nothing more than the annihilation of the United States and all that we stand for, will be emboldened. They will have a new Afghanistan from which to operate. They will continue to plot and plan attacks against the United States and our interests around the world.

This being said, I am willing to give the President’s plan a chance. So long as there is a defined mission, which there seems to be, and so long as the troops are not hampered by excessively restrictive rules of engagement, which it is my understanding will not be the case, we must give our military the opportunity to complete the mission they have been given. Politicians who don’t have the stomach to see this fight against Islamic extremists through to the end, with our victory and their defeat, do not, and will never, have my respect or my vote.

Our military is the best in the world. They need to be allowed to finish what it is we asked them to start. Do not allow any of your colleagues to put politics over what is best for this country. Do not allow your colleagues to repeat the mistakes of the past by defunding an ongoing war against a determined enemy. You cannot say you support the troops, but then deny them the ability to complete their mission. Our military must defeat the terrorists in Iraq, and cannot do so if they are withdrawn prematurely just because it is politically expedient for members of Congress. Please don’t be one of those politicians.

Sincerely,

Miss Ladybug

Ensign C.A. Carpenter

When I was out at my Grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner, I was helping to decorate for Christmas. It's become a tradition for us female grandchildren to do this, since Grandma can't do it herself (she has been wheelchair bound from polio since my mother was a girl). In looking for something (can't remember what), I found a box full of old pictures. I asked Grandma if I could take it, to scan them all, and I would bring the box back when I was done. Well, I only got around to going through the box today (and still have much to scan). In addition to photos, I found some of Grandpa's high school term papers (one on the 1940 election, another on wrestling, and a third on social security - should make for interesting reading...), as well as some letters from him while he was in flight school, and once he was commissioned in the United States Navy.

From going through this box, and the items it contained, I learned that my grandfather went by the nickname "Shorty", and that he was captain of his high school wrestling team. He graduated high school in 1941 and was only 19 when he was accepted by the Navy as an aviation cadet.

Of the letters I found, I liked this one best:

U.S. Naval Air Station
Livermore, California

26 November 1943

Dear Dad;

I got your letter today and it makes me feel pretty good. This will be short but I’m supposed to muster for chow in a little while.

I’ve finally finished my regular scheduled flying so all I have left that I have to do is fly three more hours of night flight. I have one hour of dual and one of solo to my credit in night flying but we get 4 hours of solo night flying so I have the 3 hours left. It’s quite an experience to fly at night for the first time but I like it.

It’s getting along about to the time when I have to decide if I want to stay in the Navy Air Corps or transfer to the Marines. In the Navy I’d probably have to fly off of carriers (if I get a “fighter plane” like I’d like to) while in the Marines I’d probably be land based, which appeals to me quite a bit. They can sink a carrier but I never heard of that happening to a land base. See what I mean. It doesn’t really make any difference to me though so if you’ve got any suggestions or preferences as to which I should try for – let me know. Whether it’s one of the other the rest of my training will still last the same length of time and I’ll be trained at the same place whichever I choose.

It’s time to muster and since I’m the platoon leader I have to be there so I’ll close and wait for an answer to this.

Don’t work too hard and don’t wear the davenport out

Love,
Shorty

(side note)

As far as Christmas presents go – send a little list to me with suggestions for you – Mother – Helen & Doug & Verna, Ken and Kenneth Alan. As for myself I don’t know yet what to suggest.

Grandpa did stay Navy. I also have a photocopy of his combat diary. He was awarded 3 Air Medals. He was sent to the Pacific Theater and was assigned to both the USS Essex (CV-9) and the USS Yorktown (CV-10) in 1945. Unfortunately, I never talked to Grandpa about his time in the Navy during WWII. I don't know if he really talked to anyone about it, but I was a girl, we were away in Germany much of my growing up, and he passed away my sophomore year of college. It will be interesting to talk to Grandma about what it is I discovered in that old box...

Miss Ladybug, M.Ed.

Well, I've done it. Today, I graduated. Miss Ladybug, Master of Education, Summa Magna Cum Laude. Thankfully, I didn't have to sit through some cheesy commencement address - apparently, that honor was reserved for those candidates who were assigned to this morning's commencement ceremony.

I started work on my Masters in June 2005. I wouldn't have been able to finish it so quickly if not for my parents. It was tough at times, but I had my goal in mind, and I was determined to meet it. So, after 19 months, 12 classes and student teaching, I'm done.

My dad, who became a teacher after retiring from the Army, had advised it was best to student teach in the fall. Doing so would allow for more time to secure a teaching position for the next school year, while allowing for gainful employment through substitute teaching. I tell you what - those applications for teaching positions are much more complicated than for any other job I've ever applied for.

I have a particular district in mind for where I would like to teach, but I'll just have to wait and see how things turn out. I'm better off than some of my fellow graduates, since I will have the freedom to relocate for the right job - I'm not tied to the district where I currently live. I don't have a spouse, or a lease or a house to sell. As I continue to submit applications, I'm sure I'll post an update when I have found a place to teach. I might get lucky and find a position to begin in January, but more likely, it will be later in the spring when I find something for next fall.