Obsession

This is the next DVD that I'm going to buy. Here you can see the trailer and here you can check out a twelve minute clip for "Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West"

Seriously people, this is NOT a joke.

Unexpected Comedy

My wife and I are (sorta) fans of M Night Shyamalan (i never can pronounce his last name). So when one of his movies makes it to my local chain video rental store (I'm nothing if not cheap) we get some popcorn, rent the movie and prepare for a good old-fashioned scare.

Okay, admittedly a couple of his movies are more "freaky" than "scary" but they're still chilling.

The other day my favorite movie date (wifey) & i rented the only one of his videos that we had not yet seen - Lady in the Water. I'm not gonna give away the plot but I gotta tell you - I was more scared by Monty Python's Meaning of Life. When I asked sweetie her opinion of this "horror movie" she just rolled her eyes. It's like M Night was trying to make a black comedy instead of a horror film - it honestly made us laugh.

Disappointing.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

So I stop in to my local video rental chain store to pick up Smallville Season Two Disc 4 (my wife and I have recently become followers of the show after she saw a few old episodes on Spanish TV) and they don't have it. Well, this is a bummer. If I was looking for a movie and it wasn't in, I'd just get another movie but I'm actually following this teenage soap opera. (oh the shame)

We even had a bit of confusion when we rented season 2 Disc 1 - we had seen the last episode of season 1 a couple nights before and now nothing was making any sense. My wife took it straight back to the video rental chain store and the teenagers behind the counter just feigned confusion. [This is the part where I really refrain from making tacky comments and just get on with the narrative] Anyway, my wife is bound and determined to see the episodes in order so, one day while I'm at work, she uses her new laptop to look up episode guides, plot synopsis, just all sorts of Smallville trivia and calls me at work to let me know. This kind of research is a bit out of character for her. Normally my wife just uses the net to look for recipes and decorating tips (not being sexist, just stating a fact) and I have to do all the "serious" research (yes, referring to Smallville as serious was tongue-in-cheek but let's not dwell on that).

So Smallville has effected us. (Not to mention that I could really become addicted to watching television shows with no commercials)

Apparently somebody else has also recently started following Smallville because I keep finding season 2 discs out. But not to fear. My resourceful wife picked up House instead (she knows I like medical TV shows) and each of these episodes is a stand alone so I don't have to watch them in sequence for everything to make sense! (I know you're so happy for me :-)

Books You're Not Supposed to Read

From the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades: The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, Oxford University Press, 1955. This is an English translation of the earliest biography of Muhammad. It was "written by a pious Muslim" and "virtually every page presents a devastating refutation of the whitewashed, peaceful Muhammad of PC myth".

Here's an idea: If you don't believe it when people tell you how violent the Qur'an is then read it yourself. According to this PIG, the "clearest and most accurate English translation" is The Koran by N.J. Dawood. Muslims tend to dislike this translation because Dawood wasn't a Muslim. The two most accure English translations by Muslims are those by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall. Both of these are available in multiple editions under various titles however both are "marred by a pseudo-King James Bible English which makes them irritating to read".
Personally, when I have needed to reference the Koran I've relied on the good old internet and gone to http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/koran/

And a third book that the Politically Correct "Thought Police" don't want you to read is An Introduction to Islamic Law by Joseph Schacht; Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1982. They say that this is "a weighty book, as eye-opening as it is scholarly and that the author "is refreshingly free of the bias that dominates studies of Islam in universities today". A sample from the Mr Schacht's book reads: "The basis of the Islamic attitude towards unbelievers is the law of war; they must be either converted or subjugated or killed."
Definitely NOT Politically Correct :-)

Everything hurts and it's raining.

My muscles ache, my best friend is moving away, and while trying to bring home a bookcase (that my friend left for me) it started raining.

Fortunately the bookcase was in another friend's pickup truck and he got to my house and got the bookcase unloaded before more than a few drops could hit it. I, on the other hand, got turned around and ended up driving all over town in the rain.

By the time I got home my wife had wiped off the few drops of rain that hit the bookcase before it got under cover and now it's just waiting to be loaded with books.

Work cuts into my free time

I worked today helping my good friend Johnny and his wife, Manda load a large yellow truck so they can move to California. I was out of the office all day but that doesn't mean that I wasn't working. (Both my supervisor and one of my staff called me - nothing too dramatic)

I told Johnny that I don't ever remember working so hard to accomplish something that I didn't like. Coffee will never taste the same to me...

Tomorrow they leave for parts west and I have to go back to the office. Sometimes life is a real downer.

A New Haven for Illegals?

Yes, corny pun but I couldn't resist. New Haven Connecticut has issued "municipal identification cards" that any resident of New Haven can get for ten bucks. The argument was that the illegal aliens living in New Haven (home of Yale University) were often victims of crime. The rationale given was this is b/c they carry cash b/c they cannot open bank accounts without proper identification.

This municipal ID will also allow people with no other ID to get a library card. (Pardon my skeptism but I don't really think this is going to help anybody to learn to speak English)

The Newsmax.com article is here but the BEST comment that I heard about this whole episode of liberal idiocy came from Glenn Beck. He was interviewing a citizen of New Haven and the fella was really distressed by the whole thing. Then Glenn says "Well people are always saying that housing costs are really bad in New Haven. Look on the bright side - just give this a few months and the property values will go down and housing will be much more affordable."

Google Earth - NASA Earth City Lights

These images are all from the free version of "Google Earth" available at http://earth.google.com/ It will only appear this way if you check Earth City Lights under NASA under Featured Content. All these images are copyright 2007 Google, copyright 2007 Terrametrics and copyright 2007 Europa Technologies.

This first image is the city night lights in the hemisphere where I live.



This next image is my immediate neighborhood, with a Google Earth "Eye Altitude" of 50 miles. No, it's not very easy to see the stars at night where I currently live.


This last image is also from an "Eye Altitude" of 50 miles. This is directly over where I'm planning to take a vacation one of these days. When I get there I'm going to take off my watch, turn off my cell phone and look at the stars.

3 Cheers for LEGAL Immigration

Today the Application for Citizenship for my wife goes into the mail. (That is one long form!)

The process of immigrating to the US of A "by the rules" is tedious at best. She originally emigrated on a fiance' visa for the express purpose of getting married to me. They told us that it would take six months and it only took nine months. (Oy!)

The process of becoming a naturalized citizen is not much better. But this is NOT A REASON to break the rules. A friend of mine at church recently became a naturalized citizen after a long process and I think that he would tell you that it is worth the effort.

Annual Haircut

A couple of pictures from my "annual haircut" and then back to my "4th of July" series.

As you can tell, I take this very seriously. Well, I have lightened up a bit in the past couple years.

A little background: on June 29, 2003 my best friend of 13 years died from non-smokers lung cancer. July 16, 2003 would have been his 32nd birthday.

My friend loved life, his wife and his girls and I still miss him. A lot.

Immediately after my friend's death, I felt compelled to do something to express my grief. Being who I am, I did some research on bereavement traditions in different cultures.

I found that, after the death of a loved one, people in one ancient culture would let their hair grow. That just didn't seem drastic enough. Then I found that people of another ancient culture would shave their heads. As it turns out, a short time before my friend died we spoke on the phone and he told me that chemo had made him "completely hairless" and he was tired of the side effects so he wasn't going to take any more treatments. So on July 16, 2003, while my wife and daughter were vacationing with my parents, I shaved my head, moustache and beard.

Now each year my "drastic tradition" continues to evolve a bit. Each year it is less about me and my grief and more about marking a date but getting on with life.

My wife gives me an initial haircut and trim and my daughter takes pictures.

Each year my wife and daughter have been more and more involved until, this year, I just told my wife "I want you to cut my hair as short as you can stand it. You don't have to shave my head, just cut my hair short."

You see, last year she cut my hair and gave me a trim and then I shaved my head. She didn't really take that as a compliment somehow. Go figure.

Even though she knew that "the haircut" was coming up, my wife has been nagging me for a couple months to cut my beard. Her line is "It makes you look old" and then she'll call me "viejo" or some other Spanish term of endearment. This last pic is basically how the beard looks now. I said "You're not gonna shave it off??" and my beautiful wife says "No, then I'll look older than you!"

One final note. Do you notice both my wife and I are slightly out of focus but the pitcher (several feet behind me and in the center of the picture) is in perfect focus? This is exactly why I hate autofocus cameras. (I know you wanted to know that :-)

First Amendment - Establishment Clause

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Let's take it phrase by phrase - feel free to rip my analysis to shreds.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
This is referred to as "The Establishment Clause" and, simply stated, the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that there was not a "Church of America". Just a quick look at English history will show abuses by the Church of England. The Church of England is arguably the only major denomination that was started so a King could get a divorce. I'm not trying to throw stones but this is NOT the best reason to start a church and this kind of start will put you on shakey ground morally.

If by "Founding Father of the USA" you use the criteria that the person did one or more of the following:
- signed the Declaration of Independence
- signed the Articles of Confederation
- attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787
- signed the Constitution of the United States of America
- served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
- served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress
(a total of 204 individuals) then this group pretty much covers the Western religious spectrum existing at that time. Heck, Thomas Jefferson himself is claimed by Anglicans, Unitarians, Deists and Episcopalians and is often quoted by atheists.

So there's no way that you would get this crowd to agree on one government sponsored church. Where all the hay gets made is when folks start saying that "X" or "Y" constitutes a "state sponsored church". When anything about public schools comes up, I like to point to the history of "public education" and how it was started in this country and say "The question is not whether or not we should have prayer in public schools. The real question is whether or not we should have public schools." But you knew I would say that, didn't you? :-)

More later.

What will Israel do?

Does this kind of stuff make anybody else nervous? I have a bad feeling that things are about to get really interesting.

Negative

A couple weeks ago I was brushing my teeth and my wife noticed that a mole on my back had gotten darker. Considering the kind of information that I handle on a daily basis, I knew that this was nothing to be taken lightly, so that morning when I got to work I had a Nurse Practitioner take a look at the mole. Changing moles can be melanoma - this is why I was nervous.

Squamous cell carcinoma shouldn't be confused with melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Together, basal and squamous cell carcinoma are responsible for less than 0.1 percent of cancer deaths, while the American Cancer Society estimates almost 8,000 Americans will die from melanoma this year.

In case you don't know, I'm fairly pale. So I don't spend much time outside and when I am outside I try to cover up. Also this was a mole in the middle of my back so it almost never saw the light of day. The NP told me that her 23 yr old daughter was recently diagnosed with a melanoma and that, from the look of it, she felt that I should have the mole removed. On July 3 I had an appointment with a dermatologist.

I asked my wife to take a photograph of the offending mole with my cellphone but the results were less than impressive. So here I have "artist renderings" of the mole before and after I went to see the dermatologist and he wacked off the mole.

The color and shape are based on my wife's description :-)

This afternoon I called the dermatologist's office to get the pathology results. (they said to call back in 10 days but I didn't really feel like calling on Friday the 13th for pathology results - go figure.)

Then the voice on the other end of the line said "Negative, nothing to worry about." This, with everything else has made for kind of a tense week.

The Fence: Three Choices

In the June 15 online edition of the Al-Qaeda Times (still referred to by some as the New York Times but we can have the "aiding and abetting the enemy" argument another day) there is a cute little piece (complete with photos and diagrams) pointing out that the planners of the yet-to-be-built Border Fence are apparently bumbling idiots. The author comes to this conclusion because (as the diagrams illustrate so well) the planned route cuts Brownsville in half.

Regardless of what your opinion of Brownsville is (I happen to be good friends with at least two people that think its a nice town) the idea of running the fence through a United States city does seem rather ill-advised if not just downright silly.

So our three choices are:
1) Construct a Big, Solid, Literal Fence (and no matter where you put it somebody will be unhappy)
2) Construct a virtual fence (cameras, sensors, more man power - that sort of thing)
3) Do nothing.

Given the fact that even the reporter for the times witnessed illegal border crossings and spoke with people who see worse than that on a regular basis, I really don't think that "Do Nothing" is a viable option. (BTW, a large number of "OTM" or "Other Than Mexican" illegals cross our southern border every year)

I don't completely agree with my friend that stated "Only communist countries build walls". When we were talking he was busy driving and I was busy distracting him (my bad) so the barriers in Gaza and the West Bank completely slipped my mind. While I don't wholeheartedly agree with the panicky attitude of the municipal commerce departments in this part of the valley, I can see where the construction of a BIG HUGE UGLY wall could possibly hurt commerce a little. That would last for maybe a year and then, the next Christmas it would business as usual, with not enough room in the stores to swing a dead cat.

A second problem with a Literal Wall is that whatever monies are spent in construction will NOT be spent on enforcement.

That's why, after much thought, I am ready to throw my support behind a Virtual Wall with more manpower for this area. Consequently, no matter what type of physical or electronic barrier we attempt to construct, people will do whatever they can to get here. That's why this whole thing is nothing more than a big, expensive dog and pony show without workplace enforcement. We have to make it not worth the effort to come here illegally.

More on Attrition Through Enforcement later.

The Bill of Rights

Initially I had planned to just do one post on the "Bill of Rights" and then go to some other subject important to our American way of life. If you know me at all, you know that I harp about the 2nd Amendment more than any of the rest. To give a fair treatment to the entire Bill of Rights, I have decided to give a tiny bit of history and then treat each of the amendments in it's own separate post.

What we commonly refer as the Bill of Rights are the first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution. The founding fathers had just written this awesome document (the Constitution) and then realized that it could use a little clarification.

Just a quick "bumper sticker" synopsis of each amendment might go something like this:

1st: Right to Free Speech
2nd: Right to Keep and Bear Arms
3rd: Freedom from Unwillingly Housing a Soldier
4th: Freedom from Unreasonable Search and Seizure
5th: Freedom from Testifying Against Yourself
6th: Right to a Speedy Trial
7th: Right to Trial by Jury
8th: Freedom from Cruel and Unusual Punishments
9th: Just because a right is not specifically excluded from the government does not mean that the government automatically has that right. (i had to read several things just to get this flawed understanding of Amendment Nine and still my explanation is not very clear.)
10th: Rights not specifically given to the central government belong to the states and the people.

Most of us that have grown up in the United States have heard quite a bit about Amendments One, Two and Five. The Left loves One, the Right loves Two and we ALL love to "plead the fifth". We hear less about Amendments Four, Six, Seven and Eight but we still hear about them on "Law and Order", etc.

More later.

Its okay, I'm with the band

Funny story. The other day my mom introduced my wife and daughter and I to a group of young people on a mission trip. The next day mom & dad took this same group to the airport. While they were in the airport, one of the guys told my mom "Last night when [your son] walked into the room for a second I thought 'Its David Crowder! I have to get his autograph!' "

In my own defense I was wearing a baseball cap when I walked into the room - I don't think I could get my hair to do that if I wanted to.

Maybe its time to shave...

Transformers rocks

Oh yeah! Finally got to see Transformers with a friend. This movie is 144 minutes long and there was only about 4 of those minutes that I think they should have left on the cutting room floor.

I loved the action. I loved the big robots. Plot? Who needs a plot when you've got CGI Transformers? Definitely worth the price of admission.

(and all the American military hardware is a nice bonus :-)

How Do They Lean?

Here, in alphabetical order, are several of the current Republican Presidential hopefuls (and a few possible "spoilers") and how they lean politically according to http://www.ontheissues.org/ : (The grid with the political philosophy is at the bottom of each person's ontheissues page)

Mike Bloomberg (Moderate Libertarian Liberal)
Sam Brownback (Libertarian-Leaning Conservative)
Jeb Bush (Populist-Leaning Conservative)
Newt Gingrich (Libertarian-Leaning Conservative)
Jim Gilmore (Populist Conservative)
Rudy Giuliani (Moderate Liberertarian Conservative)
Chuck Hagel (Libertarian-Leaning Conservative)
Mike Huckabee (Moderate Conservative)
Duncan Hunter (Moderate Conservative)
John McCain (Moderate Conservative)
George Pataki (Moderate Populist Conservative)
Texas Representative Ron Paul (Moderate Libertarian)
Mitt Romney (Moderate Populist Conservative)
Mark Sanford (Populist-Leaning Conservative)
Tom Tancredo (Moderate Conservative)
Fred Thompson (Moderate Conservative)
Tommy Thompson (Moderate Populist)

You can go here for the Vote Match quiz used to "score" these candidates. According to this 20 question quiz. If you are at all interested in the issues and who becomes the next person to be "the most powerful person in the free world", then you should take the quiz. This grid idea is more informative than the old "left or right" and it is very interesting to see where exactly on the grid the candidates fall.

The first time I took the quiz it told me "Your political philosophy is Populist-Leaning Conservative". After a couple hours of reading info on the ontheissues website I took the quiz again and now it tells me that I am "Hard Core Conservative" (I think I got fed up with all these "Moderate Conservatives" and their policy statements :-)

The "useless information" tag is tongue in cheek. This information is only useless if you don't care. (yes sir, i am opinionated - God Bless America)

Preamble

Shakespeare is credited with saying "Brevity is the soul of wit". Perhaps the framers of the Constitution had "the bard" in mind when they wrote the "intro" to our Constitution. It is one sentence tells what they were attempting to accomplish with the Constitution and some of the means that they intended to use to get this done.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It is interesting to me that this one sentence introduction has been referred to by the Supreme Court of the United States "as evidence of the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution" at least five times.

Transformers

Today has been an interesting day. Yesterday we had a lot of rain and "flash flood warnings", but today we woke up to clear skies. The forecast was a 70% chance of rain but those things are never right, are they? While sitting outside having coffee with a friend (beautiful day), I sort of invited myself to see Transformers with him and another friend.

There are several big summer movies, it is July 4th, and this theater has 20 screens so naturally LOTS of people at the theater - no surprise. Apparently most of these people were there to see Transformers because the 2:45, 3:00, 3:15 and 4:00 shows were all sold out. So, from the time we walked in the door until the time the movie started, the three of us got to talk for about 2 hours. When we finally got seated, I told my friends that, even if the movie turned out to be a complete dud, that I have had a good afternoon.

Fifteen (15) minutes after the actual movie started, it stopped without warning. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, we're awaiting an announcement... Fifteen (15) minutes after the movie stopped, the emergency lights started flashing and EVERYBODY had to evacuate the theater. So (according to the theater manager) I (and all those other people) can go back another day with our ticket stubs and see a (hopefully uninterrupted) movie. Oh yeah, when we got outside it was pouring down rain.

Since it has been raining, the local muncipality canceled the fireworks display.

I haven't seen Transformers yet but I still had a good day.

Old Glory

Wow! Too much good info to try and cram it all in one post so I'll give you links to the info.

A short History of the American flag.

Two different accounts of the specific flag that was first called Old Glory here and here.

The history of the United States maritime flag or Jack. And here is a link to an image of the first naval jack. The "Don't Tread on Me" naval jack was "reinstated" in recognition of the current War on Terror.

And last but not least, rules from Title 4 of the US Code concerning the US flag, how to display the flag, how it should or should not be used and other interesting stuff.

Fireworks

After giving my little idea more thought I believe that, if I'm going to do any justice to this idea I'm going to have to take it in small pieces. There is just so much cool stuff to be patriotic about!

I like this - it turns out that I'm already learning more about my nation's history.

I was just about to tell you what I have heard all my life about the 4th of July and fireworks. You see, since I was a little kid I have heard it repeated that the tradition of fireworks had to do with commemorating America's victory in the War of 1812. You know - "... the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." and if I had told you that, then I would have been wrong. As it turns out (according to PBS) the idea of fireworks on the 4th of July are almost as old as the Declaration of Independence.

According to an article from PBS.org : "On July 8, 1776, the first public readings of the Declaration were held in Philadelphia's Independence Square to the ringing of bells and band music. One year later, on July 4, 1777, Philadelphia marked Independence Day by adjourning Congress and celebrating with bonfires, bells and fireworks."

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Two reasons for this particular post:

1)A couple different times I've had one friend or another ask me something to the effect of "Do you have to be so political?" or they've just come right out and said "You're too political." But it has been my experience that once people understand why I feel the way I do, then, oftentimes they no longer see me as being "too political". (This doesn't work 100% of the time but most people get it)

2) Several people close to me either are in the long process of legal immigration / naturalization or they have already come through the arduous process of legal immigration /naturalization to the USA. Interestingly enough, my acquaintances who are legal first generation immigrants rarely question my political zeal. Go figure.

So to remind myself (and for the benefit of my friends who may not understand) how our system of government is supposed to work here in the US of A, and why our system of government works so well (even though it doesn't look like it sometimes), I will be presenting a series of posts on the Constitution, traditions and some of the reasons behind our patriotic ideals.

Happy (early) Fourth of July!!

How can you tell when a Politician is lying?

I've been going through articles on NewsMax.com and I ran across this - it's called "The Border Fence:So Far, Lip Service".

No joke, I feel that NewsMax does a pretty balanced job of reporting the news. For instance, in this article, published just a few hours before the lastest amnesty bill was killed (my phrasing, not theirs); NewsMax gives the predominant GOP point of view and the predominant Democratic Party POV. In this article, Tim Walberg speaks for the majority of Republicans and Dianne Feinstein for the majority of Democrats.

It is always interesting to me to hear the "logic" of Dianne Fienstein. For those of us who are (obviously) not so bright, Ms Feinstein explains why we should love this (unwritten) bill: "Let me point something out that's a little different this time. There will be mandatory spending, $4.4 billion up front, to do the following before anything else happens -- that's about 600 miles to 700 miles of border fence and vehicle obstructions, UAVs, employer verification, no more catch-and-release. There has to be detention of people coming across the border. So there will be border enforcement, 3,500 additional border patrols, before any other part of the bill goes into place. People don't understand that."

No, Dianne Feinstein isn't talking to me. I understand it just fine. I just don't believe it. You see, the 2006 Secure Fence Act calls for 700 miles of fence and only 15 miles have been built so far. If they haven't done what they promised to do last year, why should any of us believe a new promise this year?

I posed a question in the title of this post - the answer remains "When their lips are moving"

Ratatouille Rocks!

Considering all the crud that Hollywood sees fit to distribute, I am glad to see that a "G" rating still means that I can safely take my family to a fun movie. We saw it this afternoon. :-)