Category: Politics

It was all so blatantly predictable that a blind referee could see it coming. A young, dumb, idealistic professional football player decides to put his politics ahead of his game, and worse, ahead of his team, and then gets manipulated by the cynical leftists who now control sports broadcasting so as to support their own leftist views. Can anyone guess the result? Of course you can because common sense would lead anyone to the conclusion that the manipulated kid is in big trouble.

Colin Kaepernick had his seasons and it is likely this last one will be his American twilight. For some as yet undisclosed reason, this talented young quarterback decided to disrespect his flag, his national anthem and his nation – a nation that had readily taken him in as a young refugee from a war torn area of Africa and given him the opportunity to rise to the summit of professional football as a Super Bowl (losing) quarterback of the San Francisco Forty-Niners.

Then he chose to spit in the face of our nation by defiantly refusing to stand for the national anthem when it was played during the opening ceremonies of the NFL games in which his team played. Whatever he was hoping to achieve, it blew up in his face like a Rachel Maddow exclusive. Kaepernick immediately became the most hated football player in the NFL and very unfortunately for him, at the same time his personal image was going into the toilet, his on field performance was right behind, tanking ungracefully.

Now, unloved and unneeded by the Forty Niners, Kaepernick confidently offered himself up to the NFL as a free agent, meaning that any team can hire him if they are willing to compensate the Forty Niners for his contractual obligations. Guess what? No takers—no NFL team wants the terrible publicity issues that accompany Kaepernick wherever he might land. Were he playing top-flight, NFL quarterback football, some team might take the risk, but that’s clearly not the case. Kaepernick has done a real number on his career and he may as well pack his bags for offshore play somewhere, Europe perhaps, but he’s finished here; no NFL team wants the liability that comes with this young fool.

There should be a lesson here for athletes and movie stars and others whose livings are paid for by ticket purchases and TV remote selections but it would assuredly fall on deaf ears. Like Kaepernick, far too many of these performers feel compelled to belabor the nation with their unsolicited, personal political views, making themselves champions to hard core lefties but alienating the tens of millions who might otherwise have purchased a ticket or clicked on their game or movie.

Seriously, can anyone out there fault the NFL teams for taking a knee on Kaepernick?

Crossposted at American Thinker

SRV was an extraordinary guitar talent, known for his bluesy rock and roll. I came across this in my wanderings around the interwebs, and thought I’d share. Enough of this, watch and listen to a master.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSLc0tCnOrM

The 27th Special Operations Wing has identified the three airmen killed earlier this week in a training accident.

Captain Andrew Becker was a 33-year-old pilot from Novi, Michigan. He is survived by his spouse, mother, and father. Captain Kenneth Dalga was a 29-year-old combat systems officer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is survived by his spouse, son, and mother. First Lieutenant Frederick Dellecker was a 26-year-old co-pilot from Daytona Beach, Florida. He is survived by his mother and father. All three men were with the 318th Special Operations Squadron.

This one hits close to home. I was stationed at Cannon for five years and was always impressed by the mission of the 318th SOS. They fly into remote and not always friendly AOR’s in aircraft with zero defense capabilities.

Godspeed Gentlemen.

http://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2017/03/17/news/cannon-crash-victims-in-prime-of-their-lives/151423.html

My concept of the world comes from the intimately small parcel of it I have seen and experienced coupled with social influences encountered at the most impressionable age.  It was the age at which my brain was programmed to encounter the world outside my bubble quiet often resulting in a grand detonation of the comfortable, safe place I and others carved out for me.  Here in the land of the free, the culturally enlightened and selectively ignorant we do not even know one another.  Worse yet, we have given up trying.

I believe that forces mortal men and women cannot begin to comprehend battle for our souls.  I also know that because I express that belief some will label me as a weak minded nitwit who believes in myths and fairy tales of supernatural beings warring for souls.  On the other hand, I cannot fathom that our world just happened.  That something came from nothing.  I have faith in what I believe.  I believe I am in this world, but not of this world.  My beliefs do not make me any more special than anyone.  They are just my beliefs.  I endorse the golden rule – “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  That does not mean that I must accept what my neighbor believes or what my neighbor does only that within the law he is free believe and do as he chooses.  It only means that I wish the same good life for my neighbor as I wish for myself.  I entered this world with nothing and will leave it the same way.  I am just passing through here, barely a blink in the breadth of human history.

E Pluribus Unum. In our country, hailed as the place where many views, cultures, religions, colors and creeds can come together and form one exceptional nation of free people we are failing.  It is something each of us need ponder because our failure to come together as the one exceptional place – the only one – on this great ball hurling through space we will experience the loss of the place offering the last great hope for humankind.  We have already partitioned ourselves into regions, rigid thought and thought blindly beholden to groupthink.

Why is it we cannot come together and live up to our national motto?  Out of many, one.  There are a myriad of reasons, but the most obvious is right before us.  Some who read this will not attempt to understand how I believe or the principles that guide my life or even care for that matter.  Instead, they will choose to denigrate me for my beliefs and most of them will never know me as a man.  They have been programmed to believe a certain way and simply cannot accept that anyone should view the world differently.  More disheartening than that are people who profess to share my beliefs and react the same way toward others.  How can the great many become the great one if instead of attempting civil discussion we set out to denigrate, silence and destroy anyone who does not believe as we do?

At our institutions of higher learning we see people rioting to shut down a speaker who refuses to sing to their choir – anyone who dares offer a different view.  How can one consider himself learned if he is unable to use the gift of reason or critical thought to even consider a different view?  Every day in our government, we witness people trying to destroy one another, stifle ideas, crush political opponents and it is all because of their childish driven need for it to be their way or no way.

I know.  That is how the world and democracy works.  Right? No.  That is how it fails.

© 2017 J. D. Pendry

This week’s movie is a video of the Bloody 100^th Bomber Group from WWII, B-17 pilots and crews, flying their bombing missions starting in 1943, and continuing into March 1944, to destroy German factories and rail lines and shipyards, and  at the end of the war, the bombing Berlin and Dresden.

The B-17, also known as the Flying Fortress because of its armor and amraments, was as tough as the A-10 is now. At first, they flew missions with fighter planes that turned back at the European shoreline, but later, they were accompanied by US fighter planes and British Spitfires.Tough planes, tough crews, flying in unheated, nonpressurized planes, in cramped quarters that can only be politely termed sardine cans because they were packed to the walls with gunnery, ammo, instruments and armor, leaving barely enough room for the gunners to maneuver and shoot.

The US Army Air Force alternated bombing missions with the RAF. The USAAF ran missions during the daytime while the Brits ran them at night.  The loss numbers during bombing missions were staggering, up to 90% of planes and crews, because of the Luftwaffe’s attacks and flak fields. The missions ran 8 to 9 hours, minimum, in cabin temperatures of -40f to -60f.

These guys and the Brits bombed Berlin into rubble, but that didn’t end the war. They next went after Dresden, which was full of refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet troops on the eastern front.

There is a brief shot toward the end of a Luftwaffe pilot bailing out of his damaged plane at 24,000 feet. Some Luftwaffe pilots were so desperate to stop the bombers that they rammed them as a last resort.

It ended in March 1944, 73 years ago. Some of them got together for this video.

It is 45 minutes of video, worth every minute of your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olsAMx0fPq0

Fairly good article about the history of K9 Veterans Day that I found:

A lot of things changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Oil, leather and rubber were rationed. Men were drafted. Women rolled up their sleeves and built war supplies.

And dogs were called to duty. During the first world war, the United States took notice of the European use of canines as sentries, message carriers and several other functions.

Dogs for Defense was a program initiated by a private citizen by the name of Mrs. Alene Erlanger. Along with the American Kennel Club and a handful of breeders, the group aimed to train the dogs for military use.

By November of 1942, the first Dogs for Defense were prepared for duty in North Africa. While at first they were gun shy, they proved to be well trained.

As the war progressed, Dogs for Defense was unable to keep up with the demand and the Remount Branch, Service Installations Divisions took over training of the dogs.

Over the years the military, police and rescue have developed a variety of training methods for K9 units. Their training is tailored to meet the demands of the job and each animal and handler carries out his or her duties to the fullest.

When I was a soldier in Afghanistan I didn’t have a wife or kids.  I carried two pictures in my wallet, 1 was of the barstool I “lived” at at Murphy’s in Old Town Alexandria Virginia, and the other was my mutt, Forrest, who was the light of my life.  When I can home, Forrest was sick and the doctors were worried that the trauma of seeing me might kill her, so I spent 2 weeks in a hotal before I went home.  I’ve never cried half as hard as when I saw her.  She meant everything to me.

I think that’s common with military guys.  You don’t have to explain your moods to dogs, they just don’t care.  Good mood, bad mood, all they care is that you are home, and then never want to be apart.  Until a few days ago, this was the saddest story I ever heard:

And then this…..

These tear-jerking pictures show the moment an Air Force dog handler cradled his dead cannine partner draped in the US flag.

Sergeant Kyle Smith, from North Carolina, bid an emotional farewell to four-legged companion Bodza after the German Shepherd was put down.

A picture showed Kyle’s giving his partner a tender hug as the dead dog was draped in the US flag.

Thousands have shared the picture since it emerged on social media.

Kyle said the decision to put down Bodza was one of the hardest he has ever had to make.

Man.   I’ve been that guy.  I wanted one last weekend with Forrest as I knew she was dying.  It was Thanksgiving and I intended to do all the things she wanted to do.  But it wasn’t meant to be.  She faded quickly and couldn’t walk.  So I took her in.

I will say this, the vet couldn’t have been more kind.  She game me time with my little girl, and then she injected her.  To my dying day I’ll never forgot how she picked up her snoot and gave me a little kiss on the nose, and then she was gone.  I sat there sobbing for a few monutes, and then they took her away.  I didn’t get out of bed for about a week.

To Bodza, thank you for your service.  For Kyle, you’ve been in my prayers.  The pain never goes away, but may you find the strength to remember the happy moments.  I wish dogs had the life expectancy of people, it’s so unbelievably hard to say good bye to an animal you loved with all your heart, and knew that the feeling was recipirocated.