Boarding the plane for the long journey home.

Military.com has an outstanding video of troops returning from a tour of duty. The video shows the troops walking down the jet-way after disembarking their plane and the people waiting at the gate burst into a heartfelt ovation. This of course brought back fond memories of my unit returning from Desert Storm.

We were the only unit from our post that deployed to the Middle East when Saddam rolled into Kuwait. On the way to Saudi Arabia we warranted our own 747 to get us in country as soon as possible. Conversely, after the war, since we were a unit of about 120 soldiers, there was no real hurry to send us home. We finally ended up hitching a ride with another unit the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

We landed in Bangor, Maine of all places before heading to Barksdale Air Force Base to board a bus for Fort Polk. To be honest, I had never heard of Bangor but it is the home town of renowned author Stephen King. Mr. King wanted to ensure that the soldiers returning from Desert Storm received the hero’s welcome they deserved rather than the disgraceful treatment our predecessors returning from Viet Nam endured.

The reception that Mr. King put on was amazing. I was one of the first soldiers off the plane and was immediately swamped by the friendly citizens of Bangor. Kids were asking for autographs, girls were coming up and hugging us, and of course we were able to imbibe our first cold malted beverage (beer) in quite some time.

The sense of pride that a reception like that instilled really cannot be put into words, at least by a novice like me, perhaps Mr. King could but the appropriate words fail me. To add to the shock, my family was waiting for me when we arrived at Fort Polk. My mom always tells me that was the best Mother’s Day ever.

It has been nearly twenty years since that fateful day and I would like to extend my everlasting gratitude to Mr. King and the residents of Bangor. You are all amazing Americans and I am proud to have served such wonderful people.

Now that we have been at war for over a decade, I know some people take the sacrifices that our brave men and women in uniform make for us on a daily basis. So when you see one of them the next time your out and about, please thank them for their service, I assure you it will make their day (and yours).
 

Beck was relentless in pointing out George Soros' connection to President Obama. - Courtesy: Fox News

The Canada Free Press has an interesting story written by Cliff Kincaid about how George Soros was the driving force behind Glenn Beck being dismissed from Fox News.

I’d like to add another wrinkle to Kincaid’s story that I haven’t seen postulated elsewhere. If you’ll remember during the lead up to Beck’s departure from Fox News last summer, Fox Chief Rupert Murdoch was embroiled in a bribery scandal in Europe. Later that year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would be launching its own investigation.

A couple of months go by with the usual media rabble-rousers making all kinds of ridiculous claims. Then, all of a sudden, the story just disappeared from the news with no explanation.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the story played out like this. The Department of Justice told Murdoch, you make Glenn Beck go away and we will make this investigation go away.

I have no proof of this but I know how politics work. The Obama administration has already proven to be the most corrupt in our nation’s history and if there is one thing you can count on a corrupt politician to be; that is corrupt.

What did Murdoch have to lose by getting rid of Beck? He’s still raking in the advertising dollars.

What did the DOJ have to gain by getting rid of Beck? They were able to silence the most vocal enemy of the president and his policies. The only loser was the American people.

Check out Kincaid’s article:

News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch Now Praises Soros, Private Investigator says Beck Staff Threatened by Soros Operatives; News Corporation Failed to Protect Employees, Forcing Beck’s Ouster

Glenn Beck Staff Threatened by Soros Operatives

- News on the Net  Saturday, January 28, 2012 - Cliff Kincaid

Kincaid recently learned of a private investigator, Douglas J. Hagmann, with information that the Soros role in Beck’s ouster was deeper and more insidious than previously realized. In order to further the public’s right to know as to how the First Amendment right of freedom of the press is being manipulated and subverted by covert forces in U.S. politics, Kincaid asked Hagmann, who is the CEO of Hagmann Investigative Services, Inc., and director of the Northeast Intelligence Network for permission to pass on this information. He has agreed, as long as the identities of the sources of information are deleted. There are several sources with information about strange goings-on at News Corporation in regard to the Glenn Beck matter, in which the most vulnerable of the news channel staff members have come under pressure not to report certain facts and information about President Obama personally. But Hagmann says the tipping point in the matter of Glenn Beck leaving the channel came when Beck began a series of programs on Soros, labeled by Beck the “Puppet Master” behind Obama and the progressive movement.

Hagmann informed Kincaid of the following:

via Glenn Beck Staff Threatened by Soros Operatives.

Courtesy: Creators.com

Throughout America’s history communists and socialists have camouflaged themselves and hidden behind seemingly innocuous words like progressive, new freedom, new dealer, liberal, and Democrat. This year, President Obama has recycled an oldie but a goodie to mask his socialist policies, the buzzword for his re-election campaign is “populist.”

You see, for more than a century, socialists knew that they had to hide behind the veil of secrecy because if anyone ever pulled back the curtain of truth and exposed them, the American people would reject their subversive policies every time, because they are decidedly un-American. They made a grave miscalculation when Barack Obama was elected president; they thought they could finally come out of the closet (pardon my faux pas), that America was finally ready to accept socialism. However, they couldn’t have been more wrong, Obama’s election awakened the American electorate like never before, and in 2010, the political pendulum made a decisive swing back to the right.

Recognizing that they have lost momentum and that they no longer control the debate, President Obama and the Democratic socialists are preparing to pull out all the stops to preserve their power.

Resorting to his community organizer roots, President Obama’s administration engineered the Occupy Wall Street movement as the opening salvo of his class warfare campaign designed to pit the American people against one another. The demonstrations we saw last fall were simply a dress rehearsal for what we will see during the upcoming presidential election. Imagine a bunch of radical left wing protesters demonstrating outside your polling location. What will that do to voter turnout?

Sadly, the young Occupy Wall Street protesters are nothing political cannon fodder for the Democratic socialists; a means to an end in a desperate attempt to preserve President Obama’s power.

The poor have always been targeted by the Democratic socialists. Time and again the proletariat, as the socialists like to refer to the poor, has been duped by the socialist’s grandiose promise of a Utopian society, where everything is equal, regardless of what you do or do not do for a living. All you have to do is cast your ballot for a Democrat and everything will be handed to you on a silver platter. Wow, I can have a rood over my head, food in my pantry, and money to spend all for something as trivial as a vote. Count me in!

The problem with this liberal get rich quick scheme is that the only one who ever seems to benefit are the politicians. Deceitful politicians prey upon the poor as if a vote for them is akin to winning the lottery. The problem with the premise that a politician can somehow grant someone wealth and success without ever having to work is in direct opposition to nature’s law, “for whatever a man sows, so shall he reap.”

In 2008, Americans flocked to the polls to cast their ballot for Barack Obama despite dire warnings from conservatives that he was a socialist. In the end, Obama steamrolled John McCain to become America’s first socialist president. The media couldn’t contain themselves, socialist propagandist Chris Matthew said “I felt this thrill running up my leg.” Americans who were tricked by the snake oil salesman took to the streets exclaiming things like; “I never thought this day would happen, I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage.”

After three years and well over $5 trillion in debt (and still growing) President Obama’s unprecedented spending has only exacerbated America’s ailing economy. The president’s policies have crippled the job market, real unemployment is north of 20-percent. The president actually promised that energy prices would skyrocket and they have, the price of gasoline has risen 83-percent since Obama took office. Something tells me that there are a lot of people worrying about how they are going to put gasoline in their car.

With nothing to point to in the way of success, the president is resorting to Marxism 101; blame the bourgeois, which is to say the evil rich people, claiming that they are not paying their fair share. Since they control the propaganda machine know as the mainstream media, most Americans swallow this political bilge without giving it a second thought. After all, why would a politician lie?

Of course the Democratic socialists will not tell you that America already has a massively unbalanced “progressive” tax system, ranging from 0 percent to 36 percent, and that only half the population pays any federal taxes.

No, the Democratic socialists want you to believe that you cannot change your circumstances, that achieving success on your own is little more than a foolish dream. The Democrats don’t want you to know that the American dream is alive and well. In fact, according to the book The Millionaire Next Door, over eighty-percent of the millionaires in America are self made. The majority of these millionaires have one thing in common, they own their own business. To contrast this even further: according to best selling author Robert Kiyosaki, the odds of becoming a millionaire playing the lottery is 12,000,000 to 1, however, the odds of becoming a millionaire by starting your own business is only 1,000 to 1. That’s right, one person out of every thousand is a millionaire, maybe your next door neighbor.

Unfortunately, socialist politicians have used this despicable class warfare ruse with great success over the years. They feed upon the human desire blame someone else for their lot in life. Regrettably the poor continue to fall for this political charade which has never done anything but spread misery in direct proportion to the size of the government they’ve elected.

We are now on the verge of having government controlled media.

The Daily Caller has a brilliant article by Matt Lewis exposing at least eight major exaggerations or outright lies in a Reuters article on Senator Marco Rubio.

For years the mainstream media has become little more than a propaganda arm for the Democrat party. They say anything they want without fear of reprisal because the only media alternatives for conservatives are Fox News, talk radio and the internet.

Since taking office, the Obama administration has been using the FCC to take these outlets away from the American people, soon there will be nothing left but state controlled media.

Check out Matt Lewis’ article here: Reuters’ hit on Rubio contains errors | The Daily Caller.

President Obama has made “paying their fair share” the cornerstone of his re-election bid (because he can’t point to any real success), yet the president has 36 staffers who are behind on their taxes.

The president believes that Americans are dumb enough to buy into his blatant class warfare. He thinks that Americans don’t know that we already have a massively unbalanced progressive tax system where only 47-percent of our citizens pay any federal taxes at all.

The president even had the gall to target presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in his State of the Union address. If you’re a regular reader, you know I am no fan of Mitt Romney but the president’s ad hominem attack against Romney during the State of the Union was beyond pathetic. Again, he is assuming that Americans are ignorant and don’t understand that Romney’s income, like Warren Buffet’s, comes from investment income which has already been taxed. That tax is called the capital gains tax and differs from the federal income tax which is paid on new income in the form of salary.

The president also forgot to mention that Romney gave 140-percent more of his income to charity than President Obama did but that’s another story (By the way, Vice President Biden gave a whopping $369 to charity).

I’ve got an idea, maybe the Occupy Wall Street protesters should go demonstrate in each of these staffer’s yards until they pay their taxes like a good socialist… I mean Democrat should.

You can check out the Investors.com article here: As Obama demands rich Americans pay more in taxes, the IRS reveals 36 Obama aides are far behind in their taxes by Andrew Malcolm – Investors.com.

Could Sen. Marco Rubio be America's next great leader? - Courtesy: UPI

Red State has an article about why the Republican base does not like Mitt Romney and why the Media doesn’t report it. The answer is really quite simple; Romney is a “progressive” cut from the same cloth as President Obama.

Logically one should ask, why is the mainstream media is championing a Republican candidate at all? There are only two reasons they would do so; the first is that a Romney nomination will reduce voter turnout, because conservatives will stay home, thus insuring an Obama victory. The second is, in the event that Romney actually wins, Romney will continue to “progress” America down the road to ruin with socialist policies because he is essentially Obama Light.

While I am not particularly enamored with any of the candidates left in the race, Gingrich is now my man now that Cain and Perry have called it quits.

We conservatives are left to dream of another Reagan but unfortunately, there have only been a handful of great presidents in America’€™s history, and other than Sen. Marco Rubio, I don’t see anyone on the political horizon that has that kind of potential.

Think about it, truly great leaders, the kind that live forever in the annals of history don’t come along very often. Men that transcend all others, whether good or evil, typically only come along once in a lifetime. America has had more than her fair share of great leaders given the relative young age of our country compared to the rest of the world. Since Reagan was president when I was a teenager, in fact he was my commander-in-chief when I joined the Army, I can only pray that America has another great leader during my lifetime.

Could Rep. Allen West be our next Vice President?

The Merovingian from the Matrix trilogy

My apologies for being away so long, I have a tendency to go through periods where I simply don’t feel like writing. Coincidentally, or maybe not, my break coincided with our internet going down for about a week during the Christmas holidays. With family visiting it made it even easier to get out of the habit of writing.

Usually these down times are accompanied by periods where I read voraciously and this time was no different. Aside from studying the Book of Matthew, I read five books and bits and pieces of others. Emerson postulated that a true scholar reads for inspiration to stimulate his own thinking and then expounds upon them with his own writing. Prior to my extended break I had been in a period where I was writing quite a bit although much of it was for my own edification, perhaps I’ll share some of it at a later date once I’ve codified my thoughts.

Interestingly enough, it was an article in the Washington Times which referenced one of my posts that spurred me back to my keyboard.

I’ve been thinking a great deal about philosophy especially as it relates to politics. The two are so intertwined it’s hard to actually separate them. I like to think of philosophy in its simplest terms which is essentially how a person thinks and perceives the world around them.

Personally, politics has become much more than those that govern using their power to influence us to their way of thinking, which is their philosophy. Politics pervades all aspects of our lives; there’s marital politics, office politics, club politics, and so on.

One of my favorite movies is the Matrix trilogy. These movies brilliant weave politics, philosophy and religion together. One of the characters is the Merovingian who has many brilliant quotes but one of my favorite is “choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.”

Think about the last few years of federal politics. We have politicians voting for legislation without reading or having any earthly idea of what it includes simply because they agree with a certain philosophical bent. Even though polling showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans didn’t want Obamacare to be passed, those with power tried to make us think they were listening but in the end, it was an illusion and they simply crammed it down our collective throats.

All of life has become political. Our government and media have colluded to dumb down the population so that the common person cannot answer the most basic questions about current events. If you ever listen to Sean Hannity’s Man on the Street interviews, where he interviews random people on the street, you will be blown away at the ignorance of the general population. Sadly they can probably tell you all about the latestHollywood gossip or the scores to last night’s game but they can’t tell you a thing about what’s going on in the country.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge sports fan too, I ranked in the top five-percent picking NFL games against the spread on ESPN’s Pigskin Pick ‘em the last two years. There’s nothing wrong with having other interests outside of politics but it saddens me that so few people are involved in the process. Hundreds of thousands of men have died to provide us with freedom and it is an insult to their memory not to exercise your most basic duty as an American… Be informed and vote.

Rep. John Culberson (TX-07) is one of the few in Congress that is fighting to do what's right.

The talking heads on television and some of the more dubious members of Congress, chief among them are Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are out spreading all sorts of misinformation about the Middle Class and Job Creation Act. Fortunately there are still a few principled members who are actually trying to do what’s best for the American people. Rep. John Culberson (TX-07) has distinguished himself as a true patriot, whether it was posting twitter updates live from the House floor during the Obamacare debate or penning this brilliant article on the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act:

This is not complicated.  The House bill keeps everyone’s payroll taxes stable for one year.  The Senate bill allows everyone’s taxes to go up in two months.

“The House bill requires people who get an unemployment check to prove they are looking for work or completing a GED or college degree.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill allows states to require you to submit to a drug test to receive unemployment benefits.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill permits business owners to immediately expense 100 percent of new investments, dollar-for-dollar, in the current year tax return.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill protects American industrial boiler manufacturers from being shut down by unachievable Obama EPA restrictions.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill stops welfare recipients from using their Lone Star-type cards at ATM machines in casinos, strip clubs and liquor stores.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill cuts off unemployment and food stamps payments to millionaires.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill requires people to produce a Social Security number before receiving a refundable child tax credit.  The Senate took this out.

“The House bill protects doctors from a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement payments for two years.  The Senate only protects them for two months.

“These are dramatic and important differences that are unacceptable under any common sense standard.  I agree with Speaker Boehner that we should always do the right thing for the right reason.  The House bill is the right thing for the right reason.

“We must follow the rules everyone learned in Civics 101.  When there is a difference in the bills in the House and the Senate, we go to Conference to work them out as soon as possible.  I am ready to do just that and I am prepared to stay for as long as it takes to make sure that no one’s taxes go up; and we preserve as many of the House-passed common sense provisions as possible.”

I’m glad Jermey Shockey called out Texans players for not showing at least basic courtesy during the National Anthem prior to yesterdays game. I realize this is America and they are free to do as they like but Shockey is free to call them out about it.

Shockey is a true patriot in my book and I am proud to call him a fellow American and Floridian even if he is a Cane.

(Yes, I know he’s orginally from OK but he claims FL as his residence now.)

HOUSTON (The Blaze/AP) — Carolina Panthers tight end Jeremy Shockey criticized members of the Houston Texans for not putting their hands over their hearts during the national anthem, calling their inaction “kind of offensive.”

Shockey says he saw “about 10 players” who didn’t do the traditional gesture when the anthem is played, and he told some of them how he felt during Carolina’s 28-13 victory.

“I was pretty upset in the way they weren’t showing respect to America during the national anthem,” Shockey said. “This is America and you should at least give respect to America.”

Shockey‘s rant came in response to a reporter’s question about the Texans’ defense.

“This is America and this is just a game and they should not only be very proud of this country, but very gifted to be living here,” Shockey said. “Maybe they just forgot to do it or something, but I don’t see how you could forget to do that.”

At least one of the Texans shot back following Shockey’s comments.

“If he’s so patriotic, why was he looking at our bench instead of the flag?” said linebacker DeMeco Ryans. “Where did he come up with the number 10? Was he counting? Why was he paying attention to us during the national anthem?”

Shockey sports a red, white and blue tattoo on his right biceps portraying a bald eagle draped in an American flag. He caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Cam Newton in Sunday’s game, then pointed at linebacker DeMeco Ryans and appeared to yell at him and cornerback Jason Allen.

via Jeremy Shockey Slams Houston Texans Players For Poor National Anthem Etiquette | TheBlaze.com.