Netanyahu or Livni: Why You Should Care

Approximately three weeks ago the people of Israel went to the polls in order to attempt to elect new leadership to guide them as the troubled Jewish nation moves forward in particularly challenging times. I am no expert on Israel or it's political process, but I am going to try to explain the possible outcomes, as well as to explain why that outcome is important to you. Americans have to begin by understanding that Israeli elections are not as clear-cut as those in the United States. For all of the faults of our own democratic system, all of the intense battles between Republicans and Democrats, Israel's hodgepodge of parties on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum cause extreme confusion. Not only that, but the plethora of parties with competing visions, goals, and ideologies makes it difficult to form a ruling governmental structure. In America it is easy to simply add up the number of Dems and GOP members in the House and Senate to get a picture of who holds the power. When the party in power in Congress is the same as that of the elected President, that party holds most of the cards in getting it's agenda passed. If there is a Democratic Party president with a Democratic majority congress, as there is right now, then liberal ideologies, programs, and laws are going to be front and center. With a Republican president and congress, such as happened in the beginning of the most recent Bush administration for example, then conservative principles, laws, and policies are going to hold sway. There are the same issues of government in Israel as there are in America regarding domestic problems, but in Israel there really is one issue above all others: national security. Israel is surrounded on all sides by neighbors that want to see it wiped from the map, including a few that have actually tried to accomplish just that feat. Against this backdrop was last month's Knesset election which came down to a struggle between former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured on left) and his Likud Party, and the Kadima Party of foreign minister Tzipi Livni (pictured on right.) To understand the importance, think of the Knesset as the Israeli version of America's congress. The Likud Party is a conservative party, and has been either the ruling party in the Knesset or the leading opposition party for over three decades. It calls for a "peace for peace" initiative in regards to its Arab neighbors, meaning that Israel will agree to peace on the condition that her neighbors comply with the same in an overt and verifiable manner. The Kadima Party was just formed in the past few years and is generally considered a more centrist political group. Kadima has been criticized by many because a feature of their Arab policy has been the surrendering of the territory in Judea and Samaria, key territory in properly defending Israel from the attacks of terror organizations such as Hamas. Likud is also more of a free market, small government party, whereas Kadima's economic platform seems to blow with the popular breeze. Unlike here in America where ours is a vast majority two-party system, it is not just Likud and Kadima in Israel. The Labor Party also has strong influence, and there are other smaller parties that have little or no shot at ruling the government outright, but which can and do wield influence by siding with one or the other of the larger parties in helping them to form a ruling government. The recent elections left no clear winner, but they did tilt towards the more conservative groups headed by Netanyahu. It is thus likely that he and Likud will ultimately come to power as the various groups negotiate their particular roles in the government. The importance of Israel to Americans is many-fold, but there are three vital reasons that we need to support a strong, stable Israel. First there is the issue of Israel's vital presence and example as a democracy in the Middle East in the midst of the many dictatorships and theocracies in that unstable region. Secondly is the issue of Israel's political plight as a microcosm of our own. The same problems plague the Israeli population as plague traditional America, an assault on values and basic principles that is led by an overtly liberal press and media. For a conservative government to emerge in that atmosphere should be comforting and encouraging to American conservatives and traditionalists. Finally, but most importantly, is the basic importance of Israel as the home of God's chosen people. The Jews were given this land by God Himself as is told in the Bible in Exodus 23:20-33 in which He proclaims "I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines (the Mediterranean Sea), and from the desert to the River (the Euphrates.)" While the new Israel that finally re-emerged into statehood during the 20th century does not stretch that far at this point, it should not be expected to give up any of its lands. God also said here that "I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes." The vast majority of Americans have understood throughout our history that we have been a particularly blessed nation because of our Judeo-Christian foundation on and our continued belief in the one true God. We have risen to new levels of strength and power as a nation in large part thanks to this support of Israel, His chosen people. If you are among the vast majority of Americans who still claim to believe in God, and the clear majority who hold the Bible as the inspired Word of God, then you need to take His proclamations seriously. We need to always concern ourselves with the security of Israel and to ensure that we are prepared to help fight for its continued existence. For this very reason her political choices, which go to the very heart of that security, should be of vital interest to all Americans.

Repeat a Lie Often Enough, It Becomes the Truth

President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party cohorts have told the lie so many times in recent weeks that one has to wonder if they even believe it themselves. The President said that his stimulus bill included tax cuts for "95 percent of working families" or what he calls the middle class. That is great, isn't it? We have a President who cares about you and me, the working people that keep America moving forward. The hard-working everyday folks. Thank God we finally have someone in the White House who cares about us, right? Well, that only floats if you actually believe what Obama is telling you. Do you, and if so, why do you? Because a network news anchor tells you to believe it? Because the head of your union tells you to believe it? Because your city newspaper tells you to believe it? President Barack Obama and his administration are simply lying to us. They are lying boldly to our faces by using positive-sounding rhetoric because they simply don't believe that we will care enough to look deeply into the details. Let's start with the people who he will be raising taxes on, those making $250,000 and more. Do you know who makes up the vast majority of individuals in that category? It's not professional athletes, or motion picture stars, or recording artists, or business CEO's. The vast majority of those who make that $250,000 and even a little more than that are small business owners, that's who they are. The enterpreneurs who run the businesses such as auto mechanic shops, barber shops, restaurants, bars, art galleries, boutiques, and many more. These people have taken risk and started businesses. They have hired employees and helped to stabilize their neighborhoods and communities. Are they wealthy? Hardly. Sure, they enjoy the fruits of their labor and the rewards that come with successfully overcoming the many risks involved in starting up a business in the first place. But to call most of these people 'wealthy' or 'rich' would be a gross overstatement. But these middle class enterpreneurs are going to be hit hard by President Barack Obama's tax increases. And what do you think they are going to do when they get that bigger tax bill? Well, take less profit, that's what, right? No. They are going to raise the cost of your haircut, your auto repair bill, your drinks, your clothing, and your food. Then President Obama talks about how his team is going to save "$2 trillion dollars over the next decade." Wow, that is exciting. That is just what we have been wanting from Washington, more responsibility. Why, it is a very Republican Party concept actually. We Republicans should be ecstatic with this development. The only problem is that it is an outright lie. Most of this 'savings' is coming from those very tax increases on the +$250,000 income crowd that we just discussed. The rest is supposed to come from anticipated savings in ending the Iraq War. But the President cannot guarantee that savings, because he already is hedging his previous pledge to get out of Iraq fully. Today he announced that 100,000 troops will come home gradually over the next 18 months, but that some 35-50,000 US troops will remain in Iraq at least through 2011. With unstable situations involving Iran, Israel, North Korea, and many other locations throughout the world, the President is planning on saving money that he cannot make plans with. Unless he is planning on America sticking our head in the sand in world matters and just allowing terrorism-sponsoring regimes to arm themselves with nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. I get the feeling that he is willing to take just such a risk, and in so doing he is completely forgetting the lessons that we should have learned on September 11th, 2001. How big of a successful attack on America or one of our allies will it take to wake up Obama and his supporters to the need for a strong military presence in the Middle East? But in any event, he is not actually saving money. His budget calls for increased spending of at least 12% next year, and has been filled with thousands of political pork earmarks thanks to Congressional lobbyists. Don't believe it? I don't want you to. Just get a copy of the budget for yourself and actually read it. President Obama and his supporters are betting that you won't do that, and they are probably correct in that judgement. One part of the President's misguided and misnamed 'stimulus' bill provided large monies to the states in order to increase unemployment payments. Basically 'free money' to the state treasuries from the Feds. That is how it was being sold by Obama and his people. But the truth is that some of the governors began to reject the funding. Why? Well the reality is, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Didn't we all learn that in something like 5th grade? The truth is that the Federal funds were temporary, but came with requirements that the states receiving the funding change the laws regarding how they handle their unemployment insurance. These changes would require the states to continue the funding once the Federal money ran out. In other words, the states would have to raise payroll and business taxes to meet these new requirements. It's the classic Democratic Party shill. Here, take this money, it will make you feel better today. Damn tomorrow. Crow about all the improvements that you are making now, let the folks feel happy, and when the bill comes due later, so what? Smile, tell the lie, and as long as everybody feels good today, that is what is important. Oh, and how about that little old 'cap and trade' procedure that is going to provide over $600 trillion dollars in revenue over the next decade. Where is that revenue going to come from? Well, it's going to come from your fuel bill, your electric bill. It is going to come from increased energy costs for both those small business owners who will already see a direct increase in their taxes and the energy bills of all those middle class citizens who allegedly were receiving tax cuts. You see, the Democrats in general and President Barack Obama in particular are lying to your face. They are telling you that your taxes will go down when in reality every move they make will increase costs to you in the long run. They also are placing a burden on business that is going to force companies to raise prices and costs, or cut employee jobs, or both. This helps the middle class how, Mr. President? Look at it in a simple way each and every day. Why do you think that the stock market drops every single day these days? The educated investors that make up the majority of stock purchases in this countries leading businesses see where all this is going. Higher costs to everyone leading to higher unemployment, leading to businesses leaving the country, leading to fewer revenue streams, leading to further cost increases, leading to fewer purchases by consumers, leading to business collapses and fewer jobs, and on and on in a never ending Democratic Party-induced debacle. President Obama has set the country on a tragic economic course. If something is not done to change things it will simply be a race to what gets us first: economic disaster of an unparalleled magnitude that we cannot even fathom at this point, or a major terrorist attack that cripples our country and kills Americans at a magnitude never before seen. But hey, it is going to get better. Your taxes are going down. We are going to turn this around through our new Socialist policies and programs. Sure. Tell a lie often enough, have it perpetuated by vocal supporters, and it becomes the truth to many.

Our Lenten Burden is Light

Yesterday was 'Ash Wednesday' which marks the beginning of the 40-day period leading up to Easter marked by sacrifice and fasting known as Lent. The origins of this pre-Easter fasting period have been disputed. Some feel that Lent traces back to the Apostolic era of Jesus' followers themselves during the years immediately after his death. Others feel that it developed later, perhaps around the time of the Council of Nicea in the early fourth century. Whatever the origins of the custom, it has become a period of forty days based on various Biblical examples provided for such a period by Moses, Elias, and Jesus Christ Himself, who was said to have laid in the tomb for forty hours. In the early years the actual fasting periods and methods varied in many places, but of course it generally involved someone intentionally 'giving something up' from their regular daily lives as a sacrifice in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice that Christ had made on the cross. Socrates spoke of the practice in the fifth century when he described some who "abstain from every sort of creature that has life", meaning that these people would eat only fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and things of this nature. Still others, he said, ate fish only, or ate only birds and fish, or abstained from eating eggs, or ate only dry bread. There were still others in those times who were even more strict in their fasting, taking only a couple of meals each week, and the early rules of the Church on fasting said that you could only take such meals in the evening, and that meat and wine were forbidden during fasting. It was during the sixth century that Saint Gregory laid down what has become considered as common law within the Church. In a letter to Saint Augustine of England, Gregory stated "We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs." Exceptions were made traditionally as 'dispensations' for special circumstances, as well as in exchange for gifts to the greater Church. There has still been a general prohibition on eggs and milk observed by many during the Lenten period, and from this over the centuries evolved the practice of the 'Easter egg' as a return to the produce on Easter Sunday. Many different customs and rulings from the Church Fathers evolved over the centuries, and the Holy See, the central administration of the Church, has modern rulings in place for Americans. In the United States today, the official Church position is that working men and women and their families may use flesh meat once a day throughout the year, except Fridays, Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday, and the Christmas Vigil, and that during Lent we are not supposed to take both fish and flesh at the same meal. Besides the traditions and customs of sacrifice and fasting, since Vatican II the Church has emphasized Lent as a preparation period for the Baptism of catechumens, those individuals who are first coming in to the Catholic Church voluntarily as adults or older children. Lent is about conversion, the turning over of our lives more completely and fully to Christ, and nowhere is that process more full and complete than in the willing Baptism into the Church, which is itself the very body of Christ, of new believers. But it is not just for these 'newbies' that the conversion aspect is important. All believers are urged during Lent to not just give something up, but also to recommit to Christ and to our faith. We should all be encouraged to make a good, full Confession, do Penance, and thus receive forgiveness for our sins and make a new beginning. For many who have been away from the sacrament for a long time, that overcoming of your fear and your ego is a wonderful sacrifice in itself. The Lenten sacrifice lasts for a period of forty days, but you will have many more opportunities during the period to recognize your need for conversion. Not just on Ash Wednesday, or on Fridays, or on Sundays. Not even in your daily lives when you give up that candy, or soda, or smoking, or some other habit or sin. Every intentional act of drawing closer to Christ, be it increased prayer, the saying of the rosary, going to Confession, watching EWTN on television, being nicer to the people in your life. All of these things are acts of conversion, and all can be considered as a part of the Lenten sacrifice. Remember that whatever you give up, or whatever new you take on, none of your sacrifices could ever compare with the sacrifice that God has made for you. He gave up His only begotten Son that you might live. Jesus Christ suffered severe persecution and ultimately died on the cross so that your sins would be washed away. With this in mind we should all realize that our Lenten burden is indeed a light one.

No Monkeying Around With Obama

To say that the world has gone overboard with political correctness is an understatement, and this is nowhere more visible than in the world of editorial cartoons. You learned in recent years that you can't draw an editorial cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammed without risk of being shot dead, blown up or decapitated by some radical Islamic lunatic. Having a sense of humor is an integral part of the human experience. And in democratic societies, freedom of speech including a free press is a vital piece of our civilization puzzle. But it's not just the radical Islamic world that has lost its collective sense of humor, or at the very least its willingness to allow sarcastic expression. The more radical members of the black community here in America are at it again as well. Write or draw something that those people don't like, and they are all over you like white on rice. Oops, did I call them 'those people'? Better be careful, they might find something to take personal in a few typewritten words. I might get a letter from the NAACP and some choice comments from Al Sharpton. Last week a woman in Connecticut was severely mauled when her friend's pet chimpanzee got loose and attacked her. A frantic calle went out to 9-1-1, and the responding police officers were faced with the chimpanzee attacking them. They had no choice but to shoot the animal dead. It was a major story all over the network news. Another major story in the news recently has been the alleged 'stimulus' bill that the majority of Americans were against, but which President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party cohorts in Congress decided to ram down our throats anyway. Into the fray stepped cartoonist Sean Delonis, a famed satirist who took the big monkey story and decided to merge it with the stimulus bill story. Delonis drew an editorial cartoon which was published by the New York Post which depicted the police officer, gun still smoking, in the immediate aftermath with the dead chimp lying on the ground in front of him in a puddle of blood. In the caption the cop is saying: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." Uh, oh, look out. The first black President in American history leads the effort to foist a ridiculous spending bill on the people, and automatically the monkey shot last week is a representation of him when drawn as a cartoon in a spoof by poor Sean Delonis. The 'Reverend Al' led the charge of the race-baiters, as usual, with his statement that "..given the historic racist attacks on African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys...one has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this.." Really, Reverend Al? And why is that? Why does anyone have to ask that question at all? The fact is that this was a brilliant incorporation of one big story into another by Delonis, who has solid credentials and whose work is widely respected in the industry. The very same race-baiters who had no comment to make when Chris Brown punched out Rihanna, perpetuating yet another negative stereotype within the African-American community, look for a way to undermine any attack on 'Saint Barack' and his programs and policies. They are so tied up in forcing his success that they cannot allow the small criticisms, and editorial cartoons are indeed small, that President Bush had to experience for the entirety of his eight years in office. From his being from Texas in particular and the South in general, from his use of the word 'nuceuler' instead of 'nuclear', to a thousand other things, President Bush was skewered and pilloried for almost a decade, just as President Clinton was for almost a decade before that. Here is the fact: Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America, and as such he is subject to editorial attacks in cartoons, on television programs, and every other media outlet. It comes with the job, which requires the thickest of skins, no matter that skin color. Sometimes the commentary will be biting and difficult for he and his supporters to stomach, and sometimes it will be downright funny to even the most frequent 'liberal Kool Aid' drinkers. The New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, the parent company of Fox News, a frequent basher of Obama and certainly the one major news outlet that has not been his cheerleader. Sharpton and the race-baiters hate Fox, and this may be part of the problem. The fact is that Obama's plans, policies, programs, and politics are as up for attack as any of Bush's or Clinton's were in the past. Oh, and Reverend Al and friends, not every reference to the word 'black', not every banana peeled, not every watermelon eaten, not every child abandoned, not every woman beaten, not every monkey shot dead will be any kind of racial reference. Toughen up, Obama supporters, or it's gonna be a long, hard four years for you people.

Rabbit Ears Have Digital Life

The full digital television revolution officially began a week ago on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 in places like Albequerque, New Mexico and Biloxi, Mississippi and Charlotte, North Carolina and Eugene, Oregon and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On that date in these and many other American cities the transition began from analog to digital television, a revolution that will have spread to every American household with TV reception by no later than June 12th, 2009. Ever since television sets became commercially available in the late 1930's the signals transmitted to our homes and businesses have come to us in 'analog' form. Technicality aside, the idea is that a number of images are drawn across the screen of your monitor in rapid succession. You were basically receiving a high-speed version of a flip-picture book, where each page of the book contained a slightly different image from the one on the previous page. Your monitor flipped through the images to create the illusion of movement. Because of this process there were occassional image 'skips' and other distortions. Then digital television began to be developed, and in 1996 the U.S. Congress ordered all broadcast networks to begin preparations to switch their broadcasts over to digital. The digital signal has a couple of major benefits. First from a consumer standpoint, the quality of the pictures and sound that we receive is greater with digital broadcasting. There will be none of the 'ghosts' and 'snow' that we now receive from time to time. Secondly from an industry standpoint, the former analog air space will now be freed up to be used by emergency responders and by advanced wireless services such as broadband. The bottom line for those of us watching news and entertainment at home and work is that our picture quality will be greater in resolution, clarity, and color and our sound will be better with features such as Dolby surround sound. Digital will also allow for the added quality of services such as HDTV, multi-casting, widescreen formatting and data streaming, depending on our particular home setup. At home, you will still be able to use your 'rabbit ears', you do not have to switch to cable television. As of March 1st, 2007, the government required all TV's being manufactured from that point on to include digital tuners. Manufacturers were allowed to continue to sell analog-tuning TV's from their inventory, but had to do so with a disclaimer that told customers of the upcoming switch to digital. For those folks who own digital-ready television sets and receive their signal via cable television or other pay services, there should be no changes that you need to make. If you have an analog television, whether using those rabbit ears or an outside roof antenna or some combination, you will have to purchase a digital converter box in order to receive programming once your locality makes the switch. It has been estimated that approximately 14% of American households continue to receive their TV signals exclusively 'over the air' for free rather than through these pay services. The government has provided that each household with analog televisions be alloted two $40 coupons towards the purchase of these converter boxes, which are estimated to cost between $40-70 dollars per box. By the summer time every house in America with a television will be receiving better picture and sound, and air space will have been freed up for vital services and even more technological advancements. As always the title of this blog posting is a link to further information, in this case to the official website for the conversion to DTV.

A Heart That Plots Wicked Schemes

On this Sunday morning we continue the discussion of Proverbs 6:16-19 in the Bible which lists those things which the Lord hates. The fourth item in the list journeys deep into our hearts. Not our physical hearts, but those things which can be found at our very inner core - for each of us, the heart of the matter in all things that we consider in our lives. Those whom the Lord hates in this item are plotters and schemers of sin. Those who plan to do someone else ill. Those who plan to take what is not theirs. Those who intentionally and with malice aforethought actually take the time to sit down and think about their sin and how to make it happen. The man who sees a way to deceive his business partners of money, and then goes about the planning and execution of his embezzelment. A woman who feels the desire and sees an opportunity to steal the body and possibly even the heart of a man who is already married to another, and then begins to lay the bait for her seduction. The first human schemes occurred way back in the beginning of man himself. Eve used her seductiveness to get Adam to take a bite of the apple, the very act of defiance of God's will that drove man from paradise. She knew they were different, man and woman, for God had made them that way on purpose in order that they might procreate and populate the earth. Eve had been led into this plot by the whisperings of the great deceiver Satan, who had lied and manipulated her as only he can to pull man away from God. Eve knew that her feminine charms would be enough to coax Adam into the bite, and went about the task of using them for that very purpose. Soon after man was driven from the Garden of Eden for this defiance came the second human plot. Adam and Eve began to populate the earth when they gave birth to a pair of sons, first Cain and then Abel. Jealous of what he perceived to be favored attention towards his brother, Cain plotted in his heart against Abel saying to him: "Let's go out to the field", where Cain subsequently killed his own brother. It is the wickedness of sin that keeps man apart from God. What God is revealing to us in this fourth of the things He hates is the fact that while the commission of sin is bad enough, the person who thinks over a sin and then devises the means to make it happen is committing a separate, particularly evil act. Think of Mohamed Atta and the other terrorists who sat down together and devised the intricate plan to first hijack and then fly airliners into American buildings on September 11th, 2001. Think of O.J. Simpson gathering a face mask, leather gloves, and a large knife before driving to his estranged wife's home to murder her. Think of men like Andrew Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling and others involved in the Enron scheme to hoodwink the entire financial services industry during the 1990's. Think of any married man or woman who becomes sexually attracted to someone in their workplace or their neighborhood, and then begins to formulate a plan to begin a relationship with that person. Or a single person who does the same with another who is married. Think of the woman who learns that she is pregnant, and goes to the phone book to find an abortion clinic. Think simply of someone who, no matter the circumstances, allows a wedge to be driven in the relationship with their parents, and then intentionally perpetuates that heart-hardening. "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not steal", "Thou shalt not commit adultery", "Honor your father and mother" are all commandments given to man by God Himself. All are involved in the sins just mentioned. All involved some amount of plotting, planning, and scheming in order to make them happen. We have all done things like this during the course of our lives. Some who are reading this are taking actions such as this right at this very moment. You are continuing estrangement from your family. You are having an adulterous affair. You are taking things that do not belong to you. We are sinning in a way that God tells us is particularly hurtful to Him when we allow our hearts to be filled with such wicked plots. If you find that you are involved in any actions such as these, you need to put an end to your involvement in them immediately. If not, you just may find that your continued insistence on doing these things which God hates will end in a much worse way than you could ever imagine, either in this life or the next.
NOTE: This is the continuation of the regular 'Sunday Sermon' feature, each entry of which can be viewed by clicking in to that below label.

Casey Anthony Just Latest Doe-Eyed Criminal

Casey Anthony is a reasonably attractive, obviously articulate, and at least somewhat intelligent 22-year old woman who in August of 2005 at the age of 18 gave birth to a daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony. The father of her baby wasn't in the picture, and Casey proceeded to try to raise the young child with the help of her own parents. This is a situation not unfamiliar to many young women around the world. Also like many young people in her situation, Casey was not very mature in taking on the role of motherhood. Despite having the responsibilities of being mom to a young daughter, she also still had the desires of others her age. She wanted to go out and party, to date men and have a good time with her girlfriends. And as it turns out, Casey Anthony is also another in a long line of what some refer to as 'doe-eyed' criminals. There was something wrong with Casey Anthony behind those doe eyes, that winsome smile, and that pretty face. She was a habitual liar, which is problematic in itself. But then things took a turn for the worse. Sometime during the middle of June in 2008, just short of her 3rd birthday, little Caylee went missing. Casey didn't let anyone know of the disappearance until a month later when her own parents began to suspect that something was wrong and notified authorities. This set into motion a months-long investigation that finally led to the discovery of little Caylee's dead body in December, and Casey being charged with her murder. Casey Anthony is only the latest in a long line of these doe-eyed pretty girl criminals. Debra LaFave was a drop-dead gorgeous former model who had become a 23-year old teacher at the Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Florida. While on a field trip in 2004 she met a 14-year old student and in short order she began to have a sexual affair with this youngster. She seduced him into having intercourse with her at the school, in her car, and in her home, where the newlywed lived with her husband of less than a year. During one incident, the boy's 15-year old cousin drove LaFave's vehicle while she and her victim had sex in the back seat. This cousin reported the incident to police, an investigation ensued, and LaFave was criminally charged. She originally accepted a plea agreement which was rejected by the courts. Lucky for her, as the charges were ultimately dropped when her young victim refused to cooperate with authorities. Back in 1968, at the age of just 19, a beautiful brunette named Leslie Van Houten moved into a hippie commune at the Spahn Ranch just outside of Los Angeles. The spiritual guru of the community was a man by the name of Charles Manson. The members of their commune were heavily into using LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs, and this made young Leslie and the other members more susceptible to Manson's race war concept known as 'Helter Skelter'. On August 10th, 1969, Van Houten went along with 5 other 'family' members as Manson drove them to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. It was here that Van Houten took part in the murders of the couple that helped gain national notoriety for Charles Manson and his followers. Leslie Van Houten was arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced to a life term that she still serves today. The actions of these three physically beautiful young women highlight the fact that we far too often associate pathological, anti-social, aggressive and criminal acts with a hardened male face. It should always be remembered that it is what lies behind those eyes, whether cold and hard or doe-like, that tells the true potential of a sociopath.

Judicial Misconduct at Broad & Champlost

Philadelphia Judge Craig M. Washington is either the single stupidest person in the history of the American judicial system or he is the most callous, ignorant and disrespectful. There is no middle ground for the actions that Washington took yesterday at the 35th police district here in the former 'City of Brotherly Love' which can no longer claim that moniker with any credibility whatsoever. The latest in a string of murders of Philly cops happened just days ago when young, bright and talented police officer John Pawlowski of that very 35th district was gunned down in cold blood on our increasingly violent streets. Police officers with badges, guns, vests, and with fellow officers just a radio call away (or closer in Pawlowski's case) are not safe, so you the average citizen most certainly are not safe. It was under these circumstances that Mr. Washington, whom to recognize with the title 'Judge' would be a severe travesty of that institution, marched into the very home of the 35th district on Tuesday morning. Washington was there to preside over 'divisional hearings', a process by which members of the court go out into the community and conduct preliminary hearings in criminal cases. They do this in order to better serve the community. The process of appearing at your local police district for what can sometimes be multiple hearings before the criminal case even gets underway is far more convenient for most victims and witnesses than having to travel downtown. It is a win-win, as the victim/witness gets convenience and the justice system gets those same victims and witnesses actually showing up and actively involved in the case. This process is what brought Washington to Broad & Champlost, the home of John Pawlowski and his fellow brother and sister 35th district officers, on Tuesday morning. Understand that while divisional hearings have been held at the 35th district for years, these are obviously not normal circumstances inside that building. With one of their own gunned down just days ago, the officers there are still in shock and still processing their grief. After all, John Pawlowski has not even been buried yet. Washington finally began to process the cases before him after arriving late, a bad habit that a number of justices have gotten into all over the city. At some point well into the proceedings he noticed a memorial display that had been setup which featured a photo of officer Pawlowski and some flowers. Washington turned to court officer Blanca Rodriguez and ordered her to remove the picture, saying that it was "inappropriate" and a "distraction" to the proceedings. Now had it ended at this point we could perhaps write off Washington as simply the most stupid individual to ever mar the bench with his presence. I mean at this point we possibly could say that he just didn't get it, that he was too intellectually and emotionally inferior a human being to process the situation. But then he went more than a step further. The court officer refused to take down the memorial, and Washington stormed off his bench and out to the office of the 35th district's commanding officer, Captain John McCloskey. He demanded that McCloskey order the memorial taken down during the court proceedings. McCloskey, being both a human being and a true leader of men, denied Washington's request. The incensed Washington, ego bruised, then marched to a police Inspector who also turned him down. Washington had now gone from possibly stupid to utterly childish as he stomped around the district building crying and whining for someone to listen to him and do what he said, after all this was his court and he was the judge, which meant he was the boss here. He stormed back into the area being used for the court hearings, took officer Pawlowski's picture, and in the act that finally showed his colors he turned the fallen hero's picture over on its face. What Washington failed to consider was that this was not a courthouse and he was not the boss. This was a police facility, a particular facility where a family of officers were in grief and mourning. This was their house, not his. He was lucky to get out physically unscathed. Members of the police union, FOP Lodge #5, were notified and arrived at the building and immediately confronted Washington, who scurried from his bench like a dirty, slimy, frightened rat. He ran out into his car and hastily pulled away from the district, possibly contacting a police wagon as he did so. In these final actions, Washington proved exactly who he is. The man is not stupid, he is quite simply ignorant and disrespectful and cared more about his ego than the memory of a murdered police officer. Philadelphia is less safe today because John Pawlowski is dead and Craig Washington will still be hearing criminal cases in a courtroom. In a final act of cowardice by the local judiciary, the top judge in the Municipal Court system backed her man's actions by saying that Washington's moves were proper and did not show disrespect. Judge Marsha Niefield, who herself should feel shamed and embarrassed this morning after her 'rally around my buddy' statement: "I understand that emotions are running high, and that is completely understandable considering the tragic loss of the officer. That having been said, Judge Washington attempted to maintain the proper court decorum consistent with other places." If the circumstances were not so tragic that statement would be comically ignorant rather than arrogantly so. The fact is that the memory of a fallen hero, John Pawlowski, and his fellow officers of the 35th district were completely and utterly disrespected yesterday by Washington. His actions show the street thugs how police officers can and should be viewed and treated by them. If this is how we can treat them in their own house, then we can do even worse when they come into our neighborhoods or down to our corner. What Washington did yesterday at Broad & Champlost was nothing short of judicial misconduct.

How to Handle the 'Steroid Era' in Baseball

I wanted to wait a bit before fully forming and stating my opinion after last week's announcement by Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees that he had previously used steroids to enhance his on-field performance. I've been asked about it by a number of people already who know of my life-long love affair with the game. Most of them come with their opinions already made up on the issue. Many of them appear to be knee-jerk reactions and spoon-fed opinions that sound as if they've been developed by too much listening to radio and television commentators. I've largely stayed away from that kind of editorial on the issue, and so the opinion that I am going to give comes purely from my mind and my heart. I think that what baseball should do in regards to records set and player performance during the so-called 'Steroid Era' is largely this: nothing. No one ever put an asterisk next to Hank Aaron's homerun record and said "If only World War II wouldn't have happened, Ted Williams would have this record." When Aaron and Mays were taking their runs at the all-time homerun record as it was held by Babe Ruth, no one suggested putting an asterisk next to Ruth's record and said "If Ruth had to face the great black and Latino pitchers and keep the same travel schedule as today's stars, he would never have come close to 714." The fact is that baseball has come through a number of different eras during its long development into our national pastime. Many of these eras saw dynamic shifts in the way that the game was played which had dramatic effects on the games collective and players individual records. No one in their right mind can possibly argue that players such as Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Jimmy Foxx and all of the other white players who played through and set their records during the era of 'whites only' baseball could possibly have amassed those same statistics had the Major Leagues been integrated. These players would, of course, have still been superstars. They would have still put up strong numbers. But having to face a largely expanded skillful talent pool day-in and day-out? There is no way that with the increased black and Latino competition that their numbers would be quite as high as they are today. In the days when I was growing up with the game during the entirety of the 1970's all seemed innocent to me. Men caught, threw and hit balls, ran the bases, and played the game with love and passion. Here in Philadelphia, my beloved Phillies began to win while I was still a young teen, and continued that winning for years. The players on that team were my idols: Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Tug McGraw, Pete Rose, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, Gary Maddox and so many others. Their sweat, sacrifice, and sometimes their blood were left on the field. They played the game hard everyday, from city to city, all throughout the spring and summer and into early fall. Little did I know that these men had a glass bowl in the middle of their locker room containing tiny colored pills. These 'uppers' of 'greenies' as many called them were simply illegal narcotics that were available and used almost as if they were a bowl of M&M's candies. Many of the players of that era could not have performed at those high levels over that time period under those conditions without the help that these performance-adhancing drugs provided them. Unlike many people who look at the game from the outside, I find two of the most unlikeable superstars of this recent steroid period to be somewhat sympathetic characters. Mark McGwire came out of college in the late 1980's as simply a longballing beast. He was raw power, bashing 49 homeruns during his first full season of 1988 to win the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. Over his first seven seasons, Big Mac slammed a total of 220 homeruns. He was just 28 years old at that point, just entering the prime of his career when he would make large amounts of money and put up the numbers that would establish his legend for all-time. And then the wheels fell off as his health deteriorated under the strain of a bad back. In 1993 & 1994, McGwire missed the vast majority of each season due to back troubles. He finally began to get some control over the problems in 1995, and it is my opinion that he used steroids to overcome the back troubles. I believe that Mark McGwire saw what was supposed to be a glorious career going up in smoke and made a deal with the devil to get back to health and his former superstar status. It worked, and as the results got better and better, McGwire got into the usage more and more, bulking himself up into the obvious physical monster that he eventually became when he broke the single-season homerun record in 1998 by hitting 70 bombs that year. I believe it was during that same summer of 1998 that the problems began for Barry Bonds. I believe that Bonds, all massive talent and massive ego, looked around at the pure adulation given that summer to McGwire and Sammy Sosa as they chased the homerun record and wondered why he, the greatest player in the game, was not afforded that same adulation. I believe that Bonds saw performance-adhancing drugs as necessary to catch-up to the new production levels that the game was now embracing, and so he jumped in head-first. The resulting combination of Bonds natural gifts and the drugs was something that the game had never before witnessed. Bonds broke McGwire's record by hitting 73 homers in 2001, and then broke Aaron's career mark in 2007, leaving his new career homerun record sitting at 762. McGwire began using steroids because he simply could not have physically continued playing the game without them. Bonds used because he believed that his true greatness would not be acknowledged without them. In both cases the players used during a period when these substances were not against the rules of baseball as relates to substance abuse. Like Bonds, I believe that Alex Rodriguez saw what was going on around him in the game and decided to see what levels he could achieve if he too tried these substances. His results were remarkable as well, and so the usage continued. Someone decided to take a fun nickname given to him once by Bowa of 'A-Fraud' and run with it. Really now, is there anyone out there who does not believe that Bonds, ARod and Roger Clemens would not be among the game's greatest all-time players in any event? You can probably plug in many other names across the game over the past decade and a half, from Rafael Palmeiro to Juan Gonzalez, from Sammy Sosa to Mike Piazza, and any number of others as users of one substance or another. If Jose Canseco is to be believed, and it is looking more and more like he can be, then steroid use and the use of other substances has been rampant in the game. Just as in the 1970's when not every player reached into the bowl of greenies, not every player used steroids during this most recent era, and not all those who tried them continued their usage. But with really no way of knowing truthfully who did what and when, there is little recourse for the record books. As for the standing of the individuals, the question remains as to how to evaluate players such as Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, ARod and others for Hall of Fame purposes, and simply for the purposes of their places among the pantheon of the legends of the game. I for one do not believe that these players should be dismissed. Barry Bonds was the first-ever 400-400 player by 1998, the first player in the history of the game to have hit 400 homeruns and stolen 400 bases. He was a multiple Gold Glove winner in left field. He was quite simply one of the half dozen greatest players in the history of the game long before he every likely used any type of performance enhancing substance. I believe that these players need to be judged against one another over this era, that the substance use should be taken into consideration at some level, but that it should not be the single determinant when evaluating their Hall of Fame credentials. The best way to handle the 'Steroid Era' in baseball is simply to acknowledge it, ensure that baseball is doing everything in its power to end it, and then move along with no asterisks and with common sense considerations for individual players, just as was done for the players of the 'Whites Only' era.

Islamism Series: Soldiers of Allah

The debate rages around the country as to the balance between liberty and security. After the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001, it became clear that two oceans and allegedly friendly northern and southern borders would no longer be enough to insulate and protect Americans in our homeland.

Numerous security measures and programs were instituted by the Bush administration in an effort to thwart any further attacks and to root out terrorists living and operating here on our home soil. Programs and policies including taking the fight to the terrorists in the Middle East, the enactment of the PATRIOT Act, loosened surveillance requirements, and the housing and interrogation of terrorists in the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay successfully protected our nation in the seven years following those deadly attacks.

At this website the 'Islamism Series', each entry of which you can read by clicking the label at the bottom of this posting, has been an effort to better educate and inform readers on the very real threat that radical Islam continues to pose to America. That effort grows more important now that the new Obama administration has taken office with a mandate from its followers to decrease if not dismantle those counter-terrorism efforts that have proven so successful.

The debate in America has taken on a libertarian tone asking what is more important, our liberty in the expectation of privacy that we all have in our persons, homes and properties as afforded us by the Constitution, or our need to keep the country safe from attack by entities that would use that Constitution and its protections against us to conceal and carry out their planning and actions.

It has also taken on a humanitarian tone asking whether the detaining and agressive interrogation of enemy combatants at Gitmo represents the best way to express American moral superiority in our role as the leader of the free world.

Finally it has taken on a political tone as Democrats denounce these policies and practices in an effort to redirect the funding towards more liberally social programs, while Republicans fight to maintain that basic national security must come first.

These are the kinds of arguments, debates and discussions that a democratic nation such as America makes as it moves forward. There are no such arguments among our Islamofascist enemies who continue to build organizations and operations here on our soil.

These organizations are likely to grow ever larger and bolder should the intelligence community be severely restricted at the levels that most of Obama's ultra-liberal supporters would like to see. Islamic organizations such as the 'Soldiers of Allah' are operating training camps right now, here in the United States, at locations all across the country from Virginia to Washington state.

The 'Christian Action Network' is a self-described grass-roots organization founded and designed to 'protect America's religious and moral heritage through intensive lobbying efforts' and by taking action towards that goal. The CAN has produced a new documentary titled "Homegrown Jihad: the Terrorist Camps Around the U.S." (which can be ordered by clicking on to the title of this blog posting.)

'Homegrown Jihad' was based on a 2006 Justice Department document that was never meant for release to the general public but which inevitably leaked out. The document exposed 35 suspected terrorist compounds across the United States and was meant for law enforcement use only. All copies of an accompanying video titled "Soldiers of Allah", a terrorist training video, were believed confiscated but one copy came to CAN and became the basis for their investigation into the 35 locations, which ultimately has become this new documentary effort.

The documentary alleges homegrown American terrorist efforts by an Islamofascist organization known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra operating at camps in and around places like Seattle, Washington and Hancock, New York. It was the leader of this group, Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, who American journalist Daniel Pearl was enroute to interview when he was kidnapped and beheaded back in 2002.

It was a member of this very group, Iyman Faris, who was plotting that same year to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge before our intel efforts thwarted his plans. In our country the group, which is known here as 'Muslims of America', is believed to have more than 3,000 members operating all across the nation, and the Department of Homeland Security has predicted that they will continue attempts to strike inside the United States.

These 'Muslims of America' and 'Soldiers of Allah' are merely representative of any number of efforts that the Islamofascists continue to engage in within our very borders. They don't need to sneak across our borders, they are already here. If you have the opportunity, order or somehow find a way to watch the CAN video.

In any event you need to keep yourself educated as to what is happening here in America, and support those who give equal consideration to our liberty and our security. This 'Islamism Series' will continue as a small part of that effort to educate readers on the terms and practices of the Islamofascists, and will continue to acknowledge the efforts of others to do the same.

NOTE: click on the below label to view all entries in the Islamism Series

Hands That Shed Innocent Blood

For the past couple of weeks this 'Sunday Sermon' series (each entry can be read by clicking on the label at the bottom of this post) has been focusing on Proverbs 6:16-19 which covers the six things that the Lord hates, and a 7th which is an abomination. The 3rd item in this list would be "hands that shed innocent blood" which is sadly ironic considering Friday night's murder of Philadelphia police officer John Pawlowski. Whether or not John's killer will end up spending an eternity in hell, whether anyone who takes an innocent human life will suffer that fate, is not for us to say or know. But one thing that Proverbs makes undeniably clear is that this murder of innocents is particularly detestable to God Himself. On Friday night, John Pawlowski was an innocent man. Perhaps more than that, he was working actively to try and help keep peace and order in his community. He was a police officer in an increasingly violent major American city that is itself ironically nicknamed 'The City of Brotherly Love'. It is a moniker that is no longer appropriate. John and his partner exited their police vehicle after being flagged down to handle a disturbance on the highway. While handling this dispute, one of the individuals involved reached into his own pocket and shot right through his jacket, killing John Pawlowski there and then. Innocent blood once again shed in one of the acts that God hates. Each year, hundreds and hundreds of Philadelphians are murdered in cold blood by their fellow citizens. Webster defines 'murder' as "unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought." Sometimes as a legal definition it has been divided into 'degrees' of murder based on the intent of the killer as well as other accompanying actions. But it is not only murder which sheds innocent blood. The taking of another life is, as a legal matter, usually acceptable to the larger society when that action comes in self-defense or in a justifiable military or police action. A police officer who kills someone that is trying to kill that officer or someone else is justified. A member of the military fighting in a war in defense of the overall freedom and liberty of others is justified. A regular citizen taking the life of someone who is actively attempting to take the life of that person is justified. There are times in each of those actions when the taking of life is not justified. Any time that any of those actions is taken and innocent blood is shed, this God hates. A military or police action that results in the death of someone truly innocent, what is sometimes referred to as 'collateral damage', is no different to God just because the intent of the actor did not involve killing those innocents. That isn't to say that the person acting in what most would deem to be a just manner, and who in doing so takes the life of an innocent by mistake or happenstance, will answer to God for that life in eternity. But it is nonetheless something that God hates, and it is something that we should always take the time to evaluate within our own conscience. There is no one on earth more innocent than a tiny child, one that has had no opportunity to commit evil. Yet the fact is that over 11 million Americans have had their innocent blood shed in the womb just since the turn of the century in the act of abortion. Hundreds of millions of Americans have been murdered in the womb since the SCOTUS decision of Roe vs. Wade legalized this type of killing. God does not distinguish using human terms such as 'legal' or 'moral', He is concerned with 'innocence', and there is no one more innocent than a baby in the womb. To take such a life, one that has done nothing wrong, one that is rarely threatening the life of the mother, may indeed be the most selfish and immoral act someone can take. It most certainly is the shedding of innocent blood, no matter how we might try to justify it in our own minds and to our own conscience. Catholic and most Christian morality speaks to the taking of innocent blood in the topics of murder, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide as always wrong. Certainly God sees all of these situations as resulting in the shedding of innocent blood, which He hates. Be it that of an innocent police officer just doing his job of protecting and serving others, or an innocent baby in the womb, God hates the shedding of innocent blood as much as He hates anything. NOTE: This series from Proverbs will continue with the 4th item as next week's entry in the 'Sunday Sermon' series.

Numb...Again

Another Philadelphia police officer lies dead this morning. He was only 25 years old. His young wife is now a widow as she carries their first and only child in her womb, a child that won't be born until the coming summer is almost over. A child that will never know it's father, never even get to meet him. He is John Pawlowski of the PPD's 35th district, and he is the 7th Philly cop to be killed in the line of duty in the past 33 months. I remember a time when it seemed that we lost a brother or sister officer every few years. Now we don't even get six months, and often it's been much less. There was a time when it made me sad and angry. But the wave of murders of our officers over the past couple years has simply left me numb. I can't even watch the stories on TV anymore beyond the headlines to get the basic facts. I am well aware that the danger is part of the job for which we have all signed up, but I want it to just all stop, even if just for a couple years. Part of the problem for cops is that we do a job that few others could ever possibly relate to, but we can all relate to one another. No matter what our current responsibilities in this career that we have chosen, we were all John Pawlowski at some point. We all put on the uniform and the badge, strapped the gun to our hip, slid behind the wheel of a marked police car, and slipped out into the night to patrol the streets of Philadelphia. It is alternately thrilling and dangerous, exciting and deadly. It is sometimes slow, but rarely boring. And always, always, there is the next corner to turn, around which may lie one of the funniest things that you've ever seen, or the end of your life. You work those streets as a cop in a squad of men and women who become your extended family. You are with them almost every day or night in those circumstances and situations. Especially as a young person in your early years on the job, you form a bond in that squad that will never leave you. My squad was special to me, and always will be. It included my own brother, Mike Veasey, with whom I had the absolute pleasure to work with as a partner for a few years. It included others who I will also always carry in my heart: Dave Lee, Juan Perez, Lisa Collins, Tom McComesky, Bob Donahue, Joe Kramer, Tommy DiFlorio, Aaron Horn, Chris Faber, Kevin Bethel, Thom Hoban, Stevie Susson, Denise McDonough, Nick Campolongo, Herbie Felder, Kevin Wong, Charlie Kelly, Ray Plymouth, Anne Klineburger, Eddie Blunt, Patti Parks, Bobby Bonds, Dominic Tursi, Dennis Andraczak, Tommy Key, Gary Burrell, Louie & Stephanie Velazquez, and many others. There are so many people that touch you on this job, that you lean on to get you through the tough times, that you laugh with during the good times. Not only those folks in your own squad, but also those in the other squads within your district, and other cops all over the city, and the many business and community people that become a part of our everyday lives. Working the streets is addictive. It is an experience that is difficult to describe. Having that kind of respect from most people, experiencing that affection from folks you don't even know, and carrying the burden of the power that the people have bestowed on you that includes taking away someone's freedom and even their life. Only police officers who have worn that uniform and stepped out on those patrols will ever know that feeling. This was the life that young John Pawlowski was living, the same one that I lived, that my brother lived, that our father lived. The same one that every street cop has lived. It is what makes losing John, and all the others in recent months and years, so very difficult. It is always worth mentioning them all by name, because what has happened recently will forever link them: Gary Skerski, Chuck Cassidy, Steve Liczbinski, Isabel Nazario, Pat McDonald, Tim Simpson and now John Pawlowski. We are them. They are us. It is Valentine's Day, and a young woman carrying a baby should be waking up to her young husband and thinking about things like cards and flowers and candy and dinner. Instead she has to plan a funeral. I am numb...again.

Real American Hero: Peter Tomich

In the middle of May in the year 2006 a moving ceremony took place aboard the USS Enterprise, one of America's powerful air craft carriers. At the time, the Enterprise and her crew were anchored at sea off the coast of the town of Split, Croatia. The story of who and what brought the mighty ship to this little corner of the world is that of yet another in our 'Real American Hero' series, all of which you can read by clicking in to that label below this entry. On board the Enterprise was Rear Admiral J. Robert Lunney, the judge advocate general of the New York Naval Militia, a World War II veteran, and now a White Plains, New York lawyer. It seems that a few years earlier, Lunney had embarked on a mission on behalf of a fellow WWII navy man, Peter Tomich, whom Lunney believed had been wronged. Peter Tomich you see was an American Medal of Honor winner for his actions at Pearl Harbor on that date that still lives in infamy of the Japanese sneak attack, December 7th, 1941. On that quiet Sunday morning the then 48-year old Tomich was serving as a Chief on the Utah, a U.S. battleship that was at that point being used as a training ship. He had been born in 1893 as Petar Tonic to a Croatian family in the Balkan village of Prolog, which is now a part of Bosnia. As a young man he came to America and settled in Queens, New York. As with many immigrant families his name began to morph, his first name from Petar to Peter, and his last from Tonic to Tomich. He joined the Army in 1917, and a year later he formally became an American citizen. After serving two years in the Army he was discharged in 1919, and days later Tomich joined up with the Navy where he built a modest career serving his new country. On that infamous Sunday morning, Tomach awoke as usual to a clear, quiet morning that promised peace and relaxation, but in the end would prove to be the greatest challenge of his life. Without warning, Japanese torpedoes struck the Utah. She would sink within minutes. Tomach was the chief watertender in charge of the engine room, and as others simply abandoned ship Tomach raced below deck to keep the ship's boilers from exploding and allow more men time to escape. This single action on his part allowed most of the Utah's men to escape safely, but because he was engaged in shutting down the boilers Tomach was among the 64 who did not make it out. Months later, after the dust had settled at Pearl and the U.S. was fully engaged in World War II, Peter Tomach received the highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor. The problem became that he had just one known living relative, a cousin from California, but this man could not be found. Tomach's medal became the only one never awarded to a recipient or family member. It became a wandering symbol, passing among various exhibitions until finally finding a resting place at the U.S. Naval museum. This is where Admiral Lunney comes into the picture. Not feeling it was right that the Navy had never tracked down family for Tomach, Lunney embarked on his own mission to find them, traveling on his own expense to Bosnia. After nine years of searching, verifying, and trying to convince U.S. officials, Lunney finally stood on the deck of the Enterprise and presented the Medal of Honor for valor to Srecko Herzeg-Tonic (pictured with the medal), a retired military man himself, and an emotional, proud Tonic family on behalf of his distant cousin, Peter Tomach. During the ceremony, Real Admiral Robert A. Rosen asked a valid question: "What makes a man, when the ship is hit with torpedoes and listing 40 degrees and sinking, what makes this simple and honest and straightforward man stay at his duty station, chasing the people in his command to get out? That is what is remarkable in human nature. That what we call valor is done by people who seemingly are so ordinary on the outside." That is the point. Real Americans, rising rather than running at the moment of decision. That is what makes someone like Chief Peter Tomach a 'Real American Hero'.
Special thanks to 'www.mishalov.com' for information on the medal recipients and other heroes.

President Barack Oblah, blah, blah-ma's First News Conference

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens of the United States of America, what you saw last night on the occasion of President Barack Obama's first-ever televised news conference was simply one of the most incredible displays of stammering ineptitude in the Chief Executive's office since it was occupied by Jimmy Carter. The President tried to take his case directly to the people in an attempt to make them come around to his position that in order to help resolve an economic crisis that took place thanks to over-spending on the part of politicians we need even more spending by these same politicians. I believe that on the classic television comedy show 'Seinfeld' it went something like this: sex to save the friendship. Of course that direction didn't work for Jerry and Elaine, just as the Obama 'stimulus' sham has no hope of working for America. During his speech that precluded the press conference, the President stated that his plan was "not perfect" and that it may not in fact "work exactly as we hoped." He went on to say that the counter was that "a failure to act will only deepen this crisis." Uh, perhaps Mr. President. But since you have no idea how your imperfect plan is going to affect us, perhaps it will in actuality turn out even worse than doing nothing, or doing something different. The President then began to take questions, and during a lengthy answer to AP reporter Jennifer Loven he stated that his plan to "save or create 4 million jobs" would instead result in "some net job loss. But at least we can start slowing the trend, and moving it in the right direction." So which is it, Mr. President, are we creating 4 million new jobs, or saving currently existing jobs, or some combination, or suffering a net job loss? Mr. President? Okay, that economics stuff is tough for you, let's move on to diplomacy. The President responds to a question as to how he will handle Iran by initially summing it up pretty well by speaking of "their financing of terrorist organizations...the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon." But he then begins more of that 'blah, blah, blah' as he speaks of "reviewing our existing Iran policy" looking towards having "constructive dialogue" and towards moving "our policy in a new direction." The only policy that is going to stand a prayer of working in Iran is deposing their President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, possibly the single most dangerous man on the planet at this particular moment. And even then we would have to ensure that the mullahs and other religious leaders don't set up in power someone who is just as bad or even worse. Without showing military and economic strength until the Iranians change their ways, no 'dialogue' or 'policy' of appeasement is going to be effective. The President is then asked about the bipartisanship that he promised would highlight his term in office, and if it was unlikely now that his 'stimulus' received no Republican votes in the House and only three potential Senate supporters from the Right. He responded that "there have been a lot of bad habits built up here in Washington, and it's going to take time to break down some of those bad habits." Excuse me, Mr. President, but what are "bad habits" exactly? You mean that when you present some plan, program, or nominee that is fundamentally against what the vast majority of Republicans believe in, we should just blindly support you against our own ideals? Having and fighting for our ideals is a bad habit? In a response to a reporter who finally directly asked about the wisdom of spending almost a trillion more tax-payer dollars to overcome problems caused by massive over-spending and little fiscal discipline, the President summed up the problem thusly: "the biggest problem we're going to have with our federal budget is if we continue a situation in which there are no tax revenues because economic growth is plummeting at the same time as we've got new demands for unemployment insurance..health care..food stamps." So basically what that President is saying is that he has a two-pronged problem: economic growth declining and spending rising. How about we go at it this way, Mr. President? Reduce taxes on businesses and individuals even further, hand out incentives for private business to get involved in what you are trying to setup as federal projects, and reduce rather than expand federal social services. Now I don't know whether or not this will work, just as you don't know whether your spend and spend plan will work. But one thing is certain, my plan will not increase our debt, and my plan has a far greater track record of sustaining a recovery. The "stimulus" plan that President Barack Obama is trying to shove down the throats of the American public will fail, and we know it. While the results of a Gallup poll released last week showed 75% of Americans believing some sort of financial package is needed, a full 62% were against the current massive Obama plan, with 37% wanting major changes to the plan, and 53% believe the Obama plan will have no effect on their families or make things worse. It is not a question of wanting the President to fail, to paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, but simply an acknowlegement of common sense. You can't spend your way out of problems that were largely caused by too much spending and too little discipline. And an increase in the size of government always stifles a nation's economic development. Always. But President Obama will continue defending it with the very rhetoric and partisan rancor that he derides in his opposition. The press always loves a chance to get on camera and make themselves seem more important than they are, but to much of the American public last nights opening performance by the new President was just more blah, blah, blah.

Phillies Reward World Champs

It's been 3 1/2 months now since Brad Lidge slipped a hard slider past the Rays' Eric Hinske, dropped to his knees, was embraced by Carlos Ruiz, and was steamrolled by Ryan Howard to begin a long-awaited championship celebration in this sports-crazed city. The World Series champions received a parade befitting their status as the conquering heroes, and then began to fade into the sunset of the winter's off-season period. But while the players and coaches moved off to well-deserved vacations and off-season family time there was not much opportunity to rest for the Phillies front office. With the formal announcement of the retirement of GM Pat Gillick, longtime organization man Ruben Amaro Jr. (pictured) was named to the position and began to put the pieces together that would attempt to defend the newly earned championship. Less than two weeks after that mad celebration at Citizens Bank Park and along Broad Street, Amaro signed lefty reliever Scott Eyre for the 2009 season. Eyre had been added down the stretch of the '08 season, and became a key 2nd left-handed reliever out of the Phils tremendous bullpen for manager Charlie Manuel. The Eyre signing is now even more vital since top lefty reliever J.C. Romero will be suspended for the first 50 games of the '09 season after testing positive for a prohibited substance. With Romero out basically until the end of May, Scott Eyre will be a busy man early in the season. Over the next couple of months, Amaro solidified the club's depth by resigning key subs Greg Dobbs and Eric Bruntlett and long reliever Clay Condrey and adding veteran pitcher Chan Ho Park. He also managed to reach agreement on a new two-year deal with hometown lefty and big game starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, a fan favorite and the Major Leagues oldest player. But it wasn't just on the fringe and depth of the roster that Amaro and the organization rewarded the champs. They began in mid-December by signing free agent outfielder Raul Ibanez to a three-year contract. This move officially signalled the end of the Pat Burrell era here in Philadelphia, the only player that the Phils have not retained from last year's champions. Pat 'the Bat' enjoyed a roller-coaster career here, but ended it on the highest of highs when his 7th inning double off the deep centerfield wall at The Bank keyed the rally that won the World Series. Pat road off into the sunset at the lead of the parade, and eventually and ironically signed a contract with the very Tampa Bay Rays who he had defeated in the Series. Phillies fans will always remember Burrell fondly thanks to that ending, but they will appreciate having Ibanez in the lineup for the next few years just as much. Ibanez is a much better defender, a better base runner, and a better all-around hitter than Burrell. He is also a quality character in the locker room, and should become a fan favorite in left field. Within a span of five days in mid-January, Amaro nailed down the bulk of the champs by giving new contracts to Cole Hamels (3 years), Ryan Madson (3 years), Jayson Werth (2 years), Joe Blanton (1 year), Shane Victorino (1 year) and Chad Durbin (1 year). This left one big, hulking monster of a contract negotiation remaining. For a couple of years the club had tried to sign 1st baseman Ryan Howard to a multi-year contract without success, and most thought they would again fail. But Amaro was always positive, and yesterday the club announced it had reached agreement with Howard on a 3-year deal that makes him the highest-paid Phillies player of all-time. With the hard work and dedication that Ruben Amaro has shown since taking over as GM he has put the pieces in place that make the Phillies serious contenders once again. Every off-season publication, website, and television program has them as favorites, or at least among the favorites, to again win the N.L. East pennant and challenge for another World Series. Actually accomplishing that will be no small task. No team has repeated as World Series champs so far this century, and in fact most champions have not even returned to the Series the following season. I can think back to the 1979 Phillies for a good example of why things can look good and then fall apart. The Phils back then had won three straight N.L. East titles in 1976-77-78, had won 101 games in both the '77-78 seasons, and then signed legendary spark plug Pete Rose and slick-fielding 2nd baseman Manny Trillo for 1979. They seemed to have the pieces in place to finally get over the hump and win that first World Series in franchise history. They did, but it would take until the following 1980 season to accomplish it. That 1979 season fell apart after the Phils had been in first place early on, ending in an injury-marred 4th place finish that cost manager Danny Ozark his job. So while Amaro and the organization have indeed done their job, so much will happen that we cannot now foresee in the next 7-8 months that will tell the ultimate tale of the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies. And then it will begin all over, as Brett Myers is a free agent following the upcoming season, and Jimmy Rollins will have just one more year after this one. For now we can absolutely say that the Phillies have certainly rewarded their champions well, as the roster will open the season with a payroll over $130 million dollars. It is now in the hands of those players and the baseball gods to determine the ending to what appears like another fun summer down at our gorgeous South Philly ballpark.

A Lying Tongue

If you ask almost anyone to list the things that they hate, 'liars' will inevitably be near the top. A funny thing, since every single one of us has lied, and continue to lie at times. Not always about big things, but often in small ways that involve both actual words that come from our mouths, or actions that we take or do not take. We do it in ways that we ourselves might not define as a 'lie' but that others most certainly would. You see, most of us equate a lie with intent. As long as we did not actually intend to mislead someone maliciously then it wasn't really lying. Maybe a 'mistake', or an 'exaggeration', or we were being 'nice' to someone by not hurting their feelings in telling them the cold, hard truth. Perhaps we were simply balancing two bad outcomes and deciding that by telling a 'little white lie' (in our minds) we would spare ourselves and possibly others a worse outcome than would occur by telling the truth. Lying does not in actuality go to 'intent', instead being defined as an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker. Call it whatever you want, defend it however you want - we are all liars. It is probably one of the reasons that we hate liars so much. When we tell a lie ourselves we understand what we are doing at our very core. That guilt feeling is hard-wired into us as a part of our humanity. Some sense those feelings of guilt more than others. There are some who take their lies very much to heart and truly hate them. These people are often making sincere apologies and trying to stay away from occassions where they are put in compromising positions that might have called for them to lie in the past. There are others who lie with impugnity, who seem to tell lies almost as well and as often as they breathe. These are the people to whom the old joke was directed: "How do you know that she is lying? Her lips are moving." Many of these people lie even to themselves, simply refusing to examine their lives and face the truth. We hate when we catch someone in a lie, and that is especially true the closer that person is to us in relationship. From the small to the large lies, no one likes to feel deceived by the very people on whom they are counting the most. Have you ever told your parents that you were going one place, one that they would likely approve of, when you knew that you were actually going to another place, one that they would likely disapprove? How about your spouse in the same question? Have you ever told your boss that you were working hard on some project that you had not even started, or had pushed to the side to pay closer attention to something that was of more interest to you? Have you ever taken or accepted credit for something that you did not do yourself, or that you had little hand in creating? Have you ever cheated on your spouse or significant other? Ever cheated on a test or on your taxes? All are lies in and of themselves which often require further and further lying in order to cover them up. Like everyone else, I have lied during the course of my life so many times that it would be impossible to count or list them all. But I do remember most of my worst lies. They often created situations, or were created by situations, that led me to some of the worst episodes in what has been an overall happy, fulfilled life. That is the 'lie' of the lie. We think that things will turn out better if we lie when in actuality the lie only makes the situation worse. If we all truly examine our lives with honesty we will find that despite the fact that we all hate liars, we are all liars ourselves, at least in the idea that we have told lies at times and will do so again under what we consider appropriate circumstances. As Proverbs 6:17 tells us, God hates liars as well. The first lie that we know of occurs in the garden of Eden, and is told by the greatest liar of all. Satan comes to Eve in the garden and asks if God has told she and Adam not to eat from any of the trees there. Eve replies that God has only told them to not eat from a certain tree, that they should not eat from or even touch this tree, lest they die. Satan then tells that first lie, assuring Eve that "Surely you will not die! For God knows that in the day that you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." As with many lies, the evil one couches his lie with a piece of truth. By eating from the tree, Eve and subsequently Adam do indeed have their eyes opened and learn good and evil. But they learn it by it's very manifestation in their disobedience to God, in their listening to the deception of the snake. God had created Adam in His own likeness, had given him Eve as his companion, and had placed them in a beautiful, peaceful garden where He fellowshiped with them personally. Their disobedience to the one simple rule that He had layed down for them created the very evil that persists to this day. It is the cause of all of the lies that every one of us has ever told. God hates liars because He knows that in lying we are choosing ourselves and our will over His will. We are placing what we want above what He wants, and it is that very ego-driven decision that is at the heart of all the ills of humanity. Lies separate us from fellowship with God, and there is simply nothing that He wants more than that fellowship, that intimate relationship with each of us. If you are currently actively participating in a lying situation, you must end it and do all that you can to make ammends and ensure that it does not recur. We all need to examine, rebuke, rehabilitate, and try in the future to keep tamed our lying tongues. There is nothing that God hates more.

Evolution of the Online Social Network

Like a great many other people my online social networking presence has moved in recent years from AOL to MySpace and on to Facebook. Letting go of one site or technology is sometimes difficult. You get comfortable and familiar with the process at a location and become very reluctant to let go. You also set up things like photo albums, icon pictures, favorites lists, friends lists, and many other features and so letting go feels like you wasted a lot of time and effort. But eventually the fact that things simply are better at another location is going to catch up with all of us. I first got online over a decade ago when we purchased our first home PC in late summer of 1997. At that time, AOL (America On Line) seemed like a miracle. You could interact immediately with people all over the world, and organize your friends and family together in groups that allowed you to easily interact with one another. Sharing pictures, videos, and ideas in programs from email to chatrooms to IM's (instant messages) allowed me to reconnect with family members that I had lost touch with, and develop new friendships that never would have happened without this new technology. The AOL service was the standard for years, and frankly I couldn't imagine anything coming along that could be better than their product. Still, throughout that decade of AOL, I wondered what would eventually come along to knock it off it's lofty perch or pose a serious challenge. After all that is the nature of things. Coke vs. Pepsi, Microsoft vs. Apple, every big champion eventually gets a worthy challenger to its crown. About a year ago someone turned me on to MySpace and I jumped on to see what all the fuss was about. While I found some of the features interesting it just didn't seem like any kind of service that was going to bump AOL from the top. MySpace just didn't have the interactive capabilities of AOL's chatrooms and IM's, though it did provide a better feel of being your 'home' on the web. One thing that it did have in its favor was that it was a 'free' site, providing users an internet home with free webspace. Then something major happened when AOL suddenly began to break down. For whatever reasons, probably financial, they began to dismantle their online empire. They first dropped their monthly fees, which had ranged from $9-20 per month depending on your level of service. The AOL service then shut down its chatrooms and began to remove other services, finally dropping their free webspace services in October of 2008. Anyone who had setup a web page with AOL had to find a new home, and I was severely affected. Over the years I had developed my own personal web page at www.mattveasey.com, and had used the AOL software called 'Easy Designer' to build its content. I also had become the webmaster for an Irish-American organization, the Philadelphia Emerald Society, and had their web page setup with AOL. Finally I had websites developed for my old softball team, and a fantasy baseball league in which I participated. When AOL suddenly announced they were shutting down this access, I had to move all of the information for all four sites to a new server. Thankfully someone pointed me towards the folks at Google, and I found that their capabilities were even better than AOL had been, and the moves proved far easier and quicker than I thought. With my own internet website presence now at Google, the only thing remaining with AOL was their IM service which is now free and still a solid, reliable product. In recent months I began to explore the Facebook social networking site more closely and found that the more I looked the more I liked. Facebook combines the personal 'home' site feel for individuals with the interaction of the old AOL world with 'friend' lists and groups, chat ability, picture and video sharing and many other features. So now I have my answer to that old question of what was going to knock AOL from its perch. What did the job was simply the complete developing across the web of the services that AOL had previously offered by other providers who did it better and offered these services for free. The websites at Google, the home feel of MySpace, the combination of everything at Facebook, and many other developments have ganged up to first drive AOL to drop their fees, and then eventually to the status of secondary player. For my money the Facebook service is at the top of the online social networking world at the moment, and they provide an outstanding product that is likely to remain at the top for at least a couple more years. But as we have all learned in developing technology from VCR's to DVR, from albums to CD's to digital music, from television to computers, from Pong to Guitar Hero, as from AOL to Facebook something new will come along eventually that will cause us all to pick up our web presence and move on to greener pastures. None of us can possibly imagine where the future will place us a decade from now in our online lives.

Tired of All the Financial Hand-Wringing

Am I the only one who is more than a little bit tired of the end-of-the-world financial hand-wringing going on in the news these days? Every day, day after day, both the local and network news lead with stories about the 'fiscal crisis' or the 'financial meltdown' that is happening at all levels of government. Cutbacks, layoffs, budgets, spending, revenues, stocks, bonds...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! Now anyone who knows me knows that I take these kinds of things seriously, so this is no sports or entertainment-starved and isolated individual talking here about being fed up. I have read books on economics on my own, not school related. That isn't to brag about any alleged intelligence, just to note that I do really have an interest in these matters. I like to understand what people are talking about, at least to a certain level. But what is happening today in this country is utter and complete doom-and-gloom defeatism. As always, I do have a political take on at least a part of the problem. But it might surprise some of you where I lay that political blame. I blame my own Republican Party and its leadership at the Presidential level and at the Congressional levels. You see, I fully expect Democrats to spend your hard-earned money and mine like a bunch of drunken sailors on shore leave. I fully expect the Dems, leaning more and more towards open socialism these days, to demand government intervention and control over as many facets of our day-to-day lives as they can get their grubby hands on. Those things are a given with me, and with most people who look at the political world with open eyes. But I expect more from my Republican Party, and I am not getting it. Much to the Dems chagrin, George W. Bush was in the White House for eight long years. He had a Republican-led Congress for a part of that time. But despite this advantage in political power, the nation took steps backwards in key areas where Republicans are supposed to move us forward as a part of our very fundamental structure. This was highlighted by their spending your money and mine at a pace that leaves only a one word description - Democrats. For the past eight years Republicans have been as much to blame if not more so for the fiscal problems in which we now find ourselves mired. Republicans are supposed to stand up for two major fiscal principles: lower spending, lower taxation. As we all know, when we lower spending federal money, and we lower the amount of money taken from the pockets of individuals and the accounts of business, we increase freedom. People and businesses have more of their hard earned money and are free to spend it on their own wishes, needs, desires, futures. We also need some solid controls to ensure that people don't go crazy and mortgage away their future on dreams that they cannot handle. Why give someone a mortgage for a $500,000 house when they cannot possibly afford it based on any reasonable estimate of their income and employment history when balanced against the likelihood of future market changes in things like interest rates? But that is just what we allowed to happen over the past decade or so. People were allowed to buy bigger homes than they could afford, or second/vacation homes, or rental properties that they could not afford. It was up to Republicans to be smart and pull in the reigns, or at least to publicly put out stern warnings. It didn't happen. Now another key Republican idea is that we are all big boys and girls. We know very well what we are getting into when we sign on the dotted line. If you signed up for a huge variable rate mortgage that you could only afford because that rate was so low at the time that you obtained it, and then could no longer afford the payments when the rates inevitably went up and were in danger of losing your home, that is absolutely on you. You knew without a shadow of a doubt when you signed those papers that this was a serious risk that you were taking. We all make decisions in life, from what we put in our bodies (food, cigarettes, other people) to what we put in our financial portfolios (properties, stocks, artwork) and we all take on the risks and consequences of those decisions. We love it when things are riding high, but we all know that the party is going to end some day, and we need to make sure that we are prepared for that day. In this case, very few people made the adult decision to let us know that the sky was going to fall, and likely fall hard and fast. Now everyone is running around like Chicken Little, and I am just a bit tired of it all. I want my Republican Party leadership to stand up for fiscal sanity and a return to their roots. They made a good start last week when every single Republican member of the House of Representatives voted against President Barack Obama's massive socialist spending boondoggle that he calls a "stimulus" package. They need to continue that very real and very Republican leadership, and inspire more and more Republican leaders to step forward and take those same positions as we move forward and try to regain both Congress and the Presidency. But even if we can win those elections it won't matter a hill of beans if there is no basic philosophical difference manifesting itself in the actions of Republicans over what their Democrat counterparts would have done. It's not rocket science, it's basic conservative Republican ideals at their best: lower spending, lower taxes, more freedom. Long live democracy and capitalism. Let's put an end to this socialism and defeatist hand-wringing right now.