Remember Them During The Holidays

To all our armed forces in harm's way I humbly offer a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. A grateful nation loves you and thanks you.

May God Bless You all.

Least we forget
The reason we beget
For granted we have
The freedoms we hold
The lives we give true
A Christmas to you
Forget not you less

Fred on the SCOTUS and 2nd Amendment

More wisdom from Fred.
I quote:

Here's another reason why it's important that we appoint judges who use the Constitution as more than a set of suggestions. Today, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case of District of Columbia v. Heller.

Six plaintiffs from Washington, D.C. challenged the provisions of the D.C. Code that prohibited them from owning or carrying a handgun. They argued that the rules were an unconstitutional abridgment of their Second Amendment rights. The Second Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, provides, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The District argued, as many gun-control advocates do, that these words only guarantee a collective "right" to bear arms while serving the government. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected this approach and instead adopted an "individual rights" view of the Second Amendment. The D.C. Circuit is far from alone. The Fifth Circuit and many leading legal scholars, including the self-acknowledged liberal Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, have also come to adopt such an individual rights view.

I've always understood the Second Amendment to mean what it says - it guarantees a citizen the right to "keep and bear" firearms, and that's why I've been supportive of the National Rifle Association's efforts to have the DC law overturned.

In general, lawful gun ownership is a pretty simple matter. The Founders established gun-owner rights so that citizens would possess and be able to exercise the universal right of self-defense. Guns enable their owners to protect themselves from robbery and assault more successfully and more safely than they otherwise would be able to. The danger of laws like the D.C. handgun ban is that they limit the availability of legal guns to people who want to use them for legitimate reasons, such as self-defense (let alone hunting, sport shooting, collecting), while doing nothing to prevent criminals from acquiring guns.

The D.C. handgun ban, like all handgun bans is necessarily ineffectual. It takes the guns that would be used for self protection out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, while doing practically nothing to prevent criminals from obtaining guns to use to commit crimes. Even the federal judges in the D.C. case knew about the flourishing black market for guns in our nation's capital that leaves the criminals armed and the law-abiding defenseless. This is unacceptable.

The Second Amendment does more than guarantee to all Americans an unalienable right to defend one's self. William Blackstone, the 18th century English legal commentator whose works were well-read and relied on by the Framers of our Constitution, observed that the right to keep and bear firearms arises from "the natural right of resistance and self-preservation." This view, reflected in the Second Amendment, promotes both self-defense and liberty. It is not surprising then that the generation that had thrown off the yoke of British tyranny less than a decade earlier included the Second Amendment in the Constitution and meant for it to enable the people to protect themselves and their liberties.

You can't always predict what the Supreme Court will do, but in the case of Heller and Washington, DC's gun ban, officials in the District of Columbia would have been better off expending their efforts and resources in pursuit of those who commit crimes against innocent people rather than in seeking to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens who would use them only to protect themselves and their families. And that is why appointing judges who apply the text of the Constitution and not their own policy preferences is so important.

In A Silent Way

He died in the same city where he was born: Vienna. In between birth and death was an amazing amount of life. As a child, Josef Zawinul was a prodigy at the piano. And his remarkable talent was instantly recognized by elements of Hitler’s Third Reich shortly after Germany had invaded Austria. The Nazis decided that young Zawinul’s contribution to the Third Reich would be that he would become the greatest pianist in the world, and they procured the best staff to bring that about-- among his teachers was a student of Franz Liszt. In between his lessons, there was everyday living in Nazi occupied Vienna, with many harsh realities to witness and experience... among them, seeing Wehrmacht soldiers drinking gasoline as a desperate substitute for alcohol.

After coming to America in the fifties, he played with Dinah Washington, Maynard Ferguson and Cannonball Adderley for whom he wrote one of the most soulful songs ever: “Mercy, Mercy Mercy”. By playing Wurlitzer electric piano on that recording he helped to propel jazz into a movement called ‘fusion’.

Fast forward into the seventies. Zawinul’s ground-breaking band Weather Report had just released their second album entitled Sweetnighter. After a concert in Indianapolis, Zawinul attended a party with some locals. Between passed wine bottles, someone asked Zawinul what it was like to have played on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. He said (after a pull on the bottle) “It was arright”.

Wow. THE seminal recording of the entire jazz-rock-fusion era, made by one of the most important musicians in all of history, and Zawinul says it was “arright”.

How I love that answer.

When asked what he had been listening to lately he said “Art Tatum...Jan Hammer..Herbie Hancock...Oscar Peterson..and a whole lotta rock and roll!”

I was that person at the party who asked him both of those questions and hung on his every word while accepting the wine bottle from him.

The reason he said “arright” goes to the same reason Miles asked him to play on Bitches Brew in the first place. Zawinul has always been a courageous, forward-looking innovator. Just like Miles. The night before a recording session, Davis told Zawinul to “bring some music”. He did. One of the pieces he brought was “In a Silent Way”, written on the occasion of his grandfather’s death. It became the title song of the album, (although Miles’ version is very much different than Zawinul’s).

“In a Silent Way” was recorded before Bitches Brew, and it is not a stretch to say that Zawinul was every bit as important to the birth of jazz-fusion as was Miles Davis. One needs only to scan the personnel on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew to understand why those sessions were the launch pad for jazz-fusion. Every important band of the movement was formed from those sessions: Weather Report. Mahavishnu Orchestra. Return to Forever. Bitches Brew did not feature Tony Williams or Herbie Hancock, but they went on to form Lifetime (with Larry Young) and Headhunters (with Bennie Maupin) respectively.

Too bad the fusion genre never fully realized its potential and has now been hijacked by a few fake musicians that don’t deserve to have their names mentioned in the same breath as Josef Zawinul. (Hint: one of them plays soprano sax hideously).

Back to the after-party in Indy.

As the evening winded down, the host asked if Zawinul might play some music. He walked up to the Hammond organ and asked if he could remove the various playing cards and folded pieces of paper that had been placed between some of the organ’s keys (the host was apparently a big fan of long sustained notes). He then proceeded to play some incredibly haunting chords and passages unlike I had ever heard.

Zawinul’s technique was overwhelming. He could quite literally play anything in either hand. And he was always challenging himself as every true innovator does: He had one of his synthesizer keyboards altered so that middle C sounded C, but if he played UP from C, the pitches went DOWN and if he played DOWN from C the pitches went UP (!) Think about that. He actually wrote the song called Black Market on that inverted keyboard.

I volunteered to give Mr. Zawinul a ride back to his hotel after the party, and on the way we chatted casually. I was trying very hard not to ask him a million questions.
On reaching the hotel he got out of the car, came to the window and shook my hand warmly and said “thanks very much for the ride”.

Thank YOU Mr. Zawinul.
Rest in Peace.

Proof that Dems are invested in defeat in Iraq!

I've been saying it for a long time.

And now HotAir has the link to the video of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) being interviewed for the Washington Post Online and he admits that good news from Iraq in regards to the success of the "surge" would be "a real big problem for us". LOCATED HERE. Click the second video down on the right side and listen at about 3:20 into it. (After they force you to watch a frikkin' commercial ad).

That's correct. Good news in Iraq is bad news for Democrats. The Dems have so totally convinced themselves of our absolute failure in the Iraq war that they have no "plan B" if there is success there. Their political futures are based completely on a lost cause in Iraq. If the surge continues to work, the Dems lose 2008 and whatever cred they have tried to build with the "war is lost" drumbeat.

A successful 'surge' makes it difficult to make the case for abandoning Iraq, and except for the Far Left most Americans' support for getting out of Iraq has been based on the assessment that we are losing there..an effort eagerly supported by the Left's Main Stream Media accomplices by showing nothing but carnage and bad news from Iraq 24/7.

If the surge seems to be working, Americans' calls for withdrawal will diminish and Dem leaders know it... which is why they tried desperately to get a vote on withdrawal in July.

The Dems have painted the war in Iraq as being Bush's war alone and their hatred for him has fueled their irrational behavior. Their portrayal of a defeat in Iraq as a personal defeat for Bush wll backfire with any good news about the surge. Pelosi says she can't "concede there are positive things to point to" in Iraq. That's because it means she has been wrong on the war and admitting it is in direct conflict with her political ambition. Reid says a bloodbath in the wake of an American withdrawal is "hypothetical" yet he points to the real violence in Iraq every day.

How can the Dems base their entire philosophy on defeat and failure and ignore the progress our forces have made?

Overlord+63

Dr. Stephen Ambrose wrote:

"In one night and day in June 1944, 175,000 fighting men and their equipment, including 50,000 vehicles of all types, ranging from motorcycles to tanks and armored bulldozers, were transported across sixty to a hundred miles of open water and landed on a hostile shore against intense opposition. They were carried by or supported by 5,333 ships and craft of all types and almost 11,000 airplanes. It was as if the cities of Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha Wisconsin, were picked up and moved--every man, woman and child, every automobile and truck-- to the east side of Lake Michigan, in one night."

"It all came down to a bunch of eighteen-to-twenty-eight-year-olds. They were magnificently trained and equipped and supported, but only a few of them had ever been in combat. Only a few had ever killed or seen a buddy killed. Most had never heard a shot fired in anger. They were citizen-soldiers, not professionals."

"They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22s at rabbits, not M-1s at other young men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were the men of D-Day. And to them we owe our freedom."

Sixty-three years ago the future of freedom in Europe and ultimately the rest of the world was in the hands of these young brave American, British, Canadian and French fighters. And for a big part of the day of June 6 1944 it looked as if the invasion might fail. Casualties were atrocious. Sacrifices were immeasurable.

Our debt to them is unpayable.

Along with Airborne troops seizing and holding bridges and roads inland, quite literally the future of the entire world came down to that battle on that beach on that day. It is the single most important day of the 20th Century.

Remember it with reverence and thank those who fought for and won our freedom.

The List

Here is a partial list of great truths about freedom.

Many thanks to Glock for the list and Double Tap for the link.
Think about it:



America is not at war.
The military is at war.
America is at the mall.
Congress is out of touch.



FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE



1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is
a subject.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the
phone.

3. Colt: The original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about
control.

4a. Gun control is using both hands.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause
misspelled words.
And spoons caused Rosie O'Donnel to get fat.

7. "Free" men do not ask permission to bear
arms.

8. If you don't know your rights you don't have
any.

9. Those who trade liberty for security have
neither.

10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All
Rights reserved.

11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you
not understand?

12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the
politicians ignore the others.

13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one
yesterday.

14. Guns only have two enemies: rust and
politicians.

15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns,
no peace, no safety.

16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay
alive.

17. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.

18. Assault is a behavior, not a device

19. Criminals love gun control -- it makes their
jobs safer.

19a. Kennesaw, GA, required all home owners to
own a gun.
No murders since that law was enacted 25 years
ago.
No gun related crimes in 25 years.

20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause
arson.


21. Only a government that is afraid of its
citizens tries to control them.



22. You only have the rights you are willing to
fight for.


23. Enforce the "gun control laws" we ALREADY
have, don't make more.
How about removing some of those we now have?
Such as concealed carry?

24. When you remove the people's right to bear
arms, you create slaves.


25. The American Revolution would never have
happened with gun control.
Or the US Congress.





"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow
for those who do not."
-Thomas Jefferson

We Owe Them Everything

We in America are free to express our opinions. Free to read and write anything we want from any source we choose. We can travel freely from state to state. We are free to worship as we choose or choose not to worship. Free to openly and publicly criticize our leaders and government officials including the President himself without fear of retribution. Free to nominate who we want for office. Free to vote for who we see as the most qualified and vote out those who do a poor job of serving the people. Free to start a business. Free to seek the best education. Free to expect a guarantee of justice in the court system. Free to keep and bear arms to defend ourselves against criminals and tyranny.

We have the freedom to do all these things and many more. And we owe all those freedoms to a twenty year old PFC from Virginia. A twenty-two year old female Air Force cadet From Wisconsin. A fourty year old Sergeant Major from Texas.

I know who defends these freedoms.

My father.
At age 18 returning fire while ducking mortar rounds lobbed by elements of the 116th Panzer Division in a battle near the town of Magdeburg Germany.

My uncle.
He lied about his age so he could fight in Korea at age 16 as part of a tank crew.

My brother.
He was completely exposed to hostile fire as he engaged multiple targets while leading his Company of Special Forces to seize Saddam's airport.

There is something I always do in my travels. I can't help it. If I see a member of our Armed Forces in uniform, I make a point to walk up and extend my hand and thank them sincerely for their service and sacrifice to our country. It is the least I can do. More often than not it is a young man or woman full of confidence and pride. Squared away. Ready and eager to do the job we have trained them for... the job they volunteered to do.

The same valiant job done by the Minutemen at Concord.

The 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc.

5th Special Forces in Iraq.
And countless other units.

I would urge you to do the same the next time you see one of these brave men and women. Let them know how proud America is to have them as our sons and daughters.

Abraham Lincoln said "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him".

I am extremely proud and thankful for our Military. And America cannot possibly repay them for what they do for us as a nation.

A *FREE* nation.

May God Bless them all.

Harry Reid must resign.

He is the senate majority leader and here is what he said. "I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week." This weasel funds the war. Votes to send our bravest volunteers to fight in a conflict that he says they CANNOT WIN. He is behaving in the same manner that Jane Fonda did when she posed for photos with the enemy on an anti-aircraft gun used to shoot down our pilots in Vietnam. He is a traitor. He is giving our enemies in Iraq strength to fight harder while not allowing any time for the surge to be effective. He has already told CNN that he would not believe Gen. Petraeus IF HE REPORTS PROGRESS in the surge. He said "We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war."

Can there be any further doubt that the Left is invested in America's defeat in Iraq? Some Leftists in Washington hate President Bush more than they hate Usama Bin Laden..after all its Bush who will appoint conservative originalist justices to the Supreme Court and threaten the Dems' love affair with death known as Roe v. Wade. It is the President, not Bin Laden who places an impediment to their other favorite cause Gay Marriage. And please tell me I dreamed this...? Pelosi went to meet with Assad of Syria who sponsors terrorism but she couldn't be bothered to meet with General Petraeus? WTF, over? What happened to my Country? If Reid and his scumbag Senate buds believe the war is lost they should stand up and DE-FUND IT! The Senate has the power to do that, but it won't happen because Reid doesn't have the balls. He also doesn't want blood on his hands for the genocide that will fill the vacuum left by our withdrawal. He has told our enemies that they have won. I can't believe this from an American senator. SHAME!

Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said “In my opinion Sen. Reid, having made that statement, which can only have a demoralizing effect on our troops and an effect of encouragement of the adversary, I think it would be appropriate for Sen. Reid to resign his position as the leader of the United States Senate.”

REID: RESIGN. NOW.

Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya

I can die happy now. I played Lady Marmalade and four other songs onstage with Patti Labelle last night! She is 62 years old. She sang all her songs in the original keys and belted them as hard as she did 30 years ago. Her pitch was excellent despite having literally *NO VOICE* the day before at rehearsals. A consummate professional. She absolutely ROCKED the house down. This woman's soul is so deep as to be immeasurable.

The audience were invited guests for a fund-raiser and numbered about 250, but Miss Labelle performed as if it she was live at Wembley in front of 80,000 people. She is one of the all-time greatest singers I have ever heard and she is as sweet as she can be. Absolutely a career highlight for me.


Why is this LEGEND not in the Rock Hall yet?

I NOMINATE PATTI LABELLE

Unspeakable

Details are still sketchy but the facts are in: Today an armed man murdered at least 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech. I have not the words to express my shock, horror and grief at this event. There is, of course, no reasoning behind such an act. No justification. No one deserves to have this happen to them. I think most of the nation is still in shock as I write this.

And I feel the same way I did on the day of the Columbine High School shootings back in 1999. I feel such grief for the victims and their families... and I know what's coming next.

Already, before all the facts are in, before all the families have been notified, before the killer has even been identified, there are calls for stricter gun laws. The VT campus was supposedly a "gun free" zone-- which I suppose means that students and faculty could not be armed. And I doubt that campus security guards were armed either. Only the insane murderer was armed--while the innocent people he attacked were helpless to fight back with anything save a barricaded door. When will America wake up and see the danger of these "feel-good" gun laws that only endanger law abiding citizerns?
Understand this: The slogan you see on most police vehicles that reads "..to serve and protect" is simply not true. The police cannot protect you. It is not their job to protect you. The job of the police is to ENFORCE THE LAW, plain and simple. Meaning if a thug bashes you in the head and steals your money, the police try to find him and arrest him..enforcing a law against assault and robbery. The police were not and can never be walking with you on that street to PROTECT you from being assaulted in the first place. You MUST protect yourself.

I believe it is time to start putting "designated defenders" in schools.. be it teachers or principals. They should have licenses for concealed carry after completing all the steps and training necessary for the state's CCW laws. How different this outcome would have been if there had been an armed citizenry ready to take action today at VT. Or at the Amish school house in Pennsylvania. Or at Columbine.

As horrendous as this event is, the Left will still use it as a springboard for fresh new attacks on the 2nd Amendment, and they will attempt to take more legally held guns out of the hands of good, law abiding citizens. The same citizens who might have been able to stop today's tragedy.

Join NRA and donate.

Treasonous Dems?

Melanie Morgan has a strong piece about Democrats and treasonous behavior. Conservatives need to step up and not be afraid to call 'em like they see 'em.
Please go read her opinion at World Net Daily LOCATED HERE

Terry Moran incites class warfare

Terry Moran of ABC's Niteline has weighed in on the Duke Lacrosse matter. Go HERE to read this amazingly arrogant, elitist, racist drivel.

Then EMAIL ABC at: support@abcnews.go.com and demand that this P.O.S. activist be fired.

Imus=Toast

Today it was announced that Don Imus was also fired from his radio gig as well as his MSNBC simulcast. And even though I despise him, I'm starting to feel sorry for him.. and I feel sorry for the 1st Amendment. By now you all know what he said. He has apologized profusely over several days and to lots of different people. But who exactly did he offend?
Certainly the young women of the Rutgers basketball team who the comment was aimed at. And they are truly the victims of an immensely insensitive remark that was based on nothing but mean-spiritedness and ignorance. These young women are among the nation's finest athletes performing at their peak. They are the only truly innocent parties in this whole mess.
But was Reverend Al Sharpton offended personally? Is he spokesperson for Rutgers? For African-American women? Or is he an opportunistic Race Pimp?

Imus supported Harold Ford Jr for Senate from Tennessee. Ford is black. Imus gave him every opportunity to speak on the air during the 2006 campaign. Where is Ford now? Why is he not offering some token defense of Imus? Is he THAT scared of Sharpton? True enough everybody who were regular guests on his show are now staying away in droves. You can see bruises on Imus where he's been poked with ten-foot-poles.

I think Imus IS a racist. I KNOW Sharpton is.

All I'm saying is Sharpton and Jackson have somehow appointed themselves arbiters of free speech on the airwaves and they have caused the takedown of a crotchety old radio curmudgeon.. and they smell blood.

Since they are the protectors and defenders of African-American women everywhere, let them set their sights on the music industry, where 'artists' have been degrading and humiliating black women for many years with lyrics and videos. Where are Al and Jessie's righteous Christian outrage at Rap artists? Have they called for any of them to be silenced? Or are they saying that Rap artists have the cultural 'right' to spew hatred but Imus does not since he is the wrong color?

Sharpton is a Liberal first and foremost. And he has played the race card at every opportunity to further a Liberal agenda. Guard your 1st Amendment rights carefully.

Lemme Tell Ya somethin

Don Imus was taken out behind the woodshed and given a little old fashioned come-uppance by that great arbiter of racial morality Al Sharpton, for Imus' despicable remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Let's get some facts straight here: Imus is a mean-spirited moron. Yes I know about his ranch for sick kids. I know he says he's not a racist. Yet he continues to utter racist remarks. If it walks like a duck.. He has said cruel, hurtful things about many people over the years and truthfully if it were not for his morning show being simulcast on MSNBC, plus the fact that I'm a morning news junkie, I would never even have heard of Don Imus, much less be aware of this latest bout of idiocy.

Imus called the Rutgers women "nappy-headed hos". In reality, IMUS HIMSELF is the ho. He has been used mercilessly by every politician who has a new book to sell, every reporter with an 'off-the-record' remark intended to hurt the Bush administration, and the same people who used him like a 20 dollar whore are avoiding him like he's a hooker with a blazing case of the clap. And MSNBC comes off as the Pimp to Imus' ho for not having the stones to yank him the day he uttered this drivel. They only caved after Sharpton and Jackson brought pressure to MSNBC's sponsors.

Why Imus agreed to go on Sharpton's radio show is a mystery. Again, I didn't even know Sharpton HAS a radio show. Maybe Imus and Sharpton cut a back-room deal to try and help each other's ratings.. I dunno. Another fact to get straight: Sharpton is a Race Pimp. He has never apologized for his actions during the Tawana Brawley case. That case fizzled out when a bodyguard for Brawley's lawyers testified that the lawyers and Sharpton KNEW that Brawley was lying. Sharpton was ordered to pay $65K to Steven Pagones for defamation. He has never apologized or admitted he lied. And Sharpton's actions in Harlem helped fan the flames of racism during the shootings and arson at Freddie's Fashion Mart on 125th Street.

I'm just sayin' the Reverend's hands aren't clean enough to point fingers at ANYBODY. AND.. there is no such thing as REVERSE RACISM. Racism is racism. Period.

Here's the clincher for me about Imus: I was hoping Imus would be fired MONTHS ago when he continually accused the voters of Tennessee of (get this) "abject racism" because Harold Ford was not elected to the U.S. Senate! That's right, Harold Ford is black. AND Imus is STILL a racist. Imus wanted Tennessee to elect a Liberal Democrat, not a Conservative Republican. They did not. So Imus says the Tennessee voters are racists for not electing Ford. Funny how the people of Maryland weren't called racist for not electing Michael Steele, a black Conservative. Also funny how the voters of Pennsylvania weren't called racist for not electing Lynn Swann, also a black Conservative.

So, Imus is at the same time a Liberal race pimp and ho. He wants people of color elected ONLY IF THEY ARE LIBERAL, NOT CONSERVATIVE.

What happened to "..not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" ?