Why Russian Ships no longer are attacked by Somali Pirates

The Russians first handcuffed all of the Pirates to the Boat and then  blew it up and sank the vessel. For some reason Somalia Pirates have quit attacking Russian Ships.

 We should allow our Flagged vessels to hire private security firms (a la Blackwater). These "Security Specialists" would have to board the vessels out at sea, because cargo vessels are not allowed to be armed when entering foreign ports. The "Security Specialists" could also escort the Vessels with privately developed fast attack boats.  With the correct Armaments, they could sink  or severely damage any of the Somali Pirate boats that attempt to attack our Cargo Vessels. I believe after a few incidents, American Flagged Vessels would be as safe as the Russian Vessels.

Last Entry of the year (probably)

Since we are at the end of the year, the new year coming is the beginning of the second decade or the 21st Century, I decided to geeze a little and see how much of my memories some of you may share.

 Here 'tis, do you remember?

 Rabbit Ears
 A coat hanger with tinfoil when your Rabbit ears broke
 Your antenna could only pick up one television station, if you were lucky, you could get all three.. (ABC, NBC, CBS)
 Brought to you in living color!!
 Black and white TV
 Reruns..
 Nothing on worth watching on Sunday until "Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins,"The Wonderful World of Disney", or "The Ed Sullivan Show"
 TV Couples Slept in Twin Beds
 UHF was 'New' or So that's what that other dial is for!!
 Cigarette commercials
 AM Radio
 Transistor radios
 American Top 40 with Casy Kasim, listening on Sunday to find out what was the new #1 song in the nation
 45 RM records which you couldn't play unless you had the Square adapter for your turn table or one of the little plastic gizmos for the hole
 If someone was "High Tech" they had a "Reel to Reel" tape recorder (My dad got one in '67 I think it was)
 Televisions and Stereos were furniture and came in big wood cabinets or "Consoles"
 You had to 'Turn the Dial' to change channels and the fine tuning was a larger wheel around the dial
 Invariably, the dial was lost and you had to use pliers to change the channel
 If you had a Remote control it was mechanical, and turned on the TV to Channel 2, it then had to 'clunk' through each channel and when it made it back around to Channel 13 it turned off (My Dad used to hide ours)
 TV stations went off the air at midnight with the National Anthem and the Poem "High Flight", they didn't come back on until 6 am. They either broadcast "Test Patterns" or shut down completely
 Cartoons were only on on Saturdays until 11 AM
 Nobody wore seat-belts
 Riding on a hot summer day with all of the windows down.. 4/55 Air conditioning, four windows down at 55mph
 Wing Windows, or as my wife calls them Fly Windows, the small windows in the front of the car on the Diver's and Passenger's doors that you could open to direct air in. Adults that smoked used them as ashtrays
 Hand-crank windows, it was a big deal to have electric windows
 Cars that had Ashtrays, in the front and back
 It was exciting when a neighborhood Family brought home a new car
 New Car models Came out every spring and it was a cool to see what they looked like
 Gas Stations gave away freebies (Glasses, Plates) to get you to come in
 Full Service gas; they Checked your oil and cleaned the windshield
 Your car couldn't hold five dollars worth of gas even though it was a land yacht with a 20 gallon tank
 You really didn't care about your cars gas mileage
 It was cool to have an 8 Tack Player in your car and you had to wedge a matchbook in it to get it to play correctly when it got old
Drive in Movies, going in your Pajamas and falling asleep in the back seat
 Everyone's Mom and Dad Smoked
 Everyone Dressed up to go out to dinner
 Movies almost always began with a cartoon, especially Disney movies
 All of the old Disney Classics were re-released every 4 years
 Singing Christmas Carols in the School Christmas Pageant, my second grade class practiced Greensleeves every morning after we said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang My Country Tis of thee.
 Halloween Pageants, Marching around the school in your Polyester Halloween Costume with the plastic mask. The costume was sold in a windowed cardboard box that only displayed the characters face.
 Home made costumes that you had to explain what you were
 Soaping a houses' windows when they didn't give out Halloween Candy (I learned the proper technique from my big brother)
 "It's (time) do you know where your children are?"
 Playing hide and seek on a summer night with all of the kids in the neighborhood.
 Freeze tag
 The Good Humor Man driving his white truck ringing the bell
 The first time you rode in a car with AC
 The first time you went to Someone's house that had central air conditioning
 The first time you saw a Garbage disposal, or a Dish washer
 Stingray Bicycles with Banana seats
 Hot wheels car sets, I had a "Johnny Lightning" racetrack
 Wham-O! made all of the cool toys
 Beatle Boots (My big brother had some)
 Jeans with the legs "Pegged" so tight you couldn't get your foot through them (My brother again)
 The Saturday night "Creature Feature" that showed all of the cheesy horror movies, it usually had some guy dressed as a Vampire for a host
 McDonald's was new and had only 'X' millions served, it was a big treat to go
 Apollo 8 Circling the moon at Christmas

 Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year from the BigMan.. And Big Mama (Just a nick name not a description) too!

The Left and PDS/TPDS

PDS - Palin Derangement Syndrome; The preoccupation with and fear of Sarah Palin

TPDS - Tea Party Derangement Syndrome; The preoccupation with and fear of the Tea Party

Recently, I saw a segment on Fox News "The Best notable quotables of 2010". Yes, I know what you are thinking, why spend a whole segment on Joe Biden? Believe it or not, there were other folks that spouted blatantly stupid and ridiculous things.

Three of the quotes, Frank Rich, NY Times; Joe McGinnis, Liberal Author and Pundit; and Rob Reiner (AKA Meathead), Actor and Director; compared the Tea Party to Fascists and NAZIs, and a double whammy by suggesting that not only was the Tea Party NAZIs, but that Sarah Palin was a their Hitler like leader (McGinnis).

 For quite some time it has bothered me that the American Left continuously calls the right of this country Fascists and NAZIs. When I was younger, because of my poor public education, I somewhat accepted the premise. Then one day it hit me... NAZI is an acronym for National German Socialists Workers Party, the key word here being SOCIALISTS.

 After more reading and research on my part I discovered the following:

 1. Benito Mussolini, a life long Socialist who had flirted with Communism, created the concept of Fascism after returning from service in the Italian Army in WWI (they were on our side for that one). He thought that a Nation, operated more like the military, using a military style esprit de corps would be more efficient at Economic command and control.

 2. Fascism is a type of Socialism with two differences:
     a. The Government does not own ALL means of production, those which it does not own it controls by regulation, investment, or subsidy. (Think GM, Chrysler, Alternative energy and oil)
     b. Whereas Communism and Socialism extort "Workers of the World Unite!!" Fascism can be summed up by  "Workers of (Nation) Unite!"
    
 3. Nazism is a type of Fascism with one main difference, instead of the motto "Workers of (Nation) Unite!", it is "(Race/Color/Ethnicity) Workers of (Nation) Unite!"


Furthermore, Benito and Adolph were darlings of the American Left up until they attacked the Soviet Union. Which at the beginning of WWII was paradise on earth to most American leftists. Therefore, if you were an American Communist, the enemy which was to the right of you and your beliefs was Fascismt or a Nazism. Since these two ideologies were considered the most evil of the 20th century (even though Communism was responsible for more death and misery), it has become a favorite insult/comeback of the American left when they can't support their arguments.



You: "Millions Starved in the Soviet Union and Communist China when they Collectivized the farms"
Former Leftist Friend: "FASCIST!!"



Socialism and it's offspring Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, are predicated on the destruction of the individual for the good of the collective. Comparing the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, who believe that individual liberty and freedom are tantamount, to these failed ideologies is either tired rhetoric or a sign that those on the American Left have gone so far down the road toward Communism that all they can see to their right, is Fascism, and Nazism.

Or, it could just be they are having a hard time explaining why Papa Doc Obama is failing...

American Exceptionalism

 The idea of American Exceptionalism was a developed by Alexis de Tocqueville in order to describe what he saw when touring America at the turn of the 18th/19th centuries. The idea was based on the following ideas.

1. Natural, or if you are religious, God given rights. These rights are yours as a human. They have not been bequeathed to you by any King or Government. They can't be rescinded or taken from you by any King or Government without your consent.

2. The basis of all rights is "Property". The root of property rights is self ownership. You own you. All Natural or God given rights emanate from this ownership. One of the most fundamental of the emanating rights is the right to self defense. You have the right to protect your life, you have the right to live. Further, you have the right to reap the rewards of your labor. The confiscation of the results of your labor, taken forcibly, or under the threat of force, for the benefit of another, is the definition of Slavery.

3. The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States were created with these ideas as their kernel.  The Declaration of Independence codifies these rights with the statement "All men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. AMONG (emphasis mine) these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The original draft contained "life, liberty, and property". Property was removed because it was feared tha the slave holders would consider this a basis for their right to subjugate their fellow man. Regardless of what the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvainia Ave, Washington DC, has said in 13 different speeches, the word "Creator" is in the the document.

4. The Constitution restricted the power of the new Federal Government by enumerating the few powers allowed to it. It further reserved any powers not so enumerated, to the States and the people. It was recognized that in order to form a Government, the People had to allow the Government to have some of their rights in order to function in the interest of the people. This at the time was one of the most revoltionary ideas to come from the founding of our country. The idea that Government did not bequeath rights upon it's citizens/subjects, but those citizens instead bequeathed rights upon Government. Further since we as a free people "Lent" those rights to Government to act in our behalf, we have the right to rescind those rights when Government no longer acts in our interests.

 These ideas for their time were considered exceptional. American Exceptionalism does not mean that we as a people are better or smarter than others. Just more free, at least we were. Our sucess as a nation is a direct result of these exceptional concepts.

Asclepius Shrugged

A good look at what is and will happen to our medical system...

Asclepius Shrugged

The True Lesson of Thanksgiving

Those of you, who like myself, were educated in the later half of the 20th century, were taught that the poor stupid Pilgrims didn't know how to grow food. Even though many had been farmers in Europe, they must have forgotten how to grow food or that the climate and soil in the New World was so much different than Europe that their old methods didn't work. Never fear, they were rescued by a stone age people, the natives of the New World that were one with nature. These people, who cultivated the ground with sharpened sticks, taught these poor white European imbeciles, whom had already developed a rudimentary animal drawn plow, how to cultivate food.  This saved these wretches from famine and starvation. In gratitude the imbecilic white Europeans held a feast and invited their aboriginal saviors (whom by the way were the first ecologists). These white Europeans, surviving because of the assistance of these benevolent natives ultimately repaid them by giving them blankets infected with small pox, massacring them and stealing their land.

 And they lived happily ever after...

 Excuse me... I always get a little misty after the Blanket part...

Yes this a a beautiful bucolic story (unless you are are Indian). Except that almost none of it is true. OK, there were some massacres and we did take their land.. Other than that, all the rest is fantasy. Even the blanket story.

In fact the true lesson of Thanksgiving is that Socialism/Communism doesn't work.

  Hey Big Fella, we are talking Pilgrims here, not Berkeley college students.


 Yes I know that, but the Pilgrims organized their farm community along Communal  lines. Communal, Communism, sound similar? That is because they are based on the same concept. "From Each according to their ability, to each according to their needs"   The Pilgrims basically lived in a 1960's hippie commune with out the free love (the Scarlet Letter was much later). The ultimate goal was to share the work and produce equally.

That is why they almost starved to death.
When you get fed no matter how hard you work, you work only as hardyou can get by with.

"So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented," wrote Gov. William Bradford in his diary. The colonists, he said, "began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, (I) (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land."

  To quote a great American Icon, Homer Simpson.. "DOH!!".
Everyone was starving, so here is a plot of land, you are responsible for your own crops and food.. I bet you can't guess what happened next..

"This had very good success," Bradford wrote, "for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many."

Praise the Lord and Pass the Gravy!! Lets have a feast!!
When individuals own their own property and are allowed the fruits of their labors miracles happen!! Further, working your butt off or starving also is a great incentive..

 Hey Bigman, you mean there were no Indians at the first Thanksgiving?

 No, I didn't say that, yes there probably were. You see, the local tribes had been wiped out by disease introduced by the "randy" rum toting fisherman that had been coming to The Grand Banks for almost 200 years. In fact, the hero of the story that we had been taught, Squanto, was actually taken to Europe by those fishermen, and had lived there for 20 or so years. He came back to his village to find that everyone he knew had died. It just so happens that the Pilgrims landed at the site of the empty village. It obviously had been a good site for a village, so Plymouth was established there. Squanto was homeless and without family, he was able to communicate with the Pilgrims and the Indians so he became an invaluable translator.
 The Wampanoags most likely attended the first Thanksgiving feast in order to cement an alliance with the Pilgrims. They had become outnumbered by inland tribes because of the diseases that they had been exposed to and they saw advantages in befriending the Pilgrims. Especially since the Pilgrims had guns and had participated in some raids against the Narragansett with their Wampanoag neighbors..

Don't touch my junk dude!!!

So if you don't want to submit to the grope, you will be held against your will, and fined $11,000.00.... Unless you are a Muslim Female in a Burqua or wearing a Hajib that is...
They need to stop profiling objects and profile perps. No that does not mean Racial profiling... The last time I checked being a Muslim was religious identification, not a racial one and it is only one of many "key ID" features that would make up a "Profile"....

 Profiling is used everyday. If you have purchased auto, health, or life insurance, you were subject to a profile. In the case of insurance they are called actuarial tables. They take into account multiple factors in order to create a risk "Profile". When you applied for a job, the employer that reviewed your application or resume used a "Profile" of the the perfect candidate and compared how you measured up to that "Profile". In Law Enforcement, "Profiling is used frequently, whether they are looking for a Serial Killer or a drunk driver. There are certain "Key ID" features that bring attention to individuals or groups that merit further investigation. For instance, if there had been a recent hold up at a local "Stop and Rob" (7/11, Wawa, Fasmart) and the suspects were described as two white males in their early 20's, you wouldn't be stopping and checking Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, females of any race, or the elderly. Why? Because they do not meet the "Profile". Furthermore, the more information you receive the more detailed the profile becomes. What clothing were they wearing? What kind of vehicle, if any, were they using? What was the color, year and make of the vehicle? With these details it narrows the search for those individuals most likely to be the Perpetrators we are looking for.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the "Depends Bomber", was identified prior to boarding his Airplane last Christmas. He was on the no fly list, he was banned from entering the UK, and his father went to the American embassy in Nigeria and told the American Officials there that his son wanted to martyr himself on an American bound Airliner.. Furthermore he had made several recent visits to Yemen (Trips to Yemen are a key ID feature of many of the current crops of terrorists).

 Richard Reed, the infamous 'Shoe Bomber' was a member of the Brixton Mosque, this mosque was the mosque of several of the September 11th terrorists. This would also be a "Key ID" feature of a would be terrorist. He also had a long arrest record in Britain and had served multiple prison sentences. Prison is a place where many Muslim converts are recruited. Prison would be an additional ID feature.

Ahmed Ressam, the Millennium Bomber, lived in an area of Montreal known to contain a Al Queda cell. Further he was a Canadian fugitive with a long arrest record. He was capture because of an old Law Enforcement technique. Questioning by an experienced Interrogator. The CBP Officer noticed that he would not keep eye contact and when he did make eye contact he looked nervous. So she pulled him aside for a vehicle search.

 As a former Police Officer, I know that if I should stop someone for a routine traffic violation, that I cannot pull you out of your vehicle and search you without probable cause. If I do, it is a violation of your 4th amendment right of  not being subject to unreasonable search and seizure. So if I decide to fly, I now automatically give up my 4th Amendment rights? 

 The TSA has just announced that if you decide not to submit to the Pat Down of to the full body scan, not only can you not board an airplane, you also cannot leave the airport. Furthermore you are now also subject to an $11,000 fine. Being held if you do not submit to an unconstitutional search sound like imprisonment to me, at the minimum it is an improper arrest. The definition of an arrest is when you feel that your freedom of movement has been restricted by individuals or physical barriers.  

 CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations has determined that Muslim women cannot be made to submit to the full body scan, if they are wearing a Hajib, they cannot be patted down below the shoulders, or if they are wearing a full Burqua, they cannot be patted down at all. Further, a Muslim woman wearing a full Burqua or veil cannot be forced to reveal her face in order to prove her identity. If wearing a veil or a full Burqua is a religious choice, with that choice should come the understanding that  you cannot get a drivers license, or a passport without exposing your face. Without a license, you can't drive or fly domestically, without a passport, you cannot leave the country.

So am I saying that no one should be subject to searches, scans, or metal detectors? No, I am saying that using proper law enforcement methods, we wouldn't be wasting time conducting invasive searches of the elderly, infants. By conducting a simple questioning by a trained law enforcement officer and then use those screening methods if needed, air safety would not decrease and travel would become more efficient and possibly cheaper.

Here is an article on the recent TSA guidlines.