Memorial Day 2012

Memorial Day 2012

As with some other American holidays, the significance of Memorial Day has been largely forgotten and seriously diminished.




Today, the Fourth of July is rarely recognized as our celebration of independence from England after a long, bloody revolution. It has become a day to socialize with friends, neighbors, and relatives, scarf down burgers, hotdogs, and potato salad, attend a parade with lots of firetrucks, and watch illegal fireworks.



Christmas, a national holiday in observance of the birth of Jesus Christ, has devolved into a national shopping frenzy culminating in extravagant gift-giving, another eating orgy, and then figuring out how to pay the credit card bills.



Aside from Martin Luther King Day and Thanksgiving, little notice is given by too many people as to why we are able to sleep in and not go to work on holidays.



Memorial Day, formerly Decoration Day, is now the kickoff to forthcoming summer pleasures rather than a somber recognition of the tens of thousands of men and women who have died in service to our country over the past 223 years.



There’s certainly nothing wrong in celebrating but being festive while ignoring the fundamental purpose of the festivities is unseemly, if not un-American.



On Memorial Day 2010, President Barack Hussein Obama chose to show his contempt for America’s war dead . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=24612.)

Murderers, Scapegoats, and Terrorists

Murderers, Scapegoats, and Terrorists

On its face, murder is an abominable crime. Taking another human life involves an abject surrender of one’s own humanity and a total disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Civilized societies today occasionally legally execute convicted reprobates but only after due process and often decades of appeals. Unethical societies treat accused murderers differently, as in the cases of Sgt. Robert Bales and Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

By all accounts, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was an outstanding, highly-decorated soldier, respected and praised by the men in his command.

Before he enlisted shortly after the Muslim terrorist attacks on 9/11, Bales was universally admired by his friends and neighbors. When he was not deployed in battle–three stints in Iraq where he sustained a traumatic brain injury and the loss of part of his foot and recently sent to Afghanistan–Bales lived life as a loving father of two at home with his wife in Washington state.

If the charges of murdering defenseless Afghans, including women and children, are sustained and he is convicted, Sgt. Bales should receive a suspended sentence on the basis of temporary insanity and extreme post-traumatic stess disorder. Better yet, he should be set free today!

Aside from political considerations, chiefly placating the Afghanis and President Hamid Karzai who considers American soldiers “demons,” there is no rational excuse for our military to further punish Bales for actions committed while he was obviously crazed by repeated and intimate exposure to the horrors of war.

He is alleged in the mainstream media to have left his Kandahar base and drunkenly slaughtering 16 innocent people, much as Iraqis and Afghanis have been soberly slaughtering thousands of American troops, many of whom are currently in Afghanistan building roads, schools, and hospitals.

Although Sgt. Bales has not yet been officially charged with the crimes and is now in solitary confinement at Fort Leavenworth, many military-hating American Leftists have already tried, convicted, and scapegoated him, mainly on the basis Bales is a courageous military man, and we all know how the Left abhors the military.

Sgt. Bales’ case stands in remarkable contrast to the matter of Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan who, on November 5th, 2009, allegedly, murdered 13 innocent, defenseless people and wounded 30at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

Twenty-eight months later, Hasan has yet to come to trial. The carnage he caused was witnessed by dozens of objective observers and, despite evidence he was inspired by Islamist extremists such as Anwar Al-Awlaki to perpetrate the atrocity, our government chose to categorize Hasan’s actions as “workplace violence.” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=17812.)

Two Small Christmas Miracles

Two Small Christmas Miracles

Every once in a great while, the public education community slips up and forgets its NEA-dictated politically correct liberalism.

It happened last year at a Long Island middle school awards ceremony when a soldier just back from Iraq was honored by allowing him to present a good citizenship citation to a student.

After being introduced and before he was able to make the presentation, the soldier was showered with appreciation by the 800-strong audience. They leapt to their collective feet to offer their own award for his service, a standing ovation that went on for minutes.

Teachers and school administrators in the district, which will not be identified to protect the innocent, were belatedly embarrassed into joining in.

Well, it happened again, this time at a concert–not a Christmas concert, of course, but rather a “winter concert”–at a high school in the same district where not only were America’s armed forces honored but Chistmas melodies, including religious-themed hymns, were performed and met with comparable approbation.

When the National Education Association gets wind of that combined patriotic/religious rebellion, heads will surely roll.

In the greater scheme of political correctness, neither the military tribute nor the celebration of Christmas were earth-shaking yet both represented a radical departure from the PC norm in the Long Island neck of the national woods. They furnished irrefutable proof that there is some hope for sanity in Democrat Lawn Guyland.

After the band director asked veterans and active duty members of the Navy, Army, Marines, and Air Force to stand at the appropriate moment, the Symphonic Band offered selections from the fight songs of all four branches of America’s military.

Unprompted, the audience enthusiastically applauded both the servicemen and women and “Anchors Aweigh,” “The Caisons Go Rolling Along,” “The Marines Hymn,” and “The U.S. Air Force.”

Pacifists in the audience must have been cringing.

The Festival Chorus then sang a rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here,” a cheery song about sleigh bells and snow flakes which could pass muster even with atheistic grinches. The festival choristers went overboard when they followed that innocuous holiday ditty with the gospel song, “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.”

Whatever was the chorus director thinking when he allowed public school kids to sing, “Ev’ry time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=10912.)

DADT Repeal Consequence: Now Pvt. Benjamin Can Make Love to Mr. Ed!

DADT Repeal Consequence: Now Pvt. Benjamin Can Make Love to Mr. Ed!

Yet another installment from the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department: Sgt. Bilko may soon marry Pvt. Gomer Pyle and they may have a threesome with Arnold, the “Green Acres” pig or with Mr. Ed!

The Internet is notorious for publishing and publicizing lies, innuendo, fabrications, in a word, trash, okay, two words, trash and crap. It’s therefore incumbent on a serious blogger to verify outrageous stories before commenting on them and spreading the news.

One such story demanded more verification than usual since it involved an allegation that was so far beyond the pale of belief it bordered on the absurdly incomprehensible. As it turns out, very regrettably, the report is no longer an allegation but fact: The United States Senate has voted to approve the practice of bestiality in the military.

That is not a misprint.

Should the House of Representatives concur with the Senate and President Barack Hussein Obama sign the bill, men and women in Amrica’s armed forces will be free to engage in sexual relations with dogs, cats, chickens, horses, or with any other animal without fear of retribution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The repercussions of the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law governing homosexual conduct in the military advocated by the president and endorsed by liberals everywhere have now come home to roost.

Before critics of that contention protest it as an unfair attack on gays, consider the timeline of the proposed legislation . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=8633.)

America's Politically-Correct Gay Military

America's Politically-Correct Gay Military

. . . All that aside, and it shouldn’t be put too far aside in view of the unremitting campaign by gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and trans-sexuals to convince America of their normality, it’s a whole new day for the armed forces of the United States of America! Gays are usually focused on children but this new day celebrates adults.

After extensive studies and a manipulated survey of the troops, despite vehement objections and compelling evidence contradicting the survey’s validity, as of September 20th, 2011 homosexuals will be permitted to openly serve in the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

As Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnes (Ret.) pointed out, the “consequences could be significant, but the American public has no clue because because the 111th Democrat-controlled Congress repealed the ban [on gays in our military] in a “lame-duck” session without hearing a single dissenting view.”

That ban, that law, 10 U.S.C. § 654, aka the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, in place for 18 years ever since Bill Clinton followed the advice of Dick Morris and pushed for its passage in 1993 in order to appear a moderate on the issue, had grated on the homosexual community for almost two decades.

With Republicans slated to take control of the House of Representatives in 2011, gays knew it was time to call in all their Democrat chits and Democrat supporters so they could “integrate” the armed forces with homosexuals.

Maginnes, who now serves as a media national security adviser/analyst, detailed the not-unforeseen, not-unintended but ignored realities, consequences, and potential repercussions of repealing DADT in ”Congress Ignored Perils of Lifting Military’s Gay Ban.”

Primary ignored realities are the majority opposition from the troops, high rates of STDs among homosexuals, and the inherent pitfalls of gays showering and bunking with same-gender personnel, the equivalent of men and women sharing baths and bedrooms.

The consequences of that ignorance should have been apparent even to politicians, even to Democrat politicians. But there are more . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5512.)

Unintended Consequences in the Military and at NASA

Unintended Consequences in the Military and at NASA

When any governmental entity is involved, the line between intended and unintended consequences can be extremely fine, indeed.

Take, for example, the consequences of the repeal of the military’s DADT, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy which required homosexuals in the Armed Services not to advertise their sexual inclinations in return for the military’s not inquiring, inquiries which could have resulted in their expulsion.

After extensive study of the deleterious effects outed gays would have on our troops and despite widespread opposition from Marines and combat forces in general, military powers-that-be in the Pentagon–predominantly ambitious officers who wouldn’t want to be perceived as opposing political directives–are set to officially lift the gay ban next month.

If gay agitators get their way, acceptance of homosexuals, turning blind eyes to their proclivities, not “telling” on them will not only become politically passe’ but de rigueur in the services via active recruitment.

The intended consequences being strategized by the LGBT set probaby isn’t exactly what the military intended.

According to the Washington Times, ”An underground gay group in the military wants recruiters to reach out to the gay community in the same way they target blacks, Hispanics and women.” The group, Outserve, representing some 4,000 homosexuals currently serving, is planning what the Times calls a “coming out party” in October in Vegas and wants the military to be on hand.

As one still-closeted Air Force officer put it, “The DoD regularly attends public events to recruit, and we believe they should be at Pride events next year around the country to let the gay community know the opportunities to serve their nation.” As one conservative commentator sees the agitation, it’s all part and parcel of what gay activists do: Push the envelope to the breaking point.

Robert Knight keenly observed, “No one should be surprised at what will be an increasingly shrill set of demands to use the military as an endorsing agency for homosexual activism.” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5148)

DADT Is Dead, DOMA Is Next

DADT Is Dead, DOMA Is Next

The eminently-transparent President Barack Hussein Obama has never attempted to conceal his eminently-obvious predilection toward the homosexual community, one of his staunchest constituencies–except during election cycles.

In 2008, he devoutly–ok, not devoutly but straightforwardly–professed his belief in the sanctity–ok, not the sanctity but the tradition–of marriage as an institution involving the union of one man and one woman, pretty much what most voters and most rational people on the planet believed.

Admittedly and to his credit, candidate Obama did publicly pledge to his gay friends that he would push for repeal of a related tradition, the Bill Clinton policy of the military not asking homosexuals if they were homosexual and homosexuals not saying they were homosexuals, better known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell or DADT.

President Obama and his lame duck Democrat congress succeeded in pushing through a repeal of DADT amid congressional chaos last December and gays were happy and gay, but not satisfied. That other gay-repugnant Clinton law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, aka DOMA, remained on the books and homosexuals demanded it be removed.

Now, relatively few gays are militaristic and I’m guessing even fewer personally give much of damn whether homosexuals in the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard can’t be asked and can’t say what their sexual proclivities are but they insisted DADT be repealed on principle, the principle being they wanted their way.

They got it, even if the military–as fully anticipated–still has no clue on how to implement gay integration into the armed forces. Military and has petitioned for and has been accorded more time to effect implementation of the new policy.

Next on the gay agenda is dumping DOMA, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5054)

Sec. Robert Gates' Brain Lapse

Sec. Robert Gates' Brain Lapse

I would never accuse retiring Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as being a hate-monger nor of harboring animus toward our country and America’s troops. However,, Gates does seem to suffer from a bad case of political correctness.

The scholarly Gates has served our nation long and well as Deputy National Security Adviser, CIA Director, Defense Secretary under two presidents, and has received numerous awards for his service, including the Presidential Citizens Medal.

All that said, Robert Gates can also be a nitwit as he showed during his farewell visit to America’s fighting men and women in the Mideast.

Addressing Marines in Afghanistan, Gates opened the forum to a Q&A which, in retrospect, I’m guessing he regretted. He was put into an apparently untenable position by a Marine sergeant who forced him to either tow the Obama administration line or to speak his mind with respect to gays in the military after the lame duck Democrat congress repealed Bill Clinton’s 17 year old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

I’m also guessing his mind but, whatever he really thinks, his response was beyond lame, if not ignorant.

Although Gates hasn’t shared his future plans with me, I suspect that at 67 he’s not quite ready to hit the links for the rest of his life and instead may have his eye on a job as military expert on CNN or even on FNC, although his response to that sergeant would seem to better qualify him for CNN than at Fox News.

In the interests of preserving that sergeant’s already imperiled career in the increasingly PC Marines, his name will not be divulged here. He very politely and articulately commented, “Sir, we joined the Marine Corps because the Marine Corps has a set of standards and values that is better than that of the civilian sector. And we have gone and changed those values and repealed the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.”

The Marine then dropped his fair and reasonable, bombshell question: “We have not given the Marines a chance to decide whether they wish to continue serving under that. Is there going to be an option for those Marines that no longer wish to serve due to the fact their moral values have not changed?" . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4754)

DADT Repeal: Civil Rights Milestone or Military Millstone?

DADT Repeal: Civil Rights Milestone or Military Millstone?

“We righted a wrong. Today we’ve done justice:” Sen. Joe Lieberman

“When breaking down the specifics, more respondents answered unfavorably or remain uncertain about a policy change than those who favor repeal:” Rep. Duncan Hunter

Whether it represents justice or uncertainty, homosexuals are beyond giddy in some instances over the long-awaited, long-Obama-promised repeal of Bill Clinton’s cure-all for inclusion of outed gays in the United States’ military, the misbegotten policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” unaffectionately known as DADT.

Bubba’s sop to his homosexual supporters essentially boiled down to a policy of advising gays to keep their sexual inclinations to themselves and instructing their military superiors not to ask how personnel got off sexually as long as they didn’t overtly get off in mess halls, barracks, shower rooms, foxholes, etc.

The repeal of Bill Clinton’s 17 year old policy of DADT was an insult to our millions of heterosexual men and women in the armed forces and an insult to the intelligence of the American people who are being led to believe that our military will be able to continue to function as it should and must.

DADT was a farce from the beginning. Its repeal could be farcical catastrophe.

The lopsided, Democrat sponsored repeal vote of 65-31 in the Senate was assured after the Pentagon released the results of its extended study/poll of those in the military and their families which allegedly, unexpectedly, showed that 70% had no problem with gays serving openly. That conclusion depends in large part on who counted and who interpreted the votes and why those “respondents [who] answered unfavorably or remain uncertain” were ignored.

As Rep. Hunter, a Marine colonel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3098)

In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church

In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church

Now that the threat of a demonstration by zealots of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to create a disturbance at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards has passed, it’s an opportune time to reassess just what Westboro is up to, what it wants, and why those zealots do what they do.

In a previous life, actually in a previous post dated almost a year ago, I wrote about that “The Westboro Baptist Congregation, the WBC, so thrives on outlandish and hateful propaganda that it must be regarded as one of the worst organizations in the nation in terms of vicious radicalism.

“Make no mistake, the WBC has countless hate-peers. Nevertheless, it’s a standout performer, in a class by itself, especially when it comes to attacks on homosexuals and Jews.

“What makes the WBC even worse is that it cites both Old and New Testament scripture to bolster its points of view and its vile invective. Its website, Godhatesfags.com, cites Calvinistic interpretations of Holy Scripture as Biblical truth.”

See “The Westboro Devil Cites Scripture,” http://bit.ly/bCiwP5, which pulls no punches with respect to homosexuality but which, I believe, is far more tempered than Westboro’s extremes.

I retract none of that, although some should be modified.

The WBC is still outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile. However, even in its most recent outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile theatened demonstrations against the memory of Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards, protests that fortunately were never allowed to happen, reasonable people must grant that Westboro has some valid points.

Some additional points, negative points, are that AOL.com, Google.com, and Bing.com have made access to the Westboro Baptist Church home page virtually inaccessible. That concerted effort at internet censorship, assuming my browser isn’t the culprit, stinks almost as much as Westboro’s tactics.

Therefore, in the absence of any other active defense of the WBC and in view of the active suppression of the First Amendment rights of the WBC, I, grudgingly, offer my meager services.

To be blunt, Pastor Fred Phelps and Westboro’s alleged 40,000 adherents may best be described as imbecilic in many of their activities, though not in their beliefs. However, in view of the fact that America regularly elects imbeciles to govern them and millions of Americans worship at the feet of imbecilic celebrities, how can America–and AOL and Google and Bing– presume to selectively censor the WBC? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3007)

Very Interesting, But Stupid?

Very Interesting, But Stupid?

“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”

“It’s a solid propellant missile. You can tell from the efflux [smoke],” says Doug Richardson, missile expert and editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets.

“It’s all in the angle,” say various other experts.

“It’s just the contrail [condensation or vapor trail] of a commercial airliner,” say the military, the FAA, and NORAD.

“I saw a big plume coming up, rising from looked like beyond the horizon and it continued to grow. It was unique. It was moving. It was growing in the sky,” says KCBS cameraman, Gil Leyvas who zoomed in for 10 minutes or so on the “Mystery Missile” he saw on Monday over Los Angeles. It looked as if it were incoming.

In case you missed it, see the cause of Leyvas’ excitement here: http://tiny.cc/dvdgn

We can readily discount the bird and Superman theories, the other interpretations not so readily. A serious question also arises from the mysterious delay by the military, the FAA, and NORAD, which expend billions of dollars every year watching our skies, over identifying the source of the Mystery Missile. It initially bewildered the military.

According to the UK’s Guardian, Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan admitted, ”Nobody within the department of defence that we have reached out to has been able to explain what this contrail is, where it came from. So far, we’ve come up empty with any explanation:” http://tiny.cc/xfgax

The next day brought the Voila! moment and the mystery was solved . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2617)

Backpedaling, Spinning, Re-interpreting and Lying--Part One

Backpedaling, Spinning, Re-interpreting, and Lying--Part One

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive:” Sir Walter Scott

Politicos are very adept at changing course, denying, and outright lying when it comes to the fine art of retraction. The technique may be described as clarification but always involves backpedaling, spinning, and/or reinterpreting what had been said or done earlier.

NASA. Space or Politics: NASA chief Charles Bolden caused a brouhaha last month when he re-defined the mission of our space agency by telling the Arab language newspaper, al Jazzera, that his “perhaps foremost” priority was outreach to the Muslim community thereby standing on its head NASA’s long-established mission of space exploration.

(See “I Betcha Thought NASA Was Still NASA,” http://tiny.cc/v2u3f)

That mission seemed eminently reasonable considering that NASA is an acronym for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

White House head flack Robert Gibbs gently reminded Bolden that he was wrong, that he had misspoken and “That [reaching out to Muslims] was not his task and that’s not the task of NASA.”

However, Charles Bolden is not a dumb bunny and didn’t unilaterally take it upon himself to change the mission of his agency: He was directed to do so by none other than his boss, President Barack Hussein Obama, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1783)

The October/November Surprise Part Three

The October/November Surprise Part Three

Few presidents have found themselves in such a massive pickle barely fifteen months into their first terms as President Barack Hussein Obama.

Beset on all sides by Tea Partiers on the right and gays on the left, with more negative news dribbling out just today that surprise, surprise, Obamacare will cost more than health care did in the past, with smatterings of war protestors complaining that we’re still fighting in the Middle East, with Democrats in Congress bailing out, with a prime constituency, the Jewish vote, increasingly discontent over U.S.-Israeli relations, the president should be stressed over the November elections and his own fading hopes for a second term.

Yet, he shows no signs of worry or concern. Now, why is that?

Could it be because of his well-known coolness that he’s not sweating his own and his party’s future? Or, could it be that Obama feels firmly ensconced in the catbird seat, knowing he has an ace up his sleeve that he can and will throw down when the time is opportune and he has no other cards left? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1646)

The October/November Surprise Part Two

The October/November Surprise Part Two

It would be one nasty surprise to awake some morning to find federal troops patrolling America’s streets.

Technically, legally, such a phenomenon could never happen due to the existence of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878–except in a circumstance which is deemed “extraordinary” and, of course, “extraordinary circumstance” is a term open to debate.

The post-Reconstruction Posse Comitatus, literally “the power of the county,” law theoretically prohibits the use of federal uniformed services from exercising the police powers granted to states within the confines of the United States, theoretically since the act’s provisions have been termed more mythical than factual.

The story behind the passage of Posse Comitatus Act reeks with political intrigue and political compromise following the Civil War. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1642)

Don't Ask, Don't Yell!

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Yell”

Gays don’t like it and the military likes it even less. I refer to Bill Clinton’s cop out, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy for homosexuals in the military. That coda is about to change into “Leave Me Alone and Stay Outta My Face,” should Obama get his way.

Clinton’s DADT compromise stated that “homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service.” In other words, no one will ask about your sexual orientation and gays should feel free to serve their country but should not feel free to flout or advertise their sexuality.

That’s pretty reasonable, I think.

It’s important to realize that essentially the same policy applies to heterosexual behavior in that public, publicized promiscuous activities between consenting males and females in the military is discouraged and could result in punishment by military authorities.

Heterosexual activities are not usually punishable by discharge, however, nor is “telling” about it, . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1457)