Goodbyes You Hoped Wouldn’t Come So Soon

It’s been a while since I stopped by. Life, and responsibilities, have shifted to such an extent that writing slid to a spot on the never-ending back burner. I still had time to read and stay somewhat caught up on The Long Decline and other unhappiness, here and abroad, but the bandwidth needed to keep all the plates spinning just wasn’t there. And not just sometimes.

A quick recap:

  • My mother’s dementia journey continued it’s relentless advancement to the point she needed to be moved to an Assisted Living/Memory Care facility. While the staff there is caring and competent, I still felt like the General Manager. Dementia is a horrible disease. Especially for the family who has to watch it all happen.
  • My husband’s health adventure continues it’s twists and turns. Again, more watching.
  • Too many funerals of friends, parents of friends, and beloved teachers.
  • The financial pressures of retirement.
  • Figuring out Medicare enrollment. I told one friend it was like playing a video game filled with alligators.
  • Low energy/lack of motivation. A result of recovering from an accident that should have basically killed me, while all this other mess was spinning round and round.

And then, last Friday, Gerard Van der Leun passed away. It didn’t hit like my father’s death, but boy, it was close. I was an avid reader and sometimes commenter. Like so many others, his writing struck me to the very core, and stayed embedded, like memories of a favorite uncle. And over the last week, his site has been flooded with tributes, that in themselves, bring even more tears than Gerard’s many thoughtful pieces. He was loved by many.

Over the next few weeks/months/years, I’ll link some of my favorite Gerard stories and my thoughts. But today, I’ll include this one about John Lennon. Go read it, I’ll wait.

I had to read it several times. Especially the part of how he’d been working with John and That Woman just a few days before his (John’s) death. I’d heard that story before. Somewhere. But it was spoken, not written. It took a bit before it came back to me. But my husband verified my memory of the day.

It was late March, 1986. We were on our honeymoon to California. The first few days were in San Francisco, then we rented a car and headed to Napa Valley. Just over the bridge, in Sausalito, was a small inn with a restaurant that’d been recommended by a well-traveled friend. We pulled into the Alta Mira, and were quickly seated on the terrace with the killer view of the SF skyline. Just like my friend said. For a bit, we were alone. Just as our food arrived, another table was seated, with a middle-aged man and a young couple, probably early twenties. It wasn’t long before we stopped talking and began listening to the story this man was telling. It was fascinating – how he was working with John and Yoko just days before he was killed in NYC. And all that happened afterward. When we finished up, and headed out, he was still talking.

Looking back, I don’t remember their faces in detail. But I remember his distinctly. Nice looking, good hair, Wayfarers, and a red dress shirt. Eerily, years later, it’s very similar to the first picture he’d ever put on the masthead of AD, but years younger. And I didn’t put them together until years later when I was looking for the pieces to this little puzzle. So even though I’d never met him, I’ve been in the same space with him. He made a lasting impression even then.

America has lost a treasure, indeed.

Namárië, Gerard.

Twenty Years. Some Pain Never Goes Away.

I’ve been absent a while. More about that in a later post.

On September 12, 2001, we all vowed to NEVER FORGET. Seems many Americans have, especially those who supposedly represent us, or those we supposedly elected. But I’ve not forgotten. And I never will, as long as I can draw breath.

The AJC had an excellent article on the first NYC baseball game after 9/11/2001. Braves vs. Mets.

Georgia lost four sons that day. My 2018 anniversary post is here. 2019. 2020. There are more. Just follow the links.

This milestone year will be extra painful, considering the events of the last few weeks. I agree with Val (like always), Mumbly Joe needs to stay away.

That’s Not How Any of This Works

I retired on December 31, 2020 with the hopes that 2021 would not suck nearly as much as 2020.

Bam. Mom was diagnosed with Covid. She is recovering slowly and, so far, doesn’t seem to have the nasty strain of the virus. Because of the Covid outbreak in her residence, we’ve not seen her in person since the Tuesday before Christmas. We covet your prayers for her recovery.

Bam. Saturday I woke up to find out four people I knew died on the same day. Three were from Covid. Please pray peace and comfort for their families.

Bam. The internet in general, and certain companies in particular, lost their ever-lovin’ minds. Pray for discernment in all corners.

Bam. The Ministry of Truth is in full voice, and there hasn’t even been a regime change yet. Pray for the safety of all, regardless of their political leanings.

Going forward, I’ll be leaning on prayer and Adminal Ackbar’s prophetic warning: “It’s a trap!”

 

Fifteen

There are things you don’t understand until you’re older.

Happiness so beyond measure you think your heart will burst. Pride in the (seemingly Herculian) feat that the obnoxious teenagers skulking about your house just a few years ago have actually turned into fine adults. Grief that never ends. It may fade like a low tide, but it will surge. Again and again.

Every fall, on what always seems to be a perfectly clear day, the wound reopens.

From a previous post:

This day always exposes the dark hole in all of us that believe in America.

Despite the sadness, and the blustery misdirection of politicos and media hounds, remember those who died this day at the hands of terrorist Islamists that our government now secretly embraces.

Georgia lost four sons that day:

  • Claude Michael Gann of Roswell, whose tribute you can find here. Mike was recently remarried and attending a conference at Windows on the World.
  • Major Stephen V. Long of Georgia, whose tributes you can find here and here. Already a war hero, he was at his post at the Pentagon when it was attacked.
  • Maynard S. Spence Jr of Douglasville, whose tribute you can find here. He was on the 99th floor of the second tower.
  • Harshad Sham Thatte of Norcross, whose Legacy page is here. He worked for the same company as Mr. Spence, Marsh & McLennan.

Last summer, I was privileged to visit the 9/11 Memorial in NYC. Read that post here.

Even in the bustle of the busy, busy city, it is a reverent place.

Never, ever forget.

Never, ever forget.

Evil That’s Been Around Since the Beginning of Time

Thirteen years ago we were attacked by Evil Incarnate. We are even less safe now than we were last year. As we remember those that fell that day and in the years since, pray for our protection against this Evil in the days to come.

Republishing last year’s post in full:

This day always exposes the dark hole in all of us that believe in America.

Gerard always says what I’m thinking so well…

What the nation has become, through death by fire, bravado, war, forgetfulness, treason, and blunt stupidity could not have been foretold on September 10, but here we are — a lurching ship of state captained by a malicious hater of the American soil. That same captain, maddened by his own stunted heritage, will today disgrace the soil of Ground Zero. It is a difficult reality that has been dealt by the hands of fate; one that is still being played out.

Despite the sadness, and the blustery misdirection of politicos and media hounds, remember those who died this day at the hands of terrorist Islamists that our government now secretly embraces.

Georgia lost four sons that day:

  • Claude Michael Gann of Roswell, whose tribute you can find here. Mike was recently remarried and attending a conference at Windows on the World.
  • Major Stephen V. Long of Georgia, whose tributes you can find here and here. Already a war hero, he was at his post at the Pentagon when it was attacked.
  • Maynard S. Spence Jr of Douglasville, whose tribute you can find here. He was on the 99th floor of the second tower.
  • Harshad Sham Thatte of Norcross, whose Legacy page is here. He worked for the same company as Mr. Spence, Marsh & McLennan.

Never, ever forget.

Never, ever forget.

FBI Fails Reading Comprehension Exam

Via Insty, who also wonders, “WHAT GOOD IS SPYING ON EVERYONE’S EMAILS IF YOU’RE TOO DUMB TO RESPOND TO WHAT YOU READ?”

Mother Jones:

In the wake of the Fort Hood attacks, the exchanges between [Anwar al-] Awlaki and [Nidal] Hasan—who was convicted of murder on Friday—were the subject of intense speculation. But the public was given little information about these messages. While officials claimed that they were “fairly benign,” the FBI blocked then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s efforts to make them public as part of a two-year congressional investigation into Fort Hood. The military judge in the Hasan case also barred the prosecutor from presenting them, saying they would cause “unfair prejudice” and “undue delay.”

As it turns out, the FBI quietly released the emails in an unclassified report on the shooting, which was produced by an investigative commission headed by former FBI director William H. Webster last year. And, far from being “benign,” they offer a chilling glimpse into the psyche of an Islamic radical. The report also shows how badly the FBI bungled its Hasan investigation and suggests that the Army psychiatrist’s deadly rampage could have been prevented.

Read the whole thing. Our country is being run by morons.

Speechless.

The Post Everyone Will Send Hate Mail About

Well, the hubs is on his flight home. GradSchoolGirl is re-esconced in the frozen hinterlands of the north, in a new situation that has heat but no bugs or rats or noisy housemates. WeeHighlander is back at his school as well, with multiple promises to keep this coming semester substantially less festive than the last.

Monday was MLK day. This week I had the same discussion with my son and a co-worker (at different times) about how Dr. King would probably be ashamed of how his dream had been implemented over the last decade or so. How not only the country, but the states, the cities and towns, and even the workplace seems so polarized by race. Did Dr. King mean it when said that a person should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin? He wanted, at least in my feeble understanding, for all to be equal and share the fruits of that equality. Now, it seems that anything but that.

Then Gerard said it better, as he always does:

Reflecting on The Day … I have to say that I’m sticking with that rueful but passing smirk as I consider the distance we’ve come since King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago in 1963. Then we struggled, with men like King, to come together as a people, to move beyond our past, to be one nation. Now, under the cynical manipulation and malicious policies of one who would cast himself as the inheritor of the King mantle, we find the current occupant of the White House doing his best, day after day, to drive the races apart once again.

How strange that someone who has attained the presidency in this day and age should not only hate citizens because of the color of their skin and the cut of their bitter and clinging class, but be lauded for it. Stranger still that he should be half-black and be inaugurated on the day set aside to honor Martin Luther King. Once I would have remembered and honored this day and felt we were at last getting beyond race hate in America. When exactly that was I now forget. I guess we’ve still a reckoning ahead of us.

RIP Dr. King. I sincerely hope you’re not spinning in your grave.

Quote of the Day, “For the Children”

Michelle Malkin:

What has happened to the deliberative process in this country? Public debate in Washington has deteriorated into Sesame Street sing-a-longs. We are already inundated with logical fallacies: argumentum ad populum (it’s popular, therefore it’s true); argumentum ad nauseam (if you repeat it often enough, it’ll become truth); argumentum ad hominem (sabotage the person, sabotage the truth); and argumentum ad verecundiam (if my favorite authority says it’s true, it’s true).

To that list we can now add “argumentum ad filium”: If politicians appeal to the children, it’s unassailably good and true. The Obama White House has shamelessly employed this kiddie human shield strategy at every turn to blunt substantive criticism and dissent.

Hell. Handbasket. In Progress.

As this past week staggered to its close, and my usual Christmas preparations still lay in their respective boxes thanks to a deeper than usual holiday funk swirling around yours truly, by Friday I decided I’d had enough.

First, prayers and solace go out to the families in Newtown, CT. The yammering heads on the news just need to SHUT UP. People, real people, including children, are dead. They deserve the utmost respect, not to be a political prop in your latest personal agenda.

Before the tragedy, some idiot commentator on ESPN decided a rookie NFL QB wasn’t BLACK enough for his tastes. Imagine the firestorm if a white commentator had uttered the same sentiments. They’d be fired, immediately. Sick of these double-standards? So I am.

Since the election, our government has spun out of control. Privacy is erased by secret fiat. Obamacare, DHS, the fiscal cliff, all manner of legislative largesse reversal and mass constituent hog-tying promise to obliterate what’s left of America.

As Bill Whittle says, “This is not a government. This is a tumor.”

All Your Emails R Belong to Us

…meaning the US government.

NSA whistleblower William Binney explains how our imperial government has been storing ALL our emails for years (so don’t freak out and delete everything now, because it’s already copied and stored and indexed, hee hee, ho ho). How do you think they had access to Gen. John Allen’s 20K emails within hours of the breaking Patraeus/Broadwell scandal?

If that doesn’t scare the ever-loving stuffin’ out of your Christmas bird, then consider this – your DVR and/or cable box is watching AND listening to you. Supposedly for targeted marketing, but can you really be sure?

It brings an entirely new meaning to “making and list and checking it twice,” doesn’t it?

Clear as Mud, and Other Thoughts on the New Reality

I suppose, like a great part of this nation, I’ve been grieving and haven’t realized it. There the usual signs and stages: lack of sleep, lack of appetite, malaise, disinterest, dull and lingering pain, anger, shock, despair.

The scriptures about ‘rejoicing in trials’ keep running through my mind…

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. “
(James 1:2)

“There is cause for rejoicing here. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials; but this is so that your faith, which is more precious than the passing splendor of fire-tried gold, may by its genuineness lead to praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears.” (1 Peter. 1:6-7)

Along with the ones about ‘gird yourself’…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Get that… “fearlessly?” Fearlessly, Fear–less–ly. Behavior that is the exact opposite of what the newly re-elected regime expects of the populace.

Don’t be fooled – this current Bread and Circus hides hideous facts that the White House DOES NOT want the American people to hear.

What we’re seeing with the Petraeus sexcapades is a classic magician’s misdirection. Two months past the attack on Benghazi, which resulted in the death of an American Ambassador and three others — an attack we are told the White House watched while ordering no response; an attack the mainstream media helpfully blacked-out, at first, then allowed to be spun — we are now being served The Prestige, where all of reality is being turned on its head, and the audience isn’t even sure what it’s seeing, so it simply becomes giddy, and content to be led.

If the nation is content to forget the image of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ naked body being hauled away by a crowd “taking him to the hospital where he later died”; if the nation is completely fine with a truly heinous story of government malfeasance, depraved indifference to human life, political calculation and incompetence being turned into bread and circuses for the mobs, well, then shame on the nation, for choosing to be entertained, once again, by the people who know that all the mob really wants is a show, and is quite pleased to give it to them.

In the meantime, Dear Leader is no longer constrained with the pretense of caring what his constituents want. He’s following the playbook – almost to the letter.

[…]Paula Broadwell’s father asserted “this is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out. There is a lot more that is going to come out. You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.”

That something else has to be bigger than Petraeus; common to all the mysteries of this most impenetrable of presidencies. News under the Obama administration has become coded to a degree unknown outside the annals of Soviet Russia and Mao’s China. In those regimes people talked about numbers, flowers and calendars to indirectly reference what could only be spoken of openly in whispers.

Nothing was what it seemed.

The “The Three-Anti (1951) and Five-Anti campaigns (1952)” were “ostensibly aimed to root out corruption, embezzlement, waste, though they also served to purge opposition to the new Communist government.”

The “Hundred Flowers” (1957) campaign encouraged critics to speak up — so that they could be identified by the State Security apparatus.

The “Destruction of the Four Olds” (1966) is not, as one might think, a scrappage program involving cars made by a division of General Motors but “call to burn and destroy cultural artifacts, Chinese literature, paintings, and religious symbols and temples. People in possession of these goods were punished. Intellectuals were targeted as personifications of the Four Olds, resulting in their persecution.”

The 6521 project is the most recent, occurring only in 2009. It was a “nationwide operation … to ensure ‘social stability’ by suppressing potential dissidents during anniversaries of political significance. The campaign’s name refers to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, and the 10th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong. ” And there you have it: 6521.

There were wheels within wheels; layers beneath layers; matryoshka dolls within matryoshka dolls.

These innocuous sounding Chinese names were in fact shadow plays aimed at sending a fascist message couched the most innocuous sounding terms. The sheer vagueness of the campaigns lent an edge of terror to them. Nobody knew what they were about and that imbued them with a sinister and crepuscular menace.

Democracies are creatures of the open day. The procedural mechanism of constitutional republic exists to ensure that all the cards are dealt above the table. That the lights always shine. The sign democracy is working is that everybody basically understands what is going now; when things are really about what they say they are about.

By contrast autocracies are thronged with secrets, secret passages, star-chambers and cabals. The characteristic of a conspiratorial political system is that nobody knows who’s next.

Secrets within secrets, all conveniently swept under the rug until after the election.

Wow. So if Broadwell was right — and obviously, she was in a position to know — then either (a) the Obama administration was secretly violating its own announced policy [remember, the President Obama EO in 2009 banning secret CIA prisons?? – admin], or (b) some in the CIA had gone “rogue,” and the deliberate obfuscation of what happened in Benghazi was a cover-up of this secret violation of the president’s executive order.

If so, then it bears a resemblance to the Iran-Contra scandal, and if it turns out that things went wrong in Benghazi because the folks in charge were too busy chasing poontang to do their actual jobs, then this story is a long way from being over.

Trouble is on the way. America, at least the America that wants to live as free citizens, needs to prepare. Educate yourself, especially on things you’d never thought you’d need to know. Create a safe haven/safety net, if you don’t already have one. Have a plan. Have multiple plans. Connect with other like-minded patriots. Get ready, for the future will be here before you know it.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Love Liberty? DHS Categorizes You as a Terrorist

Honestly, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Read it and weep.

From the video at Jim’s place:

“Groups that believe that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent.” describes potential terrorists? WTH? DHS is using left wing hate groups and even Islamic groups with ties to terrorism as consultants to determine who are threats.

From a Jan, 2011 article “How Dept. of Homeland Security identifies ‘right wing extremists’:

The radical leftist group Southern Poverty Law Center has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security in a ‘Working Group’ called Countering violent Extremism to paint conservatives as hate groups and extremists.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese says it is “despicable” for the Southern Poverty Law Center to classify the Family Research Council and a dozen other top conservative organizations as “hate groups” similar to the Ku Klux Klan.

Almost As Fun As Holding a Porkchop Over a Piranha Tank

Well, this morning Peach Pundit (see here and here) stirred up the masses in daring to express a little sympathy for Karen Handel, former candidate for Georgia Governor and current VP for Public Policy at Susan G. Komen Foundation. Yes, that Susan G. Komen Foundation… the one that’s been in the news for daring to get out of lockstep with the Planned Parenthood crowd.

It was almost as fun as holding a porkchop over a piranha tank. The feeding frenzy began in earnest, with the usual suspects sniping back and forth over the intertubez, dredging up old campaign slog and muck. The KarenHandelHaters, the AbortionIsAGodGivenRight protestors, the LiberalEntitlementScamsters and the IJustDisagreeToBeDisagreeable lurkers all ganged up on the few who tried to make the point about how shameful is was that the liberal media immediately pointed out that Karen Handel, a (gasp!) Republican woman with strong value beliefs, was in a position of responsibility at the foundation and therefore had to be the prime instigator of the decision to end PP’s funding. The pixel ink was barely dry on the first post reporting the funding change when the witchhunt began in earnest. What an evil woman! She’s a witch! Burn her! Burn her!

One issue at hand is that PP’s umbrella of “women’s health” services includes breast cancers screenings, but they outsource the mammogram portion of the service. Gee, wouldn’t it make better sense for SGK to fund the mammogram providers, not PP? It’s their money, isn’t it?

It doesn’t have anything to do with research for breast cancer, saving lives, women’s health or even the money. The whole bruhaha boils down to deviating from the liberal narrative. If one dares stray, we now have the state-run press to act as Big Brother and blast over the Oceanian loudspeakers your name, rank and serial number.

One big, giant reeking bowl of Osso Buco slime.

But back to our Georgia friend. The biggest shame in this whole spectacle is that a fine woman of good character has been attacked and maligned, in an unwarranted and cruel fashion. She deserves our prayers to withstand the firestorm around her.

God help America. What have we become?

Happy Groundhog Day

Six more weeks of winter or spring is just around the corner.  Pick one. Which reminds me of an old joke, in a weird way. Yeah, that’s just me.

Guess what? Today is Groundhog Day.
So what happened?
Obama stuck his head out of his hole in the ground, saw his shadow and now we’ll have one more year of unemployment.

Bah-zinga.

(Image by No Sheeples Here, who is greatly missed in the bloggyspherepazoids.)

Chilling Video

From The Right Scoop, via Obi…

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