Dawood Khan

Archive for September, 2008|Monthly archive page

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Democrats defend Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2004

In Politics on September 30, 2008 at 8:41 pm

The Republicans were trying to reign Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in.  Saying it was out of control and dangerous.  The Democrats of our Congress spent the year 2004 defending the very culprits who started the mess that is bringing down half of the good people of America.

Great Stuff.

Genius.

And now the Democrats want to blame it on Bush.  Bush definitely isn’t the 2nd coming.  But he isn’t the anti-Christ either. He isn’t the architect of this mess.  It all started with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  And those two were the darlings of the Democrats as can be seen in this video of Franklin Raines pimping Maxine Waters and crew.  On top of it all was Barney Frank.  Selling his snake oil so that he can parcel out favors to his favored lobbyists and special interest groups from the FMx2 profits.

What a sorry bunch.  They should all be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

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The War Won’t End in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, Middle East, Politics on September 30, 2008 at 12:26 pm

The War Won’t End in Afghanistan

Senator Barack Obama said something at the presidential debate last week that almost perfectly encapsulates the difference between his foreign policy and his opponent’s: “Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself acknowledges the war on terrorism started in Afghanistan and it needs to end there.” I don’t know if Obama paraphrased Gates correctly, but if so, they’re both wrong.

If Afghanistan were miraculously transformed into the Switzerland of Central Asia, every last one of the Middle East’s rogues gallery of terrorist groups would still exist. The ideology that spawned them would endure. Their grievances, such as they are, would not be salved. The political culture that produced them, and continues to produce more just like them, would hardly be scathed. Al Qaedism is the most radical wing of an extreme movement which was born in the Middle East and exists now in many parts of the world. Afghanistan is not the root or the source.

Naturally the war against them began in Afghanistan. Plans for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were hatched in Afghanistan. But the temporary location of the plotters of that strike means little in the wide view of a long struggle. Osama bin Laden and his leadership just as easily could have planned the attacks from Saudi Arabia before they were exiled, or from their refuge in Sudan in the mid 1990s. Theoretically they could have even planned the attacks from an off-the-radar “safe house” in a place like France or even Nebraska had they managed to sneak themselves in. The physical location of the planning headquarters wasn’t irrelevant, but in the long run the ideology that motivates them is what must be defeated. Perhaps the point would be more obvious if the attacks were in fact planned in a place like France instead of a failed state like Afghanistan.

Hardly anyone wants to think about the monumental size of this task or how long it will take. The illusion that the United States just needs to win in Afghanistan and everything will be fine is comforting, to be sure, but it is an illusion. Winning the war in Iraq won’t be enough either, nor will permanently preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. The war may end somewhere with American troops on the ground, or, like the Cold War, it might not. No one can possibly foresee what event will actually put a stop to this war in the end. It is distant and unknowable. The world will change before we can even imagine what the final chapter might look like.

Most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudis. All were Arabs. None hailed from Afghanistan. This is not coincidental. Al Qaeda’s politics are a product of the Arab world, specifically of the radical and totalitarian Wahhabi sect of Islam founded in the 18th Century in Saudi Arabia by the fanatical Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. He thought the medieval interpretations of Islam even on the backward Arabian peninsula were too liberal and lenient. His most extreme followers cannot even peacefully coexist with mainstream Sunni Muslims, let alone Shia Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, secularists, feminists, gays, or anyone else. Their global jihad is a war against the entire human race in all its diversity and plurality.

Wahhabism has spread outward from Saudi Arabia by proselytizers funded by petrodollars who have set up mosques, madrassas, and indoctrination centers nearly everywhere from Indonesia to the United States. In the Balkans, for instance, Wahhabis are actually replacing traditional moderate Ottoman mosques destroyed by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitary units with their own extremist knockoffs. They’re staking out new ground in the West where they deliberately gin up virulent hatred among immigrants from Muslim countries. They tried to car-bomb their way into power in parts of Iraq, and in the cities of Baqubah, Fallujah, and Ramadi they even succeeded for a while.

In some places the ideology flourishes more than in others. It was effectively transplanted to Afghanistan with the assistance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. In thoroughly secular Muslim countries like Azerbaijan and Albania, bin Ladenism remains thinner on the ground than in Western Europe. Its adherents are unevenly distributed, but it began in the Middle East and has since metastasized.

Al Qaeda leaders did not spring up from the ground in Afghanistan, nor are they chained there. They move around. Any country where they are located becomes crucial whether American soldiers are present or not. Like the Cold War, this conflict is not exclusively military, but the theaters of armed conflict have already been widened well beyond Afghanistan. And the war isn’t America-centric. It is not all about us. Fighting between violent Islamists and their enemies broke out in Arab countries like Algeria and Lebanon, and even in countries without a Muslim majority like Russia and the Philippines. Many of these conflicts started before the attacks on September 11, before anyone could even imagine that American troops would fight a hot war in Afghanistan.

And let’s not forget the radical Shias. While Sunni Wahhabis export their fundamentalist creed from the Arabian Peninsula, the Khomeinists in the Islamic Republic of Iran are busy exporting their own revolutionary and totalitarian brand of Shia Islam to countries like Lebanon and Iraq. So far the Iranians and their proxies have been less violent and extreme than Al Qaeda, but Iran remains the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. While the leaders are Shias, that has not – contrary to mistaken conventional wisdom – stopped them from forming tactical alliances with radical Sunnis from Hamas in Gaza to Ansar Al Islam.

Before the U.S. demolished the regime of Saddam Hussein, Ansar Al Islam was based in and around the town of Biara in Northern Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq founder Abu Musab al Zarqawi was one of its members. American Special Forces and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters pushed Ansar into the Northern Iranian city of Mariwan where they remain today and receive support from the government of Iran. They have since changed their name to Al Qaeda in Kurdistan.

On some level even Senator Obama himself understands that Afghanistan is unlikely be the beginning and the end of this war. He correctly argues that more needs to be done to shut down the safe havens bin Laden and company have established in Pakistan. He likely doesn’t believe some of his own rhetoric about Afghanistan even though it’s a standard staple of his campaign. His dovish liberal base seems sometimes desperate to believe that Afghanistan was the beginning and will be the end of a war they have little stomach to wage.

Wishing will not make it so. Afghanistan, indeed all of Central Asia, is on the periphery. The violent ideologies that animate the most dangerous terrorist movements in the world are Arabic and, to a lesser extent, Persian. The Middle East is central. It is not a distraction. It is where the war truly began because it is where most of the combatants, ideological leaders, and supporters were born and raised. While there’s a chance it won’t end there, most of it will be fought there.

Michael J. Totten – 09.29.2008 – 4:32 PM

Michael Totten speaks the truth.  Will anyone listen?

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Love Me If You Can

In culture, Music on September 24, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Sometimes I think that war is necessary.
Every night I pray for peace on Earth.
I hand out my dollars to the homeless.
But believe that every able soul should work.

My father gave me my shotgun that I’ll hand down to my son, try to teach him everything it means.

(chorus)
I’m a man of my convictions. Call me wrong, call me right. But I bring my better angels to every fight. You may not like
where I’m going, but you sure know where I stand. Hate me if you want to, love me if you can.

I stand by my right to speak freely. But I worry ’bout what kids learn from TV. And before all of debatin’ turns to angry
words and hate, sometimes we should just agree to disagree. And I believe that Jesus looks down here and sees us, and if you
ask him he would say

(chorus)
I’m a man of my convictions. Call me wrong, call me right. But I bring my better angels to every fight. You may not like
where I’m going, but you sure know where I stand. Hate me if you want to, love me if you can.

(chorus)
I’m a man of my convictions. Call me wrong, call me right. But I bring my better angels to every fight. You may not like
where I’m going, but you sure know where I stand. Hate me if you want to, love me if you can.

I love this song.   Dave

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The Wisdom of Khalil Gibran

In culture, Literature, Middle East on September 22, 2008 at 6:38 pm

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

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The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America

In culture, Politics on September 19, 2008 at 3:23 am
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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The Joker

In culture on September 19, 2008 at 12:37 am

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/joker6.jpg

Best Joker ever….

I wish they would have made Arkham Asylum with Heath Ledger.  Wasted life.  Wasted talent.

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Case closed: The Rosenbergs were Soviet spies

In culture, Politics on September 18, 2008 at 1:08 am
A startling confession again proves their guilt. Now it’s time for their left-wing defenders to acknowledge it.
By Ronald Radosh
September 17, 2008
» Discuss Article (133 Comments)

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed 55 years ago, on June 19, 1953. But last week, they were back in the headlines when Morton Sobell, the co-defendant in their famous espionage trial, finally admitted that he and his friend, Julius, had both been Soviet agents.

It was a stunning admission; Sobell, now 91 years old, had adamantly maintained his innocence for more than half a century. After his comments were published, even the Rosenbergs’ children, Robert and Michael Meeropol, were left with little hope to hang on to — and this week, in comments unlike any they’ve made previously, the brothers acknowledged having reached the difficult conclusion that their father was, indeed, a spy. “I don’t have any reason to doubt Morty,” Michael Meeropol told Sam Roberts of the New York Times.

With these latest events, the end has arrived for the legions of the American left wing that have argued relentlessly for more than half a century that the Rosenbergs were victims, framed by a hostile, fear-mongering U.S. government. Since the couple’s trial, the left has portrayed them as martyrs for civil liberties, righteous dissenters whose chief crime was to express their constitutionally protected political beliefs. In the end, the left has argued, the two communists were put to death not for spying but for their unpopular opinions, at a time when the Truman and Eisenhower administrations were seeking to stem opposition to their anti-Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War.

To this day, this received wisdom permeates our educational system. A recent study by historian Larry Schweikart of the University of Dayton has found that very few college history textbooks say simply that the Rosenbergs were guilty; according to Schweikart, most either state that the couple were innocent or that the trial was “controversial,” or they “excuse what [the Rosenbergs] did by saying, ‘It wasn’t that bad. What they provided wasn’t important.’ “

Indeed, Columbia University professor Eric Foner once wrote that the Rosenbergs were prosecuted out of a “determined effort to root out dissent,” part of a broader pattern of “shattered careers and suppressed civil liberties.” In other words, it was part of the postwar McCarthyite “witch hunt.”

But, in fact, Schweikart is right, and Foner is wrong. The Rosenbergs were Soviet spies, and not minor ones either. Not only did they try their best to give the Soviets top atomic secrets from the Manhattan Project, they succeeded in handing over top military data on sonar and on radar that was used by the Russians to shoot down American planes in the Korean and Vietnam wars. That’s long been known, and Sobell confirmed it again last week.

To many Americans, Cold War espionage cases like the Rosenberg and Alger Hiss cases that once riveted the country seem irrelevant today, something out of the distant past. But they’re not irrelevant. They’re a crucial part of the ongoing dispute between right and left in this country. For the left, it has long been an article of faith that these prosecutions showed the essentially repressive nature of the U.S. government. Even as the guilt of the accused has become more and more clear (especially since the fall of the Soviet Union and the release of reams of historical Cold War documents), these “anti anti-communists” of the intellectual left have continued to argue that the prosecutions were overzealous, or that the crimes were minor, or that the punishments were disproportionate.

The left has consistently defended spies such as Hiss, the Rosenbergs and Sobell as victims of contrived frame-ups. Because a demagogue like Sen. Joseph McCarthy cast a wide swath with indiscriminate attacks on genuine liberals as “reds” (and even though McCarthy made some charges that were accurate), the anti anti-communists came to argue that anyone accused by McCarthy or Richard Nixon or J. Edgar Hoover should be assumed to be entirely innocent. People like Hiss (a former State Department official who was accused of spying) cleverly hid their true espionage work by gaining sympathy as just another victim of a smear attack.

But now, with Sobell’s confession of guilt, that worldview has been demolished.

In the 1990s, when it was more than clear that the Rosenbergs had been real Soviet spies — not simply a pair of idealistic left-wingers working innocently for peace with the Russians — one of the Rosenberg’s sons, Michael, expressed the view that the reason his parents stayed firm and did not cooperate with the government was because they wanted to keep the government from creating “a massive spy show trial,” thereby earning “the thanks of generations of resisters to government repression.”

Today, he and his brother Robert run a fund giving grants to the children of those they deem “political prisoners,” such as convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Ironically, if there was any government that staged show trials for political ends, it was the government for which the Rosenbergs gave up their lives, that of the former Soviet Union.

This week, the Meeropols made it clear to the New York Times that they still believe the information their father passed to the Russians was not terribly significant, that the judge and the prosecutors in their parents’ case were guilty of misconduct, and that neither Julius nor Ethel should have been given the death penalty for their crimes.

On the subject of their mother, the Meeropols have a point. In another development last week, a federal court judge in New York released previously sealed grand jury testimony of key witnesses in the case, including that of Ruth Greenglass, Julius’ sister-in-law. It turns out that a key part of her testimony for the prosecution — that Ethel had typed up notes for her husband to hand to the Soviets — was most likely concocted.

That doesn’t mean that Ethel was innocent — indeed, the preponderance of the evidence suggests she was not. But what is clear is that in seeking to get the defendants to confess to Soviet espionage, the prosecutors overstepped bounds and enhanced testimony to guarantee a conviction. Americans should have no problem acknowledging when such judicial transgressions take place, and in concluding that the execution of Ethel was a miscarriage of justice.

Nevertheless, after Sobell’s confession of guilt, all other conspiracy theories about the Rosenberg case should come to an end. A pillar of the left-wing culture of grievance has been finally shattered. The Rosenbergs were actual and dangerous Soviet spies. It is time the ranks of the left acknowledge that the United States had (and has) real enemies and that finding and prosecuting them is not evidence of repression.

Ronald Radosh, an emeritus professor of history at City University of New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is the coauthor of “The Rosenberg File.”

This is the problem that I have with so much of the Left.  It’s counter-culture Elite seems to have been nothing but tools of the Soviet Union.  Now those same “Elite” are the power of the DNC.  Those elite are the powerbrokers who have elevated the Marxist Barack Hussein Obama.

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Adventure Egypt

In culture, Middle East, Travel on September 17, 2008 at 2:16 am

Below is an excellent map of Egypt. It shows allof the major historical sights from Pharaonic times to the present. The Pharaohs, Alexander, the Ptolemies to the Romans. It is an excellent road map with which to describe and follow the path of my recent Egyptian adventure.

We landed in Cairo at about 6 AM. That first day, we napped til noon.

Afterward, we headed out to see Coptic Cairo and the great fortress on the hill which contains the magnificent Muhammad Ali Mosque. This Mosque is a wondrous work of art. A celebration to God and all that was and could be great about Islam as a religion. Muhammad Ali is buried within inside a white mausoleum. We head back to our hotel for showers. And then head back out to see the light show at the Pramids and Sphinx.

Next day, we were gathered up by Shaimaa and taken to the Pyramids and Sphinx at the Giza Plateau. We walked around those incredible structures and viewed a boat that was found in the 1940s. The boat was to be used to ferry the Pharoah across the river to the world of the dead. That afternoon we were driven south of Cairo to Sakkara to see the Ziggurat which is the earliest pyramid. We also took in the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid. Huge structures. We climbed down into the Red Pyramid. It was…difficult. Afterward, we took lunch at an Egyptian restaurant. Pretty good food. That night we enjoy an evening cruise on the Nile. Taking in the sites of Cairo along the river Nile.

Day 3 saw us traveling North to Alexandria. We visited the catacombs. Checked out some cool grave sites that are centuries old. Dating back to the Greek and Roman eras. Took in a couple of mosques and the new Library of Alexandria. All of the learning of mankind in one repository. A daunting task. We also visited the Pompeii Pillar. I’ve put a few pics of this up on another post. Lastly, we visited the Quitbay Citadel which is built on the site of Ptolemys Pharos.

That night we jumped on the train that took us to Luxor. We were forewarned about the food on the train. So we grabbed some KFC to take along. I let them bring me a plate of food. It was as wretched as we were told. I don’t know who eats the stuff. Not even the Egyptians to whom we talked would eat it.

In the morning, we arrived bright and early in Luxor. We were met at the train station by our guide and he delivered us to our hotel and got us checked in. We agreed to meet at 1 PM for a tour of the Theben Temples of Luxor and Karnak. Magnificent is all I can say. We were given a tour here by Adel. A pretty cool dude who took his time and had lots of patience with me. lol

The next day. We get up bright and early to take in the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatscheput. We also roll over to the Valley of Artists. This is where many of the artisans who built and decorated the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens were themselves buried. We also take in the Colossi of Memnon. This was my second favorite site in Egypt. Two giants overseeing the ages of man. Reaching out from the past. What message would they have for us if they could speak to us?

The next day we drive to Aswan. We awaken bright and early. Along the way, we stop at Edfu and Kom Ombo. I think we arrived in Aswan at noon. We have most of the day to ourselves. So we go to the market. Catch some lunch at the hotel. We explore the city more and take in more of the markets. It seems the markets in Aswan go on forever. We don’t buy much. A couple of trinkets. This is where Adel leaves us and we are handed over to Fatima and a guy whose name I can’t remember.

That night, we take to bed early. As day 6, we are required to arise at 2AM in order to catch our bus to Abo Simbel. Abo Simbel is my favorite stop on this tour. It is beauty. It is ageless. It is THE sign of the greatness of Pharaonic Egypt. It’s a long drive to Abo Simbel. And a longer drive on the return. We seem to have been placed on the bus with the slowest driver in Upper Egypt. In the afternoon, we take in a few more sites. The Aswan Dam. The unfinished obelisk. The Temple of Philae which is situated on an island in the middle of the Nile. Tour guides aren’t allowed to enter Abo Simbel. They have their own. But when we returned to Aswan, Fatimah gave us a great tour of Philae and the other sites around Aswan.

That night we fly back to Cairo.

We are picked up at the Airport by Hamdi. The owner and operator of Adventure Egypt. Hamdi has taken care of our tour in Egypt. He did a good job of it. Although, the tour like everything else in Egypt was a bt pricey. Even so, he had a mammoth task on his hands in booking us through everything at the last moment. Even if it was the low season.

We proceed to drive the 8 hours to Mount Sinai. It was a long drive. We arrived around 7AM and get booked into our room. The room was not so good. So later in the afternoon, we were moved to a nicer room. Thanks to Hamdi. We hung out until about 2 and proceeded to Mount Sinai. It was a hell of a climb. I’ll post more on this and other parts of the tour later. But this climb damn near killed me. But about 2/3rds of the way up, my old Army training kicked in. I got my second wind and took off up the mountain. I climbed a few spots that were pretty hairy. If you stick to the trail, you are pretty much safe. I kept exploring off the trail. A couple of times, I slipped and thought it would be the last anyone ever heard of me. haha

We reached the top. Finally. And watched the sun go down. Then proceeded down the side of the mountain in the dark. And it was dark. Sometimes pitch dark. I got “mis-oriented” once and lost track of Becca and our guide. But I found my way and got down safely. That is until I caught up with Becca and she blinded me with my flashlight and I almost killed myself. lol

That night, I stayed up with Hamdi and a tent full of Bedouin watching movies, talking and smoking sheesha or water pipes. Apple flavoured smoke. I had my laptop with me and my hard drive. So I gave these dudes about 30 movies. Kinda funny. A tent out in the desert with satellite TV, internet, desk top computer and 32 inch TV. I think he had a refrigerator out there as well. We sat up until 3 AM or so drinking tea, eating bread and cheese, smoking sheesha and laughing at Will Ferrell in Semi Pro.

Day 7 (I think), we rise early. Check out of the hotel and tour St Catherines Monastery. Interesting tour. It’s built on the site where the Israelites camped and Moses brought down the Ten Commandments.

After the tour, we headed back to Cairo. The last night, we stayed in the Mena House Oberoi. A beautiful hotel with views of the Pyramids. It was just the right place for our last night in Egypt. A little bit of luxury after our rugged tour of Upper and Lower Egypt. That night we decided to take in a bit of the Cairene night life. We didn’t see much. Pretty dead. It was a Sunday night though and we were in the wrong area. But I did meet a pretty cool gal named Nora at my Hotel. She was there for a wedding at the Khan Khalili room of the Mena house. She invited me up and we sat and talked for a couple of hours until she headed out with her friends.

The next day, I got up late morning. Packed everything up and jumped on my flight back to Dubai. Departing Cairo is a bit of a mess. The Airport was crazy and disorganized. But I bribed the police to put me in the front of the line. So I got through pretty quick.

I got to my gate and an hour or so later…I was off. Adventure Egypt concluded…

I have to say that the most daunting task I have ahead of me is describing here on this blog these sites and experiences. I have not adequate words to describe Abo Simbel, the Temple of Philai. I know of no way to convey the sense of awe and wonder that one experiences upon entering tombs and temples that are thousand of years old but look as if they were but recently painted. Walking through Karnak and Luxor. Hearing the histories of the Egyptian Pharaohs and their people. Kom Ombo and Edfu. It is beyond my power. What words could I use. It is not possible to pass onto the reader the magnificence of these Pyramids rising out of the desert. These works of man are a marvel to be seen. Imagine the efforts and genius of the peoples who built them. Even so, all of this pales in comparison to the mighty river Nile and the surrounding deserts.

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World War II — Nimitz and the USS Missouri

In culture on September 16, 2008 at 2:04 am

Admiral Nimitz on the USS Missouri signing the Peace Treaty with Imperial Japans Emperor.

These are more of the pictures from my Grandfathers collection. Some of these I remember seeing in LIFE magazine as a child.

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Sarah Palin: SNL Spoof on Fox News

In Politics on September 15, 2008 at 10:10 am

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Kentucky Football: Signs of things to come?

In Sports, UK Football on September 15, 2008 at 9:47 am

Is this a sign of terrible things to come for UK football?  Is it the coaches working the kinks out of inexperience?  Was it just a momentary stroke of good fortune on the part of MTSU and UK overcame their mistakes to win a ball game.

I’ve been following UK football for a while now.  I’ve been talking to UK football fans who have followed the program for years.  One recurring theme when it comes to UK football is that every time UK starts to do well, the program self-destructs.  Usually probation over recruiting violations.  Most often, UK is caught at something comparatively laughable.  But instead of fighting the NCAA like UT and Bama and USC, UK cooperates and is burned for their efforts.

USC gets a Reggie Bush and his agents.  No problem.  Ohio State gets caught paying it’s players thousand.  No problem.  A teacher comes out and verifies that UT is cheating academically, hell, the teacher gets fired and UT is cleared of any and all cheating.

UK gives a couple of jackets away and is caught writing a grand worth of checks.  Probation time.

UK has enjoyed two successful seasons.  8-5 Bowl years.  Sounds great.  I love it.  But I’m still waiting for the other shoe to fall.  In some fashion or another.

I hope to god it doesn’t happen.  I want the program to be successful.  I’d love to Rich Brooks to retire with a BCS Bowl added to his resume.

Coach Brooks and company are making great gains in recruiting.  This is hopeful.  Signs of a program on the rise.  They have beat UL two years in a row.  This year they embarrassed the Cards in their own stadium.  The Card fans ran out on their team before the 3rd quarter was over.  Last year, Brooks had this team roaring.  Defeating the #1 LSU in a huge upset.  Ranked #8 in the country at one point.  Then came 3 losses in a row.  The Cats just didn’t have the depth to compete.  Not even with Mississippi State.  That’s not Brooks fault.  That’s Kentucky Football.

Brooks seem to be doing everything right.  He’s adding depth and talent.  UK finally has a respectable Defense.  A first in my memory.

I hope the end of the game is a symbol of persistance and not a sign of things starting to unravel.  Kentucky plays in the SEC.  If they don’t tighten up, there will be plenty of losses.  UF.  UGa.  UT.  Bama.  All on the schedule.  USC and Spurrier are on the schedule.  the Gamecocks might be down.  With Spurrier, they are never out.

UK must get at least 3 wins in the SEC.  Arkansas, USC, VAndy and Miss.  Those are 4 winnable games.  UK has to take care of business here.  That would be an 8 wins season and a good bowl game.

UT looks beatable this season.  But Phat Phil isn’t going to take that last game of the season off.  He’ll be ready for UK.  That is for certain.  In a down year like this one seems to be heading, a loss to UK would be unforgiveable.  The Vols might chase him out of Knoxville.  Hell, they might put him on the Big Blue Bus and tell him not to come back.  So a UT win is going to be a challenge.  But not impossible.

Upset one of UF, UGa or Bama.

Well, that’s a lot to hope for…but, if it happened.  Oh, if it happened.

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World War II: The Soldiers

In culture on September 15, 2008 at 1:16 am

These are photos of my Grandfather and his fellow soldiers in the Pacific Theatre. Grandpa Les was fond of telling us that he served under MacArthur during the war. He was part of the post-War occupation force which entered Japan after the peace was signed. I’m not certain how long he stayed on after the cessation of hostilities.

He told us plenty of stories though. Stories of Gold and Women. Soldiers and Officers looting. He brought back a Samarai Sword set. Unfortunately, one of his sons sold it cheaply because he was too ignorant to know it’s true value. Hopefully, that sword will be returned to it’s home someday.

One story that Grandpa Les told me was of gold that he and some of his fellow soldiers looted at the end of the war. I can’t remember the whole of the story. But I’ll give an outline of what I do remember.

It seems that somehow, Grandpa and a friend came upon some bars of Gold. They hid it in their barracks for a time. But when word got out that some soldiers had looted gold in the barracks, they had to find a way to hide it. What they did was crazy. They found a well. Packed the gold in Ammo crates and threw the gold down the well. They figured that they would return at a later date. Reclaim the treasure and return to America with their riches.

In time, they were all transferred out. No one to my Grandfathers knowledge was able to get back to the gold deposit.

For all I know, there is a well somewhere near the original home of the 1st Cav Division in Japan with a small horde of gold in it. I have no idea if the story is true or if Grandpa was making it all up to entertain us.

In any case, these photos are of Grandpa Les and his fellow soldiers of the Pacific Theatre. These guys went through hell and back together and with General MacArthur. Grandpa Les was proud of his service as I’m sure the rest of his fellows were. And rightfully so.

“Never in the field of human conflict, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!”
Winston Churchill – September 1940

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan…As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense…With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.”
President F.D. Roosevelt – 8th December 1941

“It is my earnest hope – indeed the hope of all mankind – that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a worl dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.”
- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (1945)

“They have given their sons to the military services. They have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks. Riveted the ships and rolled the shells.”
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (addressing women’s contributions to the war)

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World War II: People of Asia

In culture on September 14, 2008 at 5:24 am

These are just a few photos of women (Japanese and Filipina) and some native Islanders in what I believe to be the Philippines.  My Grandmother used to call these Grandpas WWII girlfriends.  One of the photos has the name of the girl written on the back.  So Grandpa Les must have known her in some capacity.  Girlfriend.  Customer.  Who knows.  Maybe he almost married one of the girls he met in post-war Japan.  Thousands of GIs did so in the years between the end of the war and today.

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The Sports Guys take on USA Basketball.

In culture, Sports on September 13, 2008 at 1:46 am

THE SPORTS GUY

Is it a classic if no one is watching?

Guess you’ll have to take my word for it.

by Bill Simmons

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

I can’t let the Gold-Medal Game go. USA 118, Spain 107. One of the 10 most dramatic basketball games of my lifetime. And nobody gave a crap or even knew. The game started at 2:30 in the morning ET and vanished into thin air. Only West Coasters and super-diehards stayed up to see it. Everyone else woke up Sunday, heard the score, caught the highlights and never thought about it again.

When was the last time a truly great sporting event completely slipped through the cracks? That never happens anymore. Ever! I feel about 3% cooler just for being one of the few who watched it live.

Consider the following:

IT WAS ALL SLIPPING AWAY. COULD THERE BE ANY MORE PRESSURE? I SAY NO.
• You do realize that all those points were scored in 40 minutes, right? This was like a Nuggets-Spurs game in 1978, only this time there was a gold medal at stake, so everyone was playing out of their minds. The two teams combined to make 41 of 65 field goals, 13 of 22 threes and 35 of 41 free throws—in the first half.

• The Spaniards hung with America’s finest even though a) star point José Calderón was injured; b) star scorer Rudy Fernández battled foul trouble all game; and c) they made the goofy decision to play with first names on the backs of their jerseys (shades of Cadwallader University in Fast Break). So how did they hang around? They got a few sneaky baskets on back doors and high screens. Fernández (22 points in 18 minutes) hit a few bombs. The U.S. needed a fire extinguisher to put out Juan Carlos Navarro, who made an absurd collection of floaters, runners and you-gotta-be-kidding-mes. And in the upset of the century, the Gasol Bros. (32 points) totally overwhelmed Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh inside.

(You heard me, the Gasol Bros.! On the Black Sheep Brother Scale, Marc moved out of a three-way deadlock with Don Swayze and Jeremy Giambi after this game. He still has a little way to go to catch Frank Stallone, though.)

• Ricky Rubio started for Calderón and was solid, if not great. But the feat itself? Do I need to remind you he’s the same age as Jamie Lynn Spears? Imagine Team USA picking Chris Paul and a high school kid as its point guards, then Paul missing the gold-medal game and the teenager holding his own? How many commercials would he be filming right now? Twenty? The nonstop Pistol Pete comparisons are beneath Rubio; his defensive instincts, playmaking and athleticism bring him closer to a hybrid of Scottie Pippen and a young Magic—if they happened to look like one of the Jonas Brothers. I love Ricky to the point that I might move to whatever NBA city gets him. You think I’m kidding.

• Dwyane Wade’s 27 points off the bench. I forgot how much I missed him. When a Spaniard tripped Wade at the end of the first half it sent me (and whichever other Americans were still up) into full-fledged “Oh, you want a piece of us, Spain?!” mode. It was just the extra motivation I needed. Why? Rooting for Kobe and Coach K is like rooting for the house in blackjack. It never stops feeling wrong, and you never stop secretly wanting to turn on them. When Nike brilliantly used Marvin Gaye’s rendition of the national anthem in its commercial, I was pretty much swayed; you could have talked me into caring about a team featuring Kevin Federline, Jimmy Fallon and Spencer Pratt after that. But some scrub from Spain nearly blowing out Wade’s knee? It was on.

• You can’t beat three incompetent FIBA refs speaking different languages for providing an I-hope-this-doesn’t-turn-out-like-the-last-three-seconds-of-the-’72-Olympic-gold-medal-game edge. Just when Spain was fading, Fernández caught the on-fires from Navarro and YouTubed Howard with a hellacious dunk. But he fouled out on an egregious touch foul (Kobe’s game-altering four-point play), and Spain cried conspiracy after. Problem is, those bozos called a whopping 55 fouls and looked more wobbly than a 93-year-old backing out of a driveway. Fun wrinkle, especially if you wanted to have a two-hour heart attack.

I LOVE RUBIO SO MUCH I MIGHT MOVE TO WHATEVER NBA CITY GETS HIM.
• Not one, not two but three festering Team USA weaknesses bubbled up. First, they lacked a KG-like defender who could patrol the paint and fix every lapse on D, as well as a Bruce Bowen-like perimeter stopper to squash high screens. And guess what: The Swayzes worked over the Howard/Bosh combo, and Navarro killed the U.S. on the same high screen at least 45 times. The suits spent more than two years picking this team and failed to find the only two defenders they needed? Really?

Second, Coach K kept starting a washed-up Jason Kidd (can’t shoot, can’t play slash-and-kick) over Chris Paul and Deron Williams (only the two best American point guards right now). This was the elephant in the room for two weeks. Kidd would tread water, and Paul and Williams would wreak havoc. Meanwhile, Coach K pretended it wasn’t happening, and NBC’s Mike Breen and Doug Collins totally ducked the issue. Only when Spain threatened in the second half did Paul and Williams alternate playing the final 16 minutes because, you know, K realized he actually needed to win the game. The good news: He gets to deduct the charity minutes he gave Kidd at tax time.

Third, for most of the Games, Team USA had an alpha dog issue. Was this Kobe’s team or LeBron’s? Fast-forward to 8:13 left: Fernández’s three cuts the lead to two; the crowd is going bonkers. Spain’s bench reacts like a euphoric 15-seed during a March Madness upset, and the U.S. calls timeout. All along, my biggest fear had been a tight game and multiple USA guys saying, “I got it!” Instead, everyone deferred to Kobe, who made some monster plays to clinch it. Know that in the history of the NBA we have never had the best-player-alive argument resolved so organically. Incredible. Kobe, you have the Lord of the Flies conch. Use it wisely.

• Had the Americans blown this one, the Choke Job Hall of Fame would have a new wing. Kobe, Bron, Wade and Coach K would have been stained forever (not to mention Howard, whose stock slipped at a Bear Stearns speed in the medal round). Imagine the pressure on Team USA during that timeout. After all the rhetoric and BS, after all the hype about choosing the right team, everything was slipping away. Could there be more pressure than that? I say no.

Yeah, they just barely prevailed over an opponent they should have beaten handily. This was still the most dramatic non-Phelps moment of the Olympics. I know one person who attended the game (my friend Hirschy, an NBA nut) who spent 20 minutes recapping it a week later, repeatedly telling me, “You had to be there—this was tense!” No kidding.

I could tell that at the final buzzer, when 12 filthy rich grown-ups began to celebrate like Little Leaguers. No posturing, fake crying or rehearsed dance routines, just hugging and more hugging. We wanted a selfless team that cared. We wanted a team to come through when it mattered. We wanted one unforgettable game. We got all of it—well, those of us paying attention, anyway.

And that’s why I hope neither NBA TV nor ESPN Classic ever replays this game. It belongs to me and the lucky few who watched it live and sweated it out. God bless America. Hell, I might even start rooting for Coach K and Kobe after this.

(On second thought … nah.)

Want more Bill Simmons? Check out The Sports Guy’s World.

If it’s true that no one watched this game in the States, it’s a tragedy.  This was one hell of a game.  Seperate your dislike of the NBA from this Olympic Team.  Watch the game.  Cheer on the USA.  Be amazed.  Be impressed.  Get Nostalgic.  Push back a tear.  Celebrate a helluva Victory…

Then go back to your NBA Hate.

This game was special.  For the Olympics.  For Spain.  For both teams.  For America.

It was THAT GOOD.

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Superwomen

In culture, Music on September 13, 2008 at 12:50 am

Women are always beautiful. ~Ville Valo

This one goes out to the women of my life.  I’ve been fortunate in this regard.  I’ve met some extraordinary women over the years.  Of course, there are those in my family.  My Mother.  Sister.  Grandmothers.  Aunts.  But I’ve been blessed with incredible friendships as well.  Some that have spanned years and decades.  Some who became my great friends and remain integral to my life.  Others.  Lasting days, weeks, months or mere moments.

I’ve met incredible women along the path of my life.  In the unique and common places.  I’ve enjoyed bonds of varying nature–friends and lovers and sometimes both.  Long term friendships and relationships.  Short lived, yet, intense trysts, fantasies and infatuations.  With others, I’ve enjoyed a drink.  A lunch or dinner.  A conversation.   Magical glances.  Lifetimes in mere moments.

However long the relationship and in whatever spirit, I have been fortunate along the path of my life.  I’m grateful for each experience.  Each Gift of Love and Friendship.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Kahlil Gibran

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World War II: Raising the Flag on Mt. Suribachi

In culture on September 12, 2008 at 1:13 am

“The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”
James Forrestal – Secretary of the Navy – 23rd February 1945″

Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz – 16th March 1945

Unfortunately, someone somewhere down the years spilled coffee (?) on this photo.  When Grandpa Les pulled out pictures to show us, invariably he would choose this as one of them.  He was proud of his service and this is one of the most famous scenes from the war.

Grandpa Les was understandably proud of the moment and cherished the unique momento of history.  After all, books have been written about this moment in history. This moment has been memorialized with the United State Marine Corps Memorial and the recent movie Flags of Our Fathers.


Postcards from Egypt

In culture, Travel on September 11, 2008 at 11:58 am

These are postcards that I purchased in Egypt.  Postcards are amazing.  You can send a piece of the world to your friends and family.  Such a simple act that can touch people so personally.

I love to receive postcards from people in their travels.  Something special about it.

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World War II: The Bomb

In culture, Politics on September 11, 2008 at 1:55 am

My Grandfather brought these photographs home from the war.  I am told that he was friends with Ernie Pyle.  The famous World War II journalist. Grandma had the photo album hidden away in her house. She was afraid that something might happen to them. I think they are a treasure and should be shared.  Fortunately, back in 2001 she let me borrow them long enough for me to scan them.   I have wondered at a means of sharing them. Now that I have a blog, this is the perfect vehicle for such an endeavor. I’ll bring them out in categories that seem logical. The Bomb. The treaty. The people of Asia. The Soldiers.

These are pictures of the bomb.  One of them.  Exploding over Nagasaki or Hiroshima.  A terrible decision that saved American lives.  Possibly millions. But ended hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives and affected the next generations terribly.

War is a terrifyingly, wretched endeavor.

“A bright light filled the plane. The first shock-wave hit us. We were eleven and a half miles slant range from the atomic explosion but the whole airplane cracked and crinkled from the blast… We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud… mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall.”
- Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 Enola Gay

“I become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, a scientist involve with the development of the atomic bomb (July 16, 1945 quoting the Hindu Scriptures after the first atomic bomb detonation) [summited by Jim Marchetti]

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Governor Sarah Palin Speech Highlights

In Politics on September 11, 2008 at 1:50 am

They say that there’s no such thing as a stupid question…

In culture on September 10, 2008 at 9:20 am

Or as Bill Engval would say; “Here’s your sign.”

Yesterday I was at my local Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Sheriff, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.  What did she think I had an elephant?  So since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again.  I added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I’d lost 50 Pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.  I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)  Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter’s ass and a car hit us both.  I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard. Wal-Mart won’t let me shop there anymore.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of the story.  True or false.  It’s hilarious.

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