Quote of the Day - Lazarus vs. Trump

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

~Sephardic Jewish-American Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" written in 1883

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" 

~ German-American Donald J. Trump stated in 2018

Picture of the Day - A Temple To Temple

Tonight I worked a wedding at the Camp San Luis Obispo Officers Club for the first time (for me). It was rainy and cozy and romantic for the the couple who are both service members, he being a guard at SATCOM up at Camp Roberts and she being in basic training in the US Army as I recall. They were a nice-looking couple and the wedding was charmingly small and casual and in a building with that WWII-era look and feel.

In fact, the place is a veritable museum of photographs of the base in yesterday from exercises to celebrity USO visitors performing. This base is the original home of the California National Guard. The officers club there is a de facto shrine to former California National Guard boss under Governor Reagan and later US Army National Guard boss under President Reagan, Lieutenant General Herbert R. Temple, Jr.

The above primary source document framed and hanging on the wall of a hall across from the restrooms indicates that up through the 1970s the Governor's Office of Emergency Services leader was not an Emergency Manager but rather the head of the California National Guard. We've come a long way!

My Favorite Pearl Harbor Attack Image

Today marked the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is somewhat difficult for me to wrap my mind around that fact as it does not feel like it has been that long. Perhaps that is partly due to my growing older. When I was born it had only been 29 years since the attack. It is also somewhat strange to consider that the two most closely-associated navies in the world are the two navies that clashed that day.

Jefferson's Prescribed Fire

This rather gripping illustration accompanied a year-old tongue-in-cheek article in the satirical news publication The Onion entitled "Study Finds Controlled Washington, D.C. Wildfires Crucial For Restoring Healthy Political Environment." I see connectivity between it and the below satirical Cthulhu political campaign meme. It seems to me that both of these images reflect the Jeffersonian sentiment that "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing." The broader version of the 1787 quote in which Thomas Jefferson is referring to Shay's Rebellion goes: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

Dear Bill

Tonight I saw this welcome and congratulations note from a departing President G.H.W. Bush to incoming President William Jefferson Clinton on Inauguration Day 1993. It reveals a level of cordiality and collegiality almost unheard of nowadays in partisan politics. God help us all!

Word of the Day - Salutary Neglect

Today my master teacher at Atascadero High School shared a non-in-the-textbook expression with his 10th-grade world history classes to which I have never before been exposed: Salutary Neglect
This act of effective teaching on the part of my master teacher is in accordance with one element of my personal teaching philosophy: use scholarly language and terminology that is useful and appropriate but not to be found in the core curriculum or textbook.

Competing Presidential Body Counts

Over the course of the current crazy political season here in the United States, I have been regularly struck with stupefaction at the power of cognitive dissonance revealed in those caught up in the Left-Right Cultural War divide. Both sides seem willing to believe just about anything about members of the opposing tribe no matter how far-fetched, improbable and unproven. They will also interpret what facts they do selectively choose to accept on two very different standards: the one they judge their own side by and the one by which they judge the other tribe. Both main candidates for President this year are irrefutably corrupt and untruthful. Yet their respective followers see great difference between them. This seems to suggest that both tribes share the epistemological perspective of Protagoras who believed "Man is the measure of all things," ergo perception as reality.

This cultural phenomenon reveals itself in a competing conspiracy theories of Presidential murder intrigue. Some of my more conspiratorial-minded friends who are willing to believe anything, no matter how crazy, provided it validates (to them) their hatred of the Clintons, have circulated the "Clinton Body Count" in various iterations in various media from chain emails to Facebook posts. That Occam's Razor and a closer look at the facts of each case demolishes the innuendos required to accept this narrative does not deter believers of this conspiracy. Below is a standard version of it:

1 - James McDougal - Clinton's convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation.

2 - Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.

3 - Vince Foster - Former white House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock's Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.

4 - Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors.

5 - C. Victor Raiser II and Montgomery Raiser, Major players in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

6 - Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992... Described by Clinton as a "Dear friend and trusted advisor."

7- Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.

8 - Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

9 - James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

10 - James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.

11- Kathy Ferguson, ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

12 - Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.

13 - Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.

14 - Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.

15 - Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.

16 - Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.

17 - Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.

18 - Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno three weeks before his death

19 - Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guarantee scandal.

20 - Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.

21- Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.

22 - Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee, died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and brother.

23 - Barry Seal - Drug running pilot out of Mena, Arkansas, death was no accident.

24 - Johnny Lawhorn Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.

25 - Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guarantee. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.

26- Hershell Friday - Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.

27 - Kevin Ives and Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the two boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:

28 - Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, July 1988.

29 - Keith McMaskle - Died stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988

30 - Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.

31 - Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.

33 - James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to "natural causes."

34 - Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.

35 - Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD: 36 - Major William S. Barkley Jr. 37 - Captain Scott J. Reynolds 38 - Sgt. Brian Hanley 39 - Sgt. Tim Sabel 40 - Major General William Robertson 41 - Col. William Densberger 42 - Col. Robert Kelly 43 - Spec. Gary Rhodes 44 - Steve Willis 45 - Robert Williams 46 - Conway LeBleu 47 - Todd McKeehan

Quite an impressive list! Pass this on. Let the public become aware of what happens to anyone who might damage the Clinton machine!

*List courtesy of About.com's Urban Legends page HERE.  

This brings us to the competing Presidential murder intrigue conspiracy theory known as the Bush Body Count. This one started out a bit more tongue-in-cheek as a counter to the Clinton Body Count. It was originally designed to reveal the flaws in the Clinton Body Count conspiracy theory. However, since then it has also taken on a life of its own and some people believe it to be true despite its sharing the same logical fallacies as the competing conspiracy theory. Here is one iteration of the conspiracy theory:

1 - Paul Wilcher - His partially decomposed body was found in his home, still seated on the toilet. According to the Washington Times, "...he was investigating the theory of an 'October Surprise' conspiracy during the 1980 federal election campaign. He had been interviewing an inmate who claimed to have piloted George Bush to Paris so he could secretly seek to delay the release of 52 American hostages in Iran."

2 - Sid Adger - Mr. Adger, a Houston oil supply company executive and Bush family friend, died in 1996 of unknown causes. Adger was the mysterious businessman who approached General James Rose and asked him to help George W. Bush avoid Vietnam by recommending him for a pilot position with the National Guard.

3 - General James Rose - General Rose recommended George W. Bush for a pilot position with the Texas National Guard. He died of unknown causes in 1993. He was immediately buried and no autopsy was performed.

4 - Orlando Letelier - He was torn to bits by a car bomb on the streets of Washington DC just before he was to testify against the Chilean dictator Pinochet. After the bombing, CIA Director George H. W. Bush told the FBI that there had been no Chilean involvement whatsoever. In 1991 the post-Pinochet Chilean Supreme Court asked George H. W. Bush if he would submit to questioning. BUSH REFUSED.

5 - Ronni Moffit - She was Letelier's assistant. She and her husband were riding in the car with Letelier when the bomb exploded. Mr. Moffit survived. Ronni didn't.

6 - Amiram Nir - He was a former Israeli agent who was in Jerusalem with George Bush during Iran Contra. He went under the assumed name of Pat Weber. Nir was scheduled to testify to the Senate subcommittee and it was feared he would reveal the truth. He perished when his aircraft was shot down with missiles from the helicopter of a man called Gene Tatum, 25-year CIA deep cover agent.
Senator John Tower
He was appointed by the Reagan/Bush Administration to chair the bipartisan committee to investigate the Iran/Contra scandals. He directed the Tower Report and had all the Iran Contra documents that told the real story. He was killed in an airplane crash later in Georgia in 1991. Also killed was his daughter, Marian. Which is why Tower was nominated for Secretary of Defense by Bush Sr.

7 - Mario Ruiz Massieu - An apparent suicide, Massieu was facing charges that he laundered money for the cocaine cartels. A Houston, Texas jury had found that $8 million in his bank accounts was paid to him by cocaine cartels.

8 - Steve Kangas - His web site, Liberalism Resurgent, was meticulously researched and presented such a problem to the "real boss" of George Bush, Richard Scaife, that he hired a private detective to look into Kangas' past. Steve Kangas was found in a 39th-floor bathroom outside of Scaife's offices at One Oxford Centre, in Pittsburgh, an apparent suicide. Mr. Kangas, a very prolific writer, left no note. He had brought a fully-packed suitcase of clothes with him to Pittsburgh. He bought a burglar alarm shortly before he left for Pittsburgh. Why did he need a burglar alarm if he was going to commit suicide? An avowed advocate of gun control, he nevertheless bought a gun. What was he afraid of? Why did he go to Pittsburgh? After his death, his computer was sold for $150 and its hard drive wiped clean. Everything in his apartment was thrown away.

9 - Mohammed Zia al-huk - Dictator of Pakistan, and knew all about Iran/Contra, the training, funding, and arming of narco-terrorists like Osama bin Laden. In August 1988, the same day George Bush got the Republican nomination, his plane crashed into the ground with all engines running. The Pakistanis kept the bodies around (in violation of Islamic custom) for weeks, awaiting US experts. They showed up three weeks later and never checked the bodies. Why?

10 - Malcolm Baldridge - Commerce Secretary May 1987. Baldridge was familiar with the Bush family ties to the Communist Chinese. He died in a mysterious horseback riding accident. IIRC, the accident was caught on film. Nothing mysterious about it.

11 - Karla Faye Tucker - She was executed in spite of enormous protest from the public, even those religious groups that advocate the death penalty. Even Pat Robertson thought that Karla was truly repentant and asked George W. Bush to spare her life. He refused. Afterward, in a Talk Magazine interview, this stalwart of the Republican Party made fun of the woman whose death warrant he had sanctioned. How compassionate! So Bush signed a death warrent, proving that in Texas, the death penalty applies even to white Christian women as well as black men. Your point? 

12 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy - An internal FBI memo reported that on November 22 a reputed businessman named George H. W. Bush reported hearsay that a certain Young Republican had been talking of killing the President when he came to Houston. The Young Republican was nowhere near Dallas on that date. According to a 1988 story in The Nation, J. Edgar Hoover said in a memo that Mr. George Bush of the CIA had been briefed on November 23rd, 1963 about the reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the assassination of President Kennedy. George H. W. Bush has denied this, although he was in Texas and cannot account for his whereabouts at the time. Really strange. GW Bush was about 12 when this happened. His father was not a "reputed" businessman but theowner of a Texas oil company. As for the rest, I am not sure what it means. The FBI takes and records tips of all kinds when something like this happens (I am in a FBI file someplace because "John Doe Number 2" looked like someone I knew in college, so I called that in.)

13 - Hale Boggs - He sat on the Warren Commission, which concluded that President Kennedy was slain by a lone assassin. Later, in 1971 and '72, Boggs said that the Warren Report was false and that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI not only helped cover up the JFK murder but blackmailed Congress with massive wire-tapping and spying. He named Warren Commission staff member Arlen Specter as a major cover-up artist. Congressman Boggs' plane disappeared on a flight to Alaska in 1972. The press, the military, and the CIA publicly proclaimed the plane could not be located. Investigators later said that was a lie, that the plane had been found. Which is why his wife became a congreewoman in his stead for years, his son a prominant Washington lawyer with ties deep in the government and his granddaughter Cookie Roberts and NONE of these prominant people ever raised this issue.

14 - George de Mohrenschildt - A rich Russian oilman, he was described with his wife as being the two people friendliest to Oswald at the time of the assassination. De Mohrenschildt was the man who moved Oswald to Dallas. In the late 1970's, shortly before the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, de Mohrenschildt started seeing a new doctor in town. He quickly became mentally unstable, at which time his wife convinced him to stop seeing the doctor. They moved away and left a false forwarding address. On the same day that the Committee tried to contact him about testifying, he was found dead of a gunshot wound. In his personal address book was the entry Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) and Zapata Petroleum Midland (the oil company owned by George H.W. Bush).

15 - Barry Seal - He was supposedly murdered by Medellin cartel members, but a 6-month investigation by Sam Dalton, attorney for three of the accused murderers, into Mr. Seal's life and death uncovered some interesting points. The accused's cartel connections were well known, but not their association with Oliver North's enterprise. Mr. Seal was a drug smuggler, up to his armpits in smuggling cocaine for - guess who? - the CIA. During the penalty phase of the Columbians' trial, testimony by one government witness on the activities of Mr. Seal was so damaging to the government that 2 of the jurors wanted to change their verdict to "not guilty". The personal telephone number of George H. W. Bush was found in the trunk of Mr. Seal's car.

16 - William Colby - This former CIA director disappeared in an apparent boating accident, and a body was later discovered (minus the life jacket Colby's friends insisted he always wore while boating) and buried promptly. John DeCamp, a lawyer from Lincoln, Nebraska, and Colby's close friend and confidant, said Colby's death was not an accident. He stated that Colby was prepared to disclose that missing P.O.W.'s were working for a dope smuggling operation orchestrated by General Colin Powell, Pentagon official Richard Armitage, and George H. W. Bush.

17 - Mrs. E. Howard Hunt - In December 1972, while George H. W. Bush was at the Republican National Convention, a United Airlines flight carrying Mrs. Dorothy Hunt, CIA operative and wife of Howard Hunt, (CIA operative and suspect in the Kennedy assassination) crashed. Believed to be carrying $25,000 in "hush money", she died in this crash. The opening of the KGB archieves showed that many of the letters and documents tying Hunt to Oswald were KGB forgeries.

18 - Vince Foster - It has been conjectured that Mr. Foster was killed by Republican operatives for George Bush after he found evidence of Bush involvement in the death of Mrs. E. Howard Hunt when reviewing the White House Travel Office files. Yea right.

19 - Danny Casolaro - He was working on a book that tied together the scandals surrounding the presidency of George H. W. Bush. He told his friends he was going to "bring back" the head of the Octopus. Instead, his body was found in a hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on August 10, 1991, an apparent suicide.

20 - Don McCoy - Mr. McCoy had agreed the day before to turn state's evidence in an FBI investigation that threatened some of El Paso's most prominent business leaders. On February 19, 1988, he took off from El Paso International Airport, banked to the right and headed southwest for approximately 2 ½ miles before his plane slammed into the I-10 right-of-way and exploded. With him was his secretary and her 11-year old son. All three were killed.

21 - Olof Palme - He was the prime minister of Sweden, assassinated in 1986. Oliver North, the golden boy of the Bush/Reagan machine, had met with Mr. Palme to discuss the possibility of obtaining false end-user certificates for the plethora of weapons that were being purchased, so that they would seem to have come from a country other than the U.S. Mr. Palme refused to participate, after the plan was presented to him. He was dead within weeks. There is a lot of speculation as to what actually happened to Palme. This is the first time I see him tied to Bush.

22 - Archbishop Oscar Romero - Archbishop Romero was a true hero, speaking out against atrocities by a Bush/Reagan-backed fascist government. He refused to appear in public with any army or government personnel, and was a voice for the thousands of tortured, slaughtered and oppressed in El Salvador. He was shot in the back while preparing Mass. The death of Archbishop Romero is one among many. There is not enough space to list the hundreds of thousands who died under Reagan/Bush-backed, right-wing governments.

23 - David Wayne Spence - David Wayne Spence was executed in Texas in 1997 in spite of compelling evidence of his innocence. Two of the State's witnesses were co-defendants who testified to avoid the death penalty, one of whom changed his story three times in response to discrepancies. He later testified that D.A. Simons encouraged him to alter his testimony. Two other witnesses for the State were jailhouse snitches who recanted later and stated that Simons offered them favors in exchange for testimony. All of this and more was supposedly reviewed by Governor George W. Bush, but Bush refused to commute his sentence, and did not order the Board of Pardons and Paroles to review his request for clemency. It is a myth that a Texas Governor can do nothing to stop executions; the Board will almost always go with his recommendation. Bush washed his hands of the matter and did nothing. Reasonable doubt is not a factor in Texas justice.

24 - Gary Graham - Gary Graham was convicted of the robbery and murder of a white man in 1981. Nearly two weeks after the crime, the state's prime witness could not pick Gary's picture out of a photo line-up. Mr. Graham was arrested with a 22 caliber pistol. The victim had been killed with a 22, but the police firearms examiner determined that Mr. Graham's gun DID NOT fire the fatal bullet. Four witnesses said Gary Graham was with them, miles away from the convenience store, when the murder occured. All four took and passed polygraph tests. George W. Bush, predictably, expressed his faith in the Texas judicial system and allowed Mr. Graham to be put to death. Mr. Graham maintained his innocence to the end.

25 - William Casey - William Casey was CIA Director during the Reagan/Bush Administration. He died 2 days before he was to testify about his and others' involvement in the Iran/Contra scandal. Casey was sick for months, and IIRC, unconscious for several days before he died.

 26 - Lt. Colonel William Harris, Jr. - Lt. Col. William Harris was one of two commanding officers who could not perform George W. Bush's annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973. They stated in their filing that "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report." Fortunately for George W. Bush, Lt. Col. Harris is not here to verify his 1973 statement. He's dead.

27 - Lt. Colonel Jerry B. Killian - Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian was another of George W. Bush's commanding officers. He cannot testify in a court of law as to George W. Bush's dereliction of his sworn duty. Lt. Col. Killian is dead.

28 - Edmond J. Safra - Banker Edmond J. Safra died mysteriously when a fire swept his Monaco penthouse apartment. His banks had been used for laundering money by the Bush Iran/Contra traitors. Bush tie?

29 - Charles Ruff - Attorney Charles Ruff successfully defended President Bill Clinton against the smear campaign by the reich wing Bush machine. He died of an accident in his home. Details of the accident are unknown. Ruff had been assisting Vice President Al Gore's legal team during the recount proceedings in Florida, where a battle for the right to know the will of the people is raging.

30 - Lars Erik Nelson - Lars-Erik Nelson was a reporter for the New York Daily News and a constant critic of George Bush throughout the 2000 Presidential campaign. He wrote a series of articles on how Bush was trying to steal the Florida election. Found dead in his living room of an apparent stroke on November 21, 2000, the very day that Bush lawyers were making their arguments before the Florida Supreme Court.

31 - Henry B. Gonzalez - Henry Gonzalez, former Congressman from Texas, was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee during the Reagan and Bush years. He oversaw hearings on the S&L fiasco which nailed Neil Bush, and tried to have both Reagan and George Bush impeached. In a speech before Congress on July 27, 1992, Gonzalez revealed that George Bush signed a top secret National Security Decision directive, known as NSD 26, ordering closer ties with Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Henry Gonzalez died of unknown causes on November 27, 2000.

32 - Charles M. McKee and Matthew Gannon - Charles M. McKee, ostensibly a military attache for the DIA in Beirut, Matthew Gannon, CIA Deputy Station Chief in Beirut, and three others were on board Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. They were part of a counterterrorist team in Beirut investigating the possible rescue of 9 American hostages in Lebanon. The McKee team uncovered evidence that a rogue CIA unit called COREA, based in Wiesbaden, was doing business with a man called Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer and drug trafficker. Al-Kassar was part of the covert network run by U.S. Lieut. Colonel Oliver North. Outraged that the COREA unit in Wiesbaden was doing business with a Syrian who had close terrorist connections and might endanger their chances of rescuing the hostages, the McKee team decided to fly back to Virginia unannounced and expose the COREA unit's secret deal with al-Kassar. They never got there. "For three years, I've had a feeling that if Chuck hadn't been on that plane, it wouldn't have been bombed," said Beulah McKee, 75, Charles McKee's mother, to Time Magazine. Four months after her son was killed for his efforts to expose the CIA, Mrs. McKee received a sympathy letter from George H. W. Bush. Mrs. McKee has never been satisfied with the government's version of events.
 
33 - Mae Brussel - A California housewife, she became interested in the JFK assassination after seeing the televised shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. After eight years of extensive research, her conclusions were that John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., were all killed by the same monster - the "shadow" government formed when our own people collaborated with top Nazi officials at the close of World War II.

34 - Robert Kennedy - Robert Kennedy was assassinated on the eve of his election in June, 1968. According to Mae Brussels (see above) all of the Kennedy brothers were an immense thorn in the side of the Reich Wing.

35 - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Probably the most beloved African-American in history, Martin Luther King, Jr., brought hope to the disenfranchised and showed us all how peaceful demonstration and determination can turn the tide. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray, who later recanted his admission that he acted on his own, and implicated the Bush CIA.
------------------
Right Wing Conspirator 34,736,902 (Hey, it's a VAST conspiracy, right?) 

*List courtesy of Snopes.com's forum Political Archive HERE.

Atomburbs vs. Atombombs: A Different Type of Distributed Network

Last spring at Cal Poly I took Dr. Lewis Call's History of Network Technology (History 354). Early on we discussed Paul Baran's concept of the "distributed network" in regards to networked computer systems during the Cold War which was s design which thwarted the efficacy of a nuclear assault disabling a computerized command and control network. This concept via ARPANET ultimately evolved into the modern internet and transformed the face of the modern world and how we all live. Fast-forward to today and I am conducting research for my senior project. The moment I found this image it occurred to me that it is a different sort of "distributed network," this one a network of distributed communities thus designed to minimize the efficacy of a nuclear attack by spreading the population out so much that there would be no population centers to target. This concept, christened the "atomburb," was created by the then-Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago later to be called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Image courtesy of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (all rights reserved). 

George Washington Warned About Parties

Last year I belatedly in life became aware that George Washington left our fledgling nation an admonition in 1796 (which kernel of an idea probably sprouted in or about 1792) about the dangers of political parties to the good of the nation in what would later become viewed as his farewell address not unlike Dwight D. Eisenhower's much more famous "Military Industrial Speech" in his own farewell address 165 years later in 1961. If Wikipedia's analysis is any indication then most people seem not to notice let alone heed the anti-partisan tone of it... perhaps because the authors are collectively party animals. Read the words and marvel at their prophetic and visionary relevance today as to what dangers lay (and still lay) down the path of partisan politics and the two-party Democratic-Republican duopoly which has now parasitically subverted our Republic and threatens the commonweal of the nation.

"17 All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

18 However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

View source HERE.

Trinity 69 Years Ago Today

Sixty-nine years ago today the Atomic Age officially began with Trinity and the course of human history was forever altered. Under the raw footage below these words are much more profound words about that fateful day 69 years ago which you really must read. They are by a friend of mine who is an aficionado of that entire episode of history whose passion comes out in this wonderful piece of writing. It is everything I strive for in my own writing but rarely achieve: short and sweet!

July 16, 1945. 5:29 a.m.

We are approaching the end of World War II. A war that has cost 55 million lives globally & introduced some of the most inhumane events to the history of humankind.

Japan is now encircled & being bombarded by the... American Navy. Okinawa has fallen at the cost of 12,000 American, 100,000 Imperial Japanese, & 100,000 civilian Okinawan lives.
2.1 billion dollars has been spent on the Manhattan Project, based upon the idea that splitting the nucleus of an atom will release such tremendous energy that, if enough atoms are split in a chain reaction, one bomb could destroy an entire city. A single bomb.

On July 16, all of the key players—Dr. Oppenheimer, Dr. Fermi, General Groves, etc.--are gathered at the Trinity Test Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The countdown begins. At zero, the test bomb detonates atop a tower there in the desert.

At 16 microseconds (16 thousandths of a second), this photo is captured on film. The explosion is already 400 feet wide & spreading at an impossible pace. The center of the explosion is as hot as the sun. It is equally as bright throughout this area of New Mexico. As the nuclear explosion casts off such a bright flash that it turns night into midday, it is documented that a blind woman, 150 miles away, asks, "What's that brilliant light?"

The tower beneath the atomic bomb disintegrates & the white sand throughout the area melts to green glass, now called Trinitite. Watching the growing ball of flame, Dr. Oppenheimer murmurs a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "NOW I AM BECOME DEATH; THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS."
World War II will be over in 29 days.

Science has demonically but successfully united with government & military. For his role in the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer would be nicknamed "The American Prometheus." (Prometheus was the Greek god who introduced fire to mankind before we were ready for it.) It was Oppenheimer who code-named the Trinity Test after a line from the poem by John Donne: “Batter my heart, three-personed God.”

Now here's the rest of the story:

The planet Uranus was 1.8 billion miles from earth in July of 1945. Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. It takes 9,677 seconds, or 161 minutes, for light to travel between the two planets.

The U.S.S. Indianapolis, bound for the island of Tinian & loaded with enriched Uranium & Plutonium for the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombs, respectively, has left port from Hunter’s Point, San Francisco. She crosses the San Francisco Bay & is passing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge & entering the Pacific Ocean at 7:11 a.m. local time, July 16, 1945.

This is 161 minutes after the apex of the Trinity Test.
At precisely this moment, as the tragically--fated USS Indianapolis is bringing hell to the Pacific Theater, the light from the Trinity Test would be reaching Uranus. The planet Uranus, after which "Uranium" is named.

The Atomic Age has begun. 

By Andy Piantanida

Do You Know The Significance Of Today?

Today is Pearl Harbor Day a.k.a. Pearl Harbor National Day Of Remembrance ~ A Day That Shall Live In Infamy!

It happened 72 years ago today and was the 9/11 equivalent for those alive then.

It is wise to remember that epic things of these sorts can happen at any time. Thus it is wise to be prepared all the time all the while living life fully. Perpetually existing on a perpetual war-footing is NOT living.

Google Does Edith Head

This is the look of Google tonight in honor of the late legendary Hollywood fashion designer Edith Head.

Quote of the Day - Thomas Jefferson

"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable" ~ Thomas Jefferson

My Top 10 Rants At Present

Quite a number of things have been chapping my hide lately and a few of them feel like a flaming stick up my ass. I've been planning on posting such a list for some time but tonight I feel pissy enough to actually get around to doing it. Below is my current list in no particular order of significance.

1. Highly ideological people who lack the chops to face me in debate directly with facts but feel compelled to resort to straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, false causality fallacies, Parthian shots, and other such rhetorical devices (not limited to full-bug-out retreats) of those who know they can't win in a stand-up fight with the facts. I have experienced all these of late and dispatched them without mercy. The exceptions are one of my Parthian shooters got in his car at my yard sale before I could set fire to his dogmatic assertion that Wal-Mart has NOT effectively sent American jobs to China. The other Parthian Shooter unfriended me on Facebook and blocked me there and on Twitter but not before making trite and condescending remarks of a most vapid and candy-assed and self-righteously indignant nature. 
2. I hate tweekers, as in "hate-hate." As a Christian I love the sinner but hate the tweeker. I am certain they can be cured for the cost of a bullet cross-hemisphere to the brain. They are starting to become a problem in my life and the lives of my loved ones by way of being scary and disruptive and unpredictable neighbors who attract an unsavory and ill-tempered element into the neighborhood. In the good old days neighborhoods and communities took care of such problems sans the need for the constabulary and other legal avenues.
3. Liberal hypocrisy gets worse year after year. I realize Conservatives are no better but of late their hypocritical excesses have not been on display to the extent it has for Liberals. From the Liberal (and to some extent black) bias of the Zimmerman saga/non-story story to the water carrying for a Liberal President who has one-upped his Conservative predecessor's "extraordinary renditions" of non-citizens (to which I never objected unlike my Liberal friends who feigned outrage) with now the assassination of American citizens abroad sans trial (to which I don't object personally but my Liberal friends also don't seem to in a convenient turn of inconsistency) by way of drone strikes on foreign soil. Add to that our President using the I.R.S. to help him win a very narrow reelection last year by way of using the I.R.S. to disproportionately go after Tea Party and Patriot Groups in a turn of malfeasance reminiscent of Richard Nixon. Liberals to this day love to excoriate Nixon for doing the very same thing but outrageously call Obama's sins of the same sort a "false scandal". Add to that his being responsible for having a then-defense secretary (Leon Panetta) whom outed the Pakistani doctor whom helped finger Osama bin Ladin which doctor is now in prison for the rest of his life on treason charges in Pakistan. Top that off with the same Liberal President possessing a Vice President who outed the SEAL Team (Six) which killed Osama bin Ladin leading to that unit being targeted by Al Qaeda. Then predictably Al Qaeda got to them and wiped out 15 members of Seal Team Six along with 23 other personnel in the shootdown of a Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade two years ago. This makes another Bush-era Liberal cause celebre, to wit, the Natalie Plame Affair pale by comparison as no Americans died and yet Liberals at the time went ape shit about that one. 
4. Speaking of the Zimmerman Trial that sure did expose a whole lot of racism in America... within segments of the black community whom tend to come from an arch-Liberal political persuasion of ethnocentric race-baiting, guilt-mongering, blame-gaming, shit-stirring, responsibility-dodging, fact-obfuscating apologetics-for-bad-behavior-purveying on a scale that boggles the mind. This receives little notice given how long and gradual it has been worsening and how bullied into acquiescent quietude White America has been since the 1970's or thereabouts. That time frame is not a coincidence as it is around the time the civil rights movement for black Americans lost it's moral superiority and purity once and for all following a decline that began around the time that more angry elements poisoned the movement. This was symbolically capped off with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mistakenly tying the civil rights movement to opposition to the Vietnam War in 1967, which ought to have remained a separate issue. Of course, then there is the fact the Liberal newsmedia (they hate that label claiming it does not exist the way the Italian mafia has for years denied the existence of the Italian mafia). Methinks they protest too much! Anywho, the aforementioned Fifth Column Fourth Estate generated an artificial narrative of what happened in this case that played upon the reverse racist propensities and proclivities of those susceptible to such hackneyed and morally-bankrupt impulses and perceptions. By the end of the trial an entire segment of society that was disproportionately Left-leaning and more melanin-rich was convinced of the injustice of an incident which never actually happened as they falsely perceive it to be up to the present. Thank you MSNBC, et al, for your excellent job of informing a large populace of voters and encouraging ethnic harmony and national unity!
5. Speaking of race: I'm tired of that word being abused and misused. When most people use the word "race" or one of its variants they ought to use "ethnicity" or one of its variants. There is no racism anymore given that the Neanderthals and Denisovans are now extinct... perhaps in part as a result of "racism" by early modern Homo Sapiens. However, there is nowadays most certainly ethnicism and ethnocentrism which can be ethnically-exclusive and promote ideas of ethnocentric superiority of the sort that is often misnamed "racism". There is also a myth that blacks continue to systematically and regularly suffer from white racism and white advantage as opposed to what the facts suggest which is that community's own shortcomings and subcultural proclivities and self-indulgence and indeed multiculturalistic ethnocentrism has harmed it and alienated it and separated it from the rest of society to which many of its members seem inclined to blame upon white Americans. This latter subculture and ethnicity of America as a group has quite some time ago gotten over the "black thing" and yet Black America seems stuck in the past and unaware of the changes in the rest of America. For good measure look at the fact that White America helped elect a self-identified black man as President. It has even reelected him in spite of the fact he is no good at his job by just about any measure.
6. This is not to say that I have not been a bit annoyed with Conservatives lately. They now are inclined to viciously attack our President for doing things like spying on the American people via NSA when that was going on under the Patriot Act throughout the Bush 43 Administration, but where was the Conservative outrage then? Note: those intelligence-gathering activities did not and do not bother me on a practical level but as someone concerned with the ever-growing size and power and expense of our federal government I doubt the constitutionality of where things have wandered to and where they are headed. I also fail to see the real need for much of this Homeland Security activity and internal intelligence-gathering (which has become lavishly lucrative for many firms which is the real driving force of it). When there were failures in following then-in-force methods and procedures in American counter-terrorism that directly led to the few successful terrorist attacks on our own soil such as 9/11 and the Boston Bombings. However, I digress. Where was the Conservative outrage on expanding government after 9/11 where there is now outrage in the expansion of government under Obamacare? Where was the Conservative outrage regarding our invasion of Iraq on a false premise while there is now constant Conservative consternation over much more minor involvements in Libya and Syria to which we are far less invested in blood and treasure?
7. On that Syria note I must confess that I am flabbergasted that the Obama Administration is sending monies to Sunni rebels in Syria of which some are Al Qaeda-affiliated formations whom are also receiving support from Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf Sunni-majority nations. On the other side of the axis is the Syrian government which is Shiite-dominated just like their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon and both of which are supported by Iran, the world capital of Shia Islam. First off, why are we taking sides in a fight in which we don't have a dog? Second, why are we supporting rebels some of whom we are Al Qaeda-affilated, a terrorist network at vicious war with us and against whom we are fighting and killing and detaining people at Gitmo at great expense in blood and treasure?  Thirdly, why are we sending these people money twice since they are not only receiving direct payments from us but also indirect payments as their support from other parts of the Sunni Islamic world comes from money we paid those oil-rich nations for their oil?
8. I have experienced an odd and annoying work experience lately with an employer who shall go unnamed here as I don't wish to burn bridges: I'm technically still employed by them although I'm not getting called in to work for them. After passing my job interview with flying colors and having my hand shaken and being quite literally welcomed to the team and having attended all meetings and the one work shift to which I was called in I now find myself on the outside for not having ingratiated myself enough to the ruling caste and acting like an excited little puppy to be there for just above minimum wage. Now I'm hearing of dissatisfaction growing in the ranks with one employee quitting due to harassment by other hens and attendance is light thus far even for big events such as the recently half-filled big-name event. Perhaps if they called me I could help them out. 
9.  Something I have long noted since I started reading blogs but that has been violently shoved in my face to a far more intensely distasteful degree in recent weeks since I became fully-engaged on Twitter and have followed some popular bloggers is this: the perpetual, petty and pernicious pedantry and sniping and nitpicking by those on the Right at those on the Left (and the reverse as well) over mostly minor and irrelevant fluff and/or distorted and exaggerated cause celebres. The Tweets just keep coming until I unfollow various and assorted bloggers since they are fanatics of the sort Sir Winston Churchill described as "one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject". The content is sometimes very funny and clever after the tradition of famous wits but most of the time is monotonous and mundane, strident and shrill, not to mention belaboring a point and being prone to beating a dead horse. I have trimmed back the number of bloggers I follow to merely two and I'm contemplating cutting them loose, too.
10. I have many loved ones and acquaintances who are hooked on a variety of "reality television programs" which on some level most of us realize are as real as "professional wrestling". However, most people don't seem to appreciate how selectively and creatively edited these programs are and to what extent people in these programs are playing to the cameras and the degree to which the producers steer the narrative not to mention control the personnel lineup on each show. If these shows were reality then there would be no "casting" and nothing would need be planted or prearranged. In the past several months charges of planting items in storage units for the program Storage Wars went to court but were ultimately cast out. I have had a personal conversation with a guest of Cash & Treasures whom hosted on adventure and told me what I already guessed had to be the case: stuff is planted so the pretty host of the show can find it in a one-hour television show. While watching another program (Call of the Wildman) at my mother's house the other day I saw the characters in the show opening up cupboards in a kitchen in an abandoned house and like a game show some had raccoons and such animals while most did not. The whole scene seemed so staged and unlikely. How did a raccoon end up in a cupboard with no means of ingress and egress aside from the closed cabinet door? Why did it hardly seem to react to the sight of humans and cameras? How could such an abandoned home hold so many animals just wildly leaving there and so conveniently to be found by the "Turtleman" and his entourage? This kind of programming is simply a means to maintain network ratings while saving a lot of money not hiring actual unionized actors and writers and directors and such as one would in a program that is entirely "fictional". Thank God for The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.

Abraham Lincoln NEVER Said This!

I saw this earlier this year at Cuesta College on an instructor's bulletin board. This quote is generally and erroneously attributed to the greatest of American Presidents, Abraham Lincoln. According to Snopes this quote was actually authored a half century later by a Reverend William John Henry Boetcker. Over time some of the maxims of Boetcker became conflated with some Lincoln quotes. This guy was obviously quite the proponent of Capitalism, but made the error of combining faith and politics/economics which is a big no-no for spiritual shepherds. While some of Boetcker's maxims are valid, some others are overly-simplistic and/or  provide cover for some elites whom ought not be covered by a someone claiming to speak for God.

I saw this on the bulletin board outside the office of an instructor at Cuesta College. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

We Are The Explorers

I just came across this propaganda piece promotional video by NASA while reading an article about it. Apparently, there is an effort in place to get it in American theaters in showings of the next Star Trek movie in order to foster taxpayer support for the agency as well as pique the interest of young people into careers that further American space exploration. I feel this is a good idea and that the video will be worth the cost of production (and purchasing the rights to it from NASA whom can't legally run ads) for what it will do towards both objectives.

Limits Upon Unlawful Seizures Thru History

Recently I opened my Bible and on the page I opened to my eye went directly to Ezekiel 46:18 which goes:

"The prince may not seize the property of the people by force to evict them from it but shall give to his sons of his own property so that no man be deprived of his land." ~ (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

The moment I read it I was rather struck by how familiar its 6th Century B.C.E. principles sounded in light of the fact I have been of late studying the Magna Carta which was written in 1215 C.E. which charter seems to contain echoes of that earlier principle as delineated in Clause 12 of the charter:

"Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may have the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them."

Although not entirely talking about the same precise thing it seems to me that the Magna Carta had a Biblical precedent although I doubt the framers of the charter were thinking about any Scripture. I suggest that the principles of property detailed in Clauses 7-12 of the Magna Carta are embodied in that aforementioned passage from the Book of Ezekiel. 

However, this historical thread does not end there because Enlightenment giant John Locke came next in history in the 17th Century C.E. He seems to have been inspired at least in part by the principles the Magna Carta outlined in regards to the social contract between the government and the people which is to say, what constitutes the limits of power as it pertains to property. This is perhaps best demonstrated in Chapter 11 of his Second Treatise on Civil Government written in 1690 where he states:

"It cannot be supposed that [the hypothetical contractors] they should intend, had they a power so to do, to give any one or more an absolute arbitrary power over their persons and estates, and put a force into the magistrate's hand to execute his unlimited will arbitrarily upon them; this were to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded by a single man or many in combination. Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases..."

 Given the regard the Founding Fathers of the United States had for John Locke and Enlightenment ideals it is hardly surprising that this line of thinking passed further forward in history into the Constitution of the United States. The Fourth Amendment which is contained within the Bill of Rights as primarily penned in 1789 C.E. by no less an Enlightenment fan than Thomas Jefferson declares:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized"

 And yet this thread is not finished as it is true that a great many constitutions and bodies of laws in other nations that have been since written contain similar concepts and principles. In my mind this is one continuous ideological thread laced through the past two and a half millenia of human history and continues forward to this day.

Thomas Jefferson NEVER Said This!

Of late the gun-phobic segment of our recrimination-riven and now perpetually neurotic and fear-mongering and guilt-mongering society has seen fit to pursue its very narrow-minded and backward-thinking agenda. This intellectually-bankrupt and societally-destructive agenda is more about sticking a finger in the eye of cultural conservatives than actually solving any real-world problems. In response to this Neo-Liberal tomfoolery has emerged a push-back by people often not much more intellectually-gifted or factually-supported whom occupy the cultural-political Right. Some of them have been sharing with their friends in  "chain emails" as well as with their "friends" on Facebook the following quote falsely attributed to President Thomas Jefferson:

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one."

The only problem is that this is an English translation of a quote from Italian philosopher and jurist Cesare Beccaria's Essay on Crimes and Punishments written in Italian in 1764. Thomas Jefferson featured it in his Legal Commonplace Book later in his life. That Jefferson included it in his own book and the note he placed with it does nothing to dispel the notion that he agreed with its logic does not diminish the point the gun lobby attempts to make from it, but it is important to dispel myths in this case and deal squarely with the historical facts. The quote above was derived from the more complete translated excerpt by Beccaria below:

"A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general conveniencies, who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, who dares say to reason, 'Be thou a slave;' who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it. The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons."

I personally feel this is a great example of well-articulated logical deductive reasoning coming from the immediate aftermath of the Age of Reason and shining light into this new Age of Irrationality. 

Source: http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/laws-forbid-carrying-armsquotation

Marin County War Memorial

Yesterday morning while walking back to our hotel from Gem Faire in the Marin Center Exhibit Hall in order to do some online homework in the hotel's business center I came upon this poignant remembrance for local citizens of Marin County who served and even more so whom died in our nations various wars over the course of its history. I was touched by it particularly in light of the fact this community is so liberal in its cultural leanings and Leftists have a long and sorry history of anti-military sympathies. Certainly in the case of those involved with these monuments that was not the case as they did a fine job in honoring our nations dead who originated in that region.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

The Charm of Old Town Albuquerque

Today my friend Dave and I took a break from our journey and had breakfast in Old Town Albuquerque. He remembered this cool eatery there he insisted I experience (Church Street Cafe) and since it wasn't quite open when we arrived (the neighborhood starts the day slowly) we walked around and I captured the following images. Of particular relevance in them are the scenes of the historic San Felipe de Neri Church and Church Street Cafe which is also located in an historic building.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).