Blue Star Chronicles

I’m shocked!!! NOT!!! lol

1. The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Primarily, I’d like to go out there and see my daughter.
   
2. While I’m out there, I think I’d like to see Joshua Tree.
   
3. The Mayan Ruins at Chechen Itza.
   
4. A beautiful all inclusive resort we stayed at one time on the Riviera Maya, Mexico.
   
5. The English Countryside.
   
6. Scotland, the land of my ancestors. (Some of them anyway).
   
7. Denmark, because we were all Danes around this time last year.
   
8. I’d like to see the ancient ruins of Rome, Italy.
   
9. We saw bullfights in Mexico, I’d like to see them in Madrid, Spain. I’d mostly like to see them because that would make Beloved Curmudgeon happy. They are breathtaking contests.
   
10. Taroko Ridge in central Taiwan. I rode up and back down this ridge one time many years ago. It’s breathtaking. I’d like to do it again.
    
11. A spa in Thailand sound fabulous. I could deal with a week there.
    
12. My son loves Germany. When my son returns from Iraq I want to go and visit him there and see where he’s been living between deployments.
    
13. I’ve heard a lot of the holiday markets in Germany. I’d like to see them.
    

It’s going to be a long. LONG. two years.

via Marquette Warrior

Disclaimer: trackbacks to this post do not necessarily represent the opinions or standards of the Blue Star Chronicles.

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This Weeks Soldier Was Requested By Echo9er

Sgt. Maj. Brent “The Rock” Jurgersen
Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division

Active Duty

Not even two near-death encounters deterred Sgt. Maj. Brent Jurgerson’s passion and eagerness to serve his country and lead his troops back home.

Jurgersen celebrated his second “alive day” anniversary January 26, 2007. It was a day of mixed emotions for him because on that same day two years ago he was given a second chance to live. It was a day that changed his life forever. While on patrol in Ad Dyuliah, Iraq, two rocket-propelled grenades struck his Humvee. The explosion killed his gunner and left Jurgersen fighting for his life, flat-lining twice on the operating table in Balad.

Afterwards, during a promotion ceremony in August of 2006, Jurgersen was selected for a command sergeant major appointment. Becoming the first full limb amputee student to attend the academy.

You can read the rest of Sgt. Maj. Jurgersen’s story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by going here.

I wrote an article about Dog Chapman a week or so ago. The response to the article was mostly very supportive of The Dog. But there was one commenter that said something like he hopes Dog rots in a Mexican prison.

It seems some people have a problem with Dog’s history. His history, and the fact that he turned his life around is one of the reasons I admire the guy. Dog doesn’t make any secret of his history and what he had to do to change his life.

What you have here is an unfortunately typical story of a young male finding all the wrong ways to deal with his aggression and anger. I don’t have the details of his childhood. I think I heard him once talk about an abusive father - but I could have that wrong and I don’t feel like looking it up.

He apparently found whatever he was looking for as a leader of the Devils Disciples - at least for a while. He had multiple arrests for various and sundry crimes, including armed robbery. Finally he was arrested, charged and incarcerated for accessory to murder in a drug deal that went bad. He served five years for that crime. He claims that is when he decided he was never going to prison again. He became a born-again Christian and has used his experiences to create an entirely new life for himself.

From that history we have the celebrity that bills himself as the best bounty hunter anywhere, ever.

His show is a hoot - but very predictable. They always go after the bad guys. They always build up how truly bad the person they are after is. Then they end up giving the bad guy advice and guidance, some of the time turning around and bailing them right back out of jail. The bad guy turns out not to be so bad after all.

Since he’s a convicted felon, he can’t carry a gun, so they go after the bad guys with all sorts of equipment and their primary weapon is mace.

Here’s what I like about the guy and his family. He is what he is. He doesn’t put on any pretense of being anything else. He can relate to the criminals he picks up because he’s been there, done that. So has his wife, Beth. As a matter of fact, he’s probably been more places than most of them have been.

He’s certainly made a lot of money since he became famous and got his own reality show, but he’s still ‘the dog’. He can relate to the criminals and they can relate to him and I’d be willing to bet he and his family actually do help some of them.

And the family. That seemingly ENDLESS number of children. I actually looked it up tonight to see how many children he does have. Apparently, he has 12 children from 5 marriages and other relationships and 8 grandchildren. I’m not sure if that includes the child put up for adoption or the child Beth lost custody of.

Their relationships are loving, warm, affectionate and fun. It looks like they enjoy each other and are having a good time.

Yeah, they aren’t well polished. I don’t think anyone would use ‘class’ and any of the Chapmans in the same sentence. But I’d be willing to bet they could care less. They understand what matters in life and they make a point of taking care of their relationships and their family. They don’t blame anyone else for their past. They own up to their mistakes and determine to make the world a better place in the way they know how.

I think that makes them pretty decent people. I’ll take the unrefined Dog Chapman and family over the Paris Hiltons of the world any day of the week.

Previous:
Dog the Bounty Hunter Loses Extradition Battle in Mexico

It just doesn’t get any more shallow than this!!

From New York Post

February 27, 2007 — HOLLYWOOD’S wealthy liberals can now avoid any guilt they might feel for consuming so much non-renewable fossil fuel in their private jets, their SUVs, and their multiple air-conditioned mansions. This year’s Oscar goodie bag contained gift certificates representing 100,000 pounds of greenhouse gas reductions from TerraPass, which describes itself as a “carbon offset retailer.” The 100,000 pounds “are enough to balance out an average year in the life of an Academy Award presenter,” a press release from TerraPass asserts. “For example, 100,000 pounds is the total amount of carbon dioxide created by 20,000 miles of driving, 40,000 miles on commercial airlines, 20 hours in a private jet and a large house in Los Angeles. The greenhouse gas reductions will be accomplished through TerraPass’ [program] of verified wind energy, cow power [collecting methane from manure] and efficiency projects.” Voila, guilt-free consumption!

It reminds us of the era when rich Catholics paid the church for “dispensations” that would shorten their terms in Purgatory.

Tiara Tip Fausta

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Big Dog’s Weblog, basil’s blog, Common Folk Using Common Sense, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Rightlinx, third world county, Allie Is Wired, stikNstein… has no mercy, Pirate’s Cove, Planck’s Constant, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

From Bloomberg

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks tumbled the most since September 2002 as a plunge in Chinese shares sparked a global selloff and raised concern that investors will dump equities after a four-year bull market.

The declines, compounded by a slide in demand for U.S. business equipment, wiped out the year-to-date gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The Nasdaq Composite Index also headed for its steepest drop since July 2002. Only two companies in the S&P 500 rose and every one of the Dow’s 30 members retreated, led by Alcoa Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., companies that depend on demand from China.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slid 3 percent and emerging markets dropped. Russian shares fell from an all-time high, while Brazil’s Bovespa Index sank 7.8 percent. U.S. Treasuries rose on increased demand for debt securities amid the worldwide equity slump and signs of a slowing economy after durable-goods orders fell more than forecast in January.

“Any force that works against global economic expansion is a negative,” said Liam Dalton, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief executive officer of Axiom Capital Management in New York. “The big straw on the camel’s back is this China issue.”

The S&P 500 retreated 47.05, or 3.3 percent, to 1402.32 as of 3:15 p.m. in New York after earlier losing as much as 4.1 percent. The Dow average sank 409.93, or 3.3 percent, to 12,222.33. It earlier fell as much as 546.2 points, or 4.3 percent. The Nasdaq dropped 90.73, or 3.6 percent, to 2413.79.

Stocks Plunge After Big Decline in China
U.S. Stocks Plunge in Global Rout; Dow, S&P 500 Erase ‘07 Gains
U.S. Economy: Orders Drop, Consumer Confidence Gains (Update2)
Global Bond Risk Soars on U.S. Mortgage Defaults, China Stocks
Emerging-Market Stocks Slide Following Plunge in Chinese Shares

Tiara Tip: Something … and half of Something

“My name is Olive Riley. I live in Australia near Sydney. I was born in Broken Hill on Oct. 20th 1899. Broken Hill is a mining town, far away in the centre of Australia. My Friend, Mike, has arranged this blog for me. He is doing the typing and I am telling the stories.”

read more at All About Olive | digg story

And I thought it was pretty cool that my mother was blogging - but she’s no where near as old as Olive!

Fourteen years ago today the World Trade Center was bombed leaving seven Americans dead and over 1,000 injured. The dead included the unborn baby of one of the adult victims.

The spiritual leader to the jihadists, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and mastermind of the 1993 bombing, Ramzi Yousef, were pursued and prosecuted from a legal standpoint. Under the administration at the time it was not considered an act of war, but a criminal event.

I remember the attack well. I don’t remember much news coverage of it after the fact. I remember seeing something about a the one jihadist being captured. I couldn’t tell you anything about where or when he was arrested. I didn’t remember his name or anything about him until I started paying more attention to the news - after 9/11.

I remembered a little bit about the blind sheik, but I would have been hard pressed to tell you what he was connected with or who he was until I started paying more attention - after 9/11.

It’s enough to make me wonder why we didn’t take that attack so seriously. As I stated before, it was not considered an act of war and the Clinton administration continued to function as though we were living in a time of peace and prosperity. The fact we had an enemy determined to destroy us was completely ignored. I would venture to say that the great majority of Americans had no idea that enemy even existed. The downsizing of the military continued.

It is easy to forget those victims in the focus on the victims that came later, in the attacks of September 11, 2001. Lindasog points out that the memorial that was erected in their memory was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.

The seven fatalities of the 1993 World Trade Center attack were:

• John DiGiovanni, Valley Stream, New York
• Robert Kirkpatrick, Suffern, New York
• Steve Knapp, Manhattan, New York City
• Monica Smith, Seaford, New York (and unborn baby)
• William Macko, Bayonne, New Jersey
• Wilfredo Mercado, Brooklyn, New York City

Girl on the Right

It would take nearly nine years for those buildings to come down at the hands of the same people before we would finally start linking together all the news events that shaped our lives for the previous twenty or thirty years. The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The murder of 14 girls at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. The genocide in Rwanda. The genocide in Darfur.

All of these events may seem unconnected, but there is an underlying cause at the root of all of them: Islam. The ummah, or global Islamic village. Hatred of the west and what we stand for. A burning desire to bring us to heel; to make us submit.

Even now, our press is hesitant to call a spade a spade or a terrorist a terrorist. We have this bogeyman of Al Qaeda, and we blame them for everything. “…has links to Al Qaeda…” “…was associated with Al Qaeda….” They want us to believe that a half-dead desert zealot is responsible for all the evil in the world, without admitting that he’s telling us the truth. Islam preaches our murder. Islam will take over. Demands are made in the name if Islam. So much easier to blame one man - be it Bin Laden or Bush - than it is to face the real disease. Islam.

Lindasog has much more. Also at Yeah, Right Whatever.

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Is Islam a religion of peace? Panel members Steven Weber, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) discuss terror, religion, and freedom in this clip.

From LGF:

If the radical Islamists lose the support of the American left, they’re going to be in big trouble in this country. And when Bill Maher starts telling the truth about the Religion of Peace™, that trouble is just around the corner.

Previous Ayaan Hirsi Ali articles:

• The Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• On Muslim Silence
• Aayan Hirsi Ali - Courage and Grace
• On Whose Side Were You When It Mattered?
• Manifesto Against Islam

Disclaimer: trackbacks to this post do not necessarily represent the opinions or standards of the Blue Star Chronicles.

More great posts trackbacked below …

Patrick Ruffini reports on some of the successes that can be seen from the surge of Troops in Baghdad. I say ‘can be seen’ because we aren’t really seeing them. The media doesn’t seem as interested in reporting on successes of American Troops as they are in reporting defeats and counting bodies.

But something interesting is happening on the way to the “new direction.” Early indications are that the troop surge into Baghdad is working. It hasn’t been reported on widely, but murders in Baghdad are down 70%, attacks are down 80%, Mahdi Army chief Moqtada al-Sadr has reportedly made off for Iran, and many Baghdadis who had fled the violence now feel it’s safe enough to return. The strategy that Congress is busy denouncing is proving to be our best hope for victory.

In Iraq, there’s a sense that change is in the air — literally. Omar of Iraq the Model spots a B-1 Bomber in the skies of Baghdad for the first time since the end of the major combat. On the ground, Omar writes that the signs that Iraqis are getting serious about security are more palbable. With the help of Compstat-like technology, security forces are cracking down at checkpoints (even ambulances are getting stopped) and getting nimbler about locating them strategically so the terrorists don’t know what to expect.

This turnaround in Baghdad is confirmed at home by the media’s near-deafening silence. If it seems like you’ve heard less about how Iraq is spiraling into civil war in the weeks since the surge was announced, this is why. Even some discordant voices in the media are starting to wonder what’s happening. Time magazine worries that it’s “Quiet in Baghdad. Too quiet.” That’s right — a dramatic reduction in violence is actually bad news.

Just announcing our intend to send more Troops sent al-Sadr running to hide in Iran and insurgents escaping Baghdad to fight in other areas of the middle east. They don’t really want to face us head-on. They are working to defeat us through the back door. Their plan, as they have stated repeatedly, is to turn Americans against themselves. They’ve had great success with this so far.

Another VERY welcome development is that the rules of engagement are being loosened and our Troops are actually starting to be allowed to fight the war! As the mother of a Soldier in this conflict, I can’t tell you how distressing it is to know how badly our Troops are being restricted from taking action while in a WAR ZONE!

Even while the surge is showing progress, the democrats are continuing to grandstand by undermining the effort.

In order for the democrats to win, America has to lose.

All you have to do is look at the desperation evidenced in the comments of Patrick Ruffini’s article to see how badly they need to silence any glimmer of hope that we will win this battle in Iraq.

It looks like it’s up to us to let people know that America still stands strong.

Austin Bay writes: The Real News Behind “The Surge”.

More at: Jules Crittenden, Pros & Cons, Irish Spy, Big Lizards, Paxalles, Jeffreymark, Bill Bites

TEHRAN (AFP) -
Iran’s judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and “spreading prostitution,” the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

“The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted,” Tehran’s hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said.

“It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs,” he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month.

Mortazavi said the crackdown would also target what he described as “street women who get into cars as passengers and rob or extort the drivers.”

Every post-pubescent woman is required to cover her hair and body in public in Iran. Crackdowns are common in summer when many women defy the Islamic dress code by wearing short bright coats, flimsy headscarves and capri pants.

Women in Iran are getting rebellious and wearing ’short bright coats, flimsy headscarves and capri pants’. Not only that, but they are hurting religious feelings!! WOAH!!!! What’s the middle east coming to.

Not to worry. They’ll put an end to this kind of outrageous conduct.

Maybe it’s more of the progressive paradox.