http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKzYzo0DQEk&feature=related

So, just who is the Nazi in Washington?

Faisal Shahzad is the guy who is tried to blow up a car in Times Square...and Sen. John McCain (the former GOP choice for President) thinks this man should be stripped of his citizenship and put on trial as an enemy combatant.

...and the crowd cheered, waving American flags and singing the National Anthem....

Can we stop and look at the thinking behind this? Can see how evil this idea is, for just a minute or two?

McCain doesn't think this guy should have been read his Miranda rights and shouldn't be brought up on criminal charges, rather be sent to straight away to GITMO.

The problem is....this guy IS an American citizen. This guy, while more than likely guilty...is ONLY a suspect.

The ramifications of doing what McCain wants are enormous....they may, indeed, be the most anti-American actions taken I will have ever seen. But the problem is, McCain isn't the only person saying this.

I ask this, does the nature of an accusation require some sort of extreme measure be taken? Does the fact that a man has merely been charged with a crime mean he has lost his rights as a citizen?

According to John McCain, and several other prominent GOP leaders, the answer is "Yes." There is no need for a trial here because it is so clear this man is guilty. Just lock him up.

But why?

Is it because he is Arab? Is it because he has only been a citizen for a year? It is both? What is the proper length of time and combination of events a person must fit together before they are a true citizen and before their rights are the same as anyone else? 10 years? 20 years? 15 years and 5 of them in the military? Or do they have to be born here in order to secure those rights? Maybe rights should only be given to those who are second or third generation American citizens...because after all, you can't trust those people whose parents were not born in this country, either. Who knows what evil dogmas or generational plots they have pieced together?

The plan goes like this...Grandpa moves to America. Dad lives the life of a normal man. And it is all setting it up for the grandson, oh yes, to blow up buildings....(insert evil laugh and sinister music here).

It's a matter of National Security. We can't let just anyone have rights...that would be insane.

I never heard a single cry for Charles Manson, David Koresh, or even Timothy McVeigh to be stripped of their rights. So, why this man?

If Faisal Shahzad has his citizenship revoked before any sort of trial or conviction, it will be an obscenity. It will be an ugly stain, graffiti, sprayed across the Constitution and the entire world will know all that hold (or say we hold) dear is meaningless.

Assuming a man's guilt and saying he is no longer an American before he has set on foot in a courtroom is Fascist. It is what happened in the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch trials, and it is the type of "justice" Hitler used.

Too big to fail...redux

FOXNEWS made a point to show how not a single company, which has gone through hearings the way Goldman Sachs is, has ever survived...

So, I have a question.

What happens if Goldman Sachs goes bankrupt because of these hearings/indictments? Do they just get bailed out again? Wouldn't it, by the very reasoning behind the initial bailout, require Goldman Sachs to be bailed out once more?

This is one of the handful of companies which CANNOT be allowed to fold, right?

Clearly, as both Presidents Bush and Obama believe, G.S. is too big to fail (and I still am not sure what that actually means).

Does the world fall into some newly formed black hole? Do planes start falling from the sky like large metallic hailstones? Does that wake the anti-Christ?

No...life and the world will go on.

Nothing is too big to fail...not men, not companies, not even countries.

Life doesn't work that way, so why should a person's money? A man can take care of himself, exercise daily, eat all the proper foods and be set to live until he is 120 years old. Then, one day, as he is crossing the street...he is hit by a car. It may have been an accident. There may have been a glare on the window which disrupted the driver's view. The driver could have been drunk or even been trying to get away with a crime...it doesn't matter. All the planning and care the man took to make his life long and full...is meaningless. He ends up dying a few years later as a crippled shell of the person he once planned to be.

People have forgotten that investments, savings, pensions, and even employment are a gamble. They are either betting their money will be safe with some institution or that an institution will be around (and viable) when it comes time to collect. Some are safer than others...but sometimes you get hit by a car.

A man dies, and so in time, must a company...let them.

I have neglected my blog...

Dear Blog,

I have been away from you for a long time and I am sorry. I know you are not a dog or cat or some other animal I must feed, because you are still here. Had you been a creature of that sort you would be quite dead and rather smelly...maybe even carted away by a nasty bird or hungry raccoon. For this, I am glad you are not alive, my loving Blog.

I hope you forgive me, dear Blog, and trust I have not been cheating on you. I have not been out writing on walls or bathroom stalls. I haven't been penning things to paper as a way to avoid you. I don't intend to break up with you...I have just been away.

In the coming days, I will be sure to get back with you. I have many things to share and I know you will be always ready to publish them as faithfully as ever.

I will dream of you tonight, my Blog...and blog myself to sleep.

I know why I threw up, the Saints are in the Super Bowl.

Ahhh...isn't that sweet...the Saints are heading to the Super Bowl....

Let's wipe away the cyber tears and slow down, not stop or get off...just slow down, the Saints bandwagon for a few minutes. Let's reign in them horses....

If I lost a drop of blood for every time I heard someone say, "Well, the city of New Orleans deserves it," or anything close to it, I would be a typing raisin.

New Orleans deserves it?
Why?
Because of Katrina? If it is for another reason, like...I don't know...they were a hell of a team this year or won the NFC Championship game, then maybe I would agree. But no...that isn't the reason offered...it so often has to do with Katrina.

How does Katrina have anything at all to do with football? Did the Saints save thousands of lives with floating islands made of footballs? Did the team drop everything and swim off to help the poor folks make it out? Did some fat-ass lineman empty his fridge and have the contents air-dropped for the people without food?

If N.O. deserves to go to Super Bowl because of Katrina...don't the NY teams deserve something for 9-11? What did Seattle deserve for Mt St. Helen's? What about the Indonesian soccer team...shouldn't they deserve to win the World Cup for next thousand years or so? What about Haiti? What do they get? Should they be in the Pan-American World Series for the next decade, at least?
What about SLC? We have loads and loads of mormons. What do the rest of us get for having to deal with that?!
Oklahoma City has pretty bad ice storms...should the Thunder be in the Conference Finals for a couple of years or just a good showing in the playoffs? Did the Lakers win the NBA Championship last year because of all the wildfires?

But, if that's how it works...then the reverse should apply...
If a team wins titles and nothing bad has happened to the city, we can say with a straight face, "Well, the 49'ers won all those titles. They deserved that quake."

You see how silly this can get?

How about we leave football, the game, as football...the game. Let's not make it into some sort of reward system for a natural disaster.


With that said...Colts 34-Saints 20

The tears in my father's eyes...

Eight hours after we had gotten the horrible news...

My father was looking at a picture of his family. It had him, his two brothers, two sisters, and both his parents...over half of them gone. If a similar photo were to be taken today...there would be more empty space than people filling it.
He didn't notice I was watching him.

He didn't see my tear edging out, mirroring the one which had just fallen from him.
He didn't know that his private moment of pain was something I will remember for the rest of my life.
I have no idea what he was thinking and it seemed almost obscene to even ask or interfere with his thoughts. He was opening some oh-so private mental scrap book and flipping through its pages. He was reliving things which, even with his gift for story-telling, would only be stories to me and my brothers...to him, they were life.


My uncle Tim's death came as suddenly as anything can. Days after the passing of my grandmother, but before her funeral...he died.
Two funerals had to be planned in different states.

I could see a pain, an ache, in my father I had never seen before. It was a hurt so brutish, a lifetime of tears would only scratch the surface. It made me wonder how the last surviving person of a family line must feel...how alone. Tim Newberry was like an older brother to me, but he really was a brother to my father...I cannot begin to comprehend the true sorrow.

As the days go by, things will get easier for my dad. Time can do many things, but contrary to what most people say, it does not heal pain. If someone loses an arm, after years of work, they can manage to do most tasks effectively enough...but, they are still missing an arm. It is the same with death.
It may take months or years, but people learn to live. However, the loved-one is gone. There is no coming back, no prosthetic, which will replace the lost person...they are nothing more than a collection of images stored in a mental scrap book.

In his dueling hours of grief, my brothers and I stood at the side of our father and greeted it as an honor.

It is my hope...no...it is my prayer, that we did some good.

He is flying home, even as I write. I pray he can recover from this. I pray he will be able to relax and get some rest. I pray he can find some reason to smile, laugh. I pray...there will be no more tears in my father's eyes.

A few tips for anyone held hostage by a man in a wheelchair...

I don't which is stranger...the fact a man in a wheelchair thought he could and should take people hostage, or the reality that he actually did it.

How is this possible?

So, as a form of public service, I am going to offer some tips on how to avoid being kidnapped by a wheelchair confined assailant.

1) Tip him over.
Unless the chair is made of lead or has a granite seat, it shouldn't be too hard to give the dude a quick shove.
Timmmmber!!! Problem solved.
What is he going to do? Ask for help getting back in the thing? No, he will just worm around on the ground until the cops arrive.

2)Run behind him.
If the guy is half owl and can spin all the way around from the waste up, this may not work. However, outside of the Weekly World News I have not seen many Owl-Men around for awhile.
Just like you would with the scruff of a cat, grab the little handles on the back of his chair and wheel his happy ass to the police station, give him a "time out" by parking him in a corner, or just roll him out into the street.
Again, problem solved.

3)Walk behind a counter and out the back door...then lock him in.
You don't even have to run to do this one. While I understand most everywhere in the country is now wheelchair accessible, wheelchairs are not known for being exceptionally maneuverable around tight corners. On top of that, he can't very well hold a gun on you and wheel you down at the same time.

4)Trot up a flight of stairs.
What is he going to do? Use the elevator to catch you? Send his partner in crime, sporting a walker, to come after you?

5)Throw a broom or stick into one of the spokes of his chair.
He'll spin himself to death or tip over trying to remove it...either way, the situation is resolved.

6)Batter him with objects.
This guy was in a Post Office. At this time of year, you know the place is filled with packages of 10 pound fruit cakes and baseballs on their way to little Timmy.
The guy is in a wheelchair...it's not like he can duck out of the way. We all played Dodge-Ball in school...ever remember seeing any all-star D-Ball players in wheelchairs? No? Why do you think that is?...because they are in wheelchairs!!!
You could even use the whole GW method...throw a shoe at the guy.





This reminds me of when I lived in FL and worked at a 7-11. There was some guy going around robbing stores using..........a screwdriver. Know how he was stopped? One night, when he pulled his utensil, the cashier laughed...and slapped him. The robber ran out of the store and was never heard from again.


This has been a public service announcement by http://www.rantingsfromutah.blogspot.com/ , the Coalition for Stopping Wheelchair Criminals, and John Newberry.