Friday, June 27, 2014

Captain Henry (Jerry) Hendrix Retires

Patrol Squadron Ten (VP-10) and Combat Aircrew Two (CAC-2) alumnus, Captain Henry (Jerry) Hendrix, retires from US Naval Service.

During his speech, Captain Hendrix made several reminiscent and proud comments regarding his time in VP-10 on CAC-2, " We stayed in 2-mile scale, kept out of the water, and were the best Bear Trap Crew in Patrol Wing Five history."  This statement caused the audience to erupt in applause.

Captain Henry J. Hendrix retirement at the Naval Museum in the Washington DC Naval Shipyard with Kevin Hudson, George Tom Cooper, Henry J. Hendrix, Chief JD Lipofsky, and Anthony "Munyo" Monteforte.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, the guest speaker at Capt. Henry Hendrix's retirement ceremony on Friday, June 27, 2014.
Capt. Henry J. Hendrix, Ph.D., right, director of Naval History and Heritage Command, accepts the Meritorious Unit Commendation on behalf of the command from Vice Adm. Scott Swift, director of the Navy staff. The award was presented during Hendrix's retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy at the Washington Navy Yard. Hendrix assumed leadership in the wake of a 2011 inspector general investigation that found the Navy's historical and heritage holdings "at risk." Hendrix led the stabilization and systematic improvement of the command's infrastructure and processes. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tim Comerford/Released)
During Capt. Henry Hendrix's retirement ceremony, his family receives recognition for their sacrifice in sharing him with the Navy. From left are Hendrix's daughters Amanda and Michaela and his wife Penny Hendrix.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Religious Cleansing of Iraq's Christians

RTX16A57.jpg

Just a year ago, after months of bombings, shootings and kidnappings, Baghdad’s Monsignor Pios Cacha made a grim prediction. He said that his Iraqi Christian community was experiencing the kind of religious cleansing that eradicated the country’s once-thriving Jewish community half a century before.

His rather prophetic words made headlines in Lebanon’s Daily Star: "Iraqi Christians fear fate of departed Jews."

Father Cacha’s reflections couldn’t have been more prescient. As he knew very well, Iraq was once home to 135,000 Jews. Today less than ten Jews remain in the entire country.

And now, with the raging incursion of ISIS – a brutal Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group – the religious cleansing of Iraq’s Christians is nearing completion as well.

Iraq’s Christian community is hardly a western innovation or a colonial relic. It dates from the 1st Century, when two of Jesus’ disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) – preached the Gospel in what was then Assyria. There has been a Christian presence in Iraq ever since.

The heartland of their community has always been in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain. There, in recent years, the Christian population has swelled, as refugees from Basra and Baghdad have sought protection.

And now, as ISIS sweeps through Iraq, an estimated 150,000 have had to flee Mosul and their ancient Christian heartland, some for the second time in a decade.

Thousands of homeless families have surged into Kurdistan, where they have found provisional shelter and security, thanks to the Kurdish people and their battle-hardened Peshmerga militia.

Yet, strange as it seems, few in the West are aware of the Iraqi Christians' plight or their uncertain future.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/20/religious-cleansing-iraq-christians/

Friday, June 20, 2014

Lynyrd Skynyrd-Gimme Three Steps-1976

I cut a rug in a place called the Jug too


How ISIS is Winning in Iraq: The Mongols and Seige of Baghdad 2.0


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Michelle Obama Insults Parents While Defending a Broken School Lunch Program


In an interview with MSN, Michelle Obama shared some thoughts on school nutrition standards related to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, as well as the decision-making of parents. She declared, “Before coming to the White House, I struggled, as a working parent with a traveling, busy husband, to figure out how to feed my kids healthy, and I didn’t get it right. Our pediatrician had to pull me aside and point out some things that were going wrong. I thought to myself, if a Princeton and Harvard educated professional woman doesn’t know how to adequately feed her kids, then what are other parents going through who don’t have access to the information I have?"

These comments are condescending and illogical.

First off, figuring out how to feed your kids healthy food doesn't take an Ivy League degree. It takes common sense and a little research, which can easily be done on a home or local library computer, or via smartphone. Even without any research, I'm pretty sure most parents can figure out (yes, all by themselves!) that you put the vegetables, not the Skittles, beside the protein in your kid's dinner plate.

The implication made by Michelle Obama is that if she, an Ivy League-educated woman, couldn't figure it out, then the rest of American parents don't have a shot. Insulting? Yes. And absurd.

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/06/19/Michelle-Obama-Insults-Parents-While-Defending-a-Broken-School-Lunch-Program

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Gulf War Syndrome



Veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War are provided with free, comprehensive medical examinations, including laboratory and other diagnostic tests deemed by an examining physician necessary to determine health status. Results of the examinations, which include review of the veteran?s military service and exposure history, are entered into special, computerized databases, called registries. These databases assist the VA in analyzing the types of health conditions being reported by veterans. Registry participants are advised of the results of their examinations in personal consultations. Veterans wishing to participate should contact the nearest VA health care facility for an examination. The VA operates a toll-free hotline at 800-749-8387 to inform Persian Gulf War veterans about VA programs, their benefits and the latest information on Persian Gulf benefits.
 
Persian Gulf veterans who suffer from chronic disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses may receive disability compensation from VA. The undiagnosed illnesses must have appeared either during active duty in the Southwest Asia Theater of Operations during the Persian Gulf War or at any time since, through December 31, 2001. The following symptoms may be manifestations of an undiagnosed illness:
  • fatigue
  • skin disorders
  • headaches
  • muscle pain
  • joint pain
  • neurologic symptoms
  • neuropsychological symptoms
  • symptoms involving the respiratory system
  • sleep disturbances
  • gastrointestinal symptoms
  • cardiovascular symptoms
  • abnormal weight loss
  • menstrual disorders
While these categories represent the sign and symptoms frequently noted in VA's experiences to date, other signs and symptoms also could qualify for compensation. A disability is considered chronic if it has existed for at least six months. The VA operates a toll-free hotline at 800-749-8387 to inform Persian Gulf War veterans about VA programs, their benefits and the latest information on Persian Gulf benefits.

http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/gulf-war-syndrome.html

Homeland Security Intimidates and Harasses Disabled Vets

SAN DIEGO – Veterans were horrified while seeking VA health care on Wednesday when approached by Homeland Security police in an Operation Shield exercise. The exercise was for the purpose of “presence deterrence” at a VA health care facility in San Diego. Many veterans’ legal advocates are concerned about what this “presence deterrence” actually means and what it seeks to accomplish for veterans needing care.

According to reports, 20 officers from the DHS Federal Protective Service (FPS) dressed in full black combat gear crowded at the entrance of VA Mission Valley Health Care Clinic on Wednesday. These officers were not wearing any name tags and refused to identify themselves. Four bomb-sniffing dogs accompanied the secretive police group that arrived at the facility in 8 white SUVs marked “FPS”, which then blocked all access to parking for disabled veterans. Veterans arriving for care were alarmed and some frightened away.

VA Mission Valley Health Care Clinic houses numerous service centers including a general practice clinic, psychiatric clinic, PTSD treatment clinic, and the disability compensation evaluation clinic. The impact of this event on veterans is disturbing.

The advocacy group, Honoring Our Troops (HRT), promptly wrote a formal complaint to VA OIG in Washington, DC after fielding numerous communications from veterans who were shocked by these recent federal secret police actions. OIG has yet to formally acknowledge receipt of their complaint since it was filed several days ago.

According to HRT’s OIG complaint, veterans on site were harassed and threatened when they took pictures and asked questions about this bizarre behavior. One veteran was threatened with a fine of $10,000 and arrest if he did not delete a photo he had taken. Another elderly veteran refused to enter the clinic with his wife. When the veteran’s wife asked a VA doctor about the action, she was told it was a “familiarization exercise.” Is this the new normal at VA facilities that veterans must become familiarized with and used to? And why? What justifies this kind of action by the Feds?

http://www.disabledveterans.org/2014/06/13/breaking-homeland-security-police-caught-harassing-sick-veterans/

Judge Jeanine: Obama's feckless foreign policy has minimized America



“Barack Hussein Obama’s feckless foreign policies have turned the world’s only superpower into a weak nation neither feared nor respected by anyone.”

Saturday, June 14, 2014

I Believe - Frankie Laine




I believe for every drop of rain that falls
A flower grows
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night
A candle glows
I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come
To show the way
I believe, I believe

I believe above a storm the smallest prayer
Can still be heard
I believe that someone in the great somewhere
Hears every word

Everytime I hear a new born baby cry,
Or touch a leaf or see the sky
Then I know why, I believe

Everytime I hear a new born baby cry,
Or touch a leaf or see the sky
Then I know why, I believe

Ruthie Henshall - I Dreamed A Dream (Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert - Royal Albert Hall)


Muslim Group, Boko Haram, Stones Young Girl to Death


People need to see this. The Western mind refuses to see what is front of them. Shielding them from the horrors of Islamic law will not save us, it will destroy us.

Eisenhower insisted that the death camps be photographed and filmed, because it was not to be believed. So, too, is the savagery of Islamic jihad.
People need to see this the same way people needed to see the walking skeletons of the Nazi death camps, the mounds of skulls in Cambodia and the crucified girls of Armenia. Armaros, who sent me the link, lamented:

“Until people realize what this is and how vile this is they will never understand it. The media covers this up. Telling the story is not the same as seeing it like this.

This is beyond everything that I could ever imagine. The sheer banality and the celebration of such cruelty makes one realize that the world never learns. Evil is persistent and evil always is defended by the stupid, the naive and the deniers.”

- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/06/video-devout-muslim-group-boko-haram-stones-young-girl-death.html/#sthash.MWiuwKP3.dpuf

Flag Day: The power of those broad stripes and bright stars





What would life be like without symbols? We often use simple pictures to show complex ideas, with something small representing something big. Wedding rings mean marriage. Mobile phone icons lead to us take action. Flags represent nations.

Americans observe Flag Day each year on June 14, the day when the Continental Congress first issued the U.S. Flag in 1777. This year’s Flag Day is extra special because 2014 also the 200th anniversary year of The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem written by Francis Scott Key, a Maryland attorney. The U.S. Flag, America’s most recognizable symbol, inspired Key to write his famous song’s lyrics.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/14/flag-day-power-those-broad-stripes-and-bright-stars/

Friday, June 13, 2014

Iraq’s Vulnerable Christians Further Imperiled by Jihadist Advance

CNSNews.com) – The startling gains made by jihadist fighters in Iraq are placing the region’s already extremely vulnerable Christians in even greater peril, Christian advocacy groups are warning.
While hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are affected by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s takeover of key cities including the Ninawa (Nineveh) provincial capital, Mosul, minority Christians – some of whom trace their origins to the earliest years of Christianity – are among those with the most to lose.
In previous years, Christians fleeting violence in Baghdad or elsewhere in the south often headed for the Mosul area. The Nineveh Plain formed the historic homeland of Assyrians, an ancient non-Arab ethnic group in Iraq. Main Christian denominations include Chaldean Catholic, Assyrian, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian and evangelicals.
Syria was another key destination for Christians who were able to leave Iraq, but the civil war there made life even riskier across the border than at home, prompting some to return.
For many Christians in the Mosul area now, the autonomous Kurdish region to the north-east may offer the best short-term hope – if they are able to cross over. Chaldean archbishop Amel Nona told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) he believed all Mosul’s Christians had left the city, and spoke of efforts to find emergency accommodation in ancient Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain.
- See more at: http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/#sthash.ua4bLhFM.dpuf

Thursday, June 12, 2014

ISIS bulldozes berm dividing Iraq and Syria

borderIraqSyria


“Creating a cross-border Islamic state is one of the group’s main aims.” They actually have a shot at doing this now. Yet the reestablishment of the caliphate has never been considered for a nanosecond by those who formulate U.S. foreign policy. It’s high time they started considering its implications. But they won’t.

“Jihadists ‘bulldoze berm’ dividing Iraq from Syria,” AFP, June 11, 2014:

Baghdad (AFP) – The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant posted pictures online of militants bulldozing a berm dividing Iraq and Syria, symbolising its goal of uniting its forces in the two countries.

The jihadists could be seen clearing a road through the berm, before trucks drove through as a militant stood nearby holding the group’s black flag, in photos shared on websites and Twitter.

Creating a cross-border Islamic state is one of the group’s main aims.

The first shot was dated June 10 and carried the title of the photo series, “Smashing the Sykes-Picot border” — a reference to the agreement between Britain and France that carved up the Middle East after World War I, with the former taking Iraq and the latter Syria.

Another photo showed a militant standing in front of Iraqi army Humvees and trucks, suggesting the shots were taken after the launch of a jihadist offensive this week in which large numbers of military vehicles were captured.

But the authenticity of the photos could not be independently verified.

ISIL has overrun all of Nineveh province, and parts of Kirkuk province to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.

The offensive reached as far as the outskirts of Samarra, just 110 kilometres (70 miles) north of Baghdad, before clashes between security forces and militants ended without them entering the city.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/06/isis-bulldozes-berm-dividing-iraq-and-syria

Ex-border agents: Immigrant flood 'orchestrated'




An organization of former Border Patrol agents Wednesday charged that the federal government, under the administration of President Obama, is deliberately arranging for a flood of immigrant children to arrive in America for political purposes.

“This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” said the statement released by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

“Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government,” the officers said.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/ex-border-agents-immigrant-flood-orchestrated/#qxMScClT5FUqK1tZ.99

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Battle of Midway, 72 Anniversary, June 4, 2014


WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 04: U.S. Navy Commander Ellis Dee Skidmore (Ret.) (R) and Navy General E. E. Anderson (Ret.) (L) pray during a celebration of the 72nd anniversary of the Battle of Midway victory June 4, 2014 at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, DC. The battle was one of the most important victories during the World War II after the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor six months ago. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Peters: Why Team Obama Was Blindsided by the Bergdahl Backlash

Congratulations, Mr. President! And identical congrats to your sorcerer’s apprentice, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. By trying to sell him as an American hero, you’ve turned a deserter already despised by soldiers in the know into quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military.

I have never witnessed such outrage from our troops.

Exhibit A: Ms. Rice. In one of the most tone-deaf statements in White House history (we’re making a lot of history here), the national-security advisor, on a Sunday talk show, described Bergdahl as having served “with honor and distinction.” Those serving in uniform and those of us who served previously were already stirred up, but that jaw-dropper drove us into jihad mode.

But pity Ms. Rice. Like the president she serves, she’s a victim of her class. Nobody in the inner circle of Team Obama has served in uniform. It shows. That bit about serving with “honor and distinction” is the sort of perfunctory catch-phrase politicians briefly don as electoral armor. (“At this point in your speech, ma’am, devote one sentence to how much you honor the troops.”)

I actually believe that Ms. Rice was kind of sincere, in her spectacularly oblivious way. In the best Manchurian Candidate manner, she said what she had been programmed to say by her political culture, then she was blindsided by the firestorm she ignited by scratching two flinty words together. At least she didn’t blame Bergdahl’s desertion on a video.

The president, too, appears stunned. He has so little understanding of (or interest in) the values and traditions of our troops that he and his advisers really believed that those in uniform would erupt into public joy at the news of Bergdahl’s release — as D.C. frat kids did when Osama bin Laden’s death was trumpeted.

Both President Obama and Ms. Rice seem to think that the crime of desertion in wartime is kind of like skipping class. They have no idea of how great a sin desertion in the face of the enemy is to those in our military. The only worse sin is to side actively with the enemy and kill your brothers in arms. This is not sleeping in on Monday morning and ducking Gender Studies 101.

But compassion, please! The president and all the president’s men and women are not alone. Our media elite — where it’s a rare bird who bothered to serve in uniform — instantly became experts on military justice. Of earnest mien and blithe assumption, one talking head after another announced that “we always try to rescue our troops, even deserters.”

Uh, no. “Save the deserter” is a recent battle cry of the politically indoctrinated brass. For much of our history, we did make some efforts to track down deserters in wartime. Then we shot or hanged them. Or, if we were in good spirits, we merely used a branding iron to burn a large D into their cheeks or foreheads. Even as we grew more enlightened, desertion brought serious time in a military prison. At hard labor.

This is a fundamental culture clash. Team Obama and its base cannot comprehend the values still cherished by those young Americans “so dumb” they joined the Army instead of going to prep school and then to Harvard. Values such as duty, honor, country, physical courage, and loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms have no place in Obama World. (Military people don’t necessarily all like each other, but they know they can depend on each other in battle — the sacred trust Bergdahl violated.)

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/379481/why-team-obama-was-blindsided-bergdahl-backlash-ralph-peters