One Nation, Under God, Except in Florida

Posted on by mjgranger
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TOSHIBA Exif JPEG

Atheists and liberal anti-Christians are at it again, this time successfully supporting legislation in the Sunshine State to make it unlawful to force a student in the public schools there to stand at attention or say the Pledge of Allegiance.

A previous law required only that students stand at attention during the pledge if they didn’t want to recite it. Now they may sit.

It’s a shame that every school in Florida can’t have a wounded veteran appear in a wheel chair in front of the students and then tell them about how he or she CANNOT stand to honor the flag that represents the reason they sacrificed their ABILITY to stand for it.

It’s a shame that legislators in Florida no longer hold dear the values that created this nation and made it free in the first place.

Communists and socialists and atheists will tell you it’s bad to swear oaths and make pledges, but in an instant would turn around and have you promise your individuality and creativity away with state sponsored dogma limiting your ambitions and directing your energies to the “common” good.

No individuality or capitalism in their small mental world of what’s good and what’s bad. That translates to “no incentive” to excel or invent a better way.

I remember a friend in elementary school, Danny, who would not say the pledge. His religion forbade him from celebrating or pledging allegiance to anything. We respected and liked Danny, who would just stay home rather than be exposed to holiday parties in class. No Christmas or Halloween or Easter. We felt sorry for him, too.

What’s more than just passing legislation that says students no longer have to stand for the pledge, atheist groups are threatening lawsuits against any person who violates the law. Every student has now become an informant for the overseers: another Communist ploy that conjures memories of the child murderers of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge who would round up teachers and kill them.

I had a teacher colleague of mine from my New York City teaching days get a one year suspension for refusing to take down a poster with the Ten Commandments on it. It was in his classroom along with posters with the religious edicts from other religions on them.

Ten Commandments

Back then we had many known and even proud Communist Party U.S.A. members among the faculty. C.P.U.S.A. headquarters was just a few blocks away on 23rd Street, Manhattan, disguised as a bookshop. They ratted out my friend and forced the principal to write him up and then get him suspended.

My friend argued that since he had come to the portion of his ESL (English as a Second Language) history class where they discussed world religions that it would be OK to post the Ten Commandments. Not so fast, the atheists said! And they got their way.

Of course the charges had nothing to do with the myth of “separation of church and state,” but everything to do with insubordination, one of the few deadly sins in the tenured teacher world. My friend was eventually fired.

The myth of “separation of church and state” is perpetuated by Pagan, utilitarian, humanist atheists and liberal progressives. Too many descriptors? Too few probably, but operatively, Pagans do whatever feels good; utilitarian’s believe that if it’s useful to them it is good; and humanists feel that they should be able to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt another politically correct minion (it’s OK to hurt those who believe in the Judeo/Christian ethic).

Contrast that with Judeo/Christians and most other law abiding, respectful Americans, practicing religions or not, who believe in the Golden Rule, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Here you have the classic dichotomy that represents our current Great Cultural Struggle.

Social engineering abounds in these troubled times with gays openly serving in the military, transgenders pooping and showering wherever they please, legalized gay marriage, and the nation’s first openly gay Secretary of the Army. It’s an end to “live and let live;” it’s open season on the Judeo/Christian values that founded and perpetuated our society.

The Constitution provides the answer to the question of whether or not there is such a thing as the separation of church and state. You have the Establishment Clause:  Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion – which means no state sponsored religion forced on the People. The Puritans and other original colonists from Old World Europe left to establish religious freedom, not to make a theocracy.

And then you have the Free Expression Clause: Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free expression [of religion]. Nowhere does the Constitution say anything about separation of church and state.

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In fact, above every Federal Court bench “In God We Trust” can be found in gold shiny letters. On our currency you’ll find the same, on coin and paper. A taxpayer-funded chaplain recites an invocation in Congress before each session. “One nation, under God,” is in our Pledge.

We are a nation of believers. The Pledge and the “Star Spangled Banner,” our national anthem, are tools of our patriotism. They help to bring us together in a country where the founders wanted government out of our religion, but NEVER intended for religion to be out of our government.

According to our founding document there are many references to a deity. Many founders were religious if not Christian. And those who weren’t respected those who were. They wanted a free nation, not one in which the non-religious set upon the religious with pen, paper and intimidation.

I say, shame on the Florida legislature, shame on the atheists bullying educators and children, and shame on the United States of America for allowing it to happen. What’s next, banning the crucifixes on Christian churches?

It would be wonderful if Florida legislator’s would reverse their decision, but like the Boy Scouts of America, who changed their philosophy of not allowing openly gay boys or leaders to join because they could no longer bear the financial burden of fighting LGBT zealots in court, I fear the legislators in Florida have succumbed to the same foul sources of anti-establishment fanaticism.

I hope and pray that the youth of Florida rise up and stand for and then say the Pledge. And while they do, looking at the Stars and Stripes, remember those who fought and/or died for the rights of others not to say or stand for it.

Osama bin Laden, 5 Years Gone

Posted on by mjgranger

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It was five years ago that we learned Osama bin Laden had been killed by Navy SEALs in an overnight raid to his compound in Pakistan.

Before the year was out President Barack Obama withdrew all U.S. military forces from Iraq without a Status of Forces agreement that would have secured the peace in that tortured country.

A few years later, in 2013, Obama unilaterally declared “The Global War on Terror is over,” after announcing an end to U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.

Now, just weeks after the death of a United States Marine in a fire base in Afghanistan, Obama has announced 250 more troops to Iraq and Syria. The fire base by the way was not part of the official count of troops in Iraq. The administration hadn’t said anything about the fire base or the Marine artillery units set up there to support a mainly Iraqi assault on nearby Islamic State held territory.

Days later, during the assault, and before engaging the enemy, Iraqi forces withdrew in a panic, leaving U.S. advisors with no one to advise there.

Meanwhile, things in Syria are getting worse. What to do?

Send in 250 more troops. What kind? No one is saying beyond that some of them are Special Forces.

Those of us with military backgrounds know that for every combat troop it takes from 5-7 support troops to keep that soldier at the tip of the spear fed, clothed, paid, accounted for, lead and supplied with ammo, INTEL, COMMO, security and transportation. In other words, there are not 250 more Boy Scouts camping in the desert.

What is our objective in Iraq and Syria? What end state is desired?

I’m not big on numbers or time, so I’m not asking how many troops or when we’ll be out. I’m results driven. I want to know the end game.

Military folks like to plan from the end. Where do you want me to be and when do you want me to be there? The rest is nuts and bolts, but commanders are supposed to communicate their intent to their subordinates, who carry out the mission.

Soldiers don’t like it when you don’t tell them details about the mission. The American Army has frustrated opponents since the Revolutionary War. We don’t play by conventional rules. We are creative on the battlefield. We fight, we win.

However, when your boss says it’s day when it’s night, it’s hard to trust whatever else follows.

 

The announced death of Osama bin Laden was an emotional thing for me to hear. Staying up late, unable to sleep when after 10 p.m. on May 1, 2011, I saw on social media announcements that the President had scheduled a hasty news conference.

I listened and watched, rapt and in shock.

Strange feelings of sadness and relief crept over me. It’s as if I didn’t know how to react.

After a few minutes the news began to sink in, bin Laden was dead.

I became euphoric after a while, remembering all the things in my life that had changed since 9/11/2001. I lost my job, I was deployed for about 2 ½ years over five years, and my relationship with family members, friends and colleagues had all changed as well, and none for the better.

I was angry at bin Laden for all of this, and for putting me in harm’s way at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for six months, and then in Iraq for nearly a year. It was all his fault, and I was very happy that he was dead.

Or was he?

Why didn’t they show us official pictures of the dead body they say belonged to the evil terrorist?

Thrown overboard? In the sea? Why?

Were they hiding him? Did he actually survive?

Did they tranquilize him and then spirit him away to an undisclosed location to see how much information they could get from him? Why martyr him?

I still carry some of those thoughts.

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After Saddam Hussein’s sons were killed we saw gruesome photos of them. We saw photos of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Saddam Hussein after they were captured. Why nothing on bin Laden.

KSM

 

It bothers me there is no closure, visually, to this person who caused so much death, destruction and heartache.

Saddam Captured

Five years gone, but still alive in a soldier’s memory. All of it. From the bloody devastation of 9/11, to the deployments, to the raid, to today. Nothing has changed for the better. In fact things are worse now and not getting better.

 

The Passion of Donald Trump

Posted on by mjgranger

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With Republican zealots plotting against him, can the will of the People save Donald Trump from political crucifixion?

Not to compare The Donald to Jesus Christ as a person, but to compare his current political circumstances to the persecution and historical political circumstances of Jesus’ in order to illuminate what the American political establishment is doing and why.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – who is already a very established leader in the business world – is trying to assert himself as the political leader of the United States. But he hasn’t paid his dues nor suffered countless election defeats and other indignities of a tried and true politician. He hasn’t played the game from the other side of the fence. Although a very successful businessman, Trump is anything but a traditional political leader, yet. Hence his popularity.

About this time nearly 2,000 years ago, Christ attempted to assert his claim to the three heads of influence: the position of High Priest in the strict Jewish Essene sect to which he belonged; the title of King of the Jews, which was his bloodline, but to which his own brother James claimed righteously because he asserted that Jesus was not the legitimate heir; and the leader of the political group called The Twelve Disciples, which laid influence on the governance of the Jewish people through religion and politics.

The passion of the christ caiphas high priests temple judas passion010

To say the very least, Jesus was misunderstood. He had risen in the religious ranks through determination and deeds. His following was popular and growing, which worried the establishment priests.

Jesus wanted all to be able to worship God in the temple; the sick, the lame, the Gentiles and women, not just those deemed acceptable by the crony religious leadership of the day.

Jesus had stepped out of his role as simply future King of the Jews of the David line, and wanted to unite the forces of society from a single point of power.

Donald Trump, successor to his family fortune, protestant Christian, and now political wannabe, is attempting the same thing and is getting the same results from the political establishment and religious left that Jesus received from the ruling Essene priests, Herod (King of the Jews who espoused peace and cooperation with the establishment government from Rome), and Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea.

How dare he presume rights to ultimate power!

What chutzpah!

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But indeed, the opponents of Trump are getting more and more perturbed as he appears to step closer and closer to the ultimate position of power in the world, that of Presidency of the United States.

The most recent claim, by The Economist, that a Trump presidency would be a “top ten global threat,” is absurd. But such statements gain media attention like flies on dung.

Every new story about how Trump couldn’t possibly be president or shouldn’t be president takes on curiouser and curiouser rationale.

The Economist piece claims his presidency would encourage terrorist recruitment, and send global markets to the basement. These claims are erroneous at best and evil propaganda at worst.

But why the panic? Why are prominent Republican and conservative leaders huddling in Washington, D.C. to come up with an alternate plan, even if Trump wins enough delegates to claim the Republican nomination?

Why has Mitt Romney turned into the Republican establishment pit bull, espousing the type of vitriol and hyperbole against Trump that we never saw when he ran against President Obama?

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They have their collective panties in a bunch because they see with Trump an end to their political influence and standing.

A Trump victory would make them all irrelevant, and then beholden to Trump for positions in the new administration and beyond. Trump would become the face of the Republican Party and its defacto leader.

A President Trump would act fast and decisively to melt away the fat of unnecessary government. Depending on whom he chooses to join him in his administration – and they are already lining up – he would find it more or less difficult getting things through a majority Republican Congress.

His biggest is with the conservatives, just as Jesus’ biggest hurdle was members of his own sect who were zealots (Simon Magus and Judas Iscariot). Jesus the pacifist does not appear to share that trait with Trump, but that has yet to be revealed, as Trump’s political record has not yet been written.

Remember, even though Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire,” and told Gorbachev to “tear down [the Berlin] wall,” he actually only invaded one country, Grenada. Hardly the hawkish neocolonialist his detractors wanted to make him out to be.

Call it bluster, call it bullying, what Trump says has a purpose. He is setting the stage for negotiations with influential powers around the globe and domestically.

The question is which power will prevail, the power of contempt and rhetoric of the Republican establishment, or the power of the People to elect the candidate of their choice? More and more it looks like it will be The Coiffed One.

Will the persecution of Donald Trump lead to his political crucifixion at a brokered convention? Or will the passion of Donald Trump reveal a new beginning for America? It may just come down to the will of the masses.

In Mark 15:15, wanting to please the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas, a convicted murderer, instead of sparing Jesus from the cross. If the pleasure of the crowd is with Trump, will the establishment powers let the People have their day?

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Obama vs. Bwazir the Gitmo Detainee Who Wouldn’t Leave

Posted on by mjgranger

So, Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir, 35- or 36- year old detainee at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a “committed” and a “trained al Qaeda fighter,” with a  four page Department of Defense docket, wants to stay in President Barack Obama’s gulag. Really?

Bwazir

I can see the Saturday Night Live skit now. Obama travels to Gitmo to try and convince Bwazir to leave. He tells Bwazir that if he stays he will cause terrorist organizations all over the world to increase their recruiting. “It’s not who we are,” Obama would plead. “It’s an embarrassment,” he’ll kvetch.

“Are you kidding?” Bwazir would counter (to the theme of “Green Acres”). “Club Gitmo is the place to be. Island living is the life for me! Land and sea spreading out so far and wide, forget Yemen, give me this Caribbean paradise!”

Obama: “Bu, bu, but, Bwazir, my brother, you can go back to your squalid, dirty, disgusting life! You know, the one that led you to seek jihadi training at the Khaldan Training Facility, in Afghanistan?!”

Bwazir: “Barack, my brother, here, I get prayer beads, prayer rug, a free Koran, your military Muslim chaplains to help me pray (and smuggle uncensored messages to my peeps), and a green arrow painted on the floor of my cell pointing the way to Mecca. Plus, I get halal meals, and lamb and baklava on holy days.”

Gitmo Quran

Obama: “Forget about that! What about your mama’s home cooking? Sugar konafa, goat milk curds and honey-glazed beetles!”

Bwazir: “You don’t understand, Barack, my brother. This ocean air is good for my formerly sand infested lungs. I love to watch the black Cuban rock iguanas sunning on the beach rocks. The banana rats are hilarious when they fight for the food scraps we save to feed them with at night. Besides, they don’t have Harry Potter books in Yemen!”

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Obama: “OK, OK, so the flora and fauna at Gitmo are more entertaining than in your home town. I get that. But I’ve really got to close this place. I promised to do it over seven years ago and people are beginning to think I can’t keep my promises. Can’t a brother get some love here?”

Bwazir: “I feel you, my brother, but do you realize I have had better treatment here in 14 years than I could ever hope for back home or in some third world country of your choosing? Free check-ups, dental and vision care, and Ensure when I’m not feeling like eating for myself. And have you seen the candy they give in the MRE’s?

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Obama: “Bwazir, I’m going to have to insist that you leave.”

Bwazir: “OK, I will leave on one condition. I get to come and stay at your house. I hear you have two lovely daughters!”

Obama: “Whoa, there padnah! Let’s not get carried away! I said I gotta close the place, but coming to the United States is out of the question.”

Bwazir: “But I thought you had to prove to people you were not a liar. If you don’t close this place you will lose your legacy of effective foreign policy.”

Obama: “No, no, no. You don’t understand. If I let you come to the United States and let you loose people will say I don’t care about the safety of the American people.”

Bwazir: “Fine, but I don’t want to go back to Yemen. I want to go live with my sister and brother-in-law Saudi Arabia, or with my uncle in the UAE.”

Obama: “Uh, I’d like to do that, but we don’t have enough money to bribe them with, and they won’t take credit.”

Bwazir: “Then I am staying here. That turf soccer pitch is my field of dreams. I could never leave it, or this great free Muslim resort you have here. Thank you, my brother, but no. It’s the White House or Gitmo.”

White House

Obama: “Final offer?”

Bwazir: “Final offer.”

Obama: “OK, you can come to Washington, D.C., but you’ll have to accept a job with CAIR. Nobody who’s a brother of mine is going to live on welfare.”

Curtain.

On Obama’s Bloody Hands: Six Air Force Dead

Posted on by mjgranger

Almost unnoticed or only given a passing glance was the recent murder of six United States Air Force members, killed while on a security foot patrol around an air base in Afghanistan. The pain and frustration over these deaths will linger for a long time, especially with their families, loved ones, and among those with whom they served, but also with those of us who understand the significance of the circumstances under which they were killed.

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The dead include the female commander of the security patrol, Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen, 36.  Tech. Sgt. Joseph Lemm, 45, a veteran of two prior deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq , and a New York City police sergeant.  Sgt. Michael Cinco, 28, of Mercedes, Texas. Sgt. Peter Taub, 30, of Philadelphia. Sgt. Chester McBride, 30, of Statesboro, Georgia.  And SSgt. Louis Bonacasa, 31, of Coram, New York.

Coram is a few minutes from my home on Long Island. I was a school district administrator where SSgt. Bonacasa went to school. And although we did not know each other, any time a neighbor is killed it brings home the serious nature of the Global War on Terror.

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Bonacasa was a husband, and a father of a young daughter. I know the anguish he must have felt in leaving his family to do our nation’s most dangerous work, for I left a two day old son to serve at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, just months after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Later, I served on two more deployments, including one to Iraq in 2004-2005 which saw me away from home and family for 14 months. Whether or not I was ever coming home was in the back of my mind every day in-country.

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Bonacasa loved his daughter so intensely that he wrote a poem about her and then had it tattooed on his left rib cage:

 

Daddy’s little girl,

The most precious person in my life

I can’t wait until that first night

Holding you in my hands

Now it’s time to be a man

From your first breath to my last

I’ll be there for you any way I can

Your pretty smile will melt my heart

And your sad cries will always tear me apart

Daddy will be there to wipe away your tears

And there to protect you from all your fears

Your sweet little laugh will be music to my ears

A beautiful gift from God to watch you grow through the years

There will be times when daddy is not around

He will be somewhere with his boots on the ground

There so at home everyone is safe and sound

When daddy is gone baby please don’t cry

Because for your freedom my baby girl

Daddy will die

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This heartbreaking promise from a father to his child is evidence still that we are in a bloody War on Terror, not simply some struggle against “thugs and killers,” as President Barak Obama would have us believe. This enemy is multifaceted and insidious.

Why then does our President pretend we are engaged with “lone wolf terror” and “crazy people” with guns? Every attack is connected in obvious ways, by philosophy, culture and yes, religion.

If this is not true, then why do we operate the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, like a Muslim resort: prayer beads and rugs, Korans, halal and special Muslim holiday meals that include lamb and baklava, signs in Arabic on guard towers and green arrows painted on cell floors pointing the way to Mecca, white detainee garb for the well behaved, and counsel from U.S. military Muslim chaplains?

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Obama’s denials that we are engaged in a war against Islamists fuels a misperception that has led to an inoperably thin effort that puts our troops in unnecessary peril. Too many missions, including the one that claimed these six lives, are under served with armor and overwatch – protections that should have been employed on such a dangerous mission.

I grew up as a soldier in the Army with the mechanized infantry as a combat medic, being told by my Vietnam veteran medical platoon sergeant and by the G.I.’s I served with that “you are an 11B (military occupational specialty nomenclature for infantryman) until somebody gets hurt.” They put the “combat” into “combat medic.”

Combat Medic

I learned every weapon system except for mortars, and trained to fire them. I understood the tactical and technical requirements of mechanized infantry missions. Later, as an officer, my first command was as a leg infantry medical platoon leader, responsible for support of line companies, scouts, evacuation and aid station operations. Inherent in all of this was the number one most essential element to any military mission: security.

The last nine years of my military career I spent as a medical service officer with enemy prisoner of war military police units, small liaison detachments responsible for operational oversight of detainee operations, both in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later in Iraq. Again, the number one most important concern was security.

Four of the Air Force personnel killed, including Maj. Vorderbruggen, were members of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations; think the Air Force version of NCIS, the criminal investigation folks. This leads one to think there is something more going on here than a routine security patrol around an air base. It leads one to believe there was an intelligence gathering mission going on. Why were the Air Force police on foot patrol? Why so many non-commissioned officers? Were there armored weapons platforms on overwatch or in reserve? Was there sniper cover? Helicopters? Drones? If not, why not?

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Was this patrol, like the thin defenses for our personnel and ambassador in Benghazi, politically motivated? Was the major being allowed to punch her combat ticket (gender and sexual orientation aside) for promotion?  Was she trained and experienced in such patrols or intelligence gathering? Was she a linguistics expert?

In my experience, it is highly unusual for a military major to be leading a foot patrol. Majors are field grade officers, and generally assigned to staff positions in headquarters units, not front line commanders leading troops into battle or on security patrols. Usually, the highest rank for an operational combat unit is captain, one rank below major.

Why were so many killed with one motorcycle improvised explosive? Were they grouped together too tightly? Were they following protocols? Who sent them on the mission and why?

We must perform all military operations with overwhelming force and with vigilant force protection. This idea from civilians at the Pentagon and in the White House that we can perpetrate a war with a tiny footprint and only Special Forces, bombs and drones is naive at best and deadly at worst.

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If our political and military goals are not the same, we will fail, and there will be more blood spilled needlessly.

As a former combat medic I know how difficult blood stains can be to remove, and it may take Obama a lifetime to get this blood off of his hands.

 

It’s Christmas 2015, Charlie Brown!

Posted on by mjgranger

In the original “Charlie Brown Christmas,” produced in 1966, our hero is surrounded by materialism and commercialism. He is told by a somewhat sympathetic Lucy that what he really needs is “involvement.” Would he be the Christmas play director?

Of course! But he is bothered by what the “true meaning” of Christmas is. After a few blunders and misunderstandings, Charlie Brown finally gets what he came for, the true meaning of Christmas, in Linus’s speech in the play:

“And there were in the same country Shepards abiding in

the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the

angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone

round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said

unto them, ‘fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great

joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in

the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this

shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in

swaddling clothes lying in the manger.’ And suddenly, there was

with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and

saying, ‘glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good

will toward men.’”

Linus
The show ends with the cast caroling, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” a decidedly Christian and joyous song.

If a group of public elementary school children wanted to produce such a play today they would be told “no.” The reason may be because it’s wrong to exclude other religions in favor of another. Or, we can’t talk about God or Jesus in school.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in no way, shape or form, either expressly or implied, even suggests that such a play would be against the law. In fact it implies the opposite.

The only thing such a play would be against is the politically correct myth people have come to call “separation of church and state.”

There was never any such intent among the framers and founders of our great Judeo-Christian nation.

In fact, the intent was to prevent a repeat of the Church of England, which dictated religion to the people. In America we have freedom of religion, which shall not be abridged.

Respecting no religion means the government shall not dictate a religion. The law was meant to keep government out of religion, but never to keep religion out of government or anything else.
Photo Credit: AP
Photo Credit: AP
By current standards “In God We Trust” could be struck from behind every U.S. Federal Court bench and from our currency. And “under God” could be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. A religious invocation could be discontinued before every new session of Congress, and the paid U.S. Chaplain dismissed.

What is it about at the very least good guidelines for life, being outlawed and vilified? Where has the nation, founded on Judeo-Christian ethics gone wrong?

Fewer and fewer of our leaders and icons are outwardly religious. More and more intrusions on our sectarian lives are made by commercialism and anti-religious sentiment.

Christmas has been hi-jacked by our capitalist greed.

It’s not enough to put Christ back in Christmas. We want our children to be exposed to the values and principles of the Judeo/Christian ethic at school, where they spend the majority of their weekday waking hours.

If my fourth grade son’s teacher can give him what amounts to hours of homework every night, then the school should allow a few minutes of what I want to go on there. Such a prayer, a moment of silence, a gathering of children singing Christmas carols. I am so sick and tired of “winter concerts,” with “snow” songs and cover-ups of the real reason we celebrate this time of year.

Or are we too far gone? Have we lost the spirit of Charlie Brown’s Christmas?

Well, I haven’t.

I hold dear the Christmas stories of my mother, who grew up on a farm in Southern Wisconsin. If a child got one hand made toy or gift at Christmas they were fortunate. The real prize, my mother told me, was an orange.

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Think about that for a moment. An orange.

Having family all together wasn’t much of an issue in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. Most families and extended families shared a home or farm house. Now we are spread from sea to sea with rarely a moment to even call or email.

Our lives are so busy that even sports and other activities are taking over the traditional day of rest, Sunday.

When the first Chick-fil-A restaurant on Long Island, New York, opened up recently a few miles from my home, people did not believe it was closed on Sundays. Why? So that employees had some predictable family and rest time, and “worship if they choose to.”

My oldest son works Sunday mornings and afternoons at a competing restaurant, and it breaks my heart that he doesn’t come to church with us anymore because of it.

Something has to change. Someone has to stand up for what I believe is the silent religious majority, and then tell everyone we can pray in school again. That we can sing Christmas carols in class and in the CHRISTMAS concert.

If we could fast forwarded the Peanuts gang to 2015, I think they would clandestinely produce a Christmas play on the village green, pass out oranges, and they would all work at Chick-fil-A.

Of Thanksgiving and ‘Syrian’ Refugees

Posted on by mjgranger

‘Tis the age old question: To be, or not to be?

Should we not, as a nation of immigrants, live by, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?”

Should we not kill the fatted calf and embrace our fellow man?

No.

We should not.

Not too long ago there was an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Even U.S. citizens who contracted the disease were highly suspect, and made us cringe when we learned they were being allowed into the U.S. for treatment. Those were innate feelings of survival.

Instead of allowing infected West Africans into the United States, President Barack Obama was willing to expose Americans by sending U.S. Army troops into the belly of the Ebola beast in order to help gain control of the virus. But would he keep troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect us against unlawful combatant Islamists who want to kill us? Not so much.

Any pangs you might feel towards “Syrian” refugees as you sit around the turkey and cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving stop it. Just stop it.

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For those of us who believe in the Judeo/Christian ethic: do unto others as you would have them do unto you, the Ten Commandments and “am I my brother’s keeper?” do not be fooled, they are not our neighbors nor are they our brothers, these “immigrants” are our enemies and are as infectious as Ebola.

Ten Commandments

Even in ancient biblical times we did things that protected ourselves against disease: no pork, monogamy, cleanliness is next to Godliness. We must protect ourselves against the disease of Islam in the radical form. We must reject the politically correct idea that our “morals” are more important than our own existence.

Whose morals are the PC crowd talking about anyway? Pagan, utilitarian, humanist morals.

If it feels good, do it. If it’s useful to me it’s good. Whatever a human does as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone (who isn’t conservative or a capitalist) is good.

One’s morals depend on one’s values. Values are beliefs, feelings and actions which are important to us, the most important of which are ACTIONS. Because without ACTING on what you say you believe and feel is right, you don’t truly value it.

In today’s debate about whether or not to admit “Syrian” refugees into the United States, liberal talking heads are beside themselves cackling about our morals and the American way – but how many are pledging to HOUSE “Syrian” refugees, or even put them anywhere near their own homes!

Actions really DO speak louder than words.

And sometimes right and wrong take a back seat to survival.

Our survival instinct is as American as it is human.

From the Revolutionary War, when the bodies of dead patriots piled high around and supported the standard holding the American flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the “Star Spangled Banner.” To our Civil War, where President Abraham Lincoln chose finally two generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, who embraced total war, and then burned their way to victory through southern cities. To fire bombs and atomic bombs to end World War II.

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We, as a people, have done what is necessary to survive, and should never feel guilty or apologize for it. Nor should we brag about or exult in it.

We should simply keep moving forward in our effort to make this land, OUR land, a more perfect place.

Free, with Liberty and Justice for all who belong here and want to embrace the same values, our Judeo/Christian values, which have made us who we are. Islamists seek to be governed in a theocracy. This is antithetical to democracy, ours especially, because we believe in separation of church and state.

This separation however is frequently misunderstood. The Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution were intended to forbid state sponsored religion, but was never intended to forbid free expression of religion, both in and out of the government.

Separation of church and state is meant to keep government out of religion, but never to prevent religion in government. Look at the references to God and religion in our capital’s architecture. “In God We Trust” on our currency and behind the bench of every Federal Court. An invocation before each session of Congress performed by a government employed chaplain. Chaplains in all the services of our military.

True Americans are not hyphenated-Americans. We assimilate. We respect each other’s differences, but not to the point of losing our own identity, our own American soul. Islamists seek social entropy, leading to an end state of complete control and domination, over infidels, women and children within a Muslim theocracy or Caliphate.

The biggest differences between the pagan, utilitarian, humanist (liberal) ethic and the Judeo/Christian ethic is the former’s idea that a human being is born with rights and no responsibilities, that we deserve forgiveness without repentance, and that anyone who comes along deserves food, water and shelter no matter their potential intentions.

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So, this Thanksgiving, while you’re giving thanks for all the blessings you enjoy as an American, continue to be kind, generous and forgiving, but as our bibles tell us, forgive only those who repent, and never lend a helping hand to someone who might just cut it off. Happy Thanksgiving!

First Marine Killed in GWOT Remembered

Posted on by mjgranger

IMG_1633[1]37 years ago, on November 21, 1979, United States Marine Corporal Steven J. Crowley, who was guarding the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was shot and killed by radical Muslim extremists, becoming one of the first casualties of the Global War on Terror.

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Muslim extremist “students,” having heard a false story about the U.S. occupation of the mosque at Mecca, Saudi Arabia, gathered weapons and then boarded buses that would take them to the embassy.

Once at the compound, the Islamists stormed the complex and then set fire to debris collected on the first floor of the main building.

US Embassy Islamabad

CPL Crowley was shot once through the head, just above his left ear, at approximately 1:10 p.m. local time, while on duty protecting the embassy from the roof of the main building. He was taken into the building and then brought to the safe room, or vault on the second floor.

At approximately 3:25 p.m. CPL Crowley was pronounced dead in the embassy vault, after an oxygen tank that was providing his threadbare connection to life ran out.

This group of Islamist “students” was later to be funded by none other than Osama bin Laden himself.

Steven was a tall, fit, blond-haired blue-eyed, chivalrous and cordial 19 year old graduate of Comsewogue High School, in Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York, who loved to run on the Cross Country and Spring Track Teams and who was a member of the Chess Club.

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Steven Crowley Park, in Port Jefferson Station, was named for this brave neighbor of ours, and by cleaning up the park each fall we honor him and his brave and selfless service to our country. Cub Scout Pack 120 (Boy Scouts of America) has been cleaning up the park each fall at least since my 21 year old Eagle Scout son was a 6 year old Tiger Scout, 15 years ago and counting.

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We tell the boys about Steven and his sacrifice to his country and to all of us.

Steven is a hero to all the nation, and his death marks one of the very first casualties in the Global War on Terror. The incident that precipitated Steven’s murder at the hands of Islamists shook the Muslim world just the day before, on November 20, 1979.

Overzealous Wahhabi’s seized the Grand Mosque at Mecca for about two weeks. Saudi Arabian commandos, with the help of French and American intelligence, eventually retook the mosque, ending the incident. But the erroneous story that the U.S. had seized the mosque incensed hordes of Islamists throughout the Muslim world.

The incident at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad was merely the first in a series of events that eventually led up to the attacks by Islamists on the United States on September 11, 2001, killing more Americans than died at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, or died at Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Since then our enemies have mutated into the current Islamic State, but many other Islamic terrorist groups have emerged as well, each one determined to eliminate Israel, kill all infidels, and establish a worldwide caliphate.

In Steven’s memory, and for us, and for generations to come, we must fight the forces of evil that continue to harm us and our allies. Until all Islamists are dead, or no longer have the means or will to kill us, we must defend ourselves by any means necessary.

Obama Frees Bin Laden’s Body Guard as Paris Weeps

Posted on by mjgranger

As sure as the sun rises hot and bright in the Syrian Desert, President Barack Obama has used another tragedy as cover for what is possibly his latest act of treason.

As Parisian’s weep and spread flowers and memory flames around a half dozen sites in their City of Light, Obama has released five more detainees from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This time the list includes Ali al-Razihi, body guard to Osama bin Laden.

Paris Weeps

There is no shame at the White house. There is no etiquette. There is no stopping them releasing unlawful combatant Islamists who want to kill us, not even as the fresh blood stains remain on pavement and floors where just days ago victims of terror lie wont and motionless in the time-frozen shock of sudden death.

When will Obama and his cronies awake to the reality of the Global War on Terror?

Releasing detainees will not win the Global War on Terror, nor will it degrade or defeat the Islamic State, who have the world on its heels. Despite many tons of munitions dropped on suspected Islamic State targets, they remain a deadly and viable force.

Bombing, missiles, rockets and drones only treat the symptoms of a murderous disease known as Islam.

Until all Islamists are dead or no longer have the means or will to kill us, we must defend ourselves.

In order to begin to defeat this enemy we must return to Iraq and Afghanistan in force, and then stay. We must implement a Middle East Marshall Plan and be as committed to it as we were at the end of WWII with helping to rebuild Europe and Japan. We are still in countries we defeated in WWII, not as occupiers, but as liberators and friends. Without our leadership and commitment, incidents like the one in Paris will continue and grow in their devastation.

George C Marshall

No one wants to say it, but how many internal attacks from the Imperial Japanese did the U.S. experience during WWII? None that I know of. Was it because of the internment camps set up by a reluctant but determined President Franklin Roosevelt?

We contained Japanese Americans during WWII in order to prevent insurrection, sabotage and terrorism. It worked. A human rights indignity now was an act of survival then.

Remember, it was Japanese posing as tourists who photographed and marked out targets in Hawaii prior to the launch of the attack on Pearl Harbor, one rationale for the internment.

Is bringing unknown “Syrian” refugees to the United States (or anyplace) a prudent thing to do given the mounting evidence that other “Syrian” refugees participated in the Paris attacks?

Should countries now place suspected Islamists in custody as an act of survival?

In the end, isn’t that what war is all about, survival?

Isn’t that why Gitmo exists in the first place?

World Trade Center Attacked

NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001 in New York City. The crash of two airliners hijacked by terrorists loyal to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and subsequent collapse of the twin towers killed some 2,800 people. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

As unlawful combatants, all Gitmo detainees could have been lawfully killed on the battlefield. Instead, we captured them and then began systematically questioning and then vetting their stories. According to former President George W. Bush, in his autobiography, “Decision Points,” a handful of detainees were waterboarded, which saved many lives. Information obtained from detainees at Gitmo is also suspected to have contributed to locating and then killing Osama bin Laden.

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This photo made during an escorted visit and reviewed by the US military, shows the razor wire-topped fence and a watch tower at the abandoned “Camp X-Ray” detention facility at the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, April 9, 2014. AFP PHOTO/MLADEN ANTONOV (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

At the time, waterboarding was an approved Enhanced Interrogation Technique, and did not meet the internationally accepted definition of torture.

When Obama took office he unilaterally declared waterboarding torture, and it went on the list of banned torture techniques. Waterboarding still does not meet the definition of torture, and it is still used as a training technique for those American service people who may be deployed overseas and may be at risk of kidnapping.

Waterboarding works. Maybe it saved YOUR life.

KSM

There are other things that work, too, that this administration is averse to using, such as boots on the ground. But for some reason, instead of doing things that work to protect the people of the United States, as every president is sworn to do, this president releases deadly detainees so that they can fight and kill again.

The office of the Director of National Intelligence reports that at least 30 percent of all released detainees are either known or suspected to have returned to the battlefield. My question is, what about the 70 percent of released detainees we don’t know about, where are they, YOUR neighborhood?

And what about those recently sent to the United Arab Emirates? How long will they be held there, and under what conditions? Where will they end up? Paris? New York? Your hometown?

What has happened to the five Taliban leaders released by Obama in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, the American deserter? Are they still in Qatar?

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I know one thing, if you’re fighting a war to win, you don’t release the enemy.

And therein lies the rub. Can releasing the enemy be considered treason – giving aid and comfort to the enemy?

The Obama administration must believe that the President is not responsible for what horrible things detainees may do after they are released from Gitmo. I beg to differ.

If you release a tiger from the zoo, shouldn’t you be held accountable for whatever the tiger does?

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With regard to the release of detainees and the Global War on Terror, we seem to be caught on the caboose of a runaway train, only able to see where we’ve been, and there are demons at the switches.

What will it take for us to gain control and then get ourselves back on the right track?

I am a three times mobilized Army Reserve major (Ret.), and former ranking U.S. Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, February to June 2002, and author of “Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior.”

Gitmo Detainees to the U.S.? The New American Islamist Mecca

Posted on by mjgranger

The friends, family and nefarious colleagues of Gitmo detainees would surely follow them were they to be transferred to the United States. Through immigration, migration, or as refugees; as students, asylum seekers or vacationers, they would come.

This photo made during an escorted visit and reviewed by the US military, shows the razor wire-topped fence and a watch tower at the abandoned

This photo made during an escorted visit and reviewed by the US military, shows the razor wire-topped fence and a watch tower at the abandoned “Camp X-Ray” detention facility at the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, April 9, 2014. AFP PHOTO/MLADEN ANTONOV (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

They would come to support and lobby for the release of unlawful combatant detainees. They would wage protests, peaceful and otherwise, and they would wage legal challenges to detainee incarceration. They would demand visitation rights and call for release time and parole.

Wherever detainees would be held would become the new hajj destination, an American Islamist Mecca.

They would probably launch violent attempts to free their brothers, just like they did on April 2, 2004, at the Battle for Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This attempt saw several platoon sized elements of insurgents attempt to breach the wall at Abu Ghraib, where hundreds of in-country detainees were being held during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Blocking positions of improvised explosive devices were placed on avenues of approach to the prison, and two M1-A2 Abrams tanks patrolling near-by were diverted, so we could not quickly reinforce the prison garrison. At least 78 incoming projectiles (rockets and mortars) were tracked into the prison by Marine counter battery radar, yet there were no U.S. deaths in the battle, but over 70 enemy dead.

The garrison of U.S. Marines, some of the finest human beings on planet earth, went out of the prison in armored vehicles twice to kill every single attacker. Two Army AH-60 Apache helicopters finally arrived, but just after the Devil Dogs inside had completed the mission. I witnessed the attack via radio, from the 18th Military Police Brigade Tactical Operations Center at Lost Lake, Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq, one night after leaving duty at the prison on April 1, and later viewed insurgent and U.S. video of the attack.

If you bring unlawful combatant Islamists to this country, we will need to be prepared for the same type of attack.

The idea of bringing Gitmo detainees to the U.S. reminds me of three simple but illustrious stories. First, imagine an Islamist version of “If you give a mouse a cookie.”

This story addresses the fact of human nature that altruism does not result in gratefulness; it results in a sense of expectation and entitlement. And in this case, allowing unfettered and flawed immigration, migration and refugees, would result in the aid and comfort of our sworn enemy.

They will always ask for more, and the liberal politically correct media, human rights groups and radicalized Muslims will constantly demand extra-legal privileges, habeas corpus, and other rights that detainees are not entitled to according to the Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare.

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The second story, “The Camel’s Nose,” is similar, and is the example followed by the Left regarding mission creep, or the incremental deterioration of will. They will, like the sheikh portrayed in the story, give in to the braying of those who would destroy us by claiming they are “cold” and need to come in from the chill of the night. Once you allow the camel’s nose into the tent, the rest of his stinky body will surely follow. The enemy is coming, and they are coming in droves. By claiming refugee status they are playing on our generosity and benevolence. We should not even let their nose into the tent!

Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, said in early 2002 that he knew the detainees were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, but that we would treat them “within the spirit of Geneva.” This American generosity and benevolence afforded basic rights to detainees at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even though they were not entitled to them.

All Gitmo detainees are at least unlawful combatants, and by international law and the Law of Land Warfare are not entitled to the protections of Geneva. Geneva was written to PROTECT innocent civilians in time of war, NOT to protect those who PRETEND to be civilians in order to murder them. Violators of the Conventions may be shot on sight or prosecuted for war crimes.

Over 660 detainees have been RELEASED from Gitmo, and NONE have been executed, beheaded, hacked to death, blown up, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets or burned alive. All things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies.

At least 30 percent of released Gitmo detainees have returned to the fight as recidivists in the Global War on Terror. My question is, what about the other 70 percent we don’t know about. Where are they? Mixed in with the 200,000 “Syrian” refugees headed our way?

The third story, “The Scorpion and the Frog,” illustrates what our fate would be should we bring Gitmo detainees to the United States with their minions to follow.

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the

scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The

frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion

says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,

the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of

paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,

but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”

Replies the scorpion: “It’s my nature….”

Scorpion and the Frog

It is in the Islamist’s nature to kill you.

They are demonstrating, as they have done since the 7th century, A.D. that all infidels must perish, and if they die in the effort, so be it, they are going to paradise.

Until all Islamists are dead or no longer have the means or will to kill us, we must defend ourselves, and Gitmo is a small price to pay for our safety and security.

But it won’t do us any good if we let free all those who are sworn to murder us. Bringing these enemies to our shores will surely create a new wave of Islamist activity, but this time – directly in our midst.

Don’t give a mouse a cookie, keep your tent closed tightly at night, and never give a ride across the river to a scorpion.