Warm And Fuzzy Feeling

I am sitting here with a warm fuzzy feeling knowing the American people are against imprisonment of suspected terrorists and also against mistreatment of these prisoners. I get all cuddly knowing we want to micromanage the treatment of the prisoners, what we can do and what we can't, what we can say and what we can't. The Geneva Convention is no longer good enough for the world. We, America will define what is acceptable for the world, and we expect that when it comes to our combatants, everyone will abide by the rules.
Good lord, everyone knows that if act honorably the other side will too. They will see that as a people, we are good and will not keep trying to kill us. We also know that the terrorists have rules of engagement like us and also of the treatment of prisoners, both military and civilian, and will not kill, torture, rape or behead any captured.
We are sure they will not treat us like they do their own people, after all 50% of their bodies show signs of torture of electric whippings, mutilation, and god knows what other horrors, then killed. We know that when we seen an American being beheaded and heard his muffled cries while this act was carried out, was done by errant militants, not by the terrorists organizations.
From now on if the terrorists plan on blowing up a building they will notify us and we can get innocent people out of harms way, so generations of families won't have to remember times like 9/11. After all, they also share the same views of sanctity of life as we do, and honor the dignity of people, alive and dead.
I think the prisoners should be allowed the best lawyers America has, if they are detained they should have golf courses, tennis courts, and weight rooms. Food to meet what they eat in their own countries, and given all freedoms we have in prisons in the US. Discipline will mean the loss of ping-pong and pool for 2-3 days at most. Interrogations will not infringe on their sensibilities in the least.
Wow, I feel good knowing that we will not have to repeat mistreatment of Americans as happened in all previous wars. History has shown that not a thing has been gained by that, on both sides. After all you get more bees with honey than with vinegar!

Mason WI and Family

This is for the one loyal reader I have about my family in my mom's home town. As I said before they had electricity but no running water. They lived on the one street that curved around and went by the river and back to main street if you can call it that. They lived at the bottom of a small hill and my brothers grand father, I considered him mine to, lived on top of the hill. His name was Edgar as my brother is named, other siblings are Paul, Joyce, Marilyn, Mick, Sherry and Carla.
My mother had sisters of the Iverson clan, Mabel, Olga, Agnes, Margret, Toppy, Eleanore(Cupie), also A brother Glen(Punk). My grand parents were Gusta, and Ole imigrants from Norway. My grand mothers maiden name was Hanson and her family came here also, the ones I knew were George, Phillip, Paul, Fred, and John, there are still lots of Hansons around, kids of the kids and so on. My mother had another sister die during childbirth and I understand one of her kids was a dentist in Cable WI., there is a lake with their name along the highway, or pond, her name was Ruth. The house below the hill is no longer there nor is the Martin place on top of the hill. There were other Iversons in town but not related, in fact I think there was a family next door. I was there a week ago to visit moms grave on the anniversary of her death and drove around the little town.

Thoughts Again

The government finally decided that home grown terrorism is a bigger threat than the foreign ones, something I have been saying for a long time. And it will grow also as the economy takes a bigger dump and people lose more jobs, homes, and security.
They for the most part aren't groups of people, maybe a few, or a couple. Nuts in one way or another, who see killing others as a statement to get, what they think are what we all want to do but are afraid to. I call them cowards, plain and simple cowards and who will likely kill themselves rather than face the consequences of their actions. I know a few people thast if something happened they would be the first ones I would investigate. Paranoid in personality, armed to the teeth, meaning lots of guns and ammunition, hell I know one who even made booby traps around his house.
Now these are people of all walks of life including law enforcement. But somehow these nuts seem to feel threatened in some way, like a mugger behind every bush kind of thing. And I doubt if any of them would have the courage to deal with you face to face. They would be the kind to kill someone at work or more than one. You know, the kind you read about somewhere else. Well folks they are all over the place, all that is needed is something to set them off in some way.
In reality I have no mercy for these people, in fact I wouldn't say a thing if they never made it to trial. I think we should deal with them as they deal with the victims of this crap, no mercy. We expect to treat them with respect, make sure they have their "rights", no cruel or unusual punishment. Well what kind of rights did they give, or do they give to the victims of their acts.

This Week

Well it seems Dubbya got caught with his pants down......again.....findings conclude Saddam didn't have a thing to do with 9/11 or al-qaeda, go figure huh. Meanwhile things are picking up in Afghanistan, and poppy production is up over 50%, not only will there be more opium, but higher quality crap, look for more heroin overdoses in the future folks. The warlords are into forcing poppy production by the farmers or die. The trouble is not much grows in rocks and extremely dry conditions.
As I am writing, the news is saying there was a big terrorist attack in Afghanistan. If we would have finished the job the first time we may not be revisiting it now. But no, Dubbya and co wanted to go to Iraq.
Not since some leaders ignored the intentions of the Japanese, has our government botched foreign policy. This makes the Vietnam fiasco look good. Not to mention look criminal! Look hell, is criminal!
Maybe our leaders should study a little about the history of our country and our constitution and how we got to be a great country. There are volumes about our past leaders, all they want to know and much about what they don't want to know. The powers given to our leaders are not to be abused by doing what they want, when they want and where they want. All the legal opinions they have to bend and twist the constitution to fit what they want is plain wrong. Hundreds of thousands Americans have given their lives to preserve what our forefathers started, and gave to future generations. If our leaders choose to abuse these powers then perhaps we should clearly define what those powers are, strengthen the checks and balances so they can't abuse power.
I don't think at this point that congress or the senate have the balls to reign in the executive branch and it seems the supreme court doesn't either. Amen

Today Part 2

Was at daughters this morning, had a nice talk, then over to Shutterwi's for a sample of his tasty grapes. Also a good belly laugh at his description of a fishing trip, what a hoot! In between all of that I had time to think of times past as a young kid.
I guess it was the nice cool, late summer day, sun shine and fresh air. I remember getting up early, getting on my bike and riding all the way up the street headed south to the edge of town, it was all slightly up hill. Then I would turn around, pedal fast and coast the rest of the ten blocks or so until I reached the highway just above Lake Superior. Some times I would go back home and grab a five gallon bucket and head to a dock along the lake. It was an old railroad bed where trains used to bring metal in slag form to be shipped out on sailing vessels. Well more than enough spilled out and the dock was contunually washing away exposing the pieces of pig iron. Severasl times a year I would take a pail and pick the pig iron chunks and carry it to the junk yard which bought it. I would get from 50 cents to a dollar or more for my labor, which was lots to a kid. I could buy a lot of penny candy, a soda pop, and icecream. What a feast! I would keep copper wire I found, pieces of other metal, car parts etc., and sell it to the junk yard. Always a buck to be had!
I remember once a few friends and I went to this place a few blocks from the junk yard that used to be a blast furnace, they blew the tall smoke stack down and all that remained was about ten feet of stack and two sections of railroad track buried in cement. Well it occurred to us we could make lots of money for that track. Well we chiseled and hammered for a few weeks until we dug out one track, put it on about four wagons and off we went to the junk yard a few blocks away. Well the junk guy said it was railroad property and wouldn't buy it, and not only that but made us bring it back, all up hill too. Oh well, live and learn the hard way!

Today

Things are picking up in Afghanistan again or even still. Remember, the real war on terrorism, and why we went there. Then to Iraq for the fiasco of the "Four Horsemen", and their war on terrorism.
I wonder how the Brits are arresting so many and we so few. Yet our troops are still dying for a failed policy in both places. The Afghans are even increasing their production of poppies! It seems we can't even slow that down. I wonder how long the Canadians will take losses like they have been or the Brits. The bigger question is, how long are we going to let the fools in Washington keep playing their games?
The we have Iran antagonizing the Four Horsemen until they do something stupid like exercise the "military option". Iran is playing a dangerous game, one that they can't win militarily, but will in the public relations department. We don't have the troops to attack militarily, so that leaves one option, guess what that is. Iran is willing to sacrifice all the people in that country and surrounding countries to further the Islamic cause. This could spell the end of mankind as we know it. The rest of the world needs to step in before it escalates to the destruction of the world. Clearly there are two nuts in power, Dubbya, and the leader of Iran. This is atleast as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis, make no mistake about it!

Labor Day

In several blogs lately I have read lists of books people have read. One of my biggest passtimes is reading. I can't begin to tell you the thousands of books I have read. I worked in a paper mill for 13 years and we had kind of a book club between a hand full of guys. We read many book series, and every three months or so a new book of the series would come out, and we took turns buying the books and pass them on to the next person. That worked well and no one footed the total bill. To this day I trade or read books from others like Shutterwi, and many others. The very good books I have read many times, others once, and I have passed on every few years bags and boxes of books. For my birthdays I get books, and when people visit I get books. If I had my way I would have a huge library, but circumstances prevent me from too big a library.
Here are a small list, In Cold Blood, Gulag Archipeligo, SOG, Flag Of Our Fathers, Hemmingway, Aristotle, Bicentenial Series, Roots and on and on. I read articles, magazines, papers, Research etc. All Creatures Great and Small, Green Mansions, Moby Dick, Jaws are more. Then there are books on Economy, The Government, Military, Weapons, Police, Astronomy, Physics, Metalurgy, Wood Carving, Design, Construction, Engineering, Aircraft, All the Wars and Wars to come. I read just about anything! Happy reading!

Iwo-The End

I'm sorry the last blog was so big. I got carried away! But you get the picture. There is a lot more I can say but I won't. Read the book!
Maybe I was remembering a time I would rather forget and can't, the mind is a strange thing I guess. Always remember our troops, protest the war, but remember our men and women are still there. They want to survive and see that their buddies do the same, that's the main reason they do what they do! There will be casualties of this war for many more years if they all came home today, as Heart Melody stated in his blog, the Vietnam war still makes casualties, as does WWII, and Korea. The End!