You may OR may not have taken note…BUT….

A new Blog has been registered and opened…one was deleted…Should you want to become a “user” of let me know. Any suggestions you have (save it…NONE of those) let them be known.

The Saltydog Journal

Bush I is a Bad Ass Fisherman

Former president Bush, 84, caught a 135 pound tarpon. He let it go and will have a replica put in his Presidential Library at Texas A&M (Gig ’em Aggies!).

Personally, I’m a catch-and-eat fisherman, but with tarpon, catch-and-release is the way to go, as they are bony and taste like shit. The article calls it a “mammoth” catch, but this is not an appropriate analogy: Tarpon are basically a living fossil, so some dinosaur analog would have been better… but I can’t think of one either.

Tarpon are the sine qua non of North American game-fish: They jump furiously, and their primitive, bony mouth allows hooks to make large holes… and fall out. IOW, it is a major feat to actually boat one… of any size. Fifty to seventy pounds is large, so this is a true monster.

One of my dreams is to fly fish for tarpon some day, so way to go Prez! You Rock!

J.M. would never forgive me, if I didn’t post his brave men and women, in Afghanistan

Click to enlarge.

A Quaker Reading, on Death

William Penn

And this is the Comfort of the Good,
that the Grave cannot hold them,
and that they live as soon as they die.

For Death is no more than a Turning of us over
from Time to Eternity.

Nor can there be a Revolution without it;
for it supposes the Dissolution of one form,
in order to the Succession of another.

Death then, being the Way and Condition of Life,
we cannot love to live,
if we cannot bear to die.

They that love beyond the World,
cannot be separated by it.

Death cannot kill, what never dies.

Nor can Spirits ever be divided
that love and live in the same Divine Principle;
the Root and Record of their Friendship.

If Absence be not death, neither is theirs.

Death is but Crossing the World,
as Friends do the Seas;
They live in one another still.

For they must needs be present,
that love and live in that which is Omnipresent.

In this Divine Glass,
they see Face to Face;
and their Converse is Free, as well as Pure.

This is the Comfort of Friends,
that though they may be said to Die,
yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense,
ever present, because Immortal.

Death is but Crossing the World,
as Friends do the Seas;
They live in one another still.

Go well, Saltydog.

The new Dem meme: What Will Karl Do? Missed this from a few days ago. Courtesy, J.M.

We could see this coming for months, and the results should be delicious. Huffington Post writer Tom Edsall reveals that a union has developed an extensive and detailed attack on Barack Obama’s connection with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the former Weather Underground terrorists, while at the same time deriding it as “McCarthyism”. How do they square that circle? They wrap it into a cautionary message that asks, “What will Karl do?”:

A high-ranking labor supporter of Hillary Clinton is distributing to union leaders and to Democratic strategists a document detailing the radical activities of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, two former members of the ’70s group the Weather Underground, who decades later, in Chicago, crossed paths with Barack Obama.

The document – a three-page emailed essay by Rick Sloan, communications director for the International Association of Machinists as Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) — takes both literary and political license to outline what Sloan believes would be the thrust of a hypothetical Republican campaign against Obama focusing on his tangential connection to Ayers and Dohrn.

The goal of the essay appears to be to discredit Obama as the prospective Democratic presidential nominee. …

Sloan contends that the purpose of his document is to outline what he conjectures will be the tactics of Republican operative Karl Rove, an informal adviser to John McCain’s campaign, if Obama is the nominee. The title of Sloan’s paper is: “What Is Rove Up To?”

Well, this is really convenient, isn’t it? Not only can they indulge in what they call McCarthyism, they can blame their bete noir Karl Rove for it before he even utters a word. This frees up both Democratic contenders to fling as much mud at each other under the WWKD concept. We can call it pre-emptive McCarthyism, another great concept in campaigning from the people who brought us the vast right-wing conspiracy.

And it’s not McCarthyism by any stretch of the imagination. As Andrew McCarthy ironically noted yesterday, the Obamas have political ties to Ayers and Dohrn, not just a one-off chance meeting. Since Obama made his superior judgment the centerpiece of his campaign, it’s hardly outside the boundaries of political discourse to question why he tied himself politically to an unrepentant terrorist for years, why he and Ayers sent $75,000 to a Yasser Arafat toady, and even why he financially supports a church whose pastor claims that the government created AIDS to conduct genocides.
Meanwhile, the real Karl Rove can sit on the sidelines while the Democrats diminish themselves at the speed of light in an orgy of hypocrisy.

That’s what this really is — a way to campaign hard while blaming others for the damage it causes, as hypocritical an effort as one will ever see in politics.

All we can say is, “Rove, you magnificent bastard!” — and ask when we can get our WWKD wristbands and bumper stickers.

Hot Air.com

A little girl asked her mother, “How did the human race come about?” Courtesy, a friend.

The mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children; and so all mankind was made.”

Two days later she asks her father the same question.

Her father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys and we developed from them.”

The confused girl returns to her mother and says: “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that the human race was created by God, and Dad says we developed from monkeys?”

The mother answers, “Well dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side of the family, and your father told you about his side.”

Defense Secretary Gates Says Air Force Must Step Up Efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — In unusually blunt terms, Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday challenged the Air Force, whose leaders are under fire on several fronts, to contribute more to immediate wartime needs and to promote new thinking.

Gates singled out the use of pilotless surveillance planes, in growing demand by commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, as an example of how the Air Force and other services must act more aggressively.

Gates has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield. They are playing an increasing role in disrupting insurgent efforts to plant roadside bombs.

“Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it’s been like pulling teeth,” Gates said of his prodding. “While we’ve doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough.”

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates’ complaint about struggling to get more drone aircraft to the battlefield was aimed not only at the Air Force but at the military as a whole.

What in THE HELL, is this shit? God Damn it, WE were on the same side, at one time. I have nothing but respect for OUR military, but it seems that when some are “promoted” to Washington D.C., they join the 535 dullards we already have sitting on their asses and become bureaucratic assholes schoomzing, rather then taking take of our people with their asses on the line.

Stop this shit…NOW!

Read the rest at Fox News

Which one do you think is the blonde?

Has to be in the running for the dumbest little bastards award, under 15 years of age category. Just has to be.

Teens try to rob Cop Shop

Well done Greenies

Your stupid bio-fuel crusade has caused a global food shortage.

UPDATE

And cop the source.

MWAHAHAHAHA

Al-Qaeda in Iraq: Determined but Desperate, by Omar Fadhil

The latest three messages from al-Qaeda addressing the Sunni community uncover the depth of the crisis that al-Qaeda is facing in its former host community.

The threatening tone of the missives from the alleged Abu Omar Baghdadi and Aby Ayyub, and the insulting tone of the second by Zawahiri, reflect mistrust, anxiety and a dire need to retrieve what was lost.

Death threats do not represent a serious call for cooperation on an achievable objective. This “work-for-me-or-I-kill-you” tone is completely different from the usual recruiting slogans that have focused on the ideology of fighting for absolute truth against absolute evil.

Those slogans have failed, which is why they have been discarded and replaced by threats and an effort to seek out third parties to render verdicts on disagreements, which is what Baghdadi alluded to when he proposed that some (not all!) Sunni clerics come forward to mediate between al-Qaeda and the public.

This call for mediation indicates first, that al-Qaeda has lost direct contact with the public and second, that there are still some clerics involved with al-Qaeda.

the rest at, Pajamas Media

After a short stay in the USA , Michaelangelo’s David returned to Europe. Courtesy a friend..

UPDATE (Angus Dei): After a brief stint on the new Celebrity McDonald’s Diet, David was back to form.

This is for Salty’s family, as well as Salty.

I am in the unenviable position of standing where you are now.

Years ago, I watched my mother go through the same stages as Salty is going through now, and while I could never try to imagine what she is going through, I do have some empathy for where you are.

My mother had a lot of online friends. The online community was a great comfort to her when she wasn’t well, and as time grew short, one of her concerns was leaving her friends behind; particularly those overseas, whose faces we never knew, and whose names were only keystrokes on a screen.

I was the one who introduced mum to the online world, and I know it was her lifeline on long, sleepless nights, as it no doubt has been for our dear Saltydog.

I also knew a few of her online friends, as again, I had introduced her to one or two, and she took it from there.

I promised mum that when the time came, I would let a couple of her closest friends online know, and they would spread the word.

She also kept everything rather close, and it wasn’t until she only had a short time that the extent of her illness became obvious to her online commmunity. And it was a community, never doubt that.

When she passed, I phoned a couple of people and emailed others, and a page was set up with a tribute.

Of course, as is usual in the online world, there were a few people who found out that Precept (mum) was actually fluffi’s (me) mother, not cousin, and she wasn’t 30-something but a grandmother of two!

That provoked surprise as well as laughter, which is the way it should be.

I received many emails, including a lovely poem from one of her European friends which I read out when I spoke at her funeral.

In some ways, the internet is a remakably anti-social devices.

That said, it is also a wondrous tool for making connections with people you never knew existed, and for forging real relationships that last beyond what we can imagine.

I met some of mum’s friends here and also overseas, when we travelled in the US, so never doubt that the love we feel for Salty is real.

There is nothing I can say to remove the pain you are all in, and I’m sure I speak for all her friends when I say that you also are in our prayers and we think of you with love.

I take great comfort knowing that mum had people who loved her around the world, thinking of her and grieving for her even as we did. Even if we never met, our lives still touched, bridges were built that spanned continents and oceans, and that comfort will always remain with me.

Saltydog, Janet, will always be with us, and will always be remembered.

I don’t know if my words will be able to bring you some small ease. If not now, then later on, when the sharpest pain has passed.

There are no words to describe where you are standing, so I won’t try.

Only know that I have stood there, and in my own way trodden on some of the same path.

Dearest Salty, I will be lifting you up to God in my prayers and I pray that you and yours are treated with gently.

With love,

Deb
aka nilk

Neville Chamberlain (on drugs): Hamas Willing to Accept Israel as Neighbor

“The problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria,” he said. “The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved.”

“There’s no doubt that both the Arab world and Hamas will accept Israel’s right to exist in peace within 1967 borders,” he said, referring to Israel’s frontiers before it captured large swaths of Arab lands in the 1967 Mideast war.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Hamas, a militant Islamic group that both the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, calls in its charter for Israel’s destruction. It has also traditionally opposed peace negotiations with the Jewish state.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, later said Carter’s comments “do not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum.”

Fox News

Neville Carter, spoken like a true anti-Semite.

Old cars left homeless. Like Kevin Rudd they will be forced to live in – no, that’s silly.

Fremantle Motor Museum has closed.

You can see some of its treasures here, via Google Images.