Reality Check

Firearms20Aboard20and20Piracy20-20SailNet20Community

Apparently this is a pretty “hot button” issue.

Americans are considered “arrogant” by many Europeans - and a good portion of that belief appears to come specifically from the Rights and Freedoms enjoyed by Americans.

In the thread on Sailnet.Com (an excellent resource for Sailors by the way) the question was initially asked about the idea of taking guns on your personal vessel with you while cruising.

For the uninitiated, “Cruising” is traveling from place to place on a boat (usually a sailboat) either you alone, or you and a significant other or even whole families. Iin July of 2007, Robert brings up the question about “hassles” and guns on board.

The very FIRST post in response is from a moderator on the site who says “Leave the Guns at Home”. The Moderator “CruisingDad” states that “For all the hype and movies, Piracy really is few and far between in this hemisphere.”

While this might have been true in July 2006, the news tells us a different story these days. In fact, a quick and dirty google search on piracy in the news today shows there are 19,000 plus stories on piracy in the news. That’s just today.

Around the world today, China has had to deal with pirates and thus have joined the fight against them. Certainly there are many more such attacks according to the news, on merchant vessels than against privately owned yachts, but there are still such attacks against private yachts.

Mainly in the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela appears to have the worst problems. In both September and November two separate men were killed on their private boats. There have been many attacks, including an attack on a French citizen sailing a Lagoon 410 catamaran named Chrysalide, who was killed on September 15th aboard his boat near La Guaraia, Venezuela, close to the capital of Caracas.

In November Kenneth D. Peters, 55 was killed by pirates. He tried to defend himself with a weapon. The details of what happened are sketchy (I can’t find any good details from witnesses at this time) so we don’t know Mr. Peter’s abilities with a weapon or what the pirates were after.

Essentially, if there have been pirate attacks, your best bet is to stay away from that region if you’re traveling there by yacht.

Me… I’ll carry my weapons. And the Europeans and everyone else that calls me “arrogant” can continue to do so. I don’t begrudge them their right to speak their mind, and they ought not begrudge me my right to defend myself against pirates.

Mast Stepping - the easy way | Winds of Change

Check out my sailing blog site.

I’m a new sailor (did I mention that yet???:) )

and we raised our mast for the first time yesterday on our little 25 foot sailboat. It’s on the trailer at the moment due to the change in weather. I think it is called “Winter” or some nonsense like that.

Anyway, the link is in this post.

See you there.

The Trans-Asian Axis

Well.. haven’t posted here in some time either.

So… updates.

I’m working on preparing the office for a new podcast, same show, same old host (me) - Looks like I am missing show number 8 at the moment. It was on Olav’s machines, and… well, old news we won’t revisit. I’ll look for it on my personal archives though and get that online.

Several new items here.

I’m working with a local talk show host who’s rather well known, his name is “Chuck” - that’s all I’ll say for now, to assist him in getting set up to do a live, real-time streaming internet show. I’m trying to convince him to podcast his daily live radio show for now, and get the streaming going later… but, oh well.

I’ve sent him a couple large messages with information on “how-to” and offered my assistance. He listened to some of my shows and told me they were good, he was impressed. Coming from him, that makes me feel good about what I did.

A few days ago, my wife asked me why I wasn’t doing podcasts any more… since I’ve been busy doing other things I didn’t have time, and just didn’t feel like it. I barely blog these days, except about my boat, and I’ve never even sailed it yet so… this winter is coming on, no boat work, and I guess that I can put together a show a week over the course of the next few months.

Last weekend I rebuilt my laptop, and I’m installing my necessary software, setting up some archives to hold past and future shows so they won’t get lost like number 8 did.

With the new Administration coming in, I’ve decided to get my feet back in the Freedom of Speech Door before someone slams it shut so they will have a harder time shutting down Conservative Talk Radio using the so-called “Fairness Doctrine”.

So, now… my requests.

I’m asking for the Staff here on TAA to give me ideas, format ideas, show ideas, voice overs, whatever. And for the posters here, who’ve not had a chance to be involved…. now is your chance.

I need some people who want to participate and help in creating the programs.

I can do all the work myself, I can do the research, set up the show, do the technical aspects, do the talking, and put it all together at the end… but could use some people that would like to assist.

Voice overs, ads for the site (to help get us some people) - I’d like a nice, deep voice announcer - like a regular talk show has, some music that isn’t copyrighted, a show intro theme song, outro-them song… things like that. Perhaps some graphics for the mp3 podcast “album covers” and so on.

Credits to those who help go into the show information.

Any one interested, contact me here by PM, or send me an email at rickdonaldson [at] earthlink.net (OBVIOUSLY you need to replace the @ symbol in that address!)

Alternatively you can write to “taarealitycheck @ gmail.com” - but I don’t check that as often at present. If I can figure out how to have Thunderbird check it, it’ll be more frequent in the near future.

Three cold and boring months of winter is coming - let’s use it wisely, efficiently and make sure we keep our American Freedoms IN PLACE, not lose them, and not have to fight the impossible to get them back!

Wake up America!

The time to fight is NOW - not after it’s all gone.

Rick Donaldson
Reality Check

Http://www.transasianaxis.com

We have found our boat - think I mentioned that. We’re headed out to pick her up on Saturday.

I’ve started a blog to track our “travels through change” as we learn to sail, clean up and prepare our boat and take courses.

Here’s the link: Winds of Change

I hope you’ll visit us there and comment!

We wish you all Smooth and Happy Sailing…

Our Boat | Winds of Change

My wife and I have decided that we’re going to pursue a new life.

The link above will take you to that blog.

We will be setting sail this spring for parts unknown.. ok, well, we’ll be in the Pueblo Reservoir a lot on our new boat, “Winds of Change”

In a couple of years we hope to be out sailing the Caribbean.

Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31 - Service you thought died long ago finally does… - dslreports.com
Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31
Service you thought died long ago finally does…
02:17PM Monday May 19 2008 by Karl
tags: business · wireless · alternatives · trouble · Sprint Broadband Direct
Remember Sprint Broadband Direct? Sprint is e-mailing the remaining customers of their line-of-sight-based wireless broadband service to inform them that they’ll be terminating the service starting July 31. Made painfully irrelevant by the combination of Sprint EVDO and WiMAX, the 1.5Mbps service, which required a 13.5″ diamond-shaped dish, saw mixed reviews over the years from our users. In the e-mail to customers, it looks like they’re blaming the FCC and a spectrum policy decision for the closure:
Click for full size
As the result of a recent FCC action, Sprint will no longer have access to the spectrum used to operate our Sprint Broadband Direct Service in your area. Due to this FCC mandate, Sprint will discontinue your service by 6/30/2008. This discontinuance of service will also affect your EarthLink email account. Please contact EarthLink directly if you choose to continue with their service.
One user who pays $45.00 a month now for 1.5Mbps service, tells me that despite the added mobility, he’s not thrilled about being nudged toward EVDO for $59.95. Many users have had this service (and the same IP address) since as early as 2000. But the service, which blocked ICMP (pinging) and suffered from high-latency, was more than ready to be put out to pasture in the face of mobile WiMax.

Given limited Sprint deployment and promotion, I had almost forgotten that the service still existed. Sprint stopped offering the SBBD to new customers back in 2001 during a rough patch, then started taking new subscribers again in 2005.

I have been using this service since around 1999 or 2000 and have in the past two years had NOTHING but problems with the service. As an online gamer I’ve experienced major latency, lag and what we like to call “Lag Death” often due to the crappy service. I stayed with them because they were the only thing I could get.

Now, I’ve received a letter from them stating they are shutting down. Nice, interesting. Forces me to go to cable modems and a local cable company which is probably faster and better, but not cheaper. That’s the plus side.

The down side is something kind of unrelated to internet technology. It has to do with Customer service, and simply being “straight” with people.

I tried, and failed in the last few days to locate ANY mandate or information from the FCC. I have spent 5 days on the telephone with the FCC, in emails and filing complaints now, with both the FCC and with Sprint broadband Direct.

I now accuse, outright, the SBBD personnel of lying, obfuscating and hiding information as to why they are doing this.

Not that I care if they do it now, I’m signing up with someone else, which will be faster, and I’ve saved my ancient Earthlink addresses as well. Nice for me.

BAD for Sprint though.

Sold my stock in them. Getting rid of cellular telephones through them and I plan on reviewing every single aspect of their business and writing about it - as much BAD crap as I can find.

I can’t stand liars, and I certainly do not appreciate people like “Jason” who utterly REFUSE to pass me to a shift supervisor or manager when requested. He not only refused, but stated “I’m not going to do that!”

What sort of Customer Service training did this young man have? None. Apparently Sprint hires assholes to do their dirty work.

Ok… well, lots of us can behave that way, and they just hit my “Assholier-than-Thou” buttons. We’ll see.

For starters I’ve filed an FCC complaint against these people for their apparent obfuscation, misdirection and misrepresentation.

Secondly, I plan on filing a large lawsuit to recover the last two years worth of monies I’ve sent these bastards.

Let me give you the rest of the story.

About eighteen months ago I was having major problems with connections and drop outs on the services. I contacted them repeatedly and was told over and over “We can’t see a problem from here”.

Being that I AM a computer professional, someone familiar with networks, and able to run network scans, and actually determine causes of problems on networks, I ran my own checks and discovered some issues.

My modem was “acting up” to some extent, but the BIG problem was at the “Head End”, a place that sits high up on Cheyenne Mountain outside the Colorado Springs area - AKA NORAD to most of you.

I confirmed my findings by contacting a friend in the industry, and having him bring hardware to the house, connect it up and we located the exact systems on the analyzers to tell us where the problem was.

I then contacted, with my network engineering friend the customer service persons there, while the gear was still connected.

Not only could they NOT see our equipment, they couldn’t tell me there was a problem. I sent, by email data to the technical support people and remained ignored.

I stayed with the system because DSL at my house can only go at 512K MAX (and much less than that, I might as well go with a dial up line for that price and the problems it causes)… I didn’t have access to cable without fees to have the cabling put in at the house and simply put, I didn’t have other choices at the time.

So - essentially, service has sucked, the people who provide that service suck, and I was stuck with a sucky service.

Now that they are LYING to the public about this alleged “FCC mandate” (which the FCC can’t seem to find themselves!!!!!!) I’m planning on showing precisely what these people are made of.

Starting now.

Enjoy the message, and by the way, DON’T USE SPRINT until they get their act together!

I used to have Skype set up on my systems so that folks could call and leave me a voice message for the podcasts. I never really got much in the way of feedback via voice, only email. So, at some point I simply stopped using Skype. It still shows up on the main page with a button to leave me a voice mail, but I rarely if ever have the Skype turned on.

Right now, I’ve just rebuilt my machines into Ubuntu (lap top is running the desktop version and my desktop machine is running a server version) - and in doing some research I discovered some interesting, if not shocking things about Skype and Voice over IP (VOIP) in general.

At this link we discover there are some interesting aspects about Skype of which I was not previously aware. For instance, apparently there has been some cooperation with the country of China on censorship - something that “free” people should shun at all times. In digging through the documentation, I came across the link for SkypeEthics and a couple of articles about it, one from The Register and another from FT.com giving information that Skype, Ebay and even Google are helping China censor communications out of that country.

I have no love whatever for the Chinese Government. I spent a month over there seeing how they lived, and how the government treated it’s people. China is not a Saint when it comes to commercial espionage, and espionage against the United States - which is my home and I’m proud of that fact. I also know for a fact, based on open source information that China PLANS to be at war with our country in the next decade. This is backed up by their own Generals and white papers they’ve written stating they need to be in charge of the Pacific Rim, and their main competition is the US.

Given that the Chinese keep their people in the dark, and refuse to allow freedoms we have in this country it is simple amazing that Google, Skype and eBay would kowtow to Beijing and assist them in censoring the Chinese people - preventing good human rights.

Therefore, it is with that in mind that I will no longer use Skype for a communications VOIP program, and will remove it shortly from my web pages forever (or until they wake the hell up). In the mean time I will evaluate several other programs that can run under Linux and can use data encryption to determine which is better. Personally I don’t think anyone should be listening to my voice mail, email or any other communication I make - however, I make exception to Amateur Radio, since it is specifically forbidden in our regulations to use any sort of encryption of data or voice. I find that too, to be a bit “heavy handed” of our own government to forbid encryption. But, having worked with voice and data encryption for the better part of two decades now, I do understand the reasoning of the NSA to prevent it.

On the other (third?) hand, I believe that Americans have an innate right to privacy and unless they are doing something illegal, no one has a right to dig into our daily, private conversations with our loved ones, business professionals and certainly not to just “listen in to see if we’re behaving appropriately”. NO one has that right. NO one should be able to decide if I am “behaving appropriately” except me. Especially not the Government. They are there to protect my rights, not negate them.

On the subject of free VOIP software for Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) there are several listed on the Ubuntu documentation pages, there are three:

VoIP soft-phones included in Ubuntu

There are several alternative software based VoIP phones, that are ‘free libre open’, use ‘open’ protocols, and are included in the Ubuntu repositories. Among others, there are:

* Ekiga
* Twinkle
* Wengophone

Off the cuff, and with a quick scan of the pages, I’d say that the first one, Ekiga, appears to be the most “compatible” with most VOIP services and apparently can communicate with other software systems of VOIP. It comes “standard” on Ubuntu installs, and it can run under an MS Windows environment. Ekiga is also compatible with Netmeeting (H.323, windows), Windows Messenger as well as some other packages.

Twinkle is a Linux-only application and according to the site:

In addition to making basic voice calls Twinkle provides you the following features:

* 2 call appearances (lines)
* Multiple active call identities
* Custom ring tones
* Call Waiting
* Call Hold
* 3-way conference calling
* Mute
* Call redirection on demand
* Call redirection unconditional
* Call redirection when busy
* Call redirection no answer
* Reject call redirection request
* Blind call transfer
* Call transfer with consultation (attended call transfer)
* Reject call transfer request
* Call reject
* Repeat last call
* Do not disturb
* Auto answer
* Message Waiting Inidication
* Voice mail speed dial
* Presence
* Instant messaging
* User defineable scripts triggered on call events
E.g. to implement selective call reject or distinctive ringing
* RFC 2833 DTMF events
* Inband DTMF
* Out-of-band DTMF (SIP INFO)
* STUN support for NAT traversal
* Send NAT keep alive packets when using STUN
* NAT traversal through static provisioning
* Missed call indication
* History of call detail records for incoming, outgoing, successful and missed calls
* DNS SRV support
* Automatic failover to an alternate server if a server is unavailable
* Other programs can originate a SIP call via Twinkle, e.g. call from address book
* System tray icon
* System tray menu to quickly originate and answer calls while Twinkle stays hidden
* User defineable number conversion rules
* Simple address book
* Support for UDP and TCP (new) as transport for SIP

Here’s a screen shot, borrowed from the site:

And here are some reviews.

On the third application, it appears to be of French origin, and I’m sort of ambivalent about that aspect of a piece of software. I don’t really like the French much, and when I have visited that country, I’ve encountered nothing but rude, snotty people who seem to dislike Americans. While I remained polite to them all, they were rude to me. So, I just won’t use any of their products and I won’t ever visit the country again nor spend money there. They can keep their snotty attitude - and I’ll keep mine

My last comments on Skype are echoed in this article and instead of me writing what I think, I’ll quote this article and the pertinent part… go to the article for his links and documentation.

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/357

What’s that you said?
Skype has many things going for it. Among the various software-based VoIP apps (which thereby excludes hardware-based offerings like Vonage from consideration), Skype probably works the best in terms of computer-to-computer, computer-to-land line, and computer-to-cell based calling. It’s easy to set up and use, and it works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux boxes. Skype also provides more than just VoIP, with IM and file transfer also available. I’ve used it quite a bit, and overall, I’ve been happy with its sound quality, as have many other people, given that the program has been downloaded more than 100 million times. It has more than 52 million registered users (among those 2 million paying customers), and well over 3 million people are online and using the program right now, as I’m typing this column.

But that doesn’t mean that Skype is perfect. Far from it. Skype claims that it uses strong encryption to protect phone calls, IM messages, and file transfers:

“Skype uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), also known as Rijndael, which is used by U.S. Government organizations to protect sensitive, information. Skype uses 256-bit encryption, which has a total of 1.1 x 1077 possible keys, in order to actively encrypt the data in each Skype call or instant message. Skype uses 1024 bit RSA to negotiate symmetric AES keys. User public keys are certified by the Skype server at login using 1536 or 2048-bit RSA certificates.”

Here’s the problem with that statement: since Skype is an insistently closed source program - and one that additionally uses a proprietary protocol, but I’ll get to that in a moment - we have no way of verifying Skype’s security. We simply have to take them at their word that their encryption works. For such an important program, that’s quite a problem. I’m just not sure how safe I feel when Skype says, “Trust me - everything’s going to be fine.”

One other thing about Skype that bugs me is that it apparently can, and does, use YOUR machine to assist in directing and assisting other stations with VOIP out side of your personal direction and control on your own machine. What this means is, your personally paid-for-out-of-pocket expenses on your ISP are being used without your permission. Check this link for more information on this situation.

All of this said, I rarely use any VOIP communications other than some ham radio applications, specifically EchoLink, which I might mention later on in another post. But, for the most part, when I was doing podcasts and looking for some feedback, I rarely got much. I suppose that my podcasts aren’t that great (I don’t think they are all that great) but at the same time I’ve had a lot of feedback about them via email. That tells me that most people just aren’t into the VOIP thing yet, and those that are most likely are Geekier than me (which I seriously doubt).

Somewhere along the way, many years ago I started using various distros of Linux.

I’ve used Slackware, Redhat (several versions), CentOS, and recently started using Ubuntu 8.04.

My old laptop is a Compaq Presario 2170US and has been through a couple of hard drives, the original being a 40 gig drive that finally bit the dust after being used for XP, then XP professional and massive online gaming on the MMORPG Dark Ages of Camelot. (Wife and I moved on to World of Warcraft a couple of years back though and I built better computers than the laptop for that).

A few weeks back my laptop’s hd (which was now an 80 gig drive) died a violent, heat-related death and I replaced it with a nice, new 160 gig drive a few days ago. I installed CentOS 4.3 and had several issues trying to get wireless to work - and since I want to be able to sit on the deck this summer and browse the internet and read, I wanted to get the wireless components working with little or no effort.

I started searching and found several folks saying how Ubuntu would fill the bill, and sure enough, after downloading version 8.04 last Thursday, I’m up and running. In fact, wireless works like a champ, and I can switch back and forth on the wire to the router, or run wireless without reboots, or much other than check-marking a setting for the network. It’s awesome.

The one problem I found is that when I’m at the desk I can’t use the external monitor, but think I might have found a couple of solutions I’ll try soon enough. There are some issues with putting the right information in the /etc/xorg.conf file - and I need to do a bit more research to see if there is an “easy way” through a GUI and hopefully by this weekend I ought to be able to switch from the lap top’s screen to the big 19″ wide screen display I use for my Linux boxes.

So far, Ubuntu has been a breeze to use, configure and load new software. Last night, I loaded WINE as easily as if I inserted a CD into a windows machine. (I hate to compare things in Linux to Windows, but it’s not very difficult to load Windows software, whereas, unless you’re a real computer geek with some serious background in playing with OSes, you’re not going to take the average Windows user and hand him or her a Linux based machine and say “Go for it!” without some serious headaches on their part). On the other hand, Windows IS the “standard” in the Computer World and around the Planet at the moment. Besides, I might have a reason or two to use some Windows Applications.

I’m hoping that we can change that view of operating systems, and proprietary software, drives and operating systems some day. This will only serve to make things easier in the future and eventually force a more competitive atmosphere in the gaming industry to ensure that games like World of Warcraft will EASILY run under any Linux OS without major Geek-Head-Tweaking that is currently required.

The ONLY reason I keep a windows machine around is for playing online games - something I suppose a half-century-old man ought NOT be doing in his spare time, but hey, you know, I EARNED my gray hair and I deserve to live in whatever fantasy world I chose! All I can say to game manufacturers is “You folks REALLY need to wake up and smell the coffee - and the free money — if you can start making things work under Linux!”

Hey, here’s a quick video from Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal’s Science and Technology Journal… he’s not happy with Ubuntu - and this was done in Sep 2007. As he says, though, Linux still isn’t quite ready for main stream, non-technical users. Those with a bit more computer background and savvy though are certainly pretty happy. Especially if all you’re really doing is browsing the internet, listening to music and sending/receiving emails. So listen to him, and check out linux if you’re a mind too…

For anyone that would like to download the version I’m using go to this link.

FrontPage Magazine
America in Ashes?
By Christopher S. Carson
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, May 23, 2008

The latest audio message from al-Qaeda, reportedly from Osama bin Laden himself, is only the most recent confirmation that the jihadist threat to the West remains real and deadly serious. But the fact that it could take the form of nuclear terrorism should be most worrying to citizens and policy makers alike.

Folks… the time is coming when this won’t be a joke among some people, it will affect them directly and what will they do? Whine that the “US Government didn’t do enough to stop it” - or worse, “We deserved it, surrender”.

I’ll never surrender or think of terrorism as a joke, and I’ll not put down pen and paper, computer or my weapons until these terrorists are wiped from the face of the Earth.

Latest Articles

A very interesting phenomenon has erupted over on FR today. The site mods are removing any and all comments questioning the newest and most recent “signups”, ALL apparently from China in the aftermath of the 7.8 Earth Quake that hit Sichuan and Chengdu China last Monday.

It is disheartening and even in my opinion ridiculous of the Mods to do this.

Folks are questioning the dozens of new signups who are not asking for help, merely commenting on the problems in China. Yet, we question this sudden in-rush of posters and are having our comments summarily removed.

What has happened to the people at FR? Are they now under control of a bunch of Liberals? Is JimRob no longer in charge?

Stay tuned to see who gets banned next.

AFP: Pandas safe at famous park after China quake: report

China is reporting that over 50,000 people are known to have been killed in the 7.8 Quake that shook Sichuan province on Monday.

On a lighter note, the Pandas are OK!

This, ladies and gentlemen is a reason why we will be at war with China within a few short years - because of this backwards thinking about life.

/sigh.

Someone on FreeRepublic said, “We don’t have a choice”. I vehemently stand against that statement.

Socialism; say Yes or No
Ladies and Gentlemen….

I beg to differ. America has a choice. While our choice in Presidential candidates has somehow been dictated to us by some lame-brained dumbasses in the various parties, we certainly DO have a CHOICE.

We have a choice as free Americans to NOT take what is handed to us, or shoved down our throats. However, we DO have a system in which we need to work first.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m going to vote for McCain.

And then I’m going to oppose him every step of the way, and I would urge you all to do the same when it comes to things like raising taxes, leaving our borders open and pulling us out of the rest of the world.

Americans need to understand that WE ARE STILL IN CHARGE OF OUR COUNTRY.

Those leftists who are incrementally attempting to change our children need to be stopped, and they need to be stopped LOUDLY and pointedly.

Some day, this may come to violence with the opposition - and I hope it doesn’t but you should chose your side carefully and thoughtfully and not continue hammering on McCain because you don’t like him.

It’s time to vote for what semblance of conservatism we have LEFT and force the new President to move as far right as we can force him to go.

Don’t give up, don’t give in to all the nay-sayers and don’t be a nay-sayer yourself. Let’s get this in high gear, put a “Republican” (even if he IS a RINO), he isn’t B. Hussein Obama” who is a dyed-in-the-wool SOCIALIST. We’re one step from being “Europeanized” folks!

Do NOT let that happen.

Kick CAIR out of this country.

Tell the ACLU to clam up.

Stop the schools from teaching political correctness.

Put someone in office who MIGHT be a liberal but certainly isn’t a Socialist.

Stop your damned BITCHING and get to work LOCALLY like the rest of us are doing, pushing for conservatives in Congress and other offices.

Stop worrying so much about the President, elect McCain and NOT Obama.

And We DO have a Choice, God BLESS America!

Rick Donaldson

lgf: We Got Mail!

Apparently there are STILL kooks who believe that the attacks on 9-11-01 was a US Government Conspiracy.

Anyone with a lick of sense already knows this was a conspiracy, but it was a conspiracy carried out by terrorists, and not people in the US Government.

That ANYONE could believe the US Government was in any way involved shows that there is so much ignorance in the world and we continually need to combat this lack-of-intelligence on the part of the general population of the world.

The Truth, as a once-popular (and coming back) TV series “X Files” said, “Is out there”. Unfortunately, those who “believe in the truth” of a government conspiracy are buying into lies, and obfuscation and utterly refusing to see the facts — because they “want to believe”.

It is sad and frustrating that there are still ignorant people like this in the world. Below is the text of the letter sent to LGF.

Sad. Very, very sad.

Come on, tell me why you still believe it was possilbe for hijacked!? airliners to fly all over the eastern U.S. for hours without any meaningful response nor even any pursuit? Come on! (How could Osama bin-Forgotten do that? Or was that the work of Cheney?)

Our trillion-dollar air defenses were allegedly defeated by Osama bin-Forgotten & his 19 lackeys with box-cutters?

American Airlines Flight 77, having a 125’ wingspan disappeared though a16’ foot initial impact hole at the Pentagon. All clear video (at least 80 of them) of what blew-up the Pentagon being withheld to this day?

WTC-7 has small, scattered fires, yet it imploded in a controlled demolition later in the day on 9/11. Larry Silverstein, the over-insured leaseholder, said:

“I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, ‘We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.’ And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.”

Etc., etc.

Everyone needs to do his/her own research about September 11, 2001! (A good start is to watch “9/11 Ripple Effect” free on the web.)

No one seems to know what is causing the disappearing bee problem.

Just over a year ago, I reported on this (http://realitycheck.blogsome.com/2007/02/28/honey-bees-dying-us-wide/) and I have heard people say I wasn’t reporting clearly, or was making it up.

Fox News carried a short segment today with a bee keeper from Pennsylvania who stated exactly what I stated many months back, that the bees are indeed dying, no one knows the cause, and we need to find the reason and try to mitigate the problem. Finally he stated that the disorder as they are calling it at this time, will indeed affect food prices in the future.

Here’s how it will affect us.

Bees pollinate many of our food crops, in fact something like 80% of our crops use bees as the source of pollination. While I have heard people say things like “Plants have been being pollinated for a long time before people were here so there is no problem” they fail to realize that a good portion of the crops we grow in the US were introduced here by Europeans more than 400 years ago.

Of course this is only the “European Honeybee” while not native to the US originally is one of several thousand species of bees that live in the US, but they are the bees that produce the honey we use in food (and in my case making mead).

Bees are moved, usually by truck along areas where crops need to be pollinated. Many of those bees are dying, and thus those truckers, and the bee keeper’s livelihoods are being affected. Farmers’ crops are not getting the pollination required to either form seeds or help to bring crops to maturity.

This will increase the cost of food not only locally, but world wide.

With rising fuel prices, we’re in for a serious problem over the next couple of years.

I already predicted a rise in food prices in 2007. Now that is being confirmed. I make mead, which is wine made from honey. The cost of honey is already increasing, but not drastically, yet. I suspect that it will become more and more scarce over the next two or three years. I don’t see us able to easily produce mead without it costing a lot of money in the near future - and with me, working on setting up a business to do just that, I’m having second thoughts about this economy right now and putting so much effort into doing so.

Bees have suffered close to a 33% destruction rate in the past 2-3 years according to the Fox News segment this morning. (I did capture that and will attempt, no promises, to get that put up online soon and link it in this article.)

I’ll update this more as I find more information.

In summary:

1) CCD is NOT a parasite infestation. While there are parasites that kill bees and they do indeed wipe out whole colonies, this is not a yet-known parasite.

2) 33% of the bee population in the United States is ALREADY GONE.

3) There is nothing to show this Disorder is slowing or declining.

4) There is nothing to show that bees are emerging stronger.

5) There is going to be an effect on prices of honey, and crops that depend on bee pollination.

6) Readers who are skeptical are asked to do some research before they “pooh-pooh” this situation, but I welcome comments from people who actually know something about this situation and who are affected directly like beekeepers, meadmakers and those who use honey, or run farms with crops.

Update Thursday, 12 May 2008 0830

Here’s some links to help you understand more about the bee problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder
Video
The Silence of the Bees
USDA article
http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html

As opposed to the Socialist Party in America and other parts of the world, May Day, or as it was originally known, Mayday - the first of May denotes not “solidarity” with the Communists of the world but rather an ancient practice of ringing in the Spring time.

In the ancient world, Beltane (spelled in several different ways) was considered “the first of Spring time” and was planting season, and ’twas the new day for new life to come to the world.

Many years ago our Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) fighting group took on the persona of various Irish and Scottish fighting persons from ancient times. We worked out our histories (of the assumed-persona) so that we might “live in the time of those who went before us” and we fought on the field of battle in armor against various and sundry foes. During all of this we learned much of the history of the real Irish and Scottish ancestors of our families. We also learned, and spent time living in the woods of Virginia and Pennsylvania to practice these “rites”.

Now, of course we had our real lives, our work and families (most of our families were part of this so as to participate in the battles and see first-hand how medieval persons might have lived). Over the course of twenty-five years, some of us today still practice some of the “rituals” that we learned of to this day. I think the learned public might call us “Neopagans” - though most of us are Christian in faith.

In truth, we are all conservatives but, we do harken back to the days of yesteryear where a Spring Festival was a time of renewal, planting time and at night to break open a bottle of mead and to drink of the Nectar of the gods… thus have these practices brought my wife and I around to the skill of making honey wine, or mead.

Today - this evening for us, will be both a day of celebration for Spring and a sad day in the passing of another part of our lives. Three of our grandchildren will leave the state and move on to another state today with their mother, our son’s ex-wife and her new husband. Between them they have seven children from both families and one more on the way.

For them this move perhaps will be a good one and all my wife and I can do is hope and pray that our grandchildren will again return to visit us some day or that we may visit them in their new home in the future. So, tonight we visit with the children for the last time before they leave and we will, with the rest of our remaining children and grandchildren celebrate the coming of a new Spring and planting season… and what the hell, open a bottle of mead and raise it to the heavens in thanks for another year on this planet.

May you all have a Happy and Blessed Beltane!

(Or)

Bealtaine Shona!

Welcome To The New Home Of The Falcon Party | Falcon Party

The Falcon Party has launched.

America, the home of the Brave, Land of the Free will remain so with men and women who believe in this country.

This site is a blog site, for the moment and is promising to grow based on the principles of “FALCON”, or – Fealty to America, Liberty, Conservatism, Optimism and Nobility.

On the site, each is explained so that you might understand.

Please visit there and stay in touch with the roots of what America was, and will be again.

Thanks

Students want chance to defend themselves

Hey folks, here’s something we found a few minutes ago on our site posting about this…..PLEASE EVERYONE READ THIS CAREFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s the text of a message one of site admins posted, which includes the quotes. Links follow:

Just noticed something between the CNN article Rick posted and the one I just posted…

Quote:
“I don’t think the answer to bullets flying is to send more bullets flying,” said Gene Ferrara, the police chief at the University of Cincinnati. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/04/14/campus.guns/index.html

Quote:
“I don’t think the answer to bullets flying is to send more bullets flying,” said Ron Hold, of Weber State University.http://www.newsnet5.com/news/15880186/detail.html

Who the hell is paying whom here? Where are these quotes coming from????

Brigitte Bardot on trial for Muslim slur - Yahoo! News
1 hour, 26 minutes ago

Brigitte Bardot on trial for Muslim slur

Since retiring from the film industry in the 1970s, Bardot has become a prominent animal rights activist but she has also courted controversy by denouncing Muslim traditions and immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Well, the French are fried….

When are Euros going to catch a clue? One can only hope, perhaps insist that they wake up? America please, do NOT let this crap happen here.

American Thinker- Print Article

February 15, 2007
Cultural Marxism
By Linda Kimball
There are two misconceptions held by many Americans. The first is that communism ceased to be a threat when the Soviet Union imploded. The second is that the New Left of the Sixties collapsed and disappeared as well. “The Sixties are dead,” wrote columnist George Will (”Slamming the Doors,” Newsweek, Mar. 25, 1991)

Because the New Left lacked cohesion it fell apart as a political movement. However, its revolutionaries reorganized themselves into a multitude of single issue groups. Thus we now have for example, radical feminists, black extremists, anti-war ‘peace’ activists, animal rights groups, radical environmentalists, and ‘gay’ rights groups. All of these groups pursue their piece of the radical agenda through a complex network of organizations such as the Gay Straight Lesbian Educators Network (GSLEN), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), People for the American Way, United for Peace and Justice, Planned Parenthood, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), and Code Pink for Peace.

I highly recommend this piece as the unmasking of Marxism in America takes place. Over my half century on this planet I’ve watched as both a child and now as an adult as we have been inundated by these methods of “political correctness”.

In the past few years as a blogger, and writer on the Anomalies Network, and more recently as a writer and administrator on the Trans Asian Axis web site I’ve found myself at a sort of “loss for words” in describing what I’ve seen as a “Maxism creep” in America. I’ve used terms like “Leftists” and “Socialists” to variously describe many of these people who push this agenda on us and have been shot at (not literally) by other writers for “painting with a broad brush”.

Now, today I feel vindicated in my Broad-Brushing of these people.

I am an American. I do not need to be “tolerate” of other idealism. I do not need to “try to understand” others, nor how they feel.

Arrogant? Somewhat, but Right. Correct.

Political Correctness is an affront to clear thinking, and it is a crime. Why? Because I have my own Rights, my personal First Amendment rights are not different from someone else’s because I am a White male, who makes x-dollars a year, or because I carry a gun, nor because I stand up for Conservative beliefs.

In fact, friends, relatives and enemies - I DEFY any of you to tell me that I am WRONG because your beliefs are different than mine.

No, Americans, it’s time to stand up and fight this pervasive hatred of Capitalism, and fight against those things that try to internally destroy the United States of America.

I would implore each and every reader here to visit the above article and read it yourselves. For once, someone has put it all into one place, so that we might each understand this pervasive, hateful attempt at the destruction of the United States of America.

(Also, I think you should read another article by this author: http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/the_materialist_faith_of_commu.html)

‘Report on Sept. 6 strike to show Saddam transferred WMDs to Syria’ | Jerusalem Post

n upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday.

Furthermore, according to a report leaked to the TV channel, Syria has arrested 10 intelligence officials following the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.

It would seem that all of the Left’s crowing and blowing about “no connection to terrorists” and “Bush lied, there were no weapons of mass destruction” is finally, once and for all going to be answered somehow.

Furthermore, it appears we might finally have some sort of an answer on exactly what was bombed in Syria a few months back, by the Israelis.

There has been speculation, based on the secretiveness of the mission and the closed mouths on all sides of the issue after the air raid on the site in Syria about everything from nuclear weapons, to nuclear reactors, to WMD. Perhaps we will finally know the answer when all of this comes out.

I think we will wait and see the outcome.

Comments are welcomed, please.