Aloha Dump

I have been participating on my blogger friend's site on a discussion about Muslims/Islam etc. Andy wrote a piece entitled Us vs. Them that basically says, "Can't we all just get along?" I am drastically oversimplifying the post but please read it. Here is an excerpt: As long as the President continues to insist that “we” are good, and therefore everything we want and do is good, and “they” are bad and everything they want and do is bad, we will continue to have slaughter. There is no "them." There is only us. Very Age of Aquarious , don't you think? The comments on this post have stretched into something I can only dream of on this blog and Andy gets a lot of support from his loyal readers. And this disturbs me. I have already made quite a few posts concerning the made-up religion of Islam and the problems that religion has cause throughout the centuries. Here and Here to cite a few. If you read Andy's blog and the subsequent comments please forg...

Right Wing Nut House has a brilliant article on former President, and current douchebag, Jimmy Carter. I remember a little of Carter's presidency as a child- 444 days of waiting, waiting in line with my mom for hours just to fill up our car, and singing the Jimmy Carter song to the tune of "My bologna has a first name..." My peanut has a first name, it's J-I-M-M-Y; My peanut has a second name ,it's C-A-R-T-E-R. I love to beat him every day, and if you ask me "Why?", I'll say: 'Cause Jimmy Carter has a way of fucking up the USA. The third line may not be right but that's how we sang it but more importantly the cadence of the parody is how a lot of people felt. RWNJ article shows that Darwinian theory doesn't always pan out.

It is impossible to watch or read the news and not hear about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. What is difficult to see/read is what is really going on over there because of the media bias. Michael J. Totten is a journalist who is in Israel right now blogging about his observations on Middle East Journal . His entries are very telling, expertly written and sprinkled with dramatic images. I chose to link to this particular entry because it involves a conversation with an Israeli. Here is the full story.

Yesterday I attended the retirement ceremony of a good friend of mine. We served together on my last boat and he was my "boss". For those of you in the Navy you will understand why I used quotations. It occurred to me, as I sat listening to the traditional nautical-themed recitations, that the U.S. Navy probably has one of the most unique retirement ceremonies in comparison to its civilian counterparts. There are no gold watches given, no lavishly decorated ballrooms or dining halls and no cookie cutter speeches. Shipmates are in uniform and civilians are in their Sunday best. Well, in Hawaii it is dressed down to 'Aloha Attire', but it is reflective of the culture the sailor has drifted in during his career. Below are some examples of the traditional speeches that are made, and although they are almost memorized by sailors who have attended many a retirement, the meaning of each speech is held close the sailor's heart and dreams of the day when a speaker will be ...

I am the flag of the United States of America. My name is Old Glory. I fly atop the world's tallest buildings. I stand watch in America's halls of justice. I fly majestically over institutions of learning. I stand guard with power in the world. Look up and see me. I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice. I stand for freedom. I am confident. I am arrogant. I am proud. When I am flown with my fellow banners, my head is a little higher, my colors a little truer. I bow to no one! I am recognized all over the world. I am worshipped I am saluted. I am loved I am revered. I am respected and I am feared. I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years. I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appomattox. I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Nor...

"Boatswain... Stand by to Pipe the Side!!" This order has been passed on naval ships from the 1500's through today. Spanish, French, English, Dutch... Yes, all navies of the world use the boatswain, sideboys and call to bring aboard or send ashore all ship's company officers, visiting officers, dignitaries and VIP's. The sideboys would haul on the ropes and raise or lower the boarding platform so officers would not have to climb the rat line (which were hanging over the side and used by the enlisted crew) when going ashore or to get aboard. This honor was extended to visiting officers, dignitaries and port officials. It was not uncommon for the Commanding Officer of the ship to order up the Jolly Boat, a crew of eight strong backs, sideboys boatswain to send an old shipmate and fellow officer to his shore retirement... home... never to sail on naval ships again. "All hands on deck!" was passed, speeches were made about great victories, battles fought upo...

Bless those who serve beneath the deep, through lonely hours their vigil keep. May peace their mission ever be, protect each one we ask of thee. Bless those at home who wait and pray, of their return by night or day.

Avast ye swabs, land in sight- make haste in sail for we land tonight and in the morn at break of day, we'll man the rails and gangplank way. The Bos'ns pipe will trill and shrill- as we send a shipmate to the shore, there to remain forever more. Tonight we'll crack a keg or two, gather round and drink a toast to you. We'll lift our mugs away up high, for the many years that drifted by. Remember throughout the many years, you sailed away amidst the tears of loved ones left behind, worried and hoping they'd be fine. Of our shipmates too, my man, who followed you to many lands in time the names and faces, will be forgotten as all those places. But like the morning fog and dew, we'll endeavor to remember you, and when morning sun lifts the haze, and we sail again for many days you'll remember us as we will you, until the years leave only a few to recall the good old days, of sailing men o're the waves.

Last month a Rhode Island State Trooper pulled over a van that had not signaled a lane change. When he asked for identification only a few could provide. The Tropper then asked for green cards and none of them could provide. Immigration was involved and it turns out all 14 people were in the country illegally. Here is what the driver of the van, who is an illegal, had to say about the stop: "We believe that our van was pulled over, at least in part, because of our ethnicity. As passengers, we also object that we were required to provide identification and asked about our immigration status, even though we had done nothing wrong. We do not think the trooper had any right to force us to go to ICE headquarters. We believe we were treated unfairly." Wow, it doesn't take long for them to figure out when to use the race card. Of course the ACLU is jumping all over this case and pointing their fingers at the cop in a defiant posture while coddling the illegals. The only thing t...

Judge Koeltl, My name is G.S. and I am a United States Navy submariner stationed in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. I am writing this letter to ask that you give Lynne Stewart the maximum penalty allowable for her offenses on September 25 of this year. Her traitorous actions are a disgrace to herself and to the sick minds that propagate her ignoble cause. I am at the twilight of a 20 year career of naval service and I have had to deal with the repercussions of military traitors who sell our secrets to foreign governments. I have had deployments extended, liberty secured and adopted new measures of security every time a traitor held his own ideologies above his countrymen’s. Lynne Stewart has done something far worse than sell military secrets. She helped the enemy plan attacks against her own countrymen. She feels no remorse and thinks that cowardly attacks against purported powers that make the United States an evil place are justifiable. "I don’t believe in anarchistic violence, but in di...

Mardin Amin , 29, was with his mother and two children on August 16th traveling from O'Hare to Turkey. A TSA agent pulled out an object fom Amin's bag and begin to eyball it. Here is where the story gets interesting. Amir cliams he told the TSA agent the device was a 'pump', she claims Amir said 'bomb'. I assume Amir is Turkish and probably speaks with a thick accent. 'Bomb' sort of sounds like 'pump' in the way 'close' sounds like 'blow' on a sound powered phone on a submarine. Coincidentally, we say 'shut' instead of 'close' for that very reason. TSA agents grabbed Amin and put him into custody and did not give him the time to explain that what the female TSA agent was holding was his penis pump. I guess that was his bag, baby. It would be bad enough getting caught masterbating by your mother as a sexually frustrated adolescent, but getting busted with a penis pump in line at the airport while your mother is stan...

I am compelled to write this entry because of a string of homeless conversation that has been happening over the last 4 days. I had a class Saturday, although I did not attend I had a very good reason- I was on the Big Island taking pictures of the lava flow. A groupmember emailed me the brainstorming outcome of the day and it was "Removing the homeless from Oahu beaches". I thought it to be an unchallenging and dry topic. Yesterday, I read and commented on Doug TenNapel's site on an entry where he discusses an encounter with a crazed homeless person. There were some news segments about the homeless in Hawaii because of the torrential rain we had a few weeks ago and various other issues of the homeless. Although it is crude, cruel, dispecable and heartless I have a plan to rid Hawaii of its homeless, thus relieving the social and financial burdens the homeless place on the residents and visitors of this island paradise. The US Navy has a graveyard of outdated ships just ...