War Is The Health of the State

We don't really know if we can trust anything that comes out of the Senate, since each member is wholly involved in a personal quest for undeserved wealth and power. By the same token, we can't trust the words of the various minions of the Administration, either. For the same reasons.

Apologists for the GW Bush Administration have, since sometime during the second year of his Presidency, been falling all over themselves trying to tell us that not taking Obama bin Llama at Tora Bora was either not feasible, not possible or not a good idea at the time.

I distrust any and all of this rhetoric. It's my opinion bin Llama wasn't captured because a shortened war over there wouldn't fulfill the President's not-quite-sane dreams of a fully pacified Middle East under the control of the US.

Such dreams are now, and were at the time, the musings of a fool, but they were his dreams, and would also serve to further another function dear to most elected officials in the past hundred years or so: erode the Bill of Rights and severely lessen individual liberty in the United States. Along with the war came the evil Patriot Act, under the umbrella of an entirely new herd of jack-booted thugs in an unConstitutional goon squad called Homeland Security. Can't you just hear the goose-stepping heels thudding in a death rhythm for American freedom?

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Middle Easterners are peaceful and at least as civilized as are most Americans. My biggest problem with them is that, like leftists, they rarely condemn their members at the wacko end of the scale.

Back to the point: According to this story in Yahoo News, there's a report issued by the US Senate to the effect that the GW Bush military could have captured bin Llama had they mounted "a rapid assault with several thousand troops at least" It further states that "a review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants 'removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora.'"

Yet the troops, while nearby and ready, were never ordered to mobilize. A "vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines." Instead, "fewer than 100 U.S. commandos, working with Afghan militias, tried to capitalize on air strikes and track down their prey."

On or about Dec. 16, 2001, bin Laden and bodyguards "walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area," where he is still believed to be based."

And we're still fumbling around in Afghanistan, under an incompetent Commander-in-Chief. The best military units on earth, virtually leaderless, under the constant threat of Courts Martial for insulting, scaring and/or injuring the enemy.

Thank you, President Bush, for mucking up what should have been a quick attack and capture and turning it into another forever war.

War is, indeed, the health of the state.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Health Care, Even If It Kills

The one thing He-Who Shall-Not-Be-Named has promised that he intends to fulfill (even if it costs him reelection) is health care. He intends to fulfill it even if it trashes all his other campaign promises. You know, the promise not to raise taxes on the poor, to improve on GWB's economy, etc.

He wants a health care bill passed even if it costs the consumer more than the current system, if the health care deteriorates, if medical innovation becomes impossible, if care of the aged becomes a death gulag, if physicians and other health care workers resign their careers and even if doctors become witch doctors with their bleeding lancets, leeches and multi-colored rattles and feather headdresses.

It no longer matters what's in the health care bill, as long as it is big, thick and says Health Care on the cover page. It no longer matters whether or not it bankrupts the country or that it kills more than it saves. It has to be passed.

It's becoming clear that up to 20% of physicians will quit or retire if this bill passes. Some already have done so because of the heavy government and insurance regulations and reporting requirements mandated in recent times. Imagine how that will increase as government takes over the whole of the medical industry!

Prepare for a massive black market, in which real care and medicines will only available by word of mouth and with hard cash on the barrel head.

We have to do something--anything--even if it's wrong!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The World's most Pussified Army

First, I was angered that a deranged religious fanatic would charge into a crowded group of soldiers and their families and open up with an automatic rifle. I remember that the first question I asked to myself as I watched the reportage on tv was, "What religion is he?" already pretty sure I knew the answer.

Well, I was right. He was both an insane islamic fundamentalist and an Army shrinkologist; a combination that should be watched very carefully. The only reason the Army needs shrinkologists is that the politicians keep involving our military in parts of the world and for reasons not only unnecessary, but unConstitutional and wasteful, and the soldiers know this and know that they are being used merely to further the interests of political agendae.

Most of the news media, in tune with, and under the orders of the Obama Administration, completely avioded and continues to avoid any mention of the murderer's religion, in line with the Administration's guidelines designed to appease Middle Eastern savage despots, dictators Obama apparently admires.

Ok. After realizing all of this, it gave me time to make an observation that many others also noticed. On an Army base, with presumably several thousand soldiers on board of many different ranks and specialties, no one in the area was armed. No one.

Well, this is the part I find embarrassing. Not only are Americans effectively legally disarmed throughout most of the country, but so are those individuals whose task it is to defend the nation from invasion and to protect the rights of individuals. Not only are the orders from the top circumventing those tasks, but they're placing these men and women in danger for reasons linked more closely to the personal desires of self-serving politicians than to their Constitutional purposes.

Note that the Israeli and Swiss militaries allow--indeed require--soldiers to be armed on and off duty. Unlike deputy Barney Fife, the even get more than one bullet!

To prosecute its Constitutional mandate, the military doesn't really have to be very large. A very small regular military to maintain the toys and keep the brass polished, and a good reserve militia system in each state, to be called upon in case of invasion.

But, they should be armed....as should we all, those of us who actually have values we'd like to see protected.

Evil and stupid state and federal administrations for many decades have been trying to convert American men and women into a vast herd of sheep, easily led and regularly shorn. Is that what we have to look forward to?

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Well Lived, Happy and Eventful Life

Yesterday, I finally gathered together a small sum of cash I'd been wanting to use for the purpose of buying some common silver coins, for use in the event of disaster to make purchases on the black market. I'm convinced that this will become an issue, maybe soon. I've been making these small purchases, as I can, for many years. If such a disaster never happens, I'll have a coin collection to sell to augment my retirement, should I ever decide to do so.

The gentleman 'bout whom I write will not. He'll die on the job, having lived a happy, healthy life.

I walked into his store in the early afternoon. It's a little hole-in-the-wall just off a major boulevard, almost unnoticeable among the sidewalk cafes and trendy shops. COINS & STAMPS, it says on the window. I stepped inside; there was no one there--just glass cases full of silver dollars, half dollars etc, and a wall covered with envelopes full of stamps.

An elderly man stepped out from the back room with a smile and a "Can I help you?" I told him I was looking for circulated, common date silver--probably half dollars. He directed me toward a case filled with various styles of halves--Franklin, Liberty Walking and Barber. I presume he had some Liberty Seated halves in the safe, but they're out of my price range and too valuable to use as cash.

After a few minutes looking at various coins and package deals, we settled on a package and a price.

I offered him my debit card, but he says he doesn't accept cards or checks; just cash. Well, fortunately I had enough cash to make the transaction. "I like to keep things simple," he said. I told him, "That's fine, I'll make sure I have cash with me in the future, as well."

By way of explaining his preference for cash, he started talking about his youth in Boston. In high school, he got a job in a coin and stamp store and began saving a little money. This was in the middle years of the Great Depression. He started putting a little money away just in case.

His parents were secure in their careers and he continued living at home even after he graduated high school . They wanted him to go to college, but he kept putting it off.

He rented a little storefront downtown for $20 a month and set up a coin and stamp store, not long after graduation.

He told me he would close the shop and go down the street to a deli for lunch each day, then go across the street to a Cadillac dealer and look at a particular black LaSalle coupe he liked. It was priced at $997. A 60 Series Cadillac's prices started at $1200. The salesman started referring to him as the "Lookie Lou." He studied that car every day for a long time. One day the salesman addressed him as "Lookie Lou" and asked him why he kept looking at the car.

"I'm going to buy it." "When?" "Now." "How are you going to pay for it?" the salesman chuckled.

"I'll write a check. You can call the ****** Bank and talk to Mr. ******."

Fact was, the young man-had, by that time, well over a thousand dollars saved up. He bought the car.

He was drafted into the Army in the early part of WWII. Because of his high scores in the tests, and his performance during basic training, he was kept on as a drill instructor. He attained the rating of Staff Sergeant. He was sent over to Europe in time to participate in the D-Day attack, where 17 of the 40 men in his platoon were killed or wounded.

After the war, he reopened his coin and stamp shop, married a lady who had been an Army nurse over there. They moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950's, where he opened another coin & stamp shop in downtown LA, then to where he is now. He worked alone in his shop every day except Sunday and Monday, though now he only opens for afternoons.

He'll be 90 this spring, and says he'll keep the shop open as long as he's able. He loves his work, and says it's what helps keep him healthy.

One of the neat things about my two-plus hour visit with him: No paperwork. I handed him the cash, he handed me the coins, and we shook hands. The way it's supposed to be.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California