Old War Dogs: J D Pendry

Sunday, 01 February 2009

Stimulating the troops…
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

“… I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems."

“I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the Quadrennial Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending."

“Third, I will set a goal for a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal.” – President Barack Hussein Obama

A revisit of that quote and everyone should be clear on what the President intends when he tells the Joint Chiefs to cut their fiscal year 2010 budget request (fiscal year 2010 begins October 1, 2009) by 55 billion dollars. There are only a few places where the defense budget can be cut. Personnel costs are fixed. The only way to reduce that cost is to slow promotions, reduce the size of the force (something that many argue effectively needs to grow) or reduce pay, benefits or the services provided to active duty families. For example, as I mentioned last week, the Congressional Budget Office proposal to have active duty military family members pay for their healthcare. The cuts, when they come, will be in the areas dangerous to the Armed Forces, much the same as they were under the Carter and Clinton Administrations.

Contributed by J D on February 1, 2009 at 12:06 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Sucking off the government tit…
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I often receive condescending email from liberals. Some of them from a gentleman who identifies himself as Will Estes. Mr. Estes, like most liberals, uses projection to attack people who do not view the world as he does. Mr. Estes believes that if everyone is looking for government handouts or as he so eloquently phrases it, sucking off the government tit, then it justifies his own desires to have someone else carry the load for him. I sent an angry, although short, response to Mr. Estes. I called him a complete idiot.

“Greetings J.D.

So sorry to hear about your heel problem.. I do hope that with your military retirement plan that the VA. hospital was ready ...waiting and was there for you. Of course this is a benefit that is a social program to the people who served this great country as you did..”

Let’s be clear on one point Will. A social program is one that provides something to someone who never contributed toward the benefit received. Welfare as an example.

Contributed by J D on January 28, 2009 at 01:34 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 24 January 2009

Wiggle your toes...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

We live in a changing world in more ways than many of us could even comprehend only short years ago. I expect that most people who read this electronic publication have some Internet acquaintances. Someone you met on the web and with whom you have regular electronic conversations and feel as though you have come to know them even though you have never spoken face to face. I have accumulated quite a few over the years. One of them was Bill Faith, the founder and webmaster of Old War Dogs. It was Bill and others who invited me to post at OWD. I returned from a short absence sadly to read email informing me that Bill answered the final recall following a heart attack. Bill was passionate in his beliefs and his support of Veterans and serving men and women. As God wraps his arms around you Bill, stand tall knowing that your earthly mission was completed.

Now about that title. Since the day before Christmas Eve, my most prominent view has of been of an elevated foot with toes sticking out of bandages and a splint. On that day, I managed to shatter a heel bone. If you are curious, it is a major ouch. The injury required surgical reconstruction of the heel bone, which I had last week. I spent two nights in the hospital. Each time there was a shift change at the hospital, the new nurse would come in and ask me to wiggle my toes, block my view and ask me to tell her which toe she was tickling and then give me a listening to through the stethoscope.

Contributed by J D on January 24, 2009 at 09:36 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Sunday, 04 January 2009

Happy 2009
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Entering 2009, we find that the centuries old battle between the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, continues. The children of Isaac have endured a relentless fight for their existence against the children of Ishmael, often alone, from the beginning of human history. Ishmael, led by fanatical Mullahs and because of them, will never reconcile with Isaac. Some of us, considered the weak minded by the all knowing elitists of our world, know the roots of this epic struggle and how it ends. We have called it by many names. The war on terror is just one of the misnomers we have given it. We rarely, however, want to accept what it truly is - the epic battle between Isaac and Ishmael playing for us as if it was another of Cecil B. Demille’s Biblical productions. Whether you accept that premise or not, you must decide during this new year behind which son of Abraham you stand. There is no alternative choice for you. The fight will not leave you alone. Events, history and ideology force you to one side or the other. Isaac is defending his right to existence as I write this. Also, there are Ishmael terrorist supporting anti Isaac [anti-Western] protestors in the streets of our country, in New York no less. They kill us in our own cities we then allow them to protest in support of the murderers in the streets of the city where their most devastating attack occurred. What does that say about us as we begin the era of hope and change? We can hope, but they will not change. I did not want to depress you with my first thought of the new year, but that is what came to my mind today.

Contributed by J D on January 4, 2009 at 09:29 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Hope
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)

Today is the third Sunday of Advent. My wife and I were honored to light the Advent candles during Church services this morning. The third Advent Candle is the Candle of Hope.

We hear a lot about hope during our endless political campaigning by people who when asked can barely discuss intelligently the words that come out of their own mouths. It is only later; after their handlers and marketers have schooled them that they offer us what I really meant to say was…. Unfortunately, this is where Americans have largely placed hope- in men and their promises. And as we see more each day, that hope is on men who are unethical, unscrupulous, immoral, proven incompetents and some of them just outright criminals. Sad place for the hope of a people and a nation, isn’t it?

Contributed by J D on December 14, 2008 at 03:24 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 07 December 2008

We Stink
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

According to Democrat Senator Harry Reid we are little more than putrid peasants. On opening the new Capitol Visitor’s Center, the Senator was most grateful that he would no longer have to smell the Americans who wished to visit the palatial digs they paid for with their blood and tax dollars. Sadly, I fear Senator Reid is not alone in his aristocratic view of the peasantry.

Yes Senator Reid there is a stench emanating from Washington. I suggest that to locate the source of it, you begin searching in increasingly larger concentric circles around your own little piece of the Capitol building. The peasantry will have to tolerate Harry Reid et al as long as the people keep sending them back to Washington. Harry Reid is an insignificant man who, if history remembers him at all, will recall that he declared a victory in Iraq as a lost war and went on to lead the most ineffective and least popular Congress our nation has ever known.

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. It is also the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that propelled the United States into World War II.

Contributed by J D on December 7, 2008 at 04:04 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 30 November 2008

Tell me again about that National Security Force….
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

What do you think about the Russian analyst who predicted the demise and breakup of the United States? I have news for him. The breakup of the United States was completed the day that being a Hyphenated-American became more important than being just an American. I needed to clear that thought from my mind before moving on.

I recently scanned an article in a paper produced by a professional military association. It talked about the President-elect and what the military and veterans should expect from him. What the article amounted to was a regurgitation of talking points provided to them by a political campaign. I was rather disappointed.

One political statement made by President-elect Obama, or campaign promise, whichever way you choose to characterize it, concerns me a great deal. It should concern everyone.

Contributed by J D on November 30, 2008 at 04:58 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Happy Thanksgiving
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I was going to write something different this evening, instead I will share this from my archives. I wish all of you and your families a joyous and blessed Thanksgiving day. - JD

On Thanksgiving Day 1971, I was a 19-year-old Private in basic combat training at Fort Ord, California. My military career did not have a grand beginning. For that matter it never had a grand middle or end either, but that’s a story for another day.

In September of that year, just before my 19th birthday, I stepped down from a Greyhound bus onto Fort Ord’s sand and ice plant. It wasn’t the type of greeting that folklore and movies primed me to expect. A Corporal wearing heavily starched cotton fatigues, spit shined boots and a glossy black helmet with large white Corporal stripes painted on the front greeted the few of us arriving from San Francisco Airport. He wasn’t loud and ornery as we expected, but he did walk so fast that most of my small group had to jog to keep up. His first stop with us was an Army Mess Hall where we ate our first Army meal of warm soup and cold sandwiches. A week later, all hell broke loose for us when the cattle car we were crammed into stopped in front of our basic training company.

Contributed by J D on November 26, 2008 at 09:39 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 23 November 2008

The evolution of liberalism…
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I just returned from a two-week trip to Korea. My jets are still lagging, which might explain why I was wide-awake at 0300. If my jet lag runs its typical course, I should be sleeping soundly somewhere mid-sermon.

Korea is an interesting place and an interesting lesson. My history there goes back to 1972 when I was an Army Private in I Corps stationed at Camp Red Cloud in Uijongbu, Korea. Uijongbu is just down the road a piece from communist North Korea and the world’s most heavily fortified and defended border along the 38th latitudinal parallel north, which if your curious about such things also passes through Wild Wonderful West Virginia where I sit this early Sunday morning. Although today’s average public school product probably could not tell you this, the Korean War never ended officially. There exists only a cease-fire. In 1972, dirt streets and roads were common to many areas. Most Koreans had neither a telephone nor a car. Women wading through the flooded paddies mostly planted rice by hand. In the countryside, thatched roofs were common and many rural areas still had no electricity.

Contributed by J D on November 23, 2008 at 06:51 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 09 November 2008

I left the country...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I left the country. Do you like that tired old political cliché? I did not leave the party, the party left me. Well, I am just kidding because I only left the country to visit my Grandbabies that are a short 14 hour plane ride past Atlanta. America is my country. Unlike the Hollywood nitwits who all threaten to abandon America whenever someone other than the most unqualified and liberal candidate in the nation’s history is elected president, I will only abandon America for whatever follows this mortal life. Before, however, it was the Democrats and now it is the Republicans who have left me.

I congratulate my country for another peaceful change of leadership. It is the signature of the freest nation on earth – the freest for now. I congratulate President-elect Barack Hussein Obama. Unlike the unhinged left, there will be no personal disparagement of the President from here. It is however, open season on his wrong-headed ideas, policies and approaches to governing. The treatment of President Bush from the Democrats in Congress, liberals in general and the news media in particular has been disgraceful, period. The Office of the President of the United States and the person holding the offices deserves treatment with dignity. We do not have to like them, trust them or believe what they say, but we can challenge all of that in a dignified manner.

Contributed by J D on November 9, 2008 at 03:39 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sunday, 02 November 2008

Obama's Plan to Bankrupt the Coal Industry
Contributed by J D

Obama has more good news for you bitter, gun clinging, Bible toting, hard working American Coal Miners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4onAQBWQ (Sorry, I couldn't get the embed to work.)

Please share this with all you know who live in these 26 states. Coal provides 50 percent of the electricity in America. It directly employs 81, 278 very hard working Americans. By its nature, it supports a large portion of the United States economy. And just for the record West Virginians (the country's number 2 coal producing state), Governor Manchin, Senators Rockefeller and Byrd, and Representatives Rahall and Mollohan all endorsed the Presidential candidate that will devastate an industry and our state.

26 coal producing states, 52 Major Coal Mining Companies, 81,278 Coal Miners

1. Wyoming 2 West Virginia 3 Kentucky 4 Pennsylvania 5 Montana 6 Texas 7 Colorado 8 Indiana 9 Illinois 10 North Dakota 11 Virginia 12 New Mexico 13 Utah 14 Ohio 15 Alabama 16 Arizona 17 Mississippi 18 Louisiana 19 Tennessee 20 Maryland 21 Oklahoma 22 Alaska 23 Kansas 24 Missouri 25 Arkansas 26 Washington

***

Webmaster's addendum:

Here's the video J D couldn't get to imbed properly:

Contributed by J D on November 2, 2008 at 05:47 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Saturday, 01 November 2008

Vote for America
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I was searching for a quote that would help make the point that our votes on Election Day are not for a person or to be a participant in some media hyped historical achievement. Voting is also not some statement that preserves your self-proclaimed political virtue. Voting is a selfless act. Voting is something we do for our country. Voting is fulfilling our most important duty as citizens of the world’s freest nation. It is the most important thanks that we can offer to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who have sacrificed from the beginning of our Nation’s history to the present day to ensure our right to choose our leaders. Please do not take this obligation lightly.

There were simply too many historical quotes from which to choose and too little space to discuss them all. Let the voices of history say to you better than I ever could that our votes are for America and whether it will survive as the nation it started out to be and became or whether it gets on the track failed nations have followed throughout history. As Governor Palin reminded us, “America is not the problem. America is the solution.” Just some thoughts to ponder as you pull the lever that will decide the direction of the world’s most blessed nation.

A vote for freedom unlike that experienced by any nation and the idea that America, as it now stands, is the world’s last great hope:

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” – John Winthrop, founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630

Contributed by J D on November 1, 2008 at 11:36 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 25 October 2008

A clear choice...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Did you vote early? My bride and I did. Early voting is a convenience, but I am afraid it makes shenanigans easier. It gives dead people and Disney characters multiple opportunities to vote before Election Day. The media and pollsters are assuring us that our effort to vote was fruitless as McCain has already lost. I reckon we will know for sure in a few days.

I asked one of the poll workers how business was this year compared to 2004, when we also voted early. He said there are many more early voters this time around, averaging more than 700 per day. That might not seem like many to you, but it is for here. I asked him why he thought that was and he said this election is much different from the last one. I did not ask how he thought it differed. I just tried to read his expression. His response and my visual survey of those voting at the early polling place caused me to wonder about the pundit’s assessments and those polls. The early voters I observed did not meet the profile the media and pundits told me to expect. In 2004, yards around here were full of Kerry/Edwards signs. Some of them were as big as billboards. Kerry still took a whoupin here. Obama/Biden signs are scarce as hen’s teeth. I am not a political prognosticator, but something is not adding up with what we are hearing in the media and seeing in the polls.

We hear practically every election how this one is the most important one in the history of our country. This time, that might be an accurate statement. Regardless of who moves into the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we will have learned some important things about people and our country. The contrast between choices this time around is stark and there certainly are historic implications.

Contributed by J D on October 25, 2008 at 07:46 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Trust me...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Have you ever held a job that required a simple background investigation or a security clearance? For much of my time in the Army, my duties required that I have a top secret security clearance. The special background investigation conducted to get and then maintain a top secret security clearance is quite extensive. One must provide 15 years of personal history consisting of references, credit records, relatives, neighbors, affiliations with organizations, workplaces, schools and you name it - and they are all checked. Each 5 years thereafter, all of the information must be updated and checked again. Your life is an open book and if you try to hide any of that your security clearance is lost and you could face serious criminal charges for hiding it. Some of my military jobs required that I be trusted with critically sensitive national security information. The security clearances, which gave me access to information that certainly would damage our national security if it ended up in the wrong hands, was not as high as a Whitehouse level security clearance.

Contributed by J D on October 23, 2008 at 11:43 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 19 October 2008

Spreadin' the wealth?
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Or, is it spreadin’ the fertilizer? Joe the plumber reinforced some things for me this week. Some things that are important to me personally and to our country.

One of them is the death of ~~objective~~ honest journalism in America. Maybe I was just fooled into believing most of my life that such a thing ever existed here. The hammer and sickle or crescent moon media is not nearly as focused as ours is on achieving their political objectives. When a closed group of people have the power to sway public opinion to support their ideology while leaving them blind to important facts, it is very dangerous. I hereby declare media integrity as the national oxymoron of the United States. In that assessment, I have to include Fox also, especially Brit Hume’s “all-stars’” assessment of the last presidential debate. I did not watch the debate, but listened to most of it and the all-star spin that followed it. Clearly, they did not hear the same debate as me. That is quite telling. It is telling, because obviously those who reside inside the beltway hear things much differently from me. I cannot choose which all-star swoon was the most nauseating. Substance mattered not as they described Senator Obama as presidential, elegant, articulate…. They failed to point out, however, that he articulately and elegantly told some real whoppers. Like Colin Powell, they all reminded me of Democrat super delegates – hedging their bets for future favor.

Contributed by J D on October 19, 2008 at 04:31 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 12 October 2008

Angry? Who Me?
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Mob mentality? Racist? This I hear from the people who have never had a decent or kind word to say about any African-American who holds conservative views. From this foul-mouthed morally deficient garbage who viciously slanders a pregnant seventeen-year-old girl and her mother, I am now called racist for questioning the character of their chosen one. These people wonder aloud why a mother would not abort a Down syndrome baby. I love these selfless and thoughtful attitudes. This collection of reprobates believes that race and gender counts only if the woman is like Madonna or the man some foul-mouthed Ludacris like thug rapper.

I do not like to share much of my private life, but just for the record, I have been one-half of an interracial marriage for going on 36 years. The two men I count as most influential in my 28 years in the Army were a Puerto Rican First Sergeant named Pedro Olivari and a Black Sergeant Major named Jim White. One thing I have learned about the left leaners is they like to project their personalities onto others. The most bigoted are the first to call others bigots. You possess no morals, no ethics and to use your favorite expression, no tolerance for someone whose beliefs differ from yours. So spare me.

Contributed by J D on October 12, 2008 at 02:08 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 10 October 2008

Undecided....
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I know who I am voting for. Do you?

I hope not to offend anyone. Well, maybe I do. Sometimes you need to hit someone in the forehead with a piece of dimension lumber before you get their attention. I never did appreciate it when people appeared in front of the cameras a few days after they called America’s Warriors Nazis and said, gee, if anyone was offended by what I said I apologize. If you said it during a hissy fit of anger, you meant it. You believed it. You should have spine enough to stand up for it. Words matter. What comes out of a politician’s mouth is not always the best reflection of who he is except for those angry tongue slips or the times when they believed no one was listening. It is those times and those words that opens the window to their character and bares their souls.

As we near America’s day of reckoning (A.K.A. Election Day), which is only a few days away, I am asked to believe that there are great numbers you out there who do not know who you will vote for. The great undecided mass, I am told and asked to accept, will choose the leader of the free world based on debate performances or whatever is offered up to them in the political ads during the latter days of the current edition of our perpetual political campaigns. If this is true, and I have never accepted that it is, then I have to tell you that the great undecided mass is too stupid to vote.

Contributed by J D on October 10, 2008 at 04:00 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 04 October 2008

Dear Congress, media, assorted Hollywood nitwits, and beltway bandits and pundits of all brands:
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I am that segment of America you all currently call Main Street. I am as Middle America as middle gets. I have much more than blue collar roots. Well at least you could see Dad’s blue collar, rest his black lung racked soul, when he shook the coal dust out of it. I also did some time on the factory floor in Chicago before enlisting in the Army. There was no community organizer pretending to look out for me.

Life is not always easy out here where people live a real life, but most of us wouldn’t trade it for anything else that the rest of the world, including the alternate universes you live in, has to offer us. Your universe? That is where the basic principles of honor and morality were discarded long ago – replaced by self-adulation. You lie to one another; you lie to us and worst of all you, with relative ease, you can look at your image in the mirror and lie to yourselves - all for the sake of political power, some self-perceived prestige or some utopian ideology that history has repeatedly proven a failure.

Contributed by J D on October 4, 2008 at 08:58 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 28 September 2008

Get back to the fundamentals…
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is. – Ecclesiastes 10:2-3 (NIV)

I took a short break from politics. It wasn’t a planned break, at least not my plan, but it did clear my mind some. I needed the break to mentally cut through the spin. I watched football in lieu of the first debate. I do not need a debate to help me decide.

I pondered how it is that you and I will once again have to save, with our hard earned income, the careers of incompetent politicians. The collection of pandering boobs who are solely responsible for the economic and energy problems our country faces. If things work out, you and I will not receive credit for our contributions, nor will we see any return on yet another bad investment – in politicians and policy.

We have strayed far from some of the fundamentals on which our country was built.

Read the rest here.

Contributed by J D on September 28, 2008 at 03:20 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sunday, 14 September 2008

Email from Wasilla
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I just got this email from friends of mine. It was sent to them from someone who lives in Wasilla, Alaska and knows Sarah Palin….

It started with one glowing email, which was rather short and Sarah Palin admiring in its content. Then they began to morph into lengthy dissertations complete with statistics and all of the scary reasons why Governor Palin should not be a “heartbeat away” from the Presidency. With Nan Pelosi sitting two heartbeats away, I do not know why anyone would think that tired expression is frightening to me. These emails are now arriving in my mailbox with somber notices at the beginning, “I just received this from some friends who received it from this lady who lives in Wasilla and knows Governor Palin. Read it and make your own judgment.” And I do, I hit the delete button and send that puppy straight to cyber heaven or possibly it heads in a more southerly cyber direction. I cannot believe what I read in the media most of the time so I reckon I will pass on the content of unsolicited emails from sources I do not know (the mainstream media quotes these as unnamed sources) that likely originated in the same Chicago basement as the banned book email hoax did. To quote Barack Hopenchange Obama, “Enough! Enough!”

Contributed by J D on September 14, 2008 at 04:51 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 06 September 2008

Hey Sarah...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Got a minute?

I expect by now that you are covered up with image consultants, wardrobe consultants, political strategists, campaign masterminds and any number of minions who have spent their lives manufacturing plastic people with plastic stories that they hope to sell to real Americans. So you probably do not need advice emanating from a piece of the hillside here in Wild Wonderful West Virginia. But, even when not solicited, I am prone to offer it.

For heaven sakes whatever else you might consider, don’t change the hair do.

Just remember, it was authenticity that brought you to this hockey game and arguably made you America’s most popular political figure.

Contributed by J D on September 6, 2008 at 04:14 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Rocking Morton's world...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I catch the 6 o’clock evening news when I can. However, I long ago gave up on the evening news with Brian or Katie or with whoever it might be on the major broadcast networks. Their too often condescending fashion of delivering news combined with the clear biases that only they appear unable to see got to be a bit much for me. I tune into the Fox News 6 o’clock report when I can. On Friday, I was particularly interested in what the program’s panel discussion might offer up on the selection of Governor Sarah Palin by Senator McCain as his Vice Presidential running mate. I was not surprised to hear Morton Kondracke express some contempt for the choice. He cited her lack of experience to assume the duties of the President as if he fully expected McCain to drop over dead on inauguration day. Why, he’s had two bouts of melanoma declared Mr. Kondracke. Morton is prone to say some dumb things, at least in my view, but following his comments about Governor Palin’s lack of experience he added to his nuttier than a squirrel turd opinion by saying that Senator Obama was more qualified to be President simply because he had been running for the job for the past 3 years. Morton actually had a pained expression on his face. Perhaps you need more fiber in the diet Morton. And just for the record, Obama is running against McCain or maybe it is Bush. I am not always sure, but he is not running against Palin.

Do you know what Morton’s problem is?

Contributed by J D on August 31, 2008 at 06:35 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sunday, 24 August 2008

Calling Jack Murtha
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

The Russians invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia, a free country with a democratically elected government. Where in the hell are Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, Congress and 99 percent of Hollywood? Code Pink is probably still standing on the streets in front of Walter Reed Army Medical Center harassing wounded American Warriors and their families. The remainder is probably too busy admiring the great show put on by the communist Chinese.

The Russians only shot up a few journalists during Vlad’s great adventure. This female Georgian reporter, these Turkish reporters, and this Jewish one. This fine example of a professional military was also filmed robbing a bank and stealing United States military equipment from the port.

Contributed by J D on August 24, 2008 at 01:42 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 10 August 2008

Montani semper liberi
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Have you ever been poor? I am asking that question relative to material wealth. I know poor in that sense. Growing up in the hills and hollows of Southern wild and wonderful West Virginia in the mid 50s to the mid 60s most people knew some degree of poor in that regard. Nowadays, that area is referred to as the Southern West Virginia Coal Fields and usually by West Virginia politicians and television talking heads who have never ventured outside of Morgantown, Charleston or Huntington. It is quite interesting to ponder. It is akin to the people who have never left the confines of Washington, DC, New York City, San Francisco or Chicago yet they feel the need to save the rest of us from ourselves. I have visited each of those great American cities, some by necessity for longer periods than I would have chosen to otherwise. It is not the rest of us that needs saving – at least not from ourselves.

Contributed by J D on August 10, 2008 at 04:02 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 03 August 2008

The lights are out...
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

“I have always loved longitude. “I love latitude; it’s in the stars. But longitude, it’s about time. ... Time and clocks and all the rest of that have always been a fascination for me.”

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.” – Speaker of the People’s House, Nancy Pelosi

When the Speaker speaks, lights out is one descriptive thought that comes to mind. I also see hair filled with daisies and butterflies and chirping birds merrily circling her botoxed head. Occasionally a sharp tongue zots out and an unsuspecting and cheerfully circling blue dog bird is returned to the flock, wings bobbed and featherless. The hapless butterflies continue to flutter by focusing on matters critically important to the people of the serfdom like legalizing pot. Such is life in the enchanted kingdom where the problems are always caused by others, but never solved by anyone.

Contributed by J D on August 3, 2008 at 04:24 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 27 July 2008

Dad was a goat herder…
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I suppose it is not a revelation that politicians often portray themselves as someone they may not be. Some can pull it off while others cannot. It is life experiences and associations that decide who a person truly is and not the stories they tell. We have seen embellished military records, padded resumes and humble beginnings that were often as much fiction as fact. At some point, the façade crumbles away leaving us with a true view of the weak character supporting it. It may be an oval office tryst or failure to simply live up to claimed values, but it is always something. Unfortunately, the façade often holds up long enough to fool too many of us into making a poor choice.

Contributed by J D on July 27, 2008 at 04:07 PM in J D Pendry, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

I have a short administrative matter that requires your help. Truth or Fiction emailed me 2 years ago in September 2006. From what I can see, the website is similar in nature to Snopes. They wanted to know if I actually wrote this article. Last week, they emailed me again and asked the same question only this time the article they sent identified me as a Marine and someone had added cartoons to it among other edits. I searched their site and didn’t find mention of it anywhere so I do not know the purpose of their emails. I will be grateful if you will take the opportunity to correct the article with the senders and point them towards the original if an edited version of it turns up in your mail box – again. - JD

******************

Does it concern you that all three of the major television network news anchors accompanied a presidential candidate on an international tour? I do not recall them doing that for any of the numerous trips that the other candidate has made.

I have always been a follower of news as it is broadcast and provided to us in print. I consider it necessary, personally, to be informed about what is happening. The difference is that nowadays I do not see how I can believe anything that these allegedly objective journalists read to us from their Teleprompters or print for our consumption in their papers. Factual information providing appears non-existent. Instead of being good news men or women they seem more inclined to promote a position, ideal or movement of some sort. They no longer provide a service that Americans need. I am not sure if they ever did.

Contributed by J D on July 20, 2008 at 04:19 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Embarrassed – American
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

Harry Reid tells us that oil and coal makes us sick. It makes the planet sick. We also hear that we are addicted to oil and use more than our share of the world supply of it. It is no great wonder that only 9 percent of Americans believe the Congress that Harry Reid leads is doing a good job. That is not even to mention the brilliance and effectiveness of the Nancy Pelosi led half of it. The Speaker promised us a plan that would reduce the outrageously high $2.91 per gallon gasoline prices. We see how well that worked. Harry and Nan’s genius, I fear, is just the beginning for our country. The beginning of the end of it if we are not careful.

Contributed by J D on July 12, 2008 at 09:51 AM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Saturday, 05 July 2008

Patriots
Contributed by J D

J. D. Pendry

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.” – Thomas Paine, December 1776

Over time, Mr. Paine’s historical statement about patriotism has been used to support every conceivable notion about what patriotism is or is not. I have always thought that his meaning was clear. In difficult times, true patriots will proudly support and defend their country and its way of life.

Contributed by J D on July 5, 2008 at 07:19 PM in J D Pendry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 23 June 2008

“They killed innocent civilians in cold blood…”
Contributed by J D

[This post has been bumped by the webmaster to keep it near the top of the site longer.]

J. D. Pendry

Two years ago I wrote an article titled On Your Hands. I wrote it on the same day that I received in my email internet photographs of the mutilated bodies of Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon. I reached the point where I could no longer tolerate the insane babble coming from the mouths of certain politicians who clearly and daily place their politics ahead of the well-being of the men and women the majority of them voted to send to war. Now, the article appears to be making its umpteenth lap around the internet (wish I had a nickel for each time it has been re-posted somewhere) only this time one of the unauthorized editors of it decided it would be better if I was identified as a USMC Sergeant Major.

Contributed by J D on June 23, 2008 at 01:15 AM in Iraq, J D Pendry, Mad Jack Murtha | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack