Open Thread

(For other material, please scroll down)

So, what's on your mind?

Go HERE for the discussion thread about Thursday's GOP debates.

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

The GOP Debate

Parse the Fox News event — live or later — in the comments section of this blog post.

Pre-debate comments are also welcome.

Please adhere to the following parameters:

Resilience And Survival

(For politics, please scroll down)

(Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature!

From This 390-year-old bonsai tree survived an atomic bomb, and no one knew until 2001:

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Is Not A Treaty

(with thanks to Infidel Bloggers Alliance for the information in this blog post)

Basically, according to John Kerry, "We're saying the Iran Treaty isn't a treaty because it's impossible to pass a treaty anymore."  

Watch the short video below the fold.

Political Satire And Ghouls

One of my recent Facebook finds:

This may or may not be satire: D.C. Residents Say Take Down Jefferson Memorial, Rename Washington, D.C.

Clearly, this is not satire (dated July 22, 2015):

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group was fed up with waiting, so they got a shovel and dug up a patch of grass next to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave and statue in a public park in the Medical District.

The group says they wanted the statue and remains removed for a long time, because he was a Confederate soldier, a KKK leader and a slave trader.

“If he’s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone,” said Isaac Richmond with Commission on Religion and Racism. “We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up.”...

Musical Interlude

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J.S. Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in A-moll BWV 1065 [Minor] is a glorious piece:

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

A link to get the discussion here started, should any of you care to pursue the topic:

Fox lowers threshold for early debate: The change serves to guarantee the presence of candidates such as Lindsey Graham and Carly Fiorina.

Starting at 5:00 P.M. EDT on August 6, the AOW household will be glued to our television set.

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Spills The Beans

The more accurate title for this blog post might be "Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Tries To Hide The Beans." Heh.

On July 30, 2015, on MSNBC, the DNC Chairwoman could not or would not answer the question "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?" Please watch the short video below (Wasserman-Schultz's stammering and deflection begin around time marker 0:57):


Rough excerpt from the transcript below the fold:

How Do You Interpret This Photo?

The Waving Man, Fairfax County's local icon of days gone by:

Photo taken circa 1976, in Fairfax County, Virginia, by T. Wayne Gauthier

Andy also directed traffic at the local Little League games:

Cell Phones In The Operating Room?

(For politics, please scroll down)

Illustration by Michael Hirshon

Sometimes one opens the newspaper and is gobsmacked by a story that is not political, a story that makes one say: "What is this madness? And whatever happened to common sense?"

The story below the fold is one such story, and it illustrates that there really may be an addiction to modern technology.

From Kaiser Health News (dated July 14, 2015):

Jobs That Americans Won't Do?

The reality now may be more about illegal aliens getting jobs that Americans would do if given the chance.

Recent data from Pew Research Center, not a bastion of conservatism, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the United States Department of Labor, is grim.

From Illegal Immigrants Outnumber Unemployed Americans:

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

“An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as those who arrive with legal visas and remain in the U.S. after their visas expire.”

Of those 11.3 illegal immigrants, 8.1 million are participating in the labor force. “Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the U.S. labor force,” Pew says. “In the U.S. labor force, there were 8.1 million unauthorized immigrants either working or looking for work in 2012.”

In 2014, there were 1.7 million more illegal immigrants living in the United States than there were unemployed Americans. According to the BLS, the average number of unemployed Americans in 2014 was 9.6 million. The BLS defines an unemployed individual as someone who did not have a job but actively sought one in the past four weeks.

The executive action on immigration President Obama put in place in November of 2014 is set to help more illegal aliens become active in the labor force....

Read the rest HERE.

Meanwhile (dated July 22, 2015), Obama Admin Plans More Executive Action on Immigration: Proposed rule expands number of illegal immigrants allowed to stay in country.

Is it any wonder that Donald Trump poll numbers are so high?

On Hiatus

I need to reduce my stress levels right now. Therefore:

I still to plan to co-host The Gathering Storm Radio Show every Friday at 3:00 P.M, EDT. I will also be making blog rounds on an intermittent basis.

Obama's Inexcusable Response To The Chattanooga Jihad Attack

Eli Arnold is pictured planting a flag outside the Chattanooga National Guard recruitment center targeted by Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez.

From No explanation by Obama on flags not lowered to half-staff for Chattanooga shootings (dated July 20, 2015):

The White House provided no explanation Monday amid questions over why the president had not ordered flags across the nation to half-staff in the wake of a Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting that killed five servicemembers.

Spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama offered condolences last week and may speak to veterans at VFW conference Tuesday about the shooting, but he had no further comment.

Obama has issued presidential proclamations that lowered flags at federal facilities and military bases after many mass shootings, including attacks at the Washington Navy Yard, Fort Hood in Texas, and Sandy Hook elementary in Connecticut. The lack of a proclamation following the deaths of four Marines and sailor in a possible terrorist attack Thursday by a 24-year-old Muslim man rankled some and spark online outrage.

“I don’t have more information about the status of the flag over the White House,” Earnest said, responding to a question at a daily briefing Monday with the press....

Read the rest HERE.

Let us remember that Obama ordered the lowering of United States flags when Nelson Mandela died in 2013. But not for five of our servicemen slaughtered right here on our home soil?

Obama, the Commander in Chief, hasn't so much as picked up the phone and spoken to the families of our fallen in Chattanooga!

GRRRRRR!

Related reading: Fallujah-in-Chattanooga by Tammy Swofford.

Concluding portion:

Lance Corporal Skip Wells was a highly trained, professional United States Marine. He was “armed” with a cell phone. He used his “weapon” to text the last known words attributed to him:

ACTIVE SHOOTER

This is the real tragedy. It is the tragedy of an unarmed U.S. Marine.

Read the entire essay HERE.

Sociology Today: New Concepts Of Equal Rights

According to University Researchers: We Have to Accept People Who ‘Identify as Real Vampires’, we must cease discriminating against vampires. Well, not quite vampires, but rather people who claim to be vampires. Excerpt from the link:

Sociology researchers are now insisting that we as a society start accepting people who choose to “identify as real vampires” — so that they can be open about the fact that they’re vampires without having to worry about facing discrimination from people who might think that that’s weird.

Sunday Break From Politics

(For politics, please scroll down)

Our hostas bloomed heavily this year. I've never seen them this lush! All that snow and ice during the winter — and a rainy spring — brought us this beauty:

Four more photos below the fold.

Open Thread

(For other material, please scroll down)

So, what's on your mind?

To discuss Thursday's jihad attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, please go to THIS THREAD, the post just below this open thread.

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Motivation And Investigation (With Addendum)

The following appear to be the last words of Chattanooga jihadist Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s brief-lived blog, published on July 13, 2015:

"To give us a complete understanding of the message of Islam, and the strength the live by this knowledge, and to know what role we need to play to establish Islam in the world."

A blog post in his name also stated:

This life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by

Read all of Abdulazeez's blog posts HERE.

About the investigation: William Killian, the DoJ Official Leading #Chattanooga Jihad Shooting, Previously Vowed to Criminalize Criticism of Islam.

Also see DOJ: Social Media Posts Trashing Muslims May Violate Civil Rights.

The impromptu memorial at the Military Recruiting Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee:

Photo credit: Kevin Liles for the New York Times

ADDENDUM: The faces of the fallen Marines in Chattanooga. Please take a moment to look and to read.

Click directly on the photos below to enlarge them:

Multiple Shots Fired In Chattanooga: Armed Forces Career Center AND Navy Recruitment Center

What I've been following and posting about today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance....

FOUR MARINES KILLED!

From Reuters:

Worth 1000 Words

With a hat tip to Geeez:

My lightly edited comment to Z's post:

Video: Who Owns You?

Remember the following the next time you try to decide for which political weasel to vote:

The High Costs Of Sanctuary Cities

Click directly on the image to enlarge it:

Additional information and my personal story below the fold.

Musical Interlude: Song from π!

I find this fascinating and astounding:


According to the YouTube blurb:

Pi Song I wrote to help me memorize pi - I figured it would be easier to remember a melody than a string of numbers.

Open Thread

(For other material, please scroll down)

So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Interesting Take On Obergefell v. Hodges

Please take a few moments to read and to consider the following excerpt from The trouble with the ‘dignity’ of same-sex marriage, which recently appeared in the Washington Post (emphases mine):

Video: How To Insult A Progressive

The inimitable Pat Condell (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Quotation Of The Day: The Global Economy

Comment by Bocopro, who typed in the following to this post at Western Hero and particularly appropriate now that Greece has defaulted on a 1.6 billion euros debt payment to the IMF and has rejected the European Union's bailout offer:

Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Puerto Rico . . . these are the rumblings of what before long will be a great global Vesuviusing, with nationally fatal pyroclastic flows, intercontinental ashfall, planetary climate disruption, mass migrations, riots, starvation, hysteria, disease, and unending strife.

China, Russia, Europe, South America, and the US will flounder and drown in the morass of debt in the gazillions while their GDPs barely make it to the brazilians. Hurricanes of speeches and tons of promises won’t prevent a single balloon payment or cancel an ounce of debt.

Debts are like bastard children, begot in pleasure of the flesh, then brought forth in great pain and handicap. To promise fabulous socialist entitlements based on flawed arithmetic is to enslave the next generation who will inherit the budget shortfalls. And interest on debts grows without nourishment or watering.

The US central government seems to believe that a day will come when all debts are forgiven and everyone will live in some kind of utopia where self-replicating, self-repairing machines provide us with all our needs sans cost, where exactly-the-right-size Levis suddenly appear on shrubberies and meatball sandwiches flow from giant cornucopias in converted supermarkets.

At seven-point-five decades, I may already be safely under ground when the debt tsunami hits, but my grandkritters and their lot will be forced to pay for the mismanagement of thousands of politicians who tried to run cities on splenda, states on saccharine, and nations on nutrasweet.

Our entitlement systems, whether the leftistas choose to believe it or not, are not sustainable unless we discover the trick to turning hot air into gold. As Hamlet tells us: “I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.”

Meanwhile in China: BROKERAGES ANNOUNCE PLAN TO PROP UP SHARES.

Also see this (Click directly on the graphic to enlarge it):

Please discuss in the comments section. Got a crystal ball to check so as to see what's coming next?

Independence Day Weekend 2015

Hillsdale College's choir singing "America the Beautiful":

O Ship Of State by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
’Tis of the wave and not the rock;
’Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!

Recommended Reading

See Supremes ruling – turning nice neighborhoods into ghettos, posted June 30, 2015, at Bunkerville's site. Excerpt:

Sloppy Legislation = Tyranny

[BUMPED TO THE TOP FOR NOW]

Please watch this short video before reading the commentary below the fold:

One Year Anniversary: ISIS Pronounced Itself The Caliphate

June 29, 2015, marks one year to the day.

It's the middle of Ramadan.

American Independence Day is this weekend.

We are hearing warnings of the possibility of a terrorist attack this week.

This article, dated June 28, 2015, points out the following:

Perspective

(For political blog posts, please scroll down)

Humbling:

Open Thread

(For other material, please scroll down)

So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Recommended Reading: The Roberts Doctrine And ObamaCare

See On Obamacare, John Roberts helps overthrow the Constitution by George F. Will.

Brief excerpt:

The Real Hillary Clinton

One of my recent Facebook finds:

Detailed reading about The NEGRO PROJECT: Margaret Sanger's EUGENIC Plan for Black America. Supporters of Margaret Sanger's project:

Living In A Bubble?

Please read this link, and if you are so inclined, take the interactive quiz.

Full disclosure: I got a 62 on the quiz.

Yes, yes, I know that political scientist Charles Murray is controversial.

Nevertheless, having recently read his book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, I find myself thinking a lot about the thesis upon which he expounded in that book:

White America is coming apart at the seams.

That’s the thesis Charles Murray, a libertarian political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, puts forth in his new book, Coming Apart....Murray argues that the super wealthy, super educated and super snobby live in so-called super-ZIPs: cloistered together, with little to no exposure to American culture at large.

Those people, he says, live in a social and cultural bubble.

You can read more about Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 HERE. The book made the list of the New York Times's list of 100 Notable Books of 2012.

Vote For Ed!

(Two posts today.  Please scroll down)

Ed Bonderenka explains HERE.

It takes only a moment to cast your ballot.

Thank You!

Conservative blogger and graphics artist extraordinaire Curmudgeon of Political Clown Parade has bestowed upon this blog the coveted Paul Revere Award!

Go HERE to read about the Paul Revere Award and to see the list of blogs of which Always On Watch is a part this year. All on the list stand strong for freedom of expression.

We blogospheric Paul Reveres are not “corporate” blogs with an army of writers, resources and capital. But all of us, with our own unique personal styles, are dedicated to sounding the alarm and to preserving liberty.

Thank you, Curmudgeon — and thanks to any and all who nominated and voted for Always On Watch.

Sunday Reflection

(For politics, please scroll down)

Wisdom which applies not only to Father's Day but also to every day:

Massacre In Charleston, South Carolina

(This blog post based on the information I've been able to access at this time)

What happened on June 17, 2015, at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is horrific beyond words.

What a vile, racist scumbag mass murderer Dylann Storm Roof is! The eyes staring back from more than one photo taken of Dylann Storm Roof depict a young man with "soulless eyes."

Cyber Insecurity

Excerpt from Want To Know How China Was Able To Massively Hack Us? Because Obama Regime OUTSOURCED The IT Work To China!:

What Is Ramadan?

(This blog post previously published on July 30, 2011.  Updated for 2015)

Ramadan 2015 began at sunset yesterday and continues for 30 days; the Ramadan calendar of the Fiqh Council of North America shows that Ramadan 2015 begins on June 18 and ends on Friday, July 17. Muslims, ever contentious about nearly every matter, even disagree among themselves as to when Ramadan should begin.

What does Ramadan really celebrate, particularly Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan? If one understands the history of Islam and, especially, that of Ramadan, one will come to understand that such a commemoration, including iftar dinners at the White House, should be unacceptable to all those who oppose Islamic supremacism.

43 Years!

Immediately after our honeymoon, Mr. AOW and I moved into The Little House — a cottage on my grandmother's property, the property where we still live now.  Only $50/month to pay in rent!  Thus began the chance to built a little nest egg.

We moved into my grandmother's house in 1982; she had died in 1981, and we had to do a lot of upgrading and tending to deferred maintenance.  Hard to believe that we have lived in The Big House for almost 35 years! 

Voter Remorse

The article excerpted below appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on June 9, 2015. 

If the article in indicative of a trend of voter remorse, many in Obama's voting base may sit out the 2016 election.

Weekend Goal And Open Thread

The 2014-2015 homeschool classes that I teach have finally ended, and report cards have been issued!

Therefore...

Checking blog comments qualifies as moving only enough to prove that I'm alive.

So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Diversify The Neighborhoods?

Readers of this blog have likely heard something about Obama's proposed solution for what he views as yet another of America's failings: the lack of racial integration in certain neighborhoods.

Obama plans to accomplish this forced diversification via executive order, of course, accompanied by the withholding of federal funds from localities which refuse to comply.

Excerpt from The Hill's article Obama making bid to diversify wealthy neighborhoods:

A 1906 Travesty And The 21st Century Grievance Industry

Bushman Oto Benga on display at the Bronx Zoo in 1906

Please read the entire article before commenting.

Haven't we as a society come a long way since then?

Not so much, according to the promotion of the grievance industry at the end of the article:

Incompetence Rules The Day!

Five recent pieces of evidence, and this evidence crosses the spectrum from education to science to crime:

Video: America Or Somalia?

Video filmed in a Muslim Somali community in Minneapolis:

Kitty Cuteness

(For politics, please scroll down)

Last year, I somehow started following the story of the fostering of Roodi (a tuxedo kitten) and Cupcake (an ebony tortie kitten) — and the rest of the litter, born of a feral mother. All, including the mother cat Nornie, found good homes.  Dr NWorb and his wife adopted Roodi and Cupcake, and added them to their cat family of Monkey, Thunder, and Panther, who has since passed away and is not in the video.

How To Be A Sensible Cat Person, created by DrNworb's KitsCats, a YouTube channel which I now regularly follow:


Roodi and Cupcake will turn one year old on June 10.  There will be a big celebration on Dr. Nworb's KitsCats Facebook page, I'm sure.

Open Thread

(For other material, please scroll down)

So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Bizarre Extra Credit

How times have changed!

But not for the better.

According to Selfie With Parents’ Sex Toys? Alameda Teacher Accused Of Assigning Bizarre Extra Credit For Sophomores at CBS in the San Francisco area (June 3, 2015):

"Active Community Organizer"

Yes, CAIR's Ahmad Saleem's résumé uses the exact words "active community organizer":

Usaamah Rahim, Jihadist Shot In Boston on June 2, 2015, Was Planning To Behead Pamela Geller

From CNN...


Boston shooting: Suspect plotted to behead Pamela Geller, sources say. Excerpt:

Geller drew national attention last month after an off-duty police officer working security thwarted an attack at her organization's contest for Prophet Mohammed drawings in Garland, Texas. She's president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which includes subsidiary programs Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamization of Nations.

"They targeted me for violating Sharia blasphemy laws. They mean to kill everyone who doesn't do their bidding and abide by their law voluntarily," Geller told CNN's Erin Burnett after learning of the alleged plot.

"This is a showdown for American freedom. Will we stand against this savagery or bow down to them and silence ourselves?"

Geller said that she's had an "army of security" since last month's Texas incident.

"This is what is required just to show a cartoon in America, 2015," she said. "It's striking. It's devastating, and people need to understand what's at stake. I mean, if we surrender on this point, what will we surrender next?"

More HERE.

The drawing which must not be shown:

Art by Bosch Fawstin

The University Diversity Scam

With thanks to Baysider for the video below. Worth a few moments of your time:

The Jihad Caucus

Click directly on the graphic below to enlarge it:

From the DC Independent Examiner (hat tip to Gulag Bound):

...[A] group of 14 U.S. senators, led by the indefatigable Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, have written a letter to Obama urging him to allow 65,000 Syrians in as refugees. This would require a dramatic expansion of the refugee program, and virtually guarantee that a sizable number of ISIS fighters would slip in among them. Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy has given them the moniker “Jihad Caucus” because practically speaking, Jihad is what this request will bring.

The 14 senators demanding this massive influx of Syrians are:

Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Al Franken (D-MN)

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Patty Murray (D-WA)

Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

Christopher Coons (D-DE)

Tim Kaine (D-VA)

Edward Markey (D-MA)

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

Mazie Hirono (D-HI)...

Read the entire article HERE.

The FBI has previously warned that there is no reliable way to determine whether or not ISIS embeds might be among the Syrian refugees.