Header Image (book)

aowheader.3.2.gif

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Book Review: What She Left Behind

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Quite simply, the 2013 novel What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman, also the author of The Plum Tree, is the best work of fiction that I've read since I read The Aviator's Wife.

What I've Left Behind revolves around two characters: (1) Izzie Stone, a 1995 high school senior  and the target of school bullying (subplot), has valid concerns as to whether or not she might have a genetic disposition to mental illness; and (2) Clara Cartwright, unjustly confined to Willard State Hospital by her domineering father in 1929, is seeking a way out of confinement so as to reunite with her lover Bruno and the baby to whom she gave birth inside the asylum's walls.  The novel alternates between chapters set in 1995 and 1929.

Friday, March 28, 2014

This Week On The Gathering Storm

(Please scroll down for other recent postings)

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, hosted by WC and Always On Watch.

The show broadcasts live for 30 minutes every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is 646-915-9870. Callers welcome!

Our scheduled guest this week is Mr. Ducky. The topic: "leftist" Hollywood.

Listen to the March 28, 2014 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Treating Cancer

by Sam Huntington

Malignant neoplasis is a broad range of diseases involving the unregulated growth of cells. We also call this cancer. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malevolent tumors, which invade nearby parts of the human body. There are over 200 different cancers known to detrimentally affect tumors.

There is also another cancer that threatens human societies. We call this malevolence Islam. If one is paying attention (note: I have never made this assertion), then one cannot help but notice how busy Moslems have been over the past fourteen hundred years—and that no matter where these people go in the world, they destroy or vilify everything they touch. In short order, they transform beauty into crude ugliness; they destroy innocence and horrify people in the name of their satanic god and its primary spokesman —a pedophile named Mohammed.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  The following tale relates the story of something that happened on March 25, 2014.

Yesterday, I showed a DVD copy of Fitna to my American Government homeschool class as part of our study of the First Amendment. Jaws dropped, and, although I had intended that the showing of Fitna should consume less than half the class period, the discussion continued for the remainder of the class time we had.  I made a point of explaining that the word "Islam" means submission  — not peace (an incorrect definition which we hear time and time again).

Both parents and students participated in the discussion that ensued after a few moments of stunned silence upon the conclusion of the film.  One parent, who grew up in Lebanon, provided valuable information about shari'a.  After all, she knows a lot of that information firsthand.

Overall, however, I was amazed that so few parents, quite informed about most current events of all types, were unaware of the beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of London on May 22, 2013!

I typically show Fitna to particular classes, which I teach on a rotating basis according to a four-year culce: World History and American Government. To preface the film, I always tell the class a bit about Geert Wilders and some of the events portrayed in the film; I also share with the class some recent current events related to the worldwide jihad. After the film, I sent the students a followup link — this year, Hiding in Plain Sight: Jihadi Activism on Twitter (dated March 24, 2014).

Fitna:

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Social Media Guard

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

A Coca Cola commercial that presents a kernel of truth about a 21st Century obsession:

Monday, March 24, 2014

Thought For Today

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Please read this essay in the Washington Post: "Why being too busy makes us feel so good" (March 14, 2014).

Guilty as charged!

The status symbol mentioned in the article so often amounts to wasting our lives, and we should strive against being caught in the web of busyness.  But avoiding the status symbol of busyness won't be an easy task.

Your thoughts on this matter?

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Sunday Break From Politics

[If you must have politics, please scroll down]

Spring cardinal 2014 (with thanks to Will, who emailed me the graphic below):


Friday, March 21, 2014

Islamic Slavery In Northern Virginia

(Two posts today. Please scroll down to today's first post)

See this DOJ report, dated March 5, 2014, for detailed information.

Video from ABC7 News:

Spain Versus Morocco


The price of having Muslims as neighbors...

From Morocco World News (March 10, 2014), via Sharia Unveiled:
A few days after hundreds of African migrants stormed a border fence in an attempt to cross into the Spanish enclave of Melilla from northern Morocco, Spain is planning to tighten its security around Ceuta and Melilla.

[...]

Spain´s Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, who spoke to Euro Weekly News, specified that reinforcements in the coming weeks will include “lining the six-meter-high fences that surround both cities with a type of mesh designed to impede anyone from climbing”.

He added that in Ceuta, “an additional 20 civil security agents are to be deployed and a helicopter to help with the dissuasion and detection of migrants..in Melilla, the government is planning to build three watch towers that will be equipped with heat-sensitive cameras.”
Just what Spain's ailing economy needs, right?

Additional information about the Ceuta border fence

Additional information about the Melilla border fence

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Steak Knife and the Cupcake

I don’t know what John Kerry was thinking when he gave Sergei Lavrov a sack of potatoes recently, but I have a pretty good idea what Lavrov was thinking when he gave John Kerry a pink hat.
 

What an embarrassment this administration is ...

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Islamic Version Of Women's Rights

Spew alert! Set down your beverage!


Ah, glorious Islam! PFFFFT!

From Pakistan Today (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance, emphases mine):
Council of Islamic Ideology declares women’s existence anti-Islamic

Islamabad - Sharia Correspondent: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) concluded their 192nd meeting on Thursday [March 13, 2014] with the ruling that women are un-Islamic and that their mere existence contradicted Sharia and the will of Allah. As the meeting concluded CII Chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani noted that women by existing defied the laws of nature, and to protect Islam and the Sharia women should be forced to stop existing as soon as possible. The announcement comes a couple of days after CII’s 191st meeting where they dubbed laws related to minimum marriage age to be un-Islamic.

Monday, March 17, 2014

How Stupid Are People?

THIS stupid! 

Listen to the patter, and watch people sign the petition:


(with thanks to Mustang, who emailed me the link to the above video)

Friday, March 14, 2014

The Art Of Voice-Overs

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Hal Douglas (September 1, 1924 – March 7, 2014), whose rich baritone voice we heard in many movie trailers and television commercials, 1970's and beyond:



The Washington Post obituary is HERE.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Looney Left

by Sam Huntington

No one I know on the right believes that capitalism is perfect. No one I know on the right thinks that our economy should operate without any regulation or oversight. What we do believe on the right is that they, who govern least, govern best. And while I think there should be oversight, we should pay as much attention to those who are doing the oversight, as we are to those whose corporate behaviors we intend to monitor. I am confounded by the fact that placing government in an oversight role is akin to hiring a fox to guard the hen house.

But what is it, exactly, that the leftist believes about the economy? There are several variables, of course. Some of these people are Keynesian ideologues who dream about a welfare state through industrial democracy. Others believe government should nationalize the economy and govern through central planning. One might recall that the Soviet Union tried central planning, too. Yet, some on the American left persist. It is the classical demonstration of insanity—at least according to Albert Einstein. Still other leftists are anarchist communists. Amazingly, while many of these people denounce globalization, they seek to impose it through their illogical support of the United Nations.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  The following tale relates the story of something that happened the first time that I as a student teacher was in sole charge of teaching a class — in 1973, at a school in an upper-middle-class and wealthy area)

The following paragraph from this recent essay at the Washington Post's web site prompted me to recall the first time that I took the helm as a classroom teacher of a high school class:
All of you former students: you did not design curricula, plan lessons, attend faculty meetings, assess papers, design rubrics, create exams, prepare report cards, and monitor attendance. You did not tutor students, review rough drafts, and create study questions. You did not assign homework. You did not write daily lesson objectives on the white board. You did not write poems of the week on the white board. You did not write homework on the white board. You did not learn to write legibly on the white board while simultaneously making sure that none of your students threw a chair out a window.
If only my first test as a teacher able to control a room full of students had been limited to the possibility of a student's tossing a chair out a window!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Thought For Today

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day.

There is a tsunami upon us, and America has not prepared for it. In fact, most individuals have not significantly prepared.

Aging Boomers is but one problem threatening our nation's economy. See Robert J. Samuelson's essay "America’s Demographic Denial" (March 2, 2014).

Even worse, America has become a nation willing to surrender individual freedoms.

America's best days are over.

The weather here today, however, is going to be a real taste of spring. Therefore, I won't be dwelling on the ugly realities but rather enjoying this earthly life, a gift that doesn't last forever.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Friday, March 7, 2014

This Week On The Gathering Storm

(Please scroll down for other recent posts)

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, hosted by WC and Always On Watch.

The show broadcasts live for 30 minutes every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is 646-915-9870. Callers welcome!

Our scheduled guest this week is Constitutional Insurgent. We will be discussing the Second Amendment.

Listen to the March 7, 2014 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Just Say Hugs

by Sam Huntington


Where do thugs come from? They begin from tawdry, lustful relationships in which one or both parents turn away from their responsibilities as parents. This comes as no surprise, at least not to me, when there wasn’t very much responsibility displayed in the consummation of that sordid liaison to begin with. Or they spring forth from the loins of individuals who are having babies when they are still babies themselves. It is common to find that such parents, usually single mothers, begin to resent the children for their own cheap behavior. There afterwards begins detachment away from the children, who have become a pain in the ass, which only makes the children themselves feel less valued. The cycle repeats.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Yet Another ObamaCare Delay



If true, it figures! [Update: The delay has been announced and extends into 2017]

Another admission of the failure of ObamaCare and more politicization of Obama's "signature legislation."

From The Hill:

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

A Medicare Warning (Amended @ 8:19 A.M.)

Please take note of the important information in the short video below (hat tip to FreeThinke):

CLICK HERE.

You or a loved one may be directly affected!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Thought For Today

I've been rich.

I've been poor.

Rich is better in several ways.

But it doesn't necessarily follow that being rich always made me happier.

Benjamin Franklin observed:
Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Many Uses Of Rubber Bands

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)



Please see THIS at The Many Uses Of....

You may find some information that pleasantly surprises you and offers you some handy tips!
!--BLOCKING--