Eric Holder

It takes a very conceited man to stand before a national audience and admit he is still right regardless of what the rest of the nation says. When Mr. Holder announced he would prosecute the suspected 9-11 terrorists in New York City, my eyebrows attempted to locate my hairline. I must say, that in itself is a formidable task.

The amount of security required to protect the suspects, families, jurists, and the city at large would be extremely cost prohibitive. Within the past several months, the US faced devastating releases of information from the folks over at Wikileaks.com. Yet, I can only imagine the several hundred thousand pages of documents would pale to the amount of paperwork that would have to be released during disclosure procedures. What safeguards would be in effect to prevent a massive release of information should that have occurred?  Private Manning would be left scratching his head at the irony of the situation.

So, it's back to Gitmo for the trials. As far as I've been able to tell, the families of those killed in the tragedies are for this. The taxpayers of the city of New York are behind the idea of not having to foot the bill (in essence suffering twice for the same attack) and assume the risk.

Then why can Mr. Holder not simply admit he was wrong instead of placing fault at the halls of the Legislature? Under his administration, he had sufficient time to press forward while the Democrats were in control, yet he chose to delay. When finally, he was presumed ready, the tide of the nation had changed and somehow, he missed it.

There may be a new entry in Dictionary.com. Hubris; see Eric Holder

The Royal Nonesuch

Mark Twain, in the classic book, Huckleberry Finn writes about two men Huck meets while rafting down the Mississippi with his friend, Jim, who also happens to be a runaway slave. These two men, assume the identities of the Duke and the Dauphin and perpetrate scams among people of the various towns they pass. One of the scams, the Royal Nonesuch, entails one of the two dressing as an ass for about half the town.

The participants are then so embarrassed at being taken by these two, they decide to talk up the show so the other half will go for the second show. Sure enough, the second show sells out necessitating a third which the townsfolk will use to extract their revenge.

Little do the townsfolk know but this is exactly what the hucksters intend for them to do. They show up, pay their admission and prepare to beat the Duke & Dauphin and retrieve their money. Alas, the pair are long gone.

Why this came to mind is related to the train wreck that is Charlie Sheen and his Torpedo of Truth Tour that is currently on its second night of  the tour. One would imagine Twitter and other Social Media has ruined this opportunity for Mr. Sheen to perpetrate this scam upon America, but no, sadly, even when confronted with the evidence that Sheen is just another huckster in a different age, they still attend and berate those who see the show for what it is. A hot mess masquerading as theatre.

These are the same individuals who, when faced with the ever mounting evidence that Mr. Obama has plunged our nation into a morass of monumental proportions, will vote for him and denounce anyone who speaks against him as racists intent on restoring a white man to the Oval Office.

Blame the other guy! For two years Mr. Obama has complained that he inherited the mess we are currently in. He neglects to add that as President, he has spent more than any other President in history with little to no effect on the economy except to line the pockets of his supporters in the unions.  He ran on a policy of transparency yet has held up countless FOIA requests.

Mr. Sheen has actually done more to stimulate the economy by singlehandedly (and admittedly) pouring $2 million dollars into the prostitution industry. I have no guess how much he has poured into the illegal narcotics industry. Sheen has decided to blame the people paying him nearly 2 million dollars an episode for the troubles he finds himself in these days.

As I'm writing this, I see the reviews coming in from Chicago are much better than those from Detroit 24 hours ago. I wonder how the Duke and Dauphin would be preparing for the next show.

Chaos in Cairo

Of course someone else must have snagged that headline by now but the alliteration just seemed right. With each passing day, nay, hour, the situation in Egypt grows worse. Rampant unemployment among the nations's youth is out of control and with a President who has maintained his seat for 30 years, change does not appear to come easily.

My concern at this point is the fate of the Coptic Christians should the government fail and be replaced by a more Islamic faith -based one. When the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, they took to destroying the Buddhas of Bamyan. The Coptics have amazing artifacts as well. I got to visit the Coptic Christian Museum when I was in Cairo way back in '93. To see a country proud not only of it's major religious history but that of minor religions as well is impressive.

If we continue to lose ancient artifacts in this manner, our future generations will be robbed of rich culture. We will also be guilty of sitting idly by while the "religion of peace"  mercilessly marches menacing the many.

Tragic Shooting of Congressman Giffords

The shooting of Rep Giffords, Judge Roll, and others in Arizona is tragic and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected. However, a greater tragedy will be the new guidelines that will go into effect to protect members of Congress from the citizens of our great land both.
Already we see members of both parties are too isolated from the citizens they serve. Placing additional barriers between those who serve and their constituents will only increase this isolation. Hopefully, there is some middle ground.

Juan Williams' Wrongful Termination

I often find many reasons to disagree with Mr. Williams philosophically and politically. However, in this instance, I believe NPR made a hasty decision and terminated the contract of this individual in complete disregard for his right to freedom of expression. The cynical side of me suspects NPR and George Soros are in collusion...

I submit Mr. Williams' comments were not hateful but I believe they mirror the feelings of many, if not most passengers on commercial aircraft.

Ten months ago, a young man from a Middle Eastern nation attempted to disrupt a passenger flight and kill innocents. This past year, the shootings at Fort Hood and the attempted bombing in New York City were carried out by radical followers of Islam.

When I walk down a street and Caucasian women noticeably clutch their purses and handbags, should I label them as bigots? Probably not. But, I look at the quote attributed to Mr. Jesse Jackson:

There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved....

and keep walking.