United Flight 93...

September 11th, 2001

Took a ride over and saw the movie "Flight 93" today and once again I am amazed at how we choose not to keep this day of attacks and the war on terrorism on the front page. It has been interesting to hear that many feel it is to early for this type of movie and that the “Pain & Terror” are still to fresh in the minds of the American people… The majority of the media has been nice enough to keep images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center subdued for it may harm the society it strives to protect. Each anniversary of the attacks we see less and less coverage of these attacks on the people of the United States…

During the first year after the attacks on the American people I began to buy many of the documentaries made about the attacks and the news coverage of September 11th. I have even found several on the structural effects and damage of the planes hitting both towers and the Pentagon. Having some engineering background I found these very interesting on how they explain the eventual collapse of the towers and the Pentagon…

I find myself pulling these documentaries out from time to time when I find myself becoming too comfortable with the history of these attacks and how I felt that day. I know beforehand that viewing these documentaries will effect me and take me back to the day of the attacks and the days following. It is to a point where I know that I will not enjoy viewing the footage of the attacks and I never sit for the whole DVD without pausing it and walking away for a bit. I do return and view the whole program and each time it brings me back to perspective that our country was attacked and 3,000+ citizens died on that day of attack.

The movie “Flight 93” is of the same caliber and will be added to the “Library” when it comes out on DVD. It was interesting to see the events of the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in the field near Shanksville Pennsylvania after the passengers attempted to take back the plane from the terrorists. I have read the 911 Commission Report several times regarding the events on Flight 93 but the movie brings the emotion of the attacks out to be viewed directly… This movie is well worth the effort and I believe it was done correctly so not to push an “Agenda” one way or the other…

The photo above is of the World Trade Center towers after being hit by the planes flown by the terrorists. Flight 93 never made it to it’s intended target which we believe to have been the Capitol or the White House in Washington D.C.

There is one major newspaper that will publish photos from time to time to remind us of this very important event that is very young in our history. It is the Investor’s Business Daily ( IBD) which I have used many times for facts and issues when posting to this blog. A few weeks back on it’s “Issue & Insights” page there was a large photo of one of the towers collapsing in the middle of the page with nothing but the words “September 11th, 2001” attached to it. No stories. No opinion pieces. No “Spin” pieces. Nothing. Not the anniversary but months away from the actual anniversary of the attacks. In fact to the left of the photo was the daily column “From the Left” and to the right was the column “From the Right” and neither of the pieces mentioned the photo…

We need to be reminded of these attacks so as not to become comfortable with the history of this event…

The issue of "Spin"...

Numbers Game...

"The numbers can say anything you want them to say"....
That is one of the first things I was told when working as a Buyer\Operations manager for a Six Flags park Merchandise department during college years... I remember going into meetings each day before the park would open to go over prior days financial numbers. Each dept would have a print out with the "Percapita" spent in each dept as a guide to how well they did. Afetr a rain day the merch dept would have a very high percap number due to the bump in $5 rain ponchos sold that day. $5 retail at a cost of $0.35 did well for the profit margin also... Problem was the amount of people in the park would be less due to the rain and thus total revenue would be down... My retail Vice-President would lean over and say "The numbers can say anything you want them to say, it all depends on how much $$$ you put in the bank at the end of the week"...

Recently I linked to a story that appeared in the "Sun" newspaper about the violent death rate in Iraq as compared to cities in the United States. This resulted in numerous responses as to what numbers were used to obtain the rate and led to debate(s) on how numbers & info are spun by both sides to get the desired effect... I posted that story to highlight the problem we have with both the violent death rate in a war zone and here in the states. The amazing thing is that the debate went to proving or dis-proving the numbers used to get the rate instead of discussing the problem as I thought it would... Just this past week we had a guy go into work and kill two other workers before killing himself. No war zone here, it was in Harrisonburg Virginia just down the road from where I work...

This whole thing made me think about how numbers\info can be "Spun"...
Remember a few years back when Rosie O'Donnell would claim that hundreds(?) of children were being killed by guns each week? The spin here was that when she said "Children" she was also counting anybody under the age of 18 in her numbers. Many of the "Children" killed were gang members involved in drive-by's and drug wars....

"44 million un-insured Americans" is also another statement that can be looked at. How many of these people are covered under a parents insurance program not in their name? How many are 18 year olds that feel "Invincible" and choose to spend their money on I-pod's, CD's, toys, etc? There are many that can't afford insurance that they need but how many of the 44 million choose to spend their money in other places?

This past week Congress approved extending the Bush Tax-cuts to the year 2010 and somebody in the media did a spot on the street with the reporter waving a $20 bill and saying this was all the taxcut meant to the average person on the street. No data as to what the average person income or tax bill on the street was but a broad statement to back that reporters view. This reminds me of back in 2001 when then Senator Tom Daschle stood in front of a Lexus and said “If you’re a millionaire, under the Bush tax cut, you get a $46,000 tax cut, more then enough to pay for this Lexus. But if you are a typical working person, you get $227 and that’s enough to buy this muffler”. Now I was living in Key West at the time and some guy wrote into the local newspaper and stated that Daschle should have been standing in front of a $390,000 house to represent the amount of tax that millionaire pays in taxes for each million earned…

There have also been many polls out there recently and these numbers can be manipulated to get the desired result. There have been numerous polls that show that the majority of those polled want the U.S. out of Iraq. The % ratio changes a lot if you re-phrase the question by asking the question “Do you want the U.S. out of Iraq before the Iraqi government is secure and able to protect themselves?” With polls it’s all how you ask the question sometimes…

Also last week senate minority leader Harry Reid got up in front of the senate to pull out the race card again when they were voting to approve a amendment to make English the official language of the United States.
“This amendment is racist. I think it is directed basically to people who speak Spanish” The amendment was passed on a vote of 63-34 vote.

The issue here is that many media groups did not include the fact that the amendment proposed english being the official language of Government Operations in the United States.

84% of Americans say that English should be the official language of government operations and 77% of Hispanics agree…

As the photo below shows. Everybody can see something different when looking at the same thing...

'Nektonic" on the trail...

Appalachian Trail

Took a hike up on the Appalachian Trail this past week and saw some pretty interesting things. Above is a photo of a rock formation alongside the trail near the "Pinnacle" located in the Virginia section. Nice hike up to the Pinnacle and it has an outstanding view of the area...

Also ran into some of those "Flag Waving" Republicans who were also up on the trail and ran into them at this shelter. Actually they looked alot like "Evil Halliburton Scientist" looking for oil rich areas in the Appalachian area...

The numbers are out...

"The Numbers got out"


Heard about this story today when listening to Rush and checked the New York Sun for the article and to get some of the numbers...
http://www.nysun.com/article/32787

For some time many of the Democrats have been sure to bring up the casualties of the Iraq war whenever they can but how does the casualty rates of the cities they represent and other countries compare?

According to the Sun article the violent death rate per 100,000 in Iraq is 25.71
Compared to other countries the rate in Columbia is 61.7 per 100,000...
South Africa rate is 49.6
Jamaica is 32.4
Venezuela comes in at 31.6 violent deaths per 100,000

Now for some of the rates in our own country...

New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1 per 100,000
The nations capitol Washington D.C. comes in at 45.9
Just up the road in Baltimore it is 37.7
Head down South to Atlanta and you find the rate is 34.9 per 100,000

And all of these compare to Iraq where the violent death rate 25.71 per 100,000
and that includes the war casualties...
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Update: This topic and News report that appeared in the New York Sun resulted in a extended debate about what numbers were used to get the different rates. One of this blogs visitors provided a link to a Wall Street Journal article that also discussed this issue. It is at http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008392 and is a very good article on this subject and the way information is viewed. See article "How does Iraq Rate?"

"Tax-cuts are bad for the economy"...(?)

Tax-Cuts...

$118,085,000,000

It was reported today that the revenue from the tax receipts that came in last month was greater then the same period last year and stronger then expected... kind of looks like those tax-cuts are starting to really pay off...

The A.P. reported "The Federal government ran a monthly budget surplus of $118.85 billion in April as tax receipts came in stronger than the same period last year."

It seems that the tax-cuts are providing a strong economy and one that is not reported as much as you think it would be. Tax-cuts have always increased the amount of revenue coming into the treasury and this has been proven numerous times. Even Democrat President John F. Kennedy understood this and his tax-cuts did the same...

"Through the first seven months of the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, government receipts total $1.35 trillion, up 11.2 percent from the same period a year ago"

As much as the Democrats and Mainstream Media will hate to admit, and probably will not admit it, the tax-cuts brought on by President Bush and the Republican congress have resulted in a growing and strong economy... Another thing the MSM seems to be missing in their reports are that the deficit is coming down...

"The Congressional Budget Office last week announced it was lowering its deficit estimate for this year to $300 billion, significantly below a previous estimate of $350 billion."

Revenues up. Deficit coming down. Unemployment down. Stock Market near all time high. Personal income up. Personal investment up. Government Spending UP!!! Now if we could only get those guys in Washington to cut out the spending on bridges to no-where and other wasteful spending. Now is the time we must get discretionary spending under control...

"Government spending in April totaled $196.2 billion. Through the first seven months of the budget year, spending totals $1.54 trillion, up 5.7 percent from the same period in 2005."

Glad to be a "Redneck"

Got this in a e-mail from a friend...
Good stuff & "Sharpie", you just won't understand...


It is time to change from REDNECK humor to TRUE AMERICAN Humor! Only I don't see it as Humor, but the correct way to LIVE YOUR LIFE ! If you feel the same, pass this on to your True American friends. Ya'll know who ya' are...


You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, "One nation, under God."

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You've never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You still say "Christmas" instead of "Winter Festival."

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You treat Viet Nam vets with great respect, and always have.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You've never burned an American flag.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You respect your elders and expect your kids to do the same.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You'd give your last dollar to a friend.

If you got this e-mail from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough TRUE AMERICAN in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about in this e-mail.
God Bless the U S A !
Git 'er done!!

More Global Warming...

Global Warming-

Seems the guys over at Nasa have been using the Global Surveyor to take some photos and have found that the southern polar Ice Cap has been melting at an increased rate. It is predicted that the ice cap may evaporate within a few thousand years... on Mars...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1660 ...

(Paste the above line with out the last 3 dots... When I put link here it changes to a survey and not the article)

It appears that Mars is going thru a multi-year climate cycle and this has been going on for sometime in the past & many different times. As hard as they tried the scientist over at NASA used the Global Surveyor and it's powerful cameras to look for evidence of SUV's on the martian surface but found none to explain the increased temperatures. There are also reports that it is possible that the Sun is also going thru a period where it is now hotter then it has been in the past and this to is also "Normal" and has happened in the past...

Hey, don't we share the same Sun?...

Wind Farm vs. Wind-Bag(s)

Wind Farms vs. Wind-Bags

Once again the Kennedy’s are in the news, in more ways then one, and here is another article about the Senior Senator from Massachusetts and his efforts to stop the placement of wind farms offshore of the family compound in Cape Cod.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/5/6/101206.shtml?s=ic

This during the time when the President is pushing for development of alternative forms of energy and reducing our dependency on foreign sources of fuel. The majority of electricity is produced by coal, natural gas, and nuclear fuel but any energy produced by these wind farms will still promote energy independence and improve technology. I favor this project as well as the Blue-energy project where the tides are harnessed and used to produce electricity.
http://www.bluenergy.com/renewable-energy.html

We now have a company that is attempting to build a wind farm offshore of Cape Cod and eight miles from the Kennedy compound. It seems the Senator who has repeatedly voted against drilling in ANWR and offshore and calls for other forms of “Non-polluting” energy does not want these wind-farms in his backyard. The Wind Farm company is http://www.capewind.org/

And it does not just seem to be the Senior Senator heading up this opposition. Another Kennedy has been fighting against this proposal just as hard and that is
Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Robert Kennedy has been an environmental lawyer f and has been fighting the "evil Republicans and Big Oil” for years. Somehow now it is not acceptable to have a non-polluting form of energy like this so close to the Kennedy compound. I disagree. If I was Teddy I would love to have the wind farm off shore so I could entertain guest and point to a wind farm and form of non-polluting energy, that Kennedy claims to support, in my backyard…

Now just due to the fact that I have your attention, I am not going to jump on Patrick Kennedy for he has a demon that he needs to beat and I hope him the best in beating it. I will ask if it is acceptable to avoid a breathalyzer test after a motor vehicle accident by saying “I am a Congressmen and on my way to a vote” to the responding officers? Going to a vote at 3 am?

How would the media handle this if there was an "R" after his name???

Now about this "Tenure" thing...

It seems that those highly educated professors have come out with the results of their survey on how President Bush will be rated in history. A survey conducted by Siena College Research Institute has determined, before the President is even out of office, that he will be ranked #23 out of the 42 Presidents we have had. This is actually pretty good compared to the headlines I saw that said "President Bush is rated worst President ever"... Fortunately our President does not govern by polls as compared to a "Slick" guy we know who did in the recent decade...

Saw an interesting survey today that made me think about these "Prefessors"...
It seems that another survey has come out about how well our children are being educated in a system that invests more $$$ per student then any other country... The Tribune media reports the following results to the survey:

The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs geography survey of young adult Americans found:- Only 37 percent could identify Iraq on a map of the Middle East.

* 69% of the students could identify China on a map...

* With India being in the news so much lately because "Many American Jobs are going to India" 47% of students could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map...

* 75% of students could not find Israel on a map of the middle east...

* 60% of students did not know the importance of the border between North & South Korea and that it is the most heavily fortified in the world. 37% thought the border between the United States and Mexico was the most fortified...

* Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.

The article that I saw recently said that we spend about $13,000 per student each year to educate them and these are the results of that education system? It is also interesting that in the free market if you do not produce you will be removed from your job and replaced by somebody who can do the job... It's Ironic that most of these professors are "Tenured" and cannot be removed from their positions even with results like the above...

If anybody happens to see a survey go by on how we should rate the education system please send it my way...

Local Virginia Military...

Major Thomas P. Nelson III, with U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte (R) VA. in Kandahar, Afghanistan during a visit made by the Congressmen to the area. Major Nelson is from the 6th District of Virginia which Bob Goodlatte represents and has just returned from Afghanistan after 11 months deployment. He is now stationed in Vicenza, Italy and will be returning to the states in a short time...

Sgt. Marcus R. Averill with Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell...After working the polls for George W. Bush and George Allen in November of 2000, Marcus left for boot camp the day after the victorious election. It was peacetime. Since then Marcus was on Pentagon duty shortly after 9/11, before being deployed first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq three times, He has already re-enlisted twice...

Marcus is the Nuclear/Chemical/Biological (NBC) non-com for his unit. He is also the personal security detail for the commanding officer and accompanies him on all trips throughout the region. He has been selected for Ranger School and will fulfill that upon his return from Iraq.

He is presently stationed at Ft. Gabe in Baquoba, Iraq, His wife and 8 year old son are at their home at Ft. Carson, Colorado and since his two week mid-tour leave in March, they are now happily expecting a new arrival in December.

Sgt. Averill's mother is Trixie Averill who is a 6th District member of the Republican State Central Committee which makes him one of our local "Heroes"... I asked her for a photo to post and how much he appreciates "Packages & Notes" from home and this is what she wrote:

"Yes, he said that the care packages are terribly important because it means contact from home, and it also provides them with snacks at any time, and things that they can carry in their packs. Not everyone has family to send packages though so he always tells me to send plenty and he shares with his soldiers. It is amazing how much of a family they become over there. Whatever one gets, they share with everyone."

The 2006 "FROM OUR HEARTS" campaign is about to start this upcoming Memorial Weekend May 26th.
Many people from last year have shown great interest in helping again this year and we look forward to providing a consistent supply of "Care Packages" to the troops from the Virginia Valley...

Please visit the site for more info: www.fromrhearts.blogspot.com