The last dog I had was a genetic mutant Rhodesian Ridgeback named Bill, who weighed in at 145 pounds. My former girlfriend had a red-boned coon hound named Ida-Mae. It was clearly her dog and not mine.
This late May I rescued a larger (50 pounds, it turns out!) terrier-looking kind of unit from the Mendocino Shelter. Take a peek at the photographs and tell me what you think the origin of my dog might be. Quite frankly I have no idea, with one exception:
One of my peeps at work suggested it might be an abandoned Portuguese Water Dog.
I checked some websites and compared some photographs.
Holy Christ; my dog might be an ObamaDog.
I’ll have to shave her so she looks good walking backwards. And shave her so she doesn’t even remotely resemble an ObamaDog. She’d be too embarrassed anyway. Examining the photographs, what kind of dog do you think she is?
Above are the “before” pictures. Below are the “after” her shampoo and cut pictures.
So, a few questions for you, because I’ve kind of lost touch of the whole “dog” thing — I’ve been more of a cat person than a dog person, circumstantially —
What might your, say, top three pieces of advice be for a new dog owner — for a dog that is roughly 3 to 4 years old?
I have no idea of what her past consisted. The shelter indicated she was turned in because she killed chickens. I’m not quite sure it was quite that simple; I suspect there was more going on than that.
A few things I’ve concluded since her adoption: she is a rather sensitive dog. I believe I could very easily — perhaps too easily — break her spirit if I were to be heavy-handed with her. She takes corrections and input cautiously and with studied consideration. I have yet to have to really raise my voice to her on most occasions.
On the other hand, I can tell that she is a very intelligent dog; she is constantly watching, processing, thinking. I can almost literally see the gears and cogs turning in her head. She’s figured out the doors, how to open one with her nose, how to slip out of a standard collar, how to slip out of a halter and harness.
And yet, on the other hand, when I took her for a 2-hour walk this morning up in the mountains near my cabin on a Gentle Leader head-collar, she kept pace, was easily corrected, and was responsive. There were any number of challenges that she faced properly and with few overt corrections. I had her sit and stay when cars passed by. I rewarded her with praise when she reacted properly. She tried to growl and lunge at dogs whose homes we passed, but this behavior was reduced with a curt “no” and a small snap of the lead.
She did generally well when she passed a dog who followed us along the road, unfettered, but I had to make corrections more sharp.
Overall, at the conclusion of her first weekend up in the high country, she performed admirably. She is new and I am new; I can still tell, however: slip that collar or lead off and she’d sky away.
I sense she is still holding me, my wife and the situation at a bit of arm’s length. She may want to trust but she is still not quite there yet. The trust is not present.
On the other hand, like a Labrador, she is very “touch”-sensitive. She wants to be right next to me at most times. She’ll nudge my hand for petting and scratching. But licks or kisses are mostly straight out. She made a few “drive-by” licks but only in passing.
Another question for you: is it because we are so new in our relationship that trust is just not there? She’s a slightly-older dog and perhaps a bit set in her ways.
Thousands upon thousands of American soldiers gave up their lives for global freedom in the 1940s during World War II. Oddly enough there are no firm estimates, but they range between 500,000 and 800,000 Americans.
The breakdown of US casualties was 1,465 dead, 3,184 wounded, 1,928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2,000 casualties at Omaha Beach.
In one day. In one assault.
I would then refer you to the most intense 30-minutes in moviemaking history by suggesting you watch the beginning of “Saving Private Ryan.” I have heard countless WWII veterans state the opening assault scene is too accurate and too frightening for them to watch.
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest.
They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
We’re here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.
Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.
And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”
I think I know what you may be thinking right now — thinking “we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.” Well everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren’t. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.
Lord Lovat was with him — Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, “Sorry, I’m a few minutes late,” as if he’d been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he’d just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
There was the impossible valor of the Poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold; and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.
All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore; The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland’s 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots’ Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England’s armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard’s “Matchbox Fleet,” and you, the American Rangers.
Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought — or felt in their hearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.
Something else helped the men of D-day; their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: “Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we’re about to do.” Also, that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.”
These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.
When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together. There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance — a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.
In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. The Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose: to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.
We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace, prepared to deter aggression, prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms, and yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.
It’s fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II. Twenty million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.
We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.
We’re bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We’re bound by reality. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we’re with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.
Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.”
Strengthened by their courage and heartened by their value [valor] and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.
Our WWII veterans are almost entirely gone. My father, an 8th AF B-17 pilot, passed away on February 11th of this year at the age of 88. Where did we find such men? Ordinary, common men from every part of our nation, from the farmlands of Iowa to the cities of New York and Los Angeles? They all answered the call, willingly, courageously, unselfishly. They set their lives aside in order to do their part. Some made it back; some didn’t. Some came back in pieces.
Who will sacrifice for our nation’s future? Where will we find our future warriors?
I fear: I do not see so many.
I still say: God bless America. The last, best hope for the entire planet.
Note from BZ:perhaps many of you recall the most excellent blog “Right Think With Rivka,” and you may see her comments periodically here on BZ. I featured her blog prominently in my The Usual Suspects roll. She decided to stop blogging in April of this year and, since then, I’ve offered her the use of my blog whenever she wished to post. Please welcome Rivka back, and comment away!
To Obama voters: What has the supposedly ‘pro-American,’ ‘pro-little guy’ Hussein Obama done for you lately?
2. Obama sucks up to the murderous PLO types by moral equivalence: Palestinian’s ‘occupation’ by the Israelis is like the Holocaust? The ones who want Israel annihilated loved those words! For this and more on his most offensive speech ever, click here.
3.Unemployment rises to 9.4 percent in May. Thanks, Obama. More hopey-changey! Don’t forget cap and trade and higher gas taxes please — the unemployed could really benefit from it.
5. I guess we know the real reason behind Obama’s bailouts and stimulus plans, where the states and corporations got government handouts.
GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER.
Strings were attached and Obama won’t let the corporations pay him back.
WHY? Oh, wait a minute, we aren’t supposed to ask why. (Click here to read about Obama’s new ‘pay Czar’).
There’s more . . . much more. Too much to keep track of.
So here is the question, Obama fans:
Are you going to wake up and read the writing on the wall, or are you going to continue to wear your blindfold and take part in the demise of our country?
Look, I won’t pull any punches: this week has been an excursion into tempers, high blood pressure, meetings, clenched sphincters, fright, lies, political machinations, more meetings, backstabbing, even more meetings and sheer panic. I’ve still managed to post here on my political blog despite the fact that I’m faced with demotion or completely losing my supervisorial position at work — and losing my full-time staffers (consisting of four deputies) to layoffs, plus my part-time contingent of 43 instructors.
I’ve had to deal with my father’s estate, my brothers, lawyers, little critical roadblocks to the sale of my father’s house, niggling details, crisis phone calls, voicemails, delayed mail and bills, utility turnovers, and making the new purchasers of my Dad’s house happy. And some mistakes. And the realtor. The sale of my Dad’s house must go through.
I have 30+ years accrued time in seniority at work so I’ll at least “have a job.” There is no guarantee where I’ll work, of course. I could find myself back in Corrections, patting down drunks for change in their pockets at the Main Jail like I did when I was a rookie, but at least I’d have a job at a much reduced wage.
At my age, I guess you could summarize my general unease as “shitting bricks.”
On the other hand, as compared to the young bucks we’ve recently hired and whose positions are clearly down the toilet — at least I can count on paying bills.
Additionally, I will benefit from having minimized my debts to the point where I essentially write a check for my mortgage only. I pay off my credit card monthly and I have no carryover debt. My wife, however, is another issue entirely.
Suffice to say, I am one stressed Jesse. It’s tough to face something like this in your sixth decade on the planet. I’ve done everything right: my credit is pristine and flawless and I’ve labored long and hard to make that so. I’m a good citizen. I’ve done good work in my career. I’ve lived well within my means for years.
That was the message Mr Obama essentially carried overseas when he visited Cairo on Wednesday:
CAIRO – In remarks being translated live for broadcasts and Webcasts in every major language, President Barack Obama said Thursday that the United States wants “common ground” and “a new beginning” with the Muslim world, where America’s image plummeted with the Bush administration’s response to the 9/11 attacks.
Newsflash to Mr Obama, seconded by all of my readers: America couldn’t care less what its image might be in the so-called Muslim world.
We, first, want an uninterrupted flow of oil so that our economy might continue and flourish. We want to discover other energy sources that allow us to become more self-sufficient and energy independent.
By doing this we wish to finally sever as many ties as possible to your wicked, degenerate, corrupt and violent Middle Eastern ways up to and including any remote association with Islam, the religion of hypocrisy, more violence, hatred, death and destruction. Islam isn’t a religion of peace, tolerance and inclusion. It is a religion of brutality forced upon persons in various global regions and held together by enforcers at the tip of a rifle barrel or the edge of a machete.
Islam doesn’t liberate; Islam instead destroys freedom and enslaves its sycophants. Because of one very simple and salient fact: Islam is as Islam does.
Look about the world, Mr Obama, to see what it is that Islam does. But you can’t, can you? You’ve chosen blinders over reality, Mr Obama. Naivete, ignorance, gilded agenda and Starbucks over the truth.
Shall I remind the reader to whom Mr Obama’s first interview in office, on January 26th, was extended? Why yes, that would be the Saudi-owned and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite TV, where he said “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy, we sometimes make mistakes.” He also said “. . .respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.”
Mr Obama continued on his path of denigration for the country that elected him, and his path of pandering to Islamic interests when, in the Cairo speech, he said:
Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared.”
Mr Obama is saying that the United States is no better a nation or colleague in freedom than Somalia, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen — any other country controlled by a tinpot dictator or ruled by violence, corruption and oppression.
This is simply unacceptable and, moreover, disgusting, Mr Obama.
You cheapen my father’s and his generation’s sacrifice during World War II, whereupon he and others like him fought for and brought freedom not just to one nation but the entire damned planet. Just as the United States did in World War I and numerous other regional and global conflicts.
If we are so incredibly heinous, Mr Obama, then simply isolate the United States. Take it completely out of any global equation. Withdraw our troops from all foreign shores. Withhold all funds to other nations. Withdraw from the UN and demand its removal from our sovereign soil.
Mr Obama also believed it important to personally implement and ensure the corruption of the United States from within by Islam:
We will expand exchange programs, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in on-line learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo.”
Please recall that on April 6 of this year, Mr Obama made a speech at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, capital of a Muslim country, where he said “The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” and that “America’s relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al-Qaida.” Also, complete Cairo speech transcript is here.
Really, Mr Obama? History cannot be factored into current and future events? Historical Alzheimers will be the Obama Agenda and Rule?
And considering his Cairo speech, what might have been the reaction of Muslims in the area? Let us look. From YahooNewsUK/Ireland:
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the nations of the Middle East shared a “deep hatred” of the United States.
Khamenei’s latest salvo against Iran’s arch-foe came as US President Barack Obama arrived in Cairo to deliver a much-heralded address to the Muslim world in a bid to heal a wide breach between America and Islam.
Further, Khamenei said:
The nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts because they have seen violence, military intervention and discrimination,” Khamenei said at the mausoleum of Khomeini.
“The new US government seeks to transform this image. I say firmly, that this will not be achieved by talking, speech and slogans.
“They have done things that have deeply hurt the nations in the region… action is needed and one can not remove this deep hatred by words, speeches and slogans.”
Chanting “No, you can’t!” and waving signs bearing messages in a similar vein, nearly 200 people held a demonstration outside the US Consulate on the capital’s Rehov Agron on Wednesday evening, protesting the growing American pressure to stop construction in West Bank settlements.
