ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) – An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke – sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
I delayed blogging today for a reason I’ll indicate below; after that, the first thing I encountered on the internet was this story.
After reading, I was heartened and then resolved. But I must elaborate on my resolution and thusly:
America, you need to wake up. Yes, the times are tough, making many of us tend to focus only on ourselves and our plight.
We need to continue to recognize that their are forces, foreign and domestic, who wish for a myriad of reasons to bring down this country.
It’s bad enough that, domestically, Mr Obama and his administration — yes, our own government — wishes to bring down a good portion of the structure of our nation (elucidated in the Cloward-Piven Strategy, the likes of which I introduced here). This is sufficiently horrible on its face and must be factored and dealt with.
But we’ve seemingly forgotten about one aspect of our foreign enemies — Islamists. And what they want to do to our country, IN this country.
And I can only hope this is a Wake Up Call for us, as citizens of the United States. And that we heed the call.
There are those, some who read this blog, who say that radical Islamists compromise only a very small percentile of the “good and honorable” members of the religion of Islam.
But just how many radical Islamists do you need to sour a nation, a series of nations, a movement, an entire religion, with violence, cowardice and hate?
I said then and I say now: Islam is as Islam does.
It is no more complicated than that.
You need to wake up America. Wake UP. Islamists are in our midst. We still seem to think that Islam is comprised of only people who “look” like they source from the Middle East. That is amazingly incorrect.
The greatest number of Muslims live in Asia (Indoesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) and Africa (Egypt, Nigeria).
Throwing acid in the face of women who fail to don the hijab,[1] flogging people for sporting non-Islamic haircuts, and stoning to death violators of sexual norms are only a few examples of a raft of daily barbaric acts of Islamists in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and many Islamic lands. Other forms of Islamic brutalities such as Honor Killing[2] have already found their way to Germany and other European countries with the ever-burgeoning Muslim populations.
Islam is a cancer upon this planet. There may be some “good” or “nice” Muslims extant, of course; but they are so cowed by the radically-violent elements meaning, again, that Islam is as Islam does.
Upon learning of this recent event, my wife said: “They (the passengers) should have thumped him until he died.”
Jasper Schuringa has been identified as the Northwest Airlines passenger who helped subdue an alleged terrorist as he tried to detonate explosives on board flight 253.
A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect, identified by multiple sources as 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab apparently used a syringe to inject a chemical into powder located near his groin, a technique not seen in previous attempted attacks.
On September 11th 2001, the government’s (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.
On December 25th 2009, the government’s (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals.
Tonight (Christmas Eve) I watched as the deputies I supervise continued, as the professionals they are, to do their jobs with no complaint, not a sound, upbeat, helping each other out. I dropped by their various work sites and sent some of them home early, so they could be with their families. My priority was to send home, as early as I could afford, those deputies with young children at home.
Because, absent the deep religious aspect, Christmas is for kids.
I can remember, being 6 or 7 or so, how I would help Mom put up the Christmas tree. At the time, most everyone had live Christmas trees. You would go to the local lot and select your favorite. If you were rich or strange you got a flocked tree. My best friend, Randy, his family always got a flocked tree. It was covered with some kind of unknown white material intended, I could only guess, to mimic snow. His family was always more avant-garde.
I was mystified by the Christmas tree. It was huge, green, fresh, had a wonderful pine smell like no other time of the year. We would hang lights, the kind with the huge, hot bulbs, and then drape the branches and needles with tinsel. The best tinsel was the kind you could mold into a big ball when the tree came down; it was lead. The light, fluffy tinsel was cheap. I hated it.
I would sit, at night, just before Christmas, in the den, in the dark, watching the lights. They didn’t flicker or blink, they just captivated. I would wonder: which are my presents? What is it? I would covertly try to pick up a present and shake it, gauge its weight.
The City of San Jose (CA) Police Department is fielding a trial program where 18 patrol officers will be testing a new head-cam device (see photograph).
Selected officers will be recording all contacts with citizens and calls for service.
The government posted a record $1.4 trillion deficit in the fiscal year ended September 30 and is on track this year to spend at least $1 trillion more than it collects.
Oh. And yes. As even Drudge isn’t reporting: ObamaKare will come up for a vote that same night. In the dead of night. Christmas Eve.
My guess: all the Demorats will be there. Any Republicans?
We’ll see. We’ll see.
Wordsmith recently pointed out to me, and correctly, that every Republican has voted down ObamaKare in the Senate.
That may be true.
But I would expect MORE out of alleged “Conservatives.” Where is the OUTRAGE? Where is the VEHEMENCE? Where is the ANGER? Oh no. The GOP is too worried about offending anyone. Oh gosh, that we should torque-off even ONE so-called “moderate.”
The Chinese have made it quite abundantly clear that the rest of the world has insufficient cash to cover American debt.
And Obama is guaranteeing we shall be ever more (quoth the raven) in debt.
The proverbial well — in political terms — is now permanently poisoned. If there were ever a rift between the two parties, it is now forever immured in stone.
Bipartisanship? KILLED by the Demorats. All of them. Lieberman. Nelson. Landrieu. And more of them lining up undercover for their own back door handouts.
They’re just pissed they didn’t think of “holding out” first.
Even Rush Limbaugh, yes, a Conservative but an historical major carrier of Republican Water — even he said on Tuesday that perhaps it’s time to “withhold the consent of being governed.”
I have never. NEVER. Heard Mr Limbaugh resort to this base tactic.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it now: this country is in for a major change.
Some major revolution.
And I’ll wager it won’t be what you envision or want.
I have been solicited by 25 + recent e-mails now in the past two weeks alone (perhaps a pitiful amount, compared to others) to host various advertising concerns on my blog.
I just now had a pithy (or was it pissy) exchange between someone who, out of the blue, wanted me to advertise or write something about a competition for jewelry or somesuch. I’m sure she’s a nice person but, truthfully, you never know who you meet on the net unless you’ve established some sort of relationship or trust pattern in time. And with my country looking to jail my ass in contravention of various laws concerning blogs and advertising — well, I’m just not going there. Call me stupid or ignorant, whatever, but my job is not to trust someone who “cold e-mails” me.
Blogger itself, for example, contains a separate tab labeled “MONETIZE.” This tab wants me to sign up for an AdSense account.
Nope. Sorry. Won’t do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
Yes, of course, I do have a “BZ Shops Here” heading under my blogrolls. But that’s because, oddly enough, I shop those places and would recommend them. I have actually used products from those places. But I haven’t received a dime from them.
I’ve turned down other concerns, and I’ll turn down the rest.
This is not my Life; my blog is my hobby.
When I finally retire in the next year or a few subsequent years, I may in fact consider ads on my blog. And, then, if I do — I’ll make it abundantly clear to those who read me. And I’ll operate within the law.
Until then: no. Sorry. No ads.
My feeling is this: if you’re taking actual time out of your hectic day to read me — and there are only so many blogs and so many URLs you can visit with your limited time — then I’m just happy as hell that you deigned to visit my winky little piece of the Blogosphere.
I’m delighted that you visit and read me. I am grateful for each and every visit.
So, while you’re here — I’m not going to use you.
BZ
P.S.
I’m thinking of going back to my original masthead, seen above. Any preferences?
