Melanie Morgan appeared on our Blog Talk Radio show on December 31st to wish the young men and women fighting the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and Happy New Year. She told us of her Gitmo trip and how her organization Move America Forward is doing. We were very excited to have her on the show. You can learn more about MAF at their website here.
Debbie Lee is the first Gold Star Mom of a Navy SEAL lost in Iraq. She has worked tirelessly to ensure the good name of our fighting men and women overseas. She ever appeared before the City Council of Berkeley to chastise them for their conduct in relation to the protesting in front of the Marine Officers Recruiting Station in Berkeley. Debbie appeared on our New Years Eve with the Troops show to wish the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan a very Happy New Year.
We are now on Blog Talk Radio! You can listen to live broadcasts of Chandler’s Watch on Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday and Thursday night at 8:30pm Pacific Time!
We will be taking calls and talking about the subjects that are important to you, unless you are a dumbass. In which case, we will smash your ass with the troll hammer!
The Chandler’s Watch show on BlogTalk Radio can be heard every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30pm Pacific time.
A really great story for you for Christmas. Semper Fi!
“World War II veteran Bill Houston, of Okanogan, has interviewed several veterans from the Okanogan Valley about their war experiences, including one fellow Marine, Delmar Fowler, who fought in one of the war’s bloodiest battles at Iwo Jima.”
(h/t to Peg aka LftBhndAgn)
We are following this story. This could be really big for the U.S. led coalition forces in the area trying to rid the Taliban’s footing in the country. Many have speculated that the reason for this is a reaction to the Mumbai attacks by the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
We are working to secure Bill Roggio on the show to talk about this to get the latest.0230 January 2, 2009
* Mandeep Singh Bajwa says this story is an effort by India to gauge US reaction to a potential offer of troops for Afghanistan. India is talking at several back channels level with the US. We weren’t meant to get the story, but once we got it, the Indian Army, at least, wasn’t uncomfortable with that. Given we are read by perhaps 4000 people a day and have a reputation in many circles of being a fringe blog, the Indian Army doesn’t even have to bother denying the story, its easy enough to say “off source” that’s its our wild imagination.
* So we wildly imagine the following possible offer to the United States:
Lt. General Bikram Singh as Force Commander (tentative)
HQ III Corps or HQ XXI Corps
4th Infantry Division
6th Mountain Division
23rd Infantry Division
36th RAPID Division
30+ Rashtriya Rifles CI battalions
2 Reconnaissance and Observation squadrons (Army Aviation)
1 Il-76 squadron
2 An-32 squadrons
4+ Mi-17 helicopter units
1 UAV squadron
2 fighter squadrons
Undetermined number of paramilitary security battalions
* HQ III Corps is the counter-insurgency corps in Eastern Command, it is dual-tasked to the western front. In exercises and on operations it has functioned, on different occasions, in three different sectors. HQ XXI Corps is the third Indian strike corps, but is not as critical as the other two strike corps and is dual-tasked as India’s intervention force corps. So there’s good reasons to take either.
* The infantry divisions include a tank battalion. 36th Division has one tank and two infantry brigades. All four divisions are part of strike corps and so are not deployed on the front, but India will give up its ability to sustain a major offensive against Pakistan if these divisions are overseas.
* The only thing that needs explanation for our non-Indian readers is the Rashtriya Rifles. These are specialized for counter-insurgency and have six rifle companies vs the usual Indian infantry battalion’s four. CI is, after all, a manpower intensive business. The troops are all regular Army and do a 3-year rotation with the RR from their affiliated regiments with the RR. Each Army regimental center has 3 or more RR battalions affiliated.
* Because the Indians tend to bulk up their divisions with extra brigades and their brigades with extra infantry battalions when on CI, its probably reasonable to assume the four divisions will have 50 battalions with them (including corps independent brigades). With the RR, that’s 380 rifle companies, or the equivalent of nine US divisions. (We count the US brigade as having 10 companies, because the cavalry squadron in the brigade is very manpower short. We’re sure it’s all well and fine in the type of high-tech/sensor dense environment for which it is designed, but we’re talking CI here.
Our Humble Opinion:
* The United States would be mad to refuse the Indian offer.
* The Indians would be mad to actually follow through.
Quick!! Somebody call Johnny Sutton!! There are at least two guns in Colorado that need to be prosecuted!!
In light of recent events in Colorado Churches and other religious establishments I agree that we need to look very carefully at our current gun laws and make some drastic changes. We cannot have all of these evil guns running loose in the streets now, or can we? I have always been a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. And with the events of the last week from coast to coast I believe that we really need to revamp our definition of gun control. I started my rantings on the keyboard because of this very issue, the situation was not all that different from what we see going on in Colorado, the guns were used in a school of higher learning instead of a house of a Higher Power.
The most recent culprit was Matthew Murray. He walked into a Colorado Mission and shot a few people before going to a Mega-Church while worship services were going on with a crowd estimated at over 6,000 people, sounds to me like a target rich environment for any bad guy. I mean it is a Church, who would expect to find anyone armed at a place of worship? I for one did not expect to hear this story with the ending that it ended up with.
What is the biggest difference between Virginia Tech this past spring, the mall in Nebraska, and a church in Colorado? I would have to say that the largest difference is the mindset of those that frequent these establishments. Who do usually find attending a liberal university? One where diversity is put high above all else? A liberal kid. Who do you expect to find at a busy shopping mall in the middle of the day? Mothers, children, and old people of all political persuasions. Who do you expect to find in a church? I would put my money on people that tend to be of a conservative political persuasion. You should find the type of people that, although they put their trust in the local law enforcement officers and God, know that police cannot be everywhere to protect them, and are not afraid of a person that is trained in the use of a fire arm.
I remember reading accounts of a student that had a weapon in his car that he was allowed to carry legally everywhere except school, and it was only a violation of the rules at Virginia Tech not local ordinances. Here again, like today, the majority of the carnage was carried out on a second shooting spree in a second building, hours after the first wave of blood shed. None of the students had been properly warned, in my humble opinion, at least not to my satisfaction if I had a child attending classes there. Due to the lack of protection and preparedness, 32 lives were lost needlessly. And again like the events in Colorado there were several heroes as well, although they seem to have been forgotten quickly. You will find them and their deeds listed below.
The heroine from Colorado is Jeanne Assam who was standing watch over the worshippers because of the now connected incident earlier in the day. She was armed and trained and knew when the shooting started that she was the only protector that these people had. And she did what I hope that I would do in the situation that she was placed in.
The whole point is that guns don’t kill people anymore than cars do; people are responsible in both cases. In all three of the incidents mentioned guns were used to kill people, but that does not make guns the enemy as they are nothing more than inanimate objects with no will of their own. It is those behind the guns, with their fingers on the triggers that kill people. So what good does it do to take guns away from people like Ms Assam? No good at all from where I am sitting.
Get ready to hear more and more over the course of the coming weeks about how we need to get a better handle on guns. Look forward to the next wave of lobbying in the name of public safety. Watch carefully at how our brave and noble politicians totally forget to mention that the vast majority of worshippers attending services at the New Life Church were saved by a “PERSON” using a gun. That is correct the gun that Ms. Assam carried did not save a single life! Ms. Assam did, God Bless her.
It is time to revisit our current gun “control” laws that are on the books. It is time to get back to the intent of our Founding Fathers handed down to “We The People” in our Constitution. And it is way past time to start licensing people to carry concealed weapons.
I have heard the same old tired argument from the gun control crowd, “If we allow people to carry concealed firearms we will end up back in the old west, with people shooting each other over petty fender benders.” I firmly believe that they are absolutely wrong, and I have at least 10 to 15 years of data to back me up.
Communities in Texas, Florida and Georgia are prime examples of my way of thinking. If I am not mistaken Texas started the concealed carry craze. The state set the requirements, issued the permits/licenses, and crime went down. We did not hear stories of the crazed lunatics in Texas shooting it out at high noon, and I am told that they used to know how to do that well. In fact we did not hear much at all on the National or Local newscasts about it. With the Mainstream Medias mantra of “If it bleeds is leads” one would think that we should have heard something, right? The fact of the matter is that Texas did not look like the old west, just another western state in which crime actually dropped dramatically in the communities that enacted the ordinances. We saw the same results in Florida when communities there followed the Texans lead. The community I like to talk about most is an affluent suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. They did not even pass concealed carry laws; they just passed a local ordinance stating that every household had to possess a firearm. Crime dropped more than 50%. Kind of tells you something doesn’t it? Especially when you couple the crime stats with the fact that gun violence went down as well.
Look to places like Baltimore, Maryland or Pasadena Texas. In one place a concealed carry law might have saved a 26 year old woman from being brutally beaten by nine 14 and 15 year olds; in the other the property of a neighbor being stolen by illegal aliens was protected by a man with a gun.
If you ask me we need more Jeanne Assam’s and Joe Horn’s in this country.
Here is the list from Wikipedia of the heroes from Virginia Tech that saved lives that tragic day in April.
• Professor Liviu Librescu held the door of his classroom, Room 204, shut while Cho attempted to enter it. Librescu was able to prevent the shooter from entering the classroom until most of his students escaped through the windows, but he died after being shot multiple times through the door. One student in his classroom died.[28][29]
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak tried to save the students in her French classroom, Room 211, after looking Cho in the eye in the hallway.[30] Colin Goddard, one of seven survivors in the French class,[31] told his family that Couture-Nowak ordered her students to the back of the class for their safety and made a fatal attempt to barricade the door.[32]
• Student Henry Lee was also killed while trying to help Professor Couture-Nowak barricade the door. [33]
• In Room 206, the movements of a wounded Waleed Shaalan distracted Cho from a nearby student after the shooter had returned to the room, according to a student eyewitness. Shaalan was shot a second time and died.[34]
• Also in Room 206, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan may have protected fellow student Guillermo Colman by diving on top of him;[35] Colman’s various accounts make it unclear whether this act was intentional or the involuntary result of being shot. Multiple gunshots killed Lumbantoruan, but Colman was protected by Lumbantoruan’s body.[36][37][38][39]
• Student Zach Petkewicz barricaded the door of Room 205 with a large table after substitute professor Haiyan Cheng and an unidentified female student in the same class saw Cho heading toward them. Cho shot several times through the door but failed to force in. No one in that classroom was wounded or killed.[40][41][20]
• Katelyn Carney, Derek O’Dell, Trey Perkins, and Erin Sheehan barricaded the door of Room 207, the German class, after the first attack and tended to the wounded. Cho returned minutes later but O’Dell and Carney prevented him from re-entering the room. Both were injured.[42][43][44][45]
• Hearing the commotion on the floor below, Professor Kevin Granata brought 20 students from a nearby classroom into an office, where the door could be locked, on the third floor of Norris Hall. He then went downstairs to investigate and was shot by Cho. Granata died from his injuries. None of the students locked in Granata’s office were injured.[46]
Here is the Eight of the State for this week, December 27th, 2008:
1. Ted Strickland – “Help me…I suck!!”
2. William Miceli – Birds of a feather…
3. The ACLU – Then again, we never really expected them to be on America’s side…given their history!
4. Christmas pranks – Dude, some people can be really cruel..like those who peek!
5. The National Retail Federation – “He got one! I want one too!”
6. Marc Dann – Illinois politics are spilling over into Ohio!
7. Al Franken – “..because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog-gone-it, people like me.”
8. The CIA – What are we pimps or drug dealers?!
The Blue Falcon of the Week
The Blue Falcon of the Week for this week, December 27th, 2008 is:
Bruce Pardo! Congratulations, sir!
Mr. Pardo decided that it would be a good idea to shoot up his ex-wife’s Christmas party and set the house on fire dressed like Santa and killing 9. Pardo, later that night, shot himself in the head at his brother’s house 25 miles away. WTF?!
Whether Pardo was trying to get back at his ex-wife, or attempting to give Santa a bad name, is unclear. One thing is clear, Mr. Pardo is clearly the Blue Falcon for the Christmas season!
Semper Fi!
“At least 25 Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested, including several accused of planning a coup, according to newspaper reports Thursday.
The arrests over the past three days were carried out by an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, The New York Times reported, citing Iraqi security officials. ”
More from the NY Times:
“Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.”
Dude! I remember my dad telling me about when he was in high school and Godzilla stepped on his car! The point that this Police Chief fails to get is that guns not only deter crime, they deter tyranny!
“At least 25 Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested, including several accused of planning a coup, according to newspaper reports Thursday.
The arrests over the past three days were carried out by an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, The New York Times reported, citing Iraqi security officials. ”
More from the NY Times:
“Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.”
First of all, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a bloody idiot. As the leader for the Episcopal church, he has performed in pagan ceremonies honoring the solstice, and claimed that England should be open to Muslim Sharia courts. He is a substandard leader. The Episcopal Church has appointed openly gay priests, asked the Federal Government to not enforce the law and stop immigration raids, and even suggested church-goers in this country to harbor illegal aliens (my church, and look at the New Sanctuary Movement).
But on this issue, I believe that the Archbishop has a valid point. I have written about the separation of church and state on this site before. In fact, the text that I cite as to where our founding fathers got the notion of ’separation of church and state’ was written due to the establishment of the Church of England.
Note in this article how it is British law that the Monarch be a member of the church and that they have a title within the church as “Supreme Governor”. The favoritism showed to just this church over all other churches, as argued by John Locke in “A Letter Concerning Toleration”, caused contempt by the Church of England toward ‘other’ sects of Christianity. People were deemed ‘heretics’ and slaughtered by the sword with no evidence.
This is the reason our founding fathers created a firewall between the President and the Church in this country. If the United States were to pick one sect of Christianity over others the same jealousy and contempt would ravage our land.
Moral: Know history or you are doomed to repeat it.
I should also mention that I am an Episcopal.
The Broken Common Bond
