Local time where you're at. ("Where you're at"?)

Seems you’ve passed the torch to me this week Darth…….

On a more serious note……July 26th, the wife of the husband/wife team that owns the company I work for informed all of us that after an 18-month battle with brain cancer that her husband passed away the night before. He was 55.

On the heels of his funeral service last Friday, now tonight I find out that my best friend at that same company (the same guy who got me hired on and someone that the Generalette has known for about 20 years now) lets the Generalette and I know that he has cancer on two spots on his neck. Thankfully, not only is NASA the big neighbors to the south, but a little closer in is the best cancer center in the country — MD Anderson.

So you’ll excuse me if I tell the debt crisis and DC in general to go fly a kite. I have some serious prayer work to do.

Down here at the Southern Command, we’re also going through a step of change. Nothing personal with the command staff or base personnel, but rather at our chosen house of worship. For the past 13 months our church has been without a Senior Pastor. The reasons are not necessary at this time, the only thing that is relevant is that there has not been a man in that position for some time. A few weeks ago, the search committee announced that they had found someone who fit and next Sunday our new Senior Pastor will preach his first sermon to our congregation.

So in his last message as Interim, our Executive Pastor reminded us that in order to move forward we as a church need to leave the past in the past (yes, learn from the past but leave it in the past) and in order to move forward there are several walls that are self-placed that are a barrier from moving forward. Those walls need to come down so we as a church can indeed move forward with a fresh start and change our focus on that which our new pastor brings forward to us. I won’t repeat his whole sermon, but the key points are what needs to be mentioned here, because they are pertinent for us all at this time. And they are something we all can certainly work on to break down.

The walls that need to come down are:

• Unfaithfulness
• Anger
• Apathy
• Failure
• Sin
• Pride

The scripture passage he used to help illustrate these walls is Joshua chapter six. This is the story of Joshua and how God instructed him to deal with the city of Jericho. If you know the story you can certainly see the parallels. Like Darth, it certainly may be time to take a good hard look at the walls in front of us that need to be broken down to allow us to return to moving forward.

ThatIsAll™

….the General.

Well, I was going to start off by torturing Korrioth, but it seems that routine has gotten as predictable as Al Obambi and his progressive libtards and their ubiquitous “Blame Bush” mantra. Or so the feedback coming in is.

KORRIOTH: DaHjaj ghaj taH QaQ jaj Daq Hegh

SG Rayegun: Indeed.

But rather than that, I just mention that the Generalette and I are going to in lurk mode for the next couple of weeks. We’ve had family at the Main Residence this weekend, as well as some improvements to the Main Residence as well. There will also be an upcoming TDY and some other minor things happening around the base that will require my attention.

We’ll report in following these events.

ThatIsAll&#153

Over the past 30 minutes or so, the Southern Command has experienced something rarely heard in these parts lately. Yes something so infrequent I had to get the R&D staff to scour the Intertubes to verify this phenomenon.

This what they discovered.

The following information was located at the Merriam Webster website and give us this result from their search engine:

1thun·der
noun \ˈthən-dər\
Definition of THUNDER
1
: the sound that follows a flash of lightning and is caused by sudden expansion of the air in the path of the electrical discharge

This search originated after several instances of said phenomenon occurred and so severely upset the force protection canines at the HQ Security Forces kennel that the kennel master got so worried he actually used the RED PHONE to contact the General. Upsetting indeed because the General was napping and DOES NOT take kindly to interruptions to his Sunday afternoon nap.

Since the R&D staff was already at work, I insisted they research any OTHER unusual occurrences that could follow said phenomenon and this is what they mutually agreed COULD follow the above mentioned:

1rain
noun, often attributive \ˈrān\
Definition of RAIN
1
a : water falling in drops condensed from vapor in the atmosphere
b : the descent of this water

If any further developments happen, be sure that we the staff of the Southern Command will promptly inform you. For now, you can return to your normal comings and goings.

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Except this time the egg was something north of 250k State Department documents.  And Humpty is Wikileaks. The dumping is still the same.

Normally I would agree (within reason mind you) with the argument that releasing classified intelligence information is REALLY not good for the folks “in country”, but something strikes me different about this documentus dumpicus.  Now given that the loudest shrilling is coming from a progressive-lite Republican by the name of Peter King and he’s calling for the Secretary of Frump and Eric “I employ illegal aliens as housekeepers” Holder to designate Wikileaks as a domestic terror organization, I get the unabated sense that something is wrong.

And I have an idea what it could be.  Once again, the “most ethical and transparent administration in the history of the U.S” (Nancy SanFran Piglousy’s words, not mine) got caught with their pants down fornicating away with those at the center of all these documents.  Namely which is Al Queda and those nation-states that support it.  Now OF COURSE each and every member of the House Homeland Security Committee has read EVERY word of all 250,000+ documents released and can say with 100% assurance that “it’s not us”.

I say BULLSHIT and I’m calling global shenanigans on this one.

Al-Obambi’s foreign policy ain’t worth the paper the documents are printed on.  Then again, the domestic policy ain’t in much better shape either!

So I say, let’s see all 250,000+ documents and we prosecute the REAL criminals and let Wikileaks do it’s job. Because no other REAL news organization (yes I’m glaring straight at you CNN, (P)MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico) seems to be able to do their job.

Seeing that some sort of tribble has crawled waaaaayyyyyy too far up Darth’s arse butt backside, and I really don’t have much else to put up then here goes….

Don’t know how many of you out there have AT&T u-Verse for your television viewing service (or any of their bundles), but they recently pulled one on all of their TV subscribers that pissed off the Generalette so much that I had to put in the calls the very next day to make other arrangements.

Here’s the jist of the story.  Seems last week that the broadcast rights contract between AT&T and Scripps Networks LLC reached its conclusion and negotiations that had been ongoing had reached an impasse (gee, where have we heard THAT shtick before???).  The usual mud-slinging commenced.  AT&T claimed that Scripps was demanding too much in royalties and fees.  Scripps countered that AT&T was demanding that they basically be given all-out total ownership rights to the Scripps footage.

At this point I’m betting you’re going, “So who the heck is Scripps Networks LLC”?  Well, they are the media service that owns the channels like HGTV, DIY channel, The Food Network, The Cooking Channel, and GAC.  Well four of the five networks consist of about 70% of the viewing time here in the General’s household.  So that can sort of clearly explain why the Generalette was boiling.  We’ve also been dealing with a 3 month long episode of flaky system freeze ups that affected all of the services we were getting through AT&T.  Needless to say, we both felt this latest annoyance was the last straw. 

AT&T doesn’t know it yet, but they are being purged from the Southern Command.  Completely.  As in 100% hasta la vista, baby.  As of 1700 hours today, the ISP and telephone services have been replaced with other providers.  The ISP service was replaced with one that for just pennies more a day we have now increased our download speeds by 150%.  The telephone service cost was reduced by 20%.  The television service will be replaced tomorrow with a new provider who will have a package that has 5% more channels than the u-Verse package, while reducing our costs by nearly 50%. 

Ain’t the free market just grand!!!!!

And not to trivialize the day with small things, lest we forget how we as Americans are afforded the ability to have such a free market society.   With all proper pomp and circumstance, with strict concordence to protocol and etiquette all of us here at the Southern Command salute each and every man and woman who have served, or are currently serving in the Army, Army National Guard, Army Reserves, Navy, Naval Reserves, Marines, Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserves, or Coast Guard.  Without the sacrifice and blood, sweat, and tears that each of you have given to this great country of ours — we the citizens of this land would not enjoy the freedoms we our offered each and every day of our lives, not over the past 230+ years, not today, nor into tomorrow.

The Southern Command also offers up a special salute to our brothers and sisters of the United States Marine Corps as they continue to celebrate their 235th year of protecting these United States of America.  All of us here are certainly proud of their service and vigilance to this country and the Constitution.

God Bless America!

Both the Generalette and myself did, just today no less.

It only took 5 minutes from the time we got out of the Official Southern Command Staff Conveyance until we once again re-entered it. For both of us!

What is this you ask?

We did the one thing that makes our individual voices be heard and recognized in our great republic.

We VOTED!

You are hereby summarily ordered to do likewise, unless you’re a sick, twisted freak that really enjoys the “fundamental transformation” that Al Obambi and George Soros Inc. are currently in-progress with. We here at the Southern Command are thoroughly sick of the utter thrashing these people are doing to the Constitution (that they SWORE TO PROTECT AND HONOR) let alone the almost irreparable damage they are doing to this great land. Just looking out for Mother Earth my big, fat ass. These nimrods are pouring out slop that no respectable farm animal would come within THREE MILES of. Even if they were upwind of it!!!!

Let the pigsty that D.C. has become know that WE THE PEOPLE are here now to plow over the manure and replant our nation with the seeds of LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. And yes, IN GOD WE TRUST is something more than just a phrase printed on our money.

If you don’t and don’t want them delivered, check out this Lifehacker article.

Might want to consider bookmarking the site, they’ve got tons of really useful Windows, Mac, and Linux tips….as well as the occasional time-saving household tidbit.

That’s all for now….it’s been a rough week.  Maybe some more tomorrow since it’s a down day for the Command Staff.

All, sorry for the absence but we here at the Southern Command are still in mourning and the base flag is at half-staff for the remainder of the month as we all but primarily the Generalette deals with the loss of her father just over a week ago.  His passing did not come as a surprise, rather it was a welcome release to a worldly disease that has no known cure…Alzheimer’s.  Actually that wasn’t the primary cause, a case of double pneumonia was.

Her father was 79 years young, yet carried the burden of Alzheimer’s for well over five years…not being able to speak for the last 18 months or so of his life.  He was a Christian, and a devout one at that.  From a Sunday School teacher to serving as a deacon until he was diagnosed with the disease.  He is survived by his wife of 54 years, their three children (which includes the Generalette) as well as five grandchildren.  God has welcomed a great man back home and now that man can celebrate along with all the other saints in Christ for the remainder of eternity.

Now, on to other Command business.

Folks, start doing your research on a bill that has been introduced to committee with the audacious name of the “Debt Free America Act”.  Also known as HR-4646, the bill on the surface will attempt to do such things as eliminate the national individual income tax, refundable and nonrefundable personal tax credits, and even the alternative minimum tax and replace it with a “transaction tax”.  The initial level is set at 1%.

But here’s where the nefarious progressive left take something that has the potential to correct things and turns it into something hideously evil.  The bill also intends to “tax” ALL financial transactions from both you and I as individuals (things like deposits and withdrawals from checking and savings accounts, ATMs, everything) as well as corporate financial transactions.  And, of course Congress can “adjust” the percentage as they see fit.

This bill has corruption written all over it.  As if that isn’t a new concept coming out of the boys inside the DC beltway.  Do your research folks, if your House rep is FOR this bill then if they are up for re-election it’s time they go find out what the job market is really like.  This is one bill this country DOESN’T need.

Well, from the overwhelming amount of mail in the Command Center’s mail bag it would seem that really no one noticed my absence.  It was just a few days and all.  Even celebrated something of a milestone for the General.  An anniversary even!

Yup, back on July 25th the Generalette and I were sweating (and you thought it was hot in the shade up there Venomous???) our way around EPCOT.  We tried to keep to the shade and indoors as much as possible, even went so far as to catch the early magic hours in the park and come back to the hotel for a few hours of rest then return to World Showcase.  We made a stopover in Morocco at the Restaurant Marrakesh for the anniversary dinner.  Afterwords,  we finished the day off with the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth fireworks and lasers extravaganza that Disney does so well.

But alas, the vacation ended and the real world beckoned.  So here we are, your General is back in the command chair (aka Lazyboy recliner) and the Generalette is preparing to return to filling the young skulls full of mush with new mush.  She’ll be returning not to fill Third Grade skulls, but rather Fifth Grade skulls this year.  She’s not really pleased, so the command staff has been on pins and needles since our return from Florida.  Hopefully I can keep enough chocolate in the house and I’ve put strict orders in at the commissary that they are not to allow the stock levels to drop AT ALL.

Other than a triple digit temps weekend here at the Southern Command, all is well.

ThatIsAll™

The current foul weather patterns here in the area of the Southern Command HQ aren’t even close the disgustingly ill-tempered, and exceedingly…….let’s just say I could spit nails faster than a A-10 Warthog can sling lead from the front nose canon.  As a means of trying to calm down I went out searching for some words of wisdom from our third president, Thomas Jefferson.  Weird, yes, I know. But I needed to do something while I was waiting on the good home-cooked dinner from the Generalette to cool off a wee bit!!!

As we celebrate our independence as a nation this weekend, when you hear “Land of the free” and “Home of the brave”, please remember that our nation IS the “land of the free” BECAUSE of the brave.  Men like Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Adams, and the rest of the Founding Fathers started this nation down a path that now has unfortunately been side-tracked, kicked to the curb, thrown under the bus, and just plain run roughshod for wayyyyyyyy too long.  Spend a few minutes to read and CONTEMPLATE what Jefferson wrote and see how well he has foreshadowed what is now happening.

“When the government fears the people there is liberty;
when the people fear the government there is tyranny.”

“I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

“When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the State, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution.”

ThatIsAll™

Just a quick note from the Commanders desk:  Yes, the General is still alive and kicking.  I’m just having to deal with an oily mess right now.  In the meantime though, here’s a little reminder for everyone…..

Yes, today was indeed Mother’s Day.  A day to celebrate all those things that mom has done for us.  A day where mom get pampered and taken out to lunch or dinner.  All that stuff.

But not to overlook the significant other events of May 9, let’s move over to the radar desk and see what else appears on the screen.

– For you sweet tooth dessert folks, today was also Nation Butterscotch Brownie Day.
– In honor of those of Dutch heritage, today was also National Windmill Day.
– Those of you who have a knack for all things tailoring, today was Hurray for Buttons Day.
– We’ve all seen the warnings, but the rebel in you took over…well here’s your day….it was Tear the Tags Off the Mattress Day.

And finally, this last one requires extreme solemnity, nay a full TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE!

Room, atten-hut!

For all those who have lost one or more of these over the years, today was:

Lost Sock Memorial Day

At Ease.

Now that mom is safely at home and resting from all the frivolity, be sure to honor the rest of these events appropriately.  That’s an order soldier!

I don’t know about the rest of ya’ll, but we here at the Southern Command have just spend the last few weeks trying to UNBURY the whole base from of all things…….

KORRIOTH: Tribbles?

SG RAYEGUN: No you knucklehead, not tribbles!

K’HADIBAK’H: The hangover of the century from Romulan Ale?

SG RAYEGUN: You wish, ya perpetual drunkard!

MERLIN: Taxes?

SG RAYEGUN: No, but I’ll get back to you on that one this Thursday AFTER I’ve mailed in my check.

No folks, quite literally the whole base has been buried either under a blanket of that lovely limon-yellow (yes, that was intentional) substance called oak pollen or the OTHER lovely discharge from the oak tree we here call “oak tag”.  Word of advance, DO NOT attempt to wash the General’s official conveyance (or any vehicle for that matter) when either of the oak snot is being discharged.  It’s just a waste of water.

We’re still kicking down here at the Southern Command.  Mrs. General Rayegun is insisting that a larger portion of the base’s annual budget needs to be spent on “weapons of a strong defense” and given the carcinogenic eminations being spewn on the entire country from that Hell-hole called Washington D.C. there are some serious considerations being investigated by the base planners.  As well as increasing the amount of personal protection both the Generalette and myself have made available to us.  Poste haste no less.

Here are the random firings of the neurons for the day:

• Continue to pray for the families of the miner’s in West Virginia, their grief cannot be overlooked.
• Hitlary + SCOTUS = Babylon on American soil (thankfully this will not happen)
• So nearly 50% of Americans didn’t pay anything to the IRS in 2009, yet somehow the all-knowing, ever-benevolent (*cough cough gag gag*) goverment wants to ADD SIXTEEN THOUSAND IRS AGENTS just for the express purpose of auditing us to be sure we’re enjoying ObamaCare(lessly)??  I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again — Get the fark outta my wallet Washington!
• The more we read about it, the more everyone here on base wants to see a flat tax (of no more than 15%) be enacted NOW.  It’s waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy past time to get rid of the 80,000+ pages of bloat and corruption called the Federal Tax Code.
• Finally, yes Washington CHARACTER DOES MATTER.  And no, we do not want to have ANYTHING to do with a SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY…..WE THE PEOPLE prefer our CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC and WE THE PEOPLE will be taking it back real soon now.  Ya hear?!!!!!

ThatIsAll™

I know all of you are patently aware of what today is. You also know it was Mitsuo Fuchida who took off from the aircraft carrier Akagi that lead the Japanese forces on that surprise attack.

But did you know this?

Neither did I, until this morning.

To all those who gave their lives on December 7, 1941, and to those that survived the day yet have since gone on to see the Lord….we thank you for your service. For the families that still remember each year on this day what happened, please remember that God’s grace surpasses all understanding and take comfort in that fact.

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The Generalette forwarded the following to me just now, and she received it from one of her former students (who is now in middle school). What totally shocked me is the network that actually allowed the comments to air.

It’s a long one so be sure to read on after the fold….

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves..

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit..

If not, then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards,
Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

All I have to say is, “Well said Mr. Stein, well said.”

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