Life

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment.^{[1] Wikipedia}

Life’s Little Pleasures

We plan.

We work.

We save.

We dream.

But life is seldom as it seems.

A germ.

A gene.

A wayward act.

Can throw perceptions off their track.

A hug.

A kiss.

A tender word.

Can let us know we’re not alone.

That other’s dreams have not come true.

Life is life.

So on we go.

Not so sure of what’s in store.

But fearing less that great unknown.

Enjoying “little” more.

Dennis Price

Patriotic Bikers Ride

This is written in support of all those "Patriotic Bikers" who joined in the effort to show in numbers their support for their country in riding to Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2013.  Authorities in D. C. have refused to give them a permit to ride straight through with the streets blocked (a two hour closure).  Now they plan to ride through obeying all traffic laws (stopping at stop signs and traffic lights), a plan that will likely take the entire day.  The quotes used in this post are taken from an article in WND by Bob Unruh.

Gabriel says the facts are that Muslim immigrants to the U. S. are responsible for a disproportionally large number of domestic terrorism cases.

“Of all immigrants who have ever immigrated to America since its birth, America never encountered such hatred and terrorism coming out of one faith based group in our country that accounts for less than 2 percent of the American population and is now responsible for over 80 percent of attacks against America,” she said.

“In 11 years since 911, the Islamic American community has not organized a one million man march to condemn Islamic terrorism against America and call Hamas, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, al-Shabaab, and other groups by their names – terrorists,” Gabriel said.

I add my thoughts in poetry:

           AMERICA

Out of revolution,

the grip of monarch’s rule.

Driven by freedom.

Necessity.

Founded on values

from God’s holy book,

the glue that binds,

in trust,

its varied masses.

America

Through fire of war,

without,

within,

was forged in strength

a strong republic.

America

And though the vision dims

in her prosperity,

she rises to the challenge

when tyrants seek

to quell her voice.

America

Blessed by God,

we must hold those

values close

that bound

our loose knit colonies

in their infancy.

America

Dennis Price

Obama's Military Leadership

I don't know about you, but given Obama's lack of respect for anything that resembles the established values for our great nation, I have trouble taking him seriously on anything.  I was struggling with just how to say in a few words what some of our politicians can't seem to grasp, so I turned to an e-mail sent by my good buddy David earlier this week.  I think it is a great capsule view of what's going on.  I hope you enjoy it. Thanks David.

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2013/08/30/patton-middle-east-mess-may-be-exactly-what-obama-wants/   This article is by Doug Patton

"Barack Hussein Obama is either the most inept president ever to sit in
the White House or he is an enemy of the Republic. He could be both, but
I defy anyone to suggest a logical third alternative.

For the last ten years, I have watched this man’s uncanny rise to the
pinnacle of power and vacillated between those two choices. His
inexperience suggested the former, but his ideology made me wonder what
he would do when the international chips were down. I have come to the
conclusion that ideology trumps inexperience. His ego is so massive, and
his leftist beliefs and Muslim upbringing are so strong, that he is
willing to throw our country as we have known it — not to mention any
inconvenient allies — under the big international bus.

Let’s review our Middle East policy since Obama took office in January
2009. He made it his top priority to go to the region and prostrate
himself before the Islamic world, bowing before Saudi sheiks and telling
outrageous lies about the great and glorious history of a religion
rooted in 7th Century barbarism in his now-infamous speech in Cairo.

Since then, he has unilaterally withdrawn from Iraq while perpetuating a
semi-war in Afghanistan that is doing nothing but getting our troops
killed a few at a time.

And, of course, he has proceeded to do everything in his power to place
as many crazy Muslim zealots in power as he possible can.

So now what do we have? We have Egypt, formerly a solid U.S. ally whose
leader kept the peace with Israel for thirty years, in flames and in
danger of becoming a Russian ally, at best, or imploding into Islamist
chaos, at worst.

Next door, in Libya, where every terrorist in the area is still laughing
at us after the fiasco in Benghazi, we have replaced a tinhorn tyrant
with a truly dangerous al-Qaida-run government, a scenario we are about
to repeat in Syria.

Meanwhile, the calculating Shiite Ayatollahs in Iran are watching our
every move and threatening to “rain down missiles on Israel” if we
attack the government of their friend in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.

Hard as it may be, try to look at the Middle East through Obama’s eyes.
He thinks the United States is the problem in the region. He has stated
so repeatedly, beginning with that speech in Cairo. He obviously
believes the same canard George Bush kept repeating about the “religion
of peace.” The difference is that Obama cannot or will not differentiate
between so-called moderate Muslims and radical Islamists. Bush at least
knew that when people attack us, they probably are not our friends. He
also was willing retaliate against them when they proved themselves hostile.

Obama hates Israel, and he no longer has any need for the naïve liberal
Jewish vote that helped put him in office — twice — so he feels
emboldened to do what he wants to the tiny Jewish state. If Iran attacks
Israel in promised retaliation for a U.S. strike on Syria, Israel will
be forced to defend itself, possibly with nuclear weapons. Given Obama’s
willingness to twiddle his thumbs and pretend to agonize over his
decision to make any moves against the Syrian regime, thereby giving
every terrorist mullah in the Middle East time to plot revenge, one has
to wonder, will he do anything to defend Israel?

And if you think that lofty entity known as “The World Community” gets
up in arms over the use of a few canisters of chemical or biological
weapons, wait until you see the ginned-up outrage that will arise
against Israel when they defend themselves with nukes. After all,
America is still getting flak from the Left for using them on Japan 68
years ago. Such a scenario would provide Obama — not to mention a lot of
cowards in Congress on both sides of the aisle — with the excuse he has
long sought to abandon our only real ally in the Middle East.

Add to that the fact that the chaos this president has encouraged all
across the region could drive the cost of gasoline in the United States
to double digits — another Obama dream come true — and one more piece in
his radical environmental puzzle slides into place.

If I could name more than a handful of statesmen in Congress, I would
begin to wonder when the word “impeachment” might seriously be spoken there."

Doug Patton

What am I missing here?

I am having great difficulty with this whole idea that we are somehow compelled to take action in Syria.  I had no problem with trying to take action against Iraq.  We were attacked here in  the United States of America on September 11, 2001.  And, to the best of our ability we, in conjunction with our Intelligence Community determined that the biggest threat came from Iraq.  We took definitive action, and almost without argument the people of the United States including a majority of our elected representatives agreed with that action.

Unfortunately for the military personnel on the ground there, the decision making process was taken out of the hands of our generals and put back in the hands of politicians after our initial overwhelming success.
Then the political scheming started and the opposition party claimed that the intelligence was faulty and started to chip away at the resolve of our troops there.

Then, the portion of the electorate that hardly knows geography beyond their street address, elected a president who, by all standards previously applied to the office, was unqualified to hold the office.   He has systematically chipped away at the morale of the military and has minimized its ability to carry out its original task of ridding the world of the threat from Al Queda through our efforts in Afghanistan.

Now he wants to unilaterally engage in acts of war with Syria.  There has been no attack on the United States, and there is no immediate threat from Syria.  They are engaged in a bitter civil war.  Now, the same people who railed against the actions of president George W. Bush for his actions after we were attacked on September 11, 2001, are the same ones calling for U. S. military intervention in the civil war in Syria.

In the whole of the middle east, we have one ally and that is Israel.  Why? Because Israel is not a Muslim country.  The rest of the region is in the death grip of the world wide Muslim movement to force Islam on all people.  Those who resist will be killed.  They also have power struggles going on within the various Muslim sects over which sect will be in control.  It really isn't going to matter in the long run who wins because the resultant government will be run by Muslims.  There will be no democracy and no freedom because Islam does not recognize these concepts. This is true of all the Muslim countries in the World.

If these chemical weapons attacks are in fact real, regardless of who was responsible for their use, shouldn't the United Nations be condemning the actions of Syria and bringing the full weight of the rest of the World to bear on punishing them?  As it stands, we can't find anyone who seems concerned enough to get involved.  I would like to address the Congress and the President and tell them to stand down.  We have no business in Syria.  We have problems enough of our own that require our full attention.  If the World is so concerned, let them form a coalition to address the matter.