Food Blog

There is something new on the food blog here. Give it a read and see what you think. I promise I'll give the food blog more attention now!

Merry Christmas

I deleted the first Christmas post I had. It was, shall we say, harsh!

So to all who stop by, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

And may you have a wonderful New Year.

Happy Anniversary

Eight years ago I married my best friend. I could never have imagined how my life would turn out. Through the good and the not-so-good, Liss has stood by me, encouraged me, trusted me, loved me. She has given me the most remarkable three children and helped me become the man, the father, I always wanted to be.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, I always pause this time of year and remember what could have been, living in a small apartment, not sure of where my life was going, or even where I wanted it to go. Liss changed all of that, giving me hope and direction, confidence and trust.

There is nowhere else I would rather be than where I am now, and I owe everything to her, so Happy Anniversary Melissa, I love you now and forever.

Stuff about Bosnia

So how do you tell if a Bosnian is a Muslim?

He eats pork, drinks cognac, and doesn't pray five times a day.


Yep, a joke, about a very serious issue which the world failed miserably to deal with at the end of the twentieth century. Perusing the blogosphere, the failure of the West - NATO as well as the UN - to do much during the war in Bosnia is still a sore issue with Bosnians (Bosniaks, as they refer to themselves).

Clinton urged NATO and the UN to do more, but only after the political winds blew in that direction, eventually resulting in the Dayton Accords, formally signed in December 1995, which effectively ended the war. But that is not what this blog is about.

The joke above is from a book, written in 1995, by a journalist on the ground throughout most of the war in Bosnia, and reflects accurately the fact that, though Muslims made up a majority in parts of Bosnia, this leading to the war in which Serbs tried desperately to annihalate them, they were, first and foremost Bosnians, Europeans.

A couple of things have led me to dwell on this issue, indeed, to lately have become almost obsessed with the Balkan Wars. There is a blog, some consider it far right, some on the far left consider it racist, but this blog is pro-war on terror, pro-Israel, and unabashedly pro-American (the melting pot, not "white" America); it is an island of sanity in the blogosphere and I have been a lurker, sometimes commenter, over the past several years. However, when the Balkan Wars come into the comments, inevitably there is the "we bombed the wrong side." comment which creeps in. In other words, we should have bombed the Muslim Bosnians, not the Serbs.

Those who hold this view seem to lump Bosnian Muslims in with the Wahhabism espoused by "our friends" the Saudis, Sunni Al Qaeda, the Shi'a of Iran - those who are fundamentalist - this is a serious mistake. Bosnian Muslims were Muslim because their ancestors 400 years previously had converted to Islam after the Islamic conquest of the Balkans, however, they had a unique central European view of their Muslim ancestry. In places like Sarajevo, Muslims had co-existed with Christians for hundreds of years, visiting them at Christmas, celebrating their important days with them, inter-marrying. I will say, in the name of disclosure, that there were a few hundred estimated jihadists in the Balkans during these wars, however they were, like Aukai Collins, free-lancers - outsiders, foreigners, who often stated that those who they were fighting for were not "real" Muslims.

"Real" Muslims or not, they were targeted for genocide by the Serb forces. Now this is not to say that Bosnians did not commit their own atrocities - they did - but the war fought by the Serbs had not been seen in Europe since the second World War.

We now will probably degenerate into random thoughts, with (probably) no clear coherent argument! I will say, though, that immersing myself in books and articles about the Bosnian War, as well as reading about Ahmadinejad's Holocaust "forum" in Iran have caused me to reflect on history, genocide, and exactly what people are willing to do to each other.

The Holocaust is historical fact. Those of us who are historians do not dispute that, from the mid 1930's to 1945, there was a concerted effort on the part of Nazi Germany to kill the Jews of Europe. Those who deny this reality are not historians, indeed, they do not understand the basic concepts of the study of the past. All one has to do is examine the background of those who deny the Holocaust. Dig a bit and you see the "Zionist control" of politics, the media, international banking, one world government, etc... Everything is a conspiracy. There are those who use false constructs and very selective editing of the historical record (Irving), as well as those who manipulate rather questionable data (Faurisson), as well as flat out anti-semites and white supremacists and Hitler apologists to deny that the Holocaust happened. The Jews of europe DID disappear. They often attribute this to Jews moving (???), or, for those in the camps, rampant disease which swept though the camps and killed uncounted thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions....

Whatever.

They are wrong. The Holocaust is a historical fact.

So is the genocide against the Bosnian Muslims.

Those who know me know that I am, let's just say, skeptical of Muslims today. From the Iranian hostage crises of 1979, to the Achille Lauro, Pan Am 103, World Trade Center 1993, Robert Stethem, Khobar Towers, Marine Corps Barracks bombing, African Embassy bombings, USS Cole, 9/11, 7/7, Madrid Train bombings, etc.... Do I really need to go on? Now look at CAIR and the non-flying Imams, the "student" in Boston who wanted a CDL but did NOT want to know how to back up a big rig, yeah there's a lot of stuff going on.

In the early to mid 1990's, though, we should have done more for Bosnian Muslims, who were more European than "Muslim." (Yes, in quotation marks - if you don't understand, sorry, see the joke above!) I still know that there are Muslims who are not Jihadists. Call them apostates if you must, but they consider themselves Muslim, so they are. (And yes, there are huge numbers of moderates in this country.) The Serbs tried to kill all of them because of their religion - a genocide. Though on a smaller scale than in the 1930's and 40's, the desired result was the same. Much like during WWII, as well, the "West" did nothing. The US, or at least Clinton, felt that it was a European issue, never mind that the only remaining world power which could have made an immediate and dramatic difference was the US. Clinton responded to public opinion, which was simply not with the Bosnians at this time, so he threw them under the train.

Anyway, I don't want this to get too long, so I will close and leave you with a word, and the hope that you will follow this link:

Srebrenica

(An upcoming blog will be A LOT of links regarding this issue!)

A Day of Books

Today was definitely a day of books. Regardless of where we went and what we were shopping for, books were a part of it, and this is so important to me and, really looking back on my past, both makes sense and doesn't, as I'll explain.

Growing up, I probably had a few books but I really don't remember - sad, huh? I don't remember having books until I was in high school and became interested in two quite disparate things, botany and the Vietnam War (yeah, I know, pretty strange!) Beginning probably my freshman year, I just KNEW that I was going to be the next "world's greatest botanist" so it's strange that I blew off college and joined the Army ( I still have my herbarium from those days though!). Anyway, also in high school I became interested, almost obsessed, with the Vietnam War and, to this day, have no idea why. So, should we be able to go back in time and return to my bedroom in about, oh, say 1983, there would be wildflower and other botanical field guides next to a book about the tunnels of Cu Chi. Anyway, that's where I was in November 1986 when I left for basic training at Ft. Bliss, Texas.

Fast forward a year or so to me in Bitburg, Germany and during the times I was not "out" with my friends, I was in my small room in the barracks buried in a book, usually King or Koontz at that time. By 1994 I was in New Mexico, out of the Army, and looking for a job, and the owner of this place hired me. I don't know why, other than the fact that I pestered the hell out of him! Nonetheless, I had a job in a bookstore, no THE bookstore of the southwest. I knew nothing about books, but what I learned there was, I would later understand, critical to discovering who I am today.

I really knew nothing about books when I was hired, but when I left, five years later, I was the person who kept the non-fiction stacks (all hardbacks actually!) in order, I appraised rare books, I even had become a collector. I collected illustrated childrens books, pop-up books, and Western Americana. In addition, I had a small art collection, mainly of Paul Klee and collected books on semiotics. (yeah, me, the "army dude") It was with a heavy heart, but a hopeful wallet, that I left there to take a Graduate Assistant position where I now work in another capacity, but even when I left for three months in 1995 all I took were clothes and three boxes of books.

I took a position as a student geologist at the Ray Mine in Arizona from May to August 1995. No television, no computer, a town of a few hundred in the middle of nowhere (2 hours to Phoenix) so I took books. Now why have I told you all of this? So that you will understand my love of books and printed materials. Though I have sold my 1000 book Western Americana library, I still cannot help but buy books, wherever I am. Conference in Chicago? Buy books. Conference in Boston? Buy books!!! I'm a book geek, can't help it, and my kids are exactly like me, which is the real point of this rather long rant-like blog.

Today we went shopping for Christmas presents and found ourselved in three bookstores. Coas was the first one, and though we did not really plan on looking for books for the kids we found a Pooh book for Caitlyn - "Oh, Bother! Someone's Fibbing." Dylan choose a Buzz Lightyear book and also found an absolutely beautiful hardback called "The Christmas Creche," by Elaine Cannon. I could not even find it on Amazon, but it is a beautifully illustrated book of nativities, something Dylan has taken a particular interest in lately. I also found a book for myself, "The Red Suit Diaries: A Real-Life Santa on Hopes, Dreams, and Childlike Faith." I cannot wait to read it! Melissa found a few as well, one on Easter and the other on Christmas, both by Paul Maier, illustrated by Francisco Ordaz. These are beautiful books, with fantastic illustrations, and they will make a superb addition to the kids already packed and overflowing bookshelves!

Afer COAS, we made our way, eventually, to Hastings, where we found one of the Tomie DePaola books Liss has been looking for, "Pascual and the Kitchen Angels." We also picked up "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karen Kingsbury, an absolutely enchanting book that we cannot wait to read to the kidlets!

By now Barnes and Noble was calling, and we managed to find three more DePaola books, "The Night of Las Posadas," The Legend of the Poinsettia," and "The Legend of the Bluebonnet." The illustrations are, of course, beautiful and we look forward to reading these as well. The best thing is that the kids never get tired of reading, and often haul armloads of books into the living room or our bedroom, plopping themselves in the middle of the floor, Dylan attempting to sound out words, and Caitlyn making up stories to match the illustrations. It's not unusual for us to end up with a dozen or so new books a week, so it's sure a good thing the kids love them!

Anyway, that was a rather typical Saturday for us - books, books, and more books. One thing I absolutely hate is to enter a home, especially when there are children present, and see no books, so go buy a kid a book and change his world forever!

Iraqi WMD's

"He betrayed this country, he played on our fears..." Such was Al Gores rant. Others followed and the "Bush lied, there were no WMD's" meme was pushed by the media, university profs, the Democratic party. It became common knowledge that Bush and company lied about the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - they did not exist. The only problem with all of this is that they did, and still do exist, some probably still hidden in Iraq, but many more in Syria and Lebanon. This popped up in the Counterterrorism blog two days ago:

Syrian nuclear program quite advanced
By Olivier Guitta

Recently, Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Seyassah quoted European intelligence sources as saying that "Syria has an advanced nuclear program" in a secret site located in the province of Al Hassaka, close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. British sources quoted by "Al Seyassah" believe that "it is President Assad's brother, colonel Maher Assad, and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, who supervise the program". This program is based on the Iraqi material that Saddam Hussein's two sons shipped to Syria before and during the war against Iraq. This explains, according to the daily newspaper, why international investigative teams found no proof of the program.

Furthermore, the British sources in Brussels affirm that "Iranian nuclear experts contribute to the Syrian program along with sixty Iraqi experts who had taken refuge in Syria since 2003 and experts from the ex-Soviet republics". British intelligence also confirm that this information is validated by their German counterparts, who was well established historically in the countries close to the ex- communist block, including Syria. Europeans fear that by focusing solely on the Iranian nuclear program, one might facilitate a much more quieter joint Iranian-Syrian program of uranium enrichment in Hassaka. Also, the geographical choice of the nuclear site is very meaningful. Indeed, because it is located in an area with a Kurdish majority, the program evades suspicions, and also striking against these installations will initially touch the Kurdish community who has historically sided with the West against the Baathists regime of Bagdad and Damascus.

What is really pathetic, and certainly of consequence, is that, until Bush decided to go to war, many leading Democrats in the US, not to mention intelligence services across the globe, understood the threat that Saddam's WMD's posed to the West, especially when Clinton was in the White House. Once the war began, and started to sour, the "no WMD's" mantra was put forth to distance Democrats from an increasingly hostile constituancy who opposed the war, one they desperately needed for reelection. Unfortunately it worked. However, the threat of WMD's from Iraq remains. Just because no "stockpiles" were found does not mean they were not there.

Going back to the CIA's October 2002 report, "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program," a number of things certainly pop out. I will say, even after many have stated that the report has been discredited, particularly with regard to the aluminum tubes, that there are still some very interesting things in the report. The issue that stands out, and which is common in many of the reports written regarding Iraqi WMD's, is found in the second paragraph, "Revelations after the Gulf war starkly demonstrate the extensive efforts undertaken by Iraq to deny information." Saddam even overestimated the number of chemical munitions used against Iran by some 6000 weapons - all of which remain unaccounted for. United Nations resolutions 687, 707, 715, 1051, 1060, 1154, 1194, 1205, and 1284 all deal with the issue of Iraqi WMD's, and all were either ignored, or not fully accomodated by the Hussein regime. Indeed, the report states that "since 1998, Baghdad has refused to allow UN inspectors into Iraq as required by the Security Council resolutions." The report also documents 10 instances from 1983 to 1988 of Iraqi use of chemical weapons, mainly against Iranians and Kurds, as well as 14 instances of open-air testing of biological weapons. Saddam became quite adept at hiding what he was doing.

A few other things from the report:

UNSCOM supervised the destruction of more than 40,000 chemical munitions, nearly 500,000 liters of chemical agents (such as VX, sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard) 1.8 million liters if chemical precursors, and seven different types of delivery systems, including ballistic missile warheads.

Iraq has the capability to convert quickly legitimate vaccine and biopesticide plants to biological warfare production and already may have done so.

After four years of claiming that they had conducted only "small-scale, defensive" research, Iraqi officials finally admitted to inspectors in 1995 to production and weaponization of biological agents.

Also, the report mentions several times that Iraq had a habit of either over-reporting the number of weapons it had used in the Iran war, thus hiding the weapons it supposedly had used, or flat out denial of weapons and programs which were later discovered. Why, then, do we now choose to believe those that fall for this disinformation in the name of politics? Western European intelligence services have repeatedly backed up the claims made by Bush and Blair regarding the threat of Iraq's WMD programs and, as I have written previously, many leading Democrats believed the same, that Saddam and his weapons posed a direct threat to the US and the West. Political posturing, however, has caused mass amnesia in the Democratic party and among many "intellectuals" who, throughout the 1990's, understood the threat and were quite vocal in their opinions. Oh, but wait, there is more!

Okay, let me say this; I know that there are Democrats who still, to this day, stand by their support of taking the fight to Saddam, as well as Republicans who are still not sure of whether it was the right decision. Regardless, it comes down to one thing. There were Al Qaeda connections to Iraq prior to the US being in Iraq and Al Qaeda could have, theoretically, been given access to these weapons. Don't believe me? Do a bit of research. A popular idea which has been floating out there for a few years is that Saddam and Bin Laden hated each other, had vast ideological differences, and would never have cooperated. I don't want to go too deeply into the connections, but read Miniter's Disinformation and the cooperation becomes obvious, in what Miniter calls his "four kinds of undisputed connections," meetings, money, training, and personnel. Needless to say, yes, Iraq was involved with Al Qaeda. Now did Iraq have anything to do with 9/11? Not directly, no, and I challenge anybody to show that the Bush administration has stated that Iraq was involved. Bush never said it. Anyway, that's another blog, so back to the task at hand.

On June 23, 2004, over a metric ton of enriched uranium was discovered by US forces in Iraq.

Polish officials bought seventeen chemical weapon warheads to keep them out the hands of "insurgents" (terrorists)

1500 gallons of chemical agents were discovered in Mosul by US troops

On May 17, 2004 a roadside bomb containing Sarin exploded but, being a binary explosive, the agents which were supposed to mix and create the deadly chemical failed to combine.

These are just a few. Earlier this year, over 500 chemical weapons were found in Iraq. They may not have been made recently, but are conclusive proof that Saddam lied when he stated that all such weapons had been destroyed. Now, what else has he lied about? We aren't sure, but the fact that Syria has a nuclear weapons program based on Iraqi uranium means that he lied about his nuclear program. What else is in Syria? What has been transferred to the Bekaa valley of Lebanon? What is still hidden, buried in Iraq?

The left and the anti-war faction says that there were no weapons, yet Saddam' scientists have admitted to them and, indeed, they have been used in the past. UN inspectors have stated repeatedly that Iraq was not honest and forthcoming in what they had, have, and were developing, yet the "Bush lied" meme helped put the Democrats into office. Anyway, there is much more to come on WMD's, UNSCOM, the UN, David Kay, Richard Butler, the media, and liberal manipulation of the news! There is a hell of a lot more to this than has been popularly reported, and I'm goint to putting up here a bit at a time, so feel free to repsond and say thanks, tell me I'm full of whatever excretory material you wish, whatever - the proof is there.

Cheers!

Just One More Reason...

... to homeschool!!!

From Michelle Malkin's blog. This kind of stuff seems to be more and more common - no thanks.