Obamanation = Afganistan, Gitmo, Oh NO!

Obama is scaring me. He wants to close Gitmo and is waffling on his pledge to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Oh my.

Add to this the fact that he has scrapped our missile defense base that we were going to put in Poland. Cheese and crackers! Is this guy crazy?

Add to that the fact that he wants to sit down and "negotiate with Ak-mah-dinna-jad! What? Negotiate what? Negotiate means GIVE and TAKE. What are we going to GIVE Iran? No, you don't negotiate. You tell them to stop now or else. If they don't like it, you put sanctions. If that doesn't work, you bomb them. Simple as that!

Let's look at each issue briefly.

Guantanamo Bay: Since 2002 this 3 part detainment camp holds the worst of the worst criminals against facing our country. Namely... international terrorists. These dudes are the real bad actors. We're talking people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the guy who masterminded 9/11. This naval base has been there since 1898. Obama wants to release these fiends into their respective countries, or house them on US soil. What? Here is his own words on the subject...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VRACutITyY

Great! Here is the real story... U.S. lawyers can't get their greedy mits on these high profile often wealthy international terrorists. Imagine the money! I'm sure there are plenty of defense lawyers chomping at the bit to defend Khalid Mohammed. Housed on U.S. soil they will benefit from special treatment they don't deserve.

Afghanistan: Obama is heistant now to put more troops into Afghanistan. Even though he said this during the campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg3Wtpjv9qk&feature=related

Now he says this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDThMItpVI


Missile Defense in Europe: Here is Obama speaking about the new missile defense plan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj6vpMzuBIs&feature=related

And here is some LEFT-WING media coverage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORtZnuXjnc

I hope and pray they're right, because our lives will be in in danger, while they're experimenting.

Softball = We didn't really lose!

Okay, we had a rough night. Our bats fell asleep in the 2nd and 3rd inning. One thing that was rough, was that I walked literally from my car to the pitcher's mound and basically warmed up by pitching through the top of their batting order. Can you imagine a pro pitcher doing that? I don't think so. I did alright though. I struck out at least two.

The other team jumped all over us and had us by 11 runs at one point. It wasn't any one person's fault, but it was kind of demoralizing to see ball after ball whizzing past various players.

Chris did great and there were other stand-out players! (Andrew, Jordan, and Travis)

Well, we rallied back and almost pulled it off!! Let me make this clear... we didn't really LOSE... we just had less points when time ran out!!

Bill Clinton needs to go away

Ok. So Slick Willie has popped up again. Why? Well, he has decided that the world, and specifically the USA needs his expertise on certain issues. Namely = calling people racist who don't believe in Obama's policies. Great. Wasn't there another washed up old, should-have-died-a-long-time-ago, former so-called President running around calling decent Americans racist for daring to criticize our savior-in-chief. Yes there was. It was James Earl Carter.

Carter and Clinton. What a duo. These two men have done untolled damaged to the United States of America. Only historians of the future will be able to say how destructive their respective presidencies were.

The future is now. Say hello to the historian.

So, here is my exclusive interview with "His Slickness" William J. "Bill" Clinton.

Interviewer: Mr. President... Lets get straight down to brass tacks. Do you regret not arresting or killing Osama Bin Laden back in 2000?

Bill Clinton: Wait a minute. You are going to sit there and try to... look, we did deal with Bin Laden... we sent some special operatives down there to... look... I did what I could.

Interviewer: Right. Did you think it would be funny to leave the ticking time-bomb of international terrorism in the then new president's lap?

Bill Clinton: Now look! I didn't...

Interviewer: Maybe you should have been spending a little less time getting hummers in the oval office, and more time dealing with a comprehensive anti-terrorism initiative to protect the American people from the man who was clearly revving up to do something very bad to the United States. You knew who Bin laden was didn't you?

Bill Clinton: Yes, but look... it is very easy to sit there in your right wing chair and second guess my...

Interviewer: That doesn't matter. The fact is, you left public office in shame, having distracted the nation from extremely important issues that had direct bearing on their safety, with the country in a more vulnerable state than it was when you got there.

Bill Clinton: Ok... this is... this is...

Interviewer: Listen. Did muslim extremists attempt to blow up the world trade center while you were president?

Bill Clinton: Well, yes and we dealt with them... but let me say this...

Interviewer: What did you think about Bin laden declaring war on the USA in 1998, and then promptly blowing up 3 American embassies in Africa killing 225 people and wounding thousands?

Bill Clinton: Uh... well... I... we...

Interviewer: Tell me, did you go after Bin laden after he blew up the USS Cole in October of 2000, killing 17 service men, and wounding 40?

Bill Clinton: Ok, this is rediculous. I'm going to... that's it.

Interviewer: Thanks Mr. President for setting us up for 9/11. You truly did make a difference. Unfortunately it was a negative difference that ended up costing us nearly 3000 innocent lives, and changing our world forever.

Bill Clinton: #&@&* You!!

Rain out!

Our softball game last night was rained out (again). I don't think we've played two weeks in a row yet. Wow! It seems the rain always hits on softball day.

Springsteen: Working On A Dream

Springsteen's latest CD (album) is called "Working On A Dream". It was released January 27, 2009 (although I obtained an advanced copy thru the magic of the internet). It is a great(if eclectic) collection of new music from the old master himself. Once again produced by Brendan O'brien. I would say some of the songs are different from anything the Boss has previously done (Outlaw Pete). While other songs feel like new old friends (Lucky Day). I'm not too crazy about the production values (I wish Bruce would use a different producer - PLEASE!). But overall, I think the CD is really good! My only beef... the cover is a little odd.

The Cowboys Lost

Well, it was supposed to be the perfect night for Cowboys fans. It was the first game in our new billion dollar stadium, celebrities and luminaries were in attendance, we had an old rival for an opponent, former players (legendary Cowboys) were there... all were part of the joyous occasion. Only one problem. We lost.

There were many firsts. Here are some.

The first president to conduct a coin toss and sit next to John Madden - George W. Bush

The first to win a coin toss in the new stadium - The Cowboys

The first points ever scored in the new stadium - The New York Giants (a field goal).

The first touchdown ever scored in the new stadium - The Cowboys! (Romo to Witten)

The first televised nose-picking in the new stadium - Jerry Jones (The Cowboys) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uNVeS_iq0&NR=1

The first interception thrown in the new stadium - Tony Romo (the Cowboys)

The first fumble ever committed in the new stadium - Felix Jones (the Cowboys)

The first coach to look whipped, confused, and demoralized on the sidelines in the new stadium - Wade Phillips (The Cowboys)

By the way, Wade has got to go. And I don't mean to the restroom...

See, Tony Romo is one of those quarterbacks who can be great, but most of the time he isn't. He is also one of those guys who looks badass on the stat sheet, but ass bad on the field. In fact sometimes he stinks. He seems confused, can't seem to look off the defenders, and is very inaccurate. Too bad. He used to be pretty decent. It all comes down to this... HE IS JUST PLAIN OVER-RATED.

Our offense is offensive. Our recievers are not very receptive. Our defense is fairly good. Our O-line is O-k. Really the best thing we got going for us is our running game... oh wait. Never mind... Marion "The barbarian" Barber was the first running back to be injured in the new stadium.

Oh, I almost forgot another milestone...

The first game-winning field goal in the new stadium with only a few seconds left - Lawrence Tynes (The Giants)

Giants 33 - Cowboys 31

This better get better...

I walked in a parade today!

There was a parade held today. It was for something called "Cultural Heritage". It really was a parade for all the schools in Harlandale to march in. There was a huge turnout! I got up at 6:30 and got there by 7:40. But we didn't march until 10:15. Ouch! (FYI - the captions are for the photos directly below them)

Here we are staging for the event.

The ladies were incharge of holding up the banners.

Mrs. Cooremans, my principal appears at the front left of this photo. This is on the parade route.This is Mr. Payne (foreground) and Mr. Dawson (in the hat). My new "pals" from work. They are good guys. This is us trudging along the parade route...The man in the center here is Mr. De La Garza. He teaches music and art at Gilbert.Needless to say at the end I was tired and hot and thirsty and hungry.So I left.

Doc Holliday

I love the movie Tombstone, mostly because of Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holliday! Great stuff!!!



Apparently, the movie's portrayal of Doc Holliday was surprisingly accurate in many ways. By the way, here, supposedly, is the only AUTHENTICATED photo of Doc Holliday:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Holliday

Weight Loss

I'm trying to lose weight. Again. It can be a bit depressing, but the reality is, I tend to put on weight fairly easily. I love to eat. I have slimmed down twice in my life. First time in the early 90's I went from 240 lbs. down to 186. The second time was in mid 2003 to mid 2004. Over the course of that year I went from 245 lbs. down to 190. In the 90's I counted calories. The second time I used the Atkins diet. Well, sadly I got back up to 238 ("Eatin' good in the neighborhood"). I have been dieting now for going on 4 weeks. I have lost some weight, but who knows? Its probably just water weight at this point. Anyway, I'm down to 225 lbs. I am feeling better already, and my clothes are fitting better too. My slogan is "Thin by Christmas!" Well... lets see.

Softball update

We played our second game of the season last night [9/15/09] and we won. It was a bit dodgey at first. 3, count 'em, THREE of our best players did not show up. They were our shortstop - Jason, our center fielder - Omar, and our rover - Andrew. We recruited a couple guys from the stands who were ready to play. My brother John, who is off this week, and who came out to watch the game, suddenly found himself playing out in right field. Ha ha! Hey John, heard you thought you were going to sit in the stands and watch the game! He did great considering he hasn't played ball in 20 years or so (he got an RBI). My Dad coached third as usual and did great. Chris, my nephew, played 1st (staring at the sun). And I pitched (knuckleball for a called strike). It was a Walk family affair out there last night. It was great. Sadly, no pictures were taken. Oh well. We won 8 runs to 2.

"Rockin' In The Free World" = WOW!

Check this out. This sucker rocks!!!! Crank it up!!!! Ol' Neil comes out to jam with the E Street band on "Rockin' In The Free World" and boy do they all get into it. Bruce is in rock n roll heaven.



This is the only good thing about the "Vote For Change" tour back in 2004. Great music, legends playing together, and I'll say it again... wow!

Can't crank it up enough!!!!

Jimmy Carter is dangerous

People today think of Jimmy Carter as a washed up old relic of the 70's with no relevance to today. Or perhaps they view him as a kindly old man, even a grandfatherly figure. Nothing could be further from reality. He is a blight on the face of this nation. We are still paying for his mistakes. In many ways, it was his presidency that paved the way for what ultimately happened on 9/11. Tough words? You'll understand why I say that in a moment if you read on. Allow me to explain the truth about Jimmy Carter. Carter's legacy = The rise to prominance of militant Muslims, and the age of terrorism. He loves dictators. He is no fan of Israel. He is a reverse racist. He is an agitator. He represents everything that is wrong about liberalism in action. Carter's meddling in the middle east began when he allowed the Shah of Iran to recieve medical treatment in the USA in October of 1979. This allowed the Ayatolla Khomeini to come to power in Iran. Iran became a hive of virulent anti-west hatred. In March of 1979 Carter had made an attempt to grand-stand a mid-east peace accord. He pressured Israel (under Menachem Begin) and Egypt (under Anwar Sadat) to sign a "peace agreement", which completely destabilized the Arab world, and fomented anti-US sentiment in the mid-east. These acts greatly angered Iran and spawned the first major act of Islamic terrorism against the US. Namely, the Iran hostage crisis in November of 1979. Then, in October of 1981 Anwar Sadat was assassinated because of his percieved chummy relationship with America and Israel. A perception caused by Jimmy Carter's peace photo-op at Camp David. So who was the guy who declared the Fatwa calling for the murder of Sadat? It was Omar Abdel-Rahman. The same guy who 12 years later tried to blow up the World Trade Centers in 1993. When he was rightly jailed for that, he became something of a martyr in the Islamic world inspiring certain terrorists to become more militant. Osama Bin Laden was one of the ones who rose up against the USA, inspired by Rahman. It was because of this that Bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (who had helped fund the 1993 World Trade Center bombings) began hatching new plans for carrying out acts of terrorism against US targets. Each one became more ambitious than the last. They never forgot about the 1993 World Trade Center bombing's failure. So they hatched a more ambitious plan. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed masterminded a brand new and elaborate plan to strike the USA. His plan came to fruition, as we all know, on September 11th, 2001. The world changed forever. Thanks Mr. Carter! Of course we won't mention the fact that Bill Clinton (a.k.a. "Carter II") could have killed or arrested Bin Laden back in 2000 but didn't. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4540958/) And that Slick Willie did nothing to crush Al Queda, instead focusing on Bosnia (!). Here's further reading for those interested in finding out more about Jimmy C's legacy of disaster... http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1018-06.htm http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/12/164726.shtml http://newsblaze.com/story/20071129155644tsop.nb/topstory.html

9/11 tribute

I can't tell you how often I think of that horrible day. It amazes me how in the midst of all that horror, loss, and devastation, there was sacrifice, beauty, honor, heroism, as well as miracles. Here is a tribute to those human angels who found themselves there that day. I thank God for them!



(That one always gets me. Thanks Bruce!)

My YouTube videos...

Here are four music videos with original songs I wrote. Enjoy!

#1 Forgotten Song:

#2 Town Without Mercy:

#3 Highway Called Love:

#4 Silence Says It All:

Favorite Artists

To me the ultimate top musical act of all time is Bruce Springsteen! I think he is the reason music was invented. No, really! I love his music. There are only a tiny fraction of his songs I don't like ("Reno", and uh... guess that's it). So I thought for fun I'd list all those musical acts and artist of which I am enamored. Funny how they all have some kind of Bruce connection somehow or someway. Anyway, here is the list... 

The TOP 5:

01. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 

02. Robert Pollard / Guided By Voices 

03. Bob Dylan 

04. Johnny Cash 

05. Tom Waits 

The Rest: 

06. Neil Young 

07. Bill Mallonee / Vigilantes Of Love 

08. ZZ Top 

09. The Beatles 

10. Elvis Presley (The King!)

11. John Fogerty / Creedence 

12. Robyn Hitchcock 

13. Journey 

14. Beck 

15. U2

16. John Mellencamp 

17. Colin Hay / Men At Work 

18. Warren Zevon 

19. Richard Thompson 

20. Elvis Costello

The rest of the rest: 

21. Steve Earle 

22. Blackfoot / Rick Medlocke 

23. Van Morrison 

24. Boston 

25. Queen 

26. Rush 

27. Lynyrd Skynyrd 

28. April Wine 

29. The Hold Steady 

30. Mark Germino 

31. David Baerwald

After this is a whole cadre of other great acts! In no particular order!! Billy Joel, Oasis, the Verve, Molly Hatchet,  Little Feat, Moxy, Coldplay, Foo Fighters,  and many more... I recommend them all!!!!

Softball Baby

I am an avid softball player. Yep. Softball. Some ignoramouses say that it is only for women. Well, they haven't seen us play. We play softball down here in San Antonio like our lives depended on it. I have played pitcher, right field, center field, rover, catcher, left field... heck, ALL positions. I also love to practice as well. Below is a picture of me practicing. Note how much I look like Babe Ruth. You can't see her, but my wife is out in the field (deep center).

I play softball every Tuesday night in Beorne. Here's a photo from one of our games. It is a photo of me having just been thrown out at 2nd. I'm heading back to the dugout.

Oh yeah, and by the way, there really is a "softball baby". This is Olivia, my great neice. She comes to almost every one of our games! (She is being held by her great grand-dad) She is awesomely precious!

A Good Joke

A guy is trying out for a position as a cop in a small Texas town. The interviewer says...

"If you want the job, then I want you to go out and kill 5 gangbangers, 5 terrorists, 5 neo-Nazis, and 5 poodles."

The guy says "Poodles? Why kill poodles?"

The interviewer says "Congratulations. You got the job!"

Bruuuce! Come back to Texas!

OPEN LETTER TO MR. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN:

Hey Bruce, is there any way you could set up a swing through Texas before you call it quits this tour? Could you come back to Austin? You know how much we love you down here. Or what about San Antonio? You haven't played here since 1978. We could put you in the Alamo Dome! I bet you could fill it up! Please Bruce... come back to Texas!

Poor Patrick Swayze has passed on

The guy had no real connection to Bruce, but he did record a hit song, and they both appeared on Saturday Night Live. So why am I mentioning him here? Because I liked him. He was a nice guy. Mainly because of this appearance with Chris Farley on SNL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgEVUWIwNLw Awesome! Sad, these two men are reunited in death. So so young. I didn't write the following article. I swiped it from a BBC news article on the internet. Sums it all up nicely though. God bless Mr. Swayze! I'm sorry you had to go... ========================================= Dirty Dancing film star Patrick Swayze has died aged 57, his publicist says. Annett Wolf said that the US actor, who had been battling pancreatic cancer for nearly two years, died with family at his side on Monday. Swayze was diagnosed with advanced stage four pancreatic cancer in January last year. The actor had been starring in US TV show The Beast since being diagnosed with the disease. He had also planned to write a memoir with his wife. Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace "Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement by Annett Wolf quoted by the Associated Press. No other details were given. Rest of the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8256033.stm