Smeagol the Regal Beagle

My nephew Zach's new pup

More stifling of dissent in Bush's America.
Michelle Malkin reports that the good people over at Talking Points Memo are calling for David Broder to resign.
Did he call Rosie a nappy headed ho? Assist Mike Nifong in the Duke lacrosse prosecution? Write Rudy's alleged speech saying a Democrat President would mean another 9-11?
Naw. he just compared Harry Reid to Alberto Gonzales.
The TPM folks figure if he isn't senile, he must have been bribed or blackmailed.

By the way, I went to college with Mr. Gonzales. He was pretty quiet but one of the less geeky kids in a very geeky student body. If I were he, I'd be offended by Broder's column.

Last Sunday's run

The GW Parkway classic 1o miler. A perfect day to run and a personal record:
1:22:22
I'm obnoxiously proud.

There is evil in the world...

Shortly after President Kennedy’s assassination, two Washington journalists ran into each other.
“We’ll never laugh again, “ one said.
“Oh, of course we’ll laugh again," responded the second. “But we’ll never be young again.”

For most of us who live in the First World, life is mostly good. Few of us worry about having a roof over our heads, or enough food to eat, or finding a decent job. And for most of us, no matter how much we complain, our Government really is there to help us.
Yet each of us has a time when we finally become adults- when we discover that while the world we live in is full of joy, there is also pain, and sometimes evil. For some this discovery is individual - a parent or child is suddenly struck by illness or death. For American society, every few years we are reminded of the evil in the world, and know that we will never be young again.

I’m a Christian, but more rational than mystic. Yet I find it unnerving how the Biblical stories of Jesus casting out demons track with what anecdotal knowledge I have of mental illness. Why do schizophrenics hear voices telling them not to take their medication?
Eighteen months ago the Virginia Tech shooter disturbed enough people that he was referred to a hospital. Upon his release, by all accounts he stopped his behavior- he hid inside himself, giving no warning of his madness, until Monday April 16.
What do we do when faced with the evil of a Tim McVeigh or Mohammed Atta, a Charles Whitman or Seung Hui Cho? Curling up in a fetal position on the couch, or finding solace at the bottom of the ice cream carton or the gin bottle, is tempting. Where can you find safety if comfortable suburbia is Columbine, and bucolic rural academia is Blacksburg?
For myself and my family, we try to live in faith, not fear; to go out each day and use our skills and talents in the best way we can; to know that while there is evil in the world, there is also great good.
Some days that is easier to do than others.

A last thought: Tom Mauser, whose 15 year old son Daniel died at Columbine High School, observes in today’s Washington Post:

I think it is important to avoid referring to the killer by name or
ethnicity. He should be simply "the killer." He should be afforded no special
recognition, for he deserves none. Instead, the names of the victims should be
mentioned often, and their loss should never be forgotten. We best honor them by
celebrating their lives, reading about their accomplishments and doing good
things in their name.

In memoriam
Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, Saugus MA
Jamie Bishop, 25, Blacksburg VA
Brian Bluhm, 25, Cedar Rapids IA
Ryan C. Clark, 22, Columbia County GA
Austin Cloyd, 18, Blacksburg VA
Jocelyn Couture- Nowak, 49, Blacksburg VA
Kevin Granata, 46, Blacksburg VA
Matthew G. Gwaltney, 24, Chester VA
Caitlin Hammaren, 19, Middletown NY
Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, Bellefonte PA
Rachael Elizabeth Hill, 18, Richmond VA
Emily Jane Hilscher, 19, Woodville VA
Jarrett Lee Lane, 22, Narrows VA
Matthew J. LaPorte, 20, Dumont NJ
Henry Lee, 20, Roanoke VA
Liviu Librescu, 76, Blacksburg VA
G.V. Loganathan, 51, Blacksburg VA
Partahi Lumbantoruan, 34, Indonesia
Lauren McCain, 20, Hampton VA
Daniel Patrick O’Neil, 22, Lincoln RI
Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Minal Panchal, 26, Mumbai, India
Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, Woodbridge VA
Erin Peterson, 18, Fairfax County VA
Michael Pohle, 23, Flemington NJ
Julia Pryde, 23, Middletown NJ
Mary Read, 19, Fairfax County VA
Reema Samaha, 18, Fairfax County VA
Waleed Shaalan, 32, Zagazig, Egypt
Leslie Sherman, 20, Fairfax County VA
Maxine Turner, 22, Vienna VA
Nicole R. White, 20, Smithfield VA

May God grant peace to their families and friends and to the Virginia Tech community.

If I ever meet you in public, you will need a new nose, lots of beefsteak for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below. You are a guttersnipe!

So said President Harry S. Truman to music critic Paul Hume, in response to Hume's review of Margaret Truman's singing.

The Rutgers women's basketball team will meet with Don Imus. Why? To mete out the punishment Truman considered? Doubtful. No, the team has been "physically and emotionally spent and hurt" by Imus's remarks. Imus apologized. Does the team expect more contrition? Hugs?
Call his sponsors. Tell them that you won't buy products that support a man who entertains his audience by insulting others. Then get on wth your life.
He called you mean names. He's a gutter snipe. You're on the Rutgers womens' basketball team that played at the natonal championship. Unless it's on a basketball court, why meet with him?

About ten years ago a local professor noted that while discrimination does still exist in America, he tells his students

You say you're oppressed? You're not oppressed. You're at Georgetown.

Nicholas Cage, Al Gore, and the Masonic conspiracy.
Much attention has been given to the pervasive Masonic influence on the U.S. government; and recent investigations have revealed the mysterious Masonic symbols at Denver International Airport. See, for example, this and this feeble effort to refute current investigations.

Surprisingly, there is little awareness of the Masonic artifacts around the Washington DC area, or their relationship to the ongoing power struggle between the Masons and their foes: the Wilsonian Democrats, the British royal family, and the Zionist Occupation Government. Much investigation remains to be done, and the full story is too dangerous to disseminate publicly, but a few highlights can be provided:
First there are the Forty Masonic Boundary stones, set in place when the District of Columbia was surveyed in 1791 and 1792.

On each stone, the side facing the District of Columbia displayed the
inscription "Jurisdiction of the United States and a mile number. … The third
and fourth sides displayed the year in which the stone was placed …and the
magnetic compass variance at that place.

These stones, placed in accordance with the Masonic ritual derived from ancient Druidic and Egyptian lore, generate a powerful magnetic field which focuses the earth’s energy within the District of Columbia. This focused energy field, controlled by the Masons, assured the country’s growth and power for over 200 years and enabled the Masons to maintain their control over the government.

For reasons not yet known, (perhaps the effort to "protect" the remaining stones by enclosing them in steel cages; the steel cage acts as a Faraday box, diverting the stones’ electromagnetic energy into the ground and reducing the energy field they collectively generate), by the late 19th century several of the stones were lost or deteriorating, leading to a decline in the Mason’s influence, and resulting in the election of Woodrow Wilson, who plunged America into war with Germany, the heirs of the Knights Templar tradition, on the side of the British royal family.

Attempting to re- exert control, the Masons in 1922 constructed in Alexandria Virginia the so called “George Washington Masonic Memorial”, a replica of the Great Lighthouse at Alexandria Egypt. This structure, only 200 feet outside the original boundary, enhances and focused the stones’ energy and also serves as a control tower for the Masons’ activities.

















National Treasure, the 2004 Nicolas Cage movie, was a largely factual account of Masonic influence. The sequel, now being filmed, may reveal more of the Masonic secrets. It will include scenes filmed at the “George Washington Masonic Memorial”:

the Alexandria shoot is being kept super hush-hush. …"It's very exciting," said George Seghers, director of the temple. …this is the first Hollywood movie to be filmed here. But I can't say much more than that.”

The struggle between the Masons and the ZOG/ British royal family has continued for the last 90 years. In 1961 the Woodrow Wilson Bridge was constructed almost on top of the southern boundary stone at Jones Point Park- the site of the original lighthouse at Alexandria. A replacement for the bridge, now under construction, is even closer to the lighthouse and to the remaining southern boundary stone, one of the most powerful due to its corner location, and now also threatened by rising water of the tidal Potomac due to alleged “global warming.”

Many questions remain.
What is the connection between the Carlyle House in Old Town Alexandria, a few blocks from the Masonic Memorial, and the Carlyle Group, a known front organization for the British?

Why were Gavrilo Princip, Lynette Fromme, and John Hinckley all carrying postcards from the Masonic Memorial when apprehended after the assassination attempts on Archduke Ferdinand, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan?

Is Al Gore’s campaign against global warming an effort to save the southern boundary stone- or a red herring to distract attention?

The blogosphere has focused more attention to the ongoing Masonic- British conflict and their insidious influence. Both liberal and conservative blog readers have taken notice. A recent post at Little Green Footballs noted :

“Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide” -- W. Wilson
I would say the same about the Goracle, but he is too friggin' busy
invoking the Global Warming Druids moonbats who while away their time seeking Masonic symbolism underneath the Denver International Airport cubby holes. This, combined with their obsessive need to link anything, and everything, to a supposed Zog uberconspiracy.

An Iranian hostage recalls his time in Teheran.
Via Tigerhawk (who adds a good story from Guests of the Ayatollah.)
God bless the USMC.

Former President James Earl Carter, 82, received the Ridenhour "Courage Prize" yesterday at the National Press Club as the latest Iranian hostage crisis was wrapping up.

"As a matter of fact, I went through the same ordeal earlier," he told a British questioner with a smile. "Four-hundred forty days instead of 16 days -- but all of our hostages came home safe and free, also."

The moment that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.


Seems I'm listening to a bad oldies radio station.

April 2008, Nancy Pelosi in Damascus

Israel is ready to engage in peace talks... Mr Assad is ready to resume the
peace process as well

Where have I seen this movie before? 1938. Munich. Neville Chamberlain.

Peace in our time.

Things are different inside the Beltway.
As Congress goes through the latest iteration of debate over Congressional representation for District of Columbia residents, I could argue the merits of various plans, from full statehood to retrocession. But I’d like to propose a slightly different outlook.

I lived in Texas and Arkansas until I was past thirty. I’ve lived in Northern Virginia, inside the Beltway, for almost twenty years now. I can assure you, things are indeed different inside the Beltway.

Washington’s proximity affects its suburbs. The Northern Virginia suburbs care little about what happens south of the Rappahannock; the rest of the Old Dominion returns the sentiments. Northern Virginia, year after year, sends more money and gets fewer services back from Richmond than other parts of the state.

In Texas, if you are interested in politics, you work in local campaigns. Maybe you run for city council or the legislature. After a term or two you move up to state senate or Congress, or maybe Governor. (Unless, of course, you’ve been managing the Texas Rangers.)

If you grow up in, or attend college in, or move to Arlington Virginia, and you’re interested in politics, you get a job on Capitol Hill. If you’re a policy wonk you work your way up through EPA or Justice. If you’re a smart lawyer with good connections you lobby on K Street. The best politicians in northern Virginia don’t go into local politics.

DC residents routinely complain, with good reason, that Congress interferes in what limited self government the District is allowed. But Congress interferes in suburban Virginia and Maryland government, too; usually with the approval of the local Congressional constituencies. It’s not just the amazing amounts of funding that local lawmakers direct to the DC suburbs; (my congressman, Jim Moran, was asked at a neighborhood forum in January about earmark reform. He responded that he was proud of the projects he brings to the 8th District.) Nor is it the support that local Congressmen give to their constituents, many of whom are government employees. (A top priority: make sure the District never institutes an income tax on commuters.) Again and again, local transportation and land use issues that anywhere else would be solved at a local or state level, here are decided in Congress.

I. Imagine you are a Civil War buff. A local developer is building a mall on private land adjacent to a nearby Civil War battlefield park. The County zoning board has approved the project, despite the protests of historic preservationists. What do you do?
Well, if the project is on the outskirts of Atlanta or Nashville you are probably out of luck. If it is 1988 and the project is William Center in Manassas Virginia, you mobilize preservation and conservation groups in Washington, 30 miles east. You marshal your supporters on Capitol Hill, organize a nationwide media campaign, and in a few months Congress buys the site for $134 million. The developer walks away a richer man; the County loses $23 million in annual tax revenues; local residents have 800 acres more open space, paid for by their fellow Americans, most of whom will never set foot on it.

II. In 1992, Virginia governor Doug Wilder and Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke announced plans for a new football stadium on an abandoned railroad yard in Alexandria. The deal had been arranged quietly by the Governor, with no local input. The response by local residents was quick.
“I work in the EPA. They will never get the permits to clean the site up.”
“I’m on (Tenth District Congressman) Tom Davis’s staff. We’ll kill this on the Hill.”

It took six weeks for Cooke and Wilder to abandon their plans.

III. Dulles Airport, 25 mile west, connects to DC by the Dulles Access Road. The road’s sole use is airport access; once you get on it, just inside the Beltway, you can’t exit until you reach the airport. In the late 80’s Congress allowed Virginia to build a toll road in the right of way, parallel but without connections to the access road, to serve the burgeoning suburbs. Several years later, as growing traffic clogged the toll road, the State proposed allowing carpools to use the access road. Congress vetoed the plan: increased traffic on the access road might reduce easy access to the airport. For some reason, Congress is less concerned with easy access between downtown LA and LAX.

Yes, things are different in DC. I’ve always believed the Constitution bars Congressional representation for DC, to prevent local residents from exerting undue influence on the Federal government. It makes sense, then, that the solution to DC voting rights is to give the residents of the DC suburbs the same rights as DC residents. Make Alexandria city and Fairfax, Arlington, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties part of the Federal enclave.

Back on the road after a week's hiatus- 3.5 miles, 29:15. Nice morning, cool, high 50's. Ran into a neighbor with whom I used to work - we're not even casual acquantances but our paths collide every six months or so; we did the 30 second update.
A benefit to living in the same house for over 16 years: You don't know everyone around you but you recognize a lot of the folks you see day to day.