Why We Don't See Hamas Fighters in Action
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
Hat tip Algemeiner
Isn't it odd that every time Israel goes into a period of fighting against Hamas in Gaza or Hizbollah in Lebanon, Western journalists are there and are recording all those scenes we see of civilians who have been killed and injured in the fighting, but we rarely, if ever, see scenes of Hamas or Hizbollah fighters in action? Of course, as we know, that would involve showing them fighting from pockets of civilian populations or launching rockets from schools, mosques or hospitals. Why is it we never see that? We don't even see scenes of these guys in the streets firing away at Israeli troops. Why not? The journalists are there.
Maybe this report from Algemeiner will help shed light on that question.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/31/spanish-journalist-on-why-hamas-never-photographed-in-action-if-ever-we-dared-point-our-camera-on-them-they-would-simply-shoot-at-us-and-kill-us/
Isn't it time that the Western media come clean about how Hamas is fighting this war-as they have fought previous wars- from the middle of their civilians? Why is it that our own leaders cannot publicly acknowledge that fact? Today, President Obama's new press secretary, Josh Earnest, condemned Israel for the latest rocket that killed civilians even before we know who actually fired the rocket. Where is the condemnation of Hamas using its people as shields for their fighters and weapons? Why does our government and media try to make a moral equivalence between our democratic ally and a terrorist organization? Why is it that in Western counties that enjoy freedom of the press and speech, we can't get an honest accounting of the circumstances that lead to civilian Palestinian deaths?
Maybe the Spanish journalist has provided the answer as to why we never see images of the Hamas fighters in action.
The Savagery is there for the world to see
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
From the horrors in Iraq and Syria to the violence in the streets of European cities, the burning of Jewish stores, the attacks on synagogues, and calls for Jewish blood, the world has been getting a steady diet of Islamic violence for years now, and it is only getting worse. The last remaining Christians are being killed or driven out of majority Muslim lands. The Jews in Israel are only safe from a second Holocaust because they are militarily strong enough to crush their Arab enemies. Jews in Europe are not so lucky. Their situation now is reminiscent of Europe in the late 1930s. It is not so much the native Europeans who are tormenting them as it is the large and restive Muslim populations, but the Europeans are guilty because they are tolerating the outrages.
Meanwhile, Muslim radicals like Anjem Choudary in the UK are loudly promising to establish an Islamic caliphate that will take over Europe and establish Islamic law under Sharia. Yet, much like Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and early 1930s, nobody wants to take these characters at their word. Political correctness is the order of the day. It is so much more comfortable to just maintain that they have hijacked their religion.
They have not hijacked anything. What they are doing is implementing Islam as a political ideology as it was always meant to be since the days of Mohammad. Islam was never designed to live in harmony with other religions at least after Mohammad was driven from Mecca to Medina. It was meant to conquer and to dominate. The so-called moderate Muslims cannot step up and challenge the Islamists head on. Why not?
For one thing, they know that they would lose the theological debate. When you delve into the Koran and the hadiths and the life of the Prophet, it is the Yusuf al Qaradawis of the world who have it exactly right.
Unlike our stealth jihadists and so-called moderate imams in the US like Muzammil Siddiqi, who hide behind a veneer of gentleness and inter-faith events, Qaradawi sits in Qatar and openly expresses his hatred for the Jews and his desire to die fighting the infidel, He openly says that Islam must continue to enforce the death penalty for apostates or it would not survive. Qaradawi is one of the most esteemed Islamic scholars in the Islamic world. He is also the spiritual mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, his native country. And since he does not live in the West, he doesn't have to worry about offending anybody.
Secondly, peaceful Muslims risk death if they really stand up and fight against the Jihadists and the Islamists. They risk being declared apostates and blasphemers if they argue against what is written in the texts.
Yet the Muzammil Siddiqis of the world keep telling us that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance not withstanding the daily horrors that go on around the world and the thousands of deaths that continue to pile up. As I have said repeatedly, most Muslims live their lives peacefully and can get along with non-Muslims at least in countries in which they are the minority. But if Islam is truly a religion of peace, which we would like to believe, why all the violence and hatred toward Jews and Christians?
Why are Sunnis and Shia killing each other over who should have been the rightful successor to Mohammad when he died in the 7th century?
Why is it a crime punishable by death to leave Islam or to criticize it?
At what point do we say, "Sorry all you decent peaceful Muslims, but we have to call it what it is."
We also have to call the current crisis in Gaza and the reaction to it for what it is. It is unbridled Jew hatred, no matter how much they deny it. Here in the US, they feel they have to deny it. Instead, they say they are "anti-Zionist". Hogwash. They will not accept Israel because it is Jewish.
And look at the protests we see all over the world. While pro-Israel demonstrators are peaceful and hold Israeli flags and their own national flags, the pro-Palestinian protesters hold Palestinian flags and even the flags of Jihad, Hamas or Hezbollah. In Berlin, they shout, "Jews to the Gas Chambers." And more often than not they are violent. They cannot control themselves.
I know there are so many decent and peaceful Muslims who are embarrassed by all this. However, they almost all remain silent. I fervently hope that they do not suffer backlash just for being Muslim. That is against what we stand for here in America. However, we cannot remain silent for risk of offending them. Their silence or their excuses and explanations have made them irrelevant to the issue that must be discussed. We must speak out against this savagery, and we must not be afraid to explain why these things are happening. We should not be tolerating this is our own countries. As far as those countries where Islam rules, they should be isolated by the rest of the world. No trade. No relations. No immigration. No aid. No nothing until the madness stops.
That would be truly protecting the human rights of our own people.
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
From the horrors in Iraq and Syria to the violence in the streets of European cities, the burning of Jewish stores, the attacks on synagogues, and calls for Jewish blood, the world has been getting a steady diet of Islamic violence for years now, and it is only getting worse. The last remaining Christians are being killed or driven out of majority Muslim lands. The Jews in Israel are only safe from a second Holocaust because they are militarily strong enough to crush their Arab enemies. Jews in Europe are not so lucky. Their situation now is reminiscent of Europe in the late 1930s. It is not so much the native Europeans who are tormenting them as it is the large and restive Muslim populations, but the Europeans are guilty because they are tolerating the outrages.
Meanwhile, Muslim radicals like Anjem Choudary in the UK are loudly promising to establish an Islamic caliphate that will take over Europe and establish Islamic law under Sharia. Yet, much like Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and early 1930s, nobody wants to take these characters at their word. Political correctness is the order of the day. It is so much more comfortable to just maintain that they have hijacked their religion.
They have not hijacked anything. What they are doing is implementing Islam as a political ideology as it was always meant to be since the days of Mohammad. Islam was never designed to live in harmony with other religions at least after Mohammad was driven from Mecca to Medina. It was meant to conquer and to dominate. The so-called moderate Muslims cannot step up and challenge the Islamists head on. Why not?
For one thing, they know that they would lose the theological debate. When you delve into the Koran and the hadiths and the life of the Prophet, it is the Yusuf al Qaradawis of the world who have it exactly right.
Unlike our stealth jihadists and so-called moderate imams in the US like Muzammil Siddiqi, who hide behind a veneer of gentleness and inter-faith events, Qaradawi sits in Qatar and openly expresses his hatred for the Jews and his desire to die fighting the infidel, He openly says that Islam must continue to enforce the death penalty for apostates or it would not survive. Qaradawi is one of the most esteemed Islamic scholars in the Islamic world. He is also the spiritual mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, his native country. And since he does not live in the West, he doesn't have to worry about offending anybody.
Secondly, peaceful Muslims risk death if they really stand up and fight against the Jihadists and the Islamists. They risk being declared apostates and blasphemers if they argue against what is written in the texts.
Yet the Muzammil Siddiqis of the world keep telling us that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance not withstanding the daily horrors that go on around the world and the thousands of deaths that continue to pile up. As I have said repeatedly, most Muslims live their lives peacefully and can get along with non-Muslims at least in countries in which they are the minority. But if Islam is truly a religion of peace, which we would like to believe, why all the violence and hatred toward Jews and Christians?
Why are Sunnis and Shia killing each other over who should have been the rightful successor to Mohammad when he died in the 7th century?
Why is it a crime punishable by death to leave Islam or to criticize it?
At what point do we say, "Sorry all you decent peaceful Muslims, but we have to call it what it is."
We also have to call the current crisis in Gaza and the reaction to it for what it is. It is unbridled Jew hatred, no matter how much they deny it. Here in the US, they feel they have to deny it. Instead, they say they are "anti-Zionist". Hogwash. They will not accept Israel because it is Jewish.
And look at the protests we see all over the world. While pro-Israel demonstrators are peaceful and hold Israeli flags and their own national flags, the pro-Palestinian protesters hold Palestinian flags and even the flags of Jihad, Hamas or Hezbollah. In Berlin, they shout, "Jews to the Gas Chambers." And more often than not they are violent. They cannot control themselves.
I know there are so many decent and peaceful Muslims who are embarrassed by all this. However, they almost all remain silent. I fervently hope that they do not suffer backlash just for being Muslim. That is against what we stand for here in America. However, we cannot remain silent for risk of offending them. Their silence or their excuses and explanations have made them irrelevant to the issue that must be discussed. We must speak out against this savagery, and we must not be afraid to explain why these things are happening. We should not be tolerating this is our own countries. As far as those countries where Islam rules, they should be isolated by the rest of the world. No trade. No relations. No immigration. No aid. No nothing until the madness stops.
That would be truly protecting the human rights of our own people.
How the Saudis Are Covering the War
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
-Arab News
Protest in Berlin
The Saudi English news organ, Arab News has an article covering the fighting in Gaza, which unsurprisingly "tilts" to the Palestinian narrative, you might say. Note the accompanying photo which is from a pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin.
http://www.arabnews.com/news/605446
As for the photo, this is not only an image that conjures up the old anti-Semitic canard that Jews kill and devour the blood of Gentile children, but it is also reminiscent of the notorious anti-Jewish weekly from Nazi Germany, "Der Stuermer", whose editor was none other than the infamous Jew-baiter of Nuremberg, Julius Streicher.
Well, somewhere the executed Nazi must be smiling to see an image like that back in Germany.
Images like that are commonplace in the Arab world even in the mainstream media. However, in Germany, Nazi or Nazi-like images are illegal. One would hope that the justice minister in Germany would take a close look at that image and compare it to the one immediately above.
Non-pilot to be new commander of US Air Force in Pacific
It is deeply troubling that a command such as this would be given to someone who is NOT a pilot. Was she the BEST one qualified for this command or did she get the command just because she has a vagina? What a shame she is not a minority vagina, queer, lesbian transgender or gender neutral confused stupid. Then this would have been a grand slam promotion.
Did you find that the first lines offensive or insulting? Tough, if you did and if you agree with me, even better. At least it tells me, us, that you are paying attention.
Gen. Robinson has served as a Battle Manager and this is not in the same league as a career pilot. Perhaps I am off on this one or maybe you think I should just shut the hell up because what does PatriotUSA know about this?
Like I really care what YOU might think of me or my opinion? This promotion is nothing more than political correctness fueled by affirmative action and the push to 'diversify' our military at any and all costs. What does it matter if some servicemen, servicewomen or innocent civilians get killed on Gen. Robinson's watch because of her lacking the proper hands on experience that can only come from being a pilot?
My opinion might be not so hostile if Gen. Robinson was a pilot with years of experience, but she is not. The promotion of Gen. Robinson is just the latest move by the Obama regime to gut our military under the guise of diversity and progress. Just like having Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.
You have indeed, come a long way, baby. All the way to the front line so you ladies now have the chance to be killed in combat along with men.
I fear this promotion will not end well especially when one takes into consideration the 'tranquil world' Obama has helped create and takes full credit for.
PatriotUSA
From Consortium of Defense Analysts.
*******************
Non-pilot to be new commander of US Air Force in Pacific
Instead of achievement or performance criteria, the U. S. military under Obama is making personnel decisions based on political criteria of “diversity.”The latest case in point:
Although all previous Air Force combatant commanders in active large theaters of operation — the Pacific, Europe and Central Command — have been combat pilots, for the first time a non-career pilot has been nominated to be Commander of the U. S. Air Force in the Pacific.
She is Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson who, although she’s had more than 900 flight hours, is not a career or combat pilot.
Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson
The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation.
The Pentagon announced this week that Air Force Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation.
Officials said pilots historically have commanded Air Force war-fighting components for the Pacific and for U.S. Air Forces Europe; Air Forces Central, which covers the Middle East and Afghanistan; and the 1st Air Force, which is part of Northern Command and protects U.S. skies.
Gen. Robinson is not a career pilot. Her military profession is air battle manager. She has served aboard the Air Force’s surveillance aircraft, the E-3 AWACs and E-8 JSTARS, and she was nominated for a promotion amid a drive for more diversity in the Pentagon.
A retired pilot said there is a reason the Air Force historically has put a pilot in charge of large combatant command Air Forces.
“It is because you make operational decisions that require the understanding of what you are going to ask pilots to execute in combat where the wrong decisions mean the difference between life and death,” the retired pilot said. “Now her vice commander and director of operations will be rated fighter pilots, but still she makes the decisions.”
Rose Richeson, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said, “The Air Force operates across three domains: air, space and cyberspace and provides capability and capacity in five core mission areas: Air and Space Superiority, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Rapid Global Mobility, Global Strike and Command and Control. Lt. Gen. Robinson has demonstrated knowledge and experience across the entire spectrum of these mission areas as well as recent operational application supporting coalition activities for United States Central Command.”
Gen. Robinson is now vice commander of Air Force Air Combat Command, which oversees the service’s fleet of bombers and fighters, and maintains readiness.
In the Pacific, she is replacing Gen. Herbert Carlisle, a career F-15 pilot who is assuming leadership of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
An Air Combat Command spokesman said career air battle managers, such as Gen. Robinson, “principally provide command and control in the battle space and aid combat aircraft in finding, identifying and engaging their targets. They provide pilots with a tactical picture, which increases their capability by enhancing situational awareness. ABMs also provide early warning for inbound enemy aircraft and direct friendly assets to intercept them.”
The Air Combat Command history office and Air Force representatives said all previous Air Force combatant commanders in active large theaters of operation — the Pacific, Europe and Central Command — have been combat pilots.
However, Gen. Robinson would not be the first female officer to command an Air Force component. From 2010 to 2012, Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, a career transport pilot, commanded the 17th Air Force, which was then the Air Force component for Africa Command. She led the air campaign against Libya in 2011. The 17th was disbanded in 2012. Today, a career F-15 pilot commands Air Forces Europe and Africa.
A career navigator heads U.S. Special Operations Command Air Forces. That component operates AC-130 gunships, drones, transports and other aircraft, but does not conduct air campaigns.
Gen. Robinson was nominated amid a diversity push by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and a general focus on women’s issues by the White House. Mr. Hagel has vowed to stamp out sexual assaults in the military and said he is open to studying whether transgender people are permitted to serve.
The military also is preparing to put women in direct land combat units.
The Navy promoted its first woman this month to four-star rank: Adm. Michelle J. Howard, a surface warship commander, to vice chief of naval operations, the Navy’s second-ranking officer. The Air Force promoted its first woman to four-star rank in 2012, when Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger took over Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The Army’s first female four-star general, Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody, has retired.
To observers, the twin moves to promote a woman to vice chief of naval operations and to place a woman in charge of a major combatant command Air Force means that female officers are destined to be elevated to the six-member Joint Chiefs of Staff, which comprises the four service chiefs, a chairman and a vice chairman.
Women make up 14.5 percent of the active force but only a small percentage of combat pilots, 21 years after the Pentagon lifted the ban on women in those jobs. Of 3,714 Air Force fighter and bomber pilots last year, 85 — or about 2 percent — were women at the rank of lieutenant colonel and below.
See also:
- Obama admin actively recruits transgenders for the military
- Former Air Force captain sounds alarm on crisis in U.S. military
- U.S. Air Force flunked defense of nuclear missile silo against simulated attack
- US Marine Corps commandant openly blasts CIC Obama
- Obama’s Pentagon lays off thousands of military officers, incl. active duty
- Obama admin to reduce US military to pre-WWII level
Source is here.
Tags: U.S. Military under Obama, Weakness from diversity, Affirmative action, Women in combat, U.S. Air Force, Air Battle Manager, U.S. Air Force Pacific, U.S. Air Force Pilot, Combat readiness, Chuck Hagel, Liberal lies, Progressive regressive behavior, Ruination of America from within To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the Patriot's Corner. Thanks!
Time to Stand With the Jewish People
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
I believe strongly that we in the West should stand with Israel in its hour of danger. However, regardless of where you stand on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, decent people everywhere must recognize that the Jewish people are in danger-not just in Israel, but almost everywhere.
What we witnessed this past weekend in Paris was nothing short of a pogrom carried out mostly by France's Muslim inhabitants. Outraged over Gaza? It was merely a pretext to act out their ingrained Jew hatred.
Even in ever-progressive Los Angeles, a Palestinian woman was quoted Sunday as saying that Hitler had a reason to kill 6 million Jews. Why are we importing sentiments like that into our country?
But even if you argue that Israel is to blame for the conflict (which I profoundly disagree with), how does that condone attacking innocent Jews on the streets of European cities and attacking synagogues with Molotov cocktails?
In Malmo, Sweden, a city I have written about often, the ex-mayor essentially told the city's Jews that they were welcome to leave if they didn't like the way they were being treated on the streets by Malmo's ever-restive Muslim minority (about 25% of the population). Mayor Ilmar Reepalu was upset with the Jews in Malmo because they didn't condemn Israel-a nation Reepalu hates with a passion.
World events should never be an excuse to single out minorities identified with a certain nation. We have learned that from our mistaken relocation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast during World War 2. To our credit, even after 9-11, mosques are not being attacked, and Muslims are not being assaulted on the streets as Jews are in Europe. Sure, there have been isolated incidents, but our legal system deals with them.
But one really wonders how strenuously European police pursue those who attack Jews. In France, it is open season on them, reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the years running up to WW2. As a result, they are leaving countries like France and Sweden in droves, mostly to Israel. In an era when we are supposed to be sensitive to minorities, how can this disgraceful situation exist? In effect, anti-Semitism is once again fashionable-not just on the part of rednecks, white supremacists, and uneducated people, but among those who should know better. And rather than combating it, our universities have become a focal point for it.
No matter how strong Israel may be militarily and economically, I am not so optimistic that they will survive another ten years. The so-called international community is hostile to them even though they are the only democracy in the Middle East. Why?
Because they are intimidated by the screaming mobs and their political and diplomatic leaders, rich with oil and always willing to spill blood-our blood.
If Israel is ever overrun, watch the bloodbath ensue. Those who survive by getting out will become persecuted minorities once again. They are the inconvenient people because many think that if they go away we will all live in peace with Islamic world. Wrong. The Jews are the proverbial canary in the coal mine, and if they go, the rest of us are next on the list of the jihadists.
Look around the world. Muslims are in conflict with everyone including themselves. The people who were running amok and attacking Jews in Paris Sunday are the same people who are attacking Christians in the Middle East. What difference does it make if the alligator eats the Jews or the Christians first?
We should stand with the Jewish people because their enemy is our enemy and because it is simply the moral thing to do.
The Four Horsemen of the American Apocalypse
Simply stated yet burns deep within me and so many others.
"I will never surrender, I will never give up nor will I bow down to tyranny, foreign or domestic. Let my blood run in the street to preserve freedom and American Exceptionalism for our children" PatriotUSA
From samiam60
******************
Source is here.
Tags: America, USA, United States, AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, REPUBLIC, FOUNDING FATHERS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the Patriot's Corner. Thanks!
"I will never surrender, I will never give up nor will I bow down to tyranny, foreign or domestic. Let my blood run in the street to preserve freedom and American Exceptionalism for our children" PatriotUSA
From samiam60
******************
The Four Horsemen of the American Apocalypse
It is a sad day in America when
all that can be written about is the sad state of American Apathy at a
time when America needs Patriotism more than ever. The fact is America
has been in a steep decline for more than a decade and there is no sign
that the indifference we see from day to day is about to change.
What will it take to Wake up this Country?
Why is it that the American people
always seem to wait until disaster strikes before they unite and rally
for our national cause. I’m thinking of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 to site a
couple of instances in which the American people came together in an
effort to fight for our common causes of…
I have to admit that there have
been times when I have been tempted to throw in the towel and walk away
from this burning desire to see America restored to her former glory,
but something deep within me fights to keep that flame burning.
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Don’t let that Flame Die
Source is here.
Tags: America, USA, United States, AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, REPUBLIC, FOUNDING FATHERS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the Patriot's Corner. Thanks!
Massive Show of Support in LA For Israel Marred by Palestinian Violence
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
Hat tip LA Jewish Journal
Today a crowd of what I would estimate in the thousands turned out in front of the Federal Building in West Los Angeles waving American and Israel flags in a loud show of support for Israel. I was there and took pictures and video (Video to follow). There was also a crowd of several dozen pro-Palestinians waving Palestinian flags. LAPD and security kept the pro-Palestinians on the north side of Wilshire Blvd. while the pro-Israel crowd dominated the south side and adjacent corners. There was one incident of violence on the part of the pro-Palestinians and some arrests were made. It has not been one hundred per cent conformed yet, but it appears that a DHS officer fired a shot at the fleeing suspects.
Sometime after five o'clock, we heard what sounded like a gunshot coming from the south side of Wilshire where most of the Israel crowd was lined up along the curb. Police converged at the scene and moments later two squad cars with lights and sirens proceeded east on Wilshire where they stopped a grey pickup truck. Here is how the LA Jewish Journal reported it. They have a video of the incident, and what appears to be a shot can be heard as the vehicle takes off.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/la_pro_israel_rally_interrupted_by_violence
According to witnesses I talked to, all of the occupants of the truck except the driver came out of the truck and began throwing sticks and a tire iron into the crowd before climbing back into the truck. Other witnesses said a DHS officer was struck by a tire iron and fired a shot at the fleeing suspects. Initial reports are that four Palestinians who reside in Anaheim have been arrested. I should also note that other witnesses said fire crackers were thrown into the street. As you can imagine, accounts are all over the place. I was able to observe the suspect vehicle near the corner of Wilshire and Westwood after the suspects had been removed.
The atmosphere was definitely tense, and at times one or two of the pro-Israel or pro-Palestinians tried to cross the street to provoke the other side. Police and security kept them from succeeding. There were also a lot of motorists driving down Wilshire with Israeli flags and honking and a few Palestinian supporters as well doing the same.
All in all, I must say that with all the other demonstrations going on around the US and the world, LA did its part to send a massive show of support to Israel. By the way, I disagree with the Journal's crowd estimates. At the most I would say there were 70-80 pro-Palestinians and two-three thousand pro-Israel supporters. It was loud; it was festive, and the good guys carried the day. I will post the videos I took tomorrow.
Kudos to the Israel American Council and Stand With Us who organized it.
Going to the dogs.....
 |
| Not your mother's Greyhound |
Sorry to disappoint those who thought I might have died or met with an 'unfortunate' accident.
I am around, very much alive and on the road back to becoming 'well' again. Well is a relative term and as long as we leave orthopedics and spinal issues out of the discussion, yes, I am doing well. Broke but surviving. Living the high life in the land of make believe and where POVERTY WITH A VIEW is a way of life.
Read an interesting article in our local pathetic newspaper that likes to pretend they are a conservative rag. The only ones who might buy this dribble are the progressive, regressive retards who listen to NPR, watch, believe everything they see, hear, read on PBS, NBC, ABC, CBS, PMSNBC is the unsanitized truth. These hard core liberals think George Soros, Huffington Post and Daily Kos are where reality lives and that the lies of climate change are real and the sky really is falling. Back to the article as I got a bit side tracked. The article is about Greyhound bus lines and how the company has come back and is finding its stride and place as a decent, economic way to travel and Americans are returning to this mode of travel.
What is wrong with PatriotUSA, writing about a long forgotten bus line which is still known for that ratty bus that had horrible bathrooms, rotten, uncomfortable seats and a usual passenger manifest that always seemed to have the mentally unstable and those who did not know the meaning of a shower or what a bar of soap and a razor is for. Personally, I have ridden the Grey dog many a time and yes, a few of those trips were downright bad. The one with the lady drenched in blood who was babbling non-stop, the trip to Los Angeles from Eugene, Oregon with half the bus the filled with stinky, smelly hippies and some things that resembled females but had more on their legs and in their armpits than I could ever have in 10 lifetimes. Or the 'express' that stopped at every rock, mailbox, or mile marker from L.A. to El Paso, Texas and I was the ONLY gringo on the bus. Maybe someday I will write a book of short stories, maybe....
Greyhound is far from dead. As one who loathes flying and who travels exclusively by train, I would ride the 'Dog' rather than fly. Taking Amtrak today can be a somewhat nasty experience given the severe cutbacks in service and an upper management team that is completely out of touch with those onboard who actually serve the passengers. Maybe just the name 'Greyhound' will keep Muslims away as most Muslims think and feel dogs are haram. Works for me.
I think I have found most of my marbles. Now the tricky part is putting them back in 'order'. No worries faithful readers. Snark, wit, intolerance of all things liberal, progressive, being extremely conservative and being total politically incorrect are very alive and well. If I disliked immorality, cheaters, those who engage in infidelity, flaky artists, musicians, politicians, communists, socialists, illegal alien invaders, tree huggers, hippies, prairie fairies, earth muffins, feminazis, those who believe in Globull warming and hate fossil fuels, Islam and sharia law before, sit back, read, watch, listen and hopefully enjoy. I hope to offend each and every one of you. I will probably offend myself.
PatriotUSA
*******************
A sleek, new, 100-year-old Greyhound hits the open road
By Andrea Sachs /
The Washington Post
It was nearing midnight when a sleek coach adorned
with galloping canines inched through the new Greyhound terminal in
Washington. The 45-foot-long vehicle rolled past a glass-enclosed ticket
counter emitting a warm glow, a wood-paneled waiting room and me
sitting on a bench, watching for the 12:01 bus to Chicago.
The driver pulled into a spot and hopped out,
dressed in the same shades of blue as his charge. Despite the hour and
the long road ahead, he was a ball of energy.
“The ride is faster than you think,” Tony Stevens
assured the dozen or so passengers bound for destinations between the
capital and the Midwest.
As part of the boarding process, Stevens matched our
IDs to our tickets. He looked at my ticket — Washington to Hibbing,
Minn. — and exclaimed, “I’ve been there. That’s where they have the
museum.”
And that was why I was going: to visit the Greyhound
Bus Museum in its place of birth 100 years ago this year. My pilgrimage
would take one day, 14 hours and 19 minutes and would include three
transfers (Chicago, Minneapolis, Duluth) and countless rest stops (RS
Midway Plaza, Pennsylvania; Tomah, Wisconsin; Pine City, Minnesota,
etc.).
I was also trying to give Greyhound a chance to redeem itself.
I last took the bus line several years ago to New
York. Two buses departed without me, even though I was standing in the
station and holding a ticket. (The company is serious about not
guaranteeing seats.) Once aboard a third bus, I sat beside a mentally
unstable man who was shouting into an imaginary phone about a CIA
conspiracy.
Defying its rep
Greyhound Lines has improved with age. In defiance
of its years, and its long-standing image as the chariot of absolute
last resort, the bus line is growing more youthful, more spirited and
more relevant. And much less scary.
“We’ve had a reputation that’s somewhat unfounded,”
said chief executive and president David Leach over the phone from
Greyhound headquarters in Dallas. “We had to figure out how we were
going to rapidly change the perception of our company.”
It’s a tough challenge. For years, a dark cloud of
disrepute has shadowed the bus company across North America. The
homeless camped out in the terminals. Riffraff and troublemakers
poisoned the atmosphere onboard. The bathrooms reeked; the seat fabric
itched. In the past decade, two murders — one of a driver, another of a
sleeping passenger — hardened the line’s image as dangerous.
Those incidents were the extreme, but a lax and uncontrolled party-bus atmosphere was commonplace.
“You don’t want to know how many times the bus
driver called the cops because of pot-smoking,” Christo Karsikis, a
passenger I met on the final leg, recalled of a Miami-to-Los Angeles
odyssey in 1979. “Those days, people were drinking on the bus. It was
fun.”
Add to these problems the return of the bus as a
viable and even fashionable mode of travel. On inter-city routes —
Washington/New York, Philadelphia/Boston, San Francisco/Los Angeles —
today’s highways host a parade of bold-colored vehicles, all rivals to
the sprinting pup.
“The stigma of bus travel has fallen,” said Joseph
Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for
Metropolitan Development in Chicago. To meet the competition and the challenges,
Greyhound has been drastically overhauling its strategies and rebooting
its image.
New practices
At Union Station, several of Greyhound’s game-changing initiatives are on view, a flat business plan brought to life.
Over the years, the company has started to relocate
many of its stations into “intermodal facilities,” or, less formally,
Malls of Transportation. It has abandoned the deserted islands in
shadowy neighborhoods for central hubs with links to other modes of
travel.
“We have new terminals in Nashville, Memphis and
Miami, and we’re building a new one in Baltimore,” Leach said. “In
Milwaukee, we cohabitate with Amtrak. The terminal is well-lit and
smells good.”
After 9/11, Greyhound followed the airline
industry’s lead and bulked up security. It installed plastic shields to
protect the drivers, added security forces in the terminals and
surveillance cameras in the vehicles, heightened screening, and rooted
out loiterers from the stations and disruptive passengers from the
coaches.
Humble beginnings
Greyhound gets around.
The bus line started small and humble, on a
two-mile patch of road in northern Minnesota, not far from my
disembarkation point at the Country Kitchen in Hibbing. Today, 1,229
vehicles serve more than 3,800 destinations in North America. The fleet
covered more than 5.5 billion miles last year.
When I finally descended the bus steps for the last
time, I found Ron Dicklich, the Greyhound Bus Museum’s acting director,
waiting for me. He ushered me into his car, and we set off on a
nostalgic trip down Greyhound Lane.
Carl Eric Wickman and Andrew “Bus Andy” Anderson
created the company in 1914 as a shuttle service for iron miners and
their families. The car salesmen initially used the unsold inventory
from their Hupmobile dealership to transport workers between the pit,
their homes and the commercial district of Alice. They charged 15 cents
per ride and made a $7.40 profit on the second day of business.
The Greyhound Bus Museum opened in 1987 and moved
to its current location on Greyhound Boulevard 12 years later. The
modest-yet-thorough attraction begins the journey with black-and-white
photos and a model of the first “bus,” the Hupmobile, a seven-passenger
automobile from the first half of the 20th century. The museum also owns
19 coaches, including several on display that guests can pretend-ride.
“It follows the progression of buses as they get better,” Dicklich said.
First up: the 1927 White Bus, which resembles a blue
school bus with a snowcapped top. Next in line: the 1936 Super Coach,
which introduced shocks, raised flooring and such cushiony comforts as
padded seating; and the 1947 Brill, a silver bullet with the first
overhead luggage racks.
Shift to the cities
On the graveyard run to Pittsburgh, Tony Stevens
kept his eyes locked on the road but his mouth moving as we discussed
Next Century Greyhound.
“It’s a shame that we don’t go there,” he said when I
asked about company changes, including chopping service to Hibbing.
“That’s our birthplace.”
Unfortunately, sentimentality doesn’t earn a profit.
In 2003, Greyhound redrew its map. Following the
national population shift from small towns to suburbs and metropolises,
it eliminated low-demand rural stops and started concentrating on dense,
urbanized routes. The company cut nearly 37 percent of its network,
including service to Hibbing.
But what the Hibbings of the U.S.A. lost, the
Washingtons and New Yorks gained. In 2008, Greyhound’s new line,
BoltBus, appeared on city curbs with nonstop service, fancy buses and
dollar-store prices. Two years later, Greyhound Express pulled up, a
near twin of Bolt with the exception of the pickup/drop-off points
(terminal, not curb) and the breadth of its reach (Express travels to
many towns between the cities).
Within the next 24 months, Leach said, “the entire
national network should be Expressified.” (About 60 percent to go.) The
company will Boltify its gray-haired system as well. At the moment,
travelers must present a printed ticket; an online reservation displayed
on your gadget won’t roll.
Tags: Greyhound, Continental Trailways, Bus lines. USA travel, Amtrak, Air travel, Ground transportation, Public transportation, Hibbing, Minnesota To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the Patriot's Corner. Thanks!
Nonie Darwish Speaks in Silicon Valley
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born apostate from Islam, writer, speaker and activist, is one of those people I am proud to know, albeit not well. In this video, she speaks before the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley (I didn't know they had conservatives in Silicon Valley.) on June 3. The video below is via C-Span and was sent to me by Darwish.
In this video, Darwish speaks on the topic, "Islam and the West". She discusses a wide range of issues such as women's rights under Islam, sharia law, Islamic conquests of various nations in history, Muslim attitudes toward non-Muslims, and apostasy. (She is unable to return to her native Egypt due to a fatwa calling for her killing. In fact, as she points out in her presentation, the only country in the Middle East she can visit is Israel!)
This video lasts over an hour but is well worth the time.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?319734-1/islam-west
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