AMERICAN HEROES

Contemplate the images below, and then read on . . .














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CONFUSED?


There are many confusing, conflicting aspects to the struggle we are involved in.

Please bear with me while I make my point:

America, and the rest of the civilized world, are at war with an extremely dangerous group of criminal maniacs and their twisted logic.




Up until very recently, the war was known as the "Global War on Terrorism", or G-WOT. I don't know what they're calling it now on citations or campaign medals, but it is important to be aware that we are not fighting 'Terrorism' per se. Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy in and of itself. What we are fighting is Islamic Fundamentalism, in it's most extreme form.


The question to ask is not "Why do they hate us?"


The question to ask is: "What do they want?"


Consider: there are 1.82 billion Muslims in the world (source: CIA World Factbook). If only one percent of them are Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists, that's 18,200,000 enemy fighters.



This figure, by the way, represents the entire number of soldiers, sailors and airmen who ever served in the German Wehrmacht during the entire course of World War II and the Spanish Civil War (not the force strength of the Wehrmacht at any point).

A terrorist army that large boggles the mind, strains credulity. There are possibly that many sympathizers and auxiliary supporters, but there is no way al Qaeda and it's variants (Taliban etc.) fields and supports that many fighters.

The majority of Muslims are regular folk just like you and me, who want the same things we want: to be left alone, to prosper and provide for their families, to leave their children better off than themselves. As with any demographic, there is a segment of the Muslim community, however, who are susceptible to becoming deranged or disgruntled, like Army Major Nadal Hasan at Fort Hood last Thursday - these sociopaths are found in any population, and their numbers are tiny.

And there is a segment of Muslims who are active, dedicated members of al Qaeda, et al. Despite the fact that the terrorists are capable of inflicting mass casualties, these numbers are also tiny.


Here's my point:

Ordinarily, the modern terrorist ethos is twofold: A) to gain publicity for their cause, whatever it is, and B) to force the State entity into giving concessions.

What is sinister about al Qaeda and their ilk is their plan: they wish no less than to start a global religious war of Muslims versus Christians (Crusaders) and Jews (Zionists). The Islamic Fundamentalists also view secular, sane Islamic nations such as Turkey and Morocco as traitors, and enablers of the Crusaders and Zionists.



Their agenda is to create a limitless bloodbath on such an unprecedented global scale that for all intents and purposes they will have unleashed Armageddon upon us. This is their stated goal. They have stated this numerous times, via video releases, and their writings.

IF we succumb to a xenophobic tendency to embrace a knee-jerk hatred of all things Muslim; IF we lower ourselves to their level - THEN THEY WIN.

It is that simple.

S.L.



The military headstone images preceding this post were originally posted on Frum Forum on 6 November 2009.

STEVE McQUEEN

Steve McQueen in his prime was the King of Cool








Even his NAME sounds cool!









The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968


In 1974 Steve McQueen was the highest paid movie star in the world. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon and The Towering Inferno.

Bullitt featured an unprecedented auto chase through San Francisco. McQueen did all his own stunt driving with the exception of the Chestnut Street flying jumps and the gas-station crash.





Some interesting aspects of the man;

McQueen had an unusual reputation for demanding free items in bulk from studios when agreeing to do a film, such as electric razors, jeans and several other products. It was later found out that McQueen requested these things because he was donating them to the Boy's Republic reformatory school for displaced youth, where he had spent time during his teen years. McQueen regularly returned to to the school to spend time with the students, often to play pool and to speak with them about his experiences. He also personally responded to every letter he received from the boys there, and retained a lifelong association.




After discovering a mutual interest in racing, McQueen and his Great Escape co-star James Garner became good friends. Garner lived directly down the hill from McQueen and, as McQueen recalled, "I could see that Jim was very neat around his place. Flowers trimmed, no papers in the yard ... grass always cut. So, just to piss him off, I'd start lobbing empty beer cans down the hill into his driveway. He'd have his drive all spic 'n' span when he left the house, then get home to find all these empty cans. Took him a long time to figure out it was me".







McQueen was conservative in his political views and often backed the Republican Party. He did, however, campaign for Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964 before voting for Republican Richard Nixon in 1968. He supported the Vietnam War, was one of the few Hollywood stars who refused numerous requests to back Presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, in 1968, and turned down the chance to participate in the 1963 March on Washington. When McQueen heard a rumor that he had been added to Nixon's Enemies List, he responded by immediately flying a giant American flag outside his house. Reportedly, his wife Ali McGraw responded to the whole affair by saying, "But you're the most patriotic person I know."



A guy after my own heart. Where are today's Hollywood action movie star patriots? Instead we've got George Clooney, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt out there bad mouthing their own country every chance they get. Steve McQueen has more cool in his little finger than all three of those guys have in their entire bodies put together.


MILITARY SERVICE

In 1947, McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps and was assigned to an armored unit. Initially, he reverted to his prior rebelliousness, and as a result was busted to Private on seven different occasions. Additionally, he went UA (unauthorized absence) by failing to return after a weekend pass had expired. He instead stayed away with a girlfriend for two weeks, until the shore patrol caught him. He responded to his captors by resisting them and as a result spent 41 days in the brig.




The Sand Pebbles, 1966


After this episode, McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea. He was also assigned to an honor guard responsible for guarding then-U.S. President Harry Truman's yacht. McQueen served until 1950 when he was honorably discharged.


He had a daily two-hour exercise regimen, involving weightlifting and at one point running five miles, seven days a week. McQueen also followed Tang Soo Do training; his instructor was ninth degree black belt Pat E. Johnson.



Papillon, 1973


McQueen served as one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee's funeral in 1973. Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee taught McQueen's son Chad Taekwondo and Jeet Kune Do, (respectively). Later on, McQueen persuaded Norris to attend acting classes.

McQueen considered becoming a professional race car driver. In the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring race, Peter Revson and McQueen (driving with a cast on his left foot from a motorcycle accident two weeks before) won with a Porsche 908/02 in the 3 litre class and missed winning overall by a scant 23 seconds to Mario Andretti/Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vaccarella in a 5 litre Ferrari 512S. The same Porsche 908 was entered by his production company Solar Productions as a camera car for Le Mans in the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans later that year.

McQueen wanted to drive a Porsche 917 with Jackie Stewart in that race, but his film backers threatened to pull their support if he did. Faced with the choice of driving for 24 hours in the race or driving the entire summer making the film, McQueen opted to do the latter.

The film was a box office flop that almost ruined McQueen's career. In addition, McQueen admitted that he almost died while filming the movie. Nonetheless, Le Mans is considered by some to be the most historically realistic representation in the history of the race.










I didn't know that film was a flop. I LOVED that film when it came out. Shows what I know about art. -S.L.














He owned several exotic sports cars, including:

* Porsche 917, Porsche 908 and Ferrari 512 race cars from the Le Mans film.
* 1963 Ferrari 250 Lusso Berlinetta[1]
* Jaguar D-Type XKSS (Right-Hand Drive)
* Porsche 356 Speedster









McQueen also collected classic motorcycles. By the time of his death, his collection included over 100 and was valued in the millions of dollars.








There's the iconic Tag Heuer wristwatch made famous by McQueen in the film Le Mans.



REBEL & ANTI-HERO



His "anti-hero" persona developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture.











Here he is hanging out with his pet wolf.














THE DEATH OF COOL


McQueen died at the age of 50 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, following an operation to remove or reduce several metastatic tumors in his abdomen. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma (a type of cancer associated with asbestos exposure), in December 1979, and had traveled to Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, in July 1980, for unconventional treatment after U.S. doctors advised him that they could do nothing to prolong his life.

In late October 1980, McQueen flew to Ciudad Juárez to have the five-pound abdominal tumors removed, despite the warnings of his U.S. doctors that the tumor was inoperable and that his heart would not withstand the surgery. McQueen died of cardiac arrest one day after the operation.

Shortly before his death, McQueen had given a medical interview in which he blamed his condition on asbestos exposure. While McQueen felt that asbestos used in movie soundstage insulation and race-drivers' protective suits and helmets could have been involved, he believed his illness was a direct result of massive exposure while removing asbestos lagging from pipes aboard a troop ship during his time in the Marines.



"A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it . . . it’s life. Anything that happens before or after . . . is just waiting."
Race Car Driver Michael Delaney (Steve McQueen), Le Mans 1971



McQueen was cremated, and his ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean.










He's hanging out by that Great Big Track in the Sky . . . where all the dead race car drivers go.

FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

Army Major Nadal Malik Hasan

- Licensed psychiatrist, Drug and Rehab specialist,

American Muslim Terrorist





I was out in the field this afternoon when the news broke on the shootings at Fort Hood. By the time I returned to the office and logged on, I learned the terrible news.

The immediate reaction in the room was that this must be PTSD. Of course, the first reports indicated three gunmen – this turned out to be wrong, of course, but I commented that PTSD is a solitary phenomena; it does not manifest itself in groups.

As it turned out, this just might be the first ever recorded case of PRE-TSD; it turns out that Hasan was under orders, but had not yet deployed.


This event is very disturbing, on so many levels. The Army is my family; I bleed green. When the Army takes it like this, everyone in our extended Army family hurts - BAD.


I find it difficult to concentrate this evening; it is hard to write this post. Like my mentor Doc Cheasty used to say, "This is a hard suck, man."


Back in September I posted WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. My premise has not changed: America is seeing an increase in the tempo of domestic jihad-inspired terrorist self-starters.

In addition to the three cases I detailed on 26 September, here are some other notable developments 2009 has produced:


May 12, 2009, Oussama Kassir was convicted of charges related to his participation in an effort to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon and his operation of several terrorist Web sites containing instructions about how to make bombs and poisons. Kassir was found guilty of all 11 charges against him, including providing material support to al-Qaeda and distributing information on explosives and weapons of mass destruction.


May 20, 2009, four individuals - James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen - were arrested on charges arising from a plot to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Bronx, N.Y., and to shoot Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles at military planes located at a the National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. On June 2, 2009, all four defendants were charged in an eight-count indictment and face potential life in prison, if convicted.

All of them converted to Islam while in prison.




April 28, 29, 2009, five individuals -- Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, brothers Dritan Duka, Shain Duka and Eljvir Duka and Serdar Tatar -- received sentences ranging from 33 years in prison, to life in prison plus 30 years, for plotting to kill U.S. soldiers in an armed attack on the military base in Fort Dix, New Jersey. All five individuals were convicted at trial in December 2008.

These terrorist pigs get their day in court - the many victims of terrorism do not enjoy that option.







On April 30, 2009, Ali al-Marri pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda, admitting that he attended terrorist training camps, learned al-Qaeda tradecraft and was dispatched by al-Qaeda to carry out its terrorist objectives in America.



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To be fair, part of my personal philosophy views all terrorists as the same, regardless of ideological or political stance. That is all posturing. Example: in the 1980s the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya mounted a bombing campaign against US and British targets in Europe. Several of the bombings were carried out on their behalf by the Baader-Meinhof gang, a secular group of Communists, who typically embrace aetheism and actively persecute religion.

Also in the 1980s, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a group of largely Catholic membership, received support and training from not only Libya and other Arab terrorist groups, but also the Soviet Union.





Question: What is the difference between Timothy McVeigh and John Allen Muhammad?


Answer: Muhammed hasn't been executed yet.







That is the ONLY difference.




It is all the same; terrorism is always the same. It doesn't matter whether it's Islamic-themed, or Neo-Nazi, or Communist-inspired, terrorism is always the same: it is sheer lunacy, plain and simple. The terrorist ethos if flawed logic. They cry out "Injustice!" and yet they are willing to commit the most horrific crimes in the world, in the name of equality and fairness. Eh???


A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist, and they are all scum.


As for the Fort Hood shooter, Nadal Hasan, as one officer's wife said, "I wish his name was Smith."

The Army families at Fort Hood are so sick and tired of this war; pushed upon us by Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists, and yet that wife knows the deal about terrorists.


For Americans who don't know about it, who've never been over there: this is a little taste of what Israel experiences, all the time.


Our prayers are with the victims and their families this day in Fort Hood, Texas . . . . . . . . . STORMBRINGER SENDS




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THE THIRTY YEAR WAR

Secret embedded message to loyal STORMBRINGER readers: due to operational constraints I could not make it to a computer; this post is 24 hours overdue - S.L.



This day in History - November 4, 1979 - Iranian Revolutionary Guards storm the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran.



File photo: One of the American hostages is surrounded by some of his captors at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Former captives have identified the second man from the right as Iran’s future President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



This was the opening shot of the current war of Islamic Fundamentalists on America; thirty years ago today.



Student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini send shock waves across America when they storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The radical Islamic fundamentalists took 90 hostages. Days later, Iran's provincial leader resigned, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's fundamentalist revolutionaries, took full control of the country--and the fate of the hostages.




Here's how it worked: a bunch of enraged university students stormed the US Embassy, took the place down. Ayatollah looks over there and says, "YOU DID W-H-A-A-A-A-T? HOLY SHIT! ARE YOU FRIKKIN' CRAZY ? ? ? NOW THE U.S. IS GOING TO GO HOG-WILD ON US ! ! !"


Two days later, NOTHING HAPPENS . . .











This man balked . . .












Two weeks after the storming of the embassy, the Ayatollah began to release all non-U.S. captives, and all female and minority Americans, citing these groups as among the people oppressed by the United States government. The remaining 52 captives were left at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14 months.



President Jimmy Carter was unable to diplomatically resolve the crisis, and on April 24, 1980, he ordered a disastrous rescue mission in which eight U.S. military personnel were killed and no hostages rescued.




It was the absolute low point of American prestige and honor around the world in the post-Vietnam era. I still remember feelings of confusion, how I hung my head in shame.




Three months later, the former shah died of cancer in Egypt, but the crisis continued. In November 1980, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations finally began between the United States and Iran.










You can say whatever you want about the man - Ronald Reagan got a LOT of respect from the Bad Guys.











On January 20, 1981--the day of Reagan's inauguration--the United States freed almost $3 billion in frozen Iranian assets and promised $5 billion more in financial aid. Minutes after Reagan was sworn in, the hostages flew out of Iran on an Algerian airliner, ending their 444-day ordeal. The next day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet them on their way home.




The wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, now referred to as the "US Den of Espionage."





I guarantee that if - three days after our Embassy had been taken down - Jimmy Carter had flown the 82D over there and dropped them onto DZ Tehran, we wouldn't be putting up with ten percent of the bullshit we're having to deal with right now in the Sand Pile.

18 Americans Kidnapped, 1982 - 1991 Lebanon,
CIA Bureau Chief William Francis Buckley and Marine Colonel William Higgins were both kidnapped and murdered - a group called the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth claimed responsibility, but the real suspects are the Hezbollah guerillas.

Truck Bombing of U.S. Embassy, Beirut Lebanon, April 18, 1983 - 63 killed; Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Marine Barracks bombing, Beirut Lebanon, October 1983 - 299 Americans killed. A French paratrooper base was blown up minutes later, 58 French soldiers killed. A terrorist group called the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

December 4, 1984, American diplomat Charles Hegna murdered during a 1984 terrorist hijacking of a Kuwaiti Airlines flight by Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah.

TWA Flight 847 hijacking June 14, 1985 - one American murdered - US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem - by Lebanese Shia Islamists (Hezbollah).

Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking, October 7, 1985 - wheelchair-bound American passenger Leon Klinghoffer murdered by Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorists who then threw his body overboard.

TWA Flight 840 Bombed, April 02, 1986, Athens, Greece - four people were killed, nine others were wounded. A terrorist group called Ezzedine Kassam Unit of the Arab Revolutionary Cells claimed responsibility

La Belle Disco bombing, West Berlin, April 5, 1986 - two US servicemen and one Turkish woman killed. The operation was determined to be conducted by Libyan intelligence officers.

Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, Lockerbie Scotland, December 21, 1988 - Libyan intelligence officers allegedly involved with the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine - 243 passengers and 16 crew members killed, 11 citizens of Lockerbie Scotland also killed. They were heading home for the holidays.

CIA Employees in Langley, VA are Shot, January 25, 1993
Langley, Virginia

A Pakistani man, Mir Aimal Kasi, who lived in Virginia drove up to the CIA building in Langley, Virginia and shot two CIA agents. He was angry because he believed that the United States were mistreating Muslims who lived in the Middle East.

World Trade Center in New York Bombed, February 26, 1993 New York - Six people were killed and more than 1,000 are injured in this terrorist attack. A group of Muslim terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives and driven into the World Trade Center's underground parking garage.

U.S. Military Complex bombed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 13, 1995
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Seven people killed; Three terrorist groups: Islamic Movement for Change, the Tigers of the Gulf, and the Combatant Partisans of God claim responsibility for the bombing of this military center.

US military quarters Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia bombed - 19 American soldiers killed, 500 more people were wounded. The Movement for Islamic Change claimed responsibility for the bombing.

U.S. Embassies bombed August 07, 1998 simultaneously Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - more than 5,000 people were injured and 224 were killed when the buildings that they were working in collapsed during the explosions.

USS Cole Bombed at dock in Aden Yemen October 12 2000 - 17 U.S. Navy seamen killed when the explosion blew a 20 by 40 foot hole in the side of the ship.

Then of course there's the big one . . . September 11, 2001 New York City, Washington, DC, Shanksville Pennsylvania - World Trade Center is Destroyed and the Pentagon is Attacked - in total 2,993 people, including the hijackers, died in the attacks.



We are under attack. Perhaps a better name for what we've got is 'The One Hundred Years War' . . .

. . . STORMBRINGER SENDS

ANALYSTS: CLINTON HAD PHOTO OP WITH KIM JONG-IL LOOK-ALIKE

Did President Clinton Meet North Korea's Kim Jong-il or a Look-Alike?

Analysts are convinced that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, has a look-alike standing in for him.

It is also believed that North Korean photo editors are also pasting in old pictures of Kim from previous times when he was in good health.

Japanese writer Toshimitsu Shigemura claims that Kim has been seriously ill for the past decade and may even have died.

Mr. Shigemura says that if the real Kim, looking wan and weak, appeared before the Supreme People's Assembly several days after North Korea fired a long-range missile on April 5, then it must have been a look-alike who hosted former US President Bill
Clinton in August.

"They were totally different people," says Mr. Shigemura, a former correspondent for Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, who now teaches international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo. "In August, he looked very healthy."

Some analysts have trouble with Shigemura's analysis. "There have been such rumors," says Kim Tae-woo, a veteran North Korea specialist at the Korea Institute of Defense Analyses. "Dictators usually do that, but we don't know whether this is real or fake."

It is stated that Hitler had up to 6 doppelgängers (doubles) - one who is believed to have been killed at the bunker - while Saddam Hussein had at least 3.


This body was discovered by the Russian contingent in Berlin and assumed to be Adolf Hitler. It is actually Gustav Weler, Hitler's Doppelgänger (body double), who was executed with a gunshot to the forehead.

SURF OR DIE

Mother Nature is The Boss . . .



An unusual tale of sea survival . . . or perhaps better described as SURF survival . . . . . . . S.L.

I SURFED THE TSUNAMI TO SAFETY: Briton tells of remarkable escape by riding OVER deadly Samoan wave
Mail Foreign Service - 2 October 2009

A British survivor survived the tsunami which devastated the South Pacific by paddling towards the towering wave, he has claimed.

Tom Gogola, from Devon, was in Samoa for a three-week holiday when the island was hit by a 20-foot wall of water.

The 22-year-old was in the water surfing when he saw the wave racing towards the shore.

He did the only thing he could - and paddled as hard as possible straight for the wave.


Situational awareness probably saved his life.


Aiming the tip of his surfboard up to ensure its nose was not pushed under by the towering wall of water, he said he rode right up and over the top of the wave.

It is not clear how far out to sea Mr. Gogola was at the time. The nearer tsunami wave comes to shore, the more quickly it will change height as the water becomes more and more shallow.

Mr Gogola's father Steve, 59, said: "He said it was pretty unreal surfing when the tsunami happened. He and a friend decided to paddle out, rather than in, and they were picked up by a boat.

"Tom also said half of the people who were surfing got washed into the jungle."
Mr. Gogola, keeping in contact with his family on Facebook, said the tsunami has taken everything apart from a few clothes.

The college student wrote yesterday: "I've lost everything but I've still got my life."


This young man - he is no longer a kid after what he went through - has a good survival attitude.


His father said: "When I saw the news I thought, oh God, Tom is out there, I hope he is alright."

Mr. Gogola was not the only surfer to survive the giant wave by riding it out.


SURFED TO SAFETY: Chris Nel rode out the tsunami for an hour and a half, fearing that he would be smashed into the land at any second if he lost control


New Zealand student Chris Nel was surfing on the south coast of Savai'i island in Western Samoa when the 8.3 magnitude quake struck on Wednesday morning. He had been in the water with four other New Zealand surfers and an Australian when the tsunami appeared.

Mr. Nel, a hospitality student, was forced to ride out the tsunami on his surfboard for more than half an hour, fearing he would be 'smashed into the jungle' by the surging water.

Now, back home on dry land, he is thanking his lucky stars that he lived to tell the tale.


RIDING THE WAVE: The roof of a building is swept away by a tsunami wave in Apia, Samoa, on Tuesday


Mr. Nel, from Wellington, was on holiday in Western Samoa when the massive undersea earthquake struck.

"I went out early morning for a surf, then I felt the tremor - you get them all the time in New Zealand, so I didn't really think too much of it. Then I went out in the water and caught a few waves."

Mr. Nel had been in the water with an Australian man and four other New Zealanders when the first signs of the coming tsunami appeared.

"All of a sudden the water went really weird, it kind of glassed off and got really lumpy, then we started moving really quick, getting sucked out to sea," he said.


CALM BEFORE THE STORM: The water is eerily glassy as the first of a series of tsunami waves approaches the shore outside the Ulimasao Marist Center, in Vailoa, in Samoa on Tuesday.


"It was pretty scary looking back and seeing the reef completely dried up; it looked like a volcanic riverbed, it was just gone."

Then he saw a giant spurt of water hit the shore.

"I was thinking, This is it, we're going to get washed away and smashed into the jungle."

"We didn't know what was going on, we thought, Why is no one coming out to help us?" but it turned out everyone had already been evacuated by that point."

The surfers tried in vain to reach the shore as whole trees started floating past them. They lay on the surfboards as wave surges swept ashore, riding them out and trying not to get smashed.

"After about 35 or 45 minutes of floating around, we managed to time it between a surge to get to land through the reef channel," Mr. Nel said.

When he made it to shore, he saw that the surf camp he had been staying at had been destroyed.

"A lot of my stuff got washed out to sea and I found one of my surfboards in the jungle," Mr. Nel told the Dominion Post newspaper.


Animation of the tsunami moving through the Pacific:




Initially he had stayed at the beach to help salvage a wrecked boat but left when he heard another tsunami warning.

"Everyone just got out of there. I managed to grab my passport and board shorts."
The surfers headed to a village and waited for about five hours until the threat of a second surge had passed.

Days earlier, Mr. Nel had been surfing off the south coast of Upolu, an area that was devastated by the tsunami.

Mr. Nel left Samoa on Thursday, flying back to Wellington wearing the pair of jeans he had managed to find in the jungle.

"We were really, really lucky," he said.


Luck is skill, preparedness & opportunity.


"If anyone had caught a wave closer to shore there would have definitely been people who would have died or been severely injured."






"Hey! Charlie don't surf!"

BATTLE ROYAL

This is it . . .





To Hell with politics - let's talk about something MUCH MORE important - The Main Event of 2009 is here: Brett Favre returns to Green Bay, in a Viking uniform.











"TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL ! ! !


. . . Tomorrow - I'm thinking Arby's . . ."














Here is Brett in an earlier incarnation . . . his Glory Days . . .



For our International readership, those of you perhaps not familiar with the idiosyncacies of NFL football, THESE are CheeseHeads:



They are a native lifeform of Wisconsin.


The Green Bay Packers are unique in that they are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States. The Packers are the last vestige of "small town teams" that were once common in the NFL during the 1920s and 1930s.

Just so you can IMAGINE the kind of fanaticism the Green Bay fans display - I've been to Wisconsin in September and thought I was going to freeze to death; that woman is dressed like that in Green Bay in NOVEMBER.




Lambeau Field is located in a freakish IceBelt Climactic Zone, a remnant of the last Ice Age . . .

. . . Global Warming? Yeah RIGHT














The Cheeseheads literally WORSHIPPED Brett Favre . . .











. . . and like many of the Viking Sagas, the Favre Saga is replete with Angst and Irony . . . Brett Favre betrayed the Cheeseheads, and now it will be a bloody battle . . .



FOR THE RECORD: I like BOTH teams, they rank very high in the STORMBRINGER Pantheon of Gods & Heroes. Naturally, with a callsign like STORMBRINGER, I am practically OBLIGED to back the Vikings . . . and so today I will raise my drinking horn to the Minnesota Purple People Eaters as they pursue the Little Leather Spheroid across the Lambeau Battlefield.



. . . THESE are the people he will have to go up against . . .






"Hoo Boy! - we got something for YOU ! ! !"












Don't ask me where I got this photo . . . ever since they took me down to Washington, showed me the secret handshake, gave me my De-Coder Ring and lasercut my eyes, I've been able to look into the future . . .






It will be . . . a BATTLE ROYAL ! ! !






NOTE: The game starts at 1500 hrs "Quebec" (that's 3:00 pm Central Standard Time for you civilians) and so the results may be out by the time many of you are reading this post . . . STORMBRINGER SENDS