I took some time today to attend to personal errands; it seemed like the first time for a breather in at least three months - work has been INCREDIBLY busy and uniquely stressful . . .
The tempo of my work is very much like a military campaign - not a conventional battlefield by any means but no less a battlefield than any I've marched across in this or any of my previous lives . . . the little things are very important, the big things are very simple, a bit of drama here or there morphs into sheer MADNESS at the drop of a hat and
THEN . . .
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
. . . if you've noticed a drop in the quality of posts over the past six weeks, now you know why . . .
At this time
STORMBRINGER is a hobby of course; the main effort is my work. In my life I have had the fortune to have fallen into an occupation that IS a lifestyle - soldiering. There is a Zen-like aspect;
Laborare est Orare - "To Work is to Pray" - motto of the Benedictine monks. The ultimate goal of
Blog STORMBRINGER is to contribute to the ongoing struggle of Good against Evil; to explore the warrior ethos and my own personal philosophy; to defend & honor all that is good and decent of our culture from the daily assault of the destructive forces of leftism / nihilism / aetheism / Islamic-Fundamentalism / Marxist-socialism / fascism / terrorism, etc, etc.
In battle there often comes a lull in the tempo of fire; this is the time to take stock of the situation and use the opportunity to consolidate forces. So let us see; where are we in the current struggle of Good versus Evil?
2009:
o January 20 - Never mind the mystery of Barack Obama's origin, his very swearing in was fraught with controversy; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts recited the Oath of Office incorrectly. One constitutional scholar observed that "it's an open question whether [Obama is] president until he takes the proper oath." Chief Justice Roberts re‑administered the oath on the evening of January 21, 2009 in the Map Room of the White House. The Oath was administered as it appears in the Constitution, however no Bible was present during the retake of the inauguration, which gives raises eyebrows . . .
o January 22 - President Obama signs an Executive Order announcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and signs a prohibition on using torture and other illegal coercive techniques, such as waterboarding, during interrogations and detentions. Over eighteen months later Guantanamo Bay is still open for business as a holding place for al Qaeda terrorists - in itself a good thing, but an scathing indicator of Obama's leadership abilities.
o March 2 - Secretary of State Clinton pledges US$900 million of humanitarian and development aid to terror group Hamas, the ruling political entity of Gaza Strip and the West Bank, at a donor conference in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.
o March 3 - 12 gunmen in Pakistan attack the national cricket team of Sri Lanka and their police escorts. Six policemen are killed in the attack, as well as two bystanders.
o March 13 - Department of Justice outlines a new legal standard for suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo; "enemy combatant" definition is dropped; suspects are now to be detained under international law.
o March 27 - Obama announces a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan; it takes him another six months to determine how many troops to send.
o April 1 - Sweden becomes the fifth European country to legalize same-sex marriage; other countries with the same rights are The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Spain.
o April 5 - Obama gives a thoughtful speech on nuclear proliferation disarmament to a public crowd in Prague. Earlier, the North Korean government launched a long-range multi-stage rocket.
o April 12 - Richard Phillips, captured by pirates in the Maersk Alabama hijacking, is freed by Navy Seals after Obama approves military action. Body count math = 3X terr KIAs, 1X EPW.
Chalk one up for the Good Guys.o April 16 - Justice Department releases memos detailing enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA on Al Qaeda suspects.
o May 9 - Obama attends White House Correspondents' Dinner, featuring special guest comedian Wanda Sykes. Wanda exclaims
"I hope Rush Limbaugh dies of kidney failure." Obama joins in laughter & applause.
o June 4 - President Barack Obama gives a speech in Cairo, Egypt, referencing the Qur'an and other Muslim texts to more than one thousand Cairo University students. During a subsequent worldwide apology tour to "repair the image of America around the world," Obama bows to the King of Saudi Arabia and the Emperor of Japan.
o July 30 - President Obama and Vice President Biden hold a "beer summit" at the White House with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates and the arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department, in order compare the arrest of Gates in his Massachusetts home on July 16 to issue of race in America. Obama had earlier stated that the police department had "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates.
o August 20 - Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 killing 270 people) is freed from prison on compassionate grounds by Scotland's Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill.
Suffering from terminal prostate cancer and expected to die within three months, al-Megrahi experiences miracle recovery; one year later there is no sign of the disease. British Petroleum receives favorable drilling leases from the Libyan government.
o September 25 - At the G-20 Pittsburgh summit, Obama and the leaders of France and the UK make a public statement accusing Iran of constructing a secret nuclear facility near Qom.
o October 9 - The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to President Barack Obama for no discernable reason.
o October 23 - President Obama declares a national emergency in response to the H1N1 pandemic. Ten months later, the World Health Organization announces the official end of the H1N1 pandemic - nobody takes notice.
o October 29 - The caskets of eighteen American soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan are used as unwitting props in a photo op by President Obama at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
o November 9 - Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu humiliated by Barack Obama; after failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu - no photo op.
Nidal Malik Hasano November 10 - President Barack Obama gives eulogy at the Fort Hood ceremony honoring those killed in the shooting rampage on November 5, 2009, by Major Nidal Malik Hasan. No mention of prominent Islamic themes in Hasan's writings; fundamentalism, terrorism, jihad, etc.
o December 5 - Italian jury convicts American student Amanda Knox of murdering her former roommate, Meredith Kercher in some kind of a weird sexual role-playing scenario gone horribly awry with Knox's then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, also convicted. This goes to show you where all those virtual reality video games will take you; the pair receive prison sentences of 26 and 25 years, respectively.
o December 25 - Northwest Airlines Flight 253 target of unsuccessful al-Qaeda bombing attempt on Christmas Day; 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to set off plastic explosives sewn to his underwear.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder decides to prosecute Abdulmutallab in federal court rather than detain him as an enemy combatant under the Law of War.
2010:
o January 3 - U.S., U.K. close their embassies in Yemen due to ongoing security threats from the terrorist group alQaeda. Military and intelligence organizations in Yemen warn of plans to attack Western groups in the capital; military action prevents the threatened attacks.
o January 12 - 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Devastates Port-au-Prince, Haiti; region's worst earthquake in 200 years, levels many sections of the city, experts estimate a staggering death toll of 200,000 people. Nominally useless, U.N. exceeds its own gold-standard reputation of uselessness.
o February 2 - Defense Officials Seek End to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" following President Obama's State of the Union Declaration that he wants an end to the military policy "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which forbids openly gay men and women to serve in the military.
o February 18 - Plane crashes into office of the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Texas, killing the pilot & one person in the building, thirteen others injured. Pilot Andrew Joseph Stack III was holding a grudge against the government and the tax system. Media blames Tea Party; Stack was in fact a registered Democrat.
o March 8 - Worthless war-porn movie that portrays professional soldiers as crazed adrenalin junkies wins big at Academy Awards;
The Hurt Locker wins Oscars for Best Director, Best Picture.
Hurt Locker's fictitious screenplay has no basis in fact.
o March 29 - Female Suicide Bombers Kill 39 in Russian Subway Stations; two female suicide bombers, acting just minutes apart, detonate bombs in two Moscow subways stations, killing at least 39 people.
o March 31 - Mr. Obama announces that he will approve oil and gas exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia, ending a moratorium on drilling off the East Coast of the United States.
o April 5 - President Obama announces revised American nuclear strategy, limiting the instances in which the U.S. will use nuclear weapons.
o April 15 - President Obama outlines NASA's new mission: to "reach out" to the Muslim world, rather than deep space exploration or lunar exploration.
o April 20 - Oil rig explodes off coast of Lousiana, 11 killed, 17 injured. Criticizing BP's handling of the crisis, President Obama sends Justice Department officials to the region to explore litigation opportunities.
o April 23 - Obama strongly criticizes newly-passed Arizona SB1070 measure against illegal immigration, calling for federal immigration reform (i.e. amnesty).
o May 6 - New York City community board committee to approve plans to construct a thirteen-story supermosque adjacent to Ground Zero; organizers estimate that the mosque will attract as many as 2,000 worshipers on Fridays. Cordoba House is to be named after the medieval Spanish town where Muslims ruled over Jews and Christians for 500 years. Once a Burlington Coat Factory, 45-47 Park Place closed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks due to damage sustained by the landing gear from one of the planes used in the attacks.
Relatives of 9/11 victims, firefighters, police, veterans and citizenry across the nation rally against
o August 13 - At a Friday evening observation of breaking the Ramadan fast, President Barack Obama stated, "Muslims have the right to build the mosque near Ground Zero" In a later attempt to retrack, Obama stated that he was simply supporting the developers' right to build,
". . . in this country, we treat everybody equally in accordance with the law. Regardless of race. Regardless of religion. I was not commenting on and will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there." The Ground Zero Mosque is now generally considered an outrageous affront to the memory of the victims who perished on 9/11; a potential al Qaeda Victory Monument right at Ground Zero.
The situation continues to develop . . .
SEAN LINNANE SENDS.
