When you visit the Long Beach Harbor, the magnificent Queen Mary dominates the view. A pelican soars in the foreground and the dome, once home to the ‘Spruce Goose,’ looms behind the vessel.
Taken from Pierpoint Landing adjacent to Rainbow Harbor. Click for a panoramic view of the ship.
UPDATE: Post title changed from HMS Queen Mary to RMS Queen Mary. Thanks to Jonathan for pointing out the error.
I guess that the worst U.S. President, ever, misses his ole terrorist buddies enough that he’s going to make an unsanctioned diplomatic visit to leaders of designated terrorist organization Hamas in Syria, a known terror sponsoring state.
Image – These two peaceful-looking guys are anti-Israel buddies Carter and Arafat, both of whom are Nobel ‘Peace’ Prize winners.
FOXNews.com first reported Tuesday on an item in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat that said Carter was preparing an unprecedented meeting on April 18 with with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
The State Department official in Israel did not confirm whether President Carter planned to meet Meshal during his time in Syria. FOXNews.com tried numerous times to reach the Carter Center for comment, but calls and e-mails were not returned.
Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas’ top political adviser in Gaza, did not have any information on a meeting between Carter and Meshal, according to World Net Daily.
“I don’t know anything about any such meeting,” said Yousuf, who is normally involved in setting up meetings between foreign officials and Hamas leaders, according to World Net Daily.
However, the Al-Hayat story said unnamed senior Hamas officials were aware of Carter’s plans.
The State Department has designated Hamas a “foreign terrorist organization.” Chief spokesman Sean McCormack once said of the prospect of meeting with Meshal, “That’s not something that we could possibly conceive of.”
Meshal, who lives in Syria to avoid being arrested by the Israeli government, leads Hamas from his seat in Damascus, where he is a guest of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Should Carter meet with the Hamas chief, he would be the first Western leader of his stature to do so. Though Meshal met with Clinton officials in the 1990s, the Bush administration has sought to isolate Hamas, enforcing rigid sanctions on its government in Gaza and refusing to meet with its leaders unless it recognizes Israel and abandons terror.
This isn’t completely unprecedented – in a break with conventional diplomacy, Nancy Pelosi, the worst Speaker of the House, ever, visited Syria, a known terror sponsoring state.
In the aftermath of the passing of Charlton Heston, the lunatics on the far-left ‘flypaper blogs’ ravaged him – that was totally predictable. Also predictable, the mainstream big media that ravaged the likes of Heston and Ronald Reagan while they lived, offered glowing eulogies and nice things to say about each of them after they passed.
The ultimate hypocrisy, however, comes from – as Greg Gutfield puts it – “probably the biggest – and most sanctimonious sack of feces on the planet” – none other than Michael Moore. Gut goes on the describe the time that Moore cornered a disoriented Heston on his patio and stitched together the videos and sound bytes as part of the “Bowling for Columbine” anti-gun crockumentary.
I bring up Moore because if you go to his Web site, you’ll find a memorial photo of Heston, along with the date of his birth and death. If Moore was any kind of man, he’d take that down, instead of pretending to care. But the world is far from perfect. If it was, Chuck would [have] shot him for trespassing back when he had the chance.
Moore – what an assclown.
In another ‘warm’ tribute, the L.A. Times published some of the letters to the editor that Chuck sent over the years – one of his letters addressed the necessity to bomb Japan at the end of WW2 in response to moronic August 1998 Times anti-nuke book reviews:
I’ve read most of your reviews on the books reexamining the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II. Each condemns the action without reservation as an insanely murderous choice. Several respected intellectuals are quoted, some no doubt qualified on the subject. It’s too bad none of them was there. . . . The bomb ended the war, and its nuclear successors won the Cold War without firing a shot, on either side. I call that a worthwhile achievement.
As Vinnie at Jawa Report says, “Hollywood Just Got 100% Worse.”
Yesterday, April 6th, was California Poppy Day. I have many poppies like this one now showing in the back yard. I sure do love spring and the flowers that come with it.
“I have five words for you. From my cold, dead hands.” Those were the words of Charlton Heston as he addressed the National Rifle Association while referring to presidential candidate Al Gore’s gun ban policies.
Damsel and I are saddened by the passing of legendary actor and gun rights advocate, Charlton Heston. Known to his friends as “Chuck,” Heston was a warm, personable man, unpretentious and a firm believer in the family unit. I know this because I met and spoke with him – twice actually.
If you’ve read my profile, you will know that the reason I claim the title “Cap’n” is that I am a pilot and Flight Instructor. My student pilots started calling me that when I earned my Airline Transport Pilot certificate. It was my privilege to have had the opportunity to instruct Fraser Heston, Chuck’s son, up through his solo flight in a Piper Super Cub belonging to a friend, Ralph, who was also one of my students.
On the day of his solo flight, Chuck and the family showed up at Santa Monica Airport to witness Fraser’s first flight as pilot in command. We did a couple of full stop landings together to warm up. I jumped out of the plane and walked over to where the family stood. At the gas pit. Chuck introduced himself just as though he was only the Dad of my student. He introduced the family and then lapsed into small talk about his flying experience as a crew member in Alaska during the second world war. After the solo flight – three takeoffs and three full-stop landings – we proceeded to the tie-down area where Chuck opened a bottle of champagne and poured it into several plastic champagne glasses sitting on the horizontal stabilizer of a nearby Cessna. We toasted Fraser’s first solo and wished him blue skies and safe passage.
It was easy to think about Chuck as though I had known him most of my life – which was essentially true if you consider having seen most of his movies – the man was the same on and off screen.
Damsel and I were invited to a screening of “Mother Lode,” a film produced by Fraser and starring Chuck. We both got to meet and speak with Chuck at the event.
As the years passed since that time, we became more avid in our guns and shooting activities. As NRA members, we were proud to say that we knew this legendary man.
The world will miss Charlton Heston. Our deepest sympathy goes to Fraser and the family in this time of their loss. God bless Charlton Heston.
Revolvers make good still-life subjects for some of the gun art photos I like to compose. I liked the way the rounds in the cylinder cast a reflection in the polished frame – very nice, if I do say so myself. Click the image below for the larger version.
Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association had this observation about a recent 911 call and the murder that happened while the caller was on the phone with the dispatcher.
I read a heartbreaking story the other day. A woman is on the phone with 911 to report a burglar in her home. Dispatchers hear gunshots, then silence. When deputies arrive, the homeowner is dead.
Her husband arrives a few minutes later, only to be told that his wife is dead. News reports say “he collapsed and started to cry, saying ‘No! She just called me. You lie.'”
The real lie is that gun control and gun bans make us safer. All they do is put innocent people at risk of violent criminals. In 2005, the FBI says there were more than 2,000,000 burglaries in this country. There were also more than 400,000 robberies. If you were one of the millions of victims of crime, would you not want the option to defend yourself with a firearm?
Gun bans like Washington, D.C.’s only affect the law abiding. They don’t disarm criminals, but they ensure that residents are left with one option: call 911 and hope help arrives before it’s too late. And sadly, we know all too well how that often works out.
Minstrel posted a recent article on this topic – 9.1.1 – Dial-A-Prayer for the Unarmed. In the post, there was a quote by Richard Stevens, a Washington, D.C. lawyer and author of Dial 911 and Die, wherein he gives the two reasons that 911 and police response are inadequate:
First, the police cannot and do not protect everyone from crime.
Second, the government and the police in most localities owe no legal duty to protect individuals from criminal attack.
When it comes to deterring crime and defending against criminals, individuals are ultimately responsible for themselves and their loved ones. Depending solely on police emergency response means relying on the telephone as the only defensive tool. Too often, citizens in trouble dial 911 . . . and die.
The murder in question occurred in California – whose gun control laws make it one of the most difficult places to obtain firearms for protection. The laws are intimidating – people who would like to buy a gun for self-protection find themselves faced with absurdly-high fees and a myriad of red tape not seen in most states.
The ultra-liberal majority in California state politics is as culpable for murders like this as are the perpetrators who pull the trigger of a stolen or illegally obtained gun.