Many in the USA celebrate this holiday as the beginning of the summer season and our household is no exception. We are in the midst of a barbecue weekend and are enjoying it all. But we are also thinking about our fallen heroes in all disciplines of public service, be it first responders, law enforcement and most importantly, our men and women who gave their all in military service. God bless them all.
Our centerpiece this weekend is this patriotic bouquet. Click image to enlarge.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered his speech on National Security the other day. Cheney delivered sharp criticism to the current administration’s limp-wristed approach to terrorism. The recently-minted Fox Nation website excerpted the top-10 thoughts from Cheney’s speech:
No. 10: The administration has found that it’s easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo. But it’s tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America’s national security.
No. 9: In the category of euphemism, the prizewinning entry would be a recent editorial in a familiar newspaper that referred to terrorists we’ve captured as, quote, “abducted.” Here we have ruthless enemies of this country, stopped in their tracks by brave operatives in the service of America, and a major editorial page makes them sound like they were kidnap victims, picked up at random on their way to the movies.
No. 8: If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.
No. 7: Yet having reserved for himself the authority to order enhanced interrogation after an emergency, you would think that President Obama would be less disdainful of what his predecessor authorized after 9/11. It’s almost gone unnoticed that the president has retained the power to order the same methods in the same circumstances. When they talk about interrogations, he and his administration speak as if they have resolved some great moral dilemma in how to extract critical information from terrorists. Instead they have put the decision off, while assigning a presumption of moral superiority to any decision they make in the future.
No. 6: To completely rule out enhanced interrogation methods in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and would make the American people less safe.
No. 5: This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the Left, “We brought it on ourselves.” It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America’s moral standards, one way or the other.
No. 4: Intelligence officers of the United States were not trying to rough up some terrorists simply to avenge the dead of 9/11. We know the difference in this country between justice and vengeance.
No. 3: To the very end of our administration, we kept al-Qaeda terrorists busy with other problems. We focused on getting their secrets, instead of sharing ours with them. And on our watch, they never hit this country again. After the most lethal and devastating terrorist attack ever, seven and a half years without a repeat is not a record to be rebuked and scorned, much less criminalized. It is a record to be continued until the danger has passed.
No. 2: In the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed. You cannot keep just some nuclear-armed terrorists out of the United States, you must keep every nuclear-armed terrorist out of the United States. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy.
No. 1: Critics of our policies are given to lecturing on the theme of being consistent with American values. But no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things. And when an entire population is targeted by a terror network, nothing is more consistent with American values than to stop them.
Courtesy Editors of Fox Nation.
On our way to the Bash last week, we pulled into a rest stop on Interstate 10 about 60 miles west of Phoenix. We needed to walk the dog and to – well, rest. It was pretty warm, maybe 95° or so. Typical of the Arizona desert, there are prickly pear cactus growing all around. This one was sporting a beautiful yellow flower. Click image to enlarge.
We decided to rent an RV and camp in Phoenix last week while attending the NRA Convention because we wanted to bring our dog, Bear. She’s eleven years old and we’re quite attached to her. Besides, Damsel and I had such a wonderful time camping out last December for our Winter RV Cruise, that we knew this would be fun.
One problem we had because the dog with us, was a logistical balance between getting her in a doggie day care center near the campground and getting transportation to the Convention. We wanted to go to the exhibits on Friday and did OK with that, but we had traffic, parking and proximity to the Center problems because of the overwhelming attendance. By the time we finished with the exhibit hall, it was time to head back to doggie day care and thence back to the RV.
One thing that needs to be said is that without Bitter and the 2A Bash groundwork, we would have waited in the two-hour lines to even get into the place. We got our stuff in the media room and headed into the exhibits. Thanks again to the organizers and to the NRA staff.
We’re sorry we didn’t have the chance to attend the Bash meetings and mingle in the media room. I actively looked at people in the exhibit hall hoping to spot another blogger and say hello, but that seemed to be a needle in the haystack proposition. Plus the guns and exhibits were there to distract us, naturally.
Eventually, we will be able to hook up with some of the other bloggers. We especially would like to meet Bitter and Sebastian to personally thank them for their help this year. I’m going to be retired next year and I assume we will have more time to get involved.
It was fun – I composed this panorama while we were parked in the campground – we’re the Cruise America rig in the middle. Several of the other rigs in this row were also there with NRA folks. Click the panorama for full size.
During our visit to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, we took the short drive from the main road to a place called Keys View. From that point, you can see the Coachella Valley and the Palm Springs area five thousand feet (1525 meters) below. You can also see the San Andreas Fault (underlined in red) which has been the cause of many Earthquakes in California, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Click on the image to enlarge.
In the distance behind the ridge of hills thrust up by fault motion, you can see desert communities including Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Indio and La Quinta. All of these places will have a front row seat for the next major San Andreas movement in this area.
Speaking of quakes, the ground here at home is still shaking from aftershocks form the earthquake that happened in this area last Sunday. That was on the Inglewood-Newport fault, not the San Andreas. We missed the main shock since we were in Wickenburg, AZ when it hit. No damage here at home, thank goodness.
We’re home again after our wonderful spring vacation & NRA 2A Blogbash trip. No time left in the day to write anything extensive, so enjoy these beautiful beaver tail cactus flowers we saw today at Joshua Tree National Park.
We’re back in California (for the time being) and planning to spend our last day on vacation visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the park from the south entrance today, so we have our preview of tomorrow’s tour. We’re camped in Twentynine Palms, CA, tonight, and plan to head back to the park in the morning. After the visit to the park, we’re headed back to the grind at home – for now.
We enjoyed our trip and look forward to our upcoming retirement and eventual return to Arizona when we get our affairs in order. While in Arizona, we both enjoyed our 2nd amendment rights to carry in a place that gets it. We can hardly wait to get the freak out of liberal California.