Sift through muck, see what is real
At a recent event "honoring" convicted felon Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney attacked President Barack Obama about how he's handling the mess his regime left behind in Afghanistan. This from a guy with the administration that basically did everything wrong! Speaking of "dithering" -- instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney sent our military into an immoral and illegal war in Iraq, leaving only a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to go after the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 horror. Many generals are now saying our diversion of resources (dithering, if you will) has left the Afghanistan situation worse than ever.
We have become a nation of non-thinkers. It appears that it is now cool to be stupid. We pay homage to people who are paid millions to spray half-truths and outright lies from the time we get up until we retire at night. It is our duty as American citizens to sift through this muck and see what is real and what is just plain wrong.
I am glad that the White House has declared what sane people have always known: "Fox" is simply a propaganda outlet for the GOP! Truths and actual facts are just accidental there.
ANN BENTON
Signal Mountain
Where is plan to recall troops?
The NCOs (non-commissioned officers) must follow orders handed down through the chain of command. It could be called "the trickle down effect." It all starts with the commander in chief, who tells the generals what's to be done. Then it is passed on to the NCOs, who are told, "You're going to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan," usually for multiple tours of duty. What happened to the plan to bring our troops home?
It is obvious that all of this has been changed and the beat goes on, as more troops are being sent into Afghanistan to fight more bloody battles, by mostly "the low in rank," brave men and women of the military. How much longer will our troops be sent into these war-torn countries?
There doesn't seem to be much difference from what "the Bush administration policies were"! What makes these ground wars seem so more or less hopeless is the fact that North Korea and Iran are looking for much bigger things to happen via possible "nuclear confrontation"! We of course hope that it never happens. It doesn't take much intelligence to see that it's a strong possibility. It's time to pray for peace.
RICHARD D. BLOOD
Ringgold, Ga.
Festivals preceded Christianity
A letter to the editor published on Thursday regarding Halloween's origins was missing a few tidbits. Before Christianity, Samhain was celebrated by the Celtics at this time of year. The Romans had a festival to the goddess Pomona. It was the Roman Church that allowed or encouraged elements of these pagan festivals into what we know as Halloween, thanks to the creation of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Pope Leo and Pope Gregory III may take some of the credit or blame. (The same "baptized paganism" could be stated for Christmas and Valentine's Day.)
MARK RAEDISCH
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I agree with Richard Blood. The absolute tragedy is we have been wasting the most precious lives in our nation, our soldiers, on nations that do not even appreciate what we have done for them.
Besides North Korea and Iran, we should be looking at what China is doing militarily. In the article, "China Develops Operating System for 'Cyber' War, Bill Gerz notes: "The secure operating system known as Kylin was disclosed to Congress during recent hearings that provided new details on how China's government is preparing to wage cyber warfare with the United States". In addition, China (with our stolen technology) has been increasing its buildup of high tech weaponry and outfitting the Red Army with the most modern technological equipment in the world. Seems as if they are readying for something or another, eh?
In the Pentagon. Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said "cyberspace is a war-fighting domain, critical to military operations: We must protect it". With "friends" like this we don't need enemies.
Let me get this straight, acording to Ms. Benton then, the only sane folks are those who voted for Obama and the thugs in his administration. The one that recently attempted to halt any criticism of his actions by one of the Press Pool, FNC. Fortunately, other media roundly criticized The WH for this stupidity.
These "sane" folks voted for a man who promised huge things, both on the campaign trail and now, in the WH. None of them have transpired-exactly the opposite. We are in worse shape than ever before thanks to Democrats like Dodd, Frank, Pelosi et al. Not to mention the insane racists, Marxists and zero population growth fanatics he surrounded himself with. If THIS is sanity, I'd rather have crazy.
It's time Ms. Benton and friends, to come off of your 'mountain' and start vetting your own Party, their goons and clowns and get with history. Your man is hell-bent on taking all of the great freedoms you and yours still enjoy-including the freedom of speech to say the most foolish things you want to say.
Good grief, canary! You know there is medication you can take to control your paranoia, don't you?
Call it what you will, Ike boy. There's plenty of documentation, facts and live video to back up every statement I make. My point is people like you drink the drug of delusion and refuse to vet, check out facts and criticize your own filthy house. We'll see who gets the last laugh and the last cry.
I knew I would find canaryinthecoalmine here. Since signing up on July 31, 2009, the aforementioned person has written 228 letters and opinions to this site. That is 70 a month, just over 2 a day, 7 days a week. Like seeing that name in print, huh? Your words are scathing, not helpful. Your opinions are closed minded, and all be damned if someone disagrees with you. They surely must be a dimwit who can't see that you are the most intelligent person around and we must agree with your every word. When I see your opinions, I always think of another bird, "Henneypenney", because your sky is certainly falling!
Notice that those on the left avoid the facts of canary's messages and instead specialize in hurling personal insults. Sort of like the WH ignores the facts contained in Fox News stories and throws out diversions like saying they are not a real news network.
They are pathetic, aren't they? Notice she had the time to squawk, count my letters and read my opinions? I am prolific and so are many Leftists on this site. We don't apologize for speaking out. None of us I believe, do this every day but hey, SOMEONE's gotta answer the lies and trash-talk like hers, no? Viva la Truth :) :)
Oh, and I forgot to add verbose.
Hey Canaryinthecoalmine~I didn't read all of your posts; they are too vile for my taste. I did a check on you and found you really like to express yourself, to the tune of 2 letters PER DAY. Get a real life dude. You are not changing minds here. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!! LMAO
Just one more thing... mu user name is my real name. I don't have to hide behind a "handle" like Canary or Lightitup. What are you afraid of? Oh I forgot. Everything!
Four posts by TinaFrench and not a productive intelligent thought in any of them.
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Ann Benton wrote: "We have become a nation of non-thinkers."
I agree with you 100% Ann. How else could we have ended up with the current occupant of the White House? Rather than apply any critical thinking skills, the non-thinking sheeple, aided by a star-struck fawning mainstream media, voted for the one who promised to take the most from the productive portion of our society and redistribute it to the least productive. But even they are waking up to the fact that Obama is not going to pay their mortgages or buy their gas. But take heart; our national nightmare will end in 2012.
Ann also wrote: "We pay homage to people who are paid millions to spray half-truths and outright lies from the time we get up until we retire at night."
I knew about Keith Olbermann, but are you saying that Dan Rather is back on the air, forging documents again?
My point, canary, is that the president does not have the power to take away our rights, nor does he have the desire. Confront the actual issues rather than claim doom and gloom notions. No administration is perfect, even when times are easy. Some of the things the Bush administration did was good, and not all of today's economic issues can be traced to them. The most amazing response in my mind has been the frantic race to buy ammo. The current White House has shown no moves towards gun limits (they are too busy with more important things) and yet everyone KNOWS they will lose their guns. Groups not connected with the current administration continue to monitor religious influence in school and government, but everyone KNOWS Christians will lose their freedom to worship. (Because, as 30% of Tennesseans still believe Obama is a foreign-born Muslim) The White House criticizes FoxNews, and everyone KNOWS that means loss of freedom of speech and press. Where does the craziness come from, and where does it end?