hero of the month: september

on 9/28/09 sedgwick county, kansas sheriff deputy BRIAN ETHERIDGE responded to a larceny report through 9-1-1 to a rural county address. the call was fake and contrived to lure a law enforcement officer to the scene. the suspect, who's name is not worth repeating, hid and shot the deputy in the back as he attempted to make contact to take the citizen's report. down, the suspect took the deputy's sidearm and attempted to execute him striking ETHERIDGE in the foot and torso. BRIAN ETHERIDGE was rushed to a nearby wichita hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, but succumbed to his wounds. six hours after shooting deputy ETHERIDGE, the suspect was located, and during a running gunfight was killed by state and federal agents who were assisting in the manhunt. a motive for the shooting of the deputy remains unclear. deputy BRIAN ETHERIDGE was 26, had been on the job a little over a year and leaves behind a wife and small child. it was not how BRIAN ETHERIDGE died that made him a hero, it was how he lived.






honorable mention; TOM LANGER, st. clair shores, michigan, used a garden hose and twice fought off smoke and flames on 9/17, to pull his 83 year old neighbor to safety after a natural gas leak resulted in an explosion that destroyed her home, leaving her with critical burns which caused her death on 9/18.

ROGER KNIGHT, who helped to arrest phillip paul, a 2 time escaped killer, from a washington state mental hospital on 9/19-9/20. knight had arrested paul in 1991 after his first escape, from the same facility, and was assaulted by paul at that time, suffering a dislocated shoulder, and was knocked out during that attack. paul has been described by his doctors as very violent. it takes a lot of guts to go after a nut job who seriously injured you 18 years previous.

please remember your local law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics in your prayers. every time they step out the door to go to work could be their last, and they do it willingly, so that we may all live in peace and safety.

WARNING! pavement ends ahead

Mr. HOPE & CHANGE is hoping for someone to change the subject(s) right about now, i expect.

this week colonel for life moammar gadhafi came to NYC to talk to the idiots at the UN and called barry his son and said he hopes barry could be the american president forever. nancy pelosi reportedly threatened to scratch out gadhafi's eyes if he ever looked at her man again.





jimmy" the great islamic appeaser" carter, said all who oppose barry and his policies are racist, then had osama bin ladin praise his book, peace not apartheid . i'm sure somewhere book sales will jump because of this, but not in the new york- new jersey area.





keeping on the carter theme, his former national security adviser, zbigniew brzezinski, who worked for the lincoln of our times, recently said that if ISRAEL tried to attack iranian nuclear facilities, the U.S. should confront them and implied shoot down israeli fighter/bombers. brezezinski, likened it to an incident during the six day war, in which ISRAEL mistakenly attacked the USS Liberty. what should be more troubling to american peaceniks is the fact that brezezinski referred to the airspace over IRAQ as belonging to the U.S. who's the imperialist now?





obie also cut the legs out from under allies POLAND and the CZECH REPUBLIC by stating we are not going ahead with permanent land based anti ballistic missiles which would guard central eurpoe and the U.S. from missiles launched from either the mid east or former (trying to be current) SOVIET UNION. later still he snubbed british p.m. gordon brown 5 times, for a private meeting, reportedly cause he's pissed about LIBYA getting a dying terrorist back from SCOTLAND. little secret, clinton let SCOTLAND have the aforementioned terrorist. bet you still meet with him. what about all the terrorist we are releasing from gitmo?




not to let anyone feel left out, barry also told NY governor david patterson not to run for reelection. patterson is 1 of 2 sitting black, sorry, african-american governors in the U.S. he wants buddy mario cuomo to run. nice, democrat prez tells democrat gov to sit his ass down.


also this week it was" leaked" that barry's handpicked guy running shit in AFGHANISTAN, GEN. STANLEY McCRYSTAL was going to ask for an additional 40,000 troops to fight in AFGHANISTAN. remember everyone, this is the war THE ONE referred to as the right war. bet the screams were loud enough to peel paint when that shit got out. they were so mad they even let hillary speak. why is it a story is "leaked" during a lib administration, but it is a "whistleblower" during a republican administration?




nothing like (re) building the respect of the world, and our (and your) allies B. keep hanging out with failed presidents and the losers who helped 'em fuck things up in the 70's, racist ministers, former green job czars, and terrorists (both foreign and domestic), you're doing a fine job.

i've been to 3 hog killin's, 2 county fairs........

COME ONE, COME ALL, AND SEE THE HOMICIDAL MANIACS!!!



some of you know how the rest of the title goes, and yeah i never seen no shit like this.

seems after an extended leave of absence, PHILLIP PAUL was rearrested after walking away from a FIELD TRIP to the spokane county interstate fair. PAUL, a mental patient in the care of the eastern state hospital in washington, walked off from the field trip carrying; a backpack full of clothes, electric guitar, $50 bucks and some chow. this is the SECOND TIME this guy has wandered off, slipping away in 1991 also.

what's the big deal j summ? oh nothing, this guy only killed RUTH MOTTLEY, who he suspected of being a witch, then buried her in her garden, after dosing her with petrol to keep dogs from finding her. when he went adventuring in 91, he knocked out a cop that was booking him, as well as dislocated his shoulder. that officer, ROGER KNIGHT, had a hand in arresting PAUL sunday.

the state department of social and health service in washington is in full cover their ass mode, as secretary SUSAN DREYFUS issued a statement saying "We are committed to finding out how and why this happened, why there was an unacceptable (two-hour) delay in notifying local law enforcement of his escape, and how potentially dangerous patients were brought to such a public venue with the reported staffing ratios."

susan, i'm no expert, but i'm guessing that letting guys head to the county fair to check out the butter sculptures, prize livestock and latest farm implements, that have previously killed someone, AND escaped from YOUR custody is WHY that happened. also if he carries off most of his worldly possessions to the FIELD TRIP, someone paying attention might try to connect the dots, cause sure don't seem to me like he was planning to return for dinner.

SUE, if i were running shit in washington, you would be on MONSTER.COM looking for a new gig. oh yeah, PHIL's $50 came from his cashed social security check! hey congress, maybe that's why the program is going broke. how many nut jobs get paid to sit in mental hospitals in this country, AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE, and draw social security after killing someone?

due to your weird liberal policies washington state, you will never have to worry about me stepping foot in your shit hole, er, state.

reminds me of a great movie from the 80's.

breaking news

above you see the supposed new CIA anti-terrorist logo



i'm watching o'reilly and he had michael scheurer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden Unit on. he was in charge when we had bin laden cornered under clinton, and slick willie would not pull the trigger. tonight he was talking about the current dumb ass and chief's fucked up policies.

the cat is now out of the the bag, as scheurer said on national television that OBAMA IS A LIAR. this is in reference to the waterboarding that was conducted. he stated unequivocally that it worked, "blowing up" a plan to get al quada operatives enrolled in mid-west U.S. universities, for future operations. it additionally allowed the brits to shut down planned al quada ops in their sphere of influence.

i think this is HUGE, cause it came from someone other than a bush administration insider. according to o'reilly and scheurer this info may still be considered as classified. sheurer has apparently had more than enough, as he went on to say that we are less safe now than we were 2 years ago due to B. Husseins policies. again HUGE!, based on the source.

he went on to blast a.g. eric holder and barry for looking to prosecute CIA interrogators and not having anything in place to fill the void left by waterboarding and the intelligence it created. this is all stuff that cheney has said before, but this is from a non-partisan intelligence official.
sorta vindicates joe wilson, as if he needed vindication. we all assume he called barry out as a liar over health care, but it most certainly covered more issues, the ones we are all concerned about.

stand by mr. scheurer for the racist label to be applied. we are also going to see what the dems think about his revealation compared to sandy berger's/burgalar's theft of classified documents.

neither rain, nor snow, nor dead of night.........

tuesday found me dropping off a package at the neighborhood post office for good buddy ski. i tried to do this on monday, but they close promptly at 5, and i'm just not that prompt.

on the way in i noted a significant amount of trash and yard debris on the grass, and lots of loose and missing bricks from the retaining wall/step area leading into the building. guess that the proceeds from steadily raising stamp prices aren't being diverted to station beautification.

inside i found a box from the display that would hold the items to be mailed. i went to the post office based on their flat rate commercial. you've seen it, if it fits it ships. normally i use fed ex, but they are all the way across town and my free time is at a premium. as i took the box to the clerk, she told me i didn't want that box, i wouldn't get my money, (value), out of it.

s'okay, whaddua got in mind? she proceeds to stuff the shit into envelopes. ah, darlin' if i wanted it in an envelope, ida put it there myself. ok, stand by, let me find a box. scratching my head wondering what just happened to the box i had, the clerk returns with a slightly larger box than what i started with. the medium flat rate box cost $10.35 to load and ship. slightly bigger generic box loaded was going to cost............$10.05, a whopping 30 cent savings!!! that's the kinda shit the wife will drive across town for, but i just have trouble getting amped up about.

what ever, tape 'er up let's go. do you want 2-3 day delivery for $11.95? no. do you want package tracking for an extra .70 cents, or insurance? thought we were looking to save me money here. ok $10.05. after paying and on the way out, i found a dime on the ground in a trash free area, so i actually saved 40 cents.

i was reminded of my dad who retired from the post office. that guys got more funny stories than anyone i know. he worked there 33 years and hated that job. they follow the letter carriers around, counting the number of steps they take per minute. they get out a ruler/yard stick and measure how much mail they throw/sort an hour. dogs chase them and the weather sucks. shit, with that type of shit going on, it's a wonder more people don't get shot. it must make them all a little psychotic, like the trade the little box for the bigger box to save money clerk, cause he used to try to convince me to get a job there!!



lemme get this straight, you can't stand it, but i would fit right in. sign me up. i know what he meant-job security and excellent health care, but damned if it made sense all those years ago. he's still got the best stories however.

had i been thinking, i'd have cleaned her out of the $10.05 boxes and sold them out front for ten and a quarter, truthfully telling people how i was saving them money, while turning a profit.

Ranger Rick On Patrol

i couldn't resist.....

between the takeover administration, and all the other bullshit, i thought we could use a laugh.

now you know why they have a mask.

the first patriots of the 21st century

we all remember where we were and how we heard about the attacks on the world trade centers and pentagon. our shock, anger, disbelief and horror. but we also need to remember our pride.

i think about the firemen and police who rushed in as others ran out. the ordinary citizens who helped one another to safety. the priest killed by a jumper from the towers as he comforted the injured and administered the last rights to the dead. and the travelers of FLIGHT 93, who surmised their preplanned fate at the hands of the hijackers, and fought back.

they embodied the spirit of AMERICA, and from them, through their actions,we can draw strength. it was the minute men of 1776 that gave us the tradition of citizens defending our republic, and so it was on 9-11.

what is our responsibility going forward? to remember their sacrifice. to tell our children that it was practitioners of the" religion of peace", that carried out these attacks. members of the same religion who the U.S. supplied and trained to fight soviet aggression in afghanistan. who we defended from saddam husseins attack on kuwait and feared attack on saudi arabia. the same members of the" religion of peace", we defended from ethnic cleansing in bosnia.

teach your kids that as a result of failing to respond to the attack on the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania, and the first world trade center attack, we led our enemies to believe we were weak, further emboldening them.

tell them that these men and women believed an age old saying about Americans and what America stands for, that we would rather DIE ON OUR FEET THAN LIVE ON OUR KNEES. last and certainly not least, remember those still deployed and our veterans. they continue to take the fight to the enemy, and have kept us free from attack since 9-11.



TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS. REMEMBER.

the associated press' indifference to the death of a marine

taken in part from stories by the ap, politico, and yahoo.

it's been less than a month. can you remember what you were doing on august 14? the family of marine LCPL. JOSHUA BERNARD will never forget that day. while executing a movement to contact, BERNARD was hit in the legs by an RPG, medivaced and subsequently died of his wounds. capturing the moment for posterity was AP photographer JULIE JACOBSON.

AP, being the caring organization it is, waited until LCPL. BERNARDS funeral on 24 august, to distribute the photos and the story AP Impact-Afghan-Death of a Marine.

that was despite the objections of secratary of defense ROBERT GATES and at least 2 objections by BERNARD'S father. it seems AP decided to run the photo and the story anyway because it's an, 'image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.'

i've viewed the picture in question. it shows a young service member slumped in a ditch, with obvious injuries, still clinging to his rifle as other troops come to his aid. due to my chosen career, i've been close more than i've liked to the injuried, dead and dying. i've never stood by to take pictures, or worse still, sent a reporter to the deceased next of kin, to ask if they were ok with 'us' publishing a story about the way their loved one died. forget about the kid you took fishing , taught to ride a bike, swing a bat, shoot a jumper, and take a look at these.

that's right, that's exactly what AP did. sent a "reporter", photos in hand, to ask Mr. BERNARD'S permission to use the pictures. what the fuck did they think the answer would be? didn't matter i guess, cause they put them out there anyway.

i'm no expert, but i bet shit like that could cause PTSD. i hope the BERNARDS sue the shit out of the AP for intentional infliction of emotional distress/harm.

i only have two things to say here; to THOMAS CURLEY the AP president, the editorial staff at AP, and JULIE JACOBSON-i hope some asshole is around when someone you love dies, they take pictures of it,then come stick them under your nose asking if it's ok to share them with the world. to the parents of LCPL. JOSHUA BERNARD-thank you for your son's service to the republic, he deserved better treatment than this.

you say you want a revolution, well ya know......

i do a lot of reading. various things, anything really to keep from being bored. many of the publications i read are essentially trade magazines for the military/ law enforcement community. i've noticed recently they have had many more articles about civil preparedness. the topics range is everything from first aid to gardening and most points in between.

i've also noted during the summer of tea parties that average folks are using the term revolution as a possible remedy to the disease we collectively caught on january 20, 2009. super rino john mccain even brought it up during an interview with sean hannity within the last 10 days. to paraphrase, mccain said that he had not seen this type of "civil unrest " before and he hoped it didn't (doesn't) get any worse. in mccains defense, i don't think he was trying to label americans exercising their civil rights riotous, just acknowledging the fact that people are pissed, at the direction the lincoln of our times is taking the republic.

here, too on the blogosphere, i've noted folks talking about resisting, learning to shoot, buying a firearm etc. if you own or purchase a gun i agree, learning safe handling should be a priority. so should gardening, first aid, methods of taking and processing game, and many other skills older generations of americans used to survive. in the event of a natural disaster those things could sustain you until things return to normal.

the bottom line here is that talk is cheap. damn few people, the author included, know the suffering and privations of an armed revolution. and i'm in no hurry to find out either. that does not mean i would not fight, but i'm not standing with torch in hand waiting to storm the palace, either.

i'm reminded of an account i read somewhere this summer of the revolutionary war. seems an aged farmer was at bunker hill or somewhere at the opening of the conflict. as the red coats approached he fell to his knees and began to pray. did he pray for deliverance from the mighty british army? how about the lord to watch over his family as the hour of his demise drew near?
no , he prayed to god in thanks for allowing him to live long enough to fight for his freedom.

how many of us would do the same today? how many among us have the testicular fortitude to stick to our figurative and possibly literal guns, in the event of the radical government takeover many are blogging about. if push comes to shove, i know where i'll be.

but let's pause for a breath. the tea parties are working. the libs are scared. not finished but frightened. van" the asshole" jones has resigned, due mostly to our loud voice. obama has taken the summer off to "recalibrate" his argument for national health care. he is coming back renewed and refreshed to begin championing this shit to our kids tuesday, september 8. don't give him any room to operate. call the schools, tell 'em no way in hell is that guy gonna bypass me. he says it's just a pep talk designed to let the students know to stay in school and apply themselves. bullshit! that would require no lesson plan and should not need any follow up questions like, "what can i do to help the president?" if they insist on showing it, junior and you get an extra long weekend.

stand strong. continue to hold congresses feet to the fire on health care, global climate change, and whatever other type of bullshit they dream up. and while you're out and about start looking for good people we can send to washington who won't try to rewrite the constitution to fit their socialist agenda.

if it's not broke, maybe we can still fix it

during my 1 day off this weekend, i attended a veterans benefits fair. the event was sponsored by the regional VA hospital and other affiliated organizations. i went because i had one, and only one question on my mind. is there any portion of my unused GI Bill benefits available to me?

upon arrival at the post where the event was held, i scraped my knee cutting between a couple of shrubs. more on that later. anyway, the entrance wasn't well marked, (had i have known land nav. was involved, i would have broken out the lensatic and 1/50,000 comics), but using THE FORCE, i was able to gain entry.

inside, i met some really nice people, who would fight for my job if i got activated. thanks anyway, i've been out of the reserve for years. one guy who could get me an official COLD WAR VETERAN certificate of appreciation. ski did you realize we are that old? he also works for UNMET NEEDS, which is a very worthy charity, so it was cool to speak to him. there were also some people there from an iraq/afghanistan veterans support group to help any of those guys who are having trouble, get the counseling they may need.

finally, i found the VA rep. and asked my question. 'no sorry can't help, should have used it in the ten years allotted to you.' ok, thanks anyway. as i started to walk off, the VA rep. stops me, 'hey, you got any service related disabilities?' no. "no broken bones or a bad back or knees?' i was a paratrooper so yeah my back and knees hurt. i strained my back once while moving a large tree limb after a big wind storm at ft. riley. yeah, i went to the hospital but i was ok. 'hey you might qualify. i got asthma after i was reassigned to a post in the southeastern United States. it's only a 10% disability but that's $123.00 tax free every month for life, plus it front loads me for other stuff.'

i was shocked. here is a person telling me to apply for a government disability, because i strained my back years ago. truth be told, i see a chiropractor 2-3 times a week. is that a result of poor tree limb lifting technique or piss poor execution of PLF's, parachute landing falls? how about all the car accidents i've been in since separation? or the foot chases and fights? what about poor weight lifting technique while exercising?

i felt dirty, ashamed. i thought VA disabilities were paid to injured/wounded service personnel. sure, if a guy gets burned when the helo he's riding in crashes during a training exercise, he should get paid. without a doubt, our combat wounded deserve the money and medical benefits. but here, i got someone who developed asthma telling me it's ok to stick my hand out, and see if the government will drop some money in, cause i got dinged up all those years ago. this is while we have troops coming back from the middle east without hands or feet or an eye.

i left. i wanted to cry. i called my buddy ski. he set me straight. he's still a good dude. i feel bad for the guys the government has refused to help, like the AGENT ORANGE vets, or the GULF WAR SYNDROME guys. but here is some change because you get short of breath when this weed is in bloom. maybe that's where my unused GI BILL money disappeared to. i've lived a pretty good life. i hunt and fish, chase the kids and wife. i can work and exercise, and i'll be god damned if i'd take a dime from a vet who can't do those things.

glad i didn't mention that i scraped my knee on the way in!!

bonus points if you can identify the image at the top.