A Fitting End to the Day

Another terrorist captured in Afghanistan…this one is a big fish. Former Taliban big-shot who apparently communicated with Bin Laden (maybe he still does???) quite a bit.

http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/09/gulbuddin_hekmatyar.php

And, like others, he apparently surrendered without a shot.

You can’t hide forever…

(If you are looking for Lisa Frost’s tribute, please scroll down to the next post. Thank you to all who visited this site and posted their kind comments. I am thankful my writing served to properly honor Lisa and her memory.)

Lisa Frost

Five years ago, all of our lives were changed.

I can tell you where I was and what I did on September 11, 2001. But this post is not about me. This post is about one of the 2,996 victims of that day. This is about Lisa Frost.

Lisa Frost was 22 years old, and a recent graduate of Boston University. She earned degrees in communications and business hospitality, and was a valedictorian (summa cum laude) at graduation.

While at BU, Lisa was dedicated to helping others. She worked as a student advisor and also a peer counselor. She also studied abroad in Sydney, Australia. She was described by fellow students as “intelligent,” “fun loving,” “compassionate,” and “devoted.” Professors told Lisa’s parents that she was “a gem,” and even said “I wish I could clone your daughter.” Her father, Tom Frost, called her “a perfect daughter.”

Lisa Frost was, without a doubt, a blessing to this world. On September 11, 2001, she boarded United Airlines Flight 175. She was flying home, to visit her parents in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, and then was starting a job in San Francisco.

That was not to be. Instead, terrorists hijacked Flight 175 and crashed it into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The terrorists thought they had killed thousands and broken the American spirit. They were wrong.

Those thousands still live on in spirit, including Lisa. The community of Rancho Santa Margarita remembered Lisa with a memorial near a lake.

Lisa’s father, Tom Frost, has told people to remember Lisa through volunteering and helping others, to “bring some good out of it.” At the BU Memorial website, hundreds of comments were left by those who will always remember Lisa. She also helped inspire a technical writer’s turn to freelance, which you can find at the following:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/freelance_writing/ad_arma.htm

Lisa Frost was only 22 years old when she was murdered by terrorists on that beautiful September morning. However, in those 22 years, she touched hundreds of lives and helped countless people in many ways. We should be so lucky to do the same in our lives.

Follow Tom Frost’s advice. Help someone today, volunteer, join a group dedicated to assisting others. Do it for Lisa.

Lisa, we will always remember you.

(Thank you to those who helped in this tribute, including the commenters on my previous post.)

Back/The 2,996 Project

Extended hiatus, the place looks dead, right? Hey, everyone needs a break every now and then.

I decided to reactivate the blog after finding the “2,996 Project” online. This website is seeking to find 2,996 bloggers, each to write a tribute to one of the victims killed in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.

http://www.jamulian.com/db911/

You can find more information at the above link. If you sign up, you will be randomly assigned a victim and given information about them. I have done so. I have also e-mailed the blogger who was assigned Lt Michael Fodor, who I knew well, in order to thank him for volunteering and offering to assist if he requested help in putting together his tribute.

The 2,996 bloggers will each post their individual tributes on September 11, 2006, the 5th anniversary of the attacks. I would highly encourage anyone to volunteer, there are still a number of victims left unassigned.

Baghdad ER

No, the website isn’t gone. I just took a break. Stuff like that happens, I’m not going to let a website run my life.

I had the opportunity last night to view “Baghdad ER,” a documentary shown an HBO. It is an hour-long look inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the men and women who work there, and their patients.

Don’t go looking for “Grey’s Anatomy” or George Clooney and Noah Wyle here, because you’re not going to find them.

Each day the 86th receives wounded American, Coalition, and Iraqi forces. They also treat Iraqi civilians and the insurgents and terrorists who are brought to the hospital via medevac helicopter. You see a multiple casualty incident after an armored vehicle falls into a river, and victims of IED attacks, RPGs, and firefights.

Through it all, the 86th does everything possible in their power to save each life which comes through their doors. Sometimes, in order to save a life, it is necessary to sacrifice a limb. The one portion showing an amputation in progress is accompanied by one of the most alien sounds I have heard…that of the amputation saw.

Make no mistake. The footage is an unflinching, sometimes brutal look at war, with humor (some of it gallows) occassionally mixed in. Several of the doctors make comments about hating the war and the senselessness of the violence, but they all also remark that they know they are making a difference, and would do it again “in a heartbeat.” War is hell. I don’t know anyone who could go through what these men and women do and could not hate the violence that comes through the doors day after day.

I highly recommend the documentary. Hollywood goes out and makes enough senseless horror movies with plenty of gore in them, which get plenty of ticket sales…so the “it’s too gorey” excuse isn’t going to work…unless you don’t watch any of those movies either. Then I might consider it…but you should still watch the documentary.

This war isn’t a video game, no war is. No matter what, ground must be taken and held by the infantry, and they are the ones who the viewer sees suffering, but also extremely dedicated to their duty. Some of the patients return to duty, one after a complicated surgery stateside…another returns to survive 4 more IED attacks. The dedication of the medical personnel, the air ambulance crews, and the chaplain is unbelieveable. We in the emergency services and medical fields can only hope to even come close to the devotion shown in this film.

Thank you to the producers and staff of “Baghdad ER,” to the 86th CSH, the air ambulance crews, and to all allied soldiers, especially those unlucky (but, looking at the care…fortunate) enough to enter through the doors of the 86th CSH.

“It is good that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow fond of it.”- Robert E. Lee

The Moussaoui Verdict

I still feel he should be put to death, but I have some information on where this waste will be rotting away for the rest of his life. Somewhat heartening, even though it will cost us $100,000 a year to keep him alive.

And as for his "I won, you lost," comment…he would have said it whether he was put to death or the verdict he received. If the guy really wants to die, he would have killed himself. Clearly, he doesn't want to. But the good news is that everyone will probably finally shut up about this guy while he sits by himself for the rest of his life.

As I noted yesterday, had the trial been 64 years ago, the verdict probably would have been different…a military tribunal would have been a big change too.

http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history_it_happened_here_htim020b,0,2456276.story

But on to the information I have on "SuperMax." 

From a USAF message board (seem to be much of the same details from online articles):

"In the arid, remote high desert, the triangular, two-story, high-tech ADX is almost invisible, as are its 417 male inmates. Many spend 23 of every 24 hours double-locked in an 8-by-12-foot cell behind a steel door and barred grate. Some spend the day's remaining hour alone as well, exercising in a small concrete recreation area and subjected to strip searches upon leaving and re-entering their cells. Except for the guards, there is no direct human contact.

Unparalled in America, it is the only prison specifically designed to keep every occupant in near-total solitary confinement, rarely allowing inmates to see other prisoners.
It is spent, typically, in a 12-by-7- foot cell. Beds, desks and stools are made of poured concrete. Toilets have a valve that shuts off the water if an inmate tries to flood his cell by stopping it up. Sinks have no taps, just buttons — inmates used to unscrew the taps and use the plumbing parts as shanks.
A 42-inch window, 4 inches wide, looks out on a one-man concrete recreation yard, which prisoners with good behavior can eventually use.
The ADX goes to great lengths to bring everything into the cells — books, food, television — so that inmates never need to leave. A 12- inch black-and-white TV in each cell shows closed-circuit classes in psychology, education, anger management, parenting and literacy. Religious services of numerous denominations are piped in from a small chapel, where prison officials display for the videocamera the religious objects appropriate for a given faith.
Haney, the Santa Cruz psychologist who has testified as an expert witness in cases involving supermax confinement, said the effect of isolation in places like Florence is dramatic. Prisoners “become extremely depressed and lethargic — sleeping, lying on their bunks, staring at the ceiling, declining to go out and exercise,'' he said. They begin to lose memory, can't concentrate and suffer severe panic attacks, he said, or become uncontrollably enraged over insignificant things."

You Wanna Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

Political correctness, and school mascots.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/illinois/cs-060428illinireact,1,371797,print.story?coll=cs-home-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

The University of Illinois looks like they're about to give up the fight for their mascot "Chief Illiniwek."

It looks as though the University will keep the nickname for their teams as "The Fighting Illini." But what about a mascot? What is an Illini other than a Native American/Indian/whatever you wish to call them?

It's not like the Chief is going into the stands and pretending to scalp white fans. (Which, ahem, some of the Natives DID do. We weren't angels, but neither were they.) It seems that the fans like the mascot, and it's been used for years. Seems to me like the University's teams are trying to honor the Illini, not dishonor them.

Fortunately, Florida State University successfully fought to keep "Chief Osceola" and the "Seminoles" as their mascot and nickname. The Seminole tribe even vouched for the school, saying it was an honor.

But, because of political correctness, the warrior mascot of Illinois will be no more.

So, hey. How about this? I don't like the Fighting Irish mascot of Notre Dame either. It offends me. It is "hostile and abusive." Everyone knows that not all Irish fight, so why should we be misrepresented? Please, NCAA, address this matter of racial prejudice. I can't stand the idea of a mascot inspiring fighting spirit. All mascots should be based on the Care Bears, this way they aren't "hostile or abusive."

How about the University of Southern California? The Trojans? Surely the descendents of Troy must be offended! Look at the mascot! It has a sword! It must be "hostile or abusive." Quick, NCAA, do something!

I won't hold my breath.

(And for the record, I am PROUD of the Fighting Irish mascot. That was merely a hypothetical case. I'd protest if the NCAA decided to take that mascot away. But I think we all see my point here…)

Senator Biden Selectively Remembers History

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Go ahead and read it, then come back here.

Does anyone remember their history, recalling how the Balkans came to be the way they were, with all of the violence in the 1990s? How about Africa?

Maybe it was because outsiders decided to draw borders to provide each "ethno-religious group" their own country. Then those "ethno-religious" groups wanted more territory, or some of their members lived in another groups's territory, and didn't want to live under that other group, or that other group decided to push the others out, or kill them all.

Now I will say to you right now that I do not totally agree with the way things have been run in Iraq. Some of the stories I have heard on forums from aircrew smack of micromanagement. Pilots not being given permission to drop bombs on an enemy position when they witnessed troops under fire from that position for hours, generals using UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) not to provide surveillance of enemy activities, but to watch aerial attacks, so as to keep an eye on the every move of a pilot, and others. But I am also of the opinion that right now, this country unfortunately lacks the stomach for a war the way it should be fought. But that's another topic altogether…

But Sen. Biden, who constantly drags up the spectre of Vietnam, seems to have forgotten what happened within a decade ago, to millions of people. If he thinks the violence is bad in Iraq right now and that it constitutes a civil war, he should wait and see what happens if his proposal goes through.

United 93

 

 I heartily endorse this movie.

Saw the 4:30 showing yesterday. You will absolutely see the confusion, the errors, and some of the horrors of September 11th. You will see the air traffic controller who pointedly stated that American 11 was being hijacked, and the duty officer at NEADS who overrode the FAA when fighters were being denied clearance to patrol NYC airspace. You will also see the best of the American spirit from the passengers on board United 93.

There are no big-name actors and no rationalization for the deliberate murder of nearly 3,000 people.

Make no mistake, you will be transported back to that day in the film's "real time" playback. It is one of the few movies I have watched in a theater after which you could hear a pin drop. You will be angered, saddened, but also inspired.

It has been nearly five years. It is not too soon, it is about time.

Five out of five, ten out of ten, two thumbs up, whatever you want to call it. Go see it.

UNC ROTC Armory Vandalized

I can't say I'm surprised.

Photos courtesy of Blackfive.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2006/04/university_of_n.html

I feel left out. No one wrote anything on the "Air Force" door. Come on guys, where's the love?

At least they managed to spell everything correctly. Just another example of peace, love, happiness, and understanding in whatever "utopia" these people dream about, I guess.

Not so much this day in history, but read on…

Yesterday was ANZAC day, the equivalent of Memorial Day for our friends in Australia and New Zealand. ANZAC stands for "Australia and New Zealand Army Corps."

If you want to read more about ANZAC Day, click on the following: http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.htm

ANZACs from years past:

And the present:

Today is Yom HaShoah…Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the 1990s, the UN held a big conference to mark the 50th anniversary and solemnly declared to "never again" let something like that happen. Everyone patted each other on the back and congratulated each other.

As we've seen, that's all a big lie.

Iraq.

Somalia.

Balkans.

Rwanda.

Afghanistan.

Darfur.

If you say something, you'd better mean it.