Where I'm From

This is a picture taken near where I was born (Summersville, WV) and it reminds me of the beautiful and rich history of the Appalachians, in particular the Blue Ridge Mountains. This is some of the most scenic parts of the country I've ever been in. These mountains, a couple of hundred years ago, were a barrier to westward expansion. Its very difficult to get in/out of the area, especially in winter. The people there are friendly and live a simple life, and they seem happy. The thickly wooded mountains, numerous types of flowers, birds, animals and rivers make this one of the best places to visit, especially in late spring/early summer. The cool, crisp mountain air refreshes mind, body, and soul. I hope to always be able to visit wild, wonderful West Virginia.

Marriage?

In response to this article/editorial: http://www.lnstar.com/literature/samesex.htm

I wrote this in an e-mail:

read the article on legalizing gay marriage and the two Southern Republicans. First, the building block of this country is the family, and families are built around marriages. Of course, things happen and you can have "blended" families, but, lets face it, that' not the ideal situation. Grandma having to go back to work to raise her three grandkids because both parents are in jail for drug use is not the ideal (although I do applaud Grandma). So, a marriage is a holy and civil union between a man and a woman, because that's the way God made it. That's the definition of a marriage. That's the start of our country. A same sex couple cannot, or never will be, married. Its not possible by definition. Therefore, someone is going to have to change the definition of marriage. I personally wouldn't want to be the one who is so self-absorbed and prideful to think I can erase thousands of years of history just because its fashionable to be gay right now. So, if our nation is to survive, we need to preserve the building block of the nation, the family. Once gay marriage is legalized, where does it end? If two women can legally be married, why not three women? Why not two men and one woman? Why not a man and his daughter? If we are all protected under the Constitution and keeping gay marriage illegal is against people's civil rights, then why aren't the Mormons allowed to practice polygamy. You see, no one can argue with me on this, because its the simple truth. Its socially cool and popular to be gay now, so hey, let's enable the twisted, perverted homosexual lifestyle by allowing them to "marry" each other. Allowing homosexuals to marry is a slap in the face of God, history, and every man and woman who has been struggling for years to make a REAL marriage work. So I agree that attacking gay marriage should be one of the top 3 goals in the country-behind national security and outlawing abortion.

Sincerely Ssubmitted,

Ann Says it Best..."Phony Soldiers" non-scandal

I usually like to do my own writing, pontificating, exposing, and confounding, but Ann Coulter really nailed this one regarding Democrats, liberals, warfare, and Rush Limbaugh's supposed anti-troop comment. Enjoy. This was posted on Yahoo! news:

PRETEND TO BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
By: Ann Coulter
Wed Oct 3, 7:58 PM ET
Not content to wait for my book to come out, Senate Democrats are demanding a censure resolution against Rush Limbaugh. Ah, the memories ...
In my experience, having prominent Democrats censure you on the Senate floor is the equivalent of 50 book signings. Or being put on the cover of The New York Times magazine 20 years ago when people still read The New York Times magazine. They should rename Senate censure resolutions "Harry Reid's Book Club."
Liberals are hopping mad because Rush Limbaugh referred to phony soldiers as "phony soldiers." They claim he was accusing all Democrats in the military of being "phony."
True, all Democrats in the military are not phony soldiers, but all phony soldiers seem to be Democrats.
If we are to believe the self-descriptions of callers to talk radio and the typical soldier interviewed on MSNBC, the military is fairly bristling with Moveon.org types.
The reality is quite the opposite. While liberals have managed to worm themselves into every important institution in America, from the public schools to the CIA to charitable foundations, they are shamefully absent from the military.
As noted in that great book that came out this week, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans":
"According to a Military Times survey taken in September 2004, active-duty military personnel preferred President Bush to Kerry by about 73 percent to 18 percent. Sixty percent describe themselves as Republican and less than 10 percent call themselves Democrat (the same 10 percent that MSNBC has on its speed-dial). Even among the veterans, Republicans outnumber Democrats 46 percent to 22 percent."
So there aren't a lot of anti-war military types for the media to turn into this month's "It Girl." (If conservatives ran the media, there would be a constant stream of government employees admitting to sloth and incompetence, welfare recipients admitting to being welfare cheats and public schoolteachers who support school vouchers.) Sometimes liberals get desperate and have to concoct Tawana Brawley veterans.
In addition to famous fake soldiers promoted by the anti-war crowd, like Jesse MacBeth and "Winter Soldier" Al Hubbard, even liberals with actual military experience are constantly being caught in the middle of some liberal hoax.
Al Gore endlessly bragged to the media about his service in Vietnam. "I took my turn regularly on the perimeter in these little firebases out in the boonies. Something would move, we'd fire first and ask questions later," he told Vanity Fair. And then we found out Gore had a personal bodyguard in Vietnam, the most dangerous weapon he carried was a typewriter, and he left after three months. Although to his credit, Gore did not put in for a Purple Heart for the carpal tunnel syndrome he got from all that typing.
Speaking of which, John Kerry claimed to be a valiant, Purple Heart-deserving Vietnam veteran, who spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia -- until he ran for president and more than 280 Swift Boat Veterans called him a liar. We've been waiting more than 20 months for Kerry to make good on his "Meet the Press" pledge to sign form 180, which would allow the military to release his records.
Then there was Bill Burkett, who gave CBS the phony National Guard documents; Scott Thomas Beauchamp, The New Republic's fantasist anti-war "Baghdad Diarist"; and Max Cleland, whose injuries were repeatedly and falsely described as a result of enemy fire.
Liberals will even turn a war hero like Pat Tillman into an anti-war cause celebre posthumously -- so he can't disagree. Tillman died in a friendly fire incident that occurred -- unlike Max Cleland's accident -- during actual combat with the enemy.
Because they are screaming, hysterical women, liberals treat friendly fire like a drunk driving accident. But friendly fire has been a part of war from time immemorial.
Liberals have an insane, litigious view of the military: There's been an accident in warfare, let's sue! It's as mad as the line from "Dr. Strangelove": "Gentlemen! No fighting in the War Room!" Golly jeepers, accidents can't happen in a war!
Contrary to the insinuations of his family, we don't know what Pat Tillman would say about the war he volunteered for, but we do know that he was a patriot until death. And we know what other patriots have said about friendly fire during a war.
In his book "Faith of My Fathers," John McCain describes how demoralized American prisoners of war in Vietnam were when they didn't hear any bombing for years. Finally, after a long bombing halt, Nixon renewed aerial bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972.
Our bombers couldn't know with precision where the enemy was holding (and torturing) our troops. McCain and the rest of those POWs could easily have been hit and killed by an American bomb.
But the POWs weren't denouncing the U.S. military for risking their lives with "friendly fire." They weren't crying Mommy, investigate this! Get me a trial lawyer! If their camp had been hit by American bombs, it would have been as the POWs were shouting: "God bless President Nixon!"
That's from their own mouths; that's what's in their hearts. Friendly fire -- to a nation that hasn't lost its wits -- is part of waging war.
If Democrats don't want to hear about "phony soldiers," maybe they should stop trying to edify us with these bathos-laden hoaxes.

Health

I just found out that I have a disease that is miserable, but possibly treatable. It could have been worse. Sometimes I wish I would have enjoyed my perfect health when I had it. Well, I'm determined to get back healthy again. Its funny how there is always something going wrong in my life; maybe its that way with other people too. Just when my job starts to be smooth, my health goes. When my health is finally getting back on track, then I have problems with family. When my family situation is finally resolved, then money problems creep up. Once the money problems are done with, then my health is bad again. I can only remember a few times in my life when I had everything lined up and no real stressors to worry about.

P.S. Both of those times were before the age of 21.