Unaffiliated--100 Words

Unaffiliated. Apolitical.

Until recently, I would have considered myself Republican.

Not that it matters in Alabama. Heck, in Alabama even dead people have been known to vote early and often. So, party affiliation has never meant much to me.

I’ve voted more with my heart than a card in my wallet.

Things are different now.

I wouldn’t classify myself as Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, or even Tea Party member.

I am a citizen of the United States of America first. I believe in protecting and defending the US Constitution.

Numbers like me are rising.

So politicians. Get with the program!

The Poor Second Guy

As is normally the case, it is the second person who throws a punch that gets in trouble. You’ve seen that happen in football games, right? A player gets angry, punches another player, who then retaliates for the punch. The first player rarely gets caught (except on video tape) and the second player almost always gets punished.

Well, it would seem that the US Navy is “that second guy.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) turned down a U.S. Navy request to fly a patrol aircraft past Manhattan on Monday, two weeks after a nerve-racking Air Force photo shoot over the Statue of Liberty caused a brief panic. The agency said it refused clearance for the flight down the Hudson River because the Navy had given it only a few hours notice of its plans.

The P-3 Orion reconnaissance plane from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, was to have flown past the city, then head back north, sometime around 10:30 a.m. FAA officials said the four-engine, turboprop admittedly had a low probability of attracting attention. It was to have flown no lower than 3,000 feet, well above New York's tallest skyscrapers, in an air corridor where planes of a similar size are a common sight.

But after city officials were informed and higher-level FAA officials learned about the request, they declined permission for the flight, saying unannounced military flybys were a bad idea. After the FAA alerted the mayor’s office in the morning that the flight would take place, the city sent out a public notification warning that a military plane would be in the air. Shortly thereafter, the FAA told the Navy the mission was off.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city did not ask for the flight to be canceled. “We did get on the phone with them and said we’d prefer to have had a little more time to notify everybody,” he said. Bloomberg said it was his understanding that the flight was for “some Navy guy who was retiring after many years of service, and they wanted him to take one last flyby.”

Now, of course, the Navy is disputing the Mayor’s claim about honoring someone retiring. I doubt we’ll ever know the real truth. But, this time, the Navy can blame the White House for throwing the first punch (flying Air Force One over the city unannounced) and then them getting punished for actually going through the official process to fly over the city—whether or not the fly was for a good purpose or not, they got punished because they came along second.

Wonder how long the watchful eye of the FAA and media will be watching the skies of New York City?

What Else Is There to Say?

Do I really need to say any more?

The End is Closer Than You Think!

For a decade or so, Russian academic Igor Panarin (pictured to the left--and doesn't he look Russian!) has been predicting the United States will fall apart in 2010. Now he’s found an eager audience that wants to tell his message: the Russian state media. It seems that they are so interested in his story that they are now interviewing him twice a day.

Professor Panarin seems to be a polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut and he insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for us is dire.

“There’s a 45–55% chance right now that disintegration will occur. One could rejoice in that process. But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario—for Russia.”

Professor Panarin, who is 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.–Russia relations.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the United States will break into six pieces—with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

Okay, question for you. Professor Panarin says that there is a 45–55% chance that the United States will collapse. Doesn’t that mean that there is a 45–55% chance that it won’t? I’m not great at math, heck, I’m probably not even considered good at math. But, with a 50/50 chance of collapse, I think my odds of predicting that America will not fail is just as valid.

Now, where are the members of the media to interview me? Any one? Any where? I’m waiting.

So, as you prepare for 2009, you’d best take advantage of the year. If Professor Panarin is correct, you have less than 1 ½ years before the fall.