The following is a letter provided to the Topeka Bar Assn. newsletter about the advantages of court reporters over DAR. Read it.
The Court Reporter-Guardian Of The Record
There has been much discussion in the Third Judicial District about using Digital Audio Recording (DAR) for various types of hearings. One of our misdemeanor criminal courts is already experimenting with the use of DAR technology. As an official court reporter I have seen several very important reasons why DAR should not be used in criminal proceedings.
First let me explain to you exactly what a court reporter is and what they do. A court reporter is simply a silent, impartial witness who records what is said in court, who then safeguards that record and when requested provides an accurate printed account of that record within a specific amount of time. Some can provide a real-time record that is displayed immediately on monitors in the courtroom. I provided This service during the Koch family trial here in Topeka Federal Court. You may have also seen real-time during the O.J. Simpson murder trial on TV.
A prospective court reporter, after training must pass examinations to certify their accuracy, speed, spelling, grammar and punctuation. After certification they are allowed to affix their seal to a transcript certifying that the transcript was prepared by a Certified Court Reporter thus assuring the accuracy of that document. The court reporter is able to certify the accuracy because they saw and heard what was transpiring in the courtroom. When the speaker spoke too fast or was inaudible the court reporter was able to intervene and slow them down or ask them to speak louder so that their statement will be heard and properly recorded. Law requires the court reporter to guard that record and provide a transcript in a timely manner when requested. Any attorney that cannot obtain an accurate transcript from a reporter in a reasonable amount of time has legal recourse from the State Supreme Court who will issue a “show cause“ to the court reporter in question in order to ascertain the cause of the delay. Likewise the court reporter faces disciplinary and legal action if a transcript is not provided.
The DAR records audio and only audio it cannot differentiate between words. It cannot use visual input or prior knowledge of the case at hand to add to its understanding of what is being said. It will record unintelligible sounds and any background noise that masks testimony. When a DAR is supplied to a transcriptionist to be transcribed many times a complete and accurate transcript cannot be made. Even the skilled firm that the court uses returns transcripts with “inaudible” in many important places. Unlike the record taken by a Certified Court Reporter no one is responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of the DAR. If the transcript of a DAR is not useable for an attorney they have no legal recourse. In several instances already there simply was no DAR taken. Either the judge forgot to turn it on or it simply was lost. If I were an attorney I would be upset if a key portion of the proceedings in a criminal case was “inaudible” or “unintelligible” or simply nonexistent because someone didn’t turn on the recorder or lost the record. Especially since there is no legal recourse.
As a student court reporter I was taught to be “seen and not heard”, probably the reason I haven’t spoken before. The thing is that if you see me in the courtroom you know an accurate record is being taken it will be protected and a transcript will be available. If you don’t see a court reporter, who knows?
If the record is important to you request a court reporter or you don’t know what you will get.
On the administrative level the Certified Court Reporter is seen as an unnecessary expense. The DAR is attractive as an inexpensive replacement.
What price, Justice?
Dorothy J. Sheeley-Seel CSR, RPR, FCRR
Managing Reporter, Third Judicial District
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Be careful of the stones that you throw.
I was talking with an old friend of mine and a friend of Dolly's. Dolly and I were talking about some of the bike runs I've been on and somehow the subject got around to how Dolly's friend (call her Pat) was at a party and she smelled something burning and lo and behold it turned out to be someone smoking a little weed. she was shocked to find someone doing that at a party that her friends would be at and actually had to be dragged home by her husband because she wanted to turn them in.
Well those of you who now me or have been to biker runs and parties know that there is no way that I am any stranger to Marihuana. I've been in and out of close contact with it since I was 12. No I'm not going to debate the benefits or dangers of smoking weed except to say that I've been around speed freaks and coke heads and different types of hypes. I've also been around drunks. The fact is that Hypes will sell their own mother for another fix and I've seen a speed freak shoot up ice water for the rush Ive also dealt with paranoid cokeheads and a nut case spaced out on angel dust. I don't like dealing with drunks either but I will say that I've never seen a pot head that didn't have problems to begin with that acted out violently on Pot. Say what you will, in the end it is ten times easier to deal with the mildly intoxicated pot head than a mildly intoxicated speed freak or hype or cokehead. It's just that way.
Besides the pot head and the rest are likely to be frome a different sort of group. There are so many otherwise socialy acceptable even conservative type individuals who toke a little weed in the evening. You generaly don't find that among the rest. I won't debate right or wrong because whether you believe it to be right or wrong depends so much on your belief system that it borders on freedom of religion. The fact is that many, many people who are fine upstanding members of society toking.
I knew a fellow, sorry no name, who lived on a farm had a civil servant job and did his job well. He went to church, Protestant if that's important to you. He was pro-life and didn't drink, diabetic, and he liked to hunt. A veteran with a good service record and medals from Vietnam. He didn't even wear an earring. No way you would know that he smoked pot. If you didn't know him you would never suspect. But he kept a few plants just in self defense. He never bought any never sold any he just kept his own supply But he grew outside and he grew Sativa dominant plants. So it ook most of the year to bring his small crop to finish and the plants were tallish. Not very noticable where he kept them. Many of us would say okay let him alone if he isn't driving stoned or selling or buying and supporting the dope industry. But there are those who, like Pat, can't stand to have someone doing something they themselves don't want to do even if it is not immoral so to speak. And one of those found out about my friend. So they went and told about the terrible weed freak down the lane.
The cops did a fly over and hovered right over the spot where he had his handful of Cannabis Sativa and photographed it. They got a warrant and searched his house found guns there, well we all know that a 270 win bolt action with a 20 power Lupold is a favorite weapon among dope gangs and of copurse they found a handgun or two, what a shocker finding guns in Kansas on a damn farm. They also found a few thousand dollars. Not the boxes of bills they show you on the Tv just a few thou. And what a shocker they also found Cannabis Ruderalis on his farm. For those of you who are not familiar that is just ol ditchweed, the sort that gives you a headache and no buzz if you smoke it. No he wasn't using it to mix in with his good stuff. It was just there. Of course his wife knew about his personal weed so she was arrested too.
When the prosecuting attorney came in to the courtroom ans showed the evidence there was a big pile of every Cannabis ruderalis plant they could find on his farm and they were still wet so were the Cannabis Sativa, the real stuff. So the weights were outrageous. Then there were the guns oh my the guns how horrible. You know it's stupid to make a fuss about someone who smokes owning guns but saying nothing about a drinker. Did I mention he was diabetic yeah, I did, for those of you who don't know about it diabetes prevents you from being able to use the sugars that are commonly present in the blood, glucose, so if you drink alcohol the alcohol converts into blood sugar, glucose and you wind up with a terribly high blood/glucose count. You can kill yourself drinking with diabetes. So he chose to smoke. And of course if you smoke somehow it automaticaly follows that you are somehow less capable of keeping a firearm around without using it in a felony. I don't quite understand it but. I think it comes out of that burmuda triangle that the gun barrel laws come from, you know, you can be charged with a felony for having a shotgun with less than 18" barrel yet a M4 carbine is made with a 16" barrel and is smaller, with the stock collapsed that most sawed off shotguns. And I can't have a switchblade knife of any legnth yet I own an assited opening knife with a nice blade that opens faster with a nudge than any switchblade. But I digress, the fact is that if you own a.444 marlin lever action rifle and a 336c 30/30 marlin rifle and a 30" barreled winchester goose gun and you happen to have an ounce of weed they will assume that somehow those weapons were used in the commission of a felony no matter that they are never found in the weapons caches of drug dealers. And if you have any money in the house and you have this same ounce of pot, it is assumed that your money, even if you have a job, was made selling pot. Now it doesn't matter whether you ever actually used the guns in the act of selling pot or if you ever even sold pot at all to make that cash you had. You relaly don't have to break that law to be found guilty of it. I'm serious if you have enough pot you will be charged and of course probably found guilty of "Posession with intent to sell". And it ain't like it used to be back in the day. We used to be able to keep a couple of ounces in allot of the states. Texas and Florida were kinda strict but where I lived it wasn't considered for sale unless you had more than an ounce.
Well my friend found himself suddenly in posession of a number of pounds of pot. His farm and his money including his 401k and his freedom and his wifes freedom were going to be forfiet for a very long time. Why? Because someone couldn't live with the knowledge that someone down the road might come home and have a couple of Jack and cokes. No it was the fact that someone who couldn't drink Jack and coke came home and smoked a little weed that he grew and never sold.
The outcome? My friend couln't stand that his wife was going to prison and so he killed himself. The farm and the equipment and the cars and the money and all accounts are all forfiet. The wife I believe is out of the pen by now probably working a waitress level job.
The little snitch didn't bring any higher level of safety to the community since there was never any problem with my friend. The snitch didn't bring Our Lord or his salvation into their lives. She didn't enrich their lives or save their lives. She ruined their lives and caused the death of a man who went through the worst of the battle for Hue and caused him to commit suicide depriving us of the presence of a very nice jovial fellow depriving his wife of a husband and taking him away from his family.
So be careful of the stones that you throw. Even the small ones can cause a catastrophy. Like my Mom used to say "If you don't have anything good to say shut up!"
Well those of you who now me or have been to biker runs and parties know that there is no way that I am any stranger to Marihuana. I've been in and out of close contact with it since I was 12. No I'm not going to debate the benefits or dangers of smoking weed except to say that I've been around speed freaks and coke heads and different types of hypes. I've also been around drunks. The fact is that Hypes will sell their own mother for another fix and I've seen a speed freak shoot up ice water for the rush Ive also dealt with paranoid cokeheads and a nut case spaced out on angel dust. I don't like dealing with drunks either but I will say that I've never seen a pot head that didn't have problems to begin with that acted out violently on Pot. Say what you will, in the end it is ten times easier to deal with the mildly intoxicated pot head than a mildly intoxicated speed freak or hype or cokehead. It's just that way.
Besides the pot head and the rest are likely to be frome a different sort of group. There are so many otherwise socialy acceptable even conservative type individuals who toke a little weed in the evening. You generaly don't find that among the rest. I won't debate right or wrong because whether you believe it to be right or wrong depends so much on your belief system that it borders on freedom of religion. The fact is that many, many people who are fine upstanding members of society toking.
I knew a fellow, sorry no name, who lived on a farm had a civil servant job and did his job well. He went to church, Protestant if that's important to you. He was pro-life and didn't drink, diabetic, and he liked to hunt. A veteran with a good service record and medals from Vietnam. He didn't even wear an earring. No way you would know that he smoked pot. If you didn't know him you would never suspect. But he kept a few plants just in self defense. He never bought any never sold any he just kept his own supply But he grew outside and he grew Sativa dominant plants. So it ook most of the year to bring his small crop to finish and the plants were tallish. Not very noticable where he kept them. Many of us would say okay let him alone if he isn't driving stoned or selling or buying and supporting the dope industry. But there are those who, like Pat, can't stand to have someone doing something they themselves don't want to do even if it is not immoral so to speak. And one of those found out about my friend. So they went and told about the terrible weed freak down the lane.
The cops did a fly over and hovered right over the spot where he had his handful of Cannabis Sativa and photographed it. They got a warrant and searched his house found guns there, well we all know that a 270 win bolt action with a 20 power Lupold is a favorite weapon among dope gangs and of copurse they found a handgun or two, what a shocker finding guns in Kansas on a damn farm. They also found a few thousand dollars. Not the boxes of bills they show you on the Tv just a few thou. And what a shocker they also found Cannabis Ruderalis on his farm. For those of you who are not familiar that is just ol ditchweed, the sort that gives you a headache and no buzz if you smoke it. No he wasn't using it to mix in with his good stuff. It was just there. Of course his wife knew about his personal weed so she was arrested too.
When the prosecuting attorney came in to the courtroom ans showed the evidence there was a big pile of every Cannabis ruderalis plant they could find on his farm and they were still wet so were the Cannabis Sativa, the real stuff. So the weights were outrageous. Then there were the guns oh my the guns how horrible. You know it's stupid to make a fuss about someone who smokes owning guns but saying nothing about a drinker. Did I mention he was diabetic yeah, I did, for those of you who don't know about it diabetes prevents you from being able to use the sugars that are commonly present in the blood, glucose, so if you drink alcohol the alcohol converts into blood sugar, glucose and you wind up with a terribly high blood/glucose count. You can kill yourself drinking with diabetes. So he chose to smoke. And of course if you smoke somehow it automaticaly follows that you are somehow less capable of keeping a firearm around without using it in a felony. I don't quite understand it but. I think it comes out of that burmuda triangle that the gun barrel laws come from, you know, you can be charged with a felony for having a shotgun with less than 18" barrel yet a M4 carbine is made with a 16" barrel and is smaller, with the stock collapsed that most sawed off shotguns. And I can't have a switchblade knife of any legnth yet I own an assited opening knife with a nice blade that opens faster with a nudge than any switchblade. But I digress, the fact is that if you own a.444 marlin lever action rifle and a 336c 30/30 marlin rifle and a 30" barreled winchester goose gun and you happen to have an ounce of weed they will assume that somehow those weapons were used in the commission of a felony no matter that they are never found in the weapons caches of drug dealers. And if you have any money in the house and you have this same ounce of pot, it is assumed that your money, even if you have a job, was made selling pot. Now it doesn't matter whether you ever actually used the guns in the act of selling pot or if you ever even sold pot at all to make that cash you had. You relaly don't have to break that law to be found guilty of it. I'm serious if you have enough pot you will be charged and of course probably found guilty of "Posession with intent to sell". And it ain't like it used to be back in the day. We used to be able to keep a couple of ounces in allot of the states. Texas and Florida were kinda strict but where I lived it wasn't considered for sale unless you had more than an ounce.
Well my friend found himself suddenly in posession of a number of pounds of pot. His farm and his money including his 401k and his freedom and his wifes freedom were going to be forfiet for a very long time. Why? Because someone couldn't live with the knowledge that someone down the road might come home and have a couple of Jack and cokes. No it was the fact that someone who couldn't drink Jack and coke came home and smoked a little weed that he grew and never sold.
The outcome? My friend couln't stand that his wife was going to prison and so he killed himself. The farm and the equipment and the cars and the money and all accounts are all forfiet. The wife I believe is out of the pen by now probably working a waitress level job.
The little snitch didn't bring any higher level of safety to the community since there was never any problem with my friend. The snitch didn't bring Our Lord or his salvation into their lives. She didn't enrich their lives or save their lives. She ruined their lives and caused the death of a man who went through the worst of the battle for Hue and caused him to commit suicide depriving us of the presence of a very nice jovial fellow depriving his wife of a husband and taking him away from his family.
So be careful of the stones that you throw. Even the small ones can cause a catastrophy. Like my Mom used to say "If you don't have anything good to say shut up!"
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The other 9/11 and the Cordoba Mosque
The other 9/11 and the Cordoba Mosque
So let’s talk about the other 9/11 in history and the relationship between that day and the proposed Mosque at “Ground Zero”. The choice of the day when the Moslem terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon goes way beyond the fact that 911 is the phone number many of us call for emergency help. I believe it is actually connected to the second siege of Vienna that ended on September 11, 1683.
Having attacked Vienna and having failed in 1529 the Moslems decided to venture another campaign on Christendom. The Grand Vizier, Pasha Kara Mustafa called together an army of Turks and Tartar and Malaysian allies and began his march in from the east towards Vienna, Austria. King Leopold and most of the population of Vienna and the surrounding area fled to the west leaving 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 volunteers. The garrison at the city of Vienna burned all the surrounding area and withdrew all foodstuffs and anything useful into Vienna leaving no shelter or cover or supplies for the enemy.
Having 140,000 troops Mustafa was well enough equipped for the battle. He elected to put Vienna under siege. The Ottomans began the battery of the walls but the guns they brought were not able to breech the walls of Vienna. They began to tunnel and to place charges of gunpowder under the walls. The defenders were able to rally and repair every breech that was made by the Ottoman mining. But eventually Vienna would fall if it was not reinforced.
Poland and Austria were joined in a mutual defense treaty and the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski was ready to respond to Pope Innocent’s requests for relief of Vienna. However the law of Poland required that a commision had to approve of the action. The king of France was bribing the commision to keep Poland out of the action for his own interests. The Pope was able to overcome this and the King of Poland rode out. So on the evening of September 11, 1683 King Sobieski along with some Germans and Austrians arrived with an army of 40,000 and took up positions on a hill outside of Vienna. In the early morning of Sept 12, 1683 they attacked the Moslems. King Jan Sobieski at the head of his famous Winged Hussars, yes they actually wore wings on their backs, struck against the Ottomans and pulled their forces away from the walls of the city which allowed the Viennese to sally forth and attack on the flanks of the Ottomans. In 3 hours the Turks fled leaving everything including slaves behind.
The forces of Christendom drove the Ottomans east and south out of Europe and back to Turkey.
I believe that the choice of September 11 for the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is more connected to this resounding defeat of the forces of Islam which led to their expulsion from Europe than a play on the nationwide emergency phone number. Being the type of people Americans are they immediately assumed that the choice of date had something to do with the emergency phone no.. Unlike the Moslem who does so many things that have significant symbolism in his religious life.
Their last attack on Christendom ended in a rout on 9/12, 1683. So I believe that they intended to announce another crusade of Islam and began it on 9/11, 2001 on the same date that the last one ended. Fortunately we have seen nothing of another full scale crusade. But the crusade in other forms is on again.
Now with the destruction of the World Trade Center there is an effort to erect a Mosque there at “Ground Zero”. I believe that there is also a great deal of symbolism behind placing a mosque at that location and in calling it Cordoba House.
The plan is backed by an organization called The Cordoba Initiative. An organization founded by a group including Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, the man in the forefront of the effort to build the mosque.
So am I seeing a connection between this and some obscure ancient history? Yes I am. And the history should not be so obscure for anyone calling themselves Christian.
The Crusade to Islamize Christendom began somewhere around 695 A.D. when the Islamic Moors moved west and east to attack the Middle East, Byzantium and North Africa. Many Americans need to have their historical mind jarred back to life so here we go. The Middle East and North Africa were at one time Christian, Jew and Pagan. There were kingdoms claiming faith in one of those beliefs spread across the area. If you will remember the name of St Augustine the famous bishop of Hippo. Well Hippo was in North Africa. The great city of Istanbul in Turkey was Constantinople and the great mosque there was St Sophia’s Cathedral. At the time of the Islamic crusade all of the major Christian sites in the Middle East such as the Church at the Holy Sepulcher and the Church at the Mount of Olives were all in Christian hands. Then came Islam. By 711 A.D. the Moors were at the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar).
The Moors swept into the Iberian peninsula and took over the Catholic Kingdoms of what is now Spain. One section of that peninsula was called Andalusia and there was the town of Cordoba. In 600 A.D. the Visigoths had built a Cathedral in Cordoba and during the Islamic occupation the property was sold to the Moslems for 100,000 dinars. Late in 785 A.D. Abd Al Rahman I the Emir of the new Umayyad Caliphate began to rebuild the building into a Mosque. In 1236 after a long bloody struggle the Christian Kings finally reached far enough south to free the town of Cordoba the Headquarters of the Islamic occupation of Iberia. The Cathedral was restored to Christian service and by the time of the reign of King Ferdinand and Isabella the country of Spain had been formed and the Moors had been vanquished.
Once again I would like to point out the similarities between the Cordoba house that is being proposed to be built on Ground Zero and the Cordoba Mosque that was bought in Spain. While the building of a Mosque is being proposed the Port Authority has cut off communications with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese about rebuilding St Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox church which actually was there before 9/11 and was destroyed in the attack. The money for the Mosque and the murderers of 9/11/01 both come from Saudi Arabia. To the secular mind the idea of drawing a correlation between the rout of the Ottomans on 9/11/ 1683 and the attack on 9/11/2001 may seem strange. Doing the same with the takeover of the Cathedral of Cordoba the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain and the building of the Cordoba House on Ground Zero may seem odd too. But to the mind of a devout Moslem the whole thing is akin to a miracle proving the support of Allah for the Jihad begun on 9/11/01. I believe that allowing the Cordoba House to continue to completion while denying the rebuilding of the Greek Orthodox Church is a form of surrender. It is seen as a great weakness to be exploited by our enemies.
The building of this Mosque so close to the site of the 9/11/01 attack may be a fate accompli but while our weak leaders capitulate to the demands of this radical Imam and his Cordoba Initiative supporters let us raise our voices in opposition. In this way those who would see our leaders allowing the building of this mosque as a victory for Islamofascism will also understand that we the people stand strong and it is only our leaders that are weak.
Call or write your representatives. Maybe send this to them. Do something easy now before we have to do something hard.
Herbert B. Seel
Aug. 25, 2010
So let’s talk about the other 9/11 in history and the relationship between that day and the proposed Mosque at “Ground Zero”. The choice of the day when the Moslem terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon goes way beyond the fact that 911 is the phone number many of us call for emergency help. I believe it is actually connected to the second siege of Vienna that ended on September 11, 1683.
Having attacked Vienna and having failed in 1529 the Moslems decided to venture another campaign on Christendom. The Grand Vizier, Pasha Kara Mustafa called together an army of Turks and Tartar and Malaysian allies and began his march in from the east towards Vienna, Austria. King Leopold and most of the population of Vienna and the surrounding area fled to the west leaving 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 volunteers. The garrison at the city of Vienna burned all the surrounding area and withdrew all foodstuffs and anything useful into Vienna leaving no shelter or cover or supplies for the enemy.
Having 140,000 troops Mustafa was well enough equipped for the battle. He elected to put Vienna under siege. The Ottomans began the battery of the walls but the guns they brought were not able to breech the walls of Vienna. They began to tunnel and to place charges of gunpowder under the walls. The defenders were able to rally and repair every breech that was made by the Ottoman mining. But eventually Vienna would fall if it was not reinforced.
Poland and Austria were joined in a mutual defense treaty and the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski was ready to respond to Pope Innocent’s requests for relief of Vienna. However the law of Poland required that a commision had to approve of the action. The king of France was bribing the commision to keep Poland out of the action for his own interests. The Pope was able to overcome this and the King of Poland rode out. So on the evening of September 11, 1683 King Sobieski along with some Germans and Austrians arrived with an army of 40,000 and took up positions on a hill outside of Vienna. In the early morning of Sept 12, 1683 they attacked the Moslems. King Jan Sobieski at the head of his famous Winged Hussars, yes they actually wore wings on their backs, struck against the Ottomans and pulled their forces away from the walls of the city which allowed the Viennese to sally forth and attack on the flanks of the Ottomans. In 3 hours the Turks fled leaving everything including slaves behind.
The forces of Christendom drove the Ottomans east and south out of Europe and back to Turkey.
I believe that the choice of September 11 for the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is more connected to this resounding defeat of the forces of Islam which led to their expulsion from Europe than a play on the nationwide emergency phone number. Being the type of people Americans are they immediately assumed that the choice of date had something to do with the emergency phone no.. Unlike the Moslem who does so many things that have significant symbolism in his religious life.
Their last attack on Christendom ended in a rout on 9/12, 1683. So I believe that they intended to announce another crusade of Islam and began it on 9/11, 2001 on the same date that the last one ended. Fortunately we have seen nothing of another full scale crusade. But the crusade in other forms is on again.
Now with the destruction of the World Trade Center there is an effort to erect a Mosque there at “Ground Zero”. I believe that there is also a great deal of symbolism behind placing a mosque at that location and in calling it Cordoba House.
The plan is backed by an organization called The Cordoba Initiative. An organization founded by a group including Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, the man in the forefront of the effort to build the mosque.
So am I seeing a connection between this and some obscure ancient history? Yes I am. And the history should not be so obscure for anyone calling themselves Christian.
The Crusade to Islamize Christendom began somewhere around 695 A.D. when the Islamic Moors moved west and east to attack the Middle East, Byzantium and North Africa. Many Americans need to have their historical mind jarred back to life so here we go. The Middle East and North Africa were at one time Christian, Jew and Pagan. There were kingdoms claiming faith in one of those beliefs spread across the area. If you will remember the name of St Augustine the famous bishop of Hippo. Well Hippo was in North Africa. The great city of Istanbul in Turkey was Constantinople and the great mosque there was St Sophia’s Cathedral. At the time of the Islamic crusade all of the major Christian sites in the Middle East such as the Church at the Holy Sepulcher and the Church at the Mount of Olives were all in Christian hands. Then came Islam. By 711 A.D. the Moors were at the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar).
The Moors swept into the Iberian peninsula and took over the Catholic Kingdoms of what is now Spain. One section of that peninsula was called Andalusia and there was the town of Cordoba. In 600 A.D. the Visigoths had built a Cathedral in Cordoba and during the Islamic occupation the property was sold to the Moslems for 100,000 dinars. Late in 785 A.D. Abd Al Rahman I the Emir of the new Umayyad Caliphate began to rebuild the building into a Mosque. In 1236 after a long bloody struggle the Christian Kings finally reached far enough south to free the town of Cordoba the Headquarters of the Islamic occupation of Iberia. The Cathedral was restored to Christian service and by the time of the reign of King Ferdinand and Isabella the country of Spain had been formed and the Moors had been vanquished.
Once again I would like to point out the similarities between the Cordoba house that is being proposed to be built on Ground Zero and the Cordoba Mosque that was bought in Spain. While the building of a Mosque is being proposed the Port Authority has cut off communications with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese about rebuilding St Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox church which actually was there before 9/11 and was destroyed in the attack. The money for the Mosque and the murderers of 9/11/01 both come from Saudi Arabia. To the secular mind the idea of drawing a correlation between the rout of the Ottomans on 9/11/ 1683 and the attack on 9/11/2001 may seem strange. Doing the same with the takeover of the Cathedral of Cordoba the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain and the building of the Cordoba House on Ground Zero may seem odd too. But to the mind of a devout Moslem the whole thing is akin to a miracle proving the support of Allah for the Jihad begun on 9/11/01. I believe that allowing the Cordoba House to continue to completion while denying the rebuilding of the Greek Orthodox Church is a form of surrender. It is seen as a great weakness to be exploited by our enemies.
The building of this Mosque so close to the site of the 9/11/01 attack may be a fate accompli but while our weak leaders capitulate to the demands of this radical Imam and his Cordoba Initiative supporters let us raise our voices in opposition. In this way those who would see our leaders allowing the building of this mosque as a victory for Islamofascism will also understand that we the people stand strong and it is only our leaders that are weak.
Call or write your representatives. Maybe send this to them. Do something easy now before we have to do something hard.
Herbert B. Seel
Aug. 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Welcome Home 2/130 FA
My old friend Sam Lecuyer is the supply MSgt. for 2/130 FA. He and I did a bunch of Cavalry Scouting together. We were utilized in teams of four vehicles with two sergeants and two corporals and four pvt. to spc4 crewmen. to drive and as gunners. Sammy and I were together on one of those teams as the sergeants for a couple of years. So isn't it something that after being apart and him being God knows where for 20+ years. All of a sudden out of nowhere I get the email to go send off MSgt. Lecuyer to Egypt and when I get to his house sure enough, it's Sammy. Boy is he surprised to see me? Then a year later I'm there to welcome him home and I'm the first one to shake his hand when he comes down the sidewalk. You never can tell, can you?
Non Serviat Insurgo,
Herb
Non Serviat Insurgo,
Herb
Monday, July 12, 2010
Here we go!
Of course I’ve been expecting this. Like I always say no matter what you do to business there will be some kind of effect on the economy and the people. This drilling ban was enacted by the Obama regime in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident and was declared unlawful by the court but we all know that the law doesn’t matter to this regime. They are already queing up for another ban. The people who own the rigs know it. They are not going to let a drilling rig set without making any money they will move it to where it can make money. When government makes it impossible for a company to make money within their borders the company will go elsewhere.
There are up to 1400 jobs going to Egypt with this rig. Even the pro Obama Huffington post predicts that around 75,000 jobs are at risk. I’ll bet that figure is way low. Who cares about jobs right? Just so long as the radical left is happy.
Non serviat insurgo,
Herb Seel
First rig sails away over drilling ban
Lawmakers and experts fear loss is only the start of offshore exodus
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY
WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 9, 2010, 8:28PM
WASHINGTON — Diamond Offshore announced Friday that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters immediately — making it the first to abandon the United States in the wake of the BP oil spill and a ban on deep-water drilling.
And the Ocean Endeavor's exodus probably won't be the last, according to oil industry officials and Gulf Coast leaders who warn that other companies eager to find work for the now-idled rigs are considering moving them outside the U.S.
Devon Energy Corp. had been leasing the Endeavor to drill in the same region of the Gulf as BP's leaking Macondo well, which has been gushing crude since a lethal blowout April 20.
But Diamond announced Friday it will lease the rig through June 30, 2011, to Cairo-based Burullus Gas Co., which plans to send the Endeavor to Egyptian waters immediately.
Devon is one of three companies that has cited the deep-water drilling ban in trying to ease out of contracts to lease Diamond rigs. Diamond, a drilling company, said it expects to make about $100 million from the deal, including a $31 million early termination fee it recovered from Devon.
Larry Dickerson, CEO of Houston-based Diamond, signaled that other of his company's rigs could be relocated, too…
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7101738.html
Of course I’ve been expecting this. Like I always say no matter what you do to business there will be some kind of effect on the economy and the people. This drilling ban was enacted by the Obama regime in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident and was declared unlawful by the court but we all know that the law doesn’t matter to this regime. They are already queing up for another ban. The people who own the rigs know it. They are not going to let a drilling rig set without making any money they will move it to where it can make money. When government makes it impossible for a company to make money within their borders the company will go elsewhere.
There are up to 1400 jobs going to Egypt with this rig. Even the pro Obama Huffington post predicts that around 75,000 jobs are at risk. I’ll bet that figure is way low. Who cares about jobs right? Just so long as the radical left is happy.
Non serviat insurgo,
Herb Seel
First rig sails away over drilling ban
Lawmakers and experts fear loss is only the start of offshore exodus
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY
WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 9, 2010, 8:28PM
WASHINGTON — Diamond Offshore announced Friday that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters immediately — making it the first to abandon the United States in the wake of the BP oil spill and a ban on deep-water drilling.
And the Ocean Endeavor's exodus probably won't be the last, according to oil industry officials and Gulf Coast leaders who warn that other companies eager to find work for the now-idled rigs are considering moving them outside the U.S.
Devon Energy Corp. had been leasing the Endeavor to drill in the same region of the Gulf as BP's leaking Macondo well, which has been gushing crude since a lethal blowout April 20.
But Diamond announced Friday it will lease the rig through June 30, 2011, to Cairo-based Burullus Gas Co., which plans to send the Endeavor to Egyptian waters immediately.
Devon is one of three companies that has cited the deep-water drilling ban in trying to ease out of contracts to lease Diamond rigs. Diamond, a drilling company, said it expects to make about $100 million from the deal, including a $31 million early termination fee it recovered from Devon.
Larry Dickerson, CEO of Houston-based Diamond, signaled that other of his company's rigs could be relocated, too…
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7101738.html
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Terrorists at our back door
SEE I TOLD YA’ SO!
So once again I have to say it, see I told ya’ so! A couple of years back I was busy for a couple of months emailing our senators and reps and anybody else that I could get to read my ravings about the fact that I was sure that one of these days some Mexican illegal’s that we thought were just Juan and Maria Gonzales from Chihuahua looking for a job would turn out to be Mullah Mustafa Monkeypucker Skyhook from Iran carrying a dirty bomb across the border.
I even went so far as to make the assertion that they just might be Juan and Maria Gonzalez but not Catholic as they would be assumed to be. They could be carrying a prayer rug instead of a Rosary. I cited the cases of the day involving the drug busts in south America and drug and gun smuggling profits from there going to Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. There have even been increasing conversions to Islam by the South American natives. Those of you who were polite enough to read my emails will remember me being stuck on the subject for at least a month.
I tried to put the subject in perspective by asking, what if Mustafa took a van and drove it out to the west side of the Kansas City loop and pushed the button and sent a nice pile of radioactive materiel across Kansas City on a day when the west wind was up?
Well I got nothing but a nice, “Thank you for expressing your concern about our Immigration policy…”
Not much else. I was left shaking my head thinking, what the he**? I really could not believe that no one could see the urgency that I saw in the subject.
You see I am blessed/cursed with the ability to play “then what”. It’s one of my favorite games. I say to myself, “okay that happens and then what and then what and then what.” The whole problem is that I do this stuff years before any one that I know of does it and I wind up with a raging Cassandra complex. That was the member of the royal family of Troy that warned of the coming Greek rampage that would eventually destroy their city. She stood pat while they rolled the horse into the city walls and got stinking drunk to celebrate the Greek departure. They wouldn’t listen and now Troy is gone.
Well now I feel fully vindicated. For the last few years after 911 the news has progressively forgotten about the dangers of an open back door in an unfriendly world. But some have continued to increase their call for border security citing the fact that terrorists would begin coming through the southern open door. Recently Ch. 2 Atlanta broadcast a report on the southern border being used as an entry point for people from countries like Sudan and Iran and Iraq, to name a few. They cite a Congressional Report on the subject. Finally it is out full force people across the country need to look at this subject and realize that when we say Illegal Immigrant we also include “Other Than Mexican”. Wahabist Islamics come in every color from Jet Black to Lilly White with blue eyes. I hope that the Arizona law kick starts some serious border security. I think it’s entirely possible that Wahabists could sneak a few people with a highly virulent viral strain into our back door, people named Gonzalez or Hernandez or something like that a name you wouldn’t fear. Then What???
Go to Youtube and check it out under “terrorists crossing Mexican Border” you’ll see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livQ6jP-iIM
So once again I have to say it, see I told ya’ so! A couple of years back I was busy for a couple of months emailing our senators and reps and anybody else that I could get to read my ravings about the fact that I was sure that one of these days some Mexican illegal’s that we thought were just Juan and Maria Gonzales from Chihuahua looking for a job would turn out to be Mullah Mustafa Monkeypucker Skyhook from Iran carrying a dirty bomb across the border.
I even went so far as to make the assertion that they just might be Juan and Maria Gonzalez but not Catholic as they would be assumed to be. They could be carrying a prayer rug instead of a Rosary. I cited the cases of the day involving the drug busts in south America and drug and gun smuggling profits from there going to Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. There have even been increasing conversions to Islam by the South American natives. Those of you who were polite enough to read my emails will remember me being stuck on the subject for at least a month.
I tried to put the subject in perspective by asking, what if Mustafa took a van and drove it out to the west side of the Kansas City loop and pushed the button and sent a nice pile of radioactive materiel across Kansas City on a day when the west wind was up?
Well I got nothing but a nice, “Thank you for expressing your concern about our Immigration policy…”
Not much else. I was left shaking my head thinking, what the he**? I really could not believe that no one could see the urgency that I saw in the subject.
You see I am blessed/cursed with the ability to play “then what”. It’s one of my favorite games. I say to myself, “okay that happens and then what and then what and then what.” The whole problem is that I do this stuff years before any one that I know of does it and I wind up with a raging Cassandra complex. That was the member of the royal family of Troy that warned of the coming Greek rampage that would eventually destroy their city. She stood pat while they rolled the horse into the city walls and got stinking drunk to celebrate the Greek departure. They wouldn’t listen and now Troy is gone.
Well now I feel fully vindicated. For the last few years after 911 the news has progressively forgotten about the dangers of an open back door in an unfriendly world. But some have continued to increase their call for border security citing the fact that terrorists would begin coming through the southern open door. Recently Ch. 2 Atlanta broadcast a report on the southern border being used as an entry point for people from countries like Sudan and Iran and Iraq, to name a few. They cite a Congressional Report on the subject. Finally it is out full force people across the country need to look at this subject and realize that when we say Illegal Immigrant we also include “Other Than Mexican”. Wahabist Islamics come in every color from Jet Black to Lilly White with blue eyes. I hope that the Arizona law kick starts some serious border security. I think it’s entirely possible that Wahabists could sneak a few people with a highly virulent viral strain into our back door, people named Gonzalez or Hernandez or something like that a name you wouldn’t fear. Then What???
Go to Youtube and check it out under “terrorists crossing Mexican Border” you’ll see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livQ6jP-iIM
Friday, May 7, 2010
All opinions are not worthy.
A friend of mine sent me an email with a bunch of pithy bumper stickers on it. I liked them all. There was however one that spoke to an issue very near and dear to my heart. The bumper sticker said “Try being informed instead of just being opinionated.” Good thought.
In the last couple of generations we as a people have been pushing the idea that everyone should have self respect and should learn to love themselves. It somehow sounds very good until you realize that having self-love and self-respect without being taught first to love others and respect others is the low road to self centeredness. Along with this concept we taught that without actually respecting others we are supposed to respect everyone’s opinion.
So somehow the very idea that you were so special as to come up with an opinion makes that opinion worth respecting. The persons thoughts should not be judged on their merit because of their content of truth. They should be accepted into the free marketplace of ideas simply on the basis of their existence. Of course acceptance of a concept without proof of its veracity is the lazy man’s way of gaining acceptance for himself. No worry about deep or precise thought, no struggles with truth just form any inane thought, snatched from the realm of mental indolence and every one smiles and nods and pretends to pause to consider your latest drivel. Don’t we feel better. Suzie and Johnny can’t think and continually talk out of turn on subjects they know nothing about. They will never further man’s state of existence, but they feel good about themselves.
The current popular culture involves a great deal of language without precise meaning. Look at the words that I tend to use. I have felt constrained to use simple wording for years now. I have played into the pattern laid by the prevailing culture of slovenliness. In using the words and concepts I used before a few people were put out with me because they thought that I had an unusually high opinion of myself. I never stopped to think how odd that sounds. But listen to youngsters and you will find that some are maligned for being “brainiacs”. The really knowledgeable youngster among them will be the one who can “text” using the mutated language that those who “text” use. “I’ll text you”? “Don’t text while driving”? When did the word that is used to refer to symbols used to construct words become a verb?
The language itself and the use of it has gone rogue. No one really knows what is being said or how to exactly say what they want. That is why they constantly ask, “you know what I’m saying?”. The assumption is that you don’t.
The assumption is that you also don’t know what you are talking about. Most of those listening to you don’t know what either of you are talking about. One of my favorite talk show hosts has a “Man on the street Thursday”, where he sends his assistants out of the studio to go to the street and ask people, who is the vice president and speaker of the house, etc. He quotes Marxist doctrine to them and then asks them if they agree and when they do he reveals the author of the idea to them and usually they are shocked to know that they are agreeing with Marx and Engals. It is a shame how so many on the street have opinions of how the economy should be run but can’t even tell you who John Maynard Keynes is. They have no knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and yet they feel qualified to put people into office to defend that constitution and govern within the confines of that very same constitution. Too many people have opinions about “the separation of church and state” without knowing that the words “separate” and “church” and “state” never appear in the first amendment. The common man doesn’t know why phylogenic recapitulation is wrong or what it is, they don’t have any idea what the tablets of Rome are they can’t tell you who wrote the rules for a republic or where he came from. There is little hope of getting an explanation of the difference between a republic and a democracy, let alone finding out which we live in, from the common man on the street.
All to often we train up our children with all sorts of knowledge of computers and other gadgets without teaching them true wisdom and how to think. Thinking is hard work. Learning how to think is not something one does without instruction and first knowing some goodly amount of solid truth. Precision of language goes with precision of thought. When a person thinks of how to perform some physical task they see it done in their mind’s eye then they perform it. But when thought is given to conceptual matters the thought occurs in words. That is why precise language is required to foster precise thought. Respect for the truth comes from the ability to understand that we are not omniscient. Thus we gain the ability to learn and when we learn to think accurately and discern truth then we become something more than a learned barbarian.
It is said that the words of a fool are many, and iron sharpens iron. So we should seek out the wise and avoid the fool. Challenge opinions and find out their origin. Look for the truth. Be prepared to offer a ready explanation for your belief. Then you deserve to enter the free marketplace of ideas where opinions will be judged on their content of the truth.
Ipsa Conteret,
Herbs
In the last couple of generations we as a people have been pushing the idea that everyone should have self respect and should learn to love themselves. It somehow sounds very good until you realize that having self-love and self-respect without being taught first to love others and respect others is the low road to self centeredness. Along with this concept we taught that without actually respecting others we are supposed to respect everyone’s opinion.
So somehow the very idea that you were so special as to come up with an opinion makes that opinion worth respecting. The persons thoughts should not be judged on their merit because of their content of truth. They should be accepted into the free marketplace of ideas simply on the basis of their existence. Of course acceptance of a concept without proof of its veracity is the lazy man’s way of gaining acceptance for himself. No worry about deep or precise thought, no struggles with truth just form any inane thought, snatched from the realm of mental indolence and every one smiles and nods and pretends to pause to consider your latest drivel. Don’t we feel better. Suzie and Johnny can’t think and continually talk out of turn on subjects they know nothing about. They will never further man’s state of existence, but they feel good about themselves.
The current popular culture involves a great deal of language without precise meaning. Look at the words that I tend to use. I have felt constrained to use simple wording for years now. I have played into the pattern laid by the prevailing culture of slovenliness. In using the words and concepts I used before a few people were put out with me because they thought that I had an unusually high opinion of myself. I never stopped to think how odd that sounds. But listen to youngsters and you will find that some are maligned for being “brainiacs”. The really knowledgeable youngster among them will be the one who can “text” using the mutated language that those who “text” use. “I’ll text you”? “Don’t text while driving”? When did the word that is used to refer to symbols used to construct words become a verb?
The language itself and the use of it has gone rogue. No one really knows what is being said or how to exactly say what they want. That is why they constantly ask, “you know what I’m saying?”. The assumption is that you don’t.
The assumption is that you also don’t know what you are talking about. Most of those listening to you don’t know what either of you are talking about. One of my favorite talk show hosts has a “Man on the street Thursday”, where he sends his assistants out of the studio to go to the street and ask people, who is the vice president and speaker of the house, etc. He quotes Marxist doctrine to them and then asks them if they agree and when they do he reveals the author of the idea to them and usually they are shocked to know that they are agreeing with Marx and Engals. It is a shame how so many on the street have opinions of how the economy should be run but can’t even tell you who John Maynard Keynes is. They have no knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and yet they feel qualified to put people into office to defend that constitution and govern within the confines of that very same constitution. Too many people have opinions about “the separation of church and state” without knowing that the words “separate” and “church” and “state” never appear in the first amendment. The common man doesn’t know why phylogenic recapitulation is wrong or what it is, they don’t have any idea what the tablets of Rome are they can’t tell you who wrote the rules for a republic or where he came from. There is little hope of getting an explanation of the difference between a republic and a democracy, let alone finding out which we live in, from the common man on the street.
All to often we train up our children with all sorts of knowledge of computers and other gadgets without teaching them true wisdom and how to think. Thinking is hard work. Learning how to think is not something one does without instruction and first knowing some goodly amount of solid truth. Precision of language goes with precision of thought. When a person thinks of how to perform some physical task they see it done in their mind’s eye then they perform it. But when thought is given to conceptual matters the thought occurs in words. That is why precise language is required to foster precise thought. Respect for the truth comes from the ability to understand that we are not omniscient. Thus we gain the ability to learn and when we learn to think accurately and discern truth then we become something more than a learned barbarian.
It is said that the words of a fool are many, and iron sharpens iron. So we should seek out the wise and avoid the fool. Challenge opinions and find out their origin. Look for the truth. Be prepared to offer a ready explanation for your belief. Then you deserve to enter the free marketplace of ideas where opinions will be judged on their content of the truth.
Ipsa Conteret,
Herbs
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