New Year's Non- Resolutions

These are some resolutions I am not going to make:


1. Make more blog posts. - I mean do you really care? It is only cool if my posts are all like the blonde joke.

2. Finish my book. Yeah, like a lot of people I started a book. I had an outline, I had a lot of information. Still have both - but um... not likely to happen. Hey! I did write 4 articles this year!

3. Lose (x number of) pounds. This resolution is only good for depression and disappointment. Maybe I should resolve to gain 10 lbs :)

4. Call my friends and family more. He look, I know I don't call enough, but then again - they don't call me hardly ever at all. So I figure why should I call more?

5. Be more organized. Yeah, riiiiiiiight. I have an organization to my stuff - it just is not neat and tidy. No, I am not going to vow to be more neat and tidy either.

Anyways - maybe you will have some non- resolutions of your own.

Iran Protesters Killed

OK, it seems that the official government stand on anyone that peacefully protests is that they are terrorists.

"State television said 10 of those killed during Sunday's fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups, apparently referring to opposition supporters.
The other five who died were killed by "terrorist groups" in a "suspicious act," the report said, without elaborating."

See the story here.

Of course if they had the freedoms we do, maybe this would not happen :)

Of course we do have a few weapons in the hands of our citizens. That is what the right to bear arms is about. Not sport or hunting.

Oppressive government(s) is why the right is so important. :)

Stay Safe!

To Festrivus or Not to Festivus...

OK, so festive Festivus everyone. The Christmas Eve, Eve celebration. I don't even have a Festivus pole or anything. I do have a small piece of PVC pipe - not quite all aluminum.

I am not sure if I will "celebrate" Festivus when I get to my apartment - but I am sure it will be discussed amounst friends.

Whatever you do - with or without Festivus - Be Safe!

New Ezine Articles About Democratic Policing

As I have been working with the UN for some time there is always reference to traing new police agencies with the concepts of Democratic Policing. I have yet to find any materials that is clear, concise and practical on the subject available to UN Police.

I decided to make my own and I have begun a series of articles over at Ezine. The first is simply called "Democratic Policing in Emerging Nations."

I am not sure yet how long the series will be, but I will make it into an e-book available for all UN Police to use. I believe it will be quite a handy guide for teaching the priciples of democratic policing.

What Else is New(s)?

Insurgents hacking our drones... that in itself is not a big surprise that they would at least try this. The surprise is anyone can buy the software for $26 and download it.

I believe this goes along with our whitehouse's great security :)

Weather Too Cold for Protesters at Conference on Climate Change (and stuff)

Ok, now the headline should read “Too Cold to Protest Global Warming.” I reckon that puts a little irony on the UN’s Conference on Climate Change. Makes just one more point for climategate.

Fear not though – Barack Obama's teleprompter will save the world from global warming (surely he can do something to justify the Peace Prize). Anyhow, Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth on this today.

Houston Texans - Killing my Soul

I had a lot of faith in he houston Texans this year. They have the talent. They have the skills.

What they do not have - is the will to win. If you look at a lot of winning teams over the years, they are not always the most talented or the best as far as stats. What they do have - is they find ways to win!

This season, the Texans have consistently found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. No, not one or two players, the team as a whole. When they need defense - the defense crumbles. When they need scores - the offense fumbles... or interceptions... or miss field goals. Not any one player - the entire team has this knack.

Stop breaking my heart Texans - find a way to win - quite trying to "not lose" that never, ever works!

I wish I had the answer - but I know it is not personnel, or anything like that - it is attitude, and you guys just do not have what it takes to win!

World Toilet Day (Belated)

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. However, I just learned that World Toilet Day was yesterday 19 November.

I guess I missed out on "the big Squat."

As this seems funny to read about - it is a good cause and a serious issue in many countries of the world.

Maybe next year.

Soldiers Shot at Ft Hood and Hezbollah Does Not Get it's Arms

I was shocked to see the story about the psychiatrist that went "postal" at Ft. Hood. Then again, whay would anyone send this guy on deployment to Afghanistan when you look at his history.

The "Big Guy" aka BO really messed up with his speech about it starting off thanking people. Hey TOTUS what happened - you forget the real time update? He seemed so non serious and so unconcerned when he spoke - I gues you forgot to add (show empathy and concern here). The Big Guy is still trying to figure out if the new series about him is good or bad ("V")

In other news stuff a really cool raid by Israeli Defense Forces netted over 500 tons of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Remember, according to BO Iran is not a threat at this point in time :)

You can see the video here:

Barack Obama - Again

OK, so tell me what I am missing. We have a president who has done nothing to change any situation in any war, managed to push the economy to worsen and now he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for what he may do. Actually the prize should go to his teleprompter, after all it controls all he says :P

This proves that the world loves Barack Obama, no matter what he does or doesn't do. I work in a very international setting and many from other countries ask me "what did he win the prize for?" "What did he do?"

Sorry, all I can say is blame the Norwegians. :)

Be Safe

Obama and NASCAR

Well Obama "honored" NASCAR drivers and the sport the other day at the White House. No, there was no burn out on the White House lawn or anything like that. He did say that the "Big 3" auto makers belonged in "Nazz-car" (as the Big Guy likes to say it).

Did the teleprompter explain to him who the big three are? or does he think it is GM, Ford and Toyota? Or does he still consider Chrysler one of the big 3? (None of the honorees that were present were Dodge drivers - look at the end) So what is the message? Then again since the government owns most of GM maybe it should be re-named American Motors - after the old defunct car company. :)

I guess the White House staff realizes that in the crashed and still crashing economy ( jobless rate is even higher than projected) that NASCAR is the sport hardest hit. Since it is the number one spectator sport in America - it is significant.

What is really ridiculous is several of the stories written about the event do not even name all of the drivers invited... I guess the reporters forgot that who is one of the w's you are supposed to have in a story. Just the AP news stories and Sports Illustrated have left out such "details." I mean how many stories do I have to pull up to find this information anyways? Some articles say 9 of the top 12 - of last year's drivers... duh - how hard would it have been to actually report on the story?

After digging around I found that the nine are: Dale Earhhardt Jr.(Chevrolet), Denny Hamlin (Toyota), Jeff Burton (Chevrolet), Greg Biffle (Ford), Carl Edwards (Ford), Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet), Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet), and Tony Stewart (Chevrolet), and Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet).

Anyhow - Stay Safe!

Timothy Geithner Cannot Sell His House!

OK, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is supposed to be the "man with the plan" to get us out of the economic mess. Which, despite all the positive talk, is declining rather than getting better. So the guy that is trying to fix our economic mess cannot even sell his own house.

So now he is renting it out for less than the mortgage payments. This sounds like a typical government plan to me.

"Geithner put his five-bedroom Tudor near leafy Larchmont on the market for $1.635 million in February, after heading to Washington for his job as the nation's top economic official.

A few weeks after the asking price was dropped to $1.575 million, the home was rented for $7,500 a month on May 21, said the agents, Scott Stiefvater of Stiefvater Real Estate and Debbie Meiliken of Keller Williams Realty New York.

Neither was directly involved in the rental; the name of the broker and agency that arranged it were not immediately available.

Although $7,500 might seem like a lot of rent, it probably falls a bit short of the monthly mortgage payments on the Geithners' two loans totaling $1.25 million, plus $27,000 a year in property taxes.

Treasury Department representatives didn't immediately return calls about Geithner's home Monday and Tuesday. He was in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders."

The story can be found here.

Maybe he should think about lowering the price a bit more.

What do you think Tim?

Y'all be safe!

US Plans on Increasing UN Peacekeepers

The U.S. plans to increase peacekeepers to the UN.  The U.S. currently does not provide troops for peacekeeping forces.

According to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice:

But Rice said the United States "is willing to consider directly contributing more military observers, military staff officers, civilian police, and other civilian personnel — including more women — to U.N. peacekeeping operations."


The U.S. has already increased its military observers in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Liberia and is providing two additional military staff officers to the mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, U.S. officials said.

The complete article can be read here.

David Berkowitz in Liberia?

I really do not think that David Berkowitz is in Liberia.  However, this truck and its license plate sure reminded me of "the Son of Sam."

Interestingly enough, the owner of the truck is the son of Sam.  His name is also Sam, maybe it is Liberian humor, I do not know.

But where else you gonna find this (besides California and Boulder)  :)

Stay Safe

Michelle Obama Photographed By Homeless Man With His $500 Blackberry

Wow! Nothing like seeing the first lady serving food at a homeless shelter. Isn't it typical that the guy getting served - who is supposedly homeless, taking her photo with a $500 Blackberry cell phone?

He probably has the net service and everything :)

This photo is awesome... :)

Thanks to Randy for sending it to me.

International Peacekeepers Day and UN Idol - all in One Day!

May 29th is UN Peacekeeper's Day.  Kind of a big deal for the UN.  I find it really interesting that this year's UN Idol in Liberia is being held on that day , yet it is not listed as an official event for the day - go figure. Find more about Peacekeepers day here.  Last year it was the 60th anniversary of peacekeeping for the UN.

On a side note - in a few days there is likely to be a storm in the Gulf of Mexico :)  Liberia has started squeeze them out again .

Obama Doesn't Want to Run the Car Companies?

Hmmmm....

The first line of the news storey...


May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler LLC, under orders by President Barack Obama to conduct a quick bankruptcy, may ask court approval to auction most of its assets in three weeks, a person familiar with the matter said. 

So tell me how this is not running the company?  For an empty suit that cannot speak on his own he sure wants a lot of control.

He reminds me of another leader that was just as famous, popular with the press and hollow inside.  Hail hitl...er um  Obama!!!


Seriously Facsism is alive and well in America... I hope you already bought your weapons and ammo.  Oh yeah, on the economy update - nothing has improved and he is still campaining.  I wish he would get down to business instead.

Barak Obama Solved the Economic Crisis

Sure he did!




April Fools!

We Now Have Change - All We Have is Change,

I saw this "teaser" in the news list today - unbelievable.

"WASHINGTON – Knocked off balance by the bonuses brouhaha, President Barack Obama is relying on direct appeals to the public to refocus attention on his ambitious agenda and drive the debate."

OK, Maybe he did not personally know about the bonuses - but he should have.  His administration definitely knew about them before the money was dolled out.  So did Congress.  It is public record - the Treasury Secretary before the house Finance Committee talked about these bonuses.

Maybe the guys getting the bonuses do not deserve it.  However, contracts are contracts.  But to put on a show like that of Obama and Barney Frank have, and they pretend to now be "outraged" or "angry" - That is just pathetic.  Yes, we got change - just a change in administration, but Obama's and the Democrats version of deirty politics.  Yes we have change - that is all we have left is change, as Uncle Sam with the help of "daddy" Obama has sold us all down the river.

Stay Safe!

Who Needs Gun Control? - Just Take all the Ammo

It appears that the current administration is more clever than expected on gun control.  They already figured out how to control the ammunition distribution for civilians.

How did they do that?  They made new rules concerning spent ammunition casings - basically requiring all of it be destroyed instead of being bought by ammunition companies that reloaded the casings.  Why is this a big deal?  The ammunition manufacturers cannot hardly keep up with the military's demand for new ammo, so that left reloaded stuff for civilians.  Now that the reloadable supply of casings is cut off - all ammo prices will go through the roof for civilians in the near future.

For more info - see the site the Shootist's article of March 15th.

Try to Stay Safe - since it is getting harder and harder to do so.

International Women's Day

I read about a bloggers Unite thing for International Women's Day. Hence the wandering thought of why isn't there an International Men's Day? I will digress on that later.

From Bloggers Unite: “Started as a political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries (primarily Russia and the countries of former Soviet bloc). In some celebrations, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love to the women around them in a way somewhat similar to Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day mixed together. In others, however, the political and human rights theme as designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner. The IWD is also celebrated as the first spring holiday, as in the listed countries the first day of March is considered the first day of the spring season.”

Here in Liberia - they are having the Women's Colloquium. Why they had to use such an odd word as Colloquium I don't know - but probably an internet registration thing - hence the site womenscolloquium.org. Yes a reaqal site you can go to to see what the women's colloquium is all about. All I know is that it means more work for us here and some of the higher-ups have been all over-stressed about it.

Why not have the colloquium here? The President is a woman. Not a lot of countries have that.

The good news - it will be over soon and things will go back to "normal" for here.

So why not an International Men’s Day? I doubt we will see that one come around. After all, women are special and men, well we are just men. :)

Going Backwards in Somalia

I just received a notification in my email concerning Somalia:

"Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members. He gave in on Saturday to demands from Islamist insurgents agreeing to a truce and the introduction of sharia law.

When in power in 2006, the Islamists introduced a strict form of sharia and carried out executions, shut cinemas and photo shops, banned live music, flogged drug offenders and harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public. They also banned foreign music, romances between unmarried teens, all commerce and public transport during prayer times and decreed that Muslims who do not pray daily can be punished by death.

The proposal to introduce sharia law must still be ratified by Somalia's parliament."

Nothing like a government that wants to go backwards concerning human rights. I am glad I am not there.

Obama and the Superbowl - Both amazing "Spin" or Lack of Reporting

Is the press asleep in America or what? Maybe things just look different because I am in Africa.

OK, first I want to kow where is CNN and everyone else who claims to report the new acurately - IGNORING the fact that FEMA has screwed up more - in the ice storm - especially for Kentucky, than they ever came close to in Katrina. Ok it is no Katrina with 1700 deaths - but FEMA moved slow.

They (FEMA) are there now, but 42 people did die. There is no "conspiracy theory" about allowing poor mountain folk to perish. Of course this goes on while Obama and his cronies enjoy $100 steak dinners.

On the Super Bowl: Why were we the fans robbed of the game? I am not saying the Cardinals were robbed - that is unknown. What I am saying is - as a fan - you end the game on a very questionable call and do ot review it? It is the SUPERBOWL!! How can you deny us the last 17 seconds or whatever it would be of the game?

The game was excellent yet messy mistakes by both teams and generally poorly officiated. Yet great performances on both sides of the ball. The Cardinals proved they belonged in the Superbowl and the Steelers proved themselves a Superbowl Team.

Like I said - I saw this from Africa - so maybe it looks different from here?

Y'all Stay Safe!

The UN - Israel - and the USA

Last night I had a conversation with a fellow from Israel.  I was off duty, so it was not obvious who I worked for at the time (no uniform).  This guy went on and on about how horrible the UN was.  I believe he had problems because of the "war crimes" accusaion by some in the UN against Israel for defending themselves.

I do not think the UN is so evil, and explained to him about his own history (this was a young guy).  I explained to him how the UN was responsible in a way for the formation of the modern Israel.  He thought Israel became a modern nation befor the United Nations was formed. Also the division into a Jewish area and Arab area of Palestine was one of the earliest acts of the UN. In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.(UN resolution 181). Israel declared independence in 1948 and won additional territory in subsiquent wars (which some still want to refer to it as "occupied territory"

Now I told him the the UN was often ineffective in how it conducts business and peacekeeping, but rarrely is there an alternative to finding a peaceable solution in many parts of the world.

"The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council — France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States — and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946. "  - Wikipedia


He said something about "Ask your Marines what they think of the UN"  I told him I just had earlier when they were visiting UN Headquarters earlier that day.  He seemed a bit peeved that I had interaction in a good way with the Marines.

Sometimes in our own zealouness we lose sight of the facts.


Anyways - Stay safe!

Now He is Prez - Will He Do What He Said He Would?

OK, we now have a new President. Will he do what he said he would? We will see. This is an event that has absorbed all other news stories even here in Liberia. The world awaits as the new President hopes he had a "save the economy" task bar on his computer. Who knows, maybe he does. It is not like there are "cheat codes" for the economy.

I am sure all the Hollywood types like Paris Hilton, Jennifer Gardner, and Jennifer Aniston were tickled pink today as he was sworn in.

Well God Bless America - and God Bless our new president.

Y'all Stay Safe!

Obama Will Soon Be Inagurated

OK, we all know it is coming soon.  The big historic event which may not seem like much years from now, but at this time it is a big deal.

I hope this guy does OK 

He has made some poor leadership decisions - Like Leon Panetta for CIA Director?  I mean - who is less qualified (not including the mentally handicapped and children)?  This guy has NO background in intelligence.

Let's see he was white house CHief of Staff (nothing to do with intelligence) has the Panetta institute for Public Policy... um  maybe he spied on someone as a kid...

When there has been so much critisim of the intelligence community, we now will have a clueless leader of such stuff...

A Return of the Old Ways?

I found this story interesting. It is about how the German police broke into an apartment and took down an Israli Flag to "calm a Muslim Crowd." You can find the story and video. It appears that Germany has joined Liberia in deciding that Mob Justice rules.

It seems that some of the old ways are creeping back into the German Goverment. However, in all fairness, the German Police later apologized for the act.

To quote a bit of the story:"Muslims in Denmark chanted, "Down, down Israel, down, down USA, down, down democracy, down, down Denmark." One Muslim executed the Nazi salute and shouted, "We want to kill all the Jews, all the Jews should be slain, they have no right to exist!"

Interesting stuff huh? Especially the down, down democracy.

You can see Israel's perspective of the ongoing war here. It is quite interesting.

Stay Safe!