Thursday, June 6, 2013

A Beer I'll Have To Try

Sometimes the advertising just makes it almost impossible not to try one; I feel almost compelled to just grab the one in the photo!


The beer is Ferdinand Beer from the Ferdinand Brewery in the Czech Republic, they make a pretty good variety of beer. I may have had one once upon a time but cannot remember for sure although it looks familiar. I did visit the Czech Republic some years back and the possibility is high that I tired a few of their beers. Alas, I was married at the time or may have tried something else too; they sure had pretty women in Pilsen but not as pretty as my wife!

A hat tip to The Feral Irishman for blogging about this one.

All the best,
Glenn  B

June 6, 1944 D-Day

Let us not forget those brave Americans and other members of the armed forces of other allied nations (The United Kingdom, Canada, Free France) who spearheaded the invasion of Normandy, on this day in 1944, to free Europe from the tyranny of the Nazis, the Axis Powers and their collaborators.

It has been estimated that there were 10,000 allied casualties with about 2,500 allied dead on D-day. Even though they who died that day fill the cemeteries of France, so far from home, we should never forget them as we should never forget the injured or those lucky enough not to have been wounded for surely they too suffered, over the years, even if only by way of memories of that day and of their lost comrades. We should honor them all, at least in some small way - perhaps a moment or two of thought or prayer, on every June 6th of our lives.

All the best,
Glenn B

Nixon Spied On His Political Opponents - Obama Is Spying On Tens of Millions of Us

That is the crux of the Verizon scandal in as much as the National Security Agency (NSA) has demanded phone records for each and every Verizon customer within the United States of America. Now tell me, remembering that it was leaked out about Verizon (good old Mr. Barack Transparency Obama did not let it out), do you for even a second believe that the Obama Administration has not demanded the same records from every other major telephone communications company within the USA! Don't feel sorry for the suckers with Verizon who are in fear of the government having violated their rights - feel just as scared if you have ATT, Vonage, Comcast, T-Mobile, Sprint, TracFone, U.S. Cellular and others because it is almost a certainty that the government demanded the same records from them.

What is the government saying is the reason for this. Get this - it helps them find out who suspected and or known terrorists have been calling. Now think about that for just one moment and you should realize if that is really what they wanted to accomplish, all they had to do was get the telephone records for the suspected and known terrorists and then check those records to see whom they were indeed calling and then get the records of those they called to see whom those others contacted. There is no way possible that they needed each and every Verizon account holder's phone records to combat terrorism.

Bear something else in mind, all of this secret spying on tens of millions of Americans and their phone records is all coming from the same president who refused to allow government officials to use the terminology war on terror, yet now the government says this is to fight terrorism. It is also coming from the same guy who had been insisting that terrorists be removed to the states from foreign to be tried here as criminals instead in military tribunals as enemy combatants; and thus would be tried giving them - the terrorists - every right under our law - but now somehow seems to forget that U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens have rights. It is the same guy who promised transparency - in essence who promised the most transparent government in US history but is pretty mum on all this right now just as he has been mum, or claims ignorance or just out and out lies about other scandals. It is one and the same guy who vehemently opposed the Patriot Act yet is using it far beyond its original intent. It is the same power crazed president who has authorized killing of American citizens on U.S. soil without any probable cause or reasonable suspicion at all of any wrongdoing other than to merely think someone is a terrorist but without any evidence of it. It is the same president who has fixed the law so that the government can seize anything from anyone by way of executive order and the same president who just put out another executive order, one that in sum and substance negates Posse Comitatus and will allow for the U.S. Military to take action on U.S. soil pretty much at the presidents fancy. It is none other than the same president who is putting hundreds if not thousands of drones into the skies above our homes to spy on terrorists, or so he says, as those drones will fly over American homes taking pictures and to possibly kill Americans (think of how U.S. drones are used round the world). It is the same president who promised a civilian force as strong as our military and under whom DHS has been stockpiling millions of rounds of ammunition, thousands of so called personal defense rifles (AR-15s and or M4s - the same rifles the Obama Administration calls assault rifles in the hands of the citizenry) and hundreds of armored personnel carriers (military armored vehicles). It is none other than the same president who allowed guns to be smuggled to Mexico without any possible way of tracking them thus resulting in the deaths of U.S. federal agents who were killed by criminals using some of those same guns. It is that really trustworthy guy who would not produce his birth certificate or school records. It's that guy who allowed for the IRS to target conservative groups and then promoted the woman who was in charge of that operation while firing a guy who was with the IRS for a brief time and was in no way involved I the scandal. It is the same president who outright lied to us and told us that a video was the root cause of the embassy attack in Benghazi when indeed it was a planned terrorist attack. The same guy who had a lying mouthpiece in the U.N. and now has promoted her to lead national security! And now that we have found out he is spying on almost 1/3 of the American public (and as I said you can bet he is spying on everyone with a phone in the USA not just Verizon customers), according to his mouthpiece in the White House, we are supposed to accept the government line that this is to only combat terrorism and that the American People can trust him, our president, Barack Hussein Obama! Oh if only Nixon were still president - compared to Obama he was an angel but no truth is he was a crook and deserved to be ousted just as does Obama. Sort of make one miss George W now - doesn't it.  

Obama asking for trust is a little itsy bit like Nixon saying: "I am not a crook" when he was caught red handed but mind you Obama is only an itsy bitsy bit like Nixon. Obama has been caught red handed but instead of like Nixon who was caught once. Obama has been caught not once, not twice, not three times but several times and it seems as each week passes there is another scandal  or two over violation of Americans' rights, or related to his ineptitude in the War On Terror, or his inability to act as the chief executive in as much as he claims little to no knowledge of what goes on in his administration. Yet, he still wants our blind trust. Well, maybe he had yours but he lost any credibility with me years ago. Now though, it has gotten so bad that even the ultra-left wing New York Times has turned against him and printed an editorial saying in essence that President Obama has gone too far with rights violations and that editorial states outright that Obama has lost all credibility; see:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/new-york-times-editorial-board-says-administration-has-lost-all-credibility/

Folks, it is not the GOP saying so, nor Rush Limbaugh, nor any other conservative media outlet - it is the NY Times - champion herald of the left. Oh, lest I forget to mention, there was another scandal that I would bet had a lot to do with the Times changing its tune about Obama other than Verizon. That would be the spying on the Fox News reporter and his family members. Yeah, I know, Fox News and the Times do not see eye to eye and even if that was not the end all, be all, wake-up call that the Times needed it had to push them away from Obama. Then too, I would guess they must be Verizon customers and those two things pushed them over the edge with them now slamming Obama and his henchmen.

All I can say is that it is about time that the Times actually is printing 'all the news that is fit to print' instead of just what the left and the Obama camp saw fit for the Times to print. To the reporters at the Times, and at every other local, regional and national news organization, I say this: Nail him to the cross boys and nail him hard.

There is only one thing left for us to do:

IMPEACH OBAMA

All the best,
Glenn B

Long Island Herpetological Society 5th Annual Auction

The Long Island Herpetological Society will be holding its 5th annual auction this Sunday, June 9th. it will be held in the Conference Center on the campus of SUNY Farmingdale. It will run from 1PM through 4PM (but may end earlier).

As usual, the emphasis will be on live herps and reptile and amphibian care related items but other non-herp related items may also be up for bids. The items may be new or used. A sample of some of the items that will be put on the auctioneer's block can be seen here:

http://www.lihs.org/files/Auction.htm

SUNY Farmingdale is convenient reached from Nassau and Suffolk counties and New York City.
Directions to SUNY Farmingdale can be found at this link:
 
http://www.lihs.org/files/meetingplace.htm
 
A campus map can be seen at this one:
 
http://www.lihs.org/files/FSUNY_MAP.jpg 

If you are in the area, we hope you can attend. If you do plan on showing up to bid, bring cash because that is the only form of payment accepted for auctioned items. Hope to see you there.

All the best,
Glenn B