Memorial Day - 2013

As we gather today with our families to celebrate Memorial Day, I often wonder if we may sometimes forget the reason for why we celebrate this day. From the founding of this great nation, men and women have put themselves in harms way and many have paid the ultimate sacrifice for ensuring our freedom and way of life.

Today, I honor the memory of two very important people in my life. My father in law and my great uncle. Neither of these men would ever claim to have been heroes, but they were to me.

It is difficult for some to understand the significance of what it means to put on a uniform and swear an oath. It means you have dedicated your life to something greater than yourself.

On this day, may we never forget those who have served and those who have died to ensure that America remains the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.

God Bless Them All.

Benghazi, the Death of the Republic?

I’ve turned my television off again. I simply can’t stand to watch it. I’m fairly close to doing the same with my computer.

The other morning my phone beeped at an ungodly hour, it was a game request from a childhood friend of mine on Facebook. I’m really not the Lucky Slots or Candy whatever type of person. Maybe I should be. Maybe that is my problem, while I sit here popping Tums and blood pressure medication like they were friggen skittles and screaming at my television as I hear another politician lie to me I wonder, maybe the whole social media crowd has the right outlook. Play games, don't stress about the real world.

Let’s face it, social media played a large part in getting us here. The president worked that little honey hole like he was Niccolo Paganini playing the violin.

So where exactly did it get us?

To be honest, a very bad place. But the sad thing to me is that we have become polarized politically, that we cannot, or will not, admit that the representatives from our party are a disgrace. Notice I didn’t say which party. They are both at fault.

What has gotten me to this point however is the attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi on 9/11/12 and the political aftermath. The other day someone posted a commentary, originally made by Jon Stewart, in which he alluded to a study in that said during the Bush administration, there were 54 attacks on diplomatic targets that killed 13 Americans. He added that it resulted in only three hearings on embassy security total and then went on to poke fun at Fox News for not decrying it.

The problem is the study itself was flawed.

Which brings me to my problem. We, as individuals, are so caught up in our “parties” that we no longer actually invest any time educating ourselves.

How detached are we as a society? The other day I made a comment to someone I know about the kidnapping case in Cleveland, they had no clue what had happened. Most people are like this, and yet when it comes time to vote they do so without knowing who or what their candidates stand for.

Why are we torn apart on the issue of Benghazi? We lost four American citizens and had countless others injured, one of whom is apparently still recovering. And yet we are divided, why?

Please, for the love of God, put politics aside. The victims and their families demand, and are owed, nothing less.

This is not a political issue, this is a moral one.

Let me pose this question to you: A home is attacked, two people are killed and a number injured. The police show up, but only a handful. A couple of them are killed, more are injured. The police call for backup, but no one shows up. The investigation, conducted by the police, determines that nothing could have saved the people so the fact they didn’t respond is moot.

Would you be okay with that?

If you wouldn’t, why are you accepting it from Washington?

I was an NYPD Detective from 1992-1997 and then a Sergeant in an investigative unit from 1998-2005. I can tell you, unequivocally, that you are all being lied to. That is not a political opinion, that is a professional one.

Things do happen for political expediency. We want to believe that it doesn’t, but I beg you not to be naïve. Is it okay to let people die, and others to get away with it, for another persons political career.

If you don’t think it happens, I ask you to find either of these books: Murder at the Harlem Mosque (Grosso, 1977) or Circle of Six (Jurgensen, 2006). To the political animal, nothing matters except for their careers.

The truth is Benghazi was a political disaster for the current administration. They wanted to further the narrative that terrorism was on the decline, and everything in Benghazi pointed in the opposite direction. They rolled the dice and they came up with a losing roll, so they cheated. It doesn’t get any more black and white than that.

Don’t believe me? Think that the administration has been honest? OK, answer the following questions:

1. Who was the person who denied increased security in Benghazi? When an Ambassador himself makes this request, it is not denied by a low level functionary.
2. Benghazi was not a normal location, they had a number of incidents leading up to the attack that made it very clear that things were becoming highly unstable. Why was the request for the security teams to stay in place denied? And by whom?
3. The President met with Sec. Def. Leon Panetta on 9/11, while the attack was going on, did he give Cross Border Authority? If he didn’t, then troops were NEVER going to Banghazi.
4. Troops in Tripoli were ready to deploy to Benghazi, who told them to stand down? On his authority?
5. The WH says it was the CIA who changed the talking points and that the WH only made one change. The real question is, did the WH ever direct the CIA to change them.

I hate to tell you, but listening to the WH press secretary, and more importantly his choice of words, I could drive a truck through his statements. It’s not what he is saying, it is what he isn’t saying. Jay Carney is lying to you by omission, and he is doing it by choosing his words VERY carefully.

It seems that the left is circling the wagons to protect the administration.

One administration person said “help would not have arrived in time.” My question is “how do you know?”

It’s a slight of hand. On 9/12, after the dust settled, they knew how long the battle had lasted. That’s not the question. The question is, on 9/11, when the battle was raging, why didn’t you send help?

You as an American have to ask yourself, are you willing to accept what you are being told? And if you are not willing, then ask yourself what is being hidden?

Follow me on twitter @huntzmanblog

Chris Kyle & Jason Collins, a President's Dilemma

Maybe it’s me; maybe I’m too sensitive about things. Or maybe I’m just one of those people who are pre P.C. era Neanderthals who see things for what they really are. 

Here’s my problem.

It’s been two months since retired Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle was tragically killed. While I value the service and sacrifice of EVERY soldier, sailor and airman, it should be noted that Chris’ service was a cut above the norm. Chris was the recipient of two Silver Stars, the nation’s third highest decoration for military valor. He was also the recipient of five Bronze Stars with “V” device and is acknowledged as the most lethal U.S. Military sniper. A distinction that earned him the moniker “the Devil of Ramadi” by Iraqi insurgents. He was also shot twice and was involved in several IED attacks.

To date our president has said nothing about this great American sailor.

Several days ago President Barrack Obama called Jason Collins on Monday to express his gratitude after the NBA player publicly announced that he is gay. Our president wanted to "express his support" and tell Collins that "he was impressed by his courage."

So let me get this straight, a professional athlete with mediocre stats, earns a phone call from the president because he decides to come out of the closet? And yet when it comes to acknowledging a decorated military veteran and the top sniper in U.S. history all we hear are crickets?

Call me crazy but it’s 2013.  Coming out of the closet does not require a level of courage that say four tours of duty in Iraq, including participating in the 2^nd Battle of Fallujah, requires.

It’s time for us to wake up America. It’s time for us to stop fawning over these prissy professional athletes and actors. They are not, and never will be, heroes.

Heroes are people like Chris Kyle, Lt. Michael Murphy (Operation Red Wings), PO2 Michael Monsoor, and Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods (Benghazi).

It’s becoming readily apparent to me that the only thing our president knows about true courage and valor is how to take credit for what others do.

Sorry to break the news to you Jason, what you did was not courageous; it was just about coming to terms with who you are. I’m glad that you finally feel good enough about yourself to publicly acknowledge how you feel. Consider yourself fortunate that you live in a country that is free for you to speak openly about your sexual preference and acknowledge that it has been paid for in the blood of real hero’s.

If you really wanted to show courage you should have had yourself traded to the Iranian basketball league and then come out.

Follow me on twitter: @HuntzmanBlog

Wake Up America !!

“(If) you are dumb enough to walk around and identify yourself with that Party (Democrats), you are not only a chump but you are a traitor to your race.”

If I told you that Dr. Benjamin Carson made this statement last week, how quickly do you think it would take the main stream media or the liberal elites to utterly decimate him?

It seems that he has become the most recent target of the left. Every word he says seems to be turned against him. If he said “Good Morning” he would be vilified as being “anti Night”.

He has been demonized in the press and by avante garde celebrities. He has been called an "Oreo," a "Token,"  a white man's "Negro," an "Uncle Tom,"  a "Negro du jour," and “Nigger”, among other things.

Recently he made the statement:

"Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are. They don't get to change the definition."

The resulting backlash was equally swift. Everyone was just looking for something to say against him in order to marginalize him.

Yet, during the recent Supreme Court testimony on marriage equality, where was the same outcry when Justice Sotomayor said the following:

“Mr. Olson, the bottom line that you're being asked, and it is one that I'm interested in the answer: If you say that marriage is a fundamental right, what State restrictions could ever exist? Meaning, what State restrictions with respect to the number of people, with respect to, that could get married, the incest laws, the mother and the child, assuming they are of age, I can accept that the State has probably an overbearing interest on protecting the child until they're of age to marry, but what's left?”

So what is the difference? Is the incest contingent a more acceptable group to go after?

The problem as I see it is that the left is engaging in a game of smoke and mirrors.

It got me thinking when Dr. Carson said "They’re (Liberals) the most racist people there are because, you know, they put you in a little category, a little box. You have to think this way. How could you dare come off the plantation?"

For those of you who may learn left in their political thinking I want you to consider this for a moment. Name one black conservative who has not been publicly attacked by the left. I’m not saying you have to agree with their politics, but why are they attacked? Dr. Carson, former Representative Allen West, for Presidential candidate Herman Cain, Niger Innis, Thomas Sowell, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. It seems the left cannot get enough of bashing them simply because they have the audacity to be conservatives.

I love when the hip folks like Touré attack Dr. Carson. Hmmmm let me get this straight, a college dropout who’s greatest contribution to the world is that he is host of a Hip Hop show and wrote a biography of Prince, and yet somehow he has been ordained to cast aspersions on a man who graduated from Yale and University of Michigan Medical School and is the Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital; as well as a Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Oh, now it makes perfect sense to me.

Honestly, do you see the irony in this?

For a moment, let’s get back to the original quote I started this post off with. If Dr. Carson said that would it be appropriate for the left to rip him apart?

What if I told you that comment was made back in the 60’s by Malcolm X…… I’d like to hear someone rip him apart as a “token black”……anyone? Chris Matthews? Touré?

Here is the exact transcript:

“This government has failed us. The government itself has failed us, and the White Liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us. Once we see that all these other sources to which we have turned have failed, we stop turning to them and start turning to ourselves.

You are the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. You’re the one who put the present Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. The Whites were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House. When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor, what do you get out of it?

Democrats have been in Washington, D.C. only because of the Negro vote. They’ve been down there 4 years and all the legislation they wanted to bring up the brought up and got it out of the way, and now they bring up you. You put them first and they put you last, cause you are chumps (applause). A political chump.

In Washington, D.C. in the House of Representatives there are 257 who are Democrats. Only 177 are Republicans. In the Senate there are 67 Democrats, only 33 are Republicans. The Party that you backed, controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate and still they can’t keep their promise to you, cause you’re a chump.

Anytime you throw your political weight behind a political Party that controls two-thirds of the government and that Party can’t keep the promises made to you during election time, and you are dumb enough to walk around and identify yourself with that Party, you are not only a chump but you are a traitor to your race [applause].” ~ Malcolm X

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Passed with 80% Republican Support and 60% Democrat Support. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists; one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson, the Republican minority leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

Recently the left vilified Senator Rand for his filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA over the issue of Drones being used on United States soil.

What you didn’t hear was who had the longest filibuster on record. That dubious distinction goes to the 14-hour filibuster by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who served in the senate till his death in 2010. The filibuster was against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

For the record, future President John F. Kennedy also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Segue to the 2012 Election. This was on the Democrat Party Website: “For more than 200 years our party has led the fight for civil rights…”

Really?

Maybe Malcolm X was right, maybe we are all chumps. I have said this time and time again, if you vote by party and not by person you are part of the problem.

People need to wake up and stop repeating the spoon fed pabulum of sound bites that come at us from every direction. Both sides are part of the problem and I have written about this before. Remember that the swamp was supposed to be cleaned up after Pelosi took over. How'd that work out ? 

Or maybe this is just the end.

Maybe you will just continue to believe the bullshit they feed you that the democrats became republicans and then republicans became democrats. Maybe you are okay with it. I’ve looked at it, and its insulting to my intelligence.

If you want to hurl that little brick fine, but before you do, write me and explain that little anomaly of Robert Byrd and why he didn’t have a “miraculous” transformation from Democrat to Republican. While you are at it, then explain Edward Kennedy, or maybe John Dingell. So why were they “democrats” in the bad old days, but stayed “democrats” in the good old days? And why would you be associated with a group that had such bad memories? It’s like saying you were for something before you were against it….

Honestly, if just reading that doesn’t make you think twice about that idiotic bullshit, then don’t bother, you’ve already drank too much kool-aid.

I’m sorry; a leopard doesn’t change its spots.

Follow me @HuntzmanBlog

A Man of Integrity

C.S. Lewis once wrote that "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching." 

Today something happened to me that makes me question the veracity of that quote. I am not inferring that the quote is wrong, but I wonder if it is completely accurate.

So I pose this question to you.

“What is more difficult, doing the right thing when you are alone or doing the right thing when those actions might be used against you?”

As the matter I speak of is still ongoing I will not go into any details. In fact I have purposely kept myself at a distance from my former peers so as not to put them in the position of choosing sides in the matter.

For months I had felt like a voice in the wilderness. Suffice it to say that the actions of this person confirmed what I had been saying all along. It is difficult when you know something in your heart and yet you realize that truth can sometimes be replaced by political expediency.

This morning truth won out.

However, my vindication seems bitter sweet. I am now left more concerned for this person then I ever was for myself. I wonder what ramifications there will be against them for being honest.

Irregardless of the final outcome I have won. I have been blessed by God to have a friend who would speak honestly on my behalf while exposing themselves to risk for doing so.

It is a very humbling thing and to speak about it any further would only cheapen the magnitude of what they have done.

Easter - He Has Risen

In this day and age, it seems that a growing portion of our society wants to either minimize or completely eradicate God from each of our daily lives. He is being removed from work, home, school, business and politics. All around us we watch as the moral fabric of our society is being torn apart and yet we cannot understand why.

Matthew 10: "Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.”

As Christians around the world celebrate this most blessed day I am proud to proclaim my faith and take comfort in knowing that he has risen and conquered death.

Luke 24:  “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

Happy Easter and God Bless.

Good Friday, Don’t Eat Red Meat.

Today, Christians around the world celebrate Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross to pay for the sins of man.

It is an incredible story. But have we lost the message?

I’m often reminded of how little effort some Christians are willing to put in. We often get caught up too much in the theological dogma, and then fail to see what God has tried desperately to teach us. I honestly don’t think he cares whether we are abstaining from red meat, if after our fish filet sandwich we go out and screw someone over.

The other day I was reading a religious twitter war and someone made the comment accusing religion of “killing more people than………”  Well, to be honest I forgot the point because I was too caught up in the poster’s initial statement.

The topic has been on my mind a lot lately. In fact I was astounded at how much God was vilified during the recent election of the newest Catholic Pope. I am in the initial stages of writing a book titled “Where was God?”  At the heart of the story is man’s penchant for blaming God for all the things that man does wrong.

As I thought about the twitter post I again asked myself the question, why is it that God continues to be blamed for the actions of mankind? It’s not like he hasn’t tried to guide us.

Ten Commandments? Our answer, nah, too restrictive.

Seven Deadly Sins? Nope, I don’t think so Lord. Everyone likes to splurge every once in awhile.

Man has systematically thwarted God’s attempts to have us become a moral people.

I mean let’s face it, poor Moses hadn’t even come down from the mount with the commandments before the good old Israelites were out pounding their gold into new idols to worship. We as a people simply suck at following any kind of laws.

In fact, as a society we continue to manipulate and even makeup new laws in order to minimize our culpability. We take no responsibility for our actions. How long has this been going on? Oh I don’t know…….. How about thirty seconds after Adam and Eve ate from the tree.

The first official blaming of God comes in Genesis 3: “The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Geez, what a guy that Adam was.

For a moment, consider this. How bad do you have to be to go from ten commandments, to seven deadly sins, until God finally throws his hands up and says ok folks, here you go two, really simple laws.

Love God, Love One Another.

I just get this mental image of a well intentioned parent staring down at their little incorrigible two year old who looks up at them with their adorable baby blues and simply goes “No.”

But the worst thing is that when the child goes on the latest rampage, ripping up the house, toppling over plants, and washing the cat, some how good old God gets slapped with the blame.

Think of that one moment in Matthew 5, when Jesus says” Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Most of us would risk our lives for a spouse or child. Maybe we would even consider it for someone we love. Contrast that with Christ going to the cross for those who did not even like him.

There are a lot of people who flat out reject religion. I’m really not sure why. Sometimes I think it’s just an in-thing to do. Someone once asked me why I believed in God, inferring that religion was for the weak minded. Funny I had never thought of myself as being weak minded.

I thought a moment and asked them if science had the answer to every question. They said no. 

This was my reply:

“I believe in God, because I truly believe he loves me unconditionally. It didn’t matter what I did, but when I did act outside of the life he called me to live I felt bad and wanted his forgiveness which I knew he gave me. Like a parent and a child. By feeling this way I believed that I earnestly tried to live my life in a better way and to share that with others. My faith was not based on what I could see, but what I could feel in my heart.”

“On the other hand, you believe in science. The world was not and then it was. Given that there is no God, you live your life and then die. The only ramifications to breaking the law are whether you will get caught and punished, but in the end whether you lived a good or bad life nothing changes. You simply die.”

“If I am wrong, I join you in the blackness of death. But what if you’re wrong?”

In 2008 renowned atheist Richard Dawkins took part in an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom which put atheist advertising on buses. I remember an image of him standing with an attractive young woman with a bus behind him and the slogan “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life.”

The first thought that crossed my mind was, you’re betting an awful lot on “Probably” my friend.

Galatians 6: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

For Christians, Good Friday should represent God’s loving pact with us. It’s a gift we don’t deserve and requires nothing more on our part than to accept it.

So how about this, let’s stop trying to blame God and run around like a bunch of hypocritical jerks and just try to follow those two simply tenants: Love God, Love One Another.

You have nothing to lose, and eternity to gain.

Follow me on twitter @HuntzmanBlog