it begins...

[Peter]

I trained with the [M-14] at Ft. Bragg in 1967 (and got the expert badge) in Basic Training and I also had an M-14 in Korea. A recruiter from snipers came to our barracks and talked to another guy but just said hi to me. I think I was too juvenile to be a sniper though I was 19 at the time.

[Backlighting]

I too trained with the M-14 (great rifle) but at Ft. Jackson, the summer of '67.

One had to group their shots in various positions (prone, kneeling, squatting & standing up) at various distances; the farthest being about 300 yards in the prone.

Keeping your point of aim while in the squatting position proved to be the most difficult for me.

It was fun though. That and hurling grenades.

Getting gassed...now that's another story.

-Joe

[Selene]

Getting gassed...now that's another story.

-Joe

Yeah, those beer and pizza Saturday nights can be tough in a Sunday morning barracks/tent:

[Peter]

Joe wrote: Keeping your point of aim while in the squatting position proved to be the most difficult for me. end quote

When you focus on a target while squatting it is as if your body is moving during a miniature earthquake though it is just the normal breath in, breath out, twitch, briefly close your eyes in the sun, kind of moment. But out there at the end of your scope those minor movements translate into the jerky camera crap you see on dismal CW quality shows like Falling Skies. I think, no I know, I would do better with today’s modern, scoped, electronic sniper rifles. Not that I ever want to use those skills, yadda, yadda, yadda. I am still better than most younger people. Not like Jim Lee Swagger of fame from the novels I read but I could protect my own family in a professional manner.

[Peter]

I received the following in junk mail. It reminded me of Greg's prediction for September 14, 2015.

Investor, On October 7 a single event will change world history and alter the course of your life. It will take place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean — more than 4,000 miles away. And it will light the fuse on the single most devastating economic catastrophe the world has ever seen .. A calamity that will have an explosive impact on your income, investments and every penny you have put away for retirement. I know this is an extreme prediction — so extreme in fact, that few who read these words will heed them. Which is why I've published a shocking new report, end quote

At first my cyber protection would not let me cut and paste but when I excluded the LINKS it let me paste it to Word and then to here. But that still is worrisome so I may do a quick scan.

[moralist]

Peter writes:

I received the following in junk mail. It reminded me of Greg's prediction for September 14, 2015.

Market sinkholes are already opening up ready to swallow the something-for-nothing suckers. These events are always foreshadowed. Even 911 was foreshadowed with a warning shot across the bow in the World Trade center bombing of 1993.

Events will continue to become more and more obvious until even the most jaded secular leftist libertine will have trouble denying that something is going on with America. It's the age old choice:

Would you like a gentle tap on the shoulder... or a four by four post over your head?

Greg

[moralist]

I qualified Expert shooting left handed in the Army and still keep my skills honed today with varmint control.

Greg

[Selene]

I qualified Expert shooting left handed in the Army and still keep my skills honed today with varmint control.

Greg

Left handed?

Are you either ambidextrous, or dominant right handed?

[Backlighting]

Getting gassed...now that's another story.

-Joe

Yeah, those beer and pizza Saturday nights can be tough in a Sunday morning barracks/tent:

BE SERIOUS! not that gas lol.

However, I'm certain you & your love ones will never forget your gas.

P.S.

Your Yanks & Mets holding tough. A-Rod, a grand slam...he must have stocked up on the GH.

My Angels are on life support.

Still plenty of games to play.

-J

[Brant Gaede]

The Earth has a twin planet--Dirt--on exactly the opposite side of the sun from us. It's never been seen but we know it's there because horrible things are happening on it all the time and Greg is channeling those things through the use of ESPN--or whatever--confusing Dirt with Earth.

--Brant

mocker and scoffer

[moralist]

[brant mocks and scoffs...]

Make the best of it, Brant.

25 days...

The signs are already beginning to become obvious.

Market down 300 points today.

Greg

[Peter]

The market is down 300 points? My wife and eldest daughter are even worried. If China continues on a controlled dive will they want their money back, every time a bond comes due? Yet, oil is way down supposedly adding one billion dollars a day to the American economy, so why is the market dropping? And deficits of this magnitude were supposed to set off hyper inflation. Couple inflation with very slow growth and loss of net worth per individual since Obama came to office and we have what's called Stagflation.

[moralist]

Peter writes:

The market is down 300 points? My wife and eldest daughter are even worried.

You can't be serious, Peter.

You don't need a freaking prophet to see what's coming. Secularized leftist America pissed away it's moral protection and it's economic providence. What happens as a result of that forfeiture is a foregone conclusion. If anyone hasn't noticed this is the absolute worst "recovery from a recession" in US history.

Something has gone WRONG with America...

...and it will NOT get back what it has thrown away.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

The market is down 300 points? My wife and eldest daughter are even worried. If China continues on a controlled dive will they want their money back, every time a bond comes due? Yet, oil is way down supposedly adding one billion dollars a day to the American economy, so why is the market dropping? And deficits of this magnitude were supposed to set off hyper inflation. Couple inflation with very slow growth and loss of net worth per individual since Obama came to office and we have what's called Stagflation.

All the Federal debt--at least of any note--is dollar denominated. Since the United States can manufacture dollars at will the "debt" can be rolled over and retired at will. This is another way of saying the debt really doesn't exist. It doesn't matter what the Chinese do with those Treasury Bills as they mature respecting the ability of the US to retire them with dollars. Eventually something will have to be done respecting other, long range consequences of the inability of tax revenues to keep up with government expenditures, etc., but the US is absolutely in the driver's seat about its "debt."

--Brant

358 down in the Dow is insignificant to non-leveraged owners of equities--Wall Street money is on vacation until after Labor Day, but we (oops!--sorry, Greg) are in the midst of a general grind down out of myriad economic and investment concerns and September doesn't have to be any reversion to the mean, for prices are looking for a new and lower mean

[moralist]

Brant writes:

September doesn't have to be any reversion to the mean, for prices are looking for a new and lower mean.

For thousands of years, the last day of the seventh year was when all debts were cancelled in the land of Israel. It was also a day of judgment when the chickens come home to roost.

Elul 29 of the seventh year on the Jewish lunar calendar (September 14 this year) is a return to reality that only capital is capital from the fantasy that debt is capital. On a micro scale it is an individual judgment on the something for nothing gamblers who sought to gain from the losses of others. While on a macro scale it is a judgment on America for abandoning its core values.

George Washington in his Inagural Address issued a warning to America:

(emphasis mine)

"I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire:

SINCE THERE IS NO TRUTH MORE THOROUGHLY ESTABLISHED,

than that there exists in the oeconomy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that

THE PROPITIOUS SMILES OF HEAVEN CAN NEVER BE EXPECTED ON A NATION THAT DISREGARDS THE ETERNAL RULES OF ORDER AND RIGHT, WHICH HEAVEN ITSELF HAS ORDAINED

And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

I know that to you jaded secular libertines, George Washington was just an "irrational" mystic... but he was right and you are wrong.

Secular leftist "separation of church and state" America has crapped on God...

...and that has consequences.

By the way, stocks are dropping again... but this is NOTHING compared to what's coming...

Greg

[Peter]

Greg wrote: Secularized leftist America pissed away it's moral protection and it's economic providence. . . . I know that to you jaded secular libertines, George Washington was just an "irrational" mystic... but he was right and you are wrong. Secular leftist "separation of church and state" America has crapped on God...
end quotes

As with Ann Coulter and her book, “Godless” you are conflating the concept of *secularization* with leftism, immoralism, and lack of economic providence. Yet most Objectivists are rational, not superstitious or religious, right wing (on the old left, right charts,) moral, want laissez-faire capitalism, and we are patriots too. Ayn Rand was invited to speak at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and she was as right wing and libertarian and as SECULARIST as you can get. If you ever are interested you might look up Ayn Rand’s article, “Faith and Force.” Excerpts may be on the net.

There are plenty of good people who are religious but there are plenty of them who are 7th century, loony tune groups like the mullahs in Iran. Using retaliatory force against them might serve a long-term military purpose. But I don’t automatically conflate religiosity with insane, violent actions, immorality, or economic stagnation, even though your emoticons are happily winking as you predict terrible vengeance upon decent people. And Greg, when you use faith as your argument the other debater is the more rational and logical. You should not mix up rationality with leftism, but by using faith as your argument you are doing just that.
Peter

[Peter]

George H. Smith reprinted the following article from “Newsday” on Atlantis.
Atheists Tune in 'God Bless America' By George H. Smith - George H. Smith is the author of three books on atheism, including "Atheism: The Case Against God."
A TRAGEDY of the dimensions of Sept. 11 can bring a search for scapegoats in its wake. On the political left we find some who blame the supposed evils of "global capitalism," while on the political right we find some who blame the godlessness of American society. Although the particulars differ, both camps suggest that the victims were complicit, whether directly or indirectly, in their own destruction. And thus is any concept of authentic innocence swept aside.

The Cold War is a thing of the past, so the religious right can no longer target godless communism as the source of our woes. The terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 massacre were not atheists at all but religious fundamentalists of the most extreme type, so the blame is placed on domestic rather than on foreign godlessness. If it is true that Americans put their differences aside in a time of crisis and rally around their common values, this might help to explain the recent proliferation of "God Bless America" signs and banners throughout America. It might be supposed that Americans are returning to those religious values on which this nation was founded.

There are several problems with this interpretation, however, not the least of which is that America was specifically established as a secular nation, not a religious one. There is no mention of "God" in the Constitution. And when Thomas Jefferson mentioned God in the Declaration of Independence, he was referring to the God of deism – that rationalistic creator, popular during the 18th-century Enlightenment, who did not communicate with human beings or otherwise intervene in human affairs.

Many of America's most influential founding fathers - such as Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine - were deists highly critical of Christianity and other revealed religions. Paine (whose pamphlet "Common Sense" was the sparkplug of the American Revolution) claimed that "the most detestable wickedness, and the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion." And Jefferson followed suit with his observation that the God of the Old Testament "is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust."

Paine, Jefferson and other deists lamented the intolerance and persecution that were common features in the history of Christianity, Islam and other revealed religions. In their view, people who believe they have an infallible lock on divine revelation will often feel justified in using violence and terror against dissenters and unbelievers. Reason, not faith, is the philosophical foundation of a free and tolerant society. Atheists are a distinct minority in our society, so we might wonder how American atheists react to the "God Bless America" signs, posters and banners that seem to have popped up everywhere. Do atheists feel excluded by this outpouring of religious sentiment? Do they feel they are being told that only those who believe in God can be good Americans?

I recently posed this latter question to a large group of atheists on the Internet, and their responses were nearly unanimous. Virtually no atheist felt in the least troubled or excluded by the public enthusiasm for "God Bless America" - so long, that is, as such expressions were by private citizens and not sponsored by government. Although this reaction may surprise some people, it is identical to my own. For many people, "God Bless America" is not so much about religion per se; rather, it expresses a deep, heartfelt sentiment for American ideals and values, which were gravely threatened on Sept. 11.

Just as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so meaning lies in the intent of the speaker. And in most cases the sentimental intent of "God Bless America" is something with which I and most every other American atheist can heartily agree. It so happens that "God Bless America" is the title of a beautiful and inspirational song by Irving Berlin, and this undoubtedly helps to explain why this expression tugs at the heartstrings of so many Americans. The song and its title have become part of American culture. Only the most jaded atheist could fail to appreciate what these have come to symbolize - namely, a tribute to this land and the best in those who inhabit it.

Some religious believers may take great pleasure in the exclusionary implications of "God Bless America," as if atheists are somehow less than legitimate members of American society. But for me tolerance and understanding are part of being an atheist, so I refuse to judge a belief on the basis of its worst representatives. I will therefore continue to judge the recent popularity of "God Bless America" in the most benevolent light possible. I will take it for what I believe most Americans intend it to be: a tribute to the ideals of freedom and tolerance on which America was founded. Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.

[Brant Gaede]

Current commentary (not mine, but I agree): "We must be in a bubble if the Fed can't raise interest rates a quarter of a point after seven years of ZIRP."

[moralist]

To be clear...

... there are upright honest ethical atheists and there are truly despicable filthy scummy lowlife atheists...

...so the determinant is behavior and NOT ideology.

That being said, the steady push towards immorality is a primarily a product of the secular political left, which is the most dynamic powerful political religion in America. It has allied its "church" with the State to institutionalize the eradication of God from American culture.

George is RIGHT... and you're WRONG.

If you think your secularized America can get away with taking a great big steaming dump on God and continue to receive His moral protection and economic providence...

...you're in for a rude awakening, you dumb fucking suckers.

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Alexis de Toqueville (possibly)

America is no longer the great nation it used to be,
because America is no longer the good nation it used to be.



Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Why are you fulminating?

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

I think Greg just said he's an ideologist.

Is an ideologue an ideologist on steroids? Or is he just another ideologist?

Greg did not say he's an ideologue even if he said he's an ideologist. Maybe he should have used the other word, for if you think about it what's an ideologist but someone concerned with ideas, aka an intellectual, and what is an ideologue but someone concerned with the fact someone doesn't agree with him and, also, not an intellectual or of a true intellectual bent--a modern liberal, for instance, or a "believer"?

--Brant

[Peter]

Uncle Sam, Greg just wrote: Bleep bleep bleep!

What can I say, Pedro? I agree with Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens when they agreed, religion is a form of self-imposed mental slavery for adults and a form of child abuse for the wee ones. As Cervantes said, “The first priest was the first rogue who met the first fool.”

Bleep bleep bleep, said Greg.

Greg, in Christian America “the best sermon wins” and the more commercial or entrepreneurial church gathers a bigger flock. Where there is a State religion, as with The Church of England or in Israel, “the state religion stagnates.” So, please stop saying bleep. Are you mad Pedro sent you a personal email with Ayn Rand's speech to the US Military Academy? I will tell him to stop bothering you.

Let me shut the bug off. Whew. Back to business. Email from Ted Cruz: Friend, I need to be brutally honest with you, and the truth is going to hurt. Our country is on the brink of disaster, brought there by career politicians and the Washington Cartel. The only way out is to return to the original vision of our Founding Fathers that made this country great.

I wrote A Time for Truth to share my personal, deep connection to the American dream. The book is normally $85 in the web store, but if you click any link in this email and donate $75, I’ll send you a signed copy.
end quote

That seems a bit steep but I guess he is running for POTUS. He sounds like Greg. Can he be elected? He is doing better than Rubio, Paul, and a bunch of others. Caution. Naughty joke. And I guarantee that Ted Cruz did not write it.
Peter

Two terrorists are in a locker room taking their annual shower after a bomb making class when one notices the other one bending over holding his stomach in agony, he has a huge cork stuck in his butt.

"If you do not mind me saying," said the second terrorist, "that cork looks very uncomfortable. Why do you not take it out?"

"I regret I cannot," lamented the first. "It is permanently stuck in my butt."

"I do not understand," said the other.

The first terrorist says, "I was walking along the beach when I tripped over an oil lamp. There was a puff of smoke, and then a huge old man in an American flag with a white beard and top hat came boiling out." He said, "I am Uncle Sam, the Genie. I can grant you one wish."

I said, "No sh*t?"

Verified by Brian Williams From MSNBC... He was there when it happened.

[Selene]

It was interesting how he ends this section...

Cahn implores those concerned about the Shemitah not to focus on dates but on getting their own houses in order. He offers practical advice on how to prepare for the coming “shaking,” both physically and spiritually.

He said he gave dates in his book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah” to show that God often works, especially in economic matters, according to the seven-year cycle given to Moses as Mount Sinai and recorded in Deuteronomy.

While this is something “to be aware of the signs of the times,” the bigger issue for America is that judgment is imminent. The U.S. clearly “crossed a line,” he said, with the Supreme Court decisions on abortion, removing prayer from schools and most recently in its arrogant redefinition of the God-given covenant of marriage.

“The first caution is, God doesn’t have to do anything. He is sovereign. He doesn’t have to work according to our understanding, He is beyond our understanding. Nothing has to happen in September or the autumn. It could be very uneventful,” Cahn said. “And if nothing happens, well then, what will we do? We will praise God, we will be bold for the Lord, we will spread the gospel, we will stand as witnesses for God and we will glorify His name.”

http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/harbinger-man-the-time-is-now-to-prepare/#x0zSjpijfRTzI89v.99

Very nice.

A...

[moralist]

Brant writes:

Greg did not say he's an ideologue even if he said he's an ideologist.

I've said neither... but I have declared that I'm a behaviorist.

These unfolding events are an interesting exercise in denial. They raise the question:

Does it take standing in water up to your necks for you to admit that it's raining?

Greg

[moralist]

Brant writes:

Why are you fulminating?

Just for the fun of it...

Greg