J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

It was 5:30 AM on Thanksgiving eve. I turned off through the park on to my usual shortcut. It is hard to explain why I take a route that brings me to my spot in the cube farm quicker than following the geometrically laid out streets would. Maybe it is human nature to be in a hurry to get somewhere you would really rather not be in the first place. As I meandered through the park, a good sized buck deer wandered across the road in front of me, which is not uncommon here in Wild and Wonderful. When we see a buck, even if it is wandering through town, our eyes tend to zero in on his antlers so that we might try and count the antler points. It makes for a better story if you can tell your cube farm inmates that you nearly clobbered an 8 point buck, rather than saying I almost hit a deer. This buck was a bit peculiar. He only had one antler. I believe I counted 4 points on it as he trotted across the road through the shadows cast by the streetlights. A one antlered buck made for much better conversation than an embellishment about the number of his antler points.

I suppose there is any number of ways a buck might lose an antler. Wandering across the road in front of someone barely peering out of one eye with the other partially obscured by a commuter mug filled with coffee at 5:30 AM is one way to do it. Since it is blamed for every other oddity in nature, maybe global warming did it. Either that or the Bush administration caused it. Personally, I think it was a band of Internet hustlers selling ground up deer antlers for use as an aphrodisiac.

You do know that it is the season when bucks seek does? When two bucks vie for the attention of the same doe, their ruttish behavior could lead to some serious head butting. I expect what I saw was the loser of rut encounter.

One-antlered bucks are losers. Sort of like Middle East peace summits. Every President in recent memory, at least since the Carter days, thought he could bring Israel and the rest of the region into peaceful coexistence. They’ve all failed, but not for lack of trying I suppose. I’m not particularly bright and many of my email fans have made that perfectly clear to me. It is an assessment they generally make right after I quote one or two of their political heroes or give my opinion on the history that I’ve lived. What I do know is that when things are out of whack, like that one-antlered buck, they are likely to wander in meaningless circles until such time as nature removes the other antler and they arrive back where they started having accomplished nothing.

Washington politicians, collectively, put us in a losing situation. They forgot the first rule of holes. When you find yourself in one, quit digging. We knew we were in a hole during the first Arab oil embargo brought about when we came to Israel’s aid during the Yom Kippur War. Instead of working our way back to level ground, the politicians continued to dig deeper and then they started pulling the walls in around us. We cannot negotiate from a position of strength when we have made ourselves dependent on those with which we are negotiating. It is like a nursing baby. Mother will ultimately call the shots.

Until we are energy independent, Middle East despots and people like Hugo Chavez will call the shots. We can obliterate all of them with our military power, but we won’t and they know it. We subsidize them with oil prices that are more than 200 percent higher than they should be. We subsidize Arab regimes that believe public beheadings and flogging the victims of gang rape is normal. We subsidize regimes that fund the Madrasas that brainwash the young men that fill the ranks of al Qaeda and crash airplanes into us. We fund the Persian regime that has threatened to wipe Israel from the map and then come for the great Satan -the Persian regime that has sponsored terror attacks on us for decades. All of them are at war with us and on many fronts. One of those fronts is an economic war. Our politicians put us in this predicament.

We need to build nuclear power plants. We need to drill for our own oil (like the Chinese are doing off of our coast). We need to start taking oil from shale. We need to build coal to liquid fuel plants. This is our now solution.

Until we have political leaders with the courage to commit to energy independence now, we are just a one-antlered buck. A loser hoping for a charitable doe.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. - Psalm 95:2 

On Thanksgiving Day 1971, I was a 19-year-old Private in basic combat training at Fort Ord, California. My military career did not have a grand beginning. For that matter it never had a grand middle or end either.

In September of 1971, just before my 19th birthday, I stepped down from a Greyhound bus onto sand and ice plant covered, foggy Fort Ord. It wasn’t the greeting folklore and movies primed me to expect. A lanky, solitary Corporal wearing heavily starched cotton fatigues, spit shined Cochran jump boots and a glossy black helmet with large white Corporal stripes painted on the front of it greeted the few of us arriving on the bus from San Francisco Airport. He wasn’t loud and ornery as we expected, but he did walk so fast that most of us had to jog to keep up. Our first stop was a mess hall for our first Army meal of warm soup and cold sandwiches. One week later we got that expected welcome. All hell broke loose for us when the cattle car we were crammed into stopped in front of our basic training company.

Our first two weeks were tough physically and mentally. The Drill Sergeants were all recent Vietnam combat veterans - constant reminders of our likely destination. Unfortunately for me, my second week of training ended with an admission to the surgical ward of Fort Ord’s hospital with a serious case of cellulitis that grew from an infected blister on my toe. The ward had two rows of beds, one on each side of the long bay. Combat medical evacuees from Vietnam occupied most of them. Young men, my age, with missing limbs and other serious combat wounds were my first introduction to a Soldier’s reality. It wasn’t a good place to pitch a military career to a Private still in basic training. Following my hospital stay, the doctors decided my foot needed more time to completely recover, so they sent me home for two more weeks of convalescent leave. I returned to the hospital ward to find many of the residents were the same, but there were some new ones too.

Thanksgiving in the trainee mess hall was quite formal in 1971. We trainees wore our Class A uniforms, mostly adorned only with nametags and US collar brass. The Drill Sergeants wore Class A’s as well. All wore combat decorations. Most wore blue Infantry ropes and Combat Infantryman Badges. The Senior Drill Sergeant, First Sergeant and Company Commander wore the Army Dress Blue Uniform. The Mess Hall was adorned with seasonal decorations. The normal basic training commotion of get in, get fed and get out wasn’t there. The cooks were unusually pleasant and the Drill Sergeants weren’t yelling or kicking anything over. The meal was traditional and quite good. It wasn’t a typical basic training dining experience. Some soldiers, local to the area, had family guests. It was quite a scene for my first Thanksgiving meal in the Army and my first away from home. It definitely stood in stark contrast to the hospital ward filled with combat evacuees.

Over the years, I continued to have Thanksgiving in the mess hall, even after I was married and had my primary family to care for. As a First Sergeant, I’d help serve the meal to the Soldiers and their families. Inevitably, I’d end up with potatoes or something else on my dress blue uniform and predictably my cheeks would turn red as my wife tried to clean me up with a napkin in front of the Soldiers.

The Men and Women that comprise our Armed Forces on this or any Thanksgiving are incredible people. One who chooses voluntarily to place him or herself in the line of danger for the rest of us is an extraordinarily special person.

At home on Thanksgiving, members of my family and I will circle the dinner table and join hands. We’ll offer thanks to God for our many blessings not the least of which is living in the world’s freest and most blessed nation. We will also give heartfelt thanks for those men and women God provided who stand in harm’s way on our behalf, for those who fill the hospital wards and for those, because of their selfless service, who’ve seen their last earthly Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving Day, please take some time to give thanks and ask a special blessing for all of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coastguardsmen and their families.

Copyright © J.D. Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)

Forgive me troops. I know this is supposed to be a somber time of remembrance, but I have some things I need to get off my chest. I’m tired of Veterans being a political badminton birdie for politicians. When times are difficult for the Men and Women of Arms, the political parties spend their time blaming one another for not doing enough to meet the needs of Veterans and those now serving. When the difficult times pass, our Veterans, Soldiers and their needs cease being political hot buttons. My favorite quote sums that up quite well:

Our God and Soldiers we alike adore,
Ev’n at the brink of danger, not before,
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God’s forgotten,
And our Soldiers slighted. – Frances Quarles 1632

The other thing that grates on me is how Veterans are treated in the media. Too often, it is as victims or as homeless derelicts. Whenever someone with Veteran status is involved in a crime, the first thing highlighted by the media is their Veteran status. That’s how we are viewed by a hopelessly liberal media, which means that’s how we are portrayed to the majority of the American population. It’s an American population that has little contact with its serving Armed Forces or Veterans so it only knows what is reported to it. Can you recall the last time you heard a positive media story about Veterans or serving Soldiers? Sad, isn’t it.

As I write this, the estimated United States population is 303,328,167. Around 2 million of that population serves in all branches of the Armed Forces. Sort of adds a new perspective to the “never have so few” axiom, doesn’t it? Of that population, 23,425,051 have veteran status. The population that is 18 years of age or older is 224,648,294. Ten percent of the military aged population has veteran status; ten out of a hundred if that puts it in better perspective for you. Here are some interesting numbers to consider. 64.4 percent of the Veteran population is over 55 years of age. 27.2 percent are in the 35 to 54 year old range. Only 8.4 percent of our Veterans are in the 18 to 34 year old range. 60.7 percent of our Veterans are from the Vietnam Era, Korean War and World War II. It is easy to see the downward trend isn’t it?

The news this week reported to us that fully 25 percent of our Nation’s homeless population is Veterans. I’m not sure how they determined that. Do you reckon they asked the guy pushing his grocery cart under the bridge to produce a DD Form 214? Study the linked Census report and you’ll see that Veterans have better high school graduation rates, higher per capita income, lower unemployment rates, and fewer who reside below the poverty level than their non Veteran counterparts. That information paints a positive picture of Veterans so a biased, liberal media will never report it. Only in the new media can we counterbalance such an unfair portrait painted of Men and Women of such high character.

Please take time this weekend to educate someone about Veterans and their contributions to our Nation. Dedicate a reading of Psalm 91 for the Men and Women who are serving for us around the world so that we can live freely. Offer a moment of meditation for those who rest In Flanders Fields or at Fiddlers’ Green.

Most of all, if you are a Veteran or are now serving, Stand Tall on your day. Thank you for what you’ve done and are doing for my family and me.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

Ensure that you apply the appropriate emphasis on the word stupid. Stupid is not the adjective describing a tax. Rather, it is like the income tax – the price we pay politicians for the privilege to earn money. The stupid tax is the price we pay for the privilege to be stupid. All of us and I’m in there too.

Recently, I learned of yet another newsworthy story of the presidential campaign ignored by most media. It happened at a political rally during the playing of our National Anthem. Every person knows that when the Anthem plays, placing your hand over your heart, removing your hat if you are a man, or saluting if you belong to a uniformed service and are wearing your uniform is an act of rendering honor to the United States of America. In this scene, you’ll see two Presidential contenders doing that while one nonchalantly folds his hands. This is the same one that stated to the world that the lives of American Soldiers lost in Iraq were wasted lives and that our military is bombing villages in Afghanistan, implying the haphazard killing of civilians. If you cannot render a simple honor to our country and the men and women who sacrifice in the service of it, you can’t possibly lead it anywhere except to board the express train for the ride to hell. That such an unpatriotic boob could be the second best contender of a major political party for the Presidency of the United States is the return on our investment for many years of paying the stupid tax. If you voted for him, contributed to his campaign or otherwise support him for political office then you have paid the premium stupid tax. But, according to one of his competitors, he is an articulate, clean, bright, good-looking guy. His competitor is also a stupid tax dividend.

It’s difficult to characterize which particular stupid tax is the most dangerous for our country because we have so many different ones. I don’t know if you are old enough to have lived through the Arab oil embargo. It was our reward for supporting Israel when they were attacked by Syria, Egypt and their supporters in the Yom Kippur War. The oil problem that you and I deal with every working day when traveling to our jobs and accomplishing other necessary tasks is not a new problem. During the embargo, politicians said we have to work toward conservation and energy independence. You may find the price analysis here quite telling. In a nutshell, it tells us that in 2006 dollars every penny we pay beyond about $22.00 per barrel is our stupid tax. Stupid because we never insisted that the politicians we voted into office do what they knew we needed them to do to protect us and our country. Stupid, because the dollars we send to the Middle East and Venezuela are being used to bring down our economy and ultimately our country. Pitifully, we settle for being told that the solution to our energy crisis is to grow more corn. That ranks right up there with Jimmy Carter telling us to put on a sweater and turn down the heat.

We pay plenty of stupid tax. Not the least of which are the 6 figure salaries and the perks of their offices that we pay to career politicians. The return on our investment is billions of dollars in pork diverted to Congressional districts to build bridges to nowhere named to honor the pork producing politicians. If calculated, I imagine the political pork amassed since 1973 would meet the price of making us energy independent many times over. That is a lot of stupid tax for one nation to pay and still survive.

The most insidious stupid tax we pay is that which we contribute to our failed public education system. We have atrocious dropout rates, and in the communities who most need to raise education levels to survive. Third world countries lack a middle class because their populations are largely illiterate. People starting life without a basic education are often burdens on society rather than contributors to it. The money we invest in a failed education system pays us dividends in public assistance and higher crime rates. Unfortunately, if every student graduated, it would not solve the problem of our schools being used as tools of social and political indoctrination. Schools have moved well beyond their charter to make our children competent in basic knowledge of math, science, history…. They’ve turned instead toward social engineering. Our children are taught that it is OK to bring homosexuality to school, but not God. Birth control pills are available to 11 year old girls and condoms are passed out on demand. They are brainwashed and politically indoctrinated by Al Gore movies. And it doesn’t stop there. Many of these children, on their way to become our next generation of political leaders, end up in universities that represent social engineering on steroids. The only example of their product one needs is seeing an audience of students adoringly applauding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A man who would like nothing better than to incinerate them with a nuclear weapon and who has the blood of many Americans on his hands and then watching the same collection of indoctrinated, spoiled brat kids shout down any other point of view. Someday, all of these brainwashed 18 year old brats are going to the polls. They’ll give us a big return on our stupid tax investment, but I’m not sure we can stand it. They won’t be able to either, but by then it will be too late.

I’ve thought about my stupid tax. Have you calculated yours? It’ll be painful.

Copyright © 2007 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved