There goes some more of our Rights....

Well Sir...this was "missed" by the MSM...

If you work for ANY Government Agency...and you observe wrong doing of any kind by your superiors...and you lose yur job cause you say somethin about it to someone....your out in the cold my friend.

The Supreme Court of the United States has just ruled, 5 to 4, that You have NO 1st Ammendment rights protections any longer if you work for any Government Agency...Almost all "Whistle-blower" protection is gone...well ain't that just fuckin precious.......

Now Sir...let me tell y'all a little story...this here Cookie once worked fer the TSA (Transportation Security Agency), and after having wurked there a few horrible months...I saw the need to contact a...dare I say the wurd...Union. The TSA management at the Airport I worked at just threw the book out when it came Civil Rights...and in some cases Human Rights. It was (and I'm told daily by TSA Screeners still there)...still is very Management Abusive to its employee's......

Now Sir...I want y'all to remember...I'm a Retired Law Enforcement Sergeant...and if there is somethin I do know a might about...its RIGHTS...and these TSA management "people" sure know how to violate them...

So...it won't come as no surprise when I tells y'all that myself, and 19 other good folks (most of whom just happened to have attended a Union meeting)...were "RIFed"...thats a "Reduction in Force...or if you wish...an anagram for FIRED! Gee...who coulda seen that comin.....? As a side note...in this "RIF"...there was also another Retired Police Sergeant included...as well as other previously professional people who were moxie when it came to knowing workers rights and were vocal about what was being done to them....

Now this all happened back in 02...so let me continue on. A co-worker, and good friend of mine...at a Staff/Management meeting (after the RIF)...heard the TSA second in command (at the Airport in question) say somethin very derogatory about all of us good folks that got "Rifed"...so he made a supporting affidavit to this persons remarks which was included in my law suit against the TSA/Admiral Loy...and gee...guess who else became the victim of much harassment at work, allowed NO vacations for TWO years...and eventually left work because of the intense un-ending bull-shit they threw at him.

Now Sir...this good person was a retired Professional High School Biology teacher of 33 years, 4th degree Knights of Columbus, on the Board of Directors for his local Red Cross chapter, a very religious man who is extremely active in his church (and BTW...the TSA management took away his regular Sundays off as part of the harassment)...a well respected man in his community, not some off the street goofus. He has of course....filed an action against the TSA based in part on "Whistle-Blower" protection for/and frum...the retaliatory harassment he suffered from TSA management at the Airport in question.......Guess what just went out the frickin window......

Now...this is where I'm forced to eat some Crow. Any of y'all out there who's ever read this here blog knows how I feel about the ACLU...I really dislikes em...cain't stand them or what they stand fer...BUT..... and you can figure out what I would say next......

Now this good friend...who has suffered all kinds of unwarranted emotional and financial hardship since being forced out of the TSA...and...as I stated earlier...is a very religious/spiritual man...and very active in his church...so...he naturally dislikes the ACLU as well cause of all the shit they have done to Religion in the schools and community and such...BUT.....it is now necessary for him to turn to the ACLU as his only recourse....

....As an old, early TV character used to say in his TV program, "The Life of Reilly"...."WHAT A REVOLTIN DEVELOPEMENT THIS IS"......

..Dangerous Dan McGrew....Robert Service...

Still "down" so here's a poem I like from Robert Service..."The Spell of the Yukon....

The Shooting of Dan McGrew

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.

When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,

There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.

He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,

Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.

There was none could place the stranger's face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;

But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;

And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;

With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,

As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.

Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,

And I turned my head -- and there watching him was the lady that's known as Lou.

His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,

Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.

The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,

So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands -- my God! but that man could play.

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,

And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could HEAR;

With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,

A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;

While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North Lights swept in bars? --

Then you've a haunch what the music meant . . . hunger and night and the stars.

And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,

But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;

For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love --

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true --

(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, -- the lady that's known as Lou.)

Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;

But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;

That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil's lie;

That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.

'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair, and it thrilled you through and through --

"I guess I'll make it a spread misere," said Dangerous Dan McGrew.

The music almost died away . . . then it burst like a pent-up flood;

And it seemed to say, "Repay, repay," and my eyes were blind with blood.

The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,

And the lust awoke to kill, to kill . . . then the music stopped with a crash,

And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,

And "Boys," says he, "you don't know me, and none of you care a damn;

But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I'll bet my poke they're true,

That one of you is a hound of hell . . . and that one is Dan McGrew."

Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark,

And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.

Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,

While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that's known as Lou.

These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.

They say that the stranger was crazed with "hooch", and I'm not denying it's so.

I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two --

The woman that kissed him and -- pinched his poke -- was the lady that's known as Lou.

--- Robert Service

....Sick.......

Real sick today...some sort of stomach and intestinal virus....will read yur posts and comments tomorrow......Y'all take care and God Bless...... Cookie.....

...A Memorial Watch Fire..... and lot's of youngin's...

Several years back...a few of our local Veterans groups began a tradition that goes back many centuries...the tradition of a "Watch Fire".

The "Watch Fire" was originally used to guide soldiers home and back to their encampments after the day's battles were over....today...they are Memorial events...Symbolic of guiding a deceased soldier home...as well as healing for those of us left behind...

Last evening...my wife and myself attended this solemn event which is held over at the Great New York State Fair grounds, near Syracuse, New York

For the first time since it's local inception...the attendance passed 10,000 folks. Sailors, Seabee's, Submariners, Marines, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard Vets, and their families....all coming together in one place to pay a fitting tribute to our fallen hero's of all wars...Foreign and domestic. Most Vet's wore hats and T-shirts identifying their prior service and the units they served in. Many logo's told of which war the vet had been in....from WWII to the present. Many old acquiantences and friends met again...and, as usual....new friends were made. There was one vet that was the focus of many of us...it was an honor to meet him...he was a Veteran of WWI......

What did my heart the most good last eve...was the very large number of young folks in attendance...children, grandchildren...and great grandchildren in all age ranges. I was encouraged and inspired as they witnessed the camaraderie that all Vets feel and experience between and toward one another. I watched their young faces...closely....and I saw their look's of questioning, puzzlement, and maybe some awe...turn to understanding and learning. They saw the old American flags that a great many of us brought....to place on the huge wood pyre for proper disposal of "Old Glory".

These young eye's watched as thousands of Vets, young and old, in good health and in wheelchair's and on crutches..."Fell In" and "dressed right" for muster on the huge open field...they witnessed many thousands of Vets come to Attention and "Hand Salute" our great flag as it passed by our formation...and then as we all...ALL.. sang the Star Spangled Banner....followed by one loud cannon report that signaled the playing of "Taps". They heard the un-natural silence of over 10,000 people....totally and reverently quiet.....as the bugle wailed its lonesome notes..... all this unfolding as a bright red sun, set in the western sky... on a calm, warm, early summer eve.....and they saw that it was OK for grown men to shed some tears. What they witnessed was true Love and Patriotism......

...and the huge Watch Fire was lit........visable for all within a fifteen mile radius to see...and silent reflection prevailed.........

Cookie......

In Remembrance of our Silent Service.....

In memoriam of all our shipmates that are now on......

ETERNAL

PATROL..

May God Bless all fallen Seabee's.....

" With Compassion...We Build..We Fight..For Peace with Freedom"

Construimis, Batuimus

United States Navy Seabee Memorial in Washington, DC.....

CAN DO......