If you plan on visiting Oklahoma or becoming an Oklahoman, there are a few things you should know that will help you adapt to the differences in lifestyles:
Oklahoman's are some of the friendliest, most generous people you will ever meet. We welcome folks from all over the world to become "Okies" just like us!
(Thanks to Cowgirl357 for finding this video)
Emotional Vampirism
Tragedy becomes feeding time for the press.
By Jonah Goldberg
(from National Review Online)
I’m sick over the Virginia Tech story. But I’m sickened of the Virginia Tech “story.”
That is, it’s at moments like this — the “aftermath” stage of some horrible event — when the press, particularly television news networks, are most proud of themselves that I find them the most repellent.
To be sure, it’s difficult to see the line between enough and too much when journalists go wild, “flooding the zone,” competing with each other like starving dogs for the slightest new morsel of information they can then put on a permanent loop on cable TV, until the next fragmentary detail is pried loose by a reporter desperate to be first, for 15 minutes.
Because there isn’t enough new information to fill the infinite void allotted to these stories, the press quickly succumbs to a kind of emotional vampirism, feeding off the grief, fear, and anguish of victims clearly incapable of understanding their own feelings or of finding meaning in events that defy either understanding or meaning.
Just as with the Columbine massacre, the Oklahoma City bombing and countless other slaughters whose names tug at our memories - as well as our guilty consciences because we cannot quite recall the details of those “unforgettable” events - we can be sure the media will continue to milk their role as remorse voluptuaries for as long as conceivably possible.
You see, Americans don’t watch news that much anymore, preferring Oprah, The View, Grey’s Anatomy, and other soap operas fictional or otherwise. So long after the shelf life of the facts has expired and the news is no longer new, the networks will try to keep their swollen ratings by making their “extended coverage” as engorged with mawkish sentimentality as possible before giving way entirely to recriminations, self-congratulation and navel-gazing about how they handled this latest challenge.
Perhaps just as gruesome is the race to assign a politically palatable meaning to the calamity before the clay of first impressions hardens into the granite of conventional wisdom. After all, we must have a controversy over this event; how else to justify the return of the pundits, like an aristocracy in exile, to television studios everywhere?
Most prominently, some of these journalistic first-responders are desperate to seize on the opportunity to make Cho Seung-Hui into a gargoyle of the gun culture. Others see the contesting forces of litigiousness, the shortcomings of the therapeutic society or, just peeking around the corner, the horrible influences of the popular culture and the Internet. Had Cho’s visa been out of order, one can be sure some would have added Cho to the parade of horribles of illegal immigration.
And then, of course, there is religion. Some are desperate to insinuate Cho as a deranged warrior for Christ. But Cho had “Ismail Ax” written in red ink on his arm. Ismail is the Muslim spelling of Ishmael, which has caused others to speculate that Cho was another Johnny Taliban. But then, he spelled the name Ishmael — the common Western spelling — on the return address of the package he sent to NBC.
That package also contained a multimedia suicide note in which Cho both denounced Christianity and put himself in the role of Jesus Christ, even as he struck a mimicking pose possibly lifted from a Korean action movie and carried on like one of the professional wrestlers he so admired.
His execrable writings contain countless allusions to pedophilia and abuse so offensive that even his presumably sophisticatedly desensitized classmates refused to read them. His video testimony contains quasi-Marxist denunciations of materialism.
In short, this deranged young man had a maelstrom of demons swirling about him. But partisans want us to pick one all-explanatory demon.
With the light of hindsight, some say the warning signs should have been spotted. But this assumes that strange and disgruntled people are a rarity and that all of them are candidates to become mass murderers. The reality is almost exactly the opposite. Strange minds and tortured souls are all around us, particularly on college campuses.
Shall we now have the psychological equivalent of the zero-tolerance mania that causes children with aspirin to be carted off by police? Shall we unleash the white coats on every misanthrope and muttering grudge holder?
I confess, I’ve played the game of trying to find meaning in tragedy more than once myself and I probably will again. But not this time. Not with Cho. The only meaning I can find supported by the horrific, heartrending evidence is that once again the mystery of evil has been corroborated, the permanence of tragedy confirmed.
© 2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
The recent tragic events at VT have fanned the flames of those who would disarm the American public. How can anyone reasonably believe that laws against owing a gun would stop anyone bent on the kind of mass murder that occurred. Surely, someone who intends to violate the laws of man and God against murder would have little compunction in violating a law forbidding the possession of a firearm. If there had been others there, legally armed and properly trained, someone could have stopped him before so many were killed.
I found the following on Jeff's blog. Thanks, Jeff.
(By the way, the picture above is a Baby Eagle. My .40 caliber version of this little jewel lives in my bedroom.)
From Concealed Carry Magazines e-newsletter a few months back...
40 Reasons For Gun Control
1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, & Chicago cops need guns.
2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.
3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."
4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.
5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.
6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.
7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.
8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense- give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p.125).
10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.
11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seatbelts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.
12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.
13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons vehicles buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.
14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arm" refers to the state.
15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5thAmendments to that Constitution.
16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.
17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons", but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles", because they are military weapons.
18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, finger printing, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.
19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.
20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.
21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.
22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."
23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.
24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.
25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.
26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."
27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.
28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.
29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self-defense only justifies bare hands.
30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.
31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.
32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.
33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.
34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over hand guns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.
35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self-protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.
36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.
37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.
38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.
39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.
40. Handgun Control, Inc. says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.
Significant portions of this article are excerpted from Michael Z. Williamson's excellent and witty piece, "It's amazing what one has to believe to believe in gun control"
If there is anyone around that thinks communism as a practical system was defeated when the Soviet Union crumbled, they should rethink that premise. The tenents of Marxism are alive and well and being diligently taught in our schools. We have all heard stories of left-leaning, America hating professors in our institutions of higher learning, but it starts much earlier than that....
Banning LEGOs
Teachers at a Seattle day care center decided to ban LEGO building blocks — those colorful little bricks kids use to build such creations as robots, monster trucks, space ships and vast futuristic cities. The Hilltop Children's Center bills itself as a nationally recognized, non-profit, non-religious facility. So why did the teachers toss the LEGOs?
We'll let them explain: "We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children's understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the LEGOs out of the classroom. The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys — assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."
After months of what the teachers called "social justice exploration" — they let the LEGOs back in — but kids were only allowed to build "public structures" of standard sizes in a village dedicated to what they called "collectivity and consensus." (Foxnews.com)
How many people really know what Marxism is? I know I was never taught in school or in college what Marxist philosophy was. We hear it often and think we know. But how many take the time to look for themselves?
The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, listed Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as authors, but Engels later stated it was Marx who wrote it. If you have never taken the time to read it, it is important you do so. It openly and flatly calls for the overthrow of government by the working class. The basic tenets of the manifesto are posted below for your enlightenment. I hope it makes your skin crawl.
10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto
- Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
- Abolition of all right of inheritance.
- Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
- Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
- Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
- Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
- Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
- Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
- Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.. (Wikipedia.com)
I hope this stimulates thought and, with that, some research of your own. What you don't know CAN hurt you....
Rules of OKLAHOMA:
1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.
2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road". I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.
3. They are cattle and oil wells. That’s what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Don't like it? I-40 goes east and west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.
4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have a $250,000 cotton stripper that we drive only 3 weeks a year.
5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.
6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.
7. Yeah, we eat catfish and crawfish. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.
8. The "opener" refers to the first day of the deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.
9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.
10. No, there is no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off all two pounds of ham and turkey.
11. When we set a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and Picante Sauce! Oh, yeah....we don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat...IT AIN'T REAL CHILI! Chili was born and bred in Tulsa. By the way, real chili never met a bean!
12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.
13. College and high school football is as important here as the Lakers and the Bears, and a dang site more fun to watch.
14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards -- it spooks the fish.
15. Colleges? Try O.U., O.S.U., or Oral Roberts University. The students graduate with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come home for the holidays.
16. Oklahoma is the home of the honored "45th Infantry Division". They have a beautiful museum in Oklahoma City. We also have a bunch of folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, like many other states, and we are proud of every one of them. If you don't honor the flag around here, you will get whupped by the best.
OKLAHOMA BECAME A STATE 100 YEARS AGO.
FOXNews.com - Saudi Kidnap, Rape Victim Faces Lashing for 'Crime' of Being Alone With Man Not Related to Her - Middle East Map | News | CrisisThis is what it means to women to live under the peace-loving and enlightened religion that so venerates women.
Saudi Kidnap, Rape Victim Faces Lashing for 'Crime' of Being Alone With Man Not Related to Her
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
A 19-year-old Saudi woman who was kidnapped, beaten and gang raped by seven men who then took photos of their victim and threatened to kill her, was sentenced under the country's Islamic-based law to 90 lashes for the "crime" of being alone with a man not related to her.
The woman is appealing to Saudi King Abdullah to intervene in the controversial case.
"I ask the king to consider me as one of his own daughters and have mercy on me and set me free from the 90 lashes," the woman said in an emotional interview published Monday in the Saudi Gazette.
"I was shocked at the verdict. I couldn't believe my ears. Ninety lashes! Ninety lashes!" the woman, identified only as "G," told the English-language newspaper.
Five months after the harsh judgment, her sentence has yet to be carried out, "G" said she waits in fear every day for the phone call telling her to submit to authorities to carry out her punishment.
Lashes are usually spread over several days. About 50 lashes are given at a time.
The woman's ordeal began a year ago when she was blackmailed into meeting a man who threatened to tell her family they were having a relationship outside wedlock, which is illegal in the desert kingdom, according to a report in The Scotsman newspaper.
She met the man at a shopping mall and, after driving off together, the blackmailer's car was stopped by two other cars bearing men wielding knives and meat cleavers.
During the next three hours, the woman was raped 14 times by her seven captors.
One of the men took pictures of her naked with his mobile phone and threatened to blackmail her with them.
Back at home in a town near the eastern city of Qatif, the young woman did not tell her family of her ordeal. Nor did she inform the authorities, fearing the rapist would circulate the pictures of her naked. She also attempted suicide.
Five of the rapists were arrested and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years. The prosecutor had asked for the death penalty for the men.
The Saudi justice ministry, however, said rape could not be proved because there were no witnesses and the men had recanted confessions they made during interrogation.
The judges, basing their decision on Islamic law, also decided to sentence the woman and her original blackmailer to lashes for being alone together in his car.
Stand back and cover the children's ears...I'm pissed off again. (see previous blog "All I Know...). So the genteel and learned members of the Senate Panel passed their stupid resolution against the plan to drop the hammer on some bad guys in Iraq. It's nonbinding, so it doesn't really mean much, right. Just opinion, the expression of our right of free speech and expression. Democracy at work. Well, ain't that just so special?
I knew it was coming. So did the bad guys. They could hardly contain their glee at the polls before the election that showed a tightening race. They wrote letters and did interviews, openly expressing the hope that the Democrats would take the house and senate. They were very candid. In their expressed opinion, it would be a win for them. All the talk about a timetable, withdrawing our troops was exactly what they wanted. And, sheeple that we are, we did it for them. We quit, they win by default.
The reasoning is that if we start pulling back, the Iraqis will have to step up and take over. Think about this. You and a friend take a fellow camping, way out in the middle of nowhere. This fellow knows nothing about camping. You take him right up to the edge of a steep cliff. Two days later, while he is hanging over the edge by his fingernails, you stand over him and tell him he better, by god, start cutting firewood and toting his share of the water or you're gonna just leave him to rough it by himself. While he's hanging there over the precipice, facing sure death, routine camp chores mean little. And your friend, well, he hasn't contributed much either except following you around telling you how lazy that other fellow is. How that other fellow could save himself if he just would and you should lay down the law. That will get that fellow moving. Give him an ultimatum and then leave him to his own devices. How do you think that's gonna work for ya?
The Iraqis, in large numbers, have been stepping up. The citizens line up for jobs with the police and military, only to have terrorists blow them to bits. Police stations and barracks bombed. And still they keep coming, lining up to serve and protect their country. Citizens braved threats of death to stand in long lines and vote, proudly waving an ink-stained finger to show the hope they hold for democracy. Al Quaida actively recruits among the criminals loosed by Saddam before the invasion. Sunni and Shite death squads roam the neighbor hoods, killing to foment unrest and retaliation among the citizens which furthers the anarchy that will drive a civil war. These are the people with whom we are suppose to reach a political, diplomatic agreement.
So how is this suppose to work? We want the people of Iraq to point these bad guys out, take responsibility and fight back. We want them to stand up and make themselves and their families targets of the bad guys. Why would they do that? We sound like we are not going to be there to see this through. They better pick a side that can protect them when we bug out. Don't think they don't hear us talking about a time table for withdrawal. They remember when the Shites in the southern no fly zone staged a revolt, thinking we would back them up in the bid for freedom from Saddam. They thought we would swoop in from Kuwait and help them break free from tyranny because we were encouraging their actions. They were slaughtered, whole towns of them, and buried in mass graves we are still uncovering.
From the beginning, there has been a constant call for more "boots on the ground". And there was suppose to be, but, at the 11th hour, Turkey withdrew their permission to launch a significant portion of the troops to execute a classic pincher movement to that would have seen the Sunni Triangle surrounded by armies from both north and south. Time and again, we were told the Generals in charge said they didn't need more troops. Then came the whining and mewing for a new strategy. Well, now the situation has been re-evaluated and, due to lack of progress, the military leadership was changed. The call for more troops has been answered. Only now we hear the screeching and howling that it won't work. It really doesn't matter what the president decided, it would have been wrong. Hell, if he fell over dead at the state of the union address last night, he would have been criticized for falling in the wrong direction.
This war has been compared to Viet Nam from early on. It has been wishful thinking on the part of those drawing the comparison. There is constant negative coverage from the mainstream media, proving once again that a war can be won militarily and still lost by consensus. Now some talk of defunding the troops. Getting the sheeple in line, heading for the sheds. You know what happens to sheep, right? They all eventually get fleeced.
What is with these freaks grabbing our kids? Is this happening more often or are we just hearing about it more? It once was considered safer in small communities where everyone knew each other and life was slower. Now, it seems they are becoming a hunting ground for the monsters who abduct our children.
There is no hell deep enough or hot enough for these freaks. It's enough to make you think some people should be drawn and quartered.
The picture above is Marissa, the little girl from Texhoma, who managed to escape her abductor.
Missing Oklahoma Girl Found After Amber Alert Issued; Suspect Still at Large
Friday , January 19, 2007
TEXHOMA, Okla. — Marissa Marie Graham was found in New Mexico Friday after she escaped from the back of a car when her kidnapper stopped at a convenience store for gas, officials said.
Oklahoma police issued an Amber Alert for the 10-year-old girl earlier, after she was reported missing in Texhoma in Texas County Thursday night.
"She took the opportunity to bolt from the car and into the convenience store and identify herself as the girl everyone was looking for and give the telephone number for the Texhoma Police Department," said State Amber Alert coordinator Gene Thaxton.
Initial reports said the suspect had been apprehended, but police say he is still at large and the search for him continues. His name was not immediately released.
The suspect is described as a white male, 35-40 years of age with facial hair, a pasty complexion, and possibly brown hair, according to a press release from the Clovis, N.M., Police Deparment.
The vehicle Marissa Graham escaped from is described as a purple, four-door van or SUV, which police are currently seeking.
Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the Clovis Police Department at (505) 769-1921.
Mike Boring, the district attorney for the Oklahoma Panhandle, told FOX News around 3:45 p.m. EST that officials are "very thrilled" with the outcome of the case. But Boring noted that the investigation is ongoing and urged anyone with information on who could have taken Marissa to contact the police.
"We are looking for, what we believe to be one individual but we're not exactly sure," he said. "We just are very anxious to get the person responsible for this, or person."
Police said Marissa was found in Clovis — about four hours from where she was taken — and that is alive and well. Boring said there are no indications that she was harmed in any way and that she spoke to her parents over the phone after she was found.
"It's been a fantastic day," Boring said, adding that Marissa is "extremely lucky" to have had "the sense and sensibility to get in a public place with people."
But, he added: "At this point, we have no indication to the 'why's or 'who.'"
Police said witnesses saw the girl at 6:30 p.m. Thursday with a white man in his mid-30s to about 40 years old. At the time, the man was believed to have been driving a white car, possibly a Chevrolet Cavalier.
Police issued an Amber Alert, prompting television and radio broadcasts of details of the girl's disappearance. Notification of the Amber Alert was also posted on electronic reader boards along main highways.
These alerts, named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl that was killed in Texas in 1996, are supposed to be limited to cases in which authorities confirm a child has been abducted and faces serious danger.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
(from foxnews.com)
