Bokar Fort, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik City walls
The city of Dubrovnik is completely surrounded with walls and forts, including the Old Port. The history of the fortifications goes back to the early Middle Ages. No doubt the earliest urban settlement upon the islet of Laus was protected with walls. The fact that the city was able to resist the Saracens who besieged the city for 15months in the 9th century means that it was fortified well. The city first spread towards the uninhabited eastern part of the islet. The eastern section was included within the defence walls in the 9th and 10th century. When the sea channel separating the city from mainland was filled with earth in 11th century, the city merged with the settlement on land and soon a single wall was built around the area of the present-day city core. The whole city was enclosed in the 13th century, except for the Dominican monastery, which came under their protection not before the 14th century. The average thickness of the wall was 1.5 meters, and it was built of stone and lime. To increase the strength of the walls and ensure better defence, 15 square forts were built in the 14th century.

UPDATE: Many emails have asked whether I have visited Croatia. During my really active traveling for work days I was banned from entering most countries behind the Iron Curtain. Now that the iron veil of communism has been lifted I plan to visit Croatia and other countries in the area. My wife's family is from just across the Adriatic in the Abruzzi region of Italy, so, I hope to see this beautiful area soon. Friends have said that the people are as amazing as the country.

Election 2009 - Not A Good Day For Republicans Or Democrats

Yes, Republicans won in NJ and VA. Any day that signals the departure of a , albeit rich, dilettante who dabbles in areas in which only his thinking is less than his understanding is a good day. NJ is better for it.

Hoffman of NY-23 lost. Though not a Republican, he should have won and I need to study the results to understand why he did not. I will start by looking at the polls and speaking with pollsters in the area. They have some 'splainin to do. Ditto California 10.

So far a wash.

Here in Ohio, a quick look at local and statewide issues is very disheartening. Spend, spend, spend and more government everywhere. This is not good.

At a time which suggests that the Obama Administration is and will continue spending generations of money in mere months, more spending at the local level being approved by voters is curious. Local levies and other pure spending inputs and increases appear to have been approved all over the state. Why? Maybe locals feel that they better get some money in the pipeline now before what's left disappears, but where was the logical thinking that should have clearly stated, through the vote, that we already have too much spending by governments large and small? Again, more study at the local level and looking for regional and state patterns is needed.

Statewide, the 2009 election appeared to be a result in some welfare state instead of Ohio. Casinos? Who in Hell needs casinos? They are not a panacea, not even part of a solution, they are a societal cancer and the vote yesterday is an indicator that Ohio is sicker than previously thought.

Concerning Issue 2 I found the chatter from conservatives and liberals interesting. Is Issue 2 just another layer of unneeded government or a corporate conspiracy to wring more profit out of the local coven of comrades? Either way, voters heard "safer food" and saw signs supporting the issue in farmland where the here-to-fore trusted population of farmers ply their trade and voted for Issue 2.

All of this is more sobering when viewed through the progressive lens of Washington's current promise of a chicken in every pot and a Caddy in every garage. Terrifying, when viewed through the unruly and unfocused lens of a state governor and other state leaders flailing about like chickens with their heads cut off. Strickland and his cohorts, when faced with the realities of our economy, react with a misfeasance that is, at least to the logical, bordering on criminal.

I do not feel these results bode well for Republicans. Sure, a message was sent and moderate Democrats will heed that message in the upcoming votes on health reform and other pie in the sky claptrap that Pelosi, Reid and Obama will put up. These moderate moderate Democrats will heed that message until they are bribed the right amount of government largess for their district or until their political arms are twisted out of their sockets.

Yesterday exhibited pockets of resistance to be nutured and grown, but it also signaled a voting public so enured to the public teet that it signals more insanity that will accept an ever growing government in size and power, a savior in the chimera of an FDR, which, in the end, will bring us all down.

Not a good day for Republicans or Democrats. It was an even worse day for taxpayers who are going to have to pay for all of this waste, fraud, abuse and corruption. In all, we voted for a Potemkin village when we can't even pay for the paint to hide the cracks in its crumbling facade.

Government Help Through Urban Renewal

I have seen Urban Renewal and its results, which were/are terrible. Its blight can still be viewed in cities all across America.

Urban renewal is a typical big government answer to what it perceives as a problem. The cure only makes things worse.

These photographs are of Boston's West End .

The building in the lower right in the top picture, under the Lipton's Tea sign, can also be seen in the lower right in the picture below.

Boston should sue as well as all the other cities, larger and smaller, for what big government did to them.

Corzine Propping Up Daggett To Split 'R' Vote

Corzine has Obama, in-state unions and liberal groups as well as ACORN and related groups as well as associate groups from out of state pouring into New Jersey to prop up his fading candidacy.

Now Corzine and New Jersey's Democrat Party has enlisted, abetted and financially helped "Independent" Chris Daggett for a Corzine win.

Democrats admit paying for pro-Daggett call

Joe Cryan, Democrat State Chairman for New Jersey, stated when asked if the Democrats had anything to do with the calls:

"No. Zero. Nada. No," he said.

The press decided that Cryan must be telling the truth say that the calls source was in doubt:

NJ Republicans, Democrats dispute source of automated calls for independent ...

I guess we can add the media to the long list of in state and out of state liberal groups working for Corzine.

And then there is the outright voter fraud:

Will 'ACORN" Steal The Seat For Corzine?

If Corzine pulls this out, we know how he is trying, it will be trumpeted as an Obama victory since Obama has basically moved to New Jersey of late.

Will 'ACORN" Steal The Seat For Corzine?

It is way too weird that the Chicago Mob is working over time in New Jersey to form a "Corruption for Corzine" committee. They have brought in fellow mob members from Pennsylvania and New York. Everybody knows they are there and why they are there.

Chris Christie's Next Case: Who Stole My Election?
Absentee voter fraud may play a significant role in New Jersey's gubernatorial election.

The New Jersey Democratic Party is pressuring county officials not to scrutinize mismatching signatures on any absentee ballot. Indeed, Democratic Party lawyer Paul Josephson wrote New Jersey's secretary of state asking for a ruling that would not allow county officials to throw out ballots with signatures that do not match because county clerks "may be overworked and are likely not trained in handwriting analysis." I presume that if Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn cast ballots where the signatures match that those ballots are valid in Democrat's eyes. That is, if they voted for Corzine.

Part of the whole "sanctity of the ballot" issue is that the New Jersey state government, under Corzine, and the federal government, under Obama, will guarantee the legality of the process.

No problem there, eh?

NY-23 - Scozzafava Is One Bad Cup Of Scuzzy Java

Either she lied all along and is a Democrat or Scozzafava is a bitter hypocrite who should never again be in a position of power. Either way she made a fool of Newt Gingrich and the National Republican Congressional Committee who placed trust in her character and ethics if not her political positions.

GOP ex-candidate endorses Democrat in NY race

I hope she has energized the Republican base to come out in droves and crush the Democrat and any hope she may have of ever returning to politics.

People hate Benedict Arnolds and once labeled a turncoat never to be trusted, always a turncoat never to be trusted again. Of course, this wouldn't disallow her from officially joining the Democrat Party.

Goodbye Dede. Don't let the door hit you in the butt.

Ohio Issues 1, 2 And 3

1 - soldiers, even those in support positions which are kinda really necessary for the people on the battlefield, have always been there for us. It is wrong for us not to be there for them. Vote YES.

2 - Fight a fear with more government bureaucracy? Permanent board, no accountability and more government is a really bad idea. Vote NO.

3 - Casino gambling in Ohio is a bad idea. Corruption, crime, family breakup, etc are all indicators that it should fail, but casino gambling won't help Ohio in the long run and 34,000 thousand added jobs won't make a dent in the Strickland (with Bob Taft's help) job exodus program currently in place. Vote NO.

Pelosi-Obama Care Will Deny More Claims

There is plenty of discussion about what insurance companies have done to claimants and most of that discussion is just scare tactics. On the other hand we have lots of discussion about how fair and good Medicare, government health care, is which is just hot air.

Medicare: Largest Denier Of Health Care Claims

Also, the monstrous insurance company CEOs, they're the ones that deny cute kids while sipping Martinis, and their companies really aren't as rich as their detractors make them out to be.

Now, mix in all the waste, fraud and abuse with the outright corruption and a government run health care system is a nightmare, especially since this fight isn't about helping sick people, it's about government power placed in the hands of a few.

Ancient Stone Work

Karnak (click to enlarge)

An old photo of the huge hall of columns at Karnak, before restoration.The scale here is astounding - that is a man down there at the bottom.

Government Health Care As Brer Rabbit

Brer Rabbit's eyes got very large. "Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

"Maybe I should roast you over a fire and eat you," mused Brer Fox. "No, that's too much trouble. Maybe I'll hang you instead."

"Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

"If I'm going to hang you, I'll need some string," said Brer Fox. "And I don't have any string handy. But the stream's not far away, so maybe I'll drown you instead."

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

"The briar patch, eh?" said Brer Fox. "What a wonderful idea! You'll be torn into little pieces!"

From Rich Galen's Mullings:

According to Janet Adamy's coverage in the Wall Street Journal,

The bill requires most Americans to have health insurance by 2013, with fines as much as 2.5% of income if they don't. It would leave 96% of legal U.S. residents with health insurance by 2019, up from 83% today.

Also

Employers that don't offer health insurance face fines equal to 2% of their payroll in companies with minimum annual payrolls of $500,000 a year. The fines increase to 8% of payroll for employers whose annual payroll exceeds $750,000.

Firms with a payroll of less than $500,000 would be exempt.

I'm not certain, but let me work though this. If I had a firm with 20 employees making an average of $50,000 per year each, my payroll would be $1 million per year. If I were offering health insurance, my premiums would be, what about $400-500 per month per employee?
If I stopped offering health insurance, my one million dollar payroll would be subject to a tax of $80,000 per year - or $333.33 per month per employee which is probably less than what I'm paying now.

I might well be ahead of the game to turn the process over to the Feds, pay the tax, and get out of the health insurance business.

So, Mr Obama has promised that companies and individuals can keep the health insurance coverage they like. And, as people and employers heat up and say if this crap passes we'll throw you out of office, Obama and gang protests that they won't raise taxes nor force anyone to do that which they do not wish to do!

And when the people say that the Constitution doesn't give them the right or the power to do this?

The socialized medical gang pleads back that this isn't socialized medicine because we're not going to do any such thing as have a government takeover on medicine AND if it happens because private carriers can't compete with the government and everyone has to go with government socialized medical care, the whole gang will cry;

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

Right now, we appear dumber than Brer Fox as the caring little bunnies on the left smile like the Chesire Cat.

But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Obama Campaign/DNC Loves Desecrated Flag

In a move so unsurprising it should spawn a yawn:

According to the Organizing for American Web site, the 20 finalists in the “Health Reform Video Challenge” were chosen by a panel of “qualified” Democratic National Committee “employee judges.”




This should win over some people, but the question is, which people and why would any group want them?

Obama, Instead of McChsrystal Light, Why Not McChrystal Heavy?

When someone comes to me and asks for a specific number of workers, my first question is why that number? I may continue with something along the lines of, is that number stated because you think I'll say fewer? Then I'd ask why not fifty percent more?

'McChrystal Light': Obama considering scaled-down war plan...

In the military it is not just dollars and cents (have we started using the Yen yet?), it is about success and lives. By going light, Obama is sending a clear message to our enemy and that enemy knows that now is the time to step up their attacks and cowardly terror acts used purposely to kill civilians. 'McChrystal Light' will kill more of our troops and fewer of the terrorists. It will win over fewer tribal leaders. They understand the basics of war which each day shows Obama and team have not a clue about. A potential tribal leader ally doesn't read polls. Obama and team do.

Obama should have asked General McChrytal about sending 60,000 troops. He should have asked if 20,000 troops over McChrystals request would make a major difference in terms of success of the over all mission.

McChrystal Light is a sissy's way out which will embolden our enemy in Afghanistan to be bigger neighborhood bullies to terrorize the tribes into believing that America is, once again, a sissy. No, not our troops, not our military leaders, but those in the White House sipping their cocktails, playing generals, politicos and poll parsing sissies.

I'd send a message to our troops, our citizens and our enemy with 60,000 soldiers. That would support the former two and crush the latter in deed and in spirit.

Excellent Advice On NY-23

I have long countered that 3rd parties are destructive to Republicans and dilute the power of the people. NY-23 is an example of the antithesis in that locals are sending a clear message that machine politics is wrong for Republicans.

Newt Gingrich has become embroiled in the hopes of retaining a unified Republican showing at the polls, which is laudable, but is also interference in local politics, which is not laudable.

Instapundit has some excellent advice which to me cuts the Gordian knot of this conundrum:

To my mind, it’s more important — that people not divide into permanently warring camps than that anything in particular happen in this election. The nice thing about NY-23 is that it’s an opportunity to send a message at low cost, but the cost won’t be low if it produces long-running enmity. Instead, it should be a spur for people to get involved in politics at the state and local level now, rather than complaining about the nominees later.

A Republican Party filled with activists that work together and ignore the petty politics of "my way is the only true way" will lead us back out of the nightmare that is Washington, DC today.

Obama's Afghanistan Links

"By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe," Obama said in his speech here, which continued a theme he has outlined before: Afghanistan, not Iraq, should be the centerpiece of the war on terrorism.

Politico reports:
Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he’s already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.

The Religion Of Peace

Remember, we must have a sharp focus on the most important war in Afghanistan. Iraq and other places were a waste, because all the terrorists and Sammy bin Laden are in Afghanistan.

28th October, 2001 : Islamic extremist gunmen burst into a church in eastern Pakistan killing 18 people including children who were at prayer.

If only those pesky terrorists criminals would just recognize borders. Have they no sense of place?

Obama's DC Most Ethical Swamp EVAH!

Might be that Pelosi is running the drainage pumps in the wrong direction.

Democratic donors rewarded with W.H. perks
"The argument is not that I'm pristine, because I'm swimming in the same muddy water," Mr. Obama said during a campaign appearance. "The argument is that I know it's muddy, and I want to clean it up."

An Unmaking Of The American Quilt Party In Obama's WH

If Obama is the host, Rahm Emanuel and David Axlerod must be the hostesses to the Busy Bee Committee unquilting, piece by piece, the American Quilt that is America. The group is made up of not just celebrities, such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but also luminaries of the socialist world view like Senator Chuck Schumer, Representative Henry Waxman, interim White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and a ever growing number of American czars. All hellbent on tearing America apart to be reshaped into their vision of what America should be. A nanny state that covers a iron fist with a velveteen glove of concern.


Square by square, the quilt is looked at by this group through a lens that views those who have built America as unAmerican. A view that America has basic faults that once exposed will be corrected by government intervention, guiding America back to what made it great, which to them is government control from cradle to grave. Never mind that this is the precise formula that our founding fathers abhorred and put their lives and fortunes on the block to fight and defeat to form a new country where king and government were cast aside for the creative force of economic and personal freedom.


Cap and Trade and health care reform have become the vanguard of this effort to fundamentally dumb down America.


Cap and Trade represents a huge tax on an elusive target that is much debated and rejected by the same taxpayers who don't want to pay for it. Health care is being reformed for a public that doesn't want the reform, especially in the way that the unquilting party is promising.


Cap and Trade and health care reform are just the tip of what Obama has not already done and what he wants to do, thus speed becomes Paramount. Paramont because his view is losing support quickly and each day brings more questions such as, has anyone even read what is in these plans and how will these things be paid for. That debt and dominance will be our future is becoming a very real fear to voters and that could be what brings down the Obama Administration. The administrations' fear of the voters is driving the frenetic pace with which the administration whips its people to offer more proof of the need for government intervention into the everyday lives of Americans.


That government intervention is a necessity can be witnessed by the faits accomplis, global warming, bank takeovers, driving insurance companies out of business, the taking of auto corporations and stimulus packages that stimulate nothing. The ying and yang of the need for a national police force and the wonder of a national youth service are extensions of the policies already enacted.

Now, in a classic yet never ending Obama campaign ploy to rejump start health care reform, we are bombarded with stories of flu epidemics, how women pay 50% more for health care, that 1/3 of those afflicted with AIDS are not even aware they have the disease, that Democrats have just realized that Medicare/Medicaid is in a state of crisis and that (insert this weeks' number) of Americans are without any health care. This is just at the national level and is classic divide and conquer by scaring the bejeebus out different groups. At the state and local level, that media, almost daily, there are stories of a 'crisis' that cries out for government help.

The forces aligned to further health care reform as 'good' for America now feel that finally they are now realizing what they have been promised for decades. Unions that have existed as well as newer unions that have serpentined into our schools and universities, government and even our security functions, leftists that feel disaffected by the necessities of living, leftist media and political functionaries, even artists, are demanding the due promised them by liberal/progressive/socialists in the Democratic Party. Again, it is classic Obama campaigning to gather those promised handouts as a 'right' with those who feel disaffected with leftists in the Democrat Party to organize. This is a coalition of the takers, fakers and breakers of the American Quilt that symbolizes the American Dream.

To this coalition, what is not to love about benevolent overlords helping citizens who are incapable of understanding a government that is a perpetual motion machine funded by an unending pool of money and is a modern model of governance far too complex for any one citizen to truly understand?

This American dream envisioned by Obama and his hard core leftist followers is a new quilt made of swaths of promises of a bigger pieces of the pie, more pay, less work and no responsibility. It is a quilt that will leave us unwarm on the cold night before reality brings a colder morning of poverty, no opportunity and no security on any front.

Congress will bring some form of the public option, ie government control, to health care reform because that is what they want. They will rename it a "consumer option", maybe a "competitive option" or they will say states will be able to "opt in" or "opt out" in hopes that people will think they will still control their own destiny, but however they try to fool the people, they will bring the take over of health care in America.

As Obama said, it may take 10 years, maybe 15 years, but the end of private health care and total government control of health care is the holy grail of these secular crusaders. It is because if they fail in the here and now, the rest of their goals will fail as well.

Health care reform is simply the mechanism on which they have hung their hat to complete their take over of the government which will control us. The constant campaign never seems to stop.

October 23

23rd October, 2002 :

Fifty Chechen rebels storm a Moscow Theatre taking 7,000 hostages. The rebels had explosives strapped to their bodies and were demanding the withdrawal of Soviet Forces from Chechnya. Three days later after the death of two of the hostages Russian Special Forces stormed the building and during the raid most of the terrorists and 120 hostages were killed during the raid.



23rd October, 1983 :

A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 military personnel.

EPA & Obama Newest Attacks on Coal - Zack Space Silent

Following his vote for the Cap and Trade energy tax on every house in America, Zack Space appears to have not lifted a finger to protect his constituents.

War on coal
While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama said his cap-and-trade tax plans would "bankrupt" anyone building a coal-fired power plant. Although those taxes haven't materialized, the Environmental Protection Agency has put the brakes on 79 surface mining permits in four states since he was elected.

The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water Act and warrant "enhanced" review. But the agency went even further last week, announcing plans to revoke a permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia - a move that has caused anxiety among coal-state Democrats about the future of the industry under the Obama administration.

Mr. Obama's opposition to coal has been apparent since January 2008 when he told the San Francisco Chronicle he would clamp down on miners by enacting a cap-and-trade system that would make it too expensive to stay in business. "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can," he said at the time. "It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

Although his favored cap-and-trade bill hasn't yet been passed, West Virginia's Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin III, who supported Mr. Obama's candidacy, called the EPA moves part of a stealth campaign to stifle the industry.

"Right now, my belief is that they're trying to kill off surface mining through regulation what they cannot get done through legislation," Mr. Manchin told MetroNews Talkline, a West Virginia call-in radio program, earlier this month. In West Virginia, 23 permits are being held up, with other affected states being Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

Friday FUGLY: Kabul Poppy Palace

Believe it, this is a house. It looks a lot like the jukebox at Buttsies Bar & Grill, though not as pretty.