Founding Fathers' Faith - more stuff

I was surfing through my first day of vacation and came across a really interesting post about a book on the Founding Fathers' faith. The post was from January so the book has been out for awhile. Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost has a mini "review" of the book, "The Faiths of the Founding Fathers" by historian David Holmes. It brings up the interesting idea that while not all of the Founders were, by any means, "Christian", none were atheistic. While the difference in type and scope of faith can be debated, there were no Founders that could be construed as atheists. While atheists may lay claim to the opinions of the founders showing that they were not "Christian", there are no quotes that can be construed as advocating atheism. It would appear that those of faith have more in common with the Founders views than those that cherry pick quotes to fit their agendas of debunking America as a nation of citizen's of faith.

My Dodge Charger "What if...."

....I had kept my Dodge Charger? This is a picture of the same car that I had, a 1970. Same color scheme as well. I must say that my car had a bit of a down home flavor to it what with the primered hood and front fenders and all. It was less paint to keep waxed! I came across a site with Chargers for sale. There was 1970 very similar to the one pictured above for a mere $48,000! I can't say what sort of time, effort, or expense I would have put in to mine had I kept it. Had I known it could have been worth nearly $50,000 I think I may have thought twice about trading it. Hindsight is 20/20.










This 1969 Charger Daytona is listed for sale at Deals on Wheels for a mere $220,000. The crazy thing is that they originally sold for around $4,000 with a 426 hemi. That was a lot of money back in 1969. If you took out a "big" $4,000 loan and paid the car off in a couple of years and kept it in your garage you could have been sitting on a virtual gold mine. Forecasting the future price of a not-yet-classic car would have been difficult to do. I guess that's where the "what if..." comes into play!




My best friend, Chris who lived across the street from me had a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner that looked exactly like the one above. He even had the "Air-Grabber" hood scoop. It would come open at a certain engine rpm. There was a vacuum line hooked up to it and when you jump on the gas it would raise itself. Quite cool. There were teeth on the sides of the scoop similar to what you would see on the old WWII P-40 Warhawks. Very coolstuff.

The Latest Dispatch From Michael Yon

I can't contain my enthusiasm for this journalist and his articles. The most recent dispatch, Superman, was a whirlwind of a story. The high of victory, the low of defeat and essentially a happy ending. It was quite revealing to see how the media reported the situation involving the terrorist bomb attack on the Stryker vehicle in the story. Just a brief mention and stated as fact. The agenda being (IMHO), report as many U.S. soldiers killed as possible so as to deflate the public's support of the war. Not to mention, they're also aiding and comforting the enemy.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed today northwest of Baghdad when their Stryker vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. Names of the service members are being withheld until notification of next of kin. The controversial Stryker vehicle is increasingly under fire by critics who claim that its armor is insufficient to protect troops in Iraq. Elsewhere, Iraqi and U.S. forces killed at least 50 people in Baghdad after three days of fighting in the area....

The real story was 180 degrees from what was reported in the mainstrem media. No one was killed. If you watch the terrorist propaganda video linked in Michael's Superman article, it is absolutely amazing that no one was killed. If you Google News search for "Four Soldiers Killed By Roadside Bomb Northwest of Baghdad" , none of the linked stories reports the truth of the event with the exception of Michael Yon's. Granted, he has first hand knowledge of the event but why was there no verification on the part of the MSM before they report four soldiers being killed, etc.? That's a rhetorical question that answers itself, of course. Because it is the MSM.

I don't part easily with my hard earned dollars but Michael Yon is a deserving recipient of them. I recently sent him some dinero through PayPal and will do so again in the future. He is placing his life on the line along with the heroic soldiers he is embedded with to bring us the truth about this conflict. I would urge everyone to spend some time on his site and read more of his articles AND contribute to his efforts!

Oh, That Hypocrisy....

Great column from Michael Reagan on the lefts hypocritcal outrage at the Scooter Libbey commutation. The media all in a huff has appaerntly forgotten how it turned a blind eye to Sandy Berger stealing classified documents in his socks and underwear, from the national archives and destroying them. His punishment? Revoked security clearance. Wow that's a blistering retribution for stealing and destroying classified documents.

Then there was the laughable statement from Hillary,

"Today's decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. This case arose from the Administration's politicization of national security intelligence and its efforts to punish those who spoke out against its policies.

Umm, yeah. She forgot that her husband signed 140 pardons on his last day in office. Read the linked article for details on those. It's rather despicable that she would even open her mouth on the subject.

Michael Yon - A "Must Read" Blog

This latest post from Michael Yon, an entirely reader supported freelance journalist embed, is in stark contrast to the mainstream media's doom and gloom portrayal of failure and needed withdrawl. It's a war and good people die and things get broken. Yes. Is it imperative that we are there? Yes. Is it essential that we win the battle against the Islamo-fascists? Absolutely. The following edited excerpt from the linked article portrays the depths of the evil that we are up against.

...al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking...the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. I saw Wallach go blank and silent. Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.

The Islamo-fascists are not people. They are barbaric animals. We can not sit them down for a cup of tea and ask them to just "get along" with others. They must be killed before they kill us. Make no mistake about it. That may seem like horrific hyperbole, but it is truth.

I don't know who to attribute the quote to but the Mudville Gazette has it across their blog banner...

"Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Iron Stones

Army Staff Sgt Kyle Keenan deflects a bullit with his head and keeps on keeping on. This Story from Blackanthem.com tells how he took a round to the helmet at point blank range and came out unscathed.

“We went toward where we last saw him, came around the corner of a house, and saw a reed line. We knew we were looking for him in the field there – but when I looked two or three feet away, downward, I saw his face and his eyes, and told
him ‘Get up! Americans!’ and right then, I heard a pop and my head snapped back.”

Seconds later he regained his vision, caught his bearings, leveled his shotgun and fired at the terrorist killing him. Read the whole story, it's quite impressive. This blogger is eternally grateful to those men and women who face these dangers on a daily basis so that we can enjoy our freedom in the "greatest nation on God's green Earth" (H.T.-Michael Medved)

Kyle Keenan hails from Newark, Ohio. He is a scout section leader with the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y.

Thank You Kyle and may God continue to bless and keep you!

Dodge Charger

Came across a nice picture of the first car I owned. Mine was a blue 1970 with a black vinyl top. This one is definitely sweet, it's a 1969 R/T. I saved up $1,100 back in 1981 to buy mine. It needed a paint job but that was always something on the back burner. When I "saved up enough" I was going to get it painted Corvette yellow or black. Funny how "enough" never came around. I ended up trading it to a friend for a 1955 Chevy. Not even a coupe, a wagon. Definitely not a Nomad, just a wagon. It would scream, though. The motor was a rebuilt 350 with a 4:11(?) rear end. It would get up and go off the line. Not much in the top end department because the rear end was geared so high.

I remember I raced my friend with a Vega that had a 350 in it. Pretty darn stupid. We raced on a residential street next to our high school in the middle of the night. We went about 300 yards or so before there was a curve in the road. I had him by half a car length. If that curve wasn't there and we went much further, his top end would have taken me. I figure I did pretty good since the '55 probably weighed nearly 2 tons and the Vega was feather light.

I would love to pick up a restored '69 or '70 Charger just to have for weekend driving. The gas consumption would be rather prohibitive, I'm afraid. The one I owned had a 383 cid motor which sucked up a phenomenal amount of gas. One month I put in over $200 dollars in the gas tank and that was back when it was around a buck a gallon. That's when the folks quit paying for the gas. Abuse it and lose it. I should have figured that out sooner!