Turkey Reprieve

Kieth Olberman has a video of Sara Palin reprieving a turkey from being used during Thanksgiving. In it she reads a proclamation that is corny and silly, saying this turkey is exempt. Later, as she is being interviewed, there is a farm worker in the background killing a few birds. This farm uses a rudimentary form of killing the birds. Even more rudimentary, than what is shown, is to just put the birds head on a block and cut the head off with one strike of an axe. This farm stuffs the bird into a round funnel made of tin and then the head is cut off. As I have said before, this generation has no understanding of how food is processed to get to ones table fully prepared and cooked. Most have never seen an animal die, or butchered. The present attitude is that it is too horrible to be witnessed. Olberman falls into this category as he effusively gushes that the children should be removed from seeing this. Only when he is assured that children are not present is the interview shown. The reason Olberman presents this is his belief that it somehow diminishes Sara Palin. It is my belief that all children should witness how a bird is killed with an axe. The updated technology for killing a fowl is to grasp it by the neck, put the head between two electrodes, and the bird is electrocuted very fast. The bird is then put on a hook and sent down the line for processing. One person can kill thirty birds in five minutes. Speed is important to keep costs down thus enabling our low cost chicken strips.

Veterans Day

As a Korean veteran that did not come under fire I judge myself fortunate. I was on the Admiral's Staff of Amphibious Group Two. The Inchon Landing was made by Amphibious Group Four and my Admiral was very jealous of not having received the nod to plan and execute that landing. My particular rate was Draftsman, and my task was to make a landing on a hostile beach, reconnoiter the area for targets, make a drawing of the targets and help incorporate them into the invasion plan. A submarine would deposit a team of six into a rubber raft and we would paddle to the hostile beach in the dark. Upon hitting the beach, the raft was to be carried to the tree line and hidden in the trees. Then, by twos, we would move around in the dark looking for roads, fences, buildings, ammunition dumps, pillboxes, trenches etc. A sketch was to be made of the findings. Before daylight, we had to leave the beach and paddle out to the waiting sub. Before that mission was begun, photo reconnaissance planes took stereo photos of the area that was to be invaded. I was trained in reading stereo photos. By studying the photos we were able to make some determinations about what was in the area. However, the photos do not reveal everything, nor can they determine dummy targets. Accuracy requires someone to eyeball the scene. I trained on a beach in North Carolina with other draftsmen. We were taken to the scene by a LCVP (simulating a sub drop), a rubber raft was dropped over the side, we got in and paddled to the beach. A rubber raft is very heavy and it is difficult to pick up in the surf and carry it to the tree line. Mostly, it was dragged across the beach and then we had to erase the drag marks so no one would know we were there. When the wind would blow it got into our eyes because for the most part we would crawl in the sand wherever we went. As soon as we were separated into twos it was not possible to distinguish friend from foe. There were some people near the beach that were there simulating the enemy. One time, after rounding a dune, I came across three people and I thought I had been captured. But they were part of the drop team, one had lost his partner. If I had had a gun I might have fired on them, or they on me. This is what they mean by killed by friendly fire. As I said before, I consider myself fortunate not having to land on a hostile beach.

Rene Zellweger

On election day I watched the movie "Brigit Jones' Diary" with Rene Zellinger and Hugh Grant. In this movie Rene is a chunky person with ample boobs and fanny. We see her in her panties a few times and get a good look at all that flesh. She seemed comfortable with that body. About a month ago, I saw the movie "Chicago" in which Rene played a dancer that was as skinny as a stick, even anorexic. She danced up a storm in this movie and hit all the necessary beats. The dancing duets were worthy of standing ovations. Of note was the lack of boobs, a male could have played her part. She had no fanny at all, though she was not shown in her panties. I did see her in "Cold Mountain" but she wore a lot of clothes in that movie. At that time, I did not know of the immense transformation that she would do, if that is what it can be called. How did Hollywood do it? What does the real Rene truly look like?

A New President

Congratulations to all those who picked the winner. It is still hard to believe what has happened. One lady came to my class dressed all in black, she explained she was in mourning for the Country. Bernie wrote me today and said "Happy Days Are Here Again." A majority in this Country have picked who they want to go forward as president. My hope is that he will indeed bring this Country together. Yet, there is this nagging belief that we will find out more about Obama in the future that may give us remorse. Recently, Tom Brokaw admitted that he did not know who Obama was. If he, as a member of the elite press, does not know can the rest of us truly know?

All Souls

Today, November 1st, is All Souls Day. It does not fall on a Sunday often but today we had a homily preached on praying for the souls of our loved ones. All during this mass I could not stop thinking about Paulette. In case you have forgotten, this is the day set aside to pray specifically for a persons soul to leave Purgatory and enter Heaven. I have a remembrance of my Mother saying to me: "If you were in Purgatory wouldn't you want someone to be praying for you?" I think at the time she was praying for her sister, Irene. I recall the image I had at that time, it was of a large railroad station with many people milling about. Those that were finally released from Purgatory were getting on the train. OK, that's how I saw it. Did Dante do any better in his vision of "Purgatorio?"