Anyone Seeing A Pattern?

So today was the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks... The same ones where nearly 3000 people died at the hands of Islamic extremists.

CAIR (Center for American-Islamic Relations) has called upon the US to avoid the term "islamic extremists," saying that it's only a small percentage of the Muslim world that acts as they do and that Islam is a "peaceful religion." Bullcrap. Read this (from the 31 July Stars and Stripes)

NOV 1979
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Muslim extremists (Iranian) seize the US Embassy in Tehran. 52 Americans are held hostage for 444 days. 444 days, nearly a year and a half.

1982
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Muslim extremists (mostly Hezbollah) begin a nearly decade long habit of taking American and European hostages in Lebanon. William Buckley is killed and Terry Anderson is held for six and a half years.

APR 1983
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Muslim extremists  (either Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah) bomb the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. 16 Americans are killed.

OCT 1983
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Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) blow up the US Marine barracks at Beirut airport. 241 Marines are killed.

DEC 1983
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Muslim extremists (al-Dawa) blow up the US Embassy in Kuwait, killing 5 and injuring 80.

SEPT 1984
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Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) explode a truck bomb outside the US Embassy in Beirut. 24 are killed, including 2 servicemembers.

DEC 1984
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Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) hijack a Kuwaiti Air jet and force it to land in Iran. While there, they demand the release of 14 prisoners in the al-Dawa bombing (DEC 1983). Two Americans are killed throughout the course of events.

14 JUN 1985
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Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) hijack TWA Flight 847 from Athens, Greece, diverting it to Beirut. They demanded the release of 714 prisoners and when demands were not met, US Navy diver Robert Dean Stetham was murdered and his family saw the terrorists drop his dead body onto the tarmac.

OCT 1985
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Muslim extremists (Palestinian Liberation Front, backed by Libya) seize an Italian cruise ship (Achilles Lauro), killing 69 year old American Leon Klinghoffer by shooting him and dumping his wheelchair dependent body into the water.

DEC 1985
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Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed airports in Rome and Vienna, killing 20 people (including 5 Americans).

APR 1986
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Muslim extremists (Back by Libya) bomb a discoteque/club frequented by US Servicemembers in West Berlin, injuring hundreds and killing two, including a US Soldier.

DEC 1988
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Muslim extremists (Backed by Libya) bomb Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

FEB 1993
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Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, possibly with help from al-Qaida) set off a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center, injuring more than 1 0 0 0 peopleand killing six.

Spring 1993
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Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Sudanese Islamic Front and at least one member of Hamas) plot to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the U.N. Complex and the FBI's lower Manhattan headquarters.

NOV 1995
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Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) explode a car bomb at US Military HQ/Saudi Arabia, killing five US Servicemembers.

JUNE 1996
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Muslim extremists (13 Saudis and a Lebanese member of Hezbollah, possibly al-Qaida) explode a truck bomb outside Khobar Towers (a military complex in Saudi Arabia) killing 19 US Soldiers and injuring hundreds.

AUG 1998
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Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) explode a truck bomb outside a military checkpoint in Kenya and Tanzania killing 224 and injuring thousands.

OCT 2000
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Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) blow up the US Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 US Sailors.

SEPT 2001
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Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) hijack commercial airliners and drive them into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 are killed.

Does anyone else see a pattern? I don't believe a single Muslim when they say Islam is a religion of peace. Funny, I don't see any attacks by Catholic extremists or Protestant extremists or Baptist extremists. Beware the Hindu extremists.

Another note: during each attack (except 9/11, which required much more extensive planning) occured during a Democrat's term in office. Here's a hint: elect a democrat, expect an attack. Republicans fight terror, Democrats sit back and downsize the military.

Currently Listening Barrio Fino en Directo By Daddy Yankee see related

An Update

Ok, today is the 19th of July... looong time no update. I think this has been the longest.

My last update was over a month ago, and as you (should) know, I did in fact graduate. I say it like that cause some yall seem to think that it was touch and go.... and it wasn't.... People are like "you barely made it!" Ninja, I graduated with a 3.8 for my final report card and ranked something like 25th out of my class of almost (if not more than...) a hundred. So yeah, there was no risk of not graduating. Stupid ninjas... Some people did NOT in fact graduate though, so mad props to my boy Eric, doing the 5 year thing, and haha's going out to David Lucken cause he was a jackass anyways.

After Graduation we all went back to Darmstadt/Griesheim for dinner and then Jessica and her mom and sister left to go back to K-Town. Not a bad day for me financially, either!

After that we all flew to the States to see my cousin Steve get married up in Cape Cod. For those who don't know, Cape Cod is white slang for extra expensive. We were only up there a few days, the rest of the time we were in Maryland and Connecticut. It wasn't bad, his wife was freakin' hot.

We came back from the States and three days later left for Ireland with my grandma. It wasn't bad, the town kinda sucked, we were in Kilkee on the west coast. The back of our house to the beach was maybe as far as the North Building to the track back at school. Pretty nice. We spent the first and last night in Dublin which was pretty cool.

I'm glad to see Germany LOST, they didn't deserve to win; they were so arrogant and stuck up it wasn't even funny. It's a shame they got third place. With Germany out, rooting for France would've been the DEAD LAST thing I'd EVER do, I hate France (and French people) with such a passion it's almost ridiculous. Almost, foolios. Bunch of pansies. So yeah, I was extra happy that Italy one. And Zidane's a douche bag. What an idiot...

FINALLY Jessica flew back in the next couple days after that and I picked her up at the airport and brought her home. I spent the night and she went off to SLS the next day. Sigh... Master Guns isn't anywhere near as scary as he used to be. 'Tis a shame.

I got caught speeding. 97 in a 50 zone near Wiesbaden. Sucks. It was an old construction zone (yall know the one between Hainerberg and the Airfield, that one) and they never took the signs down. 125 Euro, 3 points on my license and my favorite part..... a one month license suspension. That's some crap. You know if I had German plates on my car they wouldn't have given me a damn thing; it would've been okay. Freakin' cops. But like Jessica said, it's better to do 97 in a 50 zone than 20 in a 50 zone.

I don't think I'll be able to move to Ramstein this summer, I couldn't get a job down there and that sucks. I really wanted to be there. I applied for ALL the AAFES and MWR jobs out there. I even went back on Tuesday and applied at the Vogelweh bank and Commissary. Sucks. Oh well, I guess it just means I won't have any distractions if ya catch my drift.

Went to Heidelberg today and saw DeAnna  Bruce. She looks like she's doing good, wants to be a Vet. I know she'll do well in her endeavors. I saw Amber Hightower on Tuesday at the K-Town Library she leaves for basic... today... oh cool. Good luck girl.

I think that just about wraps up my summer so far, hope yall are doing well. Good luck in basic Alex, Norman, Amber, Nora and LaDana.

-Tom

Currently Listening Out in the Fields: The Very Best of Gary Moore By Gary Moore see related

Been Awhile, but I'm Back!

It's been awhile since I updated... School had me busy for awhile, turning in last minute (late) work and whatnot... Can't believe I'm gonna graduate in 3 days, it's a weird feeling.

Yesterday was the awards assembly and Junefest. I got an award for ROTC Leadership (well... me and Manny) and that was it, but I don't get how people like Domeier and Jennings were recognized for "ROTC Excellence" when people like Manny, Brandon, and I weren't... That's odd. Oh well. That was a freakin long assembly though (as always) and it was so boring. I mean, yeah, wow congrats to you scholarship people but do we really need to hear everyone who got a $500, $250 or $100 scholarship? Sheesh.... After that was Junefest which was alright.

I talked to Mr. Nosel about my grade and I learned the importance of being a good student in the process. Not an acadmically good student, more of a "I don't disturb the class and make life hard for you" kind of student. We're going through my grade (an F, he never let me do alot of the make up work from when I was absent) and he's going through it going "oh, I bet you would've gotten a 100 on this" and puts 100s in for everything I had 0's for. He rocks... Same with Ms. Lopez, she let me turn in a book report and book list late to give me an A for her class. Sweeeet. Mrs Carter freakin gave me answers to her exam which I thought was pretty cool. Yup, can't complain. It's funny how teachers will do so much for you in the end.

So, Sunday's graduation. The times of teachers taking you by the hand and saying "you have to make up this and this" or "you did sort of bad on this test, I'll let you do it again" is all over. Frightening... No more mommy and daddy since I'm moving out to Ramstein (assuming I can get a freakin' job). The funny part...? I can't wait.

So my brakes have been pretty crappy on my car latley so I take it in to get looked at and fixed. I'm expecting some 85 Euros for new pads and  the guy slaps me with a 174 Euro repair bill... The culprit? I ground the brakes down so far that it was metal to metal (i.e. no brake juice left, which warped the rotor) and that sucked. Oh well... My fault for delaying it so long I guess. But I got new ones and they're great. Yup, normal OEM brand brakes were something like 70 Euro and some Brembo  High Performance Pads were 100 Euro so I got the Brembo cause many times I've had to slam on the brakes at 200 km/h and ride them down to 50 km/h. If you want to drive fast, you gotta pay the price, right?

Anyways, not much else going on so I guess I'll end it with that...

Tom

Currently Reading McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland By Pete McCarthy see related

Guess It's Time For An Update, Huh?

Well, let's see what happened since the last update... Ok, I'm ready.

I don't remember exact dates so from here on out it'll be "since then..."

Since the last update, I nearly died. I was driving to school like I always do, and I was crossing the bridge over the Main river and into Wiesbaden. Well, I'm in the left lane, like I usually am, doing about 120 km/h. Well, I'm not a big fan of either water or bridges so I get on the gas. It downshifts into third and at the end of the bridge I'm doing 175-180 km/h and then IT happens. That's right, IT. The front drivers side tire blows out and the car spins. First 180 degrees. Then 180 more. Then 180 more. Luckily I managed to limp it to the shoulder in the process somehow (dunno how) and change the tire. In the rain. In uniform. While I'm already late for school. Folks, people talk about snakes being scary, spiders, Jews, whatever, I won't judge your phobias or anything but try changing a tire, in the rain, in uniform, with some uberqueer orange reflector vest on (mandated by German law) while 18 wheeler trucks are passing by at 100 km/h within 6 inches of your head.

Yup yup, that was that, though. Good thing it was raining - if it had been dry the car would've flipped.

SO, I go to VW mechanic nearby and pick up two new (used) tires on new rims (the sliding and spinning completley screwed my rim up and flat spotted it). They work fine for awhile until I go out to my car one day and they're flat. Sorry, one is flat. And the one behind it, as well. "Hmm," I thought, "that's odd, why would both passenger side tires be flat like that?" So, I fill them up and they're alright for a couple days until they're flat again. Again, I fill them up and they're good for a couple days. Then I go  back out again and they're slashed. That's right, there were knife marks in the sidewall. Well, that UBERpisses me off because now I have to go without a car and I have to secure two new tires somewhere.

Here's why I needed two new tires. When the tire blew out on the Autobahn, I got two different ones, different tread so I had to replace both front tires. Thus, I had an extra one (that matches the rear tires) in the garage. Well, when they were slashed, I just threw the extra one in the back and got two new ones for the front. Not bad, I got two Uniroyal M680S's for 100 Euro.

WELL... my dad goes out to his car one day and finds his tire slashed. Not 2, but 1. So he has to replace his tires because the tread on all four are all about gone so he's dishing out $650 bucks for his tires because they have to be-- A) huge and B) speed rated to 140 mph. His tires are 235/50R/18s and they're expensive. That's what ya get for owning a sports car, punk.

To finish this off, his tires don't come in for about 5 more weeks so we're down to two cars really and the neighbor sees my dad's car with the spare on and goes "they got your tires, too?" So we're like, what the hell is she talking about? Appearantly we're just the latest victim, someone slashed two other car's tires before ours. Hmm... sounds like something the Turks would do.... And NO I'm not being racist, that's the crap they do.

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My mom bought a new car the other day, they were test driving some guy's Trailblazer that he said he'd sell for $21k but then gouged it to $27k after the test drive so they ran to Mainz Kastel and my dad went to the PowerZone and my mom to  New Car Sales down there. Walks up the desk, talks to the salesman (a family friend) and says, "I want that van right there in blue." One thing leads to another and my moms got a 2006 Grand Caravan SXT due in Bremerhaven on the 18th of May. It would be $31k but after discounts it's only $24,500. Sweet deal.

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I took the SATs on Saturday 6 May. To be honest, I thought it'd be harder. The math wasn't that bad and I'm not good in math. The English was kinda tricky because they use words I've never heard of (the point of the test...) so I'm not so sure. Either way, I think I did alright. Guess we'll see the 15th...

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Can't really think of anything else... Stayed home sick today (my mom doesn't know yet...) cause I had a headache last night that kept me up all night and I took some Excedrin and I guess my stomach was empty cause now my stomach hurts. Oooops... Oh well. Anyways, I'll be back tomorrow... Fun. Dining out is May 12, I dunno my lines. Sigh... oh well, I'll have to mack to make up for it. Ha...ha... Anyways. Only a couple more months till I move to Ramstein, can't wait...

Tom

Drill Comp 2006

Wow... what a weekend...

Ok, so, we left for Bitburg on Friday right as school started. The drive there wasn't bad it was about 4 hours (I think, I think I fell asleep). We get there and they weren't even done with the hotel rooms so we hit up the food court. I don't think a smaller food court exists. There was BK, Charleys and Anthonys. That's it. And seating for like...50 people. Well while we're there, K-Town's drill team shows up and of course everyone meets up with people from SLS and in the meantime the rest of us head over to the BX. Their BX, like their food court, was small. YET... it was still bigger than Darmstadt's. Weird...

Alright, so we get to the hotel (finally) and practice from 3 to like...7 in a wet parking lot outside the hotel. We practice everything, from Armed to Inspection and yeah. Boring practice, we got the cops called on us because some guys thought that our rifles were real.

Well that night something comes up. Something big. REALLY big. Manny's almost in tears, I'm at the point where I punch a hole in the wall in anger and God knows how many people are crying. Not good. I know you guys are wondering, what is it what is it?, but I can't say. We (Me, Brandon Williamson, and Manny) were all in my room trying to figure out what to do. We didn't know. Almost all our teams had a hole in them now. We thought (very briefly) about going home (err... That was Alan's contribution, we shot it down quickly), but that was a no-go because that's not fair to the team. Well, eventually at 3:30, we finally get to bed, we'd worked out the issue to what we could and it'd be interesting. At this point, we figured we'd be going home empty handed, no joke.

Well an hour and half later (and no sleep) we wake up. Hit up the breakfast buffet but nobody really eats because we're all nervous and scared. We're nervous about Comp and scared about what's going to happen, both at Comp and about the Drama Maker (Can't give out his name either). Well we get dressed and head up to Bitburg school and arrive JUST IN TIME to get to the Commander's meeting. Here's the rest:

Inspection

Inspection was the first team which was good because if it hadn't been our uniforms woulda looked dirty by the time we did get to it. Wasn't that bad, we didn't place (we never do, only Navy schools seem to) but it could've been better. I fail to understand how some people can do open ranks march perfectly until the one time it matters.

Color Guard

Color Guard was next. The team was Brandon (A.F. Flag), Manny (American Flag), Me (Guard) and Josh (Guard). Wasn't too bad either. During casing, Manny brought his flag up prematurely (as in, before we even started the casing) and caused the flag to untwirl but we couldn't do anything about it. I didn't know it was like that so when I went to case, I didn't see it and my case got stuck. So I had to stop and pull and jerk to get it on which really sucked. Manny felt so bad, but otherwise we did really good. As usual, we didn't place.

Regulation

Regulation did really, really good. So good that they placed 2nd overall which was really good.

Armed

Armed went next and I'm glad they did. Cause when Saber team saw how SUCKY they did, it made them want to do extra good. Nah.. It wasn't TOO bad, just a dropped rifle. It was hard because we had to throw in an alternate at the very last minute so..... They did how we expected.

Saber

Woot Woot Saber! My favorite team, went next. We had put Hickman in to fill a gap that very morning and he had all of about 2 hours of training. And did perfectly! I was so proud and impressed with my team I really was. During the routine, I faced the judges and they never wrote down a single thing wrong while I looked at them so I guess we did really well. Ramstein's saber team was in there watching so maybe that helped motivate them.

Unarmed

Unarmed blew us away. We thought of just cutting Unarmed off because Drama Maker left a spot with no alternate to fill it and we were worried two others might not go on at all because of what happened earlier. But nope, Manny jumped in as a commander and participant and from what I heard (and saw later) they blew it away. They had a whole gym full of people and schools screaming for them. Awesome, simply awesome.

Solo and Duo

Neither Fanti's solo nor Brandon and Manny's duo placed. Fanti's I'm not too surprised because it was kind of boring compared to others but Manny and Brandons was really really good. The judges said they grouped all duos together so they had to compete with people tossing sabers behind them and rifles so they played with an unfair advantage. They looked good though.

IDR

Sucked. Trick command got most of Wiesbaden out. He said left face and later said he meant right face which means everyone facing left was out. Crap.

Awards

Finally awards were given out and We got:

Saber - 1st place
Saber - Best Commander
Unarmed - 1st place
Unarmed - Best Commander
Regulation - 2nd place

We were so happy though, people were crying. We didn't expect to get anything, nothing at all. The team's movitvation and determination was next to nothing when we got on that bus that morning. But after Color Guard went we wanted to do good. It finally came back to them which was good. I was just so, so, so proud of my drill team this year. We practiced outside 97% of the time, in cold, snow, hail. sleet, rain, anything we had. We never quit practice because of rain, we never stopped early cause it snowed. We carried on and it paid off.

They never mentioned who got 2nd or 3rd place overall, just 1st place. That was weird but in all honesty, it was between us and Ramstein (as usual).

Let me know if you wanna know more though because I do have other stuff to do. If you want pics, email me or message me tpgluth@hotmail.com for them.

-Tom