America Rendered Unrecognizable Once More

August 26, 2011 | Comments (1)

I have been gone from here for a while, and I want to thank those of you who have wondered why. I have spent the last weeks overseeing my clan’s move from the northeastern corner of the United States back to our original home turf in the west, and I apologize for offering no warning. But it’s done now, and here I am.

I return now amid a national climate once again made unrecognizable by recent events from that of our nation four years ago, let alone two months ago when I last tended to these pages. Within these last weeks we have witnessed our nation’s economy downgraded for the first time in our history. We have witnessed a roller coaster in our stock market that back in 1929 would have sent investors flinging themselves from high-rise windows. We witnessed the devastating destruction of members of our beloved Seal Team 6, as well as the courage and conviction of their family members, who, in the grief-filled aftermath of their loss, made clear the family character that results in the rearing of true national heroes.

We have witnessed a president content, like a modern-day Nero, to attend campaign fundraisers and hip-hop birthday festivities as he continues to pursue the leftwing socialist agenda he promised when he campaigned for the highest office of our land back in 2008. We have witnessed this same president, announce between tee-offs, that he will suspend the deportation of illegal aliens and thus provide amnesty for said lawbreakers, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose this policy. And we have witnessed the Tea Party, not only blamed for the ills of all the world, but also called “terrorists” by the left, as well as by increasingly hysterical mainstream media lapdogs and certain entrenched Beltway republicans who somehow believe they are immune from the anger of an enraged electorate.

But so have we also witnessed the rise of individuals who have led us to believe that there just might be true conservatives in our midst set to grapple the office of the American presidency away from the current holder of that office. Indeed I venture to say that we on the right just may be starting to see our own homegrown glimmer of hope and change on the horizon. We know from attempts by certain leftwing publications to smear these newly minted candidates with lies, incendiary headlines, namecalling, and uncomplimentary magazine cover shots that we are on the right track. So keep the faith. There is still time to make America right once more.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

We Won’t Forget You

May 30, 2011 | Comments (0)

As some readers have noticed, access to this site has been limited of late.  In the immediate wake of my recent mention that I was a voice recently targeted for silencing, the site was slammed by a crippling onslaught of spam. The problem is being addressed, we are back up and running again, and I will view this as a badge of honor that comes from hitting a chord.

One of my readers who had difficulty getting through wanted to make sure her tribute to the fallen who made this country great would be posted.  I will thus let her eloquent words speak for this week’s commemoration of  the men and women who have died in service to this country, for this country:

“My father is a WWII Marine – 6th Division, China, South Pacific – he is now 86 years old and I am as proud of him today as I was when I was a little girl. I am proud of all our Marines: past, present, future!!! May GOD Bless All of YOU!!!  To ALL of our Soldiers, Veterans, and Fallen Heros – Thank you for your service to our country and for your ultimate sacrifices to keep my sons, our country, and me safe and free!!! God Bless You – All Our Heros and Our Great Country – The United States of America!! Thank You!”

And thank you all for your patience, and for your perseverence in getting this country back on track once more as the last great hope of man on earth.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Seeing Clearly Bin Laden’s End and Continued Threats to America

May 3, 2011 | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning, in the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s announced death, a gentleman called a local talk-radio host to express how grateful he is to know that his son, who has served several tours in Iraq, did not serve in vain. What I urge this man to remember, what I urge us all to remember, is that even if Bin Laden was never found, never killed by our Navy Seals, none of our service men and women protecting our nation over the past 10 years has served in vain. We have remained safe for the past 10 years because of their sacrifice, and because of the controversial foresight of our former President, who stayed the course in this mission, despite efforts led by the mainstream media, leftwing politicos and Hollywood types, and our current president to appease our enemies.

While we celebrated yesterday, so did we also witness those leftwing minions genuflecting at the alter of their messiah. Don’t even bother holding a 2012 presidential election, they shouted from the rooftops, virtually ignoring the fact that it was U.S. Navy Seals who actually carried out the mission (ignoring, as well, that many on the left have for almost a decade chalked 9/11 up to an evil plan perpetrated by George W.).

Yet certain tidbits of information nevertheless trickled out into the light of day, as tidbits always do. The intel, for one, that led to Bin Laden’s ultimate demise, apparently came from extreme interrogation methods carried out under the former administration’s watch — the same methods the left, including the current president, have fought valiantly to render obsolete. And apparently the Navy Seals who took out the world’s most wanted terrorist were members of an elite force referred to derisively by the left when they operated under a different administration, as Dick Cheney’s “Assassination Ring.”

The information I find most troubling, however, relates to the fact that Bin Laden was buried at sea almost instantly after he was killed. We can’t let his burial place become a shrine, we were told. That’s all well and good, but why was he dispatched so quickly? And, even more importantly, why was he given full Islamic funeral rites before the burial? No legitimate justification has been offered to answer this latter question, and, frankly, there is none.

What I have not heard floated is the idea that perhaps this administration mandated the sacred/speedy burial in an attempt to play both sides: “Sorry guys,” they may have been telling the Islamic world, “you know we had to take him out, but, hey, look, we are honoring him according to your rituals so you’ll like us!” Already we are hearing noisy grumbles over this from so-called “average” Americans (or “slugs,” as our president allegedly called us several days ago at one of his pricey campaign fundraisers). Expect those grumbles to become louder in the days, weeks, even months ahead.

While yesterday was a day of celebration, we must today remember that the war on terror continues, and it is just that: a war on terror, not a series of “manmade disasters” or “cultural misunderstandings” or whatever foolish euphemism this administration has mandated it be called. While we may thank this president for defying his own documented opposition to the war on terror and giving the order this last weekend, given what we have experienced over the last two-and-a-half years, I have come to regard with suspicion and skepticism anything that emanates from this White House. So much theater. So many photo-ops. So much trite and artificial symbolism. And always such “coincidental” timing. Indeed how provident that this president would announce that he took out Bin Laden on the anniversary of the day the American people learned Adolf Hitler was dead — and, lo and behold, eight years from the day that George W. made his much-vilified “mission accomplished” speech.

Providence? Coincidence? You be the judge. But amid the careful timing and the theatrics (lab-coated doctors in the Rose Garden, a fake Parthenon in Denver), let us not forget this Thursday, when Obama accepts his accolades at Ground Zero for “getting” Bin Laden, that if he had had his way, there would have been no critical intel gathered by methods this president and his ilk have vehemently opposed.  There would have been no Navy Seals in Pakistan to pull the trigger on the spiritual leader of Al Qaeda. And if he has way, the end of Bin Laden and his own golden words will blind the fawning masses, the slugs, to the crushing debt facing our country; to gas, and, thus, ultimately food, prices that threaten to grind our nation to a halt; and to unemployment rates skyrocketing as fast as our taxes into the stratosphere.

I, for one, do not intend to ignore the current state of our nation. Today, and every day, I will pray that we the people will continue to maintain our vigilance, as our founders urged, toward all, both foreign and domestic, who seek to harm our nation and blind us to the threat.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

The Navy Seals Take Out Osama Bin Laden

May 2, 2011 | Comments (0)

A great day for America. Osama Bin Laden is dead. Almost 10 years after that terrible day in September of 2001, our U.S. Navy Seals, in a mission seemingly scripted for an over-the-top action/adventure flick starring Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone, shot the 9/11 mastermind in a protected compound in Pakistan, took his body, and escaped the scene without a single American casualty.

My heart and thanks go out to the Navy Seals who made this happen; to our U.S. troops who serve so courageously in this most treacherous corner of the world (and, of course, to their families); to the American intelligence network that has stayed the course despite a precarious political landscape on the homefront; and to George W. Bush, who, amid the ravenous vitriol sent his way while he occupied the White House, ensured our military presence remained a strong foundation in the Middle East for the protection of us here at home.

As we celebrate this momentous day, let us remember that this war is not over. The Navy Seals who carried out this mission this weekend and our troops who keep us safe know this. And we must know it, too.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

No Training, No Inclination: Dr. Strangelove Exposes Obama

March 30, 2011 | Comments (0)

Sometimes life’s moments dovetail in an unexpected coincidence that you couldn’t script even if you tried. I experienced such a moment the other night in the wake of the president’s brief words on Libya, designed to double as a lead-in to Dancing with the Stars.

As expected, said Libya-words/Dancing-intro made little impact on the universe, apart from, I would imagine, inspiring the slobbering lapdog media minions who consistently herald anything this president says as the greatest speech ever made by the greatest human in the history of humans…blah, blah, blah. (This would include, I will presume, the lapdogs this administration locks in closets to prevent objective reporting, which has allegedly happened more than once, the incarcerated lapdogs in question claiming it was a-okay with them).

Well, immediately following Obama’s latest attempt to appear hawkish to those anxiously awaiting a dance competition show, my son popped 1964’s Dr. Strangelove in the DVD player for an essay he was writing for school.  For those unfamiliar, with the talents of, among others, George C. Scott and Peter Sellars, this satirical treatise on the Cold War paints both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. as foolish countries narcissistically bent on destroying each other, and, in the process, the world.

I wasn’t paying much attention to the film until I was called to it by a rant from American General Jack D. Ripper (such a clever, subtle name for the man who ultimately drops the bomb on the Soviets). “…today, war is too important to be left to politicians,” says the General.  “They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought.”

Brilliant, I’d say, especially from a film meant as a satirical indictment of the United States military — the same United States military, mind you, that less than 20 years before this movie was made brought an end to Hitler’s final solution, as well as to Hitler himself, but Hollywood has never been known for a firm grasp of history, or morality.

No longer relevant is what General Ripper’s rant meant back in the 60s. His words find new meaning today in a post-9/11 America, a meaning far more dangerous, far more damaging than anything some avant garde film makers may have fancied back in 1964.  Coming as this rant did for me personally on the heels of a speech made by an inexperienced, incompetent, anti-military career politician perfectly embodying General Ripper’s description of such a player, it is downright frightening to watch this politician using our military like little toy soldiers for his own narcissistic ambitions.  Like I said, we couldn’t script this material or its timing better if we tried.

I would guess that General Ripper’s speechwriter back in 1964, who further “satirized” military commanders with the General telling his men that “…in conclusion, I would like to say that in the two years it has been my privilege to be your commanding officer, I have always expected the best from you, and you have never given me anything less than that…”never dreamed that his words could possibly reflect a clear and unexpected truth beyond the confines of a “revolutionary” film of the 1960s. Indeed who would have guessed that on March 28, 2011, in a dramatic coincidence, those words would serve to illuminate and expose a so-called commander-in-chief commanding the U.S. military without benefit of time, training, strategic thought or fundamental respect for our men and women in uniform in a genuinely, and increasingly, dangerous world. Dangerous times indeed. God help us all.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Merry Christmas, 2010

December 25, 2010 | Comments (2)

Here’s wishing all a very merry Christmas on this 25th day of December.  As the pastor said at the mass I attended this morning, may we all be grateful for our blessings – remembering today what we have, not what we don’t have.

In this spirit, may we also remember our men and women in the armed forces who are today far from their homes and families, sacrificing what they have to protect us and our freedoms.  Not a day goes by that I am not thankful to them for that great sacrifice, which is, and always has been, the heart and soul of America.  I pray they will know that the vast majority of us here on the homefront of this great nation we love, are grateful not only for that nation, but for them and their families, as well – on Christmas day and every day.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

Pearl Harbor, a High School Debate, and Arming Our Daughters

December 7, 2010 | Comments (4)
Sixty-nine years ago today, Japan ushered our nation into World War II with an early morning decimation of our Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor.  Imagine sitting in a typical American living room on that day of infamy, 1941, gathered with the family around the large domed ratio, listening to words from the tinny speakers almost too shocking to believe. Though I was not around in 1941 to have shared that moment, I, along with anyone reading this now, was alive and well on a terrible day in September 60 years later, when another early morning attack would, like Pearl Harbor, shake us to our core and usher us into a war with those hellbent on destroying our great nation.

Driven as I am always to find connections, I think, as well, today about a great debate that erupted organically in my son’s high school social studies class a week or so ago.  The topic: the necessity of war. As expected, many in the class regurgitated the tired liberal – fatally pre-programmed — axiom: War is never the answer. My son and his best friend held the opposing view – a view that will one day in such a setting earn them the title of “warmonger” or similar tired liberal labels. But they may take comfort from the countless souls in this world, past and present, who, in times of unspeakable circumstance and evil, are and would be forever grateful to those men and women who recognized when war was truly the only answer.

So I say to those who believe otherwise, go ahead and cling to your “war is never the answer” cliché. Ignore the suffering and salvation of victims and survivors of the Holocaust.  Ignore the suffering and salvation of men and women shackled and punished under despotic and primitive rules of “law.” And ignore the suffering and liberation of people throughout the world held as slaves and/or sentenced to the wonton cruelties and absurd policies of tyrants. Only then can you truly embrace the notion that “war is never the answer.” But for many, if not most of us, the enormity of the human suffering that has been relieved when one side takes up arms against another proves too powerful to ignore.

Which brings me to yet another connection: an article I stumbled upon yesterday on the Town Hall website entitled “Girls Just Want to Have Guns.” Here author Doug Giles discusses in graphic detail the atrocities committed against young women in our so-called feminist society – a sad and despicable state of affairs that could be averted if we only prepared our girls to declare war on the perpetrators with martial arts and weapons training.

Though the response to Mr. Giles’ piece was overwhelmingly supportive from people who obviously do wish to see their daughters, wives, moms, sisters and friends protected and prepared to fight when necessary, peppered throughout, as well, were the typical wimpy, worn anti-gun, kumbaya liberal “self-defense is never the answer” gibberish.

So once again the liberals tell us it’s just dandy to ignore a fascist dictator who is destroying an entire population with gas and ovens, because, you see, war is never the answer. Once again the liberals tell us they are perfectly content to allow tyrants to torture, maim and murder in a demented quest for power and entertainment, because, you see, war is never the answer. Indeed the morally and intellectually superior liberal types find it both commendable and necessary to accept rape, home invasion and indiscriminant murder, even against members of one’s own family, one’s own children, because, you see, war, guns, martial arts, knives, self-defense and self-protection are never the answer.

Pretty twisted viewpoint, if you ask me.  I’ll stick with those among us – the majority, I believe – who know that sometimes war is the only answer, whether that be war between nations or war waged by criminals and terrorists against our families on the homefront. And on this day, an infamous December 7th, I thank those men and women who gave their lives in Pearl Harbor that day, and every day before and after that day to keep our nation, our families and our children safe.

Betsy Siino | Comments (4)

Making Every Day Veterans Day

November 11, 2010 | Comments (0)
Today we as a nation honor the men and women of America’s armed forces who have ensured that our America remains what President Ronald Reagan referred to as “the last best hope of man on earth.”

In contemplating the sacrifices of our country’s veterans and those of their families, I believe a great many of us in a sense view every day as Veterans Day, perhaps without even realizing it.  Not a day goes by when we don’t give a thought and our thanks to our veterans for what they do for us, for what they have done for us, since the earliest days of our great nation. 

We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be who we are, without our veterans.  So on this November 11th, in honor of our nation’s true heroes, I vote we make every day Veterans Day, offering our thoughts and thanks to those courageous Americans, who, from the front lines, have kept us safe and kept us free.  May our efforts in turn remind our veterans that their sacrifice for our nation and our families will not have been in vain.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Obama Announces the Iraq War Is Over

September 1, 2010 | Comments (1)

Last night Barack Obama announced in a speech delivered from the Oval Office that the war in Iraq has ended. Looking unbearably uncomfortable in his desperate attempt to appear presidential, Obama did this just in time for flailing democrat candidates to take credit for the war’s end come election day, November 2nd.

Though he has for years hesitated to say anything remotely positive about the War on Terror, with his tepid compliments last night to our troops (avoiding such dirty little words as “victory,” and skewing badly such words as “patriot”), he left most of his audience – even the side of that audience seated in the left wing – unimpressed by his performance.

Obama navigates uncharted waters whenever he takes a stab at playing Commander-in-Chief, evident in the responses he yields from his listeners, particularly his listeners who happen to be members of the United States Armed Forces. No wonder. Last night Obama once again offered troop-extraction timelines to America’s enemies, and he spoke of “turning the page” on Iraq. Indeed with these three simple words – “turning the page” — he dismissed the American lives lost, both at war and in the attacks on our homeland on that terrible, tragic morning in September of 2001. He dismissed, as well, the sacrifices made by our troops and their families over the last nine years since that day to keep subsequent attacks off American soil.

 Which brings me to what I consider the most jolting segment of his speech. I’ll let him speak for himself:

It is well known that [George Bush] and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.

Huh?

While many may have disagreed with President Bush on a number of issues, including the war, his devotion to our American troops and the nation they are sworn to protect is beyond reproach. Last night, however, Obama, giving his predecessor a condescending pass rather than offering him any credit for the war’s success, suggested as a given the notion that crowds of people are questioning President’s Bush’s commitment to troops and country. Obama seemed to be projecting his own insecurity in a lame attempt to deflect the growing doubt among the American people about his own alleged lack of support for the troops, a less-than-ardent love of country and her heritage, and a questionable commitment to our nation’s security.

Obama may try, as he did last night, to overcome this doubt by evoking the spirit of our American fighting men and women, but those very men and women can see right through such ploys. Simply witness the genuine love and respect they would shower upon the former Commander-in-Chief (and vice versa) compared to the mandatorily polite greeting they typically offer the current holder of that position.

Our troops are no fools. They know who has their back.  And they know who doesn’t. We the people know it, too.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Seeing Through Obama’s Latest Speech to Our Wounded Warriors

August 2, 2010 | Comments (2)

I made a conscious decision this morning not to watch Barack Obama’s planned speech today to the disabled veterans. There is only so much I can take, not only of him, but of his lame attempts to appear manly, powerful and pro-military. We know what they say, however, about the best laid plans….

As fate would have it, I found myself sitting in my mechanic’s waiting area for about an hour’s worth of repairs to be completed on my car. Lucky me, that happened to be precisely the hour when Obama gave his speech to the veterans, broadcast by Fox News on my mechanic’s waiting-area television. In a phenomenon akin to a failed attempt to look away from a trainwreck, my clicking away at my laptop could not divert my attention from Obama’s droning monotone on the TV.

As I was unfortunate enough to discover, his speech was the same telepromptered tripe we have come to expect from this man: the complete lack of emotion, the bobbling of the head from side to side, from teleprompter to teleprompter, as though he is watching a tennis match; a few lame jokes and applause lines and his embarrassing pause awaiting the appropriate response.

But one segment stood out above the rest: his carefully scripted greeting to the Vietnam veterans in attendance. He, as usual, feigned undying support for all they endured then and what they endure now. He scolded those in this country who abused these warriors when they returned home from their tours of duty, verbalizing mechanically his outrage that Americans would dare to treat them so.

On it’s face, it was an appropriate tribute to those Vietnam vets — until you remember that it was being spouted by a man who has made his career out of aligning himself with those very people — the radicals and appeasers and left-wing tyrants (to name a few) — who perpetrated those unforgivable acts against our troops.  He has boasted of these alliances repeatedly, celebrating them, documenting them in his goopy biographies, appointing these individuals his czars and advisors. This did not stop him today, however, from offering our wounded warriors this shameless tirade. All in all, classic Obama.

Those of us who revere the Constitution and the greatness of America never bought his rhetoric. Ever. We ignored his script and his cadence, directing our collective attention instead to the man’s actions, his history and his alliances, knowing those would tell us exactly who he was and who he is. And they did. Wayward souls who weren’t originally so attentive join us daily in their own discoveries and  revelations, now seeing clearly, as well, the context, agenda and surreptitious tyranny that was right there in front of them all along. So save the pretty words, Mr. President. We’ve heard enough.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)