Friday, May 27, 2011

A Black Sheep on Memorial Day

Gregory "Pappy" Boyington was born in Idaho on December 4, 1912.

He went to high school in Tacoma, Wash., then on to the University of Washington (1930-34) where he was in the ROTC program and majored in engineering.

He worked summers in an Idaho gold mine to help pay his way through college and became a draftsman for Boeing Aircraft upon graduation.

One year later, he joined the Marines where he was a flight instructor for six years and later volunteered to be a "Flying Tiger" pilot in China and Burma.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Boyington saw action in the South Pacific where he was credited with shooting down 28 Japanese aircraft, a WWII record for a Marine pilot.

On the day of his 28th kill, Boyington was shot down by a Japanese Zero fighter and eventually picked up by an enemy submarine.

He spent 20 months in a prisoner of war camp where he suffered frequent beatings and near starvation. For some reason, his whereabouts were never reported to the Allies by the Japanese and he was listed as missing in action. On August 28, 1945, his prison camp was liberated.

Along with the Navy Cross, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Boyington led a turbulent life. He was a heavy drinker, went through a series of failed marriages and bounced from one job to another (beer salesman, stock salesman, jewelry salesman and wrestling referee).

In 1958, he wrote a book about his WWII exploits at an airfield in the New Hebrides titled BAA BAA, BLACK SHEEP. In it, he described how he had to form a squadron of fighter pilots from a group of raw replacement pilots, dubbed "The Black Sheep Squadron."

In 1976, the book was made into an NBC TV series starring Robert Conrad as Pappy Boyington. The series, difficult and expensive to produce, lasted only two years.

Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, American hero and troubled soul, died on January 11, 1988. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

At the end of his memoir, he wrote, "Just name a hero and I'll prove he's a bum."

In 2006, a University of Washington senior and former Air Force weather forecaster, Andrew Everett, presented a resolution to the college's student senate suggesting the school honor Boyington with a small statue.

However, this proposal was rebuffed by members of the student Democratic Party on the student senate.

According to the minutes of the meeting, Ashley Miller argued, "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich, white men." Jill Edwards stated she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce." One member of the senate even referred to Boyington as "a murderer."

Perhaps the world does indeed have too many statues honoring people who have performed heroic acts, but the reasoning behind this rejection is astonishing. Some of these students are in dire need of a brain transplant.

First of all, Boyington was never rich and he was part Sioux Indian. To protest honoring him because he is rich and white is both incorrect and blatant bigotry. Rejecting a person based on that person's social status and ethnicity is a prime example of how far certain people will sink to ensure special privileges for those who don't earn it.

Bigotry is a two-way street and a liberal, naive, politically-correct bigot is still a bigot.

Discriminating against Boyington because he was a Marine is another example of bigotry. And to call him a murderer is inexcusable. Killing another human being, during the course of a world war, when that person is aggressively trying to kill you is not murder – it's called self-preservation.

War is an ugly, unfortunate fact of life but sometimes it's a necessity.

It's easy to assume if you're nice to the rest of the world, it will be nice to you -- but the world is not made out of sugar and spice and everything nice. When you grow up, reality will set in and self-preservation will take over.

Pappy Boyington was just another guy stumbling through life. He was also a hero and deserves our respect.
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Quote for the Day -- "A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom." Bob Dylan
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Bret Burquest, author of four novels, has recently published THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY (esoteric knowledge) and 1111 HAPPY TRAILS ROAD (humor) -- available of Amazon. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the ghost of Davy Crockett.
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Monday, May 23, 2011

Moose on the Loose

The summer I was in sixth grade, my family went on a camping trip to Yellowstone Park. We pitched our tents in the most remote official campsite, along a stream in the northeast corner of the park.

After breakfast one morning, the four of us embarked on a hike, mostly uphill along the stream, to a huge meadow where we were going to fly fish for trout.

When we reached the edge of the meadow, we took a break. It had been a steep climb over very rocky terrain and we needed a rest.

A couple of minutes later, my dad wanted to push on, knowing the fishing holes were only a few more miles across the meadow. The rest of us were pooped so he went on alone.

Soon thereafter, I took off by myself along the same path hoping to catch up with my father. My mother and younger brother stayed behind to rest some more.

It wasn’t long before I was quite a distance from the resting spot and my father still wasn’t in sight.

Then I came over a small hill where something caught my eye. There were a couple of large animals a mere 20 feet off to my left in front of a clump of aspen trees. Yellowstone Park was full of bears and they had a reputation of occasionally mauling a tourist just to prove they could.

I froze in my tracks.

To my relief, it turned out to be a female moose with a baby moose at her side.

Then to my horror, I quickly realized I had encroached upon their territory, much too close, and surprised them. I also knew the most dangerous animals were the ones that were wounded or the ones with young offspring nearby. Off to my right was nothing but a wide-open field. The only trees I could possibly get to were on the opposite side of the moose.

I remained frozen hoping they would go away. I considered calling for my father but he was probably too far away to hear and I also didn’t want to startle the moose.

Soon my worst nightmare began. The baby moose took a few cautious steps toward me. Big momma moose didn’t like it at all. She began snorting and pawing her hoof into the ground.

The baby moose took another step in my direction. I had a fly rod in my right hand. I figured if the moose attacked, I’d fend it off with the fly rod, circle around it and dash into the clump of aspen trees. I even picked one out that looked easy to climb in a hurry.

There were several facts I didn’t know about moose at the time. The average moose is over six feet at the shoulder and weighs over a thousand pounds. It can run 35 miles per hour -- about twice as fast as a human being. According to the U.S. Forest Service, more people in America are killed by moose attacks than by bear attacks.

And the surest way to provoke a wild animal is to get between it and its offspring.

So there I was, patiently waiting to fend off a moose with a fly rod.

The baby moose took another step forward and big momma moose was becoming extremely excited. They were so close to me I could actually smell them.

Just as I sensed the impending mayhem, big momma moose stopped pawing her hoof and jerked her head back in the direction from which I had just arrived.

Then I heard it too. It was my mother and brother coming up over the hill, talking to each other.

The baby moose quickly scooted back to big momma and they both scampered off beyond the clump of aspen trees and out of sight.

Here are some tips when encountering moose on the loose:

1) Don’t run away from a wild animal, especially one that is faster, heavier and dumber than you are.

2) Don’t approach a baby wild animal. Any female that has recently given birth has a lot of repressed anger.

3) Don’t hike in moose territory alone. If you manage to survive a moose attack, you’ll need someone to drag you back to the car and drive you to the nearest emergency room.

4) Don’t try to bring down a moose with a fly rod. Something closer to an AK-47 would be more effective.

5) Don’t make any moose jokes. Moose are very sensitive to ridicule.

6) Don’t forget to bring a video camera. Moose attacks make good entertainment.
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Quote for the Day -- "Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees..." Henry David Thoreau
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Bret Burquest is the author of four novels, and has recently published THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY (esoteric knowledge) and 1111 HAPPY TRAILS ROAD (humor) -- available of Amazon.com. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the ghost of Davy Crockett.
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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Judgment Day -- May 21, 2011

Harold Camping, a former civil engineer, is an 89-year-old preacher from Oakland, California. He founded Family Radio in the 1950s.

His radio network creates religious programs in 48 languages and has tens of thousands of followers around the world, with radios stations in such places as Russia, Turkey and South Africa. With assets exceeding $100 million, his religious broadcasting network now owns 66 radio stations in the USA alone.

According to Camping, May 21, 2011, will be the Day of Judgment on Planet Earth.

He has predicted the Second Coming of the Lord on May 21, whereby two percent of the global population will be instantly propelled into Heaven (known as the Rapture) and the remaining 98 percent will be sent straight to Hell.

Camping bases his prediction on 70 years of studying the Bible and mathematics. He believes Jesus Christ died on April 1, in 33 AD (based on the Bible). He then discovered that if you multiply three holy numbers of 5, 10 and 17 together twice you come up with the figure of 722, 500.

"When I found this out, it blew my mind," Camping claims.

It turns out that May 21, 2011, is exactly 722, 500 days from April 1, 33 AD.

Therefore, Camping is certain it will be the Day of Judgment.

This isn't the first time Camping has made the same prediction. Years ago, he predicted the Second Coming would be on September 6, 1994.

"At that time there was a lot of Bible I had not researched really carefully," was his explanation recently. But he now insists, after further Bible study, that "God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen."

Hallelujah -- proof positive.

Since the beginning of time, people possessed with a sense of pending doom, high certainty and a personal pipeline to the Big Kahuna have predicted the end of the world. To my knowledge, it hasn’t happened yet.

Near the end of the first millennium, many people in Europe predicted the end of the world would occur in the year 1000. As the date approached, Christian armies from southern Europe waged war against the pagan countries to the north in an attempt to convert them to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in 1000. When Christ didn’t return, those who criticized the church were labeled as heretics and exterminated.

It didn't happen.

In 1346, one-third of the population of Europe was killed by the black plague. Since this proportion seemed to correspond to Biblical prophecy, people presumed the end of the world was imminent. However, Christians had killed a majority of the cats in Europe at the time thinking the felines were associated with witches. Less cats, more rats. It was later discovered that fleas carried by rats caused the plague.

The world didn’t end after all.

On February 14, 1835, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, made a pronouncement at a meeting of church leaders that Jesus would return in 56 years.

It didn’t happen.

The Jehovah Witnesses claimed that the war of Armageddon would start in 1914, based on the prophecy of Daniel, Chapter 4.

It didn’t happen.

The Jehovah Witnesses subsequently revised their proclamations, many times, to 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994, etc.

It didn’t happen, didn’t happen, didn’t happen, etc.

The founder of the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong, predicted that the “Day of the Lord” would occur in 1936.

It didn’t happen.

Undeterred, Herbert W. Armstrong later predicted it would happen in 1975 instead. Many of his followers gave up all their earthly possessions in anticipation of the Rapture.

It didn’t happen.

David Davidson wrote a book titled THE GREAT PYRAMID, ITS DIVINE MESSAGE where he claimed the structure of the pyramid of Gizah foretold future events, including the end of the world in August of 1953.

It didn’t happen.

In 1978, Pat Robertson of the 700 Club announced that the world would end in 1982.

It didn’t happen.

Hal Lindsey, writer of Christian prophecy, wrote a book in 1970 titled THE LATE, GREAT PLANET EARTH where he claimed the Rapture would commence in 1988 (40 years after the creation of the state of Israel).

It didn’t happen.

Edgar Whisenaut, a NASA scientist wrote 88 REASONS WHY THE RAPTURE WILL OCCUR IN 1988.

It didn’t happen.

Prophecy is a tricky business, especially when you credit the Big Kahuna for your inside information. Perhaps, it's not wise to mess with the Big Kahuna if you intend to spend the remainder of eternity in his/her/its presence.

On December 21, 2012, I will be hosting an "End of the World" party at my place. There will be an $11 cover change which will be donated to my left pocket. No shoes, no shirt, no problem. Bring snacks.
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Quote for the Day – "Never make predictions, especially about the future." Casey Stengel
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Bret Burquest recently published THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY (available on Amazon) -- topics include collective consciousness, UFOs, parallel dimensions, Edgar Cayce, Atlantis, St. Germain, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, End of Days, the White Buffalo, Jesse James, Noah's Ark, JFK and MLK assassinations, Dead Sea Scrolls, Illuminati, New World Order, Bilderbergers, Hitler after WW II, reincarnation, Near Death Experience, Mayan calendar 2012, much more.
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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Osama Bin Laden and Geronimo

On May 1, 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by a U.S. Navy SEAL team that stormed his compound. The U.S. intelligence code name for Bin Laden was Geronimo. This code name has offended those who have descended from Geronimo's Native American Indian tribe.

Goyathlay (one who yawns) was born in June of 1829 to the Bedonkohe band of Apache near Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Gila River, in New Mexico. He was raised according to Apache tradition and married a woman from the Chiricahua band of Apache when he was 17 years old. They had three children.

In 1832, a secret society known as Skull and Bones was founded by certain privileged male students at Yale University.

On March 5, 1851, 400 Mexican soldiers from Sonora attacked Goyathlay's camp, killing Goyathlay's mother, wife and children. Goyathlay and the other men were elsewhere at the time.

Although he was never a chief, Goyathlay soon became a ferocious military leader. In one battle, he repeatedly attacked Mexican soldiers with a knife, ignoring an onslaught of bullets.

The Mexicans gave him a nickname, after St. Jerome. They called him Geronimo.

Geronimo refused to acknowledge the United States Government. He fought U.S. and Mexican Armies for more than a decade.

To his people, he was renowned for his "power" because he was blessed with profound spiritual knowledge and protected by Usen, the Apache high-god. He had the ability to walk without leaving tracks and was metaphysically gifted (telepathy, telekinesis). Wounded many times by bullets, he always survived.

In 1886, Geronimo was finally captured after numerous daring escapes and sent to prison in Florida.

Later, he became famous in his old age. In 1904, he appeared at the World's Fair in St. Louis and rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade the following year.

Geronimo died on February 17, 1909.

There is a windowless building on the campus of Yale University called the Tomb. It houses the secret society known as Skull and Bones. It's basically a private club for young men of privilege, many of whom go on to become captains of industry, Supreme Court justices, cabinet officers and presidents.

Only 15 new seniors, called Neophytes, are chosen each year to become Bonesmen. They are sworn to a lifetime of secrecy and must go through a series of rituals to become a member.

For example, they're required to stand naked in the presence of other Bonesmen and recount their entire sexual history. Upon acceptance, Neophytes are shoved to their knees and knighted by a Bonesman tapping a sword on the Neophyte's left shoulder and saying, "By the order of our order, I dub thee Knight of Euloga."

Outlandish ceremonies are commonplace in the Tomb. In one ritual, a woman holds a knife and pretends to slash the throat of another person lying down before her, as Bonesmen yell and scream at the Neophytes. In another ceremony, Bonesmen wear devil costumes and pretend to perform satanic acts of torture on Neophytes who are also required to lie in a coffin at various times.

Death seems to be one of the major themes in the Tomb. There are more than a dozen skulls and several coffins scattered throughout the premises. Wall paintings are replete with scenes of death and destruction.

Also on display is a glass case containing one of their sacred treasures -- a bloodied knife and the skull of Geronimo.

Prescott Bush was a Bonesman. He and other members of Skull and Bones dug up Geronimo's grave at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, when stationed there in 1918 during World War I, removing the skull and some other bones.

Prescott Bush is the father of former president George H. W. Bush and grandfather of former president George W. Bush, both of whom were also Bonesmen at Yale.

On February 17, 2009, the hundredth anniversary of Geronimo's death, his great-grandson, Harlyn Geronimo, filed a lawsuit in Washington DC claiming that members of Skull and Bones stole the remains of Geronimo decades ago. The descendants want the remains turned over to the family so he can be reburied near his birthplace in New Mexico's Gila Wilderness.

Bonesmen are young men from wealthy and powerful families. In their circle, they can do no wrong. They have a lofty opinion of their position in society and strive to keep it that way. They refer to the rest of society as "barbarians." In their elite world, you're either a Bonesman or a barbarian.

Their antics are infantile, sadomasochistic and downright disgusting. It's a secret society that lusts for dominance and worships death. Its members are ambitious men of wealth and power who help other members reach positions of wealth and power.

The purpose of their satanic behavior within Skull and Bones, no doubt, is to compromise the dignity of its members to ensure a lifetime of loyalty to the society. Once a Bonesman, always a Bonesman.

These are the true barbarians.

In 2004, George W. Bush and John Kerry were the two presidential candidates. Both had been members of Skull and Bones at Yale, although not at the same time. Neither would answer any questions about the secret society.

All 44 presidents of the United States are related by blood. For example, Obama is a distant cousin of George W. Bush. This bloodline of influential, wealthy families controls international banking, which in turn controls governments and the media.

The world is being methodically manipulated by a group of powerful people in high places whose ultimate goal is a One World Government with them in control. And the robotic masses go along with it because they buy into the programming of the educational system and the media. The greed-heads at the top, who want to control the world, feed off the greed-heads below, who always want more than they need or can reasonably afford.

Geronimo yearned to be free. It cost him the lives of his mother, his wife and his children, and eventually cost him his freedom.

In February of 2009, one hundred years after his death, Geronimo still yearned to be free.

The sordid fellows of Skull and Bones have chosen to display Geronimo's remains in their private meeting quarters. If there is any justice in this world, they will turn over Geronimo's remains to his family, offer an apology, disband their insidious secret society of human depravity and exorcise the Tomb of its demons, preferably by an Apache Holy Man.

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Quote for the Day – "I was no chief and never had been, but because I had been more deeply wronged than others, this honor was conferred upon me, and I resolved to prove worthy of the trust." Geronimo
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Bret Burquest recently published THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY (available on Amazon) -- topics include collective consciousness, UFOs, parallel dimensions, Edgar Cayce, Atlantis, St. Germain, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, End of Days, the White Buffalo, Jesse James, Noah's Ark, JFK and MLK assassinations, Dead Sea Scrolls, Illuminati, New World Order, Bilderbergers, Hitler after WW II, reincarnation, Near Death Experience, Mayan calendar 2012, much more.
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