I’ve been in a rather depressed mood for the past week or so. Not so much to be suicidal, but enough so that everything is a grey haze that I can’t see through. I’ve been trying to lift my mood, but it isn’t working. I’m playing music, I’ve sold some things on eBay, I’ve kept busy, but as soon as I stop it’s like I get caught in cement. I’m going to bed earlier and getting up later.

You may have well felt like this, but when it lasts for weeks it’s not a good sign. Every change of mood for me is dangerous. Either I go manic and out of control, leading to erratic and dangerous behavior, or I dip deeper into depression and thoughts of suicide.

I’m trying to keep up with comment on the news, but when you’re in a haze like I am it’s hard. Now I know why Mike (Half-Bakered) takes frequent multi-week vacations from his blog. When it’s all you can do to get up, get dressed and make it to work, luxuries like a blog don’t make the list of things to do.

This is not to say I won’t continue to try, I need to keep this up because my case manager and medication nurse are among my few repeat visitors. They use this as a tool to determine if my meds are working and if intervention is needed.

Hale DeMar continues to make the news. He was the guy who I documented about a successful Defensive Gun Use here and here. Here’s the latest installment: Gun owner: I, not cops, got bad guy where he writes a letter to the editor.

I am quoting the entire letter here, because I don’t want you to gloss over the link and miss the terror and frustration he felt in his own words.

Village Trustees … Stick to Parade Schedules & Planting our Parks

Many of us have experienced a sense of violation upon returning to our homes, only to find that someone else has been there. Someone else has trespassed in our bedrooms, looting and stealing that which is readily replaced. Many of us, still haunted by that violation, will never again have a sense of security in our own homes. Few, however, have awakened to realize that they had been violated as they slept in their beds, doors locked, as family dogs patrolled their homes. For me, the seconds until I found my children still safely tucked in their beds were horrifying. The thought that a young child may have been hurt or abducted was incomprehensible.

The police were called and in routine fashion they came, took the report and with little concern left, promising to increase surveillance. Little comfort, since the invader now had keys to our home and our automobiles. The police informed me that this was not an uncommon event in east Wilmette and offered their condolences.

What is one to do when a criminal proceeds, undeterred by a 90-pound German shepherd, an alarm system and a property … lit up like an outdoor stadium? And now, he had my house keys and an inventory of things he’d like to call his own. Would the police patrol my dead-end street as effectively the second time as they had the first? Would my small children be unharmed the next time? Would the career criminal be satisfied with another automobile, another television or would he feel the need, once again, to climb the staircase up to the bedrooms, perhaps for a watch or a ring or a wallet, again risking little?

Would my children wake to find a masked figure, clad in black, in their bedroom doorway, a vision that might haunt them for years? Would the police come again and fill out yet another report, and at what point should I feel comfortable that the ‘bad guy’ got everything he wanted and wouldn’t return again, a third time?

I went to the safe where my licensed and registered gun was kept, loaded it for the very first time and tucked it under the mattress of my bed. I assured my frightened children ”that daddy would deal with the bad guy … if he ever returned.” Little did I imagine that this brazen animal was waiting in the backyard bushes as I tucked my children into bed.

Fifteen minutes after bedtime, the alarm went off. Three minutes after the alarm was triggered, the alarm company alerted the police to the situation and 10 minutes later the first police car pulled up to my home, but only after another call was made to 911, by a trembling, half-naked father. I suppose some would have grabbed their children and cowered in their bedroom for 13 minutes, praying that the police would get there in time to stop the criminal from climbing the stairs and confronting the family in their bedroom, dreading the sound of a bedroom door being kicked in. That’s not the fear I wanted my children to experience, nor is it the cowardly act that I want my children to remember me by.

Until you are shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and met in your kitchen by a masked invader as your children shudder in their beds, until you confront that very real nightmare, please don’t suggest that some village trustee knows better and he/she can effectively task the police to protect your family from the miscreants that this society has produced.

This career criminal had been arrested thirty times. He was wanted in Georgia and for parole violations in Minnesota. How many family homes had he violated, how many innocent lives were affected, how many police reports went into some back office file cabinet, only to become some abstract statistic? How is it that rabid animals like this are free to roam the streets, violating our homes and threatening the safety of our children?

If my actions have spared only one family from the distress and trauma that this habitual criminal has caused hundreds of others, then I have served my civic duty and taken one evil creature off of our streets, something that our impotent criminal justice system had failed to do, despite some thirty odd arrests, plea bargains and suspended sentences.

Hale DeMar, Wilmette

Are you prepared for when this happens to you? What will you do when you hear intruders in your house? Cower in your bedroom and hope the police get there in time, or take the actions necessary to protect your family?

President Bush is going to shoot himself in the foot with this: Bush Amnesty Plan Threatens U.S. Economy

Tennessee is one of the states where illegal immigrants can get drivers licenses without a Social Security number. Thus, Memphis has a booming Mexican population, complete with street gangs. My family can no longer go to the corner store, because of the gang wars that is taking place daily.

This policy is an attempt to shave Mexican votes away from the Democrats, but it may end up backfiring. The ones here legally will not cotton too well to this plan, because this gives a boost to the illegals that the legals never got.

There are no easy answers to this problem. The number one source of hard currency into the Mexican economy is the illegal workers sending dollars home. Mexican president Fox wants as many illegals streaming over the border as possible. It brings money into his country and relieves his population pressure at the same time.

President Bush is walking a fine line and all I can hope for is the people who are advising him know what they are doing.

When Republicans voted for Bush in 2000, they expected to get a president who would uphold the law, not change it in an ill-advised attempt to garner a few more votes. California’s last governor lost his job in part because core Democrat voters instantly saw his decision to grant illegal aliens driver’s licenses for what it was: blatant ethnic pandering in exchange for votes. In November, Republican voters may be faced with a similar choice.

This is what I am in for, birds that might outlive me. F*** THE NAZIS, SAYS CHURCHILL’S PARROT.

Yes, the parrot that belonged to Winston Churchill is still kicking at 104. Birds in captivity have very long lives. I am looking at being at least 70 when my Sun Conures pass on, somewhere about 2032. That’s a lot of bird food and squawking between then and now.

For those who are interested, here’s a picture of my ‘children.’ Rocket is the one on top.

I didn’t find too much to comment upon today, but I did find this: A Man’s (and Woman’s) Home Is a Castle.

I have commented many times upon the various Childrens Services and how they operate on a commission basis when they yank children from their homes and put them into foster care, where they are at the mercy of people who are paid to look after the children. Some of them don’t survive the ‘care.’

The following is about as well said as I have seen on rights and responsibilities.

A right is an enforceable claim that an individual has against all other people; it carries a corresponding duty to respect those rights in others. For example, your right to freedom of religion comes with the corresponding duty to respect the right of others to reach their own conclusions. Rights and responsibilities are two sides of the same social coin.

The 4th Amendment reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” This article brings forth the idea that Childrens Services be held to the same standard as police and be forced to swear out a warrant before a judge before a child may be removed.

I like that idea. Anything that gets rid of the capriciousness that exists today. Any time you think the IRS inserts their probes deep inside orifices meant for output only, Childrens Services inserts that probe about a foot deeper to illustrate the stuff that you have to go through to get your children back.

Don’t think you are immune. An anonymous tip is all they need to take your kids, and there is nothing you can do to prove your innocence. It’s like proving the sun comes up in the east at noon.

I wanted to do more original writing instead of just linking, so here is a start. I will be doing this every Monday for a couple of weeks. Your assignment is to follow in my footsteps and document your own core values.

Rock solid core values are important to a Conservative. It is what separates us from everybody else. We should be proud of our core values and should be able to display them for all to see. Thomas Jefferson said, “In matters of taste, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

Here is one of my core values:

Be Responsible. I will own up to the consequences to my actions, be they positive or negative. If I have negative consequences, I will do my best to immediately resolve them into a positive outcome. If I can’t, I will admit my failure. If I am discovered, I will admit to my failure and show that I have been working on a positive outcome. When I have a positive outcome, I will share the consequences with those who have helped me.

You always have consequences to your actions. It is up to you if they are to be pleasant or unpleasant. I remember from my time in the Navy, when I would read results of Captain’s Mast and Courts Martial in the base newspaper, they would always use the term “awarded” when handing out punishment.

I have a long -distance relationship with my family. Even though they only live 2.5 miles away, the only way to get there is to walk for an hour each way. So most of my conversations with my son are via phone and email. I have been fortunate that my wife has insisted that our son spend the weekends with me. This has given us a chance to bond and to have fun. It gets him out of the neighborhood and gives Mom a break from having to handle him. Positive results all around.

I am doing my best to instill values and self-discipline in my son. As with all 14 year-olds, he is rudderless and while he knows in a general sense what he wants to do, he doesn’t know how to get there from here. I am lucky in the fact that he will do almost anything to please me. I am using that leverage while I can to develop his character and self-discipline.

Which brings me to this article, Wimps and Barbarians. This one particular paragraph jumped out at me:

Manhood is not simply a matter of being male and reaching a certain age. These are acts of nature; manhood is a sustained act of character. It is no easier to become a man than it is to become virtuous. In fact, the two are the same. The root of our old-fashioned word “virtue” is the Latin word virtus, a derivative of vir, or man. To be virtuous is to be “manly.” As Aristotle understood it, virtue is a “golden mean” between the extremes of excess and deficiency. Too often among today’s young males, the extremes seem to predominate. One extreme suffers from an excess of manliness, or from misdirected and unrefined manly energies. The other suffers from a lack of manliness, a total want of manly spirit. Call them barbarians and wimps. So prevalent are these two errant types that the prescription for what ails our young males might be reduced to two simple injunctions: Don’t be a barbarian. Don’t be a wimp. What is left, ceteris paribus, will be a man.

A true Conservative man thinks with his brain. While he can also feel with his heart, his heart does not have veto power over his brain. He derives his actions based upon a solid foundation of core values. These core values are not thought up over night, but brought about through years of thought and study, embodied by the learning of self-discipline. It is not easy to be so. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to be a man. It was told to me a while back that when you have a choice, the hardest one is most likely the best one to make.

Character can be best defined two ways: What you do on the third and fourth tries, and what you do when nobody is looking. It is in situations like these where character is best defined and earned.

What are your core values? Can you write them down? I learned through my management courses that the best companies and groups of workers that make up a company have a mission statement. This is a written document that is clearly posted for all to see that details what the company/division/shop is meant to do and how they intend on doing it in clear language. You should write them down, then post them on a wall of your office. Let everyone know what you will stand (and not stand) for. Of course, those without values will heckle you about it, but don’t worry. Your clear cut values will remind them they have none, that is why they will give you a hard time about it.

Having your values posted helps you to live up to what you have written down, which is why the good companies post their mission statements where the customer can see them.

Homework assignment: Come up with one core value this week. Write them all down as they occur to you, but document one with at least a paragraph. Post it someplace where your family or coworkers can see it.

I reported here about a man who defended himself, his family and his home by using a handgun in a town that had banned them because they were ‘evil.’

This story, Outrage Over Gun Case May Lead to New Law shows the forces being brought to bear to protect this man as he protected his family. I hope this comes quickly to a positive solution and those idiots that pass for a town council get a wake-up call about the realities of life.

The ball is rolling. Bush Gives Recess Appointment to Pickering.

Let’s hope the other beleaguered judicial appointees quickly follow suit.

It was always a big deal, in my family, to watch the odometers on the cars roll over to a new thousand or ten thousand. My mom would get mad because she would drive her car 990 miles, just to go out with my dad in her car and have the odometer roll over.

Well, I feel the same way now. My hit meter just rolled over 1,000. Thanks to those of you who continuously hit the reload button to punch up my numbers .

Maybe one day I’ll get a thousand hits a day. Hopefully it will be soon.

Thank you to all my visitors.

I think this article, Christians Fight California’s Muslim Indoctrination of Schoolchildren shows the true anti-Christian bias of the ACLU.

It’s not okay to even think about the Christian God in school, but yet it is okay to “simulate” Muslim prayers and “holy wars”?

Such schoolroom activities as praying to Allah and simulating Islamic worship are not “devotional activities,” District Judge Phyllis Hamilton decreed in a highly publicized lawsuit brought by Christian pupils and parents at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif.

If they are not devotional activities, then that means they have no religious value, and by extension they are saying that Islamic worship is not a religion. Boy, I would be steamed if my religion is treated like that. Oh, wait, it is. I’m not allowed to show my faith in any public space that might be controlled by the government. But really, which is worse, not being able to show your religion, or to have non-believers simulate your religious practices?

It must be worse for Muslims to see their faith mocked so by this school system.

I found a rather wonderful article on Why the Left Fears Condoleezza Rice.

The article contains a mini-biography of her, and what I read showed a gifted person make their own way through life by using nothing more than hard work. No wonder she is feared by the Left. If more blacks were like her, their voting block would disappear.

But what really caught my eye was this:

Racism is a collectivist idea that denies human dignity by defining individuals as members of mythical collective racial groups. Socialism and Marxism are collectivist ideas that deny human dignity by judging individuals only as members of mythical class groups and by declaring all human beings to be slaves whose lives and labors belong to the collectivist state, as in Castro’s Cuba and increasingly in Chavez’s Venezuela. The indoctrination of this dehumanizing idea, as we shall see, is what Chavez means by Marxist education.

These repressive forms of government abominable. In order to survive, they must crush all resistance, all individual thought and action. The only reason why they exist in the first place is the people think it was a good thing. By the time they found out different, it was too late and there is now nothing they can do to overthrow the government, because they hold all of the keys to power.

This is an interesting question, one that deserves an answer:

What if African-Americans notice that Democrats (the party of the slave owners, the Klan, Jim Crow and Bull Connor) talk about helping them but hold them down? And at the same time, the Republicans (party of the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, who freed their ancestors from Democrat slave owners) have advanced blacks to the highest echelon of actual power in the Bush administration.

To prevent African-Americans from opening their hypnotized eyes to this self-evident truth and reconsidering why they vote for a party that chains and exploits them, Dr. Rice has been targeted for every kind of insult and attack possible. She must be politically assassinated.

The key here is education. As long as blacks can be kept dumb through terrible schools (thank you NEA), they must be dependent upon the good graces of the government, which is exactly where Liberals want them, to be dependent slaves beholden and indebted to their masters. The Democrats still like slavery, they just have changed tactics, and it has worked for 40 years.

If you think the economy is taking off now, train half of the unemployable black workforce and get them jobs. The economical ripple effect would quickly turn into tidal waves. Swing them from tax consumers to tax producers and a lot of governmental fiscal problems would be lessened or solved. With more money to spend, the economy would take off like a rocket.

We have to turn out literate, well-trained people out of the black inner-city schools and that just isn’t happening. To solve it will take a crushing of the NEA today, then a decade more to train these kids as they go through the system. It would take a large investment to bring all of the adults back and bring them up to par as well. It will not be cheap, easy or quick, but it must be done.

I finally figured out Victor Davis Hanson gets published every Friday in the National Review Online. This week, Our Primordial World.

Following September 11, our therapeutic industry – the campuses, the media, the intelligentsia, and many on the political Left – almost immediately sprung into action to insist that such hideous terrorist acts were symptomatic of wide-scale poverty and oppression in the Middle East, much of it caused by the United States. True, Islamic fascism scavenges on the self-induced misery of hereditary autocracy so endemic in the Arab world; but the hijacking murderers of September 11 were themselves hardly poor or illiterate. And their mastermind bin Laden talked of pride, envy, and power – seldom poverty or inequality. This was a creature, after all, who belonged to a world of the “strong horse,” “honor” killings, throwing shoes, and fist-shaking, more at home in the tenth than 21st century.

As always, good, thought provoking reading.

Found via Alpha Patriot: Army soon will have just 500 available troops.

This is an article about our northerly neighbors, the Canadians. It seems that what little military they have is imploding.

What got my attention was this:

Next year’s entire budgetary surplus is expected to be no more than $5-billion, and there will be enormous pressure to send some of that money to provincial governments, most of which are being driven into deficit by escalating health costs.

So it seems that the supposed “free” health care system is not doing so well. There is already ample anecdotal evidence of people in ill health heading south to get tests done right away in the US instead of waiting 4-6 months in Canada. It is becoming evident that anything free is worth what you paid for it, i.e. nothing. Of course, those who love Bowling for Columbine and that bit about free health care in Canada don’t think that’s a bad thing… Until it’s them or a family member in gravely ill health who’s getting the short end of the stick.

I’ve had socialized health care inflicted on me and my family, that’s what you get when you join the military. Sure it’s free, but trust me you wouldn’t want to be subjected to it. The Veterans Administration health care system is even worse. I’ve been there also.

I must admit something embarrassing: I watch Kim Possible. It’s on TV right before I go to work Saturdays and it’s the only thing watchable. Last week the main bad guy she faces wanted to take over Canada. I think she should have let him. A cartoon character can probably run Canada better than the current administration. It certainly couldn’t do any worse.

For those of you who get your panties in a bind because we had slavery over 150 years ago, take a look at this article, Campaigners Hope Sudan Peace Deal Will Lead to End of Slavery.

Slavery still exists, people. And for those of you who get your panties in a bind over the slavery history of our country, what are you doing about this, where slavery is still going on?

Why are you whining about your great-great grandfather way back then, when your cousins are suffering it today? And it’s going on more than just in the Sudan, there are other places where it still goes on. Maybe they’ll get around to ending it next year.

Don’t complain about history when it’s current events.