September 11th...America Remembers

I still proudly fly my American Flag every day, do you? Americans experienced a rush of patriotism and pride rarely seen in this country after 9-11. There was a rush to churches for answers and streets and neighborhoods were decorated red, white and blue with flags flying from homes, in yards and even on cars. All of that, predictably, died out within a couple of months and it is too bad. If the surge of patriotism had continued, Barrack Hussein Obama never would have been elected. Frankly, we don't need a politician as our president, we need a man like Warren Buffet, who could put the American Government on a diet and make us a nation that lends money to other countries, rather than the largest debtor nation in the world. Someday, we will wake up and turn all of this around. if we just STOPPED sending billions of dollars to countries like Israel, Pakistan and even Mexico, we could pay off our debt within five years. it won't happen under the watch of Barrack Hussein, the biggest spending President in the history of the United States.

The surge of pride that pulsed through our country came because of the attacks on American soil, but it was helped along by a great patriot in the White House, George Bush, who loves his God and loves his country. I remember members of Congress standing on the steps of the Pentagon singing God Bless America. Of course, many of them were jockeying for the right camera angle, but it was still a touching moment. I recall Billy Graham speaking at a service for the victims of 9-11 and how proud and strong he stood as he praised America and said that God would punish our invaders and that we needed to come together in churches and synagogues and pray for our country. There was some good that came out of an awful situation, but it all faded far too fast. I have had an American Flag hanging on the front of my house since that tragedy and it is only taken down in high winds or when it was unceremoniously stolen from my house before Independence Day. I was quick to replace it and will always fly the red, white and blue at my house and we speak English here.

The day dawned overcast today for the first time this Summer. I was up after 8:00 o'clock to mow and edge the front lawn and then settled in for the first full slate of NFL games on DirecTV's NFL Sunday ticket. I have been a DirecTV Subscriber since we bought this house in 1999 and an NFL Sunday ticket subscriber for 10 years. i will be on the phone with customer service tomorrow as they are now giving the product away to new subscribers. they will get an earful from me and I will ask them to refund the $354 that I paid this year and I will also ask them for some other free pay services. DirecTV is huge on subscriber retention and I will let them know that this long term subscriber is not at all thrilled with how they are treating us. Just a fun pone call for Monday morning. I did sit and enjoy the games today. After Thursday night the bar was set pretty high and only a couple of games met that standard today. I spent a little bit of time looking at the Niner-Seattle game, a game contested with two high school quarterbacks barely throwing for 100 yards each. What a joke. I look forward to the Dallas-Jet game tonight at 5:30 and I am working on my blog now to be ready for some football then.

Darla and I attended our church service last night and the pastor did a great job of showing images from 9/11 and interviewing members of the fire department, military and police departments. He also told the story of Rick Rescorla, the Morgan Stanley Vice President of Security who predicted the terrorist attacks years before they happened. He approached his bosses at Morgan Stanley and told them to move all of the employees out of the World Trade Center because of the threat of attack by planes on the buildings. The leadership listened, but their lease wasn't up until 2006 and they decided to wait until then to move to New Jersey. When they didn't move, Rick instituted drills every three months where he would lead the employees out of the building by way of the stairs. When the first tower was hit (Morgan Stanley was in Towers 2 and 4), he immediately evacuated 1400 employees from the towers and after tower 2 was hit, he returned to the building to make sure that all of the employees were safely evacuated. The tower imploded and of the over 1400 employees at Morgan Stanley, only three lost their lives, Rick and two of his senior staff who returned to the building to check on any stragglers. There is a good story about Rick at this website:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/40201

Interestingly, the version of the article I picked is from the Canada Free Press. Heroes don't get much press in this country, just Presidents who cater to the undocumented aliens (coincidentally one of which he is himself). Rick was a hero in the Vietnam war and his men gave him the nickname "Hard Core". He is a man, born in England who emigrated to the United States and became a US Citizen. Take a minute to read the article, it is pretty powerful.

I've added more pictures from our trip to Vegas as we continue to enjoy the memories of that trip. I have yet to locate the video of Sam on the train, but I will add that at some point.

Of course, I made it out golfing this week. I played Whitney Oaks, a Johnny Miller designed course with a slop of 133 (degree of difficulty). Our course is rated 122. I played the course on Thursday with one of my agents and shot 86 and played again Saturday with Boyd, Darren and Rick and shot 89. It is a tough course, fun and fair and has great holes that you remember after you finish. It also has a lot of water, sand and blind shots (all hallmarks of Johnny Miller). It was a good time with the guys and I hadn't seen Darren in several months. The day started off right Saturday when I pulled into my parking space, opened the door and found a $20 bill on the ground. it was likely lost by the prior user of the space who dropped it when he pulled his keys out of his pocket.
I also played poker on Friday night and won about $100 from my friends. I'm not a big fan of Texas Hold'em, basically a game of luck, but i was on fire Friday night and won about half of the hands all night

Well, this is short, but football awaits and it is calling me like a siren song. Be well and God Bless America! Ciao.