Blog Archives

The Great Miss U. (Two Minutes to Read)

3/15/2012

Margaret Utinsky was a nurse who worked with the Red Cross to provide food, medicine, and other items to aid the U.S. and Allied forces including those at Camp Cabanatuan which I wrote about in the blog titled: “The Great Raid.”

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines the wives were ordered off the island. Mrs. Utinsky snuck off of the ship because she didn’t want to leave her husband who had survived the Bataan Death March and was a prisoner at Camp Cabanatuan. She made her way to some priests who helped get her into an underground network that was helping prisoners of war. She obtained new documents that showed she was a Lithuanian nurse who was working with the Red Cross.

Working in the hospital she would take medicine out of various bottles leaving some still in it so it would be less noticeable. Getting the medicine wasn’t an easy task because she had to present a Japanese guard with a prescription each time she'd go into the pharmacy.

The Japanese knew there was an underground network but they were having a difficult time busting the ring. Those who were suspected were immediately executed. Suspected of helping prisoners, the Japanese arrested Mrs. Utinsky with the intent of having her confess and give up the other members.

She was sent to prison and tortured her for 32 days. She was beaten daily, hung with her arms tied behind her back, and sexually assaulted. During one night five Filipinos were beheaded in front of her cell. On another night, an American soldier was tied to her cell gate and beaten to death; his flesh lodged in her hair. She was then confined to a dungeon for four days without food or water. She never gave up any information and was released after signing a statement attesting to her good treatment.

Mrs. Utinsky is one of the greatest heroes our country has ever seen yet I knew nothing about her until recently. There’s no way I would’ve been as brave or as tough as she was. My heart breaks for her knowing that while giving her all to save American soldiers, her own husband died in the prison camp. Here he survived the Bataan Death March only to die of Malaria. She knew about his condition and was trying to get medicine to him but it was intercepted by the Japanese with the carrier being shot.

The military loved her and gave her the nickname: “Miss U.”She wrote a book called “Miss U” in 1948 explaining everything she went through. I wanted to buy a copy but it was around $100! I still might try to save up the money for this piece of history. She was born in 1900 and died in 1970. The White House honored her with the Medal of Freedom in 1946 but let’s face it, no amount of accolades is enough to reward her for her heroism; fortunately God’s taking care of it!

Simply Brilliant (Two Minutes to Read)

3/14/2012

We have a tendency to focus on life as we know it so it’s easy to forget about the amazing accomplishments of the past. I say amazing for a variety of reasons none more so than the unbelievable things that were figured out without the use of technology like we have today.

I’m going to start with a Greek by the name of Eratosthens who was an astronomer, athlete, geographer, mathematician, music theorist, and poet. Eratosthens figured out more than 200 years before Christ was born what the circumference of the earth was. Let this sink in for a moment; how in the world could he have done something like this that far back in time?

First of all Eratosthens believed that Aristotle was right that the world was round. It was also agreed upon by then that something perfectly round would be best measured by assigning it 360 degrees. This proved especially handy when ships began using magnetic compasses back in the 1400’s. I’m going to condense this story a little bit since my goal is to show how brilliant and yet simple Eratosthens’ approach was to solving this problem.

He used a reference point from a city that was 400 miles away and marked the exact time when the sun was overhead and didn’t produce a shadow on the object below. At the same time he used a stick at his end and upon the very same time mark, he measured the shadow from the stick and it was 7.2 degrees. So the sun was directly overhead 400 miles away but not so where he was.

At his point he knew that 7.2 degrees related to 400 miles because of where the other measurement was taken. All he had to do at this point was divide the earth’s circumference which was 360 degrees by the 7.2 degrees and then multiply it by 400 miles. This equated to 36,360 kilometers which was later figured out to be around 2% off. How simple yet brilliant. He had to come up with some kind of unit of measure or he’d never have an equation. Once he figured out how many degrees were in 400 miles, he had everything he needed to solve the problem.

This is a great example of how we sometimes make things complicated when the answer to even some of the most complex problems could be right in front of us.

The Russian Cosmonaut (Two Minutes to Read)

3/9/2012

Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space back in 1961; of course this concerned President Kennedy and caused him to put a huge focus on being the first country to land on the moon which we did on July 20, 1969.

But the Russians definitely had a jump on everyone and brilliantly created the Mir Space Station which lasted for ten years then of course the International Space Station was built which was in my opinion the greatest collaboration ever between countries. The space programs involved included Canada, Europe, Japan, Russian and the United States. We've been pitching in and working together on the space station for over eleven years now.

I digress…back to Yuri. When Yuri was launched into space he didn’t have much room in his spacecraft to move around. He knew he’d have to deal with this tight space for around a month. Of course when he first got up there he was amazed at what he saw outside of his window; think about it he was the first man to see the planet earth!

But then Yuri started hearing something that sounded a little bit like a tapping noise somewhere inside of the control panel. Every few seconds and in perfect timing, the sound would occur. It was really bothering him so he grabbed a few tools and looked inside the panel trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. He couldn’t find it and it was driving him crazy so he started checking out the entire capsule. The whole time something was consistently tapping and he couldn't locate it.

Yuri thought about the situation and at that time there were no communications back to Russia’s space center so he knew he couldn't get any advice on what to do. He was afraid that he would go insane and end up destroying the spacecraft and himself.

He sat down and closed his eyes for a moment and listened to the tap then all of a sudden a song popped into his head that the tapping was in perfect rhythm to. Yuri said this saved him because the rest of the 28 days were filled with music in his head and songs from his lips. He said he went from almost going insane to having a great trip.

Isn’t this how it is with us? Sometimes we get so focused on our problems that we feel like we’re going crazy (tap, tap, tap) because there aren’t any easy solutions. We get in a funk and think we won’t pull out of it. But don’t we always pull out of it in one way or another? Eventually something clicks and we're reminded that life is worth living and that things aren’t that bad. Let’s be like Yuri and listen for the music!

Funny Military Quotes

3/9/2012

“Sometimes I think war is God’s way of teaching us geography.” – Paul Rodriguez

“When one engine fails on a twin engine plane, you’ll always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.” – Multi-Engine Training Manual

“We are not retreating; we’re advancing in another direction.”

“Everyone wants peace and they’ll fight a terrible war to get it.” – Miles Kingston

“Without ammunition the Air Force is just an expensive flying club.”

“It’s generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.” – U.S. Air Force Manual

If you find yourself in a fair fight, you obviously didn’t plan your mission properly.” – David Hackworth

“If you hear me yell: Eject! Eject! Eject…know the last two are just echoes."

“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.” - General George MacArthur

“Cluster bombing from B-52’s is very accurate as we hit the ground 100% of the times.” – U.S. Air Force

Miscellaneous Quotes from John Mann

3/9/2012

"May you always have someplace to go."

“The road to regret is paved with “what if’s.”

“An idea without action is just a delusion.”

“I think the subject of math should include teaching children how to count blessings.”

“A picture can paint a thousand words but it’s also true that words can paint a thousand pictures.”

"Our final frontier isn’t ahead of us but instead behind us, where mankind will forever seek answers to both how and why we’re here.”

“My parents used to take things away from me if I wasn’t taking care of it. I hope God doesn’t decide to do the same thing to us for the way we’re taking care of the earth.”

“A deer typically feels safe right before its shot.”’

“If you’re comfortable with where you are, you’re probably in the wrong place.”

“Over achievers are never at peace.”

“If you think your commute is long, an astronaut’s commute to Mars is nine months...that is if they don't hit traffic."

“The greatest difference you can make in life is found within you.”

“Our lives aren’t free; the good news is we only pay for what we don’t use.”

“Some people are like a black hole in space; they take from what’s around them without giving anything back.”

“A successful person will leave no stone unturned while an unsuccessful person will lift a few stones, get frustrated, and walk away.”

"Creating happiness and success is like creating any work of art; you must see it in your mind before it will ever make its way to life’s canvass.”

“Life is like a roller coaster ride where you go fast and slow, you go up and down, you take a lot of twists and turns and you sometimes end up upside down. Some people white knuckle the safety bar during the ride because they’re afraid the roller coaster will jump off the tracks or that they’ll be thrown off the ride. Other people scream with joy during the ride and finish with huge smiles on their faces; same ride yet different experiences. Which one are you? Do you go through life squeezing the safety bar or do you put your hands in the air and scream with joy?

“Successful people are motivated by a carrot while unsuccessful people are motivated by a stick.”

“If you’re looking for normal you can find it swimming with the Loch Ness Monster.”

“If you want to be successful in sales you have to take the attitude that being told no applies to that day only.”

“I wonder how people knew when to show up for work before a time clock was invented?”

“There are four words in the dictionary that most adults get totally confused: wants, needs, success, and happiness. Life will be a lot tougher than it has to be if we don’t get these definitions straight.”

“We can become much more effective socially if we realize that people want to impress more than they want to be impressed.”

“To be successful it’s important to accept failure but not to embrace it and invite it into your home.”

“I saw a report the other day from the Air Force regarding the amount of man-made debris that’s falling from space each year. I thought about this and realized Chicken Little was telling the truth.”

“When I got into the business world I learned the word “we” had a different meaning. One day my boss told me wme had to get a report done even if it took all night. Not only did I find out what my boss meant by we I also found out that working in an office building by myself at night is kind of scary. ”

“I think the first decision a wife makes each morning is whether or not her husband will have a good day or a bad day.”

“I was in Barnes & Noble the other day reviewing the section on Fiction and came across the book: The Joy of Parenting.”

“My parents were kind enough to do a lot of decision making for me when I was growing up like what I’d eat, what I’d wear, what I needed, when I’d go to bed, when I’d get up, and who I’d hang out with; my parents were really helpful.”

“Our economy would’ve crumbled if teenagers were right about everyone over 40 being clueless.”

“Some people are so anchored to their past they never set sail to their future.”

“I love having family and friends who are strange because it makes gossiping so much more fun.”

“The first time I ever saw my parent’s high-five was when I boarded my bus to boot camp.”

“Dogs love more because they judge less.”

“No one is more afraid of going to hell than a fireman.”

Radical Middle-Eastern Muslims (Nine Minutes to Read)

3/8/2012

Some of what I’ve written in the paragraph below is a bit tongue and cheek but I hope I get the message across. I start with some good things about Muslim fundamentalist then I go on to talk about their danger to the United States.

Let me start with something I admire about Muslims and that’s how they treat their faith. They’re more disciplined about prayer and in attending services than we are. They treat their Koran as a holy book unlike a lot of Christians who lay their Bible anywhere in their house or car. My opinion is that Muslims live a life of reverence when it comes to their faith and they tend to work their lives around it versus a lot of us who tend to work our faith around our lives.

When I mention Muslims I’m addressing those who are fundamentalist which includes most of the citizens of the Middle-East not those who have been great citizens of the U.S. for years. The Koran includes areas where it talks about the need to wipe out non-believers (infidels). Our Old Testament also has some pretty brutal things in it where the Israelites were told to wipe out entire cities to maintain their religious integrity but over time that all changed especially in the New Testament. Jesus told the disciples to evangelize throughout the world (of course it was pretty small back then) and if someone wouldn’t accept their message they were told to move on to the next home not murder the occupants who turned down their faith.

Christians also are told to live by the Ten Commandments which include: “Thou shall not kill.” I've heard some Muslims argue that Christians have tried to wipe them out but most of that occurred a thousand years ago and U.S. citizens have never been a part of it historically or currently.

We’re called Christians for a reason because we accepted the New Covenant which God provided us through his son Jesus. We believe in treating our neighbors as we would want to be treated. There’re great lessons to learn about life in the Old Testament (like the books of Proverbs and Wisdom) but a majority of our focus is on how the Old Testament leads us to the coming of Christ. Right off the bat in the New Testament, Matthew explains in detail from the Old Testament how Jesus is truly the son of God.

Many Muslims focus on its scriptures of killing non-believers. This is why it’s so dangerous to be a Christian missionary in the Middle East. It can also be dangerous in China but if they pursue Christians they’ll often place them in jail; they don’t hang or behead them like they do in Muslim countries. There’s a big difference in the U.S. as we would never torture someone because of their religious beliefs. So here we have countries that don’t just dislike us, they hate us because we’re infidels to them.

Muslims are treated so much better than Christians in our country. Governments like France were so afraid of the consequences of offending Muslims that they now are the fasting growing group with 8 million Muslims and growing. Our government is so afraid of offending Muslims yet they don’t worry about offending Christians. This is what I call a double-standard. I wonder if children were saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of Islam would our government stop them from doing it? I could be wrong but I doubt it because they’d be afraid of what might happen (a.k.a. terrorist attacks).

I’m not a big fan of random searches at the airport but if they’re going to do it, then they should profile; my word our FBI certainly does it to solve crimes. With the exception of Middle-Easterners, other demographics aren’t known to use aircrafts as vehicles of mass destruction; especially not children and grandparents. It’s absolutely ridiculous to waste time frisking this group. So why do we screen these people; it’s because we don’t want to offend Muslims. This is what I call the tail wagging the dog!

In my opinion we’re giving special treatment to a particular religious group and in most cases we do it out of fear. We’re afraid of upsetting them because the consequences could be deadly. Think about these points from a USA Today article; some public schools and universities like George Mason and the University of Michigan are granting Muslims special prayer times, prayer rooms, and foot baths. We couldn’t even keep prayer in our public schools. In case you didn’t know the work place is their next focus where they’ve been working on different breaks and work schedules that will meet their religious beliefs. I don’t know about you but I’ve never worked anyplace where they’ve made religious accommodations for me.

When Christians in the United States are persecuted we don’t go out and kill those who did it. Recently a few of our military personnel accidentally burned old copies of the Koran thinking that was the way they were supposed to dispose of them. They were wrong but it was an innocent mistake and they felt terrible about what they did. We apologized all the way up to President Obama but it didn’t matter and the Afghanis started targeting our military; the very people who were there to help them. Here they were killing people because of what we did with the Koran yet they’d torture and kill someone in their country if he or she were caught with a Bible.

Why do we accept this double-standard? As far as I know we don’t even call them on it. I’d tell them that we’ll start treating their religious beliefs with respect when they do ours. I just don’t understand why were bending over backwards to please a group of people who have never been pleased throughout their entire existence? Why should we try to please a group of people who have never been able to create allies even with other Muslim countries? When someone shows you who they are you need to believe them.

These are some of the things I think we should do in reference to my above observations. First of all I think Christians should learn a few lessons from Muslims that it’s time to live around our faith and not vice-versa. We should be reverent in all things when it comes to our faith like how we act in church, honoring the Sabbath, reading our Bibles, etc. We should be bold in our faith and not try to hide the fact that we’re Christians just so we can avoid being treated differently by other people. Whether you‘re Catholic or Protestant, it’s time for you to carry your cross with pride and follow our Lord.

The second thing I think we should do is realize most Muslims aren’t like those living in the United States. A majority of Muslims think we’re infidels and should be wiped off of the face of the Earth. We need to keep this in mind in reference to our Foreign Policies with them. We should pull our military out as we could never win the hearts and minds of people who want us dead. We should evaluate the amount of money we’re spending in the U.S. to defend ourselves against terrorism. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this (Home Land Security) yet the number of lives lost every year due to crimes blows away our losses on 9/11. I certainly hate what happened but let’s face it we could accomplish exponentially more by allocating funds where they're really needed.

Our FBI and CIA could address all of our terrorist concerns; why we created yet another agency is beyond me except for the possible purpose of making U.S. citizens feel safer. They have tried to justify their existence by saying they've thawarted some terrorist attemps but I guarantee you one of our other agencies was involved.

Law enforcement throughout our country complain that it’s more difficult to do their jobs effectively because of what they have coined “Alphabet Soup.” What this means is that law enforcement is stepping all over themselves because there are times when the ATF, CIA, DEA, FBI, and HLS are all trying to do the same things. There’s often arguments about which agency has jurisdiction. Let me give you an example of this. Let’s say the Port Authority found a cache of weapons in a container. The ATF gets involved because there’re weapons. The CIA gets involved because they need to determine if the weapons came from a terrorist cell. Homeland Security gets involved because they want to figure out where the weapons are headed. The FBI would get involved because they too want to know where the weapons are headed because it might be going to a drug lord or a terrorist cell.

Who's in charge? Which agency will process evidence? Who needs to be called when there’s a lead? From what I hear they’re terrible about communicating with one another as they all take on ownership. I’m not a law enforcement guru but it seems to me this isn’t the right way to fight crime because they’re tripping all over each other.

We should calculate the true value the Middle-East provides. Any leverage they might have like oil should be eliminated or reduced to a controllable level. This is always a smart military tactic. Plus I think we sometimes forget they need us too because they get a lot of money from the U.S. We have other sources of oil available in our country including a mother lode in Alaska. I don’t have a clue why we don’t tap into it especially since Alaskans are begging us to drill for oil. We have to ask ourselves what’s more important, eliminating the leverage the Middle-East has on us or saving land in Alaska; land of which the Alaskans say wouldn’t be negatively affected. If you research the subject, you’ll find the land the Democrats think they’re saving doesn’t have purpose and this is why Alaskans want to move forward with drilling.

We should immediately stop giving Muslim countries foreign aid; here we buy oil from them and we give them money…ridiculous. We should never teach their people military tactics or give them weapons because they always end up being used against us. I bet there are some Russian soldiers who think it’s funny that weapons we gave Afghanistan to fight them are now being used against our troops. Muslims don’t respect us and would rather us dead so our Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy should always be based on this. Let’s pull our military out and let the Muslim countries fight among themselves; this is the way it’s always been.

My last point is in reference to double- standards. I say no more staying quiet. It’s time to contact every one of our legislators about our concerns (use mine above and any others you can think of), and tell them we want the special treatment given to Muslims stopped. How can they get away with prayer rooms and special prayer times? If our government refused to do so then Christians should ask for the same benefits based on precedence.

If we give in to fear like France has done, we will crash just like they did. We should treat them how they deserve to be treated and if they don’t like it then let’s face the attack should it come and deal with them harshly enough that they’ll think twice about doing it the next time.

Taking the high road in dealing with Muslim radicals will only lead to us losing the war. Some people sit back and say they lost but they feel good about the way they played, but the fact is they lost. It’s one thing to lose an innocent game but we can’t afford to lose one that is about our very survival.

The Entitlement Generation (Two Minutes to Read)

3/7/2012

We have reached a point in our nation where the children coming out of public schools think the government plays a big role in them achieving their dreams. Jack Chambless is a well respected economics professor at Valencia College. He recently shared some results from essays his students did regarding the role the government should play in their lives. These are the things they wanted:

1. Free college tuition
2. Free health care
3. Help in getting a job
4. Money for a house
5. Money for retirement
6. Fair distribution of wealth

I don’t know about you but I consider this very scary. We now have around 48% of our country receiving some form of government assistance. This has doubled since the 1980’s and it’s one of the major reasons why we have such a huge deficit. Here we have kids coming up who want even more from the federal government so it’s only going to get worse.

I believe there are several reasons why these young people have an entitlement mentality. First of all I think it begins at home. Some children don’t do any chores yet their parents give them money; not just a few dollars either. How can we expect these young people to know they need to do to get. Instead throughout their childhood many kids don’t have to earn anything. These children also get about anything they want even if it’s a big-ticket item. They don’t learn the difference between needs and wants.

The other issue is that children today don’t learn enough about economics nor about The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence, or our U.S. Constitution. Because of this they don’t get the big picture of how our government was formed and what it’s supposed to do for its citizens. It’s easy to get into an entitlement mentality when you don’t understand these things.

Another issue in my opinion is in what they hear from the Democratic Party. Because they demonize people with higher incomes and push the role of federal government, these young people buy into their agenda because it sounds so good. They don’t realize that nothing is free. Once again since they
don’t understand the big picture they are easily sold on a life that sounds easy because the federal government will take care of everything.

I consider this a very scary issue because these young people are going to visit the polling booth and grab the lever to perceived riches. They don’t like the message that Republics give that we need to buckle up and do our part to get our country back in shape. Their message isn’t one that sounds good to someone who wants to receive not give. This is why it’s so difficult to get young people to support the Republic Party. People who believe in entitlements are Democrats; that’s just the way it is.

The Fall of the Roman Empire (Seven Minutes to Read)

3/6/2012

Much has been written about the fall of the Roman Empire a lot of which is conflicting as there are so many variables involved. I believe the Roman Empire was the greatest throughout the history of mankind. First of all just the fact they lasted over 1,000 years (625B.C. – 476 A.D.) is absolutely amazing. I can’t begin to tell you all the things the Romans invented but some of my favorites are: the invention of cranes, the invention of government, the invention of paved roads, the invention of the sawmill, the invention of the steam engine, their amazing architectural engineering, and their advanced military strategies and tactics.

After reviewing various research I’ve compiled what to me seems to make the most sense as to what led to the decline of the Roman Empire; you’ll have to see if you agree. I think the greatest mistake they made was aggressively expanding their Empire. There’re several reasons why I think this was so detrimental. Throughout the history of mankind there’s been a limit countries could empire build before they were beaten back. They get beaten back for several reasons among these is that eventually they encounter an enemy that not only has a strategic advantage because of their military position but also has a tremendous advantage because of what they’re fighting for; they were protecting their homes and families so they had a huge incentive to fight with all they had. Roman soldiers fought for territory that someone else would own; they didn’t have the incentive to fight to their last breath.

Another problem has to do with logistics. The further the army travelled the more difficult it was to supply them with clothing, food, medical supplies, money, etc. Anyone in the military will tell you that if you want to negatively affect moral and of course performance, take away these necessities from them.

Let me talk about the lack of food a little bit. It only takes a few days to begin to feel the negative affects of not having protein. The soldiers grew weaker and weaker which not only means they weren’t in good condition to fight they also couldn’t travel as fast. Lack of good nutrition also affected their healing if they were injured. It was difficult enough to survive back then due to a lack of medical capabilities let alone lack of nutrition. Could you imagine trying to kill enough rabbits to feed 1,000 soldiers on a daily basis? Of course water was always an issue too; finding a small watering hole didn’t provide enough water for their animals and soldiers.

So the bottom line is that as Roman Soldiers got further away from Rome, they began to lose their effectiveness both physically and mentally. The logistics it took to support them wasn’t effective. What kept them going more than anything was when they did capture a city and gained access to what they had. My guess is that these troops felt negatively about Rome because they sent them out to fight yet they weren’t taking care of them. All military commanders know that situations like this can be detrimental.

I’m going to stick with the military a little bit longer because I feel it was a huge reason for the fall of the Roman Empire. These military marches went on for thousands of miles and as you can imagine the number of soldiers continuously dropped due to deaths (both in battle and disease) and with desertion. So each time they’d approach a battle they did it with less troops.

They’d also lose troops due to some having to stay behind to protect the conquered city. So once again the army would encounter their next battle with even less troops. What all of this created is that it became easier for them to lose battles and the opposing force would start going down the path the Romans took and attack the city which the Roman’s had just taken over.

There’s a lot more to this but let me wrap up with the financial impact in their pursuit of expanding their empire. There’re a lot of things which make up the cost of government and the military is one of them. Their aggressive efforts towards empire building caused them to spend unreal amounts of money to fund their quests. Just like with any government tax payers had to foot the bill. More and more was asked of them yet they weren’t getting anything in return. What did having all these other lands due for the citizens of Rome? Nothing, thus those proud Romans started becoming very angry Romans. This in turn negatively affected the respect they had for their politicians which began the process of fracturing their republic.

One more point in reference to costs. Rome’s economy took a huge hit because money was leaving the city and going to other lands; basically anywhere where the soldiers went. That money in turn was spent away from the city and it usually didn’t make its way back. What this means is that money was being siphoned out of Rome and no longer in their economy. Just like with any economy (money going round and round) it eventually ends in depression if it continues to shrink and that’s exactly what was happening to Rome. Their economy was headed south at the same time their soldiers were overextended and beginning to lose battles.  It’s never good when a military loses its edge. They were mighty warriors who were feared but with a chink in their armor other armies felt they could beat them and did.

Getting away from the military, another area that led to their decline has to do with their economy in general. I already mentioned how funding the military created a major drain on them. Another way money began leaving Rome is due to their citizens’ abundant lifestyles. Because they were well off and living in the city they didn’t want to do a lot of the manual labor they used to do. Kind of like in the U.S. where we hire people to clean our homes, mow our yards, etc. With this in mind, Rome enticed people to live outside of the city (Rome was too packed) and brought them in to work. These people took their money back to their own communities and spent most of it there. So almost all this money that was used to outsource labor left the city and only part of it came back to the government through taxes.

I mentioned earlier what it does to an economy to lose money so here we have not only the military’s impact on Rome’s economy but also the impact of labor. All the money that was going round and round between citizens because of all the things sold began leaving the city. Something like this can only go on so long before a depression occurs.

I’ll wrap up with one more thing that I believe was a factor but not more so than what I just covered. Roman citizens lost faith in their government. At one point politicians were respected but then with the economy tanking and them still enjoying their luxurious lifestyles while the citizens suffered, the citizens started getting more and more angry. Add to this how bad things had escalated in reference to politicians killing other politicians, their faith in the system was lost. And like us they knew things had reached a critical level they just couldn’t figure out how to change it.

Their citizens weren’t willing to give up more taxes so they didn’t. The politicians got worried as to a potential uprisings so they tried to find ways to placate the citizens including having more events at the Coliseum. They also began escalating the events to include more gore such as putting a man in the ring with a tiger. They thought it would be a nice distraction but in the end it wasn’t enough. Most of the empires they built were taken over by other armies and so the pride of being a Roman waned. As we all know, when a country loses the hearts and minds of their people some form of ruin is just around the corner.

Once again there’re hundreds of theories as to what really led to the fall of the Roman Empire. In taking a look at the research and using some good old fashion common sense, I’ve pieced together what I think makes the most sense. Think about it, even the Russian Empire crumbled due to having too large of a military because their citizens couldn’t fund it. Here we had a Cold War with them with the threat of nuclear weapons but President Ronald Reagan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CIA knew we’d win the war due to economic reasons. They were just waiting for Russia to collapse and it did. My philosophy whether a good situation or bad is to follow the money. This is why I feel the underlying cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire was economic.

The Benefits of Prayer (Two Minutes to Read)

3/6/2012

Just like with any parent, God loves to hear from us and he loves that we know we need him. But keep in mind that just like with any parent it can hurt a little when your child only comes to you when he or she needs something. So make sure and talk to God about other things besides what you might want.

Prayer is awesome in that it can give us peace even in turmoil because we know we aren’t facing the problem alone. I know I’ve been caught up in situations that absolutely ate me up inside because I didn’t turn things over to God. How stupid!

You end up making better choices because prayer slows you down enough to where you might not jump into a bad mistake. This is one of the greatest problems humans have in that we tend to jump into things without thinking enough about it first. Even if someone isn’t a Christian it’s still a good idea to stop and meditate on the matter.

Prayer improves your attitude and as we all know, a good attitude can dramatically improve your personal and professional journeys. Not only does a bad attitude negatively affect us it is also a terrible testimony to non-Christians.

Another reason prayer is great is because it’s an outstanding witness to others (both Christian and non-Christian) because they see your faith. When people ask you how come you have such peace regarding a particular matter, you’re able to them that you took it to your Lord in prayer. This could just be a coincidence but I’ve never seen one of my strong Christian friends freak out over anything. Then again maybe it’s not a coincidence!

Prayer greatly improves our character because people who don’t admit frailties to themselves or others aren’t likely to be receptive to personal  improvements. When we go to God in prayer all ego is left aside and we acknowledge we aren’t good enough and we need him in our lives. We acknowledge that we won’t get better until we admit we have a problem and this is why we go to God in prayer to get help.

There are many more reasons we should pray but hopefully the above points will give you some reminders as to why we benefit so much in going to our Father in prayer.

General George Custer (17 Minutes to Read)

3/6/2012

There’s a bit of conflicting opinions about General Custer (a.k.a. The Boy General) when it comes to things like his military competencies, his perceived conceit, his professional motives, and the way in which he died. Most of my research comes from the best source I could find, the original biography which was written one year after Custer’s death. It included interviews, letters, reports by field reporters with the AP, etc.

I’ve come to what I believe are solid conclusions regarding everything but the way General Custer died. How he died at the Battle of Little Big Horn is undisputed but the issues of who killed him and was he the last man standing will never be confirmed; of course in many movies Custer was shown as the heroic last man standing. General Custer often used war correspondents and he had one with him at the Battle of Little Bighorn but the Associated Press reporter was killed along with everyone else so the real story was never told.

George Custer was born in Ohio in 1839 and died at the young age of 36. He had a humble beginning with a dad who was a blacksmith and farmer; his mother passed away when he was young. He was a good but not great student so he needed help to get into West Point. He did not perform well at the academy receiving more demerits then anyone in the history of West Point. He was almost kicked out every year he was there and he ended up finishing last in his class. His saving grace at the academy were his skills in all things war oriented (i.e. horses, strategies/tactics, weapons, etc.) along with his charisma. He had a look about him and charm that made it very difficult to not like him so his superiors kept bailing him out of trouble.

Because the Civil War was breaking out his class was able to graduate West Point a year early. Being able to jump right into war was just what Custer wanted. It took him very little time to distinguish himself on the battle field. If there was a river to cross he was the first one in to make sure everyone knew how deep the water was. When a battle started he was the first one charging towards the enemy. His bravery and success was awarded when at the age of 23 Captain George Custer was promoted to General of the volunteer army and became known as the“Boy General”.

Custer’s fame helped him finally get approval from Elizabeth (Libby) Bacon’s father who was a judge in their hometown, to marry her. General Custer knew Libby when they were kids (she was three years younger) but she was in upper-society while George was part of the blue collar crowd. They never had children but their love was practically fairytale in nature. Often times Libby would travel with George and stay in his tent near the front lines. Sometimes she would ride with him as his Calvary was leaving town and then peel back for home. The letters they’d write one another were sometimes over twenty pages. Custer even got court-martialed once because he left his Calvary and took several men and travelled two and half days non-stop (a few horses even went lame), just to be with Libby for one day. She hated that her husband got court-martialed but she always considered it the most romantic thing he’d ever done.

Libby never remarried after General Custer died and lived sixty years after his death (she died at 93). She wrote a few books which became best sellers including the original biography on General Custer that she and a historian wrote. It was finished a year after Custer died and it’s considered one of the best biographies ever written because of the eyewitness testimonies and the amount of research material that was available (i.e. articles, journal, letters, news reports, etc.).

Anyhow, once Custer had his own volunteer army division out of Michigan he turned out to be a brilliant military strategist (i.e. scouting the terrain, going over the enemies’ strengths and weaknesses, best line of attack, etc.). Even though he did these things he still had many detractors (officers in other divisions) who said General Custer was reckless; my guess is that it had more to do with jealously. Just as in business it’s all about results and General Custer was delivering results to the great pleasure of his senior officers. If there was something challenging to get done, General Custer was the one they sent.

One of his greatest battles occurred near Gettysburg before the big battle broke out. There was a big clash between the Confederate and Union armies as they were fighting for position. The Union Armydecided there was too much heat so they decided to give up their line and move back and establish another line of defense. General Custer asked his superior if he could take his men and attack the Confederates in order to give the other units an easier opportunity to pull back. Approval was given so Captain Custer told his Michigan Brigade what they were going to do. Before he led the charge he yelled to his men: “Let’s go wolverines!” They charged the Confederate Army and not only held them back but also made them retreat. Because of this move by Custer and his men the Union Army was able to not only gain their position back but move forward and take what was the Confederate’s ground.

General Custer’s men loved him because he was always the first one to attack the enemy line and he was a warrior when he did. This wasn’t typical of how most commanders managed battles. They were usually positioned in the back of the battle and they didn’t wear their usual uniform because they didn’t want to put a bull’s eye on their backs. General Custer wore a flamboyant uniform because he wanted the enemy to know who he was. The uniform he wore and being the first one to attack had a couple of great strategic advantages. First of all, it’s much easier to get your men fired up to
fight when you’re in front of them versus behind them. The other thing is when the Confederate soldiers saw what appeared to be the leader of the Union Army charging towards them it was intimidating. Soldiers looked at warriors like Grant, Jackson, Lee, etc., as heroes regardless of what side they were fighting on.

The way Custer charged into battle gave him a tremendous amount of positive press. People (including his own men) could not figure out how he continued being uninjured or killed. One time he was charging towards the enemy’s line of defense and his horse was shot out from under him. He still didn’t get shot and one of his men rode up and got him out. Of course he grabbed another horse and got right back into the action. The “Boy General” was the darling of the media and you could just imagine how his peers felt about this. I admit if I were one of them I’d be jealous.

General Custer had an extraordinary career during the Civil War. His commander even took the time after the war to write Libby a special letter saying that her husband was a huge factor in the Union Armies’ victory. Unfortunately though, war was the only place Custer was happy. After the Civil War the troops were cut down from over 100,000 men to around 30,000. No longer having a volunteer army which General Custer was commissioned to lead, he was reduced back down to Captain. He became depressed not fighting and having to deal with administrative matters instead. This led him to get heavily involved in gambling and he spent a lot of money on business deals that went bad. He found that he was a superstar in war but not in everyday life.

Then Captain Custer caught a break because his superiors needed his help in backing the Indians off from interfering with the Pacific Railroad’s expansion towards the west. Custer was told to use whatever means necessary to get the job done.

He was excited about the opportunity but it didn’t take long for him to realize it wasn’t the war he was hoping for; his men were disappointed as well. The Indians were in small groups and they didn’t engage his men but instead rode off. But what he did find is he had a great appreciation for the frontier. He began hunting big game and the reporter who was with him took pictures and wrote stories as to Custer’s skill on the plains. Captain Custer began wearing a beautiful buckskin jacket which made the pictures going to the various newspapers all the more popular. Custer also started writing articles for an outdoor magazine; kind of like the Field and Stream magazine we have today. From a military perspective though it was an ineffective campaign; something Custer was not used to.

When Captain Custer went home he found himself in the same situation he was in after the Civil War. He went back to gambling and trying different business ventures to where he was getting himself in financial trouble again. Then he made things much worse by getting into a war of words with President Grant’s brother. The President was furious and busted Captain Grant down a rank and he ordered that Custer be taken off active duty for a year.

The now Lieutenant Custer’s situation was very upsetting to his superiors as they couldn’t stand what President Grant did because Custer was their star performer. A very serious problem with the Indians was brewing in the Dakotas so they disregarded President Grant’s decision and reinstated Custer to active service. This was a very bold and possible career ending move on their part but it goes to show how much they thought of Custer.

Part of Custer’s assignment was to investigate resources the Sioux Indian’s had in the Dakota Black Hills. The land belonged to the Lakota/Sioux Indians because we gave it to them in a treaty (nice of us to give them their own land). While surveying the area some of Custer’s men found gold. A reporter from the Associated Press was with Custer and he ran the story which led to a gold rush. It didn’t take long for over 16,000 miners to arrive and encroach upon the Indian’s territory. As you can imagine tensions ran extremely high as the Indians were trying to figure out a way to get rid of the miners. At the same time the U.S. government was trying to find a way to get out of the treaty in order to get this valuable land back (they didn’t know how valuable the land was when they made the treaty with the Indians).

Close to the time Captain Custer and his men were to head home they came across horse tracks and they followed the tracks to a small Indian village. It was their first chance for action during their trip so the men surrounded the village and attacked killing children, men, and women (they did take some prisoners back to the fort).

Two very terrible things occurred from this massacre: one is they found out the village they wiped out was settler friendly; their Chief had signed a peace treaty and was known to be a non-combatant. The other terrible issue is that other tribes found out what the Union Army had done so not only were they furious they also felt there was no need to sign any more peace treaties because they meant nothing. This attack although terrible wasn’t looked at as a mistake because Captain Custer had no knowledge of friendly tribes being in the area. Of course the newspapers didn’t report it as a savage attack and instead hailed Captain Custer as a heroic Indian fighter.

During this battle Custer did something that historians thought was one of his best strategic moves. Most of the chief’s tribe was further down the river and they got word from a scout as to what happened so they came charging towards Custer’s men. Instead of retreating Custer ordered his men to attack hoping it would cause the Indians to retreat. It worked and as soon as it turned dark Custer ordered his men to retreat towards home because he knew they were by far outnumbered.

Because of the way the Indians fought in the past, our U.S. Military wasn’t too concerned about fighting the Indians. Their tribes generally didn’t have a lot of warriors so they were more inclined to move away from the Calvary rather than fight. What we didn’t know is that Chief Sitting Bull was building his own military force by bringing in the Arapaho, Lakota, and Northern Cheyenne tribes. He didn’t believe in dealing with the white man as he didn’t understand why they should negotiate for their own land.

Chief Sitting Bull was the great Indian leader and visionary of his time and unlike other Indian Chiefs he refused to sign the peace treaty and move to the reservation. He wasn’t going to allow settlers to take away their way of life. He was known to have visions and one of his visions was the future influx of settlers into their territory so he tried to convince other tribes to join him and fight. He didn’t have much luck until Custer’s attack on one of their tribes along with the gold rush. Tensions reached an all-time high and several other tribes decided to join Sitting Bull and his Lakota/Sioux Indians.

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was allowed to join the 7th Calvary but not be in charge. This duty was given to Brigadier General Alfred Terry who helped get Custer off of President Grant’s blacklist. In May of 1876 General Terry was given the mission to attack Indian hostiles (those who weren’t living on the reservation) and force them into reservations. The 7thCalvary didn’t think they’d encounter too much action and instead figured they’d be involved in some small skirmishes. Neither Custer nor anyone else knew that many of the tribes were no longer scattered but instead in the same camp with Sitting Bull.

General Terry divided his Calvary into three columns. He wanted Custer to stay with him because he was more of an administrator than soldier so he needed Custer’s skills. They were planning on moving in from the north. Colonel John Gibbon and his men were to approach from the east. General Crook and his soldiers were to come in from the south. Everyone’s goal at this point was to corral the Indians and keep them from scattering.

General Crook’s men made it south and were camped by a river when a bunch of Indians began charging down a hill towards them; their screaming made it even more intimidating to the soldiers. If it weren’t for the fierce fighting by their Crow Indian Scouts they might not have made it out. His men retreated south shocked as to what happened. General Crook had never been proactively attacked by Indians before. This became one of the first major mistakes that occurred because General Crook wrote a letter to General Sherman in Chicago as to what he saw but he didn’t let his own commander know about it.

A little later on, Custer began knowing there might be thousands of Indians. They came across a good vantage point and although he couldn’t see how many Indians were there, the amount of smoke coming from the camp was intimidating. At this point the Crow scouts warned Custer that his men wouldn’t have enough bullets to fight so many Indians. Custer began getting worried because his men were worn out from pushing so hard to get there. Not the best scenario when a major battle was getting ready to happen.

Custer was put in charge to attack from the north while Major Reno was to approach from the south and Captain Benteen from the east. Before they left Custer promised his support to both commanders.

Major Reno attacked from the south and as he got closer to the camp he saw thousands of Indians. This of course scared him because he knew his battalion didn’t have enough ammunition to put up a fight. They broke out their rifles and began shooting into camp. When a pause occurred Chief Sitting Bull sent his nephew and another warrior to negotiate with the soldiers but they were both shot and wounded; Chief Sitting Bull’s horse was killed. He loved this animal.

This was a terrible move on the Army’s part because more and more Indians came pouring out of the camp. The soldiers who got off of their horses couldn’t shoot fast enough so the Indians swarmed on top of them. Major Reno and some of his men took off on a fast retreat. The Indians stayed in pursuit, shooting Reno’s men with guns they had taken off dead soldiers.

Several of the men including Major Reno came up on the Little Big Horn River and found themselves in front of a ten foot embankment. They didn’t want to get killed so they jumped the embankment with their horses and made it safely to the other side. Once on the other side Reno and his men went looking for Captain Benteen who was supposed to be attacking from the east. He got there right before Benteen’s group was ready to attack and Reno told him about the thousands of Indians and what they did to his battalion. He strongly recommended that Benteen abort his mission which is what Benteen
decided to do.

Benteen and Reno stood around talking when another officer approached them and asked where Custer was. They told him he was probably safe well north of the tribe. He was mad at their cavalier attitudes so he took some of Benteen’s men (of which Benteen was shamed into joining them) and went looking for Custer’s squad. Their scouting party came up on a hill where they saw dead bodies all over the place. Because of Custer’s unique attire they quickly found him. He had a bullet hole in his chest and another one in his left temple. They figured he was probably injured during the battle and then the Indians came through and finished the soldiers off.

One thing that bothers me is that some people have said Custer screwed up and that’s why he and his men were killed. First of all, no one could’ve realistically known how many Indians there were. Never before had Indians come together like this. Even though they had great Indian scouts they were limited in what they could do. This was due to them having to stay a safe distance away from the Indian’s camp because a lot of Indians were out hunting and doing some scouting of their own. With this in mind, it was too easy to be spotted and ruin the element of surprise. That’s exactly what Custer thought had happened.

The other thing is that Custer continued his attack even knowing the odds because he wasn’t going to leave his other two battalions hanging; he promised them he’d have their backs. Unfortunately he and his men were the ones who were left hanging. Since the Indians weren't being attack from the east by Captain Benteen, the Indians were able to focus their fight against Custer and his men. Benteen and Reno were both reprimanded over their actions during the battle but that was no concillation to the wifes of the soldiers lost.

Word began to spread regarding what was termed: “Custer’s Last Stand.” A couple of military officers showed up at Custer’s home where they found both Libby and her sister-in-law. What the women didn’t realize is that both of them were to receive bad news as George and his brother-in-law were killed along with Custer’s nephew and two brothers. Libby played her role of supporting the multitude of women who lost their husbands but after doing this she moved away and fell into a bout of depression. The project of writing her husband’s biography is what pulled her out of her condition.

General George Armstrong Custer was definitely a very ambitious man who some characterized as egotistical and reckless. The way he used the media and his flamboyant attire well ahead of its time. Although a lot of people don’t give him credit for it, his use of war reporters was bold because he brought in a third party that might not portray the battle in a great light. I read nothing that said he tried to influce the reporters in any way in reference to battle figures.

There were certainly a number of General Custer’s peers who didn’t think highly of him but the fact is he consistently delivered what his superiors wanted. He was a heroic leader who inspired his troops by his warrior spirit. He definitely wasn’t a perfect man especially when it came to those times when he wasn’t at war, but his contribution to our nation’s success speaks for itself. He was a loving husband and family man. His brothers thought the world of him.

My personal opinion is that it was probably good that Custer died when he did because there were no more wars that he could’ve fought. Civilian life wasn’t for him because he was a warrior and warriors never rest. He lived his life like each day would be his last so he got a lot out of his 36 years. Someone once said: “The length of your life is less important than its depth.” How fitting for General Custer.

A side note: Chief Sitting Bull survived the war but he and his family were captured and forced to live on a reservation. He was asked to perform in Wild Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and became a very popular attraction (not many people had seen an Indian before). When the tour was over the Chief returned to the reservation where he was a rebel just as he’d been when he was free. The police became concerned at his anti-government talk and went to Remove him from his home. Gun fire broke out when the Chief’s supporters tried to stop the police from taking him. One of the officers shot and killed Chief Sitting Bull during the skirmish even though he had no weapon. Chief Sitting Bull was 59 when he died and he was considered one of the greatest Indian Chiefs who ever lived.

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Author: John Mann

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