The figure in black drew closer with each step along East Sixth in Reno. In no time I could tell it was woman clad in a burqa.

No one yelled at her, no one called her names or threatened her. And I was proud – this is America I told myself — the land of the free and home of the brave.

Driving along Reno’s notorious Fourth Street corridor, filled with vagrants, hookers and the homeless, I saw two homosexual men holding hands. They entered a bar that flies the ‘rainbow banner.’

No one yelled at them, no one called either man a name or threatened them with harm. And I was proud – this is America I told myself — the land of the free and home of the brave.

Once at home I turned on the TV and learned that the Washoe County School District says it will not allow school-approved athletics and club-related clothing to be worn on campus because it discriminates against other students. This includes letterman jackets, club-shirts, society pins and such.

And I was sad. Is this America — and what has happened to the free and the brave?

It’s been years since I was a U.S. Air Force Environmental Health Tech. And while there are new ways being employed to halt infections, the nature of contracting a disease hasn’t changed.

Ingestion, inhalation and injection are for any vector-borne disease the gateway into the human body.

However those charged with the care of an Ebola infected person cannot avoid the disease. So they use barriers like gloves, gowns, goggles and masks, not to mention disinfectants, to keep from becoming ill.

So with all these barriers, why are healthcare workers contraction Ebola? Furthermore even the CDC says the virus changes itself each time it infects a new host.

It could be that while the virus is primarily passed by person-to-person contact, the disease has mutated in some cases into an airborne illness. And unless proper precautions are not being followed, allowing the transmission, then nothing else makes sense.

The dictionary defines ‘war,’ as: armed fighting between nations; state of hostility or conflict; struggle between opposing forces or for a particular end. But it seems the meaning is being changed and it’s being done so that it fits the needs of the politically correct.

They don’t want President Obama to be remembered as a ‘war president,’ something he vigorously campaigned against in two election cycles. Therefore, they are attempting to twist public perception as to the correct definition.

To this end, President Obama is sending 500 advisors to help the Iraqi government contain ISIS/ISIL. Meanwhile, he’s deploying 3,000 combat troops to West Africa to help battle the Ebola outbreak.

Either way, Obama’s now a ‘war president.’

The National Football League continues to tear itself apart from the inside-out. Another player is in trouble, accused of child abuse after whipping and leaving marks on his four-year-old son.

It has also decided to employ three women to help the league deal with situations involving domestic abuse and other incidents deemed important to women. Plus there is talk of firing Roger Goodel and replacing him with Condoleezza Rice.

Then Mary comes home telling me that local favorite Colin Kaepernick was fined $11,000 for supposedly calling someone a, “Nigger.” Kap says he didn’t say it and the player he reportedly said it to, Chicago defensive end Lamarr Houston, also says he didn’t say it.

Kap plans to appeal the charge and the fine.

It appears only Side Judge Laird Hayes heard what no-one else heard. Sounds like a case of bullying to me, which the NFL has stated will not be tolerated either on or off the field.

Seems very selective to me.

2000

Look upon shattered scapes,
Through front room drapes,
Fenced off neighborhood,
Where sage once stood.

Fence upon fence line the street
As property line and boundary meet,
No room for the jack rabbits’ run,
Tops of roof block out the sun.

Coyote yelps now hardly heard,
Settlement progress is the word,
Not the open land it used to be,
Roads, car are what they see.

Stop, listen for what one hears,
Wild land, wetland, destruction fears.
Where will they go when all is gone?
Where will we go when they’re all gone?

ABC News report today is the first time President Obama, et. al., mentioned the name of the Khorason group – however six-days earlier on September 18th, 2014 — during an intelligence gathering in Washington, D.C., Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that “in terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as ISIS/ISIL.”

Evidently the media completely missed this.

Khorasan is the assumed name of a Jihadist group in Syria with close ties to Al-Qaeda. The group is named after the historical region Khorasan that comprised parts of present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in prehistoric and early Islāmic times and composed of former Al-Qaeda operatives from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

“Khorasan” is from the Middle Persian ‘khwar’ meaning ‘sun’ and ‘āsān’ meaning ‘to come,’ thus meaning “land where the sun rises.” It is unusual for a Sunni group to take a Persian name, but one with a reference to the sun, a symbol in Zoroastrianism, is even more unusual.

Members are a jihadist from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target international aviation. The group uses the services of a very prominent Al-Qaeda bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, whose devices ended up on three U.S.-bound planes.

The Khorasan Group recruit jihadists from the West. They’re led by Muhsin al-Fadhli, who fled to Iran after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and knew of the 9/11 attacks in advance.

Again we can’t call the enemy by it’s real name which is Al-Qaeda.

1996

Have you seen a real cowhand
In Timbuktu, China, Lapland?
Trail drives are for cattle,
Like a horse wears a saddle.
And this verse is the proof,
That there isn’t a manhoof.

Stop trying to hold onto the past.
You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

A few years back there was a popular book series called, “Left Behind,” and now there is a new film starring Nicolas Cage. I however could never get into the series.

In the books as well as in the television series that followed, cars crashed and airplanes fell from the skies as people disappeared. These disappearances came as a result of the end of the world and the coming of the Christ.

While it may make for good TV or a good read, I cannot believe this is how Jesus would treat those that God the Father made in his image. The Lord I worship, pray too, believe in and have a relationship with is not a God of chaos.

Therefore, I’m certain that when it comes time for the ‘rapture,’ a word not even in the Bible, it will be a gentle event. And while those of us ‘left behind,’ will notice, it will not lead what the books depict.

Time and again politicians and the media claim moderate Islamists are not a part of the violent wing of the Islāmic extremist movement. Yet, they are jus’ as violent, however we neither hear nor see this as we have the beheading of Americans and Brits.

Our supposed allies, the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia lops off the heads people, stone women and hangs homosexuals, jus’ like they do in Iran. Unfortunately, the American public is unaware of this.

I don’t understand why we are willing to put up with such crap.

Imagine if he Pope declared that anyone who left the Catholic church, painted-by-number a picture of Jesus Christ or disagreed with the churches doctrine, were to be killed by faithful followers. This would lead to a world-wide outcry and the end of the Vatican City State.

Thankfully, Christians (including Catholics) are not calling for the beheading of non-believers.