03/22/2015

A Wedding In the Family

May the love and protection Saint Patrick can give,
Be yours in abundance as long as you live!.

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs. Michel Gilsenen on their marriage March 17, 2015. A Happy St. Patty's Day for the blessed two. Barbara is the former Barbara Romspert and my wife's sister in-law. We have known the two of you as neighbors and friends and wept for your loss of former spouses. It is now with joy that we welcome you and your love for each other and hope you shall both feel you are a continued part of the Fiddler Clan as well.

Where in the World is JB?

 

Jeff's been home for the past week and will be heading off to a sandpit country next week. Always an adventure with that young man. You might even see him at the Wailing Wall. Take pictures Jeffrey.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-netanyahu-secures-decisive-election-victory-1426663606?mod=rss_middle_east_news

Allen Asbury United Methodist Church Spring Bazaar

Don't forget to mark your calender for next Saturday. If your not local you will miss some great food.

Wicomico Yacht Club Oyster Fest

You missed it, it was today, Sorry!

 Baseball Time

Our good friends and loyal National fans soaking up the sun in Viera, FL at a Nationals game. George and Susan Kroloff, I hope you have your sunscreen on. If your on Facebook, check out "poor georgie’s almanack:" on George's Facebook site.

    Spring is officially here, as is baseball. Now if we can just get that bit of news to the Weather Gods, life will be good.   Several years ago I became somewhat of a Pirates fan when we spent a good deal of time gong back and forth with Mary Agnes' brother Bobby to Pittsburgh. There was a Phillies' Fan if there ever was one. Come to think of it, so is his old friend Joe Gilbert. Joe is down there in Clearwater, FL right now. Will they give you a tryout Joe?

In my younger years I was a Philadelphia A's fan until they moved to Kansas City in 1954. I was an eleven year old with a broken heart. So, I jumped ship and became a National League fan of the Phillies for a long time.

Those Kansas City A's eventually moved to Oakland, CA and became the Oakland A's. 

Now there were more broken hearted young fans thanks to the A's. By the way, Charlie Findley was the long time owner of the A's after their move to Kansas City. An interesting man if your interested.

In 1968 I moved to Maryland and became an Orioles fan, I still follow them today even after 20 years in New England and living equal distance from the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets. The fact that I'm living in Maryland these past 26 plus years since my retirement from the CT State Police has made it easier to follow the Birds.

In 2005 the old Montreal Expos moved to Washington, DC and became the Nationals, so, what the hell, I follow and cheer for them now also. Just to add more confusion here are two more Senator stints. Kind of figures it's been a screwed up franchise all these years. It's right up there with the DC Political scene. Chaos Inc I call it.

• Washington Senators (1891–99), played in the American Association and the National League
• Washington Senators (1912), played in the short-lived United States Baseball League

Now way back when, 1962-1964 while in the Marine Corps I was stationed in Washington, DC at Marine Barracks, 8th and I and went to a lot of Washington Senators games. Yes, I was a fan of theirs until their move to Texas in 1971 and became the Texas Rangers. There was another Senator franchise and they moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota and became the baseball Twins.

If your a baseball fan, now is the time to go to Florida.

Thanks For Your Service, Dustin Mazzocoli

Dustin and his mother, Donna Salter Haag

IT2 Dustin Mazzocoli
USS Bonhomme Richard
C5I/CCO4
FPO AP 96617-1656

I'm willing to bet Dustin would love to hear from anyone willing to take a minute out of their day and say" Thank You for Your Service."  I'll also bet he would love to get a few goodies in the Mail. Dustin grew up being good friends with our granddaughters Sam and Rachael. If you do drop a line, tell Dustin you saw it in "The Rooster."

Thank you for your service young fellow.  Semper fi from Pop Fiddler

USS Bonhomme Richard

What do you call a group of Stingrays? You call them a Fever, of course.

The Jersey Shore News Photo

 

 If you click on the link below we will all learn something we didn't know.

http://ecology.about.com/od/Ecology/fl/106-Animals-With-Unusual-Group-Names.htm

High Up on Mt. Washington it's even Spring

To learn more check out "The Observers Blog"

Click below for the current weather on the windy peak.

https://www.mountwashington.org/experience-the-weather/current-summit-conditions.aspx

"Mt. Washington from Bretton Woods" by wwoods -
 Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Where have all the weapons gone?

marvelledblog.blogspot.com

You know how sometimes you lose your cellphone, so you ask a family member to call it? And finally you detect the ringing under the bed where the phone fell? Happy ending.

Well, this story is not like that. It seems the Obama administration has misplaced some military equipment, a large amount of military equipment. A very large amount, actually. It doesn't know where about $500 million in weapons and equipment is, in fact.

That's $500,000,000 -- a half-a-billion dollars. Almost as much taxpayer money as it blew on that solar energy company Solyndra, owned by an Obama bundler. Except the Solyndra money went down a political rat-hole.

This $500 million loss is actual weapons that the U.S. gave to Yemen as part of our joint anti-terrorism program -- and can now be used against American and other friendly forces. You probably didn't hear much about this weapons disaster because only the Washington Post uncovered the story while most attention focused on more unnecessary Hillary Clinton controversies.

Yemen, you may recall, is the country that Barack Obama hailed as such a big success as recently as last fall. Announcing his suddenly-found strategy to fight ISIS in September, Obama said:

“This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground.

This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years."

Unfortunately, all that success came to a smoking halt this winter when Yemen's cooperative government collapsed and Iran-backed rebels took over. Administration officials claimed surprise at the speed of the collapse. There seem to be a lot of surprises with this administrations -- death of the Arab Spring, Benghazi, the explosion of ISIS.

So surprised was the State Department this time that much of the embassy in Sana'a was just abandoned -- equipment, computers, vehicles, Marine weapons -- during the hasty evacuation.

Since our partners within the government were also on the lam, the Pentagon now finds it impossible to account for hundreds of millions of dollars in guns, ammo, explosives, RPGs, vehicles, night-vision goggles. The Houthi rebels could have some of the lethal treasure. So could the al Qaeda affiliate we've been droning there.

Some of it could even go to supply global operatives of Iran, the world's largest exporter of terrorism, as Obama negotiates a hollow nuclear pact with the mullahs.
Militia enjoy US Embassy compound pool in Tripoli (AP)

Militia enjoy US Embassy compound pool in Tripoli (AP)

This president has had a lot of problems with weapons -- and embassies. Before Yemen, the Libyan embassy was abandoned last year to marauding militias.

Obama dithered in recent years providing weapons to moderate Syrian rebels, who've now been largely subsumed by other forces, including ISIS.

For more than a year Ukraine's government, which we claim to support, has pleaded for defensive weapons to counter the slow-motion annexation of eastern Ukraine by Russian rebel forces. Instead, Obama sent tents and field meals for troops.

In its total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011,Obama's administration left behind more than $200 million in modern weaponry for the Kurds. Alas, Baghdad never delivered it to them. But by his complete troop withdrawal, Obama had relinquished any leverage he might have had.

When ISIS killed its way across much of Iraq last year, U.S.-trained Iraqi government troops often dropped their weapons and fled, arming ISIS with modern American weaponry and vehicles, which coalition planes bomb now and then.

So, the U.S. is currently trying to destroy gear it left to fight terrorists, who are themselves using it against outgunned Kurdish troops that Obama has inexplicably declined to arm.

However, Obama has managed to organize another Student Film Festival, which he will host this afternoon at the White House.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/032015-744376-obama-pentagon-cannot-account-for-500-million-in-weapons-in-yemen.htm#ixzz3Ux7kzLR1 

Thanks to Lew Brill of Freehand, PA for the above article.

Until next week, if the Good Lord's a willing and the Creek don't Rise.

Once again thanks to all you readers out there who give this a glance from time to

time.  I held off posting this for 24 hours to bring us to March, 22, also known as 322.

322 was my Badge # during my career with the Connecticut State Police. Enjoy!