Adam Gadahn, Warren Weinstein killed in terror raid, health update...

As I write this latest post to my blog sitting in front of a fireplace in a lounge at Eastview Mall, President Obama is holding a presser about the deaths of two al-Qaeda members including Adam Gadahn and also the deaths of two hostages, one of them Warren Weinsten who is an American who has been held hostage since 2011. The tragedy here is the killing of Warren Weinstein and a second hostage who was from Italy. Those who conducted the raid had no reason to believe that the hostages were present before the go ahead for the raid was made.  Now another tragedy in our ongoing War on Terror has taken place.  Let's pray for the victims and their families at this time.

On to the next topic.  In my last blog I talked about my hospital stay for chest pains and an irregular heartbeat.  This is the update on my health.  I was diagnosed with a Left Bundle Branch Block on the left side of my heart.  It is nothing major according to the doctor, just a distortion of the vessels in my heart that I was born with.  The transition to going from a Type A to Type B personality has been going decent.  However after a couple of jolting events within a five minute span, my hard work of the past two weeks was now being put to the test.  However thanks to learning from my recent experiences as well as reading three books regarding the laws of attraction when it comes to possible thinking, I managed too regroup and forge on with my day. In fact last night I wrote almost 5,400 words foyCamp NaNoWriMo project Bear, Crescent, Dragan, Eagle, Star of David.  I finally cracked the 30,000 word barrier with less than 20,000 words to go in the next eight days.  Yes I count today as  part of the eight days.

Back to the three books that I've been reading.  The Magic by Rhonda Byrne, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and the third title I think is How to Change Your Thinking.  I forgot the author's name expect that he is a Christian author who knows his subject matter.  The three books are ones that I highly recommend since they have already helped me change my thinking and outlook on life from negativity to positive.  I have a ways to go, but am already pleased with the overall direction that my life has gone in the past two weeks.  As soon as I remember the title and author of the third book, I will post it.

In speaking of posting, I know that I haven't posted as much as I would like to, but I'm going to work on changing that.  I will try to work on doing a daily blog that will be posted between eight and nine pm eastern time starting tomorrow night.  Gretchen Rubin was the inspiration for the idea and I say "Thank You." I also say "Thank You" for reading the latest post on my blog.

Happy readings,

Tom

Health Scare...

Everyone tonight's post is going to be completely off subject, but it will be a very important post nonetheless. Yesterday afternoon I endured a second round of chest pains which extended to my left arm in the past three days. It was then that I immediately decided to go to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.  I was very scared as I drove to Strong since I lost both my parents to heart attacks (my Mom's heart attack was brought on complications from diabetes which she passed away from six days later in January, 2010), as well as my grandfather and great-grandfather on my Dad's side of the family.  I was scared that this was a heart attack that was on the brink of occurring. I know you're wondering why I chose to drive instead of calling an ambulance and here's the reason why.  When my Dad was found slumped over after his heart attack, my Mom called 911 and their questioning took so long that it could've very well made a difference. I didn't want to go through that spiel as well as the cost of ambulances taking people to the hospital.

     Once I arrived at Strong Memeorial, I feared that there was a good chance that I may not make it out alive. My blood pressure reading of 172/102 further heightened that fear for me. I kept thinking about how I would have fallen very short in my life had it all come to an end yesterday.  The pain began to subside and I waited until a staff member called me in to get some X-rays. It turns out that the person was a childhood friend of mine Morgan. He noticed that I was wearing a New York Mets shirt and he started to talk about the Mets in an attempt to put me at ease. We are Mets fans and this to me was the turning point yesterday. I began to start to relax and began to believe that I was going to make it out alive.

     I was then put on a bed in the emergency department where I was wait and after the results of the EKG I was sent to the Observation area where blood work was done as well as other examinations in which that it was discovered that I had an irregular heartbeat and high cholesterol but not a heart attack. I left Strong Memorial at 2:40 this afternoon and began to make good on a vow that I made while I was there to change a lot of things in my life. These thigs range from eating better, handling stress better to staying in touch with my friends better and to stop beating myself up over the little mistakes and to live more.

    I decided to write this post to tell everyone that life is precious and no matter how bad things may get that they will always get better provided you never give up. I was going through a lot of stress recently and the events of the past two days have become a wake up call for me. Never ignore the symptoms of anything, this can be costly. Take your health very seriously (I chose not to live on a good cholestoroal diet which was recommended after my Dad passed away. Too many changes in a short period of time was too much for me to handle.  Look where it got me). Change from a type a to type b personality since it will be less stressful in the long term and I mean much less stressful. Know what your limitations are and be realistic about them. The constant on the go lifestyle helped land me at Strong Memorial for a 24 hour period. Don't let the little things rattle you even though they may seem like a big deal at the time. Basically what I am saying is to relax and spend time with your family and friends. Have fun in life, but be responsible at the same time.

Tom

Easter Greetings

I would like to take this to me to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

Tom

Musings of an Author: Finished novels, Bergdahl, China and the like

It looks like March Madness now has a whole new meaning.  How many authors can say that they have finished two different novels that they have been working on for quite a while?  I guess that I'm now in what is probably an elite group of sorts.  Earlier this month I finished writing Times Square and this past Wednesday night I finished writi Red Threat.  Both are intriguing possibilities for entrance into the Kindle Scout Contest by Amazon.  Now it looks like a third novel could be in the mix by the end of April if not sooner.  The novel in question is Bear, Crescent, Dragon, Eagle, Star of David (working title).  Translation, Russia, ISIS, China, U.S.A., Israel.  This will be my Camp NaNoWriMo entry that will be written during April 2015.  I wasn't going to do any more Camp NaNoWriMo events but I decided to try it again.  After finishing Cyber Monday for the July 2013 Camp NaNoWriMo, My luck has been bad when it comes to writing during the Camp events since.  Essentially Bear, Crescent, Dragon, Eagle, Star of David will be about a Russian President who is on the brink of restoring Soviet glory until he meets considerable opposition from a group of rivals.  After reclaiming the Ukraine, Crimea, and the breakaway regions of the Soviet Union, Russian President Viktor Popov is met with opposition which threatens his presidency.  With that three of his rivals are killed and the others band together in a plot to take him down.  The United States and China are now on high alert over the incidents in Russia.  The leader of the Russian opposition is now rumored to have ties to ISIS which makes the stakes even higher as Israel is now put on heightened alert as well.  Could ISIS have operatives in high governmental positions in Russia and China? Stay tuned and find out.

     A day after finishing Red Heeat, author Keith Thomson released a picture on his Facebook page about an invisibility-capable stealth bomber that the Chinese Ministry of State Security aka China's spy agency uploaded to its Facebook page by accident.  To me this indicates that the Chinese military is trying to be state of the art and may very well aspire to become aggressive in a military manner in the future.

     Bose Bergdahl will now be charged by the military with desertion.  Yes the same Bowe Bergdahl who the U.S. swapped the Taliban Five for his release.  What ever happened to never negotiating with terrorists? Opps the Reagan Administration were hypocrites when it came to that.  First they refuse to negotiate with terrorists and then they swap arms with Iran for American hostages in Beirut.  That in itself was classic grounds for impeachment since it put the United States in harms way.  I am not a Democrat or a Republican when I say this, but I am saying this as an American.  Now President Obama has put the United States in a similar way by freeing five members of theTaliban who may attack us in retaliation for being detained for an Army deserter.  Western Journalism commentator Matt Barber couldn't have put this in a better context when he said "Whether Obama is intentionally trying to overthrow his own government is open for debate.  But that he is 'adhering to [America's] Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort,' is without question."  This could build a case for impeachment.  The release of Abu al-Baghdadi who later became Caliph of ISIS came after al-Baghdadi was help in US custody in 2006.  After he was released al-Baghdadi said "I will see you in New York."  Now you times al-Baghdadi by five and you have the Taliban Five who were released for Private Bergdahl.  Looks like we may be hearing from them in the future.

     I will be closing this post in a very unusual manner.  I wasn't going to discuss this, but I have decided to after all.  Next will be Holy Week for various Christian denominations.  The interesting part of Holy Week this year is that Good Friday falls on April 3.  The significance of this is that Jesus was crucified on Friday April 3, 33AD.  Researchers came to this conclusion after many years of studying this.  Passover will begin Friday April 3 at sundown and end on Saturday April 11 at sundown.  The Passover in 33AD began on Thursday April 2.  In 2015 Passover begins a day later.  To add to this discussion the third Blood Moon begins on Saturday April 4.  Yes the third of four lunar eclipses from April 2014 to September 2015 will be taking place then.  With the recent news events such as ISIS, the United States possibly turning it's back on Israel as well as a book "The Islamic AntiChrist" by Joel Richardson is about how the antiChrist has similar traits in both Christianity and Islam that could make it one and the same shows that things could get very interesting.

     I am someone who refuses to force my religious views on others and before people think that I'm being preachy right now, all I'm doing is making observations.  If anything drastic occurs, I wouldn't be shocked if it occurs during the period of Friday April 3 and Saturday April 4.  There has been a very good chance that others may have made similar observations as well.  I feel that we should be on heightened alert just in case some lone wolf or apolocalyptic cult try's to carry out an attack.  It is our duty as humans to stop such a thing before it occurs.  I hope that I don't have to make a post in the near future regarding a monumental tragedy that took place during the aforementioned period in question.  

Boko Haram pledges allegiance to ISIS well actually...

Last week when I wrote my last blog entry, the rumored merging of Boko Haram and ISIS had failed to materialize due to the leader of Boko Haram feeling that this would ultimately not be the time for such a union.  Well ten days later he announced that Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to ISIS.  Looks like this so called backing out of the merger a week and a half ago was apparently done for show. I see a trend coming here. All one has to do is to read my previous blog to put two and two together. *gives the reader time to check out my previous blog*. With that said and done Osamam bin Laden ordered his followers before he was killed (or allegedly killed if one is a conspiracy theorist of the highest order) to confuse us every way that they can.  Little did we know that one of the ways to confuse us would be to pretend to split into five different groups...al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram and al-Shabab.

They are playing like like a game of chess (Paraphrasing a verse from Ready or Not by sung by Lauryn Hill of The Fugees). This pledging of allegiance by Boko Haram to ISIS was only done for show.  Soon the terrorist attacks will become even more large scale (yes another psychological ploy in order to make us think that the merger strengthened them when in fact this is the next step in this sick grandiose plot to take down the West, Israel and other non-Islamic nations.  Of course this is another step to them bringing about the apocalypse.

We have fought them like wimps to this point.  It is time to throw the yoke of The Geneva Convention, political correctness and God knows what other treaties that may have been signed off their shoulders and fight like the US Military of bygone eras in American history.  By the way whoever heard of these rules of fighting a war?  Only morons come up with this and live by it.  It is definitely a great way to become the conquered.  Either we revert to fighting like the U.S. Military of yore or we may soon become conquered by the Islamists...or Russia or China or some variation of the three or all three...

al-Shabab mall plot attack in US, Canada & Great Britain, DHS, Etc...

Well al-Shabab has now threatened to attack malls in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.  They were the same ones who attacked the Westgate Mall in Kenya in September 2013 while I was editing my first novel "Black Friday" which was a plot about terrorist attacks at malls on the day after Thanksgiving.  Now this scenario could play out in real life.  Although there are concerns about lone wolf attacks this time around, the Westgate Mall terrorists operated a store at the said mall.  They were able to smuggle their weapons into the mall in this manner.  I shudder even saying this but this attack could occur a lot sooner than we think.  The threat of Bin Laden attacking the U.S. was first announced in the summer of 2001 only weeks before the 9/11 attacks took place.  Also the Air India hijacking of 1999 was ultimately a practice run for the 9/11 attacks.  The hijackers back then used box cutters as weapons like the September 11th hijackers.  The timing between this threat and the DHS shutdown that could take place Friday is suspicious to put it mildly.  

     This Friday the DHS could be a victim of being cut off of its funding.  This means that nonessential work will cease.  Also the funding of the Department of Homeland Security will be greatly curtailed as a result.  What a sickening time for al-Shabab to strike.  In speaking of DHS, they have recently admitted to blind spots in the War on Terror.  Not for anything, but the DHS having admitted to blind spots while fighting the War on Terror. The DHS is supposed to be on top of the latest terror threats and potential ones not missing things along the way.  It was the failure to connect the dots that led to the September 11, 2001 attacks and re subsequent creation of the Department of Homeland Security.  Talk about the possibility of history once again repeating itself.  What have we really learned from this? NOTHING by the way that this could be heading in.  

     In other DHS news, they claim that right wing extremist groups pose a greater threat than ISIS.  Well it was once thought that homegrown militia groups were once considered to be a greater threat than terror groups such as al-Qaeda in the years leading up to 9/11.  We all known what happened the last time around. Another example of history repeating itself in the making.  This doesn't mean that we shouldn't ignire the extremist right wing threat.  It must be researched and preparations must be made to stop them.  Obviously ISIS is the much greater threat.  I shudder to think that we pushed ISIS aside to combat right wing extremist groups only for ISIS to attack us once again.

     www.cnn.com just recently posted an article about five terrorist groups who are getting more brazen when it comes to terrorism.  The groups on the list are al-Shabab, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS and the Taliban.  Although the five are acting separately according to the CNN website (it's also what the five groups would like everyone to believe), well they're playing us like a game of chess. They're obviously one and the same group.  They're answering bin Laden's call to confuse us every chance they have.  Boko Haram and ISIS have talked about a recent merger and it looks like it was only for show.  They've been one and the same group like the Taliban, al-Qaeda and al-Shabab.  The sad part is it's going to come out that they pretended to be different groups when they band together to strike us and the other Western nations once again.

     It sickens me tht I have to give a disertation on the events of the past few days as well as my take on events, but someone's got to do something to warn the public.  Stay tuned for my next blog.

Kayla Mueller, Mutah al-Kasaesbeh and Charlie Hebdo

     It has been a while since my last post. I hope everyone's holiday and new year's went well. I spent some of my time away writing and finishing Gladio which was my NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writer's Month. I took off December from writing.  Now I'm back working on a few novels.  However enough on that.  

     2015 has become an ominous year in the War on Terrorism. Between the Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent attacks in Paris, the kidnapping and beheading of Japanese journalist Goto, the burning of Jordanian hostage fighter pilot Mutah al-Kasaesbeh and now the alleged death of Kayla Mueller by US air strikes.  

  First I would like to sound off on the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.  ISIS terrorists shot up a French newspaper because of the depiction of the Prophet Mohammad in an improper manner according to Islam.  Do kill people when a improper portrait of Jesus is made? No! Therefore Moslems shouldn't be going around and killing people when their Prophet is depicted in an inappropriate manner according to their faith.  Then the subsequent hostage takings two days later where a Jewish market and another business were taken hostage.  The terrorist at the Kosher market demanded that the two gunmen who killed people at Charlie Hebdo and are now holding a hostage at a printing business were to be freed at once.  Then came the simultaneous rescue by French commandos where both crisis came to an end.  However there are still Islamists in Frnace waiting to strike again.  All this was due to French colonialism in Algeria and the Levant.  I highly recommend seeing the movie The Battle of Algiers to better understand why the attacks of last month took place.

     That said, this blog now shifts to ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria.  Japanese journalist Goto was executed since Japan didn't pay a ransom for the release of him and a fellow Japanese hostage.  Japan's Prime Minister was in the region when this happened.  Later Goto was executed.  This coming around the same time as Mutah al-Kasaesbeh a Jordanian pilot was executed by being burned in a cage by ISIS.  Since then Jordan executed all 55 ISIS terrorists that they have imprisoned along with getting into the war against ISIS.  What would it take for the U.S. to go at ISIS in a similar manner? Another 9/11 like attack?  It seems that the death of Kayla Mueller hasn't waken up the government to act swiftly and harshly.  ISIS claims that Kayla Mueller was killed in a U.S. air strike. Hasn't it occurred to anyone that she may have been executed before the air strike and ISIS is claiming her death by US air strike as a psychological ploy to make the U.S. feel guilty and divide this nation?  That was my first and only reaction since the news of her death was first released.  ISIS has lied before.  We must keep this in mind before believing that Kayla Mueller was killed in the air strike.  ISIS thrives on misinformation so wouldn't it be another shocker if ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Shabab were not three different terrorist groups but one and the same in order to play another psychological ploy on the rest of the world.  I put nothing past them and I mean NOTHING.  Now we must be on the look out for ISIS attacks throughout Europe, the U.S. and Israel.  We need to fight ISIS in a manner that Jordan has since the execution of al-Kasaesbeh which ratcheted up e brutality of ISIS by several decibels,  it could set a precedent for future and even more barbaric ISIS/al-Qaeda/al-Shabab attacks.