Author Archives: DrE

No good deed goes unpunished: Afghan who helped rescue Biden in 2008 left behind in Kabul

There are no depths too low into which this sorry excuse of a U.S. President does not sink.

Biden checks his watch during ceremony for US soldiers killed in Afghanistan, 8-29-2021

From Wall St. Journal (via Fox News), Sept. 1, 2021:

Thirteen years ago, Afghan interpreter Mohammed helped rescue then- Sen. Joe Biden and two other senators stranded in a remote Afghanistan valley after their helicopter was forced to land in a snowstorm. Now, Mohammed is asking President Biden to save him.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” Mohammed, who asked not to use his full name while in hiding, told The Wall Street Journal as the last Americans flew out of Kabul on Monday. “Don’t forget me here.”

Mohammed, his wife, and their four children are hiding from the Taliban after his years-long attempt to get out of Afghanistan got tangled in the bureaucracy. They are among countless Afghan allies who were left behind when the U.S. ended its 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan on Monday.

Mohammed was a 36-year-old interpreter for the U.S. Army in 2008 when two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters made an emergency landing in Afghanistan during a blinding snowstorm, according to Army veterans who worked with him at the time. Onboard were three U.S. senators: Mr. Biden, the Delaware Democrat, John Kerry, (D., Mass.) and Chuck Hagel, (R., Neb.).

As a private security team with the former firm Blackwater and U.S. Army soldiers monitored for any nearby Taliban fighters, the crew sent out an urgent call for help. At Bagram Air Field, Mohammed jumped in a Humvee with a Quick Reaction Force from the Arizona National Guard working with the 82nd Airborne Division and drove hours into the nearby mountains to rescue them, said Brian Genthe, then serving as a staff sergeant in the Arizona National Guard who brought Mohammed along on the rescue mission.

Mohammed spent much of his time in a tough valley where the soldiers said he was in more than 100 firefights with them. The soldiers trusted him so much that they would sometimes give him a weapon to use if they got in trouble when they went into tough areas, Mr. Genthe said.

“His selfless service to our military men and women is just the kind of service I wish more Americans displayed,” Lt. Col. Andrew R. Till wrote in June to support Mohammed’s application for a Special Immigrant Visa.

Mohammed’s visa application became stuck after the defense contractor he worked for lost the records he needed for his application, Mr. Genthe said. Then the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15. Like thousands of others, Mohammed said he tried his luck by going to the Kabul airport gates, where he was rebuffed by U.S. forces. Mohammed could get in, they told him, but not his wife or their children.

Army veterans called lawmakers and issued dire appeals to U.S. officials for help. “If you can only help one Afghan, choose [Mohammed],” wrote Shawn O’Brien, an Army combat veteran who worked with him in Afghanistan in 2008. “He earned it.”

A White House official declined to comment, saying the administration couldn’t discuss individual cases for confidentiality reasons.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Biden, who was then running for vice president, often spoke of the helicopter incident and the trip as a way of burnishing his foreign-policy credentials….

Mohammed joined the Army Humvees and three Blackwater SUVs as they barreled through thick snow to find the helicopters. The senators were sped back to the U.S. base with the convoy, said Matthew Springmeyer, who was leading the Blackwater security in the helicopters that day.

Mohammed stood guard with Afghan soldiers on one side of the helicopters while members of the 82nd Airborne protected the other side, said Mr. Genthe. When curious locals came too close, Mohammed would use a bullhorn to tell them to go away. They stayed out there for 30 hours in the freezing temperatures until the U.S. military could get the helicopters back in the air and the soldiers back to Bagram.

Now, Mohammed is in hiding. “I can’t leave my house,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m very scared.”

Shame on you, Joe Biden.

~E

Thursday Funny: What dogs do when you’re away

This man found out. LOL

~E

What a military preschool is teaching little kids

The racist Critical Race Theory (CRT) is deployed even in preschools.

The AJSteel Show posted this pic on Twitter, with this comment:

I am angry beyond words. My 3 year old grandson whose dad is a high ranking military officer, just started pre school at a military sponsored program. Click to see the racist chart they made on day one. Parents, please wake up and act before our kids & nation are ruined for good!

AJ Steel writes: “My son in law and my daughter pulled him out of that school and wrote a letter to the principal as well as to the base commander.”

~E

Wednesday animal chuckles

~E

Please pray for DCG and her dad

DCG will be absent from BodyandSoul for a while because she is in Eastern Washington taking care of her father who came down with the demon COVID19 virus.

Her father had been sick all last week and went to ER last Friday. Fortunately, his vitals, oxygen level and breathing were all good, and was sent home.

But then, being very weak, he fell and went back to ER. Fortunately, nothing was broken, and his vitals and breathing were also good, but he is still very weak and sleeps all day.

DCG asks for our prayers.

Please pray that her father recovers quickly, that DCG remains healthy and be returned safely to us soon.

Thank you,

~E

Sunday Devotional: Be doers of the word, not hypocrites

Mark 7:6

He [Jesus the Christ] responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me….”

Reading the New Testament makes evident how much our Lord hates hypocrites. See Luke 6:42, 12:56; Mark 7:6; and Matthew 6:2, 6:5-6, 6:16, 7:5, 15:7, 16:3, 23:13, 23:14, 23:23, 23:25, 23:27, 23:28, 23:33, 24:51,

The dictionary defines “hypocrite” as “a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

Even worse are preachy hypocrites who “Do as I say, not as I do.”

In the coronavirus pandemic, so many prominent Democrats are shown to be hypocrites. While they preach to us — whom Katie Couric called “the great unwashed” — that we must wear masks, they themselves don’t.

The latest example is host of CBS late-night talk-show host Stephen Colbert.

On August 21, 2021, while thousands of Americans were (and many still are) trapped in Afghanistan, at the mercy of the brutal Taliban, Colbert was dancing maskless with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY-D). (Breitbart)

https://youtu.be/2pXYDM9y_qU?t=77

But it’s not just Democrats who are hypocrites.

We all are, if we say pretend to having a virtue, while saying one thing but doing another.

James 1:21-22

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

And may the peace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you,

~E

The Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Caption Contest

This Caption Contest is now closed.

This is our 247th world-famous Caption Contest!

Here’s the pic:

About the pic: On Tuesday, August 24, 2021, Bill and Hillary Clinton (ages 75 & 73), were seen glumly strolling on a beach in the Hamptons. (Daily Mail)

You know the drill:

  • Enter the contest by submitting your caption as a comment on this thread (scroll down until you see the “LEAVE A REPLY” box).
  • Body and Soul‘s writers will vote for the winner.
  • Any captions proffered by our writers, no matter how brilliant (ha ha), will not be considered. :(

This contest will be closed in two weeks, at the end of Tuesday, September 7, 2021.

To get the contest going, here’s my caption:

Stuck together in a hell of their own making.

For the triple winners of our last Caption Contest, go here.

~E

We have a winner!

. . . for our 246th Caption Contest!

Our writers have voted for their respective #1 (best) and #2 (next best) captions. Each #1 vote is worth 4 points; each #2 vote is worth 2 points.

And we have a triple whammy!

The winners of our 246th Caption Contest, each with 8 points, are:

Captain America, Mitchell T, and Reuben G.!!!

Here are their winning captions:

Captain America (with two #1 votes): “Oh No!!! Izz Godzirra!!!”

Mitchell T (with two #1 votes): “Slam Dunk? Not a stage dive without jumping off stage. Falling forward and snapping a fan’s neck is like trying to balance a brick on a straw. IT GUNNA SNAP!!”

Reuben G. (with one #1 and two #2 votes): “She’s not THAT fat, it only registered as 1.8 on local Richter scales”

Lizzo Belly Flop

Greg B is in second place, with one #1 and one #2 votes, totaling 6 points:

Lizzo is seen here performing for SeaWorld hiring managers during her audition to serve as the replacement for the now retired Shamu to splash the audience.

Brian, Jackie Puppet, and vett are in third place, each with one #2 vote and 2 points:

Brian: “That poor teddy bear will argue that point about crushing. Bet there isn’t any stuffing left in that little fella.”

Jackie Puppet: “The poor bed: ‘What did I do to deserve this? OOF!!'”

vett: “Eye bleach! Eye bleach! Where’s my eye bleach.”

WELL DONE, EVERYONE!

Congratulations, Reuben G., Mitchell T, and Captain America!!!

For all the other caption submissions, go here.

Be here later today for our next, very exciting Caption Contest!

~E

Uplifting video that’ll restore your faith in people

Are you depressed by the relentlessly bad news on how the Biden administration is bungling everything, especially the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Watch this video.

~E

Covid vaccine follies: Unvaxxed scapegoated; vaxxed vulnerable to more severe diseases

Americans who decline to be vaccinated with Covid-19 vaccines are being scapegoated for the Delta-variant infections.

(1) CBS reports that in an interview with “Face the Nation” on August 1, 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said that Americans who remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus are “propagating” the latest outbreak of casesof the highly contagious Delta variant. Fauci said: “We have 100 million people in this country…who are eligible to be vaccinated, who are not vaccinated. We’ve really got to get those people…vaccinated because they are the ones that are propagating this outbreak.

(2) Actress Jennifer Anniston went so far as to cut off some of her friends who refused to be vaccinated because, she maintains, “if you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me.” (BBC)

(3) Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called mask-averse Americans “schmucks” and said to them to “screw your freedom.” Well, there are consequences to Schwarzenegger’s name calling — he just lost a sponsor for his annual bodybuilding event known as the Arnold Classic. REDCON1, a sports nutrition brand, confirmed they’ve pulled out from Schwarzenegger’s event as well as any others he’s involved in. “We elected to discontinue support due to Arnold’s comment, ‘Screw Your Freedoms,’” a spokesperson for the company said. (Fox News)

But the testimony from the science so revered by Fauci and the Left says otherwise.

An article in the journal Nature, dated August 12, 2021, says:

[R]eports from various countries seem to confirm what scientists feared after the variant tore through India with alarming speed in April and May: Delta is more likely than other variants to spread through vaccinated people.

Data from COVID-19 tests in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore are showing that vaccinated people who become infected with Delta SARS-CoV-2 can carry as much virus in their nose as do unvaccinated people. This means that despite the protection offered by vaccines, a proportion of vaccinated people can pass on Delta, possibly aiding its rise….

An August report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that following large gatherings in the beach town [Provincetown, Massachusetts], nearly three-quarters of 469 new COVID-19 cases that occurred in the state were in vaccinated people2. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people had comparably…high viral loads, and of the 133 samples sequenced, 90% were identified as Delta….

In Houston, Texas…, about 17% of Delta cases are in vaccinated people since March 2021, nearly three times the rate of breakthrough infections compared with all other variants combined. Patients with Delta SARS-CoV-2 also stayed in hospital slightly longer than did people infected with other variants. “There’s potentially a slightly different biology to the [Delta] infection,” says James Musser, a molecular pathologist and director of the hospital’s Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research. His team found that Ct levels [viral loads] were similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated people3.

However, vaccinated people with Delta might remain infectious for a shorter period, according to researchers in Singapore…. [And, for that reason] Paul Elliott, an epidemiologist at Imperial [College London], says…“We think it’s really, really important to get as many people double vaccinated, and particularly those younger groups, as soon as possible.

And so, those who have been injected with the Covid vaccines carry as many Delta viruses as the unvaccinated, which means the vaxxed are infecting the unvaxxed just as much as the reverse. But the unvaxxed are being blamed for the Delta breakout, and are treated worse than black people during segregation:

  • Restaurants will not admit the unvaxxed.
  • Employees are being forced to be vaxxed or risk losing their jobs.
  • Schools and universities are forcing all their students to be vaxxed.
  • In California, per a health order from the state, hospital or skilled nursing facility visitors must provide proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours in order to enter these facilities to visit/accompany a patient.

The push to jab the unvaxxed is intensifying, despite the fact that:

(1) The vaccines are losing their effectiveness against the Delta Covid-mutation, with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine waning faster than others. A UK study found that although the Pfizer vaccine was 90% effective against Delta infections one month after the second dose, this declined to 78% after three months, a loss of 12 percentage points. (Statistica)

That is why the push is now on for a “booster,” i.e., a third vaccination.

Since viruses, including the Covid-19 coronavirus, continue to mutate, this means that those who have been vaccinated will likely have to get “booster” shots, again and again, as new Covid mutations appear.

(2) The absolute risk reduction (ARR), which is the difference between Covid attack rates with and without a vaccine, is miniscule (The Lancet):

  • 1-3% for the AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine.
  • 1-2% for the Moderna–NIH.
  • 1-2% for the J&J.
  • 0.93% for the Gamaleya.
  • 0.84% for the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines.

Translated, this means that getting the Covid vaccine of whichever variety reduces your chance of getting Covid by less than 1% to at most 3%.

Note: The Lancet scientific journal explains that absolute risk reductions (AAAs) “tend to be ignored because they give a much less impressive effect size than RRRs or relative risk reduction. Vaccine efficacy is generally reported as RRR.

Worse still, leaving aside the many real side-effects of Covid vaccines, is a study published in the Internal Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) which found that the vaccines may actually “sensitize” vaccine recipients to more severe diseases than if they had not been vaccinated. The Oxford Dictionary defines “sensitize” as “Cause (someone or something) to respond to certain stimuli; make sensitive.”

From the IJCP article’s “Abstract”:

Results of the study: COVID-19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated. Vaccines for SARS, MERS and RSV have never been approved, and the data generated in the development and testing of these vaccines suggest a serious mechanistic concern: that vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralising antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID-19 disease via antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). This risk is sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms for ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.

~E