The Phoenicians built the first ships capable of sailing the open water of the Mediterranean, and purpose built warships were not far behind. Carthage and Rome contested for dominance of the western Mediterranean, and a thousand years later Venice controlled the trade routes to the Eastern world through naval dominance of the Adriatic. Control of the undersea littoral of the South China Sea is but the latest chapter in the ongoing saga, for who controls the sea controls the world.

Sharp beaked, low slung, lateen rigged
The galley ruled the waves
Purpose built for stealth and speed
And oared by bench chained slaves
But in the northern coastal states
Swift race-built ships took flight
Galleons of sturdy oak
Square rigged and built to fight
Then iron and steel, coal fired steam
To hide one must submerge
To blindly creep close into shore
Where shipping hugged the verge
And so full circle we have come
At depth no longer bound
Purpose built for stealth and speed
The galley’s past rewound

My avatar here is a Cardinal, and that is what I secretly long to be. Not a red hat Bishop of Rome Cardinal, not a left handed power hitting St Louis Cardinal, but a real life Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis. Transgender is old hat, trans-species is the way to go.

Oppressed I am because I’m blond
A blue eyed blond to boot
And so I’ve waved my magic wand
And made the matter moot
A redbird now I am at peace
Just sitting in a tree
And sneering at the silly geese
Who want to be like me
I sit and watch the growing scene
Where all hate what they’ve been
Where blacks are whites and whites are keen
To melanize their skin
I watch my neighbor Jack walk by
He minces now in heels
I whistle sharply, catch his eye
And ask him how he feels
And so it is and so it goes
I’ve got a redbird girl
A beauty yes from head to toes
A sweet trans-spiecied squirrel

The Greek people have voted overwhelming to reject the European Union offer of a debt bailout based on Greek austerity. The leftist Greeks, having lived off someone else’s money for so long, saw no reason why they should give up their lavish pensions and no-work bureaucratic jobs and retirement at age 50 at full pay just because they are bankrupt and cannot pay their bills. So they voted no and the entire sham edifice of the socialist European Union is shaking as Stock markets throughout the world shudder in anticipation of financial catastrophe.

Policies so maladroit
Might as well be malDetroit
The whole Euro idea was a sham
What to tell the wife and kids
When someone has Greeced the skids
And no one there seems like to give a damn
At first roses lined the way
No one really had to pay
Except of course the Germans so who cares
Bad times told of coming woes
And Greeks shrugged a so it goes
They’d heard too many dire financial scares
On the carousel content
Brussels even paid their rent
But now the wine has left the fountains dry
Some Greeks worked but most just played
No one seemed to be afraid
As debt piled up and grew to mountains high
Come a cropper, no more stash
Down the hopper German cash
And it’s back to barter ‘cause the cupboard’s bare
The Greeks found that Brussels lied
And the roses have now died
As the poor trudge down the road from Brussels Fair

It saddens me to know that I am a minority in my own country, that I am of the remaining few who know what it is we celebrate on the Fourth of July. The Left has succeeded in erasing the history of the United States by the simple process of gaining control of the educational system. Public school kids are not taught the history of the United States any longer, and if you are not told in school about the Declaration of Independence or the Revolution or the Civil War or the great waves of European immigrants who came here for freedom and opportunity, then those things never existed. They are told, however, that the United States committed genocide against the indigenous inhabitants of a land we stole from them, that the Founding Fathers were slave owners and the greatest evil in the world is an unfettered United States. Not that it matters very much, for in measurable time the history of the United States, thanks to the Democratic Party, will be written in Spanish.

When I walk out my kitchen door
And smell the cool, clean earth
And hear the breeze rustle the trees
I know our Country’s birth
Was like a shining light from God
To others locked in chains
Who came here for a better life
And filled the fertile plains
With farms and kids and stalwart men
Who made the Country great
We welcomed those who knocked upon
The shining freedom gate
But now I look upon my home
My Country, in despair
And see the Founders would today
Have nothing to declare

A New York Times writer, ecstatic at the Supreme Court ruling ordering all 50 states to permit gay marriage, claims that the US now has the moral high ground, and that gay marriage will defeat ISIS because gay marriage shows them how superior we are to them. Such is the fantasy world we live in. We live now in a nation where neither words nor the Constitution has meaning. A nation where the will of the people is tossed aside by judges who rule not on the law but as it suits their personal prejudices. In measurable time there will be no United States recognizable to any citizen born in the 20^th century.

The world is burning ‘fore our eyes
The White House rainbow colored gay
And so it marches, no surprise
The Left wins every single day
What happens when two men demand
A churchly wedding to be held
A choir gay and all girl band
Puffed rice thrown and joyous belled
Refuse them on religious grounds
And officers quick step arrive
The pastor being out of bounds
And told to preach dead or alive
The law requires him to bless
A marriage that’s against his will
On pain of jail he must confess
That mentally he’s very ill
A bigot and a hate-filled scum
And to the scaffold he is led
The tap tap of the muffled drum
Pronouncing hard won freedom dead
No longer do we live by law
But by the keening oppressed cries
Of those believing one last straw
Will see our country quiet dies

Lonely Western women are being seduced on social media by smooth talking ISIS operatives to join the Jihad, with some success. To avoid this enticement some are urging lonely women to gather a circle of friends and to visit a favorite website. This has resulted in my receiving the following message on my blog from a lonely young woman who has just returned from the Middle East.

I do recall my loneliness
I felt so doggone empty
When ISIS offered onlyness
It seemed so very tempty
I joined and worked out in a gym
To gain some strength and muscle
I wanted so to be like him
A hard man in a tussle
I flew to London then to Spain
Id get him to the altar
I tried and tried but all in vain
To get into Gibraltar
By luck I found a cruise line ship
To drop me off in Aden
I found him standing by the slip
Just waiting for his maiden
He looked so cool, so tough and strong
A manly man from heaven
And carrying, perhaps Im wrong
An AK-47
Around my waist he placed a vest
He said was one of Josef’s
I laughed and said I would have guessed
The pockets held explosives
We had us both a hearty laugh
He led me to a pickup
Regret I did my little gaffe
Till he said its a stickup
He took my iPhone, credit cards
My cash and watch and money
He left me there and joined his pards
His last words See ya honey
Im home now and I drop this line
To say I read you only
And wonder if you will be mine
But only if you’re lonely