9/11/01

Again today we take into our hearts and minds those who perished on this site... and also those who came to toil in the rubble to bring order out of chaos, and help us make sense of our despair.

Buy Ammo... really.

***UPDATE***:
Hey Alaskans... this would include lead fishing weights that are found not only in sinkers... but lots of fishing things. (Link)

I try and stay on topic on this blog as much as possible. That being Defense of the Catholic Faith. Obviously over the last few weeks a lot of focus has been placed on Alaska Catholic Life and even Alaskan Politics. For that I apologize to the readers that find that topic to be mundane.

That being said, I have another off-topic post that I find is vitally important. Not so much to our Catholic faith, but our American Life. You see, I ran across this tidbit on another blog:

With the fall hunting season fast approaching, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Lisa Jackson, who was responsible for banning bear hunting in New Jersey, is now considering a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) – a leading anti-hunting organization – to ban all traditional ammunition under the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976, a law in which Congress expressly exempted ammunition. If the EPA approves the petition, the result will be a total ban on all ammunition containing lead-core components, including hunting and target-shooting rounds. The EPA must decide to accept or reject this petition by November 1, 2010, the day before the midterm elections.

The source of this article (link) is a gun & hunting rights website, but I found it over at Dad29. Now, I don't mean to be a conspiracy theorist, but November 1st? How convenient. On top of that the real problem isn't that I want to go around shooting lead. I don't care what the bullet is made out of, as long as it is effective (i.e. humane) and cheap. Bullets for some rifles can start at one dollar a round. If you are trying to become proficient so as to become a more humane hunter, the cost in doing so is somewhat concerning. Now imagine if you had to pay five dollars ($5) or even ($10) a round? How much would you go to the range?

The other concern I have is why does the EPA handle this? You see, the government knows it can't outright ban things: ammunition, cigarettes, fuel, etc... but they can tax the heck out of them making it impossible for most (not all) to buy. This is an important distinction, because most government officials don't really want to ban these types of things because they are consumers of them. So it becomes an elitist law, where it doesn't affect those that have very much, and only strains those that have not.

So for those of you familiar with conservative blogs that suggest the best way to protect ourselves from the impending doom that is American culture and society, you know what advice is coming:

buy ammo.

The Constitution Shines Proud Today...

It isn't a perfect document. But I haven't seen a better one, and so when it is upheld and made stronger at its roots, we should be glad.

2nd Amendment Ruling by the Supreme Court

There are no words...

Source: Iowntheworld

A Plot of Land

Thank you to all that have served, in any fashion, form, or manner... and in returned received a "plot of land."

Thank you.

Lieutenant Colonel Craig R. Wonson, Commanding Officer of Camp Pendleton, USMC, Marine

Lieutenant Colonel Craig R. Wonson, Commanding Officer of Camp Pendleton, USMC with Sanjay Dalal, Rotarian, Social Media Entrepreneur, Irvine, California

I am privileged to share this photograph with Lieutenant Colonel Craig R. Wonson, Commanding Officer of Camp Pendleton, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (1/1).

It was a great honor to hear Lt. Colonel Wonson speak articulately about the Marines' fearless involvement in the War on Terror at my Rotary club of Newport-Irvine on March 18, 2010.

Here were some of my updates on oGoing as I was listening to Colonel Wonson:

1. After the speech, it was my honor to shake hands of Colonel Wonson, a proud Marine. He even obliged by taking a photograph in front of flag
2. Lt. Colonel Wonson: "General Petraeus strategy... Clear, Hold, Build, Transition. Bottomline - Surge in Iraq... Same type Afghanistan...."
3. Lt. Colonel Wonson is providing a review of Iraq & Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, N. Korea, and how they support, stay ahead, war gaming, etc.
4. Lt. Colonel Wonson: "Training... busting their butts! Extensive training. Weeks to months of training & operations. Tax dollars at work..."
5. Lt. Colonel Wonson: "Forward deployed self-sustaining force of Marines, anything that happens in central command e.g. counter insurgency"
6. Lt. Colonel Wonson: "Marine expeditionary units and what they do... forward deployed force that's trained & equipped."
7. Lt. Colonel Craig Wonson, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (1/1) and their involvement in the War on Terror, speaker at Rotary meeting

After the speech, I asked Lt. Colonel Wonson on how they get the Marines ready as they are deployed overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other countries... specifically, how they gain an understanding of the local culture, customs & people before they are deployed. He went over the rigorous training & immersion that all the Marines have to go through (sort of like a crash course), so that they have greater hands-on knowledge of the local people before they even land.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask all my friends to support our marines, troops and military at Camp Pendleton & across the USA. What our military does to selflessly protect this great country has no equal.

Sincere regards,
Sanjay Dalal, Social Media Entrepreneur
www.SanjayDalal.com
Irvine, California

President Barack Obama - Economy, Jobs, Recovery, Relief, Energy

Selected references:
Leading Business Innovation eBook & Resource Kit
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

What is American? Coming from India ...

What is American?

Yesterday, my wife, Mamta, told me she was taping on our DVR, American President. One of our favorite movies – starring Michael Douglas as the American President. We also enjoy Harrison Ford’s movie where he stars as the American President and fights the terrorists on Airforce One… what an exciting movie! He beats the crap out of all those loonies one by one! My son’s favorite movie also.

From talking about the movie, Rohan (our son), Suhani (our daughter) and we started talking about different things. The other day, Mamta had asked whether we had enough American Cheese – I told her I call it “White” cheese or “Yellow” cheese. To that, my son said, that sounds “racist” dad. I told him, when I host my online innovation workshops. I show my customers presentation on the “whiteboard”. And I must have delivered about 100 presentations where I have talked about “whiteboard”, “black box”, “white walls”, “white collar”, “black pepper” and some even recorded. My favorite when we order “white rice” or “brown rice” or “fried rice” at Chinese restaurant, or if you go to Indian restaurant, we call it “Biryani” or “Pulao” or “Safed rice”. Our house has white walls and black furniture. The other day, my eight year old daughter Suhani comes home and asks me, “Dad are we white and do we have a black president?” We tell her the right thing to say is “Caucasian and African Americans”, and then I went on to explain to her about various differences, and that we are all Americans. We also talked about our plans for President’s day holiday (no plans, just relaxing).

So, this was a typical evening conversation at the Dalal Family dinner table. You are welcome to join us…

Welcome to America!

Coming from India ...

Our kids are born here, and are natural born American citizens. My wife and I immigrated from India, world’s largest democracy and a country of rich heritage and traditions. We are American citizens also. During the Christmas holidays – we also setup Christmas Tree, share gifts, and believe in Santa – we saw the movie SlumDog Millionaire – an amazingly tantalizing love story that has something for everyone. How many have seen this movie? Must see. My wife and I argued a bit about this movie. I thought it was great, and she enjoyed it too… however, she felt that it represented only a section of what India is all about, and again, the movie shows too much of the poverty and slums. And I do agree… but I told her the educated know India is much more than poverty and slums. Just like America, it is a land of dreams, freedom and opportunity. And the movie does go on to show that how even the poorest of poor can one day grow and win the highest prize! An underdog who goes on to win millions!

I was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1968 – born on October 31. I am a Halloween Baby… my mom did not know that… although my kids think I can be really scary. I call it CRAM – Crazy, Angry, Mad… just kidding! My daughter tells me “I have bushy hair”. I do…

I did my elementary, middle and high school in India. My proudest moment was securing a ranking within the top 50 students in the entire state of Gujarat in my high school exams – thereby providing me an opportunity to pursue any higher education in college that I would like. I also had a great time in my eleventh grade when a few of us friends went for an Oceanographic exploration at Goa, India – a must see beach city in the state of Maharashtra. The best time was going to Goa in a ship from Bombay, now Mumbai. Still fondly remember that trip.

I also spent about eight months of college in Ahmedabad before I moved to the U.S in 1987 with my sister, Situ. I started my undergrad in Electrical Engineering at University of Oklahoma, she began her Masters in Civil Engineering.

My father, who many of you met, provided me the opportunity to come to USA. He has been a great mentor to me over the years, and I am very thankful to him and my mother for their guidance and support.

My highlight when I was at OU: 1. Great education by my English instructor and Math professor Dr. John Albert 2. Securing first position in Putnam math competition, after getting inspired by Dr. Albert to participate. OU won the first prize after dozens of years. 3. President’s honor roll, and my very first job as Library assistant appointed by Mr. Wellburn.

One Saturday, as I was going to the library for studying, I saw this huge swarm of people going to the stadium, waving flags, high fiving each other, and chanting “OU, OU”… I got introduced to Football – American Football!! And I am a huge fan of Football now, albeit Texas Football and NFL. Why? I transferred to the University of Texas at Austin after my first year in 1988 because I got a scholarship from UT. And Texas, although boasting a huge football program as well, had better Engineering education.

It was at Texas that I met Mamta, my future wife to be during my second year in 1989 in the summer, when we were helping new students from India as they arrived for their education at UT. And we played lots of Volleyball together that summer. And the rest is history!

My highlight at Texas was getting EE scholarship, instate tuition, computer programming lab position nominated by Dr. Terry Wagner (thank you Dr. Wagner), Secretary position in Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honors Society, and International Office Scholarship. The biggest coup: Becoming the Treasurer of India Students Association. My low-light: getting reprimanded for checking out professor notes over the weekend for a class that I did not take.

Professionally, I began my career at Honeywell Bull in 1992 after doing summer internship in the town of Seguin, Texas at Alamo Group.
...

Part two of the story of Sanjay Dalal here...

Excerpts of Sanjay Dalal's speech at the Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine when I was inducted a Rotary Member on February 12, 2009

Freedom Fights Back?

"It is the peoples seat!"

Just some numbers...

9:59pm
Wow ... it's over, I didn't even get to update more than once!
Wow... I don't know what to say, except prayer seems to work?

9:14pm est.:
B: 750,616
C: 661,351

Maybe Socialism was a fad for 09?
-Posted by: Joe

Miracle in Massachusetts - Jan. 19 -2010?

H/T: The Rockin' Traddy

I have been trying to stay away from Political NEWS on the blog this year, but this video and this issue is too important. Most of us cannot participate, so all we can do is sit back an watch. But if you have been yearning for an upset of epic porportions since the 1980 Men's Hockey Semi-Final, Tuesday may provide just that. And just like last time, the freedom, liberty, and maintenance of the American way of life may be at stake.

This is a campaign video if I have ever seen one. Can you imagine a conservative senator in Mass?!? I can :)




-Posted by: Joe

Flight Insecurity

It appears that in the past few days since the Christmas Day attempt of terrorism on a United States bound flight that the TSA has gone out of its way to show just how INSECURE they are and how UNSECURE we are.

To outline this point please read: Michelle Malkin - Airline Security Idiocy

I know I said I was going to talk about less POLITICS this year... but I think this touches on something important. See, the TSA is so worried about profiling they go out of their way NOT to profile. This is the reason so many grandmas are given that EXTRA search. If they can prove that they don't do something in some positive way, in the sense that they have hundreds of examples of how they "DON'T PROFILE" than if some allegation should arise that they do, they have proof positive that they don't.

The problem is that during this chessmatch people are walking on to planes with bombs. Now, I am not naive to think that we can stop EVERY single type of element and bomb getting onto a plane, short of strip searching all people. I don't want that either. What I do want is a set of policies that isn't completely ridiculous. The reason there is outrage at these "Security" techniques is that we have abandoned common sense and have instead created some politically correct nightmarish policy that denies Joan Rivers easy clearance to board a plane all in the name of "Security."

Honor Our Veterans On Veterans Day

Help Support The USO - Forward this email to a friend.

Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine Induction Speech by Sanjay Dalal, President and Managing Director, Innovation Index Group

I am indeed honored to become the newest member of Rotary Newport-Irvine Club today. Thank you President Jerry, Angelita, Rotarians, members and the executive team!! Our family has a deep appreciation for Rotary and Rotary foundation – my father, who is a very proud Rotarian, and proud of me becoming a Rotarian – came to U.S.A. in 1957 with a Rotary Foundation Scholarship, and obtained his MBA from Stanford Business School. If he had not come to the States, who knows? I may not be here in front of you today. Exactly 30 years hence, in 1987, I came to America. Thank you Dad and Mom for sending me here for education and our success.

A little about me... I am not right wing, nor left wing... nor affiliated with any political wings. I just became a U.S. Citizen. I have a question for the audience: What is the most important right of a U.S. citizen? (right to vote)

What I am though is a married family man, raising two wonderful kids, participating in many local activities including basketball coaching, art master, school site council and more. And yes, my business is all about determining the fundamentals of companies whose stocks we invest in.

I am proud of my heritage, my parent country India, the world’s largest democracy. It is a great privilege that my family and I live in America, our home, the world’s greatest democracy, a country of tremendous opportunity and pioneering spirit.

I want to thank my wife, for raising two wonderful children, and who has stood by me through thick and thin over so many years.

Today, in LA County alone, we have tens of thousands of kids who live in foster families. There are more than 600 children currently waiting for an adoptive family. I invite the Rotarians to contribute your time and money to help these children through the KidSave organization based in Los Angeles.

My wife and I have sponsored a child in India for the past many years through Christian Children’s Fund. He lives in Jharkhand state. He is a growing kid, and when we got a letter from him where he talks about, I quote, “the Save Environment program in Jharkhand where the main objective is inhibition on hunting because life is the right of animal” end quote, it really moved us.

Over the years, we have donated our time and money to many charities including USO, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Salvation Army, Free Wheel Chair Mission, Fire Fighters, Police and Sheriff organizations, Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami Relief, China Earthquake, Myanmar Floods, BAPS and more.

Last week, at the local Jain Center, thousands of Jains celebrated the opening of new temple, and asked for forgiveness. My wife is a Jain, and we follow the principles of non-violence, peace, honesty and kindness.

I want to take this opportunity to thank America, our home, for helping us grow and flourish, and letting us enjoy the free spirit and democratic ideals.

We, all of us, are quite blessed by God. Let us take a moment to thank our parents, our family, our friends, our colleagues at work, our partners, our neighbors, our community and our country. We work hard, and most of us have a nice house to live, drive good cars, do not have to worry about food, are healthy (best wishes for Brady) and do well financially. So, let us make a promise to ourselves today: We must not complain.

God Bless Us All and God Bless America...

Federation of Indian American Association Speech by Sanjay Dalal, President & Managing Director, Innovation Index Group, Inc.

Sunday August 31, 2008

Dear FIA Members, Guests and Friends:

I am indeed honored to represent my business, Innovation Index Group, today on our national Independence Day celebration. I am the president of Innovation Index Group. I am humbled that FIA gave me this opportunity, and am quite grateful to the FIA executive team, Prakash Pancholi, Amrit Bhandari, Dilip Butani, Mohan Sharma, and members of this key organization.

Today I stand before you very proud of our heritage, of our parent country India, the world’s largest democracy, and the hottest economy in Asia. It is also a great privilege that my family and I live in America and call America our home, the world’s most open democracy and a country of tremendous opportunity and pioneering spirit.

I have my parents to thank who gave me the opportunity to come to USA for education in 1987, gave blessings to marry and live here, and have guided me through life, good morals, business and entrepreneurship. Thank you Puppa, Thank you Mummi. I want to thank my wife, for raising two wonderful children, and who has stood by me through thick and thin. Thank you Mamta.

Today, in LA County alone, we have tens of thousands of kids who live in foster families. There are more than 600 children currently waiting for an adoptive family. I invite you to contribute your time and money to help these children through the KidSave organization based in Los Angeles. KidSave has already placed more than 1,300 children from all over the world with American families. Please find a way to help these children right here in LA county.

Another organization based in Irvine, Free Wheel Chair Mission, helps adults and children all over the world who have mobility problems. They have an enterprising wheel chair program that creates wheel chairs for only $50 per wheel chair. Recently, the Free Wheel Chair Mission did an amazing program in an Indian village where they donated hundreds of wheel chairs and brought smiles to many, many immobilized Indians. Free Wheel Chair Mission has donated over 8,000 wheel chairs to India alone, and you should definitely get involved with the Free Wheel Chair Mission program.

India gave us our culture, our leaders, our traditions, our morals, our never-say-die spirit, our scores of relatives, and also Bollywood. Let us take a moment to honor and thank our freedom fighters including Gandhiji, Sardarbhai Patel, Subhashbhai, and many more who got us our independence, and also the present day heroes who are helping our country grow by leaps and bounds, and protecting our country from terrorists and radical forces. India has come a long way since our independence in 1947; however, we do have many challenges – poverty, illiteracy, healthcare, basic infrastructure needs – to just name a few. My wife and I have sponsored a child in India for the past many years through Christian Children’s Fund and Shramajivi Unnayan. He lives in Jharkhand state. He is a growing kid, and when we got a letter from him where he talks about, I quote, “the Save Environment program in Jharkhand where the main objective is inhibition on hunting because life is the right of animal” end quote , it really moved us. I recently attended a couple of meetings of Lions Club of Little India, and it was refreshing to see the members create a real program for helping some of the students in India.

Today, at the local Jain Center, thousands of Jains are celebrating Pajyushana, and asking for forgiveness and simultaneously forgiving fellow friends and workers. Yesterday, I attended a peaceful event hosted by Swaminarayan mandir and Bharat Community Center in Irvine. Our Indian swamis gave many examples on how we can live happily and peacefully, and reduce our many vices through many examples from Bhagvad. Every evening, a few hundred people attended the discourse, and came away relaxed and happy with pearls of wisdom bestowed by the learned. Let us take this opportunity to ask for forgiveness, and above all make a pledge to create a shining example of our parent country India here in the U.S.A.

We now live in the great democracy America, where we raise our family peacefully and happily, where we mingle our cultures freely with Americans, where we come to respect and appreciate the multitude of traditions including Hollywood, and where we find opportunities to advance and do well. Let us thank America, our home, for helping us grow and flourish, and letting us enjoy the free spirit and democratic ideals.

We, all of us, are quite blessed by God. Let us take a moment to thank our parents, our family, our friends, our colleagues at work, our partners, our neighbors, our community and our country. We all have a nice house to live, drive good cars, do not have to worry about food, are healthy and do well financially. So, let us make a promise to ourselves today: We must not complain.

Thank you everyone for giving me this opportunity to speak. I am indeed grateful.

God Bless us all!

Sanjay Dalal

President & Managing Director
Innovation Index Group, Inc.