The whole world is looking like crap...

Seems there isn't anything going right lately.

Our local fishwrap (Dallas Morning News) gives scant IF ANY coverage to stories such as Obama's total disregard for the War Powers Act in his bid for regime change in Libya, or the can of worms opened by investigating "Operation Gunwalker" aka "Fast & Furious". But I do get a lot of info regarding how the heat is breaking records. BFD, I have air conditioning. Even without the AC the damned heat is small potatoes compared to the disregard for our Constitution and the imperiled lives of Border Patrol agents, Mexican citizens and other innocents.

All of my so called "friends" in this area are fast becoming fair weather acquaintances, i.e. I see/hear them only when nobody else is around. Hey, I ain't anyone's consolation prize in life. Buzz off!

All too many Catholic blogs I frequent seem caught up in piously bemoaning (pick one) the death penalty, the anniversary of Nagasaki, the plight of our "poor" due to not having their entitlements raised during the budget battle, the lack of the TLM, and there are probably more that I can't bring to mind right off the top of my head. I remember now how easy it was to leave the Church some years back, when everything you believe in is criticized you get the "why bother" attitude and head out the door while giving the "single finger salute".

I don't see any Reaganesque figure emerging from the GOP for the nomination in 2012. I've a hunch it'll be another case of "hold your nose while voting". Done too much of that already. Voldemort and Sauron are both dead so it's back to picking the lesser of two evils.

On the home front, my in-laws have gone out of their way the past few months to remove all doubt of their shallow, inane, narcissistic and infantile character. The good news in that area is the wife doesn't expect me to do anything but keep my big mouth shut. I often wonder if she was a foundling.

There is a lot more I can piss, moan and groan about. You got the point ten minutes ago. I'm getting to where I just don't give a damn anymore, Scarlett. I know that glass is half full, just have to adjust my attitude again. There are actually a lot of good things going on in my life, like most folks I focus on the crap. It's just another attitude attack.

It's break time. See ya later.

Our taxes at work?

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (WUSA) -- Eleven-year-old aspiring veterinarian, Skylar Capo, sprang into action the second she learned that a baby woodpecker in her Dad's backyard was about to be eaten by the family cat.

"I've just always loved animals," said Skylar Capo. "I couldn't stand to watch it be eaten."

Skylar couldn't find the woodpecker's mother, so she brought it to her own mother, Alison Capo, who agreed to take it home.

"She was just going to take care of it for a day or two, make sure it was safe and uninjured, and then she was going to let it go," said Capo.

But on the drive home, the Capo family stopped at a Lowes in Fredericksburg and they brought the bird inside because of the heat. That's when they were confronted by a fellow shopper who said she worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"She was really nervous. She was shaking. Then she pulled out a badge," said Capo.

The problem was that the woodpecker is a protected species under the Federal Migratory Bird Act. Therefore, it is illegal to take or transport a baby woodpecker. The Capo family says they had no idea.

"I was a little bit upset because I didn't want my mom to get in trouble," said Skylar.

So as soon as the Capo family returned home, they say they opened the cage, the bird flew away, and they reported it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"They said that's great, that's exactly what we want to see," said Capo. "We thought that we had done everything that we could possibly do."

But roughly two weeks later, that same woman from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed up at Capo's front door. This time, Capo says the woman was accompanied by a state trooper. Capo refused to accept a citation, but was later mailed a notice to appear in U.S. District Court for unlawfully taking a migratory bird. She's also been slapped with a $535 fine.

"I feel harassed and I feel angry," said Capo.

"Kids should be able to save a baby bird and not end up going home crying because their mom has to pay $535. I just think that's crazy," said Skylar.

If convicted, Capo could face up to a year behind bars.

Virginia State Police just released the following statement:

"We have confirmed that the US Fish and Wildlife agent requested our presence when they served their federal summons. The trooper stood on the porch and said nothing. We had nothing to do with the charge."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued this statement at around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 2nd:

"On June 13, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed a woman carrying a cage that contained a woodpecker at a home improvement store in Fredericksburg Virg.

As possession of a bird may potentially violate the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the agent initiated an inquiry to determine whether a potential violation had occurred.

Upon speaking with the subject, later identified as Alison Capo, on June 27, the agent determined that no further action was warranted. A citation that had been previously drafted by the agent was cancelled on June 28.

Unfortunately, the citation was processed unintentionally despite our office's request to cancel the ticket. The Service has contacted Ms. Capo to express our regret. The Service is also sending Ms. Capo a formal letter explain the clerical error and confirming that ticket should never have been issued.

This misunderstanding was the result of a Service inquiry into possible violations of federal wildlife law. In particular the Service is responsible for the protection of all federally listed migratory birds. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries did not participate in the inquiry."

(End of story, my comments follow.)

I wonder just how much this entire farce cost the taxpayers? Maybe I really don't want to know, I've passed up reading several opinion pieces lately for that reason.

The weather here in North Texas...

Been nice knowing ya.

Ain't it the truth....

(H/T to Jill Stanek)

Ann Barnhardt on Mexico, my own thoughts on the future.

This is an interesting post, copied & pasted in it's entirety. While I disagree with a good portion, some parts are really worth considering:

On Mexico, Guns, Drugs and Borders
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 30, AD 2011 5:49 PM MST

This is speculation, so take it as such. It is impossible to know for certain what another person or people are going to do until they do it, but when Vanna turns enough letters around on the board, you don’t need to buy any more vowels.

I think the Obama regime is intentionally trying to get the Los Zetas drug cartel to overthrow the Mexican government, and do it fairly soon. This thesis is nothing new. If you want citations, do a google search of the terms “los zetas overthrow” and read up. What I want to address is the question of WHY.

The Obama regime wants to effectively dissolve the U.S.-Mexican border. A Los Zetas overthrow would accomplish this. Mexican refugees would flood into the United States. The U.S. would refuse to acknowledge the Los Zetas regime as a legitimate government. The U.N. and other illegitimate criminal syndicates operating as diplomatic fronts would immediately call for the U.S. to accept all Mexican refugees. Because the Mexican government would no longer be legitimate – and essentially would not exist – there would be no way to deport ANY Mexican nationals inside the U.S., because there would be no government in Mexico to hand them back to lawfully. So, we would have:

1. Completely open borders
2. MILLIONS of refugees streaming into the U.S.
3. Global insistence that the U.S. accept these refugees
4. Instant de facto amnesty for both pre-Zeta and post-Zeta Mexicans in the U.S.
5. Obama cast as savior of these Mexican refugees
6. Millions of new welfare-dependent Obama voters
7. A lawless Mexico, wide-open to unlimited muslim and Chinese staging

Now a word about drugs. I know that there are many libertarians reading this website who think that legalizing drugs is the solution to everything. It sure is, if you’re George Soros. If you will indulge me for a moment, I’m going to leave the current chess board and try to think five or six moves ahead. Los Zetas overthrow Mexico. The border dissolves and Obama gets his millions of welfare-recipient voters. The Obama regime, which we know is just a front for Soros, legalizes drugs. Soros is pretty much the money behind the entire drug legalization movement. Legalizing drugs in the U.S. would instantly undercut and defund Los Zetas, thus allowing Soros to install a handpicked puppet in Mexico City. And we’re now well on our way to piecing together the Soros global empire. Central and South America could be rolled easily.

Soros, and all Marxist-Communist tyrants, are big fans of drugs because drugs keep the rabble (that’s us) dumb, compliant, desperate and dependant on the state. Soros, Jarrett, Obama, Ayers, Sunstein, Piven and all the rest would love nothing more than for the entire American populace to come home every night from a long day at the welfare office, bread line, and drug dispensary, smoke a joint or a blunt, plop down on the sofa and sit transfixed by pornography, circuses and/or state propaganda. This is how the Soviet Union operated except with alcohol. There may not have been food or toilet paper at times in the Soviet Union, but MIRACULOUSLY the vodka would always manage to appear. This basically eliminated the threat of the male populace to the state. It also acted as a silent genocide by causing dramatic increases in early death AND dramatically decreased fertility rates when coupled with state-provided abortion-on-demand. In case you weren’t aware, Russia’s population today is imploding.

This is what the Marxist-Soros cabal wants the U.S. to look like, and in order to achieve that goal, they need to be the drug cartel. So, back to our original thesis. They would, or already have facilitated the Zetas' overthrow of Mexico by running guns and other high-powered weapons to them via Fast & Furious, which would give the Marxist-Soros machine permanent power by destabilizing the U.S. and stacking the American electorate, and would also position them to then eventually undercut the Zetas, seize and “nationalize” the North American drug trade for themselves and then drug the populace into numbness, compliance, early death and mechanical infertility.

And no, I do not think that alcohol should be illegal. I can drink a given quantity of alcohol and not get drunk. And I do, and I appreciate the flavor of the alcohol as I do other foodstuffs. A person can not smoke a joint and not get stoned. A person can not snort cocaine and not get high. A person can not inject heroin and not get stoned. The only purpose drugs have is the dramatic alteration of a human’s psychological state, and that alteration reduces the ability to think critically and rationally, numbs the person to their surroundings, induces extreme selfishness and inhibits the ability to love. This is the Marxist definition of “the perfect man”. No, check that. In Marxism, the perfect man is the dead man – but the stoned man is the next best thing.

If you’re on that whole libertarian legalize drugs bandwagon, I would seriously advise you to think that position over very carefully – and not while you’re high on weed. Start by looking at who is “on your side”. That alone should be enough to convince you that you’re being played. And look for the Zetas to move on Mexico City well before the 2012 elections. If we even make it that far.

(End of story, my comments follow.)

One of the beauties of the scenario Barnhardt paints is the lack of any formal conspiracy needed for results 1-7. "Operation Gunwalker" could be set up mainly to cast the exercise of our 2nd Amendment in a bad light (I really believe that was the greater part of it). The other consequences resulting from a de facto arming of the Zetas would be of secondary importance initially but would soon assume a "tail wagging the dog" significance.

I can't follow her reasoning on the issue of drugs. Too many folks are NOT going to start toking on a joint or blunt for the legalization of drugs to be considered. But with no effective borders in place, what would there be to stop the cartels from more openly transporting their product north? This would be a really neat excuse for clamping down on everyone in the name of national security, but who would get that task?

The Border Patrol? They're already stretched thin, and several incidents where their agents have faced charges of pulling a gun on an illegal only emphasize our DOJ's tendency to undermine them. I'd bet a fair amount of agents spend as much time covering their asses now as actually doing their jobs. I know I would.

Ditch posse comitatus and place the military on the border? Look at how the troops are currently being used for social engineering purposes (e.g. the demise of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the wholesale embrace of gays in uniform). Those of us who served during the Carter years well remember the lousy morale during that time. I'd say we'll soon see another decline that will make the hollow military of those years look robust in comparison. So no, the military won't be able to handle the job of border protection and taking care of the increased lawlessness further north.

The local police? I really doubt they'll have the organization or firepower to deal with drug cartels that control a nation.

But what about the civilian security force that B.O. spoke of forming? The one that would be as well armed as the military.

BINGO! YOU'VE WON THE JACKPOT, SO COME ON DOWN!

A paramilitary organization, answerable only to the Executive Branch, armed to the teeth and consisting of true believers in the ideas of our present Commander-in-Chief.

Yeah, they'd be tasked with national security once the conventional military and police organizations proved inadequate.

Their ranks would consist of those more loyal to El Presidente than the Constitution. There doesn't even need to be a formal conspiracy for this, just think of sitting in for an interview to join the new "Civilian SF" and having a true believer quiz you about your thoughts on gun control, limited government, the 2nd Amendment, etc. There wouldn't be time for a detailed hiring policy to be in place, a lot of it would be left up to the personal judgment of whoever is doing that interview. No real knowledge of the Constitution needed.

Hey, face it folks, right now the vast majority of the rank and file military don't know squat about how the nation was founded and designed to function. I know this from personal experience. The ones who know the most are your senior enlisted personnel and the mid-to-senior commissioned officer pay grades. They'd prove a problem for any sort of Brown Shirt tactics, even in an increasingly demoralized and emasculated military you could count on a fairly large number of patriots to dig in their heels and say "NO" to any illegal order.

But a new paramilitary "security force" could be led by those screened to be more loyal to a person than a historically derived ideal? They could be given expanded powers to investigate & arrest perceived threats to the nation, utilizing procedures and practices already in place or in use before now. That would include "no knock home searches", suspension of habeus corpus, stopping your average man on the street and demanding identification/destination/etc. The list goes on. Just as the gun laws of Weimar Germany were enacted with noble intent yet ultimately used for the benefit of the Nazis, so will the present statutes and the enforcement of them be twisted to suit an agenda.

This is all dependent on the success of the cartels overthrowing the government of Mexico and the ensuing anarchy spilling over into this country. As Barnhardt implies, all those brand new voters would be extremely sympathetic to the overlords in DC. There would be the added advantage that they wouldn't be too picky about individual rights of privacy and other such items that have scant existence south of our border. They'd vote for increased security in a second and damn the consequences! Anyone speaking out would have their names taken for future reference.

Mexico is already moving towards being a complete narcostate, just let it go a little further down the road and it'll be showtime. It'll begin in this nation with martial law being declared.

Do I think it's in the works? Do I believe it's likely? I don't know and maybe that's all that keeps me from being a full fledged model of the latest style in tinfoil hats. But just a few years ago I'd have said you had to be delusional to believe the ATF would allow a glut of firearms to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels while the MSM stayed mute on the topic. I'd have honestly believed that the rule of law and a concern for our fellow citizens would trump any crap like that.

So now, I can only say I don't know what is going to happen. But I don't think whatever goes down will be good.

God help us all, God's will be done.

The background on "Project Gunwalker" aka "Fast & Furious.

I've mentioned before how the MSM isn't covering this story. Here's an AP post from Breitbart, let's see if the Dallas Morning News and other big names in the newspaper world pick it up now: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OQ42JG0&show_article=1

The thing is way too big to cut and paste, my favored method of saving news stories like this. Over time I've come to do that because many items will be scrubbed from a newsite. I don't believe it's for any nefarious reason other than economy. But on this one I'll make do with a hyperlink.

Anyway, there's the story. One theory not mentioned in trying to figure out why the ATF/DOJ let so many weapons head south is setting a scenario to justify restricting our exercise of the 2nd Amendment. I still believe that factored into this fubar operation. Just my opinion.

Parents: Do not eat while reading this...

Otherwise you'll hurl it back up. The swill is found here: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/teaching-teenagers-about-the-joy-of-sex/?smid=tw-NYTMotherlode&seid=auto

Honest to God, has our entire planet fallen into a worm hole and come out in the Bizarro Universe? I read the linked article and while that was disturbing enough, the comments were even more so.

Yours truly is no saint. 22 years in the sub force guarantees that you can dress me up but can't take me anywhere. Ya know, "rude, crude & socially unacceptable".

But this thing made me sick. Here's a highly educated woman, somebody who is trusted to educate other peoples' children, having a talk with her 17 yr. old daughter about how to make sure she gets as much sexual satisfaction as she gives. The only time "Mom" feels like a failure is upon realizing her girl has been gobbbling some guy's goop without insisting he reciprocate by eating a box lunch at the "Y". How could she have missed teaching THAT lesson? Oh, the shame!

As I say, the comments were worse.

After reading this I feel like I've been exposed to an entirely alien culture. Unfortunately it isn't, I can probably find equally "free spirits" in the local area. In this present time I'd qualify as the alien life form sooner than they would.

So what does the father of a small girl do these days to insure she doesn't become a complete skank? It seems being a mattress-backed tramp is more acceptable than not now.

No wonder my hair is falling out.

Feminism at it's finest, don't demand you be treated as worthy of respect. Just jump into the cesspool with the boys and wallow in it.

Yeah, what he said!

New York City, N.Y., Jul 29, 2011 / 10:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The World Trade Center cross is still a “sign of comfort” to many people, says the Franciscan priest who describes himself as its “unofficial guardian.”

On Sept. 13, 2001 construction worker Frank Silecchia found a 20-foot, cross-shaped T-beam from World Trade Center 1 standing almost upright in the wreckage of World Trade Center 6.

Fr. Brian Jordan, O.F.M., blessed the cross later that year on Oct. 4 and promised that it would be preserved.

Now almost 10 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the priest again blessed the cross in a July 23 ceremony before its relocation to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

“It’s a sign of consolation and comfort for those who lost loved ones,” Fr. Jordan told CNA on July 28. “For the dead, the cross signifies the death of Jesus Christ. It also gave hope and support to the living, especially the rescue and recovery workers, the firefighters, polices officers, construction workers and many others.”

The Franciscan priest, who is in residence at New York City’s Holy Name Parish, played his own role in responding to the destruction which killed thousands. He ministered among construction workers, worked with family members and uniformed service members, and blessed “many bodies and body parts.”

“We saw evil at its worst, but goodness at its best,” Fr. Jordan said. “The goodness was that Americans came together in those weeks. New York City came together in those weeks. People of all ethnic and religious groups and economic backgrounds came together. I was very proud of that.”

In the months afterward, the cross “dramatically” affected others, both Christians and non-Christians.

He particularly recalled a Mother’s Day Mass in 2002, when mothers who lost children or grandchildren and their husbands all gathered at the cross.

Two groups of U.S. Army special forces also attended, without telling anyone else in advance.

“One group had just returned from Afghanistan, while the other was preparing to go,” the priest reported.

“At the kiss of peace, to see these mothers embrace these young men who came from war, who were about to go, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Fr. Jordan said. “I don’t care if you are John Wayne. Anyone who has any heart or emotion in them will start crying when they see the mothers who lost their children embracing soldiers who are going to war.

“They looked at the cross, and they knew that Catholics were with them.”

He noted that what people call the “cross” is simply an interpretation of the T-beam shape. But even so, he explained, the shape has significance of for Christians.

Jesus is “both the victim and the victor of the cross.” Despite the cruelty of his death, Jesus is also the victor of Resurrection, of life over death.

“The cross, (is) for us, we were all victims on 9/11. We’ll be victorious,” he said. “America and the rest of the free world will roll over terrorism and show the poignance of God’s overwhelming love for all people.

Joe Daniels, president of the 9/11 Memorial, said that the cross will be an important part of the memorial’s commitment to “bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the history of 9/11 in a way nothing else could.”

The group American Atheists has filed a lawsuit to stop the display of the cross, claiming it is a “government enshrinement” and an “impermissible mingling of church and state.”

Fr. Jordan was not sympathetic to their claim.

“They don’t have a prayer. Not to be facetious,” he said, noting that the Metropolitan Museum of Art shows many religious icons, as does the Holocaust Museum, on public land.

The cross is “an interpretation,” he repeated.

“They’re going to judge interpretations? Then move every telephone pole out of New York City, because those look like a cross to me too,” he countered.

“These people are just looking for 15 minutes of fame. They’re exploiting 9/11 for their own selfish public posturing and they should be ashamed of themselves because of this baseless lawsuit.”

Fr. Jordan closed his remarks by recommending the Decalogue of Assisi, a short 2002 document signed by world religious leaders that rejects violence and advocates peace and religious dialogue.

“God bless America,” he said.

"Fast and Furious", John Peter Zenger, you and I, some other thoughts too.

Found this via Lucianne.com at www.investors.com:

ATF: The White House Knew

Posted 07:02 PM ET

Scandal: A former ATF special agent tells Congress a National Security Council staffer was informed about Operation Fast and Furious before guns allowed into Mexico wound up at the murder scene of a U.S. agent.

The latest evidence that both the White House and attorney general knew and approved of Project Gunrunner and its deadly offshoot, Operation Fast and Furious, came this week in the testimony of William Newell, ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

That the "stench of cover-up," as Fox News analyst Brit Hume described the administration's handling of the matter, may reach even into the Oval Office itself was evidenced by Newell's testimony that he communicated with Kevin O'Reilly, a staffer on President Obama's National Security Council, about Operation Fast and Furious in September 2010.

O'Reilly was national security director for North America tasked with monitoring the activities of Mexican drug cartels. We are asked to believe he inquired about a program that was providing the cartels with guns but kept what he found out to himself.

That date, by the way, is three months before weapons permitted to "walk" into Mexico were found at the scene in Arizona were U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. Newell said O'Reilly had inquired about the status of Project Gunrunner to brief administration officials before a trip to Mexico.

Newell sent O'Reilly the requested information with the caveat, "You didn't get this from me."

Why was a National Security Council staffer asking about an operation that no one in the upper echelons of the administration was supposed to be aware of? We find it hard to believe it was for O'Reilly's personal amusement. Why would Newell request that he not be acknowledged as the source?

Certainly the whole area of drug cartels, cross-border violence and gun trafficking are matters of national security. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a cause celebre of blaming the easy access to U.S. weapons for Mexican violence.

Are we to believe neither the White House nor the Department of Justice knew about a program that made that access even easier?

Administration officials have taken the Sgt. Schultz "we knew nothing" approach to any inquiries, only to be tripped up by their own words and actions.

Newell's email to O'Reilly is evidence that at least one person in the White House did.

Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee in May that he learned about the operation in the "last few weeks." In fact, as we've noted, Holder himself gave a speech to Mexican authorities in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, taking credit for Gunrunner as well as Fast and Furious for himself and the Obama administration.

Holder told the audience: "Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner."

At a June 29 press conference, President Obama told reporters, "As you know, my attorney general has made clear he certainly would not have ordered gun-running to pass through into Mexico."

Yet a video shows former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden telling reporters at a Department of Justice briefing of steps to expand Gunrunner "as part of the administration's comprehensive plan" and as the "president has directed us."

ATF agents have testified that they were ordered not to interdict guns before they passed into Mexico under this operation and evidence has surfaced that the FBI averted its eyes when an instant background check should have alerted them to two convicted felons transferring more than 300 guns.

The "stench of cover-up" grows stronger even as the mainstream media put a clothespin on their collective nostrils

(End of story, my comments follow.)

There is definitely a stench of cover-up to this affair. I live in Texas, a notably "red" state that is on the border with Mexico. You'd think there'd be some interest in this affair as shown in the local MSM.

Think again.

Our main paper, the Dallas Morning News carries zip about this story. I've kept my eyes open since restarting my subscription a few weeks ago. There ain't diddle squat ladies and gentlemen. When I speak to friends about this affair I'm initially given a blank look, as if I'm speaking Swahili.

My main point and the bottom line on this affair, the circumvention by Obama of the War Powers Act in his Libyan regime change, the "rules of engagement" our Marines and soldiers labor under in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a few other items that I probably can't call to mind right now, is that the MSM is lying to us.

Yeah, big surprise.

But I AM surprised at the offhanded arrogance displayed in NOT covering these stories. It confirms the importance of this little device sitting in front of me. We may not be of the caliber of John Peter Zenger, but it's the folks sitting at their PC that get the truth out these days. Don't count on the MSM, they're snugly wrapped in the hip pockets of the politicians.

In the mean time, keep in mind how this example of government malfeasance has been working. Who would benefit from a glut of guns heading south of the border? Who could use it for political purposes? My opinion is that having someone die from a gun bought in El Norte would serve the gun grabbers and their political allies admirably.

Only the alternative media is putting a kink in things by getting the word out.

Imagine a similar scenario when Watergate happened if the MSM had been in Nixon's hip pocket. There was no alternative news media at that time. This is a hell of a lot bigger than a bunch of second rate burglars getting caught red handed.

Where's the outcry from the media?

Another Muslim plans to attack Fort Hood...

Found this at www.statesman.com via Lucianne.com:

An AWOL soldier who authorities say told them he was planning an attack on Fort Hood will likely be charged today with having bomb-making components, including “a significant amount of gunpowder,” in his Killeen hotel room, officials said today.

Killeen police on Wednesday arrested Pvt. Nasser Jason Abdo after learning that he was wanted by the Army on a child pornography charge, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said.

Authorities found materials that included the gunpowder and other items “that could be considered bomb-making components” in Abdo’s hotel room, Vasys said.

He was arrested at America’s Best Value Inn on South Fort Hood Road, Killeen police said.

“We don’t know what his motivation was at this time,” Vasys said. “We are trying to learn all things about Mr. Abdo, about what his possible motivations and intentions were.”

Employees at Guns Galore, a popular Killeen firearms shop, alerted police to Abdo after he made a purchase there, officials said. Guns Galore is the same store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the gun, ammunition and laser sights that witnesses testified he used during the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting massacre at the post.

Abdo, whose hometown is Garland, entered the Army in March of 2009 and was assigned to the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky., when he went AWOL on July 4, Wright said.

While serving at Fort Campbell, Abdo told ABC News that “no Muslim should serve in the U.S. military” and said his faith had pushed him to file for conscientious objector status. His scheduled deployment to Afghanistan was deferred, an Army spokesperson told ABC News at the time.

George Wright, an Army spokesman, said Abdo was granted conscientious objector status shortly before he was charged with possession of child pornography in May. Abdo underwent an Article 32 pretrial evidentiary hearing in June and was recommended for a general court-martial. But before the trial began, Abdo went AWOL, Wright said.

Wright said he was not aware of anything linking Abdo to a larger plot among soldiers against Army installations.

“I’m not seeing anything to that effect,” Wright said, stressing that he is not a spokesman for the ongoing FBI and Killeen Police Department investigation.

Fort Hood officials said security measures remained the same at the post today

(End of story, my comments follow.)

So this guy is a Muslim. Wow, what a surprise (not).

Just when do we as a nation get our collective head out of our ass and start taking a serious look at the adherents of the "religion" of Islam?

I'd say we're way past due.