Memorial Day 2011

This is in fact a slightly altered re-post of my memorial day message from 2010 for anyone who didn't see it a year ago.

Today we remember all of our heroes, past and present, for doing what so few of us have: serving our country and in many cases giving their very lives to improve the lives of so many others.

This is a day when most of America stands with our military and veterans. This day is not about a day off of work, a cookout, or an unofficial start of summer. Today we reflect on what we so often take for granted. The freedoms we get to enjoy that are missing in so many other parts of the world. The soldiers who give so much in the present and have given so much in the past to defend so many others.

Our soldier do more and have done more for total strangers than many of us have done even for family and friends. For that level of sacrifice and dedication to doing what's right to defend the defenseless and to help the helpless no thank you could ever be enough. Our support may not be enough...but at the same time our support is all our soldiers and veterans ask for.

I pray for all who have served and who are serving, thank you all. I hope everyone has a great memorial day, take care, and remember what today is really about.

You may have the day off, but to a solder serving in harm's way there's no such thing as a day off, just days that are better than others. For all of those we have lost, you are not forgotten. For all of those in danger, you are not alone. God bless our soldiers past and present. Let us never forget what others have sacrificed in order to preserve the freedom that we so often take for granted.

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Challenge From A Voice In The Wilderness

A blogger recently commented on some of my posts and I wanted to show it to you. Rather than just add a comment of my own I figured I'd turn my response into a post all it's own. The blogger calls them self A Voice In The Wilderness. Here's the comment:

"Thank you for this blog! The pictures of all of my favorite GOP peeps just happen to be there: Barry Goldwater. Who can forget the man that only lost to LBJ by a handful of votes? Newt Gingrich, a man who committed adultery at the time he was targeting Clinton for the same thing, but this was different; Newt did it out of passionate love for his country. Besides, my hat goes off to the man who gets away with not paying property taxes. Heck, Newt Inc. still owes the State of Missouri. He’ll get away with that too because the revenue boys like easier targets. Don’t mess with Newt, b@#&*%$# Ronald Reagan, my all-time hero! The man who opened the doors for busting those socialist unions(Don’t they know that protecting their workers from management is a mortal sin and downright unpatriotic?) In addition to creating all those minimum wage jobs, Ronnie gave us the 2nd biggest deficit in history, topped only by Baby Bush(we now have the biggest deficit ever and everybody know that it’s Obama’s fault .After all, the Republicans have been very cooperative since 2009.)

And that nice looking man in-between Goldwater and Reagan- ok, I don't know his name but I think it's William F. Buckley, TRULY one of the coolest conservatives I can remember(and I mean that.)If I’m wrong, blame it on Obama.

And who can forget my favorite favorite, that foxy lady who can’t keep her mouth shut, but that’s why we love her right? You betcha!

While I am at it, let me make a prediction of the 2012 election: Gingrich will beat Obama in a landslide. Why? Because he’s still a frisky lad at heart and likes a little action on the side. What better way to stay out of another war?

Thank you! Retorts welcome on my blog.I'll fax you a cup of coffee. :)"

Here is my retort:

Finally, someone actually tries to make an argument with more than just insults. I make no apologies for Newt's adultery but it's not fresh news and unlike Clinton, (who lied under oath about his affair), Newt has at least apologized for it. Furthermore, weren't the Clinton supporters, (which I assume you are), the ones claiming that personal matters shouldn't make a difference as it's private and none of our business? Clinton's affair wasn't an issue for me, his lying under oath was. After all, if he'll lie under oath about something that most people don't even really care about, what would he lie about that's important? It was Dick Morris, Clinton's own advisor, who points out that Clinton let Osama Bin Laden get away from us in 1998 because he was afraid that launching an attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan, (where the CIA knew he was at the time), would look like a distraction from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

As far as Newt's unpaid taxes, it was for 4 states, adding up to a bit more than a whopping $6,000. Also, those taxes have been paid.

"The tax liens ranged in size from a $195 property tax bill in the Atlanta suburbs to $1,969 in unpaid Missouri taxes. Most were paid shortly after tax authorities filed them"

In other words, Newt personally didn't know about the missed taxes, small as they were, and after it was brought to his attention the taxes were paid. That certainly pales in comparison to Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, you know, the billionaire who avoided taxes and was given a pass by Clinton, ignore that though. If you want to play the hypocrisy game then let's play, Liberalism is based on hypocrisy so I'll win this one easy.

As far as Ronald Reagan busting the socialist unions. Damn right, unions drive up costs, hurt businesses, and screw harder workers over through tenure. Many were founded by socialists. If you still can't see the reality of power politics in regard to unions I feel bad for you, luckily though, most of the country sees through the unions game. Labor laws protect workers, union rackets only exploit them. If you don't like your job, quit, if your employer is truly mistreating workers then launch an investigation through internal company measures, (they all have them). As far as Ronald Reagan's deficit, I'll let him defend himself on this one.

"I'm convinced we must take the lead and wait no more on the Democrats for a bi-partisan approach to the deficit. They think they have a campaign issue. They've been in charge of the congress for 45 years and for 45 years they've run up deficits. Now they want to hang the present deficit on us and yet they've only given us half the spending cuts we've asked for." - Ronald Reagan March 8, 1984 Diary entry.

Now that you've lost those argument's I can't help but laugh at this comment
by you:

"(we now have the biggest deficit ever and everybody know that it’s Obama’s fault . After all, the Republicans have been very cooperative since 2009.)"

Is that supposed to be a joke? Democrats held the majority of congress throughout all of 2009 and 2010. Have you already forgotten that since the Tea Party led to a Democrat ass kicking last November? The Republicans you blame for Obama's deficit even though they had no control over the last 2 years have only been in control of the House of Representatives since January of this year. You can deflect blame from Obama all day long if it makes you feel better but it's clearly an ignorant point to try and make.

I pay almost no attention to Palin but I do think it's funny how the left attacks her for a lack of experience when she has far more political experience of Obama, and that's a fact. You also said:

"While I am at it, let me make a prediction of the 2012 election: Gingrich will beat Obama in a landslide. Why? Because he’s still a frisky lad at heart and likes a little action on the side. What better way to stay out of another war?"

Nice way to end your rant. It's worth pointing out that involving us in a third war in Libya was all Obama and was done without the consent of congress but you'll give him a pass there right? At least Bush went to congress and got people like Hillary Clinton to at least vote for the wars. Gingrich has admitted his mistakes of the past and been forgiven by his family. It's laughable to watch critics attack him for that while Clinton's wandering willy is ignored even though he was far worse. Thanks for the comment, it's been fun. Keep the coffee, you're the one falling asleep in the wilderness.

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Bin Laden's Bin Killed, Stay Awake

It's a great day. It's been a long time coming but we can finally say with confidence that the most wanted man in the world has been killed. It's barely been announced as of this writing and yet I'm already getting sick of the scepticism surrounding the news.

Let's start with this. Both President Obama and our military deserves credit here. It's a shame that there are already partisan's trying to divide this issue. If we can't even unite on a moment such as this then we as Americans have already destroyed everything this country has stood for in history and we should be ashamed of ourselves if we allow that to become this generations legacy as Americans.

This is great news. To the critics who believe this is a lie to improve President Obama's approval rating, be better than that. At this point to believe that simply because you don't like Obama, (as I clearly don't), makes you no better than the critics of President Bush who attacked him for anything and everything and you should be above that.

We all have questions, such as whether or not the Pakistani government knew he was there and was protecting him when they were making themselves out to be helping us with the war on terror. He was in a fortified compound near military and the U.S. didn't let the Pakistani government know about the operation which was a good move. What if someone on Bin Laden's side in the Pakistani government found out about it and tipped him off to let him slip away as he had several times in the past? He slipped through our fingers in 1998 in Afghanistan under President Clinton, (according to former Clinton advisor Dick Morris). This also happened under Bush shortly after 9/11. These are good questions to have but we should just enjoy the moment of triumph.

I have other questions though. For example, the information leading to Bin Laden was attained from a Gitmo detainee. Will all of the Obama supporters chanting USA in the streets still be in favor of closing Gitmo given that fact? Will the left remain on such a hard line against our military and military recruiters considering that the CIA and Navy SEALS did such a fantastic job of conducting this operation, killing Bin Laden without suffering a single casualty?

The left will give all of the credit to President Obama and the right are going to try and shift most of the credit to Bush, the military, and Gitmo. Would it really be that difficult for all of us to give credit to all of the above on that one. I don't remember the Bush critics being all that happy when we caught Saddam Hussein do you? You may not have agreed with Bush's actions in Iraq but if you support the recent actions in Egypt and Libya is Iraq really all that different? All three, (Saddam, Gaddafi, and Mubarak), were dictators and terrorized their people. The past is the past and what's done is done but can we stop with the hypocritical partisanship of the past for the good of the present and future? Unfortunately, I'm really not so sure that we can.

Partisanship is fed into us from many angles on both sides and some people just want to believe what they believe and you can't change that. Let me explain why I put "stay awake" in the title of this post.

Our fight isn't over by a long shot. Psychologically, this is a great boost for us and a great blow to the terrorists that hate us but in the end it's still just one guy. Think about this:

FDR died on April 12, 1945. That may have been a pretty good day for the imperialist Japanese. I'm no fan of FDR due to his pre-WW2 actions but he did a good job fighting the war, FDR was a popular leader just as Osama Bin Laden was for terrorists. It wasn't until August 6 and then August 9 that we dropped the 2 nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death of a leader is of course significant but we mustn't fall back into a false sense of security because of it.

We must stay alert and remember that there are plenty of other people who hate America just as much as Bin Laden, remember that Bin Laden didn't pilot any of the planes on 9/11 and obviously wasn't a single suicide bomber killing himself just to kill innocents. Do not fall back asleep just because we've dealt such a serious blow to our enemies.

To those whose political opinion differs from my own I say maybe it's time to scale back your criticism of our military heroes who take risks the likes of which you and I will never know to keep all of us safe. You don't have to agree with a war to recognize the heroes of that war. Even Hillary Clinton and President Obama praised the work of President Bush in fighting AIDS in Africa. Every president has good and bad decisions that define the legacy of their presidency. It's okay to disagree with most of President Obama's policies and still give him some credit here.

We've all heard the saying that we have won the battle but have yet to win the war. That certainly seems to fit here. So stay alert, keep paying attention, keep learning and growing. I'm certainly not the 19 year old kid I was on 9/11 and I don't think there are many people out there who can say they are the same person they were 10 years ago.

I fear that after the initial "high" and showing of pride that many of us feel this day will fade over time just as it did as the months and years following 9/11 passed. Do this country a favor and don't be one of those people, we've got enough of them. Be better than that and show the world that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Stand with what is right, give credit where it's due even if it's not exactly someone you usually agree with. That will show true American pride far more than chanting USA!! USA!! with a beer in hand. Think about it.

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