Yeah, Right, Whatever

Many of you are off work today. Instead of just grilling up some dead animal and tossing back a few containers of fermented barley beverage without a care in the world, why don't you take some time to think about why you have the day off?

Memorial Day is a day to honor those who have given their lives in military service to our country. Just think about them for a moment. Thousands upon thousands paid the ultimate price for freedom. Your freedom. My freedom. Our freedom.

Far too often, Americans take their freedom for granted. Few of us who were born in the US really grasp the incredible gift we were given- we live in a nation of liberty and freedom. We are spoiled by our abundance and blessings. What some have fought and died to attain we dismiss as common place. How sad... for us.

Freedom isn't free, and liberty is bought with the blood of patriots. We should remember those whose blood was shed for this nation every day, not just today. But today is a good start.

The Left claims that it "hates the war, but supports the troops." Is this what they're talking about? (Yes, this story made the rounds a few days ago, but I just saw it.)

Recently, there have been local incidents in which military personnel have been verbally assaulted while commuting on the Metro. Uniformed members have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting anti-war sentiments, and using racial slurs against minorities.

While in uniform, military personnel can't really do much else except just take it. The cowards who assault them know that, I'm sure. Would they be all in the soldiers' faces if they could fight back? I doubt it.

There's no report on whether or not anyone stood up for the soldiers. I'd like to think there was someone who told those expressing their First Amendment rights to sit down and shut up, but I know better. People just can't be bothered to do the right thing these days. Pathetic.

Honestly, if this is how they "support the troops," I don't think the troops want it. Really.

IMO, the most important one on this list is the one from 1969. YMMV.

1430 Joan of Arc captured by Burgundians at Compiegne, who sell her to the British
1533 King Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon marriage declared null & void
1536 Pope Paul III installs Portugese inquisition
1576 Tycho Brahe given Hveen Island to build Uraniborg Observatory
1618 2nd Defenestration of Prague; the beginning of the 30 Years War
1618 Imperial civil servants thrown out a window of Prague Castle
1701 Captain Kidd hung in London after conviction of piracy & murder
1774 Chestertown tea party occurs (tea dumped into Chester River)
1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1848 Otto Lilienthal, pioneer aviator
1853 Buenos Aires gains independence from Argentina (reunited 1859)
1861 3 fleeing slaves enter Fort Monroe VA
1861 Virginia citizens vote 3 to 1 in favor of secession
1862 Battle at Front Royal VA
1862 Valley Campaign-Stonewall Jackson takes Front Royal VA
1864 Battle of Dallas GA
1864 Battle of North Anna VA, 1st of 3 days of fighting
1867 Jesse James-gang rob bank in Richmond MO (2 die, $4,000 taken)
1873 Canada's North West Mounted Police Force (RCMPF) forms
1876 1st National League no-hitter (Joe Borden, Boston)
1883 Baseball game between one-armed and one-legged players
1887 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver British Columbia
19-- B.J. & Peg Hunnicutt of Mill Valley's anniversary (on MASH)
1900 Associated Press News Service forms in New York
1903 1st automobile trip across US from San Fransisco to New York, ended April 1
1908 Dirigible explodes over San Fransisco Bay, 16 passengers fall, none die
1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary & Germany during WWI
1916 Heavy battles at Fort Douaumont Verdun
1922 Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films
1939 British decoration, George Cross, 1st presented
1939 British parliament plans to make Palestine independent by 1949
1939 Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland
1939 Submarine Squalis sinks off Portsmouth NH, 26 die
1940 1st great dogfight between Spitfires
1943 826 Allied bombers attack Dortmund
1944 Operation-Buffalo: Allied jailbreak out Anzio-bridgehead
1945 British military police arrest Admiral Karl Doenitz
1945 German island of Helgoland in North Sea surrenders to British
1945 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader & Chief of Police, committed suicide
1945 Lord Haw-Haw arrested at Danish boundary
1945 Winston Churchill resigns as British PM
1948 Ramat Rahel gateway to Jerusalem is repossessed by Israel
1960 Israel announced capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
1962 OAS leader General Raoul Salan sentenced to life
1962 Scott Carpenter orbits Earth 3 times in US Aurora 7
1969 BBC orders 13 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus
1990 Cost of rescuing savings & loan failures is put at up to $130 billion
1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,856.26
1991 Last Cubans troops leave Angola
1991 US Supreme Court bars subsidized clinics from discussing abortion

The five-year-old daughter of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman was killed yesterday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn - The 5-year-old daughter of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said.

The girl, Maria, was hit in a driveway on the family residence Wednesday afternoon by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brother, said Laura McPherson, a spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

...The brother apparently did not see the little girl, McPherson said. She did not have the name or exact age of the brother, only that he is an older teenager. The girl died later at Vanderbilt Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Laurie Holloway said.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Chapman family. I cannot begin to understand what they're going through.

Albert Pujols is bad for your health... if you're a San Diego Padre, that is.

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young and catcher Josh Bard were knocked out of Wednesday night's game against the St. Louis Cardinals by Albert Pujols within a span of two batters.

Pujols hit a line drive off Young's face in the third inning, breaking the right-hander's nose. Young immediately fell on his backside and put his right hand up to his face. Blood was running down his face.

...Aaron Miles and Pujols scored on the play. But right fielder Brian Giles' throw arrived at the plate at the same time as Pujols, who slid and caught Bard's left leg.

Bard went down in a heap and stayed on the ground for a few minutes before he was helped off the field, dragging his left leg. The Padres said Bard sprained his left ankle.

"Line drive off Young's face"... dang... While I'm happy that the Cards crushed the Padres last night, you never want to see players hurt. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Tylenol all around for the Padres, barkeep!

Here's a great video from Mike the Marine (set to Nickelback's "Rockstar"):

While you're at Mike the Marine's, check out this post. Good stuff. (h't to HDD, who saw it at Harvey's)

Sgt. John F. Thomas(Right) & Sgt. Ronnie L. Shelley, Sr.(Left)
33 & 34 years old from Valdosta, Georgia
2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard
July 24, 2005 & July 30, 2005


Sgt. Ronnie "Rod" Shelley and Sgt. John F. Thomas became best friends in the Georgia Army National Guard.

They both were ex-Marines, both about the same age, and both enjoyed searching for arrowheads and fishing together. As their friendship grew, Thomas often came over to Shelley’s house for steaks and ribs barbecued by his friend. And when their infantry unit was sent to Iraq in May of 2005, they went to war together.

When their unit was mobilized for combat duty in Iraq, Shelley promised to watch out for Thomas. "Ronnie said, 'Don't you worry, I'll bring him back safely,"' said Thomas' grandfather. But neither Sgt. Thomas or Sgt. Shelley made it back safely. Sgt. Thomas was killed July 24, 2005 by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. And Sgt. Shelley was killed six days later on July 30 by another roadside bomb, also near Baghdad.

Shelley was a family man, married with three children, who was obsessed with having a neat yard, his wife said. "The grass had to be two inches," she said. "If the neighbor mowed the grass, Rod had to mow. He also wanted the biggest, baddest lawn mower."

She said she fell in love with his "gorgeous blue ... eyes," and "he had a laid back attitude. I could not make him mad."

Thomas was married but had no children. His grandparents said he dreamed of becoming a forest ranger. "John wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. Now the only trail he can walk is the trail in heaven," the grandfather said.

Mrs. Thomas, wiping back tears, said the soldier felt responsible for the others in his unit. "He cared for people," she said. "That's why he had so many friends. People cared for him."

Killed alongside Sgt. Shelley were Staff Sgt. David R. Jones Sr., Sgt. 1st Class Victor A. Anderson and Sgt. Jonathon C. Haggin and killed alongside Sgt. Thomas were Army Spc. Jacques E. Brunson, Army Staff Sgt. Carl R. Fuller and Army Sgt. James O. Kinlow.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

One of my Cotillion sisters has done us proud.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country.

And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a member of Al Qaeda, or “the Zionist Novak.”

Read the entire article. It's great. Then send a letter.

Jane's getting something done. From her living room, with her keyboard, she's shaking up a country halfway around the world. Great job, Jane!

Some of these are just plain odd.

1585 Spain confisquates English ships
1588 Spanish Armada sets sail for Lisbon, bound to England
1643 Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Harbor form United Colonies of New England
1749 George II grants charter to Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley
1780 About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England to this day its cause is still unexplained
1848 México gives Texas to US, ending the war
1857 William Francis Channing & Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm
1884 Ringling Brothers circus premieres
1885 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn MA)
1910 Cleveland Indian Cy Young gets his 500th win, beats Washington 5-4 in 11 innings
1911 Philadelphia Athletics are 12½ games back in American League, & win the World Series
1943 Berlin is declared "Judenrien" (free of Jews)
1943 Churchill pledges England's full support to US against Japan
1944 240 gypsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Netherlands
1944 German defense line in Italy collapsed
1951 UN begins counter offensive in Korea
1958 US & Canada form North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
1960 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 33,222mph
1964 US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in the Moscow embassy
1967 US bombs Hanoi
1971 USSR launches Mars 2, 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars
1976 Senate establishes permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
1992 Vice President Dan Quayle sites Murphy Brown as a poor example of family values
2161 Syzygy: 8 of 9 planets aligned on same side of sun

I've found him- a candidate I can believe in. Conservative, do or die (hard) attitude. If only he could win... (h't to Kat)