09:11 – It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., the day set aside to remember those who sacrificed themselves to protect our freedom. Although the official purpose of Memorial Day is to remember those who gave their lives in the service of our country, let’s also remember all of those brave men and women, living and dead, who through the years have put their lives on the line to protect all of us. As we have our cookouts and family get-togethers today, let’s all take a moment to think about our troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, who can’t be with their families. And let’s have a thought, not just today but every day of the year, for them and the sacrifices they are making and have made.
Monday, 26 May 2014
20 Comments and discussion on "Monday, 26 May 2014"
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Yes…respect for the troops that are willing to serve. It is just a shame that those sacrifices are so seldom actually in a good cause.
Even when I was an officer, I thought that the generals needed to ask their civilian superiors for valid, Constitutional authorizations. Before charging off to attack foreign nationals in sovereign countries, ask to see the corresponding Congressional declaration of war. Minor little details like that…
Yes, I agree. And for years I’ve tried to walk a fine line. The last thing the parents of a dead soldier need to hear is that their child’s life was wasted by politicians, but that’s true far too often.
I’ll never forget that line from Patton: “Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
Which is what inspired what I wrote immediately after 9/11: “Never send a man where you can send a warhead.”
If I had been in the Oval Office on 9/11, the House of Saud would be extinct, and Mecca would be a pool of molten glass. I would have bombed islam in general and Saudi Arabia in particular back into the stone age. I would have destroyed every dam, every bridge, every factory, every port, every refinery, every railway junction, and certainly every mosque. I would have declared war on islam as the enemy of humanity and done everything I could to eradicate it.
I don’t disagree. Certainly Saudi Arabia should have paid a heavy price.
Declaring war on all of Islam? That might, just perhaps, be a shoe size too big. It’s normal enough to burn out the hornets’ nest in your own yard, but there’s no need to go around the whole world looking for more hornets.
I probably would have done pretty close to what Bob wanted to do, but after that would have closed nearly all our bases and brought the troops home to stay. And would have done my damndest to get this country out of the business of Empire.
The day has started out overcast but there is evidence of burgeoning sunlight and the forecast called for a possible couple of t-storms. We continue to slave on house and yard and spare a thought for the bunch of veterans we’ve had in both our families and thankful that every one came home in one piece, more or less, but having paid a fearful price otherwise. We are concerned for two of her young cousins right now, and one of our son’s in-laws. We also note that the return of messed-up veterans has an impact on the families back here; two recent flicks that look at that were “Hurt Locker,” and “Stop-Loss.”
Pax vobiscum.
“but there’s no need to go around the whole world looking for more hornets”
That’s like saying it’s okay to eradicate polio virus in your own backyard but there’s no need to go around the whole world looking for more polio virus.
Understand, I’m not advocating eradicating islamic people, just islam itself. Although I certainly wouldn’t shed any tears over dead islamics. Collateral damage isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And a large percentage of islamics would abandon their so-called religion, given the opportunity. That’s one of the main reasons why islamic terrrorism has been pretty uncommon in the West. It’s easy to get stupid people pumped up and willing to kill themselves and a bunch of others while they’re still in a islamic environment. Once they see the real world with booze and porn and consumer goods, they tend to de-radicalize pretty quickly.
As I said back on 9/11, I’d let any islamic who wanted to abandon his religion do so without penalty. All he’d have to do would be to eat a ham sandwich and piss on a copy of the koran and I’d have no problem with him.
“Once they see the real world with booze and porn and consumer goods, they tend to de-radicalize pretty quickly.”
With the interesting exception (that proves the rule, maybe) of those guys on 9/11 itself. And who knows how many sleeper cells here already.
“…I’d let any islamic who wanted to abandon his religion do so without penalty. All he’d have to do…”
This is what is known as a ‘slippery slope.’ In some future regime they may apply the same criteria to atheists; all you gotta do is fall to yer knees and venerate a replica of the True Cross and start turning over ten percent of yer income.
I was reading about Rolling Thunder in DC. I wonder what would happen if each bike had a sheath with rifle of choice, throw in some “gun of the hand”, shotguns, etc. I wonder if the DC police would open fire, call in water cannons, cry to Congress for mil support. Probably call in their SWAT and just start mowing people down. I know, nice thought for Memorial Day. I’ll add psycho to my list of: white, racist, Vet, global discombobulation denier, miscreant.
My sheath would hold a .308 selective-fire semi-auto w/holographic sight; about a dozen magazines of same; a semi-auto 12-gauge with more ammo; and my alleged pair of .357’s. Ima gon hab me sum feurwerken!
I’m guessing that if no one on the Thunder side opened fire that the cops would be wicked nervous but would more or less stand down and hope like hell nothing bad happens. That would be best-case scenario, of course; more likely they’d have chopper gunships aloft and mil-spec troops arriving toot-sweet.
“Miscreant?” Felon, more like. And you forgot “married,” “breeder,” “straight,” and probably a few other things.
“but there’s no need to go around the whole world looking for more hornets”
Actually, I agree with Bob and had the WDC folks followed his advice maybe we would not have Boko Harams kidnapping girls today.
When would one ever tell their oncology surgeon that removal of 99% of the malignant cancer cells will be sufficient?
Felon, more like. And you forgot “married,” “breeder,” “straight,” and probably a few other things.
lol I forgot about those! I’m heading towards ultra-minority in about 10 years.
This is what happens when you don’t follow Mr. Bob’s advice:
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America.
Death to Murka! We missed our chance.
We have this stuff falling out of the sky here in the remote wild areas of Sugar Land. It is liquid, odorless and clear. I believe that some people call it rain. Here in the drought stricken heart of America, I call it life giving and predict that my grass will need mowing later this week.
When would one ever tell their oncology surgeon that removal of 99% of the malignant cancer cells will be sufficient?
Obviously you are not under Obamacare.
Glad you got some rain down there in Sugar Land, finally; we have intermittent showers here today on top of our already sodden landscape. I’ve mowed the lawn three times in the past ten or twelve days so far.
I’d tell the ayatollahs and imams that they don’t have to do chit to bring about our downfall; we are proving extremely capable of handling that task ourselves as we continue our slow suicide as a civilization and country. Birth replacement rates in the West are already a joke and the Camp of the Saints draweth nigh, now in the Med and soon for us, though less drastic, if you can call twenty- or thirty-million immigrants from south of the Rio Grande less drastic. And at least two generations of kids now who can’t read or write or do basic arithmetic but they feel so good about themselves and have tons of self-esteem and they recycle and cut down on their showers and don’t wash their jeans, when they’re not suicidally depressed and threatening to slaughter everyone in sight just like on their spiffy video games.
Meanwhile our overlords and masters are plundering us at will and telling us alternately everything is swell or everything is blowing up, depending on their program of the week.
And at least two generations of kids now who can’t read or write or do basic arithmetic but they feel so good about themselves and have tons of self-esteem and they recycle and cut down on their showers and don’t wash their jeans
I just hope that I stay upwind of these people with their high self esteem and stink.
I watched a lot of “Buying Alaska” over the weekend. Seems like owning a shower in Alaska that has more than five gallons of water in it is a luxury. Hope those water problems don’t move down here in the lower 48. Of course, if you guys east of the Mississippi would stop hogging all the rain then our drought problems would probably go away.
Been sick with a cold for five days now. Hope that I am getting better now and outlive this stupid virus. Got tested for strep and flu, both were negative so they did not want to give me any antibiotics due to my heart condition. Been self dosing with Nyquil and Mucinex DM.
Nyquil. mmmmmmmm I love the green stuff.
Be extremely careful of that stuff. Some of the variants include significant amounts of acetaminophen.
I call Nyquil the red snapps. The bottle says you can take four shots per day. I only take one shot at most. And seven days is the max consecutive time period.
I switched to plain mucinex today to get away from DM. I am not running a fever.
In no case do I drink alcohol with these.
Have you ever looked at the alcohol content of Nyquil?
No, but I do know that it has alcohol. Wow, alcohol content of 25%. I figured 10% at most.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/208701-amount-of-alcohol-in-nyquil/