Pray For Our Troops

(This photo is of a marine in Iraq fighting in the battle for Fallujah in 2004)

Considering the recent deadly attack on Fort Hood in Texas, and that Veteran's Day is tomorrow, please pray for our troops, especially those in harm's way.

And if you value your freedom, please take time to thank a military veteran.

What is a vet?

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC Retired

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat, but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket-palsied now and aggravatingly slows who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say "THANK YOU." That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words mean a lot, "THANK YOU."

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Amen to that.

A Time to Laugh...A Time to Cry...

Why does Barry Hussein Obama look like he just shit a brick?

These news stories may explain it. Sources are; Associated Press, politico.com, and Bloomberg.com.

None of the three are known to be bastions of conservatism.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_election_rdp

GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ

By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti, Ap National Political Writer – Wed Nov 4, 1:13 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Independents (voters) who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

And straight from the horse’s mouth;

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29167.html

Election result: Red-state Dems worried, rethink agenda
11/5/09 4:56 AM EST

Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.

While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.

“I should be nervous,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.

Griffith said the Democratic rank and file is “very, very sensitive” to the fact that issues being pushed by party leaders “have the potential to cost some of our front-line members their seats.”

“We got walloped,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the junior Democrat from Virginia.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPyQEnzr9DFY&pos=9

Republican Wins May Make Democrats Cautious on Obama Agenda

By Jonathan D. Salant

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races may make some congressional Democrats more leery of backing key elements of President Barack Obama’s agenda because of the political price they could pay, analysts said.

Democrats in competitive House districts, many of them already cautious about Obama’s push to overhaul the U.S. health- care system and curb emissions blamed for global warming, might be more resistant to move ahead on the measures and face attacks from a newly energized Republican Party, the analysts said.

The Nov. 3 election results are “a real warning bell for moderate Democrats,” said Tobe Berkovitz, associate professor of communications at Boston University. “They are not going to think twice about their vote on health care. They’re going to think five times.”

Barry, I'm laughing my ass off.

Obama Care

Interesting numbers regarding the Pelosi / Obama healthcare bill.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28904.html

You Reap What You Sow

A *Breitbart.com / Associated Press news article* reports that politicians involved in sex scandals that have been the butt of many of David Letterman’s jokes, have actually been pretty sympathetic towards Letterman in light of his own scandal.

The story titled “LETTERMAN THREW SPITBALLS FROM HIS OWN GLASS HOUSE” quotes former Florida Rep. Mark Foley; "I feel sorry for Dave—I take no glee."

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said; "Both my thoughts and my prayers are with him," Sanford went on to say; "There's a lot more introspection and soul-searching on the way down than there is on the way up. He can be a better person for it."

Of course it wasn’t right what Foley, Sanford, and Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York, who was involved in an investigation into a prostitution operation, did.

And yes, they set themselves up for ridicule, and no, I don’t have any sympathy for them. But at least they fessed up to what they have done, and admitted it was wrong. Letterman is still trying to make himself out to be a victim even though it’s his own debauchery he has to account for.

But letterman is now and has always been a hypocritical jackass; and I have never found his “jokes” funny.

* http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B6CJ782&show_article=1

Origins Of Halloween

http://rmfc.org/FactSheets/OriginsofHalloween.html

For a proper understanding of the modern American celebration on October 31st, we must look at three early celebrations that have come together to form today's Halloween.

The first of these precursors to Halloween goes all the way back to pre-Christian Ireland and Scotland to a celebration of the Druids or Celtic priests. The Celtic year began on November 1st with the festival of Samhain. On the eve of Samhain, October 31st, laughing bands of young people disguised in grotesque masks carved lanterns from turnips and carried them through the villages. It was sort of a harvest festival, and in addition, it was thought of as a festival of the dead. The druids believed it was on that night when the earth comes into closest contact with the spiritual world; and consequently ghosts, goblins and witches supposedly destroyed crops, killed farm animals and wreaked havoc on the villagers. As these spirits of the dead roamed around, villagers lighted bonfires to either drive them away or to guide the spirits of the dead back to their homes.

The second precursor to Halloween goes back to the Dark Ages in central Europe. There, the Christian church destroyed many of the temples of various pagan gods and goddesses, such as Diana and Apollo. However, this pagan worship was never completely eradicated and took on the form of witchcraft. One of the most important aspects of witchcraft is a number of celebrations each year which are called "Witches' Sabbaths." One of the highest of the Witches' Sabbaths is the High Sabbath or the Black Sabbath of Witches on October 31st. Much of the Halloween folklore of today such as black cats, broomsticks, cauldrons and spells come from the Black Sabbath.

The third precursor to Halloween goes back to the early Roman Catholic Church. The church had appointed certain days to honor each saint and basically ran out of days in the year for all their saints to have a day, so they decided to have one day to remember all the saints. They called it All Saints' Day. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory the third changed All Saints' Day from May 13th to November 1st, and in the year 834 Pope Gregory the fourth extended this celebration to the entire Roman church. This event was called Allhallowmass, and as you might suppose, there was a celebration on the evening before on October 31st, called All Hallow E'en, "all hallow" meaning all of the hallowed ones. As you might guess, the contraction of hallow and e'en is where the word Halloween is derived.

The modern custom of going door to door begging for candy while dressed in costumes called "trick or treating," goes back to the pagan new year's feast in Ireland. The spirits that were thought to throng about the houses of the living were greeted with a banquet. At the end of the feast, villagers disguised as souls of the dead, paraded to the outskirts of the village leading the spirits away. This was done to avoid any calamities the dead might bring. Another way the villagers tried to appease the dead was to set out bowls of fruit and other treats so the spirits would partake of them and leave them in peace. Later when the belief in ghosts and goblins declined, youths dressed up as ghosts and goblins and threatened to play tricks on those who failed to be generous with treats.

The jack-o-lantern, also known as will-o-the-wisp, fox fire and corpse candle, among other things, was believed to be a wandering soul which could not find refuge in either heaven or hell because of a particularly evil deed committed in its lifetime. The Finns believed that it was the soul of a child buried in the forest. A corpse candle is said to be a small flame moving through the air in the dark and is believed by the superstitious to be an omen of the observers imminent death.

According to ancient folklore from many places, a will-o-the-wisp wanders about swamp areas, enticing victims to follow. These strange fires were also known as "foolish fire," because only a fool would follow them. Today's pumpkin face is symbolic of that mocking spirit. It is always wise to look into any customs associated with holidays and be aware of their roots.

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Always Remember...Never Surrender

Water Boarding Worries…Why Now?

Nancy Pelosi - aka The Scary Lady!

So much liberal left-wing angst, so much indignation, so much self loathing and self hatred.

Do you really care that Khalid Sheik Mohammad was subjected to water-boarding?

I don’t care. I hope he was subjected to much, much worse. Oh, maybe like a hot cattle prod up his wazoo. Or maybe crushing his fingers one by one with a shop vise. But I digress.

The ever arrogant and narcissistic U. S. Attorney General Eric ‘Holier than Thou’ Holder is threatening to charge former Bush administration people with committing crimes of torture.

And now it comes out that;

“In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

‘The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,’ said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.”
(Emphasis added)

This excerpt is from a washingtonpost.com report Click here to read the whole thing, quite interesting.

So are you outraged at the treatment of these islamic terrorists?

I’m not. Sorry, my give a damn’s busted.