“[I]f industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.” —James Madison

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"Some people are like Slinkies. TheyÂ’re really not good for anything; However, They still bring a BIG smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs." L.C. Guido

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"I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the State itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." (emph. mine -D)
ACLU founder Roger Baldwin

Anyone that believes that the ACLU really has the best interests of our (American) civil liberties/rights in mind are truly, as Joseph Stalin put it, "useful idiots".

'Nuff said.

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Tomorrow is a day of rememberance of one of the saddest days of our Republic, and it seems that all too many citizens are prepared to forget it. That would be a mistake IMHO. Cal Thomas says it better than I ever could (emph. mine-D):

“As we approach the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, there are suggestions that we should begin to forget the worst terrorist incident in America’s history. Recently, a front-page story in The New York Times suggested it is becoming too much of a burden to remember the attack, that nothing new can be said about it and that, perhaps, Sept. 11 ‘fatigue’ may be setting in. ...9/11 forces us to be serious, not only about those who died and why they died at the hands of religious fanatics, but also so that we won’t forget that it could very well happen again and many of today’s living might end up as yesterday’s dead. That is the purpose of remembering 9/11, not to engage in perpetual mourning. The war goes on and to be reminded of 9/11 serves as the ultimate protection against forgetfulness. Terrorists have not forgotten 9/11. Tape of the Twin Towers is used on jihadist Websites for the purpose of recruiting new ‘martyrs.’ What’s the matter with some people? Does remembering not only 9/11 but the stakes in this world war interfere too much with our pursuit of money, things and pleasure? Serious times require serious thought and serious action. In our frivolous times, full of trivialities and irrelevancies, to be serious is to abandon self-indulgence for survival, entertainment for the stiffened spine... Not to remember 9/11, is to forget what brought it about.”

As you go through your busy day, stop and take a moment to remember.

Remember what happened on that day six years ago.

Remember that on that day, we were made aware that we are engaged in a world wide conflict with an enemy that is implacably set to destroy us and everything we stand for.

Remember those that died that day.

Most of all, remember those that died to defend us on foreign soil and those that continue to fight on those faraway shores.

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"*You crack the shell and immediately smell the tidewater and the marsh. Pry it free, cut that muscle on the bottom, drag it out and drop it in your mouth. Explosion! You taste the salt and you taste the river and you taste the sea. You swallow the meat and taste the beginning of mankind in your nose. The taste goes back and forth for a moment, until you're ready for another one. That's eating a raw oyster."
Rob "Acidman" Smith

I was feeling poorly this afternoon, so I went to Rob's site to hear his homespun yarns in my mind. I really miss that guy.... He always cheered me up reading his prose and listening to his stories about growing up in a coal town in Harlan County Ky. and then moving to Georgia.

I'm greatful that his daughter Sam saw fit to keep Gut Rumbles up and running with reposts from the past after his death. Rob may have had his faults,as we all do, but not being able to move his readers with just his words wasn't one of them.

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I was reading Neil Boortz roday and saw the perfect analogy to refute those that seem to think that all we need to do is talk/negotiate with the Islamic Facists causing all the trouble in the world today:

"A hunter was hunting in the woods when he came upon a bear. He was just about to fire when the bear held up his paw and said "After all, Mr. Hunter, all you want is a fur coat, and all I want is a full stomach, can't we sit down and negotiate this problem?".

So they sat down and talked it over, and indeed, it ended up that the bear was right; the hunter ended up inside a fur coat, and the bear had a full stomach."

WHY can't the appeasers see that under some circumstances, negotiation just isn't a viable option?

Negotiation implies that there is some middle ground that works out to the benefit of both of the parties involved, but when one or the other party of the negotiation has it's goal the total destruction of the other party, there really is nothing to negotiate...unless of course, you consider the method and timeline of your destruction as a valid negotiating position.

There is where the appeasers are mistaken; they seem to believe that the rhetoric of the IslamoFacists are merely talking points instead of the stated end goal of the process and until they start to learn that the enemy is honestly putting forth their goals, and reacting to those stated end goals. we are in serious trouble. You not only have to take the words of your opponent into account; you have to take the ongoing actions of that opponent into the process.
When you have an opponent that consistently negotiates with words in one manner, and acts in the opposit manner, can you truly be said to be negotiating?

And in this instance, the opponent isn't even doing that; the Islamofacists have repeatedly and CLEARLY stated that their goal is the destruction of the West; AND consistently committed acts in furthurance of that goal.

To believe that we are in a state other than in a world war to determine the fate of our civilization is to be naive beyond all belief. That so many of us in the West truly seem to be that naive is disheartening, to say the least.

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"IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !" ~ Unknown Veteran (emph. mine~DM)

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“Making nonviolent resistance impossible makes violent resistance inevitable.”
~J.F.K~

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Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? - John Wayne

Just remind yourself of this little thought the next time you observe the "Poor Oppressed Latinos Invader ILLEGAL Aliens march for their "rights" and carrying Mexican flags as they do so.

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"The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenseless against ourselves." ~ Arnold Toynbee

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“Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God. Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”
~Mark Twain

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"The bitterest tears shed over a grave are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone"
~Harriet Beecher Stowe

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"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death . . . I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing."
- At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base Kadena, Japan

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You should realize that the community with which you deal is not the one of 42nd Street and Broadway, or Hollywood and Vine. These are the crusts on the great American sandwich. The meat is in between.
~Fulton J. Sheen

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"Liberty has never come from the government.... The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it." -- President Woodrow Wilson

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"If you don't want to work, become a reporter.
That awful power, the public opinion of the
nation, was created by a horde of self-complacent
simpletons, who failed at ditch digging and shoe
making, and fetched up in journalism on their
way to the poorhouse."

Mark Twain
Connecticut Evening Dinner Club, 1881

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It wasn't Levis, the Beatles and Coca Cola that defeated the Soviets, it was camoflage, cadences and C-rations.

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“Caring is irrelevant. Desire to do good is irrelevant. All that counts is knowledge and results”
~Michael Crichton~

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Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)
-Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love (Robert Heinlein)

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"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives 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."
~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sargeant, USMC

I thought that this was appropiate for the day after Memorial Day. I think that it should be a poster put up in evey classroom in America. It seems that some peope don't "get it". While cruising through some comments at other sites I found statements such as "Most days I don't even think about the war anymore. I don't know anyone who's over there or who's going so it's not a big deal to me...." and "It's all about choices. If your smart you don't choose to join the army or whatever, cause you know you are probably going to have to go to a war somewhere."

To that person, I say,: You DO know everyone that is over there; they are your fellow Americans. They are the clerk in the store you buy your groceries at; they are the teachers that taught at your school; they are the policemen that patrolled your neighborhood; She was a teller at your bank, he was the guy that delivered your new furniture. They are all a part of your everyday life, and they put their regular lives on hold so that you could continue to blithely remain ignorant of the evil that is howling outside the door like a ravenous wolf. A soldier has nothing to do with choosing where and when, or even why, they fight. They make no policy, they just carry it out, trusting that our leaders know the where,when and why.

You may have a problem with the decisions of those leaders, and protest them if you feel strongly enough about it, but just remember that it is those selfsame soldiers that give you those rights, and keep you comfortable enough to be able to debate the politics.

Yes, if you join the Armed Services, there is a possibility that you will be called on to travel to some pretty miserable places and do some miserable, dirty, and dangerous things. Many times you won't even know why your there. But you have to have faith that in some way, it helps furthur the maintenance of our freedom.

In the end, it usually boils down to not letting your squad mates down. You don't think about the big issues, or the high flying rhetoric; you just do the best job you can protecting the guy next to you, and hope he's doing the same for you. But out of that mutual protection comes the force needed to support the the ideals and the rhetoric we can debate about, safely nestled here at home. It's up to US, the people, to hold our leaders accountable. But to be able to hold those leaders accountable, we need to be educated and involved. The troops have been doing their job for the last 200+ years; sadly, the people, especially in the last 30 years haveallen far from their responsibilities.

They have allowed the "experts" to raise their children and instill their public values and haven't kept an eye on just what those "experts" are instilling in the children. Thats a whole other post, but it is part of the problem presented in this one.

All too often, what passes for public debate today is based on the "feelings" that pass for education. Memes are put out as wisdom, and "self-esteem" has been put ahead of hard nosed striving for achievment. History is being warped to fit the agenda of the moment (when it's taught at all), and realities are discounted as being "too dirty" to countenance in realpolitic.

Unless and untill we can return to old fasioned agreement on basic moral tenents and mores, we will always be a nation floundering to come to common agreement. But the Soldier is the person that allows us the time and freedom to come to those agreements. NEVER FORGET Honor their sacrifices by
takeing back your responsiblities as a citizen in a free Republic and do your best to live up to them.

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