REMEMBER

On the blog, let's put aside for this weekend everything except remembrance of all those who gave so very much that we might have the freedoms that we so carelessly take for granted. May God bless each and every one of them.
link here

And from the blog of AMBULANCE DRIVER,

Because I Can't Say It Any Better Than Last Year

When you partake in your Memorial Day barbecue today, try to remember a few things.

When the smoke from the grill blows into your eyes, try to imagine the terror of the young pilot as the smoke fills the cockpit of his F4 Wildcat, spiraling into the sea off Guadalcanal.

When you sample those pork ribs, remember the Iowa farm boy whose life blood stained the surf at Normandy.

When you eat a bite of potato salad, think of an Idaho preacher's kid who died with a prayer on his lips, asking God to forgive him for the enemy soldiers' lives he had taken.

When you welcome your niece's new boyfriend to the table, remember the black kid from Mississippi who died right beside his white buddies in Vietnam, though he wasn't even allowed to eat in the same restaurants back home.

When you scold your misbehaving grandchild, think of the little boy whose only knowledge of his father will come from stories told by family, because Daddy died on a dusty street in Fallujah while he was still in the womb.

When you fetch your wife another glass of tea, think of a young wife living in base housing at Fort Benning, as she hears the news that her husband died at Ia Drang.

When you invite Grandpa to say grace before the meal, think of young men cut down by a hail of fire from a Maxim at Belleau Wood.

When you reflect with pride on your daughter's recent graduation, think of a young woman cartwheeling into the sea in her F14 Tomcat after a failed carrier landing.

When you look with distaste at the tattoos on her new boyfriend, think instead of the former gang kid from Detroit who found a way up and out of poverty in the Army, only to die from an IED blast in Baghdad. And remind yourself that what matters is how he treats your daughter, not the ink on his arms.

When you sit at the table, think of a Navy Captain, a husband and father, who died at his Pentagon desk on September 11. His death was no less honorable.

If you're traveling today, think of the passengers of United Flight 93, for in a field outside Shanksville they became the first soldiers in our war on terror.

When your boys fight, as boys will do, remember the boys on both sides who died at Gettysburg.

If a loved one can't make it to the gathering today, think of Mrs. Bixby and her five sons.

While your kids play in the pool this afternoon, think of other kids not much older, trapped below decks as the Arizona went under at Pearl Harbor.

When you take a shower tonight, think of young men reeking of machine oil and sweat, desperately trying, and failing, to surface their wounded submarine somewhere in the Pacific in 1943.

I tell you of these things not to spoil your appetite or your day, but to remind you that the things we enjoy in our lives are made all the sweeter when you consider what made them possible.

Remind yourself also that your sacrifice is infinitely easier. All you need do is sacrifice a moment of your time every few years to pull a lever. The way to honor a dead soldier is not simply to fly a flag on Memorial Day. Vote to preserve the freedoms they died defending.

And stop by your local Veteran's Cemetery and put out some flowers on the grave of your choice. It need not even be the grave of someone you know.

Bring your children along, and explain to them why. It's important.

Sometimes Life Can Be a Pain and random thoughts

Saturday, a great day to get some outdoor work done. Let's see....I've been meaning to dig up an area for a small addition to the garden space. So down to the shed to get out the tiller. Oh, rats, the tiller has a flat tire... a REALLY flat tire. No problem, I'll just start it up, run it to the garage and attach it to the compressor.
But before I start it, I remember from past experience that the mice seem to like nesting inside the engine cowling, so I'll pull the starter rope very slowly to chase them out first. And as I pull it, sure enough there are mice running everywhere. Then a real pull to start it and the engine simply stops turning. It just stops, no matter how hard I pull the cord. Crimminy, now what? I can't push the tiller to the garage (it's all uphill and the flat tire now has unseated from the rim), so I go to the garage and get the necessary tools, then back to the tiller to start disassembling the cowling and starter cord assembly. Of course, the machine is built in such a way that to remove the cowling, I have to remove the gas tank, the bracket that holds the tank, and about every other part of the motor. Finally, I lift off the cowling and another swarm of mice run out, and leave behind a mouse house that would make the Trump Towers look small. Clean out the nest, reassemble the cowling but leave it loose so I can run the tiller up to the garage and blow the remaining debris out of the cooling fins. Now this motor ALWAYS starts on the second or third pull. So about a dozen pulls later, I decide that there is a problem. I still can't push it up to the garage, so maybe I can pull it there.
Get out the tractor and hitch it to the tiller. Start pulling and the flat tire immediately rolls off the rim and the tiller tips and veers off course. Reattach and try again....same result. My long-suffering wife, bless her heart, comes out and while I drive, she horses the tiller back in line until we get it to the garage. Disassemble the cowling, blow out the cooling fins, reasssemble the cowling, gas tank bracket and tank, tighten everything back up. One pull on the cord and glory be, it starts!!!. Then try blowing up the tire.....it won't seat on the bead to hold any air. Find a piece of rope, wrap the tire and cinch it down, then try inflating.....no go. Where is my bottle of SLIME.....slime the bead and rim, retighten the rope and reinflate, and IT HOLDS. Seat the bead, remove the rope, and we are ready to go. So, a job of about 20 minutes, tilling the garden, ends up being a 11/2 hour job of virtually rebuilding the tiller.
There is a law, whose name I cannot remember, which law is surprisingly accurate when it comes to home repair jobs. It states that one makes the best estimate of the time needed for a job. That time is then doubled, and the time scale moved up by one unit, and the result is the actual time needed. Thus if the best time estimate is 2 hours, then double it to 4 hours and go up one unit to 4 days, and that will be the actual time needed.

And random thoughts:

How can Pres Obama stand in front of us with a straight face and talk about how deficit spending cannot go on, while he has singlehandedly increased deficit spending more than any other president in history?

As a Catholic, I hang my head in shame over what Notre Dame University did this past weekend. Against the beliefs of the Catholic faith, against the rules put out by the bishops, against the voices of thousands who called and wrote their opposition, the president of the university gave an honorary degree to a man who has consistently voted in favor of abortions on demand, and consistently voted to allow the killing of infants who survived an attempted abortion.

And a very cool visual illusion here.

If I can clear my head and try to make some sense of all that is being done to our country, I'll try to pick up where I was. Right now, I'm whelmed by all that has happened

Wallace, Stirling Bridge, and Us.

The search that found the music linked yesterday (see below) led me to scan other music pieces, and in looking for them, I came across some clips from the movie "Braveheart"

Let me say right up front that I know it is "just a movie". And I will also admit (with boundless pride!) my Scottish heritage, and that I still find piping music to be unmatched in making me think beyond myself, and making me look at the real heros in our history.

Having said that, listen to William Wallace as he speaks to his countrymen, who are looking at the English army, an army that outnumbers them, outclasses them in weaponry, and is far more experienced in the art of war. And those countrymen, just "guys next door", don't want to fight and possibly die; they want to go home to their wives and families, back to their farms and hearths. But Wallace has seen something that they are missing. He has seen freedom from a ruler who cares not about them, who sees them as servants and slaves to his every want and need. And Wallace has seen that freedom as a goal worth fighting for, and even worth dying for. His talk to them rings out.....yes, you can choose to go home and live. But somewhere, sometime before you die, you will wish that you chose differently, that you saw freedom and decided to fight for that freedom, to put it all on the line for a greater good.

It isn't medieval Scotland; it is the 21st century in the United States of America. We are not standing on the battle field of Stirling Bridge; we are sitting in front of our computers. We aren't carrying broadswords, shields and dirks; we are more likely carrying cell phones and I-pods. But we ARE looking at an assault on our country and our freedom, just as real as was Edward's assault into Scotland. We have suits in Washington having taken over corporations and banks, now aiming at health care control. We have "leaders" in Washington spending our money, money we will never see or have any control of because they take it before we even have it, both current money and money going generations into the future. We have "experts" predicting a warming globe and blaming it on us, and seeing as a solution yet more money taken from us, all in spite of absolutely no evidence showing human-cause warming, if there is any warming at all! We have a government that now acts as a nanny for almost 50% of the population, and wants more and ever more power over those it is supposed to be serving. And this government is never satisfied; it constantly grows and grows, spends and spends, and takes and takes. Our defense against this oppression were 3 of the most powerful pieces of paper ever written and signed, the Deceleration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. But after over 200 years, they are swept aside or simply ignored as the government continues to roll on, growing and taxing, taxing and crushing all before it. We are marching inexorably down a road that can only lead to ruin, a road traveled many times in the past by many countries and societies, all of whom failed and collapsed. The road we used to be on, the road laid out and built by the founders of this great country, the road paid for with the suffering and the blood of all those who fought for its survival, the road that we have to find again and set out upon, the road that leads from the Stirling Bridge of our time, is there for us, if we have to courage to look for it and take it as our own. The choice is ours as it was for Wallace and his army: go home and be satisfied with our servitude or stand up like men and say "FREEDOM".

Change of Pace

Just some music to soothe the anger and frustration
here

The Spending Cut

Being as how I do better with pictures (everyone knows that the words are there for those who don't understand the pictures, right??), I liked this graphic.

Kingston Tea Party

The Kingston contingent held their rally along Ulster Ave this afternoon. Estimates were that there were 250 to 350 present at any one time, although people came and went through the afternoon. I was struck by the huge number of passer-bys who honked, waved, and gave thumbs-up as they drove past.





A real cross section was there, older, younger, all varieties of people who shared a concern with where this country is going.

Just Truly Fantastic, and Touching

Truly beautiful and hauntingly sad.

If you can listen to this and NOT think of all the soldiers who have died protecting us and our liberty, then your mind works differently than mine.

He Is Risen

"On the first day 0f the week, at dawn, the women came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back from the tomb; but when they entered the tomb, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were still at a loss over what to think of this, two men in dazzling garments stood beside them. Terrified, the women bowed to the ground. The men said to them, "Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here, He has been raised up. Remember what He said to you while he was still in Galilee-that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."
Luke 24, 1-8

On this blessed day that proclaims to the whole world, "HE IS RISEN", may the joy of that most sacred event fill all of you, not only today, but every day. He died for us and now is risen, so that we all may live.

A happy and blessed Easter to everyone.

As Liberty Is Slowly Crushed

Even as recently as a few years ago, most of us pointed fingers at places like Chavez's Venezuela, or Castro's Cuba, and remarked about how sad it was to see a people locked under a tyranny of a government that seized private property, oversaw all means of news reporting, and kept the common man completely under control.

We are now that country. Starting with the TARP program, the government sought to take control of the financial markets, and now we have a president who feels it is within his power to fire a CEO of General Motors, a Secretary of the Treasury who has no problem setting salary limits in the private sector, and a set of congressional members who blithely sign away our most basic rights.

Some of the banks who took those TARP funds, sometimes under duress, are now trying to repay them and get out from under the government thumb. Lo and behold, the government won't let them!!! This is NOT about saving the economy, this is about power, seizing and holding power. See here.

Now there has been presented a series of bills that would set up a new "czar" of information, and which bills would give the president absolute control of the internet. See here and here. Think about this for a moment. In order to protest what is happening in Washington, we have to first know what is happening. We have already learned that the mainstream media is of no use at all in this regard, and the restriction of "talk radio" is simply a matter of time. What is left to us is the free and unfettered exchange of ideas and information on the internet, just as you are doing right now. And these bills would grant the government absolute control over this medium.

The government controls the finances, is about to control health care, and now is taking control of communications. What, pray tell, is the difference between us and those countries that we used to pity? Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of Independence, all of them are swept aside, ignored and forgotten, simply relics of past times. Instead we have a government that grows and grows, literally devouring the country in its never ending quest for power, power and more power, and we, the citizens of that country, are told to shut up, accept our place as servants of the government, and pay more and more to that fiendish machine of power-hungry politicians.

The real unsung heros of the economy

While it is easy, and tempting in a lazy sort of way, to point fingers at other groups and scream that they are the "bad guys"who are responsible for the crisis de jour, it is much more honest to realize that most of these "villans" are really straw-men put up as targets for our justified wrath. And is equally easy to overlook the fact that there are a much greater number of average people (and I do NOT mean that as an insult, but rather as a heartfelt compliment to them) out there doing what they need and want to do to make themselves better, and by that self improvement, make our country better. This gentleman says it so very well.

Ours is not a zero-sum economy. I don't have to lose in order for you to gain. We both can work hard and try to prosper, and both of us can make money. That is the beauty of our economy. It can be a win-win economy, and only when gov't steps in to redistribute in the name of "fairness" does it become a win-lose proposition. Our economy, our country as it was set up, does not require, expect, or even allow this redistribution, because our founding fathers knew that once government takes on that role, several things necessarily follow.
1) Those who earn and see their earnings taken from them either become angry and hostile or else simply stop working to produce profits that will simply be taken from them.
2) Those who receive the redistributions quickly learn to expect them, and have no motivation to become earners, since they are already being "taken care of". Why work when all will be supplied to you as your entitlement?
3) The government becomes larger and larger, more and more powerful as one group learns to depend upon it for more and more, and supports those who will continue to coddle and support them in their life of dependence. And the other group, the group of producers, sees more and more of their hard earned rewards being taken from them by the government; their voice in the whole process become smaller and smaller, while that same government that is taking from them, at the same time points to them as evil "profiteers" who are somehow responsible for the downtrodden and dependent group, WHOM THEY ARE SUPPORTING.

How We Need Someone in Washington Like This Man

By now, many of us have heard the speech by this gentleman about his country's slide into economic ruin via socialistic take-overs. For those who have not, and for those who need to once again hear someone say what has to be said, listen here.

Oh for someone to have the courage to say this to Pelosi and Reid, Geithner and Frank and Dodd and all the others who are trying so very hard to tear down this country from what it was into just another socialistic and second rate country.

Follow Up to the AIG Note Below

As noted previously, the Washington talking heads are doing their best to make up a class-envy battle, painting all the AIG workers as the villins because they took their promised bonuses.
Read this letter from someone who worked at AIG and see it from a different viewpoint.

Who do I believe??? Let's just say that there is virtually nothing that anyone from Washington says that I have any reason to believe. Their record of lies and deceit speaks volumes.

A Scary Promise that He Is Keeping

Back in the campaign, candidate Obama was quoted as seeking a "civilian army", and when we of the right raised our voices, we were brushed aside as simply over-reacting paranoids

Some promises that he should have kept, he didn't. Those that align with his "big-government", socialistic mindset are kept and enlarged upon. This is scary stuff and we better start paying attention to what is going on, besides the financial crap.

Gateway Pundit: House Passes Hitler Youth Bill

AIG Bonuses

Congress and the White House are up in arms, enraged, absolutely beside themselves in anger about the bonuses that some in AIG received.

Umm, just a brief burst of reality here, they APPROVED those same bonuses. And they are the ones who are responsible for the credit disaster. It was Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, etc who made it mandatory that banks offer mortgage loans to borrowers who could never repay, and thus the credit system began to weaken until it had to collapse. And it was Dodd, Frank, Obama et al who told us the stimulus bill had to be rushed through....no time to read it, let alone discuss it (where it then sat unsigned for 4 days while the POTUS went on a vacation). And what was in that bill? There was an amendment, the DODD amendment, which specifically allowed those same bonuses about which he now feigns rage. Face it folks, we are being played once again for suckers. Those people who got bonuses were being paid as they were contracted to be paid. Because we are angry that the gov't is throwing money at AIG doesn't invalidate those contracts.
A brief clip, with Shepard Smith giving a clear and concise explanation.

It seems that one of the tactics so often called upon is to try and convince us to aim our anger at some other non-government group, while washington and its insiders go on their merry way. Washington government, the senators, congressmen, presidents, and all the camp followers that surround them, spend our money with absolutely no regard for our wishes, spend money that we don't have and will never have, while they junket to the Netherlands to talk with the queen, maintain million dollar houses in Maryland or elsewhere, don't pay their own freaking taxes, run their offices at 78 degrees, and jet across the country in government jets while they tell us to suck it up and suffer for the greater good of the country. Stop and think, my friends. These people, these people who pose in front of the cameras and microphones and point fingers at AIG and other groups, they are the ones we should be angry at; they are the ones who are driving this country to ruin, not AIG, not the banks, not the workers of these companies, but those who are in a position of power and see nothing wrong with using that position and power to advance themselves and their well-being, while handing us the bills and demanding more and more of our money.

Here's another "clip-and-save" to hang on the 'fridge

We will ALL see our taxes and our expenses rise; not those who make over $???,??? whatever amount is being trumpeted this week, but ALL of us. Between energy taxes and penalties, fewer deductions, higher tax rates, we all are going to pay more.

ATTENTION ALL FISHERMEN

If you have any interest in fishing, particularly fly fishing, check this link. This is a gent who is seeing his time running out and is looking for some help...not charity, but help through his talent and trade. Please check it out.

Is this reprisal?

A while back, I wrote about the gent who was starting a new "stamp act", using a TAX CHEAT stamp on the currency carrying the signature of Treasury Sec'y Geithner.

Well what a coincidence......he just got notified that he is being audited. Coincidence......maybe, or maybe not. Let's watch and see what happens here.

Will the Insults Never End?

I'm struggling; I bet you are struggling; the US economy is going down the toilet; everyones' retirement plans are gone in a puff of smoke.
EXCEPT OUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS

They just got a pay raise. Did you know that?

In addition to the $97,000 "petty cash" increase of a few weeks ago, they just got a
FRIGGIN' PAY RAISE!!!!!!

Remind me how I should treat our illustrious congressman and senator the next time I see their sorry faces! I think I may be sick!! How can they do this, and look at themselves in the mirror each morning? In my worst days, I simply couldn't be this two-faced. "We all have to give some, to suffer a bit for the common good, etc, etc, etc" Except for those who are so much better and more important than us peons. They get a raise taken from MY pocket.

Maybe it's time for a Tea Party in Kingston??

A Little Comic Relief

As I slog through the seemingly endless bad news, every once in a while I stumble across something that just tickles me until I sit here laughing out loud.
Enjoy a few chuckles.

how tv works

what REALLY happens to your icons when you aren't looking

and a different concert

Enjoy

A Very Good Read

There is a gentleman whose site I often read. He presents articles that are considerably "deeper" than the average blog, but often are cause for deep thinking and meditation.

He has just come out with another, and I strongly suggest you pop over there and read it. He presents some views that are cause for concern, but perhaps in the knowledge that he gives us, we have a way to work against it.

Thoughts on the Porkulus bill

It's a given that we tend to see the world with a view skewed by our surroundings. Thus the person from a liberal outlook will see the world through the eyes of a liberal bias and feel that “everyone” sees it the same way because he/she sees it that way as do his/her friends. Likewise a conservative will talk with other conservatives and soon feel that “everyone” feels the same way he does.
Even with this built-in bias, I am sensing a mood change here. I am hearing more people wondering why they are working so hard to stay afloat when the government is taking more and more of their earnings and handing it out to other people and groups who are quite happy to live off the government dole and let others pay their way. “Why shouldn't I just quit and go on public assistance? It would be a whole lot easier and I probably would come out ahead financially as well”, I hear other saying with greater frequency than ever before. And when one looks around, it is easy to see why this feeling is becoming so widespread. We watch as Congress passes a bill that THEY NEVER READ, a bill that will take thousands of dollars from each and every one of us as well as our children and grandchildren, and then hands that money out to people and to groups whose only claim to that money is that they were friends of some congressman. And then as a slap in the face, we're told that we all will get a tax break and that should keep us all happy. Let's see, they take an average of about $13,000 from each of us, give us back $13 a week and tell us to shut up and smile......maybe, just maybe, that is why people are getting fed up. And in my area, we are blessed with a senator who stands up at a press conference and says that the people aren't bothered by the pork in this bill, and a congressman who BRAGS that he didn't read the bill and would vote for it no matter what it said. Lord help me, but I stand almost in awe of the arrogance and stupidity of these people. Hey Mr. Hinchey, that is my money that you just stole. You just took money from my children and spent it on the biggest load of manure ever to come from Washington, and you have the audacity to brag that you didn't even read the frigging bill!!!! Aside from the rather obvious conflict with all that was promised to us about governmental transparency and openness by Mr Obama and the democratic leadership ( 5 days for people to read and comment on all bills), it rubs salt in the wound when it is rushed through as a crisis, an emergency that can't wait even one more day, but then the President leaves it on his desk over a long weekend while he goes on a vacation. Where, or why, or when did we give this bunch of thieves such control over us? Is Mr Shumer or Mr Hinchey or your congressmen and senators, really that much smarter than us, that they can take our hard earned money and our hard earned freedom and squander it on a trillion dollar bill they don't even read? I am old enough and cynical enough to say with complete certainty, NO. They are not smarter. They are not better. They certainly are less interested in your or my well-being than we are, and know a whole lot less about what is good for us than we do. But because they live in DC, somehow they suddenly become experts in economics, in all that passes their desks, even those bills not yet written and never read when they discuss them and vote on them. And the fact that most economists disagree with them, the fact that simple common sense tells us that you can't get out of debt by borrowing more money than you can afford, doesn't bother them in the least. And the Constitution, that piece of paper written years ago, is simply ignored whenever it interferes with their desires and plans. The Constitution has no provision for government take-over of banks; it doesn't allow Washington to set mortgage rates or conditions; it certainly doesn't allow salary caps (in fact it specifically PROTECTS private contracts such as those fixing salaries between employer and employee); it doesn't allow the sec'y of the Treasury (remember him, the tax cheat?) to decide what type and price cars Detroit can manufacture. But no matter, it is just a piece of paper, and our representatives know so much more that our founding fathers ever knew.