Were I…

…a bona fide wildlife photographer,  this shot  would represent the best of my work,  and no doubt one of the best days of my life.  Canadian amatuer Steve Biro shot Bruce the bald eagle as he skimmed the water at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy.

 

Memorial Day 2019, part II

There was so much going on Monday that I missed a few items.   Rolling Thunder is apparently getting a  rather hefty  donation —  well-deserved I should add,  and the  saluting sergeant  was back again.

Sully,  the service dog of the late Pres. George H. W. Bush,  used his Instagram account  to comment  on the occasion.   Too many of us don’t even understand  the occasion.   Some who live elsewhere understand perfectly  and honor  our fallen.

Vice President Mike Pence  laid a wreath  at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.   President Trump was on  a ship deployed in the Pacific.   Some of the Marine aviators who  were wearing pro-Trump badges on the USS Wasp will earn a slap on the wrist for their antics.   It has always been  the soldier, not the politicians who steps forward for all of us,  and too many of them have died doing so.   The freedoms we  enjoy as Americans have often been purchased with their blood.   You owe them all your best efforts to retain those freedoms,  especially in  the face  of Hollywood ignorance.

We’ve always had  heroes fighting  for us.    We remain in peril,  so we  still need  them.   We always need women such as the  Twelve Anchors.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw makes it personal with  his remembrances  of his brother SEALs.   Complete strangers attended a Korean War veteran’s funeral because it was the right thing to do for  an old man  whose only family member could not be there due to ill health.   The Missing In America Project did right  by burying  42 unclaimed veterans.   A Catholic high school in Massachusetts  holds funerals  for homeless vets.

What amazes me is that this nation,  despite its trials and tribulations,  still manages to produce such heroes,  willing to give all for their countrymen.  Patriotism has become unfashionable,  but it is all the more necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ava homers again…

This adorable eight-year-old captures the  flighty idiocy  of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.   Will someone please fund this clever child’s career?

Memorial Day 2019

Charlie  Daniels is right  — the only two things protecting America are God and the U.S. military.    The standing not-quite-a-joke in my family is that my mother’s side signed the Declaration  of Independence and every generation of my father’s side has served in the military to protect it.   This post from Chuck Norris includes a  chart showing  the deaths in our nation’s wars.

Many people confuse Veterans Day,  which honors all who have served,  with Memorial Day,  which pays tribute  to the fallen.   It was originally called Decoration Day,  but it seems as if few people remember it by any name these days.   We are in more danger than you realize from the siren call of the something-for-nothing siren song of socialism because we have forgotten,  and too many of us do not wish to remember.   We are told that pride in one’s country is unpatriotic and old-fashioned and unmodern.   But none of that is particularly dangerous.   Forgetting is.

People join for many different reasons,  and they fight for a variety of reasons.   That  they do so  at all is astonishing.   Most veterans will simply say they wanted to serve.   They did,  but it was generally more complicated than that.   A dear friend once told me that bravery was remarkable because it was so rare.

A  boot display  for the fallen is one way of not forgetting.   I have attended several,  and always found them poignant,  even if I knew none of the honorees.   The empty boots are oddly full of life,  representing lives cut short,  but also courage displayed and promises kept.   If you can witness this and remain unmoved,  you have a heart of stone and no appreciation of history.

Likewise,  if you can watch  Rolling Thunder  on TV  and not be affected,  you haven’t paid attention in a long time.  I have missed my chance to attend in person this protest/rally/memorial service,  because this 32nd one will be the group’s last.     Taking its name from the Vietnam bombing campaign,  the advocacy group began in 1988,  seeking to bring full accountability for POWs and MIAs of all U.S. wars.   In case you don’t know,  the U.S. government did not wish to be accountable.   The four founders didn’t know at the time that Senators John McCain and John Kerry would be such effective opponents.   I salute them and hope the local and overseas chapters  continue to  hold rides.   I will miss seeing the indefatigable  U.S. Marine Tim Chambers salute the riders as they pass.  Perhaps Pres. Trump will  be able  to help.

I suspect there will always be  a contingent  of Green Berets who visit Arlington National Cemetery every year to pay their respects to their fallen comrades.  By the way,  the Union government thought it was conveying a great insult to the Lee family by burying Union generals in the front yard of the Lee home,  and this after it had  essentially stolen  the property.  But I think Robert E. Lee has the last laugh —  his home is now the final resting place of many heroes.

I will be eating too much,  hoisting a beer or two (it is scorching hot across the South this year) and keeping a watchful eye on the youngsters paddling in the lake while I lounge in the shade and pray for a nice little breeze to stave off heat-stroke.  I hope your Memorial Day is full of fun and family and friends and food,  and that you spare a thought for those who have died to protect the nation.

 

 

 

 

 

Not Spot…

That is to say  this isn’t  Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot,  but a very large competitor model from HyQReal which just pulled a three-ton airplane over thirty feet.   Be nice to your robots  — someday they may be smarter than you are.

 

 

Beer from shards…

If you discovered some 3,000 year-old yeast,  would you use it?   If so,  for what?  Bread?   Israeli scientist had to revitalize six ancient strains of yeast, but once they had accomplished that,  they used it to  brew ancient  types of beers. 

This is the first time that living yeast were actually extracted,  identified and recreated from ancient pottery vessels and may lead to some other useful  —  and enjoyable —  techniques.  L’Chaim!

 

 

I, me, myself…

Last  month His Oneness set a new record in his continuing self-regard by mentioning himself  467 times  in one speech.  No mention of whether the German crowd noticed or cared.    Newt Gingrich  had some observations on Obama’s self-worship.

 

 

 

Pelosi poses…

Nancy Pelosi Thinks regaining the position of Speaker of the House means that she is the smartest,  toughest,  best leader of all time.   That hubris apparently led her to believe she could accuse Pres. Trump of “covering up”  some undefined matter and still be welcomed with open arms at a prearranged meeting on infrastructure shortly thereafter.   The President told Pelosi and Schumer he would  not meet  with them because of their fake investigations.

This appears to have stunned the two Democrats,  but that was merely for the cameras.   I am delighted with Trump’s  stout response,  because they have never had any intention of working with Trump on anything.  They never will.   It is all for show,  and they will tell any lie and pretend anything to win.   It’s what Democrats do.   And as more damning evidence emerges on the Obama Administration and its illegal and lawless behavior,  the progressives will only become more strident,  more hypocritical,  more deceptive,  more ruthless.  Get some popcorn…

Nancy and Chuck  started it,  but see how the Left is already extending the theater,  beginning  with Mad Maxine Waters

Why is Sen. Feinstein…

…talking on her cell phone at the Capitol with Iran’s Foreign Minister?   And why the hell did she issue a  statement afterward  urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reach out to Zarif?

MSM has not uttered a peep about it,  of course,  but will somebody please charge her with a violation of the Logan Act?  It is bad enough we still have the crooked Clintons and the treasonous John Kerry and the lying Obamas still swaggering around,  along with all the Clinton and Obama embeds at various government agencies.  We don’t need any more politicians actively serving foreigh interests,  no matter how much money they make off of them.

UPDATE:  Now she’s having  dinner with  him, claiming it was OK by the State Department.

Election interference…

Why is it that Democrats have hysterics at the mere thought of Russia trying to influence U.S. elections,  but think it’s just fine for Obama to send operatives to israel to keep Benjamin Netanyahu from being re-elected?  Not a  peep about  Al Gore transporting his own wide body to Australia to swipe some reflected glory from the “climate change election” that the Labor Party  could not  lose.   Except to the astonishment of all,  the voters did not obey Gore and the eco-Nazis,  and a conservative coalition won.   How did everyone  get it  so wrong?   Will American Democrats  learn anything  from this?   Will they believe it was some sort of  populist wave  as The New York Times erroneously claims?

UPDATE:  Here is  a look at the truth of the Australian elections and the point I hope the Democrats miss.