Free Republic

Thanks to the wonders of globalization, I’m writing this in a fairly decrepit salon de thé off the rue de la Liberté in Tangiers, enjoying a coffee and a stale croissant grilled and flattened into a panini. What could be more authentically Moroccan? For some reason, the napkins are emblazoned with “Gracias por su visita.” Through a blizzard of flies, I can just about make out the plasma TV up in the corner on which Jimmy Carter, dubbed into Arabic, is denouncing Israel. Al Jazeera doesn’t so much cover the Zionist Entity as feast on it, hour after hour, without...

You haven’t been to America until you’ve walked the hillsides of Arlington. On the Virginia side of the Potomac, in the capital of our nation, where heroes lie row upon row. It is one of the most stirring and sacred places in our country. The despoiled farm of a Confederate general, hallowed by those buried in its soil, it is a place of the heart. Presidents are buried there, and generals and admirals, and the common soldiers and sailors of the last 150 years. The precision of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the green of the grass...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2010 – The top two officials in charge of Arlington National Cemetery here were disciplined after an Army investigation found the cemetery’s management to be “dysfunctional,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh announced today at the Pentagon. Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh announces at a June 10, 2010, Pentagon press conference that in light of findings of inappropriate practices and mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery, he is relieving the cemetery’s current superintendent and deputy superintendent of their duties and placing Kathryn Condon (right) in the newly created role of Executive Director of the Army National Cemeteries...

- June 10, 2010 Army Fires Top Two Administrators Over Mismanagement of Arlington Cemetery Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. fox news Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. McHugh will announce Thursday that he is replacing Arlington National's superintendent, John Metzler, and his deputy, Thurman Higgenbotham, who had...

CARTHAGE, Tunisia, May 30, 2010 – Less than a mile from the 2,000-year-old ruins of ancient Carthage, Tunisian groundskeepers worked under a bright Mediterranean sun to prepare for Memorial Day observances to honor the 2,841 Americans buried here, as well as the thousands more who gave their lives in the North Africa campaigns of World War II that laid the bloody groundwork for the Allied liberation of Europe. Abdallah Lagahre, a Tunisian stone mason, refreshes gold leaf lettering on the gravestone of Medal of Honor recipient Army Pvt. Nicholas Minue at the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, May...

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today met with more than 40 members of the 3rd. U.S. Infantry, The Old Guard, at Arlington National Cemetery, as they finished placing American flags on each of the graves in Section 60 of the cemetery. Video With flags in hand, members of the Army's Old Guard march out to their assigned sections during the “Flags In” ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 27, 2010. More than 1,500 servicemembers, Old Guard and other ceremonial units gathered for the sacred ritual that marks the start of the Memorial Day...

An umbrella group for Swiss Muslims says they should be able to be buried “with dignity” and is therefore calling for Islamic cemeteries in every Swiss canton. Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland, told the Sunday newspaper Sonntag he was preparing a legal case concerning freedom of religion.

George Watkins worked through the weekend on his Eagle Scout project. His project was to place pavers that were donated as a fundraiser for the Historical Soldiers Memorial Cemetery section at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista. He placed more than 4,000 pavers, a job that took two days to complete with the assistance of several Scouts and adult leaders. Photo by Mark Levy, Herald/Review

This Veterans Day 2009, the only remaining unidentified veteran's grave in the Indian River Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. All other veterans' graves have been identified by name, war, date of death and location and catalogued into a database and map created by a Morgan School senior, Devon Isaacson for his Eagle Scout accreditation. While veterans' graves are marked with bronze service medals issued by the U.S. government, Devon is the first to produce a collection of Clinton's interred servicemen in the historic Cemetery . . . In his project, Devon divided the cemetery's 45 acres into...

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving...

Five fallen U.S. sailors from what has been described as America's first war on terrorism lie in a crumbling cemetery in Libya, their graves identified only by their heroism on a night more than 200 years ago. They represent a lingering legacy of the Intrepid -- a small ship used in a daring raid in 1804 to destroy the captured American frigate Philadelphia anchored in Tripoli Harbor, denying the enemy use of the former U.S. warship. Much the same tactic was attempted six months later when the Intrepid sailed into the same harbor, packed with gunpowder for use as a...

Jakarta, Indonesia (AP) - Explosive material recovered from the scene of two suicide bombings at hotels in the Indonesian capital is "identical" to that used by the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah in earlier attacks, police said. An unexploded bomb left in a room of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta resembled devices used in attacks on Bali and one found in a recent raid against the network on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, national police spokesman told a news conference Sunday.

CHICAGO - The White House, correcting earlier reports, says Michelle Obama's father is not buried at a cemetery where workers are accused of digging up and dumping bodies but at a cemetery nearby. Spokeswoman Camille Johnston in an e-mail message on Tuesday said Fraser Robinson III is buried in Lincoln Cemetery. Earlier in the day she was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying Robinson was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. The Cook County Clerk's office also confirmed that Robinson was buried at Lincoln, which is located in Alsip less than two miles from Burr Oak. Robinson died...

Banner only; no link yet Just mentioned by Andrea Mitchell, who breathlessly reports this now gives the story a political angle...

When I last wrote about Thistlerose Pet Cemetery and Crematory in 2008, the owners and their lawyer were promising the so-called final resting grounds would not be disturbed, even though the property in Greendale was for sale. Well, forget all that. Get the shovels back out.In a notice displayed at Thistlerose, they're already referring to it as the "former" cemetery. The anticipated closing date for the sale is July 30. "You have until July 24, 2009, to arrange for the removal of the remains of your pet and any memorial marker. If the remains and any marker are not removed...

video clip ALSIP, Ill. (AP) -- Three gravediggers and a cemetery manager unearthed hundreds of corpses from a historic black cemetery south of Chicago, dumping some in a weeded area and double-stacking others in existing graves, in an elaborate scheme to resell the plots, authorities said Thursday. All four were charged with felonies. Frantic relatives of the deceased descended on Burr Oak Cemetery - the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington - in hopes someone could tell them their loved ones' remains were not among the pile of bones that...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

Bodies Dug Up, Plots Resold at Historic Cemetery: Police As many as 100 bodies disinterred at Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery By BJ LUTZ and PHIL ROGERS Updated 6:19 PM CDT, Wed, Jul 8, 2009 As many as 100 human bodies may have been dug up from a South suburban cemetery and the burial plots resold, investigators said Wednesday. Often called the first African-American cemetery in Chicago, Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery has a storied past and is the final resting place for several notables, including boxing great Ezzard Charles and blues legends Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington. Emmett Till, whose murder...

Vandals toppled 115 headstones and ripped up American flags in Hazelwood's Calvary Cemetery, where some of Pittsburgh's noted political, sports, religious and arts figures are buried, causing an estimated tens of thousands of dollars damage. The vandalism discovered Wednesday morning was the worst in the history of the Catholic Cemeteries Association, which oversees 16 cemeteries for the Diocese of Pittsburgh

MARGRATEN, Netherlands, June 10, 2009 – The 8,301 Americans buried at this beautifully manicured cemetery reminded Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today of the cost Americans pay for freedom. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tours the World War II Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial where 8,301 U.S. servicemembers are buried in Margraten, Netherlands. Along the sides are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names, June 10, 2009. DOD photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates visited this cemetery during a break in meetings about Afghanistan’s Regional Command...