Free Republic

Memorial Day is a wonderful constant. Every year, it never ceases to touch me. My family attends an annual parade in Mercer, Pa. It’s terrific — total old-school. The flags, the courthouse, the kids, the snow cone stand, the marching bands, and, most of all, the troops from different wars — that is, the survivors who remain with us. Speaking of whom, Memorial Day always brings another constant, a sad one: each new Memorial Day brings fewer World War II veterans. They are leaving us at a rapid clip. Anyone who entered World War II at age 18 in 1945...

As I type my thoughts for this coming Memorial Day, it is my prayer that are worthy of surviving the flurry of other current events and will have an impact on those who read them and perhaps, will be referred to on other occasions and perhaps help drive the remembrance on future Memorial Days. I always experience a bit of dread as I ponder how to say something of relevance that goes beyond the standard “honoring those who gave all for our freedom” which gets circulated by so many writers while so many Americans head to the beach or prepare...

Once upon a time, we were One Nation Under God. Sure, America had its faults, but overall things were fairly good and we worked to make improvements. The government understood that its purpose was to safeguard the Rights (note the capital “R”) with which we were endowed by our Creator; and most other legislative matters were left to the states per the 10th Amendment. America had public servants, but these people were just that – servants. They were there to uphold the Constitution. That was then. This is now. Today we have two nations, peopled separately by what I’ll call...

The smoke and flame had not even dissipated before it was crystal clear that the terrorists had lost again. There was the flash, the boom, then a few brief moments to get their bearings before, almost as one, Americans began running toward the fire. It wasn’t just the cops and the soldiers. It was spectators, bystanders, even runners themselves who seconds before had been struggling to cross the finish line after 26 brutal miles. In one terrible moment that shredded bodies and lives, they went from being ordinary Americans to something extraordinary. Scratch that – “extraordinary” is the natural...

The first time? I remember that as if it were yesterday, even if it’s now 33 years’ worth of yesterdays ago. That was the evening of Friday, Feb. 22, 1980, and I was 13 years old, in the seventh grade, and I was working the scoreboard at West Hempstead High School for an evening filled with CYO basketball games. You could hear the buzz first, and it moved slowly around the old gym on Nassau Boulevard, because there was no texting and no tweeting and no email and no cell phones, just old-fashioned word of mouth, person to person, row...

Link in next post. Just beautiful.

I feel a tremendous responsibility to write this article though I am a little apprehensive. Thinking about the possibility of rising up against our own government is a frightening thing for many of us. I am not Johnny Rambo and I will be the first to admit that I do not want to die. The reason I feel compelled to write this, however, is simply because I donÂ’t think the average American is equipped with the facts. I feel that a lot of American citizens feel like they have no choice but to surrender their guns if the government comes...

Democrats are always so smarmy with throwing around the "dissent is patriotic" meme when Republicans are in power and complaining about a lack of respect for their leaders.Dissent is patriotic, but they've got it all wrong.From Super Conservative

Says dying America is 'gurgling, we've got our hand on the wound' Glenn Beck acts out a scene of rescuing a dying America during his broadcast Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Claiming that “America is hemorrhaging” and headed rapidly toward death, media giant Glenn Beck says he’s lost faith in many of the institutions that have made the U.S. such a great country, and it’s time to “surrender.” “When the government says they can use drones and just kill us without a warrant or a trial, my gosh, America certainly is dead,” Beck said during his broadcast Tuesday night. “I’ve lost...

Seldom do I ever use anything in my post that originates from an e-mail, and I do mean its is rare. However I came across an e-mail I had previously read.This particular e-mail has around in cypher-space since 2006 and the essay has found its way back to my inbox once again. The e-mail essay was written by a squared away Retired Marine, Sgt Major J. D. Pendry.Snopes indicates that the essay was properly attributed to, and the content is authentic. After much consideration I decided to post the essay. In view of the upcoming sequestration, I felt the essay...

Dear Fellow Fan, It was wholly a pleasure to get your video of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" as only she could -- and did. It rekindled childhood memories of listening to the Kate Smith radio show every school day morning at 9 in Miss Hinkle's fourth grade class. It was the best part of the day, not counting baseball at recess. It included a wrap-up of the day's news, and so fulfilled the Current Events requirement. But the show wasn't over till the fat lady sang. And did she ever, especially "God Bless America." Her version has no...

The diversity warriors, with no sense of humor and short on irony, keep looking for victims in all the old places. President Obama, advertising his inaugural address as a call to unity and a "coming together as one people," rounded up the usual suspects as if nothing in America had changed since Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall. The suffragettes at Seneca Falls in 1848, the marchers at Selma in 1965 and the resisters at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 all led the way toward tolerance, but the president spoke of their sacrifice as if frozen in a time warp of...

Last Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Education held public hearings to approve its new social studies education curriculum that leaves out "patriotism" as a civic virtue and teaches that America's rise as a global power from its agrarian roots led to "institutionalized racism." History Standard 20 for the period 1870–1920, in the new social studies/history standards, says: “The student will understand that as the United States shifted from its agrarian roots into an industrial and global power, the rise of big business, urbanization, and immigration led to institutionalized racism, ethnic and class conflict, and new efforts at reform.” John Fonte,...

Out of curiosity, I took a look at how film critics from other newspapers and publications reviewed the new “Red Dawn,” a remake of the 1984 cult classic about teenagers taking up guns and defending America from communist invaders. You’d think from the critics’ condescending sneers that the remake is utter garbage. “Preposterous,” said one critic of the remake’s premise that North Korea could invade the U.S. today. “Outdated,” said another, suggesting the plot line be relegated to the ancient Cold War and the once-upon-a-time Red Scare. The only thing that’s “preposterous,” however, is the speed at which these obviously...

Several months ago, an ad hoc consortium of self-proclaimed millionaires, sent a letter to Obama, Reid and Boehner, demanding that "for the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you increase taxes on incomes over $1,000,000." This grass roots initiative was formed in the aftermath of Warren Buffett's, since defunct, proposal to impose a "millionaire tax" rule. Of course, back then, as now, someone actually did the math and realized what the impact of such as tax would be in the grand scheme of the next decade of deficits, as we...

A must have version of "The Star Spangled Banner"

“Economic Patriots [team stats]” — arise! You’ve got nothing to lose but your money! The Obama campaign is printing up millions of copies of his “new” 20-page plan entitled “Economic Patriotism.” It’s been a theme of the president’s campaign since Joe Biden said in 2008 that paying higher taxes is “patriotic.” Now Barack Obama has adopted it as his closing argument in a close presidential race. “We should ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more, a modest amount,” Obama said recently. “There are a lot of well-to-do Americans, patriotic Americans, who understand this and are willing to do...

From: Andy Logar [mailto:alogar@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 8:02 AM Subject: "...What you can do for the country." October 19, 2012 '...What you can do for your country.' Andy Logar This is a personal, unabashed appeal for voters to cross party lines, if need be, and rise to the inspired words in JFK's 1960 Inaugural Address: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." Unfortunately, there appears to be no shortage of people concerned about what the country can do for them and a...

With the exception of Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Lane, no one in the media noticed Vice President Joe Biden's attacks on Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's patriotism during Thursday's debate. Twice, Biden accused Romney and Ryan of hating America. The first instance came during a discussion of Iran: "I mean, these guys bet against America all the time," Biden said, claiming--falsely--that President Barack Obama had "brought the entire world, including Russia and China" to support harsh sanctions against Iran. (In fact, the Obama administration won Russian and Chinese support only by exempting them from key anti-Iran...

Like most people, I reacted to the news that the EU had won the Nobel Peace Prize with a shout of delighted mirth. In picking this moment – just as the euro brings national antagonisms to a new high – the committee members have revealed a sublime comic genius. It is 40 years since, hearing that the award had gone to Henry Kissinger, Tom Lehrer declared 'satire is now obsolete'. But even Lehrer at his most fanciful couldn't have imagined the committee passing over Irena Sendler, who had repeatedly risked her life to save children from the Warsaw Ghetto, in...