Free Republic

I am actually a member of GOAL (great organization) and knew about this, but like most conservatives, I have to work for a living, and secondly, it is all about show as is most gun legislation. It is kabuki theater, doesn’t affect me.

I didn’t even know bump stocks existed, even though I knew the concept of bump firing and had tried it semi-successfully once, but didn’t want to really make it work since nobody wants to attract unwanted attention at a gun range, right?

Thing is, I see this largely as virtue signalling by liberals who want to show they are doing something about “gun violence” (even though they aren’t, which is fine too because their concept of “gun violence” and mine are quite different) with no impact on my right to own and carry a gun.

To me, this is like a hearing to pass legislation on whether guns should be allowed to be black in color or not, or whether it should be allowed to have a bayonet mount.

I can’t thank you enough for posting that link...that is tremendous...what a great idea to do it on saxophones...I would have never thought of that, but the sound for that particular tune (Jupiter) is well suited to it...a lightness on the feet, somewhat jolly and whimsical!

Thanks-that made my day, I have a couple of people I am going to send it to!

You are most welcome, MarineBrat...I looked at your FreepPage, and saw that you and I signed up around the same time on FR, and from what you said there, much the same reasons!

I have a degree of veneration for those Swift Boat Vets, and drove around with this on my car for over a year in this overwhelmingly blue state:

Then, while visiting the DC Chapter of Free Republic a few years later, I got to meet a number of them outside Walter Reed:

I consider it a high point in my life, that I got a chance to spend several hours talking to these men and listen to their views on Kerry, politics, war, and life in general.

See, I have always felt that these men, who could have lived their quiet and comfortable lives and kept their mouths shut, stood up to be counted because they felt their country needed them to serve again, after all those years.

And so they did. They played a major role in saving us from a term or two of "President Kerry". I would say that is Patriot's work, indeed!

Anyway, thanks for your comments...good to meet you.

Them and Golden Retrievers.

I read an interesting thing a little while back.

They did a study on people where they had them wear a device that could measure eye movement, even slight, imperceptible (to us) eye movement.

They found that when people come face to face with another person (or even see a picture of another human face) upon first encounter, both of our eyes focus on one eye of the other person for an imperceptibly short period of time, we can’t even notice it.

So the researchers got curious, and tried to see if all primates did it, and to their surprise...they didn’t. Monkeys, chimps, apes, none did it.

So they began testing other animals, and of all the animals they tested, there was only one other species that exhibited that same trait: Dogs.

Okay. My work is done here.

Uranus obviously has hygiene issues.

I love that whole suite, particularly Jupiter and Mars.

Somehow, Uranus sounds far more disgusting as a gas giant.

I told my neighbor “I will be looking at Uranus tonight. From my backyard. With binoculars.”

There is a “For Sale” sign on the house now. They used to be so friendly.

Heh, if ONLY they could pay attention...if ONLY!

I swear, they are all insane.

LOL, the new “SuperVillain” is the “Climate Denier”!

I disagree to an extent.

There is no doubt that making advances to a blood stained tyrant like Mao was a grave mistake, but Nixon did use appropriate force when needed, if later than he should have.

I will always remember (and I know all the POW’s felt the same sentiment far more strongly and emotionally than I ever could have) how relieved I was when we began Linebacker II and began strategic bombing of the North and mining of Haiphong harbor. (The POW’s, though fearful of losing their own lives in the bombing of Hanoi, took great joy and comfort in seeing the open and abject fear of their captors under the blanket of strategic bombing by B-52s.)

It should have been done that way far earlier, but at least Nixon did that.

LOL, that sounds like the way Ann Coulter would state it, and I mean that as a high compliment!

I love the way she started one of her books. IIRC, it was with this sentence:

“Liberals say they love their country too. No they don’t.”

I did not even bother watching.

On one hand, I have admired Ken Burns for his polished presentation method, because anyone who is talented enough to get a special effect in an image editor named after him has something going for him (at least in the video editing and production aspect).

But I detest his slimy, smarmy, liberal slant he inserts into everything, all under the guise of claims of evenhanded treatment from him and his supporters, which happen to be the same people who review, judge, and hand out awards.

When I talked to people who eagerly wanted to know if I had seen the Vietnam production and what my thoughts on it were, I told them I didn’t watch it, and had no intention of watching it. They were disappointed, since I am often vocal on these types of things, and I think they wanted validation since they apparently enjoyed watching it.

Reading the linked article was disturbing, because it was stunningly (in my opinion) prescient.

The author drew the bleak picture of a future where the people who knew anything about the conflict are going to be either silent or gone, and the only historical context to those tumultuous times for the vast majority of people will be the PBS series that they will show over and over again (infuriatingly, on our taxpayer dime) and which will be standard fare recommended by the NEA for classroom material on that subject.

An evenhanded approach would say that yes, it is true that America made mistakes, and yes, atrocities were committed by individuals, as happens in all war. But the atrocities on the American side were, as a rule, committed by individuals and not part of government policy. Those mistakes were also made by the communists, and the atrocities they committed were sanctioned officially by the government. What happened to thousands of people in Hue was government policy, standard fare murder of intellectuals by communists when engaged in a power struggle.

And yes, the RVN and its military were flawed with spotty performance. But a large number of them fought reliably and valiantly with and beside our troops and often died there. There are plenty of Americans who served who had South Vietnamese they respected serving with them.

And yes, American military performance was occasionally spotty, as is the record of all combatants in all wars. But the vast majority of those who served (including draftees) did so to the best of their ability and faithfully to what we regard as “American Values”. And many of them came home, not as unstable, mentally damaged, drug addled, victimized losers, but as men who went on to have wonderful families, and successful jobs. They may not have “enjoyed” their time there (and wished the entire time they weren’t there) but I think there were few who were not touched and changed deeply to their core for the rest of their lives by their service there, and to this day regard it as one of the most formative and important (if not the most formative and important) times in their lives. And most of them are profoundly (and justifiably) proud of their service.

But most of all, any “evenhanded” approach would point out that we, as a nation, obtained a peace in 1973 at the Paris Accord that could have, and should have guaranteed safety to the Republic of Vietnam against the aggression of the Communist North Vietnam, but that through our own cowardice, irresolution, and outright hostility and backstabbing, reneged on the terms of that treaty to our former ally, and threw them to the communist wolves from the north, who did indeed ravage the population. And we LET that happen.

And an evenhanded approach would point out that it was the American Left that was responsible for this black betrayal, as black as our betrayal at Yalta to Eastern Europe and the Chinese Nationalist government, and that we condemned millions to imprisonment and death, and a huge number of others to oppression with their only option being to flee through pirate and shark infested waters.

An evenhanded approach would tell all this and more, but Ken Burns’ Vietnam, by all accounts wasn’t, and...it didn’t.

I had to look...she ain’t!

Eh. I think the parenthesis probably makes it sound like an aside, when it is key to the story.

There are five commas, which seem a bit much to me (though I routinely use a lot as well, but...I don’t write for a living) which chops it up a bit.

I guess it is okay. I would have put it in parenthesis: "...she was riding in the car with Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson (who was killed in Africa along with three other comrades) when she got a call from the president..."

They might frown on that, but that is how I would have written it.

It is like a t-shirt I saw recently:

"Let's eat, Grandma"
"Let's eat Grandma"
COMMAS SAVE LIVES!

I think it is poor editing. The writer meant the soldier was killed with three comrades. I had the same first impression, and had to re-read it.

Yes, reminds me of Cindy Sheehan.