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Living a successful life take personal initiative and courage and sacrifice. My biggest beef with Republicans over the years was how gutless so many of them were. Trump was such a breath of fresh air, a fighter. He did inspire some to get a backbone. I read these citations often and thought it would be very fitting to share the link today on Memorial Day. Very inspirational and a reminder of what traits can make one a "hero" in daily life. That is all. At ease.

In modern America, February 2 is best known as Groundhog Day. But it also marks the birth of one of the most praised and criticized thinkers of the past century – Ayn Rand. Rand sold more than 30 million books. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as an influence on readers’ lives. She has also been stridently attacked for issues such as her militant atheism. But perhaps least understood has been her full-bore rejection of altruism. On her birthday, it is worth reconsideration. Altruism has commonly been held up as the standard for moral behavior. But Rand...

Does Christianity call for human sacrifice?When you put the question like that, the instinctive response of any given Christian would tend toward a resounding “no.” After all, human sacrifice is a barbaric act which no rational person could condone. We believers like to regard ourselves as rational.Yet, a cursory examination of popular Christian doctrine suggests that human sacrifice – to one degree or another – stands as a central tenet of the faith. In his book Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It, author Craig Biddle cites “religionists” – including many prominent Christian theologians –...

Rome Friends and I kept seeing groups of Poles who'd taken planes or 20-hour bus rides to be here for the canonization of John Paul II. They did not look wealthy. A lot of them wouldn't have had tickets to the big mass because the Vatican kept saying there were no tickets. (In fact there were, and they were thoughtfully color-coded.) A lot of them knew they'd spend a rainy night on the floor of a church or, some of them, wrapped in plastic parkas as they slept on the street on yoga mats they carried on their backpacks. Many...

In shipwrecks, children turn out to have the lowest survival rate, followed by women at 30% and men at around 40%, according to s Swedish study. In the Titanic shipwreck in contrast, more than 70% of female passengers survived, compared to less than 20% of men, with children in between.

torah shiur about the deeper meaning of self-sacrifice.

......On board the ship that night was John Harper and his much-beloved six-year-old daughter Nana. According to documented reports, as soon as it was apparent that the ship was going to sink, John Harper immediately took his daughter to a lifeboat. It is reasonable to assume that this widowed preacher could have easily gotten on board this boat to safety; however, it never seems to have crossed his mind. He bent down and kissed his precious little girl; looking into her eyes he told her that she would see him again someday. The flares going off in the dark sky...

Leave it to our current crop of mental health professionals not to understand self-sacrifice. The Denver Post recently recalled two separate murderous incidents where two women, Jaquie Creazzo and Jeannie VanVelkinburgh, unsuccessfully tried to intervene and prevent the unrelated murders of strangers. Both women were left paralyzed during their noble attempts. “Why did they do it?” is the question being pondered by experts, according to Leaf Van Boven, associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado. Obviously the concept of altruism is lost on many intellectuals. “They may have an acute emotionally intense feeling of right and...

Leave it to our current crop of mental health professionals not to understand self-sacrifice. The Denver Post recently recalled two separate murderous incidents where two women, Jaquie Creazzo and Jeannie VanVelkinburgh, unsuccessfully tried to intervene and prevent the unrelated murders of strangers. Both women were left paralyzed during their noble attempts. “Why did they do it?” is the question being pondered by experts, according to Leaf Van Boven, associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado. Obviously the concept of altruism is lost on many intellectuals. “They may have an acute emotionally intense feeling of right and...

Yes, We Americans are Worthy By Norma Zager “I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.” Carl Sandburg From time to time Ari and I disagree about certain points or conclusions in a postcard, then we present both the original point and its counter-point. Although I can concur with Ari’s conclusions that our armed forces are...

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"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

When I see the Obama Administration trying to force their version of health care on us; trying to shove Cap and Trade down our throats; and telling us that we can have everything we want without any tax increases, it sounds like the irresponsible parent telling the children they can do what they please without any fear of consequences. Of course, the natural result of such liberalism is a bunch of spoiled brats with an entitlement mentality. Sadly, that's what too many Americans have been conditioned for during the past 30 to 40 years. The reason we're in this economic...

April 18, 2007, 6:45 a.m. We Need More HeroesSpiderman is not going to save us. Liviu Librescu may. By James Bowman Reacting to what many in Britain and elsewhere are regarding as the disgraceful behavior while in captivity of the British sailors and marines kidnapped by the Iranians, Simon Heffer recently wrote in the London Daily Telegraph: “Why are some so weak-minded compared with those 18- year-olds who, within living memory, went over the top on the Somme, or splashed through machine-gun fire onto the Normandy beaches?” Heffer himself belongs to the “I-blame-the-parents” school of thought on this matter...

Tale of two tombstones Fort Logan caretakers carefully prepare twin grave markers for Marines killed in Iraq war By Jim Sheeler, Rocky Mountain News November 20, 2004 Sgt. Andrew Alonzo made his way among the flowing fields studded with gray marble markers, until he reached the workshop where they keep the headstones with no names. Two stone slabs lay in the morning sunlight, still cold to the touch. "All I know is that they're for two Marines, both killed on Veterans Day," said the cemetery caretaker, as he smoothed his bare hands over one headstone, then the other. "One was...