...and the 21st century's 'Greatest Generation' follows suit: 1,215 troops re-enlist in Baghdad.
“You and your comrades here have been described as America’s new greatest generation, and, in my view, you have more than earned that description,” [MNF-I commander General David] Petraeus said. “It is the greatest of honors to soldier here with you.”What else need be said?
(Thanks to Hot Air)
The Original 'Greatest Generation' set the example...
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Gail S. Halvorsen [87], front, also known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber," watches [flies the helicopter?] as U.S. Army Col. Ray A. Graham, Jr., commander of the U.S. Army garrisons Hessen and Wiesbaden, drops candy over Wiesbaden Army Airfield in Germany June 29, 2008. Halvorsen is in Germany to help mark the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, during which he dropped mini-parachutes of candy from his aircraft to German children.
(Thanks to Casey)
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.--Samuel Adams
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
--Langston Hughes
I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat
deck;
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon
intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or
washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.
--Walt Whitman
This is an original 1865 print by Thomas Nast, one of the most popular artists of the 1800's. It is one of the most touching and dramatic of all Civil War Art of Negro Soldiers, and one of my personal favorites. The print shows a Union Buffalo Soldier who lost his leg in the Civil War. He is standing in his Union uniform, and is supported by crutches. He has lost his leg well above his knee. Lady Liberty stands by the soldier, with her hand tenderly placed upon his shoulder. She is looking out of the picture and pointing to him with her other hand, as if to ask, "what shall we do with this man".
Happy 232nd Birthday, America, Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans and, of course, Happy 87th Birthday to my Aunt Alma.
I won't be doing too much writing; only posting a poems, prose and photos. Observers can take from the offerings what they will.
One billboard at a time.
The National Black Republican Association is running a campaign down South to counteract the lie repeated by Obama--and originating from many others who came before him--that Republicans are the party of racists.
UPDATE: Oh yeah. Then there's this: "Racist Democrats and Obama."
Thanks, interestingly enough, to The Huffington Post, where something "fun" can always be found:
This is really scaring [sic]! Swift-Boat Ni99ers !!!!
A denizen of Hot Air has accusations to hurl at the bottom of a dead thread of theirs:
Baldi-No, no hon. If you had a testicle, you would have "brought it" here where we could tangle up front and in the open.You are a liar. Worse, you are a fraud.
I wonder if we can get Ed to do one of his polls:
Who should we ban from HA for dishonesty? JiangxiDad or Baldi?
One of us doesn’t belong here. I’ll be happy which ever way it turns out.
You game? Btw, fwiw, I fully expect to lose.
JiangxiDad on July 3, 2008 at 12:41 PM
And, yes, sweetheart. I am game. I would be very interested to know what I have lied about and what fraud I have perpetrated.
UPDATE: Hostilities have ceased and detente begins. Sorry for the ad hominem.
It was written by Hog on Ice's Steve H. who is an Internet friend and a good guy who links to me and who enjoys it takes it with good humor when I beat up on him rhetorically.
Actually I bought the book a few years back but Steve is asking people to promote it again for whatever reason and I'm happy to do it.
I'm not reading it like one would read some other piece of non-fiction, of course. What I'm probably going to do, however, is pick some dish out of it and cook it for my great-aunt's eighty-seventh birthday tomorrow.
As you can imagine, Aunt A. pretty much eats what she wants at this point, allowing for salt content and dentures. As for me, I will be making my pilgrimage to a base gym tomorrow morning, as I have been doing every morning for the last three weeks, Sundays excepted. So we're throwin' down on Auntie's and the USA's birthday tomorrow.
Any suggestions, Steve?
Question: when did Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing--written in the 1930s 1900 by Harlem Renaissance men James Weldon Johnson and his brother John Rosamond Johnson and sung at functions far and wide since then--magically become a "Leftist patriotism song" and/or something akin to a black power anthem?
Answer: when Barack Obama exposed the dark underside (no pun intended) of hate that exists among a minority of black people. The fact that so many didn't see (refused to see?) what he was has made all too many white persons suspect anything that has the label black on it, with respect to the American subculture in question.
Yes Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing has been known as the 'Black National Anthem' and it has had that unofficial label for far longer that Black Liberation Theology and Barack Obama have existed. That it has been dubbed such does not mean that it takes the place of the National Anthem and it never has meant that. And no, this woman should not have sung the song without including the actual National Anthem or without giving The Star-Spangled Banner precedence over Lift. But I'm seeing characterizations of Lift that are just plain BS--just like I've read out-and-out lies about the Luo tribe of Kenya, the ethnic group from which Obama and I stem.
Few white Americans cared about this song until now and that's understandable, but not because there's some wrong with the song. This is what's wrong: there's a spirit in the air and it's different from that which existed in the previous epoch of time during which the song was penned, sung and cherished. It's the Spirit of Fear and you who are Christian know that this spirit does not have God as its origin.
People, you are letting you prior failure to recognize a charlatan and your fellow citizens' ongoing failure in this area make you even more blind. Open your eyes and recognize that this what Obama's purpose is; to Sow Discord between brethren. Stop making his job easier.
UPDATE: Have you ever apologized to someone else for taking out your frustrations on them and getting impatient with them because they wouldn't do something you asked them to do?
And then have you had that same person require you to apologize for something that you did not do? That was someone else's fault? Readers of the Hot Air comment thread will understand what I'm talking about.
UPDATE: In the comments, doubleplusundead (I just love that handle) asks:
Baldi, was this what you were trying to convey?Why, yes, this is exactly it.
I think what Baldi is trying to explain to people is that they need to tread gingerly [with the song], because not having a grasp on what exactly you're attacking can lead to problems.As I said in the Hot Air comments, I'm getting tired of having the subcultural totems of Americans who happen to be black 1) used by the haters of America and 2) held up by other Americans as "proof" that we're some sort of Fifth Column in our own country.Black Americans don't automatically associate Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing with the sort of radical, aggro ideology of a Rene Marie, note again, in the 60's and 70's, and remember, Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing was sung after the Star-Spangled Banner. What she did has not the norm by any means. Undoubtedly, many black American probably just associate it with the civil rights movement itself, or the fight to end segregation law in the early 20th Century, not the ridiculous Black Power characters we see dragged onto cable TV shows for the hosts to feign outrage and kick around every once in a while.
Hats off to you, ++undead.
I'll be on Fausta's Blog Talk Radio Show in 7 minutes. Be there!
I've done almost no prep, so if I sound like a dork, you'll know why.
UPDATE: Here's the show.
Fausta's co-host, Sigy, was there of course and Jazz Shaw joined in. We free-wheeled a bit--or at least I did.
I'll try to give more warning next time. In my defense, I had something good happened yesterday so my mind was on that. :-)
Yes, I’m feeling lazy; so it will be a cut-and-paste day, mostly. First up is the news and Big Media commentary.
• In his perennial quest to improve the English usage of his journalist colleagues in Kenya, the Old Man expounds on the phrase “Young Turks.”
What is not true is that, when you stop being a Young Turk, you become an “Old Turk”.• Rosenberg grand jury testimony is set to become public.
There is no such thing. The term “Young Turk” describes a political standpoint and movement. It has nothing to do with chronological age or the Turks, the Caucasian people of the Anatolian peninsula. [SNIP]
The term refers to a 19th-century movement of Turks — really young in age — who, after years of study in Western Europe, returned home full of “Enlightenment”, determined to transform their country overnight from feudal despotism to “liberal democracy”.This was the movement that produced celebrated nationalist Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the military leader who founded the Turkish Republic in 1923 and ruled it till 1938. His revolutionary triumph was what personified the Young Turks fulfilled.
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors have agreed to make public some secret testimony about the biggest spy case of the Cold War.(Thanks to David)The government took the unusual position Monday as leading historical groups press for the release of grand jury transcripts in the criminal investigation of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Following their 1951 espionage trial for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, the husband and wife were executed in 1953.
The Rosenberg case has significant historical importance that qualifies it for an exception to grand jury secrecy rules, the office of the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York City said in court papers. [SNIP]
A U.S. District Court judge in New York, Alvin Hellerstein, will have the final say. Vladeck said the historians may seek additional disclosure, leaving it to the judge to sort out disputes that could take months to resolve before any public release.
Under the approach laid out in the government's court papers, transcripts would be released for 35 of the 45 witnesses who testified to the grand jury in the Rosenberg probe. The 35 are dead or consent to disclosing their testimony.
• So what else are we supposed to do, Seymour Hersh? Sit around with our thumb up our collective butt?
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.With the Left’s penchant for “inducing” informants to spill classified information, one wonders how Mr. Hersh knows about all this.
• And the Iraqis are allowing foreign bidding on six new oil fields.
The potential participation of big Western companies like BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total SA in Iraq's oil industry has been criticized in recent weeks following published reports that several were close to signing no-bid contracts with the Iraqi government.There was an immediate outcry over perceptions that the U.S. did invade Iraq to gain access to its massive oil reserves and there was no announcement of contracts Monday by Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani.
He did, however, name 35 companies that would be qualified to bid on service contracts for the oil fields of Rumeila, Zubair, Qurna West, Maysan, Kirkuk and Bay Hassan.
With the price of gas being what it is, were we to do what we were accused of doing in Iraq—that is, taking out Saddam Hussein and his government to get Iraq’s oil fields for ourselves—it’d be fun to see how the Left would react. Oh they’d howl for a minute, but only so much howling would be heard after the price of gas dropped, say, 75 cents in a day.
Of course we won’t appropriate the oil fields. Will the US get credit from the Left and from international sources for *not* stealing Iraq’s oil? Of course not. But it’s a fool’s errand to look for “credit” from those who hate America.
And it seems like yesterday.
I missed the anniversary (June 26th) of the death of my friend Rob Smith aka Acidman, but I don't think he would care. It wasn't his style to get all in a snit about such things. That's why I liked him.
His blog remains updated, using reposts of his excellent missives and the repeats garner few comments; however, on the day in question there are many tributes to that crazy "old" man. Go and see.
Is it too much to ask for a former Commander-in-Chief and a wannabe Commander-in-Chief to stop acting like women and cease playing out little pride and ego dramas in public? (Yeah I’m a woman; what about it?)
[A senior Democrat who worked for President Clinton] told the Telegraph: “He’s been angry for a while. But everyone thought he would get over it. He hasn’t. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who he’s been in contact with and he is mad as hell.“He’s saying he’s not going to reach out, that Obama has to come to him. One person told me that Bill said Obama would have to quote kiss my ass close quote, if he wants his support.
“You can’t talk like that about Obama - he’s the nominee of your party, not some house boy you can order around.
Look here, boys. Actual men are out there defending your way of life from enemies foreign and domestic. It’s not necessary for every president to have served in the military, but could the two of you at least act like you’re worthy to lead them? I know it's a flocking stretch for either one of you, but try.
I'm feeling a P-word on the edge of my lips and it ain't 'presidential.'
(Thanks to Hot Air)
UPDATE: Obama kisses it. But you knew he would.
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