WEDNESDAY'S  HEROS

Bruce Crandall's Medal of Honor Ceremony

Texas Fred had a friend who was present at the MOH ceremony yesterday.  Definitely honoring a brave, heroic man.  I was watching FOX yesterday when they were telling about LTC Bruce Crandall’s action in Vietnam.  What a contrast to the bellyaching from John Kerry (psst…he was in Vietnam)  we were treated today on H&C this evening. 

This Weeks Soldier Was Requested By Echo9er

Sgt. Maj. Brent Jurgersen
Sgt. Maj. Brent "The Rock" Jurgersen Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division Active Duty Not even two near-death encounters deterred Sgt. Maj. Brent Jurgerson's passion and eagerness to serve his country and lead his troops back home. Jurgersen celebrated his second "alive day" anniversary January 26, 2007. It was a day of mixed emotions for him because on that same day two years ago he was given a second chance to live. It was a day that changed his life forever. While on patrol in Ad Dyuliah, Iraq, two rocket-propelled grenades struck his Humvee. The explosion killed his gunner and left Jurgersen fighting for his life, flat-lining twice on the operating table in Balad. Afterwards, during a promotion ceremony in August of 2006, Jurgersen was selected for a command sergeant major appointment. Becoming the first full limb amputee student to attend the academy. You can read the rest of Sgt. Maj. Jurgersen's story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by going here.

The wind today has been almost obscene.  This afternoon I was sitting in the parking lot at Walgreens talking to my mother on the cell.  The Durango was moving in the wind.  Driving down 70 from Glencoe to Ruidoso Downs I could barely keep the Durango on the road it was so blowing so hard.

 

THE GREAT CAT SOAP OPERA

First:  Condolences to Heidi who lost her 7 year old calico yesterday.  The cat wasn’t well Monday night, but Heidi arrived home so late she thought she would wait and take the cat down to Dr. Franklin first thing Tuesday morning.  When she woke up, the cat was curled up on her hot pink pillow where she always slept, having died in her sleep. 

 

Rumsfeld is sitting on Miss Piggy.  I think it is a don’t ask don’t tell thing.

 

I am not sure what I will accomplish tomorrow.  I am having a surprise birthday party for my mother in the evening. Fortunately we are doing it at Santinos so I am not stuck trying to cook.  I am going to try to get things up and running before 5:30.

 

 INTERESTING THINGS

The Wingnut conspiracy theory behind Cameron’s idiot theory about Christ’s tomb. The usual suspects are included:  Freemasons, Illuminati, probably the Satanic connections of the Bush family….

 

Dr. Sanity has a fascinating take on the study about today’s college students being so darn narcissistic.

 

In the Oh I LOVE IT category – looks like Wagner may have been a cross-dresser.  That explains the Ride of the Valkaries.

 

THE WALTER REED DISGRACE

I’ve noticed our dear conservative bloggers are not jumping in on this story.  The Army Times reports that injured soldiers at Walter Reed were threatened.   If nothing is wrong, why this?

“…The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed…”

Memorandum

Why the media crackdown? Why were wounded soldiers told not to talk to the media? 

Why are no conservative bloggers screaming about this? Memorandum

  

CONSERVATIVES GONE WILD

I’m glad Harold Hutchison picked up on the way some college Republicans are acting.  They are an embarrassment. 

 

IRAN, ISLAM, TERROR

Counterterror Blog on new Sunni-Shiite religious tensions.

 Strata  has more on Litvinenko.

 This morning I turned off Rush when he became hysterical over the latest policy with Iran and Syria.  You need to check out Seymour Hearsh’s theory that all is being done to unravel various Arab alliances.  If so, it is brilliant Machiavellian, and so far beyond the comprehension of many of our hysterical conservatives that it could be bordering on the inspired. 

 

IRAQ

Our Guys are playing Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday at the OK Corral as they clean up Sadr City.

 

DEMS & LIBERALS UNHINGED

There is a lot of buzz about articles Time & Newsweek wrote years ago about the coming ice age.  I don’t mind admitting I actually remember reading both, along with several fascinating columns by my favorite scientist the late, great Stephen Jay Gould. I remember one essay Gould wrote, warning of an impending ice age, and completely shredding the early theories of global warming.

Hedgehog

 

Dems keep trying to run the war.

 According to the Politico Murtha is upstaging HRM Nancy I.  Good thing she has a better nature than Hillary.

  

REPUBLICANS

 Somewhere, somehow the GOP in the House acquired a spine,  They are blocking William Jefferson’s appointment to the House Homeland Security Committee.   Memorandum

 As usual the GOP battle lines are being drawn in SC.

  

PRIMARIES 2008

The Super Duper Tuesday:

 

By now everyone knows John McCain is seeking to jump start his sagging campaign on Letterman.

Evidently Romney is going to start attacking Giuliani.

More on Romney's planned attack on Giuliani.

Obama (the Messiah) is overtaking Hil in the polls.

 Romney seems to be running out of time.

Carvel thinks algore is going to run.

I like this one: Vilsack & Romney, a tale of two losers.  

There’s more Fred Thompson buzz.

If I wasn’t against Romney before, this would clinch it.  Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now officially on ‘Team Romney’.  I consider Arpaio one of the most despicable excuses for a ‘human’ in the country.  I just wish all the people who are belly-aching about how the terrorists are treated at Gitmo would start screaming about the criminal way Arpaio treats people.  In other words, Romney is going to pander (another word for prostitute) to the extreme, hard-line, anti-immigration people.  I guess he’s finally made up his mind which way the wind blows with immigration.

 

From the Evans-Novak Political Report email:

“:… Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the hottest Republican on the presidential circuit, but the expected assault on his record has not yet begun. It will be interesting to see how he is received this weekend in Washington at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), until recently the putative GOP front-runner, is not scheduled at CPAC..

 

The consensus in Democratic ranks is that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) both suffered in their long-range dust-up but that Clinton looked worse. The winner was former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who also was the star of the Carson City, Nev., presidential forum (which Obama decided to skip)….”

 

               

Thursday Thirteen  

 

Stolen from my sister:  Thirteen Things I Just Don’t Understand.

 

1.  Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries  are

getting weak?

 

2.  Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds"  when they know there is

not enough?

 

3.  Why does someone believe you when  you say there are four billion stars, but

check when you say the paint is  wet?

 

4.  Why do they use  sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

 

5.  Why doesn't Tarzan have  a beard?

 

6.  Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when  you throw a

revolver at him?

 

7.  If  people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

 

8.  Why is it that no  matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are

always white?

 

9.  Why do people  constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that

something new to eat  will have materialized?

 

10.  How do those dead  bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

 

11.  When we are in the  supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping

cart then apologizes  for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well,

it isn't all right, so  why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"

 

12.  In winter why do we try to keep the house  as warm as it was in summer when

we complained about the heat?

 

13.  How  come you never hear father-in-law jokes?