The Pink Flamingo :: My Brother Is Off to Iraq Tomorrow & Alan Keyes Leaving GOP!

I’ve just learned that Alan Keyes will be leaving the GOP. Like tipster SV emailed, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

MY BROTHER FLOYD
LTC Floyd Harris isn’t a “real” brother, but he is the closest thing to a brother I will ever have. He's the only brother I will ever have. He heads to Iraq tomorrow. Both of his sons have been there and done that, but that’s different. I met Floyd my 2nd semester at Clemson University. We were both in the same astronomy 101 class and lab. We also both attended Campus Crusade for Christ together. Because I lived at home (about a 15 minute drive from campus) I was always bring ‘guys’ home for lunch on Sundays. Floyd and his room-mate (Greg) became weekly features, my mother soon calling Floyd her ‘son’. One Mother’s day both were sitting on the front row of the church balcony (we were all in the choir) holding some pathetic wilted flowers. Earlier in the morning Floyd and Greg climbed over the wall to Moonpie’s flower garden and stole her flowers. (Moonpie was the wife of RC – the President of Clemson University).

After finishing college Floyd married a very nice girl, Barb, and ended up in Wisconsin raising two sons (one in the Navy, the other in the 82nd) and a model daughter. He was in ROTC in college, and after some active duty, did the reserve thing since the late 1970’s. Allegedly he’s going to have a great “cushy” job over there, but it is still Iraq. He wrote:

“…Well, this is it. Tomorrow I head out to Iraq… No matter how much and how well I think I'm prepared, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I've done allot of reflection these past few days. The situation presents itself in such a way that you have a different perspective - a different outlook on Life's priorities. There's no guarantee about tomorrow.

So, why did I volunteer? Commitment. Commitment to a cause that is not popular in some circles but viewed by others such as myself as a fight against forces willing to commit suicide and the destruction of free people. A free people must be willing to stand up against tyrannical forces. If we do not, we then become subjects at best or slaves at worst.

Over the past recent years, I've trained many military personnel for missions overseas. Now, the opportunity presented itself and I had to set an example to others as a demonstration of my personal beliefs by placing myself in a hostile environment.

Fortunately, I have my faith to sustain me and my wife, kids, others in my family, and friends who keep me in there thoughts and prayers. I'll need them….”

Floyd called my mother to talk to her. He is very apprehensive. My mother is a wreck. I told her it feels different doesn’t it. She agreed, then started crying. She wanted to know how mothers handled it. I never understood how different “deployment” was when it was a close member of your family. This is neither fun nor easy. My heart now aches for everyone who has faced this. War is not fun. It is not glamorous. Indeed, it is hell.

CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS

Born: Esther Johnson (Swift's Stella), 1681, Sheen, Surrey; Dr. Joseph Priestley, philosophical writer, 1733, Field-head; Joseph II (of Germany), 1741; Charles, Earl Grey, statesman, 1764, Bowled.
Died: Belisarius, general, 565, Constantinople; Cardinal d'Ossat, 1604, Rome: Bartholo Legate, burned, 1614: Richard Cowley, actor, 1618, Shoreditch; John Gregory, scholar, 1646; Jean de Is Fontaine, French poet, 1695; Peter Mignard, French painter, 1695; Nicolas Boileau, French poet, 1711; Archbishop Herring, 1757, Croydon; Sophia Lee, novelist, 1824; J. F. Daniell, chemist and meteorologist, 1845: Regina Maria Roche, novelist, (Children of the Abbey,) 1845; Sir T. N. Talfourd, dramatist and lawyer, 1854; Richard, Lord Braybrooke, editor of Pepys's Diary, 1858.
Feast Day: St. Euphrasia, virgin, 410. St. Mochoemoe, abbot in Ireland, 655. St. Gerald, bishop in Ireland, 732. St. Theophanes, abbot, 818. St. Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, 828. St. Kennocha, virgin in Scotland, 1007.

DISCOVERY OF THE PLANET URANUS

The astronomical labours of the self-taught genius William Herschel at Slough, under shadow of the patronage of George III, and his addition of a first-class planet to the short list which had remained unextended from the earliest ages, were amongst the matters of familiar interest which formed conversation in the days of our fathers.

It was on the evening of the 13th of March, 1781, that the patient German, while examining some small stars in the constellation Gemini, marked one that was new to him; he applied different telescopes to it in turn, and found the results different from those observable with fixed stars. Was it a comet? He watched it night after night, with a view of solving this question; and he soon found that the body was moving among the stars. He continued his observations till the 19th of April, when he communicated to the Royal Society an account of all he had yet ascertained concerning the strange visitor. The attention of astronomers both at home and abroad was excited; and calculations were made to determine the orbit of the supposed comet.

None of these calculations, however, accorded with the observed motion; and there arose a farther question, 'Is it a planet?' This question set the computers again at work; and they soon agreed that a new planet really had been discovered in the heavens. It was at first supposed that the orbit was circular; but Laplace, in 1783, demonstrated that, as in the case of all the other planets, it is elliptical. It then became duly recognized as the outermost of the members of the solar system, and so remained until the recent days when the planet Neptune was discovered. The discoverer, wishing to pay a compliment to the monarch who so liberally supported him, gave the name of the Georgium Sides, or Georgian Star, to the new planet; other English astronomers, wishing to compliment the discoverer himself, suggested the name of Herschel; but Continental astronomers proposed that the old mythological system should be followed; and this plan was adopted, the name Uranus, suggested by Bode, being now accepted by all the scientific world as a designation for the seventh planet.

WEATHER NOTIONS

Amongst weather notions one of the most prevalent is that which represents the moon as exercising a great influence. It is supposed that upon the time of day at which the moon changes depends the character of the weather during the whole of the ensuing month; and we usually hear the venerable name of Sir William Herschel adduced as authorising this notion. Foster, in his Perennial Calendar, transfers from the European Magazine what he calls an excellent table of the prospective weather, founded on 'a philosophical consideration of the attraction of the sun and moon in their several positions respecting the earth.' Modern science in reality rejects all these ideas as vain delusions; witness the following letter written by the late ingenious professor of astronomy in the university of Glasgow, in answer to a gentleman who wrote to him, making inquiries upon this subject.

'Observatory, July 5, 1856.-Dear Sir, I am in receipt of your letter regarding the supposed influence of the moon on the weather. You are altogether correct. No relation exists between these classes of phenomena. The question has been tested and decided over and over again by the discussion of long and reliable meteorological tables; nor do I know any other positive way of testing any such point. I confess I cannot account for the origin of the prevalent belief. J. P. Nichol.'

Admiral Fitzroy, through the publications authorized by the Board of Trade, has stated such- of the observations of common weather wisdom as may be depended upon.

The old remark about a ruddy evening and a grey morning (alluded to in the gospel of Matthew) as indicating good weather, meets full approval; as also that a red sky in the morning foretells bad weather, or much rain, if not wind. The Admiral adds, that a high dawn denotes wind, and a low dawn fair weather. When clouds have a soft and delicate appearance, fair weather may be looked for; when they are hard and ragged, wind is to be expected.

'Misty clouds forming or hanging on heights show wind and rain coming, if they remain or descend. If they rise or disperse, the weather will improve, or become fine.

'When sea-birds fly out early and far to seaward, moderate wind and fair weather may be expected. When they hang about the land or over it, some-times flying inland, expect a strong wind, with stormy weather. When birds of long flight, such as swallows, hang about home, and fly low, rain or wind may be expected; also when pigs carry straw to their sties, and when smoke from chimneys does not ascend readily.

'Dew is an indication of fine weather; so is fog. Remarkable clearness of atmosphere near the horizon, distant objects, such as hills unusually visible or raised by refraction; what is called a good hearing day; may be mentioned among signs of wet, if not wind, to be expected.'

Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.

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