Memorial Day in America

Gen. Logan

It's beginnings: "The first official recognition of Memorial Day as such was issued by General John A. Logan, first commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. This was General Order No. 11 establishing "Decoration Day" as it was then known. The date of the order was May 5, 1868, exactly two years after Waterloo's first observance. That year Waterloo joined other communities in the nation by having their ceremony on May 30."

EDITORIAL: Memorial Day: a family story "On May 3, 1902, John A. Logan Jr. was posthumously given the country’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor. The citation read, “For most distinguished gallantry in leading his battalion upon the entrenchments of the enemy, on which occasion he fell mortally wounded.” Young Jack Logan grew up in the midst of heroes whose deeds were written high on the wall of fame. He could well have stayed on his Ohio horse farm with his family living a comfortable life, but as his mother wrote, he was determined to “add to the glory of the name he bore.” "

Union dead at the Battle of Brown's Mill  "In June and July of 1867 the Federal Government removed bodies of soldiers, who were buried in temporary graves around Newnan, vicinity of Corinth Road, and Philpot's Ferry GA., to their final resting place at the Atlanta-Marietta National Cemetery. The list below was compiled from the US Quartermaster's "Roll Of Honor", published 1869"  Graves

National Cemetery Locations "On July 17, 1862, Congress enacted legislation that authorized the President to purchase "cemetery grounds" to be used as national cemeteries "for soldiers who shall have died in the service of the country." Fourteen cemeteries were established that first year, including one in the sleepy Maryland town of Sharpsburg where 4,476 Union soldiers were laid to rest after the one day of terrible slaughter that was the Battle of Antietam. (By way of comparison, approximately 3,000 Americans, British and Canadians died on June 6, 1944, in the invasion of Normandy)."

Disney abandons SEAL™ hunt

Osama's last view on earth

By Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette:  "It's difficult to put into words how much disgust I feel for corporations attempting to exploit the name and reputation of men who have EARNED the right to be held in such regard. I feel the same about people who never served using parts of military uniforms and ribbons or medals as props. The only lower from of life is those who actually claim fake military service and honors, those people are beneath contempt. While I am glad that Disney finally withdrew its attempt at trademark, I know they didn't do it for the right reason, if they KNEW the right reason they would have never filed in the first place." From the comments to this post.

trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/

The perpetual campaigner

jeffreyhill.typepad.com/The English Blog



Charles Krauthammer: What Obama did to Israel

The Washington Post  "Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel’s security and diplomatic needs.
"It’s on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel."
"For 2 ¹ / ₂ years, the Obama administration has refused to recognize and reaffirm these assurances. Then last week in his State Department speech, President Obama definitively trashed them." (Emphasis added)
....
"The only remaining question is whether this perverse and ultimately self-defeating policy is born of genuine antipathy toward Israel or of the arrogance of a blundering amateur who refuses to see that he is undermining not just peace but the very possibility of negotiations."

The Obama Dilemma

Vodkapundit  "Peggy Noonan last year opined that “the president is starting to look snakebit.” If he is, it’s because Obama spent the first half of his first term ignoring Americans’ number one concern — jobs — while squandering America’s prestige overseas so thoroughly it begins to appear to be an almost dedicated effort.
"His one big win — nailing bin Laden — certainly made us all feel very good, and helps to put the squeeze on al Qaeda. But bin Laden is yesterday’s enemy, as semi-affiliated terror groups spread to places like Somalia, Yemen, and maybe eventually Egypt.
"Obama’s endless  personal gaffes overseas — the bowing and scraping and toasts to the orchestras — might not make the news much here, but you can bet they’re laughing mighty hard in Paris and Moscow and Beijing and… everywhere else."  Stephen Green

UK Telegraph: This isn’t a special relationship, it’s sinister and sycophantic

guardian.co.uk/gary-barker

 From the left: The American president’s message of hope could be useful in Europe "If a black man can become president in America then, yes, Ireland can surely recover from its crash. Later in London, where he was greeted with the best of British pomp, a regal Mr Obama confirmed that yes, even a reduced Britain can be a really, really special friend to America."  The Economist

(Video) Presidential Limo Not As Unstoppable as Previously Reported  "The vehicle, referred to by the Secret Service as “the beast,” will reportedly feature heavy armor that is at least 5 inches thick and comes complete with run-flat tires, bulletproof glass and a completely sealed interior to ward off a chemical attack, among many other high-tech security features." Via  Michelle Malkin

Progressive Pundit Walks Off Fox Set When Called Out for Fearmongering

Big Journalism  "Ferguson was right to point out that Democrats have decided to forgo offering any solution to the looming debt and deficit crisis and have opted to just attack – with fearmongering and lies – the Republicans who are offering realistic solutions.
"Confronted with irrefutable facts, Simon decided to cry about not being able to be heard and walked off the set. Way to go, Ben!"....
"Unfortunately for Simon, the other guest on the show, radio host Ben Ferguson, wasn’t having any of it. Watch the money clip."  (Video)

The six-block scar: Amazing satellite photos pinpoint devastation of Joplin as it emerges that 232 people are still missing

UK Daily Mail  "Following the devastating tornado which ripped though Joplin at the weekend, these satellite images show the extent of the damage.''
"Before and after aerial photos show the shocking extent of the damage caused by the twister in the Missouri city - this image shows a six-block path of destruction."
Hat tip to Don Standlee, Arlington, TX.

Back to the Pre-American World?

Victor Davis Hanson  ..."There have been plenty of thugs who threatened their neighbors over the last 30 years. Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Manuel Noriega, and the Taliban were all deposed from rule only by American power. The “lost” war in Iraq resulted in a democratic and, for now, still viable government in place of genocide. Afghanistan is depressing, but the medieval Taliban still have remained out of power for nearly a decade.

"In short, the old pre-American world was as unstable and dangerous as would be a new post-American update. But both retrenchments were choices that an unsure and depressed United States made — not symptoms, then or now, of inherent weakness or inevitable decline."
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.

Memorial Day

 Memorial Day links to Browse  

http://memorialday2011.org/



http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/danasummers

Making Sense of Natural Disasters

Breakpoint  "The standard Christian answer, “it’s the consequence of sin and the fall,” can come up short, especially for the victims of nature’s fury. While it is easy to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between man’s moral choices and much of human suffering—diseases, plagues, poverty, and war—man’s culpability for tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes is less than apparent.
"So the question remains: Why, in a world created by an all-powerful, all-good God, are natural disasters, which claim hundreds to hundreds of thousands of lives, permitted to exist? Is God a monster or merely a klutz?"   Read more...

The Obama Administration’s ‘Sidam Touch’

Pajamas Media "According to the Urban Dictionary, a person with “the Sidam Touch” has an ability that is “[t]he opposite of The Midas Touch, which turns everything to gold.” A person with the Sidam Touch “breaks and/or ruins everything.”
"To say that President Barack Obama and his administration, especially what’s left of his economic team, have the Sidam Touch is the understatement of the 21st century."
....
"Since President Obama and his brain trust surely know that the Sidam Touch actions being taken against Texas will hinder its economy and hurt job growth, one can only conclude that they don’t care. This leads to a broader and much more important question: do they really care if the economy recovers anywhere else, or are they on an entirely different mission?"

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Mexico’s Immigration Laws: The Untold Story

The Foundry  "And though criticism of U.S. immigration laws can be fierce – particularly in the case of Arizona’s SB 1070, the Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Acts – Mexico’s much harsher immigration laws rarely get noticed." ....
"But receiving far less scrutiny was how President Calderon and his country are dealing with illegal immigration. Upon closer examination, Arizona’s SB 1070 looks like amnesty compared to Mexican law."....
"With nearly sixty percent of illegal immigrants originating from Mexico, it is particularly helpful to remember that our neighbor to the south is dealing with illegal immigration in a much harsher manner than the United States, a fact that illustrates the hypocrisy of Calderon’s criticisms of Arizona’s new law."
Andres Celedon, an intern at The Heritage Foundation is a junior at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is studying public policy with a minor in history.

Arizona Wins Big in Supreme Court Immigration Ruling "Arizona won a spectacular victory today in the Supreme Court in its ongoing efforts to do something about the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who reside in the state and cost Arizona taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion a year. In its ruling against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Obama administration, the Court also disproved the breathless claims of liberals and the editorial pages of publications like the New York Times that the conservative justices on the Court are just the handmaidens of big business who always rule in favor of corporate America."


http://knowledgeczar.blogspot.com/2010/04/illegal-immigration-is-color-blind.html



From What I Know : ...."I fear that what the Democrats are doing is using the Hispanics for political gain, letting them in illegally and then attempting to defame and ridicule anyone that doesn't think it's right for them to so blatantly mistreat and victimize a whole race of people. We have a real slavery problem in this country, and it's being perpetuated by those who pretend to be helping those they enslave. They're not helping. They're creating dependency." By TKZ

A few years ago when our church in Santa Maria, Ca, was in a heavily Latino area of town, I was setting up a kids game square in a field about a block from where a Cinco de Mayo parade was being held. I heard music and cheering with Mexican flags flying while setting up the American flag for our opening pledge. Returning to the game square a few minutes later with the children, we found the American flag to be nothing but ashes with not a soul around. Somebody there did not like this country.
Tunnel Dweller.

Alligators, Moats and Other Such Nonsense  "President Obama gave what was billed as an important speech on immigration last week near the border in El Paso, Texas. Unfortunately, it was one of the most demagogic moments in recent presidential history. Nearly everything Obama said was either factually incorrect or deliberately misleading." Victor Davis Hanson