MEMORIAL DAY 2012

Today is Monday, May 28th, 2012. The events of the weekend are finished. The Indianapolis 500 has been run and Rolling Thunder's veterans have made their annual ride, the blasting of their engines sending a message to our missing and captive soldiers that they will not be forgotten - and a warning to their captors to beware, as we as  a nation will NEVER forget.

Now it is Memorial Day, and although there will backyard barbecues and parades galore, Memorial Day is the most solemn day of this "three day weekend".

Amid all this solemnety, wafting through the nation like a stray odor from a sewage plant, is of course the belittlement of the honoring of our fallen warriors. It's all very high-minded, of course. One particularly galling comment I heard was some idiot who said he was leery of using the word "hero" because it "aggrandizes warfare".

The people who say these things are the kind of people who deplored the World War II Memorial, saying things like it is "an expression of fascism"and decried the addition of the statue of the soldiers to the Vietnam Memorial, saying it "detracted from the clean and simple lines" of the Memorial (but who in reality wanted a black, depressing ditch - for that is how they percieve The Wall - to constantly remind everyone of the "shame" of a war we "lost".  The statue reminds people of that disgusting heroism that the Left so despises (when applied to people other than our enemies, of course. to them the Viet Cong were "heroic".)

It is one huge myth, beloved of the Left, that the United States "lost" the Vietnam War. They love to point to the famous picture of the U.S. Embassy being evacuated as a portrayal of our troops cutting and running before the onslaught of the victorious Communists.

In fact, we pulled out of Vietnam leaving a stable and legitimate government in the South in late 1972. The refusal of the Leftists in Congress to send armament and monetary aid to the new government doomed them to be overrun by the Communists and engendered a blood-bath and a tyranny. Our troops who fought in Vietnam were and are HEROES, and they vanquished the Viet-Cong.

 If there is any cause for anyone to be called "baby-killer"; if there is any shame to be attached to the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army, then it attaches to the Congressmen and Senators who voted to pull the rug out from under a nation our fighting men had fought to keep free.

I myself served in the United States Air Force during a portion of that conflict. But I feel a bit sheepish to admit that my duty stations during that time were in the Panama Canal Zone and Andrews AFB in Maryland as a member of the 24th and 1002nd Security Police Squadrons, respectively. When I make mention of this fact while among veterans of The Nam, I am invariably reminded that "All gave some, and some gave all".  Thanks for the kind words, guys, but some gave a lot more "some" than others. Still, my Honorable Discharge is my proudest posession.

I find it risible in the extreme when some "peacenik" type mouths the garbage that he is "anti-war". Who in his right mind, especially the soldier, is desirous of war? Indeed as Douglas MacArthur said, no one desires peace so much as the soldier.

One of the worst times in history to be an American soldier was during the D-Day landings in Normandy. Whole landing craft full of young troopers were slaughtered by machine-gun fire before they had even gotten out of the boat. But they kept coming, and there were too many for the German guns to kill them all. They did not cower and they did not run except that they ran straight for the enemy. You can bet your soul that not one of them relished the experience and that every one of them wished they were someplace else a tad quieter. Yet how horrible would have been the fate of the world without the heroism and sacrafice that day of the American soldier?

Our soldiers today stand ready to follow and indeed follow daily orders that put them in places and situations where they may well be killed. And they do it willingly and better than any armed force on this planet. They do it out of love of country and freedom, and without them we would have neither.

And today we remember the fallen, and honor those who serve and have served. When you bite into that burger, when you take a trip somewhere without asking anyone if you may go, when especially you criticize the government or otherwise express your opinion, knowing that no one may prevent you from or punish you for doing so, remember the heroes whose blood purchased and guard that right for you.

I am going to try to supply a link to "The Changing of the Guard", a poem I wrote in 1997. If it doesn't work, it can be pulled up in this blog's search box:

http://wwwdailypoop.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Changing+of+the+guard

It may be considered a cliche' by some, but it is so true:

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

FACEBOOK

AS EVERYONE KNOWS, "FACEBOOK" JUST WENT PUBLIC AS AN OVER-THE-COUNTER STOCK. The initial public offering was something like 38 semoleons per share.  I only wish to high heaven I had been able to short some. I'd have made a group of money, because Mark Zuckerwhatever's little baby ain't no way worth thirty eight bucks a share.

I have a "Facebook" page. I have no idea how to work the fucker. I keep getting e-mails about "notifications" and "pokes", but I can't manage to get to them. 

Another thing I have a lot of is "friend" requests, of which I have accepted one (1) thereof. This particular person is a good friend whom I have actually met in person and known for years.  Most other people know that to my way of thinking, if I have never met you and have no idea who the hell you are, then I am not going to set up an e-relationship. And if you do know me, you've probably had enough of me in real life until our next face-to-face; and you know my phone number, e-mail, and where I live. You wanna be "Facebook freinds?" I got a better idea. Come over and have some coffee and some cake and let's see if we can stand each other. But then, in that event being "Facebook friends" would be a redundant waste of time.

Of course, in the artificial "Facebook culture", you are constantly provided with lists of hundreds or even thousands of people who you might know because you know somebody who was a neighbor of some guy who went to school with the father of the nephew of some guy who coached the daughter of some celebrity in the Special Olympics, where she met Charlie Sheen who has a freind who knows somebody who plays the guitar for a hobby; and since you play the guitar then of course you need to know each and every one of these folks and who their freinds are, too. 

At some point "Facebook" is no more useful than interacting with the random people you meet. Less so, in fact. Personally I am one of the least interesting people you are likely to run into. Perhaps you think otherwise from reading this E-rag, but I assure you that ten minutes with me in real life will likely have you stuffing cotton in your ears to keep from hearing any more of my lame, corny jokes.

I only got a Facebook page because at some point I thought it might be "useful". And maybe it will be, but right now I am at a loss as to for what.

MARION BARRY SCREWS THE POOCH (again)

FIRST, it was the "Asians and thier dirty shops"; then it was the "Filipino nurses" who were taking money and jobs away from D.C. residents.

Next, the furor over these statements.

Today, "honorary" "Mayor for Life" (now city councilman) issued an apology to the Asian community. And wound up insulting people of Polish descent, referring to them as "polacks". 

He said: "The Asians came here... the Irish came here... the Polacks came here..."

I'm mostly Mick/Kraut with a bit of Redskin. I know a few Polacks and Spics, and I have a pretty good freind who's a Wop (or maybe a Dago, I haven't gotten into regional Italian specifics). And I know and work with Gooks and Wogs into the bargain.

All of us have our differeces with each other, but there are a few things we definitely agree on.

Marion Shepilov Barry is definitely one of them.

What a maroon.

MITT ROMNEY'S WINNING STRATEGY

It has been said by some prominent conservative pundits that, by his refusal to speak to "president" Obama's character issues - the dope smoking and cocaine use in high school and college, his long association with bomb-throwing Marxist terrorists, his family "spiritual advisor" Rev. "God damn America" Wright, and more - Romney is "doing what McCain did by offering to "fight with one hand tied behind his back".

Nothing could be further from the truth. McCain was indeed "too nice" during the campaign, and he should have been pounding on those things about Obama that hardly anyone knew about. Those were the only weapons available and McCain did not use them.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, does not need to use these weapons because he has an even more effective weapon: Obama's record. 

When Obama ran for office the first time, nobody knew what he stood for or what he believed. His slogan was "hope", and his entire campaign consited of being a blank canvas on which disgruntled and benighted voters could paint their hopes on.

Now it is Romney who is fighting, and Obama and the Democrat Party have handed him iron gloves with which to pummel them. His right fist is clad with Obama's record in office and his left fist is weighted with the dissatifaction of the desperate white, blue-collar rust belt workers who put Obama over the top in 2008 - and whom he has publicly and explicitly abandoned.

Now it is Obama who must resort to character assasination and distraction. And the conservative media, super PACS and others can remind everyone, and loudly, that Obama is an un-American Commie sleazebag and a nincompoop into the bargain. And what's beautiful is that Romney can disavow all these attacks and say "Tut, tut. We have much more important issues to discuss."

And all Obama and his bunch will be able to counter with are a bunch of things Romney may or may not have done in his youth, and when they do that, Romney need only steer the subject back to the fact that for example Obama promised to halve the deficit before he was elected and has proceeded to more than double it; and demand an explanation.

Another factor is that Romney at one time faced opposition from conservative Christians and "social conservatives", and the abortion issue seemed at one time a promising wedge for the Democrats. That all changed with Obama's (insincere, in our opinion) "evolvement" into a supporter of so-called "gay marriage". If there is one thing social conservatives and evangelicals disdain more than abortion, it's calling two dudes a "marriage". By their lights, Sodom was not destroyed for abortion. Obama supports "gay marriage" and Romney opposes it. Thus has Obama delivered droves of social conservatives to the voting booths who may have stayed home in 2008. By his support of "gay marriage" - which by the way makes a lot of people want to vomit - Obama has made many things about Romney (such as his Mormon faith) which formerly caused reservations among conservative Christians into non-issues.

On the other hand, many African-Americans see Obama's epiphany on "gay marriage" as a slap in the face and a betrayal. They see Obama as a sleazy con-man who used his half-blackness to get them to help vote him in as a matter of "black pride" but who has now betrayed American black culture, which is astoundingly socially conservative to the point that it is a mystery as to why they vote so often for left-wing Democrats in the first place. (Actually, it is because they are given "lip service" by the Democrats. Obama's new position on "gay marriage" isn't even "lip service". To most African-Americans, it's cultural treason.)

Republicans were fond of saying Ronald Reagan would win if they just "let Reagan be Reagan".  And they did and he did. Now all Romney needs to do to win is to "let Obama be Obama". And to just keep constantly pointing out what that means. 

THAT 'TIMOTHY' SONG

Back in the day, there was a song called "Timothy', and at first hearing it seemed to be the story of three men trapped in a mine, two of whom wound up eating the third.

I just had a rather heated argument about that song. First, a little background.

The song has lyrics about how "Joe" was looking at Timothy after saying he would "sell his soul for just a taste of meat". Later when the speaker and "Joe" were pulled out alive, the speaker anguishes "God, what did we do?" as he notices that "Timothy" is nowhere to be seen.

Wikipedia fails to debunk this myth, and I can't be bothered to write on Wikipedia; so I'll do it here:

"TIMOTHY" WAS A DAMNED DONKEY YOU IDIOTS. He was a burro who pulled the coal trams out!!

Proof? Okay, for one thing, the refain goes "Timothy..Timothy..." In between the "Timothy"s  THERE IS A VIOLIN PLAYING WHAT ANY IDIOT CAN TELL IS A "HEE-HAW" RIFF.  

Not only this, but the record jacket HAS A PICTURE OF A DONKEY WITH A FLOWER GARLAND AROUND HIS NECK!! 

"Timothy" is a song about two men who killed and ate a donkey - a beloved coworker, but a donkey nonetheless - to survive a long entrapment in a caved-in mine. Hells bells, people. How do you think you'd feel if you were forced by extreme circumstances to eat your freaking dog?

How dumb can you be? Repeat after me: Timothy was a donkey. A donkey.

If you STILL think "Timothy" was a human coal miner, I bet you plan on voting for Obama. Donkey, indeed.

MODERN SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY, AIN'T IT GREAT? (no).

I appreciate the modern conveniences bought about by the technological advances in my lifetime. Take the computers this is being written on by me and read on by you. This computer I am using is a Hewlett-Packard DV9700 Pavilion that I have been using on a daily basis since the summer of 2008. This blog was begun on this very machine. Just a little (semi-obsolete) laptop.

But this little lap-top puts at my fingertips more and faster computer power than the room full of refrigerator sized crew served machines - running spools of punch tape and sitting on perforated metal tiles so as to be cooled by a constant flow of chilled, filtered air - that were prevalent even to the mid-1980s. And unless you are one of the guys at the National Security Agency or the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, or North Korean intelligence services who read this thing in the mistaken belief there might be something of value in here, your computer is probably something similar to what I have.

Cell phones have gotten so ridiculously tiny that sometimes I need to get someone to call mine to find where in the clutter on this desk it has gotten buried in.

All the money you have, plus your complete personal history and more can be stored in a little strip of magnetic tape on a card that fits in your wallet with all the rest of the cards that "they" are constantly trying to sell us on to order our lives around (and this, though it may be "convenient" is even more convenient if ever used to track and control you, and this is an insidious threat to liberty indeed; but I digress..)

There has been for some time a push to provide every student from middle school on up with a lap-top computer. Why this should be in the face of the fact that the self I was when I was sixteen could sit in today's classroom and be appalled at the relative ignorance of today's kids I don't know.

It has been my belief for some time that before a schoolkid is issued a computer, he or she should FIRST be taught TO COMPUTE! Just as I believe no adolescent should be allowed to drive without first learning to drive with a manual transmission, so I believe that no school kid should have a computer before he or she has learned how to work a slide rule. (And yes, smartass, I DO think learning how to work problems on an abacus would be a good thing, and in and of itself for its own sake into the bargain!)

You see, computers are great until the lights go out. Batteries only last so long. Then you need smarts that aren't locked up in some data base or program.

I would wager that if you put twenty American guys of average to high intelligence between 35 and 60 years of age into an isolated area which contained iron ore, coal, oil, sand, and other raw materials plus adequate supplies of game and wild plants and fish for food and a good supply of timber for building and flint or obsidian for primitive tool making; but otherwise only a supply of clothing suitable to shield them from the elements; and starting on March 1st they would be tasked with building a small factory which could turn out uniform nuts and bolts which were fully interchangeable and powered by a steam engine, that team would be able to accomplish the thing by Halloween, and possibly have a rudimentary internal-combustion engine to boot. The first thing they would make would be a primitive lathe, operated by treadle and using flint shapers to fashion the wheels and spindles of a multipurpose water and/or wind powered mill. Brick-making kilns would yield the makings of ore-smelting facilities, facilitating heavier and better tools the better to make more and better tools, etcetera. From the stone age to the Industrial Revolution in seven months.

Task the same thing to a bunch of average 18 to 30 year olds, and they'd be lost without Wikipedia and they'd quit halfway through summer because they were bored without being able to play "Angry Birds".

Today I have personally seen the results of an overdependence on technology. The taxicab company I drive with has for the last decade been gearing its dispatch operations to be automatically driven by mobile computer terminals. The person actually operating the dispatcher's chair did not need to allot work assignments to the cabs by voice in an orderly and equitable manner, as this was done by the impartial and rapid machinations of a computer program.

Voice communications over the radio to a group of people, trying to coordinate them in an effort to service the needs of another group of people, is a very demanding job. There is a specific set of procedures, with a long history in the taxicab industry, of dispatching a service call and handling various problems that may crop up.  There are things called "prowords" - words or phrases used to condense song-and-dance explanations or requests that in normal conversation would take paragraphs (and time) and condense them into clear, conscise, and brief and effective constructions. (Example: instead of "I understood that you said go to Flat street, but I didn't understand the address or who you said I should ask for" one should say "Say again, all after Flat street".)

However, so confident were the folks who run the cab company that this computer dispatch system represented the wave of the future that they did not bother to teach the time-honored voice bidding system or the pro-words or any other vestige of voice radio discipline either to the dispatch staff nor to the drivers.

Yesterday it was announced that the computer system was being upgraded and dispatch would be by voice for about thirty minutes. This must have been some upgrade, because there has been no computer dispatch for more than 24 hours as I write this, and as almost no one on staff has the necessary experience  or even know-how to dispatch a fleet of over 250 cabs by voice, IT HAS BEEN A FRICKIN' NIGHTMARE!

As I rubbed my temples after I'd decided to say "screw it" and knock off for the day, I started thinking about what we would do without all this marvelous technology to do all our thinking for us, and came up withthe inspiration to write this post. I hope SOMEBODY is amused, informed, or entertained by what I have written here. At least then I will have accomplished something today.

(And ironically, I couldn't have done it without that @#$!^%& technology.)    

"THE PETERSON INVESTIGATION' Available FREE IN HONOR OF NATIONAL POLICE WEEK!

There are law enforcement officers from every sate in the Union in the Washington DC area right now. This is the last day of the National Police Week activities, and the event being held is a survivors conference.

When people think about police officers giving their lives in the line of duty, they often think of a scene in which a murderous bad guy fells the officer with gunfire. And this happens. A lot. Alexandria's police firearms range is named after Corporal Charles Hill, who was ambushed in a housing project by a thug who tore the life from him with a shotgun blast.

But police officers also perish in the line of duty by causes such as drowning while attempting to save people who abandoned common sense and tried to ford a flooded road and got swept away. 

They die during traffic stops and situations where they are simply trying to assist a motorist on the roadside, when some drunk or otherwise oblivious driver plows into them. 

Police officers have also given their lives in the line of duty when doing something kindly such as assisting a citizen in using a car jack; and the stresses involved in the job have taken their toll to the point that the officer's heart just gives out at that moment. The best bulletproof vest in the world cannot protect them from these perils.

Yet day after day they go out and do their duty. And yet when most folks think of police officers at all, they're either watching TV or grousing about the summons they got when they were "only" going ten MPH above the limit. 

Either that, or they are in peril, and dial 911. To Paraphrase Rudyard Kipling (I think): "In time of danger and not before, God and the policeman, all people adore. Danger over, and all things righted; Then God is forgotten, and the policeman is slighted."

AND SO TO HONOR THE PEACE OFFICERS EVERYWHERE IN THIS NATION, I AM OFFERING FREE AS A GIFT TODAY THROUGH FRIDAY A COPY OF MY NOVEL "THE PETERSON INVESTIGATION", AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON "KINDLE" E-BOOKS AT AMAZON.COM .

Although this is intended for law enforcement people, this special offer is available to anyone. I just ask that when you get your copy you will think about what I have written here, and honor your local police officers for doing a tough, dangerous, and too often thankless job that cannot be left undone.     

DEMOCRAT "OCTOBER SURPRISE" PETARD DETONATES EARLY, BLOWS UP DEMOCRAT CAMPAIGN.

Well, well. The Democrat party had a little "October surprise" planned. They would suddenly bring up this "gay marriage" nonsense, have Obama have an "epihany", and then bring up this story about Romney "bullying" a "gay-appearing" kid back in the toney private high school he attended. The Washington Post has admitted they have been "sitting" on this story.

Had this story been broken suddenly in mid-October (as we posit it was intended to), there would not be enough time for sane folks to ask the necessary questions and for voters to get bored with the kerfluffle and go back to focusing on inconvenient facts like the economy being in the toilet, Obama's doubling the budget deficit in his first year instead of halving it as he had promised, and all the other things that comprise "president" Obama's RECORD, which is the last thing he wants anyone thinking about when they are standing in a voting booth. 

No doubt about it, this "National Enquirer" mode of politics might have been effective as a distraction had it been deployed in October. However, dumbass Vice President Joe "plugs" Biden screwed it up by telling an interviewer that he was cool with "gay marriage" and so was "president" Obama.

Well, the White House scrambled to do damage control. These things must be handled delicately, as the Wicked Witch of the West said, and with most folks in the country opposing "gay marriage", Obama needed - and still needs - people to believe he would not sign anything authorizing it. So they put out a statement that Obama believed marriage was between a man and a woman (kinda-sorta). This was important because a lot of black ministers hold the keys to a lot of church buses that ferry a lot of black voters to the polls, and THEY oppose "gay marriage", and not "kinda-sorta" either. But a lot of rich gay people and Hollywood types are adamant that "gay marriage" become the law of the land. You bet that every last word of that statement was vetted for maximum vagueness.

Then. a few days later, North Carolina amended the State Constitution to define "marriage" as the union of one man and one woman, and the Hollywood/gay money spigot suddenly went bone-dry. 

Torn between two sections of his "base" who basically can't stand each other, Obama decided that money, being the mother's milk of politics, was more important than getting black folks to the polls, and announced that he had had an epiphany and his views had "evolved". After referencing his conversations with his gay staff members and friends and thinking of the gay troops who he said (this is a truly appalling revelation of who this blowhole of a "president" thinks he is) "fight on (his) behalf", he announced that "gay marriage" should be left "up to the states". 

Of course, this mealy-mouthed "epiphany" meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING since 31 states and North Carolina have passed constitutional amendments barring the recognition of same sex marriages.

Now, of course there had to be an ancilliary distraction to keep people from noticing the two-faced nature of this "epiphany". So the Washington Post, who as we said ADMITTED TO SITTING ON THE STORY published the "Romney is a big mean bigoted bully" story.

This story is in the process of being poked full of holes by conservative press and talk radio, and within two weeks the focus will be back on Obama, the Democrat Party, and their abysmal record, where it should be. The "October Surprise" was intended as a petard to breach the walls of the Romney campaign. But it was hastily detonated five months early. and instead of Romney, it is ravaging the Democrats.

We here at the Alexandria Daily Poop are grinning ear-to-ear.