Medary.com

Yesterday, I heard--on a local TV newscast, I think--someone say "Happy Memorial Day."

No. Wrong.

The intent of Memorial Day is to be a day of memory--specifically, remembering those who wear the uniform of the United States, who have fought and died to defend this country.

Now, in certain circles, this is not a politically correct thought. It is uncomfortable to recognize that our liberties require at times an active, violent defense--a defense which often has an extremely high cost. It certainly is inconvenient at least to think of such things, as people rush back and forth between the big 2-Day Sale to the family barbecue at the lake.

It's a specific case of one of the most widespread and corrosive problems our society has today.

IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU.

So take five minutes, go somewhere quiet, sit down, and think about your freedom to do that very thing, and think about how that freedom came about.

Most people throughout history have not even had that simple freedom to take a few minutes to themselves. Most people have had to get up in the morning, work hard, backbreaking, physical labor from sunrise to sunset, somehow manage to eat and drink enough to keep them alive, and then go to sleep with little more hope than to get through the next day of toil and pain. Sitting and contemplating their freedoms would be an absurd impossibility for much of humanity over most of our history.

And there you sit, well-fed, well-clothed, comfortable and safe, secure in your self-absorption on this "traditional first weekend of summer."

Think long and hard about how you came have the freedom to ignore the real meaning of Memorial Day.

And, if you're one of those who have worn the uniform that secures our freedom and liberty, or if you are the family member or friend of one who has been wounded or has died in the service of this country, you have my solemn sympathy, respect, gratitude, and love. Be well.

UPDATE: Even The Heritage Foundation has succumbed to the corrosive "Happy Memorial Day" saying. I still assert it is properly a day of reflection, a day of gratitude--and for some, a day of deep emotional pain. I think cavalierly chirping "Happy Memorial Day" on this day seriously demeans the sacrifices of those who have given the "last full measure of their devotion." "Happy New Year," yes. "Happy Halloween?" Sure. "Happy Christmas?" Certainly, if you're British or an Anglophile. "Happy Martin Luther King Day?" I can even see that. Even "Happy Veteran's Day" can work--you're honoring veterans who are still alive on that day, after all. But "Happy Memorial Day?" There's some serious emotional/cognitive dissonance going on there, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm a curmudgeon. Always have been, really.

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Sixteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 23 (Sunday, Day 19, At sea) -

Sunrise, May 24

The ship was rocking a bunch all day today. Snookums was fine for breakfast but around 11AM she started to feel a little icky. She took a meclizine (seasick pill) and that knocked her out for the next 4 hours or so. More after the jump . . .

Memorial Day -- A poem, forwarded by That Woman, Sarah Palin:

“It is the veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the veteran, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.

It is the veteran, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin will be draped by the flag.”

We’re too broke to be this stupid

So the easiest “solution” to the problem is to throw public money at it. You know how it is when you’re at the mall and someone rattles a collection box under your nose and you’re not sure where it’s going but it’s probably for Darfur or Rwanda or Hoogivsastan. Whatever. You’re dropping a buck or two in the tin for the privilege of not having to think about it. For the more ideologically committed, there’s always the awareness-raising rock concert: it’s something to do with Bono and debt forgiveness, whatever that means, but let’s face it, going to the park for eight hours of celebrity caterwauling beats having to wrap your head around Afro-Marxist economics. The modern welfare state operates on the same principle: since the Second World War, the hard-working middle classes have transferred historically unprecedented amounts of money to the unproductive sector in order not to have to think about it. But so what? We were rich enough that we could afford to be stupid.

That works for a while.
. . .

By the way, where does the government get the money to fund all these immensely useful programs? According to a Fox News poll earlier this year, 65 per cent of Americans understand that the government gets its money from taxpayers, but 24 per cent think the government has “plenty of its own money without using taxpayer dollars.”

"Where did Obama get the funds?" "I have no idea!" "I don't know where he's getting the money, but he's giving it to us!"

There's your problem, right there.

Comrade Hillary: “The Rich Are Not Paying Their Fair Share of Taxes in Any Nation” (Video) -- A finer, more succinct statement of Marxism/"progressivism" would be difficult to find . . . "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." -- Karl Marx, co-author of The Communist Manifesto. There's only one problem: It Doesn't Work. Ever. Anywhere. Any time it's tried. It always devolves into dictatorship, because somebody has to decide what the rest needs. That's the dirty little secret of "progressivism", Marxism, communism, socialism, call it what you will. If you let any person decide for him or herself what he or she needs, that person will always say that they need MORE. This is, in the modern phraseology, "unsustainable." Therefore, you need the Mother of All "Death Panels" -- the Government -- to decide Who gets What and How Much.

And that's tyranny. Dictatorship. Command economy. Again, call it what you will. It means that YOU won't get to decide what you do with what you create, and YOU won't get to decide what you need and don't need. That will be decided for you.

So, why are you still a Democrat?

Things have stacked up again . . . let's get started:

Ye Olde Shell Game

The desire to remake America along the lines of a European-style welfare state is running into the hardest of all possible obstacles: the lack of money. Obama’s new national security stance sends the message that all available resources are going to be shifted to saving his domestic agenda or at least keeping the domestic economic troubles from spinning out of control. That will be problematic because cutting costs must run counter to the concept that government is a solution to ‘problems’. Cap and trade, immigration reform, a vast expansion of health entitlements by definition now become national security issues. At the very least they become political job security issues. Any sufficiently effective effort to create a prosperous economy will require Obama to liquidate his ’solution’s. But they are the point of his presidency, the goal of his legion of spoils-seekers. The President is in the impossible position of standing in his own way.

Or, shorter: We Are Out Of Money. We can't afford all of the big shiny new government ideas and projects that Obama wants in order to remake America into a European-style social-democracy worker's paradise. Hell, Europe can't afford it. The only reason they've staggered along as long as they have is that they've hidden behind the shield of the American military from the various barbarians at the gates, from the Russians to the radical Islamists. The Europeans have partied hearty while we paid the bills in blood and treasure to try to keep the world somewhat civilized. But now, we look with naked envy at all the fun and frivolity the Europeans are having, and via Obama and the Democrats seem bound and determined to get a drink or two of what they're having.

This will not end well.

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fifteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 22 (Saturday, Day 18, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) -

Sunrise, May 22

Filbert woke up at 5:45 AM in order to do some early sealife watching. He didn’t see anything other than a nice sunrise.

More after the jump . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fourteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 21 (Friday, Day 17, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, continued) -

Snookums gets nuzzled

Snookums, Filbert and Judy went on the “Sea Lion Encounter” shore excursion. We took a 30-minute bus ride to Cabo Adventures where they have dolphin and sea lion encounter. Snookums and Filbert swam with dolphins a few years ago in the Bahamas so this time we chose the sea lion adventure. Plus, Filbert does a great imitation of sea lions (and has even had the sea lions in San Francisco on Pier 39 answer in return!)

More after the jump . . .

The Right Needs To Extend The Olive Branch To The Left

When you forgive outright and double down with the refusal to be vindictive, even if it means paying for Social Security, knowing that you’re buying so much air, the Lefty can be helped through depression, into acceptance of the fact that the Progressive Era has been nothing but the most expensive failure in human history.

Emphasis mine. But this is the central message that needs to be hammered home by the liberty community to the American public, in 2010 and beyond: What the "progressives" have tried for the past century has not worked. It's time for something else. It's time to give another try to something we know works: liberty, individual freedom and personal responsibility.

Patience

But Hillary will always have at least one party to talk to whatever happens to Kim Jong Il: China. Behind Pyongyang is Beijing. Both in 1950 and 2010, China pulled North Korea’s strings. It provided and provides Pyongyang with Great Power protection. It uses Pyongyang to advance its agenda against Japan and South Korea. Hillary’s confident declaration that North Korea is a problem which will solve itself no longer looks so certain when one looks slightly beyond the Korean peninsula. In that context it is not terribly clear Hillary is right when she declares “that time is on our side”. Once the problem is defined in terms of America’s relationship with China then the timescales become comparable to those of Cold War with the Soviet Union. Suppose it is Beijing that is displaying strategic patience and not Hillary? Beijing is not likely to gloat publicly. After all Napoleon also counseled, “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

I suspect that it is not wise to play the game on China's terms . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirteen

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 19 (Wednesday, Day 15, Acapulco, Mexico) -

May 19 sunrise

Filbert was up early again, taking pictures and hoping for dolphins. No dolphins today. Just one big honking moth, that Filbert originally thought was a hummingbird because it was so big. It had to be a good six inches long, and five or six inches' wingspan.

More after the jump . . .

AP Exclusive: Palin aides worked to sell gas deal-- OH MY GOD!!!! The AP blows the doors off the sleazy bitch AT LAST!!!!:

"There's a Costco in Juneau, if you know what I mean," Palin wrote. "And my family is quite capable of setting out food and cleaning up afterwards."

Hey, AP! I can see your bias from my back yard! Damn, this was a stupid story. I'm dumber for having read it. It's two minutes of my life I will never have back.

Lunchtime video fun: Governor Awesome on meaning what you say