From my Colonel .........................................

I was trying to explain this over on Crusader Rabbit a bit ago - what a LOT of folks don't realize is, this is even more true for women in the military .......................... not to denigrate civilians - that's just the way it is ..........................

When Veterans Retire

When a Veteran leaves the 'job' and retires to a better life, many are
jealous, some are pleased and yet others, who may have already retired,
wonder. We wonder if he knows what they are leaving behind, because we
already know. We know, for example, that after a lifetime of camaraderie
that few experience, it will remain as a longing for those past times. We
know in the Military life there is a fellowship which lasts long after the
uniforms are hung up in the back of the closet. We know even if he throws
them away, they will be on him with every step and breath that remains in
his life. We also know how the very bearing of the man speaks of what he
was and in his heart still is.

These are the burdens of the job. You will still look at people
suspiciously, still see what others do not see or choose to ignore and
always will look at the rest of the Military world with a respect for what
they do; only grown in a lifetime of knowing. Never think for one moment
you are escaping from that life. You are only escaping the 'job' and merely
being allowed to leave 'active' duty.

So what I wish for you is that whenever you ease into retirement, in your
heart you never forget for one moment that 'Blessed are the Peacemakers for
they shall be called children of God,' and you are still a member of the
greatest fraternity the world has ever known.

Civilian Friends vs. Veteran Friends
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Get upset if you're too busy to talk to them for a week.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry on the same conversation you were having the last time you met.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Have cried with you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Will kick the crowds' ass that left you behind.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are for a while.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Are for life.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have shared a few experiences...
VETERAN FRIENDS: Have shared a lifetime of experiences no citizen could ever dream of...

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, 'You better drink the rest of that before you spill it!!' Then carry you home safely and put you to bed...

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk crap to the person who talks crap about you.
VETERAN FRIENDS: Will knock the hell out OF THEM..... for using your name in vain.

Michelle Malkin notes ......................................

the Talking Turbans {h/t, Crusader Rabbit for the term ;-) } are FINALLY showing some degree of evenhandedness in their 'Promotion of Virtue/Prevention of Vice' efforts ....................... y'know, I'm just getting really TIRED of being admonished to be 'culturally sensitive' to such - the REST of the world is gaining in enlightenment - WHY, exactly, are "we" to honor such antediluvian/misanthropic attitudes/mindsets? Seems to me, history is replete with cultures that were encouraged to raise themselves to, for want of a better term, First World status - now, in the interests of "diversity" & "multiculturalism", we're allowing 'moral equivalency' to determine OUR future - sorry, but fundamentalist Islam IS NOT NOW, NOR EVER WILL BE, "EQUIVALENT" TO WESTERN CULTURE. If the Islamo-fascists have their way, we will ALL be reduced to living in dhimmitude - once again, from Michelle Malkin,

I WILL NOT SURRENDER

Looking at my visitors' log ....................................

{sniffle-sniffle} I WANT TO GO BACK TO EUROPE!!

I want to visit Plzen, CZR, again, & have wonderful meals at the Stara Roudna Penzione {the memory of the mixed grill makes my mouth water!}. Go to Kaufland's for the to-die-for chocolate covered, cream-filled cookies; go into the store for some of the BEST potato chips ever. Go to the Internet Cafe just off the main square. Go to Karlstejn Castle again, for the sense of history there. Walk around Prague again, just absorbing the culture.

I want to return to Graz, Austria, and visit the Piber Stud Farm and have the horses get excited, knocking their stall doors, because people have come to visit them. I want to walk around 'downtown' {what a pedestrian term for the beauty there} Graz.

I want to go to Munich again, and take the commuter train into downtown, and see the performance artists on the square. I want to go to the open air market there.

I want to go to the Toledo area of Spain, to visit Cheetah's Rock, & see these magnificent animals up close & personal.

I want to see more of Amsterdam than from aircraft/airport windows. I want to see Bruges, Belgium. I want to visit Sweden. I want to go to Italy. I want to have, basically, a road trip, from Amsterdam on ......................... just DRIVE to the areas we want to see. I want to visit the U.K. ......................... then, next fall {in the Northern Hemisphere}, I want to go 'Down Under', and visit New Zealand and Australia - I want to go to the area of the Australian coast where the wild dolphins congregate & play with the humans there ......................... don't want TOO much, do I? ;-)

From my Colonel .........................................

One of the problems today is the 'dumbing down' - you use an insult like these, and are met with vacuous stares & "Hunh?" 'Nother attributed to Sir Winston had him being harangued at some function - he finally told the harridan giving him grief that she was ugly - she responded that he was drunk ...................... he said, "Yes, but I'll be sober in the morning!" ;-)


When Insults Had Class (no 4-letter words !!)

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still
valued, before a great portion of the English language got boiled down to
4-letter words, not to mention waving middle fingers.

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my
husband I'd give you poison," and he said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink
it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows
or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "on
whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy" - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston
Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" -
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading
it." - Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." -
Abraham Lincoln

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of
it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend.... If you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...if there is
one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -
Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." -
Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." -
Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E.
Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human
knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -
Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" -
Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar
Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... For support rather
than illumination." - Andrew Lang

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

From my Colonel .........................................

No offense to any Canadian readers, but I, for one, DON'T want your style of healthcare .......................

Brain surgery

I'm figuring this is LawDog's response to being ...............................

"adopted" by his young tuxedo'd gentlecat ......................... ;-)


moar humorous pics

My Colonel sent this to me ................................... can we make this viral?

The Star Spangled Banner, like you've never heard it

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors ...................................

and, being a former Marine, my sense of humor is rather .................... warped, anyway - below is a passage that just got me chuckling ................... can't stop ......................... ;-)

"Did you know that civet is used in a lot of perfumes?"

"I don't even know what civet is."

Fric brightened at this admission. "Well, it's a thick yellow secretion that's squeezed from the anal glands of civet cats."

"They sound like remarkably cooperative cats."

"They aren't really members of the cat family. They're mammals in Asia and Africa. They produce more civet when they're agitated."

"Under the circumstances, they must be agitated all the time."

-- from The Face, by Dean Koontz

Hmmmmm, wonder if they make'em

for 110-wired structures?


Electronic kid repellents raise ruckus in Britain

I'm thinking of suggesting to the local grocery & the WalMart I frequent that they think about installing these ....................... ;-)

Gotta question .......................................

seems to me I remember there've been folks who, when paying their federal taxes, have designated that any monies collected from them NOT be used for military expenditures.
Couldn't the same be done re: Berkeley & Toledo? To tell the IRS that any money I pay them DOES NOT go to Berkeley, Toledo, or any other municipality that decides they don't "need/want" U.S. military ? Not one dime, not one nickel, not one fraction of a penny ..................... if enough folks were to make such demands on the IRS, I'd wager that pretty soon, Berkeley, Toledo, et al ad nauseum, would be in a world of hurt ....................

Did I miss the memo?

It seems that the chattering classes are falling all over themselves to denigrate and show disrespect for the USMC - the latest to jump on the bandwagon is the mayor of Toledo, OH: Mayor kicks Marines out of Toledo.

What is wrong with these cretins? What I'd really like to see is another city invite/welcome/participate in such with the Marines, and tell Toledo to go piss up a rope & suck on the end of it .................... if the cost of transport wouldn't be so prohibitive, I'd recommend they come on down here for their drill ........................

From my Colonel .......................................... ;-)

Dear Mr. Ex President Clinton,
I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, 'Thank Me, I voted for Clinton-Gore.' So, I sat down and reflected on that, and I am sending my 'Thank you' for what you have done, specifically:

1. Thank you for introducing us to Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Dolly Kyle Browning, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broderick. Did I leave anyone out?

2. Thank you for teaching my 8 year old about oral sex. I had really planned to wait until he was a little older to discuss it with him, but now he knows more about it than I did as a senior in college.

3. Thank you for showing us that sexual harassment in the work place (especially the White House ) and on the job is OK, and all you have to know is what the meaning of 'it' is. It really is great to know that certain sexual acts are not sex, and one person may have sex while the other one does NOT have sex.

4. Thank you for reintroducing the concept of impeachment to a new generation and demonstrating that the ridiculous plot of the movie 'Wag the Dog' could be plausible after all.

5. Thanks for making Jimmy Carter look competent, Gerald Ford look graceful, Richard Nixon look honest, Lyndon Johnson look truthful, and John Kennedy look moral.

6. Thank you for the 73 House and Senate witnesses who have pled the 5th Amendment and 17 witnesses who have fled the country to avoid testifying about Democratic campaign fund raising.

7. Thank you, for the 19 charges, 8 convictions, and 4 imprisonment's from the Whitewater 'mess' and the 55 criminal charges and 32 criminal convictions (so far) in the other ' Clinton ' scandals.

8. Thanks also for reducing our military by half, 'gutting' much of our foreign policy, and flying all over the world on 'vacations' carefully disguised as necessary trips.

9 Thank you, also, for 'finding' millions of dollars (I really didn't need it in the first place, and I can't think of a more deserving group of recipients for my hard-earned tax dollars) for all of your globe-trotting. I understand you, the family and your cronies have logged in more time aboard Air Force One than any other administration.

10. Now that you 've left the White House, thanks for the 140 pardons of convicted felons and indicted felons-in-exile. We will love to have them rejoin society.
(Not to mention the scores you pardoned while Governor of Arkansas)

11. Thanks also for removing the White House silverware. I'm sure that Laura Bush didn't like the pattern anyway. Also, enjoy the housewarming gifts you've received from your 'friends.'

12. Thanks to you and your staff in the West Wing of the White House for vandalizing and destroying government property on the way out. I also appreciate removing all of that excess weight (china , silverware, linen, towels, ash trays, soap, pens, magnetic compass, flight manuals, etc.) out of Air Force 1. The weight savings means burning less fuel, thus less tax dollars spent on jet fuel.
Thank you!

13. Please ensure that Hillary enjoys the $8 million dollar advance for her 'tell-all' book and you, Bill, the $10 million advance for your memoirs. Who says crime doesn't pay!

14. The last and most important point - thank you for forcing Israel to let Mohammed Atta go free.

Terrorist pilot Mohammed Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called 'political prisoners'. However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands. The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, Insisted that all prisoners be released. Thus Mohammed Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center . This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the US from all later reports. Why shouldn't Americans know the real truth?

What a guy!!

If you agree that the American public must be made aware of these facts, pass this on. God bless America and THANK YOU (once again) for spending my taxes so wisely and frugally.

SINCERELY,
A US Citizen

PS. Please pass along a special thank you to Al Gore for 'inventing' the Internet, without which I would not be able to send this wonderful, factual e-mail.

AND THE REST OF THE STORY Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a New York State Senator, now comes under the 'CongressionalRetirement and Staffing Plan,' which means that even if she never gets reelected, she STILL receives her Congressional salary until she dies. (Would it not be nice if all Americans were pension eligible after only 4 years?)

If Bill outlives her, he then inherits HER salary until HE dies. He is already getting his Presidential salary until he dies. If Hillary outlives Bill, she also gets HIS salary until she dies. Guess who pays for that? WE DO!

It's common knowledge that in order for her to establish NY residency, they purchased a million dollar-plus house in upscale Chappaqua , New York. Makes sense. They are entitled to Secret Service protection for life. Still makes sense.

Here is where it becomes interesting. Their mortgage payments hover at around $10,000 per month. BUT, an extra residence HAD to be built within the acreage to house the Secret Service agents.

The Clintons charge the Federal government $10,000 monthly rent for the use of that extra residence, which is just about equal to their mortgage payment.

This means that we, the taxpayers, are paying the Clinton 's salary, mortgage, transportation, safety and security, as well as the salaries for their 12 man staff -- and, this is all perfectly legal!

When she runs for President, will you vote for her?

How many people can YOU send this to?

WAKE UP AMERICA .

Dunno 'bout the rest of you, but ..............................................

I've about had my fill of Code Pinkers .......................... these ..................... 'people' ....................... claim a morality that one would need a SEM to see - their rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth disdain for our military is beyond the pale.

Michelle Malkin has a new article up, about their claims that they're the kind of people who stopped Hitler - riiiiiiight - newsflash, you twitless wonders - it took bullets, bombs, and the blood of our best and brightest - your ilk would have lasted MAYBE all of 5 minutes, singing kumbaya and whining "can't we all just get along?"

Y'all suffer from BDS - fine - take 2 aspirin & call your shrink - but find someplace else to shoot off your feminazi mouths about those who VALUE this nation, and what it stands for - as one City Council member noted, your actions are identical to those who protest outside abortion clinics - the time for double standards is over - YOU are a bunch of ungrateful, irrational, illogical wastes of oxygen.

For everybody else - I 'snitched' the contact info from Michelle Malkin's site:

Berkeley City Council

Linda Maio
Phone: (510) 981-7110
FAX: (510) 981-7111
Email: lmaio@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Darryl Moore
Phone: (510) 981-7120
Email: dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Maxwell Anderson
Phone: (510) 981-7130
Email: manderson@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Dona Spring
Phone: (510) 981-7140
Email: spring@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Laurie Capitelli
Phone: (510) 981-7150
Email: lcapitelli@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Betty Olds
Phone: (510) 981-7160
Email: olds@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Kriss Worthington
Phone: (510) 981-7170
Email: kworthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Gordon Wozniak
Phone: (510) 981-7180
Email: GWozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us

City Auditor
Ann Marie
TEL: (510) 981-6750, TDD: (510) 981-6903
Office Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm
Email: auditor@ci.berkeley.ca.us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE: Should any of you like, here's the link from Move America Forward, for their online petition. KG, MK, Tiberius, and ANYONE else who may not be right here in the U.S. - PLEASE feel free to sign if the spirit so moves ......................... hehehehehehehehehehehehehe - yeah, I'm a widdle debbil ...................... ;-)