Veterans' Day

To honor our warriors, I'm reprinting a piece sent to me by a very liberal friend. There's always hope that they'll see the light.

WHAT IS A VET

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC



Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a

jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.  Others may carry the evidence

inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the

leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged

in the refinery of adversity.  Except in parades, however, the men and

women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.  You can't tell a vet just by looking.



What is a vet?



He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia

sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers

didn't run out of fuel.



He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose

overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the

cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th

parallel.



She or he-is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep

sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.



He is the POW who went away one person and came back another-or didn't

come back AT ALL.



He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat-but has

saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang

members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.



He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals

with a prosthetic hand.



He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass

him by.



He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose

presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the

memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with

them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.



He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket-palsied now and

aggravatingly slow-who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who

wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when

the nightmares come.



He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being-a person who

offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his

country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to

sacrifice theirs.



He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he

is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the

finest, greatest nation ever known.



So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country,

just lean over and say Thank You.  That's all most people need, and in

most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been

awarded or were awarded.



Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU."



Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.



"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the

press.  It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of

speech.  It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us

the freedom to demonstrate.  It is the soldier, who salutes the flag,

who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag,

who allows the protester to burn the flag."

I also wanted to include this wonderful picture from Fallujah to wish the US Marines a Happy 229th Birthday. One of the finest officers I've ever known was my Company Officer at the Naval Academy. He was Major Tim Hannigan, USMC. If any of you know him, give him my best.

This is from yesterday's edition of the New York Post.



Here's a another marine, this time on Guadalcanal in 1942.



Courage and guts are timeless.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

Well, I got my first truly angry e-mail regarding the content of this site. If you take an ideological stand, defend it hard enough and voice your opinion loudly enough, you better piss a few folks off.

Here's the e-mail. I've withheld the last name for the sake of my detractor's privacy.

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:10:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Sandi
To: tovbrog@conservativevoice.net
Subject:
Have you no shame?

Why you don't call you website hatevoice because that is all it is.

You may not have to answer for your bile filled rants in this life, but you will have to answer for them.

Conservative is a label that people like you have corrupted and ruined.

You are not conservative, you are hatefilled and evil. Your disgusting antics add nothing to the public discourse and an educated person should have a better moral compass. But then again, your site proves why you people think Bush has moral values. It's because you wouldn't know moral values is (sic) Jesus slapped you in the head with them.

I don't mind losing, but I sure hate losing to the likes of you. America deserves better representatives than your side has to offer. Don't gloat too long, 54 million of us agree, you (and Bush) are a disgrace. America may be slow to awaken, but awaken she will and when you are back on the losing side, I don't imagine you'll be gracious then either.

Keep believing your own propaganda, if people like you ever wake up, you'd have to commit suicide!

I'm not sure, but her "gloat" comment must refer to Admiral Van Orden's piece. Hey lady, he paid his dues and has every right to shout his joy from the rooftops.

I must admit, however, that the gentle, reasoned tone of her message makes a mockery of my shrill invective. Harridan!

Look, I view the left as enemies of freedom. They couch their philosophy in feel-good rhetoric and the fuzzy imagery of a false compassion, but all it really adds up to is condescension towards those they purport to fight for and legalized theft from the rest of us.

Just think about the hysteria that's been raised by the Republican victory. The red states are "dumb", "ignorant", "dependent" and "uneducated". Why, if they'd only listened to the old line media more often they couldn't help but see the light.

The only national discourse acceptable to the left is one where everyone agrees with their agenda. All this talk of "no mandate" is a codeword for dispensing with ideological principle and forcing uniformity. After all, there's only one correct path. Reminiscent of the Soviet Union's practice of putting dissidents into psychiatric hospitals, because anyone unhappy under socialism must be sick, the left now opines that anyone who disagrees with them must be brain damaged.

I'm intolerant towards the left for the same reason I'm intolerant towards Islamofascists: because there is no real compromise.

Anyway, here's a more positive message from another reader:

Date: mom, 08 Nov 2004
From: Tim Walker
To: tovbrog@conservativevoice.net
Subject: Thank you for such a
great article

Dear Mr. Brog,

I read with great pride the Nov. 7 article you wrote. You echoed my sentiments to perfection. I was so relieved that the Benedict Arnold Kerry did not win this election. He has never been made to account for his traitorous actions.

I shutter when I think how close this Quisling came to the oval office.

Thank you for your service to our country.

Sincerely,

Tim
Walker

Thank you Tim.

Michael Moore's Composition

There just aren't enough adjectives in my vocabulary to describe my revulsion at Michael Moore. A guy that used to serve with me in Germany, a fellow USAF reservist, would probably say he's "a waste of good protoplasm". I can't imagine any good protoplasm making up this obscene pile of waste.

Here Blogolution's version of what Michael Moore is made of



Click the picture for a larger version.

A Defeat Well Deserved!

This post only reinforces my conviction that the Republic was done a great service by its citizens when we defeated John Kerry, and all he represents, at the polls.

We've beaten back the barbarians. We've got every right to revel in the victory.

This retired Navy Admiral, and '45 graduate of my alma mater, agrees.


From a retired US Navy Admiral

M. D. “Dick” Van Orden (RADM USN, Ret.) U.S. Naval Academy '45

PARDON ME WHILE I GLOAT
by Dick Van Orden

I am not normally a cheerful loser or a gracious winner. Whether its tiddly-winks or war at sea, I want to win, win, win! In fact, I hate to lose and when I win I sometimes want to rub the loser's nose in his defeat. After a sleepless night I feel just rotten enough that the past six months of lies and innuendos from the Kerry camp have it all come home to make me more vindictive than usual. As a result, I want to gloat. Here's why:

I am happy that the sound common sense of a majority of America's voters resulted in a solid victory for a true patriot-and in the humiliating defeat of a lying traitor. There was no doubt in my mind that Bush's truthfulness and forthrightness would prevail against the lies and half-truths of Kerry and his supporters, and I am pleased that a majority of good folks saw the light and pushed the Bush/ Cheney button for justice and for increasing support for the nation's bright future.

I am pleased that the left-leaning media-newspapers, radio, TV and newsmagazines-got their bell rung, but good. Now we are assured that these self-appointed "opinion makers" cannot pull the wool over the eyes of most of us, no matter how hard they twist the facts. Their early reporting of the "leaked" fraudulent exit polls, and their sponsorship of other badly skewed voter polls were designed to mislead voters, in which they failed-miserably. And Dan Rather deserves a special place in hell.

I am delighted that the fat, disgusting a-hole, Michael Moore did not achieve the success that he wished for and that he was repulsed by so many intelligent Americans. May his soul burn in hell.

I hope the Hollywood friends of Michael Moore-especially Barbara Streisand, Whoopi Goldberg, P-Diddler, and their friends-are roasting in the hell of their own making. It seems to me that they all offered to depart the U.S. if Bush won the first time, which they did not do. The time is now doubly ripe for their exit.

I am blissful that all the treasure and invective of George Soros devoted to defeating George Bush went for naught. I only wish for a financial future of similar poor decisions by Soros; I want to see him as bankrupt in bank account as he is in patriotism.

I find it particularly satisfying that the high ranking military suck-ups whose lack of integrity led them to desert their commander-in-chief and follow a lying cheat, even though they knew, or should have known, that his dismissal from the Navy was "less than honorable," as detailed in the military record that he refused to release. It is sad that such Navy types as Bill Crowe, Stan Turner, and even Jimmy Carter would be in that group. It is obvious that their motivation was the hope of a cushy job when their new-found knight in shining armor moved into the White House. Even their strategy was flawed, for Kerry is, and always has been, anti-military; he only used his military service-and those military "advisors"-for personal political gain. He would never have offered that cushy job, once he had used them, just as he never voted for the needed armament that they and their shipmates and their Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force brothers-in-arms needed so badly.

I am thrilled that the whiners who have complained bitterly about the "stolen" 2000 Presidential election must leave that fallacy in the past and now try to find something else to whine about-maybe they can even develop a fantasy that the four million vote plurality was a miscount, and continue their whining as they slink away into their caves.

It pleases me that Kofi Annan and the other United Nations sycophants failed miserably when they tried so hard to influence this election to ensure that a more pliable President Kerry would be elected. I hope they will now realize that either they clean up the bureaucratic, corrupt, do-nothing UN, or they will be short of funds when the Bush-led US decreases-or ends-its support.

I am overjoyed at the failure of Osama bin Laden's carefully timed video of invective against the US and its President in hopes of using Islamic scare tactics on the American people. Bin Laden's aim was to entice our voters to elect a new President who will not be as robust in his pursuit of terrorists and more willing to "negotiate" with Islamic Fundamentalists. He did not understand that Americans are not so panicky as the French, fearful as the Spanish, or unthinking as the English. (As for the Germans, they should know better; we have defeated them in battle often enough to convince them of the rightness of our ways.) I hope Osama dies in a blast from a bunker-buster before he gets a chance to make another video or another attack on our nation.

The blatant attempts of European nations and the EU to cause our President discomfort in his efforts to bring peace to the world make me glad that they are so disappointed with the election results. My joy is unbounded at the chagrin of the French and German and other anti-Bush, anti-American nations (including the people of the UK-but not their loyal and faithful government led by Prime Minister, Tony Blair). Now let those U.S.-sheltered Europeans worry about the end of American financial and military assistance when they have problems. Let them beg for American military aid and other handouts that have helped to sustain their economies. And let them perish in their own sweat when we remove out troops from Germany, the Balkans, and other trouble spots where we have pulled their chestnuts out of the fire.

I relish the hope that Islamic fundamentalists will now understand the election result as a blow from which they cannot recover. It fills me with joy that their dreams of world domination will be shattered by Bush's and the American nation's resolve to see them defeated and sent to join their Allah-without the 72 virgins waiting for them.

It pleases me more than I can say that the Senate Minority Leader, Thomas Daschle lost his seat. As the leading obstructionist for the Democrat party, he was primarily responsible for withholding approval of many Bush appointments to Federal judgeships, high-level positions, and other necessary personnel. Good riddance.

The demise of the junk-yard dog, loudmouth James Carville, also brings me great happiness. That happiness is further enhanced by the victory of the first Republican to win a Senate seat in Louisiana, Carville's home state.

I am delighted with the success of John O'Neil and his Swift Boat Vets-and with those thousands of non-Swifties who joined with them-on their forthright revelation of the truth of Kerry's service in Vietnam. They took a truthful but difficult position and made an impact-good and honorable Navy men all. Bush gets gentlemanly credit for not using them and their data in his campaign to demean Kerry, but the word was out that they spoke the truth. I maintain that they were the MVPs of this election; their testimony turned the tide against Kerry, and he never recovered.

And, finally, I must express my unbounded gratification at the defeat of Senator Kerry, a worthless Senator, anti-military extremist, lying self-promoter, and former Naval officer who disgraced us all. His traitorous collusion with the enemy is second only to that of Jane Fonda. He should have been court-martialed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. His dishonorable quest for medals and a quick return to the US, where he turned against his shipmates and lied about their actions resulted in a less than honorable separation from the Navy. Jimmy Carter's amnesty allowed him to file for, and get, an honorable discharge 18 years after he left the service. He should have received a court martial.

While my thoughts may seem to be mean-spirited, do not be confused-they really are mean-spirited, as I mean them to be. I have suffered the tortures of the damned over the past year as I heard and read the lies and nasty remarks from politicians, citizens, and media "experts" about our President. I have barely tolerated the feeble but divisive attempts of foreign and domestic peaceniks to build a case against our war on the Islamic fundamentalists, who use terrorism as a weapon against us in order to intimidate out citizens and drive some of our gutless politicians to seek "negotiations" to avoid "confrontations" with those who seek to kill our citizens.

Most of all, I have seethed with anger at those who shamefully derided out military, blissfully reporting on their failures and neglecting their successes. They triumphantly celebrated our difficulties by running daily body counts of our own heroic men killed in battle with the enemy, even publishing their pictures in papers and on TV as if to mock the President who sent them to defend our nation. I have only disgust for such tactics. And those are the very same people who now plead for "united actions" in the House and Senate, now that they are in a steadily declining minority. I would advise our President to "watch your six" because these are really enemies and they are not to be trusted.

Four more years! How sweet it is!

No reaching across the isle for me!