Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Thanks for the link and the comment, Lex–I owe ya “one each” snark-free day…
Thank you.
Capt. Lex, thank you for serving.
Thank you for serving, Lex. You are one of the people I was thinking of when I wrote this: http://fuzzilicious.blogspot.com/2005/11/veterans-day-gets-personal.html
Thanks for the link, Lex. My father has been gone for over 15 years now. He flew in B-17s over Germany with the 8th AF during WW II and went on to complete a 20-year career in the USAF, retiring as a Lt Col. He was like most WW II veterans in that he NEVER talked about his war experiences…until one night about a month before he died. I’ll never forget that evening, sitting in his garage, just the two of us and a bottle of bourbon. The stories came pouring out and I sat there…listening…mesmerized. I like to think that evening was his parting gift to me. And I treasure it.
Thanks for your service, Lex, and thank you oh-so-much for giving us a peek into your world through your writing.
After thinking a bit about today, and the meaning of it all, it struck me as very strange that the general population doesn’t observe Veteran’s Day. Yes, there are parades and speeches, and all. But most of the formal occasions will occur TOMORROW, on Saturday. There’s a reason I feel this way. I had every single Veteran’s Day off during my 22 years of active duty (before I was technically a veteran), because Veteran’s Day is a federal holiday. On the other hand, I *worked* every Veteran’s Day during my 17-year civilian career. Neither company I worked for during this 17 year period observed Veteran’s Day…the day was what we called a “light traffic day,” because only the banks and the government(s) closed their offices. Perhaps (and hopefully) this practice has changed, I dunno. I’ve been fully-retired for three years now, but I *did* notice most of my neighbors got into their cars this morning and headed out for work. Something’s wrong here…