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
“…watching TV or at the Mall, complaining about how utterly helpless they feel”
Cheer up! The president himself said you are the ultimate repudiation of terrorism. The more you shop, the harder you play, the sooner we win!
“People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping and playing, worshipping at churches and synagogues and mosques, going to movies and to baseball games.
“Life in America is going forward, and as the fourth grader who wrote
me knew, that is the ultimate repudiation of terrorism.”
President GW Bush, November 8, 2001
http://www.september11news.com/PresidentBushAtlanta.htm
“…Or perhaps I should say, from the comfort of a stateside desk job, represents for me.”
Lex, you did your “representing” for nearly 20 years…including lots of activities and stories that we know you can never share on your blog.
You’ve served your country, defended the freedoms of others and risked your life in so-doing.
And you took that desk job for your family’s sake. Methinks you still have the heart of the warrior – that never goes away does it.
After the first MilBlogs concert, a little “protest” was in the making, to be put on the web for all to see the distaste for a certain business decision by a large corporation.
The “offended” would be those who served, those who supported those who served….
A volunteer, who makes a living making data into understandable representations on web pages went to work. Processes were established and the word was put out.
Guess what? The “offended” seemed to be too busy doing the Larry the Cable Guy thing to stop and register their complaint…
I think this is a personality trait of those not at the Mall…sleeves rolled up, covered in the grease or mud of the reality they face, tools in hand and quietly pondering the fix, while all the time pursuing it….never pausing to organize a posse to make placards and march around grassy fields in front of the media.
The web site is still there, but there are more important things to attend to.
Definitely two Americas. Those who understand the threat we are under for our basic core values and our very existence as a civilization. And those who think core values should be thrown out with the trash and civilization is just too big a word with nasty connotations and moral relativism mixed in — and so NOT worth fighting for.
I must be cranky today. Pessimistic and snarky to boot. Sorry — I’ll go play in my corner quietly now.