Memorial Day

Traveler, take this word to the men of Lakedaimon:We who lie buried here did what they told us to do.

Remember the warriors
Jason
III

Pride

"Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity."
From here

For most of my life people have tried to teach me that pride is bad. If I display confidence it is regarded as arrogance, if I refuse to loose it is considered overly competitive or mean. I disagree. See we have been flooded with the ideals of the seven deadly sins, or even more recently with the negative side of pride. E.G. "white pride", "black pride", nationalism, and "gay pride."
This is being used to separate "us" into clicks and cliches. Pride in yourself is a fantastic tool, do not fall into the trap of a singular ideal. Stand up and have some pride in yourself, your life, your abilities or lack of. All of it defines YOU, take pride and strength in that fact. See no self respecting man who has pride in his life, and its position in the world, would stand for oppression. The greater good? I am that greater good because of pride. I am proud of my life, wife and children. I am proud of the accomplishments I have made. I am proud that I have carved out a little space on the Internet to vent and debate with others. Do I have pride, hell yeah. Is it sinful or bad? Not in the least. I learned a long time ago that if you want to appreciate life, you must accept death. That acceptance led to pride. I search for experience in what life I have left, and take pride in what i accomplish in that time. You may not agree with me or my life's choices, that's okay, I am still proud of it. Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1741-"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
I believe this at my core, pride is meant to be embraced it is your conscience and should be your driving force. Instill pride in your community and it thrives, instill pride in your children and they flourish.
Have faith, stand strong, stay proud.
Jason
III

Lucy, you gots some banning to do!

Ricky Ricardo would loose his mind trying to esplain this to his red haired queen as she only want to protect "little Ricky"

Here are some real numbers of accidental child deaths per year:

Cause ......................Number (Ages 0-14) .............Number (Ages 0-4)

Motor vehicle .........................2,591..........................................819 Drowning .................................943............................................568

Fires and flames .....................593............................................327

Mechanical suffocation ..........601.............................................508

Ingestion of food, object.........169 ............................................169 Firearms ..................................86...............................................19

Source: Figures are for 2000. National Safety Council, Injury Facts: 2003 Edition, at 10-11, 129.

Sourced from here

GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM! There are much worse things to de doing with your children. Hell even the Clampet's undestand this

(This is SARCASM I do NOT believe in the government banning of any activity that does not directly harm or infringe another human being E.g. Murder)

Is The Military Coming For Us?

Part of my weekend was spent enjoying time and conversation with friends. Some of which are current and/or retired military. The talk drifted to the current Mid-East as the battalions represented had recently returned from Iraq, and are set to deploy on an Afghan route by years end. Anyways during the clearing of Fallujah talk we were going over the adaptive rules of engagement as Marines were going door to door. Here is a brief rundown:
-Early on it was door to door looksey.
-Some would fight, most hostiles would flee a few doors down.
-After a while you get a build up in a single location, a severe fight ensues.
-Door to door becomes escalated with multiple frag grenades. More people run out sooner, dig in deeper.
-More severe fight ensue, and the escalation continues on and on, and involve rolling big boomers.

Here is my first thought, if the Marines do come for Threepers were fucked! We simply do not have a realistic defense against a squad with a full frag set up. The good news is I don't think we need it. See as I posed the question to the Marines, about citizen disarmament, the answer I got was (paraphrased) "we got some crazy assholes, but I would hope the MP's would say F that before the orders even got to recon." Essentially followed up by the hint that you would soon see Marines on both sides of the line with an overwhelming majority of the battle proven on the side of our citizens. Thanks for the reassurance of support, Semper Fi and be safe out there boys.

Jason
III

(PS not meant to dismiss ANY other branch of service, you all just weren't at the party. Thanks to all who have and do serve. May you and your families find rest and peace soon, you deserve it)

Hadji Girl!