OT: Veterans Day Tribute Site

Having read (and re-read) the above postings, I thought I might offer the following quotations as appropriate as my own musings pale by comparison with these greats:

"War is an ugly thing, but it is not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill

1806-1873

"We sleep softly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

George Orwell BBC Interview 1942

"Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."

Sir Winston Churchill

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

Sir Winston Churchill

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."

Sir Winston Churchill

"I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents."

Sir Winston Churchill

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in."

Andrew Jackson

"Moderation in war is imbecility."

Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay

1800-1859

(And my favorite)

"If an enemy power is bent on conquering you, and proposed to turn all of his resources to that end, he is at war with you; and you -- unless you contemplate surrender -- are at war with him."

Barry Goldwater

Bear with me a bit longer....only a few more. Quotations from fameous DEMOCRATS:

We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.

President Lyndon B Johnson Remarks on the Vietnam War delivered at Johns Hopkins University, April

1965

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address

I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies."

Sheryl Crow (popular singer) Prior to Gulf War 2 (HUH?????? What planet is she on?)

Ed Robbeloth late of the US Air Force

I MUST STUDY politics & war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce & agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelin. (sic)

--- John Adams (1780 letter to Abigail)

Maybe he preferred an urban environment. My father was never fond of too many trees and he especially didn't like tree-lined roads. Fortunately, this is farm country and we don't have many roads like that here.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Sounds like making scale replicas must have been pretty far down on the list. ;-)

WmB

Last September I attended the reunion of the Chosin Few. It seems many of them have also gravitated to warmer climes.

A friend of mine tells me of an acquaintance he has made in recent years. The guy is a German emigre. Get this! In W.W.II he was Waffen SS, spent 2 years on the Russian front. Was wounded shortly before the war ended and was in hospital when the war ended. His Sister was an American citizen for some years and she sponsored him to come here after the war. He couldn't settle down to civilian life so he joined the U.S. Marines. Guess where he ended up?? He was probably forever telling his buddies "Cold, ach! zis is nozink"!

Bill Shuey

Hi Patriots:

If Woodier is an example of a USAF full bird Colonel, America is in deeper shit then I ever imagined.

Based on his potty mouth and how he deals with civilians, I am incredulous that he achieved high rank in that distiguished service. We civilians, after all, paid his salary/retirement.

I know a few USAF Colonels. They once were my grad students at Malmstrom AFB (1974).

In my class, all except two got As, Bs; or gentlemen B minuses if they showed the slightest effort to master my math material. This was a USC part time masters program, not Cal Tech or MIT. It was run out of the USC Department of Systems Management and Aviation Safety. If it had been a top science or engineering program, my grading would have been MUCH tougher.

Two (out of 60) got Cs as total basket cases. If Woodier had been in my class, there would have been three Cs handed out, or maybe two Cs and one D.

...../V

Once again we hear from the leftist membership of academia, an archtype of the educated but worldly ignorant professional academician.

I've known Bill Woodier for over 20 years, so I think I can accurately describe him as a selfless individual who has spent most of his adult life defending the Vess Irvines of this country who are long on complaints and short on contributions. A former Marine (are there really Marines?), a former Chicago police officer, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and now a civilian working to help the families of Prisoners of War and those who remain missing in action, I can't think of anyone I'd rather call my friend and a brother in arms. He probably has been in combat for a longer time than Irvines has had his PhD. He certainly has paid his dues to this country earning a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for bravery under fire. While Irvines by spending time in Montana, Bill found himself under hostile fire in places called Khe Sanh, North Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq and Kuwait. It's no mystery who made the larger sacrifice and the greater contribution to the United States?

I closing, I'd like to say that (borrowing from my Texan friends), Irvines appears to be

Edward Robbeloth Ft Walton Beach, FL

You mean his Piled higher and Deeper ??

Thought so.......

Gotta love these so called *intellectual elitists* who think that they just plain know more. They might know more, but have not the intestinal fortitude, and or the physical ability to stand up and defend themselves, much less look out for and or help others in need. The concept of actually having to stand up in harms way, is alien to them.

But they have all the answers tho, just ask them.

Unless it was a class in comportment, I would think you'd have to grade him based upon his classwork, not his mode of off-duty personal expression. I know that those civilians who pay YOUR salary would have your hide nailed to the Dean's door if you tried to do otherwise.

I don't mean to offend anyone and probably will offend everyone...)

While Vess has made some good points once in a while, he tends to go way overboard. When he disagrees with someone, they become evil in his perception. That's not very sophisticated, kind of like me when I was in junior high school.

I wouldn't lump Vess in with most liberals (of which I am) but I wouldn't blame him on the educational system. He's lacking in social skills; that's all.

But I have say to Vess, tone it down; you're neither making friends nor influencing people. You're sounding shrill and uneducated. Basically, you're displaying troll-like characteristics.

Sorry; gotta be honest.

--Stephen

At the very least.

WmB

Oh God... not another straw brained diatribe from Unavess's Manifesto. Shouldn't you be chopping would to keep the shed warm?

Dunno about the USA, but RMS keeps turning up a stray lump or two in the litter.

I think they base one's performance and thus promotion on how you perform your job. Such a silly concept.

The man was underpaid by all accounts.

[A lot of drivel snipped about some wet dream fantasy of rubbing shoulders with serving members of the US military - even to the point of believing he was for a time their superior.]

Vess, the simple truth is that deep down Bill and men like him represent the kind of man you wish you could have been. You've stood on the sidelines your entire life and watched these men attain their goals with sweat, strength, courage and fortitude - which you resented as you consider your intellect superior to most mere mortals and you simply cannot abide that you attained less.

Amen. I'd only say in Vessigny's case it's more a case of "all shit and no bulls".

WmB

hey, he leads with his chin and lack of social skills. not your fault.

You're much too kind, Ed, but thank you for your words. Vessticles still bears me a grudge from our jousting on RMS prior to the 2000 elections (the results of which he has never gotten over) and not being totally stable, the

2004 decision put him over the edge. I've heard that he continues to take cheap shots at me from time to time when he thinks he can, but I've killfiled him so I normally don't see his tripe. I don't take any pleasure in responding to his vitriol anymore since it always felt like sword fighting with a guy who constantly showed up with a rubber sword.

FWIW I am surprised that we haven't heard him crowing like a c*ck in the wake of the 2006 elections. Or maybe it's just that most of us have him kill filed by now.

Bill Shuey

Good question; actually there's not been a lot of crowing at all around here after the elections. I do feel like my team won the superbowl, but there's no reason to yell about it from the rooftops.

Let's see if a democrat legislature can do anything with a republican executive, and vice versa. I don't expect much except that someone has swiped W's rubber stamp.

Still, ridding us of Rumsfeld has got to be a good thing. Oh and John Bolton will have to practice the phrase "would you like fries with that?".

Winks and Grins -- Stephen

Not only that, a bunch of federal judges will now get those "up or down" votes the GOP has been whining about. Well, actually not. What'll actually happen is a bunch of recess appointments. The GOPers will conveniently forget how they gnashed their teeth when Clinton did the very same thing, for the very same reason.

What we have over here on the East Side (Wazzu-land), is a lot of shaking heads, because the farmers can't figure out why the GOP lost both locally and nationally. In addition to some of the populist initiatives, like the land use thing.

Like I said during the '04 elections, the GOP had better pray that they don't get treated like they treated the Dems, or it's going to be hard on the general population.

The American people are profoundly conservative. Small "c" conservative. But I'm enjoying listening to Rush and Michael Savage allude to how the voters were "duped." Yeah, that's it - the voters aren't smart enough to know what's good for 'em. Funny, that's EXACTLY what the Dems said 12 years ago!

It's all a circus.

E.P.