KeepYourHelmetOn

Graphic courtesy of TC Design

My state does some immensely ridiculous things some times.  From our governor wanting to use my tax money to buy laptops for five-year-olds, to a highway project that had drains to nowhere, to this:

While the nation remains divided over whether a mosque should be constructed near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, the city of Hartford, Conn., is going out of its way to show “solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

It’s not the prayer that bothers me – if they wanted to open the Council meeting with prayer, and rotated different faiths based on the holidays at the time, sure. Nice touch.

What bothers me is that a Council that normally does NOT open with any sort of prayer is going out of its way to court Muslims, when it is a virtual certainty that there will be no similar invitation to a Presbyterian, Buddhist, Catholic, or Wiccan.

Separation of church and state is a warcry among liberals / progressives…except when they can use it to make a statement, court a group of the selected ‘downtrodden,’ or gain some political mileage.

“I feel it is very important that, as a Council, we project a culture of inclusiveness in the City of Hartford…”

So sayeth the Council president, who also made a reference to the NYC mosque.  Yes, let’s be inclusive – as long as we’re including the right people.  And by “right,” let’s be clear – we mean proper, not politically conservative.

More information here and here.

If anyone is looking for me, I’ll be throwing up.

#1:  Just before opening an investigation into top GOP funders, the SEC is now exempt from the Freedom of Information Act – thanks to the financial reform bill.  And what do you know, the investigation comes three months before what many were predicting would be a landslide electoral victory for the GOP.

#2:  The FBI looks to set to gain expanded powers to seize – without a warrant – all records of an individual’s Internet activities in the case of a risk to national security.   Hmmm… and all while the DNC is ratcheting up its rhetoric that the Tea Party movement, and the GOP, among others* are extreme and very dangerous entities.  (Remember, there’s no such thing as Islamic terrorism, Jihad, or Islamic extremism, and there’s no war on terror – unless it involves silencing those that disagree with the Progressives now in control)

I’m sure there’s no relation to anything like a “fundamental transformation” of our Republic into a Socialist nightmare….

*and anyone who doesn’t like paying high taxes, people who fly the Gadsden flag, Christians, people who want to end illegal immigration, people who believe the Constitution should be followed, people who don’t like Socialism or Communism, and people who disagree with the DNC or this President

…awesome.

Twisted, but awesome.

House lawmakers have started calling for an investigation into reports that more than 1,800 veterans from Missouri, Illinois and other states may have been exposed to HIV or other diseases while getting dental treatment at a VA medical center in St. Louis.

…potentially deadly viruses were transmitted through equipment used at the John Cochran Division of the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center from February 2009 to March 2010…

…dental equipment at the hospital in St. Louis was sterilized — but it was “not sterilized to the exact specifications of the manufacturers guidelines…”

Disgusting. Our vets should want for nothing when it comes to their medical care, and they sure as hell should be able to expect that the equipment used to care for them will be properly sterilized!

After the issues at Walter Reed, as well as several recent incidents involving contaminated equipment, errors in dosing, and numerous allegations of poor care, you’d think things would have improved.

Nope.

Nauseating.

I’m sure there are good doctors, nurses, etc. at VA Hospitals.  But if the level of care, and the level of capability, is ever substandard, it’s unacceptable.

Full story is here, and you can contact the Congressmen quoted in the article as follows:

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri)
Rep. Sam Johnson, (R-Texas)

You can contact your Congressman by going here.

My state always makes the news for the greatest reasons…like this one, for instance:

A group of retired Marines is asking Connecticut’s attorney general to allow the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag to fly over the state Capitol on July 4 after Capitol Police refused the request saying it doesn’t fall within the state’s flag flying parameters.

The Capitol police are saying that the flag is not one of the ‘official’ flags of the Marine Corps; since it was “a personal standard used by one admiral during the Revolutionary War” and the USMC “never claimed that to be one of its organizational flags.”

The Marines don’t agree; one said that Marines “flew it over our bases in Afghanistan and Iraq while I was there.”

Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll win this one.  It’s about as blue as you can get here in the Nutmeg state.

I can hope, though – the idea of that flag over the CT Capitol building  just warms the cockles of my heart.

Full story is here.

You just gotta love him….

Vice President Joe Biden called the manager of a custard shop outside of Milwaukee, Wisc. a “smartass” after the man asked him to lower taxes.

Biden made the comment after the Kopp’s Frozen Custard shop manager told him that his dessert would be on the house if he lowered taxes.

“What do we owe you?” Biden is heard saying in footage captured by WISN-TV.

“Don’t worry, it’s on us,” the manager replied. “Lower our taxes and we’ll call it [the custard] even.”

“Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time,” Biden said a few minutes later.

Full article here.

Reuters is now under fire for cropping out images of weapons in the hands of our ‘peaceful’ flotilla friends, as well as pools of Israeli blood, on the Mavi Marmara.

Reuters insists that the images were just cropped as part of normal publishing prep, and that the omission of weapons in the hands of the Mavi Marmara passengers, and the wounds caused to Israeli soldiers, was not intentional:

“Reuters is committed to an accurate and impartial reporting. All images that pass over our wire follow a strict editorial evaluation and selection process.”

I might believe that, if it weren’t for Reuters’ history of doctoring images that, let’s say, wasn’t exactly pro-Israel.

Then there are the photos staged by the infamous Green Helmet Guy, and the oh-so-poignant, miraculously-untouched-toy photos, and so on, and so on, and so on.

So the camera adds ten pounds, and Reuters’ cameras add an agenda.  Welcome to a world where you can’t trust your own eyes.  Maybe it’s time to start trusting your nose more, ’cause when it comes to Reuters, things just don’t pass the smell test.

Army troops wade ashore on “Omaha” Beach during the “D-Day” landings. They were brought to the beach by a Coast Guard manned LCVP. (June 6, 1944)

“we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

This day in 1944, 160,000 Allied troops hit the sands on a 50-mile long stretch of sand in Normandy, France. The operation was supported by nearly 13,000 aircraft (close to 9,000 of those American), and more than 5,000 ships.

9,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded.

U.S. Army divisions involved in the ground assault were:
1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One)
2nd Infantry Division
4th Infantry Division
5th Infantry Division
8th Infantry Division
9th Infantry Division
28th Infantry Division
29th Infantry Division
30th Infantry Division
35th Infantry Division
79th Infantry Division
83rd Infantry Division
90th Infantry Division
2nd Armored Division
3rd Armored Division
4th Armored Division
6th Armored Division
82nd Airborne Division

The U.S. Navy, in Operation Overlord, participated in the largest amphibious landing in history. Allied Naval forces did more than just transport troops -

- Minesweepers combed the waters for anti-ship mines.

- “Frogmen” – demolition swimmers – swam ashore in order to destroy obstacles that would harm landing craft.

- Transports carried troops to the pre-landing area, and landing craft took them to the beaches.

- Cruisers, Destroyers, and Battleships bombarded German fortifications.

- Naval beach battalions braved fire to handle logistics and tend to the wounded.

The U.S. Air Force was multi-tasking, too:

- The 8th U.S. Air Force deployed 1,729 bombers, dropping 3,596 tons of bombs. It suffered three losses.

- Heavy bombers also struck choke points near the beaches.

- 900 aircraft, and 100 gliders, dropped the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions behind enemy lines.

- Forward air controllers landed with U.S. Army Infantry units in order to direct bombers.

- 8th and 9th Air Force p-38′s provided air cover for convoys approaching the beaches.

- B-26′s and fighters attacked transporation targets and airfields, and supported heavy bombers attacking the shore defenses.

U.S. Marines were there – although perhaps not as big a part of common knowledge, U.S. Marine officers helped in the planning stages of the invasion, among other contributions.

And the U.S. Coast Guard? They participated as well. 4 US Coast Guard landing craft (LCI’s) were destroyed on D-Day. They helped to land the Big Red One on Omaha beach. Four Coast Guard-manned LST’s carried British troops and equipment to Juno, Sword, and Gold beaches.

Links
D-Day - General information
The National D-Day Memorial Foundation
Survivors Share Memories Of D-Day
The National D-Day Museum
BBC History’s D-Day audio archive
The American Experience on D-Day
The Wartime News
Witness to War
D-Day Pictures
Other D-Day Links

Army
D-Day

Air Force
USAAF Chronology – D-Day
The United States Army Air Forces in WWII – D-Day

Navy
Navy Art Gallery Exhibit – The Normandy Invasion
D-Day Information at the Naval Historical Center

Marines
GyG’s Old Corps Legends, Myths, etc.

U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard at Normandy

Must-See WWII Movies:
The Big Red One
The Guns of Navarrone
Saving Private Ryan
The Dirty Dozen
Memphis Belle
Band of Brothers
Patton
The Great Raid
The Great Escape

Must-Read WWII Books
by Gerald Astor

“The Greatest War, Volume I – From Pearl Harbor to the Kasserine Pass”
“The Greatest War, Volume II – D-Day and the Assault on Europe”
“The Greatest War, Volume III – The Battle of the Bulge to Hiroshima”

“Beyond Band of Brothers” by Major Dick Winters

Please add your book / movie suggestions / links in the comments section!

Seems Helen Thomas has apologized for her recent oh-so-tolerant comments about Israel:

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas has issued an apology after saying in an interview that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine.”

That wasn’t quite all she said, though:

Thomas went on to say that the Palestinian people “are occupied and it’s their land” and that Israelis should “go home” — to Poland, Germany, America “and everywhere else.”

Her anti-Israeli sentiment shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s ever heard her ask a question about the issue; the surprise is that someone on the Left actually honestly said what they felt when it comes to Israel.

I’m not really sure, though, which she should apologize for more – her disgusting antisemitism, or the fact that her voice sounded like a cross between a ninety-year chain smoker and a rusty chain saw while she said it.

Kind of a toss up there.