tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post2790731424545103022..comments2023-09-15T08:07:28.542-06:00Comments on Western Hero: Memorial DaySilverfiddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-9183410370907447202012-05-29T22:13:28.322-06:002012-05-29T22:13:28.322-06:00If you opened AOW's link, the meaning of this ...If you opened AOW's link, the meaning of this small opus should be clear to you:<br /><br /><br /><i>[NOTE: Chris Hayes of NBC News said on air that he was “uncomfortable” with calling our fallen war veterans “heroes.” Let the following serve as a well-deserved tribute to this immortal imbecile.]</i><br /><br /><br /><b>Here’s to Chris Hayes<br /><br />Let us hope the days <br />Of the jerk Chris Hayes <br />Are numbered<br /><br /> And may he be annoyed <br />When he's soon unemployed<br /> And by unpaid bills encumbered. <br /><br />Vengeance belongs to God<br /> But wouldn’t it be odd <br />If Hayes died at peace while he slumbered? </b><br /><br />~ FT - 5/28/12Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-73337693025752628262012-05-29T12:33:10.346-06:002012-05-29T12:33:10.346-06:00Thank you for sharing, Silver. Wonderful tribute.Thank you for sharing, Silver. Wonderful tribute.Trekkie4Everhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03226981394122557804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-31027201817061296162012-05-28T20:31:12.894-06:002012-05-28T20:31:12.894-06:00It's a madness that grips humanity, Ducky. We...It's a madness that grips humanity, Ducky. We are flawed vessels.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-12440336114865162432012-05-28T20:09:37.123-06:002012-05-28T20:09:37.123-06:00Wee Freethinker, I had no idea what was or what wa...Wee Freethinker, I had no idea what was or what was not posted at AOW's. Haven't read much there.<br /><br />But I will insist that we show respect to the dead by deconstructing the mindless memes that indoctrinate many.<br /><br />Is it not up to the living to do something about the tragedy of many dying for a lie?Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-30443651927795127172012-05-28T20:06:12.744-06:002012-05-28T20:06:12.744-06:00More Jarrell waxing sardonic:
Gunner
Did they se...More Jarrell waxing sardonic:<br /><br /><i>Gunner<br /><br />Did they send me away from my cat and my wife<br />To a doctor who poked me and counted my teeth,<br />To a line on a plain, to a stove in a tent?<br />Did I nod in the flies of the schools?<br />And the fighters rolled into the tracer like rabbits,<br />The blood froze over my splints like a scab --<br />Did I snore, all still and grey in the turret,<br />Till the palms rose out of the sea with my death?<br />And the world ends here, in the sand of a grave,<br />All my wars over? How easy it was to die!<br />Has my wife a pension of so many mice?<br />Did the medals go home to my cat?</i><br /><br />~ from "Little Friend, Little Friend"<br />October 13, 1946<br /><br />Submitted by FreeThinkeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-52480270552306376252012-05-28T19:58:31.375-06:002012-05-28T19:58:31.375-06:00There once was a soldier from Wheeling
Who for can...<b><i>There once was a soldier from Wheeling<br />Who for cannons had sexual feeling.<br />Into a big gun<br />He climbed looking for fun<br />But wound up being scraped off the ceiling.</i></b><br /><br />~ by FTAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-37395351413548236472012-05-28T19:52:28.821-06:002012-05-28T19:52:28.821-06:00Good old Randall Jarrell always full of encouragin...Good old Randall Jarrell always full of encouraging sentiments and heartening, inspiring imagery!<br /><br />A great poet, I suppose, but almost as bad as Ezra Pound in his relentless flow of austere, appallingly dreary, invariably dispiriting views of life.<br /><br />His work might possibly be categorized as <b>An Invitation to Commit Suicide</b>.<br /><br />Beauty may be found in bleakness, of course, but not in utter <i>blackness</i>.<br /><br />Shakespeare always provided "comic relief" in even his most violent tragedies. <br /><br />~ FreeThinkeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-80766286676933762762012-05-28T19:44:35.333-06:002012-05-28T19:44:35.333-06:00Canardo knows that FreeThinke posted Dulce et Deco...Canardo knows that FreeThinke posted <i>Dulce et Decorum Est</i> at AOW's two days ago. We had quite a bit of discussion about it there which I wish many others had joined.<br /><br />FreeThinke also posted <i>In Flanders Fields</i> on the same thread shortly thereafter, and Kipling's <i>The Charge of the Light Brigade</i> along with lesser known works by Siegfried Sassoon, Emily Dickinson and Kathy Sanderson Zwick.<br /><br />Mark posted a stirring work by Eric Bogle.<br /><br />All these poetic works are singularly appropriate for the contemplation of courage, sacrifice, death -- and the colossal waste humanity makes of life's great opportunities in its ceaseless attempts to achieve dominance and exercise suzerainty over others through treachery, intimidation, and violence.<br /><br />That Canardo always fails to acknowledge anything worthwhile in what others are saying, and then likes to take credit for what others have already said and done is frankly ignoble.<br /><br />Visit AOW's blog. There's a lot of good stuff over there, as well as here at WH, on the meaning and implications of Memorial Day.<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-39302608641169654982012-05-28T18:39:33.104-06:002012-05-28T18:39:33.104-06:00I haven't talked to Ric in a few years...
Tha...I haven't talked to Ric in a few years...<br /><br />That brings back some memories...<br /><br />Night Cats...<br /><br />Put down the cheap shit OD!Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-68805661064885483752012-05-28T18:27:18.113-06:002012-05-28T18:27:18.113-06:00Hey Silver, I pocket dialed Ricardo yesterday at t...Hey Silver, I pocket dialed Ricardo yesterday at the shooting range. When he called back he told me he was in DC at the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally. Pretty cool. read more about it and get the link to the official site at http://2thedogs.com/2012/05/rolling-thunder/OD357https://www.blogger.com/profile/13129455581130598040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-10137624615673207892012-05-28T18:26:42.366-06:002012-05-28T18:26:42.366-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.OD357https://www.blogger.com/profile/13129455581130598040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-17721803176229047462012-05-28T18:12:43.971-06:002012-05-28T18:12:43.971-06:00That captures Jarrell's style. A very bright m...That captures Jarrell's style. A very bright man, a manic at times and a critic. Still, a point of view to consider as many of us are critics and feel ups and downs emotionally.KPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13788103894599339102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-55398809129846370292012-05-28T17:56:26.329-06:002012-05-28T17:56:26.329-06:00Randall Jarrell
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunne...Randall Jarrell<br />The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner<br /><br /> From my mother's sleep I fell into the <i>State</i>,<br /> And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.<br /> Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,<br /> I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.<br /> When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-38208321971380570962012-05-28T17:53:37.064-06:002012-05-28T17:53:37.064-06:00When Newshour posts the photos of the latest war d...When Newshour posts the photos of the latest war dead I feel so much ambivalence.<br /><br />I've seen a LOT of death in my life including the young but I still can't get over the tragedy of so many young people dying.<br /><br />And I feel a lot of anger that we never gave them a better mission. We must cynically manipulate with the false "freedom and democracy" meme. I'm afraid we owe them an apology that we won't admit. They clearly deserved better.<br /><br />Please forgive us.<br />Here's one we don't make them memorize.<br /><br />Dulce et Decorum Est <br />by Wilfred Owen<br /><br />Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,<br />Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,<br />Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs<br />And towards our distant rest began to trudge.<br />Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots<br />But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;<br />Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots<br />Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.<br /><br />Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,<br />Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;<br />But someone still was yelling out and stumbling<br />And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...<br />Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,<br />As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.<br /><br />In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,<br />He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.<br /><br />If in some smothering dreams you too could pace<br />Behind the wagon that we flung him in,<br />And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,<br />His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;<br />If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood<br />Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,<br />Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud<br />Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—<br />My friend, you would not tell with such high zest<br />To children ardent for some desperate glory,<br />The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est<br />Pro patria mori.Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-60354434449627172302012-05-28T16:53:29.038-06:002012-05-28T16:53:29.038-06:00I just listened to the father of a Marine killed l...I just listened to the father of a Marine killed last year on a night mission he volunteered for. He was asked how he would like people to celebrate Memorial Day. He said, "have a BBQ, enjoy baseball, go to the beach, hug your children, laugh ... and enjoy all the things the fallen have helped provide for us; but remember them. <br /><br />Granted, he is closer to the situation than those of us who have not lost immdediate family to war. And his perspective is diverted away from the Civil War andn the politics of avoidable conflict/war. <br /><br />There are another 364 days a year to contemplate andf remember avoidable war. Today I will remember the fallen.KPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13788103894599339102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-1862707292434770022012-05-28T16:53:17.872-06:002012-05-28T16:53:17.872-06:00WWI must have been one of the worst. Fighting a s...WWI must have been one of the worst. Fighting a stalemate in the worst imaginable conditions as far as day after day after conditions goes.<br /><br />War IS insane, but as long as evil exists, then thank these men and women on the front lines who can't ever be thanked properly.Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05287399775879832602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-85021822131556474202012-05-28T16:48:16.072-06:002012-05-28T16:48:16.072-06:00Jersey:
Thank you for reading what I wrote and ...Jersey: <br /><br />Thank you for reading what I wrote and respecting it. I know you are a patriotic American and that you honor our war dead.<br /><br />Nobody, nobody can be more anti-war than a person who has been in one.<br /><br />I agree with you that many, many wars could have been avoided.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-79111138568058620912012-05-28T16:26:59.122-06:002012-05-28T16:26:59.122-06:00On Memorial Day we should always remember the Civi...On Memorial Day we should always remember the Civil War, the event that started this "holiday," when 600,000 Americans murdered one another to make a more perfect union, a place without slavery and feudalism.<br /><br />It is terrible what we have asked of our young fighting men, and though sometimes we had no choice, often we did.<br /><br />Never forget - the vast majority of all wars ever fought were avoidable.<br /><br />Remember that.<br /><br />Memorialize that.<br /><br />JMJJersey McJoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15426560061830038806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-67716476098361655732012-05-28T14:42:44.140-06:002012-05-28T14:42:44.140-06:00KP: You'd have more success talking to a door...KP: You'd have more success talking to a doorknob (actually, maybe you were).<br /><br />The person obviously can't read and does not respect what this day stands for.<br /><br />You don't have to support the wars to support the troops and to honor their memories<br /><br />Fabius Maximus says it better than I could...<br /><br />http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/39232/Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-40096933579077654752012-05-28T14:35:57.015-06:002012-05-28T14:35:57.015-06:00Hear Hear.Hear Hear.Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05287399775879832602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-11453970103734892402012-05-28T14:14:53.513-06:002012-05-28T14:14:53.513-06:00Anon, to paraphrase Carl Sagen, the chief deficien...Anon, to paraphrase Carl Sagen, the chief deficiency as you argue the last few days is the ploarization: Us vs. Them. <br /><br />When that occurs the reader is left with the sense that you must think you have a monopoly on the truth. This attitude, that says "you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you", is not constructive. It does not get any useful message across. It condemns the user to permanent minority status.KPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13788103894599339102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-63206996178470834032012-05-28T12:26:48.467-06:002012-05-28T12:26:48.467-06:00In addition to "Flanders Fields" (my fav...In addition to "Flanders Fields" (my favorite war poem) I also recommend Alan Seeger's "I have a rendezvous with death," as well as the Mexican war poem, "Bivouac of the Dead."<br /><br />Thanks for honoring our fallen.Stogiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05852841950131130696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-14185693896301698432012-05-28T11:52:40.933-06:002012-05-28T11:52:40.933-06:00Have you seen THIS? Disgusting!Have you seen <a href="www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/vfw-seeks-apology-after-msnbc-hosts-reprehensible-and-disgusting-comments_645944.html" rel="nofollow">THIS</a>? Disgusting!Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-153212217944866402012-05-28T11:34:39.164-06:002012-05-28T11:34:39.164-06:00That essay by Lily Burana is particularly moving -...That essay by Lily Burana is particularly moving -- at least, for me. Perhaps because I can easily identify with a wife using her laptop and knowing that her husband will never again be back home in the sense that she hoped for -- and will long for for a long, long time, perhaps forever. Think about my situation, and you'll know exactly why I feel that way.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-50754347364401551902012-05-28T11:31:16.184-06:002012-05-28T11:31:16.184-06:00Back when I was in school, we were required to mem...Back when I was in school, we were required to memorize "In Flanders Fields" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade."<br /><br />5th grade, I think.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.com