Another man's little girl...

Late soldier’s daughter gets flag after ceremony

(Created: Friday, August 7, 2009 12:23 PM MDT)

MARTIN J. KIDSTON Independent Record HELENA (AP)

With her black shoes and freckled face, her blonde hair almost red in the sun, little Riley Ehret stood quietly outside the Capitol, taking in the moment with her wide, green eyes. The 7-year-old was wearing the same black dress and the same blue ribbon she had selected for her father's funeral. Her smile, however, was something new. And so was the flag clutched tightly in her arms and the Army Commendation Medal pinned upon her dress.

"Your father's attention to detail and situational awareness allowed his platoon to effectively accomplish all assigned missions," said a soldier, standing before the girl as he read her father's commendation. "His performance reflects great credit upon himself, the 116th Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Liberty and the United States Army."

Riley's father, Spc. Travis T. Ehret, earned the commendation as an automatic rifleman serving with the Montana National Guard's 1-163rd Infantry Battalion in Iraq. Ehret served three tours in the war, standing up for the principles he believed in and the country he loved.

Then he came home, where he died of injuries suffered in a Helena bar fight that occurred on June 20 — the day before Father's Day. It was why, when Sunday came — when Father's Day arrived — Ehret didn't return Riley's call. It was why the two would never speak again. But Riley wouldn't know that for nearly two weeks, not until a sheriff's deputy came knocking at the door in Belgrade. The officer told Riley's mother, Iselin Jensen, that her ex-husband — Riley's father — had been critically injured in a bar fight and wasn't expected to recover. Breaking the news to Riley was the hardest part. "I just looked at her and said, 'Daddy got in a fight, and it's not very good, and it doesn't look like he's going to make it,'" Jensen said. "I told her, 'He'll probably end up with the angels.' We didn't know that it happened over the Father's Day weekend. Riley didn't know why he didn't call and she was upset."

Days after the fight, Ehret was flown from Helena to a Billings hospital where he died on July 2 at 10:59 a.m. He was interred at the Yellowstone County Veterans Cemetery and remembered as a loving son and father, a man of his word who was proud to defend America's freedom on the battlefield. That day, the flag went to Ehret's mother. Riley didn't have her father, and she wanted a flag of her own to remember him by.

"Her dad died off duty, and the parents are divorced, so by protocol, the flag has to go to (Ehret's) mother," said Denny Lenoir, coordinator of the state Honor Guard. "Riley was extremely sad that she didn't get to talk to her dad on Father's Day, and that she didn't get a flag at his funeral."

But Lenoir set out to change that, and on Wednesday, the state Honor Guard came to attention on the steps of the Capitol to perform a ceremony the soldiers would later describe as touching.

With their brass buttons glinting in the morning sun, Spc. Moe Mayhew, Warrant Officer Lance Heppner, and Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Schaan unfolded the flag and ran it up the pole. Holding Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger's hand, her other placed over her heart, Riley watched the ceremony with pride and wonder, her freckled face warmed by the sun. The soldiers then folded the flag, perfecting each crease, and presented it to the girl with an unflinching salute. "This flag of the United States of America was flown over the state Capitol of Helena, Montana, on Wednesday, August fifth, 2009, in honor of your father for his dedication and faithful service to the United States of America while serving in the United States Army," Bohlinger told the girl. "The people of Montana are extremely proud of your father for his courage, his bravery and his commitment to the peace of this world and to the safety of our people."

With the video cameras crowding around, the reporters standing before her, Riley didn't smile. As Bohlinger held her hand, she looked at her shoes and simply said, in the smallest of voices, "My dad loved me." As for the flag she wanted so dearly? She clutched it in her arms the way most girls hold a teddy bear. "I'll take care of it," she said, following Bohlinger on a tour of the Capitol. "I'll put it somewhere in the house. When I get there, I'll pick out a place."

My Pixie

Twenty-two months ago today, my BEEootiful Pixie was born, and our lives changed forever...again. See how tiny she was?

I am a happy Grandma Daycare, while Mama and Daddy go to work to earn the money so they can pay the rent on the place where she has her own room.

A few weeks back, we bought potty chairs, one for each house. Then I bought a couple dozen pairs of cotton training pants. This week, on Monday, we began in earnest to bring about the natural progression.

Today, we had no wet panties, no puddles on the floor to mop up, and used only two diapers - one for nap time, one for going home at the end of the day.

I am so proud. And a bit sad.

*sigh*

Beware "Government Grant" Scams

Money is tight. People are nervous. The idea that you can get 'free money' from BarryO and His Merry CongressWeasels is probably more attractive than ever before. DON'T DO IT! There are dozens - maybe hundreds - possibly thousands - of scammers out there, doing exactly what cost this woman money she could little afford to give away. May as well give cash to the 'homeless' family at the off ramp as get taken by one of these scumsuckers.

Your government is not giving you a damn thing. There's no such thing as a free ride - for the average everyday workin' American Joe or Jane, that is. Every good thing has a price...and so do the crappy ones. You know, like 'free' medical care.

Dave Ramsey says when we fall for the lies, we end up paying the Stupid Tax. Don't be as stupid as your government - and the lowlifes who aren't your government - think you are! If it sounds too good to be true, you can bet your lil blue booties it's TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!

BarryOCare = DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

Thomas Sowell (you KNOW I love him):

Are decisions made by doctors who have treated the same patient for years to be over-ruled by bureaucrats sitting in front of computer screens in Washington, following guidelines drawn up with the idea of "bringing down the cost of medical care"?
...
What is both dangerous and mindless is rushing a massive new medical care scheme through Congress so fast that members of Congress do not even have time to read it before voting on it. Legislation that is far less sweeping in its effects can get months of hearings before Congressional committees, followed by debates in the Senate and the House of Representatives, with all sorts of people voicing their views in the media and in letters to Congress, while ads from people on both sides of the issue appear in newspapers and on television.

If this new medical scheme is so wonderful, why can't it stand the light of day or a little time to think about it?

Robert Tracinski:

You can see how Obama's demands undermine this whole system. To ask insurance companies to cover a patient after the tumor is diagnosed is to ask them to take on a known expense. Combine that with another Obama demand: that insurance companies can't charge higher rates for those who are at higher risk of getting sick. So if insurance companies have to take on a known expense and can't charge a higher rate for it, how are they going to pay for it? By raising everyone else's rates, redistributing their wealth to the new freeloaders.

This isn't insurance, it's welfare. And that's the whole point.

John Stossel:

I keep reading about health-care "reform," but I have yet to see anyone explain how the government can make it easier for more people to obtain medical services, control the already exploding cost of those services and not interfere with people's most intimate decisions.

You don't need to be a Ph.D. in economics to understand that government cannot do all three things. (Judging by what Paul Krugman writes, a Ph.D. may be an obstacle.)

Paul Greenberg:

Here's what some of us are looking for in a health-insurance plan: Will it allow us to choose our own doctor and our own insurance policy? Will it let those who provide our health care order the tests and treatments they consider necessary, or will it hamper them?

Do we get to consult our own physician or is our fate in the hands of Doctor Obama with his glib talk of red pills and blue pills, and how there's really no difference between them except in cost? Oh, and our president is an expert on tonsillectomies, too, and how many should be done. (When he talks medicine, he's almost as convincing as some doctors I know talking oh-so-expertly about politics.)

Another question: Will this country's great big new health-care system get all those lawyers off our doctor's back, and just let the country's physicians practice medicine? Instead of having to practice it defensively? Is there anything in this developing thousand-page mass of rules and regs that will lower the medical malpractice premiums that keep driving up the cost of health-care?

Will this bill give individuals the same tax breaks on their health insurance as businesses are now allowed? Will it let us take our insurance with us when we switch jobs or lose one? Will it encourage good health? By, say, giving discounts to those of us who don't smoke?

Issa to Emanuel: Back Off!

Methinks the Chicago Machine who've invaded Washington, D.C. may have gotten a tiny bit big for their britches...

In the press release, Issa's letter to RahmmyBaby has this beautiful paragraph:

At what point do you believe your practice of Chicago-style politics violates a public official’s right to speak out in favor of alternative policies. The American people have a right to know what role you played in developing the threatening letters to Governor Brewer and whether you intend to continue to engage in these tactics in the future.

Read this, then click the button at the bottom for the pdf version of the letter. I may print it out and tack it to my bulletin board, as a reminder that we still have a small handful of Elected Officials who aren't complete weasels. Makes me want to stand up and cheer, I tells ya!

It's Tuesday - it's Thomas Sowell

Samples from Mr. Sowell's column at JewishWorldReview.com:

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away, while we are mindlessly repeating the catchwords of the hour, whether "change," "universal health care" or "social justice."
...
Ultimately, our choice is to give up Utopian quests or give up our freedom. This has been recognized for centuries by some, but many others have not yet faced that reality, even today. If you think government should "do something" about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don't have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom.

Useless time-wasters

I wandered over to Margo's Maid's Shadowlands. She posts some of the strangest stuff. In continuing on past her links, I came upon this. Now, I'm an expert at doing something so I don't have to DO something (which is the reason these blogs exist, isn't it?), but it hasn't come this far just yet. So far, I've managed to stick with cooking and blogging to waste my time - and yours!

"...government made more promises than its economy can easily support."

As this column notes, California is having problems that are repeating at the national level. Do YOU think our Elected CongressWeasels pay any attention to that at all?

Robert J. Samuelson:
Here's the national lesson. There's a collision between high and rising demands for government services and the capacity of the economy to produce the income and tax revenue to pay for those demands. That's true of California, where poor immigrants and their children have increased pressures for more government services. It's also true of the nation, where an aging population raises Social Security and Medicare spending. California is leading the transformation of politics into a form of collective torture: pay more (higher taxes), get less (lower services).

Rest in Peace, Captain Speicher

It's been 18 years. I didn't know this young man. We were living in this house, with a little girl and a dog and a cat. We've lived in 4 other places since then, returning to this house 6 years ago. I remember the reports, watching the tv on top of the fridge while I fixed dinner and washed dishes. I have been kinda tearful for nearly an hour now. He was one of ours...and he is missed.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After nearly two decades, the remains of a Navy pilot from Orange Park -- the first American lost in the Persian Gulf War -- have been found in Iraq, the military said Sunday.

News4Jax.com

Thank you for your Service, Captain Speicher. We will not forget.

(Thanks, Swampie)