Patriot Guard Riders - short notice

My Chief will be riding a mission with the Patriot Guard Riders today. Here's the link with details of who and where...

You gave your life for us, Scotty - this is the least we can do in return.

Number Three

Bob Tyrell's column has something to say about BarryO and His Band of Weasels. BarryO has brought some real 'pieces of work' to his administration, and some of them have the job on a very temporary basis. Sometimes shills and sycophants who worked well at a campaign level really aren't good company at the National level. They say things or do things that cause pain and embarrassment to their Emperor - can't have THAT! I need a pick-me-up this morning, and Tyrell provides much in the way of snark. I love snark.


My guess is that Dunn's expressed admiration for Mao is the cause of her departure. For this revelation, I suppose we have to thank Fox's Glenn Beck. He aired a tape of Dunn notifying an audience of students at St. Andrew's Episcopal School near Washington that this cuddly little butterball of a tyrant — who oversaw the murders of some 70 million people — is one of her "favorite philosophers." The other one, she said, is Mother Teresa, who killed no one, as far as we know. Dunn adduced both as moral exemplars for the assembled youths. Her point was something about setting out to do things you really want to do regardless of criticism. If I followed her, she saw both Mao and Mother Teresa as variations on the old Sinatra standard "My Way." In moral and practical terms, Dunn's advice to the students was confused.


What is more, she stretched the truth when asked to defend her speech. On CNN, she attempted to explain that when she spoke of Mao as one of her "favorite political philosophers," she was speaking ironically. The phrase was, she claimed, "intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat — at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing." Ah, Dunn's war with Fox continues.

I don't know about you, but where I'm from "stretching the truth" is the same as lying. I don't believe for a minute that she intended irony.

Wonder who's next to open mouth and change feet. Stay tuned!

Michael Henry Cassel, 19 May 1932-11 November 1991

Michael Henry Cassel
Born 19 May 1932
Died 11 November 1991

I'm going to post a few recollections of my dad here today. Many of them will be factually wrong, probably, as my brain has been a bit damaged over the years and some things are mixed up while others may be absent altogether. But my brother reads this blog, so I'm sure he'll correct any glaring inconsistencies, and I'll amend as needed.

Mike Cassel was born in Glasgow, Montana. I don't know when the family moved to Havre. He ran away to join the service at 17, I think I heard. When he was 20, he went home on leave. He met Mom at one of her college dances, Friday the 13th of March, and asked her to marry him just ten days later, before he returned to duty back east. She said yes. Mom got a tiny diamond in the mail and planned the wedding, and on November 7, while he was again on leave, they got married. The honeymoon consisted of driving back to D.C.

Dad was so smart...and he got bored easily, and luckily married a woman willing to pack up the kids - Glenn was born in '54, me in '55 and Thelma in '63 - and the household and traipse off to the next perfect job after he got out of the Air Force. Usually every summer. All around the state of Montana. I went to twelve different schools in twelve years. The year I was in the third grade, I attended three. In two different towns. Twelve schools, numerous towns, three countries. Perfect training for this Navy Wife of 22 years.

Mike Cassel understood electronics and airplanes and weather and weapons. He hunted the prairies of north central Montana till shortly before he died. He enjoyed fly-fishing. He liked beer and a nice pipe. He could play harmonica and piano by ear. He was a voracious reader and a spirited writer of letters to the editor and he even wrote a book.

My dad was a paratrooper in the Montana National Guard. He jumped out of one too many airplanes, tore the hell out of his knees, and eventually lost one leg to staph infection that nearly killed him more than once. When they came to visit us in Maine because I was having a bit of surgery (and to meet his son-in-law for the first time), he gave me his jump wings. I still have them.

Dad got his college degree when he was 40. He taught shop. He did his student teaching at my mom's school, in my class, and he made physical science interesting. The other kids loved it and I didn't hate it either. Because of him, I love to fly - being in the Ercoupe or the Stinson with him was such fun - we used to land at the lake and drive around on the dirt roads.

We found out about the cancer around Christmas of 1989. Mom called me at my in-law's house in Indiana, where we'd stopped to visit on the way from one duty station to another. They gave him two years, because he chose no treatment. Just under two years later, as I returned home after watching the Jacksonville Veterans Day parade with my husband and daughter, I answered the phone on the wall in this house and my mom's voice said, "He's gone."

My dad was opinionated, educated, loud, and obnoxious on many occasions. He was a much better grandparent than he was a parent. I think he liked to fight as much as I did. Maybe more. He fought his demons in a different way than I do...now.

Mike Cassel - husband, father, grandfather, fighter, friend, teacher, pilot, poet, warrior. He was a helluva man. And I miss him still.

Veteran's Day 2009

Veteran’s Day Tribute

When America had an urgent need,
These brave ones raised a hand;
No hesitation held them back;
They were proud to take a stand.

They left their friends and family;
They gave up normal life;
To serve their country and their God,
They plowed into the strife.

They fought for freedom and for peace
On strange and foreign shores;
Some lost new friends; some lost their lives
In long and brutal wars.

Other veterans answered a call
To support the ones who fought;
Their country had requirements for
The essential skills they brought.

We salute each and every one of them,
The noble and the brave,
The ones still with us here today,
And those who rest in a grave.

So here’s to our country’s heroes;
They’re a cut above the rest;
Let’s give the honor that is due
To our country’s very best.

By Joanna Fuchs
Reprinted from Patriotic Poems

Veteran's Day/ Remembrance Day 2009

The Things That Make a Soldier Great
Edgar Guest

The things that make a soldier great and send him out to die,
To face the flaming cannon's mouth nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch, the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too, the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where his children play, the roses on the wall:
'Tis these that make a soldier great.
He's fighting for them all.

'Tis not the pomp and pride of kings that make a soldier brave;
'Tis not allegiance to the flag that over him may wave;
For soldiers never fight so well on land or on the foam
As when behind the cause they see the little place called home.
Endanger but that humble street whereon his children run,
You make a soldier of the man who never bore a gun.
What is it through the battle smoke the valiant soldier sees?

The little garden far away, the budding apple trees,
The little patch of ground back there, the children at their play,
Perhaps a tiny mound behind the simple church of gray.
The golden thread of courage isn't linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where'er it be — the humblest spot called home.
And now the lilacs bud again and all is lovely there
And homesick soldiers far away know spring is in the air;
The tulips come to bloom again, the grass once more is green,
And every man can see the spot where all his joys have been.

He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now -- he's fighting for them all.

Reprinted from The Holiday Zone: Poetry for Veterans Day

Message from General James T. Conway, United States Marines

The United States Marines represent the best young men and women our Nation has to offer. To be a Marine is to be a member of America’s warrior class—to be one of the few who steps forward with the courage and conviction to face whatever dangers await. Our Nation expects her Marines to be ready when the Nation calls; to leave family and the comforts of home behind; to march into battle under austerity; and to come home under a victory pennant.

From Al Anbar in the west of Iraq, to Helmand Province in the south of Afghanistan, our Corps of Marines can always expect to be found where the fight is the toughest. Such is our history. Today, as we write the final chapter on our victory in Iraq, we will increasingly take the fight to the enemy in Afghanistan and add new pages to our legacy in places like Delaram, Now Zad and Garmsir. One day we will return to our naval heritage and patrol the high seas with our Navy brothers. Such is our future.

As we celebrate our Corps’ 234th birthday, we first pause to reflect and pay tribute to those Marines who have given the last full measure in defense of freedom. We extend our deepest gratitude to our Marine Corps families—the unsung heroes who endure hardship and sacrifice so that we are able to go forward and accomplish any mission. We extend our appreciation to our countrymen who have answered our every need. And we celebrate the magnificent men and women who willingly and selflessly continue to go into harm’s way to protect this great Nation.

To all who have gone before, to those who wear the uniform today, and to the families that give us the strength to forge ahead—I wish you all a heartfelt 234th birthday!

Semper Fidelis,

James T. Conway
General, U.S. Marines

Semper Fi

The United States Marine Corps celebrates 234 years today.

To all Marines, everywhere, serving or past serving, I extend my heartfelt thanks. We are better and safer as a Nation, because of you.

This video is long, but so worth your time. Happy Birthday, USMC - ooh rah!