Snoopy's Christmas

Today is the start of the Christmas season for me. As a kid, this was the weekend we'd get the tree. Almost always the weekend closest to my mum's birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday, Mom. We love you!

One of my very favorite Christmas songs and some scenes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Glad it's chilly today, think I'll go make enchilada casserole like Grandma Elsie taught me. Y'all have a fine weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Remember Pearl Harbor

Read Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

Read Infamous Day: Marines at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.

USS West Virginia - repaired and returned to duty



USS Arizona - lost with 1177 of her crew


Ford Island taken in October 1941 - the view the Japanese pilots would have seen


While a Marine, foreground, looks skyward, the torpedoed battleship California (BB-44) lists to port. In the left background flies "Old Glory," raised by PFCs Frank Dudovick and James D. Young, and Pvt Paul O. Zeller, USMCR.
National Archives Photo 80-G-32463



Beneath a leaden sky on 8 December 1941, Marines at NAS Kaneohe Bay fire a volley over the common grave of 15 officers and men killed during the Japanese raid the previous day. Note sandbagged position atop the sandy rise at right.
National Archives Photo 80-G-32854



A 91-year-old Veteran in Alabama talks about the attack on Pearl Harbor and other bases on Oahu.

It was a day that changed his life forever, a 91-year-old Enterprise veteran remembered Friday about Dec. 7, 1941.

Chester Faulkner was a 23-year-old Army Infantry soldier stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii when the Army post and nearby Navy base at Pearl Harbor were attacked that Sunday morning. “I was still in bed,” said Faulker, who was the squad’s leader at the time. “The windows started rattling so hard.”



I have no words that can express the gratitude I feel for being a citizen of the country that produced such Men as were created that day. God Bless America, and REMEMBER Pearl Harbor.

Breaking: Massacre At Fort Hood

Breaking: Massacre At Fort Hood

You don't need my words, go read...these bloggers have links and opinions worth your time.

Andrea at Spleenville.com

Paco at Paco Enterprises

SwampWoman at A1A South

Stacy at The Other McCain

richard mcenroe at Three Beers Later

Jeff at Parrothead Jeff

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."

One more on Jacko

This will be the final link from me about Michael Jackson - because, in so many ways, it's just too pathetic to continue on about.

Mitch Albom at JewishWorldReview.com:

"...let's be honest. Celebrating Jackson more in death than in life doesn't honor him. If anything, calling him Wacko Jacko, chronicling his surgically enhanced face and making him a national joke, then weeping for TV cameras about how much we'll miss him makes us seem, for the moment, even stranger than him."

All Conditions Are Temporary

A man I've known for just about six years put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger last week. In April, another man I'd known for four years took himself out with a shotgun. These are only the latest in a line of people I've known who decided that life ain't worth living.

Both these men had lovely wives and children/ grandchildren, good jobs, really nice cars, loyal friends...and a "drinking problem." Both men had spent some time in a 12 Step program and had experienced relief from the bondage they had to John Barleycorn. Due to personal circumstances, they quit attending so many 12 Step meetings and found excuses to call "old friends." They stopped taking calls from people who were Sober and cared for them so much. They finally quit going to meetings altogether. Then, in a fit of what-the-hell, they took another drink. And nothing bad happened, so they took another. And s'more.

We'll bury the second one some time this week. Because the Demons are not forever banished just because we don't drink. They come back again if we are not on guard. Then, if we continue down the road to destruction, we leave behind some of those Demons for our wives, our children, our grandchildren and our friends to mull over and consider. When it comes right down to it, if I believe it's a choice between drink and shotgun, I'll drink. My friends can help me get Sober again -- they can't bring me back from the Dead.

I'm going to a meeting now. Thanks for stopping by, I'll post something more interesting later tonight or tomorrow. Y'all take care, y'hear?