Imagine?

You can fly a flag, or you can........................... :-)

z

General MacArthur: "Duty, Honor, Country"

General Douglas MacArthur

Sylvanus Thayer Award Acceptance Address

"Duty, Honor, Country"

General Westmoreland, General Grove, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps!

As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" And when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place. Have you ever been there before?"

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. Coming from a profession I have served so long, and a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now -- as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give.

He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.

As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.

And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.

In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier.

We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.

And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.

Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.

Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are war mongers.

On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

I bid you farewell.

Happy Veteran's Day to all our Veterans at geeeeZ and everywhere else......we honor you, we thank you, we admire you, we owe everything to you.    To the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, and I'll include Border Guards because we're fighting a whole new war now;  God Bless you ALL and GOD BLESS AMERICA.

(thanks, Mustang, and thanks for YOUR service;  Semper Fi)

z

The Flag needs to go.......I can't eat and see it at the same time...?

Would an American flag in the restaurant "disrupt your dining experience?"    I'm curious.

The Olive Garden says they'd been told that, in their town in Alabama, "NO flags or banners are allowed in restaurants unless they have a private meeting room -- the Calhoun County site doesn't -- and yes, that includes the American flag."

Would that really include the American flag?  REALLY?

What do you think?  Is it so upsetting, so disdainful a flag that it bothers people to have it in their eyesight while they eat?  Which people would be offended by it?   If this were a small Mexican restaurant in that town and the Mexican flag was used as part of decorations, do you think they'd have to take it down?

z

Dear Mr Obama......We the People............amazing video

You agree?
z

American? What's that mean?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.........HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!   Whatever you call it, I hope yours will be a happy one and that we'll all pause and remember what we're celebrating..........

I have a question for you all and hope you participate today. Some of you chimed in on this subject on my post below on Obama, but I thought you might like to all write more on the subject.  Please copy/paste your previous comment from THIS article into the comments page on this post; most of them were inspiring.   Others of you weren't here for that and I hope you feel moved to respond to the following question today.

 The question is:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO 'BE AMERICAN'? Please list what you consider it to mean...thanks so much.  

Have a fabulous day! THESE PEOPLE are, but, sadly, most of them don't know WHY. (you simply won't believe it, but some American young people think we're celebrating independence from Mexico....or AMERICA !  Seriously......watch the link, if you're up to it!)

By the way........is it true Republicans love America more?   CHECK THIS OUT...Harvard thinks so, and it's WARNING DEMOCRATS not to SUCCUMB!:-) 

Have a fabulous day.......Love, Z

(thanks for the terrific top image, Impertinent xx  And thanks for the idea for the post and the video, Scottyxx)

z

Sunday Faith Blog

The information below is from the book "It's Time to Remember, AMERICA!  Connecting the Past with the Present"...by Michael R. Myers and presented to me by a very dear America-adoring friend:

Were it not for the intense love of country that existed before and after the War Between the States, this nation would have ceased to exist as it had been formed.  From the earliest days of the Republic, men expressed a deep sense of loyalty and devotion to the union that formed these United States.  Here is a sampling of their sentiments:

The kindred blood that flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their sacred rights, consecrate their Union......   James Madison


One God, one country, one destiny.  This is the gospel of American nationality...   Wendell Phillips

I know no North, no South, no East, no West to which I owe any allegiance.........  Henry Clay

Every American should be proud of his whole country, rather than a part... .William Tecumseh Sherman

Without Union, our independence and liberty would never have been achieved;  without Union, they cannot be maintained..........Andrew Jackson

We were One by the configuration of nature and by the strong impress of the art. We are One by the memories of our fathers.  We are One by the hopes of our children.  We are one by our Constitution and our Union. .. . Robert C. Winthrop

 The nation depends not on the wisdom of its senators, not on the vigilance of its police, not on the strong arm of its standing armies: but on the loyalty of a united people.......... Parke Godwin

Lord of the Universe!  Shield us and guide us,
Trusting Thee always, through shadows and sun!

Thou hast united us, who shall divide us?

Keep us, O keep us, the MANY IN ONE..........Oliver Wendell Holmes
                                  ***
Z: UNITY of country, UNITY of its people........exactly what we are losing through anger, divisiveness and all attempts to rid our country of so many things, including the Christian God in America today.

More from the book:  William Penn realized the providence of God in (this country's) foundation:


"For my country, I eyed the Lord in obtaining it, and more was I drawn to look to him, and to owe to his hand and power than to any other way.  I have so obtained it, and desire to keep it that I may not be unworthy of His love.."

"Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you."   2 Corinthians 13:11

United we Stand.......Divided we Fall........
z

Bikers ROCK!

PLEASE WATCH THIS  ...... You'll want to cry and be sick at the same time.
What kind of country tells a kid he can't fly the flag to school on his bicycle 'citing safety concerns'?  Is that what we do, hide our flag because someone, probably from another country, doesn't like it?   Hopefully not.
What should be done is for people to rally and support the young boy..........there's amazing footage here in the linked video which will make you very proud.........Those bikers ROCK!...And thank goodness so many across the country are supporting him.  (those are California bikers, by the way :-)   "The flag will stay there and I WILL RIDE"  God bless that kid!

What do you think of any country which allows a school to tell a child not to fly his country's flag?  Oh, ya, I forgot, we also allow kids not to have to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance, what was I thinking?  I keep thinking this is still America and leftwingers haven't entirely ruined it yet....silly me.

OH! I just found THIS VIDEO which doesn't have the story but does have the fabulous sights!  ENJOY!

 So, what do you think of those bikers!?  YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  (I guess you can tell how I feel about them!)

geeeeeeeeeeeeZ

No Pledge of Allegiance?

Really?.......think again..........

The video's bad enough, but this quote from the article really did me in:  "The moderator further irked the crowd afterward, saying she felt "disrespected" by being "forced" to include the pledge "in presumably a planned way."  She felt disrespected?  SHE DID, after dissing the Pledge?  See, in her mind, it has to have been 'planned'..it's that nasty Rightwing that PLANNED this insurrection, according to her.  OR she figures that deflection might take from the gravity and bad press of her having said they hadn't planned for the Pledge of Allegiance. Sorry, Ms. Tate-Bradish, trying to put the shoe on the other foot didn't work...Better go back for more ideas from the the supposedly nonpartisan League of Women Voters.
Then you get the left suggesting it doesn't make  you patriotic to say the Pledge or wear a Flag Pin.  NO, it doesn't, what's questionable is disallowing it....and then throwing a fit that the challenge is "planned"....

Do you think every meeting like this ought to start with the Pledge?  Do you think the Pledge should be on the meeting's agenda?  How the heck has the leftwing been so successful at making AMERICANS feel 'overboard' for flying a flag, wearing a pin or saying the pledge, for heaven's sake? 

geeeeeeZ

Do you like the new DOJ website look?

The bottom image is the older Department of Justice website masthead...the black one at the top is the new one. Strange, don't you think? Gone are the stars and stripes...........The screen shot below is from 2008. The new top website information has this quote: "The common law is the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people." (except in the case of Prop 8 in California, of course) It's a quote from C Wilfred Jenks, who was a leading proponent of the international law movement of the 1930's, which had as its goal the imposition of a global common law and which backed global workers' rights. SURPRISE!
WHAT IS GOING ON, folks? And what exactly was wrong with the original masthead?
z

"I AM AMERICA"....Commenter Will asks today in the COMMENTS SECTION "At the heart of what O and the lib-o-dems hate, just what are we?" Got an answer?

Our friend Priscilla sent me this video and I had to post it...Krista Branch is a fantastic belter (my voice coach would be drooling) and I don't know who wrote the song (I've looked but can't find anything yet) but it is fantastic. Maybe some of you have already seen it but, if you haven't, PLEASE treat yourself. Have Kleenex nearby. (thanks, Pris)
z

Monday of a long weekend should be fun!

Thanks, Always On Watch, I love this clip and am so glad you sent it to me.......
Enjoy, everybody.....(it doesn't get too much cornier but it's a good kind of corny!...and there's some great tapping here by the great CAGNEY).......IT'S A GRAND OLD FLAG!!!
z

Sunday Faith Blog....Independence Day

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all the blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." Abraham Lincoln (copied from It's Time to Remember America!)

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

I just read this poem by Amy Carmichael and had to print it here today.........

BATTLE BURIAL

Where is his grave? Only the angels know,
who companied about him to the end.
What was his winding sheet? Ah, a very low
all heaven did stoop, and of its glory lend
a robe of light. Was ever funeral
Like battle burial, sweet, mystical?

But oh, to know how the last hour went by,
the thoughts he thought, the words he would have said
had any listened! Wist thou not that night
to him was One who loved him? Comforted,
he communed with his Father; roar of gun
was hushed that God might listen to His son.

Did he regret the vanishing life that beat,
hurrying within him, fierce with mortal pain?
Nay, never never! Doth the corn of wheat
mourn that it fall into the ground in vain?
Oh, that thou couldst have seen his steadfast eyes
lighted and filled with joy of sacrifice!

How did he die? Somewhere a bugle blew,
and he was gone: I know not any more.
Only I was aware, as he passed through
the quiet borderland of air, a door
opened in Paradise. And musical
sweet welcome led him in to festival. (Z: I wonder who that boy in the image was and if he lived or died.....we can't know, but we care, don't we)

Independence Day has come to mean hamburgers and fireworks........the FOURTH OF JULY, which is fun and wonderful and so American, and who'd want to take away from that kind of celebration, after all?! My past 4th of July posts have been all about that celebration, but this year seems different to me, does it, you? No less happy to be in America, no less joyful to celebrate her independence, but I hope we all take the time today to remember all those who lost their lives, who still face death, for our independence, our safety, our sovereignty. I don't have to reiterate here what we're all fighting against these days.......from without and within. Please thank God every day for this country, ask for the ability to humble ourselves even as we stay strong and resolute, ask for forgiveness and wisdom, and thank Him for His assurance that we are in His hands even in these really difficult days in America.

Have a wonderful Independence Day! And GOD BLESS AMERICA.
z

The Pledge of Allegiance....WHY?

“The principal wanted to be very respectful about the pledge and be sensitive to the Supreme Court ruling that students are not forced to say the pledge. He wanted to be sensitive to the diverse group of students we have.”
HERE is the story about a Massachusetts school and the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, I know that liberals don't much like saying the pledge or wearing flag pins, but, I'm thinking that 'diverse groups of students' and their families have come to this country to escape their own countries or at least find a better opportunity here, some have lived OFF this country, and maybe they should want to pledge allegiance to their new homeland? But, of course, liberals have made it so our own students don't much respect this country enough to pledge anything to it, either, so why would we expect them to respect us when our own don't?
From the article: Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins -- but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped. (Harrington is the High School Senior who fought to get the Pledge BACK at his school)
Imagine that we'll have discussion at GeeeeZ about "should we be FORCED to say the Pledge of Allegiance" in America!? Who ever felt forced to when we were in school? Why are kids made to feel that way today?
How do you feel about removing the pledge so we don't offend anybody?
z

A Marine's Vigil

This is so touching and I hope you take the time to watch: EVERY day should be MEMORIAL DAY........God Bless ROLLING THUNDER and God Bless that soldier and his fallen comrade.
thanks, Silvrlady
z

"Oh, say does that star spangled banner still wave?"

Now you see them.........................now you don't. What's up with THAT? See what I see?

(thanks, Mike)
z

IF you're a patriot......get Kleenex...not only for this beautiful video but for a warning on the contents of the Constitution...

any comments?
HERE is a link to Chuck Thinks Right, one of my favorite blogs. He has an article on a warning on the Constitution you won't want to miss. Again, make sure you have Kleenex, but these won't be touching tears, trust me.
(thanks, Chuck)

Dennis Prager...A MOST important video you really should see

I thought I'd start the month of June with something positive and uplifting. Dennis Prager gets it SO RIGHT.............please watch and send to your friends, family and, especially, your kids. "We have not passed on what it means to be American to this generation." Amen. (Watch the whole thing, it gets better and better....)

z

Z's Memorial Day afternoon,,,who knew I'd be blogging about my day?

..but I did want to blog about it because it shows so perfectly a couple of mindsets I'll never agree with.

First off, it was a lovely, absolutely perfect afternoon in a friend's backyard...hot dogs, burgers, and all the fixings, but REALLY good...watermelon,, carrot cake, you get the picture...NICE. I knew about four people out of 25 or so.

A fellow who turned out knows a very dear friend of Mr. Z's and mine happened to sit down next to me and we realized we both knew this friend very shortly into our conversation so we had something in common right off the bat......and he was fascinating. We talked about many things but the thing that got my dander up was when he told me about his granddaughter who's 8 years old and who was in her public school when they showed a film on Ruby Bridges the other day, Bridges being the little black girl whose parents were encouraged by the NAACP to enroll her into a segregated school in New Orleans in 1960 (Rockwell caught the moment in the painting I've published above). The film they showed these second graders showed this poor black child being taunted by whites and parents pulling their kids out of classes, etc. You can imagine the message his granddaughter got, and she relayed it quite eloquently over dinner that night...how Americans are mean and don't like black people and on and on about this poor little black girl trying to go to school.

This man thought that it was not something we need American children seeing until they're able to grasp things in context and learn the good about this country before they learn the bad, which they should learn about in high school or college but not the formative elementary school years.
We spoke about a lot more, this man's career, the death of his wife, his kids, etc., but I had one ear on the liberal guy, Don, who lives next door to my hostess.

Don was a pip (and no, I don't mean he sang with Gladys Knight!). He came to our table and started schmoozing with some of the ladies near me while I was in conversation with the other guy. Don started talking about how anybody could possibly vote for Meg Whitman for Governor of California when she's very rich and "obviously is just another Republican buying this election" and he was waxing eloquent about Jerry (Moonbeam) Brown who's running for Governor, too, on the basis of his being Pat Brown (previous governor)'s son....that seemed to be the pedigree Don thought was enough to run California.

He then went into a tirade about Dick Cheney, information of which I haven't ever even heard of....and I kept ignoring him as he droned in my ear and I tried to listen to the guy next to me, who WAS interesting but you know me and politics... I SO wanted to argue with Don but I couldn't (God is good :-)

Don then went into how he's a Jew and he feels that as much as he loves Israel he really can't support most of what Israel does because he feels the Palestinians are so right and so sad and so innocent............and the Jews are so rough on them. (!) OH, did I WANT TO TALK? Then, I heard him say he'd just been on a plane where he spoke to a muslim who owns something like 58 Dominos Pizza shops and what a nice guy he was and how he told him muslims don't want to kill Jews and that the Koran never says they should. "Nowhere in the Koran does it say to KILL JEWS" he says, but he admits he'd like to look more into that. (Good, Don, you do that). Okay, now I'm tingling with desire to say something but I can't interrupt the man telling me about his life, right? :-) At one point, I DID say "OH, you are all so lucky I'm not getting into your conversation!" (Don had a group of conservative women and one man as a captive audience because they're really nice people who were afraid to venture any alternative viewpoint!) But, I then turned back to my conversation......

This guy Don was SUCH a nice guy but you could just hear he's full of Olbermann and CNN and hasn't paid any heed to a viewpoint other liberal in his whole LIFE. And I so didn't want to get into it at my friend's barbecue!

Well, I did enjoy my conversation but it wasn't easy with one EAR ON DON! ....and not feeling I should really speak up. But, I wanted so badly to say "Right, Don, Muslims don't want Jews dead, the Koran doesn't tell us that, Israel's wrong and Palestinians are right, and Jerry Brown would be a perfect governor because you liked his dad." OH, and I forgot...Don was telling these people he did go to a party full of Republicans "and they're so vociferous on every subject about their own views"..."and one of the guys said Obama was really wrong about one thing; he didn't put all the bankers in PRISON!" Don seemed thrilled with that encounter..."now HERE is a REPUBLICAN I COULD LEARN TO LIKE!" Oh, cool, Don, glad you approve of THAT Republican.
z

Gingrich .... You think he's right?

Please watch this...........and if you think Newt's wrong, tell us why. If you think he's right, what point or sentiment stood out to you the most as you watched? thanks.

and thanks, Pris, for emailing it to me. Z

Christians have "played a strong role" in patriotic wars?

Ducky, in a comment here at geeeeeZ, takes out the snippet in bold italics below from James Carroll's column in today's Globe.

"In the secular age, as religion was marginalized, its role as a source of meaning, purpose, and transcendence was largely taken over by the myth of nationalism. The nation-state became a main source of identity, prompting sufficient devotion in citizens to die or to kill. Where religious wars were always primitive and immoral, national wars were patriotic and just. Today, the tie between citizens and the state is tattered, even in America, which, in its democratic liberalism, was nationalism’s greatest success. The hollowing out of US institutions, from a Congress in the grip of political paralysis, to an extravagantly funded Pentagon that cannot defeat enemies whose bombs are made with fertilizer, to an economic regulatory system that has no influence, much less control, over financial predators — all of this suggests a breakdown not just of government, but of the national idea. Meanwhile, patriotism has become an exercise in hatred."

Ducky adds this:

Seems the religious right has played a strong role in this sad state of affairs, primarily through their stealth Calvinism.

As I commented to him in response, Carroll shows much naivite and misinformation which only seems used here to fuel Ducky's unrelenting hate-Protestants mantra.........
Any thoughts?
z