Wednesday Hero

Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas R. Anderson
21 years old from Sauk City, Wisconsin
1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force
March 13, 2006


Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson lost his life after the Humvee he was riding in rolled over as a group of Marines pursued a suspicious vehicle near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He suffered head injuries in the crash and died as he was being transported to a hospital.

Nicholas Anderson joined the Marines in January 2005 and began a six-month tour of Afghanistan two months ago with the 3rd Marines Weapons Platoon, his father, James Anderson said.

"I just know that he died fighting for what he believed in," he said. "He wanted to be a Marine and even though it was a major risk he just wanted to go."

James Anderson said his son, a 2003 Sauk Prairie High School graduate, enjoyed riding his motorcycle, lifting weights, going fishing and hanging out with friends.

He joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard when he was 18, but an injured shoulder forced him to drop out. He then enlisted in the Marines.

"I was very nervous when he first joined the Marines because two words jumped into my head: Afghanistan and Iraq," his father said. "I just supported him and prayed that it would end before he had to go over."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

An Argument For Tougher Border Security

A new study says that the AIDS virus may have entered the U.S. via a Haitian immigrant back in 1969. Now, this story brings up a very good argument for tougher border security. Since we have no earthly idea who's coming into this country via the borders, we have no idea what's being brought with them. The super aggressive AIDS virus known as "super AIDS", TB, avian flu or something we don't even know about yet. You know, you don't see someone coming for work as a problem. What ever. But what if the next pandemic the media has been scaring us with the past few years comes from someone sneaking across one of the borders. Really. Is it that far fetched?

Why?

Senior terrorists, including the chiefs of the most active West Bank terror organization, were part of an official Palestinian security team that protected a prominent U.S. envoy last week Keep reading. I thought Israel was an ally of the U.S. So, why then, are we arming and training militias who are enemies of theirs?
Credit: John K

Project Valour-IT

Soldiers' Angels is once again raising money to help the military by providing them with voice controlled computers and laptops so injured vets can communicate with their families. Head over to find out how you can help.

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Pow R. Toc H.
via FoxyTunes

For The Anti-War Crowd

I have a question for the people who are demanding that the U.S. pull all troops out of Iraq. After we do that, who then will help the Iraqis rebuild? Their country is blown to hell thanks to al-Qaeda. Shops, schools, hospitals and homes are nothing but rubble. They can't do it themselves and the cowards blowing them up aren't going to help. So, then, who? Iran? Syria? Do you really want them to "help"? Well, maybe you, do but those of us with a brain know that's not only dangerous but stupid.

Phony Solders & Patriotism

I was sent this article by one of the WHB members the other day and thought it was a great piece. It's almost 3 weeks old but it's worth a read.

(Believe it or not, we actually learned a lot of it from the French in their war in Algeria. People think the French lost that war, but they won it; it was only after they had nearly neutralized the insurgency that their government went ahead and handed the victory to a defeated enemy.)

Sound familiar?

Wednesday Hero

This Week's Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Lt. Michael P. Murphy
29 years old from Patchogue, New York
SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1
June 28, 2005


On Monday, Lt. Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. His father was the one who accepted the award. Lt. Murphy will receive the award for his extraordinary, selfless heroism and steadfast courage while leading a four-man, special reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan June 27 to 28, 2005

"We are thrilled by the President's announcement today, especially because there is now a public recognition of what we knew all along about Michael's loyalty, devotion and sacrifice to his friends, family, country, and especially his SEAL teammates," the Murphy family said in a statement released earlier in the month. "The honor is not just about Michael, it is about his teammates and those who lost their lives that same day."

Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded. The SEALs fought with everything they had. despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.

Eight more SEALs and eight Army "Nightstalker" special operations personnel comprising the initial reinforcement also lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down before they could engage the enemy.

Murphy was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon during a ceremony yesterday. His name was engraved beside the names of some 3,400 other service members who have also been awarded the nation’s highest honor.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Awesome

I've been toasted for the Wednesday Hero posts. Thank you, Leigh.

Dad, I Think We Ran Over A Skunk. No, Wait, That's Just Yoko

Is there anything the Japanese can't invent?

The manufacturer of plastic car accessories drew back the curtain on Tuesday on its new portable toilet for cars.

The toilet comes with a curtain large enough to conceal users and a plastic bag to collect waste.

Getting Old

"I'm the Conservative in this race." "No you're not. I am." "Wrong. I'm the only TRUE Conservative here." "I'm the second coming of Reagan." "You're not Reagan. I am."

And can someone tell me what a "values voter" is? Because I'm kind of stumped on that one. Who's values are they basing it on? Mine? Your's? Rudy's? Thompson's? I believe that marriage is for life. Rudy doesn't. I'm all for gun control. Thompson isn't. I support harsh techniques to get info from terrorists. McCain isn't. I'm sane. Ron Paul isn't. Would I be considered a "values voter"?

I Smell A Fix

U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal easily defeated 11 opponents and became the state's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction, decades after his parents moved to the state from India to pursue the American dream..

How? We hear in story after story that a Republican can't win in today's political environment. The American people don't want us anymore. Also, he's a minority. We don't vote for minorities. We're racist. He must have stolen this election. Something else we're prone to do. Anyway, in the .000000000001% chance that Gov. Elect Jindal reads this blog, congratulations.

We Need Alternate Sources Of Energy

Just not in our expensive backyards. I'm all for wind farms. If we can get cheap energy, and tell terrorist supporting nations to sit on it, I say bring it on.

Congressman Claims Bush Gets Amusement From Dead Soldiers

On the floor of the House Rep. Pete Stark, D-California, said the following

Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement

Really? President Bush sends troops to Iraq to get their heads blown off for his amusement?

Star Trek Movie News 11

It's been confirmed that Chris Pine has been cast as James T. Kirk and Karl Urban has been cast as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.

So, that makes the official cast to date as such:
James Kirk - Chris Pine
Mr. Spock - Zachary Quinto & Leonard Nemoy
Dr. McCoy - Karl Urban
Uhura - Zoe Saldana
Pavel Checkov - Anton Yelchin
Hikaru Sulu - John Cho
Scotty - Simon Pegg
Nero - Eric Bana

With the roles of an unnamed Federation Captain, Captain Pike and Kirk parents to to be cast.

Is Shatner in or not? Who knows. I hope they do get him. He is Captain Kirk. And it seems the USS Enterprise may have a different design that what was in the original show. Not sure how I feel about that. You can't just change the design of the ship. That wouldn't be right. This isn't like doing a remake of Bionic Woman or even Battlestar Glactica. This is Star Trek. No show has had as much impact on the world. But if they added a little more detail to make it pop, that would be fine.
Story

Wednesday Heroes

Sgt. Robert M. McDowell
30 years old from Deer Park, Texas
2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
April 01, 2007


Sgt. Robert M. McDowell was a military police noncommissioned officer assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

Originally from Deer Park, Texas, he joined the Army in February 1998 and completed training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In June 1998 he was assigned to Fort Hood where he served until being reassigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment at Katterbach Kaserne in Germany in January 2003. While a member of 1st Infantry Division, he served as an AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter repairman.

McDowell was assigned to Fort Drum in March 2006 after completing military police reclassification training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

He was deployed to Bosnia from February to September 1999.

His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Valorous Unit Award, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal, Combat Action Badge and the Army Aviator Badge.

Sgt. McDowell was killed when and IED struck his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq. He is survived by his wife and son, of Evans Mills, N.Y., and a daughter, Madison McDowell, of New Mexico.

Also killed in the attack were Staff Sgt. David A. Mejias, Staff Sgt. Eric R. Vick and Sgt. William G. Bowling. You can find more information about them at this site.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

S.O.S

What the hell has happened to our civilization? Birth control for 11-year-olds? Then not tell the parents? What?

Then we have this out of Oslo, Norway where there's a debate going on about whether children in Kindergarten should be allow to play sex games in school.

The vast majority of Norwegians send their children from the age of one to the kindergartens, where they spend their days until they begin school at age six.

Children should be able to look at each other and examine each other's bodies. They can play doctor, play mother and father, dance naked and masturbate

When did everything start going downhill?

Universal Health Care? Bring It On

Some English people have resorted to pulling out their own teeth because they cannot find -- or cannot afford -- a dentist, a major study has revealed.

Six percent of those questioned in a survey of 5,000 patients admitted they had resorted to self-treatment using pliers and glue, the UK's Press Association reported.

You must be in some serious pain to go this far.

Where NHS dental services are available, people are happy with the quality of treatment provided but many find the NHS fee system confusing and expensive, with some patients taking out loans to pay for treatment or more worryingly taking matters into their own hands

Credit: Master Of None

Al Gore: Brainwashing Demigod?

We all know The Church of Green and their leader, Al Gore. We all know their tactics. Either you agree with them or you a "global warming denier", which is on par with a holocaust denier, and you're ridiculed. I wonder if Dr. William Gray will be labeled a heretic for daring to speak out against Saint Gore and his IPCC Disciples?

I Thought It Was Protected

You burn the American flag and it's free speech, you burn the Mexican flag and you get trumped up charges thrown at you.

Now, I don't agree with the burning of any flag. It's hate speech and I don't believe hate speech should be protected, but how about a little consistency. If the asshole who's burning the American flag is allowed to due so then the asshole burning the Mexican flag should be able to without having a bogus charge filed against him. Charge everyone or charge no one.

Star Trek Movie News 10

Scotty & Sulu have been found. And I'm not sure about either one. First, Simon Pegg as Scotty. I loved him in Shaun Of The Dead. Great movie, but does he even look like he could play Scotty? They're going to have to give him a fake tan and a black wig to wear. And John Co as Sulu. Now, it's time to get real geeky.

Although the film’s casting sheet called for a Japanese-American, Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned Sulu to be more of a general representative for Asia

We learned in the book The Entropy Effect that Sulu's first name was Hikaru and then later it became a real part of Star Trek cannon in Star Trek IV. And Hikaru sounds Japanese to me.

A Helping Hand

I was sent this by Wednesday Hero Blogroll member Lt. Doug Schneider.

There are 27 states that have AUTHORIZED state defense forces ( see http://www.sgaus.org/States.htm). State Defense forces are volunteer soldiers that serve without pay until activated by the Governor of their state for natural disasters and civil disturbances. They are responsible for purchasing their own uniforms and equipment, pay for training outside their units, travel expenses and so on. The state only gives the Ohio Military Reserve $18,000 a year. That is only used to feed over 400 soldiers at annual training for 4 out of the 5 days we are there. The individual units do not see any of that money.

Our unit, the 12th MP Battalion of the Ohio Military Reserve, took the initiative and started a non-profit organization for the morale and support of the soldiers of our unit and help defray the expenses incurred with serving as listed above. It is a 501c3 organization, registered with the state of Ohio.

As of now, we have no income for the non-profit, the paperwork came from the state the end of last month. We are looking for folks who would like to become a member of the non-profit, corporate sponsors, and donations. Individual membership has been set at $25, and will include a shirt. Corporate sponsors will receive advertising on the website and on our newsletter and during recruitment and aid to civil authority missions were there is public exposure. Our site, for now, is a Yahoo Group at
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/friends_of_the_12th/?yguid=239028377

Contact information is listed there if anyone would like to become a member, donate or be a corporate sponsor.

Thanks for your help and thanks for all you do!

V/R
Doug Schneider

I also encourage everyone to find out if there is a state defense force unit near them and let them know they are appreciated, provide assistance to them, and encourage your state legislature to give them support.

Mr. Peanut Strikes Again

My peanut has a first name,
it's J-I-M-M-Y
My peanut has a second name,
it's C-A-R-T-E-R
Oh, I love to laugh at him everday,
And if you'll ask me why I'll say,
'Cause Jimmy Carter has a way,
of screwing up the USA'

Blah, blah, blah 1
Blah, blah, blah 2
Blah, blah, blah 3

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth


Her name is Holly Holeman. Her job is working at a flower shop. And her mission to make sure soldiers are never forgotten. Which is why she's out at Arlington National Cemetery every week putting flowers around the headstones. She usually does this alone, but on a bitter cold day in February of 2007 she was met with family members of fallen soldiers buried in Section 60 of the cemetery who helped her to place the roses.

To read the rest of Holly's story, you can go here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Star Trek Movie News 9

TrekMovie.com is reporting that the role of Captain Kirk may just go to actor Chris Pine. However, Pine is also in the running to star in a George Clooney movie at the same time. If he goes with Clooney over Trek, he's a moron. Look at the Photoshopped image of Pine as Kirk. Not bad.

Also, it was reported earlier that Russell Crow could possibly play a villain in in the film. Not true. Eric Bana has been cast as the Romulan villain, Nero.

I have to say, this movie is starting to shape up nicely.

That Wacky Ron Paul

We all know that presidential candidate Ron Paul is nuts. He's an isolationist and a 9/11 Truther, but did you know he's also racist and anti-semitic?

A 1992 political newsletter by former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, included portrayals of African-Americans as inclined toward crime and lacking sense about political issues...Under the headline "Terrorist Update," Paul reported on gang crime in Los Angeles and wrote, "If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be." About blacks in Washington, D.C., Paul wrote, "I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal

Too Easy

The joke writes itself.

Yeah Fall

Woke up this morning, took the trash out and found myself shivering a little. 53 degrees. I could see my breathe. Fall has officially arrived. As my long time readers know, I love this kind of weather. I've went on and on about going out on cold Winter mornings and breathing in the crisp air to wake myself up. It's almost that time. It's been so warm recently and now to watch the morning lows start to drop and the sunset arriving earlier and earlier. Yeah Fall.

Good News Is NoNews For Media

This was suggested by John K

We already knew that any good news out of Iraq was bad for Democrats in Congress, but we now have journalists saying that it shouldn't even be reported.
Story

Sandy Berger Advising Hillary Clinton

Sandy Berger has made his return as one Hillary Clinton's advisers. Wow. He stole classified documents pertaining to the build of to the attacks on September 11, destroyed them, lied about it and now he's back working for the Clinton's. I wonder how much the MSM will talk about this. They didn't seem to care about the crimes, so I'm guessing this won't be much of a blip either. Long live the culture of corruption.

Fake Patriot(s)

Barack Obama stops wearing the U.S. flag lapel pin.

I don't care about it. Wear it, don't wear it. Doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the explanation he gave.

Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism

Is he saying that those who continue to wear the pin aren't true patriots? How does he feel about displaying the flag in general? Can't I have true patriotism and still be proud to display an American flag?

This reeks of pure desperation. His poll numbers are tanking and he's trying to cozy up to the hardcore anti-American/anti-war Left.

The War On Christmas

Tis the season again. When the ACLU brings out their lawyers to try and kill the word "Christmas". But a school in Oak Lawn, Ill. has done something that can only be described as intelligent. Instead of taking a holiday away, they added one. Can anyone say "duh"? Now, why can't more schools learn a lesson from the Oak Lawn school district?

We should be able to celebrate our thing, and they should be able to celebrate theirs, too

Why is it that it takes a 10-year-old kid to come up with the right answer?

America Is Dying

In the United States, it is illegal to fly any flag above the American flag. But that's just what a bar owner in Reno, NV did when he flew the Mexican national flag above the U.S. national flag.Watching Neil Cavuto earlier today and it seems that the bar owner will file charges against the Veteran who cut the flag down.

I'm Jim Broussard, and I took this flag down in honor of my country with a knife from the United States Army. I'm a veteran, I'm not going to see this done to my country. If they want to fight us, then they need to be men, and they need to come and fight us. But I want somebody to fight me for this flag. They're not going to get it back

Hooah, Sir. And thank you.

You can watch the video here.

UPDATE
Well, it seems that "technically" it's not illegal to fly another nations flag above the U.S. flag.

While there is indeed a federal law regulating the display of the U.S. flag, that law is merely advisory and simply codifies standard government practice in displaying the American flag.

Several federal courts have examined this law and held that the flag rules are not mandatory and cannot be enforced

But it's still disrespectful and infuriating and applaud this man for what he did. Something tells me we're going to see more of this happening.

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Greta, Who Is Herself A Solders' Angel

May Not Solder Go Unloved

Back in 2003, self-described "ordinary mother", Patti Patton-Bader, started an organization called Solders' Angels because her son, Sgt. Brandon Varn, wrote her a letter from Iraq in which he showed concern that some of the brave men and women there weren't receiving any mail or support from back home. Well, she wasn't going to allow this. She called a few friends and family asking them if they would write to some of the soldiers. They'd never met them. Didn't know who they were, but they wrote. And in a few short months, Solders' Angles went from an idea an "ordinary mother" had to having chapters all over the country and thousands of angels all over the world letting soldiers know that they are loved and respected by writing hundreds of thousands of letters, sending care packages, medical supplies, body armor and lending comfort and support to military families. Solder's Angels and the people who run and support it are heroes in the truest sense.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Video Viruses

Dial-up is looking just a little bit better today. Online Videos May Be Conduits for Viruses.

As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video players, according to a report on Internet threats released Tuesday by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center as it holds its annual summit.

There have only been a few cases of video-related hacking so far.

One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube

Rush Should Apologize?

Now, unless these men went AWOL or something they're still heroes. It doesn't matter if they agree with the war or not. Limbaugh is just digging himself deeper and deeper and making things worse. Is it as bad as Betray Us? No. But it's still stupid.
Story

UPDATE
Okay. There seems to be more to this story. Now, we don't get Limbaugh's show here so I can't listen to it. And I also can't watch his webcam or listen to his webcast, so I have no idea what exactly he said. But according to Rush himself,

A week ago today, ABC News, Charlie Gibson, World News Tonight, did a feature with Brian Ross, their investigative reporter, on phony soldiers! Last Monday, one week ago today. I don't see ABC being denounced. Their story was on Jesse MacBeth, the same soldier I was talking about one week ago. That video is up at RushLimbaugh.com...

In case you don't know, Jesse MacBeth is a man who claimed that he was a veteran of the War In Iraq. He wasn't. He joined the group Iraq Veterans Against The War and lied to media outlets saying that his unit had routinely committed war crimes in Iraq. Now, if this is the man Rush was talking about, then he said nothing wrong. MacBeth may have been in the U.S. Military at one time, but he's no hero by any stretch of the word. If someone with broadband could find this video on Limbaugh's site and watch it to see exactly what he was talking about.

UPDATE 2
Thanks to Silke over at Hooah Wife for this. You can read a transcript of what Rush actually said over at CSNNews.com.

Sen. David Nelson (D-Nebraska)

What we've got into right now is a situation where MoveOn.org was hammered by the other side, so it's not surprising that now you've got a sort of the return of that in case of Limbaugh