December 1944.  In a last ditch effort to win a lost war Hitler mounts a surprise offensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium.  The offensive is an incredible initial success.  German troops surround the American 101^st Airborne at Bastogne.  The Germans demand surrender.  The commander of the 101^st replies with one word, “NUTS!”. 

            On their way to break through the German lines and relieve the 101^st is the 3^rd Army under the command of George S. Patton.  A certain soldier in the 82^nd Airborne hears of the plight of the 101^st and Patton’s advance to relieve them.  The soldier knows that his brother is with the 101^st at Bastogne and volunteers to go with Patton’s 3^rd Army to relieve the soldiers the 101^st, including his brother.  In the ensuing battle the 3^rd Army does indeed break through the German lines and the Americans are ensured a victory at the Battle of the Bulge.

            The soldier of the 82^nd Airborne is taken prisoner by the German’s during the battle.  While his brother and the other soldiers of the 101^st receive a well deserved reprieve he is placed in a German POW camp where he later dies as a result of his effort to save his brother.  No debate.  No politics.  Not thinking of the risk to himself he volunteered to save his brother. 

            Memorial Day is about selfless sacrifice.  A day to honor those who gave their lives for their brothers and sisters.  Patriots who set aside everything else for the preservation of freedom.  Patriots follow in the footsteps of the ones who have gone before them.  With every sacrifice the memory of the departed is honored.  With every sacrifice the selflessness of the living is also honored.  A willful sacrifice born out of love is honored by another willful sacrifice born out of thankfulness.  Are we thankful today?

~Memorial Day 2009

May is foster parent appreciation month.  A time for people who take the time to provide a loving home for children who need it to be recognized and rightfully so!  I worked at a foster care agency for almost 10 years.  I indeed saw a lot of children who needed intense help.  However, as with most social agencies these days, the help that the kids need takes a back seat to politics.  The focus is not on helping the kids.  The focus is on quantity over quality.  The focus is on generating revenue for the agency.  Of course this is done under the guise of helping the kids.  Kids are “helped” by being placed in sub-standard homes that the people who place the kids there would not even place the own kids in!  These sub-standard homes focus on the “reimbursement” they get for the kids and not the welfare of the kids themselves.  Some foster parents even have the nerve to call their reimbursement “income”.  What is done about this?  Absolutely nothing.  Foster parents are the prized commodity for foster care agencies because they are hard to come by where as the foster children and agency staff are fairly easy to come by.  Therefore, the rights of the children and staff are often trumped by the rights of the foster parents so the agency can keep them on the roster!  The main concern for foster care agencies is quantity as opposed to quality.  Foster care workers often prize their billable hours over the welfare of the children who provide those hours for them.  Workers who will go out of their way to entice the symptoms of foster children so they can get more billable hours credited to them!  The kids are held more accountable for their behaviors than the foster parents are, again, because foster parents are the prized commodity.  Any lowlife can be recruited to be a foster parent because they help fill an important quota.  Foster parents are indeed desperately needed but they need to do some serious soul searching first!  Are they going to buy in to the advertisements they see on T.V.?  Advertisements that suggest that the kids needing a home are happy-go-lucky kids who have no behavior problems ignoring the fact that of they did not have behavior problems they likely would not need a foster home in the first place!  Do foster parents expect to be substantially rewarded for their efforts as opposed to being willing to actually sacrifice their time?  Is their foster care agency going to rightfully hold them accountable as the adults they are or is the agency going to kiss their ass to keep them on the roster?  So for all you prospective foster parents who have a legitimate desire to help the kids…be careful what you wish for because you just might get it! 

:  Obama continues to cash in on his celebrity status by having a press conference to commemorate his first 100 days in office.  The main purpose of the press conference was to give Obama an opportunity to brag on what he has done so far.  Part of his comments were on the economic situation of the country where he had the nerve to point out that the national deficit was too high!  The reason the deficit is too high is because he is making it too high!  Obama seems to believe that he has this ability to spend his way out of the recession while at the same time lowering the deficit.  Although given his previous delusions of grandeur that is not too surprising.  Instead of holding Obama to task given everything that is going on in the country the liberal media had the nerve to ask that Obama has liked about the office, what he has found most challenging, etc.  In other words during a national press conference a professional correspondent asked a question that any grade school child would ask!  Then a liberal ABC correspondent asked whether or not Obama believed the previous administration sanctioned torture and while Obama went about it the round about way his basic answer was “yes”!  At no other time has any sitting president been so critical of the previous administration while at the same time taking no responsibility for his own deeds!

            Speaking of the alleged torture issue people are overlooking one major thing.  The memo’s that were released which described the enhanced interrogation techniques also stated that those techniques saved American lives!  It amazes me how liberal organizations such as the ACLU can be so vocal when the supposed rights of terrorists are being “violated” and yet remain so quiet when tragedies such as 9/11 happen!  When has the ACLU spoken out for the rights of victims of terrorists as opposed to speaking out for terrorists?  That seems to come pretty darn close to treason!