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For such has been the history of Man, that he would strive against the odds,
To keep the flag of Freedom flying, above the battlegrounds trod...
Even when the prospect of winning the unimaginable war seemed dim,
They lined up, shoulder to shoulder and waited for the battle to begin.
Grim eyes strained forward, trying to ascertain from whence the danger would flow...
Little could they have known then how that battlecry for Freedom would grow!
Across the world today, people are fighting that very same fight
To have Freedom as not just a dream but a common, everyday right.
Hear me, souls of those departed upon War's bloody grounds...
Ride to the side of Right, wherever injustice may be found...
Uphold that standard upon which is writ the finest sentence again...
"Here they fought for Freedom, all these Men among Men".

Dedicated to all our men and women in the Armed Forces...May they stay safe until they are returned to their homes.

For the love of country, many have lost their lives...
Leaving behind moms, pets, sons, daughters and wives.
For the love of country, selfishness has had to take a backseat
To the realities of this existence and the demands that we must meet.
For the love of country, common ideals are taught to all students each day,
To help the following generations to be able to find their way,
On a common path that leads eventually to a place where all can say...
We're Americans...Always an American...Either lead or get out of the way!

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans, every man, woman, and child of ya!!! 

When I go to my Eternal Reward and slip these surly bonds,
When I am walking the Golden Pathways in that great beyond,
Will you be part of that Heaven, across that river wide?
Will you come, hold my hand and walk there by my side?
Will you finally be proud of who I am,
Of who I have striven to become?
Will you finally have eyes that are able to see
The hard lessons that I've learned from?
Please tell me that my faith has not
Been something I've held in vain...
Please tell me that when Eternity arrives,
I'll see your blue eyes again.

OK, all of you...Finish this sentence...It's a continuation of a thread that died a long time ago.  An oldie but a goodie! 

Looking out my back window today, I saw...

Tall sunflowers dancing in the breeze...Roses being tickled by honeybees...
Tomatoes ripening in the morning sun...A blue sky blanketing everyone.
I saw a world peaceful and serene...A morning custom made for someone like me!

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!! 

Here is a big THANK YOU to all of the great dads on the Forum...Your example is an important one in this day and age...And the dads that I know on here have raised fantastic kiddos (I loved teaching them!!) !!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!   

You have stood beside me, never counting the cost;
You have stood behind me, never letting me get lost.
Your love has surrounded me, keeping evil at bay...
Your leadership has guded me along the way.
Your title is Father...But Hero says it better...
For your love, I will thank God forever.


Happy Father's Day to my dad, who sets the bar so high that no mere mortal man could ever achieve it.  I love you!!!

The Ghost of Thanksgiving Yet to Come



"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband.

"In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered.  Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington.  Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be.  Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.

Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in.  It was more the thought of eating another TofuTurkey.  Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey.  And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting.  The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold.  Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats—which were monitored and controlled by the electric company — be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

Still, it was good getting together with family.  Or at least most of the family.  Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of live-saving medical treatment.  He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program.  And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort.  "The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled.  I'm sorry for your loss."

Ed couldn't make it either.  He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines — for everyone but government officials.  The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in.  Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion.  No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government - mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids.

Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the terrorists."  Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022.  That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved.  Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine.  Almost.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact.  "A living Constitution is extremely flexible," said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan.  "Europe has had laws like this one for years.  We should learn from their example," she added.

Winston's thoughts turned to his own children.  He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him.  Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner.  Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford.  She whined for a week, but got over it.

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether.  Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to "spur economic growth."  This time they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement..   At least he had his memories.  He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential.  Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn't happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.

He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2009, when all the real nonsense began.  "Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today if we'd just said 'enough is enough' when we had the chance," he thought.

Maybe so, Winston.  Maybe so.

Upon the blood selflessly given, upon the backs of spirits driven,
This country came to be...
The Stars and Stripes fly bold and proud...Americans live their lives out loud...
Unabashedly showing strength for all to see...
YES, my country 'tis of thee!  YES, this is the land of the truly free...
YES, the best of best unto all eternity...
AMERICA!!  AMERICA!!  The rallying cry eminates from me,
Taken up by all who yearn to remain free...

AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

copyright 2010   Catwoman Press


Happy 4th, my friends!...And that goes out to ALL of you...Americans are a bit like water buffalo...We can disagree among ourselves (sometimes quite viciously) but...When push comes to shove...Our butts go in to the middle and our horns go out to the front and we stand united.  I proudly claim ALL of you as my brethren.  

They were talking about the closing of Moline and Severy schools...Anyone else catch it?

Never saw this happen in the 12 years of Bush wives. This isn't about
politics, just
an observation of what some people do when given the key to the city.

A Boeing 757 and a fleet of armored cars for Michelle's sight seeing tour!
Michelle One

On Sunday, President Obama flew back to the United States on Air Force One.
His wife, two daughters and her mother stayed on in Paris to do a bit of
shopping in Paris
before taking their own Boeing 757 (C-32) over to London to do some
sightseeing.

We all remember Obama's admonishment to corporate CEOs in
February:

"You can't buy or use corporate jets, you can't go take a trip to
Las Vegas or go to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime." Apparently that
doesn't apply to the Queen of Washington.

The London Times opened its description of Michelle's visit this way:

"Motorcycle outriders, armored Chevrolets and bullet-headed men in
raincoats criss-crossed London yesterday as Michelle Obama and her
daughters spent a second day on an unofficial visit to the capital."

The Times went on to describe that when Michelle and the girls arrived at
Westminster Abbey, the building was closed to tourists with people already
in , told to wait
against the wall.

An American visiting the Abbey said "Right then I knew it was probably
someone from our royal family".

Michelle's motorcade shut down the London street above as the First Lady of
the World and her children
go for Fish and Chips at a pub in Mayfair. The entourage inside the
restaurant was 15 people while dozens
more wait outside.
Include the dozens of Air Force personnel to fly and service the plane,
embassy personnel and other staff
and we are talking about a serious expenditure of tax payer dollars.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and won't be able to
take their family on a summer holiday.
Despite their circumstances they'll still be expected to fork over the tax
dollars to pay for Michelle's trip!

KEEP IN MIND, we have another 3 1/2 years of this. Absolutely incredible! 

Such hopes, such lofty dreams; such were the lives they lived...
Images run of days gone by, when they still had so much to give.
The ravages of time and age are cruel in their intent...
Images that had been perfect were in stark reality bent.
Legends fall in such ways...Illness is a thief...
It takes the Titan and forces it down, leaving us all to grieve
The loss of the day when that Titan allowed us to believe.

I have been disgusted...Not only by comments made by people knocking our country...But also by our national media, who have been shoving an anti-patriotic movement down our throats for the past four to five years.  I am finding it hard to find any students who show open patriotism...It is almost passe' to do so.  Our kids are showing the effects of our national media...It is almost tatamount to brainwashing, in my opinion.  What is going to happen when we oldsters are dependent upon these generations coming up to defend us the way the generations previous to us did?  Will we be defended?  Or left out on a limb to blow in the wind, thanks to the media having convinced our kids that there is nothing here to defend anymore?? 

For every sour note that is slung about concerning our country, there needs to be at least one positive statement made about the greatness of this country.  No, it's not popular to stand up and wave a flag on any other day than July 4 or Flag Day or Veteran's Day.  But, I'm standing up...With the other Patriots on this site...To wave my flag.  Too many of my family have given the ultimate sacrifice in the name of this country...Too many of my relatives have volunteered for duties in foreign lands that would have creeped "normal" people out so much that they would have left. 

Yes, we've got problems.  But we'll get through it.  Together.  With our heads held high...Because we're Americans. 

A gang of black juvenile thugs beat a 14 yr old white boy to death...And it's not being called a hate crime.  They showed the picture of the black kids' gang on TV but there's no mention of the races of the kids in this news piece online...Are they afraid of riots if we call this what it truly is...A heinous hate crime?



14-Year-Old Killed by Gang in Suburban Maryland
Mother's Constant Contact With Son Couldn't Prevent Violent Death
By SUSAN RUCCI and LEE FERRAN

Christopher Jones, 14, lived in a Maryland suburb that was seemingly so orderly that his neighborhood regulated the color of the shutters.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)But the Crofton boy died the afternoon of Saturday, May 30, just blocks away from his home in a manner more fitting to the most dangerous parts of the country -- the victim of a brutal gang beating that left him bleeding and dying on the street, police said.

It was a violent fate that the boy's mother, Jenny Adkins, had been fighting to prevent for weeks ever since her son told her he had been threatened by a neighborhood gang at school.

According to Jones' aunt, Adkins contacted her son's school to tell them about the threats more than a month ago. Then Adkins moved the boy to a different school and kept in close contact with him through text messaging.

"I talked to him every half hour, literally every half hour to the point where he was feeling suffocated by me, because I wanted to make sure that I knew where he was every minute of every day," she told "Good Morning America."

The day Christopher Jones was killed was no different, except that around 4 p.m., her son didn't respond to her text message or repeated phone calls.

"I felt uneasy," Adkins said. "I heard sirens. I called again. I heard an ambulance."


Witness Barbara Hartman was one of the first to run to Jones' aide.

"His wounds were severe and he was bleeding from everywhere," Hartman said. "I knelt down. I started telling him to hang on, help is on the way. I grabbed his hand to hold it."

According to witnesses, the boy had been surrounded by six young men while he was riding his bike. Two of the young men started hitting him repeatedly, the witnesses said.

"The witnesses that saw him say he continued to pedal as he was unconscious until he fell and hit his head on the street," the boy's mother Jenny Adkins said.

Jones was pronounced dead at the hospital.

"I begged them to put him on life support and they did but he was already dead," Adkins said. "He was already dead. He wasn't coming back. So my daughter came into the room and said 'Mom, let him go.'"



When are white people going to start standing up for the same rights that we so willingly afford the minorities??  This was a hate crime.  If this had been a white gang that had beat a black kid to death, it would be screamed from the rooftops and every TV monitor how heinous it was that white kids had done this to a poor, defenseless, little black kid.  Jesse Jackson would be front and center, proclaiming this to be a dark day and demanding justice.  Well, where is the justice for this child who was so brutally beaten to death by a pack of black juvenile delinquent thugs?

Let's all apply!


 
Becoming Illegal
(actual letter from an Iowa resident and sent to his senator)

The Honorable Tom Harkin

731 Hart Senate Office Building

Phone (202) 224 3254

Washington, D. C.  20510

Dear Senator Harkin,



As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance.  I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.



My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U. S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted.  If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.  I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.



Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine.  Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively?  This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.



Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emegency room as my primary health care provider.  Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year.



Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.



Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums.  This is very important to me given that I still have college-age children driving my car.



If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.  Thank you for your assistance.



Your Loyal Constituent,

(hoping to reach "illegal alien" status rather than just a bonafide citizen of the U. S. A.)
Donald Ruppert

Burlington, IA





Get your Forms NOW!

Call your Internal Revenue Service at 1-800-289-1040.

(Please pass this on to your friends so they can save on this great offer.)


 







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I have noticed a huge spike in prices from last year to this year...My green plastic pitcher, that I bought for 1.00 last year,full price, is going for around 10 this year.  A plastic sack from Wally World, that is only about 1/3 full, is now running me about 20 dollars, where last year it would have been about 10-15.  Why isn't this being talked about more in the press?  I see an occassional article but nothing that is going to look at it for what it is.

OK, folks, here we go...The truest measure of whether or not this stimulus package is actually working...I am one of those who will be receiving $400 from the government, paid out over the course of the next year, starting this last April.  When I saw the increase in my paycheck from March to April, I contacted my financial advisor about it.  Then, I started seeing the reports regarding the fact that, come next April 15, I will be liable to the Feds for this increase in my pay.  My financial advisor advised me to withhold extra monies each month on my Fed. income tax to insure that I didn't have to pay in...You guessed it...The extra amount is the amount that my paycheck went up, taking me back to the amount that I was paying in March.  The net result?  I am paying $480 over the next year...And will probably only get $80 back of that...This $400 Pay to Work stimulus is a bunch of bull^&*(.  If people aren't careful, they're going to see their tax debt go up next year...I'm one who is paying to work, all right.  This stimulus has given me exactly what I've come to expect...Nothing.

OK...I'm not much for getting on a religious or political soapbox (I leave that to our more vocal folk) but I was a bit concerned when I saw this.  If this is indeed true, we're already in trouble.



A MUST WATCH VIDEO
What a morning eye opener ! 

I copied and pasted this...I may not have done it correctly, being computer illiterate.  Good luck...If you can get it opened, it's got some interesting data in it.

[Replacing Michelle in Chicago]

I tried repeatedly to find this on Snoops but couldn't locate it.  Don't know if this is legit or not...But thought I'd post it, just for argument's sake...Like as if this Forum needs another excuse to argue at the moment! lol

Replacing Michelle in Chicago

At the top right hand corner of Page 17 of the New York Post of January 24th, 2009, was a short column entitled "Replacing Michelle" in the National Review "The Week" column.  I found this interesting, so here it is, word for word, as it appeared:

Some employees are simply irreplaceable.  Take Michelle Obama: The University of Chicago Medical center hired her in 2002 to run "programs for community relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, staff diversity and minority contracting".

In 2005 , the hospital raised her salary from $120,000 to $317,000 -- nearly twice what her husband made as a Senator.

Oh, did we mention that her husband had just become a US Senator?  He sure had.  Requested a $1 million earmark for the UC Medical Center, in fact.  Way to network Michelle!

But now that Mrs.  Obama has resigned, the hospital says her position will remain unfilled.  How can that be, if the work she did was vital enough to be worth $317,000?

We can think of only one e x planation: Senator Roland Burris's wife wasn't interested.
Let me add that Michelle's position was a half time, 20 hour a week job.  And to think they were critical of Blagoyovich's wife for taking $100,000 in fuzzy real estate commission.

My thoughts: How did this bit of quid pro quo corruption escape the sharp reporters that dug through Sarah Palin's garbage and kindergarten files?
 

Okay, folks... I am listening to all of the news and am starting to get a little ansy.  It sounds like we're headed for something the likes of which we haven't seen in my lifetime.  I hope I'm wrong...But O was on the tube, discussing it just now...That's not a good sign.  I heard that the national news was saying that it would be a good idea to have a 10-day supply of food onhand, in the event that public venues were shut down.  What has anyone else heard?

Hello and welcome to the Forum, Lucy! :-)  You'll love this web family...they're a fun bunch. :-)