Elmer's Brother

Paratus Ad Vitem Paratus Ad Mortis

2009/10/29

Code Pink and the MSM

@ 01:55 PM (8 days, 13 hours ago)

From Newsbusters:

Read the rest of this entry ... (586 words left)

2009/10/21

U2 Concert

@ 01:08 PM (16 days, 14 hours ago)

Bono improvised Amazing Grace. My son and I had a great time.

Read the rest of this entry ... (144 words left)

2009/10/13

Happy Birthday US Navy!

@ 05:34 PM (24 days, 10 hours ago)

http://media.wwono.com//photo/2009/10/13/091013ussnewyork_20091013134818_640_480.JPG

Read the rest of this entry ... (14 words left)

2009/10/7

Be Careful Dad

@ 08:59 AM (1 month, 18 hours ago)
http://media.nbcphiladelphia.com/images/410*307/Paige+Bennethum+and+Dad+soldier+hold+hand.jpg

2009/10/6

Dealing with Village Idiots

@ 06:13 PM (1 month, 1 day ago)

Did anyone else see this?

the following is part of a transcript from a joint interview of Sec. Clinton and Sec of Defense Bob Gates:

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think you can win there, both of you? I would like to know whether you think you can win.

Read the rest of this entry ... (253 words left)

2009/10/5

Art Imitating Life

@ 06:52 PM (1 month, 2 days ago)

Reality Show

2009/9/25

Bastille Day is Coming!

@ 01:58 PM (1 month, 12 days ago)

h/t Impertinent

2009/9/17

Sgt. Jared Monti - awarded CMH

@ 05:18 PM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Read the rest of this entry ... (336 words left)

2009/9/10

..'taking care of soldiers'....remembering Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude

@ 01:02 PM (1 month, 27 days ago)

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.  The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873

Read the rest of this entry ... (601 words left)

Wilson was the only one who spoke the truth last night

@ 05:36 AM (1 month, 27 days ago)

from Farmer John

Read the rest of this entry ... (1396 words left)

2009/9/9

ah the fishy rumor mill....

@ 03:06 PM (1 month, 28 days ago)

2009/9/8

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings

@ 02:10 PM (1 month, 29 days ago)

by Byron York and h/t to Z

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent

George H. Bush, 41st President of the United States (Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)

The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."

Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."

That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."

Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.

2009/9/6

They'll make it all taste good

@ 05:18 PM (2 months, 1 day ago)

2009/8/29

Musetta's Waltz - For Z and W

@ 02:14 PM (2 months, 9 days ago)

2009/8/27

Nationwide Study Confirms Homeschool Academic Achievement

@ 05:10 AM (2 months, 11 days ago)

from HSLDA

Each year, the homeschool movement graduates at least 100,000 students. Due to the fact that both the United States government and homeschool advocates agree that homeschooling has been growing at around 7% per annum for the past decade, it is not surprising that homeschooling is gaining increased attention. Consequently, many people have been asking questions about homeschooling, usually with a focus on either the academic or social abilities of homeschool graduates.

As an organization advocating on behalf of homeschoolers, Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) long ago committed itself to demonstrating that homeschooling should be viewed as a mainstream educational alternative.

Read the rest of this entry ... (1292 words left)