Thursday, July 31, 2008

Wednesday's Hero

1st. Lt. Thomas M. Martin
1st. Lt. Thomas M. Marti
27 years old from Ward, Arkansas
C Troop, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division
October 14, 2007
U.S. Army

An Eagle Scout, Thomas M. Martin took on cleaning up an old red train caboose as a service project. "He remodeled it to make it where people could go inside. If you saw it before and looked in it after he was through - it was daylight and dark", said his former principal, Robert Martin, who is no relation. "Tom was involved in Key Club, German Club and band, making All-Region Band his sophomore year", said Robert Martin. "He was a wonderful young man. Those that knew him knew he was funny and outgoing."

Lt. Martin died in Al Busayifi, Iraq of wounds sustained from small-arms fire when insurgents attacked his unit during combat operations. He enlisted in the Army in 1998 after graduating high school and served in Korea before accepting an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 2005.

"He was very polite and respectful. I can't think of him ever overreacting; he had a wonderful, good-natured personality", said Pat Hagge, a family friend. "It's a terrible tragedy; he was a great young man."

Lt. Thomas Martin is survived by his parents, Edmund and Candis.


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 site, you can go here.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Everything I need to know about life, I learned from Noah's Ark



One : Don't miss the boat.
Two : Remember that we are all in the same boat.
Three : Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
Four : Stay fit When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
Five : Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
Six : Build your future on high ground.
Seven : For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
Eight : Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
Nine : When you're stressed, float a while.
Ten : Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Eleven : No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mad Tiger Movie Review




I went to see X Files 2: I Want to Believe this weekend. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprised their roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Mulder and Scully have left the FBI behind them. When a series of women become missing, one of the a FBI agent, the FBI comes to Mulder and Scully and asks them for help because their only leads are from a pedophile ex-priest, played by Billy Connelly, who may or may not be psychic. This role for Connelly is no laughing matter. Amanda Peet plays the role of FBI Agent Dakota WhitneyWritten by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, you would expect some of the great paranormal suspense of the TV series. If you are expecting Aliens and Bigfoot, then you will be disappointed. Even die-hard X-files fanatics would find this one lacking.




I give this movie 2 tiger paws.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wednesday's Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Toni

1st LT. Frank B. Walkup, IV
1st LT. Frank B. Walkup, IV
23 years old from Woodbury, Tennessee
2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division
June 16, 2007
U.S. Army

Toni already has a great post up on her site, so I'll just link to it.


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 site, you can go here.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Tell Congress No Vacation Until They Lift The Ban On Offshore Drilling


Here is something I got in an email yesterday.

From the Desk of:

Steve Elliott, Grassfire.org Alliance

Congress is about to go on a four-week vacation without taking action on rising gas prices. Please see below.

--Steve

To Whom It May Concern,

Gas prices continue to soar yet Congress does nothing!
Just the other day President Bush issued an executive order toexpand offshore drilling but this do-nothing Congress hasn'ttaken action to lift the legislative ban that prohibits more drilling.

I believe the first vital step to energy independence is forCongress to get out of the way and allow more domesticdrilling! We must show OPEC we mean business!

That's why Grassfire just launched an Emergency Petition calling onCongress to lift the ban on offshore drilling. What's more, our petitiondemands that they lift the ban BEFORE they break for their month-longsummer recess.

If you agree that Congress should NOT go on an extendedvacation (over four weeks!) UNTIL they lift the ban onoffshore drilling, please go here to sign:


It is outrageous that as gas prices have soared for months, Congresshas done nothing. Unlike Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid andthe big government liberals, we don't want our government to solveour problems -- we just want the government to get out of the way!

And right now, Congress is the last blockade stopping more offshoredrilling.

This is absolutely urgent. Again, your Senators and Representativewill soon be leaving D.C. for a long, summer recess.We must band together and demand action...

LIFT THE BAN OR NO VACATION FOR CONGRESS!


And thanks.


Steve Elliott,
PresidentGrassfire.org



Monday, July 21, 2008

Why the Muslims Misjudged Us
By Victor Davis Hanson

Since September 11, we have heard mostly slander and lies about the West from radical Islamic fundamentalists in their defense of the terrorists. But the Middle Eastern mainstream—diplomats, intellectuals, and journalists—has also bombarded the American public with an array of unflattering images and texts, suggesting that the extremists’ anti-Americanism may not be an eccentricity of the ignorant but rather a representative slice of the views of millions...

...Two striking themes—one overt, one implied—characterize most Arab invective: first, there is some sort of equivalence—political, cultural, and military—between the West and the Muslim world; and second, America has been exceptionally unkind toward the Middle East. Both premises are false and reveal that the temple of anti-Americanism is supported by pillars of utter ignorance...

...Few in the Middle East have a clue about the nature, origins, or history of democracy, a word that, along with its family (“constitution,” “freedom,” and “citizen”), has no history in the Arab vocabulary, or indeed any philological pedigree in any language other than Greek and Latin and their modern European offspring. Consensual government is not the norm of human politics but a rare and precious idea, not imposed or bequeathed but usually purchased with the blood of heroes and patriots, whether in classical Athens, revolutionary America, or more recently in Eastern Europe. Democracy’s lifeblood is secularism and religious tolerance, coupled with free speech and economic liberty...

...The catastrophe of the Muslim world is also explicable in its failure to grasp the nature of Western success, which springs neither from luck nor resources, genes nor geography. Like third-world Marxists of the 1960s, who put blame for their own self-inflicted misery upon corporations, colonialism, and racism—anything other than the absence of real markets and a free society—the Islamic intelligentsia recognizes the Muslim world’s inferiority vis-`a-vis the West, but it then seeks to fault others for its own self-created fiasco...

...We are militarily strong, and the Arab world abjectly weak, not because of greater courage, superior numbers, higher IQs, more ores, or better weather, but because of our culture...

...Many Middle Easterners have performed a great media charade throughout this war. They publish newspapers and televise the news, and thereby give the appearance of being modern and Western. But their reporters and anchormen are by no means journalists by Western standards of free and truthful inquiry...

...Millions in the Middle East are obsessed with Israel, whether they live in sight of Tel Aviv or thousands of miles away. Their fury doesn’t spring solely from genuine dismay over the hundreds of Muslims Israel has killed on the West Bank...Clearly, the anger derives not from the tragic tally of the fallen but from Islamic rage that Israelis have defeated Muslims on the battlefield repeatedly, decisively, at will, and without modesty...

...So a neighborly bit of advice for our Islamic friends and their spokesmen abroad: topple your pillars of ignorance and the edifice of your anti-Americanism. Try to seek difficult answers from within to even more difficult questions without. Do not blame others for problems that are largely self-created or seek solutions over here when your answers are mostly at home...

(Read the whole article Here.)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Mad Tiger Movie Review



I went to see Batman, The Dark Knight today. This film has all the rough ‘em up explosive plot twists to suit anyone’s taste. I would liken it to a rollercoaster ride that is always taking you to the pentacle dropping you suddenly down. This film has already broken all records for a Midnight Opening. I predict it will rake in records amounts too.

I don’t want to ruin the movie by revealing too much about it. Christian Bale revises his role as the Dark Knight and Protector of Gotham City and plays the part with all the dark power that you could image Batman would have. Maggie Gyllenhaal brings new life to the Rachel Dawes character. Aaron Eckhart plays Harvy Dent the new D.A. of Gotham City. And with the likes of Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman reprising their roles from Batman Begins, you know that the movie has to be good.

And last but certainly not least is the last role of Heath Ledger. His portrayal of the Joker is beyond words. He took this character and made him so Evil, so Psychotic and so Real it was almost frightening. It didn’t even seem like it was Heath Ledger under all that cake makeup. I would say that he carried this film with his performance of the Joker. I first noticed Heath Ledger in The Patriot and I knew then that he would be a great actor. I predict that he will win the Oscar for this film. I just wish that he was here to receive it. It makes me sad that he is gone.

This film is NOT a film for children but for all you adults out there, I give this film 5 tiger paws.

Wednesday's Hero

Spc. Kisha Makerney
Spc. Kisha Makerney
23 years old from Fort Towson, Oklahoma
120th Engineers, Oklahoma Army National Guard
U.S. Army

Spc. Kisha Mackerney isn't being profiled today because of something she did on the battlefield. She's being profiled because her spirit and determination. In 2002, Makerney joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard out of a sense of patriotism, because, as she put it, "I love our country and our people." Between 2004 and 2005, she served in Iraq as a gunner and helped provide battalion security. She returned home in early 2005 and was in a terrible motorcycle accident on June 25, 2005. The front wheel of her brand new bike had blown out and sent her flying into a highway sign. She looked up at her now mangled bike and was angry. That's when she noticed that her left leg below the knee was missing. The first thing she thought of when she saw her leg was that her military career was over.

Makerney pulled herself out of the ditch that she had landed in and was able to flag down a passing motorist. She was taken a hospital in Hugo, Oklahoma before being flown to Dallas, Texas.

As soon as word spread about her accident, her fellow soldiers, her second family, rallied and rushed to her bedside. "Even before I was out of surgery they were waiting in the halls," she said.

Continue reading Spc. Kisha Makerney's story here. There are some despicable comments by a few readers on the story. Just ignore them.


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 Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams. Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

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 site, you can go here.
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Sunday, July 13, 2008

July 4, 2008 - OKLAHOMA STYLE



The 4th of July at my house.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Wednesday's Hero

Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall
Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall
22 years old from Peoria, Arizona
2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division
May 22, 2005
U.S. Army

"It was very tough not to be touched by him in some way," said Terri Schall, Sgt. Kenneth Schall's mother.

Kenneth Schall was enrolled at Glendale Community College and was studying to become a history teacher when the country was attacked on September 11, 2001. The event spurred him to join the Army. He served a four and a half month tour in Iraq in 2004 and returned in February of 2005.

Terri Schall last spoke to her son on Mother's Day in 2005. "He sounded great — tired — but he said he was doing OK", she said. Sgt. Kenneth Schall died when the Humvee he was riding in was involved in an accident in Yusafiyah, Iraq.

Along with his mother, Sgt. Schall is survived by his father and two younger siblings.


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 site, you can go here.
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