Now you know what to put on my grave marker.

I doubt I could ever write anything that would give one a true sense of who I am, since I have frequent misgivings as to my own grasp of the subject, so instead I will simply provide one example of something I wrote to my Congresscritters when sorely irked by the latest example of media sullage.

Oh yeah, I forgot.... Howdy, Y'all.


Dear Sirs,
In the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, I enlisted in the US Navy with the earnest assurances of my recruiter that I would be sent through its excellent electronics training schools, based on my score on their entrance exams. This meant that I would be allowed to serve while working as a technician on state-of-the-art equipment and while simultaneously effecting the realization of my longtime dream to serve in the same branch of the military as my father, who, by some vagarious twist of fate was resting topside at 0755 hours, aboard the USS Medusa, on Dec. 7, 1941. I mention his participation in the battle of Pearl Harbor not to impress or claim any of his honor for myself, but rather to show evidence of some legitimate motivation for my desire to join other than the mere expectation of personal gain, in the form of training or education certain to substantially improve my prospects of a lucrative civilian career.

I feel it necessary to mention that I never before percieved any need to make such a distinction, until I became aware of recent attempts by some to paint the honorable and committed young men and women who currently volunteer as no more than crass mercenaries, attracted to the legendary units which populate every branch of our services only by the base seductions of the most vile form of filthy lucre--that paid for contracted murder that serves only private or special interests.

My fingers tremble now with anger, as I am given again to reflect upon the despicable nature of such a libelous infringement upon the good name of our valiant defenders, who labor long hours and months unto years in what are all too often terrible theaters of tragedy and loss--made so by the influence upon their leadership and administrators of politically correct, well-intentioned insanity, and manifesting itself in hobbling rules of engagement which are seemingly designed more to ensure their own casualty, rather than that of the slaughterers of innocents who define our enemies.

I will stand no longer in silence, watching helplessly as my heritage and that of my brothers and sisters in uniform is impinged upon with the propaganda of despicable cowards, mouthing their corrupting vitriol with traitorous intent. I will succumb no longer to the helplessness of spirit invoked by a constant litany of lies and half-truths, designed only to dishearten the supporters of our sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen; to negatively impact the morale of those who fight on my behalf until their will to attend their duties is overwhelmed by the abject despair of those who know their struggle will be lost--their sacrifice cheapened and made all but meaningless by the same stripe of partisan back-stabbing traitors who betrayed the Spartans at Thermopolae and who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam.

I will no longer merely shrug my shoulders in disbelief when reading stories of captured enemies being forced to wear underwear as a hat, describing such as torture in an effort to undermine the integrity of our troops for the sole purpose of political advantage--especially since I was treated to exactly that method of inducement to the proper attendance of my duties when I attended basic training, or "boot camp" in San Diego. My frustration at this comic tradgedy of philosophically created treason has given me the motivation to action, resulting in the petition I now bring for redress of these affronts.

I would submit to you sir, that no American citizen sends their treasured offspring to be tortured in government training facilities, and hereby demand restitution for the atrocities endured by myself and others at the hands of these sadistic perpetrators of humiliation and ridicule. Consequently, I now demand payment of reparations, in the sum of one million US dollars per media transgression, payable by each of those corporate entities found to have sponsored this atrocity upon my heritage by their continued employment and promotion of those ersatz journalists who refuse any form of restraint from wholly partisan motivated public attacks against our nation's just involvement in a war with those who would travel thousands of miles in order to confront with deadly intent our citizenry and its legitimate and entirely legal efforts at commerce and self advocacy, as well as against the brave and loyal men and women who execute the conduct of that war.

Upon the occasion of the success of my appeal, I demand that the total sum of said reparations be held in escrow, one half of which is to be disbursed by a committee of senior enlisted combat veterans to the individuals and/or collective combat units who will most benefit from its expenditure in support of their mission. The other half will be held in reserve, to be awarded peicemeal to those whose military service has resulted in damage to their physical and/or mental well being; and to those corporations selected for their unmitigated support of our members of the armed services and/or their current and future missions abroad, for the duration of the war on terror. Please expedite the furtherance of this petition for redress, that the prospect of financial ruin might sooner influence the decisions of those perpetrators of unconscionable treason who callously increase the danger to our troops in harms way, effectively handcuffing them during hand to hand combat with their enemy, and undermining their mission with a Rasputin-like dominion over the media's agenda, which in turn determines what our voting citizenry comes to believe as fact.

Thank you in advance for your kind and prompt attention to this matter.

I remain the humble servant of my forefathers' aspirations, sincerely,
(signed)

Welcome from a lefty peacenik traitor.

Welcome to the board Dilligras!


W-oooone Meeeeeelion doh-liiiirs....

[snicker]

VictoriaSilverwolf, they need to stop letting us be the welcoming committee.

Here, here! Welcome from another peacenik traitor with unofficial ties to the besmirching media!

I read your rant, introduction, or whatever it is twice and realized I'm not smart enough to understand what you are trying to say or what your point is.

I will say this however. Some of your statements are flatly wrong, some misguided, and some a little nutty. So, if you want to debate some of your points in one of the AD threads, I would suggest you run some of your points up the AD flagpole and see who salutes it.

I can promise you two things: You will learn some things you don't already know whether you want to or not. And you will find partisan hackery at best inconsistent here. I'm a former marine (HML-167/A, New River Air Station - currently deployed in Iraq), a pro-life, limited government conservative republican, who couldn't disagree more with half your post.

But I digress. Welcome to AD. I think.

Thanks for piping me aboard, mates.

I'm sure we can find some common ground somewhere among the cow patties of ideologically driven foolishness that has plagued mankind throughout his brief history. Just remember not to expect too much other than civility and the opportunity for dissappointment will be greatly diminished. Besides, to paraphrase something I read recently, how smart can we be when those who are silent only allow one to imagine their stupidity, whereas we type words into little boxes, thereby removing any doubt.

I case you haven't noticed, I don't always write to make sense, though sense may occasionally creep in along the way. BTW, what's the synonym for thesaurus?



I trust we shall find an opportunity to argue specifics, and that we can for the most part dispense with the characterizations and speak to issues. I don't think you're really too interested in my making judgements about the veracity or sanity of your opinions before I've at least determined how you came by them, and I don't think it's unreasonable of me to ask you to reciprocate in kind, n'est-ce pas?



Gotta link to some specific thread that addresses a point with which you'd like to take issue? Just quote me from here and post it there with your rebuttal and leave the link to it here. I may not respond immediately, as I prefer to chew on something awhile before putting my hooves in my mouth. Yes, I am the debbil.



Thanks for your service, brother.

I think we can stipulate that while one should respect another's voluntary military service (and yours was likely more voluntary than my own, since I took my Navy and Selective Service physicals in the same week--in other words, I was about to be drafted so I joined.), that one's participation in an event does not alone necessarily give one any authority on anything except what they themselves saw and heard. So don't expect me to claim such authority on anything even though I someday hope to convince you that I know everything.


Thanks. I reckon.

I will take "what is a steven wright quote for a thousand Alex"?

Welcome

Why thank you kindly. For both the welcome and the reference... I couldn't remember where I heard it.

But just for future reference, the catagories on Jeopardy are not in the form of a question, the answers are. And thus, I have once more spared the planet the dire consequences of the unfettered promulgation of an insignificant faux mot. My work here is done.

Just to clarify, my old squadron is/has been in Iraq - not me. I've been out of the service for so long, they issued us muskets.

You may think so- but prior service types still get letters requesting you come join the party in the sunshine!

So Steven Wright is now contributing on ??? Cool!

He is? Where is he... I need to ask him if he ever figured out what to mix with that powdered water...

I didn't understand whether your mad at your government, your media, or yourself, but its all good.

Welcome to

Waal, pardner, at least you figured out that I was riled.

But mad at myself? How so? And though I said that I wanted reparations paid for injuries endured by myself and others at the hands of government torturers, I didn't say I was angry at the government.

That would be rather fruitless, since the govt. consists of many individuals who would gladly become allies in the war against your most trivial pleasure, n'est-ce pas? Your "W-oooone Meeeeeelion doh-liiiirs...." per traitor would be forfeit faster than a coyote headed for the creek with the jalapeno squirts.



Aye, matey, as ye were.