We MUST Cut US Military Defense Spending

Seriously, America, Americans, we must, must cut defense spending. It is huge, it is bloated, it is wasteful and it actually ends up weakening the nation.

Contact your members of Congress. Tell them.

On Memorial Day -- You Want Patriotism?

So it's Memorial Day.

So yes, honor the soldiers. Honor their sacrifice. Honor their sacrifices.

But let's go a step or more further.

To all the government representatives out there, you want patriotism? Do you expect it?

Fine, you want patriotism, then give us the following, do the following--

• Stop creating wars for the soldiers to fight and die in.
• In fact, see to it we bring home thousands of our military, scattered all over the planet.
• Shrink the Defense budget. That's right, shrink it. It's bloated, it's wasteful and it weakens us, weakens the nation.
• Then, internally, give us a country that's more just.
• Give us a country with at least less wealth inequality. Fight wealth inequality, large and small.
• Give us a nation that works, even fights for those with less.
• Work for, fight for a nation that's not segregated.
• Write bills to fight racism and yes, racists.
• Write bills to fight segregation, racial segregation.
• Work to make our schools better. All our schools, for all of us, not just for those who can afford Charter and private schools.
• Fight for the common man and woman, the working man and woman of America.
• Work for the middle class.
• Heck, work for the lower classes. So many of you call and consider yourself Christian and Christians.
• Fight to overturn Citizens United.
• Work to end "dark money" in our government and politics. We deserve to know where campaign contributions come from.
• Better yet, fight to end campaign contributions entirely. Let's do away with the problems of campaign contributions.
• Fight to bring back the Fairness Doctrine so people give two sides, minimum, to each news story in our media. They're our airwaves, after all. 
• Work to ensure clean air, water and soil and for all.
• Stop working and fighting for only or mostly the already-wealthy and corporations.
• Stop working more or only for your political party and work for the nation. Be statesmen and women in your governmental work

In short, give us back our nation. All of us. Work for all of us.

When you do this, you make us all better and you make the nation stronger. In doing these things, you would truly "make America great again."

Then we'll talk patriotism.

For All Our Veterans, On Their Day

For Veterans Day, for all our Veterans out there, a list of all the restaurants and businesses offering free or reduced items for you across the city and metropolitan area today.

• Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City: Complimentary lunch at Horizons Buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10.
• Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar: A free dish from its “Thank You Meal” menu
• Back Yard Burgers: Free Back Yard Classic Burger
• Bar Louie: Free flatbread or burger
• Barley’s Kitchen + Tap: Free entree
• Blue Moose Bar & Grill: Free entree
• Bob Evans: $5.99 breakfast from a select menu
• Bonefish Grill: Free order of Bang Bang Shrimp
• Buffalo Wild Wings: Free order of wings with a side of fries
• Carrabba’s Italian Grill: Free appetizer with the purchase of an entree and Coca-Cola product
• Chili’s Grill & Bar: Free Old Timer cheeseburger, chicken bacon ranch quesadillas, chili or soup with salad, or Cajun chicken pasta
• Chipotle Mexican Grill: Buy one/get one free
• Chuck E. Cheese’s: Free personal pizza
• Coco Bolos Wood-Fired Grill & Cantina: Free entree
• Cost Plus World Market: 20 percent off entire purchase (alcohol not included).
• Cracker Barrel: Free slice of double chocolate fudge Coca-Cola cake.
• Decadent, A Coffee and Dessert Bar: Free slice of pie
• Denny’s: Free build-your-own Grand Slam
• Dickey’s Barbecue Pit: Free meal
• Dollar General: 11 percent off purchases
• Donutology: Free glazed doughnut from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Dunkin’ Donuts: Free doughnut
• Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Q: Free lunch combo
• 54th Street Grill: Free meal (up to $12). Dine-in only
• Firebirds Wood Fired Grill: One complimentary military entrée with the purchase of an entree on Nov. 10.
• Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers: Free combo meal coupon good through Nov. 30
• Golden Corral: Free dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Nov. 13
• Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria: 15 percent off on Nov. 10 and 11.
• Great Clips: Free haircut on Nov. 11
• Hereford House: Free entrée (up to $20) with the purchase of a second entrée at lunch and dinner. Hours vary per location.
• Hooters: One free meal from a select menu
• Houlihan’s Restaurants: Free meal from a special menu
• Hy-Vee: Free breakfast
• HOP: Free red, white and blue pancakes
• Kansas City Zoo: Complimentary admission
• LaMar’s Donuts: Free doughnut and 12-ounce coffee.
• Little Caesars: Free lunch combo ($5 value) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• LongHorn Steakhouse: Free appetizer and 10 percent off the total bill from Nov. 10 to 12.
• Main Event Entertainment: Complimentary $10 FUNcard that can be used on all Main Event games, and one free entrée from the special Veterans Day menu.
• Minsky’s Pizza Cafe & Bar: Free 6-inch Philly cheesesteak, fries and a soft drink, dine-in only.
• Muscle Maker Grill: Free meal
• Museum at Prairiefire: All access for veterans and their guests
• O’Dowd’s Gastrobar: Free entree
• Olive Garden: One free entree (five to choose from) with unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks, dine-in only.
• On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina: Free lunch combo
• Outback Steakhouse: Free Bloomin’ Onion and free Coca-Cola drink
• Pie Five Pizza Co.: Free pizza
• Pinstripes, Prairiefire: Free entree up to $20.
• Porto do Sul: Free Harvest Table, for lunch only Nov. 10 and 11.
• Price Chopper: 25 cents off per gallon (or 500 points toward food savings) on veterans’ next fill-up at QuikTrip (up to 20 gallons). Veterans need to bring their Chopper Shopper Rewards Card to one of the stores on Nov. 11 to receive the discounts.
• Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews: Free Red’s Tavern double burger with bottomless steak fries
• Red Lobster: Free appetizer or dessert.
• Rock & Brews Restaurants: Free pulled pork sandwiches Nov. 10.
• Ruby Tuesday: Free appetizer
• Scooters Coffee: Free cup of coffee
• Shoney’s: Free all-you-care-to-eat breakfast bar from 6 to 11 a.m.
• Spin Neapolitan Pizza: Free Mini Mia pizza and salad or soup combo
• Sport Clips: Free haircuts
• Starbucks: Free tall coffee
• Stroud’s, Fairway and Overland Park: Free entree
• Texas Roadhouse: Free lunch from a select menu
• Topgolf: Free basic lifetime memberships if veterans sign up on Nov. 11, as well as 10 percent off gameplay and 20 percent off other memberships.
• Twin Peaks: Free menu item from a select menu on Nov. 13.
• Yard House: Free appetizer, dine-in only.
• YaYa’s Eurobistro: 20 percent off purchase and a $10 bonus card.
• Zarda Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q: Free pulled pork sandwich, side and medium drink from 11 a.m to 2 p.m.

And for a national list:

All the Restaurants Where Veterans and U.S. Military Eat Free This Weekend

Then, additionally, there is this:

All US national parks are free on Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day.

Veterans Day

The 1918 truce that halted fighting in World War I went into effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Today, that is commemorated in the U.S. as Veterans Day.

Let's REALLY honor Veterans.

Demand an end to perpetual war.

Memorial Day

Army Rangers in Afghanistan Release Music Video in Commemoration of Memorial Day

First Lieutenants Andrew Yacovone and Justin Wright formed a musical duo called Interstate 10, and this week they released a music video from Afghanistan.

Veterans Day, 2015

Remembering World War II, by the numbers. An informative, fascinating, possibly even important video on the people killed in World War II.



Never forget.

Memorial Day, 2015

Veterans Day, 2014

"I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.” 

--Mohandas K Gandhi

Veterans Day

Tributes:







Let's REALLY support the troops...  and stop creating wars.

Is there any more worthy charity?

If you can help, go here: WoundedWarriorProject

And thank you in advance.

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

The Costs of our Wars

Another week and another two billion dollars spent in Afghanistan.

Total bill to US taxpayers:

$1,457,237,036,956

More importantly:

Number of "Enduring Freedom", "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and "Operation New Dawn" casualties as confirmed by US Central Command:

6,706

That's 6,706 soldiers--men and women from our nation.

And two more dead this week:

--Marine Lance Corporal Benjamin Tuttle, July 14, 2013--19 years old and from Gentry, Arkansas

and

--Army Staff Sergeant Sonny C. Zimmerman, July 16, 2013--25 years old of Waynesfield, Ohio.


All of which begs the question---at what point are we going to end this pointless, extremely costly and utterly unnecessary insanity?

Here's Memorial Day

If you missed last evening's program on KCPT's PBS "American Experience, "War Letters", you owe it to yourself to do so. It is one of the most moving, beautiful videos on any subject, let alone on soldiers, their sacrifices and war.

Watch War Letters on PBS. See more from American Experience.

More on the program here:  War Letters . American Experience . WGBH | PBS

Link to original video, shown here, above:

Video: War Letters | Watch American Experience Online | PBS Video

Memorial Day, 2013

Metal Memorials

“Hey, man, just so you know, I’m going to set this thing off.” I don’t have a metal plate in my head or shrapnel in my legs, but I carry with me something that might as well be lodged deep under my skin. After Vietnam, soldiers and civilians alike would wear bracelets etched with the names of prisoners of war so their memory would live on even if they never came home. Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued the practice, but with a twist.

The same bracelets are adorned with the names of friends killed in action. The date and place are also included as a testament to where they took their last steps. One of the first things my platoon did after coming home was order memorial bracelets from the Web sites that specialize in military memorabilia. You don’t even have to type in the name or the date; their system uses the D.O.D. casualty list. All you have to do is filter by name and a software-aided laser will burn the selection onto an aluminum or steel bracelet. What emerges out of this casual and disinterested practice is jewelry teeming with the amount of love and commitment found in 10 wedding rings.

Every trip to the airport has the same outcome: additional security checks and a pat down from a TSA agent. I tell them it’s the bracelet that the metal detector shrieks at. “Can you take it off?” is always the question. “I don’t want to take it off” is always the answer. To some screeners my answer is a poke in the eye of their authority. Others recognize the bracelet and give me a gentle nod and a quick pat down. I suspect they have encountered other veterans like me and realize the futility of asking to have it removed. In a glass booth at the security gate is where I most often get the question, “Who’s on the bracelet?” Those who realize the significance of it usually want to know the name. I stare down and rub my fingers over the lettering. “Brian Chevalier, but we called him Chevy.”

At times the memorial bracelets seem almost redundant. The names of the fallen are written on steel and skin, but are they not also carved into the hearts of men? Are the faces of the valiant not emblazoned in the memories of those who called them brothers? No amount of ink or steel can be used to represent what those days signify.

My bracelet says “14 March 2007,” but it does not describe the blazing heat that day, or the smell of open sewers trampled underfoot or the sight of a Stryker, overturned and smoke-filled as the school adjacent exploded under tremendous fire. It was as if God chose to end the world within one city block. When Chevy was lovingly placed into a body bag under exploding grenades and machine gun tracers, worlds ended. Others began. The concept of Memorial Day nearly approaches superfluous ritual to some veterans. It's absurd to ask a combat veteran to take out a single day to remember those fell in battle, as if the other 364 days were not marked by their memories in one way or another.

I try to look at pictures of my friends, both alive and dead, at least once a day to remember their smiles or the way they wore their kits. I talk to them online and send emails and texts and on rare occasions, visit them in person. We drink and laugh and recall the old days and tell the same war stories everyone has heard a thousand times but still manage to produce streams of furious laughter. I get the same feeling with them; Memorial Day does not begin or end on a single day. It ebbs and flows in torrents of memory, sometimes to a crippling degree. Most of us have become talented at hiding our service, and safeguard the moments when we become awash in memories like March 14. The bracelet is the only physical reminder of the tide we find ourselves in.

Not just soldiers are touched by war. Chevy was a father and a son, and his loss not only rippled through the platoon and company but a small town in Georgia. The day serves as a reminder that there are men and women who have only come back as memories. Maybe the reflection on those who did not return is a key to helping civilians bridge the gap with veterans. Occasionally my bracelet spurs conversations with friends and coworkers who did not know I was in the Army or deployed to Iraq. I still don't feel completely comfortable answering their questions but I'm always happy to talk about the name on my wrist. His name was Brian Chevalier, but we called him Chevy.

--Alex Horton, a Georgetown University junior, started a blog called Army of Dude while serving in Iraq in 2006. In this post he remembers a fallen friend.

From  Warrior voices - The New York Times, this past February.

Veterans Day

Afghan shooter, Part II

Everyone's out getting drunk while there's this: Military Sources Name Army Sergeant Suspected in Afghanistan Massacre 4 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, lost part of his foot, had a traumatic head injury, wife and 2 kids at home, troubles there, on the home/marriage front: Suspect in Afghan Attack Snapped, US Official Says. Poor guy. Sure, I feel for the innocent Afghanis, too, absolutely. But this guy needs needs his wife, kids and country behind him. What he did was wrong but the war is wrong and he needs help, at least. It pains me that he's only about 45 minutes from home. I feel sick for him and have since I heard about it. Happy St. Patrick's Day, America. A man's life may well be ruined for you. Links: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/military-sources-name-army-sergeant-suspected-afghanistan-massacre-224453357.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/asia/suspect-in-afghan-attack-snapped-us-official-says.html?_r=1.

War is not a game, by any means

More and more, the American military has been advertising in the last several years to teens and young people in the country, with what seems to be an appeal to potential candidates for service with them, as though war and what they do is some kind of computer game. I found the following yesterday, making my point: "Below is a 30-second Air Force recruitment TV ad (h/t SuperBowlXX); how can anyone, after seeing this, not swoon over the greatness of drones? It’s precisely because of their constant glorification in the War on Terror that their use is virtually inevitable on U.S. soil: if they’re such fantastic weapons for stopping Bad Guys over there, why wouldn’t they be used over here?" I'll discuss the seeming, growing fascism and police state in the US here later, I promise. Link to original post:http://www.salon.com/2011/12/06/nprs_domestic_drone_commercial/singleton/

President Obama welcomes troops back from Iraq

He looks pretty "presidential" up there, doesn't he? Link: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-marking-end-iraq-war-171437082.html

Memorial Day, Part III

"At the Going Down of the Sun and in the Morning, We Will Remember Them"

Bill Lawson, National President, Paralyzed Veterans of America, 05.29.2011

They shed their blood for freedom. Their families live with these sacrifices. And too often we forget that freedom isn't free. For those of us who served and live every day with our injuries, these selfless heroes will forever be our inspiration. (Click on link above).

Let's have a real "Happy Memorial Day"

Memorial Day Tribute: Keep the Troops at Home

Let's REALLY honor the troops.

Let's bring them home.

More proof of why we need government, regulation and corporate oversight

In Monday's hearing before a joint panel from the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy (formerly the Minerals Management Service), Richard Godfrey, a lawyer for BP, testified that a September 2009 audit showed there was “overdue planned maintenance considered excessive—390 jobs amounting to 3,545 man hours.” Link to original post: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/bp-attorney-rig-had-390-overdue-maintenance-items