tryingtogrok.new.mu.nu

July 20, 2008

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF

There's just too much to say about this article, and most of what I want to say will make me sound mean. I'll limit myself to a few points: As wars lengthen, toll on military families mounts

If the burden sounds heavier than what families bore in the longest wars of the 20th century Â— World War II and Vietnam Â— that's because it is, at least in some ways. What makes today's wars distinctive is the deployment pattern Â— two, three, sometimes four overseas stints of 12 or 15 months. In the past, that kind of schedule was virtually unheard of.

Honestly, I'd rather my husband do all the time he's done in Iraq than do one tour in either WWII or Vietnam. I can't help but think of Easy Company from Band of Brothers. They were only deployed for a year, but that year included D-Day, Market Garden, and Bastogne. No way. I'll take two years in Iraq over that one year in Europe anyday.

"Infidelity is huge on both sides Â— a wife is lonely, she looks for attention and finds it easier to cheat," she said. "It does make even the most sound marriages second-guess."

Um, no it doesn't. Speak for yourself, honey.

"Deployments don't help in strengthening a marriage, but they do not have to kill marriages," [Col. Ronald Crews, one of several chaplains called from the reserves to help with family counseling] said. "That's a choice a couple has to make."

Again, speak for yourself, Chaplain. I know a few wives who've said that deployment strengthened their relationship; CVG even called deployment "couples therapy." I really disagree that separation can't strengthen you.

When my husband left, I posted "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" on my site. To me, that is the perfect deployment poem. My husband is the roaming foot of the compass, and I the fixed foot that hearkens after him. Our love is the "gold to aery thinness beat" and we don't need "eyes, lips, and hands" to remind us that we're still in love. And our relationship is just as strong, even though deployment "doth remove those things which elemented it."

I don't need my husband in my house to know that I love him. I also don't need him here to know that I oughtn't cheat on him, or to strengthen the bond that exists between us.

But then again, we don't have "dull sublunary lovers' love."

[article via LMT]

Posted by: Sarah at 09:46 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Question: Do you think you are the rule or the exception?

Posted by: Non-Essential Equipment at July 20, 2008 10:09 AM (mDLjD)

2 NEE: I don't really know. Since there have been many articles like this one over the past seven years, I assume I am an exception. But we are out there, families that cope and cope fine. There just aren't any articles about us.

Posted by: Sarah at July 20, 2008 10:31 AM (TWet1)

3 I guess this article speaks to me because I see so much of it firsthand as an FRG leader. Sure, a good number of the marriages that fall apart should have never happened in the first place but I think the distance and the uncertainty take a big toll on a lot of relationships. One marriage that just broke up was done from the soldier's end. Facing a third deployment, he said he couldn't be the kind of father that his kids deserved. He divorced his wife, who was coping, in hopes that she'll find someone who will be around. Next question: why do you think your marriage does work despite the distance? If you can articulate it, it would make a great article (and I'm sure the Army would want to use the material for some kind of marriage retreat). =)

Posted by: Non-Essential Equipment at July 20, 2008 10:41 AM (mDLjD)

4 NEE: My husband has a friend in the Air Force who has said that he'll never marry as long as he's active duty because he doesn't want to do that to a wife. I told him that some wives can handle it, but for him, it doesn't feel right. So I can understand, sadly, that divorce you mentioned. As for your question...I don't know that I can explain it, but I will think about it and see if I can figure it out.

Posted by: Sarah at July 20, 2008 11:22 AM (TWet1)

5 I wish there was more of a balance in the press. When all some people read is how bad it is for some couples, they assume it *is* the rule. I was joking with someone recently that the only way I'd ever be able to get a mortgage now is if I married a man with the GI bill. They responded by telling me how messed up they are when they come home from the war. The way it was phrased, the person seemed to think they're all coming home with chronic PTSD. I wonder if this is how the anti-war types will need to play their hand now: the personal cost to our military and their families is so high that even if we are winning, we should cut and run.

Posted by: Jacki at July 20, 2008 11:48 AM (zgpLt)

6 My husband and I met 31 years ago in Navy Officer Candidate School. We got married 8 months later, had a 10 day honeymoon which ended with my start of a 1 year tour in Adak Alaska while he went to various schools and a shipyard overhaul for his first duty on board a ship. The decision we made almost 31 years ago was to be together part time or not at all. I was willing to make the part time commitment(Navy has always had deployments of 7 months and unaccompanied tours of 12-18 months)if and only if he was too. I needed him in my life, and fortunately, he felt the same. I wrote daily from Adak and we spent hundreds per month on phone calls (at $.40 to $.60 per minute in 1978 dollars). I watched his first tour on board a ship where he was expected to make do with a few hours a week of sleep, then on his second, when he was assigned to a carrier. Women as I came in did not go on ships. That changed shortly after our first of 3 kids were born. We felt one deployer was enough when kids were involved. Later, my husband got out and went into the reserves after that 3rd child arrived. I stayed active until I retired as our children hit 1st, 7th and 10th grades and became a stay at home mom. My husband, a teacher, activated for 2-6 months per year in Hawaii, away from our California home until he too retired ten years later. He only missed one year when he had a tumor removed. We made a commitment to each other, and both of us had a first hand knowledge of what the military demands of it's people. I did not come from a military family, so I needed that direct experience. Our commitment included a faithfulness to each other and the expectation that we would work through rough times to "grow old together." Did we, including our children, face some hardships due to the moves and other inconveniences of military life? Yes. But oh did we have opportunities. The elder two are now service members, each with more than 6 years in. One is a dad of a remarkable (of course) 2 year old boy. The other will wait until she finds the right person to spend her life with. Would I live the same life, making the same choice if I knew what the future held? In a heartbeat.

Posted by: HChambers at July 20, 2008 03:19 PM (++roz)

7 Why some families can cope and others can't is the question of the century, isn't it? I mean, it's obvious why some couples didn't last - and there's fault scenarios on both sides of the fence. It's fairly obvious that they would not have lasted as a civilian couple, either. And the military divorce rate has actually dropped since the war started. But there are those whose divorce has completely taken me by surprise, too. The military divorce rate has always been high, and it is just hard to compare now and then with accuracy. I can't help but think that the slant everyone has going into studies (this is all the fault of the war) keeps us from actually being able to accurately figure out what IS the fault of the war. And that keeps us from being able to understand what steps we CAN take to make things better.

Posted by: airforcewife at July 20, 2008 05:14 PM (mIbWn)

8 Adultery is no longer shameful and, in some units, seems to be the norm. It's not punished or even actively discouraged unless the wronged spouse complains - and complains LOUDLY. A lot of our choices, especially when young, are still influenced by peer pressure. Unfortunately, we are no longer enlisting a majority of what I call "good people." And yes, it's turned me into quite the cynic. If one more guy asks me to tell him the 'legal' way to commit adultery while waiting on his divorce, I'm going to clock him! Bottom line - it's becoming easier and more acceptable every day to divorce after 10 months or so of marriage. It's unfortunate, but it's more a 'cut my losses' attitude, instead of sticking it out and remembering why you married the person in the first place. (Although I do discourage them from having children together until the marriage is in a better place. And I think anti-depressants are MASSIVELY underprescribed - for the soldiers and the spouses! Thank goodness we had a good, tight group of support during the deployment!)

Posted by: Oda Mae at July 21, 2008 05:03 AM (VVzar)

9 I agree that deployments during WWII and Vietnam are grossly misrepresented. Servicemembers were gone for much longer periods of time and communication was much more difficult then. You've talked about deployment being like snowflakes, maybe wars are a bit like that too. Our servicemembers are deploying for shorter times and more often but that also means they are having to transition more often and maybe that is hard on the psyche. I don't know as I haven't had to do that. I've only had to be the one at home. I can see where the chaplain was coming from about deployments and marital strength. Long separations DO put stresses on people and marriages. It isn't easy but, as you say, there are families out there coping and coping well. But I wonder if it's the separation that is the breaking point for some couples or the reintegration?

Posted by: Marine Wife at July 21, 2008 05:49 AM (Vbk4m)

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A PECK OF PEPPERS

I've never grown anything edible before, so I am fascinated by my new little garden. I go out and look at it constantly, mostly to marvel but also to be on the lookout for hornworms!

So I was tickled pink to come home from DC and find that my little buds and marble-sized peppers had turned into this:

Four on one little plant! How is it standing under all that weight? And the little pepper that I took a photo of a month ago?

He's red! He's still only the size of a golfball though. But this farmer thing is addictive.

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July 19, 2008

MY ALTERNATE REALITY

The Girl and I have a running motivational speech, wherein we admonish each other not to live in an alternate reality. Hers is that if her husband hadn't deployed and gotten stop-moved, she would be back in the US now instead of still languishing in Germany. Mine is that I would already have a baby instead of still being in not-able-to-be-pregnant hell. We have to constantly remind each other that, even though we don't like it, we have to live in the reality that is.

But this is hard for me today, because my husband just found out his next deployment schedule. He still has six months left on this one, and he already knows tentative dates for the next one. And I can't help but be overwhelmingly disappointed that this baby we were pregnant with a month ago would've worked out so perfectly. Baby would've been born right after the husband got back, and he would've been here for the birth and then maximized his time at home before he left again. Now that we already know when he's leaving again, it's like another sock in the gut that I wish this baby had worked out.

I am still planning on getting fertility testing done, and perhaps heading into Mordor this fall. But if things go perfectly well, and I get pregnant on my own in a doctor's office right away, the baby will be born right as my husband is deploying again. That is not a reality I care to live in. In fact, that was the exact reason that we started trying to have a baby when we did, so we could avoid such a crappy situation. But there it is. Perfect Baby is no longer with us, and now we get Undesirably Timed Baby. That is, if Baby even works out for us at all.

I promise you, The Girl, that I am trying really hard not to dwell on that alternate reality, where my husband actually gets to enjoy the birth and early life of his child. And I swear, I was doing really well and was practically over the fact that I am not pregnant anymore. I was moving on, but this is something that makes me wistful for the alternate reality I almost had.

However, I take some vicarious comfort in this: no matter how we slice it, you will be back living in the US before any sort of baby enters our home! And that is something to definitely look forward to.

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CUTE

Yay, CaliValleyGirl finally graced us with her presence, and she even included a picture of her baby wearing the sweater I made for him. Um, the sweater that was supposed to fit him this coming winter, at six months, not six weeks. He's a big'un.

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LINK

Via Beth, a must read: Patton Oswalt's graduation speech

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OH HEAVENS

Dear AirForceGuy,

You know how you were ashamed that my Tibetan terrier kicked your pit bull's butt? I have a piece of news you'll be interested in. Remember how Charlie kept scratching his ears the whole week? We went to the vet yesterday: he has a yeast infection in his ears.

Trust me, our dogs are equally emasculated.

Poor Charlie, that's just not cool at all.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:11 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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SLEEP

One of the bad things about having a deployed husband and no job is that I don't have to do anything. Time is just one big fluid thing, and the distinction between separate days becomes arbitrary.

I have always been an insomniac, but having a husband with a set schedule helps keep me on a system. Now that he's gone, there's no reason to go get in bed. I end up promising myself 'just one more episode' or 'just one more chapter.' My bedtime creeps ever so later: 1AM, 2AM. Same with when I get out of bed; if there's no job to go to, and I stayed up until 2AM, why not sleep until 9:00? It's a bad cycle.

But last night, I found myself exhausted. I felt like I was drugged, I was so tired. Maybe it was the midnight drive home from DC catching up to me, I don't know. But I shut the lights out last night at 8:45, before it was even dark outside. And I woke up this morning at 7:45. That's a heck of a slumber.

Oh, and trust me, I am enjoying it while it lasts. There's my silver lining to not having kids yet; I can sleep for 11 hours if I need to.

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July 18, 2008

DERP

The husband sent me a good link today, under the simple email subject line of "Krauthammer rules": Who Does Obama Think He Is?

Incidentally, I watched North By Northwest last night -- such a good movie and can I point out how Cary Grant makes me melt? -- and I had a good chuckle when I remembered Obama's bonehead question of how they had filmed the movie on top of Mount Rushmore. I hope he hadn't seen that movie in a long time, because the Rushmore they used was comically fake-looking. It is entirely obvious it wasn't the real deal.

But hey, at least Obama didn't ask to see the entrance where Nicolas Cage found the city of gold.

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July 17, 2008

I'M HOME

Thomas Sowell is so smart.

One of the most naive notions is that politicians are trying to solve the country's problems, just because they say so-- or say so loudly or inspiringly.
Politicians' top priority is to solve their own problem, which is how to get elected and then re-elected. Barack Obama is a politician through and through, even though pretending that he is not is his special strategy to get elected.
[...]
Perhaps a defining moment in showing Senator Obama's priorities was his declaring, in answer to a question from Charles Gibson, that he was for raising the capital gains tax rate. When Gibson reminded him of the well-documented fact that lower tax rates on capital gains had produced more actual revenue collected from that tax than the higher tax rates had, Obama was unmoved.
The question of how to raise more revenue may be the economic issue but the political issue is whether socking it to "the rich" in the name of "fairness" gains more votes.

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July 15, 2008

QUOTE

Ralph Peters on "the audacity of hope":

Audacity is for innovators, risk-takers and crusaders - for those willing to stand in the fire of public opinion and tell a million people they're wrong and here's why. Audacity's not for the passive mob hoping government will fix everything (while blaming government for everything).
Hope is the opposite of audacity. It's passive, an excuse for inaction.

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July 14, 2008

LOVELY VACATION

My time at Heather's house was so nice; we just sat and crocheted together for three days. I joked to her husband that we were going to get bedsores! It was so relaxing and nice to just talk. And her husband used to be Civil Affairs, so we compared notes.

I'm here at AirForceHouse now. There was an "incident" tonight: Charlie was wrestling with their dog and their dog's foot got caught and it ripped his toenail completely out by the root. Ouch! AirForceGuy is mortified that our Tibetan terrier managed to take down his pit bull. Heh.

More later.

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July 11, 2008

NO PRIZES FOR ME

I don't feel so great today. Unsettled, disappointed, depressed. Getting lasik surgery was supposed to be my consolation prize for losing the baby; now it looks like I don't get First Place or the consolation prize. No prizes for me. No silver lining, no green grass, no happy ending. They told me to come back in a week and they'll re-run the eye tests to be certain.

Thank goodness I already had something good planned for this week.

I leave tomorrow to go visit friends. My first stop is Heather, the recipient of all those squares I've been crocheting. We will have a nice couple of days of pure crafting, and I can have some precious company while I get some more work done on my afghans. My next stop is AirForceFamily. AirForceGuy has even arranged a Top Secret excursion, something that even required some sort of security clearance. I am so curious to see what it is. (And so is my husband, apparently!)

You know, I was supposed to take this trip in May, but a dead baby threw a monkey wrench in it. I am really glad that I happened to reschedule for right now, because I could use the distraction and the joy in my life.

Today will go down as a really bad day in my life: the day I felt extra salt in my wounds. But if this is the worst day I ever have to face, then I will have lived a very good life.

It just sucks today.
But my vacation will help boost my spirits.

And I'm taking the laptop, so I hope to stick around the 'sphere...

Posted by: Sarah at 12:40 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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TEH FUNNY

Well, this cheers me up today. I clicked on Instapundit and my heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that Mark Steyn was hosting the Rush Limbaugh show today. I ran to the radio.

Also, this sent me into fits too.

I am not what you would call outdoorsy. If I wanted anything that was outdoors, I'd hire someone to bring it inside where civilization lives. [...]
Anyway, on my recent trip to Branson, we were staying at a hotel with both an indoor and an outdoor pool and spa. You already know which one I used. As I sat in the hot tub, inside the air conditioned building, I realized I was a full two layers away from nature, and I liked it. The air conditioning protected me from the heat outside, and the warm water of the hot tub protected me from the air conditioning. In time, the hot tub became too hot, and I wished I had some sort of thermos suit I could wear to take the edge off.

UPDATE:

I guess I ought to specify: they were fits of laughter. Maybe I have a weird sense of humor, but I thought that was darned funny. Take that, Al Gore.

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TOO MUCH REJECTION

I can't carry a baby.
And my corneas are too thin for lasik.
I hate my body.

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July 10, 2008

I STILL HEART VARIFRANK (I JUST HAD FORGOTTEN HOW MUCH)

When I first started blogging, I read every single blog on my blogroll every single day. I was fastidious. Nowadays, I am so blog-scatterbrained; I don't think there's one blog I read every day. Thus I haven't read Varifrank in a while, so forgive me that these links are old.

I wasn't the biggest fan in the world of There Will Be Blood, but God how I love that "I drink your milkshake" line. I love how you can use it now and it sums up a whole concept in one little silly line. I just get tickled pink every time I see it. (Not to mention that you can also explain the concept using the names J.R. Ewing and Monty Burns.)

Varifrank, from a month ago: Canada to US: I Drink Your Milkshake! And you know exactly what the post will be about. I just love that line.

(Of course, my very favorite use of There Will Be Blood is this blog post from iSteve. Oh my, that was clever. I mean, that deserves an award or something.)

Oh, and Varifrank wrote a doozie two weeks ago when Wesley Clark opened his yapper. Priceless.

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LINK

I thought this was an interesting article: When The Man is One of Us

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NIIICE

File under "I wish I had thought to say that." Lileks on Obama's "merci beaucoup" inanity yesterday:

In the context of English-as-a-national-tongue laws, itÂ’s an interesting assertion: Apparently it is right to expect people who visit Paris to speak French the day they get there, but it is cultural chauvinism to expect people who want to live and work in America to understand English well enough to navigate a ballot.

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July 09, 2008

NO MORE TOMATOES

My mother and I planted a vegetable garden while she was here, and I had four thriving, big tomato plants on the back fence. I go out there tonight and find this.

Every second plant was stripped completely bare. No leaves. Huh? I move in for a closer look.

Two of the fattest, grossest caterpillars took up residence in my garden. Both totally engorged with an entire tomato plant. They were about four inches long and as thick around as a Tootsie Roll.

Blech.

Naturally, I pried them off with a spatula and dumped them over the fence into the neighbor's yard. They don't have anything planted in their yard anyway.

I'm bad.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:39 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Growing up it used to be a contest to see who could find the tomato worm first. Sometimes it was quite a challange, and if you are very quiet sometimes you can hear them chomping away. We would usually torture them once we found them.

Posted by: Kellee at July 10, 2008 03:19 AM (w2MFa)

2 To use a very old SNL phrase, "It's always something!" Tomato hornworms should be smashed immediately, they will turn into moths that come back, lay more eggs, make more worms. An endless cycle.I don't have any here, don't need them. We have leaf cutter ants that come overnight and do the job instead of them. Went out this morning with coffee cup in hand, only to find pepper plants stripped. They will even take the little peppers. They take them to their nests to plant their fungus gardens! The only plants they haven't taken at one time is mother of million kalanchoe plant, one I detest and is a pest! and cacti. They don't eat anything but the flower stems of aloe vera, so I never get to see them bloom. They love flower buds. So do the deer. So I'm turning this into a rant. Oh well. Sarah, next time you see those critters smash them!!

Posted by: Ruth H at July 10, 2008 03:43 AM (4u82p)

3 Oh, Ruth...they were SO fat; it grosses me out to think of smashing such a fat bug. There would be smashed bug everywhere! Ewwww.

Posted by: Sarah at July 10, 2008 04:32 AM (TWet1)

4 Yeah I don't squish either. That's what RAID is for. Sorry about your tomato's. You could still start over with cherry tomato's and get some fruit.

Posted by: Mare at July 10, 2008 05:08 AM (APbbU)

5 Yep, Ruth, remember how D. would smash them for me when he was young. Give the kid a brick and he was lethal! ;0)

Posted by: tt at July 10, 2008 06:05 AM (S/Fac)

6 I took a bunch of pictures of my beautiful, ruby-red strawberries, which I protected with bird netting last year and thought would protect them this year. I walked out the door the very next day, and they were ALL GONE. I think some critters (deer? raccoons?) came and got 'em.

Oh well, at least I got pictures!

Posted by: Deltasierra at July 10, 2008 12:35 PM (7uphd)

7 I hesitated to tell you the easiest way to "terminate" the hornworms...pair of scissors...cut them in half...not as messy as squashing (and truth be told I don't look when I do it)

Posted by: Mary*Ann at July 10, 2008 07:23 PM (lnAFP)

8 Well, a jar of water works too, just put them in and hide it so you don't have to see it. Just don't let them live. I don't like to smash them directly either, put them under the mulch and step on them, that works. They are bio-degradable! ;D

Posted by: Ruth at July 11, 2008 05:29 AM (BkiKe)

9 My dad used to feed them to our (very small) dog. I watched her eat one once and nearly threw up. I thought for sure she was going to choke on that huge, thick, squishy thing. Yuck.

Posted by: Ivy at July 11, 2008 07:42 AM (A1thK)

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HAHAHA

I talked to ArmyWifeToddlerMom this evening. She is unable to get online at her father's house, so she has been in non-internet limbo for a long time now. She's itching to get back. And I'm itching to hear from her again, because she always kills me.

One of AWTM's charms is her filthy mouth. Sadly, she's now going to have to curb her enthusiasm, especially for her favorite insult. Her son, Sir Rowland, is apparently cut from the same cloth as she is, and his inner-AWTM is starting to shine through. They were eating in a restaurant the other day and the waiter took a really long time to bring the kids their plates. As the waiter handed her son his dish and turned to go, Sir Rowland muttered under his breath, "Thanks, douchebag."

Ha. He's exactly like his mama.

We miss you, AWTM.

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Oh yeah, I forgot how this works.
First time at the gym after a hiatus = fun
Second time at the gym = ouch

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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.
--The Count of Monte Cristo--

While our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending.
--Deskmerc--

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Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, WWII, and the Star Wars Trilogy.
--Bart Simpson--

If you want to be a peacemaker, you've gotta learn to kick ass.
--Sheriff of East Houston, Superman II--

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.
--Jed Babbin--

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
--President John F. Kennedy--

War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours.
--General Patton--

We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.
--Full Metal Jacket--

Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed.
--Dick Cheney--

The Flag has to come first if freedom is to survive.
--Col Steven Arrington--

The purpose of diplomacy isn't to make us feel good about Eurocentric diplomatic skills, and having countries from the axis of chocolate tie our shoelaces together does nothing to advance our infantry.
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I just don't care about the criticism I receive every day, because I know the cause I defend is right.
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It's days like this when we're reminded that freedom isn't free.
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Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face.
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The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results.
--President Bush--

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
--John Galt--

First, go buy a six pack and swig it all down. Then, watch Ace Ventura. And after that, buy a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and come talk to me. You really need to lighten up, man.
--Sminklemeyer--

You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting
--General Curtis Lemay--

If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight!
--Patrick Henry--

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.
--President George W. Bush--

are usually just cheerleading sessions, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but a soothing reduction in blood pressure brought about by the narcotic high of being agreed with.
--Bill Whittle

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 own 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--

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.
--General George Marshall--

We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.
--Buzz Aldrin--

America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.
--Dinesh D'Souza--

Recent anti-Israel protests remind us again of our era's peculiar alliance: the most violent, intolerant, militantly religious movement in modern times has the peace movement on its side.
--James Lileks--

As a wise man once said: we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Unless the price is too high, the burden too great, the hardship too hard, the friend acts disproportionately, and the foe fights back. In which case, we need a timetable.
--James Lileks--

I am not willing to kill a man so that he will agree with my faith, but I am prepared to kill a man so that he cannot force my compatriots to submit to his.
--Froggy--

You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties.
--Varifrank--

In a perfect world, We'd live in peace and love and harmony with each oither and the world, but then, in a perfect world, Yoko would have taken the bullet.
--SarahBellum--

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
--Ronald Reagan--

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.
--E.M. Forster--

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
--Mark Twain--

The Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which touched every European state, sparked vicious guerrilla conflicts across the Continent and killed millions. Then, things really turned ugly after the invention of soccer.
--Iowahawk--

Every time I meet an Iraqi Army Soldier or Policeman that I haven't met before, I shake his hand and thank him for his service. Many times I am thanked for being here and helping his country. I always tell them that free people help each other and that those that truly value freedom help those seeking it no matter the cost.
--Jack Army--

Right, left - the terms are useless nowadays anyway. There are statists, and there are individualists. There are pessimists, and optimists. There are people who look backwards and trust in the West, and those who look forward and trust in The World. Those are the continuums that seem to matter the most right now.
--Lileks--

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston Churchill--

A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it.
--Arthur Conan Doyle--

A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference."
--Dave Grossman--

At heart Iâ€™m a cowboy; my attitude is if theyâ€™re not going to stand up and fight for what they believe in then they can go pound sand.
--Bill Whittle--

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
--Alexander Tyler--

By that time a village half-wit could see what generations of professors had pretended not to notice.
--Atlas Shrugged--

I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, "That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too."
--Alabama Worley--

So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists donâ€™t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we havenâ€™t yet held talks without preconditions with.
--Mark Steyn--

"I had started alone in this journey called life, people started gathering up on the way, and the caravan got bigger everyday."
--Urdu couplet

The book and the sword are the two things that control the world. We either gonna control them through knowledge and influence their minds, or we gonna bring the sword and take their heads off.
--RZA--

It's a daily game of public Frogger, hopping frantically to avoid being crushed under the weight of your own narcissism, banality, and plain old stupidity.
--Mary Katharine Ham--

There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
--James Madison--

It is in the heat of emotion that good people must remember to stand on principle.
--Larry Elder--

Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.
--from a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt--

The world economy depends every day on some engineer, farmer, architect, radiator shop owner, truck driver or plumber getting up at 5AM, going to work, toiling hard, and producing real wealth so that an array of bureaucrats, regulators, and redistributors can manage the proper allotment of much of the natural largess produced.
--VDH--

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.
--Marcelene Cox--