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REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

5/29/2007

Memorial Day Musings –
Twilight Time, 2007

This year was going to be different. This year, I wasn’t buying any of it. This year, I wasn’t going to be there.

Since returning home in September 1989, I haven’t missed a Memorial Day service. That is, with the exception of 2004. That year I was winging my way to London the Sunday night before to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Looking back, it was altogether fitting that such a momentous pilgrimage began on Memorial Day.

But that’s been it. 2004 was the only year I missed since 1990. Like a homing pigeon, every year was the same. Every year I gravitated towards the local Memorial Day service on Monday morning of the unofficial holiday weekend kickoff to the summer season.

The ritual has been the same. I always went to Bellevue Cemetery in Ontario, California. Two reasons dictated this practice. First, it’s in the neighborhood. It’s a five-minute drive from home. Second, and more significantly, I have a friend buried there. No, not a friend, not exactly. Not even a passing acquaintance. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

MemorialDay1.jpg

It’s not Arlington Cemetery. In fact, it pretty humble fare at Bellevue. It’s an old park by California standards, but simple and dignified. Each year, the crosses somehow get painted, the flags get planted, and the place takes on a quiet air of reverence this time of year that befits the mood of the time and the significance of events.

Every year was the same in other ways as well. Like clockwork I would fall into a mental and spiritual funk sometime around the middle of May as the holiday approached. It manifested itself in a number of predictable patterns. Lack of energy; inability to concentrate; loss of short-term memory; a sense of preoccupation; and just a general sense of listlessness. Fortunately, this condition was always short-lived. By Monday afternoon, as the weekend wound down, things started to look up, and by Tuesday morning, I was right as rain.

This did, however, cause problems for those around me. My wife just couldn’t fathom it. She was particularly frustrated by my unconditional insistence that we go nowhere and do nothing on this first extended weekend of summer. There was a reason we had a three-day weekend this time of year, I insisted, and it wasn’t to go to the beach, visit the mountains, or throw a barbeque.

But this year was going to be different. I wasn’t going to set myself up for an early-summer bought of temporary depression. Who needs it? The country is falling apart. There’s no sense of national identity or local community. The whole thing was a mockery and a sham. And I was going to have no part of it anymore. There were better things to do on a holiday weekend, and I was going to partake of as many as I could cram into a three-day weekend.

Ah, the best laid plans. . .

My own military service didn’t add up to much. Mostly, it consisted of marking time and not becoming the last casualty in a Southeast Asian adventure the country was tired of fighting and the leadership no longer wanted to win, as if they ever did. But this time of year, it’s impossible not to reflect on the men, more than the experience. And that, more than anything else was the source of my lethargy, remembering those who came home and those who didn’t. This year was no different. Some habits are not easily broken. Some habits shouldn’t be.

In recent years, the quality of speakers at this service has deteriorated. Last year, we had a woman – an Annapolis graduate, no less – who passionately espoused the lesbianization of the armed forces as the only way to overcome the inherent bigotry and hate of America which led to the tragic events of 9/11.

The year before, it was a retired Halliburton executive who praised the globalist vision of George W. Bush, and his commitment to the war on terror which threatened the financial health of the Fortune 500. He triumphantly pointed out that under the president’s courageous leadership, Halliburton’s financial performance had reached record levels.

In 2003, it was a La Raza spokesman whose theme was the global village, how the battle was just beginning, and how the real fight was for increased opportunities in America for the oppressed peoples of color of the third world.

2002 gave us some stump speech for Hillary Clinton’s proposed legislation of unlimited lifetime healthcare and financial benefits for any undocumented migrants who served in the armed forces,.

So this year, I expected more of the same. The last time we had a speaker who actually honored the fallen had to be 2001 or before. And because this year I came to personally honor one of those fallen warriors, as in past years, I was prepared to grit my teeth and endure yet another political hack getting up on the podium to push whatever agenda they had in mind: from open borders for the oppressed peoples of color of the third world, to the maximization of global profits for the Fortune 500, to everything in between.

MemorialDay2.jpg

This year, I was pleasantly surprised. This year, Gary Ovitt,, former mayor of Ontario and current San Bernardino County Supervisor was a surprise speaker, replacing State Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod who failed to show for some reason.

It was a fortuitous turn of events.

Ovitt was outstanding. He spoke with a quiet eloquence of the “idea of America”. He spoke of a nation that went out of its way to provide opportunity for all, that went to great lengths to right its own wrongs, however long, hard and imperfect that process was and when called upon to defend the world from barbarism, met that challenge with skill, determination and commitment.

He spoke of generations of young Americans who, throughout our history, came to the sober realization that when the nation was threatened, they themselves would have to meet that threat and destroy it. He spoke of the sobriety with which young boys became men as they embraced such challenges. And he spoke of the humbling grief that overwhelms families when they absorb the news that their loved ones have paid the ultimate price for the country to survive, endure and thrive.

He did not talk about the virtue of a one-world, global utopia, corporate profits, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

It was a page right out of yesterday’s playbook. It was also a welcome respite, a cool summer breeze amidst the stifling heat of a nation in the process of a slow, painful implosion.

MemorialDay3.jpg

So, with the playing of taps, I was off to honor a fallen warrior. And so we come to Tom Eckl, KIA 20 February 1968, Republic of Vietnam.

I never knew him. I didn’t serve with him. I knew him only by reputation. He was older than I was, and among the first casualties of the Vietnam War at our local high school. He was certainly the very first, at least in my memory, for whom the administration held a memorial service.

Tom Eckl was a gifted athlete. He was a big, strong-armed quarterback with great mobility and tremendous throwing accuracy for the mid-1960s. Who knows what his athletic career would have looked like but for a knee injury bad enough to keep him from a major Division I college football scholarship? It was not, however, bad enough to keep him out of the Army.

He served in the 198th Light Infantry Brigade from 1967 to 1968. He was killed in action February 20 of that year. Reports of his death are as conflicted as the war in which he fought. One such report indicated he was killed by friendly fire – one of our own mortar rounds fell short and got him. Another suggests a breach failure in a 105mm howitzer resulted in an explosion that killed him.

Either way, Tom Eckl died for nothing. No strategic objective was seized (as if there were any in that war). No lives were saved. Just another casualty among thousands. A life cut short. A body bag coming home to a grieving family.

It’s tempting to idealize the dead. Especially those who die young and tragically. However, in later years, I became acquainted with Tom’s family to a certain extent. In 1990, I brought a tracing of his name from the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC to his brother, then living in South Orange County, CA. I came to learn about Tom’s family of origin.

He came from a big family whose children were raised right by a strong, loving father, and a compassionate, nurturing mother. Tom’s brother and his wife themselves had six kids, and they were being raised right, with the same solid values. These kids are now young adults, some of whom are starting families of their own. Just as bad upbringing poisons the water of the community, solid values also ring true. His other siblings have similar tales of accomplishment. This family was one of the ever-diminishing points of light in their community and their country. There is no doubt that Tom would have left a similar legacy given the chance.

MemorialDay4.jpg

So, I keep the vigil every year. As far as I know, nobody else shows up on this day. And somebody should. It’s little enough to do for a good man who should have come home. Like the many who came before, and countless more who will come after.

Survivor’s guilt runs rampant on this day, particularly since I was delivered from the fate Tom Eckl met in Vietnam. And even more so, considering my almost two score years of living since those days haven’t amounted to much.

It’s very tempting to ask why and rage against the unfairness of life. Such an exercise is pointless. Romans 8:28 tells us:

For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

That’s a particularly bitter verse to embrace on a day like Memorial Day. But, like all absolute truth, embrace it we must, if we walk by faith.

And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. – Revelation 21:4.

We can also rest in the sure and certain knowledge that the ultimate restoration is yet to come. We don’t know when, or how, and we may get no respite this side of the resurrection to eternal life. But we can hope that there will be a special place of honor for those who met their obligations with integrity and courage, regardless of the personal cost to themselves or their loved ones. Until then, we can lick our wounds, mourn our losses, rejoice in our loved ones and get on with the business of living.

After the service, I went out to lunch with a group from my local church who just happened to be in attendance. It was a gathering of friends and family on a day that was turning out to be magnificent. Clear, warm and dry. A perfect day to usher in the long, carefree days of summer.

It was a sad day, but a good one. A day that hurt, but it was a nice kind of hurt. Everybody was going about various summer activities – going to the beach, visiting the mountains, lounging in a backyard hammock to up the burgeoning summer sun. Some were even throwing a barbeque.

Who knows, maybe Tom Eckl’s death wasn’t in vain after all.

by Euro-American Scum
(contributing team member of Allegiance and Duty Betrayed)

21 comments:

joanie said...

I heard a Vietnam vet speak at a service this morning. I bawled like a baby during, and often since, his speech. This man was kept in a body-sized box in a Vietnamese POW camp for seven months straight. He weighed 210 lbs when captured, and 83 when rescued. In this morning’s speech, he painted an extraordinarily accurate picture of America 2007 in such starkly honest and depressing terms that even I, who am painfully well acquainted with those terms, was overcome.

America is finished. Each generation since the ‘greatest generation’ knows less and less about what she once was, and wanders farther and farther off the path that our Founders blazed, and deeper and deeper into a dark wilderness from which, barring a miracle of God, we will not emerge.

It is both encouraging, and discouraging, to hear someone describe, from the vantage point of a heroic patriot, America’s demise. It’s good to be reminded of our glorious past, but deeply depressing to acknowledge that our best days are behind us, and our worst enemies are in our midst, pretending to be ‘leaders’.

Thank you for sharing your remarkable day, EAS. I know our perspectives coincide, and I am certain I would have come away with the same impressions, but would have hardly penned them as eloquently.

~ joanie

Anonymous said...

Well said. You need to find another place to pay your respects on Memorial Day if they have had people from LaRaza there giving speeches.

Anonymous said...

I don't think many people stop by here anymore because you said you aren't going to be writing. But I'm glad to see you Joanie, and you too Euro-American Scum.

This is a great essay and I hope others start coming back to read it. You should both consider writing here now and then, even if you can't make a major commitment. At least your valuable thoughts will be preserved here and commented on as people discover this site in the future.

The people who've been speaking at your cemetery for the past couple years are what's happening all over the country. The PC crowd has even taken over Memorial Day celebrations. It was a blessing in disguise that the scheduled speaker had to be replaced this year and it sounds like you were treated to a speech by a real American.

I don't even bother to go to these commemorations anymore because the speakers at the last ones I went to didn't even know American history. They read somebody else's words from cue cards and the whole thing was an obligation to them not an honor.

Write more. Think about it.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you both back - CW and EAS. Good words. I'm glad I stopped by today. ;)

Anonymous said...

Goodness, Joanie, I thought the blog was dead. So I found it quite a surprise when I found you had posted my latest offering.

I must say, even as an intermittent contributor and observor, I miss it. And without it, I have no outlet for my various rants.

So thanks for putting up my latest commentary. You and I are sympatico on how we see the country and its direction. That's true. But there are moments when grace is poured out. I guess we can kiss the joy as it flies, so to speak.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

E.A. Scum

Anonymous said...

In recent years, the quality of speakers at this service has deteriorated. Last year, we had a woman – an Annapolis graduate, no less – who passionately espoused the lesbianization of the armed forces as the only way to overcome the inherent bigotry and hate of America which led to the tragic events of 9/11.

The year before, it was a retired Halliburton executive who praised the globalist vision of George W. Bush, and his commitment to the war on terror which threatened the financial health of the Fortune 500. He triumphantly pointed out that under the president’s courageous leadership, Halliburton’s financial performance had reached record levels.

In 2003, it was a La Raza spokesman whose theme was the global village, how the battle was just beginning, and how the real fight was for increased opportunities in America for the oppressed peoples of color of the third world.

2002 gave us some stump speech for Hillary Clinton’s proposed legislation of unlimited lifetime healthcare and financial benefits for any undocumented migrants who served in the armed forces.


Disgusting!

I'm glad to see some action here again. I hope the writing traffic picks up again. :)

Anonymous said...

He spoke of a nation that went out of its way to provide opportunity for all, that went to great lengths to right its own wrongs, however long, hard and imperfect that process was and when called upon to defend the world from barbarism, met that challenge with skill, determination and commitment.

He spoke of generations of young Americans who, throughout our history, came to the sober realization that when the nation was threatened, they themselves would have to meet that threat and destroy it. He spoke of the sobriety with which young boys became men as they embraced such challenges. And he spoke of the humbling grief that overwhelms families when they absorb the news that their loved ones have paid the ultimate price for the country to survive, endure and thrive.

He did not talk about the virtue of a one-world, global utopia, corporate profits, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.


I hope you shook this man's hand.

Anonymous said...

Joanie, the people who put that soldier in a box for 7 months are the same people we're fighting now, they just travel under a different name.

Anonymous said...

I hope you shook this man's hand.

Yes, I did.

Anonymous said...

Scum, did you place the flag by Lt. Eckl's headstone? It's sad that you seem to be the only one who remembers him, but I guess he was too young to start his own family when he died. It's very meaningful that you visit his gravesite every year. I'm so glad you do!

Anonymous said...

Guinevere --

No, the flag was placed there by a local Boy Scout troop. They place flags on all the veteran graves beginning Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, and continue for as long as it takes to complete the job.

I just show up and pay my respects.

E.A. Scum

Anonymous said...

Mr. Scum and Joanie--

I see the same things you do, but it bothers me greatly that you both believe that America is done for.

I'm just as disappointed as you are with what I see on TV, the newspapers, and on the Internet every day, and I've been desperately searching my mind for some evidence I could post to make you feel better.

I'm thinking that maybe the problem is the mass media, not Americans themselves. There have been 5-year periods in my life when I haven't watched live TV at all, and I have to say that in retrospect my life wasn't worse for the lack of the latest "news". Somehow, I managed to focus on the important things during those times, not the latest media "crisis".

I'm not as good a writer as either of you are - not as good at putting my thoughts in writing - but on pondering this issue I look back at other periods in American history and find that there were many other times when the government ran amok and people felt helpless to stop it.

This is not the first time when the Constitution had been ignored or violated. This is not the first time when populism has been in favor. This is not the first time when congress made a$$es out of themselves.

But the idea of America goes on.

I'm just as concerned - and frustrated - as you both seem to be about the future of America. But I have come to believe that rather then worry about the offensive stuff we see on TV every night, the best way to fight the decline in our culture is to live our individual lives as an example of the way is should be.

Not that I'm a good example of how one should live one's life, but I do stand up for what's right most of the time, and I think most Americans will do the same when the time comes. (Each individual has to decide when that time comes.)

I happened to watch a re-run of Dr. Zhivago the other night, and found that movie pertinent to the question of societal change.

At one point, Lara (Julie Christie) exclaimed, "How terrible it is to live in times like these" (or something like that), to which Zhivago responded that they were still alive and in love and there was still much joy to be had.

Zhivago was looking at their individual lives, not the federal government. That's the key, IMHO.

We can all see that (in general) America is heading down the same Road to Serfdom, but I have to believe that regardless of what the media chooses to splash in our faces, the American people will do what's right when the time comes.

The American culture of individual freedom and limited government is not dead yet.

Respect for the armed men and women who protect America is not dead either...at least around here.

Anonymous said...

Cooper, those "other times" that you talk about when America survived government corruption, media bias, unconstitutional laws, etc. didn't happen when the size, location and kind of the threats we're facing today threatened to extinguish us.

For the first time in our history the majority of our leaders in Washington have more of an allegiance to something other than America than they do to our republic---whether it be money, power, one worldism, or special interests.

You talk about "America" as if that term isn't in danger of changing so that you no longer are a real part of it. With thousands of illegals entering America every day, and more and more politicians pandering to them, the "America" you refer to will someday (soon) be all in your imagination.

There's a lot more that is different about today vs in our past history too. I hope Joanie and/or Scum reply to you. They'll say it better than I just did.

Anonymous said...

John Cooper—

Here is just one of hundreds of examples of why we can’t rely on past history to predict future survival. Things were NEVER like this:

Aside from the basic absurdities of the Ted Kennedy-George W. Bush Illegal Alien Amnesty agreement reached today, there are these absurdities that I've learned from disgusted high-ranking Homeland Security officials in the know:

1) Temporary Worker Program (TWP) aliens will NOT be checked against the most basic databases--so we have no way of knowing who these aliens are (they can give whatever name they want to give and it must be accepted at face value) and whether they are terrorists or criminals. DHS officials at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) say the TWP applicants will NOT be checked against the TECS (The Enforcement Communication System) or IBIS (InterAgency Border Inspection System) databases (IBIS is part of TECS). Therefore, it is a certainty that many Islamic terrorists and hardened criminals will have a golden ticket into America.

2) Currently, CIS officials are "encouraging" all immigration and citizenship application adjudicators to approve 10 applicants per hour. That means no more than 6 minutes per applicant is spent checking who they are, CURRENTLY. Imagine what will happen under this new Amnesty Bill when over 100,000 people per day must be processed (and their applications are being farmed out to private companies like the one that approved the 9/11 hijackers' visas, after 9/11). Yup, CIS chief Emilio T. Gonzalez--who is too busy giving himself awards along with Michael Chertoff--is forcing employees to rubber-stamp through citizenship applications.

Think that'll change when 30 million new applications (when all family members end up here) come into the mix? Think again.

3) All applicants to the TWP and citizenship parts of the bill have at least a 24-hour until their fingerprints and info go online all over the country. That means they have a 24-hour window to apply at multiple CIS offices to get multiple citizenship documents under various names and identities. There is no check on this.

4) Even where backgrounds are checked and/or applicants are caught with terrorist or criminal problems or inconsistencies, ICE(Immigration & Customs Enforcement)--which investigates and enforces against them--turns down 79% of the referrals it gets from CIS, and those people get to become citizens, anyway. Wonderful.

5) The increased border presence and toughness? Don't hold your breath--this quid for the quo of giving citizenship to millions who don't deserve it--is really not a quid at all. This bill doesn't guarantee that, unlike the Mainstream Media's false reports. All it guarantees is that 6 months or so from now Michael Chertoff promises to give President Bush a plan for what he'll do 18 months beyond . . . when all of them are out of office and heading for shuffleboard and the Early Bird Special in retirement in Miami or Boca or whereever. OH, and by the way, the "increased border security" in the air will be a scant two drones each for thousands of miles of unmanned territory on our northern and southern borders. What a joke.

6) Don Crocetti, Director of CIS' Fraud Detection National Security Unit, is responsible for all the national security background checks at CIS, benefit fraud analysis, etc. He was investigated and censured by congress for his role in the Citizenship USA scandal at INS. Guh-reat!

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2007/05/exclusive_dhs_o.html

Anonymous said...

For those of you having difficulty getting thru to your senator, here is the 800 # paid for by the Mexican Amnesty Activists:

800-882-2005

This will get you directly to your senator unlike the #'s available to the US Citizen.

Press 1 when you hear a Spanish message, then Press 1 again to be transferred to your senior senator's office

OR

Press 2 when you hear a Spanish message, and you'll be transferred to your junior senator's office.

You get through immediately and the call is paid for by the enemy!

Anonymous said...

European Lessons: The Last Days of Europe (Uncontrolled Immigration)
National Review ^ | 6/6/07 | Stanely Kurtz

Can uncontrolled immigration kill a continent? According to Walter Laqueur, it already has. Laqueur, an historian who’s spent a lifetime moving between America and Europe, is a scholar and public intellectual of international stature. So it’s news when the latest book from so knowledgeable and unimpeachable a friend of Europe echoes and extends the themes of a pugnacious series of American tracts on European decline. Whether European intellectuals will be able to dismiss Laqueur’s The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent, just as they’ve dismissed so many other such books, is an open question. (It’s tough to discount a book endorsed by Henry Kissinger and Niall Ferguson.) What’s certain is that, in the midst of our own immigration debate, Americans cannot afford to ignore The Last Days of Europe.

Immigration Disaster In combination with Europe’s demographic decline and guilt-laden multiculturalism, says Laqueur, unchecked immigration has created a massive and growing population of unassimilated Muslims, hostile to their own countries and determined to transform Europe beyond all recognition, through a combination of violent and non-violent means. “Why had the European countries brought these [Islamist] attacks upon themselves?” asks Laqueur. “Above all,” he says, “it was naïveté that had made possible the indiscriminate immigration of earlier decades.” In his concluding reflection on what went wrong for Europe, Laqueur singles out immigration as first among causal equals: “...uncontrolled immigration was not the only reason for the decline of Europe. But taken together with the continent’s other misfortunes, it led to a profound crisis; a miracle might be needed to extract Europe from these predicaments.”

In Laqueur’s telling, the trouble began “when European countries recruited workers abroad to do the work European workers were not willing or able to do.” Only about half of the (supposedly temporary) guest workers who came to Europe during the boom years of the 1960s returned home as initially planned. “Others stayed on legally or illegally and in many cases brought relatives to join them, and the host governments were not willing to enforce the law against those who broke it.” When Europe’s boom gave out following the OPEC oil shock in 1973, governments stopped issuing work visas. But that didn’t stop immigration. Relatives flowed in legally, through family reunification laws, and illegally, as immigrant smuggling became a major business.

There followed a flood of asylum seekers, to whom the authorities were “quite liberal in their approach, even though the majority of these immigrants, probably the great majority, were not political refugees but ‘economic migrants....’” Many were Islamists, others hoped to establish criminal gangs, “but all asylum seekers, whether legitimate or illegitimate, were supported by a powerful lobby, the human rights associations and churches that provided legal and other aid. They claimed it was scandalous and in violation of elementary human rights to turn back new immigrants and that in case of doubt mercy should prevail.”

As supposed asylum seekers poured in, they destroyed their papers, making it impossible for European authorities to deport them. What’s more, “border controls inside Europe were largely abolished and if an immigrant had put foot into one European country he could move freely to another.” Laqueur adds that the “number of asylum seekers, real and bogus, began to decline after 2002, following the introduction of more stringent screening measures.” But by then it was too late; Europe had entered its “last days.”

It should have been clear early on that immigration was creating serious problems, says Laqueur. Muslim resistance to assimilation was evident, as were the warning signs of demographic decline. And had it been clear, it is hardly the case that nothing could have been done about it. After all, says Laqueur, “illegal immigrants to Japan or China, Singapore, or virtually any other country would have been sent back within days, if not hours, to their countries of origin.” Yet because all this was ignored, says Laqueur, we now face “the end of Europe as a major player in world affairs.” Almost overnight, Laqueur continues, “what had been considered a minor problem on a local level is becoming a major political issue, for there is growing resistance on the part of the native [European] population, who resent becoming strangers in their own homelands. Perhaps they are wrong to react in this way, but they have not been aware until recently of this trend, and no one ever asked or consulted them.”

What Were They Thinking? Laqueur returns several times to the failure of Europe’s authorities to consult with the public on immigration. Instead of putting the matter up for debate, government and corporations quietly and unilaterally set policy. Europe’s elite had a bad conscience, given memories of refugees from Nazi Germany who’d been turned away decades earlier. There was also the omnipresent “fear of being accused of racism.” This bizarre combination of multiculturalism and complete disregard for the significance of culture opened up a huge gulf between Europe’s elite and the public — a gulf that emerged openly when France and The Netherlands rejected the proposed EU constitution (in part over concerns about Muslim immigration and the accession of Turkey to the EU). There was, says Laqueur, “a backlash against the elites who wanted to impose their policies on a population who had not been consulted....Another important motive was the reluctance to hand over national sovereignty to central, remote and anonymous institutions over which people had no control.”

Laqueur concludes that it’s next to impossible for an historian to establish just what it was that Europe’s authorities were thinking when they formulated the immigration practices now undermining Western civilization in its very cradle. To the question “Did they imagine that uncontrolled immigration would not involve major problems?” Laqueur responds that it is unanswerable. (My guess is that, like today’s market-based immigration advocates in America, European leaders were focused on the immediate need for labor and gave little if any thought to long-term social consequences. In other words, the simplest explanation for Laqueur’s inability to track down the deep thoughts of Europe’s leaders about the cultural consequences of immigration is that there never were any such thoughts.)

Anonymous said...

Muhammad is No 2 in boy's names [in UK]

Anonymous said...

Ronald Reagan on D-Day:

"Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt."

Anonymous said...

Today's vote on the Cornyn amendment to the immigration bill just goes to show you how much our leaders have our best interest at heart.

We can't even deny illegal immigrant felons rights under this bill!

And John McCain joined the Dems in voting for it.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous:

Look at the good side. John McCain is finished as a presidential candidate. As an added bonus, a lot of RINO republicans have also followed McCain into future unemployment. This post on Johnathon Martin's Blog sums it up nicely:

"McCain is finished. He couldn't get elected to dog catcher in this country. He is not a conservative to begin with....he is a liberal Democrat in sheep's clothing. His butt-buddy Lindsey Graham [RINO-SC] is just as bad, and I hope the good people of South Carolina remember this and his support of this attempt to grant legal status to 11-12 [million] illegal aliens. I will....and will never vote for Graham again!!!"

Anonymous said...

Memorial Day Lamentations by J.D. Wetterling (...who, come to find out, lives about three miles down the road from me.)

" My fears, expressed to my son at The Wall that day, have grown enormously in the intervening eight years. We have an enemy now that has vowed to destroy us, has demonstrated its ability to wreak havoc on us with nothing more than evil ingenuity, with a rabid development program for weapons of mass destruction. The enemy’s advance party is now among us, awaiting orders, with reinforcements clamoring ominously at the gate, and the majority party on the Potomac ties itself in knots over…the weather. It makes Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned seem sane. God help us.

I told my son I could envision that awesome granite wall as radioactive lava just a few blocks from ground zero and some old soldier somewhere repeating Jerome's shocked cry for an earlier world superpower—Rome—1600 years ago: “My voice falters, sobs stifle the words I dictate; for she is captive, that city that enthralled the world.”"

As they say, "Read the whole thing".