And may I ask? What happened to our President’s loud rhetoric on threatening us with government and economic shutdown (Sequester), immigration, health care and gun control?
Your thoughts?
Army Myths: Confirmed kills
Hollywood has helped blur reality…
Our Veteran
An incredible writing of a bona fide WWII combat vet still amongst us today…
Spill It – For the Good of Our Country
Sure… People will say its politics.
Democrats supporting the Adminstration.
Republicans attacking the Administration.
But there are four Americans whom I believe – BELIEVE – needlessly died at the hands of terrorists on 9/11 last year.
The four who died are pictured above…along with their names.
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For argument’s sake, let’s say the firefight DID last about eight hours…that it wasn’t over in a flash.
For argument’s sake, let’s say there were drones videoing the attacks.
For argument’s sake, let’s say there was a gunship up in the air with her dedicated crew’s fingers on the triggers of very accurate weapons. Well, their fingers were on very accurate targeting systems, not triggers.
For argument’s sake, let’s say the attack took place on any OTHER day instead of 9/11.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that the two former SEALs – our BEST – were killed SEVEN hours after pleas for help went out.
SEVEN HOURS?
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The deceased souls parents want to know. Here is just one letter from one mother to Congress. It’s a link so please feel free to click on it:
The mother was there when her son’s body – in a flag-draped casket – was off-loaded in Washington, DC.
(Yes. President Obama and Hillary were there.)
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Our country needs to heal.
Not just about Benghazi…but about nearly everything.
We are divided – right down the middle, it seems.
But what happened to CHARACTER?
A person I like to follow is Michael Josephson. He “teaches” folks about ethics and character. I would like to close this blog with this excerpt from one of his commentaries:
“The way we treat people we think can’t help or hurt us — like housekeepers, waiters, and secretaries — tells more about our character than how we treat people we think are important. How we behave when we think no one is looking or when we don’t think we will get caught more accurately portrays our character than what we say or do in service of our reputations.
Of course, our assessment of a person’s character is an opinion and it isn’t always right. Abraham Lincoln recognized an important difference between character and reputation. “Character,” he said “is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Because the shape of a shadow is determined by the angle of light and the perspective of the observer, it’s not a perfect image of the tree. In the same way, reputation is not always an accurate reflection of character. Some people derive more benefit from their reputation than they deserve; others are better than their reputations.
Still, reputation matters. It determines how others think of us and treat us and whether we are held in high or low esteem. That’s why many people and organizations are so preoccupied with their image that they actually undermine their character by concealing or creating facts to make them look better. It’s ironic that reputations are often the result of dishonesty or the lack of accountability.”
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Hillary… No more conveniently-timed strokes or falls or other ills.
Parents want to know what happened and why their sons are no longer with them.
We want to know why NOTHING has been done to go after these terrorists, some of whom were in PICTURES…on the INTERNET. It’s been eight months, for heaven’s sake.
Hillary.
Spill it.
For the good of our country.
new store has opened
This is just too hilarious…and true! LOL Great way to smile…
A brand new store has just opened in New York City that sells Husbands.
When my single girlfriend Karin was visit NYC last time, a couple a weeks ago – she decide go to choose a husband, they have to follow the instructions at the entrance:
“You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are 6 floors and the value of the products increase as you ascend the flights. You may choose any item from a particular floor or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you CANNOT go back down except to exit the building!”
So, Karin went into the Husband Store to find a husband.
The 1st floor sign reads: Floor 1 – These men have jobs.
The 2nd floor sign reads: Floor 2 – These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.
The 3rd floor sign reads: Floor 3 – These men Have Jobs, Love Kids…
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Old Man Jack-ism #5: “Shit from Shinola”
Well, Old Man Jack always spoke his mind.
I’ll give him that but that’s maybe why we were close.
He didn’t care who was there when he spoke. His thinking was it was their fault for listening in to something they had no business in. Lot of truth in that, I guess.
But it was if his departed wife came down from above and washed his mouth out with soap when my kids were in earshot. He spoke like an angel.
Well, not quite…but almost.
Some of his more oft-used phrases (light-heartedly said) were:
- “You dumb shit. Shut up and listen,” or,
- “They thought they knew everything but found out the hard way,” or,
- “Them Marines thought they owned the beach but they forget who brought them there.”
When he would say these phrases, it would likely be when he was story-telling on some of the more memorable moments on those “stinkin’ islands”.
But one of Old Man Jack’s phrases keeps popping back into my head with fondness:
“They didn’t know shit from Shinola.”
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For some of you, no explanation is necessary.
But for you younger folks, Shinola was known for shoe and boot polish.
And for Old Man Jack’s phrase, the dark brown Shinola boot polish would be implied…which has a strikingly similar coloration to cow poop.
Hence, “…doesn’t know shit from Shinola”.
Pardon the French.
And yes, the phrase arose from the ranks of World War II military personnel.
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And while Old Man Jack DID get the local newspaper delivered to him, he never really read them.
He’d look through them for some restaurant coupons. That was about it. I asked him why and he said he doesn’t believe half the s*it in it.
(Odd why there’s an asterik there when I quoted him earlier.)
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Which brings me to one thing that depresses me immensely: the lack of legitimate oversight on our media.
They use their own medium without restraint. To suit their pocketbooks.
How they deem fit…and pay no mind to us.
Doctors get controlled.
CPA’s get controlled by the government now.
Everyone else does… Oops. Not the lawyers. They’re as bad as the media. Did I say that before?
But certain media “stations” or “newspapers” love to castrate law enforcement personnel…or shame soldiers or Marines doing their best to protect us after one incident.
It is like they were the judge and jury before the case could come to court…or actual facts disclosed…or the brutal environment in which our young men and women trying to protect us is truly displayed.
THEY deem it wrong. That’s similar to discrimination.
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But to close this story – and as I blogged once before – please compare these two webpage screen prints taken within minutes of each other.
First CNN. Notice nothing is highlighted about gun control (when that was all they could write about at that time) or the murder of four Americans in Benghazi…but they deem news of a woman who shows up after 11 years to be crucial to Americans. Certainly nothing embarrassing to President Obama.
And here’s the webpage from Fox News. It does highlight the murder of four Americans and brings up guns…and makes only small mention of the mysterious woman that CNN deemed important. But certainly, the first two items could embarrass President Obama.
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“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
― Mark Twain
Old Man Jack was right…again.
So what are we to read?
After all, we need facts and truth so that we’d be able to tell the difference between shit and Shinola.
What do you all think?
An Eight Decade Circle
My father’s decades old story about how he broke his elbow became the topic in the earlier story, “正覚時” (Shoukakuji).
Shoukakuji is the name of the Buddhist temple – a hop, skip and a jump from my father’s family home in Hiroshima.
The temple’s reverends supported my family’s religious needs for over a century now.
Aunt Michie’s wedding.
Funeral services for my grandparents and my father’s siblings. Including my Aunt Shiz just this last September in “The Spirit of Aunt Shiz and Kharma“.
Including my Uncle Suetaro who was killed in action as an Imperial Japanese Army soldier on Leyte in the Philippines.
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When Masako-san, my son Takeshi and I walked to the temple in 2013 to investigate my dad’s story of how he broke his elbow, we were greeted by the Reverend. He was 90 years old and still had his wits about him.
While he did not recollect my father, he validated the placement of a large round rock under the pine tree that hasn’t been touched for as long as he’s lived at the temple…. And that’s a loooong time. I’m sure he was born there.
And that there was a big branch of a pine tree that has since broken off recently.
He said he knew my Aunt Mieko who died in 1939.
And miraculously, he mentioned Uncle Suetaro. The reverend said they played together as children and that he was always a jokester and smiling…and that he could hear him playing his “fue”, or flute, from his second story room at the house.
Until then, not even Masako-san knew Uncle Suetaro played a flute…but there was no proof.
Just the recollection of a 90 year old reverend.
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My tennis elbow pain kept me from retouching the old vintage photographs I had brought back from Hiroshima last September.
And the project was at a standstill since late October. That was as depressing as Obama V2.0.
But from three weeks ago, I am attempting to slowly restart the retouching project as my elbow pain has subsided greatly…and I came across the group photo you saw at the beginning here.
This was the backside since I know you ALL can read ancient Japanese:
As retouched:
But as I enlarged the image to begin retouching, something caught my (old) eye.
I noticed Uncle Suetaro was clutching something in his right hand.
A case.
A case more slender than the others in the group picture.
It’s not a trumpet or a trombone, that’s for sure.
Or for a cue stick.
It sure looks like a flute case.
Oh, heck. It IS a flute case.
I say so.
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So words from the mouth of an old reverend started an eighty year old circle… to this vintage photograph of young boys.
All of whom likely lost their lives in a violent war.
As did my uncle who played a flute.
I’m Not What You Think I Am
Such perfect words for our imperfect society today…
A Smoldering Butt
Just thought that was a catchy title…albeit a bit misleading like our media. Just a tad misleading…’cuz the butt’s the other end.
I guess the news guys are finally rubbing off on me after all.
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But as I watched my kids and their friends play in the front, I felt like playing around with my new, fancy-schmancy Canon point and shoot – specifically hand held close-ups of the business end of a nice cigar.
It was amazing that an inexpensive camera such as this could take such equally amazing (yuk to some!) close-ups:
I did switch to my standard Canon DSLR to snap these fun snapshots of my kids. Little Brooke likes the distortion that erupts with this Canon 10-22mm lens…although a certain pro photographer buddy of mine will likely BBQ me over a slow but hot flame for using it.
The Hard Part About Being American
Some sincere feelings posted by a good American…
Masako and Spam Musubi 