Not all of Hollywood thinks its cool to redefine patriotism as undermining the military and bad mouthing the administration at every turn.

Gene Simmons is unapologetically patriotic and supportive of the military.

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Just when you thought it was safe to sit out this election because you don’t like everything about John McCain …. consider the alternative …..

Barack Obama has put out the above video as part of his campaign. He actually thinks this makes sense. He’s not considered the most liberal Senator in the Senate for no reason. He will gut our military if he gets the chance. He says he will not fund future development of next-generation weapons.

Good job, Barack. Announce to the world just how weak you intend to make us. Let everybody know there is no bite behind our bark - or in your case ankle biting yap.

The college students Barack panders to should be thinking long and hard about this. They are the ones that will have to fight the war that Barack says he will invite into our homeland. Seriously, its beyond me why anyone of military age would support him. They will certainly find themselves having to defend the country as our enemies break through the gapping wholes in our defenses. They’re salivating over the very thought of it even as I write this.

Father Michael Pfleger is a Chicago area Catholic Priest who has come to national attention as one of Barack Obama’s spiritual mentors. Read his biography, see photos and view the video of his latest rant below.

Michael Pfleger

Chicago Priest and Barack Obama supporter Father Michael Pfleger is the center of more controversy today following a sermon he delivered at Obama’s home church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. In the long racially divisive hate-filled rant, Father Pfleger mocked Hillary Clinton and declared that white race is guilty of pretty much everything that has ever happened to the black race. He asserts that white people have a moral obligation to surrender all their personal assets, which, he asserted, rightfully belong to black people (see video below).

Barack Obama has once again had to distance himself from a racist former close friend. Michael Pfleger issued an apology yesterday after he got a lot of grief, unlike one of Obama’s other racist former close friends, Jeremiah Wright, who reiterated his stance rather than apologizing.

Michael Louis Pfleger was born on May 22, 1949. He was raised on the south side of Chicago and attended Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Loyola University and the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. On May 14, 1975 he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Pfleger became the youngest paster in the Chicago archdiocese when he was 31-years-old in 1981. when he was assigned to be the pastor of Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church in Chicago. Saint Sabina is in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood and Pfleger remains their pastor. The church has grown under his leadership. He has established an Employment Resource Center, a Social Service Center and an Elders Home.

Father Pfleger has been known for his social activism and has often drawn criticism for radical stances on a number of issues. For instance, in May 2007 he drew national attention when he called for the murder of a gun shop owner in Illinois as well as legislators who support the Second Amendment. Recently, he played intermediary in a lash up between his friend The Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Photos and Video

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has told the world that he will meet with the enemies of the United States, but he won’t meet with our Troops or with General Petraeus. Read more below and see video.

The Vets for Freedom have put out the two ads included here. The press release below explains more about the video about in which Sgt. Garrett Anderson, a constituent of Obama’s was unable to get any of Obama’s time.

1) Senator Obama has never met, one-on-one, with the Commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

2) Senator Obama has not visited Iraq, and our brave troops on the ground, in over two years. His last visit to Iraq was January 2006, and he was there for less than two days.

3) On April 8, when two-dozen Illinois veterans went to his office for a meeting, Senator Obama was unwilling to meet with them. He was in the office, just wouldn’t come out. Sergeant Anderson was a member of that group.

I’m thinking that their mistake was probably that they didn’t have a donation to make to his presidential run, this had to do with his job as a Senator rather than having to do with his hoped-for job as President and Sgt. Anderson was just a typical white guy who Obama didn’t owe any political favors to. There was no chance this dude was going to get in to see The Obamessiah!

Here is the Vets for Freedom’s second ad.

Obama is so out of his depth. He didn’t have the guts to stick to his stance on his lapel pin, he won’t have the guts to stick by his stance on not meeting with the Troops and Petraeus. I’m setting my stop watch for how long it takes him to cave in to the pressure …. 5 …. 4 …. 3 …. 2 …..

Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin

General Benjamin S. Griffin, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command, talks with Brig. Gen. Shallal Abdul Rasool Habeeb.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Michael Yon was interviewed on Fox and Friends (see video above) regarding the progress in Iraq. As many of you know, Michael Yon is a journalist and blogger who has made numerous trips to Iraq and chronicled what he has seen there in his articles and photography. He is former special forces and has spent more time with the troops than any other journalist that I’m aware of. Even better, he doesn’t stay in the safety of the Green Zone to do his reporting, as so many others do.

Strangely, the main stream media tends to ignore reporters like Yon, seemingly prefering to focus on any set backs that occur, regardless of how small they might be. Meanwhile, significant progress is pretty much universally ignored by the media.

Yon doesn’t just write about sweetness and light, however. He has reported in a non-biased manner that has irritated people of all points of view at one point or the other. Regardless of your opinion of the war, its good to hear how its actually going without personal and political agendas interferring with the reporting.

I have heard from someone very close to me that the progress in Iraq has been unbelievable since the beginning of the surge. I believe him and am grateful that I can get some reports from people who actually know what’s going on there.

Thanks to Hot Air and Jawa Report for the video.

The Stark Museum of Art

The Stark Museum of Art is located in Orange, Texas and celebrates the American West. In fact, they boast one of the most significant collections of American Western Art. It was started from a collection of art collectors H.J. Lutcher Stark and his mother, Miriam Lutcher Stark. Lutcher Stark had the dream of displaying his art in a museum one day and his particular focus was on American Western Art. His dream eventually became the Stark Museum of Art.

Stark Museum of Art - Photo

Lutcher Stark’s wife, Nelda, shared her husband’s passion for American Western Art. The two of them spent their lives collecting and building the fine museum we are able to visit and enjoy today. Among the many contributions the Stark’s made in their lives, they also established the Stark Foundation in 1961 as a non-profit charitable corporation set up to continue the philantropic legacy of the Stark’s life work. The foundations offers grants and scholarships to assist in education and to assist in the work of the purpose of the foundation, which is to improve the lives of the people of Southeast Texas through encouraging, promoting and assisting education, the arts, and health and human services.

The museum, along with other properties, helps to keep the foundation solvent and fulling its purpose.

In front of the museum is a lifesize replica of Buck McCain’s ‘The Invocation’. The sculpture is of a Plains Indian holding up a buffalo skull in prayer for the preservation of his people. The artist is quoted as saying that the sculpture represents ‘the moment when human aspiration soars and we rise above our daily lives.’

Stark Museum of Art - Photo

The End of the Trail is a beautiful bronze by James Fraser. You can see it in the foreground of the photo above. We have a replica of that piece and love it. The details and the emotion portrayed in that sculpture are breathtaking.

Both of the individual pieces I have mentioned are in the Western Art collection at the museum. Other collections include American Indian Art, Decorative Art and Rare Books and Manuscripts. I love just browsing through the collections and enjoying the beautiful depictions of the American West. I think you might enjoy it too. Visit their website and browe through the collections and exhibits. Better yet, visit the museum in person when you are going through Orange, Texas!

I don’t even know what to say about this! I think that if they were seriously trying to sell their baby they would have surely offered to sell him for $5 instead of a buck-fifty … but what do I know. We all get frustrated when our babies are little … you know, lack of sleep and dirty diapers get old pretty quickly. But usually if we joke about selling the baby we are really just joking. At least we would think better of it by the time we got to the computer and actually went through the process of posting an offer to sell the child.

I would say they just can’t be that bright, but they are bright enough to use the computer. I’m glad the State took the baby away.

Val Thomas had several heart attacks and had no life signs for 17 1/2 hours, rigor mortis had set in and the family was discussing organ donation. The organ donation issue is why she’s alive now. She was kept on a respirator even though she had not had any brain wave activity for hours. She was put on other machines as well to keep her organs healthy while the organ donation process continued.

It wasn’t until the nurses started removing her from the oxygen that she came back to life. She has no heart blockage and appears she’s going to be just fine.

Woah! Bet that freaked some people out!

I have come to accept that the writers, producers, directors and actors of Lost are sadists. The teasers, cliffhangers, twists and turns are endless and excruciating. At the same time, you don’t really want it all to end, which probably means that those of us who watch it are masochists. Now they are making us wait another week for the ‘evening of Lost’ that will be the season 4 finale.

Last week’s episode left us with some understanding of how the various people who end up as the Oceanic 6 came to be the ones to get off the island. It didn’t seem like some of them to have gone ahead of others, so how did that happen? Jack, for instance, it wouldn’t be like him to get on a rescue boat before the others. Last week it started making sense. Different ones in different places all being lead to the same end.

I’ve read some spoilers, but I’ve heard false spoilers have been leaked on purpose to keep the surprises coming. I guess we’ll find out. I’ll not include the spoilers here - you can find them online if you want to know.

1. Sun and Aaron are the only Oceanic 6 who are on the freighter. Last week ended with Jin sending her, holding Aaron, out of the boiler room that is rigged with explosives. I sure hope that Jin doesn’t get blown up on the freighter!
2. Does anyone on the freighter live? Michael kind of deserves whatever he gets, but what about Jin and Desmond?
3. Jack and Sawyer are together. They were at the helicopter but left to go to the Orchid to get Hurley. We know Hurley and Jack survive - what about Sawyer? I know he probably chooses to stay, but that leads us back to the question as to whether or not the people on the island survive.
4. Hurley made a statement in the last episode about moving the island would mean that all the freighter people trying to kill them would be moved too. Does that mean that the world on the island goes on, even with the bad guys there?
5. Most of the Oceanic 6 have had visions that they have to return to the island. That makes me believe that the island is still there … somewhere.
6. Surely we’ll find out who is in the coffin in the finale. I read a spoiler about who it was. I had thought it was probably Michael after I saw him on the freighter. I figured he’d get killed on the freighter and he would certainly be someone that no one would be too upset got killed after his betrayal of everyone.
7. Jack is a bona fide emotional mess. He’s now found out that Claire was his half-sister, which means that Aaron is his nephew and yet he still has difficulty being around Aaron. I think its because he’s guilty ridden about something.
8. It seemed to me that everyone in the plane leaving the island were not happy with Jack. They were in shock, but Jack was telling them what to say and they all seemed to be irritated with him. How’d that come about? Does that have something to do with why he feels guilty about Aaron?
9. Sun takes control of her father’s company and tells him he is one of the two people responsible for Jin’s death (I’m still hoping Jin doesn’t really die!). Who is the other person? Does she blame Jack? Is that why she was giving him the evil eye in the plane? What happened as they were leaving the island that created tension between everyone else and Jack?
10. The Others have shown back up and taken Kate and Sayid by gun point. We know that both Kate and Sayid survive. Does that mean that The Others really are the ‘good guys’ as Benjamin said when he let Michael leave the island with Walt?
11. What’s the deal with Benjamin and Whitmore? I wondered if it was a struggle between good and evil - but which one is good and which one is evil. With those two it would be hard to tell. Maybe they are both just evil.
12. Does Desmond survive whatever happens on the freighter? If so, does Benjamin use him to get to Penny to get back at Whitmore for the murder of Alex? (If you can follow that sequence of events then you are a really a Lost fan!)
13. I think the Oceanic 6 will somehow have to resolve their differences and return to the island. They all being called back. Why are they being called back if the island was safely moved? Why are they having to keep what really happened secret? It has to be a reason strong enough that they are all willing to keep the secret. How will they get back? Will they go back together or separately. What about Aaron?

Jane Novak

Jane Novak irritates the living daylights out of the Yemeni government. She’s like a gnat that’s constantly buzzing around them and bringing world attention to the struggles of the people of Yemen and corruption in the government there. Its an odd relationship they have. She’s a New Jersey mother, housewife and blogger who has never been to Yemen and doesn’t speak their language. Yet she’s been able to be a catalyst for so much change in Yemeni that the government has a list of names for Novak. My personal favorite is when they called her a ‘docile pupil of the Monkey Monk’. I have no idea what that means, but it makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

Jane owns the Armies of Liberation blog and has recently been calling attention to the story of Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, a Yemeni journalist who is currently facing sentencing for criticizing the government there and …. being friends with ‘The Evil Novak’ (that’s Jane!). He is facing a possible death sentence for writing stories that the government didn’t approve.

Jane Novak and her fight for the life of Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani was featured in an article in the New York Times this week.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country.

And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph blond and smiling is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The governments allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a member of Al Qaeda, or the Zionist Novak.

The worst of her many offenses is her dogged campaign on behalf of a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who incurred his governments wrath by writing about a bloody rebellion in the far north of the country. He is on trial on sedition charges that could bring the death penalty, with a verdict expected Wednesday.

More stories have followed as well as appearances on CNN and BBC. There is outrage around the world. This is a government that freed the terrorists who bombed the USS Cole, but will put to death a journalist who believes in democracy and is trying to bring about change in his country.

One woman with one blog is making an impact in the world. You can too. Just sign the letter to the Yemen government asking them to respect democracy and spare the life of Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani. Your signature probably won’t result in you getting called a ‘docile pupil of the Monkey Monk’, but it’d be kind of cool if it did.

Read about Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani at Jane’s blog.

Fight on, Jane Novak! I’m proud to be your friend!

Sgt. John F. Thomas(Right) & Sgt. Ronnie L. Shelley, Sr.(Left)
33 & 34 years old from Valdosta, Georgia
2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard
July 24, 2005 & July 30, 2005

Sgt. Ronnie “Rod” Shelley and Sgt. John F. Thomas became best friends in the Georgia Army National Guard.

They both were ex-Marines, both about the same age, and both enjoyed searching for arrowheads and fishing together. As their friendship grew, Thomas often came over to Shelley’s house for steaks and ribs barbecued by his friend. And when their infantry unit was sent to Iraq in May of 2005, they went to war together.

When their unit was mobilized for combat duty in Iraq, Shelley promised to watch out for Thomas. “Ronnie said, ‘Don’t you worry, I’ll bring him back safely,”‘ said Thomas’ grandfather. But neither Sgt. Thomas or Sgt. Shelley made it back safely. Sgt. Thomas was killed July 24, 2005 by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. And Sgt. Shelley was killed six days later on July 30 by another roadside bomb, also near Baghdad.

Shelley was a family man, married with three children, who was obsessed with having a neat yard, his wife said. “The grass had to be two inches,” she said. “If the neighbor mowed the grass, Rod had to mow. He also wanted the biggest, baddest lawn mower.”

She said she fell in love with his “gorgeous blue … eyes,” and “he had a laid back attitude. I could not make him mad.”

Thomas was married but had no children. His grandparents said he dreamed of becoming a forest ranger. “John wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. Now the only trail he can walk is the trail in heaven,” the grandfather said.

Mrs. Thomas, wiping back tears, said the soldier felt responsible for the others in his unit. “He cared for people,” she said. “That’s why he had so many friends. People cared for him.”

Killed alongside Sgt. Shelley were Staff Sgt. David R. Jones Sr., Sgt. 1st Class Victor A. Anderson and Sgt. Jonathon C. Haggin and killed alongside Sgt. Thomas were Army Spc. Jacques E. Brunson, Army Staff Sgt. Carl R. Fuller and Army Sgt. James O. Kinlow.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.