SI.com - NFL - Former Cardinals safety Tillman killed in combat - Friday April 23, 2004 8:15PM

I am three days late in giving my tribute to Mr. Tillman.
I can only say that he took what most of us have - Freedom - and he used it for what matters. Each of us need to ask ourselves - what really matters.

Cars, Homes, Toys, Food - they all do not matter much.
What matters is what we have inside of us. The ability that we have to reach beyond what WE want and what WE need is what makes us great.

Mr. Tillman - chose to go to the higher level of commitment. He gave the "last full measure" that man can be required to give. People will argue that he gave his life in vain. That there was no meaning to his sacrifice. Pointless some would say. They are wrong - and as long as they feel the need to disgrace a man's memory and sacrifice they are accountable and should be held responsible for their words and their actions.

Mr. Tillman was eulogized by everyone from the President, to his Senator, to the Coach that he played for. Let us remember each of the fallen, those that gave the last full measure. Each man and woman that is out there in harms way deserve to have our support. They deserve to be lauded in their commitment and their service. Some of those that will fall will not be mentioned. They are the same as Mr. Tillman They gave everything. They deserve the same amount of respect.

Let us honor those who have made the sacrifice, let us honor those who stand in the way of tyranny, dictatorship, and abuse. It is not their war, it is OUR war. It is not their country they are defending, it is OURS. We are a nation. One. Indivisible. Glory be given to those that have fallen in harms way. Glory and mercy upon their families.

Dave

Yahoo! News - St. Louis Reporters See Fierce Iraq Fight: "'When they went (into Husaybah) Sunday, the day after the attack, they were kicking in doors, ordering everybody out of the house,' Harris said. 'They scared the hell out of a bunch of people.' "

This is what war is like. There is no quarter given to those that have not the skills or the guts to stand up for what is right. In Iraq they have no organized army to fight. SO they round up everyone and give them a gun and tell them some crap that the USA is their enemy. Leaving out the past 20 years of their relatives being dragged off in the night never to return.

I do not think that the Marines should be held at fault for holding this entire town up to scrutiny. If these Iraqis want to challenge the United States of America - their liberators - to a knife fight - they had better know we are bringing the guns.

SEMPER FI

Dave

The Famous Patton Speech

Click above to read the context of the speech. I think that this typifies the feelings that I have about anyone that stands in the way of America. Brutal. Yes. But this country was not born upon the eve of ease. It was the pulling, twisting, painful, and deliberate cutting of the umbilical cord connected to Great Britain. I will put some of the speech in my post, but this is an example of the leader we need today. We have been dwelling in the Heart of Darkness via Clinton - and I see Bush with some of the characteristics that I would embody in a leader. Lurch has not one of the above.

""Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

The General paused and stared challengingly over the silent ocean of men. One could have heard a pin drop anywhere on that vast hillside. The only sound was the stirring of the breeze in the leaves of the bordering trees and the busy chirping of the birds in the branches of the trees at the General's left.

"Don't forget," Patton barked, "you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton'."

"We want to get the hell over there", Patton continued, "The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit."

The men roared approval and cheered delightedly. This statement had real significance behind it. Much more than met the eye and the men instinctively sensed the fact. They knew that they themselves were going to play a very great part in the making of world history. They were being told as much right now. Deep sincerity and seriousness lay behind the General's colorful words. The men knew and understood it. They loved the way he put it, too, as only he could.

Patton continued quietly, "Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin", he yelled, "I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"

"When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!"

"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"

"From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that."

The General paused. His eagle like eyes swept over the hillside. He said with pride, "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

What is bugging me today?

When did the new generation of Americans suddenly wake up and want to have everything at no cost to them? I was talking with someone and he mentioned that the school system is now letting kids have "optional" physical education. How easy is that. You sit all day, learn something (hopefully) and then chow down on some greasy thing for lunch and end up obese and blame the system. Is the system the problem? Partially. It listens to the parents and if something is "tough" or "hard to do" the system says "You do not have to do this - it requires thought and it requires you to do something. That is just TOO hard for you to do. We are so sorry - take the PE hour off and make sure you eat healthy - not that we would enforce that either."

Parents are letting kids get away with too much. They are instilling in them a need to not work and a need to depend on someone else to do what they should be doing themselves. Parents give too much and do not give the work ethic to their children. Tommy does not need to do anything that would require him to work or break a sweat. Teenagers complain that there are no jobs - but they have become selective in their appetite for work. Flipping burgers is TOO MUCH work. But working in a Cell Phone kiosk in a mall is just about right. Not too much strain but just enough to get a meager pay check.

Irate is what label I would plant on this emotion. It is the "gimme" generation. Not the Greatest Generation.

Dave

The Constitution:

"They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq.

Why don't we just give them ours?

It was written by a lot of really smart guys,

it's worked for over 200 years

and Hell, we're not using it anymore."

Feeling Patriotic

I am. I would like to use a friends term for Kerry. Lurch. Lurch gets on TV and lambasts the current president of the United States - and then says that he will be better and more likely to lead our nation out of the ruin and right into the promised land. I see no concrete promises. I see no need to delve into the right and the wrong of his actions. He is not a leader. I do not see anything more out of him than any other politician on the block. I do not see him as decisive, I see him as divisive.

I had a tough time with Billy Clinton and his wife whatsHerName because he did not lead - he did not have the opportunity to lead - he was continually fending off attacks that he laid the seeds for. What will Kerry do? Much of the same. Will he do anything positive? According to his campaign he is the Messiah come to save us all from the darkness of Republican leadership

I do not see a leader. I see an Isolationistic with a harmful agenda laced with left wing ideas that will not help my family but will hinder and hobble our nation for years to come.

Dave

These are from the previous weeks at the Planet of Random Thoughts

Thursday, April 08, 2004
We're Not Going to Take it
The theme of Most People Should be:
We're not going to take it. Crank up Twisted Sister's version and listen to what I have to say.
You do not need to take crap from anyone. Here in the U S of A we are free. Free to do whatever we would like to do.
You hate politicians - don't take it from them anymore. Just give them the finger and vote for someone that matters.
You hate your parents - go out on your own and make your own life.
Hate Polution? Take care of it in your own way - buy an electric car.
You are the one that is in control of your own path and your destiny.
There is not one person out there who can dictate to you what you do. The key is You.
YOU YOU YOU
The only way to change your destiny is to make a change right now and take control of what you do and do it your way.
Any exception to the rule? Nope.
Any need for extra explanation? Nope.
Just you and the rest of the world - take the world on and you will win.
There is nothing to stop you just yourself.
Everything is up for negotiation. Even the price of a can of beans.
Don't blame your dog, the media, politicians, your parents, tea prices in mainland china, or your siblings that banged you around for fun.

You make your own destiny - you have the reigns and you deserve to give yourself a future.
Your dreams
Your Ambitions.

If you cannot find any of the above - make your own. Someone elses dreams will never do to make your future.
You make your own.
You drive your own bus.
I am not going to give you the map - draw it yourself.
Dave


# posted by David : 12:51 PM
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Oh I forgot to pick on Number 2 on my list in the previous post.
John Kerry is one guy I should sue for pirating my bandwidth of Random Thoughts.

He thinks that the veterans are going to support him. He believes that OPEC will produce more oil on his command and then the gasoline price will go down. He believes that he is the man to lead us into the new milenium via his twisted imagination of what America really is.

Let me pick the 3 above arguments apart.
1. Veterans support a leader. Veterans are men and women who lay it on the line for America. George Bush seems to be a leader who would gladly take up the flag and lead us forward. I do not get that feeling from John Kerry or any of his deranged, unenlightend, cause head, loser followers. Veterans do not vote for a loser. They vote for a winner and a leader. Both attributes which Kerry has not one of.

2. Which planet do his transmissions come from? OPEC HAS NEVER LISTENED TO A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. EVER. I think we have a greater chance of someone installing a free ATM in my cube.

3. Kerry is a Democrat. Democrats are not leaders - they are drinkers (Ted Kennedy), Womanizers (Billy Clinton), and whiners (Al Sharpton). Democrats want the government to heal us - not for the average citizen to think for themselves. Democraps want to involve themselves in every portion of my life and then they want me to be thankful for it. Wrong. I do what I think is best for myself. I do not cause harm to others or to other things. I THINK FOR MYSELF AND DO IT. I do not wait for the Government to send me a list of things to do. Kerry is not one that I envision will help me in any way. Yeah I get the fuzzy feeling that if he were president he would try to make everyone equal. Equality is not a government thing - it is a person by person thing. You try to make everyone act a certain way and the action will change when you leave the room. Just ask Dictator Tito and everyone in Yugoslavia.

Dave

# posted by David : 9:33 AM
My Random Thought:
Me thinks that the worst thing on the earth right now could be one of the following:
1. Causes
2. John Kerry
3. Causes

You could be right on all three. But I will pick on 1 and 3.
Let me define a cause for your benefit. It falls under the trees, rocks, animals, politics, abuse, homelessness, and possibly the environment. You might have a cause. It might be that KFC is currently abusing the chickens that make your meal. Good God in Heaven - they are only chickens. Do you have a dual-membership in several cause organizations? Do they get you all psyched up to go out and annoy the average citizenry for the United States in the hope that you will get support or sway us to your side?
The cause is effective - ask Ralphy Nader and his crusade to end bad cars. He succeeded.
No the cause I speak of is the one that has the gall to come to my front door and ask for me to fund it. I think in my own little world that I am aware of what I need to be doing. In the dark of the night you do not find me secretly going out behind my house and disposing of nuclear reactor waste. Who would want that anyway? The snails that I have in my yard would burrow through the walls and eat my dog.
No, I am not a "cause head" and I think rationally about most of what goes on in the world.
Cause Head is defined as someone that jumps on any available "band wagon" and crusades to end Apartheid 10 years after it has already ended. Don't Be A Cause Head. Take care of your own plot of earth.

Dave

# posted by David : 9:21 AM

Todays word of the day: COMMUNICATION

There are so many fingers pointing at everyone over 9-11 that I think someone needs to take a lesson from the Japanese. They do not point fingers. They solve the problem, do not place blame, and then move on.

Were there signs. YES. Were there indicators? YES. Did we ignore them? YES.

The USA is so intent on blaming someone that they need to actually look at what they are actually brewing. Discontent.

Get on with it. IF the agencies in the inteligence community did not talk to each other GET OVER IT AND FIX IT.

Link it together. Cross reference it. Correlate it. GET IT DONE. Some Terrorist should be beaten up by not only one agency but many. Take him out back and let the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the IRS whack him. Don't kill him - cripple him - box him up and mail him to his friends so that he can relate that we will not be hobbled by some dumb barking dog when we wield the stick.

Dave

The Greatest Generation?

I was recently thinking about that. What made my grand fathers generation the greatest generation was the fact that they did something. They withstood the powers of evil - everyone pitched in. They went to work and they built the nation that we have today. They did something and have never looked back.

The Great Depression, World War I and II. Korea. Vietnam.
My generation has never known such devastation or death. We have not had our trial. We have not yet met the breed of "growth opportunity" that they had. We have it easy in America. We have the life that many would want to have and yet cannot. People hate us and envy us for what we have and how we use it.
I am not going to trivialize the World Trade Center - it was a loss of 5000+ Americans. The Battle of the Bulge lost 19,000. I think that the widows, orphans, and those that lost their lives in both would quantify it as sorrow beyond belief. But WWII affected everyone in this nation - from the President - down to the individual house on the street. People from the Greatest Generation - they knew sorrow and were aquainted with it personally. My generation "feels" it. Knowledge is a lot more personal than "feeling" it.
I wonder what will make my generation great. I know that my Grandfathers and Father have done a ton. I know it. What are we prepared to do to make our generation one that is remembered rather than hastilly forgotten?

Dave

Today's word of the day:
RESPONSIBILITY

Okay kids lets us look at this from my point of view. Since nobody else is here to vote I get to say whatever I want. That is the nature of freedom. That is until the men from "foggy bottom" take me away.

Responsibility is something that nobody is taking a share of these days. Nobody wants to suck it up and say "yeah I did the wrong thing." This goes for the President of the United States right down to me as an average citizen.

Do you think that it will change? I think not. It will continue from now to the big blink at the end of life.
It is something that we all need to change. Take the first look at something and don't blame it on someone else. You take the rap and go on. People plead "not guilty" to an array of things when they really did do it.

The world needs to get ready for the next stage in life. Taking the brunt of the blow, dismissing all of this nonsensical socia-speak that allows most of the world to weasel it's way out of any situation.

Stick up for yourself. Live your life. Do it your way.

Dave

This is me. testing