First things first, it is my parents Anniversary. They would have been married 55 years today. It is the first June 14th that has passed that both of them are gone.

Today is also Flag Day. Unlike the bitter half of one of our candidates, I’ve always been proud of my country.

And of course, the greatest moment in Flag Saving History, Rick Monday Saves a Flag from being burned.

Birth of the Army - In 1775, this was the birth of the Army, thank you George Washington. The only thing the government has done consistently right is to defend our country. I hope the next president keeps that in mind

Fathers day - Tomorrow is Father’s Day. My Dad isn’t around any more. If yours is, appreciate the time you have left. In honor of him, I drove his car, on the curvyest road I could find. His car was meant for the turns.

Today was also the start of the 24 Hours of LeMans. I used to go to races with my Dad, in the car pictured above. So I’m melancholy today. In honor of our memories, I bought a grille badge on eBay.

So I thought about my parents, the country…and while I was exceeding the speed limit, enjoying the curves.

As the years go by, we seem to remember less and less about the hero’s that fell that day in Normandy to keep the Free World Free. It’s a similar struggle today, but it seems our will was greater back then in total. While it is popular to diss the current war on Terrorism, in one day 10,000 lives were given by many on the foreign soil on the coast of France, 2.5 times more than the 7 year war in the Iraq/Afganistan…think about it. And we are now fighting to keep the nukes out of the hands of fanatics who can’t want to die, and take others with them. We should fight with the tenacity of D-Day.

Here is the round up.

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary - who mentions that the Battle of the Bulge lost 19,000.

Michelle Malkin posts Ronald Reagans speech and how our loser/quitter/slanted media would cover it today.

Atlas Shrugs posts the actual letter from the Supreme Headquarters note on D-Day.

Roundup Coverage from Stop the ACLU.

Blackfive has the President’s D-Day Prayer.

Here is how to properly remember our veterans.

I filmed this at church when they had the veterans stand up by branch of service, it was very moving.

I have some other salutes also, here is one from Toby Kieth to the dixie dipsy chicks twits. Toby’s father served, so he is one of the few of the famous who go over to entertain the troops and support those who fight for the free world.

America Salutes the hero’s.

Here is a video memorial to the fallen.

For those who hate the military, this one is for you.

And finally, God Bless America by Martina McBride.

According to the WSJ,

Who are all these gun owners? Are they the uneducated poor, left behind? It turns out they have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners. Americans with guns are neither a small nor downtrodden group.

Nor are they “bitter.” In 2006, 36% of gun owners said they were “very happy,” while 9% were “not too happy.” Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.

In 1996, gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling “outraged at something somebody had done.” It’s easy enough in certain precincts to caricature armed Americans as an angry and miserable fringe group. But it just isn’t true. The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don’t have guns.

The gun-owning happiness gap exists on both sides of the political aisle. Gun-owning Republicans are more likely than nonowning Republicans to be very happy (46% to 37%). Democrats with guns are slightly likelier than Democrats without guns to be very happy as well (32% to 29%). Similarly, holding income constant, one still finds that gun owners are happiest.

Why are gun owners so happy? One plausible reason is a sense of self-reliance, in terms of self-defense or even in terms of the ability to hunt their own dinner.

Not only are they willing and able to take care of themselves, they take care of others more it appears:

That response is not evidence that gun owners only care about themselves, however. In 2002, they were more likely to give money to charity than people without guns (83% to 75%). This charity gap doesn’t reflect their somewhat higher incomes. Gun owners were also more likely to give in other ways, such as donating blood. Are gun owners unsentimental? In 2004, they were more likely than those without guns to strongly agree that they would “endure all things” for the one they loved (45% to 37%).

It amazes me how often politicians get the demographics wrong about the real America.  We are not bitter, and don’t have to cling to G_d, we do it because we want to, not a crutch.

Last round of elections they trashed NASCAR also, bad move there.

I’m happy, glad to be able to take care of myself, and if you want to see some of my guns, break into my house at night….I’ll give you a good view of the front end of one of them.

Rather than give you a lesson you should have learned in middle school, read this story and enjoy the art of using words to bring an inanimate object to life, while describing an mission that could have killed him.

Major Brian Shul: I loved that Jet.

One of the most famous lines ever said in a movie, “you need a bigger boat” (youtube here) by Roy Schneider, died yesterday at 75.

I didn’t see the Exorcist for personal/religious reasons, so Jaws was the first movie that scared me.  This was the first movie I’d seen where the entire audience screamed and reacted at once.

I grew up at the beach, and claimed prior to the movie that it wouldn’t change the way I felt about swimming in the ocean.  After this famous scene, I still think about it.

Don Shula used to say on the Shula Show, “Good football teams need to play the kind of football that good football teams play to win  football games”. Coach speak for get the job done.

When I started in the working world shortly after the dinosaur’s went extinct, they told me consistency was the mark of a professional. 17-0 is a perfect season, 18-1 is not, despite the fact that the ‘07 Pats are likely one of the best teams to play football, just 35 seconds short (not to mention of few film clips of the other teams signals).

I am relieved as a Dolfan that my team is still the only one that has finished the season with a perfect record. I know that some (Stephen O’Grady) don’t like the popping of the champagne when the final team loses each season, but I actually heard they haven’t done it this year. Nevertheless, once again it shows just how hard it is to win every game at the top level.

Back in 1985, da Bears were the greatest thing going, until they ran into the lightening release of Dan Marino on the highest rated Monday Night Football game of all time. Dan was made an honorary member of the ‘72 team who were on the sidelines. Da Bears also went 18-1.

I vote the NY Football Giants as an honorary member, or at least the newest 12th man.

Today is the 66th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Here is the link to the site for events today.
I listened once again to the famous day of infamy speech given by FDR to congress on December 8th, 1941 as I do every year. As always, it sent chills up my spine knowing that the United States of America was brutally attacked. A History of the attack is documented here.

I recalled my only visit to the Arizona Memorial. It was a gloomy day, which set the mood. It sits over the sunken USS Arizona and is the tomb for 1177 soldiers. Brave men who took a sucker punch from behind and never heard the speech the next day, because it was about them. In all 2390 Americans lost their life in the attack.

We saw gun turret three where oil seeps nearby to the surface drop by drop to it all these years later.

I visited The Dauchau concentration camp also on a gloomy day years later. I had the same feeling. There were the daunting memories of tortured souls who died horrible deaths at the hands of the enemy.

Whenever I write about war or history, I get comments as to why do we fight, why do we have war, can’t we just get along. It occurs to me that since the days of Cain and Abel, there hasn’t been a time that man hasn’t been at war somewhere in the world. The strong survie, the weak are defeated or are overrun. What is the lesson there. It’s why I stand up for the 2nd Amendment and firmly believe that you should be able to take care of yourself. We are going to have war and we need to be able to defend ourselves. A good offense is the best defense against these types of attacks

While one can wish there wasn’t war, it makes me realize that there likely will always be, so we need to stay strong and fight the good fight. We should stick to our principles and not let those that don’t understand this divide us and bring us down. I am against the expansion of the government, but am firmly behind their commission to protect us at times of war.

Mostly, I give thanks to that generation who bravely volunteered in droves to preserve, defend and protect the United States of America. That their will to win was greater than that of the enemies, that good defeated evil.

Once again, I’m posting a picture of a car from the Rennsport Reunion, which I attended recently with family.

This was the Porsche that starred in the movie Le Mans (the greatest racing movie ever made) and was driven and owned by Steve McQueen. It is now owned by Jerry Seinfield. Let me be clear that although I think Jerry is funny, it is because he’s a steller collector of vintage racing Porsche’s is why I respect him. While he was a great actor, I think Steve McQueen is a Man’s man. I saw him race in person in 1970 at the 12 Hours of Sebring (different car) and he nearly won the race, and he was held in high regard by other racers as a good driver.

That is not why it is my favorite racing Porsche. It is the car that my favorite driver Jo Siffert drove during the days when I developed my love for the sport of racing. My Father instilled the respect for both Porsche’s and racing as he took me often. I occasionally speak to people about racing and there are generally two reactions. The first is wow, this is my favorite car and driver and series and so forth. The second is I don’t get it, they just go round and round. I’m of course in the first category.

I first saw this car come off of what is known as Nascar turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway at over 220 mph and brake to below 50 in a very short stretch of track, it was over for me…I was hooked. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1971, a similar 917 went 256 mph on the Mulsanne strait, not bad for 36 years ago with no computer graphic design to develop the car or wind tunnels to test them in.

Soon, I’ll post my favorite Porsche ever, but it’s because it belonged to my Dad.

George Washington’s proclamation.

What Thanksgiving Really Means by WolfHowling

Kathy: No Thanksgiving Without Gratitude, No Gratitude Without Grace