Those of you who take the time to read my ramblings my have guessed that the Big Fella is rather Patriotic. I get all misty when I hear the Star Spangled Banner, or America the Beautiful as sung by Ray Charles. In fact for a time that song, America the Beautiful by "Ray Ray" became a Friday night tradition for my number 2 daughter, "The Bear" (just a nickname, not a description) and myself. As we were en route back the Palatial BigMan compound from The Bear's horseback riding lessons, a Radio Talk show I like to listen to hosted by Mark Levin, would at that time play the song in tribute to all of the Americans serving in the Armed Forces. In fact we became able to sing along and not miss a word, even the "Can somebody help me?" thrown in by Ray. I ended up buying a Ray Charles Greatest Hits collection just to ensure I had a copy.
On to the purpose of this post.. I am, as I stated, Patriotic, so I have volunteered to be a member of the "Patriot Guard Riders (PGR)". This is a group of mostly military veteran motorcyclists that provide support to the family of deceased Active duty and retired military. Thursday I received an email from the Patriot Guard about a "Mission" for Saturday June 6th, Sunday June 7th, and Tuesday June 9th, This was to be for Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II USAF. Saturday was to be the Viewing at a local funeral home, Sunday afternoon a service at his local Church, and Tuesday escort to and honors at Arlington Cemetery. Because of prior commitments I was only going to be able to make the "Flag Line" at the funeral home on Saturday. A "Flag Line" is when the PGR personnel stand in a line at attention holding full sized American Flags, rendering honors to the fallen.
All of the BigMan's family were off doing their thing except for my number 3 daughter, number 4 child,"The Caboose" (just a nickname, not a description). The Caboose has just turned 12, she is a dancer and takes four different dance classes, they have a recital coming up in the next few weeks and Saturday morning was the "Studio" dress rehearsal, and the BigMan sat in a vehicle for 3-4 hours while The Caboose went through her various rehearsals.. Anyway it was just The Caboose and I Saturday afternoon, I told her what I planned on doing and she enthusiastically stated she wanted to go.
Upon arrival at the Funeral home we met up with other PGRs and were briefed. We then collected the Flags, Caboose and I borrowed two because I had not done flag line duty before, just motorcycle escort, and got in place in a line just outside the entrance to the funeral home with the other 7 PGR's.
As the Family began to arrive, an older lady I took to be fallen hero's mother walked down the line with help from a gentleman. She was barely able to speak, and she whispered "Thank you, Thank you" with tears streaming down her face. The Widow, two young children and other family members then approached. They walked down the line and shook each of our hands and thanked us for being there. The young widow was carrying one of her children, a son, about 2-3 years old. She also had tears streaming down her face as she thanked us. I glanced sideways at the Caboose and she to was crying as the Widow held her hand a little longer than others, and thanked her for being there. The Big Fella, I have to admit, upon seeing this also had a "Misty Moment"....
Two other incidents also cause me a "Misty Moment". One was when a gentleman who was at least 80, wearing his American Legion dress uniform. He stopped, pulled on white gloves, marched smartly up to the first Flag in the line, executed a salute. while holding the salute executed a right-face and marched down the Flag line.
The other was the same action carried out by an Air Force Colonel in dress uniform. As he marched down the line, I was able to see that his eyes were welling up with tears.
I believe that this was an experience that the Caboose will not soon forget. I hope she will remember it, remember the young Widow, and always hold those who sacrifice, fight and die for us in her heart..
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." –John Galt
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
I am an Un-caring racist!!! So I'm told...
Two posts in two days!! Whoa!! Are you still gainfully employed Bigman?
Why yes, I am gainfully employed thank you... Just had something come up last night while talking to Bigmama (Bigman's true love, just a name, not a description).
I was watching a show on Fox and as they were speaking about how most "Conservatives" and "Republicans" (not necessarily the same thing..See McCain, John S., or Powell, Colin L.) are viewed as being Racist, and uncaring (see Cheney, Richard "Dick" B, aka Darth Vader). It brought to mind a fire drill we had where I work. I work in a ten storey office tower, the bottom 4 floors are parking Garage, therefore when you are in the elevator, there are L, P1-P3, and Floors 1-6. I detail this because it is germane to the story I am relating. I work on the "Fifth" floor, or really the ninth floor of the tower. When the fire alarm sounded, we all made our way to the closest stairwell. I found myself with a co-worker that I know in the crowded stairwell. This gentleman is a typical Eastern Liberal, but I don't hold that against him. Everyone makes mistakes, someday maybe he will correct his. Anyway, as we made our way down the crowded stairwell, at about the third floor, two black ladies were trying to get from their floor into the stairwell and no one would let them in. Being a southern gentleman, I allowed them in front of me to the dismay of everyone behind me.. Of course no one actually mentioned it to me because "Bigman" is not just a 'nom de plume'. I am actually rather large, and I am told that I am rather scary looking. I don't see it, I believe that I am rather Teddy Bearish.. But that is just me.
These two ladies got in front of me, I at that time realized that one of them was using a cane and rather slow, and the other was about 5'4" tall and weighed at least 300 lbs. To say that they were slow would be a tremendous understatement. Again there were rumblings behind me, and some individual actually made a comment. I looked up to see who it was and there after all comments ceased.. When we finally got outside to the scheduled assembly area, by alphabetical order.
The Liberal looked at me and stated:
"If there was a real fire, I would have ran those two over and left them were they fell."
I looked at him and told him:
"And I would have stayed and helped them out of the building."
He came back with:
"Then you would have died."
I replied:
"Probably, but I would not have left them to die alone, I would've done my best to get them out."
I do not think that I am special or brave.. Most of the Conservative "Men" I know would have done the same thing... I can only actually think of a single "man" that I know that would have acted like the Liberal "man". You notice I capitalized one "Man/Men" and didn't the other. The capitalized one is descriptive of an individual, the other implies the individuals sex. Yes I said sex, gender describes a word, whether or not it is in the feminine or masculine gender, it does not describe a human...
The point of this is that we as Conservatives/Libertarians are portrayed by the MSM and society in general as mean, un-caring racists when the truth is the opposite. I had a discussion with BigPa (Bigman's Pa) just before the November election and I told him that Bigmama's North Eastern relatives of the Yellow dog Democrat persuasion were complaining about Hussien, they really didn't want to have to vote for him because he was black. BigPa laughed and said "You know they have been screaming about black rights and integration for all of these years, but they don't want to live near them or vote for them. We live with them, but we didn't care if Mr. Johnson, the Black farmer next door had equal rights.We were worried about those "Bad" black folks we saw on the evening news. Hell, I voted for a black man in 1970, but I am a racist because I live in the South. Those people are worried about voting for a black man in 2008 and they aren't racists!"
"We" as a group do not divide or divvy up people by race, sex, class, or religion, unlike the liberals. We don't resort to class or group politics. People are accepted or not based on their character... What a concept..
Why yes, I am gainfully employed thank you... Just had something come up last night while talking to Bigmama (Bigman's true love, just a name, not a description).
I was watching a show on Fox and as they were speaking about how most "Conservatives" and "Republicans" (not necessarily the same thing..See McCain, John S., or Powell, Colin L.) are viewed as being Racist, and uncaring (see Cheney, Richard "Dick" B, aka Darth Vader). It brought to mind a fire drill we had where I work. I work in a ten storey office tower, the bottom 4 floors are parking Garage, therefore when you are in the elevator, there are L, P1-P3, and Floors 1-6. I detail this because it is germane to the story I am relating. I work on the "Fifth" floor, or really the ninth floor of the tower. When the fire alarm sounded, we all made our way to the closest stairwell. I found myself with a co-worker that I know in the crowded stairwell. This gentleman is a typical Eastern Liberal, but I don't hold that against him. Everyone makes mistakes, someday maybe he will correct his. Anyway, as we made our way down the crowded stairwell, at about the third floor, two black ladies were trying to get from their floor into the stairwell and no one would let them in. Being a southern gentleman, I allowed them in front of me to the dismay of everyone behind me.. Of course no one actually mentioned it to me because "Bigman" is not just a 'nom de plume'. I am actually rather large, and I am told that I am rather scary looking. I don't see it, I believe that I am rather Teddy Bearish.. But that is just me.
These two ladies got in front of me, I at that time realized that one of them was using a cane and rather slow, and the other was about 5'4" tall and weighed at least 300 lbs. To say that they were slow would be a tremendous understatement. Again there were rumblings behind me, and some individual actually made a comment. I looked up to see who it was and there after all comments ceased.. When we finally got outside to the scheduled assembly area, by alphabetical order.
The Liberal looked at me and stated:
"If there was a real fire, I would have ran those two over and left them were they fell."
I looked at him and told him:
"And I would have stayed and helped them out of the building."
He came back with:
"Then you would have died."
I replied:
"Probably, but I would not have left them to die alone, I would've done my best to get them out."
I do not think that I am special or brave.. Most of the Conservative "Men" I know would have done the same thing... I can only actually think of a single "man" that I know that would have acted like the Liberal "man". You notice I capitalized one "Man/Men" and didn't the other. The capitalized one is descriptive of an individual, the other implies the individuals sex. Yes I said sex, gender describes a word, whether or not it is in the feminine or masculine gender, it does not describe a human...
The point of this is that we as Conservatives/Libertarians are portrayed by the MSM and society in general as mean, un-caring racists when the truth is the opposite. I had a discussion with BigPa (Bigman's Pa) just before the November election and I told him that Bigmama's North Eastern relatives of the Yellow dog Democrat persuasion were complaining about Hussien, they really didn't want to have to vote for him because he was black. BigPa laughed and said "You know they have been screaming about black rights and integration for all of these years, but they don't want to live near them or vote for them. We live with them, but we didn't care if Mr. Johnson, the Black farmer next door had equal rights.We were worried about those "Bad" black folks we saw on the evening news. Hell, I voted for a black man in 1970, but I am a racist because I live in the South. Those people are worried about voting for a black man in 2008 and they aren't racists!"
"We" as a group do not divide or divvy up people by race, sex, class, or religion, unlike the liberals. We don't resort to class or group politics. People are accepted or not based on their character... What a concept..
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
YES WE CAN!!!
OK...So the BigMan has been gone a while. I haven't posted much. Not that anyone complained. Hey!! How is that "Hope and Change" working out for ya?
Man are we doing great or what? BHO's economy is roaring back, the Chinese are in awe of his economical acuity, and even Pravda, that former Communist State Run Newspaper is singing the great one's praises...OK so all of that isn't exactly true.. I at least did my part for the economy, I bought a new vehicle from Chrysler before BHO sold them to Fiat. If I remember correctly, the Govt. and BHO screamed "We can't let GM and Chrysler go Chapter 11!' back in the fall. Although once Hussien--
SIDEBAR
It's OK to call him that now, he has just claimed that although we aren't a Christian nation, we could be the largest Muslim nation on earth...Yippee!
END SIDEBAR
--got his claws into them it was just fine to go Chapt.11 , that is how he took them over. You see, if they would have done it on their own they would still be independent entities and they
could have invalidated all of the UAW contracts... Heavens to Mergatroid, we couldn't let that happen... Instead the UAW owns most of Chrysler and a big chunk of GM. Hussien also keeps telling us that they were doing so poorly because they were making cars that no American or anybody for that matter wanted to buy... Like GM's Hummer... Proof of that is that it only took 4 hours for the ChiComs to buy that division.. Boy did GM rip them off or what? I mean who wants to buy a large safe 4WD vehicle nowadays other than 1Billion Chinese? Also the SAAB division, there are only 16 companies bidding on it, SAAB was obviously an Albatross around the neck of GM.. Not unlike Saturn, I mean there are only 10 companies wanting to take that worthless chunk of GM off of Hussien's Hands.. No wonder they were losing so much money huh? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that $1800.00 of each car sold was just to pay for the GM retirees health care. Not even that there are 5,000 GM employees in the UAW "Job Bank". They make 75% of their salary to sit around and smoke cigarettes while reading the Paper... Waiting for GM to open a new plant and give them work.. No It is just that Americans want to buy little "Green" fuel efficient cars and those stupid Capitalists wouldn't listen!!! They kept building Pick Up trucks, and SUVs!!! I mean you never see any of those in anyone's
Driveways!! That is why Ford is going to ramp up their production in the third quarter of SUV's Trucks and Muscle cars like the Mustang, because they are evil environment hating Capitalists and they won't give us a choice!!! They are going to make us buy these horrible vehicles... THE HUMANITY!!! MY GOD DO THEY HATE POLAR BEARS THAT MUCH!!! WHAT ABOUT THE POOR IN BANGLADESH, THEY WILL DROWN BECAUSE OF
GLOBAL WARMING!!! FORD IS JUST A BUNCH OF HATERS!!!!
I don't know about you, but Hussien is the Man... First thing he did was make GM stop all plans for a Hydrogen Car.. I mean, it was actually going to be a big ugly car like we currently drive
except that it would run on hydrogen.. What a waste... Everyone wants to buy a Smart4two car.. That is why there is such a waiting list to buy one..At least there should be if so many Americans
didn't hate the environment so much.. The "O" is going to fix that... He now has a Justice Dept official that is going to lead the "Enviromental Justice" crusade. Everyone knows that our abuse of the environment affects the "Poor, Minorities, Women, and Children" disproportionately..
Yes, things are getting better and better... I just can't wait for August!!! That is when His Grace, the Benevolent one is going to fix health care!!! I am so glad the Auto industry and Economy have been fixed... On to bigger and better things!!! Remember as Americans, can we do Facism better than the Italians of Germans?? In BHO's words "YES WE CAN!!"
Man are we doing great or what? BHO's economy is roaring back, the Chinese are in awe of his economical acuity, and even Pravda, that former Communist State Run Newspaper is singing the great one's praises...OK so all of that isn't exactly true.. I at least did my part for the economy, I bought a new vehicle from Chrysler before BHO sold them to Fiat. If I remember correctly, the Govt. and BHO screamed "We can't let GM and Chrysler go Chapter 11!' back in the fall. Although once Hussien--
SIDEBAR
It's OK to call him that now, he has just claimed that although we aren't a Christian nation, we could be the largest Muslim nation on earth...Yippee!
END SIDEBAR
--got his claws into them it was just fine to go Chapt.11 , that is how he took them over. You see, if they would have done it on their own they would still be independent entities and they
could have invalidated all of the UAW contracts... Heavens to Mergatroid, we couldn't let that happen... Instead the UAW owns most of Chrysler and a big chunk of GM. Hussien also keeps telling us that they were doing so poorly because they were making cars that no American or anybody for that matter wanted to buy... Like GM's Hummer... Proof of that is that it only took 4 hours for the ChiComs to buy that division.. Boy did GM rip them off or what? I mean who wants to buy a large safe 4WD vehicle nowadays other than 1Billion Chinese? Also the SAAB division, there are only 16 companies bidding on it, SAAB was obviously an Albatross around the neck of GM.. Not unlike Saturn, I mean there are only 10 companies wanting to take that worthless chunk of GM off of Hussien's Hands.. No wonder they were losing so much money huh? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that $1800.00 of each car sold was just to pay for the GM retirees health care. Not even that there are 5,000 GM employees in the UAW "Job Bank". They make 75% of their salary to sit around and smoke cigarettes while reading the Paper... Waiting for GM to open a new plant and give them work.. No It is just that Americans want to buy little "Green" fuel efficient cars and those stupid Capitalists wouldn't listen!!! They kept building Pick Up trucks, and SUVs!!! I mean you never see any of those in anyone's
Driveways!! That is why Ford is going to ramp up their production in the third quarter of SUV's Trucks and Muscle cars like the Mustang, because they are evil environment hating Capitalists and they won't give us a choice!!! They are going to make us buy these horrible vehicles... THE HUMANITY!!! MY GOD DO THEY HATE POLAR BEARS THAT MUCH!!! WHAT ABOUT THE POOR IN BANGLADESH, THEY WILL DROWN BECAUSE OF
GLOBAL WARMING!!! FORD IS JUST A BUNCH OF HATERS!!!!
I don't know about you, but Hussien is the Man... First thing he did was make GM stop all plans for a Hydrogen Car.. I mean, it was actually going to be a big ugly car like we currently drive
except that it would run on hydrogen.. What a waste... Everyone wants to buy a Smart4two car.. That is why there is such a waiting list to buy one..At least there should be if so many Americans
didn't hate the environment so much.. The "O" is going to fix that... He now has a Justice Dept official that is going to lead the "Enviromental Justice" crusade. Everyone knows that our abuse of the environment affects the "Poor, Minorities, Women, and Children" disproportionately..
Yes, things are getting better and better... I just can't wait for August!!! That is when His Grace, the Benevolent one is going to fix health care!!! I am so glad the Auto industry and Economy have been fixed... On to bigger and better things!!! Remember as Americans, can we do Facism better than the Italians of Germans?? In BHO's words "YES WE CAN!!"
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