Memorial Day--May We Never Forget

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."--Ronald Reagan

Video Hat Tip: Wake Up America

The above video is one of the most moving Memorial Day tributes that I've seen.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."--John Stuart Mill

This video tribute is set to the song Amazing Grace sung by LeAnn Rimes.

"Let us not mourn for those who have died fighting but rather let us be glad that such heroes have lived."

Taylor Hicks - Do I Make You Proud

I've posted this one before but it is so good I had to post it again. Our soldiers make me extremely proud to be an American and to live in a free country.

"Freedom is never free."


I've linked to this one and posted it numerous times because it makes me tear up every time I see it. I pray this would happen every time a U.S. soldier would come home.

May we never forget what our military men and women do for us. May we be patriots who show our love for our country and for our soldiers, not just on Memorial Day, but every day. U.S. soldiers sacrifice a lot for our freedoms and all they want is our thanks, love and appreciation. May they feel it in abundance today!!

I will declare right now my thanks, love and appreciation for all those who have served and are serving. THANK-YOU!!! I am and will always be a cheerleader for you.

Support the Troops!
Freedom Alliance
Protest Warrior
Families United
Soldiers' Angels
Adopt Our Troops
MIL Blogs
Wednesday Hero Blogroll

Other Memorial Day posts:
Mike's America
Wordsmith
Wordsmith--updated
Always on Watch
Bloviating Zeppelin
Born Again Redneck Yogi
Flopping Aces
Anna's Clue Tank
Confessions of a Closet Republican
Grizzly Mama
Frankly, My Dear...
Marie's Two Cents
Right Wing Rebel
Jimmyb
Public Pondering
Dragon Lady's My Republican Blog
Sister Toldjah

Jordin Sparks is an American Idol!!

Jordin Sparks is the winner of Season 6 of American Idol!!!!

I cried when she sang this Tuesday night. She blew everyone away, she did such a good job and the song so applies to her life and mine.

My oldest daughter and I were ecstatic that she won last night. My daughter called a lot for her and when we looked at Dial Idol and saw that she was quite a bit ahead of Blake we were pretty excited.

She is the youngest singer to ever win and I wish her much success!

Here are the lyrics to the awesome song she sang, This is My Now:

There was a time I packed my dreams away
Living in a shell, hiding from myself.
There was a time when I was so afraid
I thought I’d reached the end.
Baby, that was then.
But I am made of more than my yesterdays.

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.

I had to decide.
Was I gonna play it safe?
Or look somewhere deep inside,
Try to turn the tide.
Find the strength to take that step of faith?

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.

I have a courage like never before, yeah.
I settled for less, but I’m ready for more.
Ready for more…

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.
This is my now.

Jordin Sparks' picture journey!

Previously:
Jordin makes it to the final 2
TV Stuff
American Idol

Lost 2 Hour Season Finale Tonight!!

First Vinyl

I wanted to do a fun post today so I finally decided to do BWH's Vinyl meme. He wanted us to post the album cover of the very first album we ever bought. I can't remember for sure exactly which one was first but I do remember a series of albums that I bought the year I turned 13. I had gotten my first tape player and my dad still believed in buying the records and taping them onto tapes so you'd have 2 copies.

I have fond memories of Def Leppard and I still listen to them today. I remember my first junior high slumber party and we played their Pyromania record over and over again, ate pizza and made prank phone calls. It was also the first time there was some peer pressure to smoke but I said no!!


Since I always have to alter meme's just a little I decided to post several album covers that I remember from that year. What teen girl didn't love the Go Go's Beauty and the Beat? They weren't popular much past the early 80's but they had some hit songs that we all loved.


I can proudly say that when I bought Thriller it was the one and only time I spent money on a Michael Jackson album. This was back when he sang great and appeared to act and look fairly normal. Unfortunately, it was all downhill after this.

I couldn't believe that my kids didn't realize he was black because the first time they saw him was when he was on trial a couple of years ago. I had to dig up a picture from this era to show them what he used to look like.

The other main album I remember was The Very Best of Air Supply. Anyone who is interested jump on the bandwagon and let us know what your first album was, if you are brave enough, how old you were and any other fun details.

For those of you who need my daily dose of politics, go here to read what I wrote about Tony Blair.

Kudos to Jeff Ruby

Jeff Ruby, owner of several upscale steakhouses, kicked OJ Simpson out of his Louisville restaurant the night before the Kentucky Derby. He said he was "sickened by the attention that Simpson still attracts." Here are the details:

"I didn't want to serve him because of my convictions of what he's done to those families," Jeff Ruby said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "The way he continues to torture the lives of those families ... with his behavior, attitude and conduct."

Simpson, an NFL Hall of Famer and Heisman Trophy winner, was found innocent in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman but was found liable in a civil trial that followed.

Ruby — who owns restaurants in Cincinnati, Louisville and Belterra, Ind. — said Simpson, who was in town for the Derby on Saturday, came in with a group of about 12 Friday night and was seated at a table in the back. A customer came up to Ruby and was "giddy" about seeing Simpson, Ruby said.

"I didn't want that experience in my restaurant," Ruby said, later adding that seeing Simpson get so much attention "makes me sick to my stomach."

He said he went to Simpson's table and said, "I'm not serving you." Ruby said when Simpson didn't respond, he repeated himself and left the room.

Of course, Simpson's lawyer is screaming racism but I have to say I applaud Ruby for taking such a strong stand. I'm not the only one because many in the restaurant also applauded Ruby right after Simpson left and Ruby says he's gotten around 100 positive emails since the incident.

To this day I am still sickened at how OJ Simpson clearly got away with murder and still seems to enjoy a certain "celebrity status". Its nice to see that not everyone forgets the great harm he has caused.

TV Stuff

Jordin was great again last night on American Idol. I think its pretty obvious that her, Blake and Melinda will make it to the top 3. I will be completely shocked if Lakisha doesn't go home tonight. Especially if you check out how they ranked according to DialIdol. Dial Idol measures the busy signal on the phones and somehow is able to tell approximately how people will be ranked the next night. It usually comes pretty close to the actual results.


If anybody is a fan of American Idol at all you will absolutely love this short Simpsons clip that makes fun of Simon. Simon is brutally honest but you love him anyway. Yet, it is hilarious what they do with this clip, classic!!


I'm looking forward to Lost tonight. Poor Sawyer had a rough night last week, we were all feeling his pain. Billie mentioned this in her latest review:

"I recently did a "favorite character poll" on the front page of my site. Sawyer won, and Sayid and Desmond tied for second place. Just wanted to pass that on."

I guess I'm not as alone as I thought :-).

A Victory for France and America

VICTORY MESSAGE TO AMERICA: 'YOU CAN COUNT ON FRANCE AS A FRIEND'...Nicolas Sarkozy

Two weeks ago I did a post on the French primary elections. I was excited about Nicolas Sarkozy because he was a conservative and even somewhat pro-American and amazingly, was still doing well in the polls. He was the favored one to win the election against the socialist candidate, Segolene Royal. Here is an article comparing where the 2 stood on different issues, Sarkozy's looks pretty good, especially for France.

I'm happy to report that not only did Sarkozy win but he won by 6 percentage points, 53% to 47%. There was also an 85.5% turnout rate.

This was the platform that Sarkozy ran on:

"Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, presented himself as the "candidate of work", promising to loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax breaks on overtime and to trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment."

It is interesting that the Socialist party can't even win in France, a country known for attempting to have a socialist utopia. Hopefully, Sarkozy can lead his country in a new direction that will be friendlier towards real democracy and towards the U.S.

Others blogging:
Mike's America
Right Wing Rebel

It's Official, LMC is a Radio Talk Show Host

This past February I was contacted by someone from Christian Financial Radio Network about hosting a weekly radio show. They were bought by Togi Entertainment so the Executive VP followed up with me. At that time we talked and it looked pretty likely that when they got things running I would be hosting an internet radio show. I sent them my resume and some items from my blog.

Yesterday, I was contacted by Togi Entertainment and they confirmed that I will be hosting my own show starting around the first week of June. To start out I will do a one hour weekly show but as things progress it will probably move to a longer show more times a week. There is also the possibility of me doing a show in the future critiquing TV and movies.

Here is a description of Togi Entertainment:

A multi-media company that focuses on quality entertainment in all areas of publishing, movies, music and broadcasting.

Their corporate motto is:

Politics, Lifestyle and Entertainment for heart, mind and soul.

I'm pretty psyched but would appreciate your prayers and ideas. I have to come up with a name for my show so leave your suggestions in the comments. I will also be having guests and callers so I hope all of you will be eager to participate :-).

I will let you know all the specifics when I have them such as days and times.

The President on American Idol

President George W. Bush and Laura were on American Idol last night!! They were thanking Americans for how much money was raised for charity. I loved Laura's line :-).

"I don't know darling, they've already seen you dance."

Tony Snow is Back!!

"Not everybody will survive cancer, but on the other hand, you've got to realize you've got the gift of life, so make the most of it. And that is my view, and I'm going to make the most of my time with you."--Tony Snow

I was so happy to hear yesterday that Tony Snow was back and his cancer is far less serious than originally thought. Here are some of his comments from yesterday:

"Just a couple things about my situation. I'm not trying to feel sorry for myself, I'm just going to stop being choked up, because you guys have been so wonderful.

I'm a very lucky guy. As I told you before, we were, out of an aggressive sense of caution, going to do an exploratory surgery that did indicate that I still have cancer. Now, I know the first reaction of people when they hear the word "cancer" is uh-oh. But we live in kind of a different medical situation than we used to. And I have been blessed to be treated by, supported by some of the finest doctors in the world. What we are going to do -- we had surgery, where we did disclose -- and there are some cancers in the peritoneum and we are going to attack them using chemotherapy -- I'll start chemotherapy this Friday.

The design is to throw it into remission and transform it into a chronic disease. If cancer is merely a nuisance for a long period of time, that's fine with me. There are many people running around -- and I must tell you, I have received a lot of notes from folks who have had far worse cases than I have, who have survived many years with the kind of regimen that we're talking about, which is chemo up front, and then maintenance chemo to continue combating cancer tells.

I won't tell you how it's going to work out, because I don't know. But we obviously feel optimistic, and faith, hope and love are a big part of all of it.

The other thing is that I hope folks out there who may either have cancer or have loved ones with cancer need to know a couple of things. First, don't go it alone. The support I've received from you and from my colleagues at the White House and people around the country has been an enormous source of strength. You can't -- there's no way to quantify it, but you feel it. You feel it in your heart. And in many ways, that may be the most important organ for recovery, to have the kind of spirit and to realize that, in my case, I'm unbelievably lucky and unbelievably blessed -- and really happy to be back.

The other thing is -- so don't go it alone, and the other thing is be of courage. Realize that in an age like ours, things are happening very rapidly in the medical realm. I'm taking a cancer cocktail this time around, a chemo cocktail that's going to contain two agents that were not in broad use two years ago. Things are moving very rapidly, and there's always hope.

Not everybody will survive cancer, but on the other hand, you've got to realize you've got the gift of life, so make the most of it. And that is my view, and I'm going to make the most of my time with you."

One of the things I love about Tony Snow is how optimistic he is, which will serve him well in beating this cancer. God Bless you Tony Snow, we are so happy you're back!!