Saturday.....

Well Sir...like they say, "Ya learn sumthin new everyday". It was only natural that just about every other American blogger was gonna post sumthin patriotic yesterday on the 4th of July, so, I opted instead to stick with comedy and musical movie memorabilia, and put up my patriotic post today....

I found this an interesting read that gives me a new perspective on the French and their history. After reading this, I'm sure Y'all will see certain parallels that have been happening in our great country.... BTW, this THOMAS SOWELL is a very intelligent, well read writer who uses those old arcane concepts called, 1) "Common Sense", and 2) remembering that those who forget or ignore the past, are doomed to repeat it...


How Relevant Is Patriotism? Go Ask France
By THOMAS SOWELL

The Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday, but patriotism has long been viewed with suspicion or disdain by many of the intelligentsia. As far back as 1793, prominent British writer William Godwin called patriotism "high-sounding nonsense."

Internationalism has long been a competitor with patriotism, especially among the intelligentsia. H.G. Wells advocated replacing the idea of duty to one's country with "the idea of cosmopolitan duty."

French soldiers in World War I's Battle of Verdun went from heroes to victims after pacifists got a hold of the history books.

Perhaps nowhere was patriotism so downplayed or deplored than among intellectuals in the Western democracies in the two decades after the horrors of the First World War, fought under various nations' banners of patriotism.

In France , after the First World War, the teachers' unions launched a systematic purge of textbooks, in order to promote internationalism and pacifism.

Books that depicted the courage and self-sacrifice of soldiers who had defended France against the German invaders were called "bellicose" books, to be banished from the schools.

Textbook publishers caved in to the power of the teachers' unions, rather than lose a large market for their books. History books were sharply revised to conform to internationalism and pacifism.

The once-epic story of the French soldiers' heroic defense against the German invaders at Verdun, despite the massive casualties suffered by the French, was now transformed into a story of horrible suffering by all soldiers at Verdun — French and German alike.

In short, soldiers once depicted as national heroes were now depicted as victims — and just like victims in other nations' armies.

Children were bombarded with stories on the horrors of war. In some schools, children whose fathers had been killed during the war were asked to speak to the class, and many of these children — as well as some of their classmates and teachers — broke down in tears.

In Britain , Winston Churchill warned that a country "cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors."

In France , Marshal Philippe Petain, the victor at Verdun , warned in 1934 that teachers were trying to "raise our sons in ignorance of or in contempt of the fatherland."

But they were voices drowned out by the pacifist and internationalist rhetoric of the 1920s and 1930s.

Did it matter? Does patriotism matter?

France , where pacifism and internationalism were strongest, became a classic example of how much it can matter.

During the First World War, France fought on against the German invaders for four long years, despite having more of its soldiers killed than all the American soldiers killed in all the wars in the history of the U.S. put together.

But during the Second World War, France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting and surrendered to Nazi Germany. At the bitter moment of defeat, the head of the French teachers' union was told, "You are partially responsible for the defeat."

Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mauriac and other Frenchmen blamed a lack of national will or general moral decay for the sudden and humiliating collapse of France in 1940.
At the outset of the invasion, German and French generals assessed French military forces as more likely to gain victory, and virtually no one expected France to collapse like a house of cards — except Adolf Hitler, who had studied French society instead of French military forces.

Did patriotism matter? It mattered more than superior French tanks and planes.

Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did — with the added twist of calling this "supporting the troops."

Will that matter? One day we'll know.
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Now Sir, "The Chief" sent me this photygraff yesterday stating that whoever this attractive young lady is was describing a "squid" that she once dated, BUT, the truth is that she talking to the Sailor and telling him about the Marine she went out with the night before....


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How True

APHORISM: A SHORT, POINTED SENTENCE EXPRESSING A WISE, CLEVER OBSERVATION; A GENERAL TRUTH OR ADAGE

1. The nicest thing about the future is it always starts tomorrow.

2. Money will buy a fine dog but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.

4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.

5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep shit.

6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become
a teenager who wants to stay out all night?

7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a
company can operate without.

8. Why is it that, at class reunions, you feel younger than everyone else looks?

9. Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job.

10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car.

11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.

12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4AM: It could
be a right number.

13. No one ever says 'It's only a game' when their team's winning.

14. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

15. Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it.

16. The trouble with bucket seats is not everybody has the same size bucket.

17. Do you realize in about 40 years we'll have millions of old ladies running
around with tattoos? (And rap music will be the Golden Oldies!)

18. Money can't buy happiness - but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a
Corvette than in a Yugo.

19. After 70 if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.
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A cardiologist died and was given an elaborate funeral. A huge heart
covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service.

Following the eulogy, the heart opened, and the casket rolled inside.

The heart then closed, sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever. At that point, one of the mourners burst into laughter. When all eyes stared at him, he said,

'I'm sorry, I was just thinking of my own funeral........I'm a Gynecologist. '

Upon thinking about this fer a second, The Proctologist fainted.


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Well Sir...after a long hard day of bein on my feet in 90 degree weather, the neighbors cat, "Festus" came over to visit and decided to check out the shoe's I had just taken off. Here be a real good example of how "Curiosity killed the cat"....


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Gotta thank "Charlie the Cop" frum Chicago and Susan Gertson frum Eagle Lake, Texas fer some of the above submissions.....