Clarification: Blue Banner

In the post listed below I created a link to the American Legion website so anyone who wanted more information could read it there. However, my sister wishes me to clarify, although the information and meaning are basically the same, she received her Blue Banner from a friend, who in turn received it from http://bluestarmothers.org.

Blue Star Banners

A Blue Star Service Banner displayed in the window of a home is an American tradition. The banner lets others know that someone in the home is proudly serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. As Americans do their best to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing war on terror, the Blue Star Service Banner tradition reminds us all that war touches every neighborhood in our land.

In one of the windows on the front porch of my sisters house hangs a banner like this. Her two oldest sons are both in the Army. For reasons of security, I won't mention their outfits. The eldest already served one tour in Iraq. As things stand, he believes he will return over there for another year before his enlistment is up. His brother is training with his unit right now for deployment later this year...

Will I support our troops? Yes, of course! Will I support the administration that put them in harms way? NO! I am proud of my nephews. I helped raise them both. However, they didn't 'join up' out of patriotic fervor. There main reason for doing so was economic hardship. The elder could not find long term work after high school. The younger did state during high school that he would join the military, so he could get money for college/post-secondary education. That scares me: young people gambling with their lives, if they survive they can go to school, if they're not to damaged.

Oh, word play, this is gonna be bad...don't say I didn't warn ya! Since President Bush is from Texas, and our service member are gambling...does that equate to a new form of "Texas Hold 'em"? (I warned ya).

th--th--that's all folths?

I add my two-cents worth to this article from http://angelmegtm.blogspot.com :

FREE PIGLET! (and Porky Pig)
THIS ARTICLE was one of the first things I read this morning. Thanks to my Mark Shea fix. Now I am just MAD. What right do those Muslims have? And if they can do it in England will they be able to do that here too? Will we soon be a Piglet free society because it might "offend" our Muslim brothers and sisters? Sheesh, I say to them, grow some thicker skin, or look the other way. It isn't as if Piglet were out to be offensive to Muslim's. I think we all need to be proactive in this country. We need to fill our work spaces with piglet dolls and Babe posters, and certain Warner Bros. cartoons!. I can see the day coming when my youngest daughter will not be forced to read Animal Farm or Charlotte's Web in high school, just like her father (ahem, or mother), and I were, unless we stand up against this silly tyrany. I will be joining the crusade right here and now. Thanks to Mark.

To end wars

"That was just the kind of a position that attracted me, that appealed to my mind at the time. It seemed to cut across all complexities by its sweeping and uncompromising simplicity. All war was simply unjust, and that was that. The thing to do was to fold your arms and refuse to fight. If everybody did that, there would be no more wars."
the Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton

the Corpse bride: review

Yesterday I went to see the Corpse Bride at the HarMar theatres. I went to a matinee, there weren't many people...maybe a a dozen at the most to watch it at that time. I thought the movie was lame. The clever play on words jokes weren't very clever. While the story line was sort of interesting, it was really hard to follow. The volume of sound was deafening... to the point of making it hard to understand what some of the dialog was. I did go out at one point (during one of the musical scenes) and ask the volume be turned down a notch, but I noticed no difference. I think if the volume had been lower, I may have enjoyed it more. I will probably rent it when it comes out on DVD, see if I feel differently then. Right now the only redeeming quality I feel is the musical content...piano pieces in a couple scenes, pop songs with different words/cants to them. It might be worth buying a sound track from the movie