Blue Star Chronicles

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Mary Ann

Wednesday Hero was started to put a face to the men and women of the American Armed Forces and what they do for us. Vary rarely has there been a member of a foreign military profiled. In fact, in the two years Wednesday Hero’s been going on it’s only been done once before. Here’s the second.

Lance Corporal Matt Croucher
24 years old from Birmingham, England
40 Commando Royal Marines

L/Cpl Matt Croucher is not only one of the bravest men alive, he’s also one of the luckiest men alive. On the morning of February 9, 2008 L/Cpl. and his unit were searching a compound near Sangin in Afghanistan that was suspected of being used to make bombs to be used in attacks on British and Afghan troops. Walking in the darkness among a group of four men, Croucher stepped into a tripwire that pulled the pin from a boobytrap grenade. His patrol commander, Corporal Adam Lesley, remembered Croucher shouting “Grenade!”

As others dived for cover, Croucher did something nobody expected. He lay down on the grenade to smother the blast. Lesley got on the ground, another man got behind a wall, but the last member of the patrol was still standing in the open when the grenade went off.

“My reaction was, ‘My God this can’t be real’,” said Lesley. “Croucher had simply lain back and used his day sack to blunt the force of the explosion. You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation.” L/Cpl. Croucher was that 1/10. Not only did he survive, amazingly he only suffered shock from the blast and a bloody nose. He was saved by the special plating inside his Osprey body armor. The backpack he was wearing was thrown more than 30ft by the blast.

“I felt one of the lads giving me a top to toe check. My head was ringing. Blood was streaming from my nose. It took 30 seconds before I realized I was definitely not dead,” said L/Cpl. Croucher.

For his actions that day, L/Cpl. Croucher was in line for the Victoria Cross, the highest award for a British Serviceman, but it has yet to be awarded.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Greta van Susteren asks what many of us are thinking about the Barack Obama vs. Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.

Senator Obama spoke out moments ago in very strong words about Reverend Wright…saying that Reverend Wright is not the man he thought he was … so some people will ask: what took you so long to figure it out? 20 years and only yesterday? are you that oblivious or is this statement political and calculating? and others will applaud him…saying what courage to address the issue…that he is standing up for what he believes even if it means denouncing someone you had admired..and that he is showing candor …

Read more at GOPBlogger.

Dr. Aribert Heim tops The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of Most Wanted Nazis.

Aribert Heim (Photo)

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is putting out their list of the top ten most wanted Nazis tomorrow, but the Associated Press got their hands on the list today. Dr. Aribert Heim is at the top of the list.

Dr. Aribert Heim, whereabouts unknown: Indicted in Germany on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was camp doctor. Disappeared in 1962, before planned prosecution.

If Dr. Aribert Heim is still alive he will be 93-years-old. According to the Simon Wisenthal Center there is good reason to believe he is still alive and living in a villa in Spain. He disappeared from his home in Baden-Baden, Germany when he was about to be arrested in 1962 for crimes he committed during World War II when he was the head doctor at Austria’s Mauthausen concentration camp.

Prior to the war, Heim was a hockey pro. During the war he was one of the most fear Nazis and was comparied to Josepf Mengele who was the SS doctor at Auschwitz concentratin camp because of the gruesome nature of the medical experiments he would perform. Heim was known for injecting prisoners with lethal drugs and operating on them without anesthetics. he would use a stopwatch to time how long it took for them to die.

Aribert Heim was also known to remove the tattooed flesh of prisoners and use it for home decor. He once removed the tattooed flesh of a prisoner in order to make seat coverings for the home of the commandant of the camp.

When he was got word that he was to be arrested he disappeared and has not been seen since 1962. His family insists that he died many years ago, however, the Simon Wiesenthal Center insist that there is compelling evidence that he is still alive. They have evidence that he went from Baden-Baden to Southern Spain. There is some evidence that he may have left there to go to Chile via Denmark.

There is no way of knowing what he looks like today. Many Nazis are known to have undergone surgeries to alter their appearance following the war. He is known to have a distinctive scar near his mouth following a duel.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center top ten Most Wanted Nazis are:

1. Dr. Aribert Heim, whereabouts unknown: Indicted in Germany on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was camp doctor. Disappeared in 1962, before planned prosecution.

2. John Demjanjuk, in United States: Ukrainian immigrant alleged by U.S. authorities to have been guard at Nazi camps. He denies that. Extradited to Israel in 1986, where he was sentenced to death for allegedly being Treblinka camp guard “Ivan the Terrible.” Verdict overturned in 1993 and Demjanjuk returned to America. U.S. citizenship restored in 1998, then removed in 2002. Seeking to appeal court’s January rejection of challenge to immigration judge’s order that would send him to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.

3. Sandor Kepiro, in Hungary: Former Hungarian gendarmerie officer accused of involvement in wartime killings of more than 1,000 civilians in Serbia. Convicted twice in Hungarian courts, in 1944 and 1946, but never punished. Kepiro, who moved back to Hungary in 1996 after decades in Argentina, denies accusations. Hungary reinvestigating.

4. Milivoj Asner, in Austria: Police chief in Croatia’s wartime Nazi puppet regime, he is suspected of active role in persecution and deportation to death of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. In 2005, Croatia requested his extradition from Austria, which refused, saying he is unfit to stand trial or be questioned.

5. Soeren Kam, in Germany: Former member of SS wanted by Denmark in assassination of journalist in 1943. Extradition from Germany was blocked in 2007 by Bavarian court that found insufficient evidence for murder charges.

6. Heinrich Boere, in Germany: Admitted hit man for Waffen-SS accused of killing three Dutch civilians. Sentenced to death in absentia in 1949 in Netherlands, later commuted to life in prison. German courts refused to extradite him, then declared conviction invalid. Prosecutors in Dortmund, Germany, brought new murder charges against him this month.

7. Charles Zentai, in Australia: Former Hungarian soldier has been under investigation by Hungary’s Foreign Ministry since December 2004 on suspicion of killing Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944 for failing to wear a yellow star identifying him as Jew. Zentai denies charge and fighting extradition.

8. Mikhail Gorshkow, in Estonia: U.S. officials and Jewish groups accuse Gorshkow of helping kill Jews while serving as interpreter and interrogator for German Gestapo in Belarus. He returned to native Estonia in 2002 just before federal court stripped him of U.S. citizenship for lying about his war record. Prosecutors in Estonia investigating case.

9. Algimantas Dailide, in Germany: Convicted in 2006 in Lithuania of helping round up Jews for Nazis as officer in Vilnius security police. Sentenced to five years in jail, but judge ruled he was too frail to serve sentence. He had been deported from U.S. to Germany in 2003 for lying on immigration application. Lives in Germany, but went voluntarily to Lithuania for trial.

10. Harry Mannil, in Venezuela: Former officer in Estonia’s political police and German security forces during Nazi occupation of Estonia. U.S. authorities investigating Mannil’s 1990s visa application concluded he took part in murder of hundreds of Jews, barring him entry. Was cleared in 2005 by Estonian investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity.

Bagpipes are a sound that many of us associate with our ancestry. Its part of the Scottish heritage, but Brussels is telling Scotland to quieten down the pipes!

Oh, for the love of Socialism!!!! The European Union has decided to put a ban on noise. As with most Socialist organizations, they know what’s best for everybody and make it their business to dictate behavior and common sense. I think they’d control people’s thoughts if they could.

I read at Boston Maggie they have put a ban on noise and have sent word that the bagpipes of Scotland are going to have to tone it down.

THEIR high-pitched skirl has put fear into the hearts of Scotland’s enemies and sent sensitive tourists reaching for the cotton wool.

Now, however, the bagpipes are to be quietened by an edict from Brussels.

From this month, pipers must adhere to strict volume limits or risk breaking European Union health and safety laws. Bands have been ordered to tone down or wear earplugs to limit noise exposure to 85 decibels.

Typically, a pipe band played at full volume peaks at 122 decibels outdoors, noisier than the sound of either a nightclub or a chainsaw, which rises to 116 decibels. [source]

When the English conquered Scotland they tried to eradicate any elements of Scottish culture. They outlawed kilts, bagpipes and Gaelic. The English hunted the Scots down throughout the highlands to enforce the laws in a real effort to completely wipe out their national identity so they’d quit giving the English so many dadgume problems!

The Scots managed to hang onto they’re culture even under those dire circumstances. They even overcame the discrimination to the point that they became the most elite military force for England …. wearing kilts!

As the bagpipe players say, you can’t play bagpipes quietly. I hope they win their argument and keep the bagpipes playing. Do we really want to live in such a vanilla world that we can’t tolerate the loudness of color, sound and culture? I don’t.

Play on …..

I love Craig Ferguson. He’s hilarious to me and I LOVE his Scottish Brogue. I can be shallow at times like that.

Here’s videos of him from last night’s dinner. Its in three parts, but well worth it.

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There was a time when propaganda was a real art form. People used to really work at it and you had to have a sharp eye to detect it. Its just not what it used to be.

What does something like that even mean?? Seriously. What does it mean? Its just nonsense. I’m right and you’re wrong? Okay. So?

And these ….

It seems that any one with a paint shop pro program thinks that can slap a few copy/pastes on a paper and write some phrase on it and that’s propaganda. Used to people had to spend hours and hours doing a good propaganda piece. They were true pieces are art.

What has happened to the leftists of the world? Have they gotten fat and lazy or are they too busy gaming to take the time to produce quality propaganda anymore? What’s with THAT?

They have to use images from previous propaganda pieces. Take the cover of Time that used the image of the Marines at Iwo Jima to make a statement about the environment. Instead of coming up with something unique and new, they take a classic image and run it through a photo program and manipulate it to make a statement about whatever cause they are trying to promote at any given moment. Its just pathetic.

I know what the problem is actually. The problem is there’s not enough angst in the artistic left. You have to have angst to create great art. The great poetry that made the great music of the 1960s came out of a deep sense of angst on the part of the a generation embroiled in a war and a major social revolution. Hemingway and the lost generation came from the social upheaval of the Great War. Then in social revolutions and the uncertainty and changes brought about by World War II had the same effect. Great works of art inspired by a sense of change, sacrifice, uncertainty … angst.

This generation doesn’t have that edge. Instead they have iPods, trust funds and wii. There’s a war, but they aren’t involved in it. Its ‘over there’ and its really not affecting life here. There’s not a draft, so they don’t have to worry about it at all. It doesn’t stop them from their school activities or weekend parties. Its someone else’s problem.

That’s why the propaganda the left is trying to put out is mostly updated copies of propaganda that was created in times of true angst. The words are just put on newer pictures or newer words are put on the older pictures. The creativity isn’t there, because the angst isn’t there.

Its a sad state of affairs when the idealists and artists of the left can’t create any decent propaganda.

John McCain visits Gee’s Bend, Alabama as part of his ‘It’s Time For Action Tour’ of America.

I’m LOVING John McCain’s tour of America. He has done his ‘Service to America’ tour and now he is doing his ‘It’s Time For Action Tour’ of America. He has been to all sorts of small towns, rural areas and disused/misused urban areas. He’s introduced himself to the people of those areas in intimate settings and listened to those people with an ear for the concerns of what is referred to as Middle America (fly over country). That part of America that politicians and people of power and influence rarely, if ever, visit. Those people of America that politicians and people of power and influence rarely, if ever, hear.

He gives every appearance of wanting to see and hear the people of America - not just the power brokers. I think he’s a man who truly loves his country and the people who inhabit it. We are America and John McCain seems to realize that.

He really is a different kind of candidate. I think he’ll be a different kind of President.

Cross posted at McCain Blogs.

… and she’s McImpressed and I’m McJealous!!!!

W00T!

Go check out Hooah Wife’s impressions of McCain from her meeting him and Cindy McCain today in New Orleans!

Here’s a video of his town hall meeting in New Orleans.

Marcus Dixon was convicted of the statutory rape of Kristie Brown while they attended high school together. He spent some time in jail, but became a cause celeb and now has NFL dreams while Kristie was run out of town and accused of racism and ruining Marcus’ life.

Kristie Brown (Photo)

In the interest of full disclosure, I will state up front that I have personal knowledge of this case and peripherally know some of the people involved. I also know the community very well. Lindale, Georgia is a community that suffered economically as a result of NAFTA. The cotton mill in town shut down leaving the community without an economic base and turning it into a bedroom community for surrounding areas. To some extent, the people there have used an exceptional football team as a central element that maintains a sense of community.

That being said, the entire case is outrageous and angers me at a very deep level. I know that I’m a cynical person and I have known that the news media slants things in whatever way they choose to slant it. This case was the first time I saw the slanting up close knowing that the way the case was being presented on the national news was just flat out not true.

I am compelled to write about this today because I saw an article that reports that Marcus Dixon is finishing up his college education and is hoping to get picked in the NFL Draft on Saturday.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are twelve researchers stranded on a remote Pacific island. Palmyra Island is 1,000 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Palmyra Island (Photo)

The story about the researches stranded on an island in the south Pacific caught my interest because that is the general area my father was during World War II. Its also interesting that there are people stranded on a tropical island. I guess we don’t think of that sort of thing happening these days! At least they are able to communicate with the outside world as opposed to just being there and no one knowing where they are!

It seems that a certain type of plane is needed to transport people back and forth between Hawaii and Palmyra Island. The plane that is used to do that has broken down and needs a new engine. This isn’t good for the people who are currently on the island. The special plane is needed because Palmyra has a coral runway.

The island is a wildlife refuge and nature preserve that is owned by the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. Scientists, environmentalists and researchers go there from all over the world to study the wild life and nature. This group of twelve trustees from Louisiana went down there last Saturday to do whatever it is they do. Now they are stuck there.

The Nature Conservancy is working with Pacific Air Charters based at Honolulu International Airport to use a twin-engine Cessna to retrieve the stranded travelers. they have to fit the Cessna with a special 75-gallon fuel tank so that they can get the plane to Christmas Island which is about 300 miles from Palmyra. From there they will shuttle the trustees from Palmyra in two trips. Before it can make the trip they have to go through the bureaucratic paperwork necessary for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearances and approvals. I’m sure they prefer to wait for the plane to be airworthy!

Meanwhile, the trustees are waiting on the island. Fortunately, the island is set up to be a research outpost and therefore has running water, cabins and other supplies.

At least it looks like a lovely place to be stranded!

Palmyra Island (Photos)

Cpl. Markbradley Vincze (Photo)

Cpl. Markbradley Vincze gives students from al-Raqhaa School backpacks in the Monsouri area of Iraq. Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1-76th FA, 4th BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., delivered backpacks, soccer balls and notebooks.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Nora Ephron exposes herself as a racist and a sexist (again) while claiming that everyone else are racist and sexist. Well, at least white men in Pennsylvania are.

Nora Ephron (Photo)

It is beyond anything that I can comprehend when I try to figure out how someone like Nora Ephron thinks. Instead of giving myself a headache trying to figure out what kind of though process goes on in someone’s head that thinks they have to focus completely on race and gender in virtually everything they do, I’ll just tell you what she’s written now.

Nora Ephron has indicted virtually everyone in Pennsylvania. Its convenient that she’s done this on the eve of the primary there. That way, regardless of the outcome, she’s already determined that its the people of Pennsylvania who can’t tolerate women and black people. She’s so open minded! Not unlike her candidates.

According to Ephron, white men are a plague on society and there is not a lower creature on the face of the earth than the white male.

…. white men cannot be relied on, as all of us know who have spent a lifetime dating them.

I’m sure Ephron feels perfectly justified in making a sweeping indictment like that. After all, no one gets upset when you slam white men. They aren’t among the many groups of people that are off limits to insult. All I can say is that she obviously hangs with a completely different group of white males than I do. I kind of like white men. My father, my husband, my brothers and my son are all white men and they are all fine men. That doesn’t mean that other men AREN’T fine - and that’s the difference between me and Ms. Ephron. In my mind it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Just because you like one group of people doesn’t mean you have to hate another group of people. I’m sure she doesn’t understand that concept, unfortunately.

She goes on to the irony that it is white men who will decide the fate of Hillary and Obama.

But now there are two and we’re facing Pennsylvania and whom are we kidding? This is an election about whether the people of Pennsylvania hate blacks more than they hate women. And when I say people, I don’t mean people, I mean white men. How ironic is this? After all this time, after all these stupid articles about how powerless white men are and how they can’t even get into college because of overachieving women and affirmative action and mean lady teachers who expected them to sit still in the third grade even though they were all suffering from terminal attention deficit disorder — after all this, they turn out (surprise!) to have all the power. (As they always did, by the way; I hope you didn’t believe any of those articles.)

To put it bluntly, the next president will be elected by them: the outcome of Tuesday’s primary will depend on whether they go for Hillary or Obama, and the outcome of the general election will depend on whether enough of them vote for McCain. A lot of them will: white men cannot be relied on, as all of us know who have spent a lifetime dating them. And McCain is a compelling candidate, particularly because of the Torture Thing. As for the Democratic hope that McCain’s temper will be a problem, don’t bet on it. A lot of white men have terrible tempers, and what’s more, they think it’s normal.

So any complaints white men might have are ’stupid’ (as she puts it) and if Obama or Hillary don’t get elected President it will be because these ’stupid’ white men who have never been out of the holler and seen nobody no diff’rent then they r are just too bigoted to vote for a woman or a black.

It seems that in Ms. Ephron’s mind that Obama is exactly the same as all black men and Hillary is the same as all white women. If you don’t like Obama, then you don’t like black men. If you don’t like Hillary then you don’t like white women. I don’t like Hillary OR Obama. I guess that means I can’t like any black people or white women.

What a pathetic view of the world this woman has. She really needs to get out and meet some people who don’t live in New York or San Francisco. She might even find a decent white guy out in Middle America somewhere who doesn’t beat on his women!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go back to clinging to my guns and Bible since I’m just an ig’rant Middle American who isn’t enlightened enough to know I don’t need guns and religion.

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Read more at Hot Air, The City Square, Confederate Yankee, Anwyn’s Notes in the Margin, Protein Wisdom