Here’s something I didn’t know, and I’m probably not alone, so I’m going to share it.

If any of you have ever been to a military funeral in which taps were played; this brings out a new meaning of it. Here is something Every American should know. Until I read this, I didn’t know, but I checked it out and it’s true:

We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, “Taps”. It’s the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes. But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be Interested to find out about its humble beginnings.

Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison’s Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.

During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment.

When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead.

The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted.

The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral.

The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.

The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform.

This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as “Taps” … used at military funerals
was born. The words are :

Day is done..
Gone the sun.
From the lakes.
From the hills.
From the sky.
All is well.
Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Fading light.
Dims the sight.
And a star.
Gems the sky.
Gleaming bright.
From afar.
Drawing nigh.
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise.
For our days.
Neath the sun.
Neath the stars.
Neath the sky.
As we go.
This we know.
God is nigh.

I too have felt the chills while listening to “Taps” but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn’t even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song and I didn’t know if you had either so I thought I’d pass it along.

Hat Tip, Jodee, and many thanks.

James Lileks has this account of John Bolton’s first day on the job.

Now that John Bolton has been installed as United Nations ambassador — by the time-honored recess appointment or the power-crazed overreach of King Emperor Bush Fuhrer, depending on your point of view — one can only wonder how he’ll do. Here’s a hypothetical workday. (Note that he’s made it out of Washington without some senators throwing themselves on the train tracks to keep him from leaving. Or, rather, having aides throw themselves on the tracks. Make that interns. Aides might say things under anesthesia.) Anyway. The limo pulls up to the glistening U.N. building at 7:59 a.m….

You know, when I read these comic sketches, especially by those with the savvy of Lileks, I can actually picture them as possible reality. I mean, after what we’ve seen of totally out-of-the-park statements by liberal politicians, Congressional propositions from the left and the reaching of the Mainstream Media in their continually weakening endeavors to undermine American patriotism, values, religious beliefs and our very survival, it’s unfortunately very difficult not to be able to picture these comic applications as possibilities.

Noon — Bolton presents his credentials to Kofi Annan, who is sweating and nervous. The lunch is amiable until Bolton, his hand still aching from a vigorous game of handball, makes a fist and cracks his knuckles, whereupon Annan takes a stack of papers from his desk, stammers that it has all the details on the oil-for-food scandal, and begs not to be put in a cell next to his son. “He snores,” Annan begs.

Check it out.

4:07 — At the cafeteria, Bolton gets a doughnut and a cup of coffee; the cashier informs him she’ll put it on the U.S. tab. Bolton insists on paying himself; she shrugs and asks for $428.26.

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd has died in a Riyahd hospital. King Fahd(website) is succeeded by Crown Prince Abdullah, his brother. Abdullah is 81. I can only hope that whichever of the copious royals who succeeds him in the next few years is a peaceful soul rather than a jihadi. Nonetheless, in this time of loss my condolences go out to the members of the royal family who were close to the king. The king died early today.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s ruler, King Fahd, died early Monday in a Riyadh hospital and his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been appointed the country’s new monarch, the Saudi royal court announced in a statement.

“With all sorrow and sadness, the royal court in the name of his highness Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and all members of the family announces the death of the servant of the two shrines, King Fahd bin Abdel Aziz,” according to a statement read on state-run Saudi TV by the country’s information minister.

Saudi TV, which said the king was 84 years old, broke with regular broadcasting to announce King Fahd’s death.

Quranic verse recitals followed the announcement by the information minister, Iyad bin Amin Madani, whose voice wavered with emotion as he read the statement.

“He died after suffering an illness,” Mr. Madani said in the statement. “God allows the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Fahd, with great mercy and forgiveness to reside in his wide heaven.”

King Fahd sought to modernize his desert kingdom while balancing change against tribal tradition and orthodox Islam, but a stroke a decade ago left him a ruler in name only during tumultuous times for the world’s biggest oil producer.

The king died early Monday at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, where he was admitted on May 27 for unspecified medical tests, an official at the hospital said. At the time of his widely publicized hospitalization, which caused concern at home and abroad, officials said he was suffering from pneumonia and a high fever.

In recent weeks, Saudi officials have been saying the King Fahd’s health had been improving and that he was even preparing to leave hospital.

King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke in 1995 that confined him mainly to a figurehead role in the kingdom.

A LEADERSHIP ADRIFT • Saudi Monarchy Reacts Slowly to a Dangerously Changing Society 06/30/04
The link just above, Saudi Monarchy Reacts Slowly to a Dangerously Changing Society leads to a superb analysis/article in WSJ by Hugh Pope. I recommend it as a good read.

His half brother Crown Prince Abdullah, 81, has been Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader since then and has led the country’s battle against Islamic extremism and terrorism.

The king brought the kingdom, holder of the world’s largest oil reserves and home to Islam’s holiest shrines, closer to the U.S. during more than two decades as monarch.

This column by Andy Borowitz is brief but fun, and when you think about NK nut-job Kim Jong-Il, well…

Raven at And Rightly So! has posted an excellent list of positive accomplishments in Iraq that MSM venues like the New York Times and other liberal “news” sources flat out ignore because, though it’s important for Americans to know about them, these treasonous, pitiful scumbags would rather lie to the public via omission than show that President Bush’s liberation of the Iraqi people is bearing fruit.

It really pisses me off that institutions that are trusted by the American people to keep them informed of current events are blatantly bullshitting the public, using that trust as a propaganda tool to try to make a sitting President look bad and to push a leftist agenda that doesn’t even remotely resemble the concepts that founded the United States of America and made this nation great.

Anyway, here is Did You Know….    

Radio talk show host Michael Graham(WMAL, Washington, DC), commented recently that “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam,” and immediately CAIR(Council On American-Islamic relations) zeroed in on the radio station. In a Washington Post article,

A local radio talk show host touched off complaints from an Islamic civil rights organization yesterday after repeatedly describing Islam on the air as “a terrorist organization” that is “at war with America.”

The organization, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked the station to take disciplinary action against Michael Graham, who hosts WMAL-AM’s late-morning call-in program.

Michael Graham said Islam is a “terrorist” group. (By Stephen Salpukas)

A station executive, Randall Bloomquist, said yesterday that Graham’s comments were “amped up” but justified within the context of the program. He said the station, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., had no plans to reprimand Graham.

The show host touched off the flap during a discussion of the Muslim community’s response to recent acts of terrorism. Graham suggested the fault lies with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers haven’t done enough to condemn and root out extreme elements. “The problem is not extremism,” Graham said, according to both CAIR and the station. “The problem is Islam.” He also said, “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.”

So, the station backed him up, and the only thought I had was, “good for them.”

Read the entire article here

On CAIR’s website, they had this to say.

But somehow, in the end, due to pressure on station owners ABC and Disney by CAIR, WMAL gave Graham the boot, another media venue giving way to the demands of political correctness that is increasingly stifling any truth and opinion in the “news” media that does not reflect the liberal viewpoint, right or wrong.

On CAIR’s website, they cite that their mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, and empower American Muslims.”

Hmmm, my understandin’ o’ Islam is, it’s got somethin’ to do with blowin’ folks up, ain’t that raht? 

An’ them bombers sure got them a real unique way o’ encouragin’ that there dialogue, ain’t they?

They sure protected a passle o’ them civil liberties back on September 11th of ‘01.

Yup, an’ any o’ them there Muslims‘d be pretty durn empowered oncet they git issued one o’ them suicide vests they set such store on, I s’pose it’s the Islamic fashion o’ the new millenium, or some such….

Living in San Francisco(not for much longer, thank God!) and “getting out quite a bit” I meet a lot of so-called feminists on a pretty regular basis. I have yet to meet one that is not a liberal, and I have yet to meet one that is not a hypocrite.

Why?

Here are women living in a free country, so free that it permits them to openly and vitriolically lambast their government, their president and the “reigning” GOP with a tenacity a hundred times more than would be needed to land them in a prison, a torture chamber or both in a lot of countries, including some of those that support global terrorism.  

These American feminists enjoy the right to go out without a father or brother escort without worrying about getting a critical, bloody beating or worse from male family members, and they can go out without having to cover their faces. These American feminists enjoy the right to go as far as they wish in both education and career venues under the law of the land. They are accepted as leaders in business, politics and in the military.

They purport to champion the cause of women’s rights and equality, all a lie as they take the stand of the Angry Left, protesting and obstructing wherever possible our efforts to liberate Muslim countries in which the women are both treated and viewed as fifth class citizens, slaves to husbands, brothers and even sons who can beat them or even kill them with impunity, where a woman who is not appropriately attired is pelted with fruit, rocks, whatever comes to hand, beaten by religious police or viewed as eligible for rape.

Why do these feminists not give the proverbial “flying fuck” about these women in Muslim countries? Because they hate Bush. Bush doctrine has freed women in Iraq and Afghanistan and caused women in other repressive Islamic countries to start rethinking their situations, and had Clinton had the spine to do what needed doing during his second term in office and beaten Bush to the punch, you can bet these same feminists would have been singing his praises.

Unfortunately, Slick Willy’s lightweight handling of terrorism and his obstructionism of national security operations(ie interagency cooperation between external intelligence and internal security agencies) were strong factors in the ability of terrorists to bring us 9/11.

But that’s what it’s all about where feminists are concerned: Supporting our liberation of these societies and the resultant freeing of their female populations would mean supporting a Bush agenda. Rather than do that, the rank and file feminist would just as soon see her millions of ”sisters” continue to be repressed, veiled, beaten, disrespected from birth to death. Is hypocrisy a strong enough term, do you think?

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Perhaps one reason most Islamic nations are so backward is because they don’t allow their women to contribute, and that means they exclude potential major assets for bettering their lot and coming into the modern world.

Women in free countries have more than proven their value to our societies as a whole, in business, politics, science, journalism, culture, and there have been quite a few women inventors. Check out the site, it’s definitely worth reading and there are several pages listing women through U.S. history and their inventions in a wide variety of areas.

One of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking novels I’ve read in quite awhile was Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. I think the concept of the Sacred Feminine is very real. Being Jewish, I can tell you that in my religion, women are considered very special and their contributions on all levels are welcome. A woman of our faith doesn’t need liberal feminists to do her talking for her. The Jewish-cum-atheist women or those who denounce Judaism or even deny God’s existence for social convenience, on the other hand, feel the need to support feminist movements that no longer serve any purpose save espousing the farthest left causes that come down the pike, whether they have anything to do with women’s rights or not. Of course, today it seems like all liberal based organizations are united in their War On Bush, and national security, the liberation of oppressed peoples and all other considerations be damned.

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Women from both sides of the aisle who lean toward supporting groups like NOW should really give more thought to the actual level of sincerity these people have evolved to, and to what they actually support before sending them money or signing petitions on their behalf.

The feminist movement of today cares less about women’s rights and more about liberal political agendas. Period.

Given the events of the last sixteen days, one has to wonder if al-Qaeda and their murderous minions around the world are going into some sort of frenzied overdrive. Surely they’re doing their best to isolate themselves from the support and safe harbor they once enjoyed profusely from fellow believers(countries and individuals) in Islam.

In Iraq, they butcher infinitely more Muslims on a 9 to 5 basis than they do ”occupying infidels,” even while purporting to speak for Islam.

On 7 July 05 in London, a city that has traditionally welcomed Muslims and allowed them to practice their faith without hindrance, these Islamofascists detonated bombs  in three subway stations and aboard a double decker bus that claimed scores of lives and caused hundreds of injuries and massive property damage.

Members of London’s large Muslim population began expressing concerns that the bombings might precipitate a new surge of anti-Islamic aggression among Londoners.

On 21 July 05 in London, another series of bombings, these of comparably less damage and death toll rocked the London tube network.

On 22 July 05 in London, Metropolitan Police officers pursued a “south Asian” male onto a train in a tube station and capped him five times(the man, attired suspiciously in a loose fitting coat and carrying a ruck sack, had fled when approached by police and, suspected of being a suicide bomber, was taken out as a precaution against his setting off a bomb), killing him.

Members of the local Muslim population began expressing concerns of a new ”shoot-to-kill” policy among police that might lead to the deaths of innocent Muslims mistaken for terrorists.

It may be noted at this point that many Muslims in London and elsewhere have begun openly deploring the acts of terror that they claim is not the way of Islam, only that of an extremist minority and *get this* have been applying the term “terrorist” to the equation, previously a rare choice of reference coming from believers in The Religion of Peace.   

It seems al-Qaeda and friends are beginning to royally piss off their own fellow Muslims in the west and elsewhere.

On 23 July 05, early this morning, terrorists suicide bombed sites in the popular Egyptian beach resort Sharm el-Sheikh, destroying the most popular hotel, damaging neighboring hotels and businesses and killing more than 80 people, injuring at least 200 others. 

A group claiming links to the al Qaeda organization said it carried out the bombings in retaliation for “crimes committed against Muslims,” according to an Internet statement.

Considering the fact that the majority of the dead and injured(one of the bombers detonated himself and his car at a locale that was a local hangout, where the victims were mostly young Muslims, many of whom were service industry employees who worked at the hotels and other tourism venues in the resort town) were Muslims, it seems to me that this entire terrorist attack, though there were tourists killed who were from Europe and Asia, was a “crime committed against Muslims.”

The Sharm al-Sheikh bombings have drawn condemnation even from the Islamofascist theocracy in Iran, from Jordan and several other Muslim countries, and of course Kofi Annan of the useless UN deplored the terrorist atrocity along with most western governments.

Are the Jihadis painting themselves into a corner by committing “acts of war” against their own? Even the Muslims living in western countries like Britain have to see that Osama and friends are fomenting anger by host country natives against resident Muslims, causing suspicion and prejudice that are inherent in human nature, despite what terrorism’s apologists and other “intellectuals” might think, when a specific group of people is the source of countless acts of deadly aggression against everyone else. Terrorism, as it continues to rear its hideous head in western states, will inevitably bring about the institution, dissenters be damned, of blatant racial profiling at airports as a standard policy. Terrorism in the west is as disruptive to law abiding Muslims living in western cities.

And no one, not a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Christian, a Jew nor anyone else can honestly say that these terror groups are not making war on their own kind as much as they are on western democracies or coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So these animals-without-their-own-sovereign-state have, in the last couple of weeks, made it unarguably plain that they are at war not only with a few countries, but with the entire ”rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, in London, it turns out that the man the Metropolitan Police waxed in the tube was the wrong man. Despite any criticism of the police regarding that development, let’s face it: The police had probable cause to suspect the man might be a suicide bomber and he did run from them. Taking him out was the only way they could have assured that he wouldn’t have a chance to “do the deed.”

“To give license to people to shoot just like that, on the basis of suspicion, is very frightening,” Azim Tamimi of the Muslim Association of Britain told BBC television.

“It is human lives that are being targeted here, whether by terrorists or in this case unfortunately by people who are supposed to be chasing or catching the terrorists.”

Sure, Azim, but how would you feel if they hadn’t shot the fleeing man and he had been a suicide bomber, and he had taken the afforded 2 or 3 seconds’ opportunity to blow up both himself and scores of commuters? I side with the cops.

The sooner the law abiding world Islamic community joins the Global War On Terror, without reservation, to help destroy the extremists who claim to be mass-murdering on behalf of all Muslims(I suppose that also applies to those Muslims they kill, go figure), the sooner we might put an end not only to the al-Qaeda threat, but to the social and other inconveniences it is causing millions of Muslims who say they want to live in peace. 

As for all you apologists here at home who believe(or if you’re not profoundly stupid, shit-for-brains-morons and you’re simply comfortable with Americans being murdered by terrorists “to make Bush look bad”) that terrorism is America’s fault, I sincerely hope that if, God forbid, there are any further terrorist bombings on U.S. soil, the victims only include your ilk and not those of us who support our President and the GWOT. You want to endanger the rest of us by obstructing our defensive measures — and yes, those include our presence in Iraq, the Patriot Act, racial profiling at airports and the Camp Delta detention center at Guantanamo Bay – so it’s only fair that you, not the rest of us, pay any price incurred by your picayune political agendas.

It seems that numerous liberal-approved organizations that start out with the best intentions have a penchant for turning hard to port and establishing strong solidarity with extremist loony left organizations, joining their struggles to turn the United States into either an anarchist state or a socialist one, depending on how far asea the org happens to be.

PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)’s has gone that route, big time. Among other things, they have donated more than $150,000.00 to criminal orgs like ELF(Environmental Liberation Front), an organization classified as enviro- terrorists by the F.B.I., to help defend arsonists and murderers. Their leaders encourage them to participate in illegal activities such as burning down restaurants, medical labs and banks.

These people are a true menace 2 society.

The following links are courtesy of Consumer Freedom.com:

First, 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Peta but definitely should.

Shocking, but true.  The next link is a petition to cut off Peta’s federal tax exempt status, a reasonable demand in view of what they’ve been playing at.

I must admit that it was the title of the petition that first caught my eye, “Take A Bite Out Of PETA.” Having been watching some DVDs of La Femme Nakita TV episodes, I thought they meant Peta Wilson and was all set to go, then I read on and found they meant…. Oh, well.

Just kidding.

Take A Bite Out Of PETA

To get an even more in-depth description of PETA and its activities, click here. You’ll also find that the year and a half old petition linked above is still valid by clicking the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar. I “signed” it without hesitation.

Today’s activists want to force you to eat nothing but beans and greens, and wear nothing but cotton, rayon and rubber. They want to ban hunting, fishing, zoos, rodeos, and circuses. Some want to permanently end Kosher slaughter. They even want to outlaw the use of animals in the search for cures for AIDS, Parkinson’s Disease, and cancer….  

Sorry, guys, no can do, I’m a confirmed carnivore. You order the ’sprout salad and tofu, I’ll be the happy dude in the booth, there, having the 20 oz. T-bone with all the trimmings. Bon apetit. 

I’ll probably have a leather jacket with me, a leather belt holding up my pants and leather shoes or sneakers on my feet, and if I bring a date, she’ll quite possibly have a fur coat along. She won’t be eating roots and berries, either.

You might recall the recent story from North Carolina about the two PETA members getting caught out regarding the murder and subsequent disposal of dead cats and dogs in a dumpster, well they were to be  having their day in court yesterday.  

More from Hampton Roads.com, a little attempted damage control by PETA’s boss lady.

Back to that Islamic website again: This time it is to view the “winners” of the Annual Islamophobia Awards  presented on 31 May 2003.

Check ‘em out. Bush was the big winner, of course. Tony Blair was a winner also. Go check out the winners. I’m glad I ran across this, because it has confirmed what I thought was the true definition of the term Islamophobic to begin with.

Islamophobic: Any infidel who is opposed to being a) slaughtered by Muslims in the name of Allah, and b) enslaved by a theo-fascist government. 

So okay, I guess that makes most of us here in America, with the exceptions of most folks in the Bay Area, of course, Islamophobics. It is, of course, supposed to be an insulting term, implying that were we normal, we would simply submit ourselves to the nearest mosque for instant beheading.

Ohhhhkayyyy….