Van T. Barfoot diedRemember the guy who wouldn't takeThe flag pole down on his VirginiaProperty a while back?You might remember the news story severalMonths ago about a crotchety old man inVirginia who defied his local HomeownersAssociation, and refused to take down theFlag pole on his property along with the largeAmerican flag he flew on it.Now we learn who that old man was:On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born inEdinburg , Texas . That probably didn't makeNews back then.But twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944,Near Carano , Italy , that same Van T. Barfoot,Who had in 1940 enlisted in the U.S. Army, setOut alone to flank German machine gunPositions from which gunfire was rainingDown on his fellow soldiers.His advance took him through a minefield butHaving done so, he proceeded to single-handedlyTake out three enemy machine gun positions,Returning with 17 prisoners of war.
And if that weren't enough for a day's work, he laterTook on and destroyed three German tanksSent to retake the machine gun positions.That probably didn't make much news either,Given the scope of the war, but it did earnVan T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel afterAlso serving in Korea and Vietnam , a wellDeserved Congressional Medal of Honor.What did make news...Was his NeighborhoodAssociation's quibble with how the 90-year-oldVeteran chose to fly the American flag outsideHis suburban Virginia home. Seems the HOA rulesSaid it was OK to fly a flag on a house-mountedBracket, but, for decorum, items such asBarfoot's 21-foot flagpole were "unsuitable".Van Barfoot had been denied a permit forThe pole, but erected it anyway and was facingCourt action unless he agreed to take it down.Then the HOA story made national TV,And the Neighborhood Association rethoughtIts position and agreed to indulge thisAging hero who dwelt among them.
"In the time I have left", he said to theAssociated Press, "I plan to continueTo fly the American flag without interference."
As well he should.And if any of his neighbors had taken a notion toContest him further, they might have done well toRead his Medal of Honor citation first. Seems itIndicates Mr. Van Barfoot wasn't particularlyGood at backing down.If you got this email and didn't pass it on -Guess what - you need your butt kickedI sent this to you, because I didn't want MY butt kicked!Do the right thing!
WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND, BECAUSE OF OLD MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT!
SM1's BLOG 4 U: AN AGGREGATION OF CONSERVATIVE VIEWS, NEWS, SOME HUMOR, & SCIENCE TOO! ... "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞"
Monday, August 8, 2016
Van T. Barfoot Died...
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Read the 1st story Re: The Religion of Peace, And other interesting articles following...
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Democrats Sacrifice Zika-Virus Research for Planned Parenthood!
by Alexandra DeSanctis August 4, 2016 3:24 PM @xan_desanctis
Senate Dems want Zika funding to be earmarked
for the abortion giant.
While campaigning in Florida on Tuesday, Democratic vice-presidential
candidate Tim Kaine attacked congressional Republicans for failing to
pass a funding bill that would have directed $1.1 billion toward research
to treat and prevent the Zika virus. According to the Orlando Sentinel:
Kaine . .called for federal action on fighting the Zika virus, which officials
on Monday said had reached South Florida via mosquitoes. Kaine said
Congress should pass a $1.1 billion bill to combat Zika without what he
called the “poison pill” of anti-abortion language added by House Repub-
licans. “Congress should not be in recess when Zika is advancing,” he
said. In reality, it was Senate Democrats who refused to pass the bill,
and there’s no “poison pill” to be found anywhere inside it. Instead, the
Democratic leadership is balking because the bill does not specifically
earmark a portion of funding for Planned Parenthood. While most of the
funding outlined in the bill would go to mosquito prevention and vaccine
research, a small segment is dedicated to public-health efforts.
According to Don Stewart, deputy chief of staff for Senate majority leader
Mitch McConnell, Senate Democrats chose to block the entire bill because
none of this small portion was earmarked for Planned Parenthood.
“The conference committee increased health-care block-grant funding
and provided guidance on who could receive the funding,” Stewart tells
National Review. “Planned Parenthood was not listed as a potential
recipient, and Democrats want them to be explicitly listed as a recipient,
even though the president’s initial request didn’t ask for any.”
RELATED: Florida’s Zika Season:
One More Menace In an Electorate That’s Already in a Sour Mood
Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer held
a press conference attempting to explain their decision shortly after
leading an effort to kill the bill. Reid claimed that women would have
nowhere to go to obtain birth control under the bill, but, in fact, nothing
in the legislation would cut any federal funding currently going to
Planned Parenthood. It simply does not add more funding in the
context of treating Zika.
Planned Parenthood’s executive director, Dawn Laguens, spoke along-
side Reid and Schumer, implying that it is more important for Planned
Parenthood to receive direct funding under the bill than it is to pass a
bill quickly. The Democratic leadership is balking because the bill does
not specifically earmark a portion of funding for Planned Parenthood.
A letter from Planned Parenthood to the Senate offices prior to the most
recent vote stated that “a vote against this bill will be seen as a vote for
women’s health care.” But a vote against the bill is actually vote against
women’s health care, particularly if the women in question have contracted
the Zika virus. And, even from the perspective of Senate Democrats, there
is no rational objection to the bill given that Planned Parenthood still would
receive as much federal funding as it did before the Zika virus became an
issue. But a compromise from Senate Democrats seems unlikely, given
their latest statements. “We would love for them to end that filibuster and
pass the bill, but it doesn’t sound like they’re prepared to do that,” Stewart
tells National Review.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438690/zika-funding-
planned-parenthood-senate-democrats-block-virus-research-funding-bill?
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Obama administration to go beyond 10,000 Syrian refugees... Bring Terrorism to your home soon...!
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FBI Director James Comey's Statement On Hillary's Emails... Hillary's Brain Short-circuited while spinning another lie after faced with truth by Fox's Chris Wallace!
https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system
In Declining Vermont, the Mood Is More Resigned Than Angry Cynics—and there are many—say the state’s biggest growth industry is methadone clinics.
With primary elections coming Tuesday, you would expect a sense of excitement in the warm Vermont air. The state will be electing a new governor in the fall, and under present management things have gone badly—embarrassingly so.
But you don’t see many bumper stickers or even the lawn signs that are normally ubiquitous in a Vermont political season. The other day I counted more “for sale” signs featuring the name of a real-estate agent than political signs for a gubernatorial candidate. One could be forgiven for assuming that there is more interest in leaving Vermont than in fixing it.
Six years ago the Green Mountain State elected a new governor, Democrat Peter Shumlin, and gave him a solid, veto-proof majority in both houses of the legislature. Big things were expected in little Vermont—not least a single-payer health-care system. Mr. Shumlin had promised one. Said it would be his No. 1 priority. Hired high-price consultants to design it. A lot of money passed under the bridge before Gov. Shumlin finally gave up, saying that the economic realities were undeniable: The thing couldn’t be done.
The political hit he took was near fatal. When the governor ran for a third two-year term in 2014 he could not manage a majority of the vote. Under Vermont’s Constitution, that throws the election to the state House. Gov. Shumlin won there easily, 110 votes to 69, but it was a humiliating exercise. He announced not much later that he would bow out in 2016.
Meanwhile, the state went about establishing its own health-care exchange under the umbrella of ObamaCare. But building the website appeared to be nearly as difficult as creating a single-payer system. Lots of money was spent—$200 million, last I saw—and yet the website is still not functioning properly.
The opioid epidemic, to which Gov. Shumlin devoted his entire 2014 state-of-the-state address, continues. There is no sense that the crisis has passed, or even eased. One hears talk of the need, always, for more: more education, more treatment, more enforcement. Cynics—and there are many—say that Vermont’s biggest growth industry is methadone clinics.
Then there’s the scandal involving the EB-5 visa program, designed to attract foreign investment in return for green cards. In April the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the owner and the CEO of Vermont’s Jay Peak ski resort of abusing the visa program through a “Ponzi-like” scheme. No one has accused state officials of wrongdoing, but since they have often bragged about their successful oversight of the EB-5 program, the entire Vermont political establishment ran for cover and pointed fingers at the same time.
The general feeling this election year is that, after the failures of Gov. Shumlin and the Democrats, it is the Republicans’ turn to hold the governorship. There are two principal candidates for the GOP nomination: Phil Scott and Bruce Lisman. Both are native Vermonters who grew up in families of modest means—and there the similarities, in both personality and politics, end. Mr. Scott is the sitting lieutenant governor, a position elected separately from the governor. But he is best known for driving a stock car at a Vermont track called Thunder Road. On Thursday, a source at the track reports, Mr. Scott took second in an 85-lap race sponsored by WDEV and Calkins Portable Toilets. His campaign logo features a checkered racing flag.
Mr. Lisman is best known for having made a fortune on Wall Street. He was a senior manager at Bear Stearns right up until the end. He is rich, especially by Vermont standards, but he wears it well and comes across as a pretty down-to-earth guy. He could never match Mr. Scott in a man-of-the-people showdown, but what he can say is that he is a true outsider—not nothing in this election year.
Both candidates are long on bromides. In ads and speeches, Mr. Lisman promises a different kind of leadership in Montpelier. The implied message is that he would be the tough manager the state needs. Mr. Scott offers talk of bipartisanship, working together, and leading Vermont forward.
It seems strange, in a time when so much is so wrong in the state—such as soaring property taxes that support a bloated educational system—that neither man is really marching to the angry populist beat. In a debate this week on Vermont Public Radio (naturally), Mr. Scott reiterated that he cannot bring himself to support Donald Trump for president, while Mr. Lisman said that he remains undecided, “dismayed by certain things he says.”
Perhaps the state’s most conspicuous politician, Bernie Sanders, has sucked out all the oxygen. Or maybe the voters of Vermont are too old, too tired and too disillusioned for populism, even in this angry year.
This aging has, in itself, become a campaign issue. The candidates have talked about their plans to keep young Vermonters from leaving—such as tax breaks to help them pay off student loans. Mr. Scott aims to increase the state’s static population from about 625,000 to 700,000.
That has a nice ring to it, but many people who are here, and who have those “for sale” signs on their lawns, sense that Vermont’s moment has passed. The sad fact is that it will take more than a Republican governor to Make Vermont Great Again. Serious change requires a better legislature, which seems set to remain leftist Democratic until the end of time—if not later.
Mr. Norman is a writer in Vermont.
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