local news

The beard: Making a comeback

The beard is back … or soon will be once I let a few days pass.

The beard has been something I grow and nurture for six months every year during the autumn and winter months. It comes off around first day of spring. I remain clean-shaven for the spring and summer seasons.

I suspended the beard this past season, choosing to keep my puss hair-free during the coldest months of the year. It might have been a bit of homage to my bride, Kathy Anne, who fought with me every spring when I announced the beard was coming off. She liked my face when I covered it in hair. I lost her in February 2023 to cancer and this past autumn and winter, I chose to forgo the beard because, well, she wasn’t around to enjoy it.

I have made a command decision to bring it back.

Now, my best friends, those who have known me the longest, tell me — and I cannot prove the veracity of this statement — that they can set their calendar on the basis of my facial appearance. When the stubble appears, they know it’s fall. Or so they tell me.

Hey, I won’t dispute it. I’ll just go with it and call it good.

 

local news, military news

Hail to the chief … and to the heroes

I want to share briefly with you an experience I had this past weekend while visiting with a member of my family who came to North Texas to visit my sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and me.

To be honest, I was drawn inexorably into making direct comparisons between what I saw over the weekend and what we are experiencing now in real time as events continue to unfold in D.C.

On Saturday, we drove to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. My brother-in-law had not seen it yet, but it was my third or fourth visit. I love going there, if only to allow my sappiness to show itself while touring the 9/11 exhibit at the Bush Museum. I visited with one of the docents at the front door when we entered and I told her how much I have grown to admire President Bush in recent years, particularly in light of what his most recent successor has done to denigrate the office he inherited. She nodded in agreement. She gets it.

As we walked through the myriad exhibits, I was struck by the wisdom the museum presented that came from Bush during not only in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but in his speaking on behalf of HIV/AIDS research the investments made in the PEPFAR program that the Bush administration created, which Donald Trump wants to dismantle. Bush spoke eloquently about how the nation’s response to 9/11 was not a war “against Islam,” but a war against the terrorists who perverted a great religion.

Bush’s fingerprints can be found on efforts to reform public education during his presidency and on his efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

All told, we had a wonderful experience reliving those turbulent years … and wishing for a return to the wisdom that Bush was capable of exhibiting during difficult times.

The next day we ventured to Arlington to tour the National Medal of Honor Museum. I’ve written already about that experience. I won’t repeat myself.

However, I do want to note that I found the absence of meaningful remarks from the current president about the heroism on display at the Medal of Honor Museum to be striking. He has draped the medal around the necks of several heroes during his terms in office, but in each ceremony I have watched from afar I cannot eradicate from my memory the insults he has hurled at wounded warriors, his refusal to visit American graves in France during the D-Day commemoration, the horrible things he has said about a Gold Star family — Iraqi immigrants — whose son died fighting in Iraq while wearing a U.S. Army uniform.

I know I am not not the only American patriot who thinks this way. It saddens me terribly. However, it did not a single thing to take away the respect, admiration and love I feel toward the 3,600 men who have received the nation’s highest military honor.

I am a proud American patriot who was thrilled to see these exhibits designed to bring out the love I have for my country and for the people who have served it.

military news

Museum honors men of honor

As a rule, I don’t do reviews of sites I see on this blog, but I visited an exhibit in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend that clearly deserves a mention and a few words of the highest praise I can deliver.

My brother-in-law and I toured the National Medal of Honor Museum across the way from AT&T Stadium. To say it was an experience the likes of which were new to me would do it a terrible injustice. The museum grounds are spectacular, but more importantly the stories they tell visitors are gripping beyond measure.

The museum honors all 3,600-plus recipients of the nation’s highest award for military valor. It is resplendent in pictures of the recipients, some of the pictures showing them in combat. There is a limited amount of text accompanying the photos, and if I had one criticism of the disiplay, I would prefer to read more about the events that resulted in these men being honored with the Medal of Honor.

A quote attributed to one of the recipients tells how he was honored for taking action “on the worst day of my life.” I have seen countless quotes from men who, when asked what propelled them to act with such mind-blowing valor, would say, “I just knew I was going to die so I acted to save the lives of my friends.”

The museum has a virtual reality exhibit in which visitors can sit in a UH-1 Huey helicopter simulator, don glasses and be placed in a medical evacuation mission, or “dust off” flight, to rescue personnel wounded in action in Vietnam.

I am proud to have made the acquaintance of two Medal of Honor recipients, Navy SEAL Mike Thornton and Army Ranger Bob Howard. Their exploits are the stuff of legend. And one of the recipients, Army Lt. Audie Murphy, indeed achieved legendary for his exploits in saving a French village from Nazi troops near the end of the World War II. I mention Murphy because Farmersville, where I work on occasion as a freelance reporter, honors its “favorite son” Murphy every year with a day commemorating his untold heroism.

I was thrilled to see the exhibit and to honor the men who fought so valiantly on so many battlefields to defend our democratic way of life.

Wow!

local news

9/11: spirit of national unity

We just commemorated another year since the horrific terror attack of 9/11 and today I took a member of my family to tour the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum which honors an important part of that terrible moment.

I’ve told you already that I am a big-league sap when it comes to certain events. The events usually involve profound tragedy and national responses to it. The 9/11 attacks on the Trade Center, the Pentagon and the thwarting of a fourth jetliner aimed for some DC target all bring tears to my eyes.

It’s been 24 years since the attack occurred and every one of those profound moments of resolve, of courage beyond measure of emergency responders, of a president who suddenly took command of the world’s mightiest war machine and the unity displayed in homes across the land … they all fill me with emotion that is hard to control.

This was my fourth visit to the Bush Library and Museum in Dallas. It was my family member’s first visit. He came away feeling proud of the president, who stood tall on the WTC rubble and told the crowd, “The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

As more time passes, the prouder I become of President Bush and the manner in which he handled the national trauma. Did he make mistakes in the pursuit of the mastermind of the attack? Sure. I never doubted for a moment that he put the country first as well as his commitment to protect us from further catastrophic acts of violence.

In its way, the visit today to the Bush exhbit was timed perfectly to coincide with the commemorations we experienced as we remembered the day that changed this country forever.

Indeed, we must never forget what can happen when we let our guard down.

crime news

Trying to keep it real

Keeping a proper perspective on the news of the day can be a challenge, particularly when it involves anything involving Donald John Trump.

A big-time fan of Trump got gunned down this week in Utah Valley University. Charlie Kirk died when he was shot in the neck by someone who reportedly disagreed with his right-wing screeds. Kirk was just 31 years of age and he leaves behind his wife and two young children.

Trump’s reaction was to order every flag in the nation to fly at half-staff; he flew Kirk’s body back to DC aboard the plane used to ferry the vice president; Trump is going to honor Kirk’s memory with the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the news networks are covering this story with the kind of attention reserved for the deaths of heads of state.

Charlie Kirk was a political hack. Yes, his death is a tragedy and I join the Trumpkins in mourning his senseless and grotesque murder. Trump surely didn’t need to react in the manner he did, particularly after he ignored the assassination of a Minnesota state senator and her husband, both of whom were anti-Trumpsters; or the deaths of the two children shot by a dipshit who killed them as they were praying in a Minneapolis church.

The outpouring of grief for a political operative — who’s never been elected to public office — is too much. It’s time to dial it back.

crime news

Pray this isn’t the new normal

Let’s bow our heads in prayer for a moment, and pray that the death of a right-wing activist by someone seemingly upset with what he said doesn’t become the new normal in this still-great nation of ours.

Charlie Kirk is dead from a gunshot fired by someone who took aim from a rooftop and fired a single shot into Kirk’s neck. Kirk was a young and ardent fan of Donald Trump and a spokesman for the MAGA movement. His views were repugnant to many of us who heard them.

But one individual, reportedly a male, took matters far too seriously. Kirk is gone. Trump wants to give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he has ordered flags to fly at half staff. Is all of this too much? Yes. It is.

However, what also was far too much was the violence that ended Kirk’s short life. I am going to pray that we haven’t evolved into a nation where people can pick up a gun, aim it at a political figure we don’t like and then blow that figure away … because he or she says something we find disagreeable.

I am hoping that Donald Trump will speak to the nation about this tragedy. I want him to find the words somewhere that will dispel the intensity of people’s feelings toward those with whom we disagree.

Short of that, I will keep praying for the soul of our nation.

crime news, political news

If only he would say this

Here is a draft of what I would hope comes from the mouth of Donald J. Trump in the wake of the shooting death of Trumpster and MAGA spokesman Charlie Kirk, who was gunned down today at a rally at Utah Valley University.

Bear in mind that there is no way Trump would say these things, but I want to get it off my chest. You also might recognize a Trumpian statement in this hypothetical speech text.

***

Good evening, my fellow Americans.

Melania I are shocked and dismayed at the senseless shooting of Charlie Kirk, a young man who was a staunch supporter of mine and a leader of what is the world’s premier political movement … MAGA.

I want to take a moment to take my measure of blame for the violence that took Kirk’s life. Yes, I am going to do something I don’t normally do. Take blame for a profoundly sad event. I realize that the rhetoric I have stated and that which has come from my supporters have contributed to the intense mistrust among Americans. I have wrongly labeled political foes as “enemies.” I regret using that kind of language.

My expressions of regret won’t solve this difficulty by itself. We need to understand that the nation was founded by a group of dissenters, men who fled Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries to escape repression and create a government founded on the principles of individual liberty.

Let’s dial back the overheated rhetoric as we seek to make our points. Perhaps then we can understand each other, listen to others’ points of view and engage in vigorous — but civil — political discourse.

***

Will the president of the United States ever say such a thing out loud in a public venue? Never in a million years.

crime news

‘A political assassination …’

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, obviously shaken by what had just happened at Utah Valley University, called the event what it is: “This clearly was a political assassination.”

The victim is Charlie Kirk, a dedicated supporter of Donald J. Trump and a leader of the MAGA movement that gives Trump its unquesitioned support. Kirk was conducting an old-school style pep rally at UVU when a shot rang out. A bullet struck Kirk in the neck, killing him virtually instantly.

The nation is shocked. We are stunned. Every former president, Democrats and the lone Republican, have condemned the murder. They and the nation are extending their prayers and support to Kirk’s family, including his wife and two young children.

Kirk was just 31 years of age.

It is not too early to ask this question out loud: Have we become a nation where one’s disagreement with a leading political figure results in this kind of senseless violence?

Is Kirk’s death a symptom of a greater disease infecting the body politic across the land? It’s one thing for members of Congress to argue incessantly with each other, hurling personal insults across the aisle. This event today at Utah Valley University takes this kind of reaction to a whole different and despicable level.

The FBI had arrested a person of interest. Agents interviewed this person and then released him or her.

Others have said as much, but I want to echo what they are saying. It is that we cannot normalize acts of terrorism as political speech. What happened today was a despicable crime targeted at someone who had a clear political agenda. The individual who committed this heinous act needs to be brought to the fullest extent of punishment that justice allows.

Gov. Cox made this point, too, in making his statement about the tragedy: “Utah still has the death penalty.”

media news

Why Epstein matters

I have sought to come to grips with why the media continue to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged relationship with Donald J. Trump. I have figured out why this story matters.

It matters because it could tell us about the relationships that the president of the United States kept not many years before he won election to the White House.

Epstein, of course, is dead, having hanged himself in a jail cell in New York City. His former girlfriend/accomplice is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex traffricking of underage girls.

The story revolves around the “Epstein files” and what they contain pertaning to Trump’s friendship with the hideous sex trafficker and child molester.

Do I think Trump took part in these hideous activities? No, I do not. Whether he did or didn’t, though, is not the point of finding out what’s in those files. What the public ought to know is this: Did the man who would run for POTUS hang around the seediest man alive and was he actually friends with an individual who he might have known to be the animal we know him to be?

Therein lies the media interest in this matter. It also cuts to the heart of why Democrats and some right-wing MAGA Republicans want this information released to the public. Trump calls it all a “hoax,” meaning he believes all those known victims of Epstein are liars. How does this individual look in the mirror after denigrating victims of sex crimes?

Don’t answer that. I know. He does it because he has zero conscience.

The conscience-free president of the United States finds himself in a tightening circle of evidence that he knew Epstein far more intimately than he’s letting on.

Do you remember when Sen. Barack Obama got pilloried because his preacher once cursed the United States over its slavery policy? Obama, who was running for president in 2008, issued a public statement rebuking the preacher — a longtime friend of his — and then quit attending the man’s church.

I can find no sign of such contrition coming from Trump. He blames the victims for fomenting a “Democrat hoax.” Meanwhile, the questions keep mounting and the public is beginning to ask: Did we really elect to the presidency an individual who would cozy up to scum such as this?

That’s why this story matters.

military news

‘Common defence,’ not war

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution lays out the framework for the nation’s governing document in words that most fifth-graders can understand with absolute clarity.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence … “

I’ll stop there. The “common defence” is the operative phrase for this brief blog post.

The common defense is administered by the most lethal fighting force human history ever has seen. And yet, Donald J. Trump wants to rename our Department of Defense into the Department of War.

What is wrong with (a) that statement and (b) the nimrod who wants to refocus the Pentagon’s fundamental mission?

It was known as the War Department until after World War II, which established the United States as the world’s preeminent military power. Bar fu**ing none! Along comes Donald Trump, who wants to return to the War Department moniker that to my eyes and ears seems absurdly provocative and counterintuitive to the mission of the Department of Defense, which is to defend Americans against foreign adversaries.

None of this should surprise anyone. I’m not surprised that Trump would seek to re-brand the Pentagon, even though when he was of the age when the nation could have summoned him to go to war, he chose instead to rely on some doctor’s view that he was afflicted by those infamous bone spurs.

Those of us who did answer the call of our government should be appalled that this idiot now wants to rattle our sabers with a return to something called the Department of War. What a miserable shame.

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