He will raise you up on eagle's wings

While you're all out getting sheets, cars, and other stuff at fabulous discounts, perhaps it wouldn't be too much trouble to pause today and remember the selfless men and women who sacrificed everything to ensure you had the right to live your lives in freedom.
Many people who only know Memorial Day as having something to do with soldiers will doubtlessly want to thank each one of them they see today. They're not the ones we honor today. They're the ones who are still standing - the ones who remain to carry on the traditions, honor the memories, and finish the missions left by those who fell.
Don't thank the servicemember standing in front of you. Thank his brothers and sisters who aren't there to stand beside him.

I'm reminded of John Magee Jr. today. He was a young American who wouldn't sit idly by while freedom needed defenders in Europe in the days before the United States formally joined the war. He volunteered in the Canadian Air Force, and was soon sent across the Atlantic to England to defend civilization from the Nazis.

He was also a bit of a poet. In his letters home to his family, he would include bits of verse that he was working on. After a high-altitude test flight took him to 30,000 feet in a Spitfire V, he included the following poem in a letter to his parents.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

John Magee was killed in a training accident December 11, 1941. He was buried shortly thereafter in the cemetery near the air field where his unit was stationed. He never returned home.

At 3:00 p.m. local time, we pause today in the memory of John Magee, and the many others like him who will forever remain "over there."

As always, please remember to fly your flags properly today.

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife

Mr. T and I pity the foo' who don't love America.

We can't even think of a word that rhymes

Hoo boy, what have I been up to this month...

For starters, the semester from hell turned out to be rather good to my grades. I ended up with a 3.6 this spring, and stand a good chance of being on the Dean's list. Maybe I should have been doing it this way all along...

Most importantly, I graduated from Hammhock U. The ceremony was alright, despite a truly inept guest speaker. He played Basis-Ball or whatever like 40 years ago, and apparently hasn't done anything worth mentioning since. His entire speech seemed to be an attempt to use as many "sports as a metaphor for life" platitudes as possible before the audience succumbs to ennui. It damn near worked, too.
I walked across the stage about 14th out of almost 300 people. Luckily, I ended up sitting next to an acquaintance of mine through the rest of the dog & pony show. Unfortunately, every fourth word out of his mouth was "dude" or "like." (Thanks for making my degree look even more prestigious, bro)
I don't have to worry about the school year almost being over - it's never even going to start!

I'm still in the process of finding a job. I didn't think it would be this difficult, as my degree's a little more useful than, say, art history or stabbing oneself in the face. On the other hand, maybe it's just my insistence that my job description not involve determining another person's preference regarding their meal's french fry status.

I was dragged to StealYourDollarCity last week. This would be an entire post unto itself if i weren't a lazy whore. As such, I'll just do an executive summary in bullet form.
Pros:

• Not being dragged into Branson proper.
  
• Extremely short or non-existent lines for EVERYTHING.
  
• More Kangaroo jerky than you can believe.
  
• The House of (Very Little) Barbecue was actually packed to the gills with Barbecue this time. Plus, they had five (count 'em, FIVE) different types of sauce!

Cons:

• Didn't do the full Dolly. (included here solely for Hillbilly Mom's benefit. I can take her or leave her)
  
• Not even one frickin' Journey song on the radio through the entire drive.
  
• Completely forgot about getting a picture of Dick Stiff's Gynecology office.

God help me, but I just don't have that much to complain about on a trip to Branson. S'gotta be a sign of the Apocolypse or somethin'.

Most importantly, it's Memorial Day today folks. Whatever you do with your day, take a moment to remember those who sacrificed so that you're free to do it.
Additionally, as I do every year I'd like to remind you all to fly your flags properly, please.

Try shaking a box in front of the Queen

Well it's Flag Day once more. If, by now, I have to tell any of my loyal readers about proper flag etiquette, I'd just as soon punch either one of them in the throat.

What's really important to remember today is that Rachy and I have been blog-homies for two years now. So today I'm going to celebrate in the appropriate fashion - with alcohol that I'm going to be drinking anyway, but I'll pretend that it's in honor of her. Cheers, Rachy!

And I sing the blues on every Decoration Day

I'm not even going to try to write a Memorial Day post in tribute to those that sacrificed everything for freedom. Nothing that shows up on my "infinite monkey" style blog is going to be sufficient to encapsulate the debt we owe those who have gone before us and gave their own lives so that ours would be secure.

Now that the picnics, white sales, and races are over and done with, please don't forget that today - not all those other mundane little things - is when we mark the true purpose of the holiday. So I urge you to make it meaningful. Mainly though, I want to remind everyone flying their flags today of the proper etiquette for the holiday. Many folks don't fly their flags regularly, which is fine, so it's easy to forget that Memorial Day has a special protocol.

From dawn until noon the flag is flown at half-staff out of respect for those who have died. At noon, however, we raise the flag to its full height. Additionally, when first posting the colors, the flag is raised to its full height for a moment then slowly lowered to the half-mast position. If you've already posted your flag incorrectly today, please go correct it. Don't hesitate to politely ask anyone displaying their flag improperly to do so as well. (I'm always reminding the guys at Wal-Mart... it's gotten to the point now that when the manager sees me coming, he doesn't even wait - he pages someone to go out and fix the flag.)

I shouldn't really have to say this, but I know some jack-hole out there is going to try and stir up shit today. Anyone that takes offense at a correction for flying the flag has forgotten the reason we fly it in the first place. The short version is that it's not for any person's indivual pride, it's to show respect for our entire nation - both the institutions and the people... and on this day it's a very specific group of people. So if you're trying to show respect, you're failing to achieve your goal unless you do it properly.