Are we on the verge of a second Korean War? Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to say with North Korea, whose leadership system and propaganda machine portrays their leaders like demigods (Such as his awe-inspiring 11 hole in ones upon playing golf for the first time ever in his entire life…or maybe thats smell inspiring). Predicting North Korea falls in to 2 basic categories:

• Boating and threatening- This will continue until China reaches from around the curtain and drags them back stage whereupon they smack them in the head while saying “Nice Doggie” until they halt.
• Hot war – Playtime is over.

I notice a lot of folks from my generation, the so called Generation X, asking “Why are we there? Why are we sticking our nose in it?”

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Tags: History, Kim Jung-un, Korean War, Military, North Korea, Propganda, South Korea, strength, Technorati

So we finally heard from the USO

TSO over at This Ain’t Hell spearheaded the way, and enough cant be said for what he did from my point of view, frankly. Milblogging isn’t what it used to be so the fact the he was on the tip of the spear proves the brotherhood, both militarily and internet linked, still exists.  A big thanks nonetheless to everyone who stood up and added a voice. Sure it may be from behind a laptop, but then look at how many folks said nothing. Point made I think.

He got a hold of key individuals at the USO, and found out that it was simply a communication breakdown.

So stand down the war dogs, all is well. I’m glad that this came to a happy conclusion for The Sniper. I always liked his work and have had him on my blog list for a number of years. I just wish I had more time to blog as I used to. Maybe once I finish graduate school I’ll have more of my life back.

Tags: Blogger, breakdown, Communication, MilBlogs, Resolved, Technorati, The Sniper, This Aint Hell, USO

It’s one of those headlines that, when you type it, you have to read it a second time to make sure you are not hallucinating.

The short version, from my perspective anyway, is that the wars are over. The general, 30 second attention span populace, can now shove their faux affection for veterans in to a broom closet and go back to being peace time advocates for not giving a damn about anything or saving the #2 pencils from rampant extinction.

If there isn’t a t-shirt sale involved then its not of their concern.

In this case an individual at the USO, whom apparently feels their position is one that does not require actual…you know…communication with others….is asking…no demanding that a MilBlogger shut down his entire website.

This isn’t anything new.  Folks and companies attack bloggers with semi regularity because of something we have written or published. Sometimes they succeed in getting their way…sometimes they don’t. I’d say its about 50/50 split in the legal world today regarding overall, but with the overall general public coming to understand that blogging is as much about free speech as it is journalism. We will write things that folks may not like…but that doesn’t make it any less true from our perspective or interpretation. And Court’s are not very big on slapping people around for interpretation of literary licensing, but I digress.

This particular representative of the USO has managed to not only inflame Stolen Valour advocate, and faux soldier investigator TSO over at This Ain’t Hell who has went on an all out offensive to get to the bottom of the mess, they have also stirred up one time Fox commentator, former embedded blogger and book author Laughing Wolf at Blackfive.

It’s been a long time since I have seen the MilBlogger wheels try to turn, and given so many bloggers and MilBloggers have walked away from their websites and gathered around the instant gratification system known as Facebook I can’t help but wonder…much as the old time websites I use to run and mIRC servers that were predominant in the past…has the blog worlds time passed?

For The Sniper’s sake (whom is the accused party in this muck) I hope not, and as such I’m lending my voice to the others by attempting to spread the word regarding this.  Such a request is unreasonable. The USO representative is not dealing with a 13 year old in his mothers basement who is trying to find old Sara Michelle Gellar pictures online. This is a military veteran, with tours in the recent conflicts under his belt, exercising his right to free speech that he damned well earned.

Agree, or disagree with his position, the fact of the matter is he has a right to say it. No more and no less that Jerry Springer and his ilk have their right to portray people as raving lunatics. No more and no less than CNN. No more and no less that someone with a T shirts stating their position on a particular topic. Offense is not a reason for submission…it’s a catalyst for discussion.

And if the USO has a brain in their head, instead of playing footsie with a couple of military vet bloggers and social media they’ll join a roundtable regarding this and deep dive the root of the problem.

Tags: Accusation, Blogger, Milblogger, Rebuttal, Take down, Technorati, USO

(I first wrote this March of 2012. Each year I try to add at least one new story to my Irish History Celebration posts. I’ve reposted it this month for our Irish Heritage celebration. Enjoy! – BS)

The Famine began quite mysteriously in September 1845 as leaves on potato plants suddenly turned black and curled, then rotted, seemingly the result of a fog that had wafted across the fields of Ireland. I have been told that the cause was actually an airborne fungus originally transported in the holds of ships traveling from North America to England. Somewhat ironic then if you consider home many Irish families in turn fled to North America because of it. Let no one say we Irish have not had a sense of humor in the annuals of history.

In Any event, The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852. Outside of Ireland it is more commonly called The Irish Potatoe Famine. Within Ireland, and amongst my own family it was referred to as an Gorta Mór or great hunger.

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Tags: an Gorta Mór, Boston, Buffalo, Emigration, England, History, Ireland, Irish Famine, Memorial, Potatoe, Potatoe Famine, Technorati

I wrote this in June of 2010, not long after the published apology from Britain. It was a hard time in those days, and the events and the handling of those events have only made the chasm wider over the years. This apology, I think, was a good first step in the right direction for both countries to come to a peaceable impasse. It was however, several years late in the coming. – BS

Bloody Sunday Monument

Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end streets
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

U2, Bloody Sunday

January 30, 1972
The Bogside area of Derry, in Northern Ireland.
On one side over 15,000 civil rights protesters against British rule.
On the other, British Para’s, the cream of the British Army.

In the outcome over 27 people shot, and 14 dead.

This was the time of Troubles in Ireland.

“… it is expedient that a Tribunal be established for inquiring into a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely the events on Sunday 30th January 1972 which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day, taking account of any new information relevant to events on that day”

Resolution of the House of Commons, 30th January 1998,
and of the House of Lords, 2nd February 1998

The world has changed since those days. Do not take this apology lightly my peers. Let us not return to those days of Belfast and yon. There need be no violence on this day. The point is made. They have admitted their errs. Use it to your advantage and push, politically, diplomatically for the freedom you have fought for.

But if we’ve learned one thing in these past years, is that bloodshed never washes away bloodshed.

Be better than that.

Be Irish.

A tribute to the victims:

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Tags: Alana Burke, Alexander Nash, Bloody Sunday, British, Damien Donaghy, Daniel McGowan, Danny Gillespie, Erin Go Bragh, IRA, Ireland, irish, Joseph Friel, Joseph Mahon, Margaret Deery, Michael Bradley, Michael Bridge, Michael Quinn, Patrick Campbell, Patrick McDaid, Technorati

I wrote this in March of 2012 once it had finally settled in to my brain on the passing of Neptunus Lex. Brother in Arms, Brothers in Ink, Milblogger, and a man I’d like to consider a friend. I think it needs to be reposted as its that time of the year again.

It is Ireland’s sacred duty to send over, every few years, a playwright to save the English theatre from inarticulate glumness.
Kenneth Tynan, Observer, 27 May 1956

We didn’t send him to England. But really, for an Irishman there really isn’t much difference between death and Ireland.

For me, it didn’t really click until this morning.I had an eval with my current employer, I sat in front of my laptop at 4 o clock this morning with my coffee, and on impulse clicked Lex’s blog link from my bookmarks. My nerves akimbo. I wanted some peace.

Over the years the people I have known via websites have waxed and waned. When I first started writing on line back in 1995, there was one other site I visited with regularity. In 2000, there was eight. In 2002 twenty two. In 2007 almost 52.

Now? 17…and of those fully half are inactive links. Its a testament to my love for Lex’s work that I kept him on my book mark list. The others I liked and I keep hoping that they will update. I have been reluctant to remove the inactive ones from my bookmarks for this reason.

As I clicked his link, and the page loaded the hot coffee turned cool against my lips as I was reminded by whisper…he’s gone. His words will not grace us any longer, save for works in days gone by. His thoughts of previous days left to haunt us in the present.

I set my cup down and wondered. This digital snap shots in to our lives. Where will they go? What will happen to them. For many, when the costs come due our families will shut them down, turn off the lights, and our words will vanish in to the ether at some point.

Our words left unread by those in the future whom may read them. It is one advantage our print and media brethren have over us. Our archives are only around as long as someone wishes to pay for it. There are no libraries whom receive our subscriptions, no history scribes whom will hallmark our work and words. It is up to us to find ways to back up these works, save them, and distribute them in some fashion for others to hold dear.

Our children may not come of age knowing our works, or what motivated us without these very lines I type. How we thought and the people we sought to be, in the end are portrayed here, in black and white and sent to you in hi definition on 1,024 x 768 pixels through a OC48 pipe from one coast to another.

Lex is gone. That much is final. His words may one day slip in to obscurity. Like my other blog friend triticale whom we lost in 2007, or Acidman whom we lost in 2006, their websites stand testament to their sentiments, themselves, and their values. Digital monuments.

But one day those digital monuments can and will fail. Companies get sold, servers crash, people move on, costs become exorbitant. For me a culmination of almost two decades of writing belong on two websites…the thought crosses my mind…what will happen if? I have no regular blog partner with keys. My wife has no interest in these things, and no interest in voicing her own ideals. It will simply become like my coffee, cold, and one day to vanish in to the electronic ether.

Maybe I am bleak because a little light has left this world. Because one who continued, with others fell to the way side, to provide us with measured, rational doses of words, wisdom and work. Who shared with us his day to day experiences, struggles and life.

Maybe I am bleak because how many of us, in that former profession, had those narrow misses? Those brief glances in to our future? that feeling that all we knew and had was about to change in a single instance….and once he was past that point he chose to go back to it, willingly, knowing the costs at stake? Only to be snatched at the last possible instance mere feet from safety?

It seems incomprehensible really. But the Banshee does not care about prose, wit, or talent and at some point when she calls to us to warn of us of An Bás, the time to prepare will be over.

I prefer not to think that those engines final whine were the cry of the Banshee for Lex, although fitting it may be.

When An Bás came calling, I choose to think that someone, up there….just wanted a good debriefing on how life is down here these days. And to keep it interesting he picked the best writer we had.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
May he rest on peace

Tags: Acidman, Blogger, Digital, End of Line, good bye, Milblogger, Monuments, Neptunus Lex, Technorati, triticale

So its finally March. Usually my favorite time of the year.

As you can see I managed to ensure that the website changed to its typical green hue for the occasion, forests of Ireland a backdrop for something I have done on this website for several years: that of sharing some Irish history, Mythology, lore and my own families history with you.

This year has been crazy, and the last several weeks hectic. Last year our March celebration was marred by the loss of longtime friend and fellow MilBlogger Lex.

I can’t promise you this month will be better. There are things moving in m own life that have me as worried as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs, but I digress.

It’s March. There is still snow on the ground. Spring is coming soon as the last vestiges of winter make their way from our lives for this year.

Smile.

Be Happy.

Be Green!

Tags: History, irish, Irish American, Life, March, Oreland, Stories, Technorati, Transition

The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin

Let me begin by saying I am not a right wing  extremest. Nor am I planning some foolish course of action of violence. Rather I entice you to think, and beyond that point of your nose.

I believe in a woman’s right to choose. That you should be able to marry whom you please without my interference, if you want to burn yourself out on crack cocaine so be it. You can worship the Flying Spagetti Monster for all I care as long as you don’t perform human sacrifice, slaughter animals, or need virgins for deflowering.

Essentially as long as your choices do not interfere with my own I have no desire to interfere with anyone’s way of life. I guess it could be said I am a individual isolationist, although I prefer the term Constitutionalist, or perhaps American.

However, with all this I understand that a certain number of laws need to be placed in this world. A defining of the social lines and culture that can not be, should not be, crossed. By this a governing body of those laws does indeed need to be in place, with its power limited to those laws that are found just and equal.

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Tags: Future, generation, ideals, Philosophy, Rant, Stuff, Technorati

This is a re-post from our November, 2009 post regarding this week. Other Military bloggers covering today: Blackfive

On November 5th, 1965 the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed on a Search & Destroy mission in to War Zone “D” north of Bien Hoa. Also involved was the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment ; 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry; and the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Divisions . The name of the operation, ironically, signified the units halfway point in their tour of the Vietnam war.

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Tags: 173rd Airborne, 1965, Army, Big & Rich, Technorati, Vietnam

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Marcus Aurelius

So some folks got what they wanted last night and some folks didn’t. Such is the way of the world and the nature of the beast.

I won’t sit here and try to ploy niceties and say I think under this leadership we are heading in anything even vaguely considerable to the right direction.

But nor will I quibble over it.

What I am concerned about is a much more conscionable change in our culture as a whole.

• Last night we elected a woman whom has led most of her life as a fraud
• We voted to legalize a product that is arguably worst than tobacco.
• We elected a President who likely allowed US diplomats to be killed
• We reelected an administration whom supported an Attorney General who has managed to kill at least 1 Border Patrol agent and hundreds if not thousands of Mexican citizens.
• We reelected a President who disenfranchised military voters.
• And a act of terrorism where soldiers and civilians were killed was classified as “work place violence”

Any one of these alone, ten years ago, would have shown a government official the door. But in this day and age not a single thing has been done on any of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy with the outcome, but I am more concerned over our populaces willingness to forgo these slights against itself.

Rather we have created entire generations whom are dependent upon the government.  I’ll be exploring this more in coming days but historically speaking it’s a scary trend for our nation.

Tags: Country, Culture, Politics, Society, Technorati

I don’t wax on politics as much as I used too.

But the power of voting can not be understated.

One thing I absolutely despise is apathy. Tell me you don’t like the choices. Tell me you don’t feel they represent you, just don’t tell me that you are not going to use the blood paid right that hundreds of thousands of people from the Revolutionary War to present day died to give you.

Back in 2004 I wrote that voting is effectively making a choice as to the type of world you want you and your children to live in.

Specifically

We, as a race see many things in our life that our children will never see. But in their time we must remember that they too, will see changes.

What those changes are, will be decided not only by our actions, but by our stances we choose, and the votes we place on our elected officials in November.

It is easy to cast responsibility to someone else. To say it is up to our government. It is up to our leaders. it is up to our neighbors. It is not my job.

We delude ourselves with that thought.

I don’t care who you vote for. I just care that you go vote. Make a legitimate decision regarding your life.

Instead of approaching it as “If it happens it happens” impose your will on your own destiny.

But don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t be apathetic.

Tags: Election Day, Politics, Sacrifice, Technorati, Vote

I don’t post on 9/11.

I had my say on it a long time ago.

I’ll stay home with my scotch, my memories and my nightmares thanks.

I’d appreciate it if ya’ll would do the same, and remember.

Don’t just remember today either. But remember next week.

Six weeks from now.

Six years from now.

Tags: 9/11, Remember, Silence, Technorati

So Dana Loesch has written a pretty scathing article of Brad Lager over at Breibart.com.

I know this because I, in turn, received a scathing E-mail from Mr Lager about those damn “unfactual bloggers”.

I’m not surprised. She’s good at that sort of thing and I have a lot of respect for her. I’m also not surprised at getting E-mails from a campaign that I A) am not following B) didn’t ask to receive E-mails from and C) have not even the remotest interest in the candidate in question.

I’ve been rooting for Pete Kinder ever since he forked over his own money to fight the healthcare law. That takes balls in my book, and his stance on illegal immigration is well known in these parts.  Besides that, frankly I’d take Barney the Purple Dragon over Claire McCaskill.

I will openly admit to knowing very little about Brad Lager and frankly what I do know I don’t care for.  Don’t take anything I say at value. I am a “nonfactual blogger” according to Mr. Lager.

Go view his voting record yourself.

My pet peeve? In 2006 Lager voted against  restricting the use of Eminent Domain.

And then he voted to expand it’s use to take help the government take our properties away from us.

He voted to expand abortion laws.

He voted to keep criminals out of prison.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. It’s all right there in black and white.

Just remember I’m not factual, and neither are any other bloggers out here. For the record, while Kinder isn’t spotless his record is much more solidly in my decision process frankly.

Frankly I didn’t have a dog in this hunt, and haven’t written one whit about it until i saw that “unfactual blogger” bit. It really torques my jaws when I see these silly half-assed lawyers degrade folks who are at the fore front of grass root operations.

You can see our retort to Mr Lager and his fine staff after the jump.

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Tags: Brad Lager, GOP, Government, Missouri, Peter Kinder, Politicians, Technorati, Vote

Fire works.

Pretty are they not?

A spectacular show those whom have not experienced the horrors of war. A simulation of the explosions, the roar, and the crackle of fire in the night. But Stinger missiles do not blast in shades of red white and blue, and phosphorus is a white that is blindingly bright that almost burns the eyes while it lights the night sky.

What have we become?

What have we done?

“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”
― Albert Einstein

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Tags: 4th of July, America, Constitution, Fed up, Freedom, Government, Law, Liberty, Life, Politicians, Politics, regulation, Responsibility, Technorati, US

This story was originally written by me at our sister site Techography.com June 5th, 2006.  As so many of my work, the original article is no longer in the archives there. I republished it here in May of 2010.  I bring it back around every June as a remembrance to the D-Day Invasion and for those whom have gone before. It’s that time of year again, to bring it back to the front page. The time to Remember. Always, Remember.-BS

Our supporting Naval Fire got us in….without that gunfire we positively could not have crossed the beaches…” Col S. B. Mason Chief of Staff, 1st Division

I mentioned before I owned a picture of that painting. (You can too But mine has more history as I got mine from the now dissolved Navy Aviation Ordnance School out of Oceania, VA.) I received it from my father, a US Naval veteran, at age 7. It has hung on walls in my homes ever since, and in my bedroom as a lad. I never knew that years later I would be inspired to write about those units, that beach, that day. Maybe he did.

Water. My father and uncles told me once that at sea the ship becomes an island, and the water becomes all encompassing.

It surrounds the Landing craft, reminds you of that old poem

“Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink…”

The wind is cold, the spray is miserable. The clothes are soaked through, and the landing craft is pitching and yawing like a kite in a windstorm. The boys vomit from the roller-coaster affects of the seas and smashing waves that jar your teeth out of your head.

The place, is Normandy, the beach is Fox Green.

Welcome to the Invasion

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Tags: (Destroyer Squadron 18), (L)- 92, 116th Infantry Regiment, 16th Infantry Regimenta, 1st Infantry Division, 29th Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion US Army, 3rd Batt, 6th Naval Beach Battali, Act 3 Sc, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, beach, Chin Music, David Kenyon Webster, DESRON, DUKWs, Fox green, Invasion, J M Barrie, John Stuart Mill, King Henry V, LCI(L)-91, LCIs, LCTs, Lord Byon, LST-266, Memorial Day, Naval Combat Demolition, Normandy, Omaha, Operation: Neptune, PC-1225, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rangers, Technorati, techography, The Battle For Easy, USS Doyle, USS McCook, USS Arkansas, USS Augusta, USS Baldwin (DD-624), USS Carmick, USS Emmons (DD-457/DMS-22), USS Frankford (DD-497), USS LCI(L)-490, USS LCI(L)-496, USS LST-373, USS Nevada, USS Samuel Chase (APA-26), USS Texas, USS Thompson, USS Tide, Voyage to Victory, WIlliam James, William Shakespeare

I won’t be on line much this weekend (not that I’m here for any length of time to begin with lately). Frankly its my intent to avoid it as much as I can. I’m sure I won’t be able to resist sending some random inane update via my phone that no one will read. But here’s something that I hope you do read.

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.  ~Daniel Webster

Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language?  Are they dead that yet act?  Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism?  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays…. The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.  ~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.  ~Benjamin Harrison

These heroes are dead.  They died for liberty – they died for us.  They are at rest.  They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines.  They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest.  Earth may run red with other wars – they are at peace.  In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.  I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead:  cheers for the living; tears for the dead.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll

Perform, then, this one act of remembrance before this Day passes – Remember there is an army of defense and advance that never dies and never surrenders, but is increasingly recruited from the eternal sources of the American spirit and from the generations of American youth.  ~W.J. Cameron

So when ya’ll pop that first beer, throw on the first burger. Before your family takes the first step out the door upon their weekend, take a moment….even if it is just a single  moment to remember that the freedom you are supposed to experience this weekend was bought, paid for in full, by another’s willingness to sacrifice his and or her self for a cause bigger than all of us: that of freedom for a nation.

Tears for our fallen. Cheers for the Living. From my house to my brothers and sisters in arms and my friends across the country…

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day.

We want to see you again come Tuesday.

Wikipedia: A room is any distinguishable space within a structure. →

Tags: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine's, Memorial Day, Military, Navy, Remember, Technorati

When ever  I can I like to publish communications for my local representatives. With no further adieu here is our semi regular contribution from David Sater

The legislative session is wrapping up in this final week of session. Going in to the last day of session, the House and Senate passed just over 70 bills with one day to go. That is 70 out of over 1,000 bills filed. I sometimes wonder about working months on a piece of legislation and then in the last two weeks, one Senator or one person in Leadership in the House decide to table your bill. But, it is always better to error on the side of caution than to pass something that might be more harmful than good.

A piece of legislation that was of great concern to local businesses and county government was House Bill 1329. A month or so ago, a judge decided that county and local sales tax on vehicles and boats purchased out of state could not be collected when the car or boat was titled at the license bureau. These taxes have been collected for more years than I can remember. Already, car and boat dealers from out of state are advertising the savings a Missouri resident would get if they purchased the vehicle or boat from their out of state dealership. This bill would simply reinstate the sales tax that has been in existence for many, many years. Without this, Barry County may not have any local car or auto dealerships in the future. It also places a huge hole in the County`s budget of over $20,000 per month. The bill has passed the House and Senate, but we do not know what the Governor is going to do. He has made comments about a possible veto.

There’s good news and bad news on my individual legislative efforts. This “good news/bad news” scenario affects all legislators. I was able to get my small grain dealer bill through, which changes the amount a grain producer can purchase and produce from $100,000 per year to 50,000 bushels. This was needed because the price of corn has increased the last few years from less than $2.00 a bushel to over $6.00 a bushel. This bill will help our local small grain dealer in Exeter.

I was one out of two on pharmacy bills. My success was changing the statutes to allow pharmacies in Missouri to purchase prescription drugs from out of state pharmacies. Previously, the out of state pharmacies had to be licensed by Missouri. Now they do not, because credentialing in all states is basically the same. This enables the free market to work to transfer drugs from one pharmacy to another. This happens when a pharmacy has one patient on an expensive drug and the patient moves away or has their regimen changed to another drug. The pharmacy is then stuck with a product that might be very expensive. The bad news is that my pro-life/pro-business bill that simply stated that a pharmacy has the right to stock whatever product they want without governmental interference did not make it through the Senate. We will get it done next year.

There was some fear this year that funding for the Missouri Veterans Homes would be cut. We found some money by giving them the casino admission fees they originally received prior to 1998. Under this provision, our veterans homes will receive an additional $30 million dollars which is enough money to keep our homes open and viable for years to come. This will now be a steady funding stream.

Contact me anytime by calling me at my home in Cassville (417/847-4661) or my Capitol office (573/751-1480). Thanks for letting me serve.

Best Regards,

David Sater

68th District

866/485-0759

Tags: 68th District, Barry County, David Sater, McDonald County, Missouri, Sater's Capitol Straighttalk, Southwest, State Representative, Technorati

I consider anyone whom has let me and mine sleep at their house, fed me, shown me the local sights in their area and effectively treat me like family a friend.

Which is to say I consider Blake Powers a friend. Through the years we have passed E-mails, occasional telephone calls and sworn we will have to get together again but the timing is always bad.

Now we have another reason to get together and host a couple of jars.

See Blake has finally published his book regarding his military embed time. You can find a copy here that will not only help Blake but also help with his pet military assistance project Cooking with The Troops.

As DBS rightly points out Blake isn’t in to advertising. But thats what we’re for right?

So if you get a chance, pick up a copy of the book. It will be well worth your time, and a good read.

Consider this a strong recommendation from yours truly the “book snob”.

Tags: A Different View, Blake Powers, Book, Buy, Cooking with the Troops, Technorati