"Your loved ones' lives had what we all want: meaning"

Making the world safe for cob art. We salute the best and the bravest, the totally awesome members of the US military and their families -- also their counterparts amongst the coalition of the willing -- and all the veterans and their families who gave "the last full measure of devotion . . . that that nation might live." They gave us a world where it's still possible, despite the ever-present totalitarian impulse that is a vexatious part of our human nature, to gnaw one's monogram onto an ear of corn at a Memorial Day cookout (Tuck Willis = TW above).

"I think media envy of your loved ones' courage has a lot do with media mockery of the war," Ben Stein told participants in a Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors seminar and grief camp Saturday night [via Instapundit]:

Your loved ones' lives had what we all want: meaning. The knowledge you were doing something big for others. That is EVERYTHING in life.

Wall Street does not have it. Hollywood does not have it. They're just in it for the fame and the money.

Some lowlifes may be in it just for the fame and the money, but Babe is a lionheart, in it for reasons of noblesse oblige. Above this afternoon catching a few z's on the base of the scratching post at Goomp's, recharging his batteries for the coming night of high-level diplomatic talks with the local fauna community of Western Point.

Music to our ears. Ben Stein takes no prisoners:

The media try to rob your husbands' and wives' and kids' lives of meaning saying this war is not about anything.

They're wrong, and they say what they say because they don't see the truth. They print a story on the front page about Marines killing civilians in a town in Iraq, and if they did, it was wrong. But the big media never report a MARINE throwing himself on a bomb to protect an Iraqi child, or a Marine giving his life to rid a town of murderers or a Marine or an Army man or woman or a Navy Seal or a Coast Guardsman offering up his life so that Iraqi human beings can have the same freedoms and rights we take for granted here in America.

The media are like grave robbers, robbing you of the certain knowledge that your spouses gave their lives for something deeply worthwhile: human dignity.

And the media like to criticize because they know -- in their hearts -- that they will never have the guts that the man and woman in uniform have.

Tiny enjoys a crazy-hour moment -- eyes, ears and whiskers on high alert -- early morning at the catnip-infused base of the scratching post down Goomp's.

What to make of Marine vet Senator John Murtha's robbing of the graves of the younger generation? Marine Ilario Pantano in a letter to the editor of the WaPo [via Michelle Malkin] explains:

Not only is [Murtha] certain of the Marines' guilt but he claims to know the cause, which he conveniently attributes to a policy he opposes.

When it comes time for Senator Murtha -- like his fellow cut-and-runners Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore, not to mention a host of other BDS [Bush Derangement Syndrome] sufferers -- to meet their maker, it's not going to be pretty. Human dignity need not apply. No doubt each mistook all-about-me for Stein's "doing something big for others."

Update: Speaking of doing something big for others, be sure to check out the Friday Ark at Modulator and the 114th Carnival of the Cats at Shootin' the Breeze.

Update II: "If you have a blog, do me a favor and try tracking back to this post," writes Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom:

I mean, it’s not like you have anything better to do on Memorial Day weekend, right?

His wish is our command.

Comments

[pb]

As one who works in the MSM, I can tell you that the people who follow the news through the MSM are the ones who love BDS. The MSM will publish what sells. And only what sells. And negativity sells out to the crybabies who still mourn the loss of the last election. Liberals control the MSM.

That's why so many stalwart supporters of the American Way and its defense are avoiding the MSM. Many have told me they "hate the paper" and refuse to support it with their hard-earned cash.

This is also why pay TV, Radio, Satellite, etc are building up a huge base. Why watch, or listen to, or read garbage just because it's free?

We don't usually expose ourselves to anything toxic just because it's free.

Liberals control the MSM. Avoid their toxicity. Read blogs, personal publications and private press. Subscribe to the channels and radio of your choice. Vote with your feet: boycott the rest. And get your opinion out there, too. It's pretty hard to ignore large numbers of opposing opinion.

[Teresa]

Ben Stein is a great man.

As for Murtha, many Marines have declared him to be an ex-Marine. I would very much hate to be in his shoes. I hope whatever "power" he obtains in Washington will keep him company because there are few if any Marines who will even acknowledge his presence in the room any more.

[Goomp]

"Your loved ones' lives had what we all want: meaning" is a most fitting tribute to those who have defended our freedom. Unfortunately every service person does not rise to the occasion. John Murtha and John Kerry come to mind.