This is another thing that came to me by email, but I had to post it here…

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry.

If you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn’t know who he was at the time.

I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the “Screaming Eagle”, the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.

Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.

Quietly and humbly, he said “Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . ” at which point my heart skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said “I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?” At this point my heart stopped.

I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said “I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnhem .” I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day.

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said “Yes. And it’s real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can’t make the trip.” My heart was in my throat and I didn’t know what to say.

I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I’d take his in coach.

He said “No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy.” His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.

There was no parade.

No big event in Staples Center .

No wall to wall back to back 24×7 news coverage.

No weeping fans on television.

And that’s not right.

Let’s give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty

(Author unknown)

It’s the end of combat service in Iraq and the beginning of a long and difficult transition to a stable middle east region. Remember that more than 50 years have passed since the Korean War and still there are 20-30 thousand troops stationed there.

1. You have to be against capital punishment,

<<Hey Cons, waaaaay too too costly. Thought you Con(men) didn’t believe in government waste.

but support abortion on demand.

<<Hey, Cons, you think the right to choose, the right to PRIVACY, should be infringed? Hey Cons, choose NOT to have one.

2. You have to believe that businesses create depressions

<<Hey Cons, they do. Look around your myopic world. Read a newspaper. Without adequate regulation we get what we have now. How’s that economy working for you Bushie-con?

and governments create prosperity.

<<Hey Cons, didn’t the Pentagon CREATE the Internet?
And NASA create TANG? to name just a few in this wide range.
Isn’t BLACKWATER International and Halliburton doing pretty good last time we checked too.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more
of a threat than Nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iranians and North
Korean communists.

<<Hey Cons, name me one American that harmed by a North Korean nuke? No? Didn’t think so.
<<Hey Cons, you want a list of the thousands of people that die every year from gun violence?
<<Hey Cons, how many of those guns STARTED in the hands of “law-abiding Americans.”

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

<<Hey Cons, isn’t ones life is supposed to be a “work of art” why deny Art is important to life?

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth’s climate

<<Hey Cons, yes, climate change does occur, over thousands of years, not over two hundred, SEE answer below.

and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV’s.

<<Hey Cons, why do you think global warming is a hoax? Answer: Cons don’t believe in science either.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

<<Hey Cons, why do you think someone would CHOOSE to be part of a reviled, hated minority? People of color have no choice.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

<<Hey Cons, it is because of the cuts to funding prevention, LOL, you could look it up!

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can’t teach fourth graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

<<Hey Cons, sex is healthy.
<<Hey Cons, why do you cling to your guns and religion?

9. You have to believe that hunters that pay for wildlife management don’t care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco
or Portland do.

<<Hey Cons, We hope they ALL do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

<<Hey Cons, Huh?

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make “The Passion of the Christ” for financial gain only.

<<Hey Cons, duh, Gibson is a sado-masochist torture freak who DID make MILLIONS on this torture flick.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

<<Hey Cons, read a book, the ACLU supports and defends the ENTIRE Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

<<Hey Cons, do all CONS work for banks? ATM fees ROB people blind, and are WAY too high

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and A.G. Bell.

<<Hey Cons, Huh? Liberals and Progressives can’t admire these inventors too?

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

<<Hey Cons, a wee bit of compassion here. After 270 years of slavery and 80 years of segregation, a little help isn’t untoward. Is it?

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.

<<Hey Cons, She is a Wellesley College and Yale Law School graduate. No, she’s not normal.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn’t worked anywhere it’s been tried is because the right people haven’t been in charge.

<<Hey Cons, Corporate socialism is happening here in the US. Don’t get your Larry Craig panties in a bunch. We’ll get to your fascism one day soon.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

<<Hey Cons, I forgot, everything is Clinton’s fault. Oh man, sex offender? Conservatives can begin a war, kill thousands of people and wreak havoc with the economy but get a blow job? For Conservatives it seems to be the blow jobs are being given mano on mano. That’s OK. But a real man getting a blow job WHILE he’s working? Because he’s TOO BUSY WORKING to stop?I want that MF’n multi-tasker working for me.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying transvestites in drag should be constitutionally protected,

<<Hey Cons, you guys are dodo birds, truly (Cons also soon to be extinct because of the way they think), it is called the first amendment.

and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

<<Hey Cons don’t YOU believe in the Constitution? They should be off … if they’re on government property. Delusions shouldn’t be approved on my tax dollar.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democrat Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest to the United States.

<<Hey Cons, what? Prove it

21. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.

<<Hey Cons, it is. You don’t see these types of Goebbels like propaganda pieces from free, progressive, forward thinking liberal. Why? Because we have facts, history and truth on our side. We don’t need a Nazi-type propaganda machine to fool simpletons. Too busy for that.

22. You have to believe that it’s OK to give Federal workers the day off on Christmas Day but it’s not OK to say “Merry Christmas.”

<<Hey Cons, this one is new, is it due to that wacko Bill-O?

Pope Benedict XVI apologized in person on Sunday for offending some Muslims with a recent quotation from a medieval text that said Islamic teachings on holy war were “evil and inhuman.”

Wow! The Pope’s outragious comments seemed have sparked some unrest. According to the CBC - 

• Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono described the Pope’s reference as “unwise and inappropriate” 
• Palestinian Muslims firebombed two churches and shot at five others in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Saturday
• In the town of Tulkarem, a church built 170 years ago was torched before dawn and its interior was destroyed
• In the village of Tubas, a small church was attacked with firebombs and partially burned, Christians said, although Neither church is Catholic

Egypts Muslim Brotherhood, who had earlier described the Pope’s remarks as a “sufficient apology” now says this, according to Austrailias Herald Sun - 

“It does not rise to the level of a clear apology and, based on this, we’re calling on the Pope of the Vatican to issue a clear apology that will decisively end any confusion,” 

For the Pope to suggest that Muslem killing might be evil, more people must die, right? So that’s why an Italian nun and her Somali bodyguard were shot dead in Mogadishu Sunday?

Don’t Muslems have any sense of irony?