Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
No, Really: Delete Your Accounts By Heather Wilhelm
Thursday, June 28, 2018
National Review : A Silicon Valley pioneer highlights the dangers of social media. Imagine a world without social media. Itās easy if you try.
Well, scratch that: Itās actually not easy at all. Odds are, youāre kind of addicted to social media, whether you admit it or not. According to Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley virtual-reality pioneer and author of the new book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, that addiction might be eroding your soul.
Weāll get to the book, which is worth reading, in a moment. But before that, letās try to imagine that world without social media, if only for sport. Without social media, for instance, would the social train wreck surrounding the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va. ā you know, the one that banished Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family this week ā have devolved into the embarrassing conflagration it is today?
Sure, various people acted like jerks, but people have occasionally acted like jerks since the beginning of time. But letās imagine lāaffaire Red Hen without āthe fire and ire of social media,ā as the Washington Post aptly put it. Itās rather enlightening.
Without social media, would we have seen a frenzied rash of vengeance-strewn over-the-top Yelp-bombings ā often aimed at the wrong restaurant?
Without social media, would a woman who has the poor luck of sharing the same name as the Red Henās owner watch her personal information get emblazoned all over the Internet, earning death threats in return? Without social media, would the saga have wildly pinged and ponged and flamed and finally escalated to the point where a man was arrested for pelting the Red Hen with manure?