At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.

   
    
   

 
 
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when
DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO.  DeGaul said he wanted all US
military out of France as soon as possible.

 
 
Rusk responded "does that include those who are buried here?"

 
 
DeGual
did not respond.
 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
empire building by George Bush.

 
 
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders..  The only amount of land we have ever asked for
in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'

 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American.  During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims.  What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

 
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency  electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three  cafeterias with the capacity to
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
from their flight deck.  We have eleven such ships; how many does
France have?' 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?'

 
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German.'
 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Robert Whiting , an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At
French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his
carry on.

 
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked  sarcastically.

 
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

 
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

 
The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

 
"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"

 
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard  look.  Then he
quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to."

 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

November’s Dream

By David Roth

©2^nd November, 2009

November’s dream

a frost etched scheme

of blazing hearth

and kettle steam

pumpkin pie and whipping cream

a soft, melodic theme.

While winter’s song

austere and long

will chill the earth

and still the throng

wrapped in longing to belong

until the final gong.

So here I wait

at Heaven’s gate

its streets of gold

I contemplate

the burden of my sinful state

now open to debate.

To ponder, I

embrace the why

and what and where and who

beneath a sky

so broad and high

November’s dream won’t die.

Halloween is just around the corner.  I know this because the signs are all there.  And no, I don’t mean the Christmas decorations at Wal-Mart.  They serve as the first hint for 4^th of July sparklers, parades, picnics and fireworks.

No, here in our little borough of Dormont, PA, we have an entirely different, if not unique way of forecasting the coming Sneaking for Snickers season.

It’s the giant spider infestation.

Oh, you’ll never see one of these gargantuan arachnids by the light of day.  They only come out at night, and even then they employ a cloaking technology that would make Harry Potter or your friendly neighborhood Ninja envious.  But the evidence is there nonetheless.  You can clearly see the after effects of their presence.  Homes draped from sidewalk to rain gutter in copious amounts of sticky, sinister web; poised to trap unsuspecting mail carriers and stray cats in its malevolent spinnings, never to be seen again.

By spring, they retreat to their lairs, presumably to dine on the corpses of entombed prey as they grow – and wait for October, and the sound of children begging for handouts – to return.

It probably explains the diminishing number of children in our neighborhood better than global warming.

This morning I was awakened by the sound of gnawing…I think.  It wasn’t the spiders.  They don’t gnaw.  They let you entangle yourself in the vicious web they weave.  No, this was a critter of a different kind, and one who should know better.

My cat.

I suffer from sleep apnea.  Each night I hook myself up to a C-PAP machine to help me breath better, and, more importantly, not snore.  My wife is especially appreciative of that part.

You know the scene in ALIEN when they return from the stranded spaceship with a member of the crew infested?  You know – the one with the creature stuck on his face like a really bad case of zits?  That’s what I look like.

I have a harness on my head that holds this gizmo in place.  The gizmo is a doohickey with two soft plastic thingies that go up into my nostrils (lovely image, no?).  This is attached to a 6-foot hose that goes to the machine which pumps the air.

Apparently, after 6 weeks of use, my furry feline companion has decided that something is attacking her human, and she needs to rescue him by biting it into submission.

I wonder where I can get replacement hoses?