In 1987, my friend Pete and I – editors on our college’s conservative paper – got the chance to interview Vice Admiral James Stockdale.  You might remember him as Ross Perot’s running mate, the man who asked in one debate, only half in jest, “Who am I?  Why am I here?”

But Admiral Stockdale was not the befuddled clown some hack comics tried to make him out to be.  A brilliant classics scholar, he was also a warrior’s warrior.  His evil North Vietnamese captors tortured him unmercifully – not calling him mean names, not dunking him in water as trained medics watched, but real, savage torture that left his body broken.  But it did not break his American spirit; when the communists decided they wanted to film him for propaganda he calmly took a wooden stool and bashed his own face in so they couldn’t use him.  We saw his Medal of Honor sitting in his study surrounded by books.

Pete and I both later joined the Army, and we both served multiple deployments. I don’t know how it affected Pete, but during Desert Storm I took one round out of one of my M16 magazines and kept it in my top BDU pocket.  I’m no Admiral Stockdale, and I figured if I went through my other 209 rounds I needed some insurance that I wouldn’t be getting captured alive. (more…)

…NO FEAR!
“We The People” are here to take back our house!

IF YOU’RE A FEMINIST–MAKE UP
IF YOU’RE A CHAUVINIST–CATCH UP
IF YOU’RE A MODERATE–FESS UP
IF YOU LEAN RIGHT–STRAIGHTEN UP
IF YOU’R A LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE…
WHATEVER-GIDDY UP & MOVE ON

Fear

I was in the Friars Club gym yesterday pretending to work out. The Friars Club gym is great for the ego because no matter what time of day or night you’re in there, you’re always the youngest guy by 30 years.

As I reclined on the stationary bike, my feet up on the handle bars, watching TV  (the preferred Friars Club method of exercising) I saw something on FOX News that got my blood pumping harder than anything I would be doing in my workout.  Shephard Smith was doing a report on the Octogenarian Neo Nazi (OctoNazi?) who opened fire at the Holocaust Museum. In a breathtakingly oddball blizzard of profundity Shephard: (more…)