"Where's The Beef ?"

[lizbud]

Richard,

" i'll look up the dowd thing for ya.... "

Did you ever have any luck in finding it? Just curious.

Also wanted to ask if anyone reads Lying In Ponds ? Pretty
interesting & gives a more balanced view of political opinions.

http://www.lyinginponds.com/index.html

Check out the "about" section, very funny.....

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by lizbud
Richard,

" i'll look up the dowd thing for ya.... "

Did you ever have any luck in finding it? Just curious.

Also wanted to ask if anyone reads Lying In Ponds ? Pretty
interesting & gives a more balanced view of political opinions.

http://www.lyinginponds.com/index.html

Check out the "about" section, very funny.....

bill o'reilly took a swing at her and i went to
his site and could not find the topic....

apparently she truncated a quote by double u about
getting rid of the terrorist..

give me a few more minutes??

[RICHARD]

http://www.chronwatch.com/editorial/...y.asp?aid=2852


eureka???


is the lyingpond post part of my reading assignment????

[lizbud]

Richard,

It is, but only if you feel the need to cram a little more
knowledge into the ole craniun. It's optional reading.

p.s. I'm off to scan the article now. Thanks for finding it.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by lizbud
Richard,

It is, but only if you feel the need to cram a little more
knowledge into the ole craniun. It's optional reading.

p.s. I'm off to scan the article now. Thanks for finding it.

what makes you think i have ANY knowledge in the old noodle????

sometimes i rely on instinct...


I AM MAN, HEAR ME MUMBLE..

(I'll read it!)

[lizbud]

It is very easy to whip up a furor for war when Americans
are told that we are in further danger of WMD being built
and stored by a madman intent on our destruction. The "war"
is now declared over, and still American youth die daily. Where
is the "threat" that lured them there to die so young.

Funeral to honor war hero today
Flags ordered at half-staff for Indy soldier


Pfc. Jesse Halling (center, wearing helmet) died defending other members of his platoon. "He exceeded what he should have done," Capt. Marc Blair told The Washington Post. -- Jason R. Phillips / U.S. Army video image

Pfc. Jesse Halling
• Services: 11 a.m. today in St. Christopher Catholic Church, Speedway. Burial in Crown Hill Cemetery.

Nominated for Silver Star
• About the honor: The Silver Star Medal, created by Congress in 1932, is the nation's third-highest medal for valor in armed conflict with enemy forces.



By Dan McFeely
[email protected]
June 17, 2003


Pam Halling was on the phone with a credit card company, explaining to the voice on the other end how her son, Pfc. Jesse Halling, would no longer be a customer.

He was killed in Iraq.

Yes, he really was, last week, she said. No, the fighting is not over.

"I couldn't believe it," Pam Halling said Monday. "She was very, very ignorant that these things are still going on."

Since major hostilities in Iraq were pronounced ended May 1, 47 U.S. soldiers have been killed, 13 of them -- including Jesse Halling -- from enemy fire, according to the Pentagon. The total number killed during major combat: 138.

Halling's funeral today in Speedway and burial in Crown Hill Cemetery are reminders that for thousands of families with servicemen and women on active duty, the war in Iraq continues.

"People are still getting killed in Iraq," said Pam Halling. "It's happening every day."

Death came for her son June 7 in Tikrit, Iraq.

The 19-year-old Ben Davis High School graduate went out like a hero, ordering others in his military police unit to take cover, while he remained at his post, trying to reload his machine gun and firing an M-16 rifle until he was hit by shrapnel.

Halling was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart and has been nominated for a Silver Star Medal, the Army's third-highest medal for valor behind the Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross.

Today, Halling will be given a hero's send-off.

Mayor Bart Peterson has ordered American, state and city flags in Indianapolis to fly at half-staff today. Flags on all city property will be lowered at 8 a.m. and remain at half-staff for the rest of the day.


Peterson will join Army Brig. Gen. Randall Castro of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and others to speak at the funeral.

But before the public appreciation, family members and friends gathered Monday afternoon at Conkle Funeral Home to preview a slide presentation of snapshots from Halling's life.

Sitting in front of a big screen, Pam Halling broke down in tears several times as images from her son's short life flashed past.

They included shots of him with high school friends; proudly sitting on his lime green motorcycle; dressed in a military uniform -- a uniform he had wanted to wear all his life.

"Everything was about the military," she said in an interview before the screening. "Ever since he was in kindergarten, drawing pictures of jets and helicopters and tanks . . . it was just in him."

So was his willingness to be a hero.

Halling was part of the 2nd Platoon of the 401st Military Police Company out of Fort Hood, Texas. Fellow troops interviewed in Tikrit by a Washington Post reporter said Halling went above and beyond the call of duty to protect them, while placing his own life on the line.

"He exceeded what he should have done," Capt. Marc Blair told The Post. "And that's why these three men sitting here in front of you today are alive."

Platoon sergeant Chris Dozier tried to describe the difference between a hero, and a hero on the scale of Halling.

"Some people label soldiers 'heroes' who don't reach that level, in my professional opinion," Dozier told The Post. "But Jesse was a hero. And that is what every soldier in the platoon thinks about him."

His father, who served in the Air Force, agrees.

"I don't want to put him above anyone else, except that he is my son," Al Halling told The Star Monday. "But what he did, he did for the others in his unit. He stepped up to the plate, and he did not crouch down."

Halling's sister, Kristina, 21, said that was typical for her brother.

"He was so set in his way. He was always there to the end," she said. "Once he started something, he didn't stop until it was done."

His sister recalls that morning Saddam Hussein's statue was ripped off its pedestal.

"We thought, 'Wow, this is a good thing.' We didn't even think about (danger)," she said. "All we could see was people dancing in the streets, celebrating with our troops."

It came as quite a shock to learn that soldiers still were being killed.

"Some of the troops were coming home already, but little by little we heard about a GI here and GI there getting killed," said Al Halling.

"And now, there are more people dying than when the war was going on. And that is sad. I don't think the military should have backed off."


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