In last week's column, I wrote about some of the most popular military bloggers who keep us informed about our troops and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of them is Blackfive, blogger Matt Burden who last week posted a heartwarming story about a six-year-old boy from Columbia, S.C., who is fighting brain cancer.
Burden's post shows how some of our military members are helping this little guy fight the toughest battle of his young life.
On Sunday morning, I contacted Evan's mom to check on him. Click here to read my interview with her. Best few minutes you'll spend today.
Milblogs on Twitter
By the way, there’s a growing milblog community on Twitter. Here are a few:
Cannonupdate and
Supporting soldiers
Groups that support our military are growing in number too. Some longstanding organizations worth mention and your support include Move America Forward, Soldiers Angels and Support Our Troops.
War and politics
"War is politics by other means" – Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian military thinker and major strategic theorist.
Blogger Pat Dollard turns von Clausewitz' adage around: "Politics is war by other means," in an introduction to a stunning piece by "Peter N" that's creating quite a buzz, eliciting this comment from one reader: "Add this to the list of America’s most historical documents."
Peter N. writes: "The Founding Fathers disagreed vehemently about many things, but at the end of the day, were on the same side. Yet now, we find ourselves facing an opposition of our own titular countrymen, who hate freedom, and seek only control. A political class rules us, and the population wallows in mediocrity, allowing this to happen. We have no choice. The war has already started."
The "pamphlet" essay expresses the manifesto of "The American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front" (ACTIVE), a new political action organization of concerned patriots nationwide who are getting. … well, actively engaged in defending our founding principles and free-market economic system. Head over and sign up.
Vanishing point
With analysts now saying that GM could follow Chrysler into bankruptcy, it's the end of the free-market era for American automakers.
Which brings to mind other failed automakers, like John DeLorean,
the brilliant engineer who developed the highly popular Pontiac GTO muscle car of the 60's. Yes, the same Pontiac line that is now defunct.
Here’s another popular car that got muscled out,
albeit not by an overreaching government, but by the ebb and flow of free-market conditions.
Here are 25 more things vanishing from America.
Joining up
Not a member of the National Rifle Association yet? Here's your opportunity to join for free. The NRA is offering a trial one-year membership. Blogger Kitty sends this alert:
"They are trying to build up their membership base to fight pending legislation that impacts our right to keep and bear arms. It is very important that anti-gun congressmen and senators realize how many people they will have to fight to get their legislation through."
The line begins here to sign up.
Perfect Valor
Be part of the premiere! On May 16, Citizens United Productions will premiere "Perfect Valor" at the GI Film Festival in Washington D.C.
Peabody Award-winning producer David C. Taylor and noted contemporary author and military historian Richard S. Lowry have worked tirelessly with the production staff to create a compelling tribute to all the men and women who have served in Iraq.
This week in history
This week in history, Winston Churchill declared the war over.
For a complete timeline of World War II, this site includes an exhaustive day by day timeline, covering every event that occurred by military theater and in chronological order from 1939 through to 1945, which gives a fascinating insight into the most devastating war in our history.
Contacting the government
Since Washington continues to ignore us, maybe the state and local politicos will listen. This site
leads you to whatever you want to know about thousands of state agencies, city and county governments, from a state's homepage or governor's site to the smallest counties or townships. And contact information galore!
Questions about the flu?
H1N1 flu virus (or is it Mexican Flu?) dominated the headlines last week. Here's a site that answers all your questions about public health concerns. "Are you ready?"
Quick takes:
Five very weird URL shorteners.
How-to sites and guides covering everything from building a mashup to being more productive, creating a website and more.
The more things change. … Facebook has been around a lot longer than you think.
Mac users! Since Twitter has gone mainstream, the supporting applications and services are sprouting up like wildfire on the Internet. Prominent among these apps are Twitter desktop clients available for almost every platform. These handy apps help you manage your Twitter activities in a much easier way than managing via web interface. Here's a list of select Twitter clients for the Mac platform.