The Memorial Stone

I visited Arlington Cemetery today in order to see, check and take a photo of dad & mom's new memorial stone. I had been meaning to do so for a while now ... ever since Billee let us know that it was up.

Here [above and left] is the front.

I'm not certain why all those theaters are mentioned ... I don't remember dad being involved in Vietnam and with Korea I think it was peripheral at best, but I could be wrong of course. They must have their own way and set of criteria for figuring that out.


Here's the obverse.

This is, of course, what most of the spouse headstones say.

However, I did see a significant percentage [fairly new ones even] that included variations ... such as "His Beloved Wife" and also adding a line below the dates with either "Beloved Mother" or "Beloved Mother and Grandmother".

I would have liked that. However, I understand that the current policy at Arlington seems to preclude variations. I'm not certain when that policy took effect, but it seems to be fairly recent. Personally I think that a little leeway should be allowed. But who am I, right?

I thought I'd share this ...

I found these in a pile of coins in dad's office today.

I just though I'd share.

As usual you can click the photo to get greater detail.

Kristin and I take a Trip to NYC

 

The ever lovely Kristin and I took a trip up to Manhattan this Thursday, April 10, to attend a conference on a subject of interest to me: free speech and what's become known as "libel tourism".

Currently certain groups ... usually terrorist affiliated ... attack authors working in the US by suing for libel in countries that have libel laws less friendly to First Amendment principles. They then utilize the growing forces and loopholes created by the "global" economy to intimidate publishing companies and force them to retract and destroy books they find offensive.

The conference was directed to both an overview of the subject, as well as a review of possible solutions.


The conference took place at the Princeton Club on West 43rd Street in Manhattan.

 

Here's Kristin having an in depth discussion with one of the speakers at the conference: Ezra Levant, the founder of "The Western Standard", a conservative Canadian news magazine. In 2006 the Western Standard became the only Canadian media outlet to publish the infamous Danish cartoons. Using their now familiar tactic of legal intimidation, he was then attacked by Islamic groups for "discrimination". Instead of the Canadian Government simply asserting his right to a free press, he is actually currently under investigation by that Gov't through their Orwellian monikered "Human Rights Commissions".

He's a real mench.

 

Robert Bork was there also for the final Panel of the day: What's to Be Done? Legislative Opportunities and Pitfalls.

 

Here's the obligitory Times Square photo op.

We also paid a call on Clotie and Louisa while we were there:

A New Photo from Sdot Yam

I found this photo on the web of the dining hall at Sdot Yam on a Facebook Group.

It hasn't changed an iota since I was there. I swear that that big cactus plant near the center is the exact same one as was there in 1978.

This the the angle I would approach it every day for lunch-break. The carpentry factory at which I worked was not too far, near the north-eastern end of the kibbutz. We'd have to walk past the dairy ... then the tile factory. After turning left just before the tile factory we would see the dining hall just like this. We would enter through a set of doors under the raised room to the right. The raised room itself the the dining hall. Many's the day I would sit at a table next to those windows. We would also have dinner and breakfast here, unless we opted to bring some food to our rooms ... which was rare.

I can still feel the heat ... and the sound and smell of the ocean. The Mediterranean was just a few yards beyond the dining hall, to the right of this photo.

I can't say I remember the basketball hoop, though.