Val,
I thought "el fotingo" was that thing you drive to the office every day...!
JulioZ

...is it too early for a cold one?

jsb, it is NEVER too early for a cold one!!! You just gave me a GREAT idea!

I read this today and thought it would be cool to post:

On a pleasant spring day, with a light rain falling in 1917, Sarah was laid to rest in Swan Point Cemetary, New Jersey, next to her husband. She was 81. With her, on her last journey, was a letter written to her 57 years earlier, from a military camp outside Washington, the capitol of the newly formed republic. The letter was written by her husband, Sullivan, after being told that he, and the 35,000 other men in blue uniforms would begin a three day march, that would put them on a collision course with the enemy at a spot called Manassas junction.This would be the first battle of the American civil war, forever known as Bull Run. Earlier on that warm, sunny, july morning, with the fragrance of summer flowers wafting through his tent, he had written a very upbeat and chatty letter to his wife,Sarah. But now as 35,000 blue uniforms began to rise to form into columns, he rushed back to his tent and wrote a second letter. Here is that second letter.

July 14,1861
Camp Clark, Washington DC

Dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.

If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name...

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been!...

But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air on your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again...

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Sullivan Ballou was killed one week later at the first battle of Bull Run, July 29 1861, age 32 years. Sarah Ballou never remarried.
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I read this and it just pisses me off all these neo-pinko left winger who spit on our tradition, history, and those patriots who have fought for this country and instead praise islamofascist terrorists, che, fidel, and all that is truly evil in this world. Of course Ms. Albright does not believe in good and evil. Too much moral relativism. Yale can have its taliban but no military on their campus.

Ok, I'm done ranting.