I Like Guns

Nuff said.

Promises Forgotten

Read something on an LJ log, and it got me to thinking on the history I was cheated of in school.

For example, the real GI Joe.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley was the first to discover how many able-bodied United States Marines it takes to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat.
On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.
The hill had held, because on the hill remained the minimum number of able-bodied United States Marines necessary to hold the position.
And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one ever heard of, called Guadalcanal.
When the Hasbro Toy Co. called some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.
But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "G.I. Joe." At least, it has been up till now.
Mitchell Paige's only condition? That G.I. Joe must always remain a United States Marine.

I gotta say, it poisoned my ability to enjoy the mindless nifty-fest of the new Joe movie.

Compare And Contrast:

When I was little we had:
to watch: ABC, CBS and PBS. Not very good reception.  Main thing I remember is Mystery! and Murder!
to listen to: NPR, and some talk on the AM; western tapes, a lot of classic tapes, and Gilbert & Sullivan.  The songs I remember best are the ones my folks sang with us.

Now:
to watch: Hulu and Netflix let us watch shows from dozens of dozens of stations, when we want, and Youtube offers even more options.  Many of those options were created by people, just to make something.
to listen to: I regularly listen to stations in Virginia, Texas, Chicago, two in San Diego, two in Seattle, plus a half-dozen personalized stations on Pandora and a huge collection of MP3s.  Youtube lets folks make their own music and share it, too.

Yet... I still sing.

And Kit seems to enjoy it.

Time to build some memories....