5 Greatest Moments of the National Memorial Day Concert

(in no particular order)

1. Lawrence Fishburne's reading of a letter by Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by violin soloist Robert McDuffie playing the theme to Ken Burns' "Civil War" series.

2. Denyce Graves' rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

3. The team of Diane Wiest and Katie Holmes interpreting the writings of a mom and sister of a disabled vet . . . all three of whom turned out to be in the audience.

4. Trace Adkins' song at the end. I need to see if I can get that CD or download the single . . .

5. The anthems and color guards of each branch of the military, but particularly the US Air Force. . . off we go, into the wild blue yonder . . .

I wonder if folks who have no direct ties can ever fully appreciate what the men and women in our armed forces and their families sacrifice on behalf of this nation?

Ranking the Presidents

It seems like this day every year, a bunch of liberal eggheads try to spoon feed us their rankings of all the presidents. C-SPAN is offering a prime example today.

I decided to examine the list and rank them myself. Disclaimers: No one got any style points for looking good in a tux or for having a flashy smile. Also, no points were awarded for martyrdom. I only graded on what was accomplised AS PRESIDENT. What happened before or after was not considered.

And, of course, I examine everything from a conservative perspective the aforementioned eggheads will probably never quite grasp.

Ok, so here goes:

1. Ronald Reagan
2. James Monroe
3. Calvin Coolidge
4. James K. Polk
5. Abraham Lincoln
6. Theodore Roosevelt
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. George Washington
9. Dwight D. Eisenhower
10. Harry Truman
11. George H.W. Bush
12. William McKinley
13. Andrew Jackson
14. Ulysses S. Grant
15. Rutherford B. Hayes
16. James Madison
17. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
18. George W. Bush
19. John F. Kennedy
20. Gerald R. Ford
21. Millard Fillmore
22. Bill Clinton
23. William H. Taft
24. Woodrow Wilson
25. John Tyler
26. Chester Arthur
27. John Adams
28. Richard Nixon
29. Grover Cleveland
30. John Quincy Adams
31. Martin Van Buren
32. Lyndon Johnson
33. Jimmy Carter
34. Warren Harding
35. Benjamin Harrison
36. Franklin Pierce
37. Andrew Johnson
38. Herbert Hoover
39. Zachary Taylor
40. James Buchanan

Well, at least we all agreed on Buchanan being the worst.

Note:
Three names were left off the list due to incomplete records:
* James A. Garfield - assassinated only a few months after inauguration.
* William Henry Harrison - died of pneumonia a month after taking office.
* Barack Hussein Obama - current commander-in-chief (shudder!)

Lincoln bicentennial

Well, ye socks, it was two hundred years ago today that the venerable Abraham Lincoln was born.

I used the word "venerable," because a lot folks these days have elevated him beyond even the iconic status he has enjoyed since his assassination. He has become the secular saint of far too many. You've seen them using his memorial up in DC as an altar of sorts, and as an inexplicably potent backdrop to much of their carryings-on.

Frightening.

The truth about Lincoln is that, like all of us, he was painfully human.

Don't take that statement as an insult, though. I think it was his humanity that made him worthy of our collective memory.

As I have mentioned in a previous post in this dryer (see http://sockdryer.blogspot.com/search?q=Ann+Rutledge), yours truly has a round-about family connection to the "Great Emancipator." And, I believe it was that tragic episode during his youth and its aftermath that gave Lincoln the tremendous capacity he had for dealing with crisis situations despite personal emotional turmoil.

So, today, I would encourage ye socks to remember Lincoln the man, someone who succeeded despite his many flaws and tribulations.

But, save the veneration for Sunday.

Why Washington remains our greatest president.

On this Presidents Day, I am somewhat dismayed to hear modern polls show George Washington slipping in the rankings of our nation's greatest presidents. Modern revisionists have foisted the undeserving Lincoln and FDR to the top of the pack.

So, to counteract this trend, I offer ye socks the three reasons why yours truly believes George Washington remains the greatest president in the history of these United States.

1. He exercised self-restraint. At the end of the American Revolution, he could very easily have seized power and become a military dictator. Instead, he not only resigned his position as commander of the armies, but also refused to accept a crown as the head of a new monarchy. And, when he was eventually elected president, he agreed only to serve two terms.

Lincoln, on the other hand, exceeded his authority on numerous occasions, including his order to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. And, FDR is the only person self-satisfied enough to run for FOUR terms and to attempt to pack the Supreme Court.

2. He was non-partisan. Washington didn't believe in political parties. He thought they bred conflict, stagnation, and bad government. And, history has proved him correct. I doubt either Lincoln (a Republican) or FDR (a Democrat), much less their modern political heirs, would see things that clearly.

3. He believed in a meritocracy. Just as he didn't want another monarchy, he didn't believe in political dynasties or oligarchies. He didn't believe things should be handed to people based on the circumstances of their birth or on the basis of their surname. Rather, he made appointments based on a "fitness for office." Lincoln on the other hand was a product of his time, when cronyism was rampant in American politics. And, FDR was part of the oligarchy that developed. (Remember, he wasn't the first Roosevelt in the White House!)

I understand their are ebbs and flows in the interpretation of history. But, it is a sad to see a great man like Washington being lumped in with the likes of Lincoln and FDR. They were certainly men of great accomplishments. But, George Washington should forever remain first in the hearts of his countrymen.

Ron Paul is an idiot

Lest ye socks be drawn into the spellbinding powers of the RINO candidate for President after his recent appearance on "Meet the Press," let me assure you that he is as irrelevant to the '08 campaign as Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

But, that didn't prevent the idiot from trying to make it relevant.

Don't get me wrong. As anyone who read my recent book will tell you, I love talking about the Civil War Era. But, it just does not need to be a focus of a presidential primary in this day and age . . . especially when the guy talking about it is a complete idiot.

In case you missed it, Idiot Paul believes Abraham Lincoln is to blame for singlehandedly starting the Civil War because he thought it would be cheaper to expend the lives of 600,000 people on both sides than it would be to have the federal government simply buy all the slaves and set them free.

Specifics as to why this argument makes him a complete idiot:

1. Not even Abraham Lincoln, as big an historical figure as he is, had THAT much influence. The war had been brewing for decades.

2. Putting morals aside for a moment, isn't the Idiot Paul the person who screams loudest whenever anyone proposes a big federal spending plan? This would have been the biggest ever contemplated!!

3. The war could not have been avoided as late as 1860, when Lincoln was elected president. And, the issue wasn't even slavery. It was, rather, whether the individual states had the wherewithall (if not the right) to withdraw from the Union as freely as they entered it. It had to be decided. And, unfortunately, it involved going to war. It happens, and it's horrible. But, it happens.

I think that's what the idiot was really trying to accomplish in his public display. He was, I believe, trying in some round about way to make George W. Bush's leadership in the war on terror appear as "unnecessary" as Abraham Lincoln's leadership in the Civil War.

Way to go, Ron, you just succeeded in making yourself look like an idiot again.

What I don't understand is how idiotic the people must be who keep sending you money!!