I posted this poem once before, but Memorial day is an apt time to repeat these words.

I would like to offer a heartfelt thanks and sincere appreciation to all of the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our great nation, and the tireless families that supported them.

Our freedom was purchased; in fact, we are still making payments.

Let us not forget the price that we have paid for it.

The Soldier

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

By Charles M. Province

Omar, you brightened my morning with your polite note of thanks. I'm sure that I am not the only one.

Update 0505300920: Memorial Day has a website with some great resources. Check it out.

From the Yahoo Newswire

The heavy defeat dreaded by EU leaders could weaken France in the 25-member bloc, stall European integration and unsettle some financial markets. It also wounds President Jacques Chirac two years before presidential and parliamentary elections.

"The French people have given a huge smack in the face to an entire system that has the nerve to tell us what to think," said nationalist French politician Philippe de Villiers, a leading opponent of the charter. "The constitution is no more."

Over at Decision '08, Mark summed it up nicely before it became official:

Jacques Chirac is hitting the airwaves urging French voters not to use the ratification vote as a referendum on his government, a statement that is remarkable in two ways. First, it is a frank admission by Chirac that his leadership is deeply unpopular, and second, I think the French voters are correct in using this vote as a referendum, for surely, it is the European style of governance that has lead to the woes befalling the French nation.

Those woes include high unemployment, nearly nonexistent economic growth, and a strong anti-capitalist bias that hinders the inflow of foreign capital. France is a strong example that even in 'mild' doses, socialism is a failure. Chirac is not a tyrant, but he is surely a Eurocrat, and a potent symbol of the European Union as a whole.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit

Okay, like many (I can only assume) I did a jig when I heard the Supreme Court ruling that sang a victory for small wineries everywhere.

Much too hastily, it seems.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Last week, in a 5-4 ruling that rocked Michigan's inbred beer and wine industry, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a regulatory scheme that had for decades forbidden out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to their Michigan customers.

Wine drinkers celebrated, assuming that the decision cleared the way for them to order wines from California and Oregon the same way they purchase those manufactured in Michigan.

But beer and wine wholesalers, who'd defended Michigan's right to discriminate against out-of-state vintners, were quick to point out that nothing in the Supreme Court's ruling required the state to permit direct wine shipments from anyone.

In a letter to state legislators dated last Wednesday, the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association pointed out that all the nation's highest court had mandated, strictly speaking, was that all wineries be treated the same.

"The court is not declaring that wine lovers have a blank check to purchase from out-of-state wine producers," the letter said. "The key operative words in the decision are 'if a state chooses to allow direct shipping,' which clearly means that a state may choose not to allow direct shipping."

So when do we get to celebrate? When do I get to order bottles of grapey goodness from my favorite small wineries in California and Oregon?

But as Free Press staff writer Jennifer Dixon observed in an exhaustively documented investigation published earlier this year, beer and wine wholesalers wield political power disproportionate to their modest numbers.

...

State lawmakers have about three weeks to fashion shipping rules that comply with the Supreme Court's objections.

Can they prove themselves worthy of the wholesalers' love with so many consumers watching?

I won't hold my breath. In the mean time, I'll simply be thankful that I live in a fairly metropolitan area with a pretty decent selection.

...even if I do have to ship my Marylin Merlot to my Aunt in Arizona, and then have extra reasons to celebrate family reunions that can be measured in milliliters.

Out of a list of 497 celebrity donors over on NewsMeat, the following celebrities donated over 50% of their political contributions to the Republican Party. I found that to be worthy of noting on the blog.

Here is an eye-opening excerpt from an article in the Wall Street Journal (Online Edition)

So we thought our readers might like to know that so far this year federal tax revenues are booming. Overall, in the first seven months of Fiscal Year 2005 through April 30, they climbed by $146 billion to a total of $1.216 trillion. That's an increase of 13.6% over a year earlier, some four or five times the inflation rate, and the kind of raise that most American families can only dream about. Income tax receipts are driving this windfall, with individual revenues up $66 billion, or 16%, to $547 billion. Corporate income taxes are rolling in even faster, tsunami-like in fact, rising 48% to $134 billion. [...] There are several lessons here, starting with the fact that somebody is earning all that extra income that the feds are getting their share of. The economy has been doing better than media coverage admits, with growth lifting employment and incomes and thus the federal fisc. This revenue boom also is taking place in the wake of the 2003 reduction in dividend, capital gains and marginal income tax rates that Robert Rubin and other worthies predicted would be fiscally disastrous. Apologies accepted.

The "deficit" problem, in short, is not on the revenue side of the ledger. Tax revenues as a share of the economy fell sharply from their Clintonian (post World War II) heights after September 11. But they are now climbing back toward their modern historical average in the neighborhood of 17% to 18% of GDP. This will happen even at the lower Bush tax rates -- or shall we say, because of them -- since as incomes rise more Americans are pushed into higher tax brackets.

It's amazing, amid these results, that some Republicans are reluctant to make the 2003 tax cuts permanent. They should be advertising that their tax policies have helped the economy and will continue to do so if they are extended. The best solution for federal red ink is continued prosperity combined with spending restraint and entitlement reform, not a tax increase.

(hat tip to JK at Three Sources)

The best news I have received this month!

Court Strikes Down Ban on Wine Shipments
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours.

The 5-4 decision strikes down laws in New York and Michigan that make it a crime to buy wine directly from vineyards in another state. In all, 24 states have laws that bar interstate shipments.

The state bans are discriminatory and anti-competitive, the court said.

"States have broad power to regulate liquor," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers."

"If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms," he wrote.

Kennedy was joined in his opinion by Justices Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

At issue was the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition in 1933 and granted states authority to regulate alcohol sales. Nearly half the states subsequently passed laws requiring outside wineries to sell their products through licensed wholesalers within the state.

But the Constitution also prohibits states from passing laws that discriminate against out-of-state businesses. That led to a challenge to laws in Michigan and New York, which allow direct shipments for in-state wineries but not out-of-state ones.

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the ruling needlessly overturns long-established regulations aimed partly at protecting minors. State regulators under the 21st Amendment have clear authority to regulate alcohol as the see fit, he wrote.

"The court does this nation no service by ignoring the textual commands of the Constitution and acts of Congress," Thomas wrote.

He was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens.

The United States spends an average of $6,043 per primary school student. Only 3 countries spend as much on their students: Denmark, Switzerland and Austria.

The United States spends an average of $7,764 per secondary school student. Only 2 countries spend as much money per child: Switzerland and Austria.

The average primary teacher's salary starts at $25,707, the 5th highest starting salary in the world. After 15 years of experience, the average Primary teacher earns $34,705, still the 5th highest in the world.

You would think that our children's skills might be proportional.

Our 12th graders rank 14th in science, 17th in math.

If our personal experience of the schools here in Broward County are any measure of the United States as a whole, our system of Education is abysmal.

From the statistics above, it doesn't seem to be failing because we aren't throwing enough money at it!

A fascinating article over at livescience.com reveals a new battery technology that takes advantage of everyday, normal nuclear decay.

Personal Nuclear Power: New Battery Lasts 12 Years

A new type of battery based on the radioactive decay of nuclear material is 10 times more powerful than similar prototypes and should last a decade or more without a charge, scientists announced this week.

Can you just imagine the potential? With the technological breakthroughs we hav been reading about on an almost daily basis, tomorrow's computer might not look anything like it does today. Solid state disk space that holds terabytes? Nuclear batteries that work for years?

The technology is called betavoltaics. It uses a silicon wafer to capture electrons emitted by a radioactive gas, such as tritium. It is similar to the mechanics of converting sunlight into electricity in a solar panel.

Until now, betavoltaics has been unable to match solar-cell efficiency. The reason is simple: When the gas decays, its electrons shoot out in all directions. Many of them are lost.

Fauchet's team took the flat silicon surface, where the electrons are captured and converted to a current, and turned it into a three-dimensional surface by adding deep pits.

Great that the ideas are on the drawing boards now, some of the things we have heard about will take decades to inplement. But these batteries? Expect them sooner than later.

The manufacturing process is standard to the semiconductor industry, so no other technology breakthroughs are needed to bring the batteries to market. Still, don't expect anything on the store shelves for at least two years, Fauchet said. His team is now working to improve the manufacturing process, aiming for batteries many times more efficient than those announced today.

"If we are as successful as we think we may be, it will take less than five years before this technology is adopted," he said.

I look forward to seeing them on the market.

I wonder how much they'll cost?

Our family is embarking on a new adventure... homeschooling.

We (as a family) have determined that the public and private school options we've experienced so far have not been up to par. The latest year spent in a private, Lutheran school has nearly been the worst yet. It is time to try something else.

Some people wonder about this decision and question our capability to manage and educate a 13 year old. Others deplore the idea and lament that our child will transform into a hermit with no social skills or friends.

I've recently read a few books on the subject...and I've found a few quotes I want to share.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that public schooling, a brilliant alternative to ignorance, was no match for a loving private education on any level - intellectual, emotional, or sociological - not when that education is overseen by earnest, excited parents who love life and children and who are still capable of wonder. (from Homeschool Your Children for Free by Gold and Zielinski)

That quote really rang a chord with me. I believe we've done a great job of afterschooling (in accordance with any public/private schooling our son has been in), so much so that at this point I feel that with one-on-one attention we can far surpass whatever curriculum he'd be learning next year at any school we could enroll him in.

I've never before had the opportunity to stay at home and tutor my son (I was back at work 1 month after his birth). Now that we have our own home-based business, this is no longer an issue.

As for the socialization question...I guess this is a major concern for any parent that considers home schooling. You have to go out and look for social opportunities - youth groups, homeschooling groups, intramural sports, etc. I have been told strongly that my son should be in school with other kids so that he can learn how to deal with idiots because some day he'll need to work with these type of people. Excuse me? My retort to that was that I'd be schooling him not to work with idiots, but to hire them - or have the opportunity NOT to hire them ;)

I have found another great that really gets the point across...

"Refrain from institutionalizing your child and choose instead to homeschool, unschool, or nonschool. Let your child learn genuine socialization instead of false and negative socialization and negative coping behaviors."

If you're in the Fort Lauderdale area and are looking for a homeschooling group, I found a good one. H.E.L.P.S. - Home Educators Lending Parents Support. Their website is not up to date (which I may soon help to fix), but they are a great group of people.

It has been 100 days since Senator Kerry made his promise to release his military records.

Thus far, he has not.

We remember, Senator Kerry, even if you do not.