The Ant and the Grasshopper

ORIGINAL VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house
and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the
summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE ORIGINAL STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!




MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."
Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the poor grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair
share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Ant Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government GreenCzar and given to the Grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, which is now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE MODERN STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2012.

On Memorial Day...

Remember (It was the Veteran)
Author Unknown



IT WAS THE VETERAN,

Not a reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.



IT WAS THE VETERAN,

Not a poet, who has given us freedom of speech.



IT WAS THE VETERAN,

Not a lawyer, who has given us the right to fair trial.



IT WAS THE VETERAN,

Not the campus organizer,who has given us the right to demonstrate.



AND IT IS THE VETERAN,

Who salutes the flag,

Who served under the flag,

And whose coffin is drapped by the flag!

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD,

AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

Our Day in Pictures

Strip searched for a hamburger

We went to lunch at the Ronald Reagan building today and it was an interesting experience.
We, all 300 of us, had to go thru security much like airport security.  So after waiting in line, in the rain, for 20 of our 45 minute lunch break, we finally get inside the building where we have to empty our pockets, take off our jackets, take off our belts and surrender our bags for inspection before walking through the metal detectors. 
Really?
Do terrorists usually travel in groups of 300, the majority of which being 11 year olds and all wear "traffic cop yellow" t-shirts?

Arlington cemetery

The great great grand daughter of George Washington married Robert E. Lee
1864 first burials
330,000 graves
Head stones marble from GA
Grave of JFK. Nov 1963
Tombs of unknown fro ww2, korea & vietnam. - vietnam is empty identified in 98
Guarded only by army volunteer basis. 3 guard rotation work in24 hour shifts Spring/summer every 1/2 hour. Fall/winter. At night every 2 hrs. Since 1937 have been eyes on tomb.
1864 first burial
24 symbols of faith
Must have died in line of duty or the spouse - buried together & unmarrried children under 18
Medal of honor recep
Presidents
20yrs service
Freedman's Village - site of current Arlington
Freed Slaves in city of WA - a village to teach a trade, an education prepare for life as a free person.