Proof that people on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt

I swear I saw this on an IRC channel. It was so funny, I had to preserve it somewhere....

23:55 (Thor_) That's why military rifles are worn out by cleaning instead of shooting

Boredom is bad. Very bad.

I ride motorcycles. A lot. The weather is not currently condusive to riding motorcycles. As such, I got bored. Boredom is bad. Here's proof:

http://insurgents.criticalstop.com

Humility...

I recently had quite an excersize in humility. I attended a dedication ceremony for a "wall of valor" in Fayetteville WV. Fayette county WV was dedicating a wall in the public library to its veterans. My wife's family has a cumulative 66 years of military service in one small branch of the family. They had four folks getting thier names put on the wall.

One of them, is a Marine Corps veteran of 22 years. He served in Korea, and two tours in Vietnam. He had so many medals on his dress blues that he leaned to one side when he walked.

Now I'm a combat veteran. I have a combat action ribbon. I've gone overseas with a rifle in hand. But in this company, I really didn't want anyone to know that. My contribution, compared to the contributions of the people at this ceremony, was just, completely insignificant. There were guys walking around with ballcaps that said "BRONZE STAR." Guys wearing tiny Silver Star pins on lapels. I saw one very old man with a pin that said simply, "Anzio." I remember one guy wearing a vietnam hat with a pin "door gunner."

These are guys that were in the shit. They did thier duty. They did what they had to do. They did it for all of us.

One interesting thing that happened before the ceremonies was a conversation I and my son had with the old salty USMC veteran in my wife's family. We were talking, and my son (he's 8) piped up "my daddy was a Marine!" The old vet looked at me, then looked down at my boy and said "are you gonna be a Marine too?" My son looked at him, paused for a second, and said "ehhh, I don't know." The old Marine pointed at his pile of medals on his chest and said "Don't ya wanna get some medals like these?" My son, without missing a beat, pointed at the purple heart on the old First Sgt's chest and said "I don't want to get THAT one."

The salty old marine's eyes kind of glazed for a second. Then he replied "Yeah, I got that one at a place we called 'Heartbreak Ridge.'"

And when the veterans at the ceremony were asked to stand up so that they could be recognized, my wife wondered why I wanted to remain in my seat.

It was good to go to that ceremony, and see that people appreciate and recognize the contributions these guys made, at such a high price. It was good to see the community out in large numbers. Those guys are all heros. I think that many times their contributions are taken for granted. It's good to see that this is not the case here, and in other places around the country.