Levi Shirley, Jordan MacTaggart, and William Savage, Requiescat in pace.

From denverpost.com:

Remains of two Colorado men killed in Syria arrive at Union Station ...

In every generation, there are heroes who clearly see the madness that threatens peace, freedom, and love. These are three such heroes.

Once upon a time, children, men like Levi, Jordan, and William were plentiful in America. You could find them almost anywhere. They were mechanics, students, butchers, and barbers. They knew that sometimes a man must fight to protect the innocent and the helpless, even if they died doing it. Even if they never knew those they saved.

Once upon a time was a long, long time ago. Thank almighty God there are still a few left who might serve as examples to the cowards, pansies, and criminals that plague us. Pray that He will raise up another generation of heroes who will destroy the enemies of freedom, both foreign and domestic, and send them straight to Hell where they belong.

The bodies of two Colorado men who gave their lives in the fight against the Islamic State arrived at around 7:40 am at Union Station on Friday morning. They were greeted by a small group of family and friends who traveled there from around Colorado.

Jordan MacTaggart of Castle Rock and Levi “Jack” Shirley of Arvada were killed this summer during the fight to liberate Manbij, a Syrian city that was occupied by the Islamic State. Their families have been waiting to be reunited with their remains for months.

The caskets arrived on the California Zephyr, a passenger train coming from Chicago. The office of Congressmen Ed Perlmutter helped coordinate between the families, several different government agencies including the White House, United States Embassies and the Kurdish militia the two young men were fighting with.

Both men traveled to Syria to fight with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units after connecting with recruiters on social media. They were both motivated by a strong impulse to help others and moral outrage at massacres committed by the Islamic State, their families said.

Kurdish soldiers guided the bodies through battlefields and across borders. The remains traveled thousands of miles, through war zones, across four countries and two continents to arrive in Denver.

MacTaggart and Shirley were transported with the remains of William Savage, another American fighter killed during the offensive, whose remains were sent to Raleigh, N.C.

“It’s been a long journey to get them home,” Perlmutter said, “both of these men did something very dangerous, obviously not part of our military, but we honor them.”

Perlmutter presented both families with a framed U.S. flag that had flown over the Capitol building.


“We waited for nine weeks for this day,” said Russell Shirley, Levi’s father, “but the last thing I wanted to see my son’s casket.”

Levi’s sister Kate Shirley wept while she embraced the casket containing her brother before it was loaded into a hearse bound for Arvada.

The somber moment helped bring closure to the deaths of MacTaggart and Shirley, their families said.

“Look at what he’s brought,” said Robert MacTaggart, Jordan’s father, “maybe somebody else will learn what is going on over there because of him.”

MacTaggart and Shirley only met briefly during their separate tours with the Kurdish militia, but through death, they brought their families close together.

“Once I heard about Jordan, I immediately found his sister online and reached out,” said Kate Shirley, Levi’s sister. Since then, they’ve helped guide the MacTaggarts through the process, she said.

“From what I hear, Jordan and Levi would have been friends,” Kate Shirley added.

Charles Krauthammer puts the final nail in the coffin of The Community Organizer From The High Yellow Lagoon's failed kleptocracy.

From Washington's other newspaper:

Incident in Hangzhou

The president of the United States lands with all the majesty of Air Force One, waiting to exit the front door and stride down the rolling staircase to the red-carpeted tarmac. Except that there is no rolling staircase. He is forced to exit — as one China expert put it rather undiplomatically — through “the ass” of the plane.

This happened Saturday at Hangzhou airport. Yes, in China. If the Chinese didn’t invent diplomatic protocol, they surely are its most venerable and experienced practitioners. They’ve been at it for 4,000 years. They are the masters of every tributary gesture, every nuance of hierarchical ritual. In a land so exquisitely sensitive to protocol, rolling staircases don’t just disappear at arrival ceremonies. Indeed, not one of the other G-20 world leaders was left stranded on his plane upon arrival.

Did President Xi Jinping directly order airport personnel and diplomatic functionaries to deny President Obama a proper welcome? Who knows? But the message, whether intentional or not, wasn’t very subtle. The authorities expressed no regret, no remorse and certainly no apology. On the contrary, they scolded the media for even reporting the snub.

No surprise. China’s ostentatious rudeness was perfectly reflective of the world’s general disdain for Obama. His high-minded lectures about global norms and demands that others live up to their “international obligations” are no longer amusing. They’re irritating.

Foreign leaders have reciprocated by taking this administration down a notch knowing they pay no price. In May 2013, Vladimir Putin reportedly kept the U.S. secretary of state cooling his heels for three hours outside his office before deigning to receive him. Even as Obama was hailing the nuclear deal with Iran as a great breakthrough, the ayatollah vowed “no change” in his policy, which remained diametrically opposed to “U.S. arrogant system.” The mullahs followed by openly conducting illegal ballistic missile tests — calculating, correctly, that Obama would do nothing. And when Iran took prisoner 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf, made them kneel and broadcast the video, what was the U.S. response? Upon their release, John Kerry publicly thanked Iran for its good conduct.

Why should Xi treat Obama with any greater deference? Beijing illegally expands into the South China Sea, meeting only the most perfunctory pushback from the U.S. Obama told CNN that he warned Xi to desist or “there will be consequences.” Is there a threat less credible?

Putin annexes Crimea and Obama crows about the isolation he has imposed on Russia. Look around. Moscow has become Grand Central Station for Middle East leaders seeking outside help in their various conflicts. As for Ukraine, both the French president and the German chancellor have hastened to Moscow to plead with Putin to make peace. Some isolation.

Iran regularly harasses our vessels in the Persian Gulf. Russian fighters buzzed a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea. And just Wednesday, a Russian fighter flew within 10 feet of an American military jet. The price they paid? Being admonished that such provocations are unsafe and unprofessional. An OSHA citation is more ominous.

Add to that American acquiescence not just to ransoming hostages held by Iran, but to delivering the loot by unmarked plane filled with stacks of cold (untraceable) cash, like a desert drug deal. Why the stealth? Obviously to conceal the manner of the transaction from Congress and the American public. Some humiliations are so grotesque that even the Obama team can’t miss it.

Now the latest. At the G-20, Obama said he spoke to Putin about cyberwarfare, amid revelations that Russian hackers have been interfering in our political campaigns. We are more technologically advanced, both offensively and defensively, in this arena than any of our adversaries, said Obama, but we really don’t want another Cold War-style arms race.

Instead, we must all adhere to norms of international behavior.

Clump is what we deserve, and Clump we shall get.

Are you wondering where your country went, kiddies? I've spent years telling you it was dissolving into nothingness, but you wouldn't listen. The two party "system" has collapsed upon itself due to the decadence and rot in our souls and produced Clump The Magic Fascist, a being so loathsome one dares not gaze upon it.

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH FLAVOR OF CLUMP, ORANGE OR DISTAFF, ACTUALLY WINS. We are doomed either way.

I hope to be dead before the concentration camps are built ["re-education centers" sounds nicer, doesn't it?] and the mass executions begin. Unfortunately, our ancestors built the greatest healthcare system the world will ever see, and I'm afraid I will survive on its fumes only to catch a .22 in the back of the head because of some imaginary "crime against the people". Yippee.

Always remember kiddies, Soylent Green Is People, and Clump is just the latest voracious chef and diner.