This could also be subtitled, "They Just Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To," and is dedicated this Memorial Day to our veterans, past, present and future.

In contrast to the ideals, opinions and "feelings" of today's "Hollywonks" and "Hollyweirds," the real actors of yesteryear were also real patriots. They had both class and integrity. With the advent of World War II, many of our actors, as well as some from among our allies, went to fight rather than merely whine and complain. They gave up their wealth, position and fame to become service men and women, many in the enlisted ranks.

This article lists but a few, but from this group of only 18 men came over 70 medals in honor of their valor, from Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, Distinguish Service Crosses, Purple Hearts, to a Congressional Medal of Honor.

So remember, when you see and hear many of today's Hollywood elitist actors pontificating about all that's wrong with our country, there was a time when patriotism meant much more than mere criticism, especially while maintaining a cushy lifestyle. There was a time - and movie star men and women who made personal and professional sacrifices - when real patriotism called upon you to put your fame and fortune, if not your personal safety, where your mouth was.

Many people today need to be reminded of what the entertainers of 1943, many of whom have since passed on, were doing, 65 years ago:

Sir Alec Guinness [Bridge on the River Kwai, Star Wars] operated a British Royal Navy landing craft during the Normandy invasion on D-Day.

James Doohan [Scotty on Star Trek] landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.

Donald Pleasance [The Great Escape] really was an RAF pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.

David Niven [Around the World in 80 Days, Curse of the Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther] was a Sandhurst graduate and Lieutenant. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.

James Stewart [The Philadelphia Story, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, Winchester '73, Rear Window, Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance] entered the Army Air Force as a private and worked his way to the rank of colonel. During World War II, Stewart served as a bomber pilot, credited with leading more than 20 missions over Germany and taking part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty. Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, France's Croix de Guerre, and 7 Battle Stars during World War II. In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.

Clark Gable [It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone with the Wind] was already a mega-movie star when WWII broke out and although he was beyond the draft age at the time the U.S. entered WW II, enlisted as a private in the AAF in August 1942, in Los Angeles. He attended Officers' Candidate School at Miami Beach, Florida, and graduated as a second lieutenant in October 1942. He then attended aerial gunnery school and in February 1943 was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook where he flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s. Captain Gable returned to the U.S. in October 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major in June 1944 at his own request, since he was by then over-age for combat.
 
Charlton Heston [Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments] was an Army Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak, Alaska.

Ernest Borgnine [TV's McHale's Navy and many movies] was a U.S. Navy Gunners Mate from 1935-1945.
 
Charles Durning [TV and movie character actor] was a U.S. Army Ranger at Normandy, earning a Silver Star and awarded the Purple Heart.

Charles Bronson [Mr. Majestyk, Death Wish I - V (movies), Family of Cops I - III (TV)] was a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps, more specifically on B-29s in the 20th Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan.

George C. Scott [The Changeling, Day of the Dolphin, A Christmas Carol, Patton] was a decorated U.S. Marine.

Eddie Albert [TV's Green Acres] was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action as a U.S. Naval officer in aiding Marines at the horrific battle on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific in November 1943.

Brian Keith [Family Affair and The Brian Keith Show (TV) and The Wind and the Lion and The Parent Trap (movies)] served as a U.S. Marine rear gunner in several actions against the Japanese on Rabal Island in the Pacific.
 
Lee Marvin [M Squad (TV) and Cat Ballou, The Dirty Dozen, Paint Your Wagon, The Big Red One (movies)] was a U.S. Marine on Saipan during the Marianas campaign when he was wounded, earning the Purple Heart.
 
John Russell [best known for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the western TV series Lawman] enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, received a battlefield commission and was wounded and highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.

Robert Ryan [The Longest Day, Battle of the Bulge, King of Kings, The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch] was a U.S. Marine who served with the OSS in Yugoslavia.

Tyrone Power [The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Rose, Captain from Castile, already an established movie star and leading man when Pearl Harbor was bombed] joined the U.S. Marines and was a pilot flying supplies into, and wounded Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Audie Murphy, little 5'5" tall, 110 pound guy from Texas who played cowboy parts in multiple movies, was an Army infantry soldier and the most decorated U.S. serviceman of WWII who earned: The Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Star Medals with "V", 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead.

Those were the days, and the times for our country, when real men played parts as actors, rather than just being actors who played the parts of being real men. Can you imagine a Sean Penn ever signing up for the Marines, a Tim Robbins ever serving as an Army sergeant, or a Danny Glover asking for an age-limit exception so he could serve?

How many of today's Hollywood so-called stars have ever worn our nation's uniform, in any service, for any length of time, at home or in any foreign theater? Just as importantly, and perhaps even more telling, how many of our elected officials in Washington have done so?

Hell, many of today's whiny, complaining stars won't even interrupt their comfortable lifestyles to go overseas to entertain and show support for our troops who are serving, whereas many of the stars of yesteryear who didn't actually serve did at least repeatedly tour with the USO in Asia, Europe and Africa during WWII, as well as during the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts. The only one who comes to mind who consistently does that today is Gary Sinese [Forest Gump (movie) and CSI-NY (TV)], who has made multiple trips overseas to entertain our troops with his Lt. Dan Band.

And can you imagine these real star patriots of yesteryear making anti-war speeches, marching in anti-American parades, being chums with tinhorn dictators who denigrate our country, or disparaging our president, our country or our flag?

I thought not. Neither can I. But that was "back in the day" when real men sometimes played actors' parts - not when so many actors just play at being real men.

God bless America! And God bless our veterans and those who serve today.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, our homeland security nanny who increasingly seems to have only a nodding acquaintance with her job and is quickly gaining on VP Joe Biden in the verbal gaffe department, recently released a so-called "intelligence assessment" report, which was based on policy and opinion rather than citing supportive studies or fact-based intelligence trends. Even more troubling, this "report" was never meant to become known to the public, much less to the people it targeted. It was released to law enforcement agencies only. Therefore, it was actually an attempt by a powerful agency of our government to act in secret, identify or "target" a sector of our population by inference, opinion and policy differences rather than any actual facts, and to have American citizens so identified "investigated" and "reported." But the so-called "intelligence assessment report" was somehow "leaked" and picked up by news media who made it public.

This report profiled and targeted veterans, Americans opposed to the social policies of President Obama, and those who oppose abortion, same sex marriages, restrictions on firearms ownership, and one-world government -- as "right-wing extremists" and "potential domestic terrorists."

Even worse, Napolitano called on state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to investigate and report on these so-called "right-wing extremists."

Well, up until recently, I thought of myself as a more-or-less friendly neighbor and a pretty good citizen, father, grandfather and friend. I was and am a conservative and an unashamedly proud American, but I didn't realize before this "report" that I might also be considered a "right-wing extremist."

Let's see, what would make me think that Secretary Napolitano would think I am a "right-wing extremist"? (1) I am a 26-year military veteran. Worse than that, I am a Vietnam veteran. And a disabled veteran to boot. Wow, look out! (2) I actually am opposed to many of Obama's social policies and think he and a Democratic Congress are pushing this country to the left as far and as fast as they can, using the current economic crisis as rationale (read: "cover" or "distraction") -- an economic crisis, by the way, clearly traceable back to at least 2001 and Democrats in Congress for refusing to regulate the GSE's (Government Sponsored Entities) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac whose collapse started the fall of the financial house of cards. And (3) I am opposed to: (a) abortion, except for cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's physical health, (b) same sex marriages but not civil unions, (c) any restrictions on Second Amendment rights to firearms ownership or use, and (d) one-world government, also known as "globalization," and advanced by such things as LOST (the Law of the Sea Treaty), the Kyoto Accords and other world-wide measures, often designed to inhibit developed nations' capabilities, co-opt their sovereignty and create some ideologically and idealistically utopian, world-wide "level playing field" in which nations yield their own vital self-interests to cooperate and compromise for the "betterment of all." (Of course, we should just wait for Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and others, to include any smart sovereign nation, really, to actually do that. Wait, but don't hold your breath.)

But, I digress. The point of this article is to "out" myself, I guess, and admit to my friends and neighbors that, at least according to Nodding, Nanny Napolitano, I must be a right-wing extremist -- and I live just down the street or across town from you and, for Madame Secretary, I live within 20 miles of Washington, DC. So, I guess you should all be afraid -- be very afraid. Not of me, but of your increasingly out-of-control, out-of-touch and inept government. After all, any government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take all you have, or words to that effect by one Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Remember him? He seemed to know about Big Brother long before Orwell and 1984. I wonder if he would have been thought of, say, by the British and perhaps some of his own fellow Americans, as an extremist, too? Just a thought.