Hank, first of all, I couldn't possibly DISAGREE with your first post MORE. In my opinion, it's totally off-base. But I'll come back later and post a reply when I have more time. All in all, this seems to be less about Memorial Day, when we should be respectfully honoring those who gave their lives, and more about your continual anti-Bush hatred.
As to your second post here, before I run out for the day, you have the entire purpose for this web site wrong. Memorial Day is SUPPOSED to be about remembering those who served their country and who gave their lives for a greater good. And sadly, often too many people forget the stories that go along with those sacrifices. As a result, when something comes along that allows people to put faces and names together with incidents or stories...and it likewise gives them a chance to reflect or it allows them to gather information that they might not have known before...that's actually a GOOD thing. Again, because the whole POINT to something like Memorial Day is to REMEMBER those sacrifices. And to even learn from them.
That said, below is a link to a CNN article talking about this web site that you seem to find so distasteful Hank. While I didn't see the CNN report, I'm sure that John King wasn't "orgasmic" over dead soldiers -- what he was most likely happy about was the fact that there was now a hi-tech way for people to gather information if they were interested in finding out more about someone they know or lost track of...those that made sacrifices from their home town, etc. Here are select quotes from the article to show you what I'm talking about, Hank...
(CNN) -- Each year on Memorial Day, tens of thousands of Americans visit Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington to pay tribute to the men and women who died serving the United States. For people who are unable to make the trip, a new online memorial provides a unique way to honor those service members who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new Google Earth layer, called Map the Fallen, enables the user to pinpoint where, when, and how each service member died since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. A line connects the service member's approximate location of death to his or her hometown.
As the article notes (and in defense of John King against your odd interpretation of his attitude, Hank)...
"To honor is to remember and to pay tribute," says CNN's John King, who debuted the layer Sunday on State of the Union with John King. "Some of us probably don't know that someone we knew long ago went off to Iraq or Afghanistan and didn't come home. A click on a hometown might bring a sad surprise. Or maybe we do know, but aren't sure how to put this loss into context, or find a fitting way to pay tribute. With this new layer, help is just a few clicks away," says King.
WHY someone created it...
Sean Askay, a Google engineer with no military affiliation who developed the layer in his free time, explains the project on his blog. "I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories -- you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial Web sites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died," he writes. Askay started working on this project about four years ago while in graduate school. He came across the Web site icasualties.org, and was drawn to the stories of the fallen troops. He chose to focus on the U.S. and coalition forces' deaths.
And lastly, note that others obviously don't share your feelings about this site, Hank...
For Karen Meredith, who found out about the death of her son, Lt. Ken Ballard, on Memorial Day five years ago, it is an emotional tribute that she is thrilled to see up and running. "It's so important to me for people to know about my son. I found out that Ken was the second person killed in Najaf [Iraq], and I didn't know that. That's what this demonstrated. It's a powerful amount of information," she told CNN. "I want people to know how Ken lived, not just how he died. And this program allows people to know about him," she said.
Kris Stonesifer is the third soldier on the map. He and fellow ranger John Edmunds were killed in a helicopter accident in Pakistan on October 19, 2001 -- part of the U.S. military effort in the Afghanistan war. Stonesifer's mother, Ruth, told CNN that this project is a reminder of the true meaning of Memorial Day, which she feels is often overlooked.
Here's the longer CNN article if anyone is interested in finding out more...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/24/m...fallen.troops/
And here is the web site created to honor those who gave their lives...
http://www.mapthefallen.org/
And on this Memorial Day, I'd just like to send out my prayers and thanks, as an American, to anyone else here who has a family member or friend who gave their lives in the service of their country. Today, my Dad will be marching with my Uncles to remember the time they served together lo those many years ago. And to be sure, I'm sure their thoughts and hearts will be on two of my other Uncles -- their own brothers -- who did give their lives in service. So, God rest their souls and God bless anyone else today who is likewise remembering the sacrifices of people from their lives.