As we come up on Memorial Day and I think about my relatives and ancestors who sacrificed their lives during military service, I always begin to ponder the "why" behind such service. There are times when a country just has to use "hard power" vs. "soft power" and I don't think I could explain it better than this segment of a speech by Gen. Colin Powell on January 26, 2003:

The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It's why we participate in all of these great international organizations.

There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power -- and here I think you're referring to military power -- then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with.

I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years -- and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan -- and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

Posted by Thomas MacEntee at 10:54 AM | 1 comments Links to this post    

Labels: death, freedom, military

Have you ever been fed up with different websites using different rules/requirements for login IDs and passwords? Do you have so many different passwords and IDs that you have to maintain them on a spreadsheet or a handwritten document? And have you considered what would happen if that document got into the wrong hands?

Last month I decided to look into the concept of a "password locker" which is an application that would store my IDs and passwords for frequently visited sites. My requirements for such a device:

- it could be secured with a different master password, meaning that in order to access the application someone would need a password that would then allow them to use the other passwords

- it would not relay any information back to the vendor's website or other locations - privacy is important

- it had to know when I needed it, meaning it would pop up when I accessed the login screen for a website

- and it had to be free!

Sounds great but impossible right? Well, I did find one such application and it is called ALPass from ESTsoft.

Click any of the links above to download the product and then install it. Once configured here is how it works:

- You can set up the app so that it opens automatically when turning on the computer or requires entry of the master password. The ALPass application will request your master password to continue:



- Once logged in, you can close the application and it will still remain active. In the SysTray area of Windows, you will see the "key" icon for ALPass which tells you it is ready to assist when you are on a website page requiring a login and password:



- When you reach a website, such as New England Historic Genealogical Society, enter your login and password. Open ALPass and click Add Site. Enter the login and password again. Now the data will be available the next time you visit this site.



- On your next visit to NEHGS, using our example, ALPass will "pop up" and all you need to do is click the Fill button. ALPass will close and you can then click Enter to complete the process.

Posted by Thomas MacEntee at 1:33 PM | 1 comments Links to this post    

Labels: genea-geek, technology

My parents, Jacqueline Austin and Richard MacEntee,
Senior Prom, May 21, 1960, Liberty, New York

Posted by Thomas MacEntee at 9:06 AM | 1 comments Links to this post    

Labels: Austin, MacEntee, Mom, school

Just an update for readers and followers as to my unusual lack of posting lately. It has been a busy May and while I really miss my writing and blogging, it has been a bit difficult to concentrate. I also apologize for the lack of comments on all my favorite genea-blogger sites.

I am in the process of putting my mother into hospice, which really is a good thing. Right now we are doing a "transition" which means in the nursing home where she is the only ambulatory person among 100 or so patients, she will have someone spend more one on one time with her. Then sometime over the summer she will actually physcially move to the hospice unit in the complex. I plan on making a trip to New York to see her in mid-July for her birthday and for an annual informal family reunion that my aunt puts on each year.

Also I've been making some health progress with my arthritis. I received a cortisone injection into the hip yesterday which should kick in over the course of the next few days. Then I can finally go to physical therapy and rebuild the muscles around each hip. And I was able to get a great foldable cane (on Amazon, where else would this shopping maven go?) which takes the weight off the left hip. As well, I've now been put on morphine which finally has allowed me to sleep more than two hours a night. I anticipate a good, if not full recovery by the end of this summer.

Finally, I am busy getting ready to host a reception at my home in Chicago for 75 people in support of Ghar Sita Mutu. My good friend in New York has designed the website and done much work for this group which runs a home in Nepal for abandonded children as well as a training program for destitute women. So I've been sprucing up the place and getting everything ready for what will hopefully be an informative (and profitable) evening.

I hope everyone is well - I will be putting up more posts later today as well as taking advantage of Blogger's draft posting.

Posted by Thomas MacEntee at 8:44 AM | 4 comments Links to this post    

Labels: genea-bloggers, Mom

In the United States, Armed Forces Day is the third Saturday in May and commemorates the consolidation of all the military services into the Department of Defense. Prior to 1949 our armed forces were considered separate entities (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard) and each had its own commemmoration day.

So if you don't fly the flag every day, today is a great day to do so. I have a huge 5 x 8 foot flag used to drape a coffin during a military funeral and I always hang it (in the proper direction of course!) off the back deck. I'm sure my neighbors have no idea it is Armed Forces Day but perhaps they'll see it and ask!

[Note: if you want to learn more about how the United States flag should be displayed and when, click here.]

Posted by Thomas MacEntee at 10:51 AM | 2 comments Links to this post    

Labels: freedom, military