Despite the mostly mild winter in the DMV, St. Patrick's Day 2018 had weather which mimicked the Emerald Isle as it was chilly, overcast with a touch of rain. Still hearty partiers shook their fists at the sky and danced a jig at Shamrockfest, which was held on the grounds of RFK stadium.
Shamrockfest featured three stages. The Electric Isle featured DJs spinning tunes under a big tent. DJ Clinton Matthews kicked things off at what became quite the popular venue.
Watching DJ Clinton Matthews while wearing the green at Shamrockfest
The Shamrock Gold and Shamrock Green stages rotated with bands playing high energy rock with a touch of the Irish. One had to marvel at the guitar playing prowess demonstrated by Reel Big Fish.
Reel Big Fish performing at Shamrockfest
And it was craic to rock to Carbon Leaf.
Carbon Leaf playing at Shamrockfest
Of course there was plenty of festival food and libations to enjoy, with plenty of Guinness and Jamison.
Shamrockfest is said to be one of the largest outdoor St. Patrick Day festivals around. People really try to dress to impress to show their Irish. Some chose to sport some udderly crazy costumes (sic) to have a good time.
Having an udderly good time at Shamrockfest 2018
Shamrockfest is produced by Red Frog Events. In mid June, they will hold Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware, which is a four day music extravaganza which will feature scores of bands, headlined by Eminem, the Arctic Monkeys and The Killers.
The National D-Day Memorial is located in Bedford, Virginia. This site in in the Blue Ridge Mountains in rural southwest Virginia was chosen because it was the community the suffered the most per capita D-Day losses in the nation.
There were 150,000 Allied troops that landed on the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy, including 34 troops from Bedford. Of the 9,000 killed and wounded during the D-Day invasion, 19 of the Boys of Bedford paid the ultimate price to preserve freedom and four more died later during the Normandy campaign.
The National D-Day Memorial was dedicated on June 6th, 2001 by President George W. Bush. America's 43rd Commander-in-Chief implored:
"Fifty-seven years ago, America and the nations of Europe formed a bond that has never been broken. And all of us incurred a debt that can never be repaid. Today, as America dedicates our D-Day Memorial, we pray that our country will always be worthy of the courage that delivered us from evil and saved the free world."
The National D-Day Memorial honors by name all 4,413 Allied soldiers who died on D-Day during Operation Overlord (the actual invasion) and Operation Neptune (transporting the troops across the English channel). But the 88 acre National D-Day Memorial does much more serve as a site for necrology. The Memorial seeks to tell the story of D-Day , from its planning, execution and aftermath.
The first Plaza is a stylized English garden symbolizes the planning and preparations for the greatest amphibious invasion in history. The Reynolds Garden is dedicated to the visionary industrialist who forsaw America's need for aluminum. In the late 1930s, Richard Reynolds put his fortune and reputation on the line to provide enough aluminum for the United States to build and sustain the air force that gave the Allies overwhelming air superiority for the retaking of Europe on D-Day.
The plaza is in the shape of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force combat patch. Following British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's sense of history and drama, the invasion code name was Overlord, evoking crusader knights and chivalric quests, the SHAEF insignia features a crusader shield with a flaming sword of expulsion.
The Reynolds Garden is peaked by a domed Tuscan folly with a full figured bronze of General Dwight Eisenhower standing below a canopied mosaic of the D-Day battle map. This classical revival feature recalls the architecture of Southwick House, where Ike decided to launch the invasion despite less than ideal weather.
The the parameter of the plaza also includes busts of the six Allied Generals who were involved with D-Day invasion: Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Air Chief Marshal, Leigh-Mallory, Admiral Ramsey, Field Marshall Montgomery, Lt. General Omar Bradley, and Lt. General Walter Smith.
Circle of Generals involved in Allied D-Day Invasion, Reynolds Garden, National D-Day Memorial [photo: BD Matt]
The next level is Gray Plaza iis an assault tableau which depicts the landing and fighting stage of the invasion. Across the Beach (includes an invasion pool with beach obstacles in the water, a Higgins invasion craft and sculptures of soldiers struggling to get onshore. The names of the American fallen appear on the western walls of the central plaza while the rest of the Allied losses are on the eastern wall.
Soldier under fire detail of Across the Beach (2008) by Jim Brothers at National D-Day Memorial [photo credit: BD Matt]
Across the Beach tableau (2008) by Jim Brothers, National D-Day Memorial [photo credit: BD Matt]
Across the Beach tableau (2008) by Jim Brothers, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford Virginia [photo credit: BD Matt]
POV from Higgins boat, Across the Beach (2008) tableau by Jim Brothers, National D-Day Memorial
Scaling the Wall , National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia
[photo credit: BD Matt]
Detail, Scaling the Wall (2001) by Jim Brothers, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford Virginia [photo credit: BD Matt]
There are also airplanes which represent the importance that air power had in the Allied invasion.
Representation of Aircraft used on June 6th 1944, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia
Propellers from D-Day era aircraft, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia [photo credit: BD Matt]
The upper level is the Estes Plaza which is dominated by Overlord Arch which is flanked by the twelve flags of the Allied Expeditionary Force. The Arch stands 44 feet and six inches tall.
Honor Guard practicing before D-Day ceremonies, National D-Day Memorial
Valor, Fidelity Sacrifice Bronze by Jim Brothers (2001) and Overlord Victory Arch at D-Day Memorial,
Bedford, Virginia [photo credit: BD Matt]
Valor, Fidelity Sacrifice Bronze by Jim Brothers (2001), National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia [photo credit: BD Matt]
The planners of the National D-Day Memorial had not forgotten the horrors of war along with the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of Allied troops. The final section of the National D-Day Memorial includes a haunting bronze of Edmond de Laheudri's Le Monument aux Morts (1921), which stood monument to those fallen in combat in the Great War (a.k.a. World War I) besides St. Aignan in Trevieres, France. Shortly after the Allied D-Day invasion, there was an intense battle around the statue during which removed the face and some of the fingers of the doughboy Nike.
Recast bronze of Le Monument aux Morts (1921) by Edmond de Laheudri,
National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia [Photo credit: BD Matt]
Transformed by battle, Le Monument aux Morts stands in Trevieres and at the National D-Day memorial as a haunting testament to the destructiveness of war, the fleeting fruits of victory and the fragility of peace.
Brronze of Le Monument aux Morts (1921) by Edmond de Laheudri, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia [Photo credit: BD Matt]
Inverted M1 Garland Rifle bronze by Matt Kirby (2001) at National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia
The National D-Day Memorial's attempt to tell a broader story about the Second World War caused some controversy. As the Reynolds Garden is circled by the military leaders of D-Day, the planners wanted to include a garden which depicted political leaders after D-Day who ensured the peace after World War II. The circle included President Franklin Roosevelt (who died shortly before V-E Day), British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who was ousted from office shortly after victory over Germany), President Harry Truman, Prime Minister Clement Attlee, French leader Charles De Gaulle and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
The latter bust went over like a lead zepplin with veterans' groups as Stalin had no involvement with the Allies in the Western front and arguably triggered the Cold War with forceful imposition of communism in most places where the Red Army occupied. While the National D-Day Memorial board still believed that war makes strange bedfellows and wanted to depict that within the site, they bowed to public pressure and relocated the Stalin bust. Perhaps when the interpretation center is completed with a monument to post World War II Secretary of State George Marshall, there will be a fuller picture of the interpreted history. For now, Stalin is not in "The Winner's Circle". However, based upon the horrors depicted in the transformed Le Monument aux Morts, it is questionable if anyone is truly a winner in the aftermath of war.
Tea Party Patriot President Jenny Beth Martin at 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN 6th) thanks Tea Party Patriots at 5th Anniversary event
True the Vote' Founder Catherine Engelbrecht tells the Tea Party Patriots how her good governance efforts to better ensure non fraudulent voting resulted into government harassment [photo credit: BD Matt]
Talk Radio host and author Mark Levin inspires the Tea Party Patriots with stories about the Founding Fathers and Ronald Reagan at the TPP 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
Rep. Steve King (R-IA 4th) lets loose against alleged Obama Administration abuses at the Tea Party
Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) shows his Senate photo ID at the TPP 5th Anniversary [photo: BD Matt]
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX 1st) speaks at the Tea Party Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recounts egregious examples of government waste at the Tea Party
Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) energizes the Tea Party Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]
As May 1st drew to a close, a strange sight was seen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, as a small wave of red flags paraded toward the White House.
May Day Protest in front of White House [Photo: BD Matt]
It turns out that a coalition of lefty groups gathered together to demonstrate for May Day in front of the Peoples’ House. The group looked very caucasian, pretty privileged (lots of smart phones, I-Pads and expensive cameras to capture the moment). Presumably, these would be the same useful idiots who would be part of an Occupy experience, except they have recently bathed.
Meager May Day Protest in front of White House [Photo: BD Matt]
While scenic shot may look like the Red Twilight Protest to look like a mass movement, there were less than two hundred participants, mostly youthful individuals who probably should have been studying for finals.
Obama Giant Puppet at May Day Demonstration in front of White House [Photo: BD Matt]
What leftist protest would be the same without giant puppets? Since this was more of a mobile protest, the caricature of President Barack Obama looked pretty two dimensional.
Code Pink Guantanamo Street Theater at White House May Day Protest [Photo: BD Matt]
IWW demonstator waving Wobbly Flag at May Day Protest at White House [Photo: BD Matt]
The “wobbly” Red Flag is from the Industrial Workers of the World, a “one big union” organization which was established in America in 1905. As of 2005, the “Wobblies” have about 5,000 members in their anti-free market union, whereas the AFL-CIO has 13 million members.
Parade of red flags at May Day protest in front of the White House [photo: BD Matt]
Media moment at the May Day protest at the White House [Photo: BD Matt]
Police keeping order at the White House May Day protest [Photo: BD Matt]
Law Enforcement Officers looked ready to stop the charade by taking out plastic handcuffs for the persistent protestors without a permit. While the White House May Day Protest looked like it was a made for media moment, the violence in Seattle for May Day may be more telling.
One of the more striking images from the Boston Marathon bombing was a photograph of a ashen hued, gravely injured victim being wheeled away from the terror site.
Carlos Arredondo assisting Jeff Bauman, at Boston Marathon Bombing
[photo credit : Charles Crupa/ AP]
Jeff Bauman, Jr. is a 27 year old was waiting near the finish line to cheer on his girlfriend running in her first Boston Marathon. After the first explosion, Bauman had lost both legs below the calf and his shirt was on fire. The man in the cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo, stopped distributing flags, jumped over the fence and ran toward the victims laying on the ground. Arredondo extinguished Bauman’s burning shirt with his hands, tore off a shirt to act as a tourniquet on a leg stump. Arredondo stayed with Bauman to comfort him until emergency workers reached the blast victim. Bauman had to be resurrected during surgery as he had almost exsanguinated. Unfortunately, both of Bauman’s legs had to be amputated. But while Bauman was still in intensive care on Tuesday under heavy sedation, he asked for paper and a writing utensil. The patient wrote “bag, saw the guy, looked write at me.” When Bauman was put in contact with the FBI, he was able to describe the bomber as wearing “cap, sun glasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt.” Bauman noted that he locked eyes with the terrorist who placed the backpack at the finish line. This description was enough for law enforcement to eventually identify Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspect number 1. As news broke out that Bauman was instrumental in identifying one of the terrorists, bloggers began a crowd-funding campaign to cover Bauman's medical costs, which had raised $160,000 by Friday afternoon. In addition, Jeff Bauman was visited at Boston Medical Center on Thursday by Silver Lining Playbook star Bradley Cooper and New England Patriots Receiver Julius Edelman. The football player tweeted a photo with the Twitter message: 'Visited #survivor #stud #hero Jeffrey Bauman Jr. today. He was looking great and is a true inspiration. #strong'.
Jeff Bauman, Jr. being visited by Bradley Cooper and Julius Edelman [photo credit: @Edelman11/Twitter]
After the hub of strange activity around the Boston Bombing and the the bloody manhunt which shut down Beantown on Friday, it is good to give fanfare for the common men like Bauman and Arrendondo who facilitated the capture of the terrorist bombers. May there be more stories of heroics to bring ALL of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon Bombing to justice.
Shamrockfest is produced by Red Frog Events. In mid June, they will hold Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware, which is a four day music extravaganza which will feature scores of bands, headlined by Eminem, the Arctic Monkeys and The Killers. 
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