Charles Wilkerson

Bourbon, Cigars, Hockey, Family & Friends

[Linus ✦ Ekenstam @LinusEkenstam]

Internet please make this a trend

[Anticommie @QueenAnticommie]

Good news for some of my friends😂

[Paul @WomanDefiner]

NASCAR Was better when you had guys named Dick Trickle sponsored by Miller brewing company, smoking heaters while flying around a track at 200 miles per hour.

[TONY™ @TONYxTWO]

Don’t forget what this weekend is all about

RIP to all the heroes who gave everything for our freedom 🇺🇸🙏🏼

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

Christmas, 1967. Vietnam. Bob Hope cracks a joke. Then the ground erupts. Rocket impact. The stage shakes. 10,000 troops hit the dirt — mud, helmets, silence.
Secret Service and MPs rush him. “Sir, we’re evacuating. Now.”

Bob Hope steps back to the mic.

He looks at 10,000 men flat on Christmas Day, 9,000 miles from their kids, and says:
“Relax, fellas. If they’re shooting at us, that means we’re the most important people in the world.”

The mud laughs. Then stands up.
And the show goes on.

That wasn’t bravery for cameras. That was Tuesday for Bob Hope.

1941: He starts with 300 soldiers in California. Sees their faces. Gets addicted.
“I looked at them, they laughed at me, and it was love at first sight,” he said.
He never kicked it.

So he chased the wars.

North Africa, 1943 — while the desert was still on fire.
South Pacific, 1944 — island to island, with snipers in the trees.
Korea, 1950 — performing in parkas, breath freezing on the mic.
Vietnam, 1964–1972 — every. single. Christmas.

No five-star hotels. He flew in C-130s with the troops. Ate what they ate. Slept on cots that smelled like mildew and diesel.
And he brought backup: Ann-Margret, Raquel Welch, Joey Heatherton.
Why? Because “a girl in sequins on a plywood stage in a war zone isn’t a show. It’s a reminder. That home is real. That you’re going back.”

He wasn’t drafted. He wasn’t paid extra.
He turned down millions to spend Christmas with strangers who had rifles.

31 Christmases in a row.
1942 to 1972. No breaks. No excuses.
Your dad missed one Christmas for work and you still bring it up.
Bob Hope missed 31 with his wife and kids… on purpose.

And when the wars “ended”? He kept going.
1983: Beirut, days after 241 Marines were killed.
1987: Persian Gulf.
1990: Desert Storm. He was 87. Eighty. Seven.

Four wars. Five decades. 11–15 million troops.
He buried friends. He flew through flak. He told jokes while doctors did triage 50 feet away.

A reporter asked him after that rocket attack: “Why risk it? You could do this in Vegas.”

Hope smiled. “Because Christmas in a war zone is when a laugh weighs the most.”

He died in 2003 at 100 years old.
No one remembers his monologue timing.
They remember the sound of hope — literal Hope — cutting through artillery.

He never fired a shot.
But he stood on more battlefields than most generals.
He never wore a uniform.
But he showed up more than anyone who did.

On the one day a year when being away from home breaks you… he was there.
31 times.

That’s not a career.
That’s a commitment.

Digital Artwork | AI Generated Image by Fresh Mind |

[Defiant L’s @DefiantLs]

What do you think?

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Low budget Alien

[Ancient History Hub @AncientHistorry]

In 458 BC, Rome was on the brink of collapse.

An invading army had trapped the Roman consul and his legion in a mountain pass. Panic spread through the city. The Senate did the only thing they could think of:

They sent messengers to find a 60-year-old farmer plowing his field.

His name was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He had once been a senator, then lost his fortune paying his son's bail. Now he worked his own four-acre plot just to feed his family.

When the Senate's envoys arrived, they found him sweating behind a plow. They asked him to put on his toga so they could deliver an official message.

The message: Rome was making him dictator. Absolute power. Total command of the army. No checks. No oversight. No term limit.

He accepted.

Within 16 days, Cincinnatus had raised an army, marched out, surrounded the enemy, and forced their surrender. The republic was saved.

He had legal authority to rule for six months. He could have stayed. He could have expanded his power. He could have done what every other ruler in human history did when handed unlimited control.

Instead, he resigned on day 16.

He took off the toga, walked back to his farm, and finished plowing the field he'd left half-done.

Twenty years later, when Rome faced another crisis, they called him back. He was 80 years old. He took command, crushed the conspiracy, and resigned again, this time after just 21 days.

He died poor. On his farm.

2,200 years later, when George Washington was offered a kingship after winning the American Revolution, he refused and went home to Mount Vernon. The reason he was hailed as "the American Cincinnatus" is because Europeans literally could not believe a man who had won would willingly give up power.

King George III, on hearing Washington would resign rather than rule, said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

The lesson isn't that Cincinnatus was humble.

The lesson is that for most of human history, the people most qualified to lead were the ones who didn't want to. And the moment a society starts rewarding those who chase power instead of those who flee from it is the moment the republic begins to die.

Cincinnati, Ohio is named after him.

Most people who live there have no idea why.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The size of the volcano under Yellowstone

[Habitual Linecrosser @HLC_actual]

@AryJeayBackup Man the US has never used this tactic…… oh wait here’s a plane bigger and lower. Fucking camel jockeys

[MERICA MEMED @Mericamemed]

Little Red Riding Hood, but based in the US

[Todd Spence @Todd_Spence]

A New Jersey high school put on an ALIEN: THE PLAY production and even built a xenomorph suit that would lurk around the audience. The best part is Sigourney Weaver herself showed up to check out the production 🔥 so cool

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Possibly the greatest single male athletic performance of all time

[Vince Langman @LangmanVince]

This is pretty funny 😂

[Interesting AF @interesting_aIl]

Why does it slap tho

[Dudes Posting Their W’s @DudespostingWs]

Calgary Flames goalie Dustin Wolf gives his stick to a 10-year-old superfan after the game and the kid can’t hold back his emotions.

[Thomas Geboy @ThomasGeboyWX]

The Super Delta over Pensacola Beach this morning! Thanks to Benjamin Cash, Gulf Bay Photography, for sharing! @mynbc15 @natwxdesk @NWSMobile @weartv @AllEmeraldCoast

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The Turin shroud, brought to life by AI

[General Mike Flynn @GenFlynn]

@johnkonrad So well stated. Thank you for putting this out there. And so very true! 🙏🏼🇺🇸