If we are going to piss all over Peggy Noonan, you can go here to the "Media Whores On Line" site and really do it right.

Noonan was not expressing shock or amazement that these men were brave, just that she was pleased that this bravery was finally being recognized by the general public, and passing this recognition along to her readers.

For the record, Noonan was raised as a Democrat, and spent her college years working as a waitress, while attended Fairleigh Dickinson University at night to get a BA in English. If she had a silver spoon in her mouth, it was only because her hands were full of dirty plates.

As for "giving money to the retirement fund," a great many of the wealthiest people in this country have done just that. Bill Gates gave $10 million to the September 11 Fund, just one such charity, which has to date received almost $300 million in donations. (Now, if we all want to piss all over Bill Gates, we can go here.)

I'm glad your grandfather was a railroad worker, and a good man. I'm still looking forward to you publishing his memoirs that you mentioned before. My grandparents were farmers, and I'm willing to bet a lot of those let-them-eat-cake bastards occupying corner offices had grandparents who were blue collar workers themselves.

I will be the first to admit that the "grunts"--not the term of derision you seem to think it is--don't get the appreciation in our society that they deserve for keeping our systems running, but then there are a lot of people who don't give the typical businessman any credit either for what he does for the economy.

I sincerely hope you were also standing up for the "grunts"--the real ones, in military uniforms--when they were coming home from Viet Nam and getting spit on by the leftists who stayed behind. You sound to me like the kind of person who would not have been one of the spitters.