Filed under: | History

Sixty-five years ago today, at 0753 hours Hawaii Standard Time, the Attack on Pearl Harbor took place. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was right: Japan awoke a sleeping giant in the USA and filled her with a terrible resolve, which culiminated in less than four years with Japan’s utter defeat.
This photo (click on the thumbnail) is of the USS Arizona‘s anchor, which now rests at the east end of Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix, as does her mast.
I most certainly will always Remember Pearl Harbor, as do Vilmar and a host of other bloggers...especially Emperor Misha I; he hits the nail right on the head.

Filed under: | Axis of Donks | History

Recently, Jimmy Carter released yet another book lambasting the United States for its policy toward Israel (which he labels as an apartheid state) and the Paleostinians, and of course, calls for a Paleostintian state to be set up. We all know right now how that is going to turn out; we see Hamas and Fatah at each other’s throats when they’re not busy calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. And of course, he has never forgiven the American People for kicking his a** out of the Oval Office in 1980. His disdain for us knows no bounds.
Perhaps this small accident on December 12, 1952 could shed some light on his condition:

The first serious nuclear accident occurred at AECL’s NRX reactor in Chalk River, Canada. A reactor shutoff rod failure, combined with several operator errors, led to a major power excursion of more than double the reactor’s rated output. The operators purged the reactor’s heavy water moderator, and the reaction stopped in under 30 seconds. A cover gas system failure led to hydrogen explosions, which severely damaged the reactor’s interior. The fission products of approximately 30 kg of uranium were released through the reactor stack. Irradiated light-water coolant leaked from the damaged coolant circuit into the reactor building; some 4,000 cubic metres were pumped via pipeline to a disposal area to avoid contamination of the Ottawa River. Subsequent monitoring of surrounding water sources revealed no contamination. No immediate fatalities or injuries resulted from the incident; a 1982 followup study of exposed workers showed no long-term health effects. Future U.S. President Jimmy Carter, then a nuclear engineer in the US Navy, was among the cleanup crew.

Go figure.

Filed under: | History

Man I can’t stand it when my body wants to get up at this awful hour on Sunday morning. So I decided to go through my photo archives and I found this reference to the writings of George Santayana (who, as it turns out, was never an American Citizen...and even I am surprised at that), which I take to be a paraphrase, located at the base of this Arizona memorial. Click on the thumbnail to reveal the words.
Yes, these words hit home too. Think about them.

Filed under: | History

It is on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month that we commemorate those fallen Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, and Airmen who have fought for the freedoms which we enjoy today and which we MUST preserve. We must also thank any living Veteran for those sacrifices as well.
THEY FIGHT FOR US.

Filed under: | History

On this date in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was born. Their traditions carry through over the years to this day. They are the Devil Dogs, the Jarheads, the Leathernecks, whose a**es ride in Navy equipment safely. They roar OOO-RAH! Their Hymn reflects the many places they have fought, and died, for freedom. They are Always Faithful. FOR US.
Happy Birthday Marines!

Filed under: | History

These sons of bitches took our Embassy staff Hostage. The day will come when we will exact our payback for this foul deed, and then some.
Flash back to one of the members of this notorious band of b*st*rds.

Filed under: | Axis of Evil | History

See this image? Neville Chamberlain held this piece of paper up after the Munich Conference of September 1938, at which he sold Czechoslovakia down the river in exchange for “peace for our time.” One year later, Hitler invaded Poland...and World War II was on.
Now, look very carefully at the picture below and burn it...no, sear it, sear it into your memory. See? John Kerry’s quote is good for something!

There are a number of parties which we can directly attribute their actions to enable North Korea’s nuclear test last evening, and none of them are President Bush. We can start here: Madeline Albright, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton (at least he wasn’t getting visits from Monica at the time) NEGOTIATED with this little madman, and he promptly turned his back on said agreement and went right on developing uranium and plutonium enrichment capabilities.
Just like Hitler.
We can also place the Chinese squarely in the picture, since North Korea is their client state. They could have brought Kim to heel, but they chose not to. Now, both Japan and Taiwan, not to mention South Korea, could all have nuclear arsenals of their very own within six months, and this is not something China bargained for. God only knows what the Russians think of this: after all, Vladivostok is also within range of North Korean missiles.
And the Donks? They’re too busy salivating at the salacious details of former Representative Mark Foley’s pecadilloes with young men to give a damn. This is what the world has come to.

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UPDATE (1300 MST): For those of you who might be wondering what that guy in the middle of the North Korean photo op might be thinking...go here.

Filed under: | History

21st-century technology has found the “a” in Neil Armstrong’s famous words upon setting foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969. I’ve always had the belief that he actually said the one-letter word, but that the radio transmission technology of the time couldn’t clearly broadcast it to the world. Listen for yourself.

HAT TIP: Speed of Thought

Filed under: | History | War on Terror

This is a scan (courtesy of Atlas Shrugs) of the New York Times before the spin began.
It was at 0846 hours Eastern Time on September 11, 2001 that American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, followed by United Airlines Flight 175 at 0902 hours striking the South Towers. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 0937 hours, and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 1003 hours. All told, 2,973 people were killed, and 24 remain listed as Missing.
It’s five years later...and one side believes we should cut and run from Iraq. Osama is still on the run. Capturing him will NOT end the War on Terror. And there are two puny countries who are about to brandish nuclear weaponry to threaten us. This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. I have but one thing to say to those Islamofascists who want to bring the world under their religious sword:
WE WILL COME FOR YOU. May God Bless America!

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MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO 9/11: The Blue Man Group released this music video, Exhibit 13, three years ago. It’s available on The Complex CD and DVD. I’ve always considered it to be a very powerful, moving piece. I ask that you watch it twice: once of the video itself, then play it again and listen to the music as you imagine your family, your friends, all the places you’ve been to, and all the places you want to go to. THAT is what we must fight for. All of it.

Filed under: | History

Genghis Khan, that is....

In 1206, a Mongol warrior named Temüjin united the Mongol tribes and began one of the greatest conquests in world history, as the Mongols swept westward across the Asian steppes and well into Europe (just ask the Russians!) and the Middle East (both Iraq and Iran do not think kindly of him).
Today, the annual Naadam festival kicks off in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulan Bator, and the Mongolians are making a concentrated effort to venerate Genghis Khan’s accomplishments; he had been frowned upon when Communists ruled the country. There’s even a movement afoot to rename Ulan Bator (which means “Red Hero") to Genghis City. So if you want to go to one monster party with lots of wine (actually, wodka!), women, and horses, then Mongolia’s the place to be.

Filed under: | History

While we in the USA were celebrating our Bicentennial, half a world away a daring and dramatic rescue operation took place when the IDF flew a hostage rescue force from Israel to the Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. The ordeal began on June 27, 1976, when Air France Flight 139 was hijacked from Athens, Greece by Palestinian and German terrorists. They diverted the plane to Benghazi, Libya, and after refueling (and the release of one female hostage) continued on to Entebbe.
Upon reaching Entebbe, the Israeli and Jewish passengers were separated from their Gentile counterparts (who were released). The terrorists threatened to kill the remaining hostages if Israel did not release 40 Palestinians held in Israel and 13 other prisoners held in Kenya, Germany, Switzerland, and France by July 1.
The Israeli rescue operation was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu, the older brother of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the only IDF fatality. His express orders were to ensure the safety of the hostages first, before any casualties were treated. 100 hostages, and the crew of Air France 139, were rescued in the daring attack which began at 2300 hours (local time) on July 4, 1976 and lasted less than thirty minutes. Only three hostages were lost. The raid and the freed hostages returned home to thousands of well-wishers.
After the raid, Uganda called for a Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the raid, claiming violation of sovereignty, which did not pass. Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog responded by addressing the Council:

“We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel’s circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people — men, women and children — but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom.”

As long as Free Men and Women around the world stand up to the forces of Darkness, Evil shall NEVER PREVAIL.

Filed under: | History

230 years ago today, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the following document, and 56 men pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor so that men and women everywhere could be free.
Presented here is the text of the Declaration of Independence.

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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Filed under: | History

And I must say, for a guy who’s 91 years old and still kickin’ around, he’s got the right attitude. Paul Tibbets said the following to Studs Terkel in a 2002 interview:

“We’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the s**t: ‘You’ve killed so many civilians.’ That’s their tough luck for being there.”

Yes. In war, people DIE. It sucks, but it’s the truth.

Filed under: | History

Ronald Reagan passed away:

“And whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you—and especially for young people—is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here. May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.” -- Ronald Reagan, 1992

Yep, I still miss him, and I always will.

Filed under: | History

THEY FIGHT FOR US.

From Cox and Forkum Editorial Cartoons.