Posts Tagged ‘history’

Writers block, nothing to say

Posted: September 8, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, opinion/news
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You know I been thinking and thinking and I can’t think of a think I feel like saying about anything else right now, but some other people have interesting things to say today.

VDH has some great comparisons between past the present concerning President Obama:

Once upon a time, Candidate Obama also assured skeptical voters that he would show us how to transcend race. He was no Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, who used skin color and white guilt for careerist purposes. The Reverend Wright, “typical white person,” Michelle Obama’s “downright mean country,” and the Pennsylvania “clingers” remark were mere aberrations of the exhausting campaign, hyped by the shameless right wing.

But soon the people got the attorney general of the United States calling them racial cowards and dismissing voter-intimidation suits against club-wielding Black Panthers who had swarmed voting booths. Cambridge police were relegated to Neanderthal profilers who stereotyped the innocent, such as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Environment czar Van Jones warned of white conspiracies to pollute the ghetto and bragged that blacks, unlike whites, did not go on public-school shooting sprees. The nation’s most powerful politicians, like House Ways and Means chairman Charlie Rangel and New York governor David Paterson, for some strange reason, were suddenly victims of racial bias, which alone explained their travails. All this was not supposed to happen in the age of Obama.

Jay Nordlinger expands:

They say that “hate” is rearing its head, and that President Obama and the Democrats are the victims of it. Let me make a couple of predictions: I predict that the chairman of the Republican National Committee will never say, “I hate the Democrats and everything they stand for. This [politics, basically] is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good.”

Howard Dean said that about the GOP: “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for. . . .”

I predict that an editor of a conservative magazine will never write a piece called “The Case for Obama Hatred,” beginning, “I hate President Barack Obama.”

A New Republic editor did this, about Bush.

Byron York continues to show why his loss is painful for National Review:

The first words of the Times’ story on Jones’ resignation were, “In a victory for Republicans and the Obama administration’s conservative critics. …” One news anchor suggested Jones was “the Republican right’s first scalp.” Other coverage called the Jones affair a victory for Glenn Beck, Fox News, right-wing blogs, and even Sarah Palin, who played no role in the matter.

If you throw in Rush Limbaugh, you have all the bogey-people of the conservative world. To some on the left, including some journalists, denying them a victory was a top priority, no matter what Van Jones had said and done.

There was a day, not too long ago, when the Times and other influential news organizations could kill a story — could deny the bad guys a win — simply by ignoring it. Sometimes they still try. But it just won’t work anymore.

Just one Minute highlighted a Firedog post that rolled my eyes:

Now he’s been thrown under the bus by the White House for signing his name to a petition expressing something that 35% of all Democrats believed as of 2007 — that George Bush knew in advance about the attacks of 9/11. Well, that and calling Republicans “assholes.” I’m pretty sure that if you search through the histories of every single liberal leader at the CAF dinner that night, they have publicly said that and worse.

Jane in case you haven’t figured it out those facts are BAD things.

Speaking of Bad things:

And since the blogosphere is ranting and raving about Truthers right now, and how horrible and evil they are (a position with which I agree), let’s take a little look at who’s behind the Cincinnati Tea Party, shall we?

One of the main organizers, and a featured speaker, is Jason Rink…

…Lovely! A highly placed Ron Paulian, and an associate of racist paleocon Lew Rockwell!

And Rink is also … you guessed it … a Truther.

I’ve attended a tea party and agree with their goals but this type of thing is very bad and has to be nailed at once. If they become Ron Paul rallies this is a very bad thing and overrides the legit message.

and finally via Glenn an Ann Althouse commentator has the best take on it all:

“Ha, this will play out exactly as I thought it might. My son adores Obama – entirely from things he’s heard at school. By the end of this, he’s going to think of the dude as just one more boring windbag.”

Those guys are doing better than me.

Oh and there will be larger police presence at my kids school today due to the murders in town.

That First Season: Amazon Vine Review

Posted: September 7, 2009 by datechguy in amazon reviews
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that first seasonMy pre-release review of That First Season How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory by John Eisenberg is available at Amazon.com here.

I seemed to like the book a lot less that the other reviews but I’m not much of a football fan, considering my take on the book in the review that is exactly the opposite of what I expected.

It might look funny…

Posted: September 4, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…But Joseph Medicine Crow deserves the honor he was given by the president

In 1939, Medicine Crow became the first of his tribe to receive a master’s degree, in anthropology. He is the oldest member of the Crow and the tribe’s sole surviving war chief — an honor bestowed for a series of accomplishments during World War II, including hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier whose life Medicine Crow spared.

After the war, he became tribal historian for the Crow and lectured extensively on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Medicine Crow’s grandfather served as a scout for the doomed forces of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer..

More on this extraordinary American here here and here.

I’m not inclined to laugh about it.

Zulu is my favorite movie ever…

Posted: September 3, 2009 by datechguy in hobbies, war
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…and Kurt Schlichter gives it the credit that it is due:

Understand that Zulu is a true story. In January 1879, a column of about 1500 poorly-deployed British troops was overrun at Isandhlwana by the 20,000-man Zulu army of King Catshweyo. After that slaughter – the Zulus did not bother with niceties like taking prisoners – the Zulus turned their attention to the nearby mission station at Rourke’s Drift, defended by about 100 Welsh infantrymen and their English officers. The desperate battle against overwhelming odds that followed became a legend.

Zulu is one of those films that just clicks. The story, of course, is compelling, but at the center are the characters. Stanley Baker, who also directed, plays Lieutenant Chard, the engineer who happened to be at Rourke’s Drift building a bridge when the Zulus arrived and who took charge of the defense. Baker’s subtle portrayal counterpoints the character’s tactical skill in planning the battle with his evident fear of failing his men.

He brings up an interesting point, one of the reasons why I have a soft spot for the men of the Edwardian and Victorian ages:

Caine, a Korean War veteran, is fantastic – a nobleman at first more concerned with hunting and horsemanship than leading his men, but who also demonstrates bravery and aplomb under fire. And there’s a larger truth there about such men even today – for example, Prince Harry is a London party boy yet he pulled every one of his many strings to get himself sent into combat in Afghanistan.

It didn’t hurt that actual Zulus played the Zulus either.

Here is my choice for a clip form the movie:

It is very much worth your time and even more so is to look up some of the actual men who fought. My favorite is Color Sgt. Frank Bourne who also was the last survivor of the battle, dying on VE day May 8th 1945. A transcript of his account of the battle from 1936 is here.

Where are men like that today in the British Isles? They still fight for England and still use cold steel in the 21st century:

Prepared by the U.S. Urban Warfare Analysis Center:

Executive Summary:

In May 2004, approximately 20 British troops in Basra were ambushed and forced out of their vehicles by about 100 Shiite militia fighters. When ammunition ran low, the British troops fixed bayonets and charged the enemy. About 20 militiamen were killed in the assault without any British deaths.

The bayonet charge appea More..red to succeed for three main reasons. First, the attack was the first of its kind in that region and captured the element of surprise. Second, enemy fighters probably believed jihadist propaganda stating that coalition troops were cowards unwilling to fight in close combat, further enhancing the element of surprise. Third, the strict discipline of the British troops overwhelmed the ability of the militia fighters to organize a cohesive counteraction.

The effects of this tactical action in Basra are not immediately applicable elsewhere, but an important dominant theme emerges regarding the need to avoid predictable patterns of behavior within restrictive rules of engagement. Commanders should keep adversaries off balance with creative feints and occasional shows of force lest they surrender the initiative to the enemy.

What? You never heard of it? Mark Steyn wasn’t surprised you didn’t:

Here’s a story no American news organization thought worth covering last week, so you’ll just have to take it from me. In the southern Iraqi town of Amara, 20 men from Scotland’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders came under attack from 100 or so of Muqtada al-Sadr’s ”insurgents.” So they fixed bayonets and charged.

It was the first British bayonet charge since the Falklands War 20 years ago. And at the end of it some 35 of the enemy were dead in return for three minor wounds on the Argylls’ side.

The army report above analyzes why a bayonet charge by troops out of Ammo can work against men with 21st century weapons but Steyn puts it plainly:

When a chap’s charging at you with a bayonet, he’s telling you he’s personally willing to run you through with cold steel.

That speaks volumes.

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