Category Archives: History

History, Humor, Political Commentary, Satire

Dunkirk Evacuation Delayed For Safety

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June 1, 1940

DOVER (Routers) The evacuation of British and French troops from the besieged French city of Dunkirk was halted today, over concerns that many of the private vessels that had been deployed for the task were unsafe for troop transport.

Government officials ordered all soldiers to hold their places on the harbour waterfront and beaches, and those in the water were told to hold up boarding as well, until the various fishing and pleasure vessels could be inspected by the Home Guard, to ensure that there were sufficient life vests, fire extinguishers and other safety devices on each one. Each boat will also have to be tested for leaks before it will be deemed safe for the passage across the Channel.

“We can’t risk our soldiers’ lives on these cheap boats,” explained one official. “The Germans are firing on our ships, and we’ve already lost six destroyers to submarines and aerial bombardments, three of them just today. If all those non-military boats don’t have the proper safety gear, they won’t stand a chance,” he shouted over the din of incoming mortar fire from German troops only two miles away.

Many of the troops agreed. One of them, standing chest deep in the surf, holding his weapon out of the water, said “The Home Guard always knows best, that’s what I always say.” Ducking down at the sound of a nearby artillery shell hitting the beach, he came back up for air. “We can’t be expected to risk our lives on those floating death traps. The colonel said that some of those fishing boats have exposed hooks on the deck. We could stab ourselves something nasty if they go through our boots. And look at that rickety dinghy there. We’d probably spend half the trip to old Blighty bailing it. And think of the splinter danger.”

In response to concerns that the troops might be in danger if they remained much longer, the notion was pooh poohed. “Jerry knows how dangerous those boats are. That’s probably why they’ve held up on the final assault. It will only be a couple more weeks until we can get a shipment of life preservers and fire extinguishers in from Southampton. Nothing comes before the safety of our troops.”

[Copyright 2010 by Rand Simberg]

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Why Are They Surprised?

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Now Lanny Davis is joining in the chorus of Those From Whose Eyes The Scales Have Fallen:

Helen Thomas, who I used to consider a close friend and who I used to respect, has showed herself to be an anti-Semitic bigot. This not about her disagreement about her criticisms of Israel. She has a right to criticize Israel and that is not the same as being an anti-Semite.

However, her statement that Jews in Israel should leave Israel and go back to Poland or Germany is an ancient and well-known anti-Semitic stereotype of the Alien Jew not belonging in the “land of Israel” — one that began 2,600 years with the first tragic and violent diaspora of the Jews at the hands of the Romans.

If she had asked all Blacks to go back to Africa, what would White House Correspondents Association position be as to whether she deserved White House press room credentials — much less a privileged honorary seat?

Two points. OK, three. First, and this is a general point, not just to Lanny, but all those who thought that Helen Thomas was a friend. With all due respect, if you (and all the others who profess shock) are surprised at this, you are an idiot. I was completely unshocked. Of course, I was also completely unshocked that the president has proven to be both a massive redistributor and destroyer of wealth , indifferent to the interests of our friends and solicitous to those of our enemies, and (fortunately) utterly incompetent at carrying out his ultimate goals.

Second (or first point and a half). If Lanny thought that Helen was his friend, it was only because she was a Democrat, and generally (with a few interesting exceptions) carried the water for the Clinton administration, for which he was one of the chief butt boys.

Third point. There is a bizarre flaw in his logic. If one wants to draw an analogy with blacks, it would certainly not be a call for the latter to go back to Africa. Africa, is, after all, whence the blacks (for the most part, ignoring Australian aborigines, etc) actually came. A similar call for Jews to go to their homeland would be for them to go to…wait for it…Israel. Last time I checked, neither Poland or Germany were their ancestral homelands. Those were places to which they were forced to go to be oppressed, and then murdered en masse, after the Diaspora.

First Markos, and now this. Does no one on the left understand anything about history or geography? Even about their own people?

[Monday morning update]

Some Muslims are more equal than others:

I realize that nine Islamist activists who love to sing the evergreen “Death to Jews” — really, innocent folklore in those regions — killed by Israeli soldiers is an act without comparison in the world. It is the lowest and vilest thing that happened since the Holocaust. How dare they kill peace-loving Islamists who sing innocent lyrics like “Death to Jews”?

Still, think about what happened there in China. An astonishing 140 Muslims killed by the Chinese police. Okay, it’s not like nine killed by Jews, but it’s pretty bad.

Nah, it’s no big deal. Chinese, after all, are not Jews.

History, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Auto World

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The anniversary of the folly.

Having moved away from Michigan a few years before, I never went, but it does seem ill conceived. As one commenter said, for a fraction of that amount of money, they could have put together the world’s best auto museum, with many classic cars, to rival or even exceed the Ford museum in Dearborn, and it might still be there. Government in action.

History, Space

At The Edge Of Space

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U-2 pilot Cholene Espinoza remembers her trips almost to space, on the fiftieth anniversary of the shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers:

Were the risks worth it? Absolutely. The advantage of having a human being in the pilot’s seat of a reconnaissance plane is overwhelming. A person can troubleshoot problems in mid-flight, with creativity that a computer lacks and a proximity to the problem that a remote-control pilot can never achieve. A pilot also has unique situational awareness: I’ve been on more than one mission in which I was able to distinguish promising details that a drone would have missed.

It was worth it personally, too. I’ll never forget the adrenaline surge of landing what was basically a multimillion-dollar jet-powered glider on its 12-inch tail wheel from a full stall while wearing a space suit. And I’ll always remember the peace of sitting alone on the quiet edge of space, out of radio contact for hours.

People would pay for that. Sounds like they would need better suits, though.

Education, History, Political Commentary

Echoes Of The Thirties

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The words of John Mearsheimer, and others. It’s truly appalling how respectable these sorts of views have become in academia. Not to mention on the left and among Democrats in general.

As a side note, while Coughlin did hate communism, it was only because it was a competing form of socialism to his own — it’s nonsensical to call a man who thought that Roosevelt wasn’t socialistic enough “right wing.” To do so is simply more of the rewriting of history by the left over the past decades.