Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

01 December, 2008

Searching for Clio


If you find her, send her my way

21 October, 2008

Terrorists are Misunderstood Felons With Feelings


One of the more intellectually grating and mind numbing elements of our society is the passion of some for the terrorists in Gitmo.
Bush Committed to Gitmo Gulag
(Newser) – Despite his stated desire to the contrary, President Bush and his most hawkish aides are determined to keep prison facilities operating at Guantánamo Bay, reports the New York Times. Bush made up his mind following a Supreme Court ruling in the summer granting 250 detainees the right to challenge their incarceration, and never seriously considered State Department or Pentagon proposals to shut down prison operations, according to sources.

There is a subtle difference between a Soviet gulag and the prison where we are holding terrorists whom desire to kill our brave soldiers and your children (I gotta be a little sensationalist there)
What a gulag really is:
Gulag (from the Russian ГУЛАГ: Главное Управление Исправительно— Трудовых Лагерей, "Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey", "The Chief Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps") was the branch of the Soviet internal police and security service that operated the penal system of forced labor camps. While these camps were intended for criminals of all types, the Gulag system has become primarily known as a means of repression of political opponents of the Soviet state.


So the NYT implies Gitmo is a place for political prisoners. If that were true, they would be residing in southern Cuba as we speak. Maybe we should put these killers to hard labor and starve them to death. Then find their families and do the same. Of course ACORN would register them to vote.

Cool sounding gulag terms and camps to drop at the next tea party you attend to sound smart:
  • A colloquial name for a Soviet Gulag inmate was "zeka", "zek". In Russian language, "inmate", "incarcerated" is "заключённый", zaklyuchonny, usually abbreviated to 'з/к' in paperwork, pronounced as 'зэка' (zeh-KA), gradually transformed into 'зэк' and to 'зек'.
  • "zaklyuchonny kanalostroitel'" (incarcerated canal-builder), originating to the Volga-Don Canal slave workforce members. Later the term was backronymed to mean just "zaklyuchonny".
  • sharashka (шарашка, the goofing-off place) were in fact secret research laboratories, where the arrested and convicted scientists, some of them prominent, were anonymously developing new technologies, and also conducting basic research.
  • Psikhushka (психушка, the nut house), the forced medical treatment in psychiatric imprisonment was used, in lieu of camps, to isolate and break down political prisoners.
  • Special camps or zones for children (Gulag jargon: "малолетки", maloletki, underaged), for disabled (in Spassk ), and for mothers ("мамки", mamki) with babies. These categories were considered as not producing any useful outcome and often subjected to more abuse.
  • Camps for "wifes of traitors of Motherland" (there was a special category of repressed: " Traitor of Motherland Family Member" (ЧСИР, член семьи изменника Родины)).

  • Once again the NYT sells it soul for the sake of demorailzing our troops and government to pander to a lunatic fringe in the left. We are the good guys. The pansy ass journalists of the NYT should remember this. But I am rube in a flyover state. What do I know?

    06 June, 2008

    Can Never Say Enough








    This is not a day of politics. This is a day to remember and honor. There were countless acts of heroism in the Second World War unknown. Some acts were forever etched in the history books, some acts disappeared in unforgiving obscurity. Our soldiers who fought from the Shot Heard Around The World to the Sandbox each have theirs, they are people we do not deserve to call fellow citizens.

    Men like the one pictured brought an end to tyranny. My grandfather came in on the second day of D-Day. His jeep either was hit by or ran over an unexploded shell. Blast killed the other man in the jeep and severely wounded my grandfather sending shrapnel into his back. He never talked about it and I never pushed. Some things were better left unsaid. But they need to be remembered. I guess I'll never know the name of the medic who saved my grandfather, thank you.

    06 August, 2007

    Bombs Away!


    So what is more valued, the lives of our troops or our enemies? If you had to use a nuke, would take out the enemy and save thousands of American lives or try to look noble for history books? Fortunately for our troops of our Greatest Generation, Obama was not in charge in August of 1945. Praise Allah the current anti-American management of the NYT was not in place either, they would have blabbed about the Manhattan Project.
    But we did bomb the holy crap out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 62 years ago. Thousands of Japanese citizens who were programmed to hate any other race were killed. Yes, racism was a policy in Japan before and during WWII. Read the Rape of Nanking and you will see what evil really is. Not our government, but a society that celebrated two Japanese officers who had a contest similiar to the McGuire/Sosa home run race, except they used human heads.
    In a piece from the liberal Guardian of the UK, Truman's decsision to drop Fat Man and Little Boy are defended:

    Hiroshima and Nagasaki are often used as a shorthand term for war crimes. That is not how they were judged at the time. Our side did terrible things to avoid a more terrible outcome. The bomb was a deliverance for American troops, for prisoners and slave labourers, for those dying of hunger and maltreatment throughout the Japanese empire - and for Japan itself. One of Japan's highest wartime officials, Kido Koichi, later testified that in his view the August surrender prevented 20 million Japanese casualties. The destruction of two cities, and the suffering it caused for decades afterwards, cannot but temper our view of the Pacific war. Yet we can conclude with a high degree of probability that abjuring the bomb would have caused greater suffering still

    Judge us as you may, but remember the crimes of the Japanese military fostered by Japanese society were beyond humane.
    Japanese at Hiroshima, 140,000, and Nagasaki, 74,000.

    Chinese in Nanking: 300,000
    If you ever get a chance, read the Rape of Nanking. It is not for weak of heart. In fact, I keep it tucked away so my own children do not see the pictures. If you want a sampling of the horror inflicted on the Chinese people, click on the link next to the civilian casualties above. It honestly altered my life when I read the book and the website reminded what evil is.

    02 July, 2007

    Day of Deliverance


    The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.


    (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142). tip to James R. Heintze.
    A funny little note,

    Independence Day Should Have Been July 2 –July 2, 1776 is the day that the Continental Congress actually voted for independence. John Adams, in his writings, even noted that July 2 would be remembered in the annals of American history and would be marked with fireworks and celebrations. The written Declaration of Independence was dated July 4 but wasn't actually signed until August 2. Fifty-six delegates eventually signed the document, although all were not present on that day in August.


    Thus I have today as a holiday on my PDA. Another shining example of my dead sexiness my wife adores.

    06 June, 2007

    Remember Today



    I can only imagine the raw courage our troops faced that day, today and the future as they fight tyranny for us, the United States of America.

    Kissinger Doing the Weather

    Kissinger Doing the Weather
    Back in the early 90s, I awoke with a wicked hang over one morning. As I sat on the floor watching the morning news, I swore I saw Harold Kissinger doing the weather. No one believed me. Professors discounted me. I have been vindicated.
          
    Marriage is love.

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