COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Our favorite war.




24 comments:

  1. Nice, esp Glen's Music!
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    Dennis Miller Radio Show
    Thursday, March 29
    Today's guests will included former ambassador to the UN
    John Bolton;
    Congressman Peter King (R-NY);
    Ben Stein, the economist, actor, comedian and former TV show host; and
    Victor Davis Hansen, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Professor of emeritus at California University, Fresno and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

    Also on KRLA:
    http://www2.krla870.com/listen/

    ---
    Steve Emerson says use of the word "Islamic" is no longer acceptable:
    FBI Unit just refers to "Radical," not Radical Islamist.
    Governments, Colleges, Police, MSM all tend to longer use the term.
    CAIR, et al, solicited for their "help," from Whitehouse on down.

    The Long Non-War w/No Enemy!

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  2. Dutch Kindleberger created North American Aviation, which built the P-51 Mustang that turned the war around in Europe.
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    Andrew Higgins built the Boat that Won the War in the Pacific, according to Ike.
    More than 20,000, in fact, almost all in the company he had created (to build shallow-draft craft for use by oil drillers and trappers in operations along the Gulf coast and in lower Mississippi River) in New Orleans.
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    "The Higgins boats broke the gridlock on the ship-to-shore movement. It is impossible to overstate the tactical advantages this craft gave U.S. amphibious commanders in World War II."
    ---
    Col. Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret)
    A FELLOWSHIP OF VALOR
    The Battle History of the United States Marines

    "'Andrew Higgins..'..Eisenhower said..'..is the man who won the war for us.' My face must have shown the astonishment I felt at hearing such a strong statement from such a source.
    Eisenhower went on to explain, 'If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.'"
    Stephen E. Ambrose
    D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944: THE CLIMACTIC BATTLE OF WORLD WAR II
    Higgins Boat

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  3. Andrew Jackson Higgins

    Stiff competition, declining world trade, and the employment of tramp steamers to carry lumber cargoes combined to put Higgins' Lumber and Export Co. out of business. Nevertheless, the indefatigable Higgins—who laughed at adversity and whose vocabulary did not include the word "impossible"—kept his boatbuilding firm (established in 1930 as Higgins Industries) in business, constructing motorboats, tugs and barges, not only for private firms and individuals but also for the Coast Guard.

    Fortuitously, the Marine Corps—always interested in finding better ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious landing and frustrated that the Bureau of Construction and Repair could not meet its requirements—began to express interest in Higgins' boat. When tested in 1938 by the Navy and Marine Corps, Higgins' Eureka boat surpassed the performance of the Navy-design boat and was tested by the services during fleet landing exercises in February 1939. Satisfactory in most respects, the boat's major drawback appeared to be that equipment had to be unloaded, and men disembarked, over the sides—thus exposing them to enemy fire in a combat situation.

    The Japanese, however, had been using ramp-bowed landing boats in the Sino Japanese War since the summer of 1937—boats that had come under intense scrutiny by the Navy and Marine Corps observers at Shanghai in particular. When shown a picture of one of those craft, Higgins soon thereafter got in touch with his chief engineer, and, after describing the Japanese design over the telephone, told the engineer to have a mock-up built for his inspection upon his return to New Orleans.

    Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in Lake Ponchartrain showed conclusively that successful operation of such a boat was feasible. From these humble beginnings came what became known as the LCVP (landing craft, vehicle, personnel), or simply, the "Higgins Boat." A larger version, originally classified as a "tank lighter" came on its heels, the precursor of the LCM (landing craft, mechanized).

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  4. In fact, there was a poll taken by Gallup from Dec. 31, 1944, to Jan. 4, 1945 -- three years into that war and right in the middle of the bloody Battle of the Bulge, where U.S. casualties were estimated between 70,000 and 80,000. It found that 73 percent of Americans would refuse to make peace with Adolf Hitler if he offered it and that 86 percent of Americans thought there was no chance that we would lose the war in Europe.- Washington Post

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  5. Doug, Trish, Whit posted on this some time ago. It got a lot of comments:

    Using the "I" word

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  6. Americans are prepared to pay for wars they believe in and where they feel their national interests are at risk. Short of that, they bolt.

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  7. Terrorists Targeting Students: The Kids are not alright.

    Just months after 9/11, videotapes were confiscated in Afghanistan showing al-Qaeda terrorists training to takeover a school. Six months later, spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith boldly declared al-Qaeda's "right" to kill 2 million American children.

    This is one reason I favor levelling major Islamic cities.

    If they're going to sanction this then why wait , it's just another of many reasons to do away with about 75-100 million of 'em.

    a priori lex talionis

    Lex Talionis

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  8. habu's link, the first one, has this little tidbit:

    Surely, there's something awry in the cloudy ping-pong game of facts being played by FBI and DHS spokespeople, who have absurdly dismissed any possible terrorist linkage.

    For starters, officials have shown neither the fortitude nor the decency to properly identify the suspects authorities -- and diligent parents -- should be on the lookout for. Moreover, after stating that law enforcement agencies should "watch out for kids' safety," they then claim that "parents and children have nothing to fear." Really?

    So, just what is the extent of the threat and who are these unnamed, undescribed "extremist groups?" We've been down this road before. Refusing to specify race or ethnic background is probably a clear sign that we're not talking about some backwoods militia. And, while there are whispers of an al-Qaeda connection, no officials have yet been willing to go on record with any affirmation.

    If they were protecting sources or other secrets vital to their investigation, why issue such an impotent warning at all?

    No, it seems more likely that the PC police are now protecting the feelings of Arab male Wahabbist Islamic extremists - or themselves from accusations of profiling - even at the risk of our children's wellbeing.


    Now that appears to be an indictment of, what word should we use, by both the FBI and the DHS.

    The American Thinker, promoting such a poor attitude towards our internal Federal Security Services.

    Willing to say that:
    while authorities claim to be working on "hardening" schools as targets, it's hard to discount this amazingly lame shot at reassurance from the FBI/HMS memo:

    "Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate."

    Comforting?
    Try reprehensibly bungling.


    Such a whining tone from the American Thinker.
    They should not worry,
    the course advocated by the agents of the FBI, and be happy.

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  9. habu advocates total war against the Muslims of the World

    The FBI & DHS advocates to not worry

    Which represents the US Government and it's policies, foreign and domestic?

    That'd be the FBI & DHS.

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  10. 2164th: Americans are prepared to pay for wars they believe in and where they feel their national interests are at risk. Short of that, they bolt.

    The role model is Gulf One, where dozens of other countries kicked in, and we pretty much broke even.

    And there is another simple thing that gets overlooked by people who do not work in the DoD or Raytheon, and that is the fact that when we spend, say $100 billion dollars "in Iraq", generally speaking we aren't sending crates of large bills over on C-17s and off-loading them (although there are billions of dollars gone missing, but that's beside the point). Typically, that money is spent right here at home paying good hard-working Americans to make dumb 500 pounders into laser-guided smart bombs.

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  11. link #1, allen contained this message
    The url contained a malformed video id.

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  12. Or was it the likker video?

    likker up front, poker in the rear.

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  13. bobalharb,

    Man, I miss all the good stuff!

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  14. bobalharb,

    What is striking about most of the music coming from the WWII era is its optimism. Should the current generation be so challenged, nothing but dirges would result. Character shows.

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