So much for THAT concern. . .
So, this is NOT your father's BNCOC. This is what a friend of mine refers to as a "gentleman's course" because he isn't enough of an alcoholic to call it Beer-NCOC. We have weekends off, and a DSL cable.
So, you get blogging. I'm snarking the course itself over REDACTED.
I could snark Barak Obama, but other people are doing it better. You know what has people pissed about his comments that the Democratic Party is incapable of comprehending in this day and age? Not that he said times were hard or folks were bitter. It was dismissal of border security/illegal immigration, the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, and belief in God as the concerns of stupid, bitter, ignorant people who don't know any better. This highlights quite well where Barak Hussein Obama stands on these ideas.
The Wall Street Journal is snarking his tax plans. Maybe when Barak Hussein Obama thinks "Capital Gains Tax" he thinks multi-millionaire major-league investors like his friends, campaign contributors, and folks who own mansions in San Francisco and hold $10,000 a plate fundraiser diners. I think my in-laws and my grandparents on my mother's side, both of whom have stock portfolios as a supplement to their pensions and other retirement plans. I assure Barak Hussein Obama they make less than a quarter-mil a year.
But moving beyond the trivial, let us address some stories that deserve more thought.
The AP published a piece on one of the last living fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. For those who are unaware, this magnificent action by the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy and the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa began on the 18th of January 1943 in response to the beginning of a second wave of deportations to the extermination camp Treblinka. The ZOB took the lead, under the command of 23-year old Mordecai Anielewicz, but the ZZW was better armed and better prepared. Within a few days, the Ghetto was essentially under their control. However, "The Ghetto" was not a poetic term, but literally an area of Warsaw physically sealed off with a wall holding the Jews in and keeping the Poles out. The SS maintained control of the access points, notwithstanding a handful of attempts by the Polish Home Army to attempt to break into the Ghetto. The Jews prepared for the inevitable assault by the SS by building fighting positions, executing collaborators, and smuggling a handful of weapons in through weak points in the wall, including two tunnels dug in 1942 by the ZZW. On Passover, 19 APR 43, the
SS assaulted with a force of 5 battalions of Waffen-SS troops, 1 battalion of SS cavalry, about 360 Polish police used only to secure the perimeter, several battalions of SS Police, SS SD security troops, the Warsaw Gestapo, two Whermacht railway engineer battalions, an anti-aircraft battery, a battalion of Ukrainian concentration camp guards, and some Latvian auxiliary policemen.
The initial assault stalled as the Jews used improvised 'petrol bombs' to knock out several armored vehicles. The Germans responded by relieving the incompetent Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, courtmartialling him, and sending him to Croatia where he was later killed by partisans in an ambush. Jürgen Stroop, then Brigadeführer (Brigadier General), fresh from operations against partisans in the Ukraine, took command and organized a proper attack with artillery support and in keeping with military doctrine--Ferdinand treated it as a police operation.
The ZZW's defense centered around their headquarters in Muranowski Square, where two small boys had put up a pair of flags--the flag of the ZZW and the flag of the Republic of Poland. Fighting centered around this display of heroic, doomed pride. Stroop was infuriated, and recalls later Himmler screaming into a phone at him, "Stroop, you must at all costs bring down those two flags." He issued a scornful demand to surrender, which was ignored by the ZZW. His new offensive centered on burning down the buildings the ZZW was using for cover. On April 29th, having lost all of their leadership and most of their fighters, the remnants of the ZZW escaped the ghetto through the Muranowski tunnel. Their role has been minimized in many sources due to the death of all their senior leadership, and the fact that as a rightist organization affiliated with the Home Army, it was not in the Communist's interests to glorify them. They preferred to point to the Socialist ZOB, which had the advantage of having living defenders.
On the 8th of May, the Germans discovered the ZOB's fortified command post. Some of the ZOB's leaders committed suicide with cyanide, others were shot while fighting. Michael Edelman was one of the few senior leaders who fled the ghetto and linked up with the Home Army to continue to fight for Poland. The remaining Jews in the Ghetto were flushed out with dogs and gas, while the burning of the buildings culminated in the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw on 16 MAY 43.
Speaking of historic battles, this one is less well-known, but. . .
It's nearly half an hour of footage, but. . . Note the date. 1971.
Anyway, there's another good article on the mess that is the issue of anthropocentric climate change, or indeed any climate change at all. Speaking of a mess, can we officially declare Jimmy Carter senile? Or for a third unrelated mess, how about the Episcopalians?
Some good news is out there. Commander Ismail, the non de guerra of one Mullah Ahmad Shah of the Bara bin Malek Front, has moved onto to the afterlife. The Pakistani apparently don't like folks running their roadblocks any more than we do. Some stinky arhabi met with a Bad Time in Iraq, and the DoD is releasing, with helpful labels and translations, the letters they found on his corpse. I link to Blackfive, who links to DefenseLink.
Villainous Company, the blog of a Marine Corps officer's wife, posted a flaming rant. Now, this is hardly new, a rant on the internet, but this rant bears reading. The subject is contempt. Five years ago, I said that those who attack the mission cannot help but attack the men carrying out the mission. Five years ago, I was sneered at by the American Left who called me brainlessly brainwashed by the Bush Regime. Five years ago, I predicted this. The contempt for the President, for the war, and for this country inevitably spills over into contempt for those of us who live and die by a single paragraph including the line, "obey the lawful orders of the President of the United States". Again, I anticipate that I will be sneered at and lectured on how this behavior is not indicative of way people really think. But I am hardly the only one who sees this. . .
Anyway, I leave you with these thoughts. It is enough for one night. Perhaps more later.
So, you get blogging. I'm snarking the course itself over REDACTED.
I could snark Barak Obama, but other people are doing it better. You know what has people pissed about his comments that the Democratic Party is incapable of comprehending in this day and age? Not that he said times were hard or folks were bitter. It was dismissal of border security/illegal immigration, the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, and belief in God as the concerns of stupid, bitter, ignorant people who don't know any better. This highlights quite well where Barak Hussein Obama stands on these ideas.
The Wall Street Journal is snarking his tax plans. Maybe when Barak Hussein Obama thinks "Capital Gains Tax" he thinks multi-millionaire major-league investors like his friends, campaign contributors, and folks who own mansions in San Francisco and hold $10,000 a plate fundraiser diners. I think my in-laws and my grandparents on my mother's side, both of whom have stock portfolios as a supplement to their pensions and other retirement plans. I assure Barak Hussein Obama they make less than a quarter-mil a year.
But moving beyond the trivial, let us address some stories that deserve more thought.
The AP published a piece on one of the last living fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. For those who are unaware, this magnificent action by the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy and the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa began on the 18th of January 1943 in response to the beginning of a second wave of deportations to the extermination camp Treblinka. The ZOB took the lead, under the command of 23-year old Mordecai Anielewicz, but the ZZW was better armed and better prepared. Within a few days, the Ghetto was essentially under their control. However, "The Ghetto" was not a poetic term, but literally an area of Warsaw physically sealed off with a wall holding the Jews in and keeping the Poles out. The SS maintained control of the access points, notwithstanding a handful of attempts by the Polish Home Army to attempt to break into the Ghetto. The Jews prepared for the inevitable assault by the SS by building fighting positions, executing collaborators, and smuggling a handful of weapons in through weak points in the wall, including two tunnels dug in 1942 by the ZZW. On Passover, 19 APR 43, the
SS assaulted with a force of 5 battalions of Waffen-SS troops, 1 battalion of SS cavalry, about 360 Polish police used only to secure the perimeter, several battalions of SS Police, SS SD security troops, the Warsaw Gestapo, two Whermacht railway engineer battalions, an anti-aircraft battery, a battalion of Ukrainian concentration camp guards, and some Latvian auxiliary policemen.
The initial assault stalled as the Jews used improvised 'petrol bombs' to knock out several armored vehicles. The Germans responded by relieving the incompetent Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, courtmartialling him, and sending him to Croatia where he was later killed by partisans in an ambush. Jürgen Stroop, then Brigadeführer (Brigadier General), fresh from operations against partisans in the Ukraine, took command and organized a proper attack with artillery support and in keeping with military doctrine--Ferdinand treated it as a police operation.
The ZZW's defense centered around their headquarters in Muranowski Square, where two small boys had put up a pair of flags--the flag of the ZZW and the flag of the Republic of Poland. Fighting centered around this display of heroic, doomed pride. Stroop was infuriated, and recalls later Himmler screaming into a phone at him, "Stroop, you must at all costs bring down those two flags." He issued a scornful demand to surrender, which was ignored by the ZZW. His new offensive centered on burning down the buildings the ZZW was using for cover. On April 29th, having lost all of their leadership and most of their fighters, the remnants of the ZZW escaped the ghetto through the Muranowski tunnel. Their role has been minimized in many sources due to the death of all their senior leadership, and the fact that as a rightist organization affiliated with the Home Army, it was not in the Communist's interests to glorify them. They preferred to point to the Socialist ZOB, which had the advantage of having living defenders.
On the 8th of May, the Germans discovered the ZOB's fortified command post. Some of the ZOB's leaders committed suicide with cyanide, others were shot while fighting. Michael Edelman was one of the few senior leaders who fled the ghetto and linked up with the Home Army to continue to fight for Poland. The remaining Jews in the Ghetto were flushed out with dogs and gas, while the burning of the buildings culminated in the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw on 16 MAY 43.
Speaking of historic battles, this one is less well-known, but. . .
It's nearly half an hour of footage, but. . . Note the date. 1971.
Anyway, there's another good article on the mess that is the issue of anthropocentric climate change, or indeed any climate change at all. Speaking of a mess, can we officially declare Jimmy Carter senile? Or for a third unrelated mess, how about the Episcopalians?
Some good news is out there. Commander Ismail, the non de guerra of one Mullah Ahmad Shah of the Bara bin Malek Front, has moved onto to the afterlife. The Pakistani apparently don't like folks running their roadblocks any more than we do. Some stinky arhabi met with a Bad Time in Iraq, and the DoD is releasing, with helpful labels and translations, the letters they found on his corpse. I link to Blackfive, who links to DefenseLink.
Villainous Company, the blog of a Marine Corps officer's wife, posted a flaming rant. Now, this is hardly new, a rant on the internet, but this rant bears reading. The subject is contempt. Five years ago, I said that those who attack the mission cannot help but attack the men carrying out the mission. Five years ago, I was sneered at by the American Left who called me brainlessly brainwashed by the Bush Regime. Five years ago, I predicted this. The contempt for the President, for the war, and for this country inevitably spills over into contempt for those of us who live and die by a single paragraph including the line, "obey the lawful orders of the President of the United States". Again, I anticipate that I will be sneered at and lectured on how this behavior is not indicative of way people really think. But I am hardly the only one who sees this. . .
Anyway, I leave you with these thoughts. It is enough for one night. Perhaps more later.
posted by Just A Decurion at 4/20/2008 02:12:00 AM
4 Comments:
On a related note
http://opinionatedcatholic.blogspot.com/2008/04/popes-blunt-talk-to-american-non.html
I had the opportunity to walk the Warsaw Ghetto once, many years ago. The buildings themselves have been rebuilt, but the "old" fortifications still bear witness to the firepower that the SS turned on that small patch of the city. Quite humbling.
Also rather wierd, since I ran across a small herd of Hare Krishnas whilst there.
As I posted there:
I strongly disagree with contempt for any servicemember based on their political opinions, or support or lack of support for the war.
Yet I and my fellow IVAW servicemembers who express our legal views are too often viewed with contempt from even those who claim to support the troops.
Will you admit the disconnect?
Yeah, well, it might have something to do with the number of folks you've got in your organization who left the Army as privates, the number of false veterans who have managed to join IVAW before being exposed, and other evidence that more than a few of your members are pretty much attention-seeking dirtbags.
It might be dishonesty on your part, such as when you try to tell me that the IVAW does not actually support things that the IVAW's website clearly does support.
It might be that the IVAW pretends to speak for the troops as a whole, when most of us utterly reject giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.
It might be persistent vague allegations of illegal misconduct that the IVAW is comfortable promoting, even though it is a tissue of lies and unsubstantiated hearsay.
Or it could be very simply that the United States is at war, and your sympathies are obviously on the other side.
I wouldn't trust you with a loaded weapon at my back at this point.
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