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RemovedDec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022
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"Sadly, those of us who know of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are becoming fewer and fewer, in number."

I sid this to Mrs. Pi this morning when I saw the date in my phone. As I've mentioned, she's Salvadoran and doesn't get the reverence and awe and esteem those of us of this age, if I might presume, and who knew men who served in WW2 hold for those who served, and suffered, and who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

My grandfather and two if his brothers served. One lost half a leg, another sustained an arm injury that prevented him from returning to his spot on the Cincinnati Redlegs - now they're the Reds. But they held court at Choir 4th of July and reminded us frequently what it meant to love your country and why freedom matters.

There's hardly anyone left who can remember any of that.

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Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas

*shows self out*

But I still don't know what to get you...

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Only if you're An Eagle.

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The abysmal "Pearl Harbor" included Doolittle's Raid, with none other than noted marksman Alec Baldwin playing Doolittle. The movie sucked and Baldwin sucked.

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Well, it’s so damn bad it’s almost impossible to describe it. Putrid comes to mind. The acting was just indescribably awful. And it didn’t even make a pass at any kind of historical accuracy. I mean let’s just recruit a couple of P-40 pilots to fly bombers that they’ve never flown before…seems legit.

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"But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Hand me that joystick."

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That was a horrible movie. Just the worst.

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founding

The actual re-creation of December 7th was great. I knew (as a young sprout) several people who lived in Honolulu at the time of the attack. Their eyewitness storied were harrowing. Actually filming at Pearl Harbor and having several practical stunts was awesome.

However, I checked out mentally of the movie when Ben Afflek's character hopped on a train to England. I was slack-jawed trying to figure out just where the producers thought the tracks *ran*.

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Yeah him going to the RAF was a wtf moment for me. As was the whole movie. Especially compared to Tora, Tora, Tora

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What???!!! Thank God I haven't seen it. "The plane to Lisbon!" becomes "The train to England!"

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Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. 1944. Spencer Tracy Van Johnson Robert Mitchum.

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Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022

"Does it make me feel safer than what? Safer than getting robbed at a gas station? Yeah, I’d say it’s safer than that."

#HellerWasRight

As an alternative, I'd suggest that everyone in NJ carry a sidearm for their own self-protection. It'll drive down your costs at that business to boot!

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OK, Philly. Same suggestion.

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Does Jesse Martinez feel better when people are violently assaulted just because they got gas? Is that the world he wants to live in? I don't know. I do know he's a pussy who thinks that his Twitter Hot Take is all matters. Yes, I called him a pussy, because that's a pussy move. I'm not sorry. More people need to be called out and called what they are. May it be a pussy or a baby or whatever.

Being called a pussy is not 'phobic" because I mean to say he's behaving like a small little kitty cat. Hey, if you think I was talking about women genitalia, stop being a perv.

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"More people need to be called out and called what they are."

Shame is a powerful motivator but you have to be capable of being shamed.

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Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022

Sorry, Jim, no present for you other than my subscription.

But I can send you my son's old PS4 if you want it. After months of applying on Amazon, I got approved for a PS5! Yay. He's going to have a great Xmas.

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At some point, when the police are told to stand down and criminals are allowed free-reign, there comes a force to fill in that vacuum. Militia, professional bodyguard/security firm, or gangs themselves offering protection... the market has a way of sorting these things out. At some point, a business will either fold-up shop or pay someone to stop the crime.

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I think it was Glenn Reynold who, remarking on the rise of vigilantism, said, "The police aren't there to protect honest citizens from criminals, they are there to protect criminals from the citizens."

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"Mister, we could use a man like Weird South African Billionaire."

Send more, please.

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Journalism is a "dead parrot." It is not "pining for the fjords" (nor the fnords, for that matter). It is passed. It has joined the Choir Invisible.

It had a good run when actual reporters with HS educations before the 1960s did most of the work, but then English departments found they could teach "Journalism" as only writing, and gradually lazy Leftist (BIRM) privileged douches began getting most of the jobs, and the real profession died.

Now what is called journalism is merely mostly poorly written and even more poorly thought out boosterism for extreme Leftist causes.

The MSM can't die soon enough. I hope the NYT is not only crippled by the apparent coming strike, but that all associated with die slow, painful, lingering professional deaths.

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"This parrot is no more... This is a late parrot... bereft of life"

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God Bless You Sir.

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"It has joined the Choir Invisible."

I wish it were true. It might be on life support but it's still got plenty of kick, unfortunately.

"I hope the NYT is not only crippled by the apparent coming strike"

But how will I know what David Brooks thinks conservatives should do?

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"But how will I know what David Brooks thinks conservatives should do?"

A. Think of what a rational conservative should do and totally reverse that. The ask yourself, "If I want to continue to be welcome at the soirees of the rich and famous and powerful, how should I word this so I can continue to claim to be a conservative while advancing very Leftist policy?"

Easy-peasy.

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I think that would do it.

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Yes! Slow painful and lingering so we don’t forget

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"Researchers say Discovery’s programming overwhelmingly featured White men as experts while emphasizing negative messages about sharks." "...overrepresents men named Mike."

Surely the answer is to limit the number of Mikes in Science.

Do I have to think of everything?

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So it's a Mike Drop?

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*waves* Hi, Lil! :)

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*slow clap*

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Poor Michael. Such a racist

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Hey now we “Mikes” have feelings too 🤣

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Where to begin? The A-Bombs' use was a military necessity. Anyone saying differently doesn't know how hard--literally, to the death--the Japanese fought. Nor do most "peaceniks" know that the Tokyo Firebombing killed more people than Hiroshima: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/tokyo-wwii-firebombing-remembered-70-years-on/6287486

I hadn't heard Biden's latest dementia-spiel. My God, how can this continue? The argument we can have a Presidency without a President is baseless. This automaton has to go. And yet. People voted for the Dems AGAIN. Herschel wasn't exactly quick on his feet. On this one I do blame Trump as I don't think there would have been a Herschel candidacy without Trump. Please don't mistake me: Mitch should be pitched. There's plenty of blame to go around. I hate people who make everything relate back to Trump, but this has to be laid at his feet. To Pscircle back, Psaki-like: Biden is laughable, but no laughing matter. I guess Arizonans (who wouldn't put Kari Lake over the top) agree with Biden that he has more important things to do than visit the border. Just what WERE the issues they voted on?

I find myself rooting hard for Musk, Taibbi and Bari Weiss. That Jim Baker had inserted himself into the review of the Twitter Files is amazing after everything else that has gone on since 2017. (Fauci's daughter must have been unavailable.) You wonder if Taibbi (to whom I also subscribe) and Weiss got everything the first go-round.

I STILL haven't seen Better Call Saul, so skipped over in case of spoilers.

"Nano, nono, I don't know." God help me.

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Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022

Jack says Release the Kraken.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1600469184755822597

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It's been hard but something about Musk keeps me leaning forward.

Hang in there!

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You are quite right about Maricopa County. Machines not working?! On Election Day?!!!

As for Baker, he's yet another example of how the Left gets to move on, but being on the Right gets you banished. Taibbi referred to Baker as the "Zelig" of FBI controversies. I can't blame Musk; there has been so much to clean up at Twitter. Now Forbes has sicced the SF mayor's office on Musk for providing beds to employees. Musk had a great tweet with a picture of a kid in SF dying from Fentanyl; thank God he fights back.

I'm with Treach: Let's see all of it. If it's put in order chronologically or otherwise stitched together by Taibbi and Weiss, I'm OK with that too.

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"<whole last paragraph>"

I do love reading when you write like that.

Devine deserves, still, better and Joe's Mafia might still might not be in the clear.

I wish there more reliable journalists.

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My father was in his first semester in college. He signed up immediately in the Marine Corps. He, like all the first group, was selected personally for the Second Division Marine Raider Battalion, Company C. He was on the Long March on Guadalcanal and was one of those who made it all the way. When the Raiders were disbanded he joined the 6th Marine division and was among the first to hit the beach on Iwo Jima. He was in 2 other island campaigns. He knew about fighting the Japanese.

He was in NC, training to be a 2nd Lt for the coming invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped. He figured that leading a company ashore in the first wave of an invasion he'd last about 30 seconds.

He was glad the bombs were dropped. Not only did it save his life, but it save perhaps millions of Japanese. One of my college classmates pushed him on his belief. He pointed that on Iwo Jima, there were about 25,000 Japanese troops. We won when all but a couple hundred were killed. Not "casualties, but killed dead. The Marines had over 5000 killed. He was wounded twice, one serious, then went back to fighting.

He said, "Project that kind of fighting with the remaining million or more Japanese soldiers, and 50 million citizen fighters and tell me you wouldn't trade the Hiroshima and Nagasaki deaths.

My colleague was dumbfounded. He'd never heard anything like that.

Ah, well. My father was a pretty gentle man most of the time, but he firmly believed in doing his duty.

Let me point that as a Gunny Sgt, and Raider, his funeral had a Marine Honor Guard of 10 Sgts, and a Captain commanding. Marines take care of their own. Semper Fi!

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Whether or not to drop the bomb is a great opportunity to think about what it means to be Moral. It's not immediately obvious, especially to young people, that melting 100,000 people in two thriving cities by the bay, could possibly be good in any way.

For them to understand, I think stories like this help.

But I fear our youth population isn't interested in anything before Billie Eilish was nominated for a Grammy.

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Absolutely correct. What Mark Steyn and I call "The Present-Tense Culture".

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I'd like to point out that the body bags ordered by the US Army for the invasion of Japan ran out in 1980.

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Wow! Is there a source for that handy?

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Not that I can recall. IIRC, it was an offhand comment from Jerry Pournelle some time ago, but a web search of his (archived) site doesn't show anything relevant.

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That was great. Your Dad was right about Iwo Jima. God rest your Dad.

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I guess we must re-post this at least twice a year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvthaMD5U1E

Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs

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I wish your dad was still here

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So do I, but he went where we all must go, and he was ready. I miss him a lot.

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Looks like it's time to repost Paul Fussell's _Thank God for the Atom Bomb_.

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I was not familiar with this essay. Saved for later reading.

Thank you! *tips fedora*

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I'd happily shop at the gas station esp in Philly. In developing countries all kinds of businesses have armed guards with AK47s sitting around, from small markets to money exchanges to drug stores. The fact that we've gotten to that point says a lot.

Both my grandfathers died on Dec 7, one year apart. It's a challenging day for a lot of reasons.

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I'm sorry for your losses.

I still think that if the bad guys didn't know un-bad guys were packing, they'd be a lot less aggressive.

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Sorry to hear.

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"The fact that we've gotten to that point says a lot." Indeed.

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Look for “30 seconds over Tokyo”. It’s pretty good.

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Here is 45 minutes of as it happened radio broadcasts from December 7, 1941, from the indispensible Past History Daily website:

https://pastdaily.com/2020/12/07/december-7-1941-day-infamy-seventy-nine-america-goes-to-war/

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"He really does see himself as just a hardworking guy who got lucky, which he is..."

Bob Odenkirk, meet self-confessed blue-collar actor Bruce Campbell.

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Be quiet Mike

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