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An October Thanksgiving.

Thank you, God, for your abundant and steadfast love. Thank you for my family, and the love they show me everyday. Thank you for your protection and guidance. Fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit and help us bring love and compassion to others.

Dig This, Man.

For the disaffected writer who has everything*-the Jack Kerouac Bobblehead Doll!

*or has nothing but his slicked asphalt howling moon half-cup of coffee in Iowa soul, man.

Decrescendo.

The great Maynard Ferguson has passed from the scene. What a trumpet player! I had the privilege of seeing him in the winter of '75; my ears are still singed from that concert. RIP.

Excelsior, You Fathead!

Get your fix of Jean Shepherd via the Brass Figlagee Podcast. And storm into your local Barnes and Noble and demand that they stock I, Libertine!

Brave New World, Deferred.

Michelle Malkin reports on the case of Haleigh Poutre, and the struggle against state-sponsored euthanasia.

Ann Coulter Aint no Dorothy Parker.

Florence King wallops Ann; her chief complaint is that her commentaries betray an unlearnedness. Ye Gads...what does that make Maureen Dowd? The college town loony with her scribbled rants on scrap paper?

But He Meant Well...

Andrew Young throws a rod.

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”

You gotta love this reasoning: "...I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles..."

Huh?

The Wrong Road?

Much buzz has been made of the Daimler "SmartCar", supposedly the solution to our MPG woes. But how smart is it? Its estimated highway mileage is 55 MPG, while in city driving is 45 MPG. But look of the size of this thing: other than transporting two human beings from A to B, this car is useless. And the A and B had better be on roads that are only populated by only cars of SmartCar size, because it's going to lose against a normal-sized car in an accident It seems that the MPG premium to gain from such a specialized vehicle should be huge, at least 100 MPG. And cheaper: the 2-seat version is over $25K. My first car - a 1980 Datsun 310 GX (N10 Pulsar) - got at least 30 MPG in city driving, and 40+ on the highway. It could carry five people, albeit it was a snug fit. I think it cost a lot less than $25K.

Extra! Extra!

How it could have been reported by the Washington Post:

Oct 20, 1962 (Washington, DC) - The Washington Post has learned that United States is on the verge of invading the island of Cuba, on the pretext of "offensive missiles" placed there by the Soviet Union, although the United States Government has not presented evidence to support this claim.

Post journalists report an enormous amount of preparation and staging of United States land, air, and naval forces in the southeastern United States and in the Carribean. Post reporters also have learned of round-the-clock meetings of White House National Security personnel and cabinet members in the Executive Office Building in the past several days.

The Washington Post has been approached by high-ranking members of the Kennedy Administration to suppress the publication of this information "in the most critical interests of national security", however in this morning's newspaper editorial Post Publisher Phillip L. Graham justified his refusal to delay publication of this story, stating:

As most of our readers know, there is a large wall between the news and opinion operations of this paper, and we were not part of the news side's debates about whether to publish the latest story under contention ...There have been times in this paper's history when editors have decided not to print something they knew. In some cases, like the Kennedy administration's plans for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, it seems in hindsight that the editors were over-cautious...Our news colleagues work under the assumption that they should let the people know anything important that the reporters learn, unless there is some grave and overriding reason for withholding the information. They try hard not to base those decisions on political calculations, like whether a story would help or hurt the administration...[this] story looks like part of an alarming pattern. Ever since assuming office, this administration has taken the necessity of heightened vigilance against the Soviet Union and turned it into a rationale for an extraordinarily powerful executive branch, exempt from the normal checks and balances of our system of government...the country endured a long period of amorphous, global vigilance against an enemy who was suspected of boring from within, and history suggests that under those conditions, it is easy to err on the side of security and secrecy. The free press has a central place in the Constitution because it can provide information the public needs to make things right again. Even if it runs the risk of being labeled unpatriotic in the process...*

The Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, upon learning of Post story, stated that the USSR will defend Cuba from any US attack, and by any means necessary. He also said, "clearly with the disclosure of its aggessive intentions there will now be an intensive effort by the United States Government to produce fabricated evidence to justify this unprovoked aggession." Gromyko also said that the USSR will call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council for a resolution to require the United States to halt all military manuevers in the Carribean and the SE United States, to put all of its nuclear weapons systems in a stand-down status, and an additonal resolution to require the US to pledge not to invade Cuba. Radio Havana reports that Fidel Castro has sent emissaries to all Latin American countries to assure them that no "offensive" weapons systems are in Cuba, and to ask them to resist a likely call by the United States for OAS support in invading Cuba.

*this quote, with some omission and rewording for grammar, is taken from the New York Times editorial "Patriotism and the Press", in response to the Times publication of the story disclosing the financial tracking of terror money. In actuality the Post delayed their story until after Kennedy disclosed to the nation of the Cuban missiles (and after it was clear that we had caught the Soviets in a lie).

Man Shall Be Free.

"...That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people, claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." - Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774

Playing on the Same Team in Space.

Steven Hawking is now advocating colonization of space, but we expect to hear cries of violation from the space science community as they fear their budgets will be raided to further support the Man in Space program. And they're right: robotic space exploration - spaceborne astrophysical observatories, planetary probes, and Earth-Solar observatories are all very important to the scientific understanding of the Universe. Also, activities in space science need to be accelerated to speed the industrial development of remote sensing and robotic technologies.

But human exploration and colonization of space is vital, too. It is our opinion at Deaddrifts that, despite the greatest efforts to keep technological societies viable on Earth, in the long run they will succumb to human overpopulation, pollution, large-scale wars and social instabilities driven by resource scarcity. It is our belief that technological societies can only survive by proliferating through the Solar System and nearby stars with planetary systems. Such spaceborne societies will of course be subject to human foibles, but as the New World provided the experimental laboratory for democracy that was sufficiently isolated from Old World meddling, so space may provide a safe haven for technological democracies from the assault by the Earthly tyrannies .

Realizing space colonization is an enormous task, and will be the most costly and challenging engineering and social project ever undertaken by humanity. So it is clearly insane to continue the fratricide within NASA as the Man in Space program and the Space and Planetary Science programs fight for their shares of the budget to the detriment of the other.

Our country's efforts in space requires both of these programs. We propose that (1) NASA permanently divide these programs, (2) firewall their budgets from the other, and (3) declare that the permanent (i.e., hundred-year) goal of the Man in Space Program is the construction of permanent, self-sustaining colonies in the Solar System and other nearby planetary systems.

"I Shall Make the Dirt Fly!"

David McCullough's account of the creation of the Panama Canal was fascinating. Edward Herrman, the Voice of American history (recall Alexander Scourby), provides the narration of the audio book. TR (who provided the comment quoted above in response to the Panamanian Revolution) is featured prominently, but there are a constellation of heroes (yes, heroes) who made the Canal happen. They designed it, dug it, arranged the logistics, and fought "Yellow Jack".

The Canal was the "moon shot" of its time, and still an awesome work.

Navel-Gazing and Self-Flagellation Poses as Morality.

Courtesy of Mark Steyn and James Toranto:

...If you examine the assumptions underlying speeches by professors, media grandees, etc., it's hard not to agree with the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, that these days America can only fight Vietnam, over and over: Every war is "supposed to become a quagmire, which provokes opposition and leads to American withdrawal.'' That's how the nation demonstrates its "moral virtue" -- i.e., its parochial self-absorption...

Just Answer the Letter, Joe.

I sent an e-mail letter to my Congerscritter Joe Schwarz, expressing my strong opposition to Senate's version of the "Comprehensive" Immigration Reform Act (advocating that he oppose many of its provisions when it comes to conference). So far, silence. But we did recieve a slick Schwarz for Congress flyer from his reelection committee, reminding us that Fightin' Joe is gonna get tough on the borders. We were not impressed.

In Bob We Trust.

As a conservative, I cherish traditions and institutions that keep our collective culture strong and bind us together as a people. Like Pizza Bob's. Tonight my son and I found ourselves 'round suppertime at the corner of State & Packard in Ann Arbor. There was only one course of action to satiate our hunger pangs. We walked into the store and images of Bob's stout face greeted us from a dozen framed tee-shirts ringing the walls. On the timescale of campus establishments, Bob's is as old as the Sequoias, going back to 1972 (and Bob worked in the original store before that time). The United States was born in Philadelphia, but the Chipati was born in Bob's. I think that the original Chipati is now in a hermetically sealed, blast-proof case right next to the Declaration of Independence. Paul Revere's ride has been immortalized in prose. And there is Pizza Bob Haiku.

To paraphrase James Earl Jones' character in Field of Dreams, buildings and men have come and gone, the face of country has been wiped clean like a slate. But Pizza Bob's has marked the time.

Remembering the Merchant Marine.


In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the 1930s, the man my father looked for guidance in life while he was growing up was his uncle and my namesake, Martin Postii. Martin spent a few teenage years lumbering and mining, but at seventeen left the western Upper Peninsula to attend the Merchant Marine Academy. He spent his twenties and early thirties sailing on the boats of the Great Lakes. In the mid 1930s he finally joined the seagoing fleet, sailing with ships of the Sun Oil Co. from Venezuela to the eastern seaboard of the United States. My father looked forward to his uncle's letters, telling of his adventures on the sea and in the exotic ports of South America. He would also include some of his pay to help my father's mother and grandfather maintain their modest farm in depression-sticken upper Michigan. With the spread of war in Europe, Martin sailed from India to Murmansk as an ABS (Able Bodied Seaman) aboard the SS East Indian, owned by the Ford Motor Company.

In the fall of 1942, Martin set sail on what was to be his last voyage. After making port in India and South Africa, the East Indian made steam for Gilbraltar. On November 5, 1942, only three hundred miles west of Capetown, the East Indian was torpedoed and sunk by U-181, commanded by Kapitaenleutnant Wolfgang Lueth. A single torpedo hit was enough to sink the East Indian in a matter of minutes. One of the survivors wrote of seeing my great uncle, the "Finn from Upper Michigan", become tangled in the shrouds of the mainmast and pulled under with the sinking of the ship. Martin was one of twenty-three men who did not initially survive the sinking. Lueth surfaced the U-181, and hailed the fifty-one survivors, while some of the German crew filmed the events. He had regretted sinking such a fine ship, Lueth remarked and asked if her surviving crew needed provisions. His offer of help was refused. After directing them toward Capetown, Lueth wished the crew of the East Indian luck, and ordered the U-181 submerged and sailed off in search of more prey. Ultimately only three crewmembers of the East Indian survived to sail again.In the last several years our country has expressed its gratitude to the soldiers of World War II, as "The Greatest Generation" passes into memory. Nor should we forget the service and sacrifice of the brave men of the United States Merchant Marine.

Response from Spirit Air.

Here is the text of the reply that I received from Spirit Airlines in the matter of PFC Sparling; I've omitted greetings and signature. We report, you decide:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Spirit Airlines regarding PFC Joshua Sparling. There are 2 sides to every story and the situation was described quite differently by a number of other people present that day. Regardless, please rest assured that we have the utmost respect and admiration for PFC Sparling. When he arrived too late for our flight, we could not accommodate him due to security regulations. We offered to accommodate him on our next available flight which he and his family refused. We are of course glad that one of our fellow airlines in our concourse was able to accommodate him on their next flight.

We apologize for any confusion about this situation and the perception that we did not want to carry PFC Sparling on our flight. To the contrary, it would have been our honor to serve PFC Sparling, but given how late he arrived at the airport, regulations prevented us from doing so.

Spitting on Heroes.

Read the account of what happened to PFC Joshua Sparling, I did and I wrote the following letter to Spirit Airlines.


To Whom it May Concern,

I have just read an article about the disgusting manner in which Spirit Airline personnel treated PFC Joshua Sparling, who was seriously wounded in Iraq. This story is documented at the following website:

http://gunnnutt.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-in-life-of-hero.html

For my business I travel frequently, and have used Spirit Airlines. I will be directing my administrative staff to book me on airlines other than Spirit. I would encourage your company apologize to PFC Sparling and you post your apology on your website, such an apology would do a great deal to restore my confidence in Spirit Airlines.

Thank You, Lima Company.

If you're looking to escape the stench of lies perpetrated by Mr. Jesse Macbeth (not worth a link), you can learn of the awe-inspiring heroism of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Then get out to your Memorial Day parade to say thank you to soldiers past and present. And then get out your checkbook and give to a military family support organization, or a rehab hospital, or the USO. There isn't any excuse for not helping if you have the means, so do it.

By the way, Lima Company is very proud of their accomplishments in Iraq. Those who would deride those accomplishments - namely, trying to help the Iraqi people build a nation where they can raise their kids in peace and freedom - don't "support the troops". These guys know liars when they see them.