The Great Red Spot

A Little Something Different on the 4th

2009-07-04T10:08:00.001-05:00

Today, 70 years ago, Lou Gehrig gave this speech.

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career to associate with them for even one day?

Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert - also the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow - to have spent the next nine years with that wonderful little fellow Miller Huggins - then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology - the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy!

Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that's something! When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that's something.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, that's something. When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it's a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that's the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have had a tough break - but I have an awful lot to live for!

Lou Gehrig - July 4, 1939

One for the "Wait A Second" Files

2009-07-01T15:59:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, meddling in Iran's elections-which were a farce, you know it, I know it, and the Mullahs know it-was the worst thing in the world. Couldn't help at all. Never gonna do it. Chalk it all up as "rigorous debate" amongst the Iranians. (Who knew debate class could now be taken with sniper rifles, internet jamming equipment, and random disappearances? Fun for everyone!)

Of course, the same can't be said of the situation in Honduras. That required immediate denouncing, even though a Chavez-style takeover was the plan of the president there. Everyone else in the country apparently was staging a coup-designed to STOP THIS GUY FROM BECOMING A DICTATOR. Those guys? Staging a coup. No debate here. Just coup.

Amateurs.

Et Tu, Golden Boy?

2009-06-29T21:56:00.003-05:00

Its funny that the Golden Boy decides NOW that galavanting around not doing your job is a bad thing. Too bad that for his entire tenure in Jackson, that's pretty much all he did. Charlie Mitchell is too nice to say it; I'm not.

There's a Claim of The Day if ever there was one.

Well, Since They Think You're Meddling, Mr. President...

2009-06-18T12:42:00.001-05:00

By all means, sir, proceed to meddle.

Seriously, Will SOMEBODY in this Administration Show Support for the Iranian People?

2009-06-15T23:17:00.006-05:00

If there has ever been a chance in the last 30 years that that the regime of Mullahs and lunatics running Iran can be overthrown, its right now. Yet nobody in our administration wants to be the bad guy on the international scene and demand that the Iranians allow for an audit of their election and not crack down on their population. Uh, news flash, Barry: You got to vote "Present" in the last job, not this one.

Admittedly, the "reformer" in Iran is only slightly less nutty as Mahmoud. But this can be huge in walking Iran back down from the ledge, after thirty years of killing Americans and Israelis and Lebanese and Iraqis and God knows who else. Freedom had false starts in Hungary in '56 and Czechoslovakia in '68. They've been waiting 20 years in China since Tiananmen. Twenty years may be too long to wait in Tehran.

The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc

2009-06-06T17:24:00.002-05:00

Text of the famous Pointe Du Hoc speech by President Reagan, June 6, 1984

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.

Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.

And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor."

I think I know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking "we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day." Well everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him -- Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "Sorry, I'm a few minutes late," as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
There was the impossible valor of the Poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold; and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore; The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots' Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's "Matchbox Fleet," and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-day; their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: "Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do." Also, that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.
When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together. There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. The Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose: to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace, prepared to deter aggression, prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms, and yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II. Twenty million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we're with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."
Strengthened by their courage and heartened by their value [valor] and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

Where To Begin on The Egypt Speech?

2009-06-06T16:20:00.003-05:00

So many things, so little time...

Nuclear Power for Iran? No Problem! Nuclear Power for the US? What, are you crazy or something?

People building houses=People getting shoved in gas chambers.

Can't tell others whether or not to have nukes...but Iran, you can't have nukes.

While there was a lot of good in the speech, is it really anything we haven't heard before? Religion of peace, not at war with Islam, Democracy is great...wasn't there some other guy who made that speech a million times? The main difference is this time, the speaker gets to brag on his Muslim heritage, and make a few empty plattitudes, plus mangle history. You know, basically make the typical Obama speech. Might they listen? Here's hoping.

Bottom line, Obama is still campaigning. And that's great for him. For the rest of us...that's up in the air.

Your Obama Moment of Genius

2009-06-03T21:29:00.002-05:00

Today, The One said that the US is one of the world's largest Muslim countries.

No, seriously.

A quick check confirms the US has the 56th largest Muslim population in the world, at somewhere around 3 million. Which is less than Burkina Faso.

Much like their jobs numbers, I think they just pull these out of the air sometimes.

every aspect inventoried?

2009-05-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

So says Nan from San Fran in China. Drudge has The linkage. Yet another dim statement from The Dems dimmest bulb. But at least its one of those environmentally smart bulbs, you know...The kind who fly to China on taxpayer provided planes.

hey, remember post partisanship

2009-05-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

Seems that The close of a number of Chrysler dealerships was maybe influenced by their political leanings. Only one closed dealership had given to Barry messiah 's campaign, and a $20 0 donation at that. Check hotair.com for The links.

Wow, Just What America Needs

2009-05-27T19:33:00.003-05:00

A pushy, mean liberal Supreme Court justice! One who tries to shout down the opposition! One who is just a bit racialist! And one who thinks (by her own admission) the courts should make policy!

Why didn't he just nominate Jeremiah Wright?

David Ortiz Hits First Home Run

2009-05-23T09:01:00.001-05:00

Wonder why he had such a power outage in the first two months?

With Apologies to Pastor Martin Neimoller...

2009-05-06T19:23:00.003-05:00

"In America, first they came for the AIG executives, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't an AIG executive;
And then they came for the solvent banks, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a banker;
And then they came for the auto creditors, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't an auto creditor;
And then...they came for me...and by that time there was no one left to speak up."

Pardon me if I'm not excited that the executive branch has decided to start tearing up contracts left and right and seizing property.

A Hundred Million Dollars

2009-04-20T20:31:00.003-05:00

"Geithy, we got a problem," the boss said.

"Sir, I'm aware of that. I've been working diligently toward fixing it. Of course, if I had a little more help..."

"Look, I'm getting to that. These e-mails to Jessica Beil aren't going to write themselves, you know," the boss replied. "There's all kinds of problems, though. Do you know about these Pirates?"

"Yes, sir, I have. Terrible situation, but our Seals sure fixed it, eh? Great call," Geithy retorted, smiling. The boss shook his head.

"They're back! I don't believe it! And do you know they took two out of three from the Braves this weekend! I don't even know what they took, but I won't stand for this! Do they have no decency?"

"Sir, I don't think we're talking about the same pirates. The ones you're talking about are in Pittsburgh..."

"They're in Pittsburgh! Oh my God! What are we gonna do? Pirates and those redneck clingers? This is going to be a disaster of epic proportions!"

"Sir, these Pirates play baseball. Not very well, you know."

"Nationalize the Yankees, then. We'll show them that nobody messes with this country, especially with the national pasttime! What'll that take?" The boss looks angry.

Geithy looks confused. "Sir, it would take...I don't know, a hundred million dollars just to pay Alex Rodriguez' salary. And he's just one..."

"Then you got it, Geithy. We're gonna show them. If it takes a hundred million, it takes a hundred million. Figure it out, huh?"

Momma Always Said There'd Be Days Like These

2009-04-11T08:47:00.002-05:00

I have watched the ongoing circus that the Democrat Party has engaged in the last few weeks with the kind of morbid curiosity that you might have when passing a particularly nasty looking wreck on the highway. And I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Putting aside the absurdity of racial, gender, and various other set-asides, the fact that they allowed themselves to get into this situation is proof enough that the entire carload lot of the Democrat party in this state isn't fit to run itself, much less steer the ship of state. When you have the trifecta of the somewhat combative Golden Boy (which is kind of like saying that a lion will kind of eat you), the perpetually nutty Barbara Blackmon, and the criminally corrupt Ike Brown anywhere in the leadership apparatus of the party, how do you not see this train wreck coming?

Really, was Sam Hall (and I Hate You One and All, Damn Your Eyes!) the hill they wanted to die on?

Like I said, how do you not see this coming? Jamie Franks' friends couldn't fill up a phone booth, mostly because he's threatened to whip every ass between Mooreville and Fondren. People who vote for him tend to not know him. Barbara Blackmon's run for Lt. Governor was frought with strangeness, and Ike Brown is a racialist criminal. Only a nut would want to make a cocktail with those ingredients.

Then again, look who we're talking about.

Congratulations on Your Bracket, Mr. President...

2009-04-10T15:26:00.003-05:00

Now get to work filling out your Treasury Department, you lazy bum.

Nothing Says Egomania

2009-04-05T10:18:00.005-05:00

Like giving the Queen of England (not Great Britain or the UK, apparently) an IPod with your own speeches on it.

On the other hand, nothing seems more craven than a bow this deep to the Saudi King:

You know, someone related a story to me recently. The first time the Kennedys met the British monarch, Jackie asked the Chief of Protocol (which the Obamas didn't even know existed) if she should curtsey to the Queen. He replied no, that spouses and heads of state do not curtsey to heads of state. Several years later, after the assassination, she met the Queen again, and did curtsey. Her response was, "I'm no longer the spouse of a head of state."

Over their heads much? Yeah. Clueless bumbling amateurs.

Ted Stevens' charges dropped

2009-04-01T18:19:00.000-05:00

I'm waiting on an article by Bill Minor blaming his prosecution on Karl Rove. Maybe Deep Throat will visit him and give him the goods on top of the Beau Rivage parking garage.

Wait A Minute!

2009-03-22T14:08:00.003-05:00

So the Democrat party in this state elected Jamie Franks Jr. to run it last year...and now he needs help?

I thought that he was one of the Great Minds of Our State, having authored every bill to come down the pike since being handed, I mean, elected to, his seat years ago! Surely he doesn't need help. After all, the only reason he lost the Lt. Governor's race last year is because Lloyd Gray, Davy Hampton, and Bobby Harrison all didn't give him enough love in print.

Don't you all remember the Democratic hosannas that were headed his way when elected? Remember the One himself saying that Mississippi could be a Democrat state again? I do. I guess he just needed somebody smarter to pull it off.

Scenes From The White House

2009-03-22T12:59:00.004-05:00

The door opens. Its Axelrod. The President is kicked back in his office. Its a balmy 80 degrees inside. His shoes are off, and he's playing Madden on the XBox.

"Mr. President," Axelrod says. He waits. Nothing.

"Mr. President," Axelrod says again. Still nothing. He pulls a tape recorder from his pocket, and presses the PLAY button.

"BARRY!!!!!" comes the shrill voice from the recorder. This snaps the president awake from his daze.

"You gotta stop doing that, bro," the President says to Axelrod. "Man, I thought she was really here. That tech is sweet huh? We need to get some of that to the CIA."

"Yes, sir, I'll see to it. Um, sir, about those Treasury appointments..." Axelrod trails off.

"What is it this time, man? I've got the Bears in the playoffs here. I'm a freaking savant at this!"

"Sir, there seems to be a problem with a couple of them."

"What? Is it taxes again? Sheesh, do we need to nationalize Turbotax while I'm here?"

Axelrod looks frumpled. "Sir, it's not taxes. Its..." he trails off for a moment. "Sir, Mike Tirico, Tony Romo, Stan Van Gundy, and Skip Bayless. Really, sir. You can't be serious."

"What? They all have made serious bank. And that's what we need in these uncertain times, bro. We have to give Geity all the help he can get. I mean, come on! Skip Bayless has got to know something about making money. He's always talking about the NBA and stuff on ESPN. That's where you go for your money news, right, Ax Man?"

"Sir, if you could turn the game off for a minute..."

"Not a chance, man. Those sweet offseason moves I made are paying off now. McNabb and Owens together again, baby! All it cost was my entire draft the next two years! Huh! What about that, huh? Freaking awesome is what it is! Anything you got to say to me, you can say in front of Al and John."

"Sir, I must protest this. First of all, they aren't qualified, second, they haven't even been told they're being nominated."

"What? Can't they just do one of those 'I'm honored just to be nominated' things? Isn't that what people do when they get up for one of these awards?"

"Sir, these are not awards..."

"Sure they are. I'm awarding them for making a lot of loot. They're gonna help us all make loot. Now scram, Ax Man. I gotta e-mail Scarlett Johansen. You know she's up for a part in Iron Man 2? That's gonna be sweet. Then I gotta upload some pics on Facebook. Busy day, man, busy day. Hey, on your way out, could you turn up the heat a little bit? I'm from Hawaii, you know. These DC springs, man, they are something."

"Sir, what about the visit by the Japanese Emperor?"

"What about it? Go give him some chopsticks or something. I got things to do. Just let me know when the big goofy 'tard gets here, ok? Speilberg is coming in with the rough cut of Transformers 2 this afternoon. We can't get bogged down with the little stuff, you get me?"

Axelrod sighs. "Yes sir, I get you."

Who Ever Could Have Imagined

2009-03-21T11:57:00.003-05:00

That the most powerful man in the world was not the president, but the guy who loads his teleprompter? Seriously, in eight years, did George W. Bush read the wrong speech to the Irish Prime Minister, and thank himself for giving a dinner? Or make a retard joke on Leno?

We have elected a mountebank for a president. Arrogant, brash and uncouth. A moron with a gift for reading whatevers put in front of him. We elected Ron Burgundy president.

Somehow, you know this is going to end in "Go F*&% yourself, San Diego."

Dear Mr. Steele,

2009-03-13T17:12:00.002-05:00

On behalf of conservatives everywhere...please stop talking. Learn a lesson that Our Beloved President hasn't. When you're at the bottom of a pit, that's the point where you stop digging.

Amateur Hour Comes to the White House

2009-03-11T17:40:00.004-05:00

By now, you have doubtless heard that the President and his handlers severely bungled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's state visit last week. While President Messiah was given a number of really, really cool gifts (like a pen holder that was carved from the HMS Gannet, a ship once known as the HMS President, a ship whose purpose was to interdict slave ships, and sister ship to the HMS Resolute, which the president's desk is carved from-and the framed commission of the Resolute, Prime Minister Brown's other gift).

Of course, our President and his crack staff, who have such wonderful judgement and temperment, if you'll remember, gave the Prime Minister a set of 25 DVDs. While a nice gift, its not the kind of thing you give to a foreign head of government-especially when American-format DVDs will not play in a British-format DVD player!

Add this to the two weeks they spent basically making the Supreme Commander the First Enemy, which was about as productive as I am in a deer stand, while the economy and our financial institutions continued sliding deeper into recession. David Axelrod, the brains behind the Dear Leader, admitted as much on Fox News Sunday this weekend.

I remember when the transition was called "The Smoothest Ever." But now, the treasury has exactly one of its appointed positions filled-Tim Geithner. I know I'm stoked that Timmy Turbotax is working diligently by himself to try to get us out of our credit-induced hole. And then, last week, we got the report that the President is "overwhelmed" by the financial crisis, and that he could give a fig about foreign affairs. One of his aides even told the British they were nothing special! And this is the country that is our best ally!

Amateurs. Bumblers. There is no learning curve in the Presidency. You don't get points for trying real hard. Even if you are the Secular Messiah.

You Know You Are Laughing

2009-03-05T20:47:00.000-06:00

I mean, tax cheat Tim Geithner telling a committee chaired by tax cheat Charlie Rangel that the IRS is going to crack down on tax cheats...you can't make this stuff up. Somewhere, a tasell of Democrat operators is laughing while they make 'honest mistakes.'

As Was Pointed Out To Me Earlier

2009-03-02T18:03:00.004-06:00

Happy Casimir Pulaski day for anybody reading in Illinois.

Who, you ask?

Pulaski was a Pole who left his home (at the time a part of Russia) to come to the US during the American Revolution to join our cause against the British. Pulaski was known as the Father of American Cavalry, and was killed in Savannah, Georgia, during the war.

In 2007, the Senate voted to posthumously extend honorary citizenship to Pulaski. The House has taken no action; nor has either President Bush or President Obama. In case you are wondering, only six people have ever been given that honor: General Lafayette, William Penn and his wife Hannah, and Raoul Wallenberg were all given honorary citizenship after death, while Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa were honored during their lifetimes.