PN:
Least We Forget Dept.
At the end of October 1941 the United States was not at war.
The island of Hawaii was in an incipient mode, as were all the continental states – preparing for a probable eventuality, but not ready. Here’s what Pearl Harbor looked like –
December 7th, 1941, early Sunday morning, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
The attack was not unthinkable. Nonetheless, it was a total surprise, which intensified the resultant horror. The immediate response was so weak the enemy was encouraged.
A few Japanese military minds viewed their accomplishment with reservation. A summation of the sentiment was in the closing scenes of the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! attributed to Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”. Although no record of Yamamoto actually speaking so plainly exists, those in the know did feel the attack was inevitably “pyrrhic” – as Yamamoto did state, “I can run wild for six months…. after that I have no expectation of success”.
The turning point in the Pacific theatre was the battle of Midway, which was exactly six months later on July 7, 1942.
This interview with Adolph Kuhn is personal testimony. He was at Pearl Harbor during the attack. His duty at the time would be the equivalent of an air frame mechanic today. After the surprise attack, he like many others returned to his base to do what he could. He was ordered to board floundering ships in an effort to save sailors still on board. Mr. Kuhn climbed onto the sinking ship USS Arizona. The Arizona is still in Pearl Harbor today. The USS Arizona Memorial straddles the sunken ship. There are 1102 crew members interred within her hull. His memories are vivid and detailed. Mr. Kuhn gave this interview in 2001. It is a treasure these survivors give us their stories, and that they retain their humanity – God bless their souls:
A few pieces of excellent music from 1941. Memories…..:
Joe and I remember most of these tunes from our youth. Mom and dad had a small cafe across the street from Ryerson Tech in New Toronto. This music by truly talented performers will never get old.
From that day of infamy in December of 1941 to today, the United States of America grew to become the foremost military power in the world.
By war’s end, the American effort was largely responsible on all fronts for victory.
What of today?
Will U.S. military power bail our asses out one more time?
That’s a Robert Zimmerman statement for true…..In grateful memory of that greatest of generations, and that infamous day –
Climate Change Video o’ the Week
Nobel laureate Ivar Giaever (co-winner 1973, physics) has a polymath’s curiosity. What he discovered to prepare himself for an appearance as a panelist on the subject of global warming is the focus of this presentation. THIS VIDEO SHOULD BE MANDATORY VIEWING for everyone. He has joined Joe’s list of the best minds on the subject. God help us all, because politicians (mostly lawyers and educators with a few doctors and a bunch of snake oil salesmen in the mix) are making decisions about things they are absolutely ignorant about. Which is fine when they are choosing drapes for the parliament buildings, or organizing a birthday party. It is the great misfortune of the average and below average citizens to suffer the choices the elite make in a perpetual game of political maneuvering. The objective of such maneuvers is seldom the welfare of the aforementioned citizenry, despite much hullabaloo and fanfare. The poor, the stupid, the stupid and poor, they always suffer most. Watch the video. It is an introduction to common sense. Joe and I wept at the viewing of such honesty, such non-mercenary truth telling. From the Nobel laureate meeting of July 1st, 2015, here is Ivar Giaever:
GMO Video o’ the Week
Patrick Moore defines the loaded term “genetically modified organism”, then proceeds to talk about “recombinant DNA bio-technology”, which is the process that has the mindless twisting their panties into knots every time they open their pie hole to shovel in more “organic” food. Get over yourselves. Label the product. Choose what you will to eat. Leave the sane folks alone and let us get on with improving the quality, the quantity, the safety, and the “environmental impact” of human food production. Gotta love Patrick Moore. A great Canadian:
Joe’s Thought o’ the Week
Joe and I are seriously thinking of canceling our TV service (which costs almost $100 Cdn / month) to free up some $$$ to donate to the websites we enjoy. It would be a two-fold strike. A strike against a business that has lost it’s way – cable TV service (albeit forced by government “regulation”). A strike for small independents who have great talent great conviction and great messages – and a medium more universal than cable, the Internet. One such entity is Joe Dan Gorman, the one man show called Intellectual Frog Legs:
Best Thinks o’ the Week
From the website of John C. Wright, self professed author, an excellent diatribe critical of those on the Left, of Liberals, of Progressives. The name of the piece is “Point Deer, Make Horse“. In this article, following-up many inane media pieces about the San Bernardino masacre, Mr. Wright asks the question: How long until the Left wake up? The answer is: NEVER!
Joe and I want ever so much for everyone to read this article. The following quotes from it will “wet your whistle” to click on the link above and read the entire piece. It is masterful….
[….]”And so the criticism changed strategy. In the shadow of the Holocaust of Jews by the Nazis, where Nazism became the synonym for evil in a world which has ceased to speak of the Devil, racism was identified as the main scourge and flaw of the West, and attempts to eradicate racism by means of embracing multiculturalism became the norm.
This is ironic. Tribalism, racism, and the presumed superiority of one’s own bloodline over any foreigners is the norm of human existence, and only the Christian religion gives anyone any reason to condemn it. Here in the West and here alone is anyone even concerned at calling it evil or trying to eliminate it. It would be like the West trying to wipe out polygamy, when we are the only ones whose culture rejects polygamy. No one else sees it as wrong.
Be that as it may. Multiculturalism is not a doctrine, it is an attitude: the attitude is to praise inferior and savage societies in any ways in which they differ from Christendom, and to blame, scold, vilify and upbraid Christendom for any ways in which we differ from Utopia. It is the attitude of a nagging wife unwilling to divorce a hard-working husband and provider she hates and loathes. Multiculturalism is nagging.
The nagging is based on the idea that all cultures are equal, and all equally provide for human liberty and human happiness. Skyscraper and yurt: the same. Cathedral and igloo: the same. Wright Brothers and the Cargo Cult of Melanesia: the same. American cosmetics industry and pre-Western Chinese practice of breaking the bones in baby girls’ feet for footbinding: the same. Western abolition of slavery and Hindu caste system: the same. Medical Doctors and Witch-Doctors: the same. Scientific agriculture and Maori cannibalism: the same. Progress and stagnation: the same. Christian martyr and Muslim suicide bomber: the same. Jesus and Mohammed: the same.
See how it works?”
[….]”In recent years, with the cult of multiculturalism dead, and Marxism rightfully tossed into the crematorium of dead yet stupid ideas, the only thing left for the Left to do was to break all ties with honesty.”
[….]”The Chinese have an epigram for this, as they have for most things political and practical.
It is written this way: 指鹿為馬 (zhi lu wei ma). Literally translated, the four characters mean ‘point deer, make horse’.
The word 為 for ‘make’ also means ‘to transform’ or ‘to serve as’ or ‘to make believe.’ So the epigram means ‘Calling a deer a horse.’”
[….]”
You see how the Unreality Principle works. Bringing in a pony and calling it a horse won’t do. Someone might honestly mistake a horse for a pony. Only lies that are breathtakingly stupid, things no sane person could say or believe, are sufficient to show where one’s loyalty rests.
It is for this reason that Hillary Clinton announced that acts of terrorism carried out by Islamicists in the name of Islam as defined, promoted and commanded by Islam now and for all centuries past not only had nothing to do with Islam, but, in her words, ‘nothing whatsoever to do with Islam.’
Islam is not the enemy. The deer is a horse.”
[….]”
Therefore, to me, it is a meaningless question to ask whether President Obama or anyone else ‘actually’ believes that Global Warming causes terrorism, or ‘actually’ thinks we should not pray for the victims of a mass shooting because Caesar is more potent than God. There is no ‘actually’ with these people: there is nothing below the surface appearance.
The surface appearance, by design, is all that there is. Intellectual honesty and introspection are what their mental system is designed to avoid.
So, yes, the Left ‘actually’ believes (1) if only given control over the economy, that the State has the power to stop the weather from ever changing again and (2) the fact that weather changes makes Muslims (but not Christians or Jews living in the same villages, same area, same clime) plan and carry out large-scale sneak attacks against random innocent civilians and (3) we, and not Mohammed, are responsible for what Mohammedans think, say, believe and do.”
Joe’s Garage
Joe and I have a love of tractors. The first vehicle we ever drove was a farm tractor when we were 8 years old (give or take) on grandmother Winniski’s farm near Ituna SK.
The video below is the “Best Show” in California. The Best Tractor Co. tackled the problem of heavy machinery working in soft soil such as in California. Clarence Leo Best perfected the tracked tractor. Best later merged with Holt Manufacturing to create the Caterpillar Tractor Company that is a world leader today. Amazing machines, products of the Industrial Age:
Cartoon o’ the Week
Moralism o’ the Week
CANADA
Alberta
What can be said for an NDP government that maintains it is wholly focused on the “working person”.? Don’t know about all of them, but this is from one of the horse’s mouths –
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHERS, SMART THINKING
GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ALL OVER US)
Particularly more odious every day / month / year. The slaughter continues. 27,428 deadly terror attacks since 9/11.
Anyone else getting sick and tired of the Muslim entity?
SUNDAY SERMON
Back by popular demand (Joe and I love this guy), Freeman Dyson weighs in on the “global warming” issue. This is a new interview from April, 2015:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week has been diddling about and around the freezing point. Cloudy, windless, raining.
One day only of partial sun that lasted all day. Hallelujah!
Only 8 more days until old man Winter makes his grand entrance.
Be still my beating heart….. we are in time for winter again!
I wonder, would Winter miss Joe and I if we didn’t show up?
Joe (Waterlogged) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez never misses a beat – from Investor’s Business Daily –
