Cowards
"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission." - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days." - Nelson Mandela
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." - Winston Churchill
"All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take." - Mahatma Ghandi
The decision by Sony Pictures Entertainment is the ultimate act of cowardice. It flies in the face of artistic freedom. It tells the world that the entertainment industry will submit to emotional blackmail by anyone who is able to penetrate their cyber-security. It is reprehensible. I am disgusted.
The Obama Administration was subjected to intense criticism when it negotiated with the captors holding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, to effect his release. That was life and death. This is all about artistic freedom. A despotic dictator doesn't want to be portrayed as a buffoon in a comedic movie. Kim Jong-un is almost certainly involved in some way in the hack attack on Sony, whether or not there are disgruntled ex-Sony employees involved He won. We all lost because of the lack of courage in the executive suites at Sony.
Even in their effort to lay this off on the theater owners, Sony is being disingenuous. They claim the decision by the major movie theater chains to cancel showings of "The Interview" that drove their decision to shelve the film. They conveniently forget that it was Sony who informed those theater owners earlier in the week that it was okay to cancel the film.
I'm glad Amy Pascal isn't leaving Sony, even after her big meeting with the Reverend Al Sharpton. I just wish she really did have a big pair of balls like Seth Rogen said she did. If he'd been right, I'd have been going to see "The Interview" on Christmas Day.
* * *
The people of the Philippines are upset that the United States has invoked its rights under the Visiting Forces Agreement in the case of U. S. Marine Corps PFC Joseph Pemberton. He has been charged with the murder of a transgendered Philippine citizen.
So what right did the U. S. invoke that has the local citizenry and some Philippine government officials upset? The right to keep him in military custody rather than let him await trial in a local jail.
I don't understand what they are upset about. The U. S. Ambassador to the Philippines is guaranteeing that Pemberton will remain within the sovereign borders of their country and that he will make all required appearances as the legal process continues. If and when he is found guilty, he will be sentenced under Philippine law and serve his time in one of their prisons.
* * *
President Obama's decision to restore diplomatic relations on some level with Cuba took me back to 1980. I was stationed at what is now Homestead Air Reserve Base to the South of Miami. Because my primary "job" was administration and personnel, I'd been selected for a program known as WARSKILs. We admin weenies were cross-trained in other skills so that when the people who did that kind of work had to deploy, we could step in and take over their responsibilities. I was cross-trained in law enforcement and security.
When the Marielitos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift) began arriving, I was asked (you can read that as ordered) to volunteer for law enforcement duty. I wound up guarding some of the refugees who were being kept confined until their "status" could be determined. Because Fidel Castro had used the boatlift as an opportunity to send some of the residents of his prisons to the U. S., the government had to make sure it didn't release criminals into the population.
I felt bad after doing this, but I made up for it by volunteering to aid refugees in their getting settled in the Miami area. I was one of a number of volunteers who spent time driving those refugees who were without transportation around to run various errands.
Later on, I received the Humanitarian Service Medal for my efforts. The paperwork cited both my guard-duty and my volunteer work. Was guarding people truly humanitarian work? I guess I'll never know.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Fox News and other conservative-leaning people/organizations are angry that the University of Michigan is not taking action against a professor of communications who is a department chair there; over a column she wrote. It begins "I hate Republicans" and the website she wrote it for changed the title of the piece (without her permission) to "It's Okay to Hate Republicans." Are these folks too busy defending the Second Amendment that they've forgotten about the First Amendment?
If the thaw in U. S. - Cuba diplomatic relations results in the extradition of Assata Shakur to the U. S., her conviction needs to be reexamined. She may or may not be guilty of being an accessory to murder, but the fact the cop who testified against her has recanted calls for a new investigation.
$300,000 is a lot to pay for a baseball cap, but when it once belonged to Babe Ruth...I guess that's got some value.
Nicole Richie needs to not be borrowing clothes from her six year old.
A tabloid is reporting that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian do nothing but fight all of the time. The same source claims that Kris Jenner has told Kim a split at this point could ruin her career. What career is my question.
Holy Sheep Shit Batman, can it be that Mitt Romney has expressed a good idea? He's suggested that Sony should distribute "The Interview" for free online and ask viewers to donate $5 to fight Ebola.
Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson is trying to figure out whether or not being gay is a choice. I'll make it easy for him. Hey Willie, ask yourself if you ever had a choice about being attracted to women and then ask yourself why it would be any different for gay folk..
As if I didn't have enough health issues to worry about, now they're saying Sleep Apnea may lead to increased risk of dementia. Guess it's a good thing I don't skip even a single night of sleeping with my CPAP.
I admit to loving the pastrami sandwich from Katz's Deli in New York City above any other pastrami sandwich I've ever had. But it ain't worth $79 for pastrami sandwiches for two, shipped to you wherever you are, by this Saturday.
Eric Sondheimer of the L. A. Times has an item in today's paper about international students playing basketball at private schools. While the CIF has rules prohibiting the recruiting of athletes, anyone who believes that SoCal private schools don't recruit and give "scholarship" to athletes is either naïve or being deliberately ignorant of what goes on.
IIRC, the owners of the Los Angeles Airport Marriott own all of the land and buildings on the property from the North side of the hotel to the South side of El Dorado Bowl. Wonder what new ownership means for the future of the other businesses on the property, other than the hotel of course.
When tax revenues fall in the face of an improving economy, Congress need only look in the mirror to find the culprit. They've cut another $346 million from the IRS' budget. The budget for the fiscal year that ends next September is over $1.2 billion less than it was in 2010. When the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says this budget cut is a tax cut for tax cheats. As Yoda might have said, "lunacy this is."
Would someone at King (makers of Candy Crush Saga among other time-wasters) please tie the damn owl to his perch?
Every single time I listen to a song by Carl Anderson, I'm reminded of what an amazing talent he was. A good friend, and we are all poorer for his having been taken far too soon. I once took my girlfriend and her mother to see him perform live At My Place and when we went backstage after the show, I thought they'd both faint.
* * *
December 20th in History:
69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.
1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1832 – HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.
1959 – Unknown attackers murder the Walker family in Osprey, Florida.
1960 – The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth President of Pakistan.
1973 – The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna, Austria.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1991 – Paul Keating sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating Bob Hawke in a leadership ballot of the Australian Labor Party.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
2005 – Aleksandër Moisiu University was founded in Durrës, Albania.
2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 – The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.
2013 – China successfully launches the Bolivian Túpac Katari 1 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Famous Folk Born on December 20th:
Samuel Mudd
Harvey Samuel Firestone (the founder of the tire company)
Branch Rickey
Konstantinos Dovas
Dennis Morgan
George Roy Hill (gotta love him just for the film shown below, never mind the high-quality films he did like "The Sting")
Kim Young-sam
John Hillerman
Bob Hayes
Bobby Colomby
Dick Wolf
Alan Parsons (yes, there was a project named after him)
Michael Badalucco
Rory Markas (a nice guy and a hell of a broadcaster)
Joyce Hyser
Joel Gretsch
Jonah Hill (who still has a pic of "Fonzie" as his image on Facebook)
"I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days." - Nelson Mandela
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." - Winston Churchill
"All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take." - Mahatma Ghandi
The decision by Sony Pictures Entertainment is the ultimate act of cowardice. It flies in the face of artistic freedom. It tells the world that the entertainment industry will submit to emotional blackmail by anyone who is able to penetrate their cyber-security. It is reprehensible. I am disgusted.
The Obama Administration was subjected to intense criticism when it negotiated with the captors holding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, to effect his release. That was life and death. This is all about artistic freedom. A despotic dictator doesn't want to be portrayed as a buffoon in a comedic movie. Kim Jong-un is almost certainly involved in some way in the hack attack on Sony, whether or not there are disgruntled ex-Sony employees involved He won. We all lost because of the lack of courage in the executive suites at Sony.
Even in their effort to lay this off on the theater owners, Sony is being disingenuous. They claim the decision by the major movie theater chains to cancel showings of "The Interview" that drove their decision to shelve the film. They conveniently forget that it was Sony who informed those theater owners earlier in the week that it was okay to cancel the film.
I'm glad Amy Pascal isn't leaving Sony, even after her big meeting with the Reverend Al Sharpton. I just wish she really did have a big pair of balls like Seth Rogen said she did. If he'd been right, I'd have been going to see "The Interview" on Christmas Day.
* * *
The people of the Philippines are upset that the United States has invoked its rights under the Visiting Forces Agreement in the case of U. S. Marine Corps PFC Joseph Pemberton. He has been charged with the murder of a transgendered Philippine citizen.
So what right did the U. S. invoke that has the local citizenry and some Philippine government officials upset? The right to keep him in military custody rather than let him await trial in a local jail.
I don't understand what they are upset about. The U. S. Ambassador to the Philippines is guaranteeing that Pemberton will remain within the sovereign borders of their country and that he will make all required appearances as the legal process continues. If and when he is found guilty, he will be sentenced under Philippine law and serve his time in one of their prisons.
* * *
President Obama's decision to restore diplomatic relations on some level with Cuba took me back to 1980. I was stationed at what is now Homestead Air Reserve Base to the South of Miami. Because my primary "job" was administration and personnel, I'd been selected for a program known as WARSKILs. We admin weenies were cross-trained in other skills so that when the people who did that kind of work had to deploy, we could step in and take over their responsibilities. I was cross-trained in law enforcement and security.
When the Marielitos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift) began arriving, I was asked (you can read that as ordered) to volunteer for law enforcement duty. I wound up guarding some of the refugees who were being kept confined until their "status" could be determined. Because Fidel Castro had used the boatlift as an opportunity to send some of the residents of his prisons to the U. S., the government had to make sure it didn't release criminals into the population.
I felt bad after doing this, but I made up for it by volunteering to aid refugees in their getting settled in the Miami area. I was one of a number of volunteers who spent time driving those refugees who were without transportation around to run various errands.
Later on, I received the Humanitarian Service Medal for my efforts. The paperwork cited both my guard-duty and my volunteer work. Was guarding people truly humanitarian work? I guess I'll never know.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Fox News and other conservative-leaning people/organizations are angry that the University of Michigan is not taking action against a professor of communications who is a department chair there; over a column she wrote. It begins "I hate Republicans" and the website she wrote it for changed the title of the piece (without her permission) to "It's Okay to Hate Republicans." Are these folks too busy defending the Second Amendment that they've forgotten about the First Amendment?
If the thaw in U. S. - Cuba diplomatic relations results in the extradition of Assata Shakur to the U. S., her conviction needs to be reexamined. She may or may not be guilty of being an accessory to murder, but the fact the cop who testified against her has recanted calls for a new investigation.
$300,000 is a lot to pay for a baseball cap, but when it once belonged to Babe Ruth...I guess that's got some value.
Nicole Richie needs to not be borrowing clothes from her six year old.
A tabloid is reporting that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian do nothing but fight all of the time. The same source claims that Kris Jenner has told Kim a split at this point could ruin her career. What career is my question.
Holy Sheep Shit Batman, can it be that Mitt Romney has expressed a good idea? He's suggested that Sony should distribute "The Interview" for free online and ask viewers to donate $5 to fight Ebola.
Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson is trying to figure out whether or not being gay is a choice. I'll make it easy for him. Hey Willie, ask yourself if you ever had a choice about being attracted to women and then ask yourself why it would be any different for gay folk..
As if I didn't have enough health issues to worry about, now they're saying Sleep Apnea may lead to increased risk of dementia. Guess it's a good thing I don't skip even a single night of sleeping with my CPAP.
I admit to loving the pastrami sandwich from Katz's Deli in New York City above any other pastrami sandwich I've ever had. But it ain't worth $79 for pastrami sandwiches for two, shipped to you wherever you are, by this Saturday.
Eric Sondheimer of the L. A. Times has an item in today's paper about international students playing basketball at private schools. While the CIF has rules prohibiting the recruiting of athletes, anyone who believes that SoCal private schools don't recruit and give "scholarship" to athletes is either naïve or being deliberately ignorant of what goes on.
IIRC, the owners of the Los Angeles Airport Marriott own all of the land and buildings on the property from the North side of the hotel to the South side of El Dorado Bowl. Wonder what new ownership means for the future of the other businesses on the property, other than the hotel of course.
When tax revenues fall in the face of an improving economy, Congress need only look in the mirror to find the culprit. They've cut another $346 million from the IRS' budget. The budget for the fiscal year that ends next September is over $1.2 billion less than it was in 2010. When the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says this budget cut is a tax cut for tax cheats. As Yoda might have said, "lunacy this is."
Would someone at King (makers of Candy Crush Saga among other time-wasters) please tie the damn owl to his perch?
Every single time I listen to a song by Carl Anderson, I'm reminded of what an amazing talent he was. A good friend, and we are all poorer for his having been taken far too soon. I once took my girlfriend and her mother to see him perform live At My Place and when we went backstage after the show, I thought they'd both faint.
* * *
December 20th in History:
69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.
1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1832 – HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.
1959 – Unknown attackers murder the Walker family in Osprey, Florida.
1960 – The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth President of Pakistan.
1973 – The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna, Austria.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1991 – Paul Keating sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating Bob Hawke in a leadership ballot of the Australian Labor Party.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
2005 – Aleksandër Moisiu University was founded in Durrës, Albania.
2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 – The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.
2013 – China successfully launches the Bolivian Túpac Katari 1 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Famous Folk Born on December 20th:
Samuel Mudd
Harvey Samuel Firestone (the founder of the tire company)
Branch Rickey
Konstantinos Dovas
Dennis Morgan
George Roy Hill (gotta love him just for the film shown below, never mind the high-quality films he did like "The Sting")
Kim Young-sam
John Hillerman
Bob Hayes
Bobby Colomby
Dick Wolf
Alan Parsons (yes, there was a project named after him)
Michael Badalucco
Rory Markas (a nice guy and a hell of a broadcaster)
Joyce Hyser
Joel Gretsch
Jonah Hill (who still has a pic of "Fonzie" as his image on Facebook)
posted by me at 2:18 PM
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