Category Archives: Obituaries

I won’t miss Walter

Posted on July 18, 2009 | Comments Off on I won’t miss Walter

It’s heresy, I know. Tough. Cronkite never was "the most trusted man in America," except to those whose opinions he supported blatantly, flagrantly on the air every weeknight on cBS news. Somewhere along the line he must have been a real journalist but it didn’t last long.

We all read that LBJ said he knew he had to resign when he "lost" Walter Cronkite on the Vietnam War. A real journalist would have been able to figure out that, shocking as TET 1968 was, it was not a victory for the enemy — like Uncle Walty and his broadcast pals said it was. Over and over and over. But don’t get me wrong. I’m only blaming them for a lack of professionalism. The Pentagon and Congress lost the war all on their own.

UPDATE:  I pop off, but this guy does it thoughtfully. Barry, meanwhile, blithely joins the sheep. No surprise.

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Michael Jackson versus Jimmy Cagney

Posted on July 13, 2009 | Comments Off on Michael Jackson versus Jimmy Cagney

It’s the dancer Michael Jackson that I remember. That was years ago, before the plastic surgery and the scandals. He did and still reminds me of Jimmy Cagney, not because I’m old enough to have seen Cagney in person or his movies upon their release. I saw these two (in three clips) on television when I was a kid in the 1950s and the boob tube played lots of old black-n-white movies. What a dancer Cagney was.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Obituaries, Scribbles

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Giving up on the black boxes

Posted on July 11, 2009 | Comments Off on Giving up on the black boxes

The U.S. Navy has stopped searching for the flight deck and data recorders that went down with the remains of Air France 447 in the Atlantic off Brazil. French surface ships gave up Friday, though a French submarine continues to prowl the depths, and there is talk of more searching begining July 14. So, with still no clear proof of what happened, let the speculation continue in earnest.

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Posted in Obituaries, Weather/Climate

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Times Wastes Too Fast

Posted on July 5, 2009 | Comments Off on Times Wastes Too Fast

A remarkable, very readable Web-centric piece on Thomas Jefferson, warts and all. His Aunt Judith, his father’s sister, was Mr. B’s seven greats grandmother.

Via In Search of Jefferson’s Moose.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Genealogy, Library, Mr. Boy, Obituaries

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Iran death toll

Posted on June 24, 2009 | Comments Off on Iran death toll

Seventeen is the official number killed in the Iranian election protests, but one hundred fifty is closer to the truth, according to some witnesses on the ground. After today’s "massacre," both totals are bound to go higher. The whole thing now looks like a repeat of Tiananmen Square.

UPDATE:  So it seems. June 24. Remember the date. Although the open chest wound photo at the second link is (as stated) older–from June 20.

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Posted in Obamalot, Obituaries, Scribbles, The War

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Neda: “I’m burning, I’m burning.”

Posted on June 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Neda: “I’m burning, I’m burning.”

nedaaghasoltan.jpg

From what I’ve read so far, she was more of a bystander to the Iranian election protest than an active participant. But it’s probable that her Bassij assassin singled her out because she was a woman living in a misogynistic dictatorship. There’s no doubt that Neda Agha-Soltan is a martyr now–though it may be only to a failed revolution.

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Posted in Iraq, Obamalot, Obituaries, Scribbles, The War

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Ensign Wesley Frank Osmus, R.I.P.

Posted on June 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Ensign Wesley Frank Osmus, R.I.P.

U.S. Navy Ensign Osmus has been dead for sixty-seven years, but I didn’t know about him until I came across his story reading Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of The Battle of Midway. Now I keep imagining him staring at the Japanese sailor coming at him with an axe as he held onto the chain rail on the stern of Arashi, a destroyer in Nippon’s First Carrier Striking Force.

Osmus, a TBD Devastator torpedo-bomber pilot from the carrier Yorktown, had crashed in the sea, been plucked out by Arashi‘s crew and interrogated by Captain Watanabe Yusumasa. Then Watanabe ordered Osmus thrown off the stern. He grabbed hold of the chain rail; hence the sailor with the axe. Odd that his Web memorial at the University of Illinois alumni page makes no mention of his murder, though the 2007 book’s authors know it well enough and add: “Watanabe did not survive the war. Had he lived, it is likely he would have met the hangman’s noose as a war criminal.”

UPDATE:  To be fair, I suppose I should link to this, which shows how much things have changed.

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Posted in Library, Obituaries, Troops

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