Mr. Eddy Arnold has passed away, he was 89. Eddy Arnold was a music phenomenon. In his hay-day he was bigger than Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and every other country music star. His contribution to music will never be lost or forgotten.
Rest in peace, Mr. Arnold.
Yeah! Congratulations, citizens of England, you are English again! Today you celebrate the Feast of St. George the Dragon Slayer…your patron saint. I am proud of you for taking this urgent step and once again celebrating your Englishness. I am even more proud that a Catholic saint has led you back to the pride and honor you all deserve.
I think Newt has blown a fuse. Thank God he didn’t run for president after all.
I had hoped that one of our other contributors would have taken a moment to write Mr. Heston’s obituary for the site. Mr. Heston has been a favorite actor my father since I can remember and I wanted someone who knew more about him to do justice to his legacy. However, that will not stop me from honoring Mr. Heston as one of the best actors this country has known and a distinguished World War II serviceman. Whenever Ben Hur is on I make a point of stopping what I am doing and enjoying the classic. Perhaps more importantly he had the courage to shift his leftist political agenda and eventually to stand up for what was right when many of his colleagues remained glued to extremist left wing ideologies. During the 1960s Mr. Heston campaigned for John Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson. He even actively campaigned for gun control. His political leanings changed during the 1970s as he became a staunch conservative and one of the most famous advocates for Second Amendment rights this country has seen. One of his most famous lines came in reference to the possibility that the Clinton administration would take away his Second Amendment rights “from my [his] cold, dead hands.” I hope someone who knows more about Mr. Heston will properly honor him in the comments but I know I will be tipping a pint in his honor tonight.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day to all you fine Irishmen and women and those of you who wish you were Irish! I will be sure to raise a pint to each and everyone of you this fine evening.
There might be 4 inches of snow on the ground outside, but the Cubs are playing on WGN! All is right with the world. May the boys of summer hasten their coming!
The man who single-handedly saved geeks’ Friday and Saturday nights has died. Gygax was the inventor of Dungeons & Dragons. As such, he was a huge part of my middle school weekends. Unfortunately, Gygax ran out of hit points today. May he rest in peace.
Here is a classic debate from Firing Line history where Buckley demolishes Noam Chomsky and makes him look stupid. Charmingly.
Buckley’s line toward the beginning of this exchange where Buckley offers to take up Chomsky’s digression and then peeks over at him with a bit of a wink and sparkle in his eye is priceless.
Chomsky debate: Part I and Part II
And, as it turns out, this seems to be fairly topical.
There are people whose passing affects one even though he has never met them. Ronald Reagan was one. Pope John Paul II was another. Today, we mourn the passing of William F. Buckley, Jr.
My “acquaintance” with him came about as a subscriber to the magazine he founded in 1955, National Review. One of the things I discovered early on is that if you waited long enough to renew your subscription, you’d eventually receive a letter from Bill Buckley coaxing a renewal out of you. As a result, I would always wait for the Buckley letter before I would send in my renewal since they were always a treat.
I also remember him from his television show, Firing Line. It was always entertaining when he’d get an opponent on the ropes. You’d see his eyebrow arch slightly and knew that the poor sap was about to find himself skewered by a superior intellect with consummate debate skills.
As our readers on CD may have noted in the past, we certainly see ourselves as standing on the shoulders of WFB. We cribbed his famous phrase, bastardized it, and used it as a tagline for our website, “Standing athwart history, yelling incoherently.”
The world is a little poorer for Bill Buckley’s passing. R.I.P.
Mr. Cubbedge has a wonderful tribute to His Most Eminent Highness Fra’ Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, the Prince Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. It is worth a look…and the history lesson.
Steve Sailer has an excellent post over at his blog that I had to share with you. BUT, before you go check out his post, complete this experiment first.
Take out a pencil (or a pen, depending on your preference) and paper. Name the ten most famous Americans, excluding presidents and first ladies.
NOW, go see what Steve had to say. You’ll likely find your list significantly different than what our high school students have compiled.
For comparison purposes, I compiled my own list which I will reveal in the first comment to this post so as to not influence your picks. I’d love to see your lists.
As an aside, I had EXACTLY the same mental picture of the mysterious sounding “Underground” Railroad. History could have been so much cooler.
Brady’s been drawing comparisons to Bradshaw and Montana for awhile now, and if he leads the undefeated Pats to victory tonight, he will join their ranks as the only QBs to possess four Super Bowl rings.
If you were judging the greatest quarterback of all time based on Super Bowl rings alone, then, Brady would have a 1/3 shot at taking the title. But actual stats always eclipse Super Bowl rings. Otherwise, Dan Marino wouldn’t even be in the conversation. But clearly he has to be: In 242 regular season games he completed an astonishing 4,967 passes for 61,361 yeards and 420 touchdown passes. He won the MVP in 1984 and made the trip to Honolulu 9 times. Compare that with Brady’s (thus far) 112, 2,294, 26,370, 197 career line, and one quickly sees that Brady needs a few more snaps from under center before the “greatest ever” talk begins.
And if one considers Super Bowl wins to be the most reliable adjudicator of QB greatness, what Super Bowl win was greater than Joseph William Namath’s guarantee in Super Bowl III: “We’ll win the game. I guarantee you.” Not only did he and the Jets take down a Colts team that was touted as “the greatest football team in history,” but his performance solidified the AFL’s legitimacy. Namath took home the MVP, and the win made him the only QB to start and win a national championship in college and start and win the Super Bowl.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to set foot atop the pinnacle of the world, has passed away at 88 years of age. Blessings to him for his hard work for the people of Nepal and his adventurous spirit.
Former Illinois Congressman Henry J. Hyde passed away this morning at the age of 83. A veteran of 32 years in Congress, Congressman Hyde is perhaps best known for his role in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton. However, his most enduring work centered around his fight to preserve the culture of life in Washington, D.C. As a devout Roman Catholic he was a constant pillar of support for pro-life causes in Congress. In 1976 Congress passed the so-called “Hyde Amendment,” authored by Hyde, that forbids any federal funding for abortion. Congressman Hyde authored, co-authored and supported countless pieces of legislation that have had profounly positive effects on the United States. During the fall of 2003 I had the opportunity to intern for Congressman Hyde, who at the time was my Congressman, on Capitol Hill. I found him to be a kind man with an extremely high intellect who was not afraid of getting his arms dirty doing the work that had to be done to better the United States. The residents of the Sixth Congressional District of Illinois have lost a great man and representative. So have the people of the United States.
Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine,
et lux perpétua lúceat eis.
Requiéscant in pace. Amen.
It was inappropriate to make the comments that were made on the General Tibbets post for the simple reason that the post was his obituary. I will not countenance the character assassination of any person we provide an obituary for. Henceforth, derogatory comments about those who have passed will automatically be deleted.
That said, I realize that there is a profound difference of opinion about General Tibbets’ contribution to the war effort. I provide this thread for comments about that issue.
Apparently, so according to this story. He will saying Mass at Yankees Stadium during his April visit to New York City. He also plans to visit Ground Zero. I sincerely hope this doesn’t make it a sin to be a Cubs fan - I don’t need that weighing on my soul as well.
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. died today of natural causes at his Ohio home. In 1945, Col. Tibbets piloted the B-52 that delivered the first atomic bomb to Hiroshima. Tibbets remained an active serviceman until his retirement in 1966 as a brigadier general in the United States Air force. Mr. Tibbets is a war hero and a true patriot. His actions over Hiroshima saved the lives of countless servicemen and ended the war in the Pacific. Mr. Tibbets is a shining example of the U.S. military’s honor and courage in battle.
RSS
