“How can the world be made better if there are no children of us who fight against the fascists?” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Entries from March 2015
It can’t
March 31st, 2015 · No Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit · Politics & Law · The Second World War
Probable cause? We don’t need no stinkin’ probable cause
March 30th, 2015 · No Comments
“An officer’s use of deadly force is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. In determining whether an officer’s use of deadly force is objectively reasonable, a court must determine what […]
Tags: Politics & Law
A good place to start
March 29th, 2015 · No Comments
“In combat there must be discipline. For many things are not as they appear. Discipline must come from trust and confidence.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Lit & Crit · The Second World War
What’s a word that will make this interesting?
March 28th, 2015 · No Comments
“A common criticism of legal writing is that those in the legal profession are enamored of redundancy. They cannot merely say null. They must say null and void and of no legal force or effect. Is all this needed? If something is null, isn’t it void? If it is void, can it have legal effect? […]
Tags: Politics & Law
Retract your claws, little pussy
March 27th, 2015 · No Comments
“There is no one who cannot be hurt.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Lit & Crit · Politics & Law · The Second World War
But what’s that armband you’re wearing?
March 26th, 2015 · No Comments
“Your nationality and your politics did not show when you were dead.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Lit & Crit · The Second World War
Writing for the streetlamp at midnight
March 25th, 2015 · No Comments
“When I speak at a conference, there’s generally somebody sitting in the front row who raises a hand and says, ‘I don’t need a big advance. I don’t need a publisher that’s going to send me on a national tour’—which is good because nobody is going to do that—‘but I just want to be published.’ […]
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit
Advanced weaponry does help
March 24th, 2015 · No Comments
“The strength of a nation lies, first of all, not in its arms but in its will.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (trans. Murphy)
Tags: The Second World War
The self within the self
March 23rd, 2015 · No Comments
“Nothing is done to oneself that one does not accept.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Lit & Crit · The Second World War
Stokes
March 22nd, 2015 · No Comments
“Prison is nothing. Prison only makes hatred.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit · Politics & Law · The Second World War
Not eternal, but a verity
March 21st, 2015 · No Comments
“To win a war we must kill our enemies. That has always been true.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Tags: Lit & Crit · The Second World War
In case you’ve wondered about the context
March 20th, 2015 · No Comments
“Okinawa was declared captured by U.S. forces. The commanding general of the Japanese defenders, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, committed suicide. Thus ended the 81-day campaign in which the Americans suffered their heaviest losses of the Pacific war. In securing the island considered essential for the invasion of Japan proper, 12,520 U.S. soldiers and marines were […]
Tags: The Second World War
Denying reality doesn’t make it unreal
March 19th, 2015 · No Comments
“A group of Japanese army officers attempted to seize control of the government in Tokyo. Fearing an imminent capitulation to the Allies, the officers won some support from the Imperial Guards Division and occupied part of the palace. There they searched futilely for the emperor’s surrender speech which had been recorded. General Takeshi Mori was […]
Tags: The Second World War
They never knew
March 18th, 2015 · No Comments
“The U.S. 4th Armored Division liberated the concentration camp outside Ohrdruf, the first of the infamous prisons reached by the Allies from the west. General Patton (who vomited on visiting the site) rounded up townspeople to witness the horrors which had been perpetrated in their immediate area. Many victims were still lying where they had […]
Tags: The Second World War
Soldier-boys, those boy soldiers
March 17th, 2015 · No Comments
“Hitler made his last public appearance, decorating children who had distinguished themselves in combat.” – Robert Goralski, “March 20, 1945,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Tags: The Second World War
They weren’t manned by robots
March 16th, 2015 · No Comments
“The last surviving ship of a 21-vessel Japanese convoy was sunk off Singapore. The tanker Sarawak Maru ended up like the others, picked off one-by-one over a ten-week period as the convoy attempted to bring supplies from Japan to forces in southeast Asia. Some were sunk in daylight attacks by carrier planes and in nighttime […]
Tags: The Second World War
Not their war, thank you
March 15th, 2015 · No Comments
“The first Canadian draftees to be sent abroad sailed for Europe from Halifax. Except for service in Kiska, conscripts had not been sent abroad. Of the 60,000 men in this category, many seemed intent on not going into combat areas. Prior to this first overseas departure, 7,800 had gone absent without leave and 6,300 were […]
Tags: The Second World War
We don’t die until we’re dead
March 14th, 2015 · No Comments
“Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and a renewed domesticity, for company at the movies or while visiting a museum, for someone close by in the car when […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Verandah
Billions and billions
March 13th, 2015 · No Comments
“We have become tireless voyeurs of death: he is on the morning news and the evening news and on the breaking, middle-of–the-day news as well—not the celebrity death, I mean, but the everyone-else death. A roadside-accident figure, covered with a sheet. A dead family, removed from a ramshackle faraway building pocked and torn by bullets. […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Verandah
In the shadow of the kamikaze
March 12th, 2015 · No Comments
“A mighty typhoon about 500 miles east of the Philippines inflicted heavy losses and damage on the U.S. Third Fleet. Three destroyers capsized and 769 lives were lost. Severe damage was suffered by eight [aircraft] carriers, a light cruiser, seven destroyers, and a variety of auxiliaries. Nearly 150 planes were lost off carrier decks or […]
Tags: The Second World War
Would you like another cup of tea, dear?
March 11th, 2015 · No Comments
“One of saddest lessons in history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.” – Carl Sagan, The Demon […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Verandah
How tall towers can be brought down
March 10th, 2015 · No Comments
“Bending and buckling (deformation) of steel beams and columns occurs when the steel temperature exceeds approximately 538 degrees C (1000 degrees F). At elevated temperatures, steel exhibits a progressive loss of strength. When there is a greater fire exposure, the load required to cause deformation is reduced. Deformation is not the result of melting. A […]
Tags: Politics & Law · The Forever War
Each of which is worth a thousand words on the open market
March 9th, 2015 · No Comments
“The greatest writers—Homer, Dante, Shakespeare—are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.” – William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White, The Elements of Style
Tags: Lit & Crit · Strunk & White
It’s not just who you know, it’s also when and where you know them
March 8th, 2015 · No Comments
“U.S.S. PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was sunk after it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in Blackett Strait in the Solomons. Eleven of the 13 crewmen survived and a week later were returned to their base and Rendova after harrowing and heroic efforts to elude the Japanese. (The official report on PT-109‘s […]
Tags: Politics & Law · The Second World War
DE-678
March 7th, 2015 · No Comments
“The American destroyer escort Harmon was launched. It was the first U.S. Navy ship ever named for a black, Leonard Roy Harmon, a mess attendant killed while saving a shipmate’s life during the fight for Guadalcanal. He received the Navy Cross posthumously. The ship was christened by his mother.” – Robert Goralski, “July 25, 1943,” […]
Tags: Politics & Law · The Second World War
Simple statement of historical fact
March 6th, 2015 · No Comments
“All contractors involved in the production of U.S. war materials were barred from practicing racial discrimination.” – Robert Goralski, “May 27, 1943,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit · Politics & Law · The Second World War
Breathe deep and clear your mind
March 5th, 2015 · No Comments
“Expectation bias is a well-established phenomenon that occurs in scientific analysis when investigator(s) reach a premature conclusion without having examined or considered all of the relevant data. Instead of collecting and examining all of the data in a logical and unbiased manner to reach a scientifically reliable conclusion, the investigator(s) uses the premature determination to […]
Tags: Politics & Law · Verandah
Wrangling unicorns
March 4th, 2015 · No Comments
“Any hypothesis that is incapable of being tested is an invalid hypothesis. A hypothesis developed based on the absence of data is an example of a hypothesis that is incapable of being tested. The inability to refute a hypothesis does not mean that the hypothesis is true.” – Technical Committee on Fire Investigations, Sec. 4.3.6.1, […]
Tags: Politics & Law · Verandah
Prescient lad
March 3rd, 2015 · No Comments
“Germany’s military overthrow was not an undeserved catastrophe, but a well-merited punishment which was in the nature of an eternal retribution. This defeat was more than deserved by us.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (trans. Murphy)
Tags: Politics & Law · The Great War · The Second World War
Pin a tail on that donkey
March 2nd, 2015 · No Comments
“As some historians have contended, [British Prime Minister] Chamberlain in the end saw himself as a practical businessman willing to deal with the world as it was, engage in hardheaded negotiation with others, and strike a mutually beneficial bargain on the assumption that all parties would honor their parts of the deal. Like the vast […]
Tags: Politics & Law · The Great War · The Second World War