July 21, 2003

Congrats. That's an interesting list, but why is it lamentable that a university does not require an American History class, but not painful that there is not one science, math, or engineering book out in that list?

Of course, I have read Ed School follies and recommend it highly. There is much merit and much truth in what Rita has to say though the ROPES despise and ignore her. There is nothing on my lips or in my heart that is not on my lips as Rita should know by now.

ROPES....RULERS OF THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT.

A History of the American People by Paul Johnson is well done but it needs a second edition to squeeze out the typos and mistakes that never would have happened if Mr. Johnson had an American friend he trusted.

The Americans by Daniel Boorstin is a classic and unlike Johnson has nary a typo or error. The Boorstin Reader is highly recommended as well.

I cannot leave off for High Tea without a remark against John Dewey (AKA Socrates, Thomas Jefferson and Marx rolled into one). Compared to Barzun or Gilbet Highet the man is minor bore and a dead weight and the soon we pull him of his pedastal and hide him in the cellar next to his all his atheist and socialist friends the better. "Awa wi' him and send him doon in a twister to Auld Nick's Twin Sisters." (That is an ancient curse...I hope it works).,

Of course LEFT BACK by DIANE RAVICH as well as her new book THE LANGUAGE POLICE are both minor masterpieces documenting some of the follies of our time. We can only hope that her books are more successful and timely than Vegetius' MILITARY INSTITUTIONS OF THE ROMANS (AKA Epitoma rei militaris) (a great book unappreciated until centuries after the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire).

His most famous quote is
QUI DESIDERAT PACEM PREPARET BELLUM IF YOU WANT PEACE PREPARE FOR WAR which may or may not have inspired the ancient Highland saying: "He who keeps not his arms in time of peace wil find none on him in a time of war."
{Am fear nach gleidh na h-airm san t-sith cha bhi iad aige 'n am a' chogaidh.}

If you want to shave Bin Laden's sons keep a sharp dirk by your side and a cat's eye out for danger as well as treachery.

Jump quick, take cover or strike first. There is only only language a dragon understands and that is brute force. Shoot to kill or it's cloud nine or the cold, cold ground for you and your mates.

Be prepared to do unto them before they do unto you.

That's Argyll trench wisdom -a very special school of the hard knocks.

For over 200 years the Men of Munro of my sept served the yoke and though they did not always win (there were wiped out almost to the last man outside of Dunkirk in 1940 -our Patrick Munro spent five years in Nazi prison camp) they bled their foes white and made them think again and doubt a little that conquest would come easy. And of course we've served the Red, White and Blue as well and have retained a little bit of our ferocity as you can see in the rolls of the Bulge Campaign and Guadacanal. Some of the best never came home but they did the job. All my life I have tried to earn what they passed on to me and still I know I am not half the man they were but half of them is still no' bad and tough enough for most situations.

TWO DOWN ONE TO GO!!!! (in Iraq anyway)

Saddam's sons killed in raid on home in northern Iraq






(Mosul, Iraq-AP, July 22, 2003 Updated 4:17 PM ) _Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed in a six-hour firefight Tuesday when U.S. forces, acting on a tip from an Iraqi informant, surrounded and then stormed a palatial villa in this northern Iraqi town, a senior American general said.

Four coalition soldiers were wounded and two other Iraqis were killed in the raid, but Saddam was not among them. The house belonged to one of Saddam's cousins, a key tribal leader in the region.

"We are certain that Odai and Qusai were killed today," said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a news conference in Baghdad. "The bodies were in such a condition where you could identify them."

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1370181&nav=3YeXH2qw

Now let's Bag Dad!

Yes, Sir. Old Saddam has tasted ashes today, "Now clad in gold, now dissolved in ash, vanitas, vanitatum, vanitas." He grasped for total power and empire and ended up with what Usigli the Mexican playwright called a mere "crown of shadows." May that wicked killer, his hands red with blood, that stench in the nostrils of humant, that brute and destroyer of all that is good and green and productive, that parasite, may he bite the dust tomorrow!

(Hey I'm ALMOST as good as Baghdad Bob no better because I am closer to the truth).

Seriously, his days are numbered. My only worry is that he will lash out before he dies like the vicious snake he is and kill some more innocents in Britain, the USA, Australia, Poland, Spain, Portugal or Israel. If he can he will. Will he commit suicide? Perhaps, if he is near capture but I think he will sneak around and plot and murder for as long as he can. But his last cards are almost played out.

Like Darius after Arabela it would not surprise me at all if Saddam's shrinking bad of gangsters and mercenaries betrayed him to the conquerors for a a few pieces of silver.

He is almost checkmated but like a Gila Monster he still can kill even from his last hole.