My buddy Nelson Ascher speaks out on where thihngs stand after today’s events.
If I happened to have just arrived from outer space and found myself in the middle of a war, I’d check which side of it was the British one and would join it. Why? First, because that’s the side that wins and, more importantly, that’s usually the right side to be. Today‚Äôs attacks on Britain don’t diminish, they rather strengthen my optimism, since those who should be worried and afraid are those who have the Brits as their enemies.
Britain shall win. Again. As usual.
He forget about one war (The American Revolution), but we’ll excuse him.
Sorry for the slow blogging today (of all days) but I am in the Silicon Valley headed for an event celebrating this group. More afterwards.
They didn’t exactly win the War of 1812 either…but still, he’s basically right. Ditto the US, with an exception or two.
Considering the fact that the first American president not born a British subject was Martin Van Buren I suppose it could be argued that they won that one too. In a way..
But I hope this does not drive us further apart. Damn terrorists, who the hell do they think they are? They kill Iraqis and Egyptian diplomats, Americans and British commuters. I keep hearing how Americans are “occupying” the world, but come on… who died and made the likes of Zarqawi or Osama King? the frigging murderous tyrants.
Roger – I caught a clever British historian on a radio show some years ago, who said with a bit of a chuckle that it was of course the British who won the American Revolution, King George and the Hessian mercenaries being Germans, after all.
That’s right, George III was a Hanoverian. Those were the days of “Hey, I’m royal, hanover your country!”
I cannot even start to express my admiration for Britain and her people. Their unique love for individual freedom and rule of law made the American Constitution and the America possible ñ and remain the beacon of the liberty for the rest of the world. If I regret anything is the post-modern selfñflagellation that the Brits elected to subject themselves for their past imperial and colonial sins. Guys, nobody on this planet is perfect, and in the great scheme of things you did much more good than bad. Much, much more.
Today again I find myself rereading poetry of the old bad imperialist bastard Kipling – and hoping that the spirit that animated him is not entirely lost in a modern Brit.
Katherine:
Some of the British anyway. I just read about some silly Brit that said this was all Blair’s fault because we killed 100,000 Iraqis. That bad man. and hear I thought it was the fault of the people who blew up the buses.
The left makes me sick.
Terrye,
And why this silly Brit was quoted but not his neighbor down the street who swore and promised eternal vengeance to the Islamists?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Katherine:
I dunno. I saw the quote on powerline. And they are conservatives.
I think most Brits are made of tougher stuff than that but I guess it is hard for me to understand how someone can ignore the carnage around them and go about their Bush/Blair bashing like nothing of any import occured.
As far as that is concerned I don’t know how people can believe that ludicrous casualty number or how they can pander to some nitwit like Galloway when they have to know he sucked up to a dictator like Saddam who killed a lot more than 100,000 and we have the pathetic remains to prove it.
the freaking idiots. sheesh.
Roger, have a safe trip.
Britain, stand strong.
Terrye,
I was trying to be facetious (ha!). I do hope that the neighbor down the street does exist in reality, not only in my imagination.
At this point I am convinced that people who believe the Lancetís casualty number are the same subset population who believe in Rockwell alien crash landing, UFOs, the cold fusion, homeopathy, mesmerism, phrenology, numerology, or any other good-sounding pseudoscientific idea. A lot of people desperately need to believe in something and once you take that god-thing away, they will go for any crackpot theory. Hence the Bushitler Neo-Con Haliburton Rove Cabal control of all the events all of the time.
The bombings in London are like a dark garden that has fungi growing in darkness and fertilized by the continued cowardice of European countries that fail to acknowledge that the garden is in their backyard.
Katherine:
You are correct no doubt. There is some comfort in it I suppose.
But man I would be so pissed if this happened here that I would deck the first idiot that started that whole ‘we had it coming thing’. I swear I would.
You and me both, Terrye.
Hey, you’re in my neck of the woods, Roger. San Jose?
Jim Mc:
Actually, the Btits won virtually every battle of the War. They only lost at New Orleans which is arguably the most important battle of the war. It actually occurred after the ratification of the peace treaty. However, the British almost brought the young nation to ruin. The New England states were on the verge of secession. The war was for all intents and purposes a stalemate.
I am not optimistic about the British reaction. They are a different people then those who fought in earlier conflicts. The restrictions on self defense have rendered most of the population as sheep who are preyed upon by wolves. Too few Brits have the fortitude to take responsibility for their own security.
The Second Amendment is far more important then the simple right to bear arms. It is a statement about the inherent right and indeed the duty of every citizen to take responsibility for the community’s security. That is why the typical American reaction to a terrorist attack is to hit back. It is also why violent crime rates are far higher in Great Britain then they are here. When a criminal breaks into someoneís house in London he knows he can assault or rape with impunity. If he does that in Arlington Virginia there is high probability that he will be facing down a 45 automatic (at least in my house) British criminals have been interviewed and have flatly stated that they would never break into an occupied house if they were in the states. Americans have guns are not afraid to use them.
“He forget about one war (The American Revolution), but we’ll excuse him. ”
They won that one too, for they ended up spawning the biggest, baddest, most loyal ally they could have ever imagined.
Katherine,
I would suggest that idiot was quoted, because over time idiocy spreads, and what now is unanimity will descend into partisan bickering, with half taking the position that Roger has taken, and half ending up where that idiot was already.
Can we pencil you in for a seat near him?
Words of Winston S. Churchill:
“Be Ye Men of Valour”
“Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar.” (This call and spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice was quoted by Churchill in his first broadcast as Prime Minister to the British people on the BBC – May 19, 1940, London.)
“Captain of our Souls”
Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world: “We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls.” (Prime Minister’s Speech on the War Situation, House of Commons, September 9, 1941)
“Sugar Candy”
“We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.” (Speech made to the Canadian Parliament, December 30, 1941.)
(from: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=388)
——————-
“You Do Your Worst – and We Will do Our Best”, First delivered 14 July 1941:
[...]
We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, “No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us.” The people with one voice would say: “You have committed every crime under the sun. Where you have been the least resisted there you have been the most brutal. It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst – and we will do our best.” Perhaps it may be our turn soon; perhaps it may be our turn now.
We live in a terrible epoch of the human story, but we believe there is a broad and sure justice running through its theme. It is time that the enemy should be made to suffer in their own homelands something of the torment they have let loose upon their neighbours and upon the world. We believe it to be in our power to keep this process going, on a steadily rising tide, month after month, year after year, until they are either extirpated by us or, better still, torn to pieces by their own people.
It is for this reason that I must ask you to be prepared for vehement counter-action by the enemy. Our methods of dealing with them have steadily improved. They no longer relish their trips to our shores. I do not know why they do not come, but it is certainly not because they have begun to love us more. It may be because they are saving up, but even if that be so, the very fact that they have to save up should give us confidence by revealing the truth of our steady advance from an almost unarmed position to superiority. But all engaged in our defence forces must prepare themselves for further heavy assaults. Your organization, your vigilance, your devotion to duty, your zeal for the cause must be raised to the highest intensity.
We do not expect to hit without being hit back, and we intend with every week that passes to hit harder. Prepare yourselves, then, my friends and comrades, for this renewal of your exertions. We shall never turn from our purpose, however sombre the road, however grievous the cost, because we know that out of this time of trial and tribulation will be born a new freedom and glory for all mankind.
(from: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=422)
Jerry typed:
Actually, the Btits won virtually every battle of the War. They only lost at New Orleans which is arguably the most important battle of the war.
Actually, the US won several engagements, including Perry’s victory over the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie (which led to William Henry Harrison’s victory over the British at the Thames River. Thames River secured the Detroit area for the US.). Commodore Thomas Macdonough’s astounding victory over the British fleet on Lake Champlain stopped a major enemy advance in its tracks.
Winfield Scott also defeated a well-trained British force at the Battle of Chippewa (British General Riall – just before his line broke and ran, exclaimed at the approach of the long, gray American line: “By God, those are regulars!”. The uniforms of Scott’s brigade were the models for the West Point cadet uniforms, I believe.)
The Jefferson-Madison public financial system (such as it was) was an unmitigated disaster. James Madison was the Jimmy Carter of his time, a truly awful president and c-in-c.
I’m not so pessimistic about the current state of bloody-mindedness in Old Blighty. There are plenty of firearms available to anyone interested in purchasing one. UK firearms crimes are at an all-time high since the enactment of the draconian 1997 gun bans. School kids are increasingly opting to arm themselves with surplus East European gats. The tough part will be to shake off the multculti security blanket – a matter addressed in Mark Steyn’s column in Friday’s Daily Telegraph.
Gerry,
Do you want me to take the seat next the idiot so I can deck him? Happy to oblige, I am sure.
I may have manicured hands, but my right hook is fearsome.
It is clear that the left, both in the UK and here in the US, will use this event as an opportunity to further their own cause. I think the British are stronger than this and I do believe that once the dust settles and people have had a chance to reflect on what happened and more evidence on who committed this heinous crime and where the sponsors are, the retaliation will be swift…
Here is why:
http://www.rightviews.com/article.php?id=317
http://www.RightViews.com
In a gesture of patriotic support of the nation, the BBC announced today it was scheduling a marathon broadcast of Zulu Dawn, Khartoum and A Bridge Too Far….
Katherine ó If you’re that close, use the elbows.
Simon Schama has made the argument that the American Revolution was in many ways a reprise of the English Civil War: The battle over “No taxation without representation” being similar to the fight that ensued when Charles I tried to raise money for a foreign war without consulting Parliament first. So I think you could make the argument that Britons of a certain stripe won the Revolution.
I don’t know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about how contemporary Brits will react to today’s atrocity. But it was remarkable to hear ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone sounding more like Bush or Blair rather than the woolly-headed far lefty he usually is. Chalk up another amazing achievement for Al-Q!
Doug S., I’d always heard that the American Civil War was a reprise of the English Civil War since the descendants of the Roundheads and the Cavaliers literally squared off one against another.
Speaking of descendents let us not forget that this country was settled by the conglomeration of Scots Irish and English. Many of our conflicts and accomplishments are just a continuation of what they left behind.
I read in a McCrumb book [She Walks these Hills] that the mountains of Appalachia are the same mountains ones finds in Scotland. Millions of years ago the continents broke apart and the mountain range ended up in different hemispheres. It seems the Scots came here, found those mountains and somehow knew they were home.
I remain unconvinced that the British will do very much to combat terrorism in their own country. Their police and judicial system are too intimidated by political correctness. It doesnít matter what Tony Blair says. The police unions and leadership will refuse to allow their members to investigate seriously any alleged misdeeds by dark skinned people.
For anybody interested in the early cultural conflicts of America and The British Isles. I suggest reading James Webb’s “Born Fighting: How the Scots Irish Shaped America”.
Basically, the interior of the USA was settled and shaped by the biggest group of “badasses” that ever came out of the British Isles. The English rulers didn’t know what to do with these people.
Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, his parents were from Ulster, is the final separation of the US from the class conflicts of the British Isles.
Andrew Jackson scared the crap out of the European elites because he wasn’t from “the ruling class” and certainly didn’t pretend to be. America’s indentity (right to bear arms, plain spokenness, limited gov’t, military preparedness, separation of Church and state) is shaped more by the Jacksonian elements within the States and less by traditional Europe. Many other disenfranchised groups came to America and easily assimilated.
Today, we still see a the same cultural conflicts in how America is perceived by some Europeans and some of the “so called” American intellectual elite.
For anybody interested in the early cultural conflicts of America and The British Isles. I suggest reading James Webb’s “Born Fighting: How the Scots Irish Shaped America”.
Basically, the interior of the USA was settled and shaped by the biggest group of “badasses” that ever came out of the British Isles. The English rulers didn’t know what to do with these people.
Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, his parents were from Ulster, is the final separation of the US from the class conflicts of the British Isles.
Andrew Jackson scared the crap out of the European elites because he wasn’t from “the ruling class” and certainly didn’t pretend to be. America’s indentity (right to bear arms, plain spokenness, limited gov’t, military preparedness, separation of Church and state) is shaped more by the Jacksonian elements within the States and less by traditional Europe. Many other disenfranchised groups came to America and easily assimilated.
Today, we still see a the same cultural conflicts in how America is perceived by some Europeans and some of the “so called” American intellectual elite.
He is SO right.
Bad idea, bombing the Brits.
At this point I am convinced that people who believe the Lancetís casualty number are the same subset population who believe in Rockwell alien crash landing, UFOs, the cold fusion, homeopathy, mesmerism, phrenology, numerology, or any other good-sounding pseudoscientific idea
Unfortunately……they’re not.
Another Data Point from my own personal existence.
ìUnfortunately……they’re not.
Another Data Point from my own personal existence.î
Many of them possess advanced degrees behind their names. I have, for instance, long reminded people that the idiot Noam Chomsky is adored by our so-called best and brightest. It is my guess, that at least half of his fans have minimally earned a masterís degree.
They won that one too, for they ended up spawning the biggest, baddest, most loyal ally they could have ever imagined.
LOL!
Has eveyone seen the John Cleese ‘England Revokes U.S. Independence’ thing going around??
It is HILARIOUS.
The premise is that since we can’t be trusted to elect a reasonable person president, Britain has withdrawn our sovereignty and returned us to the Crown.
It sounds awful, but it is laugh-out-loud funny.
Hmm.
Interesting.
Apparently John Cleese did NOT write it; this is an urban legend.
There was originally a short version of the revokation (that’s the hilarious one) and there are long forms all over the place (which are distinctly not hilarious)…..
If I find a short form somewhere I’ll post the link.
Ed and I both burst out laughing at this passage:
I love these guys.
Terrye
Wow!
(Scots Irish & the mountains…..)
I had similar thoughts, reading BORN FIGHTING; I kept feeling, ‘they found their terrain…..’ something like that.
BORN FIGHTING says the Scots-Irish won the critical battles in the Revolutionary War.
I continue to be history-impaired, but being Scots-Irish myself I’m going to believe that until I find out otherwise….
hi David!
Many of them possess advanced degrees behind their names.
uh……check.
“Many of them possess advanced degrees behind their names.”
Yes, some ideas are so idiotic that you must be educated into them. I think it goes with the territory, if you don’t return to the real world now and then.
In my stressed-out last undegrad semester, I almost convinced myself at one point that the first Christian missionaries arrived in Ireland around 300 BC. I had a very convincing argument in essay form. If you didn’t stop to think for a second about what “BC” meant, it was easy to skip right over the very subtle flaw. I mean, I had citations and everything.
Even once I knew about the flaw, it was hard to find how the error crept in.
That’s what taking Shakespeare and Advanced Calculus while looking for a job and trying to figure out a where to squeeze a marriage in will do. And I didn’t even have to worry about kids or a mortgage yet. Now picture some of these guys in this state for 20, 30 years.
The odds are overwhelming that only the modestly credentialled believe in the ìRockwell alien crash landing, UFOs, the cold fusion, homeopathy, mesmerism, phrenology, numerology, or any other good-sounding pseudoscientific idea.î However, the ìelitesî have their own goofy beliefs like Bush is Hitler and global warming. But this is nothing new. The same thing occurred in Nazi Germany. Ironically, the very ambition required to be successful in an academic environment tends to encourage one to be an intellectual whore. Earning an advanced degree is not merely about working hard and having a high IQ. Wetting your finger and finding out which way the wind blows is also often deemed necessary.
I remain unconvinced that the British will do very much to combat terrorism in their own country. Their police and judicial system are too intimidated by political correctness.
Yesterday I linked to this NRO piece discussing some of the ways in which the British government is hamstrung in its domestic WoT. For one thing, Britain is signatory to Geneva Protocol I which forbids the targeting of “civilians” except when they are actively engaged in planning and/or carrying out an attack.
For another, the British appeals court stuck down the government’s anti-terror law provision allowing indefinite retention of suspected foreign terrorists although such retainees had received periodic review by government tribunals.
…the panel ruled 8 to 1 that the provision authorizing the detentions violated European human rights laws and was discriminatory because it applied only to foreigners. According to one of the justices: “The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these” (link WaPo)
Then there are laws like the Public Order Act 1986 which contains anti-racism provisions that state in part:
There is proposed legislation to amend the Act to cover religion as well as race: Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
They indeed have their work cut out for them.
I wonder if any of these gentlemen might have been involved in yesterday’s carnage.
At this point I am convinced that people who believe the Lancet’s casualty number are the same subset population who believe in Rockwell alien crash landing, UFOs…
Katherine, I assume you’re referring to the 1978 Roswell crash?
If you ever find yourself passing through Roswell (NM), do stop at the UFO museum (there is also an excellent fine arts/history museum well worth a few hours). This is a town of true believers who, by the time you leave, just might have you convinced as well.
To all:
Kevin Phillips book “The Cousins’ Wars” traces the connections and themes that tie the English civil wars, The Revolutionary War of 1776 and the American Civil War. Who knew we should know who the roundheads were?
kevin Peters
Whoa, Roswell didn’t really happen? Then how did the moonbats get here?
This is an interesting article from August, 2004:
Why terrorists love Britain:
Guess all bets are off now.
The alien spaceship crashed, or not, in Roswell in 1947, not 1978 (??) as stated above.
The bombing will not make any difference.In 1996 I caught the train to Manchester and then by a number 42 bus to my place of work.
On the way,just before the traffic lights at Marks & Spencers I spied a young lady with the most excellently proportioned legs,but was somewhat irked by the fact that she used them to walk behind a truck parked on the wrong side of the road.
A vague irritation was assuaged by the fact that it was a no parking zone,and that at any minute the driver would get a ticket.
Later that day there was a substantial bang,similar to some of the big Chinese fireworks or a large maroon..
During a break I took the opportunity to get a snack and to walk the mile into the City centre to pick up an item from a shop in the Royal Exchange Building.
It got quieter as I neared Portland Street which runs into Piccadilly and the first police barriers appeared,First thought was “Bloody students from Manchester University on one of their marches again” second thought,”Manchester United are at home again this Saturday”.
It was only when I got back to work that I heard the news that the IRA had bombed the Cross Street ,Market street intersection.
My ex-wife had gone home by train earlier and I couldn’t contact her,the entire area,including Victoria Station was closed off.The only thing to do was hitch a lift home do some phoning and wait for news.Apparently she had been on the platform under the huge glass roof when the police move every one to safety,she ultimately ende up on the other side of the City in an area she did not know , eventually found a free telephone and we got her a taxi home.
Later I recognised the parked lorry from the security camera picture in the papers as the one used for the bomb.We still went back to work the following week.
That is what we do,get bombed on a Saturday night and go back for more the next week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/15/newsid_2527000/2527009.stm
You have to miss the Heinkels and Dorniers, at least your ma and pa could hear them coming.
Buddy,
I used to hate those Fokkers!
Question, what did crash near Rockwell in 1978
Teddy Kennedy?
Teddy “Bridge Over Troubled Calories” Kennedy?
PeterUK:
Thats not all you Brits have done, at least in the past. In addition to going back to work you also would make sure that those who bombed your city lived to regret their act in a serious fashion.
Kevin Peters
It will be interesting to see what the British do. While I have faith in Britons generally, remember, it was their best and brightest (just ask them) in the 1930′s who convinced Hitler the UK would fall as easily as the rest of Europe with their Oxford Oath not to fight for King and Country…
“…it was their best and brightest (just ask them) in the 1930′s who convinced Hitler the UK would fall as easily as the rest of Europe with their Oxford Oath not to fight for King and Country…”
Amen. John Derbyshire and I do not think that Great Britain will truly confront the Islamic nihilists:
ìYes, Britain will ìdo a Spain.î I am sure of it. Britainís Spain will not be as dramatic or obvious as Spainís Spain, for the reasons I started out by enumerating. The British anyway have far, far more experience of appeasement than the Spaniards. They know how to do it slowly, imperceptibly, so that nobody much notices. You could ask a Turkish Cypriot, or a white Rhodesian, or of course an Ulsterman.î
http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200507080805.asp
I expect the English will wimp out due to their politically correct inclinations. Letís hope that Derbyshire and I are wrong.
Our best and brightest flew Spitfires.
ìOur best and brightest flew Spitfires.î
Those Spitfires aimed their guns at the invaders. Will Great Britain be able to combat the enemies within? I am just not that optimistic. Political correctness was not a problem in WWII.
David Thomson,
It is a mistake to confuse the effete liberal elite and Guardianistas with the British people as a whole.The British are far more stoic in the face of adversity.
It is not our Media and opposition parties who whine at every casualty and set back in Iraq,in fact the WoT is very under reported.The American blogs were quite a shock to me with the endless MSM negativity and political opportunism regarding Iraq,but reading those here and elsewhere I don’t believe that America will buckle.
We are still a democracy,no politician,no matter how politically correct,can afford to ignore the will of the electorate, a majority of whom believe that the government has bent too far in accommodating Islamism.After the London bombing the “moral superiority” of the elite will be trampled in the dust.
This is Tony Blairs project,his responsibility,he and his party will have to make their minds up on whose side they are.
The US didn’t exist until after the War of Independence so simply put it was Brits beating other Brits. Sorry chaps!
Oh, and PeterUK,,, since you’ve been waiting for it so patiently…
“That’s right, madam, and these Fokkers were Messerschmitts…”
Jerry wrote: Violent crime rates are far higher in Great Britain then they are here.
They are??
OK, Jerry, I checked that assertion (“Violent crime rates are far higher in Great Britain then they are here”) with a knowledgeable Brit correspondent — Euan Semple at The Obvious? His verdict:
“Absolute nonsense. Yes the figure has gone up in recent years but it is nothing like the level it is in the US. We average around 600 – 800 murders a year, the vast majority of which are domestic crimes. Less than 100 of the murders involve firearms.”
Maybe you’re counting face-slappings and fistfights?