A hero died last week. About 65 years after Hitler wanted him exterminated.
Marek Edelman, who died on October 2, probably aged 90, was the last surviving leader of the armed Jewish revolt against the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto; having commanded the heroic but doomed struggle in April 1943 he was one of a tiny number of fighters to escape with his life, eventually taking part in the equally ill-fated citywide Uprising the following year.
Edelman was just 20 when the Nazis invaded Warsaw. By November 1940 the invading army had cut off his district from the rest of the city with walls and wire. As the anti-Semitic directives of the occupation were put into force, hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews were forced into the ghetto, inflating its population to almost half a million.
Conditions became intolerable and in the course of 1941 the ghetto population was decimated by disease and malnutrition. Early the following year however, with Hitler's decision to implement the Endlösung, or final solution to "the Jewish question", plans were put in place to liquidate the ghetto and its remaining occupants entirely.
Dawn Cole writes a marvelous blog over at Not Going Postal. She wrote a very interesting blog at MySA, - "San Antonio's homepage", regarding President Obama's well earned Nobel Peace Prize for his work with. . .
Oh, Nobel Peace Prize Committee. I understand. We've all been there.
You've been in a long-term relationship with someone who just doesn't understand you. Treated you like your feelings weren't important. Dissed your friends. Started giant fights that were just based on his wrong opinions, not grounded in facts.
Couldn't pronounce nuclear to save his life.
You knew you deserved better, and somehow, you finally found it in you to end things. You dried your eyes, and there "He" was.
Sparkly and handsome and smart, and he treats you so well: listens to your needs, takes you seriously, tells you you're important. He even talks in complete sentences.
And I'm so happy for you, really I am. I like him, too. I see a lot of long-term potential there. I think you and Barack Obama are going to be great together.
But honey, he's the rebound boyfriend. You don't just run off to Vegas and get married to someone just because he's not the other guy. You let things develop. You see if he's got what it takes, if he's for real.
You don't give him the Nobel Peace Prize on the first date, either. Bless your heart.
I have just become aware that a great friend of this blog, Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man is not very well right now. Please send any prayers, positive thoughts and Feng Shuei based room rearrangement his way.
From his blog:
Gentle readers,
Peter is in the hospital from an incipient heart attack this afternoon. He's currently in critical care and stable. However, he lacks a laptop (and I'm a few time zones away, so I can't fetch it), as well as time and attention to blog, so no posts for the next few days.
Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man
Will keep you updated at his request; kind thoughts and prayers are welcomed wholeheartedly.
The Munchkin Wrangler is one of my favorite blogs. If you read Jumblerant frequently you'll know that I have the dubious honor of read over 150 blogs a day and so being a favorite really does mean something.
My trends from Google Reader as of about 5 minutes ago;
Jumblerant isn't about politics. If your politics can be swayed by any argument of mine you have bigger problems than whom to vote for. If you want to read a blog vehemently opposed to / pro the current President / Prime Minister / El Jefe then there a lot of blogs out there doing just that.
So here is part of The Munchkin Wrangler's opinion about Roman Polanski the famous film director, recently arrested in Switzerland for an outstanding warrant from the US of A.
Let’s recap that “matter of morals”: a 40-year-old man plies a 13-year-old girl with booze and drugs to get into her panties, and then proceeds to have sex with her despite her refusal. Now, I’m not a prude, but where I come from, we call that “raping a child”.
Charges were brought, the court agreed, the defendant Polanski pleaded guilty, and promptly skipped the country before the sentencing to evade the punishment.
Simple so far. Did the crime, do the time.
A flange of actors and Hollywood types came together to write a letter, I imagine starting it with 'To Whom It May Concern', stating that Mr. Polanski's arrest some thirty years ago was in fact for “a matter of morals.”
By the way, if you are discussing any aspect of child abuse or child rape having Woody Allen on your team is a real disadvantage. The picture above is Woody Allen and his current wife.
Osama bin Laden would be a better character reference.
Seriously.
Read the article and all comments to Marko on his site, all comments to me down below the beautiful ads supplied by "Mr Google's Team of Subtle Admen".
We recently moved and in the process of packing and unpacking, we managed to get rid of a lot of irrelevant rubbish that we had been hoarding over the years.
Over at SoBe Organized there is a little home truth being told;
It's not about the new boxes, folders, files or colored labels we buy. It's not about the new resolutions we make to 'be organized now!', it's about the moment we realize that a streamlined life is one with minimal stuff. It's about making tough decisions over what will be thrown and what will be giving away. It's about finding your shoulders soft and relaxed as you enter an uncluttered space. It's about finally realizing that less really is more.
I blogged about M-ATVs a while ago in 'Me wants one. Or two' and today The Marine Corps Systems Command has announced that only 3 months after placing the first order they are deploying the M-ATV to Afghanistan.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2009 – With unprecedented speed, the first of thousands of mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles —known as M-ATVs -- are being deployed to Afghanistan just three months after a delivery order was awarded.
Conventional MRAP vehicles feature a V-shaped hull to deflect roadside bombs, and are proven to be lifesavers on the battlefield. The procurement of the M-ATV grew from an urgent requirement to provide troops a smaller and more maneuverable vehicle that can travel off-road and navigate Afghanistan's difficult, mountainous terrain, Marine Corps Systems Command officials said.
“We have pulled out all the stops to collapse the schedule and get these vehicles into theater,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael M. Brogan, commander of Marine Corps Systems Command and joint program executive officer of the MRAP program. “We are doing everything that’s required to ensure that they are safe, that the risk assessments are complete, [and] that they’re fully integrated and flown into Afghanistan.”
The M-ATV supports small-unit combat operations in highly restricted rural, mountainous and urban environments that include mounted patrols, reconnaissance, security, convoy protection, communications, command and control, and combat service support. It is designed to replace the up-armored Humvee in Afghanistan. The M-ATV will carry up to five personnel: four plus a gunner.
The Defense Department has ordered more than 4,300 of the all-terrain mine-resistant trucks, and another 1,400 are planned. Oshkosh Corp. is producing the vehicles.
They really do look very mean don't they? Let's just hope they save lives and keep the boys safe over there.
I'm a huge fan of Micheal Yon and his reporting from today's war zones. He recently wrote an excellent article on armed medics. I wasn't sure whether or not to share it as its all a bit serious and has guns in it and I'm sure some people won't like that.
On the other hand, if I were in a war zone and had the need for a helicopter rescue squad I would really appreciate it if they were armed to the teeth.
The genius minds in Cairo decided to stop the H1N1 virus, aka Swine Flu, by killing all of the pigs in the city boundaries. I guess its akin to the logic of killing off all of the local human population as that too would stop the spread of the virus.
What was not taken into account is that the pigs in the area ate the tons of organic rubbish thrown out by the dynamic and evolving population.
Ramadan Hediya, 35, who makes deliveries for a supermarket, lives in Madinat el Salam, a low-income community on the outskirts of Cairo.
“The whole area is trash,” Mr. Hediya said. “All the pathways are full of trash. When you open up your window to breathe, you find garbage heaps on the ground.”
What started out as an impulsive response to the swine flu threat has turned into a social, environmental and political problem for the Arab world’s most populous nation.
It has exposed the failings of a government where the power is concentrated at the top, where decisions are often carried out with little consideration for their consequences and where follow-up is often nonexistent, according to social commentators and government officials.
“The main problem in Egypt is follow-up,” said Sabir Abdel Aziz Galal, chief of the infectious disease department at the Ministry of Agriculture. “A decision is taken, there is follow-up for a period of time, but after that, they get busy with something else and forget about it. This is the case with everything.”
Its a very interesting article that combines government ineptitude, paranoia and environmentalism.
So whats the big deal? A pilot was arrested over the murder of 1,000 more people in the Dirty War. Fine. Just desserts.
But the Dirty War was not in some Third World dust bowl and the pilot wasn't some Russian mercenary who had a drinks problem and a spare plane like in the movies.
The Dirty War was alluded to in many of the Falklands War books I have read. It is given as one of the reason for the creation of the war back in April 1982 - not that long ago by many people's standards.
In his second book 'Spearhead Assault' John Geddes specifically mentions not only battalion 601, the now notorious army unit who created the concept of The Disappeared, but also The Naval Mechanics School which the Times article in the headline mentions.
The young man is dropped out of the back of the plane whilst it flies over the River Plate. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the pilot knew when taking off that he was going to be coming back with at least one less passenger.
I apologise. I was a bit naughty. I cropped some words from the headline to this blog from the original article in The Times. It originally read;
A short stop pilot flying between Italy and Holland was arrested yesterday for assisting in the murder of over 1,000 people.
We have moved away from that war-torn Third World country in central Africa that the original headline alluded to, and are now discussing Argentina in the 1970s through to the 1990s killing people for their political beliefs. The victims who became known as 'The
Image via Wikipedia The Disappeared
Disappeared'
I don't know much about this period in time in South America but I do intend to find out more about how so many people could go 'missing' without there being more of an outcry throughout the world.
Argentina is after all the country who not only hid high ranking Nazis after the Second World War, but the only democratic nation I can think of, that could not decide which side to be on during the war. (France {probably} doesn't count).
I guess we should all be happy that we weren't on the flight that was delayed because of the arrest of the Captain due to Mass Murder. I just hope that some families in Argentina, and those who escaped to restart their lives scattered around the world, sleep better tonight knowing that one more killer is getting brought to justice.
