Image from here.
Dale Challener Roe, together with the other participants of Project 2996, remembers.
Perhaps that will inspire you to tell yours. Where were you?
Archive for the ‘Eulogies’ Category
9/11 Plus Eight
Friday, September 11th, 2009Ten Things to Throw in the Casket With Him
Friday, August 28th, 2009Instead of coming up with dumbass laws to pass to “honor his memory,” I thought it would be a much better idea to figure out what we can bury forever right now, sort of toss into the hole with Uncle Ted’s carcass…then pour concrete on the whole thing.
I cut it off at ten. I don’t think there’d be much difficulty involved in pushing it out to a hundred, so leave some ideas in the comments section if you’re so inclined.
1. The idea that a senate seat should belong to a family dynasty, according to any rule written or not, hard or soft. We were supposed to have done away with this way back at the Battle of Yorktown.
2. The idea that if you come from a prominent family, you should be able to get away with killing people.
3. Politics of personality in general. From this point forward, a politician with a boring personality who promotes good ideas, should enjoy a longer, fuller career than a “charismatic” blowhard who promotes stupid ideas.
4. Death taxes, exit taxes, capital-gains taxes…and progressive taxes. Progressive taxes are actually as anti-American as any of ’em.
5. Rich people using poor people as poker chips to push bad laws. If it’s a dumbass idea, some sob story about some guy who had it rough, doesn’t suddenly make it into a wonderful idea.
6. The practice of re-electing people just because they happen to have a narcissistic streak a mile wide.
7. Borking.
8. That thing where you “reach across the aisle” and write legislation with that guy from the other party, and then as soon as he can’t do anything to benefit you politically anymore, turn on him, calling him every dirty name in the book in front of the microphones and cameras. That whole “scruples of an alley cat” thing.
9. That sick, sick custom of old, bloated, drunken sot politicians keeping themselves popular through hedonistic lifestyles, dishonoring, mistreating, and exploiting women.
10. Last but not least: Liberal politicians who promote abortion while claiming to be devout Catholics!
Cross-posted at Right Wing News.
Ted Kennedy and the Death (Hopefully) of an Era
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009Harsh words (relatively) for the recently departed, from Nick Gillespie, Reason Online:
With the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), two points immediately come to mind.
First is the endless, generally uncritical encomia that journalists and other public commenters immediately generate whenever any major figure, especially a controversial one, dies. Here’s a writer for what was effectively Kennedy’s hometown paper, The Boston Globe:
“I think they’re gonna say he is one of the greatest legislators, or most effective legislators—if not the most effective legislator—the Senate has ever seen,” Boston Globe reporter and author Susan Milligan said. “And I don’t think you could find a sitting senator right now, Democrat or Republican, who would disagree with that assessment.”
Milligan’s assessment may well be on-target: When you consider major legislation that Kennedy helped to hustle across the finish line, such as No Child Left Behind and the Americans with Disabilities Act, he was indeed an incredibly effective legislator, typically reaching far beyond the partisan rhetoric for which he was famous to work with hard-core Republicans. Kennedy was, in the turgid term regularly applied to him, the “liberal lion” of the Senate, a principled and unyielding advocate for bigger government, higher taxes, more business regulation, you name it. Yet many of his signature accomplishments—No Child Left Behind and the Americans with Disabilities Act, for instance—were not pushed through along partisan lines. In each instance, he worked with the respective President Bush and a slew of Republicans at the time to ensure passage.
Which brings me to the second point: The legislation for which he will be remembered is precisely the sort of top-down, centralized legislation that needs to be jettisoned in the 21st century. Like Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) and the recently deposed Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Kennedy was in fact a man out of time, a bridge back to the past rather than a guide to the future. His mind-set was very much of a piece with a best-and-the-brightest, centralized mentality that has never served America well over the long haul.
And it’s had lots and lots of chances.
Enough is enough.
Deepest Sympathy…
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
September 11, 2008
Thursday, September 11th, 2008Do take the time to check out:
1. Via blogger buddy Buck: Remembering 9-11, by Steeljaw Scribe.
2. September 11, 2001 – My Story, by blogger friend Rick.
3. Seventh Anniversary Plans for 9-11-08.
5. Mudville Gazette: 8:46 – We Will Never Forget.
Maybe more later today, but it’s not quite yet light outside and I have a day I need to go start, so this can’t be taken as an exhaustive list.
Add to it in the comments below — with links, please — if you see fit.
Suggest you write to your left-winger Senator, Congressman, state legislator, city councilman or Presidential candidate. In view of the undeniable fact there are these whack-a-doodles out there who want to kill Americans, what will those public figures do to make sure the whack-a-doodles are killed first? Be polite and respectful, but do keep in mind you deserve an explanation that does not contain the words “George Bush,” “For The Last Eight Years,” “Halliburton,” “Blackwater,” “Cheney”…and most definitely not “Inside Job.”
It really is the number one most important issue of this election or any other. And as ugly as “kill them before they kill us” may sound to those who were raised to maturity on PBS specials and hallucinogenic drugs, it really is the only reasonable and responsible position to take.
Evil is recognized by us for what it is, or else it speaks and acts on behalf of all of us. There can be no in-between. That’s what we learned on September 11, 2001. That is what people mean, whether they realize it or not, when they say “Never, ever forget.”
Update: As is typically the case, The Anchoress’ round-up puts my own to shame, although neither one supersets the other.
Anna Malle Died a Couple of Years Ago
Saturday, June 28th, 2008Just found out. Pretty freaky.
Anna Hotop-Stout, 38, known to the adult film world as Anna Malle, died Wednesday after the car she was traveling in collided with a pickup truck while making a U-turn. She had not been wearing a seat belt, Nevada Highway Patrol officers said.
:
Hotop-Stout had retired from the film business a year ago and was working at a Bloomingdale’s wedding registry in Las Vegas, Armstrong said.“She didn’t want to be known as the old chick that had to work,” he said. “She wanted a normal life again.”
The Las Vegas resident was a passenger in a 2005 Dodge Stratus that was making a U-turn on state Route 160 when it turned into the path of a 1985 Chevrolet pickup truck, the Nevada Highway Patrol said. She was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where she died.
What a tragedy. Tim Russert and George Carlin get a zillion mentions on the boob tube, on the blogs, on the radio, in the papers…our porn stars burn out, quietly, silently.
George Carlin R.I.P.
Monday, June 23rd, 2008As a South Park Republican I’m divided about the departure of Mr. Carlin. I kind of see it Sister Toldjah‘s way, and I kind of see it Locomotive Breath‘s way.
I lean a little bit in the direction of LB, because in the end, ingratitude makes me sick. Carlin did very well in his country, and it wouldn’t have killed him to save a few kind words about it.
He was pretty sure Obama would get assassinated. He made the mistake of saying so out loud, but being a lefty, he got away with it. Of course. Like most atheists who brag about being atheists, the man had a lot of faith about things he never would’ve been able to prove if he tried to.
On the plus side, this routine stands out in my head as one of the funniest things I saw in my childhood. Mister Carlin, if I were Our Father Who Art In Heaven, I’d say this is just enough to topple you into the pearly gates. But, of course, I’m not Him and that’s not up to me. Hope you’re doing alright.
Operation Overlord’s 64th
Friday, June 6th, 2008We remember…
Wally, Exit, Stage Left
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008The author of this work just shucked his mortal coil this last month, and the passage therein on pp. 99-100 has special meaning to us. It is autobiographical, and it describes the divided loyalties between the urban and rural areas, felt by a family of five during a trying time in our nation’s history.
Danny, who was now driving the old Stevens and displaying an active interest in girls, needed a regular income to sustain his racy life style. I had achieved varsity status on the Prospect High basketball team and was looking for new and larger worlds to conquer. Bobby, two years my junior, had not yet exhibited the same restlessness, but soon his strong commercial inclinations would involve him in the general revolt. For the moment, however, our fathers’ firm opposition thwarted all of these noble aspirations.
Then one day Mom stunned us with an altogether unexpected announcement. As we finished our supper and prepared to troop upstairs she informed us, a trifle awkwardly, that there would soon be another place at the table.
“Who’s coming” Bobby asked. “Relatives?”
Mom and Dad exchanged a conspiratorial smile. For a change, Dad’s mood seemed less somber than it had been of late.
“Well, yes,” said mom; “but not the kind you are thinking about.”
Our mouths fell open and for once we were at a loss for words. Danny was approaching sixteen, I was fourteen, and Bobby was twelve.
“You mean a baby?” Danny finally blurted out.
“That’s right,” Mom said, obviously pleased with herself at taking us so completely by surprise. Mom was then forty-two and, by our unenlightened reckoning, light-years beyond the proper — or biologically possible — age for childbearing. Up to that moment the possibility of any further increase in our family had no more entered our minds than had the prospect of entertaining a visitor from outer space.
From that moment this great coming event dominated our every waking thought and overshadowed all other considerations. The spare room was cleared and converted into a nursery. Dad set to work making a crib. We boys were at pains, for once, to spare our mother any undue effort.
:
For the time being the dolor of the Depression was relieved at our house by the prevailing mood of expectancy. Not a little of the excitement hinged on the question of the newcomer’s sex. Another boy? Our parents looked at each other and paled. Surely, not another boy!Ten days into the new year of 1934 a healthy, squalling baby girl arrived and settled all the speculation. She was christened Mary Ann and immediately became the center of all our attention.
The baby girl grew up to become my mother, who passed away from a brain tumor in early ’93. Of the six of them — my grandparents, Dan the Drinker, Wally the Writer, Bob the Blood Pressure and Baby Mary Ann — Uncle Wally was the last. He finally found rest on May 6.
He was also the author of The Accidental Missionaries and Defiant Peacemaker.
The Freeberg family tree has been getting hacked and whacked pretty good by this first decade of the new century. Six years ago, there were…lessee…five uncles and a grand-uncle, who are all resting now. Marriage relations aside, that leaves my Dad and one more uncle on his side. After those, my generation will be senior, then I’ll really be old. Huh. Wonder how that happened.
It’s a punch in the gut when a writer dies, whether you’re related to him or not. Any old goat can live through some events, and remember them. Only a few folks bother to jot it down as it happens…or to discipline themselves to record it accurately, if they scribble away about it afterwards. And when they’re gone, the past, including even the most precious pieces of it, becomes much more profoundly distant.
I Hope We Can Remember…
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
…he was not all about doing what was right when it was “The Thing To Do”…
…he was about doing what was right when it was not.
A timeless message? Or a message whose time has passed? That is the question. It is up to us to provide the answer.
Update: Irony Police — like Emma Peel, you are needed —
In November, California NAACP joined the nationwide protest against the choice of a Chinese artist sculpting a tribute to Martin Luther King on the National Mall. The Martin Luther King Memorial Project chose Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin to complete the granite sculpture.
In response, the NAACP issued a statement calling the use of a Chinese sculptor an attempt to outsource “the production of the monument to Dr. King to the People’s Republic of China, the country with the worst record of human rights violations and civil rights abuses in the world.” The NAACP feels that it is more appropriate that the sculpture to be completed by an African-American artist.
Artist Gilbert Young, who created a site (www.kingisours.com) protesting Yixin’s contract also criticizes the Memorial Project’s decision. Like the NAACP, Young complains that America is unrightfully outsourcing the production of the project.
Let Us Remember…
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007…you can’t have civilization without justice.
Some folks are sympathetic to the prospect of putting democrats in charge because we haven’t caught Osama bin Laden yet. Other folks are similarly sympathetic, because they don’t believe in justice. Or in fixing anything. Or in any military engagement, for any reason, whatsoever.
On this day, we can honor the memory of the fallen by doing everything we can to stop those two antithetical factions from ever lending strength to each other. They shouldn’t be able to. They believe in opposites. Such an alliance would be able to make no assurances or promises to anyone at all, except through deception.
And let us never elect anyone to an office involving public trust, who campaigns for such office by pretending this awful thing never took place, or by distracting us from remembering it properly. Such citizens are barely worthy of their citizenship, and entirely unworthy of honor. Unworthy of trust. Unworthy of esteem.
Altogether unworthy of attention. From anyone.
Ford Down
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006President Ford was a contender in the first BAD political decision I ever made. I’m glad I was eight years too young to actually elect that asshole Jimmy Carter.
Rest in peace, Mister President.
Update 12/28/06: On the subject of our new senior elder statesman from Georgia…I must confess I’m a little worn-out of writing about Mr. Carter’s various episodes of cluelessness, impertinence, dickheadedness, desperately-disguised vapidity and general effluence. I thought new sidebar addition SeeJaneMom did a fantastic job on the same subject, and shall not try to outdo her there.
At Sunday supper earlier in the week, between the soup course and the main event, Granddaddy had flatly stated, “That sonuva cracker bitch, Jimma Cartuh, is gonna march his ass into Washington and make sure we all look like hicks.” Oh, the prophesying I was witnessing.
X-Men Creator Dies in Superman Pajamas
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006For reasons I may explore someday, I’m heavily biased toward DC Comics as opposed ot Marvel, even though Marvel & DC both seem to be run by a bunch of granola-eatin’ liberals. But my reasons for preferring DC have nothing to do, it would seem, with anything in the life of this noted icon who passed away at his home Sunday so I’ll just keep them in a concealed location for now. Maybe in a phone booth or something.
Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.
The 63-year-old overhauled the X-Men comic and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics in the 1970s. He helped turn the title into a publishing sensation and major film franchise.
Cockrum died in his favorite chair at his home in Belton, South Carolina, after a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife Paty Cockrum said Tuesday.
At Cockrum’s request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property. A family friend said he will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.
At Marvel Comics, Cockrum and writer Len Wein were handed the X-Men. The comic had been created in 1963 as a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants. The premise had failed to capture fans.
Cockrum and Wein added their own heroes to the comic and published “Giant-Size X-Men No. 1” in 1975. Many signature characters Cockrum designed and co-created — such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus — went on to become part of the “X-Men” films starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
Cockrum received no movie royalties, said family friend Clifford Meth, who organized efforts to help Cockrum and his family during his protracted medical care.
“Dave saw the movie and he cried — not because he was bitter,” Meth said. “He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living.”
He really made his mark with X-Men, and yet he chose to be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt. What can it mean, what can it mean.
Well, I’m liking the fact that he came up with these ideas that helped turn the whole thing around, and they ended up on the big screen — pivotal to the franchise’s success in that medium. Rest well.