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70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain should be seen as one of the 10 pivotal military contests of the last 1,000 years.
The 1969 movie about the battle, excerpted above, still pops up on TV occasionally in the US. When it does it should be watched, at least by those who haven't seen it before. From the standpoint of art, I don't even know if it's possible in 2010 to stage aerial photography like this anymore. So that's something that should be experienced. The scenes are somehow more gripping, direct and human than CGI. The ending shot of the German bomber being splashed into the Channel is of course meant to symbolize the entire course of the months-long contest.
Of course, the real value of the film is to remind us of the importance of the battle and to tell us that, however trite it may sound, sometimes civilization literally does hang in the balance. What would have happened if Britain had been successfully invaded or had made terms with Hitler? It is almost too terrible to contemplate.
Churchill of course gave in this period the classic example of leadership inspiring by its sheer resolution. This he was able to transmit down the line, as seen in this quote in which a British diplomat defies a German ultimatum:
"We're not easily frightened. Also we know how hard it is for an army to cross the Channel — the last little corporal to try it came a cropper. So don't threaten or dictate to us until you're marching up Whitehall! ...and even then we won't listen!"
This spirit is sorely needed in defending our civilization - but we face a harder challenge in many ways than the West did in 1940, for we must first convince ourselves that our civilization ought to be defended.
The moral collapse of the West - and its perverse child, the assertion of a moral equivalence between the Western systems based on Christian values and all other systems of thought and governance - have doomed us unless there is, in the most old-fashioned sense, true repentance.
70 years on, be inspired by the few who risked and gave all to defend their nation from what seemed to be an unstoppable tyranny.
An amazing series of color photos from the 1930's and 40's
Scroll down and enjoy this slice of an America which has vanished. Fascinating stuff. Incredible colors.
'Massive' ancient wall uncovered in Jerusalem
An interesting series of discoveries lately in Israel. I'm not sure how they dated this at 3,700 years but that would be during the late patriarchal period. I think the traditional dating for the birth of Abraham is about 250 years before that.
Last British Army WWI veteran dead at 111
From CNN:
His death came a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113.Patch was the last surviving soldier to have witnessed the horrors of trench warfare in the first World War
He fought and was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele, in which 70,000 of his fellow soldiers died -- including three of his close friends.
This story reminds me of my Irish grandfather (born 1904) telling me how he watched all the lads marching off to war full of enthusiam in the Fall of 1914. Everyone was shocked the following year when only a third of them came back.
10 Reasons the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Was Awesome | GeekDad
I have funny memories of the first moon landing... probably sticks in my mind more clearly because it was at my 7th birthday party. There was one relative there who might have had slightly too much brew, and he was still counting down when the module landed on the lunar surface. Anyway, read the article - it did feel great to be an American.
Evidence of King David's palace found in Jerusalem.
Israel Finkelstein, chairman of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology, began championing a theory several years ago that the biblical accounts of Jerusalem as the seat of a powerful, unified monarchy under the rule of David and Solomon are essentially false. The scientific methods for his assumptions, called a "lower dating" which essentially pushes archaeological evidence into a later century and thus erases all evidence of a Davidic monarchy, were laughed off by traditional archaeologists. But his book, The Bible Unearthed, wound up on the New York Times' best-seller list and he became the darling of a sympathetic media. He concluded that David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were merely "hill-country chieftains" and Jerusalem a poor, small tribal village. He claims that the myth of King David was the creation of a cult of priests trying to create for themselves a glorious history.But the debunkers of Jewish biblical history got some bad news recently, when a spunky, dedicated archaeologist began her latest dig. Dr. Eilat Mazar, world authority on Jerusalem's past, has taken King David out of the pages of the Bible and put him back into living history. Mazar's latest excavation in the City of David, in the southern shadow of the Temple Mount, has shaken up the archaeological world. For lying undisturbed for over 3,000 years is a massive building which Mazar believes is King David's palace.
Complete with pottery shards from the 11th century B.C. Follow the link to Aish.com - very interesting.
Our Founders the Realists by Rich Lowry on National Review Online
“It may be a reflection on human nature,” Madison wrote in a famous passage in Federalist No. 51, “that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”How did the Founders come to know man as they did? They had broad practical experience that exposed them to humanity in its glory and its folly: as lawyers, military officers, and — especially important — legislators. Some knew hardship. Try, like Alexander Hamilton, making your way as a penniless, orphaned bastard from the West Indies and see if you don’t pick up a few hard-boiled lessons about how the world works.
They also picked up more than just a thing or two from the Protestantism of their day, as evidenced by the percentage of Army officers who were Presbyterian ministers - and not retired ones, mind you. The separation of powers in all its wisdom comes from Isaiah 33:22: "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us."
Thank God our Founders knew that only God Himself is wise enough to carry all three of those roles in His own Person.
