Michael Wittman: In Memory

Today marks the sixty-fourth anniversary of the death of German panzer-ace Michael Wittman in combat against Allied forces in France. Wittman and his crew claimed an amazing total of 138 enemy tanks destroyed and is considered by many to be one of the finest tank officers to have lived.

Hauptsturmfuhrer Wittman was a member of the Waffen-SS, the military arm of the Nazi Schutztaffel. Unlike the totenkopf (death's head) units, the Waffen-SS was generally uninvolved in Nazi atrocities (with a few notable exceptions). I make no excuses for the crimes of the Nazis and the SS here, but note only that brave, good men die on every side in every war; some, or perhaps all, deceived by evil men in fighting for an evil cause.

I like to think of Captain Wittman as such a man. While the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials, it's nonsense to believe that the rank and file volunteered for anything other than to defend their homeland. I'll reserve my hatred for Hitler and his cronies and put in a word to revive the reputation of a man who earned his place and meat in Valhalla.

Captain Wittman's death is a matter of controversy to this day with multiple conflicting stories. He's buried alongside his crew in the German military cemetary at Le Cambe, France.

I promise, next time I'll write about someone who fought on our side.

Hopefully My Last Word on the Subject

My friends know that I’ve been following the public drama of the conflict between biblical literalist creationist insanity and rational evolutionary thought for some time. I’ve put many an oar in waters aswarm with inept piranhas, and the solitary competent shark trying to convince me to see my way to eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Joseph Smith or someone else as my own personal savior. I think though, it’s time I withdraw from the field and find another further on where my opponents actually display the virtue they profess.

At heart these people are trying to do what their religion calls them to do: win hearts, minds and souls for their god. Unfortunately they do it in a manner that shows them to be hypocrites attempting to game the system for whatever tiny, fragile points they can grab and not as people interested in honest debate on the subject. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a single creationist/ID proponent who has demonstrated the capability to hold an honest scientific discussion on the merits of a particular position without falling back on fallacious arguments, religious assertions or avoidance by trying to turn the subject towards a pet talking point.

They’re confused by their strict literal interpretation of the bible. They think that if any one line in the bible can be proved wrong, then they must discard the whole thing. And so they think the same of the Theory of Evolution; if we can chisel just one crack in the wall the whole thing must crumble…but alas for our creationist friends, science is a more robust thing than your fragile faith. Cracks tend to be patched leaving the structure intact and capable of weathering more severe storms in the future. Although one may occasionally cause a theory to collapse (for example the theories of luminous ether and phlogiston) it is much more likely that the discovery of the flaw in our understanding will lead to a stronger, better theory. Rather like natural selection at work.

I’m pushing myself off the topic and this is going to be a tl;dr for most people. Short end is I’m tired of the creationist babble. I no longer care to engage them in debate or discussion and will, in the future, if addressed on the subject (or the subject of religion) tell the poor confused piranha that he is wrong. If he persists I’ll tell him to read a book (I may even recommend one if he’s polite) and if he continues I’ll point and laugh.

Folks, if you believe in this you need to know: Creationism and ID are wrong. This is fact and can be immediately observed by anyone capable of reading at high-school level. By your understanding, literalists, this means that your literal interpretation of the Bible is wrong and thus everything you know is a lie which you must now, if you are an honest person, reject. Go ahead…raise your voice to the sky and reject that God that you know has lied to you, curse him and his angels for the liars and evil demons they are. That’s the only honest alternative for you…if you believe the Bible must be literally true for there to be a God and the Bible is not literally true (as evidenced) then you must accept that the God you believed in is not real.

I’m sure you’ll just find a way to think around that problem. Don’t bother telling me about it, I’ll just tell you to go read a book. Which is good solid advice anyway you look at it.

Meet the Guru

Since the name of this blog is The Kitchen Alchemist, I should probably get off the politics and historical sentiment once in a while and talk about food. Unfortunately there hasn't been as much of it in my life lately, trying to lose some more weight to go easy on the knees, but I'm looking forward to cooking lip-smacking, fall-off-the-bone, yummy barbecue ribs for friends this weekend. If you want my recipe, well you can't have it...but I will tell you where I got the original foundation recipe:

Alton Brown Sensei is perhaps the only modern celebrity chef that seems to actually teach people how to cook instead of just parrot some recipe and hope you don't put in too much BAM! He's host of Food Network's Good Eats as well as the spectacular road-tripping travel/food-logue Feasting on Asphault (and the upcoming follow-on Feasting on Waves).

Good Eats is where to start if you can't cook. If you can cook it certainly can't hurt. I promise you, Alton will teach you something you didn't know, make you laugh at his science-project approach and along the way show you how to make the kinds of food you actually want to eat.

So watch every episode of Alton Brown's shows until he decides you are ready to learn the techniques of advanced ribbery. Until then you must practice hard. Or you can take the true path and purchase Master Brown's vaunted grimoires of culinary mastery and you too can become a seventeenth level wizard of ribs...leaving you with only twelve more levels to catch me.

"Do not let the body be dragged along by the mind nor the mind dragged by the body"
-Miyamoto Musashi

The Battle of the Nile

Two-hundred and ten years ago today a British fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson engaged a roughly equal French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay, Egypt. The British achieved an amazing victory destroying or capturing eleven of thirteen French ships of the line while losing none of their own ships. The defeat doomed Napoleon's Egyptian campaign to failure eventually forcing him to abandon his veteran army to it's fate.

The Battle of the Nile secured British control of the Western Mediterannean and all but locked the remaining French fleet into their harbors until, reinforced by their Spanish allies, the fleet would break out for the Trafalgar campaign and their own doom at the hands of the British Fleet, again under the command of Lord Nelson.

During the battle the French 118 gun First Rate Ship of the Line L'Orient, under the command of Luc Julien Joseph Casabianca exploded when flames reached her powder magazines. The explosion was so powerful that it was felt fifteen miles away. Casabianca's fearless behavior during the action, refusing to leave his post on the burning ship, was recognized and admired by French and British witnesses alike. To this day a vessel in the French Navy carries the proud name of Casabianca. Casabianca's son, twelve year old Giocante, refused to leave his father's side and was immortalized in the poem by Felicia Hemans which, while recognized by many to this day, is seldom read in it's entirety these days.


Casabianca
by Felicia Hemans

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
Shone round him o'er the dead.

Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
A proud, though child-like form.

The flames rolled on–he would not go
Without his Father's word;
That father, faint in death below,
His voice no longer heard.

He called aloud–'say, Father, say
If yet my task is done?'
He knew not that the chieftain lay
Unconscious of his son.

'Speak, father!' once again he cried,
'If I may yet be gone!'
And but the booming shots replied,
And fast the flames rolled on.

Upon his brow he felt their breath,
And in his waving hair,
And looked from that lone post of death
In still yet brave despair.

And shouted but once more aloud,
'My father! must I stay?'
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud,
The wreathing fires made way.

They wrapt the ship in splendour wild,
They caught the flag on high,
And streamed above the gallant child,
Like banners in the sky.

There came a burst of thunder sound–
The boy–oh! where was he?
Ask of the winds that far around
With fragments strewed the sea!–

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part–
But the noblest thing which perished there
Was that young faithful heart.