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.

Say "Hell No" to Eliminationism!

This week I'm giving up all political beliefs except one; I no longer care about Conservatives, Liberals, Creationists, Evolutionists, Muslims, Christians, Child Pornographers, Democrats, Zoophiles, Homosexuals, Republicans, Bisexuals, Heterosexuals or even Jerry's fucking kids...as long as you don't try to convince people your views are so right and your designated opposition is so wrong that they should be imprisoned, forcibly silenced, killed or suffer any physical retaliation for disagreeing with you.

There...that's all there is to it. The simple way to tell if you are a Nazi is to examine your beliefs and see if you believe others should die for simply disagreeing with you or opposing you through civil discourse, political action or free speech. You're allowed to wish death or (preferably) prison sentences on those who talk violence and hate; but aside from that if you think you and your political, religious, sexual or whatever group is right to the point of eliminating the opposition then you fail the test...you're a Nazi, please go kill yourself and save me the trouble.

Is it that hard? We don't have to agree on everything, we don't have to like everyone, we just have to agree that we won't hurt anyone else for simply disagreeing and using legal means to oppose us. Whatever the fuck your personal hobby horse is, it doesn't excuse you from that simple rule and places you in the only category of people that I think should be eliminated.

This week a man walked into a "Liberal" church in Tennessee killing two people because he disliked their political positions. Last February a 15 year-old boy was murdered by his schoolmates in California for admitting he was gay. Time and again the stories appear on the news and on the web...there's no excuse for it in a place that calls itself civilization and those who encourage, approve or tolerate it unopposed are no better than Nazis themselves.

Every day talk show hosts, religious zealots and plain people with more anger than sense throw out the language of eliminationism by calling opponents traitors, infidels and worse. With the ability of the Internet and modern media to push any message out to a massive audience it's no wonder that these messages of hate find someone out there who is willing to act on the message. Even messages carefully worded to avoid direct calls to violence may still fall on the ears of someone who is willing to go the extra step.

Henry the Second of England did not call directly for the death of Thomas Becket, but his calls of "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!" found an audience all the same and Becket was murdered during evening prayers by four knights who interpreted Henry's lament as a royal command. Like Henry, the modern day sellers of hate must take a share of the responsibility and those who nod their heads in agreement and wait for others to take the "necessary steps" are also guilty.

Speak freely. Speak passionately; but think about what you're saying. Don't spread hate and fear and violence and then claim it as a right. Even Nazis are protected by the First Ammendment but you don't have to become one to oppose them.

In Memory of Manfred von Richtofen

On this day in 1918 Rittmeister* Manfred Freiherr** von Richtofen fell in combat over Morlancourt Ridge in north-eastern France. I’ll not go into the story of his short life, legacy and legend other than to say I’ve lived my life, at least partially, in the shadow of this young man who personified devotion, duty and courage.

The fame of being the highest scoring combat flier in the war rested uneasily on his shoulders, for Richtofen it was simply another part of his duty; wearing the hero’s mask to improve morale on the home front and ensure his fliers had the best equipment possible to support their mission of protecting the men in the trenches. A hunter from the time he could walk and shoot, Manfred von Richtofen reveled in his combat victories while never forgetting the accompanying human horror and tragedy suffered in aerial combat by his enemies and fellows. In Richtofen we find the traits that are the best humanity can show: nobility, compassion, courage, generosity, fidelity and good humor in the face of adversity.

For the last months of his life von Richtofen endured the effects of a head wound suffered in combat. Realizing his value to his country as a symbol and to his men as a leader; Richtofen returned to combat before making a full recovery; stoically pulling his tight flying cap over his bandaged head. He would suffer depression, headaches and chronic fatigue for the rest of his life. All factors which probably contributed to the fatal lapse in judgment on the day of his death.

Manfred Freiherr von Richtofen was born seventy years and one day before I was, and died eleven days short of his twenty-sixth birthday. Somewhere in my youth I was touched by the image of his red Fokker tri-plane, and the fascination has grown with each passing decade. There is a real Red Baron who surpasses the fictionalized versions in every respect. His legacy lives to this day with Jagdeschwader 71 (Richtofen) of the German Luftwaffe. In his memory it is fitting to recite again (and hopefully not for the last time) the honors of Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richtofen:

• Order Pour le Merite
• Order of the Red Eagle
• Royal Hohenzollern House Order, Knight’s Cross with Swords
• Iron Cross 1^st Class
• Iron Cross 2^nd Class
• Bavarian Military Merit Order 4^th Class with Swords
• Saxon Military St. Henry Order, Knight’s Cross
• Wurttemburg Military Merit Order, Knight’s Cross
• Saxe-Ernestine Ducal House Order, Knight 1^st Class with Swords
• Hesse General Honor Decoration for Bravery
• Lippe War Honor Cross for Heroism
• Schaumburg-Lippe Cross for Faithful Service
• Bremen Hanseatic Cross
• Lubeck Hanseatic Cross
• Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 3^rd Class with War Decoration
• Austrian Military Merit Cross, 3^rd Class with War Decoration
• Bulgarian Bravery Order, 4^th Class-1^st Grade
• Turkish Silver Liakat Medal with Swords
• Turkish Silver Imtiaz Medal with Swords
• Turkish Iron Crescent
• German Luftstreitkrafte Pilot’s Badge
• German Luftstreitkrafte Observer Badge
• Austrian Pilot’s Badge

*Literally “Riding Master” or captain of cavalry

** Freiherr is a title of nobility usually translated as Baron

Ok, You can be Spartacus. Happy Now?

American movie icon Kirk Douglas is 90 years old today. Happy birthday Kirk, and thank you for entertaining us for all these years.

World AIDS Day

Yesterday was World AIDS Day.

Don't be kind of person who only thinks of AIDS when it's too late.

AVERT

Alien Brain Disease in Texas

Kingsville, Kleberg County Texas, 1997:

A local man, Leonso Canales Jr. has succesfully lobbied the Kleberg County commissioners to replace the word "Hello". From now on the official court house greeting will be (I shit you not) "Heaveno".

That's right...in Kleberg County your ears will no longer be incidentally assailed by that other evil, vicious H word in the course of a common greeting.

I can only assume that other options such as "Good Morning" (Afternoon or whatever", "Hi" and the official Texas greeting of "Howdy", were all considered and discarded as equally offensive as hello; thus requiring a new word to be carefully hand-crafted from scarce, non-renewable resources.

At this point you're thinking I'm looking at something from The Onion. But we're not so lucky...

'Heaveno' has received one heck of a response pall

Since the original adoption of "Heaveno" it seems that Kingsville and Kleberg County have forgotten their original commitment to language reform. In fact so many people have been pointing fingers and laughing that every member who approved the resolution has since probably crawled behind some convenient dumpster and drowned their sorrows in Wild Irish Rose or Mad Dog.

But the "Heaveno" people are still hard at it...working to clean up your filthy language.

We are so pwned.

That's it for the U.S. of A. folks; we can no longer show our faces in public. Iranian TV has lampooned the leaders of the West in satire so scathing that words fail.

I mean that...

There aren't words...

None at all...

Here...go see for yourself:

13 Dead End Street

Or if your dignity can't stand the full horror of this bitch-slapping then you can read the Transcripts.

While you're at it, give the MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) website a good checking out. Find out what's really going on in the Muslim world.

Now, let's all go back to feeling the stinging shame of islam-o-fascist satire.

Happy Birthday Bill Nye! And Thanks, Mr. Wizard!

I grew up with Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert). For all you younglings out there in cyberspace, Mr. Wizard was a guy who'd show up on the TV set and teach kids wonderful tricks while imparting a little bit of science education. Now this is back before educational TV existed, so us kids watched Mr. Wizard for sheer entertainment little realizing that we were being educated.

Mr. Wizard's show aired on WMAQ television (Chicago) in 1951. The heady days of atomic-science, space exploration and general gee-whizz technology advancement created a veritable boom of popularity and interest in science. Mr. Wizard helped us learn that science is magic that works and that we can all understand.

Nowadays it seems there's a resurgence in the other kind of magic...you know, the kind that doesn't work and requires a full-time effort just to think up excuses for why it doesn't work...but fear not; there is some sanity left in the world and still some mighty oomph left over from the days when massive Saturn V rockets hurled men to the moon. Science is not dead...it's not even resting.

Today the lucky kids (and lucky adults) have Bill Nye The Science Guy to carry the torch of popular science in a world that seems increasingly hostile to hard science. Bill Nye is fifty-one years old today, please join me in wishing him a Happy Birthday and hoping he's not yet reached his half-life.

Please visit Mr. Wizard's and Bill Nye's websites for all sorts of fun science. If you learn something new, be sure to tell them thanks!

Why hast thou forsaken me?

Well if you keep up with the Evolution-vs-Creation debate the way I do you might have heard that Dr. Kent Hovind(degree purchased through Patriot Bible University) is in jail awaiting sentencing for felony tax evasion. Now Kent has used his bullshit degree for years to spread the word of God; lying about evolution, science, the Bible, dinosaurs, mankind, the universe and Jesus Christ. Hovind runs a creationist theme-park (Dinosaur Adventure Land) and whores his pimply ass out for speaking engagements. In his eyes the resulting filthy lucre is a holy thing of God not to be rendered unto Caesar.

Dr. Dino (as he calls himself) was convicted on twelve counts of willful failure to collect, account for and pay federal income and FICA taxes, forty-five counts of knowingly structuring transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements and one count of corruptly impeding the administration of internal revenue laws. Hovind has essentially structured his defense around "You can't tax me, I work for God".

Anyway, in between fulfilling his duties to Bubba and his other cellmates, Hovind has been keeping his blog updated with the list of reasons why God allowed him to be convicted. I thought I would share it with everyone so that we can humbly entreat God not to test us as he has this poor piece of rat-shit:

Why Did God Allow This? Maybe God wants me…….

1. To receive punishment for my sin.
2. To use me in an area in the jail that needed salt. (Matt. 5:13)
3. To let me be prepared for a new phase of ministry and this is boot camp.
4. To be humbled by God.
5. To allow God to see how fellow Christians react. He is gathering evidence for their day of reckoning. The same is true for me.
6. To give me time off to reflect, refresh, recharge, and renew my Bible study and prayer time.
7. To let me see the anguish my grandkids, who love me dearly, are going through, so that I would be more compassionate with kids to whom I preach, or that are visiting DAL, whom have similar experiences with jailed loved ones.
8. To show me how much can be done with so little. These men can make all sorts of things like water heaters from toothbrushes, and tattoo guns from ink pens. Most Christians are wasteful of God’s resources.
9. To give me a better appreciation for our veterans who slept in swamps and other squalid conditions for my freedom. I will hug POW’s from now on.
10. To gain me a renewed appreciation for missionaries who leave family and comforts to spread God’s word.
11. To bring my thought, prayers, and concerns into action by inspiring me to visit those in the hospitals who never get visitors.
12. To let me see first hand and up close, the results of sin in a man’s life.
13. To let me see men pace back and forth like caged lions. Truly the wicked are like the troubled sea that cannot rest.
14. To let me see my God’s law, which is perfect, converting the soul, authorizes: beatings, four times restitution, and execution for crimes, but never imprisonment. Certainly there are Roman and Egyptian prisons, but none authorized by God. This system costs everyone in many ways, and does little good and much harm.
15. To give me a taste of what awaits in the tribulation. The “state” control in that time will be overpowering.
16. To allow me to experience the joy of holding hands in a prayer circle with nine men on fire for Jesus while facing severe sentences.
17. To make me order my priorities better. I cannot ever let my family fail, while I build a ministry.
18. To make me more like Jesus, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

I hear they'll be replacing the Book of Job with the Book of Hovind in the next edition. Maybe they'll also straighten out that Genesis misunderstanding while they're at it and let us all get back to work.

I'm not nuts, I'm condiments. I've been promoted.

It seems I've been running into Dwight Schultz (pictured as Captain H. M. "Howling Mad" Murdock from the A-Team) alot this week. It started with a clip from an A-Team episode, then I happened to notice his name turning up in the "Additional Voices" credits of damn near every video game I own. Last night I sat down to eat ice cream with Chris in front of the TV and we flipped on Star Trek TNG and there he was again as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay III.

So today on my early morning browse I happen to notice it's Dwight's Birthday. Dwight is 59 years old today and still working hard. Look for him in a cameo in the upcoming A-Team movie due to be released in 2008. Happy Birthday Dwight. Now get the fuck out of my head.

The bastards can't even play soccer without cheating...

Zurich, 23 November 2006 - The FIFA Emergency Committee, composed of the FIFA President and one representative of each of the six confederations, yesterday (22 November 2006) decided to suspend the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) from all international activity due to government interference in football matters and violation of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes.

FIFA suspends Iran Football Federation

Article 17 Bodies
1 A Member’s bodies shall be either elected or appointed in that Association. A Member’s statutes shall provide for a procedure that guarantees the complete independence of the election or appointment.
2 Any Member’s bodies that have not been elected or appointed compliance with the provisions of par. 1, even on an interim basis, shall not be recognised by FIFA.
3 Decisions passed by bodies that have not been elected or appointed in compliance with par. 1 shall not be recognised by FIFA.

FIFA Statutes

Now folks who know me will wonder why I care...after all I pretty much see all team sports as little more than millionaire mutants chasing a ball...and frankly I don't care. It's just a tidbit of information I found that would normally get ignored in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Opinion Poll since we don't watch enough soccer over here to make it worthwhile for the news-whores to pay attention to it.


It's just another sign that Iran is a fucked-up country that needs to be bitch-slapped. Iceberg Slim would have never taken the kind of shit Iran's been puttin' out

Not Forgotten

On October 28th 1916 Oswald Boelcke was killed in an accidental collision with an airplane from his own squadron while engaged in combat operations against Number 24 Squadron RFC. Oswald Boelcke is perhaps the most influential combat pilot to have lived. Not only an ace with 40 aerial victories to his credit, Boelcke was a gifted leader and tactician single handedly developing the foundations of air to air combat.

Boelcke served alongside and mentored the greatest of Germany's pilots. Along with Max Immelman, Boelcke received the first Orders Pour le Merite (The Blue Max, Imperial Germany's highest medal) awarded for victory in air-combat. Boelcke was promoted to lead a new fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 2, in the reorganized Imperial German Air Service where he would mentor and train pilots like Hans Reimann, Werner Voss and, of course, Manfred von Richthofen.

The rules laid down by Boelcke are still learned by pilots to this day. In memory of a courageous, chivalrous and wise enemy I offer his words of advice...

Dicta Boelcke

1. Try to secure advantages before attacking. If possible keep the sun behind you.

2. Always carry through an attack when you have started it.

3. Fire only at close range and only when your opponent is properly in your sights.

4. Always keep your eye on your opponent, and never let yourself be deceived by ruses.

5. In any form of attack it is essential to assail your opponent from behind.

6. If your opponent dives on you, do not try to evade his onslaught, but fly to meet it.

7. When over the enemy's lines never forget your own line of retreat.

8. For the Staffel: Attack on principle in groups of four or six. When the fight breaks up into a series of single combats, take care that several do not go for one opponent.

Mushrooms Over Mecca

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

72 virgins, no waiting.

It seems the Hamas leaders in Gaza are running scared. They've ordered Palestinian security forces to oppose Israeli troops inside Gaza.

Now the Palestinian security guys aren't exactly friendly to Israel, but they aren't card-carrying members of Hamas and they aren't stupid. If past incidents are any guide the Palestinian security forces will allow the militant martyr candidates to take out the Israeli tanks with mark 1 rocks.

Most of the members of the Palestinian security forces are members of the Fatah party that was soundly trounced in the last election when the Palestinians suffered a mass brain fart and elected a known terrorist group to lead them. I wouldn't expect them to be first in line for the latest in clothing that goes "BOOM"!

Now their entire population is suffering for the asinine decisions made by their elected leaders. No electricity? Blame Hamas. No Food? Blame Hamas. No Water? Blame Hamas. It's come to this point...The Palestinians have forced Israel and the world to face the possibility that peace may not be possible and is clearly impossible given the Palestinian taste in "elected" officials.

It's time for the Palestinians to face up to their history as losers in every significant military campaign they have ever fought. Hell, you couldn't win when you had 16 foot giants and the Israelis had slingshots, what makes you think you stand a chance now? (Yes I know the bible says Goliath was a Philistine...Check out the word origin though; it really amounts to the same thing).

Suck up that unearned pride of yours and start working to make your lives better; maybe you can earn a country for yourselves if you can act responsibly. Start by working with the Israelis and kick the terrorist assholes out (or better yet, send 'em off to get their virgins). Stop encouraging your sons to throw their lives away and start showing them how they can build a better life peacefully.

Over the top used to have a different meaning...

Ninety years ago today, the allied Armies on the Western front launched a combined offensive against the entrenched Imperial German Army. Soldiers from more than 20 nations took part in the 1916 Summer Offensive, but to the soldiers of the United Kingdom it will always be known as The Battle of the Somme.

On July 1st, 1916 one hundred thousand men climbed from their trenches along a twenty mile front and walked through No Man's Land towards the waiting Germans. Each man carried thirty to seventy pounds of equipment and had orders to advance slowly to avoid losing contact with flanking units. German artillery, machine guns, rifles and grenades bled them white with every step.

On the first day of the assault U.K. forces suffered more than 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. By the end of the battle, four months later, the Allied forces had suffered more than 600,000 casualties. Her Majesty's forces had been decimated for a gain of only six miles over part of the front.

Well over a million casualties were suffered by both sides during the four months of battle. More than the entire population of Detroit Michigan or San Jose California.

The Battle of the Somme defined a generation...a mostly missing generation.

Kicking Hamass...

In case you've been under a rock the last couple of days, Israel has come down on the Palestinian Authority like a million pound shit-hammer...and about damn time too. The poor downtrodden Palestinian refugees are their own worst enemies and have been ever since this bag of crap opened in 1947-48.

Even now we're listening to the reports of the brave Palestinian freedom-fighters who are resisting the Zionist oppressors. Syria has (ahem) chased away a flight of Isreali planes that overflew the Syrian president's house and there are calls from all over the Arab world for the Isreali's to stop and negotiate.

My advice for Isreal: Stomp 'em flat; the pig-fucking cowards kidnapped your soldier inside your borders. Instead of negotiating with the terrorists the Palestinian Authority should have bent over backwards assisting you with recovering your lost sons.

My advice for the Palestinians: Change your tune real quick. If you want to be a nation then act like a nation and not spoiled children. Civilized countries do not support terrorists and uncivilized countries have no basis for complaint when they are bitch-slapped.

The cost of housing in Brownsville

Tomorrow night, Texas is scheduled to execute it's thirteenth inmate this year. There probably won't be any large-scale media outcry for this one as there was for Tookie Williams, although I'm sure the usual anti-capital punishment crowd will show up; but the subject is not one to arouse sympathies. He hasn't been writing books in prison or getting Nobel Prize nominations.

The proposed main-event for tonight is Angel Maturino Resendiz; famous as The Railway Killer. Convicted and sentenced to death in May of 2000 for the grisly murder of Texas doctor Claudia Benton, he has since been linked to a total of sixteen murders. He's not the innocent poster-victim that the anti-death penalty crowd loves. I rather expect that they really wish he'd just have a heart attack or something and die so they don't have to face the embarrassing task of crying realistic tears of sympathy during their television interviews.

So why am I talking about this sick fuck? I could mention he's an illegal alien (that's illegal alien, not undocumented immigrant, guest worker or other sappy phrase... make of that what you will), or I could talk about how he could be tortured to death by the unreliable lethal injection process, I might even blather about a justice system that is swift in exactly the same way as glaciers (if Resendiz dies tonight it will be an exceptionally swift execution).

Nope...tonight I'm gonna jump on the big bull and see if I can hold on...we're going to talk about the death penalty:

For the record, I'm against the death penalty. Not because it's wrong (even though it is), not because it's cruel (even though it is), not because it's unfair (even though it is), but because the death penalty is too damned expensive.

I guess I just don't place an extremely high value on human life except for those directly involved in mine. Maybe it's years of studying history or the desensitization caused by killing countless thousands in video games (I've killed all sorts of virtual people, but the most intensely satisfying is dismembering hordes of faceless stormtroopers in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast), but mostly it's because I'm a practical person who believes that the value of human life is not infinite. Once you reach that point then the issue can be compared to the old joke:

Man: "Will you have sex with me for a million dollars?"
Woman: "For a million dollars? You bet I will!"
Man: "Will you have sex with me for twenty dollars?"
Woman: "Of course not! What kind of a woman do you think I am?"
Man: "We've already established that, we're just haggling over the price."

Resendiz's life isn't worth squat to me. I would only pay for the bullet that kills him if it keeps me from having to pay for his food. Unfortunately our justice system has somehow made bullets (or needles in this case) more expensive than all the food, clothing, medical care, security and housing that is needed to keep Resendiz off the streets until he kicks the bucket all by himself.

Most of the cost is incurred by the trial and the endless reviews, appeals and legal wranglings that happen before there's a chance the inmate can lose the lethal injection lottery. It isn't really likely...only about 10% of all people sentenced to death since 1976 have actually been executed...but it still costs 3-5 times more to get that sentence than it does to get life and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Am I concerned that an innocent may be murdered by my government? Yeah; but I'm also concerned about global warming, Iraq, Somalia, Darfur, traffic accidents, police brutality, street gangs, desertification, AIDS and terrorism. Innocent people die every day and each of them is no more or less a tragedy than if it had been done via a court of law. Catch a district attorney or a cop fabricating evidence that kills someone and I'm all for poetic justice...but accidents happen. That doesn't make it right, but right's got nothing to do with it.

Plain and simple: Under our current system it costs way too much money to kill the subhuman dregs like Angel Resendiz. This murderous asshole deserves to be broken on the wheel or crucified...not put down gently. I'd be able to sleep at night if I lived in a society that did so. Frankly, I wouldn't care how they killed him, if they didn't have to spend an average of 2.16 million dollars per executed thug.

It's simple economics...I'd rather Resendiz and his ilk were yanked right out of this world by a just and efficient legal system...but if it costs less to let them rot in Brownsville then I'll forgo my thirst for bloody vengeance.