They Will Rue This Day

With a stroke of the pen, Obama has created another day which shall live in infamy:

More?!?

Was Dickens exaggerating the poor conditions of the work house in Oliver Twist? 

Some historians now think so: 

 Oliver Twist wouldn't have needed any more gruel in real life, scientists said Thursday.

The picture painted by Charles Dickens of starvation rations in an 1830s workhouse north of London is wide of mark, according to an analysis of menus and other historical evidence.

Dickens' eponymous hero famously asked for more of the "thin gruel" doled out three times daily in the grim institution for the poor where he grew up.

In fact, contemporary recipes suggest such workhouse gruel was substantial, with each pint containing 1.25 ounces of best oatmeal, and servings supplemented by wholesome coarse bread.

Historical data also shows large quantities of beef and mutton were delivered to workhouses, pediatric dietician Sue Thornton of Northampton General Hospital in central England and colleagues wrote in the British Medical Journal.

Such a diet, comprising three pints of gruel a day, would sustain growth in a nine-year-old child like Oliver, unless he was exceptionally active.

"Given the limited number of food staples used, the workhouse diet was certainly dreary, but it was adequate," they concluded.

Hmm. Let's consider what a big business 'resale' was during Victorian times. Next, we can consider that a lot of people had no problems putting children in dangerous environments.

Taking all of that into account, I'm forced to wonder if some enterprising work house directors didn't figure out exactly how much food a child could survive on.

I wonder how much of that fat government delivery of grains and meats wound up in the kids' bowls v.s. how much wound up in the director's bank accounts.

Just sayin'.

Nuts To You, Hitler!

'Cause apparently, you need some!

I wonder if he blamed the Jooooos for loosing a testicle? 

From this source: 

AN extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one ball.

War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down.

The priest’s document has now come to light – 23 years after Johan’s death.

The war tyrant’s medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.

The lyrics are: “Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall. His mother, the dirty b****r, cut it off when he was small.’

Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic – the medical term for having one testicle.

But the document tells how Johan saw the proof with his own eyes. In the account, he relives the horror of serving as an army medic in World War I.

He died aged 94 in 1985, but had told his secret to priest Franciszek Pawlar, who kept a note of their conversation.

Johan’s friend Blassius Hanczuch confirmed the priest’s account of how the medic saved Hitler’s life. He said: “In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme.

“For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler.

“They called him the ‘Screamer’. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming ‘help, help’.

“His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: ‘Will I be able to have children?’.”

Blassius said that when the Nazis swept to power Johan began to suffer nightmares and blame himself for saving Hitler.

I guess this is why the rest of the world was never "blessed" by a Hitler Jr.

HA! 

Remembering D-Day

Instead of trying to come up with something profound to say, I will leave that to my more eloquent blogging friends.

Check out D-Day posts from Kevin, Edge, and Obob.

Dhimmitude in Austria:

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

This is a children's playground in Vienna:

I'll bet Sobieski is rolling in his grave.

I Have A Dream...

Funny how I didn't see LBJ there. Sorry, Hillary.

Pearl Harbor Day

Today was too busy to do any blogging or blogging rounds, and tomorrow will probably be also.

However, I didn't want the day to go by without taking a moment to pay respect to those who were lost on Pearl Harbor Day, our nation's first real instance of substantive terrorism.

Our Independence Day

From Glenn Beck's site, an essay on our nation's independence:

July 2nd, 1776. Continental Congress votes 12-0, New York abstains. July 4th, the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and heavily edited by congress adopted without dissent. July 8th, the Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Philadelphia. On the 9th it was recited before General George Washington and his troops in New York City. On July 15th congress learns that New York has decided to endorse the Declaration. On August 2nd, a parchment copy presented to the Congress for signature. Most of the 56 men who put their name on the document did so that day. And then what? Well, we tend to forget that to sign the Declaration of Independence was to commit an act of treason and the punishment for treason was death. Signing was a move fraught with danger, so much so that the names of the signers were kept secret for six months. The signers were risking everything. They were risking everything, and they knew it. That's the meaning of the Declaration's last sentence: And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Most of the signers survived the war. Several went on to illustrious careers. Two of them became Presidents of the United States. Among the others were future vice presidents, senators and governors. But not all were so fortunate. Nine of the 56 died during the Revolution, never tasted American independence. Five were captured by the British. 18 had their homes, great estates some of them, looted or burned by the enemy. Some lost everything they owned. Two were wounded in battle. Two others were fathers of sons who were killed during the war. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

You know, we all recognize John Hancock's signature, but whoever notices the names beneath his? Like William Hillary, Thomas Nelson, Richard Stockton, Francis Lewis. Most of us, we here these names and they have no meaning, but they each represent a real human being, some of whom paid dearly for the support of this Declaration and American independence. Louis Morris of New York, for example, must have known when he signed the Declaration that he was signing away his fortune for within weeks the British ravaged his estate, destroyed his vast woodlands, butchered his cattle and sent his family fleeing for their lives.

Another New Yorker, William Floyd, he was forced to flee when the British plundered his property. He and his family lived as refugees for seven years without any income. The strain tolled on his wife. She died two years before the war ended.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, he was a planter who had invested heavily in shipping. He saw most of his vessels captured by the British Navy, his estates largely ruined. By the end of his life, he was a pauper. Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Thomas Nelson, Jr. of Virginia raised more than $2 million for the patriots cause on his own personal credit. The Government never reimbursed him, and repaying the loans wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown, his house which had been seized by the British and occupied by General Cornwallis, Nelson quietly urged the gunners to fire on his own home. They did so destroying it. He was never again a man of wealth. He died, was buried in an unmarked grave. He stopped in a New Jersey Supreme Court, betrayed by loyalist neighbors. He was dragged from his bed, thrown in prison where he was brutally beaten and starved. His lands were devastated, his horses stolen, his library burned and his family lived on charity for the rest of their lives. And then there was John Hart, the speaker of the New Jersey assembly. He was forced to flee in the winter of '76 at the age of 65 from his dying wife's bedside while he hid in forests and caves. His home was demolished, his fields and mill lay waste and his 13 children put to flight. When it was finally safe for him to return, he found his wife dead, his children missing, his property decimated. He never saw any of his family again.

The men who signed that piece of parchment in 1776 were the elite of their colonies. They are men of means and social standing but for the sake of liberty they pledged it all: Their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

Happy Fourth of July, blogging buddies!

Tear Down This Wall!

20 years ago today, President Ronald Reagan gave the famous "Tear Down This Wall" speech.

Here's an excerpt: