Haunting the Web Since 1999
“People of Western Europe: A landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force. This landing is part of the concerted United Nations’ plan for the liberation of Europe, made in conjunction with our great Russian allies …I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us.” – Dwight Eisenhower
“Politically outspoken against Republicans, he joked that although he hoped his funeral would be attended by far-flung dignitaries that his friends should bar President Bush and Vice President Cheney from entrance ‘because everyone knew how much I hated them.’” R.I.P. Tony Randall 1920-2004. He was one of those guys who seemed like he’d be around forever. Man, that’s just depressing.
“As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.” – George Washington
“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.“
– Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
“For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.”
R.I.P. Richard Neustadt 1919-2003. His book Presidential Power was one of the first I read in college, and its argument still stays with me. He will be missed.
Bobby Dylan remembers Johnny Cash: “If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man in Black. Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses. He rises high above all, and he’ll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not born yet — especially those persons — and that is forever.“
“‘Til things are brighter, I’m the man in black.” R.I.P. Johnny Cash 1932-2003.
(What with Warren Zevon and John Ritter too, it’s been another terrible week for entertainers.)
R.I.P. Katherine Hepburn 1907-2003. Between Hepburn and Peck, it’s been a sorry month for legends of the screen.
Well, it finally happened – Strom Thurmond died. I’m reminded of Hunter Thompson’s Nixon post-mortem. Never has a man more undeserving held sway over a state so long. Lest anyone forget what Strom stood for in these days of eulogy, the guy was a racist through and through – he still holds the filibuster record for his attempt to prevent civil rights. With his shadow finally gone, South Carolina can name a road or two after him and then embrace the future.