Cam Edwards talks to Katie Pavlich from Townhall about her new book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up – NRA News – April 18, 2012.
Katie Pavlich’s new book, “Fast and Furious,” assembles the devastating evidence that implicates the Obama administration for its ill-advised gun-walking operation and ensuing scandal to mislead Congress and the American people.
Few journalists have devoted as much time reporting on Fast and Furious as Pavlich. As the news editor of Townhall, she has asked questions the mainstream media ignored. Now her book pieces the story together for a complete picture of how a government-run operation turned deadly.
Operation Fast and Furious began in 2009 as an effort to eliminate high-level arms trafficking networks. Guns were allowed to “walk,” and rather than arresting straw purchasers and cartel buyers, hundreds were used to commit crimes in the United States and Mexico. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with one in 2010 and an estimated 1,400 guns remain missing.
The book details President Obama’s lifelong mission to subvert the Second Amendment, long before he was seeking federal office. Pavlich also documents how Fast and Furious plays into his administration’s anti-gun agenda. She cites a Washington Post story from Dec. 15, 2010, before details of Fast and Furious had emerged, in which federal authorities attempt to blame the rise in gun violence on U.S. gun shops.
Unbroken Official Olympics Preview Trailer (2014) – Angelina Jolie Directed Movie HD
Louis Zamperini – “Unbroken” by Men, Humbled by Jesus
Published on Nov 21, 2014
The personal testimony of Louis Zamperini on how Jesus changed his life after the Japanese were unsuccessful in taking his life during World War II. This talk by Louis Zamperini at Emmanuel Enid, Oklahoma was one of his last public appearances before his fall limited his travel schedule. Louis died July 2, 2014.
In her new book, the author of ‘Seabiscuit’ turns to the unimaginable ordeal of an Olympic athlete and WW II hero. Because of her own debilitating illness, they struck a special bond.
With a fringe of white hair poking out from under a University of Southern California baseball cap and blue eyes sharp behind bifocals, 93-year-old Louis Zamperini refuses to concede much to old age. He still works a couple of hours each day in the yard of his Hollywood Hills home, bagging leaves, climbing stairs and, on occasion, trimming trees with a chainsaw. His outlook is upbeat, even rambunctious. “I have a cheerful countenance at all times,” he says. “When you have a good attitude your immune system is fortified.” But as he plunged into “Unbroken,” Laura Hillenbrand’s 496-page story of his life, the happy trappings of his current existence fell away.
“Unbroken” will be published Nov. 16 with a first printing of 250,000 copies. Its publisher, Random House, hopes to repeat the success it enjoyed with “Seabiscuit,” Ms. Hillenbrand’s 2001 best seller, which has six million books in print and became a hit movie. “We’re positioning it as the big book for the holidays,” says a Barnes & Noble buyer.
One of the many notable aspects of “Unbroken” is that its author has never met her subject. Suffering from a debilitating case of chronic fatigue syndrome, she was unable to travel to Los Angeles from her Washington, D.C., home. She did the bulk of her research by phone and over the Internet, which enabled her to zero in on key collections at such institutions as the National Archives.
“Unbroken” details a life that was tumultuous from the beginning. As a blue-collar kid in Southern California, Mr. Zamperini fell in and out of scrapes with the law. By age 19, he’d redirected his energies into sports, becoming a record-breaking distance runner. He competed in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where he made headlines, not just on the track (Hitler sought him out for a congratulatory handshake), but by stealing a Nazi flag from the well-guarded Reich Chancellery. The heart of the story, however, is about Mr. Zamperini’s experiences while serving in the Pacific during World War II.
A bombardier on a B-24 flying out of Hawaii in May 1943, the Army Air Corps lieutenant was one of only three members of an 11-man crew to survive a crash into a trackless expanse of ocean. For 47 days, Mr. Zamperini and pilot Russell Allen Phillips (tail gunner Francis McNamara died on day 33) huddled aboard a tiny, poorly provisioned raft, subsisting on little more than rain water and the blood of hapless birds they caught and killed bare-handed. All the while sharks circled, often rubbing their backs against the bottom of the raft. The sole aircraft that sighted them was Japanese. It made two strafing runs, missing its human targets both times. After drifting some 2,000 miles west, the bullet-riddled, badly patched raft washed ashore in the Marshall Islands, where Messrs. Zamperini and Phillips were taken prisoner by the Japanese. The war still had more than two years to go.
Eli Meir Kaplan for The Wall Street JournalLaura Hillenbrand at her home in Washington; she rarely leaves the house because of her illness.
For 25 months in such infamous Japanese POW camps as Ofuna, Omori and Naoetsu, Mr. Zamperini was physically tortured and subjected to constant psychological abuse. He was beaten. He was starved. He was denied medical care for maladies that included beriberi and chronic bloody diarrhea. His fellow prisoners—among them Mr. Phillips—were treated almost as badly. But Mr. Zamperini was singled out by a sadistic guard named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, known to prisoners as “the Bird,” a handle picked because it had no negative connotations that might bring down his irrational wrath. The Bird intended to make an example of the famous Olympian. He regularly whipped him across the face with a belt buckle and forced him to perform demeaning acts, among them push-ups atop pits of human excrement. The Bird’s goal was to force Mr. Zamperini to broadcast anti-American propaganda over the radio. Mr. Zamperini refused. Following Japan’s surrender, Mr. Watanabe was ranked seventh among its most wanted war criminals (Tojo was first). Because war-crime prosecutions were suspended in the 1950s, he was never brought to justice.
This all came rushing back when Mr. Zamperini first sat down with a copy of “Unbroken” last month. “As I was reading,” he says, gesturing with an arm to a peaceful vista of palm trees outside his house, “I had to look out that picture window from time to time to make sure that I wasn’t still in Japan. When I got to the end I called Laura and told her she’d put me back in prison, and she said, ‘I’m sorry.’ ”
“It’s almost unimaginable what Louie went through,” says Ms. Hillenbrand from her home on a late fall afternoon. She discovered Mr. Zamperini’s story while researching “Seabiscuit,” the saga of another individual—in that case, a horse—that confronted long odds. “Louie and Seabiscuit were both Californians and both on the sports pages in the 1930s,” she says. “I was fascinated. When I learned about his World War II experiences, I thought, ‘If this guy is still alive, I want to meet him.’ ”
Following the publication of “Seabiscuit,” Ms. Hillenbrand wrote to Mr. Zamperini. Shortly thereafter they had the first of many long phone conversations. His tale of survival captivated her both on its merits and because she could relate to it personally. “I’m attracted,” she says, “to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it.”
Louis ZamperiniIn basic training, pre-WWII helmet, 1941
The 43-year-old Ms. Hillenbrand contracted chronic fatigue syndrome during her sophomore year at Kenyon College. The bewildering disease, thought to originate from a virus, can be enfeebling and is incurable. Ms. Hillenbrand is today essentially a prisoner in her own home. She is so consistently weak and dizzy (vertigo is a side effect) that she recently installed a chair lift to get to the second floor of her house, where she lives with her husband, G. Borden Flanagan, an assistant professor of political philosophy at American University. What to others might seem simple matters are to her subjects of grave consideration. “I skipped my shower today,” she says, “in order to have the strength to do this interview. My illness is excruciating and difficult to cope with. It takes over your entire life and causes more suffering than I can describe.”
Ms. Hillenbrand’s research was complicated by her disease. But as she likes to remind people, she came down with chronic fatigue syndrome before starting her writing career, and she has learned to work around it. “For ‘Seabiscuit,’ ” she says, “I interviewed 100 people I never met.” For “Unbroken,” Ms. Hillenbrand located not only many of Mr. Zamperini’s fellow POWs and the in-laws of Mr. Phillips, but the most friendly of his Japanese captors. She also interviewed scores of experts on the War in the Pacific (the book is extensively end-noted) and benefited from her subject’s personal files, which he shipped to Washington for her use. “A superlative pack rat,” she writes, “Louie has saved virtually every artifact of his life.”
Louis ZamperiniHis damaged B-24 after a mission:, 1943
During her exploration of Mr. Zamperini’s war years, Ms. Hillenbrand was most intrigued by his capacity to endure hardship. “One of the fascinating things about Louie,” she says, “is that he never allowed himself to be a passive participant in his ordeal. It’s why he survived. When he was being tortured, he wasn’t just lying there and getting hit. He was always figuring out ways to escape emotionally or physically.”
Louis ZamperiniMr. Zamperini with mother at homecoming, 1945
Mr. Zamperini owes this resiliency, Ms. Hillenbrand concluded, to his rebellious nature. “Defiance defines Louie,” she says. “As a boy he was a hell-raiser. He refused to be corralled. When someone pushed him he pushed back. That made him an impossible kid but an unbreakable man.”
Although Mr. Zamperini came back to California in one piece, he was emotionally ruined. At night, his demons descended in the form of vengeful dreams about Mr. Watanabe. He drank heavily. He nearly destroyed his marriage. In 1949, at the urging of his wife, Cynthia, Mr. Zamperini attended a Billy Graham crusade in downtown Los Angeles, where he became a Christian. (The conversion of the war hero helped put the young evangelist on the map.) Ultimately Mr. Zamperini forgave his tormentors and enjoyed a successful career running a center for troubled youth. He even reached out to Mr. Watanabe. “As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment,” Mr. Zamperini wrote his former guard in the 1990s, “my post-war life became a nightmare … but thanks to a confrontation with God … I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you.” A third party promised to deliver the letter to Mr. Watanabe. He did not reply, and it is not known whether he received it. He died in 2003.
Sally Peterson for The Wall Street JournalMr. Zamperini still has his purloined Nazi flag.
Mr. Zamperini’s internal battles and ultimate redemption point to a key difference between “Unbroken” and Ms. Hillenbrand’s previous book. “Seabiscuit’s story is one of accomplishment,” she says. “Louie’s is one of survival. Seabiscuit’s story played out before the whole world. Louie dealt with his ordeal essentially alone. His was a mental struggle.” That struggle, she adds, feels particularly resonant in 2010. “This is a time when people need to be buoyed by something, and Louie blows breath into people by making them realize that they can overcome more than they think.”
Because of Ms. Hillenbrand’s illness, there will be no author tour. In 2007 she sank deeper into chronic fatigue syndrome, and she hasn’t pulled out of it. “This is going to be hard,” she says. “I’m very afraid. I’m not functioning well. I’m going to have to be careful that I don’t slip back to the bottom.” Next week’s “Today” show interview was taped at her home.
Louis ZamperiniA rambunctious youth in Torrance, Calif.
Mr. Zamperini—whose health issues don’t go beyond taking blood-thinning medication following a recent angioplasty—is raring to go. His wife died in 2001, and while he is close to his two children and a grandson, he lives alone. In short, he’s up for an adventure. He has told Random House he will promote the book in Ms. Hillenbrand’s stead. He also has signed with a San Francisco-based speakers’ agency. His goal is to become an inspirational mainstay on cruise ships. He has transformed what he learned as a POW into parables (“Hope has to have a reason. Faith has to have an object”) that he feels can reduce stress and are perfect for an anxiety-filled time.
Louis ZamperiniVisiting a prison camp in Japan in 1950
There is also, not surprisingly, movie interest (the film version of “Seabiscuit” took in $150 million world-wide at the box office). The outlook, however, is uncertain. In the 1950s, Mr. Zamperini published an autobiography titled “Devil at My Heels.” Universal, envisioning a vehicle for Tony Curtis, optioned Mr. Zamperini’s life rights. The project went nowhere. In the 1990s, Universal re-optioned the rights, this time for Nicolas Cage. Again the project faltered. In 2003, Mr, Zamperini and writer David Rensin updated “Devil at My Heels.”
Louis ZamperiniRunning in the Olympic torch relay in Los Angeles, 1984
Andrew Rigrod, an entertainment lawyer representing Mr. Zamperini, believes the rights have now reverted to his client. A Universal spokeswoman says that this is most likely correct, but says the studio still owns the previous project and is developing it. She adds that she expects things to be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Mr. Zamperini’s hope, Mr. Rigrod says, is that he and Ms. Hillenbrand (who is represented by CAA) will join forces. “He wants the movie to be based on Laura’s book,” says the lawyer, “and he would cooperate and participate.” Says Mr. Zamperini: “For the work she’s done, she deserves the movie. I told her I don’t want anything
Over the course of the seven years Ms. Hillenbrand toiled on “Unbroken,” she and Mr. Zamperini became friends, despite never laying eyes on each other. “I call him a virtuoso of joy,” she says. “When things are going bad, I phone him.” Says Mr. Zamperini, “Every time I say good-bye to her, I tell her I love her and she tells me, ‘I love you.’ I’ve never known a girl like her.
“Laura brought my war buddies back to life,” he says. “The fact that Laura has suffered so much enabled her to put our suffering into words.”
—Steve Oney is the author of “And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank.”
When my wife Jill and I watched the interview that Louis Zamperini gave to Jay Leno we were not astonished to learn that the strength Louis Zamperini needed to forgive those who tortured him came from his faith in Christ. Louis Zamperini’s Story of Survival and Redemption Former Olympic Star and POW Finds New Ministry […]
What an amazing story. November 12, 2010 The Defiant Ones In her new book, the author of ‘Seabiscuit’ turns to the unimaginable ordeal of an Olympic athlete and WW II hero. Because of her own debilitating illness, they struck a special bond. By STEVE ONEY With a fringe of white hair poking out from under a […]
Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno I saw this amazing interview of Louis Zamperini. He is truly a great American war hero. Book review: ‘Devil at My Heels’ by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin The author, who spent two years during World War II in Japanese POW camps, tells his life story […]
Bob Welch chose suicide because he felt there was no other way like so many others today. (Details of his suicide below later in this post.) It is sad that this is such a pressing problem. I think of songs that point this out: Adam’s Song, The Last Resort, etc.
There are two usual approaches to this problem that young people take.
First, you have the worm approach. They crawl into the ground because they don’t want to be close to anyone.
Second, the puppy approach. They do anything they can to get people to like them.
The better approach is to act like the child of God that you are. Feeling loved and accepted starts with your relationship with Christ who is the only one able to meet the deepest needs of your life. (Fast forward to the end of this post if you need a relationship with Christ.) Talking to Jesus and reading his Word- The Bible – are steps to strengthening your friendship with him. He laid down his life for you, so it is obvious that he regards you as a friend worth dying for (John 15:13) That is powerful comfort when you wonder if anyone cares.
Portions of the above post were taken from the excellent devotional book by Josh McDowell, and Ed Stewart “Youth Devotions 2,” published in 2003 by Tyndale. Back then my kids were 17, 14, 9 and 7 and we went through several of these devotions together. Just recently I got the book out of the garage and three of my kids have been meeting with me at 5:30 am every morning and we are going through some of these same devotions again. I thank God for kids who came to me and asked to start meeting with me every morning to spend 30 minutes studying Bible applications and praying together. To God be the glory.
The band’s place in the pop music landscape was established with the release of their breakout single, “Last Resort,” which was quickly picked up by MTV and nominated for a “Best New Artist Video” award at the 2000 Video Music Awards. The song is a gut-wrenching first-person chronicle of hopelessness that’s gone so deep the singer is seriously contemplating suicide. But the band is adamant about the fact that the song is about fighting to survive by overcoming depression, rather than allowing it to lead to suicide. “It’s not saying I can’t go on living. It’s saying I can’t go on living this way,” says Dick (Spin, 10/00).
I know there are some curse words in the following song. I have eliminated both times the curse word is used. I really think that there needs to be a response to the young people who are saying things like the words in this song Here are some of the words:
Do you even care if I die pleading, Would it be wrong, would it be right, If I took my life tonight, Chances are that I might, and I’m contimplating suicide, ‘Cause I’m losing my sight, losing my mind, Wish somebody would tell me I’m fine, Nothing’s alright, nothing is fine, I’m running and I’m crying, I never realized I was spread too thin, Till it was too late andI was empty within, Hungry, feeding on my chaos and living in sin, Downward spiral, where do i begin, It all started when i lost my mother, No love for myself and no love for another,Searching to find a love upon a higher level, finding nothing but QUESTIONS AND DEVILS, I can’t go on living this way, Cut my life into pieces, This is my last resort.
My response to these words:”Do you even care if I die pleading, Would it be wrong, would it be right, If I took my life tonight, Chances are that I might, and I’m contimplating suicide” is that you should plead to someone who can do something about your situation and that is Christ!!!!
Below David Powlison asserts:
How do you get the living hope that God offers you in Jesus? By asking. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Suicide operates in a world of death, despair, and aloneness. Jesus Christ creates a world of life, hope, and community. Ask God for help, and keep on asking. Don’t stop asking. You need Him to fill you every day with the hope of the resurrection.
In a day and age where the walls are crumbling between what had been a variety of distinctive popular music genres, Papa Roach is like many other chart-topping bands whose music combines sounds that were once distinct. Coby Dick’s raspy and throat-wrenching vocals join with music that incorporates sounds of rap, rock, thrash, funk and metal. Listeners familiar with popular music will hear the influence of Faith No More, the band Dick cites as one of his early favorites. Similar contemporary bands include Korn, Limp Bizkit, The Deftones and P.O.D.
Reviewer Tim Kennedy of Spin describes the resulting sound as “an amalgam of below-the-belt guitar riffage, punk-rock urgency, and half-sung, half-rapped vocals (10/00). Rolling Stone’s Anthony Bozza says listening to Papa Roach is “like standing on a precipice—sustained tension and the threat of a tumble” (8/31/00).
The sound combines with Dick’s lyrics in a powerful and emotional blend that addresses the reality of life for kids who have been burned over and over again. Tobin Esperance says, “We write about things that have happened to our singer, specifically, and friends around us. It’s real life stuff. We’re not writing about s___ that we don’t know about, like girls and cars and money … we only know real life bulls___ that happens” (nyrock.com). Coby Dick says of his autobiographical music, “I’m venting my emotions. It’s blunt” (Rolling Stone, 8/31/00). He says “Papa Roach, lyrically, is my counseling” (Billboard,6/10/00).
Infest (2000)
Papa Roach released the album they now consider their first in April of 2000. The album quickly began to sell as a result of radio and MTV exposure, went gold after two months thanks to scoring with MTV’s Total Request Live audience, and had gone double platinum by September 2000.
Papa Roach offers an introduction to their music, mission, message and intentions on the album’s title cut. After introducing himself to his listeners, Coby Dick informs them his “God-given talent is to rock all the nations.” In this, the band’s “first manifesto,” the group lays out their plan to “infest” the world and young minds (“wrap you in my thoughts”) with an angry musical message of anarchy and rebellion against a messed-up world that’s let them down: “We’re going to infest/We’re getting in your head/What is wrong with the world today/The government, media or your family.” Institutions and people are not to be trusted. In fact, “First they shackle your feet/Then they stand you in a line/Then they beat you like meat/Then they grab you by your mind … people are the problem today.” Dick admits the struggle so many young people feel: “the game of life is crazy.” Alone in this sea of brokenness and hopelessness, Dick asks, “Would you cry if I died today/I think it be better if you did not say.”
The band’s place in the pop music landscape was established with the release of their breakout single, “Last Resort,” which was quickly picked up by MTV and nominated for a “Best New Artist Video” award at the 2000 Video Music Awards. The song is a gut-wrenching first-person chronicle of hopelessness that’s gone so deep the singer is seriously contemplating suicide. (See lyrics on page 7.) The fact that “Last Resort” is part of the mainstream pop music landscape indicates it is connecting with more and more kids who see it as an expression of their own inner struggles. For casual listeners, the song is very confusing. Listening to the song reveals the criticisms claiming the song promotes suicide could certainly be warranted. Kids who are riding the fence because of numerous other problems in their lives could interpret the song in a way that would give them permission to go over the edge, especially if they don’t know the story behind the song. But the band is adamant about the fact that the song is about fighting to survive by overcoming depression, rather than allowing it to lead to suicide. “It’s not saying I can’t go on living. It’s saying I can’t go on living this way,” says Dick (Spin, 10/00). He also says, “Last Resort” has “a positive edge to it, as far as like, ‘Don’t succumb to it. Keep yourself afloat.’ With these problems in your life, find a friend you can confide in” (Sonicnet.com). Based on the band’s resolve to survive like a roach, one would have to take them at their word. The song chronicles the suicide attempt of one of Coby Dick’s former roommates. After his “unsuccessful” attempt, the young man “turned to God” … Dick claims the attempt was what killed the rotting part of his roommate’s soul. The song has definitely connected. “We’ve gotten so many e-mails from people who tell us ‘Last Resort’ saved their lives,” says Dick. “It makes some people feel less alone” (Rolling Stone,8/31/00).
The album’s third cut is equally powerful. Released as a single and put in heavy rotation on MTV, “Broken Home” (See lyrics) is an overt lyrical, sonic and visual cry from the heart of one whose young life has been shattered by family breakdown. Written by Dick about his feelings after his parents’ divorce, the song offers listeners an emotional window into the reality of kids beaten up by our current culture of divorce. Every parent considering divorce should sit and watch this video. It is powerful.
“Dead Cell” has been called “a darkly sarcastic paean to Columbine kids the world over” (Alternative Press, 10/00). If that’s the case, the sarcasm is not easily heard. The dead cells are described as “born with no soul/lack of control/cut from the mold of the anti-social … sick in the head/living but dead.” Loud, angry and fast, the song could be interpreted by some who are young and angry as a call to arms: “I’m telling ya the kids are getting singled out/Let me hear the dead cells shout.”
“Between Angels and Insects” is an insightful rant against American greed and materialism. Dick says he wrote the song to remind himself that the things the band’s success will bring are not the things that make one happy. The lyrics are powerful and excerpts could serve to spark discussion with teens about the false promises of materialism: “Diamond rings get you nothing/But a life-long lesson/And your pocketbook stressin’/You’re a slave to the system/Working jobs that you hate/For s___ that you don’t need/It’s too bad the world is based on greed/Step back and stop thinking ‘bout yourself … ‘cause everything is nothing/And emptiness is in everything … Possessions they are never gonna fill the void … the things you own, own you.” When discussing the message of the song Buckner says, “all the worldly things that people equate with happiness—do they necessarily make you happy? You can have Rolexes and diamond rings and cars and houses … but really the things that make you happy are peace of mind and passion in your life” (Alternative Press, 10/00).
Relational selfishness and greed are the subject of “Blood Brothers,” a song offering powerful evidence of the depth of sin’s hold on humanity: “It’s our nature to destroy ourselves/It’s our nature to kill ourselves/It’s our nature to kill each other/It’s in our nature to kill, kill, kill.” The song speaks about allegiance in a world where you can’t trust anybody and you’ve got to watch your back. The lyrics leave one thinking the song could serve as an anthem for a street gang or other fringe subculture: “Blood brothers keep it real to the end.”
Themes of severe relational breakdown and the resulting pain continue in “Revenge,” a song about a girl who was “abused with forks, knives and razorblades” and who finally left the man who abused her in fits of rage. Listeners who have been abused will identify with the song’s mention of the ever-present and visible emotional scars they so often feel: “Chaos is what she saw in the mirror/Scared of herself/And the power that was in her/It took over and weighed heavily on her shoulders/Militant insanity is now what controlled her.” The song indicates that she exacts revenge on him, although the method and outcome is unclear.
Backstabbers are the subject of “Snakes,” an angry and threatening rant at those who betray friends. The song reflects the distrust so many kids feel because of the parade of letdowns they’ve experienced. The chorus asks, “Do you like how it feels to be bit in the neck by the snake that kills?/Do you know how it feels to be stabbed in the back then watch the blood spill?/I don’t like how it feels.”
Coby Dick chronicles his wrestling match with alcohol on “Binge,” a song that serves as a personal confession. “All I need is a bottle/And I don’t need no friends/Now wallow in my pain/I swallow as I pretend/To act like I’m happy when I drink till no end/I’m losing all my friends, I’m losing in the end … When I’m sober, life bores me/So I get drunk again.” The song is a heart cry about what drives the binge drinker, how he really feels inside and his desire to see it end. In the song’s final lines, Dick sings, “I wish things would change/Wish they’d rearrange.”
“Never Enough” is another cry for help from a confused and tortured young soul that is deeply longing for redemption. “Life’s been sucked out of me/And this routine’s killing me … somebody put me out of my misery,” Dick sings. The song will resonate with kids who are lost, purposeless and without peace. The song’s conclusion is a loud cry for help: “I feel as if I’m running/Life will knock me down.”
“Thrown Away” offers a view of life through the eyes of a kid struggling with ADD, something Coby Dick knows well as he watched his brother’s personal struggle with the disorder. “My heart is bleeding and the pain will not pass … I want to be thrown away … I am a mess, I’ve made a huge mess/I can’t control myself/I’m losing it, I’ve lost it/I’ve spilt all my marbles … sometimes I want to be thrown away.”
The album concludes with an unlisted hidden cut called “Tightrope.” The track is stylistically unlike any other cuts on the album as it is done in reggae style. The lyrics are a confusing mix of thoughts where Dick calls his words “weapons in which I murder you.” The song offers a confession regarding the ethical dilemmas faced by kids in these confusing times: “there is a thin line between what’s good and what is evil/I will tiptoe down that line/But I feel unstable/My life is a circus and I’m tripping down the tightrope/There’s nothing left to save me now so I will not look down.”
It’s easy to see the risk factors for suicide—depression, suffering, disillusioning experiences, failure—but there are also ways to get your life back on track by building protective factors into your life.
Ask for help
How do you get the living hope that God offers you in Jesus? By asking. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Suicide operates in a world of death, despair, and aloneness. Jesus Christ creates a world of life, hope, and community. Ask God for help, and keep on asking. Don’t stop asking. You need Him to fill you every day with the hope of the resurrection.
At the same time you are asking God for help, tell other people about your struggle with hopelessness. God uses His people to bring life, light, and hope. Suicide, by definition, happens when someone is all alone. Getting in relationship with wise, caring people will protect you from despair and acting out of despair.
But what if you are bereaved and alone? If you know Jesus, you still have a family—His family is your family. Become part of a community of other Christians. Look for a church where Jesus is at the center of teaching and worship. Get in relationship with people who can help you, but don’t stop with getting help. Find people to love, serve, and give to. Even if your life has been stripped barren by lost relationships, God can and will fill your life with helpful and healing relationships.
Grow in godly life skills
Another protective factor is to grow in godly living. Many of the reasons for despair come from not living a godly, fruitful life. You need to learn the skills that make godly living possible. What are some of those skills?
Conflict resolution. Learn to problem-solve by entering into human difficulties and growing through them. (See Ask the Christian Counselor article, “Fighting the Right Way.”)
Seek and grant forgiveness. Hopeless thinking is often the result of guilt and bitterness.
Learn to give to others. Suicide is a selfish act. It’s a lie that others will be better off without you. Work to replace your faulty thinking with reaching out to others who are also struggling. Take what you have learned in this article and pass it on to at least one other person. Whatever hope God gives you, give to someone who is struggling with despair.
Live for God
When you live for God, you have genuine meaning in your life. This purpose is far bigger than your suffering, your failures, the death of your dreams, and the disillusionment of your hopes. Living by faith in God for His purposes will protect you from suicidal and despairing thoughts. God wants to use your personality, your skills, your life situation, and even your struggle with despair to bring hope to others.
He has already prepared good works for you to do. Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). As you step into the good works God has prepared for you—you will find that meaning, purpose, and joy.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who went on to write songs and record several hits during a solo career, died Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. He was 65.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said Welch’s wife found him with a chest wound at their south Nashville home around 12:15 p.m.
Welch was a guitarist and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He formed the British rock group Paris in 1976, and had hits including “Sentimental Lady” in 1977 and “Ebony Eyes” in 1978. Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham did backup vocals on “Sentimental Lady.”
Aaron said Welch apparently had had health issues recently. He said a suicide note was left.
Fleetwood Mac’s career took off in the mid-1970s after Welch left the band. “Dreams” was a No. 1 hit in 1977 and “Don’t Stop” the same year. It later became the anthem for Bill Clinton’s 2002 presidential campaign. “Hold Me” was a hit in 1982 and “Little Lies” in 1987.
Welch, a native of Los Angeles, scored his biggest hit with “Sentimental Lady,” which reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart. His other singles included “Precious Love” in 1979 and “Hot Love, Cold World” in 1978.
When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Welch was not included in the group.
“It basically comes down to the fact that they don’t like me anymore,” he told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland at the time. “I guess they can do what they want. I could understand it if I had been a sideman for a year. But I was an integral part of that band … I put more of myself into that band than anything else I’ve ever done.”
Longtime Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks told The Associated Press that Welch’s death hit her hard.
“The death of Bob Welch is devastating … I had many great times with him after Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac. He was an amazing guitar player – he was funny, sweet – and he was smart. I am so very sorry for his family and for the family of Fleetwood Mac – so, so sad …”
Founding member Mick Fleetwood did not immediately respond to e-mails for comment Thursday.
Fleetwood Mac, started in 1967 by two former members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, became an enormously popular pop-oriented group in the late 1970s. Nicks’ haunting vocals and Buckingham’s distinctive guitar work helped propel the band’s 1976 album “Rumours” to multiplatinum status.
Problems with alcohol and drugs, as well as well-publicized fights between band members, led to their breakup. Money and nostalgia helped bring the band back together, leading to successful reunion tours.
As a songwriter, Welch had his songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Sammy Hagar, the Pointer Sisters and others.
In 1999 he released a CD, “Bob Welch Looks at Bop,” a salute to bebop music in the 1940s.
In an interview with The Tennessean in 2003, Welch said he never dreamed he’d be remembered for much.
“I just wanted to play guitar in a good band,” he said. “I wanted to make the music I love. I wanted to travel the world and have adventures.”
Welch also said “music is disposable now. It doesn’t have the emotional impact anymore. That’s sad.”
He had lived in Nashville since the 1990s.
Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association, quoted his wife Wendy as saying Welch had spinal surgery three months ago and doctors told him he would not get better, and he did not want her to have to care for an invalid.
The couple had no children. Funeral arrangements were incomplete
Success does not bring satisfaction in life. How many times have we witnessed that play out. I am truly sorrow that Junior Seau chose to take his life. He was always happy go lucky on the outside. Arkansas Razorback Tony Bua played with Junior Seau at Miami and one time Michael Jordan walked in the […]
AFP reported this morning: Whitney Houston ‘drowned in bath after taking cocaine’ By Michael Thurston | AFP – 9 hrs ago Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston died from accidental drowning in her hotel bathtub after taking cocaine which could have triggered a heart attack, coroners said. Houston, who died at age 48 in the bathtub of […]
Below you will find the rare pictures that surfaced and then there are links to previous posts that talked about Marilyn’s spiritual search. Evidently she consulted the psychic Kenny Kingston on several occasions. Rare Marilyn Monroe photos hit auction block This image, taken in 1960, released by Julien’s Auctions, shows a black and white photograph of […]
Uploaded by MrDAILYINFO on Feb 12, 2012 R.I.P WHITNEY HOUSTON; Last Performance at Kelly Price’s “For the Love of R&B” Pre-Grammy Party Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012. COURTESY OF JET ____________________________ It seems that alcohol and drugs are a bad combination. The report below from Yahoo News: Whitney Houston Died of Prescription Drug, Alcohol Combination, TMZ […]
Amy Winehouse wins a Grammy!!! Take a look. Amy Winehouse’s parents accept Grammy Late Amy Winehouse gets Grammy award for best pop performance by a duo for duet with Tony Bennett. Singer Tony Bennett and parents of the late Amy Winehouse Mitch and Janis Winehouse accept the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Body […]
It was so sad to lose these people so soon. The Curse of 27 This page is in response to my most frequently asked questions – is there really a Curse of 27, how many musicians actually died at that age, and who are they. When legendary Blues man, Robert Johnson, was killed at the age […]
A curve ball in the Amy Winehouse case. Troubled Brit singer Amy Winehouse was found dead at her London home in July. / AP FILE PHOTO Written by JILL LAWLESS, | Associated Press FILED UNDER Entertainment LONDON — The coroner who oversaw the inquest into the death of singer Amy Winehouse has resigned after her […]
Jim Morrison’s picture above. He died way too young and many of our young people turn to drugs and suicide because of loneliness. It is sad that this is such a pressing problem. I think of songs that point this out: Adam’s Song, The Last Resort, etc. There are two usual approaches to this problem that […]
I really enjoyed this article from a few years ago and wanted to pass it on to you. You will notice that number 10 and 11 on the list would have been higher up on the list if it had not been for heartbreaking losses to the Tennessee Vols. Of course, the loss in 1998 still gets to me since we should have been running it straight up the middle and they putt it with 40 seconds left at Tennessee 40 yard line. HOW COULD HAVE THE VOLS GONE 80 YARDS IN 40 SECONDS? I got this article by Harry King off of George Lapides website:
Top 10 Teams Ever At Arkansas
By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK – Despite a 10-game winning streak, I cannot find a place for these Razorbacks on the list of Best Dozen Arkansas teams.
Even if Arkansas had completed enough passes to beat Wisconsin in Orlando, 11-3 would not have cracked the Top 10.
Trying to rank Arkansas teams since Frank Broyles arrived in 1958 is arbitrary and rigid rules eliminate deserving teams. For instance, if only conference champions are considered, the 1969 team is gone and so is Lou Holtz’s 11-1 team that finished third in the country.
Undisputed champions of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference, the latest Razorbacks are second-best of the Houston Nutt reign, behind his 1998 team.
Winning 10 is a tribute to superb running backs, a veteran offensive line, and a hang-tough defense. Wisconsin running back P.J. Hill was so stifled that quarterback John Stocco threw a half-dozen passes from inside his 20 despite leading by 10.
But winning 10 is not the wow of a few years ago. With a 12-game season, a conference championship game for many and a bowl game for all, there is a need to redefine a great record.
Boise State was 13-0 and the Florida-Ohio State winner will notch No. 13 in the national title game. Wisconsin was 12-1 and the Orange Bowl winner will have 12 victories. The Louisville-Wake Forest loser will be on 11 along with TCU, Brigham Young, Hawaii, Rutgers, Auburn, West Virginia, USC, Oklahoma, Michigan and the Sugar Bowl winner. More than half had only 13 games.
All told, more than two dozen teams won 10 or more.
Still, this Razorback team deserves plaudits for a 7-1 record in the Southeastern Conference. The fact that Arkansas lost to three teams in BCS bowl games and to once-beaten Wisconsin counts for something. And, the Razorbacks beat two teams that were ranked in The AP top 15 at the time.
Although impossible to compare the Razorbacks from decade to decade, particularly in light of the SWC vs. SEC, it is valid to assess how a particular team ranked with others of that day. Almost every great Arkansas team had one thing in common – an all-conference quarterback.
During the season, neither Casey Dick nor Mitch Mustain was mentioned in the same breath with JaMarcus Russell of LSU, Chris Leak of Florida, Andre Woodson of Kentucky, or Erik Ainge of Tennessee. That does not mean that Dick or Mustain won’t produce next fall, only that the jury is still out.
A countdown of the unofficial Best Dozen begins with the 1975 team that lost early to Oklahoma State. Eventually, Scott Bull took over at quarterback and the Razorbacks ended a 9-2 regular season with a 31-6 trouncing of then-No. 2 Texas A&M. In the Cotton Bowl, they took apart Georgia.
No. 11 – 1998, 8-0 start, Clint Stoerner’s stumble, a hangover loss to Mississippi State, and too much Michigan in Orlando. Stoerner was second team All-SEC.
No. 10 – 1989, Ken Hatfield’s second straight 10-1 regular season. Made 568 yards in the Cotton Bowl and lost. Quinn Grovey, All-SWC in 1988.
No. 9 – 1970, won nine straight between an opening loss to No. 10 Stanford and a rout by No. 1 Texas. Bill Montgomery, All-SWC.
No. 8 – 1962, a 7-3 loss at No. 1 Texas and a 17-13 loss to No. 3 Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. Billy Moore, All-SWC.
No. 7 – 1979, lost to No. 6 Houston during the regular season and to No. 2 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Kevin Scanlon, All-SWC.
No. 6 – 1988, opened 10-0, and was a Steve Atwater interception away from beating No. 3 Miami. Flopped in Dallas.
No. 5 – 1968, 16-2 over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl completed a 10-1. Montgomery was a sophomore.
No. 4 – 1969, so close to perfect on that December day in Fayetteville. Too much Archie Manning in New Orleans. Montgomery, again.
No. 3 – 1965, unbeaten and ranked No. 2 when it lost to LSU in the Cotton Bowl. Jon Brittenum, All-SWC.
No. 2 – 1977, a 13-9 loss to No. 2 Texas was the only downer and 31-6 over then No. 2-ranked Oklahoma might be the most memorable victory in school history. Ron Calcagni, All-SWC.
No. 1 – 1964, nobody can argue with perfection. Fred Marshall, All-SWC.
Unbroken Official Olympics Preview Trailer (2014) – Angelina Jolie Directed Movie HD
Louis Zamperini – “Unbroken” by Men, Humbled by Jesus
Published on Nov 21, 2014
The personal testimony of Louis Zamperini on how Jesus changed his life after the Japanese were unsuccessful in taking his life during World War II. This talk by Louis Zamperini at Emmanuel Enid, Oklahoma was one of his last public appearances before his fall limited his travel schedule. Louis died July 2, 2014.
The Great Zamperini
Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno I saw this amazing interview of Louis Zamperini. He is truly a great American war hero.
The author, who spent two years during World War II in Japanese POW camps, tells his life story in this crisp yet richly detailed account.
January 10, 2011|By Michael Harris, Special to the Los Angeles Times
First there was Louis Zamperini, then came the Louis Zamperini story.
The man made the story — carved it out of the bedrock of his life, out of high achievement and almost unbelievable suffering — but the story also made the man. It gave him a vocation as evangelist, inspirational speaker and worker with troubled youth; it made him an authority on the toughness of the human spirit. And in the end, perhaps, the story defined and caged him, as our stories tend to do if we repeat them often enough.
Zamperini, 93, has been telling his story for a long time. A first version of “Devil at My Heels” appeared in the 1950s. In 2003, Zamperini, collaborating with David Rensin, produced an updated version that included the discovery by a CBS documentary crew in 1998 that Matsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe, the most sadistic of the guards who had tortured him during his two years in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, had escaped prosecution for war crimes and was willing to be interviewed.
Now there is renewed interest in that book, with a foreword by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that rides the slipstream of Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.”
Hillenbrand (“Seabiscuit”) takes nearly 200 additional pages to tell the story than Zamperini does in this crisp yet richly detailed account. She wants to probe the mystery of what makes people like Zamperini stronger than the rest of us. He just gives us the facts, which are extraordinary enough:
Zamperini grows up in a working-class Italian American family in Torrance. Whatever he does, he does wholeheartedly. He’s a hell-raising delinquent, then a disciplined runner. He stars in track at USC and competes in the 1936 Olympics. He joins the Army Air Forces as a B-24 bombardier and crash-lands in the mid-Pacific in 1943. He and two other crewmen drift 2,000 miles in 47 days, slowly starving, their raft circled by sharks and strafed by a Japanese plane. One of the men dies. The remaining two are rescued — by the Japanese.
Zamperini’s captors, aware of his athletic fame, beat him almost daily but keep him alive because they hope he will make propaganda broadcasts in return for cushier treatment. He refuses and by the end of the war weighs only 70 pounds.
Back home, consumed by hate and dogged by nightmares of “The Bird,” Zamperini drinks heavily, gets into fights, loses money in get-rich-quick schemes and alienates his wife, Cynthia, who, in desperation, drags him to a Billy Graham crusade. He experiences a conversion to Christianity, changes his ways and never looks back. He forgives the Japanese and in 1950 visits Sugamo Prison in Tokyo to offer the Gospel to the war criminals held there. He devotes the rest of his life to good works.
As a POW, Zamperini saw the “filth, squalor and inhumanity” of prison camp as proof that the Allied cause was right. One wonders what he would say about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and the CIA’s secret prisons. Would he justify them, as he justifies the “unavoidable horror” ] of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the internment of Japanese Americans? Or would he shake his head, faced with a question that doesn’t belong to the Zamperini story at all? It’s a story that seems to come from a different world — a world of clear-cut good and evil, of unquestionable victory — that we hunger for with palpable nostalgia as we give the World War II generation a last hurrah.
When my wife Jill and I watched the interview that Louis Zamperini gave to Jay Leno we were not astonished to learn that the strength Louis Zamperini needed to forgive those who tortured him came from his faith in Christ. Louis Zamperini’s Story of Survival and Redemption Former Olympic Star and POW Finds New Ministry […]
What an amazing story. November 12, 2010 The Defiant Ones In her new book, the author of ‘Seabiscuit’ turns to the unimaginable ordeal of an Olympic athlete and WW II hero. Because of her own debilitating illness, they struck a special bond. By STEVE ONEY With a fringe of white hair poking out from under a […]
Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno I saw this amazing interview of Louis Zamperini. He is truly a great American war hero. Book review: ‘Devil at My Heels’ by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin The author, who spent two years during World War II in Japanese POW camps, tells his life story […]
Wikipedia informs us that probably this phrase “What the Sam Hill is going on?” is referring to the Adjutant General of Kentucky Samuel Ewing Hill, who was sent by the Governor of Kentucky to see what was going on in reference to the Hatfields & McCoys family feud in 1887. Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families, becoming headline news around the country, and compelling the governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to call up their state militias to restore order. The Governor of West Virginia once even threatened to have his militia invade Kentucky. Kentucky Governor Simon Bolivar Buckner in response sent his Adjutant General to Pike County, Kentucky to investigate the situation. Newspapers from around the country awaited word from Adjutant General Sam Hill to find out “what in the Sam Hill was going on up there”.[10][11]
Samuel Ewing Hill
Adjutant General of Kentucky:
1887 – 1891.
Report from the Adjutant General of Kentucky, 1888.
Kentucky Senate
Tuesday, March 6, 1888.
Legislative Document No. 2
On motion of Mr. Smith, the following communication from the Governor, and accompanying correspondence, was ordered printed and laid on the desks of members, viz:
Commonwealth of Kentucky,
Executive Department,Frankfort,
March 5, 1888.
Hon. J. W. Bryan, Speaker of the Senate:
SIR: In compliance with a resolution of the Senate adopted February 11, 1888, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the official correspondence between the Governor of West Virginia and myself, in relation to the Pike county troubles, and also of the Adjutant-General’s report thereon.
Very respectfully,
S. B. Buckner.
[Only the Report of the Adjutant General of Kentucky reproduced below, see Kentucky Documents, 1888 for complete correspondence]
Frankfort, Ky., February 6, 1888.
Gov. S. B. Buckner:
DEAR SIR:
…..Pursuant to your order of the 29th ult. I left Frankfort that night and proceeded to Pike County to investigate the border warfare between the Hatfields, of Logan County, of West Virginia, and the McCoys, of Pike County. I reached Pikeville the night of the 31st, and remaining till the morning of the 3d, made diligent inquiry into the origin and history of the feuds, and from the most reliable sources I gathered the following facts, viz: Some time previous to the August election, 1882, the Sheriff of Pike county appointed Tolbert McCoy a special bailiff to execute some bench warrants on Johnson Hatfield, which warrants had issued on indictments found against said Hatfield in the Pike Circuit Court for misdemeanors, and which warrants the Sheriff himself had been unable to execute. Tolbert McCoy, with two of his brothers, made the arrest of Hatfield under the warrants and started to Pikeville with their prisoner, when they were intercepted by an armed force of the Hatfields, who had been informed of the arrest by some friends, and who immediately crossed the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy, and, taking a nearer route than that traveled by McCoy and his prisoner, intercepted them and rescued the prisoner. Soon afterwards, at the August election, 1882, several of the Hatfields crossed over to the Kentucky side to attend the election, as was their custom, when, during the day, “Big” Ellison Hatfield, brother to Anderson Hatfield, the present leader of the Hatfield band, and Tolbert McCoy, engaged in a fight, which was provoked and urged on by Hatfield, who was a very large man, and far over-matched McCoy, who was a man of small stature. McCoy soon found that he was over-matched, and drew his knife and commenced stabbing Hatfield, notwithstanding which, Hatfield continued to hold the advantage, and was in the act of braining McCoy with a large stone which he had, when McCoy’s brother came to his assistance and shot Hatfield with a pistol.
…..The McCoys, who had participated in that fight, were arrested by the Pike county authorities, and were being detained in custody to await the result of Hatfield’s wounds, when Anderson Hatfield and his gang took them by force from the custody of the Kentucky authorities and carried them across Tug, near where they detained them till Ellison Hatfield died, some 36 to 48 hours, when they brought them back to the Kentucky side, and, tying them to papaw bushes, shot them to death. The McCoys thus slain were three in number, all brothers, and sons of Randolph McCoy, one of them being but fourteen years old, whom the Hatfields accused of complicity in the wounding of Ellison Hatfield. For this murder of three McCoy brothers the grand jury of Pike County, at the next term of the Pike Circuit Court, returned three indictments against each one of the twenty-three persons. Bench warrants were repeatedly issued on said indictments and were as often returned “not found,” notwithstanding many of the persons indicted frequently crossed to the Kentucky side, but on such occasions they were numerically so strong and so well armed as to successfully resist arrest, even if it had been attempted. Thus matters rested for some five years, the Hatfields, in the meantime, taking an active interest in Kentucky elections and admonishing the Sheriff, in whose hands the bench warrants might, at such time, happen to be, to stay away from the precinct or voting place on the east side of Pike county and contiguous to the Tug, which they were in the habit of visiting on election occasions, on the day of their contemplated visit, or, if he should attend, to leave the bench warrants for their arrest behind; and their admonitions were heeded till Frank Phillips, whom your Excellency designated as the agent for Kentucky to receive the persons named in your requisition upon the Governor of West Virginia for certain ones of said indicted parties, was appointed Deputy Sheriff; when on one occasion, when an election was approaching, they sent word to Phillips to keep away from said election, as they wanted to attend, or, if he attended, to leave the bench warrants against them behind, for if he was there with the bench warrants they would kill him. Phillips replied that his official business demanded his presence there that day, and that he would be there, and would have the bench warrants, and if they came he would either take or kill them.
…..Phillips went to the election and the Hatfields approached within gunshot and fired a volley up through the brush, stampeding all but some eight or ten persons; the plucky little Sheriff remained till late in the evening, but, plucky as he is, he did not feel that he could accomplish their arrest.
…..Nothing further of an eventful character occurred in the history of the vendetta till last fall, when Frank Phillips, with two or three men, crossed over into Logan county to receive the prisoners who, he said, he supposed had by that time been arrested under warrants issued by Gov. Wilson, based upon your requisition; but learning, after he had crossed the State line, that no warrants had been issued, or at least that no arrest had been made, and meeting with Tom. Chambers, who is said to have taken a prominent part in the murder of the three McCoy brothers and two others, all three of whom were included in the indictments, he could not resist so good an opportunity to arrest them, and so he did arrest them and brought them back to Pike county, where they, were served with the bench warrants and placed in jail. To avenge that invasion and arrest, as it is supposed, the Hatfield crowd, on the night of January 1st, ult., crossed the Tug Fork in force, penetrated Pike county a distance of seven miles till they reached the peaceful mountain home of old Randolph McCoy, which they surrounded and demanded a surrender. The faithful watch dog had given warning, however, and old man McCoy and his son Calvin, about twenty-seven years old, arose (the family had retired for the night) and made hasty preparations for the best defense possible against such heavy odds, and to the heavy volleys of the assailants returned a vigorous fire and held them at bay for some two or three hours, and until the house, which had been fired from without, was almost ready to fall, when the young man leaped out and ran towards the corn crib, having said to his father that if he could reach the crib he would cover the father’s retreat to the same point, and he believed from that retreat they could yet drive the marauders off; but when about half-way from the dwelling to the crib he fell dead with a ball through his brain. The old man then seized a double-barrel shot-gun and leaped out, discharging both barrels at the enemy, who, somewhat disconcerted for a moment, did not fire upon him till he was well out in the darkness, and, although they fired several shots at him, he escaped unhurt.
…..In the meantime, one of the party had commanded his unmarried daughter, who occupied a room somewhat detached from that occupied by her parents, to make a light, but she replied that she had neither fire nor matches. The command was repeated, and, upon her failure to comply, she was shot through the left breast and instantly killed, though she begged piteously for them not to execute their threat to shoot her for failing to make light, assuring them that it was not in her power to comply with their command. The old mother rushed from her room to go to her daughter; whereupon she was struck upon the head, knocked down and beaten into insensibility, and left for dead upon the porch—at least, with part of her person on the porch. The assailants withdrew just before the house was ready to fall at one end, first closing what little of the door shutters which had not been shot away, with the evident purpose of burning the remaining members of the family; but, after they were gone, another daughter, about eighteen years old rescued some bedding, upon which she placed the body of her dead sister, the almost lifeless form of her mother, and two children of Talbert McCoy—a boy about seven years old and a little hunchback girl about five—where they remained till the neighbors arrived, about daylight. The heroic girl had her feet badly frost bitten, from which she has not yet recovered, and she could not avoid weeping freely as the old lady detailed to me, in her presence, the horrors of that terrible night. The little boy, too, is worthy of special mention, for when he emerged from the burning dwelling, when it was almost ready to fall, he thought of his little crippled sister, who was still in the house, and he re-entered and again came forth leading her by the hand; nor did he even cry during the whole of the battle. Mrs. McCoy impressed me as a candid, honest old lady, and was still unable to walk when I saw her, on account of several of her ribs being broken near the spinal column.
…..About the 8th of January, Frank Phillips, with a number of Kentuckians, again crossed the Tug Fork to arrest the outlaws and bring them to justice, when they were fired on by old man Jim Vance and Cap. Hatfield; and in the fight which resulted old man Vance—who is said to have been the most desperate man in that entire section, and a fast friend of the Hatfields—was killed, but Cap. Hatfield made his escape.
…..Subsequently, Phillips and party made another incursion into Logan county, and were again fired upon (without warning this time); and in the fight which ensued, one Dempsey, of the Hatfield party, was killed, and Bud McCoy, of the Phillips party, was severely wounded. In the two forays made by Phillips and his party during the present year they succeeded in capturing six more of the indicated parties, all of whom were brought safely over into Pike, served with warrants of arrest, and confined in the Pike county jail, making nine in all of the twenty-three indicted persons now confined in the Pike county jail, and awaiting trial for the murder of the McCoy brothers.
…..The charge that the vendetta originated during the war is not sustained by the facts; for while it is true Hurmer McCoy, a brother of Randolph McCoy, was murdered after his discharge and return home from the Union army, his murder was attributed to old James Vance, and none of his kindred ever attempted, so far as I could learn, to avenge his death; and Johnson Hatfield, son of Anderson, has since married his daughter. The McCoys and Hatfields belong to the same political party, hence the feud is, and has been from the start, personal and political. The assertion that Anderson Hatfield and his sons, Johnson and Cap., are reputable, law-abiding people, is not sustained, for the stories of their lawlessness and brutality, vouched for by credible persons, would fill a volume; while, on the other hand, old man McCoy and his boys are represented as law-abiding, honest people by reputable men, who have known them long and intimately, and the young man, Calvin, who was murdered on New Year’s night, is spoken of in terms of the highest commendation, and I was repeatedly told that Pike county did not contain a young man of better character or habits. I advised our people to remain upon our side of the State line, and assured them of your Excellency’s active sympathy for them in all lawful measures to uphold the law and punish crime, and that you would exert the influence of your high office to maintain the law and to punish offenders against it; but told them that you were especially desirous that they should do nothing which would give the officials of West Virginia just cause of complaint.
…..I took the initial steps towards organizing accompany of State Guards at Pikeville, there being plenty of good material there for the purpose, and in which I feel confident we will secure for the State Guard the service of an excellent company; and I sought to impress them with the fact that their arms would be used only by command of the civil authority in maintaining the peace and dignity of our Commonwealth in the rigid enforcement of her laws.
d Added by: Hank Cox Birth: Jan. 30, 1844 Morgantown Butler County Kentucky, USA Death: May 30, 1904 Lexington Fayette County Kentucky, USA Adjutant General of Kentucky: 1887 – 1891. He was assigned to this position on October 1, 1887 and served under Governor Simon Bolivar Buckner. What in Sam Hill … […]
Believe it or not there is an Arkansas connection to the Hatfield McCoy feud. Take a look at this article from 501 Life Magazine of Conway: Greenbrier family details fact/fiction in Hatfield-McCoy Feud | Print | by Renee HunterThe Hatfield-McCoy Feud captured the public imagination, resulting in newspaper stories, books and movies.All of these treatments have been […]
Kevin Costner interview on the set of ” Hatfields and McCoys” ,Romania I have always wondered how the feud got started and it seemed that it started over the ownership of a pig. Below is an interesting article on the Hatfield McCoy fued: Close Me! The Hatfield McCoy Feud Mine Wars The largest armed conflict […]
Hatfield and McCoys Here is an article from Yahoo on the Hatfield and McCoy film series: Y! Big Story: The real story behind the Hatfields and the McCoys Trending Now – Fri, 1st Jun 2012 09:20 PM Everything you need to know to get up to speed on the story of the day The History […]
Kevin Costner interview on the set of ” Hatfields and McCoys” ,Romania ____________ I have really enjoyed watching the film series on the History Channel about this feud. It appears to me that the movie did follow the historical details pretty close. How much of History Channel’s ‘Hatfields and McCoys’ is fiction? Gloria Goodale […]
The Hatfields and McCoys_ Extended Version – CBN.com Hatfield and McCoys I used to travel to Pikeville, Kentucky on a regular basis and I was amazed at the rugged people that lived in that coalmining area. It is the back drop of the Hatfield and Mccoy feud. However, it was filmed in Europe. I have […]
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below: Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more […]
(Picture from the Ronald Reagan Library) Ronald Reagan with his older brother Neil (Moon) Reagan. (Circa 1912) Second Reagan-Mondale presidential debate 1984 October 21, 1984 The Second Reagan-Mondale Presidential Debate MS. RIDINGS: Good evening from the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. I am Dorothy Ridings, the president of the League of Women Voters, the […]
I survived last night even though there were several tornadoes all through Arkansas last night. America has too many bureaucrats and they are dramatically overpaid. This mini-documentary uses government data to show how federal, state, and local governments are in fiscal trouble in part because of excessive pay for a bloated civil service. Steve Brawner […]
It is 9:35 pm and we have been hiding from Tornadoes all night and I hope they are finished bothering us for the evening. Ronald Reagan on Balanced Budget Amendment Steve Brawner in his article “Safer roads and balanced budgets,” Arkansas News Bureau, April 13, 2011, noted: The disagreement is over the solutions — on […]
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below: Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few […]
Confederate soldier Julius Howell Interview What The south Fought For Confederate soldier Julius Howell talking about his capture and imprisonment at the Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Md. Howell was born in 1846 near the Holy Neck section of Suffolk, in the Holland area. He was the youngest of 16 children, the son of […]
The American Civil War Part 1 The Union I really enjoyed the article “REBEL GRAY’S GOLDEN DAYS: In 1911, LR filled to the brim with Confederate veterans,” by Jake Sandlin that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 15, 2011. It took 81 years before more people to gather in Little Rock for another event (Bill […]
Ken Burns discusses his Emmy winning series The Civil War – EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG I really enjoyed the article “REBEL GRAY’S GOLDEN DAYS: In 1911, LR filled to the brim with Confederate veterans,” by Jake Sandlin that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 15, 2011. It took 81 years before more people to gather in Little Rock […]
Civil war veteran soldier footage, captured between 1913 and 1938 Civil war veteran soldier footage, captured between 1913 and 1938. Our other greatest generation. God bless both sides of this war who both tested and saved our union. _____________________________________________ I really enjoyed the article “REBEL GRAY’S GOLDEN DAYS: In 1911, LR filled to the brim […]
Highlights of Arkansas’ victory over Auburn. Darren McFadden runs over #2 Auburn.
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This is the second of a two part series on the 2006 Arkansas Razorback football season.
Mississippi State
1
2
3
4
Total
#6 Arkansas
14
7
7
0
28
Mississippi State
7
7
0
0
14
The 6th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks visited the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Scott Field in Starkville, MS. In the first quarter, Mississippi State was threatening to score when Arkansas CB Chris Houston intercepted a pass and returned it 87 yards for a TD. Miss. St. countered with a 65 yard TD run from Anthony Dixon. This made the score 7-7. On the ensuing kickoff, Darren McFadden returned it 92 yards for a TD making the score 14-7. In the second quarter the Bulldogs fought back with a 22 yard TD strike from Michael Henig to Tony Burks. With :41 left in the half, Casey Dick threw a 29 yard TD pass to Damian Williams. The score at the half was 21-14. In the third quarter, Casey Dick threw another TD pass for 35 yards to Marcus Monk. With a scoreless fourth quarter, the final score was 28-14. With this win, Arkansas clinched the SEC Western Division Title.
LSU
1
2
3
4
Total
#8 LSU
7
7
3
14
31
#5 Arkansas
6
6
0
14
26
The 9th ranked LSU Tigers came to Little Rock to visit the 5th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks at War Memorial Stadium. Arkansas scored quickly when Darren McFadden ran in a 1 yard TD run, but Jeremy Davis missed the extra point. LSU stormed back to score on a 29 TD run by Keiland Williams to make the score 7-6. In the second quarter, JaMarcus Russell threw a 47 yard TD pass to Craig Davis. Arkansas came back with a 21 yard TD pass from Casey Dick to Marcus Monk, but failed to score on the two point conversion making the score 14-12 at the half. In the third quarter, Colt David hit a field goal for LSU to make it 17-12. In the fourth, JaMarcus Russell threw a 7 yard TD pass to Early Doucet. On the next Arkansas play, Darren McFadden ran 80 yards for a TD to make the score 24-19. On the ensuing kickoff, Trindon Holliday returned it 92 yards for a TD. With 4:53 left, Felix Jones ran in for a 5 yard TD. LSU held on to win 31-26.
SEC Championship Game – Florida
1
2
3
4
Total
#8 Arkansas
0
7
14
7
28
#4 Florida
3
14
7
14
38
The two divisional champions; the East’s Florida Gators, and the West’s Arkansas Razorbacks, faced off in the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. Florida scored first with a 33 yard field goal from Chris Hetland. In the second quarter Florida’s QB Chris Leak ran 9 yards for a TD to make it 10-0. Chris Leak then threw a 37 yard TD pass to Percy Harvin. Arkansas fought back with a 48 yard TD pass from Casey Dick to Marcus Monk to make the score 17-7 at the half. In the third quarter Arkansas’Darren McFadden threw a 2 yard TD pass to Felix Jones. With 8:33 left in the third, Arkansas’ Antwain Robinson intercepted a pitch from Florida’s Chris Leak and returned it for a TD to make the score 21-17. With 3:47 remaining in the third, Arkansas PR Reggie Fish muffed a punt and the fumble was recovered by Florida’s Wondy Pierre-Louis for a TD making it 24-21. In the fourth, Percy Harvin ran 67 yards for a TD to make the score 31-21. Arkansas came back with a 29 yard TD pass from Cedric Washington to Felix Jones to make the score 31-28. On the next possession, Florida’s Andre Caldwell threw a 5 yard TD pass to Tate Casey. Florida held Arkansas and won the SEC, 38-28.
Capital One Bowl – Wisconsin
1
2
3
4
Total
#13 Arkansas
7
0
0
7
14
#5 Wisconsin
10
7
0
0
17
The 15th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks went to Orlando, Florida to the Capital One Bowl to face the 7th ranked Wisconsin Badgers. Wisconsin struck first by scoring a 52 yard field goal from Taylor Mehlhaff. Arkansas came back and scored on a 76 yard TD run by Felix Jones to make the score 7-3. Wisconsin answered with a 22 yard TD pass from John Stocco to Paul Hubbard. In the second quarter, Wisconsin scored on a 13 yard TD pass from John Stocco to Travis Beckum to make it 17-7 at the half. In the fourth quarter, Felix Jones ran for a 12 yard TD. Wisconsin held on to win the Capital One Bowl 17-14.
Postseason
Though Arkansas had a strong year, turmoil developed on the team. The largest conflict occurred between head coach Houston Nutt and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn over the direction of the offense. Malzahn came to Arkansas in 2006 from Springdale High School with some of his players who had committed to Arkansas, including QB Mitch Mustain and WR Damian Williams. These players felt that Malzahn would be able to implement his spread, no-huddle offense at Arkansas. Over the course of the season, speculation arose that this offense was not being implemented and that Malzahn had less control over the offense than he was promised, claims that Malzahn has not verified publicly.[1] Some of the parents of these players met with Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles in December to question the role of their sons on the team. After the season, Williams and Mustain transferred to Southern California. Malzahn left to be the offensive coordinator at Tulsa and wide receiver Andrew Norman transferred to Tulsa as well.[2]
In the offseason, fans raised questions about Houston Nutt’s handling of recruits, management of the offense, and off-the-field relationships. Certain fans filed Freedom of Information requests for Nutt’s phone records.[3][4] However, a number of fans remained strongly supportive of Nutt. The rift that formed in the fanbase over these issues ultimately contributed to Nutt’s departure after the 2007 regular season, just after the Razorbacks upset the number one team in the nation, [[2007 LSU Tigers football team Tigers |LSU]].
Charles Murray is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He received his B.A. in history at Harvard University and his Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written for numerous newspapers and journals, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, and National Review. His books include Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, What It Means to Be a Libertarian, and Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality. His new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, will be published at the end of January.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 28, 2011, at a conference on “Markets, Government, and the Common Good,” sponsored by Hillsdale College’s Center for the Study of Monetary Systems and Free Enterprise.
THE CASE FOR the Department of Education could rest on one or more of three legs: its constitutional appropriateness, the existence of serious problems in education that could be solved only at the federal level, and/or its track record since it came into being. Let us consider these in order.
(The last two parts were covered earlier.)
(3) So what is the federal government’s track record in education?
The most obvious way to look at the track record is the long-term trend data of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Consider, for instance, the results for the math test for students in fourth, eighth and twelfth grades from 1978 through 2004. The good news is that the scores for fourth graders showed significant improvement in both reading and math—although those gains diminished slightly as the children got older. The bad news is that the baseline year of 1978 represents the nadir of the test score decline from the mid-1960s through the 1970s. Probably we are today about where we were in math achievement in the 1960s. For reading, the story is even bleaker. The small gains among fourth graders diminish by eighth grade and vanish by the twelfth grade. And once again, the baseline tests in the 1970s represent a nadir.
From 1942 through the 1990s, the state of Iowa administered a consistent and comprehensive test to all of its public school students in grade school, middle school, and high school—making it, to my knowledge, the only state in the union to have good longitudinal data that go back that far. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills offers not a sample, but an entire state population of students. What can we learn from a single state? Not much, if we are mainly interested in the education of minorities—Iowa from 1942 through 1970 was 97 percent white, and even in the 2010 census was 91 percent white. But, paradoxically, that racial homogeneity is also an advantage, because it sidesteps all the complications associated with changing ethnic populations.
Since retention through high school has changed greatly over the last 70 years, I will consider here only the data for ninth graders. What the data show is that when the federal government decided to get involved on a large scale in K-12 education in 1965, Iowa’s education had been improving substantially since the first test was administered in 1942. There is reason to think that the same thing had been happening throughout the country. As I documented in my book, Real Education, collateral data from other sources are not as detailed, nor do they go back to the 1940s, but they tell a consistent story. American education had been improving since World War II. Then, when the federal government began to get involved, it got worse.
I will not try to make the case that federal involvement caused the downturn. The effort that went into programs associated with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in the early years was not enough to have changed American education, and the more likely causes for the downturn are the spirit of the 1960s—do your own thing—and the rise of progressive education to dominance over American public education. But this much can certainly be said: The overall data on the performance of American K-12 students give no reason to think that federal involvement, which took the form of the Department of Education after 1979, has been an engine of improvement.
What about the education of the disadvantaged, especially minorities? After all, this was arguably the main reason that the federal government began to get involved in education—to reduce the achievement gap separating poor children and rich children, and especially the gap separating poor black children and the rest of the country.
The most famous part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was Title I, initially authorizing more than a billion dollars annually (equivalent to more than $7 billion today) to upgrade the schools attended by children from low-income families. The program has continued to grow ever since, disposing of about $19 billion in 2010 (No Child Left Behind has also been part of Title I).
Supporters of Title I confidently expected to see progress, and so formal evaluation of Title I was built into the legislation from the beginning. Over the years, the evaluations became progressively more ambitious and more methodologically sophisticated. But while the evaluations have improved, the story they tell has not changed. Despite being conducted by people who wished the program well, no evaluation of Title I from the 1970s onward has found credible evidence of a significant positive impact on student achievement. If one steps back from the formal evaluations and looks at the NAEP test score gap between high-poverty schools (the ones that qualify for Title I support) and low-poverty schools, the implications are worse. A study by the Department of Education published in 2001 revealed that the gap grew rather than diminished from 1986—the earliest year such comparisons have been made—through 1999.
That brings us to No Child Left Behind. Have you noticed that no one talks about No Child Left Behind any more? The explanation is that its one-time advocates are no longer willing to defend it. The nearly-flat NAEP trendlines since 2002 make that much-ballyhooed legislative mandate—a mandate to bring all children to proficiency in math and reading by 2014—too embarrassing to mention.
In summary: the long, intrusive, expensive role of the federal government in K-12 education does not have any credible evidence for a positive effect on American education.
* * *
I have chosen to focus on K-12 because everyone agrees that K-12 education leaves much to be desired in this country and that it is reasonable to hold the government’s feet to the fire when there is no evidence that K-12 education has improved. When we turn to post-secondary education, there is much less agreement on first principles.
The bachelor of arts degree as it has evolved over the last half-century has become the work of the devil. It is now a substantively meaningless piece of paper—genuinely meaningless, if you don’t know where the degree was obtained and what courses were taken. It is expensive, too, as documented by the College Board: Public four-year colleges average about $7,000 per year in tuition, not including transportation, housing, and food. Tuition at the average private four-year college is more than $27,000 per year. And yet the B.A. has become the minimum requirement for getting a job interview for millions of jobs, a cost-free way for employers to screen for a certain amount of IQ and perseverance. Employers seldom even bother to check grades or courses, being able to tell enough about a graduate just by knowing the institution that he or she got into as an 18-year-old.
So what happens when a paper credential is essential for securing a job interview, but that credential can be obtained by taking the easiest courses and doing the minimum amount of work? The result is hundreds of thousands of college students who go to college not to get an education, but to get a piece of paper. When the dean of one East Coast college is asked how many students are in his institution, he likes to answer, “Oh, maybe six or seven.” The situation at his college is not unusual. The degradation of American college education is not a matter of a few parents horrified at stories of silly courses, trivial study requirements, and campus binge drinking. It has been documented in detail, affects a large proportion of the students in colleges, and is a disgrace.
The Department of Education, with decades of student loans and scholarships for university education, has not just been complicit in this evolution of the B.A. It has been its enabler. The size of these programs is immense. In 2010, the federal government issued new loans totaling $125 billion. It handed out more than eight million Pell Grants totaling more than $32 billion dollars. Absent this level of intervention, the last three decades would have seen a much healthier evolution of post-secondary education that focused on concrete job credentials and courses of studies not constricted by the traditional model of the four-year residential college. The absence of this artificial subsidy would also have let market forces hold down costs. Defenders of the Department of Education can unquestionably make the case that its policies have increased the number of people going to four-year residential colleges. But I view that as part of the Department of Education’s indictment, not its defense.
* * *
What other case might be made for federal involvement in education? Its contributions to good educational practice? Think of the good things that have happened to education in the last 30 years—the growth of homeschooling and the invention and spread of charter schools. The Department of Education had nothing to do with either development. Both happened because of the initiatives taken by parents who were disgusted with standard public education and took matters into their own hands. To watch the process by which charter schools are created, against the resistance of school boards and administrators, is to watch the best of American traditions in operation. Government has had nothing to do with it, except as a drag on what citizens are trying to do for their children.
Think of the best books on educational practice, such as Howard Gardner’s many innovative writings and E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Curriculum, developed after his landmark book, Cultural Literacy, was published in 1987. None of this came out of the Department of Education. The Department of Education spends about $200 million a year on research intended to improve educational practice. No evidence exists that these expenditures have done any significant good.
As far as I can determine, the Department of Education has no track record of positive accomplishment—nothing in the national numbers on educational achievement, nothing in the improvement of educational outcomes for the disadvantaged, nothing in the advancement of educational practice. It just spends a lot of money. This brings us to the practical question: If the Department of Education disappeared from next year’s budget, would anyone notice? The only reason that anyone would notice is the money. The nation’s public schools have developed a dependence on the federal infusion of funds. As a practical matter, actually doing away with the Department of Education would involve creating block grants so that school district budgets throughout the nation wouldn’t crater.
Sadly, even that isn’t practical. The education lobby will prevent any serious inroads on the Department of Education for the foreseeable future. But the answer to the question posed in the title of this talk—“Do we need the Department of Education?”—is to me unambiguous: No.
Saving Private Ryan Omaha Beach Full Scene HD Part 1
I have no idea what it was like to take the beach at Omaha. However, of all the movies and films I have seen and history books I have read, the opening clips from the movie “Saving Private Ryan” come closest to the horrible conditions our allied soldiers went up against on that day 68 years ago.
Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the finest half-hours ever committed to film. This sequence, a soldier’s-eye view of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, is brilliant not only in terms of technique but in the depth of viewer reaction it generates. It is certainly the most violent, gory, visceral depiction of war that I have ever witnessed on screen. Spielberg spares the viewer nothing of the horrors of battle, using every tactic at his disposal to convey the chaos and senseless waste that lies at the core of any engagement. We are presented with unforgettable, bloody images of bodies being cut to pieces by bullets, limbs blown off, entrails spilling out, and a variety of other assorted examples of carnage. And, when the tide comes in with the waves breaking on the body-strewn beach, the water is crimson. Those who are at all squeamish will find the opening of Saving Private Ryan unbearable. This aspect of the film almost earned it an NC-17 rating; only the fact that Spielberg rigorously avoids even a hint of exploitation convinced the MPAA to award an R.
In addition to showing what happens when projectiles rip into the soft flesh of the human body, the director employs other methods to capture the essence of battle – hand-held cameras, a slight speeding up of the images, muted colors, and several different kinds of film stock. Put it all together, and it adds up to a dizzying, exhausting assault on the senses. As good as the rest of Saving Private Ryan is, and it’s very good, the D-Day attack on Omaha Beach is the sequence that everyone will remember most clearly.
By dawn on June 6, thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. The amphibious invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture beaches codenamed Gold, Juno and Sword, as did the Americans at Utah Beach. U.S. forces faced heavy resistance at Omaha Beach, where there were over 2,000 American casualties. However, by day’s end, approximately 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches. According to some estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing.
Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy.
For their part, the Germans suffered from confusion in the ranks and the absence of celebrated commander Rommel, who was away on leave. At first, Hitler, believing the invasion was a feint designed to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River, refused to release nearby divisions to join the counterattack. Reinforcements had to be called from further afield, causing delays. He also hesitated in calling for armored divisions to help in the defense. Moreover, the Germans were hampered by effective Allied air support, which took out many key bridges and forced the Germans to take long detours, as well as efficient Allied naval support, which helped protect advancing Allied troops.
In the ensuing weeks, the Allies fought their way across the Normandy countryside in the face of determined German resistance, as well as a dense landscape of marshes and hedgerows. By the end of June, the Allies had seized the vital port of Cherbourg, landed approximately 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy, and were poised to continue their march across France.
Victory in Normandy
By the end of August 1944, the Allies had reached the Seine River, Paris was liberated and the Germans had been removed from northwestern France, effectively concluding the Battle of Normandy. The Allied forces then prepared to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet troops moving in from the east.
The Normandy invasion began to turn the tide against the Nazis. A significant psychological blow, it also prevented Hitler from sending troops from France to build up his Eastern Front against the advancing Soviets. The following spring, on May 8, 1945, the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier, on April 30.
Photo by ROBERT CAPA
An American soldier wades through water under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire to reach the beach on the Normandy coast of France, June 6, 1944. It turned out to be the biggest and most important Allied amphibious operation of World War II. (AP Photo/Files-Wartime Pool/Robert Capa)
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno I saw this amazing interview of Louis Zamperini. He is truly a great American war hero. Book review: ‘Devil at My Heels’ by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin The author, who spent two years during World War II in Japanese POW camps, tells his life story […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
In 1968 I saw the unranked Ole Miss Rebels defeat the #3 ranked Tennessee Vols in Jackson Mississippi at a highly anticipated game where Archie Manning stole the day as the Rebel quarterback. Little did I know that Lester McClain who was the Vols’ first black player in 1968 was on the field and that […]
________________ Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason Francis Schaeffer- How Should We Then Live? -8- The Age of Fragmentation Joseph Rozak· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEmwy_dI2j0 ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________ Miles Davis and Andy below: ______________________ Dali and Warhol below: ________- __________________ Francis Schaeffer with his son Franky pictured below. Francis and Edith (who passed away in 2013) opened L’ Abri in 1955 in Switzerland. How Should […]
_________ John, Yoko and Warhol pictured below: ________________________ The Clash meets Warhol: ______________________ ________________ ________ Andy Warhol and members of The Factory: Gerard Malanga, poet; Viva, actress; Paul Morrissey, director; Taylor Mead, actor; Brigid Polk, actress; Joe Dallesandro, actor; Andy Warhol, artist, New York, October 9, 1969 (picture below) _____________________ Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR […]
Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010 A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008 ______________________ Making Sense of Faith and Science Uploaded on May 16, 2008 Dr. H. Fritz Schaefer confronts the assertion that one cannot believe […]
One of my biggest pro-life heroes in Little Rock is my good friend Dr. Orman Simmons. Dr. Orman Winfield Simmons An obstetrician/gynecologist whose faith guides his practice, Simmons says he has brought several thousand people into this world. By Linda Haymes This article was published June 23, 2013 at 2:55 a.m. There has been one steadfast […]
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I have so much respect for war heroes and I wanted to remember them today which 68 years after D Day. Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans.
Photo by Associated Press
American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied D-Day invasion to chase German forces out of France. An armada of landing vessels sits in the background under barrage balloons. (AP Photo/Wartime Pool)
If you would like to read some great stories about some fine soldiers who fought to defend our country then click on the links below. All the soldiers are from Arkansas and I have been writing their stories for a local paper called “The Benton Courier” (now known as “The Saline Courier”).
Photo by Associated Press
A U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June 6, 1944. These barges ride back and forth across the English Channel, bringing wave after wave of reinforcement troops to the Allied beachheads. (AP Photo)
Story of Joe Speaks:
On Sunday June 27th, 2010 in the article “Heroes among us,” Benton Courier, there was a story about Larry’s father Joe. Here is a portion of that article:
Larry Joe Speaks of Cabot is my wife’s cousin, and recently he told me about his father’s time in World War II. Joe Speaks (originally from Waldron , Ark. ) arrived in Normandy six days after D-Day (June 6, 1944), and he was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and he fought at Bastogne . The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest of the battles that U.S. forces experienced in World War II; the 19,000 American dead were unsurpassed by those of any other engagement.
During one day of intense fighting, Speaks was so focused on shooting and reloading during the heat of the action that he did not realize that his leg had been struck by shrapnel during the battle. As soon as the battle was over, a fellow soldier pointed out that his boot was filled with blood. Speaks said he had not felt a thing.
In another battle, Speaks was on the second floor of a building involved in a machine gun battle with the Germans. Then in the middle of the battle, the soldier in charge of getting the ammunition from downstairs did not return. So Speaks went downstairs to get the ammunition and discovered the Germans were holding everyone at gunpoint. Speaks asked the lieutenant upstairs to come down because the situation was hopeless, but the lieutenant refused.
Then the Germans took their prisoners and backed off some and bombed the building. For the next two weeks, the American prisoners were forced to march back and forth next to that building with the lieutenant’s boot still sticking out of the rumble.
When the Germans were not looking, Speaks and another soldier took off running and escaped. They made it to a farm owned by a German lady, and they made up a story that Hitler had been killed and the lady broke down and cried. She allowed them to stay in the barn until the end of the war.
Joe Speaks passed away on March 1, 1999, at age 73 and was buried in Sheridan . He had received two Purple Hearts, a Silver Cross and a Silver Eagle.
In this June 6, 1944 file photo, while under attack of heavy machine gun fire from the German coastal defense forces, American soldiers wade ashore off the ramp of a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft during the Allied landing operations at the Normandy. (AP Photo)
Picture of Roy after he had recovered at the hospital. Picture of Roy below in the hospital recovering from his injuries followed by a picture of Roy encouraging another soldier who was in the hospital: Below is an article that was published in November of 2010 in the Saline Courier: Saline County War Hero Bryant […]
Okinawa – At the Emperor’s Doorstep” episode from “WWII: GI Diary”….. This old 1978 TV docu-drama was narrated by Lloyd Bridges and told the stories of real soldiers/sailors/pilots and their first-hand experiences in battle. Archival footage and good background music really made the stories come alive…..about 25 episodes were made. Video converted from really old […]
President Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater present the fourth star to General Jimmy Doolittle during a White House ceremony in the Indian Treaty room, OEOB. 6/20/85. I love the movie “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck and it tells the story of Jimmy Doolittle. He was born in 1896 and died in 1993. He is pictured […]
This portion below appeared in an article I did for the Saline Courier about 18 months ago: I went to the First Baptist Church in Little Rock from 1983 to 1997, and during that time I became friends with Walter Dickinson Sr. In fact, we used to attend a weekly luncheon together on Thursdays. Just […]
The Lost Evidence: The Battle Of The Bulge (1/5) This article was published in the Saline Courier about 18 months ago: When we celebrate July 4th we are focusing on the freedoms that so many soldiers have fought for over the last 234 years. That focus has been highlighted for me since my son Hunter […]
This is taken from an article that appeared in the Saline Courier about a year ago: Bravery is not just limited to one generation, but Americans have had it in every generation. It makes me think about those who are currently serving in our military. Jon Chris Roberts who is graduate of Benton High […]
I was born in Tennessee and everyone in Tennessee knows the name of Alvin York. Above is a clip about his accomplishments in War World I. Cara Gist of Shannon Hills tells me that her grandfather Herbert S. Apple of Salado, Arkansas (near Batesville) fought in World War I. He served in France and fought […]
My longtime friend Craig Carney is originally from Jacksonville, and he told me a couple of years ago about a friend of his parents from Jacksonville, Arkansas named Silas Legrow. Legrow was going to speak at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History on April 17, 2008 about his experience in the March of 1942 when […]
The Background Facts of The Black Hawk Down (1/7) Uploaded by WarDocumentary on Feb 14, 2011 The movie Black Hawk Down was based on an actual event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. This documentary explains the event. _______________________________ On October 3, 2003 my son played quarterback at the Arkansas Baptist High School Football game […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Part 1 – HD Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 2 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 3 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the […]
German prisoners of war are led away by Allied forces from Utah Beach, on June 6, 1944, during landing operations at the Normandy coast, France. (AP Photo)
Photo by Associated Press
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower visits paratroopers, including Bill Hayes, at center behind Ike’s right hand, in England on June 5, 1944, moments before the troops boarded transport planes bound for Normandy and the June 6 D-Day invasion. Hayes, who now lives in Fargo, N.D., recalls how he told Eisenhower that he was “damned scared” before the mission, his first combat jump of the war. This photo became a pre-invasion classic and continues to bring Hayes a measure of celebrity. (AP Photo/File)
Photo by Associated Press
This was the scene along a section of Omaha Beach in June, 1944 during Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy invasion during World War II. Large landing craft put troops and supplies on shore at Omaha, one of five invasion beaches. In background is part of the fleet of 2,727 ships that brought the allied troops from Britain. In the air are barrage balloons, designed to entangle low-flying attack aircraft in their cables. (AP Photo/files)
Photo by Associated Press
Members of an American landing unit help their exhausted comrades ashore during the Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944. The men reached the zone code-named Utah Beach, near Sainte Mere Eglise, on a life raft after their landing craft was hit and sunk by German coastal defenses. (AP Photo)
Photo by U.S. Air Force
U.S. Air Force photograph of P-38′s streaking towards France on D-Day.
Photo by Associated Press
Men of the American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming a coastal area code-named Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of the Normandy, wait by the chalk cliffs at Collville-sur-Mer for evacuation to a field hospital for further treatment, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
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Louis ZamperiniMr. Zamperini with mother at homecoming, 1945
The Daily Hatch 