I’ve seen a few funny things in my life, but very few as funny as this. Setup: a citizen is gassing up at the fuel pump, whereupon three choirboys swoop in for purposes of larceny. Now go and watch what happens next. (Try not to giggle like a schoolgirl, as I did.)
Category: Heroism
My Kinda Guy
So Prince Philip has passed away at age 99. Here’s how I prefer to remember him:
And there’s more, much more… never mind all the stuff he did before he married Elizabeth.
R.I.P.
Maniac
The above word being used in its most positive sense, that is, when describing a British Army officer who fought the whole of World War II with a broadsword and longbow as his personal weapons (!!!). (Also a set of bagpipes, but let’s not go there. He wasn’t even Scottish.)
Here’s “Mad Jack” Churchill’s story (watch the video first), and his boring Wikipedia entry. “War hero” doesn’t even begin to describe a man who was decorated four times for bravery under fire. He should have got the V.C. and probably would have, except that the world ran out of wars for him to fight.
Read and watch it all.
And Yet Again
As I’ve said in the past, here and here, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet was a conundrum. Others, it seems, are even more positive than I am:
Almost nobody is more reviled by the international intelligentsia and media than the late Augusto Pinochet, the late 20th -century Chilean dictator. He holds a prominent position in the political left’s “rogues’ gallery” comprised of those who stood in opposition to their goals.
His supposed “crimes” included conducting a military coup to illegitimately grab control of the Chilean government from a popularly elected president, rounding up and torturing huge numbers of innocent citizens (killing as many as 80,000 in the process) and corruptly stealing vast sums of money while ruling as a dictator.
But many of those claims are either false or exaggerated — most credible estimates of those killed are below 5,000 — or they must be viewed in context. More important, if we raise the examination of Pinochet from the bitter soil of leftist ressentiment to the question of human flourishing, he appears as one of recent history’s shining lights.
Read the whole thing — and my earlier posts on the topic too, if you haven’t seen them before.
I will never forget two things about my visit to Chile: the sight of old women placing flowers on the sidewalk outside Pinochet’s modest private home (now a museum) in Valparaiso, and at a formal dinner one night, one of the toasts was: “To General Augusto Pinochet, savior of Chile.”
It was delivered without irony, well received and supported by all the guests, and even more telling, it was said in English — no doubt for our benefit, and to make a point.
Interesting stuff.
Remembering
As always, for my Oupa Charles, who somehow survived the Somme in 1916.
Finally, to bring things a little more up to date:
Friday Night Movies
Watch Jeremy Clarkson’s show about the Victoria Cross: where it comes from, how it’s made and who makes them, and who deserved to win them.
The sting will come in the tail.
Then watch the sorta-sequel, of the greatest raid of all.
We are not worthy of men such as these.