‘Other Unruly Acts’ in Killadelphia
Posted on | June 9, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Other Unruly Acts’ in Killadelphia
SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) is the public transportation system in Philadelphia and the resemblance of the acronym to septic is merely coincidental, but given the unhealthy conditions on SEPTA trains and buses — reeking of urine, etc. — it is an appropriate coincidence. In addition to the homeless drug addicts who plague the SEPTA system, there’s also the hazard of occasional gunfire. Police in Philadelphia are still seeking a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old high school student on a SEPTA bus last month, an incident which should not be confused with the fatal shooting on a 14-year-old student on a SEPTA train platform last month.
Dana Pico asks: “As cities lose control of crime, how can anyone view public transportation as a solution to anything?” And of course, the answer is — liberalism, which causes people to view all kinds of things in an irrational way. Dana fisks a lengthy article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the spiraling chaos afflicting the SEPTA system.
If there is a Pulitzer Prize for excellence in the use of euphemism, the Inquirer is making a strong bid to win it.
Recent high-profile shootings in and around SEPTA stations in Philadelphia reflect an alarming increase in violence . . .
However, the types of crime passengers are most likely to encounter on SEPTA are smoking, turnstile-jumping, public urination, and other unruly acts. SEPTA is struggling to manage the incidents.
These are not violent crimes but antisocial behaviors that make many people feel unsafe on the subway and El lines, according to interviews with multiple riders.
You see? It’s not really dangerous to ride on a train with criminals and dopeheads, the Inquirer wants its readers to believe. No, the problem is not the “unruly acts,” but rather that “many people feel unsafe.”
The Inquirer is engaged in promoting the idea that the real problem is not the “antisocial behaviors,” but rather the feelings of “many people” about SEPTA. And never mind those teenagers getting shot to death.
“People experiencing homelessness” is one of the artful euphemisms in the Inquirer article, and you can read the whole thing and find your favorite evasive phrases, but how about this social-justice sermon?
The social problems plaguing SEPTA and other transit agencies raise hard questions about justice and equity in a nation whose institutions have proved unable or unwilling to spend the vast sums that would be required to make serious progress against housing insecurity, emotional and mental health issues, and substance-abuse disorders.
Oh, we could “make serious progress” against these “social problems,” if only we were willing and able to “spend the vast sums”! So your teenager got shot on the bus, and there’s a junkie nodding off on the train in a puddle of his own urine, and why? Because you’re a cheapskate, who doesn’t want to spend “vast sums . . to make serious progress.”
Liberals may actually believe nonsense like that, but why must the rest of us be forced to live with the consequences of their folly?
In The Mailbox: 06.08.23
Posted on | June 9, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.08.23
— compiled by Wombat-socho
OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Astrud Gilberto, RIP, also, Chris Licht Fired At CNN
Twitchy: Jonathan Turley Reminds Gov. Hairgel He Sent Invitations To Migrate To California, also, Randi Weingarten Claims Climate Change Is Real But Her Photo Is Fake
Louder With Crowder: It’s done: Bud Light has been dethroned, no longer the #1 beer in America, Christian man arrested for not letting LGBTQ “have their day” and reading a Bible quote, and Kansas City Chiefs player trolls Joe Biden with pro-life message during White House ceremony
Vox Popoli: Nothing Works Anymore: German Edition, The PGA Surrenders, It’s Not the Taxes, and Ghost Town San Francisco
Gab News: Become A Gab Shareholder
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ at Thirty, also, Tools for Enslavement
American Greatness: Comer: FBI has Harbored Biden Bribery Allegations Since 2017, SPLC Labels Parental Rights Advocates as ‘Hate and Anti-Government Groups’, House Oversight Committee Releases Resolution to Hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in Contempt of Congress, and Matt Gaetz Introduces Resolution to Censure January 6th Committee Chair Bennie Thompson Over Mishandled Files
American Thinker: Baby Muhammads Overrun the West
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: A look at elections in Mexico and Spain with Allan Wall, When the State steals baseball, and Reports from Cuba: Thefts of meat, rice, and other foods multiplying in Cuba
BattleSwarm: Ukraine To Get F/A-18s?
Behind The Black: NASA names winners in annual student rocket competition, OneWeb offers its satellite constellation broadband service to the maritime industry, Firefly delays NASA launch to August, Astronomers downsize their proposal for rebuilding Arecibo, and Who blew up the dam in the Ukraine?
Cafe Hayek: Socialism Is Bad For the Environment
CDR Salamander: 21st Century Jeep Carrier – But Faster And For UAS
Da Tech Guy: Don Surber Makes the Case for Christ Without Realizing it
Dana Loesch: Minecraft Apparently Banning Guns In Custom Servers
Don Surber: Springtime For Hitler & Ukraine-ee
First Street Journal: As cities lose control of crime, how can anyone view public transportation as a solution to anything?
Gates Of Vienna: Migrants in Lyon Are a Moveable Feast, Joran van der Sloot is Coming to the USA, Greater Idaho Picks Up Steam, BR-R-R-R-R-R! (Again), and My Big Fat Syrian Wedding
The Geller Report: Owner of Two of San Francisco’s Largest Hotels Halts Mortgage Payments, Abandons City Due to Crime
Glenn Reynolds: Aliens!
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, A Deep Dive, and Rebekah Jones Pleads No Contest
Hollywood In Toto: Will More Classic Films Get the French Connection Treatment?, When Film Critics Actually Defended Free Speech, Air Shows Sneaker that Brought Racial Harmony to America, and Human Centipede Director Slams French Connection Censorship
The Lid: Could An Arab Oil Sheik Peddling UN Green Schemes Be Less Credible Than John Durham?
Legal Insurrection: Former U. Penn Swimmer Claims School Gave Girls No Choice About Competing With Trans Student Lia Thomas, New Salary Rules Jeopardize California’s Wildfire-Preventing Goat Herding Industry, Southern Poverty Law Center Designates Parental Rights Groups as Extremists, 1619 Project Education Network Releases ‘Reparations Math’ Curriculum for High Schools, and Leftist Agitators Attack Armenian Parents Protesting “LGBTQ+” Activities in Glendale, CA Schools
Nebraska Energy Observer: From the Comments: Reparations
Outkick: No, Dan Le Batard, NBA Media Rejects Nikola Jokic More For His Whiteness Than Nationality: Bobby Burack, Nick Chubb Says He’s Playing For Jim Brown This Season, Iron Sheik Dead At 81, And Tributes Pour In On Twitter Where Wrestler Was Also A Legend, Could Phantom Saints WR Michael Thomas Really Be Back, Finally? Or Was He Invaded By The Body Snatchers?, and LSU’s Paul Skenes Is One Of Best MLB Pitching Prospects In Decades, But He Wanted To Fly F-16s And Still May
Power Line: Let’s Not Go All X-Files Just Yet, Here’s Why the Candidacy of Far Left Cornel West Matters, and Thought for the Day: Foucault (!!) on the Left’s Racism
Shark Tank: Freedom Caucus Blocks Bills From House Floor
Shot In The Dark: With A Whimper, also, Better Late Than Never
STUMP: Sunday Sumo: Congrats to New Ozeki Kirishima!
The Political Hat: The Inevitable Overreach Of Social Conservatives
This Ain’t Hell: Rainbow LGBTQ flag flown over veteran facilities, also, Serbia: The New Face of Gun Control
Transterrestrial Musings: Above The Law
Victory Girls: SPLC: Parents Rights Groups Are Worse Than The KKK
Volokh Conspiracy: Women-Only Naked Spa Lacks Constitutional Right to Exclude Transgender Patrons with Pensises, also, Court Preliminarily Enjoins Minority Business Development Agency Race- and Ethnicity-Based Funding
Watts Up With That: ‘Only one sausage per month for everyone!’ , also, Media Wrong Again about Quebec wildfires
Weasel Zippers: Man To Compete In Miss California Pageant, Schumer Blames Canadian Wildfires On Climate Change, and Dem Rep. Cori Bush: GOP Election Integrity Proposals “Carrying On The Legacy Of Slavery And Jim Crow”
The Federalist: House Republicans Shine A Light On Foreign Interference In D.C. Elections, Don’t Kill Your Child’s Love Of The Rainbow Just Because ‘Pride’ Perveyors Co-Opted It, Chris Licht’s Biggest Mistake At CNN Was Being Hopelessly Naive About CNN, EXCLUSIVE: Bill Barr Confirms Rep. Jamie Raskin Lied About Biden Family Corruption Investigation, and House Republicans Probe Interior Secretary Deb Haaland For Conflicts Of Interest
BREAKING: Trump Indicted
Posted on | June 8, 2023 | Comments Off on BREAKING: Trump Indicted
by Smitty
More at TownHall
I’ll Take ‘Symptomatic Evidence of Demonic Possession’ for $400, Alex
Posted on | June 8, 2023 | Comments Off on I’ll Take ‘Symptomatic Evidence of Demonic Possession’ for $400, Alex
Powerful urges to engage in self-destructive violence? Hearing voices in your head? Yep, sounds like satanic spirits are at work:
Elliot Page — the transgender Hollywood star formerly known as Ellen Page — has revealed that she was on a zoom call with a doctor to schedule transgender surgery “within weeks” of hearing voices in her head and engaging in a brutal round of self-mutilation, including punching herself in the face.
The “top surgery” to remove her breasts took place in November 2020. The following month, she announced to the world that she had become “Elliot.”
All in all, it appears that it took Page less than a year from when she decided she was transgender to the actual surgery. Page made the revelations in an interview published Thursday in the Los Angeles Times in which she said the voices in her head told her she was transgender.
The mental episode took place in 2020 while Page was in COVID isolation in a cabin in Nova Scotia following her recent breakup with her wife.
First, Page attempted to physically knock herself out by punching herself repeatedly in the face until bruises formed. Then she heard voices.
“You don’t have to feel this way,” Page said the voice told her.
“It was as if something in my brain turned around,” the actress continued. “The agonizing voice saying, ‘No, you’re not,’ ‘No, you can’t’ just switched and became very gentle and loving. ‘Oh, maybe I’m trans. Why don’t I explore that?’”
Within weeks, Page had scheduled a Zoom consultation with a doctor to discuss top surgery, the Times reported.
Father Lankester Merrin could not be reached for comment.
What Counts as ‘Hate’?
Posted on | June 8, 2023 | Comments Off on What Counts as ‘Hate’?
Being identified as a figure of “hate” by the Southern Poverty Law Center has long been part of my personal legend. Those of you old enough to remember when Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs was a popular conservative blogger — really, I’m not making this up — will also remember how, in September 2009, CJ pounced on me as an alleged “white supremacist,” relying on material from the SPLC.
To briefly summarize that conflict: I won, and CJ lost his mind.
Being the target of such an attempted character assassination is not an experience I’d recommend to anyone, but if you survive such an attempt, you become a hero to those who are sick and tired of the encroaching Thought Police regime that the SPLC represents. And nowadays, more and more people are becoming sick and tired:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that frequently lists mainstream conservatives alongside hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, has placed Moms for Liberty and other parental rights group on its “hate map” for being “antigovernment extremist groups.”
Florida-based Moms for Liberty was added to SPLC’s hate map along with 11 other parental rights groups, including several Virginia-based groups, according to the organization’s annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report.
The inclusion of these 12 parental rights groups brings the SPLC’s total number of hate and antigovernment extremist groups to 1,225 organizations. Of those, 523 were “hate groups,” and 702 were deemed “antigovernment extremist groups,” which the parental rights groups fell under.
“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s report claims.
“These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the report continued. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”
The SPLC claimed Moms for Liberty is at the “forefront of this mobilization,” and noted, “They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, ‘We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.’”
It’s possible — indeed, it seems likely — that the SPLC staff are too stupid to see that they are causing the “extremism” they profess to oppose. That is to say, by continually expanding the definition of “hate” and “extremism,” and by encouraging censorship and suppression of anyone who dissents from their liberal agenda, the SPLC compels people with more or less mainstream beliefs to engage in the kind of activism practiced by Moms for Liberty. Furthermore (and, again, I think SPLC staff are too stupid to grasp this), by denoting mainstream groups as proponents of “hate,” the SPLC undermines its own credibility and causes people who are not remotely “extremist” to question the whole rationale of this type of “hate”-hunting enterprise. Like, why should we even care if someone is prejudiced against gay people or black people or Jews or whatever? So long as they are not engaged in any actual criminal behavior, or advocating violence against others, people are free to form their own opinions. This whole business of “exposing” people as holding allegedly dangerous beliefs — which is to say, acting as Thought Police — is antithetical to liberty. And I think more Americans are beginning to reject the type of Thought Police agenda that SPLC pursues.
As for the alleged “anti-government extremist” group Moms for Liberty, they seem grateful to the SPLC for the free publicity.
If @Moms4Liberty is a “hate group,” add me to the list. pic.twitter.com/kxK8PtwGso
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 8, 2023
“The Southern Poverty Law Center is going on offense and they’ve decided to target Moms for Liberty,” @SenTedCruz said on his podcast Wednesday. “Let me say Moms for Liberty, they are phenomenal women—they are moms who are standing up for their kids.”
— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) June 8, 2023
According to the SPLC, @Moms4Liberty is an “anti-government” hate group.
This is absurd. Parents have every right to defend themselves and protect their children from liberal indoctrination in schools.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 7, 2023
Cofounder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich @TinaDescovich responds to SPLC labeling @moms4liberty as “extremists”: “It’s a bunch of nonsense.” pic.twitter.com/9lcwvNlzFC
— Human Events (@HumanEvents) June 7, 2023
Cue the ‘Paw Patrol’ Theme Again
Posted on | June 7, 2023 | Comments Off on Cue the ‘Paw Patrol’ Theme Again
The laughingstock of the cable news industry is once again the butt of the joke, as CNN fires their CEO Chris Licht after just a year:
CNN Chairman Chris Licht has been fired, according to sources at the network. Licht’s tumultuous, year-long tenure was marked by controversy after controversy as he tried to make the network more “middle of the road” in its outlook.
But Licht was handicapped by one, significant roadblock: he had no idea what “middle of the road” meant.
Licht didn’t necessarily want to emulate Fox News as much as he wanted to de-radicalize CNN. The pushback was enormous. His firing of long-time employees like Don Lemon — the farthest left news personality on the network — set off a mini-revolt among the hard left staffers who didn’t like the idea of CNN going soft on the enemy. And his decision to give Donald Trump a town hall platform caused left-wing heads to explode all across America.
The former producer for Stephen Colbert’s top-rated late-night show angered employees right off the bat when he made the decision to cancel CNN’s nascent streaming service, CNN+. The company took a $1.5 billion write-down, and the failure of CNN+ will likely go down as one of the most spectacular collapses in TV history. Despite a $300 million ad campaign, no more than 10,000 people were watching it at any one time.
David Zaslav, the chief executive of CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, informed CNN staff. “For a number of reasons, things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate,” Mr. Zaslav said, according to a recording of his remarks. “It’s really unfortunate, and ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
“Things didn’t work out” — to put it as mildly as possible. As bad as CNN already was, somehow Licht managed to make it even worse. Did I mention they keep losing to Paw Patrol in the cable ratings?
Ace of Spades points out that liberals (including CNN staffers) are trying to pretend that Licht is to blame for CNN’s decline when, in point of fact, they’ve been more or less permanently stuck in third place (behind Fox and MSNBC) for at least 15 years. Licht was brought in to try to fix the network’s problems, and his firing is evidence that CNN’s problems are beyond repair. Better to shut it down than to keep wasting money in a futile effort to salvage a fundamentally broken institution.
In The Mailbox: 06.07.23 (Afternoon Edition)
Posted on | June 7, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.07.23 (Afternoon Edition)
— compiled by Wombat-socho
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Bud Light Kerfluffle – Month Three
EBL: 6 June 1944: D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France
Twitchy: Florida Historian Claims Casey DeSantis’ Gator Jacket Is Racist, also, Antifa No Match For Pissed-Off Parents In Deep Blue Cali Fighting School Board’s Queer Agenda
Louder With Crowder: Anonymous Lia Thomas teammate from “What is a Woman” goes public with stunning new details, also, Target gets smacked with another downgrade as new details of their political agenda reveal it’s not just about “pride”
Vox Popoli: It’s Afraid, Showtime, The Rape Factories, and Omitting the Obvious
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Sodomites aren’t alone in sins against Procreation
American Conservative: The Great Carbon Capture Scam
American Greatness: J6 Defendant on Ray Epps: ‘They Are Protecting Him Like Crazy’, also, Congresswoman: FBI ‘Afraid’ Informant Could be Killed over Information He has on Biden Family
American Thinker: It’s Not Reparations Being Demanded; It’s Something Quite Different, also, D-Day, History, and Memory
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Cocaine Hippo News
Babalu Blog: Reports from Cuba: Three dissidents who called a press conference arrested in Cuba, Economic engagement with Cuba takes precedence over human rights for EU High Representative, and Cuban Prime Minister Marrero in Moscow to speed up Russian takeover of Cuba
Behind The Black: Russia to launch Luna-25 on August 11, 2023, NASA: Psyche asteroid mission now targeting October ’23 launch, Tianzhou unmanned freighter completes month-long free flight, re-docks with Tiangong-3, and The explanation as to why Democrats today are fearless in proposing insane policies
CDR Salamander: Dambusting On The Dnipro
Chicago Boyz: From Sacrificing FOR Freedom to Choosing the Sacrifice OF Freedom
Da Tech Guy: This deadly day in history, also, Under the Fedora: Felton on D-Day+79, Haiti the future of Chicago et/al, Loomer finds spare time, Stacy on coked up Elementary principal and Dallas answers Pride flag questions.
Dana Loesch: They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore, also, RFK Jr. Isn’t Exactly A Political Ally
Don Surber: Be The Fascist They Say You Are
First Street Journal: Killadelphia: Inquirer columnist Helen Ubiñas begins with the truth, but then has to tell a huge lie to fit the newspaper’s requirements
Gates Of Vienna: Flying in the Culture-Enrichers, also, Passports For Deviants in the EU
The Geller Report: “Human Rights” Campaign Declares a National State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ People, Target Funding Woke Group That Wants Mount Rushmore Shut Down, and Norway Bans Child Sex Mutilations (Gender-Affirming Surgery), joins Finland, Sweden, and UK in Rejecting Gender Ideology
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Simulation: A Disc Galaxy Forms, Extra Deep, and I’m So Old
Hollywood In Toto: The Best Shows of 2023 (So Far), Flamin’ Hot Burns with Humor, Heart and a Dubious Narrative, Civilization in the Danger Zone Offers Bleak Peek at America’s Future, and What Is a Woman? Director Shares Film’s Biggest Strength
The Lid: Biden Corrupts U.S. Marines with Radical, Racist DEI Training Instead of Military Tactics
Legal Insurrection: Ukraine Dam Damaged, Towns and Villages Already Underwater, Human Rights Campaign Declares State of Emergency Over Treatment of LGBT Community, University of Buffalo Sued for Revoking Recognition of Young Americans for Freedom, Former Harvard Prof Cornel West Running For President, May Pose Spoiler Threat To Democrats, and DOD Cancels On-Base Drag Shows – Leftist Outrage Noticeably Missing
Nebraska Energy Observer: Robert Woodson
Outkick: ‘One Of Saddest Days In History of Professional Golf’, TCU Fans Rally To Support Indiana State, Special Olympics After NCAA Super Regional Site Switch, Donald Trump Perfectly Predicted PGA Tour-LIV Golf Merger, Olivia Dunne Does The Splits In A Fashion That Would Hospitalize Most People, and Clay Travis: LIV-PGA Merger Is Monster Win For Golfers Who Left Tour, Bad Loss For Saudi-Obsessed Media
Power Line: CNN ratings update, San Francisco’s ‘Doom Loop’ Has Accelerated, and Angels of Omaha
Shark Tank: DeSantis Deployment of Florida LE & Military To Texas Border Is Paying Off
Shot In The Dark: Urban Progressive Privilege – This Is Today’s MNDFL, Discretion, and Mojo Nixon Nailed It
STUMP: STUMP Orientation: Death, Taxes, DataViz and Sumo!
The Political Hat: Fighting Mandatory DEI Support in California
This Ain’t Hell: Tuesday – Asked and Answered, also, Milley Receives France’s Highest End-of-Tour Medal
Transterrestrial Musings: Light Posting
Victory Girls: New CDC Choice Is Big Fan Of Mandates And Lockdowns
Volokh Conspiracy: An Un-Bearable Fourth Amendment/Property Rights Case
Watts Up With That: Coal: The Missing Link, also, NOAA proposes massively cruel offshore sonar survey
Weasel Zippers: Hakeem Jeffries Can’t Stop Gushing Over Biden, A Confused Biden Gets Handed Kansas City Chiefs Jersey, Immediately Asks, “What Am I Doing?”, FBI Refuses To Hand Over Biden Bribery Docs To House Oversight Committee, and WH “Not Gonna Comment” On Questions If Biden Will Make It Through Another Full Term
The Federalist: Abortion Facility Closes In Indiana As AG Pursues Abortionists’ Medical Licenses, Disney Proves DeSantis’ Point By Going After Military Guests, The Air Force Is Using Taxpayer Money To Fly Service Members To Branch ‘Pride’ Events, Splitting The China-Russia Axis Starts With A Negotiated Settlement In Ukraine, and Biden’s Declining Mental Acuity Is A Big Welcome Mat To Red China’s Aggression
Mark Steyn: Steyn Sues the UK Censor Ofcom
D-Day: ‘The Blessing of Almighty God’
Posted on | June 6, 2023 | Comments Off on D-Day: ‘The Blessing of Almighty God’
“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. … I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 6, 1944
The U.S. forces in Operation Overlord did not keep a day-by-day casualty count — which would have been an impossible task, given the circumstances — but research indicates “there were about 1,465 American deaths, 3,184 wounded, [and] 1,928 missing” on D-Day itself. Most of the combat deaths occurred on Omaha Beach, where the Americans had the misfortune of encountering part of the German 352nd Infantry Division, which had several well-sited machine-gun emplacements on high ground that put the beach under a deadly crossfire that pinned down the first two waves of troops that landed.
Because of the rough seas, many troops on Omaha came ashore hundreds of yards from their intended objectives. Many landing craft were swamped in the choppy surf, and the majority of the amphibious tanks assigned to Omaha sank before reaching the beach. Of the nine infantry companies in the first wave, only one (Company L, 16th Regimental Combat Team, 1st Division) landed in such a way as to enable the whole company “to operate as a unit. All the other companies were, at best, disorganized, mostly leaderless and pinned down . . . with no hope of carrying out their assault missions.” The first wave hit the beach shortly after 6 a.m., and at 7 a.m., the second wave came ashore:
The survivors of the first wave were unable to provide effective covering fire, and in places the fresh landing troops suffered casualty rates as high as those of the first wave. Failure to clear paths through the beach obstacles also added to the difficulties of the second wave. In addition, the incoming tide was beginning to hide the remaining obstacles, causing high attrition among the landing craft before they had reached the shore. As in the initial landings, difficult navigation caused disruptive mislandings, scattering the infantry and separating vital headquarters elements from their units.
For nearly an hour, which must have seemed an eternity for the GIs pinned down on Omaha, there was little progress. Finally, about 7:50 a.m., led by 29th Division assistant commander Brig. Gen. Norman “Dutch” Cota, the Americans made their first breakthrough. About 8:15, Col. George Taylor of the 16th Regimental Combat Team landed and famously declared: “Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die — now let’s get the hell out of here!” Taylor organized the survivors and led them inland, and by 9:30, after more than three hours of fighting, Omaha had been secured.
The best history of D-Day remains Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day, which was of course made into a major motion picture with an all-star cast including John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Vandervoort of the 82nd Airborne Division and Robert Mitchum as Norman Cota.