The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 12.19.22

Posted on | December 20, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.19.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Public education.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Hollywood Getting Woke & Becoming Irrelevant
EBL:  Black Adam, Musk Done At Twitter? and So how is the Avatar sequel doing at the box office?
Twitchy: Here’s the reason liberal women walk with such swag & confidence
Louder With Crowder: Taylor Lorenz got herself suspended by Twitter. No one knows why and we’re all laughing too hard to care, Jeffrey Epstein victim claims to have sex tapes he made of certain  friends with underage girls, and James Cameron doesn’t understand why there isn’t an empowering female warrior who is six months pregnant
Vox Popoli: A Ticket-Taker’s Holiday, The Economics of Clown World, 2-2 (4-2), and Black Magick War

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Is This Winning?, also, Why You Should Go To Church This Christmas Sunday
American Greatness: 10 Steps to Save America, Only Ron DeSantis Can Win in 2024, and The EV Zero Emissions Scam
American Thinker: Why Are Communists Determined to Destroy the US?, Deep State Suspicions, and It’s ‘Trump Will Never Be President’ All Over Again
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuba went from the world’s tallest Christmas tree in 1957 to banning Christmas a decade later, With Cuba’s labor force decimated by mass exodus, dictatorship looks to enforce ‘anti-laziness law’, Despite food and medicine shortages, Cuba’s dictatorship keeps building more apartheid hotels, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Communist: Wife of Cuba’s sock puppet president wears $6,300 Cartier watch
Baldilocks: Who Runs Things?
BattleSwarm: Peru’s New President Is On Team Riot, also, Two Juicy EU Scandals Bubble Up
Behind The Black: SpaceX completes third launch in less than two days, L3Harris to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion, Could the Apollo 11 lunar module still be orbiting the Moon?, and Today’s blacklisted American: Law firm fires lawyer of 44 years for expressing the wrong opinion
Cafe Hayek: History “Disprivileges” This Person’s Understanding, Vernon Smith on the Fall of Nature, Getting Adam Smith Right, and Vernon Smith on Adam Smith (and on Adam Smith’s Interpreters)
CDR Salamander: Cyber Lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian War with Shashank Josi – on Midrats, also, “Support You and Your Family” – Really?
Chicago Boyz: Monastic Technology, 2022, also, Christmas Story
Da Tech Guy: Virginia finally bans TikTok, Very Quick Under the Fedora Thoughts, I’m going to reserve judgement on the Vatican’s Move on Fr, Pavone for now, and Hope for the future: Lightfoot badly trails in first poll of 2023 Chicago mayoral race
Don Surber: The Dummy Who Invented The Artificial Heart, We are letting weirdos run things, Praising Garland for ignoring a law Biden co-wrote, I paused Google Ads, and Germans screwing up NATO
First Street Journal: Kara Alaimo exercised her #FreedomOfSpeech and CNN’s #FreedomOfThePress to decry conservatives’ Freedom of Speech and of the Press, Philadelphian Amanda Marcotte is very, very upset that 35 transgender people have been murdered this year, but doesn’t care about 496 killings in her home town, and Killadelphia: the city is tied for third place all time in murders, with 13 days left in the year
Gates Of Vienna: Buyer’s Remorse About the Vax, A Nation of Snitches, Enricher vs. Enricher in Montpellier, and Germans Must Prepare to Shiver in the Dark
The Geller Report: FDA Now Says Pfizer’s COVID-19 VACCINE Linked to Blood Clotting, Arizona Judge Approves Kari Lake Request to Examine Ballots, Freed J6 Political Prisoner, Former West Virginia Delegate Denounces Kevin McCarthy, and FBI Had 80 Agents Monitor Joke and Satire Accounts To Silence Conservatives
Hogewash: Dihydrogen Monoxide in Space, M47, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Barbie Woke Propaganda Push Already Under Way?, The 20 Best TV Shows of 2022, and Here’s What You Missed About the Overrated Bodies Bodies Bodies
The Lid: Differences Between Christmas And Hanukkah (With Tongue Firmly In Cheek), also, Biden Making U.S. Citizenship Test Easier so Dumber Foreigners Can Feel Included
Legal Insurrection: Some Democrats Resisting Party’s Plan to Hold South Carolina Primary First, Europe Cools Toward ESG in Light of Energy Realities, University of Richmond Receives $625K Grant to Advance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Washington U. Med School Lecturer Warns Students Not to Debate Her on CRT or ‘Systemic Oppression’, and Ethnic Fraudster Sen. Elizabeth Warren Pressures Elon Musk Over Twitter By Bullying Tesla Board
Nebraska Energy Observer: Change is good, also, Advent IV: Love
Outkick: Topless Argentina World Cup Flashers Are Alive & Not In Jail!, Patriots Lose Game On One Of The Most Boneheaded Plays Of All-Time By Jakobi Meyers, Brittany Mahomes Calls Out NFL After Husband Gets Rocked On Violent Sack, Roger Goodell Causes Widespread Confusion By Showing Up At HBCU National Championship To Support Nephew, and College Football Playoff Game Played In Snowy Weather So Cold It Caused Beer To Explode
Power Line: Sunday morning coming down, Notes on the Twitter Files, cont’d, and Earth to Joe Biden
Protein Wisdom Reborn: The Noxious Racism Of “Disparate Impact”, also, I Am Woman, Hear Me Giggle & Scree
Shark Tank: Rep. Scott Franklin (R-FL15) Explains GOP Opposition To Puerto Rico Status Act
Shot In The Dark: Mission Creepy, also, Vibrant! Vibraaaant! VIBRAAAAAAAANT!
STUMP: Geeking Out: What Does COVID Vaccination Status Have to Do With Motor Vehicle Accident Risk?
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2022 (Day 5), (Day6), and (Day7)
This Ain’t Hell: Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa….bbrrrrrrttt, Potential changes to Arlington National Cemetery burial eligibility could disqualify most, Russian soldier describes the Ukraine War as “destruction of the Russian people”, Map and compass. Wha…?, and Uncle Frank Biden’s Purple Heart
Transterrestrial Musings: Anthropology, also, Leftist Journalists
Victory Girls: Sam Brinton Is In Your Schools, Vatican Defrocks Pro Life Priest Frank Pavone, and “Defeated” Border Patrol Braces For Next Wave, SCOTUS Issues Reprieve
Volokh Conspiracy: Happy Saturnalia!
Watts Up With That: Germany’s Gas Reserves “Emptying at Record Speed” As Country Struggles to Keep Warm, Lights On, How Michelin Covered Up Industrial Deforestation by its Indonesian Partner in “Eco-Friendly” Rubber Venture, and No evidence for BBC claim that Churchill is simply getting too warm for polar bears
Weasel Zippers: Biden Says After He Was Elected VP (In 2008) He Awarded Uncle (Who Died In 1999) A Purple Heart, Top Biden Advisor Can’t Explain Why Biden Refuses To Visit Southern Border, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH): “I Don’t Hear A Lot About Immigration Except From People On The Far Right”, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Threatens Big Tech Unless They Censor More Content
The Federalist: The LGBT Alphabet Lobby Has Come For Its Own Women, AOC’s Climate Change Movie Bombs At Box Office, Want Proof Our Government Is A Cash-Gobbling Ball Of Incompetence? Look No Further Than The Post Office, David French: Yes, The Dispatch Takes Money To Help Leftists Keep The Internet Conservatism-Free, and With Russia Hoaxer Jim Baker On The Inside, The FBI Primed Twitter To Kill Hunter Biden Story Long Before It Broke
Mark Steyn: Go Where the Journeyman Leads: Steve McQueen and Nevada Smith, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Blue Christmas, and The Mark Steyn Show – live Monday to Thursday!

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Holiday Gift Guide
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Category: Linkagery

The Dumbest Play in NFL History

Posted on | December 19, 2022 | 1 Comment

As unexpected disasters go, Sunday’s game was for New England Patriots fans what the Hindenburg crash was for the zeppelin industry. The Patriots, at 7-6, were clear contenders for a Wild Card playoff berth coming into the game against the 5-8 Las Vegas Raiders. With a win, they would have solidified their status as contenders going into the final three games against the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, AFC East rivals the Miami Dolphins and the division-leading Buffalo Bills.

New England fell behind 17-3 at halftime, but struck back in the second half, with Kyle Duggar scoring a pick-six touchdown on an interception, followed by two field goals and then finally a three-play touchdown drive that featured a 39-yard pass from Patriots QB Mac Jones to Jakobi Meyers and a 34-yard TD run by Rhamondre Stevenson. With a two-point conversion pass, New England had a 24-17 lead with less than four minutes to play. The Raiders rallied in the final two minutes, with Las Vegas QB Derek Carr hitting Keelan Cole for a 30-yard pass that was ruled a touchdown, even though Patriots fans will forever insist Cole was out of bounds. Now the game was tied 24-24 with 32 seconds remaining, and it looked like it was destined for overtime, unless New England could move the ball quickly into field-goal range. Using their two remaining timeouts, the Patriots were able to get to their own 45 with 14 seconds left. Two passes went incomplete and then, on third down with three seconds on the clock, New England ran a draw play, handing the ball to Stevenson, who rambled to the Las Vegas 32 as time ran out, but instead of just letting it go to overtime, Stevenson decided to try to keep the play alive, pitching the ball back to Meyers, who then ran around a bit before throwing a cross-field lateral in the general vicinity of Mac Jones. But the ball went directly into the hands of Las Vegas defensive end Chandler Jones at the New England 48. Mac Jones made a feeble attempt to tackle the Raider, but was stiff-armed aside as Chandler Jones romped all the way for the winning touchdown. The football world was stunned.

There is still, from a purely statistical standpoint, a hypothetical chance that New England could make the playoffs, but realistically? No, they’re done. A team that could blunder away a game in such spectacular fashion cannot be expected to beat the Bengals, the Dolphins or the Bills. The Patriots are probably heading toward a 7-10 finish, and even if they luck out and win a game or two in this final three-game stretch, they are ultimately doomed, like the Hindenburg at Lakehurst.



 

Category: Football

A Book Post For Hanukkah

Posted on | December 19, 2022 | Comments Off on A Book Post For Hanukkah

— by Wombat-socho


You know it’s been too long since the last book post when you have to go back and look at the archives to see when you did the last one and what you covered. I’ll try to do better next year, if I can pry myself away from the damn video games…

“He’s the type of person Commissars are supposed to shoot.”

Let’s lead off with something that is simultaneously hilarious and depressing: Kurt Schlichter’s Inferno, the seventh of the Kelly Turnbull action novels set in a post-national divorce America. It’s really too bad that Bruce Willis is past his prime, because he’d be a perfect Kelly Turnbull in the movies – anyway, this book is equal parts Road Warrior and eerie echo of the Roman Republic, in which it looks like Red America’s commanding general in California looks like he’s about to march on Texas with a whole collection of misfit auxiliary troops who are loyal to him and not the government in Austin. Plus, there’s a stray nuclear weapon and an apocalyptic cult to deal with in the debatable lands that used to be Oregon. If you liked the previous six Turnbull books, this one won’t disappoint; Schlichter is good at writing both action and political intrigue, and does a good job of segueing from one to the other.

More on the comedy side is the latest Commissar Cain omnibus from Sandy Mitchell: Ciaphas Cain, Saviour Of The Imperium. Unlike most of the other Warhammer 40k novels I’ve read, which tend to be turgid, prolix, and slightly more grimdark than The GULAG Archipelago, the Ciaphas Cain novels are light-hearted and humorous, despite the formula of Cain being sent to deal with a problem only to stumble on something EVEN WORSE. TVTropes insists that Cain is a synthesis of Captain Blackadder and Harry Flashman, but they’ve only got it half right – the Blackadder part. Cain is far too considerate of his troops and his ladies* to be the selfish cad Flashman was, and in fact more closely resembles Dand McNeil from Fraser’s The General Danced At Dawn, particularly because of Private McAuslan, who is obviously (somehow) the ancestor of Gunner Jurgen. Anyhow, three novels and some short stories about the commissar’s misadventures in the dark future where there is only war.** Recommended despite the extortionate price – and I should note here that all three of the Cain omnibus collections are finally available on the Kindle.

I am willing to bet money that if he lives to be 100 and writes as many books, Marko Kloos will not write anything as good as the Frontlines series, which concluded this fall with the eighth book in the series, Centers of Gravity. The saga of humanity’s war against the alien Lankies has been quite a tale, and Kloos ends it on an upbeat note with Andrew Grayson and (most) of his compatriots escaping from what looks like certain death, hundreds of light-years from Earth. As much as I would like to see more books in the series, leading up to the ultimate triumph of humanity over the Lankies (or at least a negotiated peace) I can see why Kloos decided to end it here. Worth your time, especially if you read the first seven.

* He can’t afford not to, since one of his ladies is an Inquisitor.
** And a few wry chuckles, guffaws, and belly laughs.


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Category: Books

Rule 5 Sunday: Mrs. Santa

Posted on | December 19, 2022 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Cosplay by u/MarieWithDDs on Reddit.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1932, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule 5 Climate Cult Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA – Trading Trump, Vintage Christmas, Berlin Aquarium Disaster, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Seal Team, The Bad Guy, Fusion Breakthrough, and December 11, 1620

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Vinessa Vidotto, What Christmas Means to Me, Fish Pic Friday – Candice Mishler, Please Come Home for Christmas, Is That a Striper or a ‘Wiper?’, Thursday Tanlines, Run, Run Rudolf, The Wednesday Wetness, Gasoline, Can Crabs Save the World?, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday

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Category: Rule 5

Secondhand ‘Stolen Valor’? Lying Joe Invents Purple Heart Story About Uncle

Posted on | December 18, 2022 | 2 Comments

Very early in the 2020 presidential campaign season, I called attention to Joe Biden’s habit of saying that he gave “my word as a Biden” in vouching for the truth of whatever he was saying. It seems Joe believes (or at least wishes his audience to believe) that not only is he trustworthy, but that the Biden family in general has a well-established reputation for honesty.

Of course, Joe Biden is an infamous bullsh*t artist, a braggart who habitually exaggerates his own accomplishments or just makes up “facts” that turn out to be false, as was the case Friday:

But I want to tell you, it is — it is — it doesn’t go noticed enough, how many of you who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and all through these last wars we’ve had — how many mothers and wives and sons and daughters sat at that empty birthday — saw that — an empty chair at the birthday party.
And the difference is a lot of you of my — my generation, on — after — on December 7th that we celebrated the bravery of all the — those who showed up. On the Finnegan side of the family, four brothers. Every single one volunteered the very next day, on Monday, to join. My uncle, Frank Biden, joined. My father was working in the shipyards.
The fact of the matter is that, you know, it wasn’t a second thought. They just showed up. And there’s a generation, represented by you, Ray, that doesn’t look for accolades.
You know, I — my dad, when I got elected Vice President, he said, “Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge.” He was not feeling very well now — not because of the Battle of the Bulge. But he said, “And he won the Purple Heart. And he never received it. He never — he never got it. Do you think you could help him get it? We’ll surprise him.”
So we got him the Purple Heart. He had won it in the Battle of the Bulge. And I remember he came over to the house, and I came out, and he said, “Present it to him, okay?” We had the family there.
I said, “Uncle Frank, you won this. And I want to…” He said, “I don’t want the damn thing.” (Laughter.) No, I’m serious. He said, “I don’t want it.” I said, “What’s the matter, Uncle Frank? You earned it.” He said, “Yeah, but the others died. The others died. I lived. I don’t want it.”

Is any part of this story about Uncle Frank true? Some of it is certainly false, as the New York Post reported:

Biden’s father, Joseph R. Biden Sr., died in September 2002 — more than six years before his son was elected vice president. Frank Biden, Joe Sr.’s brother, died in 1999.

We know for a fact, then, that this claim that Joe helped his uncle receive the Purple Heart after he became vice president is false.  There was no presentation to Uncle Frank where “we had the family there,” no request from his father, etc., at least not during Biden’s vice-presidency, by which time both Biden’s father and uncle were dead. What we don’t know is whether the story about Uncle Frank being wounded (during the Battle of the Bulge or any other time) is true. Frank Biden indeed served as a sergeant in the Army during World War II, but the Post could find no record of him being awarded the Purple Heart, nor is there any record of Joe Biden telling this story about his Uncle Frank before.

And by the way, to say somebody “won the Purple Heart” is just wrong, because being wounded in combat is no one’s definition of “winning.”



 

Category: Joe Biden

Crime Is Not Just a Statistic

Posted on | December 18, 2022 | 5 Comments

A friend sent me the video of a robbery in Chicago this week in which the victim was his mother-in-law. The robbers stole her $50,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and police tell CWB Chicago that this gang of robbers is believed to be responsible for many other such recent crimes.

Finding data about crime in the United States has gotten more difficult since Joe Biden became president and Merrick Garland became attorney general. It used to be, I could link to the exact page of FBI stats that showed the data I wanted to highlight, but now they’ve installed some kind of cheesy app called the “Crime Data Explorer,” and you’ll have to navigate that yourself to find the numbers I’m citing here. In 2021, there were 22,900 murders in the U.S., according to the FBI. Of those crimes, the race of the victim was reported in 14,677 cases and the race of the perpetrator was reported in 14,963 cases. So in about 35% of homicides, the FBI provides no data on the race of either the victim or the perpetrator. With that stipulation in mind, of the homicides in 2021 for which the race of victims and perpetrators were known, 8,534 of the victims (58%) and 7,868 of the perps (53%) were black. Comparing those numbers, you may be tempted to tbink nearly 700 black people were murdered by non-black perps, which may be true, but probably not. The more likely explanation is that this discrepancy reflects unsolved homicides in which no information about the perpetrator is available. The far more important insight from this data is that black people (13.6% of the U.S. population) are vastly overrepresented in homicide statistics.

But what about robbery? According to the FBI, of the 159,985 robberies for which the race of the perpetrator was known, 93,252 were black (58%), while among the victims, 43,164 were black (32%) and 79,566 were white (59%). Again, we must stipulate that these numbers are incomplete, as not all police agencies report their crime data to the FBI, and many of those that do report such data don’t list the race of victims or perpetrators. Still, the key statistic is the vast overrepresentation of blacks among the perpetrators of robberies, and the fact that (in comparison to homicide), whites are more likely to be the victims of robberies. Also, robbery is a much more common crime than homicide.

What about Chicago, where this robbery took place? According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 7,935 robberies in the city last year — that’s an average of 22 robberies daily, or about 150 robberies per week. Also, in 2021 Chicago had 10,651 motor vehicle thefts — an average of 29 stolen cars daily, more than 200 auto thefts a week. And then there’s the murders. According to the excellent Chicago crime aggregator site HeyJackass, so far this year, 711 people have been murdered in Chicago, of whom 646 were shot to death (meaning that about 9% of Chicago homicide victims died from stabbing, strangulation, etc.). In addition to those shot to death, Chicago has also had 2,856 people wounded by gunfire who survived being shot. Which means that, on an average day this year, 10 people were shot in Chicago, of whom 1.8% died and 8.1% survived. Thank you, Mayor Frogface!

When your city is averaging 70 shootings a week, in addition to all those robberies and car thefts and whatever other crimes are happening, it can truly be said that nobody in Chicago is safe from this uncontrolled mayhem, not even my friend’s mother-in-law, visiting from Wisconsin:

A 70-year-old woman was walking her dog in one of Chicago’s most affluent neighborhoods Wednesday when she was confronted by a masked stranger who pointed a pistol in her face and shouted, “Give me your f***ing purse or I’ll kill you and your f***ing dog, too.” She instantly complied, whereupon the robber grabbed her purse, reached in and took her car keys, flung the purse aside, and got into a blue Honda with three other accomplices. They rolled up the block to where the woman’s Jeep Grand Cherokee was parked, then two of the thieves exited the Honda and climbed into the woman’s Jeep, and both vehicles sped away.
It was all over in a matter of seconds, and this brazen daylight robbery in the Lincoln Park neighborhood took place at the exact same time that the chief of Chicago’s police department was downtown giving a media briefing about the arrest of four other criminals who were apprehended and charged in a recent spree of dozens of robberies. A few hours later, the son-in-law of the Lincoln Park victim called to tell me the story of the robbery, which was captured on surveillance video that was soon broadcast on local news programs on several Chicago stations. . . .

Read the rest of my latest American Spectator column.



 

Category: Chicago, Crime

FMJRA 2.0: Rogers Hornsby Was Right About That, Anyway

Posted on | December 18, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Rogers Hornsby Was Right About That, Anyway

— compiled by Wombat-socho

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. – Rogers Hornsby

Well, it’s all over for this year. My Senators finished 61-101, nine games worse than the historical team, but then Ted’s boys didn’t have to cope with the Giants, Reds and Pirates. We were 2-20 against those National League squads, and I think we would have fared better if we’d only had to play the American League teams. None of my starters had a winning record; Jim Kaat came closest at 11-13, while in the bullpen Jim Bouton was 6-1-1 and Moe Drabowsky 5-8-21 with ten blown saves. As for my hitters, acquiring Steve Garvey and Willie Mays in trades helped a little, but in the end we only scored 582 runs while allowing 836, and you can’t win ballgames like that. I guess I can console myself that I wasn’t the worst team in the league – Montreal finished 57-102.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Our long national nightmare is over…until spring ’71.

Crazy People Are Dangerous (and Keep Getting Shot by Cops in Detroit)
357 Magnum
EBL

#TwitterGate Update: Shadowbanning Is Real, and Vijaya Gadde Lied About It
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

The Other Podcast
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Mental Door
A View From The Beach
EBL

Florida ‘Predator’ Charged With Murder After Girl Dies From Fentanyl Overdose
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Mrs. Verlander Goes To New York
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

The ‘Misinformation’ Crisis
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.12.22
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.13.22
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL

Fire Matt Patricia?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Evening Edition)
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 12.16.22
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending December 17:

  1.  EBL (14)
  2.  357 Magnum (10)
  3.  A View From The Beach (9)
  4.  Proof Positive (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Posted on | December 17, 2022 | Comments Off on Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Click the link to order your T-shirt now, commemorating one of the worst terrorist attacks in American history. We all remember that fateful Christmas Eve in 1988, when the nation was gripped by fear as notorious international terrorist Hans Gruber (who was German, you know, despite speaking with a distinctly British accent) and his gang held dozens of hostages inside LA’s famous Nakatomi Plaza. Those of us who watched it still remember the feeling of shock — it was so incredible that we couldn’t believe it was actually happening — followed by the sense of relief and gratitude as we learned that the hostages (most of them, anyway) had been rescued by the heroic New York City Police Lt. John McClane (who, by an amazing coincidence, happened to be visiting his estranged wife Holly, a Nakatomi executive who was attending the party).

This is why, every year during the holiday season, patriotic Americans have been showing the documentary film Die Hard to our children, so that the memory of this night of heroism — when McClane, with the courageous help of LAPD Sgt. Al Powell, showed us all the true meaning of Christmas — will never be forgotten.

During our family’s annual commemoration of that historic night, one of the younger children — now including our grandkids — is sure to ask, “Grandpa, did it really happen that way?”

To which I answer, “Of course. And reindeer can fly, you know.”

Shop our Amazon links, and have a “yippee-ki-yay” Christmas.

NEVER FORGET 12/24



 

Category: Christmas
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