[Posted Sat. PM due to travel.]
NBA Quiz: 1) Who are the top 3, all-time, in 3-pt. field goals
made? [The 3-pt. shot was instituted for the ”79-”80 season.] 2)
Who are the top 3 in assists? Answers below.
President Bush at the U.N. 11/10
[Excerpts]
Every civilized nation here today is resolved to keep the most
basic commitment of civilization. We will defend ourselves and
our future against terror and lawless violence.
The United Nations was founded in this cause. In the Second
World War, we learned there is no isolation from evil. We
affirmed that some crimes are so terrible they offend humanity
itself, and we resolved that the aggressions and ambitions of the
wicked must be opposed early, decisively and collectively before
they threaten us all. That evil has returned, and that cause is
renewed.
The terrorists call their cause holy, yet they fund it with drug
dealing. They encourage murder and suicide in the name of a
great faith that forbids both. They dare to ask God”s blessing as
they set out to kill innocent men, women and children. But the
God of Isaac and Ismail would never answer such a prayer.
And a murderer is not a martyr, he is just a murderer. Time is
passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no
forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer
who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in
grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls,
the funerals of the children.
And the people of my country will remember those who have
plotted against us. We are learning their names. We are coming
to know their faces. There is no corner of the earth distant or
dark enough to protect them. However long it takes, their hour
of justice will come.
Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the terrorists
are planning more murder, perhaps in my country or perhaps in
yours. They kill because they aspire to dominate. They seek to
overthrow governments and destabilize entire regions.
Few countries meet their exacting standards of brutality and
oppression. Every other country is a potential target, and all the
world faces the most horrifying prospect of all: These same
terrorists are searching for weapons of mass destruction, the tools
to turn their hatred into holocaust.
They can be expected to use chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons the moment they are capable of doing so. No hint of
conscience would prevent it. This threat cannot be ignored. This
threat cannot be appeased. Civilization itself, the civilization we
share, is threatened.
History will record our response and judge or justify every nation
in this hall. The civilized world is now responding. We act to
defend ourselves and deliver our children from a future of fear.
We choose the dignity of life over a culture of death. We choose
lawful change and civil disagreement over coercion, subversion
and chaos.
These commitments – hope and order, law and life – unite people
across cultures and continents. Upon these commitments depend
all peace and progress. For these commitments we are
determined to fight.
Some nations want to play their part in the fight against terror but
tell us they lack the means to enforce their laws and control their
borders. We stand ready to help.
Some governments still turn a blind eye to the terrorists, hoping
the threat will pass them by. They are mistaken. And some
governments, while pledging to uphold the principles of the U.N.
have cast their lot with the terrorists. They support them and
harbor them, and they will find that their welcomed guests are
parasites that will weaken them and eventually consume them.
For every regime that sponsors terror, there is a price to be paid,
and it will be paid. The allies of terror are equally guilty of
murder and equally accountable to justice. The Taliban are now
learning this lesson. That regime and the terrorists who support
it are now virtually indistinguishable.
Together, they promote terror abroad and impose a reign of terror
on the Afghan people. Women are executed in Kabul”s soccer
stadium. They can be beaten for wearing socks that are too thin.
Men are jailed for missing prayer meetings.
In this world, there are good causes and bad causes, and we may
disagree on where that line is drawn. Yet, there is no such thing
as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered
wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent.
Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick and
choose its terrorist friends, will know the consequences.
We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate
outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of
September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame
away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty. To
inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.
The war against terror must not serve as an excuse to persecute
ethnic and religious minorities in any country. Innocent people
must be allowed to live their own lives, by their own customs,
under their own religion.
The American government also stands by its commitment to a
just peace in the Middle East. We are working toward the day
when two states – Israel and Palestine – live peacefully together
within secure and recognized borders as called for by the
Security Council resolutions.
We will do all in our power to bring both parties back into
negotiations. But peace will only come when all have sworn off
forever incitement, violence and terror.
And finally, this struggle is a defining moment for the United
Nations itself. And the world needs its principled leadership. It
undermines the credibility of this great institution, for example,
when the Commission on Human Rights offers seats to the
world”s most persistent violators of human rights. The United
Nations depends above all on its moral authority and that
authority must be preserved.
The steps I”ve described will not be easy. For all nations, they
will require effort. For some nations, they will require great
courage. Yet, the cost of inaction is far greater. The only
alternative to victory is a nightmare world, where every city is a
potential killing field.
As I”ve told the American people, freedom and fear are at war.
We face enemies that hate not our policies but our existence, the
tolerance of openness and creative culture that defines us. But
the outcome of this conflict is certain. There is a current in
history, and it runs toward freedom.
Our enemies resent it and dismiss it, but the dreams of mankind
are defined by liberty, the natural right to create and build and
worship and live in dignity. When men and women are released
from oppression and isolation, they find fulfillment and hope,
and they leave poverty by the millions.
These aspirations are lifting up the peoples of Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas, and they can lift up all of the Islamic
world. We stand for the permanent hopes of humanity, and those
hopes will not be denied.
We are confident, too, that history has an author who fills time
and eternity with his purpose. We know that evil is real, but
good will prevail against it. This is the teaching of many faiths.
And in that assurance, we gain strength for a long journey. It is
our task, the task of this generation, to provide the response to
aggression and terror. We have no other choice, because there is
no other peace.
We did not ask for this mission, yet there is honor in history”s
call. We have a chance to write the story of our times, a story of
courage defeating cruelty and light overcoming darkness. This
calling is worthy of any life and worthy of every nation.
So let us go forward, confident, determined and unafraid.
[The editor would have added.”Let us then go forward to
Iraq.”]
—
Civil War Letters
Union General George McClellan was known for his timidity.
President Lincoln once wrote him, “I have just read your
dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses. Will you
pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done
since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?” Lincoln
also once told McClellan, “If (you are) not using the Army I
should like to borrow it for awhile.”
In January 1863, having replaced McClellan with Ambrose
Burnside, Lincoln then replaced Burnside shortly thereafter with
General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker. Lincoln wrote Hooker.
General:
I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of
course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient
reasons. And yet I think it best for you to know that there are
some things in regard to which, I am not quite satisfied with you.
I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which, of course, I
like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession,
in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which
is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious,
which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm.
But I think that during Gen. Burnside”s command of the Army
you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as
much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the
country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer.
I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying
that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of
course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you
the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set
up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I
will risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to
the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has
done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit
which you have aided to infuse into the Army, of criticizing their
Commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn
upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can, to put it down.
Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any
good out of an army, while such a spirit prevails in it. And now,
beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy, and
sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln
[Hooker replaced a few months later by George Meade.]
April 10, 1865.General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops.
After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed
courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been
compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I
need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who
have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this
result from no distrust of them; but, feeling that valor and
devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the
loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I
have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose
past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the
terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their
homes and remain there until exchanged. You will take with you
the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty
faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God
will extend to you His blessing and protection. With an
increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your
country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous
consideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
R.E. Lee, General
May 1918.34-year-old Adrian Edwards, a lawyer from
Carrollton, Illinois, had volunteered to serve in WW I. He wrote
the following letter to his mother from somewhere in France, to
be delivered to her in the event of his death.
My dear Mother:
I am about to go into battle and have instructed the company
clerk to send you this letter in case I become a casualty, hence
the receipt of this letter by you will indicate that I am either with
God or a prisoner in the hands of the enemy.
Since I will never become a prisoner of the foe if I remain
conscious and able to fight, it is doubtful if I will ever be an
inmate of a German prison camp.
Do not grieve that I am among the missing, but rather rejoice that
you have given a son in sacrifice to make the greatest military
caste of all time lay down the sword – to save civilization, to
prevent future wars, to punish the Germans, who have
disregarded every law of God and mankind, whose only god is
the god of war and military force – and to make the world safe
for democracy.
I desire that you view the matter in the light and spirit of the
Spartan mothers of old, who, when their sons went forth to battle
for freedom and their native land, said to their sons: “Either
come home proudly bearing your shield before you, or upon it.”
War was absolutely necessary on the part of my country, and
although I was 34-years old and nobody expected me to go, yet
some one had to go; some one must make the sacrifice, some
mother must lose her son.
In the light of these facts, and knowing our country”s great need,
I volunteered, and have never for one moment regretted my
decision, and I will not, although my life and a useful career
must end. Life is not the highest boon of existence. There are
ideals that are superhuman, interests greater than life itself, for
which it is worth while fighting, suffering, and dying.
If possible after the war, I would like for my remains to be
brought to America and interred at White Hall. I have provided
well for your support, as I have a $10,000 insurance policy with
the Government and several thousand with the old-line
companies. My friends, Thompson and Jess, have these policies
and other valuable papers.
Good-bye, Mother; I will see you in the next world. You may
know I died fighting for you, my country, and all that life holds
dear.
Your son,
Adrian
[Only days after writing this letter, Adrian Edwards was killed in
battle.Source: “Letters of a Nation,” edited by Andrew
Carroll]
Stuff
–Go Deacs! Yes, my alma mater, Wake Forest, pulled off a
huge comeback Saturday. Trailing North Carolina 24-0 at half,
the Deacs scored 18 points in the fourth quarter and beat the Tar
Heels, 32-31. Hell, we”re now 5-4!
–I wasn”t that crazy after all in my long-time prediction that
Boston College would upset Miami. Alas, it wasn”t to be.
Miami 18 B.C. 7. [If you didn”t see it, the game was far closer
than the final score.]
–In a home-and-home series to decide a slot in the World Cup
Finals, Ireland defeated Iran 2-0 Saturday in Dublin. The two
teams now meet on Thursday in Tehran. Seriously, the reaction
of the crowd after this return match bears watching. World Cup
games this year have been cause for major student
demonstrations in Iran. The hard-liners in the government are
not amused. Of course, here at Bar Chat we say. Quaff a
Guinness in honor of the Irish! Make that two!
–Harry K. passed along Blender magazine”s list of the Top 10
“Best Make-Out Songs of All Time.” #1 is Roxy Music
“Avalon.” #2 Teddy Pendergrass “Turn Out The Lights” #3
Marvin Gaye “Let”s Get It On” #4 R. Kelly “Down Low
(Nobody Has To Know)”.kids, go to bed.#5 Prince “If I Was
Your Girlfriend” #6 Guns ”n” Roses “November Rain” #7 Barry
White “Love Serenade” #8 Donna Summer “Love To Love You
Baby” #9 Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” #10 Miles Davis “All
Blues.”
What an incredibly stupid list. And Harry is a little miffed, as
well, because “Louie, Louie” didn”t make it. Plus, Guns ”n”
Roses? Why not Aerosmith”s “Dream On”? As for the editor,
where is Minnie Ripperton? Actually, ever try Richard Strauss”s
“Der Rosenkavalier”? [I really haven”t, but there is a part
when.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/10/73: #1 “Keep On Truckin””
(Eddie Kendricks) #2 “Midnight Train To Georgia” (Gladys
Knight & The Pips…long-time readers recognize this as one of
my least favorite songs.upon hearing one bar, I”m outta there)
#3 “Angie” (The Rolling Stones)
NBA Quiz Answer: 1) 3-point FG: Reggie Miller (2,037), Dale
Ellis (1,719), Glen Rice (1,435). 2) Assists: John Stockton
(14,503), Magic Johnson (10,141), Oscar Robertson (9,887).
Mark Jackson is 4th at 9,235.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday. Herman”s Hermits…if you keep it
where it is.
