Selasa, 29 Mei 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

The Delivery Presents – Barack Obama and William Howard Taft, Together Again!

Posted: 28 May 2012 01:44 PM PDT

So let me see if I have this right. Barack Obama is the first actually black President, the first gay President, and (now it can be told in Episode 148) also the first time-traveling President. It’s true! I reveal the stunning truth, History Channel-style, in the first half of the show. Alas, my hair is only of normal stature so there was a limit to how large a revelation I could make, but I think you’ll find it stunning. And shocking.

There are some goodies about the Facebook IPO, rich people, and a healthy dollop of baseball to take you the rest of the way through the show. The baseball, part, especially is worth considering because, well, baseball! Also, I say bad things about Bud Selig, the Worst Commissioner Ever in the History of the Game.

The Delivery - Episode 148

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Why Do You Create?

Posted: 28 May 2012 01:20 PM PDT

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Have you ever read something that was the emotional or intellectual equivalent of a punch in the gut from a large and angry man named Knuckles? It doesn’t happen to me often, but when it does, I do my best to figure out exactly why what I read affected me so profoundly. Also, I like to make sure I didn’t actually get punched in the gut because, if I did, I have a completely different problem.

Tycho Brahe, one of the two obscenely-creative guys from Penny Arcade, wrote something about quitting that delivered a well-timed Knuckles-punch. Here’s the pertinent bit.

You have to get back on the horse. Somehow, and I don't know how this kind of thing starts, we have started to lionize horseback-not-getting-on: these casual, a priori assertions of inevitable failure, which is nothing more than a gauze draped over your own pulsing terror. Every creative act is open war against The Way It Is. What you are saying when you make something is that the universe is not sufficient, and what it really needs is more you. And it does, actually; it does. Go look outside. You can't tell me that we are done making the world.

[Emphasis Mine]

I’m asked, from time to time, why I keep The Shack running and why I do The Delivery every week. It’s true, I hope to build a couple few things here and there that will allow me to do the things I love, for pay, all the time. Really though, I started each of them because of the very reason Tycho gave. I believed, and still believe, that I have valuable and useful things to offer and these are the ways by which I offer them. I believed the universe needed more me.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret. I still believe it needs more me. I’m not done creating things, so watch this space. There is a lot more fun to come.

Memorial Day 2012: Private Sadao Munemori and A Request for Hollywood

Posted: 28 May 2012 09:51 AM PDT

Sadao Munemori was a hero, who loved his country to an extent we can not measure. He was American, born in Glendale, CA to parents who immigrated from Japan in the 1920s. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Munemori’s family were sent to the Manzanar internment camp. Munemori didn’t become bitter. He wanted to fight. He was already a member of the Army — he had joined before Pearl Harbor — but because of his heritage, he was assigned to be a translator. Like I said, he wanted to fight, so he made trouble, just enough to get assigned to a combat unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the 100th Infantry Brigade . Munemori was eventually sent as a replacement to Italy, where his team, which motto is “Go For Broke”, was already in combat in Italy.

In 1945, the 442nd was part of a spearhead of an attack on the “Gothic Line”, a fortification in the Apennines Mountains the Germans had built over 9 months with the work of some 15,000 Italian slave laborers. It was the last, big push into the German homeland, the blow that could break the Nazis if it was successful. From here, I’ll go to Wikipedia for the narrative.

In front of the 442nd lay mountains code-named Georgia, Florida, Ohio 1, Ohio 2, Ohio 3, Monte Cerrata, Monte Folgorita, Monte Belvedere, Moente Carchio, and Monte Altissimo. These objectives hinged on surprising the Germans. The 100th went after Georgia Hill and the 3rd Battalion attacked Mount Folgorita. On April 3 the 442nd moved into position under the cover of nightfall to hide from the Germans who had good sight lines from their location on the mountains. The next day the 442nd waited. At 0500 the following morning they were ready to strike. A little over 30 minutes later objectives Georgia and Mount Folgorita were taken, cracking the Gothic Line. They achieved surprise and forced the enemy to retreat. After counterattacking, the Germans were defeated. During this time, 2nd Battalion was moving into position at Mount Belvedere, which overlooked Massa and the Frigido River.

The 442nd made a continuous push against the German Army and objectives began to fall: Ohio 1, 2, and 3, Mount Belvedere on April 6 by 2nd Battalion, Montignoso April 8 by 3rd Battalion, Mount Brugiana on April 11 by 2nd Battalion, Carrara by 3rd Battalion on April 11, and Ortonovo by the 100th on April 15. The 442 turned a surprise diversionary attack into an all-out offensive. The advance came so quickly that supply units had a hard time keeping up.

The attack pushed the Germans off the mountains and through the Po River Valley. The war ended in Italy about two weeks later and the Nazi war machine surrendered unconditionally shortly thereafter.

Private Murimori and his fellows were on Monte Folgorita, pinned down by German machine gun fire. He took charge after his squad leader was gunned down. I’ll now turn the narrative over to his Medal of Honor citation.

He fought with great gallantry and intrepidity near Seravezza, Italy. When his unit was pinned down by grazing fire from the enemy’s strong mountain defense and command of the squad devolved on him with the wounding of its regular leader, he made frontal, l-man attacks through direct fire and knocked out 2 machineguns with grenades Withdrawing under murderous fire and showers of grenades from other enemy emplacements, he had nearly reached a shell crater occupied by 2 of his men when an unexploded grenade bounced on his helmet and rolled toward his helpless comrades. He arose into the withering fire, dived for the missile and smothered its blast with his body. By his swift, supremely heroic action Pfc. Munemori saved 2 of his men at the cost of his own life and did much to clear the path for his company’s victorious advance.

Pfc. Munemori was, until the year 2000, the only soldier born in America of Japanese immigrant parents to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

I appreciate George Johnston and Investors Business Daily who told us Pfc. Munemori’s story. I’d like to see more stories like his. It would be a very good idea (and good business) if Hollywood built on the successes they made with movies like We Were Soldiers and miniseries like Band of Brothers and discovered more stories of real American heroism.

Earlier today, on Twitter, I said I’d like to see a Band Of Brothers style series made about units in Korea and Vietnam. I’m very sure an enterprising producer could find stories of heroism and humanity and bring them to the big screen and our televisions in fairly short order. It’s not like there’s a paucity of such stories. Unfortunately, too many in Hollywood share a mind with MS-NBC’s Chris Hayes, whose lips stumble over “hero” as  if he had just discovered the word existed. There are some, though, who could pull off those new projects, though, and I’d be willing to help them get them done any way I can. History slips away from us very easily. It would be a good idea to capture these tales of true heroism for posterity while we still can.

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