This is a very long piece over at dhimmiwatch, it’s worthwhile to read the whole thing.

An excerpt:

The problem with Plato is not that he used the shameful treatment of Socrates to demonstrate flaws in the democratic system and show that it does not automatically lead to individual liberty, freedom of speech and respect for private property rights, which is legitimate criticism. The problem with Plato is that he rejected these goals as desirable to begin with. He embraced what I would call “seductive authoritarianism,” where he argued that since democracy isn’t perfect, we should passionately embrace an authoritarian or indeed totalitarian system where all aspects of human life are controlled by the state with mathematical precision.

This appears to be what the leftists of today are yearning for; yet I’m surprised they haven’t looked back to history to see that the utopia they are blindly seeking doesn’t exist.

Although he is not uncritical of Sparta, the system Plato praises in The Republic is a lot closer to authoritarian Sparta than to Athens. In doing this, Plato conveniently forgot that there was no Socrates in Sparta, just like there was no Plato or Aristotle. While Plato was free to be in democratic Athens and praise the Spartan system, praising any state or system other than the Spartan one was quite literally a crime in Sparta. They produced good soldiers, but few if any scientists worthy of note. Plato thus praised a system in which no Plato could, or did, exist.

The same goes for the marxists and terrorists who are working for Barack Obama to win the election; they are praising a system under which they would probably be murdered. As Fontova said today, Jesse Jackson is against capital punishment, yet he supports Castro, one of the most notorious murdering communist thugs of all time.

As Henry Bamford Parkes puts it, “Any application of Platonic principles would have destroyed the social milieu that had made such dialogues possible. There could have been no Socratic discussions in the authoritarian state envisaged in the Republic and the Laws.” In his view, Plato’s influence was primarily negative: “In spite of his contempt for empirical observation, his emphasis on the value of mathematics helped to promote the scientific development of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” Yet all in all, “his chief importance has been to provide philosophical support for the belief that order requires the denial of freedom.”

According to Henry Bamford Parkes, “Sparta represented the totalitarian solution to the political problem, and because of the admiration felt for it by the Athenian aristocrat Plato, it has had a lasting influence on Western thought.” One could thus argue that although freethinking is a golden thread running through the history of Western civilization, this legacy gave birth to a radical rejection of freethinking, which is also a part of the Western legacy. It is tempting to view Plato as an early forerunner of modern intellectuals with totalitarian longings, who use their freedom to praise political systems in which no freedom exists, be that Communist, Islamic or other.

When you read essays such as “The Peace Racket” by Bruce Bawer, the author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, you get a very strong impression that many Western universities are now dominated by persons, many of them Marxists, who have no interest in using Socratic dialogue in search of truth. They already know the truth, or consider it irrelevant, and simply view the universities as a platform for ideological indoctrination of students. This ideological corruption has been infused with an element of financial corruption as well. As Ibn Warraq says in Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism:

“The West, in giving in to political correctness and in being corrupted by Saudi and other Arab money, is ceasing to honor the original intent of the university. In recent years, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries (e.g., Brunei) have established chairs of Islamic studies in prestigious Western universities, which are then encouraged to present a favorable image of Islam. Scientific research leading to objective truth no longer seems to be the goal. Critical examination of the sources or the Koran is discouraged. Scholars such as Daniel Easterman have even lost their posts for not teaching about Islam in the way approved by Saudi Arabia. In December 2005, Georgetown and Harvard universities each accepted $ 20 million from Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal for programs in Islamic studies. The Carter Center, founded by former president Jimmy Carter, is funded in part by bin Talal. Such money can only corrupt the original intent of all higher institutions of education, that is, the search for truth.”

In abandoning Socratic dialogue and the search for truth, the West has made itself more vulnerable to Islamic infiltration because it has in some ways become more like Islam. Only by insisting on our right to ask questions about anything can we restore what once was the purpose of our education system. We should start with rational criticism of Islam.

The mindtwisting rhetoric coming from liberals and in particular, the UN, is amazing when you examine it.

UN expert stands by Nazi comments

The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.

Professor Falk is scheduled to take up his post for the UN Human Rights Council later in the year.

This should come as little surprise. The UN is full of socialist and communist dictators - and they all join with Islamic terrorists like Imadinnerjacket who hate Israel. Israel hating and jew-hating is a very popular pastime these days - something that the nazis engaged in. But –just like meatbrain who rushes to call someone else a liar first–they point the fingers at other people and accuse them of being nazis and ignore their own socialist tendencies when Hitler was a socialist, and their own jew-hating, revising history with objections to European law which made it against the law to deny the holocaust. And what do the holocaust deniers have in common? They’re nazis! And what does the UN have in common with them?

What does Youtube have in common with them? Apparently, youtube shares their ideology:

From Pam at Atlas Shrugs: Youtube=NaziTube

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Video-sharing Web site YouTube has met with harsh criticism in Germany for hosting clips that incite racial hatred, according to a news report due to be broadcast on German public TV late on Monday.

The videos hosted on YouTube include clips of a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film “Jud Suess” and two music videos of outlawed German far-right rock band Landser, which show footage from World War II depicting Nazi military operations.

If the socialists in the media carrying water for the terrorists aren’t enough, YouTube has more Jihadi videos than al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, al-Manar & CNN combined. And although a regular person might compare an Islamonazi’s ideology with that of Hitler due to the numerous clues that they fit together such as

1. al-Banna’s muslim contingent in the Nazi SS,
2. Hitler’s claiming Islam was more compatible with the German people than Christianity,
3. Hitler and Islamists thinking that women are for breeding,
4. Saddam’s uncle who raised him was a nazi,
5. Saddam’s modeling the chemical attacks on the kurds after the “Final Solution”
6. and Bin Laden stating the goals of the socialists and Al Qaeda are the same,

Socialists still have the stones to call other people the names that they themselves deserve.

It’s always been interesting to me how convoluted their thinking is, in addition to their not understanding history. History surely will repeat itself if we’re not careful.

Youtube, like the socialists in the media and the socialist peaceniks in the street, claims to be “peaceful” while censoring conservative thought and propping Islamic nazi terrorists as heroes.

Why should the UN be any different? While demonizing Israel and claiming they’re going to send inspecters there, they completely ignore Hamas and the West Bank. Israel has the right to demand that the UN send their inspectors in to inspect the terrorists’ weapon caches. Naturally, that would be met with the same air of cooperation that Saddam met the inspectors with.

And perhaps that’s the whole reason they’ve decided to take this approach.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

But also to send a strong message of cooperation to the Islamic world.

NEW YORK- Family and friends of servicemen and women who died or vanished in the Vietnam War no longer have to travel to Washington to pay their respects at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

An interactive version debuts online this week, a project of historical document archive site Footnote.com in conjunction with the National Archives and Records Administration.

The virtual version of the famous memorial - which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties - is searchable.

Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran’s service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war.

This was sent through email, I’ll look later for the link….pressed for time right now. I gather it’s from USA Today. Thanks to the Band of Mothers for the tip.

Update: Here’s a link to the article at NRO

Footnote.com Chief Executive Russ Wilding hopes the site will develop into an online community for veterans, family and friends to pay tribute and share their thoughts.

“The memorial is a historical document that obviously is very emotional,” he says. “We want the site to help people come together to remember the veterans who were lost.”

More than 2,000 photos were taken of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall to create the online version, Wilding said. He said the resulting image is the equivalent of 460 feet wide and the largest of its kind on the Web.

Wednesday was the 26th anniversary of the groundbreaking for construction of the wall, which was completed in November 1982 and officially became a National Monument two years later.

I can just see how this could turn into an enclave for moonbats to complain about American Imperialism…but I hope it doesn’t happen like that. The cause is honorable, the men who served in the Vietnam Era have waited too long for recognition and thanks for the sacrifices they made. God bless them all.

Associated Press - November 22, 2007

44 years ago today, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by…
a) a lone gunman
b) the KGB
c) the Masons
d) the flying spaghetti monster
e) none of the above because it doesn’t fit your theory?

DALLAS (AP) - It was 44 years ago today that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

No big commemorations are planned on this Thanksgiving.

The old Texas School Book Depository from which assassin Lee Harvey Oswald fired on Kennedy’s motorcade now contains a museum, cataloging the events of that day and documenting Kennedy’s place in American history.

It’s called the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

I wonder how John Kerry feels about the atrocities of his heroes being played out in the usual leftist-adoring terrorist-appeasing media.

This is one lesson of Vietnam that people should be applying to Iraq.

We left, the communists murdered and tortured millions.

One good thing; this man claims to be a Christian convert. Not that it means much coming from a liar who is claiming his civil rights were violated….that claim actually made people laugh at him in court.

From Wikipedia:

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual.[1] An advocate of economic freedom, Friedman made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and statistics. In 1976, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.[2]

According to The Economist, Friedman “was the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century…possibly of all of it.”[3] Alan Greenspan stated “There are very few people over the generations who have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few people.”[4] In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom. In his 1980 television series Free to Choose Friedman explained how the free market works, emphasizing that he believed that it has been shown to solve social and political problems that other systems have failed to address adequately. His books and columns for Newsweek were widely read and even circulated underground behind the Iron Curtain.

What a horrifying tale…American government negligence, disrepect and foul play over several administrations- regarding our Vietnam dead. There are many families who will forever wonder what happened to their loved ones. The Mortician helped solve at least one of those mysteries.

What a lovely tale about the courage of a man who once worked for communist Vietnam who was not bullied by the communists once he escaped to America, and testified about the communists’ manipulation of the Vietnam POW/MIA issue.

Okay — now I’m really pissed and angry … what the hell is this country coming to???

I, as a Former United States Marine who proudly served this country am one very highly pissed-off S.O.B. about this and wish that someone would tell me to my face I can’t fold the AMERICAN FLAG AT ANY UNITED STATES CEMETERY — and, your sorry-ass had better practice falling down for at least 6 months prior to telling me that!!!

Flag-folding recitations for vets banned because of religious content - Associated Press OneNewsNow.com October 26, 2007

RIVERSIDE,California - Complaints about religious content have led to a ban on flag-folding recitations by Veterans Administration employees and volunteers at all 125 national cemeteries. It all started because of one complaint about the ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery in California.

During thousands of military burials, the volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors. For example, the 12th fold glorifies “God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost.”

The complaint revolved around the narration in the 11th fold, which celebrates Jewish war veterans and “glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

The National Cemetery Administration decided to ban the entire recital at all national cemeteries. Details of the complaint weren’t disclosed.

>>> IT’S A “SLAP IN THE FACE” TO EVERY UNITED STATES VETERAN!!! < <<

PUT A STOP TO THIS INSANITY OF OUR AMERICAN HISTORY / LAND and ...
>>> SIGN THIS PETITION!!! <<<

Jesus had been speaking to the Jews during and after the Feast of Tabernacles. At the end of the feast, He stood up and said; “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

After the feast, He also made many bold statements — “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) — “before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), and He also said, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). These statements caused great debate and division about the identity of Jesus.

John 10:22-25
“Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.’”

The Feast of Dedication was held in late November or December, two months after the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast, also called Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights, celebrated the Israelite victory against Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 BC. Epiphanes had captured Jerusalem in 170 BC. and sacrificed a pig on the sacred altar of the Temple. The Israelite army, led by Judas Maccabaeus, revolted, recaptured, and rededicated the Temple during an uprising which lasted several years.

As Jesus walked in an outer section of the Temple, the Jews pressed Him for a clear answer as to His identity. Their tone was unmistakably confrontational. The debates about Jesus had gone on long enough. Are you or are you not the Christ? The term “Christ” referred to “His Anointed” (Psalm 2:2) and was the clear identifier of the One who would free Israel from their oppressors and bring in the Kingdom of God.

Though Jesus had made many bold claims, He never actually told the Jews He was the Christ. When the woman of Samaria asked Jesus about the Christ, He replied; “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:26), but He never made such a statement to the Jews.

And yet, Jesus said He already told them and they did not believe. He told them with His words, which ought to have been clear enough to be believed, and He told them with His deeds which could not be denied.

The stated purpose of the gospel of John is “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ” (John 20:31). John recorded seven different signs which pointed to Jesus as the Christ.

The works of Jesus affirm the identity of Jesus, and the works of God affirm the identity of God; “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

Jesus Christ will soon address the issue of unbelief, but His message today is clear — He has made His identity known, and we are without excuse — let’s not miss the signs which point to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Almighty, Living God!

The thin line between recession and depression — Food, Shelter, or Gas? This farker opts for beer and a cardboard box.

NEW YORK (AP) — The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder.

What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.

Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It’s starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.

Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.

While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession, some say the financial stress is already the worst since the last downturn at the start of this decade.

From Family Dollar to Wal-Mart, merchants have adjusted their product mix and pricing accordingly. Sales data show a marked and more prolonged drop in spending in the days before shoppers get their paychecks, when they buy only the barest essentials before splurging around payday.

The last time he saw this was 2000-2001

From Al Gore. lol

This is hilarious, Al Gore giving us a history lesson. It’s always the other side’s fault; and Gore is trying to make himself appear as though he was trying to be ‘tough’ on terrorism and conservatives wouldn’t let him do anything about it. Gosh, what a shame, and he’s such a go-getter. Those evil repugnitards.

lol

Too funny.

Clinton and Gore actually set the stage for our ‘invasion’…

Hat tip to The Good Lt. at the Jawa Report

Never before seen 9/11 footage of the 2nd plane crashing.

Referred to by William Teach at Pirate’s Cove; “A Truther Quits”, video referred to by Screw Loose Change.

Be careful, this is terribly disturbing as you watch the jumpers and debris falling.

From Screw Loose Change:

It’s about 13 minutes long and appears to start around 8:56 AM on 9-11. The cameraman is standing between the Post Office and WTC 7 about midway through the footage when Flight 175 impacts the South Tower. Unfortunately because of the location they do not get any footage of the plane or the fireball, but they do get the tremendous noise and the sound of large chunks of debris falling around them, which is obviously quite frightening.

Because of the proximity of the camera you really get a feel for how fast those bodies were falling.

Lots of profanity, appropriate but maybe not safe for work. Some of the kooks seem to see something in the North Tower fire just before the plane hits; another points out the rather ironic “Manhattan Demolition” garbage truck that appears at one point.

Alan Dershowitz has an article at Frontpage entitled “Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust Myths”, which details the Mufti of Jeruselum’s support of Hitler, and reveals something that someone in my comments section flatly denied:

It is fair to conclude that the official leader of the Muslims in Palestine, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a full fledged Nazi war criminal and he was so declared at Nuremberg and sought by Yugoslavia as a war criminal after the war. He escaped to Egypt where he was given asylum and helped to organize many former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers against Israel.

Yes, it was called the Odessa Network.

It is also fair to say that Husseini’s pro-Nazi sympathies and support were widespread among his Palestinian followers, who regarded him as a hero even after the war and the disclosure of his role in Nazi atrocities. According to his biographer,

“Haj Amin’s popularity among the Palestinian Arabs and within the Arab states actually increased more than ever during his period with the Nazis… [because] large parts of the Arab world shared this sympathy with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.”

So…Ahmadinejad’s Goebbel-like propaganda campaign of deception and misinformation has hit critical mass; because in his Columbia University talk he flatly denied any corrolation or connection between the Palestinians and the Nazis.

“…[G]iven this historical event [the Holocaust], if it is a reality, we need to question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it… “The Palestinian people didn’t commit any crime. They had no role to play in World War II.”

But this falls in line with what the Koran says about killing the infidel: Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. - 2:191

Husseini incited his pro-Nazi followers with the words “Arise, o sons of Arabia. Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history and religion. That will save our honor.” In 1944, a German-Arab commando unit, under Husseini’s command, parachuted into Palestine and poisoned Tel Aviv’s wells.

A brief clip from the movie “Obsession” further punctuates the point.

by Thomas D. Segel - The Conservative Voice - September 16, 2007

A commentary of United States Marines

Harlingen, Texas, September 15, 2007 – They are mostly old now and many are long retired. Still, these Marines, these graying alumni of the warrior band who were called “Teufel Hunden” or Devil Dogs by their World War I German enemies, remain protective toward both Country and Corps.

They also keep a watchful eye on the Young Lions now wearing the uniform who are waging heroic warfare against a fanatical enemy. These veterans are very up front with how they view the actions of our national leadership, the media and the anti war movement. The MoveOn.org ad calling General David Petraeus “General Betray Us” that was reportedly given a very favorable discount by the New York Times, has generated rush of negative comments.

Most former Marines think the media is completely anti war - anti military and do not accept either print or electronic accounts as truthful reporting. Many of them rely on email communications from Iraq and Afghanistan to assess how the conflict is progressing. Emailed reports from Marines in Iraq tell their retired brothers and sisters at home more about the war than is ever presented by the media. Those now in the war zone say the death toll of terrorists is supposedly between 45 and 50 thousand. This is why, they say, our troops are seeing few armed attacks and more of the IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) and suicide bomber attacks.

Our Marines report Iraq is a mixed bag with some Iraqi troops fighting well. Most of the Iraqi Army is thought to be all right if they have American support, and some still not worth being called military units. Marines say the Kurds are very pro-American and fearless fighters. There is more and better intelligence because everyone is sick of insurgent attacks on civilians.

They also are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American news media. Marines and most of the armed forces in Iraq see the media as being against them. Reporters are despised and distrusted. Those few who are embedded in units are neither trusted nor respected.

Another Graying Devil Dog Still Growling

Fahim wrote his post about 9/11, and I have to admit feeling sheephish after reading his bit about Massoud.

Bin Laden knew that as long as Massoud, the Commander of the Northern Alliance lived, his efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere against worldwide Islamanazi terrorism would not be successful; that’s why Bin Laden had his minions murder Commander Massoud….two days before September 11, 2001.

Massoud’s last day

Massoud talking about the future

At some point I would like to get a translation of this last video.

I have seen some translations of Massoud’s speeches, it is no wonder that Bin Laden wanted him dead.

The biggest failure is that Massoud lives on in the hearts of Afghanistani’s still, his words still live, his fight against extremism still exists. Massoud’s dream for Afghanistan is not dead.

I am just very disappointed in the American government that they would let down the Northern Alliance who were our former allies, and turn our backs on them while trying to hold hands with the snake; the enemy; the ethnic Pashtuns like Karzai who are the Taliban.

People are spitting on the memory of Massoud and the Northern Alliance commanders by calling him/them (a) warlord/s and claiming he/they murder(ed) innocent women and children or civilians. Those are similar to the propaganda efforts against the US military claiming the same thing when both of their intentions are honorable, right and good.

Massoud’s memory still holds up; the Afghanistanis still post pictures of him as their hero all across Afghanistan. So as much as people try to revise history, their hero remains; his memory remains; his dream is still alive.

When I drew Kevin’s name for this piece last year, I was immediately thrown into a mixed bag of emotion. My older son is almost Kevin’s same age, and I began to contemplate what his family must still be going through, having lost their son in the horrible events of 9/11. My son spent two three years in Iraq; but at least I was prepared for a loss, should it happen. My heart goes out to the Marlo family, and I say a little prayer for them all, including his former girlfriend and hope she’s been able to go on with her life.

Kevin D. Marlo was just 28 years old when he died in the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11. He was a resident of Manhattan, grew up in West Chester and graduated from Henderson High School–a very handsome single young man, with a bright future ahead of him.

Although he was an Equity trader for the investment bank Sandler O’Neill, and worked on the 104th floor, of the South Tower, he was also an aspiring actor and model.

Just before 9/11, on 9/5, he came back from a shoot of Elimidate Deluxe. That show was reminiscent of the old Dating Game and his part was filmed at a Colorado dude ranch. The show gives a male or female contestant a choice of four potential dates, all the while trotting the globe. It was his big break: Playing the object of desire for four young women on reality TV.

When he returned Sept. 5 from the shoot at a Colorado dude ranch, he had been sworn to secrecy and wouldn’t name his pick. But he told his father, Dennis, that when he watched the episode, “you’ll just know by me” which woman would be the one.

With Kevin now a victim of the Sept. 11 attacks, his father Dennis Marlo will not be seeing his son on television. The WB network that filmed it decided not to show his episode of Elimidate Deluxe but instead gave a tape of this show to his family.

“They were trying to set up something where they take the city slicker . . . out to a dude ranch,” Dennis Marlo said.

Growing up in West Chester, Kevin hardly was a city boy, but he quickly became one during internships with Sandler O’Neill, which were followed by a full-time position. He wasn’t sure he wanted to spend his career in business, but he knew he wanted to live in New York - and the closer to the footlights, the better.

Kevin had not been drawn to the stage in high school or college. But once in New York, his father said, “he started to do some modeling. He did some shoots. . . . He was taking voice lessons and diction lessons.”

He made a cameo appearance as an audience member of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - “He was on for quite a few minutes there,” Dennis Marlo said - and he got a small role in a Woody Allen movie. Which one, his father could not recall. The part of a young guy in a bar was small enough that Kevin had to point himself out to family members - but big enough to encourage him to keep chasing the big break.

So, even though his girlfriend wasn’t enthusiastic about Elimidate Deluxe, he went after it.

“He did all the things he wanted to,” his father said. “He didn’t hold back.”

When he was a teenager, Kevin D. Marlo and some of his friends tried to remove a television set from a Kmart in Pennsylvania without paying for it. That was a mistake, he discovered when the police and his mother got involved. “I told the officer to fine him the maximum so he would learn a lesson,” said his mother, Barbara Meyer. And it seemed to work; he never tried to take another TV.

But he remained attracted to the small screen, and the big one. Even as an associate director of equity sales and trading at Sandler O’Neill, which he joined straight out of the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Marlo, 28, took acting lessons. He was filmed on “The Tonight Show” and appeared as an extra in Woody Allen’s movie “Celebrity,” said his father, Dennis Marlo. Last September, he finished shooting an episode for a dating show that included scenes outside his office at the World Trade Center.

Still, he was not acting when he told his mother, who was embarrassed to call him at the office, that she was more important than his job. Or when he encouraged his older sister, Christine, to finish college. Or when he formed the knot of friends that stayed with him for years. “He was such a good person, and he would do anything for people he loved,” said his girlfriend, Cindy Schwartz. She once told him over the phone that she wasn’t feeling well, and he turned up at her door with an assortment of medicines. It was 3 a.m.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on July 28, 2002.

After Dennis Marlo lost his 28-year-old son, Kevin Marlo, in the World Trade Center attacks, he gathered with a group of Kevin’s friends. For three hours, they laughed, cried and told soul-soothing “Kevin stories.” “I needed it. I needed to hear the funny stuff too,” said Dennis Marlo of Malvern, Pa. “For someone who was just 28, he lived a full life. He didn’t hold back. I have such a deep respect for him.” Kevin Marlo lived in Manhattan and worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center as an associate director in equity sales and trading for Sandler O’Neill & Partners. But his heart was also in acting and he’d managed cameo appearances in a Woody Allen movie and on the Jay Leno Show. A week before he died, he finished filming a “reality-based” show for the WB Network in Colorado, a show his father said was a take-off on the dating game. The network is making a tape for the family and isn’t likely to air the episode, Dennis Marlo said.
Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

Kevin Marlo
The Marlo Family has established a scholarship fund in Kevin’s name:

* Kevin Marlo Memorial Scholarship Fund
c/o Harcum College
750 Montgomery Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

In addition, memorial contributions may also be made to:

* Sts. Philip and James Church
723 East Lincoln Highway
Exton, PA 19341

* The American Red Cross - Sept. 11 Fund
c/o Sovereign Bank
P.O. Box 12646
Reading, PA 19612

Matching funds contributed by Sovereign Bank

You can take a look at the page that Sandler O’Neill & Partners put up for all of their colleagues who perished on that fateful day here.

Kevin D. Marlo Golf Classic

The 7th Annual Kevin D. Marlo Golf Classic was held this year on August 7th at the Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, PA.

About the Tournament

On September 11, 2001 Kevin D. Marlo tragically perished in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. As an Associate Director for Sandler O’Neill Partners, Kevin was working on the 104th floor of the South Tower that day. Though pursuing a career in investment banking, Kevin’s potential and interests reached much further: he was also an accomplished athlete as well as an aspiring actor who had begun to realize his ambitions. Kevin was encouraged in this by his family: Dennis, Karen and Christine Marlo. His father, Dennis, serves as Chairman of the Harcum Board of Trustees, and his sister Christine, is a 2000 Harcum graduate and member of the National Alumni Board.

The Kevin D. Marlo Classic golf tournament honors Kevin’s memory and supports scholarships for Harcum students in allied health science fields. These scholarships are granted to students who have demonstrated academic achievement and a dedication to community service through participation in charitable and professional activities - values that Kevin himself demonstrated through his own commitments.

Do your remember your first car? What about your first date? How about your first “sock-hop”?

Uh huh — just as I thought — it brought a smile to your face and many memories, both good and bad, didn’t it?

I know this isn’t the norm for this Blog and Cao will probably wanna shoot me for it — but a friend sent me a great video today about the cars; great music and fun times many of us had during the 1960’s and I wanted to share some Nostalgia with everyone.

I grew up during that era with such great performers as Jerry Lee Lewis - The Big Bopper - Bill Haley & The Comets - The Platters - Buddy Holly - The Everly Brothers - Ricky Nelson - Paul Anka - The Fleetwoods - Bobby Darin - Frankie Avalon - The Beach Boys and 100’s of others.

What about all of those Friday and Saturday nights when you went “cruising” down the “Main Drag” with your High School Sweetheart sitting beside you — only to have someone pull up at the next light and challenge you to a race — Title For Title ?

Then, there were those long week-ends you just wanted to wax your car under the cool shade of the trees in the park or attend a local Custom Hot Rod Show

And now — here’s the video — turn up the volume and enjoy your trip down Memory Lane…

Those Oldies But Goodies That Are Long Gone

When Adolf Hitler bought Eva Braun a movie camera, to film the people and parties which occurred at their Bavarian retreat, the technology … to include synchronized sound had not yet been developed.

Cutting edge lip reading software along with a deaf lip reading expert and an expert at dubbing films- together enabled German experts to re-voice these films and provide us with a chilling insight into Hitlers private world.

Also, there was a row on the internet about the 1938 Better Homes and Garden Issue which showed pictures of “Hitler’s Mountain Home”. A few of those pages are available for viewing here and here.

The flap was over copyright issues, apparently, because it hasn’t quite been 70 years since it was published. But Homes and Gardens doesn’t have a copyright on these photos.

The story of Hitler is so creepy and fantastic considering the horrors of Nazi Germany, but it’s also instructive. And since leftists of today are following in their footsteps, (encouraging gang members to threaten conservatives in the streets) it’s all the more relevant to be thinking about how Hitler and his henchman could so calmly sit and have tea whilst people were dying horrible deaths in the concentration camps.

Update: A few observations.

In the film, there is a snippet about Hitler and his chauffeurs. In one clip, he laments missing his trusty chauffeur…and how he ‘drove the cars with such care’, or something to that effect.

Hitler was not only a homosexual, which is dodged in the film, he was a vegan who didn’t think very much of people who eat meat. He didn’t smoke, and so much of the leftist ideology is sitting out there in plain view when watching this, it’s absolutely fascinating but at the same time turns my stomach. To tout the rhetoric that homosexuals were sent to the concentration camps is more sleight of hand and propaganda. There were no homosexuals who were gassed in the concentration camps. Only 1% of homosexuals were in the camps-versus 85% of the Jewish population. Search Mein Kempf for Hitler’s hatred of homosexuals. It doesn’t exist.

When they talk about the Nazis meeting in the beer hall, they are not referring to the entire story. The favorite meeting place of the SA was a “gay” bar in Munich called the Bratwurstgloeckl where Roehm kept a reserved table (Hohne:82). This was the same tavern where some of the early meetings of the Nazi Party had been held (Rector:69). At the Bratwurstgloeckl, Roehm and associates — Edmund Heines, Karl Ernst, Ernst’s partner Captain [Paul] Rohrbein, Captain Petersdorf, Count Ernst Helldorf — would meet to plan and strategize. These were the men who orchestrated the Nazi campaign of intimidation and terror. All of them were homosexual (Heiden, 1944:371).(Pink Swastika, p. 91.)

Hitler’s strange relationship with Eva Braun and is discussed in the film as though he was trying to appeal to German women as a single man. But facts indicate otherwise; he was a deviant beyond the imagination. Hitler’s homosexuality, as pointed out in the Pink Swastika, has been demonstrated beyond question by German historian Lothar Machtan’s massively researched book, “The Hidden Hitler“.

Exaggerated Claims of Violence
The Vietnam War was worse than what followed-BY JOHN KERRY *(probably his public relations arm while he’s parasailing somewhere)-Saturday, August 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

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I haven’t been on point with this I haven’t written about Kerry releasing his records for a while–which by the way, he hasn’t done completely YET, even though he’s had a lot of offers from people who would be more than willing to help him fill out his 180 the right way - and release the records to the public rather than his biographer at the Boston Globe.

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James Taranto misinterpreted my words and misreads history (” ‘It Didn’t Happen,‘ ” July 26). I know the tragedy that followed a tragic war. John McCain and I led the effort to locate American POWs and ultimately normalize relations with Vietnam. I traveled to Cambodia to help create a genocide tribunal to bring to justice the butchers of the killing fields.

Nobody’s misinterpreting anything. Did we misinterpret you when you said they “at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country”?

Sorry bub, why should we believe anything you and Jane Fonda have to say? You supposedly also cared for the Vietnam POWs that were last seen alive; instead, you helped to bury any hope of their families finding out what happened to them or even recovering their remains. So that your cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, could broker a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau. Convenient that all of this led the way to normalizing trade relations with Vietnam. Nice one, Johnny old boy.

I thought it was our soldiers who were the ‘butchers’ in the killing fields, according to your Winter Soldier “Investigation”.

From Vietnam Vet at Free Republic:

The genocide committed by North Vietnam on the South was carried out quietly and bureaucratically and resulted in the deaths of more than a million. After the fall of Saigon “politically unreliable” subjects were arrested at their homes or scooped up off the street. These included former members of the Viet Cong—the North’s partisan allies. They were imprisoned where many of them died. Those who chose to leave the country could legally do so by paying a $10,000 fee per head to the communist government and abandoning all their property. Tens of thousands died in boats on the high seas. Others died of disease and starvation hiding in the jungles along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. The situation became so horrid that folksinger and peace activist Joan Baez—along with Cesar Chavez, Daniel Berrigan, I.F. Stone and others—ran full-page open letters in the New York Times imploring the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to show some mercy:

“We appeal to you to end the imprisonment and torture—to allow an international team of neutral observers to inspect your prisons and reeducation centers.”

Well, at least some people have a conscience. But you can leave John Kerry off of any list of leftists ‘with a conscience’.

John Kerry, since his youth, has served as a loyal steward of the goals of North Vietnam at the expense of American lives, non-communist Asian lives and U.S. interests. From his lying Senate testimony to his deplorable conduct on the Senate committee that investigated POW/MIA issues, Kerry has been the handmaiden of this brutal regime.

When John Kerry’s Courage went MIA

But what did not happen was the region-wide war or immediate chaos predicted by many who believed we had to maintain our massive military presence in Vietnam. A brutal dictatorship consolidated power in Vietnam, the region’s refugee crisis worsened, and two years after we left Vietnam, Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge launched a genocide.

Right. And I doubt that would have happened had we been allowed to win the war, as we were doing. But that’s something you and your communist buddies didn’t want to see…even George Mcgovern admitted that winning the war in Vietnam was not what he wanted.

Mr. Taranto mistakenly views the violence after 1973 as a direct result of our withdrawal. In fact, the violence arose from the conditions that led us to withdraw: a Vietnamese civil war we couldn’t stop supported by a Cambodian insurgency we couldn’t bomb into submission. It’s horrifying that so many South Vietnamese suffered. But, even accepting Mr. Taranto’s estimate of 165,000 Vietnamese deaths–double that of most academic sources–this is a significant decrease from the preceding eight years when 450,000 civilians and 1.1 million soldiers were killed.

No one is mistaken but you, Mr. I-have-a-man-servant. People who know what it’s like to live under a communist regime - will fight it. People who haven’t been fooled by elitists into thinking that it’s the only solution-will fight it.

The Viet Cong were soundly defeated during the Tet Offensive. It’s widely known by military historians that the VC expected Vietnamese peasants to rise up and join the Communists which, of course, never happened. The VC and North Vietnamese forces, therefore, were decimated; it took, literally, years for them to rebuild their strength. This, despite the likes of Walter Cronkite erroneously, and some would say deliberately, reporting the exact opposite.

We should not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq, but let’s have an honest debate rather than a hysterical one. The agony of exiting a quagmire is that there are few certainties and no good options. That choice was created not by the advocates for changing course, but by the architects of a disastrous war.

Um…John - we can start by not listening to the democrats who spit on our military, spit on our right to exist as a democracy and are trying to turn us into a socialist country - the same kind of socialism that is in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam-which any regular citizen should be mortified by…any war that’s waged against a communist regime to a communist is ‘disastrous’. That’s why people marched in support of Saddam Hussein-And that’s why we shouldn’t be listening to you on Iraq, Mr. Kerry. And that’s why I’m astonished how in the hell you got re-elected.

Kerry only belittles himself by describing Taranto’s comment ‘The outcome of that war was a defeat for America and a humanitarian disaster for the people of South Vietnam and Cambodia’ as ‘hysterical’.