Bombings at the Boston Marathon
Posted by: Hook on 15 April 2013
Today's headline...
(CNN) -- Two bombs struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, turning a celebration into a bloody scene of destruction.
The blasts threw people to the ground, killing two and injuring dozens.
Hospitals reported at least 110 people being treated, at least eight of them in critical condition and 14 in serious condition. At least eight of the patients are children.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their family members.
Let us hope that those responsible for these cowardly acts of violence are soon brought to justice.
Tarquin: Since I was so wrong to use the Holocaust for any purposes of illustration whatsoever--if that event is off limits for any analogy, then I will substitute another: hold your hand in front of your face and tell me it isn't there. Otherwise, I shall have to remain, in your eyes, "simply wrong", and "intellectually bankrupt," while demonstrating "poor behavior" that is "extremely tasteless." I cannot tell you how much your poor opinion of me hurts. 
And no, I will not do extensive research to provide facts and figures to justify my assertion that the majority of terrorist acts (as opposed to acts of war, which you no doubt would include under the label "terrorism" if you disagree with them,) are committed by Muslims. Again, I would refer you to the hand in front of your face.
Oh, and Don--you will not be able to find a "reputable source" that will satisfy Tarquin, if he disagrees with you! 
In addition to defining good behavior, acceptable taste, what is right or wrong, and intellectually correct, you will find, if you attempt to argue with him that he also is the only source for what constitutes a "reputable source."
Russ
Russ, this bankruptcy thing needs putting in perspective; if UK was a cmpy or individual & its expenditure & debt exceeded income & ability to pay off the debt, as was the case accounting for the cost of WW-II, it was bankrupt.
That said we did not consider cost & future bankruptcy when the enemy was massing in readiness for invasion & the planned capture & capitulation of our country; if that was the case we would have surrendered when the Nazis invaded Holland & Belgium.
Up to the point when Lend Lease kicked in during 1941, UK held off 24/7 air attacks, fought a running battle to hold back the Nazi capture of the Mideast oil fields, prevented Nazi dominance of the north & south Atlantic & the Indian Ocean keeping open all those vital supply routes. During that time we were able to make more aircraft than the enemy could destroy, ditto general munitions tanks & warships.
What we were not able to do was to mount a counter attack with an overwhelming force that drove back the enemy; just as Hitler discovered invading UK, marching over a land border that is just a line on a map is one thing, whereas the 21 miles of English Channel is a barrier that practically prevents a manpower lead invasion.
The overwhelming force in men & machinery that was to become D-Day could never ever have taken place without the UK investing in vast qualities of men & munitions (bankruptcy) & to have the required overwhelming superior forces to achieve this was impossible without the same investments from USA, Canada & the other British Commonwealth countries.
Thanks to the US, the deal to pay off the Lease Lend residual equipment cost at 10% of nominal value & the 50 year Marshall Plan loan eased the pain of the bankruptcy.
And as a final observation it does seem that UK came out of WW-II long term worse off than others ............ But that’s another story.
Don't get me wrong, Mike-B, I do not think the US was particularly guilty in failing to forgive the highly discounted debt to the UK (we would have been fools to do so with the USSR). But it might have been, if not the "more moral", then at least the most self-serving path for us--given the fact that the UK is our best and most staunch ally--in spite of our stupidity in 1776. 
In other news, I do think, left to his own devices, it was just a matter of time before Hitler, even given his incredible stupidity in invading the Soviet Union, would have been able to cross the channel. Had that occurred, the blood letting and horror to both sides would have been devastating. I have no doubt that Britain's defense of the homeland would have made that planned by Japan (had we not used the atomic bomb) seem like a garden party.
Best regards,
Russ
Tarquin: Since I was so wrong to use the Holocaust for any purposes of illustration whatsoever--if that event is off limits for any analogy, then I will substitute another: hold your hand in front of your face and tell me it isn't there. Otherwise, I shall have to remain, in your eyes, "simply wrong", and "intellectually bankrupt," while demonstrating "poor behavior" that is "extremely tasteless." I cannot tell you how much your poor opinion of me hurts. And no, I will not do extensive research to provide facts and figures to justify my assertion that the majority of terrorist acts (as opposed to acts of war, which you no doubt would include under the label "terrorism" if you disagree with them,) are committed by Muslims. Again, I would refer you to the hand in front of your face.
Oh, and Don--you will not be able to find a "reputable source" that will satisfy Tarquin, if he disagrees with you! In addition to defining good behavior, acceptable taste, what is right or wrong, and intellectually correct, you will find, if you attempt to argue with him that he also is the only source for what constitutes a "reputable source."
Russ
Sulking, ignorant, wrong and, worst of all, unable even to realise it.
You are, in fact, an idiot. Or maybe you just don't like Muslims.
Some facts for you, which you won't like.
http://www.start.umd.edu/datar.../vis/GtdExplorer.swf
Oh, and Don--you will not be able to find a "reputable source" that will satisfy Tarquin, if he disagrees with you! In addition to defining good behavior, acceptable taste, what is right or wrong, and intellectually correct, you will find, if you attempt to argue with him that he also is the only source for what constitutes a "reputable source."
Russ
1. You've not shown *any* source, just second-hand tittle tattle. If you want to make sweeping statements, be prepared to back then up if you want to remain credible.
2. Don and I have been friends for some time; I know enough about him to trust him. You need to be able to back up your statements.
MikeB: The ships would have been a huge problem for Germany, but given time and no further necessity for building huge numbers of tanks etc, at least for a while, I still think he could have done it. (Although combining the words "Hitler" and "sensible" are a little tough, isn't it!
I looked up some figures on Wikipedia about German losses on the Eastern front (compiled by the German high command) and if accurate, they were even more staggering than I imagined: over a million dead, a million more missing or prisoners of war, and get this--3.5 million sick or wounded. I think, that had most of those been available, and ships as well, (some troops would have had to remain on the East to keep Stalin acting like a choir boy!) Germany could well have pulled off the invasion.
But Hook is dead on in saying there was no way confrontations in the North Atlantic would not eventually have led to a US declaration of War. (Hook, if I have misstated your opinion on that, I apologize.)
We can only thank our lucky stars that Hitler was a madman. Even with all my banging on and on (I just love that term) about what-ifs, we will never know what might have happened had Hitler been awakened and had he given permission for the Panzers to be relocated to the coast. (Here, I am relying for my information on the movie "Patton". 
)
Russ
) about what-ifs, we will never know what might have happened had Hitler been awakened and had he given permission for the Panzers to be relocated to the coast. (Here, I am relying for my information on the movie "Patton". )
Russ
Sometimes movies do get it right, even American ones.
My dad took part in the D Day landings, he said for the first few days the British troop where very lightly armed, and if there had been German tanks about, they wouldn't have stood a chance.
fatcat: If your father is still alive, please thank him for this Yank for his service. If he is not still with us, then I wish he were. The old ones are disappearing more frequently every day. I had the honor to visit the beaches once--of course, being American, we concentrated on Omaha. I do not cry easily, but did that day. We visited Point du Hoc, where an American officer named Rutter or Rudder led the assault up a 100 foot cliff. There was a driving rain storm. The shell holes from the battleships were still there--looking like small cattle ponds.
On the subject of American films, I have much to say--especially on the superiority of British productions and especially TV, but having hijacked Hook's thread about 3 times already, I will leave that for a future one.
Best regards,
Russ