photos january 9, 2010

Love: A Pretty Picture That Frames Everything We Do on Earth!

Love: A Pretty Picture That Frames Everything We Do on Earth!

For instance:

Love is the be-all and end-all of all the be's and all that ends.....

Love is a benign disease that has no cure, thank God.

If love makes the world go round, how can I get on the train?

I didn't know love could be so vexing! (And it CAN be!)

Love is a many-splendored thing....until the splendor splinters...

Love gives, loves takes, love destroys, love makes.

If you want to find love, take the exit ramp marked "THIS WAY TO HAPPINESS".

"Lost Command" movie from 1966 is perfect movie to understand our dire straits in Iraq and Afghanistan related to search for Bin Laden

"Lost Command" -- a fantastic movie from 1966 -- is the perfect movie to understand our dire straits in Iraq and Afghanistan related to search for Bin Laden. I saw it today on TV in early morning hours on Cinemax network. At first, I thought I was watching a news program from today's news! It's that real, and it's about fighting an enemy like the ones we have created in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan. The movie stars Alain Delon and Anthony Quinn and George Segal -- and Claudia Cardinale!

The movie, made in 1966, is about the French war in Algeria, also a losing war, a lost war, when the Algerians fought for their independence from France. The battle scenes in this movie look like a nightly newscast from today -- 2009! -- as if we have learned nothing. And we have much to learn from this movie.

In this wartime melodrama, Lieutenant Colonel Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is a French peasant who has worked his way up the military ladder during the French involvement in Indochina. Sent to Algeria, Raspeguy must mold a group of raw recruits into a competent fighting unit. He calls on Esclavier (Alain Delon), his sensitive assistant who eventually deserts the military out of frustration over the pointlessness of war.

A reviewer on IMDB said, back in 2000, before Bin Laden surfaced and before 9-11:

"A lone C-47 aircraft flying high overhead.
Stand up! Hook up!

Red light buzzes.

Green light, GO!

As you jump into the surrounded French position of Dien Bien Phu with
Alain Delon, George Segal etc and the characters French Commando Jean
Larteguy created in "The Centurions" and "The Praetorians"---you
experience the mood and the feel of a desperate battle gone wrong. As
they land to desperately reinforce the abandoned outpost, they meet
Anthony Quinn's Raspeguy--his best movie role--a legendary figure
modeled after Col Marcel Biegard to include his pipe---who keeps the
men together and out of the prison camps by personal humanity and
leadership-by-example.

Its too bad Larteguy's books are
out-of-print--you should read them as companions to the film, which
differs in some details to keep you guessing. There is even a romance
to keep the females interested with the dashing Delon and sexy Claudia
Cardinale (WOW).

This film is simply a masterpiece and must-see for every American in
uniform or who ever wants to serve.

Its our guide of how a fighting
force should be--a force of esperit de corps, yes, but a force that
THINKS.

After Raspeguy's "lost command" in Indo-China, he reflects and
decides to surround himself with bright, innovative young officers and
to learn from his experiences. He realizes that men will fight for an
identity reflected in a piece of head gear---I love how in the book,
Raspeguy says that if he had been Jewish, he would have made the
cursed yellow Star of David the Nazis used to march Jews to the death
camps, his unit's insignia of honor--to embrace it---to turn its
symbolism on its abusers--to fight for and make it a symbol of honor
and courage.

In the film, he chooses the "Leopard" camouflage cap and
makes it the symbol as we would the beret if we were smart in the U.S.
Army and made a universal BROWN BERET our symbol to live up to.
Raspeguy's men, outcasts from other units---soon start believing in
themselves and winning in battles noone thought they could win.

The film is just superb in its depiction of truck and
helicopter-mobile tactics fighting the guerrillas in desert Algeria.
It has some of the best, most realistic combat scenes of a light
infantry assault uphill against a dug-in foe ever depicted on film,
Raspeguy's SLAM-esque style of cross-talking by radio his subordinate
leaders is superb.

All of the key figures are thinking infantry
leaders not mindless macho stooges/tyrants as is the common American
stereotype depicted in films and emulated too often in real life.

If this were not enough, the film has a My Lai-type moral leadership
dilemma incident that would make a good place to stop the tape and
discuss among your men.

I cannot rate this film too high, its one of the best war films ever
made....

....
it's better to see the French Colonial Paratroops find a way to win in
this film. I pin a medal for bravey on the leopard camouflage uniforms
of the film-makers and old Commando Larteguy wherever he is--and
render the salute!"

NOTE: If you watch this movie, you will see why the USA military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan against Osama Bin Laden are DOOMED. DOOMED!

Don't believe me? See this movie first!

THIS MAN MADE A DIFFERENCE: The Dan Fleisch Story!

THIS MAN MADE A DIFFERENCE

Author flies to Canada to replace reader's faulty copy of his book

Like Paul Harvey, I wanted to know the "rest of the story" and it is even more amazing. Read my quick email interview with this most amazing professor who deserves some kind of an award for his wonderful way of "thinking" about life.


As everyone knows who reads the papers, there's a professor in Ohio at Wittenberg University, Dr. Dan Fleisch, who recently did something very very unusual, and it makes for a heartwarming and inspiring story. As noted on every blog in the known universe, from Moby Lives to BooksForHire, not to mention PW and the Dayton Daily News, which interviewed Professor Dan Fleisch for the story, it happened like this.

3 great links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/11/daniel-fleisch-amazon-replacement

http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=3578#comment-493

http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/02/08/sns020809bookinside.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

Ohio's Wittenberg University professor Dan Fleisch, author of A Student's Guide to Maxwell’s Equation, made a surprise delivery of his book to Ottawa, Canada, resident Michel Cuhaci after reading on Amazon.com that Cuhaci had received a flawed copy, the Dayton Daily News reported.

After reading this news story, we contacted Dr Fleisch for a followup interivew, because we were intrigued by this man's amazing -- extraordinary -- act of kindness and what might be called "going the extra mile" in the line of duty. So we asked Dan a few more questions, and he politely responded.

Question: Did you ever do anything like this BEFORE this? What?

PROFESSOR FLEISCH: I've never done anything quite like this before, but I do have a bit of a reputation at my university for doing whatever it takes to help a student understand physics. For example, I once rented an ice-hockey rink and paid some professional hockey players to accelerate, turn sharply, and shoot the puck while students measured their motion using video cameras and a radar gun.

2. What inspired or motivated you to do THIS action?

PROFESSOR: On the day before Christmas, I was horrified to learn from Mr. Cuhaci's review on Amazon that he had received a defective copy of the book. We've all had the experience of purchasing something on line and then finding that it's defective when it arrives - that's inevitable, but in the case I could do something about it. [SO HE DID! - Editor's note]

3. You spent about US$500 dollars on airfare and taxi and gas, etc, car
rental, are you a trust fund kind with enormous resources, or just a
good guy on the side of the good guys of this universe?

PROFESSOR: College professors in the U.S. are paid a decent wage (I make about US$60,000 per year). I was determined to fix this problem, so the cost wasn't my primary concern.

4. This all happened over Xmas Eve and Xmas Day, so I assume you might be
Jewish and time to spiare that day. So for your
Christmas Eve activity, you did something amazing. Can you explain
from what depths of your being and personality did allt his stem?

PROFESSOR: Actually, I was raised a Roman Catholic (but many people assume I'm Jewish when they learn that I had a cat named "Schmatta"). I can't say what was in my mind, other than "I can make this right."

5. The man you delivered the book too didn't even invite you in for
coffee or tea, after all that long travel, mostly because he did not
know what you had done, in terms of heavy lifting, and he was even a
bit scared that you might be a robber or a bad guy or something. But
in fact, you were a kind of Christmas Eve angel on his appointed
rounds....

PROFESSOR: Mr. Cuhaci was very gracious and I certainly did not expect to be invited in to his house (as you say, he had no way of knowing that my intentions were honorable).

6. You are a physicist. Did this action you took on Xmas Eve have
anything to do with your work as a scientist, or are you just one of
the most amazing people on earth?

PROFESSOR: Interesting question. I appreciate your very kind comments, and I'd say this: physicists love solving problems, and this was a problem that I knew I could solve. So I did.
Thank you again for your interest.

[- interview thanks to Dr. Dan Fleisch
Dept. of Physics, Wittenberg University]

NPR ＲＡＤＩＯ INTERFVIEW

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100406191

Author Hand-Delivers Book After Reader's Gripe
Listen Now [28 sec] add to playlist

Morning Edition, February 9, 2009 · On Christmas Eve, an Ohio math professor noticed a complaint on Amazon about his latest book. An Ottawa man had received a defective copy of Daniel Fleisch's book on Maxwell's equations. That's the math that put us on the path to cell phones. With no way to send it in time, the professor hopped a plane to Canada. On Christmas, he surprised the buyer on his doorstep, asking, "Hardcover or soft?"


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100406191