Mitchieville Remembers June 6, 1944

The anniversary of D-Day is always remembered in the Reginaldson household as my Great-Uncle Felix landed on Juno Beach as part of the second wave on that historic morning in 1944.   I posted about D-Day last year (see here) but haven't gotten around to telling the story of Felix yet.  I'm not going to post about Felix this year either.  One day I'll write a post worthy of his sacrifice.  Till then, I'll leave things be with the inscription my great-grandparents chose for his headstone:

"Your death has left a loneliness the world can never heal"

 

(Reg visiting Felix, April 2004, Beny-sur-Mer, France)

YouTube Linky Link 

LEST WE FORGET

Mitchieville Remembers Jeff Healey

Canadians will wake up this morning to hear the sad news that one of our nations finest musical talents, guitar great Jeff Healey, passed away yesterday at the young age of 41. The hour is late and this won't be the definitive post on his career but I have a "Jeff Healey story" to tell that will rival my Avril story.

Back in high school (the late 80's) his song 'Angel Eyes' was a huge international hit. It was around this same time that Jeff made his acting debut playing a wise (and blind) blues man in the otherwise forgettable movie 'Roadhouse' with Patrick Swayze. I took a young lass, my first real girlfriend, to see the movie and the song 'Angel Eyes' quickly became "our song". We danced to it at a couple high school dances, listened to it in the car, and I lost my virginity with that song in the background. Ah young love, I went away to work for the summer and returned home to find she had been sleeping with the guy down the road, needless to say we weren't an item anymore.

Fast forward to the end of high school, I meet and fall in love with the woman destined to be my ex-wife. What song do we first here on our first date together, yup, 'Angel Eyes', which of course becomes "our song". A year later we are going to college in Peterborough and we got tickets to see The Jeff Healey Band live at The Pines in Bridgenorth. The Pines was a great seedy place to see a guy like Jeff Healey, 300 young and drunk good ol' Ontario kids in a small venue. The show was incredible and I'm telling you he pulled out all the stops. The closing number of course was 'Angel Eyes'. The future sole occupant of my house gets teary eyed and says "our song, remember the first time we heard our song together"*. I stuttered something in reply but I'm sure you can all guess as to which 'first time' I was really remembering.

Whether it be his at his bar in Toronto (where he gave a pre-teen Jimmy Bowskill his first break), on his radio show, or live in concert Jeff Healey was always the consummate gentleman. In recent years he would take his Jazz Wizards band on the road and play with high school jazz\blues bands to help develop students and spread the good word called The Blues. We will never see his like again.

If you never had the pleasure of seeing Jeff play guitar then this clip will give you a glimpse of what you missed:




*we were on our way to Belleville on a date and I was driving my dad's '72 Chrysler Newport, the song was playing on AM800 CJBQ.

Benazir Bhutto Killed By Her Car Sunroof?

*Please see updates at the bottom of this post.

Benazir Bhutto hasn't been dead 24 hours yet and it appears that the world will never know the whole truth behind her murder. When the news first broke reports had it that she had been shot in the neck and then a suicide bomber detonated and bomb. This morning we were told by the AFP:

The surgeon who treated Benazir Bhutto says she died from a shrapnel wound to the head. Authorities initially said the slain Pakistani opposition leader died from bullet wounds. But Dr. Mussadiq Khan, a surgeon who treated her, said Friday that she died from shrapnel that hit her on the right side of the skull. He also says Bhutto had no heart beat or pulse when she arrived at the hospital and that doctors failed in their efforts to resuscitate her ( link ).

In the fog and confusion after this terrible incident I can accept that there would be some discrepancy between the reported facts. Numerous reports stated that a gunman with a Kalashnikov (AK-47) took aim and fired at Bhutto before blowing himself up. If Bhutto's surgeon said there was no bullet wound then I can accept that, but now the Interior Ministry has an explanation for her death that it expects us all to believe:

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's interior ministry said Friday that Benazir Bhutto was killed after smashing her head on her car's sunroof while trying to duck, and that no bullet or shrapnel was found inside her.

The ministry also said it had intercepted a phone call from a top Al-Qaeda figure congratulating a militant for the attack on her Thursday, and said there was "irrefutable evidence" the group was trying to destabilise the country.

Bhutto's death after a suicide bomber blew himself up at her campaign rally has plunged this nuclear-armed Islamic nation into turmoil, but the ministry said she would have lived if only she had stayed inside her car.

"If she had not come out of the vehicle, she would have been unhurt, as all the other occupants of the vehicle did not receive any injuries," ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said. He said the post-mortem on the populist opposition leader, whose funeral earlier Friday was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, found her mortal wound came when she tried to duck after the bomber attacked.

The bomber also apparently fired three times at her but missed, Cheema said. When she ducked, she hit the lever of the sunroof of the car that was to speed her away from a campaign rally as she was gearing up to contest parliamentary elections set for January 8.

"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Cheema said. "There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury."( link)

I doubt I'm the only one who thinks this is total BS. The world of Pakistani politics is murky and dirty. While some people pointed the finger at President Musharraf he had no sane reason to have Bhutto killed. Indeed, Musharraf and Bhutto had a common enemy in the radical Islamists that are trying to control the country. Al Qaeda, specifically Usama bin Laden, had (in their warped minds) good cause to kill her (link) and the world would readily accept that they did this as we all know that Al Qaeda is capable of horrendous crimes.

So what is the world to believe? Do we accept confused first hand accounts, do we accept the word of Bhutto's attending surgeon, or do we accept the word of Pakistan's Interior Ministry? Malarkey like the above will not serve the cause of bringing Bhutto's murders to justice and maybe that is exactly what the Interior Ministry wants.


Benazir Bhutto 1953 - 2007 (link)

Update @ 16:12 - Upon reflection, I think the key phrase in the statement from the Interior Ministry is this:

"If she had not come out of the vehicle, she would have been unhurt, as all the other occupants of the vehicle did not receive any injuries,"

What we have here is the Pakistan Government blaming Bhutto for her own death. It would be like the US Treasury Department saying JFK wouldn't have been killed had he been in the back of a hardtop car in Dallas. Observers and supporters of Bhutto have noted that Bhutto should have been receiving the same amount of security as Musharraf. The Pakistani government is firm in it's position that Al Qaeda is behind her murder. What it is also saying is that by standing up in her car, Bhutto was directly responsible for her own death. How pathetic.

Second update: Both the BBC and CTV have are now reporting facts noted in the original post. I will be updating this post through the weekend via the comments section.

Third update, December 29 @ 18:45 - Newly released video tape, which can be seen here, clearly shows a man shooting at Benazir Bhutto from point blank range as her vehicle slowly moves forward through the crowd. Momements later we see the explosion, her assailant was no more than a few feet from Bhutto's vehicle. We can say now without hesitation that the assertion of the Pakistan Interior Ministry that Benazir Bhutto died from hitting her head on the sunroof is without merit. Benazir Bhutto was murdered, when will the Goverment of Pakistan stopping trying to deflect blame on itself and start hunting down the people responsible for this tragedy?

Week of Death Finale – Day 7

Day 7 of the Week of Death is here and not a moment to soon for some I’m sure. The Week of Death has covered events that have been heartbreaking and tragic but nothing so far compares to the evil depravity and sheer horror of today’s post. The perfect post on today’s topic has already been written by blogging great Skippy Stalin at Enjoy Every Sandwich and he has graciously allowed that post to be re-printed in part here today.

The Rape of Nanking, December 9, 1937

Japan's unspeakable cruelty toward the Chinese people began with the 1931 invasion and occupation of Manchuria. Indeed, this was the first military exercise that began the long march toward the Second Wo rld War, still two years before Adolf Hitler's assumption of power in Germany. The full-scale invasion of the world's most populous nation waited until the fall of 1937. Within a month, the first genocide of the modern era - what has become known as "the rape of Nanking" began.

The use of the word "rape" is not an exercise in alliteration. Once the hapless Chinese military retreated from their imperial capital, the women of Nanking suffered unimaginable indignities. Women were killed in indiscriminate acts of terror and execution, but the large majority died after extended and excruciating gang-rape.

"Surviving Japanese veterans claim that the army had officially outlawed the rape of enemy women," writes Iris Chang. But "the military policy forbidding rape only encouraged soldiers to kill their victims afterwards." She cites one soldier's recollection that "It would be all right if we only raped them. I shouldn't say all right. But we always stabbed and killed them. Because dead bodies don't talk ... Perhaps when we were raping her, we looked at her as a woman, but when we killed her, we just thought of her as something like a pig." (Chang, The Rape of Nanking, pp. 49-50). Kenzo Okamoto, another Japanese soldier, recalled: "From the time of the landing at Hangzhou Bay, we were hungry for women! Officers issued a rough rule: If you mess with a woman, kill her afterwards, but don't use bayonets or rifle fire. The purpose of this rule was probably to disguise who did the killing. The military code with its punishment of execution was empty words. No one was ever punished. Some officers were even worse than the soldiers." (Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 188)

One eyewitness, Li Ke-hen, reported: "There are so many bodies on the street, victims of group rape and murder. They were all stripped naked, their breasts cut off, leaving a terrible dark brown hole; some of them were bayoneted in the abdomen, with their intestines spilling out alongside them; some had a roll of paper or a piece of wood stuffed in their vaginas" (quoted in Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 195).

John Rabe, a German (and Nazi) businessman who set up a "Nanking Safety Zone" in the city's international settlement and thereby saved thousands of Chinese lives, described in his diary the weeks of terror endured by the women of Nanjing. Though young and conventionally attractive women were most at risk, no woman was safe from vicious rape and exploitation (often filmed as souvenirs) and probable murder thereafter.

"Groups of 3 to 10 marauding soldiers would begin by traveling through the city and robbing whatever there was to steal. They would continue by raping the women and girls and killing anything and anyone that offered any resistance, attempted to run away from them or simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were girls under the age of 8 and women over the age of 70 who were raped and then, in the most brutal way possible, knocked down and beat up." (Chang, The Rape of Nanking, p. 119.) In addition to those killed after the violation, historian David Bergamini notes that "Many immature girls were turned loose in such a manhandled condition that they died a day or two later. ... Many young women were simply tied to beds as permanent fixtures accessible to any and all comers. When they became too weepy or too diseased to arouse desire, they were disposed of. In alleys and parks lay the corpses of women who had been dishonored even after death by mutilation and stuffing." (Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 195.)

Not all of the victims of rape were female. "Chinese men were often sodomized or forced to perform a variety of repulsive sexual acts in front of laughing Japanese soldiers," writes Chang. "At least one Chinese man was murdered because he refused to commit necrophilia with the corpse of a woman in the snow. The Japanese also delighted in trying to coerce men who had taken lifetime vows of celibacy to engage in sexual intercourse. ... The Japanese drew sadistic pleasure in forcing Chinese men to commit incest -- fathers to rape their own daughters, brothers their sisters, sons their mothers ... those who refused were killed on the spot." (Chang, The Rape of Nanking, p. 95.)

And this began five years before the Holocaust in Europe. For all of their industrialized barbarity, Hitler's Nazi war machine never approached the depths of the stomach turning depravity that the Japanese military did nothing at all to hide. In fact, as Mrs. Chang wrote, Japanese officers and enlisted men alike filmed and photographed their conquests for the amusement of their families and friends at home.

The Germans did go to some lengths to obscure their existence of their mechanized extermination camps in Eastern Europe. They were mentioned not at all in the German media during the war. This is why the Allies forced ordinary Germans to examine those camps after their liberation, to see what the government they supported had done.

Not so the Japanese media, which glorified the atrocities being committed in Nanking. In her book, Chang cites a newspaper article about a contest between two officers about which could behead the most civilians. That article was published alongside a photo of the two grinning criminals with their swords drawn. Japanese civilians on the home islands would read these stories approvingly over breakfast. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese people knew exactly what was being done in their name.

Skippy’s original post can be read in full here . His follow up post which details Japan’s failure to accept responsibility and repent for the numerous crimes against humanity it committed from 1935 – 1945 can be found here . Skippy writes posts that could easily be feature length articles in newspapers or magazines. Please take the time to read them in full.

Most of what Skippy Stalin and I learned of this horrific crime against humanity orignially came from the book “The Rape Of Nanking” by Iris Chang . Haunted by what she learned while in the course of her research on The Rape of Nanking and The Battan Death March, Iris slipped into a deep depression. Tragically, she committed suicide in late 2004 leaving a husband and two young children behind. The story of her will and perseverance has been made into a movie called “IRIS CHANG: The Rape of Nanking” and it premiering this Thursday night, December 13, at 8:00 PM on History Television in both Canada and the United States.

If you want to learn more about The rape of Nanking itself, Princeton Universtiy has an excellent online study that can be found at this link .

Week of Death grand total: 336,339 (best estimate)

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 , Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Thank you for reading!

The Week of Death - Day 4

Two tragedies have occurred in Canada on December 6. The second of these two tragedies, which resulted in the deaths of 14 Canadians, is formally recognized by the Government of Canada by the lowering of flags on all federal buildings. Countless vigils and memorials will be held across the country today. If you want to know more about this tragedy go here . This post is about the first of the two tragedies where 1950 Canadians died and another 9000 were wounded. Outside of Halifax I doubt few Canadians will remember the first tragedy today. Since they won't, we will. - Reg

The Halifax Explosion, December 6, 1917

As two-thirds of our readers are not from Canada I’m thinking most of you have never heard of the Halifax Explosion before. This one minute vignette by historica.ca below gives a quick backgrounder:



Throughout her history the City of Halifax , Nova Scotia, has been key to the development and growth of Canada. It was hardly an accident that when the city was founded 1749 it was located where it was as the city overlooks a natural harbour called Bedford Basin that is wide, deep, and protected from the ravages of the Atlantic Ocean. With the start of World War One in 1914 the Port of Halifax became a key allied link in the supply of munitions and goods to England.

On any given day dozens upon dozens of ships both big and small, civilian and military, would sail in and out of her harbour. Just after breakfast on the morning of December 6, 1917 two ships, the Mont Blanc and Imo collided in ‘the narrows’ of Halifax Harbour and immediately started to burn. It didn’t take long for the good folks of Halifax to gather around and watch the events in the harbour. Had they known what was in the hold of the Mont Blanc they would have ran for their lives.

The French owned Mont Blanc was sailing in to Halifax after sailing from New York City. In NYC the Mont Blanc was loaded with (amongst other things) benzol, 544,000 kilograms of highly explosive picric acid, and 226,797 kilograms of TNT. After burning for approx 20 minutes the Mont Blanc exploded, instantly evaporating, with the equivalent force of 3kilotons. The explosion was the largest man-made explosion in history to that point and wouldn’t be equalled until the Los Alamos atomic tests in 1945. The City of Halifax was levelled.

The devastation was three fold. First, there was the explosion itself; Second, was the tsunami caused by the explosion; Third (from wiki):

Since the explosion occurred in the winter, the blast caused stoves, lamps and furnaces to tip or spill, spreading fires throughout the devastation, particularly in Halifax's North End, leaving entire streets on fire. Fuel reserves were high in preparation for the winter. Many people who had survived the blast were trapped in these fires.

Some 1.32 km² (325 acres) of Halifax was destroyed, essentially leaving a 1.6 kilometre (1 mi) radius around the blast site uninhabitable. Many people who had gathered around the ship either to help or watch were amongst those killed in the blast, or were subsequently hit by the resulting tidal wave. Others who had been watching from the windows of their homes and businesses were either killed instantly or severely injured by the flying glass as their windows shattered inwards.

The human casualties are a statistical nightmare: 1950 dead, 9000 wounded, 38 people blinded from flying glass, 1600 houses destroyed – another 12000 damaged leaving 6000 Haligonian’s homeless. I just read tonight that the explosion caused more deaths in Nova Scotia than the war itself. It is hard to tell the story of something so terrible is just one post. For those interested I offer the following linky links: Wikipedia has an excellent page on the Halifax Explosion and the Archives Canada page has a wealth of photographic and newspaper material. CBC Archives has some fantastic silent film footage that was taken shortly after the disaster.

Week of Death total: 33,950 with more to come

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 , Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Mitchieville Remembers November 10, 1975

“The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald .”

Mitchieville Remembers the Avro Arrow

She would be 50 years old today:



Fifty years ago today Canada stood at the forefront of the aviation world. The Avro CF-105 Arrow was the fastest and most technologically advanced fighter-interceptor in the world. Her delta wing design took away the breath of the nation. Rather disappointingly for the engineers and pilots of the project it was on this same day that the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 into space. While Canada was looking at a jet in Malton, the world was looking up at the stars.

The list of technological first’s that this plane introduced to the world fills a page (see the list below the Arrow specs). For two years she was the pride of the nation. At three-quarters thrust in test flights the CF-105 nearly hit MACH 2. Sighting cost over-runs and little interest from international buyers the Government of Canada cancelled the CF-105 project in 1959.

The cancellation of the Arrow in 1959 and the order to destroy of all the test aircraft was a huge blow the Canadian aeronautics industry. Just as significant was the blow to the national psyche. The cancellation of the Arrow has been a weight on the heart of many Canadians. If out of something bad something good can come about then this would be true for the CF-105 project. From Wikipedia:

"Following the Canadian government's cancellation of the Avro Arrow project in 1959, CF-105 Chief Aerodynamicist Jim Chamberlin led a team of 25 engineers to NASA's Space Task Group to become lead engineers, program managers, and heads of engineering in NASA's manned space programs—Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. This team would eventually grow to 32 Avro engineers and technicians…, Jim Floyd (whose design studies at Hawker Siddeley (Avro Aircraft's UK parent) on the HSA.1000 SST design studies were ultimately influential in the design of the Concorde).”

Most Canadian’s have come to accept that Canada loss was the world’s gain. Fairly or not, many see the Avro Arrow cancellation as the embodiment of a national dream crushed by a cruel government. The great John Diefebaker, never shy to controversy, defended his decision which can be seen here at the CBC Archives (the archives have a wealth of good stuff there folks, I highly recommend).

Today the few remaining pieces of the CF-105 project can be seen at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa. A myth survives that one of the aircraft escaped the cutting torches and has been hidden from the Government every since (I say she’s hiding in the Madawaska Valley). In reality the Avro Arrow only survives in memory and on the web. This site is arguably the best.

"I’ve got young kids…"

I first saw the YouTube post below last winter and decided then to save it for today. The post takes a 911 call and plays that audio beside TV footage of the Twin Towers burning. I’ve seen this clip 4 or 5 times now and still can’t watch it without welling up. For those Canadians and Americans out there who may have forgotten, this is why we are in Afghanistan. Please watch to the end.



Never forgive, never forget.

Highway of Heroes – A rant by Reg

Much has been written (link) over the past few days about an online petition to rename a stretch of Highway 401, Canada’s most heavily travelled highway, to the “Highway of Heroes” in tribute to our fallen in Afghanistan. The highway is already named ‘The MacDonald-Cartier Freeway’ in honour of two great Canadians but I don’t want to debate this aspect of the issue. As I mentioned, only a portion of the highway is being renamed.

For those not familiar with the story, a quick background. Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton is located approx. 150 kilometres East of Toronto (roughly a hundred miles). When a Canadian Forces member is killed overseas the body is flown back to CFB Trenton where it is then driven by hearse to ‘The Ontario Centre for Forensic Science’ where a post mortem is done and a Death Certificate is issued. The body is then transported to wherever in Canada the family of the deceased is having the burial service – usually through CFB Trenton again.

The hearse drives on Highway 401 to get to Toronto. It is hard to say how or when things started, but Ontario residents have taken to lining the overpasses of the 401 in silent tribute to our fallen as they make their way to Toronto. I live in the area and have seen this incredible sight a number of times. I should also add that a number of people line the fences at CFB Trenton to honour or fallen when they first arrive home.

Earlier this year, when six Canadians (link) killed in Afghan were returned home, I happened to be travelling the 401 about 20 minutes ahead of the six hearses. It was a cold, wet, dark, miserable night. Yet, there were hundreds of people out. Just as poignant, at every overpass were the cruisers of the various police forces that operated along the highway. Canadians usually don’t do stuff like this and it made me proud to see so many paying their silent tribute.

A few days ago a young lad from London, Ontario, named James Forbes created an online petition to rename this stretch of the 401 the “Highway of Heroes”. While I’m sure James didn’t intend for this to happen, politicians knowing a good opportunity when they see one jumped on the bandwagon. I see that as I typed this post tonight that the Premier of Ontario has now decreed that the highway will be renamed (link) . I disagree with both James Forbes and Premier McGuinty.

What we have had to date is a beautiful, spontaneous, and patriotic way of commemorating our fallen. The sight of the filled overpasses is sad, but heart warming. We now have politicians, pundits and bloggers (see: The Torch: 'Highway of Heroes') arguing over the merits of renaming a most unworthy stretch of asphalt. It is worth noting that the Province of Ontario named Highway 416 between Ottawa and the 401 “The Veteran’s Memorial Highway” a few years back. Here in the heart of Mitchieville Township, Highway 62 has been renamed in honour of my beloved Militia Regiment .


The more I read the more I see that my opinion is against the common wisdom (though I’m certainly not alone - link ). It especially bothers me that I oppose what a number of parents and loved ones of our fallen in Afghanistan support. I ask that they remember that their loved ones died for the noble cause of freedom and that the freedom of speech is at the very core of the freedom we hold so dear.

When I first heard of this petition the thought that came to mind was of our fallen are being driven down this stretch of highway to be worked on by a pathologist at the Ontario Centre for Forensic Science. I have this image of our fallen dead being driven down what is arguably the most boring stretch of highway in Ontario (it is certainly one of the ugliest) and then laid out on a sterile metal table and being methodically processed. This isn’t how we should be remembering our fallen. My point, though I'm not really sure I am making it very well, is that this all seems a little morbid. Perhaps it is because I think it is “too soon” as our monuments to the dead have traditionally been built after the wars have finished.

It is entirely appropriate to name something in honour of our fallen. As a nation we should name our hockey rinks, softball diamonds, soccer pitches, schools, community centres and town parks after them. I feel that we should wait a few years and erect a cenotaph or national monument to pay tribute to their sacrifice. In the meantime, let us honour them in a more appropriate way than this ‘Highway of Heroes’. This is the wrong tribute at the wrong time. It is for the right reason though, and we have to give James Forbes credit for that.

Lest We Forget


Update:I have read a number posts and news articles on this topic, and there seems to be some confusion over the spelling of ‘The MacDonald-Cartier Freeway'. I had spelled it this way, then went with ‘Macdonald’ after seeing it that way on other blogs. After reading James Bow , and consulting this blog , I can safely say that the spelling in italics above is the correct spelling.

Mitchieville Remembers June 6, 1944

On the morning of June 6, 1944 the first of what would be some 15,000 Canadian’s landed on the sandy beaches of Normandy, France in the sector code-named “Juno”. Along with our British and American brothers the allied solidiers, sailors and airmen were able to gain a small foothold on French soil. Eleven months later the war in Europe would be over. German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel would call June 6 “the longest day”.


The stock photo to the right is of the Canadian landing in 'Nan' sector. The Queen's Own Rifles were assigned the task of assaulting German defences in this sector. The house to the right is unofficially considered the first liberated home in Europe. Over 100 Queen's Own would die within the sight of that house.






I took this picture in 2005 when I was there. The home, still a residence today, is dedicated to the memory of The Queen's Own. One of two pillars erected in honour of the landings is immediately to the right of the house.







This is the landing area in front of house. The thing that struck me was that when the ramp on the landing craft opened the men would have had to run straight into the fire of the German defenders - there is no cover, nowhere to hide. One imagines that it was the longest couple hundred yards any of those men ever had to run.





Juno Beach at Twilight





The last two pictures are of Canadian Headstones taken in The Canadian Military Cemetery at Beny-Sur-Mer, France. The bulk of the graves at Beny-Sur-Mer belong to the Canadian's who died during the D-Day landings and the first part of the Normady Campaign.



During my own research on D-Day I have found this website – members.shaw - to be one of the best our there.

The Juno Beach Centre website is a wealth of information as well. Should you ever find yourself touring the beaches of Normady the Juno Beach Centre is not to be missed.

LEST WE FORGET

A Horror Story the MSM Has Tried To Bury

It's always interesting what the msm deems *news worthy*. For instance, look at the coverage the Imus affair received. You would have thought this Imus character burned down the White House, he was a headliner for a week. And the Duke lacrosse case, that's another strange one. That was on the news full-time until the case started unravelling, then when it was clear the boys were innocent, news organizations ran from it like it was typhoid fever. Even Jesse Jackson acts like he's never heard of it (he still hasn't apologized to the boys for inferring that they were rapists).

What doesn't the msm deem as news? Stories like this:

These two were out on a date minding their own business when they were car jacked and this is what happened to them.

The animals pictured below raped Christopher Newsom, cut off his penis, then set him on fire and fatally shot him several times while they forced his girlfriend, Channon Christian, to watch. An even more cruel fate awaited her!

Channon Christian, was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breast and put chemicals in her mouth … and then murdered her.

Ask yourself the obvious question: If this was four white people that did this exact same thing to a young black couple, would this be front page news? Simplify it even, do you think this is newsworthy? If it is newsworthy, where is CNN with the coverage, or the NY Times, or any of the msm? Their silence speaks volumes.

Also, keep in mind that this happened February 1 of this year, so the story has been kicking around for nearly three months, yet not a peep from the msm, or for that matter, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

What a sickening crime, it really turned my stomach. I hope these animals fry for what they did to this lovely couple, it's too bad there isn't something worse than death that we could give them.



These animals need to die

Trial Dates Set in the Murders of Channon Christian And Christopher Newsom

Mitchieville Remembers Vimy Ridge – Part II

In May 2005 I went on a three week battlefield tour of North-West Europe (and England\Wales) with an old friend from the high school days. We saved Vimy Ridge to the end of our trip as we knew it would be one of the higlights. Today is the 90th Anniversary of the battle. Canadians know the monument but most have never seen the battlefield. I found a few pics to try and show what the field looks like. The picture to the right is the Vimy marker at the Bourlon Woods monument.

Driving up to Vimy Ridge the one thing that struck both of us was how commanding the hill was. The area is flat so you can see the ridge and the monument itself from miles away. Once you're on Vimy Ridge in the monument area you see for tens of miles around.


The first picture explains itself.






I took this picture from the Canadian trench line. The sign you can see is about 100 feet away and marks the front of the German trench line. Note the craters the Canadians would have had to charge through.






The next two pictures are of the Canadian trench system. The first pic shows a trench line that has been allowed to grow back over the years. The second picture shows the maintained portion of the Canadian trench system.







For me the higlight of the day was standing in the underground assault tunnels that hid our soldiers is the weeks before the assault. When visiting the other battlefields the feeling isn't the same. Here, in this tunnel, is where the men who made history stood, ate, slept and prepared for battle. It's damn dark down there and my pictures didn't turn out. If you ever get a chance to visit Vimy Ridge this is a must.


As the monument was closed for renovations (hence the buildings surounding the monument) this was as close as I could get. The way I see it this gives me an excuse to go back again and I will - the 100th anniversary is in 2017.




The Torch has a great write up on the battle itself.


Posted by Reg

Mitchieville Remembers Vimy Ridge

Full story at Dust My Broom



Posted by Reg