Ghost and Toast
Caspar the Pardoned Ghost
Or
Cap Gets Knifed
(Props to Monty and Craig for the shared epitaphany)
Or
Caspar the Defense Ghost
(Further adulation for Monty)
Or
Caspar the Ghost
(This lack of creativity stolen wholly without permission from Derby Dead Pool, where I’m still sitting in 37th, and deathlist.net)
Or
The friendly spook
(More larceny from www.stiffs.com)
Or
You can't spell "Weinberger dies" without SDI
(Additional honorifics for Craig)
Caspar Weinberger, who helped three different Republican presidents circumvent the Constitution, has died of pneumonia at the age of 88. Weinberger’s approach to government was that the social safety net wasn’t worth keeping, but the impossible-to-build missile safety net known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars, was worth running up crippling deficits for decades. First entering the White House under Nixon, Weinberger served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, earning the nickname Cap the Knife as he shot down budget requests with a smile, then started screwing the poor as secretary of health, education and welfare, a position he also held down for President Ford. After a brief malaise for his wife and the country, Weinberger returned as secretary of defense under President Reagan, and rode herd over the largest and costliest peacetime military build-up ever in peacetime. As secretary of defense, Weinberger was rigid in his opposition to the Soviet Union, but got outfoxed by secretary of state George Shultz, who courted Nancy Reagan and rode the day as President Reagan took a warmer posture toward Mikhail Gorbachev. Weinberger also wrapped himself in a bit of shame in his role in the Iran-Contra Affair, selling arms to Iran to fund soldiers in Nicaragua – a role conveniently covered up with a presidential pardon from George I after being indicted on felony charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Four of us expected for the Cap to get popped, most notably, Don’s Dead-End Canadians, who move into 16th as Don’s streak of futility ends at 2 years, 4 months, 28 days. Joining him in 16th are Michelle's Corpse Descending a Staircase (after 4 years of waiting) and Monty’s DC Undead, while Mark’s Beltway Boneyard III: Filibustering the Grim Reaper takes 6th. For those curious about the last man in good standing, it’s Craig, now 1 year and 15 days since X-ing out George Kennan.
The Leaderboard
1st Jennifer
3 hits, 13.52380953 points
2nd Paul - Pushing Daisies
2 hits, 30 points
tie Shawn - Team Three – Old
2 hits, 30 points
4th Monty - Italian Whine
2 hits, 26.66666667 points
5th Monty - Comedy of Terrors
2 hits, 22.85714286 points
20,000 Centimeters Under the Earth
Or
Toe Tag, Toe Tag, Toe Tag
Or
Final Voyage
Or
Dead Sonja
(Another entry from Craig’s list)
Or
Soon to be Soylent Green
(Craig keeps sharing)
Soylent Green is made from Richard Fleischer, as one of the most anonymous directors of movies you know by heart has died at the age of 89. Among Fleischer’s hits include 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Tora, Tora, Tora; Doctor Dolittle; Soylent Green and Fantastic Voyage. Among his cultural experiments were The Vikings, Barabbas and Che! Along the way, he learned that Sylvia Sidney could cry on cue, Orson Welles didn’t like when actors looked at him during a scene and Rex Harrison, who needed “a swift kick in the head,” complained when animals failed to make eye contact. His later career atrocities after he had lost regard for audiences included the Neil Diamond vehicle The Jazz Singer, Amityville 3-D, Red Sonja and Conan the Destroyer.
Lem’s the Breaks
(The cap tipped again for Mr. Barker)
Stanislaw Lem, arguably the finest Polish science fiction author ever, has died of heart failure at the age of 84. Best remembered for Solaris, which was turned into the 1972 feature film Solaris and the inferior 2002 feature film Solaris, he also wrote the 1951 novel "Astronauci" ("The Astronauts"), which was turned into the 1960 East German film Der Schweigende Stern, which became the dubbed Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder First Spaceship on Venus, which he repudiated and unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from. Living in Poland during WWII, Lem hid his Jewish background while sabotaging German vehicles in ways not easily detectable. He did the same thing to the Communist regime, which largely ignored his science fiction, making him an effective political satirist.
Shotgun dead, and boy was he bony
Or
Scattering something else around the field...
(Craig continues…)
Red Hickey, the NFL coach credited with inventing the shotgun formation making it easier for quarterbacks to run like scared rabbits, has died at the age of 89. Hickey helped the 1941 University of Arkansas team make the Final Four, then moved on to the Cleveland Rams, where he won the 1945 NFL championship as an end. In 1960, in his second year as coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Hickey devised his famed formation. Unfortunately, John Brodie was pretty nigh incompetent, and Hickey resigned in 1964 with a 27-27-1 record. He later showed his little trick to the Dallas Cowboys and Roger Staubach, who had a little more success.
Or
Cap Gets Knifed
(Props to Monty and Craig for the shared epitaphany)
Or
Caspar the Defense Ghost
(Further adulation for Monty)
Or
Caspar the Ghost
(This lack of creativity stolen wholly without permission from Derby Dead Pool, where I’m still sitting in 37th, and deathlist.net)
Or
The friendly spook
(More larceny from www.stiffs.com)
Or
You can't spell "Weinberger dies" without SDI
(Additional honorifics for Craig)
Caspar Weinberger, who helped three different Republican presidents circumvent the Constitution, has died of pneumonia at the age of 88. Weinberger’s approach to government was that the social safety net wasn’t worth keeping, but the impossible-to-build missile safety net known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars, was worth running up crippling deficits for decades. First entering the White House under Nixon, Weinberger served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, earning the nickname Cap the Knife as he shot down budget requests with a smile, then started screwing the poor as secretary of health, education and welfare, a position he also held down for President Ford. After a brief malaise for his wife and the country, Weinberger returned as secretary of defense under President Reagan, and rode herd over the largest and costliest peacetime military build-up ever in peacetime. As secretary of defense, Weinberger was rigid in his opposition to the Soviet Union, but got outfoxed by secretary of state George Shultz, who courted Nancy Reagan and rode the day as President Reagan took a warmer posture toward Mikhail Gorbachev. Weinberger also wrapped himself in a bit of shame in his role in the Iran-Contra Affair, selling arms to Iran to fund soldiers in Nicaragua – a role conveniently covered up with a presidential pardon from George I after being indicted on felony charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Four of us expected for the Cap to get popped, most notably, Don’s Dead-End Canadians, who move into 16th as Don’s streak of futility ends at 2 years, 4 months, 28 days. Joining him in 16th are Michelle's Corpse Descending a Staircase (after 4 years of waiting) and Monty’s DC Undead, while Mark’s Beltway Boneyard III: Filibustering the Grim Reaper takes 6th. For those curious about the last man in good standing, it’s Craig, now 1 year and 15 days since X-ing out George Kennan.
The Leaderboard
1st Jennifer
3 hits, 13.52380953 points
2nd Paul - Pushing Daisies
2 hits, 30 points
tie Shawn - Team Three – Old
2 hits, 30 points
4th Monty - Italian Whine
2 hits, 26.66666667 points
5th Monty - Comedy of Terrors
2 hits, 22.85714286 points
20,000 Centimeters Under the Earth
Or
Toe Tag, Toe Tag, Toe Tag
Or
Final Voyage
Or
Dead Sonja
(Another entry from Craig’s list)
Or
Soon to be Soylent Green
(Craig keeps sharing)
Soylent Green is made from Richard Fleischer, as one of the most anonymous directors of movies you know by heart has died at the age of 89. Among Fleischer’s hits include 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Tora, Tora, Tora; Doctor Dolittle; Soylent Green and Fantastic Voyage. Among his cultural experiments were The Vikings, Barabbas and Che! Along the way, he learned that Sylvia Sidney could cry on cue, Orson Welles didn’t like when actors looked at him during a scene and Rex Harrison, who needed “a swift kick in the head,” complained when animals failed to make eye contact. His later career atrocities after he had lost regard for audiences included the Neil Diamond vehicle The Jazz Singer, Amityville 3-D, Red Sonja and Conan the Destroyer.
Lem’s the Breaks
(The cap tipped again for Mr. Barker)
Stanislaw Lem, arguably the finest Polish science fiction author ever, has died of heart failure at the age of 84. Best remembered for Solaris, which was turned into the 1972 feature film Solaris and the inferior 2002 feature film Solaris, he also wrote the 1951 novel "Astronauci" ("The Astronauts"), which was turned into the 1960 East German film Der Schweigende Stern, which became the dubbed Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder First Spaceship on Venus, which he repudiated and unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from. Living in Poland during WWII, Lem hid his Jewish background while sabotaging German vehicles in ways not easily detectable. He did the same thing to the Communist regime, which largely ignored his science fiction, making him an effective political satirist.
Shotgun dead, and boy was he bony
Or
Scattering something else around the field...
(Craig continues…)
Red Hickey, the NFL coach credited with inventing the shotgun formation making it easier for quarterbacks to run like scared rabbits, has died at the age of 89. Hickey helped the 1941 University of Arkansas team make the Final Four, then moved on to the Cleveland Rams, where he won the 1945 NFL championship as an end. In 1960, in his second year as coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Hickey devised his famed formation. Unfortunately, John Brodie was pretty nigh incompetent, and Hickey resigned in 1964 with a 27-27-1 record. He later showed his little trick to the Dallas Cowboys and Roger Staubach, who had a little more success.
posted by The Grim Reaper at 10:44 PM
1 Comments:
Caspar Weinberger's plain-prose memoir, generally devoid of emotion, recounts his rise to the top of the defense establishment and his controversial tenure there.
What "In the Arena" [Regnery] does not recount is his pivotal involvement with the Jonathan Pollard spy case. Weinberger was called upon by the judge to assess the damage Pollard, a civilian Navy analyst, did to national security.
Asked in an interview why he omitted the incident, Weinberger casually replied, "Because it was, in a sense, a very minor matter but made very important." Asked to elaborate, Weinberger repeated, "As I say, the Pollard matter was comparatively minor. It was made far bigger than its actual importance."
Pressed on why the case was made far bigger than its actual importance, Weinberger answered, "I don't know why — it just was."
In the first chapter, Weinberger bluntly lays to rest the assumption that he was raised Jewish, noting that both his father and grandfather were indifferent to any religion dating back to a synagogue quarrel in Bohemia involving the family three generations earlier.
Weinberger instead was influenced by his mother's interest in the Episcopalian Church. Later, during his Harvard days, he became an active Episcopalian, noting that his "faith in God has been an enormous influence and comfort all my life."
Weinberger's intense interest in things military started with his "illegal" attempt to join the Royal Air Force in 1941 to fight Germany before the United States joined the war. (He was turned down because of bad eyesight.) Later he did enlist in the Army, serving in the South Pacific. There he met an army nurse, Jane, who would become his wife.
Weinberger tells how his World War II service was invaluable training for when he became secretary of defense in 1981.
"In particular, I was stuck by the terrible lack of foresight that had left America so unprepared (in 1941) — materially, psychologically, and in trained manpower — for war. ... In 1981, I saw that, again, we had basically the same shortages of equipment and qualified personnel at the height of the Cold War."
Laced throughout the book is Weinberger's immense devotion to and admiration of Ronald Reagan, whom he credits with winning the Cold War. The turning point, Weinberger writes, was "when President Reagan, in perhaps his most major violation of conventional wisdom, blatantly told the world that Communism was an Evil Empire."
It was Weinberger, of course, as secretary of defense, march madness who built up America's military might to show the Soviets that Reagan meant business.
An exception to the emotionless telling of his life is a chapter in which Weinberger laments the "horribly debilitating" toll of his indictment by the special prosecutor during the Iran-Contra debacle. Weinberger insists Reagan was totally unaware of the conspiracy. The personal sportsbook humiliation for Weinberger and his family, and the financial toll in legal bills, is retold mincing no words. www.enterbet.com
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