It was 66 years ago today that life in the United States was changed forever when an early dawn sneak attack by Japanese planes on our naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii drew the nation into World War II.

21 ships and 188 aircraft were destroyed, and 2,350 military personnel, along with 68 civilians, were killed that day. More than 1,100 were injured. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the next day before a joint session of Congress, called December 7, 1941 "a day that will live in infamy."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

Lazare Ponticelli was laid to rest in France today after a memorial service with full military honors.

Who was Lazare Ponticelli?

He was the last surviving French WWI veteran.

A week before Army Gen. David Petraeus updates Congress on the war in Iraq, two new studies have found that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from especially high rates of post-combat psychological problems, exacerbated by an unusually high rate of repeat deployments.

Veterans for America’s (VFA) Wounded Warrior Outreach Program is concerned with the staggeringly high levels of mental health problems and neurological injuries experienced by today’s troops, and the lack of resources and rehabilitative programs available for our wounded.

Okay, let's imagine you're a U.S. Army psychiatrist.

Oh, so they attack your base with mortars every night? How does that make you feel?

Mmhmm, difficulty sleeping, I see.

Whenever you go out they what? Try to kill you with bombs, machine guns, and rocket propelled grenades? So do you think people are out to get you?

And how does that make you feel?

Anxious, afraid? Ah hah. Angry?

Well you know that's irrational, President Bush isn't shooting at you. And what else is bothering you?

You don't like shooting people. Well, we all have a job to do, it isn't always pleasant . . .

I've been always been fascinated by how people out there in Cyberspace find my blog. Many find it through Google and Google Image searches. And I always want to know where people are coming from.

It seems as though they are coming from the four corners of the world to my blog. That's the beauty of the Internet. A search, some so far off the beaten track lands people here. I get a lot of Red Sox fans naturally, but I get a lot of "Mighty Quinn" searches, all kinds of trivia searches, and also many on the other subjects I write about, such as 9/11, The Twilight Zone and autism.
People from just about every major country of the world have come here at one time or another. The UK continues to be the foreign land that most are from. But I've seen countries like Mongolia, Benin, Fiji, Estonia and Bolivia pop up as well. I'd seen Iraq, Iran, Syria and just about every other Middle Eastern hot spot here, too. A few months back I realized that there were three major countries I had never seen come up on Site Meter: Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea.

. . . you decide.

Which one of these people is more fucking nuts? This woman?

Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years -- so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself." He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom. "And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

Or this man?

So the baseball season is officially into full swing now. After struggling early it seems like the predicted front runners are now a top of their division after a tumultuous start. Everyone except New Yorks duo of high paid and high powered teams. Yes you can throw the Tigers struggling in that mix too. But for Detroit this is new territory. They haven't been outright picked to be a World Series contender in years,while the Mets and Yankees have. As of May 7th both the Mets and Yankees are a combine one game over .500. The New York Mets are sitting at 17-15 and a 1.5 behind the surprising first place Florida Marlins. Johan Santana has only won three of his seven starts this season.

From Wikipedia:

The frog boiling thing turns out to be a myth. As the temperature rises, the frog feels it and pretty quickly tries to escape. But apparently it's possible to slowly raise the temperature on the Murkan People and it takes them a long time to recognize that they are getting poached.

They're going to figure it out pretty soon. Jean Dixon is never accountable for her predictions but I will be. We'll check back this time next year and see how I did.

The Official 2007 MLB World Series Film will be released on November 27. I'm sure like the 2004 DVD (pictured), it will fly off the shelves.

This time it will be narrated by noted Red Sox fan Matt Damon. Last time it was done by Denis Leary, who I thought did a nice job with it.

I would take a wild guess that I won't be in this DVD, as I was in the 2004 film, as the Red Sox were about to win the World Series. A group of friends of mine and myself were shown celebrating as the win took place. I don't remember seeing any MLB camera crews in Professor Thom's during the postseason, but who knows...

This week's special category for Trivia Night will be Presidents Trivia, in honor of the 199th birthday of our most beloved president, Abraham Lincoln. And since the Presidents Day holiday follows next Monday, why not do something special to honor those 42 men who've held the highest office in this land?

We will also have the usual four categories to go along with it, and we will get going at the standard time of 9 PM.

The Sneak Peek question for Tuesday night is:
A graphic equalizer is a common feature on what piece of equipment?

I hope to see many of you for Trivia on Tuesday night.

In my happy world, today is Friday at 6:00pm and I am at home with my feet up waiting for dinner. My parents are now on the road heading to Austin and should get here by Thursday at noon.

On a sad note, my cousin, Kathy had to put her dog to sleep yesterday so if you could say a prayer or some kind thoughts and words her way that would be much appreciated.

Flashback to my first job out of college: Semper Fi - French Style

On November 11th, 1918, an Armistice was signed in a small train car that officially ended WWI - The war to end all wars. Though WWI didn't in fact end all wars, we still observe the date, which is something I hope we never stop doing.

Starting today and lasting through the rest of his deployment in Afghanistan, I am going to reserve a little bit of bandwidth every weekend to bring you some of my favorite images from Roby's quasi-daily photo diaries.

As you've probably heard by now, Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. According to The Local, Lessing "is the oldest person ever to win, and only the eleventh woman since it was first awarded in 1901."

Lest We Forget

In November, we remember. Here in Canada it's Remembrance Day. It's a solemn holiday in this country and even more solemn lately for all the families of Canadians killed in Afghanistan.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that it is extremely crappy. Unfortunately, if you depend on resources such as the Washington Post, you do need me to tell you that.

For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation's strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. Today, the president is getting little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.

Adrian Peterson made a successful return to the Minnesota Vikings lineup today, and after a few conservative plays, cut it loose, and went on to score two touchdowns as the Vikes rolled over the slumping Detroit Lions, 42-10 at the Metrodome.

I missed the game as I attended a very nice Christmas party in New Jersey. I checked for scores on my cell phone, and the first one I saw was 35-10 in the second quarter! It was no mistake as the Vikings scored early and often against the Lions, who beat the Vikings in overtime in Detroit earlier this season.

Caught a post over on adverblog about the launch of a new social networking site for your virtual self, Koinup. The site allows you to connect all of your virtual world experiences in one network- your activities from Second Life, World of Warcraft, The Sims all in one location, where you can post content of your adventures (video of a recent SL trip for example) and browse through the virtual lives of the sites other members.

I am sitting here trying to catch up with emails. Lots of them in the last few days are from readers in Asia.. I had no idea my story would end up in an article over there and be read by a 16-year old student in Singapore or a man in Pakistan...how bizarre is that! But over the last few days emails have been coming in, not just from people here but from people who have read the article or read my book all those thousands of miles away telling me how, although they might have very different lives, they have been able to relate to my story in some way.

I have spent the last hour dipping in and out of some of their blogs, reading about their lives and cultures, being reminded that people are essentially the same wherever they come from, the same fears the same dreams.

Big news today as the Kansas City Chiefs have confirmed they are shopping star defensive end Jared Allen. The Vikings are thought to be one of the frontrunners - along with Tampa Bay and possibly Jacksonville.

Of those teams, the Vikings have the highest first round pick to dangle in front of the Chiefs. And they have the greatest need for a sack specialist, so they should be willing to give the Chiefs what they want.
It should be mentioned however, that Allen has a booze problem, notably two outstanding DUIs. This seems very contradictory for a team that Zygi Wilf is trying to assemble that is "accountable for it's actions" and trying to build up the team's character problems that surfaced around the "sex boat scandal". His problems with the law propose more problems than that though. He'd also have to be signed to a long-term deal for big money and would take up a lot of cap space and one more run-in with the law like that would result in AT LEAST a 4-game suspension (probably more than that). Still, this is a risk worth taking for the Vikings.

Senator McCain expects to be elected president because he supported The Surge™, and it's been a great success. I guess we all have different ideas of what constitutes success.

While we ponder whether growing violence throughout the country (including continuing deaths and injuries of U.S. troops), political disintegration and now a border war between Turkey and Kurdistan constitute success, I want to draw your attention to another surge in Iraq, specifically an outbreak of measles in Anbar province -- you know, the place where we have already won, although oddly a Marine was killed there yesterday in combat? UNICEF today reported a measles outbreak there.

For those of us in the wealthy countries, measles is pretty much history, due to widespread vaccination. When I was a child, it was generally nothing more than a nuisance. But it can occasionally cause permanent disability or death, and children who are malnourished are at much higher risk. Well, while we've been busy sending over tens of thousands more troops and winning the war:

During this time of economic downturn, I keep hearing the mantra we need to add value--to the lives of the consumer, to our products, to the world. Isn't adding value truly what our products should be doing anyway? Is it time for each of us and society to rethink what adds value and what doesn't add value to our lives and to the world? Maybe it's time to eliminate the nonvalue pieces and develop more of the value add pieces to the mix.

There has been a great deal of debate, and consternation, in Congress recently concerning the Bush Administration's intention to enter into a a bilateral Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq by the end of July. The Administration has indicated that it does not plan to obtain any congressional authorization or Senate approval for such an agreement. Many legislators believe this would be unconstitutional. So, for example, Senator Clinton has introduced S.2426, which would express the "sense of Congress that any bilateral agreement between the United States and Iraq involving `commitments or risks affecting the nation as a whole', including a status of forces agreement (SOFA), that is not a treaty approved by two-thirds of the Senate under Article II of the Constitution or authorized by legislation does not have the force of law," and that would prohibit the use of funds to carry out such an SOFA that is not such a Senate-approved treaty.

Sen. McCain says, "Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq.’ My friends, if we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base. They’d be taking a country, and I’m not going to allow that to happen." He's running largely on the strength of his claimed foreign policy expertise. He says -- and he reiterated yesterday -- that if the United States withdraws from Iraq, al Qaeda will take over the country.

The pundits and so-called "reporters" who work for the corporate media, including, as in the link above, the New York Times, aren't going to tell you that this is completely nuts. They treat this analysis as credible and therefore, undoubtedly, many people will believe it.

Have you ever had someone ask you, "Since our days are supposed to be numbered, why should we pray for those who are bad off?" "In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, 'This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.' Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 'Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in Your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the Word of the Lord came to him: 'Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, 'This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.' 'I will add fifteen years to your life.'" (2 Kings 20:1-6 NIV). That is a prime example of the power of prayer. When I was 15-years-old I had a malignant brain tumor and surgery. No chemo. No radiation. I was basically sent home to die. Many people were praying for me. I'll be 54-years-old in a few weeks. Don't ever stop praying for others. God works miracles because of prayer!

The Veterans Committee yesterday announced their selections of who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2008 yesterday. They elected former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, former Red Sox manager Dick Williams, oldtime Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, and manager Billy Southworth to the Hall (and curiously passed on Marvin Miller, who changed the game forever in the 1960s and 1970s as head of the players union).

And oh yes, one other man was elected. Walter O'Malley.

Or as he's still called around these parts by the old timers: Sonofabitch O'Malley.

I want to wish all of you out there a warm and blessed St. Patrick's Day. I'll be spending it rather quietly at home, watching the parade from Manhattan on TV, as well as the Red Sox game from Tampa against the Yankees. It's a clear, chilly day here in New York, and I'm just glad to have some good weather on this day for a change. A remember a few years ago when we had a fast-moving snowstorm go through during the day.

I've only been to the parade on a couple of occasions live, and I rarely go out drinking to celebrate the day. I'll knock back a cold one and have some Irish soda bread tonight in honor of St. Patrick (pictured) and my Irish heritage. (It might be sacreligious to say this, but I can't stand corned beef and cabbage!)

And remember, there are only two kinds of people in the world.

Those who are Irish, and those who wish they could be.