Japanese Racing Horse Assoc.

[karlskorner]

The sale of a Sunday Silence colt for $2.8 million and a Giant Causeway colt for $1.3 million at a recent sale at the Japanese Racing Horse Assoc. was interesting reading until last night when I watched a PBS broadcast on the Bataan Death March and how the Japanese "set fire" to 150 U.S. prisioners to prevent them from being freed by US Rangers. It was only 60 years ago, how soon we forget.

[gillenr]

12/07/41
&
9/11/01
Will we have forgotten 9/11 in 2061 like we have forgotten 12/07?

[cj]

Have the Native Americans forgotten what we did to them?

How about descendants of the slaves?

Its not the same people in Japan, just like none of us killed Native Americans or owned slaves. I don't expect to be held accountable for those things, why should today's Japanese people be held accountable for what happened 60 years ago?

[cj]

Got to thinking about the above post...all I'm saying is where do we draw the line? I don't have the answers. I doubt anyone does.

[gino]

saw the same show, and thought about throwing my VCR(and t.v. , etc) out the window...then i remembered Hiroshima, and even tho it didn't bring any of those guys back, mebbe it evened the score...(?)...we do a lot of crazy, ugly stuff to each other, but if you're blessed, manana is another day...it's wise to glance back once in awhile, but it's best to look right in front of you...at something u can do something about...we should be eternally grateful to those who paid the ultimate price, to the guys who lived, and to the guys who rescued them....nobody knows why the hell we fight wars, but we always have and we always will...
just polished off some sushi and washed it down with a Budweiser, i guess that's what "peace" is all about...
gino
"the road goes on forever, and the party never ends..."

[Derek2U]

U just joined Lefty & Boxcar at their hip. My cure is to get out
more often .... go Urban .... get outta ur small town brain. There
is a VasT world waiting & U & that aforementioned duo R just
earth by-products. (Sorry, but those 2 clumps think they know
2003 stuff when in reality its closer 2 1935)

[VetScratch]

In most bitter conflicts between tribes, races, religions, creeds, nations, and so forth, the best treatment that prisoners or captured populations can expect is whatever is deemed customary in the culture of the enemy.

The history of internal conflicts in Japan clearly indicates that Allied prisoners in the Bataan Death March were treated no worse than Japanese prisoners would have been treated in a civil war within Japan. The same can't be said about Nazi Germany, where many prisoners and captured populations received monstrous treatment as compared to how Germans would have treated each other in a civil war.

In our own Civil War, mortality rates at POW camps do not compare favorably with many of our other conflicts. "War Is Hell" and must be universally rejected!

[diablogger]

Originally posted by VetScratch
In most bitter conflicts between tribes, races, religions, creeds, nations, and so forth, the best treatment that prisoners or captured populations can expect is whatever is deemed customary in the culture of the enemy.

The history of internal conflicts in Japan clearly indicates that Allied prisoners in the Bataan Death March were treated no worse than Japanese prisoners would have been treated in a civil war within Japan. The same can't be said about Nazi Germany, where many prisoners and captured populations received monstrous treatment as compared to how Germans would have treated each other in a civil war.

In our own Civil War, mortality rates at POW camps do not compare favorably with many of our other conflicts. "War Is Hell" and must be universally rejected!

I'll try to remember that next Independence Day. :rolleyes:

[VetScratch]

Diablogger,

English has become the most prevalent second language in the world. Thus, many foreign observers have noted that our adopted National Anthem is almost unique among nations in the way phrases like "rockets red glare" and "bombs bursting in air" symbolize the ferocity of human conflict. I think many American patriots would agree that a better message might be sent if we adopted "America The Beautiful" as our anthem.

[Show Me the Wire]

VetScratch:

I think the phrases symbolize U.S. tanacity in the face of ferocity. It was the light bursting forth from the explosions allowing everyone to literally see U.S. resolve in continuing to withstand the attack. It has nothing to do with glorifying violence and everything to do with resisting ferocity of others.

Yes, America is beautiful, but that is not what the U.S. is about. The U.S. is about freedom and the price of freedom.

Regards,
Show Me the Wire

Perception is reality

[azibuck]

On the money. I think it was George Carlin who said something about 'it's the only anthem with rockets and bombs in it.' And others, like him, continue to take the phrases out of context.

Not saying you necessarily did that Vetscratch, but the Star-Spangled Banner is the most powerful and meaningful song to our country.

Quick story that may or not be relevant: I was talking to a Viet Nam vet once about flag burning. He told a story of how he and some other men got lost at night in the jungle. They managed to find their way back, and when he saw the US flag he dropped to his knees and cried.

I think patriots would prefer keeping the SSB as the national anthem. It's the pansy Liberal hate-America crowd that would change it.

(That was a joke. I don't know what a Liberal is, but I am a confirmed Democrat.)

az

[VetScratch]

As things stand today, far more English-speaking foreigners have heard our anthem than U.S. citizens. It smacks of colonialism to expect our words to be understood in context by the world's schoolchildren, who are required to master literal English much sooner than they will encounter the world history courses needed to understand how our lyrics symbolize the doctrine of democracy that emerged in the 18th century and precipitated the American and French Revolutions.

[gino]

vettie-
all political yapping aside, (the dogs of war and all that)(sorry, fra fra), as far as songs go, it's like this:
America the Beautiful= Mormon Tabernacle Choir
StarSpangled Banner= Huey Lewis and The News
given the fact that 4 out of 10 "Americans" when given a map of the world can't locate the United States, i'm rockin' with the red glare. leave the purple mountains majesty out there on the fruited plain...or maybe on the infield at Prairie Meadows...(i almost said Assiniboia Downs, but that would have worked Celine Dion into this thread, And DerEK has already accused me of being terminally unhip, even tho i thought his story of romance and karaoke was way cool...
or as Barry say it:
"too much of anything is not enuf,,,"
gino
baby baby

[VetScratch]

Gino,

I would have been just as happy one the other side of this debate, but that is the price of freedom. All pro and no con is only apropos at the Street Mumblers Ball. :D :D

[Dick Schmidt]

Little known fact about the Star Spangled Banner. Everyone knows that it was written by F.S. Key watching the Brits shell Fort McHenry in Baltimore. What few remember is that Key wrote a poem, not a song. It was later set to the music of an "old English drinking song" and not adopted as the National Anthem for some time.

Given that it is notoriously hard to sing, I would love to hear the original "drinking song" lyrics as sung by a pub full of semi drunken Brits. Has anyone ever heard the original???? I've never been able to locate it or met anyone who has ever heard it.

Dick

P.S. Those who consider the song too warlike, consider that it celebrates brave men standing to their guns while the most powerful navy in the world pounded their fort to pieces, killing most of them. The British went on to burn Washington and make a serious attempt at retaking what they had lost in 1783. What better could we possibly find to enshrine as our National song than our willingness to defend our freedom?

As for smacking of colonialism, remember WE were the colony and the first to break from an European power. How is it that when the "ex-colonial" governments get together to castigate the West, we are never invited? We were first to rise and lit the way for the rest of the world.

[wes]

“There’s A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere,” which he recorded in March of 1942. It became one of the top selling country records of the ere, selling somewhere between one and four million copies. As Elton was recording during the World War II era, several of the songs on this album include patriotic themes. If you remember the days when Elton Britt was one of the biggest Country & Western artists around, or if you enjoy beautiful vintage music, you will always treasure this excellent collection of rare recordings.

You can find information on his recordings by searching under
Elton Britt.

wes

[VetScratch]

Dick Schmidt,
Your very interesting and factual post should be enlightening to those who associate the Star Spangled Banner with Independence Day since the same tune with numerous comic verses was also a popular American drinking song during the Revolutionary War. Most of the lyrics originated with the British, but American colonists added their own lyrics, as well.

[Dick Schmidt]

Vet,

So where can I find out more information on the song? Or better yet actually hear it. It's GOT to be somewhere on the internet!!!! Isn't everything?


Dick

[JustRalph]

http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm

[VetScratch]

Come gather all ye horsemen,
For I've a tale to tell;
How Wilson's wife stole the song
We all revered so well!


Almost in the shadows of the Twin Spires that tower over the Kentucky Derby, support for restoring "America The Beautiful" as our anthem appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal on the day before Pearl Harbor Day in 1992. Reprinted here: http://www.trussel.com/hf/unsingbl.htm

[Dick Schmidt]

Thank you Ralph. I didn't know it had been re-used so many times. Strange for a song that is so hard to sing, but maybe they had more range back then when people sang all the time.

Now if I can just find a MP3 to download. I'm sure it's out of copyright.

Dick