I was sitting around Sunday night with the family and some friends enjoying a meal when an anonymous caller rang my cell phone. I answered and a man asked, "Are you Josh Horwitz?" I said yes and he explained that he is a supporter of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (a radical gun-rights group). He then went on to say that with a name like Horwitz I must be Jewish, and he expressed dismay that any Jew could be working for gun control, which he deemed a "Nazi agenda." At which point I hung up.He then proceeds to lie and call private security guards, militia members, Joe Miller, William Fulton & Norm Olson of Alaska, Mike Vanderboegh, what he calls the "insurrectionary right" and Ran Paul supporters. In fact, be perpetuates the lie that LIE that Lauren Valle had her head stomped. He does state that Valle is a MoveOn.org plant, but fails to mention that she attacked Rand Paul.
This is not the first time that an accusation of Nazism has been thrown my way, and unfortunately such irresponsible aspersions occur all too often these days. I am in a rough business, and I understand that. But the events of the last two weeks have got me (and apparently many others) thinking about how the seeds of violence, planted by the insurrectionary right, are starting to birth a movement of thuggery that in some ways mimic the rise of the National Socialists in Weimar-era Germany.
FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
EDITORS: A LONGER VERSION, AT 2,000 WORDS, ALSO MOVES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED OCT. 22, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Oct. 26, 1942: The last man did not fail
Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year.
Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks -- five more days to stock up for Halloween?
It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What he did 58 years ago, he did precisely so his grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.
Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms he and his kind fought to leave us as their legacy, may be a discussion better left for another day. Today we struggle to envision -- or, for a few of us, to remember -- how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago -- the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.
On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven the U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.
World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up in Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By late 1942 they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor of Pearl Harbor.
As Mitchell Paige -- then a platoon sergeant -- and his men set about establishing their last defensive line on a ridge southwest of the tiny American bridgehead at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide a definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?
The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1895. But in preceding days, Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps "with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval historian David Lippman.
The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, American commanders had so little to work with that Paige's men had only four 30-caliber Browning machine guns on the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that fateful night of Oct. 25.
By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men," historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ... The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."
Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.
The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor adds: "When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."
In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition in its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.
The weapon did not fail.
Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?
On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.
One hill: one Marine.
But that was the second problem. Part of the American line (start ital)had(end ital) fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."
For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food to the position the evening before."
Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small force to clear the crest."
And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.
On Oct. 26, 1942.
When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.
But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."
And now you know.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and editor of Financial Privacy Report (subscribe by calling Nicholas at 612-895-8757.) His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site
http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
* * *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have subscribed to vinsends@ezlink.com and you wish to unsubscribe, send a message to vinsends-request@ezlink.com, from your OLD address, including the word "unsubscribe" (with no quotation marks) in the "Subject" line.
To subscribe, send a message to vinsends-request@ezlink.com, from your NEW address, including the word "subscribe" (with no quotation marks) in the "Subject" line.
All I ask of electronic subscribers is that they not RE-forward my columns until on or after the embargo date which appears at the top of each, and that (should they then choose to do so) they copy the columns in their entirety, preserving the original attribution.
The Vinsends list is maintained by Alan Wendt in Colorado, who may be reached directly at alan@ezlink.com. The web sites for the Suprynowicz column are at http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The Vinyard is maintained by Michael Voth in Flagstaff, who may be reached directly at mvoth@infomagic.com.
How can New Jersey imprison a gun owner who broke no laws?The answer is simple, if you own a gun in New Jersey, and other locations that push pantywaistism, you ARE a criminal!
October 19th, 2010 10:04 am ET
Here's the thing: Once it was determined he did not pose a danger to himself or others, why was Aitken not released and his property returned to him?
Mexico Raises More InfantryI wonder if they will recruit from the prisons like the cartels do...
October 19, 2010: The Mexican Army, after four years of heavy action fighting drug gangs in the north, is expanding their combat forces by 18 battalions. The army currently has 80 combat battalions. These include 18 battalions in six combat brigades, nine special operations battalions, three parachute battalions and a Presidential Guard brigade. There are also about 50 infantry battalions, mainly used as garrison troops for the military regions.
Troops chafe at restrictive rules of engagement, talks with TalibanI was just saying what about our Pantywaist Republic? Ignoring the fact that our soldiers have been sent into an un-Constitutional war, the ROE continually get OUR men killed because of the asinine concept of Political Correctness.
By: Sara A. Carter
National Security Correspondent
October 19, 2010
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths: Tthe restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength.
"If they use rockets to hit the [forward operating base] we can't shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village. If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can't shoot back," said Spc. Charles Brooks, 26, a U.S. Army medic with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, in Zabul province.
Word had come down the morning Brooks spoke to this reporter that watch towers surrounding the base were going to be dismantled because Afghan village elders, some sympathetic to the Taliban, complained they were invading their village privacy. "We have to take down our towers because it offends them and now the Taliban can set up mortars and we can't see them," Brooks added, with disgust.
Mexican commander in Hartley investigation decapitatedOf course, absolutely nothing to do with the investigation...
October 13, 2010 12:02 AM
By Martha L. Hernandez, Ana Ley, and Lindsay Machak
The Monitor
ZAPATA — State police in Tamaulipas looking for David Hartley’s body are now investigating the murder of one of their own. Miguel Alemán State Police Commander Rolando Armando Flores Villegas’ head was delivered in a suitcase Tuesday to the military post in Miguel Alemán.
Officials quickly denied connection between Villegas’
apparent murder and Hartley’s disappearance.
Obama agency busts plan to sell rifles to AmericansGo read and then hit the Gun Rights Examiner original report- well worth having the information handy when you point out the hypocrisy.
Feds call popular gun a 'threat,' proposed shipments canceled
Posted: October 12, 2010
8:18 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
The Obama-run Washington bureaucracy has classified a common and reliable rifle, the M1 Garand, as a "threat to public safety in the U.S.," and the State Department has canceled plans by the Republic of Korea to return tens of thousands of surplus rifles to the U.S. for sale in the consumer market.
The stunning classification of an ordinary gun that was used in the U.S. military for two decades and issued to thousands of soldiers and Marines during World War II and Korea as a threat came in a document by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
It is being publicized by Examiner gun rights writer David Codrea, who said the federal agency appeared alarmed that there would be "no more controls [over imported Garands] than any other firearm."
And now a tangentially-related development has been forwarded to me by a source I am keeping anonymous per request. The Kansas City Regional TEW Inter-Agency Analysis Center has prepared an "Intelligence Brief" for law enforcement based on Mike Vanderboegh's in-development novel, "Absolved."Writing now about people employed by The Swamp getting killed gets you on the list. Good to see light being shined upon the cockroaches and their abodes- like the SPLC, KCTEW & MIAC.
At least Bank of America is honest as to why it continues to recommend investors pursue risk assets: "Liquidity-friendly global central bank policies remain the lynchpin of our constructive view on risk assets...Our economics team believes that QE2 will come in the form of purchases of Treasury securities of $500bn - $750bn every six months until the economy reaccelerates."As Hansel properly asked:
on Sun, 10/03/2010 - 16:54The three B's (Bullets, Beans and Bacon) folks, first and foremost- then silver & gold and in the exact order presented.
#622777
Exactly. How would this plan be any different from what Reichsbank did?
Yesterday was a great day in Texas History. It's the day the first shots in the successful Texas revolution were fired. In a surprise attack at dawn October 2nd, 1835 outside Gonzales under the "Come and Take It" flag a band of noble Texicans took the Mexican force which had been sent to seize their cannons.Yes, it is time once more and I ask you, are you ready for it?
"When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression."
Unanimous Declaration of Independence
March 2, 1836
Washington-on-the-Brazo, Texas
"On August 29 Task Force Ranger flew into Mogadishu. They were led by General William Garrison and consisted of 440 elite troops from Delta Force. Their mission was to capture Aidid. But, at the same time, in September 1993 the Clinton Administration began a secret plan to negotiate with Aidid. U.S. military commanders within Somalia were not apprised of this. U.S. Defense Secretary Les Aspin denied a request for armored reinforcements made by General Montgomery.
"Curiously, Reid got a "B" the last time they rated him. What this means is, despite their pledge that a vote for Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would both result in scoring consequences for candidates, they evidently will not reflect that in a ratings downgrade. While the case could be made that Reid's recent actions would have improved his grade, a legitimate case can be made that they have not."
Posts
All Comments
