Listened to this last night live, as was Kate. She texted, “This speech is crazy good.” I was told to get it on SDA ASAP. It took all night. Israeli PM Netanyahu. It is worth the wait.

An abridged version of a BBC Radio 4 documentary provided the audio backdrop for this video:

Full credit & thanks goes to SDA’s ‘Ken Kulak’ for providing invaluable historical info to create it.

David Brooks in the NY Times:

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One hundred years ago, we had libertarian economics but conservative values. Today we have oligarchic economics and libertarian moral values — a bad combination…

Meanwhile, taking advantage of things gone wrong across the pond:

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The Australian navy plans to recruit up to 1,000 Royal Navy sailors facing redundancy under the Government’s defence cuts.

Velvet President: Why Vaclav Havel is our era’s George Orwell and more. (from 2003)
Tribute from President George W. Bush – “The most subversive act of the playwright from Prague was telling the truth about tyranny. And when that truth finally triumphed, the people elected this dignified, charming, humble, determined man to lead their country.”
And finally, in his own words.

The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.

70 years ago today, on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii:

“In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.” — Admiral Yamamoto
Related:

• The USS Arizona Memorial
• The USS Missouri, on the decks of which Japan surrendered nearly 4 years later. It is now docked very near to the aforementioned memorial
• A partial glimpse into what resulted from the Pearl Harbor attack

Twenty years ago today the revolutionary giant, Pan American World Airways, came to the end of its 64 year life. It wasn’t just the demise of any airline, but rather THE premiere airline the world had ever known.

Here’s a collection of assorted links about Pan Am to remind us all of what once was.

Here’s a short video I put together of the area in Dallas where Kennedy was shot. Eerie place.
h/t foobert