Japan Apologizes for Bataan Death March:

Well, now that this ugly business is behind us, we can finally right one of the most unfair INTENTIONAL injustices of World War II: the case of Colonel Wendell Fertig.

Colonel Fertig was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Philipines. When the Commonwealth was about to fall, he disobeyed his orders to surrender and instead decided to stay behind the lines as a guerrilla, hoping to give the Japanese hell while the Americans organized a counteroffensive.

He knew that the Filipinos were fiercely pro-American, but they would not take a mere Lieutenant Colonel seriously, so he promoted himself to Brigadier General. With a core from other escaped US and Philipines military, he eventually put together a fighting force of 38,000 effectives, of which more than 16,000 were armed.

This man raised a lot of hell for as long as he could, which meant he was tying down Japanese troops that could be fighting elsewhere. A soldier commanding 38,000 troops would have been wearing the two stars of a Major General. Instead, he was snubbed by General MacArthur’s inner circle (MacArthur had said earlier in the war that guerrilla operations in the Philipines would be impossible, yet there was this lowly Lieutenant Colonel controlling thousands of irregulars, making life hell for the Japanese and making MacArthur sound like he didn’t know what he was talking about).

They promoted him to Colonel and gave him the DSC. Had this happened anywhere else in the war, he would have received the Medal of Honor and the first of what would had been many stars.

Luckily, he has not been forgotten. He is revered in the Philipines, and he is considered as one of the fathers of the US Special Forces.

If anyone close to the powers that be reads this, please right this wrong and give Wendell Fertig a posthumous promotion to Brigadier General, USA. He god damn well deserved it.

Last survivor of the Titanic dies, aged 97 – Europe- msnbc.com

Senior bowlers strike down Hillsboro purse thief:

This dumbass teenager decided to steal a couple purses from some old ladies at a bowling alley. Then things went terribly wrong (for him). The victims and other bowlers from the senior league chased him all over the place and eventually pinned him down until the cops came.

They should have whooped his ass. I would have loved to see his arraignment even if he is a minor.

Diversity on the Supreme Court:

Sonia Sotomayor doesn’t look so diverse when you see her as one more person that went to college, then on to law school and government employee drawing a safe paycheck for the rest of her adult life (you could argue that her private practice work between 1984 and 1992 was not as “safe” but let’s be realistic here, hotshot ex ADAs don’t get laid off from law firms when things get tough).

Diversity my ass.

Software Enables Re-Creation of ‘Lost’ Instrument: When I read this headline I thought it was about the pendulum from Lost, but it is a musical instrument.

This is by far my best game of Call of Duty: World at War.

Smoke Monster From ‘Lost’ Given Own Primetime Spin-Off Series | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

This is why I hate the Internet.

The Incredible Shrinking Clintons:

Fascinating article on how President Obama effectively neutralized Bill and Hillary Clinton by bringing them into the cabinet.

Money quote:

Asked why he was naming some of his rivals to top administration jobs, President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best: “I’d rather have them inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.”

U.S. ‘Likely’ Could Intercept North Korean Missile: Wouldn’t North Korea go bankrupt if they keep spending so much money in pissing off their rivals instead of trying to take care of their own country? Where is the money coming from?

It’s probably because Twitter is down an they can’t twitter about it.