Something to Think About

Greetings:

You know, I thought that I was the only one who was weird enough to cast aspersions on the Harry Potter series without getting stoned in the town square.  Apparently, there are others who also have seen the little glitches and weird twists in the movie plots.  I ran across a web site today:

https://www.looper.com/3248/disturbing-realizations-harry-potter-universe/sl/

Slavery?  Mind-altering drugs?  No background checks on teachers?  I could go on and on but that would defeat the purpose of pointing you to the link, wouldn't it now?  The author has gone into a lot of detail about the HP series and it is without doubt hilarious.  Well, I got a giggle out of it but, then, I am a bit weird anyway.  :)  Enjoy,

Ya'akov

December 7th - AGAIN

Greetings:

Well, December 7th has rolled around again and, once again, little mentionhas been made on the news in relation to Pearl Harbor 77 years ago.  For those who have forgotten, may I remind you that the Japanese Empire, which felt threatened by the USA, bombed and strafed all the ships and air planes in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at 7:55 a.m. (HST) on Dec 7, 1941 in two waves of dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighter planes for almost three hours.  2,335 American service men were killed while 1,143 were injured. 

Americans called it a "Sneak Attack" because the Japanese had not declared an official war.  However, that was the fault of the diplomats in Washington, D.C., because of their problems translation from Japanes to English so that it could be presented to the Secretary of State Hull.  Most of this is covered in the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!".  Admiral Yamamoto wanted the attack begin no more than 30 minutes (preferably one hour) after the declaration of war that morning just to "keep his skirts clean."  Didn't happen...

Anyway, I just wanted to recall this date to most of you that this is what brought the USA into war with Germany, not something that happened in France or England.  Japan and Italy were in an alliance so when we declared war with Japan, Germany declared war with us.  Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) against the Allied powers; basically, everyone else, but mostly the USA and England - OK, and the Russians.  :)

Shalom
jco

Climb Mount Niitaka

Everyone, well, most everyone, knows about December 7th, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan.  What most do not know was that the Japanese fleet was sitting in the far north Pacific several hundred miles north of Hawaii waiting for the command from the homeland that would contain that particular phrase; "Climb Mount Niitaka".  With that phrase delivered on December 2, 1941, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto opened a sealed envelope that contained the orders from Minister of War Tojo to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7th at 8:00 a.m. Hawaii Time- EXACTLY because that would be when the Japanese Foreign Ministers would have finally delivered the declaration of war to our State Department in Washington, D.C. some 30 minutes before the first bomb was dropped. Some of this is played out in the movie "Tora Tora Tora."

Actually, the attack began at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time. Many think that this was just the Japanese being overly aggressive but in reality they were trying to strike a single blow to keep the USA out of Indo-China.  The USA had already been pursuing some activities in China via General Joe Stilwell prior to 1940 and Japan was worried that their oil supplies would be cut off.  The attack on Pearl Harbor was, in my humble opinion, an "all or nothing" attack that, eventually, proved to be a ghastly mistake.

More coming on December 7th.