The passing of Mrs. Thatcher
I know some of you dropped off comments and sent me emails about Mrs. Thatcher’s passing. I wasn’t ignoring it, really, I wasn’t. I was just a little bit in shock. The first thing I thought of was how Argentina would press for their Malvina Islands back now that there’s no one to stand in their way. I feel fortunate that I was alive and in the military while Ronald Reagan was at our helm and Mrs. Thatcher had our back, and sometimes it went the other way around, like during the Falklands battle.
Together we were invincible, we brought down the Soviet Union without firing a shot, for Pete’s sake. I can’t even begin to explain how it felt to be a soldier in those days when our two nations merged under those real leaders.
Our buddy, Aunty Brat, does a much better job at eulogizing her and recounting some of her accomplishments and trials, though. Twitchy tells us how Twitter mourned and how Twitter acted the fool.
Category: Breaking News
A great lady, gone. And to make matters worse, my favorite Mouseketeer has joined her. I think I’ll just get drunk tonight.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/showbiz/annette-funicello-obit
Thanks for the link. Obviously, there is so much I left unsaid, including how I know she would have really had more than a few choice things to say to the current POTUS..;) I also left unsaid much about the relationship SHE and America had compared to what the current MIC and the UK relationship is.
We will not see her like again – and in many ways, that is cause for sad reflection..
“The only statue of Lady Thatcher in North America stands on the Hillsdale College campus. She visited the campus in 1994 and spoke at college events on several occasions. We are proud to have known her. At our spring convocation on Thursday we will say prayers of thanksgiving for her life and service.” From the college’s email announcing her death
@1: Yes, Annette is gone too. I read a story about her today. She loved Walt Disney and regarded him as her second dad. After the MM Show ended, she was retained on contract by Disney and made a bunch of beach movies. She’s the only girl in a one-piece suit. She said that Walt asked her for that favor and she honored it. All of the other girls wore bikinis.
RIP Margaret Thatcher, God speed.
Video of Mrs. Thatcher on why socialism fails.
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/thatcher-socialism-free-market/2013/04/08/id/498313?promo_code=125BD-1&utm_source=125BDTelegraph_Media_Group&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
In the next election, the smarter Labourites and Liberals will claim Baroness Thatcher as their political godmother. Obama did the same to Reagan last year, even though the POTUS spent the Reagan years protesting Reagan and scoring pot and girls (I know the rumors say otherwise about the girls, but wth).
If you were a supporter of President Reagan … you most certainly adored The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. RR and MT were a team that went undefeated. As a Cold Warrior, I can atest that if not for the two … two things could have happended … neither good.
Fair well Margaret Thatcher … St. Peter will pass you straight through no doubt and I am sure Ronnie has been saving a seat for you.
The end of an era, certainly. Quite the lady, in every sense of the word. And a magnificant PM. That was indeed a great time to serve in the military, with those two running things properly.
Have a very small grin going right now at the image of Mrs. Thatcher meeting up with Annette at the Pearly Gates then being greeted by Ronny just inside.
One hell of a leader. R.I.P. Mrs. Thatcher.
I recall reading an anecdote where her, her husband, and her aides played hostages as part of an SAS live-fire exercise. When the operatives came bursting in, everyone hit the floor except her, and she told them to get up because they were embarrassing her.
As a friend of mine said, it would figure that the last British leader with any balls was a woman.
I had the honor to serve-train with all of the three SAS Regiments (21,22,23). All of the men loved her (troopers and officers) whether from England Scotland or Wales… rich/poor etc. It was a real eye opener for me regarding the UK and what goes on behind the scenes (remember the IRA were doing their damage as well). My eyes are now a bit misty with her passing.
R.I.P. Lady Thatcher.
She was truly a Lady, whether through a peerage. She became an inspiration for a lot of people, including me. I loved Reagan but I think I had just as deep a feeling for her as well. Margaret Thatcher was a take no crap leader that the world so desperately needs now more than ever. God Bless You Lady Thatcher. BRAVO ZULU and may we be worthy.
I have to agree with you Jonn. It was a great time to be a soldier. The combined efforts of three people sped along the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.
I felt honored to be a part of a fighting force led by Reagan. It was also wonderful to know the Briton sitting across from me had a formitable leader in Margaret Thatcher. She will be truly missed.
I think the celebrations over her death are deplorable, but on the other hand Margaret Thatcher shouldn’t be venerated as a saint. No doubt she was a stalwart soldier against Communism but her actions in Ulster did little to promote peace there. Her policy of internment and lack of effort to reduce Catholic discrimination (thereby increasing unemployment)created the flair up of IRA activity in the 80s.
Tensions were gradually reduced when Tony Blair, soon to be a Catholic convert, apologized for Ireland’s Great Hunger/Famine in 1997 in recognition of the suffering at the hands of the British during the mid 1800s and the resulting diaspora.
Sorry I had to say something.
My military career started under Regan! I never felt so secure and proud to serve under any leader since. Lady Thatcher was a large part of the secure feeling of the time. She may have had issues but she damned sure meant what she said and had the balls to follow through. The world has lost the last of the True leaders.
Gods speed Lady Thatcher!!
Off topic: No, dnice, it was not Mrs Thatcher who created the flair up of IRA activities – it was IRA thugs who did that.
@17 Depends on how you define thugs…if after decades or centuries of being systemically treated by the government as less than equal you decide to fight back are you a terrorist or a freedom fighter?
I suspect it depends on who wins and gets to write the history. In the US the revolution was won by freedom fighters, had they lost the Brits would have hung them as thugs and criminals no doubt.
I’m a big fan of Thatcher’s she was tough, no bullsh1t, steadfast….all things to be admired. I don’t know that she contributed to the rise of IRA activities as dnice suggests, but I do know you can sh1t on people only so long before they fight back if they have the means to do so.
@18 Aw, c’mon. By the time Lady Thatcher became prime minister, the Irish had the rights of British citizens for quite some time. It’s one thing to have a grievance of your own, and another to hold on to a grievance of your ancestors that has long been righted.
@19; Having the rights of British citizens was and still is the grievance. The people of Northern Ireland want to be Irish citizens.
@19 I don’t care one way or another about British politics, I don’t even much care about the Irish. I even said I have no idea if she was even a factor…I just made an observation that depending on who is writing the history the terms freedom fighter, or thug, or terrorist is applied differently…you could make the argument that blacks have long been equal under the law in the United States, but if you review things like economic status, educational status, marriage status, abortion status you would be hard pressed to prove that blacks have actually attained an equal status in society that corresponds to the protections written into the law. It’s one thing to have a law declaring that from this point behavior will be changed according to the law, and quite another to actually have that change take place and be enforced. Based on what I read I suspect the Irish don’t necessarily feel that the law is being applied as equally as it has been written….that’s what causes continued unrest…
Another observation is simply that a government that sh1ts on its citizens will eventually have a problem with “thugs”…. based on the comments here surrounding the recent attempts to disarm the citizenry the term thug might be applied to some of these folks who won’t surrender their weapons peacefully….
@18 & 20: Not all of them want to be Irish citizens and therein lies the rub i.e. Catholic and Protestant battles.
@21: I understood what you were pointing out. History is always written by the victors. Hence the saying “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. This is where we tend to get confused about the “war on terror” and who, exactly is a terrorist. Some moral relativists insist that the jihadis are “freedom fighters”, just as they viewed communist guerillas as “freedom fighters” in South and Central America.
@ #22: Not entirely true either. There were many Catholics and Protestants who had been in Ulster for generations who were quite content to simply have the thugs go back where most of them came from and leave them alone to live their lives. btw, many of those thugs were training with the same thugs we dealt with then and later. Terrorists worldwide were and are training together throughout the middle east, mostly, without regard to nationality.
Point being that it takes strong (and honest) leaders to look evil in the face and call it what it is instead of playing the dangerous pretend games we more often see. Mrs. Thatcher was one of those leaders who knew evil when she saw it and knew that it was her job to quel it.
@24: I’m not talking about all of the citizens, but I am talking about the battles between the Catholics and Protestants. Were they, or were they not, tied to the ongoing dust up about separating from the UK? were the Catholics on the side of being part of Ireland and the Protestants on the side of staying with the UK?
@24 I was probably being more esoterically philosophical than necessary….every once in a while I am struck by a moment where I read something and question it for the sake of questioning it….
But to that esoteric point, your definition of evil and mine might be different as well.
If your collaboration with my government results in my governments ability to unilaterally arrest and torture my family and those of my friends including their children I might assume that you are the evil oppressor using a proxy to perpetrate your evil in my land. If I then decide to kill some of your children so you can experience at my hands what I have been experiencing at the hands of those you support am I evil? In your eyes most certainly, but in my eyes I am inflicting pain on you that is necessary in order to remove your support from my government. When you respond with a drone strike on my neighbor that kills his wife and children are you a good guy? What defines the good and evil here? If you collaborate with murderer what are you?
Every nation and its inhabitants define its own set of evil and good, it defines its enemies in these simple terms to enable the advancement of its own interests.
Child rapists are certainly evil. That’s an easy answer.
When a nation is supporting another nation whose regime suppresses all opposition through torture, abduction, and murder what is it? It’s probably not good, but it is advancing its’ interests.
Calling evil what it is varies depending on your world view when you are discussing a national interest perspective. I don’t view that as a pretend game, it’s quite real. Using terms like good and evil to mask the advancement of your nation’s interests is a propaganda designed to generate control over the population through the control of information and ideology. Every nation does it, some more so than others. None of us are of clean hands in our past on this subject, and some are still guilty in their present.
@24 I should also point out I am not attacking you (at least I really hope you don’t feel that way or I owe you an apology and some adult beverages).
I am just asking some questions because today is one of those days where I am apparently being a contrary d1ckhead…
I always enjoy your words and I mean no offense…
Sorry it’s my Grandma’s fault. Ulster’s existence stems from the end of Penal Law (tax on Catholics for English Church) as it emerged as a fortress/enclave for Protestants in Ireland. Its very existence is built upon British aggression/anti-Catholicism, and it’s associated with the economic policy in the South that killed almost 2 million Irish in the mid 1850s.
In regards to the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” policy of the IRA, I would liken that to Spain’s experience under Islamic rule – eventually an oppressed group will do whatever they can do to get freedom. Also, the US/UK operations against gun running from the US to Ireland were pretty successful although not so much on preventing money from going to the IRA via NORAID. Also, we, the US were funneling money to Islamic freedom fighters during the cold war who would later use that money and skill against us.
Its seems though that there is a lasting peace in Ulster. I would love to see Ireland unified but its not that important anymore. 9-11 was a watershed moment. It cannot be denied though that Ireland’s diaspora have been great American patriots – from the fields of Gettysburg to those who serve in the WOT now. I think that is why i want to hold back on the beatification of Thatcher as a saint in the US political arena. It would be like spitting on their graves.
@ #25: Most of Ulster was uninhabited when the Scots were pushed over there in the 17th (?) century. (Not inclined to go double check those dates at the moment – taking a little break from tax prep.) Thinking about the Reevers primarily, but others were forced there as well. The folks got along just fine whether Catholic or Protestant. It took rabble from outside coming in later, after the land was developed and made into something useful/valuable, to create problems where none existed among the people who lived there.
Have family and friends involved on both sides of this one. (Sides being Catholic and Protestant.) They chose where they wanted to be, under British rule. The Catholics, whose ancestors were there originally having a very rough time of it, welcomed the Protestant Scots. Together they built something worthwhile. Together, they consider the trouble makers and terrorists to be the enemy, not each other.
Their stories sound all too familiar. We were/are going through similar stuff here. Red herrings (excuses) like racism are blamed for situations as an under class is purposefully created. And why not? It’s a tactic used frequently throughout history and perfected during the 20th century by the boogieman, or however one would choose to describe the evil ones who pushed the commie agenda in our recent past.
@ #26: Not entirely convinced that our definitions would be all that different. And it is a topic which deserves more discussion. However, until I finish these %&*#$ taxes, that discussion must wait.
The above strokes are admittedly entirely too broad. My conclusions are based on first person accounts, personal observation, and a bit of poetic license when combining different accounts from a not necessarily good memory.
To OWB:
It is pretty amazing where Ireland has come from since the 80’s. Sounds like our perspectives are from different sides of the peace wall but there was no doubt that there was a high level of discrimination in NI in the 70-80s – I still see the MacBride Principles in contracts today.
Neverthless, I thought Gerry Adams recent interview was pretty telling of the progress to date:
“I can’t forgive her for the prison struggle – that’s up to the prisoners and their families and her role in the hunger strikes was shameful – but in terms of anything that happened to me, of course I forgive her,” Mr Adams told UTV.
“I’ve gone beyond hatred a very long time ago and I believe in forgiveness, but that is a personal matter which people have to come to as individuals.”
(see
http://www.u.tv/news/I-forgive-Thatcher-Gerry-Adams/50E16439-3427-41D5-AF04-E501E381BD97 )