I Like Mike

This is an article I found today courtesy of Realclearpolitics.com and it reminds me that I have been tardy in remembering both the birth of the Marine Corps and Veterans Day. Thank you, Dad, Uncle Chuck, Grandpa, Grandma (you read that right), Other Granpa, and various Great Uncles and people I've never met. Your volunteerism puts the "Peace Corps" to shame and puts to shame those quasi-accomplishments of every other jerk who never volunteered to do anything but whine. Thank you for all that you've done to keep me and other Americans free.

RIP

One of the Greatest Generation's great men passed away yesterday. He is a friend of my family's and very astute intellectual worthy of national coverage. As well, he was involved in the invasion of Normandy during WWII as a French interpreter. He was, however, humble enough not to need nor seek the limelight. His wife was also my high school english teacher, freshman year mostly, but I continue to learn from her to this day. I will share this article with you from the Trenton Times:

University's Robert Kuenne dies

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

By KEVIN SHEA

Staff Writer

Robert E. Kuenne, a Princeton University professor since the 1950s who published more than 100 works on economics and military strategy and was a veteran of World War II's D-Day invasion, has died at his Princeton home.

The St. Louis native, whose first degree was in journalism, died Saturday of Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 81.

Kuenne earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics and a doctorate from Harvard on his way to becoming a noted national economist, longtime U.S. military adviser and Fulbright Scholar.

Kuenne joined the Princeton faculty in 1956 after teaching at Harvard and the University of Virginia. He retired from full-time work in 1997 as a professor emeritus.

At Princeton, Kuenne served and taught in a variety of capacities and was a prolific publisher of work.

The university said he was known for designing and teaching, for 30 years, a course titled "Analyses of Capitalism," and he taught microeconomic theory in the undergraduate program and general equilibrium theory at the graduate level.

His writings on economic theories ranged from oligopoly to spatial and defense economics. And he was affiliated with several scholarly journals as an editor or board member.

"It is considered a cliche to say that someone is `a gentleman and a scholar' but somehow the cliche fit Bob Kuenne perfectly," Alan Blinder, a Princeton economics professor, said in a university statement.

Concurrent to his Ivy League teaching and writing, Kuenne was a military expert. He taught at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island and the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., for years, and was a longtime consultant to the Institute for Defense Analysis, a research arm for the Defense Department.

Kuenne's military prowess started in June 1944 as a 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier who landed with Allied forces in the second wave of the D-Day invasion of France's Normandy coast.

Kuenne's wife, Janet Brown Kuenne, recalled yesterday how even as a soldier her husband was a scholar. Kuenne wanted to join the weather observer corps, but the Army had no slots, so they sent him to a government unit and promptly shipped him off to Bard College, where he learned French.

When he landed in Normandy, Kuenne served in forward areas as a translator for Allied troops and spoke fluent French.

The skill served him well in 1994, when he was a dignitary guest at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the invasion in Normandy, which he attended with his wife and daughter and son-in-law.

The Kuennes spent a week in Normandy and Robert toured the invasion beaches by airplane, including Utah Beach where he landed, and the apple orchards of the Carentan region, where he recalled sleeping in a pup tent.

"He said it was very moving to go over the beaches, to be where he had been 50 years before," Janet Brown Kuenne said yesterday. Also incredibly moving was a walk the family took through the American cemetery in Normandy, where Robert Kuenne drifted away and roamed the acres of headstones. "There were certain graves he was stopping at and they were his age, (men) that were born in 1924. He was just very quiet," Janet Kuenne said.

Bringing his service full circle, Robert and his wife traveled to England a few years ago and found the family that he was first billeted with in the town of Bristol in 1944, Ed and Edna Meades, who during the war were a young couple with a small boy and a baby on the way.

In a destined stroke of luck, the Kuennes called on the Meades on the day of the couple's 65th wedding anniversary party, and were welcomed in like family for the festivities, Janet Kuenne said.

And in this corner...

Apparently, in the winding road that is Terrell Owens' ginormous ego, fighting Hugh Douglas is a good idea. According to the Trenton Times, official newsrag of Central Jersey, and later confirmed by ESPN, Douglas called out Owens and T.O. thought he would take a swing. Here's the problem, Hugh Douglas is 6'2" and tips the scales at 281. His arms are the size of most men's thighs, and he can probably handle himself when the times comes. The only advantage T.O. has on Douglas, besides his combination of stupidity and a desire to hear himself talk, is that he is an inch taller. The entire series of incidents has gone way past normal, and at some point Owens and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, will get a healthy dose of reality. In the interim we can just hope for the duo to get hit by a train or perhaps come down with Anthrax.

Dirty Jersey

Leaving New Jersey can make a person miss many things: The Yankees aren't on TV all of the time, it's tough to get a decent pizza, Jersey sweet corn, etc. The one thing I won't miss is the politics. If you want a fine example of corrupt politics, look no further than the New Jersey state legislature. It's also evident in the national races, such as the current race to the bottom for Governor. John Corzine is a rich scumbag who plays dirty politics to get his way, but who doesn't? Doug Forrester is a less rich scumbag who plays dirty politics and loses fairly frequently. If I had my way, I would put the entire NJ political machine in front of a firing squad and start over again with fewer scumbags and more people interested in the well being of the Garden State. I guess anything is better than a corrupt governor who outed himself as a "Gay American" and resigned to keep the spotlight away from the corruption and mismanagement he oversaw. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until Ohio has something worth voting for.

Closed door madness

This afternoon, the Democratic leadership undertook the task of holding a closed door session to discuss pre-war Intelligence. Talk about a timely session! It gets better than that. Senator Harry Reid, the co-minority leader, used the indictment of Scooter Libby as reasoning for the session. "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions," his royal baldness said. The problem here is that Reid has chosen to glance over certain germane points. I can easily admit that potential WMD possesion was a terrible reason to go to war, but it certainly wasn't the sole reason. However, the time for that debate has long since ended, it's not going to change the fact that Saddam will hang and Iraq is free. The next point to ponder is whether Valerie Plame was 1) actually a covert CIA operative or 2) responsible for her husband, Joe Wilson, going to Nigeria to sip tea and not get any hard answers. Her life clearly wasn't ruined by any of this, nor was Wilson's. From what I can tell the only person getting shafted is Judith Miller, and she was already in a downward spiral because of the WMD mess. Now consider the fact that a Senate panel has already discredited much of Wilson's post-Nigeria reporting, something where Reid probably should have been present. At the very least, Reid should have a copy of the report, which certainly discredits much of the basis for today's closed door session. Finally, if Reid were serious about getting to the bottom of anything, why would he have a closed door session? It occurs to me that a closed door session does absolutely nothing for the Democrats and everything for Republicans. If something devastating is to come out in such a session that could be of detriment to the right, it stands to reason that Democrats would want as many members of the public there to bear witness. However, Reid has chosen to close the doors and dim the lights. To me it means that something embarassing may come out that could hurt Reid or some member of his party. Oh well, it isn't my problem when silly people do silly things, but if my taxes are paying for it, I should at least be able to jab somebody in the eye for this lunacy.