Posted on 03/25/2010 4:57:49 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
City’s ‘Conscience Fund’ Gains 2 Boys’ quarters ————————— The city’s “conscience fund” was enriched last week by two new twenty-five-cent pieces sent to City Hall by two boys who expressed sorrow for having damaged a street light and promised “never to do it again.” The boys did not sign their names to their letters but disclosed they live in South Ozone Park, Queens.
“I am enclosing 25 cents for the damage I did to an electric street lamp.” one writer said. “I am very sorry I did it and promise not to do it again.”
“Enclosed in this letter,” said the other, “are twenty-five cents for the damage I have done to a street light at the 100th Avenue and 122d Street, Richmond Hill, N.Y. I am very sorry for the damage I have done, and I promise I will never do it again.”
Mayor La Guardia wrote to the Controller McGoldrick that he enclosed fifty cents from “two good little boys” and that he was sure “these young citizens will never again destroy city property.”
Few have a conscience any more so the idea of a city conscience fund wouldn’t work today.
HERE WE GO!!! End of the Phony War.
Today, the mayor would turn the letter over to the police department, who would track down the little boys and have them cited into Juvenile Court on charges of criminal mischief. The boys would have to appear in Court, where their apology letters would be the chief evidence against them. They would be adjudicated as juvenile delinquents. Their parents would pay their court costs of over a hundred dollars, and then be placed on probation. $100 initial fee, $100 administrative fee, $15 per month thereafter. They will submit to urine screens, at $22 each. They will have to attend anger management classes for another $250 and would be required to get a psychological evaluation from one of the probation department’s “preferred vendors,” which would find that there is nothing wrong with them that an expensive course of treatment can’t prolong.
Instead of having one guy who fixes the street lamp in 1940, we have an army of bureaucrats and consultants, who collect their “fees” which is just another form of taxation.
Sorry. This one set off one of my hot buttons.
Again, the Pope clearly describes war crimes being committed, but without specifically naming either the criminal Nazis and Soviets, or their chief victims, Poles and Finns.
One is left to wonder why.
Still and all, charges that the Pope was somehow "silent" in the face of evil are obviously not the case, at least not so far...
Indeed Americans, then as now, would not be dragged into war in some morally ambiguous situation, where right and wrong were not clearly spelled out.
So the Pope's words, even if not as pointed as some historians might wish, still helped many Americans begin to understand that the war was NOT morally ambiguous, and that such serious wrongs could not be set right by mere half measures.
Notice also the Pope holds out no false hopes or rosy scenarios. He clearly says the worst is yet to come.
One wonders if even he could then imagine how much horribly worse it would eventually get...
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/mar40/f25mar40.htm
New rule for British POWs
Monday, March 25, 1940 www.onwar.com
From London... The government forbids British prisoners of war from making radio broadcasts for the enemy.
Some comments on whether the Pope knew how bad it was going to be:
Other than a few “forward thinkers” who can grasp the significance of changes in technology, most people look at the current war in terms of how the last one was fought. For example, we just had an article yesterday or two days ago analyzing the effect of air power on naval warfare. The article stated that it was yet to be determined whether air power was going to be dominant over traditional surface sea power. Well, we all know how that got resolved. First there was the British raid on Taranto, which showed that ships at anchor in harbor were vulnerable to air attack. Then came the hunt for the Bismarck, where she was crippled by a torpedo, but not sunk by air power. The “lesson” was that a ship under way could defend itself against air attack. Pearl Harbor was just another Taranto. It was the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse that caused people to sit up and take notice. The debate was finally closed in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in early 1943. From that time on, the Japanese never again sailed into waters within range of American land-based aircraft. It was a confession that they had lost the war, although it was not then generally realized.
But I digress. Significantly. I would imagine the Pope was thinking in terms of 1914-1918 when he thought things would get worse. In some aspects, that WW2 would be much worse than WW1 was widely known. It was known that bomber fleets could (and would) lay waste to entire cities far behind the battle lines. Some things would still be the same as WW1. Verdun in 1916 was duplicated at Stalingrad in 1942. Some things could only been seen darkly, where the Turkish genocide of Armenians would be reproduced with the German genocide of the Jews.
In some aspects, things would actually be better than feared. The WW1 weapon of mass destruction, poison gas, so recently used by the Italians in Ethiopia, would not be used. But I cannot imagine that His Excellency would ever dream that the small amount of energy released by splitting a uranium atom could be multiplied trillions or quadrillions of times in a chain reaction.
BroJoeK - There is a one-page feature on Pius XII on page 24. Mostly valuable for the photo.
There is also a photo story on Ginger Rogers in "Primrose Path," which we reviewed a couple days ago. (And which very few people viewed.)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/25.htm
March 25th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Reconnaissance - Borkum - Wanne - Eickel - Thionville - Ruhr. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft. Heavy opposition over the Ruhr. One aircraft damaged by Flak, crew unhurt. 51 Sq. (K9024) Undershot at Dishforth, crew safe, 102 Sq. N1379 overshot at Dishforth, crew unhurt.
London: Crowds flock to the West End, ignoring the blackout and celebrate the Easter holiday. People were besieging restaurants and bars and filling the streets with torch light. By 5pm it was impossible to get a seat for any West End show, queues outside the cinemas were 100 yards long. Impromptu sing-songs began at main line railway stations where troops and evacuees were flocking back from leave or from their weekend in town. A special train took civil servants back to their exiled ministries in Blackpool.
ITALY: Rome: The Hungarian Premier, Count Paul Teleki, has lengthy talks with Count Ciano.
FINLAND: The SFK is disbanded. Marshal Mannerheim promotes General Linder to the rank of ratsuväenkenraali (General of Cavalry) in the Finnish Army. This was a very rare honour. When the Winter War started there were no full generals in active service in the Finnish Army (nor were in Air Force and there were not a single admiral in the Navy), and Linder was the first promoted to the rank since the beginning of the war. (Mikko Härmeinen)(203)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 207 March 25, 1940
French PM Reynaud writes to British War Cabinet, proposing various courses of action such as Churchill’s idea to mine Norwegian coastal waters or attacking Soviet shipping and oil production. Chamberlain is horrified at the idea of any attacks on USSR, assessing Reynard as desperate to do something to justify his new role.
At 5.40 AM, U-47 sinks Danish steamer Britta 30 miles North of Scotland (13 lives lost). 5 survivors are picked up by Danish steamer Nancy and landed at Swansea, Wales. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/302.html
At 8.11 PM, U-57 sinks British steam tanker Daghestan (7600 tons crude oil) 9 miles east of Orkney Islands (3 lives lost). 29 survivors are picked up by armed anti-submarine trawlers HMS Northern Wave & HMS Brontes and landed at Lyness, Orkneys. Daghestan is being escorted to to Sullom Voe after being damaged in German air attacks on convoy HN20.
British government forbids captured servicemen from participating in propaganda radio broadcasts for the enemy.
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