Free Republic

Prisoners of war at Delhi's Palam airport after repatriation on January 22, 1966. The author is second from left. The second, or could it be called the third, Indo-Pak War was now nearly three weeks old, and there were no talks of a cease fire. To us in the field we did not really have a clear picture of how the war was going, or how either the Army or the Air Force was doing, on the ground or in the air. We knew of Air Force casualties more through the grapevine rather than through authentic sources. Our hope as...

Different writers here and there have talked about 1965, fifty years ago, as a year of transition. It was a year in America when trends came into focus, culture was altered, and life changed—politically, socially, culturally, morally, and in the Catholic Church. Perhaps historian James T. Patterson provided the most detailed elaboration on these developments and their implication for the country in his bluntly titled book from a song of the time, The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America.First, the national policies put in place that year as LBJ launched his Great Society made the federal welfare/entitlement state...

he pool is still there. It's shrouded by palm fronds and heavy gates, but it's there. Stand on Pierce Street, beyond the walls of the Fort Harrison Hotel, and you can hear families splashing, even smell the chlorine. Close your eyes and picture this pool a half-century ago. Picture the Rolling Stones, then a scrum of scrawny Brits in lounge chairs... Depending on the legend you believe, it was here, 50 years ago while in town for a concert on May 6, 1965, that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. It's the Rolling Stones' signature...

– This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Palm Sunday tornadoes that tore through the Midwest. The National Weather Service recorded 47 tornadoes between April 11th and April 12th, 1965. 261 people died, making it the third deadliest outbreak on record. These details of the storm are something Carl Hartup witnessed first-hand. He worked as chief photographer for the News-Sentinel for 37 years. One can see a lot in a career that spans nearly forty years. snip “I took a corn stalk that was driven into a concrete block. The power of a tornado is just unbelievable,” Hartup said....

About six miles from Maastricht, in the Netherlands, lie buried 8,301 American soldiers who died in "Operation Market Garden" in the battles to liberate Holland in the fall/winter of 1944. Every one of the men buried in the cemetery, as well as those in the Canadian and British military cemeteries, has been adopted by a Dutch family who mind the grave, decorate it, and keep alive the memory of the soldier they have adopted. It is even the custom to keep a portrait of "their" soldier in a place of honour in their home. Annually, on "Liberation Day," memorial services...

"Liar, Liar," by 1960s garage rock band The Castaways. Dance performance by The Honey Bees (Mary Ann, Ginger and Lovey) of Gilligan's Island....

Mark Levin explains what the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” Selma march and Civil Rights Movement was NOT about (and what it predictably was turned into last weekend).

In 2 parts: Part 1 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1c9hns_harum-scarum-1965-1-2_lifestyle Part 2 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1c9iv8_harum-scarum-1965-2-2_lifestyle

The song, which begins with a spoken introduction by Kris Kristofferson, tells the tale of Niles Harris, a soldier in the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States Army during Operation Hump in South Vietnam on November 8, 1965. The intro mentions that Harris was "the guy that gave Big Kenny his top hat", and that he was among the wounded who were saved by Army medic Lawrence Joel, the first living African American to receive the Medal of Honor since the Spanish-American War of 1898.

On the field, Sandy Koufax wasn't just any baseball player. Off the field, he wasn't viewed that way either. The Hall of Fame pitcher isn't just remembered by baseball fans as "the man with the golden arm," but is revered by his Jewish admirers as "the left arm of God" for his talent as well as the public observance of his faith, most notably during the 1965 World Series. A legendary left-handed pitcher who spent his entire career with the Dodgers, Koufax dominated batters like few ever have, atop mounds in Brooklyn and Los Angeles -- as well as just...

Another TCM alert: tonight at 8PM it's airing "Doctor Zhivago". Definitely worth seeing as Hollywood film that actually showed how terrible life was in Soviet Russia. The only thing I don't like about it is its hero cheating on his cute wife with Lara. Otherwise, a truly great film with Rod Steiger stealing the show as the opportunistic lawyer Komarovsky.

Saint Valentine's Day being later this week motivates the appropriately titled pick for today's feature. TAOL is a dark farce about a struggling artist(Dick Van Dyke) who fakes his own death to increase interest in and sales of his own paintings. James Garner is his buddy/manager and partner in this scheme which, of course, snowballs into all kinds of trouble and comic events. Lovely actresses Angie Dickinson and Elke Sommer in their prime play the women in their lives. A fun movie that I discovered as a child on a Sunday afternoon being played by a local channel but oddly...

Today's MFASA features the only film to star both the King of Cool(Republican and later in life born-again Christian, Steve McQueen) and the Queen of Hot(sweet Lutheran girl Ann-Margret). McQueen's the title character, a young hotshot card player who goes up against the Man(Edward G. Robinson) in a high tension poker game in Depression-era New Orleans. A-M(as Melba, the bad girl or "Ginger" of the film) and Tuesday Weld(as Christian, the good girl or "Mary Ann" of the film) are the women in his life. They both look more like swingin' 60s chicks than 1930s women but hey, they're both...

Email forward begins: Not exactly correct, Barry! 39 truths about "Obama" Terry Anderson, A Black Los Angeles Talk Radio Host, Went Down A List Of Things Senator Obama Has Said That Aren't Exactly Correct. 1. Selma March Got Me Born - NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. (Google 'Obama Selma ' for his full March 4, 2007 speech and articles a bout its various untruths. ! ! 2. Father Was A Goat Herder - NOT EXACTLY, he was a privileged, well...

Excellent Video: Think of the Katangese as Israel, and Patrice Lumumba and the Central Congolese government as the PLO/PA/HAMAS. The UN, of course, plays the same role as ever...to bring about a world government dominated by socialists and communists. Description: UN troops wage an unprovoked war against anti-communist Katanga in 1960 and 1962. The last bastion of the free market in the Congo was decimated by UN forces in 1963 to bring it under Congolese communist control. If you don't want to watch the entire thing (an early 1960's documentary), fast forward to the end where Katanga's ill-fated and heroic...