January 27, 1967

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 1 tragedy that claimed the lives of Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, Edward Higgins White, II, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF and Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander, USN

The crew of Apollo 1 was performing launchpad tests when tragedy struck; a spark from the electronics ignited the 100% oxygen environment in the capsule, the crew could not get out and died of smoke inhalation within minutes.

While this tragedy set the space program back slightly, it did not stop NASA from winning the race to the moon, and on July 20th, 1969 Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Neal Armstrong landed on the surface of the Moon while Michael Collins stayed in orbit.

Other than this tragedy that led up to the first Moon landing, it is also worth noting the "Moon landing hoax" conspiracy. I only mention it as a segue into this video of a 70 year old Buzz Aldrin knocking a guy on his ass! The guy talking smack and taking the punch is the ringleader of the conspiracy nuts (I refuse to name him, he doesn't deserve the fame.) The guy calls Buzz a coward, a liar, and a thief, then POW! Down he goes. While I certainly don't condone violence, including punching reporters, I applaud Buzz for this one. Buzz IS an American hero and deserves to be treated like one.

Of Tom Cruise and Nazis...

The NY Times has an interesting article on the Holocaust and how some would change history and make it "not so bad".

Its an interestingly article and it touches on why I won't pay to see the Tom Cruise movie "Valkyrie". In Valkyrie Cruise plays a "good Nazi" that is part of a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. I am sure that its a great action movie, but do we really need to portray Nazi officers as misunderstood "good guys"? UHHH, no, we don't. The Holocaust was not about a single man, it was about a culture of intolerance and runaway egos. Tom Cruises character (Stauffenberg) wore a Nazi officer uniform, no matter HOW you slice it, that makes him a "bad guy".

The Times article touches on a few other books and movies that down play the horror of the Holocaust. I am not sure if its intentional or not, maybe some idiot just said "this would be a great heart wrenching story!" and didn't think it all the way through. Whatever the reason, its just wrong, AND it REALLY shows how stupid people are.

A camp guard has an affair with a prisoner?
The camp commanders little son is playmates with a child prisoner?

Really, are we THAT stupid?

Anyway, read the article, the author makes some interesting points, and may even disagree with me on the Valkyrie issue.