Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017) Dies at 61

Here is a writeup and an overview. China needs more like him. I'll leave you with the indelible image of his empty chair at the 2010 Nobel ceremony that China's leadership did not permit him to attend, for it had imprisoned him the year before. Oh, and do take a look at his lecture.

2016: Annus Horribilis Already

2015 was darn awful and pure dagnasty evil, and we were all happy to see the end of it.  Now I'm not so sure we're happy to see the start of 2016, or at least I'm not.  From the recent Iran incident to the utter predation on full display in Cologne to a truly surreal and absurdist State of the Union address that actually - I swear I'm not making this up - spotlighted Obama putting Joe Biden in charge of curing cancer, from the devastating death of David Bowie and then right on the heels of it the passing of Alan Rickman, it's enough to drive one to drink.  

I have only this to say to 2016: I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU, PAL.

Ave atque Vale: Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015)

By now the sad news has flown across the Internet that iconic actor Christopher Lee has died at age 93.  Here is a proper British obituary, but I can think of no better way to honor the great polymath and Renaissance man than by pointing you to the fact that he received the honor of being hailed as Badass of the Week while he was still living.  Hail and farewell, sir!

Ave atque Vale: Stephanie Kwolek

She was the inventor of Kevlar.  (Hat tip to California Dreamer.)

Ave atque Vale: Chester Nez (1921-2014)

Mr. Nez was the last of the 29 Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.  The Code Talkers' work was not declassified until 1968 ... and the Japanese never did crack that code.

Ave atque Vale, James Rebhorn

Veteran character actor James Rebhorn (even if you don't know the name, you probably know the face) has died, and he wrote his own obit.  Read it!  I think I have something in my eye.

Ave atque Vale: Tom Clancy (1947-2013)

He will be missed.  His books are always enjoyable.  The Hunt For Red October was the first I read, and I loved it.  I was just a schoolgirl.  While my peers were reading Sweet Valley High, I was reading military thrillers.  Not much has changed - only now they're reading Fifty Shades of Awful and I'm still reading military thrillers.  Heh.

Hail and farewell to Tom Clancy.  Shall we maybe as a tribute re-watch the 1990 movie of the Red October book?  The cast includes the incomparable Sean Connery, James Earl Jones, Sam Neill, and - surprisingly - Tim Curry in a serious role.  It's one of the last Cold War movies made, and it's a lot of fun.

A Woman of Consequence

A historian looks at the legacy of the Iron Lady.  Oh, and she was right about the euro too.  How about this for our quote of the day:

The reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s death is painfully predictable. 

The right is honoring her service in standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad, while the left is vilifying her for standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad.

As someone else said, Maggie Thatcher p*ssed off all the right people, and I think that is a honorable epitaph indeed.  Anyway, look at this, this, this, and this:

Ave atque Vale: Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

The lady's not for turning.  Farewell to a remarkable woman and the UK's first female PM.  Love her or hate her, there was no ignoring her.  

UPDATE 1: Oh, and on social media, the haters are coming out of the woodwork now and literally rejoicing.  Stuff like that doesn't make you look good, haters.

UPDATE 2: Meryl Streep, stay classy!

Zing! One New Yorker's Parting Shot

I won't spoil it by giving it away. Here, read.

Ave atque Vale, Larry Hagman (1931-2012)

Hail and farewell to the actor who will always be defined as J.R. Ewing, one of the best TV villains ever.  What an icon of pop culture.  Gentle readers of a certain age will surely remember this theme song:

 

A Tribute to Neil Armstrong, BOTW Style

There was no doubt who should be BOTW this week, and here is the newest entry in that peerless catalogue of history's most awesome masters of butt-kickery.  Yesterday was a blue moon too, so it seems more fitting than ever to pay tribute to that iconic American hero - tough, smart, cool under pressure, humble, indefatigable.  As always with BOTW, language warning.

Requiescat in Pace, Neil Armstrong

Hail and farewell to an American hero and icon.  Neil Armstrong takes his final journey at age 82.

Ave atque Vale: Sir John Keegan

Sir John Keegan, the influential military historian who wrote The Face of War, has died at the age of 78.  If you've never read his books, do remedy that lapse.

Ave atque Vale, Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld

This guy's life should be a movie.  The obit reads like a spy thriller novel.  Look at this intro:

Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld, who has died aged 88, escaped from Occupied France to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE); parachuted back on sabotage missions, he twice faced execution, only to escape on both occasions, once dressed as a Nazi guard.

Ave Atque Vale: Vidal Sassoon

I knew him as the London-born celebrity hairstylist who made people look utterly stunning (see some glorious examples), but I had no idea that he fought in Israel's war of independence and later set up an academic center for the study of anti-Semitism at Hebrew University (website here). Sassoon died in LA on May 9 at age 84.  Hail and farewell, sir.


 (OK, I confess that now I have a sudden urge to watch You Don't Mess with the Zohan.  Am I a bad person?  Probably.)

Ave atque Vale, Sydney Wignall

This brief bio reads like one heck of a thriller.  Someone make a movie!  Blurb:

Sydney Wignall, who has died aged 89, was an adventurer who, in 1955, led the first Welsh Himalayan Expedition with the intention of climbing Gurla Mandhata, at 25,355ft the highest peak in Chinese-occupied Tibet; in his book Spy on the Roof of the World (1997), he recounted how he was captured by the Red Army and held in jail accused of being a CIA spy.

I just put that book on my to-read list.  Goodness, is it just me or do the Brits really publish some smashing obits?  Wignall then became a marine archaeologist excavating shipwrecks from the Spanish Armada.  Wow, what a glorious bad@$$!

Ave Atque Vale: Fang Lizhi (1936–2012)

Astrophysicist, dissident, and human rights advocate Fang Lizhi fled China in 1994 with help from the US State Department and eventually became a professor of physics at the University of Arizona.  More here.

Teacher Jeremiah Small Murdered in Iraq

Here is the news.  Take a look at this tribute by one of Small's Iraqi students:

For me personally, Jeremiah Small was both a teacher and a friend. After my parents, he contributed the most to my personality and knowledge. He taught me how to turn my vision into reality and challenged me to be diligent, observing, meek, organized, and detailed. 

He was also a great friend outside of the classroom; we went on numerous hikes, trips, and other outings. God knows I would not be who I am today if it was not for him and what he presented to me. I am sure hundreds of his other students feel the same way.

... This, folks, is the irony of it all; our community has grown so vile that we kill the people who come to serve us, the people who dedicate their lives to us. Killing a teacher (especially over a slight disagreement) not only means that we despise education and are closed up, it also points out to the fact that we do not take disagreements well: we kill whoever has different opinions in the most brutal ways. But I guess this has been happening quite a lot lately. What a shame. 

I refuse to be part of it, however. I refuse to be silent, to clap for the unjust. This is why I join the thousands of others who condemn training children with special force units and giving them weapons to shoot their teachers with whenever they disagree on anything. This is why I condemn the rule of totalitarians that is looming over us, killing whoever disagrees. I join the thousands of affected students and families in demanding justice for the murder of Jeremiah Small and an end to the use of force in silencing differences.

New Media and Breitbart's Legacy

In the wake of yesterday's terrible news, read Nick Gillespie's piece for CNN today.  Here's a bit of it:

"A lot of people theorize about democratizing the public square and bringing new voices and sources into conversations about politics and culture. Breitbart actually did it. It wasn't always perfect and it wasn't always pretty ..., but he blazed a path that surely leads to a far richer and more interesting mediascape than the one we all grew up with."