Posted on 02/27/2011 10:11:41 PM PST by RobinMasters
RIP, sir. And sincere condolences to the family.
R.I.P.
If you were around in 1917-18, it must have pretty difficult to imagine the 21st century, let alone living to see it. That’s pretty unbelievable. Assuming this guy was born in 1900 or 1901, he lived through essentially the entire 20th century, not to mention 10 years of the 21st.
But I still think the story of the last British WWI vet was more incredible. He was born in 1897, so his life spanned three centuries (19th, 20th, and 21st).
We recited that on Veterans Day in Grade School
most folks my age daddies were WWII vets and they weren’t quite yet to the veneration level in 1963-65 that the old WWI guys were
I always hoped to meet Mr. Buckles.
How ‘Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm
(After They’ve Seen Paree)
Reuben, Reuben, I’ve been thinking
Said his wifey dear
Now that all is peaceful and calm
The boys will soon be back on the farm
Mister Reuben started winking and slowly rubbed his chin
He pulled his chair up close to mother
And he asked her with a grin
Chorus (sung twice after each verse):
How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm
After they’ve seen Paree’
How ya gonna keep ‘em away from Broadway
Jazzin around and paintin’ the town
How ya gonna keep ‘em away from harm, that’s a mystery
They’ll never want to see a rake or plow
And who the deuce can parleyvous a cow?
How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm
After they’ve seen Paree’
Rueben, Rueben, you’re mistaken
Said his wifey dear
Once a farmer, always a jay
And farmers always stick to the hay
Mother Reuben, I’m not fakin
Tho you may think it strange
But wine and women play the mischief
With a boy who’s loose with change
Chorus (sung twice after each verse):
How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm
After they’ve seen Paree’
How ya gonna keep ‘em away from Broadway
Jazzin around and paintin’ the town
How ya gonna keep ‘em away from harm, that’s a mystery
Imagine Reuben when he meets his Pa
He’ll kiss his cheek and holler “OO-LA-LA!
How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm
After they’ve seen Paree’?
If the United States is heading towards perdition, then involvement in World War I was definitely the cause of it...
Smedley Butler did the math afterward. A handful of people became filthy rich servicing the war machinery -- but thousands lost life, limb, sanity.
WAR is a racket. It always has been.The entire essay is worth reading, HERE.It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
Rest in Peace, Good Man.
Thanks for the quick repair work.
Thank you for you service. Rest easy on the other side.
Thank you for your service. Rest easy on the other side.
Blog pimping efforts foiled again.
You’ll love it for the incredible visuals, if nothing else.
It’s like a John Boorman movie without all the monochrome lighting trick stuff...:)
Red Badger posted this last night, sourcing CNN. Lots of comments there too.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2681112/posts
I love that flick...I saved a pic of it for my homepage here.
Mads Mikelson really rocks in that movie.
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