An Atheist In A Foxhole

84 year-old Milton Christian, on the eve of receiving a belated bronze star for his service in WWII, throws a stick in the spokes of that old adage…

“They say there are no atheists in foxholes. But as we sat in those holes, praying that God would save us, I thought about the fact that the other side was doing the same thing. And then I wondered if God is just playing some kind of game with us. Pretty much I decided at that point there was no God,” Christian said.

“For the rest of my life, I’ve tried to do the right thing. I raised a beautiful bunch of kids — and they truly are my greatest accomplishment. So I’m not worried about what’s next. If there is a God, I think he’ll know that I just did the best I could. That’s all a man can do.”

[...]

“War is not a nice thing. There’s nothing honorable about it. The only nice thing about our war was that the people we were fighting wore uniforms, and there were rules. You didn’t shoot prisoners and you took care of the wounded — on both sides. I am glad I fought the war I did. It was a clean one,” Christian said.

“There’s not much else to say. I’d better sit now before I fall over.”

Endless Numbered Mixtape #64: Roxy Music “Avalon”

Jon Stewart Rips Out O’Reilly’s Eye and Pisses In His Ocular Cavity

You’ve probably heard by now, about Jon Stewart’s appearance on The O’Reilly Factor this week, but the version aired, and passed around on YouTube is a heavily edited one. Here’s a link to the full interview. It’s about 30 minutes long, and absolutely worth watching.

Stewart: But let’s go into this. Because all I hear on your network is, this guy is — it’s tyranny, and socialism.

O’Reilly: That’s what he believes.

Stewart: So, how is Barack Obama a socialist? As far as I can see, the majority of the billions of dollars he’s given, he’s given to banks. So if he is a socialist, he’s dyslexic! Because when you redistribute the wealth, it’s supposed to be going to –

O’Reilly: But he does believe in redistribution of income.

Stewart: Well, he’s redistributed it to the banks.

O’Reilly: And that is a socialist tenet — no, he’s redistributing it –

Stewart: He’s going up. He’s dyslexic! It’s supposed to be coming down!

O’Reilly: He — Look. If you don’t know that the Obama administration is redistributing income, then I’m gonna have to haul your program away from you. Get you off the air.

Stewart: Let me ask you — What is different about his redistribution of income and all other presidents — he wants to raise the marginal tax rate back to where it was during the Clinton era. Was Clinton a socialist?

O’Reilly: He has promoted a variety of programs, OK, that –

Stewart: We already have Medicare, right? We have Medicaid. We have Social Security. Are we a socialist country? Do you want to get rid of those three?

O’Reilly: No.

Stewart: So are we a socialist country?

O’Reilly: But I want to moderate them so we don’t go bankrupt.

Stewart: OK, but that’s different. Now you’re talking about fiscal responsibility.

O’Reilly: In a socialist country, the government pays for all of these entitlements — the Obama administration is down that path.

Stewart: Who pays for Medicare? Who pays for Medicaid?

O’Reilly: The government pays for it.

Stewart: So now we’re socialist.

O’Reilly: But now we’re on Medicaid and Medicare with steroids, with the new health care bill. That’s steroids!

Stewart: Once again, this is like the old joke. “Would you sleep with me for ten dollars?” “No.” “Would you sleep with me for a million?” “OK.” So now we know what you are, you’re just negotiating price. For you guys to stand up –

O’Reilly: Of course, that’s the degree of anybody when you describe socialism. There are little socialistic programs and giant socialist programs. OK? And some people believe that Obama is on the huge government creation — the government dominance. And you yourself said it! You yourself said it! He wants more regulation, he wants to create things, he wants big government.

Stewart: But he’s given back so much executive power!

O’Reilly: What?

Stewart: Executive power!

O’Reilly: He hasn’t given back anything. He just hasn’t handled the Congress. He doesn’t know how to handle them yet. That’s inexperience. Now –

Stewart: So he’s not a tyrant. Because if he’s a tyrant, then he’s pretty lame for a tyrant.

O’Reilly: I don’t object –

Stewart: How many tyrants do you know that really suffer because they can’t get cloture? Very few.

Endless Numbered Mixtape #63: Supermax “Love Machine”