Guests at the Berghof, Hitlers private chalet in the Bavarian Alps, must have endured some unpleasant odors in the otherwise healthful mountain air.
It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitlers curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. . . .
Hitlers stomach problems may even have played their part in his losing the war, thanks to this shadowy figure of Dr. Morell, an incompetent quack who took over Hitlers medical care in 1937. . . . To the irritation of other Nazi doctors, Hitler then proceeded to swallow any of Morells advice, no matter how hair-brained, for the next eight years.
For example, to combat recurrences of the volcanic stomach problems, Morell plied him with a remedy called Dr. Kösters Anti-gas pills, which contained significant amounts of strychnine and Hitler often took as many as 16 of the little black pills a day. The sallow skin, glaucous eyes and attention lapses noted by observers later in the war are consistent with strychnine poisoning; another ingredient in the pills, antropine, causes mood swings from euphoria to violent anger. Even more peculiar were the injections of amphetamines that Morell administered every morning before breakfast from 1941, which may have exacerbated the erratic behavior, inflexibility, paranoia and indecision that Hitler began to display increasingly as the war ground on. Between the strychnine and the antropine and the uppers, it would explain a lot.
And there was a barrage of other supplements -- vitamins, testosterone, liver extracts, laxatives, sedatives, glucose and opiates, all intended to combat the dictators real or imagined ailments. After the war, U.S. intelligence officers discovered that Morell was pumping Hitler with 28 different drugs, including eye-drops that contained 10 percent cocaine (up to 10 treatment a day), a concoction made from human placenta and potency pills made from ground bulls testicles. . . .
So Hitler was a junkie, with gas.
Wonder how many of the world's other egomaniacal, whacked-out tyrants (I'm lookin' at you Chavez! And you, Kimmie Boy! Saddam!) and tyrant wannabees (*cough* Soros! *cough*) are/were junkies as well?
Posted by: Mike ||
10/31/2007 13:31 ||
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#2
Sorry folks, but you can't blame the Fuhrer's gastro-intestinal problems on stress. Studies done in the United States on Stress and GI problems show that GI problems CAUSE stress. Not the other way around.
To blame his GI problems on nervous tension is pseudo-science.
It only could have contributed to his defeat if it caused him to declare war on the US on Dec. 8 or violate the Soviet Nazi Pact. There wasn't a damn thing he could have done after 1943 to win the war. No decision he could have made would have changed the outcome.
Now Braxton Bragg, besides being an assh*le, had problems there as well. That may have something to do with his temperance during the siege of Chattanooga.
#3
And Napoleon lost at Waterloo because his hemorrhoids were so bad he had to screw his nerve to the sticking point just to mount his horse.
But unbalanced intestinal fauna or severe food sensitivities aside, I agree with Penguin on both counts with regard to Herr Schickelgruber. I s'pose we can be grateful his doctor worked so hard to kill him, though...
#4
In the 1970's the National Lampooon did a spoof on this very subject.
I wonder if any of the guys who wrote the piece have seen this now.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/31/2007 17:05 Comments ||
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#5
He was also a vegetarian. What kind, I don't know; vegan, lacto-ova, etc. A vegetable diet can be gaseous-particulary if there are a lot of beans. He was one drugged out dude.
#2
What is painful is that the other team (Milsaps?) couldn't tackle. I mean, on a number of the laterals, the guy who got rid of the ball was left on marked and was able to run back and get into the play again. This was beyond school yard - it was almost contrived. They didn't have time to use this play but if they did it would have saved everyone a lot of running around.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/31/2007 14:11 Comments ||
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You see a lot of this in a rugby game. In Football players forget the rear pass before being tackle so used they are to rely on quarterback's forward pass to gain ground.
Now before someone thinks I am denigrating football I have to say that the most beautiful rugby try I have ever seen was the first Fijian one in Fiji-France 1987 where the Fijian players passed the ball a la quarterback ie one handed and over the head and that I am still thrilled when I remember how with one minute to go and at 90 yards from the line John Elway gained ground yard by yard for a last second victory of Denver over Chicago in the final of American conference
Capt. Scott Markle received the Clarence Mackay Trophy during a ceremony here Oct. 29 for his actions while deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom last year.
Captain Markle, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot from the 81st Fighter Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, directly engaged a group of Taliban fighters June 16, 2006, who were in combat with a 15-person special forces team.
"The presentation of this award to Captain Scott Markle underscores the very essence of what we believe about air power and the vital role America's Air Force plays in our nation's defense," said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, who presented the trophy to Captain Markle.
Captain Markle was leading a two-ship flight to support a mission in southern Afghanistan when his flight was re-tasked on takeoff to support special forces troops along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in contact with Taliban forces.
When he arrived just before dawn, heavy gunfire and tracers were going in many directions and visibility made it difficult to find the team's location. Captain Markle, unable to employ weapons due to the enemy's close proximity to the team, flew a dangerously low pass over the area while releasing self-protection flares.
The flares momentarily halted enemy fire, which was noted by the ground controller. The controller requested a few more close passes from Captain Markle that gave the special forces team time to create more distance between themselves and the Taliban. This also allowed Captain Markle to strafe the enemy area with more than 1,000 30 millimeter rounds on his final pass.
The special forces team was able to escape with no casualties. Captain Markle was credited with destroying three machine gun nests and killing 40 enemy combatants.
"I am humbled to have my name added to the list of trophy winners, which includes some of the greatest aviators of all time," Captain Markle said at the ceremony.
"Receiving the Mackay Trophy puts you in the company of air power legends," General McNabb said. "Not many names are mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Hap Arnold, Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle and Chuck Yeager, but tonight, the Markle name is now one of them.
"While we celebrate Captain Markle's incredible achievements tonight, he is not alone," General McNabb said. "As we speak, 35,000 Airmen are deployed fighting the global war on terror and more than 200,000 Airmen fulfill important missions for our combatant commanders around the globe."
Air Force and National Aeronautic Association officials present the Mackay Trophy to Airmen or an organization involved in the "most meritorious flight of the year." The trophy was first awarded in 1911 and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
#1
The presentation of this award to Captain Scott Markle underscores the very essence of what we believe about air power and the vital role America's Air Force plays in our nation's defense," said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, who presented the trophy to Captain Markle.
He said that with a straight face after the Air Force repeatedly tried to kill the A-10 as an operational vehicle. It literally took a Congressional act, throwing aside the Key West Agreement, that told them to transfer the craft, pilot and crew to the Army if they started to decommissioning the A-10s.
A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day to celebrate a Muslim festival.
Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.
The morning assembly will be open to all parents but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.
Just two members of staff a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant are Muslim.
Yesterday a relative of one of the 39 others said: Staff have got to go along with it or lets face it, they would be branded racist.
Since when is it that when one refuses to dress in a religious outfit "racism"?
"Asians for a day to celebrate a Muslim festival"
I'm sure all the Muslims are required to dress like Christians to celebrate Christian holy days. Right? Right?
So a full geisha outfit including hair and obi ornaments would suit? Or sari with matching bindi, nose- and earrings? Turkish harem outfit with senior wife accoutrements (if we're playing dress-up there's no way I'm going as a mere junior concubine)? I've got some serious shopping to do!
The first two days of torture started with threatening questions about his family's conspiracy. Shin Dong-Hyuk had no answers because at age 14, he was required to live in the dormitory with other teenagers in North Korea's notorious political prison camp No.14, north of Pyongyang. He had not seen his parents and brother for weeks.
The next morning, Shin was hung upside down with his ankles cuffed, all day long. He wondered why his mother and brother tried to escape, if what the authorities claimed was true. Surely, they should have known that anything short of being out of place in this camp is punished by death.
On the fourth day Shin was dragged into cell No.7, the secret underground torture chamber. Completely stripped, legs cuffed, hands tied with rope, his legs and hands were hung from the ceiling. The torturers lit up a charcoal fire under his back. He struggled. But they pierced a steel hook near Shin's groin to keep him from writhing. Amid the sounds and smells of flesh burning, Shin then blacked out.
He has known no other alternative. He also did not even know of the Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il nor the late-founder Kim Il-Sung.
"People are surprised when I say I didn't know about them. I really did not hear those names inside the camp," said Shin.
Human rights activists say the political prisoners condemned to die in those prison camps are not considered fit to be trained ideologically. "They are simply not treated as one of the people," said Tim Peters at Helping Hands Korea.
"I thought it was only natural that I pay for my parents' sins with hard labor," recalled Shin.
An Escape Born of Curiosity
His hope in life was to be a model prisoner and be granted marriage like his father -- that is, until he learned another world existed outside camp No.14. A new inmate who had been in China and other Asian countries told him stories and taught him his first song. Shin had never heard a song, let alone music of any sort except the bells that rang to signal time of day.
So when he agreed to escape the barbed wires of his prison camp with the new inmate, it was not that he felt injustice or anger. Shin said he was "just curious, that's all." His fellow escapee died burnt and stuck to the electric wired fences -- a tragic twist, but for Shin it created an opportunity. He was able to safely crawl over the dead body as protection from getting electrified.
Crawling through, his legs got caught temporarily, leaving another unforgettable scar in addition to his burnt back and cut knuckle. But as he ran bleeding to find the new world, he did not imagine where he stands now.
In South Korea, Shin is telling the world about the secret atrocities of the North Korean regime and the political prison camp No.14. He gave testimony at Britain's House of Lords this year and hopes to do the same in the United States Congress. Privately, he dreams of going to college and becoming a policeman.
Eleven years after that day, Shin Dong-Hyuk is now standing high in Seoul, South Korea, signing autographs in his recently published book "Escape to the Outside World," which is about his life in the North Korean prison camp. He's spreading the word about the brutal North Korean regime and making plans for a new life of freedom.
But none of it would be possible if not for a daring, tragic escape.
Born Behind Barbed Wire
In 2005, Shin successfully escaped the prison camp where he was born, raised and repeatedly tortured. It took a month for him to sneak to the border where he bribed his way into China. After 17 months of seeking refuge, he was granted defector status by the South Korean government last year.
Shin's parents were granted marriage inside the camp for being model prisoners. They spent five days together as an award, and separated again in accordance with the prison rule. Shin has little memory of his father and brother because everyone above 12 years old was to live in separate dormitories of same age and sex. He lived with his mother until age 12, but he has no attached feelings.
"She never hugged me, never," he recalled.
Shin's schooling involved reading, writing and simple adding and subtracting. Children were beaten to death in front of others for stealing five grains of wheat out of hunger. Girls were raped and protesting mothers disappeared. He witnessed his own mother offering sex to guards. Teenagers were buried under cement while being forced to build power plants. Shin's middle-finger knuckle was cut off as punishment for dropping a sewing machine. And he watched the public executions of his mother and brother after their failed escape.
But for Shin, that was the way it was. "I didn't think the world I lived in was wrong. I was born to it," he said.
Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill no longer is a member of the faculty but he is holding classes on campus after his dismissal following a controversial Sept. 11 essay comparing victims to a Nazi leader.
The classes, covering topics including colonialism, genocide and racism, are organized by the students who then invite Churchill to speak. "We feel Ward has a right to say what he wants to say," Aaron Smith, a political science and ethnic studies senior, told FOXNews.com.
Smith, one of the discussions' organizers, said about 75 students usually show up but it is hard to get them to commit to assignments since they can't receive grades for them. The discussions on campus aim to make a statement about academic freedom and free speech, Smith said.
The University of Colorado says Churchill is allowed on campus since he is a private citizen but students cannot receive academic credit for attending the discussions. "They are doing everything they can to make it look like Ward Churchill is teaching again at the University of Colorado," said Bronson Hilliard, a university spokesman. The university does not recognize the discussions as courses or an official representation of the University of Colorado academic work, Hilliard said.
Churchill is receiving a year's pay under a long-held university agreement following his dismissal, Hilliard said.
Churchill did not respond for comment.
David Lane, Churchills attorney, said he doesnt know if Churchill views the discussions as a return to campus, he just enjoys teaching. "Im sure they are going very well; hes an excellent professor," Lane said.
Smith, who took a class with Churchill amid the debate over his research and writings, agreed. "He pushes us to think critically about issues that are left outside of the main chronicles of history," Smith said. "He tries to have us not only look from the perspective of the dominant, but from the perspective of the oppressed."
The university also is wrapped up in a legal battle with the former professor. Churchill filed a complaint claiming the university and university regents violated his First Amendment rights to free speech. The university filed motions in September to dismiss the complaint and Lane, Churchill's attorney, filed a response last week. The university will file reply briefs to his response soon, said Ken McConnellogue, a spokesman for the CU System. There won't be a ruling for about a month, he added.
#2
Criticism of Jordan became particularly heated this year after he dropped charges in two high-profile cases: One defendant was accused of murdering five teenagers; the other was charged in the death of a popular local musician.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - A small, inert training bomb fell Tuesday from a fighter jet that was heading to an air station, the Navy said. No one was hurt. The 10-pound bomb scraped a warehouse's concrete exterior wall in the resort city of Virginia Beach, causing ``extremely minimal damage,'' Navy spokesman Mike Maus said.
The F/A-18C Hornet was returning to Oceana Naval Air Station after a training mission at the Navy's bombing range in Dare County, N.C., when it dropped the bomb as it was landing, Maus said. He did not know the jet's altitude. The jet was undamaged and landed safely, Maus said. A Navy board will investigate and determine whether the pilot should be punished, Maus said. The Navy did not release the pilot's name.
The bomb was a BDU-48, which carries an explosive charge that emits smoke upon impact, Maus said. Air crews practice air-to-ground bombing using such ``bomb dumb units'' as a low-cost alternative to live ordnance, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Good thing it wasn't one of those practice nuclear bombs.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/31/2007 14:14 Comments ||
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Steve-
Could be the "BB stackers" did a bad job
The 'BB stackers' are the storage/handling maintenance guys, the loaders (AKA muzzlefu*kers) are the ones who hang them on the birds. I was a BB stacker for 20 years and I am deeply offended that you would confuse me with one of....those.
My seconds shall call upon you in the morning. :)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/31/2007 17:12 Comments ||
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#8
Urban legend around NAS WHidbey recalls the exploits of VA-196; they (allegedly) dropped a 500 pound bomb on a tugboat, but it did not go off, but did (supposedly) pierce the deck and lodge in the bilge.
web search of snopes.com and various A-6 Intruder websites failed to confirm or deny.
not the fault of the AO's strictly an aircrew thingy ( if true)
NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (APP): Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif underwent knee surgery at Fortis hospital here on Tuesday.
The hospital sources said Dr. Ashok Rajgopal conducted the knee replacement surgery. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday.
The hospital authorities are keeping the details of the operation confidential. However, the sources said the operation was conducted successfully and the patient is recuperating.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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I wondering why I should care about this earth-shaking, world changing news?
#2
I wondering why I should care about this earth-shaking, world changing news?
Because in the new knee is hidden a micro-chip DVD of Binny and his favorite ewe in a cave somewhere planning the next mission against the free world.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/31/2007 14:16 Comments ||
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#3
Think of why she would choose India, an "enemy country" for the operation.
Is she really there to negotiate on behalf of Nawaz?
Is Delhi backing one Pak political party over the other?
Plots within plots...
Posted by: john frum ||
10/31/2007 16:00 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
