B-29 Superfortress

A centerpiece of Thunder Over Michigan was Fifi, the last surviving flying B-29 Superfortress. She was there and stone cold beautiful. We got up close and personal, too.

The question was posed earlier as to whether or not we saw Fifi the B-29 fly. Yes, yes we did.

There's even video.





Yep. Pretty fantastic to see.

Now I know that today is the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan by the B-29 Bock's Car. I know that the usual protesters have been making the rounds, including the handful of Japanese former residents of that city who have once again come to Washington, DC to assume the role of "victim" and pretend yet again that they had done nothing to deserve such a whacking. Some of them and their supporters may find this posting today offensive should they see it.

Well frankly, if they don't like these pictures and videos, they probably won't care for my official statement on the day, either:

People of Japan.

It's been sixty-seven years since you made us flatten Nagasaki. Most people on the planet today weren't even alive back then. Since that day, we've made up and become good friends and trading partners, and America has protected your country from foreign aggression.

Now I like to think that you've learned your lesson and we can all let bygones be bygones. But just in case you get any ideas, please take note of the fact that we've kept a B-29 on stand-by, ready to go back over there again if we have to. So please, don't make us have to do that again and let's just focus on a mutually beneficial future together.

Signed: An American.

Anyway, I thought that this statement might be a little better and more tasteful commemoration of the bombing of Nagasaki than my first idea, a catchy little musical number which admittedly might have struck some as being crass and insensitive.

Anyway... Here's to our World War Two vets, and to Fifi.

More B-29s here.

Why America is so great--another example.

This story from the Miami Herald spells out America's benevolence like nothing that the Obama Administration can ever say or any of our detractors (foreign and domestic) can argue.

Peruvian teen in Miami for genital reconstruction after rifle accident left him without a penis
And smirk at the injury if you will, but the story is that this kid from some Peruvian backwater sustains an injury that is beyond anything that doctors in his country can treat or that his family can afford to pay for, and American doctors step up and fly him and his family here at no cost to the family or our own taxpayers and fix him up so that he can have a normal life again.

Luis and his father, Roger, 41, arrived in Miami July 16 thanks to a program called International Kids Fund Wonderfund, which is run by Jackson Memorial Foundation. The charity helps foreign kids get medical treatment and surgery they can’t receive or afford in their home countries.

Children are treated at Holtz Children’s Hospital at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and money is raised through private and public donations to help cover the costs.

Luis’ treatment will cost $50,000, an expense his family could not afford on their own. Ronald McDonald House, a hostel for visiting families near Jackson, is providing them housing.

“My family is a poor family. We don’t have a lot of resources,” Roger said.

The Canelos family lives in a straw house in a village of 10,000 in the rural Peruvian region of Loreto, bordering Colombia and Ecuador. They share a parcel of land with other families where they grow yucca, plantains, corn and rice, as well as raise small chickens, for their own consumption.

Loreto is isolated from much of the country, Roger explained. Ambulances, for example, arrive by river.

“Everything is jungle out there,” Roger said.

Luis and Roger had never left their village before. Their journey to the United States began when they took a small boat bound for Mazan, a town in the same province. Next they crossed part of the Amazon to arrive in Quito, Ecuador. From there, father and son boarded a flight to Lima, where they stayed for two weeks before departing for Miami.

Roger brought with him a camera to document the trip to South Florida, a metropolis unlike his village. So far he has taken pictures of Metrorail and large homes.

“I never thought I could get this far,” Luis said.

Well he got this far, not thanks to Obamacare or anything done by big government, but by the charity of the American people. This is the kind of thing that America stands for and used to be known for world-wide, and despite those around the world who hate us, it's usually private aid organizations run by generous American people who are the first to volunteer to help those in need, be it in disasters like the Haitian earthquake, a handful of miners trapped in Chile, or just a kid like this, brought here from Peru or Iraq of Afghanistan to receive life-changing medical care that they'd likely never get otherwise. And it's not the American government that does these things as much as it is individual Americans and private groups who voluntarily give their time and expertise and often a great deal of their own money, not because they expect a reward or because the government made them do it, but because it's the right thing to do and we're that kind of people. And when I read stories like this, I can't help but love my countrymen and women even more as I pass it along. It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be an American on the Friday afternoon.