Well done. I've been feeling that way for a year and a half now.

Beautiful work Cox & Forkum.

Even better than the cartoon is "Fallen Star". Charles, you always seem to find the right words.

Thanks, zulubaby, but I can't take credit for that -- it's their title.

Oh, apologies then to Cox & Forkum.

Charles, you always seem to find the right words.

That part doesn't change though.

Does anyone know the exact chapter and verse of Isaiah that the president quoted?

touching...

The quote is Isaiah 40:26...

26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

If I knew how to post in Hebrew, I'd include it too.

Andy

Dennis P., the quotation is from Isaiah, chapter 40.

Once again, Cox and Forkum hit the nail on the head. It does (truthfully) bring tears to my eyes. These people died serving their countries (and, indeed, all humanity) just as surely as if they had fallen to enemy fire on a battlefield.

On behalf of my family in Australia

Owe deepest sympathy to the families of the American and Israeli Astronauts. May there memory carry the hopes and dreams for generations.

Beautifully touching piece.

I found some decent coverage of the disaster here.

This image is worth a million words...

That picture says it all...

NBC has a special on now (8-9 EST)

Dan Hanson wrote what would have been a better speech for the President to have given (via Instapundit)

[Link: www.happyfunpundit.com...]

And Instapundit also posted the picture by Petr Ginz.

Thanks to Cox and Forkum for this very fitting expression of our grief.

World leaders offer condolences to Bush.

"In the name of the French people, forever a friend to the American people, I express to you the profound emotion and feeling of solidarity in the ordeal that all my compatriots are feeling," Chirac said.

Little late now, Kermit.

Thanks...

#16 NC

He said the French people, not the French politicians. The statement is actually true.

It was around 9:30 this morning when I turned on the TV set. I was just out of the shower, my hair still a tangled mess. My heart sunk into my stomach when I realized the meaning of the shooting star crossing the Texas sky. This was just too much, it’s as if my soul was torn from my body, this feeling of utter dread came over me. It’s been like 9/11 again.

These brave souls, scientists, engineers, pilots, and explorers, giving everything for the betterment of us all. I will beseech the Almighty for the peace of their souls. May their legacy will live on in our hearts and that the families of the these heroes find comfort and peace in knowing that their loved ones have no died in vain.

"In the name of the French people, forever a friend to the American people, I express to you the profound emotion and feeling of solidarity in the ordeal that all my compatriots are feeling," Chirac said.

Whore. How dare he pretend to share our grief?

Mark Steyn has a typically great column up, Americans are tougher about these things now.

Please read it in full, but LGF (and Mr. Nough) fans should note that Steyn ends the column with these paragraphs:

Two weeks ago, when the Shuttle was launched, the enterprising internet commentator Charles Johnson posted an almost note-perfect parody of an Arab news report denouncing the presence of Colonel Ramon:
"'This is surely but the first step towards complete and outright illegal Zionist occupation of space,' said the Arab League spokesman Abr Souffla. Sheikh Yermani-Makr, appearing on Palestinian television, said, 'It is not enough that the unbelievers have come on our land, but now they also take our heavens?' In New York today, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that an Israeli presense in space is 'unhelpful' and would only serve to further aggravate tensions between Israelis and Arabs."

A couple of days later, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reprinted the internet story, apparently taking it for real. In an odd way, the world's reactions are beyond parody now. No doubt in the big-time mosques the A-list imams really will regard what happened as the judgment of Allah on the American-Zionist plan to seize the heavens. The rest of us will mourn the dead and urge Nasa to get on with the next flight. That's the American way.

My Congressman, Dave Weldon, is on FOX now explaining why we need to stay in ppace.

#20 Maine's Michael

Whore. How dare he pretend to share our grief?

Read again. He explicitely talks "on behalf of the people". Not for himself.

beautiful artwork. I live in Nacogdoches, Texas where all day people have been finding pieces of the suttle and each one brings a grim reminder of those seven brave astronauts. Our hearts are heavy and this cartoon shows the mood of our nation today.

Caton,

Too bad it's him leading your (?) country, and that it's Chirac that has to make the statement, because it sounds like bullshit coming from him. He's been an asskissing money grubber and dissembler his whole career, and a vain, arrogant one to boot. In his heart of hearts, some little part is no doubt pleased at this blow we've suffered today, as from his perspective, power is a zero sum game, and France's can only increase at America's expense.

The French elected him, n'est pas? Do people get the government they want and deserve, in democracies?

Anyway, no offense to any private individual intended, and I know YOUR heart is in the right place.

Caton--Aren't French politicians elected? Who elects them?

#23, Caton,
Just finished replying to your reply :-)

Maine's Michael isn't me. Neither is NC. Do you see now my point about how much the French Government has damaged the American opinion of the French (which wasn't very high to begin with)?

I am deliberately blunt. I don't pull my punches, and, indeed, on the Web I often exaggerate my position for effect.

Maine's Michael and NC simply reinforce my point.

If you want to fight more, e-mail Charles and ask him for my e-mail (he has it, though he may not realize it). Point him to this post where I give him permission to give it to you.

I don't post my e-mail, having lost too many to the spammers.

I don't feel like fighting anymore tonight. This is a sad day for us. If you reply to my reply, I'll talk to you late tommorow (Sundays are always spent in the dojo).

I admire the strength in C & F's depictions of Uncle Sam. None of those lanky sorts. I also admire the way their Uncle Sam is allowed to feel pain. And, just like the America he represents, this Uncle Sam will upright and a force to reckon with in short order.

Perhaps I have no place to speak, but I would've liked to see GWB say God Bless Israel... too. I think of all that is lost to the families. USA and Israel thank you for your courage and ultimate donation to further knowledge and brotherhood.

Thank you.

For those who might like to take a look at the cartoon by the just deseased Bill Mauldin, World War II cartoonist. It is a picture of President Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in the same manner as the one here, after the death of President Kennedy. In case you are interested...

follow this site...

[Link: www.tuxjunction.net...]

Do people get the government they want and deserve, in democracies?

Is Bush the person you and me wanted or deserved? I don't know about you but I was presented with a very narrow choice of people none of whom I particularly liked or wanted to be elected. And I think that the American people deserve much more than George W Bush.

#29 Znaught 2/1/2003 07:38PM PST said:

"USA and Israel thank you for your courage and ultimate donation to further knowledge and brotherhood."

And India. Columbia astronaut Kalpana Chawla was a national hero there.

We are truly a nation of immigrants. I don’t know why, but I am very, very proud of that right now.

Our country has been beaten up a bit over the last few years. But we will always recover.

Do people get the government they want and deserve, in democracies?

Well, as the old saying goes, perhaps they just get the gov't they deserve. If we as a society make it difficult or distasteful for quality people to seek gov't office, then that is our own (collective) doing, isn't it?

By the way, Arafat sent his condolences, and all his professional liars have been making similar sympathetic noises.

Amazing cartoon. I fully understand the fallen star off the hat. How appropriate.

Jordan

The Cox and Forkum cartoon says it all.

And yes, I also thought of that Bill Mauldin cartoon, even before I saw the C & F one here. It's a classic icon of a mourning America.

From Jerusalem Post:

IDF posts special e-mail address for condolence messages

The Israel Defense Forces announced today that it has set up an e-mail address for the public to send condolence messages to the Ramon Family and the Israeli people, on the loss of Col. Ilan Ramon in the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy.

The address is: ilanfamily@mail.idf.il

The public is also invited to air sentiments about the disaster in messages to jpost.com/Letters/

As a wannabe American, and a member of the Civilized World, I spit on arafish's stinking condolences.

PATUIE!

Fuck you!

He must work out.

Heartfelt illustration. It honestly made me cry...... my heart goes out to the astronauts, their family and the countries who have lost their space traveling heros in this accident .

Unfortunatly not everyone feels this way ...

This quote is taken from a post on [Link: www.democraticunderground.com...] and had the tittle "Now that we are all conviniently distracted by the shuttle accident ..."

"What's bush up to?
I am not afraid to say this -

I guess bush's SOTU speech went over so poorly, he needed a disaster to distract us from his horrible actions and lies.

I am getting sick of this bull. How many more Americans must die for bush to look legit? How often will he need to kill to keep up his legitimacy?

How convenient that the first Israeli citizen was on the shuttle, too. Everybody rally behind Sharon and don't question or speak against him, either."

I was more then a little .... stunned when reading this.

Fortunatly, most democrates posting on du.com did not share "americanmum"s opinion, and she was repetedly called everything from ignorant to a bitch. That said in their defence, the democrates are still posting page up and page down trying to find someway to blame the president indirectly for what happened to Columbia, or going off topic blaming bush for everything else. And more then a small number agreed...

A jewish captian involved with the Nürneberg trials after the WW2, and quoted in the film about the trials, said:

"Evil is a lack of empathy... the incability of empathy"

This poster and others like her who post ideas like these show no empathy... no respect for the astronauts of Columbia or their families, but use them as political tool and a vessel of personal despise for Bush. They become just another piece in the intricate game of debated politics. That is lack of empathy ...

So while the rest of america grieves, they are looking for a way to blame "father america" for crimes he couldnt possibly have commited.... how I applaude your sympathetic priorities...

Due respect to the posters on qouted page who did not fall into the "bush is always to blame" trap... this time.

Rest in peach, Columbia. Perhaps you can be a shooting star for those of us left to witness your blaze of glory.

Thanks Charles for posting the cartoon, it was a perfect summary of what we feel now. Thank you Mike #30 for the Bill Maudlin story, he is another giant from the W.W. II who will be missed. Thank you especially for reprinting what was perhaps his most famous cartoon that of the grieving statue of Lincoln after JFK's assaination.

Light a candle for Colonel Ramon, and his fellow astronauts aboard the STS-107.

[Link: www.shkooz.com...]