Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
Bertrand Russell
PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA
Half a century ago, the American destroyer USS William D. Porter accidentally fired a live torpedo at the battleship USS Iowa during a practice exercise on Nov.14, 1943. As if this
weren't bad enough, the Iowa was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and all of the country's World War II military brass to 'the big three'
conferences in Cairo and Teheran. Roosevelt was to meet with Stalin of the Soviet Union and Churchill of Great Britain, and had the W.D. Porter sucessfully launched torpedo struck the
Iowa at the aiming point, the last 50 years of world history might have been quite different. Fortunately, the W.D. Porter's warning allowed the Iowa to evade the speeding torpedo which exploded in the wake of the Iowa, and historic events carried on as we know them.
What relation would your father's sister's sister-in-law be to you?
Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.
Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
