Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013)

Her claim as Britain's greatest prime minister is surpassed only by Churchill's.

Sleep well, Ma'am.

Gerry Anderson (1929 - 2012)

A big influence on my childhood has ended with the passing of Gerry Anderson.

FAB, sir.

It's all go

I was reading through tributes to Ray Bradbury when I came across this observation:

Without Bradbury there’s no Michael Chabon, no Cormac McCarthy, no Margaret Atwood.

Great.  Now I have to build a time machine, go back and kill Mrs Bradbury before she conceives him.

Kim Jong Il dies

So ronery

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is dead.

The question remains whether his son is bat guano crazy enough to succeed him.

Update:  It annoys the heck out of me that he died in bed, but I console myself with the thought that maybe someone suffocated him with a pillow.

Doritos creator dies

Arch West, creator of the Doritos corn chips, passes away at the age of 97.

Microsoft closed for mourning.

James Arness (1923-2011)

James Arness has passed on at the age of 88. With great foresight, his late brother Peter Graves left behind this tribute to him.

Osama Bin Laden killed by US forces

Sleep well, monster.

According to the Voice of America, the White House announced that Osama Bin Laden is dead; killed by US forces operating in Pakistan.

We've been down this road before, so I'm waiting for the DNA tests.  If true, it's great news that one of the most evil men of this century has received justice and now discovers that instead of a reward of 72 virgins he stands before his Maker for final judgement.  But to keep things in perspective, he was only one head of the Jihadist hydra and hasn't been much of a player since he fled Tora Bora on a donkey.

If true, this a great victory, but it's one battle in one campaign, not the war.

Update:  Identity confirmed by DNA.  A hearty well done to the men and women of the US military.  You've earned your pay and them some today.

Update: Alleged Photo evidence.

Update: Victor Davis Hanson's take.  I agree that it's a good thing we didn't take him alive.  And about the question of whether he was hiding in plain sight.

Update: Are they mad?  Screw Islamic tradition.  This swine deserves the same respect as a cockroach.  Hold on to the body as long as we need it then wrap it in bacon, cremate it at an undisclosed location, and then secretly use the ashes as mortar to build a synagogue.

Update: An apt and uncompromising take.

Update: How ABC News described Osama Bin Room Temperature in a photo caption:

Exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden is shown in Afghanistan, in this April 1998 file photo.

Dissident?  That's like calling Ebola a mild rash. And when did hiding from justice become "exile"?

Update: The analysis begins:  High risks, human intelligence, and the Peace Prize President embraces assassination.

Update: The Guantanamo connection.  I guess they weren't all innocent goat herders scooped up out of pure sadism after all.

Update: Best headline yet:

Shot in the Head Heard Round the World

Update:  The "me" factor.

Update: Worst quote of the day:

We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

Update: The"me" factor and bad timing.

Update: And this:

Any joy one might feel in the intelligence of our analysts and the bravery of our door kickers was significantly diminished by Obama’s malignant narcissism. The first part of the announcement, evoking 9/11, was vulgarly overwritten as per Obama’s view of himself as some kind of gifted orator. The adjective bloated compote was unworthy of the subject, banal and self-indulgent.

Update: Some people aren't happy.

Update: Protected by Pakistan?

Update:  Osama Bin And Gone died hiding behind a woman.  Not surprised.

Update: Trap or haven: Which side is Pakistan on?

Update: Something very Roman, though I'm not sure the MSM double standard is.

Update:  It's not "Who is the enemy", but "Who is our enemy's enemy"?

Update:  Apparently, the use of special forces was Mr Barack Hussein Obama's idea:

If so, my opinion of the man just rose a notch.

Update: Death of the Caliphate fantasy?  I doubt it, but one can hope.

Update: Speculation.

Update: Time for a shave.

Michael Gough (1917-2011)

The actor Michael Gough has passed on.

The BBC calls him the "Batman" actor (which must be as galling as being remembered for Obi Wan Kenobi), but to me, he'll always be the mad doctor from Konga.

Kevin McCarthy 1914-2010

The actor Kevin McCarthy has died–at least, someone or something that claimed to be Kevin McCarthy has "died".

Patricia Neal 1926-2010

The actress Patricia Neal passes on at the age of 84. She had a considerable career, but I'll always remember her for two roles:

That of the heroine in The Day the Earth Stood Still; the sci-fi classic about an alien who comes to Earth to hurl abuse at us and urges mankind to embrace the ways of peace or be incinerated by giant killer robots.

And The Fountainhead; the most incredible mixture of cod philosophy and over-wrought sexual fantasy ever to see the light of day.

Alan Stiltoe 1928-2010

The writer Alan Stiltoe has passed away aged 82.

One of the "Angry Young Men" of the postwar years, he is reported to have still been a bit titchy.

Peter Graves 1926-2010

Michael Foot (1913-2010)

Mr Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour party, has gone to his reward.

I never cared toffee for Mr Foots politics. I regarded them as wrong headed, inimical to human freedom, a threat to any hope of national prosperity, and a disaster for his own party. They didn't call his 1983 manifesto the "world's longest suicide note" for nothing. Worse, he was either a Communist fellow traveller or the most unobservant man in history–one who couldn't possibly have remained oblivious as Labour was infiltrated by the KGB and its leaders went to Moscow cap in hand to have their policies vetted by the Kremlin. Not to mention that in matters of party discipline he was as effective as Helen Keller at a skeet shoot. On the other hand, Mr Foot was a man of convictions who could always state them clearly, a master of the English language, and was never willing to sell out his principles in order to merely win an election, which even in his most ignominious defeat gave him the air of a man who would have charged the guns at Balaclava without hesitation.

Compared to his successors, a self-serving rabble who utterly lack principles or even respect for the Britain itself, this eloquent, well-read, tragically deluded, slightly comic man comes off looking like a pillar of respectability.

Sleep well, sir.

Edward Woodward 1939-2009

Edward Woodward has gone to the Great Wicker Man in the Sky.

Lord Summerisle was unavailable for comment.

Ted Kennedy: 1932-2009

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy has died of brain cancer at the age 0f 77.

Jackson, Fawcett RIP

Farrah Fawcett dies after a prolonged battle with cancer, age 62. Michael Jackson dies of a sudden heart attack, age 50.

What a bizarre juxtaposition. On the same day, a moderately successful actress passes on after a very private fight is carried out very much in the public eye. Meanwhile, an incredibly successful, though why is a complete mystery to me, pop singer's life turns into a freak show that simply ends as if cut off by a large, curved agricultural implement.

But then, death leads a varied... existence.

Bob May (1939-2009)

Bob May, AKA Robot B9, has gone to that great launch pad in the sky.

Rest well, you cacophonous collection of cogs.

Patrick McGoohan: 1928-2009

Partick McGoohan, AKA John Drake or No. 6 or "Mr. Jones", if you're an Ice Station Zebra fan (and who isn't?), has passed on.

Be seeing you.

Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008) II

Forrest J Ackerman has passed on. Confirmed this time.

Is This a Precondition?

Headline from The Telegraph:

Fidel Castro offers to talk to Barack Obama

But only with the proper equipment.