Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Well, That Worked Out Well



By now I suppose you know that yesterday we lost Margaret Thatcher. Without a doubt the world would be a much different place if she had not had a such a prominent place in it. She was Ronald Reagan's right hand when it came to battling the Communists in the 1980's, including cleaning out a few socialists in Great Britain.

We are richer for having known her; and poorer for our loss.

Technically, Mrs. Thatcher was once my boss.

The US military overseas is usually a former conqueror. When we set up a base, we do under our rules. England is and exception, because the bases were set up during WWII, for the most part, and we came as Allies. So when  you are in the US Air Force, and stationed in England, you are not on an American air base, but an Royal Air Force base, and under the command of an RAF officer; who is under the command of the Queen (currently) and her Prime Minister.

When I was in England, that was the Iron Lady.

(Well now; ain't this embarrassing!

Here I am in the middle of a blog post about the death of one of England's greatest Prime Ministers, and I hit the Internet for a few facts.

And one of the facts I find out is that, like Mark Twain, the reports of her death have been greatly exaggerated. Well, Twain's death is no longer greatly exaggerated, but, I digress.

Apparently the entire thing was a Twitter hoax. Rather appropriate; in England a Twit is a fool.

In my defense, I heard the rumor as breaking news on Hannity's radio show yesterday, and took it as Gospel. He never said the 'BREAKING NEWS' was from a dippity-dang Twitter post.

Well; now what? Do I continue with the post, or save this for when the news of her death has NOT been greatly exaggerated?

I guess I will just soldier one in the face of adversity, in the best British fashion.)

I have another, somewhat more personal, connection to Mrs. Thatcher.

A few years ago I met an extraordinary women as a part of a special project I am connected with. As she and I were having lunch, she mentioned that just the day before she had had lunch with Maggie Thacher to celebrate Mrs. Thatcher's birthday.

I felt doubly honored.

It has been said that we anever more than 7 handshakes away from the President (I would prefer to be more than that from our current President, but, I digress); that afternoon I was not only ONE handshake away from Ronald Reagan- I was one handshake away from Margaret Thatcher.

How many other Rednecks can make that claim?

No comments: