tdaxp

"Speaking of hate crimes"...

The man who shot up a training center for missionaries and a church in suburban Denver, killing four people and wounding a number of others, has been identified:

A law enforcement official says the deadly rampages at a megachurch and a missionary training school were believed to have been carried out by the same person—Matthew Murray, a 24-year-old suburban Denver man who "hated Christians."

It is perhaps worth noting that the toll in Sunday's shootings exceeded the combined total in all "hate crimes" against Muslims in the six years since September 11.

The heroine who stopped the anti-Christian was from Sioux Falls.

Ever wonder what your city looked like a century ago? The answer is available from The University of Texas at Austin's Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (which has previously been described at tdaxp and by Catholicgauze).

Here's what the grandest city in South Dakota, Sioux Falls, looked like in 1920:

What's interesting to me is how few of the streets I am familiar with. Main and Philippes are still in the city's center, and Minnesota and Cliff are still imposing avenues. But Ridge? Colton?

I recognize some further sites -- the Big Sioux River, obviously, as well as the South Dakota Deaf Mute Institute School for the Deaf

Sioux Falls is a beautiful city. 'Specially when we blow stuff up. And afterwards, too.

The Twilight Demolition of the Leaning Tower of Zip in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

There's more to the Zip Feeds Tower than Boom!:

During my recent return to Sioux Falls I snapped some great photos of the Zip Feeds Mill. The pictures are high resolution... enjoy!

Top-notch day. One of the best in my life. A great time all around. Photos after the weekend.

Some NationMaster-ish links: junkPolitics / SLAPP, tdaxp / NationMaster, technorati / NationMaster, Wikipedia / NationMaster.

In 1956, my home-city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota became the pride of the world: The Zip Feeds corporation build the world's most modern feed mill in our town!!!



To quote the Argus Leader

An advanced electronic control system allowed one operator to move feed ingredients from trucks to one of 52 bins in the building. The feed was mixed in four-ton batches and bagged using the control system.

The advanced system also allowed the workers to mix different feeds. This was something most mills weren't able to do at the time.

However, the mill has long sat unused. Compared to thriving Downtown Sioux Falls (1) or Falls Park (2), the Zip Feeds mill (3) used a lot of riverside land without contributing too much:



Naturally, we tried to blow it up in



The Zip Feeds Mill thundered mightily:



And leaned frightfully:



And kind of just sat there:



In summary:



(It didn't fall)

They'll start with the wrecking ball on Monday.

All photographs are courtesy of the Argus Leader, who also made a movie of the attempted demolition available. Fox News and Reuters are also on the ball. Map courtesy of Google Earth.

Blogwise, demoncat4log, Habibbijan, Head Kid, Jim River Report, South Dakota Politics, and Zelda Connely comment.

Update: Also check out my photoseries of the twilight of Zip, or this flickr set

"Vietnam vets in Iraq see 'entirely different war'," by Steven Komarow, USA Today, 20 June 2005, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-06-20-iraq-vietnam-vets_x.htm (from Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog).

While I had relatives fight in the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War, my extended family was spared Vietnam. So reading about Vietnam Vets who lived just miles from me supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom II is wonderful

If there are parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, these graying soldiers and the other Vietnam veterans serving here offer a unique perspective. They say they are more optimistic this time: They see a clearer mission than in Vietnam, a more supportive public back home and an Iraqi population that seems to be growing friendlier toward Americans.

"In Vietnam, I don't think the local population ever understood that we were just there to help them," says Chief Warrant Officer James Miles, 57, of Sioux Falls, S.D., who flew UH-1H Hueys in Vietnam from February 1969 to February 1970. And the Vietcong and North Vietnamese were a tougher, more tenacious enemy, he says. Instead of setting off bombs outside the base, they'd be inside.

"I knew we were going to lose Vietnam the day I walked off the plane," says Miles, who returned home this month after nearly a year in Iraq. Not this time. "There's no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do," he says.