Sean Connery Is Named The Greatest James Bond As Thousands Of 007 Fans Have Their Say

Morgan Jeffery at the Radio Times (the UK’s TV Guide) announced that actor Sean Connery was voted the greatest James Bond in their poll.

It’s official: Sean Connery is the greatest James Bond, having been named by RadioTimes.com readers as their favourite ever 007.

Over 14,000 fans voted in our tournament to decide who would be crowned the finest screen version of Ian Fleming’s super spy.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/film/2020-08-09/sean-connery-best-james-bond-poll/ 

This Wanted Sicilian Cosa Nostra Monster ‘Killed Enough People To Fill A Small Cemetery’

Michael Kaplan at the New York Post offers a piece on a Sicilian Cosa Nostra boss and fugitive.

Few would recognize Matteo Messina Denaro on the street, but the Cosa Nostra leader is one of the most sought-after fugitives on the planet.

His reign of terror amped up in 1993, after authorities tracked down and arrested Sicilian mafia boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina, who had spent 23 years on the lam, in Palermo, Italy. Soon after, his protégé Denaro allegedly played a key role in making sure there would be hell to pay for the pinch.

The revenge run was “an attack on Italy [and] Denaro’s craziest crime,” Cyprien d’Haese, co-director of a new episode of Netflix’s “World’s Most Wanted” that dropped Wednesday, told The Post. Denaro and his blood-thirsty crew “put bombs in Milan, Rome and Florence. They blew up national monuments and a museum,” d’Haese added. “It was their way of saying, ‘We are so powerful. We can get anyone anywhere.’ ”

A precociously violent “baby-killer who learned to use a gun at the age of 14,” according to ­d’Haese, Denaro allegedly assumed the godfather mantle in 2007, following the arrest of previous leader Bernardo Provenzano.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2020/08/08/wanted-mobster-killed-enough-people-to-fill-a-small-cemetery/

Babylon Bee: Experts Predict Winner Of Presidential Election Will Be Candidate Who Talks The Least

The Babylon Bee offers a satirical piece on the presidential candidates.

U.S.—Experts are predicting the winner of the 2020 election will be whichever candidate talks the least.

Analysis suggests whenever one of the candidates opens his mouth, his poll numbers plummet. This has led to a cunning race where both campaigns are desperately trying to get their candidate to just stop talking and do some damage control whenever their candidate manages to speak his mind.

"This obviously gives the advantage to Biden, since his aides don't let him out of the basement, and Trump runs his own Twitter account," said one analyst, "but don't count Trump out yet. Whenever Biden breaks out and starts saying something, anything, Trump rapidly gains on Biden."

You can read the rest of the humor piece via the below link:

https://babylonbee.com/news/experts-predict-winner-of-election-will-be-candidate-who-talks-the-least

A Little Humor: The Sheriff Is Also The Town's Veterinarian

In a small rural town in Pennsylvania, the local sheriff was also the town’s veterinarian.

The man’s phone rang at one in the morning and his wife answered the phone.

A woman, obviously upset, asked the wife, “Is your husband there?”

“He is,” she responded. “But do you want to talk to him as the sheriff or the veterinarian?”

“Both!” the woman replied. “We can’t get our dog’s mouth open, and, oh, there’s a burglar’s leg in it.”

My Washington Times 'On Crime' Column On The 100 Year History of Scotland Yard's Famous Flying Squad

The Washington Times ran my On Crime column on the history of Scotland Yard’s famous Flying Squad. 

I interviewed Dick Kirby, a retired Flying Squad detective (seen in the below photo). 

While serving two years in Scotland in the U.S. Navy in the mid-1970s, I often watched the British TV series “The Sweeney,” which was a crime drama based on Scotland’s Yard’s famous Flying Squad. On one of my many trips to London, I met a detective who told me some interesting stories about the real Flying Squad. 

So it was of great interest to me to read “Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad: 100 Years of Crime Fighting.” (Casemate Publishers). 

I reached out to the author, Dick Kirby, and I asked him why he wrote the book. 

“I was a member of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad for over eight years and I wrote the book to commemorate 100 years of the Squad’s existence — and believe me, it had plenty to commemorate!” he said. 

“Following the end of the WWI, crime in England went through the roof and in 1919 it was decided to create a mobile force of officers who would be unrestricted as to where they went in order to smash up gangs of armed burglars, gangs who carried out smash and grabs, car thieves and pickpockets,” Mr. Kirby explained. 

“Initially, just 12 detectives, taken from all over London, each with a proven record of being thief-takers were selected, and they were provided with horse-drawn covered wagons to patrol the streets, with interchangeable names of businesses slotted into the sides of the wagons. Underneath the canvas hoods, the detectives looked through spyholes to catch thieves in the act of stealing a car, about to pick a victim’s pocket or carry out a smash and grab.”  

Mr. Kirby said the 12-month experiment was so successful that motorized tenders replaced the wagons and on the first night’s patrol, the Squad chased and arrested a seven-man gang of violent thieves, who had nearly killed a police constable. 

“With the ensuing publicity, a crime correspondent for the London Daily Mail referred to them as ‘Flying Squads of picked detectives,’ and the name stuck.”  

He said the Flying Squad was known as “The Sweeney,” which comes from the Cockney rhyming slang: Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad.  

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/5/former-scotland-yard-flying-squad-detective-revisi/   

101 Years Ago: A Look Back At The 1919 Flu Pandemic

A friend sent me the above and below photos from the 1919 Flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people and infected a third of the world's population.

We survived then, and we will survive the COVID-19 pandemic as well.

The Defense Intelligence Agency Offers Compelling Podcasts to the American Public

While serving as the administrative officer and security chief of a Defense Department command in Philadelphia from 1986 to 2007, I received regular reports, briefings and training from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Now the general public can receive briefings via a podcast called "DIA Connections." The DIA stated that they plan to offer interesting, informative and sometimes overlooked content. 

You can view the first three podcasts via the below link:

https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/Story/Article/2299567/defense-intelligence-agency-brings-compelling-podcast-to-the-american-people/