I think MonkeyFilter summarizes the recent death of Vice Admiral Stockdale very well:
A real James Bond calls it quits. Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale – Decorated vet, POW, Perot VP candidate, Epictetus scholar, Illinois native and all around tough motherfucker, died yesterday from complications related to Alzheimers. He was 81.
I thought it was a real shame that he became “the butt of jokes after he opened the 1992 vice presidential debate by asking, ‘Who am I? Why am I here?’,” because it was not for lack of presence or intelligence:
“The questions were relevant in terms of the evening’s purpose, which was to introduce myself and let the American people know where I was coming from,” he wrote in 1995. “But I also chose them for their broader relevance to my life: I am a philosopher.”
