Saturday, December 1, 2012

Things That Will Not Die!

As mentioned before, I am a die-hard Sci-fi fan. I particularly love those old movies about giant reptilian monsters on the rampage able to withstand all that the insanely brave US army throw at them. In one of my favorites, the 1953 classic The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the beast, Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion "Rhedosaurus," which dared attack Coney Island, in the end (spoiler alert!) gets repelled only by an all-purpose "radioactive isotope" projectile fired from the top of the Cyclone roller coaster by a brave soldier-scientist-all-around-good-looking-stud. While watching the 1961 "masterpiece" Gorgo, in which pre-Beatle infestation London gets razed by a rubbery mother-son giant lizard tag team able to withstand all that the insanely brave British army throw at them, I got to thinking about "Things That Will Not Die!"

Many things, of course, do die, e.g., PanAm, TWA, the euro, the dollar, the pound, the economy, common sense, literacy, free speech, Cyndi Lauper's career, the city of Detroit, the border with Mexico. Despite repeated debunking, however, many horrid beliefs live on in popular culture, politics, academia, media commentary, and every day speech. Many have a totemic quality for the uneducated leftist college graduates who dominate the remaining shards of Western civilization. As with Godzilla, these beasts keep returning. As a public service, therefore, I have decided to begin a list, in no particular order, of seemingly immortal monsters. Please add at will. I make no claim to having a complete list. Consider this a work in progress; the first step in the hunt for an all-pupose "radioactive isotope."

1) The McCarthy "Witch Hunt": How often must we hear about Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy's "witch hunt"? I am amazed at how often foreigners babble on about McCarthy with absolutely no knowledge about the man or the era except what they pick up from the New York Times and some Hollywood movies, the main source of knowledge about America for Europeans. Just the other day I heard some British journalist going on about McCarthy and his Hollywood "witch hunt." Senator McCarthy, of course, had nothing to do with Hollywood; the House, not the Senate, investigated Communism in the film industry. McCarthy sought to expose Communist penetration of the State Department and the military. The term "witch hunt," of course, aims to show that concerns about Communism had no validity. As we have known for years (Whittaker Chambers, anybody?) and especially since the declassification of the Venona Project, the Soviets ran large spy rings at the highest levels of the US, Canadian, and British governments and societies, including security and military agencies, academia, media, and research organizations. Amazon carries several good books that cover the once very secret US/UK decoding of Soviet intelligence communications. Lloyd Billingsley's Hollywood Party, for example, provides a well-researched and detailed account of Soviet and Communist efforts in Hollywood.

McCarthy might have had little refinement, a bad hair cut, and a face made for radio, but history has proven him right. The "witches" were real and dangerous (e.g., Walter Duranty, Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross, Klaus Fuchs, Alger Hiss, Morton Sobel, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, anybody? Anybody?)

 2) Man-Caused Global Cooling Global Warming Climate Change: Does there exist a more vague, empty phrase than "climate change"? "Environmentalists," code word for New Age Luddites, have sought for decades to hamper economic development in pursuit of a vision of man living within Gaia's embrace. They exploited legitimate concerns over pollution, and came up with manmade global cooling, then--Oops!--warming. Big Fail. Their models could account for and predict nothing. While no great fan of Wikipedia, I found it has a nice explanation of scientific theory: "The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain, which is measured by its ability to make falsifiable predictions with respect to those phenomena. Theories are improved as more evidence is gathered, so that accuracy in prediction improves over time." Since neither Cooling "Theory" nor Warming "Theory" explain or predict anything, the proponents of a prehistoric lifestyle settled on Climate Change "Theory" which "predicts" and "explains"--hurrah!-- everything!  If we have more hurricanes or fewer hurricanes in a given year, that's "evidence" of manmade climate change; more or less rain, warmer or cooler, windy or becalmed all because of manmade climate change. If, of course, your "theory" explains "everything" but predicts "nothing" ahead of time (the very definition of prediction, no?), you have nothing except the jejune observation that "stuff happens." The proponents of this rubbish cannot answer even basic questions: Should the earth's temperature be what it is now, or what it was ten, twenty, thirty, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 years ago? When has there not been climate change? What causes climate change on Mars?

3) Palestinians: When the Arab countries attacked the new state of Israel, they did not do so in the name of establishing a separate Palestinian entity. They claimed the territory for themselves.

A few questions: How are "Palestinians" different than Egyptians or Jordanians (note: Yasser Arafat was born in Cairo)? Why isn't Jordan the Palestinian homeland? When Jordan controlled it, why wasn't the West Bank referred to as Palestine or Occupied Palestine? Why does the definition of Occupied Palestine only correspond to wherever Jews live? Where are the refugee camps and lavish UN programs for the one million Jews who had to flee their homes in the Arab world since 1948? You get the drift . . .

4) Bush Lied about Iraqi WMD: Let's remember one thing above all else: Iraq under Saddam had and used WMDs, in the guise of chemical weapons, against the Kurds and the Iranians. His agents spent years and millions of dollars trying to acquire the technology for nuclear weapons and a delivery system (Canadian readers please recite Gerald Bull Project Babylon.) It was the official position of the US Congress in the 1990s, and the Clinton administration, along with its reprehensible Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and CIA Director George Tenet, that Saddam sought to develop nuclear weapons. All the world's intel services reported the same thing. President Bush, who kept Tenet at CIA, accepted the wisdom of the world's intel wise men, and acted upon it. What else should a President do? Take a chance that everybody is wrong, and that Saddam had no nukes or nuke program? I am convinced that Saddam thought he had a nuclear weapon, certainly many of his senior military thought Iraq had it; the Iranians certainly thought he had or was about to get one. Enough.

 5) Right Wing Nazis and Fascists: Very tiresome. One of the great propaganda victories of the Communists was to label Nazis and Fascists as right-wingers. This is in keeping with a Leninist strain of thought that labelled the true Bolsheviks as Mensheviks, and the true Mensheviks as Bolsheviks. Communism, Fascism, Nazism, all spring from the same leftist belief in mass movements and subordination of the individual to the power of the state.

6) John Kerry is Smart:  Ok, you get the idea. Do I really need to "Swiftboat" this mountebank again?

Well, the floorers are drawing nigh, and soon I must disconnect my wifi again. I will stop here. Feel free to add others to this list.

Where is that isotope?

43 comments:

  1. 1. FDR ended the depression
    2. The noble savage (i.e. all third world people
    are without sin)
    3. Democrats care the most
    4. Viet Nam vets are all crazy
    5. Armed Forces need "force protection"

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  2. Oh, please add:
    6. Any criticism about, of, or near a black politician constitutes "Racism".
    7. The "rich" just don't pay any taxes. And, taxing the rich as much as possible would so take care of the deficit, right?
    8. My favorite: The "suppressive" U.S.A. is full of hateful people who never help other countries during time of disaster, famine or tsunamis. We're never there.

    SandraC.

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  3. Also please add to the list (from the Jamaican perspective): Marijuana is good for your brain.

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  4. The US is a warmongering nation, but they were late to WW2 and the Russians had it won by then anyway (With no assistance at all from the US prior regarding material or designs, etc.)

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  5. how about the idea that socialism works? 200M dead and 20 failed states later, and somehow, it is still considered the best option.

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    Replies
    1. Thread winner (for me). Incomprehensible how people continue to believe it "hasn't been tried hard enough." Socialism has failed in virtually every continent, in rich countries and poor, developed countries and undeveloped ones -- it just doesn't work. So let's try it again a little harder, ok Barack? Sheesh!

      Delete
  6. The isotope you are looking for is in Arafat's bones.

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  7. Bush tax cuts - the Clinton tax increases.

    Bush increased the deficit, which was coming down substantially until he stupidly signed the 2007 budget presented to him the the Democratic House and Senate.

    All non-progressives and non-Democrats are [random ad hominem].

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  8. Let us not forget - the Democratic Party is the creator of Civil Rights and the party to end segregation. This, despite the fact that the Democratic party started segregation; balked at any form of civil rights and actively used the KKK as part of their platform.

    Btw - I'm a Canadian lurker but this particular piece just called out for me to say something.
    Cheers!
    Rob Thompson

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, Rob. Somehow it always escapes everybody that it was the Democrat sheriffs, deputies and state government agencies that turned the fire hoses on the demonstrators, and let the dogs loose!

      Keep lurking; we love it.

      SandraC

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    2. I try to remind my Democrat friends of facts like this all the time, but the brainwash du jour is that the old racist Dems somehow got transmutated into Reagan Democrats cum Republicans in 1980. Viola! Now the party of the KKK has been magically transformed into the party of "we fight for the disadvantaged", or some sh*t.

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  9. Geez, Dip, you ignore the greatest sci-fi monster movie ever made?

    "The Forbidden Planet" has worn pretty well, especially considering when it was made.

    Depending on the day of the month, President GW Bush is a puppet manipulated by Dick Cheney or an evil genius.

    -Blake

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  10. Take any excuse/reason given by the Obama apologists for Benghazi. Substitute Bush for Obama, Iraq for Libya, and Condi Rice for Susan Rice.

    Since both agruments are equivalent, then either Bush acted reasonably and correctly or Obama ia a lying moron. Take your pick.

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  11. Obama has produced a valid birth certificate, and you birthers won't let it go.

    Gandhi.

    Low fat

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    Replies
    1. Completely true. Regardless of where The Lightbringer was born, he still is hiding the original certificate for some reason. Not to worry, however--as with Kennedy, in a generation or two we'll know.

      BTW, it was always Gaea in the Greek legends. Where did Gaia come from?

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    2. English spelling as done by the British. Seriously. Americans say color, Brits say colour. We say harbor, They say harbour. They spelled Gaea as Gaia and it has stuck

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  12. The United Nations. Created by Soviet Spy Alger Hiss (there is a reason the head of the UN is known as The Secretary General) as a counter to US power (and another easy way for everyone to get spies into the US), it has morphed into an anti-Isreali hammer for Jihadist based Islamos-facist while also serving as a money conduit for radical environmentalist.
    At least the League of Nations tried to stop War.

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    Replies
    1. Wow. Knew he was a spy but hadn't heard this take on it.
      Great response.

      Thanks again to Diplomad for getting the ball rolling.

      Delete
  13. The first point is one of my favorites. After WW2 the state department helped ship Russia everything to make them nuclear capably then they chased Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan and helped Mao and communism in China. McCarthy said something wasn't right and proved it so he is forever degraded. Makes me wonder about this "Arab Spring".

    My item not on the list. "We inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression", no they created the worst economy.

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    Replies
    1. krickets, I'm one who thinks that Chiang Kai-shek had the better vision for China, that Mao was a vicious bandit who'd learned to quote Marx, and hope Taiwan gets international recognition (even as the rump of Sun Yat-sen's Republic of China founded in 1911). However, our State Department did not chase Chiang to Taiwan.

      If anyone deserves the blame for "losing China", it was a generation of Chinese intellectuals formed in the period between 1919 and 1949 who hear the words "scientific socialism" and were hooked. They are Exhibit A1 in the case of "be careful what you pray for", for they got theirs when the Gang of Five--oops, Four--killed them off in the Great Cultural Revolution.

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    2. Kepha, If I remember correctly after the Second World War, China was in terrible financial straights. Chiang Kai-shek needed money and help to keep a army and fight the revolutionaries. The Americans in China, rather that outright helping Moa, withheld aid to Kai-shek. This aided in the fall of China. One of the things McCarthy found was the American Libraries in Asia were loaded with Communist literature and he tried to find out who in the State Department was responsible. He actually was quite successful. This is my recollection and it could be spotty.

      Delete
  14. 9. High speed rail
    10. Temporary taxes
    11. Social Security is in a lockbox
    12. Bad japanese Sci-Fi

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  15. I would like to be the one posing the questions to John Kerry when he goes to the Senate for approval for SecState.

    Question #1: Did you ever lose your security clearance?
    Question #2: Did you ever receive a less than honorable discharge?
    Question #3: Why did you have to apply to a Presidential Review Board to recieve an honorable discharge?
    Question #4: Did you know you were violating the law when you met with the VC and the DRV to negotiate a settlement during wartime while you were still a commissioned officer in the USNR?
    Question #5: Will you release your fitness reports?

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    Replies
    1. Why would expect truthful replies? Or that there would be any negative consequences for Damning answers?

      Delete
    2. Question #6: You are far wealthier than Mitt Romney and yet your political party villified Mr. Romney's wealth. Why are you any different?

      Delete
  16. Dip, I've got my own theory about Iraqi nukes. It was born shortly after I heard the UN offering to meet with Iraqi scientists in Europe, and work exits for their families.

    I suspect that knowing that Sodom Insane wanted a nuke and fearing for their lives if he didn't get one, certain Iraqi nuclear scientists started promising the Big Guy that the Iraqi nuke was just around the corner. However, in time, they realized that the Boss was getting suspicious, the Mukhabarat was closing in, and they panicked and talked to the CIA hoping to provoke an American intervention. I suspect these scientists are now hiding out in the USA as asylees, and they won't be known to the public until after they have all died of natural causes--perhaps when my grand-daughter is middle-aged.

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    Replies
    1. I've heard something similar to this theory posited, at least the part where all the syncophants were lying out of their tailpipes to Saddam regarding their nuclear work. Whatever stage it might have been at by 2003, however, the fact is Saddam believed it (and his belief in his programs got picked up by our spooks), and no one has accounted for the convoys of trucks that went to Syria just before the US Army rolled up Baghdad.

      With regard to chemical WMDs, the UN ensured none would be found by defining them as being "loaded in the warhead, ready to fire". As most chemical weapons are binary chemicals, no one would have them loaded into shells unless they were going to be immediately used. The UN was only too happy then to report that there were no chemical WMDs per that definition, so that it could cover up years of its own ineptitude and assist everyone else in excoriating the US for the invasion.

      Delete
  17. Here's one for your list DM, "Americans are the Most Racist People on the Planet".

    Had this one popped the first time I left the U.S. and have had the same experience on every overseas trip since. Russia, U.K., Poland, Germany, Yemen, Cyprus...everywhere I've gone I've witnessed the most jaw-dropping, hateful racism you can imagine...usually from the Western-educated upper crust of whatever country I'm in too. Stuff I heard directed at Africans in front of Harrod's last week would get people tuned up in Texas...by white folks.

    We have race problems in the U.S. to be sure, but we're waaaaay in front of most other places. Way in front.

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  18. Here are a few more:

    - we're runing out of oil, trees, etc...raping the planet

    - greedy capitalist, CEO's, bankers, corporations....the label "robber baron" is taught in school to set the stage...this ties in to the raping the planet label too. If you actually compare the pollution of the old soviet areas versus the same areas after they became democracies and capitalist, you'll see they are cleaner BY FAR now.

    - academic freedom that isn't free when it involves a conservative point of view

    - stimulous spending works (NOT)....

    - the US is the richest country so we should pay for XYZ..we have HUGE debt so the wealth of the country is an illusion

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  19. That there are 57 states in these United States of America.

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  20. another batch:

    - economic justice (who decides?)
    - social justice (who decides?)
    - fair share (who decides?)
    - equality (who decides?)

    All of the issues on the list give control to the government or a group granted moral authority by the governed.

    Bottom line message of the progressive point of view...people are sheep and the government knows best. Reagan said it best...government isn't the solution, it's the problem.

    There is your isotope.

    The challenge is how to deliver the isotope to the monster. The monster is more like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You have to deliver the isotope without killing the host. And what delivery vehicle since the MSM won't help?

    Part of what gives such fetile ground for the progressive message is the host's insecurity, guilt, shame, desire to be viewed as a good person. Showing the true evil of progressive views ad the goodness of conservative views helps. Show the death, poverty, and slavery of progressive solutions being implmented like DC and Chicago. Show the naked walking the streets in San Francisco. The decay of that agenda.

    Show the joy of individuality and freedom like you see in TV shows like Sons of Guns and Gold Rush. Sure there's hard work, sacrifice, but they are LIVING!

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  21. Lol you forgot "Former Senator Ted Kennedy, the Democrat Lion of the Senate" - without so much as a peep about Mary Jo Kopechne or his trying to get the Soviets to help him with his presidential bid in 1984.

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  22. millionaire's and billionaire's

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  23. Don't forget the 'Whoopie Goldberg' special:

    Republicans want to bring back Slavery.

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  24. Couple more...

    1. The people who promote government regulations are motivated solely by a sincere wish to promote the common good.

    2. Peace activists are distinguished by their superior moral sensibilities.

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  25. Question: From your experience and your reading of science fiction, what do you think of Keith Laumer's stories about Retief of the Corps Diplomatique Terestrienne?

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