So Mrs. Crusader informed me that the director of 2012 cut a scene from his disaster movie 2012 which showed Mecca being destroyed lest he get a fatwa issued against him. So much for free speech. Of course he can still show the statue of Christ above Rio toppling over and the dome of the Vatican collapsing on top of people. That must mean that Christians are much more reasonable than Muslims or we know that holiness does not reside in a place or object but solely with God. I don't foresee the Pope being offended by it. Hmm...world ending disaster movie showing famous places being destroyed; obviously an attack on the Catholic Church!
Speaking of the Catholic Church, have you ever noticed that in movies you only really see Catholics represented? Granted they are generally easy to spot with their collars, their robes, and funny hat collection whereas a Protestant preacher could easily be the guy standing next to you wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Horror movies are always a kick for me because the priest is inevitably faithless or 'wrestling' with his faith to a point that he can't ward off the incoming demon with all his fancy rituals and liturgical chant. Oh how I long to direct the movie where a devoted Protestant minister comes waltzing in, looks at the hapless priest with a roll of the eyes, studies the victim, says "In the name of Jesus Christ you are commanded to leave this body", and poof evil demon leaves without time to give a forwarding address. It would probably be pretty anti-climactic since that would cover ten minutes of movie time and they'd have 80 more to fill without the scary demon around...
I haven't watched the new V series but hear that it is a thinly disguised criticism of the Obama administration which is interesting coming from the All Barrack Channel and so soon. I mean it took well over a year for any seriously overt anti-Bush rhetoric to show up in our 'entertainment' (other than the whole hanging chad thing). I'm pretty sure you won't see that over on the National Barrack Channel. Though outside of Heroes or if you watch the 15 incarnations of Law and Order, I'm not sure anyone sees much of anything on NBC. You know your network is failing when you move your "Tonight Show" style show to Prime Time and your comedy shows are up against Bones and Fringe over on Fox.
Thank Heaven for the Saturday Sci-Fi (sorry that is Sy-Fy now) movies. These B movies with hackneyed plots and writing that looks like it came off the PC's of government run high school creative writing class are about the most entertaining thing on television anymore. Sometimes you get a fairly decent one but most of the time you'll choke on your popcorn as you laugh at the plot holes or make MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000 - google it if you don't get the reference) like quips over the dialogue or situation on screen. This weekend's offering, Ice Twister, should be another glorious entry in the endless procession of films that make you wonder why you're wasting your life in front of the television!
I could go on about things that annoy me like how Bones is accommodating to Muslim characters and portrays Christians in a bad light or the propaganda that gets inserted into my entertainment on a regular basis but this is Friday and those are another blog. Enjoy your weekend.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Thoughts for Veterans Day
Today is the 91st anniversary of the end of the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the tragedy that was World War I ended. Many brave Americans fought, were injured and died in that war; a war that we had no reason to be in; a war that Woodrow Wilson promised he would keep us out of. But even while campaigning with that promise in 1915-1916, America's first Fascist dictator was taking steps to embroil us in that war.
Like other Progressives, Wilson believed that he could and should force societal change and in the war in Europe he saw an opportunity to create that change. Decades later the radical Saul Alinsky would put that idea into his book Rules for Radicals that the radical should let no crisis go to waste. In another perverse tragedy of our age, that has been quoted by several Obama Administration officials including Chicago thug and close adviser to the president; Rahm Emanuel.
But back to Wilson. He got the war he wanted and off American boys went to die in the fields of Flanders ostensibly to "make the world safe for democracy". You know the history of WWI. We arrived in force just in time to tip the scales for the allied cause and by late 1918, the Germans were facing invasion and sued for peace. While the French and (to a lesser extent) the British played sore winners by coming up with ludicrous reparations demands, Wilson rushed to create the League of Nations a naked attempt to impose Progressivism on the entire western world.
What they don't tell us about World War I is the fact that Wilson created a proto-SS that went around intimidating newspapers that printed opinion pieces against war entry. After we went to war, his jackboots intimidated and closed down papers that made even the mildest of dissenting remarks about America being in the war or its prosecution. People went to jail without due process for negative remarks about the war.
You also won't find many history teachers or professors that discuss the ultimate negative impact of America's involvement in the Great War. At the time of entry, the French military and government was exhausted and on the verge of suing for peace with tacit British approval (they were also verging on war exhaustion. So in all likelihood the victorious Germans would have made demands typical of European history after Napoleon (the Alsace-Lorraine was always the main contention between the two nations) and the war that none of the large powers wanted would have ended in the spring or summer of 1917. Victorious Germany would not have lost her Central European lands and empire. Victorious Germany would not have suffered the depredations of the Weimar Republic and a decorated corporal Adolph Hitler would likely have wiled away his life as a mediocre artist or architect floating between Austria and Germany.
In addition, a victorious Germany would never have taken the desperate action of allowing the exiled Vladmir Lenin to travel from Switzerland back to St. Petersburg in their futile attempt to sow enough dissent in the great Eastern power to get it to leave the war; thus the Soviet Union would never have formed.
Yes, that's right. Thanks to Woodrow Wilson not only did brave Americans die in the tragic mistake of World War I, but his actions led directly to the conditions in which Adolph Hitler and (eventually) Josef Stalin rose to power and all of the consequences following those events. Some of the blood of the 6,000,000 Jews that died in the Holocaust must necessarily appear on his hands. The 20,000,000 Slavic peasants that died thanks to Stalin and most of whom probably never heard of Woodrow Wilson should haunt his eternal soul.
Perhaps this is the wrong day to point these things out but while we thank those who served and continue to serve we must make sure that their precious lives aren't needlessly wasted. Wilson's dreams of grandeur and social Utopianism killed millions who needn't have died. Because of his ego we mourn for the heroic and selfless Americans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and here at home sweating over the day they might have to turn a key and end the world. We mourn for the millions who died because of Nazi cruelty and Communist sadism.
Eggheads the world over spend hours contemplating whether it is more tragic to be the first casualty of a war or the last. Mr. Wilson's war has raged on for the better part of a century. It is fitting that we celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall this week as well because it goes hand in hand with the solemn commemorations we should have today. The last Wilsonian casualty was finally counted when the last man to die in the Cold War passed away. It is hard to digest, hard to comprehend and perhaps we defend our psyche's by not thinking about it too hard.
We can't change the past but we can impact the future. Painful as it is we must constantly remember and remind others of Wilson's war and its ultimate costs. We have one of Mr. Wilson's political descendants in office now. He will likely use an instrument other than war to force socialist Utopianism on us. His lackeys in the House and Senate are already working on it. Let us learn our lesson from Wilson and do whatever we can to stop these people now lest someone three generations from now is putting together the list of casualties from Mr. Obama's nationalized health care system, his Depression, and his dithering in Afghanistan.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sacrifices that every American veteran from the Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan has made for me. Today's point was to lament the fact that one made made the sacrifices of so many necessary. We can't ever fully repay our veterans for the things you have suffered but we will try not to fail you if those who would waste your service attempt to do so again. Thank you to my grandpas one who served in the Pacific and stayed on in occupied Japan, the other who served in Italy and Germany (both came home safe); thank you to my great uncles all of whom miraculously returned home: a Marine who was first ashore in Okinawa; one on a submarine in the Atlantic; and one a bomber pilot in Europe. All are gone now but their stories and legacies live on in two and three generations of my extended family.
Like other Progressives, Wilson believed that he could and should force societal change and in the war in Europe he saw an opportunity to create that change. Decades later the radical Saul Alinsky would put that idea into his book Rules for Radicals that the radical should let no crisis go to waste. In another perverse tragedy of our age, that has been quoted by several Obama Administration officials including Chicago thug and close adviser to the president; Rahm Emanuel.
But back to Wilson. He got the war he wanted and off American boys went to die in the fields of Flanders ostensibly to "make the world safe for democracy". You know the history of WWI. We arrived in force just in time to tip the scales for the allied cause and by late 1918, the Germans were facing invasion and sued for peace. While the French and (to a lesser extent) the British played sore winners by coming up with ludicrous reparations demands, Wilson rushed to create the League of Nations a naked attempt to impose Progressivism on the entire western world.
What they don't tell us about World War I is the fact that Wilson created a proto-SS that went around intimidating newspapers that printed opinion pieces against war entry. After we went to war, his jackboots intimidated and closed down papers that made even the mildest of dissenting remarks about America being in the war or its prosecution. People went to jail without due process for negative remarks about the war.
You also won't find many history teachers or professors that discuss the ultimate negative impact of America's involvement in the Great War. At the time of entry, the French military and government was exhausted and on the verge of suing for peace with tacit British approval (they were also verging on war exhaustion. So in all likelihood the victorious Germans would have made demands typical of European history after Napoleon (the Alsace-Lorraine was always the main contention between the two nations) and the war that none of the large powers wanted would have ended in the spring or summer of 1917. Victorious Germany would not have lost her Central European lands and empire. Victorious Germany would not have suffered the depredations of the Weimar Republic and a decorated corporal Adolph Hitler would likely have wiled away his life as a mediocre artist or architect floating between Austria and Germany.
In addition, a victorious Germany would never have taken the desperate action of allowing the exiled Vladmir Lenin to travel from Switzerland back to St. Petersburg in their futile attempt to sow enough dissent in the great Eastern power to get it to leave the war; thus the Soviet Union would never have formed.
Yes, that's right. Thanks to Woodrow Wilson not only did brave Americans die in the tragic mistake of World War I, but his actions led directly to the conditions in which Adolph Hitler and (eventually) Josef Stalin rose to power and all of the consequences following those events. Some of the blood of the 6,000,000 Jews that died in the Holocaust must necessarily appear on his hands. The 20,000,000 Slavic peasants that died thanks to Stalin and most of whom probably never heard of Woodrow Wilson should haunt his eternal soul.
Perhaps this is the wrong day to point these things out but while we thank those who served and continue to serve we must make sure that their precious lives aren't needlessly wasted. Wilson's dreams of grandeur and social Utopianism killed millions who needn't have died. Because of his ego we mourn for the heroic and selfless Americans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and here at home sweating over the day they might have to turn a key and end the world. We mourn for the millions who died because of Nazi cruelty and Communist sadism.
Eggheads the world over spend hours contemplating whether it is more tragic to be the first casualty of a war or the last. Mr. Wilson's war has raged on for the better part of a century. It is fitting that we celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall this week as well because it goes hand in hand with the solemn commemorations we should have today. The last Wilsonian casualty was finally counted when the last man to die in the Cold War passed away. It is hard to digest, hard to comprehend and perhaps we defend our psyche's by not thinking about it too hard.
We can't change the past but we can impact the future. Painful as it is we must constantly remember and remind others of Wilson's war and its ultimate costs. We have one of Mr. Wilson's political descendants in office now. He will likely use an instrument other than war to force socialist Utopianism on us. His lackeys in the House and Senate are already working on it. Let us learn our lesson from Wilson and do whatever we can to stop these people now lest someone three generations from now is putting together the list of casualties from Mr. Obama's nationalized health care system, his Depression, and his dithering in Afghanistan.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sacrifices that every American veteran from the Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan has made for me. Today's point was to lament the fact that one made made the sacrifices of so many necessary. We can't ever fully repay our veterans for the things you have suffered but we will try not to fail you if those who would waste your service attempt to do so again. Thank you to my grandpas one who served in the Pacific and stayed on in occupied Japan, the other who served in Italy and Germany (both came home safe); thank you to my great uncles all of whom miraculously returned home: a Marine who was first ashore in Okinawa; one on a submarine in the Atlantic; and one a bomber pilot in Europe. All are gone now but their stories and legacies live on in two and three generations of my extended family.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Remembering the Berlin Wall
Well surprise, surprise! The Anointed One, Barrack Hussein Obama (mmm...mmm...mmm), is sitting out the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'm guessing that he couldn't figure out a way to make it about him so why bother going. The other likely reason is that since he doesn't believe in individual freedom why would he celebrate the greatest single event that symbolizes freeing individuals?
In 1985, I had the great good fortune to visit Berlin - East and West. At that time no one, especially a dozen teenagers from small town Idaho, could imagine that the Berlin Wall would be rubble a mere four years later. We could hardly even imagine the powerful statement President Reagan would make two years later demanding that Mr. Gorbachev tear down the wall. The wall looked permanent and immovable just like the Soviet Bloc. Towers shielded by reflective glass looked grimly down on gray concrete wall topped by miles of barbed wire. As if emphasizing the differences between East and West, the buildings of West Berlin looked bright and cheerful while those on the East side of the wall looked like they were built in gray scale. In East Berlin, all colors seemed muted and when visiting the other side, it was as if some unseen creature was sucking the joy from your soul.
Crossing into East Germany and East Berlin was a daunting prospect. Our bus was boarded by soldiers in dingy olive uniforms armed with sub-machineguns at the checkpoint. They checked our passports closely, counted us several times, and checked to make sure we weren't carrying contraband print material (especially bibles) into East Berlin. On the way out, we were counted several times again to make sure we weren't smuggling anyone out.
A small group of us accompanied by chaperons crossed at Checkpoint Charlie to catch dinner and the State run opera company on the East side. Again, there were queues and a maze of narrow halls lined by unnamed and uncounted East German soldiers; all on guard against the 'evils' of western freedom. Then we emerged behind the Iron Curtain, potential prisoners of the state just like the millions of East Germans that the wall was built to contain; blissfully unaware of the Stazi (East German KGB) officer likely trailing us. (And this isn't idle, anti-Communist paranoia; the officer was equally likely there to ensure our safety as to spy on us. After all, the last thing the East German government needed was an international incident involving American teens.)
Then there was the wall itself. On the East side, it was bordered by a no-man's land of bare ground dotted with land mines and a second wall. The wall cut through Berlin with the same disdain of human desire and hatred of freedom as the system that created it. Once busy streets now dead-ended at the wall. Subways were cut off by the wall. German friends and families were cut off by the wall. The western side became a graffiti covered running commentary of Germany's Cold War with itself. In an age before the blog, all manner of people 'blogged' on the wall. Missives against communism and capitalism dotted the wall. Here and there one could find lamentations for those trapped behind the wall, exhortations for unity, disarmament, and peace. Then there were countless names with and without dates.
Berlin and Germany left an indelible impression in my mind; one that has and continues to inform my political opinions. The close experience with the naked totalitarianism of the Soviet system is partially responsible for my conversion from an ordinary center-rightist to a Crusader.
Mine was the last generation of the Cold War. Many of those born a mere five years after me were barely aware of the rest of the world when the Berlin wall fell. If there is a down side to the end of Soviet/Warsaw Pact totalitarianism, it is that the Millenials and beyond will not be able to see firsthand evidence of the evils of Communism. The soft socialism of Europe and the velvet-gloved Communism that Red China projects to the world look far less insidious than they really are. These things make us susceptible to the idea of government as a benefactor. We begin to fall for the idea that we have rights to health care, housing, food, water, cable television, and a whole list of the things most of us know we have to work for. As we begin to embrace soft socialism we will indenture ourselves to the government. We will accept George Carlin's 'happy face fascism' because security is easier than freedom. And one day, we will have given away enough freedoms that government can take off the velvet glove to reveal the iron fist. If that day comes, this time there will be no wall; no bastion of individual freedom left to fight against it. What Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and like minded individuals failed to do by force, we will do to ourselves through soft words and good intentions.
In 1985, I had the great good fortune to visit Berlin - East and West. At that time no one, especially a dozen teenagers from small town Idaho, could imagine that the Berlin Wall would be rubble a mere four years later. We could hardly even imagine the powerful statement President Reagan would make two years later demanding that Mr. Gorbachev tear down the wall. The wall looked permanent and immovable just like the Soviet Bloc. Towers shielded by reflective glass looked grimly down on gray concrete wall topped by miles of barbed wire. As if emphasizing the differences between East and West, the buildings of West Berlin looked bright and cheerful while those on the East side of the wall looked like they were built in gray scale. In East Berlin, all colors seemed muted and when visiting the other side, it was as if some unseen creature was sucking the joy from your soul.
Crossing into East Germany and East Berlin was a daunting prospect. Our bus was boarded by soldiers in dingy olive uniforms armed with sub-machineguns at the checkpoint. They checked our passports closely, counted us several times, and checked to make sure we weren't carrying contraband print material (especially bibles) into East Berlin. On the way out, we were counted several times again to make sure we weren't smuggling anyone out.
A small group of us accompanied by chaperons crossed at Checkpoint Charlie to catch dinner and the State run opera company on the East side. Again, there were queues and a maze of narrow halls lined by unnamed and uncounted East German soldiers; all on guard against the 'evils' of western freedom. Then we emerged behind the Iron Curtain, potential prisoners of the state just like the millions of East Germans that the wall was built to contain; blissfully unaware of the Stazi (East German KGB) officer likely trailing us. (And this isn't idle, anti-Communist paranoia; the officer was equally likely there to ensure our safety as to spy on us. After all, the last thing the East German government needed was an international incident involving American teens.)
Then there was the wall itself. On the East side, it was bordered by a no-man's land of bare ground dotted with land mines and a second wall. The wall cut through Berlin with the same disdain of human desire and hatred of freedom as the system that created it. Once busy streets now dead-ended at the wall. Subways were cut off by the wall. German friends and families were cut off by the wall. The western side became a graffiti covered running commentary of Germany's Cold War with itself. In an age before the blog, all manner of people 'blogged' on the wall. Missives against communism and capitalism dotted the wall. Here and there one could find lamentations for those trapped behind the wall, exhortations for unity, disarmament, and peace. Then there were countless names with and without dates.
Berlin and Germany left an indelible impression in my mind; one that has and continues to inform my political opinions. The close experience with the naked totalitarianism of the Soviet system is partially responsible for my conversion from an ordinary center-rightist to a Crusader.
Mine was the last generation of the Cold War. Many of those born a mere five years after me were barely aware of the rest of the world when the Berlin wall fell. If there is a down side to the end of Soviet/Warsaw Pact totalitarianism, it is that the Millenials and beyond will not be able to see firsthand evidence of the evils of Communism. The soft socialism of Europe and the velvet-gloved Communism that Red China projects to the world look far less insidious than they really are. These things make us susceptible to the idea of government as a benefactor. We begin to fall for the idea that we have rights to health care, housing, food, water, cable television, and a whole list of the things most of us know we have to work for. As we begin to embrace soft socialism we will indenture ourselves to the government. We will accept George Carlin's 'happy face fascism' because security is easier than freedom. And one day, we will have given away enough freedoms that government can take off the velvet glove to reveal the iron fist. If that day comes, this time there will be no wall; no bastion of individual freedom left to fight against it. What Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and like minded individuals failed to do by force, we will do to ourselves through soft words and good intentions.
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