Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
As a suitable companion piece to my last post, I present the less than dulcet tones of Bob Dylan.
Month: September 2011
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
To my mind the greatest movie satire on the idiocy of the Cold War and the fear it inspired in humanity, was Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, released in 1964. The plot in brief was, “An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop”. For those unfamiliar with one of the best American movies of all time check this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
Rent the movie if you haven’t seen it, for it will bring you dark laughter and present you with much to ponder. At the time of its release, some disparaged the movie as being un-credible in its characterizations and not believable in it premises. I hadn’t thought of the movie in years until I came across this article at the website Buzzflash.com titled “The Theology of Armageddon” by Robert Koehler. http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13024 . The article is relatively brief, but well worth your time.
The article deals with a course titled “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare” at Vandenberg Air Force Base, given under Air Force auspices. As the Robert Koehler states:
“(I)t turns out that the point of the mandatory course, which was recently canceled by the Air Force after officers of numerous faiths complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about it and Truthout published an exposé in July, was to give officers in the first week of missile-launch training a Bible-verse-studded indoctrination in faux-Just War Theory (cynically known in the ranks as the “Jesus Loves Nukes” training)”.
What got me thinking of the movie Dr. Strangelove was a quote in the article from Dr. Wehrner Von Braun, which makes credible the satiric reality of the movies title character, Dr. Strangelove, hysterically portrayed as a heavily accented former NAZI, by Peter Sellers. Seller’s character was widely denounced as being unfair to Von Braun, at the time, but seeing this quote from him makes me wonder:
“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation . . . we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else,” von Braun is quoted as saying. “We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”
To me this is post facto justification by von Braun of his choice of the comfort of an honored life in the U.S. mirroring his NAZI lifestyle and providing a sop to detract from the truth that he was an enthusiastic war criminal. Von Braun had developed the V (I & II) guided missiles for the NAZI’s and became the head of the United States Ballistic Missile Program. Von Braun was a NAZI Party member of distinction and it seems dedication. His missiles fell upon Great Britain in the closing days of WW II as an attempt to cause terror within the British people and were random in their destruction. That he then became an honored man in the U.S., rather than a defendant at Nuremburg, is a tribute to our own hypocrisy in prosecuting the Cold War. A similar mindset seems to have infected some in our Air Force as I will show. Continue reading “As We Careen Towards a Dream of Armageddon”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Porn king Larry Flynt has issued a new bounty. On Thursday, the Hustler magazine publisher, offered $1 million to anyone with proof of “an illicit sexual liaison” involving Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry. Flynt is not too particular either, he’ll accept both gay and straight encounters.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The honeyguide is a bird famous for leading humans to bee hives. The humans raid the hive of its honey and leave some of the spoils in a convenient location for the honeyguide. It’s an incredible example symbiotic behavior. It has also been claimed that honeyguides lead honey badgers to hives. This turns out to be false. The origin of the misconception may have occurred since honeyguides would follow honey badgers and partake of the badger’s leftovers. It’s also a good excuse to embed this cool video:
In another bad turn for the White House, Solyndra executives repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment on the company’s financial collapse and its receipt of $535 million federal loan guarantee. President Barack Obama has been criticized for ignoring warnings that the company was poorly structured and in danger of failing before highlighting the company as an example of his program of stimulus funds.
Continue reading “Solyndra Executives Plead The Fifth In Deepening Scandal”
We recently discussed the shocking outburst by conservative judges on the Seventh Circuit and Fifth Circuits. Now, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has joined the ranks of jurists engaging in visceral and, in my view, inappropriate commentary from the bench. The circuit sitting en banc split 6-6 Wednesday on whether to grant en banc review on a challenge of the federal wiretap law. What was most striking, however, was not the sharp division but the rhetoric of Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs. Building on a trend of federal judges to so narrow standing as to block any meaningful avenue to challenge government actions. However, Jacobs decided to vent his anger at public interest attorneys and their causes and clients.
Continue reading “Judges Behaving Badly (3): Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs Attacks Civil Libertarians and Lawyers Before Second Circuit”
There is an interesting controversy in Fort Worth, Texas where Dakota Ary, an honors student was suspended for turning to another student in his German class and saying that he viewed homosexuality as wrong. The teacher at Western Hills High School became angry in overhearing the comment and accused Ary of being a bully.
Continue reading “Student Disciplined For Telling Friend In Class That He Views Homosexuality As Wrong”
It has long been a tradition to give a dying man his last requests for dinner. Lawrence Brewer took that request to an extreme, ordering a meal fit for an entire cellblock. That produced a backlash from state Senator John Whitmire who demanded an end to the tradition in Texas. He succeeded and now death row inmates will simply get whatever is served that night at the prison.
Continue reading “Texas Ends Last Meal Tradition After Brewer Execution”
It turns out that Einstein was a bit slow after all. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has made a subatomic particle go faster than the speed of light for the first time — something that shattered one assumption of Einstein’s theories. The scientists used neutrinos, which were observed smashing past the cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).
Continue reading “Fast Little Neutrino: Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity Challenged By Test Showing Particle Traveling Faster Than Speed of Light”
Chief Judge Edith Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has long been unpopular with many lawyers and judges. Now her reputation for a certain nastiness has emerged in a public scandal after she screamed at her colleague Judge James L. Dennis to “shut up” or get out in the middle of an oral argument.
Ken Anderson, 47, is understandably confused. As a teenager, he was abandoned by his mother, Shirley Anderson, 73, and had to live with other families, quit school, and raise himself. Now his elderly mother has filed in British Columbia for parental support.
Continue reading “Mother Dearest: Man Abandoned By Mother As A Teen Is Sued By Mother For Parental Support”
In a shocking story below, police have investigated the introduction of children as young as eight into cage fighting events. The children fight as adults cheer while drinking beer and egging them on. The police investigated and found no violations or crimes in such events.
Continue reading “Gladiator Games: Police Investigate Cage Fighting For Kids But Find No Legal Violations”
Harris County judge Charley Prine, a Republican judge in Texas, is under fire for a clearly homophobic order barring a gay father from leaving his children alone with his husband. William Flowers (pictured, left below) and Jim Evans (right) were legally married in Connecticut and are appealing the order that says that the children cannot be left alone with with any man who is not related to them by blood or adoption unless his ex-wife consents.
Continue reading “Texas Judge Rules Gay Father Cannot Leave Children With His Husband”
And you thought your last seatmate on an airplane was a bit irritating . . . Try David Alan Anderson, 60. Anderson sat down on a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and immediately began elbowing the passenger next to him and claiming the armrest. It then got worse . . . much worse.
Continue reading “Airplane Armrest Leads To Airport Arrest”
We have previously explored our concern for a possible eating disorder by a leading Republican. Now, it appears an entire agency could have a serious need for intervention. A report found that the Department of Justice spent roughly $500,000 for food and beverages — at just 10 conferences. That included $16 muffins and coffee at a dollar an ounce.