On the Fact that Jeb Bush Apparently Bussed in a Cadre of Supporters for His CPac Speech

Well, at least the dude didn't say that he was, "severely conservative".

On Arctic Sea Ice Currently at a 30-Year Low

Yeah, that's correct, but even as a 4th grader can tell you, ice that's already floating doesn't increase sea level when it melts. It's land ice that counts and the major source of land ice on the planet, Antarctica, is actually experiencing a 30 HIGH....Yep, they're foiled again, folks.

My New Hero (and, Yes, Folks, She's British)

For her strong opposition to "obliteration bombing" and equally vociferous support for the resistance movement in Germany (which both the British and Americans dogmatically ignored in a perverse quest for unconditional surrender; the entire point of the war not being to stop Hitler but to devastate the German economy as even Churchill ultimately admitted), author and activist, Vera Brittain, proved to be one of the saner voices of the 20th Century (or, the "War Century", as Ralph Raico, Robert Higgs, and John V. Denson have frequently called it) and for that fact alone I a) salute her and b) lament the fact that she was marginalized....If only, huh? 

On the Preposterous Notion of Folks Like Reza Aslan that All Religions Are Equally Disposed to Violence

It's laughable. Yeah, there are a few Buddhists, Taoists, Jainists, Quakers, Amish, and Zen Buddhists out there who are capable of nasty behavior, but in the case of these folks, they truly ARE distorting the faith. Contrast this to Islam in which it is utterly mainstream to believe in things such as, death to apostates, and this whole construct of relativism becomes even more absurd. The real fact of the matter here is that the world's various religions are NOT even remotely comparable and the quicker that we jettison this politically correct delusion/BS the better.

On the Belief by Some that a Ferocious Retribution Directed at Your Enemy Will Somehow Cause that Enemy to Become More Civilized

Yeah, I could never quite grasp that one, folks; the fact that, violence pays, being a much more plausible conclusion (similar to the message that kids get when they're beaten).

Historian, John V. Demson's, View of the C.I.A.

The President's own private paramilitary armed force that he's able to use capriciously and ruthlessly and which the legislative branch has very little control over (yes, I'm paraphrasing again).

On War and Truth

The only time that government lies more than during (and prior to) war is in its aftermath (the depraved search for justification, one could call it); that the Mexican-American War was fought to normalize the border of Texas, that the Civil War was fought to get rid of slavery, that the Spanish-American War was fought to liberate Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, that the first world war was fought to make the planet safe for democracy, that the second world war was fought to rid the world of fascism, that the war in Vietnam was fought to free those people, etc., etc........It is simply something that they do, folks, and unfortunately (and with the help of court historians) it works (mainly because the citizens allow it to).

Christopher Hitchens's Summation on the Essence of Islam

God (and, yes, I'm paraphrasing here) having spoken to some illiterate warlord who successfully wrote it down verbatim, and who nobody dares questions the veracity of for fear of death.

Lincoln Busted

It is widely accepted now that Lincoln's goal was to maneuver the South into firing the first shot at Fort Sumter; the fact that the dude was replenishing a fort that didn't need replenishing, had made it clear to Governor Pickens that the North would fire if the initial ship was boarded, had forwarded easily intercepted telegraphs to Captain Mercer which fully underscored this, etc.. And if you weren't convinced before that this was the case, here is another more piece of evidence; this, from the diary of Senator Orville Browning (probably Lincoln's closest friend in Washington) - "He himself (Lincoln) conceived the idea, and proposed sending supplies, without an attempt to reinforce, giving notice of the fact to Governor Pickens of S.C.. The plan succeeded. They attacked Sumter - it fell, and thus, did more service than it otherwise could." That's about as close to a smoking gun as you can get, folks, and, while, yes, I agree with Senator Toombs that it was a moronic idea (the fact that it served to rally the North at a time when most Northerners apposed intervention) to take the bait and attack Sumter, if this doesn't convince you then nothing will.

On the "I'm Willing to Give Up My Life and My Children's Lives to Prevent Texas and Vermont from Seceding from the Union" Sign-Up Sheet

Yeah, it's still empty, folks.

On the Fact that the Firing-Squads in Russia Worked 24/7 Under Joe Stalin

So, I guess that all three shifts were the graveyard-shift back then.

On the Fact that There Might Be 14 to 15 Possible Candidates Vying for the Republican Presidential Nomination

Yeah, that's got, "Circular Firing Squad", written all over it, folks.

Note to the Increasingly Unfunny and Doltish Jon Stewart

Yes, asshole, the other asshole (Bill O'Reilly) certainly cherry-picked, but so did fucking you when you did your totally bereft of science (and, no, genuflecting to some bogus consensus figure doesn't count) segment in which you showed some island with a receding coastline (probably the byproduct of erosion in that sea level rising has been modest at best) and touted it as proof positive of cataclysmic man-made global warming. The fact of the matter here, Sherlock, is that we going on two decades now in which CO2 and warming have not correlated and the temperature has basically flat-lined AND there hasn't been an increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme weather events. So, yeah, make fun of O'Reilly all that you want, fellow, but a) you're an idiot, too, and b) don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Run Jimmy, Run

Most people think that if Hillary Clinton gets challenged for the Democratic nomination, it'll probably come from the left. But why does that HAVE to be the case here? Me, I would much rather (or at least in addition to) see a more moderate competitor (AKA, an actual one) come to the forefront and at least give a voice to that wing of the party. Add to that the fact that the dude has extremely good crossover appeal and it seems like a total no-brainer ro me (the fact that he'd be quite formidable in a general election, etc.). Hell, I might even vote for him!

Frederic Bastiat on Not Just the Benefits of Free Trade but the Necessity of it

a) When goods and services cross borders, soldiers do not. b) When soldiers cross borders, goods and services do not.

On Why Third-Party Payer Systems Tend to Jack Up Costs

Because nothing is more expensive than that which you do not pay for directly (the high cost of the middle-man, the fact that consumers tend to spend their own money more wisely, etc.).

On Recessions and Subsequent Recoveries

a) The 1907 recession - deep and with a sharp recovery (a sharp recovery being defined as one in which the real GDP growth exceeds "potential GDP").......b) The 1894 recession (which in reality was closer to a depression) - deep and with a sharp recovery.......c) The 1920 recession - deep and with a sharp recovery.......d) The 1982 recession - deep and with a sharp recovery.......And of course I could go on here; the point being that all throughout our history, sharp economic downturns have almost always been followed by equally sharp recoveries and that the only two times where this hasn't happened (the Great Depression of the 1930s and the current period) were when the government meddled in the affairs of the market (Hoover and FDR during the former example and Bush and Obama during the latter period). I mean, I know that economics isn't the hardest of sciences and all but this is rather compelling evidence, don't ya' think?

On the Claim by Some that Peace Would Reign Supreme in the Middle-East if it Wasn't for Israel

Yeah, this a strange one in that I don't believe that Israel played a role in a) the nearly decade long bloodbath between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, b) the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait in 1990, c) the Lebanese civil war of the 1980s (at least not in the beginning), d) the 1994 civil war that plagued Yemen, e) the Soviet invasion and counterinsurgency in Afghanistan - circa 1980, f) the current free-for-all between ISIS and the Assad partisans in Syria, g) the current bloodbath in Libya, h) Sunnis and Shiites slaughtering each other wholesale in Iraq...AS WE SPEAK, i) the Jordanian-Palestinian civil war and Black September from the early 1970s, j) the Egyptian revolt of 2011, k) the Shia insurgency in Yemen from 2004 to 2014, l) the present-day uprising and slaughter in Bahrain, m) the Fatah-Hamas struggle for power in 2006, etc., etc.....Yes, folks, Israel makes mistakes but to say that they are the major problem in that region is absurd. That whole fucking area has been a cauldron of war for multiple centuries and the sooner that we realize it the better.

On Walter Cisco's Moving Volume, "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians"

I challenge anybody to read this book and then try and belt out the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" with the same level of verve as before. I can almost guarantee (provided of course that you have a soul) that it'll be hard for you.

On Bursting the Bubble of WW2

All war is based at least in part on deception. We (those of us with a pulse, that is) know this like we know our lives. And, yet, when it comes to WW2 and the Holocaust, we accept the traditional narrative completely. I mean, it's almost as if we have this collective trembling that the alternative (the notion that 60,000,000 people died for bubkes) is just too frightening and so we leave it. But this is dangerous, for if history isn't the "hanging judge", a "revisionist", a skeptic, etc., we will be doomed to repeat over and over the worst of it. And I really want you folks to think about this - if we can burst the bubble on this war, the most hallowed of wars (the good war, as we're repeatedly told), what will these elitists (the war factions, the statist fools, the benefactors of constant war, the MIC, etc.) have left? Not much, from what I can fathom.

The Real Reasons for WW2 - Quick Addendum

I think that historian, John V. Denson (I highly recommend his compilation, "The Costs of War: America's Pyrrhic Victories"), probably said it best when he claimed that WW2 was fought "to spare the British empire from economic competition and make the world safe for communism."

The Real Reasons for WW2

This war was fought for the same reasons that pretty much every other war has been fought; out of greed, fear, envy, hatred, etc.. The Brits just couldn't stand the fact that the German economy was doing well and somehow felt that this was a threat to their world hegemony (Churchill calling for the annihilation of Germany as early as 1936). The fact of the matter is that Stalin had killed a thousand times more people than Hitler and had even invaded more countries on the eve of the war (none of which had done a damn thing to Russia or ethnic Russians) but it was only Germany that the British and the slantheaded Anglophiles in Washington had targeted for extermination (and, yes, that's what it was). I mean, I know that this was the British motif and all (just ask the Boers, the Zulus, the Native Americans, the Australian Aborigines, the Shona, the Asian Indians, etc.) but this damned war was as senseless and ridiculous as it gets (60,000,000 casualties over what was little more than a regional squabble).

On the Fact that Carole Lombard Only Received One Academy Award Nomination During Her Entire Career

If that isn't prima facie evidence that those robotic idiots in the Academy don't respect comedy, nothing is.

On Rudy Giuliani Claiming that President Obama Doesn't Love His Country

I have a lot of problems with Obama but the fact that dude isn't a significant enough spokesperson for the American Imperium clearly isn't one of them. Yes, Mr. Giuliani is entitled to his opinion but it takes more than an opinion when you start to cast dispersions on another person's motivation (and, no, policy differences do not count), in my mind. I mean, I could say that Mr. Giuliani is doing this just to say relevant (impugning his motivation, in other words) and who in the hell could say that that's right or wrong?...Or fair?

On the Fact that the Swedish Government Finally Realized in the 1990s that 85% of Zilch Is Zilch and that Higher Tax Rates on the Affluent Don't Necessarily Result in Additional Revenue to the Government (the Fact that Taxing Folks Influences Their Behavior, Etc.)

'Tis better to learn late than never to learn period (just ask the Bushes and Obamas of the world).

On the Fact that China Has Constructed Tens of MILLIONS of Expensive Homes and Apartments (Not to Mention, Shopping Plazas) that the Average Chinese Citizen Will Never Be Able to Afford, with the End-Result Literally Being Scores and Scores of Ghost-Cities

This is a) quite conceivably the biggest bubble in the history of human civilization (and trust me, when this sucker bursts you had better run for cover) and b) a pitch-perfect example of why a command economy is something to be avoided (the staggering level of malinvestment, waste, etc.) - big time.

On the Fact that General LeMay Once Said in 1965 that He Wanted to Bomb the North Vietnamese "Back to the Stone Age"

It's kind of like riding a bike, I guess.

A Few Points on South Africa

a) The vast, vast percentage of people who were slaughtered by the ANC were other black folks; moderates who, while they certainly weren't in favor of Apartheid, respected what the white government had done in terms of political and economic advancement and instead of blowing it all up via some idiotic communistic bullshit simply wished to expand and better the system.............b) The ANC was not a indigenous movement but rather a Western-led one that was spearheaded by outside agitators and South African elitists (guys like Tutu who could leave the country at the drop of a hat) whose call for initiatives such as sanctions did little but harm poor black people.............c) While of course Apartheid was a problematic policy, it also must be pointed out that on virtually every indice imaginable (life expectancy, infant mortality, employment, per capita income, education, etc.), blacks in South Africa were monumentally better off than blacks in pretty much every other African country and that this is underscored by the level of immigration into South Africa.............d) How is it possible that a two state solution is seen by most people today (me included) as the perfect answer to the Israel-Palestine problem but was never even contemplated by people in the West when it came to South Africa? I mean, was it simply because of skin color?............e) The group, Genocide Watch, has officially moved South Africa from level 5 (polarization) to level 6 (preparation) on its genocide watch list. This was done in response to the thousands of murders of white South Africans (over 60,000 by some accounts since 1991), especially the Afrikaner farmers (being a white farmer is now officially the most dangerous job on the planet), and to the rhetoric of groups such as the Economic Freedom Fighters led by former ANC Youth Director, Julius Malema; "A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate....The honeymoon is over for white people. We need to kill them like they killed us."......Yeah, yeah, I get it, colonization (the equivalent of black folks killing white folks in America over slavery).............f) We actually have no idea how many whites have been murdered in South Africa because the government there doesn't keep track of race in its crime statistics anymore (which in and of itself is kind of a huge red-flag, don't ya' think?). Convenient, huh?

On the False Belief that Only Black People Were Enslaved

a) According to Robert Davis's book, "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters", between 1 and 1.25 MILLION Europeans (from Iceland all the way to Portugal and Italy) were captured and enslaved by North African pirates between 1530 and 1780, a number that actually exceeds that of black slaves sent to North America by the Brits.............b) According to Sean O'Callaghan's book, "To Hell or Barbados", at least 50,000 Irish people were enslaved by the British and sold to plantation owners in the Caribbean (some actually ended up in Virginia) where the vast, vast percentage of them were simply worked to death.............c) According to Don Jordan and Michael Walsh's book, "White Cargo", hundreds of thousands of poor English people (street urchins, paupers, criminals, etc.) were either kidnapped or tricked into bondage (told that it would only be for 7,8 years when it was actually for a lifetime) and sent to the colonies as slaves............................................................................................Yes, black people were treated poorly by Europeans, Muslims, and even by their fellow Africans (yes, folks, it wasn't white people who traipsed into the jungle and captured these slaves) but they aren't alone when it comes to suffering and wouldn't it be nice if a much more nuanced history was taught to our youngsters?

On the Fact that the FBI Had Been Monitoring Antiwar.com and Scott Horton for Years Simply Because They Had Been Speaking Out Against American Foreign Policy

The ghosts of Lincoln and Wilson sleep well. The ghost of Washington not nearly so.

On the Fact that 37% of Men in South Africa Have Admitted to Sexually Assaulting at Least One Women

Yeah, that sounds more like a "war on women" than the U.S. not paying for a spoiled middle-class woman's birth control.

On the American Strategic Bombing Campaign Against the Germans in World War 2

It was a huge success. As A.C. Grayling, Earl Beck, Robin Neillands, and even the United States Strategic Bombing Survey have all pointed out, it was the relentless bombing attacks on the oil fields of Romania and Hungary, on the German synthetic oil plants at Leuna, Brux, Zeitz, Lutzendorf, etc., and on the various oil refineries in Germany and Austria that ultimately devastated the German war effort in that it totally obliterated their fuel supply and all but grounded their air force...........................................................................................And you don't have to rake my word for it, either. Here, folks, is a quote directly from Albert Speer; "The enemy has succeeded in increasing our losses of aviation gasoline up to 90% by 22 June (of '44). Only though speedy recovery of damaged plants has it been possible to regain partly of some of those terrible losses."..........................................................................................P.S. And here are some of the numbers. In May of 1944, Germany was producing 316,000 tons of fuel a month. By September, it had fallen all the way to 17,000 tons a month (with only 5,000 tons of it being aviation fuel). This is a success by anyone's standards and even Mad-Bomber Harris had to admit it when he wrote his memoir three years later (taking credit for it, of course!).        

On Nelson Mandela (WHILE HE WAS PRESIDENT) Once Having Been Caught on Videotape Singing, "Shoot the Boer, Kill the Boer"

Yeah, this is another guy who hasn't gotten sufficient scrutiny (the fact that he and his organization were largely a rump Western construct, the extraordinary amount of violence that they engaged in, etc.).

On the Comical Notion of a Nominally Sentient Senator Boxer Trying to Debate Princeton Physicist, William Happer, on Global Warming

I guess that one of the side-effects of unbridled power is an emphatic inability to fathom one's own limitations.

On What Robert Taft, if the Dude Were Alive Today, Would Think of Fellow Republicans, John McCain and Lindsey Graham

A sickening disbelief (at the sight of these two pistol-packing morons trying to police the planet), would probably just about cover it, folks.

On the Fact that that Bobble-Headed Neocon Pundit, Monica Crowley, Apparently Has a PhD

What, you can get a PhD in mindless sabre-rattling and war-mongering now?

Military Opposition to President Truman's War Crime

Eisenhower opposed it. LeMay opposed it. Bard opposed it. Leahy opposed it. King opposed it. Nimitz opposed it. MacArthur opposed it. Arnold opposed it. Strauss opposed it. None of them thought that it was necessary and they all thought that it an abomination. It was a political act, and that is all that it was; a) to keep the Russians out of the war (the thought was that they were going to secure even more booty and heaven help America if the Russians ever got credit for the victory) and b) to frighten them shitless. I mean, I know that this is difficult to hear when you've been ladled the traditional BS for your entire existence but a war crime is a war crime is a war crime and this was one hell of a violation.......................................................................................“The use of this barbarous weapon [the atomic bomb] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.” Admiral William Leahy............."Careful scholarly treatment of the records and manuscripts opened over the past few years has greatly enhanced our understanding of why the Truman administration used atomic weapons against Japan. Experts continue to disagree on some issues, but critical questions have been answered. The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan and to end the war within a relatively short time.” Samuel Walker, chief historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1990............."Japan was already defeated, dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, no longer mandatory to save American lives." General/President Dwight Eisenhower from his second memoir.............“There was no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the emperor.” General Douglas MacArthur.............."During recent weeks I have also had the feeling very definitely that the Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender. Following the three-power conference, emissaries from this country could contact representatives from Japan somewhere on the China Coast and make representations with regard to Russia's position and at the same time give them some information regarding the proposed use of atomic power, together with whatever assurances the President might care to make with regard to the Emperor of Japan and the treatment of the Japanese nation following unconditional surrender. It seems quite possible to me that this presents the opportunity which the Japanese are looking for." Ralph Bard 1945............"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan." Admiral Chester Nimitz 1945............"Primarily, it was because it was to a number of people, myself among them, that the war was very nearly over. The Japanese were nearly ready to capitulate." Admiral Lewis Strauss............."...the dilemma (invasion versus the A-bomb) was an unnecessary one, for had we been willing to wait, the effective naval blockade would, in the course of time, have starved the Japanese into submission through a lack of oil, rice, medicine, and other essential materials." Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations............."We brought them down to an abject surrender, though the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it....and they knew that we didn't need to do it, we used them for an experiment for two atomic bombs." General Carter W. Clarke............."The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war....The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians and without the atomic bomb." General Curtis LeMay............."The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air....it always appeared to us, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." General Henry Arnold 1949.............................................................................................Two very critical points here; a) just like we had Saddam Hussein in a box back in 2003, so, too, with Japan in 1945 and b) the major stipulation that the Japanese had (the keeping of the Emperor - yes, there were others but that was the significant one) when it came to their surrendering, WE GAVE IT TO THEM ANYWAY, and so what was the fucking point if it wasn't to impress the Russians?

On President Roosevelt and Japan

a) It is clear from the diaries of Tugwell, Moley, etc. that Roosevelt wanted war with Japan as early as 1933.............b) It is also clear that the Roosevelt administration had been engaged in economic warfare (a total embargo pertaining to oil. steel, and scrap iron, a freezing of Japanese assets, etc.) against the Japanese in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor.............c) We also now know with certitude that the Japanese had been trying for months to normalize relations with America and that Roosevelt had rejected each and every one of their overtures.............d) On January 27, 1941, the President received a confidential communication from his ambassador in Japan, Joseph Grew, that the Japanese military plan was ultimately to attack Pearl Harbor.............e) American code-breakers were able to intercept a great deal of information and it was obvious that an attack on either Pearl Harbor or the Philippines was at the very minimum a possibility.............f) Roosevelt's policy was one of unconditional surrender, a policy that Truman inherited and adhered to, and a policy that was responsible for the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.............g) And in one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties in U.S. history, Roosevelt proceeded to round up and intern tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans (most of them citizens) and kept them there for the duration of the war.

On Imperial Powers, Great Britain and France, Declaring War on Germany in 1939

So, this was what, a NON-preemptive war?

Penetrating Quotes - Part 2

a) "What has made the state a hell on earth has been that man has tried to make it his heaven." Friedrich Holderlin.............b) "All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a Democratic nation ought to know that war is surest and shortest means to accomplish it." Alexis de Tocqueville.............c) "There the President brought entirely our relationship with the Japanese. He brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked, probably as soon as next Monday. But the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning. And the question was, what should we do? The question was, how should we maneuver them  into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves?" Secretary of Defense, Henry Stimson, November 25, 1941 (diary entry).............d) "Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly deceived the American people in the period before Pearl Harbor. If he was going to induce the people to move at all he would have to trick them into acting in their best interests or what he perceived to be their best interests. He was like the physician who must tell the patient lies for the patient's own good. The country was overwhelmingly noninterventionist to the very day of Pearl Harbor and an overt attempt to lead the people into war would have resulted in certain failure and almost certain ousting in 1940 and a consequent defeat for his total aims." Thomas A. Bailey (Stanford historian), 1948.............e) "America provoked Japan to such an extent that the Japanese were forced to attack Peal Harbor. It is a travesty on history even to say that America was forced into the war." Captain Oliver Lyttleton, June 20, 1944.............f) "War with America. War with Britain. Peace with Russia." From our breaking of the Japanese diplomatic code, December 4, 1941 (buttressed by an additional intercept from December 6th which stated that a major event was likely to happen the next day, the only two plausible targets being U.S. naval bases at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines)...................................................................................................P.S. It is totally clear from the evidence, folks. FDR knew that an attack on Pearl Harbor was, at the very minimum, a possibility (if not a likelihood), and instead of notifying the commanders there, the fellow said nothing and 3,000 men needlessly lost their lives. In one of the more moving speeches on this subject of unchecked power, historian, John V. Denson, relates the story of how some of the sailors who were trapped on one of the vessels going down were banging on the hull from the inside, attempting to tell their fellow seamen that they were still alive, and of how the banging stopped when those brave men died (the other sailors obviously powerless to help). Denson thinks that they should make an audio replica of the sound and play it for five minutes every hour on the hour at the Roosevelt Memorial - as a reminder of just how dangerous power in the hands of one person can be.

The Center of it All

In the latter 17th Century, Germany was composed of 234 independent countries, 51 free cities, and 1,500 knightly manors. By 1871, and in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, it was a unified country that was dominated by Kaiser Wilhelm the first and less than seven decades after that by Hitler....So, you all still want that strong central government?

The Most Despicable Act Ever Ordered by a U.S. President?

Wow, that's a tough one, folks, in that there are just so many to choose from; Jackson and the Trail of Tears, FDR and the firebombing of numerous Japanese cities, Fillmore's relentless backing of the Fugitive Slave Act, etc.. But if I had to pick just one it would probably be when President McKinley ordered that those rifles be turned from the Spanish invaders to the Philippine resistance fighters, with the end result being a couple of hundred thousand dead Asians. It was an unconscionable act, not just of cruelty but of disloyalty, too, and the fact that we have seemingly learned nothing from the experience is thoroughly disheartening.

So, Just How Stupid WAS Churchill?

This, from "Collier's", January 1939 - "...even a single well-armed vessel will hold its own against aircraft; still more a squadron or a fleet of modernized warships, whether at sea or in harbor, will be able to endure aerial attack."......And please keep in mind here that this guy had at one point been the First Lord of the Admiralty and that FDR (who fully agreed with Churchill on this) had actually been Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Wilson. These two damned idiots!

On Kanye West "Thinking" that a Person (Beyonce) Who Doesn't Play an Instrument, Doesn't Write Her Own Songs, and Who Only Engages in One Type of Music (Pop Schlock) Is More Artistically Creative than a Person (Beck) Who Plays 11 Instruments, Writes All of His Own Songs, and Who Has Performed in Multiple Genres from Hip Hop All the Way to Contemporary Folk and Alt Country

Did I put this bozo on my list of worst black assholes? Please, if I didn't, consider him included.

On Paulette Goddard (Bottom) Once Having Accepted a Part that She Had Initially Rejected Simply Because it Had Then Gone to Susan Hayward Who She Thoroughly Despised and Who Had Been Her Most Intense Rival Early On - Out of Pure Spite, in Other Words

Yeah, that would have been an awesome cat-fight.

Bob Simon R.I.P.

73 years, 27 Emmies, 4 Peabodies - not enough.

On Truman and the Bomb

The traditional narrative states that Truman didn't have a choice but to drop the bomb and that the only other alternative was a massive land invasion that would have resulted in a gazillion American fatalities. I reject this assertion completely. a) We had the Japanese mainland completely surrounded with an air-tight naval blockade and absolute air superiority (blowing up anything that moved, essentially) and b) the Japanese had been looking for a way to honorably surrender for quite a while with a spate of reasonable conditions and the Americans refused even to talk (it was full, unconditional surrender or nothing).........................................................................................................And even if there was an element of truth to what these court apologists have been claiming, targeting civilians is still a) a war crime and b) a demonstrably inefficient way to win a war. If you're asking for my opinion here, dropping those two horrible weapons was largely for Russian consumption; a) to keep them out of the Asian war theater and b) to frighten the holy bejesus out of them. But, come on, couldn't they have just blown up a deserted island or two - you know, instead irradiating 100,000 folks?...Seriously, if this doesn't constitute a war crime, then we really need to just stop using the term 'cause at this point it's meaningless.

What I Find a Bit "Odd"

a) The fact that Adolph Hitler and the Holocaust are the only two topics in world history that we are not allowed to question.......b) The fact that Hitler reclaiming Danzig and the Sudetenland is viewed as worse than England starving to death millions of Indians, Russia butchering millions of Ukrainians, the United States pilfering half of Mexico, etc..............c) The fact that Hitler filed for peace in 1940 (a proposal that even the King of Sweden understood as meaning a total German withdrawal from all undisputed territories), Churchill refused to even entertain the proposal, and it is Hitler who is seen as the war monger.............d) The fact that the British war guarantee to Poland only applied to Germany and that the Russians were pretty much permitted to do whatever (not that I'm suggesting here that a war with Russia would have been any smarter, mind you - just pointing out the inconsistency).............e) The fact that Germany allowed the International Red Cross unfettered access to all of their concentration camps while at the same time Ike didn't permit so much as a camera at Rhine Meadows.............TBC.

Provoke and Deny

One of the most common strategies of the war-mongering and fascistic President has always been to maneuver and/or trick the enemy into firing the first shot (you see, this way the assholes get to have their war/enhance their power AND be the good guy). It was Polk did in 1846, what Lincoln did in 1861, what McKinley did in 1898, what Wilson did in 1918 (the Lusitania), what Roosevelt did in 1941, and what LBJ did in 1965 (Bush 2, to his credit - or detriment, didn't even use this pretense in 2003 and instead opted for something called a "pre-emptive war"). Of course, what's even more disturbing than this is the fact that on each of these occasions the government (and in many cases, the court historians as well) has more or less been able to keep a lid on 'em and hence they are repeated and repackaged over and over again - the genie (AKA, the imperial presidency) seemingly out of the bottle permanently now.

On the Necessity of War

In the words of Milton, from "Paradise Lost", "Necessity is the tyrant's plea."

A Disturbing (and Extremely Difficult to Explain Away) Fact About WW2

 This was one of the very few conflicts in which the justification for it (to stop the spread of fascism, we are led to believe) was established ex post facto, and the fact of the matter here is that THEY HAD NO CHOICE; the fact that the stated reason beforehand (the liberation of Poland) wasn't just not obtained but crashed and burned spectacularly. And, yes, being that the victors get to write the history books anyway (the first time that I learned about Dresden was when I read "Slaughterhouse Five"), boy did they ever decide to go for it; turning Hitler into the Devil incarnate (with FDR and Churchill gods, of course), making the Germans seem like a bunch of collectivist barbarians, totally ignoring the plethora of allied atrocities (the targeting of civilians, the torture of Nuremberg defendants, the ethnic cleansing and murder of Germans from Eastern Europe, the Rhine Meadows Death camps, the wholesale raping of German girls by Mongolian irregulars, the fact that WE had concentration camps, etc.) and the fact that Hitler actually filed for peace on numerous occasions (including when he was winning), etc.. I mean, I know that we want to feel good about ourselves (and why pray tell would a Democratic President who supposedly loves the little fellow needlessly involve us in war?) and all but, damn, a little self-reflection, please.

On Obama Saying that 99% of Muslims Don't Support Extremism

As is frequently the case with this fellow, he's a we-bit off. According to a Pew Research survey from several years back, 40% of Palestinians, 39% of Afghans, 29% of Egyptians, 26% of Bangladeshis, and even 15% of Turks and Jordanians (inhabitants of arguably the two most sane Islamic countries) have all stated that suicide bombing is a legitimate form of social unrest................................................................................................And it doesn't end there. According to that same survey, 99% of Afghans, 91% of Iraqis, 89% of Palestinians, 86% of Nigeriens, 84% of Pakistanis, and 83% of Moroccans have all said that they fully supported Sharia Law being the supreme law of the land in their respective countries (and, no, this doesn't even include Islamic countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudan which have already essentially established the sucker to the tune of just being a homosexual and you're dead-meat there - those are separate). I mean, I know that Obama (much like his predecessor, Bush) doesn't want to offend the Islamic community and all but in this particular instance he was just being ridiculous (like when he stated that extreme weather events have gotten more severe and prevalent when even the IPCC has admitted that they haven't).

On Brian Williams's Claim that He Saw a Body Floating Down Canal Street from His Hotel in the French Quarter

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that he's lying about that as well (the fact that the French Quarter didn't get a shitload of flooding, that his hotel wasn't even located in the French Quarter, that there were no reports of people missing from that area, etc.).

On War-Monger, Bill O'Reilly, Bragging About How We Won WW2

What did we fucking win? a) 60,000,000 people got slaughtered and b) 50% of Europe ended up as a 40-year slave-state of the Soviet Union. How can anybody in his or her right mind call this a victory?...And all over Danzig (this, while Joe Stalin was running roughshod over far more territory). Danzig!!

Leave the Heavy Lifting

Maybe the smarter thing would have been to a) kick back and b) allow Germany and Russia slug it out for 10,15 years while the rest of the world engaged in peaceful trade and economic development. Just a wild suggestion.

On the Fact that Numerous Ukrainians Fought on the Side of Germany During WW2

Yeah, I guess that after Joe Stalin had starved and shot to death upwards of six million of their countrymen it seemed like the right thing to do.

On Connecticut's Plan to Impose a Penny Per Ounce Tax on Sugary Drinks

I'll take, "Yet Another Regressive Tax/Stab at Social Engineering that Reams the Consumer and Seemingly Works at Cross-Purposes", for a Thousand, Alex.

On Greta Van Susteren Saying that the "War on Terror" Won't Be Over Until We Either Kill Them All or They Surrender

So, not in any of our lifetimes, is what she's saying.

Stay East, Young Man

While I have no hard evidence that FDR was antisemitic (and his wife certainly wasn't), it is patently clear that there were anti-Semites in his cabinet and that these folks wielded tremendous influence. Amongst the most virulent was a guy by the name of Breckenridge Long (an assistant Secretary of State) and it was this guy specifically who pushed through those draconian immigration quotas from eastern Europe both prior to and during the war, a policy it is fair to say that led to a great deal of suffering at the hands of not just the Nazis but the Commies as well. Thankfully this policy was eventually amended as lesser bigoted individuals came to fore but you still have to wonder, the damage.

On the Maddening Case of Phil Nolan

UConn fans should be used to it by now, highly touted players coming to the program and just not panning out; Ajou Deng, Marcus Cox, Scott Hazelton, Curtis Kelly, Ater Majok, Jamaal Coombs McDaniel, Jonathan Mandledove, etc., etc.. But this fellow, Nolan (one of the premiere centers coming out of high school in 2012), is especially exasperating in that he's actually regressed to the point where he's averaging 0.9 points and 1.1 rebounds a game and seems to be on the verge of getting bounced from the rotation (and, yes, the fact that "we" really needed his ass this year - the fact that we lost three top-notch starters; Shabazz Napier, Deandre Daniels, and Niels Giffey, from last years national championship team - makes it all the more frustrating). Thankfully, we have another big man "can't-miss prospect" (a kid by the name of Steven Enoch) coming in next year and I'm hoping that the law of averages....

On the Fact that German Soldiers Were Made to Sleep for Months in a Toxic Mixture of Mud, Fecal Matter, Blood, and Urine While at the Same Time Being Purposefully Starved

You would treat snails better than that.

The Truly "Left Behind"

According to Charles Adams's book, "When in the Course of Human Events", scores of Southern blacks at the end of Reconstruction (the Treaty of Versailles of the U.S.) pleaded with the Northern soldiers to take them with them when they headed back north, and in virtually every case these requests were denied. It appears, folks, that the North, after having plundered the South with "total war" (a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions), high taxation, disenfranchisement, etc., and also having stirred up racial hatred by having black (and in many instances understandably vengeful) troops controlling predominantly white areas, had concluded that they didn't really want the recently freed black folks, either (some states actually having made it illegal for blacks to cross their borders)..................................................................................................I think that we just have to face it here, people. America was a racist country IN IT'S ENTIRETY, and this whole notion of Northern enlightenment is laughable (the fact that even many abolitionists were racists, that Lincoln's first inaugural was essentially a "slavery forever" speech, that virtually all of the slave ships were Northern, that many Northern states were virulently inhospitable to blacks, that slavery - albeit it was termed differently - had lasted in New Jersey until 1865, that no Northern politician had ever made a meaningful proposal for compensated emancipation, that a significant percentage of Northerners had fully supported colonization, etc., etc.)...................................................................................................P.S. And the fact that they (the military, political class, etc.) had to have known the repercussions of this (the leaving of freed blacks behind) makes it even more despicable, in my opinion. "Yeah, you stay behind and we go home to safety, that's the ticket."

On Senator Graham Saying that We Need to Topple Assad in Syria

I am getting so sick of this Graham bozo. a) It isn't our job to topple other nations' leaders (both from a moral and strategic perspective) and b) it's Assad and his henchmen who are currently fighting ISIS (the worst terrorist group ever, we're told), and so why in the hell would we even consider taking down a guy who's doing us a huge favor? I mean, I know that guys like Graham and McCain are basically on a slow burn with stuff like this in that they always seem to want to shoot and shoot some more but this was such a stupid suggestion that even Obama can probably rebut it.

On Imperial France Declaring War on Germany and Then Crying Foul When Their Asses Get Handed to Them - Quick Addendum

And if Germany's major goal was to conquer France, then why in the hell did they wait almost eight months (after succeeding in Poland) before they invaded? The fact of the matter here is that the Germans only went into France when it became obvious that the English had started unloading hundreds of thousands of troops onto the European mainland in what was an obvious and naked preamble to them and France attacking Germany. And can you really blame the Germans for the fact that the once vaunted French army basically laid down their weapons and surrendered en masse?

On the British Invasion and Occupation of Iceland

Yeah, that's another fact that tends to get left out.

On Joy Behar's Claim that Only Conservatives Buy into this Moronic Vaccines Causing Autism Nonsense

Yeah, well what about this slanthead? He's obviously a true believer (he also believes that we can meaningfully reduce our carbon footprint by building more wind turbines at a measly one watt per square meter - just not in Hyannis) and so are a lot of those liberal idiots out in California....And what about the President? He's made some asinine comments on the subject and hasn't backed away as far as I'm aware. Yes, there are some moronic conservatives out there (Hannity and Palin obviously jump off the page) but for clowns like Behar (who herself is hardly MENSA material) to try and say that liberals are de facto smarter than conservatives is neither helpful nor accurate, in my opinion.

On Imperial France Declaring War on Germany and Then Crying Foul When Their Asses Get Handed to Them

Oh, how the traditional narrative crumbles when you actually take the time to think about it.

What Historian, Steven Ambrose (Obviously a Member of the Eisenhower Cult), Had to Say About James Bacque's Book, "Other Losses", BEFORE Either He Realized What a Powder-Keg that this Book Was OR Somebody in Power Got to His Ass

"....you have the goods on these guys, you have the quotes from those who were present and saw with their own eyes....You really have made a major historical discovery, the full impact of which neither you nor I nor anyone else can imagine."........................................................................................I also strongly suggest that the readers watch this documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbp61fOVFaE - and then challenge themselves into still maintaining that the barbarians were strictly on the Axis side.

Penetrating Quotes - Part 1

a) "Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance." Albert Einstein.............b) "The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is to simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality." H.L. Mencken.............c) "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire.............d) "We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have communism." Nikita Khrushchev.............e) "Those who can make you believe absurdities (that a bunch of ignorant bureaucrats and politicians can steer the economy, for example), can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire.............f) "The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself....Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable." H.L. Mencken.............g) "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant. Never should it be left to irresponsible action (as it clearly was under Lincoln, TR, Wilson, Hoover, FDR, LBJ, Nixon, Bush 2, Obama, etc.)." George Washington.............h) "Either force or corruption has been the principle of every modern government." Thomas Jefferson (can you even begin to imagine if ole Tom had been alive during the 20th Century?).............i) "We butchered the wrong pig." Winston Churchill.

On Poland's Role in WW2

The traditional narrative of course states that Poland was this weak, innocent, and vulnerable country that was basically minding its own business until the big, bad Nazis came along and conquered it for no apparent reason other than they wanted to (and, yes, it was something that I believed as well in that I, too, was indoctrinated). Well, guess what, folks, it's a lot more complicated than that.............a) Poland was never satisfied with the amount of land that the Treaty of Versailles had afforded them and there was even quite a lot of talk from higher-ups about a Greater Poland (one prospective map had the borders of Poland stretching all the way to Berlin).............b) Poland was seriously mistreating the ethnic Germans from both Danzig and the Polish corridor (both of which had been German land prior to the Treaty of Versailles and both of which were predominantly German speaking) and it had actually gotten to the point where there were tens of thousands of German refugees fleeing the repression.............c) Germany had tried on numerous occasions to reach a diplomatic solution to the problems in Poland (making what were substantive and generous proposals) but because of the French and English war guarantees and the pressure from Washington (recently uncovered papers have shown that FDR did NOT want the Poles to negotiate with Germany and that he would have been more than willing to provide Poland with material support in case of war) the Poles basically said, fuck you............................................................................................................Now, is this to say that Germans were fully blameless? No, of course not - it always takes two side. But just as it is stupid for the neo-Nazis to try and blame the Jews for everything, so, too, is it equally stupid for the "court historians" to try and blame Germany completely for the war. Life isn't 1970s wrestling, people, and it should never shrink from investigation.

On the Fact that Both FDR and Churchill Secretly Signed on to the Morgenthau Plan, a Policy that Had it Ever Come to Full Fruition Would Have Resulted in the Starvation Death of Millions of Germans

Thankfully, FDR died and Truman (a man who was fully cognizant of Northern atrocities during Reconstruction) opted instead for the saner, more compassionate, and constructive Marshall Plan...............................................................................................P.S. It also should be stated that Truman had the courage and wherewithal to enlist the services of former President Hoover and that the two men (who both had warts for sure) worked magnificently together in their efforts to feed a war-torn Europe.

The Starving for Information

According to James Bacque's disturbing book, "Crimes and Mercies", Eisenhower eventually issued a letter (and sent by "urgent courier") to the top officials of the German provinces which instructed them that it was now a crime punishable by shooting (and, yes, he documents a number of cases of women being shot just for trying to feed the German POWs) for citizens to assemble food supplies in order to deliver them to German POWs. This is a war crime, folks, and the fact that OUR government has withheld this information from the public for close to 60 years is inexcusable...................................................................................................P.S. And, yes, there WAS food available in that the good citizens from Canada, the United States, and Australia had sent copious amounts of it to Germany (which the Red Cross was more than willing to hand it out) and it was only because of the Americans that it wasn't given out (England, surprisingly and to their credit, did not starve their prisoners).

On the American Political Establishment and Intelligentsia from 1915 to 1945

Not enough German-hating anglophiles and warmongering lunatics.

On History and Those Who Fail to Learn from it

The guy on the bottom was either totally unaware of the guy on the top, or he wasn't and thought of him highly. Either way, I find it wholly disconcerting and you really do have to wonder here if we're ever going to learn/evolve.

On Eisenhower Not Allowing the International Red Cross to Inspect the Rhine Meadows Detention Camps

Inexcusable but not at all surprising from a fellow who once said that, "our primary purpose in the destruction of as many Germans as possible" and that "it is a pity we couldn't kill more" and that his expectation was to "destroy every German West of the Rhine and within that area in which we are attacking".............Yep, one more American hero bites the dust................................................................................................P.S. It also must be stated that the Americans reclassified all German prisoners from POWs to "disarmed enemy forces" (criminals, in essence) and that they did this so they wouldn't have to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions (which they obviously were in that not only did they not give these soldiers food, they didn't give them shelter or sanitation facilities - this, despite the fact that these amenities were available in France). Yeah, huh?

On Nelson Mandela Once Having Written a Book Entitled, "How to Be a Good Communist"

The companion piece, "How to Be a Good Fascist Nazi", evidently never made it to print.

On Fox News Recently

Not enough John Bolton appearances.

On Al Jazeera English Deciding Not to Use the Word, Terrorist, in that "One Man's Terrorist is Another Man's Freedom Fighter"

Sorry, but I don't seem to recall the Adams brothers lopping people's heads off.