I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.
- Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
There's a new post on Atheisms, called Did the Red Sea Part? Evidence Says, No.
If anyone is interested, I ran across a free podcast of the Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. This is the original version which terrified unsuspecting radio listeners in 1938.
In the wild west, money was moved from city to city by wagon or stagecoach. These were obvious targets for criminals, and so someone on the coach had to be armed at all times. A stagecoach traveling over a bumpy road was a terrible platform for a rifle, which could not be fired accurately in those circumstances. Thus, the weapon of choice was a sawed-off shotgun, which, if the armed defender were sitting outside on the front of the coach, could be whipped around quickly and fired at an attacker. The resulting blast spread out and so accuracy was not an issue as it would have been with a rifle or revolver.
Hence, the origin of the term, "riding shotgun."
I've been watching the History Channel today, and they've been running a lot of Doomsday shows for New Year's. Of course, I don't believe in the Mayan prophecies, Nostradamus, the second coming of Christ, or any of that, but I did come across this interesting article.
The article is based on a battle plan that the recently elected new Polish government released. It is called "Seven Days to the River Rhine" and shows how the Soviet Union envisioned a NATO attack and the ensuing counterattack, culminating in a seven day nuclear holocaust. It dates from 1979.
From the article:
On the map, western Europe lay beneath a chilling overlay of large red mushroom clouds: Warsaw Pact nuclear strikes, using giant warheads to compensate for their relative lack of precision.
Soviet bombs rain down on cities from northern Denmark down to Brussels, the political headquarters of Nato. Large red clouds blot out cities such as Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich and Baden Baden, Haarlem, Antwerp and Charleroi, above the Franco-Belgian border.
Daphne: You could be like Woodrow Wilson, when he had that stroke and his wife secretly assumed the duties of the president.
Marty: How did you know that?
Daphne: I'm studying for my citizenship exam. It's about time I became an American citizen like everyone else.
Frasier: If you were like everyone else, you wouldn't know any history.
- Frasier
I was recently reading a book about the training process that FBI Special Agents undergo at Quantico, VA. Part of their curriculum includes a series of ethical lessons using the Holocaust as an example. The purpose is to show the role that the German law enforcement authorities played in enabling the mass slaughter. I found that interesting - I mean, certainly it's a good thing to remind people of, but, on the other hand, do people really need reminding? How could anyone ignore or forget such a horrible time in history.
Then, this evening, I pulled up some of my usual news sources, and found this article. It involved a radio host in Washington DC, Jerry Klein. He suggested at the begining of his show that Muslims in America should be forced to have a crescent moon tatooed on them, or they should have to wear distinctive armbands in order to identify themselves. Perhaps there should also be a crescent moon on their drivers licenses, he suggested.
He had staged a hoax. But he was horrified by the calls he received.
"Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."
"What good is identifying them? You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."
Within minutes, the lines were flooded. Some people expressed horror at what Klein had suggested. But many were in agreement. And, lest you think this is an isolated incident in an isolated area, a recent Gallup Poll revealed that 39% of Americans "were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification."
Klein had this to say at the end of his show:
I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said. For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make the
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