Asked if Stalin was an antisemite, Robert Conquest replied: Yes, but it was hardly noticed. He was broadly and generously anti-human.
John Derbyshire
Month: October 2019
06OCT2019 – Photo of the Day
06OCT2019 – Quote of the Day
The sympathies of a well-adjusted person can easily be aroused by the plight of strangers. Indeed, the skillful writer of a novel, a play, or an opera can engage our emotions on behalf of people who are not only strangers to us, but who do not even exist! And a person whose emotions cannot be so aroused is not behaving normally.
John Derbyshire
05OCT2019 – Quote of the Day
What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn’t let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word.
John Derbyshire
05OCT2019 – Photo of the Day
The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 5 Episode 34 – Come Wander with Me
Floyd Burney is a rock and roll singer who calls himself the Rock-A-Billy Kid. He received a tip that the owner of a store out in the back country could sell him some authentic folk songs. Leaving his car on a ridge that’s blocked by a downed tree he finds the store and it’s full of old musical instruments. But after negotiating with the old man the owner refuses to sell him any music. Suddenly Floyd hears the voice of a woman singing a sad ballad. The audience is shown a headstone that says “Floyd Burney, the Wandering Man.” He follows the singing into the woods and unbeknownst to Floyd we see that a woman in mourning clothes is watching from a distance.
Tired of his futile search Floyd sits on a log and starts strumming his guitar. From behind him a young woman in country clothes joins him. Floyd welcomes her and asks her who she is. She tells him that her name is Mary Rachel. Two things we learn is that she is the singer Floyd’s been hearing and that she can’t sell the song because someone already owns it. When Floyd starts showing romantic interest in Rachel she is bespoke, meaning she is engaged. Floyd makes a play for her believing he’ll get the song if she thinks he loves her. She agrees to go with him and run away from her boyfriend Billy, one of the Rayford brothers. Now Floyd gets her to sing some of the song into his tape recorder.
But Billy shows up and at rifle point orders Floyd to come with him to see his brothers “who know how to deal with the likes of Floyd. Floyd uses his guitar to push the rifle off of himself and attacks Billy. Floyd hits Billy to the head and kills him. Now we hear another verse of the song telling how Billy is killed and how the brothers look for Floyd. Floyd panics and starts screaming at Rachel to tell him what’s going on. She tells him that this is how it always happens and she asks him if this time he can not run away but let her hide him. But he refuses and runs. Now we see the woman in mourning is Rachel.
Floyd goes back to the store and begs the man to hide him. The old man refuses and Floyd angrily strikes him. The old man dies and suddenly all the instruments and music boxes start playing. While Floyd cowers hiding in the store the Rayford brothers come in and shoot him dead.
I thought this episode sucked. The music is boring and annoying. The story is predictable and uninteresting. I didn’t like the characters. D.
04OCT2019 – Photo of the Day
04OCT2019 – Quote of the Day
Ultimately, however, as the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter pointed out, a powerful bureaucratic class is in the same relation to commerce as was the scorpion in Aesop to the dog on whose back he crossed the river. They will destroy commerce and establish socialism, even if it kills them, because that is their nature.
John Derbyshire
The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 5 Episode 33 – The Brain Center at Whipple’s
Wallace Whipple is the CEO of Whipple Enterprises and he employs hundreds of thousands of people in his plants. But he is obsessed with efficiency and he explains to his plant manager Walter Hanley that he intends to automate away all the workers in his plants.
Whipple waxes poetic about the joys of efficiency but Hanley chides him on his lack of feelings toward all the loyal employees that have worked faithfully for him for decades. Whipple scoffs at Hanley and mentions the generous severance package and retirement benefits he will provide to all the employees he’s about to fire.
A mechanic named Dickerson becomes deranged when he hears about the computer that is replacing hundreds of men. He comes back to the plant drunk and attacks the computer with a tire iron. When the night watchman fails to act quickly Whipple grabs his gun and shoots Dickerson himself.
In the next scene we see Hanley returning from the hospital where Dickerson is expected to live. When he castigates Whipple for shooting the man, Whipple tells him that he has purchased a machine that can do Hanley’s job. And he adds that Hanley is fired. Hanley’s answer is that he intended to quit that day anyway and in lieu of severance or retirement benefits he punches Whipple in the face as payment.
In the next scene Whipple is at the local bar and looks slightly disheveled with a one-day beard. He sees Hanley at the bar and asks him how he’s getting along in retirement. Hanley says it’s tolerable. Whipple starts to explain that the Board of Directors of Whipple’s thought that Whipple had become too obsessed by his automation project so they retired him. Now he whines to Hanley that it’s unfair that machines displace men and thereby diminish them.
In the final scene we see a robot in Whipple’s office talking on the telephone and doing all the things Whipple used to do, even twirling the same keychain that Whipple used to twirl. Interestingly, the robot is Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet.
This is a silly episode but Serling couldn’t decide if it was serious or for laughs. It comes off as odd and slightly flat. I’m giving this a C.
03OCT2019 – Photo of the Day
