Month: May 2021

Above and Beyond (1952) – A Movie Review

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“Above and Beyond” is a dramatic portrayal of the Air Force’s project to deliver the first atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan (Hiroshima).  Col. Paul Tibbets, played by Robert Taylor, is selected for the mission because of his combat record and also for his knowledge of the capabilities of the B-29 bomber.  The movie has two aspects.  It documents the difficulty of the mission to combine the scientific, military and logistical requirements while maintaining absolute secrecy.  The second aspect is the toll that this secrecy takes on the marriage and family life of Colonel Tibbets, his wife Lucey and their two young boys.  I watched this movie along with Camera Girl and I made sure I emphasized how truly annoying wives are when husbands are trying to get something really important done.  Like when I have a really important horror movie that I need to watch and she bothers me with unimportant stuff right in the middle of a very important scene.  Very annoying.  But I digress.

Since mission security is one of the crucial aspects of the story they gave the part of security chief, Major Uanna, to James Whitmore whose other credential for atomic energy related movies was his turn as a police officer in “Them,” the story of giant ants created by the original Manhattan Project blast in New Mexico.  And the Air Force general overseeing the project was Major General Curtis E. LeMay who is played by Jim Backus, better known to television audiences as Gilligan’s Island’s very own millionaire, Thurston Howell III.

The melodrama of Col Tibbet’s disrupted family life is reasonably well done.  But the payoff is the bombing mission.  And it is compelling.  The men in the plane other than Tibbets didn’t know about the atomic bomb.  Tibbets reveals this during the flight to Japan.  And he reveals to them that for all anyone knows their plane will be destroyed by the radiation or the subsequent shock wave.  Actual footage of the Hiroshima blast is run during this sequence of the film and the devastating nature of the detonation is conveyed in Tibbets’ reaction to the blast.  Even all these years later and in context of our familiarity with the much more powerful hydrogen bombs that were to follow, the sight of the Hiroshima explosion is still a sobering sight.

I recommend this movie based on its temporal proximity to the events.  It gives us a chance to see the transition from the almost naïve mindset of the WW II Americans to the almost overwhelmed perspective of inhabitants of the new atomic age.  And it gave me new-found admiration for the courage and determination of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations who combined intelligence and hard work to produce the horrible miracle that became the basis for our modern world.  If we still had their clarity, I wonder whether we’d be in the mess we’re in now.

King of the Castle

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“The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.”

Edward Coke

Well the Memorial Day Family Barbecue Day dawns wet, freezing cold and gray.

Perfect for New England!  The land of cold and mildew.

But all is well.  I got up and cleaned the grill on the lowest deck and moved it so that the smoke will get blown out to the sky but will leave me under the overhang, snug and dry.  I walked the property in the rain and saw all the flowers and weeds swelling in the rain.  One of the ponds had cold bull frogs and leopard frogs that were too chilled to care that I was walking by.  I dropped the level on the swimming pool and backwashed it to get rid of all the pollen and tree debris that the wind and rain brought down.  We won’t be using it today.  That’s for sure.

23JUN2018 Photo of the Day, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens, flower

The hellebore flowers are fading out now and the rhododendrons are at peak bloom and one of the earlier blooming bushes is already shedding its flowers.  Have to get a few photos soon.  The cone flowers and the roses are starting to bud and the irises are just about done.  Boy they don’t last long.  And miracle of miracles the deer haven’t eaten the daylilies or the hostas like they usually do.  They did pick off one bunch of Solomon’s Seal bunches but I’ve got plenty to spare.  As Camera Girl says everybody’s got to eat.  Well, I wish someone would eat the deer but that another story.

It’s too cold for us to eat outside so I’ve made a big table in the dining room from four folding tables and we’ll all sit together and feast on Camera Girl’s fixings and my barbecue skills.  Today is restricted to burgers, dogs, and sausage on the meat side.  We’ll complement that with homemade potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, washed down with lemonade and followed up with watermelon, Italian cheese cake, apple pie, strawberry shortcake, vanilla ice cream and by popular demand Klondike Bars.  All of that dessert will be washed down with good coffee and lots of good talk and laughter as the grandchildren get spoiled their grandmother and I tell lies about the good old days.

Afterwards we’ll talk about school and what they want to do this summer and their vacation plans.  I’ll make a point of leaving out politics and COVID since that will just upset everyone on a happy day.  We’ll talk about inflation and education costs and whatever else is on their minds.  Maybe we’ll watch some old kids’ movies.  Maybe not.  Maybe I’ll just put on some music.  Should be a lot of fun.

What else can I ask for.  Healthy kids, productive adults and functional families.  That’s as good as it gets.  So at least for this year I’m still king of my castle and the secret police aren’t supposed to make an appearance at the castle gate.  I can make believe that Memorial Day still means we live in the United States of America.  Enjoy your holiday.

The Practical Problem with Alienating the Normal Half of Your Country

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In September of 2001 New York City and Washington D.C. were attacked by Arab fanatics who flew jumbo jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and almost got the US Capitol Building too.  Hundreds of New York firemen and dozens of police died attempting to rescue civilians in the chaos of the destruction of the twin towers.  Afterwards the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were fought, as usual by young men from Middle America.  A few came from New York City.  I know of some.  But most kids from New York City didn’t want to go off to war.  I remember an interview right after the attack when a reporter asked a student at New York University whether he thought he should defend his country after his city had been attacked.  The smart kid said, “Sure somebody should go fight.  But not me, I don’t believe in war.”  And that is the majority opinion in a place like New York City.

So those other somebodies did fight and die in those wars.  And they went on fighting and dying for two decades.  But now the Defense Department is combing through the ranks looking for white supremacists and other deplorables to be kicked out of the military.  And I’m sure eventually they’ll get a different military.  LGBTQ soldiers and especially transgender soldiers are very popular right now not to mention pregnant air force fighter pilots.  It sounds very exciting and vibrant.

But what happens after the next 9-11 type attack?  Let’s say Iran sneaks in a dirty bomb over the Mexican border and sets it off in New York City.  Not a real nuke just a big conventional weapon that’s been peppered with enriched uranium.  Now after the George Floyd riots and the calls to prosecute police for upholding the laws how many cops are going to run into that hell to restore order?  And without the police how many firemen are going to put out those fires?  And how many ambulances will go in to rescue the wounded?

And who is going to volunteer to go to Iran to fight the mullahs on the ground?  I’ll be curious to see just how the LGBTQ brigade will do fighting in the 115 °F middle east heat.  Hot flashes from the hormone therapy must be such a bother at those temperatures.  And I wonder just how sharp those pregnant fighter pilots are going to be battling in the air space with surface to air missiles lighting up their instrument board.  Sounds daunting.

My point is I have a feeling the US military is going to be a lot less impressive pretty soon.  If countries like Iran and China start thinking that we aren’t the military superpower that we used to be then they will start to look for ways to apply pressure on us to get what they want.  China is already doing it.  They are throwing their weight around in their own back yard and scaring their neighbors, Japan and South Korea and Taiwan, with a narrative that says the US is a spent force and that China is the new hegemon.

What happens when China decides that we really are impotent?  Let’s say they sink an aircraft carrier.  And let’s say that Commander in Chief Hair Sniffer puts out the call for volunteers to sign up and defend their country.  Who’s going to show up?  No one.

And after he walks back his banter and kowtows to China and our allies in Asia switch allegiance to the strong horse what kind of foreign policy problems will we be looking at then?  Well, actually things will simplify.  We will resemble Britain as their empire evaporated in the post WW II period.  The Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians and the Turks will carve out spheres of influence in the power vacuum we create and we will recede more and more from the dominant role we had.  Even the position of the US dollar may change radically.  And that will have a devastating effect on the US economy and the federal government.

Of course, some good will come of a scenario like this one.  If America’s status as a military superpower is degraded by a Democrat administration there is a very good chance that a massive shift in political support will occur.  Think back to what happened when Jimmy Carter let the Iranians hold our embassy personnel hostage for over a year and then bungled the military operation to rescue the hostages.  Ronald Reagan beat him in a landslide in the 1980 presidential election.  If it is perceived that the Democrats have endangered the country militarily, they will be removed.  What the Republicans do with such an opportunity is hard to say.  Hopefully they will be less stupid than they have been up until this point.  Hopefully they restore the armed forces to a condition where it consists of normal men led by the best men we’ve got.  If not then I won’t be surprised if this country really does crack up.  If our military is exposed as a spent force then regional groups will become emboldened to defy the federal government even more easily and openly.

Either way things will be getting interesting in the new world we live in.  The woke are going to find out that their new world order requires a little more force than the LGBTQ brigade can muster with or without the pregnant fighter pilots.

29MAY2021 – Good Morning Gulag Archipelago!

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Our fake President is a leering, gibbering, creepy mental patient and the “intelligence” agencies have perfected their imitation of the KGB and the leaders of all the richest companies have decided to replace us with illiterate third world peons and our children believe that men in sundresses are women.

Well, dammit, it sounds like it’s time for Memorial Day Weekend Barbecue.

Good morning folks.  It’s forty degrees and raining and windy but for whatever reason I’m in a great mood.  Tomorrow’s the family barbecue and granted we’ll be moving the meal inside and the pool won’t be needed, but we’ll have a great time.

So, we’re in a bad place and it may get a lot worse but you know what?  It’s still pretty great to be alive.  Your lungs are giving you air and your blood is racing through your body and the dimwits around here have even admitted that the cops can’t beat me into submission for walking into a grocery store without a towel wrapped around my face.  Despite the cold snap the grass is growing and the birds are singing and other than cleaning the grill and buying some propane I don’t have to do anything but enjoy the day.  I put my country music thumb drive in the music system and let it play and I’ll write some more of my new story and I’ll look around at what’s going on in this sad world and maybe I’ll figure out why the Briggs and Stratton engine on my push mower died last week.  I took apart the carburetor and it looked clean as a whistle.  I’ll get a spark plug wrench today and take a look at that.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably buy a manual mower and start getting exercise that way.  Cutting the grass is an amazing ritual.  Sure, if you’re too busy it’s an impossible time sink to cut your lawn without an engine but it’s a pretty zen way of communing with the summer world.  Ray Bradbury has a chapter in his book “Dandelion Wine” that extols the virtues of a weekly jaunt around the yard behind a reel mower.  Of course he was living in LA at the time and there probably wasn’t any grass in his life at that point but he was hearkening back to his life as a kid in Waukegan, Illinois.  Anyway I’ve spent the last week cutting down thorn shrubs and weed trees like Russian Olive and Ailanthus and digging up their roots.  I finish up drenched in sweat and weary with aching muscles and covered in cuts and scrapes and I’ve been sleeping like a log and wake up hungry and with a clear head.

Sure it’s still a cesspool out in our culture and we are being led down the path to serfdom by evil men and our women and children are deluded but it’s not over yet.  Sanity has a way of breaking through once insanity is allowed to run amok for too long.  And when it does we need to seize our chance and look out for ourselves.  No more alliances with the middle, no more seeing their side of the argument.  Look for good people and form your own community and support each other.  The rest can and will go to hell.  That’s just the way it is.

But have a good holiday and enjoy your own damn life.  That’s what it’s about.