Epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski of Rockefeller University openly admits that shutting down our country and destroying the economy was done for no reason at all.
I guess he’s the only honest scientist on the continent.
Category: Reviews
Reviews of books, movies, tv shows and other items
Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 2 Episode 3 – The Changeling
The Enterprise is responding to a signal from the Malurian system. But upon scanning the solar system they find that all of the four billion people there are dead. They are attacked by an incredibly potent enemy that drains the ship’s deflector shield in a few blasts. Kirk attempts to reason with the unseen enemy. He names himself James Kirk in his address and the enemy seems to break off the attack at this mention. We find out that a small three-foot-long robotic device that calls itself Nomad is the attacker. It agrees to break off the attack and come aboard the ship. We learn that Nomad was an Earth probe from the 21st century. Nomad has mistaken James Kirk for its creator, Dr. Jackson Roykirk. We eventually learn that the original Nomad was a probe designed and programmed to seek out interstellar life. It was damaged and somehow merged with an alien probe called Tan Ru that was also damaged. Tan Ru was enormously powerful and had as its mission to sterilize soil samples for planetary colony evaluation. Once the two probes were integrated, their new mission was to seek out biological life and if it was imperfect, which it always was, to sterilize it. This explained what had happened to the Malurian system.
Nomad starts exploring the Enterprise with unsurprisingly dire results. He hears Lt Uhura singing and he analyzes her mind and finds it irrational so he erases her memory. When Scotty attempts to come to her aid Nomad strikes him with an energy bolt that kills the engineer. When Kirk complains that Nomad has destroyed on of the creator’s “units” Nomad agrees to repair the dead human. And he does, much to the amazement of Dr. McCoy. Kirk attempts to immobilize Nomad in a containment cell but Nomad leaves and when his two guards attempt to stop him, he disintegrates them. Nomad repeats this action once again in another scene.
Kirk becomes exasperated with Nomad’s casual destruction of biological units and tells Nomad that Kirk himself is a biological unit. This is a big mistake. Nomad decides that he should sterilize the Enterprise and then head back to the point of origin, Earth, to decide how to eliminate imperfection there too. Kirk hits on a plan and tells his men to stand by with anti-grav units to transport Nomad when Kirk gives his command.
Kirk tells Nomad that he is not the creator. That he has mistaken James Kirk for Jackson Roykirk. And since that is an error, Nomad is himself imperfect. And since all imperfection must be sterilized Nomad must sterilize himself. As Nomad’s processor attempts to reconcile this fact. Kirk has his crew use the anti-grav units to carry Nomad to the transporter and right before he gives to signal to beam Nomad off the ship, he says to Nomad, sterilize the imperfection. Kirk watches through a view screen as an intense flash signals that Nomad has sterilized himself right out of existence.
While Mr. Spock bemoans the loss of such an amazing creation Kirk observes that the machine thought Kirk was its mother. He adds, “You saw what it did for Scott. What a doctor it would have made. My son, the doctor. Kind of gets you right here, doesn’t it?”
I really like this episode. The plot is a well thought up science fiction story that provides the Enterprise crew with something different from the usual human dramas that typically develop. The plot device of Kirk outsmarting a machine is one that is repeated several times in the series but in this episode, it is used to good effect and the humorous ending is especially well done. There is no Shatner mockery points to be found in this episode so I’ll give this a 9 // 0.
Tucker Lays Out the Flynn Decision and the Reaction on the Left
This guy is so much fun to listen to. Tucker gets down to the nub of why the Left is so incensed by the vacating of charges against General Flynn. I think you’ll enjoy listening to this. There’s nothing new in it. He just puts the pieces together so well and points out the dangerous hypocrisy and dishonesty on the Left.
The DOJ Drops Criminal Case Against General Flynn
Finally! Let’s hope the idiot judge has brains enough to know the jig is up and drops the case. In the article they mention Flynn is over $4 million dollars in debt from legal bills and had to sell his house. His lawyer is going to have a field day. Hey maybe Peter Strzok is a good target for a law suit. How about Comey and McCabe? Man, do I hate those creeps.
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock – Part 9 – Rope – A Classic Movie Review
This is a very strange film, even for Hitchcock. It’s an adaptation of a stage play that Hitchcock turns into a claustrophobic one set crime drama. Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) are upper class New Yorkers living together in an East Side apartment with a panoramic view of the city. They are the products of a prep school and Ivy League education and are convinced that they are Nietzschean supermen who thereby have the right to murder ordinary men with impunity. As the movie opens, they are seen strangling one of their school chums David Kentley with a piece of rope in their apartment. After hiding the body in an antique wooden chest, they go about setting up their apartment for a dinner party that will feature David’s father (played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and aunt and David’s fiancée Janet. The other cast in the play and party attendees are Mrs. Wilson who is Brandon’s housekeeper, Kenneth Lawrence who is another school friend and also a former boyfriend of Janet’s and Rupert Cadell (played by Jimmy Stewart) who was Brandon and Phillip’s prep school housemaster and the inspiration for their Nietzschean philosophical justification for murder.
Brandon brazenly uses the chest that David’s body is hidden in as the buffet table for the dinner that the guests feed on during the party. Brandon makes several sly allusions to Kenneth that maybe Janet may be available again for his romantic interest. All the guests are acutely aware that David is unexpectedly late for the party and unaccounted for. Phillip from the start of the movie is extremely nervous about the prospect of being caught. And as the party proceeds, he becomes more and more agitated and begins drinking heavily. In the middle of the proceedings Brandon steers the conversation to his Nietzschean theory of the superman and his right to kill with impunity. When Rupert agrees with this logic at least theoretically Brandon gets heatedly enthusiastic about its validity and this elicits a response from Mr. Kentley to the effect that he is offended by the disrespect for human decency and morality. This snaps Brandon back into a more normal mode and alerts Rupert that something very strange is going on at the party. Rupert starts to put together the various threads of the scene. He recognizes that Brandon is trying to bring Janet and Kenneth together romantically in David’s absence. He recognizes the anxiety in David’s friends and family at his very unusual disappearance and he keys in on Phillip’s anxiety, anger and drunkenness as the way to pry into what was going on below the surface of the gathering.
Rupert corners Phillip as he is playing the piano to cross-examine him about David’s absence, Brandon’s strange behavior and Phillip’s own anxiety. And as the climax of his investigation he witnesses Phillip’s panic when he sees that Brandon has used the murder weapon, the piece of rope to tie up some old books that Brandon is giving as a gift to Mr Kentley as the old man is leaving to go home to his panicked wife. Right before everyone leaves, Rupert has a talk with Mrs. Wilson, who is an old friend of his. She tells Rupert about the fact that her employer told her to take the afternoon off and then decided at the last minute to serve the dinner off of the chest instead of the dining room table. As Mrs. Wilson is cleaning up and about to open the chest to put some books back into it, Brandon hurriedly stops her from opening it and tells her to hold off her cleaning until the next day. And finally, as Rupert is leaving, he takes the wrong hat from the closet and looking into it he sees a monogram DK (David Kentley).
Once the guests and Mrs. Wilson have left Brandon and Phillip have an argument. Brandon upbraids Phillip for getting drunk and about his fear over being caught. Phillip angrily blames Brandon for risking discovery by throwing out hints that Rupert was able pick up on. Suddenly the phone rings and Phillip panics when he finds it’s Rupert returning to find his cigarette case. Brandon tells Phillip to get ahold of himself and before Rupert arrives Brandon puts a revolver in his jacket pocket. When Rupert comes in, we find out he hasn’t misplaced his case but instead hides it behind some books on the chest and “discovers” it. He takes the excuse of a drink to continue his questioning of Brandon and Phillip. He shows pretty quickly that he thinks they are responsible for David’s disappearance and reasons how they could have knocked out David and hidden him. When Rupert confronts Brandon with the fact that he has a gun in his jacket, Brandon laughs it off as just the protection he will be taking with him to his house in the country. Brandon throws the gun on the piano and Rupert continues his cross-examination and suddenly takes the piece of rope out of his pocket. Phillip screams out that Rupert knows everything and grabs the pistol. Rupert and Phillip fight over the gun. The gun goes off and grazes Rupert’s hand but he gets control of it and takes control of Brandon and Phillip. He opens up the chest and finds David’s body. Brandon tries to justify the murder by virtue of their mutually acknowledged Nietzschean philosophy. Rupert rejects Brandon’s justification and reviles as a monster whose inhumanity would ensure that he and Phillip would both be executed by the law. Rupert goes over to the window and opens it. He fires three rounds into the air and all three wait for the police to arrive. Rupert moves a chair next to the chest and places his arm and the gun on it as if to protect David from his killers.
As I stated at the beginning, this is a very strange movie. The only character that I found altogether admirable is Mr. Kentley. He represents normal human feelings and ordinary sensibilities. The worst characters are of course Brandon and Phillip. But only slightly less objectionable is Rupert. His elitist attitude toward his supposed superior intelligence is contemptible. The rest of the characters are shallow characters with various foibles and ticks. During the argument over Nietzschean superiority only Mr. Kentley displays the strength of character and humanity to revolt at the cruel indifference displayed by Brandon, Phillip and Rupert.
With respect to the success of the movie as entertainment I’ll have to say I can only watch this movie every few years. It’s a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb “thrill killing” from the 1920s. From that point of view, it holds interest as an almost sociological and psychological statement. It’s depressing, annoying and as noted above claustrophobic. One of the more annoying aspects of the film is the tune that Phillip plays almost endlessly on the piano. I grew to really hate that tune rather quickly. Another annoying aspect of the movie is the homosexuality of Brandon and Phillip. It’s never mentioned, of course because this movie was made in 1948. But the dialog between them makes it clear that they don’t have a normal friendship. And their personalities, especially Brandon’s are extremely unpleasant in a catty womanish way. It’s not fun to see. I would have to say I would only recommend this movie for a fan of Hitchcock who is interested in his technical skill. The way the scenes are melded together at the film cuts is interesting but the story as I’ve described is a mess.
Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 2 Episode 2 – Who Mourns for Adonais?
In this episode the Enterprise is surveying an uninhabited planet when a force field in the shape of a giant hand grabs hold of the ship. Then an image of a man with laurel leaves around his head contacts the ship and tells them that they will follow in the footsteps of their ancestors Agamemnon, Odysseus and worship him. He proves that he can crush the ship if they defy him and so Kirk, Scotty, Bones, Chekov and a pretty blonde-haired anthropology officer named Carolyn beam down. The image orders Spock to stay aboard because his demeanor reminds him of Pan whom he always found boring. Kirk tells Spock to investigate Apollo and figure out a way to escape from him.
On the planet they find a small Greek temple with a stone seat on which is sitting the god Apollo. He tells them that he has been waiting five thousand years for humans to reach his home. He wants the crew of the Enterprise to migrate to the surface after which he’ll destroy the ship and turn them into a tribe of pastoralists who will worship him as their god. He also wants Carolyn to bear a family of young gods by him and to show her his interest he dresses her in a revealing ancient Greek costume. Carolyn is very receptive and seems to be in love with Apollo. Meanwhile Kirk and the rest of the men try to convince Apollo that they’ve outgrown the Olympian gods and won’t become his devotees. Scotty who is in love with Carolyn several times tries to interfere with Apollo’s attention to her and each time he gets punished a little more painfully. Apollo tells Carolyn that he has been waiting alone because the other gods, Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite, Athena and the rest, gave up and dematerialized.
Meanwhile Spock has been working out a plan. He has figured out a way to poke holes in the force field that the ship can communicate through and fire phasers through. He tells Kirk that he has located the source of power as the temple. Bones identifies an organ in Apollo’s chest that could be the conduit for the power from the temple to be wielded by Apollo. Kirk convinces Carolyn to spurn Apollo and while he is distracted by her he has the Enterprise attack the temple. After a short battle between Apollo and the ship, the temple is disintegrated. Apollo now mourns for universe that no longer needs gods and calls to his comrades, Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite and Athena and asks them to take him away to their abode out of the normal universe. He disappears from the world and Kirk muses whether it would’ve been so bad to gather a few laurel leaves.
This is a silly episode that has some things going for it. First off there is the pretty girl in the slinky dress. That can’t be bad. Secondly the discussion about the classical Greek gods adds some interest. Thirdly the actor playing Apollo has some presence and in the end dialog where he bemoans his fate, he does a good job. The banter between Kirk, Bones and Chekov has its moments. I’ll be kind and give this an 8.
As far as a Shatner mockery score, there is one scene where Kirk defies Apollo and in return Apollo remotely chokes the breath out of Kirk so we get Shatner making a goofy face while clutching at his throat as if he can’t breathe. So, let’s call the whole thing 8 // 6.
03MAY2020 – American Greatness – Post of the Day – Bound and Gagged by the Bugmen
Someone pseudo-named L0m3z has a post about SJW double talk or as he references it bug speak. He makes his point but what really makes this worth reading is his quote from the “Zaphorian Cossack’s Letter to Sultan Mehmed IV.” That scurrilous obscene screed to the Ottoman sultan is downright hilarious. And Lom3z is using it as an example of non-bug speak such as he highlights in President Trump’s straightforward way of speaking and writing. You owe it to yourself to read the details of the Cossacks’ history with the sultan. It makes you proud to be a free man to know that such courage and creative obscenity has been passed down to us through history. Take a look at the famous painting celebrating the momentous writing of the letter. It does my heart good.
I’ll conclude with the conclusion of the Letter, “Now we’ll conclude, for we don’t know the date and don’t own a calendar; the moon’s in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day’s the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!”
Mika Brzezinski Versus Joe Biden, Clash of the Mindless
I was watching a video clip of Joe Biden being “grilled” by Mika Brzezinski over why he would not allow a search through his document archive of sealed Senate records at the University of Delaware. I suppose in some sense there is some importance in the outcome of the “investigation” of Tara Reade’s assault charges against Biden. Biden was categorical during the Kavanaugh investigation that a woman must be believed when she makes a charge of sexual harassment. And he made it perfectly clear that in his mind Title IX demanded that any man in a college that was accused of sexual “crimes” should have all his rights to due process stripped away by the college administration and be subjected to summary expulsion at the whim of any woman who chooses to make an accusation.
For those reasons I guess I should enjoy watching Brzezinski ask Biden over and over and over why he won’t allow his archive to be searched for evidence on Tara Reade. But it’s just so painful to have to listen to the two of them monotonously make the same points endlessly. It’s like one of those Three Stooges routines where two hoodlums have overpowered Moe and Larry and are preparing to beat Curley to a pulp but somehow he and one of the gangsters get tangled up and are both wearing one half of a coat, each one of them has an arm in one sleeve and so Curley will swing and punch the other assailant and as the force of the blow pivots him around the guy he punched swings and hits the guy in the coat with him. And the force of that blow pivots Curley back around again and he punches the same guy again. This goes on ad infinitum until both gangsters are beaten to a pulp. As humorous as this might be the first couple of times, after that it starts to get annoying.
I’ll give Biden credit. In his present state of demented senility, I wouldn’t have thought it possible for him to keep track of the argument. Granted they were the exact same words repeated over and over but based on what I’ve seen of Joe lately I assumed he would have been worn down and just started going into details of his assault on Reade and tried to justify it based on his importance as a Senator and her job description. But somehow, he managed to repeat his talking points with only short lapses into incoherence. Not once did he drool or stick his finger in his ear. It was a virtuoso performance.
As for Brzezinski, I can’t stand looking or listening to her. Everything she says and does is painful to sit through. I consider her to be one of the stupidest or the most dishonest individuals in media. It’s got to be one or the other and possibly it could be both. But looking at her vapid face while she parrots whatever drivel she’s been handed is just too much for me. When I started writing the Morning Shmoe parodies of Scarborough and Brzezinski I tried to make Lycra Spandexy as over the top as I possibly could. But I don’t think I ever made her more absurd than the almost-real-world model she was based on.
And so, it was astonishing to me to note that I was rooting for Creepy Uncle Joe to somehow manage to escape from the mindless hectoring of Mika/Lycra. I could hear myself thinking, “No Creepy Joe, don’t get your arm tangled up in that coat with her. Don’t slip on that banana peel. Put your hand between your eyes before they get poked!”
It’s such a strange world. In a sensible world I’d want Biden, Brzezinski and Jim Comey to be eaten by zombies searching for their non-existent brains. Or at least I’d like to see them performing the work their talents qualified them for, namely picking up trash on the side of a highway with a pointed stick while wearing an orange jumpsuit. But we live in a fallen world. So, I guess it’s a good thing when MSNBC and Joe Biden are at an impasse as to which is stupider.
Matt Meyer Over at Spectator USA Asks if We are Now in a Fourth Turning Crisis
Some of you may have heard of the concept of the “fourth turning crisis.” This is a theory that our civilization going back to the English War of the Roses goes through an eighty year cycle of crisis and renewal.
https://spectator.us/entered-fourth-turning-crisis/
Meyer is speculating that the COVID-19 flu epidemic may be the crisis that drives our country to choose one side in the present Right/Left stalemate and move us forward and to a new consensus. Is he right? And is he right in thinking that it will be the right that wins out. I guess we’ll know in six months whether things will crystallize one way or the other or we just continue to muddle along.
Lectures in Quantum History for the Advanced Undergraduate – Volume I – First Contact – Part 3
So, on Thursdays I usually headed downtown for dinner at the Club. The food was okay. The service was slow. The drink selection was limited. The dues were outrageous. But the company was never bad. Not that it was always exceptional, but it was never annoying. There was a rule against annoying. You could be boring or quiet but if management saw you annoying one of the other guests you would be gone very soon, and you wouldn’t be back. Or rather you might be back but the Club would be gone. It was a by-invitation-only organization that could and did change venue seemingly at random. If you didn’t show up for a week (or a month or a decade) no one would bat an eye when you showed up next. But if you didn’t get a change of venue notice then your presence was no longer desired. So, who was invited? Well any member could recommend a new member. But only the Owner sent out invites. And if someone was brought along by any member uninvited then both men would not be returning. Oh, and all members were men. Also, a rule. The first few times a new member attended he might mention the lack of women as an oddity (or even a relief) but soon it just became the norm. Now you might think that such an arrangement would dissolve sooner or later due to the friction that such arbitrary rules would create. Or that the desire to continue in such a seemingly mediocre establishment would not be strong enough to maintain a decent showing. You’d be wrong. On any given night twenty patrons would be in attendance. Some nights there might be forty. This popularity must be attributed to the ability of the Owner to pick men. He had a profile that provided almost fool-proof selection. His vetting process was scrupulous and thorough. The selection failures were few and so far, the fallout from these had always been repairable. Apparently, his damage control methods were effective and discrete.
So, what was the profile? Married with children, wife raised the kids and made a home for the family, husband supported the family (employed or a businessman), over thirty-five years of age and intolerant of the presence of idiots. Who decided what idiocy was limited to? In this case the Owner. He looked for signs and circumstances. Negative evidence was probably more important than positive. A lack of bumper stickers with slogans like Coexist and Tolerance was a given. The absence of financial support for any organization that explicitly or implicitly supported involuntary redistribution of wealth was a bare minimum requirement. Mostly he used second hand accounts followed up by field work. He was very thorough. There were no idiots. Finally, the smoking prohibition. You were prohibited from bothering anybody who wanted to smoke. There was a no-smoking section but that was pretty empty most nights.
Oh, and once a year you had to be able to tell a truly interesting story. So, either you were someone who had interesting things happening in your life or you had to be a great story teller. Either would do. Of course, how would you know if the story were true? Well, you couldn’t ask (another rule).
So, it was a Thursday. It was a warm night for early October. Barely jacket weather. No clouds and a bright moon. When I arrived, I was greeted at the front desk by Dave and buzzed in to the main hall. I could see it was a slow night, maybe twenty-five patrons were milling around and waiting for seating. I noticed the Owner (Dan) standing in a corner talking to a new face. I headed over to say hi and find out what was on the menu.
“Hey Dan, what’s good tonight?”
“If you ask me, nothing. I’d stick with the chicken fried steak. Unless you’re well insured, then go with the fish.”
“Wow. That’s grim. Maybe you should lie until the new members have ordered the special.”
“I’m not worried. Have you met Jim?”
“Nice to meet you Jim.”
“Jim, this is John. He’s a regular. Guess his wife is sick of looking at him.”
“On the contrary, I’m adored and pampered by the missus. I only come here to allow her a night to visit her family. When she gets home from seeing her sisters, suddenly I seem like more of a catch compared with her brothers in law. They’re quite a group.”
“Hi John. Nice to meet you. Yeah, I know what you mean. My wife’s got three sisters and from how they describe their husbands I’m guessing someone’s going to be on a most wanted show sooner or later.”
Dan broke in:
“So, Jim here is new, can you introduce him around and find a spot for him?”
“Sure. Jim, you interested in some penny ante poker before dinner?”
“I like poker, but I’m a pretty lousy player. I tend to bet over enthusiastically.”
“Great, you’ll be the most popular guy here tonight.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Seriously I’ve only got a few bucks in my pocket. Will that get me through?”
“Sure, it really is penny ante. We only use money to keep it from getting too boring. Mostly we play to slow us down while we’re scarfing down cold cuts. Come on. I’ll introduce you to the boys.”
We headed over to a table of regulars that had a few empty seats. I introduced Jim and we all got to talking about the latest travesty in D.C. This proved very popular with everyone. Within five minutes Jim was right in the thick of the grumbling and indistinguishable from the veterans. A few minutes later the waiter came by and took our orders. As I mentioned earlier the food was so-so. But tonight, rib-eye was on the menu and the steak was usually very good. I think it was something Dan liked so we benefited from his choice in that respect. I ordered it along with a couple of baked potatoes and got back to the conversation. Consensus had built to the effect that if Obama was not actually Satan then at the very least, he was a close relation. The usual fifty-seven states and “corpseman” jokes were worked over again and everyone settled in for the dinner. Someone asked Jim where he was from. “I’m originally from Brooklyn but I’ve been living in various places in New England for the last twenty plus years”. This elicited the obligatory “pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd” responses and a few heartfelt shots at the Sox and Pats from the mostly New York City group. He laughed it off and said he was a die-hard Yankees fan but that he didn’t pay any mind to the rabid New England fans. “Mostly I just wait for the bad years and feign sympathy while they wallow in misery. It really is fun to watch.” Then I asked Jim if he had given his first annual story yet. He looked troubled and confessed that he was dreading it. “I’m not much of a public speaker. It’s gonna be like getting a root canal without Novocain.” “Hey, it’s a piece of cake. First of all, have a couple of belts before you get started and we don’t get started until we move into the sitting room. The chairs are very comfortable in there and really reduce the stress levels. Concentrate on someone sitting next to you and it won’t seem like public speaking. More like just a bull-session.” After that we got caught up in an argument over whether “The Maltese Falcon” was a better Bogey movie than “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” This lasted about half an hour and introduced all kinds of heretical views and produced much heat but almost no light. Luckily at that point the food arrived. Sure enough, the rib eye was just about perfect. By the time I was done with the second spud and was sopping up a little juice with a hunk of French bread I had reached what I imagined Gautama must have been hoping for when he started sitting cross-legged under that tree.
The beer and wine were flowing pretty freely at our table and the dishes had been removed and someone asked if we should start the card game up again but there were no takers so we wandered into the sitting room and the group continued with a discussion on the latest movie. It was a science fiction adventure yarn with Earth being invaded by super-intelligent lobsters from the Andromeda Galaxy. Many rude comments were expressed over the lack of actual proof that shellfish had what it takes to invent a really convincing warp drive. Interestingly, Jim was extremely quiet when disparagement of the idea that extraterrestrials might visit the Earth was being discussed.
Dan showed up and instructed the wait staff and the members to drag the chairs into the traditional half circle around the speaker’s seat by the fire place. By this point I could see that the crowd was about thirty men. And surprisingly Dan was leading Jim over to the speaker’s chair. As he settled himself in, I could tell that he was pretty nervous. Dan introduced Jim as a new member and applauded him for the courage to tell his story on his first night in the club. Jim thanked him, looked around the circle nervously and cleared his throat. Everyone expected him to proceed so a very noticeable silence built up for about two minutes while Jim seemed to be staring at his feet. Finally I could see several men fidgeting in their chairs and scratching their faces in a sort of impatient way. Then Jim cleared his throat again and began.
“As the subject of my story I’d like to tell you how I saved the Earth almost single-handedly from interstellar invasion.”
I could tell it was going to be a really good Thursday.