Check out this CNN.com poll I found recently. 40 Years on and this is how America perceives the greatest achievement of mankind. I really couldn’t believe this when I saw it. (CNN also ran an article on the persistence of the hoax moon landing conspiracy.)
14%? REALLY? More than one out of eight people?
If there really is a moon landing conspiracy and thousands of people are in on it as well as some of our nations most bloated bureaucracies, you really believe that Buzz Aldrin punched that guy in the face (see CNN clip below at the 2:45 mark) for nothing then by the transitive property one must also believe that NASA is could be so very clever that they actually flew a couple guys up there to plant some evidence and brought them home.
Ever wondered what would have happened if they didn’t make it home? The Smoking Gun is there.
Snopes has the skinny on this footage, but I added it for good measure.
1920 Asheville Parade on Patton Ave.
I was really excited to find this photo on Shorpy, one of my favorite blogs. (Shorpy is a GREAT blog — I even got my grandparents to read it, and now they check it everyday.) What’s really neat is that my office downtown is almost right here. If the soldiers marched another 1/2 block down Patton from where I believe they were photographed, they would pass next to Pritchard Park and below my window. Were I alive then, would I be in the crowd, hanging from the windows, or maybe in the uniform? Where would you be?
Thanks to the recently enabled Google Street View of Asheville, I think I can pinpoint where the photographer was. Check out what I have and offer your own opinion.
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“Greatness is never given. It must be earned.” — Barack Obama
As some one who has had the occasion to do a lot of public speaking, I pay particular attention to speeches, speakers and general speechmaking of any sort whether it be impromptu, theatrical, extemperaneous or formal. The time for great formal speeches and statesmanship seemed to be in the past until the admittedly astounding rise of Barack Obama, and it is good to see such renewed interest in speeches from the Joe Six-Pack crowd. Yesterday, in the midst of a national moment of celebreation and rejoicing, we heard freshly sworn-in President Barack Obama’s first speech to the nation he now leads. More than just the typical quadrennial refreshing of executive authority and dusting off of pomp and circumstance, this event was widely anticipated to be a unifying touchstone and a lamplighting of historic proportion.
And it was.
Ok, yeah but how was the speech?
Occasionally life comes at you all at once, and sometimes it comes at you in bite size pieces that you really can digest. It’s the difference between consuming a cow and eating a hamburger. Lately, my life has tended toward the hamburger end of the spectrum, with an occasional Porterhouse (incidentally, my favorite cut of steak) thrown into the mix when my attention span is extra long.
Having life cut down to manageable bits has led to changes. I’ve cut back on my Dionysian tendencies and re-engaged my Apollonian to beneficial effect in life, mind and body; I’ve returned to reading and hopefully soon to writing; I’ve come up with several creative ideas (including an opera based on the Dutch East India Company and a William Golding/The Office parody called ‘Lord of the Files’ involving an office child care gone horribly wrong); and I’ve had trouble sleeping, because my mind does not like to go to rest and I’ve been working long hours.
The Hogarth oil painting to the right (I plan to do analysis of it here soon) is of my new hero, a man who made a fascinating combination of the Apollonian and Dionysian in himself: Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hellfire Club. Is anyone interested in opening a chapter?
Western culture prefers to simplify things into two opposing camps, black and white/red or blue/liberal or conservative/left or right. American politics have long been divided into two major parties, and I find this to be one of the most indicative signs of the trend I mentioned above. As an exercise with that thought in mind, I ask my readers, meager handful as they may be, to discuss one of these two topics.
Please do your best to prove either (or both):
- How American Liberalism is essentially REgressive.
- How American Conservatism is essentially PROgressive.
What I’m looking for is the historical view looking back, and the outlooks looking forward. As an analogous perspsective, consider Disraeli and Gladstone how the philosophies they embodied served Britain for good or bad. To keep people on the same page, please discuss the overall (macro) view and then choose one or two (micro) points to exemplify.
I consider these points to be counter-factual in reality, but that is my opinion. Even if I get no responses, you must realize that I plan on being a history professor. I think it is a natural fit for me.
