If you would like to add a comment to any of the threads here on AADB, registration with blogspot.com is not required. Simply click on the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of an essay, and either enter a nickname under ‘choose an identity’ or post your comment anonymously. Serious comments are always welcome.



REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

3/03/2007

On Courage and Humility ...


I work as an elected official in my township. Right now I am sitting in my office in the municipal building preparing to go home after a brief morning’s work.

This morning I met with an elderly man who grew up in Boston, moved to Brooklyn, where he spent most of his adult life, and then moved out here to rural Pennsylvania when he retired about twenty years ago.

Tony comes in to see me generally once a year, and we usually wind up talking for a half hour or so … and then he leaves my office until the next late winter/early spring rolls around.

I’ve always considered Tony to be an intelligent, pleasant older man, who is somewhat lonely after having lost his wife quite a few years ago. And I’ve always enjoyed our yearly conversations, focusing on somewhat superficial subjects, from the difference between city and country life to the general state of the world.

Today when Tony came into my office I couldn’t help but notice that his Parkinson’s disease has progressed significantly since his visit of last March, his gait is more deliberate and slow, the wrinkles on his face are much more pronounced, there’s a lot more gravel in his voice, and I have to speak much louder in order for him to hear me. Tony will be eighty-four next month.

As he sat down in the chair by my desk, he took the cap off his head and placed it on the nearby counter. When he did so, my eye caught the inscription on the face of it: ‘Battle of Iwo Jima, Feb-Mar 1945’. I asked, pointing to the cap, ‘Were you there?’

It turns out that Tony was indeed there. And, in the ten or twelve years that the two of us have been talking about the weather, he had never thought it appropriate to tell me that.

It seems that Tony’s nephew gave him the cap this past Christmas. At first he was hesitant to wear it, feeling that being a part of that invasion is something one doesn’t go around advertising. It was a duty thing, not a pat-on-the-back thing.

I asked him whether many people comment on the cap, and he said that just earlier this week he was in a local diner picking up pastries for his grandchildren, as he does every Sunday morning, when a man, who was standing at the counter to pay for his breakfast, saw the cap and asked whether Tony had actually been a part of the invasion. When Tony responded in the affirmative, the man insisted on paying for Tony’s pastries. (Tony told me, with a sheepish grin, that, had he known that, he would have bought a dozen more. :)

It seems that Tony’s Marine unit (the 5th Marine Division) left Hawaii in late November of ‘44, rendezvoused with two other Marine divisions (the 3rd and 4th) on Ulithi, and landed on Iwo Jima on February 19th. Tony’s division, and the other two, measured twenty thousand strong, and suffered fifty percent casualties in the invasion. He was there until March 16th, at which time the island was still not secure, but the Army came in and took over operations.

At that point, Tony’s division was sent on to Waikiki for a week’s leave. In August, he served six month’s occupation duty in Nagasaki after the dropping of the bomb and the Japanese surrender, and the following March he was discharged.

I asked him what memory is most striking of his Iwo Jima experience, and he said, humbly and apologetically, that he cannot bring himself to talk about many of the specifics, but, after appearing to attempt to extract something from the long-ignored corners of his mind so as to satisfy my curiosity, he said that he wanted me to know that the island had no real buildings on it, other than those that were part of the air strip. There were no surface installations, simply an elaborate labyrinth of miles and miles of underground caves and tunnels and enormous subterranean chambers, so ferreting out the enemy was much more difficult than it would have been if they had not been thus hidden and fortified.

As he was getting ready to leave, I stood and shook Tony’s hand and thanked him for what he did for me those sixty years ago. At which point, without apparent stimulus from any source other than the fact that we were saying good bye and that I was genuinely grateful for his courage and sense of duty, both of us simultaneously began to well up with tears. Tony sat back down, clearly embarrassed by his small display of emotion, and the two of us sat here in complete silence for a minute or two, with my hand on top of his. Words didn’t seem appropriate. Then, just as spontaneously as the tears came, we both knew that it was time to get on with our day. We shook hands again, promised to talk again next year, and he walked slowly out the door.

66 comments:

Anonymous said...

God bless the Tony's of this world.

Anonymous said...

***There were no surface installations, simply an elaborate labyrinth of miles and miles of underground caves and tunnels and enormous subterranean chambers, so ferreting out the enemy was much more difficult than it would have been if they had not been thus hidden and fortified.***

I didn't know that. Thanks for the moving post.

Anonymous said...

Clint Eastwood has a new movie out on the war in the Pacific reeking with sympathy for the Japanese point of view.

Clint knows well that that's the way to get Hollywood awards and 'honors'.

No mention in Clint's movie of how the Japanese slaughtered, raped, and beheaded the Chinese, the Philipinos, etc

Maybe lefty Clint will put out his next movie sympathetic to the Nazi point of view.

Anonymous said...

"There were no surface installations, simply an elaborate labyrinth of miles and miles of underground caves and tunnels and enormous subterranean chambers, so ferreting out the enemy was much more difficult than it would have been if they had not been thus hidden and fortified."

Flamethrowers worked well for that.

Also pouring gasoline in and then lighting it up.

Anonymous said...

Joanie--

I stopped by the thrift store in Brevard, NC to look for some cereal bowls a few months ago. I didn't find any, but picked up a couple of classical cassette tapes for 50 cents each.

When I took them to the checkout counter, the (volunteer) cashier was an old geezer wearing an F-86 hat and an 8th AF pin, so I queried him about it.

Turned out he was a double-ace in the 56th Fighter Group in WWII and flew P-47s under Gabby Gabreski. Also flew in Korea, and Viet Nam. I shook his hand and thanked him. For the life of me I can't remember his name.

I really need to go back there with my camera and get his story.
~~~~~~
I posted the above on an aviation forum and got this reply:
~~~~~~
"You are describing (WWII Captain) Robert James "Shorty" Rankin. He had ten (10) kills in the ETO flying with the 56th Fighter Group - 61st Fighter Squaron, under Lt. Col "Gabby" Gabreski, CO 61st FS.

"Shorty" Rankin (as a 1Lt) shot down five (5) Bf 109s northwest of Nienburg to just northwest of Marzburg just after Noon (German Time) on 12 May 1944. He did this in less than 20-minutes of combat (exposure) time. In this combat he was flying P-47D HV-M.

He went on to Korea flying F-86s --- but no kills.

He flew briefly in the Viet Nam War -- but no kills.

Anonymous said...

I live in an area fairly near some military bases.

Sometime in about the last month I was coming out the door of a local gas station after reclaiming
my fifty cents left over from the $20 dollars I had paid for gas and a skinny young guy probably half my age in an army uniform held the door open for me on his way in.

To my eyes he looked like a kid, although fairly tough looking, about 17-18 years old.

When he went to the counter for some reason I stopped in the doorway and then I walked back up and said "How much you getting?" He said, "What?" I said, "How much gas you getting?"
He looked at me very closely and warily for a couple moments and then said "About 15 dollars. Why?"

I said, "You're not paying for that. I am."

The kid took a moment to understand, and then put his dollar bills back in his pocket and walked back out to his car.

I am far from being made out of money and I am glad he did not say 30 dollars,
but the look on his face when I came out and drove away was worth more than $15.

He knows at least one person, even a complete stranger, is with him.

Kids like that deserve better than Grover Norquist, the arabic US State Department, John Murtha, and the scum in US academia,

Anonymous said...

Joanie, John and Al--What a beautiful post and comments! Thank you all SO much!

Anonymous said...

Good column and responses.

Joanie, this ought to make your day too:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/3/1/115442.shtml?s=ic

Anonymous said...

Your title and your story nail the two most unique characteristics of the "Greatest Generation"---courage and humility. God bless Tony.

Anonymous said...

Thank God for men like Tony and Shorty Rankin and the young soldier at the gas station. Without them, freedom would be even more in jeopardy than it already is.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful story, thank you.

joanie said...

Some excellent and moving comments here by posters who obviously comprehend the sacrifices that have been, and continue to be, made in behalf of us all.

It sickens me that there are many loud voices in government, media, and academia that would have us return to the malaise and malevolence of 1968 – painting the most courageous and duty-bound among us as undeserving of our gratitude, at best – and misguided imbeciles, at worst. We cannot afford a Vietnam II, and yet the most vocal and influential among us are striving to achieve just that.

John, I hope you are someday able to revisit Capt. Rankin. What an honor it would be to interview him and hear firsthand some of his memories of all three wars! If he is anything like most of his fellow WWII veterans, his story will be overflowing with what you and I would consider genuine heroism, but what he most likely considers the kind of thing anyone would do, if put in the same circumstances. That’s the surest sign of genuine humility: the belief that we’re all capable of, and equally willing to perform, acts of heroism. That isn’t the case, but true heroes always believe it to be so.

If you do speak with him again, you must consider posting his recollections here! (with his permission, of course)

Anonymous said...

Here's some more information on Tony's 5th Marine Division (God bless him!):

On 19 February 1945, the Fifth assaulted the island of Iwo Jima with other elements of the Vth Marine Amphibious Corps. Exposed to the full fury of the enemy's defenses, Marines clawed their way forward a yard at a time. Across Motoyama Airfield #1, up Mount Suribachi, and then into the badlands of the Motoyama Plateau, the Fifth fought and died. But, it never stopped.

Foot by foot, day by day, Marines pushed forward until the last Japanese pocket was crushed on 25 March 1945. On 27 March 1945, the last Marines of the division sailed from Iwo Jima. The had earned their nickname–"The Spearhead." As their transports pulled away from the bloody island, few of them looked back.

RECONSTITUTION

Returning to Camp Tarawa, the Fifth started an extensive liberty program called, "Operation SHAKE-DOWN." Marines could take in Hollywood USO shows, and movies. They went to Hilo on liberty, and sometimes even Honolulu. Thousands of new replacements reported aboard to fill the division's depleted ranks. Combat reports were completed, new equipment of every type arrived, and the old cycle of combat training began again. Detailed planning and maneuvers started for the largest objective ever–the Invasion of Japan.

Then, in early August 1945 scuttlebutt flew across Camp Tarawa like wildfire–the Army Air Force had dropped a giant new bomb that could destroy an entire city. The Fifth sweated out the rumors, which were confirmed a few days later. On 14 August 1945, the Japanese government surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

OCCUPATION DUTY

Marines hoped they would soon return home, but this was almost immediately squelched when the Fifth learned it was to participate in the Occupation of Japan. In only twelve days, the division completed all preparations for combat embarkation. On 27 August, the Fifth loaded on transports and sailed for Japan.

Arriving on 22 September 1945, the Fifth executed a combat assault near the Japanese naval base at Sasebo. The landings went off without a hitch and the City of Sasebo was soon in Marine hands. Soon, the Fifth spread out across the island of Kyushu and beyond.
As part of the occupation force, the division enforced surrender terms. Tens of thousands of Japanese military personnel had to be demobilized and their weapons destroyed. In the zone of occupation, the Marines became the government for one of the most densely populated areas in Asia. The became the police, the grocery store and provided services of every kind to the population of their former enemies.

http://www.ww2gyrene.org/spotlight5_5thmardiv.htm

Anonymous said...

http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/spring03/photographers/clay/Seminar/Robert%20Capa/CapaDDayTroop.htm

© Robert Capa

U.S. Soldier running for Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day - June 6th, 1944.

This image is a one of the 108 pictures that Capa captured as he accompanied the very first wave of soldiers to be released onto Omaha Beach.

Almost all the photos were destroyed by an overexcited photo technician back in England.

Anonymous said...

http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/spring03/photographers/clay/Seminar/Robert%20Capa/CapaDDayTroopsBarrier.htm

© Robert Capa

June 6th, 1944.

U.S. Troops take cover behind a barrier on Omaha Beach in Normandy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/spring03/photographers/clay/Seminar/Robert%20Capa/CapaDDay.htm

One of the most famous images that Capa took on D-Day - June 6th, 1944.

Anonymous said...

http://www.skylighters.org/photos/photo1.jpg

One more Robert Capa photo of the very first wave of US troops heading for Omaha Beach on D Day

Anonymous said...

Wonderful photos, Al. Thanks for posting them.

Here's my favorite one of D-Day---

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/d00001/d02343.jpg

Anonymous said...

Cw, did you see Newt debate Mario Cuomo at Cooper Union? He wiped the floor with him.

Anonymous said...

THE hunter has become the hunted. Michael Moore, the celebrated left-wing film-maker, has become the unwilling subject of a new documentary that raises damaging questions about the credibility of his work.

From the London TIMES March 04, 2007
by Tony Allen-Mills

Tables turned on Fahrenheit 9/11’s maker

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1466668.ece

Luis said...

I appreciate this moving post.

Your title says it all....

Anonymous said...

Beautifully done.

Beautifully written.

Anonymous said...

good Pitures al my brother Slim is in irak he write to us he call us once we all talked to him his name is Nate really I call him Nate

Darius

Anonymous said...

Joanie you have a way of noticing things that the rest of us would pass by, and taking away ideas from ordinary situations that the rest of us wouldn't even think about. This latest column is a good example of that. Thank you for writing it. You made me think a lot about the way I will treat vets from now on.

Anonymous said...

Darius, give Nate our best wishes and thanks!

Anonymous said...

Global Warming Breaking Out all over

Strongest Snowstorm in half century Buries China


http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=307881&type=National

2007-3-5

CANADA
February was coldest in 28 years


http://www.thestar.com/article/188324

Mar 05, 2007



Record Low Temps In New York City...

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=10001#REC

March 06, 2007

Anonymous said...

Joanie you have a way of noticing things that the rest of us would pass by, and taking away ideas from ordinary situations that the rest of us wouldn't even think about.

Very true.

Anonymous said...

The Tony's of 2007 are now in Iraq and Afghanistan and our government is working against them. That's one thing Tony didn't have to deal with.

Anonymous said...

"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue" --- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

joanie said...

Thanks, all, for the kind comments on this thread.

It was an honor to speak with Tony about his Iwo Jima experiences, and I hope to be able to enjoy conversations with him for many years to come.

joanie said...

All (re:global warming):

What is most sickening, and discouraging, about the global warming hoax is the fact that we can cite countless pieces of evidence against it, and countless respected (as opposed to the ‘expert’ proponents of the theory) scientists from all over the globe who refute it, but, in the end, it is the media who hold all the cards.

The citizenry just isn’t going to do its homework on this issue. It’s simply too complex for the mind of the average American to want to spend the time researching (after all, American Idol is on three times a week these days). So swallowing whole the media swill is the next best alternative.

I have handed out to probably three dozen people over the past few years copies of James Inhofe’s (R-OK) speech delivered on the senate floor on July 28, 2003 (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/climate.htm). They are all good people who have the wrong impression about global warming, and all of them expressed an interest in knowing the truth, once I attempted to refute the theory.

At the time he delivered the speech, Inhofe (one of the few genuine ‘public servants’ still residing in Washington) was serving as Chairman of EPW, and his speech represents one of the most well-documented pieces of research I have ever come across of the fact that global warming is nothing more than a politically-motivated elitist hoax.

I don’t believe that one of those thirty-plus people to whom I provided copies has bothered to read it. It takes probably forty-five minutes to an hour to read, and requires undivided attention in order to take in all of the incredible anti-warming evidence that it contains. Too much trouble.

The Bush administration (with which I have grave misgivings at this point, admittedly) could manage to capture, try and execute Osama bin Laden, and the American media, with more than a year and a half until the election, would succeed in convincing the American public that that accomplishment pales in comparison to the fact that this administration is corrupt to the core, as evidenced by the results of the Scooter Libby witch hunt.

The decisions made by the American electorate are primarily dictated by an unelected, unaccountable effete corps of (leftist-agenda-driven) impudent snobs (R.I.P, Spiro Agnew).

~ joanie

Anonymous said...

"The Bush administration (with which I have grave misgivings at this point, admittedly) could manage to capture, try and execute Osama bin Laden, and the American media, with more than a year and a half until the election, would succeed in convincing the American public that that accomplishment pales in comparison to the fact that this administration is corrupt to the core, as evidenced by the results of the Scooter Libby witch hunt."

Bingo!

Anonymous said...

Inhofe is one of the few in the Senate that I trust, half a dozen at the most. I'll be printing his speech off.

Anonymous said...

If you think global warming is a hoax and Spiro Agnew is a hero you're certifiable.

Anonymous said...

Following the "scientific method," a theory is expounded, experimentation and discovery occurs to prove the theory valid.
If the theory is proven and can be repeated by others, its becomes scientific "fact."

It is incumbent on the environmental whackos to provide real empirical scientific facts to prove man made global warming.

It is not incumbent on the rest of us to prove it doesn’t exist.

Anonymous said...

http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/070304/ramirez.jpg

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/gm070228.jpg

Anonymous said...

From an article titled “Iwo Jima Hero Hurls Grenades at Shameful Pols”

An Iwo Jima vet was asked what he would do to politicians he believes are trying to fracture our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His response?

"I would round up those politicians, put them in a camp in Alaska, and - with lots of rules - tell our guys, 'Do what you have to do to clean them up.' "

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02202007/news/columnists/iwo_jima_hero_hurls_grenades_at_shameful_pols_columnists_steve_dunleavy.htm

Anonymous said...

The Bush administration (with which I have grave misgivings at this point, admittedly) could manage to capture, try and execute "Osama bin Laden, and the American media, with more than a year and a half until the election, would succeed in convincing the American public that that accomplishment pales in comparison to the fact that this administration is corrupt to the core, as evidenced by the results of the Scooter Libby witch hunt.

Didn't you know that Bush is responsible for all the bad things that happen in this country? I filed suit against him today because my Wheeties went mushy in my milk this morning.

Anonymous said...

Cw-patriot, pay attention to any articles you read that refute global warming. They're all labeled "controversial," and they're only controversial because people who don't believe in global warming don't help the spread of world-wide socialism, like the man-made warming does. Anything that doesn't help the spread of socialism is "controversial," and anything that does is "fact."

Anonymous said...

Hey "anonymous", you're certifiable if you believe Al Gore's lies and that Agnew committed more crimes than the average D.C. politician. Find a board where your liberal sheep views are agreed with or at least respected.

Anonymous said...

Iwo memory.

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/15493.gif

Anonymous said...

I saw two ladies interviewed on Fox this morning who had their children killed by drunk driving illegal immigrants.

They tried to introduce a bill last year, and it failed to even get to the floor. So they are trying again this year.

The bill would make it automatically mandatory to deport an illegal alien convicted of DUI.

What's wrong with this picture?????

(An the lady who was interviewing them said, "Don't you think that's a little harsh if it's their first offense?")

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Here’s a funny excerpt from an article is last week’s National Review by Rob Long (Larrry King is interviewing Hillary Clinton):

Larry: We’re forgetting about Tom Vilsack of Iowa.

Hillary: Oh, I know, Larry. And what a tragedy, really. Such a magnificent leader. The country mourns his loss. My heart goes out to his family.

Larry: Wait. I’m lost. He’s dead?

Hillary: Yes, Larry. In a terrible freak car accident. Didn’t you hear?

Larry: No. News to me.

Hillary: Wait a sec. What day is it today? Is it Tuesday?

Larry: It’s Monday, Senator.

Hillary: Oh. Oh. Then never mind.

Anonymous said...

Lori

"Don't you think that's a little harsh if it's their first offense?"

A little harsh huh?

The insanity of the left wing.

Anonymous said...

Joanie, I just voted "80%" in your March Poll, not because I believe it but because those top three numbers looked so pathetic with no votes. I couldn't bring myself to vote for "100%" though, that would have made me choke. {G}

Anonymous said...

"I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we someday become communists."

-Actor, Martin Sheen

http://www.changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm

Anonymous said...

“Every time I cross this border (Canada) I feel like I’ve left the land of lunatics. You are not armed and dangerous. You do not shoot each other. I always feel a bit more human when I come here.”

-Martin Sheen

http://www.changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm

Anonymous said...

"The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don't have any hope for a better life...I think they (the 19 hijackers) were brave at the very least."

-CNN founder Ted Turner

http://www.changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm

Anonymous said...

''The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.'' - Michael Moore

http://www.changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm

Anonymous said...

"I think at core [Clinton's] an honest person. I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things." -

Dan Rather

Anonymous said...

"I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies."

-Benjamin Spock, 1988

Anonymous said...

"If you do own a gun I think you should go to prison."

-Jane Fonda

Anonymous said...

"The trailer shows this as an anti-holiday film and it could be the much-needed antidote to that good-will-to-man feeling that permeates the season."

- George M. Thomas, Beacon Journal movie critic, on 'Bad Santa'

Anonymous said...

"The schools cannot allow parents to influence the kind of values-education their children receive in school; that is what is wrong with those who say there is a universal system of values. Our (humanistic) goals are incompatible with theirs. We must change their values."

--Paul Haubner, specialist for the N.E.A. (National Education Association)

Anonymous said...

"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our Founding Fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It's up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well - by creating the international child of the future."

-Professor Chester M. Pierce, M.D., Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard

Anonymous said...

Sandy, you're wasting paper with one quote on each sheet. Try to consolidate. :>)

(Great quotes, BTW.)

Anonymous said...

"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our Founding Fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It's up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well - by creating the international child of the future."

-Professor Chester M. Pierce, M.D., Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard

The quinessential example of the elitist point of view. Bastards all.

Anonymous said...

This is a great political website. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

It is a shame we are losing too many of the greatest generation each day.

Anonymous said...

Sandra,

DID YOU KNOW

that Martin Sheen, who, as you pointed out, said this:

"I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we someday become communists."

played the part of Robert E Lee, of all people, in a movie on the Civil War?

I wouldn't expose myself to such tripe, but I am sure the movie audiences were thrilled with commie Sheen's performance as Robert E Lee.

Thanks for the SICK, SICK quotes from the 'Americans' you quoted.

Ted Turner, Harvard psychiatrists, Jane Fonda, Dr Spock, Dan Rather, Michael Moore etc.

All great 'Americans,' according to the press.

Maybe in future Hollywood productions Ted Turner could play George Washington

Jane Fonda could play Betsey Ross,

Dr Spock could play Paul Revere

Michael Moore could play Nathan Hale

and Dan Rather could play you fill it in.

Anonymous said...

TV Executives Puzzled By Dismal Ratings for 'Save the Planet' Climate Special

"Truthfully, we're confused," says Ten's network head of programming, Beverley McGarvey. "They didn't come. It's not like they came to the show, sampled it and went away. They didn't come.

"We had study guides in schools, we had the full support of the print media, both editorially and with advertising, and an extensive [Ten Network] on-air campaign with a number of different creative treatments and different stances.

"We spent a fortune to get the audience there and it didn't work. We've talked about it quite a lot internally. We're disappointed."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/audience-cool-on-global-warming-special/2007/03/07/1173166799115.html?page=fullpage#

Anonymous said...

Czech Pres: Environmentalism is a religion

March 9, 2007

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/czech_pres_environmentalism_is_a_religion/20070309-060020-3030r/

WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Environmentalism is a religion that is based more on political ambitions than science, the president of the Czech Republic warned Friday.

Speaking at the Cato Institute, a public policy think-tank, President Vaclav Klaus said that environmentalists who clamor for policy change to combat global warming "only pretend" to be promoting environmental protection, and are actually being driven by a political agenda.


"Environmentalism should belong in the social sciences," much like the idea of communism or other "-isms" such as feminism, Klaus said, adding that

"environmentalism is a religion" that seeks to reorganize the world order as well as social behavior and value systems worldwide.

As for government spending on global warming studies, the former finance minister and of the Eastern European nation and trained economist said that such efforts were a "waste of money," adding that there was already sufficient scientific evidence for those seeking policy change to back up their proposals.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that those seeking to protect the environment could do a great deal under the existing political framework and with existing technologies, such as importing less goods from far-flung regions that require enormous jet fuel use.

Klaus concluded Friday his week-long tour of the United States, having met with a number of senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

Luis said...

If you haven't already seen it, you may be interested in this documentary we had on TV in the UK this week. Channel 4's "The Great Global Warming Swindle".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9005566792811497638&q=The+Great+Global+Warming+Swindle&hl=en

Anonymous said...

TIME Magazine's BLATANT SALES PITCH for Merck's Gardasil

Here is an example of the 'news' media acting as an agent for a drug company:

"Saying Yes to the HPV Vaccine"


Friday, Mar. 09, 2007 By CLAUDIA WALLIS

Claudia Wallis is the founding editor of Time [magazine] For Kids.
She oversaw the creation of three separate editions, each focused on a different age group.
Ms. Wallis has written more than 20 cover stories for TIME. Among them: "Pills for the Mind" (1992), "Attention Deficit Disorder" (1994)


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1597467,00.html

When I told my 13-year-old daughter Alice I was taking her to get a vaccine that could help prevent cancer, she was mildly intrigued. "Cool," she allowed, "but I hate shots." Luckily, she didn't put up much resistance, and so we plunged into the heart of the most heated public-health matter of the moment: vaccinating tweenage girls against a sexually transmitted virus long before (one hopes!) they become sexually active.
For me, the decision to take her wasn't difficult. Gardasil, which was approved by the FDA last June, protects against four strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). Two are believed to cause 70% of cervical cancer, which strikes about 11,000 U.S. women a year. The other two strains cause 90% of genital warts--so the vaccine is a twofer.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended Gardasil for girls at age 11 or 12, though it may be given any time from ages 9 through 26. The idea is to deliver protection before or not long after their "sexual debut." About 40% of girls become infected with HPV within two years of becoming sexually active. By age 50, 80% of women have had the virus at some point, though many have no symptoms, and only a small percentage of infections lead to cancer.
My pediatrician's office has been doing a brisk business in Gardasil, but a lot of parents are deeply uncomfortable with it. Texas Governor Rick Perry found that out last month when he tried to make the vaccine mandatory for girls entering sixth grade, an idea that many Texans felt contradicted the state's abstinence-only message in sex education. Since then, Merck, which makes Gardasil, has stopped lobbying states to require the vaccine for school. No other vaccine mandated for school targets a microbe that is spread mainly through sex.
To me, protecting my child from cancer outweighs any reluctance to ponder her sexual future. "But some parents are totally in denial," says my longtime pediatrician, Dr. Marc Wager of New Rochelle, N.Y. It's his practice to discuss the vaccine when parents bring a daughter for a checkup at 11 or 12. But he doesn't force it on those who resist, and he's willing to edit his discussion of HPV transmission for those who don't want a child to hear it.
Alice managed to tolerate our brief discussion of HPV without rolling her eyes. While explaining, Wager slipped in the needle--an old distraction trick that worked. "I didn't really feel it," said Alice.
"You were brave," said Wager. "Most girls say it stings more than most shots."

etc etc etc

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HERE is a quote from a Claudia Wallis TIME Magazine article on the US education system:

"Kids are global citizens now, whether they know it or not, and they need to behave that way."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1568429,00.html

Luis said...

http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/03/al-gore-to-address-shadow-cabinet.html#links

Back to "global warming" briefly. The political hegemony on the subject is illustrated by the fact that Al Gore is due to address the shadow cabinet of the British Conservative Party this week.

If our polls are to be believed Conservative leader David Cameron will be the next elected Prime Minister of Britain. Al Gore is one American ally we could probably manage without :-)

Anonymous said...

Al Gore is pretty bright guy:

he got a D and C in the two science courses he took in college.