Author: Papa Giorgio

A Simple Question and an Apologetic Response

Published by Papa Giorgio

A dear friend when I sent this pic to a group responded (mostly joking… but maybe as a defensive shield for a way of protecting his own beliefs?) in a way that allowed me – from my DRACONUM PERCH — to opine. Noting the title of the book, he said: “Is it?”

To which I texted back to the group:

QUOTE

It is a play off a 1966 Time magazine title, “God Is Dead.” Since then, the complexity of the simplest cell, DNA, the Big Bang, and the like, as well as conversions of well known atheist philosophers (Sartre, Camus, and Flew), and even the mainstream evolutionary field abandoning Natural Selection, have all but shown atheism to be dead. At least if you read, discuss important subjects (religion and politics), read history, and the like. Which is why my site is called “Religio-Political Talk.” For instance, the Big Bang is called that because the majority of atheists rejected it. Why? Because a beginning of the universe was a theistic position. And so, astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle used “big bang” in a derogatory sense, but the name stuck. And so from 1911 to this day, science has shown that Genesis aligns well with science. For instance, as one example:

  • “Certainly there was something that set it all off. Certainly, if you are religious, I can’t think of a better theory of the origin of the universe to match with Genesis.” ~ Robert Wilson: is an American astronomer, 1978 Nobel laureate in physics, who with Arno Allan Penzias discovered in 1964 the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)…. While working on a new type of antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, they found a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory. (Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence for the Beginning of the Universe)

And the “pope of atheism” changed his atheism based on the evidence from DNA:

  • “My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.” After chewing on his scientific worldview for more than five decades, Flew concluded, “A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature.” Previously, in his central work, The Presumption of Atheism (1976), Flew argued that the “onus of proof [of God] must lie upon the theist.” However, at the age of 81, Flew shocked the world when he renounced his atheism because “the argument for Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it.” (RNA/DNA < Information | Or, What “IS” Information)

But many, instead of testing their own beliefs, fill their mind and days with things that fill a void….

  • What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself. — Blaise Pascal (Pensees 10.148)

UNQUOTE TEXT

I added the Pascal quote to bring home the idea that knowing every stat about a particular player, team, or sport MAY not be — in the end — as important as bringing home the “bacon” to a life well lived. Aristotle said any animal can exercise practical reason in determining what to do to survive, but can an animal reason theoretically? Aristotle says no and that is what separates human beings from animals. To me — sports is a way to survive mundaneness. Deeper thinking about worldviews is worthy of higher order thinking, and add to the quality of a “life well lived.”

A “coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer IN THE LEAST these four questions: that of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.” It is never to late to expand one’s knowledge in these matter.

  • “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our well being.” — James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2004), 122.

Overpopulation

Published by Papa Giorgio

UPDATE

I mainly uploaded this blurb because of the updated birth rat in America. It was 2.1 a while back — now it is 1.7. Which…. I guess will replace in time a majority of the secular people with a more religious family oriented sub-set. However, the economy and our retiring population need money put into the system to get the monies promised them. But there is a lot of other stuff in here that is worth while (like some transgender realities as well). See more of the original Ben Shapiro excerpt on his YouTube channel.

(The Below Was Originally Posted: June 29, 2017)

Both HUFFPO and THE DAILY MAIL discuss the above rendering, here is the opener:

If you took all the world’s population and dumped them into the Grand Canyon they wouldn’t fill a fraction of it.

In fact the 7.2 billion people would only form a comparatively tiny pile – as shown in this fascinating mock-up image.

The graphic was put together by respected YouTube presenter Michael Stevens on his Vsauce channel, which juxtaposes the population of the world alongside the famous deep canyon by the Colorado River – situated in Arizona…..

This post was inspired, by the way, because of a challenge posted on my Facebook. I will include some of the discussion from it as well as videos.

This is a statement made recently on my Facebook:

“Go forth and be fruitful.” I think mankind has been more than “fruitful”. Earth overpolulated. Birth control a no brainer, and I’m not not talking condoms.Nobody is “pro-abortion .The “pill” negligible in health care costs. Never should have let some companies opt out of the pill. Stone-agers…. I’m sure God loves watching 30,090 of his children starve to death every day. We are over-populated, despite the garbage that “study” foments. Great thing about the medieval era, they slaughtered folks by the thousands Genocide just part of “nation building” for the crown.

I will omit the name of the person out of respect in my response[s]:

We are not overpopulated? That is one of the dumbest things I hear from the left (hence, you). Firstly, children dying of starvation has N O T H I N G to do with overpopulation. Do you think it does?

WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION

Right now the world produces enough food for 10-billion people. [We have about 7.2 billion right now.] And every year we find new ways to produce, irrigate, and the like to produce even more. Why most children die of starvation in the world is because of regimes typically based on regimes either Islamic in nature of far-left (socialist, Communist, Marxist — for the most part they are not shining examples of the free-market).

STATISTICS USED

I want you to especially respond to this question: where did you get your number from? That is, where are you getting your number 30,090 starve to death every day? I mean:

★ approximately 153 thousand people die every day. 30 thousand people would be 19% of this number, and I find it highly unlike that 19% of the world is dying every day from starvation.

GREEN ENERGY

IF — [India-Foxtrot] — you are soo concerned about starvation [aside from your fictitious numbers], you would be against GREEN ENERGY. Why? Because green energy raises the price of food, dramatically. (You really are not concerned about starvation, but Leftism.)

POPULATION GROWTH

Between 1950 and 2000, the world population grew at a rate of 1.76%. Between 2000 and 2050, it is expected to grow by 0.77 percent.

ALASKA

Example: If you put all 7 billion Earth Inhabitants in the State of Alaska, each person would have an average of 2,271.60 square feet of land. That area would be large enough to build a 4 bedroom house for each of the World’s 7 billion inhabitants!

NATION STATES

You could also put all 7 billion inhabitants in nearly any of the World’s Nation States–except perhaps the smallest island or nation states–without running out of room. Any one of the four largest countries–after Russia–China, USA, Canada, and Brazil could provide more than 16,000 square feet per person. In USA, it would be 16,502 average square feet of land for each of the 7 billion world inhabitants if all moved to the NEARLY 100 Trillion square feet of land in the United States of America, excluding the US Territories.

My friend gave me this pat response:

Maybe in Utopia, Sean. Or Atlantis. Good luck with that. Too many man-made barriers. Put down your Bibles and come back to the real world. Idjets! [see note below] …. And let’s not even get into the starving and malnourished. God does not provide for all. There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed the world. 

In later conversation the friend challenging me corrected his stats to 21,000 people dying of malnutrition/starvation per day.

However, it is primarily the Left who want more death versus less of it.They are the one’s worried about overpopulation.

It is the Left who blocks such things as Golden Rice, DDT, pushes bio-fuels which drives up food costs which affect the poor communities especially [etc, etc].

Not conservatives.

You should say in place of your “God does not provide for all”  ~ “Government models do not provide for all” (referencing totalitarian governments who misuse state funds). Then Parents are next in line in the “not providing” line (parents spending money on drugs, alcohol, or gambling rather than the well being of their children).

  • [Again] There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed the world (see above).

Texas has 7,494,271,488,000 Sq. Ft.

There are 7,200,000,000 people in the world.

That means each person would get almost 1041 Sq. Ft. apiece. Some families are large, some are small. Let us even it out with 4-per family. That means each family would get 4,163 Sq. Ft.

That is a house and lot to make food. OR, spread those people out in one country and irrigation, food production, etc. are in full swing.

My friend wraps up his naked-emperor side of the discussion:

Let’s close this out. Water…..(1% of available water on this planet is freshwater. L.A. can’t even find enough water. And you guys are “semi-developed”. What are you going to do? Move everyone to Minnesota? Good luck!

I give a final response:

[No luck, just common sense] …desalination plants and not high-speed rail. If you believe the governments OFFICIAL reports and Al Gore… RICH greenies can build these so we could drink away the rise of the seas.

Take HAITI, the top in the category of starvation/malnutrition. They have 298,689,177,600 Sq. Ft. Haiti’s population is 10.32 million. Each person gets 226,280 Sq. Ft. Government is said to be VERY corrupt and at time tyrannical.

Number two in starvation/malnutrition is ANGOLA. Angola has 13,419,379,353,600 Sq. Ft. Their population is 24,383,301. Every person in Angola gets 550,205 Sq. Ft. Angola’s government is corrupt and almost all the parties “voted” into power are Marxist, socialist, Communist, and the like.

I could go on, but “overpopulation” is not the issue here.

Here is the side-note:

BTW, the Judeo-Christian construct [esp. the Christian theistic worldview] is the best worldview to operate from in order to search well for AND to test truth by. In ALL matter of faith and non-faith.

All 10,000 [+] religions in the world break down into just 7-worldviews (actually, most into three BIGGIES). The Judaic/Christian worldview is the most coherent model to form a working epistemology from. SO, I will N-O-T put my Bible down… thank you very much. My worldview responds to what every worldview should, except better than others:

1) Ultimate Reality ~ What kind of God, if any, actually exists?
2) External Reality ~ Is there anything beyond the cosmos?
3) Knowledge ~ What can be known, and how can anyone know it?
4) Origin ~ Where did I come from?
5) Identity ~ Who am I?
6) Location ~ Where am I?
7) Morals ~ How should I live?
8) Values ~ What should I consider of great worth?
9) Predicament ~ What is humanity’s fundamental problem?
10) Resolution ~ How can humanity’s problem be solved?
11) Past / Present ~ What is the meaning and direction of history?
12) Destiny ~ Will I survive the death of my body and, if so, in what state?

WORLDVIEW

  • American Heritage Dictionary: 1) The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world; 2) A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.
  • “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our well being.” James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, 122
  • “Ours is an age of religious cacophony, as was the Roman Empire of Christ’s time. From agnosticism to Hegelianism, from devil-worship to scientific rationalism, from theosophical cults to philosophies of process: virtually any worldview conceivable is offered to modern man in the pluralistic marketplace of ideas. Our age is indeed in ideological and societal agony, grasping at anything and everything that can conceivably offer the ecstasy of a cosmic relationship or of a comprehensive Weltanschauung [worldview].” Faith Founded on Fact: Essays in Evidential Apologetics (Newburgh, IN: Trinity Press, 1978), 152-153.
  • People have presuppositions, and they will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions than even they themselves may realize. By “presuppositions” we mean the basic way an individual looks at life, his basic worldview, the grid through which he sees the world. Presuppositions rest upon that which a person considers to be the truth of what exists. People’s presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Their presuppositions also provide the basis for their values and therefore the basis for their decisions. ‘As a man thinketh, so he is,’ is really profound. An individual is not just the product of the forces around him. He has a mind, an inner world. Then, having thought, a person can bring forth actions into the external world and thus influence it. People are apt to look at the outer theater of action, forgetting the actor who “lives in the mind” and who therefore is the true actor in the external world. The inner thought world determines the outward action. Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society the way a child catches measles. But people with more understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of what worldview is true. When all is done, when all the alternatives have been explored, ‘not many men are in the room’ — that is, although worldviews have many variations, there are not many basic worldviews or presuppositions. Quoted from, Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1976), 19-20.
  • Alexander W. Astin dissected a longitudinal study conducted by UCLA started in 1966 for the Review of Higher Education [journal] in which 290,000 students were surveyed from about 500 colleges. The main question was asked of students why study or learn? “Seeking to develop ‘a meaningful philosophy of life’” [to develop a meaningful worldview] was ranked “essential” by the majority of entering freshmen. In 1996 however, 80% of the college students barely recognized the need for “a meaningful philosophy of life” and ranked “being very well off financially” [e.g., to not necessarily develop a meaningful worldview] as paramount.
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Doctor: “Do you have a gun in the house?” (Response)

Published by Papa Giorgio

A good response to a medical professional asking you if you have guns in your home, via Armstrong and Getty.

(PAINTING) WHO WAS NANCY HART

Nancy Hart was a true American patriot who stood up against Brittish soldiers and Tories (Americans who sided with the Brittish in the war). She is considered a heroine for her bravery and efforts during the American Revolution from 1775-1783……

(More at: “7 Unbelievable Things Nancy Hart Did In The Revolutionary War“)

DeSantis: No Federal Vaccine Mandates | Our Ports Are Open 24/7

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Was just talking about DeSantis tonight) Governor Ron DeSantis speaks with Maria Bartiromo about the actions being taken to strengthen Floridians’ rights to not be mandated to get an injection and the readiness of Florida’s ports to help solve America’s shipping crisis.

Biden’s DOJ Becoming KGB (Ben Ferguson)

Published by Papa Giorgio

RUMBLE — This is arguably one of my most important uploads. While I edit and add to Ben Ferguson’s original podcast to embolden his points, this is a subject that while long (40-minutes +) should be listened to or watched in it’s entirety.

Below are resources used or for video or snapshots of headlines:

VIDEO:

  • Rep. Veronica Spartz (R-IN) chastised the FBI during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday. (YOUTUBE)
  • “Tucker Carlson Tonight” — JAILED for “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building” on January 6. Donna Bissey didn’t set fire to any property. She didn’t hurt anyone. She paraded. What you are seeing is unequal enforcement of laws in this country. (FACEBOOK)
  • White House lays out plan for COVID-19 vaccine rollout for children 5-11 (YOUTUBE)
  • Your Memo Was The Last Straw’: Jordan Rips Into Garland After School Board Directive (YOUTUBE)

ARTICLE HEADLINES (couple extras)

  • Capitol Injustice: January 6 Rioters Held in Solitary Confinement (AMERICAN SPECTATOR)
  • The National School Board Association Apologizes for Its Part in the Merrick Garland ‘Domestic Terrorist’ Letter (100% FED-UP)
  • FBI Knew The Steele Dossier Was Highly Dubious As Early As January 2017, But Still Relied On It For FISA Renewals (W3P DISQUS PAGE)
  • A Comparison Of The 2017 Inauguration Riot, 2020 George Floyd Riots, And 2021 Capitol Riot (THE FEDERALIST)
  • Jan. 6 Protestors Held in Solitary Confinement, Inhumane “Third-World” Conditions (PRO DEO ET LIBERTATE)
  • Shawshank for January 6 Detainees (AMERICAN GREATNESS)
  • A January 6 Detainee Speaks Out (AMERICAN GREATNESS)
  • A Family on Trial for January 6 (AMERICAN GREATNESS)
  • Solitary confinement for Jan. 6 riot participants draws criticism from Democratic senators and ACLU (WASHINGTON EXAMINER)
  • Graphic letter from Jan. 6 detainee being held in solitary details ‘nightmare’ of his life behind bars (BPR)
  • Sens. Warren and Durbin: End Solitary Confinement of US Capitol ‘Insurrection’ Defendants (RON PAUL)
  • What Constitution? People held after Jan. 6 Capitol incident, some not charged with a crime, still being held in solitary confinement (LAW ENFORCEMENT TODAY)

California Destroying Supply Chain and Causing Inflation

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Hat-tip LARRY ELDER) Larry reads from this article: “Confronting the Supply Chain Crisis“

Later in the show he also reads from this post via THE CONSERVATIVE TREE HOUSE titled:

  • The California Version of The Green New Deal and an October 16, 2020, EPA Settlement With Transportation is What’s Creating The Container Shipping Backlog – Working CA Ports 24/7 Will Not Help, Here’s Why

The trucking issue with California LA ports, ie the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), is that all semi tractors have to be current with new California emissions standards.  As a consequence, that mean trucks cannot be older than 3 years if they are to pick up or deliver containers at those ports.  This issue wipes out approximately half of the fleet trucks used to move containers in/out of the port.  Operating the port 24/7 will not cure the issue, because all it does is pile up more containers that sit idle as they await a limited number of trucks to pick them up.  THIS is the central issue.

On October 16, 2020, the EPA reached a settlement agreement [DATA HERE] with California Air Resource Board (CARB) to shut down semi tractor rigs that were non-compliant with new California emission standards:

[….]

In effect, what this 2020 determination and settlement created was an inability of half the nation’s truckers from picking up anything from the Port of LA or Port of Long Beach.  Virtually all private owner operator trucks and half of the fleet trucks that are used for moving containers across the nation were shut out.

In an effort to offset the problem, transportation companies started using compliant trucks (low emission) to take the products to the California state line, where they could be transferred to non-compliant trucks who cannot enter California.   However, the scale of the problem creates an immediate bottleneck that builds over time.  It doesn’t matter if the ports start working 24/7, they are only going to end up with even more containers waiting on a limited amount of available trucks…….

Bari Weiss Wrecks CNN’s Brian Stelter!

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Just note “far right” is believing that gender/sex is binary) Bari Weiss, a former editor at The New York Times, spoke to CNN’s Brian Stelter about the tens of millions of regular Americans who know this to be true (despite what the mainstream media tells you to believe): “The world has gone mad.”

Brian Stelter is wrong… YouTube is increasingly removing (along with Twitter and Facebook and other social media outlets) any push back on “gender fluidity” and MANY other topics. Corporations disallow many a person’s views that tend toward conservative ideals. The schools and universities? Fuhgeddaboudit! And while Barry Weiss might have had CNN medical contributor Dr. Leana Wen remarked in June that any investigation of the lab theory shouldn’t lead to anti-Asian discrimination mixed up with this science writer for The New York Times who says promotion of the theory that the virus was manufactured in a Wuhan, China lab and escaped is “racist.” Glenn Greenwald notes the Tweet:

Stelter may also start with the Yale Law administrators who suggested a student’s membership in the Federalist Society could be grounds for discipline, including preemptive disbarment. I could go on, but I need to go to work.

“Rage Against the Machine” IS the Machine!

Published by Papa Giorgio

A buddy sent this to me. We are both on the same page but it brought a rant bubbling up to the surface:

CUE RANT:

What they do not realize is they have always been the machine. The main founder is a self admitted Marxist and they have supported Communist movements. Big Government control of the peoples lives. What the gov says is true, by edict. A co-worker asked me Monday, saying “didn’t you say a long time ago Rage is a Communist based band? But this song [playing in the shop at work] is about anarchy, why is that?” I explained these people want to seed anarchy/chaos as a tool to create a situation where the government has to swoop in with heavier control. They want to overturn the existing order to replace it.

Since the 60’s generation of progressives, they have adopted the CLOWARD-PIVEN STRATEGY.

LEFT / RIGHT VIEWS of GOVERNNMENT:

OLD AUDIO FROM APRIL 2011

60s versus 2020

MSNBC’s Most Recent Racist Rant (Dave Rubin)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report shares a clip of MSNBC host Tiffany Cross using her show the Cross Connection to condemn ESPN host Sage Steele, Van Jones, and Carlos Watson for not being “real” black voices and accuse them of internalized racism. Their crime was simply not having the correct official black opinions that Tiffany thinks all black people should have.

Do All Roads Lead To God? (Exclusivity in Metaphysical Claims)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Originally Posted Sept 2012)

The story of the six blind men and the elephant is one you hear then and again. In this short response you will see how this story collapses under its own weight. (See also Geisler’s dealing with Postmodernism)

(September 3, 2012) Ravi Zacharias responds with “precise language” to a written question. With his patented charm and clarity, Ravi responds to the challenge of “exclusivity in Christianity” that skeptics seem to think is exclusive to our faith. This is one of Ravi’s best. (While I am still devastated Ravi did what he did… I will forever share his truths expressed so well)

This is an adaptation from the opening portion of Ravi:

Many people like to criticize Christianity’s arrogant exclusivity, they will say that if the end result is to be good, how could I embrace a faith that claims to be the only true way?

This is the perceived problem with exclusivity. How can there be only one way to God?

The answer with the post-modernist when they raise this question of the Christian faith is that the post-modernist has not again examined his or her own question. It is not only the Christian faith that claims exclusive.

  • Islam claims exclusivity.
  • Buddhism claims exclusivity.
  • Sikhism claims exclusivity.
  • Hinduism claims exclusivity.
  • All religions do at some point in their philosophy.

Gautama Buddha was born a Hindu. He rejected Hinduism on two major accounts.

  1. Hinduism assumes, for example, that the Vedas are the ultimate revelation, and in that sense their inerrant scriptures. Buddha rejected the Veda.
  2.  Hinduism claims the caste system on the hierarchy of human birth. Gautama Buddha rejected the caste system.

Two principal beliefs of Hinduism, the Vedas and the caste system, Gautama Buddha completely rejected. That’s why even in recent times you will hear Hindu leaders sometimes getting disgruntled with Hinduism because of the caste system and the hierarchical system of human birth that is attributed to it.

Now, what did Gautama Buddha do in its place? He changed the notion of self from Hinduism into no essential self. In Buddhism he changed even the idea of reincarnation, what reincarnation actually means.

All this to say it is not true that Christianity is the only exclusive claim every major religion claim exclusivity. The Bahais are the only so-called all inclusivist, but even they exclude the exclusivists.

How Can Christianity Be The One True Religion?

One of my favored quotes regarding Jesus:

The nine founders among the eleven living religions in the world had characters which attracted many devoted followers during their own lifetime, and still larger numbers during the centuries of subsequent history. They were humble in certain respects, yet they were also confident of a great religious mission. Two of the nine, Mahavira and Buddha, were men so strong-minded and self-reliant that, according to the records, they displayed no need of any divine help, though they both taught the inexorable cosmic law of Karma. They are not reported as having possessed any consciousness of a supreme personal deity. Yet they have been strangely deified by their followers. Indeed, they themselves have been worshipped, even with multitudinous idols.

All of the nine founders of religion, with the exception of Jesus Christ, are reported in their respective sacred scriptures as having passed through a preliminary period of uncertainty, or of searching for religious light. Confucius, late in life, confessed his own sense of shortcomings and his desire for further improvement in knowledge and character. All the founders of the non-Christian religions evinced inconsistencies in their personal character; some of them altered their practical policies under change of circumstances.

Jesus Christ alone is reported as having had a consistent God consciousness, a consistent character himself, and a consistent program for his religion. The most remarkable and valuable aspect of the personality of Jesus Christ is the comprehensiveness and universal availability of his character, as well as its own loftiness, consistency, and sinlessness.

Robert Hume, The World’s Living Religions [New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959], 285-286.

Did We “Lose” the Vietnam War?

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Originally posted June, 2014)

“The war America never lost, but wasn’t allowed to win” — L. Brent Bozell III

Video description:

Did the United States win or lose the Vietnam War? We are taught that it was a resounding loss for America, one that proves that intervening in the affairs of other nations is usually misguided. The truth is that our military won the war, but our politicians lost it. The Communists in North Vietnam actually signed a peace treaty, effectively surrendering. But the U.S. Congress didn’t hold up its end of the bargain. In just five minutes, learn the truth about who really lost the Vietnam War

Remember, these countries actually fell to the spread of Communism:

➤ Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, and half of Germany, North Korea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, Congo-Brazzaville, Benin, Vietnam, on and on.

Here is a great thought experiment from David Mamet:

Let us squint for a moment, to see if we may blur the particulars and perceive a familiar outline in an unfamiliar act. A young wealthy woman puts on vaguely military garb and travels to a far-off, less-developed land to participate in adventure. She meets there the more primitive indigenous people, admires their hunting abilities, and, in fact, poses with one of their large guns, famous for having bagged many trophies.

Q. What is she doing?

A. Going on Safari.

Essentially, yes. The woman, however, would be appalled had the big gun been used to kill an elephant. But it has not. It has been used to kill American fliers.

Jane Fonda’s Adventure Tourism is, then, incorrectly, identified not as a safari but as “Ending the War.”

This was a no-cost, exhilarating adventure, all the more attractive because it took place in the purlieus of danger, but contained no danger; and it could be described as “humanitarianism,” which is an edifying title, rather than “slumming,” which is perhaps less so.

Ms. Fonda did not choose to take her wish for adventure into the veldt, where, after all, the beasts might strike back, but to Hanoi in 1969. At the height of the Vietnam War—to pose with the enemy, secure in the knowledge that her (largely inherited) position would protect her from prosecution for what was, arguably, an act of treason.

In her reliance upon this protection she was, of course, availing herself of that same privilege and culture whose destruction she was endorsing in posing by the gun.

Her pilgrimage, as Mr. Hollander points out, was not unique. Intellectuals through the twentieth century have traveled see the Potemkin Villages of Stalin’s “Workers Miracle,” the happy children of China, and the grinning, sun-drenched Campesinos [peasants] of the Island Paradise. They have believed what they were shown.

From the Webbs, and Bertrand Russell, to Susan Sontag, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and various movie stars of our day, these happy dupes reward themselves for feeling superior to their own country, from which country they were free to travel, and to which they were free to return, while the smiling folk they visited were locked in slave states.

See also the brave actors who endeavored to boycott, and so close, the 2009 Toronto Film Festival because it offended by showing films from Israel.

This “visiting” and political pilgrimage differs from safari in that one does not here toy with danger. It more closely resembles the Victorian practice of “going among the poor.”

It used to be called “passing out tracts.”

David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (New York, NY: Sentinel Publishing, 2011), 96-98.

The following is Dennis Prager’s interview of Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, Bruce Herschensohn, about his latest book: An American Amnesia: How the US Congress Forced the Surrenders of South Vietnam and Cambodia. An excellent interview with two calls included.

And here is a longer dealing with myths surrounding Vietnam, via the indomitable Michael Medved:

Michael Medved (in this edited version of this Lie #1) talks to the reasons and history behind us entering the Vietnam war. This can be listened to in whole via iTunes free subscription to American Conservative University’s channel, or on their website: acu.libsyn.com/​

 ✦ Show 51 [Fri, 9 June 2006]

 ✦ Show 52 [Thu, 15 June 2006]

Afterword

Here are three book recommends that re-influenced me (deprogrammed me) on Vietnam after owning and watching many years prior Time-Life’s VHS series on Vietnam:

Bonus Interview:

Phillip E. Jennings served in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps, flying helicopters, and in Laos as a pilot for Air America. He is the author of Nam-a-Rama and Goodbye Mexico, and won the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society first prize for fiction with his short story, “Train Wreck in a Small Town.” A successful entrepreneur, he is currently CEO of Molecular Resonance Corporation, which is developing technology to detect Improvised Explosive Devices. The book discussed is, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War (The Politically Incorrect Guides)”