Free Republic

Stanley Kubrick’s sharp and persuasive comedy about nuclear war remains a hilarious act of provocationSixty years ago, Columbia Pictures released the first of two black-and-white movies with the exact same premise: what if American planes with hydrogen bombs were inadvertently ordered to drop their payload on targets in the Soviet Union, potentially triggering an all-out nuclear war that wipe out humanity? The Cuban missile crisis had pushed the superpowers to the brink of conflict less than two years earlier, and film-makers were unusually eager to face their cold war nightmares head on.~snip~On balance, Kubrick’s message is more persuasive. Dr Strangelove...

“To all scholars who teach jihad… to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application of theories.” —Khaled Meshaal, former Hamas leader. It’s less than a week since the skies over the Negev Desert filled with something eerily like the flying monkeys of Oz upgraded to Hamas Road Warriors in motorized paragliders, kicking off that third world war we’ve been hearing about all our lives, and not at all the way we expected either, which was more Dr. Strangelove style, with the mushroom clouds billowing everywhere — though, who knows, it might come to that, too,...

Edward Teller, the father of the Hydrogen bomb, received a Nobel Prize for peace in 1991 and was rumoured to be an inspiration for Dr Strangelove. He died in Stanford on the 9th of September, 2003. Teller believed: "Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible." His thought provoking words are good enough for me to call him an Indigenous Man Of Anglosphere (IMOTA) but I am not if I admire him. Only God is omniscient.

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true? A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap. Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of...

Welcome to Your Weekend Your Host Here Again Going Through Transition... I am digging through all the archives including books I have accumulated over the years with a 1937 Almanac published by the "Philadelphia Bulletin". Lots of details about Philadephia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. In the details of Delaware something got my attention. What Delaware's Legislature Was Like Before The Earl Warren Supreme Court Changed Things In The 1960's... The Next Round Of Vaxx Jabs The vaccines don't last forever so the next round needs to be planned for. That's what the British National Health Service was saying earlier...

“Instantly,” said Steven Bellovin, a professor of computer science at Columbia University with almost 40 years of experience in computer networking and security. That’s how long it took him to realize, he said in an interview, that a certain purported spreadsheet that I showed him was “not just fake, but a badly generated fake by someone who didn’t know what they were doing.” The spreadsheet, together with an animated film that was said to illustrate its data, formed the crux of a nearly two-hour “docu-movie,” called “Absolute Proof,” which aired at least 13 times last February on the One America...

Before the music lets talk about plans for next week in Idaho with legislators seeking to end martial law and the emergency rule of Republican Governor Brad Little. They intend to attempt a meeting on Tuesday morning at 9 am in Boise at the State Capitol...... And Dame Vera Lynn passed away this week at the age of 103. She is remembered for her wartime singing but of course that song "We'll Meet Again" was the closing of "Dr. Strangelove's" working the government officials to dictate our lives.... I guess this is a good lead into John Bolton and his...

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."It is a good bet that Washington Post reporters Carol Morello and Greg Miller probably had the movie Dr. Strangelove on their minds either conciously or unconciously when they wrote their May 10 story/fantasy about the possibility that a Russian photographer could have planted a surveillance device in the White House Oval Office during a meeting there between President Donald Trump and Russian diplomats. Before we get to the reporters summoning up their inner General Buck Turgidson, let us revisit the Dr. Strangelove War Room scene in which Russian ambassador Alexi de Sadesky attempts...

Talk about a stretch! Or, better, make that a streeeeeeetch. Vox has started a new type of movie review in which they take a film  and try to correrelate it to current events. Since Vox, like the rest of the MSM, is absolutely obessed by President Trump, it is no big surprise that they will apply their TDS to the reviews starting with the current movie: "Dr. Strangelove." To read the review by Alissa Wilkinson you would think Stanley Kubrick's classic dark comedy should have been named "Dr. StrangeTrump or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Donald."...

Oh dear! Our weapons of mass destruction seem to be falling apart after years of neglect: B-52 Loses Engine While Flying Over North Dakota. I know UpNorthLurkin is safely lurkin’ in Arizona, butt I do hope that the rest of our ND contingent are okay; Bakken Wag, JLH and the rest.Now might be a good time to point out how opportune the election and impending inauguration of Donald J. Trump was. Given the state of readiness of our current armed forces under the watchful eye of Barry these past 8 years we need somebody who can MAGA. Because imagine if...

Here’s an article that accurately summarizes the state of media affairs in America (and by affairs, I mean “illicit”): CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Formally Comes Out as Pro-Hillary, Anti-Journalism.Serving only as video confirmation that 1) sexism is the new racism, 2) the media is snugly in bed with Hillary and 3) the media condones lying to the public as long as it is them doing the lying. All of which led to this Tweet. Narrative has gone from "Hillary is perfectly healthy, stop being sexist" to "FDR had Polio and was a good President" in less than 12 hours. — Ann...

No, a bunker will not save you from the apocalypse Everybody talks about the apocalypse, but almost nobody actually prepares for it. But let's say you're one of the few visionaries who actually plans for every eventuality. You've been stashing your supplies. You've built a personal bunker, or you've purchased your own spot in a communal "survival suite." When the apocalypse finally comes — possibly later this year — will you really survive if you're locked inside a bunker? (Answer: No.) Protecting against any 2012 scenario A thriving industry exists to offer structures that will defend against a variety of...

In 1958, America accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon on two little girls’ playhouse For certain rural residents of the Carolinas during the Cold War, apocalyptic anxiety hit disturbingly close to home. In 1958 and 1961, the American Air Force lost nuclear weapons over the skies of South and North Carolina, respectively, raining potential apocalypse on the folks below. In both incidents, complete catastrophe was avoided thanks to that ever-potent combination of foresight and unmitigated dumb luck. And in the former incident, the bomb fell square on some unsuspecting children's playhouse. The first accident occurred over Florence, South Carolina on March...

A list of unused titles for Dr. Strangelove, lifted from Stanley Kubrick’s notebooks From the notebooks of Stanley Kubrick comes this most excellent list of movie titles that never saw the light of day, but were evidently considered for the film that Kubrick would eventually name Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. There are plenty of mentions of Dr. Strangelove, bombs, and even implications that one should love and cherish said "wonderful bomb," but you won't find the final title in this list. Still, it gives one pause to think how this movie...

At the Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention in Los Angeles this month, one of thousands of English professors gave a lecture on a popular film. Although millions have seen this particular movie, it may be safe to say that few of those viewers have examined Dr. Strangelove with the interpretation offered at the MLA. Dr. Joseph Litvak of Tufts University argued that Dr. Strangelove is not just a former Nazi, but that he is also a Jew—a claim Litvak makes based on somewhat questionable evidence (the doctor’s hair and crippled body, and the fact that his creators listed several...

Washington - Senator John McCain says the United States has been backing away from a brewing fight with Iran, while that country moves ever closer to having nuclear weapons.McCain opened a Senate hearing Wednesday by saying that Iran will get the bomb unless the United States acts more boldly. Speaking figuratively, the Arizona Republican says the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran but failing to "pull the trigger."

Earth: An environmental writer mainstreams an idea floating around the green fringe — save the earth by population control and give carbon credits to one-child families. Are we threatened by the patter of little carbon footprints? New York Times environmental writer Andrew Revkin participated in an Oct. 14 panel discussion on climate change with other media pundits titled "Covering Climate: What's Population Got To Do With It?" People who need people they are not. In a recently rediscovered book, "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," co-authored with Malthus fans Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Holdren wrote that families "contribute to general social deterioration...

If you think speeches attacking the U.S. Federal Reserve couldn't excite a Friday night crowd on a college campus, think again. About 2,000 people -- students and older adults who were in the majority -- filled Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota to cheer libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, as he joined Rep. Michele Bachmann to preach the gospel of a less powerful federal government. Before Bachmann, R-Minn., introduced Paul, she hailed legislation of his that would require a detailed audit of the Fed. The crowd jumped to its feet and roared approval. When she described the...

Link only, due to Wired's copyright complaints. Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday MachineI'm posting this without any text, because I think it's important. The "Doomsday" machine is apparently real, and still operational. Read the article for more details.