Posted on 03/24/2007 10:34:27 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
I’ve been writing for publication for 50 years. I have never before referred to a fellow citizen as “scum.” Growing up, I was taught that all human beings have worth, and that even “bad” people have some virtues. So, what could possibly make me call Charlie Sheen and Rosie O’Donnell, scum?
These two people are backing an effort to recut, with Sheen narrating, an existing video about 9/11 called “Loose Change,” and distribute it through Magnolia Pictures. In addition to the sitcom actor and the talk show hostess, the other player may be Mark Cuban, an eccentric and sometimes out-of-control multi-millionaire who owns Magnolia, the Dallas Mavericks, and various other pricey baubles.
(An article on wcbs.com on 22 March, 2007, by Andrew Kirtzman, provided many of the facts for this column.)
Let’s have a look at what the original film contains. Here are two lines from the narration of that film: “If the government is lying about flight 93, is it hard to believe the rest is a lie?” And, this: “I know it's hard to imagine the government would intentionally murder almost 3000 innocent people, but once you begin to accept that possibility you can never go back to the 19 Arabs.”
Is the idea that there was no Arab attack using planes on 9/11 merely a matter of political opinion? Absolutely not. There are physical laws on such matters as high-speed impact, high temperature fires, failure of steel and other materials under such stresses. And the collapse of the two World Trade Center buildings and the outer wall of the Pentagon on 9/11, all followed those laws.
Sheen has backed this conspiracy theory in interviews. O’Donnell has backed it by reprinting the theories on her website. Cuban is backing it by saying of the film project, “we like controversial subjects.”
As a one-time physicist myself, I can follow the analysis of the hard evidence from what happened, as laid out in a book by James Meigs, Editor in Chief of Popular Mechanics magazine. Point by point he debunked the conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a US government plot to get us into war. He concluded, “It is a brilliantly patched-together stew of all kinds of misconceptions, misquotes and real mistakes about how things really worked on that day.”
So the idea that 9/11 was a vicious US plot is nonsense. I’ve spent decades writing about political nonsense without calling those who hold such views, scum. This is worse than mere politics.
Barbara Olson was an acquaintance of mine. She was a writer, and a wife and mother. She was talking on her cell phone to her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, as her hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon. My fiancee was two blocks from the WTC when the first tower fell. With thousands of others, she ran north through the smoke and debris, not knowing if she would survive.
These conspiracy nuts are spitting on the memories of those who died that day, and all who were harmed, and all of their families, and on all of America – because the whole nation was the target of those attacks.
Why would any Americans stoop to such a cruel and dishonest position? As usual, history books provide an answer. During WW II, there were a handful of people who hated President Roosevelt so much that they bruited about, and apparently believed, the conspiracy theory that Roosevelt knew about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance. They believed he allowed it to happen, in order to bring the US into WW II.
The current conspiracy theory is even worse. Hatred for the Bush Administration has led certain people, including Sheen and O’Donnell to believe that this administration murdered 3,000Americans in order to create a war. To my view, that makes Sheen and O’Donnell scum. Cuban may be in it merely for the money, not the belief, so I won’t call him scum.
Is that too harsh, or do you agree?
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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I'll report back on that, when it happens.
John / Billybob
Don't forget the billionaire sports team owner who is funding this. He justs want the "light to shine in", yeah, right.
Scum is too nice of a word for these vile hatemongers.
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Charlie Sheehan is to hooker what the WPA was to the depression...a make jobs project.
"Cuban may be in it merely for the money, not the belief, so I won’t call him scum."
IMO, that's just as bad or worse than the retards who actually believe in these conspiracy theories. The fact that he's willing to insult our country and the people who died that day just to make some money is disgusting. He's a worthless traitor just like O'Donnell and Sheen.
If anyone would like to explain 9-11, to Charlie here is his email addy: Mrjonze55@aol.com
I'm pretty sure that the response to this on FR will be that I'm preaching to the choir..............
Seems to me that you are singing WITH the choir!!
Well said!
HA HA! I think you were being too kind.
"Cuban may be in it merely for the money, not the belief, so I won’t call him scum."
I agree, he's doubly scum!!
I hope the good people of Dallas boycott his team and hurt him where it counts!
While I share your revulsion for these people, I feel that we should encourage their freedom of expression. What better way to marginalize them (and the Left that goes along with this) than to allow them to do it to themselves? Let idiots rant. Let idiots make movies about their rants. The more they do, the more people will be repulsed from their obvious message of hate and paranoia. Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell are fine representatives of the nutcases who are driving the agenda on the Left these days. Let them talk. The more speech the better, for us.
When are you going to run for Congress? I hope in '08.
I'm pretty sure that the response to this on FR will be that I'm preaching to the choir.
Yes you are, but when it's on FR tens of thousands of people read it who are not a part of the choir.
Regarding Charlie Sheen, just look at good old dad. This nut didn't fall far from the tree. And besides that, if you smoked as much pot, and snorted as much coke as Sheen, you would probably act this way too.
Have a great weekend.
5.56mm
Mark Cuban does not deserve the Mavericks and Maverick fans do not deserve him.
What a looney tunes.
The following is a letter I recently sent to Barbara Walters, grande dame of Rosie's insipid "The View." (The flattering tone is an effort to be heard, rather than my true opinion of Baba Wawa.)
Dear Ms. Walters,
You might consider renaming your once fine show: Rosie's View.
I'm surprised that you, an icon of modern journalism, don't hold Ms. O'Donnell accountable for accuracy and truth in her political and cultural analyses as she daily "enlightens" (her word, oft-used) your audience. Ms. O'Donnell's defenders say, "She's a comic, there’s a different standard." The line between comedy and solemn-faced punditry is distinct and it's very clear on which side of the line her sanctimonious lectures occur.
Most recently, Ms. O’Donnell pronounced that President Bush denied Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others access to an attorney “because of the Patriot Act.” Not true. She also offered the four-year-old photo of the unkempt, just-roused-from-bed and captured Mohammed and suggested it was taken after the United States had tortured the poor man. Also, not true.
The First Amendment provides some of our most precious freedoms. These freedoms come with responsibilities. It’s irresponsible to use the public airways in this manner and I’m shocked that you and ABC not only condone but promote such chronically skewed misinformation without correction or accounting. On second thought, maybe your show could be renamed Rosie’s Skew.
I find it sad that a journalist of your caliber and accomplishment may be best known for such a lowbrow absurdity.
Respectfully,
fullchroma
P.S. Ms. Hasselbeck deserves a public apology from a certain “blathering” boor.
Well said and I'm pretty confident you'll be flamed, moonbat libs just can't resist proving they're nuts.
I live in Dallas, and supported the Mavs, but as of now, Go Spurs!
Roosevelt had wisdom and foresight to know the the USA involvement in WWII was inevitable. I've read the Toland book and other accounts but I attributed events just prior to Pearl Harbor as typical government and military mishandling of data and intelligence.
No one can convince me that 9-11 was the result of Rove-Bush conspiracy. Any one saying otherwise is missing key logic brain cells. If anyone listened to the "scum" they would know that the current president isn't perceived to be smart enough to pull off something like that.
Free speech is a wonderful thing, but it is tragic that our media does not use their free speech, or acknowledge their responsibility to tear these people to shreds.
Good morning, Billybob!
I will call Cuban scum for you : )
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