On some sites, you may occasionally see a weblogger publish an article called "100 things about a blogger," usually written about himself. That's not quite my style, but I've recently been thinking about an interesting alternative: 25 Strange Things I Believe. I've decided to write that about myself. Perhaps others will pick it up.
Twenty-Five Strange Things Dean Esmay Believes
1. In 1963, a moody, disaffected Marxist named Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy. He acted alone.
2. It is certainly possible that sentient creatures from outer space have visited the Earth and interacted with humans. But it is exceedingly unlikely.
3. Real chile has no beans or tomatoes in it.
4. Non-religious wars have killed far more people than religious wars.
5. Rigidly secularist regimes have proven themselves to be as potentially dangerous and oppressive as the world's worst theocracies.
6. In 1993, a moderately important White House aide named Vince Foster shot and killed himself, for entirely personal reasons.
7. Those who say the Holocaust was wildly exaggerated may certainly be on to something. But it's far more likely that they are wackos and Jew-bashing creeps.
8. The worst thing about Senator Joe McCarthy was that he prevented too many good people from recognizing the truth about communism.
9. Comic books and cartoons are subtle, complex, and interesting art forms. They have as much potential as novels, film, painting, sculpture, or music.
10. Marxism is a secular religion with less basis in reality than most fairy tales. It killed more people in the 20th Century than Christianity did in the previous 19.
11. Feminism, as represented by organizations such as the National Organization for Women, and by writers such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, is a fundamentally misogynist worldview.
12. Most of the advances women have achieved in Western society have had very little to do with feminism as a political movement.
13. Women did not "win" the right to vote, or give it to themselves. Men decided that they deserved it and irrevocably gave it to them. The men who decided that women should have this right were often in disagreement with their wives, mothers, and sisters. Men owe women no apologies for any of this, and none whatsoever for taking a few generations to think about it.
14. Television does not rot your brain. Neither do pop or rap or rock'n'roll. But going without these things once in a while is probably healthy.
15. HIV may have little or nothing to do with AIDS.
16. By insisting that "being gay is not a choice," gay rights activists have helped themselves in some ways, but hurt themselves in others.
17. Attempting to win any argument by saying "you can't possibly understand" is both foolish and counterproductive. And it is probably wrong.
18. Most people have no idea what Chicago-style pizza is. For starters, it's generally no more than an inch or so thick.
19. Obesity is not caused by overeating, or by psychological problems, or by lack of willpower, or lack of discipline. Regular exercise combined with moderate calorie, moderate-fat diet almost invariably fails to correct this problem.
20. Almost all conspiracy theories are pernicious and corrosive--and wrong.
21. Centuries from now, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon will generally be regarded as a great 20th century musical masterpiece.
22. English teachers serve a useful purpose, but, in many ways, they ruin the language and destroy budding writers. Most people who teach English do not speak "proper English" at all, but a strange pseudo-language that only looks somewhat like English.
23. Evil is a real thing, and can be objectively defined.
24. Most women do not support "a woman's right to choose" in the way that groups like NARAL or NOW espouse it. Neither are they "pro-life" in ways that groups like Operation Rescue would wish. But as a rule, women are less pro-choice on abortion than men are.
25. We should always be reluctant, but willing, to conclude that everything we thought we knew about a subject--any subject--might be completely wrong. This does not come naturally to most humans, but it can be learned.
8. I would agree, but that's only because McCarthy was stopped. Destroying our Democracy ourselves would have been far, far worse than remaining naive about the dangers of the spread of Communism.
15. You're nuts Dean.
19. Have to disagree with you there. Obesity is curable, and more often than not it's bad habits and psychological health issues.
22. That's a good point, but really and truly, most budding writers should be destroyed (read some fanfic sometime, it'll change your mind right quick). If they don't have the passion to overrule criticism then they'll almost assuredly not be good writers anyway.
Otherwise I mostly agree.
I completely agree that budding writers need a lot of criticism, and need to learn how to take it. I just don't see that as being in conflict with #22. ;-)
As a rule, I don't bother to engage Holocaust deniers in any kind of debate. But since I don't consider you in that group, I would like focus on this point:
7. "...on to something"? Please explain.
1. Yeah, most likely. Or maybe Oswald was in with one or two other nutcases like himself, who slipped away. (If you assume a lone gunman, those bullet paths are a doozy.) But Oliver Stone is crazy.
9. Definitely! Among comics, Alan Moore's Miracleman or Matt Wagner's Mage; or for that matter, the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four from the 1960's. Among cartoons, everything from the Roadrunner to the Japanese anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.
14. Ummmm... From your mid teens onward, probably. But I do worry about younger kids. What baleful (perhaps permanent) impact do thousands of hours of TV viewing have on the neural pathways being configured in a child's brain?
22. Yes! My English teachers all took it as axiomatic that grammar could be reduced to a finite list of "thou shalt's" and "thou shalt not's." Fortunately I started reading linguistics young. They also killed poetry for me. Rumpty-dumpty-dump, rumpty-bumpty-bump! I never dreamed what power the poet can wield, until years later I discovered Dylan Thomas.
Ara: 7. "...on to something"? Please explain.
First: see item #2.
Second: I could certainly accept, as an intellectual exercise, that "only" hundreds of thousands, rather than millions, of cripples, slavs, catholics, dissidents, gypsies and jews died in Hitler's camps.
To make it more than an intellectual exercise, I merely require evidence. It had better be good.
(By the same token, you could well convince me that it was tens of millions, rather than "merely" millions. Evidence, please?)
Paul B.: Right on. :-)
On #21, what about Electric Music for Mind and Body, by Country Joe and the Fish? Between that and Dark Side of the Moon, no one will remember the Beatles or Elvis.
On #19, wait, is this serious? Then I must confirm that modern medicine is completely wrong about diet and obesity. Calories and Fat have very little to do with obesity. It's not the steak, it's the potatoes and the rolls. At least in my family.
On #15, you and Peter Duesberg are only half right, 'cause there's no AIDS without HIV. Ignore infection vectors at your peril.
#6 begs the question, which is less about the cause of death and more about who moved the body.
#4 depends on #10 being wrong, cause Stalin alone skews the numbers the other way. (as you seem to note)
And #8 is wrong because no GOOD people failed to recognize the truth about communism. Now that I think about it, Senator Joe, by discrediting the HUAC may have been partly responsible for the backlash that spawned the lefty disaster of the 1960s and 70s.
Michael: There is an obscure disease known as Idiopathic Cytopathic Lymphoma #4. It primarily afflicts gay men. They develop a skin condition called Kaposi's Sarcoma, they drop weight at a frighteningly fast clip, and their T-cell counts dwindle to nearly nothing. In the end, they usually develop pneumonia and die.
Sufferers of ICL4 are are HIV-negative, however. Hence the "idiopathic." (Look it up.)
This particular disease remains largely uninvestigated, but the CDC and others acknowledge that it exists.
We also have people who have been diagnosed as HIV-positive for more than 15 years now, yet remain symptom-free.
So. We have a disease with symptoms identical to AIDS except there's no HIV antibody present. And we have people who are HIV+ who never get sick. What does that prove?
Theory 1 is that the retrovirologists are correct about retroviruses being complex and unpredictable. And it is certainly the case that some people carry diseases without ever developing symptoms.
Theory 2 is that Duesberg (and others--he is far from alone) are on to something.
In any case, while Duesberg may be wrong, his treatment by the scientific community is genuinely frightening to me.
As for the Country Joe album: I've never even heard of it. Is it really that good? Or are you being sardonic?
It's kinda unlikely I would agree with your every last proposition (and qualification thereof) but as a set they spell sanity.
Second: I could certainly accept, as an intellectual exercise, that "only" hundreds of thousands, rather than millions, of cripples, slavs, catholics, dissidents, gypsies and jews died in Hitler's camps.
"Intellectual exercise?"
Uh, right.
I feel like I'm talking to Franklin Roosevelt in 1942.
And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
[pause, then the sound of footsteps echoing down a marble hallway, receding into the distance. Sound of door closing. Fade to black.]
Oh, go tell it to the Kulaks. Or the Kurds.
As an intellectual exercise, I could accept that my mother was born on Alpha Centauri and that George W. Bush is a cyborg sent back from the 30th Century to crush Saddam Hussein.
Al Gore, on the other hand IS a cyborg.
I think YOU'RE the cyborg, pal. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
:^)
I don't recall ever denying this.
You crack me up!
Hanging out here is like being the last one standing at the end of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
I interviewed Michael Kinsley once, back in early 1995. When I told him at the outset that I was a Democrat, he said, "When you're done, would you please turn out the light?"
There is nothing sardonic about Country Joe. It is, however, obscure, just like those with AIDS who have no HIV. Most AIDS patients have an HIV infection. It is not unusual for some carriers of a virus to be asymptomatic. It is not unusual for different disease agents to cause similar symptomatology. And is it also not unusual for any establishment of orthodoxy to attempt to destroy one of their own who does not toe the party line. Besides Duesberg and Atkins, there have been many doctors and other professionals who have been cast out when they announce that their emperor is sartorially challenged.
Hmmmmmmmm,
"1. In 1963, a moody, disaffected Marxist named Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy. He acted alone."
First, I think you are way way off on this one. As an expert rifle shot myself and one who has visited the book depository, there is no friggin way!!! I'm a much better shot than LHO and I would have been *lucky to hit Kennedy even once.
Let's wait til the files are opened on this one though.
*Lucky is probably the wrong word to use. I am only referring to Kennedy as a target in this instance. I would never advocate the senseless killing of another human being.
"22. English teachers serve a useful purpose, but, in many ways, they ruin the language and destroy budding writers. Most people who teach English do not speak "proper English" at all, but a strange pseudo-language that only looks somewhat like English."
I love the fact that our language - "Americanese" is evolving, changing, etc...
and I love the fact that it pisses off the "old guard" of english speakers who have managed to develop and flaunt their superiority of the english language running around correcting everyone's grammar and word usage.
Ohhhhh, so you're so good at speaking english!!! I am indeed impressed....get over it....communication is the key, not pharisitical worship of a language that is changing everyday. I respect an effective sanitation worker much more than I respect someone who can diagram sentences.
"23. Evil is a real thing, and can be objectively defined."
True, true, true. Bud Selig proves this each season. Seriously though, even as a non-theist, I find your statement impossible to disagree with.
Tim
Last year, a special on the History Channel showed a team of ballstic experts and conspiracy theorists, using lasers, dummies, and a convertible limo. With the Daley Plaza cleared for a day special just for them, they determined that (A) the grassy knoll was a simply impossible shot, (B) the spot where Oswald shot from required no "magic bullet," and (C) nothing in this was in conflict with the Zapruder film.
The team also concluded that several other possible locations given by conspiracy theorists were utterly impossible shots. The show also demonstrated that a normal military-trained shooter, with no marksmanship training at all, could have made those shots with a bolt-action rifle if he just had a sharp eye, didn't hesitate, and some luck--and not a phenomenal amount of luck, either.
You may, of course, believe as you will. I stand by my conclusion: Oswald acted alone.
I agree he acted alone. I could have made that shot, before my training as a marksman.
I really want to believe that Oswald acted alone. That would make everything nice and tidy. I cannot though. I don't know what kind of marksman you are, but I think you are overestimating your skill. I have seen reenactments of the event with various claims of the ability of a person to fire three quick shots on a moving target (even a slow moving one) with a bolt action rifle....sorry, it just ain't happening.
Tim
FYI, I have no need whatsoever to over estimate. If I say I can do something...you can lay your life savings on the fact that it's a safe bet!
The people that know me - can attest to that.
These pretzels are making me thirsty!!!
Tim
Did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps LHO was trying to shoot out the tires and was a really, really bad shot? Just wondering?
13. I'm not saying men need to apologize, but the way you phrase your belief, on Women's getting the right to vote, made it seem like it was ALL the mens idea only, and the only input from women was in opposition.
22. Obviously English teachers never made a dent in my run on sentances.
Marsha,
Re: 13
Right. That's exactly right.
Well, look. There's this whole romantic vision of these Suffragettes fighting like brave warriors, wresting the right to vote away from neanderthal men who didn't want to give it to them.
But the facts are:
1) Women didn't take the franchise by force; men gave it to them.
2) After 10,000 years of human history, it took only a couple of generations of women asking for the franchise before men decided they deserved it.
3) One of the reasons it took those men a few generations to think about it that a lot of women didn't give a damn, and a lot of other women--smart, thoughtful, independent minded women, sometimes--sometimes actively opposed it.
When the chips were down, and men had to finally make the choice, as a group they said, "okay, if that's what you want, here you go." And gave women that right, no strings attached.
This is utterly remarkable. It says all kinds of things to men's credit. Too bad so much of our society is so mean-spirited they refuse to look at it that way.
Never said women took anything by force.
The 10,000 years of human history weren't all democratic or all patriartical either.
from http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/documents.htm
In New Jersey women could vote in 1790s until written out in 1807.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa031600a.htm
Kentucky gives, removes, and gives back some voting rights in 1894,1902,1912 respectivley.
And while "a lot" of women oppossed it, as I mentioned, the way it was phrased men practically forced the right on women.
Marsha
enneagram type 5 with strong 9
The Intense, Cerebral Type
The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type
Please objectively define evil. Thank you.
The short answer?
That which kills human beings for the pleasure of killing them, or which oppresses human freedom.
Hitler was evil.
Mao was evil.
Totalitarian ideologies are evil.
Cancer is evil.
If I were a religious man, this would be an easier thing to define. I'm not, but this is as close as I can come in a few words.