I heard it from the left throughout the Cold War regarding the Russians.  If we understood them a little better, we would see what nice folks they really are. After all, they are just failed Communists. They really are not doing it right, you see. If WE were doing Communism, we would get it right and it would really be a worker’s paradise.  There are no Gulags, no mass starvation, and no Russian troops fomenting wars on 3 continents.  Khrushchev was misquoted when he said “We will bury you. “

In the 1960s, many of these folks said “We can work with the Soviets.” President Kennedy’s response to them was “Let them come to Berlin!”

It is easy, cheap, and cowardly to empathize and memorialize victims, while avoiding confrontation with the barbarian aggressors.  It costs little to pile flowers and candles at a makeshift shrine. It costs a bit more to go after murderers and kill them.

Now the current enemy, and the current apology du jour, are for Muslim terrorists.

Now, the apologists try to make the argument that anyone who commits an act of violence in the guise of a Muslim terrorist is just a bad Muslim.  Never mind that they tell us loudly that they are Muslims. Never mind that they are venerated by Muslims in the street after their noisy demise. If the apologists, who are usually not Muslims, could only explain it to them, things would be fine.  That is not what they are really about.

I am reminded of the scholar who argued passionately that the Odyssey was not written by Homer, but by another Greek of the same name.

People can argue themselves into the most absurd points of view, laying all common sense aside.

The other talking point is that Muslims practice a philosophy of peace, and we should never fight back against it. Charles Martel would be amused at that point of view.

Charles Martel was the bastard son of a minor politician, who by virtue of his strength and military ability , rose to power in 8^th century( what would become, )  France.  In his time, Muslim conquest, begun just after the death of Mohammed in the late 7^th Century, had spread for 100 years to include most of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain.   The depredations were brutal, and Martel looked at the situation in Iberia (Spain) with alarm.

In his judgment, it would not be possible to hold back this coming invasion of the Frankish kingdoms with the usual Middle Ages response of calling the men up for service after the harvest. He would need a standing army; trained, fed and supported, and ready at a moment’s notice. He could supplement it with call ups, but either he would have his standing Army, or Gaul would fall to the Saracens (Muslims.)

(Indeed, from the hindsight of history, it is likely that had Martel not prevailed, the Muslim conquest would have swept across Europe, even into England.  In fact, the Reconquista of Iberia, i.e. the retaking of Spain from the Muslim conquerors, took 7 centuries.  It was finally completed early in 1492. Now where have I heard that date before? )

However, Charles Martel did not fail. He confiscated properties of the Church, and used it to feed his soldiers.  (This got him in a bit of hot water with the Church, but since he subsequently stopped the invading Muslims, all was forgiven.) By the time of the Battle of Tours, Oct 10, 732, he had 80,000 heavy infantry under his command. He soundly defeated the invading Abdul Rahman, leaving over 10,000 dead, including Rahman himself. This was the high water point of the Muslim advance into Europe until Suleiman in 1529.

So, what is the point of this brief history lesson?  In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, it has become fashionable to march with arms linked, and wear a T shirt that says, I am Charlie Hebdo.  Empathy with the victims. If you attack them, you attack me.  That has a certain “We are the World “appeal to some, I suppose.  Still, Charles did not wander around Tours wearing a tunic emblazoned with “I am Bordeaux.” (A city the Muslim invaders sacked and looted, just prior to meeting Charles) Instead, he earned the appellation “Martel” (The Hammer) for the way he hammered his enemy, and drove them back, and out of France.

He did not wear a black arm band, nor did he stand with his head held high and defy the attackers with flowers.  Instead, he recognized the coming threat, took steps to prepare for them, and met them at Tours and shattered them.  Even he was surprised that after the 1^st day of battle, the survivors simply dropped all their loot and ran for home.  But run they did, and the Battle of Tours ranks as one of the 15 most important battles in history.  The history of Europe for the next 1500 years, and the history of America turned on the outcome of that battle, and the deeds and life of that one man, who was supposed to have faded into obscurity.

So, I’ll empathize with the French.  (For all the jokes about the French Army surrendering every morning, just in case there is an enemy close enough to hear them, I’m glad they came in the 1700s to help us.) I’ll empathize with a brave and bold Frenchman as well

But I don’t want to say to the French, or the terrorists, “Hey, I’m just as brave as the last victims.”  I want to say, if your choice is to be barbarians, then look to your lives.

We are not Charlie Hebdo.

We are Charles Martel.

Tags: DOUG SMITH, FSP

What lie behind us and what lies before us is overshadowed by ‘what lies within us’

TANSTAAFL….

So the other day, among my other junk mail, I got a check. Now we are all looking for that million dollar check in the mail, and I’ll bet the creamer in my next cup of coffee many of you out there have gotten this same check.

It was a sign and spend check, free money, for $15,000. Free money. So easy. Just sign it, and spend it, and take care of Christmas. Except of course, it was not free at all. It was a loan, initiated if I were foolish enough to sign that check, and the usurious rate of 29% interest. The bills would be coming in about now.

Now it got me to pondering whether the old adage is right. “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. “ (TANSTAAFL) Robert Heinlein immortalized the saying as the national motto of a group of independent minded stubborn cusses on the moon, who had a nasty habit of paying their debts, and working for what they got. (And distrusting government, but that is, perhaps, another article.)

Where did the notion of a free lunch come from? Actually beer halls and bars used to use the “free lunch” as a hook to bring patrons into their bar. Of course, that lunch was not free at all, or you’d be paying 3 cents instead of a nickel for that beer. Or those 4 beers. The mark up on the nickel beers they sold you, in return for a free lunch, was such that they could give you all the sandwiches you cared to eat as long as you were buying their beer and still make money off of you.

For some, there is that deep seated “beat the system” urge to get something for free. Those who have gambled in Vegas can tell you that the house always wins, if you keep playing. The free lunch bars always win. And the free lunch politicians always win. TANSTAAFL. You pay more for the beer than your lunch is worth, you may win $100 bucks on blackjack, then lose it back on roulette, and politicians who pay you off with your money get elected, then, to your dismay, pay their promised free lunch to you by making you pay more taxes on your food. Even the free part. Wow, that doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Of course, if you keep the basic principle in mind, then it is fair. For then you will never fall for the long con that promises something for nothing. TANSTAAFL. Nothing in this world is free. If someone is offering you something for free, hold on to your wallet: he is picking your pocket.

Governors are wavering toward the promise of free money in the form of subsidies for ACA approved policies which are so overpriced no one can afford them. If they play ball with the Fed, they get the money, and their constituents can afford the Unaffordable Affordable Care Act policies. For a while. Except, guess what? The government has no money, and produces no goods or services. So, where does it get the money to give to the states to give to the people to pay for an overpriced, unaffordable, and unwanted insurance policy? Here’s a hint: you are about to get your W-2 in the mail. That s right campers, you pay for the largess of the overly generous politicians. You pay in higher taxes. Have fun come April 15. You pay in reduced buying power of your dollar as the government prints money by the Trillions. Money that doesn’t exist. Money that devalues your dollar every day. If you or I did it, it would be counterfeiting, and a federal crime, punishable by a huge fine and 25 years in prison. Enemies have used counterfeiting as a weapon to devalue and undermine the economy of countries with whom they are at war. But as the government and the Fed does it, you simply get the bill.

Haven’t seen that bill come in the mail? Run to the grocery store and try to buy a piece of beef. Wonder why you are paying half again what you were 6 years ago? That is your bill for all the freebies the government is handing out.

We see it in our schools as well. The School Building Authority offers millions to local school boards to build new buildings, but no one cent to maintain existing buildings. Not surprisingly, School Boards react like a good drug addict, selling moms false teeth and wedding ring to qualify for that 16 million dollar freebie. Except, of course, remember our rule about freebies? Who pays for them? TANSTAFL.

I was unsurprised recently to read of a local county school board preparing to build a new building. They were going to purchase a new piece of land for it at a cost of $300,000. Since the property was owned by one of the board members, she graciously recused herself from voting on whether or not to buy it. Conflict of interest, you say? Well perhaps it was. That never occurred to me. I’m sure no school board politicians would personally benefit from the millions of public largess intended for the good of the voters, and the children of their county. Oh wait, remember our rule? Where do freebies come from? And who do they ultimately benefit?

TANSTAAFL. It’s a good word. Remember it. And remember the fellow who insists he wants to give you or your neighbor’s freebies has already planned how he is going to pick your pocket to do it.

But there just ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Tags: DOUG SMITH, FSP

FSP moderator:  While this column has a local flavor, historian Doug Smith takes us on a journey to a time when honesty and integrity were virtuous parts of journalism.  I think you’ll enjoy this piece and the photo gallery.

Dec. 07, 2014 @ 12:01 AM

 

I remember television. I was born in 1955, the first generation growing up with television, Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Cartoon. I grew up with fuzzy, black-and-white images, the test pattern, “This just in” and “Film at 11.” They really did develop “film” for the 11 o’clock news. And, they had Bos Johnson.

When Bos started on WSAZ, I was a kid, bored by the news, but not by Mr. Cartoon. I grew up watching Jule Huffman. But Bos meant the news and I didn’t care. I ate ice cream while Dad watched, and I heard that familiar voice say, “This is Bos Johnson, from Huntington. Good night.”

When I was 8, one story touched me. I watched, stunned, as we heard our President was dead; as a little boy tried to be brave while his daddy’s body passed; as millions said a tearful goodbye. And again, that familiar voice,

“This is Bos Johnson, from Huntington. Good night.”

Then there were reports from Da Nang, Saigon, and Hanoi. Boys little older than me were going to fight in mud and heat, halfway round the world in Vietnam. They were coming back hurt, broken, or not at all. Dad was glued to the reports on the war. I remember asking “Are we really in a war?” but I can’t remember Dad’s answer. But I realized that soon I would be old enough to go off with them. And I started to watch the news with him. Amid all this, I heard that familiar voice:

“This is Bos Johnson, from Huntington. Good night. ”

There came that awful day for all of Huntington, when the plane crashed, killing our Marshall football team, our friends and our innocence. A wound opened in all of us. At the end of that day, for once, that familiar voice failed him.

That night, Bos could not say the words. It was OK, Bos; we didn’t have words either. The broadcast day just ended.

In my senior year Watergate was the news. Our familiar voice asked the first question in the last press conference for Richard Nixon: “Mr. President, will you resign?” A week later President Nixon did just that. Soon afterward, I joined the Navy and left Huntington. I heard, for nearly the last time, “This is Bos Johnson, from Huntington. Good night.”

Two years later, while I was half a world away, Bos Johnson retired from WSAZ.

I came home again and was glad to see Bos, along with his wife Dottie, briskly debating the issues of the day in a different format. A more weathered Bos, but still that same familiar voice that narrated so much of my life was there one more time.

And now, sadly, he is gone.

For decades of honest reporting, the integrity you brought to a new industry, and setting the bar for quality reporting in our small corner of Almost Heaven, thank you.

So, from all of us here in the Huntington viewing area, back to you, Bos Johnson, reporting from Heaven, good night.

Tags: DOUG SMITH, FSP

Not that you lied to me, but that I no longer believe you, has shaken me

Friedrich Neitzche

Lying doesn’t matter. It’s ok, especially if you are telling a lie in order to further something you believe. Even if what you believe is also a lie. Any of us can say anything we want, and it never matters. There are no consequences for being an untruthful person. That is the lesson of modern America.

In 1988, a 15 year old girl in New York created a story about being raped, assaulted, and smeared with feces by a gang of white men. A civil rights huckster named Al Sharpton accused a police officer who had recently committed suicide and a prosecutor named Steven Pagones. When asked what proof he had, Sharpton huffed “I have Tawana Brawley’s words.”

The NY Attorney General had a security guard from the lawyers “advising” Brawley who testified before the grand jury that they all knew from the start she was lying. As it turns out, none of them had anything but a sensational story, with racial overtones, which brought them a lot of attention. Tawana Brawley made up the story to cover being out late with her boyfriend.

Steven Pagones sued for defamation of character, and was awarded 85,000, which Sharpton did not pay. It was paid for him by Johnny Cochran and other supporters.

Brawley is a nurse in Florida.   She was ordered to pay 450,000 in damages, but refused until 2013 when a judge ordered her wages garnished. 26 years after the fact she has paid less than 4, 000 dollars

Today, Sharpton is worth millions. (Even counting the 1.2 mill in back taxes he refuses to pay. Someone call Lois Lerner. ) He gets paid 6 figures by MSNBC. He has been to the White House 85 times. Not bad for a boy Pentecostal preacher from Brooklyn. Guess the Gospel was not paying him so well. Hate, it seems, sells better.

Dorian Johnson began the mythical story “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” Given the way of things. It will be in history books in 20 years. The problem of course, is that it never happened.

Reports proved  that Brown was not shot in the back, did not have his hands up, and had been shot at close range on one hand (consistent with Wilson’s story about a struggle for his gun in the patrol car). He also had enough THC in his body to cause hallucinations.

Johnson has not been charged in the robbery, or for his false reports.

Bill Clinton’s now infamous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss Lewinsky” is the stuff of legend.  Impeached, but not convicted, he is still the Grand Old Man of the Democrats.

Barack Obama: Keep your plan and 6 years of lies, and his consequences?  The Democrats lost both Houses of Congress, but not him.  The GOP withheld funding, then caved. He is very unpopular, which no longer matters.

Brawley, Sharpton, Clinton, Obama, Johnson, all liars; all without consequence, apparently better off for the lie than without it.

Lesson for our culture: Lie.

Truth doesn’t matter. Truth and integrity are outdated social mores.

“That I know longer believe you, has shaken me.”  And it has shaken our society, not for the better.

Tags: DOUG SMITH, FSP