This is a movie trailer for the 1958 Lewis Milestone Korean War epic, "Pork Chop Hill", starring Gregory Peck, who also co-produced it.
It's the kind of film made about the Korean War prior to Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H.", which was adapted into the long-running tv series of the same name, beginning in 1972, in that its politics are uncompromisingly anti-Communist, and its depictions of the Chinese and North Koreans are, at best, on the unflattering side.
This is something that the tv version of "MASH" tried, a bit too hard, really, to correct, and ended up making the South Korean soldiery among the main nasties as a result.
In fact, one of the less happy legacies of the tv version of "MASH" is that the Koreans ended up as usually either victims, comic relief or villains.
Be seeing you.
11 August 2007
10 August 2007
Propaganda In Action 8
The next entry in the Propaganda In Action series comes from the Soviet Union, and is a 1924 animated short, "Interplanetary Revolution", in which two Red Army aviators fly to Mars to spread the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution and overthrown the Martian capitalist nasties running the joint.
I don't know if this film was released around the same time as "Aelita", a live-action feature film with essentially the same premise as "Interplanetary Revolution", but it is interesting to see that there were two such experiments with science fiction in the Soviet Union at around the same time period in the mid-1920's.
"Interplanetary Revolution"'s main defects are, of course, the ham-handed propaganda running throughout its imagery and story-line, and, worse to my mind, the wandering story-line that makes it rather hard to follow at times.
Still, even if for no other reason, check this out to see an example of early Soviet science fiction, which is a literary and film genre still relatively unknown in the West.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
I don't know if this film was released around the same time as "Aelita", a live-action feature film with essentially the same premise as "Interplanetary Revolution", but it is interesting to see that there were two such experiments with science fiction in the Soviet Union at around the same time period in the mid-1920's.
"Interplanetary Revolution"'s main defects are, of course, the ham-handed propaganda running throughout its imagery and story-line, and, worse to my mind, the wandering story-line that makes it rather hard to follow at times.
Still, even if for no other reason, check this out to see an example of early Soviet science fiction, which is a literary and film genre still relatively unknown in the West.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
09 August 2007
Classic Japanese Anime: "The Spider and the Tulip"
Our second, and last, piece of classic Japanese anime comes from 1943, and is entitled "The Spider and the Tulip". The plot concerns the attempts by an evil spider, drawn with a stereotypical African-American face, and with a deep baritone-bass voice that calls to mind what a Japanese Paul Robeson would have sounded like, to lure a young ladybug girl into his web.
The spider, however, fails in these attempts, and comes to a sticky end(no pun intended)in a violent rain storm.
The most striking things about "The Spider and the Tulip", aren't the plot nor characters, but the renderings of the vegetation, sky and weather effects in the cartoon, some of which are very well done indeed.
In closing, one thing I should have warned you about in the earlier post, and am doing so here, and that's the lack of English sub-titles for the titles and dialogue in both films.
However, the films are made well enough that I believe one can reasonably follow the action without need of sub-titles.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
The spider, however, fails in these attempts, and comes to a sticky end(no pun intended)in a violent rain storm.
The most striking things about "The Spider and the Tulip", aren't the plot nor characters, but the renderings of the vegetation, sky and weather effects in the cartoon, some of which are very well done indeed.
In closing, one thing I should have warned you about in the earlier post, and am doing so here, and that's the lack of English sub-titles for the titles and dialogue in both films.
However, the films are made well enough that I believe one can reasonably follow the action without need of sub-titles.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Classic Japanese Anime: "Fox and Raccoon Trick Each Other"
We take a break from the Propaganda In Action series of videos here to show a piece of vintage Japanese anime, entitled UGOKIE-KO-RI-NO-TATEHIKI(Fox and Raccoon Trick Each Other(1933).
This early Japanese sound cartoon, heavily influenced by the style of Max Fleischer's Paramount cartoons, concerns a battle of wits between a fox disguised as a samurai and an Asian raccoon father and son duo at an abandoned temple on a dark night.
Had heard someplace that some of the foundation for what to-day's anime productions, especially in its visual style, had been influenced by Fleischer's cartoons, and this production seems to bear that out.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
This early Japanese sound cartoon, heavily influenced by the style of Max Fleischer's Paramount cartoons, concerns a battle of wits between a fox disguised as a samurai and an Asian raccoon father and son duo at an abandoned temple on a dark night.
Had heard someplace that some of the foundation for what to-day's anime productions, especially in its visual style, had been influenced by Fleischer's cartoons, and this production seems to bear that out.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 7
This final film clip from Nazi Germany is a live-action one, and is the most disturbing of all, as it comes from Fritz Hippler's 1940 "documentary", "Der Ewige Jude"(The Eternal Jew), a thoroughly nasty piece of anti-Semitic propaganda as one is likely to find.
In this clip, a brief history of Jewish settlement and immigration patterns is given, and is compared to that of rats, with, so the documentary states, much the same destructive effects on human society.
Also found here is an assertion that Jews infiltrate their way into their various host societies, and copy the ways and mores of their hosts, all in the interest of eventually taking over those societies(that last part isn't directly stated in this clip, but it's certainly implied).
The "documentary" builds its case for anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic measures both through the distorted use of history and statistics, and through footage of Jews, especially Polish Jews, on the streets of their ghettoes, and dressed up in Western European, middle-class, clothing in a film studio, or wherever that footage was shot.
"Der Ewige Jude" exemplifies the kind of eugenicist-racist form of anti-Semitism, as opposed to the traditional European religious form,that had taken hold in much of Europe and the Americas, beginning in the mid-19th Century, but reaching its zenith in the early and mid-20th Centuries, when this was made.
It also, like its kin below, helped lay the ideological ground-work for the German public's acceptance of anti-Semitism as state policy, and, eventually for the deportations and destruction of much of European Jewry in the death camps of Poland.
What this clip has in common with all of the clips displayed here, besides being made in the same time period, is the use of visual, aural and spoken rhetoric, combined with exaggerated and deliberately distorted interpretations of history, to make its case for a set of policies and actions that, if plainly stated, would be indefensible in the extreme.
Propaganda, no matter who makes and issues it, is dangerous to any even relatively free society, because of its use of deliberate distortions,half-truths, partial truths, and outright lies, to sell a particular product, service, ideology, or course of policy and action.
Whether overt, as the examples shown here thus far are, or insidious, propaganda seeks to influence public debate and courses of action based on that debate by steering the former into a direction that will benefit one person or group at the expense of others, and get the latter to cheerfully support whatever actions that person or group takes, no matter what the consequences.
Propaganda is a form of elaborate con-job, in which not just one person, or a small group of people, but a society, or set of societies as a whole, are the marks, just ripe for being taken to the cleaners.
In the case of Nazi Germany, its people weren't only taken to the cleaners, they were driven to the poor-house and then some.
That's why, especially in a country at war, as we are now, it's important to get one's information from a variety of sources, so as to at least have some basis of comparing the information that one gets from one or another source.
Otherwise, it's just too easy to be conned.
Be seeing you.
In this clip, a brief history of Jewish settlement and immigration patterns is given, and is compared to that of rats, with, so the documentary states, much the same destructive effects on human society.
Also found here is an assertion that Jews infiltrate their way into their various host societies, and copy the ways and mores of their hosts, all in the interest of eventually taking over those societies(that last part isn't directly stated in this clip, but it's certainly implied).
The "documentary" builds its case for anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic measures both through the distorted use of history and statistics, and through footage of Jews, especially Polish Jews, on the streets of their ghettoes, and dressed up in Western European, middle-class, clothing in a film studio, or wherever that footage was shot.
"Der Ewige Jude" exemplifies the kind of eugenicist-racist form of anti-Semitism, as opposed to the traditional European religious form,that had taken hold in much of Europe and the Americas, beginning in the mid-19th Century, but reaching its zenith in the early and mid-20th Centuries, when this was made.
It also, like its kin below, helped lay the ideological ground-work for the German public's acceptance of anti-Semitism as state policy, and, eventually for the deportations and destruction of much of European Jewry in the death camps of Poland.
What this clip has in common with all of the clips displayed here, besides being made in the same time period, is the use of visual, aural and spoken rhetoric, combined with exaggerated and deliberately distorted interpretations of history, to make its case for a set of policies and actions that, if plainly stated, would be indefensible in the extreme.
Propaganda, no matter who makes and issues it, is dangerous to any even relatively free society, because of its use of deliberate distortions,half-truths, partial truths, and outright lies, to sell a particular product, service, ideology, or course of policy and action.
Whether overt, as the examples shown here thus far are, or insidious, propaganda seeks to influence public debate and courses of action based on that debate by steering the former into a direction that will benefit one person or group at the expense of others, and get the latter to cheerfully support whatever actions that person or group takes, no matter what the consequences.
Propaganda is a form of elaborate con-job, in which not just one person, or a small group of people, but a society, or set of societies as a whole, are the marks, just ripe for being taken to the cleaners.
In the case of Nazi Germany, its people weren't only taken to the cleaners, they were driven to the poor-house and then some.
That's why, especially in a country at war, as we are now, it's important to get one's information from a variety of sources, so as to at least have some basis of comparing the information that one gets from one or another source.
Otherwise, it's just too easy to be conned.
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 6
Again, from Nazi Germany, comes this anti-Semitic cartoon, "Das Guldende Baumchen", and, alas, I know not the date when it was made or who made it.
This cartoon, if I recall correctly, mixes colour cartoon footage with black-and-white "documentary" footage of "Jewish" urban decadence to make its point that the Jews are the disruptors of the "natural" order of life, as represented by the forest in the animated segments.
Warning: this video contains anti-Semitic visual and spoken rhetoric, so, those of you who may be strongly affected by it, are kindly warned not to view it.
Also, simply because this cartoon, as well as the one below it, and any others posted here, have been posted by me, it doesn't mean that I endorse the Nazi point of view on Jews, or anything else.
Have posted this here, in the hopes that, by seeing what kind of shit those bastards were using to sell their world-view to the German, and to a far lesser extent, the world's, public, one can better understand exactly WHY it became so easy for the Nazis to get the majority of Germans to go along with their policies and actions, including the Holocaust.
Also, by contrasting these examples of Nazi propaganda with American propaganda from the same period, one can also see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and their propaganda styles.
In the end, this series' purpose is to slightly better educate those of you out there seeing this to begin to critically analyse and evaluate the visual, aural and spoken rhetoric that one sees and hears every day, and to be able to accept or reject that rhetoric based on what it says and doesn't say.
Be seeing you.
This cartoon, if I recall correctly, mixes colour cartoon footage with black-and-white "documentary" footage of "Jewish" urban decadence to make its point that the Jews are the disruptors of the "natural" order of life, as represented by the forest in the animated segments.
Warning: this video contains anti-Semitic visual and spoken rhetoric, so, those of you who may be strongly affected by it, are kindly warned not to view it.
Also, simply because this cartoon, as well as the one below it, and any others posted here, have been posted by me, it doesn't mean that I endorse the Nazi point of view on Jews, or anything else.
Have posted this here, in the hopes that, by seeing what kind of shit those bastards were using to sell their world-view to the German, and to a far lesser extent, the world's, public, one can better understand exactly WHY it became so easy for the Nazis to get the majority of Germans to go along with their policies and actions, including the Holocaust.
Also, by contrasting these examples of Nazi propaganda with American propaganda from the same period, one can also see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and their propaganda styles.
In the end, this series' purpose is to slightly better educate those of you out there seeing this to begin to critically analyse and evaluate the visual, aural and spoken rhetoric that one sees and hears every day, and to be able to accept or reject that rhetoric based on what it says and doesn't say.
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 5
From the other side of the Atlantic, and the opposite side of World War Two, comes this 1940 German cartoon, "Der Stoerenfried", directed by Hans Held, and excerpted in the German documentary, "Hitler Traum Von Micky Maus".
The funny thing about "Der Stoerenfried" to me is how much of the basic plot is similar to those of Warner Bros., Paramount and other American studios' cartoons around the same period, and their depictions of war, as well.
The most striking feature of it for me isn't visual, but aural, when, in one scene, a wasp, echoing both in behaviour and sound, that of a Stuka dive-bomber, dive-bombs the hapless fox, who is the villain of this cartoon.
The sound used is taken from the horn of a Stuka, which was built right into the plane's nose, and gained in volume as the plane dove towards its target, thus scaring the Hell out of anyone on the ground in the target's general vicinity.
It was a nasty bit of psychological warfare, but, at least for the first two years of World War Two, it worked rather well.
Both the cartoon and documentary in which it's excerpted are in German, with no English sub-titles, alas.
However, I think you should be able to get the general gist of the cartoon's plot from the action on-screen.
Be seeing you.
The funny thing about "Der Stoerenfried" to me is how much of the basic plot is similar to those of Warner Bros., Paramount and other American studios' cartoons around the same period, and their depictions of war, as well.
The most striking feature of it for me isn't visual, but aural, when, in one scene, a wasp, echoing both in behaviour and sound, that of a Stuka dive-bomber, dive-bombs the hapless fox, who is the villain of this cartoon.
The sound used is taken from the horn of a Stuka, which was built right into the plane's nose, and gained in volume as the plane dove towards its target, thus scaring the Hell out of anyone on the ground in the target's general vicinity.
It was a nasty bit of psychological warfare, but, at least for the first two years of World War Two, it worked rather well.
Both the cartoon and documentary in which it's excerpted are in German, with no English sub-titles, alas.
However, I think you should be able to get the general gist of the cartoon's plot from the action on-screen.
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 4
From Walt Disney Studios and RKO Radio Pictures comes this very famous 1942 Donald Duck cartoon, "Der Fuhrer's Face", in which the tune of the same name made its debut.
However, musically, lyrically and in performance, there are some considerable differences between the version on offer in the cartoon, and Spike Jones and His City Slickers' recording of it, as you will hear.
In the cartoon, Donald has a nightmare that he's trapped in Nazi Germany, and subjected to the mind- and spirit-killing routine of a German worker, while bombarded with all sorts of bombastic propaganda encouraging him to love the Fuhrer and so on.
Caricatures of Mussolini and Hirohito show up here, as per usual for World War Two propaganda cartoons, as does Goering, as the leader of a tin-horn brass band, and the cartoon's overall thrust is to depict Germany as a shortage-wracked despotism.
I believe that this cartoon, like the others below, came out in either 1942 or '43.
Germany of that period was indeed a despotism, but shortage-wracked???? No, it wasn't.
In fact, rationing and the switch to a total war economy really only began in Germany after the fall of Stalingrad in February, 1943, and was never entirely implemented, due to both the Nazi regime's and German people's memories of the kinds of material shortages that had taken place there during the First World War.
If anything, the Nazis were very fearful of a period of prolonged rationing and shortages, because those had been instrumental in the general disaffection of the German populace by the end of the First World War, and may have contributed to the revolt against the Kaiser's government, and his abdication shortly thereafter.
There's a similar playing of fast-and-loose with history in "The Ducktators", where Mussolini, whose regime emerged first in Italy in 1922, well before Hitler was even a nationally known figure in Germany, much less its leader, is portrayed as jumping on Hitler's band-waggon and being his stooge.
But, one shouldn't expect much in the way of accuracy from cartoons, especially those with propaganda points of their own to sell, yeah???
Be seeing you.
However, musically, lyrically and in performance, there are some considerable differences between the version on offer in the cartoon, and Spike Jones and His City Slickers' recording of it, as you will hear.
In the cartoon, Donald has a nightmare that he's trapped in Nazi Germany, and subjected to the mind- and spirit-killing routine of a German worker, while bombarded with all sorts of bombastic propaganda encouraging him to love the Fuhrer and so on.
Caricatures of Mussolini and Hirohito show up here, as per usual for World War Two propaganda cartoons, as does Goering, as the leader of a tin-horn brass band, and the cartoon's overall thrust is to depict Germany as a shortage-wracked despotism.
I believe that this cartoon, like the others below, came out in either 1942 or '43.
Germany of that period was indeed a despotism, but shortage-wracked???? No, it wasn't.
In fact, rationing and the switch to a total war economy really only began in Germany after the fall of Stalingrad in February, 1943, and was never entirely implemented, due to both the Nazi regime's and German people's memories of the kinds of material shortages that had taken place there during the First World War.
If anything, the Nazis were very fearful of a period of prolonged rationing and shortages, because those had been instrumental in the general disaffection of the German populace by the end of the First World War, and may have contributed to the revolt against the Kaiser's government, and his abdication shortly thereafter.
There's a similar playing of fast-and-loose with history in "The Ducktators", where Mussolini, whose regime emerged first in Italy in 1922, well before Hitler was even a nationally known figure in Germany, much less its leader, is portrayed as jumping on Hitler's band-waggon and being his stooge.
But, one shouldn't expect much in the way of accuracy from cartoons, especially those with propaganda points of their own to sell, yeah???
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 3
From 20th Century Fox and Terry Toons, comes "The Last Round Up", in which two American soldiers(wearing Model 1917 "soup-plate" helmets, so am willing to guess that this was made in early '42)are blown to Germany, where they proceed to wreak havoc there, and especially with Herr Hitler himself.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 2
From the Boys and Girls at Termite Terrace, aka the Warner Bros. Animation Studio, comes this 1942 effort, "The Ducktators", which depict Hitler as a sociopathic duck, Mussolini(in full Eye-Talian stereotype mode)as a dumb goose, and Hirohito(also in full Nip-Jap stereotype mode)as some sort of likewise demented bird, all bent on taking over a farmyard.
The argument used here, and in "Blitz Wolf", is that the efforts at appeasement made by the international community during the 1930's were dismal failures at best, and that force was the only way with which to deal with the Axis powers.
The use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in "The Ducktators"(one Nazified black duck uses full-on stereotypical African-American dialect, and hails from South Germany) is extremely apparent, unlike in "Blitz Wolf", where only Hitler is the target. However, there is a sign by the wise little pig's door in one scene that reads "No Japs(over a crossed out "Dogs")Allowed".
So, even in an otherwise relatively harmless anti-Nazi cartoon, one can see a bit of the general racism that characterised much of American popular culture before and during the Second World War.
Be seeing you.
The argument used here, and in "Blitz Wolf", is that the efforts at appeasement made by the international community during the 1930's were dismal failures at best, and that force was the only way with which to deal with the Axis powers.
The use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in "The Ducktators"(one Nazified black duck uses full-on stereotypical African-American dialect, and hails from South Germany) is extremely apparent, unlike in "Blitz Wolf", where only Hitler is the target. However, there is a sign by the wise little pig's door in one scene that reads "No Japs(over a crossed out "Dogs")Allowed".
So, even in an otherwise relatively harmless anti-Nazi cartoon, one can see a bit of the general racism that characterised much of American popular culture before and during the Second World War.
Be seeing you.
Propaganda In Action 1
Am starting a new series of video clips from YouTube here, which I call "Propaganda In Action", the first of which is a Tex Avery MGM cartoon from 1942, "Blitz Wolf", a re-telling of the Three Little Pigs story, with Hitler as the Big, Bad Wolf.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
08 August 2007
Attention, Radio Freaks!!!!! World Radio Broadcast Links!!!
Tired of your usual radio news, sports, talk, Top 40, Country, Public Radio, whatever, usual fare, Bunky????
Well, here's Unca Donald with the cure for your radio blues, on-line world broadcasting links!!!! Harvested by Yours Truly, so you don't have to!!!!
Let's start off with a broadcast outlet close to home. In fact, it's just north of the border, and that's the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's site, where you can get streaming audio of CBC 1, CBC 2 and CBC 3 programmes 24 hours a day at http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/radio/.
What, still too Yankified for y'all??? Sheesh!!!! Well, let's head on down Venezuela way, and remember to put on your Spanish language cap when ya do. Here's the addy to Radio Nacional de Venezuela, the government of Venezuela's outlet, at http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/.
Then, we take a spastic hop, skip and jump right next door to Venezuela's eastern neighbour, Guyana, and its broadcasting outlet, Voice of Guyana International, at http://www.voiceofguyana.com/.
Next, let's pop on down to Paraguay, in the heart of South America, and bop on over to to Radio Nacional de Paraguay's site, where you can get streaming audio broadcasts of Paraguayan music in Spanish and Guarani, the country's two official languages(Paraguay is the only country in the whole of the Americas which has a native language as one of its official languages)at http://www.rnpy.com/.
How'zabout a quick jolt over to Uruguay's broadcasting outlet, S.O.D.R.E.(Servicio Oficial de Difusion Radiotelevision y Espectaculos-Official Radio and Television News and Entertainment Service)at http://www.sodre.gub.uy/, and then to Argentina's Radio Nacional's site at http://www.radionacional.gov.ar/.
Now, let's take a quick trip to Radio New Zealand International's site at http://www.rnzi.com/index.php, Radio Australia's site at http://www.abc.net.au/ra/, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation's site at http://www.sibconline.com.sb/, and Radio Singapore International's site at http://www.rsi.sg/.
From South America, across the Pacific, and to Southeast Asia in four quick hops, all in comfort of your own home. Now, show me a travel agency that can give you a better deal than THAT, eh????
We'll stop our trip here, with these last two station links, the Voice of Vietnam at http://www.vovnews.vn/, and Radio Japan at http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/index_e.html.
I'll be back later with more world broadcast links for you to peruse, but I think this should hold you lot for now.
Whenever possible, I've tried to look for English-language pages where you can click onto English-language broadcasts from these outlets. But, for the ones I've not, either they don't have 'em, or you can find them by looking for a link marked "English", which is usually somewhere along the top portion of the site's home page.
Oh, just in case, these AREN'T enough for ya, ya spoilt brats, here's one last link, and that's to the British Forces Broadcasting Service(the British equivalent to the American Forces Radio and Television Service that broadcasts to American military folks overseas)'s home page at http://www.ssvc.com/bfbs/index.htm.
Got that??? OK, brilliant.
Well, enjoy this lot, and see ya with more whenever I feel like getting 'round to it.
Be seeing you.
Well, here's Unca Donald with the cure for your radio blues, on-line world broadcasting links!!!! Harvested by Yours Truly, so you don't have to!!!!
Let's start off with a broadcast outlet close to home. In fact, it's just north of the border, and that's the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's site, where you can get streaming audio of CBC 1, CBC 2 and CBC 3 programmes 24 hours a day at http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/radio/.
What, still too Yankified for y'all??? Sheesh!!!! Well, let's head on down Venezuela way, and remember to put on your Spanish language cap when ya do. Here's the addy to Radio Nacional de Venezuela, the government of Venezuela's outlet, at http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/.
Then, we take a spastic hop, skip and jump right next door to Venezuela's eastern neighbour, Guyana, and its broadcasting outlet, Voice of Guyana International, at http://www.voiceofguyana.com/.
Next, let's pop on down to Paraguay, in the heart of South America, and bop on over to to Radio Nacional de Paraguay's site, where you can get streaming audio broadcasts of Paraguayan music in Spanish and Guarani, the country's two official languages(Paraguay is the only country in the whole of the Americas which has a native language as one of its official languages)at http://www.rnpy.com/.
How'zabout a quick jolt over to Uruguay's broadcasting outlet, S.O.D.R.E.(Servicio Oficial de Difusion Radiotelevision y Espectaculos-Official Radio and Television News and Entertainment Service)at http://www.sodre.gub.uy/, and then to Argentina's Radio Nacional's site at http://www.radionacional.gov.ar/.
Now, let's take a quick trip to Radio New Zealand International's site at http://www.rnzi.com/index.php, Radio Australia's site at http://www.abc.net.au/ra/, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation's site at http://www.sibconline.com.sb/, and Radio Singapore International's site at http://www.rsi.sg/.
From South America, across the Pacific, and to Southeast Asia in four quick hops, all in comfort of your own home. Now, show me a travel agency that can give you a better deal than THAT, eh????
We'll stop our trip here, with these last two station links, the Voice of Vietnam at http://www.vovnews.vn/, and Radio Japan at http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/index_e.html.
I'll be back later with more world broadcast links for you to peruse, but I think this should hold you lot for now.
Whenever possible, I've tried to look for English-language pages where you can click onto English-language broadcasts from these outlets. But, for the ones I've not, either they don't have 'em, or you can find them by looking for a link marked "English", which is usually somewhere along the top portion of the site's home page.
Oh, just in case, these AREN'T enough for ya, ya spoilt brats, here's one last link, and that's to the British Forces Broadcasting Service(the British equivalent to the American Forces Radio and Television Service that broadcasts to American military folks overseas)'s home page at http://www.ssvc.com/bfbs/index.htm.
Got that??? OK, brilliant.
Well, enjoy this lot, and see ya with more whenever I feel like getting 'round to it.
Be seeing you.
An Essay By Paul Fussell For Hiroshima Day
To-day is 8th August, the 62nd anniversary of the Hiroshima A-Bombing.
To commemorate that event, have posted here a link to a 1987 essay by Paul Fussell, English scholar and World War Two veteran(European Theater of Operations), in which he points out that, while the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-Bombings can be seen in historical hindsight, and from a certain class and geographical distance, to be unjustified horrors, to those, like himself, who would have had to be on the ground in Japan, when Operation Olympic, the projected invasion of the Japanese mainland, happened, they came as a relief.
Fussell also points out the grim, uncompromising and grotesquely savage nature of the Pacific War, in which Japanese and American soldiers, sailors and marines alike butchered each other, and desecrated each other's corpses routinely.
This was as much a race war, as a war between two nations, and the Pacific War bears the trademarks of a race war-unfettered hatred, brutality, and out-right violation and murder of one side's combattants and civilians by the other.
Fussell also acknowledges that the Nuclear Age that followed was, and is, characterised by greed and ineptitude on the parts of those who exploit nuclear power. But, he also urges us not to lump in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings with that, as, like it or not, millions of lives were saved on the Allied and Japanese sides, since the projected invasion of mainland Japan, as well as Japanese-held territories like Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Viet-Nam, among others, didn't take place.
Had we gone in with Operation Olympic, considering that Japan still had an active military component of around two million men at the time of the bombings, as well as the fact that much of the Japanese civilian population, women, the elderly and children, would have been mobilised to rise up and fight the Allied invasion, I can see where such an invasion would have lead to, at first, a conventional war, as had thus far been fought, and then to a guerrilla war, that would have made Viet-Nam look small and tame by comparison, with the results of an eventual Allied victory, but only after such a mass slaughter of Japanese military personnel and civilians, that it would turn the stomachs of all but the most die-hard nationalists on the Japanese side, and the bitterest racists on the Allied side.
For my money, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were, and remain, loathsome. But, they also came at the end of a long chain of loathsome brutalities that began with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, kept right on through Japan's invasion of China in 1937, its attacks on Pearl Harbor and the various Allied colonies in the Pacific and Far East in December, 1941, the massive US air raids on Japan, culminating in the fire-bombing of Tokyo in March, 1944, that killed over a hundred thousand people there, and so on.
Combine the deeds perpetrated by both sides in the Pacific War with the similar kind of race war waged by the various sides on the Eastern Front during World War Two, and one sees a portrait of so-called civilised humanity at its extreme worst.
If there's any message at all that should come out of World War Two, indeed, out of our current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's that any country's political, economic and social leadership classes and populations had better think once, twice, ten thousand, and even one hundred thousand times, before engaging in war, because of the ugliness and madness that such a decision unleashes cannot be taken back, ever.
For those Americans who didn't serve in World War Two, and especially in combat operations, as for those Japanese who didn't, nor who were victims of that terrible war, and who feel that this is some occasion to cheer or vent their frustrations, I've only this to say; shut the fuck up, because you've not earned the right to display that.
No God-Damn cheering, and no fucking displays of national self-pity and victimhood, if you please, as partisans on both sides have been wont to do since 1945.
The dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be mourned, as should the dead of World War Two, especially because, due to the ideas, policies, actions and failures of soldiers, statesmen, bureaucrats, philosophers, ideologues, journalists, film-makers, and religious leaders, among others, they and so many others in Japan, the US, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, China, and every other part of the world touched by World War Two, were wasted, in terms of lives, time, talent, potential and so on.
Mourn the dead, help the remaining survivors, and, most of all, for God's sake, work in whatever way you can to stop atrocities like this, and the various wars that have followed since, right up to this day, from happening.
The link's http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfib/courses/Fussell.pdf.
Be seeing you.
To commemorate that event, have posted here a link to a 1987 essay by Paul Fussell, English scholar and World War Two veteran(European Theater of Operations), in which he points out that, while the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-Bombings can be seen in historical hindsight, and from a certain class and geographical distance, to be unjustified horrors, to those, like himself, who would have had to be on the ground in Japan, when Operation Olympic, the projected invasion of the Japanese mainland, happened, they came as a relief.
Fussell also points out the grim, uncompromising and grotesquely savage nature of the Pacific War, in which Japanese and American soldiers, sailors and marines alike butchered each other, and desecrated each other's corpses routinely.
This was as much a race war, as a war between two nations, and the Pacific War bears the trademarks of a race war-unfettered hatred, brutality, and out-right violation and murder of one side's combattants and civilians by the other.
Fussell also acknowledges that the Nuclear Age that followed was, and is, characterised by greed and ineptitude on the parts of those who exploit nuclear power. But, he also urges us not to lump in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings with that, as, like it or not, millions of lives were saved on the Allied and Japanese sides, since the projected invasion of mainland Japan, as well as Japanese-held territories like Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Viet-Nam, among others, didn't take place.
Had we gone in with Operation Olympic, considering that Japan still had an active military component of around two million men at the time of the bombings, as well as the fact that much of the Japanese civilian population, women, the elderly and children, would have been mobilised to rise up and fight the Allied invasion, I can see where such an invasion would have lead to, at first, a conventional war, as had thus far been fought, and then to a guerrilla war, that would have made Viet-Nam look small and tame by comparison, with the results of an eventual Allied victory, but only after such a mass slaughter of Japanese military personnel and civilians, that it would turn the stomachs of all but the most die-hard nationalists on the Japanese side, and the bitterest racists on the Allied side.
For my money, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were, and remain, loathsome. But, they also came at the end of a long chain of loathsome brutalities that began with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, kept right on through Japan's invasion of China in 1937, its attacks on Pearl Harbor and the various Allied colonies in the Pacific and Far East in December, 1941, the massive US air raids on Japan, culminating in the fire-bombing of Tokyo in March, 1944, that killed over a hundred thousand people there, and so on.
Combine the deeds perpetrated by both sides in the Pacific War with the similar kind of race war waged by the various sides on the Eastern Front during World War Two, and one sees a portrait of so-called civilised humanity at its extreme worst.
If there's any message at all that should come out of World War Two, indeed, out of our current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's that any country's political, economic and social leadership classes and populations had better think once, twice, ten thousand, and even one hundred thousand times, before engaging in war, because of the ugliness and madness that such a decision unleashes cannot be taken back, ever.
For those Americans who didn't serve in World War Two, and especially in combat operations, as for those Japanese who didn't, nor who were victims of that terrible war, and who feel that this is some occasion to cheer or vent their frustrations, I've only this to say; shut the fuck up, because you've not earned the right to display that.
No God-Damn cheering, and no fucking displays of national self-pity and victimhood, if you please, as partisans on both sides have been wont to do since 1945.
The dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be mourned, as should the dead of World War Two, especially because, due to the ideas, policies, actions and failures of soldiers, statesmen, bureaucrats, philosophers, ideologues, journalists, film-makers, and religious leaders, among others, they and so many others in Japan, the US, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, China, and every other part of the world touched by World War Two, were wasted, in terms of lives, time, talent, potential and so on.
Mourn the dead, help the remaining survivors, and, most of all, for God's sake, work in whatever way you can to stop atrocities like this, and the various wars that have followed since, right up to this day, from happening.
The link's http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfib/courses/Fussell.pdf.
Be seeing you.
Little Red Riding Hood As You Least Expect It
Thanks to Cheryl for re-posting this in a MySpace bulletin this morning.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Little Red Riding Hood
Body: Little Red Riding Hood is skipping down the road when she sees the Big Bad Wolf crouched down behind a log.
"My what big eyes you have, Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
The surprised wolf jumps up and runs away!!!
Further down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time he is crouched behind a tree stump.
"My what big ears you have Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
Again the foiled wolf jumps up and runs away.
About 2 miles down the track, Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time crouched down behind a road sign.
"My what big teeth you have Mr. Wolf.", taunts Little Red Riding Hood.
With that the Big Bad Wolf jumps up and screams... "Will you fuck off, I'm trying to take a shit"!
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Little Red Riding Hood
Body: Little Red Riding Hood is skipping down the road when she sees the Big Bad Wolf crouched down behind a log.
"My what big eyes you have, Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
The surprised wolf jumps up and runs away!!!
Further down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time he is crouched behind a tree stump.
"My what big ears you have Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
Again the foiled wolf jumps up and runs away.
About 2 miles down the track, Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time crouched down behind a road sign.
"My what big teeth you have Mr. Wolf.", taunts Little Red Riding Hood.
With that the Big Bad Wolf jumps up and screams... "Will you fuck off, I'm trying to take a shit"!
"Springtime For Hitler" from "The Producers(1968)
This was originally posted in a MySpace bulletin this morning by The Blairs, to whom I'm grateful for this clip from the original 1968 version of "The Producers", with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and features the show-piece of the film, a little number entitled "Springtime For Hitler".
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Springtime for Hitler
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Springtime for Hitler
07 August 2007
Last Carol Burnett Show Out-Take: "The Flasher"
Our last "Carol Burnett Show" out-take's entitled "The Flasher", in which Carol has a little surprise for our supposed-to-be-stone-faced Tim Conway.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Another Carol Burnett Show out-take, with Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman
Here's another out-take, with Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and even the crew and director joining in on the fun, as a priest discovers why a new kind of meat he's eating doesn't taste fishy.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Carol Burnett and Tim Conway:"The Elephant Story"
My friend Cheryl originally re-posted this in a MySpace bulletin this afternoon.
I saw it, and got such a kick out of it, that it's being re-posted here.
This is a out-take from a sketch in the "Mama's Family" series of sketches on the "Carol Burnett Show", which ran on CBS from 1968-1979, and features Vicki Lawrence as Mama, and Dick Van Dyke.
This was never seen on air, for reasons that will become obvious as you watch it, but was offered as part of the set of Carol Burnett Show DVD extras that have appeared in the last couple of years.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
I saw it, and got such a kick out of it, that it's being re-posted here.
This is a out-take from a sketch in the "Mama's Family" series of sketches on the "Carol Burnett Show", which ran on CBS from 1968-1979, and features Vicki Lawrence as Mama, and Dick Van Dyke.
This was never seen on air, for reasons that will become obvious as you watch it, but was offered as part of the set of Carol Burnett Show DVD extras that have appeared in the last couple of years.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
I Was Hitler’s Record Collection
This article in to-day's The Independent(UK)details the amazing story of how Hitler's personal record collection ended up in the hands of a Jewish Red Army captain after the fall of Berlin in May, 1945, and, more importantly, that among the various works and artists found in that collection, there were a number of recordings of works by Russian and Jewish composers and performers in it, in addition to the usual Teutonic classics(Wagner, Bruckner, etc)that Hitler and his regime favoured.
The article's reporter makes the observation that, given this, Hitler was a hypocrite as well as a mass murderer.
Quite true.
However, considering how many top-and-middle-ranking Nazi officials were married to Jewish women, or had Jewish mistresses, this perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise.
Only just goes to show that regimes, like fish, usually stink from the head down.
The link's http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2841357.ece.
Be seeing you.
The article's reporter makes the observation that, given this, Hitler was a hypocrite as well as a mass murderer.
Quite true.
However, considering how many top-and-middle-ranking Nazi officials were married to Jewish women, or had Jewish mistresses, this perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise.
Only just goes to show that regimes, like fish, usually stink from the head down.
The link's http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2841357.ece.
Be seeing you.
A Pair of Links About The Jena(LA)Six
Well, having finished catching up on the re-posts from my MySpace blog here, here's an article I posted there just a few minutes ago.
Hope you all out there will find it of interest.
Just saw a bulletin posted by a friend of mine here to ColorOfChange.org, which is launching a campaign to get justice for the six African-American youths charged in the beating of a European-American youth in Jena, Louisiana.
Posted an editorial by Mumia Abu-Jamal and a link to a Washington Post article about this story last week here, and they should still be up.
In the meantime, if you want to sign an on-line petition to Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the DA prosecuting the case, Reed Walters, contribute money to the campaign, or head on down to Jena on 20th September, here's the link to follow-http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1845-222680.
Also, am enclosing an article from the Austin(Texas)Weekly News about the case. It gives a brief chronology of events, and a brief out-line of what has occurred since then.
It's at http://austinweeklynews.1upsoftware.com/main.asp?Secti..1&SubSecti..1&ArticleID=1342&TM=12921.11.
Be seeing you.
Hope you all out there will find it of interest.
Just saw a bulletin posted by a friend of mine here to ColorOfChange.org, which is launching a campaign to get justice for the six African-American youths charged in the beating of a European-American youth in Jena, Louisiana.
Posted an editorial by Mumia Abu-Jamal and a link to a Washington Post article about this story last week here, and they should still be up.
In the meantime, if you want to sign an on-line petition to Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the DA prosecuting the case, Reed Walters, contribute money to the campaign, or head on down to Jena on 20th September, here's the link to follow-http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1845-222680.
Also, am enclosing an article from the Austin(Texas)Weekly News about the case. It gives a brief chronology of events, and a brief out-line of what has occurred since then.
It's at http://austinweeklynews.1upsoftware.com/main.asp?Secti..1&SubSecti..1&ArticleID=1342&TM=12921.11.
Be seeing you.
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