58 Replies to “August 11, 2022: Reader Tips”

  1. Like many of his Hollywood colleagues, the documentary’s director William Wyler enlisted for service during WW II (John Huston and Frank Capra were with the Army, John Ford was USN Reserve) and flew on several missions with the Army Air Corps.

    His wartime experience, however, cost him part of his hearing.

  2. Character actor Morris Ankrum was a familiar face in a number of 1950s movies. Here’s a double feature in which he plays major characters.

    First, Giant from the Unknown:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFtPPziCg9Q

    Next, Beginning of the End:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpWi3lkaKIY

    So they’re not Oscar-quality. Who cares? I watched a lot of films like that while I was in school. They’re a bit of fun, each running for less than 90 minutes. (Imagine what we could do with one of the critters from the second flick….)

  4. B:

    Yesterday you have linked “Tartar Invasion”. WOW, you were right to point out that it was less than exquisite. It actually made Taras Bulba seem historical and costume accurate (where Polish Cavalry look like a cross between Roman legionaries and LOTR elfs). WOW, a Polish prince falls in love with a half Chinese princess in Crimea. And Poles are near Crimea because they want everyone to leave in peace and Tatars are those nomads that mindlessly invade … and build ancient Greek like cities. And Polish cavalry in 18th century wear helmets that look like those of Hermes/Mercury from renaissance paintings or sculptures. And the princess always wears silk, because you know, Chinese and Silk Road so there. There are no Cossacks, Ottomans or Muscovite there. But one of the Poles knows the Cossack dance so there is that. And let’s not forget the mighty lumberjack Ursus who lifts bridges all by himself and fights barechested half of the time foregetting his axe and just throwing punches and throwing his enemies at other enemies, surely a descendent Hercules.

    Interestingly enough, Ursus is the name that appears in the book Quo Vadis by nobel prize winning author Henryk Sienkiewicz. There, Ursus was one of the persecuted Christians who had nearly superhuman physical strength. The thing is that, Ursus is not a Polish name but (ancient?) Italian. The only thing called Ursus in Poland were the agricultural tractors produced under communism (the connection to Quo Vadis character obvious).

    Alright, enough of that. Speaking of Sienkiewicz. Here is probably the highest combined grossing film made in Poland to this day. Krzyzacy (a slang for Teutonic Order) is another famous Sienkiewcz story (like “With Fire and Sword” linked here few months ago but less convoluted). You will need CC for that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApzre_YhTg It is a fictionalized (completely) account of events that lead to the battle of Tanneberg/Grunwald in 1410. The epic battle, one of the largest (if not the largest) during Medieval Time in Europe was fought between the forces of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Teutonic Order. Filmed in 1960, it didn’t hold up quite well. But is an interesting and successful attempt at Polish communist epic cinema. Hope you like it. It has flavour.

    1. Interestingly enough, Ursus is the name that appears in the book Quo Vadis by nobel prize winning author Henryk Sienkiewicz.

      I noticed that. I’ve bookmarked the other movie, so it’s yet another entry in my “round tuit” list.

      The Tartars, which I referred to earlier, was somewhat better, though both Orson Welles and Victor Mature chew scenery in that one.

    1. So, normally, voters elect the back end of a horse for mayor and now they’re upset because they ended up with the whole beastie? (He’s a cute little feller, isn’t he?)

        1. I’m sure one reason there are objections to having a horse as mayor is that he makes his political opinion known whenever he leaves his calling card. That would make council meetings more interesting, wouldn’t it?

    1. “Eric Braeden” was the screen name of Hans Gudegast, also well-known for his role in The Rat Patrol. By the time he made Colossus: The Forbin Project (watch for Gordon Pinsent as the American president in that one!), he adopted his American name.

    2. “US Tiger Hawk”

      Alright. This just itches too much not to be a nitpicking bitch about it. So appologies in advance.

      There was no such thing a “Tiger Hawk “. US volunteers in China called Flying Tigers flew P-40 Tomahawks against the Japanese. The aircraft flown in North Africa was a later version of the P-40 called Kittyhawk (that is the aircraft in the film). And to confuse things further originally Curtiss called the aircraft P-40 Warhawk and sometimes people get upset when names Tomahawk or Kittyhawk are used instead, although those names are historically accurate.

      1. Wasn’t there P-40 unit named the Tiger Sharks, or was that a general name given to that plane?

        I watched the movie. I wonder if that didn’t influence the writers of the Bond movie Licence to Kill?

        I noticed that Harve Bennett was a producer. He later went on to work on several of the original series Star Trek movies.

        1. “Wasn’t there P-40 unit named the Tiger Sharks, ”

          I am not sure. The P-40 volunteer units in China were called Flying Tigers (the unit not the plane, they flew P-40 and other aircraft at different times), they often painted shark teeth on the nose.

          Regular USAF units based in Aleutians (I think) seem to have painted a yellow tiger head with white teeth. They had nothing to do with the famous Flying Tigers from China.

          The other P-40s that I know off that used the shark teeth (but not tiger head) graphics on their noses flew in North Africa, these were RAF (including Australian, South African and briefly Polish units, Poles seem to have hated them and wanted nothing but Spitfire until Mustang came along). To my knowledge USAF P-40 units did not use shark teeth in Africa.

          Of all those did any unit adopted the name “Tiger Sharks”? I don’t know. I did not come across one that did. The only time I have seen “Tiger Shark” was on the packaging of some model kits, these were often very inaccurate.

          “or was that a general name given to that plane?”

          That’s a million dollar question with millions of answers, authors of each willing to die on that hill (it is probably easier to get people to agree about a definition of a battlecruiser).

          To the best of my knowledge the Alison powered early versions were called (in service) “Tomahawk” the Merlin powered later versions were called (in service again) “Kittyhawk”. The manufacturer (and manufacturer only) called them “Warhawk”. Those names are notoriously and erroneously interchangeable in literature, model kits and other popular sources. This is further confused by the fact that some units transited from Tomahawks to Kittyhawks but still referred to their aircraft as Tomahawks. If your head is spinning welcome to the club.

          1. I know what you’re referring to. There were lots of models of the P-40, just as there were of the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang.

          2. But at least they were called one name. A P-47 was a Thunderbolt not , Thunderbolt, Blunderbolt and Tommybolt because why the f*** not?

    1. It’s been a long since since I last saw All That Jazz. Roy Scheider won an Oscar nomination for his performance in it.

      As for Chicago, I watched it on TCM a few years ago and I thought it was over-rated.

      Singin’ In The Rain, which is mentioned in passing in the article, is often shown on that channel, so I may take another look at it.

      1. The musical Kiss Me Kate is a lot of fun. The story is focuses on a production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and it features some of Cole Porter’s wittiest lyrics (e. g. Brush Up Your Shakespeare).

        This scene early in the movie makes it worth watching all by itself:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usM3w18Fdtw

  13. Another Poll Spotting lead:

    CTVNews.com running a poll on preferred CPC candidate.
    Charest has a slim lead.
    Help fix this.

  14. Book Club

    The Dangers of Beauty

    After a few centuries of meditation on passages in Scripture like “Logos is with God,” the Church Fathers came to understand that the One was made up of three Persons united in love to each other. Their love for each other was so intense that it overflowed into the creation and love of the universe where it became apparent as beauty, leading Augustine to conclude that “beauty originates from God Himself.”

    The fate of the social order depends on the soul’s ability to apprehend this beauty because beauty like truth and goodness is a transcendental and is coextensive with being. If the souls of the young were trained to love beauty, then “the effluence” of its “fair works” would “flow into the eye and ear, like a health-giving breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul from earliest years into likeness and sympathy with the beauty of reason.”

    Art by its nature involves what Aristotle called mimesis, by which he meant imitation of nature. Art “imitates the divine and ideal order of things” which goes by the name of logos. If, as Plato taught, artists were gifted enough to discern beauty “amid fair sights and sounds,” if they could convey that skill in recognizing and creating beauty to young people, they would “dwell in a land of health” and “receive the good in everything.”

    There are those, however, who cannot imitate nature without distorting it. A return to mimesis will spell the end of the perversion of art which characterized the 20th century. Existence is still waiting to call essence into being. Beauty is its eternal manifestation, and mimesis remains the most formidable defense against the attack on logos that has made the world we live in ugly as sin.

    Reviews

    Most theories of art leave us frustrated, that art is nothing more than a form of insider trading that reflects the interests and tastes of the rich and powerful. For much of the 20th Century, those looking to defend art as something more, like Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson, got stuck in formalistic theories of art, which neutered their efforts to come up with any coherent criteria for even discussing art. By taking us to essential theories advanced by Aquinas and through the Council of Trent, Jones shows us the principles for distinguishing great art from its formalist or excessively realist pretenders, saving beauty from the eye of the rich and powerful beholder. This is a fitting follow up and companion to Logos Rising.

    – Rev. Jeffrey J. Langan, Ph.D

    https://www.fidelitypress.org/book-products/the-dangers-of-beauty

    1. Add in inflation numbers and you only have lost 25%. If you don’t use there manipulated inflation numbers , it is likely closer to 35%. I fear my freedom 85 retirement plan is in danger!

  16. Expect something to happen on August 14th our evil overlords who think they are gods love Saturn…

    Saturn at opposition in 2022 occurs on August 14, when Earth sweeps between the sun and Saturn. Thus, placing the ringed planet opposite the sun in our sky.

    https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/saturn-at-opposition-closest-brightest-best/

    Don’t Miss These Astronomy Events In August 2022 | Perseid Meteor Shower | Saturn Opposition

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OIvhoLDlAQE

    1. Saturn is visible in the southern sky about 2 or 3 handwidths above the horizon.

  18. Have you wondered why the very recent murder of four muslim men in New Mexico has disappeared from the legacy news media? If the killer had been a white Christian, the story would still be in the headlines. But the alleged killer was another muslim.

    “Muslims in New Mexico interviewed on Wednesday said they felt shock and shame at the arrest of a Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan in connection with the murders of four Muslim men.

    Police on Tuesday said they detained 51-year-old Muhammad Syed.”

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/shock-shame-among-some-muslims-afghan-accused-new-mexico-murders-2022-08-10/

    1. For those who missed this…

      Lies, damned lies, and the media? With Dr. David Haskell

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kgE4KWFshJ4

      Bruce Pardy
      @PardyBruce

      Looking forward to joining Francis Christian, and others, to tackle Free Speech in Medicine and Science, a crucial question of our time, organized by
      @thepairodocs

      Help spread the word. Free Speech in Medicine and Science Conference Oct 28-30th on beautiful Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Open to doctors, scientists and interested members of the public. Registration now open:

      https://mobile.twitter.com/PardyBruce/status/1557391704914804738?cxt=HHwWhICyuaLg-5wrAAAA

      1. Some mathematical shenanigans or revisionist history going on here…Public Health saved 800,000 people from DEATH in Canada? With a 99.7% survival rate when using zero precautions? How many people do they think live here? How about some “counterfactuals” based on reality?

        Some mathematical shenanigans or revisionist history going on here…

        Dr. Theresa Tam
        @CPHO_Canada

        Public Health saved 800,000 people from DEATH in Canada? With a 99.7% survival rate when using zero precautions? How many people do they think live here? How about some “counterfactuals” based on reality?

        https://mobile.twitter.com/LDBildy/status/1556070926650933249?cxt=HHwWgoC8xe2Qo5grAAAA

    2. Thanks for posting that! Great video.

      It’s happening here too. Just covered up. For now.

      All of our enemies have been poisoned and are dying. We were horribly outnumbered and overpowered. That’s coming to an end.

      1. Terminator was not just a movie series but foretelling our future…

        Killer Robots Are Here—and We Need to Regulate Them

        Once lethal autonomous weapons systems begin to spread, they will be difficult to control.

        Swarms of robots with the ability to kill humans are no longer only the stuff of science fiction. Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) are here. In (the live testing phase of the coordinated war operation of) Ukraine, Moscow has allegedly deployed an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Kalashnikov ZALA Aero KUB-BLA loitering munition, while Kyiv has used Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, which have some autonomous capabilities. Although it’s always hard to determine whether a weapon’s autonomous mode is used, these technologies have reportedly been employed in at least one conflict: Last year, a United Nations report suggested Turkey used autonomous firing by its Kargu-2 drones to hunt fleeing soldiers in Libya’s civil war (though the CEO of the Turkish company that produced the drone denies it is capable of this).

        Unlike traditional drones, these systems have the ability to navigate on their own, and some can select targets. Although a human controller can still decide whether or not to strike, such weapons are acquiring ever more autonomous capabilities. Now that militaries and paramilitaries worldwide have taken note, these technologies are poised to spread widely. The world today stands at the very moment before much more advanced versions of these technologies become ubiquitous.

        https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/11/killer-robots-lethal-autonomous-weapons-systems-ukraine-libya-regulation/

        Why Boston Dynamics is Building a Super Robot Army

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLSqc-p4UhI

        Since the end of 2019, if you haven’t figured it out yet that they the ones in power want us all dead much sooner than later…

    1. Climate Nutters are making good progress crippling civilization in the West, and accelerating China’s progress in dominating the world economy.

    1. Watcher

      Ditto that..!!
      She’s got my vote as well…the rest..?? Slimy BS artists Ala Kenney.

  23. In all of the hoopla that is being displayed both in the MSM and on venues like this there seems to be a topic that has been overlooked. The latest out of America is the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents. A blip in the latest bill passed by the vote cast by Harris to break the deadlock in Congress of 50/50. So the IRS is going to hire 87,000 new agents. This same IRS has been stockpiling weapons and ammunition surrepticiuosly over the last number of years, and is now believed to have amassed 5 million rounds of ammunition as reported in recent articles. Why does a tax collection agency require all of these ‘new’ agents and why does it require these agents to be so heavily armed? To answer that question we need to go back in the Wayback Machine to a time not so long ago, circa July 2, 2008, when a former President advocated for the need for a Civilian Security Force. Any reader here that can’t connect these dots is not a student of history. Almost one hundred years ago a painter and wall-paper hanger organized a private army of brownshirts from what we were told was donations at his speeches. Now in America the Democrats have organized a private army that are allowed to examine every financial transaction that takes place and penalized transgressors with impunity. Compared to this the paper-hanger was a piker.

  29. As if we didn’t know what happened during Covid was wrong, Deborah Birx writes a self-incriminating autobiography to prove it. She must not own a mirror… Honestly, WTF is wrong with people?

    From the article in Tabletmag…

    Virtually every page of Birx’s new book, Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late, reads like a how-to guide from the front lines of subverting a democratic superpower from within. It bears repeating, from the outset, that lockdowns were never part of any democratic country’s pandemic preparedness plan prior to Xi Jinping’s lockdown of Wuhan, China.

    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/deborah-birx-guide-destroying-america

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