Posted on 03/24/2007 10:34:27 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
I’ve been writing for publication for 50 years. I have never before referred to a fellow citizen as “scum.” Growing up, I was taught that all human beings have worth, and that even “bad” people have some virtues. So, what could possibly make me call Charlie Sheen and Rosie O’Donnell, scum?
These two people are backing an effort to recut, with Sheen narrating, an existing video about 9/11 called “Loose Change,” and distribute it through Magnolia Pictures. In addition to the sitcom actor and the talk show hostess, the other player may be Mark Cuban, an eccentric and sometimes out-of-control multi-millionaire who owns Magnolia, the Dallas Mavericks, and various other pricey baubles.
(An article on wcbs.com on 22 March, 2007, by Andrew Kirtzman, provided many of the facts for this column.)
Let’s have a look at what the original film contains. Here are two lines from the narration of that film: “If the government is lying about flight 93, is it hard to believe the rest is a lie?” And, this: “I know it's hard to imagine the government would intentionally murder almost 3000 innocent people, but once you begin to accept that possibility you can never go back to the 19 Arabs.”
Is the idea that there was no Arab attack using planes on 9/11 merely a matter of political opinion? Absolutely not. There are physical laws on such matters as high-speed impact, high temperature fires, failure of steel and other materials under such stresses. And the collapse of the two World Trade Center buildings and the outer wall of the Pentagon on 9/11, all followed those laws.
Sheen has backed this conspiracy theory in interviews. O’Donnell has backed it by reprinting the theories on her website. Cuban is backing it by saying of the film project, “we like controversial subjects.”
As a one-time physicist myself, I can follow the analysis of the hard evidence from what happened, as laid out in a book by James Meigs, Editor in Chief of Popular Mechanics magazine. Point by point he debunked the conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a US government plot to get us into war. He concluded, “It is a brilliantly patched-together stew of all kinds of misconceptions, misquotes and real mistakes about how things really worked on that day.”
So the idea that 9/11 was a vicious US plot is nonsense. I’ve spent decades writing about political nonsense without calling those who hold such views, scum. This is worse than mere politics.
Barbara Olson was an acquaintance of mine. She was a writer, and a wife and mother. She was talking on her cell phone to her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, as her hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon. My fiancee was two blocks from the WTC when the first tower fell. With thousands of others, she ran north through the smoke and debris, not knowing if she would survive.
These conspiracy nuts are spitting on the memories of those who died that day, and all who were harmed, and all of their families, and on all of America – because the whole nation was the target of those attacks.
Why would any Americans stoop to such a cruel and dishonest position? As usual, history books provide an answer. During WW II, there were a handful of people who hated President Roosevelt so much that they bruited about, and apparently believed, the conspiracy theory that Roosevelt knew about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance. They believed he allowed it to happen, in order to bring the US into WW II.
The current conspiracy theory is even worse. Hatred for the Bush Administration has led certain people, including Sheen and O’Donnell to believe that this administration murdered 3,000Americans in order to create a war. To my view, that makes Sheen and O’Donnell scum. Cuban may be in it merely for the money, not the belief, so I won’t call him scum.
Is that too harsh, or do you agree?
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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Don't take it out on the Mavericks. The players have been distancing themselves from many comments made by Cuban, primarily those having to do with officiating.
Mark Cuban is living proof that money does not buy class.
You'll excuse me if that "explanation" rings very hollow.
Let's not go to far, gator. A few years back, Spurs management directed Ticketmaster to not accept any calls from DFW area codes when the Spurs played the Mavericks in the playoffs. Couldn't have any Mavs fans in the Alamodome. That incident has yet to be forgotten in the Metroplex.
I've learned that there are two theories to arguing with liberals. Neither one works.
I sit in wonderment of Barbra WAWA. She is on the "View" set when Rosie is going bonkers and doen't weigh in at all. I realize that Rosie is boosting ratings but really.
As for Charlie, well he's spent way too much time with a doobie and hanging out with Oliver Stone.
BTTT
I heard Rosie's rant on Dennis Prager's show this morning.
What a loudmouth Moron.
I can only conclude that ABC is misogynist in its outlook for promoting such a view of women.
"Charlie and Rosie Are Scum"--is that what it's meant when they call some people "filthy rich"?
If I were Martin Sheen, I'd be so humiliated to have produced such a son.
If Charlie has his head up Rosie's ass ... e-mail won't help the dolt.
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