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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Amen.
I'm with you - go spurs!
Cuban became a billionaire out of pure dumb luck. He is an idiot!!
I live near Dallas and I have nothing but contempt for Cuban. And that was before I read this story. He is nothing but a punk loudmouth who got lucky and made a lot of money. I wouldn't spit on him if he were on fire. I also wouldn't walk across the street to see his stupid basketball team either.
He is beyond disgusting. I don't think the citizens of Dallas will boycott the team though because they are winning and sad to say, that is all that counts with a lot of people here.
"Scum" is a perfect description for Charlie, Rosie, Mark Cuban, and the rest of that ilk.
So, what could possibly make me call Charlie Sheen and Rosie O’Donnell, scum?
"Cuban became a billionaire out of pure dumb luck. He is an idiot!!"
Donald Trump agrees with you - he's sophomoric and intent to stay that way.
I wouldn't be surprised if the reason Cuban's helping Rosie is to get back to Trump. I saw The Donald ripping Cuban up one side and down the other on a TV interview about a month ago.
Good point, rob.
Keep preaching, sooner or later it might sink in to the average Joe in America that these scum bags are just that..now see I called them the same as you..what they are.My mother told me there was good in everyone you just have to look deeper..Well I have looked and listened to these left wing nuts and am sick and tired of listening to their lies..If there is good in them I would like for someone show me...
Well, I for one am waiting for the time when the nuts will say there never was a World Trade Center. They are already editing the building out of some older movies. Give it another 20 years or so,, maybe even sooner. I fully expect this. I am sure that the nutcase peanut sized mind can create the right kind of conspiracy that will attract enough followers to achieve a cult like status and make it to prime time.
Because they are liberals, and they hate anyone who doesn't agree with them. We know that liberalism is a mental illness, and when you look at Rosie or Charlie, it's obvious! They are both big losers!
Write one! I feel strongly that Rosie is scum. That widely broadcast, five days-a-week bully pulpit show makes her dangerous, too.
I met Mr. Holt, the Spurs owner a few years ago. He is probably the classiest owner in all of sports, he's everything Cuban is not.
Lord Haw Haw
Jane Fonda
Alex Baldwin
Cindy Sheehan
Rosie O'Donnell
Charlie Sheen
Scumbags all.
No. You were not too harsh.
The braindeads who buy into vast complicated government conspiracies seem to forget how totally incompetent bureaucracies are.
Much too nice a word.
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