Winston Smithsonian

Post #123,741 by rcareaga 11/2/03 8:06:53 PM Reply	Winston Smithsonian Oh, that? Nothing special. Just a typical B-29. When officials at the Smithsonian Institution unveiled a new home for the World War II bomber the Enola Gay in August, they had hoped to avoid the kind of controversy that had previously plagued efforts to exhibit the airplane that carried the first atomic bomb. Not likely. Now a group of scholars, writers, activists and others have signed a petition criticizing the exhibit for labeling the Enola Gay as "the largest and most technologically advanced airplane for its time" without mentioning that the Boeing B-29 dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/national/02ENOL.html\|http://www.nytimes.c...ional/02ENOL.html] And it's down the memory hole we go! How exquisitely well-attuned to the junta's moods are the Smithsonian's political antennae becoming! cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #123,761 by JayMehaffey 11/3/03 12:07:22 AM Reply	Actually Actually, if they where tuning it to suit the current White House they would have a big long explanation of how the nuclear bomb ended the war and reduced total casulties. That both of those points are open to debate doesn't need to be addressed. Personally I think they where trying to avoid a repeat of the debacle that happened a few years ago over a display involving WWII and the nuclear bombs. But displaying the Enola Gay without explaining why it's really worth preserving is stupid. Jay
Post #124,139 by gdaustin 11/4/03 5:18:57 PM Reply	Remember... In most wars, the losers die and the winners write the history books. At least historically. Now, as for our latest "wars", I guess the loser gets to write history, too. Maybe that's why people long for the past, there was just one version of history, from the guys who won (and killed the losers).
Post #124,147 by rcareaga 11/4/03 5:36:33 PM Reply	yes, but ...in the past the victors typically acknowledged--nay, trumpeted--the feats of arms by which the foe was brought low. When I was growing up nobody minced words about it: "Hell yes, we nuked the Nips," we would growl. "Wanna make something of it?" How modest and reticent as a people we have become when the Smithsonian seems content to leave the impression that the Empire of Japan threw in the obi after a series of demoralizing kitchen fires in Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Does their Apollo exhibit still mention the moon, I wonder? cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #124,178 by Ashton 11/4/03 8:51:12 PM Reply	"A-tomic Pow - Ow-er er- - A-tomic Pow-er-er.. it was Given by the Mighty Hand of .. Ga-aw-^AWWD'\ufffd . . ." ..is the start one comparable little ditty, and one deemed sufficiently Pious to be allowed-to-be (OK Encouraged to be) sung in 'assembly'. The adults leading the tykes. Yep - the adults leading the tykes. Which I guess is.. how -Bad money drives out the Good -idiot sloga Well, all that stuff. Guess it's all as fresh as Socrates corrupting the young'uns with subversive intros to thought, and other scary stuff. Well, we're Here now: SOMA will make it All Go Away. \ufffd \ufffd Squibb, Merck, Dow, M$ and GM-(Halliburton; izzat next?) Welcome back from the quiet country. Neurons all recharged? Negative ions - that'll do it. Speaking of ionizing radiation -- (Mine's depleted - I've lived long enough for the half-life of Tritium to have a practical consequence! Need a new ion source!!)

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