dimland radio 9-24-16 show notes

Correction. Yes, Again!

I had to correct some bad info I had received and that I imparted on the previous show. Despite what I stated about Jim Jones, the wacky cult leader, he did NOT drink the Kool-Aid. He did not poison himself as the more than 900 of his followers did in November 1978. He shot himself.

 

This information was confirmed by a listener to my show. I also checked the internets and the episode of In Search Of that profiled Jimmie Jones and his Soul - Soul Clones (see the bumpers at the bottom to get this reference).

A Handful Of Skittles? Why, Thank You

Donald Trump Jr made a not original analogy about Syrian refugees comparing them to a bowlful of Skittles: Virtually all the Skittles are fine, but three are poisonous. He asked if, knowing that, would we still want a handful?

 

That brought out a negative reaction from folks who don't care for Trump Sr. Reducing human beings to Skittles seems a little harsh and selfish to me. Some argued that the analogy merely means the US needs to strengthen its vetting process of Syrian refugees in order to weed out those that may wish to do us harm. Others, including me, think that some people would use that analogy to justify their bigotry toward which ever group they don't like or trust.

 

 

 

I did point out that this same analogy was used by a faction of the Feminist movement in 2014 to refute the Not All Men folks, who were concerned about all men being treated as potential rapists. I don't remember the folks who were upset about the poison Skittles today, being upset about the poison M&Ms then. I mentioned an article on the left-leaning website Raw Story. This article was taking exception to Trump Jr's Skittle analogy and traced the analogy all the way back to the Nazis. I wonder if Raw Story ran a similar refutation in 2014 when the poison M&Ms analogy was being used.

 

However, in 2014 Debunking Denialism did write an article voicing the problems with the M&Ms/Skittles analogy

 

There were two very good responses to the Skittles/Syrian refugee analogy. One was by cartoonist Jeff Stahler:

 

The other was a written response by magician Eli Bosnick:
"If I gave you a bowl of skittles and three of them were poison would you still eat them?"

"Are the other skittles human lives?"

"What?"

"Like. Is there a good chance. A really good chance. I would be saving someone from a war zone and probably their life if I ate a skittle?"

"Well sure. But the point-"

"I would eat the skittles."

"Ok-well the point is-"

"I would GORGE myself on skittles. I would eat every single fucking skittle I could find. I would STUFF myself with skittles. And when I found the poison skittle and died I would make sure to leave behind a legacy of children and of friends who also ate skittle after skittle until there were no skittles to be eaten. And each person who found the poison skittle we would weep for. We would weep for their loss, for their sacrifice, and for the fact that they did not let themselves succumb to fear but made the world a better place by eating skittles.
Because your REAL question...the one you hid behind a shitty little inaccurate, insensitive, dehumanizing racist little candy metaphor is, IS MY LIFE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF MEN, WOMEN, AND TERRIFIED CHILDREN...
... and what kind of monster would think the answer to that question... is yes?"

Fantastic!

It's Not True: Jennifer Aniston's Profanity Laden Appearance On The Today Show

A story made the rounds on the social media, shortly after the news of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt divorcing, claiming that Jennifer Aniston, who had been involved with Pitt before Jolie came a callin', gave a swear word filled diatribe over America's priorities. She was so upset that people were more concerned about "Brangelina" than about the injustices of our country today.

Well, it's not true. She was not even a recent guest on the Today Show. How could anyone believe she would use such language live on national television?

Said News About Terry Jones

 

Terry Jones, member of the brilliant Monty Python comedy troupe, disclosed that he is suffering from primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia. This condition slowly robs a person of their ability to communicate. It's very sad.

 

My father-in-law also suffers from the same condition. It's very frustrating for both the person who has it and the people trying to communicate with them.

 

Dad has trouble with my name, but he is able to called me "big guy". And that works for me.

 

My Old Conspiracy Theory

 

Lastly, a quick talk about my first paycheck job and how I got fired. I used to think I was fired because I was about to turn 18 and they would have to pay me minimum wage ($3.35 in those days). I was training as a cook and the bosses didn't think I was getting it. Well, why didn't they send me back down to being a dishwasher, which I started out as and did well? Because they surely didn't want to pay a dishwasher $3.35 an hour! 

 

Well, that's what I thought for a long time. Maybe I just wasn't getting it. Sure, some circumstances may have gone against me, but I could have just been taking too long to catch on and they needed me as a cook, not as a dishwasher.

 

I dunno.

 

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time. You're on your own this week.

 

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Jimmie Jones' by The Vapors & 'Only In America' by Naked Raygun

Second ad break bumpers: 'Next Position Please' by Cheap Trick & 'Eighties' by Killing Joke

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-17-16 show notes

Correction!

I started off by correcting an error I made on last week's show. I had credited Phyllis Schlafley with writing the book Useful Idiots. She did not write that book. It was written by another conservative named Mona Charen.

 

Whoops. My mistake.

Veruca Salt Said What?

I next talked about a mishearing of something Veruca Salt, the nasty and selfish little girl in Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, said when she was voicing her displeasure with her father and his employees for not having found a Golden Ticket. I hadn't noticed it as a kid when watching this, a favorite film of my childhood, but when I got much older and was watching it with my son I was stunned by what I thought I heard Veruca say.

In British, some slang words can mean something totally different from what they mean in American. Still I didn't think a G rated movie would have the word 'twats' uttered by a child. But it sure seemed to be the word Veruca used when she angrily spat, "What's the matter with those twats down there?!"

 

 

 

Does that word mean something different in British than what it means in American? Because in American the word is slang for that most naughty of the female naughty bits: the who-who dilly.

Well, some time ago, I opened this up for discussion on Facebook and someone clued me in on what she was most likely saying. I watched the scene a few times and listened carefully. She's not saying what I thought. She's saying, "What's the matter with those twerps down there?!"

Ooohh! Well, that's different.

 

Never mind.

Another Correction!

I goofed again. I misspoke on this show when I started talking about how when I was a kid television networks would do a once-a-year showing of certain movies. Willie Wonka was one, as was the Wizard of Oz. But, I mentioned a third yearly tradition movie showing, which I misstated as Ben Hur. I meant to say The Ten Commandments. I'm not sure how I got it wrong. I guess I'm just getting old.

I also used the mention of Ben Hur, which I meant The Ten Commandments, to go on (goon?) a little sidetrack about how we can be very certain the Exodus of the Bible never happened. There's just no evidence for a multitude of people wandering the wilderness of the Middle East for 40 years, other than the Biblical account.

It would have been a more effective talk had I not gotten the name of the movie wrong. 

Whoops. My mistake.

Now This Is Just Ridiculous

 

A fellow Z Talker posted a video (see below) on his Facebook page. It claims to show a huge amount of rain falling in one spot. My friend seems to believe that is exactly what the video shows. He, apparently, didn't notice how the water arcs at the top of the video image (in the hated portrait format) and how that arcing rises and falls.

 

 

 

To my skeptical eye, this "rainfall" looked more like a geyser. It definitely is water flowing up from the ground, not down from the sky. I shared this video with some of my fellow skeptics and they identified it as water flowing from a broken water main.

 

I found another use of this video on YouTube (see below) that cropped the image so as to compensate for the portrait format and, more importantly, remove the arcing water so that the hoax of it being rainfall would be more convincing.

And here is a video (see below) of what is known to be a broken water main. Note the similarities. Of course, there may be some who might think the video shows rain falling on one spot coming from a clear blue sky.

 

Just ridiculous.

 

Well, I Can't Unhear That

 

A member of the MN Skeptics, at the last meet-up, suggested I listen to a podcast called The Last Podcast on the Left. It's a horror-themed comedy podcast in which the hosts jokingly examine serial killers, cults, aliens, and other paranormal sorts of topics. I've listened to a few by now and I'm finding them interesting and entertaining.

 

I was reluctant to listen to yet another podcast, but my friend suggested I look through their podcast topics and pick one I might like and give it a listen. So, I did just that. I scrolled through and found one on 9/11. I thought that it would be timely to listen to and gave it a shot.

 

I had misread the topic. It wasn't a show about 9/11. The hosts were listening to and commenting on what they said were actual emergency calls to 9-1-1. Well, I continued to listen as they played three or four calls. The last call allegedly has a woman calling 9-1-1 because she was being kind of creeped out by a man to whom she was showing a rental property, I think. He was acting strangely and she thought she might not be able to get him to leave.

She sounded worried, but calm, as she was able to get to another part of the property to make the call. The operator was getting information from the woman, when the woman suddenly began screaming in absolute terror. The show hosts tell us that those screams were her death screams as the man murdered her.

I was sure to thank my friend for not giving me a bit of a warning about the 9-1-1 shows (they do a few of them). He apologized and said he'd make sure he'd warn other people when recommending that podcast. That doesn't help me. I can't unhear those screams.

I also talked about an early show they did on cults. They talked about Jim Jones on that show and played some of the audio from the last moments of his life and the lives of more than 900 of his followers. In November 1978, Jones had his followers living in his cult compound called Jonestown commit suicide rather than befall what ever paranoid fate he thought was coming their way.

The audio is chilling and I do want to talk a little more about it on the next show.

 

Movie Recommendation: Morituri (1965)

 

Twentieth Century Fox

 

This is a World War II spy (sort of) thriller. Marlin Brando, not a spy exactly, plays a German pacifist who is avoiding the war by living in India, but he is pressed into action by the British. He is to travel, posing as an SS agent, aboard a German freighter ship, captained by Yul Brenner. His job is to keep the captain from scuttling the ship when it is apprehended by the British Navy. The freighter is carrying a large shipment of rubber that the British want to keep from the Germans and use for themselves. Rubber is precious to both sides.

 

Brando is very good as he attempts to complete his mission by recruiting sympathetic members of the crew. Brenner is also very good as a patriotic captain in the German navy, but he is no fan of the Nazis. Janet Margolin also appears as a hardened young Jewish woman forced into the mix.

 

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Town Called Malice' by The Jam & 'Waiting' by The Suburbs

Second ad break bumpers: 'Age of Consent' by New Order & 'Twilight Zone' by Golden Earring

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-10-16 show notes

Marriage After Death?

Last week I talked about Gene Wilder dying and how some people were so happy he's been reunited with his third wife, Gilda Radner, who had preceded him in death. But what about his widow, Karen Boyer? She was married to him for 25 years, while Gilda was his wife for only five. I wondered how Karen felt about the whole Gene's back with Gilda speculations.

 

On Saturday's show I talked about how marriage might work after you die, assuming there really is an afterlife. Sure, the vows say until death do the couple part, but then why do people say Gene is back with Gilda? She died. Marriage over, right? If so, stop saying couples separated by death are then reunited by death after both spouses have died. But if death isn't the end of a marriage, then the couple is married for all eternity? Wouldn't that be hell?

Suppose married couples are reunited in the afterlife, how is it handled? So, Gene is back with Gilda now, but what happens when Karen dies? Is he married to both Gilda and Karen? For all eternity? Isn't that bigamy? Wouldn't that be hell?

 

Suppose the afterlife's caretaker doesn't accept divorce to be the end of marriage, so when Gene's ex-wives die he's still married to them. And suppose those ex-wives have had other spouses. Are all those people still spouses? For all eternity? Wouldn't that be hell?

 

But suppose the only marriage that counts is the first one. Whether it ended in death or divorce, it's the official marriage for all eternity...

 

You see how complicated this all is?

 

It's much simpler from an atheist perspective: You die. You're dead. You're done. No marriage. No second marriage. No bigamy. No polygamy. No Honey-Do lists. No consciousness. No awareness. No pain. No joy. No nothing. Game over. Dead.

Some On The Left Sure Like To Hate

I guess it's just human nature to take pleasure in the death or public shaming of people who are thought to be vile, mean, and otherwise irredeemable. Such is the case with Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter. Both women are (or were in Schlafly's case) outspoken in their right wing political and social views. They both spout ideas that can get very upsetting to those at the opposite end of the political spectrum. So, of course, some of the folks on the Left view these two with a certain amount of disdain.

 

Schlafly died last week and Coulter was the butt of many of the cruel and nasty jokes that are expected at celebrity roasts. These two events brought such joy to some of my friends on the Left. Posting memes stating, "Ding dong, the witch is dead" for Schlafly and edited video clips of Coulter getting roasted.

 

The Left seems to pride itself on being caring and compassionate. To them it's the Right that are mean and selfish. The Left frowns upon sexist, racially or ethnically insensitive, gay-bashing or trans-bashing jokes. Except when hurled at the Right.

 

I pointed that out by sarcastically stating how it warms my heart when I see the compassionate, caring Left indulge in their hatred of those with whom they disagree.

ARGH!: No Turn Signal In A Roundabout

 

Roundabouts have been replacing the old four way stop intersections in the Twin Cities lately. And some people don't understand they need to signal their turn off the roundabout. It helps people who want to merge unto the circular intersection know the intent of the driver moving along the circle.

 

But a skeptical friend reminded me that driver's shouldn't trust a turn signal. Well, he has a point. I guess I'm doomed.

 

9/11 Still Not An Inside Job

 

It's that time of year again. Time for all the 9/11 Truthers to demonstrate they remain irrational when it comes to the attacks of that day in 2001. The conspiracy get more and more complex and convoluted as they attempt to maintain the notion the towers were not felled by Islamic terrorists.

 

I don't have the energy go through it all again. However, I spotted an excellent piece on Esquire's online site explaining the errors made by the conspiracy types out there on the internets. I covers the biggest point and some smaller ones.

 

JAQing Off

 

Listeners were shocked when they heard me start talking about what sounds like a very private activity. But, no, I was referring to " JAQing Off", which is what skeptics call it when people ask question, but don't accept the answers if they are not the answers they want. Joe Rogan, a comedian, JAQed off Phil Plait, an astronomer, about whether or not we landed men on the moon.

 

JAQing off is a subset of the Gish Gallop. Click here to learn more about JAQing off and here to learn about the Gish Gallop.

The N-Word

 

I advertised this as being a controversial show, because of the whole roundabout ARGH! moment. But there was plenty of other controversial stuff including talking about the n-word. I talked about its origin and how commonly it was used in America not all that long ago.

 

I won't get into it here, but go to this link. You'll learn the word's history and will be appalled how accepted racist views were by mainstream America. It was just matter of fact. So wrong.

 

Movie Recommendation: None

 

I didn't get to one this week. You are on your own.

 

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Fight For Love' by 54-40 & 'All That I Wanted' by Belfegore

Second ad break bumpers: 'Seven Seas' by Echo & the Bunnymen & 'Twist' by Tones On Tail

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-3-16 show notes

People Mean Well, But...

Gene Wilder and Karen Boyer

Gene Wilder died last week from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. You know who he was, of course. He was an actor and writer, very funny. Starred in lots of classic comedies and everyone's favorite: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That's the movie, I believe, through which most of us formed such warm feelings for Mr. Wilder.

 

So, he died last week and lots of us felt particularly sad about that news. But some folks chose to look on the bright side. They said that he was back with Gilda Radner, his wife of about five years before she died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

 

I asked my listeners (all three of them) to imagine what it must be like to be Karen Boyer at this time. I was a little more roundabout in how I went at it, but I eventually let my listeners know that Ms Boyer had been married to Gene Wilder since 1991. That's 25 years of marriage with the last three or so years dealing with that dread disease. But, it's Gilda who will make Gene happy for all eternity?

 

People.com

Did you know Gene had been married and divorced twice before marrying Gilda? Now, there is no way to know if Gene's and Gilda's marriage would last as long as his marriage to Karen Boyer, but his track record wasn't good.

 

I'm sure most people sharing the sentiment on social media that Gene and Gilda are together again had no idea of his long lasting marriage to Karen. I just hope Ms Boyer understands that.

Crazy People On The Internet

On the previous show, I talked about the supposed American "stonehenge" site at the bottom of Lake Michigan and the "mastodon" stone that was found nearby. There are lots of red flags on this one. Enough to be very skeptical as to the veracity of the claims, but I covered that last week.

 

What I didn't get to was the reaction of a crazed internetter who barged into the Facebook chat thread on this find as to whether or not it was authentic. He just had to make certain we are knew all about the mystical qualities of the swastika.

 

No, it wasn't Godwin's Law. He had some nutty ideas about the symbol he just had to tell us so we can avoid being "sheeple". But if we didn't understand what he was saying, then we were all fools and dumbasses and f***tards. His brilliance was out there. Way out there.

Columbo's Worst Episode Is...

 

Last Salute To The Commodore. This episode of the much beloved 70s detective series is absolutely bizarre. Lt. Columbo is often times way out of character, in fact he is downright mean to the people around him. Columbo? Mean? There's several ham-handed attempts at comedy that fall completely flat. And Columbo gets so physically close to people in this episode it get uncomfortable, in fact he practically sits in Robert Vaughn's lap. Twice.

It's awful.

 

You can read my blog for Warehouse Find, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone, covering what I think are the three best and worst episodes of Columbo here.

 

What Every Serious Bigfoot Hunter Needs?

 

A membership card? Membership to what? And how does that help?

A friend spotted this item and brought my attention to it. It is a Bigfoot Research Kit. It includes what you need to find bigfoot, including stickers, evidence flags, a magnifier, and scat bags. Better be big scat bags, I imagine bigfoot takes rather large dumps.

 

The label says there are more items, so it's possible it includes a camera the takes clear, in-focus photographs. Maybe there's a big net for when the hunter using this kit is successful (and how could they not be?) in finding a bigfoot.

 

That Latest Signal From Space!

 

Although very interesting the signal from space turns out not to be from aliens. It appears the signal found by Russian astronomers in 2015 actually came from earth. Conspiracy nuts are sure to doubt this answer and mystery-mongers are sure to ignore it, but it doesn't appear to be a signal from a far off, intelligent, alien species.

 

The search continues.

 

Movie Recommendation (Gene Wilder edition): Just About Anything

 

Not every movie Gene Wilder made was great, but you can't miss with these:

 

The Producers (1968)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Stir Crazy (1980)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

 

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Whatever' by Husker Du & 'Entre Nous' by Rush

Second ad break bumpers: 'Lullaby' by The Cure & 'Like It Or Not' by Genesis

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.