dimland radio 7-8-17 show notes

A Correction

Yes, again. I said that artist Chuck Close, after a paralyzing event, painted with his mouth. That is not the case. He has some use of his arms, so he straps a brush to his hand and paints that way. His paintings are now on the "pixelated" side when viewed up close, but from a distance...Wow!

 

Click here to check out his Wikipedia page.

James On Coke Bottles Got Me Thinking Of Presidents

I usually buy a couple/few 20 oz bottles of Coca-Cola a week and recently the brand has been putting names on the bottles. First names. And I found a bottle with James on it. Well, of course, I bought it. My name is James after all.

 

That somehow got me to note to the cashier that James is the most common first name of the American Presidents. There were six named James (one is more commonly called Jimmy, but he's still a James).

 

That got me talking about Grover Cleveland and other aspects of the American Presidency. My mind goes in interesting directions.

 

Then I mentioned finding a couple names that matched part of the name of the alternative rock band Pixies' lead singer's real name: Charles Thompson. I thought that was cool and I asked the twenty-something fellow behind the counter if he had heard of the Pixies. He hadn't. Damn kids.

 

 

It's Not True: Buzz Aldrin And Pres. Trump 

 

Recently, a story has been making it's way through social's media stating that the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, praised himself for not punching the President. Aldrin made a few humorous looks, but he didn't punch the Commander in Chief, at a press conference, as our first child President gave his book report on a book he hadn't read. The book this time was about space, something about which Aldrin knows a good deal more than the President.

After listening to the most powerful man in the world's meandering and clueless statements, Aldrin claimed his greatest life achievement was refraining from an act of physical assault. And it's not true. Aldrin said nothing of the sort. A satirical website, wishing it was The Onion, made the whole story up. That didn't stop the internets from believing it and spreading it like wildfire.

Snopes.com sussed this one out by simply looking at the fake news site's "about" page.

A Rant

 

I had started into doing a skeptical examination of a recent big claim, but I sidetracked myself by going on an unplanned rant. The rant was about a couple annoying cheers, I guess that's what you'd call them, at sporting events that get under my skin.

 

One has been around for some time now. It's the asinine "get in the hole" cry every time a golfer attempts a shot that has even the remotest chance of getting in the cup. Every time I watch golf on the TV some dipshit is there to yell it out. Thank you so very much, Caddyshack. (Doing some research, I thought I might have to blame Happy Glimore, but Adam Sandler never says the phrase in that movie.)

The other cheer is a newer phenomenon. It's the Ric Flair woo. Flair was some pro wrestler who made that woo sound as part of his gimmick, but it has gained traction among all sorts of sports fans. It's been creeping into sporting events and the dipshits who do it at football or baseball games just do it to hear themselves do it. I mean, there isn't a reason to woo many of the times I hear it. Most of the time there hasn't been a big, cheer-worthy play, they just like to shout, "Wooooo!". Thank you so very much, Ric Flair.

 

Finally! The Amelia Earhart Mystery Has Been Solved! Uh, Well, Not So Fast...

Motivated reasoning can make for people accepting really poor evidence as proof that they are right. And seeing as how the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of aviation pioneer, Amelia Earhart, has been reached, it just couldn't go by without someone making a claim that a solution has been found. A claim bolstered by, in my opinion, motivated reasoning.

A two-hour TV documentary special has arrived to tell us what really happened to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, all those years ago. Once again the notion that they were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned as spies is promoted. This time there's a newly discovered photograph, in which, the investigators claim, Earhart and Noonan can be seen.

 

Photo: US National Archives

 

Well, maybe. Maybe it's them. I think it's far more likely the two in question in the photo are just two of a group of eight Japanese people, standing on a dock.

I dig deeper into my reasons for my skepticism on the show. One big reason for my skepticism is the fact that the special is airing on...

The History Channel

 

 

Oh, it's on the History Channel? Well, then the mystery must be solved. Obviously, Earhart was captured by space aliens!

 

It doesn't help the special's credibility at all by being on that sad and pathetic channel. It only very vaguely has anything to do with history as it is and what it has is sensationalist bullshit.

 

How bad is it that skeptics are longing for the days when the History Channel was the Hitler Channel? At least then there was some history involved.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Bikini Red' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'Rock The Casbah' by The Clash

Second ad break bumpers: 'Is It A Crime?' by Berlin & 'Night Time' 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

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

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 1-28-17 show notes

I Was A Baaaaaad Boy

This past Tuesday I was on my way to work and my impatience got the better of me. A fellow was making a left turn in front of me and I just couldn't be bothered to wait five seconds. I passed him on the shoulder.

 

I was immediately pulled over by a member of law enforcement and handed a ticket. Great. Well, I only have myself to blame.

Defending The Indefensible

No, my show wasn't taken over by some wild-eyed alt-right wing nut, but I did cut Pres. Trump a little slack. Not a lot, but I did cut some slack.

 

I understand why he thought there were so many people at his inauguration. I have seen photographic evidence that was taken, not exactly from his viewpoint, but quite close. From that angle it is very difficult to tell how much empty space there was. He only saw a sea of people.

 

I drew back a little of that slack when he and his press secretary continued to push the idea that there was a million plus in attendance. It's hard to refute the images taken from the Washington Monument from the back and far above the crowd. That image made it clear that there were far less people there than in 2009.

 

2009 on the right, 2017 on the left. The 2017 picture was taken with more time before the speech, so it filled in a bit more, but it's evident there were considerably less people there.

Gigapixel!

 

Source: CNN/PetaPixel

If you are like me, whenever you watch an old detective show with a technician working a miracle by enlarging a little blob in a photograph into a detailed image, you shout at the TV, "It doesn't work that way!" Well, thanks to science, there is now camera technology that can be zoomed in on and have amazing clarity. CNN used in on Inauguration Day.

 

It's this image that I saw that helped me understand why Pres. Trump thought the event was "yuge."

Taking One Item Off The List Of Appalling Behavior

In my continuing defense of the otherwise indefensible, I moved on to one of the most appalling examples of the appalling behavior of candidate Trump. Remember when he mocked a reporter by making fun of the fellow's disability? It was sickening. "What can't this guy get away with?" we all were thinking. And I was thinking it, too.

 

But, I've seen some video evidence of Mr. Trump making virtually the same gesture when talking about Ted Cruz, a general, the bankers, and himself. I can accept that the gesture, voice, and facial expression he made when he talked about that reporter, Serge Kovaleski, are the same as when he is showing someone to be flustered. I don't think he was mocking a disability, he was mocking a reporter who happened to have a disability.

 

Of all the objectionable ideas, attitudes, and behaviors of Pres. Trump I'm willing to cross this one off the list.

 

Watch this clip and see if you might agree with me.

 

It's Not True: Kellyanne Conway's Gucci Stewardess Outfit And Women's March Litter

Yes, I know "stewardess" is not the correct title, but the outfit looked as though it was from the 70s, so I used the term from that time. I also called it a sailor suit.

 

Anyway, it looked awful. We have now learned that Guicci and Armani (see Hillary Clinton's grossly over-priced jacket) are capable of designing crappy looking clothes. What's not true is that Gucci stole the design from an old dress pattern from the tackiest of all decades: the 1970s.

 

 

The image above is just some clever and well executed hoaxing. Someone found an old dress pattern package and altered the illustration on the front to make it look as though Gucci stole the design. Snopes quickly laid this one to rest. 

 

 

Lest you think I've gone all right wing on you, I did mention the image (above) of the Women's March picket signs all left on a sidewalk was not an example of littering. Much like the flowers that nearly buried the fence around Buckingham Palace after the death of Princess Diana, the signs were left as a message. Not a message of love is in the case of the dead Princess, but a message of protest toward America's new President. Those signs were left, on purpose, outside of Trump International Hotel in Washington DC. It wasn't the Women's Marchers not caring about the environment.

 

The Sucker Punch Cheered 'Round The World

I was rather disappointed by the reaction of some of my friends on the Left when video of white supremacist Richard Spencer getting sucker punched surfaced. Many were delighted. I understand the visceral enjoyment of such a moment, but this kind of action does not make things better.

Penn Jillette has said that the answer to bad speech is more speech. Sucker punching someone with whom you disagree does not help. It's behavior akin to terrorism - scare the shit out of someone spewing bad speech by making them fear physical harm and they might shut up.

 

Yay! Big victory for you. But what hearts and minds have you changed?

When people start punching they stop listening.

I compared that sucker punch to the punch doled out by Buzz Aldrin some years ago. Aldrin's punch was different. He was defending himself from a belligerent moon hoax conspiracy theorist. The nut was told to leave the second man to walk on the moon alone by both Aldrin and several other people in the vicinity. But the nut persisted and had Aldrin cornered.

The nut, who was taller, younger, and bigger than the former astronaut, was looming over Aldrin when he called Aldrin a liar and a coward. Buzz had had enough. He punched the nut in the face.

This was self-defense. The nut was repeatedly asked and told to leave Buzz Aldrin alone. Aldrin had tried to get away from the man. Finally, the tough old bird acted. There were no charges.

Aldrin was acting in self-defense. The cowardly anti-Trump protestor was attempting to shut up someone whose speech may be disagreeable, but is protected by the 1st Amendment. And I mean coward. The low level terroristic protestor's face was hidden and once he took Spencer off guard with that punch he ran away.

I was further disappointed by some of my Facebook friends, who enjoyed the punch, when they tried to justify it because they think it's OK to sucker punch Nazis. Well, kids, where does it stop? Who else is it OK to sucker punch? Who decides where to draw the line?

The 1st Amendment isn't there to just protect the speech we like. It's there to protect speech we don't like. It's there to protect the free exchange of ideas. If we start stopping ideas we don't like from being voiced, how long before you're the one with an idea that might be disliked?

A sucker punch wouldn't be so funny then, would it?

 

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time this week, so you are on your own.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Say Goodbye' by Hunters & Collectors & 'Only You' by Yaz

Second ad break bumpers: 'Remote Control' by Red Guitars & 'Falling' by Angelo Badalamenti

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

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

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.