I just can’t accept the wisdom of people so oblivious to the irony embedded in their own rhetoric.
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They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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>Stop demonizing people!!!
*proceeds to demonize people.
I miss the old days when people like Walter Cronkite delivered the news. The news readers back then didn’t embellish, didn’t editorialize, didn’t bring in talking head commentators of dubious intellect, they simply read the news. And then, after they had delivered the news of the day they did another amazing thing, they shut up. This gave the public a chance to mull over what had been said and decide for themselves the validity of the news stories. Sadly these days are gone, replaced by a news-media that’s now part of the entertainment industry.
Cronkite had a good delivery, but he wasn’t exactly unbiased in his reporting. Some things haven’t changed, unfortunately.
I remember the Cronkite and Huntley/Brinkley era. Yeah, in hindsight it became obvious that they were biased as can be but they did at least have the grace to deny and hide it. “News” was allegedly separate from “editorial,” and I think that made them better propagandists because most of us really did assume that they really were separate.
I think the last of that breed was the late Paul Harvey. I was nearly religious in turning in for his “news and commentary” program during the week.
Uncle Walter announcing the Tet Offensive as a massive defeat for South Vietnam and the US forces helped North Vietnam not capitulate after that utter failure.
He just didn’t froth at the mouth like Dan Rather.
We lost the news wars in the late 40’s, early 50’s.
The intimate mixing of news and commentary has never been as pervasive as it is today. I was first introduced to Fox News at a friends house years ago, when it may have only been a cable outlet. I was frankly shocked at the blatant way they mixed opinion and news. I haven’t watched it since, nor do I watch it’s equivalent from the left.
I get my news from a wide variety of sources , and form my own independent conclusions. I don’t need someone else to do that for me!
It goes back further than that, Andrew. Try Walter Duranty of the Gay Lady in the 30s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty
Oh, hell, guys. It goes back at least as far as the birth of print journalism. There’s a reason tories and revolutionaries trashed each other’s printing presses in the American revolution. Check out the foul propaganda churned out by both sides in the 1800 presidential campaign.