Dracula, Christian Hero!

In this article, Raymond Ibrahim argues that Count Dracula, Vlad the Impaler (1428-1477), was a Christian hero whose image has been tarnished by fake news.  Interesting.  In the 15th Century, the Ottoman Turks were ascendant.  The Turks had finally conquered the Byzantine Empire's capitol of Constantinople in 1453 and would surge to the gates of Vienna by 1688.  Vlad's Romania was not spared the Islamic Jihad that battered the waning Christian kingdoms.  It is noteworthy that Vlad fought fire with fire.  Muslims practiced impalement, but none of them have come down through history as such & such the Impaler.  Why is that?  Fake news.  Why is Dracula associated with Christianity gone bad rather than a warrior against Islam?  Fake news.

This is a fascinating reconsideration of Count Dracula, but it fits with other twisted history.  All too often whenever one talks of the clash of Christianity and Islam, apologists will declare that the West had the Crusades.  Yes, but why?  In the 7th Century, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, North Africa, Turkey, and Syria were dominated by Christianity.  Islam conquered all of this territory and, by 732, fought the Battle of Tours in France!  The Crusades was a pathetic response against the ongoing attacks.  Even today, the conflicts between Muslims and Jews is almost always laid at the feet of the Jews.

Yes, I'm sold.  Dracula got bad press.

Drink Bleach

It has been a year since the 'drink bleach' story swept the country.  Did President Trump really suggest that drinking bleach would be a treatment for Covid-19?  Let's check it out.

During a briefing on April 23, 2020 that included William Bryan of DHS, Trump said the following:

"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

From this, the press latched onto the words disinfectant and injection.  It was a short step from their to drinking bleach.  Then again, injecting light sounds pretty wild too.  Is that a thing?

Yes, it is a thing.  Check out Healight for more details.  Given the opportunity between informing the public about a potential treatment for Covid-19 or making President Trump look like a moron, what did the press choose?  Is it any wonder he called them "Fake News."

Read the Transcript

Joe Biden has referenced the Very Fine People Hoax again.  If you read the transcript, not only does Trump explain who he meant by fine people, he also explicitly condemns Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.  This is exactly why he rants about fake news.

Check it out for yourself here.

According to Scott Adams, Joe Biden has either shown that he doesn't know it's a hoax (in which case he is too dumb to be president) or he does know and wants to divide the country for his electoral benefit (in which case he is evil and not fit to be president).  It is most likely the former.  Joe doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could Google it.  He probably takes the word of his handlers.

Fake News Marches On

Here is a story that shows why Trump thinks the media are both hostile and fake.  Rather than headphones, Trump only wore an earpiece in one ear to hear translations during the G7 summit.  However, a casual observer could conclude that he wasn't listening.  One must remember, Trump has a very particular hairstyle and clunky headphones are not helpful in maintaining it.  Thus, he was just wearing an earpiece in his right ear.

 

The negative version - that he was ignoring the Italian translation - was posted on Twitter and has been spread far and wide - 20,000 retweets.  The correction was later posted on Twitter and it went nowhere - 175 retweets.  The false story - which reflects poorly on Trump - has vastly better circulation than the correction.  This is not unusual.  When papers publish a front page story that proves to be incorrect, the correction is very rarely front page news.

 

Is it any wonder that the media is distrusted?

Airline Hell?

Ever since the man was dragged off the plane, there has been an uptick in stories about how bad the airlines are.  What does this mean?  I see two likely scenarios:

One: Airlines have become terrible recently.  Not that airlines have been great, but for some reason they have descended to a less tolerable level of customer service.  The news media has recognized this and is giving exactly the amount of coverage that it merits.

Two: The dragging story was a ratings winner and the media are currently in a feeding frenzy for more stories that reflect badly on the airlines.  Thus, though the level of service is no different from what it has been, the added attention is highlighting what wasn't considered newsworthy before the dragging.

 

My vote is for scenario 2.  More than a million people fly each day and it is a virtual certainty that a few of those people had a bad or even disastrous experience.  Right now, those 1 in a million stories are getting front page treatment and painting the airlines as villains.  The airlines are cruel capitalists who don't care about their customers and the proof is that they do not achieve a 100% satisfaction rating.

 

The dragged passenger has settled with United, as all knew he would.  This should be a lesson:  Never go willingly, make them drag you and there is a payday in your near future.

Muslim Ban = Fake News

As someone who favors a Muslim ban because Islam is an evil ideology that happens to have religious aspects, there is no Muslim ban.  What we have is a ban on people from Libya, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Iran.  Yes, these are all majority Muslim countries.  So are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan, none of which are covered by the 'Muslim' ban.  QED, we are not banning Muslims, we are banning certain nationalities.  Ergo, a Muslim ban is a misnomer.  Imagine if, during World War II, a ban on Germans and Italians traveling to the US was described as a Caucasian ban.  Idiotic!

There is a subset of Muslims from countries that have been infiltrated with ISIS operatives.  ISIS has openly stated its desire to sneak terrorists into Western countries as part of the refugee flood.  Stopping the flow of people from these regions is common sense.  Until we can weed out the terrorists, it is more important for the government to protect American lives than to harbor refugees.  If the choice is between the safety of Ma and Pa Kettle of Syracuse or the well being of Muhammad from Syria, the Kettles should be chosen every time.

 

Calling it a Muslim ban gives an impression that is demonstrably false.  Fake news.