OT: Writing in general

[SundialMan]

More on Imus and the radio/TV Rappers

I submitted this as a blog piece/letter to the Editor at AT today concerning Selwyn Duke's piece about Don Imus. At this time, I don't think it will be published there, but I wanted to pass it along to you all.

Jack Kemp

Comment on Imus "lynching" and Rap Music

After reading "The New Lynching: Why I must defend Don Imus"

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/the_new_lynching_defending_don.html

and other comments, an idea came to me.

Now that William Bennett's continued war against rap music has been joined by Senator Lieberman, http://www.nytimes.com/top/reference...t&offset=90&&&
why not have the addition of the of the Rutgers' Women's Basketball Team, as well? Surely if they and their coach held a press conference now to denounce this Black-on-Black misogynistic hate speech abetted by white record companies, I would assume the Rutgers' Women's team would get major media coverage. OK, at least Fox would cover the conference. After all, if the Rutgers' women were truly hurt by Imus saying something insulting to Black women one time, surely they are also hurt by black rap "artists" saying it all day long? Politically Correct Selective Outrage doesn't help the cause of black women in getting respect and equality.

To quote Time Magazine itself from 1995 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/pr...983037,00.html ,

"William Bennett, the former Secretary of Education, and C. DeLores Tucker, head of the National Political Congress of Black Women, brought their campaign against offensive rock lyrics to the annual Time Warner shareholders' meeting at New York's City Center. At one point in the meeting, Tucker rose from the audience and delivered a 17-minute attack on violent and misogynistic lyrics in songs recorded by Time Warner performers. At the end of her speech, about a third of the packed audience burst into applause. Among them, notably, was a member of the Time Warner board of directors: Henry Luce III, the son of TIME's founder."

This confrontation at the shareholders meeting, including the reading of some very offensive lyrics to the Board Members, lead to Time Warner divesting itself of a rap label. But rap music was far from through insulting black women. Hasn't the time come for the Rutgers' Women's Basketball Team to join Ms. Tucker in her denunciation of the constant drumbeat of anti-black woman in general lyrics found on the airwaves of many radio stations, particularly black owned ones?

Jack Kemp

[SundialMan]

Virginia Tech thoughts

Here are some reflections and observations I came up with this morning. Just submitted it to Amer. Thinker but don't know if it will be approved for publication.
*
Jack
*
Old Enough to Vote, Old Enough to Carry Concealed
*
How many here remember the lowering of the voting age to eighteen*being one of the byproducts of Vietnam War Era politics, a move favored by many liberals? This was summed up in the lapel button/bumper sticker slogan "Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote." Well, despite the current objections of liberals and the United Nations, I would consider the corollary to this argument, namely if you are old enough to have the right to vote and decide the fate of the nation, you are old enough to*fight armed for your life on a college campus and carry a concealed weapon. This could involve a criminal and mental health*background check, a gun safety course and, obviously,*passage of concealed*carry permit laws*in the college's jurisdiction, but this basic extension of a*Sixties premise*holds true.*
*
College is a place where one is supposed to learn more about handling mature responsibilities for caring for your community, including being able to*protect it from crazed gun toting lawbreakers, not extend childhood by creating an Ivory Tower Utopia where even the president and senior security staff*of a University wants to pretend that nothing wrong every happens, even after early morning shootings.*It appears that if the gunman were wearing a Ten Commandments T-shirt or one advocating reading the Gospels, he would swiftly have met with indignant concern by the authorities. I myself once worked in a corporate data center that had a bomb threat, resulting in my not being allowed back in the building after exiting to buy a 3pm snack/sandwich in the neighborhood. The threat was, fortunately, just a threat. But even this half-measure (others inside were not evacuated) showed some attempt to balance concern for the security of those still inside with a desire to not cause a panic. Then again, both management and security executives in a private corporation fear the loss of income and vilification in the press of an "evil corporation" or business a lot more than does an "idealistic" university.
*
One day soon, in a courtroom in Virginia, a personal injury attorney, perhaps even John Edwards himself, will be making the claim that school officials failed to act "in loco parentis" (in place of parents) in securing the safety of the students. Lawyers will soon be making the argument that the state had failed in its duty to protect both student and professor, even as the lawyer contemplates making a donation to the Democratic Party that advocates stronger*limits on*individuals*protecting themselves under the Second Amendment. But the students at Virginia Tech have learned exactly what they can expect from relying one hundred percent on sources outside themselves to secure their safety. And I suspect more than one student with a concealed permit license in Virginia is contemplating the NRA-oriented phrase concerning illegal gun usage in one's self defense, "It's better to tried by 12 (jurors) than carried by 6 (pall bearers)."
*
We have read accounts on the internet of students transferring to another campus from Virginia Tech. No doubt this has and will happen.*This social utopia "Gun Free Zone" experiment has many characteristics of the failed policies of early colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts that believed individual property and farming efforts could sublimated to a*communal government which advocated equality for all, but could not deal with the stultifying denial of reward for individual effort. In a high tech school with email,*cell phones, text messaging, telephone contact with radio stations both*on campus*and off, the defense of students appears to*have been organized along the concepts of another Sixties slogan, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Well, the other side came, and came back later to destroy the illusion of a Gun Free Zone.
*
Listening to the press conference by the*Virginia Tech administration*shortly after the shootings, it appeared as if they had a pride in knowing in nothing and doing nothing after the early shootings. For those of you of a certain age, it was as if Sergeant Schultz of "Hogan's Heroes" and acquired a suit after the war, lost his foreign accent, and now proudly and calmly stated to the press that he knows nothing - and neither should anyone else for as long as possible. But, like the original events Hogan's Heroes was based on, this was not a laughing or even a sanguine matter.
*
I strongly suspect those that advocate the solution to what happened at Virginia Tech being the posting of more "This is a*Gun Free Zone" posters will be the first to advocate their own young adult children attend college online via the internet, i.e., the Magic Technology Solution that avoids dealing with the failure of their social belief in Rouseau's argument that Man is a noble being who is naturally good and should be left unfettered by the State and the Church (or other religious institutions). The belief that making the acquisition of a gun inconvenient is all that it takes to bring out the natural*nobility of the college community (as if it is*difficult for a non-student to enter a campus, as well). I say to those "Gun Free Zone" advocates, your Noble Experiment, like Prohibition,*has failed. Just like the old leftists, like*one Berkeley grad I once knew, who claim that "real" socialism wasn't tried in The Soviet Union and that's why that system went under, I believe the arguments fall on mostly deaf ears of concerned parents. And by the way, according to Don B. Kates, Jr. in the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution,*http://www.tennesseefirearms.com/art...important.asp*
*
"Jean-Jacques Rouseau also held arms possession to be symbolic of personal freedom and vital to the virtuous, self reliant citizenry (defending itself from encroachment by outlaws, tyrants and foreign invaders alike) that they deemed indispensable to poplar government."*
*
I once wrote here at AT*http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...y_came_to.html
about war coming to Princeton's campus in 1775, in the person of Gen. George Washington's forces and the British. The presence of "Gun Free Zone" signs would not have altered that event. Nor would those signs have altered the events at Kent State almost two centuries later. The time is long past for colleges to pretend they are not part of the real world and need to maximize their real world deterrence to the evil and the derange among both their own communities and*in the*outside world, so readily capable of walking onto a campus.
*
Jack Kemp

[ParkTwain]

Right Wing blather

1) Holding up Jean-Jacques Rousseau as a proponent of bearing arms? That's a reach for a conservative like you! From wikipedia.org:

"Rousseau was most controversial in his own time for his views on religion. His view that man is good by nature conflicts with the doctrine of original sin and his theology of nature expounded by the Savoyard Vicar in Émile led to the condemnation of the book in both Calvinist Geneva and Catholic Paris. In the Social Contract he claims that true followers of Jesus would not make good citizens. This was one of the reasons for the book's condemnation in Geneva. Rousseau attempted to defend himself against critics of his religious views in his Letter to Christophe de Beaumont, the Archbishop of Paris."

and

"Rousseau was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property, and therefore is sometimes considered a forebear of modern socialism and communism (see Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, though Marx rarely mentions Rousseau in his writings)."


2) As if the continued, unnecessary proliferation of cheap handguns is in the interests of "personal liberty." The Right needs to make up its mind: either put into place a program of true personal responsibility and public morality, or go all the way and arm everyone while admitting the failure of the Right's law enforcement and incarceration agenda. Don't talk to me about having it both ways. What you're actually talking about is a "race to the bottom" of debased public morality and personal responsibility.

This reminds me of the lack of commitment of American capitalists who believe it is a better long-term strategy to employ ever increasing numbers of illegal immigrants in the economy as opposed to increasing their INVESTMENT in higher productivity and technology. These capitalists would rather export jobs than invest in their own country's resources.

This trend is feeding the minds of the public with the unsettling idea that the "rich" are actually following an agenda of looting the U.S. economy (executive pay, corruption in Iraq contractors, entrenched structural inefficiencies in professional fields, and I especially liked it when State Farm completely pulled out of the homeowner's insurance business in Mississippi when it ran into a jury decision it didn't like, etc.), out of their contempt for the masses and their belief in their own inherent superiority, before somehow either retreating to their compounds (as found in Latin and South America) or leaving the country entirely.

[SundialMan]

re: Park Twain

Park Twain, I am well aware that Rouseau was against religion. He also deserted his family to pursue his "individual rights," forgoing child support as well. I was discussing a flawed human being, not a saint. What I was saying that even Rouseau, a darling of the left, was NOT in favor of government gun control. The fact that he hated the church, a fact I readily agree is true, has nothing to do with what happened at Virginial Tech.

I also wanted to address your point about capitalists bringing in illegal workers. You make the point as if there is no major dissention among conservative voters about that, that you could paint all conservatives with that charge of hypocracy. One of the major reasons the Democrats regained the House and Senate was that a lot of disaffected Republican/conservative voters either stayed home or voted for allegedly conservative Democrats to punish George Bush for not defending the borders. Sean Hannity faults Pres. Bush for not realistically addressing current illegal immigration problems. I do as well.

The problem of recent years is that you don't get a Harry Truman running against a Thomas E. Dewey. It is more like Nixon vs. Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman these days. I am generalizing for dramatic effect, but specifically what I mean by that is there are not two strong national defense candidates, so strong opposition among conservatives to a moderate Republican presidential candidate does not translate into crossover voting for a Democrat - in a presidential election. Many Republicans agree with your observation about industrialists not caring about immigration's effect on the general population. But the alternative choice is seen as...no alternative. The fact that you rail against illegal immigration, Park Twain, does not automaticly make me conclude you would end it if you or your favorite candidate were in a Senate seat or wherever. You might, as a Democrat, merely redefine the term "illegal immigrant" to now be known as an "early adaptor of a new Open Borders Program and Law" you may advocate and say that this issue is a conservative fantasy concern, thus going on to give us much more of the same drain on entry jobs, school and hospital resources by non-taxpayers, etc. everyone now complains about.

Jack

[ParkTwain]

Please understand that my concern about illegal immigrants is not ideological but rather practical economics. This situation is akin to an executive neglecting to invest in improving the technology and processes of his company by ignoring those concerns and instead trying to maintain or perhaps slightly improve his company's profits only by buying/hiring the cheapest resources. That does not work for very long if all other aspects of his operations are being neglected. This is what I feel is happening to the country with the present surplus of illegals. The companies, and the National Chamber of Commerce, must believe that they are getting something for nothing, that is, they are willing to postpone into the future the hard social and political work of dealing with all these people in order for these capitalists to make a buck today. It's obviously not part of their concerns to understand what the legal, political,and social ramifications of the present miasma of lawlessness that surrounds all aspects of this problem. So, no, I have no respect for either the Small Business Association, the National Chamber of Commerce, the Republican Party, etc. for this obvious unstated policy of the owners of CAPITAL in this country. The Roman Catholic Church and of course the Democratic Party are also to blame. The RCC wants more celebrants, and the Democrats think that the Hispanics will congenitally vote for them. So isn't this all nice kettle of fish.

[SundialMan]

Promoting the Vir. Tech killer

It seems that AOL wants to get ratings for reading Cho's plays online, at the same time it derides NBC for broadcasting his video tape...

Other than that, Ms. Virginia Tech Student, how did you like the play?

America Online recently had a link on their homepage to "Virginia Tech Anguises over Missed Signals," I clicked on it and found myself with a second page link to a discussioin of the controversy of NBC News releasing the tapes Cho sent them entitled "What Good are..." and posted this featured article by Mo Rocca, a person who has appeared on the Daily Show:

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/19/the-legend-of-cho-brought-to-you-by-nbc/

'The Legend of Cho (Brought to you by NBC)


Posted Apr 19th 2007 8:03AM by Mo Rocca
Filed under: Virginia Tech Shooting, Cho Seung-Hui

Hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals pay public relations firms and publicists weighty retainers to get their messages out - to break through to an audience. Ford Motor Company wants you to know they're "bold." Obama wants you to know he's experienced enough to be President. I want you to know that I'm the witty go-to guy on American Idol commentary.

The demented Cho has managed to become not only a household name but also a legend in record time - and he didn't have to pay anyone to do it for him. Sending his press kit to NBC may be the only rational thing he did - since NBC News took the bait (in record time).'

END OF QUOTE

Pretty hard-hitting against NBC? Maybe, if it were not published by AOL, a longtime property of Time Warner, known for its hip hop vulgar lyrics fame. Going to another part of the same news story, I found on the first page a link http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/...ng-huis-plays/ to an "AOL Exclusive," two of the actual short plays Cho Seung Hui wrote, presumably as English assignments. AOL, located also in Virginia, states "Ian MacFarlane, a former classmate and current AOL employee, provided us with the plays." http://news.aol.com/virginia-tech-sh...17134109990001

So AOL appears to be against showing (or raising critical questions) about a video it did not receive but for showing two short CHO plays it did receive. Makes you wonder - for half a second - whether AOL would have made availible online, at its own website as an "AOL Exclusive" the CHO mailed videos had they been addressed to AOL Headquarters. Of course they would have. But since they didn't get them in the mail, they could claim moral superiority to NBC news. Until they received copies of the plays, that is. Not unlike a 17 year old, who can't gain admission, denouncing peep shows. Come back when you're 18 or 21 and then I might believe you are against these things.

This is beyond vulgar and hypocritical. Beyond merely amoral. It is insane, thoughtless and crudely exploitive. AOL is attempting to ride on the back of Cho's "fame" and reputation. Granted, it is somewhat difficult to find the plays in the AOL news story coverage, but if I could find them easy enough, so could many others. People who read articles and plays, either on paper or online, are less in number than television watchers even though there is some overlap of populations. The readers often have a different mindset. But this posting of the sick plays gives a renewed noteriety and quasi-fame to Cho with a new audience that his troubled ideas don't deserve. And AOL adds to the "search" for more would-be copycat killers to indocrinate.

Jack

[SundialMan]

A visit to the NY Times Annual meeting

I went to the NY Time's Annual Meeting, covering it for my own curiosity and the website I write for. I bought one share a while back in preparation. My editor, at this point, is wary of posting what I wrote in full without outside documentation. I guess he is covering his assets.

I'll cover mine here and only talk about one item that was actually, amazingly, stated later on the NY Time's own website (link is below).

Janet Robinson, a board member, stated that the NY Times was the best read paper among college students, and she followed that by saying the NY Times average readership hasn't averaged down from age 43-47 in a decade. She didn't understand the implications of what she had just said about all those college readers. I assume that the Times was assigned by their professors and given free in some cases. Whether the students paid for it or not, that still means all that exposure hasn't averaged the Time's readership age downward into the 30s age range. The young people graduate college and don't read the Times, despite their college experience. I actually got to the microphone for the Q&A and confronted Ms. Robinson on this point, giving the example of CNN being the "most popular" television station at airports - because it is the only one playing. Her answer, which I did not record (recording not allowed), did not convince me she was right. What she said in a few sentences is a flawed argument that anyone not sleeping through the entire semester of sophomore statistics could see was a weak argument, more like spin.

Here's my documentation from the Times website as to what Ms. Robinson said. You have to scroll down a bit past Pinch Sulzberger's words to get to her presentation.

http://www.nytco.com/investors-presentations-20070424.html

JANET ROBINSON:

SECTION OMITTED...

"A particularly important target group for us is young adults. The “Fall 2006 Student Monitor Study” report, the only nationally syndicated market research study of the college student market, found that The Times is the No. 1 newspaper read among college students, with 1 million college readers in print and over 800,000 more online readers each week.

That explains why the average age of The Times reader in print has not fundamentally changed in over a decade – 43 years old for the daily and 47 for Sunday. That also happens to be around the average age of NYTimes.com readers."

END OF QUOTE

Janet, that explains nothing of the sort. You are essentially saying the readership hasn't gotten any older for average age, but the volume of customers has gone down for all papers, as has the Times share price. Those recent grads must getting their news from the internet and cable mostly starting the day they get out of college and don't have to quote the Times in term papers. If they live in Atlanta or Chicago or Los Angeles, they probably are looking at the local paper at least on Sunday.

Meanwhile my investment in one NYT share at just under $24 is losing money, even though the Times raised the dividend. The annual meeting was held in the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, where Mary Poppins is playing. Well, a spoonful of sugar didn't help this bad medicine go down.

Jack

[SundialMan]

NY Times "popularity" on campus, pt. 2

On second thought, it seems what Board Member Janet Robinson was so upbeat about was that the number of new younger Times readers, over a ten year period, was enough to replace the older ones who died off. So she's very upbeat about treading water. When AOL gave out those millions of free disks in the 1990s, they would not have considered the program a failure if they only got enough new members to replace older ones who died - or defected to other internet services.

I had an email conversation with a former university journalism professor. I've haven't been around a campus in years, but what he said didn't surprise me. He stated, from his experience, that even when he assigned reading of a newspaper, presumbably the Times, the students rebeled and refused to read the paper. He couldn't get them to do their homework with the newspaper.

So either professors assigning the Times for homework or distribution of some free copies is not a growth business. The Times annual meeting records at their website (see previous post) talks about new magazines started and website growth. They aren't making a profit per share, according to Yahoo, but the magazine and website growth seems to be their best chance for turning things around. I, personally, wouldn't be investing in a turnaround at the NYT. Some pro investors say otherwise, but I haven't seen their personal brokerage statements to know if they put their money where their mouth is.

Jack

[Tatnic]

...more global warming stuff...

...from yet another champion of the republican party, Ahhhnold Swartzenegger:

from an interview with Frank Rich....

"If 98 doctors say my son is ill and needs medication and two say 'No, he doesn't, he's fine,' I will go with the 98. It's common sense--the same with global warming. We go with the majority, the large majority....The key thing now is that since we know this industrial age has created it, let's get our act together and do everything we can to roll it back."

This is from the NY Times magazine, April 15th, 2007.

My observation is that even the most strident, stubborn republicans acknowledge that there is a problem with global warming, yet they just cannot get beyond the debating stage and act. That's very typical of most republicans...they just like to debate and leave the hard work up to others. That's why they got blown out in the last election and why they'll get blown away in the upcoming presidential election. America is a country of doers, not debators.

[SundialMan]

You Might Be a Yankee jokes

From a Northerner (myself), no less. A variation on the "you might be a redneck" jokes of Jeff Foxworthy. These are for all of you and especially Tatnic..or should I say CCCrawford on AOL?

You might be a Yankee...

If you think J.E.B. Stuart is the President's brother.

If you think the 'Stars and Bars' is a book about Hollywood actors in jail for drug charges.

If you think a Kentucky Colonel is something you scrape off a corn cob to produce ethanol.

If you think the Crimson Tide is something caused by water polution and offshore drilling.

If you think Graceland is where George Burns lived with his wife.

If you think that duck blinds are a cruel form of animal testing.

If you think "Erie Canal" is a country western song because it talks about a mule.

If you thnk "fried okra" is a reference to an angry black talk show host.

If you think Huey Long is one of Donald Duck's three nephews.

If you think Britany Spears is an asparagus dish served in France.

And lastly,

If you think a snappy retort is "my political opponent is so dumb he can't grow Pueraria lobata." That's the scientific name for kudzu.

[SundialMan]

Did you see book/movie "Exodus" ?

How many of you saw the movie or read the book Exodus?

Both were very dramatic, were and are widely seen - but they weren't very accurate history about the ship itself. As a kid, my parents took me to see the movie "Exodus" and I thought it was 100% true because it had their endorsement. But the real history can be found in the works of NY Post reporter Ruth Gruber (when the Post was a liberal paper !), such as her book "Exodus 1947" (out of print but available on Amazon.com or at libraries). Also the truth is in the DVD called Exodus 1947, made in 1999 for Maryland Public Television which tells what really happened.

I've written a piece about this subject using both the sources above and added my own remarks and conclusions based on my understanding of those times. But I await it being first published - or not published - at American Thinker this week before I post it here. My article has many nice things to say about Harry Truman. And some unique surprises.

The real story is better than the made up story, as is often the case. In the movie, the ship "Exodus" was bought in Cyprus and filled up there with refugees gotten out of a detention camp on that island. Then they threated a hunger strike after being blocked in the harbor and were eventually allowed to enter the port of Haifa and stay in the British Mandate of Palestine.

In real life, the British intercepted the ship and sent it back to Europe, first to France, then Germany. All the bad publicity turned world public opinion against Britain.

As I said, I wrote a four page article (representing about a month of research) that I'd like to put up here, but it will have to wait until Friday morning at the latest.

What did they say on about the "X Files?" The truth is out there.

The real story awaits...Friday.

Jack

[Tatnic]

How many of you saw the movie or read the book Exodus?


Jack

I saw the movie...good flick. But I've always felt that Cuba would have been the better location for the exodus...kill 2 birds with one stone. But in the 40's Cuba was not a problem to US, so I guess its too late now.

I do think that once we get booted out of iraq that al queda et al will turn their attention to Israel, more than they have already. That will be the ultimate showdown between muslims and Jews and I fear that given the iraq mistake and all the nutjobs its created across the world, that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth.

I still think it would be easier now to relocate all of Israel to Cuba.....just think of the improvements that would be made there. I don't know if any of you have seen modern day Cuba but its about as run down as a country can get...years of neglect and hopelessness. MOving Israel there would be difficult at first but easier than trying to stay in that hell hole in the mideast.

[SundialMan]

the published, edited Exodus article

Here it is, literally years in the making, as they used to say in the movies in the 1950s and 1960s. This all started when, as a tourist, I walked through Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 2001 and saw a plaque commemerating the sailing of the Exodus. Read on...There are links in this article that don't transfer here in the copy. For those interested, they can check out the source information linked to by accessing the article at its' American Thinker web location given directly below. But you can read the story right here and now as well.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/05/the_ss_exodus_baltimore_hollyw.html

May 13, 2007
The SS Exodus, Baltimore, Hollywood, and Harry Truman
By Jack Kemp

Many people in America today have gotten their understanding of the birth of modern Israel and the journey of the ship Exodus from the best selling novel and movie of the same name. I saw the movie as a child and thought I was watching an accurate history lesson. The book still continues to sell worldwide. Its current paperback version states on its cover that there are "Over 1 million copies in print." I recently bought a copy of the movie in a major new bookstore in New York which had three or four other copies of the film in the rack. They were not dusty items from years ago, but clearly an item that the store believes people are still buying.

The paperback version of Exodus, while acknowledging the old ship was bought in Baltimore and not Cyprus as the movie states, downplays the efforts - and risks - taken by some Baltimore Jews for their involvement in international politics and blockade running. The book also makes no mention of the tacit support of Harry Truman. Page 148 of the current paperback edition of "Exodus" states that,


"It was felt that the ship should be purchased in the United States or South America where the British would not be suspicious."
In fact, the British - and the American newspapers - got wind of it before the ship ever sailed, as I will explain later.

The movie Exodus, with a screenplay written by blacklisted Hollywood Ten member Dalton Trumbo, has the old passenger ship being bought in Cyprus, but does indeed credit an American crew for sailing it. Admittedly, by having the start of the Exodus' voyage begin in Cyprus, it makes for a more concise, geographically focused script in what is already a movie that runs three and a half hours. But Trumbo's complete elimination of the ship's American origins and also Harry Truman's indirect support, to say nothing of Truman's public endorsement of 100,000 Jewish refugees being allowed into what is now Israel, with no mention of the ship being bought in Baltimore, also was consistent with Trumbo's leftist politics.

Harry Truman was an anti-communist who oversaw a successful guerilla war against the communists in Greece, approved the 1948 Berlin Airlift, resisted communist aggression in Korea, and launched the Cold War. Dalton Trumbo was an accomplished screen writer of such pro-WWII films as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and A Man Named Joe. Although he had some political reservations about "enforced ideological conformity" in the Communist Party, he did join it in 1943. Previously, he had rebuked New Deal liberalism and even wrote an antiwar novel Johnny Got His Gun, which he later recalled from distribution after Hitler invaded Russia. Antiwar sentiments were suddenly no longer the Communist Party line - or Trumbo's. Perhaps Trumbo had realized that the Hitler-Stalin Pact did not buy "peace in our time."

To further express his politics, Trumbo has the film version of Exodus end with a burial of a murdered Jew and murdered Muslim in the very same grave. There was no Kadi and no one said Kadish. We can realistically assume that Trumbo was not interested in putting in a good word for Harry Truman's legacy in this or any movie. His personal preferred alternative to Truman in the 1948 election was probably not Republican opponent Thomas E. Dewey.

The movie Exodus was inspired by the 1958 best-selling book by Leon Uris and producer/director Otto Preminger rushed to buy the rights. Uris, a Baltimore native who dropped out of high school to join the Marines after Pearl Harbor, in turn was inspired significantly by Ruth Gruber's writings, she being a New York Post foreign correspondent and author of press reports following the Exodus refugees after their landing in Haifa. She also wrote a 1948 book, Destination Palestine, which clearly tells in the early pages of the Baltimore origins of the ship. Ruth Gruber's book did not become the runaway best seller that Uris's book had been. As a side note, in another Gruber book from 2003, titled "Inside of Time," she states on page 329 that after later hearing about and reading her 1948 book, movie producer Otto Preminger stated he told Leon Uris that if he had seen Ruth Gruber's book "Destination Palestine" first, he would never have bought the rights to Uris's. I believe this story to be true because I have seen them both. Uris's book is a broader history, but Gruber's book follows the plight of the refugees in a more personal and emotionally compelling way - and is not a novel. That is, it is based on entirely true reporting.

Ruth Gruber was reporting events in British Mandate Palestine at the time the Exodus landed in Haifa. She arrived at dockside to see the transfer of Exodus' 1947 refugees to British prison ships going back to Europe. Some - perhaps many - of you reading this may think that I've got it wrong. The Hollywood script of Exodus and the Leon Uris novel both had the voyage of the refugee ship conclude with a successful hunger strike convincing the Foreign Office in Whitehall to allow full legal entry of the ship's refugees into Haifa in present day Israel. That was not the case, but rather the Hollywood myth that lives on.


It was the return of the refugees to European Displaced Person camps in Germany that hurt the British image in the international press and helped the cause of the Jews to create the modern state of Israel.

Ms. Gruber, who is still alive and working as of May 2007, would go on to write a currently available follow-up book to "Destination Palestine" in 1999 entitled "Exodus 1947." The Maryland Public Television program of the same name (available at www.exodus1947.com. I recommend it to those interested in the subject) would draw heavily on her original book's sources to correct the historical record. As is often the case, the real history is different but no less dramatic or informative than the watered-down Hollywood cartoonish version.


I found a copy of Ruth Grubber's' now out of print 1948 book at the NY Public Library Judicia collection. On page 35, she states,

"The Exodus story had begun in America, for the ship was an American excursion boat and the crew were GIs and sailors and Merchant Marine men. She was a holiday boat in America, she had carried Sunday excursionists and honeymooners up and down Chesapeake Bay. In America, she was called the President Warfield, after the president of her shipping line. Eighteen years after, she had been built in Baltimore, friends of the Haganah, the Jewish Army of Resistance, purchased her to move Jews out of Europe on the "underground railroad" to Palestine, on the route they called "Aliyah Bet."
Later in the book, Ms. Gruber also mentions John Stanley Grauel, a Protestant minister who was a crew member and supposedly a "neutral observer," who sailed on the ship from Baltimore, through the Atlantic storms to Europe and a British Royal Marine boarding (where they killed three people) to arrive with them in Haifa. He later gave testimony to a commission and to Ms. Gruber.


A Maryland Public Television program based on Ms. Gruber's 1999 book further tells the story with documentary accuracy. (Perhaps it's easier to get documents and people to talk when they reach old age). The ship had also been used to carry US troops in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and was later sold for scrap. After W.W.II, European shipping had been decimated and the best source of old steamers was the war surplus scrap heaps of America, a fact known to the Haganah, the British, and the United States. The purchase by a group of Baltimore Jews, notably Moses Speert and others, was not a risk-free activity.


The ship was refurbished in plain sight on a Baltimore dock, drawing curiosity. The Baltimore Sun printed an article asking on the day the ship first sailed (February 25, 1947) into a midwinter Atlantic storm, why did the "General Warfield" which was supposed to go to China, have navigation maps for the Mediterranean? The Sun could have told the FBI or the Republican Mayor of Baltimore Theodore McKeldin (the immediate predecessor to Nancy Pelosi's father Mayor Thomas D'Alsesnadro, Jr.) while the ship was still anchored on the waterfront. Worse yet, the 1928 ship, built for river and coastal excursions, had to turn back 75 miles out to sea after a fierce winter storm. It returned to Norfolk, Virginia before a second successful try at crossing the Atlantic.


By this time, the once secret Haganah ship was quite a widely known story to both the British government and President Truman's opponents, both inside and outside the Democratic Party. The US could have impounded the ship for interfering with US foreign affairs in Norfolk. I suspect the old worn steamer could have been impounded for safety violations and having an unlicensed crew as well. In fact, Britain was trying to get the ship's Honduran registration revoked.

Some would say that there were no political risks with the Truman administration because Harry Truman was publicly in favor of their cause, but the people procuring the ship in 1946 did not know if Harry Truman would win the 1948 election. England had previously thrown out their wartime leader Winston Churchill in a postwar election. And Harry Truman, who was an unelected President at that time, was very low in the polls. Presidential poll comparisons are a topic in the news today. Glen's Blog discusses the irony of Newsweek contrasting the current Pres. Bush with Harry Truman, yet Truman polled as low as 22% before the 1948 election. Stephen Medvic at Old Dominion University also reminds us that,

"Nevertheless, the science of polling was far from perfected. In 1948, polls would again mistakenly project a winner, forecasting that Harry Truman would lose the presidential election."
So anyone who risked personal freedom and reputation to help launch the Exodus 1946-47 in Baltimore had no guarantee that they would not be in prison in 1950 - or sued by Britain in civil court. And Harry Truman could have lost the 1948 election, in part, because of his support for the Exodus. His vote was split within the Democratic Party by the segregationist Dixiecrats and the socialist "gentleman farmer" progressives lead by Henry Wallace. Had Truman been as poll-driven as more modern politicians, he would have impounded the Exodus in Baltimore or Norfolk.

There is a town in Israel renamed Kfar Truman in 1950 in appreciation for what Harry Truman did for Israel. Originally settled in 1949, the Jewish Agency approached the creators of the town to change the name to honor Israel's benefactor and friend. Although the book and movie show Israel in a generally favorable light, there is no Kfar Uris and no Kfar Trumbo.


Jack Kemp is not the politician of the same name.

[skiracer]

I saw the movie...good flick. But I've always felt that Cuba would have been the better location for the exodus...kill 2 birds with one stone. But in the 40's Cuba was not a problem to US, so I guess its too late now.

I do think that once we get booted out of iraq that al queda et al will turn their attention to Israel, more than they have already. That will be the ultimate showdown between muslims and Jews and I fear that given the iraq mistake and all the nutjobs its created across the world, that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth.

I still think it would be easier now to relocate all of Israel to Cuba.....just think of the improvements that would be made there. I don't know if any of you have seen modern day Cuba but its about as run down as a country can get...years of neglect and hopelessness. MOving Israel there would be difficult at first but easier than trying to stay in that hell hole in the mideast.

From 1952 to 1955 my dad was stationed at the blimp base in Key West, Fla. His squadron would routinely fly down to Quantanamo Naval Base with the blimps just to get in their required flight hours every month. He took me with him on the blimp on numberous occasions. He and his buddies would go into Havana whenever they were going to be there for a few days layover. It was a long drive as Guantanamo was on the lower more southern end of the island and Havana was on the northern end of the island. We would pass thru the entire northern coast of the island on the drive to Havana. Dirt poor country and people but in those days they had a better life than under Castro. It is without a doubt one of the most lush and beautiful places in the world. Their beaches and water are unsurpassed and their tabacco is without a doubt the finest in the world. Havana was teeming with people and for a kid of 8/9 years old or so it was exciting to say the least. On top of that my dad and his crew were as wild a group of sailors as you would find anywhere. Castro ruined the island and set it back years. The US and organized crime had a playland unmatched in splendor and they let it get away from them by believing Castro in the initial stages of his revolution.

[SundialMan]

alternative homeland attempts

Tatnic, supporting a scheme to get a large group of Jews to get 90 miles from America in Cuba would have not been favored by many in the 1930s, because they would have feared those Jews would have made it a waystation before entering the US within a few years - a very realistic possibility.

Before modern Israel, there were discussions of several places where an alternative Jewish homeland was proposed. One was Uganda, Africa. One was in a part of the Soviet Union just north of Manchuria, proposed by Soviet Socialist Jews called Bundists. The Japanese, after they captured Manchuria in the 1930s, proposed to Rabbi Steven Wise in New York that European Jews be settled in Manchuria. This was the Fugu Plan, detailed in the book by the same name written by Marvin Tokayer and Mary Schwartz. When Rabbi Wise heard of the plan, it was already after stories of Japanese attrocities in China, such as the Rape of Nanking, had gotten to the West. Rabbi Wise wanted no part of such a government and especially in such a remote part of the world. Shortly thereafter, Japan signed the Tripartide Pact with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. That was a "deal killer" for Rabbi Wise. Later, during WWII, when stories of the mass killings in Germany got to Rabbi Wise, he wanted to work out some deal with Japan, but by then it was too late politically and logistically. Basicly, by rebuffing the Japanese at their first proposal, he could never raise the enthusiasm for a later deal. Had Jews gone in large numbers to live in Manchuria and be closely associated with the Japanese Imperial Govt., which killed 10 million Chinese, I suspect they would have attacked and died in droves when Japan withdrew from Manchuria at the end of WWII.

Some few thousand refugees did go to China because of one Japanese diplomat in Lithuania writing many visas. They lived in a poor section of Shanghai and made a modest living during the war. That's another long story. The diplomat's name was Sugihara and there is a DVD and many books about him. For those interested in the details, they can look it up.

The point I'm trying to make is that several alternatives to Israel were considered, but Israel was the only choice that inspired religious and not so religious Jews. Israel has a well written press kit and publicity campaign. It is called The Bible.

Jack