Money quote:
========================== In a letter to Clarence Gable in 1939, Sanger wrote: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” (Margaret Sanger commenting on the ‘Negro Project’ in a letter to Gamble, Dec. 10, 1939).
This was interesting, too:
79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of black or Hispanic communities.
As was this:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Abortion Surveillance report revealed that between 2007 and 2010, nearly 36 percent of all abortions in the United States were performed on black children, even though black Americans make up only 13 percent of our population. A further 21 percent of abortions were performed on Hispanics, and 7 percent more on other minority groups, for a total of 64 percent of U.S. abortions tragically performed on minority groups.
Only one of the seven original von Trapp children (the youngest) is still alive. His two sisters (they were Maria’s three children) died last year and this year in their nineties.
I also found out that the commander’s first wife, the mother of the other children, came from a wealthy Anglo-Austrian family of torpedo manufacturers. That was not in the movie.
With regards to yodeling, it’s an interesting question about how it came about, and why “then and there?”, as opposed to “anywhere else”.
It is, as far as I know, unique to that region. Probably something to do with the echos but that’s just a guess.
}}} I also found out that the commander’s first wife, the mother of the other children, came from a wealthy Anglo-Austrian family of torpedo manufacturers. That was not in the movie.
Such things rarely are. Sometimes it is interesting what gets elided from “historically based” movies.
Spielberg, for example has done some serious eliding from his movies. For example, when he remastered E.T., he digitally removed the guns from the hands of the government agents… because, you know, the government would never think of using guns around innocent people.
Similarly, when he did Amistad, at the end, he has the hero/ex-slave returning to Africa. There is strong evidence to suggest that he actually moved to the Caribbean and became a slave trader himself.
Also, at the very end of Schindler’s List, he has Schindler leaving/running away from the advancing forces, because Schindler is afraid he will be treated as a war criminal (understandable, if lacking justice in the face of his efforts).
What Spielberg fails to note is that one of his final actions for his Jews was to ARM them, so they could not be slaughtered by any Germans seeking to hide what was done as well as to make them able to protect themselves if they were found by Russians before Americans. Because, “guns important for self protection? Never!!”
OBloodyHell,
In gratitude for the Alps sending yodeling our way we’ve exported gangsta’ rap. Seems like Europe got the worse end of that exchange.
This PolitiFact article was reposted in my local newspaper today.
It strikes me as so much gaslighting, or shifting of the Overton Window, or something of that nature. Specifically, the PolitiFact is trying to get us to believe that it is “legal” for masses of people to just wade across the border, as opposed to going through established border crossings (e.g., the one between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso).
If so, then, yes, as Republicans are saying, we don’t have a border (and the question of whether the border is “secure” becomes moot). We should just send Border Patrol agents home and let anyone do as they like. And the Texans, etc., who live near the border can just deal with it (which they are basically doing now…)
This is just nuts.
PS: Neo, thanks for the daily Open Thread. It’s great for venting!
Only one of the seven original von Trapp children (the youngest) is still alive.
There were ten children, of whom three were hers. The youngest was born after the family left Austria.
The film characters do not map precisely to the first Mrs. von Trapp’s children. The family lived in Austria for twelve years after she was assigned to the Trapp household. They started singing on tour because they were broke consequent to a bank failure. Several of the children settled in Vermont near her, but most of them scattered.
IIRC, the children objected to the film portrayal of their father, saying he wasn’t the martinet he was depicted as being. They also report their mother had quite a temper.
Every movie in recent decades that claims to be based on a true story has been edited to promote politics for the left. Even sports movies like Glory Road and Remember the Titans. Both are Jerry Bruckheimer films and both are filled with outrageous lies and nasty, vicious slanders in order to create a storyline that bears no relationship at all to what really happened for the teams depicted.
Watt,
“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.”
I’d prefer the former to the latter, but both? When you have a 1st world country sharing a 2,000 mile border with a 3rd world country that is about half the population of the 1st world country AND the 3rd world country shares borders with even worse 3rd world countries with populations that ultimately dwarf that of the 1st world country…
The math simply does not work.
stan,
They always leave out religion, also. One could watch “Walk the Line” and walk away from the cineplex barely knowing Cash was Christian, let alone that he credited Christianity with his recovery from drug addiction.
“The Woman King” is currently in theaters. A highly stylized “account” of the Dahomey tribe in Africa. Who had a male king. And were heavily involved with enslaving and selling other Africans. Apparently the movie downplays those two, inconvenient truths. Grrrllll Power!
Stan at 12:39
“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.”
Unfortunately, the current admin and congressional majority apparently think we can. The basic arithmetic is out there, but they will not do, or acknowledge, the calculations until it is too late.
Stupid cheerleading MSM.
Amazing exposition of the designed differences between the Senate and the House, and the resulting need for the filibuster by Krysten Sinema. She and Gabbard seem to be more like the old style Dems I remember. Not the majority batshit crazy we have now.
It’s a pity. There used to be Democrats who weren’t crazy, with whom constructive debates and compromises could be made. Those are few and far between these days.
My quote @12:39pm is obviously from Milton Friedman. I forgot to attribute it.
Why would the russians sabotage their own pipelinw
Could be some long term, international repercussions to the Reichstag Fire Nordstream pipeline explosions.
I wonder though.
If the pipeline is damaged then “bridges are burned”.
It is no longer possible for any (“far-right”, “neo-fascist”) European country which wavers from the sanctions to simply say “Russia, I’m no longer part of the NATO team. I will pay in rubles. Please turn my pipeline back on”.
From that point of view, the damage to the pipelines is a way to make negotiations irrelevant since it is no longer possible to go back.
It is a way influence a violent and permanent end to the war, not an end to hostilities and encouragement of talks.
No its a reason to continue the war tlll the cities grind to a halt
No one seems to have any evidence of what caused the damage to the Nordstream pipeline. Swedish sources say it was definitely explosions. There are so far no estimates on damage extent, although it appears large, or on repair times.
In the USSR, films about World War 2 were shown a lot at the cinemas and on TV. That`s why “The Sound of Music” was one of the few Hollywood films that was able to penetrate the cinemas of the Soviet Union through the Iron Curtain. In 1973 I was 12 years old when I saw it for the first time. Even though I was a little girl, the movie made a lasting impression on me and became one of my favorites. We were in the small summer open-air cinema with my mother and sister. That was an unforgettable evening with amazing Julie Andrews in a beautiful musical.
Captain von Trapp was presented in the movie as a former naval officer, which he indeed was. He wrote an interesting memoir about his experiences as an Austrian submarine commander in WWI. His real-life children were not thrilled with the way he was presented in the movie–they said he was never the rigid figure that he was shown as having initially been in the film.
Why would Putin invade Ukraine? Why would Fidel, or Raul, or Che do what they did? Because that’s who they are.
Foreshadowing (re: pipelines) https://twitter.com/abc/status/1490792461979078662
(Feb 2022)
Pres. Biden: “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Reporter: “But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany’s control?”
Biden: “I promise you, we will be able to do that.” http://abcn.ws/3B5SScx
Quite right, Kate. We don’t know.
Russia has shown it has no compunction about turning off the pipeline. I don’t think they need some mysterious event to shut off the pipeline …
So if I were a betting man, I would not go with “RU did it” nor would I take BBC reports except with some amount of critical examination.
There’s a good bit of reporting on the pipelines now. It’s worth noting that both the Nordstream 1 (operational) and Nordstream 2 (not yet operational) have been affected. In reality, each of these has 2 lines; there have been 3 leaks observed, and at least one of the breaches was recorded on a seismograph.
The leaks are located in approximately 70-80m water depth, i.e. well within the reach of saturation divers.
If I had to guess, it’s probably not quality / construction-related, and is probably sabotage, and I would guess not at the hands of Russians – since they are highly dependent upon hydrocarbon cash flow. Nor would it be the Europeans, for obvious reasons having to do with winter’s arrival. Who does that leave, hmmm?
Pipelines can be repaired, but it takes time. Fortunately there are dive support vessels that can be dispatched quite quickly, and there is a big infrastructure of subsea petroleum services in the North Sea area. Depending upon the extent of the damages and the weather, I could see Nordstream 1 being brought back into service in a month or two.
Wondering if “Biden” has mentioned anything about this….or whether “he” plans to pull another Obama stunt WRT to Iranian protests (i.e., stay silent—after all “language is violence”…)
And all those earnest Western feminists? Anyone hear a peep out of them?
It’s somewhat amusing but mostly sad to see how many on the right rant against the actions of the American Left, while refusing to even consider the possibility that they might be worse than America’s external enemies.
It is far more likely that the Deep State arranged for the sabotage, probably executed by western ‘mercenaries’ than that the Russians acted against their own future self-interest.
As Jim and Aggie point out;
“Russia has shown it has no compunction about turning off the pipeline. I don’t think they need some mysterious event to shut off the pipeline … JimNorCal
“I would guess not at the hands of Russians – since they are highly dependent upon [future] hydrocarbon cash flow. Nor would it be the Europeans, for obvious reasons having to do with winter’s arrival. Who does that leave, hmmm?” Aggie
Whereas, “If the pipeline is damaged then “bridges are burned”. It is no longer possible for any (“far-right”, “neo-fascist”) European country which wavers from the sanctions to simply say “Russia, I’m no longer part of the NATO team. I will pay in rubles. Please turn my pipeline back on”.” JimNorCal
Much more effective than Von der Leyan’s threats. Though perhaps that’s one of the “tools” to which she was referencing.
Here’s the mindset of the EU leadership, “We stand with Ukraine as long as they need us,” she said, adding that this promise to the Ukrainian people must be fulfilled “no matter what my German voter thinks.” Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, German Minister of Foreign Affair [ my emphasis]
And compare yet again!
“A White Woman’s Documentary About Muslim Extremists Is Being Canceled. Guess Why.”— https://reason.com/2022/09/26/cancel-culture-jihad-rehab-meg-smaker-film-sundance/
H/T Powerline blog.
This one’s a doozy….
Opening grafs:
‘Jihad Rehab is a documentary by Meg Smaker, a former firefighter who moved from California to Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Subsequent to its inclusion at the January 2022 Sundance Film Festival, both the film and filmmaker have become pariahs in elite film circles—mostly because Smaker, a white woman, dared to make a movie about the experience of Islamic men.
‘ “Film critics warned that conservatives might bridle at these human portraits,” notes The New York Times in a recent, much discussed article about Jihad Rehab’s cancellation. “But attacks would come from the left, not the right.”…
‘…This sounds like a fascinating subject for a documentary; according to several favorable reviews, the film forces audiences to reckon with the humanity of its subjects, even if they were accused of terrible crimes.
‘ “The absence of absolutes is what’s most enriching in Meg Smaker’s new documentary,” wrote The Guardian…. This is a movie for intelligent people looking to have their preconceived notions challenged.”…
‘…But conservatives aren’t canceling Jihad Rehab. Liberals are.
‘ “The bottom line is such,” wrote Jude Chehab, a Lebanese-American filmmaker, in a review of Jihad Rehab that criticized Sundance for daring to feature it. “When I, a practising Muslim woman, say that this film is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying that it isn’t. Point blank.”
‘ Indeed, this was the visceral component of the torrent of criticism that has greeted Smaker: She is a white woman creating a film about a religion and a culture not her own. (That she has lived in the Middle East for years, enmeshed herself in the culture, learned Arabic, and gained unprecedented access to people we would be better off trying to understand apparently makes little difference.)…’
Short version: YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND US!! (FURTHERMORE, you’re not supposed to understand us!!…)
Well, while we are speculating about who blew the pipelines, how about eco-terrorists? — I’m still not seeing any evidence. Too early, probably.
Geoffrey unsheaths Occam’s Razor and lo, it is Klaus Schwab and the left that sabotaged Nordstream 1.
Otay
I think it’s pretty unlikely that environmental groups would be responsible for Nordstream pipeline sabotage. The water depth and the technical complexity for supporting such an effort would be out of reach for an advocacy group – although I suppose that a Greenpeace-type, well-financed and equipped operation with volunteers having some professional experience might be able to conduct it – but they couldn’t do it without being seen. If sabotage is involved, I would think it is much more likely to be the clandestine services that would be able to evade the kind of scrutiny that is pretty standard business these days. And any advocacy group that is willing to act with such disregard for the impact of destruction isn’t going to be around for very long – there isn’t a government on Earth that would be willing to cede oxygen to a group that shows a willingness to wreak such havoc – not with as meany subsea pipelines and communications cables as we have all over the place as newly-minted potential targets. That is the definition of ‘terrorism’ and governments mostly have a ‘take action’ approach to such people.
ah yes, barry, the irony this is about a reformation effort, by prince salman, previously prince nayef in the kingdom*, no europeans are involved, but abigail disney is really goofy,
*there are suggestion that the earlier course of rehab with counselors like sheikh auda, actually is a pipeline to al queda, but that’s nearly here nor there,
Something nice about the fact that ‘Sound of Music’ is still in the top ten most ticket sales and highest grossing box office in film history.
I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song. Someone reminded them it was written in the 50’s for the stage version of the Sound of Music
In 1973 I was 12 years old when I saw it for the first time. Even though I was a little girl, the movie made a lasting impression on me and became one of my favorites.
Zara A:
Lovely memory!
I wasn’t behind the Iron Curtain, but “The Sound of Music” got to me when I was 13.
I’ve watched it three times since as an adult and it still gets to me, but in different ways. I wouldn’t call it a deep film, but it’s got its depths.
I’ll admit I’m a sucker for positive message movies. It’s a shame they don’t make ’em that way no mo’.
(I’m talking about movies that make you feel glad to be alive and human. Not woke crap.)
I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song.
Robert Shotzberger:
I vaguely remember that.
My guess it was partly inspired by “The Man in the High Castle” (2015) mini-series, which had the premise that the Nazis and Japanese won WW II and split the US between them. The show used “Edelweiss” in the opening credits to excellent effect.
The song really sounds like the sensitive younger brother to “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the film, “Cabaret.”
I’ve binged through the first three seasons of “High Castle” and now I’m on the final. I’ve seen it before. It holds up.
My family used to go to the movies on Christmas. I think it was a de-stimulate the kids ploy. The movies I specifically remember seeing for the first time on Christmas were “The Sound of Music”, “Mary Poppins”, “Dr. Zhivago” and “Tora Tora Tora”. “Tora Tora Tora” was at my request.
Chases Eagles:
Not exactly to your point, but once an Irish friend explained to me that the traditional movie to watch on television in the UK and Ireland on Christmas Day is…
“The Great Escape.”
Those are two dots I don’t quite connect.
@ Shotzberger > “I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song. Someone reminded them it was written in the 50’s for the stage version of the Sound of Music.”
I’m actually willing to cut the wokerati a little slack here: they aren’t the only ones who think that particular song is “for real” — although predating Hitler.
(The Nazi connection is to the flower, not the song.)
As usually happened on an R&H show, everything was going smoothly with just a few little peripheral matters to be attended to here and there. But, after watching the show in Boston and with only a week and a half till they moved on to Broadway, Rodgers & Hammerstein felt there was something lacking in the score. The plot of The Sound Of Music is often mocked – captain meets nun in Nazi Austria – but it works if you get the underlying emotions right. Baron von Trapp, whose family has lived on this land for generations, is facing a terrible decision: The Anschluss is transforming his country, and he has no choice but to leave it.
But for that to have any impact on an audience you have to understand that this man loves his native land, and that fleeing it will exact a toll. How to express that? A song obviously. But what kind of song? Theodore Bikel, the actor and folk singer, had been cast in the role, and could certainly relate to the von Trapp experience, because he had lived his own version of it: An Austrian Jew, he had been born in Vienna but his family had escaped, post-Anschluss, to British Palestine. More to the point, he could also strum the guitar. So Dick and Oscar figured they should write a number Baron von Trapp could play live on stage – an “old” Austrian folk song, to be performed in Act Two as part of the Trapp family’s singing act at the Kaltzberg Festival. [the name used in the stage version]
So sixty-two years ago, in a room at the Ritz-Carlton furnished with a piano, the last ever Rodgers & Hammerstein song was written*. As always in this partnership, the words came first:
Edelweiss
Edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white
Clean and bright
You look happy to meet me…
It’s such a simple idea. But the von Trapps have already decided to flee Austria, and, even if the “audience” at the Kaltzberg Festival and the various bigshot Nazis don’t know that, we – the audience at the play – most certainly do. Today, most writers would hit the thing head on and turn in some Oh-God-I-love-this-land-I’m-gonna-miss-it-why-did-things-have-to-turn-out-like-this? overwrought ululated power ballad. But Hammerstein was a sure enough dramatist to know that, when the captain starts singing about a simple white flower, everyone in the audience would understand how much he loves his country. Edelweiss grows up high, in rocky terrain north of 6,000 feet or so, and it’s long been a symbolic bloom in the Alps. In 1907, Franz Josef made it the official emblem of the Habsburg Empire’s mountain troops, and it remains their insignia in the Austrian army to this day. On the other hand, the Wehrmacht and the SS also made it the official emblem for their mountain troops.
Nonetheless, it took a couple of New Yorkers in a Boston hotel room to wring the full symbolic juice out of the flower. Earlier in the show, Gretl presents a small bouquet of edelweiss to Elsa Schraeder upon her visit to the von Trapp home, and so Hammerstein decided to extend its metaphorical power: Edelweiss is the Austria that will endure and, when the winter of tyranny melts, will flower anew. As always, Hammerstein’s deft, memorable imagery is hopeful: “Blossom of snow/May you bloom and grow…” It’s a small song for a big moment, and Rodgers set it to a wistful waltz tune, simple and folk-like but very affecting.
It went into the show in Boston, and was an instant success. In a production otherwise dominated by its female star, Mary Martin, and a score tailored to her needs, it was Theodore Bikel’s only solo, and audiences loved it:
… Not long after R&H wrote the song, Theodore Bikel was leaving the theatre when he found a fan and fellow immigrant waiting at the stage door for his autograph: “I love that ‘Edelweiss’,” said the theatregoer. “Of course, I have known it a long time, but only in German.”
Not for the first time, Hammerstein had done too good a job. Just as his “Ol’ Man River” for Show Boat is assumed by many to be an authentic Negro spiritual, so “Edelweiss” is assumed to be an authentic Austrian folk song. Not so. In both cases, a great craftsman manufactured them to solve a structural problem with the storytelling. But he did it so well that they have become for real what they were only intended to simulate.
Some years ago “Edelweiss” was played at the White House, at a state dinner for Austria’s President Kirschschlager, and everyone but the Austrians stood up for the national anthem. Actually, no. The current Austrian anthem is “Land der Berge, Land am Strome”, and the only official anthem by Rodgers & Hammerstein is their title number for their very first show, which serves as the state song of Oklahoma. In a curious example of how the lines between reality and showbusiness blur, among the guests at that White House banquet was the elderly Maria von Trapp – not Julie Andrews, not Mary Martin, but the real Baroness von Trapp.
*There is a sad note to this story: at the time, Oscar Hammerstein II was terminally ill with cancer.
When Hammerstein died, Theodore Bikel was on stage every night on Broadway still singing “Edelweiss”, and he noticed something about the song. “This dying man writing the very last lyric of his career,” he said, “the very last word he wrote was ‘forever’.” But a great song is forever and, almost six decades on, the last bud of the most spectacular partnership in theatre history has bloomed and grown:
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss
Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever.
@ huxley > “The song really sounds like the sensitive younger brother to “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the film, “Cabaret.” ”
I was thinking “older brother” because the movie version of Cabaret came out in 1972 (while I was in college), after The Sound of Music film in 1965 (to which a neighbor of ours very generously took his daughter’s middle-school friends, even though we had to go to the “big city” 30 miles away to see the first-run showing).
The two shows are so different in music and plot, and many other things, that it’s easy to forget they are such near contemporaries.
Wikipedia:
Cabaret is a 1966 musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff. The musical was based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera which was adapted from Goodbye to Berlin (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood which drew upon his experiences in the poverty-stricken Weimar Republic and his intimate friendship with nineteen-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross.
Also Wikipedia:
The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers .. Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938 ..The original Broadway production, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, opened in 1959 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, out of nine nominations.
The difference in the two stories is actually exemplified by the two songs.
As explained in Steyn’s post, “Edelweiss” is intended to symbolize the pre-Nazi Austria, and appeals to the bonds of patriotism and community in the stage audience (and by extension to the theater-goers).
“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is self-centered, almost narcissistic, and represents the imposition of the Nazi ideology and state control that supersedes any national feeling outside of the German hegemony, and erases the real bonds of community.
In the same way, the lyrics of the song seem at first to celebrate the beauty of nature, as “Edelweiss” does, but actually repudiates it.
The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gather together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me
The branch of the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me
The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon, says a whisper
Arise, arise, tomorrow belongs
To me!
I have heard similar anecdotes about ‘tomorrow belongs to me’ – people who lived through that period convinced it is a translation of one of the authentic Nazi songs they heard…
Hammerstein’s protege Stephen Sondheim was also able to pull off this magic: in a show like Follies he creates completely convincing pastiches of old music-hall and operetta styles. And in Sweeney Todd he captures Victorian parlor ballads.
Oh Bloody Hell: “(paraphrasing) why did yodeling start there and then?”
I am struck by the similarity of yodeling to the sounds pygmies living in the rainforest of Central Africa make. As they travel through the dense forest, pygmies almost constantly vocalize a high trilling sound that reminded me at the time of yodeling, although it had less of a repeated melody. A European who lived at a forest station where he ran a sawmill described the sound as something that travelled longer distances in the dense forest than speech could. He said, and I was never able to confirm it, that the sounds alerted other groups of pygmies that they were in the area, and signaled to their own group that they were heading in one direction or another.
I found the sound quite alluring, something that was almost not human but clearly not animal either. When I first heard it, I thought I was hearing something caused by wind or water moving through the trees.
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Neo lacks strong opinions about wire hangars.
Marc Levin had a nice vlog yesterday about Dems, Race, and Abortion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D_QPu2DlZs
Among other things, he describes partial birth abortion in somewhat graphic terms (just a warning). One thing he calls attention to is a Washington Times piece on Margaret Sanger…
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/5/grossu-margaret-sanger-eugenicist/
Money quote:
==========================
In a letter to Clarence Gable in 1939, Sanger wrote: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” (Margaret Sanger commenting on the ‘Negro Project’ in a letter to Gamble, Dec. 10, 1939).
This was interesting, too:
79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of black or Hispanic communities.
As was this:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Abortion Surveillance report revealed that between 2007 and 2010, nearly 36 percent of all abortions in the United States were performed on black children, even though black Americans make up only 13 percent of our population. A further 21 percent of abortions were performed on Hispanics, and 7 percent more on other minority groups, for a total of 64 percent of U.S. abortions tragically performed on minority groups.
Only one of the seven original von Trapp children (the youngest) is still alive. His two sisters (they were Maria’s three children) died last year and this year in their nineties.
I also found out that the commander’s first wife, the mother of the other children, came from a wealthy Anglo-Austrian family of torpedo manufacturers. That was not in the movie.
With regards to yodeling, it’s an interesting question about how it came about, and why “then and there?”, as opposed to “anywhere else”.
It is, as far as I know, unique to that region. Probably something to do with the echos but that’s just a guess.
}}} I also found out that the commander’s first wife, the mother of the other children, came from a wealthy Anglo-Austrian family of torpedo manufacturers. That was not in the movie.
Such things rarely are. Sometimes it is interesting what gets elided from “historically based” movies.
Spielberg, for example has done some serious eliding from his movies. For example, when he remastered E.T., he digitally removed the guns from the hands of the government agents… because, you know, the government would never think of using guns around innocent people.
Similarly, when he did Amistad, at the end, he has the hero/ex-slave returning to Africa. There is strong evidence to suggest that he actually moved to the Caribbean and became a slave trader himself.
Also, at the very end of Schindler’s List, he has Schindler leaving/running away from the advancing forces, because Schindler is afraid he will be treated as a war criminal (understandable, if lacking justice in the face of his efforts).
What Spielberg fails to note is that one of his final actions for his Jews was to ARM them, so they could not be slaughtered by any Germans seeking to hide what was done as well as to make them able to protect themselves if they were found by Russians before Americans. Because, “guns important for self protection? Never!!”
OBloodyHell,
In gratitude for the Alps sending yodeling our way we’ve exported gangsta’ rap. Seems like Europe got the worse end of that exchange.
This PolitiFact article was reposted in my local newspaper today.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/sep/23/clarifying-nuances-immigration-law-after-desantis-/
It strikes me as so much gaslighting, or shifting of the Overton Window, or something of that nature. Specifically, the PolitiFact is trying to get us to believe that it is “legal” for masses of people to just wade across the border, as opposed to going through established border crossings (e.g., the one between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso).
If so, then, yes, as Republicans are saying, we don’t have a border (and the question of whether the border is “secure” becomes moot). We should just send Border Patrol agents home and let anyone do as they like. And the Texans, etc., who live near the border can just deal with it (which they are basically doing now…)
This is just nuts.
PS: Neo, thanks for the daily Open Thread. It’s great for venting!
Only one of the seven original von Trapp children (the youngest) is still alive.
There were ten children, of whom three were hers. The youngest was born after the family left Austria.
The film characters do not map precisely to the first Mrs. von Trapp’s children. The family lived in Austria for twelve years after she was assigned to the Trapp household. They started singing on tour because they were broke consequent to a bank failure. Several of the children settled in Vermont near her, but most of them scattered.
IIRC, the children objected to the film portrayal of their father, saying he wasn’t the martinet he was depicted as being. They also report their mother had quite a temper.
Nordstream pipelines disabled, Russian sabotage suspected.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63044747
Now what, Europe?
OBloodyHell,
Every movie in recent decades that claims to be based on a true story has been edited to promote politics for the left. Even sports movies like Glory Road and Remember the Titans. Both are Jerry Bruckheimer films and both are filled with outrageous lies and nasty, vicious slanders in order to create a storyline that bears no relationship at all to what really happened for the teams depicted.
Watt,
“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.”
I’d prefer the former to the latter, but both? When you have a 1st world country sharing a 2,000 mile border with a 3rd world country that is about half the population of the 1st world country AND the 3rd world country shares borders with even worse 3rd world countries with populations that ultimately dwarf that of the 1st world country…
The math simply does not work.
stan,
They always leave out religion, also. One could watch “Walk the Line” and walk away from the cineplex barely knowing Cash was Christian, let alone that he credited Christianity with his recovery from drug addiction.
“The Woman King” is currently in theaters. A highly stylized “account” of the Dahomey tribe in Africa. Who had a male king. And were heavily involved with enslaving and selling other Africans. Apparently the movie downplays those two, inconvenient truths. Grrrllll Power!
Stan at 12:39
“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.”
Unfortunately, the current admin and congressional majority apparently think we can. The basic arithmetic is out there, but they will not do, or acknowledge, the calculations until it is too late.
Stupid cheerleading MSM.
Amazing exposition of the designed differences between the Senate and the House, and the resulting need for the filibuster by Krysten Sinema. She and Gabbard seem to be more like the old style Dems I remember. Not the majority batshit crazy we have now.
https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1574436390313525248
It’s a pity. There used to be Democrats who weren’t crazy, with whom constructive debates and compromises could be made. Those are few and far between these days.
My quote @12:39pm is obviously from Milton Friedman. I forgot to attribute it.
Why would the russians sabotage their own pipelinw
Could be some long term, international repercussions to the
Reichstag FireNordstream pipeline explosions.Cui.bono (hint he has a fluffy white cat)
https://www.frontpagemag.com/cair-and-the-anti-9-11-families-who-shill-for-the-terrorists/
Ok then
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/09/26/court-rules-trans-prison-guard-cant-strip-search-muslim-inmate-n1632414
“Nordstream pipelines disabled, Russian sabotage suspected.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63044747”
I wonder though.
If the pipeline is damaged then “bridges are burned”.
It is no longer possible for any (“far-right”, “neo-fascist”) European country which wavers from the sanctions to simply say “Russia, I’m no longer part of the NATO team. I will pay in rubles. Please turn my pipeline back on”.
From that point of view, the damage to the pipelines is a way to make negotiations irrelevant since it is no longer possible to go back.
It is a way influence a violent and permanent end to the war, not an end to hostilities and encouragement of talks.
No its a reason to continue the war tlll the cities grind to a halt
No one seems to have any evidence of what caused the damage to the Nordstream pipeline. Swedish sources say it was definitely explosions. There are so far no estimates on damage extent, although it appears large, or on repair times.
In the USSR, films about World War 2 were shown a lot at the cinemas and on TV. That`s why “The Sound of Music” was one of the few Hollywood films that was able to penetrate the cinemas of the Soviet Union through the Iron Curtain. In 1973 I was 12 years old when I saw it for the first time. Even though I was a little girl, the movie made a lasting impression on me and became one of my favorites. We were in the small summer open-air cinema with my mother and sister. That was an unforgettable evening with amazing Julie Andrews in a beautiful musical.
Captain von Trapp was presented in the movie as a former naval officer, which he indeed was. He wrote an interesting memoir about his experiences as an Austrian submarine commander in WWI. His real-life children were not thrilled with the way he was presented in the movie–they said he was never the rigid figure that he was shown as having initially been in the film.
I reviewed the memoir here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/43171.html
Miguel:
Why would Putin invade Ukraine? Why would Fidel, or Raul, or Che do what they did? Because that’s who they are.
Foreshadowing (re: pipelines)
https://twitter.com/abc/status/1490792461979078662
(Feb 2022)
Pres. Biden: “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Reporter: “But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany’s control?”
Biden: “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”
http://abcn.ws/3B5SScx
Quite right, Kate. We don’t know.
Russia has shown it has no compunction about turning off the pipeline. I don’t think they need some mysterious event to shut off the pipeline …
So if I were a betting man, I would not go with “RU did it” nor would I take BBC reports except with some amount of critical examination.
There’s a good bit of reporting on the pipelines now. It’s worth noting that both the Nordstream 1 (operational) and Nordstream 2 (not yet operational) have been affected. In reality, each of these has 2 lines; there have been 3 leaks observed, and at least one of the breaches was recorded on a seismograph.
The leaks are located in approximately 70-80m water depth, i.e. well within the reach of saturation divers.
Pictures and video: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/leaking-natural-gas-from-the-damaged-nord-stream-pipelines-is-erupting-like-geysers-in-the-baltic-sea-danish-military-video-shows/ar-AA12iFAw#image=AA12iCmQ|2
If I had to guess, it’s probably not quality / construction-related, and is probably sabotage, and I would guess not at the hands of Russians – since they are highly dependent upon hydrocarbon cash flow. Nor would it be the Europeans, for obvious reasons having to do with winter’s arrival. Who does that leave, hmmm?
Pipelines can be repaired, but it takes time. Fortunately there are dive support vessels that can be dispatched quite quickly, and there is a big infrastructure of subsea petroleum services in the North Sea area. Depending upon the extent of the damages and the weather, I could see Nordstream 1 being brought back into service in a month or two.
Iranian women’s protests—
Compare and contrast:
“Why Haven’t Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, And Rashida Tlaib Even Mentioned Iran’s Hijab Protests?”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/09/27/why-havent-linda-sarsour-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-even-mentioned-irans-hijab-protests/
“Iran Recruits Extremist Foreign Militias To Help ‘Wipe Out Rioters’ From Tehran”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/09/26/iran-recruits-extremist-foreign-militias-to-help-wipe-out-rioters-from-tehran/
Wondering if “Biden” has mentioned anything about this….or whether “he” plans to pull another Obama stunt WRT to Iranian protests (i.e., stay silent—after all “language is violence”…)
And all those earnest Western feminists? Anyone hear a peep out of them?
Ok then
https://genesiustimes.com/cnn-how-trumps-white-supremacy-caused-hurricane-ian/
It’s somewhat amusing but mostly sad to see how many on the right rant against the actions of the American Left, while refusing to even consider the possibility that they might be worse than America’s external enemies.
It is far more likely that the Deep State arranged for the sabotage, probably executed by western ‘mercenaries’ than that the Russians acted against their own future self-interest.
As Jim and Aggie point out;
“Russia has shown it has no compunction about turning off the pipeline. I don’t think they need some mysterious event to shut off the pipeline … JimNorCal
“I would guess not at the hands of Russians – since they are highly dependent upon [future] hydrocarbon cash flow. Nor would it be the Europeans, for obvious reasons having to do with winter’s arrival. Who does that leave, hmmm?” Aggie
Whereas, “If the pipeline is damaged then “bridges are burned”. It is no longer possible for any (“far-right”, “neo-fascist”) European country which wavers from the sanctions to simply say “Russia, I’m no longer part of the NATO team. I will pay in rubles. Please turn my pipeline back on”.” JimNorCal
Much more effective than Von der Leyan’s threats. Though perhaps that’s one of the “tools” to which she was referencing.
Here’s the mindset of the EU leadership,
“We stand with Ukraine as long as they need us,” she said, adding that this promise to the Ukrainian people must be fulfilled “no matter what my German voter thinks.” Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, German Minister of Foreign Affair [ my emphasis]
And compare yet again!
“A White Woman’s Documentary About Muslim Extremists Is Being Canceled. Guess Why.”—
https://reason.com/2022/09/26/cancel-culture-jihad-rehab-meg-smaker-film-sundance/
H/T Powerline blog.
This one’s a doozy….
Opening grafs:
‘Jihad Rehab is a documentary by Meg Smaker, a former firefighter who moved from California to Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Subsequent to its inclusion at the January 2022 Sundance Film Festival, both the film and filmmaker have become pariahs in elite film circles—mostly because Smaker, a white woman, dared to make a movie about the experience of Islamic men.
‘ “Film critics warned that conservatives might bridle at these human portraits,” notes The New York Times in a recent, much discussed article about Jihad Rehab’s cancellation. “But attacks would come from the left, not the right.”…
‘…This sounds like a fascinating subject for a documentary; according to several favorable reviews, the film forces audiences to reckon with the humanity of its subjects, even if they were accused of terrible crimes.
‘ “The absence of absolutes is what’s most enriching in Meg Smaker’s new documentary,” wrote The Guardian…. This is a movie for intelligent people looking to have their preconceived notions challenged.”…
‘…But conservatives aren’t canceling Jihad Rehab. Liberals are.
‘ “The bottom line is such,” wrote Jude Chehab, a Lebanese-American filmmaker, in a review of Jihad Rehab that criticized Sundance for daring to feature it. “When I, a practising Muslim woman, say that this film is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying that it isn’t. Point blank.”
‘ Indeed, this was the visceral component of the torrent of criticism that has greeted Smaker: She is a white woman creating a film about a religion and a culture not her own. (That she has lived in the Middle East for years, enmeshed herself in the culture, learned Arabic, and gained unprecedented access to people we would be better off trying to understand apparently makes little difference.)…’
Short version: YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND US!! (FURTHERMORE, you’re not supposed to understand us!!…)
Well, while we are speculating about who blew the pipelines, how about eco-terrorists? — I’m still not seeing any evidence. Too early, probably.
Geoffrey unsheaths Occam’s Razor and lo, it is Klaus Schwab and the left that sabotaged Nordstream 1.
Otay
I think it’s pretty unlikely that environmental groups would be responsible for Nordstream pipeline sabotage. The water depth and the technical complexity for supporting such an effort would be out of reach for an advocacy group – although I suppose that a Greenpeace-type, well-financed and equipped operation with volunteers having some professional experience might be able to conduct it – but they couldn’t do it without being seen. If sabotage is involved, I would think it is much more likely to be the clandestine services that would be able to evade the kind of scrutiny that is pretty standard business these days. And any advocacy group that is willing to act with such disregard for the impact of destruction isn’t going to be around for very long – there isn’t a government on Earth that would be willing to cede oxygen to a group that shows a willingness to wreak such havoc – not with as meany subsea pipelines and communications cables as we have all over the place as newly-minted potential targets. That is the definition of ‘terrorism’ and governments mostly have a ‘take action’ approach to such people.
Obama with (just) another of his trademark contributions to Amerikkka!!
“Rep. Fallon to Newsmax: ‘Furious’ About Obama’s Race Card on Border”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/pat-fallon-obama-immigration/2022/09/27/id/1089295/
ah yes, barry, the irony this is about a reformation effort, by prince salman, previously prince nayef in the kingdom*, no europeans are involved, but abigail disney is really goofy,
*there are suggestion that the earlier course of rehab with counselors like sheikh auda, actually is a pipeline to al queda, but that’s nearly here nor there,
Something nice about the fact that ‘Sound of Music’ is still in the top ten most ticket sales and highest grossing box office in film history.
I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song. Someone reminded them it was written in the 50’s for the stage version of the Sound of Music
In 1973 I was 12 years old when I saw it for the first time. Even though I was a little girl, the movie made a lasting impression on me and became one of my favorites.
Zara A:
Lovely memory!
I wasn’t behind the Iron Curtain, but “The Sound of Music” got to me when I was 13.
I’ve watched it three times since as an adult and it still gets to me, but in different ways. I wouldn’t call it a deep film, but it’s got its depths.
I’ll admit I’m a sucker for positive message movies. It’s a shame they don’t make ’em that way no mo’.
(I’m talking about movies that make you feel glad to be alive and human. Not woke crap.)
I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song.
Robert Shotzberger:
I vaguely remember that.
My guess it was partly inspired by “The Man in the High Castle” (2015) mini-series, which had the premise that the Nazis and Japanese won WW II and split the US between them. The show used “Edelweiss” in the opening credits to excellent effect.
The song really sounds like the sensitive younger brother to “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the film, “Cabaret.”
I’ve binged through the first three seasons of “High Castle” and now I’m on the final. I’ve seen it before. It holds up.
My family used to go to the movies on Christmas. I think it was a de-stimulate the kids ploy. The movies I specifically remember seeing for the first time on Christmas were “The Sound of Music”, “Mary Poppins”, “Dr. Zhivago” and “Tora Tora Tora”. “Tora Tora Tora” was at my request.
Chases Eagles:
Not exactly to your point, but once an Irish friend explained to me that the traditional movie to watch on television in the UK and Ireland on Christmas Day is…
“The Great Escape.”
Those are two dots I don’t quite connect.
@ Shotzberger > “I remember idiot wokers wanted edelweiss banned because they said it was a Nazi song. Someone reminded them it was written in the 50’s for the stage version of the Sound of Music.”
I’m actually willing to cut the wokerati a little slack here: they aren’t the only ones who think that particular song is “for real” — although predating Hitler.
(The Nazi connection is to the flower, not the song.)
https://www.steynonline.com/11036/edelweiss
In 1959, the new Rodgers and Hammerstein show was in its out-of-town tryouts.
*There is a sad note to this story: at the time, Oscar Hammerstein II was terminally ill with cancer.
@ huxley > “The song really sounds like the sensitive younger brother to “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the film, “Cabaret.” ”
I was thinking “older brother” because the movie version of Cabaret came out in 1972 (while I was in college), after The Sound of Music film in 1965 (to which a neighbor of ours very generously took his daughter’s middle-school friends, even though we had to go to the “big city” 30 miles away to see the first-run showing).
The two shows are so different in music and plot, and many other things, that it’s easy to forget they are such near contemporaries.
Wikipedia:
Also Wikipedia:
The difference in the two stories is actually exemplified by the two songs.
As explained in Steyn’s post, “Edelweiss” is intended to symbolize the pre-Nazi Austria, and appeals to the bonds of patriotism and community in the stage audience (and by extension to the theater-goers).
“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is self-centered, almost narcissistic, and represents the imposition of the Nazi ideology and state control that supersedes any national feeling outside of the German hegemony, and erases the real bonds of community.
In the same way, the lyrics of the song seem at first to celebrate the beauty of nature, as “Edelweiss” does, but actually repudiates it.
I have heard similar anecdotes about ‘tomorrow belongs to me’ – people who lived through that period convinced it is a translation of one of the authentic Nazi songs they heard…
Hammerstein’s protege Stephen Sondheim was also able to pull off this magic: in a show like Follies he creates completely convincing pastiches of old music-hall and operetta styles. And in Sweeney Todd he captures Victorian parlor ballads.
Oh Bloody Hell: “(paraphrasing) why did yodeling start there and then?”
I am struck by the similarity of yodeling to the sounds pygmies living in the rainforest of Central Africa make. As they travel through the dense forest, pygmies almost constantly vocalize a high trilling sound that reminded me at the time of yodeling, although it had less of a repeated melody. A European who lived at a forest station where he ran a sawmill described the sound as something that travelled longer distances in the dense forest than speech could. He said, and I was never able to confirm it, that the sounds alerted other groups of pygmies that they were in the area, and signaled to their own group that they were heading in one direction or another.
I found the sound quite alluring, something that was almost not human but clearly not animal either. When I first heard it, I thought I was hearing something caused by wind or water moving through the trees.