Wednesday, March 15, 2017

History: The Year is 1967

I've uploaded year 1967 to the TSP Wiki...

http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1967

As always, Alex Shrugged's opinions are his own. Other people's work are their own. I include them here for the sake of completeness and to provide a second method of access to the material for the TSP history segment.


* A Sound of Thunder: The Six Day War -- Contributed by Alex Shrugged

* Protesting the War, the Environment, and Everything -- Contributed by Alex Shrugged

* Notable Births -- See below.

* This Year in Film -- See below.

* This Year in Music -- See below.

* In Other News -- See below.



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A Sound of Thunder: The Six Day War

Contributed by Alex Shrugged
A note before we begin: When people demand that Israel return to its 1967 borders, they mean the borders BEFORE this war. And remember, Alex Shrugged is Jewish and he supports Israel, yet he is doing his best to remain objective. Here we go.
Currently, to the Arabs, Israel looks like another European colonial power trying to muscle in. Old Jerusalem is in the hands of the Jordanians, and the Israelis have hit them hard in retaliation for various border incidents. Israel itself is only 9 miles wide in the middle, and it has been under bombardment from Syria's Golan Heights. Then the Soviet Union announces that Israel is preparing to invade Syria! (The Soviets are mistaken. Oops!) Syria calls for help, so Egypt moves its tanks into the Sinai, expelling the UN peacekeepers. (I guess the UN is a poor peacekeeper.) Egypt denies passage to Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aqaba, thus blocking oil shipments and supplies. This is an act of war. After secret calls to Egypt to back off, Israel makes a preemptive air strike on Egypt. Along the way the US spy ship Liberty is hit. (It's ruled an accident. Yeah. Maybe.) Israel destroys Egypt's air force, tanks roll over the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip is taken. They hit Jordon taking Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordon River. They also take the Golan Heights in Syria. In six days, it's all over but the shouting, and the shouting goes on and on and on. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
OK. Was Israel planning for a war? Of course. Every nation has contingency plans. Israel realized that they were undermanned and undergunned, so they fixed that. The real problem was that the Israeli leadership was wringing their hands and saying yes-and-no as most democracies do. They should have acted as strong as they actually were and thus the Arab League would have had second thoughts. Secondly, the Arab League looked stronger than it actually was. That forced Israel to gear up. With both sides on hair triggers, one small incident, like the Soviets shooting their mouths off, caused a lot of people to die.

Protesting the War, the Environment, and Everything

Contributed by Alex Shrugged
After acceptance of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the protestors against nukes need a new direction, so they have turned toward the environmental cause. The apocalyptic books Silent Spring (unburdened by footnotes), and Famine 1975! America's Decision: Who Will Survive? warned of the destruction of the food chain (that will lead to nuclear war). Paul Erlich publishes The Population Bomb next year. His hockey-stick graphs "prove" that our population growth is out of control. In summary: We're all going to die! President Johnson (LBJ) has radically stepped up deployments to Vietnam which requires an increasing number of draftees. Protesters are burning their draft cards, and marching in the streets by the hundreds of thousands. Muhammad Ali is arrested for refusing the draft. (His conviction will be overturned.) The musical Hair captures the mood of this year. Naked, but not afraid. Certainly resigned to one's fate, and if one is going to die anyway... grabbing whatever pleasure or oblivion one can find. Tune in, turn on and drop out. Peace, love dope! [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Famine 1975 scared the snot out of me. I became radicalized. I fought for the environment, celebrated the first Earth Day, called for a two-child limit on births and attended what we would call today "town hall meetings" to confront politicians. The California Peripheral Canal would kill off that little fish! I was the perfect little radical, and I failed utterly. Nothing changed. As I languished in a daze of depression and boozy resignation, the news declared that the United States had reached zero population growth. I was shocked! We had done NOTHING! I reviewed what I thought was true and realized that it was all a load of hooey. I still have both books. Famine 1975 still sits on my desk. It reminds me of how easily we can be misled with a few charts and so-called expert opinion. We won't make that mistake again. No. We will make OTHER mistakes as our political masters drive us from hither to yon. [14] [15] [16]

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Contributed by Southpaw Ben
Text
My Take by Southpaw Ben

Notable Births

  • Anna Nicole Smith: At 26-years-old, she married a 89-year-old millionaire. He died at 90. (Oh yeah.--alexshrugged). [17] [18]
  • Anderson Cooper: CNN news Reader. [17]
  • Adam Savage: Co-host of the Mythbusters. [17]
  • -- In Comedy: Will Ferrell and Jimmy Kimmel. [17]
  • -- In Music: Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Kurt Cobain (died 1994, age 27 of suicide by shotgun). [17]
  • -- In Movies: Julia Roberts, Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity in The Matrix) and Harry Connick, Jr. (Independence Day). [17]

This Year in Film

  • The Graduate: Dustin Hoffman is chased by Mel Brooke's wife! Anne Bancroft. [19]
  • Disney's The Jungle Book: Last film produced by Walt Disney before his death last year. [19]
  • Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: Portrays interracial marriage as reasonable. (Or at least imaginable.--alexshrugged) [19]

This Year in TV

  • -- In Comedy: The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers and The Flying Nun (Sally Field), . [20]
  • -- In Game Shows: The Newlywed Game in Primetime. [20]
  • -- In Detective Shows: Ironsides, and Mannix. [20]

This Year in Music

  • I'm a Believer: The Monkees. (A made-for-TV band.--alexshrugged) [21] [22]
  • (Come On Baby) Light My Fire: The Doors. [21]
  • And the Beatles: "All You Need Is Love" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". [21]

In Other News

  • No nukes in space: The Outer Space Treaty prohibits nukes, but allows kinetic strikes. (Dropping Big Freakin' Rocks from space.--alexshrugged) [23] [24]
  • The Apollo 1 fire kills 3 astronauts: The capsule will undergo a redesign with safety in mind. [23] [25] [26]
  • The Soyuz 1 crashes on reentry: The cosmonaut's last words reference the poor workmanship of the space craft and where the builders might shove it. [23] [27]
  • John McCain is shot down over Hanoi: He is seriously injured and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. [23] [28]

This Year on Wikipedia

Year 1967, Wikipedia.

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