VINDICATION TIMES TWO
Geoff Metcalf
December 16, 2002
NewsWithViews.com
Over
the years I have focused my columns on news beyond the mainstream.
Often mine is a minority or contrarian rant.
However, not infrequently my righteous indignation is eventually
vindicated.
*
Echelon
*
Carnivore
* Sub dermal biochips
* Privacy issues
* Home schooling
* Government hypocrisy
* Revisionist history
* China
* Iraq
* Second amendment issues
* Media Bias
* Abuse of Power under the color of authority
However,
I have never been graced with two “I told you so” opportunities at one
time.
Part One
I was not the Lone
Ranger in my criticism of Henry Kissinger being appointed to head up the
post 9/11 investigation http://www.newswithviews.com/metcalf/metcalf26.htm
Remarkably few (left, right, liberal or conservative) had much good to say
about the senior hubris driven power broker.
Despite
his apparent visceral need to ‘get in play’ and his pathologic
‘Jonesing’ for lost White House access, the erstwhile Dr. K apparently
suffered the reality check that “actions DO have consequences.”
Henry
Kissinger resigned as chairman of the 9/11 commission allegedly because of
controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his business
clients. Kinda….sorta…..
The avoided reality is EVERYone smelled a manipulative conniving rat.
According
to the former secretary of state, "It is clear that, although
specific potential conflicts can be resolved in this manner, the
controversy would quickly move to the consulting firm I have built and
own.” He wrote President
Bush, “I have, therefore, concluded that I cannot accept the
responsibility you proposed."
The
resignation came in the wake of the panel's vice chairman, former U.S.
Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, already having resigned Wednesday, partly
because of pressures to quit his law firm.
President
Bush pledged to find a replacement to "uncover every detail and learn
every lesson of Sept. 11, even as we act on what we have learned so far to
better protect and defend America."
I don’t think so…..
The President didn’t want an independent investigation from the
jump. The appointment of two
“fixers” like Hank and George underscored the inevitability of another
“Warren Commission”.
Meanwhile
Dr K can go back to cutting shadowy deals for his communist red Chinese
buddies.
Part
Two
Professor
Michael Bellesilles’ resignation from Emory University is official
December 31st. He
was pressured to leave in the wake of the controversy surrounding his
revisionist book “Arming America” in which he claimed American
colonists did not, by and large, own or value firearms.
Yeah right!
In
December of 2000 when the controversy erupted I interviewed Dr. Joyce
Malcom. http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/qa/21237.html
She claimed
Mikey cherry picked his facts to support his revisionist fiction.
A few months later I interviewed historian Clayton Cramer who
claimed, “Bellesilles flat-out made stuff up.” http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/qa/22899.html
Real
scholars began to document errors in "Arming America." LOTS of
errors, gross errors, egregious errors … and fictions.
In
May, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced it was
withdrawing its sponsorship from a fellowship awarded to Bellesiles
through the Newberry Library in Chicago.
What
took so long?! The book came out in the fall of 2000. Professor Malcolm
wrote a piece eviscerating the Bellesilles thesis in Reason magazine
shortly after the book was released. I interviewed her on the air in
December 2000. The scholastic feeding frenzy followed throughout 2001. And
still, the academic fiction had not been resolved?
In
My August 26th column I asked, “And by the way, what about
the committee that bestowed the once-prestigious Bancroft Award?”
Well, I recently
received an email from Dr. Glynn Custred (co-author of California’s Prop
209 who also graciously wrote the forward to my new book In The Arena).
Glynn
wrote, “I just heard
that Columbia University has rescinded the Bancroft Award given to
Bellesiles for his disengenous book. It did not meet the standards
of historical scholarship. Columbia wants the prize money back.
My
response was, “Very
Cool! However
how much of it do you really think is 'standards' versus the
embarrassment of the excrement storm??”
Dr. Custred replied, “It was the storm, of course.
"Standards" were just the excuse.”
To
which I replied, “Duplicity from academic
purists? I am shocked and amazed.....not.”
Both
the resignation of Kissinger and the delayed justice of the Bellesiles
renunciation have very little to do with my modest efforts and a whole lot
to do with changes in the information dynamic.
It
is a matter of (believe it or not) physics.
Nature abhors a vacuum. If
or when happenstance or complicity creates a vacuum….any
vacuum….something will fill the void.
Talk
radio and the Internet have provided a forum whereby people CAN get
information that once upon the mainstream media successfully denied the
huddled masses. The success
of Fox News is surprising only in that others with greater resources
haven’t gotten hip…yet.
Hey,
enquiring minds DO want to know……
© 2002 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights Reserved
