Over a decade ago I was sent an invitation to a new cigar bar opening in D.C. (Ozio's). The invitation was of Churchill with a cigar. Now they are airbrushing it out of the picture even in a Churchill museum. One of the iconic pictures of Churchill is him standing up at his desk looking cross and bulldogish. That picture was achieved by a cheeky photographer who pulled the cigar right out of Churchill's mouth then photgraphed the reaction. So we know what he would have thought about it.
His wartime comrade in arms and fellow "former naval person" FDR has suffered a similiar fate. At his memorial he is shrunken, in a wheelchair with no cigarette and cigarette holder that are now solely identified with him and Cruella Deville. His quotes are all wimpy modern Democrat too.
Let's be clear. World War II was fought to a succesful conclusion by two men who drank and smoked. It was lost by the tea totalling, cigarette hating Adolf Hitler, excercise nut and non-smoker Mussolini and the eastern diet crazed Hirohito.(to be fair Tojo was a chain smoker). Heck, even Stalin had a pipe.
I do not advocate smoking (for small children and the like) but the urge to expunge it from all view has reached alarming proportions. I forsee a future of Mayor Bloombergs airbrushing the cheeseburgers out of photos of Bill Clinton.
This has got to stop.
6 comments:
The Brits were saved by a man whom they despised and yet were too stupid to realized they had been saved! The Brits hated Churchill before, during, and clearly after WW II.
Dave P.
I think you know that I set the bar pretty low in terms of expectations for your posts. That being said, your third paragraph is easily one of the most stupid things I have ever read anywhere. Next time, just go all in and mention the part about Hitler being a vegetarian. This is one of those times I don't mind our vanishingly small site visit stats.
Regarding your original point, the removal of smoking materials from depictions of a time when smoking was ubiquitous is infantile and Stalinist. History is what happened, not what we wish had happened.
You've got to be kidding me. Explain what is stupid about it. (except the Hirohito part which was a joke). These people ascribe particular virtue to non-smoking, health consciousness. I point out the virtue and health nuttiness are not coterminous.
Your simplistic context-free construction is as follows: Drinkers and smokers beat health nuts in WWII, possibly via a tag-team wrestling match. It shades a bit close to Jonah Goldberg territory for me.
A sentence like "Virtue and health nuttiness are not coterminous" might have improved the original slightly.
OMG - coterminous is my new favorite word. I will use it early and often.
I am saddened to see Dave is now siding with Axis. There can be no other construction of these comments.
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