Missing in Action: The American Flag on the Moon

by David C. Stolinsky • September 5, 2018 at 5:00 am

Ryan Gosling admits he sees things as a Canadian. So it is all right for Gosling to see himself as a Canadian, but it is not all right for Neil Armstrong to see himself an American?
During the Second World War, Oskar Schindler escaped the clutches of the Gestapo by claiming that "his" Jews were doing essential war work. But Schindler also did something that, had it been discovered, he would have been tortured and executed. He stole guns and gave them to "his" Jews, so that they could defend themselves.
The film "Schindler's List" ran 3 hours 15 minutes, yet somehow there was no time to include this incident. An anti-gun agenda was apparently more important to the filmmakers than the depiction of this dramatic and revealing incident.
Rewriting history and erasing images are symptoms of budding totalitarianism. The moon landing was "one giant step for mankind." Omitting the planting of the American flag is another small step away from freedom and toward totalitarianism. Totalitarians do not really care whether you believe their lies. If you do, you help to maintain their power. If, however, you do not believe the lies, yet are forced to repeat them, you admit that you have sold your mind -- and perhaps your soul.

In a photo taken by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, Armstrong's fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on the moon. Aldrin's fingertips are visible on the far side of his faceplate. (Image source: NASA)

We learn both from what we see and from what we do not see: this is especially true if we do not see something because it was intentionally deleted. This tells us something about those who deleted it. They considered it so important that they went to the trouble of trying to erase it from our national consciousness. Why? What was so contrary to their value system that they found it intolerable?

The photo above is one of the most famous images in history. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the moon: planting the American flag on the moon was an iconic event. I would bet serious money that the great majority of people in the world can identify that photo. But not Hollywood. The scene was omitted from the movie "The First Man".

Continue Reading Article

Journalist Paralyzed, Gravely Ill in Turkish Prison

by Uzay Bulut • September 5, 2018 at 4:00 am

Medeni Duran wrote that his imprisoned brother Metin "cannot walk, speak, or eat and does not recognize anyone anymore. He can only breathe."
Mistreatment and even torture of journalists and media employees, along with arbitrary arrests, are getting alarmingly commonplace in Turkey.
At least 183 journalists and media workers in Turkey in are being held, either in pretrial detention or serving a prison sentence, according to the Platform for Independent Journalism.

Metin Duran, a paralyzed and gravely ill journalist, remains in Turkish prison. (Image via Platform for Independent Journalism)

Dissident journalists and writers in Turkey increasingly face government threats and arbitrary arrests for their work and opinions, but for Metin Duran, the punishments have been even more grotesque.

Duran, 37, has been jailed on terrorism-related charges in Sincan Prison, near Ankara, since March 30, 2018. But he is not aware of where he is or what the court decided about him.

A former journalist for Radyo Rengin, a radio station in the city of Mardin in southeastern Turkey, Duran lost part of his memory, along with his ability to walk and speak, after a stroke that followed a heart attack on October 10, 2015. Yet despite these crippling disabilities, he was sent to prison on March 30 and remains there, the Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported.

Ahmet Kanbal, the journalist who covered Duran's imprisonment for Mezopotamya, told Gatestone:

Continue Reading Article