I think Ted Turner is a bit of an ass, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, as he does have some excellent business credentials. Face it, CNN was a damn fine idea. Turner Classic Movies and colorizing classic films, a very bad idea. Marrying Jane Fonda, a damn fine idea. Owning the Atlanta Braves, a very bad idea.
However, since he has significantly more money that I do, Ted Turner wins in the Global Rock, Scissors, Paper contest with me. Fair enough.
In an interview with Reuters, Ted scored some more points on my scorecard. As you might know, Ted Turner is outspoken. He tends to speak his mind and more than often enough backs it up with some common sense. Other people might not agree, or even like what he has to say, but at least they can say he’s got at least the beginnings of a point.
For instance, the War in Iraq: "It will go down in history, it is already being seen in history, as one of the dumbest moves that was ever made by anybody. A couple of others that come to mind were the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and the German invasion of Russia," Turner told the forum.
"It literally broke my heart. You don’t start wars just because you don’t like somebody. … I wouldn’t even start a war with Rupert Murdoch," Turner said, referring to his onetime cable network rival.
Iran having nukes: "They’re a sovereign state," Turner said of Iran. "We have 28,000. Why can’t they have 10? We don’t say anything about Israel — they’ve got 100 of them approximately — or India or Pakistan or Russia. And really, nobody should have them. They aren’t usable by any sane person."
The one that put it over the top for me was this quote: "Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world. … It would be a much kinder, gentler, more intelligently run world. The men have had millions of years where we’ve been running things. We’ve screwed it up hopelessly. Let’s give it to the women."
I can’t disagree with that one Ted. Testosterone is a powerful drug that makes humans behave like stupid, tribal, chest-beating asses. One good testosterone hit and all sense leaves the brain. The little head takes over from the big head.
Testosterone causes moronic ‘me-too’ behaviors whereby all the males in the village bond together to beat the shit out of someone from another village. Testosterone causes kings, emperors and dictators to come to power, as the drug makes you want power, either societal, sexual or political power.
Mind you, without testosterone, Don LaFountaine wouldn’t have a job. Don is that voice on just about every movie trailer you’ve ever heard. He is what a voice casting director called VOG, the Voice of God. You can see Don on some of the GEICO ads. Without testosterone, Don LaFountaine would sound like a 58 year old bingo-playing, chain-smoking Cape Breton fishwife named Maureen.
Without testosterone, I wouldn’t have hair growing out of my ears, or growing on my back. This might be a good thing too.
To summarize. War in Iraq Bad. Nukes Bad. Testosterone Bad. Ted might be right.
RoadDave 