Ralph Hancock Weighs in on "The New Maxwell Institute"

[Guest]

One question.

Is Ralph Hancock Droopy?

The only differences between Droopy and Ralph are a college degree, a fake tan and a well-groomed full head of hair.

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[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Dan did a wonderful job defending the church which is one reason why critics reacted so strongly.

Holy crap!!! Are you serious?! CFR!!

I would love to see even just one example of where "Dan did a wonderful job defending the church."

I can provide numerous examples of the exact opposite. Dan has caused much harm to the Church, and continues to harm it.

Anyways, I can't wait to see your examples.

[_moksha]

Just in case there are any of the "Mormon Studies" crowd reading this post:

you are going to be involved in a long, endless trench war with these guys. Yes, I realize that it's not really "nice"/"gentleman/womanly" to call these guys out, but if you don't, they're going to continue to claim that they were kicked out of the MI because you Mormon Studies folks want to "liberalize" the Church and destroy the historicity of the Book of Mormon. That's the way they're going to play this.

Don't be caught like the HMS Hood under fire from the Bismark. Do something beside "batten down the hatches". If nothing else, brew up some chamomile tea and wait till they fire a loaded GA broadside for maximal damage, then return fire with an even more loaded GA.

Just don't go head to head with them. Those Classic FARMS guys are experts in hatchet throwing and all forms of guerrilla warfare. Stay out of the mud laced trenches and stick to the trebuchets on top of the Ivory Tower. Those cows from the BYU Creamery would make devastating ammo.

[_Zadok]

Don't be caught like the HMS Hood under fire from the Bismark. Do something beside "batten down the hatches". If nothing else, brew up some chamomile tea and wait till they fire a loaded GA broadside for maximal damage, then return fire with an even more loaded GA.

Just don't go head to head with them. Those Classic FARMS guys are experts in hatchet throwing and all forms of guerrilla warfare. Stay out of the mud laced trenches and stick to the trebuchets on top of the Ivory Tower. Those cows from the BYU Creamery would make devastating ammo.

And for hell sakes, when you're both hunkered down on Christmas eve, come together and sing Silent Night, play a little soccer and film it for the sequel to Meet the Mormons.

[_sock puppet]

These days it is getting more and more difficult to determine what it is that the apologists want, exactly, besides revenge and the complete destruction of the new MI. They've got their journal; they get to say what they want; they've got their blogs. Do they want back in under the umbrella of respectability offered by BYU?

I think that is the very thing for which they hanker. They've been "wronged". They want vindication. They want Bradford's head presented to them on a platter. They want their lives' work hoisted where all TBMs can see and adore them. But in the end, theirs is a lord of the flies.

[_Chap]

Just in case there are any of the "Mormon Studies" crowd reading this post:

you are going to be involved in a long, endless trench war with these guys. Yes, I realize that it's not really "nice"/"gentleman/womanly" to call these guys out, but if you don't, they're going to continue to claim that they were kicked out of the MI because you Mormon Studies folks want to "liberalize" the Church and destroy the historicity of the Book of Mormon. That's the way they're going to play this.

Don't be caught like the HMS Hood under fire from the Bismark. Do something beside "batten down the hatches". If nothing else, brew up some chamomile tea and wait till they fire a loaded GA broadside for maximal damage, then return fire with an even more loaded GA.

Just don't go head to head with them. Those Classic FARMS guys are experts in hatchet throwing and all forms of guerrilla warfare. Stay out of the mud laced trenches and stick to the trebuchets on top of the Ivory Tower. Those cows from the BYU Creamery would make devastating ammo.

I agree that there is no point in simply sitting around waiting to be attacked. But to be fair, that is not what the HMS Prince of Wales (a battleship) and the battle cruiser HMS Hood were doing in the Denmark Strait when they detected Bismark and her consort Prinz Eugen.

They were actively seeking out the two German ships with a view to combat, since it was vital to prevent the Bismark breaking out into the Atlantic where she could have threatened convoys at will. Vice-Admiral Holland, in Hood, aware of his ship's weak deck armor, decided to shorten the range as fast as possible to reduce the chances of an enemy shell plunging down onto his deck, rather than hitting the Hood's better armored sides. Prince of Wales had already scored three hits on the Bismark, one of which had holed a fuel tank (an important factor in the later pursuit and sinking of the German ship), and Holland was executing a turn to port so as to allow the aft turrets of both ships to come to bear, when the fatal shell from Bismark struck Hood just in the right place to cause an explosion in an aft magazine.

Whether or not Holland was right to attack as he did on sighting the two German ships without waiting for other British ships to join him has been discussed. But it is unfair to a gallant commander to suggest that he was in any way caught and attacked unawares. Had that shell not hit where it did, more damage might have been caused to Bismark, and any chance of a breakout to the Atlantic eliminated there and then.

There has to be an MI-linked metaphor somewhere in all that ...

[_Zadok]

Whether or not Holland was right to attack as he did on sighting the two German ships without waiting for other British ships to join him has been discussed. But it is unfair to a gallant commander to suggest that he was in any way caught and attacked unawares. Had that shell not hit where it did, more damage might have been caused to Bismark, and any chance of a breakout to the Atlantic eliminated there and then.

There has to be an MI-linked metaphor somewhere in all that ...

I love historical stories like that. History is so interesting to me... I guess that's why my faith came tumbling down, but as I was reading your narrative, all I could hear was Johnny Horton's "Gotta Sink The Bismark" in my ears.

[_Chap]

Whether or not Holland was right to attack as he did on sighting the two German ships without waiting for other British ships to join him has been discussed. But it is unfair to a gallant commander to suggest that he was in any way caught and attacked unawares. Had that shell not hit where it did, more damage might have been caused to Bismark, and any chance of a breakout to the Atlantic eliminated there and then.

There has to be an MI-linked metaphor somewhere in all that ...

I love historical stories like that. History is so interesting to me... I guess that's why my faith came tumbling down, but as I was reading your narrative, all I could hear was Johnny Horton's "Gotta Sink The Bismark" in my ears.

You've seen the film Sink the Bismark, right? Because it was a UK production, the credit for the destruction of the Bismark was not miraculously transferred to the armed forces of another country.

[_Zadok]

You've seen the film Sink the Bismark, right? Because it was a UK production, the credit for the destruction of the Bismark was not miraculously transferred to the armed forces of another country.

I did see that movie, and what's more, I saw it in England while I was there trying to convince the local citizenry that the One True Church of Jesus Christ had been restored to the Earth.

The fixation that the British People had on the events of "Their Finest Hour" was always interesting to me. 20 years after the war and it was still almost all they could talk about. I was young then, naïve, and didn't understand then, like I do now, the effects of trauma on a mind and soul.

[_Quasimodo]

You've seen the film Sink the Bismark, right? Because it was a UK production, the credit for the destruction of the Bismark was not miraculously transferred to the armed forces of another country.

I did see that movie, and what's more, I saw it in England while I was there trying to convince the local citizenry that the One True Church of Jesus Christ had been restored to the Earth.

The fixation that the British People had on the events of "Their Finest Hour" was always interesting to me. 20 years after the war and it was still almost all they could talk about. I was young then, naïve, and didn't understand then, like I do now, the effects of trauma on a mind and soul.

My family lived in a sea port town in England during the Blitz (Hull). Because of their location (in line with the Sheffield steel mills) the Germans would make it a secondary target as well. It often was bombed twice a night.

My mom is 94 and still starts many sentences when thinking back "before the war" or "after the war". The sound of sirens still makes her uncomfortable.