January 10, 2020

I'm sure hundreds of thousands of Americans thought of this humor idea but refrained from actually listing, on the internet, the 52 American cultural sites that Iran could bomb.

I'm reading "College Professor Out After Joke Suggesting Iran List U.S. Cultural Targets/Asheen Phansey is no longer employed by Babson College after joking that Iran should target [deleted] and [deleted]" (Daily Beast).

I'm censoring the HuffPo headline. I don't like seeing any specific place named as a target, not in public, though I was doing the same thing in private conversation. What are the cultural sites of the United States? It's a rich topic, especially because our history is so short. I think of capitalism and pop art. I'd love to talk about what these sites are, but certainly not in the context of pointing them out to a foreign enemy that might want to blow them up!

113 comments:

Michael K said...

Many of them are being destroyed by the left, such as all Confederate memorials and Democrats have already suggested Trump's hotels as targets,

rehajm said...

Hey, that's my school! So proud!...

...and just what the hell is a sustainability director?

AZ Bob said...

It happened in 2001.

Curious George said...

“I am particularly sorry to cause any harm or alarm for my colleagues at Babson, my beloved alma mater and the place where I have enjoyed teaching students and serving as its sustainability director"

OMGF what will they do without a sustainability director!!!

Nonapod said...

OMGF what will they do without a sustainability director!!!

Obviously their sustainability will be directionless. Which means it could veer dangerously off course and hit a telephone pole or an SUV with a family of four!

Sebastian said...

"certainly not in the context of pointing them out to a foreign enemy that might want to blow them up!"

Cuz that would be awful, since the foreign enemy could never figure that out on his own.

Anyway, the unstated assumption in this little kerfuffle is that everyone realizes that if our enemies could, they would take out any of our cultural sites. They don't give a damn.

One of the most amazing things about the modern era is American self-restraint in dictating terms to any and all adversaries outside Russia and China.

Lucien said...

How great is it that the guy doesn't know the difference between Khomeni and Khameni AND he was Director of Sustainability?

Bay Area Guy said...

The number one challenge facing America is not the threats from Iran, not the threats from the North Korea, and not Putin and his "troll farm" sowing political discord in our elections with Facebook ads.

The number one problem is that we have let a Fifth Column incubate, grow and metastasize within our country. These people don't like America, reject her traditions and values, want a mammoth bureaucratic government to oversee us, want to open our borders, and want to fundamentally transform our country into something it's not.

These people are Leftists. They hang out on college campuses and publish a lotta bullshit.

Gahrie said...

W.E.B. Griffin wrote a book in which a group of terrorists were planning on crashing a plane into the Liberty Bell, and all of the American characters were disbelieving that something so minor would be targeted.

Fernandinande said...

As an aficionado of fireworks in steep canyons, it'd be cool to set off an atomic bomb halfway down the Grand Canyon - think of the audio!

rhhardin said...

Seems like a good joke to me. The truth is we don't have or need cultural centers. Our culture is good enough to survive without pointing to the past as a crutch.

At least on the populist side.

Carol said...

They'd better not be considering sites like the the Behistun Inscription.

Our people have already fucked with it enough, in their stupidity.

rhhardin said...

The lack of a need for cultural centers is what allows us to have our flags made in China.

Marshall Rose said...

The World Trade center would have been one to list, but seems that has been destroyed deliberately.

Maybe the Pentagon, or US Capitol?

rhhardin said...

What happens if you shout "airport" in a bomb factory.

Ken B said...

Sebastian
There is a difference in knowing that gangs could beat you and saying "hey wouldn't it be cool if some gang beat up Sebastian."

walter said...

GERALDO: "Is this the normal that we assassinate the people that we don't like?"
BONGINO: "He sent 600 Americans home in body bags, it's not like he showed up late for a birthday party."

rhhardin said...

We're so culturally impoverished that the only protected things are redwood trees.

Kevin said...

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lincoln Center
Carnegie Hall
Phillips Collection
National Gallery
Smithsonian
Library of Congress
Folger Shakespeare Library
Art Institute of Chicago

rehajm said...

Which means it could veer dangerously off course and hit a telephone pole or an SUV with a family of four!

Silicon Valley is developing autonomous sustainability to avoid this type of thing...

gspencer said...

"and just what the hell is a sustainability director"

The opportunity to give a minority type an undeserved job.

rhhardin said...

2001 was an attack on what the terrorists thought were cultural sites.

The WTC was if anything an eyesore that everybody I knew avoided.

Mr. O. Possum said...

Hezbollah is notorious for hiding weapons in apartment buildings and mosques, so why wouldn't the Iranians?

And I don't remember our sparing any sites, except Kyoto, in Japan or Germany in WWII.

BarrySanders20 said...

OMGF what will they do without a sustainability director!!!

It's a clearly unsustainable situation.

rhhardin said...

The International (2009) had a great shootout in the Guggenheim.

rhhardin said...

The Japanese rebuilt some temple that was 500 years old, in 1992, and it was still a tourist attraction. WWII had wiped it out. Recently it burned to the ground and they're planning to rebuild it again and make it even more true to the origional but with smoke detectors, to get the tourists back.

D.D. Driver said...

Jokes on them because our greatest cultural site is already the worlds biggest crater.

Yancey Ward said...

It is impossible to parody "Director of Sustainability". Where would you start?

I would be mortified to have that as my job title. It figuratively screams out, "I am totally worthless, but well paid for it."

Kevin said...

And while they'd never bomb them because they are full of nothing but their allies, I guess I'd have to include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Columbia.

Theoretically they could become useful to Western Civilization again. After the Purge.

BarrySanders20 said...

I remember feeling outraged when General Zod and his two minions defaced Mt Rushmore in Superman II.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8tEZREeF1g

rehajm said...

I remember feeling outraged when General Zod and his two minions defaced Mt Rushmore in Superman II.

Romani ite domum...

Jason said...

DER STATUE OF LIBERTY IST KAPUT!

Northerner said...

I feel pretty sure Trump was not talking museums or historical sites. By 'Cultural' I think he meant the palaces of the Mullahs and the Mullahs themselves.

Michael K said...

It would be interesting to see a list of American cultural sites drawn up by a Republican and one by a Democrat. I didn't read that article so maybe it was the Democrat version.

I doubt Nathan Bedford Forrests grave would be on the Democrats' list. Maybe they already dug him and his wife up. That would be following the example of the French Revolution, which seems to be their model. Or maybe the Cultural Revolution, which did the same.

rhhardin said...

A rash of bombings of public libraries would be an amusing twist. Foreign bad guess about what cultural centers might be.

tcrosse said...

It is impossible to parody "Director of Sustainability". Where would you start?

At the huge corporation where I worked, for my sins, there was a guy whose title was VP of Continuing Improvement. Personally, he was a reptile.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"gspencer said...
'and just what the hell is a sustainability director'"

It is reactionism personified. A sustainability director works to insure that the future looks like now. A sustainability director puts pickets around the human imagination.
What would a "sustainability director" for an antebellum Southern state look like?

Gk1 said...

This creep will just get another gig like that "we need more muscle over here" Melissa Glick cretin that was fired at Mizzou. I think she had no trouble getting a new teaching position at Gonzo state. This prick will have a new teaching position before spring semester ends.

Rabel said...

Daily Beast?

Lucien said...

Turns out that Sustainability Directors are disposable — but on the bright side, biodegradable, too.

Lee Moore said...

"Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!"

stevew said...

Washington DC
Statue of Liberty
Mount Rushmore

Can't think of any others that are widely and broadly considered cultural sites. The various statues and places are local treasures but not so much nationally. I think they would need to take out at least two or three per State, so 150.

Plymouth Rock and Plymouth Plantation
The Bush Compound in Kenebunkport, ME
Kennedy Compound in Hyannis MA

There is no shortage of Revolutionary War sites and statues here in New England.

tim maguire said...

That tweet reveals him to be an ass, not a traitor.

William said...

The sustainability director wasn't able to keep his job. Ironic huh....It's gratifying to see the cancel culture eat one of its own. Do such actions strengthen or subvert the cancel culture?....I wouldn't fire the guy. An apology should have been sufficient. You know, one of those fulsome acts of repentance that stimulate the cringe reflex in onlookers. I'd like to hear Kim Kardashian's take on this. It would be an opportunity for her show her broadness of spirit. More importantly, played right, this could gain some publicity for her.

chuck said...

The spacious skies, the amber waves of grain, the purple mountain majesties. In a word, Iran should attack the national parks and the fruited plains. That'll show us.

n.n said...

PP. Politically, religiously, ideologically, and culturally significant. Found on every corner in diverse communities. Their destruction with a liberal dose of toxic feminism are first-order forcings of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change and social progress. Just do it.

Rick said...

It seems extreme to fire him. But remember schools justify political and speech repression using claims people feel "unsafe". They have to know if they didn't do this their political targets would use this to discredit them during their next pogrom.

BarrySanders20 said...

World's Largest Fish, Hayward, WI
World's Largest 6 Pack, Lacrosse, WI
Mars Cheese Castle, Kenosha, WI

readering said...

Wikipedia has a good entry on UNESCO's world heritage sites in US and territories. 24 so far and 2 shared with Canada. 19 additional tentative sites.

Drago said...

readering: "24 so far and 2 shared with Canada."

What?!!

This is an outrage!

Give em up Justin...and nobody has to get hurt.....

dbp said...

I was thinking about this in terms of what would get us to turn against our government. But there is no direct parallel to what we could do to Iran. We could wipe-out whatever meaningful places they have and do it with impunity. Would it make them turn against their government?

Imagine some alien race, with powers far beyond anything the US could muster. They start to push us around (since they have identified us as the greatest Earthly power) and when we resist, they threaten to erase places we hold dear. Would we cave if our government stood up to them and we lost the Washington Monument, Statue of Liberty, Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge?

Maybe? But I think that is the right framework to use when thinking of the kind of threats we make. Usual caveats that typical Iranian people may not see things the way we Americans would. But you have to start an analysis someplace.

Sal said...

The world is our cultural site. Travel around -- everyone is appropriating our culture and using stuff we invented.

tcrosse said...

Luckily there's nothing of the least cultural interest here in Las Vegas.

J L Oliver said...

The Corn Palace?

Leland said...

Remember the outrage when Palin just put a surveyors mark on a map and said target your campaign contributions here? She was "targeting her political opponents" and using militaristic terms like "campaign". Now Democrats and media allies that vote Democrat just tell terrorist states to target their enemies.

Remember the outrage when Trump joked about Russia releasing Hillary's email? "Trump was colluding with Russia against his political opponent", they said.

Bob Boyd said...

World's Largest Ball of Snakes
Washington DC

Kevin said...

America doesn't do cultural sites.

We can barely feign interest in our national parks.

And that's only in the summer.

Jim at said...

The number one problem is that we have let a Fifth Column incubate, grow and metastasize within our country. - BAG

Absolutely.

Bob Boyd said...

Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina.

whitney said...

Liar. It wasn't a joke. Still, the worst part is these people cannot stop lying

tcrosse said...

Wall Drug

Darrell said...

Chuck, Inga, ARM, and Ritmo are America's most treasured assets.
Addresses upon request.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The issue is to define "Culture" as it pertains to the United States.

What is one person's culture is not culture to another. Since our country was formed by many different ethnic groups, nationalities, religious groups; the things that we hold dear or consider cultural are quit different from place to place and group to group.

As pointed out some of the historical cultural sites that are dear to those in the Southern parts of the US are being destroyed already by internal forces.

Because our country hasn't been around all that long... about 420 years, we don't have the length of time to establish cultural "sites" as they do in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

We don't have a cohesive culture. Our history is fragmented and short.

Everything we have in the US is relatively new and not all that special to EVERYONE. You might piss off some people by bombing a specific site, but not the whole country will be devastated. We don't have religious cultural sites. Or fabulous buildings ala Notre-Dame de Paris.

Even blowing up the Twin Towers wasn't a "cultural" thing. The loss of life was the issue. Not so much the actual buildings which can be rebuilt if we feel like it.

The most "cultural" thing I can think of would be the Smithsonian.

FWBuff said...

The Alamo. Remember?

DanTheMan said...

If they blow up "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota", they will face the wrath of Weird Al fans everywhere...

Ann Althouse said...

"Daily Beast?"

Thanks. Fixed. Those 2 websites look alike to me... and I tend to avert my eyes.

hombre said...

Lefties would have no trouble coming up with 52 cultural sites. Anything that reflects or houses anything that reflects actual American history as opposed to, say, history per Howard Zinn or the 1619 Project will do.

hombre said...

From the perspective of the Millenials our cultural sites are cell towers and buildings housing Facebook servers. Throw in Twitter repositories and you cover most celebs too.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Them Iranians is FUNNY!

rcocean said...

The Iranians should bomb Harvard, Yale, and the MLK statue in DC. That would really hurt us Iran. Hit any place but those Three. Please.

rcocean said...

The USA In 2019, has a "culture"? Who knew.

rcocean said...

Maybe they could bomb Woodstock and the birthplace of Bob Dylan - Nobel Laureate. Just spitballing.

JaimeRoberto said...

Carhenge.

South of the Border.

Curious George said...

"Darrell said...
Chuck, Inga, ARM, and Ritmo are America's most treasured assets.
Addresses upon request."

Can they just bomb Chuck 52 times?

rcocean said...

Ah yes, the Statue of Open borders. Yeah, there's a cultural site we wouldn't want to hit.

rcocean said...

If the Iranians blew up Manhattan and Beverly Hills, we'd all be better off. So, they're safe.

MacMacConnell said...

In every speech Trump delivers he should mention how culturally important Babson College is to the USA and it's latitude and longitude.

Ralph L said...

Some fine people would like to add Stone Mountain to their list.

Unknown said...

Not the Mars Cheese Palace! That's where I get my cheese curds when driving back to Chicago to fly back to Colorado.

As for Carhenge, it is NOT "just off I-80" as I was told. It is an HOUR off I-80. Although, there is a nice diagonal highway across Nebraska that I took eastward from there (Alliance, NE, btw). It's two-lane, but there was very little traffic and the scenery was much better than I-80.

I like the idea of an atomic bomb in the big ditch, I mean Grand Canyon. I maintain that while the Grand Canyon exists, America does not have a landfill problem. It's huge. It's already there. Hardly any water runs through the southern part any longer. Fill it with garbage. Then talk to me about recycling.

Meade said...

The American Museum of Tort Law

bagoh20 said...

Judging by their recent competence, the Iranians would end up destroying a mosque hiding their own terror cell.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"The number one problem is that we have let a Fifth Column incubate, grow and metastasize within our country. These people don't like America, reject her traditions and values, want a mammoth bureaucratic government to oversee us, want to open our borders, and want to fundamentally transform our country into something it's not."

What Bay Area Guy said above. I am surprised on a daily basis when I read the news or see something about a college or govt agency and the leftist lunacy and America hatred tends to spring from 1st or 2nd generation immigrants from shithole countries. For instance, Rep. Ro Khanna of California is a far lefty- why did we allow his family to come here? How was it a priority and important to us? His grandfather was involved in Ghandi's independence movement- so why did his family leave India? We are importing our own future enemies.

bagoh20 said...

You know, by censoring those site names, you suggest them as the most valuable targets. Streisand effect.

Gospace said...

World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, were a cultural icon. Something Bin Laden understood. He lived here for a while. Remember, the as yet unidentified anthrax source sent it to The American Media Group. Indictive that someone who didn't understand American culture and how we operate was told to target American media, thought it was centralized like their own, and mailed it off.

What I find both infuriating and amusing is the same liberals whining about Trump threatening to bomb Iran's cultural sites are striving to remove Confederate statues anywhere and everywhere they exist, as they also strive to remove the names of dead white males from all buildings and edifices because they weren't perfect by the ever moving goalposts of political correctness.

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

As a kid my parents to us to see the Babson Globe.

At 25 tons and 28 feet wide, the Babson World Globe was the world's largest rotating earth-ball when it was built in 1955. It was covered with porcelain-baked steel tiles that recreated the continents and oceans. They fell off in 1984 and for the next nine years the World looked like a big, rusted ball. But in 1993 it was restored, and has remained in global standard shape ever since, although its rotating motor was shut down in the late 1990s, and wasn't restarted until 2019.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2112

tcrosse said...

The Tommy Bartlett Wisconsin Dells Water Show

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

Back in the day I walked into the computer lab and someone pranked by logging on to every computer running a Microsoft OS and changing the default screen saver from ‘Babson College’ to ‘Baboon College’. It was real subtle as it scrolled across the screen and who looks at a screen saver? It was on some machines for weeks...

Maillard Reactionary said...

I vote for Disneyland, but only on a day when it's closed, if there is one.

rhhardin: Personally I only buy flags made in the USA, but it's fine if other people want to buy ones from our enemies. Any flag in front of your house is better than none.

I would feel a loss if the redwood trees went away, having walked under them. Of course they will at some point, but hopefully after I do.

Regarding the rebuilding of temples in Japan, it's something that they do. Kinkakuji in Kyoto burned down in the 20th century and was precisely rebuilt on the site. Traditionalist Japanese don't feel it's the same because it isn't wabi-sabi (i.e., showing the passing of time) any more, being new. Of course the correct Buddhist approach would have been to have just kept the hole and the ashes and slowly turned it into a garden over a few centuries or so.

Sometimes the symbols of a culture are worth preserving. Let us hope that the Iranians do not have to learn this from us the hard way.

Kelly said...

I would say the Lincoln memorial, the Washington monument or the Smithsonian,

Josephbleau said...

My Grandfather was an industrial blacksmith for the FRISCO Railroad, but loved high culture. One of his favorites:

The boy sat on the boxcar top, his feet dragged on the ground.

Longfellow.

That is American culture that no one foreign or domestic can destroy.

Josephbleau said...

Las Vegas does have the Museum of Atomic Testing, a cultural site that Iran can admire.

tcrosse said...

My Grandfather was a machinist for the Milwaukee Road and a gentleman of high breeding and culture. He would recite to me:

The boy stood on the burning deck
His feet were red with blisters
He tore his pants on a rusty nail
And now he wears his sister's.

Bomb that, assholes.

Unknown said...

Anywhere there is a statue of Robert E Lee, is a cultural site. He was a giant among men. His life should be taught in every school in America.

JAORE said...

American cultural sites?

Like NASCAR tracks or football stadiums?

narciso said...

close enough


https://twitter.com/WPTV/status/1215741250944557061?s=20

rcocean said...

i just wanted to tell the Mullahs that if you want to stab a dagger into the heart of America, there's a wealthy singer on the coast of California, she's won an Oscar and is beloved by Millions. Check out her house on the internet. P.S. you can use her nose as a bombing checkpoint - even from 20,000 feet.

narciso said...

traitor for all seasons,


https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1215070900929822720?s=20

Ann Althouse said...

“The American Museum of Tort Law”

I thought Meade had brilliantly shown the way to do comedy... make up fictional places that embody American culture.

I was wrong. There is an American Museum of Tort Law.

Marcus Bressler said...

the Newseum. Oh, sorry, it's gone already.

THEOLDMAN

Tomcc said...

Good news for the Assistant Sustainability Director.

Birkel said...

I kept mentioning the Pentagon as a cultural site.

JAORE said...

Where do they brew Dannon Yogurt?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Dolby theater..Los Angeles, during a red carpet event in February.

Leland said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ken in tx said...

I-95, I-10 it would take a lot of bombs to blow those up.

Bunkypotatohead said...

If they took out a couple Amazon distribution centers we'd be on our knees.

DavidUW said...

Obviously the Corn Palace.

Unknown said...

Look boys, we all have our opinions. We can dress girls in soldier costumes all we want. We can call them soldiers, because that is the fashion. Doesn't matter. YOU are a soldier now, because this thing is coming to everyone's city. So...here's the deal...get an AR. No training necessary. It's an easy thing. It was designed to make it simple for Neanderthals like me. You can handle it. History will judge. In the end, we all go to our reward. Question is, do you have the courage? No man knows until he faces it. Can we at least agree on this...Ann Althouse should have not worn a miniskirt in High School.

Charlie said...

The Mustard Museum in Wisconsin!

Charlie said...

Also, why does Babson need a "sustainability director"? Pretty sure they survived many decades without one.

Leland said...

Oh, humor... how about suggesting that since we are mostly a Christian nation, they can blow up the Trinity site. Bonus, after they attack it, we can create a Trinity site in Iran. (corrected)

Alas, it seems they may have plotted to replicate a London Bridge attack at Mar-a-Lago.