Snark, Opinions, One-Liners, Links, and maybe Something Creative

    There is not any single subject contemplated at this blog. It is intended to be on-going as a place where I will mostly put links and short observations or questions. Any subject may come up including movies and music, as well as my own poetry and short fiction. It is mainly intended as a place for short comments which I see as having relevance to ongoing events but am too lazy to expand upon unless they gain some traction. I may refer here to ongoing conversations  at Dag when what they bring to mind is too far off topic or might be otherwise disruptive. It may become mainly a blog roll which anyone is invited to add to.

    This introduction may well be the longest single entry I make. Any response or contribution by anyone else and on any subject is welcome. Anyone wishing to use it in the same way is welcome. I will not necessarily respond to any comments or rebuttals but if a conversation breaks out, that will be fine too. Consider it an open thread.

    Anyone’s choice to ignore anything I bring to this blog in the future will be easy. We’ll see how it goes.

     

    Comments

    As a first installment, here is an essay which handles well, IMO, an idea which I have been semi-obsessed with for quite a while.

    The Problem With Propaganda   http://journalitico.com/2015/03/08/the-problem-with-propaganda/


    Oh in case someone thinks I am being unfair to Oklahoma, let us take a look at Florida and the man whom Momoe calls Skeletor:

    http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/08/3631198/florida-dep-bans-climate-change-investigation/

    NOW THAT IS PROPAGANDA!


    He thinks if they don't mention it no one will ever know or guess that the coral reefs are dying and the water is going to continue to rise.  Miami is already fighting high tide flooding along the immediate coast line.  Fact is you can not pretend global warming away.  Most of South Florida will disappear because it is on porous lime stone.  


    hahahhahahah

    I am sorry to laugh, I know that hundreds of thousands of Floridians lose if something is not done due to the environmental conditions.

    WE CANNOT PRETEND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE DOES NOT EXIST.

    It is just the manner in which evil folks like Skeletor handle the situation.

    We approach this situation two ways or we lose.

    We do something about water and air pollution.

    And we firm up our coastal areas.

    There is no other way!

    But to threaten state employees that if they tell the truth....they shall be banned from the kingdom?

    What the hell.


    We laughed at this too.  It is a rule that makes no sense,  He is like the guy that lives across from me. When he is off his meds he tries to talk to God with his CB radio.  I don't think Skeletor's meds work all the time either.   

    You can not shore up porous lime stone.  It is like a sponge. Build a levy and the water will just come up through the ground behind the levy wall.  There is no below the sea level option for South Florida. 


    May the good Lord keep us on our meds.

    hahhahahaahah


    To keep this short, which is the directive but not my forte:

    No, DD, short is optional. Go as long as you want. I just meant that it could be a place where a short comment or mention of something that was not already an open subject could be inserted, but it doesn't need to be short. 


    Okay, I had to add this somewhere.

    I went through Oklahoma six times?

    One time my car went down and I ended up in the hospital, that is all I am going to say on that subject.

    But I escaped the hospital to pick up something in my disabled car on foot.

    And while walking on the turnpike, there were at least two cars filled with Black Guys hooting at me.

    And all of a sudden, I heard this cry:

    THIS IS NIGGER TOWN BOY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?

    I had already reached my car and was headed back to the hospital and looked back and it was a police car.

    They stopped and the officers ordered me into their car.

    And they made jokes about me being in NIGGER TOWN.

    This was early 1978?

    The racial hatred in Oklahoma City was palpable?

    It was amazing.

    If I had been a Black Guy....?

    Don't get me wrong.

    They were kind to me and mine in Oklahoma.

    But damn!!!!

    If I were a Black Man in Oklahoma, I would find anyway how to get the hell out of there.

    And this thing about the fraternity and the history of that fraternity just hit me in the gut. Again look at the Think Progress post.

    And I will add that there were gooooood people in Oklahoma as there are good folks there now.

    But damn!

    And I praise the college prez for standing up and attacking this damn confederate fraternity.

    That guy gives me hope. It just gets to me after reading the Think Progress post, WHY THE HELL DID IT TAKE HIM SO FUCKING LONG?

     

     


    I went to Immaculate Conception school in Tulsa on the edge of a poor section of town for fourth and fifth anf half of sixth grade. Then we moved across town were I went to public school through the eighth before moving back to Texas. I was around more overt racist attitude there than anywhere else that I have lived except maybe the U.S. Virgin Islands where the West Indians held all the power and were very racist [Many exceptions of course but broadly accurate, at least back then] in their attitudes towards everyone else. I have long been convinced that racism should never be assigned as a fault of any particular group but rather as a fault of humans. Power brings it out.


    It is a fault in our DNA.

    I agree.

    But damn, we cannot ignore it is there.

    We must, as a nation, do the best we can.

    But damn, we as a nation, ignore it all the time.

    Tribalism.

    Well  put.


    I am afraid I said either too much or to little. I was young when I lived in Oklahoma and  did not personally see inter active racism going on between the races. Also, it was a long time ago, before the civil rights movement which changed so much and not just by law but by raising awareness. A lot of good people have gotten better.  What I was referring to was the easy, comfortable use of racist language. I know that has changed. And now I have to say that I never heard racist language at home. Ever. And neither did my kids.


    I should not even prolong this mess.

    My father was a racist.

    And we were in Minneapolis, for Christ Sakes.

    There were racist folks in the North and in the South and in the East and in the West.

    Hell, I heard the N word at age five.

    I have written about this.

    And Minnesota had its own segregated  municipalities and municipalities within municipalities.

    Just ask Senator Franken.

    It is just I never heard such blatant racism as I did that time in Oklahoma by police officers.

    And Billo was not even with me!

    Never.

    But then, again, I had never reached Fergason.

    My point just dealt with a fraternity in Oklahoma.

    And the college worked it out.

    Good for them.

    I hope everything turns out okay.


    Wow.  My time in Oklahoma felt very different.  I grew up on Long Island and Oklahoma was a long way to go to get away from my parents' influence and stretch my wings at college.   I went to Oklahoma City University starting in the fall of 1968, I also spent one semester in graduate school at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma in the fall of either 1973 or 74.  (I forget which.)    Maybe it was the times, but while I was always aware of the red-neck sensibilities, I also came to know a surprising number of Liberals and moderates ( or maybe we just all tried to stick together. LOL ), and I never encountered the kind of angry stuff that you describe.   What a nightmare that must have been.

    P.S.   During my brief time down at OU, I did get to appear on the main stage in the Eddie Albert role of Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!   Needless to say, the title song stopped the show every night and had to be given an encore during which the audience sang along and stomped their feet.  


    I would never say that there are not gooooood peeps in Oklahoma.

    And I thank you for this comment.

    I am reporting my own experience there.

    As a matter of fact I wish to underline that those folks in Oklahoma City helped me and mine much.

    Oh and Bill Maher talks about his wonderful experiences giving stand up in the South.

    And I wrote about this issue before.

    Hell, Carol of old and others were and are great liberals from the South.

    I even wrote a history of great percentages of folks in the South who voted against succession.

    But, I am not sure about those folks in Long Island.

    hahahahahahahah

    On a more important note, I mean Eddie Albert?

    goddamn!

    See

    You are so full of history. Real history.

    Eddie Albert.

    Damn I loved that guy.

    And I only saw him on TV

    AGAIN

    It is you and Ducky witness history.

    And I just wander.

    hahhahahahah

    Anyway, I cannot really diss Oklahoma right now. Because of you. Of course in the scene provided as well as the entire film, Black Men or Black Women or Native Americans do not seem to be present.

    hahahahahah

    Even though, Blacks and Indiginous Americans were dissed.

    hahahahah

    God I almost played the song again.

    hahahahah

    Oh I hope you are not mad at me.

     


    I was so clueless when I first went there, I think I spelled it Oaklahoma on .my application letter. Hahaha.     Good people are everywhere ... 


    That's all good and well, but did you meet Greg Pruitt? I guess too late...


    That is almost the right time period, and  did have a couple of OU football players in the freshman acting class I "taught" when I was a graduate assistant, but , no, I didn't meet him.  I do remember watching him play though and the amazing rivalry between OU and Texas. 


    Checking Wikipedia, his big seasons were '71 & '72, then debuted with the Browns in '73.

    The rivalry with Nebraska was also intense.


    Right, and, I was at OCU from 68-72.  OCU had a decent basketball team with Abe Lemons as coach, but was too small to have a big-time football program, so we rooted for OU. 


    Lulu I thought the writer made some really good observations

    We’ve picked a side in an argument and that’s the end of it.

    This leads to what psychologists call ‘motivated reasoning’, whereby we will cherry-pick information and subconsciously eliminate anything that challenges our argument too deeply.

    Here's another method of controlling the message 

    Ive decided to move my comment here where Freedom is allowed.  HilarEmail

    Well it appears to me  particularly after the Dagblog "hack attack", there evidently is software to prevent me from reading or participating in some of the current discussions.  

    An Authoritarian tactic to silence dissent? 

    First they trump up charges, followed by threats  then more drastic measures are employed   

    I keep receiving this message  

    AW SNAP !

    Something went wrong while displaying this Web page 

    Right! Something went wrong,

    Freedom to disagree with the Party Line and those who disagree with the propaganda ministers will not be allowed in.

    They don't need your comments just accept? 

    From the linked article 

    The Random House dictionary defines it as “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”

    If our goal is to discredit the other side in a debate, we will happily use any of the above definitions, failing to recognize when they can be applied to ourselves.


    The crude oil intended for the Keystone XL pipeline contains great amounts of sand, tar, other impurities, plus additives needed to  get it to even flow through heated pipes. Why has no lawmaker or pundit, that I have noticed, suggested telling Canada to refine at least most of the crud out of the crude, deal with the mountains of waste there, and then send a finished or close to finished product down to the Gulf Coast by well established means? 


    Thanks for the open thread, This may just be the solution, to much of the consternation at Dag 

    As for the crud in the crude,  can it be cleaned up enough to be used to replace Beach erosion or any other use for environmental needs in the South ?

    As for Movies  have you seen "The Imitation Game"   One of the best movies I've been to in awhile 


    I have not yet seen that movie but probably will soon. A high percentage of what I watch is foreign and a high percentage of that is French. The most recent one which I liked a lot is called "A Very Long Engagement". Roger Ebert says of that movie; "I was enchanted, as everyone was, by Jeunet's first film with Audrey Tautou, "Amelie." Now he brings everything together -- his joyously poetic style, the lovable Tautou, a good story worth the telling -- into a film that is a series of pleasures stumbling over one another in their haste to delight us." I agree with him about AVLE which I rented because I liked Amelie so much. It has vivid scenes of WWI trench warfare but it is about much more in total.


    Edit. I am about 2/3 through a very good read, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Gonna pick it up right now.

    http://www.amazon.com/History-Love-Nicole-Krauss/dp/0393328627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425954167&sr=1-1&keywords=the+history+of+love


    XXXX


    The best book I have read in a long time is Lovers at the Camelian Club, Paris 1932, by Francine Prose.  It is based on real people and events in Paris leading up to WWII. It is very well-developed, and is just fascinating.  All the characters are great, but one of the most captivating is one of the first female Formula One race-car drivers...I won't spoil it, but if you pick up this book you won't put it down. 


    We haven't mounted a serious invasion of Mexico since 1846 and yet Mexico has nearly overrun our country. Instead of wasting military resources in the Middle East overthrowing armed dictators, we could be taking down the ten oligarchs who are subjugating the citizens of Mexico and redistribute their wealth through vast increases in wages and issuing credit cards to citizens drawn on secret accounts in Switzerland. Tourism to great beach venues in Mexico would increase because Americans, and even Canadians, could drive their cars to these destinations without fear of being robbed and killed. Eventually the immigrants here would go home and our expenditures of food stamps would decrease, improving our standard of living. Critics of George Bush said he should have invaded Mexico instead of Iraq, and the advice was thought to have been facetious but in fact it was a serious prescription which should have been implemented.  

    Thanks very much for providing this blog space. I have been anxious to express these views for quite a few months.  


    I am for downing the oligarchs. I drove the length of Baja a couple years ago on my moto bike and while I did not run into many U.S.ians the beach resorts at least were over run with Canadian snow birds.


    Many of the snowbirds from the Midwest go down to S. Texas, McAllen area. Dualies and fifth wheel trailers jam the roads. You can virtually walk to Mexico from there.


    I wouldn't put it past those who which to exploit the land of it's resources to get rid of HUMANS who need clean air and water, Problem solved. 

    Church and government officials washing their hands, by placing the burden of caring on the bleeding heart US citizens to care for the downtrodden, while both enrich themselves at others expense 

    It takes money to care for the displaced and it isn't going to be theirs. 


    Drive to Mexico? It's like what, $200 to fly to Cancun? then you hire a moped or someone to drive you around all day in some tuktuk or car if you need to - but if you're in the water all day, why bother?

    We already own the beaches we need. Who needs the inland? aside from some pyramids and a lake/swamp/volcano, pretty barren inhospitable country.

    Read Juan Rulfo's "El Llano en LLamas" if you don't believe me, or "Pedro Páramo"
     


    Take your chances on a big jet plane, but never let them tell you that they're all, all, ...all the same.


    Ah, I haven't flown for 5 years, nor do I intend to do so.

    I wouldn't be so quick to write off the interior of Mexico as barren and inhospitable. Much can be done with proper planning and zoning. Arizona, for example, was much the same as Mexico before Sun City came along and upgraded the place. And Long Island, before Levittown.     


    You're right - let's send them Levittown.

    Everything I know about Mexico comes from reading "Under the Volcano" from the wrong side of a bottle. And the Death of Artemio Cruz. And seeing Wages of Fear  - Latin film noir.

    Call it "barren and inhospitable and DEADLY". Like El Mariachi. And Dusk to Dawn. And the Magnificent 7 and Touch of Evil. And Blood Meridian. Wonder how Levittown will hold up...


    My trucks serviced some companies near the Brownsville area and I had a number of inquiries to work south of the border, joint-ventures---that sort of thing. When I checked it out I discovered that their favorite trick down there was to stop a truck on a traffic violation and then impound it. It could take months, and much under the counter stuff, just to get the equipment back. Yesterday the mayor of the border town Matamoros escaped an ambush by armed gunmen---hell, where do you go to make payoffs?


    Yes, when my car somehow didn't have the right paperwork to travel inland (not Baja), we started to leave but the border guard said "not so fast - it's the land of miracles - lame men walk, blind men see..." We slept across from the Tecate brewery that night -quite the smell it put up

    Hegel was incorrect. We are not all swept along in a progression of theses that shape the boundaries of what can be thought by anybody.

    Putting the matter that emphatically suggests other theses are the case so maybe the guy was on to something: Disagreements are what he bases the movement of history upon. 

    The historical register is inescapable but no one is equipped to live there.

    So we live next to it and commute.


    Well of course, Hegel was incorrect.  That's why he's no longer Secretary of Defense ... and frankly, if you've ever been swept along by a progression of theses, you know how horribly messy that can ultimately be ... Personally, I prefer a movement of history to a slow progression of theses.  


    OMG, Hegel's out? What about Schopenhauer?


    As Shope' explained in a six hundred page email titled "The World As Will and Representation", he has no interest in holding public office.  "Man is incarnate sexual instinct, since he owes his origin to copulation and the wish of his wishes is to copulate.  Sexual instinct is the highest affirmation of life, 'the most important concern of Man and animal.'  In conflict with it, no motivation, however strong, would be sure of victory..."  Clearly this is not a man tempermentally suited to the position of secretary of war.


    You've been drinking.

     


    Oh, Q!  Please come back more!!!!!!!  I miss you!!!!!!


    Okay.

    AND YOU HAVE NOT?

    hahahahah

    Do not chase Larry away again.

    Or I will hunt you down and.....

    hahhaahah


    Leroy is a gentleman. 

    He and I have no quarrel. 

    Though he owes me money. 

    Still. What's $127,650.50 between friends?


    You know you tricked me into that investment in Canadian celery futures.  I have no intention of paying you back.  I explained it all in my deposition.  My attorney and even my psychotherapist have confirmed my position to you in writing.  When I get out of here we can continue this argument at length.  (P.S.  Keep this message to yourself.  I’m using my personal email instead of the DOJ.Witnessprotection.gov account they set up for me.)


    I know this is going to sound self serving (isn't it always) but

    I hereby render unto Larry the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of Larry and from all of me.

    CELERY FUTURES?

    Canadian or not....

    hhahahahahahahah

    As far as the witness protection bullshite, you cannot top yourself. hahahahahah

    And for Chrissakes, attorneys are psychotherapists. hahahahahah


    Bonus points for rejoindering the Schopenhauer comment with something more than "who dat?"

    But don't diss celery - there's gold in them there stalks.


    127 thousand dollars!

    Ah.... Quinn, I'm your friend too. Your best friend.wink Think maybe I could get a small loan?

    Oh, wait, you're talking Canadian dollars? pffft nm


    You know,

    Not to cast aspersions on anyone, of course.

    Something is not right here. hahahahahahah

    I could not even get a loan of fifty bucks without giving him my sacred Lincoln portrait.

    THAT IS A FACT.

    And Canadian bucks have nothing to do with the Fed.

    hahahahah

    the end


    Quinn is into Lincoln portraits? I just happen to have a large collection of Lincoln portraits. I'd be happy to give him 50 cents portraits as collateral.
     


    I hear he's into Indian Head nickels now -  calls himself "Broken Arrow", trading them for peyote buttons and trying to pass himself off as a Canadian witch doctor. Busted 3 times last month alone, but they keep letting him go - guess it's the boyish grin - sheesh.


    That’s Q for you.  Years ago he told me that Canada was planning to build a pipeline from Alberta to Houston.  He said they planned to pump celery juice to Texas and then to the international market and that I should invest in celery futures.  Well they still haven’t built the pipeline and nobody is buying celery.  I was ruined and after a misguided attempt to restore my finances I am now living in a “gated community.” All because of Q.


    ,


    "He tasks me.  He tasks me and I shall have him.  I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up! "  Khan Noonien Singh


    Hi Noonien!  - Gary Cooper
    I Khan't Get Started - Bunny Berrigan
    Awake and Singh! - Clifford Odets
    Singh, Singh, Singh - Benny Goodman

    "From the final frontier, it's very clear,
    The Wrath of Singh will ever bring,
    long life and prosperity" 
    - Gene Not-a-haiku Roddenberry.


    Google will rule the world, Twitter will destroy it.

    The dress was black and blue.


    No, that is much toooo toooo civilized, you know it and I know it.

    The person in the black and blue dress was black and blue....due to a man who really really liked black and blue. hahahahha

    I read the rape files.

    Not at Fox News of course.

     


    Now, Dick ... we both know I am nothing if not toooo, toooo civilized.


    THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?

    hahahahahah

    Yeah, I still think that there are too too thoughts that are tooooo civilized.

    Just ask Patton Oswalt. hahshahah

    http://www.salon.com/2015/03/11/salons_patton_oswalt_peace_summit/

    Missy, I got a kick out of this talk.

    It was fun.

    Patton, who is one of my heroes (even though he is generation younger than I) just caught me.

    It is a fun read.


    Oh!  Oh!  I have one!

    Compare and contrast Hillary's email problem with the letter GOP senators sent to Iran in order to nullify a sitting President of the United States of America.

    Class, you must try not to rant here; stick to facts, please. Extra credit will go to anyone who can come up with 3 harmful results of BOTH these issues.


    *equally* harmful. Neutral relativism is the goal - level playing field with a hearty "both sides do it" emitted at the end brings extra credit.


    1. The Republican Senators would have done better by their reputations if they had used their private email accounts to contact the Mullahs in Iran vs. Hillary would have done better by her reputation if she had not used her personal email account.
    2. Failed negotiations with Iran will increase the need for strong foreign policy credentials in the next President.  Point Hillary vs. If Presidential Directives are no longer binding under U.S. law as the Republican Senators argue then foreign policy experience will be of little use to future Presidents since such agreements would not be enforceable. – point G.O.P.
    3. In the final analysis the issue is trust.  Consider this – Senator Cotton, who authored the letter that pronounces that Presidential Directives have no force of law, is from Arkansas.  Hillary Clinton who decided which of her emails were private is from Arkansas.  Tyson chickens are from Arkansas.  The moral to learn here is the same in all cases: When it comes from Arkansas, trust but verify.

    You are back, kicking butt and taking names.


    hmmmm... moral relativity with chickens even? we have a winner

    "birds do it, bees do it, even Arkansasians do it, let's do it, let's..." - okay, Dagblokes - lend a hand - can't think of anything witty & funny to rhyme/replace "fall in love". Maybe "orange"?


    After watching Clinton's presser, I think she did exactly what she needed to do. Realistically, there wasn't much she could say to appease those with suspicions of wrongdoing. What she did, however, was to take some of the air out of the balloon - simply by appearing straightforward. The talking heads appear to disagree. Then again, her focus wasn't on them. The public take-away will be: 1) convenience 2) privacy. The latter perhaps the most essential in terms of public head nodding.

    How do the Rand Paul Libertarians argue with wanting to keep the personal personal?


    Rand Paul will be explaining how his "non-warmongering" behind thought it was a good idea to send a threatening letter to Iran in an attempt to scuttle negotiations. http://www.breitbartunmasked.com/2015/03/09/gop-iran-letter-rand-paul-re...

    March 10, 2015

    Iran Offers to Mediate Talks Between Republicans and Obama

    Stating that “their continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,” Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama

    http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/iran-offers-to-mediate-ta...


    That's great! Thanks, Lulu.


    Rachel Maddow drives me nuts repeating over and over, and then over again, and then a few more times, her setting of the scene when describing a person or event and then supporting her point by doing it all over again. She could cover three times the news items or give much more detail if she didn’t structure her presentation as if trying to get through to a fence post.


    as if trying to get through to a fence post.

    That is because Rachel Maddow recognizes, what the majority of the voters believe

     The majority of Democrats are as dumb as fence posts

    And the rest of the nation isn’t buying the BS the Democrats are peddling.

    Democrats' only choice? Defend Hillary Clinton - CNN.com

    Sure, we all know about how the Republicans regained control of the Senate in 2014, but what about the fact that blue-state governors fell like tent poles?

    Or that GOP governors now outnumber the Democrats by almost two-to-one, 31 to 18. Or that Republicans have complete control of nearly three times as many state legislatures as the Democrats, 30 to 11. And down the ballot, Democrats under Obama have lost more than 900 state legislative seats: the worst showing of any modern president.


    I've always admired Rachel, and think she has some of cable new's best researchers on her staff. She can present a story with more background and depth than you'll find elsewhere. But you're right that sometimes it feels like she's stretching, and it's not flattering. Her report last night on the Secret Service debacle is an excellent example. It's okay, Rachel, we get the absurdity.


    As I have written before, I like Rachel. She is affirmative, she  is affable and I easily understand her message. and when her staff screws up, she acknowledges the error.

    But you bring up a good point.

    MSNBC just reports the same 'news' over and over all damn day.

    I realize 'they' all do it.

    I would opine that I 'hit' on MSNBC about an hour during the day.

    I will hit Rachel for about fifteen minutes.

    Lawrence will also get the same amount of time, he makes me laugh. The Irishman is also very talented.

    Now if there is 'breaking news' I might check it out. I mean if Huffpo has some new stuff, I will head for my liberal cable station.

    anyway, I get a kick out of her.


    Russia Insider is a news compiler site worth checking out for anyone interested in the intensifying cold war [cold for now except for the Ukrainians] between the U.S. and Russia and who does not want all their reading of propaganda to come from the same direction. The articles are often from U.S. sources but also from European and Russian publications.

    http://russia-insider.com/en

     


    Bruce Levine, did you block my access or is this more censorship? 


    Resistance, I've been having trouble with Bruce's latest thread as well as this one. I can't get to recent comments because the thread is cut off arbitrarily. It just stops mid-comment, and the right side of the page (news and latest comments) is blank. So if you're having trouble reading/posting somewhere, it isn't an intentional act.


    Deleted because of double post.


    From a posting by Corey Robin Who quotes Samuel Fleischacker

    “It breaks my heart to say this, but today I don’t feel I can call myself a Zionist any longer.”
        Samuel Fleischacker is a Professor. He studied at Yale University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1989. He works in moral and political philosophy, the history of philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion. Among the issues that have particularly interested him are the moral status of culture, the nature and history of liberalism, and the relationship between moral and other values (aesthetic values, religious values, political values).

     Fleischacker's full statement follows.

    http://coreyrobin.com/2015/03/19/it-breaks-my-heart-to-say-this-but-toda...


    Here are some pictures of the Devil  we don't know but first some intro.  

    Every day, hardliners in Iran and the United States try to paint a picture of an Iran wholly opposed to Western modernity. But behind the political posturing are the actual people who live and work in Iran, and they don’t look as different as these leaders might like us to imagine. Just as there is no single understanding of what an American looks like, there is no essential Iranian, either. Like many countries, oppression and violence are a reality of everyday life, but overall Iran is a country striving to find a middle ground between staunch traditionalism and modern sensibilities, most notably in the area of Tehran, Iran’s cultural and industrial capital.

    This photo gallery highlights the Iran most of us don’t normally get to see, and reminds us that an entire country should not be judged by its government, extremists or political landscape.
      Perhaps Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi says it best: “The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

    http://all-that-is-interesting.com/everyday-iran?utm_source=The+PBH+Netw...

    I really like that hair color in the first picture which I call Euro-red, having seen it so common there but rarely here. The young woman in picture #4 is using a poor bridge. If she is typical then I could teach that country a thing or two.


        Mankind's dialogue has just come to an end. And naturally a man with whom one cannot reason is a man to be feared. The result is that - besides those who have not spoken out because they thought it useless - a vast conspiracy of silence has spread all about us, a conspiracy accepted by those who are frightened and who rationalise their fears in order to hide them from themselves, a conspiracy fostered by those whose interest it is to do so. 'You shouldn't talk about the Russian culture purge - it helps reaction.' 'Don't mention the Anglo-American support of Franco - it encourages communism.' Fear is certainly a technique.

    What with the general fear of a war now being prepared by all nations and the specific fear of murderous ideologies, who can deny that we live in a state of terror? We live in terror because persuasion is no longer possible; because man has been wholly submerged in History; because he can no longer tap that part of his nature, as real as the historical part, which he recaptures in contemplating the beauty of nature and of human faces; because we live in a world of abstractions, of bureaus and machines, of absolute ideas and of crude messianism. We suffocate among people who think they are absolutely right, whether in their machines or in their ideas. And for all who can live only in an atmosphere of human dialogue and sociability, this silence is the end of the world.

    To emerge from this terror, we must be able to reflect and to act accordingly. But an atmosphere of terror hardly encourages reflection. I believe, however, that instead of simply blaming everything on this fear, we should consider it as one of the basic factors in the situation, and try to do something about

    This was not written yesterday. For the rest go here:

    http://www.ppu.org.uk/e_publications/camus1.html


    Has anyone else tried pouring this stuff over dry cereal? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

    “Bought it for my cousin who had cancer, item never arrived and my cousin died.”

    "Tuscan Whole Milk" can be re-arranged to say "I'll know mustache". Coincidence? I think not."

     For more breaking news on this foreign product being foisted on an unsuspecting public go to:

    http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/product-reviews/B0003...


    Between 2009 and 2013, including when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to that foundation, which is based in Kiev, Ukraine. It was created by Mr. Pinchuk, whose fortune stems from a pipe-making company. He served two terms as an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament and is a proponent of closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/03/20/clinton-foundations-deep-financial-ties-to-ukrainian-oligarch-who-pushed-for-closer-ties-to-eu-revealed/

    FRom Wikipedia:

    During the Bill Clinton administration, Nuland was chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott before moving on to serve as deputy director for former Soviet Union affairs.

    She served as the principal deputy foreign policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and then as U.S. ambassador to NATO.

    Nuland became special envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and then became State Department spokesperson in summer 2011.[3]

    She was nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in May 2013 and sworn in to fill that role in September 2013.[4] During her confirmation hearings, she faced "sharp questions" about a memo she had sent outlining the talking points that would be used by the Obama administration in the days shortly after the 2012 Benghazi attack.[5]

    Victoria Nuland has been rumored to be Hillary Clinton's choice for Secretary of State should she become President. There are some, myself included, who think that that would be one more piece of evidence that Hillary is a de facto neocon and that that appointment of an obvious neocon to a position having even more aggressively insane influence on our foreign policy would be a bad choice by Hillary made possible by a bad choice by the American people. 

    http://lettersfromglobistan.com/2015/03/10/perverted-humanitarianism-the-neocon-case-for-arming-ukraine/

     


    Barefeet,  I see you posted on Just What Did Bibi.. on the right hand side of page, under the heading LATEST COMMENTS .

    I cannot read the post itself  ....All I see is the Aw Snap Screen.


    Lulu commented that he was having trouble with seeing comments, and asked if anyone else was. I replied that you and I were - though I don't get any odd message screens.

    Try going to the post directly, instead of via a comment. Works now and then, that's how I got here.


    Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."

    Nearly 75 years ago, (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."

    Today, the government has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land to China. 

    humor. why i'm depressed. - Free Republic

     


    Well when I was growin up, mountin' someone's ass was still frowned upon, and we didn't have no camels, but a sheep or a chicken would do in a pinch.


    All three of those are false. Do you think you could actually make a convincing case they are true? I'll start with the first. What Moses did was tell the children of Israel to beat their shovels into swords, wander in the desert until we find a nice piece of land. Then we kill all the people living there and steal it from them.


    Neocons: the Echo of German William Fascism

    The common thread linking Republicans and Netanyahu’s “national camp” is a belief of each in their own country’s “exceptionalism,” with a consequent right of military intervention wherever and whenever their “Commander in Chief” orders it, as well as the need for oppressive laws to suppress dissent. Kristol, neoconservative editor of the Weekly Standard, would agree. Celebrating Netanyahu’s victory, Kristol told the New York Times, “It will strengthen the hawkish types in the Republican Party.” Kristol added that Netanyahu would win the GOP’s nomination, if he could run, because “Republican primary voters are at least as hawkish as the Israeli public.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/27/neocons-the-echo-of-german-fascism/


    It's fascinating---the way the authoritarian personality works. Kristol's comments marginalize his own power as well as that of the "hawkish types". They can't get the job done and they would love to suck up to someone who can.

    "hawkish types"---what a crass minimizing of war mongers and profiteers.  


    McCain hopes Israel is not bluffing about bombing Iran and he suggests that Israel may have to 'go rogue' and act om their own. Cool!

     


    Who Spies for Israel in Washington’s Nuclear Negotiations?

    Introduction: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) (3/25/15) headlined: ‘Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks with the US”. The article goes on to detail the way in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the confidential information to sabotage the talks, including ‘playing them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy’.   By James Petras.

    After having revealed Tel Aviv’s espionage - the WSJ dismisses the sabotage. Worse still, it makes no attempt to investigate who, among the highly-placed US government officials with direct access to the negotiations, has been spying for Israel. This essay attempts to address this question by identifying the most likely suspects.

    http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2029

    Huffington Post says the outline of an agreement has been announced nb ut I very much doubt the fight is over.

     

     

     


    Here is something from Corey Robin which offers food for thought.

    http://coreyrobin.com/2015/04/05/alumni-diplomacy/

    The links within that posting are a significant part of the intended message. . I have only skimmed a couple of the comments so far but a couple of them impressed me too.

     

     

     


    Americans don't know how good they have it with Obama

    Maybe this is old news, but it was food for thought. 


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