The Sadism in American Life

It has often been remarked that we are living in cages not of our own making.

However some cages are nicer than others (just go to a second and third rate Zoo and you'll soon see why this matters ;--))

Of course we humans (at least most of us) don't live behind visible bars. No, we live behind invisible ones. Yet although invisible they are no less strong. Culture, language, laws, and economic system are the main "bars"..try to cross or change any of them and you'll soon feel the growing frustrations of your head, heart, and hands.

Many a foreign commentator has often focused on the American system as one of unbridled egoism disguised as a lust for the maximization of human liberty (exploitation?). Even if this is true, any tangible social consequences of such an attitude have to be examined.

One of the more unfortunate consequences of such a society/economic system has been the disintegration of the human personality and with it a rise in correlated acts of sadism.


I should make clear that the kind of 'sadism' that I'm referring to is a societal phenomenon. Some of its not so invisible reality has been captured by cultural artifacts such as books and films. From the "Scarlet Letter", the "Last of the Mohicans", and even "Moby Dick" to more recent cultural influences such as "Film Noir", Kurt Vonnegut's novels, and popular T.V. shows such as "South Park" and "The Simpsons"--the sadistic element is evident and inescapable.

Yet culture must be a somewhat accurate reflection or a heightening of what is perceived for it to be accepted by more than a few as possibly true. In this case, American artists have accurately reflected a social system that is horribly distorted in so many ways, a caricature of its promise as elaborated by the Founding Fathers, that all that seems to be left are isolated individuals glorifying within an empty cornucopia of formal freedoms while being physically restricted in every way possible by a constellation of an ever growing, ever more distant federal government and economic interests that pay lip service to any and all ideologies just enough to ensure that the economic exploitation of as many people as possible will continue unabated.

It is no wonder that under such circumstances of actual "unfreedom" millions lash out privately in small, mean acts of sadism while releasing their justified aggressions in a dangerously condensing cloud of confused, ever more angry laughter.

The secret whisper of the American Mind is a simple one: "My life hurts, so you hurt. So there. Tough." Yes very.

Gold, All That Glitters?

All that glitters?

Rushing towards gold? A lot of people are lately. Should you really take the plunge? Well if and when you do consider the following points:

1. Gold has already had a spectacular two-year run (even if not exactly as powerful or as high as in the late 70's and early 80's)
2. I know you tire of hearing it—but it bears repeating...gold is a store of value, while stocks are return on value (no chicken little the sky didn't fall and flatten your poor, poultry body after all)
3. Yes, Soros and other Cosmic Players are in it, but will they be tomorrow (stay tuned for the next release of Soros' current holdings—it will be an eye opener)
4. This Fed is not the Nixon Fed: No longer can the US dictate global monetary policy as effectively as it once did—even as recently as 10 years ago (there are new considerably powerful countervailing financial forces such as China, India, and Germany...they will push back on the Fed's dollar Flooding---global inflation will be thwarted)
5. It is true that many of Asia's middle classes have taken a new found interest in gold—but that sentiment could change as soon as their perceptions of the stability and long term trajectory of their and the world's economy change—and that might happen faster than anyone might think possible now—even as soon as the first quarter of 2011
6. And finally it's worth pondering that over long stretches of time, gold never beats a traditionally well balanced stock portfolio

Gold was the poster boy for this century's first truly global financial crisis. As it was for the last century's crises. And I'm pretty sure it will come back again and again with its soothing glitter promising safety and security in an uncertain, fast moving world. But for now:: Buyer Beware!

Top 14 Liberal Blogs

1. TalkLeft - “The Politics of Crime” or “The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news.” (www.talkleft.com)
2. Donklephant - Their pitch: “Tired of the rhetoric, bomb-throwing and partisan hackery? Here we offer a respectful, honest forum for people who want to have a conversation about politics, the world and beyond. All we ask is you keep your language clean and your arguments sharp.” (donklephant.com)
3. Daily Kos - Perhaps the hub of the liberal blogosphere, this left wing blog started by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga has a large team of lefty writers and a vocal audience of readers. (www.dailykos.com)
4. Shakesville - Team blog led by Melissa McEwan offers serious liberal political commentary with a good dose of silliness and interesting off-topic conversations. (shakespearessister.blogspot.com)
5. The Huffington Post Politics - While this team blog has branched out in an attempt to be a full-fledged news site, it is still mostly thought of as a liberal blog, led by Arianna Huffington. (www.huffingtonpost.com)
6. Hullabaloo - Each day this liberal blog’s author Digby offers one or two quite long posts on the day’s political events. (digbysblog.blogspot.com)
7. Crooks and Liars - Liberal blog makes it mark thanks to its zealous tracking and posting of videos from political talk shows and other relevant videos. (www.crooksandliars.com)
8. Talking Points Memo - Liberal blog from journalist Joshua Micah Marshall offers regular updates from a writer with plenty of experience in Democratic politics. Regrettably does not allow reader comments. (www.talkingpointsmemo.com)
9. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo - Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always lefty blog by team of bloggers with strange names, led by the bush kangaroo mentioned in the blog’s title. (www.xnerg.blogspot.com)
10. Eschaton - Influential left wing blog from Duncan Black, also known as Atrios. (atrios.blogspot.com)
11. Americablog - Team of bloggers on the Democrat side offers regular posts on how bad the right is, with plenty of commenters seconding those emotions. (www.americablog.com)
12. Firedoglake - Team blog led by Jane Hamsher is an active forum for left-leaning Democratic types. (www.firedoglake.com)
13. Coonsey’s World - “Stepping outside the box of what’s currently called ‘the news.’” (coonsey.wordpress.com)
14. Perception Managers - Blog’s goal is to stop you from getting played by right-wing propaganda—perhaps to play you with left-wing propaganda? You be the judge. (And be prepared for some potty mouth writing.) (perceptionmanagers.org)

Top 40 Conservative Blogs

m40) Hugh Hewitt
39) The Next Right
38) Stop The ACLU
37) Alarming News
36) Doubleplusundead
35) The Radio Equalizer
34) Tammy Bruce
33) Rachel Lucas
32) The American Princess
31) Cara Ellison
30) Dr. Helen
29) Vox Popoli
28) The Troglopundit
27) Power Line
26) Sweetness & Light
25) Tim Blair
24) The Nose on Your Face
23) Say Anything
22) Betsy's Page
21) Kausfiles
20) Atlas Shrugs
19) Iowahawk
18) Legal Insurrection
17) The Jawa Report
16) Megan McArdle
15) TigerHawk
14) Five Feet of Fury
13) Riehl World View12) Althouse
11) The Campaign Spot
20) Gateway Pundit
9) Michelle Malkin
8) IMAO
7) RedState
6) The Corner
5) Big Hollywood
4) Ace Of Spades HQ
3) Newsbusters
2) Instapundit
1) Hot Air

Farewell University

Why are America's institutions of higher learning so fearful? --John Stossel

Well, for lots of reasons.

Firstly universities long ago gave up a coherent independent vision of higher education in favor of a misguided form of social and institutional self “engagement”.

Put in other words, universities became social institutions not of learning but of self-perpetuation. In effect they work as a closed union or even guild.

When there's no one to watch the watchers—watch out!

Professors at the university are, ever more rarely, engaged in research for research's sake—they're either in it for the benefits, prestige, and, increasingly, as a place to hide from a society they either viscerally dislike or are wont to vehemently criticize—from a highly sheltered perspective of place of course.

It's become a country club for the federally funded inflation of unchecked ideas, faulty reasoning, passe-radicalism or chic posturing, the extravagant milking through brand-name flattery of the middle classes, and a pleasant combination of light chicanery and misdemeanor serving to titillate while deeply hoodwinking their young wards until it's time to throw them to the wolves—uninformed, untrained, and, perhaps what's worse, full of half-baked intellectual prejudices.

To be fair, no one person or group is to blame. However on the other hand a cogent historical argument could be made which implicated the federal government, university administrators, and the complacent, callous, and above all vain, capricious, and fatally insular middle classes representing a constellation of forces hollowing out the university of its traditional character, beliefs, and functions.

But the decline of the American university is alas all of one piece. It is a reflection of a nation, so inured to telling itself the truth about anything, so accustomed to spewing out platitudes and slogans rather than taking up the arduous paths of complex thinking that it will come as no surprise to either outside or future observers that the American university had become yet another monument to the mandarins—a closed window on the world hiding inadequacy, fear of discovery, and above all a fundamental disbelief in anything that is either good, beautiful, or sublime.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/11/10/im_politically_incorrect_107906.html

Mad Men or the Denouement of the Ideology of the New America 1945-2008:

“I do what I want. I want what I see. I’m free.”—Lou Reed

Let’s face it. We all watch Mad Men because there’s something there that is no longer here. 

Of course, what “that” could be depends on who you are.

For those firmly on the left, it is often a self-congratulatory pat on the back on “how far we have come.”

For those situated on the right, it tends to be a gnawing, self-righteous feeling of “how far we have fallen.”

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

Speaking for the “left”, equality before the law and increasing social economic opportunities for blacks, Hispanics, women, Jews, Native Americans and other hitherto excluded minorities has been a relatively recent historical triumph of American Democracy.

Speaking for the “right”, the dizzying fracturing of family, the decline of crucial moral values underpinning sustainable economic growth and dynamic political consensus, the “normalizing” of dysfunctional behavior and personality disorders of all kinds, the legitimizing of drugs, and the celebration of a culture of “turn on and tune out” has been an unequivocal social and economic disaster.  

So what’s the lesson?

Unfortunately, there isn’t any.

All we can do is eagerly watch Don Draper as he balances between these two broad American near-future trends. His historically unique combination of hard-working, wrought-iron-warped morality leading him towards a fabulous no-where and an agonizing self-awareness of roads less traveled or never traveled. His rise from those dark impoverished badlands of Depression, Agony, and Wrath soon to be opened up by American highways promising unending promiscuity while coyly obscuring the grotesque Pyrrhic victories that will more than pay for the ride.

Woody Allen: Famous Quotes

Quotes from: Woody Allen

• "A fast word about oral contraception. I asked a girl to go to bed with ..."
• "And my parents finally realize that I'm kidnapped and they snap into action immediately: They ..."
• "As the poet said, 'Only God can make a tree,' probably because it's so hard ..."
• "Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come ..."
• "Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night. "
• "Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good ..."
• "Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of ..."
• "Death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down. ..."
• "Dying is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down. "
• "Eighty percent of success is showing up. "
• "Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it. "
• "He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian. "
• "His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy. "
• "How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught ..."
• "I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it ..."
• "I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. "
• "I am two with nature. "
• "I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government. "
• "I don't believe in the after life, although I am bringing a change of underwear. "
• "I don't have to 'freedom-kiss' my wife when what I really want to do is ..."
• "I don't respond well to mellow, you know what I mean, I-I have a tendency ..."
• "I don't think my parents liked me. They put a live teddy bear in my ..."
• "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through ..."
• "I failed to make the chess team because of my height. "
• "I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers. "
• "I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by ..."
• "I ran into Isosceles. He had a great idea for a new triangle! "
• "I tended to place my wife under a pedestal. "
• "I think being funny is not anyone's first choice. "
• "I think you should defend to the death their right to march, and then go ..."
• "I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves ..."
• "I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl ..."
• "I was raised in the Jewish tradition, taught never to marry a Gentile woman, shave ..."
• "I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into ..."
• "I was thrown out of N.Y.U. my freshman year... for cheating on my metaphysics final. ..."
• "I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick. Not wounded. Dead. "
• "I'd call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse. "

• "I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a ..."
• "I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to ..."
• "I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens. "
• "I'm such a good lover because I practice a lot on my own. "
• "I'm very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me ..."
• "I've never been an intellectual but I have this look. "
• "If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. ..."
• "If my films don't show a profit, I know I'm doing something right. "
• "If my films make one more person miserable, I'll feel I have done my job. "
• "If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in ..."
• "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. "
• "If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything ..."
• "In Beverly Hills... they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows. "
• "In California, they don't throw their garbage away - they make it into TV shows. "
• "In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker. "
• "Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought - ..."
• "Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right. "
• "It is impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry a tune. "
• "It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, ..."
• "It is no secret that organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars ..."
• "It's impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry a tune. "
• "It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when ..."
• "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television. "
• "Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. "
• "Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too ..."
• "Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty ..."
• "Man consists of two parts, his mind and his body, only the body has more ..."
• "Marriage is the death of hope. "
• "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. "
• "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to ..."
• "More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair ..."
• "Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I ..."
• "My luck is getting worse and worse. Last night, for instance, I was mugged by ..."
• "My one regret in life is that I am not someone else. "
• "Nietzsche says that we will live the same life, over and over again. God - ..."
• "Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday. "

• "Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; ..."
• "On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done ..."
• "Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very ..."
• "Remember, if you smoke after sex you're doing it too fast. "
• "Seventy percent of success in life is showing up. "
• "Sex between 2 people is a beautiful thing; between 5 it's fantastic. "
• "Sex between a man and a woman can be absolutely wonderful - provided you get ..."
• "Sex is like having dinner: sometimes you joke about the dishes, sometimes you take the ..."
• "Sex is the most fun you can have without laughing. "
• "Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go it's one of ..."
• "She wore a short skirt and a tight sweater and her figure described a set ..."
• "Side Effects Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on the ..."
• "Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'Be fruitful and multiply,' but not ..."
• "Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness. "
• "The baby is fine, the only problem is that he looks like Edward G. Robinson. "
• "The chief problem about death, incidentally, is the fear that there may be no afterlife-a ..."
• "The curtain rises on a vast primitive wasteland, not unlike certain parts of New jersey. "
• "The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone ..."
• "The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small. "
• "The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much ..."
• "The prison psychiatrist asked me if I thought sex was dirty. I told him only ..."
• "The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what ..."
• "The whole country was tied together by radio. We all experienced the same heroes and ..."
• "There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep ..."
• "There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with ..."
• "Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there ..."
• "Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once. "
• "To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. "
• "Tradition is the illusion of permanance. "
• "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid ..."
• "What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if ..."
• "When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room. "
• "When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back. "
• "Who bothers to cook TV dinners? I suck them frozen. "
• "Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered? "
• "Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must ..."

Political Cartoons of the Week A Roundup of the Week's Best Political Cartoons

THIS is a great resource: Funny and Informative!


http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Political-Cartoons/

What's going on up North? Canada's Best Blogs!!

Check it out!

http://www.blogscanada.ca/

An Open Letter to the President and the People of the United States

To the President of the United States and its People:

It was nearly two years ago when a new era of hope seemed to be dawning on the United States and the world. Now it seems that those hopes have been at least partially dashed.  

Hope, faith, trust, inspiration, new beginnings, and broader vistas were some of the themes that swept President Obama into power. Now, hesitancy, confusion, distance, repetition, reluctance of all kinds, and a meagreness of spirit seem to infect the White House and the Nation. Luckily all this can change.

Positive change sometimes means doing the counter-intuitive thing.

And today it would certainly seem counter-intuitive to talk about a new, bold space vision when everything here on Earth seems going to hell in a hand-basket.

But that is exactly what I'm going to talk about: A vision, a dream, a concrete destination.

The world's people are not tired, not finished with dreaming, not weary of work, not disillusioned with life and the promise of the future, but increasingly it seems that it is their leaders who are thus and thus nothing is done and that in the name of the 'people'.

Well, I, as just one of those little people believe that if this President and great nation wish to lead they must move in front and attempt bold, positive steps towards the unknown.

I believe it is time the the United States declare an aggressively international space goal of sending a multi-probe mission to the Jovian satellite of Europa which has long been suspected of harboring an underwater ocean and possible cryogenic under-water volcanoes theoretically capable of supporting life as we know it. The multiple missions should be international (the Russians, the Chinese, the EU) and should be carried out in a spirit of a new world order that understands what Thomas Paine once said: "That if we do not hang together then we surely will all hang separately."

Now is not the time to cringe, nor to cry, nor to give in to self-pity saying "I tried, you can't, so we won't". No--it is time to stand out in front with a real proposal that ties all those things promised in a now seemingly distant electoral campaign: A vision, a goal, cooperation among nations, and the advancement of science, knowledge, and the future well-being of all the peoples of the earth through the unexpected economic/social spin-offs of advanced space exploration.

Go for it! Now!

Time Life's 25 Best Blogs (and others not so nice)

Full List

Bloggers

1. The Huffington Post
2. Lifehacker
3. Metafilter
4. TreeHugger
5. PostSecret
6. Blog di Beppe Grillo
7. Engadget
8. Freakonomics
9. Gigazine
10. Ace of Spades HQ
11. Radosh.net
12. Gawker
13. The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
14. Velveteen Rabbi
15. Boing Boing
16. TechCrunch
17. Web 2.Oh...really?
18. The Sartorialist
19. Daily Kos
20. The Consumerist
21. Indexed
22. Wired's Threat Level Blog
23. Regret the Error
24. Bad Jocks
25. The Reverse Cowgirl

Most Overrated Blogs

1. Slashdot
2. Jim Cramer Blog on Realmoney.com
3. Ars Technica
4. Nicholas Kristof On the Ground
5. I can has cheezburger

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1725323,00.html#ixzz11VxhJp2K

Atheists reveal their true religion: Gliese 581 g

By now millions of people the world over have read the exiting news of the discovery of planet Gliese 581 g.  It's exciting because it is the first time that an extra-solar planet has been found that orbits its host star within its so-called 'Goldilocks zone'. As its name implies, any planet that orbits its sun within this zone is neither too hot or too cold to theoretically support life as we know it. Not surprisingly then our planet orbits safely within the parameters of  just such a zone.

Almost immediately following this momentous discovery, equally fantastic statements were being made the most irresponsible of which was that "the chances for life on this planet are 100%". Aside from serving as an example of an empirically  reckless statement, this unproven conjecture was something else as well: a window into the soul of many modern scientists.

Many scientists today could be described as 'militantly atheist'. That is to say they are no longer content to take the traditional philosophical position that either science is a separate human endeavor distinctly different from religious questions and experience and/or they are unable to accept Pascal's wager which basically stated that the question of the existence of God will always be, from a rationalists point of view, a 50/50 proposition. (It should be noted here that Pascal, like a true self-aware gambler, decided to believe in God since the potential social and individual 'payoff' he figured would be greater in the aggregate both in this life and the next.)

However these New Atheists are just fooling themselves. They have almost as much need for a connection to the supernatural, to the unknown, to the mystery of life as any other person--and in many cases more so. The religiosity of some of our greatest scientists such as Kepler, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein is well known. What is not so well known today is that these New Atheists too are religious--albeit in an emotionally repressed and philosophically confused way.

Aside from the fact that the New Atheists, prominently led by the brilliant evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, place man's Reason at the center of the known universe they also have intriguingly refurbished this old Jacobin way of thinking with a synthesis of astronomy and biology: astrobiology.

The new discipline of astrobiology is fascinating for many reasons not least of which it is, for the present, an intellectual discipline without an empirical object: there are no known life-forms outside this planet (although their potential building blocks are everywhere).  However according to scientific conjecture based on the known laws of physics which, among other things, deals with the inner most structure of 'stuff' and its modes of combination, recombination, and/or non-combination with other 'stuff' there should be other life-forms in the cosmos.

Scientific exponents of this belief have a myriad of well-thought out reasons for believing such a conjecture. But for now they must believe it, it is not sufficient that they demonstrate such a statement: because they cannot. They must first believe it to be a reasonable assumption and then seek out methods and means to either prove or disprove it. Ok fair enough.

The intriguing part comes when we ask ourselves why so many of them so fervently believe in life out there? I think the answer is quite simple and has nothing to do whatever with either the reasonableness or probability of their scientific assumption.

The unstated belief that is, in part, the animating spirit behind this empirical quest is that once life is found on another planet religion will no longer be either necessary or meaningful for human life. The ludicrousness of such a hope is so fantastic that it is almost funny, if it weren't so serious that is.

Such an understanding of the complex phenomenon of religion is naive and simplistic at best, woefully ignorant at its worst. Many religions have no requirement as to the number of 'living worlds' extant in the universe, and indeed one of them, Zen Buddhism, has long supposed their existence as well as the existence of other worlds forever closed to the human perceptive faculties. Furthermore, the existence of life on other planets does not necessarily negate the uniqueness of life on this one. It all depends on how you interpret it. An activity which some scientists are fond of forgetting. In short the fundamental, if vague, animating spirit in all this that one day scientific 'fact' will be able to efface human 'meaning' is erroneous. There never was and never will be a magic bridge from what 'is' to what 'ought' to be. Human life will always be meaningful as long as there will be humans to interpret it.

http://www.philosophynow.org/issue78/78antony.htm

http://www.thinkatheist.com/

 http://astrobiology.com/

Obama: A Grimm Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a very handsome young man with a winning complexion and uncertain origin.

One day this young man appeared at the edge of a very unhappy village which recently had suffered through a terrible storm devastating many homes and livelihoods.

The young man promptly surveyed the situation and asked to be taken to the village elders.

The village elders took a liking to the young man immediately and their affection for him grew all the stronger after he said: "O village elders ask not where I come from or what I am, but where would you all like to go--and your wish will be granted!"

Despite their age and wisdom the elders were delighted at this response and so desperate to keep the villagers from perhaps slitting their throats in the night that they immediately decided to withdraw from their positions of power and elect this bright young man temporary King of the Village.

Once all had seen and heard the young man, a giant tumult of approval went through the entire village. And he was made King.

After a short while the young man now made King would appear at strange times doing strange, uncommon things in the village. In the beginning the villagers thought that this was a part of the young man's 'special powers' of healing and that all would be well if they just let well enough alone. And so they did.

However after a time people began to take notice that many new laws had been passed by they knew not who and they knew not when and that new folk had come to settle in the village to enforce them.

Rumors began. Some villagers said that the new folk had forced them to do things that seemed strange but was for the future good of this village and other villages, most of whom they had never heard of before.

As strangeness began to pile upon weirdness and began to form an atmosphere of unease over the village, people began to ask "Where is our King and what has he done?"

Yet no one had seen the young man turned King up close for some time.

And when they searched they no longer could  find him, but only a picture of him as he was when he first came to the village.

People started to be afraid.

The ravages of the storm had not been fixed and there was a warning of even greater storms ahead. One, very distant village, was rumored to be preparing for the greatest storm of all: an abrupt and devastating war.

Yet most people chose for a time to ignore all this chicken talk: after all the elders had trusted this young man to get rid of all their past accumulated problems and wasted efforts.

So, for a time, the houses continued to lay barren and the mills were silent and the people spoke in ever hushed whispers as more laws and more enforcers of laws came from they knew not when and they knew not from whence.

Generations passed and the elders were all dead and even the villagers who had first welcomed the young man, even the tiniest, had all long since died.

Now, the village looked much poorer and neglected than it had in the past: at least as it was depicted by pictures that were ever harder to come by---but all present woe and doubt was soon to be forgotten because tomorrow as it had been celebrated ever since would be the King's day--or more precisely the Coming of the King--the most important and most celebrated day in village history.


http://www.icerocket.com/

http://www.frcblog.com

Yeah...

I was on a freight train to Uzbekistan when a farmer who was tightly clasping his thin white goat around the neck came up to me and asked "heh, stranger...I want you to smell my home-grown fart!"...I looked at him witheringly and said "Ok, but only if you hold your goat's nose." Which he did. After that I pulled out my gun and shot him. A strange noise followed.

The Unauthorized Secret History of Woody Allen: Part One

The Unauthorized Secret History of Woody Allen

Woody Allen was conceived (not created) in a mushroom patch by two semi-deranged semioticians trying to invent an alternative to toothpaste. That one of his legs (it’s not exactly certain which one) carries a limp to this day is harrowing testimony to his coming into being in a world of Brooklyn Jewish Delicatessen. Rabbi Ben Zvi Gefelter who was present pronounced the “limp” a mitzvah or conversely considered it as a possible inclination towards hooved animals. It is also rumored that the “Ride of the Valkyries” was played in the background to, it was then assumed, induce a rapid, uncomplicated birth. 

Woody often fondly recalls a happy home filled with loving parents and sensitive, caring siblings. Unfortunately for him they were the next-door neighbors.

In some rare interviews in the 70’s Woody had been shockingly candid about some early childhood episodes of ‘sibling molestation’ on the part of his adopted Finish sister, Filda, who he has often given credit for a unique and ‘quirky’ perspective on female sexuality. Two decades later Fox News took up this story and uncovered the truth: there never was an adopted Finish sister: just an old faded picture of Marlene Dietrich wearing nothing but schnapps and something faintly scribbled by, apparently, a highly-gifted idiot-savant: “I luv Euch.”

What first attracted Woody to enroll at NYU was a course entitled “Fear and Trembling”.  He thought it was a practical “how to” course on how to successfully undo women’s braziers (dangerously complicated and often highly flammable structures at the time). Upon entering college Woody soon got into trouble. He was investigated by the Committee on Un-Social Thought for organizing illegal séances where, obscenely, Ludwig Wittgenstein was being referred to without being asked. Woody, in his more analytical moments, would later claim to have raised the spirit of the then recently deceased Philosopher. As proof of this he tried to file metaphysical suit against the notoriously moody thinker  after he reportedly lurched towards him one night snapping: “Stop asking questions that have no answers—you four-eyed meshuga”…after which the incorporeal genius went about hitting him furiously with a copy of  “better homes and gardens” for about an hour in the dark. An ethereal bout of sinister snickering ensued.

After being summarily dismissed from NYU on moral grounds (one of the charges read “insistently fondles paper-clips in the most lewd and insinuating manner” and yet another read “I found him hysterically laughing at the Dean’s wife---from underneath her plaid skirt”). It was also widely rumored that he was a clandestine anarcho-syndicalist-beat-loving-hipster with strong ties to Cuba and a love of cheap vinyl upholstery.  The final report released under the Freedom of Unloved Freaks to Read Why We The People Really, Really Hate Them Act (1997) stated: His political affiliations are inconclusive. After six months of close surveillance by our operative, Squiginny Nielson, there was a confused report of regular Wednesday evening ruckus, followed by desperate squealing and a faux imitation of Benito Mussolini reading Eugene O’Neill. After this, there was some talk of his liquidation by some members of our agency, while others thought he would make a perfect double agent for our then plans to overthrow the democratically elected government of ____. Those plans fell through however after we realized that someone in ReCon had mixed up their reports for ______ with the south side of Chicago. The “Woodman” had escaped destiny’s noose yet again.

PS: The above is an original work of fiction with all rights reserved by the author of this blog!

Philosophical Provocations

           I’m tired of the antics of the nineteenth century. But I’m disgusted with the comic putridity of the twentieth. Let’s move on, zombies.

         After Kant, everyone was trying to put on a show to disguise their unwellness, within the context of everybody else’s unwellness of course.

         The true philosopher shouldn’t write anything, just go out and bother as many people as he can.

         FUCK SLAVOJ ZIZEK!!---I mean isn't that what he and current 'continental philosophy' truly want?

Sweden takes on Norway: Hot!

Norway is very, very NICE while Sweden is SWEET...you decide...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxG131u0DTM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dX3wmboYmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-6b18mEEYs&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SH8W2jBb_4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8dyrtRRBk

Enjoy!

Northern Beauty: Norway

Some breathtaking examples of some beautiful places and people in Norway....Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bONHSdpyCc



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TUVGlxegcU&feature=related




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgkwJdj5MAc



http://www.visitnorway.com/



:--))

The American Gorbachev 1990/2010

                A powerful nation once stridently confident in its world mission had, it seemed, almost overnight woken up to the reality of bankruptcy and the possibility of unbridled civic anarchy. Not surprisingly public confidence in its social and economic institutions and the prominent political figures which led them were at an all-time low. Sometime before this ultimate ‘meltdown’ a young, inexperienced leader, soon to be feted the world over, had promised stirring domestic reform only to bring total collapse a short time later. On top of all this woe, an intractable war in Afghanistan causing friend and foe alike to pause and ask: wither O hegemon? 

                Of course the country or rather state that I am referring to above was the Soviet Union circa 1988-1991. Strikingly, though, I could almost have been talking about another gaspingly heaving hegemon: the US circa 2008-2011. 

                Yes there are differences. Big ones. Internally the US has been an evolving participatory democracy with a complicated free-market system for over two-hundred years while the Soviet Union was, as some commentators have somewhat facetiously remarked, a prime example of the last stage of “industrial feudalism” ruled by a “Kafkaesque-Gogolian” bureaucracy. 

                Yet these fundamental differences in state and civic character make the similarities of both their situations all the more intriguing.

                Both systems, albeit at different rates, had suffered from increasing centralization and government control over all aspects of life legitimized by elitist, technocratic, and, yes, atheist ideologies. Both systems increasingly watched perplexed as their citizens both relied more and more on government services while despising those who offered it to them in almost direct proportion to what was given. A steady decline in moral values such as cooperation, hard-work, sacrifice, self-control, and tolerance of differences in thought and in ways of living ensued. Greed, envy, licentiousness, and even cruelty became the true spirits of the age hidden by the hypocrisy of ‘intellectual speak’ as taught by the ‘higher institutions of learning’.

                And finally both systems did not understand or really know what was happening to them even when it did and after. Even so change did come revealing a shell-shocked, demoralized populace who sought to blame anyone else but themselves. What happened after that, in the case of the Soviet Union, is now history: dramatic population decline, a rapid loss of world power, devastating impoverishment and an overpowering sense of helplessness and cynicism which only worsened encouraging more of the same.

                Is this the ultimate fate of the US? I think not. However it is a warning. A large nation, like a large ship, often moves on inertia however there comes a time when it must turn around and sometimes sharply so: it has happened many times in US history…will it happen again?


http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/obama_is_russias_new_useful_id.html

A Space Proposal

It is no longer fashionable (if it ever really was) to openly espouse let alone attempt to implement grandiose visions that do not at least promise immediate gratification to the general public. Today, in what seems to be a period of national decline, anything that smacks of overreaching in any field will be greeted with a fair amount of eye-rolling and cynical snickering. 

Well. No one in this climate of ratcheted down expectations will want to hear a word about space exploration and its necessity as a continuous national endeavor for any country that wishes to maintain its status as a world (and not just regional) power. No one that is except for the Chinese, Indians, and the European Union.  

These regional powers understand the value of space (read manned) exploration. Each of them is increasing the collective sums that they contribute to their space programs. Indeed the space program is a source of great pride for the Chinese who, reasonably, propose a manned moon landing in 2020. Such a goal is not merely technically passé and jingoistic as some commentators would have it, but is a necessary step to further development and exploration of the cosmos.

Let me be clear. Once the Portuguese and the Spanish waded into the Great Unknown Ocean of their time and made their initial discoveries it was not thereby guaranteed that they would continue the adventure. Quite the contrary.  It was to another, at that time a rather marginal ‘European’ power, which was to continue to carry their initial spirit of exploration eventually bringing their culture and their beliefs all around the world (admittedly not without strife and dissent). Of course one of these direct results was the founding of the United States. 

Elizabethan England, the ‘marginal’ power referred to above, understood that once an avenue of exploration is opened to the human mind it will not close easily, if at all. It remains only a question of who will attempt to push forward. The Ocean of the Twentieth Century began as a competition between two world powers, one of which is now already defunct, while the other seriously doubts either its staying power and/or national mission. They are/will not be the first to do so. The Ocean will remain, but the players will assuredly be different.

In the end, I care not a whit about who will dominate space in the future. I would however prefer that whoever ultimately does so, will do so in a spirit of inquiry, respect, and awe for any and every astounding step forward. It also would be nice if democratic values could be enhanced during the process rather than curtailed. For if the latter, the whole experiment would have been for naught. It would just have expanded the “iron-cage of capitalism” rather than opened it up for new forms of thought, expression, and lived experience.

'Grandiose' Proposals to focus a disheartened world’s mind:

Let us work together (the best scenario) to achieve the following by the end of the Twenty-First Century:

Step One: A functional, year-round Moon-Base

Step Two: A functional, year-round Mars Base

Step Three: Ascertain if there are any life forms on Mars and if not: begin terraforming

Step Four: Attempt to utilize the energy sources on Titan to create the necessary platforms for intensive extra-solar exploration

I have every confidence that humanity properly led as a whole and individually informed about the enormous potential benefits (spin-offs) of such a program will be able to achieve all these goals and more in a spirit of cooperation and mutual benefit. All this may seem ‘grandiose’ today, because we have done very little so far. However, one day they will seem as ordinary as a flight to Paris from New York. Let us begin today!

10 Ways to change the world-- A Right Now Manifesto

1) Turn off your T.V.  Now---and forever

2) Stop going to fast food restaurants Right Now--and forever

3) Help someone you don't know once a day Right Now!

4) Think about what you've done wrong once a day--and try to begin to change it, Right Now

5) Think about what you really want--and try to begin to get it--Now!

6) Exercise for 30 minutes everyday

7) Give up smoking--Now!

8) Tell/Show those who love you--that you love them (hugs are inexpensive ;--))

9) Confront those you think are doing evil

10) Give to those poorer and less fortunate than yourselves

Obama The Kenyan

Everybody knows that the President of the United States is a US citizen.  Those who pretend not to are just being ingenuous or, in the worst case, really don't know much about a lot of things--so their opinionated belief on this very subject should come as no particular surprise.

However behind the silliness of the " Obama Native or Not" debate is a kernel of thought that might merit some serious attention.

Recently Dinesh D'souza (an American citizen born in India) set off an interesting debate.

At its simplest his rhetorical question is: Do Fathers have influence on their Sons?

The answer seems obvious right? And in some sense it is. Fathers most certainly do have an influence on their sons. A fact which the President proudly broadcast in his best-selling book "Dreams From my Father".

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

So here at first glace we have a case of a Father whose influence on his Son was neither negligible or unimportant for the formation and future trajectory of his son's psyche, character, and beliefs. If you accept this line of reasoning then you are compelled to ask yourself a lot of important questions about Obama's paternal background.

Who was this man? What were his beliefs? What was his vision of the world and his ultimate hope for it?  These questions are crucial in understanding Obama's thinking and actions which are neither Republican nor Democrat but Anti-Colonialist African circa 1965. Don't believe it? Then research this article and then follow-up with a book read and come back to me:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/politics-socialism-capitalism-private-enterprises-obama-business-problem.html

Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism

Research, think, and then write...the future of the world is in your hands.

LB