Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Billy Connolly on religion,
Billy Connolly being brilliant about the judeochristermuslim wacKiness...."I"m a slut, man..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwooM4yhiiY&feature=colike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwooM4yhiiY&feature=colike
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Jonathan Miller's "A Brief History of Disbelief" Parts 1- 3
http://youtu.be/zcFSazDA9SA
http://youtu.be/duuM6CqXWi0
http://youtu.be/kSdaXBekGZQ
http://youtu.be/zcFSazDA9SA
http://youtu.be/duuM6CqXWi0
http://youtu.be/kSdaXBekGZQ
PBS and OWS
Once upon a time I had the impression that PBS was a more or less center-left outfit. Appealing to would-be intellectuals and a cultured citizenry, and whose mandate, I assumed, was to cultivate an aware and educated viewer. I always thought that Robin McNeil set the tone for the thoughtful, humanistic, vaguely "liberal" (as in liberal arts) sentiment that pervaded PBS.
Of course, that was before the CPB was taken over by Republicans during the Buzsh Administration, and PBS was perennially threatened with draconian funding cuts, and when PBS went on the defensive and morphed into, essentially, FOX light. During those dark days when war mongers Donald Rumsfeld and Zbigniew Brzezinski were treated as honored guests, when Bill Moyers was the subject of an inquisition and subsequently canned, I wrote to PBS saying that as a long time contributor, PBS could henceforth count me out; that after some 25 years I no longer cared to watch the News Hour or anything it broadcast except perhaps the occasional "Frontline" (to its credit, I actually received a polite reply). But henceforth the News Hour no longer was must see tv.
And now this Paul Solmon piece that promotes what Jeffrey Brown called a 'contrarian view' to the issues raised by We the 99%ers (i.e., We the People). That Paul Solmon let pass Robert Lerman's specious claim that "inequality creates an incentive..." was bad enough, but to perpetuate a quote that Lerman claims issued from President Lincoln but is entirely specious crossed the line of jounalistic integrity.
Please, do yourself a favor and read the comments at FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4424 If "The News Hour" has a shred of journalistic decency it will follow the recomendations in this piece and issue a correction, and a disclaimer. That viewers were not informed that "Epstein is also a director at Global Economics Group, a corporate consulting firm that advises on issues like financial regulation and employment law." A minor point, no doubt, unless corporations are precisely what is wrong with America. In which case it presents a fundamental challange.
Should "The News Hour" on PBS permit a long debunked, mis-attributed to Abraham Lincoln quote to be used to justify and/or 'rationalize' a position contrary to that taken by #OWS and We the 99%ers is simply unacceptable.
Indeed, the very idea that Solmon as a PBS investigative reporter would present a spokesman who holds a position contrary to that of We the People as merely the other side in an argument is unacceptable. 99 versus 1 is not good odds if you're the one versus all the rest of Us. Seriously, what can 'you' say to justify robbing the Poor to pay the Rich? Indeed, what a corporation says is merely advertizing. What other possible 'avenue' of SPEECH can a corporation pay for?
Oh, dang, totally forgot that SCOTUS Citizens United decision.
The patent falsehood that the 1%ers are the 'job creators' is a position taken by imbicils such as Paul Ryan and the GOP know-nothings who have signed no tax pledges, believe that Evolution and climate change are myths, and somehow claim to justify the fact that wages for the 99% of Us have stagnated for the past 30 years while the richest have enjoyed unprecedented tax breaks and income growth.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4424
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/10/26/pbs-makes-time-for-inequality/
[Links to the original article and the comments page]
Of course, that was before the CPB was taken over by Republicans during the Buzsh Administration, and PBS was perennially threatened with draconian funding cuts, and when PBS went on the defensive and morphed into, essentially, FOX light. During those dark days when war mongers Donald Rumsfeld and Zbigniew Brzezinski were treated as honored guests, when Bill Moyers was the subject of an inquisition and subsequently canned, I wrote to PBS saying that as a long time contributor, PBS could henceforth count me out; that after some 25 years I no longer cared to watch the News Hour or anything it broadcast except perhaps the occasional "Frontline" (to its credit, I actually received a polite reply). But henceforth the News Hour no longer was must see tv.
And now this Paul Solmon piece that promotes what Jeffrey Brown called a 'contrarian view' to the issues raised by We the 99%ers (i.e., We the People). That Paul Solmon let pass Robert Lerman's specious claim that "inequality creates an incentive..." was bad enough, but to perpetuate a quote that Lerman claims issued from President Lincoln but is entirely specious crossed the line of jounalistic integrity.
Please, do yourself a favor and read the comments at FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4424 If "The News Hour" has a shred of journalistic decency it will follow the recomendations in this piece and issue a correction, and a disclaimer. That viewers were not informed that "Epstein is also a director at Global Economics Group, a corporate consulting firm that advises on issues like financial regulation and employment law." A minor point, no doubt, unless corporations are precisely what is wrong with America. In which case it presents a fundamental challange.
Should "The News Hour" on PBS permit a long debunked, mis-attributed to Abraham Lincoln quote to be used to justify and/or 'rationalize' a position contrary to that taken by #OWS and We the 99%ers is simply unacceptable.
Indeed, the very idea that Solmon as a PBS investigative reporter would present a spokesman who holds a position contrary to that of We the People as merely the other side in an argument is unacceptable. 99 versus 1 is not good odds if you're the one versus all the rest of Us. Seriously, what can 'you' say to justify robbing the Poor to pay the Rich? Indeed, what a corporation says is merely advertizing. What other possible 'avenue' of SPEECH can a corporation pay for?
Oh, dang, totally forgot that SCOTUS Citizens United decision.
The patent falsehood that the 1%ers are the 'job creators' is a position taken by imbicils such as Paul Ryan and the GOP know-nothings who have signed no tax pledges, believe that Evolution and climate change are myths, and somehow claim to justify the fact that wages for the 99% of Us have stagnated for the past 30 years while the richest have enjoyed unprecedented tax breaks and income growth.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4424
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/10/26/pbs-makes-time-for-inequality/
[Links to the original article and the comments page]
Friday, November 11, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen
Jacobsen was on "The Daily Show" last week to flog her book. The purpose of which, I gather, is essentially to debunk both the so-called Roswell Incident and the idea that Area 51 was the home of non conventional, perhaps extraterrestrial aircraft, ala Bob Lazar. I certainly doubt she paid the slightest bit of attention to him or any of those intrepid video tapers who filmed odd lights in the night sky over Area 51 before the government bought up the surrounding mountain ranges and thereby extended for some 23 miles around the base the area of prohibited access. Nor, I suspect, would she give much credence to the film "Dreamland: Area 51" by Bruce Burgess.
"The 1996 documentary Dreamland directed by Bruce Burgess included an interview with a 71 year old mechanical engineer who claimed to be a former employee at Area 51 during the 1950s, working on a 'flying disc simulator' built to train US Pilots, based on a disc originating from a crashed extraterrestrial craft..."
I doubt Jacobsen interviewed this guy.
The fact is that her sources were all men who claimed to have worked at Area 51 in the 50's and 60's which is, as she explained, the limit of her research which never gets past the mid Sixties. None of them worked with exotic non-terrestrial craft, of course.
As Janet Maslin noted in The New York Times, “… the book is noteworthy for its author's dogged devotion to her research. Angry over being denied access to a research facility, she began talking to a security guard - who, it turned out, had worked at Area 51 and became one of her most valuable sources. And when it comes to EG&G, the secretive engineering company that plays a major role in the Area 51 story, she describes pressuring one unnamed EG&G employee persistently, no matter how hard he resisted.
'You don't want to know,' said this anonymous source, when grilled about the most nefarious part of Ms. Jacobsen's U.F.O. theory. She asked again. 'You don't know the half of it,' he replied, still stonewalling. And then, over lunch, she put a crouton on a plate and asked how the extent of her knowledge about the whole Area 51 story compared with the crouton-plate ratio.
Great news for ufologists: the still-untold truth, this man finally admitted, is bigger than the crouton. Bigger than the plate. To the delight of conspiracy fans everywhere, it remains bigger than the whole table."
So, to her credit she does include the crouton and the plate/table anecdote from an anonymous source who worked for military industrial contractor EG&G. Too bad this wasn't the big "untold" story she chose to pursue.
Jacobsen was on "The Daily Show" last week to flog her book. The purpose of which, I gather, is essentially to debunk both the so-called Roswell Incident and the idea that Area 51 was the home of non conventional, perhaps extraterrestrial aircraft, ala Bob Lazar. I certainly doubt she paid the slightest bit of attention to him or any of those intrepid video tapers who filmed odd lights in the night sky over Area 51 before the government bought up the surrounding mountain ranges and thereby extended for some 23 miles around the base the area of prohibited access. Nor, I suspect, would she give much credence to the film "Dreamland: Area 51" by Bruce Burgess.
"The 1996 documentary Dreamland directed by Bruce Burgess included an interview with a 71 year old mechanical engineer who claimed to be a former employee at Area 51 during the 1950s, working on a 'flying disc simulator' built to train US Pilots, based on a disc originating from a crashed extraterrestrial craft..."
I doubt Jacobsen interviewed this guy.
The fact is that her sources were all men who claimed to have worked at Area 51 in the 50's and 60's which is, as she explained, the limit of her research which never gets past the mid Sixties. None of them worked with exotic non-terrestrial craft, of course.
As Janet Maslin noted in The New York Times, “… the book is noteworthy for its author's dogged devotion to her research. Angry over being denied access to a research facility, she began talking to a security guard - who, it turned out, had worked at Area 51 and became one of her most valuable sources. And when it comes to EG&G, the secretive engineering company that plays a major role in the Area 51 story, she describes pressuring one unnamed EG&G employee persistently, no matter how hard he resisted.
'You don't want to know,' said this anonymous source, when grilled about the most nefarious part of Ms. Jacobsen's U.F.O. theory. She asked again. 'You don't know the half of it,' he replied, still stonewalling. And then, over lunch, she put a crouton on a plate and asked how the extent of her knowledge about the whole Area 51 story compared with the crouton-plate ratio.
Great news for ufologists: the still-untold truth, this man finally admitted, is bigger than the crouton. Bigger than the plate. To the delight of conspiracy fans everywhere, it remains bigger than the whole table."
So, to her credit she does include the crouton and the plate/table anecdote from an anonymous source who worked for military industrial contractor EG&G. Too bad this wasn't the big "untold" story she chose to pursue.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Social Security and Medicare are not 'entitlements' , they are government sponsored social safety net programs I have paid for with my taxes for the past 40+ years. The only sense in which I am entitled to them is that I paid for them.
The right wing loves to use the word 'entitlement' as if SS and Medicare are some kind of affirmative action or welfare program for senior citizens. They are, more accurately, retirement programs that I continue to invest in during my working career. Using the word 'entitlement' only perpetuates the mistaken belief that we have no vested interest in them.
Incredibly, this cretin Paul Ryan has been called 'courageous' for proposing an end to Medicare and dooming senior citizens to the mercy of amoral insurance corporations. If Ryan had any balls he would call for an end to perpetual war and tax evasion by mega corporations. But then again, he'd never get reelected. I guess it does take a kind of courage to consign an entire generation to the meat grinder. The kind of courage that allowed Hitler to consign the Jews to the gas ovens, that is.
The right wing loves to use the word 'entitlement' as if SS and Medicare are some kind of affirmative action or welfare program for senior citizens. They are, more accurately, retirement programs that I continue to invest in during my working career. Using the word 'entitlement' only perpetuates the mistaken belief that we have no vested interest in them.
Incredibly, this cretin Paul Ryan has been called 'courageous' for proposing an end to Medicare and dooming senior citizens to the mercy of amoral insurance corporations. If Ryan had any balls he would call for an end to perpetual war and tax evasion by mega corporations. But then again, he'd never get reelected. I guess it does take a kind of courage to consign an entire generation to the meat grinder. The kind of courage that allowed Hitler to consign the Jews to the gas ovens, that is.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Things have gone from terrible to terrible being the status quo.
[Boy, there is another word that has lost its meaning….Something that inspires terror is terrible. Nothing else is really terrible. The terrible is the truly unspeakable. War is, by definition, terrible.
Terror is the word of the last decade, though, that’s for sure. Wars because of it, mass murders because of it, just crazy shit because of Terror. Terror Alerts. Terrorists. Terror Attacks….ad nauseum]
And so, here’s the Irony of Tuscon….This demented kid fired 31 rounds into a community gathering. He is a terrorist. He inspired Terror. His actions resulted in something terrible. Unspeakable. And yet (here’s the irony), in his wacked ‘mind’ I’d venture to say that he felt terrorized by the System (however one cares to delineate that term). That he believed he was being terrorized by Big Government. And exercising his ‘Second Amendment remedy’ against the tyranny of Government, this madman started shooting human beings who wanted to hear and talk to their Congresswoman.
But that’s not the whole story….
This lunatic’s incoherent notions didn’t just come out of thin air…well, I take that back, they came out of radio waves and internets and video broadcasts. Thin air. The echo chamber of the extreme right wing sociopath.
This guy’s madness was nurtured by extremists in our midst. Extremists in the use of language and imagery who inspire stupid lunatics with guns. That’s the bottom line.
[Boy, there is another word that has lost its meaning….Something that inspires terror is terrible. Nothing else is really terrible. The terrible is the truly unspeakable. War is, by definition, terrible.
Terror is the word of the last decade, though, that’s for sure. Wars because of it, mass murders because of it, just crazy shit because of Terror. Terror Alerts. Terrorists. Terror Attacks….ad nauseum]
And so, here’s the Irony of Tuscon….This demented kid fired 31 rounds into a community gathering. He is a terrorist. He inspired Terror. His actions resulted in something terrible. Unspeakable. And yet (here’s the irony), in his wacked ‘mind’ I’d venture to say that he felt terrorized by the System (however one cares to delineate that term). That he believed he was being terrorized by Big Government. And exercising his ‘Second Amendment remedy’ against the tyranny of Government, this madman started shooting human beings who wanted to hear and talk to their Congresswoman.
But that’s not the whole story….
This lunatic’s incoherent notions didn’t just come out of thin air…well, I take that back, they came out of radio waves and internets and video broadcasts. Thin air. The echo chamber of the extreme right wing sociopath.
This guy’s madness was nurtured by extremists in our midst. Extremists in the use of language and imagery who inspire stupid lunatics with guns. That’s the bottom line.
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