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I was on 34th Street today. No miracles and the city was relatively quiet.
Marc, Patricio Guzman’s The Battle of Chile is now out on DVD. It’s a four disc set including Guzman’s Chile: Obstinate Memory. I watched that portion again.It would be interesting to see what the conservative defenders of Pinochet would be saying these days.
Cool about the DVD. IS there somewhere online where it can be ordered. BTW I briefly show up onscreen for about 1/8 pf a second I think in Vol. I !!!
Obstinate Memory was great. I love the scene of playing Venceremos on the street and of course the scene with the schoolgirls is shattering. Merry Friggin Xmas.
Bob G
I hope you got a good hearty laugh — at my expense — sure you saw ‘Ms. Manners’ rounding out the last thread by giving me the F-bomb for xmas. She actually thinks we’re the same person!!
But you’re right about on thing — she’d be bounced to the curb in nano-second down at Rebels!
To Rob G: Yeah, that was a little strange. I mean, you sign your full name and use Rob rather than Bob, and yet you got the insult. I thought about writing a correction so that she would at least know who to defame, but I felt that it was marginally better not to feed the troll.
And of course her response was absolutely predictable.
So for the record, Rob G is not me, Bob G, and the instruction to do something anatomically difficult should have been directed at me, not Rob.
Since Ayn Rand was the subject of discussion here not long ago, I thought some of you might get a kick out of this rather…uh…scathing review I found by the professional ex-Communist and old-school conservative Whittaker Chambers, apparently egged on by his buddy Bill Buckley. It’s a fun read and rather ironic considering the renewed hype this overblown fictioneer and shruggable pop-”philosopher” is getting among contemporary wingnuts:
Good eye, reg. The Rand Redux of today makes for some interesting revelations as to who is or was a fan of hers. Here’s another one (although longer and somewhat bio-orientated) by a former disciple reviewing the “Evil Knievel of leaping to conclusions”: http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/60120/
…Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her.
…For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism. …
Feeling safe and reassured about “man-caused disasters?”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.” …Napolitano added that there was “no suggestion that [the suspect] was improperly screened.”
No suggestion?!! Not even the fact that the ISLAMIC TERRORIST got on board and tried to ignite explosives? Why is this woman in charge of Homeland Security?
Part of the “working system” must be to expect passengers to subdue terrorists once they are on the planes. I suppose that Marc’s title of “Shoot on Sight” applies to Muslims trying to board planes.
Napolitano also released a statement that said: “The American people should continue their planned holiday travel….
Yeah, I’ll feel safe in my car rather than a plane until we get a head of Homeland Security who isn’t in complete denial about terrorists.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, here’s some real news about real people fighting for real freedoms, as opposed to the masturbatory musings of cheeseball lightweight Randian “thinkers”:
Kevin, I’m not going to get into a spitting match with you, but I’d prefer that the officials that you put into office not pretend that they are doing their jobs, not lie that the “system works,” and not encourage people to keep travel plans that might put them in danger. That makes as much sense as telling people in the WTC that they would be okay on the tenth floors.
And, at least it took Pres. Bush less time to finish his children’s book than for Obama to even get the message.
Now, don’t complain about me, but either address or ignore the problems with this administration and its turning an eye away from Islamic terrorism.
Muslim terrorists don’t want us to wet our pants. They want to kill us.
Randy, if another Katrina hit New Orleans today, with the exception that the state now has a competent governor, you’d have basically the same outcome. But, it was nice of Obama to stop there for a moment on his way to a fundraiser.
I think concerns about terrorism rank above concerns about health care, global warming, what unions want, or hating Bush and Palin. You may disagree.
Keep in mind to not get sidetracked. Let’s make 2010 happy for Marc and everyone else.
The current system is not sustainable nor in any manner desirable and sure isnt any fun or of much intellectual value. …Indeed, what we have on this blog is symptomatic IMHO of one of the more debilitating problems the left suffers. If half the energy spent on villifying one’s political enemies were instead invested in building proactive outreach movements beyond one’s own ideological chorus we would all be better off.
The quality of available health care has risen above what is possible for any government of any nation to provide for all citizens. There may be little we can do to lower health care costs…
However though I am generally a small government guy… I am not opposed to more government regulations in health care… such as making pharmaceutical advertising illegal to keep down the costs of drugs.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Randy, if another Katrina hit New Orleans today, with the exception that the state now has a competent governor, you’d have basically the same outcome
—————————————–
Now that both Bush’s are retired pending indictments you probably would have the same outcome, Woody (plus a competent governor would enforce the state fish and game laws):
Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents.
American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.
Okay, art therapy didn’t work. How about poetry readings next time? Or, better yet, don’t release terrorists and don’t close Gitmo.
Finally, Obama does something about the Black Panthers voter intimidation case!
Main Justice reports that Christopher Coates, head of the Justice Department’s voting rights division, has been removed from his post and replaced.
But no, the administration isn’t doing damage control after it mysteriously dropped voter intimidation charges against three members of the Black Panther Party who rather openly intimidated Philadelphia voters on Election Day 2008. Rather, the administration is getting rid of the official who initiated the charges….
With all due respect to Woody’s remark that we should be more concerned about terrorism than about Health care, global warming, what unions want, or hating Bush and Palin:
The Salon column called Ask the Pilot considers one element of Woody’s pentad, and calculates that the odds of encountering a terrorist attack on a flight are less than one in several million. This is based on the experience of the past decade and includes the Sept 11 attacks. We might also note that the shoe bomber and the most recent attempt failed, suggesting that at least something is working. Napolitano remarked that the system worked in the sense that it reacted after the event started, but walked back her remarks to indicate that, of course, the system failed badly in preventing the attack. Nevertheless, the right wing has obsessed on three words without regard to their context.
In response to Woody’s overall views: In comparison, tens of thousands of Americans will suffer premature deaths due to inadequate or absent health care. The story of one young man who died from what was essentially a cavity in a tooth (which continued on to become an abcess which ultimately invaded his brain and killed him) is pretty horrifying, but the number of people who die of heart attacks prematurely due to failure to get preventive care is thousands of times higher even than that story.
As to global warming, you can ignore it only if you are into denial of scientific research, the bulk of which supports the prevailing model. If you are emotionally wedded to a political-economic philosophy that demands that there be no global warming, that is akin to being wedded to a philosophy that denies the existence of cancer or earthquakes. You might be lucky about global warming, but you’re not being rational, and the effects will be worse than any war in terms of destruction to civilization and damage to all life forms.
It’s interesting that Woody mentions “what unions want,” because that is apparently the reason that we do not even now have a director of the TSA — one Republican senator has a hold on the appointment due to the fear that this nominee (from Los Angeles, by the way) would allow TSA employees to unionize. Why is this misbehavior not considered treason by the conservatives if the defense against terrorism is so important to them? The hypocrisy is staggering.
Those folks who pay attention to me must not be capable of paying attention to the issues. While I don’t agree with Bob G’s conclusions, at least he had something worthwhile to say.
It’s sad when a commenter who said that he would never read or respond again to anything that I write is too cowardly to properly identify himself and continues with false personal attacks and has nothing of substance to add. At least, that’s what Dr. Phil would say.
I am angry… Pay attention to me!!! I am all alone at my computer in Alabama. Women do not talk to me and even dogs walk away. Pay attention to me now!!!
Some people are slow learners. For the fourth time….
Marc Cooper: Indeed, what we have on this blog is symptomatic IMHO of one of the more debilitating problems the left suffers. If half the energy spent on villifying one’s political enemies were instead invested in building proactive outreach movements beyond one’s own ideological chorus we would all be better off.
December 25th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Happy Rickey Henderson’s Birthday, everyone!
December 25th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good.
Kinda sounds like the Bush administration.
December 25th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I was on 34th Street today. No miracles and the city was relatively quiet.
Marc, Patricio Guzman’s The Battle of Chile is now out on DVD. It’s a four disc set including Guzman’s Chile: Obstinate Memory. I watched that portion again.It would be interesting to see what the conservative defenders of Pinochet would be saying these days.
Merry Christmas to all.
December 25th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Cool about the DVD. IS there somewhere online where it can be ordered. BTW I briefly show up onscreen for about 1/8 pf a second I think in Vol. I !!!
Obstinate Memory was great. I love the scene of playing Venceremos on the street and of course the scene with the schoolgirls is shattering. Merry Friggin Xmas.
December 25th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I got it here.
Of course, there is nothing more disturbing than that scene at the end of part I when the cameraman films his own murder.
December 25th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
A Krugman Christmas:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/opinion/25krugman.html
December 25th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Bob G
I hope you got a good hearty laugh — at my expense — sure you saw ‘Ms. Manners’ rounding out the last thread by giving me the F-bomb for xmas. She actually thinks we’re the same person!!
But you’re right about on thing — she’d be bounced to the curb in nano-second down at Rebels!
December 25th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Btw, Marc, your depiction of Santa rocks.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
To Rob G: Yeah, that was a little strange. I mean, you sign your full name and use Rob rather than Bob, and yet you got the insult. I thought about writing a correction so that she would at least know who to defame, but I felt that it was marginally better not to feed the troll.
And of course her response was absolutely predictable.
So for the record, Rob G is not me, Bob G, and the instruction to do something anatomically difficult should have been directed at me, not Rob.
December 26th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Since Ayn Rand was the subject of discussion here not long ago, I thought some of you might get a kick out of this rather…uh…scathing review I found by the professional ex-Communist and old-school conservative Whittaker Chambers, apparently egged on by his buddy Bill Buckley. It’s a fun read and rather ironic considering the renewed hype this overblown fictioneer and shruggable pop-”philosopher” is getting among contemporary wingnuts:
http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200501050715.asp
December 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Happy Kwanzaa!!
December 26th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Good eye, reg. The Rand Redux of today makes for some interesting revelations as to who is or was a fan of hers. Here’s another one (although longer and somewhat bio-orientated) by a former disciple reviewing the “Evil Knievel of leaping to conclusions”:
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/60120/
December 26th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
More fair and credible views of Ayn Rand:
WSJ: ‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
and
An interview with Ayn Rand by Mike Wallace from 1959
December 27th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Feeling safe and reassured about “man-caused disasters?”
No suggestion?!! Not even the fact that the ISLAMIC TERRORIST got on board and tried to ignite explosives? Why is this woman in charge of Homeland Security?
Part of the “working system” must be to expect passengers to subdue terrorists once they are on the planes. I suppose that Marc’s title of “Shoot on Sight” applies to Muslims trying to board planes.
Napolitano also released a statement that said: “The American people should continue their planned holiday travel….
Yeah, I’ll feel safe in my car rather than a plane until we get a head of Homeland Security who isn’t in complete denial about terrorists.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Meanwhile, back in the real world, here’s some real news about real people fighting for real freedoms, as opposed to the masturbatory musings of cheeseball lightweight Randian “thinkers”:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35446_New_Protests_in_Iran
December 27th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
While Woody sits in his car and wets his pants, giving the terrorists exactly what they want, the rest of us will go about our business.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Kevin, I’m not going to get into a spitting match with you, but I’d prefer that the officials that you put into office not pretend that they are doing their jobs, not lie that the “system works,” and not encourage people to keep travel plans that might put them in danger. That makes as much sense as telling people in the WTC that they would be okay on the tenth floors.
And, at least it took Pres. Bush less time to finish his children’s book than for Obama to even get the message.
Now, don’t complain about me, but either address or ignore the problems with this administration and its turning an eye away from Islamic terrorism.
Muslim terrorists don’t want us to wet our pants. They want to kill us.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:49 am
“Heck of a job, Brownie!”
December 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Randy, if another Katrina hit New Orleans today, with the exception that the state now has a competent governor, you’d have basically the same outcome. But, it was nice of Obama to stop there for a moment on his way to a fundraiser.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I think concerns about terrorism rank above concerns about health care, global warming, what unions want, or hating Bush and Palin. You may disagree.
Keep in mind to not get sidetracked. Let’s make 2010 happy for Marc and everyone else.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Some people are so narcissistic they think people are commenting about them, when they, in fact, are not.
I belieev that qualifies as a personality disorder.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:16 am
“…what we have on this blog is symptomatic IMHO of one of the more debilitating problems the left suffers. “
December 28th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Man that photo is great.
The quality of available health care has risen above what is possible for any government of any nation to provide for all citizens. There may be little we can do to lower health care costs…
However though I am generally a small government guy… I am not opposed to more government regulations in health care… such as making pharmaceutical advertising illegal to keep down the costs of drugs.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Please give Woody more attention, he is feeling lonely.
December 28th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Woody Says:
December 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Randy, if another Katrina hit New Orleans today, with the exception that the state now has a competent governor, you’d have basically the same outcome
—————————————–
Now that both Bush’s are retired pending indictments you probably would have the same outcome, Woody (plus a competent governor would enforce the state fish and game laws):
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/o/f/bush_vacation_fishing.jpg
December 29th, 2009 at 6:44 am
I’m just helping Marc by filling in with articles of current events. Here’s one you’ll like.
Blame Bush!
Okay, art therapy didn’t work. How about poetry readings next time? Or, better yet, don’t release terrorists and don’t close Gitmo.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Finally, Obama does something about the Black Panthers voter intimidation case!
Well, that turned out exactly as I expected.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Pay Attention To Me!!!
December 29th, 2009 at 11:11 am
With all due respect to Woody’s remark that we should be more concerned about terrorism than about Health care, global warming, what unions want, or hating Bush and Palin:
The Salon column called Ask the Pilot considers one element of Woody’s pentad, and calculates that the odds of encountering a terrorist attack on a flight are less than one in several million. This is based on the experience of the past decade and includes the Sept 11 attacks. We might also note that the shoe bomber and the most recent attempt failed, suggesting that at least something is working. Napolitano remarked that the system worked in the sense that it reacted after the event started, but walked back her remarks to indicate that, of course, the system failed badly in preventing the attack. Nevertheless, the right wing has obsessed on three words without regard to their context.
In response to Woody’s overall views: In comparison, tens of thousands of Americans will suffer premature deaths due to inadequate or absent health care. The story of one young man who died from what was essentially a cavity in a tooth (which continued on to become an abcess which ultimately invaded his brain and killed him) is pretty horrifying, but the number of people who die of heart attacks prematurely due to failure to get preventive care is thousands of times higher even than that story.
As to global warming, you can ignore it only if you are into denial of scientific research, the bulk of which supports the prevailing model. If you are emotionally wedded to a political-economic philosophy that demands that there be no global warming, that is akin to being wedded to a philosophy that denies the existence of cancer or earthquakes. You might be lucky about global warming, but you’re not being rational, and the effects will be worse than any war in terms of destruction to civilization and damage to all life forms.
It’s interesting that Woody mentions “what unions want,” because that is apparently the reason that we do not even now have a director of the TSA — one Republican senator has a hold on the appointment due to the fear that this nominee (from Los Angeles, by the way) would allow TSA employees to unionize. Why is this misbehavior not considered treason by the conservatives if the defense against terrorism is so important to them? The hypocrisy is staggering.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:38 am
On secod thought Please Ignore Woody, he is an attention whore.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Those folks who pay attention to me must not be capable of paying attention to the issues. While I don’t agree with Bob G’s conclusions, at least he had something worthwhile to say.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Pay attention to me!!! Please!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 7:51 am
It’s sad when a commenter who said that he would never read or respond again to anything that I write is too cowardly to properly identify himself and continues with false personal attacks and has nothing of substance to add. At least, that’s what Dr. Phil would say.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I am angry… Pay attention to me!!! I am all alone at my computer in Alabama. Women do not talk to me and even dogs walk away. Pay attention to me now!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Some people are slow learners. For the fourth time….
January 6th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
You may disagree.
All intelligent people do.
Some people are slow learners. For the fourth time…. Marc Cooper:
Marc Cooper is a hypocritical asshole.