Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Mid-Atlantic Trip Part 5: Charlottesville Hey Khirad, some of the regular commenters over at HP are talking about doing a “Huffies Awards” and they are nominating you for one of the categories! Knowing I have no chance of winning a Huffy, or even a Schwinn, I’m deciding to do the Whatsies. Categories include Best Two Liners and Most Consistently OT Commenter. I figure I’ll win at least one of those, being as I’m the only judge. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 23, 2010 @ 3:30 am Friday Music Thread – You Must Remember This that is INTENSE! » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 21, 2010 @ 7:16 am that’s when you find yourself teetering on the table singing, “The Faithful Hussar”! » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 22, 2010 @ 9:58 pm I heard about that place. Somebody told me to stay away from the special cocktail there called The Blitzkrieg! » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 22, 2010 @ 8:26 pm right next to the Sudetenland Turnpike. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 22, 2010 @ 5:19 pm early indeed! These days five thirty is the norm, and out the door is common! » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 21, 2010 @ 6:10 am “Vat? No Wagner CDs? You uncultured swine!” » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 20, 2010 @ 2:42 pm I can just hear the Hitler ghost jabbering away in the passengers seat: » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 20, 2010 @ 3:54 am Excellent, AdLib! » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 20, 2010 @ 3:47 am Robert Gibbs, Ratfucking and the Professional Left I hope my comment was in no way taken as support of McCain, who I consider to be a pretty awful person. I just meant to refer to your satirical letter’s seeming willingness to give Obama time and patience and understanding about the situation (by the way, my original comment didn’t mention Palestine/Israel, and I don’t hear a lot of noise from progressives that Obama needs to hurry up and solve that problem -certainly I personally don’t feel it’s his responsibility), and I supposed that if the exact same situation were occurring now under a McCain plan, you would be less patient. For me, it’s not about the person, it’s about the policies. I KNOW Obama is doing really good things for this country in numerous ways, but I am more concerned about the negatives of this presidency. NOt because they are his fault, but because I want to see this country wash itself clean of its current systematic belligerency and descent into Banana Republicanism. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 20, 2010 @ 4:45 am Yes, I’m on single payer in Japan, although I don’t necessarily consider myself living “under” it. Like Kalima, I’m very grateful for it. It’s far from perfect, but I don’t think perfection is possible where healthcare is concerned, since the very necessity for it comes from the imperfections of our own bodies. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 20, 2010 @ 4:16 am nationalizing the banks does “not work”…okay, so this is “working”, then? » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 16, 2010 @ 2:27 pm bito, I am guessing that, had McCain been elected president, you would not be so quick to defend him for not bringing these “ongoing war” to an end. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 16, 2010 @ 2:24 pm Here’s the video, Marion. “I happen to be a proponent of single payer healthcare” » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 16, 2010 @ 2:22 pm sigh. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 16, 2010 @ 2:20 pm He pushed for single payer, in front of the ACLU. It’s not the fault of the audience because they listened to what he said. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 16, 2010 @ 2:33 am Nationalizing the zombie banks, and forcing them to use stimulus money to make loans to businesses is what should have happened. The banks, and the bailout, should never have been anything other than a conduit through which to fund companies in the productive sector, not the financial sector. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 15, 2010 @ 9:30 pm Where I dispute this article is in how it lets the administration off the hook for the criticism, as if it is just being stirred up in a vacuum, rather than as a reaction to both substance-based and stylistic flubs of this administration. Iraq is not moving toward the end the president campaigned for. Afghan is a mess and yet the president sees fit to proceed with it with an Orwellian, “Oceania is always at war” mentality. This while the money the war costs could so OBVIOUSLY be spent keeping Hawaiian kids in school on Friday, paving roads, and giving MIT graduates USEFUL work to do to create a new, green economy rather than sell their souls to the Military Industrial Complex. A giveaway to the banks has NOT improved the unemployment situation anywhere other than Wall Street, a health insurance plan that NO country that already has a national health plan of some form could possibly envy (this is the BEST we could do?). No firm support for Elizabeth Warren. Little inclination that the president understood/understands the immensity of the tragedy of the Gulf. » Posted By whatsthatsound On August 15, 2010 @ 8:32 pm SOMEDAYS, IT’S JUST ABOUT A GOOD LAUGH! ha ha! That’s fantastic! Oh, I gotta tell that one to everybody I know! » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 27, 2010 @ 11:32 pm That’s hilarious, VB! » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 25, 2010 @ 1:42 am Mid-Atlantic Trip Part I: D.C. Thanks, Khirad! My favorite is the belles, of course! Here’s why. On the left, it looks like the girl standing in front of them is wearing low slung jeans that reveal a thong. I picture the genteel ladies’ hearts fluttering as they faint into gallant Ashley’s arms, while he calls for smelling salts! » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 23, 2010 @ 7:13 pm O Great Guru, What is the Secret of Modern Life? Yeah, probably no different. But I was thinking more about the parents. According to Rand’s philosophy, if a couple become pregnant, they don’t owe the unborn anything. If they have the baby, they STILL don’t, technically, owe it anything. Responsibility is something that no ME owes any other ME, she never tires of having her pompous protagonists proclaim. So what about kids? If I, as a parent, wake up one morning and decide that the best thing for ME is to hop a plane and start a new life on the Riviera, certainly I shouldn’t be bothered by guilty feelings about leaving a hungry and helpless child in the lurch, should I? If somebody ELSE wants to look after the child, that’s their business, and if not, tough luck! Obviously, this is an out and out disaster as an actual formula for society. As a “philosophy”, it’s just the Sade canard, and shouldn’t be taken seriously. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 26, 2010 @ 4:53 pm MsB! Always a pleasure to meet you here in this decidedly less frenetic atmosphere! One thing about Ayn, she wrote like Steven King in that she was always writing with Hollywood in mind. So she had plenty of hot and heavy scenes in her books, but no little ones ever resulted from all the thumpety thump! Very Hollywood. I think Flossy unfanned me the other day! Woe is me! I’m pissing bunches of people off there these days it seems. Not sure if it’s a.) me, b.) the heat (I think that’s part of it actually), or c.) the general vibe there. It seems like people are lookin’ for fights these days. I guess I am too. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 26, 2010 @ 5:42 am Not surprising at all that the RWers, or perhaps the “libertarians” disappeared. Who wants to deal with inconvenient truths, after all? But it illustrates how a little truth can be stretched beyond having any meaning. No doubt, there ARE some points of merit in Rand’s, and Sade’s, critiques of society. And there is truth about the appalling state of health and nutrition that the RWers point out. But they take that one slice of truth and try to build a whole philosophy around it, and that’s when the trouble starts. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 23, 2010 @ 7:09 am Love this! The telling thing about Ayn Rand is that her “philosophy” has nothing really to do with society, since to her “society” was simply an abstract concept that worked against human nature. She was, essentially, not different from deSade, who also hated the usual suspects, religion, nation, government, mores, culture, custom, etc. – ANYTHING that prevented individual humans from acting according to their own nature – their own whims andd internal drives, even sadistic and cruel ones. He was at least more honest. He wouldn’t have tried to convince anyone that his philosophy would be good for society – because for him, society was the enemy! Ayn Rand was different, and so her books backed her into a corner. Unlike Sade, they don’t contain torture scenes, but the interminable 70 plus page speech by John Galt in “Atlas Shrugged” should be considered a form of torture! Seriously, though, there are no children in her books. And no handicapped persons. She didn’t have a clue how her ideas would provide for them, so she sidestepped the issue by writing them out of her stories of grand, lofty (excessively arrogant and insufferable boors, every one of them) “liberated” individuals and imagining they didn’t exist. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 23, 2010 @ 1:49 am I noticed you there, calling him out, as did I. When he released his second article, he had the gall to write, “As the Huffington Post reported yesterday”, or something like that. No mention that he himself had done the “reporting”. This is Ouroboros Journalism at its worst, and what he does best, apparently. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 21, 2010 @ 8:28 pm Friday Music Thread – Remembrance I don’t know if this was Hume’s kind of music, but it’s appropriate and a great song.
» Posted By whatsthatsound On July 17, 2010 @ 8:08 pm Thank you! » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 20, 2010 @ 3:42 am I like my chances against that lame brain! » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 20, 2010 @ 3:42 am This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it, Dave. » Posted By whatsthatsound On July 19, 2010 @ 4:38 pmComments Posted By whatsthatsound
“Be careful, you almost hit zat dog, you fool! Vait, slow down, I want to dump this McDonald’s garbage on the synagogue lawn, hee hee. Vat’s that? An “art” gallery? Who buys zat crap, anyway? Can’t you drive any faster? Ze barbershop vill be closed by the time ve get there….”
As for “my solution”? All I can say, bito, is that you, myself, and 330 million other Americans can all be very relieved and happy that I did not consider taking on the responsibilities of the American presidency. I would be hopeless! But hopefully as a citizen I still have a right to whine about the person who was crazy/brave/smart/stupid enough to actually give up his whole life for the job, eh?
I wish people in the States ATE better, though! I think that would be the biggest thing in terms of improving the general health of the nation. Japan has far lower incidences of diabetes and heart disease, for example. And nothing approaching the obesity epidemic.
See this is the thing. Obama supporters always want to say, “You people don’t know how government works”. Yes, in many cases I suspect that to be true, for myself and others. But it’s not about knowing HOW things work as it is recognizing that they aren’t working. That’s where the anger, frustration, and criticism come from, the recognition that things aren’t working.
It’s a good thing people weren’t able to silence all the “whiners” in 1776.
Nor is it hard to comprehend the left being upset about Afghanistan despite the president’s “promise” to up the ante in Afghanistan. For one thing, I doubt that a single progressive voted for him BECAUSE he said he would pursue that campaign more aggressively. BUt more importantly, and I am sure you realize this, his plan for Afghanistan’s ONLY appeal was that is was a PART of a greater Middle East strategy that called for finishing up in Iraq and getting out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. The Middle East currently looks like a “never ending war” strategy that Pete Townshend would surely understand as he warns of new bosses looking like old bosses.
There may be some who viewed him as a cool celebrity, as you say. There are more who actually didn’t want him to begin with, were a bit surprised at how quickly he rose, were disappointed to see Richardson and Kucinich and Edwards drop away so rapidly, were distressed at the choice between Hillary and Obama, the two most centrist candidates of the pack, and held their noses as hey voted for anyone but John McCain and more of the same.
They, we, are not bashing Obama so much as grieving over the current state of affairs. It is hard to keep cool, fair minded and rational about what the president and Congress can do, when all around in the country things seem so UNcool, so UNfair and so IRrational that people are beginning to wonder if it is even possible for things to get back on track. If this span of years that coincides with the Obama administration turns out to be the time when it becomes most apparent that America has fallen and can’t get up, then Obama may end up being unfairly blamed for that. But a far greater tragedy than that will be what we witness, and millions will have worse things to gripe about than Gibbs.
Either the president is, through sins of commission or omission, bringing the criticism on himself, or “fifty million Frenchmen” ARE wrong and the blind are misleading the blind to not recognize something that I too am obviously blind to -all is well in the U.S., we are heading in the right direction, those in positions of power have seen the light or have been brought kicking and screaming toward the Light Side of the Force, and all we have to do is let this administration play itself out in order to see how the U.S. was able to overcome the greatest threat to its integrity and viability ever encountered, the abandonment of the Middle Class by the key players on Wall Street and in the Beltway.
Believe me, Marion, I would LOOOOOVE to be wrong about what I see happening, and hope I am. But I believe that Gibbs overreacted to mostly deserved criticism.
But hey, we can’t ALL be as beloved as the badger! 🙂
The tribal wisdom you refer to is “It takes a village to raise a child”. Rand turns that on its head. To her, “It takes an entire village to PRODUCE one single human individual that has any good character out of the whole lot”. The more you think about it, the more ridiculous it is, and the more you can equate it with the incredibly challenging problems we have created for ourselves and our survival chances.
“Don’t Fear the Reaper”, BOC
I can glonkulate new words with the best of ’em!
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