Oye, Wafers and Waferettes!
As usual, I have little to say, except to encourage you to consult your post-its every morning for a quick reality check. In addition, you might want to start each day by meditating on Kim Kardashian's buttocks, the wit and wisdom of Bunmi Laditan, and other items that deservedly capture the attention of that great repository of wisdom and insight, The American People. All of us, I know, mourn the passing of Rom Mittney and Michele Shit-for-Brains from the American political scene, and pray for a Sarah Palin comeback, if only as a host on SNL. I also wish to take this opportunity to salute the 'progressives', who assure us that with just a little grass-roots activism, we are going to turn this nation around. I mean, how reassuring is
that?!
In the meantime, word has it that
Spinning Straw Into Gold is on the verge of being released, but then its been on the verge for 3 months now.
Counting Blessings is finally back in stock on Amazon; I'm also waiting for them to list the re-release of
Coming to Our Senses. So it's a busy time with not much happening, except that I'm working abt 10 hrs/day on my Japan book.
Karoshi, they call it: death from overwork. But I won't say sayonara just yet.
Other than that, always keep in mind that it can only get worse, and as Walter Cronkite used to say, "You Are there."
mb
My son has recently started a new position as philosophy professor at Université de Paris (Diderot VII), after ten years at Concordia University in Montreal, which has nothing to do with an email he just received.
ReplyDeletePolygon Games is asking Justin for permission to have Zagar, a character in a new video game in development, recite in its entirety an online essay he wrote in 2011. He wrote back saying that it doesn't sound like any video game he ever played (the last being Donkey Kong, circa 1984), "and, moreover, what's my cut of the profits?"
The theme of his essay touches on some recent comments here. Here are the first two paragraphs and a link:
"On the Internet"
The Internet, it seems, is destroying everything. In the aftermath of its Shiva-like arrival, the rest of the world now appears shabby, neglected, left over.
It has destroyed or is in the process of destroying long-familiar objects: TVs, stereos, telephones, newspapers, musical instruments, clocks, books. It is also destroying institutions: stores, universities, banks, happy hours, travel agencies. Teleconferencing is increasingly obviating the need for travel; Wikipedia is now vastly superior to anything Diderot could have imagined (and unlike the Encyclopédie, Jimmy Wales's creation is perpetually improvable). As a friend recently put it to me: to denounce Wikipedia is like denouncing the Enlightenment. Nay more: Wikipedia is the Enlightenment realized, for better or worse.
http://www.jehsmith.com/1/2011/01/on-the-internet.html
NearFar & Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThe 12 Sept 1945 NYT article by William Laurence that attributed claims of radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ‘Japanese propaganda’ was really a response to a September 6th article that Wilfred Burchett managed to get through MacArthur’s censors after an unauthorized visit to Hiroshima.
Check out Burchett’s 1981 autobiography, “At the Barricades” and read his fascinating account about how, as a reporter attached to the US Navy, he landed with the first marines in Japan. While most other reporters went to the USS Missouri for the surrender signing, he took a commuter train into Tokyo, and then a Train to Hiroshima. There he saw the unmistakable signs of radiation sickness, even among people who had entered the city after the explosion – later himself included.
Burchett returned to Tokyo in time to attend a press conference with the purpose of denying what he had reported – just like Laurence’s NYT article. When he confronted the Army scientist with what he had seen, he was told that he had “fallen victim to Japanese propaganda”.
What passes for news in the lame-stream media is absolutely disgusting. Not only do they report trivia as news and leave important stuff unreported, but reporters actively spread lies and propaganda. The term ‘presstitute’ is perfectly appropriate. Words and expressions routinely used in their ‘reporting’ could come from the “Newspeak Dictionary” with one exception – to paraphrase Arundhati Roy, the expression “embedded reporter” is exactly what it sounds like.
The fact that so many Americans think that we have a free press which tries to tell the truth shows just how widespread CRE really is.
David Rosen
It's OK that you're working hard Morris! We understand that you're busy.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time out of your day each day to share your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it!!!!
With Love,
Alexis
Dr B, you ended by stating "it can only get worse". Well, it is getting worse for the American soldiers:
ReplyDeleteToo often, a soldier who has a problem with his or her pay can wait days, weeks or even months to get things sorted out
Pay errors are part of a larger phenomenon that Reuters will explore in a series of articles: the Defense Department's endemic failure to keep track of its money - how much it has, how much it pays out and how much is lost or stolen.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-usa-pentagon-payerrors-special-report-idUSBRE96818I20130709
MB-
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Truman, what do you make that Jimmy Carter named Truman as his most admired president (or maybe it was most admired modern president)?
Ken, Your boys piece is a very nice articulation of creative destruction. Certainly makes the idea more accessible than the dry approach taken by Schumpeter and other economists. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteCRE did not happen overnight in U.S.A. Perhaps its more widespread and maybe we were a bit dysgenic. Hard to say. But think about how the William Jennings Bryant was a major figure in American politics! Think of the Hays laws! What about Comstock laws? The Mann act? How could we possibly overlook prohibition? The red scare? Then all the new religions invented in the U.S.A--Christian Science, Scientology, Snake handling evangelists....Its a heady list of achievement. I wonder how people got it in their head that the U.S.A was so all wonderful? Maybe the appeal was always to the hustlers and the truly CRE's?
MB--I'm in. I will see you in Ire! Temple Bar in Dublin perhaps?
Maybe there is a god...
ReplyDeletehttp://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/09/palin-im-considering-a-senate-run/?hpt=hp_t3
Dr. MB and fellow WAFers:
ReplyDeleteToday, I'd like to call your attention to a fellow traveler, Michael Synder's economic collapse blog, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com .
On July 7, 2013 he posted "15 Signs That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Downhill Really Fast". Note that all of the 15 are hyper linked to their source .
Here are the first 5 :
#1 The number of part-time workers in the United States has just hit a brand new all-time high, but the number of full-time workers is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.
#2 In America today, only 47 percent of adults have a full-time job.
#3 Even though the U.S. economy created nearly 200,000 jobs in June, the number of full-time jobs actually decreased.
#4 There are now 2.7 million temp workers in the United States - a new all-time high.
#5 One out of every ten jobs in the United States is now filled through a temp agency.
The ongoing collapse will be the best documented in history.
On the hopeful side,Sarah Palin is considering a run for the US Senate,
does she know it's a 6 year term?
@MB
ReplyDeleteAlas, we lost another potential leader recently: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/08/brooklyn-man-electrocuted-after-urinating-on-subways-third-rail/
I was about to lament when I learned this, but remembered my post-it note ( attributed to William Gibson ): "Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low esteem; just make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes".
That made me feel better.
I’ve just finished reading Joe McGinniss’ book THE ROGUE - the Search for the Real Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteVery well done.
The take away is that people in Alaska have come to hate Sarah. Really hate her. She could not get elected mayor of Wasilla at this point.
If she runs, it will so energize Begich’s people the results could be amazing.
Coincidentally, I’m also reading my way thru a stack of books on psychopaths.
With psychopaths, you hear the terms “charming” and “malignant narcissist” a lot. Which sure sounds a lot like her. When she did show up for work, she ran the Wasilla mayor’s office and the governorship with a Red Queen management style - “off with their heads!” A lot of people were badly hurt, lives ruined, and they have not forgotten.
Remember Trig, the Down syndrome baby? The full story has never come out on this. Sarah has brushed away questions about 50 times, saying she’d just settle it by releasing the birth certificate and the medical records. Which she has never done.
Here’s some brief points. Sarah showed no evidence of pregnancy and never told anyone she was pregnant. No one thought she was pregnant. She had a confidential pre-vetting meeting with John McCain at the Williard Hotel in Washington [but later told everyone she had never met McCain - lying comes very easy to this woman]. Then the day after McCain got the nomination and started hunting for a VP, she announced, surprise!, she was pregnant with a Downs syndrome baby.
With her “new” Downs syndrome pregnancy, she would be the perfect running mate for McCain to pick and bring in all the evangelicals and pro-life crazies that he really needed (before Sarah, they were actually hostile to him).
One scenario is that in her circle of crazed evangelicals in Wasilla (which included her doctor), she learned of a woman who was having a Downs syndrome baby and wanted to give it up. So, the “new” pregnancy. Did I mention that she and her church fellows feel she has a mission from God to be President? If the woman delivered early, it explains the mysterious rush plane flight to get back to Wasilla from Texas.
The press never pushed her on any of this, because of “privacy” and “freeedom!”. But if she does run, a lot of Alaskans probably are going to tell what they know, including the fact she was supposed to have had a tubal ligation after the birth of her fourth child, her daughter Piper, seven years earlier. Which would make it not just a Downs syndrome baby, but a miracle. Again no medical records have ever been released.
Sorry to go on about this, but the point is that she could be much, much crazier than any of us imagine. But very representative of our times.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDelete"Private Eyes,
They're watching you..."
Another reason to toss your phone and bury your iPad:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-consumer-tracking-20130701,0,3719521.story
Sarah for Senate 2014!
then...
Sarah and Bunmi for Prez and Veep 2016!
Things are beginning to perk up in the good ol' US of A.
Jeff
Daniel Ellsberg writes about how much more punitive the government has become since his time as a whistleblower: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/snowden-made-the-right-call-to-flee-the-us-20130709-2po7q.html.
ReplyDeletePut this next to Radley Balko's work revealing just how militant our police have become (http://www.salon.com/2013/07/10/militarized_police_overreach_oh_god_i_thought_they_were_going_to_shoot_me_next%E2%80%9D/) and you realize just how bad it's become just to be an everyday citizen, let alone one who wishes to express dissent in any fashion.
In times like these, we really need Sarah Palin in the White House. Why imprison Bradley Manning or Snowden when we can hunt them from helicopters like wolves?
Boris-
ReplyDeleteI feel the army and police have been pulling their punches re: the American public. After all, terrorists cd be anywhere; that was our philosophy w/the Viet Cong, and it worked very well (see bk by Nick Turse). It's time for the cops to randomly break into houses and beat people up; or chase them into the street, where overhead drones can pick them off. Yours for a safe America, chico--
mb
Jeff-
Sarah and Bunmi wd be a great team. I'm hoping we can also work Latreasa Goodman in there as well. We need cutting-edge leadership, after all.
Bowtie-
Problem is, I love her. I want to marry her and honeymoon on an ice floe in Alaska, and have sex w/her on ice, among the meese, and with Ed Meese in attendance.
All of u, pls never forget that u.r. surrounded by complete and utter morons.
mb
Have just found the talk delivered at Grand Valley State University posted on Youtube:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70buY9TZ7bo
I just listened to it, and the Q&A session was every bit as interesting as the talk itself. Maybe MB can do a post on that as well?
ReplyDeleteKevin & MB
ReplyDelete"The Internet it seems, is destroying everything....."
Dear Brethren, as we pause for a moment in the Pursuit of Happiness, awaiting the next improvement which will miraculously remove the horrors that the last improvement created, let us ponder the profundity of the Law of Good Intentions, which for former generations paved a path to Hell the width of country road,while for us a superhighway, endowed as we are to do so, with cash, expertise, credentials and degrees and the inspiration of the Holy "Can Do" Spirit.
Rt idea, wrong target:
ReplyDeletehttp://bleacherreport.com/articles/1699369-tour-de-france-2013-mark-cavendish-hit-with-urine-by-fan-during-stage-11?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_t3
Anon-
ReplyDeleteI don't post Anons. Pls pick a different handle and re-send. I suggest Sam Schmeck, D.D.S.
mb