Well, Wafers: I got duped. Canal 22, the cultural TV channel in Mexico City, asked me to do a taped interview with them, which I did a few weeks ago. They told me they would tape about 30 minutes, then do a slight bit of editing, and issue the interview in two parts, of about 10 or 15 minutes each. Well, the "slight bit of editing" consisted in removing almost all of the interview. What aired was two parts of 3 minutes each. Their apparent goal was not political analysis, but entertainment. As a result, all I managed to convey were slogans and platitudes; what else can you do in 6 minutes? I may be being hard on myself, but I think I come across as a cliche (progress vs. tradition, etc.). Not good. I guess the American contagion of hustling has managed to infect the Mexican media, tragically enough. My first and last interview for Canal 22, in any case.
Anyway, I'm posting this not for content--there isn't much--but for those of you want to practice your Spanish (though mine ain't perfect, as hispanohablantes will rightly point out). Gozalo!
http://youtu.be/WIvkWxcSFdI
http://youtu.be/ZPKFlSWS3tM
-mb
Wow, great job. U seem so relaxed.
ReplyDeleteAny Dr B exposure is good exposure. And, helps my boorish Spanish.
Came across this, thought you would enjoy, Schoenberg orchestrated Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E-flat for Organ
....Bonita!
http://video.mit.edu/watch/bach-orchestrated-by-schoenberg-prelude-and-fugue-in-e-flat-for-organ-st-anne-8542/
You can turn on captions and select english. The translation is nonsensical and meaningless. I'm wondering how most Americans got that same translator implanted in their brains, because they don't understand you at all anyways.
ReplyDeletedale-
ReplyDeleteHmm, I didn't know that. There is a general problem of translation of movies and videos I've noticed, perhaps due to the low pay involved, that the subtitles are often wrong. Sometimes they are so bad they are hilarious, in fact. Oh well, another day/another peso.
Michael-
Thanks for yr feedback, and the Bach link. You know, I played clarinet for 7 yrs in the high school orchestra, and that was one of the pieces we did (tho not arr. by Schoenberg). The conductor usta refer to it as "Prelude and Fudge." Ha ha.
mb
Dr. Berman:
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the links. Sorry the final edit wasn't what you had hoped it would be. I did laugh at seeing the Super Bowl half-time video clip even if it did kind of tug at my excuses for my recent 'mood'. However, and more importantly, el mensaje no importa, me barrido de mis pies! Pero desgraciadamente, soy una mujer casada... y no hablo a español. (on-line translation)
Fruit-
ReplyDeleteWell, I tend to have that effect on women, what can I say. Pero no problema: amigos is fine, chica.
mb
A new story is out today, looks like the NSA has long been the largest developer of the most sophisticated malware in the world.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the technical details here, but it seems the NSA has the capabilities to infect machines anywhere in the world, whether connected to the internet or not.
It's pretty wild that they are intercepting legitimate mail, and then attaching malware. I'm also shocked that they are able to infect machines that are not connected to the internet.
It's absolutely shocking what we've done in the name of security. I'm not sure people are aware just how much the NSA has done.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/how-omnipotent-hackers-tied-to-the-nsa-hid-for-14-years-and-were-found-at-last/
Hey the interview wasn't all that bad for a show produced by a hustling TV channel. You described the concept. For that kind of a show, the length might have been just about right. Always enjoy listening to American Spanish. So easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteHA! I tried turning the translation on and got my laugh for the day. My favorite:
ReplyDelete"I agree with that red wine expand its team ... grandson rock as turkeys fell in Spain..."
priceless.
Also, they over-lit the back of your head so it looks like you have one of those medieval halos or something.
jwo-
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's quite a sight when it starts raining turkeys in Andalucia. But the halo may be intentional, as more and more people are starting to recognize that I am the Great Seer of the Western World (GSWW).
mb
GSWH, I now see that your Love and Survival piece is in current Adbusters. I'm afraid that due to their fragmented style I tend to scan the mag peremptorily. Your piece has a bolded quote from the Dalai Lama to introduce it and your name only appears in small type at the end.
ReplyDeleteI wish Lasn gave authors of pieces he includes more visible billing at the top of the piece rather than at the end. Either that or a table of contents where you can see immediately which writers are included in the magazine. While I like the magazine I'd be happier if it was half as thick and had much more writing (of your caliber, of course) and less of the artsy collage. Having entered art school in 1972 and having seen the same stuff labelled cutting-edge "art" for over four decades a little of it goes more than a long way.
Anyway. Great piece. I'd read it before (though hadn't recollected the title) and enjoyed it just as much or more the second time around.
tris-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. I have argued w/Kalle about format and content for a while now, as have others, w/o much success. It needs to get a whole lot more serious, as u suggest; rt now, it's kind of 'revolution chic'--a tad adolescent, imo. He's really a great guy, but I have made 0 headway on this score.
mb
@al-Qa'bong...
ReplyDelete>> Nicholas Carr ought to read Thomas Carlyle's 1829 essay, "Signs of the Times." Carr ain't saying anything new. <<
Not so fast…
1) Why must he be "new"? Great ideas are deep and multi-faceted, and many a good thinker has taken an existing idea and made creative associations with related topics, breathing new life into old concepts. This is what Carr does, and what's not to like about that? Novelty's nice, but that's not the aim here.
2) When we're dealing with technology, wouldn't it make common sense to apply the idea to current technology? Here's just a few topics that are competently discussed in this book…
- Approaches to airline cockpit design (Boeing vs. Airbus),
- White-collar job loss,
- Does technology truly make health care more efficient,
- Robotic ethics,
- Robotic warfare,
- RBCs aim to thwart high-frequency trading.
Again, Carr delivers.
But thanks for the reference to Carlyle's 1829 essay. Carr's book is clearly on WAFer turf because it pleads for an alternative tradition. Do I think people will listen? No. But it's comforting to me to see that the prophets are forever coming forward - "an invincible army, yet not a victorious one." (TAC)
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, wasn't able to run yr message. I don't post Anons, Unknowns, etc.; you need a real handle. "Corned Beef on Rye" is still open, so you might use that. Thanks, and do write again.
mb
Dr. Berman:
ReplyDeleteAre you aware that a group exists on facebook entitled
"Morris Berman Appreciation Society" ?
Most of the stuff posted to your page includes your weblog posts, excerpts from your books, interviews posted to youtube, etc. A few pertinent articles written by other scholars, writers, intellectuals and scientists are also posted there if their writings are complementary to yours.
Chris Hedges also has an appreciation page on facebook. I am fairly sure that Chris Hedges is not on facebook, and I'm guessing that neither are you. Few public intellectuals are on facebook, although they may have a page dedicated to them in any case, such as Noam Chomsky. Deceased intellectuals sometimes have their own facebook page as well. An example would be Bertrand Russell.
A few years ago I decided to start using facebook. I don't post trivia to facebook, only information on current events, scientific articles, youtube videos of debates, lectures and interviews, weblog posts, articles written by journalists and intellectuals, my own writing, my own research, etc.
A few scientists, intellectuals, scholars, writers and academics are on facebook. Some are among my facebook friends. I only know a few of them in person. Included are :
James Howard Kunstler
Richard Heinberg
William Ryerson
Chris Martenson
David Kay Johnston
Dmitry Orlov
Robert Jensen
Kurt Cobb
Gail Tverberg
Guy McPherson
Carolyn Baker
Charles Eisenstein
Nicole Foss
Derrick Jensen
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Ray McGovern
Tariq Ali
Mimi German
Thomas Reifer
Karen Litfin
David Korowicz
Morgan Freeman
You probably know several of them.
In any case, facebook often gets a bad rap among serious scholars and intellectuals. Some of their criticisms are correct, but facebook can be a real educational aid if used for that purpose.
Marc-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up. In future, however, pls limit yrself to half a page, thanks.
Re: Facebk: I have never used it. A few yrs ago I had a PR person for WAF, for only abt 3 mos, and she was all gaga abt the social media. I, of course, was not, but she insisted that print was finished and that Facebk was where it was at. So she posted me there, altho I have literally never looked at it, so I have no idea what's there relevant to me. But my feeling was that Americans into Facebk are not into serious rdg material, and indeed, I doubt my posted profile sold a single copy of WAF (tho who knows).(The bk was a colossal failure, commercially, if that's any indication).
But I'm grateful to the members of the MBAS--all 5 of them?--for making stuff abt me available; I'm guessing it can't hurt...
mb
@al-Qa'bong…
ReplyDelete>> As for Juliet Schor, regardless of whatever else she says, her use of the term "social capital" reveals that her mind is still shackled by capitalism. <<
Once again I respectfully have to disagree. Concerning the value of Schor's book Plenitude…
1) With her emphasis on reclaiming personal time, self-provisioning, "true materialism", social connections, and steady-state economies, she is most certainly not "shackled to" the gonzo-capitalism that we're victims of today.
2) Many of her ideas - like self-provisioning - have value to NMIs.
3) And also on the topic of capitalism, it's not obvious to me that all forms of it are bad. Let me be clear, I'm not an apologist for capitalism, and I think that the current system in the USA is obscene, even evil. But controlled and properly regulated, it does have its talents. I'm not at all convinced that in a mature culture (not one run by frat-boys and mostly populated by childish dolts) it could not find a meaningful place. Nor am I convinced that the ancient human proclivities towards trade and commerce cannot be creatively channeled. As for profit and competition, the nation's founders "believed that these things were important, but by themselves could not constitute the stuff of commonwealth" (WAF, p. 11).
"A meaningful human society is not about endless hustling and technological progress; these can be part of the good life, but they are hardly equivalent to the good life, and the attempt to make them so has had some pretty untoward consequences." WAF, p. 186.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB, Wafers-
A couple of recent Wal-Mart fight clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJ7rvMHgtw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbnfNFVseQs
Enjoy,
Miles
Thought you all would enjoy:
ReplyDeleteFilm version of Peter Brook's adaptation for the stage, the Mahabharata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EENh1hxkD6E
MB -
ReplyDeleteYou're spot on with your criticism of facebook. As you're aware, facebook is a space to stare at photos, post narcissistic updates/photos of yourself, and keep up on memes. I roll my eyes when people try to talk about the benefits of facebook, as they're really twisting the reality of it. The internet in general hasn't really delivered these promises of understanding and democracy that people in the 90s were talking about. It's largely a new outlet for corporations to push advertising and sell new products. And let's be honest, most people use the internet for entertainment, porn, shopping, and wasting time on idiotic memes.
Anyone with half a brain would avoid all things social media, as there really is no need for it. There are much better ways to use the internet than using facebook/twitter. I really like blogs, podcasts, and message boards. I've found 0 use for facebook in my life, and I've found that avoiding it has been very beneficial.
Pil, al-
ReplyDeleteThe phrase 'social capital' was coined by Robt Putnam, not by Schor, if that makes any diff. 2nd, for a terrific study of how 'decent' capitalism inevitably evolves into the 'indecent' variety, check out the novel "Gain" by Richard Powers.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDelete@ Pilgrim - I wasn't advocating "newness" by any means. Moreover, I pretty well despise all that is new.(Check out my radio show for proof) Back in Carlyle's day I'd have been among the rick-burners and machine-smashers. My point is that these ideas have been around since the beginning of industrialisation.
As for your "founding fathers," so what? I don't understand the reverence yanquis have for them. They were rich guys, making things comfortable for themselves, when they created the Excited States.
I'm sticking to my guns on the "social capital" question (and yes, it doesn't matter who invented the term). Why just today there appeared an article on Counterpunch that makes a similar linguistic point:
...when it comes to the natural world, the language is even more crude. According to journalist George Monbiot,
“Nature is “natural capital”. Ecological processes are ecosystem services, because their only purpose is to serve us. Hills, forests and rivers are described in government reports as green infrastructure. Wildlife and habitats are asset classes in an ecosystems market. Fish populations are invariably described as stocks, as if they exist only as moveable assets from which wealth can be extracted – like disabled recipients of social security.”
All of these devaluing terms have seeped into mainstream consciousness, dutifully repeated by media figures and then, by us.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/18/how-euphemisms-absolve-pillage-and-mass-murder/
O&D
This is pathetic-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/us/in-bid-to-allow-guns-on-campus-weapons-are-linked-to-fighting-sexual-assault.html
A quote from the article-
"The sponsor of a bill in Nevada, Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, said in a telephone interview: If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”
Birney-
ReplyDeleteNeat!
mb
Gee what a shock dept.:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/american-police-brutality-chicago-guantanamo
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore might wish to reserve the right to revise or extend her remarks on having women on college campuses arm themselves as a preventative measure against sexual assault when she reads the item linked below; it was taken from USA Today.
ReplyDeleteThe article, as only American news articles can, combines women's undergarments (read sex), the open road (motorcycles), religion, and small caliber weapons.
A Michigan woman, attempting to adjust her bra-holster (patents pending, all rights reserved) with the weapon inserted, manages to discharge the gun into her eye. She died a day later in hospital.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/18/woman-kills-self-adjusting-bra-holster/23640143/
A nice "State of the Union" article from Dmitry, and quite funny at bits!
ReplyDeletehttp://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/extinctextincterextinctest.html
Jas-
ReplyDeleteWhen you think abt, even for a moment, it's hard not to conclude that the US is a very stupid country. Mencken: "You can never underestimate the intelligence of the American people."
mb
Kanye -
ReplyDeleteLike I've said, we should ignore blogs that are saying things like a) any terrorist event is actually led by the government b) climate change will kill *all* life on earth
These terrorists attacks are just that. The government is not orchestrating everything, although they have been orchestrating many horrible things for a long time (e.g. nuclear weapons, regime change, mass murder of civilizations, etc). The reality is bad enough, no need to peddle conspiracies/fiction.
Climate change is bad enough as is. However, all life is not going to go extinct, and there's no possibility of this happening at all. This is simply poor science. The earth is billions of years old, and the CO2 in the past has been orders of magnitude higher than it is today, and life found a way. Climate change may cause civilization to collapse, but there is 0 evidence that earth is going to become like Venus.
When you go beyond the truth into the realm of conspiracies and bad science, you're soon labeled a bad crank and ignored forever. I suggest you not go down that path.
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDelete"...Mencken: "You can never underestimate the intelligence of the American people."" Such a polite admonishment. :)
Meanwhile, the media helped to remind US citizens to pick on 'other' US citizens of lesser means for buying goodies with SNAP cards to celebrate Valentine's Day. Guess we can just forget about letting them eat cake...
The link I'm including was referred to in a recent Nation article:
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/28104345/buying-valentines-day-gifts-on-snap
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBirney, MB, Wafers-
Re: Michele Fiore
I'm in wuv again, Wafers! A new Michele to replace our old Michele... Please see my pistol-packin' mama:
http://votefiore.com
James, MB-
It gets better:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/michigan-republican-official-fatally-shoots-self-in-eye-while-adjusting-gun-in-her-bra-holster/
Miles
Seven years in high school? Were you a 'slow' child?
ReplyDeleteGSWW / WAFers re: raining turkeys.
ReplyDeleteRemember that "WKRP in Cincinatti" ep where they tossed live turkeys out of a helicopter for a T'giving promo ? except turkeys can't fly ? ( they can, but not from heights ).
I'm sure that the inspiration was a true event that's been buried in the Memory Hole, but that I was an eye witness to.
A new mall-type shopping center was opening on the north side of my hometown, Rockford, IL.
Brilliantly named 'North Town Plaza'.
For their grand opening the week b4 T'gvng, they announced that Santa Claus was going to arrive by parachute. I was old enuff to know the dope abt SC, but wanted to see a live parachute drop. My Dad relented, with misgivings.
We arrived, and there were THOUSANDS ! Families w/ kids.
A makeshift stage where all the store bigs touting their crap for sale, and a local weatherman/MC with a huge duckass hairdo.
He kept prompting the kids abt Santa coming any time soon between sales pitches.
Finally, a faint buzz and a Piper Cub appeared, abt 3k up in the sky. MC, "Children...You hear that? Why, it must be..YES! It's Santa Claus ! And now he's out of the plane ! And he's falling ...Falling...Fa...uhh..."
Chute never opened.
Everyone on the stage was paralyzed. Little kids started crying and screaming, "Santa's dead ! Santa Claus is Dead !".
Suddenly, a smart guy jumped up on the stage and grabbed the mic from the stupefied MC,
"Don't worry...That was only an elf ! ".
Americans love their freedoms, with the minor limitation that one chooses to be what's considered "American" (a.k.a. excrement).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/randolph-linn-fox-news-mosque-arson_n_2345708.html
al Qa'bong,
I never liked the term 'social capital' either because it seems to imply one's relationships are always quid pro quo. The term, like 'human resources,' just sounds icky.
Actually, as of Feb. 19, 2015,
ReplyDeletefacebook's group
"Morris Berman Appreciation Society"
has 206 members.
Some are surely "wafers" .
So, 5 is a severe underestimate.
Marc-
ReplyDeleteToday the MBAS; tomorrow, the world!
Euph-
Well, 3 in jr. high, 4 in h.s. But for sure I was a slow child, and became a slow adult. Ask any of my friends. I can do little more than sit around and drool. It's not a pretty sight.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteAmericans on Parade dept.:
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/28153390/teacher-body-slammed-to-floor-during-basketball-game
Florida educator, Travis Mims, body slams a colleague during a friendly after school basketball game.
Miles
ps: T-shirt idea: Waferville=Douche Bag Free Zone
[lack of coherence]
ReplyDelete"Climate change may cause civilization to collapse, but there is 0 evidence that earth is going to become like Venus."
I won't live long enough to experience the collapse you're talking about, but I would wager that those humans who now have the least--least defined by whatever "things" we might name--would be better able to handle the situation than those who have the most.
Think "primitive" tribesmen who exist/subsist in environmentally hostile places as compared to homo urbanis, the former possessing the bare minimum of tools and possessions and the latter possessing so many things--"stuff" in George Carlin's inimitable bit--that he requires a big house and rental space to house them.
The first shall be last and the last first, in that phrase from the Good Book. A kind of ultimate cosmic justice, I suppose.
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteOMG! Professor Berman saw this coming! Kim's butt is actually taking over:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/19/8068763/airlander-10-helium-airship-uk-blimp
From: zeitgeist.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.openculture.com/2015/02/what-books-could-be-used-to-rebuild-civilization-lists-by-brian-eno-stewart-brand-kevin-kelly-other-forward-thinking-minds.html
This link Appears on "The front page" section (recommended reading) of Rogue Columnist, which is a blog ostensibly about Phoenix. But because it looks in a penetrating way into that Petri dish of social pathology, it often examines topics that WAFers expound upon. It has a very good bunch of commenters, and the Dawg himself occasionally woofs in. Jon Talton, it's proprietor, was exiled from Phx to Seattle and has said that he wishes he had emigrated altogether years ago.
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDelete@ atearinrain Och, I hear you about "human resources." I use that term in class, juxtaposed with "personnel" to show how we have become linguistically reduced to the status of tools or labour units, rather than as human beans, in the workforce. I have stories...
I think an earlier idea I posted about deserves more consideration. The idea is that of minimum basic income and the coming automation. This automation will happen faster, and will cover more people than anything we've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteThe automation I'm talking about is already here, as Tesla has said its 2015 model cars are already 90% autonomous. Industry experts are saying the personal car industry will likely be gone by 2030, and replaced with cars that are all owned by corporations.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/how-ubers-autonomous-cars-will-destroy-10-million-jobs-and-reshape-the-economy-by-2025-lyft-google-zack-kanter/
I think a time will come when so many people are out of work that unless we have a universal basic income, things will fall apart. I'm starting to hear more libertarian/conservative leaning people interested in the idea of universal basic income because they see the writing on the wall.
You're right that technology has made promises in the past that haven't come to pass. At this point I think it's too late and collapse will come eventually. However, I think there's time between now and then (decades maybe), where things are going to be transformed dramatically.
A bit more humor in classic American style as a follow up to Miles's post on Wal-Mart fights:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTXUcoGdhw
The combination of rage and stupidity this man displays is truly terrifying. And we know he is not alone :)
One problem with the USA that the media never discuss is the fact that a large portion of the citizenry is crazy - and I mean *crazy*. Consider this story today from the online news explainer site Vox:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vox.com/2014/11/5/7158371/lizard-people-conspiracy-theory-explainer
I've known about this particular fantasy for years, but have never seen it discussed in a major news outlet. And these people vote.
Wafers,
ReplyDeleteGeez, now I'm seeing A Pattern Language everywhere. It's advertised in an old Whole Earth Catalog magazine I checked out from the library, and now I see it on Eno's Manual for Civilization list. On that note, here's a nice little diddy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pal2a7bZ25w
kilo_mega_giga,
I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I'd be very surprised if the automated dystopia that the corporatocracy wants so badly will come to pass. Seems to me that integral to this country's death by 1000 cuts is our elite's 1000 failed attempts to control reality.
Here's a Waferesque quote, brought to my attention by a friend today when discussing the American obsession with happiness:
“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
I thought you might like this article on science denial, confirmation bias, and the "filter bubble."
ReplyDeletehttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/achenbach-text
I would venture a guess that the average IQ of the people of the state of Massachusetts (or other New England states) is significantly higher than the average IQ of citizens of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina or North Carolina among other southern states.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that there is a positive correlation between industrialization, technology and IQ? Is there a negative correlation between the slow-paced agrarian lifestyle of the South and IQ?
I'm guessing that problem solving skills, verbal facility, pattern recognition, spatial skills and the appreciation of analogies are all associated with technological development (and of course also with good nutrition during childhood development). There might be counterexamples though, among indigenous tribes.
I left off Ugo Bardi and Henry Giroux among intellectuals who regularly use facebook for educational purposes.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels versus global average temperature for the past 600 million years :
http://geocraft.com/WVFossils/PageMill_Images/image277.gif
Notice that the correlation is positive between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and average global temperatures, but that life on earth survived well enough when carbon dioxide levels were much higher than they are today, even
10 times higher if you go back a few hundred million years. Hence it is clear that people can do a lot to destroy the ecosystems that we rely on but that people are very unlikely to destroy life itself. We can drive ourselves to
extinction but life will go on.
Mon Cher Bernstein,,,
ReplyDeleteThat notion that the New England has a significantly higher IQ that the rest of the nation is a bit rich. Maybe a marginal difference and well for such things there is the matter of how its calculated I suppose. Massachuessetts did itself no great honors by Electing Mitt Romney Governor and then New Hampshire brought us the Sunnunu clan--such statesmen. I am with Mencken and to a bit with MB in that to the extent the U.S. ever had an actual culture it was born and took shape in the south (southern cooking, blues, Jazz, literature, etc) and in the north all we have is a pale copy of the U.K. shopkeeper/methodist sensibility. It was the South which first elected Jews to Congress (Kaufman of Texas and Benjamin of Louisiana), in fact Judah P. Benjamin not only was Louisiana Senator, but was the secretary of war for the confederacy and then escaped to England where he became an eminent barrister and intellectual--his works inform commercial law to his day. The south produced interesting minds and characters the north brought you stick up the ass sorts like the James brothers and Oliver Wendell holmes.
Today though--its all a large open air asylum. I suspect little Somalia a.k.a Portland Maine with its sex trafficing and violence or the greater Springfield MA or Danbury CT areas have little advantage over Tampa or little rock. Though, I am my Fathers son and do love my Baltimore--now that is a city which has done more for america that new england ever did...
ReplyDeleteBernstein is a little loose with the facts on Climate Change.
The #1 footnote that Bernstein's website geocraft quotes is Willie Soon.Just today, the NY Times had an article that Soon has taken over $1Million from the fossil fuel industry and had not disclosed that fact. See here : http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html
The #2 footnote cites Patrick J. Michaels who directly works for the Cato Institute which has a history of taking money from the fossil fuel industry.
The #3 footnote cites Dr. Richard Lindzen, who also works for the Cato Institute.
The #5 footnote cites Dr. John Christy who has been testified on numerous occasions against the mainstream scientific views on man-made climate change.
Science is a process, not an opinion.
John W. Farley: “The scientific case is not dependent on citation of authority, no matter how distinguished the authority may be. The case is dependent upon experimental evidence, logic, and reason.”
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteSome damn yanqui wrote:
"Does this mean that there is a positive correlation between industrialization, technology and IQ? Is there a negative correlation between the slow-paced agrarian lifestyle of the South and IQ?
I'm guessing that problem solving skills, verbal facility, pattern recognition, spatial skills and the appreciation of analogies are all associated with technological development (and of course also with good nutrition during childhood development)."
Indeed, our highly sophisticated urban cellfone zombies and SUV-driving soccer moms who have no clue about how their vehicles work are obviously mentally superior to those (have you read Joe Bageant's accounts of his relatives who built everything they needed with their own hands?) hicks who understand and adapt their lives to the rhythms of the natural world.
I'm struggling to remain polite here.
O&D...way D
[While you were out...]
ReplyDeleteWAFers, but most especially our GSWW, will be relieved to learn that America's Über-babe, Sarah Palin, is safe and sound and presumably keeping an eye out for refractory Russians across the Bering Sea from the safety of her Wasilla home.
It seems that Saturday morning (21 February), a 4-year-old boy was shot in the leg near Wasilla (AK) when his mother's .357 caliber handgun fell from its holster as the family were getting out of their pickup truck, landed on its hammer, and discharged.
The bullet struck the child just above his knee and continued on--a "through and through" wound in the parlance--to lodge in a nearby building. The child was transported by helicopter to an Anchorage hospital. (Wasilla is a part of the greater Anchorage metropolitan area.)
At this writing, no charges have been filed in the case.
James Allen-
ReplyDeletePls post only once every 24 hrs, thanks.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteCOS-
Yes, Judah Benjamin was indeed an intriguing character. On the topic of Jewish Confederates, we should also mention the Florida senator, David Levy Yulee. Though Yulee was later to convert to Christianity, he was one of the first senators of Jewish origin and, like Benjamin, fought for the Confederacy. And speaking of blues, jazz, and the South:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3233WQDx0g
Enjoy,
Miles
My family members watch The View, and so an hour or two ago I chanced to hear Whoopi G. comment upon "craziness at the malls" - meaning, I presume, assorted shootings, tasings and other incidents of violence. Whoopi's advice: "Just be vigilant; but don't stop shopping, because that's the economy." Who'd a thunk that Whoopi would be echoing G. W. Bush after 9-11? I guess a willingness to do so is part of what it takes to be a bobblehead who is permitted to talk on national T.V.
ReplyDelete@ kilo -
"I think a time will come when so many people are out of work that unless we have a universal basic income, things will fall apart."
This seems to presuppose that things can't and won't be permitted to fall apart. But I think that is precisely what will happen. The adoption of a universal basic income would require a preponderance of Americans to support a rational and intelligent policy, and we have already established failrly well on this blog just how likely that is to occur. I think the balance of the evidence supports the proposition that true economic catastrophe is coming to this nation, guaranteed.
Re: the term "human resources." It sounds to me like that phrase is right next door to the phrase "human materiel," which must surely be a significant part of the economics and philosophy underlying any slave society.
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteI suppose we need a Jewish Confederate flag. One matzoh ball for each state? Wafers are encouraged to submit designs for this exciting new flag.
Val-
Over the yrs there has been a lot of confusion abt my statement that the US consists of 318 million morons. I keep saying that the intelligence I'm talking abt is not nec. abt IQ. Very few Americans don't believe in the American Dream; very few would disagree with Whoopi. The bottom line is that 318 million Americans, plus Whoopi, have poop in their heads. I'm tired of being told I'm exaggerating. In terms of what really counts, we are just one big collection of dummies.
mb
Long time reader, first time poster. WAFers should be aware of today's episode of comedian Marc Maron's WTF podcast, featuring author Nick Tosches. Many of this blog's themes are touched upon. The interview starts at the 13:30 mark and really picks up steam in the second half.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_579_-_nick_tosches
Jewish Confederate flag ?
ReplyDeleteBut, if you do that, scratch the army and leave the guns at home, please.
Why ?
Cuz if you dropped your sub or hoagie on the ground you'd have to refer to it an one of your Fallen Heroes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI3vRaTg0tI
Now for some real comedy...in case you wondered why there aren't many juke boxes around any longer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYIwPu50Fic
Film recommendation; Foxcatcher.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1100089/
"Money... its a gas"
I love this film. OK, I'm a grappler; but you should still see it.
Ty-
ReplyDeleteI have it in mind that the JCA (Jewish Confederate Army) will attack the enemy with pastrami sandwiches. It's a great image.
Dan-
Foxcatcher is superb, I agree.
mb
Here we go, let the apocalypse commence:
ReplyDeletehttp://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/28746-ready-for-nuclear-war-over-ukraine
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB, Wafers-
Re: Jewish Confederate Flag
One matzoh ball per state is good, MB. Perhaps we should also integrate a couple of babka loaves on it as well, yes? Think contemporary version of the stars and bars.
The JWA also needs a jazz big band. MB can play principal clarinet. I can swing the trumpet and the Jew's harp. Other musically inclined Wafers should sign up accordingly.
Miles
ps: The jazz world recently lost a legend:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jazz-great-clark-terry-dead-at-94-20150222
ps II:
A great documentary about Terry and his protege:
http://keeponkeepinon.com
"Does this mean that there is a positive correlation between industrialization, technology and IQ? Is there a negative correlation between the slow-paced agrarian lifestyle of the South and IQ?"
ReplyDeleteA piece of barefaced nonsense worthy of my old pal Ray, I believe his name was, who used to post here and whine about the chapter on the South in WAF.
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteHope all is well in your respective Wafer worlds.
Miles,
Before a scuffle breaks out here over the sign-up sheet, pencil me in under OBOE. Thanks.
Mud-
ReplyDeleteI posted this, but you shd know that it's impt to be respectful to Wafers. Americans have a hard time disagreeing with someone without also being disagreeable. If you disagree with someone, pls refrain from degrading comments, and instead provide evidence for your rejection of their viewpt. This moves the dialogue forward. Thank you.
mb
Meanwhile, in Chicago:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site
If you decide to revise "Twilight of American Culture" , this might be an illustrative addition:
ReplyDelete"Politically-Challenged: Texas Tech Edition" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRZZpk_9k8E
Not sure if I sent this more than once...if so, apologies.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for trying to enforce standards of decency on "mud", Morris.
I don´t really care about whether the South was better or worse than the rest of the country. However, it is "mud´s," (and I suspect many other Southern partisans´) particular genius to insist that all debate about that region MUST be forced into their particular obsession with you´re-with-us-or-you´re against-us misdirection.
I didn´t play along. It seems he(she) still has a problem with this, and with the actual point of discussion on which you and I already agreed on some time ago: the very fact that nothing better than the South can be invoked as an alternative to hustling reveals just what a sad experiment the ENTIRE national project has been.
Mud didn´t like that - it presented him (her) with unmanageable levels of ambiguity. Gasp, it even made the South seem...perhaps not even the center of every discussion. So Mud goes into attack mode. Meanwhile the real point I was trying to make back then got obscured.
Mud never got this point, so keen was he(she) to find me a place in his(her) Manichean worldview.
The South is frankly, NOT that central a region to be worth attacking, but it has its uses as a heuristic tool. I believe that this casual heuristic use of his(her) region is what really bothers "mud."
I´ll give him(her) this though...the unthinking attacks on Chapter 4 of WAF by people TRULY prejudiced against the South gave a certain kind of Southern chauvinist the perfect excuse to think that Morris was actually supporting their chauvinism.
Ray-
ReplyDeleteu.c. now why I finally rendered discussions of WAF ch. 4 off limits. I discussed it in extenso with critics of the chapter when WAF 1st came out, and was able to get abs. none of them to understand the paradoxical situation of the antebellum South. It was a little tiring, morons jumping up and down and screaming "racist"--Americans on the intellectual cutting edge. Anyway, let's (once again) put the Civil War to bed; basta, already.
mb
Hola MB and Wafers across the planet,
ReplyDeleteMB, Wafers-
How deep does CRE go? Jesus, I've never seen so many gullible *assholes* in all my life. Doing a bit of research, I stumbled on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd-GmkQ9LpE
Enjoy,
Miles
Muted-
ReplyDeletePls stop rdg this blog. It's designed for people with real intelligence, and that clearly leaves you out. Yr one of the ch. 4 morons I'm talking abt, and yr not welcome here. Go bother someone else, OK? Anything you send in will be deleted unread. Why not get a life instead?
Wafers, there's just no end to trollfoons. They have made America what it is.
mb
http://filmingcops.com/planting-drugs-to-arrest-innocent-people-is-part-of-the-game-cop-admits-that-false-arrests-happen-on-a-regular-basis/
ReplyDeletehttp://filmingcops.com/in-just-the-last-8-days-nine-cops-have-been-convicted-or-charged-with-sexual-molestation-of-children/
http://www.dontcomply.com/the-pedophile-epidemic-in-america-that-no-one-is-talking-about/
Check this out.
Estimado Morris,
ReplyDeleteTe felicito por la entrevista. Aunque recortada y reducida, conlleva mucho contenido. Hay que entender que la mediatización implica la encapsulación de ideas al mínimo denominador. Una lástima no haber podido escuchar la totalidad de la plática.
Leí tu post de AdBusters
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/118/love-and-survival.html
Tu historia personal me parece de lo más valiente. Renunciar a una sociedad que ha decaído moralmente e iniciar en otra completamente ajena por un MERO PRINCIPIO merece mi más sincera admiración. Como mexicano (quien por cierto emigró a EEUU buscando algo mejor) sigo alarmado la descomposición política y en ciertas zonas, también moral de mi país. Me sorprendió enormemente el ver cómo todavía sobrevive en alguna parte del país el México "básico", donde la gente se ama, donde la familia es todavía el bastión más importante de identificación de una persona.
Grande, grandísima (y agradable) sorpresa el encontrarte.
Mis más sinceros respetos.